Producer's Letter

[Aelonwy]

a great deal of encouraging information

Good to hear that you are still working on game performance issues. Likewise, new content based on classic modules sounds appealing. I've said everything I can about the Cannith Crafting update without more details forthcoming from you guys. Really awesome to hear that monk and favored soul are next on the class revamp docket. I hope Artificer and Druid are close behind.
I think open enhancement trees are very fun even if I only use them on a few alts; I think more options are good. Happy to hear events will continue to be improved and brought back, thank you. Augments revamped like Legendary Green Steel? I do not have positive feelings about this idea. What we've been asking for is for some new augments to be created (dodge, speed, seeker, etc) and for some existing augments (mostly colorless) to have their minimum level reduced to reflect how far they've been left behind by changes to random loot.

But a resounding HUZZAAH! to Aasimar and Tiefling. I've said my bit before but I'll toss out a reminder of my opinions and suggestions on the subject.

Races: (Using for reference the books Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Races of Faerun)

Planar Races Bundle
Aasimar: +2 Wis & +2 Cha, inherent 5 resistance to acid, cold, elec, racial/inherent +2 bonus to spot and listen. (The spell Light does not exist in DDO, though it would be useful in places.)
Appearance: Human, maybe with more elven like ears. Unusual (for human) skin colors - shades of green (planetar ancestor), silvery or golden skin or eyes (solar ancestor), various iridescent pastels such as lavender, periwinkle, seafoam (couatl or lillend ancestor). Unusual eye colors - aforementioned solar example, glowing opalescent eyes (ghaele ancestor).
Several unique hairstyles - I would suggest two scale-like hairstyles for couatl or lillend ancestors, and two hairstyles with feathers for avoral, archon, astral deva and solar ancestry.

With the exception of the unique hairstyles and one glowing eye option, most of the cosmetics could be accomplished with a simple expanded color palette for the hair and eye choices of the human.

Tiefling: +2 Dex & +2 Int & -2 Cha, inherent 5 resistance to cold, fire, & elec, racial/inherent +2 bonus to bluff and hide. (The spell Darkness does not exist in DDO, some fog spells are used similarly.)

We Do NOT Need Tails On Our PC Tieflings.
Would it be cool? Sure. Is it so necessary that it will affect my choice to spend money? Absolutely not. Keep in mind, the NPC tieflings we fight in-game do NOT have tails. This does not bother me at all. That being said, we MUST have horns.

Appearance: Human. Unusual (for human) skin colors - various reds (demon, or devil ancestor), hot pink (succubus), various blacks (demon, or devil ancestor), various blues (night hag ancestor.)
Unusual (for human) eye colors - various reds, including one glowing red option (demon, or devil or night hag), various yellows/oranges (rakshasa ancestor).
Choice of horns, please have some horns that point forward (like most NPC tieflings) and some horn options that curve backward (like the succubus) perhaps with a color palette to match or contrast with skin or eyes.
A couple of scale-like hairstyles (demon or devil ancestry) perhaps identical to the Aasimar scaled hairstyles but obviously limited to the Tiefling hair color palette. Do not let the helmet/horn issue be the reason we do not have Tieflings. I will want to see my horns more than I will want to see a helmet. I usually have helms toggled off for all my characters, anyway.

[Xoham]

We have been doing a lot to combat lag in the game, and though we have improved the experience we have work to do. We are still looking into long lag spikes which we need to solve, and we are also working on some fixes for stacking effects that could be causing individual characters and the party they are traveling with to lag. Our investigations into server performance continue and this is our number one priority.

Thank you for prioritising this - the most recent lag fixes have helped a lot! It is the first time in a long time that I have been able to react effectively in melee range of monsters in raids.

