My thoughts on the state of the game.

[YUTANG75]

With recent introduction of Reaper and racial past lives people have been sharing their thoughts and I thought I'd join in as a more casual but long time player.

Reaper:
Let's tackle the big thing first.
Reaper difficulty, promising to be harder than elite for those that want it. Well, it delivered on that point, champions and reapers galore playing a reaper quest is unpredictable for sure. Is it fair? No, not really a new player can't play on reaper, that's because they're not expected too. I have a few heroic past lives and years of experience. Still can't do well in reaper, maybe that's my build. But to be honest, I'm really not bothered, I got along just fine with elite difficulty and continue to do so.
I get the feeling from some that they are obliged to max out reaper XP ASAP, don't understand that one too much. They complain that rxp is too little and it will take forever and is a huge grind. Yup, that's by design. The idea (as I understand) is that rxp is the reward for challenging yourself not the challenge itself. Playing reaper makes your character stronger at reaper to encourage more reaper-ing. I don't fully agree with the reaper trees as is, they feel a bit too powerful hence why people feel the need to max them out? (You tell me.) The cosmetics are a great reward as it means you're recognisable and others admire the effort. But there's a catch 22 here. If we didn't have reaper trees or extra normal XP people would complain about the lack of incentives to play reaper. Currently, people are complaining about there being too much incentive and how much power creep there is.

Racial past lives:
Similar to how some feel the need to max out reaper trees some have looked at racial past lives and gone "Great, 30 more lives to do cba let's quit". Maybe it's just an attitude thing, I think about the gear I've got and go let us do this build and I do and have fun. Why are you seeing every little reward as compulsory? This is a genuine question, are you a completionist or feel that it is absolutely necessary to be a strong character? As far as i'm concerned; it offers me options, do I reincarnate and get my 3rd ranger life or get the first human life? Options not obligations.

End game:
Not an end game player, my highest level was 28 when that was the cap. I like playing different builds; if I find a strong build I like playing I'll play epic. Regarding the lack of content, there are 31 level 30+ quests/raids. Endgame is still being worked on, every update expands it.

Champions:
Yes, this is an old topic but after playing with them for a while I'll give my opinion here as well:
When they stopped spawning the game felt boring, no tough mobs just uniform. Glad they're fixed now. They're not normally so much tougher than everything else that it's a major problem. To casters: I feel you when a mob is randomly resistant to your speciality damage type or has deathward. Short of grouping or making sure you have an alternate damage source or two (yes that sounds a bit arrogant, sorry not a caster player) I'm not sure how to help you.

Grouping:
So here are some questions:
Do you complain about not having enough LFMs? Do you regularly post LFMs?
If you answered yes to both, maybe if you posted LFMs as well the problem would be less? I play on Thelanis and about half of online players are in groups but there are few LFMs usually. When playing with your friends maybe put an LFM shortly and pick up a random person or two? To the vets: maybe you could get together with a friend and specifically pick up newer players and help teach them? This isn't a simple game there are many small bits of info that go a long way. Been thinking about making a series of videos that teach all about DDO and are very interactive but I've never done anything like that before and would need the communities help to make it any good.

Anyway, that's my rambling and some bits probably don't make sense.

[Greyhawk6]

I'm not a fan of champions. It makes a quest difficulty way too random. Also some mobs just dont work properly when beefed up. For instance a champion mage in the tide turns, a level 7 quest I think can easily kill the entire party in seconds with frost lance. Whereas the end boss is very easy to kill.

[Chai]

I'm not a fan of champions. It makes a quest difficulty way too random. Also some mobs just dont work properly when beefed up. For instance a champion mage in the tide turns, a level 7 quest I think can easily kill the entire party in seconds with frost lance. Whereas the end boss is very easy to kill.

Thats pretty much why I am a fan of champions, in part due to the randomness.

I also feel it is realistic that the boss doesnt have to be the toughest mob. The boss always being the hardest to kill mob is a trope from video games that could be solved by giving bosses champion properties (something advocated against on the forums fairly recently).

[Chai]

End game:
Not an end game player, my highest level was 28 when that was the cap. I like playing different builds; if I find a strong build I like playing I'll play epic. Regarding the lack of content, there are 31 level 30+ quests/raids. I would like to point out that the cap was only increased 6 updates ago mid December. That's like 3 months, I think that's pretty good going. Endgame is still being worked on, every update expands it.

Cap was raised December 2015 - ~15 months ago.

