DDO Producer's Letter July 2014

[pyrofury]

*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.

This is a valid argument and was thinking the same thing,
I would like to suggest an alternate path.

Try adding an adjustable level cap that allows a lv.28 player to be capped at say lv.18 before they enter a quest.
This solves any problems finding members as long as they don't mind none epic content.
Higher level players may choose to join any lower level quest without penalty to experience.

This is similar to what was done with my old MMO FFXI it worked out great! (Once all the bugs were worked out)'

Thank you for your efforts and accomplishments you have made with DDO cant wait to see where it goes from here.

[Todkaninchen]

I like the refreshing of older content, putting a second, epic tier that's DIFFERENT like 3BC quests have done, but I still like new stuff too.

Some things--unrealistic as it is--I would love to see:

1) A reinforcement of some of the "alien-ness" of the Eberron based characters (Arti's, WF, Rogue mechanics) in the Forgotten Realm content. Maybe just a little different flavor text here and there, but imagine being somewhere only the really powerful or the very religious have magical power and suddenly here's this robot in front of you who self-buffs and magically repairs himself...

2) Maybe a nice DDO "d20" cover of the Stargate SG-1 "d20" content.

I mean, WoTC went for it, the Stargate producers authorized the book version. You can play DDO almost like a shooter. It would be something awesome for Turbine to offer using the same basic engine. Even the whole instance-based, cooperative structure of the game would play well with Stargate...

3) I want a craftable "pointy stick", counted as a dagger or a short sword... minimal damage. For laughs to use with an assassin...

4) Oh, and a craftable returning lump of coal.

5) A "customizable" character sheet might be nice. Have a basic type like we have now, and let us turn on--via options--other or advanced information as needed. For example, there's no real need for most barbarians to have spell-power stats, but a caster might like to be able to turn on a display for spell power, DC's, etc. For newbies, set the default sheet to be shown, let "power users" turn on the rest.

6) While we're at it... Maybe a way to save things to disk from the Combat tab and/or a built in set of tools--again, optional settings stuff--that calculates actual DPS for us or things like number of casts vs. number of successful landing of spells. Not as a universal, always on tool, but maybe as a downloadable additional extra...

7) Still waiting for playable Kobolds. Just make them have a default higher run speed (as they are in DnD vs. halflings) and don't gimp the CHA and the INT, and we can all be happy.

8) Also, epic, end-game Kobold raid boss. *grin*

9) What else on the wish list? Oh, mustaches for halflings. Just a small one. Even 5'o'clock shadows.... maybe even a goatee option.

10) One more... Please put the hire clerics (at low level) in more appropriate (heavy) armor. I know it's to expose the hoi pollui to armor skins available, but clerics at low levels should probably be presented in a little more than Flower wears. Don't get me wrong, I like shortish, chubby women, but it's almost scary when you're brave little meat shield... er... heal hire... er... hireling companion looks like she's a streetwalker getting beaten down on the street every time she melees. And it's not that her stats changed...

Some of the higher level clerics, okay, I can see a high-end, heroic healer not needing the heavy armor as much, but the flavor down low...

Otherwise, killing lag aside, I love the game and would spend more money on it if I had it right now....

Oh, yeah, one more...

11) I want a (healing) positive energy rune arm or one for most tiers. It would be an awesome "weapon" with some interesting build capabilities to have a special rune arm that does AOE positive energy heals or even repairs. It's something an arti would come up on their own.

And 12) Additional pet options for Druids, maybe Arti's, and potentially Rangers. Spiders would be awesome. I love my arti dog, but a mechanical spider would be KILLER! and the basic models are in the game. Or cats in lieu of wolves for druids as well as spiders. Maybe tie one of them to a new enhancement tree like the pale master's skeleton...

...speaking of which...

13) different "class" options for the skeleton for pale masters. The tanky--if maxed and augmented--skeleton fighter is nice, but some people really miss the caster option. Skeletal Archmage or even archer would be fun...

That's all of my wish list for now.

Thanks for a good game and still want a pointy stick to assassinate people with...

[bulldogbreed]

Okay first I so rarely post it has to be something that gets me going to put finger to keyboard.

First Epic content
I don't run raids as I solo so doesn't bother me but I know others love it so glad that the content in Orchard is being done.
I would love to see a simple quest chain made epic, personally I would love the Depths which I run daily when I have characters in range. Something I would like to see and maybe here would be good is sliding walls creating mazes so the quest route could be different on occasion.
Greydawn/Cult of the Six made Epic how much fun would Sorrowdusk be then? The undead catacomb there could be an epic quest.

