Producer's Letter

[Ayseifn]

“Epic Shavarath”


To clarify, we expect the Shavarath adventure pack to be all new content.

Nice, Epic Destiny ToD ring could have been alright but something new is always welcome.

[Xyfiel]

I noticed everyone basically ignored the "considering" part of the Warlock announcement. Sev, based on your end, how much is Warlock set in to be the added class? Are there options we can vote on and can a basic game play theory be shared so we can better make a decision? At this time I would not vote for Warlock but then I have no options.

[fmalfeas]

I noticed everyone basically ignored the "considering" part of the Warlock announcement. Sev, based on your end, how much is Warlock set in to be the added class? Are there options we can vote on and can a basic game play theory be shared so we can better make a decision? At this time I would not vote for Warlock but then I have no options.

If we did have options, what class /would/ you vote for?

Warlock is a light armor ranged magical cannon with moderate melee abilities that should be free of SP pot addiction. Their blasts generally won't hit purely as hard as a sorc/AM, but they won't run the risk of running dry, and their blasts can have an array of side-effects, or be turned into melee if you don't want to be 'casty'. It's a class that is actually designed to be, in a way, customizable to playstyle even in tabletop. And with them hitting Vale/Shavarath, it's pretty much the single most thematic choice out there, considering the Eladrin, Ta'anar'ri, and Baatezu all make use of them actively, and they are the major players involved. And, of course, Xoriat can feel free to poke it's nose in, not that the gibbering plane would hesitate anyway.

[nibel]

Temple of Elemental Evil

Will it be a direct adaptation from the module, or like Haunted Halls, will it take place a hundred years after the module, and we are playing a revisit?

Either way, please, make it hard and unfair. Random-instakill-trap level of unfair. No one should expect ToEE to play by the rules.

Monster Champions and Mysterious Fragments

Just, please, add some kind of mechanic to prevent people to bring epic level characters into infinite low-level respawn zones (like Kobold Assault) where they could farm those fragments from champions that are weaker than level-appropriate mobs.

Warlock

I would prefer gnomes over warlocks. I mean, since Warlocks are dependent on their Eldritch blasts, and it works more like a ranged attack than a spell, I believe it will have a unique animation. When you add the need to balance the full class, the ED interactions, the 2-3 class enhancement trees, and the class past life feats, I think gnomes would be a cheaper option on development, and would make more people happy.

I mean, I don't remind many people actively asking for new classes, while a new gnome topic show up every month.

New Storylines

I love Shavarath, and I'm thrilled that it will be new storyline instead of a revamped current one. Remember to add some astral, celestials and angels to fight against us as well in the explorer zone. We might be good-aligned, but shavarath angels are still creatures of battle and mettle.

Talking about explorer zones, can you guys add old-style explorer points against instead of hidden journals?

On epic greensteel, I would like to suggest that them do not surpass Thunderforged weaponry, but instead make them a bit weaker than TF, but stay at ML 20 at any upgrade level. Just like the heroic greensteel, they would become perfect twink items, and not immediately destroy TF crafting.

Level 30

Will we get an Epic XP rebalance? It is already kinda harsh to gater 6.6 mil XP to Epic TR, and the natural progression will scale it to over 10 mil.

Will there be any incentive to stay at level 30, besides gear? Because currently, the major part of an epic character power come from their max level ED and twists of fate, not the feats. The feats are nice, but not crucial, and you can play any epic quest at level 20, since they are no longer level gated. (IMO, that ship sailed, but I think EDs were the biggest corner Turbine ever draw themselves into, instead of actual epic classes)

[UurlockYgmeov]

Love it! nicely responded. Glad I nailed most of it earlier.

Still - Guild Management System...

I just wanted to jump in an answer some questions:




“Are any bug fixes in the works?”


We plan to do regular bug passes with each update. Right now our engineering is devoted to fixing lag issues.




“Is this the Sentinent weapon that was talked about?”


Here is the honest reason I didn’t mention Sentient Weapons. Our plan is to include them in the new Greensteel, because we don’t want to release a system and have Greensteel overshadow it, and we also don’t want to release Greensteel and have Sentient Weapons make those obsolete. So far we have been unhappy with our designs to include Sentient Weapons with Greensteel because, as most players know Greensteel was an awesome system. Because that design is still very much in the air I didn’t want to include Sentient Weapons in the producer’s letter.


“Epic vale quests again...”


Our current plan is to redo the Vale quests, and keep the raid mechanics mostly intact with a new encounter at the end. Some of the Vale quests really need to be revamped.