Another system we want to tackle is the augment system. Players have been asking for new augments, but the current incarnation of augments are created by hand as crafting interactions. We will be looking into the feasibility of moving existing and future augments into a new system that will work like the slotting system that our Legendary Greensteel crafting system uses. The technical complexity comes with how we will allow players to convert existing items to use new augments. If we can tackle these problems, then we can do some interesting things with augment slots and more regularly include augments as part of our ongoing loot.

An "easy" way to make augments useful would be to switch to the ruby eye style model (where their power is based off the item's minimum level, ML) and match them with the new random treasure system / new cannith crafting system. Specifically, what I mean is that all Diamond of Strength +X could be consolidated into Diamond of Strength which gives +1 STR/2.5 ML (or whatever the actual formula is); similarly, all Diamond of Insightful Strength could be consolidated into Diamond of Insightful Strength which gives +1 STR/6 ML (or whatever the actual formula is). This would then allow easy addition of new augments from the new treasure system, such as:

• Diamond of Strength (+1 Enhancement bonus to Stength / 2.5 ML)
• Diamond of Insightful Strength (+1 Insight bonus to Stength / 6 ML)
• Topaz of Fire Resistance (+2 Enhancement bonus to Resist Fire / 1 ML)
• Topaz of Insightful Fire Resistance (+1 Insight bonus to Resist Fire / 1 ML)
• Topaz of Healing Amplification (+2 Heal amplification / 1 ML)
• Topaz of Abjuration Focus (+1 Equipment bonus to Abjuration DC / 5 ML)
• Topaz of Insightful Abjuration Focus (+1 Insight bonus to Abjuration DC / 10 ML)
• Topaz of Stunning (+1 Enhancement bonus to Stunning DC / 2 ML)
• Sapphire of Spell Resistance (+1.5 Enhancement bonus to Spell Resistance / 1 ML)
• etc.

Where the exact formula are obviously the correct ones from the treasure system. By doing it this way, the augments retain relevant power, but would not be more powerful than the best treasure (since the best random treasure has levels above 30, and named items have affixes, such as Quality bonuses that do not appear in random treasure / augments).

The far future has a lot of promise, and looking past the end of the year we would definitely like to bring Tiefling and Aasimar to our players at some point. Tiefling in particular is a popular race for Dungeons and Dragons and we would like you to have those races as options for your characters. We will need to determine whether we plan on including tails on Tieflings, and how the horns of the race will interact with helmets. Both of these are interesting problems to tackle and we have already had some discussion about them even though these races would be fairly far into the future.

Since warlock has now been released, my new number one must-buy release would be Forgotten Realms Drow iconic. In case this data point makes a difference

We just wanted to talk about the long term plans we will be looking into, and we wanted to say thanks for joining us in game.

Thanks!

[Aelonwy]

An "easy" way to make augments useful would be to switch to the ruby eye style model (where their power is based off the item's minimum level, ML) and match them with the new random treasure system / new cannith crafting system. Specifically, what I mean is that all Diamond of Strength +X could be consolidated into Diamond of Strength which gives +1 STR/2.5 ML (or whatever the actual formula is); similarly, all Diamond of Insightful Strength could be consolidated into Diamond of Insightful Strength which gives +1 STR/6 ML (or whatever the actual formula is). This would then allow easy addition of new augments from the new treasure system, such as:

• Diamond of Strength (+1 Enhancement bonus to Stength / 2.5 ML)
• Diamond of Insightful Strength (+1 Insight bonus to Stength / 6 ML)
• Topaz of Fire Resistance (+2 Enhancement bonus to Resist Fire / 1 ML)
• Topaz of Insightful Fire Resistance (+1 Insight bonus to Resist Fire / 1 ML)
• Topaz of Healing Amplification (+2 Heal amplification / 1 ML)
• Topaz of Abjuration Focus (+1 Equipment bonus to Abjuration DC / 5 ML)
• Topaz of Insightful Abjuration Focus (+1 Insight bonus to Abjuration DC / 10 ML)
• Topaz of Stunning (+1 Enhancement bonus to Stunning DC / 2 ML)
• Sapphire of Spell Resistance (+1.5 Enhancement bonus to Spell Resistance / 1 ML)
• etc.

