DDOcast

DDO Japan Closing Down, TTH Interview/Press and Artwork!

DDOcast — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:47:00 GMT

We've been celebrating Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited for a few weeks now, but I guess it's important to remember that the whole point of the game is to bring in new players and keep our favorite MMO successful and alive. A sobering announcement to bring to you today....

DDO Japan Shutting Down:

It has been very difficult to follow news over at DDO-Japan because of the language barrier. Translation programs online just don't work all that well when translating Japanese to English, and most of the people who play on Sakura Internet's DDO servers speak Japanese, of course.

Anyway, Ustice from DDOReports.com and I have been Twitter friends with a nice person by the name of YK5. He passed word along to us yesterday that DDO-Japan's servers would be shutting down later this year. Thanks to his excellent effort, Ustice and I have been able to read up on what's happening.

The deal is: DDO-Japan will be shutting down its servers by September 30th. People on those servers will not apparently be able to transfer their characters to another DDO service. Sucks!

There's a series of forum posts that can be found on the DDO-Japan web site support section that explains what will happen. It's in Japanese, but I've used Yahoo's Babel Fish to translate it:

Here's a LINK to the translation and here's probably the most critical bit:

* Schedule of service end

　▼2009 year June 30th (fire)
　　　6 months (), 12 months 180 days (360 days) sale end of play ticket
　　　　　As for ⇒ details 6 months () /12 months 180 days (360 days) concerning the play ticket please verify.
　▼2009 year July 31st (gold)
　　　Sale end of [pureichiketsuto]
　　　　　As for ⇒ details concerning the sale of the play ticket please verify.
　　　[purodakutoki] end of register
　　　　　As for ⇒ details concerning the register of the product key please verify.
　　　Free start of period
　　　　　Concerning free period please verify ⇒ details.
　　　Repayment acceptance start of application
　　　　　Concerning application please repay ⇒ details and verify.
　▼2009 year September 30th (water)
　　　End of [gemusabisu]
　　　Official end of forum
　　　The service end of DDOBLOG
　▼2009 year October 30th (gold)
　　　End of [yuzasapoto]
* There are times when there is modification in notification contents and schedule.
　 When there is modification and addition, at the official sight we inform on occasion.
<The inquiry regarding service end>

Concerning the inquiry regarding service end, inquiry form of the official sight,
Or, communication to the below-mentioned mail address, the fish you say to ask.
　Don Jones & [doragonzu] [onrainsapotochimu]
　support@ddo-japan.com
The Lievo account concerning the customer of utilization
Please inquire from URL below.

　“Lievo user support”
　https://lievo.jp/07support/index.asp
As for the other details regarding service end please verify FAQ below.

<Relation FAQ>
About the account which is done the automatic payment procedure by the credit card
About moving of the data inside the game, and transferring the management
About the play of overseas edition

Also, here's a LINK to the page in Japanese in case you'd like to try your own translator.

Sad news, indeed. I recently received an email from someone in Japan who plays on the U.S. servers and says there is some lag, but it's not too bad. Hopefully some of you DDO-Japan players will come join us soon!

Ten Ton Hammer Gets The Info!

The fine folks at Ten Ton Hammer have published a very interesting interview with DDO's executive producers in which they begin to talk dollars, cents and the DDO Store, among other things. Here's a LINK to the interview and here are a few choice bits:

Recently, the Ten Ton Hammer team had the outstanding opportunity to go check out Dungeons and Dragons Online Unlimited in a special press tour hosted by Fernando and Kate Paiz. Although the client is still in beta, we received a special "freedom of speech" tour where I can describe to you everything that I saw in the game during my hour long play session. So sit back, grab a cold one, and learn a bit about DDOU with me and the Turbine team.

On Favored Souls, Fernando Paiz tells TTH:

The one thing that we didn't end up putting in because it made the Favored Soul feel pretty overpowered was the casting speed that a Sorcerer has over a Wizard. In the case of the Favored Soul, this just made all the healing feel way powerful. Otherwise you pretty much get all the benefits.

Of course, there are some trade-offs in that you're locked in to a particular set of spells, which you can trade off at the trainers. The other important one to note is that Favored Souls don't have access to the full spell list that the Clerics do. You don't get things like Remove Disease or Remove Curse, and you're still going to be hankering for a Cleric in those moments.

