Producer's Letter - 5/21/15

[Severlin]

Greetings!

It’s been extremely busy and fun for us here on the DDO team this year and we feel the time is right to provide an update on some of our plans over the next few months.

We’ve made some excellent strides to reduce lag and improve stability, and we are continuing to work towards these goals. One of the larger projects that we are working on is a transfer of our game servers and other hardware to a new data center. The new facility will provide both Dungeons and Dragons Online and our friends over at The Lord of the Rings Online with more stability, greater CPU power, and a better networking capability. This will complement our ongoing efforts to reduce lag. It’s a big project and as the year progresses we will be working toward a date where we will migrate to the new datacenter.

Update 26 is coming in June, and it will focus mainly on a new class; the Warlock! Warlocks make pacts with powerful otherworldly patrons and channel that eldritch power into powerful blasts and arcane spells. The Warlock can choose a pact with Fiends, Archfey, or even a Great Old One. The Warlock will also have three enhancement trees; the Tainted Scholar, the Souleater, and the Enlightened Spirit.

Update 27 will follow in July. It includes an all-new adventure pack that returns to Shavarath, showcasing the Archons’ side of its endless war. With your help the Gatekeepers have gathered enough Mysterious Remnants to continue their research. They’ve tracked the Remnants back to Shavarath, the Plane of Battle. You need to travel there to recruit the help of the Archons in unravelling this mystery. The Archons, however, will only aid those who are worthy, and you find yourself embroiled not only in their tests, but in their eternal struggle with the Devils and the Demons. This adventure pack will include three new dungeons and a new raid, and as usual will be free to VIPs.

We've also been hearing your feedback that you'd like an improved experience when using the DDO Store, and we're happy to say that we'll be introducing a new store in the near future! We expect the updated DDO Store to offer a streamlined experience when making purchases and many other improvements. We're planning to start rolling out the new DDO Store to players later this summer. You will still be able to purchase Turbine Points with a credit/debit card, PayPal, and a wide selection of alternate payment methods. We'll have more to say about the DDO Store as we get closer to its launch.

We'll have more updates this year as well, of course. Players will be able to increase their character level to 30. We’ll have more adventure packs for you. We’ll have an Epic and extended version of our popular Shroud raid and a new adventure pack that relates to the Vale of Twilight. Players will be able to use an updated and epic version of Greensteel to craft more powerful gear. We are excited to bring this content to you!

Thank you for being a part of the Dungeons & Dragons Online community, and we love hearing your feedback. It's been a pleasure to talk to everyone here, and we hope to see you in-game for a long time to come.

Robert “Severlin” Ciccolini

[dunklezhan]

Greetings!

One of the larger projects that we are working on is a transfer of our game servers and other hardware to a new data center.

Dooooooom!

Good luck!

all-new adventure pack that returns to Shavarath, showcasing the Archons’ side of its endless war. With your help the Gatekeepers have gathered enough Mysterious Remnants to continue their research. They’ve tracked the Remnants back to Shavarath, the Plane of Battle. You need to travel there to recruit the help of the Archons in unravelling this mystery. The Archons, however, will only aid those who are worthy, and you find yourself embroiled not only in their tests, but in their eternal struggle with the Devils and the Demons.

Drool... lore....

This adventure pack will include three new dungeons and a new raid, and as usual will be free to VIPs.

Drool...

We'll have more updates this year as well, of course. Players will be able to increase their character level to 30. We’ll have more adventure packs for you.

Drool... slurp

We’ll have an Epic and extended version of our popular Shroud raid and a new adventure pack that relates to the Vale of Twilight. Players will be able to use an updated and epic version of Greensteel to craft more powerful gear. We are excited to bring this content to you!

*wipes drool* I await details with trepidation. I'm not someone who particularly likes the Greensteel loot system for various reasons I've explained many times in other threads and I really don't want to spoil an otherwise drool-filled reaction

Thanks for the update Sev!

[Cleanincubus]

So no new quests for Update 26? Seems a little strange to have 2 updates in a 2 month period. Why not wait for July to release Warlock, along with the Shavarath content, and call that Update 26? It'd even give more time to refine Warlocks. Does this also mean that there won't be another update in the Fall or Winter (one of them removed), or is U26 just in addition to the regular 4 updates a year schedule?

