WeHaveLived wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 1:16pm:

5 Foot Step wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 1:49pm:


Cap the level at 20.   

Though I'm not sure how that works in 5th edition which you can be sure any new game will be based on.

noamineo wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 2:27pm:


Yes, it was a better game back then.

Bigjunk wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 2:31pm:


I dunno. I seem to recall a lot of people bitching that there was nothing to do at end game except the limited # of epic quests and raids. Not to mention the painful wait for "HEALZZ!!!" for every raid.

Rose colored glasses.

I took an extended break right before motu came out and came back about 8 months ago. So the way the game was is still pretty fresh in my mind, because that's what I thought I was coming back to.

There have been some good changes, some bad changes in that time. Honestly, how many times can you run von/fens/carnival/sentinels epics before you just get bored and want to do something else?

WeHaveLived wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 2:46pm:


As I covered earlier, this is next to impossible without MASSIVE amounts of effort by long-experienced devs. As in months of 60-hour work-weeks, access to source code, etc. Stuff we are never, EVER going to get. Not even if Turbine decides to release the server software. And no, don't just come back with "well they can make it open source. They Can't.




Rolling back a server, meanwhile, is a comparatively trivial matter. Yeah, giving us a Pre-MotU server would pretty much be as simple as digging out the base installer and the neccessary patches, and finding the right version of the server code. Ok, this could be a bit harder because TurdBin, but in concept its something we could conceivably hope for.

Technomage wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 3:58pm:


^THIS^

Bigjunk wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 4:55pm:


And we were talking about if Turbine decided to release a private server build like they tried to do with Ashron's Call. So maybe you shoulda stayed on topic


In response to your actual statement: end games need to evolve. There are two ways to accomplish this: raise the level cap, or make the loot better. Hard cap at 20 means massive power-creep with every successive content release.

Turbine actually showed genuine creativity when they invented a third option: reincarnate. This makes the whole game become the end-game, which is orders of magnitude more fun than "run the same 6 quests until you get all the loot, take a break until 3 new quests are released" approach other games use. Turbine then expanded upon a good idea by providing multiple forms of reincarnation,

A "new game" with a hard cap at 20, even with just DDO's heroic reincarnation mechanic, will not last to see 10 years.

noamineo wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 1:02pm:


Not that impossible... well in a sense yes, as it would require that somebody provides us the game data as they were at that time.

Adding the content is just adding new entries in the tables in the various dat files... and modifying the game client to deal with the split world ( mesh_1 = Eberron, mesh_2 ) Faerun )

Being able to run a Vault Server, means that he have to have access to at least part of the content code, after that it won't be more difficult than making PWs for NWN.
( well it will be... because there's no Aurora, so creating new content might be tricky, tweaking the existing content is a walk in a park as pointed below.


noamineo wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 1:02pm:


yup.

noamineo wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 1:02pm:


yup

noamineo wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 1:02pm:


Not that hard, the on_death script exists to check if the mob drops collectible or not... just add to it with the correct drop rate ( or make a copy/paste of the existing script, then replacing the scrolls that drops by the ones freshly created ).

noamineo wrote on May 24^th, 2016 at 1:02pm:


No macgyverism involved... Use the Sand NPC, you just have to extend his list of items.... just more entries in a list.

For the Private Servers to be able to live beyond a few weeks/months Turbine will have to release some of the content code, otherwise the servers will just be a snapshot of the game at a given time and totally static ( beyond local GM involvement ). That's the same for all the games... and that's what happened in NWN/NWN2. PWs that didn't give regular updates died pretty fast, as people moved to another one.

Flav wrote on May 25^th, 2016 at 2:58am:


Does the sands NPC trade shards and seals? I thought he only did scrolls. Would not be hard to add shards and seals I am sure.

Flav wrote on May 25^th, 2016 at 2:58am:


The private WoW servers I was dicking around with would run on either of 2 principles: the first was to be a snapshot of the game at a specific time(E.G. "vanilla" WoW), the second was to simply roll out whatever new content bliz had released. As soon as a patch came out, they'd get it and update their servers accordingly, basically just keeping in line with the existing game and letting bliz handle development.

We would only need access to game files to do what you suggest(lower the cap but somehow adapt the existing content to the lowered ML). And that I think would require turning over technology Turbine can't legally share. We can legitimately hope for a Private Server(fan made or from Turbine), but we can't hope for the kind of massive changes a lot of people are suggesting.




Side Note: this could be a fairly interesting way for Turbine to keep the game profitable even after it's extinction. Here me out: let's say they release an official "PW" package. Its just the current game, but allows for some tweeking(drop rates, NPCs, etc, maybe even a rudimentary content creation system). People get to run private servers and make them free, or even charge their own subscriptions. But the DDO store stays alive, and Turbine gets to continue selling turbine points, adventure packs, and other store items. Instead of maintaining a data center, they just have to keep the store going. It's a silly idea but it could trickle in some money and keep the game alive a bit longer.

kum-gulp wrote on May 25^th, 2016 at 12:39pm:


DDO has definitely jumped the shark quest wise. I did enjoy search and rescue, but other than that basically everything in the last 2 years is complete shit or just making old quests epic. The last quest they added that I actually like is Precious Cargo. (Which was around june 2014 I think).

But pre-motu there wasn't enough content to keep people interested. A lot of it was good content, there just wasn't enough of it to keep boredom at bay.

So saying it "was a better game back then" isn't entirely true. It still sucked. Just in a different way!

Asheras wrote on May 25^th, 2016 at 2:34pm:


Very true, in fact sometimes it feels like it was reaction rather than a plan.

The epic experience at that point for loot was a driver for sure, but not such a embittering process that it created cynicism like the past three years of loot and level expansion created.

When do they need to renew their licensing from WotC?  The only way I see the OP as not a troll is if they'd have to pay up for licensing in the fall and need to come to a decision by then.

I was right.