Where the exact formula are obviously the correct ones from the treasure system. By doing it this way, the augments retain relevant power, but would not be more powerful than the best treasure (since the best random treasure has levels above 30, and named items have affixes, such as Quality bonuses that do not appear in random treasure / augments).

That is so mindbogglingly brilliant! +1

[HastyPudding]

/SNIP

I dislike the tiefling versions where they get -2 charisma. Even though they're social outcasts, they're often very charismatic, even seductive. I prefer the +2 cha/+2 dex tieflings. It just goes against the whole innate warlock thing (which is undoubtedly their most popular class along with rogues) to have negative charisma.

In DDO, they would have to be a drow variant, like aasimar, in which they have a 'level adjustment' and can't obtain 36 point builds.
Tiefling: +2 dex, +2 cha, +2 con, -2 str
Aasimar: +2 cha, +2 wis, +2 con, -2 dex

Even better would be if they could add the +2 xxx or +2 xxx situation: like tiefling could have +2 dex and either +2 con or +2 int via a level 1 feat.

[Silverleafeon]

Greetings!

Good to hear from you.

As we kick off summer, many things are going on behind the scenes in Dungeons and Dragons Online, and I wanted to talk about some of the fun things coming up for the game.

Always glad to hear future plans even if they change or are delayed.

We have been doing a lot to combat lag in the game, and though we have improved the experience we have work to do. We are still looking into long lag spikes which we need to solve, and we are also working on some fixes for stacking effects that could be causing individual characters and the party they are traveling with to lag. Our investigations into server performance continue and this is our number one priority.

Lightning just messed up my yard phone line even further, could you please continue pondering some of my feedback as living on the edge brings insight. I can play Overwatch atm, but definitely cannot play much of DDO. How about moving the kobold spawns in part 1 of leg shroud past the portal beating sessions? You need to pay more attention to imperfect connections and dial down the latency issues further on end game like you did in DoJ. I know it would be unpopular but reducing raid group size from 12 to 10 would make players feel more useful (a typical raid leader can afford a piker or two usually), while bringing the connection requirements to a more reasonable level.

The next thing I wanted to talk about is some upcoming content; we are currently working on bringing you a new classic module experience! We are hard at work on our adaptation of Assault on the Slave Lords, originally presented in the A1 to A3 series of modules. We remember playing through the Slavers series fondly, and we want to bring these modules to life for our players with some of our own twists and turns. The dungeons will be offered at level 8 on Heroic, and will also have a CR 32 Legendary version as well.

I am a big fan of the classic dungeons, please be willing to split the dungeon into 3 parts if necessary to prevent lag issues.

As you probably know, we have already begun discussing the update to Cannith Crafting. Ever since we updated random loot players have been asking for an update to this crafting system, and the project is in full swing. It is a big system that will provide a good way to fill in gear holes as you level.

Loved heroic cannith crafting, looking forward to the update into epic/new loot type.

Players have asked about class passes, and the next two classes to be looked at will likely be Monk and Favored Soul. We are currently looking into the core code behind unarmed attacks and hand wraps to see if that needs to be revamped. We are also looking into giving Favored Soul its third tree. Both are big tasks, but we wanted players to know these are the next classes we are looking at once we are past Cannith Crafting.

A melee and a caster, good mix. They both are in need of love, I approve.

We’d also like to offer the players another open enhancement tree (like Harper) at some point to open up more build options, and we are looking to see where that might fit in.

Definitely looking forward to a few more open trees, please do.

We were fairly happy with the Night Revels festival in the fall last year, and this year we will be looking to add more haunted dungeons a maybe some other surprises. The festival was fairly popular so we’d like to expand on it a bit. We would also like to revamp the rewards for the mimic festival and bring that back; maybe with rewards, based on player feedback, that are less random.

