Don't Balance the Game Around HCL

[Noir]

The DEVS said when the Guild Ship Overall Update was introduced that the Cargo Hold Amenities would be going away sometime in the future.
We all knew this day would come.

Why is anyone surprised?
The Greater Resists are drastically OP at lower levels.
The Stateroom resists are scaled to character level and are available for all the same elements as the cargo
Hold resist shrines.

I admit I use the Greater Resists but I feel somewhat shamed every time I barrel through the Acid Tunnel
In "Venn's Trail: Clan Tunnelworm" on a Character without evasion or acid damage reducing gear without a single scratch.

Again the DEVs said this was going to happen nearly 6 years ago. ( Update 22 went live Wednesday, June 11th, 2014 )
We were told in 2014 the Cargo Buffs were on borrowed time.

[GeneralDiomedes]

HC is the perfect place to balance classes because everyone is on a more equal playing field gear wise and past life wise.

Not understanding the outrage.

[HungarianRhapsody]

HC is the perfect place to balance classes because everyone is on a more equal playing field gear wise and past life wise.

Not understanding the outrage.

Not everyone wants to play HC style. A lot of people are more casual players.

Balancing one class against another for HC is fine. Balancing the players against the game with HC in mind (by doing things like reducing overall ranged DPS or removing the guild elemental resists or adding a long animation to the Sharn teleport clicks) in order to make the HC servers more challenging is not fine when those changes are put in all the servers.

...of course the guild elemental ship buffs are only going to screw over new guilds on the other servers, not established ones. Because us older guildies are going to buy a billion resist shrines and stick them on mules.

[Cernunan]

The DEVS said when the Guild Ship Overall Update was introduced that the Cargo Hold Amenities would be going away sometime in the future.
We all knew this day would come.

Why is anyone surprised?
The Greater Resists are drastically OP at lower levels.
The Stateroom resists are scaled to character level and are available for all the same elements as the cargo
Hold resist shrines.

I admit I use the Greater Resists but I feel somewhat shamed every time I barrel through the Acid Tunnel
In "Venn's Trail: Clan Tunnelworm" on a Character without evasion or acid damage reducing gear without a single scratch.

Again the DEVs said this was going to happen nearly 6 years ago. ( Update 22 went live Wednesday, June 11th, 2014 )
We were told in 2014 the Cargo Buffs were on borrowed time.

That is so adorable that you posted a link to the FIRST dev admission about the changes, but you neglected to post the literal thousands of posts and threads containing the overall outrage from the community, which eventually lead to the devs saying they would not remove the resist amenities, and lead to them actually adding the cargo hold with the old amenities to the current guild ship design.

That is the problem with all of those people thinking they are the uber power gamers in a 13 year old game with a miniscule player base. Spoiler alert to all you ubers, this is a casual game with what's left of the player base being casual gamers.

The removal of the resists will actually remove build diversity. If I do not have to build self resist casting, I can then make any build I like to play. Now I have to make sure I can hard cast resists on every build . That sucks for me. It makes builds less diverse. No more fun build concepts. I have to have hard cast resists, or spend money in the store to make up the resist changes.

[Ashlayna]

Ok, I am going to say it.

This forum is full of cry babies.

Standing stone is trying to BALANCE the game and
all these end game players are screaming and crying UNFAIR !

How DARE you ruin my OP exploit build !

ZERO SYMPATHY
If you need a OP exploit build, your really not very good at this.

My personal choice - DESTROY ALL 'I WIN' Buttons.

Balance EVERYTHING. Make a Bard as good as a warlock as good as a druid as good as a fighter as good as a artificer.

And if that requires some big nerfs ... DO IT.

I am just tired of all the crying.

Apparently, in your rage, you didn't bother to read the Lamma forums, or perhaps you don't have access? Every ranged build in the game will be nerfed if the current changes on Lamma go live. Not just Inquis, but all of them, including the ones that they have already acknowledged are underperforming. For the small cost of 3 feats, 19 Dex and +11 BAB, you will be rewarded with a straight 20% nerf to your ranged damage if you use IPS. Hey, on the bright side, you'll be able to move while you use build up Archer's Focus, but as soon as you change targets, you lose any stacks you manage to build up. This isn't on an Inquis build, but on any build that uses these feats. Running a thrower build? Nerfed. Running a pure Arti with no Inquis? Nerfed. A mech? Nerfed.

