Meursault wrote on Jan 6
th, 2020 at 1:49pm:
I want to throw in 1 I feel personally - you mentioned how all these problems deter new players and drive out all but the most dedicated, but there is a corollary to that. As those players leave or won't join, their friends, even if otherwise satisfied with the game, are more likely to follow their friends than stick with a dying game. Eventually attrition will reach a tipping point where it's driven by attrition itself even absent other problems. Even more damaging than empty servers is a friend playing a different game.
I couldn't agree more.
Carpone wrote on Jan 6
th, 2020 at 2:42pm:
Good points all around. Quibbling about a few things:
Server lag is alive and well in raids. In PN: heals don't land, curse pots don't trigger, and people die in the air during Rudus' jump. That bullshit gets old quick when progressing through skulls. DDO was optimized for the dialup era. You'd think that would translate well with gigabit speeds to your home, but no.
I think I conditioned myself to the pot drinking/healing "lag". I spam click pots/heals till they go off. Good catch though, as this makes the game feel clunky and unresponsive.
Carpone wrote on Jan 6
th, 2020 at 2:42pm:
I disagree about the bad graphics, at least for the environments. The SSG art team does a great job with the engine limitations they have. Ravenloft is a masterpiece -- I still find myself gawking at the environments and quests. Whoever is responsible for cosmetic armor needs to step aside for someone who has better vision and execution. We should be drowning in cosmetics ala PoE or Fortnite. Instead there's a trickle of cosmetics and most of them are ugly.
I personally think the graphics are great even after all these years. Although I think its a valid criticism, especially in regards to new players. As most people would most likely see the graphics as a negative in their first impressions.
Agreed 100% on the cosmetics. Something needs to change.
Carpone wrote on Jan 6
th, 2020 at 2:42pm:
Considering their age, some older raids hold up pretty well: heroic and epic VON+DQ gets run mostly for XP. Epic Chrono is good XP. Heroic Shroud gets soloed by capped people needing more Displacement clickies. Abbott still gets run for Feather of Sun's legacy. You're right about Titan/HoX/VoD/ToD/LoB/MA/CitW being abandoned. Is that any different than other MMOs though?
Out-leveled content certainly falls out of favor as theres largely no point in running them. As you pointed out this happens in every mmo. My point was mostly aimed at the detrimental affects when selling items that bypass grind.
Specifically with the release of +3 tomes in the DDO store late 2011. This was the very first instance where raid loot or "pay 2 win" was sold in the store. Closest being mana pots before this.
Click here to read the 22 page outcry. Basically over night there was no reason to farm VoD, Hox, Abbot, Shroud, and Reavers for players who already had the items. As these were farmed constantly for the +3 tomes in the 20th lists. Raids that had a chance to drop a +4 tome like ToD, or epic raids were still farmed. I didnt complain since it meant I could stop farming those raids but it hurt the raiding scene for sure. Keep in mind that this trend continued with the next tier of tome released in the store (+4, +5, +6 etc.). Why farm the 20th lists for tomes when you can just buy them?
Vaultaccount wrote on Jan 7
th, 2020 at 9:11am:
I'm just waiting for a classic U12 server mantained by fans. Wonder if that is possible, maybe after the game dies.
Technomage wrote on Jan 7
th, 2020 at 10:43am:
There's a less than ZERO chance that SSG will release the source code for DDO after they drop it. WotC wouldn't be able to control the IP if it is released and SSG's foolish pride won't let it be released for fear of a bunch of players showing them up by fixing all the bugs, reducing lag, and putting out more (and better) content.
In short, keep dreaming.
SSG would never release the source code. Nor would they even have the Pre-MotU source code. At least I highly doubt it. The only way to get a true 'Classic Server' (or any server for that matter) is to have a dedicated group of coders working on reverse engineering and writing their own code whilst servers are still running. This takes a considerable amount of time and effort. If the servers shut down before these efforts are made then its game over.
Im posting this here for those who may not have seen it on page 3. You're welcome to critique or add things. Whether that be issues from the past or present that have plagued DDO and its player base.
The downfall of DDO- Shit servers/net code: Unplayable lag, especially in raids. Devs removing game features in hopes of "fixing" the issue. Example: Removing Fvs Archons ambient light and reducing combat sounds. Lag is much better now due to a much smaller player base. However, old 'Input' lag issues remain with actions like drinking pots and casting spells making the game feel clunky and unresponsive.
