Hello, all!

Our current schedule has the first preview of the upcoming expansion pack going live on Lamannia at some point next week (hopefully by Wednesday). We will give out more exact schedule information when we get closer to the event and have a more clear picture of when it will be going live but wanted to get the word out now that mid next week will be your first chance to preview the expansion. This will be the first of at least two preview passes for the expansion. The first pass is expected to contain the following features:

The Land of Barovia Wilderness Area
All 3 public spaces.
9 Dungeons
The bulk of the non-raid named items (but not all!)
The Racial AP Tome


For the sake of clarity, the first preview pass is NOT expected to include the following features:

Any Raids.
The remaining 3 Dungeons
Sentient Weapons
Favor Rewards
Raid Loot
Landscape specific loot
Teleport to Barovia Item

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/491169-Ravenloft-Expansion-Preview-1#p...

NoGoodDoc wrote on Nov 1^st, 2017 at 5:22pm:


Translation - the shit we fucked up and haven't figured out how to fix yet.

No Teleport to Barovia Item? Pffft.. how am i goong to see if its worth dropping down that $129?

Powecreep?

Eh am not reinstalling.

Carpone wrote on Nov 1^st, 2017 at 7:50pm:


They have no winnable outcome with this. Their staff has all claimed that this will be an answer to the complaints that there isn't anything to do at cap. The problem with this is multifaceted: the reason people are tring is because reaper xp and racial pls have too much value -> the only way to stop this is to either nuke their usefulness or to introduce an equally compelling (READ AS POWERCREEP) reason to stay at cap AND it needs to be a comparable grind, they've tied it to sentient weapons rather than a new unique item slot, which means that either the weapons will be BiS for a LONG TIME or they've failed and both of these are undesirable outcomes, and lastly if the items bring mentioned powercreep to the table then pretty much all content before ravenloft is nerfed to the point of stupidity.

Honestly its sad to see this happen to a game I've invested so much into, but I can't say it isn't deserved. The staff have a total IQ less than a rock. Every single change they've made since breaking out on their own has been less informed than the last. Turbine didn't set a high bar but SSG managed to fail to even meet that.

crunch wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2017 at 5:13am:


I see you chose 2b.. as in 2b sucking ssg's cock

There are numerous work arounds for some of the broken shit there... And that doesnt mean I cant use these work arounds..

But .. you are trying to imply that I have no right to complain of broken shit?? Lol.. This is the vault.. this isnt the place to praise ssg for broken shit and tell them that its ok that the shit is broken because there are work arounds..

I shouldnt have to pass lead and all that shit to copy a toon.. I shouldnt have to look at the who list before lfms pop up.. i shouldnt have to turn my volume to mute picking up von 5... i shouldnt have to re-climb ladders over and over... i shouldnt have to worry about losing shit in my tr cache... i shouldnt have to regroup after leveling a few times to allow new people to the group to enter the quest...( i could keep going but maybe you get the point..)

But unfortunately I do have to deal with the things i mentioned because there are people like you making excuses for them.. And how its all good because people like yourself mention that there are workarounds for the broken shit available instead of trying to encourage them to fix the error.

Im glad that you cant find anything wrong with the game. But id like to ask this... If you want to make excuses for them.. Just do that... You dont have to try to talk shit to me while doing so..

Im assuming you were one of the people on the main forums arguing how much value the $139 expansion is as well.. keep up the good work.. maybe someday youll get that vip for life like your idol..

Carpone wrote on Nov 1^st, 2017 at 7:50pm:


He probably just meant that they will have enhancement-style trees.

Looking forward to the new content.  I'm not sure why people are complaining about "power creep".  Like they are going to release an expansion with no tangible character progression. 

Did I say that character progression tastes like chalk since Sev took the hamster cage over? Huzzah

WonderfulFoppyBint wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2017 at 1:58pm:



If it tastes like chalk, maybe you should clap the erasers first before blowing teacher?

yeah power creep will always exist but the idea is to minimize it and use judiciously for balanace purposes. New content should be new combat systems, new game features, new feats, etc. The idea is to change the way the game is played incrementally by opening up new options that retain the original spirit of the game play people are familiar with.

The beautiful way to do this is like PoE, where you literally make items that are freely tradable that in combinations literally make entirely new builds possible. For DDO, it should be some combination of that plus new content. Some of that content should require that new stuff or build, but not nesc. in a power creep way, more beneficially in a mechanic way.

Also, because DDO, new content challenges should be puzzles, coordination, and party driven, not power creep driven.

I agree about the content and the progression.  I’d rather see more content with traps or puzzles or unique objectives.   Ones that require more abilities than you can fit on a single build.   And I’m fine with content that requires unique gear.  Like when ToD required grounding boots.   Or when shroud required you to link your dr breakers.   Or delerasrequires a good weapon.   Or SoS highly recommended bludgeoning weapons.  Or etk made evasion near mandatory or shitbtons of fire resist. Or any of the content where a plis was basically mandatory.

Making content that is tough unless you are prepared for it is great.   And the progression makes that content easier without necessarily universally making all content easier.   Or content that challenges players in ways that make grouping extremely advantageous and possibly manadory on higher difficulties.  But I’d settle for just very advantageous.

They had their chance with Reaper to create a compelling reason to stay at cap for a bit.  All they had to do was make it something you could only do at level cap but the bonuses you unlocked could be used at any level starting from level 1.

Then people already with triple triple completionist have a reason to actually log in and do content while the people on the TR train might stay at cap for a few days before TR'ing just to bang out a few RXP levels.

You make it more compelling and as much about power creep as  it is about QoL.  That is to say a tier2 SLA in the caster tree might be 2 charges of dimenion door /rest.  Who wouldn't want to bang out 7 RXP levels the first time they hit cap for that?  A T4 in the ranged/melee tree that makes you proficient will all weapons.  A T3 in the tanking tree that removes the armor penalty to skill checks.  Things like that alongside the more boring +1 prr/usp/etc...

It was so painfully obvious that this was all they really had to do.  Instead they turned reaper into a glorified 50% exp boost.

How do you fuck up something that badly?