Our group usually does ES quests for the saga and to earn some favor on the way to mid-epics.  If the nerf becomes a pain in the ass, we might just slayer the first levels of epics.

So with all the reports of how bad this is, why are SSG so insistent on an Ed revamp again?

kum-gulp wrote on Sep 27^th, 2021 at 8:13am:


LOL! no doubt.

Bobbicus wrote on Sep 27^th, 2021 at 12:52pm:


The answer is insanely simple and has been told to SSG countless times: don't level-gate EDs. Then we can just blast through all the poor quality early-epic content and level very quickly. But SSG genuinely seems to want us to be miserable.

Bobbicus wrote on Sep 27^th, 2021 at 1:16pm:


I think we'd be more ok with the spike if it weren't for TR. If it was a 1 to ca stay at cap game "spikes" add a new dimension to fun. The first time I leveled to 20, DDO from 18 to 20 didn't suck. It wasn't until I had to make that slog for the 10th time that I started to hate it.

Bobbicus wrote on Sep 27^th, 2021 at 1:16pm:


Given some of the truly beautiful and deep systems available in DDO its very clear they CAN design and design well. We wouldn't all be here if the game was as badly designed as, say, Candy Crush Saga.

It is, as you say, they are entirely dismissive of feedback.

Steelstar has publicly stated his favorite game is World of Warcraft. So I suspect what Steel really wants is to making WoW. I bet you Blizzard laughs their asses off at him behind his back.

Rickyretardo wrote on Sep 28^th, 2021 at 5:48am:


...The fuck? There's only one World of Warcraft. Two if you're an idiot and want to call "Classic" a different game that you pay for with the same subscription.

Rickyretardo wrote on Sep 28^th, 2021 at 5:48am:


Ah. I see. You think every WoW expansion counts as a different game. They don't. Is Sharn a separate game from DDO?

Rickyretardo wrote on Sep 28^th, 2021 at 3:17pm:


I'm not shitting on WoW. I played it and enjoyed it some. I was merely making the statement that Steelstar would rather be working on WoW, he isn't, and he's taking his frustrations out on DDO's player base as a result. And trying(wildly unsuccessfully) to turn DDO into a WoW clone.

I've seen indie companies pull a hard pivot to become more like a Blizzard game in the past.

Every single one of them exploded fairly quickly.

The fact that Steel can't figure out how to do this is DDO's greatest saving grace.

I mean, really, how do you compete with the company whose entire schtick is making a simplified game with outstanding art and polish without having the other company's art budget? Blizzard of the last couple years notwithstanding.

noamineo wrote on Sep 28^th, 2021 at 6:02pm:


Here, let me hand you one example from the card game sphere. There was this hybrid card + tactical grid battler called Duelyst; the artstyle was a mix of splashy character art; pixel art soldiers; and bright, saturated boards with aftereffects and particle effects. The splashy art rather clashed with the rest, but it worked well enough, plus the music was incredible.

This game was initially designed pretty explicitly as a place for disgruntled Hearthstone players. Placement of your dudes and battle lines mattered, etc. etc.

Then, for some reason, they started lifting mechanics wholesale from Hearthstone and implemented them in their game. Some stupid dragon called Meltdown was a direct replica of Ragnaros, they replicated the "quest" mechanic and cracked the foundations of their game, and maintenance mode came shortly thereafter.

Then there was THIS asshole.

https://kotaku.com/frustration-can-improve-video-games-designer-found-1793045192


In the end, I expect somebody convinced the rest of them that copying the elephant in the room would somehow let them better compete with it. For the reasons I stated in the earlier post, this shit doesn't work.

Bobbicus wrote on Sep 29^th, 2021 at 2:37am:


Ok so "exploded" in a bad way. Usually when people say "the game exploded" they mean with popularity

5 Foot Step wrote on Sep 29^th, 2021 at 1:19pm:


The art style was never a major selling point for me. Honestly I look back and wonder what the hell I ever saw in that game. I had a few truly beautiful moments very early on and I feel like that's all that kept me playing for a fucking year and a half. ("beautiful" in terms of gameplay, not the fucking art style)

5 Foot Step wrote on Sep 29^th, 2021 at 1:19pm:

It's why I never played WoW.

What combos are people liking for the typical archetypes?