U51 Early Preview: Main Thread

[Chacka_DDO]

I don't want to fail to mention that you should consider that EDs are epic character progression and for this reason, you should get access to them at level 21 which is also in DDO the first epic character level (in level 21 you have your first epic level).
Much like you get your first epic feat and EDF (epic defensive fighting) at level 21.

I know many players will cry nerf or even refuse to comprehend that level 21 is the first epic character level...
But I think everyone who has some sense of logic knows we have an inconsistency here that should be corrected.

To mitigate the effects of such a change you could e.g. lower the experience requirement for level 21 and/or let characters start at level 21 after an ER (epic reincarnation).
In addition maybe more quests with level 18-20.
Another idea would be to give everyone a free Stone of Experience after any ER that gives you enough exp for level 21.

[Valerianus]

oh yeah, EDF, it seems like the perfect chance to scrap it and forget about it, and slip those hp back into the new EDs or weapon styles feats.

[Chacka_DDO]

oh yeah, EDF, it seems like the perfect chance to scrap it and forget about it, and slip those hp back into the new EDs or weapon styles feats.

EDF has nothing to do with EDs
I just say EDs are epic and like EDF you should get access to them when your character gets epic and that's at level 21.
The intention behind EDF (as far as I know) was to help ALL melee builds but the implementation especially with the touch range for spells was not ideal...
But anyhow to help all melee builds it would not really work if it is in an ED and all melees would have to use this ED.

[gringofoot]

Well, considering things have already changed from the feedback, so, if you are in a betting mood, betting against you sounds like a fairly good bet

Things they did not change:

• only 3 ED's vs 6 in heroic. given that we are losing 4 twists, this is not a good trade.
• most powerful abilities saved for L30. level cap for now. and the alleged purpose of this overhaul that someone (somewhere but not any player I've ever spoken to) asked for is to make people run epic quests.
• massive amounts of points spent on useless unlocks to get to L5.

Basically this system makes me earn and spend points to get at L30, the 3 twists I have right now when I hit L20.

There is some vague mention of possible scaling of epic mobs and bosses, but that is neither well defined nor likely to keep pace with the major downgrade in power....until L30. And after the level cap goes up to 35...40...45, grinding thru L20 - L30 is not going to be the exciting feature it is currently imagined to be (or sold as).

Epic Destines are not the reason DDO does not attract as many new players or loses them. Graphics from 2006 and not having enough people around to group with - those are the reason. DDO can and should appeal to new players. This ED hork is not going to pull anyone away from D4 or Black Desert or any of a dozen MMORPG D&D type game to come out in the next year.

[Hawkwier]

What follows is purely my personal view, I don’t claim to speak for anyone else, and apologise in advance for any points I may have repeated from elsewhere.

The changes in U51, overall limit flexibility/diversity in gameplay (undermining IMO one of the key distinctive strengths of DDO), and moreover seek to introduce a mechanic the game is currently incapable of supporting effectively.

But first let’s consider the bigger picture here. It is absolutely apparent that SSG, despite the vastly negative response from players when originally mooted, are on a path to extend the level cap. There were very few voices in favour of this move, and it is surely driven by some overriding commercial imperative. Any pretence it is good for the game or the already stretched and sparse player base is either misguided or dishonest to some degree IMO.

U51 is a development in support of that unwanted cap extension.

In that context the loss of epic moments as an interim waypoint to some form of regain in future at a new cap is understandable, however cynical and regrettable a move. Inevitably this alone represents a significant nerf to player power and a constriction of flexibility and diversity in gameplay. Choices over epic moment are literally removed entirely.

Devs will hopefully understand a natural scepticism around claims being made to dial back mob abilities in balance, given previous track record on fulfilling commitments. Thus far the only commitment I can see is -6 on saves, if this is the degree to which the impact of U51 has been thought through in terms of balance, then again, scepticism is the overriding reaction.