“ugh... mimic acid damage galore...”


The mimics that are part of the hunt are not the fully mature hard hitting mimics you are probably thinking of.




“What about adding better networking hardware? Better servers to handel the players?”


We are currently discussing options to move the datacenter and update the hardware, but I have no firm plans to announce at this time.




“Can someone please be assigned to adding new relevant recipes to Cannith Crafting?”


We’d love to revamp Cannith crafting and have it extend into some of the higher levels, and have discussed doing so. Our schedule is fairly aggressive and if something needs to be cut the revamp is a likely candidate. For that reason I didn’t add it to the producer’s letter. It is on our list of things to do however.


“Lag grew to an unacceptable level in 2014 and has majorly affected the ability of players to enjoy the game.”


Last year we took steps to combat lag. We changed the shared bank to a paged system for example.


We are currently looking at a specific case of lag caused by stacking server instances. We are working on a fix. I have no date to announce but we want to deploy a fix soon.


There is also another type of lag players are seeing – the lag spike. The lag spike isn’t lag as you imagine it. It is often a server process encountering a content bug and trying to restart out from under players. The server tries to save the instance by moving the instance and all the players to another server process. When this happens all the players see a longish lag spike as their characters are shuffled from process to process. Some characters fail to move and get DC’d. We are actively pursuing the most frequent cause of these process issues and hope to close off at least some of those in the next patch. This work will continue until we have nailed down any frequent crashes.


After that lag will be an ongoing development process. As an example, we plan to look at possible lag caused be crafting formulas in the patches that follow this one.


"Exploits have completely destroyed the in game shard economy, anniversary event and crippled the end game raiding scene.”


We have already added server side protections in the last patch to close exploit holes. We will continue to do so throughout the year.


“When do we start talking about the other stuff in U25”


We have other balance plans as we progress through the year. We still need a ranged pass. We are looking to see if barbarians need further tweaks. We know there are classes that need a third tree. We have other plans for some trees that underperform. Those ongoing design notes are out of scope for a producer’s letter.


“Epic Shavarath”


To clarify, we expect the Shavarath adventure pack to be all new content.


“Warlock Class? Wait isn't that basically Pale Master?”


We envision the Warlock class concentrating mostly on its Eldritch Blast ability and ways to manipulate that arcane blast in various ways. While the Warlock does have spell abilities they are closer to a ranged character than a traditional caster.


“This might also be the time to introduce the Tiefling race as well (hint, hint).”


Modifying all the helmets in the game for horns *and* modifying all the animations to add a tail turns out to be really, really costly in time and art.


“I am however concerned by yet another added collectable/ or ingredient.”


They stack really high so you should only need one slot. We wanted to do some kind of currency panel or wallet, but we don’t have the implementation time at the moment.


“Is the mimic event still going to contain the Mabar items, or will they be moved to the autumn event?”


The mimic hunt is actually one of the fun things we have planned for our anniversary. I believe the Mabar items are still planned as rewards for the mimic hunt. We want to have an entirely new festival around the Halloween time, and that would also include appropriately themed items.




Sev~

[maddong]

Looks great!

I would like to suggest delaying adding another class until every class has 3 enhancement trees and an artificer epic destiny is added....

I would like to suggest delaying raising the level cap to 30. Go ahead and add the level 30-32 quests that are extremely challenging but don't raise the level cap until there is actually an end game that people are participating in (besides TR/ITR/ETR). Perhaps some incentive to stay at cap besides making ITR/ETR hearts (challenging content that is rewarding).

[axel15810]

I just wanted to jump in an answer some questions:

Thank you very much for addressing my questions and concerns. Just by posting long responses like this and interacting with players like you have, you are already my favorite executive producer DDO has ever had. Glad to hear about the lag fixes. Really looking forward to seeing what levels you can take DDO to in your new role.

[axel15810]

Nice, Epic Destiny ToD ring could have been alright but something new is always welcome.

Glad to hear Vale will probably be all new as well.

Let's be honest, Shroud is awesome but the quests are MEH.

Coal = bad physics, way too much climbing
Dust = Autofail condition, yuck
Rainbow = not soloable at all if you are a melee

I won't miss those not being epic...at all.