Okay I know you are talking about Epic mostly but there is a gap for solo players around level 8 as the wilderness goes Sorrowdusk to Red Fens. Also more mid range content could keep player interested when on their 5th life+. Having a 10th life character I know that area could do with a wilderness. I know most will run VON but having something different in that range would at least give players some variation.

Finally please get the airship in evenstar sorted having to log in to Eberron to buff and the log off and then transport to Evenstar is a long winded process that is just so annoying (or have I missed something?)

[Yaga_Nub]

...
Finally please get the airship in evenstar sorted having to log in to Eberron to buff and the log off and then transport to Evenstar is a long winded process that is just so annoying (or have I missed something?)

Yeah, just get PDK favor and get your key to Eveningstar.

[Seikojin]

Finally please get the airship in evenstar sorted having to log in to Eberron to buff and the log off and then transport to Evenstar is a long winded process that is just so annoying (or have I missed something?)

Yeah, just get PDK favor and get your key to Eveningstar.

you know, they could make it happen by making an expansion that includes dimensional ship travel, like planescape allowed.

[RKP]

Update 23 will also feature a series of improvements aimed at making sure heavy armor-wearing adventurers feel powerful and ready to go toe-to-toe with some of DDO’s toughest enemies, updates to improve the Paladin class, and other changes that will give our melee players a boost.

Please Please Please don't nerf Divine Grace.

[Brolik]

Aye, the push back of the level cap rising to 30, is something pressed by some members of the player's council.

Myself, I made a rather large list of potential augments,
including some I know you folks have asked for in the past.
Hope things go well in that area.

I am really enjoying Sev, Varg, and Steelstar interacting with the Player's Council.
There is a lot of back and forth feedback behind the scenes and I am enjoying it.

Which pack to epicfy next was centered around several threads,
including a discussion of what our expecations of certain packs might be.
So there was a lot of thought in the matter.
This in turn probably resulted in the push back of level 30 to next yearish.

I really feel like the Player's Council is helping guide the Devs,
and that the Devs are listening much more to the players this year.
The Bard, Pally, and potential someday Barbarian changes are much needed,
imho, I hope we can make them work out, love for those classes without overpowerness.


Under discussion, brought up by the Player's Council.
Seeing some potential sideways direction that may help possibly coming, if things work out.

Aye.

I think the easiest and quickest fix to the barb would be allowing the use of the cacoon while raged.. an unraged barb is just a big dope.. a epic toon without some kind of self heal is useless.. allow use of cacoon and i might have never TR'ed out of my barb life (ok prob stillwould have as i goin for completionist but def would have revisited it on another toon)

[AbyssalMage]

Update 23 will bring Epic Orchard of the Macabre to DDO, along with a new Epic raid! While the raid will share some locations and similarities to the current Accursed Ascension raid (“Abbot raid”), our team will bring a whole new series of challenges to adventurers brave enough to enter. We’re not simply “adding hit points to the Abbot”, but are rather re-thinking the raid space for an entirely new battle, with a new story line, baddies, loot, and more! One of the things we’re looking to do in the coming year is to provide more high-level questing and raiding to DDO, and we think an Epic Orchard of the Macabre fits nicely with that goal.

Well considering we wanted this BEFORE e3BC, better late than never? Just don't screw it up like e3BC, its already retreating to "ghost town" status and we haven't even hit the next update. Yes, we can call e3BC a disaster officially.

Besides newly Epi-fied versions of the quests found in Orchard of the Macabre, we’re also planning to make sure the Orchard itself is ready for high-level adventure with exciting battles against rare enemies, werewolves (yes, in Eberron!), new loot, and more! We’ll be talking a lot more about the Epic Orchard of the Macabre in the coming months, and I can’t wait for you to see what our devious devs have planned.

Actually have a plan before you develop it. Your burning too many bridges and this is not another one you need to burn.

Update 23 will also feature a series of improvements aimed at making sure heavy armor-wearing adventurers feel powerful and ready to go toe-to-toe with some of DDO’s toughest enemies, updates to improve the Paladin class, and other changes that will give our melee players a boost. We’re also creating new Augments for our Crystal Cove event that higher-level players can slot into their favorite weapons, armor, and items, and expect to bring those new Augments to you when Crystal Cove reopens after the release of Update 23.

