A Letter from Executive Producer Rob Ciccolini – February 2021

[Silverleafeon]

Cordovan held a Ask Sev anything Twitch Broadcast, the day after this letter came out, and there was clarification and details not found in the letter worth looking at:
(Please pardon any errors or ommisions on my part

Some specific notes on LAG:

"Have been experimenting with new infrastructure changes, starting with Argo...to mixed results...some say a little better, some say not better.

Looking at effects system and changes there.

Main goals: Continue to look at infrastructure, but really the effects system is lagging us in terms of how many effects can apply to creatures. We need to revamp our proc system (so it makes more sense and to be more unified as now there are procs all over the place), part of this is at the high end players attack so fast. Need to make action boost feel good (like crits rather than haste). Effects system needs to be streamlined and work better. There are ways its being used currently that are not ideal.

Infrastructure stuff should help some backend things part of it.

Referenced weird year and pandemic impact on internet and saw some strange cases on the public internet, and many cases are related to this (good pings; dropped packets)."

More people; more engineering resources. They are hiring.



That proves it; Cetus is the cause of our lag.

A point that I forgot:

Player Council Application deadline is closed.

The people working on that project are sorting thru applications.

If you did apply, Mid March is the earliest you might they might be done with choosing applications, maybe later than that.

They are planning 2 Hard Core seasons this year, the first happening in April

From my memory:


Hired several tech to deal with lag issues.
Are hiring more people right now.
Lag issue solutions are currently divided between: making effects more efficiently applied, and too many attacks at level cap, and ____
There will be a mega server, but initial tests on the mega server indicate that lag issues must be solved first.

Cosmetic Bag is very, very difficult because mirror of glamming links to the real item.

Horse Bag is going to replaced with Horse Stable like the backpack tab for companions (creatures that follow you around).
This is difficult but much less problematic than Cosmetics.
Sample of what this looked like was shown.

Talking about fitting a new iconic into this year if the extra time works out, otherwise next year.

Psionics will have to wait not only due to work on spell system but the additional work of balancing such, but is a favorite to do someday.
Alchemist took much, much more time than anticipated and Psionics would be greater.

Would like to add a new stateroom to the guild airship and its about 9th on the to do list, but keeps getting pushed back.

Class balancing is an ongoing process.

Bows required a complete rework of the Bow animation and when it is done the Bow will be in much better shape.
New Bow tree will be later, and while it will add to the Bow options it is not consider a Bow fix in itself.

Bows will not fire faster at level cap due to too many attacks increasing Lag issues, but they are working over the Bows (implied level cap Bow will be improved).
On the same note, the Haste Action Boost might need to be replace with something just as attractive like massive crit bonus due to Lag issues.

Epic Destinies explained somewhat in detail.
Seems to be going towards their versions of some of the ideas I and others presented:
Epic Destiny will be more like Heroic Trees in function.
There will be a pool of points to spend when you reach level 20.
There will be points earned per each level gained to spend.
You will be able to spend points on multiple Epic Destiny Trees.
They have pinpointed which Epic Destiny Trees are very popular and which are not.
The unpopular trees will be improved.
One of the goals is that thru the pool of points and improving the overall effectiveness of the Trees, entry into Epic will be enjoyable (or some other words therein).

They know people want Monks improved, but its Bow time atm.
They have lists of things to do on Monks including making Finishing Moves more dramatic.

No answers on individual items, because this is not the format for that.

Server opened up for new update.

Goal of doing these Q&A talks more often.
We should see more ask Sev anything format with Cordovan.

The questions about Mini Expansion were:
Salt____Marsh is too big for a pack.
Might be 8 or 9 (rough guess not commitment) dungeons.
They realize that ViP should either get:
1) a discount on the Base Pack
2) or bonus items.
The tech to make that happen (I guess seeing you are VIP when purchasing) is being put in place and will be available to use by the time Mini Expansion arrives.
So, they realize that Vip needs to feel Mini Expansion still worthwhile to be Vip.
Also, realize that the LotR Mini Expansion was not as attractive as usual and future could be improved upon.

