Where to go from here.

[fatherpirate]

I have played DDO off and on from launch and now 10 years in I see the game struggle to stay relevant.

The graphics engine is old and you can only invent so many ways to use kobalds.

For this game to get back into it's stride, the owners need to go back to what made PnP D+D great.

PLAYER CREATED DUNGEONS

OK, how can we do that in DDO

Embrace Planescape and the city of doors. The PERFECT Expansion to house player constructed adventures.

If you are not familiar with Planescape, look it up...not going to try and do that here.

The tools that the player (subscriber) uses to make an adventure in the city of doors should have
the following qualities.

1. Adventures are self-level adjusting. Any adventure made should auto-adjust to the party level.
2. All chest/rewards should be self generated based on monsters present and not set by author.
Author should be allowed to designate possible chest spawn sites or let the dungeon creation engine do it for them.
3. map parts should be easy to use...snap together.
4. ect..

This will breath in new life and new material.

This suggestion is 'bare bones' and there is a lot that would need to be worked out...of course.

[Memnir]

Instead of moving the game forward, I honestly feel that user created content would be the beginning of the end for this game. it's not built for it. Adding it now would be a bastardization that would make nobody happy. Add to that the potential for player-built abuses of the system, and it's just not something I ever hope to see in DDO.

And that's from the perspective of somebody who has made content for other games and been a DM for over thirty years.

[cdbd3rd]

...

Embrace Planescape ....

In addition to what Mem said, Turbine only has permission to use Eberron and bits of FR.

[dredre9987]

Remember all dungeons in DDO are hand crafted. That means dev time and art. Do you want them to spend that time and art on a system that will not be what you are wanting?


I cannot see DDO being able to pull this off with current tools and engine limits.

[jalont]

Remember all dungeons in DDO are hand crafted. That means dev time and art. Do you want them to spend that time and art on a system that will not be what you are wanting?


I cannot see DDO being able to pull this off with current tools and engine limits.

Every game I've ever played with user-created dungeons has been a trainwreck. It's impossible to properly balance, and players will exploit anything they possibly can.

[dredre9987]

Every game I've ever played with user-created dungeons has been a trainwreck. It's impossible to properly balance, and players will exploit anything they possibly can.

I don't think it is even a possibility here is what I am saying. With DDO's engine I don't think it is possible unless a player would like to literally hand craft a dungeon. I don't even know if the playerbase could do it.

[JOTMON]

Remember all dungeons in DDO are hand crafted. That means dev time and art. Do you want them to spend that time and art on a system that will not be what you are wanting?


I cannot see DDO being able to pull this off with current tools and engine limits.

use new tools.... build DDO2 server based on new engine on a shiny new server..offer purchase option to migrate data to new system, merge old servers and put in maintenance mode.
They can build and test DDO2 independently of existing system.

[ssgcmwatson]

Back before MMOs were the big thing, there were plenty games where the devs actually released their tools to allow people to create their own missions or storylines. Many people made ****, but there were some player-made dungeons that were on par with the "real thing." (or better)

DDO could go this route IF they thought it through. Release the quest creation tools, allow players to create/test a dungeon. When the player thinks it is ready, it gets added to Lamma for other players to test and rate. When a quest consistently rates highly, the devs look at it to decide what would be proper loot, XP, etc. and eventually add it to the regular servers as part of an update.

Players who create something that make it to the live server get a nice little package from Turbine, i.e. lots of TP points, an exclusive pet or cosmetic, special title in the forums, etc.

[Selvera]

Back before MMOs were the big thing, there were plenty games where the devs actually released their tools to allow people to create their own missions or storylines. Many people made ****, but there were some player-made dungeons that were on par with the "real thing." (or better)

DDO could go this route IF they thought it through. Release the quest creation tools, allow players to create/test a dungeon. When the player thinks it is ready, it gets added to Lamma for other players to test and rate. When a quest consistently rates highly, the devs look at it to decide what would be proper loot, XP, etc. and eventually add it to the regular servers as part of an update.

Players who create something that make it to the live server get a nice little package from Turbine, i.e. lots of TP points, an exclusive pet or cosmetic, special title in the forums, etc.

This is essentially how it would have to be to work, and it would take a significant amount of dev time to create a system like this, however if the tools are built well enough they could save future time by not having to release as much content (due to the player-base making quality content, hopefully), and could spend more time looking into reworking/balancing classes, fixing bugs and all that other good stuff.

If turbine wanted to monetize the player created adventures, one of the rewards to give the creator would be the adventure (pack?) itself, as well as 10 or so guest passes (so they could play it with their friends!). Or just let them choose x number of accounts to get the adventure (pack) free.

It would also be cool if players were able to invite their friends into unfinished adventures (to test them) during creation. However this should give no rewards (to avoid exploits). This means 0 XP, 0 Favor, all items picked up get dropped on leaving the adventure, no monster manual bonuses, etc.