We are curious to get your thoughts!

[Cernunan]

Of the choices, the Astral Plane and Sigil were most appealing.
But what I'd really like to see is....you've done Temple of Elemental Evil. You've done the Slave Lords.
What about "Against the Giants?"

Because it was a boring plot-free snooze fest

 

[JaynChar2019]

make blight caster lighting storm an arti spell just saying they deserve it.

 

[Flopperjack]

Fill out this survey on SurveyMonkey today! We'll take responses through August 4th.

I definitely would enjoy seeing more in ravenloft, when we got that as our first post-motu (iirc) expansion, i was actually kind of expecting all expansions to be built upon like you did the forgotten realms and not just a one and done area. The lost mines of phandelver (however its spelled) would also be a solid addition as a new level 1 area and potential korthos replacement to help onboard new players who are familiar with that 5e dungeon, but also just fun to have more new option at low levels especially for the hardcore players since I am sure many run those first few levels til their eyes bleed because death is common there.

 

[Kipp]

*snip*

When build an expansion, you need to excite the exiting playerbase, bring former players back into the fold, and have the potential to attract new players. Out of the list Myth Drannor has the most potential, however it is not what I would recommend.

To get the biggest bang for you buck I would suggest an expansion to the planes of Eberron.

1. Rework the Devils of Shavarath as an Epic and Legendary Adventure Pack
2. Rework the Trials of the Archon as an Epic and Legendary Adventure Pack.
3. Rework the Battleground Wilderness Adventure Area into a much larger map encompassing all three regions of Shavarath
4. New Adventure Pack for the Demons of Shavarath with an Epic and Legendary Version
5. Rework Tower of Dispair into a Legendary Raid.
6. New Raid Adventure Area set in the region around the Ash Tower, Mournland, with the eternal war of the Shavarath coming to Eberron as the three warring parties attempt to take control of the Shavarath Manifest zone. Throw in the Becoming God and you have yourself a great opportunity.

So the biggest way to excite the existing playerbase is with a bunch of reworked quests? I agree that going to some of the planes would be cool (Lammania, for example, would make little sense as its very unlikely we could survive there and there isn't really anything there we need to worry ourselves with, though some sort of invasion into the material realm would work) but ultimately I don't think a bunch of upscales to legendary is really going to sell as an expansion to the playerbase at large. I do think the original Shavarath quests could make for a good candidate for legendary, if they wanted to upscale another pack but as they've said previously, upscaling to higher level is more work than simply making a new quest and in general, new quests are more likely to garner the sort of attention and excitement needed to keep a game going long-term.

 

[gravisrs]

I really hope SSG is having ideas for every survey question and just want to prioritize. I want it all ASAP!

 

[The_Apocalypse]

How about Greyhawk with The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth? There's a wilderness with several encounters that include a blue dragon. A gnome village that could be used as a "base" for the players, and The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun also uses the same gnome village. Plus, the Caverns have a lot of monsters that would be new to DDO, including D&D's first named vampire.

Also, I'd like to see the dwarf sub-race, Duergar, please

 

[Mand O'Lin]

How about The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth? There's a wilderness with several encounters that include a blue dragon. A gnome village that could be used as a "base" for the players, and The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun also uses the same gnome village. Plus, the Caverns have a lot of monsters that would be new to DDO, including D&D's first named vampire.

I am not familiar with that module, but from your description it sounds great!

 

[GamerTagRoid]

How about instead of an expansion, work on content already in the game? XP, loot, hirelings, etc. from the original game (pre-Eveningstar) redone to be more up to date and at least close to what the expansions are?

And if an expansion is a must because of the bean counters, keep it in Eberron, Xen'drik to be more precise on it.

 

[Ying]

And if an expansion is a must

New content is required to keep the lights on. Updates with just backend changes like U60, while necessary, lack player engagement and retention.

 

[Gyuma Bei]

How about Greyhawk with The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth? There's a wilderness with several encounters that include a blue dragon. A gnome village that could be used as a "base" for the players, and The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun also uses the same gnome village. Plus, the Caverns have a lot of monsters that would be new to DDO, including D&D's first named vampire.

Also, I'd like to see the dwarf sub-race, Duergar, please

Unfortunately, anything specifically Greyhawk is a licensing mess. This is why there are no direct references to the setting, even in WoTCs revisited modules like White Plume Mountain and Saltmarsh. Even Tales from the Yawning Portal implies that the reworked adventures are defaulted to be set in the Forgotten Realms (adding only optional rules on how to convert it to Greyhawk if the DM/players choose).

 

[uncus]

Thanks, Goldy, for the explanation of why Dark Sun is not currently possible.

Perhaps it could be worked in "unofficially" with a desert [like menoch..whatever] with some areas run by Dragons [or 1-2 without, post Pentad]. The preserver/defiler aspect would be way too hard to incorporate, but Psionics could be a type of Sorc [not under sorc, but same casting/learning/sp template] with 3 universal trees. Psionicists could access all three trees, while everyone else can only access one [getting locked out of the other two with the first choice in that tree].

