Whats the Future of Hard core?

[Foaly's_Pub]

so for those wondering who haven't read the Producer letter... here it is...

if you notice there is no Hardcore league. here is the Paragraph that has mostly fluff....

In addition to two quest packs this year and our Expansion, there will also be a Dynamic Event with quests to unlock. Dynamic Events differ from our seasonal festivals in that while they are limited time activities, they are focused heavily on serious story narrative and DDO canon, and some aspects of them don’t repeat once the DDO community has advanced the story. They’re also meant to have elements that let players experience the event together, with collaboration and peer information sharing. After reviewing feedback on the Illithid Invasion, this Dynamic Event will be inclusive of all character levels since the Illithid Invasion was fairly end game focused. It will take the place of our Hardcore season so that all players can participate. We're anticipating that the event will be some time in the fall, though Dynamic Events may not always be during fall going forward.

So from that fluff peace there is this bit near the end..

....After reviewing feedback on the Illithid Invasion, this Dynamic Event will be inclusive of all character levels since the Illithid Invasion was fairly end game focused. It will take the place of our Hardcore season so that all players can participate. We're anticipating that the event will be some time in the fall, though Dynamic Events may not always be during fall going forward.

So basically from what I can tell there is no Hardcore league anymore...
so servers can't trade information and have a place to show others (be it with our actual home server names or not) who holds the throne as the most powerful(and or lucky with regards to reaper) not to mention who have the knowledge to run almost everything on 1 life.....(multiple potentially for reaper)

so here is my question after all this.... *** is gonna happen to the rewards some of us want to get now that there is no re running HCL seasons?

if I had to guess we are SOL.... but I personally would love to have a official response from the dev's on what the future of our mass server information network will be now that we can't chat with our friends for a couple of months 2x a year and a have a laugh at names people come up with and have a bit of a nudge back if it was our selves.


IF Season 9 is the Final season I wish all the HC friends I made along the way The best and It was an Honor and a Privilege to Host one of the 4 Main Guilds of Hardcore every season If we cross paths On live or in our respective servers it was blast running with all of the people we ran with.... and Babygurl Stop Dieing we love running with you but GOD is it stressful Best wishes lil one I hoped that you make it a season with out dieing 50 times but we all had a laugh and admiration for your unwillingness to never quit. I'm sure the other guild leaders feel the same honor I do but that is just my guess on how they feel. also all the players regaurding Baby..

 

[DDO Gaming]

Maybe it was my imagination but...didn't SSG run HC twice in 2023?

 

[Foaly's_Pub]

Maybe it was my imagination but...didn't SSG run HC twice in 2023?

yes it was like that for 3 years (as this is is a repeat of season 3) on year they had 3 HCL in 1 year and the players got PISSED... and then they had a year where they just dropped another HCL not even 2 months after the last one finished up a while back...

 

[Justfungus]

I get the feeling they had planned on phasing it out.
It is what it is.

 

[Onyxia2016]

I do not see where HCL is being completely phased out. There will just not be another one later this year.
With all the other stuff mentioned for 2024 it's shaping up to be a full year even without HCL.

 

[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

"Lying on the playground with me standing over it going ha-ha"

(c)N. Muntz, sometime never.

 

[Aelonwy]

No idea what their reasons for having no HC season this year but nowhere have they stated HC is being phased out. Maybe this year's schedule is too full, maybe resources had to be allocated elsewhere, maybe they are running out of new ideas for HC seasons... although I think I gave a great one last year to theme the HC events with the planes with which Eberron is coterminous. Some of the HC seasons already fit that thematically.

 

[deuxanes]

Let's just see what happens. Announcements/ plans might change. I hope there will be a HCL but I will stick around even without.

You just have to admit that regular servers are less frequented during HCL. That's not good for the planned events on the regular servers.

Be it HCL or special Events I might miss one or the other due to RL stuff and other interests. You can't get the timing right for everyone. That was the case with the Illithid event and one or the other HCL. Well, I can't change it. There are priorities beyond a game.

