DDO Producer's Letter July 2014

[Uidolon]

Think the arty dog cements artis place as soloers since even if its not used you can use it to pull levers which can be a very important when soloing. So even those who have judged the dog to be more effort then its worth its still a useful tool to have in certain quests. It can also be summoned after your dead pick up your soulstone and then will come to were your ghost is with the come command ive never actually been able to use this even once but its a cool anyhow even if i doubt it would surive long enough solo against anything that could kill you even to pick up stone and run away. And foremost it can be used in challengers to defend a spot or delay enemies super useful

[wraxzz]

Any chance we can get orbs thrown into random loot/ named ones at lower levels? I find it annoying to have to hit (12? I think) to use an orb, and even then the selection is meh. Also if you're going over orchard maybe throw one in with the Shield of Legend turn in?

9001 has a good proposal imo.

especially with the bard swashbuckler enhancements regarding orbs...

[ddo1985]

Good moorning! I would like to express some opinions about this game that I play since 2009 and really love! I will write in order of importance!

1 - DDO needs new players, and it is an extremely difficult game to play at low level, that because older players do not like playing with noobs. It would be very interesting to a reward system (perhaps experience) for quests completed in full party. Although the reward is not experience, something needs to be done to stimulate the lfm's, noobs need to learn to play and not lose interest in the game.

2 - DDO is a cooperative team game but today we see many players soloing quests, different from the book players can evolve multiclass without any penalty. I have read about the paladin changes and you are thinking about changing Divine Grace. Would not it be more interesting to work with experience penalties for multiclassing?

3 - Please, for packages that have quests in heroic and epic levels, make epic quests content diferent from heroic quests. No one can stand to play a game on heroic and repeat much of it in the epic, that's terrible.

4 - Is not it time we players interacting in the areas of exploration, perhaps even dueling? Sometimes players just get bored with the game the way it is and look for another game. The question is, if the turbine invest at least a little in pvp certainly get many new players, even if pvp is not the will of the majority playing ddo today, the turbine has nothing to lose since the old players will be the only outside of battle but continue playing cooperatively. Today we have many forms of game system modification (like HP) for pvp battles, several games already work with it. Ps: I do not like pvp, but is Necessary to Increase game versatility.

But if turbine really think all this points are not good, please, just look for the 1st, players are giving up to play ddo because veterans arrogance and self-sufficiency.

Ty

[Rull]

Good moorning! I would like to express some opinions about this game that I play since 2009 and really love! I will write in order of importance!

1 - DDO needs new players, and it is an extremely difficult game to play at low level, that because older players do not like playing with noobs. It would be very interesting to a reward system (perhaps experience) for quests completed in full party. Although the reward is not experience, something needs to be done to stimulate the lfm's, noobs need to learn to play and not lose interest in the game.

Totally true.

A level 11 noob is about equal in power to a level 6 experienced player.
As long as there are still disincentives for them to group together, these issues will persist.

Currently, a level6 experienced player won't even have an incentive to group with a level 7 slightly-less-experienced player of equal character power, because this would negate his streak bonus... so HUGE steps have to be taken.

[wraxzz]

Good moorning! I would like to express some opinions about this game that I play since 2009 and really love! I will write in order of importance!

1 - DDO needs new players, and it is an extremely difficult game to play at low level, that because older players do not like playing with noobs. It would be very interesting to a reward system (perhaps experience) for quests completed in full party. Although the reward is not experience, something needs to be done to stimulate the lfm's, noobs need to learn to play and not lose interest in the game.

2 - DDO is a cooperative team game but today we see many players soloing quests, different from the book players can evolve multiclass without any penalty. I have read about the paladin changes and you are thinking about changing Divine Grace. Would not it be more interesting to work with experience penalties for multiclassing? Incorporate XP penalties to multiclass characters as was the case in games like Neverwinter Nights, but it needs to be somewhat more severe- I dont think 10% would make ANY difference, 20% not so much either.. maybe the equivalent to an elite bravery streak or a percentage based on the ratio or amount of multiclassed levels.

3 - Please, for packages that have quests in heroic and epic levels, make epic quests content diferent from heroic quests. No one can stand to play a game on heroic and repeat much of it in the epic, that's terrible.

4 - Is not it time we players interacting in the areas of exploration, perhaps even dueling? Sometimes players just get bored with the game the way it is and look for another game. The question is, if the turbine invest at least a little in pvp certainly get many new players, even if pvp is not the will of the majority playing ddo today, the turbine has nothing to lose since the old players will be the only outside of battle but continue playing cooperatively. Today we have many forms of game system modification (like HP) for pvp battles, several games already work with it. Ps: I do not like pvp, but is Necessary to Increase game versatility.

