A Look Ahead - 2019 Producer's Letter

[AAH]

Greetings! I’m excited today to share a look at our 2019 road map, featuring a new expansion, new quests, a new race, and more! DDO enters its 13th year with a passionate player base and a development team dedicated to making DDO great, and it couldn’t be done without you.

You've known about our plans for an expansion into Sharn for a while now, and last week we were able to start sharing more information with you, including the debut of our first Sharn-related preview material to our public preview server, and an announcement that we will begin accepting preorders for Masterminds of Sharn in March. Bookmark ddo.com/mastermindsofsharn to make sure you have the latest information.

We intend to follow up Sharn with a new adventure pack set in the City of Towers, but you won’t need the Sharn expansion to run these quests. Update 43’s adventure pack set will be free to VIPs (and Season Pass holders). Update 44 will introduce our next new class as well! More information about what this class will be is under wraps for now, but we will have much more to share later this year.

Update 45 will arrive later in the year as well, and feature our next classic adventure pack. We don’t feel it would B2 early to talk about it, so we’re pleased to announce that Keep on the Borderlands will offer a new experience for players adventuring at the lower levels of the game. The classic pack will also feature several other dungeons, similar to what we did with White Plume Mountain and Other Tales.

Some other things we are hoping to do this year is to work on Epic Destinies, with a few targeted changes per destiny along with additional work to Knight of the Chalice, and the debut of a new racial variant!

As always, we are honored to be the place where you enjoy the most authentic Dungeons & Dragons experience in video gaming, and we will continue to work hard to earn your patronage.

Sev~

Is there any chance you could let us know when the next planned hardware upgrade or data centre move will be? That way we'll know when to expect downtime.

Thanks.

[Brandwynn]

Any chance of seeing familiars for the spellslinger, Wizard, ect. Or is that just a pipe dream?

[Arkat]

It's a Psionicist.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Psionicist

Not even an official D&D class so, no, it won't be that.

[GramercyRiff]

Any chance of seeing familiars for the spellslinger, Wizard, ect. Or is that just a pipe dream?

I'm also hoping for familiars with good practical effects. I think it's now a possibility since we have Bird Man.

[Indubitably]

I'm also hoping for familiars with good practical effects. I think it's now a possibility since we have Bird Man.

Familiars would be awesome. It should be wizard only. But I know SSG have a fetish for universal trees now and exactly 3 trees per class... so it would probably be a universal tree now.

They COULD boot Pale Master tree out, replace it with a familiar tree, and make a new Necromancer that has a casting / shroud / melee tree. But again... I know I'm dreaming.

I just hope that the familiar tree is a decent generic caster universal tree...maybe add some SLAs (via your familiar.... hey wait, this sounds familiar), or bonus effects to cast spells. Add some extra sp/dc/ yadda yadda yadda... I assume the tree would be a bit like Archmage in that your choice of familiar would effect a lot of skills/abilities of the tree.

[noinfo]

Familiars would be awesome. It should be wizard only. But I know SSG have a fetish for universal trees now and exactly 3 trees per class... so it would probably be a universal tree now.

They COULD boot Pale Master tree out, replace it with a familiar tree, and make a new Necromancer that has a casting / shroud / melee tree. But again... I know I'm dreaming.

I just hope that the familiar tree is a decent generic caster universal tree...maybe add some SLAs (via your familiar.... hey wait, this sounds familiar), or bonus effects to cast spells. Add some extra sp/dc/ yadda yadda yadda... I assume the tree would be a bit like Archmage in that your choice of familiar would effect a lot of skills/abilities of the tree.

Yes because my wizard would want to be reliant on a gimp pet instead of full casting power from PM. No thanks.

Wizards are wizards, necromancer is a type of wizard, I wish they would nuke all these fluff classes that should not exist, its really one of the few things I think 3.5 did very poorly compared to 2nd edition.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

I want something *really* low level again. Unter and up to level 5.
Plume Mountain is level 7, okay, but I still want something below that. Something *new*. And please no sewers/waterworks.

[Cordovan]

I want something *really* low level again. Unter and up to level 5.
Plume Mountain is level 7, okay, but I still want something below that. Something *new*. And please no sewers/waterworks.

It probably will not be all the way up to five (although I bet you can get enough xp in it to get to 5), but when we do Keep on the Borderlands we intend to make it a low-level experience in the range you are looking for.

[Systern]

It probably will not be all the way up to five (although I bet you can get enough xp in it to get to 5), but when we do Keep on the Borderlands we intend to make it a low-level experience in the range you are looking for.

The issue that I have is that when I TR, the low level quests I run are pretty much mandatory, to get the necessary Coin Lords favor, to get the pack space, to be able to TR again.

[Ralmeth]

The issue that I have is that when I TR, the low level quests I run are pretty much mandatory, to get the necessary Coin Lords favor, to get the pack space, to be able to TR again.

I can't wait for Keep on the Borderlands, but I agree with you that you really need Coin Lord favor every life. Some solutions I could think of would be:
1) Keep on the Borderlands gives out Coin Lords favor, such that there are now multiple paths to earning your backpack space.
2) The backpack space earned from Coin Lord favor is earned permanently (i.e. lasts through TRs).
3) A third and final quest pack for the Attack on Stormreach series is added, and gives out enough Coin Lord favor that it is now possible to reach 700 favor. The reward would be that the backpack space earned at tiers 1 & 2 are earned permanently (i.e. lasts through TRs).