Let's be honest. A lot of feedback to the game is tainted by "survivor bias". The company has of course to try to cater to veterans and newcomers if it hopes to keep running. Let's see how things are promoted and advertised. Hopefully there will be people coming back and new people trying the game this year (due to the anniversairy).

 

[Enoach]

I like the concept of HC myself. But for me the number of these seasons since they started has begun to wear on me. I don't want these to stop, but I do like events that feel special, and HC has lost that special feeling for me. They have a lot of good stuff planned for this year. Doing HC in 2025 may be a way to pull people back in after all this good stuff has been delivered (and stable)

 

[Griglok (Karatemack)]

I get why people love HCL- and expressing a deisre to have more HCL is valid if that's what you're into.

However, HCL is not the only way for folks to share information across servers. There are the forums, multiple community discords, folks post accomplishments on YouTube, stream on Twitch and even sometimes participate in meetups in person.

I'm hopeful that no more HCL in 2024 means we will get an even more robust event (I liked the Ilithid Invasion a lot!).

 

[Mary]

many MMOs have a hardcore and it is a sub-culture, WoW being the most obvious, Blizzard encourages the community and supports it - yes, hardcore isn't for everyone - but a meaningful percentage of players only play hardcore. And due to the ephemeral nature of hardcore, players often spend more money than they normally would.

For DDO if we look at server population numbers it's easy to see Hardcore is very popular. I cannot believe any dynamic event on the live servers where you have established lineages of alts and mains x3 complete would spend nearly as much money on a dynamic event as they would on a hardcore event.

I just don't understand and it demonstrates a complete disconnect between the community and the roadmap.

SSG polled the community for the next expansion and then gave us what we voted for (myth drannor) but no poll before snubbing hardcore -

 

[Justfungus]

They are most likely 99% sure removing HCL. To avoid too much drama they say there will not
be one this year because it is too busy. By next year the Developers will never even speak of it.
They did the same to the Warforge players in the early game,
"we are updating the warforge tree, you will love it"
"will we lose our iron defender pets?"
"NAH ! we will grandfather that"
Tree updated
Defenders are gone
"What happen to our defenders?"
Dev - "What defenders?"
and so on ... HCL is likely gone.

 

[ACJ97F]

People playing HC are out of the hamster-wheel for weeks, so SSG loses money. They're not chain-TR'ing, buying as many XP/Slayer potions,
hearts when they don't want to grind tokens, AS for gear farming, ETC. Same reason they created the out-of-class Archetype system, instead
of using a basic exclusion tree, they needed another source of PL creep they could sell. They don't do this for your health, it's marketing.

They need the HC group back on the millstone, to bolster the dying whale herd, so get grinding!

 

[The_Apocalypse]

A lot of players only play on the HC Server. A lot of players spend more money on one season of the HCL than they would on a year's worth of normal servers because they already have everything on their normal servers (and there were usually two HC seasons per year lately, so double that income). There competition, special rewards, more active players, and sometimes even the thrill of being paranoid and on edge about messing up and dying from Falling or Lava or Hostile Magic or some new Thing that's trying to kill you (I still get that second of fear when I hear a wolf howl, hehe). It's fun. It draws players from all servers so has a high active population. You get the feeling of the game being new again, playing on a new, clean server every six months.

People who express concern (putting it mildly) over their normal server losing population during the HC season are themselves being greedy and are going out of their way to influence the fun of other players in a negative way. If your server feels empty, why not come to the HC Server? It's not like it costs you money to do so. Meet up with your friends and even make new friends. Most of the HCL players do, which has become another reason for us to play it.

If I had known season X was going to be 10 months away, or more, or never, I would have voiced my opinion more to out-post the naysayers.

 

[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

I'm not a HC player and am not sorry it won't be around in 24 for the Year of the Dragon events, which I'm looking forward to.

I do think it will be back in 25 though, as too many folks enjoy it, even if I'm not one of them.