But if turbine really think all this points are not good, please, just look for the 1st, players are giving up to play ddo because veterans arrogance and self-sufficiency.

Ty

and good morning to you too ddo1985! I like your opinions and hope that dev's take note of it!
my responses in the same order as ddo1985 posted his points

1. NA

2. This is an excellent solution to curb them multiclassing frenzy (its ridiculous that the majority of players I encounter have monk levels- there is 13 classes for crying out loud!). Perhaps the multiclassing frenzy is due to laughable capstones as well.

3. I agree with you here but meh, if they don't/can't fix ladder glitch then this is expecting too much.

4. Not sure if you are aware of this ddo1985, but DDO does have pvp, its just incorporated really pathetically and unattractively. If you are interested in seeing what its like then head over to the leaky dingy or wayward lobster, the other 2 places, from my experience, are utterly dead. more here http://ddowiki.com/page/PvP
Also, be careful if you enter the arena, there is likely a caster camping in a corner waiting to blast you.

[Psiandron]

2 - DDO is a cooperative team game but today we see many players soloing quests, different from the book players can evolve multiclass without any penalty. I have read about the paladin changes and you are thinking about changing Divine Grace. Would not it be more interesting to work with experience penalties for multiclassing?

Interesting thought. I'm not sure that I'd be in favor of a multiclassing penalty. While I am not a "min/maxer from hell", I do multiclass a lot and while the first couple lives a penalty as you are suggesting wouldn't be a big problem, I'm thinking that on legend lives it would get tiresome and, multiclassing has always been part of DDO and D&D.

The penalties and restrictions whose underutilization in this game has surprised me are those for the classes themselves. Had Turbine ever implemented all of those that are found in D&D and made only base and inherent abilities applicable, that would have completely changed not only the way multiclassing is done, but the way that single class builds are done as well. Such restrictions would likely have kept characters from becoming so quickly OP and thereby lessened the drive by the devs to keep feeding the powercreep.

Oh well, I don't see any of that ever changing.

[gabbatastic]

developing another Classic Dungeon

I always liked tomb of horrors

[EllisDee37]

2 - DDO is a cooperative team game but today we see many players soloing quests, different from the book players can evolve multiclass without any penalty. I have read about the paladin changes and you are thinking about changing Divine Grace. Would not it be more interesting to work with experience penalties for multiclassing?

Were you thinking of a similar mechanic/scale as used by sorcerers and favored souls to get bonus spell points from items?

As in, if a sorcerer had your level split (with sorcerer as the dominant class) and would get 160% mana from items, you would earn 60% xp? While pure class would earn 100%?

Speaking as a die-hard multi-classer, I don't think I could complain if such a mechanic were introduced.

[Xenoraze]

It would be very interesting to a reward system (perhaps experience) for quests completed in full party. Although the reward is not experience, something needs to be done to stimulate the lfm's, noobs need to learn to play and not lose interest

+10% XP bonus for each player in the party above one. So a +50% XP bonus for completing quests with a full party of six players. Hirelings and pets obviously not included. Anyone who has a penalty for joining late is also not included. Players should be encouraged to run the full quest with as many players as possible.

[azrael4h]

+10% XP bonus for each player in the party above one. So a +50% XP bonus for completing quests with a full party of six players. Hirelings and pets obviously not included. Anyone who has a penalty for joining late is also not included. Players should be encouraged to run the full quest with as many players as possible.

Then you would have people multi-boxing, with 5 alt accounts piking at the entrance save for when levers need pulling. Or like now, it would be a guild/channel only affair and the newbies still won't be able to group with "vets". Not that's necessarily a bad thing, since most vets do more to drive new players away than the lack of LFMs, lag, double login errors, and lack of decent lootgen variety at any level to look toward combined.

[Xenoraze]

Then you would have people multi-boxing, with 5 alt accounts piking at the entrance save for when levers need pulling. Or like now, it would be a guild/channel only affair and the newbies still won't be able to group with "vets". Not that's necessarily a bad thing, since most vets do more to drive new players away than the lack of LFMs, lag, double login errors, and lack of decent lootgen variety at any level to look toward combined.

Multi login penalty - Two or more players in the party have been detected on the same computer/IP address. Those players are not counted towards the party bonus.

