What could be done to make "Past Lives" more interesting?

[Drachmor]

I feel like we lose everything from the past, besides our incremental TR bonuses. I wonder if there could be some very small, simple thing that would have the effect of really connecting you more to your past lives. Even something as simple as a visual or a tree or a time line or something that shows you what you were at what time, when you reincarnated, etc. That could be really cool. To see how long your current life has spanned, in real-world time.

We've seen this in peoples' bios to some extent for ages. Chronologies of their past adventures, with little standardization and prone to inaccuracy (which is fine - it's their bio). But it could be kinda cool to have some greater, visceral indication that we have completely reverted back to level 1 from the height of our power - which is no small thing! It takes some of us a lot of time to get there.

I wanna look back and actually remember where I was at that time; it's strange how unconnected I feel to my MAIN character, whom I've played for years, during periods where I don't play much and am "stuck" on some current life. The feeling that I've abandoned the fun and power of a previous build, because I have no way of accessing it anymore.

 

[TavernBrawler]

Past lives have become a major source of lag as per Severlin. Best is to remove ALL past lives rewards and just keep the completionists (heroic +2 and racial +2 to all stats) rewards.

 

[Sheikra]

I feel like we lose everything from the past, besides our incremental TR bonuses. I wonder if there could be some very small, simple thing that would have the effect of really connecting you more to your past lives. Even something as simple as a visual or a tree or a time line or something that shows you what you were at what time, when you reincarnated, etc. That could be really cool. To see how long your current life has spanned, in real-world time.

We've seen this in peoples' bios to some extent for ages. Chronologies of their past adventures, with little standardization and prone to inaccuracy (which is fine - it's their bio). But it could be kinda cool to have some greater, visceral indication that we have completely reverted back to level 1 from the height of our power - which is no small thing! It takes some of us a lot of time to get there.

I wanna look back and actually remember where I was at that time; it's strange how unconnected I feel to my MAIN character, whom I've played for years, during periods where I don't play much and am "stuck" on some current life. The feeling that I've abandoned the fun and power of a previous build, because I have no way of accessing it anymore.

I agree. I've done many past lives, and it's sad because I can't remember them all. "Oh I've done rogue 3 times? I thought I only did it once, bummer"

 

[Silverfox]

Just build a past lives enhancement tree and give players ap to spend in that tree. There is not much reason to need spell pen on a melee, or +2 to hireling ability scores for someone that does not have summons. etc....

 

[Scrag]

Past lives have become a major source of lag as per Severlin. Best is to remove ALL past lives rewards and just keep the completionists (heroic +2 and racial +2 to all stats) rewards.

As they continue to add archetypes and things, this just further compounds the past life issue, especially if they know it is tied to lag issues.

 

[Dom]

Past lives have become a major source of lag as per Severlin. Best is to remove ALL past lives rewards and just keep the completionists (heroic +2 and racial +2 to all stats) rewards.

I guess you haven't realized yet that they will just continue to move the goal posts to blame things for lag. One minute it's this, then that gets fixed, and now it's something else, and then that gets fixed, and guess what? Still lag in the game.

From reaper points causing lag on zoning in/out of reaper, from doublestrike and back end numbers on weapon damage, from anything and everything at this point, it'll just be continuous finger pointing. Removing past lives to "clear lag" is not going to clear lag.

 

[Ahpuch]

Past lives have become a major source of lag as per Severlin. Best is to remove ALL past lives rewards and just keep the completionists (heroic +2 and racial +2 to all stats) rewards.

Alternatively, they could fix the problem. A set of bonuses that can't change without relogging should simply not be a source of lag above and beyond having a character that has stats and abilities. Was this a recent statement because I would have thought that Codogs optimizations last year should have covered Past Lives.

 

[Lazuli]

Lag is a very bad excuse. Every time they want to delete something they blame the lag.

But they cannot eliminate PLs. If they do, they would kill the game. It is something that the players would not forgive them. The grind has been massive and many people have invested a lot of money in their PLs. If they do, there would be a mass exodus.

 

[Sturmbb]

Past lives have become a major source of lag as per Severlin. Best is to remove ALL past lives rewards and just keep the completionists (heroic +2 and racial +2 to all stats) rewards.

