Just popping up for air! I’ll do a proper blog post about my recent experiences soon! Til then, here’s a little mod I just put together for Elemental: War of Magic.
It’s so ridiculously simple a mod, I’m almost embarrassed to post it, but someone else might find it useful.
Ark’s Magical Millinery
I want to play a wizardly type in Elemental, but there isn’t too much in the way of suitable-looking equipment. Any sensible person is liberally covered in plate armour, which seems very wrong for a game supposedly about a magical war.
To install, just drop into your Elemental/Mods folder.
This little mod simply adds a number of armoured hats to the game, for use by characters who want some head protection, but do not want to wear a hulking great helmet. Statwise they’re pretty much just the regular helms, but with the appearance of a fez (A piece of clothing that normally has no stats or defensive properties in Elemental), and they will become available at the same time their equivalent helm does. Thus they should have no impact on game balance whatsoever, but will do wonders for your wizard’s styling!
 My brightly coloured persona within Elemental. It’ll take on the colours you assigned for your character during creation, so you don’t have to worry about having my obsession with green inflicted upon you.
The fez is not usually available to every race/sex combination, but after a little testing it looks like it works fine with all of them, provided you don’t mind that hats replace your hair, and come with a set short hairstyle coming out from underneath.
While we’re on the subject of Elemental, this mod should not be taken as an endorsement. Merely as an admission that I own it and thought it needed hats. As it stands I would not recommend it to anybody. The engine is fine, but the game itself is painfully simplistic, with a combat system seemingly devised to challenge a three-year-old. It has been a very odd business, with even the developers admitting that it’s pretty terrible right now. They have sworn to make it right, and we shall see what we shall see.
Here is an example of how some people are reporting Elemental’s launch:
I don’t think people yet fully realize the completeness of Stardock’s fail on Elementa’s launch.
I’m going to write more about this but not only did we think v1.05 was ready for everyone but we felt v1.0 was too. That’s the level of disconnect/poor judgment on our part we’re talking about.
If the game had come out in February, it would still have been a disastrous launch because lack of time wasn’t the issue. It was blindness, sheer blindness. We felt the game was finished. And I speak of v1.0, not v1.05. Blindness.
There will be massive consequences for Stardock’s game studio. I’ll be talking more about this when I get back. But the game wasn’t released early. The game was released poorly. Head in the sand syndrome imo. I’ve read the reviews as much as possible given my hideous internet access up here and I agree with them. We just didn’t see what they were talking about. We thought any complaints would be about polish points or something.
The point is, the issue here is far far worse than many of you think it is. I wish it was an issue of the game being released too early. That’s an easy thing for a company to “fix”. Elemental’s launch is the result of catastrophic poor judgment on my part.
EVERY competent software developer knows that the programmer must never be the one deciding whether the program is done. Yet, my love of Elemental broke my self discipline and I began coding on the game itself in vast amounts and lost any sense of objectivity on where the game’s state was. I normally only program the AI on our games so I can keep a level of distance from the game itself to determine whether it’s “Ready”. On Elemental, I was in love with the world and the game and lost my impartiality.
We’ll do better.
That was the CEO of Stardock in just one post of many in a similar vein. He is just about as close as you can get to the Mirror Universe version of Derek Smart right about now, and on a human level I can only imagine the pain that he and his team are experiencing as their shared hallucination that Elemental is any good comes crashing down around their ears.
At the moment, anyone who is dissatisfied with Elemental can get a full refund. I thought quite hard about doing that, but in the end I decided not to. Not because I want to show loyalty to Stardock. I don’t do loyalty to companies, especially ones that behave in as foolish a manner as Stardock has. I do, however, think it will be quite interesting to watch as they rebuild the game mechanics and content from scratch.
Bah, this was supposed to be a quick modpost. Got sidetracked! I’ll see you anon!
I’ve covered Everquest 2 Extended a little bit already in my previous post, in which I looked at the different sorts of EX2X subscriber level. Today I’ve got an account up and running, and I’m going to take a look through the EQ2X Marketplace to see the differences from Live.
One change that will be immediately obvious to older players logging in is that SOGA models have become the default. SOGA models were an alternative set of character appearances that were added in 2005, mostly for the Asian market. There’s a good Flickr album of them here. They have a very anime feel to them, and you tend to either love them, or hate them. A major complaint I have heard is that they are less customisable, and more prone to weird glitching with bits of the model sticking through solid objects during animations. You can choose whether to use the original or SOGA models on a per race basis. Ratonga don’t have a SOGA model, so I didn’t notice right away.
The main problem with having two sets of models is that you no longer get to decide what your character looks like to other people. If they’re set to use SOGA humans, you look like a SOGA human to them, even if you hate what that makes you look like. Most current players, though certainly not all, predominantly use the original models.
It’s not a massive deal to me, as I can still choose to set all my models to original flavour, and Ratonga are immune to SOGA anyway. Still, it is a bit of a weird change, until you consider that EQ2X is designed to break into the RMT-centric Asian market, then it starts making complete sense. I’m not sure yet as to whether SOGA will also be the default for EQ2 Live. I hope not.
To the Marketplace!
SOE have desperately wanted to be able to sell statted items to us for years, but have felt hemmed in by previous promises that that would never happen in EQ2. Creating EQ2X as a technically separate entity has allowed them to be able to claim the promise is being kept. The problem with that is, as the Live trial is being ended, and new players are being funnelled into EQ2X with no obvious path from there to EQ2 Live, the Live game is likely to dwindle as EQ2X grows.