(Jerry's Note: My understanding is that Favored Souls in PnP do not automatically get their divine spells like healing spells and the like, maybe I'm wrong, but that seems to jive with what Fernando is saying here.)

On the DDO Store:

The Item Store

To be honest, I was fairly impressed with the ease-of-use and flexibility involved with my "purchases" from the DDOU item store. Please note that all of the numbers and examples I use in my article are still subject to change, but this is what I saw during my play period.

During my tour, Fernando and Kate gave me approximately 3,000 Turbine points to play with, which will be somewhere between $30.00 and $45.00 depending upon the amount of points you buy at one time. To explain that system further, like any good retail business, the larger the quantity of points you buy at one time, the cheaper the price will be. While the price originally starts at about a cent and a half, you'll eventually be able to buy points at a cent a point.

But how much does each piece of content cost, you might ask?

Although these prices are by no means final, here are a few things that I happened to see while browsing through the items.

Favored Soul - 595 Turbine Points

Warforged Race – 300 Points

XP Potions - 30-90 Points (depending on the length of time they last)

Exotic Hair Dyes - 180 Points

Weapons and Armor - 20-80 Points

Siberys Spirit Cake (Rez Cake) – 90 Points

Bell of Opening (Opens Chests) – 20 Points

Moderate Health Potion – 45 Points

Adventure Packs - Varies

Later in the article:

By far, the most expensive items in the entire store (that I saw) were the larger adventure packs. While the smaller areas can be purchased with just a few dollars, the biggest adventure areas can cost upwards of ten dollars, especially those areas that have hours and hours of experience for the characters embedded within them. These adventure packs can be anywhere from $3.00 to upwards of ten dollars a piece.

Massively Tours Eberron Unlimited:

The fine folks at Massively.com have received a special tour of Eberron Unlimited! Here's a LINK to the article. He looks at the DDO Store as well, visits Amrath, checks out the Hezrou and discusses Favored Souls with the Turbine crew.

Week Five Motivational Poster Contest Winner on DDO.com:

Congrats to Fyndarin! Here's the word from DDO's Tarrant:

Congratulations to Fyndarin on winning this week's Motivational Poster Contest! The category was Guilds, and Fyndarin used a tried and trusted recruiting technique to bring in some new Guildmates! Check out DDO.com to view the winning entry!

Thanks for your entries, all - there were a lot of great options to choose from. The Motivational Poster contest is finished for now, but it will certainly make a return in the future! We were thrilled with the amount of participation from the community, and can't wait to see what you come up with next time!

Congratulations to the winners once again, and a thank you to all participants for making this contest an exciting one!

Here's a LINK to the pic on DDO.com and here's the pic:

Jerry

Episode 123!

DDOcast — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:40:00 GMT

Hi everyone! Episode 123 of DDOcast is now ready to go. Here's a LINK to the file - left-click to play, right click and 'save as' to download as an mp3. Thanks so much for listening!

###

This week's show features the latest news about DDO: Unlimited along with a new segment of "Sound Concepts". I also get to a while bunch of email. Thanks so much for listening!

DDOcast Episode 123 (6-27-09)

:15 Intro
1:05 Beta update
2:15 MMORPG Interview - User-Generated Content
4:05 More DDO:U News - Favored Soul/More
7:00 Release Note Talk: Grazing Hits/Arneson Cloak and More!
13:00 DDO Europe status
16:17 Guild Improvement
16:45 Favored Soul Enhancement Talk
20:24 Europe Event?
20:55 Fan Art Winner Week 5
21:20 Motivational Poster Winner - Europe
21:35 Speed Shroud Run Videos
22:11 Deadliest Warrior - Sarlona
23:10 Kromize Avatar effort
23:50 Sound Concepts
30:50 Samius - Congrats!
32:26 Emails

END

TOTAL TIME: 42:18

###

LINK to the MMORPG.com Interview with Kate and Fernando Paiz, where they discuss User-Generated Content.

LINK to Turbine's updated Eberron Unlimited press release.

LINK to the DDO: Unlimited Sneak Peek Release Notes

LINK to DDO.com's Fan Art Contest Winner Week 5, congrats Reycervantes. Here's the image:

LINK to the thread and here's Melenastre's winning submission for DDO-Europe's Motivational Poster Contest, week 2:

Part 1 of Spyderwolf's Speed Shroud Run Video on YouTube. Part 2 as well.