 

[Sturmbb]

A lot of players only play on the HC Server. A lot of players spend more money on one season of the HCL than they would on a year's worth of normal servers because they already have everything on their normal servers (and there were usually two HC seasons per year lately, so double that income). There competition, special rewards, more active players, and sometimes even the thrill of being paranoid and on edge about messing up and dying from Falling or Lava or Hostile Magic or some new Thing that's trying to kill you (I still get that second of fear when I hear a wolf howl, hehe). It's fun. It draws players from all servers so has a high active population. You get the feeling of the game being new again, playing on a new, clean server every six months.

People who express concern (putting it mildly) over their normal server losing population during the HC season are themselves being greedy and are going out of their way to influence the fun of other players in a negative way. If your server feels empty, why not come to the HC Server? It's not like it costs you money to do so. Meet up with your friends and even make new friends. Most of the HCL players do, which has become another reason for us to play it.

If I had known season X was going to be 10 months away, or more, or never, I would have voiced my opinion more to out-post the naysayers.

I still find it unbelievable that they are doing away with HC. I speak to many people in game who only play while Hardcore is on. Maybe SSG are testing the water to see how badly the population will drop this year by dropping HC. Maybe by completely dropping it, they are thinking people who only play HC, will return to live. Their thinking something is better than nothing. I've decided that Another MMO is better than live. Over the years i really did fall out of love with the game. The TR hamster wheel just doesn't appeal to me and seeing multiple TR toons join your party and zerg ahead and complete the dungeons really put me off the game. When Hardcore Season 1 came around, i was so excited again. I've played every season and I've not really played live at all. I have tried to get back into live at the end of the season but it just feels pointless and unfun to play, when there are no consequences and no team play.

Maybe SSG will have second thoughts and change there mind, we'll just have to wait and see.

I find it really funny how the people who don't like Hardcore are so loud, aggressive and babyish. It's funny over the years reading all there tantrum posts about how HC should be scrapped because its ruining there game. Maybe in 2025, if they Hardcore season 10 does come around they can shut the live servers off while HC is on. That will really give them something to cry about lol

 

[Cordovan]

I still find it unbelievable that they are doing away with HC. I speak to many people in game who only play while Hardcore is on. Maybe SSG are testing the water to see how badly the population will drop this year by dropping HC. Maybe by completely dropping it, they are thinking people who only play HC, will return to live. Their thinking something is better than nothing. I've decided that Another MMO is better than live. Over the years i really did fall out of love with the game. The TR hamster wheel just doesn't appeal to me and seeing multiple TR toons join your party and zerg ahead and complete the dungeons really put me off the game. When Hardcore Season 1 came around, i was so excited again. I've played every season and I've not really played live at all. I have tried to get back into live at the end of the season but it just feels pointless and unfun to play, when there are no consequences and no team play.

Maybe SSG will have second thoughts and change there mind, we'll just have to wait and see.

I find it really funny how the people who don't like Hardcore are so loud, aggressive and babyish. It's funny over the years reading all there tantrum posts about how HC should be scrapped because its ruining there game. Maybe in 2025, if they Hardcore season 10 does come around they can shut the live servers off while HC is on. That will really give them something to cry about lol

We are not "doing away with HC." At this time we're pausing our Hardcore season releases while we work on other projects, but it's worth putting it more into the perspective of a pause than a stop.

 

[canicus]

We are not "doing away with HC." At this time we're pausing our Hardcore season releases while we work on other projects, but it's worth putting it more into the perspective of a pause than a stop.

I look forward to the new dynamic event and I understand losing this year's new HC season. However, is there any chance of a Season 4 Redux? I enjoyed the Mimic Hunt on that one.

 

[FaceDancer]

Looking forward to these other projects! I think a Redux season would be better than nothing if it is possible. Would love the mimic hunt to come back for vanilla DDO as well as HC!

 

[Crell_1]

We are not "doing away with HC." At this time we're pausing our Hardcore season releases while we work on other projects, but it's worth putting it more into the perspective of a pause than a stop.

Redux seasons dont need to be paused to continue work on other projects.