DDOCast 462 - DDO Debates: Jan

[pjstechie]

This week we bring back DDO Debates to take a look at the Jan 2017 Producer’s Letter with Hafeal and new guest Arkat!

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DDO Debates: Jan 2017 Producer’s Letter - 4:56
-What’s the best thing about the producers letter? - 6:09
-What’s the most important thing to get right with Ravenloft? - 13:58
-Pitch a Dragonborn racial tree - 26:12
-Pitch Sentient Weapons - 40:40
-Who is the toughest DDO boss - 52:18
-Should class balance me more present, or is it fine having some classes be inherently more powerful? -56:24
Game News - 1:07:04
Community News - 1:31:21
Lightning Post - 1:42:35
Closing - 1:48:34

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DDO Chronicle 223
DDO Chronicle 224
Update 34 Release Notes
Update 34.1
Update 34 Loot
Moment of Silence for Asheron’s Call

[FuzzyDuck81]

Thoughts as I listened

I'm definitely one of those waiting for dragonborn to do a reincarnation on a couple of characters.

IMO Count Strahd is one single element they need to get right to really help set the tone - personalisation, voice acting & ongoing presence throughout the story.

Interesting point about the grind & I agree, haunted halls had a good balance since the basic items were really nice as-is, then the stones gave some great (but not essential) upgrades. ToEE is a little trickier since the grind can be horrible, but can be mitigated if you go in a group with the approach of each person focussing on a single element which can get you something good in as little as 3 or 4 runs, vs. the upgrade materials required in other systems (either 1 single universal material, or a large range of different ones, all of which are needed) that everyone has to hold on to for themselves & take longer.

I've already put a bunch of dragonborn racial speculation stuff together here https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...rn-speculation

Sentient weapon speculation;
- I think they'll be linked story-wise with the after-effects of defeating the codex of infinite planes, much as in-story the vale's troubles & leading up to the heroic shroud is caused by the abbot's defeat. Explanation for how you've got it once you TR, handwaved as shattering the codex echoed out throughout the whole planes & even in time, which is just another dimension. Wouldn't be surprised if this is used overall as fluff for how we can get to other classic modules, the breaking has caused cracks to appear through the planes kind of thing.
- The sentient weapon's "personality" is linked to a specific plane from a range (the above link to the codex's shattering), but there will be a method to change it's physical form to that of a different type, probably a barter UI.
- You get it at the end of the quest chain, alongside a new permanant feat (ie retained through TR) that unlocks the ability to open the sentient weapon enhancement panel.
- You only get 1 sentient weapon per character due to the way it links in with the enhancement panel, so there'll also probably be an ability to change it's basic personality as well as it's base weapon type, but harder/more expensive.
- You get sentient weapon APs as you level to spend in the tree to open up various abilities. There might also be ways to gain extra bonus APs through multiple lives, or by finding particular rare loot.
- The abilities you can take will be limited by whatever plane the weapon is linked to - eg. celestia will be able to take light-based abilities, shadowfell will get dark/shadow based abilities. There will still be a degree of flexibility, though & a number of effects will be shared by multiple planes.
- There will be a special "ultimate" ability granted if your scion feat & the weapon's linked plane match up, for an added bonus & power boost at cap to help with legendary content.

I've dabbled in a bit of reaper, will definitely be running it at low levels on TRs to help make those older quests more fun, and the extra xp is pretty nice as a bonus.

[FranOhmsford]

About Heart of Madness not being popular and that worry about any new content - DON'T PUT IT IN THE DEAD LEVELS! {17-20 Heroic!}.
People will just skip it because they cap off 16s and then go straight to Epics which give much more xp on Epic Normal than 17-19s do even on Elite Bravery Bonus!
With the Epic or Legendary version - Again Heart of Madness is ignored - I think mainly due to the quests not being "daily viable" but I have to say that these quests {specifically Terminal Delirium} are aimed at a small portion of the player base that "supposedly" like the crazy aspect - I say "supposedly" because these quests don't get run, those who say they like or love them still don't run them often!
It's the "First time great but no replayability" problem - Once the novelty wears off the quests just aren't FUN! {Well tbh I loathe all the Delirium Quests!?




Oh and for High level Epic/Legendary Quests - Stop giving them weak Base XP!
You want people to play Epic/Legendary Quests repeatedly you need to up the Base XP of those that aren't run regularly and any new quests added.

[Steve_Howe]

LOVED Arkat's idea for sentient weapon personalities!

LOVED Patrick's idea about using the Reaper trees sort of as a way to think about how sentient weapons can "level up" as we do. The level gates for the Core abilities and the Tier abilities assure that you only get access to the low-level abilities when you're low-level. Of course, depending on the number of Sentient "trees," the kinds of abilities could be too limited to the point you have many weapons that would basically be the same. It seems to me that a REAL effort should be made to make each sentient weapon as unique as possible, by having several "trees" and a lot of good and different abilities in those trees.

Anyway, some good ideas in this episode!