[Lanadazia]

guess im moving from raid dead khyber to argonesses then!

//

I can confirm, but did not bring my screenshots to work. last night, 20th chrono on EE.

thanks for the confirmation. i hope this will work! this will make demon queen and sands epics ALOT more interessting!
also:
argonessen is quite raid-able. if i see this right and the information i get in the forums, the argonessen server is the most crowded one right now, and has the best LFM system. i've done all my TRs with lfms only. no static group needed, no guild needed for raids/tr/challenges. put up a lfm and you will find someone joining you. even abbot, lord of blades and master artificer are run frequently :-)

Any chance we can get orbs thrown into random loot/ named ones at lower levels? I find it annoying to have to hit (12? I think) to use an orb, and even then the selection is meh. Also if you're going over orchard maybe throw one in with the Shield of Legend turn in?

yes please! i really like the style of orbs. they're just what i always wanted on a caster, instead of 2 daggers or scepters
the libram of silver magic is the best looking, i love it!
get us some craftable no-named orbs or more in lower level loot aswell for more options! TY!

the idea of putting some new orbs or bucklers into the new orchard content makes sense aswell since there is the shield of legend already and this will fit perfectly

[azrael4h]

Multi login penalty - Two or more players in the party have been detected on the same computer/IP address. Those players are not counted towards the party bonus.

VPN. Who says that the alt accounts have to be on the same IP Address (I highly doubt they're running the same computers. Heck if I was going to do something like that, I'd use my old laptop and my parents' old computer that I need to get around to scrapping)?

I'll add my voice to the call for more (any) Orbs. Why add an entire item type to ignore it entirely? I also call for more Thaumaturgy style staves, including named ones, at all levels. I'm of the firm opinion that every Wizard needs a staff with a knob on the end of it.

[Xenoraze]

VPN. Who says that the alt accounts have to be on the same IP Address (I highly doubt they're running the same computers. Heck if I was going to do something like that, I'd use my old laptop and my parents' old computer that I need to get around to scrapping)?

If somebody went through the trouble of routing 6 computers through 6 different VPN connections to get a little extra XP, I say let them have it. I don't see that happening frequently by any means. So we might see a bit more dual boxing. That's 10% more XP. Even if 2% of the player base went through that kind of trouble, I don't think that's enough to completely discard the idea of a party-based XP bonus. These are the top 2% of players who will do everything they can to squeeze in every last bit of XP/minute anyway. These are the players who will always exploit every possible loophole they can find.

There are a lot of features that could potentially be broken in various ways by players who seek to invest enough time and effort to do so. It would be a very dull game indeed if every potentially exploited feature were scrapped. Is dual boxing really a big enough issue to dismiss an idea that could potentially bring LFM back from the grave? Yes, somebody might do X if we add Y feature. The real question is, how much damage is X really doing to the game or taking away from other players who play the game as intended?

There is also the possibility of only counting active players in a party XP bonus. Track how much damage is dealt by every player. Track how much healing is done by every player. Track how many traps every player disarmed/attempted to disarm. Track how many breakables every player breaks (already being done). As a programmer I know for fact that tracking a couple of variables for each player in a quest is absolutely trivial. Calculate thresholds at completion and only count players who contributed enough to surpass those thresholds of activity. Any players who piked at the entrance won't add anything to the party bonus.

[Rull]

Multi login penalty - Two or more players in the party have been detected on the same computer/IP address. Those players are not counted towards the party bonus.

Are you overlooking the completely obvious case; guys gaming with their girlfriends, brothers, flatmates, or having a friend come over and game together?

Either way, I think you are looking in the wrong direction. Implementing ways to reward grouping is just ridiculous while you also have a mechanic in place that actively penalizes grouping (dungeon scaling).

IMO:
The benefit of a group should be that you are able to handle harder quests.
Harder quest should give more XP.

Currently, due to dungeon scaling, you actually aren't able to handle much harder content.
And the worst part, due to declining XP after level 9 quests, harder content doesn't give more XP/min.

Fix these and you will fix grouping (and all difficulty level issues; the game is way too easy for a x-times TR)

[Satrov]

It will be a wonder any changes. But do not forget to weigh in expanding the capacity of players on each server (server does not appear full). possible alternative beginnings after reincarnations, both Heroic and Epic, 'GIVE' a return in the wilderness epic level as the Ruins threnal, tangleroot, sorrow dusk, Restless Isles, red fens because the epic universe is on the way, so we need to bring our old quests together, not to be forgotten and must not be overlooked. as I got to 30, now I do not what else to do there ... Instead now they should be challenging and attractive

Do not you think?

