A Letter from Executive Producer Rob Ciccolini – February 2021

[Iriale]

You know those are the same guys, right? And right now, without WB supervision probably they have more freedom to make their own choices than when they were turbine.

In Turbine's time they weren't so abusive, so presumably they had some supervision that prevented them from doing these abuses.

In any case, I am out. I have been a loyal customer for over 11 years. I can't take any more abuse. Let someone else pay the bills, I won't spend a penny on this game again.

[NabeGewell]

This is deeply disappointing. More "value" to VIPs or otherwise, it appears the lesson that was learned from LOTRO is that SSG could get away with charging essentially a full expansion price in cash for essentially a regular quest pack [+a cosmetic or two], instead of just releasing that regular quest pack as part of the understood arrangement with players.

Repackaging quest packs as "mini-expansions" comes across as insulting and either desperate or greedy, and I'm shocked that the response over in LOTRO didn't tell you that already. Bugs and lag notwithstanding, I very much enjoy my time in DDO and I do appreciate the dedication and quality that has gone into the game in recent years in many respects, and I can be parted with money in many ways that would leave me feeling satisfied instead of taken advantage of, including but not limited to:
- proper expansions with large swathes of new content and a cohesive story to tie that content together, in addition to regular updates
- a cosmetics closet (then sell all the cosmetics you can make) - how is THIS not in the plan yet (or any other storage improvements)?!
- a new season's pass

You don't learn, do ya? This is why they keep doing what they been doing for years.

[SirValentine]

Wasn't a level cap increase on the charts for this year? Delayed from last expansion? Not happening anymore?

The fact that it was not mentioned was the best part of this letter!

New adventures and new Monster Manual sounds great. Looking forward to seeing them.

I'm playing wait-and-see on the bow and Destiny reworks. The devil's in the details.

I have to agree with others, "mini-expansion" does sound kind of like "money grab".

Hardcore is OK as a rare thing, but even 2 per year seems about 1 per year too much. Not everyone is interested, and you further split the player base.

[BurnerD]

No storage or inventory improvements?!? Even something minor would be welcome...

It is always good to see new content but I have to admit game performance and lack of inventory improvements are more likely to make me stop playing the lack of content.

Thanks for the update... only moderately disappointed.....

[Indubitably]

This does not sound at all like fair play. Either something is a full expansion which you get to charge for - or it is not and is therefore free to VIPs.
Trying to cheat us by calling a regular pack a "mini-expansion" in order to charge for it is not at all reasonable.
Until this is sorted out the rest of the letter is irrelevant.

Exactly... VIPs are clearly your most dedicated players, and the way they have made decisions that impact VIPs... not good.
First they question keeping their VIP status up, next they start questioning needing every module. Once your doing that... once your not wholly committed to a game. The haze starts to fade, you see more clearly, and you realise there were way more sensible options all along... you had just dug yourself so deep you felt too invested to leave.
But when staying around becomes a ridiculous investment....you climb out.

When diablo2 remastered comes out that will be the end of my ddo days.
they might finally get it when their whales leave.

And this here is the source of my concern personally. There ARE other options.
When whales start to leave, they are the ones truly supporting this game.


My concern is not for me. If I want to leave, I will leave.
I buy all the content anyways... so clearly a mini-XP doesn't effect me as much as it does some others. Other than I think it's ridiculous your going to charge X% more for the same thing and cut VIPs out of the only deal they get.
But if people start to leave, especially your VIPs and Whales... then it's a problem.

The recent news of Diablo 2 resurrection has got me super excited.
So much so I started looking into and trying "Project Diablo 2" which turns out... is fantastic and super well updated, faithful yet a little new... and free.

To then read about how I will have to pay 20-100 bucks for a simple adventure module. On top of my monthly fee, with a full XP looming next year I'm sure...
For a game that is having MASSIVE lag issues, chat issues, bank and storage issues (so I cant hold the stuff they want to sell me), etc...

It's time I let the Diablo 2 modding community and upcoming remake carry me away.

[dragons1ayer74]

Thanks for the update Severlin; I don't understand why these couldn't be quarterly.

I am moving my account from regular annual VIP to freetoplay and will likely be taking a break from this game. Too much disappointment, too little to look forward too.

Latest Disappointments:
-Continual Ballance (nerf) Cycles
-No actual decent enhancement passes
-Feywild was IMO among the worst expansions we have gotten (could be its own thread on how bad it is)
-No new grind cycle (if we can only play one character give us something to do)
-Lag
-Focus on Hard Core (I have played every season but unless their are major changes to keep it something fresh will not likely be really going back)


Long Standing Disappointment
-Insane grind cycle as it relates to alts and newer players
-No more Season Pass and no regular option for it (and I was unable to participate in the last one before they all were snatched up)
-Epics gear as a whole
-Storage as a whole


There are a few nuggets from your letter that look good but also much that doesn't with so little new content coming out and going to a new mini-expansion idea it is just more disappointment.

[rfachini]

We definitely need to hear something about the persistent lag situation,
and also about the level cap. (I was really looking forward to it.)

[salmag]

mini-expansion? LOL. I am glad I wil not renew my subscription. Honestly, this already reaches levels of theft.

