Happy Birthday DDO!

[silisav]

The changes seems nice and promising. But I remember that you have promised quality of life upgrades and yet with update 17 more things are broken than when you promised those things. My client suffers from memory leak and every 4 or 5 loading screens it crashes. I hope that you realize that this is unacceptable ... It is high time you start fixing things...

[Mryal]

Well i know zero of DnD lore at all.All that ive learned was playing this game.
Honestly i fail to see why is forgotten realms so good over eberron.Forgotten realms is just a classical RPG world with a little planes added in.Gives me that whole 'meh ive seen that before' feeling.The expansion is good thought,i like it.
But forgettig Eberron would be a mistake, Eberron is a more creative world, and theres so many unfinished plots on it.
What happens to all these guys that escape when youre in the end of TOD?
What about the green hag in Siegebreaker?
And the LOB, where did he go? He gave up?

Recently the epic GH update came.That finished one plot.While the quests are more of the same (wich wouldnt have been a problem to anyone if they werent introducing a new storyline), the raid is awesome.
Eberron is our home folks.We want to see Epic Abbot.We want to see a back to Shavarath expansion featuring devils, demons and Archons.I personaly wanna see like a Epic Tempest Spine too

I think that what differs this game from the Neverwinter ones (wich were always inferior) is the fact that we are on Eberron! We lose that identity if we leave Eberron behind.

[Chaos000]

I just hope that race/class combination of forgotten realms born will not be as random as when the cant see effects until applied rune system for dragontouched armor first came out. Made it one of the least run content. Random and unpredictable (outside of maybe moving trap boxes) doesn't resonate with players I would like to point out the cannith challenges as a prime example.

As for simplifying the enhancement system please avoid what swtor and wow did by making clear distinctions on class roles. The most enjoyable aspect of ddo is the sheer number of customization to redefine the roles we choose to take.

[Truga]

see this puts you in the same boat with another person i responded too. if you really think games should pump out so much content without you paying more money then there is something wrong with you. how on earth do you think these games survive? this is a business and jobs for people. if we want them to make stuff we need to pay them money not just 10 a month.

Well, EVE online features a sub, and you get an expansion every 6 months for free. VIPs should get all content for free. They are VIPs for a reason, they already pay $15/mo for access.

Edit: Also, "Turbine should rip people off because blizzard does it as well" isn't really an argument. And I'm premium, so they're not even ripping me off, and I still feel this is dumb.

[Eistander]

Been a diehard for DDO for a long time (this was the second account I had back in '06, since made into the sole account a long time now), and enjoyed the everloving heck out of it. However, burnout creeps up on the best of us, and I have been finding it hard to come back in to play the same content after 7 years. However, seeing the announcement of another level cap raise does worry me in any case.

Level 25 was a huge step for the game.. the long awaited Epic levels. With it, we experienced such a surge in overall player power through EDs and twisting. The gear itself was more powerful to be sure, but it pales in comparison. With 3 more levels, it does nothing much save for slightly shinier possibilities, another feat and a stat point. Almost seems redundant. Post-expansion, we have been getting more bugs than ever before, some interesting, new content in the new Realm in the Forgotten Realms (something that was speculated at for a while and came to fruition, with mixed results) that became, to me, trivialized with the Epic Destiny leveling in conjunction with trying to hit that 25 cap through repetition and the like, and nearly being unable to use the older content we may have used to try to level our TRs up before all the boosts that came along. Sure, TRing again was an option, but I just couldn't keep doing it,

Epic GH was something we knew about for a while and when it finally dropped, I was excited. Then I went through it and realized that it was just a fresh coat of paint on old content, like other epic level quests in the Ebberon side of things, save for the new raid. Rekeyed and checked out the new raid in a span of an afternoon. Back to square one, waiting for something new, hoping and waiting for these bugs to be addressed, item fixes to finally drop (too many BTC ingredients, hell, too many ingredients period as an example).. not to mention I am echoing the cautionary tale of the whole expansion idea itself.