Then we have the loss of twists. A fully developed toon can currently have access to abilities from up to 6 EDs – main plus 5 twists. Now to be limited to 3 trees. Again flexibility and diversity suffer. I have yet to see a cogent reason for the imposition of such restriction, given access to 6 trees is standard in heroic trees.

Whilst understanding to an extent the moving of Dire Charge and Mass Frog to restrict access to be more like that originally intended – assuming melee cc and caster instakill respectively – the way this has been done is overly restrictive. Taking Dire Charge as an example, similar could have been achieved (incidentally at any time over the past 10 years or so if things were really so egregious), by simply adding a precondition that a t5 heroic enhancement from at least one melee-appropriate tree be required to select (for example for Dire Charge, it could be t5 qualification from any of the fiighter/pally/barb/rogue/bard/ranger etc., trees). Placing it as t5 in LD gives that ED an over-focus, again impacting flexibility and diversity.

May I also just say that the sort of tone/response from SSG that a build is no good if it depends on Dire Charge is not in the least helpful in terms of offsetting the scepticism currently felt toward these changes. Whether true or not, attempts at cheap point-scoring and self-aggrandisement in such fashion dilutes any message that SSG are on point. And right now they very much need to be at least seen to be!

Then there is the loss of abilities from the ED trees. A big loss for those currently heavily invested, but even where not, having the ability to balance out an uneven score via EDs was again a nice bit of flexibility and diversity to have available. Beyond some spurious reasoning that there was no room for this (spurious IMO given some of the weak options that do take up such space), there is no reason for this loss.

But, saving best ‘til last, we have builder/enhance/spenders…

First thing to say is that given the short up time of these charges, driving the need to constantly generate them, WHEN COMBINED WITH CONSTANT FAILURE TO EXECUTE LAG EFFECTS, this mechanic is impractical to implement form the player’s perspective. Like many hot-bar abilities they simply won’t fire reliably/consistently enough to work. There is zero doubt that the introduction of this mechanic is absolutely wrong-headed at this time. SSG need to rethink this entirely as based on track record I doubt they are capable for resolving continuing lag issues any time soon. The game currently just isn’t good enough to support this. PLEASE STOP!

Then, the above imperative aside, we have the fact that the charges are different in nature, require different abilities to charge and decay independently (adrenaline takes 8 sec to create a charge which only lasts for 10 sec – how is that an effective “builder”??). You also need to take different abilities form different trees in order to improve the chances of charging and amount of charges available. Yes, doable, but again at the expense of build flexibility/diversity.

In summary, I’ve tried to set out at fairly high level where issues arise impacting build flexibility/diversity, and a particularly unworkable game mechanic. Given the early stage of preview I’ve tried to avoid getting into too much detail, though I have significant concerns there too. And anyway, this should be more than enough to be getting on with, as neither of the aspects I’ve sought to address are, for me at any rate, trivial concerns.

SSG, you are embarking on a journey here, to increase the level cap and introduce further significant changes in how the game is played. To make a success of this you cannot travel alone. You need your customers travel with you. In that sense U51 represents the invitation to us to join you... The trouble is, as it stands, it’s a particularly uninviting invitation, and so many of us may well choose not to travel. Again, I should stress I can only speak for myself…

Personally, I will wait to see the final form in the hope changes are adopted, if it stays as is, I will likely stop then. What I am certainly doing is placing a moratorium on further spend on the game in the interim until this is much clearer, so I won’t for example be buying U50. Having recently spent quite a lot of points on raid timer bypasses as I pursued a key bit of loot, I only have 200 or so points left. Normally I’d simply top these up to purchase the new Update, but I can find no rationale for doing so when the following Update may turn out to be the last time I play. All I can say is, if this were the release today, regrettably, I’d likely be done.

[gringofoot]

What follows is purely my personal view, I don’t claim to speak for anyone else, and apologise in advance for any points I may have repeated from elsewhere.