Savage Island (whatever the Dino pack is) will not be this year, but enthusiasm is too great to withhold in the future.

There is unlikely to be a Greyhawk World due to the scope required for creating a new world and the demand for people to return to Forgotten Realms (which they will do sometime in the future) and continue with Eberron.
Sev did not want to discuss Copywrite issues, saying simply if they bring in a new world they want it to be BIG.
Planescape will have to wait for the same reasons (although he is inclined to do that world), due to the fact that it would be so intense there might not be any new content for a year in order to create the new world (which is not a good business model at this time).

No comments or complaints about the new owners.
Was a comment on having applied for _____ (I forget) and therefore he could not discuss yet.
Also, artists are getting new texture and particle tools and ____ (which is the equivalent of a graphic update of sorts).

Half Elf is being redone as we speak.

Other races have been used so often that it might be a mistake to rework.
Therefore instead of improving the Elf race, they brought out the Wood Elf as an model upgrade.
New races with better looks instead of redoing all the old, to prevent shocking players.
(Here is where the mention of iconics came in).

No mention of a new class in the works.
Currently focused on Epic Destinies.

There will be a level increase with the next Big Expansion, however the Epic Destinies MUST be done first.
(And there will be the Mini Expanion before the Big Expansion.)
No mention of how high the level cap will go, but mention that they read player feedback about the level cap increase in detail and decided they must do the epic destinies (implication of other thoughts of reading feedback not said).

Comment by Cordovan that the new Epic Destinies will be more enjoyable/better than the old?

Other questions answered....

Half Elf will have new skin/model.


Oh and yes, Reaper points will be increased, but only after the new reaper system is created which should reduce lag, creating a Reaper Ranks along with Leadership for Party Leader sharing part of their Reaper Rank power to help newer players survive in reaper better.


Also, Epic Destinies will become more approachable by new players.



Another Lag issue is that the internet as a whole is far more unstable after the Virus hit than before.


Mention of until December for redeeming code (but please check and make sure that is right)?

Go Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnN2DN0PfZo

Press the [...] icon below the video window, or to the left of the video title.
You get a selection of which one is "Open Transcript".

To the right of the video the auto generated transcript appears.
About 1500 lines of text, not going to paste that here.

[FengXian]

Nothing about raising lvl cap? Thank God!

Seconded, keep it at 30 as long as possible. Plus it really dilutes the playerbase we can't really afford that.

Great to get bow pass BEFORE Horizon Walker, good call there.

Great to get HC4, we got a chance to play the game after HC3. Not sure if HC5 coming in 2021 as well is a good thing though. While it's great to play on HC because of population, it must be pretty lonely on regular servers. Maybe one per year is enough...

Mini-expansion feels like a cashgrab. Unless it's like 5$ which it should be, but even then it's meh...

Wild hunt themed content (and more Feywild) is great, hopefully you take the opportunity to indirectly fix the existing Seasons Sets by adding some desirable items to them...

Here's something I was hoping to see though: you have TONS of old content loved by veterans both because it's great quality and nostalgic. I think a revamp of Scroll-Seal-Shard items is long overdue, given how rare they are. They might just fit into that 20-30 ETR use niche, but it's sad that a random Borderlands drop outclasses them so hard. Sure we can still use ESoS or EThornlord (the latter for a whopping 3 levels) but 99% of those items that were so difficult to get are utter garbage now. Power creep is natural and it has been many years but cmon, Epic Spectral Gloves not even being able to compete at lv 20 is just sad

That, and maybe Legendary Desert/Amrath. Also Korthos Raid. A huge chunk of your revenue comes from veterans, give us some cool nostalgic stuff ^^

[carsonfball]

