A Look Ahead - Producer's Letter January 2020

[mons]

We are entering a new decade with grand plans for Dungeons & Dragons Online, and I am writing today to share some of our ideas with you. The past decade-plus has been an amazing adventure, and we thank you for being a part of it.

We're kicking off 2020 with a bit of polish and refresh to two of DDO's most historic adventure packs: The Catacombs and Delera's Tomb! Both of these adventures will get Epic versions in our next game update, which also features the previously-announced Alchemist class. The Alchemist mixes and matches spells to create powerful reactions that help allies and incinerate foes. Expect Update 45 to arrive in February!

Season One of the Hardcore League was met with enthusiasm and excitement, so we're making it a recurring event! In Season Two, Mortality will be replaced by DDO's classic foe Arraetrikos, who will empower new Champions with devilish powers. Expect future seasons to test your skill in how you build and play characters, in addition to new rewards! You will read more about these changes as we near future seasons.

2020 will also bring a long-standing community request to the game: a 64-bit client. The 64-bit client can improve the overall performance of the game for many, and we look forward to its release later this year. We also have user interface improvements planned for the Shared Account Bank to make it easier to store, sort, and access the items you've collected. Other quality of life improvements are in the planning stages as well, and we'll talk more about it later this year.

Spring will bring a new adventure pack set in Stormreach, where the Gatekeepers need your help to determine the fate of some missing acolytes in the Cerulean Hills, and investigate the sudden appearance of a strange hut in the Harbor. In the summer, we're considering a new adventure pack in addition to some Legendary versions of well-known raids, but we want to keep that unannounced for now.

As we gaze further into the second half of the year, we are thrilled to share news about our next expansion, which will see players travel into the mystical plane of the Feywild! Joining characters on their trip will be our next new player character race: the Shifter, capable of temporarily embracing their bestial aspects to rend enemies and survive. Another thing we can say today about our upcoming Feywild expansion is that you will need to learn new, powerful ways to overcome challenge, and doing so will gain you the experience necessary to push past level 30 for the first time in DDO history.

We have other surprises in store for 2020 as well, but the above is a high-level road map of our current schedule. As always, the road map can change, and we will endeavor to let you know how things are going as plans become realities. We are very thankful for your support of this game for more than a decade, and we are thrilled to embark on a new decade of adventure with you.

Sev~

I for one appreciate ANY communications from a game that is going on 15 years (beta added circa August 2005) . To have new content and expansions at this stage of its life is to me, amazing. Please, keep moving forward DDO. And most importantly, I mean seriously, when anything in DDO goes awry, remember its ALWAYS Tako's fault!

[Jerevth]

The TR system was originally a good plan, but then came along ER's, racials, Iconics, and now they're going to 30+? If they add Legendary TR's to this,
and crank out yet-another-wheel we're pretty much done. They're taking a game that WAS fun in the beginning, and just making it a neverending chore
to try and stay relevent to the power-crowd they're catering to. Not the average player. They didn't even let Heroic completionist retrofit to be a passive,
like the "new" completionists. I'm pretty sure they have a gorilla designing the game now.

They need to move character progression laterally, not boost the level cap and hose up the entire game dynamic anymore than it already is.

Pray-tell, what do you envision as "viable, lateral character progression" that would attract players and break the monotony for those who have achieved all the wins?

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

Do you intend to keep the level cap at 30 for reincarnation purposes and just let the newer levels represent mastery not required for reincarnation benefits?

[LightBear]

This all sounds fascinating, but I could do without the level cap increase. Every single time time you guys have increased the level cap historically three things have happened:

1. All of the existing endgame gear has been completely invalidated.
2. Most of the current LEVELING gear has ALSO been invalidated or broken by some new corresponding loot update.
3. There isn't enough current endgame content, so only a tiny smattering of builds that can get ahold of decent endgame gear are valid for endgame now.
4. The next 5/6 updates become a desperate attempt to reinvigorate the now horribly narrow and limited endgame.
5. Reincarnating gains a new level of headache.

