A sneak peek at Update 24’s dungeons … and beyond

[Seikojin]

I totally agree with this, which is why I think we need the timers to prevent people from ransacking day 1. Couple that with some desirable drops that take EE to get, and you'll have adequate improvement in content longevity.

inverse the ransack mechanic. Meaning you run it once and it gives 100% penalty on day 1. Then each day that quest decreases its ransack by 20%.

I hope the login issues are solved, because I was super pumped to try more xoriat.

[LeslieWest_GuitarGod]

This is not a thread to discuss perceptions about who is "casual" and who is "hardcore". Stick to the OP topic of Update 24's dungeons, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc.

So is ToEE definitely going to be "free" to VIPs Cordovan?

Also, is this a raid? Will it include a town? Can you give us a bit more detail? We need something more to get our guildies excited (Actually they ARE excited, thing is I don't want them to have false hope/expectations. Whatever this is, lets get the facts out and promote the hell out of it)

[RotR]

... - Lvl 10-12 is where we need new quests!...

I am on Heroic and really enjoy my stay, but the lack of is starting to nag on me and mine. I will get to Epic son enough, but I really want to run the fullest of Heroic. I am a solo player and run by myself most of the time, and It is taking me a long time to level up! Which is perfectly fine with me, NO COMPLAINTS! but I would love to have more areas to run around in between 9th and 12th or 13th to have fun in on HEROIC not Epic! Is that to much to ask for?
Kheldur

[Banegrivm]

Unless you plan on setting this in the World of Greyhawk, it's never going to truly be the Temple of Elemental Evil. The backstory for everything surrounding the events and setting of Temple of Elemental Evil comes straight out of the history for the World of Greyhawk. That's right in the module. I mean hell, it even includes St. Cuthbert and Iuz the Old, both Greyhawk deities.

[Braegan]

I am on Heroic and really enjoy my stay, but the lack of is starting to nag on me and mine. I will get to Epic son enough, but I really want to run the fullest of Heroic. I am a solo player and run by myself most of the time, and It is taking me a long time to level up! Which is perfectly fine with me, NO COMPLAINTS! but I would love to have more areas to run around in between 9th and 12th or 13th to have fun in on HEROIC not Epic! Is that to much to ask for?
Kheldur

It is not too much to ask for at all.

However, if you compare the amount of heroic quests to epic quests, and if/when you play them both you would see EPIC is the area that is really lacking much more then heroic, unless you like repeating things a million times.

Epic play needs to catch up to what we have available in heroics. It is not a matter of elitists being elite. Fact is, there is a need for content in Epic play to become close to what you have in heroics variety. And that needs to be addressed now and most certainly before the level cap is increased.

Also, fact is you can run every quest in heroic once and cap. You cannot do the same in Epic. Once that playing field has been equaled I am more than willing to entertain more and new heroic questing, but lets at least let Epic play have a chance to catch up, ok?

[Oberon_Shrader]

Hi DDO Community,

I'd just like to chime in on the content/end-game discussion here.

As I've been reading the thread, there has been a lot of back and forth about the needs/wants of different player groups.

Is it impossible that they can be reconciled?

As I see it, "end-game" is a character build state, not a content problem. That is, you get to cap and then you sit there and grind or you TR and start the leveling process over again.

By definition, you cannot have an end-game that rewards players with further power (no matter where it comes from, be it items or feats) without effectively diminishing the challenge of that content from whence it came.

So, the answer to everyone's problems is not to make a quest linearly more challenging, but to create new quests that are:

a) not repetitive;
b) provide challenge unrelated to enemy CR;
c) rewards players in an indirect way that contributes to their gear grind (think CoVs, I think those are great), but;
d) does not provide loot that (completely) outdates older loot;
e) are fun!

My suggestion is to create more quests that involve quest mechanics other than just the linear zerg.

See the Xorian Cipher as a great example of this. Lot of quest mechanics in there (also hard mobs, but the biggest challenges were elsewhere, in my experience); not the least of which is the party split! Required 2 different tasks to be completed at effectively the same time.

In the future I'd like to see more quests like Haunted Halls, but with some additional quest mechanics to make it more unpredictable.

