As per 'usu

kmack wrote on Sep 24^th, 2020 at 10:05am:



Who let you back in!?




Wish we heard from you more.  Hope you're well.

At this point I hope that whoever was looking into writing a ddo server emulator succeeds so that I can just play on my personal server solo with homebrew settings so that I can unfuck my own play experience.

It seems likely a public server with the right settings would be popular enough to stay online with donations only. Might not attract quite as many players but it would be popular.

Edrein wrote on Sep 26^th, 2020 at 6:53pm:


This is why I'd want my own server.  The game is already single player for the most part,  Put the emulator in a group of docker containers,  and run the game on the pc I'm playing with my own settings would be the dream.  I wouldn't even want to try to run it for other players as my version of good,  would not be other peoples.

Edrein wrote on Sep 26^th, 2020 at 6:53pm:


I have literally made this exact same argument before several times Good to find someone who understands.

Personally I think a private server really only needs 2 changes to make 95% of the player-base happy: 1. severely reduced XP costs to level/TR; 2. dramatically improved drop rates.

No one is ever going to "invest" the HUGE HUGE time requirements it takes to get triple-completionist on a private server that could disapear at any second, and where dataloss like the gayfinder event is a very real and ongoing possibility. Its just not going to happen that someone comes along and sinks, what, 5,000 hours to max out a character(I think its a lot more than that, no idea).

So what two things do you change? XP rate and gear-acquisition rate. Let people thunder through the game much faster and actually make alts viable. Yes, a pre-MOTU server would be "nice", but there just aren't enough players to support all the different versions everyone wants.



S_O_B wrote on Sep 26^th, 2020 at 11:05pm:


So I don't play a lot of MMOs either but I definitely think DDO has a larger population of 40+ players(late 30s, myself). But then figure WoW launched in 2004; and statistically the people most likely to have disposable income for a subscription since then probably started in their early to mid 20s(I know I did). So a typical WoW player who started at launch is going to be approaching 40 now - and there are PLENTY of older players. A friend told me a story about 8 years ago of a friend of his. Guy was older(50s), single, and made a 6-figure income. Besides work, WoW was his entire life. As in, to the point of building a god damn toilet into his gameing chair. Had his whole setup build around just playing WoW like a second job.

However, games like WoW also do require considerably more FPS-style skills, highspeed reactions, etc, which us old folsk aren't great at(ok, I'll admit, I sucked at that when I was young). DDO on the other hand, despite being a twitch game(no, not the streaming service) requires significantly less reaction time to play effectively. I'd wager that's probably a good portion of why it attracts and older player-base; you can have fun and be good at the game with arthritis.

MMOs have always kind of been "grownup games" since they require a sub or at least the ability to make online purchases to really play. As such while you might meet the occasional asshole teenager, their lot is mostly confined to consoles these days. MMOs require your own credit card and all.

I'm done ranting but I will say: I am about to throw away 21 "Power Evidence" trinkets. That is how many TRs I've done in the past couple days.

Head-Meat wrote on Sep 27^th, 2020 at 12:08pm:


Yeah I am the OP and I'm not watching that

Depends what you run.

Heroics scale n/h/e linearly. Newer epics do too more or less, but many older ones do not.  It seems like it the epics that were part of the old epic system have a huge jump in difficulty from H to E. (Obviously R is just E with a % penalty to output).

Going from whatever 18s or 19s on reaper to, for example, House P epics on reaper (level 20 quests) is a huge jump in difficulty even with full EDs. Good luck trying that with nerfed EDs.

EDs were a dumb idea in the first place. When people were asking for epic progression, they wanted more class levels. 25 paladin, 25 Sorcerer, 25 monk, etc. (better yet, 20 sorcerer/3 paladin/2 monk) Not commoner levels with a new enhancement system made of power creep. Literally nobody asked for that.

5 Foot Step wrote on Sep 27^th, 2020 at 11:16pm:


A couple comments:

1)  Part of that is also that you can't run reaper on quests with a base level of 18/19 when level 20.  So, as a result, you end up getting squeezed.   

If you are used to running the traditional BB way (Quest level +2), then you are running level 16's at level 18, level 17's at level 19, and then when you get to 18's, you have to stay at 19.   When you get to 19's, you are running reaper quests still at level 19.  So the quest difficulty has increased since you were running 17's, but your power level has not.  it will feel a bit squeezed.

2)  The level 18/19 gets you a level 18 core (in a pure or mostly pure build) most of which are pretty tasty.  After that, you need to wait for a capstone.  But, as mentioned above, you won't get it because you have to hold 20.   When you do, that will be the next big "jump".  Even without the ED's. 

I agree the ED's coming in with full twists, and a full 26 ED AP in your active ED is a LOT of power jump at 20/21.   And then it is basically nothing more until you get to level 24 or so (but really 26/27 when the gear and the destiny feats start kicking in). 

This is partly because you get ALL the ED and twists at 20 and most all the feats are 27-30.   It is partly because gear from 20-26 is really lacking.   We are still wearing Sharn ML 15 in a lot of cases.   I think filling in the gear from 20-25 (which has been happening but slowly) would be a part of the solution.

I'd argue the bigger issue isn't that 18-20 drags a bit, but that 21-26 is pretty lackluster in terms of rewards for leveling.  I'd like to see those levels be more interesting.   Why are all 3 ED feats crammed in at 26, 28, and 29.   Spread those out to 22, 25, 28.    When added to feats at 21, 24, 27, and 30 it means only 23 and 26 have no "adds".  Target 23 and 26 for some really solid loot revamps.  Maybe overhaul MOTU raid loot and the EGH loot and make it all to 23 and the overhaul Shadowfell expansion and Thunderholme loot and make it all ML 26.  (or add new content targeting loot at these two points.   Either way).

That'd be a nice progression thru epics where something interesting is happening at every level. 

5 Foot Step wrote on Sep 28^th, 2020 at 3:36am:


This is exactly what I thought we were getting when I first heard about the cap increase, was really excited, and started workshopping new builds. Was really disappointed.