TL;DR: burned out, concerned about the very game I have spent all-too much time with focusing on all the wrong things.. guess I'll be back after it drops. Maybe.

[Failedlegend]

2 prestige classes per class? I was under the impression since the beginning of this that the plan was for three.

To clarify he said "In its current iteration" and "We are planning an extended beta for this one" so I read it as...its not entirely ready but you've all been begging to see it so we'll give you what we have but it will be on Lammania for a LONG time.

As for epic TR give players details early and often about that one as it develops as it will change players plans just like the enhancement revamp and the best way to get players to quit is to make them feel like you wasted their time when you end up changing something major that involves grind.

Yeah so many of my characters have been put on hold (either at 20 waiting to TR or not bothering to roll them up) until the new enhanced system is released...at least on lammania

Level cap 28. MotU quests are 21-23. Can't party with capped characters anymore.

uh....so? people doing Vale quests can't party with capped people anymore either...hell IIRC the level cap used to be 10...they can't party with level cap either. I fail to see how that matters...like at all.

Veteran level 15 characters might also kill one part of DDO that I love. This might be the point that break DDO for me. Let's wait and see how they handle it.

I'm really hoping were all misreading this and their actually just releasing "Iconic Heroes" as Perm Gold seal hirelings in the DDO Store. Possibly even GSH that level up with you (starting at lvl 15)

this would not have anything to do with the launch of Elder Scrolls Online around the same time as your presumed release dates and enhancement pass beta would it.

ESO is a threat to no one they basically removed EVERYTHING that makes it ES...it's essentially every WoW ever except with the ES races.

Well, EVE online features a sub, and you get an expansion every 6 months for free. VIPs should get all content for free. They are VIPs for a reason, they already pay $15/mo for access.

Edit: Also, "Turbine should rip people off because blizzard does it as well" isn't really an argument. And I'm premium, so they're not even ripping me off, and I still feel this is dumb.

uh...charging for expansions =/= ripping people off...first off the price everyones quoting was the "collectors edition" you don't have to buy that second...its an expansion its fairly normal.

That said Turbine...please forget about FR I understood having to add it in to appease the Drizzt-Philes but like PvP you don't need to do anything else with it...the point is its there they've been appeased now you can forget about it and come back to Ebberon.

[Ziindarax]

1.
I like Eberron. I hope it won't be forgotten. On my part there never had to be MOTU. On my part do with the realms what they're about - forget them! I like the quests actually, but I'd have preferred an expansion of similar size solely with Eberron content.

On the other hand, I understand why Turbine goes the FR road. I am not happy with it, but it's nothing that'll make me quit playing. More content sounds good, whereever the quests take place, because it's better than no new content.

2.
I am wary of the increased lvl cap, but it's too early to say. I do think, however, that epic lvls really don't matter. The power is in the ED's and everyone knows that. Chances are, higher lvl content will be unplayable for characters without ED's and I wonder if and how the ED's will be changed, because it seems a bit strange being able to max an ED before having maxed the epic lvls.

3.
I'd pay for a new expansion. I understand that a new expansion is done for the (probably sole) reason of getting a new quick cash influx. There's nothing wrong with that and anyone expecting an expansion to be free has failed their reality check.

Considering how many hours I've played since MOTU came out, it was well worth the pre-order money. Sure, a few months later, MOTU got a lot cheaper, but that happens with every game out there, so that's no reason to feel "cheated" in any way.

Besides, I totally adore the panther !

4.
THE BUGS SUCK A LOT. Maybe this time Turbine'll do it right, but I don't believe it. Chances are there will be more bugs than ever and things that previously worked will become broken. Turbine has a history of that happening and hope/trust that this is going to change is not warranted at the moment. I don't give them the benefit of the doubt anymore.

