DDOcast: 4th Anniversary Events Announced!

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4th Anniversary Events Announced!

4th Anniversary Events Announced:

Neat! Turbine has announced its 4th anniversary event plans. From Thursday's DDO Newsletter, available HERE:

DDO has had a whirlwind year and many folks agree, we have a lot to celebrate. That's why in honor of DDO's 4th Birthday, many of Xen’drik's most prominent entrepreneurs are bringing you the best special events available!

The Risia Ice Games – A ski jump on skates will be coming to the tropical shores of Stormreach. Daredevil adventurers can test their skills in the frozen festival, gathering ice tokens to craft deadly items of frosty power.
The Traveler's Scavenger Hunt – The Traveler is looking for a few important things. Use Traveler Sight to reveal special items hidden in the Marketplace. The more you find, the more you win!

Tolero also expounds a bit on how it will work on the Lammania board over at DDO.com:

With the winter games fast approaching, it’s the perfect time for some ice sports to come to Xen’drik too! Now available for preview on Lamannia, we’re pleased to introduce the Risia Ice Games. Available to players of all levels, test your skills on our series of slippery slopes, or just relax with friends as you glide across the ice. To get in on the action, visit the following regions:

The Harbor
An ice skating rink is available at the base of the Lighthouse!
The ice jump begins at the top of the Harbor cliff behind the Harbormaster’s House!
House Phiarlan
An icy half-pipe is available at the back of the Bogwater Tavern!
Collect the floating white, blue, and purple ice coins and trade them with the powerful wizard, Jack Frostbite, for wondrous icy gifts, crafting recipe cards, and frosty ingredients for the Risian Eldritch Device at the Lighthouse! Jack can be found at the Bogwater half-pipe or by the Lighthouse ice rink helping to keep the ice cold! If you find your winter sporting skills lacking, you can still earn ice coins by doing some good old fashion clobbering! Hunt down fire creatures in quests, adventure areas, and raids, who can also drop the ice coins!

Need more speed to reach the extra valuable ice coins? Tired of falling down and being laughed at by your friends in the rink? Ice skates are available for rent in exchange for ice tokens. The skates will prevent you from falling on the ice, and also give you some extra speed. Look for the rental NPC at the ice rink!

There are also some screenshots posted up by players showing the ramps, but I'll not include them for now to prevent spoilerifical behavior. I'll post some up (maybe even some video?) in a few days.

Dungeon Alert a'Changing!

Turbine QA head 404Error has some big news this week about changes coming to Dungeon Alert, the oft-maligned system that aims to improve server performance and cut down on zerging. He says:

A fix is coming in update 3 to all of DA, and no the fix is not it going away.

Also, 404Error notes that despite pleas by some players, the DA system is here to stay:

Server performance has gone up since the implementation of DA so it will stay. When we temporarily shut if off to see if players would still play within the box many did not and server performance went south again so we turned it back on. Since zergers will always zerg this system will stay on until the end of ddo.

Overall, I don't like the Dungeon Alert system all that much, but I can't say that it's had a big impact on my gameplay. Then again, I'm not that much of a zerger...

Jerry