End of the week with Major Malphunktion - Kobold Union Edition

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

There is still some confusion on why players are so nice to kobolds in Crystal Cove, but turn around and slaughter us on Kobold Island. Kobold just wanted a vacation!

So. Challenges!!! If you haven't guessed, Crystal Cove was a prototype for a new way to build stuff faster...and differently. There are some kinks still in the system with difficulty and rewards, but that from a implementation sense is the easy stuff. From a QA and Design sense, it is like trying to find a perfect middle ground...in an ocean.
Personally I'm excited by this system more than some of the other things we have done this year. I look at Stormreach as a place to play in, and not conforming to one set of rules. The idea that we can do things other than MMO accepted design, or explore other game types that MMO designers don't get to, or may never get to design is a win win for everyone. Happy players, happy designers...and happy QA folk. I know that there are some that are not going to care for them. That's cool. There is more that could care less about raids, but we build them too. Give them a chance, remember sometimes it is about *fun* and not about *loot* (SACRILEGE BURN THE HERETIC!). If you don't find these fun, you might find one to your liking in the future. Personally I want a kobold throwing catapult game where I'm trying to knock down buildings in the harbor or a death match hockey game with exploding pucks or a racing game around 3 barrel cove on flying carpets. All possible without adding much new to the game.

Let's talk about Lamannia for a min. It is a preview world. I say that for a reason, because I want feedback, but I don't expect people to 'bug hunt'. That said, please remember you are seeing the unfinished product. Loot, xp numbers and such are the last things coming in. they are the wallpaper, we need to make sure the foundation is sturdy before doing the interior decorating. We are attempting to get things out in front of people quicker and more often after the U10 crafting incident of 2011, but yes you will see things in a rougher state.
tomorrow there is an event for challenges-with real prizes! See Kookies announcements for more details!
I have plans for Lama in the future to make it more than a preview world...we shall see...

Bug fixes- there is talk about putting a plan in place to attack old bugs in 2012 (that is 2 months away already...how did that happen?) There were hundreds of fixes in the last patch, and I don't want to do mega patches like that again.

Lag-All I can say is there is an active investigation and we have made headway. But with U12 right around the corner we are waiting to put fixes out then. Trust me, this is the best option.

Mabar- I promise it will be better next year.

Fix in 12 that might not be known about: Cleric hirelings are no longer mad, but take 2pp for every heal...only kidding. Defensive healing works again, and wandering angry hirelings are more well behaved.

Also Epic chests no longer disappear. you can check that out on Lamannia

Well, happy weekend- Happy Halloween and...

Go Pats!

[AZgreentea]

I think you should skip U13. Go from U12 to U14. Personally, 13 is one of my lucky numbers, but if you do decide to do something for U13, I hope you do something fun with the traditionally unlucky number.

Thanks for the great work and the updates!

[Cauthey]

Maj, as always, thanks for the update! We get lonely and worried here in the community forums when we are left to our own musings for too long without some Dev or QA guidance and reassurance.

[oradafu]

So with the 4 different challanges released on Lammania, we can see that 52% of the challenges are just variations of the Cove. Please tell me that Update 13 will have more to offer.

Also, if it hasn't been heard yet: WE WANT PRESTIGE CLASSES! It was disappointing when only two new ones were released per update. Now it will be the second update with no meaningful additions to Prestige classes.

[Rinnaldo]

Personally I want a kobold throwing catapult game where I'm trying to knock down buildings in the harbor or a death match hockey game with exploding pucks or a racing game around 3 barrel cove on flying carpets. All possible without adding much new to the game.

I like the way you think!

Let's talk about Lamannia for a min. It is a preview world. I say that for a reason, because I want feedback, but I don't expect people to 'bug hunt'. That said, please remember you are seeing the unfinished product. Loot, xp numbers and such are the last things coming in. they are the wallpaper, we need to make sure the foundation is sturdy before doing the interior decorating. We are attempting to get things out in front of people quicker and more often after the U10 crafting incident of 2011, but yes you will see things in a rougher state.

