Read more about the year ahead in a new Producer's Letter!

[Speed]

Tolero I was reading through the list of races on ddowiki for a possible cleric build and I noticed something surprising: there isn;t a single F2P STR/WIS race.

Is this a DND thing or did you guys simply decide you weren't going to implement a race that offers innate modifiers on STR and WIS?

Which premium race starts with both?
Premium WIS = Aasimar.
F2P STR = Dragonborn, Half-Orc.
F2P other = Human can have +1 any stat for 3 AP and +1 any other stat for 6 AP total, plus extra feat and skill.

 

[DDO Gaming]

Which premium race starts with both?
Premium WIS = Aasimar.
F2P STR = Dragonborn, Half-Orc.
F2P other = Human can have +1 any stat for 3 AP and +1 any other stat for 6 AP total, plus extra feat and skill.

aasimer offers innnate and enhancement on both. Its not a problem I used dragonborn for cleric. Apparently charisma is useful for turning [undead] heads

 

[Falroth]

aasimer offers innnate and enhancement on both. Its not a problem I used dragonborn for cleric. Apparently charisma is useful for turning [undead] heads

I see what you did there!

 

[Dementedleo1974]

I would hope at least for a new set of players to be able to come into the game fully, that SSG would do the same way as they did with LoTR... They gave all the content up to lvl 95 for free, meaning all xpacs etc up to Mordor, and if you sub at least 1 time you get all the storage etc and get to keep it if you unsub... kicker also is with sub, you also get 3 more xpacs , just not last 2 I believe it is.... Now thats something for everyone to look at......

 

[Speed]

It's five years on after this. It'd be nice to see it back, but am not holding my breath.

Jun 03, 2020 - August 31st, 2020
Oct 14, 2021 - December 31st, 2021
Mar 23, 2023 - April 23rd, 2023
Jan 10, 2024 - February 18th 2024

 

[Zavina]

Jun 03, 2020 - August 31st, 2020
Oct 14, 2021 - December 31st, 2021
Mar 23, 2023 - April 23rd, 2023
Jan 10, 2024 - February 18th 2024

Yes, it'd be the 5th year....

 

[Scarlett]

Dear Tolero

I am sorry to see you not doing a real HC server this year either.
Your "soft" hardcore just is not the same experience.
Your insistence on mixing HC players with normal players put a lot of limitations on the actual mechanics you can do for the events.
Leaderboards are pointless when people can be carried by 5 no-risk players.
Please reconsider and give us a real HC again. I can even live with you alternating, so its only one real HC season per 1 or 1½ year, and a softcore in between.
Just do not take the most fun version of your game from us. Please.

Regards,
A Hardcore Aficionado

I agree with this. HC as it was, was some of the best game atmosphere I've seen in game. Players on the same page, with the same goals all working together for the prizes. You couldn't find gameplay like that anywhere else unless you actually know people in RL who play, but even that would lose of of the magic of HC as it was. I would group with people on the previous HC and they'd say they only ever play that version, never any of the other servers.

Any game over time has to deal with a diminishing return on players, the best they can do is create new content (which i do say DDO hasn't stopped doing) and hopefully in creating new content you can create something with staying power that will capture vested interest. HC did that, and so it makes no sense to me why you would stop doing it, all for maybe a few people who couldn't hack it?
In my view, if someone couldn't hack HC it likely was a personal issue which means either that server/gameplay isn't for you, or maybe said person really needs to evaluate how they play. And yes it really was the most fun version of the game I've seen, and this is coming from someone who initially thought it's premise was valueless.. how could it possibly be any fun if you lose your progress if you die?
Because everyone's in the same boat, and you don't have such a disparity between the players... and the vast majority of players played it as the MMO game it is rather than an arcade game.

 

[Valerianus]

i made some abrasive comments in the past about past producer letters, when anemic, but this time i like it. imho it is indeed anemic in length and contents, BUT, there are news about new servers that alone bring joy. i don't even care about the rest, a couple of lines about this would have been more than enough. the best news ever. even about european servers that were told not to be planned. a game changer. a signal that the game is going on, cause no one would invest in a hopeless dead game, and decent servers are the keystone, finally, even if too many years too late, someone woke up, that can eventually support real fixes and real new features, and most of all imho, servers able to manage higher population, that means steps to push servers pop and attract new players, imho next steps will be making a lot of old content free. i always had the impression that they did not really want new players cause the servers couldn't handle it, because an officially branded dnd game, it sells by itself....if you want to sell it meh.


as i understand it, some time ago Daybreak management took over EG7, and maybe it is starting to show, so go on this way dear "EG7", SSG has dnd and lotr, finally you are investing in brands that sell by themselves, if supported, no brainer. thank you and most of all thank SSG for having kept the lights on for so many years, and on.

 

[Ozz]

Here are some of my thoughts on the new 64 bit servers

For arguments sake lets say there are 3 US servers and 2 European servers. Now currently a lot of guilds have players from different time zones which at the end of the day makes the server useful for people that work shift but if players now go to a server because of their location (ie Europeans got to a server in Europe) then it will be dead outside of normal play time like 2-6 am and vice versa for a US server although the US has 4 different time zones so maybe will not matter so much.
Now my 2nd point is lets use 3 US servers and we get the option to transfer guilds etc to them so server A gets 50% of the transfers, server B gets 40% of the transfers and server C gets the remaining 10% which makes Server C a dead server?

 

[Sylvado]

For the 64 bit servers I have some questions outside the obvious like shards, guilds etc.

1. Will it be character transfers or account transfers?
If it is character how do shared banks move?
If it is accounts how will accounts with characters on multiple worlds be managed?
2. Will reincarnation cache move?
3. If Cormry is to remain VIP only what will it offer that other worlds will not?