Great fun, loved the concept of night revels. Mimics festival was fun too.

Another system we want to tackle is the augment system. Players have been asking for new augments, but the current incarnation of augments are created by hand as crafting interactions. We will be looking into the feasibility of moving existing and future augments into a new system that will work like the slotting system that our Legendary Greensteel crafting system uses. The technical complexity comes with how we will allow players to convert existing items to use new augments. If we can tackle these problems, then we can do some interesting things with augment slots and more regularly include augments as part of our ongoing loot.

Yes, augments have become outdate, good to hear future plans on that.

The far future has a lot of promise, and looking past the end of the year we would definitely like to bring Tiefling and Aasimar to our players at some point. Tiefling in particular is a popular race for Dungeons and Dragons and we would like you to have those races as options for your characters. We will need to determine whether we plan on including tails on Tieflings, and how the horns of the race will interact with helmets. Both of these are interesting problems to tackle and we have already had some discussion about them even though these races would be fairly far into the future.

Good choice for new races, please be sure and include iconic version as well. I can certainly let go of tails to get a new race.

We just wanted to talk about the long term plans we will be looking into, and we wanted to say thanks for joining us in game.

~Sev

The kobold would be built on an entirely new rig, which means all the armor in the game would have to be created for that body type from scratch. That's very hard to budget.

We have brainstormed other options, from kobolds needing to craft armor into a kobold version, or even that kobolds can't wear normal armor at all. We've also considered making kobolds a sort of hard mode way to play the game.

Sev~

I highly approve of making kobolds a hard mode way to play the game. If you make the kobold iconic a sorcerer, that would fit very well into the whole no armor routine. Also perhaps instead of armor they could wear an enchanted kobold prayer beads or the like (not to dissimilar to docents being warforged only).

The hard mode option with at least one race could be a good thing for DDO in the long run; also consider my suggestions on NPC classes being added as a hard mode (can only use open enhancement trees and gain no class abilities (other than weapons/armor), but can use epic destinies)

Please, no tails on Tieflings. Horns I'd be ok with but tails? No thanks.

Aasimar? YES PLEASE!!

+1
I can live w/o tails.

Getting a +wisdom race, woot!.

[Steve_Howe]

Hmmm... Iconic Aasimar / Tiefling Fvs anyone?

Those actually aren't bad ideas. Hmmmmm...

[FranOhmsford]

Playable Kobold Race = money printing machine.

Please tell us why this isn't going to happen. Is it a legal rights issue?

THIS ^!

SO MUCH THIS ^!


P.S. Tiefling NPCs in DDO do NOT have Tails!
This is DDO NOT Neverwinter!
There is no reason for Tiefling PCs in DDO to require Tails and it would in fact be off-putting if they did have them while NPC/Monster Tieflings do not!

[Cleanincubus]

Greetings!

~Sev

Thank you for taking the time to write this. The community appreciates it more than you know.

Looking forward to the Cannith Crafting update.

Glad to hear the Monk and FvS passes are next (hoping Artificer is next after that.) Been holding off on building a Monk and leveling my FvS until their passes.

Honestly, I'd much rather see a new Epic Destiny than a new Enhancement Tree. Most of my characters are already struggling on where to spend their AP. So for me, unless we get more AP to spend, and unless the new Tree offers things that are incredibly more valuable than the Harper Tree, I'll pass on purchasing it.

Awesome news about the Night Revels, even though it will never live up to the fun of Mabar for me. It was a fun event, but definitely needed at least a few more "quests" to run. So I will be looking forward to its return. Mimic event... meh. As long as it's no longer random, random, random, and becomes worth running without The Stormreaver Fresco.

The best part I'm seeing is that there are plans for after this year.

[Phoenix-daBard]

or even that kobolds can't wear normal armor at all.

This is what I have envisioned from the beginning.

[Phoenix-daBard]

and how the horns of the race will interact with helmets.

