Producer's Letter - August 2022

[Arkat]

Nevermind

[CeltEireson]

Speaking of updating the crystal cove etc - are you going to update the loot for the events to include level 32 versions?

[Nickodeamous]

So, we have handwrap barbs (shifter), handwrap monks, and now handwrap paladins? I am still utterly disappointed that the iconic version of monk is only staff oriented. As a HW monk player, it should have been for all monk types, like a toggle, or something.

I digress, so will handwrap Pallys have the same restrictions on MRR and cloth that Monks have? if not, this is kinda ridiculous if you can "act like a monk", but you have way better PRR and MRR. That being said, a HW monk should be the top dog with handwraps, not some flavor build that sounds cool. lol. Just my 2 cents.

Nico

[TempestAlphaOmega]

Took a look at the new bank interface and it is an improvement.

All three banks (Personal, Shared and TR) look pretty much the same. One long list like the current shared bank. They added the ability to create tabs which allow you to group items together, yes you can do this on the TR bank as well.

I would like to see you add the ability to add tabs to the crafting storage as well. Being able to name the tabs (rather than them saying just Tab 1, Tab 2, etc would also be a nice touch.

[Annex]

Hardcore 6: Super disappointing. Not for me.

Archetypes: Not interested. I am already so far behind I can never hope to catch up. Now I am even further behind. Again. No point in trying anymore so playing much less.

Dark Disciple: I do not play evil characters. Not for me.

Stormsinger: A bard who uses sonic spells and lighting. Umm, I thought that is what bards already do. Do not care.

Sacred Fist: A paladin who punches stuff. Yeah. No. Not for me.

Temple of Elemental Evil: Fine. Will give it a try when it comes out.

Crystal Cove: Your best event. Extremely concerned any update will make this worse.

Peril of the Planar Eyes: Did not enjoy part one. Maybe part two will be better.

I will try the new and updated dungeons when they come out. Not playing much until then. Tired of the grind and lack of character progress.

[LittleLexi]

I have to say – this Producer's Letter is quite disappointing overall. As is the direction they are going with these Archetypes.

I appreciate that they require less effort to put together, than brand new classes. But I don't view this as a good thing necessarily. I remember the times when DDO was in a bad place(so-called maintenance mode), where we were getting very little in the way of content, and anything new was just a reskin of this, that, or the other. And that is pretty much all these Archetypes are. Almost all of their abilities are just things that already exist in the game in other places. Like come on – give us actual new and interesting abilities to play around with! I would gladly wait 2-3 years of work for a brand new class that was totally unique and fleshed out over this. And don't say that we've run out of possible classes based off the source material. There are plenty of prestige classes, or classes from other games that could be adopted into DDO in one form or another. Or how about come up with something totally original? It's not like DDO has adhered strictly to true D&D. In fact – we are quite removed from it in lots of places. But no. Instead we have a millionth iteration of Shout in yet another place...How fun. Not -.-

It's also going to be even more confuzzling for new players; as if DDO wasn't difficult enough to get into. At Character Creation – they are going to pick a Class, and a Race, then maybe one of those pre-made Paths that still exist? And then they'll notice this Archetype thing(maybe), and would be totally justified in wondering what the heck it is, and how it even differs from the Paths/Classes they just took...

I don't understand why these couldn't just be 4th Enhancement trees for each class or Iconics/Universal trees, instead of being in this awkward place where it locks out one of the trees? Like we already wouldn't put points into Vanguard as a Sacred Fist Paladin. So why do you need to artificially lock one out and sell it as some neat new concept? And yes I know they are free. That's actually totally rad and welcome. But whether these Archetypes are a good idea to begin with...I'm not so sure. Maybe they are, and there is good reasoning for doing it this way. But I'm not seeing it atm.

If they are going to go through with this, and let's face it– they probably are at this point– then this could be done in a much more elegant and enticing way. Overall: I give the Archetypes(in their current iteration) a 2/10 bad Darkest Dungeon fan-made-mod rating.

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As for TOEE – I'm a bit bummed about this one too. It's true that it has some odd design choices. I think the way the layout of the dungeon and map was made to manifest in DDO, is part of the reason for this. As are the corridors with large packs of samey mobs for the sake of it. But I don't think TOEE p1 is that bad or long, if all you are going for is quick completion. I actually really appreciate that it is a longer dungeon, with all these different optionals you could choose to do if you wanted. I have more of an issue with the immersion-breaking Wheaton-orbs in there than the actual quest.

TOEE p2 is notorious for that end fight. To my mind – this is a good thing. It's important to have longer dungeons, or some with particularly difficult encounters or bosses. This variety is what makes DDO interesting. We've already been getting too many short-medium dungeons(as recently as in IoD) that don't challenge us particularly. I know people like to hold W and get their completions. The devs have indulged this play pattern far too much already. Here is yet another example of this occurring. It makes me sad because that fight with Zuggtmoy is iconic. When you actually complete it(if you do) – it is incredibly satisfying, in a way that may be lost, if it gets toned down to a large degree. I think there should be a place for quests that are a bit quirky; whether it is due to unique mechanisms or straight up difficulty/length. It's also a fun appraisal for builds at that level, knowing that this dungeon tests it at its limits.

