Questions by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
Answers by Kate Paiz, Senior Producer of DDO, and Stephen Muray, Lead Designer of DDO
Without
Dungeons and Dragons, the monolithic industry of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games would not exist. That conclusion can be drawn rather simply; without the influence of D&D, many online game developers would never have attempted to create their games in the first place. A vast number of early developers credit their first games to being “simple D&D clones,” yet now they’re taking that knowledge and creating vast new worlds of sword and sorcery.
In an ironic twist of fate,
Dungeons and Dragons has found a new place in the online marketplace, this time in the form of Turbine’s
Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach, a game that has influenced many a tabletop gamer to join the online masses in hunting down enemies and completing quests. Coming up on their second year in existence, the folks at Turbine took a few minutes to talk with Ten Ton Hammer’s managing editor, Cody “Micajah” Bye, about the future of their game and where the title is heading. In the 30 minute conversation, Cody and the developers discussed Module 6 (slated for January), the Monk, Half-Orcs, other new classes, an invading devil army, high-level spells, and a whole gaggle of other D&D items of interest!
(Editor's Note: The question concerning Half-Orcs, Half-Elves, and Monks has been edited for clarification purposes. During our conversations it was clear that the Monks were to be released before the Half-Orcs and Half-Elves, but it was not absolutely clear in the transcript. Changes have been made to the question to reduce confusion.)
Ten Ton Hammer: Your two year anniversary is coming up very soon (late February). Should players expect anything big to be released around that time?
Kate Paiz: We’ve got a few things that we’re very excited about in the works, but we’re not really ready to talk about them just yet. There are a number of items that we’re very enthusiastic about; we’re hoping to release a new system along with new content for the players. The anniversary period should be pretty fun.
Ten Ton Hammer: From what I can gather, you are planning to release a large new update in the very near future. Can you tell us about this?
Kate: Absolutely. Our next release is going to be Module Six, which will be our fifteenth live update. The module is called the Thirteenth Eclipse, and it’s scheduled to release sometime in January. In this update we’re going to be introducing a completely new storyline centered around the invasion of an army of devils into Eberron. The players are going to have to combat the devils on an all new landscape called the Veil of Twilight as the Plane Shavarath is being interwoven into the very fabric of the player landscape.
Steve Muray: We’ve got a bit of an advantage in the Eberron campaign setting in that planar travel is very easy for the players. The players will be able to take the fight directly to the army of Aritreckos (excuse the spelling). You’ll be able to face off against the Barbazu (the bearded devils), and the armies heavily armored shock troops.
Kate: One of the things we’re really excited about in Module Six is the raid that is going to be introduced into the game. We’ve determined through player feedback that our gamers are really looking for an activity that is open to all levels and player types. Therefore the raid is going to be much more of a total experience rather than one singular fight that the characters take part in. There will be a variety of areas that you’ll fight through with a whole collection of mini-bosses that you will have to fight through.
As Steve mentioned, the Barbazu is going to be one of the lieutenants in the army and players will also encounter an Orthon as well, which is an incredibly brutish demon killer (the devils hate demons) and very tough to beat. Both of these lieutenants will be stepping stones on the way to the overall raid boss, which we’re trying to keep under wraps for the time being.
That said, the whole raid is going to be a much bigger experience and will hopefully be open to a larger variety of players.
Steve: I’m very excited about our new raid. It’s really an encounter for everyone and it’s the easiest raid to get into since Tempest Spine. On top of that, the raid is significantly lengthier and more complex than many of the previous raids. I’d describe it more as a raid zone than a simple raid encounter.
We’ve also gone into a lot of effort to allow players to customize the loot that they’re going to be getting from this raid using eldritch sites as a prototype for our upcoming crafting system. It’s very flexible; there are hundreds of thousands of permutations of raid loot. This allows everyone to acquire exactly what they’re looking for out of this raid.
Ten Ton Hammer: As a general Dungeons and Dragons question, have devils been explored in the Eberron campaign setting previously?
Steve: There hasn’t been very much so far. The Plane of Shavarath, however, is sort of like Eberron’s take on the Blood War – the general conflict between the devils, demons, archons, and eladrins where they’re fighting their eternal war on the Plane of Battle. We found that the Plane of Shavarath would be an appropriate place for this encounter. After that’s been established, we can expand the player experiences from there.