[Lanadazia]

New Storylines
The game will introduce a new story arc that will take the players to Shavarath for a new adventure pack. Characters on these adventures will work to prevent a catastrophe. That story will continue as the year progresses to bring the players once again to the Vale of Twilight. New threats have entered the Vale and more powerful challenges await in this chapter of the Vale of Twilight’s history. Defeating this new threat will require you to enter the more dangerous and powerful Vale of Twilight as you increase your level to 30 and obtain new treasures. More powerful items also await from the corrupted Greensteel found in the Vale after recent events have increased the magical power of the area.

oh god. please NO EPIC VALE!
i know alot of players beg for this, but who wants to grind this old stale content over and over and over again?

i was concerned when you released epic 3BC, but it turned out fine, you actually CHANGED the quests

but you didnt in necro4 or in gianthold. its just higher numbers and therefore boring.
please, no epic vale! no epic shroud and all the stuff we were running FOR YEARS already! its no addition. its a pain for those who are up for new adventures

new shavarath chain? YAY!
i'm fine with the story connecting with the vale, and that there is a new greensteel thing around, but please just
DO NOT PUSH UP NUMBERS ONLY. ACTUALLY CHANGE SOMETHING IN THE EPIC VERSIONS!

[Xyfiel]

If we did have options, what class /would/ you vote for?

Warlock is a light armor ranged magical cannon with moderate melee abilities that should be free of SP pot addiction. Their blasts generally won't hit purely as hard as a sorc/AM, but they won't run the risk of running dry, and their blasts can have an array of side-effects, or be turned into melee if you don't want to be 'casty'. It's a class that is actually designed to be, in a way, customizable to playstyle even in tabletop. And with them hitting Vale/Shavarath, it's pretty much the single most thematic choice out there, considering the Eladrin, Ta'anar'ri, and Baatezu all make use of them actively, and they are the major players involved. And, of course, Xoriat can feel free to poke it's nose in, not that the gibbering plane would hesitate anyway.

In no particular order and not saying all would be better just options:
Finish all current classes including an Artificer destiny.
Gnomes.
Other trees like Harper. I can think of multiple good ideas like Mystic Theurge with selector sla's of divine/arcane spells. Arcane Trickster(although Harper is close to AT).
Iconics - Red Wizard just for a quick example.
Doomdreamer - TOEE only prestige class. Not certain if it would fit in DDO.
Secrets of Xendrik prestiges like Scorpion Wraith and Landwalker.

The problem with classes is every addition makes further additions harder to have uniqueness, especially with the ability to multiclass. Will Warlock be much different than a Sorc with Harper/EK and a melee splash? My 14sorc/4pal/2fvs already has some melee ability, almost endless nukes, and great defenses. Hence why I asked for an initial plan to help judge.

[Marupal]

...
Monster champions will have a chance to drop Mysterious Fragments. Players can gather these fragments and various agents and interested parties might trade them for a variety of rewards. Rumors of groups offering scrolls, potions, cosmetic items, and even prestigious and rare pets have begun to surface. Organizations do not have unlimited resources. As factions vie for power some agents and rewards might change as the year progresses.
...

Robert “Severlin” Ciccolini

Outstanding!!! ...and that list was chock full of excellent.

You realize that after releasing a year-plan this cool, you are forbidden from doing the whole "leave DDO to work on Lotro" thing? You're gonna have to stay and see the plan to fruition.

[Oliphant]

Thank you, Severlin, great work from the team, as always, evolving the game.

It's amazing that you fixed armor. It's also amazing that's amazing because it shouldn't be amazing; it's amazing that armor was broken in the first place - old insanely hard EE was some kind of broken-armor-based mutation that was never WAI I've come to believe.

Champions are pure win, although I was offline for most of the holiday period when champions were apparently so horribly hard. It sounded fun, I wish I could have been there for the real deal. The moderated version still adds some spice. Add more varieties and maybe get brave, crank up the volume again (a tad). I like the idea of the Mysterious Shards but that fizzled when I read cosmetics as prizes. I'd rather get something to craft or augment gear. Just right will be when any player any time can take a few unavoidable deaths from the wrong champ, but a decent party working together can handle it without a wipe; that's part of D&D, dungeon master is supposed to have a bit of good fun with you along the way.

I thoroughly enjoyed new bard, paladin and barbarian lives. I wish that swf worked with shield mastery still but I can see how that made every other choice gimp for swf or s+b toons. It was the first thing I did with my bard after the bard pass and I didn't realize how uber it was, having no other swf scheme to compare it to.

Ok so far you've fixed broken armor for players and added champions to beef up the environment a bit to compensate (win). You fixed bard, paladin and barbarians (win). Must I go on?

p.s. Can we at least have a time travel quest so we can find out what happened to all the Gnomes? And at least see a Gnome. Please sir...

[The_Human_Cypher]

“Epic vale quests again...”


