I want progression that isn't gear or past lives

[droid327]

The paradigm has become stale. They're great for what they are, but it feels like we're being served pizza every day for a month. And having those as the only progression mechanics means they have to get increasingly grindy and repetitive.

People don't like the loot grind, and are getting increasingly cynical about the point of even doing it when the average time it takes to get some loot is close to the functional lifespan of the item.

People don't like the past life hamster wheel either, especially new players and casuals who do the math and realize it may take a decade to get triple comp, and we're coming up gradually on what everyone assumes will be LPLs and add another bloc of hamsters to the mill.

I'd like to see more creative, horizontal progression systems prioritized over the next few update cycles, so that the new legendary cap at 40 has more room to grow and develop. Something like a permanent hireling you can gear up and advance, or alternative combat XP systems to shape your build further.

 

[Tyrande]

I like the permanent hireling idea. Sort of like at level 40, your character has earned discipleship and became a master of that profession <class>.

So, the character opens up a training hall to select young professionals in the way of <class>, and of course provide gear and salary (in plat - finally a huge use for those plat capped characters!!)

That young professional does not count as a hireling, can combat, can be buff'd and can be healed; but doesn't count towards party member count.

Of course, it will need better controls than hirelings.

 

[Bjond]

I like the permanent hireling idea.

Create-Your-Own-Hire could potentially be fun: take one of your alts and summon it as-is. That will very quickly drive gear demand higher as you need to gear primaries and secondary "hire" characters.

I also envision a "one hire to rule them all" scenario happening pretty quickly. Bard for songs mixed with warlock for TMP and a ranged weapon equiped to defeat the buggy heal casting issues from a hire. Maybe also a splash of Rogue for trapping, though I like having that on my main too much myself.

 

[Tumideon]

Aside from a build-a-hire system or fillable XP stones that you can pass to alts so you have a reason to stay at cap, not sure what else can be added that wouldn't just be another tree or something.

We have our base enhancements with Racial Action Points as a quasi horizontal progression within a build, all the TRs, EDs, Reaper, gearing Tetris with various super rare affixes (+4 Mythic, +3 Reaper, good curses), and Sentience grinds from ultra rares.

If build a hire could work like Dragon's Dogma Pawns where your monster manuals or quest completions can train your hireling to give helpful tips or increased damage, that would be cool, take it a step further and have them available for usage for AS, plat, or loot. That could be a fun system for sure but doubt we'd ever see it. Hell we haven't gotten rogue plat hirelings or lower epic perma gold seals

 

[Arkat]

Something like a permanent hireling you can gear up and advance, or alternative combat XP systems to shape your build further.

In Pathfinder, we call those companions "cohorts." I think this is a good idea, especially the gearing-them part.

 

[Blaster]

Play a different game then. Nobody is forcing anyone to play DDO.

Don’t like something? Do something else. Seriously, it ain’t that hard to figure out.

 

[saekee]

Maybe some kind of structure you build? A castle, thieve's guild, etc like we do our guildships? Ideally something visible to the rest of the server if it gets uber enough.

A mount could be another non-gamebreaking thing that gets built up somehow, a bit like pets but maybe some other set of qualities that comes from gear etc (not sure source). It could be interesting to eventually have a combat mount for slayers. What paladin player does not want their warhorse?

 

[Jaspar]

A powerful hireling just does more to kill off the MM nature of the game and it becomes even more of a solo-fest.

Fests and enhancements should be the bulk of the power. Then gear. Then pastlives.

So a new player starts nearly as powerful.

Has worked for WoW for 20 years. New players can be as powerful as 20 year old players simply by progressing quickly through the content.

Most past life rewards should be cosmetic with just a bit of player power.

 

[Arkat]

Maybe some kind of structure you build? A castle, thieve's guild, etc like we do our guildships? Ideally something visible to the rest of the server if it gets uber enough.

I like this building idea, too!

 

[Spellsinger]

The paradigm has become stale. They're great for what they are, but it feels like we're being served pizza every day for a month. And having those as the only progression mechanics means they have to get increasingly grindy and repetitive.

People don't like the loot grind, and are getting increasingly cynical about the point of even doing it when the average time it takes to get some loot is close to the functional lifespan of the item.

People don't like the past life hamster wheel either, especially new players and casuals who do the math and realize it may take a decade to get triple comp, and we're coming up gradually on what everyone assumes will be LPLs and add another bloc of hamsters to the mill.

I'd like to see more creative, horizontal progression systems prioritized over the next few update cycles, so that the new legendary cap at 40 has more room to grow and develop. Something like a permanent hireling you can gear up and advance, or alternative combat XP systems to shape your build further.

I suggested this months maybe even a year ago on the hirelings. Make it like the companion you create in BG3

 

[Spook]

Achievements with Cosmetic rewards. Theres so much content in DDO you could design an achievement system that would keep even the most dedicated players busy for a long time - Some of it is ready to be ported over (Monster Manual stuff) or make everyone start from 0.

 

[Bjond]

Achievements with Cosmetic rewards.

A real cosmetic system has huge potential for both players and SSG, but step one is a comprehensive working preview.

I suggested this months maybe even a year ago on the hirelings. Make it like the companion you create in BG3

It's a great idea that's been around more than one block. SWTOR is the one that truly ran to the bank with it: over $1B in gross sales from cosmetics. Why? Because every character has roughly 8 unique fully voiced and story-forked companions that wear the same cosmetic gear as regular characters.

That's 9x the normal demand for cosmetics not including the focus on making alts to replay story-fork variations that scales that even further. It's like printing money.

SSG can't go quite as far. SWTOR was built with a cosmetic mix & match style that displayed individual art for each slotted item. DDO only has body cloak & head -- sadly only a $300M potential. Yeah, not really worth investing ~100K in a cosmetic system.

 

[Dulkhan]

I dont like to farm exp or items so plz invent something else to farm so i can dislike it too xD, like pizza with pineapple

 

[Oliphant]

Wonder if they could purchase animations cheap from ancient editions of Tekken. Like just Li alone could provide a huge progression tree for martial arts styles.

 

[Jeronimo]

I would like to have housing. It would be OK to grind for. Buy stuff and upgrades for plat or optionally AS, a bit like FO76.

 

[Alternative]

You're not gonna like it, but the progression that isn't gear or past lives is called "git gud"

 

[axemania]

Player housing would be nice--cohorts would be a quagmire with current hireling AI capabilities and the inevitable power issues. But like, a personal castle you can augment with various wings as you grind each class, getting slow progress towards a thieves' guild on Rogue, druids' grove on Druid or Ranger, temple on Cleric/FVS/Paladin, etc., could be neat. Not too much power--at most you should gain access to extra bank space as you grind (with more buyable obviously--gotta monetize it, say you can buy 20 slots for every 20 you unlock, up to 120/240 slots?), plus basic gear like components and trap parts and thieves' tools at a discount. Maybe crafting stations too. And you could have some/all of these be unlocks requiring a certain amount of experience earned with X class as your highest leveled class.

 

[Jaspar]

I would like to have housing. It would be OK to grind for. Buy stuff and upgrades for plat or optionally AS, a bit like FO76.

It would 100% be for AS or just straight up cash.

And it will never be as good as people want.

 

[somenewnoob]

I don't mind past lives, but I'd like to stay at cap to earn then. Fill X amount of xp, get past life, repeat.

For me, I like cap raiding, high skull, and tweaking cap builds and gear for that extra hidden +1. So to stay at cap and progress would be amazing. I can't even express how sick I am of running low level content over and over.

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

Good news! It already exists.

Reaper mode.