I played pure ranger AAs when they were considered a liability. My main is a FvS AA, and it was designed before we ever had epic levels to play around with, or EDs. Nerfed, because of your "I WIN" button. Somebody wasn't very good at something, but I'm not sure the fault lies where you think it lies.

[Ashlayna]

HC is the perfect place to balance classes because everyone is on a more equal playing field gear wise and past life wise.

Not understanding the outrage.

Go read the proposed changes in the Lamma forum, come back and let us know how you feel.

[Fenrisulven7]

Long overdue and necessary, in my opinion. Heck, we now have people on the forums bragging about how many TENS of thousands of dollars they spent on DDO in a single year. What kind of game is that? It's the shrinking kind.

oooh. Green doesn't look good on you.

My point was I was thinking of throwing a lot of money at HC2, as a universal crafter and universal guild ship, just to help the players out.

But that I've changed my mind because it appears HC success is enabling the punishment of everyone else, ie I don't approve of the game being balanced around HCL

I pay to have fun, not to win. I don't even use meta-builds.

And any money sunk into a Unbound Cannith Crafter for HC2 would have been fun roleplay for me - a crazy wizard who will be craft you a sword if you bring him a shrubbery.

So you have no idea what you are talking about.

[fatherpirate]

The true irony,

The developers will do it anyways.
They might tweek something small if we yell enough, but big things ?

Not a chance in hell.

Dev 1 "The forums are on fire !"
Dev 2 "No problem, we can sweep up the ash after the fire burns out"

ahhh the delicious drama, tastes like chicken.

[Ashlayna]

The true irony,

The developers will do it anyways.
They might tweek something small if we yell enough, but big things ?

Not a chance in hell.

Dev 1 "The forums are on fire !"
Dev 2 "No problem, we can sweep up the ash after the fire burns out"

ahhh the delicious drama, tastes like chicken.

Sad, but likely true. I mean, we already have them running around doing damage control trying to say "but we're not balancing for HCL", despite what's in the opening posts on the Lamma forums. Too bad, really, there's a lot of interesting SP games coming out in the next few months, I guess I know where my money to buy them is coming from.

[Fenrisulven7]

SSG has clarified that they are NOT balancing the game around HCL

"All of our balance changes are aimed at the game as a whole. We do want players playing on the Hardcore server to have consistent play during the season and to be able to adopt strategies that won’t drastically change, and we did mean to say that we plan to target balance changes so they mostly happen between Hardcore seasons. We don’t want balance changes to be driven by Hardcore play."

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...alance-changes

So calm down.

[Ashlayna]

SSG has clarified that they are NOT balancing the game around HCL

"All of our balance changes are aimed at the game as a whole. We do want players playing on the Hardcore server to have consistent play during the season and to be able to adopt strategies that won’t drastically change, and we did mean to say that we plan to target balance changes so they mostly happen between Hardcore seasons. We don’t want balance changes to be driven by Hardcore play."

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...alance-changes

So calm down.

Here ya' go.

Disclaimer

Everything seen on the preview server, Lamannia, is not final and is subject to change or removal before live release.

For some context about these changes:

As we approach each Hardcore season, one of our goals is to make changes that change how you build and play characters - We want to shake up builds and strategies, and it makes sense to align these game-wide changes with the release of new seasons of the Hardcore League. Season 2 is coming very soon, so U45 contains a lot of the balance changes for the season

[KoobTheProud]

Are you kidding me?

Somebody is keeping the lights on for SSG.. Don't argue with them

[Komradkillingmachine]

SSG has clarified that they are NOT balancing the game around HCL

"All of our balance changes are aimed at the game as a whole. We do want players playing on the Hardcore server to have consistent play during the season and to be able to adopt strategies that won’t drastically change, and we did mean to say that we plan to target balance changes so they mostly happen between Hardcore seasons. We don’t want balance changes to be driven by Hardcore play."

