Release update 12 already so we can get closer to update 13's release

[Chai]

You are right I do disagree on this point.

I would rather play Battlefield 3 when I got a hankering for a RTS then some mini-game that the DDO devs knocked out. I also would rather they spent their time finishing up PrEs as opposed to doing this.

I mean sure if everything had a zero cost of implementation I would love DDO to have everything! in it. We do not live in fantasy land though. Everything that gets developed comes at the cost of something else not being developed.

The question should never be "Does someone somewhere want this in the game?"

The question needs to be "Why is this particular thing more important to develop right now then the alternatives?"

Right, but lets carry that line of thought through to completion. How is "more important" being quantified? The direct answer of course is money. However, the indirect answer is maintaining a game that has something for everyone. I agree that more PREs brings more options to the table, which creates more build possibilities and strengthens current builds, which is why I would still like to see PREs get more attention.

Branching off and creating different quest structures and objectives is another way to keep things interesting. People have to stop harping about it and try it out though, or else they see their own preference being the only thing Turbine could do to keep them happy.

I think you answered your own question of:

"Why is this particular thing more important to develop right now then the alternatives?"

Here with:

I would rather play Battlefield 3 when I got a hankering for a RTS then some mini-game that the DDO devs knocked out. I also would rather they spent their time finishing up PrEs as opposed to doing this.

You go somewhere else for your RTS. As a business someone must have determined that it makes sense to reach into that realm for Turbine in order to add another dynamic to DDO in order to keep their user base interested.

[Chai]

"All this negativity that's in this town sucks." -- Rick Pitino

Seriously, for the last two years it's been this update doesn't focus on what I want so Turbine sucks. Every release it's the usual suspects complaining they didn't get their shiny in this update. Not every update can be focused on the Elite players and not every update can be focused on the Casual. How many of you have even bothered to try these quests before complaining? They are fun. Sure they aren't a big beefy story line but I see the niche they fill especially for the more casual players. People enjoyed CC..it's natural to see that as an opportunity and to add CC style quests. If they never tried anything new we would only have chain quests with crappy flagging mechanics. It seems everyone is also overlooking all the good player feedback driven changes in this patch and the previous ones.

Now, am I entirely happy with the last four updates. Heck, no but this level of bitterness seems awfully misplaced especially considering U11 just dumped two Epic raids in our laps. I totally agree that PRE's need to be a focus and that not seeing any progress here in multiple updates is terrible. I totally agree that if they are going to keep adding more collectibles they need to upgrade bags and make a better organization system for all that junk. I totally agree that I'm sick of seeing Monks get updates every patch while rangers and rogues and others seem to languish.

Every thing isn't about you but about the thousands of players most of whom never bother to come here and complain about every update.

BTW, everyone who seems to get a kick out of bashing QA seems to have forgot the release of the Abbot raid or the Twilight Forge. I for one thing Maj is doing a good job and U11 was an awfully clean release compared to many of the previous releases.

I think more negativity gets voiced, but peoples general feel of the game is positive. How can I possibly speak for the negative posting forumites you say? Because they are still here. If we reviewed some posting track records and looked at the ratio of positive -vs- negative posts, and took that as a total measure of how players felt about the game, most of us should have been on our way somewhere else a long time ago.

If people were as loud and vocal about their positive feelings about this game as they are about the negative feelings about this game, the forums would consist of unicorns vomiting rainbows. If we partied every time we liked something about an update like we riot every time we didnt like something about an update, wed all look like a buncha fanboiz and fangrlz.

[Scraap]

I think more negativity gets voiced, but peoples general feel of the game is positive. How can I possibly speak for the negative posting forumites you say? Because they are still here. If we reviewed some posting track records and looked at the ratio of positive -vs- negative posts, and took that as a total measure of how players felt about the game, most of us should have been on our way somewhere else a long time ago.

If people were as loud and vocal about their positive feelings about this game as they are about the negative feelings about this game, the forums would consist of unicorns vomiting rainbows. If we partied every time we liked something about an update like we riot every time we didnt like something about an update, wed all look like a buncha fanboiz and fangrlz.

That right there is one of the reasons (other than saving dev-time) I stick to tweak-suggestions based on already implemented functionality. There (seems to be) so very much flexibility potential-wise in existing systems that's constantly overlooked or underestimated it astounds me at times.

[psteen1]

I just can't help but notice that almost everyone is clamoring for PrE's. That's what we want. It entices us to replay- maybe even reincarnate- our old toons and start new toons. PrE's are where it is at. We want PrE's. Bring on the PrE's.

[Cyr]

Branching off and creating different quest structures and objectives is another way to keep things interesting. People have to stop harping about it and try it out though, or else they see their own preference being the only thing Turbine could do to keep them happy.

That is true. However, doing something different for the sake of being different seems to be the case here. It does not seem to be something where we have really solid goals in place with logical design to accomplish those goals.

Possible Goals for Challenges...

• Quests that characters of any level will run and enjoy.
  
  • Okay, so what is the design? Loot that really does not matter what level you run it at besides level 21+ or 20 or under. Favor that does not scale based upon level. XP that is so bad that only someone completely clueless about how xp would think is worth running it for. None of these really support the goal.
• Something new and different that is fun to do over and over again.
  
