DDO Producer's Letter July 2014

[Vellrad]

I played WoW and I know what you mean, but here I'm talking of something different. No WoW reference.

Druid has its animal companion. Artificer has its homunculus. Pale master has its skeleton.
D&D ranger has its animal companion.
DDO ranger DESERVES its animal companion. Plain and simple.

Active abilities are unnecessary. An animal companion can have passive abilities it uses on its own, like trip. No need for additional bars.

You was given both bow feats and TWF feats to compensate for lack of worthless animal of HD equal to half of your ranger level.
Would you really trade feats for this?

[mezzorco]

You was given both bow feats and TWF feats to compensate for lack of worthless animal of HD equal to half of your ranger level.
Would you really trade feats for this?

Yes, for more game balance and class flavour.
Currently ranger means manyshot burst on a melee toon, it has no other uses.

[wraxzz]

I played WoW and I know what you mean, but here I'm talking of something different. No WoW reference.

Druid has its animal companion. Artificer has its homunculus. Pale master has its skeleton.
D&D ranger has its animal companion.
DDO ranger DESERVES its animal companion. Plain and simple.

Active abilities are unnecessary. An animal companion can have passive abilities it uses on its own, like trip. No need for additional bars.

fair enough, boiled down to the bare essentials, the ranger could at least get a copy+paste druid wolf. Change it to a panther en voila, a personal ranger pet!

[Free2Pay]

I wanted to emphasize the importance of attracting new players. We want players when they come in to see all the people playing the game. We need a visible way to draw their attention to the "LFM or grouping" window so they can see other people questing. The other problem is all the servers. When the grouping window seems low on poeple looking for quests we are like where are all the gamers to quest with? There needs to be a way that anyone on one server can quest with anyone on any server so that that all questers can be seen making the game look more alive than ever before and more giving more interaction. Is there any way to do this? If it can be overcome it will be a great hurdle in my opinion.

If only we have global chat instead of chat by instances. Chat in Korthos Island should be made global by default, so newer player on snowy side can seek help and ask question with anyone on the server. Perhaps have some epic quests in korthos so that players visit that area more often? We can't always be making new characters or standby 24/7 at korthos to help newer players. Especially not on Wayfinder.

[Lanadazia]

This made me realize that I don't use any channels in DDO that aren't default channels (including /advice /trade). Perhaps channels can be incorporated slightly better (better as in easier to join. in wow its a simple /join lookingforabbot) and thereby contribute to finding groups for what are now dead raids.

out of curiosity as i wasn't aware of this, when was this? is there a forum link someone could give please? I dont get accurate search results from advance search. Maybe im doing it wrong

still i do most raids with a lfm/pug. i do have a channel and maybe 1 or 2 join that i know, rest is PUG!
and the raid isnt dead for sure. just go ahead and host it, you'll see how many ppl join you.
at least on argonessen this is a frequently run

the xp stone thingy was an event, where each player got a set ammount of stones. premium 3, vip 5. each account could use one only
that was to introduce the otto's box iirc

No, I'm not kidding.

Most people I know skip Orchard quests (other, faster xp at the level, much like people did with 3 Barrel) and as long as the quests are not identical! Plus they said a new raid (not epic Abbott), there will be enough there. More stuff to run for xp is good.

then you're clearly doing it wrong. tempel of vol and inferno are excellent xp quests if done right.

[Feagor]

Wishlist for 2015:
Expedition to Undermountain FTW!!!

[Aeryyn]

Thanks for the update, Vyvyanne.

But, please keep in mind that not everyone who plays DDO wants to play end-game content. Some of us play because it's a more visual way to play D&D -- and we adjust our play-style accordingly. Personally, I would like to see more Masterwork items and fewer Magic items in Normal mode. In fact, it would be nice to see Normal mode turn into a no-frills, limited magic item mode for those of us who prefer to play a more table-style game.

*Please* don't turn DDO into another WoW knock-off, there are plenty of those out there already. I left WoW for a reason and really don't want to see DDO turn into yet another game trying to cash in on the WoW play model.

