I was at PAX on Saturday shoulder surfing the DEMO's they were giving to the media and in a break between interviews I had a 20 minute conversation/personal demo from Fernado and Glin.  They were both very nice and gracious and I learned a few things.

Aeolwind wrote on Apr 5^th, 2012 at 5:26pm:


They are targeting Alpha by Friday and Beta about two weeks out from there.  The elemental forms for Druids are having some issues that they need to nail down.

As for looks they have added a bunch of overhauls to the engine to tie in DX11 shaders and etc and you can really see it in FR.  It's cleaner and crisper; little things like the grass moving as you pass through it.  They designed all new trees and foliage to make FR look and feel completely different than Ebberon.  It really does look and feel like a different game never mind a different plane.

The explorer areas seem enormous.  There are quests that you stumble on like the bosses in current areas bit they seem to have changes the behavior to act more like optionals...  for example at one point we wandered into a Purple Dragon Knight being held captive and a message popped up saying we could try and save him.  There was also a CR 27 Green Dragon that looked like a hell of a fight.

A few other interesting notes...

1) MadFloyd revamp of enhancements may or may not make the expansion.  If it doesn't it will be in the August update.
2) All Pre's will be complete by August as part of the Enhancement pass.  This was straight from Fernado's mouth.  They plan on having them done as part of the enhancement pass which is why this may slip to August.
3) I saw 4 druid forms, wolf, winter wolf, fire elemental, and water elemental.  They have their own special attacks.

...if I remember anything else I'll throw it in here.

Eladiun wrote on Apr 11^th, 2012 at 12:58pm:


I like the sounds of that.  It seems like they're working on a more dynamic environment that feels more "alive" than what we have now.

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Now that would be impressive.  Assuming the enhancement pass doesn't suck, of course.

Schmoe wrote on Apr 11^th, 2012 at 1:22pm:



based on the DDOCast interview Fernando is stating that the new outdoor environments will be more seamless like other mmos although still instanced.

Eladiun wrote on Apr 11^th, 2012 at 1:47pm:


At a guess I'd say probably...

Right now if you put the actions available to your pets in hotbar, the icons changes when you change your pet ( and the actions linked to these icons change accordingly ).
So the tech is here it's just a matter of implementation.

Eladiun wrote on Apr 11^th, 2012 at 12:58pm:

Gomer Pyle says "Surprise, surprise, surprise."

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I'm happy to see Turbine has their priorities in the right place.  Instead of fixing soul crushing lag, they make wavy grass. 

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I hope the playerbase riots with this delay, but I lowered my expectations a long time ago.  How many god damned years do players have to wait for something to become 100% complete in this game?  For fucks sake, finish what you started Turbine.  DDO devs and management have the worst case of ADHD I've ever seen.

Epoch wrote on Apr 14^th, 2012 at 12:15pm:

Not quite. You missed the probability that even if they are considered "different" than normal levels, that could just mean the only way to level up is through XP gained in epic difficulty quests (so you can't get to 25 playing easy mode challenges or anything silly like that).

So, you should have said "You should assume you'll lose them unless you can point out where the devs said you won't lose them when you TR."

Doesn't matter what I assume.  It's all about what the summer interns coded.

21-25 will be somewhat different.  Tomes of learning don't provide a bonus once you hit level 20.  That could be nothing more than Turbine selling a different subset of XP buffs in the DDO Store specific to epic leveling.

If you have to regrind 21-25 every time you TR, that's going to dissuade people from TRing.  Just a guess, but hearts of wood have got to be a solid money maker for Turbine. You don't want to jeopardize that unless you've got a better money maker you're replacing it with.