DDO Producer's Letter - January 2017

[AWildSnorlaxAppeared]

and a new playable race with the Dragonborn!

[The_Human_Cypher]

The Stonelands is right next to The Goblin Marches

http://www.realmshelps.net/faerun/lo...nelands1.shtml

"This area is actually more fertile than the Goblin Marches, but that advantage matters very little. The frequent, violent storms that lash the surface make any sort of agriculture impossible here as well. Hail and fire are just not healthful for croplands, but I am getting ahead of myself."

[Tahkhesis]

Greetings,

It has been a busy couple of weeks since we announced our transition to Standing Stone Games. We appreciate the patience you’ve shown as we continue to work on this transition, and your help in identifying various nooks and crannies that might still need attention. We all thank you! The coming year promises to bring lots of new content, so I wanted to talk about at some things you can look for in 2017.

We are currently working hard on Update 34, which will feature a new, free dungeon, a champion revamp, and the debut of Reaper difficulty. Champions are creatures that have been tainted or empowered by the Manual of the Planes with bits of planar energy to make them more powerful. To reflect this lore, and to allow you to better identify the threat they pose, champions have been revamped so they are marked with a specific plane, and gain powers from that mark. Each champion has a planar title and a crown icon to reflect the level of its empowerment, so you can identify the challenge ahead of you more easily.

One of the joys of playing Dungeons and Dragons Online is the vast amount of build customization the game offers, and many of you have told us that want more challenge for your top builds as you refine your characters and gear them up. Reaper difficulty will offer new challenges for you. Some characters cheat death so often that even Reapers take notice! In this mode the dungeons you play are much more dangerous, and Reapers roam halls that might otherwise seem familiar. In the Reaper difficulty denizens from the planes aligned with Death are actively trying to kill you, and so is the Dungeon Master! Not for the faint of heart. Reaper difficulty brings 10 Skulls worth of difficulty so you can find the challenge that is most fun for you.

At the end of February we will be celebrating the 11th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons Online! We'll have special gifts, and the anniversary dungeon will be coming back for an encore. We are also working on Update 35, and hope to have it ready in that timeframe. It will debut several new adventures, a new raid, and a new playable race with the Dragonborn!

After Update 35, we will continue our focus on new content, with an adventure pack set in the Forgotten Realms. The Stonelands are located north of The Stormhorns, and are known as a rocky and hilly region where legend states a castle built above the clouds crashed to Earth. The Stonelands’ frequent storms may indeed come from a battle against a magical realm of old. Expect Update 36 sometime in late Spring/early Summer.

After Update 36, we still have two more updates in 2017, and we have already teased that one of those will be our expansion! We are very excited about Ravenloft, which has long been a fan favorite. We are planning lots of new content, Sentient Weapons, and other surprises.

We will continue to target game performance improvements and squash bugs, like usual, and we'd like to look at Cleric, Favored Soul, Druid, and Artificer, and do other class work as necessary. We also want to hear from you! Listening carefully to your suggestions has always helped our game be its best, and we are expanding the roster of the DDO Players Council to get more feedback from more people more often.

This will be an incredible year for DDO, and we thank you for being a part of it!

~ Sev

I love all of this. Stoked for 2017 and far beyond. Thanks for all you do.

[LizardTusk]

This is what I had hoped we would hear from you and the team. I look forward to seeing what you can do now that you are in charge of your own destiny!

From the sounds of it - it will be something I (and hopefully lots of others) will appreciate.

[azrael4h]

After Update 35, we will continue our focus on new content, with an adventure pack set in the Forgotten Realms. The Stonelands are located north of The Stormhorns, and are known as a rocky and hilly region where legend states a castle built above the clouds crashed to Earth. The Stonelands’ frequent storms may indeed come from a battle against a magical realm of old. Expect Update 36 sometime in late Spring/early Summer.

...and we'd like to look at Cleric, Favored Soul, Druid, and Artificer, and do other class work as necessary. We also want to hear from you! Listening carefully to your suggestions has always helped our game be its best, and we are expanding the roster of the DDO Players Council to get more feedback from more people more often.

Favored Soul = 1 new tree, Warpriest to be useful, and Angel of Vengeance brought up to modern caster PrE range. New tree probably should be more defensive in nature, since healing really isn't hard nor is it weak, so a healing tree really isn't needed. Earthquake at least added to spell list, as it is in Core D&D. Favored Soul should probably be more of a nuker than Cleric.
Cleric = Warpriest to be useful, DOMAINS, Radiant Aura moved to L12 Core or Tier 4 where it should be. T5 is a huge bad mistake. Earthquake at least added to spell list, as it is in Core D&D. Maybe Radiant Servant retooled a bit for better defense, since healing isn't really hard, nor is it weak. Better DC options, perhaps adding useful CC spells into the spell list on the cores.
Druid = 1 new tree, wild shape abilities moved to feats, NEW SPELLS at all levels, bugs in wildshape fixed, Wildshape DPS made competitive without exploits.
Artificer = 1 new tree, existing trees made competitive, Dog given a brain.