The changes in U51, overall limit flexibility/diversity in gameplay (undermining IMO one of the key distinctive strengths of DDO), and moreover seek to introduce a mechanic the game is currently incapable of supporting effectively.

But first let’s consider the bigger picture here. It is absolutely apparent that SSG, despite the vastly negative response from players when originally mooted, are on a path to extend the level cap. There were very few voices in favour of this move, and it is surely driven by some overriding commercial imperative. Any pretence it is good for the game or the already stretched and sparse player base is either misguided or dishonest to some degree IMO.

U51 is a development in support of that unwanted cap extension.

In that context the loss of epic moments as an interim waypoint to some form of regain in future at a new cap is understandable, however cynical and regrettable a move. Inevitably this alone represents a significant nerf to player power and a constriction of flexibility and diversity in gameplay. Choices over epic moment are literally removed entirely.

Devs will hopefully understand a natural scepticism around claims being made to dial back mob abilities in balance, given previous track record on fulfilling commitments. Thus far the only commitment I can see is -6 on saves, if this is the degree to which the impact of U51 has been thought through in terms of balance, then again, scepticism is the overriding reaction.

Then we have the loss of twists. A fully developed toon can currently have access to abilities from up to 6 EDs – main plus 5 twists. Now to be limited to 3 trees. Again flexibility and diversity suffer. I have yet to see a cogent reason for the imposition of such restriction, given access to 6 trees is standard in heroic trees.

Whilst understanding to an extent the moving of Dire Charge and Mass Frog to restrict access to be more like that originally intended – assuming melee cc and caster instakill respectively – the way this has been done is overly restrictive. Taking Dire Charge as an example, similar could have been achieved (incidentally at any time over the past 10 years or so if things were really so egregious), by simply adding a precondition that a t5 heroic enhancement from at least one melee-appropriate tree be required to select (for example for Dire Charge, it could be t5 qualification from any of the fiighter/pally/barb/rogue/bard/ranger etc., trees). Placing it as t5 in LD gives that ED an over-focus, again impacting flexibility and diversity.

May I also just say that the sort of tone/response from SSG that a build is no good if it depends on Dire Charge is not in the least helpful in terms of offsetting the scepticism currently felt toward these changes. Whether true or not, attempts at cheap point-scoring and self-aggrandisement in such fashion dilutes any message that SSG are on point. And right now they very much need to be at least seen to be!

Then there is the loss of abilities from the ED trees. A big loss for those currently heavily invested, but even where not, having the ability to balance out an uneven score via EDs was again a nice bit of flexibility and diversity to have available. Beyond some spurious reasoning that there was no room for this (spurious IMO given some of the weak options that do take up such space), there is no reason for this loss.

But, saving best ‘til last, we have builder/enhance/spenders…

First thing to say is that given the short up time of these charges, driving the need to constantly generate them, WHEN COMBINED WITH CONSTANT FAILURE TO EXECUTE LAG EFFECTS, this mechanic is impractical to implement form the player’s perspective. Like many hot-bar abilities they simply won’t fire reliably/consistently enough to work. There is zero doubt that the introduction of this mechanic is absolutely wrong-headed at this time. SSG need to rethink this entirely as based on track record I doubt they are capable for resolving continuing lag issues any time soon. The game currently just isn’t good enough to support this. PLEASE STOP!

Then, the above imperative aside, we have the fact that the charges are different in nature, require different abilities to charge and decay independently (adrenaline takes 8 sec to create a charge which only lasts for 10 sec – how is that an effective “builder”??). You also need to take different abilities form different trees in order to improve the chances of charging and amount of charges available. Yes, doable, but again at the expense of build flexibility/diversity.

In summary, I’ve tried to set out at fairly high level where issues arise impacting build flexibility/diversity, and a particularly unworkable game mechanic. Given the early stage of preview I’ve tried to avoid getting into too much detail, though I have significant concerns there too. And anyway, this should be more than enough to be getting on with, as neither of the aspects I’ve sought to address are, for me at any rate, trivial concerns.

