Producer's Letter

[GeoffWatson]

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!

Something like forced cosmetic armour for Kobolds would work; whatever the kobold NPCs have, let the players choose from those.

[Tarinia]

Hi Severlin,

thats a nice schedule... I have two questions regarding this:

1. When we will see more Forgotten Realms content? The last year was very short on this?
2. You hinted that the classic module was themed for halloween- do you have changed your plans or why are the slave lords are coming? What have this classic module to do with halloween?

Best regards
Tarinia

[mikarddo]

Thank you Severlin for the update.

One thing I find missing is any mention of raids.

You recently added TS, HoX and Shroud in epic versions, and even added a new and improvent completion system for TS and HoX which was great.

Unfortunately, you forgot to add enough worthwhile items to TS and Hox so they are much less used than could have been the case. Please add more items to make these raids worth running.

Wrt Shroud you added a crafting system but noone seems to understand the set bonus system and most have simply given up. Please explain how those set bonusses work exactly so people may want to run the raid more/again.

[DANTEIL]

Thank you very much for this intriguing Producer's Letter.

First, I am verrry excited for the Slave Lords modules coming to DDO. I remember those quite well, and can't wait to run though them here on DDO. I am glad to see that you will be making those available at low heroic levels as well as Legendary. I only hope that they are different from ToEE in being separate distinct quests rather than one very long quest.

About crafting -- well, I have only dipped my toe into the current system, but again I hope that any changes make it more straightforward to use and level up.

I have never played Monk, but I have a FvS who is somewhat languishing in Epic levels at the moment, and so I am quite excited about maybe having an additional set of enhancements for her to use. And maybe a new standalone tree as well?!

Finally, I am not all that excited by either Tiefling or Aasimar, since they have never been a part of my own D&D experience. But more options are good, in general.

Looking forward to seeing how this all pans out!

[Stoner81]

Thanks for the letter Sev much appreciated! Looks like some really nice stuff coming assuming it is done right *crosses fingers and toes*

Stoner81.

[kuzka111]

Sentient weapons?

or after GREAT(sarcasm) success of LGS you will not do them?

[Drevok]

Thank you Severlin for the producer letter!

You mentioned A1 to A3 - so no A4? Is this due to the way A3 ends and A4 starts?
Anyway this should be a fun module! p.s. keep in mind that TOEE without Hamlet definitely diminished a big part of those modules. i.e. some part of Highport as a starting area would be nice.

And quite excited to see the crafting update. My vote 3 essences/schools preferably, unless it takes significantly longer to implement/debug.

Is an update to some racial trees still being considered? Currently, except for a few cases (especially Bladeforge), racial trees are usually the worst place to APs, that unfortunately makes most races to be somewhat more generic. I think you had mentioned a while ago about the possibility of tomes of racial AP (i.e. applies only to racial trees) to help this?

Tieflings, yes horns, no tails. None of the ones currently in DDO have tails. And if put on a helmet, I'm ok if the horns disappear.

Augments, I'd suggest not spending much time on that if it is complicated; just tweak what currently have. e.g. reduce level requirement by 4 probably will be enough of a "fix" and backfill for level 28.

New enhancement tree, unless it is very special (e.g. limited psyionics), I'd say complete all the other trees first.

Kobolds as PC. yes! "hard mode way" yes! (with lots of warnings in the DDO store). What ideas are there to make this an extra challenging race? And something special? Perhaps a weaker version of Defensive Roll feat?
As for armor for kobolds, maybe just 4 generic armor looks; one for no armor, another for light armor, etc., regardless of the armor worn. I think kobold only cosmetic armor will be the way to go and should be quite popular. Similarly helmets could be just 1 look, but with kobold only cosmetic helmets available.

Anyway looking forward to all of this!

p.s. I quite enjoyed the search & rescue quest in the last update, mostly due to the optional. But I didn't like the forcefield in boss fights at all, please try to avoid that.

[SirValentine]

Players have asked about class passes, and the next two classes to be looked at will likely be Monk and Favored Soul.
...
We are also looking into giving Favored Soul its third tree.

I'm all for getting 3rd trees to all the classes that don't have them. Yes, FvS needs a 3rd tree. So do Arti & Druid.

But remember the original impetus for doing class passes? And what was supposed to be driving their order?



We've had the Bard, Paladin, Barbarian, Rogue, Fighter passes. Great!

We skipped ahead a bit to do a Ranger pass, and a very limited Artificer pass.

But now skipping ahead straight to Monk? What about Druid, and finishing Arti?

And, way, way, back, to poor, forgotten Cleric? The tech for finally doing Domains is obviously already in place: see Warlock Pacts.

<shrug> I guess I don't really care anymore. And I didn't really expect any better.

[Aelonwy]

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.

+wis race is nice but its not the only reason to want Aasimar. For role players actually playing a half-celestial is important for the character they want to create. ...and then there are people like me that want Aasimar for the appearance (and I really, really hope I'm not disappointed) but Aasimar should be the loveliest race with a color palette not typically available to humans. I play many drow characters not for their stats or their synergy with any particular class but because with drow I can choose a violet skin tone and purple hair. I realize my reasoning is probably uncommon but more people than just I prioritize character appearance and cosmetics.

I'm betting any number of people are wanting to play Tiefling Warlocks because the two go together like peanut butter and chocolate but then you also have people like my hubby that want Tiefling for his Hellboy themed artificier (currently a half-orc running around with a red skin tone, flaming crown and great crossbow Big Baby). I'm just hoping I can make a Tiefling that looks very close to a succubus, if so I might have to buy a new character slot and roll up a brand new bard.