Wow, when was this confirmed. I've suspected this for a long time and i have also mentioned it in multiple posts both on this forum and the old forum. I tend to always play on HC (occasionally going over to live every now and then). The difference between the two is phenomenal. I have seen some suggestions about doing an enhancement tree a bit like reaper. Which sounds like a great idea, but didn't someone from SSG say the reaper enhancement tree is a major source of Lag and they are looking to remove the reaper tree and replace it with a system that automatically rewards you the increases as you gain Reaper XP. So i wouldn't want them to implement something that is just going to transfer one source of Lag for another.

The Biggest problem for SSG, is for years. They have pushed the game play loop for Past lives. Now you have Class/Racial/Epic/Iconic reincarnation.
So even though they have now admitted a major source of lag is the reincarnation game play. They are not going to be able to just remove this system from the game. I have never TR'd, but i would be mad as a hatter if i had spent years spending time and money running multiple reincarnations to get my character as powerful as possible and than the developers dropped the system.

I really Feel sorry for SSG, as it puts them in a sticky spot on how to address this issue.

Years ago we had a proper end content game play (running quests for Item scroll/Seal/Shard). Which i really enjoyed, the drop rates were terrible but for me it was all about having fun playing with the same set of people.

I have been on live recently and i must admit i cannot believe how bad the lag is getting. I actually do quite well with lag and the only time i get affected is when it happens to the full group (I have been in plenty of quests were it happens to a few members while i can run right past them).

I think the Lag is getting to a point, were it seriously needs addressing. The actual worst time it has occurred to me was not actually in a quest but in Sharn on the clifftop were all the whole party and people around us couldn't move for about 3 minutes. We had just just finished red rain and was turning in the quest reward and picking up the next one, when it hit. It actually affected me last and i was the first to be able to move. I think the Lag monster on DDO really likes me as he's usually nice to me

Me personally, i think the last system they need to look at, to address the lag is the reincarnation system, I truly believe that is were the majority of the whales are spending the money to keep the lights on. Upsetting the players that are keeping the game running would be the worst mistake they could make. Hopefully there is multitude of reasons why the lad is so bad, and they should address those first. Before even taking a look at reincarnation system that keeps the game alive.

Just want to stress, i have never Tr'd before, so it really wouldn't affect me, but i am just trying to be fair to all those players that have spent lots of money and time creating there toons.

 

[Br4d]

Lag is a very bad excuse. Every time they want to delete something they blame the lag.

But they cannot eliminate PLs. If they do, they would kill the game. It is something that the players would not forgive them. The grind has been massive and many people have invested a lot of money in their PLs. If they do, there would be a mass exodus.

Mass exodus to what?

DDO would be dead as a doornail right now if there were real alternatives out there. The reality of 2024 is that if you want to play an MMO your choices are severely limited to what was available in 2009 plus expansions.

If people like WoW they're playing WoW. If they like Guild Wars 2 they are playing Guild Wars 2. If they like Final Fantasy XIV they are playing it. After that you have little niche titles like DDO and private servers for abandoned games.

It's not like there's the next best thing out there because all of the titles that might be that are in multi-level-marketing Alpha and unlikely to ever emerge from that because frankly the MLM action is much more profitable than the game would ever be.

I think SSG could do almost anything they want to DDO and the loss would be minimal. Even if it is a thousand Methuselahs, well that would probably be a net positive for the market and the game.

 

[Lazuli]

Mass exodus to what?

DDO would be dead as a doornail right now if there were real alternatives out there. The reality of 2024 is that if you want to play an MMO your choices are severely limited to what was available in 2009 plus expansions.

If people like WoW they're playing WoW. If they like Guild Wars 2 they are playing Guild Wars 2. If they like Final Fantasy XIV they are playing it. After that you have little niche titles like DDO and private servers for abandoned games.

It's not like there's the next best thing out there because all of the titles that might be that are in multi-level-marketing Alpha and unlikely to ever emerge from that because frankly the MLM action is much more profitable than the game would ever be.

I think SSG could do almost anything they want to DDO and the loss would be minimal. Even if it is a thousand Methuselahs, well that would probably be a net positive for the market and the game.

I assure you not. DDO is not the beginning and end of the universe. There are many interesting hobbies out there.

 

[Xaxx]

Mass exodus to what?

DDO would be dead as a doornail right now if there were real alternatives out there. The reality of 2024 is that if you want to play an MMO your choices are severely limited to what was available in 2009 plus expansions.