1. Not sure about that as cc crafted gear can be made with level 34 power but with level 30 as ML.
2. Pritty sure loot has been following the same schema since Lyn has been assigned to it.
3. Relatively there is more content at level 30 and each level upwards compared to each level before that, only matched by the very early heroic levels.
4. You mean the last 20 updates or so, ever since 30 has been the cap and that is something like 4 years now?
5. Nothing said about that just yet. But we can dream of such delights now can't we?

[LightBear]

I predict much cash be spend on this game:

[Cordovan]

Do you intend to keep the level cap at 30 for reincarnation purposes and just let the newer levels represent mastery not required for reincarnation benefits?

Our level cap increase will not impact current forms of reincarnation.

[Matuse]

Our level cap increase will not impact current forms of reincarnation.

Meaning...there is a new form of reincarnation coming.

Kill me now.

[droid327]

Meaning...there is a new form of reincarnation coming.

Kill me now.

Of course...what did you think?

You've reincarnated. You've Epic reincarnated. Now its time to SUPER Epic reincarnate!

It'll require a Store-only heart though.../cynic

Oh god I can just feel the grindiness of having to do 3 reincarnations in a row if you do a Legendary>Epic>Heroic reincarnation. Please please please give us an option to reincarnate without changing anything, and it just does it all automatically without needing to manually recreate each level.

Or conversely let us do compound reincarnations, so you only need to do it once.

[Mortas]

... The point is, we are ready to announce that we are increasing the level cap with the release of our next expansion pack but are not yet ready to give specifics on the structure...

/sigh. I'd much rather they create a new engine for lvls 30+ around Planescape. 20 was already pushing the immersion envelope for me as that is reaching demigod levels in the D&D setting. 30 is god level so... Frankly this is starting to feel like other games where you go elsewhere when you realize it is the same game just different numbers based on level. D&D level progression opened different play styles, eg. in my games, the teens started getting you into royalty or army general level so we started doing battle fields, building castles, then 20 ish started exploring the planes. Otherwise, it is just killing bigger rats.

I apprecite the dev work, just saying.

[Jerevth]

Of course...what did you think?

You've reincarnated. You've Epic reincarnated. Now its time to SUPER Epic reincarnate!

It'll require a Store-only heart though.../cynic

Oh god I can just feel the grindiness of having to do 3 reincarnations in a row if you do a Legendary>Epic>Heroic reincarnation. Please please please give us an option to reincarnate without changing anything, and it just does it all automatically without needing to manually recreate each level.

Or conversely let us do compound reincarnations, so you only need to do it once.

Epic reincarnation is an epic pita.
Please make a cascade option of Epic/Racial or Heroic reincarnation (and beyond if we see legendary) where we can plug in the hearts, choose our options and start at level one. I honestly hate the ETR aspect of building the toon up when I'm going to RTR or HTR anyone. (Make it an option; ETR with tweaks to the heroic aspect are a need to have in some situations.)

[ironmaiden-br]

Our level cap increase will not impact current forms of reincarnation.

Do you guys have plans for new forms of reincarnation with the level raise?

[Nickodeamous]

Epic reincarnation is an epic pita.
Please make a cascade option of Epic/Racial or Heroic reincarnation (and beyond if we see legendary) where we can plug in the hearts, choose our options and start at level one. I honestly hate the ETR aspect of building the toon up when I'm going to RTR or HTR anyone. (Make it an option; ETR with tweaks to the heroic aspect are a need to have in some situations.)

I totally concur. I always run to 30, then epic reincarnate, quickly followed by a racial TR. I think it is a giant pita to have to level to 20 only to turn around and tr to 1. I just fly through it. Id rather have the option to "keep heroic leveling the same" so i dont waste time.

Also, going to say it. Please merge heroic and racial TRs into one.

Thanks!
Nico

[Talon_Dragonsbane]

I guess I'll be dropping the game or spend zero dollars. The level cap increase only adds more grind to an already grindy game with no offset like reducing xp for heroic/epic tr, or doubling up racial and class tr.

I'm not thrilled with these changes, unless the new level cap is a requirement for a toon to be transported to DDO2.

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

Our level cap increase will not impact current forms of reincarnation.