[Uska]

Totally true.

A level 11 noob is about equal in power to a level 6 experienced player.
As long as there are still disincentives for them to group together, these issues will persist.

Currently, a level6 experienced player won't even have an incentive to group with a level 7 slightly-less-experienced player of equal character power, because this would negate his streak bonus... so HUGE steps have to be taken.

How would playing with an inexperienced player interrupt your streak? For some having to go slower is a minus but for me having other players with me is always a bonus even if they die as the 10% bonus lost is no big deal. I don't really care,to Zerg most of the time and I have been here longer than most

[Rull]

How would playing with an inexperienced player interrupt your streak? For some having to go slower is a minus but for me having other players with me is always a bonus even if they die as the 10% bonus lost is no big deal. I don't really care,to Zerg most of the time and I have been here longer than most

You are picking one sentence from an argument:

Either the inexperienced player is higher level
- 1. Either you do a quest at your level, in which case he would interrupt streak. so not an incentive to group this way.
- 2. Or you do a quest at his level, in which case you waste XP* compared to soloing at own level so not an incentive.
Or the inexperienced player is not higher level
- 3. If you are lucky, the dungeon scaling is more or less equal than the small benefit of having him pull levers and stuff. (if you're not, the dungeon scaling he adds actually makes the quest harder/slower to complete with him than without him). And not because the dungeon scaling is that harsh, it's hardly noticeable. But new players really contribute that little compared to you, even less noticeable. So this case is neutral at best, compared to soloing, not an incentive.

Hence, there is no incentive to group with an inexperienced player

Case 3 is currently the only real situation for an experienced player to group with noobs. It's nice that you yourself find it enough incentive to put up an LFM or join one, but many don't. This is what was originally stated by ddo1985, and I agreed on that.

Also, the inexperienced does not feel like he contributes and is likely not enjoying himself.
So I am arguing, don't just fix case 3 by removing dungeon scaling, but fix case 1 and especially case 2, for they are they cases where newer players would actually group up with more experienced players and not just tag along.

(the * means: If you do a level15 quest at level11, you can't later do that level11 quest for the same bonuses, so XP goes to waste.)

[LuKaSu]

Also, the inexperienced does not feel like he contributes and is likely not enjoying himself.
So I am arguing, don't just fix case 3 by removing dungeon scaling, but fix case 1 and especially case 2, for they are they cases where newer players would actually group up with more experienced players and not just tag along.

I am sort of a raid-noob. I've played the game for 3-4 years, but I just did my first shroud run within the last month. Other than VON, I've always avoided raids because they typically take knowledge of the raid in order to complete the raid. Puzzles, mazes, etc. I have no problem reading the wiki, but many groups won't wait for you to learn something, if there is someone in the group who knows the answer already. I like to run through soloable quests first, so I can take the time to learn them before zerging with a group.

All that being said, there are some quests that you NEED a group for, and you just have to jump in with a group and try not to be a problem for them. My recent example is the Shroud. I did the Shroud. With a group. I told them at the beginning that it was my first time. They gave me pointers. Harry didn't kill me, and I kept some people healed, so he didn't kill them either. I beat up some bad guys. Someone else rescued me in the puzzle-water-fountain room. I was not a big contribution to the run. But we completed. And I had a blast! Heart racing, throwing heals that pulled people from 2 hp back into the safe zone. (I did die once when I was no-healing cursed. Never ran into that mechanic before and didn't know why I couldn't heal myself). Again, I had lots of fun.

Somehow, on the forums, there has started a thing where everyone expects that noobs don't have fun when they don't know the quest like everyone else. I do! I love it. As long as the group will let me run with them and not hate me for noobing, I love to learn. It's fun. And if anyone else in that Shroud group is reading this, Thanks for taking me along!

[harry-pancreas]

Either Reign of Madness or Harbinger of Madness could be the next story arc for Epic treatment. After pirates and the undead, Xoriat would add more variety.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Reign_of_Madness

http://ddowiki.com/page/Harbinger_of_Madness

vale (including subT) and shavarath!!!
And i'd love RR but that's more giants, drow and epic scorps, probably i'm the only one who wants it.
We got GH, we will get orchard.
orchard-GH-RR-vale-shavarath is the core of the eberron storyline, would be awesome to have it on epics (IMO)