I think a revamp of Scroll-Seal-Shard items is long overdue, given how rare they are. They might just fit into that 20-30 ETR use niche, but it's sad that a random Borderlands drop outclasses them so hard. Sure we can still use ESoS or EThornlord (the latter for a whopping 3 levels) but 99% of those items that were so difficult to get are utter garbage now. Power creep is natural and it has been many years but cmon, Epic Spectral Gloves not even being able to compete at lv 20 is just sad

I agree. That system is extremely annoying. I've been playing since sometime in 2009 and still don't have all of the seals, shards, and scrolls and, these days, I don't even try getting them since most of that loot isn't very useful. For the items that I finally got all three parts, I haven't even upgraded any of them because of the lack of usefulness for the ones that I can upgrade.

Along with that, I'd also add that I have ran Epic VON dozens of times and still have not found a shard of the red dragon. I realize that the armor isn't anywhere near best in slot now, but I'd like to at least have it after all of these attempts to get the shard. I don't see why old crafting items like this can't be obtained via a trade-in of some kind or bought for store points. It's not going to break the game when there is now non-raid armor that's better for nearly every build.

[Arkai]

I agree. That system is extremely annoying. I've been playing since sometime in 2009 and still don't have all of the seals, shards, and scrolls and, these days, I don't even try getting them since most of that loot isn't very useful. For the items that I finally got all three parts, I haven't even upgraded any of them because of the lack of usefulness for the ones that I can upgrade.

Along with that, I'd also add that I have ran Epic VON dozens of times and still have not found a shard of the red dragon. I realize that the armor isn't anywhere near best in slot now, but I'd like to at least have it after all of these attempts to get the shard. I don't see why old crafting items like this can't be obtained via a trade-in of some kind or bought for store points. It's not going to break the game when there is now non-raid armor that's better for nearly every build.

We have been asking for a seal and shard barter for ages, because there are some useful weapons like eSoS or eStorm. At this point, I lost hope and threw all the ingredients away after 10 years of collecting, just to focus on BTA and updated stuff :/

[Montegue]

We'd still like to do it when we can. It definitely won't be before Epic Destinies release, and probably won't be this year.

Come on. That's unacceptable. Seriously. It's been *years*, the tree is absolute pants compared to all other trees, your game doesn't even have a classic Wizard archetype to play as a result. It's all Necromancers and melee hybrids.

Just put someone on the task and get it done. It's way, way, way overdue.

[FengXian]

We have been asking for a seal and shard barter for ages, because there are some useful weapons like eSoS or eStorm. At this point, I lost hope and threw all the ingredients away after 10 years of collecting, just to focus on BTA and updated stuff :/

Honestly I don't mind rare iconic items staying, you know, rare. What I would like is for super-duper rare stuff to be at least somewhat useful. At least for a handful of levels. I love how some old weapons with better crit profiles withstood the test of time, honestly it's beautiful. You're not required to have carnifex nor SoS nor Silver Longbow, but it you do have them, they're great! Do that for S/S/S items as well, they'll still only be good for leveling 20 to 30 anyway. More like 20-25 probably, but still...

They have this great system where you can make viable accessible items for everyone (like lootgen pass did) and then you can have stronger, very rare items for the ones that want to put in the extra time to farm them. But just items for the leveling process, not end game.

Just make a desert item pass or something, is it really that difficult to implement?

[Lonesols]

I am right there with you. this is the only game i play .
i spend money on it as a vip and i buy everything.
the lag has affected my enjoyment.
their lack of customer support is killing it.
all the heroic quests need a revamp in terms of items , i have been screaming for this for a long time.
most items in heroic are useless.
the anniversary raid items they are offering only benefit the epics.
you only get 1 item per account?????
get stuffed with the cosmetics and useless fluff that take up much needed space already.
nerfing items like no worries is still a thorn as i spent so many hours farming that thing and when they nerfed it i deleted all of them i had
i have 48 character slots so i need good items and the stuff they create these days is too similar.
i might as well craft stuff.
the last expansion was a waste of time.
to say i am extremely dissapointed is an understatement.
When diablo2 remastered comes out that will be the end of my ddo days.
they might finally get it when their whales leave.