A new kind of reincarnation would be inadvisable unless the soul purpose of it was to reduce people's number of ALT characters by turning said alt characters into items that a specified toon would then receive.

It could work like this:

Bound to character items and equipment~Becomes "Character Bound Cache"

Tomes Used On Sacrificed Toon~ Tomes Reappear in the inventory of the character such was sent to. Tomes are condensed so if you have an individual +4 tome for each stat, you instead get a +4 supreme tome

Sacrificed toon has past lives~ These past lives are all turned into a single potion "Essence Of (Insert name of sacrificed character here)", drinking this potion grants you a permanent and special feat that can stack up to three times, it also grants you the past lives that were held by the sacrificed toon.

Requirement: Toon sacrificed must have at least one past life and be at max level

Now, I know SSG prefers to incentivize the gaining of past lives, but this time go no further than than maybe opening up access to a chosen hybrid universal/racial enhancement tree to someone who has drank three potions! What in DDO could possibly translate to being a hybrid between racial and universal enhancement trees? The answer is simple enough: Racial Templates and you can easily lock access to these by making the key a feat that is free to those who drank three of such potions, and inaccessible to anyone else!

Since action points spent in a tree determine whether or not it has any power, this would be perfect for some level of balance being ensured!

The reason this is my conclusion is because people want new ways of playing, just not extra work if they do not like their options for said extra ways of playing!

[DRoark]

I guess I'll be dropping the game or spend zero dollars. The level cap increase only adds more grind to an already grindy game with no offset like reducing xp for heroic/epic tr, or doubling up racial and class tr.

I'm not thrilled with these changes, unless the new level cap is a requirement for a toon to be transported to DDO2.

We're with you, if they add an unneeded Legendary TR on top of this hot-mess of a Ranger-Nerf-Patch, we're done.
It's going to brutally fracture the server even more, and grouping is already a jokefest even on a GOOD weekend.

LTR > ETR > HTR or RTR, lets not forget the ITR ... Not blowing time or money on a 5th Hamster Wheel. They need account unlocks for this BS.
Let's not forget everytime they add a new class/race/whatever, you have to redo completionist, and then go back to your original class... again,
and Heroic still has to waste a feat slot, instead of being a passive like all the other ones.

If they come out with a DDO-2, and it's not owned by SSG, then maybe it has a chance of earning some trust.

[Rawcats]

Keep on keepin on! Thnx for all your work and love for this game!

[John3000]

We are quite a ways out from being prepared to announce specifics on our plans for character progression past level 30. What we are willing to say at this point, however, is that one of our goals is to NOT increase the amount of XP required to complete an Epic Reincarnation.

This is indeed important because with over 130+ lives to cap a toon, the last thing this game needs is more grind. You guys should be focusing on how to make the game more accessible to new players !!! The current gap is way too big and discouraging.

cheers

[John3000]

We also have user interface improvements planned for the Shared Account Bank to make it easier to store, sort, and access the items you've collected. Other quality of life improvements are in the planning stages as well, and we'll talk more about it later this year.

Sev~

This is good news. Storage is a pain, so any progress here is welcomed. Especially if you guys can fit in some longterm BTC+BTA storage to make TRing less painful... Why should I scrap gear that I'd like to use in 2 or 3 lives... or if I plan on replaying the same class again a few lives further off. Some QoL improvements are definitely needed and welcomed !!!

cheers

[Jerevth]

This is indeed important because with over 130+ lives to cap a toon, the last thing this game needs is more grind. You guys should be focusing on how to make the game more accessible to new players !!! The current gap is way too big and discouraging.

cheers

I counted 150:
45 Heroics (With Alchies)
36 Racials
21 Iconics
48 Epics (4 spheres, 12 per sphere)

about 6 years of play and I have... 15 or so down. lol

[cdbd3rd]

...

about 6 years of play and I have... 15 or so down. lol

Almost 14 years and... 3? (Maybe 6 counting a few off-main-server TRs of alts I rarely play but DD roll for.)
I was WAY past even thinking of trying for any Completionist years ago.



Hehheh. Don't mind me, I'll just be over here sniffing these flowers.