Dungeons where the instance locks off certain parts randomly and opens other parts, with each open section randomly selecting encounters and the loot that goes with (i.e., rares) would be awesome for reducing repetitiveness.

More puzzles (NOT only tile puzzles) would be great for increasing challenge not determined by enemy CR. See Temple of the Deathwyrm.

I'm hoping the new Xoriat content and ToEE will deliver content like this.

Anyway, just my 2 cp!

[taospark]

I wonder if there are any plans to pursue Iconics. While they may not have been a huge seller for Turbine, "completing the set" might go a long way towards encouraging players to experiment with them.

[EllisDee37]

By definition, you cannot have an end-game that rewards players with further power (no matter where it comes from, be it items or feats) without effectively diminishing the challenge of that content from whence it came.

Reducing challenge sounds like a deal-breaker on paper, but in practice it's not at all. The whole point of pre-MotU endgame -- which by all accounts was a pretty good endgame -- was to farm up epic gear that reduced the challenge of running epics.

If you can't farm gear to make running endgame easier, there's no point in repeating endgame content. Endgame lives or dies with the incentive to repeat the highest level content on the hardest difficulty. (EE)

[RotR]

It is not too much to ask for at all.

However, if you compare the amount of heroic quests to epic quests, and if/when you play them both you would see EPIC is the area that is really lacking much more then heroic, unless you like repeating things a million times.

Epic play needs to catch up to what we have available in heroics. It is not a matter of elitists being elite. Fact is, there is a need for content in Epic play to become close to what you have in heroics variety. And that needs to be addressed now and most certainly before the level cap is increased.

Also, fact is you can run every quest in heroic once and cap. You cannot do the same in Epic. Once that playing field has been equaled I am more than willing to entertain more and new heroic questing, but lets at least let Epic play have a chance to catch up, ok?

I am not fully aware of all of the ins and outs of the layers of quest and adventures, but now that you have schooled me in this, I see what higher level players are getting at and would concede to your needs over mine. Thanks for the further information.
Sitting on the side waiting my turn, Keldur

[Grosbeak07]

I wonder if there are any plans to pursue Iconics. While they may not have been a huge seller for Turbine, "completing the set" might go a long way towards encouraging players to experiment with them.

Not been a huge seller? Everyone and their mother seems to be a Bladeforged!

I still see a lot of Shadar-kai and Purple Dragon Knights around as well, though not many Morninglord's.

[Oberon_Shrader]

Reducing challenge sounds like a deal-breaker on paper, but in practice it's not at all. The whole point of pre-MotU endgame -- which by all accounts was a pretty good endgame -- was to farm up epic gear that reduced the challenge of running epics.

If you can't farm gear to make running endgame easier, there's no point in repeating endgame content. Endgame lives or dies with the incentive to repeat the highest level content on the hardest difficulty. (EE)

I see what you mean by this, and it is intuitive; but it creates the constant problem of power-creep; which is cyclical.

Step 1) Level to cap; everything is challenging.
Step 2) Grind out uber gear.
Step 3) Become bored (because now everything is easy, both from familiarity and said uber gear) and demand newer, more challenging content with even uberer gear.
Rinse, repeat.

In this model, there is never a satisfactory end-game.

Yes, currently some are claiming the old pre-MotU end-game was great... CURRENTLY. This might be nostalgia. I recall that at the time when end-game was level 20 and people were grinding away at it there was a lot of call to increase the level cap and make getting epic items easier.

Thus, I suggest a way to break and divert this cycle (which is not that far from the old end-game system, actually).

Namely, I suggest that it isn't that we need more linear challenge (i.e., enemies with higher and higher CR), but that we need more diversity of challenge type. I suggest that it isn't that we need more uber and uberer items, but that we need more diversity of item types and effects. I suggest that it isn't that we need our characters to become more powerful, but that we need more diversity of powers available to choose from.

(Note: not more powers to have all at one time!)

[Uska]

So is ToEE definitely going to be "free" to VIPs Cordovan?