SSG, you are embarking on a journey here, to increase the level cap and introduce further significant changes in how the game is played. To make a success of this you cannot travel alone. You need your customers travel with you. In that sense U51 represents the invitation to us to join you... The trouble is, as it stands, it’s a particularly uninviting invitation, and so many of us may well choose not to travel. Again, I should stress I can only speak for myself…

Personally, I will wait to see the final form in the hope changes are adopted, if it stays as is, I will likely stop then. What I am certainly doing is placing a moratorium on further spend on the game in the interim until this is much clearer, so I won’t for example be buying U50. Having recently spent quite a lot of points on raid timer bypasses as I pursued a key bit of loot, I only have 200 or so points left. Normally I’d simply top these up to purchase the new Update, but I can find no rationale for doing so when the following Update may turn out to be the last time I play. All I can say is, if this were the release today, regrettably, I’d likely be done.

This is 1000% the best and most thorough response to the ED big hork. THANK YOU!!!

[difasja]

Can anyone explain to me how and why the Epic Destiny system has to be destroyed (my words) so the level cap can rise? I don't understand it. I have five characters I play often, only epics (for the most part). Two have maxed out their Epic Reincarnations completely and I was doing it on the other three slowly. I like playing them the way they are, they are fun. I have fun doing it. All use Epic Destiny stuff that is either completly being removed or won't be available till 30. So all five are ruined, and I don't want to re-imagine them. I'm just trying to understand why can't you leave the systems in place and just raise the level cap??? Help.

[blarhblarhblarh]

Can anyone explain to me how and why the Epic Destiny system has to be destroyed (my words) so the level cap can rise? I don't understand it. I have five characters I play often, only epics (for the most part). Two have maxed out their Epic Reincarnations completely and I was doing it on the other three slowly. I like playing them the way they are, they are fun. I have fun doing it. All use Epic Destiny stuff that is either completly being removed or won't be available till 30. So all five are ruined, and I don't want to re-imagine them. I'm just trying to understand why can't you leave the systems in place and just raise the level cap??? Help.

Any other company would listen to the players. Not SSG, SSG will take the playerbase opinion as an ego issue/personal treat and do whatever they want even if 90% of the players tell them that they are not nerfing the players but taking the fun and dynamism out of a game that is alredy in the verge of extinction. So why all the comunity with thousands of hours and experience in rpg and online games will not be listen but a 19 year old developer will? this is the question I would like to see the answer.

As some have been saying ddo is setting itself to fail. I really can´t see any other option. These days every company asks their consumer what they want, SSG even makes the question but never move in one degree the direction of their ship. And that´s why the developer can laugh in the face of the players saying that they will receive a cape for their past efforts (just check last cordovan´s live if you don´t believe).

[L2Marshall]

The charges/builder/spender system is terrible. If you want to control how often people use something just adjust the cooldowns if you want to control how powerful an ability is just divide the power into different tiers of the ability. Players will spend their points how they want.

The charge HUD is TERRIBLE! it is worse than the alchemist clutter and now EVERY SINGLE CHARCATER has to have this garbage on their screen. And what are the choices? you take away the hideous dots floating around our characters then we have to scan our hotbars or buff bars to see how many we have, that's is a terrible solution, otherwise people just have to remember how many times an effect with a low proc change has occurred?

Scrap this trash now, it's just bad.

If you have to create this new system, if you have to nerf/remove abilities fine, just don't do this charge ****.

[Dandonk]

These days every company asks their consumer what they want, SSG even makes the question but never move in one degree the direction of their ship. And that´s why the developer can laugh in the face of the players saying that they will receive a cape for their past efforts (just check last cordovan´s live if you don´t believe).

Yay, a cape! Woo!

That he's even talking about this "reward" in such specifics tells me, if nothing else (like past experience), that the gist of this change is already set in stone. Sure, we may get some tweaks here and there, but I don't particularly whether the rock I'm getting smashed in the face with is yellow or purple, or possibly even has little hearts in pink on it.

