What do you most like about Ravenloft?

[Blunt Hackett]

SSG did a great job adapting the I-6 module to DDO. The creepy dead kids voiceover in Death House sets the tone for the rest of the expansion. The music and general atmosphere of the wilderness is a masterpiece. Strahd remains my favorite raid to this day. The systems development was superb: A universal tree that's still delivers today, Aasimar is one of the best races to be released, and the introduction of the sentient system. OP mentioned getting a free weapon -- this is often overlooked but it's such a great feature in both heroic and epic levels as you change up builds.

I don't see Lamordia being able to compete with Ravenloft. The SSG quest writing is kinda mid -- look at Sharn and Feywild as examples. Dread/Vecna was an improvement, but Vecna does alot of the heavy lifting as *the* showcase bad guy in D&D.

Yeah, that's my understanding. The source material was adapted in the case of Mists of Ravenloft. I compared Death House, and it was pretty much the same as the pen-and-paper quest except where the made some small cuts. So the writing wasn't really them AFAIK. That seems to be why the writing was better quality.

 

[EvanBanning]

I like everything but the feature that keeps me coming back time after time is the quest teleports. It lets you really enjoy the wilderness and adds a ton of replayability.

Honestly, sometimes I enjoy the teleports to quest entrances more than simply not having the entrances in wilderness at all.

If Lamordia doesn't have either quest teleports or entrances outside wilderness, I won't buy it. Plain and simple.

 

[Magesty/Hawc/Scaredycat]

Ravenloft was a gamechanger. We got filigrees, sentient weapons, teleport to quests, great raids (2 of them), and sagas. The quests are the right length and challenge. There are no "gimics" or "rare" loot tables. It's in my top 3 of all exansions (prob 1 or 2). The art is great, the stories are great, the quests and music is top notch. It's what brought me back to the game. I certainly hope Lamordia doesnt follow the likes of the "pack that shall not be named"...that would be a travesty.

Totally agree, I love it; please take a lesson Devs and make the next one have the excellent features of RL. It is my number two all time favorite expansion, I know my favorite is Dread and Saltmarsh is 3. The disaster that is Myth Drannor is the all time worst. Shocking how terrible it is, there are not enough electrons in the universise to list all of it's problems! Cheers happy ddo day.

 

[erethizon1]

I likely will not even look at the loot available in Lamordia if the early vibe is that it is rare. That will make the occasional hit even more enjoyable and will stop me from spending shards to no good end.

That really is the secret to happiness. Whenever I buy a new pack I type the names of all the loot (regular and legendary) into my DDO equipment file organized by pack and then by quest. Each time I get an item I change the name from black to red and add any extra bonuses the item has. Once I get most of the loot in a pack, I finally look to see what it does to see what would be required to make a set. If I don't already have most of the loot there is no point in finding out what it does because I can't use it without a full set anyway. In the case of MD, it is probably best to just look at loot as it drops for you and never know what loot you don't have does.

 

[IanMoon8]

I likely will not even look at the loot available in Lamordia if the early vibe is that it is rare.

I'll be going a step further and not buying the xpac entirely.

 

[Bjond]

SSG quest writing is kinda mid -- look at Sharn and Feywild as examples

Both agree and disagree. They do have nice creative talent; Sharn Just-Business shadowplay (the Bond homage) is fantastic. They just forgot to make it skipable and put it in the wrong place. It should have been in the first quest.

Placing it up front would have set the stage and changed the feel of the entire quest line. It would have served the exact same purpose as the Into the Mists line, "Do you serve Strahd?"

Then they didn't lean in on the Bond theme in later quests. All that would've taken would be a little Bond-like music to keep the atmosphere going -- even it's a only a few bars, like when we discover a new body in Red Rain. We know they have music talent from Dryad & Demigod, which I grew to HATE so quickly, but now I kinda like it -- and no denying it's creativity.

IMHO, all they need to do is utterly punt "big story reveals". They aren't good at them and reveals have less than zero impact on a replay. Despite that, I think the best story to be told about Barovia is about Strahd's initial downfall -- the pre-Vampire era and only have it subtly hint at the evil vampire to come.

Then do the raid where whatever you fight ends up serving Strahd; the win is what enables his Vampiric transformation.

 

[Ying]

Both agree and disagree. They do have nice creative talent;

Story: Vaunt is a lame antagonist. I never feel invested in him at all. He comes across as a chump when he dies in the final quest.

Design: I love the locales and mechanics, aside from the air jets that only work for one character at a time. Those need to die in a fire.

 

[5 Other People]

Regarding story, i'm full of hope...I think SSG hired (or borrowed from LOTR) @Celestrata Bloodsong for this year & from reading her signature & customer engagement, she seems to have some serious writing chops.


Celestrata Bloodsong
Associate Product Manager - Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online
Also known as: "Store Lady," "Scary Goth Business Lady," or "Please Stop Her From Talking About Horror Literature If You Value Your Time Lady."

 

[DBZ]

Have u seen the newest re invented wheel buy a quest over time scam level stuff sure sure

 

[5 Other People]

Have u seen the newest re invented wheel buy a quest over time scam level stuff sure sure

yeah, that's just marketing which I skipped, besides she said it was more of a trial offering. there was some fun stuff about the goggles, but no chance I was going to solve a puzzle like that & fish through rares, so it was easy to skip.

i'm not tying this trial marketing gimic to Celestrata's writing...we all wear a bunch of job hats and not all fit as well as others.

what may be harder to skip is the Lamordia expansion. no chance I'll prepurchase without dev commitment to fix rares, but if rares are bad and the new Dhampir race stays it's course, then the only possible saving grace for Lamorida will be the story...so a lot riding on that. If they fix rares and Dhampir, then my decision to skip becomes a bit more complicated.

 

[Lagin]

the best thing about Ravenloft is the departure from the existing realms we've used & abused for so long

 

[vik]

Story: Vaunt is a lame antagonist. I never feel invested in him at all. He comes across as a chump when he dies in the final quest.

Design: I love the locales and mechanics, aside from the air jets that only work for one character at a time. Those need to die in a fire.

He should've listened to Lucy in Reach for the Sky...he/she tried to warn him but he was too busy with his sales pitch.