DDO could really use a 'freshening up'

[fatherpirate]

Love the game, but it is showing it's age BAD.
Luckily, it can be ... refreshed.

city and country zones - think LOTRO
Make them BIGGER - huge, spread stuff way out and ditch as many zoning points as possible.
Give folks a reason to want a horse.

Cosmetic <<<< pet variations
why should ALL druid wolves look the same ?
Arty pets should have some variations
Undead pets REALLY should have some gear variations.
(cosmetic only)
Time to upgrade the cookie cutter your using.

(over time as resources permit)
Change the layouts of various difficulty levels on a dungeon.
the same dungeon with harder monsters is BORING
Ring Leader with casual, normal, hard, elite, reaper - is ONE dungeon
make each difficulty a totally new layout, move stuff around, move the traps and so on...
>>> Now you have 5 Dungeons <<<

Player housing - enough said
All guild ships need - a new system of some sort

enough for now

[mikarddo]

Love the game, but it is showing it's age BAD.
Luckily, it can be ... refreshed.

city and country zones - think LOTRO
Make them BIGGER - huge, spread stuff way out and ditch as many zoning points as possible.
Give folks a reason to want a horse.

Cosmetic <<<< pet variations
why should ALL druid wolves look the same ?
Arty pets should have some variations
Undead pets REALLY should have some gear variations.
(cosmetic only)
Time to upgrade the cookie cutter your using.

(over time as resources permit)
Change the layouts of various difficulty levels on a dungeon.
the same dungeon with harder monsters is BORING
Ring Leader with casual, normal, hard, elite, reaper - is ONE dungeon
make each difficulty a totally new layout, move stuff around, move the traps and so on...
>>> Now you have 5 Dungeons <<<

Player housing - enough said
All guild ships need - a new system of some sort

enough for now

Basically, I strongly disagree with every single wish on your list.

1)I dont want larger empty zones - I remember the 10+ min run across the Karanas in EQ1 - I dont want that back.
2) Pets and cosmetics. I already see enough of that in the game. If anything I wish there was a way for each player to turn off seeing these as I consider it clutter. Let those that want to see do so but leave me out.
3) Different versions of a dungeon for each difficulty level … no thanks, I would much rather have more new dungeons.
4) Player housing. I dont see the point at all. I would much rather have a revamp of the inventory system to make that work well. A much larger shared bank with the AH interface would be a good start - drop personal banks except for btc stuff.
5) Guild ships got a huge revamp not many years ago. They are still not used for much and there is a reason for that. Just leave them alone and use the time for something that matters

Anyway, disagreement is good. Thank you for posting your ideas even if I completely disagree.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Basically, I strongly disagree with every single wish on your list.

1)I dont want larger empty zones - I remember the 10+ min run across the Karanas in EQ1 - I dont want that back.
2) Pets and cosmetics. I already see enough of that in the game. If anything I wish there was a way for each player to turn off seeing these as I consider it clutter. Let those that want to see do so but leave me out.
3) Different versions of a dungeon for each difficulty level … no thanks, I would much rather have more new dungeons.
4) Player housing. I dont see the point at all. I would much rather have a revamp of the inventory system to make that work well. A much larger shared bank with the AH interface would be a good start - drop personal banks except for btc stuff.
5) Guild ships got a huge revamp not many years ago. They are still not used for much and there is a reason for that. Just leave them alone and use the time for something that matters

Anyway, disagreement is good. Thank you for posting your ideas even if I completely disagree.

this

[jkalten]

Basically, I strongly disagree with every single wish on your list.

1)I dont want larger empty zones - I remember the 10+ min run across the Karanas in EQ1 - I dont want that back.
2) Pets and cosmetics. I already see enough of that in the game. If anything I wish there was a way for each player to turn off seeing these as I consider it clutter. Let those that want to see do so but leave me out.
3) Different versions of a dungeon for each difficulty level … no thanks, I would much rather have more new dungeons.
4) Player housing. I dont see the point at all. I would much rather have a revamp of the inventory system to make that work well. A much larger shared bank with the AH interface would be a good start - drop personal banks except for btc stuff.
5) Guild ships got a huge revamp not many years ago. They are still not used for much and there is a reason for that. Just leave them alone and use the time for something that matters

Anyway, disagreement is good. Thank you for posting your ideas even if I completely disagree.