[dunklezhan]

+wis race is nice but its not the only reason to want Aasimar. For role players actually playing a half-celestial is important for the character they want to create. ...and then there are people like me that want Aasimar for the appearance (and I really, really hope I'm not disappointed) but Aasimar should be the loveliest race with a color palette not typically available to humans. I play many drow characters not for their stats or their synergy with any particular class but because with drow I can choose a violet skin tone and purple hair. I realize my reasoning is probably uncommon but more people than just I prioritize character appearance and cosmetics.

I'm betting any number of people are wanting to play Tiefling Warlocks because the two go together like peanut butter and chocolate but then you also have people like my hubby that want Tiefling for his Hellboy themed artificier (currently a half-orc running around with a red skin tone, flaming crown and great crossbow Big Baby). I'm just hoping I can make a Tiefling that looks very close to a succubus, if so I might have to buy a new character slot and roll up a brand new bard.

You know what, that's totally fair enough.

[Mystera]

+wis race is nice but its not the only reason to want Aasimar. For role players actually playing a half-celestial is important for the character they want to create. ...and then there are people like me that want Aasimar for the appearance (and I really, really hope I'm not disappointed) but Aasimar should be the loveliest race with a color palette not typically available to humans.

^^This....plus the bonus to Charisma and potential synergy with Paladins, Favored Souls, Sorcerers, and Warlock Enlightened Spirit (because some Warlocks turn to the light!).

[Nonesuch2008]

I'm just hoping I can make a Tiefling that looks very close to a succubus, if so I might have to buy a new character slot and roll up a brand new bard.

Now that would be an interesting look. Something close to this, perhaps?



Turbine could make a fortune in cosmetics on items based around this theme.

[PsychoBlonde]

This looks OSSUM.

[PsychoBlonde]

Turbine could make a fortune in cosmetics on items based around this theme.

Cosmetic cloaks, with "wings" that can be used by some races, plz.

Actually, they could have wings/horns/tails as cosmetic armor/helms for tieflings only. Maybe have them drop automatically in a Tiefling iconic box, and otherwise you can get them in the store. You wouldn't have to worry about how the horns would interact with the helm, because they would effectively BE the helm.

[Chette]

Greetings!
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.

Very glad to see this happening. However, I do hope that the Favored Soul pass is more than just the addition of a third tree. Please take a good look at divine spells and abilities in general, and how poorly they scale up into epic levels. That's probably not something that can be fixed with just a new enhancement tree.

[Aelonwy]

Now that would be an interesting look. Something close to this, perhaps?



Turbine could make a fortune in cosmetics on items based around this theme.

Something like that... I was hoping for the rosy skin tone of Malicia which I personally would pair with either lavender, Free Agent Fuchsia, or possibly Petal Pink hair color depending on the exact shade/tint. I have a couple violet leaf armor kits that might look nice, and one lavender spiral left. I'm sure if they made a Malicia-style corset cosmetic kit they'd make plenty of money. Although, I'd prefer a cosmetic that looks more like a belly dancer costume, more appropriate for a bard I think even though Perform: Dance isn't an option in DDO.

[janave]

Some great plans for DDO.

- I also think Cannith Crafting should be delayed. We still loot doubleshot handwraps and assassinate dc longbows (aside of many somewhat less disturbing buggy effects).
- I didnt really understood what is fundamentally wrong with the current augm system, why cant new ones be included easily?
- Aside the FvS 3rd tree - minor tweaks to AoV and WP trees would be great.
- Hopefully the new Harper like tree will have some good synergies with Wisdom based characters, which is the only stat that doesn't fuel damage mod yet.

[Lauf]

The dungeons will be offered at level 8 on Heroic, and will also have a CR 32 Legendary version as well.

~Sev

any chance you could make those level 9-10 instead of 8?
I find these levels (especially 10) to be more lacking in variety than others. these could fit there nicely.

-- edit
probably because most people don't run restless isles, few run therenal, and the cult of 6 chain in sorrowdusk isn't easy to group for either (I usually just solo it myself)

so while it seems overall level 10 has nearly as many quests (on paper) as the other levels, in practice very few of those are regularly grouped for, and also keep in mind 3 of them are raids.

so please add more quests to that level.

[Lauf]

I'm all for getting 3rd trees to all the classes that don't have them. Yes, FvS needs a 3rd tree. So do Arti & Druid.

But remember the original impetus for doing class passes? And what was supposed to be driving their order?

And, way, way, back, to poor, forgotten Cleric?

This.

I feel clerics are in a worst place than the fvs and monks, despite the fact they have a 3rd tree.
much like the fighter was...

disappointed to see it's not next on the list, nor even on your radar.

[The_Human_Cypher]

Something like that... I was hoping for the rosy skin tone of Malicia which I personally would pair with either lavender, Free Agent Fuchsia, or possibly Petal Pink hair color depending on the exact shade/tint. I have a couple violet leaf armor kits that might look nice, and one lavender spiral left. I'm sure if they made a Malicia-style corset cosmetic kit they'd make plenty of money. Although, I'd prefer a cosmetic that looks more like a belly dancer costume, more appropriate for a bard I think even though Perform: Dance isn't an option in DDO.

Yes, a Tiefling player race opens up a whole new world of cosmetics for DDO. Wings are probably not doable but horns and demonic faces certainly are, with perhaps tails (Neverwinter Online's Tiefling race has a tail). The Malicia / subbucus cosmetic pet could be introduced with the same update as the Tiefling player race, so players can have a Tiefling Mimi Me follow them around.