LINK to Kromize's Tasty Ham Avatar effort!

Jerry

"Sneak Peek" Release Notes Part 2!

DDOcast — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:48:00 GMT

Had to split this into two parts to better fit onto the web page:

All exploding barrels in the game now do a more appropriateamount of damage for the
quests that they are in. Their damage and thereflex save required tohalf the damage also scale with the dungeondifficulty setting (up forhard and elite, down for solo).
Bounty Boards are no longer available in Stormreach. Players should throw away any related items and abandon related quests.
VIP players will be given the option to enter Hard difficulty dungeons without first completing the Normal difficulty mode.
Solo and Normal mode rest shrines that have been used arereset after 5or 15 minutes respectively. A timer will display in thealert messageshowing the player how long they must wait to reuse theshrine.
Upon exiting the dungeon, players will be restored to full health. Already done in M9.
Scaling tech has been adjusted to provide a more appropriate challenge for smaller questing parties.
The durations of many crowd control effects cast by monsters are now affected by dungeon difficulty scaling.

Korthos Isle

Shipwrecked Shore

Jeets the rogue will now allow you to swap your starter weaponevenafter giving you the quest to help Cellimas. He will also allowyou toswap the weapon he gave you with another, including the one healreadyhanded you.
If you'vealready completed the tutorial on a character, itis now possible toskip the tutorial at any time during the tutorial byspeaking to an NPC.
Talbron has read up on his grammar lessons while waiting for your arrival.

The Grotto

Bards will now be given short bows and chainshirts instead of Robes in the conclusion of the tutorial.
Jeets, Cellimas, Talbron, and Lars have been freed from their silence spell, and can now speak aloud!

Korthos Village

Rinar d'Thuranni speaks to you less before directing you to Stormreach
Randall's conversations are more direct.
After completing Misery's Peak the folks around town will treat you with the respect you deserve.
When it's sunny in Korthos Village, it's now ALWAYS sunny. No more nighttime in sunny Korthos.
There is more direction given to drive players toward Misery's Peak after completing Redemption.
Snowy Korthos: Now less drab!

Heyton's Rest

Crests are now easier to find in the rubble of the altars.

The Collaborator

An optional has been added to defeat Kiv Nerl.

Sacrifices

Arcane Skeleton nows gives optional XP.

Misery's Peak

The mindflayer now gets frozen BEFORE he dies.
Corrected an issue where players could finish the quest and not be able to progress to Stormreach Harbor.
Jeets, Cellimas, Talbron, and Lars have been freed from their silence spell, and can now speak aloud!
The entrance to Misery's Peak is now marked like all other quest entrances, with swirls!

Catacombs

The Catacombs CR range has been changed from CR 2 to 4 to CR 3 to 4.
Unusually large Iron Defenders have been scaled down to an appropriate size.

Waterworks

The CR range of the Waterworks has been modified from CR 2 to 3 to CR 3 to 4
Players will no longer need to acquire a Seal from theHarbormaster toenter the Marketplace. Harbormaster Zin is stillinterested in rewardingthe efforts of upstanding citizens who lend ahand with the Harbor'skobold infestation.

Three Barrel Cove

Ghost of a Chance

Farrier Worley screams only once each time he is zapped, rather than once per member of the party.
Farrier Worley grants an additional chest after he is saved.

Rackam's Trial

Fire traps have become more challenging to by-pass

Delera's Graveyard

And The Dead Shall Rise

Explorers report that more types of named treasures have been discovered in (the place where this quest is)
A wider variety of monsters are found on the way to the top, with fewer undead and fewer monsters over all

Other Quests

Halls of Shan-to-Kor

Several control boxs have been added or moved in the Halls ofShan tokor dungeon make certain traps easier or possible for rogues.Anoptional way of disabling the "halls of fire" traps has been added.
The guardian has spiffed up his chamber, getting rid of some of the water that flooded the chamber.
* Due to countless batterings over the years, the GuardianofShan-To-Kor has been worn down. Various stats of his have beenreducedor modified. He now has lower attack bonus, AC, strength,damageoutput, critical hit rate, dr, and energy resistance, but has alotmore hit points so he can still do his duty.