So whether I'll pay for a new expansion will depend a lot on how many old bugs get fixed before that. If that doesn't happen, I'll keep playing, because I still like the game (yes, even with the bugs), but I won't spend any more money. If Turbine wants to earn cash, they first have to prove they know what they're doing. If they do, I'll most likely pre-order again.

At #2: I think they should either expand the Epic Destinies to have 10 levels each, or make it so we can have two or more destinies active... maybe earning the ability to have a second one active upon hitting level 25?

As for the rest, I agree. Turbine should fix their bugs before they start trying to market Expansions (or even New Updates).

[Michele]

Dear developers,
DDO game is fantastic and the new developments are cool...

...
but
...

the game is unplayable, slow, laggy, and the performance become worst and worst on every new update.
I don't read anything to improve the performances of the game (it should be your first objective).

But - what about game performance issues? What about the horrible lag / rubber banding / freezes for 20 minutes on end?

I hope the new updated bug reporting tool helps in reporting the crippling lag in game.

I've cancelled my VIP membership as well. I'm not thrilled with the changes outlined by ProducerGlin, and have become progressively less happy with the game as a whole, from lag to bugs to unfulfilled promises. I think it might be time to look around and see what else is out there that isn't trying to run on a 7 year old engine.

Guys, nothing will be done to solve these problems that don't depend from our computer.

[HalfORCastrator]

Work on the new enhancement system is well underway and it will be heading to its first public beta this spring. In its current iteration, each class has at least two prestige class paths.

~Erik Boyer

2 prestige classes per class? I was under the impression since the beginning of this that the plan was for three.

Not only did they delay the enhancement pass by more than half a year(and looking to be a year or more) of when they said it would be out, but now they're not even going to be filling the character customization out with the stated 3 PREs per class, even if not fleshed out or balanced(which can be done later, after players have had a chance to play around with it a bit to work out the kinks or bugs).

On top of that, they're putting out another expansion pack(with an untimely level increase) before the enhancement pass. Disappointing.

Have you played MoTU at all? Spent any time enjoying it? Any of the ED's? New content?

I mean, it was 70$ and I'm wondering, are you a regular player? If so, have you mostly avoided MoTU content? Have you refused to claim an ED and play through them?

My guess is no, and that you've spent innumerable hours of your life you will never get back enjoying the monumental change to the game that MoTU was. I am not arguiing if MoTU was good or bad for DDO, if it was buggy or if it had it's issues.

I am arguing that you spent money on something you did consume and enjoy, potentially for many tens or hundreds of hours. That sounds like it was money pretty well spent to me Mr. Sourgrapes.

Well stated. Getting new content around 2 months after is a huge loss of time to advance, especially with such grand changes to the game.

[GermanicusMaximus]

/DDO is Dying Threads

Really?

To me this feels like a cash-grab, death-spiral. We went 6 years before an expansion, and now there's 2 in 2 years. You can fleece a sheep many times, but skin it only once.

It seems you were unduly optimistic

Apparently, all it takes is one Turbine employee to type "Expansion!" for some people to have visions of purple unicorns poofing glitter from their posteriors as they prance through butterfly filled meadows. (Memnir pic needed here....)

In reality, a press release does nothing to address the the real issues which confront the game. Two of those issues come to mind immediately: (lack of) quality in the code base and declining player populations.

Details so far are sparse, but it seems likely that we are looking at one of two scenarios:

1) Expansion: An increase in the size of the game worthy of that designation.

Prior to MotU, the code base was far from error free, but at least seemed viable. MotU was a bug riddled disaster, from which the game has been struggling to recover ever since. The development team seemed to be making some progress on that front over the course of 2012. The release of Update 17 has called a lot of that progress into question.

MotU had the advantage of being built on top of a reasonable quality code base. Expansion #2 will be built on top of what we are seeing for Update 17. Absent some truly amazing improvement in Turbine software engineering practices, the quality implications are beyond scary.

Based upon the quality downsides associated with this scenario, this is actually the worse of the two possible scenarios.