If people like WoW they're playing WoW. If they like Guild Wars 2 they are playing Guild Wars 2. If they like Final Fantasy XIV they are playing it. After that you have little niche titles like DDO and private servers for abandoned games.

It's not like there's the next best thing out there because all of the titles that might be that are in multi-level-marketing Alpha and unlikely to ever emerge from that because frankly the MLM action is much more profitable than the game would ever be.

I think SSG could do almost anything they want to DDO and the loss would be minimal. Even if it is a thousand Methuselahs, well that would probably be a net positive for the market and the game.

You'll find alot of long time ddo players have stuck around.. yes because there isnt another game like it, but also friends you make. Sunk cost fallacy also plays a massive role in long time player retention or return with the past lives system. Its also one of the 2 major cash cows for ddo, and probably the biggest of them.

So by all means, eliminate past lives and all those people who drop money on boxes dont, or they are the "methuselahs" you refer to and they just go away period because you yoinked all their past lives.... see how quickly this game goes offline when that money per active player they were so proud of a few years ago plummets without box sales and your methuselah whales...ddo would be shoved into at the absolute best maintenance mode if not shut strait down within the year.

As for pls being the cause of lag.... lol.... for the last decade everything they can think of or thats wrong with the game has been a source of lag.... if everything lags.... then your game doesnt work... make up their dang minds.... oh wait its this team.... not happening in ANY of our lifetimes.

 

[Dandonk]

Past lives have become a major source of lag as per Severlin. Best is to remove ALL past lives rewards and just keep the completionists (heroic +2 and racial +2 to all stats) rewards.

Yeah, playing the game is causing lag. Bad players, bad!

 

[Br4d]

I assure you not. DDO is not the beginning and end of the universe. There are many interesting hobbies out there.

Yes, but for MMO players that does not matter.

If you have an MMO itch to scratch only an MMO will do it. Right now the gaming market as it applies to continuous games with more than a few players participating is defined by a small handful of aging titles.

The overall multi-player market is defined by PvP battle royale games like Fortnight and PUBG.

There really isn't much out there for MMO players, particularly if you don't like the survival-based games.

 

[Silverfox]

Seems like a hardcore season test would be a nice way to test if past lives are indeed a cause of lag.

Shutdown all the servers and just have hardcore for a month or two.

 

[Br4d]

Seems like a hardcore season test would be a nice way to test if past lives are indeed a cause of lag.

Shutdown all the servers and just have hardcore for a month or two.

This is basically what happens during an HCL season during the first couple of weeks.

 

[Sophie The Cat Burglar]

Okay. Dumb person who does not know much about computers has a question.

So, there are something like 190 past life feats. From what I remember of computer stuff, storing that would look something like...

00011000 01001001 00101000...

A character has the feat or does not have the feat, so 0 or 1 for each one. All told, there are 190 0s and 1s. Divide that by 8 so...24 bytes? Do I have that correct? Isn't that a microscopic amount of information? Why would loading that up cause any lag?

 

[Br4d]

Okay. Dumb person who does not know much about computers has a question.

So, there are something like 190 past life feats. From what I remember of computer stuff, storing that would look something like...

00011000 01001001 00101000...

A character has the feat or does not have the feat, so 0 or 1 for each one. All told, there are 190 0s and 1s. Divide that by 8 so...24 bytes? Do I have that correct? Isn't that a microscopic amount of information? Why would loading that up cause any lag?

The game client was designed with no past lives, low enhancements, no destinies, no reaper points, fairly minimal effects from gear, etc.

Each of those adds created another layer surrounding the typical character. It's a miracle the game client hasn't just rolled over and died at this point.

But of course we'll get Legendary enhancements plus past lives added in now.

 

[misterski]

Okay. Dumb person who does not know much about computers has a question.

So, there are something like 190 past life feats. From what I remember of computer stuff, storing that would look something like...

00011000 01001001 00101000...

A character has the feat or does not have the feat, so 0 or 1 for each one. All told, there are 190 0s and 1s. Divide that by 8 so...24 bytes? Do I have that correct? Isn't that a microscopic amount of information? Why would loading that up cause any lag?

You're trying to simplify something that isn't so simple. They don't use a single bit to represent the status of each past life.

 

[Mand O'Lin]

Past lives have become a major source of lag as per Severlin. Best is to remove ALL past lives rewards and just keep the completionists (heroic +2 and racial +2 to all stats) rewards.

Tell me again... How many different stories we have been told regarding the source of lag.