Astral Plane could reach any setting...Gamma World would be fun [we already have robots, death ray "wands"- reskin into pistol/rifle, healing kits/elixirs, mutated animals <cats, anyway, maybe dogs via gnolls>]. The biggest hurdle would be mutated plants - especially if for PCs.

 

[Goldy]

So the biggest way to excite the existing playerbase is with a bunch of reworked quests? I agree that going to some of the planes would be cool (Lammania, for example, would make little sense as its very unlikely we could survive there and there isn't really anything there we need to worry ourselves with, though some sort of invasion into the material realm would work) but ultimately I don't think a bunch of upscales to legendary is really going to sell as an expansion to the playerbase at large. I do think the original Shavarath quests could make for a good candidate for legendary, if they wanted to upscale another pack but as they've said previously, upscaling to higher level is more work than simply making a new quest and in general, new quests are more likely to garner the sort of attention and excitement needed to keep a game going long-term.

It is important to understand that there are three aspects; Existing Players, Returning Players, and New Players.

Existing Players will buy any expansion in the same numbers/percentages as the last expansion, warts and all. That's both a blessing and a curse and a topic for another thread.

DDO is old game, what expansion would bring new players in significant numbers?
There are a couple of settings that would attract the most new players; Krynn and Greyhawk. As WotC at this time isn't going to license Greyhawk due to WotC policies, and any reworked older modules and adventures from Greyhawk setting are now set in the Forgotten Realms, we can cross that off the list. Krynn is in active development and publication, however it might be, okay it is, a significant monetary investment by SSG to license I just don't see that happening at the moment.
Myth Drannor and Sigil (Planescape) probably are the biggest movers of the dial for new players, but is it a significant number? Old Game probably not.

DDO has a significant number of players who left the game and drop in to try the game from time to time. We can guesstimate the number of accounts all you want, but it is far more significant than potential new players. How do you get those players back in any significant number.

My thoughts are you update content they liked and you build upon it. They are not going to come back for Myth Drannor or Sigil in the kind of numbers you need. Taking content that is little used (Devils of Shavarath) and putting it in a more logical place so it gets run, adding to the story line and doing the things promised in 2009 would be a good start.
There is also the hints of Dolurrh and Fernia that are scattered throughout the game that would be interesting, but those are more like Adventure Packs.

 

[Gratch]

Given these expansions settings would nominally be to go along with an upcoming L34+ level push - the Mine and Droaam would be teh lame low level content choices.
I’d be okay with any of the other four though either outer planes seems most interesting.

 

[Mary]

From my perspective, Myth Drannor should be the next expansion. It would allow for many much-needed refreshments of existing content under the keystone of a new Forgotten Realms expansion. A significant portion of the loot from MotU needs to be modernized, as do the races, iconic characters, and classes from the Forgotten Realms, such as Purple Dragon Knights and Sun Elves. Bringing us back to the Forgotten Realms is not just essential for an expansion; it's crucial for the game's future.

Ravenloft would be great, but that content is already modern, and we don't need more gatekeeper content right now, though it might be suitable for the future. Additionally, we could use more Sharn and Eberron content, updates for Kalashtar and Warforged, but that can be considered for later. At the moment, what we truly need is a modernization of the Forgotten Realms to bring it in line with the current state of DDO. The content from MotU was arguably the best DDO expansion ever.

This expansion would also create an excellent opportunity to introduce a Drow iconic sorcerer or warlock and finally make some of the amazing Drow cosmetics available to players.

 

[Mary]

If I were to dream, I've said it before, I really really want something not in the presented list - I really want the classic module 'Expedition to the Barrier Peaks' it is my all-time favorite module, written by Gary Gygax himself, it is fun, and iconic dungeons and dragons and it has everything - fantasy, sci-fi, monsters, magic, aliens, robots, ray guns, space ship crashes, space medicine, and a crazy rogue AI that thinks its a wizard

!!!!

 

[Dreadsnought]

From my perspective, Myth Drannor should be the next expansion. It would allow for many much-needed refreshments of existing content under the keystone of a new Forgotten Realms expansion. A significant portion of the loot from MotU needs to be modernized, as do the races, iconic characters, and classes from the Forgotten Realms, such as Purple Dragon Knights and Sun Elves. Bringing us back to the Forgotten Realms is not just essential for an expansion; it's crucial for the game's future.

Ravenloft would be great, but that content is already modern, and we don't need more gatekeeper content right now, though it might be suitable for the future. Additionally, we could use more Sharn and Eberron content, updates for Kalashtar and Warforged, but that can be considered for later. At the moment, what we truly need is a modernization of the Forgotten Realms to bring it in line with the current state of DDO. The content from MotU was arguably the best DDO expansion ever.

