A note on Update timing

[Spellsinger]

"So, while the Lamannia preview is inclusive of both Update 81.4 and - some - parts of Update 82, the class balance work will be released prior to the formal release of Update 82."
Out of curiosity, what counts as "class balance work" as opposed to other parts of the update? There's a bunch of stuff like the spellcasting and weapon changes and such that could be interpreted as class balance, but also could fall outside of it depending on how you consider classes.

Answer: whatever they get finished with the minor inconveniences of bugs they'll hot patch the wednesday after and everything else they haven't finished will come afterwards. Hopefully the lag goes away with crystal cove and not multiplied by the next two events jam packed in between this update.

 

[SquireZed]

I think you may have forgotten how answers work, considering they should typically be at least marginally responsive to the question.

 

[dur]

We have announced that our next event called The Court of Strahd begins on October 14th, and you can read more about that here. October 14th will be the release date for Update 82, but we are additionally adding an Update 81.4 for October 7th which will include Night Revels and the balance pass work being previewed on Lamannia. So, while the Lamannia preview is inclusive of both Update 81.4 and - some - parts of Update 82, the class balance work will be released prior to the formal release of Update 82.

Was hoping they were announcing an extension of Pirate's Cove, but no.. of course not.
They're just going to smush two [or three] events together into the same 1-2 month time slot... oh, excuse me, 1 -6 week slot...

**or should that be 3 - 9 week time-slot?

If they're going to push "Content" the least they could do is throws parties, or EVENTS, regularly.

 

[dur]

I presume Court of Strahd will be multiple months long, so not truly in conflict with other, shorter events.

man I miss the LOL emoji. There is much in this post, and I did really laugh out loud in amazement at the Audacity of your statement.
Which "shorter everts?" Here I am, thinking all EVENTS get equal time.

Am I a macaroon or was this undetected sarcasm?

PS: Where is the supposed Players' Council discussion? Or did that whole 'notion' get 'scrapped?'

 

[PersonMan]

man I miss the LOL emoji. There is much in this post, and I did really laugh out loud in amazement at the Audacity of your statement.
Which "shorter everts?" Here I am, thinking all EVENTS get equal time.

Am I a macaroon or was this undetected sarcasm?

PS: Where is the supposed Players' Council discussion? Or did that whole 'notion' get 'scrapped?'

Shorter, as in fewer than multiple months, which (to my knowledge) is the case for every event except the hardcore ones.

- Usually "Hardcore" is ~3 months, Mabar and Festivult are ~1 month, other events are ~2 weeks.

 

[The Narc2]

Hi Cordovan,

This sounds amazing, but wont it coincide with Mabar (night revels).

One of the greatest joys i have with this game is running the events. I'm absolutely loving crystal cove (thank you for running it).
but next month we'll have to pick between 2 events to run :(

Hey Tra,

Just a reminder you wont be picking between the two events, as you know from playing EXTREME first life permadeath style that events like mabar and crystal cove produce some very sneakily deadly champions at low to mid levels that can quickly kill a hardcore lantern player. Remember the times when our permadeath guild would be running during these events and we would completely avoid questing with champions in the level range between 3-11, the example I always give is the arcane skeleton mabar champ in part 1 of deleras that had all the 10 buffs including the dodge buffs that didnt allow ranged and the two extra damage buffs plus dot damage buff that combined ended up dealing 900 hit points of damage in under 3 seconds from its aura and that was when blood tribute didnt have a cool down timer between uses and was instantly available(another never mentioned stealth nerf).

The events running concurrently is by design, it will produce extra deaths, potentially deaths to people that went a head and store bought things like Stat Tomes.

So a quick important warning to all players playing the hardcore version of the lantern event while mabar or crystal cove are running be aware of the champs, particularly arcane skeletons and any clerical champs that self heal(where theres smoke is a good example for them). Sometimes it is better to look avoid and then recall, reset and reentrr the quest for a new layout of champions, be safe and win players, dont let yourself be milked for money with unkillable chanps.

Happy Eventing!!

 

[dur]

This is all it will take for me to kill the alt accounts I have.
If SSG is going to mash Historic events the BOIS dont like, k thx bai.

The FACT that they narrowed an HISTORIC EVENT to TWO WEEKS, is NOVEL. Feels familiar and I DO NOT LIKE IT.

AND NOW SSG Wants to to SMash two more events in THAT WINDOW?

LAME CASH GRAB. iS WHY i WILL NOT GO anywhere near ANY OTHER mmo. MMO'S seek to suck US dry.

ps: If SSG wants to bring back Death Penalty, we've already died TEN TIMES over. Crafting, weapons, skills (TUMBLING,) you name it.

STOP LISTENING TO INFLUENCERS AND LISTEN TO YOUR PLAYERS.

 

[SquireZed]

The FACT that they narrowed an HISTORIC EVENT to TWO WEEKS, is NOVEL. Feels familiar and I DO NOT LIKE IT.

If you're talking about the Treasure of Crystal Cove length this year, then it's almost always been shorter than two weeks. If you look at the wiki (other than a typo when it apparently ran from August 2016 to August 2017, which I can guarantee you was not the case) it usually runs give or take eleven days, sometimes even less.

