VIP - Q1 2024

[l_remmie]

Vip should give convenience, some value and some fanstuff.

There should be some VIP cosmetics.
There should be VIP benefits for travel and QoL.
And there should be discounts or free stuff that has a pointvalue.

The best way to give free stuff without people stacking them up forerver is to make it a monthly use it or loose it.
You get one free +1 LR every month. Per account
You get one free Fred respec a toon every month.
You get one free tr to lvl4 every month.
Stuff like that.

 

[PurpleSerpent]

Also, please dont disappoint us. Keep the cosmetics, mounts, pets and other fluff for events, HCL or direct sales in the store - but add something real to VIP. The most obvious would be "VIP can start at level 4 after a TR" and "VIP can swap enhancements in trees of all kinds for no cost".

Right. First thing to note here is that the Producer's Letter roadmap is not a binding requirement in any way, largely since it is pretty difficult to guarantee at the start of a year that you know exactly when everything is going to come out - remember last year's letter put Vecna Unleashed's preorder date in April, and it ended up being pushed to June. (If anything, the fact that SSG have provided dates for the various Year of the Dragon giveaways is pretty surprising as it's the first time they've announced anything nearly that far in advance since Menace of the Underdark.)

Secondly, it is worth noting that this isn't the first time SSG have tried to introduce a plan for VIP improvements - they did announce a plan back in March last year. Even if they then proceeded to scrap it entirely, because the general consensus was that it was terrible.

These two things aside, I will agree VIP is overdue for a retool, since it is hard to argue that it hasn't lost a considerable portion of its value since the quest codes first came out - the guaranteed access to adventure packs was one of the main selling points, and another was significantly reduced when Druid, Warlock and several classes were made free-to-play in Update 53.

(I'm not sure the enhancement swap thing is much use, though. It is essentially a discount on buying things that usually cost a few thousand platinum, which is pretty much worthless - especially since the only reason those costs might be an issue is the platinum cap at low levels, which is something VIP already removes.)

 

[Dom]

Don't worry, its almost March 27th... you know what that means! Us VIPs get a month of daily gold rolls!!! You know... that thing we had for a while that SSG (Sev specifically) said was "too costly for them to keep around", but then has brought back twice (for a one month period each time).

VIP reward: paying money to deal with the inconsistency and excuses

 

[canicus]

Secondly, it is worth noting that this isn't the first time SSG have tried to introduce a plan for VIP improvements - they did announce a plan back in March last year. Even if they then proceeded to scrap it entirely, because the general consensus was that it was terrible.

Do you have anything you can point to that said the system was scrapped entirely? My understanding the plan was delayed because the dev responsible for it died unexpectedly. I haven't seen anything to suggest that what will be proposed soon is completely different than last year. Although it may be.

 

[Archaic]

IF I want a VIP upgrade, i m quite dubious on the upgrade *you* want...
Swapping Enhancement in tree cost plat , i have a few millions plat to spare and its worthless...As for Tr at lvl 4 its also worthless can get to 3 easilly with the xp gems from the random rolls...and getting to lvl 4 is sooooo easy anyway and quests are also very fast that does not have much value for me.
I would rather get a vip loot boost for named items, skip the farming of token/seeds for reincarnation, get free use of sentient tools / dino bone pick get a free wish for inheritance / months, raid bypass....

A loot boost would be awesome and maybe Quarterly gifts like you mentioned.

 

[Scrag]

I would be super happy if every iconic life a vip starts would come with a +1 heart!

 

[PurpleSerpent]

Do you have anything you can point to that said the system was scrapped entirely? My understanding the plan was delayed because the dev responsible for it died unexpectedly. I haven't seen anything to suggest that what will be proposed soon is completely different than last year. Although it may be.

Really? I hadn't heard anything about this. Was it announced on a livestream or something?

(Edit: Just checked timewise and this roughly lines up with when we lost HumbleFriar last year; I still can't find anything about him being the one in charge of the rework, though.)

 

[Tosicamir]

I'd love a free "VIP Bracelet of Friends" which would act as a Greater Bracelet of Friends, but instead cap at 3 charges, and regain 1 charge/day, as long as you're subscribed as a VIP.

 

[The Narc]

Vip should give convenience, some value and some fanstuff.

There should be some VIP cosmetics.
There should be VIP benefits for travel and QoL.
And there should be discounts or free stuff that has a pointvalue.

The best way to give free stuff without people stacking them up forerver is to make it a monthly use it or loose it.
You get one free +1 LR every month. Per account
You get one free Fred respec a toon every month.
You get one free tr to lvl4 every month.
Stuff like that.

Bang you nailed it!!

 

[canicus]

Really? I hadn't heard anything about this. Was it announced on a livestream or something?

(Edit: Just checked timewise and this roughly lines up with when we lost HumbleFriar last year; I still can't find anything about him being the one in charge of the rework, though.)

Sev said he was the dev for this on a livestream and said his death was the reason the plan was delayed.

(edit, here is the stream, about 5 min or so:

)

 

[seph1roth5]

Do you have anything you can point to that said the system was scrapped entirely? My understanding the plan was delayed because the dev responsible for it died unexpectedly. I haven't seen anything to suggest that what will be proposed soon is completely different than last year. Although it may be.