Note, you can find more creative ways to make Warpriest useful than just tacking on melee power and crit enhancements. Stacking vulnerability for example, or some single-target CC on hit with no save for example. Moving Radiant Aura to Core12 means you're not essentially forcing players to ignore top-tier enhancements in two of the three trees.

I'm looking forward to seeing if they bring Lord Soth into the story lines because he was sent into Ravenloft if my memory serves right. He would be a great mini boss in a raid with Strahd ... kinda like end of TOD when there were 2 bosses or rather 1 boss and 1 lieutenant.

That was the novel Knight of the Black Rose. IIRC, he was returned to Krynn in Specter of the Black Rose. Much later, he was seen in one of the War of Souls novels, third one I think but I haven't read those in a long time so I may be forgetting. I got rid of most of my D&D novels, but still have the Chronicles, Legends, and the two Black Rose novels.

[helgaarde]

what about doing an expedition to the barrier peaks or the tomb of horrors adventures from classic D&D?

everlin;5923840]Greetings,

It has been a busy couple of weeks since we announced our transition to Standing Stone Games. We appreciate the patience you’ve shown as we continue to work on this transition, and your help in identifying various nooks and crannies that might still need attention. We all thank you! The coming year promises to bring lots of new content, so I wanted to talk about at some things you can look for in 2017.

We are currently working hard on Update 34, which will feature a new, free dungeon, a champion revamp, and the debut of Reaper difficulty. Champions are creatures that have been tainted or empowered by the Manual of the Planes with bits of planar energy to make them more powerful. To reflect this lore, and to allow you to better identify the threat they pose, champions have been revamped so they are marked with a specific plane, and gain powers from that mark. Each champion has a planar title and a crown icon to reflect the level of its empowerment, so you can identify the challenge ahead of you more easily.

One of the joys of playing Dungeons and Dragons Online is the vast amount of build customization the game offers, and many of you have told us that want more challenge for your top builds as you refine your characters and gear them up. Reaper difficulty will offer new challenges for you. Some characters cheat death so often that even Reapers take notice! In this mode the dungeons you play are much more dangerous, and Reapers roam halls that might otherwise seem familiar. In the Reaper difficulty denizens from the planes aligned with Death are actively trying to kill you, and so is the Dungeon Master! Not for the faint of heart. Reaper difficulty brings 10 Skulls worth of difficulty so you can find the challenge that is most fun for you.

At the end of February we will be celebrating the 11th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons Online! We'll have special gifts, and the anniversary dungeon will be coming back for an encore. We are also working on Update 35, and hope to have it ready in that timeframe. It will debut several new adventures, a new raid, and a new playable race with the Dragonborn!

After Update 35, we will continue our focus on new content, with an adventure pack set in the Forgotten Realms. The Stonelands are located north of The Stormhorns, and are known as a rocky and hilly region where legend states a castle built above the clouds crashed to Earth. The Stonelands’ frequent storms may indeed come from a battle against a magical realm of old. Expect Update 36 sometime in late Spring/early Summer.

After Update 36, we still have two more updates in 2017, and we have already teased that one of those will be our expansion! We are very excited about Ravenloft, which has long been a fan favorite. We are planning lots of new content, Sentient Weapons, and other surprises.

We will continue to target game performance improvements and squash bugs, like usual, and we'd like to look at Cleric, Favored Soul, Druid, and Artificer, and do other class work as necessary. We also want to hear from you! Listening carefully to your suggestions has always helped our game be its best, and we are expanding the roster of the DDO Players Council to get more feedback from more people more often.

This will be an incredible year for DDO, and we thank you for being a part of it!

~ Sev[/QUOTE]

[helgaarde]

[QUOTE=helgaarde;5924139]what about doing an expedition to the barrier peaks or the tomb of horrors adventures from classic D&D?


After Update 35, we will continue our focus on new content, with an adventure pack set in the Forgotten Realms. The Stonelands are located north of The Stormhorns, and are known as a rocky and hilly region where legend states a castle built above the clouds crashed to Earth. The Stonelands’ frequent storms may indeed come from a battle against a magical realm of old. Expect Update 36 sometime in late Spring/early Summer.

[Livmo]

We gonna dine on fresh goblin tonight!

Nice letter and it appears to be full of win.

[janave]

Not intending to twist words, but isn’t

"so you can identify the challenge ahead of you more easily." --a minor paradox?


How about showing the icon on tab target only?