This expansion would also create an excellent opportunity to introduce a Drow iconic sorcerer or warlock and finally make some of the amazing Drow cosmetics available to players.

I like that logic also Mary. Though I also like the idea of astral plain adventures. But the idea of a total MOTU update is very enticing. Hopefully that would not mean them changing all the MOTU to legendary content. There is a lot of legendary content now and will only grow, but that 23 level gear and wheloon and storm horns and end reward gear all needs major updating, +8 attribute single characteristic just does not cut it anymore.

 

[The_Apocalypse]

Undermountain. Could create quests of multiple levels, 1-34+ over time, as well as a few Sagas. Just keep adding more quest chains and Sagas as time goes on using adventure packs, since it IS Undermountain and meant to be a near infinite dungeon. Every so often, add a raid of varying levels, with upper end raids being continuous battles with Halaster. Eventually, add expansions for city blocks of Waterdeep and Skullport. Over the years, Waterdeep content would grow larger than Stormreach size. Throw in a speckling of FR races and subclasses/iconics...

 

[ACJ97F]

Well, with the current path they're taking, with really-not-needed level cap increases, Artifacts we can't use, and an endless parade of TR's
(the newest out-of-class Archetype hamster-wheel really didn't help), I don't forsee them suddenly realizing that proper content and good
character development is more important than an eternal trickle of powercreep.

Our guild has one active person that logs in weekly for the roll, and to say "HI!"... then plays Diablo. I'm seeing more of this every update.

 

[Ungermax]

Well, with the current path they're taking, with really-not-needed level cap increases, Artifacts we can't use, and an endless parade of TR's
(the newest out-of-class Archetype hamster-wheel really didn't help), I don't forsee them suddenly realizing that proper content and good
character development is more important than an eternal trickle of powercreep.

Our guild has one active person that logs in weekly for the roll, and to say "HI!"... then plays Diablo. I'm seeing more of this every update.

Sorry but I cant help myself. Can you please explain to me how the one active person in your guild can log in for weekly rolls and say hi MORE with each update? Are you in multiple guilds that this happens to or are you just disappointed that they are playing a different game? Im surprised you expect people not to try out other games especially the likes of Diablo which is literally a behemoth hallmark name in the industry with massive streaming views.

You need to remember that there are a lot of players that stay at endgame normally because they have done all the TRs and need new content to keep playing the game. continually releasing X/30 content would not be enough - the level cap increase is a great move, although quite unexpected from 30+ I think. How do you keep people interested who live at level cap? You bring in new content that applies to them - let the power creep up a bit, and give them new TR options.

You dont need to like the fact they are still raising level cap and introducing archetypes and the like but if you actually THINK about what theyve introduced for a moment you will realise that they are looking at ways to make more existing content appealing to people with a lot of this new stuff. Sacred Fist brought in a new free to play handwrap user and this gives extra choices that lead to Grandmaster of Flowers. Dark Hunter meaning rangers can do traps was a great move. Macrotech giving Rune Arm access will be similar in that Rune Arms can be used by anyone now, and this will bring in many new builds when it comes. Like I said you dont have to like these things but blaming the new content for your guild activity doesnt help anyone.

I dont play DDO as much as I used to but this has NOTHING to do with the quality of the game. Its still the one I come back to, but I am allowed to try out other games. The reason I dont play DDO as much is Ive been playing it on and off for over 15 years

 

[Genkiba]

It is important to understand that there are three aspects; Existing Players, Returning Players, and New Players.

Existing Players will buy any expansion in the same numbers/percentages as the last expansion, warts and all. That's both a blessing and a curse and a topic for another thread.

DDO is old game, what expansion would bring new players in significant numbers?
There are a couple of settings that would attract the most new players; Krynn and Greyhawk. As WotC at this time isn't going to license Greyhawk due to WotC policies, and any reworked older modules and adventures from Greyhawk setting are now set in the Forgotten Realms, we can cross that off the list. Krynn is in active development and publication, however it might be, okay it is, a significant monetary investment by SSG to license I just don't see that happening at the moment.
Myth Drannor and Sigil (Planescape) probably are the biggest movers of the dial for new players, but is it a significant number? Old Game probably not.

DDO has a significant number of players who left the game and drop in to try the game from time to time. We can guesstimate the number of accounts all you want, but it is far more significant than potential new players. How do you get those players back in any significant number.

My thoughts are you update content they liked and you build upon it. They are not going to come back for Myth Drannor or Sigil in the kind of numbers you need. Taking content that is little used (Devils of Shavarath) and putting it in a more logical place so it gets run, adding to the story line and doing the things promised in 2009 would be a good start.
There is also the hints of Dolurrh and Fernia that are scattered throughout the game that would be interesting, but those are more like Adventure Packs.

I try to stay away from the old content because much of it I dislike. I almost always prefer to run newer material. And for anyone doing multiple TRs, more material=good so you don't have to run the exact same things every life.