Kobald race under development?

[Smokewolf]

I saw a video last night from Strimtom, where they were designing the Kobald enhancement tree. Along with that were a few references to a Shaman “Iconic” loosely based on the Sorcerer class... See here for details: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KpjoTMThOCU

A few things that were most interesting about the enh-tree:
1) Evasion (Tier 4) but IMHO due to their size, this should been a racial given ability not an enhancement.
2) Thrown “splash damage” toggle (Tier 2), which would be awesome for Alchemists.
3) Kobald only stacking buffs when within 30 ft of another Kobald (Tier 3 & 4), I’m assuming this is only with other players not mobs.
4) Walk thru monsters as a given ability, which should be nice for Rogues / Casters.
5) SLA’s have a material component requirement but otherwise appear somewhat “useful”.
6) Due to their small size, the Inability to use traditional 2-H weapons and thus normal 1-H weapons are now considered large. Example: a longsword would be a 2-H for a Kobald.
7) Kobals will not wear gloves or boots, instead they will have two extra trinket slots. Not sure of the “Why” behind this but it will totally break up some of the gear-set choices players would have. Which could be the whole point or it could simply be to make things easier for the art-department.

Here is the write up Strimtom posted after the stream: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...Qk/mobilebasic

All things considered this would make a good Ranged-Rogue, Bomber-Alchemist or PM-Wizard. In part due to the high Str penalty and the large weapon restrictions making melee a poor option. Only thing that’s totally overdone here is the -2 Con penalty on top of the already harsh -4 Str penalty.

[thwart]

If this is true, I would delete every character and reroll them as a kobold. Every. single. one.

[darkniteyogi]

[Smokewolf]

If this is true, I would delete every character and reroll them as a kobold. Every. single. one.

Its Strimtom's and Lynnabel’s video so there no reason to doubt this is coming.

[Arkat]

Its Strimtom's with Lianabell video so there no reason to doubt this is coming.

There is EVERY reason to doubt this is coming.

The BIGGEST reason to doubt is there's NO way that Lynnabel would be allowed to discuss this publicly if the Kobold race was under any kind of development.

This session was just one big exercise in speculation just for fun.

[Strimtom]

Its Strimtom's with Lianabell video so there no reason to doubt this is coming.

As excited as I too would be for this to be a real thing, it's important to note that DDI is a show that is more of me and Lynnabel being fans of DDO coming up with ideas, not confirming that an idea will come to the game. Love the speculation, just remember it's all for fun and is NOT a guarantee of what's to come

[Smokewolf]

As excited as I too would be for this to be a real thing, it's important to note that DDI is a show that is more of me and Lynnabel being fans of DDO coming up with ideas, not confirming that an idea will come to the game. Love the speculation, just remember it's all for fun and is NOT a guarantee of what's to come

That’s truly unfortunate...

I have to ask then, why bother posting the video if the ideas are not going to be used?

Not to be negative, but such things tend to get viewed as hype which undermines your credibility later on.

[Strimtom]

Not to be negative, but such things tend to get viewed as hype which undermines your credibility later on.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, would be able to elaborate? The goal of dungeons and developer insights, the show, and to get a chance to peak behind the curtain and look at how designs come up, some of the challenges of making DDO, and give the general player base an opportunity to get to know some of the members of SSG who work on the game we all love! The show has never been done under the pretense that it will be really added into the game which we say multiple times during recording. So how does that undermine my credibility? I'm not sure I understand and I want to make sure the intent is as clear as possible!

[dunklezhan]

That’s truly unfortunate...

I have to ask then, why bother posting the video if the ideas are not going to be used?

Not to be negative, but such things tend to get viewed as hype which undermines your credibility later on.

Fun? The whole point is that they're fantasy-workshopping. Lynnabel says multiple times in this one 'well that's what *I*'d do, but I doubt I'd get my way...' . It's a window into a development process with one dev and one player's vision and a bit of crowd input for lols.

It's for fun.

[Smokewolf]

I'm not sure what you mean by this, would be able to elaborate? The goal of dungeons and developer insights, the show, and to get a chance to peak behind the curtain and look at how designs come up, some of the challenges of making DDO, and give the general player base an opportunity to get to know some of the members of SSG who work on the game we all love! The show has never been done under the pretense that it will be really added into the game which we say multiple times during recording. So how does that undermine my credibility? I'm not sure I understand and I want to make sure the intent is as clear as possible!

Endless speculation by credible leaders of any group, tends to undermine the authority of those leaders. Rather it’s better to release only the information that’s both factual and relevant as this is what’s expected by the other members of the group. Besides, nowhere in videos description or comments (that I saw at the time of my viewing) was it mentioned that this was just an exercise in theory-craft.

Beyond all that... the behind the curtain stuff is cute but most folks on forms are of the belief that the desires of the player-base are largely ignored. Just have a look at most of the Suggestion & Lambda posts as proof. By and large, feedback is rare as is constructive change as a direct result of a post.

