crsm3423 wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2019 at 12:12pm:


This wouldn't work in DDO for a number of reasons but the biggest are:

1. Multiclasses/off-kelter designs IE: Inquisitive on Caster classes
2. People that play completely opposite of a classes archtype/dicks that queue for roles they wouldn't perform.

Edrein wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2019 at 4:59pm:



Ha, reminds me of this douche back in the day named wwalmart. He would join groups that were looking for a healer back when healing was a thing(pre pre reaper)even though he really didn't do much healing with the battle cleric he was playing. 

Skoodge wrote on Aug 20^th, 2019 at 8:54am:




This is what a new player sees when they make their first character in 2019 (yes its that bad)






Compare that to the f2p Launch (Sept.2009-Oct-2010)




Drow was a freebie that you naturally get questing, so you really only had 1 P2P race.



What it looked like after Update 7 (Oct.2010-Feb.2016?)




Even including drow its a 50/50 split.

Looks a little greedy with those big "buy me boarders" but they still separated the F2P races!

If you have a 4:9 f2p vs p2p ratio (2019) why the fuck would you put the f2p scrambled in with the p2p?

Separate them at least! Put a little space in between them. Huge turn off for new players.

EDIT: It looks like after they released Tiefling they stopped sorting the F2P races from the P2P.

They instead chose to sort them alphabetically. Perhaps in hopes of hiding how many p2p races there are compared to f2p ones.

Edrein wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2019 at 5:01pm:

No, but I'm trying to get a handle on what the fuck they hope to gain by it. I'm baffled. There seem to be perfectly viable alternatives that *don't* alienate a significant portion of their players, yet they steadfastly refuse to consider them. Why?

The last video is a perfect example of why low levels need to be revamped. You should have access to way more abilities, earlier on.

Skoodge wrote on Aug 24^th, 2019 at 5:21pm:


Wf was origined in eberron if im not mistaken, it would be great for any follower of the setting to have acces to it. In any case, its not like its 2009 and playing a wf is a game changer in any way.

If anything, they should convert drow fully to f2p and give wf  too. Hell, even tossing a bone to new players like 80% of discount in your 1st pack or something.

Or why not, 1 month complete free access, if not to all content (thats asking too much), at least to stuff released previous to motu. Even that would get a lot of people hooked,

Meursault wrote on Aug 24^th, 2019 at 9:05pm:


If you can't spin a server merger you're actually the worst development team in the business. Not saying it looks good; most of the time it looks bad. But it can always be spinned in a good way for investors and players alike.

Beer wrote on Aug 24^th, 2019 at 4:51pm:



The start has always been slow in DDO. Especially with the old Enhancement system. Since it mimics PnP D&D.

This issue with giving players more abilities, spells, enhancement points, feats etc. at low levels is you abandon the PnP D&D aspect of DDO.

You're left with two choices:

1. Make the game more enjoyable from the beginning but alienate PnP players.
2. Keep the game the same but alienate non-PnP players from the boring/sluggish beginning.

The PnP aspect of DDO is about the only thing going for it at the moment. So I'm not sure if abandoning that aspect even more would be a good idea.

Then again, the game has abandoned so much of the PnP aspect already, would it really matter? Hard choice.


Skoodge wrote on Aug 24^th, 2019 at 5:21pm:



I think it would kill them to give out Warforged seeing as its still the only race that can be repaired.

Drow and Half-elf would be easy decisions and would make the f2p-p2p ratio more appealing.

A complete re-vamp of the favor system needs to happen. Give out meaningful rewards like an option to pick a race or enhancement tree. 5000 favor should give something like a +1 or +2 Supreme Insightful Tome.

Favored Soul should be made f2p too.

Carpone wrote on Aug 26^th, 2019 at 7:28am:




Heres a comparison of the random gen loot from the same quest, difficulty, and class [2012 vs 2019] (Irestone Inlet, Normal, Artificer):



[Dates of both screenshots were March]



I think its safe to say DDO has left the PnP D&Ders behind. Considering levels 3 or 4 would be getting this reward list. All immersion has been thrown out the window.

They should definitely update the early levels. Make it exciting like the new random gen. DDO's early levels are about as exciting as looting a +1 docent in a level 4 quest. 

Carpone wrote on Aug 26^th, 2019 at 7:28am:


To be fair, the system that spellpower replaced had no place in P&P either.

Edrein wrote on Aug 27^th, 2019 at 4:01pm:

I'm one of the ones who bitch about the repeated deviations from PnP. I get that some changes had to be made, D&D doesn't directly translate to a MMO format, but once you've made your adaptations, that should be it. D&D wasn't perfectly balanced and scaled, but it was a lot better than DDO is now. They keep changing things, adding things, breaking things, and they get farther and farther from a balanced system.

They have this arrogance that they know better than the D&D game designers, and they're incompetent hacks.

I want them to stick to the D&D rules not because the D&D rules are perfect, but because they're stable and better than anything this crowd has been able to come up with in 10 years. I'm tired of the crap these "rock stars" try to pass off as improvements.

Great post Skoodge, as usual.

Rose-tinted Goggles wrote on Aug 20^th, 2019 at 10:40am:


Not listed on the graph is the exploit golden age directly corresponds with higher game population.   This should tell them 1 of 2 things:

1) A LOT of people like finding (I'd argue most were shown, not found themselves) a "game within a game."

2) Their crafting mechanics are SERIOUSLY out of line with what most players find tolerable grind, so much so that people are willing to risk EXTREME PREJUDICE to bypass their shitty systems. 

But let's not forget, it wasn't JUST duping (which had at least 3 iterations that I'm aware of).  We had anniversary cards that could be both duped AND could give you a reward without consuming the card.

We had free renown in Orchard.
We had ED abilities in Heroics.
There was tome re-use.
You could trade BtC ingredients.
You could mail BtC items.
You could re-use XP stones. 
And these are just off the top of my head. 

I'm not saying they should necessarily fully embrace exploiting, but perhaps removing half of the stick from their asses might be prudent.



They should ALWAYS be looking at the new player experience.   Having so much money grab is objectively not a good experience.  They should give new accounts 1 month free VIP.  They'd still need to differentiate between F2P classes/races and ones only temporarily accessible while ViP is active, but it would go a long way to masking the P2P aspect, give new players a chance to try content before they commit to purchasing it, and give them a bit of an XP boost (plus DD) to help keep pace with vets. The only "Buy Now" icons they should see are the expansions.