Free Questing Coupon and a VIP Update – Thank You From Standing Stone Games

[SunQMochi]

Thank you very much, Standing Stone Games! I returned after a year's absence, and truly, sincerely, appreciate your generosity.

[Cordovan]

This coupon will only grant the adventure packs released as of today. Future adventure packs will be available per usual (free to VIP, available in the DDO Store). Update 47 will not have an adventure pack, but is rather a free quest along with three Legendary-i-fied raids.

[fatherpirate]

but just for clarification

the 99 coin expansions will be hitting the store ... later ?
sooner ?

Maybe as part of a larger expansion sale ? or not ?

[slarden]

This coupon will only grant the adventure packs released as of today. Future adventure packs will be available per usual (free to VIP, available in the DDO Store). Update 47 will not have an adventure pack, but is rather a free quest along with three Legendary-i-fied raids.

Consider making a raid that can be completed by an average PUG group on normal. When a casual player comes into a raid that fails on normal they might quit attempting raids which reduces the pool of available pug raiders on the server. Too Hot to Handle is a disaster - very few pug attempts on normal on Sarlona (except raid groups that incorrectly refer to their large core group as a pug).

Making it so that we have to reject half of the pugs to complete the raid is just flat-out wrong for normal difficulty. People should not be a liability in a raid because they don't have perfect build or gear on normal.

So wrong and I would even say negilgent that SSG doesn't understand this. I am in no spend mode because of THTH

[Wargunn]

Can seasons pass holders or current VIP use this coupon? I have no intention of giving up VIP, but you never know what the future will bring. Would be nice to know if needed the quests being given away would be available. As a season pass holder and with an additional 8 months of VIP after that the coupon will be long expired. So if possible please allow us to enable the coupon.

[slarden]

Can seasons pass holders or current VIP use this coupon? I have no intention of giving up VIP, but you never know what the future will bring. Would be nice to know if needed the quests being given away would be available. As a season pass holder and with an additional 8 months of VIP after that the coupon will be long expired. So if possible please allow us to enable the coupon.

yes - the same way you redeem a weekly freebie and it shows up in your account history.

[nayozz]

these are great news. a bit weird, but great news.

but at the end this ruined it all:

We are also announcing an update to our VIP program! VIPs will be getting a permanent +1% XP boost for every member in their party other than themselves and hirelings, up to a maximum of 5%. This boost stacks with other bonuses, and works the same as our long-running weekend Buddy Boost bonuses.


players are asking this from a long time to encourage grouping, and yeah, players are also asking for more vip value….but this….seriously, yet again corrupt a wish. again and again. perma buddy bonus vip only. seriously?

my mouth tastes so bitter right now….

some people are never happy

[Josielynn]

Ooooh I totally forgot about the saga skip. Suck it Just Business!

That's funny, that's the same quest we just skipped.

Cheers, SSG!!! Spreading the love like that is awesome!

[rabidfox]

I have to say THANKS SSG! This was awesome of you to do.

[Josielynn]

Someone answered this, but I wanted to post it again in case someone missed it. The code: DDOFREEQUESTS works even if you are currently VIP!!! I just redeemed it on both of my VIP accounts.

I have a DDO spreadsheet and typed out all the adventure packs it listed it gave me: The Devil's Gambit, Trials of the Archons, Temple of Elemental Evil, Heart of Madness, Haunted Halls of Eveningstar, Shadow Under Thunderholme, The High Road of Shadows, The Druid's Deep, Devil Assault, Three-Barrel Cove, Secrets of the Artificers, Vaults of the Artificers, Phiarlan Carnival, The Catacombs, The Sharn Syndicate, Delera's Tomb, The Demon Sands, The Dreaming Dark, Attack on Stormreach, The Necropolis, Part 1, 2,3, & 4, The Path of Inspiration, The Reaver's Reach, The Restless Isles, The Ruins of Gianthold, The Ruins of Threnal, Sentinels of Stormreach, Shan-to-Kor, The Devils of Shavarath, Sorrowdusk Isle, The Red Fens, Harbinger of Madness, Tangleroot Gorge, The Vale of Twilight, The Vault of Night, Reign of Madness, Against the Slave Lords, Dragonblood Prophecy, The Mines of Tethyamar, Disciples of Rage, White Plume Mountain, The Soul Splitter, Keep on the Borderlands, The Lost Gatekeepers.

This correlates to the list Cordovan gave up above in this thread. Thanks again, SSG, a truly wonderful gift during these crazy times.

[Wargunn]

yes - the same way you redeem a weekly freebie and it shows up in your account history.

Thank you, i was going to try that, but was afraid of messing up my account.