I saw a post where Kookie said something similar. I appreciate the clarification! This makes things make a lot more sense, at least to me, personally.

Keep up the good work! It is far more appreciated than is vocalized!

[NytCrawlr]

Thanks again MajMal for the weekly update and I continue to look forward to U12 and what is to come in the future.

[Soulstabber]

Bug fixes- there is talk about putting a plan in place to attack old bugs in 2012 (that is 2 months away already...how did that happen?) There were hundreds of fixes in the last patch, and I don't want to do mega patches like that again.

*Cough* We will get fabricator bracer and other items to proc on ranged weapons in 2012? *cough* =p

[Ovrad]

Personally I want a kobold throwing catapult game where I'm trying to knock down buildings in the harbor

Yes! I want Angry Kobolds! Citizens of Stormreach have stolen their eggs (they do lay eggs right?), and they're trying to get revenge (but end up mostly splatting themselves on buildings).

EDIT: On a more serious note, one of the thing that disappointed me a bit on the challenges, is that they still use most of the same old core mechanics of quests. Granted I only tried out the 2 first releases on lam, but defending resources from endless incoming mobs or exploring a kinda generic looking dungeon is hardly original. Sure, special resources management, finding crests, finding power-ups all adds a bit, but essential you're still defending some helpless stuff or zerging through a dungeon. Even the variants don't seem to change much. I have not tested the other 2 challenges, but so far, challenges haven't really peeked my interest.

However, I'd much rather have stuff that you can't do in a normal quest, like:

• Wacky games like you described, where character stats don't matter, only skills as a player.
• Survive for as long as possible vs an endless horde of increasingly powerful monsters (with no mana pots and no raises allowed). This challenge should never be won, and SHOULD end in horrible death.
• Navigate though a random maze of insanely deadly traps and occasional puzzles and/or monsters. Maybe even some platforming involved. (no raises again)
• a HUGE scale battle were you are not participating, but rather commanding troops and upgrading stuff. ...and maybe manning a catapult 'cause that's always fun!
• Some sort of reverse-dungeoncrawl, where you roam the place, place traps and monsters are the ones that explore and try to steal your treasures. The more you save, the more you keep.

You know, different stuff than you usually do, 'cause my first impression of challenges was: normal quests, except more repetitive because of variants.

[cdbd3rd]

.... Personally I want a kobold throwing catapult game where I'm trying to knock down buildings in the harbor ....!

Given all the time some of us spent playing cat-a-pult (or whatever it was), this would most certainly get some serious play time. Would open up a whole new field of opportunity for 'kobold exclamations'.

And as always - greatest appreciation for taking the time, MajMal.

[Ganak]

MajMal, join date of 2/2011.






Awfully green there, come do some zerging with me on Argo.

[bbqzor]

sometimes it is about *fun* and not about *loot*. If you don't find these fun, you might find one to your liking in the future

A quick comment about this, one that I have wanted to make several times but always held off for one reason or another.

Currently (as it is on lamma) there are favor rewards (artificer) and some itemization rewards (loot) which are unique to the new challenges. This means that, by its very nature, its about the rewards/loot on a very tangible level. That holds true of everything in any MMO which has only one avenue of acquisition.

For those of us who would like to have fun (playing an artificer, or having some of the new loot effects which are not, and have no history of being, integrated backwards through the game) we are forced into grinding the content, whether we consider said content fun or not; or be faced with giving up hopes of having fun with the target reward in the first place.

I suppose it could be said that Artificer has another avenue of acquisition, which is true even if I find the idea of simply buying it of little appeal personally. And the items are hardly mandatory to experience most of the game. So please don't interpret this as any kind of illogical request to simply be handed everything because the game is unplayable otherwise.

