A Look Ahead - Producer's Letter January 2020

[Kulothar]

Thank you for the Producers letter, Severlin.

So much information but so vague. So far without seeing the expansion and rebuilding characters around it my humble comments are:

1. Alchemist, I was a DM when it came out in the Dragon magazine last century and when I added it to my campaign, it didn't work out. Buff/debuff/damage rinse repeat.
1a. You have rogue and artificers that could have added alchemist as a tree.
1b. I looked at it on Lammania and it looked like a splash and throw support class that better have some agro management.
1c. I hope I am wrong and it is a fun and playable class worth playing past the lv 30 limit.
2. Lv 30+ ? are you insane? I already have over 2 dozen alts so I can group with friends since we are so spread out in levels and have to be the same level or below or nerf the group exp.
2a. Lv 30+ ? are you insane #2? Do you realize how long it takes to solo a character to lv 30 without Otto's or a guild to help you without grinding every night just so you can TR to fill a few more character points to raid the bosses?
2b. Lv 30+ ? are you insane #3? What percentage of the current population can do the current end boss raids with above average success? Which of those cannot solo or 2 man all the content of a few years back.
2b. Lv 30+ ? are you insane #4? Should I just scrap all of my gear now since it is useless against the new bosses?
2c. Lv 30+ ? are you insane #5? Why group since once you get lv 31+ by buying what you need to get geared, you can solo all of the old content. Add challenges not power creep.
3. Epic Catacombs and Delera's sounds exciting.
4. Sortable bank.... something we have been asking for since the first TR. I just hope level is a sort.
5. Sortable TR cache would be nice also.
6. Shifters? is that a playable class (or race) that won't break old content? Basically unnatural druids/Palemasters?
7. I left WoW for DDO Beta because of the promise of a D&D style Druid. I waited years and was told the shapes were too hard to do to have druids. Now we have Shifters, How many shapes?
8. I hope this doesn't lead to server merges after it thins out more people.

You should be encouraging new players not discouraging long term casual or part time players. I do understand you need more challenges for the power players but you need interesting not almost impossible that requires specific gear, builds and classes and can only be solved one way. There is such a variety of play in DDO and it has been a good game so far. Gravis used to be a raiding guild and now less than a hand full of us are left because the power players that concentrated on the end raid all moved on. I haven't raided more than a couple of times in almost a year now because I am playing all of the other content with friends but I still could. Keep up the good work and I will sit back down.

[Elfishski]

REALLY disappointing. No, check that...SUPER disappointing.

I'd really like to hear the logic regarding this decision considering for years we were assured the cap was going to stay at 30.

If it (the logic) turns out to be truly nothing beyond increasing the grind to facilitate more Otto's Box sales, that's likely to be the end of my playing days here. This would make me very sad.

It looks and sounds exactly like the latter to me too - the game definitely doesn't feel like it needs more levels; very disappointing!

I'm very excited by the improved shared bank and other quality of life improvements, at least.

[The_Human_Cypher]

I really hope one of the other surprises that you mention that you have in store for this year is at least one new volume of the Monster Manual. It's long over due. Please make it happen.

Yes, we need that in 2020.

[C-Dog]

...we are thrilled to share news about our next expansion, which will see players travel into the mystical plane of the Feywild!...

I mentioned it in the Lam thread re imminent changes, but I'm thinking this gives even more reason to fix the absence of "Fey" in the available list of a Ranger's Favored Enemies.

I'm no coding expert, but I've got to wonder if right now wouldn't be easier than "later" to add Fey along with the imminent Vermin addition/fix.

[Katalissa]

Looking forward to the new 64 bit client!

It all sounds really interesting... EXCEPT the bit about level cap increase.

This makes me really nervous, in fact it sounds like a REALLY bad idea. We have just finally got a decent endgame with plenty of legendary content and a good range of gear. Please don't ruin all that for the sake of a bit more power creep and grind.

(edit: p.s. not too sure about hardcore returning so soon either.)

[Rykka]

As a 7 year VIP player I would like to say I have 0 interest in hardcore. I do wish you had a more DnD like game version of DDO rather than a less DnD like game such as hardcore.