[Doc-N]

Hello Standing Stone Games.

I dont know if im making it right, its my first thread on this forum, but as i see people complaining about this revamp, i couldnt do as always and just stay as a voiceless dark shape.

So this time i will speak. And yes, I LOVE THIS REVAMP !

Im playing this game from long time with severals break.
And from all those years in this games, i never managed to hit lvl30 because i litteraly hate the old E D system.
This game offer so much tools in terms of character customizations, i always take so much fun in personal theory crafting, multiclassing, making my toon the exact way i want it to be.
And when i hit lvl 20, i struggle so much with this sensless karma system that it always end with a ragequit out of this game for a moment.
-Why should i play an E D who dont match my playstyle just to get a twist of fate ?
-Why shoud i take care of my heroic character when reaching lvl 21, everything i built is wiped away by some absurdly powerfull SLA who come from E D and dont even interact with my heroic class ?

Now ... This is all gone, and i thanks you with all my heart.
I may not play as a completionist, i may look like a voice in the dark, but thrust me, im not alone, and there is a great part of the community, people who dont neceseraly express their opinions on the forums, who will for sure gladely welcome this revamp as i am.

I see people complaining about the lack of power of this revamp... I personaly was always wondering about the point of balancing the game only by giving more and more power, and never using any nerf. (I never see any mmo trying to balance his game with this strange philosphy but okay, thats not the point)

What im talking about is that this new E D system give so much more options in terms of customizations of your toon, and nobody seems to notice it !

We literaly got some kind of multiclassing througt the E D system ! And this rock !
For example :
I have an multiclassed toons, Eldritch Knight Fire savant, evasion paladin. He hit lvl20 and then only stick to Draconic incarnation ... He stick it so well than in every dungeons, it look like the ability of the Eldritch Knight to strike his enemy with his sword begin to be pointless, he just have to use dragon breath or other SLA and the job is done. But i want to use my magic and my sword ! this is the purpose of this character !

In fact, it look that multiclassed characters dont fit in the old E D system.
This system was so ancient, he even look to be trying to emulate rotations and procs from others mmo games but it doesnt make sens in a game where you can OS so many things.

Another example is the Spellcaster multiclassing. This was a bad idea. Becaus even if it make you more divers, the caster level make you less optimized... "Yeah but you are a jack of all threads ! you can be a Sorcerer who can heal !" ... No ! You arent ! becaus after hitting lvl20, they will ask you what pool of magic you have to abandon, Profane ? or Divine ? Now its over ! We can try freely what we want to try !

The Builder/Spender system is also very well designed ! This time, E D literaly comunicate with each others, you can take a builder option in one tree and a spender in another to better suit the playstyle of your toon ! This is brillant !

I wonder why people are so upset about this change...
Reading all this negatives opinion make me think that the only thing who matter for players is to win, not to play.

Does anyone never notice that Legendary dreadnought forced the players to use only certain types of weapon ? A friend of mine play a single handed tank using bastard sword. Once he reach E D, the "capstone" of Legendary Dreadnought doesnt even propose an option for a sword user...

I could literally speak hours about how this old E D system was a mistake in my opinion, but lets end this.

Thanks again and again Standing Stone Games !
This revamp look really great ! I am so excited about it ! I can't wait for the U51 relase to dive back in the game and finnaly make my own way to lvl30, with this brand new Epic Destiny !

[DRoark]

Disclaimer [INDENT][I]...take the time needed to iterate on it to get it right.

Hostly, from the testing, comments, and my own personal experience, it's a complete waste of programming time.

-------------------------------------------

The game does not need any type of builder/spender combo clicky system. Period. Never did, never will.

Gating skills at 30, is much like making L30 Augments out of L29 gear. People TRing won't get a chance to use them.
(Seriously, what rocket scientist came up with THAT plan?)