Ten Ton Hammer: Staying on the general D&D question line, are you planning on exposing the player base to anything different for 4th Edition? Are you changing anything up?
Kate: We’re definitely interested in exploring the new game once we get all the details from the new game and what that is going to entail. However, we don’t have any specific changes in mind, and that’s going to be a decision that we’re going to evaluate a bit closer to when the 4.0 rule set is going to be released.
Ten Ton Hammer: So you’re not looking for a general change of the game on the same date of the 4.0 release?
Kate: No, we’re not looking to make a simultaneous release.
Ten Ton Hammer: You don’t want to make changes when you don’t even know if the new rule set is going to appeal to gamers or not.
Kate: Exactly. It’s extremely important to us to get feedback from our player base and then making changes to our game that the player base is interested in seeing. A lot of what we are focusing on this year is continuing that core Dungeons and Dragons experience where we’re going to be looking at the Monk and the Half-Orc throughout the year.
We want to continue that tradition of great D&D experiences, but we also want to get feedback from players and make sure that the game we’re building is the game that they really want to play. Like many of the changes that we’ve made in the past two years, we really want make changes that the players think are good alterations.
Ten Ton Hammer: The Half-Orc and the Half-Elf races are what you’re looking to introduce after the Monk, correct? (Editor's Note: Changes have been made for clarifcation, see top of article.)
Kate: Right. They haven’t been released yet, but we’re planning on releasing them in the late summer or early fall of 2008. Our top priority is obviously the Monk, but the two races [will be introduced right after the Monk]. Players really want to get that strength increase from the Half-Orc racial type.
Ten Ton Hammer: Now that you have finished with the Litany of the Dead series, what will you be releasing between your full modules?
Kate: In December we’re really focusing on our holiday events. There are certain drops that can be traded in for special holiday-type items. We have jelly cakes that drop in different planes, along with other festive items like candy canes. I think that the event schedule begins on December 3rd, and it’s going to run for the entire month.
The anniversary content will hit around the time between Module 6 and Module 7, so hopefully players will have plenty of content to play with between the big releases.
Ten Ton Hammer: Are crafting and housing coming into the game any time soon?
Kate: We’re definitely going to have the beginning elements of a crafting system in place for Module 6….
Ten Ton Hammer: In the customizable weapons?
Kate: Exactly. We call it a prototype, because we want to insure that we’re creating a crafting system in a way that feels true to D&D and also true to DDO, which are two understandably different venues. We want to get this prototype out there, get people familiar with the basic benefits of the system, then grow the crafting process with a bigger release after we’ve taken a lot of player feedback into account.
Ten Ton Hammer: Can you talk about the weapon customization in more detail? It sounds interesting, but I’m trying to figure out how it’s going to be D&D while also holding true to MMOG crafting tradition.
Steve: In the raid encounters, players will initially acquire a customizable weapon, then they’ll have the opportunity to upgrade it at various points throughout the raid using items that they’ve acquired and carry with them in the encounter.
In the Eberron campaign setting, they introduced the idea of eldritch devices that can do anything the DM really requires. They are an artifact level item, and we’ve taken them another step and put them into this new raid crafting system.
Rather than forcing players to spend their own XP on items, we’ll be working through these devices in order to allow players to augment things they already own and create entirely new items.
Ten Ton Hammer: So you’re making an “Eldritch Forge” or something like that?
Steve: Yup! Basically as you go through the raid you’ll be collecting materials that you can forge together into items that can then be placed into your weapon and/or equipment. As you continue through the raid, you’ll gain access to more and more materials that can, if placed together correctly, create items that have only been dreamed of.
Some of the items players can create are really, really cool.
Ten Ton Hammer: Along with the new items, you’re also doing a level cap increase, correct?
Steve: With the level cap increase, players will now have access to 8th level spells, which include the powerful incantations Trap the Soul and Horrid Wilting. Horrid Wilting was previously restricted only to monsters, so I’m sure players will be ready for some pay back.
We’ve also continued our enhancement series, and this time around the Ranger got their day in the sun with the Arcane Archer, Deepwood Sniper, and Tempest enhancements. Those allow more customization for the characters and address certain needs that the players have asked for in the past.