I can't agree with you more. SSG's needs to keep it simple for maybe a year or more in my opinion. No system changes, just the occasional update with a few new quests that don't have "new" mechanics in them, and spend the rest of the time refactoring the code base and paying down technical debt so that when they do start adding more systems, the rest of the code doesn't break.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Anything like this for me would fall under fixing existing content

1) upgrading older named items I.e. STK to at least be in par with lootgen
2) balancing dungeon difficulty of older quests to be in line with newer quests
3) fixing some of the uglier textures
4) buffing some of the weaker enhancement trees I.e. arch mage
5) take another pass at Druid and ranger spell list and spells .. HOT spells could be longer, both need more useful spells

Don’t really agree with any of the OP suggestions .. sounds like you are looking for a different game. I understand that we also need to keep moving forward and adding things that people pay for .. so whatever I’m still having fun.

[Guedez]

I can't agree with you more. SSG's needs to keep it simple for maybe a year or more in my opinion. No system changes, just the occasional update with a few new quests that don't have "new" mechanics in them, and spend the rest of the time refactoring the code base and paying down technical debt so that when they do start adding more systems, the rest of the code doesn't break.

Hell, stop changing code altogether and only add content for 3 years, then re-release the game in a new not-terrible engine

The servers can hardly handle their current dead status
The minimum tick time is 150ms, that's awfully slow (Or so I assume, my ping was never, ever, below 150). Minecraft servers are 20ms, for instance
The UI is horrible beyond description, can't even increase it's size
The server/client dies if you cleave too many enemies at once, for instance, that one quest to kill 4 pirate necromancer apprentices and the necromancer captain, there is a room with many zombies. I dare you cleave that

There is no reason the current content shouldn't be compatible with a new engine, especially if you are making the new engine to be, and even if is somehow, make a conversion tool or something. (Although I can picture some sort of DRM on the content builder to only work on the current engine due to horrible licence deals)


A new engine will probably do much more than any new content to bring new players, especially now that even normies are getting 4k monitors, just imagine the hotbars on a 4k monitor

[jkalten]

Hell, stop changing code altogether and only add content for 3 years, then re-release the game in a new not-terrible engine

The servers can hardly handle their current dead status
The minimum tick time is 150ms, that's awfully slow (Or so I assume, my ping was never, ever, below 150). Minecraft servers are 20ms, for instance
The UI is horrible beyond description, can't even increase it's size
The server/client dies if you cleave too many enemies at once, for instance, that one quest to kill 4 pirate necromancer apprentices and the necromancer captain, there is a room with many zombies. I dare you cleave that

There is no reason the current content shouldn't be compatible with a new engine, especially if you are making the new engine to be, and even if is somehow, make a conversion tool or something. (Although I can picture some sort of DRM on the content builder to only work on the current engine due to horrible licence deals)


A new engine will probably do much more than any new content to bring new players, especially now that even normies are getting 4k monitors, just imagine the hotbars on a 4k monitor

A new engine is another horrible idea. When you say new engine, what you are really saying is new game.

[janave]

In my opinion it just needs less grinds in the 1-27 range, and maybe a little more at 28-30. And by grinds i mean content so much fun players cant wait to get another chance to hop right in, spam the LFM with groups all day...

That is all needed, and to be honest I think that is totally in the capacity of Team DDO to do. Unlike requests like changing engines, which could turn into a total disaster, eat up ceiling-less resources, chew on and spit out bugs that make ladders and lags look like your best buddies.

[fatherpirate]

hah the power gamers have spoken!
Stream line stuff to get to the meat of the game..end game content.
to be honest, great for long time players.

totally turns off any new players...
but who needs new players? right

the areas are not empty because of size, they are empty due to lack of players.
It should concern everyone since this is a F2P game and it is getting almost no NEW players.

