DDOcast 290 (06-24-2013) - Updates, Epic TRs, Collectables! Oh My!

[Theris]

This week Sig, Anne, Geoff (www.ddogamer.com), and Patrick (Shamgar's Epic Ed) have a whopping two hours of DDO news, more talk about reincarnation, upcoming XP and enhancement changes, DDOGamer gets into collectibles, we get into reading letters sent in by listeners, DDO community events, and even a bit of good old D&D news.

Get show notes, related links, and mp3 at DDOcast.com!

[Silverleafeon]

Thank you for podcast, it was enjoyable to listen to.

I strongly support Patrick's assertion that mass gifting Otto's Boxes
would break the DDO economy.

It would mean that I and a few other loyal supporters of the DDO
store would suddenly find our left over boxes worthless.

It would mean those trusting these items to remain rare and trading
in them with in game loot would lose tons of looting time.

I would be greatly offended if a DDO ED XP idea resulted in my
favorite toon losing 20 million ed xp and being given an item
that is worth half of the xp of a legend life in return. I realize Epic ED XP
does not equal heroic xp, but 2 million xp is a tenth of 20 million xp.


Normally I would let the whole idea pass, but the Devs are watching.



VOTE NO TO PROPOSAL ONE!

[Silverleafeon]

I do support the Player's Choice Proposal made by Sig, Prososal 2, and anything that is not similar to Proposal 1.

Keep up the podcasts, we do enjoy them.

[Silverleafeon]

Great post and thoughts, clear and well presented. Thanks for taking the time to write this us.


Some interesting ideas.

Hi.
Just wanted to touch base with you all again on this. Your feedback during this early stage of development for this system has definitely been helpful. And I’ll reiterate that because we are early in the process, we haven’t locked anything down. Now on to some additional info.

We have multiple goals with a system like this, such as:
• Give players the new option of TR-ing at level cap.
• Give players more things to achieve with a high level TR type character (like epic destiny past life feats and build points).
• Allow Iconic Hero characters to use the reincarnation system.
• Optimize the system to help people have a good play experience. (This is a tough one, because there are different opinions on what a “good play experience” is, but this could mean giving incentives to concentrate on different Epic Destinies than were played in the previous life, for example.)
• And as a less design-oriented but equally important goal: If changes are needed that affect players’ current investment, compensate them for the changes.

If we can arrive at a place in a given system where we can accomplish all or many of the goals in a way that is good for the game, short term and long term, then that’s a great solution. Many systems, however, are of sufficient complexity to make this a very interesting balancing act. But even with that complexity, it’s still possible to have a good solution. It just takes some time and iteration to get there. This was one of the reasons to start this thread and see what people thought about the new system and the first design proposal.

So, here’s some more info on a couple of options we are currently considering.

Option 1: XP “Bank” System
When Epic TR-ing, a character selects one ED to bond and then transfers all other ED XP into an XP Bank that can be used at any time to level through heroic levels. Example: A character has five maxed ED’s at level 28. They Epic TR, bond one ED, and then get roughly enough XP to take them back to level 20 in their new life and still have, let’s say, 1,000,000 XP left over to use in their following heroic life (to use at whatever level they want). This option could also come with a onetime opportunity to bond multiple ED’s in one TR (to help those invested in the current system to transfer to the new).

Option 2: Keep Epic Destiny XP System
When Epic TR-ing, a character selects one maxed out ED that he/she will acquire the Past Life feat for. This Epic Destiny is then flagged. (Starting out, you cannot get more than one copy of each ED’s past life feat.) The character then starts at level 1, but all ED XP is preserved at whatever levels it was at.

We are considering more than just these two options, but we thought you might like to know a bit about what we are currently thinking. Thanks again.

For reference to the various choices on the table atm...

[Silverleafeon]

I don't mean to offend, but Patrick is very smart, listen when he says things like this.
Please...