Ten Ton Hammer: As you continually increase the level cap, are you ever going to run into spells that don’t necessarily fit into your world? Like, for instance, the Wish spell?
Steve: I actually have a few ideas on how to implement the Wish spell. It’s likely that when we run into a conflict between the needs of an MMO and that of the pen-and-paper game, we’ll make some modifications in order to make things work. For instance, monsters have three times the hit point caps they do in the pen-and-paper version of the game.
When we do run into something iconic, we usually try to make things work.
Ten Ton Hammer: As your player population continues to increase in levels, do you still try to make quests and content for lower level players?
Kate: Absolutely. When we are putting together a new release, we tend to focus on a consistent level band in order to make a decent story, but when we integrate new classes into the game – like the Monk – we do try and go back and address the earlier levels to freshen up the areas and provide players with new opportunities and storylines.
We’re especially going to be looking at Three Barrel Cove. It’s one of my favorite areas, but the landscape leading up to the area can be a little tricky for players so we’re going to be going back and retrofitting that landscape and decking it out with new wilderness tech that we have and making it a robust and broad experience for players.
This year we already reworked the Cerulean Hills and the Searing Heights for players, and they’re now really big explorable areas that players can adventure in and encounter a variety of monsters. We want to continue to explore some of the fundamental characteristics of MMOGs and continue to introduce elements that DDO may not have included in the past.
Ten Ton Hammer: How closely do you work with Wizards of the Coast to keep the DDO version of Eberron as close to the pen and paper version as possible?
Kate: We do have a weekly call, and we also share all of our documentation with them. We certainly go back and forth on concept art so that we’re staying very consistent with the body of work and art styles that they’ve already published. We want to insure that when players come to the game it’s a very consistent look to what they’ve previously experienced in D&D. That’s a shared goal between Wizards of the Coast and ourselves.
Ten Ton Hammer: Do you find that the people who play DDO are pen-and-paper gamers? Or are there more MMO enthusiasts in your audience?
Kate: It’s definitely a combination of both. I think that a lot of people who voice their opinions on the forums are true D&D gamers and are very invested in that game world. A lot of the feedback we get from our most vocal players is consistent with what a D&D player might tell us, and we take that feedback seriously before we make any decisions.
It’s such a rich brand and such a great universe that we’re pulling from, and we’re always incredibly grateful to have that body of work to fall back on. With the Plane of Shavarath, it’s been great to look in the books and pull out pieces to put into the game.
Ten Ton Hammer: You mentioned that the army that is invading Eberron is made up of devils; will you be introducing a demon army at a later date?
Steve: It’s possible that the balance has been shaken in Shavarath, and the demons have an opportunity to gain power, so don’t be surprised if a demon is willing to give you a hand in some of these encounters.
Ten Ton Hammer: Maybe we’ll see a Balor square off against a Pit Fiend….
Kate: We’re definitely employing some “enemy of my enemy is my friend” sort of scenarios in this upcoming module. We’re definitely going to be exploring this situation over the next year and introducing the relationship between the devils, demons, and archons.
Ten Ton Hammer: Are the archons going to play a role in the player encounters during the devil invasion?
Steve: At this point the archons have been beaten back by the devils, which is what allowed them to invade Eberron in the first place. There will be a group of eladrin that come to the players’ aid, but I think I’d rather save most of the details for the players to discover.
Ten Ton Hammer: What are your long-term goals for Dungeons and Dragons Online?
Kate: We have three main focuses. One is to continue to develop the D&D experience. We’re looking at prestige classes. We’re looking at epic levels. Even other classes from the Eberron setting are fair game, like the Artificer perhaps for the ’09 release year.
We also want to continue polishing what we have. Continue to iterate on the most critical systems in our library. We’ve already introduced a ton of new aspects, but we want to continue the process in finding which adventures people enjoy and adding more of those type of scenarios into the game.
Finally, we want to simply add more of the core game experience into DDO. Crafting is just going to start rolling at the beginning of 2008. We can’t give away too many more details, but we just want the players to know that we’re going to continue to work on the game because we really love this game and this community and want to bring as many cool things to the experience as possible.