Racial past lives:
Similar to how some feel the need to max out reaper trees some have looked at racial past lives and gone "Great, 30 more lives to do cba let's quit". Maybe it's just an attitude thing, I think about the gear I've got and go let us do this build and I do and have fun. Why are you seeing every little reward as compulsory? This is a genuine question, are you a completionist or feel that it is absolutely necessary to be a strong character? As far as i'm concerned; it offers me options, do I reincarnate and get my 3rd ranger life or get the first human life? Options not obligations.

I agree with this. Too much to do is better than not enough to do. This is why it would be nice to see endgame developed more along side the TR game. When one thing gets boring or repetitive we can switch to the other.

[YUTANG75]

Cap was raised December 2015 - ~15 months ago.

Oops, I'll fix that. Don't know how I managed to mess that one up...

[scipiojedi]

Racial past lives:
Similar to how some feel the need to max out reaper trees some have looked at racial past lives and gone "Great, 30 more lives to do cba let's quit". Maybe it's just an attitude thing, I think about the gear I've got and go let us do this build and I do and have fun. Why are you seeing every little reward as compulsory? This is a genuine question, are you a completionist or feel that it is absolutely necessary to be a strong character? As far as i'm concerned; it offers me options, do I reincarnate and get my 3rd ranger life or get the first human life? Options not obligations.

My take on it is that now you have a way to play the way you want to. Take my brother for instance, he told me he was on his 3rd sorc life and asked me what he should do next. He wanted to do a multiclass with sorc because he likes playing as a sorc, but feels that doing more sorc lives will be a waste since he isn't getting any past lives from them. I told him that multiclassing as a caster wouldn't work, but that Racial TRs just happened, so now he can play as a sorc for 30 lives and never feel like it is a waste. That is the beauty of Racial Past Lives. You find a class you like playing, now you are free to play it over and over again without "wasting" lives.

[Vish]

About grouping
I've been running a reaper1 life
But I got my cleric parked at 30
I run pugs and post lfms all the time
But what I've seen is,
Epic is dead, and everyone's running heroic
The lfms are all over the place, but most are reaper
But the reality is, they're hard to fill
Not a lot of floating players
And I've been watching the who tab
Not a lot of players on
So, I don't know what's going on.
I play all hours of the day.
Seems like there's a vacation going on...
But heroic is active tho.

[Wonedream]

DDO is in great shape. It has never been better, offering more to do now then it did in the past. In the past you could still do almost everything you do now, but now you got more options.

DDO in on the verge of turning into the all time best MMORPG... they need only implement procedural dungeon systems, which will allow them to pump out content 100 times faster then they are right now... when they start to go in this direction... they will completely rule and take over the MMORPG gaming industry.

[Ewynn]

DDO is in great shape. It has never been better, offering more to do now then it did in the past. In the past you could still do almost everything you do now, but now you got more options.

DDO in on the verge of turning into the all time best MMORPG... they need only implement procedural dungeon systems, which will allow them to pump out content 100 times faster then they are right now... when they start to go in this direction... they will completely rule and take over the MMORPG gaming industry.

Not sure what a procedural dungeon system is but if it makes high quality content easier to produce I'm all for it.

I agree DDO is continuing to expand, and has a very loyal following. Everyone's running heroics on R1, mostly because if you can survive at that level you can knock out Heroic life in two weeks, before it took me about a month. (My experience anyways. I know that uber players can do it in 3 days, but I have a job, so...yeah.) With 31 PLs under my belt, I'm just survivable enough to solo R1's, but it's much faster with a group. Even if they wipe, i'll probably survive and can get them raised. I don't plan to really take on reaper until I get the rest of my epics done (18 to go) and some of my racial PLs, but if I can knock out 20 lives a year then I've got two more years slow grinding reaper until I really start working it hard. Who knows, by then I may have a reaper tree filled.

The big thing that I see is that folks just don't have the patience to put in the time to become strong enough to take on reaper. I run with a friend of a friend who has a four-life 'toon and he wonders why he dies all the time in reaper, well, duh, you're not tough enough yet, even with an otherwise solid build (not warlock). If you have to do elites to get there, join the club.

[Satyriasys]

Reaper 5+ was needed as a difficultly for Warlocks to run, without it there is nothing that can challenge them. The reaper trees however seem to contradict the design and purpose of reaper.

Racial TR is a bit unneeded considering it can take several days to find a group in this game. Back during it's peak I think it would have been a great addition.

