A letter from Executive Producer Fernando Paiz for DDO's 5th Birthday!
Hi Everyone-
Or perhaps I should say “Ahoy, mateys!” Yes, I will admit it: my head is full of pirate thoughts, my DDO character’s head is covered with a slick-looking pirate hat, and part of me would rather be somewhere else right now bossing around some kobolds (I don’t mean you, DDO team!). But some things are worth taking a break from your favorite game for and this is one of those times for me as today it is my honor to officially mark DDO’s 5th birthday!
It’s hard to believe that as of today DDO has been serving up the best dungeon crawls in MMOs for half a decade! I remember before DDO: Stormreach came out, a major games magazine had us on their cover with the headline “The MMO that changes everything!” Looking back on that now, I don’t think anyone could have guessed how true that description would prove to be. DDO certainly set itself apart early with its action combat, elaborate instances and faithful interpretation of Dungeons & Dragons. Through the years, DDO maintained a unique flavor among an ever growing field of MMOs, innovating with ground breaking in-game events, state of the art technology like DX11 graphics and – of course – by introducing Turbine’s take on the free-to-play business model in 2009.
So how do we appropriately commemorate these five great years? We set out to create our best in-game event yet. And given the history of DDO that was a pretty tall order! I assume that by now you have already spent a bit of time in Smuggler’s Rest playing the Euphonia’s Challenge: Treasure of Crystal Cove event. If not, I recommend you stop reading this now and go play it. Seriously, this letter will still be here in a week, but you only have so much time to get all of the great loot and prizes out there!
The first great prize in the event you get just for showing up – a new pirate hat! Just go to Euphonia’s Hat Box when you arrive in Smuggler’s Rest and use your invitation to claim it! If you’re new and missed the chance to get a Parrty invitation, you can still get a hat from the DDO Store or by gathering Doubloons from those scurvy Pirates. Now these hats are for more than just looking good. There are tons of upgrades available for them! Several of these can be acquired using only Doubloons, so I recommend you try to get at least a tier 1 in each category.
So, have you had a chance to get good at playing the event yet? In the first part of Euphonia’s Challenge you wander a public landscape area slaying pirates to gather map pieces, treasure compasses, Doubloons and secret treasure maps. It’s easy once you get the hang of it. Just be sure to learn which monsters are right for your level, and don’t hesitate to run away if you accidentally draw the attention of someone a bit tougher than you. If you want to get the most out of your pirate hunting, you might want to also enjoy some pirate Grog and some Butter-Rum coffee while you play. Your britches will be overflowing with Doubloons before you know it!
Part two of the event is the Crystal Cove collection challenge. This quest is something totally different for DDO and it totally rocks! I’m sure you have your favorite strategies already but here are a few tips: Be sure to pick up some of the torches that are already placed when you start especially the 2 near the quest entrance. Play higher difficulties to earn bonus crystals – but also be mindful of what stolen gems you are earning. You may need to play lower difficulties to get the right gems and if you do you may wish to focus mostly on clearing out the dungeon of enemies. And perhaps the most important tip is to play with the sound turned up. No matter how many times I hear it, I always smile when I hear my Kobolds mumbling or telling me “Kobold still hates you!” There is a lot more to this great event and lots of goodies available for any class or level in Euphonia’s barter box. If you still need some more info, I recommend reading our starter guide here.
We all had such a great weekend playing DDO until the wee hours of the morning, seeing plenty of full instances and lots of old friends returning to play. The only problem is those folks who can’t decide what to do. In addition to the Euphonia’s Challenge event, we’ve also have several other cool birthday activities going on right now in DDO! There are great bonuses throughout the game, like bonus loot, guild renown and quest XP! We also brought back last year’s marketplace Egg Hunt mini-game and gave all existing characters free tickets. If you didn’t play last year, be sure to check out the community guide and these great player guides to get you on your way. All in all there is a ton of birthday fun to be had in DDO right now. We hope you are enjoying the parrrty!
Beyond our birthday, 2011 is looking like another great year for DDO! At the start of the year we have spent a lot of time making needed changes behind the scenes to let us take DDO fully international. Next month you will see us kick off a live beta of the DDO service localized in French and German. This will come with an influx of even more players from Europe and other parts of the world. Please help me in welcoming these new (and in some cases returning) DDO players to our community! Going global is an important part of keeping DDO going strong for many years to come.
Although I can’t discuss all the details today, we have so many great things coming to DDO this year! You get a taste of things to come in our Birthday event if you know where to look. We are working an ambitious new crafting system for the game that we will work on throughout the year which is based in part on the barter UI currently used to claim your event rewards. The ability to select from a broad range of quest levels like you do in Crystal Cove is also an important component of an all new content system we are working on for later this year. And of course we have lots of new adventure packs coming your way - primarily focusing on the top levels of the game - that are unique, atmospheric, challenging and very fun!
There is a lot more to talk about but rather than cram it all into one letter and keep my Kobolds waiting much longer, we will do this like last year where I will plan to follow up with you in a few weeks with a new “state of the game” letter. It will have more details on Update 9 and a peek at what’s in store for DDO in rest of 2011. So please visit our community discussion thread by clicking here to post questions or topics that you want to see me address in that message and I’ll do my best to include as many as I can.
In conclusion, I want to once again thank all of our DDO players for helping to bring DDO to where it is today! We have had five great years together and we look forward to at least five more!
Happy 5th Birthday, DDO!
-Fernando.
