

One of two full pages of the forums DevTracker search tool

Turbine Developer Severlin, newish DDO team member, and someone who is easier for me to think of simply as Deverlin, has spent the last two days spamming the DDO forums with a discussion about the changes he will be making to melee, ranging, epics, and paladins.

Lots of changes. And lots of messages too, more developer message than I have ever seen, ever. Look at the image above – a full page of the DevTracker is devoted to his voluminous arguments. More importantly, note that I am showing you Page 2: the first page is all Deverlin too!



40-50 messages, some posted as late as 12:30AM. I may not agree with what the guy is doing, but at least he is doing it at full speed and with 100% engagement. Good for him.

Now about the changes. There are three threads that each describe a set of changes.

In this thread, he talks about changes to Physical Resistance Rating (PRR). Magic Resistance Rating (MRR), something new called Melee Power which will work like Spellpower except for melee attacks, and Range Power which is apparently coming in later.

In this thread, he talks about how Melee Power will work with Epic Destinies, and changes to Masters Blitz, two-handed weapons, and shields.

In this thread, he talks about changes to the Paladin class and enhancements.

So many words. I’ve never seen a Dev work so hard to explain what he is doing. He doesn’t seem like he is throwing these out there as proposals, he may feel the time for that has passed, I don’t know. But it seems that these are pretty much written in stone, he is not accepting alternatives, he is instead defending and explaining the changes that are coming.

But wow so much explaining!

There are places where you can tell that he is newish to the team. For instance:



This Deverlin quote responds to a request for D&D-like mechanics

He doesn’t seem to know that in fact PRR and Spellpower are both new changes too, met a lot of resistance, and are not well-liked. But it’s not his fault he’s new. And once again, have to give him a ton of credit for the effort he is putting out there to explain himself.

About the changes themselves: I am not thrilled. The changes in thread one are “mainstreaming” that make us more like every other MMO and take us further away from D&D. The changes in thread 2 will cause power creep, remove any reason to use two-handed fighting (which I like because it looks cool) and make Epic Elite more “accessible”. I didn’t even read the changes in thread 3 because I’ve never liked playing a Paladin in any D&D game. Plus I was feeling grumpy already.

But so what. I mean really, who cares what I think. I am just one guy, a rather crusty and cantankerous guy at that, and I resist most changes.

Go and read them for yourself. And then report back here with your opinions. But be warned, there is a lot of text to absorb. A lot!

Full frontal disclosure. From a Turbine Developer! Who’d a thunk it?

🙂 😀 🙂