If you have watched History of the World Part 1 you will see how I envision horns and helmets at the end of the movie. The holes are assumed and you just let them poke through like elven ears.

[Sparkyb1981]

Please fix Random Loot before Cannith Crafting.
Good, Evil, Chaos, Law, etc. Still do not break DR
STOP moving forward with the new. FIX THE OLD!!!!!!!

[Ovrad]

We are currently looking into the core code behind unarmed attacks and hand wraps to see if that needs to be revamped.

Glad to see you are finally acknowledging some of the monk bugs... but,
"If"? ...IF!? ...really, you're not sure if the code that's been buggy for 8 years and has multiple new bugs every single update needs to be changed? What kind of proof do you need?! /mindboggled

We will need to determine whether we plan on including tails on Tieflings, and how the horns of the race will interact with helmets. Both of these are interesting problems to tackle and we have already had some discussion about them even though these races would be fairly far into the future.

The horns and helm problem is really easy to fix: just put in a "showhorns" toggle, so it can poke through some helms, or we can turn them off if it doesn't look good.

[Flavilandile]

The far future has a lot of promise, and looking past the end of the year we would definitely like to bring Tiefling and Aasimar to our players at some point. Tiefling in particular is a popular race for Dungeons and Dragons and we would like you to have those races as options for your characters. We will need to determine whether we plan on including tails on Tieflings, and how the horns of the race will interact with helmets. Both of these are interesting problems to tackle and we have already had some discussion about them even though these races would be fairly far into the future.

They are just interesting because of their stats and inherent abilities.

We are still missing races that are core races in Eberron. Namely : Shifters and Kalashtars.
Those two should be done before you even think of doing Tieflings and Aasimars that are not core races on either Setting.

You already have the technology for shifters in the Druid shapechange.
Kalashtars might be a bit tougher to do, but it's mostly lots of behind the scene stuff.

[Kaeper]

The kobold would be built on an entirely new rig, which means all the armor in the game would have to be created for that body type from scratch. That's very hard to budget.

We have brainstormed other options, from kobolds needing to craft armor into a kobold version, or even that kobolds can't wear normal armor at all. We've also considered making kobolds a sort of hard mode way to play the game.

Sev~

Awwww. An Outcasts of Droaam pack with Kobolds, Bugbears, Gnolls and Minotaurs would seriously rock. Go come up with a cunning plan so we can throw money at you

[dunklezhan]

Please fix Random Loot before Cannith Crafting.
Good, Evil, Chaos, Law, etc. Still do not break DR
STOP moving forward with the new. FIX THE OLD!!!!!!!

yes.

Also - I just don't care about tieflings or aasimar, sorry. They aren't interesting to me. In particular I'm pretty sure people only care about aasimar because they get +wis which is a terrible reason to put the effort in to make a race. On the other hand I can see the two races getting released together as another 'halfbreed' race release which make life easy for marketing.

Also also - thanks for the update, Sev! I was never one of those fretting or reading doom into your absence but its nice to see you back...

[The_Human_Cypher]

...we are currently working on bringing you a new classic module experience! We are hard at work on our adaptation of Assault on the Slave Lords, originally presented in the A1 to A3 series of modules. We remember playing through the Slavers series fondly, and we want to bring these modules to life for our players with some of our own twists and turns.

Why wasn't A4 included to finish the story arc? If there isn't enough development time to do most of the A4 content, at least include the end fight at the docks with the Slave Lords as that was great in pen and paper D&D. A4 would also be an opportunity to introduce myconids to DDO and then insert them into the TOEE Part II end fight with Zuggtmoy.

Furthermore, I thought that the new classic module would be "released around Halloween and would be appropriate to the season" as you mentioned in the DDO Players podcast awhile back. Were plans changed for the classic module after this announcement?

