DDOcast: Update for Thursday - Eberron Unlimited

DDOcast - a weekly podcast about the world of Dungeons and Dragons Online!

Update for Thursday - Eberron Unlimited

Hi everyone! Some interesting press links to pass along to you today:

Self-Promotion Time:

I've been a bit busy myself talking to the gaming press! First up, Massively.com's Massively Speaking podcast had be on as a guest this week to discuss Eberron Unlimited and DDO! This was personally very cool for me and I'm honored to have been able to do it. I love Massively's work and their podcast is a must-listen if you want to stay up to date on what's going on in the MMO world. It's Episode 57, which can be found on iTunes (along with many other places) or on their web site HERE.

Also, Part 2 of MMORPG.com's mMo' Money blog is up, featuring me and others talking about DDO Unlimited. Thanks Inkomi for allowing me to be a part of it! Part 1 can be found HERE.

GameBanshee Talks To Kate:

GameBanshee.com got the chance to talk DDO Unlimited with DDO Co-Executive Producer Kate Paiz recently and managed to get some news that we haven't read anywhere else! Good stuff in the lengthy and excellent interview. Here's a LINK to it and here are a few interesting bits, bold added for emphasis:

Quote:

GB: You've stated that "Stormreach and vicinity" will be available to free-to-play users. Does this mean that all adventures in the harbor, marketplace, and Houses (including the Vault of Night raid in House Kundarak) will be made free? How about Korthos Island and some of the other lower level adventure zones?

Kate: Currently in the beta, nearly all the adventures within the Houses of Stormreach and the Marketplace, and all the adventures in the Harbor and Korthos will be available to free players. Additionally, Ataraxia’s Haven (and its two dungeon adventures), Searing Heights, and Cerulean Hills (with two new adventures) will also be available. The Vault of Night quest series and Raid is a Premium Adventure Pack, as is the Catacombs, Shan-to-Kor, and Delera’s Graveyard. The Tempest Spine Raid is the only free Raid in the game. Naturally, feedback we get over the course of the beta may cause us to make changes to this distribution.

Quote:

GB: Will you be adding new adventures in addition to those you already planned to roll out in Module 9? How many total quests and raids are you shooting for at the time of Eberron Unlimited's launch?

Kate: Yes, in addition to the Plane of Battle content that players saw during an early Mod9 preview, we will be rolling out a low level adventure pack that takes place with all new content in the Marketplace, two free adventures attached to Cerulean hills and a few more high level adventures for Shavarath.

With the release of DDO Unlimited, there will be over 200 hand-crafted adventures, 20 wilderness areas of various sizes with a combined total of over 600 wilderness quests(Mockduck says: ??? What the heck does she mean by this?), and 11 raids.

Quote:

GB: An "all-new never announced class" will also make its debut in Eberron Unlimited. Does that mean that it isn't the Druid class you had planned to roll out in mid-2009? When will you be revealing the new class?

Kate: The new class is indeed not the Druid – we’ll be announcing it in a few weeks, but anyone playing in the beta now can probably figure out what it is

.

GB: What's the current status on the Half Orc and Half Elf races? Any chance we might see these sometime in the near future, too?

Kate: We have no current release dates for those races, but as they remain near and dear to my heart, I hope we can add them to the game in the not too distant future.

GB: DDO currently spans five live servers. Do you plan on expanding the number of servers to accommodate any additional people Eberron Unlimited might bring in? Why or why not?

Kate: This is something we are looking into. In addition to potentially expanding the number of servers/worlds, we will be adding capacity to the existing live worlds. Performance improvements will also allow us to host more players per server. Between those two changes, each of our currently live worlds will be able to hold many more active players, and we’ll be lighting new servers as needed down the road.

GB: Are there plans to put DDO: Eberron Unlimited on retail shelves to help drum up additional interest in the game? If so, when might we expect to see boxed copies and what exactly will they contain?

Kate: Because the game is now free to download and play, we do not have a retail release planned. Anyone who buys a DDO Stormreach box will still get additional value with that (including a month of subscription and then 4 character slots if they choose to move to the free model). We may release a retail version at some point, and that will most likely include a bundle of adventure packs and a grant of Turbine Points in addition to the client.

Very interesting stuff! We'll certainly be talking about it on this week's show.

Fan Art Contest Winner, Week 4:

Congrats to Kettricken Nightwielder on winning this week's Fan Art Contest on DDO.com! Here's a LINK to his winning entry.

DDO Wiki Needs A New Logo!

BorrorO from the excellent DDO Wiki is looking for someone to help him come up with a new logo! Here's a LINK to more information about it.

Jerry