Our current plan is to redo the Vale quests, and keep the raid mechanics mostly intact with a new encounter at the end. Some of the Vale quests really need to be revamped.

The Epic Vale quests will be new content based on the Heroic quests, hopefully like Epic 3BC. If you can add one new quest for a total of five, that would make it even better.

[Hafeal]

OK, Sev, what did you do to Vyv? Is she now among the Walking Dead?

In the last year we have had some great people provide terrific feedback on the player’s council. I wanted to give those players a shout out for all of their time and enthusiasm. We are working hard on creating our player council for the coming year and we are both excited to hear some new voices and sad to see the current players pass the proverbial baton to the new guard.

Thanks for the props; Very cool. I will say, a lot of the list for the upcoming year reflects direct PC feedback. I would encourage anyone with some interest to apply to the PC. It will have frustrating moments but the overall process and experience of participating in the game development was engaging. I really grew to appreciate the depth of passion many players have for the game and the time they spend providing detailed, exhaustive feedback.

Temple of Elemental Evil
Our next big update will include the Temple of Elemental Evil. We are all excited to present this classic dungeon to the players. The Temple grounds are quite large! Although players will be presented with a quest to accomplish when they enter the temple, there will be many dangers and treasures to find if the players take the time to properly explore the vast network of temple halls and chambers.

As I said on the PC, Sev, don't screw it up - this is arguably the most iconic module of D&D's hey day. It HAS to rival HH. Hire the extra devs, charge $75 for the pack - whatever you need to do BUT DO IT RIGHT. You will get a big influx of players who grew up in Greyhawk and on the former PC game coming here to try it out - let's keep 'em here when they get here.

New Storylines
The game will introduce a new story arc that will take the players to Shavarath for a new adventure pack. Characters on these adventures will work to prevent a catastrophe. That story will continue as the year progresses to bring the players once again to the Vale of Twilight. New threats have entered the Vale and more powerful challenges await in this chapter of the Vale of Twilight’s history. Defeating this new threat will require you to enter the more dangerous and powerful Vale of Twilight as you increase your level to 30 and obtain new treasures. More powerful items also await from the corrupted Greensteel found in the Vale after recent events have increased the magical power of the area.

As some of us on the PC supported - best content for level 30. I think this is the toughest content "at level." Piloto was the genius behind greensteel - are you bringing him back? I hope this content is wickedly tough. Can't wait.


Sev, the "latest and greatest" best dev "ever" - well, since MajMal. Let's hope your stay and ascension as EP continues at least as long as the last predecessor to hold your new title.

[Thrudh]

Glad to hear Vale will probably be all new as well.

Let's be honest, Shroud is awesome but the quests are MEH.

Coal = bad physics, way too much climbing
Dust = Autofail condition, yuck
Rainbow = not soloable at all if you are a melee

I won't miss those not being epic...at all.

Coal's unique design is pure awesome... EXCEPT that you have to climb TWICE... If it was just once up, it would be in my top 10 quests... Still a good quest IMO.

Dust = Autofail condition is easy to avoid... Nice to have a quest where you have to be careful sometimes...

Rainbow is completely soloable if you are a melee. Why do you say it's not? Carry the light with you for the really dark spots, put it away and pull out your weapon when you need to fight.

[The_Human_Cypher]

As I said on the PC, Sev, don't screw it up - this is arguably the most iconic module of D&D's hey day. It HAS to rival HH. Hire the extra devs, charge $75 for the pack - whatever you need to do BUT DO IT RIGHT. You will get a big influx of players who grew up in Greyhawk and on the former PC game coming here to try it out - let's keep 'em here when they get here.

This is true. I have spoken to a number of people who were never interested in DDO before but now want to play because of the TOEE update. If Turbine hypes anything, they should promote TOEE as much as possible, making it a "mini-expansion" of sorts as it brings Greyhawk to the game. MOTU pulled in players that wanted to see the Drow / Underdark, and TOEE could attract the same kind of attention.

[Tesrali]

+1 for the response Sev, thank you

[The_Human_Cypher]

p.s. Can we at least have a time travel quest so we can find out what happened to all the Gnomes? And at least see a Gnome. Please sir...

Can Sev comment on this? He indicated above that Tieflings will probably never happen but Gnomes wouldn't involve the same kind of development costs, I would assume. Could Gnomes eventually come to DDO, even if it is not in 2015?

[Fafnir]

Gnomes tweaking the halfling character model, new racial abilities and tinkering skill. Fun and not art intensive.

[Tesrali]

no more halflings!

they are already an abomination.

unless we make them pets

...prestigious pets