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...alance-changes

So calm down.

You can spam all the threads with this new post all you want, but the damage is done.

If they wanted specific balance they could've introduced all the changes only on Hardcore servers, but they are lazy and go the path of least resistance.

That and also milking the last 100+ whales...

[SiliconScout]

...Hey, on the bright side, you'll be able to move while you use build up Archer's Focus, but as soon as you change targets, you lose any stacks you manage to build up. ...

How the hell did I miss THAT! This is a massive nerf to ranged damage and I say this as a ranged build that would stand there and take a beating to build up the stacks. Mobs drop pretty quick so this means that basically you might get full stack against a boss. Sure it builds up quick but how many Mobs last even 10 seconds, 10 stacks is 2/3 of the available right there and let's be honest they'll probably drop somewhere around 5. Oh and if you aren't hard targeting it will be effectively useless against a pack of mobs.

Think about that logic here. In the best case scenario, the less HP the mob has the more damage you will do against it but once it dies your damage drops to the bottom again against the next full HP mob. I note that it doesn't say that you have to remain still anymore, could be oversight could be true that you can move, but even if you can move ... seriously .... seriously. DPS + Kiting is why the "overperform" and this change might be a slight increase to those who kite vs. those like me that used it and were willing to take a beating.

This is just silliness I am sorry, it is.

[LurkingVeteran]

How the hell did I miss THAT! This is a massive nerf to ranged damage and I say this as a ranged build that would stand there and take a beating to build up the stacks. Mobs drop pretty quick so this means that basically you might get full stack against a boss. Sure it builds up quick but how many Mobs last even 10 seconds, 10 stacks is 2/3 of the available right there and let's be honest they'll probably drop somewhere around 5. Oh and if you aren't hard targeting it will be effectively useless against a pack of mobs.

Think about that logic here. In the best case scenario, the less HP the mob has the more damage you will do against it but once it dies your damage drops to the bottom again against the next full HP mob. I note that it doesn't say that you have to remain still anymore, could be oversight could be true that you can move, but even if you can move ... seriously .... seriously. DPS + Kiting is why the "overperform" and this change might be a slight increase to those who kite vs. those like me that used it and were willing to take a beating.

This is just silliness I am sorry, it is.

If it is exclusive w IPS it will still be a 20% flat damage bonus to start with, so it might still be relatively more useful than before.

[Ashlayna]

How the hell did I miss THAT! This is a massive nerf to ranged damage and I say this as a ranged build that would stand there and take a beating to build up the stacks. Mobs drop pretty quick so this means that basically you might get full stack against a boss. Sure it builds up quick but how many Mobs last even 10 seconds, 10 stacks is 2/3 of the available right there and let's be honest they'll probably drop somewhere around 5. Oh and if you aren't hard targeting it will be effectively useless against a pack of mobs.

Think about that logic here. In the best case scenario, the less HP the mob has the more damage you will do against it but once it dies your damage drops to the bottom again against the next full HP mob. I note that it doesn't say that you have to remain still anymore, could be oversight could be true that you can move, but even if you can move ... seriously .... seriously. DPS + Kiting is why the "overperform" and this change might be a slight increase to those who kite vs. those like me that used it and were willing to take a beating.

This is just silliness I am sorry, it is.

Worse, it's across the board nerfed. Use Precise Shot on an Assassin? Nerfed. It sucks big time, all in the name of "but Inquis needs nerfed". I use throwing daggers on my assassin for perched mobs, and this is going to flat out hurt, unless I want to spend money, that is, and buy into VKF to get a bonus on throwing daggers. AH HA! "Mystery" to why they think this is a good idea, solved. I don't use IPS, just Precise Shot, and I too stand there, with Improve Uncanny Dodge running, to build up stacks where I can sit in one spot to pick off "snipers". As soon as I kill one, I'm starting over on the next one, and it wouldn't matter if I just ditched the daggers and dipped into mech and used GXBows, I'd still be taking a hit on every kill. I really feel bad about my non-ranger AAs, my arti that isn't dipping into anything else, and my mech too. That's 8 years worth of work, still ongoing, undone by one patch, because of an enhancement tree that one has to buy.

