DDOCast A DDO Podcast Episode 707

[Kaleva]

Episode 707 is now live on Youtube. Join Nachowench and Kaleva as they talk to Cordovon and Convallaria about the history of DDOCast and puzzles.

The next episode of DDOCast will be on May 4th 2024 @3pm EST

Have an idea for the show? Send us an email DDOCast@gmail.com

You can also message Kaleva or Nachowench on the DDO Forums

Want to catch the show live? Follow us on Twitch

 

[woq]

Cool to have this series continue and get more insight into the behind the scenes.

This Old Haunt is my favourite quest in the Slice of Life pack and Pilgrims Peril is my favourite in the Illithid challenge quest series and probably my favourite combat quest in the entire game - action packed, concise, challenging, rewarding, features a throwback npc and the shield keeper / healer mob mechanic provide exactly what is missing in other combat encounters in DDO (at least for higher difficulties / harder quest encounters). Anyway, it was nice to hear more from the creator (Convallaria) behind those quests and the thought processes behind puzzle creation.

I look forward to more optional hard puzzles that reward those who do them. I don't, my puzzle solving includes quick wiki-fu and sometimes I fail them despite that so im just below a low level potato when it comes to puzzles. But I like them in theory and I do enjoy seeing other people enjoy them, even if It's not for me.

And I hope SSG continues on the path of the Illithid quests - "combat as a puzzle" that rewards tackling it properly is 10/10. Look forward to more Pilgrims of Peril type stuff!

Thanks for hosting this Kaleva & Nacho

 

[Cordovan]

Thanks for having us on! People interested in puzzles and thoughts about dungeon-making should definitely check this out.

 

[axel15810]

Good episode. I really want to see completely new puzzles in the next expansion, and not reusing/modification of existing ones. One of my biggest hopes for it. It's well worth the extra dev time, there's in my opinion way too much reusing of already existing puzzle types in DDO. Doing that contributes to new content feeling the same as old content rather than unique. IMO the best puzzles in the game are the ones where it's not possible to look up a solution or use a solver, so you actually are forced to think through it every time. The memory puzzles such as in RTSO and tile puzzles are the best DDO puzzles IMO for this reason (though tile puzzles have been way overused). The dryad floating 4 stone style puzzles I do wish could be reformulated so you can't just instantly know the solution without using your brain - currently there's 2 solutions which work for every possible iteration of the puzzle. So it defeats the purpose of the puzzle being in the game IMO since you never have to actually think through them as intended. Whatever the devs do, just make puzzles that are new, have a high degree of randomization, require us to actually think through them, and can't be cheesed or bypassed with a solver. Especially stay away form creating ones that have a single solution you can just look up in the wiki.

 

[ChaoticDrivel]

Good episode. I really want to see completely new puzzles in the next expansion, and not reusing/modification of existing ones. One of my biggest hopes for it. It's well worth the extra dev time, there's in my opinion way too much reusing of already existing puzzle types in DDO. Doing that contributes to new content feeling the same as old content rather than unique. IMO the best puzzles in the game are the ones where it's not possible to look up a solution or use a solver, so you actually are forced to think through it every time. The memory puzzles such as in RTSO and tile puzzles are the best DDO puzzles IMO for this reason (though tile puzzles have been way overused). The dryad floating 4 stone style puzzles I do wish could be reformulated so you can't just instantly know the solution without using your brain - currently there's 2 solutions which work for every possible iteration of the puzzle. So it defeats the purpose of the puzzle being in the game IMO since you never have to actually think through them as intended. Whatever the devs do, just make puzzles that are new, have a high degree of randomization, require us to actually think through them, and can't be cheesed or bypassed with a solver. Especially stay away form creating ones that have a single solution you can just look up in the wiki.

I am in full agreement. We have enough quests and puzzles that are just "going through the motions", so to speak.