Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

To listen to the complete Loading... Live #13 - DDO Module 9 podcast, click here!

Questions list:

1. David Arneson tribute
2. What's new in Mod 9 for new DDO players?
3. Hireling system improvements
4. Level cap increase - permanent plateau for classes?
5. Development status and Mod 9 release date?
6. Is DDO poised to take advantage of DirectX 11?
7. The marketing direction for DDO?
8. Is level 20 the ultimate cap for classes?
9. Are capstone enhancements for pure classes only?
10. Status on character respec'ing?
11. More Eberron-only classes and races?
12. Turbine's vision for DDO beyond Module 9?
13. Other revenue models for DDO?
14. User generated content in DDO?
15. Is Turbine hiring?
16. More content faster?
17. Consolidating to a one page inventory screen
18. "Vast and mysterious?"
19. Greensteel deconstruction and more robust crafting
20. The Future of the Mournlands test server

[0h 7m 22s] Ten Ton Hammer (Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle): We were sad to see that David Arneson, Co-Creator of Dungeons and Dragons, passed away recently. Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) featured voiceovers from both David Arneson and Gary Gygax and we remember that DDO had a very nice tribute to Gary Gygax. Do you have anything planned to celebrate the contribution of Mr. Arneson to the game?

[0h 7m 44s] Kate Paiz: Absolutely. We were all deeply touched by Mr. Arneson’s passing and some of the things we’re going to do are we are going to create an item in his honor and it’s going to be one of the story quest rewards for the Ruins of Threnal series that voiceovered for us. We’re also putting in a memorial into the ruins area; players will know that there’s a whole little city area we’re excavating and there’s a tavern. There’ll be a spot there similar to the one in Dalaras Graveyard where they can go and be communing with his spirit there.

[0h 8m 26s] Ten Ton Hammer: Very cool, that’s an awesome tribute. Before we talk about the more hardcore aspects of Module 9, which is the upcoming... I don’t know if expansion’s the right word, but it certainly has a bunch of awesome new stuff in it, we want to talk a little bit about what Module 9 will mean for new players. And we know DDO has a brand new free trial initiative going on at present. Could you talk a little bit about what Module 9 will mean for new players and newer players?

[0h 8m 52s] Kate Paiz: Absolutely. We’ve really focused a lot of time in this development mod to figure out how to reach out to players and really maximize their enjoyment of DDO. We’ve been working on the new player experience improvements and some of the additions we’ve made in Mod 9 - we’ve actually redone the default key mapping, so players who already have a version of the game will have their existing key map unaltered. For anyone that needs a new install, there would be three preset buttons that will adjust the main interaction keys of the game. We wanted to reach out to an audience that’s a little more familiar with a revised keymap for them to really reinfoce the action combat, the super intensity and viscerality of the game. Maybe giving them a little opportunity to know that these keys are consistent with other MMOs that they’ve played. When new players come in, there will be DDO classic, which you can hit for what it is today in live, then the revised, and then we’re actually doing an FPS version because we think that there are some things about walking around in the world and the activity of it that lends itself to that.

So to go back to the New Player Experience for a moment, we’ve added a voiceover layer to that initial party that you experience with Salinas and Jeetz. It really fills up that experience nicely and it’s a really nice polish element to that and the dragon dungeon at the end of the Korthos Island experience. One other thing that we’ve done is adjust the way the targeting system works so players who are comfortable with the way the system works now will be able to turn it off in the options panel but for new players it also helps to target monsters that are right in front of you so that you’re able to always connect with ranged attacks, spellcasting, or melee. You’ll always be attacking and targetting the monsters that are closest to you, and that will also display the hitpoint bar for the monster above their head, so you can see at a glance without having to look over at the focus orb but stay at the center of your screen and see who you’re attacking, who’s coming at you, what’s going on, and the progress that you’re making.

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