  • Okay, but are the incentives encouraging you to do this? Favor is a one time thing. Loot is pretty quick to get (and worse is very limited on a what is available per quest so grouping for some will be hard). XP certainly is not a draw. So even if these quests are super fun will people have the incentives to run them alot...not really.
• Something that highlights the best parts of crystal cove which was a highly successful quest.
  
  • I'm sure the kobold voices are cute in there. That is a win. The pathing is supposed to be truly horrendously bad though...that kind of brings out the worst part of crystal cove not the best. So mixed success there...which is better then the first two.
• Developing the backbone for level 20+ content for when the level cap increases.
  
  • This one is an interesting one, but does it make sense? Right now we have epics with very specialized rules for mobs. For some reason these quests ignore these rules and use a different set of rules including the inclusion of dungeon scaling which dramatically changes the difficulty of dungeons. So then we are left with one of two systems being an outlier if one is chosen as the template for future content...why? Should not the two be the same for consistency? Does it really make sense to have two different sets of epic level rules in place to QA and balance? Again this seems to be a pretty mixed bag.

Now you also have to remember that something new means more dev time and another branch of stuff that could go wrong everytime anything new is added to the game.

So unless you have solid goals and plans for accomplishing those goals for new stuff it just does not make sense to slap it together and hope for the best.

[Targonis]

I'm trying to figure out what there is to love with the challenges. Besides some of the items from the turn-ins (and I still say the Caromel weapon needs a quarterstaff version for the Acrobats), there is little in this pack to really praise. The XP is just plain sad and makes 3BC look like a great XP investment. There's no way to regain plat from the repair, scroll, pot, etc bills within the pack. The Epic quests contain no Epic tokens. A dragon is finally introduced to the game that drops no scales, plus there's an "Epic" dragon that drops no Flawless scales.

Additionally, we've had no Prestige classes added in quite a while. The beginning of the year the Devs were bragging about these challenge quests and the crafting. The ball seems to be dropped on both accounts now. And the lack of focus on the Prestige classes that people have been begging (and quite loudly) has been ignored.

If it weren't for the upgrade of items in already establish raids, this update would suck start a Harley.

Not everyone is all that concerned with XP, since there is a lot of XP to be gotten in the low level game anyway. Many people are more concerned with equipment, and these challenges are a great way to get the equipment upgrade they have been looking for.

Keep in mind that with the random nature of raid loot, many do enjoy the prospect of farming and KNOWING that they can get the item they want, rather than possibly going for 20, 40, 60 or more completions and even then possibly not getting what they are looking for.

[Carpone]

The disappointment with U12 is that Turbine continues to not communicate the larger plan to it's player base. Where are the druids? Gnomes? Missing prestige enhancements? These questions aren't being addressed, yet we're getting new content that developers think we want. If there's a rhyme or reason to the prioritization of feature releases, it's not obvious to your customers and it frustrates us to no end.

Personally, I don't want new gameplay types (challenges) when there are fundamental issues with the core gameplay that's attracted the playerbase.

[ThePrisoner]

I am, first and foremost, about new classes, prestige classes, character combinations, and the like. I look forward to that stuff most.

That being said, I have tried a little of the challenge stuff out on lammania and actually think it's kind of fun. I think that DDO has been a bit lacking in the fun department. You know, it's grindy (even at low levels) and there isn't much focus on PVP...
I think there is a reason that you run into so many hostile people when you play this game. I think the game becomes more work than play, so I actually believe that bringing in these mini games is a welcome and refreshing change.

Now, I want new character stuff as much as the next guy. In fact, what I really want is that 2012 level cap raise rumor to be true and for that day to be here now, but I do like the update 12 stuff, and think that adding some fun elements to the game is both smart and necessary.

[fco-karatekid]

I do wish they would stop adding new systems until they finish the old ones (or at least WORK on the old ones)

^^ This. there's about 2/3 of a game finished inside the code for ddo.

[fco-karatekid]

If only Turbine can actually finish the systems in place before starting a new one.

• 12 + different crafting/ turn in systems most unfinished, abandon or under used.
• PrE that go unfinished for years.
• Guild system that can use more work.
• Classes that can use updates, but some how Monks are updated every update.
• Epics which have drop of map.
• Cosmetics something which Turbine made a big deal hasn't seen nothing new.
• UI which displays to little info or does not know left from right.
• AC/DR usefulness unaddressed or push to the side I still remember the dev who said their are no problems with AC in a interview.

don't forget dangling favor mechanic

[tharax75]

Everyone can only answer from her/his own point of view what should be highest in the prioritylist
of things to be adressed.

But the "posting part" of the forums and especially the Lama forums is mostly the same core of people
that represensts only a small fraction of the whole game population.

If the much larger amount of players, that doesn't read or post on forums is offered variety of gameplay
and ends up buying it in the store, enjoying it and keeps playing the game it is a win win situation in the
bigger picture.

It is the silent mass that runs the game with their money, not the vocal minority.

So if one update does not offer things that fit your personal playstyle 100% it will for a lot of
people that you don't know or play with because their playstyle is different to yours or your timezone.

Variety and choice is always a good thing...so is patience


Have a nice day everyone and enjoy the game.

[1airwolf]

the biggest bug is lagggggggggggggggg on all the servers that ive seen need to fix all the lag me and my wife both play this game and i can be running with no problims and she would be lagging like crazzy or we both would be lagging like crazzy