I'm not a fan of regurgitated low level quests (and quest ideas) in epics. I don't find fighting kobolds interesting after level 4. Tho you could blow my mind with a SOLO dificulty quest where the player kills the god of Balance with very little challenge forcing us to be cursed to fight giant rats and Goblins forever, even when we've earned that god's power and have killed demon prince's and goddesses ourselves. It would at least explain why gaining levels doesn't really matter.

[Matuse]

Level cap increase (or whatever it is) and more power creep are just bad ideas. Adding more buttons to my hotbars (which means adding more hotbars to my screen period) is unappealing.

The rest is fine, but "go past level 30" sounds like a giant slice of MOAR GRINDY!

[rfachini]

What are you hoping it brings... other than a bigger number?

More levels and a reason to play my parked level 30s and put their L29/30 gear and epic feats to use. A feeling of progression that doesn't bore me like feeding items to sentient jewels and working through different ED wheels by running the same quests over and over did.

[janave]

Positive about the expansion content sans the level cap increase, as others have pointed out these generally hurt game experience on capped characters.

Please consider largely increasing shared bank capacity as well (double sounds about right), and some work on the TR cache, like empty all button, or adding checkboxes to fetch more loot per action, the delay getting them 1 by 1 is seriously feeling awkward. The BtC bank space could use a little extra too, still many crafting systems that bind to character, high investment things that we should not be required to trash.

The biggest concern I see here is that 2020 has 3 variables further splitting the tiny player base:

• HC events
• Expansion
• Extended level range

Among these only expansion will likely eventually "fix itself" as more players purchase it over time. HC is temporary, hopefully shorter, event-like schedules. The level cap is permanently going to work against the grouping experience.

This is quite likely enough division to make the currently most populated servers to become ghost towns ~ in at least some of the level ranges ~.

It would be welcome and appreciated if you could share your planned schedule about HC uptime, as it will greatly affect our ability to play with our static groups and or get a healthy LFM. It is understandable that you "want" players to participate in the new thing, however, much like PvP, or Roleplay or "Permadeath + new house rules" is not what some of would enjoy.

Thanks for your attention.

[Ausdoerrt]

Excited about the content, not so much about the new systems. Adding more character power / levels, especially locking it behind an expansion purchase, is NOT a great idea. Hard enough to catch up to the regular / older players as is.

Unless, of course, you think of a way to make the new system useful without running dozens of heroic and epic past lives first.

Thinking about this little section has me slightly confused.

If I recall correctly Feywild is a Forgotten Realms plain of existance, the polar opposite of the Shadowfell. The Feywild is is home to the Fey/Fairies (think Lost Girl). Shifters are an Eberron playable race. Kind of odd they would be together. Yet at the same time makes kind of sense.

Feywild exists in Eberron as well, also known as Thelanis (yea, like the server). It's indeed the sort of opposite of Shadowfell, also known in Eberron as Dolurrh. Check here for reference: http://keith-baker.com/wp-content/up...2012/10/22.jpg

Shifters still don't link directly, but I guess they fit in thematically with the whole "jungle / wilds" thing.

neverwinter has had feywild setting for a while, so I am very interested to see how ddo visualizes the feywild.

To be fair, Neverwinter's feywild was DULL, so I hope DDO does much better.

they have not really mentioned how they are going to push past level 30, so yeah it is not necessarily a bad thing - there could be a new reincarnation introduced, something called legendary reincarnation that brings you back from level 50 to level 30, so that you do not necessarily have to do the grind of the 20-30.

It's still more grind and another way to split the player base.

[Zakharov]

push past level 30 for the first time in DDO history.

That is the most depressing news since the last lvl cap increase.