Tempest Spine

Talf Halfspear no longer controls the power tile at the final encounter. You're just going to have to activate it yourself.

Burning City

Firebrand Eremite's will no longer accidentally spawn inside walls.

Irestone Inlet

When leaving the quest, the item "Dink's Diary" is no longer left in a players inventory.
The torch on Yaaryar's schooner is easier to find.

Fallowcrest Library

The quest flow of fallowcrest library has been changedslightly, and youare not "sealed" in the dungeon. The quest no longerfails if someoneleaves the group.

Dreams of Insanity

Explorers report that more types of named treasures have been discovered in (the place where this quest is)
Runes are easier to figure out. All you need is a bit of Intelligence. They no longer rely on Wisdom or Charisma.

Sykros' Jewel

Now gives greater XP rewards

Reclamation

Now gives greater XP rewards
Most of the rust monsters have been removed

Maraud the Mines

Now requires less gems and ore in order to complete the quest
Gems and ore in "Maraud the Mines" quest can now be more easily picked up
Now gives greater XP rewards

Shrouded Vale

Now 3 of the mummies can perish without the quest failing instead of just one.

An Explosive Situation

The exploding barrels now do 3d6 to 4d6 damage instead of 1d6.

Find The Lost Tome

Applied moisturizer to a dry spot in the water.

Necropolis

Reports are coming in of new and interesting items that can be collected from the Necropolis series of quests.
Gavonn Monthip no longer refers to Sir Rohine' as 'the Sir Rohine'.
Shadows and umbral creatures in some Necropolis quests of theShadowLord series now use their strength damage effects less often.
The names of the non-boss spectre and wraith casters havebeen alteredto include the word "mage" to make them easier to identifyas casters.

Tomb of the Shadow Knight

Difficulty has been reduced to make this quest more friendly for pick up groups and hireling supported groups.

Tomb of the Shadow Lord

Difficulty has been reduced to make this quest more friendly for pick up groups and hireling supported groups.

Tomb of the Unhallowed

Difficulty has been reduced to make this quest more friendly for pick up groups and hireling supported groups.

Tomb of the Tormentor

Now supports solo mode.

Accursed Ascension

The CR of the Black Abbot raid has been increased to 17!
Significant changes have been made to the Black Abbot raid to make it more friendly to pick up group raids.
The Accursed Ascension raid has had much of its treasure improved. Existing items are unaffected by this change, except for:
- Retroactive Changes: Both the Lesser Maximize and Lesser Heighten spell effect buffs increased to 20 seconds in duration.

The Ruins of Thernal

The number of rust monsters in Thernal have been reduced
Sal is no longer floating above the ground.
Excavators report that more types of named treasures have been discovered in parts of the Thernal ruins!

Library of Thernal

Two clay golems have gotten more dangerous ... like they were back in the old days.

Hold for Reinforcements

Coyle can now be knocked out. Repeatedly. The other House Deneith explorers don't seem to mind.

Western Excavation

There are fewer slimes and more other monsters now.

Southern Ruins

A pair of gargoyles have learned how to get down from ledges, and will now attack players as they see fit.

Vault of Night

Prisoner of the Mind

Players with a full inventory can now pick up Ingstoldt's key.
Hirelings falling off a ledge will no longer fail the quest.

Jungle of Khyber

The end boss Marut now regenerates more slowly, about one third as fast as he used to.

Demon Sands

Zawabi's Revenge

Players now only need to turn in key items once to get into"Against theDemon Queen". Afterwards, this area is replayable withoutneeding to getthose items again.
Rest shrines now spawn after the Queen dies, and remaining gnolls and efreeti die.
Two sets of armor have been changed (chain and scale). The change will only affect new drops of the armor.

Vulkoor Spiral

The marathon to the top of the spire is now significantly shorter.

Desert Caravan

Iosynne d'Phiarlan will now bestow the Desert Caravan quest from within the Menechtarun desert.
The quest has been shortened to 10 minutes.

The Vale of Twilight

Let Sleeping Dust Lie

Adjusted the death animation on the spiders

Running with the Devils

Ghaedhi bosses will no longer teleport into walls.

The Shroud

Recalling from 'The Shroud' will now place you in Meridia.