I resubbed one more time, i may mot be a whale but i did dump like 300 pr more. Now that i see d2 ressurrected im done too. The lag and stuck on loading screens, was the last straw for me. Maybe thier goal is to just make every one leave so they can shut it down.

[FengXian]

I resubbed one more time, i may mot be a whale but i did dump like 300 pr more. Now that i see d2 ressurrected im done too. The lag and stuck on loading screens, was the last straw for me. Maybe thier goal is to just make every one leave so they can shut it down.

Not "everyone", speak for yourself. Both lag and loadscreen stucks are pretty rare and don't bother me that much. The game is perfectly enjoyable for me, not just playable.

As for the above, regular quest rewards could be better but I don't see it as a priority.
Anniversary items only benefiting epics is a LIE.
One item per account is a bit low but at the same time they are offering some TOP TIER endgame items (the ones you can turn into augments), if they gave you like 3, you'd complete a set straight away.
Who cares about no worries nerf lol.
Lastly last expansion is a matter of preference really. Visuals, story and music were amazing. Loot was meh but they did it to slow down powercreep, I'll support that policy any day. Raid took way too long to release, yes. Overall I liked it.

[Arkai]

Honestly I don't mind rare iconic items staying, you know, rare. What I would like is for super-duper rare stuff to be at least somewhat useful. At least for a handful of levels. I love how some old weapons with better crit profiles withstood the test of time, honestly it's beautiful. You're not required to have carnifex nor SoS nor Silver Longbow, but it you do have them, they're great! Do that for S/S/S items as well, they'll still only be good for leveling 20 to 30 anyway. More like 20-25 probably, but still...

They have this great system where you can make viable accessible items for everyone (like lootgen pass did) and then you can have stronger, very rare items for the ones that want to put in the extra time to farm them. But just items for the leveling process, not end game.

Just make a desert item pass or something, is it really that difficult to implement?

There are 64 sands epic items and all seals and shards drop in the same (3) quest(s). Wanna talk about chances? and only 3/4 of them are not bad. Why fix this when you can just... embrace madness =)?

[MasterKernel]

In the coming weeks we will be celebrating in House Phiarlan as we bring out an updated Anniversary Event!

Nope. It's still the same old BORING endless GRIND of a dungeon !

This year's event features a few minor updates to the challenge itself along with a large number of new items added to the reward list.

At least, this year there is NOTHING in the reward list I would want...

The release of the new raid, The Dryad and the Demigod, marks the grand finale of the Fables of the Feywild expansion. This raid features the music of our in-house composer Bill Champagne and we think it is a raid unlike any other you may have seen before. The idea of a “musical raid” has been kicking around for a while in the office, and we think players of all types will find something special here.

No. Just no. Nope.
The music is ok, though.

This spring brings the first Hardcore League season of 2021 to the game! Our 4th Hardcore Season will feature some new and returning guests in the form of the minions of the Nine Daelkyr Lords. You’ve met the Lord of Eyes and the Lord of Stone, but have you met the rest? We're also planning to run a 5th season of the Hardcore League later this year.

So. 12,5 elite players would get their server back on. What's for the rest ? Nothing ? OK.

Alongside this adventure pack the bow combat style is being revamped and will get new animations.

Even more nerfs ? Sure. What else could we expect ?

This summer will see the release of the first "mini-expansion"

In other words "we are going to sell 1 dungeon for real money for everyone instead our previous "free to VIP"
WHY ON EARTH DO YOU THINK ANYONE WOULD BE HAPPY ABOUT IT ?!

On the other hand... Guess the quality of the dungeon and it's price might be crucial.