For the love of THE SIX, leave armor alone. You thought you could fix it back in U16(?) and you honestly think you are going to do better now with a second go around? Maybe if you had spent more time developing e3BC and fixing the bugs before they went live, maybe I would be on board with AC revamp 3.0! As it stands now, from the initial spoilers, all you are doing is moving the pendulum a different direction and not solving the problem. The same thing I said back during AC revamp 2.0. You can dig up my old posts. Hindsight is 20/20 but my foresight was just as sharp.

Update 24 will round out the year with new quests, new Festivult cookies, and a new event that centers on something we can all agree on: looting chests! We’ll be continuing our work on the Anauroch Desert (in the Forgotten Realms), planning for Sentient Weapons, and developing another Classic Dungeon like the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar. We expect these to be something you’ll see in the first half of 2015. We’re pushing out the level cap for now to make sure we have plenty of questing to support your journey through the highest levels of DDO. Hitting level 30 will be a big milestone for DDO, and we want to put it out when the timing is right, and make sure its design keeps up with the way you, the players want to play DDO.

And these are just the tip of the iceberg that is our whiteboard. We are constantly reviewing our ideas and your suggestions, and making adjustments based on your changing needs and requests as well as our own excitement on new ideas for you to play with, so you may see a few more surprises pop in over the next year as we get closer to releasing our updates.

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you about these plans, and anything else you’d like to see happen in DDO! Happy adventuring, and we’ll see you in Dungeons & Dragons Online!

Cheers!
Athena “Vyvyanne” Peters
Franchise Director – Dungeons & Dragons Online

As long as this is the "tip" and "the body" is game of life issues like bugs and flaws in the coding. I know forumites want raids but look on the servers, the only thing being run currently are Shroud and Von 5/6. So quit listening to people and actually look at what they are doing. Actions speak louder than words so actually pop into a game world and see what people are running and doing. You don't need to announce your self, just post a video after the fact to show us what you observed. Because you will get better feedback that way.

[kwyjibo_lol]

Update 23 will bring Epic Orchard of the Macabre to DDO, along with a new Epic raid!

Epic Undead, what's the update going to be called - "The rise of Wight Supremacy?"

Ducks for cover...

[kwyjibo_lol]

Sorry that was such a Ghastly thing to say.

[topogwmw]

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.

[RayceRoyal]

Epic Undead, what's the update going to be called - "The rise of Wight Supremacy?"

Ducks for cover...

You ever notice that all the wights are male? Where da wight women at? heehee

[TromboneFireTurtle]

As long as this is the "tip" and "the body" is game of life issues like bugs and flaws in the coding. I know forumites want raids but look on the servers, the only thing being run currently are Shroud and Von 5/6. So quit listening to people and actually look at what they are doing. Actions speak louder than words so actually pop into a game world and see what people are running and doing. You don't need to announce your self, just post a video after the fact to show us what you observed. Because you will get better feedback that way.

This, there is so much great content in the game that isn't being played. Take a look, and let us know what you find.

[DustTheWind]

...Create a new way to attract new players and keep them hook to the game, the game need new players, maybe you should just make some of the old packs free those low lvl packs that are not run or bought often but will keep players interested in the game enough time that they want to put money on the game...
And welcome Hope you will stay longer with us

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.

[Holyshank]

Great, new content, I look forward to it.

Note for design team: I have been playing 6 years now so I remember what a fantastic job you did at eliminating the lag in the marketplace (update 3). Can you please please fix the biggest gripe in DDO and fix the many ongoing annoying lag issues. Rather pointless bringing out new content for us players to enjoy if we are constantly frustrated with lag on a daily basis. It's like the more updates that come out now the lag gets slightly worse each time. Fix the lag issues and you will attract more new players to the game and keep us long term loyal DDO addicts addicted. A win win for all in my opinion.

Love the game, hate the lag.

Cheers.

[wraxzz]

11) I want a (healing) positive energy rune arm or one for most tiers. It would be an awesome "weapon" with some interesting build capabilities to have a special rune arm that does AOE positive energy heals or even repairs. It's something an arti would come up on their own.

devotion cannith shard in your rune arm with curative admixture not doing it for you? Thats a sincere question, the most i've played an arti was 4 hours of farming tira's splendor on my barb, and being disappointed on the created arti, logging it after 10 minutes.