Let's see what happens. But again – I feel like the time they spend on this could instead be used to redo Tangleroot, Threnal, Restless Isles, Reaver's Refuge etc. Or give us an Epic version of The Pit!

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There's not much info about Crystal Cove. I do want to point out that some people enjoyed the gathering treasure map pieces portion of the event. I've met a few, at least. Is this whole outer portion being done away with? And if so– how do people that don't already have a Treasure Compass acquire one now, unless I missed something? I'm also hoping the event gets new and improved loot.

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I'm fairly content with a further Perils of Planar Eyes storyline. Those quests were quite decent, in fact.

[Greantun]

Took a look at the new bank interface and it is an improvement.

All three banks (Personal, Shared and TR) look pretty much the same. One long list like the current shared bank. They added the ability to create tabs which allow you to group items together, yes you can do this on the TR bank as well.

I would like to see you add the ability to add tabs to the crafting storage as well. Being able to name the tabs (rather than them saying just Tab 1, Tab 2, etc would also be a nice touch.

You can rename everything but the Main tab. That is what the arrow on the top of the list does. Click it, then click on the name to edit it.

[Mindos]

Where's the wizard archmage revamp? Where's the new epic destiny(s)?

(is this the first producer's letter in a long time that does NOT mention improving customer service?)

[CeltEireson]

Where's the wizard archmage revamp?

Yes indeed, this too!

[GeneralDiomedes]

Count me as one of those who never runs ToEE because of the length and PITA factor of the end fights. Looking forward to putting those in my rotation.

[fatherpirate]

question, since this is already in Lam, I have to guess it will
be in to public consumption fairly soon.

(barring serious issues)

If it does go live in 2 months or sooner, will it
also go live on HCL server?

Being these are game wide changes.

(Hell, throw the archetypes in now, the chaos would
be fun) The evil cleric/monk pally to beat everything
to death with evil holy fists of .... death beating
.....

so much fun

[Haphazarduk]

Some good stuff here - more options/flavour around class always good. Just hoping this isn’t the beginning of the end for the whole enhancement system.

Hap

[OfElectricMen]

So. . .


Still no Hommlet, and we're adding Kits.

[Magikh]

Read more about our plans for the rest of the year in a new Producer's Letter!

Again, my pet class is given the shaft. I'm sorry, but I'm just not excited for new stuff when you keep ignoring the complaints of the pet classes.

Give US some love, and I'll probably view this with more interest.

[Mindos]

No mention of any plans about players with maxed reaper trees either.

[DRoark]

People who are completionist-orientated are going to be staggeringly annoyed if the "dark" cleric and cleric (for example) have totally different past life perks.
Many people don't want to play X class six times. You could do the Iconic and get both at once, but now no matter what you do, you're stuck playing it three
more times if you want to be actually "done" again. Multiply that by EVERY subclass they do.

This is a very poorly designed shadow of an Iconic, which was at least useful. If this is the direction the game is taking, it's not going to be taking us with it.

[Oxarhamar]

People who are completionist-orientated are going to be staggeringly annoyed if the "dark" cleric and cleric (for example) have totally different past life perks.
Many people don't want to play X class six times. You could do the Iconic and get both at once, but now no matter what you do, you're stuck playing it three
more times if you want to be actually "done" again. Multiply that by EVERY subclass they do.

This is a very poorly designed shadow of an Iconic, which was at least useful. If this is the direction the game is taking, it's not going to be taking us with it.

If you have to have every past life yes if you only want completionist then no

They are different

[mikarddo]

People who are completionist-orientated are going to be staggeringly annoyed if the "dark" cleric and cleric (for example) have totally different past life perks.
Many people don't want to play X class six times. You could do the Iconic and get both at once, but now no matter what you do, you're stuck playing it three
more times if you want to be actually "done" again. Multiply that by EVERY subclass they do.

This is a very poorly designed shadow of an Iconic, which was at least useful. If this is the direction the game is taking, it's not going to be taking us with it.

Your post confuses me. If you want *everything* I sure hope you actually like playing DDO and running all those lives. If so, why would you not like having 9 more lives to run that even provide a little more power after doing so?

You can also run these new lives on a iconic though not a pure one so you need to multiclass. This is, admitted, a weak point that I think they should fix but if you are ultra completionist surely a little multiclassing wont be a problem.

So, I simply dont understand what your point is.

[mikarddo]

For the archtypes to be a full success we really need to be able to pick those from level 1 on iconics also.

E.g., Tiefling Scoundrel is an iconic bard so at level 1 we need to be able to pick either regular bard or archtype bard.

I know a Dev already posted that is not currently possible but kindly make it happen. It would greatly improve the value of those archetypes.

[Haphazarduk]

I can see some real fun with this. Just looking at Enhancement tree options for Archetypes would allow some interesting builds. For example I can see a Jack of All Trades Rogue Archetype (remember the Factotum from 3/3.5?) having 4 or 5 trees or a Arcane Trickster archetype having access to a 'caster' tree.

Hap