Debuting alongside this classic adventure will be our next Universal Enhancement Tree called Horizon Walker, which focuses on marking and neutralizing extra-planar and other enemies with a bow.

Oh ! That's why the existing bow trees would be nerfed ! Sure. 'cos every bow user had to buy a new toy for their characters !
The last thing DDO needs is a new bow-oriented tree.

The fall will feature a set of new adventures and a raid revolving around the Wild Hunt as well as a significant update to our Epic Destiny system. We are restructuring the core of the system, modernizing some trees and redesigning others, and making Epic Destinies more versatile by allowing players to have multiple Destinies active at the same time.

I'm already horrified. At least there is nothing about we would need to re-buy the Epic Destiny for the 2nd time after revamp.


Honestly. If the letter was something like "We are going to fire every art/sound/dungeon creators therefore there would be no new dungeons for the next 15 year. But, instead we are going to hire a bunch of engeneers and create a new, bigger inventory system" I'd be much MUCH happier !
After the latest patch's nerfs such "Producer's letter" is just garbage that shouldn't be ever posted.

[NabeGewell]

~
Oh ! That's why the existing bow trees would be nerfed ! Sure. 'cos every bow user had to buy a new toy for their characters !
The last thing DDO needs is a new bow-oriented tree.
~

Agree with what you said here and especially this, just seems like another cash grab (and probably the next op thing that's gona be nerfed after a while too) to what is supposed to be an increase in bow's attack speed, maybe add extra arrow with doubleshot or smtg reduction and bringing Arcane Archer/Stalker trees up to date. But they know a percentage of the playerbase is gona get on it on day one no matter what, so why shouldn't they repeat their rotation?

[Silverleafeon]

Full video to text transcript of the Ask Sev anything twitch event here:

+1

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post6407405


Explains a lot of details about this Letter.

[As_The_Bat]

Mini expansion?
No tks.
Its a very dumb idea.
As dumb as releasing an expansion half cooked.
With its raid 4 months late.

revamping and fixing up the EDs (hopefully help out artificers, warlocks, druids, Pale master / Death clerics, etc...). I really really wish they would finish their enhancement tree pass and actually make Archmage usable... but they must have reasons for that..

You really think they will fix those things?
I think they will ruin all the classes. Expect more that than a good job.

[blarhblarhblarh]

The game is dead already and SSG knows it.
But it's not wise to say "Yea, we are discontinuing DDO. Thanks for all and farewell". There are yet some whales to milk, who still believe in a bright future coming from nowhere.
So what we see is people begging for attention and hoping for a candy or two (because more than that we know it's impossible), whining about issues like lag, storage... fixing it would take days of work, without fast cash retribution. Whales are the target and whales pay for things way less labor-intensive.
Look, whal err... VIPs, we have "plans to give more value" to you, like a brand new mini-expansion! /s

Note: Don't whine about this mini-expansion, it's real, will come and nothing you say will change it.
Pay attention to the word "first", right before "mini-expansion", in the original post. There will be more and if you want to complain, complain about it. Well, if you still believe your moanings count for something, of course.

This really make sense and I would add the otto box sales that people said that had a gm involved. I am not angry with people that used it, I get angry about SSG not matching the prices or doing something effective against it. While the game is broken in many levels such as chat issues, load screen of death, server lag, terrible inventory management (who spend a dime in expansion with 30+ itens if they don´t get a single new inventory slot?) and more than all the trust in the company. Axel or Strintom pay atention and listen to DDO´s players. DDO´s staff just don´t give a **** for a long time and a proof is cordovan laughin and having fun in the live while we ragequit because of the load screen of death.

The staff didn´t even considered the lag issues or gave extra xp pots for the time we loose while stuck in load. I am in the team droping the vip and looking for other games to spend my money and free time. I don´t play to get angry, I play and pay to have fun and ddo´s team only works hard to take out the fun out of ddo. Feel really sorry about the new players that needed that kind of advantage to be usefull with their weak toons because the whales will always be strong enought or will know how to change their builds to something usefull.