2) "Expansion": An update labelled as an expansion to goose revenues, including making VIPs pay for access.

The reality is that the game has failed to grow revenues from growing the player base, and has even been unable to sustain the current revenue level by offsetting player attrition with an equivalent influx of new players. DDO needs to find a way to generate more revenue per player, or be unable to chug along as it has been doing.

An "expansion", probably one per year, is one way of doing so. Removing volume discounts on store potions was recently tried, and for now, abandoned.

The downside to increasing revenue per player is that it will cause some players to drop out, exacerbating the declining player population issue. This is really just a case of "kicking the can down the road" in an attempt to buy some additional time.


If the DDO team can actually overcome these issues, they will indeed deserve some congratulations. However, a press release by itself just isn't going to cut it. Believing the press release is the equivalent of prepurchasing MotU sight unseen, and then doing the same for Expansion #2.

[iRexxar]

i Didn't like the new level cap thing, it worrys me alot. First like some1 said already : What will happen to the old content? DDO was a game where u always could enjoy almost all the content not mattering ur level. B4 MoTU came out u had many things to do that were challanging at least. We had many hard epic raids ( being edq , echrono and evon the easyest | eLoB and eMoA the hardest ) , plus other raids like hox, vod , shroud , tod etc etc that in Elite diff were very hard (and werent pathetic on hard dificulty like raids are now , hard looks like casual -.-). Not to mention u had many epic quests to do that were basecly 1 time a day ( 13 hours cd to reenter ) so u had to enjoy ALL THE CONTENT in order to maximize ur farm for token/epic quests.

Now you almost dont see house p/d runs, wich is understandable sicne most of its epic itens got outdated , but come on , they turned like 99% of their itens into uselss ****, that didnt need to be that way lol.

Now with egh u have bring us more things to do, fixed a little of the end game content , imo just need to make hard diff HARDER :P , and elite a lil bit weaker , so ppl try more elite pugs and make them atleast be organized for hard pugs....

Anyway what i am realy worryed about is the way this new level cap will affect current game. As the same person who posted about endgame content ( all my post was about endgame content b4 and end game content now ) i'd like you to not forget the old content. Dont make new itens that will out date all the farm we are doing now , ofc u'll make better thens , but dont make every single item better... its very sad to see my abishai itens and malerith in the bank cuz it got dated by easy itens to get now (pdk prime example). My hope is that you will make new contents w/o destroying the old contents like other ORDINARY MMOs do(spetialy wow).

Re-work more old content that arent used ( hox , vod , titan awake and other forgoten content ) will be VERY NICE.

PLEASE DONT FORGET ABOUT OLD CONTENT , DONT START MAKING NEW ITENS EVERY UPDATE THAT WILL OUTDATE EVERY OLD EPIC ITEM , DONT TURN DDO INTO A COPY OF OTHER STUPID MMOS THAT MAKES PPL ADDICTED BY NEW ITENS AND NOT BY THE GAME ITSELF, PLEASE

thanks :]

[SableShadow]

Apparently, all it takes is one Turbine employee to type "Expansion!" for some people to have visions of purple unicorns poofing glitter from their posteriors as they prance through butterfly filled meadows. (Memnir pic needed here....)

[Braegan]

Wow,

Alot going on it seems, and I have to say I am not nearly as happy with this announcement as I was to hear last years'. And no, it's not me being burnt, etc on the game.

- Level Cap Raise, I feel it's far too soon. Unless something is done about the current system of repeat penalties for XP it would not be fun at all in exchange for some marginal power.

- Enhancement, I feel it's far overdue. We've been waiting on this quite some time now, of anything announced I really want to see this make it.

- Another Paid Expansion, On the fence. If it actually feels like an expansion I have no problem with it. Motu came with like a dozen quests, a raid, a new class, EDs, etc. That was an expansion. So far, this doesn't really seem like an expansion to me.

- Reworking Trs, Epic Completionist, etc. Really going to depend on how it's down. At this point I am pretty leary of it.

