Hardcore 2024 - No Love in the Year of the Dragon

Mary

Mary

Well-known member
Hardcore DDO was snubbed in the 2024 producer's letter -

www.ddo.com

A Look at 2024, The Year of the Dragon – Producer's Letter

Read more about our 2024 plans for Dungeons & Dragons Online in a new Producer’s Letter!
www.ddo.com www.ddo.com

The letter talks about the new expansion to Myth Drannor in the Forgotten Realms and the plans to celebrate the Year of the Dragon monthly with giveaways and a new dragon-themed archetype, as well as refreshed events and a new event coming in the fall,

However, Hardcore DDO is notably absent from the producer letter and the 2024 roadmap.

This is a particularly crowded year for Dungeons and Dragons Online but Hardcore DDO is a notable omission.

The question then is why did/is Hardcore DDO was snubbed for 2024? Perhaps we will find out considering the popularity of Hardcore in DDO.
And this is not unique to DDO as an MMO - every major MMO has a hardcore - which begs the question - are the DDO Devs purposefully removing Hardcore to deal with an unforeseen undisclosed problem? This is 100% speculation, but the Hardcore DDO event is extremely popular and well populated - one just need visit the server stats population metric site to see hardcore dominates the server population while active.

And so we are left with a snub and a mystery - the year of the dragon - but no love for hardcore.

Sad.

I guess we'll see but this player was particularly crestfallen to see it was snubbed from this years's roadmap.
 
Foaly's_Pub

Foaly's_Pub

Rumble Creator and Wiki editor
I made a thread my Self on this as well mary.

It was an honor to run one of the Main guilds of Hardcore... I'll probly never see you back home on sarlona but i'm a solo player for the most part anyway unless my crew decides they want to run XD if I get a response on my thread I'll make a dedicated forum thead if cofirmed there will be no more HCL's
 
Dandonk

Dandonk

This is not the title you're looking for
HC in year of the dragon: all kobolds are now replaced with dragons!
 
rabidfox

rabidfox

The People's Champion
Makes you wonder if the metrics on SSG's side of the equation isn't what players think it is for recent HC seasons...
 
The Narc

The Narc

Well-known member
Damn where am i going to enjoy poking fun at the Rinstrommers and Guy Smilies. 😢

I must say i do enjoy all the free ddo points from having a new server every hardcore and on my main account getting a few other goodies each and every hardcore. That might be why they dont want to run new hardcores, its a point gathering haven for peoples accounts.

I mean maybe the only guild ships left that are bought on hardcore are bought with astral shards granted from previous expansion packs, so no money is spent. There might be only a few outliers left that pay their way to big ships and guild renown and reaper xp pots.

All in all it would be not profitable if only a few spend but many collect ddo points. If you shut off the ddo points gathered in hardcore how many would actually show up, and as the numbers dwindle the grouping wont be as good thereby eliminating a whole bunch of players that like to find groups often and fast.

I myself find hardcore a great place to meet likeminded players that want to learn and get better and not run around rimstromming their way thru quests.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: DBZ
The Delusionist

The Delusionist

Member
I do want hardcore to continue - it is my favorite way to play, and I tend to spend a lot more during the season and transfer stuff over to live for my static group afterwards. Admittingly the season 3 rehash wasn't as appealing to me with the extra lives dampening the thrill a bit, and I know others are concerned about splitting the player base between servers. But for a lot of players, this keeps us in game and gives us a goal when not playing with live-server static groups that meet at set times during the week.

That said, maybe it is possible to opt-in to hardcore rules on live servers for a monthly event that wouldn't split players as much? Or they have some sort of secret plan for the new live event to appeal to us. Or have playable kobolds or UI scaling taking up the art assets usually used for the rewards...

They've earned a lot of trust with how well the last few years have been, so I'll stow the protest flag for now. But please bring it back eventually. It's fun.
 
Last edited:
Justfungus

Justfungus

Well-known member
I am not holding my breath, stuff changes and HCL may have run it's course ... OR
it is being significantly changed and they didn't want to show their cards on that one.
Either way, it will not be the same.

As a few have suggested in the past, HCL ... might ...
be changing from a separate server thing into a new kind of multi-server affair or not.
I guess we will see.
 
Aelonwy

Aelonwy

Well-known member
rabidfox said:
Makes you wonder if the metrics on SSG's side of the equation isn't what players think it is for recent HC seasons...
Click to expand...
Its possible. Perhaps redux seasons make less than original seasons? Maybe whales don't spend as much on redux? Do whales spend more on super-tough extreme level restricted seasons or do they make more from seasons with more accessible grouping?
 
Mary

Mary

Well-known member
I realize the letter and roadmap are incomplete but the omission of hardcore was glaring and when added to the bit that the new dynamic event in 2024 will replace the hardcore - they have been running two hardcore seasons per year, one being a redux, so hopefully we get our season 4 redux. And considering what a flop the dynamic event 2023 was it is hard to be excited about the second in 2024 ...

 
J

Jummby

Well-known member
Mary said:
I realize the letter and roadmap are incomplete but the omission of hardcore was glaring and when added to the bit that the new dynamic event in 2024 will replace the hardcore - they have been running two hardcore seasons per year, one being a redux, so hopefully we get our season 4 redux. And considering what a flop the dynamic event 2023 was it is hard to be excited about the second in 2024 ...

Click to expand...
Mary,

Your commitment to hardcore and how much you help hardcote players and regulars is awesome. Thank you for that.

Here is the issue though:

They went overboard with it, too many seasons and too soon between seasons. Greed got the better of them and they over did it. It needs too cool a bit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top