Removing Feats that alot of people like to use, and making them high-Tier specific Destiny only, gimps playstyle.

Removing Twists reduces the flexibility of character building, and makes every build I use less effective/fun to play.

People that don't have time to ER/TR dozens of times, are going to be severely behind. It's a horrible point system.
Class TRs, Racial TRs, Epic TRs, Iconic TRs... It's too much. There needs to be more time invested in the GAME, not
wasting our time with yet-another-reason Corporate wants to distract us with a hundred reincarnations.

People have been suggesting an account-wide Alternate XP tree for a decade. Not Reaper. A quality-of-life tree. Look into that instead.

-------------------------------------------

The only thing I see this doing, is alienating a loyal fanbase, and flooding the ship.

The Future of DDO? A 99-cent APP for IPhones, with Microtransactions for Destiny Points.

[Propane]

One thing I noticed across all the new trees is the small add for AC, PRR, etc...

The damage "adds" are getting scaled with Melee Power, but the AC and PRR add are rounding error at best for epic levels.
Please consider increasing the values to make them worth of a Lv 20+ content or change to adding X%.
2/4/6 AC as a T3 in LD?
(Assuming the Tower Shields to not benefit from the extra DEX allowance)

Improved CE is gone (or moved)?

So far = the trees shared appear to lacking in Defensive options and seem out of balance - looking forward to seeing the rest of the plans.
When we can see all the Trees - it might reduce the numbers of torches and pitch forks - please share sooner than later...

[Valerianus]

The charges/builder/spender system is terrible. If you want to control how often people use something just adjust the cooldowns if you want to control how powerful an ability is just divide the power into different tiers of the ability. Players will spend their points how they want.

The charge HUD is TERRIBLE! it is worse than the alchemist clutter and now EVERY SINGLE CHARCATER has to have this garbage on their screen. And what are the choices? you take away the hideous dots floating around our characters then we have to scan our hotbars or buff bars to see how many we have, that's is a terrible solution, otherwise people just have to remember how many times an effect with a low proc change has occurred?

Scrap this trash now, it's just bad.

If you have to create this new system, if you have to nerf/remove abilities fine, just don't do this charge ****.

sorry i don't do lamannia, question, does that horrible wow like stuff not belonging not even close to ddo charge builder stuff has a hud of its own?

sorry, i can believe it, really? sorry i mean no disrespect to the person i am quoting, but it is...whoa...

if it has a hud of its own, this is madness. yet again, a bad idea in a bad system, the ui is not even scalable, ssg stop everything you are doing and listen to players about inventory, storage, cosmetics, scalable ui, and a lot of issues and bugs before doing anything, stop doing anything until ddo servers are performing at least decently and your game can handle stuff. atm, it cannot. ddo is not compatible with anything except dungeon crawl, you have to modernize it, it does not mean copy wow, it means having some simple basic mmo player-friendly features and systems.

i can't believe it. is it a joke and i fell for it? a stupid hud smacked in our face in a non-scalable ui? who had such an idea?! seriously i want to believe that i got bamboozled really hard and with this post i am making a fool of myself.

please tell me i am a gullible fool.

[Tinabula]

Disclaimer

Everything seen on the preview server, Lamannia, is not final and is subject to change or removal before live release.

Hello, all! A special early preview of Update 51 is open! It is expected to remain open until sometime in the late afternoon (Eastern) of Thursday June 17th.

There will be a dev event on Wednesday June 16th from 8-10 PM Eastern where members of the DDO team will be available to collect feedback and answer questions in real time on Lamannia.

To be clear, you read that correctly, this is an early preview of Update 51. This is happening before we've even hosted a preview for Update 50 because of how large the Epic Destiny system is and how important it is that we take the time needed to iterate on it to get it right. We are months away from the Epic Destiny revamp being ready to go to the live servers (keep that in mind and especially make sure to take a look at the known issues list in the basic framework thread). For clarity, this is very likely to be the only Epic Destiny revamp preview until after the release of Update 50 (which we will begin previewing in the coming few weeks).

