DDO Players News Episode 24 : The McRib Of DDO

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With not much game news this week. Pineleaf and Draculetta have a chat about the possibility of “Killer Dm Mode” And if we would want it.

In 5E news, we talk about Elemental Evil Player’s Companion that has been recently released.

Also, Pineleaf get’s very confused over the McRib!

Game News

Let’s Talk: Killer DM Mode

Quote Originally Posted by Severlin

I know there is a sub-section of players that want even *more* difficulty in existing content. We have to make decisions about where to spend our time, and we think our time would be better spent making new challenging content with new Mythic treasures to reward those challenges than trying to back track and introduce difficulty where a lot of players don’t want it.
We’ve considered a Killer DM mode – something even harder than elite – where content always scaled to 6 people, champions have nastier effects, and monsters did more damage. The problem, outside of implementation time, we ran into is this; what could we possibly use to reward players for playing it? We don’t want to add even more XP into the game. Higher level loot drops aren’t really useful while leveling since it already out levels players on higher difficulties. No one is going to grind for power items if they will level past them quickly. Our data shows that such a difficulty would probably sit unused for a vast majority of the player base. As much as the idea intrigues me, I don’t know if that’s a good use of our time.
We believe that the best use of our time is to provide difficulty in newer content.

(Response From Severlin) It’s an interesting discussion, and I just wanted to insert some random thoughts:

I don’t think it is possible for a team of any size to create hand made content in any video game faster than the most dedicated players can consume it. We understand that we are in a perpetual content race with the players; we know that we will always lose that battle. The plan is that Temple of Elemental Evil will be big and fun and have good itemization. It will not keep the most engaged players entirely busy for the 3.5 months it will take for the Shavarath update to be finished. It just won’t. We know this. You know this. We will try our best to make the content as re-playable as possible.
It is a rare and precious thing – maybe even close to impossible – for content to be challenging to a player that has run it many many times and memorized the ins and outs of that content. We can change bits of it to hit harder, throw more creatures at players, and have more evil tricks but once the players learn the ins and outs of those new changes the content will once again be easy. Unless it can randomly just kill off people, and we don’t think that’s really a “challenge.”
When we talk about a Killer DM mode we are talking about a new difficulty level for existing content with system changes to make it more challenging. It would not involve any additional customization of old content like randomized traps, additional difficulty on puzzles and the like.
The problem with making Epic Elite have more relative difficulty, even for new content, is the gaps between difficulties become larger and more players can fall into a situation where the previous difficulty is too easy but the next one up is too hard. On the other hand new levels of difficulty can cause the potential players grouping to fracture even more. We understand this. These conundrums are what keep us awake at night when we should be sleeping.
The subject of a Killer DM mode is really a mad notion that is good for discussing the problems surrounding difficulty in an ongoing game. While it is theoretically possible to implement it, I think even the short discussion here shows the potential problems in design the idea presents. I am hoping that by bringing up these discussions I am not creating situations where the players are getting upset at these theoreticals.

The DDO Chronicle: Issue 133

Store Sales

Free Sample Of The Week March 13th – 19th

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Slayer Count Boosts
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DDO Players News

To Subscribe or not to Subscribe

Stone of Menace

DDO Players ScreenShot Of The Week #12

News Beyond DDO

Elemental Evil Player’s Companion is now available for free

A Look at The Wrath of Ashardalon Board Game

Week in DDO

Drac Week

Ranger/Rogue Lvl 12 (Leveled To)

Tomb of the Immortal Heart (Elite)
Burning Heart (Elite)
Crimson Heart (Hard)

Shadar-kai Lvl 15

Wheloon Prison

Friends in Low Places
A Lesson in Deception

Pineleaf Week

On Artificer 11 with Drac

Tomb of the Immortal Heart (Elite) once again diseased.
Burning Heart (Elite)
Crimson Heart (Hard)
Reached level 12

Cleric 3 PD (Reached level 4 at end)

A Man Named Baudry Cartamon
- Protect Baudry’s Interests
- Stop Hazidil’s Shipment
- Retrieve the Stolen Goods
Bringing the Light
Garrison’s Missing Pack
Durk’s Got a Secret
An Explosive Situation
The Miller’s Debt
Arachnophobia (Clean run)
The Butcher’s Path
Recovering the Lost Tome
Waterworks
- Clan Gnashtooth
- Clan Tunnelworm (had missed until now that this leads to Shan-To-Kor)

Cleric 3 (Temple)

The Grotto
Heyton’s Rest
The Cannith Crystal
The Storehouse’s Secret
The Collaborator
Redemption
Necromancer’s Doom
Sacrifices
Stopping the Sahuagin
Misery’s Peak

Wrath of Ashardalon

The Closed Doors

The Legend of Drizzt

Search for Mithral Hall
Siege of Darkness

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iTunes Reviews

Maximus_Flame Left a Five Star review on iTunes Titled – Awesome!!!

Great job from a couple of familiar voices!!! I’m a newb as well but am a longtime Lotro player on Landroval. Looking to immerse myself in DDO. Thanks for all your Help – MaximusFlame

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