Timbits... (April 20 2012)

[MadFloyd]

DISCLAIMER: There's no real point to this 'official' thread, it's just random spew. If I pass on a 'bit' of info that you find informative that's great. If I'm being a blatent tease or a bore, well... I guess you'll know to skip these in the future (assuming I do more )

We're all putting in long hours at this point. Something about an XPack coming all too soon. I feel bad for all the new hires. It's exhausting enough having to learn new tools, processes, co-worker personalities, etc without having to hit deadlines and put in long hours. Oh well, that's life in the gaming industry.

Played three new quests today, all great stuff, but one of them is an instant classic.

A new dev (video) diary went live. I hadn't seen it before and was very impressed with it. Our new 'wilderness' environments really look awesome and I was happy to see that they showed well in the video.

There was a thread about 3BC loot in the General Discussion forum and I mentioned that it recently got an upgrade. It was nice to see that it seems to be appreciated.

I'm dying to talk about Epic Destinies, but I need to wait until a new 'roundtable' dev diary gets published first. Hopefully that'll be soon because (in my humble opinion) it's the most exciting feature in the XPack.

Played a new challenge today. This is the first one that takes into account feedback from the Let's Talk thread I started. It's also the first challenge to include a dragon. Wait, that's not exactly true; it's the first challenge to include one of our NEW dragons. We built a new dragon 'system' recently and while we're still ironing out some of the kinks, it's REALLY cool.

Thanks to those of you who provided feedback in the AC thread; it was reassuring to see that most of you are on the same page. I've asked for the thread to be closed because it's at 15 pages and, as far as I'm concerned, served its purpose (and I can only see it devolving from here). So to all of you who didn't get to post: if you had feedback that you think is different enough from what others' have already posted, feel free to PM me.

Have a great weekend everyone.

[Captain_Wizbang]

We built a new dragon 'system' recently and while we're still ironing out some of the kinks, it's REALLY cool.
.

tell us more!

[sebastianosmith]

I feel bad for all the new hires.

At least give the FNGs a weekend here or there, would ya? They'll stay longer.

[Impaqt]

At least give the FNGs a weekend here or there, would ya? They'll stay longer.

they are all getting fired on June 26th anyway....

[Khurse]

Love the name of the thread.

One can only assume you're getting to spend some time cheering for the Sens...

[Roland_D'Arabel]

Love the name of the thread.

One can only assume you're getting to spend some time cheering for the Sens...

Typical east coast centric attitude

'Nucks aren't out of it yet!

[BrianTheHun]

Typical east coast centric attitude

'Nucks aren't out of it yet!

They will be soon, go Kings, go!

[Coldin]

I'm dying to talk about Epic Destinies, but I need to wait until a new 'roundtable' dev diary gets published first. Hopefully that'll be soon because (in my humble opinion) it's the most exciting feature in the XPack.

I've really been waiting to hear more about epic destinies. Sounds like it will be a major part of the new leveling experience past level 20. Hopefully we get to hear more very soon.

[DanteEnFuego]

Guess I missed the 3BC update info. How do I get there again? Been so long... Thx for the updates. +1

[Cauthey]

Much love for ya, MadFloyd. Much love.

<3

[Captain_Wizbang]

Hey Floyd!,
Just out of curiosity, have you "old timers" initiated the new hires?

I can help you with a few pointers, especially for areas that have those nifty cubicle dividers.

[Zirun]

I went into Tim Horton's a week ago. Roll up the Rim's basically over, but they still had one XL cup left with that special rim. I thought, "Hey, why not? What could possibly go wrong with an XL coffee?" and bought it. Paid my money, thanked the cashier, and excitedly began the walk home.

As I walk, I'm staring at the cup. It looks a little bit suspicious, with plenty of spelling errors and misprinted images. But, hey, a winning cup is a winning cup, no matter what it looks like, right?

Halfway home, I'm sick of the coffee already. Things are buzzing all around me, and I can't concentrate worth a ****, so I decided to just dump the rest of the coffee out and roll up the rim right there.

Now, this is an XL cup with an XL rim, so working it to roll it up without tearing it is a difficult. I'm already home, but I still haven't managed to get all the rim loose enough to roll up in one piece. I sit down at my desk, in front of my computer, and continue trying. It seems to be going nowhere, however.

It takes a week, but eventually I manage to roll it up. Slowly, I stare at it expectantly as I go from left to right, revealing letters one by one.

The first letter: "W". Yes! It's a winner! I'm bouncing off the walls with joy! All caution to the win, I tear the rest of the rim up, revealing the rest of the text. Adrenaline pumping, I have to read it many times to comprehend what it says. Imagine my heart dropping when I see that it's not a 'W', but an 'M', as the text is all written upside-down.

And thus it read: "MadFloyd is a genie, and must do as he is told. Using this text, you may force him to go into great detail about any upcoming changes to DDO."

So, yeah, tell us more about these fancy dragons, why don't you? I so much so wish you would!

[C00LBR33Z3]

See now I was actually hoping for a some way for free Timbits and now I want some. I'm looking forward to the information on Epic Destinies and seeing how it will work out.

[Rinnaldo]

...hoping for ... free Timbits...

How many Timbits do we have to collect to craft a Tim?

Thanks for the post MadFloyd, it's really helpful to hear things like these from a dev's perspective. For example, it seems like all (read: some of) the whining on that other thread asking for explicit details on Epic Destinies might be forestalled by the mere mention here that you WANT to share, but CAN'T. I think people can relate to that.

[Silverleafeon]

..I'm dying to talk about Epic Destinies, but I need to wait until a new 'roundtable' dev diary gets published first. Hopefully that'll be soon because (in my humble opinion) it's the most exciting feature in the XPack...

Yes, when I saw that, I cheered. Much better than the other epic choice.

[Aashrym]

I'll meet you here and trade timbits for tidbits, MF.

http://www.calgaryexpo.com/

[Galeria]

Awesome! What a fun read. Can't wait to find out about the 3BC loot.

[Kronos_EXE]

What is the Xpack being coded in? C# ?

[Bronko]

You had me at Timbits.

[bhgiant]

Played a new challenge today. This is the first one that takes into account feedback from the Let's Talk thread I started. It's also the first challenge to include a dragon. Wait, that's not exactly true; it's the first challenge to include one of our NEW dragons. We built a new dragon 'system' recently and while we're still ironing out some of the kinks, it's REALLY cool.

This wouldn't happen to be a see-how-many-you-can-kill survival challenge ending in a glorious battle against a green dragon would it??

*pleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyes...*