We would like to use this preview to gather impressions from the community at large and go through them before we are encroaching on the deadline for U51. We expect to be referring back to these threads over the next month plus while the U50 development cycle finishes up. Due to the nature of the U50 schedule, after this preview concludes we are likely to go a bit quiet on the Epic Destiny revamp for a while as we focus on finishing up U50. Once U50 is live, however, we will be holding atleast a couple more previews for the Epic Destiny revamp that will both showcase the Destinies that did not make it into this early preview and provide insight into how the system is shaping up after the first preview.

This preview contains one real feature: An early look at parts of the Epic Destiny Revamp.

The list of official feedback threads, in the order that I HIGHLY recommend reading them in is as follows:

1. Epic Destiny Revamp Core Framework
2. Epic Destiny Revamp Design Paradigm
3. Epic Feats, Destiny Feats, and Legendary Feats Changes
4. Individual Epic Destiny Tree threads (NOTE: Only 7 of the 12 Destinies are available in this early preview)
   
   • Fury of the Wild
   • Primal Avatar
   • Shiradi Champion
   • Legendary Dreadnought
   • Shadowdancer
   • Grandmaster of Flowers
   • Divine Crusader
5. And finally: U50 Changes Present in this Preview
6. In Progress Half Elf Cosmetic Revamp

Again, those posts are ordered in the recommended reading order to best understand what's planned to change and why. Please do let us know what you think!

I play a DC FVS and rely on implosion. So I am evocation based and you give many of the other spell casting elements a +4 to evocation or other type. You should consider adding tat to scion of celestia to be fair and balanced. Also this isn't a change, but I think you need to take the angel vengance tree and make spell penetration 1 point just like you do in other trees like feydark illusionist.

[L2Marshall]

sorry i don't do lamannia, question, does that horrible wow like stuff not belonging not even close to ddo charge builder stuff has a hud of its own?

sorry, i can believe it, really? sorry i mean no disrespect to the person i am quoting, but it is...whoa...

if it has a hud of its own, this is madness. yet again, a bad idea in a bad system, the ui is not even scalable, ssg stop everything you are doing and listen to players about inventory, storage, cosmetics, scalable ui, and a lot of issues and bugs before doing anything, stop doing anything until ddo servers are performing at least decently and your game can handle stuff. atm, it cannot. ddo is not compatible with anything except dungeon crawl, you have to modernize it, it does not mean copy wow, it means having some simple basic mmo player-friendly features and systems.

i can't believe it. is it a joke and i fell for it? a stupid hud smacked in our face in a non-scalable ui? who had such an idea?! seriously i want to believe that i got bamboozled really hard and with this post i am making a fool of myself.

please tell me i am a gullible fool.

Watch Strimtom's videos, when you gain a charge you get a floating dot beside your character, just a big symbol floating there. It is horrible looking. It isn't like a magical effect or aura attached to your character, it isn't thematic, it's just a stack of floating dots.

https://youtu.be/wTxNKkNGgEg?t=503

Maybe some people like the way this looks. I think if this goes live in its current form I will never spend a point in any ability that uses these effects no matter how much its gimps my character. If epics are unplayable without using the system then I just will not participate.

[Stravix]

Watch Strimtom's videos, when you gain a charge you get a floating dot beside your character, just a big symbol floating there. It is horrible looking. It isn't like a magical effect or aura attached to your character, it isn't thematic, it's just a stack of floating dots.

https://youtu.be/wTxNKkNGgEg?t=503

Maybe some people like the way this looks. I think if this goes live in its current form I will never spend a point in any ability that uses these effects no matter how much its gimps my character. If epics are unplayable without using the system then I just will not participate.

Personally, I like the fact that it is easily readable (unlike the buff bar), but it could definitely look better.

I assume it's placeholder art, as I think Lynn said they were working on a few options for how the charges look.