It SEEMS like it was scrapped, but no one knows 100%. When they previewed the horrible 12-month plan (that I hated in multiple ways), there was so much backlash that they took it back to the drawing board before the dev that was working on it passed away. No one even knew that's who was working on it until months afterwards when people brought up VIP again. Then, they said that it was delayed/on the back burner because the dev working on it had passed.

I have a thread in my sig where I compiled lots and lots of peoples' suggestions to improve VIP. Really hope 1 or more make it to whatever's coming. I REALLY hope they don't try some convoluted mess like the first draft, or even the 12 month of dragon stuff that's already confusing people by being the last week of the month and no info on later stuff.

The first draft was trying too hard to be a battlepass, but it didn't have all the good parts of it, and had all the bad stuff. It didn't make sense at all. It's kind of like the tumble changes. They had an issue with tumble, so they changed it, but people didn't like that, so they went in a completely different direction and now we're all dealing with that.

Starting at lv 4 after TR would be nice, but needs a bit more. Even just giving us a bit more of what VIP already gives would be fine. More points/month, bigger xp boost, maybe not needing hearts to reincarnate (other than + hearts)? Getting tokens and heart seeds isn't hard, it's just a time sink.

That's what VIP should be helping with, speeding the game along. People always argue that people like me want to NOT play the game, but really I want to play the game without feeling like I'm just doing busywork for a lot of stuff. Running to every quest, sharing quests 1 at a time, flagging for raids every life, etc. All of these would be easy VIP perks that would save a lot of time and wouldn't be p2w.

 

[voenixa121]

Maybe mikar you should try to play with some of people of the female sort, i mean if they will play with you, because all the ladies i play with absolutely love and adore cosmetics, so the cosmetic closet could be a draw to strengthen the ties of a certain demographic in the game. (But of course you know cosmetics are not a big paying sort of industry, you are so right and so smart mikar)

The hell? Cant decide if this is funny or sad XD

 

[Cordovan]

Do you have anything you can point to that said the system was scrapped entirely? My understanding the plan was delayed because the dev responsible for it died unexpectedly. I haven't seen anything to suggest that what will be proposed soon is completely different than last year. Although it may be.

Some of it comes down to word choice, but "scrapped entirely" is not the correct phrase to use for our decision to take a fresh look at the work in progress list that was previewed about a year ago. That said, the version of the updated VIP program seen a year ago is different from what we are working on now. The timing of the updated VIP program is soon; we're working through testing at the moment and when we have more information to share we will. It is not likely to fall within the formal first quarter, but shortly afterward.

 

[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

Q1 of FY starts on April 1st in UK. Just sayin...

 

[mikarddo]

It is not likely to fall within the formal first quarter, but shortly afterward.

I am having a hard time given you the benefit of the doubt here - after so many broken promises to VIP, and now yet a delay.

VIP have quests packs included - quests pack have been given for free to everyone.
VIP have races etc for free - races etc have been given for free to everyone.
VIP get all non-expansions for free - enter "mini-expansions" to avoid VIP getting those packs for free.
and the list likely goes on. VIP needs very substantially value added to make up for those things.

 

[Dude]

The timing of the updated VIP program is soon.

Soon™

 

[Dandonk]

https://ddowiki.com/page/Producer_letter/February_2021

"plans to give more value to VIPs."

In 2021.

Three years later, still nothing. Except taking stuff that was VIP and making it free to all.

U66: Free archetype.
U65: Free quest.
U64: Rework of Chrono.
U63: Unlocked quests, free.
U62: Night Revels.
U61: Vecna, paid expansion for all.
U60: Vecna preorder, macrotechnic as part of expansion that everyone pays for.
U59: Legendary Droaam.
U58: Free archetypes, free quest.

Aaaand:
U57: Grip of the Hidden Hand! Adventure pack, free to VIPs, paid for others. In november 2022.

As far as I can tell, VIPs got no new content as part of VIP at all for more than a year.

Granted, the road map makes 2024 look better in that department, but really...

 

[Natashaelle]

Some of it comes down to word choice, but "scrapped entirely" is not the correct phrase to use for our decision to take a fresh look at the work in progress list that was previewed about a year ago. That said, the version of the updated VIP program seen a year ago is different from what we are working on now. The timing of the updated VIP program is soon; we're working through testing at the moment and when we have more information to share we will. It is not likely to fall within the formal first quarter, but shortly afterward.

Personally, I would view the current Year of the Dragon as a Beta version of what you seem to intend.

 

[Fizban]

I view this as just a bunch of folks wanting even more stuff that VIPs already get as part of being a VIP. I've been a VIP from the start of the game in Feb. 2006 non-stop and my reward is just playing a game I love.
I don't need anything additional to keep playing DDO as a VIP. I agree with one of the posts from Canicus, you will not be able to please most folks.

 

[The Narc]

Some of it comes down to word choice, but "scrapped entirely" is not the correct phrase to use for our decision to take a fresh look at the work in progress list that was previewed about a year ago. That said, the version of the updated VIP program seen a year ago is different from what we are working on now. The timing of the updated VIP program is soon; we're working through testing at the moment and when we have more information to share we will. It is not likely to fall within the formal first quarter, but shortly afterward.

Great communications!

Please make sure the time it takes to do the testing makes it nearly bug free.