Also, is this a raid? Will it include a town? Can you give us a bit more detail? We need something more to get our guildies excited (Actually they ARE excited, thing is I don't want them to have false hope/expectations. Whatever this is, lets get the facts out and promote the hell out of it)

Sadly he already said no town

[Oliphant]

First up in Update 24 is a new content pack, Heart of Madness. The plane of Xoriat is encroaching on Eberron once again and the result is three dungeons full of Xorian insanity. Both the Lord of Eyes and the Lord of Stone are back, as well as some other fan favorite characters. (Hint – one of the dungeons is named “Fashion Madness.”) The centerpiece of the pack is “Terminal Delirium,” the follow-up to two of our most popular dungeons. Once again you’ll be returning to the Sleeping Spell Inn, and once again you’ll be seeing—and be turned into—some very unusual things. Heart of Madness is CR 18 Heroic/26 Epic, and is a paid pack (450 Turbine Points; free to VIPs of course.)

Going to have to buy some points!

Also coming in Update 24 is a Forgotten Realms dungeon themed to tie in with Wizards of the Coast’s Tyranny of Dragons storyline. You’ll infiltrate a Cult of the Dragon base while on the trail of the fabled White Dragon mask. “The Mask of Deception” is CR 16 Heroic/30 Epic, and is free to everyone.

More points!

Hey, what happened to Anauroch?

Earlier we had mentioned Anauroch as one of the places we wanted to go in 2014. Obviously that’s not happening.

Why the change? It’s tempting to blame it all on Xorian madness, but the truth is we’ve been listening to what excites you guys when it comes to D&D settings. We may still make it to Anauroch eventually, but don’t expect it any time soon. It’s a long, long walk from Cormyr. Instead of the blazing hot desert, we’re going someplace cooler instead.

Ok

Future plans and Update 25

So what kind of cool things led to the detour away from Anauroch? One of them will be coming in Update 25. Since The Haunted Halls of Eveningstar was received so well, we’ve decided to adapt another classic pen-and-paper module to DDO. Rather than blabbing on, I’ll skip right to the awesome part and give you five simple words:

The Temple of Elemental Evil.

Yep, we will be creating our own version of the original, classic Temple inside DDO. We’re very excited about adapting one of the most famous modules in Dungeons and Dragons history, and we hope you are too.

Massive points!

[Montrose]

I'm pretty jazzed about ToEE, a very classic module that is well overdue for a translation to this medium.

Selfishly, I am very into soloing so I would hope that it is mechanically possible to complete the quest with just myself and hirelings. That is to say, I hope there is nothing that requires one to be in several places at once.

[AestorTheKnight]

The announcement that the AD&D module The Temple of Elemental Evil is coming to DDO is really awesome and exciting news. Further proof that DDO is the original and most authentic computer game rendition of the Pen and Paper game. Good work Turbine!

[Neomarica]

DDO is the original and most authentic computer game rendition of the Pen and Paper game. Good work Turbine!

Good joke.

[dredre9987]

I'm considering buying the video game just because of this announcement. It is currently $2.39 on http://www.gog.com/game/the_temple_of_elemental_evil

BUY IT! Also look up the Circle of 8 mod. It makes the game literally 100 times better with way less bugs.

[dredre9987]

I have suggested a number of times on the forums making the City of Waterdeep/Undermountain/Skullport the next major paid expansion - if we ever get one again. This area of the Forgotten Realms would be the prime place to expand out that campaign area, in addition to Anauroch.

DDO isn't allowed near the sword coast as of yet since that part of the license is out to someone else ( NWO )

[dredre9987]

That was a Retcon Uska!

The Devs stated on multiple occasions back when Reign of Madness was introduced that those Rings were WAI!

It was a year or more before they were NERFED!

You won't find those quotes now because of two things:

1) The Forum Update
and
2) Any that survived that update were removed when the Nerf happened!

Complete bull. The devs were very very quiet on the issue til the fix was getting rolled out.

[Hendrik]

I'm considering buying the video game just because of this announcement. It is currently $2.39 on http://www.gog.com/game/the_temple_of_elemental_evil

Do it!

For that price you will not be let down!

I am playing it again and it is really getting me jazzed up for DDO ToEE.

I just have to be careful not to go further in the PC version then I have with my d20 virtual tabletop group.