And 12) Additional pet options for Druids, maybe Arti's, and potentially Rangers. Spiders would be awesome. I love my arti dog, but a mechanical spider would be KILLER! and the basic models are in the game. Or cats in lieu of wolves for druids as well as spiders. Maybe tie one of them to a new enhancement tree like the pale master's skeleton...

Can anyone say skyrim's dwemer spider construct or wow's logue'nahak?
I'd personally prefer a nerf to the druid's transform animation. 2 seconds of graphics lag everytime any druid in my screen uses a lever gets annoying after the first time.

Thanks for a good game and still want a pointy stick to assassinate people with...

check out 9dragons, you can make yourself a +15 hermit OC level stick. Oh, and your only acquaintances will be a variety Asian races trying to scam you for [ strike=]sad[/strike] said stick.
(just imagine seeing a strikethrough plox)

[mezzorco]

Additional pet options for Druids, maybe Arti's, and potentially Rangers.

I agree with the ranger bit.
Currently the only use of ranger class is a 2 or 6 lvl splash for bonus feats, in order to get bow strenght + manyshot on a melee toon. I feel this is wrong.
The base idea to give both combat styles to ranger in order to compensate lack of animal companion was good, but this feat overflow made ranger a splash class like paladin.

Now you implemented animal companions, so you could give ranger the flavour it deserves, adding his pet and making Deepwood Stalker the pet focused tree.

But I know this will never occur, too many powerbuilders exploit current ranger implementation...

[wraxzz]

I agree with the ranger bit.
Currently the only use of ranger class is a 2 or 6 lvl splash for bonus feats, in order to get bow strenght + manyshot on a melee toon. I feel this is wrong.
The base idea to give both combat styles to ranger in order to compensate lack of animal companion was good, but this feat overflow made ranger a splash class like paladin.

Now you implemented animal companions, so you could give ranger the flavour it deserves, adding his pet and making Deepwood Stalker the pet focused tree.

But I know this will never occur, too many powerbuilders exploit current ranger implementation...

wellllllll....... there is wild empathy, so technically you can have [temporary] animal companions, but nothing to build on like arti ID or druid wolfie (glasscanon from my experience) or to make external references now, WoW pets etc. Perhaps ranger enhancements can include temporary skill boosts to charmed animals or things like if 1 wolf in a pack gets charmed, the others get shaken-debuffed by said wolf's betrayal, and may also include effects like "next attack by charmed minion gets +5 bonus to sneak attack damage and inflicts crippling on successful hit. if pets are implemented this way, it will save dev's a ton of work designing and incorporating a new system in an already (occasional) laggy game (now my repressed mabar experiences are coming back.. ugh, ugly taste).
But TBH, having features to build on a pet is end-game orientated and I'm not sure that it would be a good addition to DDO. PL farmers will skip building on pets while endgame-content orientated players will invest strongly in their pets.

I used to play a beastmaster and marksman hunter on wow with great skill, thanks to being able to bind keys to my own and my pets abilities with the standard action bars. pressing an ability activated the skill (generally with no errors given unless spamming a key in anticipation), but in ddo, i tend to keep spamming an active ability on my quickbar because i find it's activation very unreliable. I dont have any keybinds in ddo for the same reason. DDO's quickbar feels unresponsive at times and if they start integrating customizable combat pets with abilities, i suspect you will either have to click skill icons (epic fail) or bind additional action bars with control keys like Z+1 to 9 for pet skills, which personally, I dont think sounds a whole lot of fun.

Come to think of it, I hate DDO's action bars. Why dont they snap after 7 years?

i somewhat agree with your powerbuilders clause. There are almost a select set of classes played and mixed in DDO, while the rest sit on the shelf gathering dust.

EDIT: forgot to clarify that the aforementioned personal+pet keybinds often included a macro, for instance using beastial wrath also started the aiming-timer for aimed shot.

To the dev's, don't hate or ban me for referencing other games please? Learn, interpret and adapt/rework is a great method for coming up with new and improved features (and they arent even plagiarized, to boot!)

[mezzorco]

...I used to play a beastmaster and marksman hunter on wow with great skill...
...DDO's quickbar feels unresponsive at times and if they start integrating customizable combat pets with abilities...

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.

[Holyshank]

Good point about tool bars,

I got that frustrated playing my monk with the amount of finger walking over the 1 to 0 keys I went out and purchased a Logitech G13.

Key binding and macro/multiple macro problems solved and I play in style now without having to play twister over the keyboard. Apart from typing messages I don't even touch my keyboard any more.

Problem solved