I think it is time to take a break from pleasing the end game crowd and put in
features and improvements to get more new players.

The latest expansion is a good step but it is a paid expansion so it is not very good at bring in new players

so to be blunt, this game needs a bunch of fresh blood or it will 'slowly' die.

[janave]

hah the power gamers have spoken!
Stream line stuff to get to the meat of the game..end game content.
to be honest, great for long time players.

DDO needed new players 10 years ago, I actually agree that it should be higher priority. Income probably comes from TR grinders and endgame raider/loot/reaper grinders. The latter group gets bored quickly, the other group only go on as long as there is a +1 PL feat to chase somewhere, which actually works against new player experience a lot.

A new player, granted they like the game enough (the first 1-10 levels dont really support that imo) are likely hit level cap in 1d3 months plusminus some days. Arriving at cap, they will be wondering whats next, then hear about raids they arent qualified for, then they hear about the amazing TRing, then they hear about others have done it 150 times, do a quick headmath and decide no way in hell they are committing to such grind.

The players I brought into this game:
a) quit before level 6
b) leveled up to 30, ran some quests, got bored and quit

None of them would commit to TRing more than 3-4 times!

It is fairly common that endgame players take longer breaks, wait while content catches up then return. The only reason i have returned was new high level content modules.

Sincerely,
a worthless endgame crowd power gamer

[jkalten]

hah the power gamers have spoken!
Stream line stuff to get to the meat of the game..end game content.
to be honest, great for long time players.

totally turns off any new players...
but who needs new players? right

the areas are not empty because of size, they are empty due to lack of players.
It should concern everyone since this is a F2P game and it is getting almost no NEW players.

I think it is time to take a break from pleasing the end game crowd and put in
features and improvements to get more new players.

The latest expansion is a good step but it is a paid expansion so it is not very good at bring in new players

so to be blunt, this game needs a bunch of fresh blood or it will 'slowly' die.

Umm no. Nothing to do with power gaming. I probably play less than 4 hours a week currently. I actually spend the majority of my time with my face buried in the Unity Editor working on my own thing.

My comments come from understanding that with what's happening in world with bugs, the code base has to be frightening. You know what hurts new players more? Crashes and misbehaviors.

[Guedez]

A new engine is another horrible idea. When you say new engine, what you are really saying is new game.

Why exactly the very same game can't be re-implemented on a modern engine? There is not even a good reason (besides licences) that the very same content and player data couldn't be used or at least converted to a new format
Considering you already know what's need to be on and what does not need to be on, you can make a very clean and reusable code that won't have to worry about changing requisites at least until released

[jkalten]

Why exactly the very same game can't be re-implemented on a modern engine? There is not even a good reason (besides licences) that the very same content and player data couldn't be used or at least converted to a new format
Considering you already know what's need to be on and what does not need to be on, you can make a very clean and reusable code that won't have to worry about changing requisites at least until released

Because the engine is the biggest component of a video game. The graphics and physics engines are a huge part of the code. They are complex and unforgiving. Swapping out to a new engine would be a slow and laborious process even if DDO didn't have code that is tightly coupled to the engine. And lets be honest, does anyone here who understands what I'm saying actually believe that the code isn't tightly coupled, everywhere?

You can upgrade the engine to an extent, but new engine = new game. It's just not economical otherwise.

[Guedez]

Because the engine is the biggest component of a video game. The graphics and physics engines are a huge part of the code. They are complex and unforgiving. Swapping out to a new engine would be a slow and laborious process even if DDO didn't have code that is tightly coupled to the engine. And lets be honest, does anyone here who understands what I'm saying actually believe that the code isn't tightly coupled, everywhere?

You can upgrade the engine to an extent, but new engine = new game. It's just not economical otherwise.

I meant rewrite the whole code from zero and reuse assets/data/content, not attempting to lobotomize parts of the current code into some new code, that would make it even worse than it is now

[jkalten]

I meant rewrite the whole code from zero and reuse assets/data/content, not attempting to lobotomize parts of the current code into some new code, that would make it even worse than it is now

Economically, that’s even worse. That is literally a whole new game other than an assets folder. Dev time is not free. You are talking years of paying highly skilled devs to do it.

