A Look Ahead - Producer's Letter January 2020

[DRoark]

I said "IF", because there's a very-very-very small hope they'll pull their head out, and listen to the players.

But I doubt it, so our current plan is to take 4 of our guilds and move to another game as soon as the cap goes up.
It's not really fun anymore, with them interspersing massive creep and TR wheels, with minimal game/plot investiture.

[MistaMagic]

I said "IF", because there's a very-very-very small hope they'll pull their head out, and listen to the players.

But I doubt it, so our current plan is to take 4 of our guilds and move to another game as soon as the cap goes up.
It's not really fun anymore, with them interspersing massive creep and TR wheels, with minimal game/plot investiture.

Good bye

[DRoark]

Good bye

Pretty much, alot better ones out now, no use holding onto a hamster wheel that's going nowhere.

[gamesupremacy]

Dear all,

In case no one mentioned it pnp d&d has levels above 30.

Depending the edition it changed a bit but for 3.5 which ddo is based out was divine ranks!
And yeah, you become a god.

Pretty tough to achieve though.

I'm not super excited for more progression, I barely have 4 reincarnations my self. But assuming it will start as only divine rank 0 and slowly progress to the rest it might be interesting.
Let's leave the devs to show us what they are preparing.

I have one point that I would like to make.
Epic levels should never ever have been about fighting rats, spiders, scorpions etc...

Please stop scaling monsters for epic content and just introduce new ones. Where is that Tarrasque to slay? Giant hold even if very old it has more epic feeling than newer packs!
Also planescape concepts could work well... Send us in fernia where we constantly take fire and suffocation damage. Make the environment our enemy. Etc...

Great work with new gatekeeper area and stories. And yes the last quest does have an epic feeling!

Perfect! Devs could introduce Legendary or Divine and once level 20 leaves the heroic separated from the epic, 31 must leave the epic separated from what is to come.

And yes, we need to battle against Tarrasque and Tiamat <3

[Drelkag]

Just started the game (overlook the account creation date) and I know this kinda late but...hype.

[KoobTheProud]

I know this is likely beating a dead horse but...

Given that the general interest in a raise in the level cap is still very low, and by low I mean I can't find anybody I interact with in-game who wants the cap increase, what are the odds that SSG realizes that they're shooting themselves in the foot here and makes a course change on future development?

It's kind of tragic to see a small studio plow ahead so relentlessly in the face of heavy headwinds. It was a great thing to make most of the quests free for existing customers because that gave all the new traffic a chance to really evaluate the game and develop some vested interest in it. However it's not like that's going to make The Feywild sell well if a low percentage of the player base is interested in increased grind.

I keep hearing that existing systems are going to change as we move to a legendary world however whenever I hear change in terms of DDO I immediately think more grind, more lag, less actual choice as the number of characters that can be played effectively decreases, etc.

On the other hand, World of Warcraft is halving the level cap in their next x-pac and increasing the options to play in-game by releasing their first ever infinite dungeon.

I love DDO but I am pretty certain that most of the money that The Feywild might have earned is going to go to Shadowlands instead.

Why?

Because Blizzard made the decision to listen to their players and provide a more interesting play experience instead of more grind.

I do not understand why SSG's decision is to make more grind instead of better meaningful play.

[Gniewomir]

I do not understand why SSG's decision is to make more grind instead of better meaningful play.

Because:

1. It's the easiest thing to do.
2. It worked so far.

[dennisck2]

however whenever I hear change in terms of DDO I immediately think more grind, more lag, less actual choice as the number of characters that can be played effectively decreases, etc.

Me too. And a lot of other people, too. Emphasis on the lag part.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

About "choices" : No-one wants to do dialogs. No-one wants to apply social skills. Too boring, too unmanly.

[Aelonwy]

About "choices" : No-one wants to do dialogs. No-one wants to apply social skills. Too boring, too unmanly.

I love dialogue trees and using social skills in character conversations.