[Merrillman]

This user’s last paragraph is perfect:

Personally, I will wait to see the final form in the hope changes are adopted, if it stays as is, I will likely stop then. What I am certainly doing is placing a moratorium on further spend on the game in the interim until this is much clearer, so I won’t for example be buying U50. Having recently spent quite a lot of points on raid timer bypasses as I pursued a key bit of loot, I only have 200 or so points left. Normally I’d simply top these up to purchase the new Update, but I can find no rationale for doing so when the following Update may turn out to be the last time I play. All I can say is, if this were the release today, regrettably, I’d likely be done.

Like him, I can not and will not spend a dime more on this game (and I spend a LOT) with these changes on the horizon. These are a horror show. If it is implemented, it just proves their egos are more important than the user experience and dare I say it... FUN. If this remains, they simply don’t care about the actual PLAYER.

Seriously, we want MORE, not less. We want a better experience, not a worse one. Whoever thought this horror show up needs to be re-educated on what players expect. What we want, and how to actually keep the game from its own ENDGAME. U50 is a nice round number. A good one to go out on. No one is going to want to stick around for 51. Do this? It’s the game’s swan song.

[Merrillman]

All of what he said x 1000. Killing the game I love. You do KNOW that we have spent THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS on our characters, right? That’s their worth. You are destroying those dollars from loyal long term playing people and years upon years of gameplay. Our money and our worth is being destroyed by this. JUST NO. More points. More magic. More flexibility. MORE VALUE. NO MORE GD NERFS!!!

Hostly, from the testing, comments, and my own personal experience, it's a complete waste of programming time.

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The game does not need any type of builder/spender combo clicky system. Period. Never did, never will.

Gating skills at 30, is much like making L30 Augments out of L29 gear. People TRing won't get a chance to use them.
(Seriously, what rocket scientist came up with THAT plan?)

Removing Feats that alot of people like to use, and making them high-Tier specific Destiny only, gimps playstyle.

Removing Twists reduces the flexibility of character building, and makes every build I use less effective/fun to play.

People that don't have time to ER/TR dozens of times, are going to be severely behind. It's a horrible point system.
Class TRs, Racial TRs, Epic TRs, Iconic TRs... It's too much. There needs to be more time invested in the GAME, not
wasting our time with yet-another-reason Corporate wants to distract us with a hundred reincarnations.

People have been suggesting an account-wide Alternate XP tree for a decade. Not Reaper. A quality-of-life tree. Look into that instead.

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The only thing I see this doing, is alienating a loyal fanbase, and flooding the ship.

The Future of DDO? A 99-cent APP for IPhones, with Microtransactions for Destiny Points.

[L2Marshall]

Personally, I like the fact that it is easily readable (unlike the buff bar), but it could definitely look better.

I assume it's placeholder art, as I think Lynn said they were working on a few options for how the charges look.

As long as it is obvious that it is just there to provide information about some game mechanic it doesn't matter how "pretty" they make the art look. There is no thematic significance to these symbols floating beside your character.

Consider the appearance of Ioun stones. You have a floating bauble spinning around your head .... for a reason! You have an item equipped that actually does this.

Now consider these charges. You have some symbols that are floating out beside your character. Static symbols awkwardly floating beside you that have no meaningful thematic significance at all.


I am not naive enough to believe that they will actually change direction on this. They have obviously already put considerable effort into building it. That doesn't mean I'm not going to at least voice my opinion. Even if I liked the idea behind the "charges" system (which I don't) I would be opposed to it based solely on the fact that it is visual clutter. This is a large part of why I refuse to play alchemist. I got my past lives and left it behind as fast as possible. This system introduces visual clutter that no character can avoid.

Just looking at primal avatar (the only real caster tree previewed) if you have the mantle activated EVERY SINGLE SPELL YOU CAST can create these horrid blots on your screen. You can't even avoid them by not taking the builder skills. Just having the mantle forces you to walk around with the junk on your screen.