Reaver's Refuge

Monastery of the Scorpion

Sannyasi, in the Drow Monastery, should no longer cause puzzles to become unsolvable.

Shopping

In-game Vendors

The portable hole now has an expanded shop roster. Wizards and Sorceror's rejoice!
When selling to pawnbrokers, remember that unlikeTavern-keepers andgeneral vendors, other players can purchase an itemyou've sold to theNPC. Additionally, it is intended that items sold topawnbrokers willnot appear in your buyback list. Instead the item willappear forpurchase in the sell tab of the pawnbroker's list.
Shields and Light weapons have been added to the two generic vendors in Korthos Village.
In response to changing economic conditions, Masei Mkembe in Zawabi's Refuge has slashed his prices - check them out!
The NPC Vagan Taneer, who trades for Planar Shards, will nolonger stealyour shards if you are already holding an exclusive rewarditem of hisin your inventory.
Mari Mosshand has realized her stocks are running low, and she had better conserve her stores!
Feat Respec costs now follow a standardized (level ^ 3) * 100gold pieceformula. An Exceptional Siberys Dragonshard is now requiredto respecfeats for characters of levels 13 - 16, and a FlawlessSiberysDragonshard is required to respec feats for characters oflevels 17 -20. These can be found in treasure, or created at a Stoneof Changethrough Dragonshard combination.

PvP Improvements

Party leaders can now challenge another group to a player vs.playermatch in one of our arenas! A challenge window will appear inwhich theterms of the challenge can be negotiated, and both partieswill beteleported to the arena to enter the fray when all playersagree.
A new PvP arena has been added. The devil's pit, best suited for single combat between high level champions.
Added a confirmation dialog when entering a PvP match as part of a PvP party.
Level 4 characters, especially those with 3 levels of a single class, will no longer experience a death penalty in PvP
In PvP, Power Word spells (Blind, etc) now use the HP cap as per the Player's Handbook.

Other Changes

The game launcher has been updated.
- You can now chose to login to your most recently played server, rather than selecting your server from the list.
- The launcher now has a login queue feature, to help queue players if the world you're attempting to enter is currently full.
The credits screen has been updated.
All pre-generated character paths have been extended to level 20.
The automatic log off based on player inactivity is no longeran idlethreat - you will now actually be logged off for inactivity pertheinformational prompt.
Voice Chat is now set to 'On' by default.
Trap Control Boxes will now show a static image of gears in the focus orb when selected rather than nothing at all.
A number of NPCs have been sent to school by the Coin Lords to correct their grammar
Players who purchased the collectors edition of D&D willreceivethier bonus water breathing brooch the next time they log in.
The default mouse mapping is now:
- Single Attack - Button 0
- Action Interact Steer - Button 1
The following key mappings have been configured as new defaults:
- Q for next interactable
- Ctrl-Q & Ctrl-Backspace for selecting previous interactable
- E for Interact/activate
- F for push to talk
Lava, acid, and other environmental damage over time effects should no longer occasionally permanently stick on players.
Attack sounds were added to attacks made when sneaking.
You can now enter the marketplace without needing to bribe or "Free" anyone.
A memorial to the tragedy of the marketplace tent destruction has been added.
The public area 'Black Loch' has been closed due to a dangerous Pirate uprising. Yarr.
The intro movie will now play only once per user per computer. It can be replayed from the character selection screen.
The 'B' key is now bound to the 'Loot All' button by default.
Falling hurts! When you fall off something you will receive feedback.
Stuck spots have been fixed all across Xen'drik, including the following locations:
- Public spaces
  - House Kundarak ward
- Adventure Areas
  - The Subterrane
  - Gianthold Ruins
  - Menechtarun Desert
  - Tangleroot Gorge
  - Ataraxia's Haven
  - Searing Heights
  - Aussircaex's Valley
  - Mount Reysalon
  - Three Barrel Cove
- Quests
  - Fleshmaker's Laboratory
  - Vault of Night: Tharashk Arena
  - Ghost of a Chance
  - Misery's Peak
  - Caverns of Korrmar
  - Vulkoor Spiral
  - Waterworks: Clan Gnastooth Prison
  - Prey on the Hunter
  - Redemption
  - The Ruins of Thernal: Southern Ruins
  - Gwyland's Stand

Jerry