Your disdain for the alts, SSG, is resounding. You take it for granted even in these kinds of letters that we only play a toon. "One will be something your character will wear as a cosmetic, and the other is something your character will equip." yeah, why suppose we play multiple toons, when you've done everything and more to kill our alts?

I miss Turbine. A lot. At least, before I was not from disgust to disgust, before I enjoyed the game...

+1

I especially love the way he states "your character" repeatedly; NOT "characterS." At least make that ONE item BTA. Those that run alts have ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to like this anniversary event. NONE, NADA.

Cosmetics mean more items to delete since you aren't addressing the storage concerns.

As for Saltmarsh, meh... I would have preferred Talenta Plains, or Sigil, or Myth Drannor.

As for Horizon Walker, my feelings on that have been well documented...

This is very sad.
This next year

[Epzilon123]

If there's anything else I think this game could really use, its a rework to Hireling AI.

Hirelings (especially higher level ones), seem to freeze up and either have to constantly be reset (via switching them from defensive to active multiple times) or manually controlled to be reliable at all for healing. In addition, they're really low stat-wise unless your really high in your past lives. Even then they still probably snap like twigs. Also, basically every other hireling except rogues are useless (even then, most players probably just skip over traps, but I'm not that good at this game yet and like the XP bonus. I'm only really at my 4th life and I play pretty sporadically).

I understand that they weren't designed to 100% replace players, but they're way less effective than half a player at this point given how much stronger players have gotten since Ravenloft and Sharn.

Also, there's no clerics between 21-25 in terms of level, just a bunch of favored souls that can't be commanded to cast Heal.

If they fixed this one issue I'd probably have twice as much fun with the game. Manually controlling my hireling to do stuff while I have to play my character is just an additional annoying level of micromanagement. They don't need to be optimal, just functional.

[Dandonk]

Mini-expansion? Really? The LOTRO fiasco wasn't bad enough, so you had to do it twice?

I like expansions, possibly more than I should, but calling a normal quest pack a miniexpansion is a cheap (well, not so cheap, in the LOTRO version, anyway) moneygrab.

[donblas]

One will be something your character ... will equip.



Sev

"Character"??? I have 49! They will have to fight over it!

I don't do raids but nice for people who do.

Hardcore is problematic - getting a toon to level 20 on hardcore seems a bit pointless when I don't have any character slots left to transfer anyone to my main server.

New quests are nice.

I play a lot of archers (elves of various classes). I am concerned that elves have to pay an AP premium to access Arcane archer (if not a ranger), but there might not be any such cost for the new archery tree. If the new tree is better than AA (or even comparable with) and every class can access it, won't that make AA, and the elf advantage of be able to access it no matter their class, obsolete?

Sad there's no mention of the level cap increase.

[Hawkwier]

I thought that's what Feywild was?

Seriously though, anyone know what it's supposed to be? Maybe LOTRO players can shed some light?

At least they appear to have shelved raising the cap for now, so that's good.

[Torkzed]

I was glad to see no mention of a level cap increase. My guild will almost certainly lose many longtime players if the cap is raised again.

(I don't know if I am one of them...I probably would wait and see. But I am pretty confident that several guild mates will stop playing and that would tend to make me more likely to leave as well.)

[Hawkwier]

Mini-expansion? Really? The LOTRO fiasco wasn't bad enough, so you had to do it twice?

I like expansions, possibly more than I should, but calling a normal quest pack a miniexpansion is a cheap (well, not so cheap, in the LOTRO version, anyway) moneygrab.

Doesn't sound encouraging, but I've learned thing are often worse on the forum than in practice. Can you shed a bit more light and maybe try to put this in a ddo context? What can we expect from this?

[Montegue]

*screams Archmage revamp into the void.

[Whaldorf]

I thought that's what Feywild was?

Seriously though, anyone know what it's supposed to be? Maybe LOTRO players can shed some light?

At least they appear to have shelved raising the cap for now, so that's good.

My guess... mini expansion behind a paywall even for VIP with some choice items like +275 sp at cap and a trinket with +50% attribute modifier for THF?

[socky-mcsockerton]

I was glad to see no mention of a level cap increase. My guild will almost certainly lose many longtime players if the cap is raised again.

(I don't know if I am one of them...I probably would wait and see. But I am pretty confident that several guild mates will stop playing and that would tend to make me more likely to leave as well.)

They didn't mention it in the letter, but the level cap increase was supposed to go hand in hand with the Epic Destinies update, so time will tell.

[Memnir]

Did I miss the bit about significant lag improvements? I hope I did.

[Dandonk]

Did I miss the bit about significant lag improvements? I hope I did.

Lag will improve greatly, do not worry. I'm sure we'll see an increase during the year of 50%, at the least.

[Assassination]

Lag will improve greatly, do not worry. I'm sure we'll see an increase during the year of 50%, at the least.

Yes, they are getting better and better at this.

C'mon SSG, get it together. Clean up the lag, clean up all the broken stuff. Then come out with some decent content.

Feywild is a mess, please make everything work. Having us pay for an "expansion" then releasing the raid 6 months later is an embarrassment.