DDO Update 3 goes live, Turbine releases new screenshots
by Rubi Bayer 
Feb 3rd 2010 at 4:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Patches, News items, Free-to-play
Well, that day is here, and Stormreach Harbor is frozen over and crowded with players sliding and falling on the ice, while others farm Ice Tokens, check out casual mode, and gather groups for the new quests. If you haven't patched yet, Turbine has given us a little something to pass the time while you wait for your game to update: a series of new screenshots from the Delirium quest. Take a look at the gallery, and check out our developer tour for some insider hints while you wait.
Have fun, and have a drink at the Sleeping Spell in on us!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sarr said on 4:47PM 2-03-2010
Great update. And I recommed reading the tour: http://www.massively.com/2010/01/28/massivelys-tour-through-ddo-update-3/
This is probably the best article I've read in a while. Great style and very informative. Just put more screens into text next time, Massively : ). Too much text seems boring, but that _wasn't_ boring lecture at all. You have great editors.
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Seffrid said on 4:47PM 2-03-2010
Unfortunately the new Casual Difficulty for quests has been temporarily removed.
Turbine do this so often (think skirmishes in LoTRO) as well as publishing a list of known issues alongside the patch notes that I can't help wondering whether they wouldn't be better off testing their updates a tad more before releasing them.
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Sarr said on 5:03PM 2-03-2010
Well, if you look at the amount of changes which are in the Release Notes: http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Update_3_Official
...and that it's only 2 months after Update 2, with Update 4 already in testing (according to dev MadFloyd), that's bound to happen. Let's hope they'll resolve it via some patch or hotfix.
Seffrid said on 5:28PM 2-03-2010
Exactly, they need to take longer between updates, and get them right. People get drawn to a game by the announcement of new content, and when they find that new content isn't actually available they go away again.
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David said on 12:58PM 2-04-2010
I disagree about taking longer. They said they want these updates to be small and frequent and if a bit of content doesn't make it in one then it will be in the following one or patched in the meantime. I much prefer to always have something new in the pipeline and on a regular basis.
Seffrid said on 2:51PM 2-04-2010
You miss the point. It isn't that a particular bit of content doesn't make it into an update, it's that several parts of the update are immediately disabled while they sort out a hotfix. It wasn't just the Casual Difficulty in this case, a number of quests were also disabled as well as other content features. That could easily be prevented by taking a little more time over the update.
Age of Conan, for example, delayed their update this week by 24 hours when a problem was spotted at the last minute, and that was preferable to putting up the patch with messed up content which has to be disabled while it's put right.
We really shouldn't still be having to put up with shoddy launches, whether of new games, expansions, or mere update patches. These things should be properly tested and launched when they're ready. Blizzard and Bioware seem able to get it right most of the time, why can't anyone else?
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manzanomatt said on 7:51PM 2-05-2010
Um...perhaps it's because they have virtually unlimited resources and a HUGE budget for testing, wheras companies like Turbine just don't. And, FYI, they have just as many problems on patch days. Take for example in BC most of the Zangar Marsh Quests...When they came online they didn't work for 2 months...yeah sure you could do them and it looked like you were looting stuff, but when you logged off...POOF...all gone including your XP earned. Very frustrating. Another thing is if you've noticed DDO is primarily a FREE content game. Blizzard also has a Bazillion more subscribers that LOTRO and DOO combined, which means more dollars to spend on R&D.