Have Sentient Weapons been scrapped?

[Delacroix21]

Greetings!


Update 27 will follow in July. It includes an all-new adventure pack that returns to Shavarath,
Robert “Severlin” Ciccolini

Yep this is what I was afraid of with all the warlock focus. I wish the warlock was coming in July and Shavarath in June. Players havent been leaving DDo due to a lack of classes/races to play, but due to a lack of end game content. I know you guys say you are "aware" of this, but it doesnt feel like the message has really sunk in yet.

[psteen1]

So... since the servers are moving anyway, how about cutting their number by 50% to consolidate the player base?

What? Dead horse? What's that?

Also post above me... I have come back for the warlock, so might want to check your data.

[Nuryam]

We’ve made some excellent strides to reduce lag and improve stability

Right. Did the April/May crash reporting for Ghallanda not reach your mailbox?

But nice to see people are working on it! And on new content. Keep it up! Both the good work and Ghallanda! :P

[stoopid_cowboy]

Dooooooom!

I'm not someone who particularly likes the Greensteel loot system for various reasons I've explained many times in other threads

Strange response...
Greensteel is and has always been the best and most widely used crafting system in game. How could someone not like greensteel? Let me guess, you are a fan of the LoB crafting system?

Epic vale might actually get me to keep my VIP status active.

[PNP]

Looking forward to the Summer - thanks for keeping us informed.

Just one thing, why get rid of lag anyway? The poor monsters have been harassed by over powered toons and new items, lag is their only special trick to wipe us.

[Monkey-Boy]

Right. Did the April/May crash reporting for Ghallanda not reach your mailbox?

But nice to see people are working on it! And on new content. Keep it up! Both the good work and Ghallanda! :P

You know, that fact that they are moving to new hardware gives me some hope.

No content for U26 is okay with me since EVERYONE will be a friggin warlock for a few weeks anyway.

When are Ranger and Fighter getting their respective passes?

[The_Human_Cypher]

We’ve made some excellent strides to reduce lag and improve stability, and we are continuing to work towards these goals. One of the larger projects that we are working on is a transfer of our game servers and other hardware to a new data center. The new facility will provide both Dungeons and Dragons Online and our friends over at The Lord of the Rings Online with more stability, greater CPU power, and a better networking capability. This will complement our ongoing efforts to reduce lag. It’s a big project and as the year progresses we will be working toward a date where we will migrate to the new datacenter.

Yay! This truly needed to be done. Thank you for taking on this expense for the benefit of the player community. If Turbine ever needs a quote for data center as a service, please let me know.

[Oxarhamar]

Color me wanting more info

New data centers
U26 warlock (no quests?)
U27 Shavarath 3 quests & 1 Raid ( more please we need more)
Future stuff we won't talk about lvl 30.

Yeah not very exciting then.

[Delacroix21]

So... since the servers are moving anyway, how about cutting their number by 50% to consolidate the player base?

What? Dead horse? What's that?

Also post above me... I have come back for the warlock, so might want to check your data.

Well I play with a large guild with several partner guilds, who share a teamspeak server and have all been playing another mmo. So a handfull (at best) of players coming back for a new class doesnt mean diddly squat. "Data" remains the same. Besides, what made you LEAVE ddo? I doubt it was a lack of the warlock class. So as I said, they need to fix the reson players are LEAVING.


Top 3 Reasons players are leaving DDO=
1. Lack of endgame content
2. Lag
3. Bugs



Will we roll warlocks to try them out for a few weeks? Sure... Then we will go back to the other MMO that actually has new content for us to play.

[cave_diver]

Greetings!


Update 26 is coming in June, and it will focus mainly on a new class; the Warlock! Warlocks make pacts with powerful otherworldly patrons and channel that eldritch power into powerful blasts and arcane spells. The Warlock can choose a pact with Fiends, Archfey, or even a Great Old One. The Warlock will also have three enhancement trees; the Tainted Scholar, the Souleater, and the Enlightened Spirit.