[Psiandron]

Btw Sev, since you dropped that Drow racial varient may be upcoming, do you think we could get the option to make them black?

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

This was a good read!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ke...he_Borderlands

[CeltEireson]

I can't wait for Keep on the Borderlands, but I agree with you that you really need Coin Lord favor every life. Some solutions I could think of would be:
1) Keep on the Borderlands gives out Coin Lords favor, such that there are now multiple paths to earning your backpack space.
2) The backpack space earned from Coin Lord favor is earned permanently (i.e. lasts through TRs).
3) A third and final quest pack for the Attack on Stormreach series is added, and gives out enough Coin Lord favor that it is now possible to reach 700 favor. The reward would be that the backpack space earned at tiers 1 & 2 are earned permanently (i.e. lasts through TRs).

I always thought getting to keep your earned bank and bag space from life to life would be a great VIP bonus - doesn't increase your power at all but very useful for everyone and it means you don't have to keep doing the same quests each life just to get the favour.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

It probably will not be all the way up to five (although I bet you can get enough xp in it to get to 5), but when we do Keep on the Borderlands we intend to make it a low-level experience in the range you are looking for.

Thanks for your reply.

I mean, while there are so many quests at the lower levels, I know them all already. And it does become a little bit repetitive over times (especially regarding the Coin Lords favour).

That's the reason why I think so.

Another thing that recently came to my mind is that I just do not know House Cannith much. I mean, since I'm not into challenges, and most quests there are high-level quests, I just never visit the House Cannith enclave in Stormreach.
Which is a shame, imho, because it has of the most beautiful kinds of architecture within Stormreach.

I think one or two low-level F2P quests there wouldn't be bad, either.

[Tyrande]

Yeah, and with them not using "X out of Y" (such as "do 10 out of however many"), everyone's forced to play stuff they don't want, or lose a bonus
they ground out dozens of lives for. Plus, class completionists get doubly boned, it's not passive, so they have to waste a feat slot. It's a horrible
hamster-wheel of a system. For example, why would a person planning an endgame fighter, want cleric lives, or a barbarian care about spell penetration?
[...]

The question is, why do people need completionist and *gasp* racial completionist to play anything?
I thought these two feats are optional, no? Optional means that people can choose not to play the hamster wheel game.
Certainly, that fighter will be having a bit less PRR, MRR, HP, AC... and that barbarian, the same thing... or that wizard, pretty much useless against anything that have spell resistance... but hey, that wizard got that completionist fighter and barbarian tanking for him, no?

This is not about being able to solo reaper R10 quests with such a superman character, is it?

I do not think the developers intend for us to play the game with a superman character walking backwards drunk and blindfolded....

If its about bragging rights, you can do the same quests on R10 with no reaper points and with a 28 points "adventurer" character and not run the original Amber Temple type quests.
You will also have a-lot more fun with that.

If the developers made the loot quality less with completionist characters and drop more for adventurers and no TR characters; people will want to TR less.

[Xoham]

I'm not sure how much this is a democracy; but the thing I have wanted most in DDO, for a few years now, is a Forgotten Realms drow race for PCs. I had assumed it would have to be an Iconic; but a new racial variant would also be fine with me!

[Delekahn]

Keep on the Borderlands is my all time favorite module! I have so many great memories when I was a kid and played the original and many other times and platforms. I can remember playing a Neverwinter Nights version and some of the Co8 ToEE version.

Thank you so much for doing this!

I know we already have a Giants quest line (and Drow), but my other favorite module is the Against the Giants series, then the Demonweb follow up.

[Iriale]

For me a new class is not good news. More grind added, and I doubt it contributes with anything new, we already have many classes. More spells, more tactical feats for weapons, more universal trees, more class trees, more racial variants would seem a great idea. A new class, no, thanks. We have many classes already. We have a lot of grind already,

[DaviMOC]

For me a new class is not good news. More grind added, and I doubt it contributes with anything new, we already have many classes. More spells, more tactical feats for weapons, more universal trees, more class trees, more racial variants would seem a great idea. A new class, no, thanks. We have many classes already. We have a lot of grind already,

Cant see your point... You dont need to play it at all if you dont like it. No grind required. If you talking about loosing completionist feat, one more class for someone that did all others classes already is not much, pretty sure you can do an extra life in 1-3 days pretty fast. A new class at this point is much more about adding content(all the stuff you said that would be good), new splash options and extra monetization for SSG.

Edit.: Is about time to see some rework on a couple of EDs.There are many underpowered or very niche focused and based on the old enhancement trees and old power creep.

[Iriale]

Cant see your point... You dont need to play it at all if you dont like it. No grind required. If you talking about loosing completionist feat, one more class for someone that did all others classes already is not much, pretty sure you can do an extra life in 1-3 days pretty fast. A new class at this point is much more about adding content(all the stuff you said that would be good), new splash options and extra monetization for SSG.

Edit.: Is about time to see some rework on a couple of EDs.There are many underpowered or very niche focused and based on the old enhancement trees and old power creep.

Many players like to have alts. And we feel that the excess of grind that there is currently makes them unviable. There is no way to catch up, before we do, they have already introduced another level of grind. It's time to stop producing more grind if they are not going to move to account-based progression systems. There is simply already too much!

So no. For you, with only one toon, it will only be a matter of making one more life. For the players of alts is to add more grind to a pile already very high.