[SoVeryBelgian]

I'd honestly be down for ANY incarnation of Iconic Sorc Kobbie

Evasion is a nice bonus, and I can deff see 1-H functioning as 2-H... although the absence of shields and heavy melee does shape your choices. Also Qstaff will probs still be available... right? heh

That said, Kobbie Alche, 1-H Empty Hand Bard, and many Thrower builds basically stay on the table so eh



TL;DR If it's true, that's cool, if it aint' well... at least they're considerin' it

[Memnir]

There was a Poll/Vote-thing that the Devs ran a while back: would DDO players prefer to see Dragonborn or Kobolds developed as the next race. Dragonborn (thankfully) won handily. My recollection was that it wasn't even close - DBs tromped Kobold badly. As such, I think it put a lot of hesitation in the Devs to add Kobolds as a race, ever,


I think we have far more than enough Kobolds in the game already as an enemy race. I don't think we need more as PCs, but YMMV. If they do get added, by god I hope they don't have the super annoying, overly-cutesy, vocalizations they have in the Cove and Birthday event quests. But, I know they would... which is probably my primary reason for hoping that PC Kobolds never happens.

[rabidfox]

it's important to note that DDI is a show that is more of me and Lynnabel being fans of DDO coming up with ideas

I love the DDI stuff, it's fun seeing what theorycrafting for class/race designs you'd do for stuff. Haven't watched the Kobold one yet, but the thunder-touched one was entertaining and gave some insights as to what one might do if making a wild tree like that. Good times and that video was quite clear from the get go that it was all just in good fun and had zero to do with anything that would ever show up in game.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Kobald : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt
Kobold : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold

[Amundir]

Endless speculation by credible leaders of any group, tends to undermine the authority of those leaders. Rather it’s better to release only the information that’s both factual and relevant as this is what’s expected by the other members of the group. Besides, nowhere in videos description or comments (that I saw at the time of my viewing) was it mentioned that this was just an exercise in theory-craft.

Strimtom is not an employee of SSG. Lynabell is, but Strimtom isn't. He's a live streamer of DDO. A fan. As such, he's free to put out whatever content he wants, including theory crafting and "fun" content.

For Lynabell, if you want to take a stance that he should not be allowed to have fun or theory craft on a platform that is not DDO, then that's unfortunate. However, given that he has been on multiple streams with Strimtom doing such things, clearly SSG doesn't have an issue with it so far. SSG, the company that employees Lynabell, and is the primary entity concerned with anything legal that Lynabell can or can't do publicly concerning DDO, doesn't apparently have an issue with it.

Being unhappy that other people are having fun, isn't the best mind space to be in.

[TheAlicornSage]

There was a Poll/Vote-thing that the Devs ran a while back: would DDO players prefer to see Dragonborn or Kobolds developed as the next race. Dragonborn (thankfully) won handily. My recollection was that it wasn't even close - DBs tromped Kobold badly. As such, I think it put a lot of hesitation in the Devs to add Kobolds as a race, ever,


I think we have far more than enough Kobolds in the game already as an enemy race. I don't think we need more as PCs, but YMMV. If they do get added, by god I hope they don't have the super annoying, overly-cutesy, vocalizations they have in the Cove and Birthday event quests. But, I know they would... which is probably my primary reason for hoping that PC Kobolds never happens.

I saw that poll. It wasn't that big of a win.

And frankly, I would not say "thankfully" to dragonborn. I never liked them. They always felt like an attempt to make a kobold race of equal power to standard races and in the process dropped what gives kobolds their charm and appeal. They never felt like they had anything worthwhile of their own.

And I frankly think they did a terrible job on the 3d models. They don't even have the feet appropriately positioned under the center of gravity, and the oversized head/hands/feet make the body feel tiny and scrawny to the point of hilarity. I understand why it came out that way. But I personally would never have let the race out that way. I would have expected a simple deformation function on the body models to increase the body size while still using the same base models for everything, but I guess they either couldn't get that done on budget or it would work against the current architecture. Truth is, if they could fix that to apply a standard deformation to body/armor/etc models, then not only could they make the dragonborn look better, but they'd be able to use most if not all the base models for other races such as kobolds.

[DRoark]

I frankly think they did a terrible job on the 3d models.

Still not as bad as Aurgloroasa's (and every other dracolich) sideways pelvic boner.

The source of every "wear a helmet" tanking joke ever conceived of in those raids.

[drathdragon]

Kobald : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt
Kobold : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold

hehehe i was thinking the same
I was pretty confused when i saw the title of this topic.
I was wondering about a new race of kobolds named kobald...

[DRoark]

... kobald...

You linked COBALT.

Kobald was an American wrestler. Though, having a Kobold barbarian would be hilarious.

"Me remember Waterworks... Kobold SMASH!"