Lhynn wrote on Mar 5^th, 2017 at 8:19pm:


this is a bunch of tripe.

Reaper is just a way to keep long time players entertained. There's nothing wrong with that.

Canteen Boy wrote on Mar 6^th, 2017 at 12:26pm:

Aye, the issue is that casual players cant find a party anymore because now people TR in teams and nonlife heroic reapers.
Ever since the update there are simply no teams to join.
I welcome added challenge, but real challenge doesnt come from bloating numbers.

harharharhar wrote on Mar 6^th, 2017 at 12:02pm:


This.  I wouldn't call dying multiple times per quest and failing more quests than the past 7+ years of DDO entertaining per se.

When cap was 20 and TR + Epics were new, I was not there yet.  Not in game knowledge, gearing or experience.  I only got a taste of it with my 1st life Sorc + disco ball/mind fog and sometimes a hold person/monster but that was a waayyyyy different game.

Now with Reaper, even though I am totally twinked out with a 320 cannith skill gear and 5pc Heroic Sorcery Set I feel like I am playing a completely different game. 

It is *almost* like playing those first epic quests @ 20 except all throughout heroic levels.

Now just to get people untrained to run @ level and get used to running 2 levels under on Reaper 

We are all going to find a different balance ideal, between how difficult it is to kill a mob, and how difficult it is to survive a mob.

For me, difficult to survive elevates my sense of excitement, as long as difficult to kill doesn't translate into "takes longer bcuz HP bag" (Epic rats). I'm happy with "takes longer bcuz complicated", or "takes longer bcuz need moar skillzorz, nub". But there's a limit to how much longer each mob can take to kill before I'm not entertained anymore and I just start getting bored. Reaper is over that line.

Reaper damage reduction is just a stealth version of HP bloat. Boring as fuck.

I don't mind being one-shot by a mob that can be one-shot in return. That elevates the tension, as far as I'm concerned.

With the exception of that very brief window of time after introducing champions, before the first champion nerf, all DDO's ever done is find ways for it to take longer. i.e., be more boring.

Quote:

Fun always drains away.

From the dev perspective, their entire job is to slow that drain. They've long held the position that the best way to do that is to slow us down on our path through the game. That's not a knock against them. They lose customers both ways: if we can go through it too fast, and if the game is too boring to bother another step. It's not an easy balance to strike, and it will never be right for all the players.

This game has held my attention far longer than any other video game I've ever played. For that much, I think I actually have to agree that they are rockstars.

I know they've got the current balance wrong for me, and I suspect they've got it wrong for many. They've had it wrong since MOTU, yet were incompetent enough in regression testing that there was always an exploit to allow me to correct that balance on my own. But here, I have to revoke that rockstar status. Star quality, however vaguely defined, means your audience grows.

This is a maybe competent indie band focused on maximizing royalties from their one "hit". Maybe they do have the right balance for the majority of their weird cult following. If so it's sad for me, because gradually, I'll just stop playing.

If they've got the balance wrong for the majority, too, then I actually have more hope.