- Old, clunky, and complicated: Dated graphics, clunky, and complicated. All barriers of entry for potential players.
- Decade old F2P system: What was once revolutionary in late 2009 has now become a massive turn off for new players. Probably the worst F2P system of all mmos right now. A VIP sub is basically a necessity. Heres an example
- Character power that doesnt reset after a new expansion: Most MMOs use items as character power that eventually get reset with the release of a new expansion. Putting every player on equal footing come launch day. DDO has a decade worth of these game systems without any catch up mechanics creating a snowball effect that ends up hurting new and returning players.
- Degradation of the DnD theme: Now DDO is just a run of the mill fantasy mmo that happens to have a D20 system. Those looking for a "authentic" DnD experience will be largely disappointed. Heres an example
- Too many servers: 8 servers for the small player base that ddo has is laughable. Those logging in will most likely see a ghost town on most servers.
- Selling raid loot/bypass items: Great short term profits but at the cost of severely reducing content life. Initially releasing +3 tomes in the store late 2011 killed off about half of the endgame raids overnight which were ran for +3 tomes in the 20th lists. This trend of selling tomes continues to this day. Raid Timer Bypasses and chest re-rolls quickly killed off what little new content there was.
- Killing off endgame players: Post-MotU expansion killed off the majority of endgame players. Trivializing years of endgame content due to the level increase. Complete lack of new endgame content and constant power creep. The true endgame were Epic Pastlives and Epic Destinies. Not items.
- Digital attention spans and the mmo genre: MMOs have been on the decline for years. Modern digital attention spans getting shorter. People would rather play mobile games or BRs/MOBAs.
- Separating players via epic levels/expansions: Separating the player base between 20 heroic, 10 epic, and soon to be legendary levels. As well as more than a decade of content and paid expansions. This is hard to dodge and is a necessity for keeping the lights on but it has a detrimental affect to the playerbase.
- Removal of the 'Holy Trinity' design: MotU expansion brought Epic Destinies which allowed players to essentially solo the game (not having to rely on healers). This probably saved the game in the long run due to the much smaller playerbase now. However, I cant help but feel like this impacted a ton of players who preferred focusing purely on dps or healing. Definitely a culture shock for players. Some probably quit shortly after, especially healers which were made obsolete.
- Refusal to sell good cosmetics: A f2P mmo without good store bought cosmetics? Crazy. What you're left with is largely selling ways to bypass artificial barriers or grind.
- Alts arent incentived: Players, especially newer ones reaching epic levels are largely stuck playing one character. Making them feel trapped as the grind needed to reach a competitive level is too high. Veterans who have had plenty of time to participate with the release of each grind are largely unscathed.
- Bugs: The buggiest MMO I've ever played. Leaving DDO to play other MMOs left me with anxiety as I would question if abilities and items were working as intended (legit).
- No PvP: While most players agree there's no need for PvP in DDO. One cant deny theres a considerable portion of players that focus on PvP rather than PvE in mmo's. DDO not having dedicated PvP alienates these types of potential players.
- Bad raid designs: This is subjective but a lot of the raids in DDO, especially Post-MotU are ruined by either an over abundance of puzzles or just bad design. Think CitW, Deathwyrm, DoJ, Babas, Riding the Storm Out etc. Even good raids like LoB were plagued by a mandatory 40 minute clear to the entrance and confusing loot upgrades.
Honorable mentions: Not unique to DDO but worthy of mentioning.
- Communication issues/lack of QA: Some examples: Devs not telling players pre-MotU of a hidden save bonus to mobs Epic Ward that gave extra saves depending on their percentage of health remaining. The fortification bypass portion of the rogues Opportunist Feat not working. Being borked for a year or two until two players tested it in the PvP pit and made a thread about it. I guess the devs didnt want to spend the 5 minutes testing it.
- Baffling design choices/knee jerk reactions: Some examples: In order to make the endgame "harder". Updated 11 introduced increased raid boss damage, health, and increased fortification based on difficulty. This inadvertently destroyed rogue players on any difficulty above normal. As they not only had low health pools but 60% of their dps relied on Sneak Attacks. During 2014 the devs tried to balance Shiradi by giving rainbow/colors of the queen epic pastlife a chance to proc Radiant Forcefield and Adrenline on mobs. This also worked on raid bosses. This procced quite often giving raid bosses a near constant 25% reduced incoming damage and a chance to one shot players. It was removed sometime later in a patch.