I'd probably apply 1s delay and a short fade in animation too on selecting a target, just to reward using strategy over running into a pack, splash aoe cc and bursting away.

[sdrocky]

Greetings,

It has been a busy couple of weeks since we announced our transition to Standing Stone Games. We appreciate the patience you’ve shown as we continue to work on this transition, and your help in identifying various nooks and crannies that might still need attention. We all thank you! The coming year promises to bring lots of new content, so I wanted to talk about at some things you can look for in 2017.

We are currently working hard on Update 34, which will feature a new, free dungeon, a champion revamp, and the debut of Reaper difficulty. Champions are creatures that have been tainted or empowered by the Manual of the Planes with bits of planar energy to make them more powerful. To reflect this lore, and to allow you to better identify the threat they pose, champions have been revamped so they are marked with a specific plane, and gain powers from that mark. Each champion has a planar title and a crown icon to reflect the level of its empowerment, so you can identify the challenge ahead of you more easily.

One of the joys of playing Dungeons and Dragons Online is the vast amount of build customization the game offers, and many of you have told us that want more challenge for your top builds as you refine your characters and gear them up. Reaper difficulty will offer new challenges for you. Some characters cheat death so often that even Reapers take notice! In this mode the dungeons you play are much more dangerous, and Reapers roam halls that might otherwise seem familiar. In the Reaper difficulty denizens from the planes aligned with Death are actively trying to kill you, and so is the Dungeon Master! Not for the faint of heart. Reaper difficulty brings 10 Skulls worth of difficulty so you can find the challenge that is most fun for you.

At the end of February we will be celebrating the 11th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons Online! We'll have special gifts, and the anniversary dungeon will be coming back for an encore. We are also working on Update 35, and hope to have it ready in that timeframe. It will debut several new adventures, a new raid, and a new playable race with the Dragonborn!

After Update 35, we will continue our focus on new content, with an adventure pack set in the Forgotten Realms. The Stonelands are located north of The Stormhorns, and are known as a rocky and hilly region where legend states a castle built above the clouds crashed to Earth. The Stonelands’ frequent storms may indeed come from a battle against a magical realm of old. Expect Update 36 sometime in late Spring/early Summer.

After Update 36, we still have two more updates in 2017, and we have already teased that one of those will be our expansion! We are very excited about Ravenloft, which has long been a fan favorite. We are planning lots of new content, Sentient Weapons, and other surprises.

We will continue to target game performance improvements and squash bugs, like usual, and we'd like to look at Cleric, Favored Soul, Druid, and Artificer, and do other class work as necessary. We also want to hear from you! Listening carefully to your suggestions has always helped our game be its best, and we are expanding the roster of the DDO Players Council to get more feedback from more people more often.

This will be an incredible year for DDO, and we thank you for being a part of it!

~ Sev

Ive been playing dungeons and dragons in some form since i was 15, im 52, mainly as a pen and paper DM. quite simply i love you guys. keep staying true as you can (in a digital world) to the totaly free roaming sandbox game that is dungeons and dragons. thank you very much.

[Grabin]

Keep up the good work

[MrJHawk]

this all sound awsome but why keep adding to a game thats so screwed up everytime ya'll add more content with in a day or two your doing a hotfix then within a day or two doing a hotfix to fix a hotfix the a few days later doing another hotfix to fix something the last hotfix screwed up and this has happen the last 4 updates. I mean come on it doesnt take a genus to see this getting worse every update u add to the game. dont get me wrong love the updates and new stuff but stop adding and fix whats wrong first then add new.yea yea i know u will always have bugs in a game I am a programmer i know what goes on when adding updates or trying to fix something thats wrong it takes time so stop adding causing more problems and u can get the game right at some point. thank u for your time

The bigger the coding project the more the maxim becomes true; "Testing doesn't prove the absence of bugs". Testing for flaws in hideously complex state machines (which is what this game is), can only be fully discovered with exhaustive searching of all the possible states (or a classical proof that the state machine is perfect); in other words the halting problem. So in order not to stop all releases of new features for a 6 year period followed by one update every 2 years you need to expand your probabilistic state space searching beyond internal resources, i.e. release the code to the players, first in beta (lamania), and then to the general populace and stomp on the bugs as they appear. In short if they didn't do this then the game would die because players would get bored and leave. The game, just like life, is imperfect. Besides if the world was perfect there would be no room for creativity!

[Nonesuch2008]

Sentient Weapons?