My point is, for your original statement there to really be applicable, there would have to be alternative ways to go about most things in the game. Which is, ironically, what DDO was originally about: it flat out intentionally tried to make quests playable by killing, stealthing, using turn undead, etc... there was a whole example worked up with how different classes might get around some undead and traps using different abilities which was used a lot in the initial promotion postings. Now, more and more quests are being changed to force only one method, with required kills all over the place, only one path to go, immunities or removal of all kinds of abilities, etc.

I'd like for there to be more in the future. But I'd also like that variety back, where you have choices about how to quest, and more than one way to get the chest at the end. Please implore whoever is in charge of that, of looking at ways to integrate effects elsewhere, or in multiple places. And try to add quests with more than one path, without required kills every 10 feet, without barring effects or adding immunities to everything.

Like some bridge you need to cross, where you fight the troll on the bridge and he doesnt agro until you walk too far past him while in his perception range. So you could fight him, or waterwalk across off to the side and avoid him, or sneak past him, or can hail him and diplo to pay his toll since he wont agro initially, or bluff him without paying and have a short window of time before he figures it out and then agros if youre still around in his range, and have like a half dozen ways of dealing with that one objective. Poor example perhaps but its not like I spent more than a moment on it.

Partycrashers, as one example, is close with a lot of optionals that use different abilities, but at the end of the day theres really one 1-2 ways to do each of them. And, its not really dealing with main objectives different ways, so much as it is doing side quests. Expand that, so different classes/builds/skills/abilities/items are useful each step of the way. People can use a lot of different abilities to complete the main objective and get the same main chest/reward, and instead of having lfms that are like 'need diplo for more loot' or 'casters only' you might get 'need 1 person for troll, anything works' with the emphasis back on different classes bringing cool abilities to the table not just differing dps numbers. With maybe 200 favor available so we only need half of it, so we can pick and choose whats required to grind instead of having only one option.

I realize thats basically a request for more content, in larger chunks at a time, with a higher complexity in each piece. So perhaps an unreasonable request, and if so fair enough. But until theres a larger level of latitude in how to approach things, it kind of is about the rewards. Because without them, in a game where you just play for the sake of playing content for fun, no one would repeat quests the number of times we are required to in order to get loot. People do that because its fun to use the rewards in future quests, not because they enjoy shroud for the 500th time. Anyhow, thats what I would like to see to justify the fun not loot comment, in a general sense. Shrug, just 2 cents, thanks.

[youdonut]

tomorrow there is an event for challenges-with real prizes! See Kookies announcements for more details!

well its kinda hard to check the announcements when there is no user named kookie (i checked in search)



Lag-All I can say is there is an active investigation and we have made headway. But with U12 right around the corner we are waiting to put fixes out then. Trust me, this is the best option.

INVESTIGATION????? people have been complaining about the lag for over 2 years but all you guys seem to think is hey lets put some more buggy stuff into the game and hope it distracts our PAYING customers from the problems with the games.

Mabar- I promise it will be better next year.

I really doubt that.. it will be forgotten like the rest of the problems with the game.

[FranOhmsford]

Yes! I want Angry Kobolds! Citizens of Stormreach have stolen their eggs (they do lay eggs right?), and they're trying to get revenge (but end up mostly splatting themselves on buildings).

EDIT: On a more serious note, one of the thing that disappointed me a bit on the challenges, is that they still use most of the same old core mechanics of quests. Granted I only tried out the 2 first releases on lam, but defending resources from endless incoming mobs or exploring a kinda generic looking dungeon is hardly original. Sure, special resources management, finding crests, finding power-ups all adds a bit, but essential you're still defending some helpless stuff or zerging through a dungeon. Even the variants don't seem to change much. I have not tested the other 2 challenges, but so far, challenges haven't really peeked my interest.