Silly is an understatement.

[Drwaz99]

SSG has clarified that they are NOT balancing the game around HCL

"All of our balance changes are aimed at the game as a whole. We do want players playing on the Hardcore server to have consistent play during the season and to be able to adopt strategies that won’t drastically change, and we did mean to say that we plan to target balance changes so they mostly happen between Hardcore seasons. We don’t want balance changes to be driven by Hardcore play."

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...alance-changes

So calm down.

Hate to break it to you, but he's...twisting the truth...to mitigate damage. That's what he does.

[LightBear]

The DEVS said when the Guild Ship Overall Update was introduced that the Cargo Hold Amenities would be going away sometime in the future.
We all knew this day would come.

Why is anyone surprised?
The Greater Resists are drastically OP at lower levels.
The Stateroom resists are scaled to character level and are available for all the same elements as the cargo
Hold resist shrines.

I admit I use the Greater Resists but I feel somewhat shamed every time I barrel through the Acid Tunnel
In "Venn's Trail: Clan Tunnelworm" on a Character without evasion or acid damage reducing gear without a single scratch.

Again the DEVs said this was going to happen nearly 6 years ago. ( Update 22 went live Wednesday, June 11th, 2014 )
We were told in 2014 the Cargo Buffs were on borrowed time.

And from the feedback received from their customer base they quickly came back on those statements and made promises to never ever get rid of them.
There is a good reason that the person who thought to do that is no longer active.

[MeliCat]

I am super annoyed about ratcatcher changes. I thought it was really petty - there is after all a better option at 15 and then again at 20 - as it take a bit of effort to farm one of the silly things as it isn't always in the end rewards and it's a really looooong chain, and I wanted to enjoy it once I finally got the dratted thing.

But they are going to nerf it now. At first I thought that this was because of inquis, and just was annoyed at such a petty change to a twink piece of loot.

But now I find out that it is for hard core.

I do not like hard core. Likely I will never play it. Not interested. All power to those who do and I will encourage you to enjoy hard core and the fun it brings you.

But to *nerf* something fun, a little piece of twink loot, *because of hard core*, that is petty.

What is more you said you wouldn't make changes to the live server stuff because of hard core. But here you are doing so. Removing fun off live for hard core.

I don't know why this has got me so riled up. I guess I'll get over it. It's minor compared to other things. I hope someone does read this though and hears how much I do not like my shiny toy being taken away

[Aelonwy]

I am super annoyed about ratcatcher changes. I thought it was really petty - there is after all a better option at 15 and then again at 20 - as it take a bit of effort to farm one of the silly things as it isn't always in the end rewards and it's a really looooong chain, and I wanted to enjoy it once I finally got the dratted thing.

But they are going to nerf it now. At first I thought that this was because of inquis, and just was annoyed at such a petty change to a twink piece of loot.

But now I find out that it is for hard core.

I do not like hard core. Likely I will never play it. Not interested. All power to those who do and I will encourage you to enjoy hard core and the fun it brings you.

But to *nerf* something fun, a little piece of twink loot, *because of hard core*, that is petty.

What is more you said you wouldn't make changes to the live server stuff because of hard core. But here you are doing so. Removing fun off live for hard core.

I don't know why this has got me so riled up. I guess I'll get over it. It's minor compared to other things. I hope someone does read this though and hears how much I do not like my shiny toy being taken away

Think that's bad? My family just earned the plat bought 5% xp shrine within the last 2 months. And while Lynnabel is giving every indication they plan to return the mailbox/ah/tavern/bank to us... there's been no mention of the plat bought xp shrine. That took some genuine effort to earn from a 4-6 person guild (4 is my family & 2 friends that serial game-hop). All the ppl that like to take things away from others after they've already enjoyed all the advantages for however long just make me think of politicians.