They created the lore feats and then barely used them. I would love to see them used more in dialogue options to complete, avoid, or change the outcome of optionals. There's a place in the Inspired Quarter where two NPC parents are arguing with some guards about their missing daughter? I think and you get a special dialogue option if you have the right lore feat. It has nothing to with any quest objective, it gives zero power or reward, its just a nifty little bit of role play interaction in a public zone with NPCs. I would love, love, love to see more of that because... because imagine you've been through this zone a dozen times but never on a class with that dialogue option and suddenly here is something entirely new to experience. And what if these hidden gems were all over the game? Suddenly every character you play experiences the stories and the world just a little differently and from a somewhat different perspective. Like a character running through IQ with True Seeing experiences this area with a different sense (True Sight) of what is going on.

[Silverleafeon]

.

+1 well spoken

[Eelpout]

I love dialogue trees and using social skills in character conversations.

They created the lore feats and then barely used them. I would love to see them used more in dialogue options to complete, avoid, or change the outcome of optionals. There's a place in the Inspired Quarter where two NPC parents are arguing with some guards about their missing daughter? I think and you get a special dialogue option if you have the right lore feat. It has nothing to with any quest objective, it gives zero power or reward, its just a nifty little bit of role play interaction in a public zone with NPCs. I would love, love, love to see more of that because... because imagine you've been through this zone a dozen times but never on a class with that dialogue option and suddenly here is something entirely new to experience. And what if these hidden gems were all over the game? Suddenly every character you play experiences the stories and the world just a little differently and from a somewhat different perspective. Like a character running through IQ with True Seeing experiences this area with a different sense (True Sight) of what is going on.

I love when quests give you other options based on skills or lore feats. Even when it is just dialogue it is fun, but the quests where the outcome is altered is an even bigger charge for me. I don't particularly enjoy "Party Crashers", but I really like how the end fight changes by being able to use skills to alter the plans.

It does add to the replay-ability of quests when it can change slightly by allowing us to use other aspects of our characters besides combat.

[Dreppo]

About "choices" : No-one wants to do dialogs. No-one wants to apply social skills. Too boring, too unmanly.

Unmanly?? Is this a troll?

[Carpone]

Good job executing on 2020's vision especially with the pandemic. Many players overlook the significant challenges transitioning to 100% remote teaming. It's been a struggle for most companies.

While I'm supportive of a level cap increase, it's refreshing to see SSG realize it was just too much to execute on in the time frame allotted. I'm quite happy you decided to postpone it so you can give it the treatment it requires. I think the augment revamp is a huge win on many levels, and on par with other long-term systems similar to sentient jewels in Ravenloft and minor artifacts in Sharn.

For the 2021 producer's letter, in addition to the sparkly-new-stuff, I hope to hear more about quality of life improvements. While perhaps not as exciting as new content, communication about QOL improvements has been rather sparse in 2020. Lag has been soul crushing, to the point where I didn't play for several months because of it. Inventory management (need more bag space!) continues to be a long-standing thorn in the side of DDO.

[Rangestryker]

In the very fist pos to this thread, we were told that 2020 would finally bring a 64-bit client. It's 2021 now, over a year later. Any update on this?

Thanks!

Jeff

[DevHead]

In the very fist pos to this thread, we were told that 2020 would finally bring a 64-bit client. It's 2021 now, over a year later. Any update on this?

Thanks!

Jeff

We've had it for a long while now.

In the Launcher, click the dropdown arrow then click on Options. Go to the General tab. You can select 64 bit client in there.

[Rangestryker]

Not in the Mac client. The launcher is 32 bit and won't launch at all. It is trying to use th POS wine client which is terrible at best.

Thanks

Jeff

[DevHead]

Not in the Mac client. The launcher is 32 bit and won't launch at all. It is trying to use th POS wine client which is terrible at best.

Thanks

Jeff

I don't think there's any support for Mac anymore.

[Rangestryker]

Go to the download page. It says download for PC or Mac. But the Mac client hasn't worked in about 2 years because it's 32 bit. I don't really understand why the lapse. When exporting the game in X-Code, select "64 bit only" and press OK and boom done.

Jeff