[Gremmlynn]

With recent introduction of Reaper and racial past lives people have been sharing their thoughts and I thought I'd join in as a more casual but long time player.

Reaper:
Let's tackle the big thing first.
Reaper difficulty, promising to be harder than elite for those that want it. Well, it delivered on that point, champions and reapers galore playing a reaper quest is unpredictable for sure. Is it fair? No, not really a new player can't play on reaper, that's because they're not expected too. I have a few heroic past lives and years of experience. Still can't do well in reaper, maybe that's my build. But to be honest, I'm really not bothered, I got along just fine with elite difficulty and continue to do so.
I get the feeling from some that they are obliged to max out reaper XP ASAP, don't understand that one too much. They complain that rxp is too little and it will take forever and is a huge grind. Yup, that's by design. The idea (as I understand) is that rxp is the reward for challenging yourself not the challenge itself. Playing reaper makes your character stronger at reaper to encourage more reaper-ing. I don't fully agree with the reaper trees as is, they feel a bit too powerful hence why people feel the need to max them out? (You tell me.) The cosmetics are a great reward as it means you're recognisable and others admire the effort. But there's a catch 22 here. If we didn't have reaper trees or extra normal XP people would complain about the lack of incentives to play reaper. Currently, people are complaining about there being too much incentive and how much power creep there is.

Racial past lives:
Similar to how some feel the need to max out reaper trees some have looked at racial past lives and gone "Great, 30 more lives to do cba let's quit". Maybe it's just an attitude thing, I think about the gear I've got and go let us do this build and I do and have fun. Why are you seeing every little reward as compulsory? This is a genuine question, are you a completionist or feel that it is absolutely necessary to be a strong character? As far as i'm concerned; it offers me options, do I reincarnate and get my 3rd ranger life or get the first human life? Options not obligations.

End game:
Not an end game player, my highest level was 28 when that was the cap. I like playing different builds; if I find a strong build I like playing I'll play epic. Regarding the lack of content, there are 31 level 30+ quests/raids. Endgame is still being worked on, every update expands it.

Champions:
Yes, this is an old topic but after playing with them for a while I'll give my opinion here as well:
When they stopped spawning the game felt boring, no tough mobs just uniform. Glad they're fixed now. They're not normally so much tougher than everything else that it's a major problem. To casters: I feel you when a mob is randomly resistant to your speciality damage type or has deathward. Short of grouping or making sure you have an alternate damage source or two (yes that sounds a bit arrogant, sorry not a caster player) I'm not sure how to help you.

Grouping:
So here are some questions:
Do you complain about not having enough LFMs? Do you regularly post LFMs?
If you answered yes to both, maybe if you posted LFMs as well the problem would be less? I play on Thelanis and about half of online players are in groups but there are few LFMs usually. When playing with your friends maybe put an LFM shortly and pick up a random person or two? To the vets: maybe you could get together with a friend and specifically pick up newer players and help teach them? This isn't a simple game there are many small bits of info that go a long way. Been thinking about making a series of videos that teach all about DDO and are very interactive but I've never done anything like that before and would need the communities help to make it any good.

Anyway, that's my rambling and some bits probably don't make sense.

I agree with so much of this.

Past lives are and always have been nothing more than an option. In most cases not a really good one either, but it does allow one to keep playing their character and get something for doing so. Which I believe has always been the point. The idea that every little +1, regardless of how many days, weeks or even months it takes to get it is one players invented themselves, likely born from the idea of filling in every possible box being how one wins the game. Personally, I've never been a fan of the implementation of heroic TRs, so have mostly just not done it, epic TRs are better and generally don't have an issue doing them as they come around and I likely will never do a racial TR. But then I have 23 characters I regularly play currently, so have plenty to do while playing.

As far as end game goes. It's something I'd like to see, but only if it's something worth while doing, rather than something basically just added on to have an end game.

[Mr_Helmet]

Past lives are and always have been nothing more than an option.

There is nothing else worth playing for.

And they are an option.

Um, what's the reason to play again?

[AngryDude]

State is good for an 11 year old game. State of Frogger still ok but don't have an Atari.
Not hard to get groups sometimes. Vets have incentive to screw around at low levels and lead groups.
Racial TR makes more nukers run around and kill stuff than before. So despite the new difficulty level there are fewer gimped toons in low and mid levels for the sake of heroic past life and end game strength. Played with a full group of sorcs and warlocks that just ran through low r's. R1-2 makes healers not unwelcome too.
Lag is down. Lag was bad now it's not.