[Xoham]

I suggest a Forgotten Realms drow for the iconic (or racial variant). I haven't yet tried any iconics (or racial variants); but I would reincarnate my character into one of those!

[dennisck2]

I, too, have dropped my sub. It ends in May, and I don't think I will ever pay for it again. I'm tired of feeling bent over constantly. It feels like everything is a cash grab (Mini expansion? KMA.)and nothing is being done to fix age old problems (ladders, outdated trees), and worsening new ones (Lag and loading screens). I love this game, but unfortunately I don't see myself playing it much longer. SSG has become a joke, and I refuse to give them my money. I'll still log in every now and again to hit up my old buddies, but until something major changes I won't give SSG a dime.

I hope DDO gets the changes it needs, and I wish everyone well.

[blarhblarhblarh]

Ok, after a few tries and three lifes under the new system: Great changes. Still there was no reason to nerf meteor and take burnscar sarsh extra spellpower off. Just look like a scam. The reason a sorcerer does more damage than a favored sou is that the sorcerer can´t heal whole raids. Can´t even self heal properly without umd or ED. Chain Lighting without spellpower does more damage than a meteor. And there´s nothing more D&Dish than meteor and fireball so... what a dumb change. Did 3 lifes since the update enjoying the server xp + pots and days off.

I wanted to say more and test more but since 03/04 I have lag issues, chat issues and client issues (auto closing from time to time) so I can´t even be angry with the nuker nerf. Anniversary 16 will not happen if those issues continue. 1 less vip here and 1 more that will not spend a dime until it all is fixed. I really lost the trust in the company and I have been in DDO before it begins.

I leaved DDO 3 times. One when F2P came out with the lifes grinding. One when multi green steel would unbalance the game forever. One when lag made ddo unplayable but was a quick try. I was really happy with SSG´s decisions until feywild, now that you guys raised the gap between the first lifers and the whales while the game is unplayable makes me wonder if you guys want players in the game at all.

My solution? DO A ROLLBACK IN THE CHANGES OF THE NUKERS ASAP. Then work in usabillity, client preset options for windows 10. Work in lag, load screen of death and chat issues. One at a time or all at once, doesn´t matter. What matter is that you guys stop releasing new bugs until the old bugs are fixed and the game is playable.

[TekkenDevil]

Players of all types will find something in the new raid?
Well I don't think players of the solo persuasion, nor players with the "play with one or two other friends" persuasion will find anything in your new Raid.
I do not know what makes SSG continue to lock players like me out of Raids, I don't think anything bad would happen if I was allowed to solo it with a hireling on Casual. Just make Casual unlock a month or two after the Raid releases so that players can't just explore it first before attempting it for real.

Or keep DDO designed for private socialite guilds and Discord groups, if you want to keep steadily leaking playerbase size...
Every time a guild goes inactive, this game dies a little. Because you guys don't like solo and don't want to revive the LFM tab. You are allowing Guilds and Discord groups to be the primary life blood of DDO's monetization.
If SSG is tired of developing DDO, then you're doing a good job in soon freeing yourself from that burden. Otherwise, you're blind as bats to this issue of "DDO is for private clubs".

[TekkenDevil]

On a lighter note, I hope we are getting a brown adventurer's coat from the Morgrave University quests to match the brown Indiana Jones hat we got from last year's.
I also am looking forward to learning the shadow creature's identity from Feywild, more content added to the planar rift in the Hags' hut where we access Feywild and very much hope you guys haven't forgotten about the Graz'zt plot in Mines of Tethyamar, though it doesn't seem like any of these three will develop in 2021.

[SirValentine]

Players of all types will find something in the new raid?
Well I don't think players of the solo persuasion, nor players with the "play with one or two other friends" persuasion will find anything in your new Raid.

It's already been solo'd multiple times on Hard. Maybe you with your two other friends could try it on Normal.