Are raids not being run?

[Bridge_Dweller]

Well realistically the devs are not going to produce a lot of quests per year anymore so an end game that is going to be sufficient likely has to revolve around loot and quest repetition. An idea I have for growing the end game is creating a higher quest difficulty then elite for the lower level epics - like say epic quests level 20-25 making a difficulty called nightmare which is approximately the same difficulty as 26(level 20 epic nightmare) through 30 (level 25 epic nightmare) epic elite. That way there is more quest variety for the end game.

The concept that has been floated around on the forums by the devs is a new type of item - that I am guessing is a weapon grind which builds upon itself. The concept was pushed back along with the cap raise to 30 - this is obviously not a coincidence. My guess is you get the base item by running a certain quest or raid and then can get ingredients which build upon the item through a variety of endgame quests. Nice concept overall.

I think that raid timers do not help the end game and hurt the game overall. One thing I dislike about raid timers is they hurt running raids on higher difficulties then normal. If people had to wait 2.5 days to run raids they would think about running higher difficulties to maximize their opportunity to get loot faster. Currently, the most optimum way to get loot is to run raids to 20 completions which is also something that should be re-examined by the way.

Love this idea.

[jalont]

Well realistically the devs are not going to produce a lot of quests per year anymore so an end game that is going to be sufficient likely has to revolve around loot and quest repetition. An idea I have for growing the end game is creating a higher quest difficulty then elite for the lower level epics - like say epic quests level 20-25 making a difficulty called nightmare which is approximately the same difficulty as 26(level 20 epic nightmare) through 30 (level 25 epic nightmare) epic elite. That way there is more quest variety for the end game.

The concept that has been floated around on the forums by the devs is a new type of item - that I am guessing is a weapon grind which builds upon itself. The concept was pushed back along with the cap raise to 30 - this is obviously not a coincidence. My guess is you get the base item by running a certain quest or raid and then can get ingredients which build upon the item through a variety of endgame quests. Nice concept overall.

I think that raid timers do not help the end game and hurt the game overall. One thing I dislike about raid timers is they hurt running raids on higher difficulties then normal. If people had to wait 2.5 days to run raids they would think about running higher difficulties to maximize their opportunity to get loot faster. Currently, the most optimum way to get loot is to run raids to 20 completions which is also something that should be re-examined by the way.

As it stands now, I don't think Turbine can be successful creating any type of endgame, especially one that revolves around a loot grind. With round after round of player buffs and trivialization of content, DDO has become nothing more than an xp grind. Endgame gear is nothing more than cosmetic at this point. It certainly doesn't help you overcome a challenge, as there is no challenge, and there will never be challenge again in this game. In some ways, grinding endgame gear is a trap and counterproductive, as it can often times take longer to get the gear than the amount of time it will knock off your xp grind.

[redoubt]

- just for the fun of it?

Seems that once people get the stuffs they want from them, they avoid running the raids like a plague or worse. Why is that? Imo "Raid content is the last arena of the game that is not about how to make the rest of your party obsolete."

I do feel that there is less raiding now than in the past. That said, I just ran a tempest spine last night, it took 20 minutes to get the first person to join a friend and I who put up the group. Another 10 minutes and we had 6 people and we started. I think we had 8 when we finished.

I find an at level chronoscope about 2 out of 3 lives and usually get a tempest spine. Von5 is up a lot (but, personally, I try to save it for epic and then a chance at shards in von6.)

CITW is hard to get a group for. The shroud is also rare to see at level anymore, but there does seem to be some interest if you are willing to overlevel it.

The other observation I have on them is the end game raids are hard to fill during the week and in non-prime on the weekend. Primetime on the weekends there is usually one or two chances to catch an end game pickup raid.

[maddmatt70]

As it stands now, I don't think Turbine can be successful creating any type of endgame, especially one that revolves around a loot grind. With round after round of player buffs and trivialization of content, DDO has become nothing more than an xp grind. Endgame gear is nothing more than cosmetic at this point. It certainly doesn't help you overcome a challenge, as there is no challenge, and there will never be challenge again in this game. In some ways, grinding endgame gear is a trap and counterproductive, as it can often times take longer to get the gear than the amount of time it will knock off your xp grind.