Game take too much time still and is worse then crack. All is good.

[Earthbound Misfit]

Um, what's the reason to play again?

Fun. For me it always has been and always will be about fun. People have different ideas on what constitutes fun, I grant you. But if you are having fun, whatever the reason, play. If you aren't, don't

[PermaBanned]

DDO is in great shape. It has never been better, offering more to do now then it did in the past. In the past you could still do almost everything you do now, but now you got more options.

DDO in on the verge of turning into the all time best MMORPG... they need only implement procedural dungeon systems, which will allow them to pump out content 100 times faster then they are right now... when they start to go in this direction... they will completely rule and take over the MMORPG gaming industry.

Love the optimism, but disagree completely. Pumping out content at that rate produces quantity, not quality - and this game desperately needs quality. It also desperately needs new player acquisition and retention, as we've been losing players far faster than gaining them. Lastly, it desperately needs to find a way of rewarding its players with more of that "sweet victory" feeling upon quest/raid completion instead of the "ugh, on to the next chunk of XP" feeling.

Saying this game is in great shape and has never been better is among the most baffling statements I've read on these boards since that dude talked about Quicken reducing casting animation speed.

[KoobTheProud]

My basic take on the game at this point is that there is no grind that will save it. I have no idea how long it will last but they've lost players over the years because of burnout on the grinds and adding new ones will not reverse that trend.

I'm hoping that we will see them shift direction and move sharply towards acquiring and retaining new players now that they've added two more terminal grinds in with Reaper trees and Racial past lives. I'd love to see major revamps of low level content and tutorials and new class templates and maybe completing the class passes as a bone thrown to the vets.

I'd really love to see the progression through the game simplified (not the game mechanics nor the favor system) by increasing XP overall and creating the equivalent of Bigby's Hands that point the way through the first few lives for new players.

I just have to add: this is just my opinion but I think every grind added to the game is another nail in DDO's coffin. I have played half as much as I was playing before Racial past lives were announced. I hate it when a distant horizon that I will never reach is suddenly pushed down below the wave line. I do not believe that there are enough long-term players that will use that content to make up for all the new players (and casual vets) who will look at the situation and start giggling maniacally just before they run screaming into the parking lot.

[SuperNiCd]

The last two posts from PermaBanned and KoobTheProud pretty well sum up my thoughts more concisely than I could have.

I remain optimistic that the last couple of updates were a bit of a "necessary evil" - some stop-gap measures that could be coded relatively quickly to keep the loyal/existing player base entertained for a while as SSG works on bigger plans that require a large time investment.

Time will tell.

[Jyvva]

Returning player from a long time ago.
I've been back for about six months, figuring out the new mechanics and messing around with new builds.
But once I settled on a build and started doing the TR thing, the game got dull.
My main is now parked at level 12 on her third life while I try a new build on a different server.

The problem for me isn't difficulty.
I don't mind that there is a level of difficulty that should be for end-gamers.
In fact, I think there should be.

It isn't so much the grind, either. I expect grind in MMOs.
As a long time EVE player who's main has done a lot of mining, I know grind.

It's the "sameness" of going through the same dungeons over and over.
Champions aren't enough of a variety to really change that.
And I have to agree with those that say they are just HP bags that hit harder.

When I looked at the wiki and saw how many quests were just the same epic quests but "harder" I was disappointed.
That's just not exciting.

The TR grind is one thing.
But doing that grind just to pretty much do the same quests in epic?

[Cantor]

I also feel it is realistic that the boss doesnt have to be the toughest mob. The boss always being the hardest to kill mob is a trope from video games that could be solved by giving bosses champion properties (something advocated against on the forums fairly recently).

I agree completely, rarely is the guy in charge the toughest. He's usually the richest, smartest, sneakiest, a noble, or sometimes the meanest and strongest bastard.

I do think they should nerf caster champs to proc once per cast like the lantern ring though.

[Cantor]

The last two posts from PermaBanned and KoobTheProud pretty well sum up my thoughts more concisely than I could have.

I remain optimistic that the last couple of updates were a bit of a "necessary evil" - some stop-gap measures that could be coded relatively quickly to keep the loyal/existing player base entertained for a while as SSG works on bigger plans that require a large time investment.

Time will tell.

I hope this is true too, though I don't consider it an evil. I agree with posts above that racial pasts are just more options. In some ways they open things up faster. 14 lives for completionist just to get +2 to DC stat or 4 racial pasts without a feat tax. True, in the end you want everything but...