We were fairly happy with the Night Revels festival in the fall last year, and this year we will be looking to add more haunted dungeons a maybe some other surprises. The festival was fairly popular so we’d like to expand on it a bit. We would also like to revamp the rewards for the mimic festival and bring that back; maybe with rewards, based on player feedback, that are less random.

The Night Revels would be better with some more work. Bringing the Mabar loot up to Level 28 would encourage more people to run the event. The additional Night Revels content for 2016 should not be more "spooky" versions of existing quests as that has already been done. Please consider the Haunted House with The Shining-esque hedge maze from A Study in Sable or something else that at least requires cooperation on the part of the community. Most people were soloing the four mini-dungeons during the first Night Revels and will probably do so again if nothing changes for Halloween 2016.

Bringing back the Mimic Hunt is a good idea as - even if some of the player base doesn't enjoy it - the event is the only substantive DDO event other than Crystal Cove and The Night Revels. Worthwhile rewards that are unique to the Mimic Hunt as well as universally popular ones like XP pots will drawn more players in if the event is run again in 2017 or earlier.

[dunklezhan]

Most people were soloing the four mini-dungeons during the first Night Revels and will probably do so again if nothing changes for Halloween 2016.

Whilst I agree with your suggestion about study in sable, this sentence was absolutely not my experience at all.

[Chi_Ryu]

We have brainstormed other options, from kobolds needing to craft armor into a kobold version, or even that kobolds can't wear normal armor at all. We've also considered making kobolds a sort of hard mode way to play the game.

Well, why not have the reverse of a cosmetic slot for Kobolds only? One that allows you to slot armour and helmet and get the effects, but none of the visuals? With a generic visual style based on type of armour only (rags with bits of metal for heavy armour, and nice shaman robes for... well, robes).

Kobold want essence of Black Dragon Scale but looking like wearing rags as normal! And separate Kobold Kosmetic slot for kobold-only cosmetic rags or all patterns!

[Mobiusss]

I saw a thread and someone suggested a playable Archon race, I think that would be amazing as am iconic as the favored soul class. Please do this. the iconic casters are a little bland but with the possibility of a third fvs tree this would fit in well.

That possibly could have been me

Have Archons as a playable race.

One reason that I suggested it is that the frames, models and artwork are already incorporated into the game, which would be a huge advantage in terms of resources over adding a brand new race into the game. I am not against adding the missing core races or some of the other more distinctive races into DDO, but if you are looking for low-hanging fruit in terms of the effort involved to do it, Archons are a very logical choice. Iconic FvS as an Archon would be a perfect tie-in.

As for the rest of the content in the letter, that is a great word to focus on: CONTENT. Yes please, we love good quality new content & the thought of adding a new classic module holds a lot of appeal. The only thing that trumps new content is bug/performance fixes & finishing out missing items (I'm looking at you, Favor rewards).

Crafting is an area which I used to do so much more of, but constant lag and loot outstripping what I could actually make with it in comparison relegated crafting to a very niche role for me. Can we see crafting include a full catalogue of available effects & have it scaled more in tune with new loot system?

More class passes are welcome, and the ordering sounds pretty appropriate. I would prefer to see the missing enhancement trees added over creating a new open enhancement tree, but I do concede that it is likely a good way for you to generate revenue to keep the game going.

Revels getting enhanced is a good thing, plenty of room to build on that good foundation and make it into something that people absolutely clamor for.

The Mimic event will take some more work to get to that level, but there are ways to help it. If you are starting with heading away from random rewards, that is positive news.

Augments still feel too new to be in need of an overhaul, but in light of the New Random Loot system, the ML scaling is off. Some tweaking there is welcome too.

Overall, good letter with some interesting and exciting things included.

[Vooduspyce]

We've also considered making kobolds a sort of hard mode way to play the game.

That would be pretty cool!

I'd also be fine with armor just not displaying on a kobold. I'm glad to hear that it's been discussed at least. Monstrous races is my number one wish for DDO.