Don't Balance the Game Around HCL

[Clemeit]

We all know how well it went when game-wide decisions were made through the lenses of Reaper difficulty. Don't do that with HCL. Many of us haven't - and never will - play HCL.

Hello, all! Update 45 is expected to contain a large amount of changes to systems balance in DDO. These are being done in preparation for Hardcore Season 2. Going forward we the plan is to pool most major balance changes into updates/patches that arrive before the start of new Hardcore seasons in order to make the new season feel distinct and different from previous seasons.

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. Some of this process involves identifying underperforming builds and making changes to boost them - KOTC and Two Handed Fighting changes are a big part of this in this Season. However, this process also involves identifying overperforming builds and archetypes and making adjustments as well.

• Guild Airship Officer Dubgar no longer sells guild airship buffs or transport npcs. He still supplies training dummies, crafting stations and guild chests.

As part of the pass of balance changes for Hardcore Season 2 we are giving Melee builds the ability to quickly close the gap with enemies.

• The Boarding Pass to Sharn now uses the same induction time that other Teleport Items use, such as the Bottle of Mist and Stormreach d12.

[karatemack]

We all know how well it went when game-wide decisions were made through the lenses of Reaper difficulty. Don't do that with HCL. Many of us haven't - and never will - play HCL.

You are spot-on. Balancing to the top 1% of players has never been a good idea.

[Cernunan]

Yes, this.

The wholesale unnecessary changes in this Update are so overwhelming I'm pretty irritated. I don't even fell like playing tonight.

[Xanthrawl]

You are spot-on. Balancing to the top 1% of players has never been a good idea.

The game must be struggling mightily indeed if they are putting all of their ducks in the HCL. If they open it up to Premium this go round, I'll be able to play with everyone. If it remains VIP only, and the servers become a ghost town again, I will probably just take a several month break.

[Fenrisulven7]

KOTC and Two Handed Fighting changes are a big part of this in this Season.

Well that's good to know. I've been staying loyal to my IntimiTank because I heard fixes to KOTC and THF would be coming sooooooon. First time that's paid off for me, feels nice.

But I agree with the others - bad idea to balance around HardCore. I tried it thinking it would resemble Permadeath, meh. Still too easy with AH, DDO Store and Vendors.

[Cernunan]

Well that's good to know. I've been staying loyal to my IntimiTank because I heard fixes to KOTC and THF would be coming sooooooon. First time that's paid off for me, feels nice.

But I agree with the others - bad idea to balance around HardCore. I tried it thinking it would resemble Permadeath, meh. Still too easy with AH, DDO Store and Vendors.

Yep, now without guild resist, people willing to spend money will spend more money with store work arounds. Imagine that...…….

[Fenrisulven7]

Yep, now without guild resist, people willing to spend money will spend more money with store work arounds. Imagine that...…….

i'm not caught up on that. But my (mostly ignorant) opinion is that +30 buffs are too strong for low levels characters.

Although I don't understand why the devs simply don't scale them to level, instead of taking them completely away from peeps who aren't even interested in the Hard Core League.


I'm a whale (spent about $30K last year) who was going to play Hard Core 2 just to throw Shards at the community Guild Ships:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...fter-viability


...but not if it enables the punishment of everyone else. So I'm out. I may even find a newer game to support financially.

[mr420247]

Even if they opened it to premium its still the same as

Wasting time on useless alts there still useless too much grind

[Hogdog5]

This. It's clear that they're using the data from HCL to release balancing changes to the live servers. They aren't necessarily compatible. Make changes to HCL if you want, but leave the rest of us alone.

[fatherpirate]

I personally don't know why they don't just open HCL to all players.
If your F2P or Prem, it is up to you to figure out how you want to grind
Favor... or not. maybe you just like permadeath.

Fine, everyone has the same rules...open the door.

Don't matter if all the other servers are quite, the guild ships is not going anywhere.
Open the door,
Everyone plays.

[Fenrisulven7]

This. It's clear that they're using the data from HCL to release balancing changes to the live servers. They aren't necessarily compatible. Make changes to HCL if you want, but leave the rest of us alone.

Since HCL is own it's own server, why can't the Guild nerfs be applied to the HC server only?

[karatemack]

Since HCL is own it's own server, why can't the Guild nerfs be applied to the HC server only?

A valid point.

[Saekee]

I'm a whale (spent about $30K last year)

Are you kidding me?

[Fenrisulven7]

Are you kidding me?

Nope.

Spoiler: I'm a little nuts

[Hogdog5]

If it remains VIP only, and the servers become a ghost town again, I will probably just take a several month break.

Join the crowd. Last HCL I took a 3 month hiatus. The few friends I guild with are VIP, so when HCL came around and they took off to play that, I was the only player left in the guild. Rather than play solo, I played FFXIV instead. At least that game doesn't have a population issue.

[Mofus]

Why would you bring HCL back when you haven't dealt with the lag. People are going to go nuts when their toons are dyeing from lag bombs.

[acemonkey]

Why would you bring HCL back when you haven't dealt with the lag. People are going to go nuts when their toons are dyeing from lag bombs.

They took significant virtual server resources away from the other servers to pump up the HC and make it mostly lag free. They'll do it again next season, as they appear to be pinning all their future financial hopes on extreme cyclical PTW and HC.

[fatherpirate]

Just let everyone play.

Less heart burn

In the end, it doesn't matter if everyone is there...it is you or
you and your party vs the dungeon. So we got 20 instances of market...cool.
NWO does that every day

Less exclusive...more inclusive.

[janave]

Not interested at all in hardcore events regardless of access or anything, this means I prefer game balance to be primarily about the permanent servers. Is this just the pseudo server merge beta testing undercover?

If HC events will be too frequent to have my guild mates spend less times on live servers, I will be taking these times out of DDO, and likely come back when the event is turned off, which is likely based on the 1st event.

[Komradkillingmachine]

What A LOAD OF BALONEY!!!

I'm not interested in wasting time on HCL whatsoever, why am I being punished for sh*t that I could care less about?

Is this SSG's brilliant idea to kill off Live POP and just shutdown the game this year?