That said, I think the team is doing a very good job keeping the game up-to-date, especially given the age of the original code.

Keep up the good work!

[Aeryyn]

If only we have global chat instead of chat by instances. Chat in Korthos Island should be made global by default, so newer player on snowy side can seek help and ask question with anyone on the server. Perhaps have some epic quests in korthos so that players visit that area more often? We can't always be making new characters or standby 24/7 at korthos to help newer players. Especially not on Wayfinder.

Keep in mind, however, that it might get a little confusing if there are a lot of people clustered in a given location. OTOH, global chat in common areas *would* lend an air of reality to the game.

[Qhualor]

You was given both bow feats and TWF feats to compensate for lack of worthless animal of HD equal to half of your ranger level.
Would you really trade feats for this?

Rangers have improved a lot. I would be fine with choosing an either/or path. TWF Rangers can still dip into ranged trees if they really wanted to boost ranged DPS and it would be on equal footing with every other build.

Thing is, ever since Artys got their dogs there has been more players asking for familiars/pets. It will continue.

[azrael4h]

fair enough, boiled down to the bare essentials, the ranger could at least get a copy+paste druid wolf. Change it to a panther en voila, a personal ranger pet!

That will probably be a Drow Ranger Iconic, actually. Because if there's one thing DDO needs, it's more Drizzt clones. /sarcasm

I'm meh on the lever-puller myself. I don't bother with the bugged out Arty dog at all except for levers, and only slightly more often for the Druid Wolf. I never used the skele on my PM, who is now TRed out of Wizard (currently no Wizards in my employ).

But, please keep in mind that not everyone who plays DDO wants to play end-game content.

On Joystiq, I saw Turbine admit that less than 1% are the 'end game' must-have-raids sort of player in LotRO. Earlier on in WoW's life, the same thing happened; they admitted less than 10% of the population raided at all, or bothered with any endgame. These types of players are most vocal, often violently so, but are in fact a minority, and I think Turbine's decisions are based on that. That's why every update there's the same small group screaming and raging how the game sucks because there's no "end game", and yet Turbine keeps ignoring them. Because there's not many actually playing those raids like that, or doing EEs, or any of the other "end game" stuff they claim MUST be pushed out constantly or the world will dissolve into chaos.

Rangers have improved a lot. I would be fine with choosing an either/or path. TWF Rangers can still dip into ranged trees if they really wanted to boost ranged DPS and it would be on equal footing with every other build.

Considering that Rangers are currently only a splash class for Monkchers, I'd say they still need work. AA is drastically improved, but when the bar is set so low, it can't help but go over it. Tempest is still marginal at best. DWS is more useful for spell power than anything else. Making them choose an either/or path would simply weaken them further, and drive the class into extinction. If it was for the mentioned Drizzt clones, no one would bother with a melee Ranger now.

Rangers with a majority of levels in Ranger are far from fine, and are only on equal footing with Paladins. Gimping them further would be idiocy, and gimping them further for a worthless AI companion that can be strangled with a cordless phone at the best of times would be worse. Add the pets or don't add them, they will give nothing to the Ranger. But don't lie and say they're fine and rape them into being worse than even Paladins are now. Just delete the class from the game instead.

[The_Human_Cypher]

Like the ideas but could somebody address the needs of solo players. I have made it to level 18 without playing in a group or raid. I would love to see some content directed toward solo play please.

There was a detailed discussion of solo class and race related content just recently on the Suggestions sub-forum.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...related-quests

The quests could extend throughout the levels of the game at different points (e.g., 7, 14, 18, and 21), ending at level 28 (or 30). Each class or racial quest arc could be a kind of personal journey for the character.

[dunklezhan]

You was given both bow feats and TWF feats to compensate for lack of worthless animal of HD equal to half of your ranger level.
Would you really trade feats for this?

No I wouldn't. But I'd go for a 'choice' like monks have without which you didn't get the full benefit of either the tempest or AA trees, or with which you got access to additional ones - which could include the top level TWF/Ranged currently freebie feats, potentially.

