Producer's Letter

[Nuclear_Elvis]

Again saying stuff that has nothing with I said it was stated by Turbine storage causes lag so less storage IS LESS LAG PERIOD UNDISPUTED but few would be willing to give up the precious items they haven't used or won't use in years

If the heater goes out, and you call the repair man, do you expect him to tell you to simply expect less heat, perhaps set the thermostat 20 degrees lower, or that you should wear winter clothes inside your house? That's the same logic you are advocating here.

What we have here is a broken system in need of repair, and it needs more than just repair for the micro-issues, we need some macro-fixing at Turbine to start to pull us out of this morass of spaghetti-code we've been gaming in. It's not just about Lag, not just about BTC vs BTA loot, or mailbox sizes, or just about duping, or just about [insert yet another Quality Control issue ad infinitum]...

As I told the Game Developers back in 2015, Turbine was at a "Fork in the Road" and could either choose to continue the train of new content/status quo, or they could take a hard turn and start focusing on Quality Control and clean up and improve existing content.

Imagine you have a 1960s Lamborghini, which is hand-built, by the way. Do you hire young kid mechanics to maintain it? Not really, you need at least some veteran mechanics who have knowledge of that hand-built machine, as it is difficult and expensive to maintain. This is the parallel to Turbine's Game Engine that is now 20+ years old. So there's yet another fork in the road -- to maintain this old engine, or to develop/buy a new one. When the Game Engine came out years ago, it was "cutting edge" but that knife has dulled over the years. Duping was a vulnerability in Asheron's Call 17 years ago, and now - here we are, with duping issues still coming and going over the years also.

As for "direction" of the game, frankly - I'd like to see Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast play a heavier hand in the process to balance both Turbine and their WB powers that be.

Facts are facts: Warner Brothers threw over $20 million away on the Turbine developed game "Infinite Crisis" - which is not Turbine's "fault" per se, as it was a WB project they accomplished, but that level of capital commitment could have bought us both a new Game Engine and a DDO 2 for the same amount of money (and maybe more).

The Executive level at Warner Brothers has some "Plan" for DDO, whatever that is, but we have to also accept that D&D as a franchise is not owned by WB/Turbine and the coordinating relationship with Hasbro/WOTC is grey/fuzzy at best (unless Sev is cleared by lawyers to disclose more about what exactly Hasbro/WOTC actually does to help DDO).

What else could be done? The extreme "nuclear" option is for Hasbro/WOTC to simply take back the franchise, shut it down from the WB/Turbine chain and bring it in-house to WOTC, but I don't see WOTC doing so anytime soon. They may enjoy the arms-length separation they have from their product being licensed out.

[FranOhmsford]

As for "direction" of the game, frankly - I'd like to see Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast play a heavier hand in the process to balance both Turbine and their WB powers that be.

Hasbro/WotC are fully invested in that other game and don't give a monkeys about DDO other than to make sure we don't impinge on THEIR Game!

Facts are facts: Warner Brothers threw over $20 million away on the Turbine developed game "Infinite Crisis" - which is not Turbine's "fault" per se, as it was a WB project they accomplished, but that level of capital commitment could have bought us both a new Game Engine and a DDO 2 for the same amount of money (and maybe more).

Infinite Crisis from what I've heard was actually pretty good but WB forgot about the saturated market in MOBAs and IC had nothing special that the other games didn't have to make it stand out.

MMOs are also a saturated Market with all the big names pretty much taken and new games are constantly going under because people prefer to stick with the one they're already invested in.

All a DDO2 would do would be to fragment the DDO Population even further as many of us would not start again having sunk Hundreds of dollars and thousands of hours into DDO!

The Executive level at Warner Brothers has some "Plan" for DDO, whatever that is, but we have to also accept that D&D as a franchise is not owned by WB/Turbine and the coordinating relationship with Hasbro/WOTC is grey/fuzzy at best (unless Sev is cleared by lawyers to disclose more about what exactly Hasbro/WOTC actually does to help DDO).

