A suggestion to improve new player retention through information and sound

[T_JayZ]

Hello, let me start off by saying that I am a relatively new player who started in 2020 and that as of now I find the game very enjoyable with its depth in character building and dungeon designs. However, I only started understanding and appreciating these things in 2022 meaning 2 whole years and the only reason I played that far is because of a friend who was super enthusiastic about this game. Currently, we've gotten 3 other friends to play this game as well but I can see that they're just moving with the flow and not really into the game, just playing because we asked them to. It makes me periodically think about how DDO could fix this issue so I'm putting my thoughts here to get them out and give a somewhat new player's perspective.

Here are the problems I have found that have possible solutions through 2 categories, Sound then Information

Sound Effects​

I understand the DDO is an old game with many engine limitations so graphical, pathing & hit box/collision issues are difficult if not impossible to solve. However, I don't see sound design being brought up that often. I feel like it is a good way to give feedback to players and also to make them feel and look cool to make up for the graphics not being an option for improvement for the sake of performance. Do let me know if in reality sound is difficult to implement as I am not familiar with the limitation of game engines.

Unique Sound Effects are Needed​

Give more spells, buffs and attacks unique sounds to make up for the graphical looks. Many abilities don't sound like they have power behind them and many spells sound the same to each other. Heck many attacks found in enchancement trees just use the same basic attack sound which is lame. Have Rage have a shouting sound, Haste give a gust of wind, Sunder the sound of breaking metal, Cleave the swing of a heavy weapon, Far Shot the release of a powerful arrow, give Soundburst a proper boom to it to differentiate it from Sonic Blast etc.

I could go on forever but the point is that sound effects would be a great way to make players feel cool and if there's only one thing in my post gets to be implemented, I really hope its this.

Insufficient Sound Feedback​

Chance is a big part of how DDO works considering everything is done with rolls but this combined with hitbox and pathing issues in the game make it unclear whether certain bonuses are working. The best example are sneak attacks. It's hard to tell whether a monster is targetting me or an ally and I personally cannot tell when I'm actually sneak attacking or not. I see damage numbers but some are low but is it because of a grazing hit? Some are high but is it because of a crit or a sneak attack or both?

Sound can be used to let players know that they're bonuses are working. Using the sneak attack example, a unique sound like a bloody stab would be great to let me know whether I successfully sneak attacked or not. Other actions that would benefit from unique sounds would be Crits, Doublestrikes/shots, Strikethroughs, Off-hand attacks, Crowd Control (Dazes, Stuns, Paralyze etc), Failing to cast due to lack of SP, Dodging, Fortification blocking crits, Enemies succeeding saves etc. I think some of these may already have sounds but they need to be more clear and unique so that they are not mistaken for anything else.

Information​

DDO is a complex game and that's part of its attraction and charm. However, I and probably many newer players had to go to Wikis and Youtube tutorials to understand what should be essential parts of the game. These are some key information that I think players to have easy access to ingame.

Information Regarding Stacking Bonuses​

If my friend didn't know and tell me about this, I would have gone through my first playthrough as a Ranger stacking as much Dexterity as I can through my equipment because the only thing in the game that indicates the same types of bonuses do not stack is a message in the chat box that is messy and unclear with the length of item names. Even when you do figure it out, you have to play gear tetris and keep in your head what bonuses you have, don't have, lose and gain from changing pieces of gear.

My suggestion for this is implementing this infomation in the tutorial. Perhaps have Jeets give you 2 pieces of gear with stacking bonuses of HP and have him or the Dungeon Master voice out that it was a mistake and gives you a proper piece of gear. Whatever the method, players need to be told this crucial infomation and not have to find it through an outside source. Also, a notification or error symbol (thats dismissable) to let players know they have overlapping bonuses would be great.

As for the gear tetris part, a sub-page in the inventory that points out all overlapping bonuses would be a god send. Bonus if we could click on a specific overlapping bonus and it highlights the pieces of gear that are cause it. I don't think this is too difficult seeing as the server already keeps track of all this infomation, we just want to be able to access it easier.

Information Regarding Offensive and Defensive Modifiers​

Most games only have a couple ways to increase offense and defense like attack damage, crit chance & block. DDO however has many many layers. Just naming physical damage modifiers, there are Damage Dice, Flat increases to Hit & Damage, Crit Chance / Threat Range / Multipliers, Attack Speed, Melee Power, Off-hand strike chance & Doublestrike. However, when upgrading your character, it's very difficult to tell how much a new bonus will actually add to your overall damage. For example, many enchancements give +1 to hit & damage, which to many players doesn't seem like much and makes certain classes feel very boring but those stats are in fact very important once multiplied with other modifiers. These bonuses are also unclear because of the variable numbers that we get due to rolling damage dice.

I think adding infomation like average damage per hit/critical hit that take into account all buffs and enchancements in tooltips of equipment and spells would be great. From there players can easily see the impact of the stats they chose to ensure they have the sense they their character is getting stronger.

Summary​

Sound design should be improved both to give players a sense of power and progression as well as to give players feedback during combat so they understand what is going on. Information regarding things like the same types of bonuses not stacking and how much impact an enchancement or ability has to your character would help newer players feel less intimidated by the game and understand how to progress

I am not a game designer. I do not know how hard these things are to implement. However if even one of these things are implemented, it would go a long way to keeping new players in this game. Also, if these things have been discussed before and explained why they cannot be implemented I apologise and would like to read those discussions.

If you've made it this far thank you for reading, I would like to know your thoughts on whether these are good ideas