I think the real problem is not that they get the ability to do both and that this isn't how PnP went. Its that even WITH all the freebie feats pure Rangers really do suffer compared to a lot of other classes. Multiclasses are the ones who really get the most bang for the buck out of ranger, and a pet won't do anything extra for them, because a pet is only really useful at all to a pure Ranger the way the current pet implementation works. Given that, there's no reason at all that the Ranger's pet has to be less powerful than the druid or artie pets in DDO. Pure rangers are NOT overpowered in any way, a pet would be a really minor buff to them by end game, but appreciated up to that point and an inconsequential one to multiclassers more or less as soon as they reach character level 10, or not at all depending on when they take their ranger levels.

In fact I think it's such a no-brainer, I think the 'but you'd have to give up TWF or Ranged' argument is so meaningless in today's DDO, that my main concern is not whether they should have a pet its that they consider how rangers, and druids for that matter, could have a choice of pet. Even if it's only a 'cosmetic' skin. Even if you had to buy said skins from the store (there I said it). Some variety would be really appreciated. But mostly, they should just give Rangers pets. The Pure Class would welcome it.

[Cetus]

*groan* another raid?

I don't think the current server size can support another raid. Players are spread too thin over 28 levels and over -weirdly enough- too much content.

Either merge servers, or stop putting out new content en focus on somehow improving without expanding.

Sproken from Sarlona.

I'm not saying go back to the days when there were an average 3 shroud groups up at any given time and one would fill every 2~3 minutes since that was the ONLY relevant content.. but do find a middle ground.

Did you seriously **groan** at a NEW RAID?

I don't friggin understand some of the people on these boards....

"hey guys, you'll have a new raid!"

"No thanks, **groan**"

Lets just continue with these 3bc abominations instead then?

[psykopeta]

saly, must say, making inferno of the damned in epic isn't new at all, we already have mirro quest

would be great, i mean, great, awesome, brutal, outstanding if u could change objectives in epic quest, i mean, in heroic lvls we share objectives with epic lvls, so that's not making it epic, it's just bumping their hp, saves and damage

let's say fleshmaker as an example, instead of beating the air ele again, could be something like bringing him to kill golems (in fact he will heal em, that has never happened in ddo iirc, where the npc u have to protect decides to heal enemies) in the opt room

or a vol epic quest where u start from the inevitable's room and have to get ur way up to the heroic entrance

would be really awesome, and specially would mean epic, not bumped

it's really nice that u change the mechanics while in the raid, sadly when u see that turbine has only changed 1 of 6 quests in orchard and 1 of 10 quests in gianthold, well, isn't that epic as it should

no need to change maps, changing quests objectives sharing map like u did in tangleroot, is possible, and works wonders, thought u already knew it

[B0ltdrag0n]

Yes, for more game balance and class flavour.
Currently ranger means manyshot burst on a melee toon, it has no other uses.

No deal. Ask paladins how thy like trading their animal companion (mount) and half their useful spells for nothing in return

[Rull]

Did you seriously **groan** at a NEW RAID?

I don't friggin understand some of the people on these boards....

"hey guys, you'll have a new raid!"

"No thanks, **groan**"

Lets just continue with these 3bc abominations instead then?

I was highly surprised by it as well, at first I didn't understand where the negative feeling was coming from. I mean a new raid sounds awesome.
But a new raid is useless to me without 11 people to run it with.

I introduced a new player to ddo and he quite liked it. TRed, leveled to 28, bought a bunch of packs....
It has been two month since he flagged for FoT and and he hasn't filled a raid group yet.
He wanted to do LoB and got excited about the weapons he could craft. I told him to just forget about that one, because to complete a weapon you need to not only find a group, but one that is specifically running the right one out of all possible difficulties.
He resorted to 2manning DQ as only raid experience so far.

Multiple evenings where you wait for way over an hour to fill and then disband because it's just not going to happen... you log off without having actually played... Dissatifaction like that can quickly turn people away from the game.