WotC/Hasbro see DDO as a millstone around their necks - They do absolutely nothing to help DDO and have in fact hindered the game quite a bit {their insistence on No instant Teleportation to/from E-Star other than the one Key with a massive cooldown.}.

WB bought Turbine firstly to get the LotRO license and secondly so they had a gaming company to make IC - They couldn't care less about DDO!

But so long as the game is turning a profit they'll keep it running.

What else could be done? The extreme "nuclear" option is for Hasbro/WOTC to simply take back the franchise, shut it down from the WB/Turbine chain and bring it in-house to WOTC, but I don't see WOTC doing so anytime soon. They may enjoy the arms-length separation they have from their product being licensed out.

If Hasbro/WotC took the DDO License back they'd shut the game down!

They hate that we aren't all playing Neverwinter already!

Heck it's probably them who are telling Sev Tieflings must have tails and look like they've just stepped out of Star Wars! {DDO Tieflings do not have tails and can pass for human from a distance even without Disguise or Polymorph spells unlike Neverwinter's!}.


Neverwinter is a Cartoon!
Is that what you want for DDO?

[Nuclear_Elvis]

Neverwinter is a Cartoon!
Is that what you want for DDO?

Among Warner Brothers and Hasbro, only one of those 2 companies makes true "cartoons."

We don't know 100% of what's going on behind the scenes in corporate WB and Hasbro. Some posts have insinuated that WB bought Turbine primarily to gain a Net Ops team that could run online cust/tech service for all WB games, and LOTRO was just another good reason to bring synergy to the purchase given existing movie rights (with a Hasbro/WOTC franchised DDO being the red-headed step-child in the deal). Is that the reality for WB, Turbine, and the DDO we have now? Unverified, but that's what some say.

Fran, it comes down to this -- who among the big companies will "recapitalize" the game and infuse the millions to update and/or upgrade it beyond what we have now? A new Game Engine is at the minimum, and a "DDO 2" could in theory patch in all DDO's current content. Either one of those would be better than the obvious "do more with less" approach that is very apparent in current WB/Turbine DDO, and is frankly disgusting when taken in contrast to the $20+ million wasted on Infinite Crisis.

[Bertum]

Be nice to get the infamous ladder bug fixed.

Sometimes you walk straight up to the ladder and start climbing and then rubber band to the bottom.

Sometimes you jump up a portion of the way up the ladder and start climbing then rubber band to the bottom.

Might be more of a problem with wider toons?

It can be very annoying particularly under pressure of immanent death.

[Uska]

Among Warner Brothers and Hasbro, only one of those 2 companies makes true "cartoons."

We don't know 100% of what's going on behind the scenes in corporate WB and Hasbro. Some posts have insinuated that WB bought Turbine primarily to gain a Net Ops team that could run online cust/tech service for all WB games, and LOTRO was just another good reason to bring synergy to the purchase given existing movie rights (with a Hasbro/WOTC franchised DDO being the red-headed step-child in the deal). Is that the reality for WB, Turbine, and the DDO we have now? Unverified, but that's what some say.

Fran, it comes down to this -- who among the big companies will "recapitalize" the game and infuse the millions to update and/or upgrade it beyond what we have now? A new Game Engine is at the minimum, and a "DDO 2" could in theory patch in all DDO's current content. Either one of those would be better than the obvious "do more with less" approach that is very apparent in current WB/Turbine DDO, and is frankly disgusting when taken in contrast to the $20+ million wasted on Infinite Crisis.

DDO2 would be based on D&D5e and make some happy and some very unhappy like me, I would leave just like I did when they ruined SWG with NGE and wait until a new game attracted me.

[cyberbikerbob]

I guess this is how you will get players their extra AP like you talked about before because a new tree will spread the AP around a lot more. a new enhancement tree means its going to be just as powerful, if not more, than Harper.

the only way I would agree with this decision is if racials had a pass first like classes are currently.

Always thought it was the DMs job to bend the rules a bit to keep the players off balance. You could never tell when players would come up with something off the wal that didn't fit with in the rules.

[011775715]

can we have a sneak peak at the new teifling race? please?