However, I'd much rather have stuff that you can't do in a normal quest, like:

• Wacky games like you described, where character stats don't matter, only skills as a player.
• Survive for as long as possible vs an endless horde of increasingly powerful monsters (with no mana pots and no raises allowed). This challenge should never be won, and SHOULD end in horrible death.
• Navigate though a random maze of insanely deadly traps and occasional puzzles and/or monsters. Maybe even some platforming involved. (no raises again)
• a HUGE scale battle were you are not participating, but rather commanding troops and upgrading stuff. ...and maybe manning a catapult 'cause that's always fun!
• Some sort of reverse-dungeoncrawl, where you roam the place, place traps and monsters are the ones that explore and try to steal your treasures. The more you save, the more you keep.

You know, different stuff than you usually do, 'cause my first impression of challenges was: normal quests, except more repetitive because of variants.

NO Platforming please!

Character stats NEED to matter more not less - This is D&D - I play it to be better than I am in real life thank you.

I don't have the speed or coordination on a computer to play most games - I only started playing this because it was D&D.

Can we get quests that are closer to the original ethos of D&D please.

SUGGESTION: Sovereign Host Priest approaches you in House P and asks you to protect some worshippers from a Silver Flame fanatic's mercenaries.

[Urist]

Personally I want a kobold throwing catapult game

I'm put in mind of the Goblin Doomdivers from Warhammer; with artificial "wings" attached to their arms. Makes more sense for Kobolds actually, since they are, after all, descended from Dragons.

I think you should skip U13. Go from U12 to U14. Personally, 13 is one of my lucky numbers, but if you do decide to do something for U13, I hope you do something fun with the traditionally unlucky number.

The second Friday in July would be a truly auspicious time to release U13...

[CaptainSpacePony]

[QUOTE=youdonut;4149257]tomorrow there is an event for challenges-with real prizes! See Kookies announcements for more details!

well its kinda hard to check the announcements when there is no user named kookie (i checked in search)


The challenge is finding the announcement!

[Full_Bleed]

INVESTIGATION????? people have been complaining about the lag for over 2 years but all you guys seem to think is hey lets put some more buggy stuff into the game and hope it distracts our PAYING customers from the problems with the games.

Counterpoint/Perspective:

For the last year, my static group (spanning 2600 miles) and I have played DDO almost every week during peak hours (Friday evening/nights.) And for more than 99.9% of that time we've played this game lag free. And when we have had lag, it's almost always been ISP related or it has come in fleeting, inconsequential spikes that resolve in seconds (not minutes.)

Last night our group ran Mabar and found one laggy instance. Switched to another and had no problem. We also ran a Spectral Dragon Raid (level 15-19) with no lag (didn't think it would be possible given some of the reports on the forum.)

DDO is far from perfect, but lets not overstate the Lag issue or the number of people complaining about it. If you want your lag issue dealt with wouldn't it be more productive to actually provide actionable information rather than to make inflammatory statements? I'm not saying you don't have lag, I'm saying that you might want to consider that it's not the soul-crushing issue you think it is for every "paying customer" playing the game.


I do believe that a simpler and more useful lag-reporting tool in the game might make lag investigations more productive for all involved though.

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

MajMal, join date of 2/2011.






Awfully green there, come do some zerging with me on Argo.

Ever think this is just my nom de plume?

[Terebinthia]

As ever, thanks for the update Maj.

I'm going to try all the challenges on Lama next week I hope, when I've got all my perishing spectral dragon scales.

Any chance of upping the drop rate of turn ins or flexing the number required for Mabar next year? It's taking a looong time to open the dragon chamber outside US prime time. I feel for the Aussies even more....

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

[QUOTE=CaptainSpacePony;4149324]

tomorrow there is an event for challenges-with real prizes! See Kookies announcements for more details!

well its kinda hard to check the announcements when there is no user named kookie (i checked in search)


The challenge is finding the announcement!

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...59#post4148559

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

As ever, thanks for the update Maj.

I'm going to try all the challenges on Lama next week I hope, when I've got all my perishing spectral dragon scales.

Any chance of upping the drop rate of turn ins or flexing the number required for Mabar next year? It's taking a looong time to open the dragon chamber outside US prime time. I feel for the Aussies even more....

Already in discussion. I'm not sure where that landed at the EOD yesterday...