All sounds good except the part you failed to mention whether or not new quests will be involve with U26. If there are no new quests, it would be an unprecedented move since all previous updates always included a few quests and and this rather speaks to where DDO is heading.

We need content & multiple end game raids to keep us occupied.


Fondly remembers running TOD/VOD/HOX/Shroud/DQ/Reavers Fate & VON on multiple nights with multiple toons.

[Severlin]

When are Ranger and Fighter getting their respective passes?

I should not tell players that Ranger will be next once we finish up Warlock in case something causes us to change our plans. Nor can I say that fighter will be some time after that, probably after we work on a new Favored Soul tree. Sadly I cannot confirm any of this information.

Sev~

[Xaxx]

In other words.... they cant get the quests and warlock done in time for june so they're going to split it up and call it two updates... then vale actually makes the 4th update of the year in sept/oct so they've made their 4 updates a year quota without having to squeeze one out in december again this year.... if this isnt whats going on Id like to know because if so, using tactics like that to squeeze in the update per quarter thing is meh at best and something I wont say at worst.

[Severlin]

So no new quests for Update 26? Seems a little strange to have 2 updates in a 2 month period. Why not wait for July to release Warlock, along with the Shavarath content, and call that Update 26? It'd even give more time to refine Warlocks. Does this also mean that there won't be another update in the Fall or Winter (one of them removed), or is U26 just in addition to the regular 4 updates a year schedule?

We want Q/A fully engaged with the Warlock release, and our attention fully on Warlock once it goes live because a new class is a big deal for us.

I should not confirm that U26 is an additional release, and that our plan is to still release three more content packs this year since our plans may have to change.

Sev~

[Wizza]

This is one of the most..boring? producers letters ever. Honestly. I'm not even mad/sad or anything in particular, this just made me say "ok".

Also nice! No quests in U26! I did ask to stop having only 1 quest per update but I meant I wanted MOAR than 1, not less! I was misunderstood

As for U27, 3 quests and 1 raid. Eh, okay. Was hoping at least 4-5 quests + 1 raid.

[Drakos]

Yep this is what I was afraid of with all the warlock focus. I wish the warlock was coming in July and Shavarath in June. Players havent been leaving DDo due to a lack of classes/races to play, but due to a lack of end game content. I know you guys say you are "aware" of this, but it doesnt feel like the message has really sunk in yet.

We've gotten quite a bit of "end game content" in the last few updates including Update 25 with ToEE. The Devs can't just put out end game content, that really does not serve the entire user base. Many players don't care for end-game and would prefer more attention be put into broadening the player options, including Races and Classes.Me I've always saw end-game-content as a bit of an oxymoron, as in End-Game denoted the end, which is time to start another character and play them through. But I understand that some players only want to continue playing their uber-loot bedecked character forever rather than playing a new character, who stands on their own without inheriting twink gear which makes content at the lower levels trivial.Personally, I like to find new ways to approach the game such as, solo new character from 1 to 20 without teink gear, or level to 20 with only using explorer areas. Too each their own. Me I prefer that we get the new class first and the new quests later, but I like to play a lot of alts and very diverse builds, specifically avoiding the FotM or most elite builds,. It seems much more challenging to take an average, or even purposefully gimped, character to high levels than to play a character with the most uber loot and elite build to the same level.

[PsychoBlonde]

We'll have more updates this year as well, of course. Players will be able to increase their character level to 30. We’ll have more adventure packs for you. We’ll have an Epic and extended version of our popular Shroud raid and a new adventure pack that relates to the Vale of Twilight. Players will be able to use an updated and epic version of Greensteel to craft more powerful gear. We are excited to bring this content to you!

Does "updated and epic" mean the existing version is getting an update too, or that the new epic version IS the update? I'm assuming the latter, but curious if it's the former.

[Wongar]

I should not tell players that Ranger will be next once we finish up Warlock in case something causes us to change our plans. Nor can I say that fighter will be some time after that, probably after we work on a new Favored Soul tree. Sadly I cannot confirm any of this information.

Sev~

Thanks for not telling us

Very much looking forward to the Ranger pass so glad to see it is in the pipe.