[LucasMacKinnon]

I see a lot of bitter and mean comments. I have been premium for years. I own 90% of all content. I was only missing a few quest packs I didn't bother getting because the gear in them didn't fit in with my build. I just within the last month made an account for my girlfriend. Seeing all the non expansion content being free I personally think is amazing for a Game like DDO and LOTRO. It shows that DDO is ahead of the curve when it comes to the community. That SSG cares More about its general player base then a few of the salty individuals that want to complain and gripe. What people might fail to realize is making all the older content free you have more opportunity to bring a larger player base to the game which makes grouping much more capable. Not having to worry about buying a guest pass. Or someone dropping group because they don't own it. Bringing fresh blood to the game to me is amazing. I really enjoy new players being excited about pulling something or even asking if they can have an item pulled from a quest or raid that veteran players have multiple copies of or just leave in a chest. Thank You SSG for putting Need before Greed. I am honestly proud to be part of this community and part of this game. Don't let hateful comments and trolls make anyone second guess this amazing gift.

[Thar]

I assume this includes all the wilderness areas to get to said quests?

[Hatroq]

Great decision for the long-term health of the game, thank you.

[Vehementi]

"Blah blah I'm salty they made two expansions free." Yeah they made the quests free. You still got more content then the new players or free players coming back bring life back into this game. You have what ever class addons were bundled, enhancements, pets, etc

Not to mention years of having access to the content others had to farm to get.

Plus now there's more people to run stuff with then the same 30 people. >_>


So SSG Thank you, this was way more then what anyone ever would have expected.

I even Sub'd again for access to my bank and chars.

[Yseviel]

So when I used the code it unlocked these on my account? When I approach the quests in game will I recognize they are from the packs?

[CritKitteh]

So when I used the code it unlocked these on my account? When I approach the quests in game will I recognize they are from the packs?

Hit up the wiki ( https://ddowiki.com/page/Adventure_Packs ) and you can see just where all the quests are. Some of them will be in one big saga (overarching storyline) that you can get a final huge reward for. But you won't be out-and-out told that they're part of a quest pack in game right now, at least.

[DungeonGamer]

Many thanks to SSG for your amazing generosity though it seems a bit insane to offer your packs as freebies since they generate income

[Valerianus]

some people are never happy

as i wrote shortly after, quoting myself:

"""
it's everything a great idea, and generous, for the ddo population and to keep the newest players that enjoyed the free-for-all content.

also, there's nothing to complain about new players getting all for free, i paid it, but it's not mine, i unlocked access, that's how it works, and i played for years.


i am bitter about that vip only perma buddy bonus. you should encourage grouping in any way possible, this is a mmo right? such a feature was one of the most requested feature. and they lock it behind vip. i call this "yet again corrupt a wish". a lot of players suggesting something good for the game as a Whole, and the answer is (after a really long time) ok, yes...BUT.
"""


you know how the game in the past suffered for the worst possible mechanics (bravery, party-wide xp death penalty...) about the matter "how to encourage grouping\actually anti-grouping", and, i dare to add, creating the "big bad elitist myth". those worst possible mechanics were adjusted after years and we see now the same mistake, sort of, a distorted pro-grouping measure imho. i have a paranoid (or?) vision, threads pop out about new players leaving the game and complaining about the toxic attitude of some "big bad rich vip elitist". do you remember people refusing to help new players cause "it will break my streak"? do you remember the lfm saying "be more than an xp penalty"? now you'll see "all welcome!" but it'll end up in someone saying "just stay dead there my dear 1% lol" and a lot of drama if someone leaves the quest, cause reaper lockout, and they'll lose a potential 1-2%. not to mention the new players that will end up dead and left dead in parties composed by leader + bots. we could argue, all of this may happen also with a perma free-for-all buddy bonus. i don't think so, except some few cases. because it would not be a paid feature, people react differently if they are paying for something.

i hope this won't happen, just the idea of it it's sickening, and i hope i'm being paranoid, it happens, but if what i described will become reality, i'll quote myself with this. over and over.

[selbadofstian]

I think that opening up all packs was a good choice that will improve the lifespan of the game. It also helps my friends and family play.

I don't speak for all Season Pass holders. I speak for myself only.

I bought season pass (and paid the extra $100) for the packs that I could keep. Gold rolls are mainly useless as the best you can get is a cosmetic, which does not interest me. Its mostly just BTA potions that i never use.

I already owned all packs prior to Sharn and eventually bought Sharn in store. I don't think that there are any new packs coming out prior to the next expansion.

Please consider giving season pass holders access to the expansion content or something else of value. The benefit, to me, feels devalued.