[Guedez]

Economically, that’s even worse. That is literally a whole new game other than an assets folder. Dev time is not free. You are talking years of paying highly skilled devs to do it.

What exactly do you think that messing with legacy code, while game breaking bugs make into production, costs? It will have to be done eventually, the game is 13 years old, so it have 14-15 years old code that was certainly not made to handle the new features added these past 5~ years

[GeneralDiomedes]

hah the power gamers have spoken!
Stream line stuff to get to the meat of the game..end game content.
to be honest, great for long time players.

totally turns off any new players...
but who needs new players? right

the areas are not empty because of size, they are empty due to lack of players.
It should concern everyone since this is a F2P game and it is getting almost no NEW players.

I think it is time to take a break from pleasing the end game crowd and put in
features and improvements to get more new players.

The latest expansion is a good step but it is a paid expansion so it is not very good at bring in new players

so to be blunt, this game needs a bunch of fresh blood or it will 'slowly' die.

Still not sure what your suggestions have to do with bringing in new players. By adding open worlds you are just putting yourself in competition with other MMOs that are already years ahead and probably you will scare off a lot of existing players like me who really detest having to run anywhere and have better things to do than run across virtual terrains.

DDO should play to its strengths - character building, complex and fun instanced quests and D&D lore. Make THAT experience the best it can be and advertise! Surely that is a sustainable niche.

If there was a server merge or we went to a single virtual server the newb vet divide would be less of an issue as people could group with others of the same power level. As the hardcore server proved this is still a GREAT game when people with no gear and past lives are thrown together.

And the first thing I notice as a new player in a game are the graphics .. so yeah priority should always be on improving the graphics quality. Second of course would be how busy are the common areas / grouping panels so let’s get rid of server population silos!

[jkalten]

What exactly do you think that messing with legacy code, while game breaking bugs make into production, costs? It will have to be done eventually, the game is 13 years old, so it have 14-15 years old code that was certainly not made to handle the new features added these past 5~ years

Simple. Refactor, iterate, and paydown technical debt. Yeah it still requires work, but a lot less than starting over.

[Guedez]

but a lot less than starting over.

Only the devs can know that. A 13-15 years old project that probably had many programmers on many different parts of it is bound to be legacy code hell. Rewriting old code requires you to make sure your refactors don't break anything already working, even if you are going to rewrite it later. Starting fresh can be done without any worries about the current messy state of any code

As miyamoto once said about earthbound:
"I can help you if you would like but there are two ways to proceed," said Iwata, recalling the story in 2013. "If we use what you have now and fix it, it will take two years. If we can start fresh, it’ll take half a year".

[droid327]

Love the game, but it is showing it's age BAD.
Luckily, it can be ... refreshed.

city and country zones - think LOTRO
Make them BIGGER - huge, spread stuff way out and ditch as many zoning points as possible.
Give folks a reason to want a horse.

(over time as resources permit)
Change the layouts of various difficulty levels on a dungeon.
the same dungeon with harder monsters is BORING
Ring Leader with casual, normal, hard, elite, reaper - is ONE dungeon
make each difficulty a totally new layout, move stuff around, move the traps and so on...
>>> Now you have 5 Dungeons <<<

Everything you've said there would make me want the game less, and make me dislike it more as a new player

Huge zones just for the sake of being huge are pointless. Look at Barovia. Its ginormous, but there's absolutely zero point to walking across it. That's not elitism or power-gaming...its just not wanting to waste your time watching your character auto-run for 2 1/2 minutes.

Changing layouts with difficulty would be like building 5 dungeons instead of just 1. First off, it wouldn't be a true progression in difficulty if it was totally reformatted each time - it'd be more like Epic 3BC, where the map is the same but the quest gets routed through differently, but that's a different quest then. Learning it on Hard wouldnt help you do better on Elite. Second off, that'd be such a huge increase in workload for building and then maintaining quests - expansions and adventure packs would come out 5x slower, and thus have to be 5x as expensive.