I disagree I think that Turbine could make a loot grind or a character development grind that revolves around end game characters. A big argument for the xp grind is the number of end game quests is a limited number; whereas, the xp grind gives a player more quests options as their characters progress in levels. My argument is that if you create higher levels of difficulty for some of the lower level quests thereby making those lower level quests the same difficulty as the end game quests that the developers produce. The end result of this proposal is you can vastly increase the number of end game quests which would make the end game much more playable and enjoyable.

I have never understood why Turbine got so caught up in reincarnation because they have always had the option of providing the same bonuses to characters at the end game. All xp is about is running quests and therefor you can provide the exact same bonuses for someone who just runs end game quests. Let's say for epic reincarnation you have to run approximately 100 quests to do an epic reincarnation then why not give someone the same bonus who runs 100 quests at the end game? Reincarnation restricts DDO player options.

[Bridge_Dweller]

As it stands now, I don't think Turbine can be successful creating any type of endgame, especially one that revolves around a loot grind. With round after round of player buffs and trivialization of content, DDO has become nothing more than an xp grind. Endgame gear is nothing more than cosmetic at this point. It certainly doesn't help you overcome a challenge, as there is no challenge, and there will never be challenge again in this game. In some ways, grinding endgame gear is a trap and counterproductive, as it can often times take longer to get the gear than the amount of time it will knock off your xp grind.

XP grind for the sake of XP grind is pointless.

[Dorian]

I have never understood why Turbine got so caught up in reincarnation because they have always had the option of providing the same bonuses to characters at the end game. All xp is about is running quests and therefor you can provide the exact same bonuses for someone who just runs end game quests. Let's say for epic reincarnation you have to run approximately 100 quests to do an epic reincarnation then why not give someone the same bonus who runs 100 quests at the end game? Reincarnation restricts DDO player options.

Reincarnation is all about monetization... people buy XP pots, etc, while leveling.

Look at it from Turbines point of view for revenue generation.

[slarden]

Well realistically the devs are not going to produce a lot of quests per year anymore so an end game that is going to be sufficient likely has to revolve around loot and quest repetition. An idea I have for growing the end game is creating a higher quest difficulty then elite for the lower level epics - like say epic quests level 20-25 making a difficulty called nightmare which is approximately the same difficulty as 26(level 20 epic nightmare) through 30 (level 25 epic nightmare) epic elite. That way there is more quest variety for the end game.

The concept that has been floated around on the forums by the devs is a new type of item - that I am guessing is a weapon grind which builds upon itself. The concept was pushed back along with the cap raise to 30 - this is obviously not a coincidence. My guess is you get the base item by running a certain quest or raid and then can get ingredients which build upon the item through a variety of endgame quests. Nice concept overall.

I think that raid timers do not help the end game and hurt the game overall. One thing I dislike about raid timers is they hurt running raids on higher difficulties then normal. If people had to wait 2.5 days to run raids they would think about running higher difficulties to maximize their opportunity to get loot faster. Currently, the most optimum way to get loot is to run raids to 20 completions which is also something that should be re-examined by the way.

I would like to see something like this. The old epics were essentially "daily" quest since there was a once per day cap. It would be good if they had some sort of daily option again like other games have. As you said, end game quests (basically the old epics) would be a great way to do that. This would give an option to TRing or something to do between TRs.

The daily concept would also encourage running alts which would be a good thing for the game.

[jalont]

XP grind for the sake of XP grind is pointless.

But that's one of only two reasons to grind for gear.

With the way DDO is now, you either grind for gear because you like the way it looks, making it a cosmetic.
Or you grind for gear because it will help you gather xp at a greater rate.

I'm saying that most of the time, it will take longer time spent to get the gear than the gear will actually increase the xp/min rate, thus pretty much removing the second reason from the equation. That just leaves endgame gear being cosmetic. Can an endgame really flourish around the concept of accumulating cosmetic gear?

I guess I'm not really sure what your point is. Are you under the impression that endgame gear serves another purpose?