- An Iconic Hero, not even sure about this. Really going to depend on what special abilites/powers these newly created level 15's will get. Will they overshadow a character seven years old with many past lives with the swipe of a credit card?

So no doom crying yet, I really want some details before all that. But, at this point I am not really impressed nor happy about nearly everything coming out.

[Davelfus]

new artificer pets?

[PLUGintoTHEpowerLINE]

I don't like the new expansion coming so fast. Are you going to make the same mistakes you did with LotRO?

Basically, are you going to make every other addition to the game an expansion, which you can milk even the VIPs for, and, instead of fixing stuff (in LotRO, it was itemization, and handling the overhaul to one main stat per class), just up the level cap? Shiny new carrots are fun and all, but that doesn't mean you don't need to go back and fill the potholes in the road.

Learn from your mistakes, Turbine ... and for God's sake, don't tell DDO that they're getting 3 raids, and deliver them one raid with three wings.

It is beginning. Winter is coming. Learn from your mistakes.

[Auralana7214]

new artificer pets?

OOOOOH! Then I would totally get an arti!

[Aashrym]

On top of that, they're putting out another expansion pack(with an untimely level increase) before the enhancement pass. Disappointing.

Enhancement pass hits Lamma this spring and the expansion is for this summer. I would expect the enhancements to hit live first or at roughly the same time.

[Fernando]

Hi everyone-
Just wanted to drop in to say Happy Birthday to DDO and thanks to everyone for continuing to play and support our game. Also congratulations to Glin on his first big producer letter! Erik and the rest of the DDO team have some great additions to the game coming with this expansion and we are excited to start sharing information with you.

I wanted to touch on the topic of bugs and product quality that I have seen brought up a lot in this thread. First thing is to say that we recognize that there have been some lingering issues from both the U17 deployment and our recent billing system migration. Fixes for the major issues introduced with these changes are being readied now and hopefully will get deployed as soon as tomorrow. So birthday gifts and missing monk outfits will hopefully be fixed tomorrow (look for an official announcement soon). We would have gotten this out sooner, but we have a fix for some new causes of server lag and disconnects that will be part of that patch also and that needed some extra bake time.

We know also that there are significant bugs that have been in the game a lot longer – particularly some remaining issues in Epic Destinies. We have made some important fixes at the end of last year but we know there is still work left to do. Our plan is to prioritize the fixing of these issues alongside our bug fix time for the enhancements and other systems changes planned for the expansion. Thanks in advance to those of you who will help us try features on Lamannia in the coming months and identify the issues most in need of fixing. We are committed to gathering your feedback and working to ensure that we leave both Destinies and Enhancements in better shape by the time Shadowfell Conspiracy ships.

Last thing I wanted to respond to is the discussion on the VIP plan. We are always striving to offer a great value to our VIPs and we think of this as more than just getting access to new content. While our VIPs will continue to receive regular new content and features outside of expansions, we will also be adding other valuable benefits to the program. For example, we already have a change coming for the next patch (as a belated birthday present maybe) which will add 10% boost to all earned XP for VIP accounts. We can’t make every player always decide it is worthwhile to be a VIP, but we will continue to do what we can to make the program a good deal for our most ardent players. We will share more details on these changes as they are solidified.

Happy 7th birthday, DDO! Here is to 7 great years and many more to come.
-Fernando.

[Stanley_Nicholas]

Wow. Fernando, everything you just said sounds great! Please make sure you do everything you can to live up to those expectations. And that 10% VIP bonus xp tidbit puts a smile on my face.

[Aashrym]

We have made some important fixes at the end of last year but we know there is still work left to do. Our plan is to prioritize the fixing of these issues alongside our bug fix time for the enhancements and other systems changes planned for the expansion.

Other planned changes beyond the recent AC changes, spell power changes, weapon changes, and upcoming enhancement changes? I'm scared to ask, but what else is getting over-hauled?