He could get thunderholm but he's not so sure about raiding anymore. It's hard to convince him of buying a pack that he may very well never once play. And I can't recommend it either, it's hard to find people interested. They splintered over VoNs, shrouds, webs, whatever, more often than not disbanding or shortmanning on lower difficulties. But mostly they are reincarnating instead of wasting their time waiting on eachother (a self-reinforcing effect when critical mass fails)

Find a better way to avoid ghost towns before pumping out more stuff.

[Qhualor]

Considering that Rangers are currently only a splash class for Monkchers, I'd say they still need work. AA is drastically improved, but when the bar is set so low, it can't help but go over it. Tempest is still marginal at best. DWS is more useful for spell power than anything else. Making them choose an either/or path would simply weaken them further, and drive the class into extinction. If it was for the mentioned Drizzt clones, no one would bother with a melee Ranger now.

Rangers with a majority of levels in Ranger are far from fine, and are only on equal footing with Paladins. Gimping them further would be idiocy, and gimping them further for a worthless AI companion that can be strangled with a cordless phone at the best of times would be worse. Add the pets or don't add them, they will give nothing to the Ranger. But don't lie and say they're fine and rape them into being worse than even Paladins are now. Just delete the class from the game instead.

I beg to differ as I do play a pure Tempest ranger, but people wont always agree. rangers were considered pretty weak before the enhancement pass and some thought they would go extinct. they however did not and many Tempests splashed 2 levels of fighter, like I did, since the capstone was near worthless to them. the Tempest tree still needs work with the long cooldowns and need more offensive and less defensive buffs, but comparing my ranger pre-pass to now, he has doubled in strength especially if you throw in free ranged feats and a Pinion.

its funny you say rangers are on equal footing as paladins because I do play paladins as well. rangers with mostly or pure levels have a huge advantage over paladins with dps by a wide margin. not saying paladins are weak because they are not, despite what the forums say. what I find interesting in these topics in comparing dps is that people compare builds on an uneven ground or they failed at building one and think the class is delete worthy.

[Vellrad]

I was highly surprised by it as well, at first I didn't understand where the negative feeling was coming from. I mean a new raid sounds awesome.
But a new raid is useless to me without 11 people to run it with.

I introduced a new player to ddo and he quite liked it. TRed, leveled to 28, bought a bunch of packs....
It has been two month since he flagged for FoT and and he hasn't filled a raid group yet.
He wanted to do LoB and got excited about the weapons he could craft. I told him to just forget about that one, because to complete a weapon you need to not only find a group, but one that is specifically running the right one out of all possible difficulties.
He resorted to 2manning DQ as only raid experience so far.

Multiple evenings where you wait for way over an hour to fill and then disband because it's just not going to happen... you log off without having actually played... Dissatifaction like that can quickly turn people away from the game.

He could get thunderholm but he's not so sure about raiding anymore. It's hard to convince him of buying a pack that he may very well never once play. And I can't recommend it either, it's hard to find people interested. They splintered over VoNs, shrouds, webs, whatever, more often than not disbanding or shortmanning on lower difficulties. But mostly they are reincarnating instead of wasting their time waiting on eachother (a self-reinforcing effect when critical mass fails)

Find a better way to avoid ghost towns before pumping out more stuff.

You can't expect to pug everything, you need to join a guild someday.

[maddmatt70]

You can't expect to pug everything, you need to join a guild someday.

That is because DDO sucks. There are a lot of other games where you can pug the vast majority of time. In my opinion DDO should strive to have a community where you can do what you want without joining a guild or channel. One of the things missing from this Producer's Letter is the plans to combat the current pugging situation. Merging servers or what have you? The producer gives us nothing in this regard. That is the most disheartening thing in this Producer's Letter is they are not working on community issues.

[Uska]

Yes, for more game balance and class flavour.
Currently ranger means manyshot burst on a melee toon, it has no other uses.

Swapping half your free feats for a completely worthless pet would weaken the ranger nearly to the point of being nearly unplayable even the druid's pet is pretty much worthless as is the Artie dog