Hey everyone,

I believe I'm on the safe side to say that, unlike many other MMOs, there won't ever be a server emulator for DDO.

Not only would Turbine not allow it (the players playing there wouldn't be paying and we all know how greedy Turbine is..), but they would also have to provide the Server client, which obviously they would never do. This means it would take some really good programming skills, a lot of time working on it, some funds to keep the server running, once again time to administrate the server, fix possible issues and most importantly a "playerbase".

If it was indeed possible to go back in time, I'm sure opinions would be divided. Some would like to go back to auto-crit, some to the raiding era (after LOB/MA were released), and well, most are probably happy with the way things are.

I'd go back anywhere between U11 (LOB/MA release) & U13 (U12 is the Vaults of the Artificers, U13 is Lords of Dust, the last true "epic item" pack).

Why ?
I really enjoyed those times as LOB was an awesome raid.
Now, almost ALL the loot from the Pre-U14 raids is obsolete, and we have little reason to run these raids.
People still run these raids occasionally, but it's mainly for fun and having something to do while waiting for a better LFM to come up.

So the big question is, how can we go back to these fun times ?
For the reasons already mentionned, it's not possible to start a private server.
However, it is possible to create our own rules and make the game as fun as it used to be back then.

The reason I created this thread is to discuss those very rules with the people that would like this idea - kindly avoid posting if that's not your case.

My ideas:

Gear wise: Everything before MOTU is allowed.
Think about it - back then, Greensteel weapons were very solid, Alchemical were the "new thing" and best weapons (especially for unarmed builds). You had to "craft" these items, and I really loved it that way. Every time you acquired a new piece, you would be a little bit closer to your goal. It would really give you a sense of progression. Now, the items drop "whole" and you completely lose that feeling of accomplishment.
This would mean no more Cleaver or Pinion, but even I, the AA freak would give it up for an alchemical bow if it would make the game more fun. The way I see it, all the post-motu  items are much more powerful. Once you get your pinion, you have no reason to ever run any of the old raids.

Basically, no items after MOTU allowed. Max level item: 20.

The benefits of such a choice: Some of you already have some Greensteel weapons, maybe alchemical ones. Some already have a claw set, or an eSoS, or even dual eChaosblades. Not only would you make use of these items again, but you would still have various goals to pursue. I also think these items were much more balanced and interesting than today's "Random ability items".

Max level: The new feats are interesting and they are part of "builds" now. I believe it would be best to allow everyone to get to level 28 and benefit from these extra feats, hp/saves.

Enhancements wise: No limitations, the new enhancements are a good thing.

Epic Destinies
Besides gear, this is probably the toughest question.
Audience with the queen, Master's Blitz, EIN and Unbridled Fury take a lot of the challenge away...
Let's not forget that the game difficulty increased with MOTU as well.. mobs hit harder and they have more hitpoints.
I think it's fair enough that any passive/active ability in any destiny is allowed (especially to scale with the new DC requirements). As much as it pains me, I would say Epic moments are not to be used.
The game lost most of its challenge. The number of EE solos is proof enough. Look at before MOTU: soloing a quest on epic was very tough and not many people could do it.
Another example is the fact most people used to wait for everyone to get in before starting, or wait for buffs. Now people shortman everything.

I loved how only well organized groups would succeed in some raids, and when a solid raid leader was important. Team work, organized and smart gameplay and chance of failure made it so much more fun.

Now, not only do you never fail raids, but your reward isn't worth anything. The last raid I did was a von5/6. People were absolutely not organized (doesn't matter), none of the mechanics of the raid endangered the group at any time (eggs, fire breaths are a complete joke), and we beat on her for about 1 or 2 minutes in order to get loot that interested no one (people got a few shards now and there but these items (besides eSoS) are so obsolete I don't see how anyone would make use of them). That's not really my idea of fun.

Remember when the game was so much more challenging and difficult ?

Twists
I believe most twists should be allowed. However, having cocoon on a melee build doesn't seem right as it doesn't encourage team work. Learning to trust in your healer can be difficult, but it makes it more challenging as well when you are in a real "raid group", not just 12 people with everyone for himself.

On a short term, I can imagine a group of people gathering online for raids with level 20 items max for some challenge added.
On a long term, I can see a few people enjoying the old greensteel/alchemical crafting

Anyway, that's just me not enjoying DDO as much as I used to, and looking at the good old times.
Since Turbine doesn't seem capable to give us a proper endgame, what do you think about making some rules like this ?
If this idea interests you, what rules would you like to have ?

Thanks for reading, and please, discuss.

Sith

I think you'll get much better drama posting this on the DDO forums.

I can't say I disagree with anything you're saying.  The only thing I'd throw in there is the new defense system is also fucking retarded.

EE Raids still can fail, but the incentive to run them on EE is so small there's little reason to do so.

Regarding epic moments . . . I think the game's adjusted for this now.  saves re such that EiN isn't OTT and 250-350k red-names make unbridled manyshot much less potent.

Blitz is still blitz.

NOTdarth wrote on Sep 5^th, 2013 at 2:47pm:


Eat shit yourself. You don't need cocoon to survive. It's just such an easy button and tbh raiding doesn't feel like a 12 man group anymore but a bunch of soloers.

Ewilan wrote on Sep 5^th, 2013 at 3:04pm:


I gotta ask . . . how does it feel considering so many of your builds were copied specifically for this purpose?

Asheras wrote on Sep 5^th, 2013 at 3:02pm:


it's not as bad as you'd think, a bunch of us Elite-Streaked Gianthold at level 20 a few months back and it was a ton of fun.  of course these were multiple-life toons with maxed of close to maxed EDs.

That said EE WGU at 20 would be surreal.   

I wish you the best of luck in your endevour, but it's kinda ignoring the reality that many (if not most) gamers play to better their toons. 

Not having access to certain baubles and trinkets will wear thin after a while.  I mean seriously, how many time will people run EE LOB to put tier 1 spirits before they say fuck it?

you can't go back, unfortunately as I agree the game was better back then.

Bigjunk wrote on Sep 5^th, 2013 at 3:19pm:


You can thank Turbine for adding ML to epic quests.
I couldn't enter any stormhorn quest, just on EH, at level 23. Clicking "ok" on the quest panel did nothing. No teleport, no error message, nothing.
Had to exploit my way in.

Same thing for EE GH at lvl 20.

Memnir wrote on Sep 5^th, 2013 at 2:51pm:

Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Batman.

Carpone wrote on Sep 5^th, 2013 at 6:09pm:

Never had a Batman build. Probably because I was not into uber optimization at the time either.

There's no setting like old epic in the game files now. There's only EE (kinda need at least an OK destiny) or EH (so easy a retarded monkey can run it without a destiny).

I wish they would set up a server for LOB era.....the game was more fun for me then.

Don't get me wrong, I still have fun now....just some of these abilities feel cheap....really +400% damage basically unlimited uses per rest in fury? sigh.....also the combat changes....bleh, they just needed to adjust AC/to hit numbers for players/mobs.....but now it doesn't matter 'cause super inflation.

whothefuckami wrote on Sep 5^th, 2013 at 8:06pm:


Yeah, you are mostly responding to dead posts from that era...