There are some exceptions, like 2022 where it ran much longer than normal, but in 2020 for example it ran for a shorter window than average. I'd say this year's Crystal Cove is basically the same window as most years, though some years did get a nice double dip which I wouldn't mind. It seems like DDO's events are kind of too rare, and I wouldn't mind occasionally having one during the summer break even if there's nothing new, just to have something to shake up a life or two once in a while. Having an occasional "event weekend" before a big patch or during a lull in the release cycle could be a good way to relieve some of the event FOMO and give more players the chance to participate if they get real life'd out of the original window.

It is a little odd how many events are co-located this year, with the new event, Night Revels, and Crystal Cove all starting September-October, but it's not like any of them are irregular compared to historical event length. This is roughly the same way DDO has run events- Crystal Cove in August/September, Mabar/Night Revels runs through the better part of October and sometimes a bit of November, and then hardcore seasons (or lanterns of the mist as an inheritor of that tradition) seeming to pick up more or less at random. They just happen to be very close in scheduling, which is novel, not the length of any of them.

 

[Celestrata Bloodsong]

I would love to see something like a "Lessons Learned, Lessons Applied" talking about any changes from the previous 2 HC-Lite events and what changes you made since those events.

This is very interesting, imho. It's not something we have prepared right now, but it's something that could be prepared for the future. I'll ask some folks to see if there's interest in doing something like this.

 

[Phaedra]

This is very interesting, imho. It's not something we have prepared right now, but it's something that could be prepared for the future. I'll ask some folks to see if there's interest in doing something like this.

I'd just like to know that it exists internally, I don't even care if we never get to see it, as long as something is actually being learned.

 

[rabidfox]

I would love to see something like a "Lessons Learned, Lessons Applied" talking about any changes from the previous 2 HC-Lite events and what changes you made since those events.

The 1st HC-lite event being on a seperate server where we were told we wouldn't be allowed to transfer off of is what really killed the joy of that event for me. I still knocked out several rewards, but it felt a lot less fun as a result of knowing that character was going be thrown away after the event was over. I understood that they needed to do that to stress test the 64-bit tech, but hopefully they never go the route again for things.

 

[FaceDancer]

This is very interesting, imho. It's not something we have prepared right now, but it's something that could be prepared for the future. I'll ask some folks to see if there's interest in doing something like this.

I always like seeing postmortems from game development work.

 

[dur]

I'm playing a game that runs "events" for 30 days.

You know, what it means to have/be an Event.

 

[cmgamer]

This feels like too much is a short time frame. I will not be doing anything but mabar because I need to get some of the pots again for all my toons. I don't have time to actually run the stuff and enjoy the game in a week. Why are you cutting the time frames down? And why is it all stuffed in together. Not many people will farm Crystal Cove enough to get more than one item just because it becomes boring. When my eyes start to bleed it is time to do something else. You need a break and then go back but that won't work with a 7 day event. I got my one item and never went back. 10 to 14 days is a good time frame. But none of this should be running when a new update is released. How many of your staff actually play the game anymore?

 

[rabidfox]

This feels like too much is a short time frame. I will not be doing anything but mabar because I need to get some of the pots again for all my toons. I don't have time to actually run the stuff and enjoy the game in a week. Why are you cutting the time frames down?

I assume Night Revels is going to run all of October like normal. And the Strahd event will probably be 3 months, my guess is ending sometime after the new year. There'll be overlap but not them being reduced; just like the winter seasonal events will overlap with the Strahd event.

 

[FaceDancer]

The scheduling of events in the fall-winter have always felt overly crowded to me. Would love is some of the stuff could be spread out a wee bit more or re-run in the spring-summer (which seems to have more of a lull in activity).

 

[TueNichtGut]

Oh, that's a good point. If you still have to spend 30 points to reach Tier 5, then you're buying more things in the same tree instead of spreading them out more.
I guess we'll see which it is sometime today

Well still a win, as u can get more enhancements from the t5 tree. And in the trees u are dipping in, you are winning enhancementpoints. For example u will get haste boost from Vistani for 7 points now and dex Trance from Hw for 12 instead of 13 and so on. Its only one tree with tier 5 but mostly every build needs at least two others u want specific abilities from.

 

[dur]

I assume Night Revels is going to run all of October like normal. And the Strahd event will probably be 3 months, my guess is ending sometime after the new year. There'll be overlap but not them being reduced; just like the winter seasonal events will overlap with the Strahd event.

Gee, thanks.

@FaceDancer they've been tweaking events for a while now. I wonder what drives them to limit the Cove to ..2 weeks?

 

[Finbot]

Hi Cordovan,

This sounds amazing, but wont it coincide with Mabar (night revels).

One of the greatest joys i have with this game is running the events. I'm absolutely loving crystal cove (thank you for running it).
but next month we'll have to pick between 2 events to run :(

why cant ya do both? i mean. you do have that choice.

 

[Phaedra]

Gee, thanks.

@FaceDancer they've been tweaking events for a while now. I wonder what drives them to limit the Cove to ..2 weeks?

One week either side of "Talk Like a Pirate Day"