Please no more! There is no need to ever push past lvl 30. So many other avenues of advancement are possible, as others have mentioned. What about:

• Create new epic destinies, maybe in a new sphere.
• Could add a new inventory slot, looks like we are missing torso? https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItem...ItemsOnTheBody
• Update cannith crafting to allow epic effects for higher lvl items & crafting lvls above 34 (maybe with raid ingredients) but item lvl stays 30.
• Update augment system so you can introduce new end game augments.
• Let players "craft" their own spells or abilities. Could use spell seed crafting as inspiration: https://www.d20srd.org/indexes/epicSpells.htm <3 the spell seed system

Or how about this - let maxed out characters embark on a long quest arc that results in them "ascending" beyond lvl 30, which deletes their character but adds them as an npc, or to a list of ancient heroes in game, or maybe grants a unique cosmetic to all characters on the account.

[Amoneth]

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.

Yey! That was my biggest concern, I have to admit. Now if you could please make sure you keep the double RXP for L30+ quests I'll be even happier!

[Rog]

The game doesn't need to go to 35... There is always too much of a gap in Epics that the power creap is a bit much for new players to catch up on TR's. Unless you can still TR at 30. The TR train doesn't need to be longer...

you could stop at 20 and tr the last time i checked

[Ausdoerrt]

7. I left WoW for DDO Beta because of the promise of a D&D style Druid. I waited years and was told the shapes were too hard to do to have druids. Now we have Shifters, How many shapes?

From what I'm reading about shifters, they probably won't have forms, because they don't shapeshift fully, like a druid would, but rather shift certain parts of their body. My speculation is that they'll get some special claw / fang attacks as part of the racial tree; maybe a full werewolf form if they do an iconic.

[Emerld]

Will the shifter be based off of the 5th edition rules?
What happened to the real meaning of "shifter?" Or a druid that could actually "change shapes" more than just a bear or wolf? Too much for the game?
Maybe an enhancement tree that would allow you to build up to different animals?
I guess I am too old school when thinking of a shifter and or druid...

[TheMaxpower]

Please consider merging servers or allow cross-server play. DDO simply doesn’t have the population to support multiple servers AND a popular event like Hardcore. During the last HC some of the servers were dead. This caused some people to leave the game. Personally I have no interest in participating in that event - it’s just a money grab for some silly cosmetics IMO. Do you really want to drive more people away from the game? Probably not a good idea since few new players enter the game for obvious reasons.

PS - Please post the HC schedule for 2020, as it will impact my decision on whether to renew my VIP subscription next month.

[Ausdoerrt]

Will the shifter be based off of the 5th edition rules?
What happened to the real meaning of "shifter?" Or a druid that could actually "change shapes" more than just a bear or wolf? Too much for the game?
Maybe an enhancement tree that would allow you to build up to different animals?
I guess I am too old school when thinking of a shifter and or druid...

I think you're confusing Shifter (Eberron race) with Shapeshifter (druid variant). Shifters have been in Eberron lore since 3.5e.

[meatex]

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.

Sev~

This could be either nice, or potentially really bad.

One way, that this could be a good thing is:
Call them Ascension levels (or something that sounds even sweeter)
Might give some _very_ small bonuses, but only while you are doing them.
Wipe the progression on ascension levels when you ascend back to lvl 1(or 15 for iconics)

When you Ascend (reincarnate..)
-Maybe: Get -5% on needed exp/level in heroics/epics (stacks up to .. say 10?? times for total -50% needed xp)
-Or??: Get current possible reincarnations when you ascend. (as in your current: class, race and epic in one shot)


Really bad way to do it is just add x levels to game, especially if it includes another hamsterwheel to gain long term power.

[SirValentine]

For those who enjoy end game capped content, this basically nullifies capped end game - which is a bit of a shame as we have a a little more content right now and that will all go away at the mercy of brand new content as far as capped 'end game' goes because initially there won't be a lot of it.

Although... one of the devs said that TRing *is* end game... with no particular acknowledgement of people who hate TRing and only want to play at capped end game...

Agreed. And you don't even have to full-blown "hate" TRing. Even people who take some moderate enjoyment in the journey can still want reach their destination so they can enjoy that even more, without having that destination repeatedly yanked out of reach.

[kelavas]

Are we not going to get our racial variant from last year?

The following quote is taken from 2019 Producer Letter.
"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!"