Sophie'e Dagger: I want a new sheath.
Sophie: You are such a Prima Donna. All right. After I, umm, borrow the shoes in that chest.
Sophie's Dagger: That's what you said yesterday. I am on strike.
Sophie: On strike? We are in the middle of a devil fortress! Malicia's shoes are right there and now you are going on strike? You can't do that!
Sophie's Dagger: I can and I am. You are mean to me.
Sophie: Mean to you? I took you dancing. I took you to that resort island. I painted your blade just yesterday. Pink!
Sophie's Dagger: You mostly do those things for yourself. How many cat suits have you bought yourself this month?
Sophie: I am a cat burglar. It is dangerous work. They get damaged.
Sophie's Dagger: You mean like when your behind split in that Beholder's den?
Sophie: We do not talk about that!
Sophie's Dagger: I told you not to eat so many Festivault Cookies.
Sophie: I am very active! The suit was faulty!
Sophie's Dagger: I want a pretty pink sheath with butterflies and unicorns.
Sophie: And you will get that sheath! Right after I borrow those shoes from Malicia.
Sophie's Dagger: You promise?
Sophie: I promise!
Sophie's Dagger: Can I stab that Triefling through the heart?
Sophie: You betcha!

Also, yay for more dungeons!

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Annex again.

GRRRRRR!

This was just as funny the second time that I read it.

[BigErkyKid]

Please, please, please speed up a bit the balance changes. We don't need huge sweeping changes, some scaling here and there would suffice. If you keep going at this speed even the parts of the game that you fixed in prior updates become outdated again.

The biggest draws of this game are the DnD flavor and its character customization. Character customization only exists when the viable and powerful options are plentiful. At the moment >3/4 of the options offered by the game range from weak to unviable.

Please do something about it.

[Cadveen]

Greetings,

We will continue to target game performance improvements and squash bugs, like usual, and we'd like to look at Cleric, Favored Soul, Druid, and Artificer, and do other class work as necessary. We also want to hear from you! Listening carefully to your suggestions has always helped our game be its best, and we are expanding the roster of the DDO Players Council to get more feedback from more people more often.

~ Sev

When are Wizards/Sorcerors getting a pass?

[Casareena]

Thank you to everyone who brings this game to us you do an outstanding job which is very much appreciated and I cannot wait to see all that you do well into the future.

Annex LMAO! Not seen this post?...page three well worth the read

To the person who shall remain nameless complaining that the game should be updated, have you taken a fresh look at this game it is visually stunning, everybody is an individual and would like something changed I've no doubt, but leave well alone it's awesome as it is. Upgrading the game might mean lots of people will miss out as their computers are unable to keep up that would be awful, don't touch what's not broken!

[FranOhmsford]

Unfortunately, you are the type of person they listen to instead of me. You'd rather keep things low and slow rather than race with the hounds. I pity you.

Well I for one HATE the Graphics in LotRO, Neverwinter and other "newer" games!

I on the other hand LOVE DDO's Graphics and especially the Characters!




And seriously - Why use A Code I can't even find on the Colour Palette on a Dark Grey Background?

There are a tonne of colours to pick from, many that really stand out like Yellow, Cyan, Lime or even Salmon.
A Dark Colour on a Dark Background is just why?

[FranOhmsford]

That was the novel Knight of the Black Rose. IIRC, he was returned to Krynn in Specter of the Black Rose. Much later, he was seen in one of the War of Souls novels, third one I think but I haven't read those in a long time so I may be forgetting. I got rid of most of my D&D novels, but still have the Chronicles, Legends, and the two Black Rose novels.

As far as I can tell then if what you say is true Lord Soth is the ONLY villain to successfully escape Ravenloft!

But Dragonlance really went off the Rails with 5th Age so I'd personally prefer that if Dragonlance was ever brought to DDO {Unlikely as that is given the history} that we stuck to The Age of Despair and immediate aftermath of the War of the Lance!
At which point I believe Lord Soth was still half in Ravenloft, Half out not fully out.

[Powerhungry]

Druid = 1 new tree, wild shape abilities moved to feats, NEW SPELLS at all levels, bugs in wildshape fixed, Wildshape DPS made competitive without exploits.

Add uncaring master (or something similar). While it doesn't fit with lore, an animal companion is supposed to be a boon, not a curse to have in combat

[FranOhmsford]

I hope to see Planescape as a fourth expansion, if we ever get there. The Stonelands update this summer may be the opportunity to introduce Goblins to DDO.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Stonelands

"The Stonelands was a rocky and hilly region of terrain north of the Storm Horns mountain range, to the north of Cormyr.

Although Cormyr claimed this land as part of its territory, it could not control it beyond where its soldiers marched. It was an inhospitable place for civilized humanoids and was home to orcs, goblinoids, and other creatures.

Inhabitants

Goblins

Getting them for definite = Yay!

Chimeras
Dinosaurs
Fire lizards
Hydras
Wemics

Please, Please, Please, Let's have ALL of these added!

Hill giants
Hobgoblins
Ogres
Orcs
"

Already got but don't have any problems with these being there so long as they don't take over.