So, what sort of things can we buy in EQ2X? Of course, EQ2X’s shop has everything that the original shop has, but with some important additions. The exchange rate is 100 Station Cash to 1 US dollar, so I’m going to use dollars going forward for clarity, as using points tends to obscure the fact that you’re spending real money.
It looks like all the rare crafted gear is in there. You can only see gear that is appropriate to your level and class, so on the Armor screen, Level 1 Maltheas sees this:
A full set of tier 1 bronze plate will cost $6. A weapon will cost another $2. Curiously, how much you’re charged for an item does not seem to have much to do with how many resources are used to make them. All these armor and weapon items all require a single rare ingredient, but the price ranges from 50 cents to $2. As we’ll see in a moment, the price of resources rises with tier, so it seems reasonable to suspect that the price of equipment will also be greater at higher levels.
While making all the crafted gear available in the shop might seem to be pretty awful for anyone who wants to be a crafter in EQ2X, fear not. Crafters too can skip all that pesky harvesting by purchasing their ingredients direct from Brell himself.
A stack of 200 common ore will set you back between $4 and $6, depending on tier. Curiously again, some common resources cost more than others. 200 loam, gems, or precious metal will only cost you $2 regardless of tier. Leather and wood cost from $2 to $4.
Rare ingredients are, unsurprisingly, more expensive. They are bought in packs of 5, and in this case a pack of 5 rare ore will cost between $6.50 and $10. Most other rare resource are a flat $6.50 across the tiers, apart from Kaborite and Ulteran Diamonds which are a whopping $15 for 5.
The oddest thing for me about all this is the realisation that I own thousands of dollars worth of crafting ingredients, if I were able to sell them for the same price as the Marketplace.
My concern with anything like this is how the tail ends up wagging the dog. If SOE find that people are willing to buy rare harvests, it will be natural for them to consider how many more they could sell if they tweaked the drop rate down a little bit. RMT becomes central to the design of the game, rather than being a little extra bit of income. Interestingly, even a lot of loyalists who have supported SOE on this journey down the slippery RMT slope are now raising their voices in opposition. Too late, I fear, as such realisations tend to be. “It’s a cookbook.”
There are also the race packs, each containing three races, for $7.50. I don’t have a problem with these in principle, as a F2P game does need things it can sell, were it not for it not being included for the gold/platinum subscribers.
There’s other bits and bobs. One surprise is that you will require a guild charter, costing $10, to form a guild. This would seem to be the case even for gold and platinum subscribers, making that one more additional expense on top of a $15 subscription that EQ2Xers will be expected to pay.
The big reveal has taken place. You’ve probably already read the details, but just in case, here’s Smokejumper’s announcement:
Hi there, Norrathians,
As they say, the one thing that’s always true about the world is that it changes. That’s true of the world in general, the game industry, and it’s always been true with “EverQuest IIâ€.
The very nature of an MMO is change. We listen, we adapt, and the game grows in features, content, and fun factor as the months and years pass. Now, the expectations of gamers and the industry itself are changing around us, and it’s time for “EverQuest II†to spring forward so it can continue to expand and be successful.
Many of you are aware of the free-to-play model that’s being embraced by many of the big game developers out there. We’re not the first folks to entertain the idea for an MMO, but we do have the biggest and best virtual world to offer in such a model and we firmly believe that we can expose thousands and thousands of new players to the world of Norrath if we embrace that concept.
However, before going any further, I’d like to stop and say that we’re tied into what you, the community of EQII players, have said about selling items with stats and how they affect a game where you traditionally earn your way forward. We completely understand there’s a solid core of you that want nothing at all to do with that. We respect your wishes and, as I’ve personally stated previously, we’re not planning any changes to the current subscription worlds at all. Those servers, that subscription service and that gameplay will continue as normal. We’ll continue to support the existing Live service with content, expansions, features, and events…just as we’ve always done. In fact, we’re upping the ante by providing subscription rewards packages for active users that buy multi-month subscriptions, giving them rewards like cool, unique, exclusive items and Station Cash.
But the free-to-play concept is a strong way to expose the world of Norrath to hordes of new players. Think of it as a huge new way to run a “free trial†like we’ve always done, but without the “14-day†limit, and with a lot more content available to try before you decide whether you want to commit to the game or not. We’ve had over eight years to grow this game, its content and its features, and there’s simply nothing else like it out there.
So, we’re about to launch a bold new service named “EverQuest II Extended†(EQ2X). This is a completely separate service from the standard EQII Live subscription service (EQII). It’s aims are simply to attract new players to the world of “EverQuest II†and let them try it out before deciding if and how they want to pay for it.
“EverQuest II Extended†shares all the content and features of Live EQII. It plays the same. It looks the same. It *is* the same, with two obvious exceptions: a) it’s free-to-play, and b) it has a more robust marketplace.
What does “free-to-play†mean? It means that you can download the game and play all of it (except the most recent expansion) all the way up to level 80. Your character is restricted in a bunch of different ways (limited class selection, limited races, limited coin, etc.) and to unlock those features fully, you’ll need to subscribe to Gold level membership. Which, coincidentally, is $15/month. Sound familiar?
What is a “robust marketplace� It’s exactly the same marketplace that you see on the EQII service, but it also adds lots of “convenience†items. Can’t find a good shield in-game? We sell one appropriate to your level and class. Want a healing potion to use in a pinch? Need an emergency buff? Want to shortcut your research time? Items like that are all available in the marketplace. Do we sell the very best items and equipment? Nope. Legendary and Fabled gear are better than what you can buy in the marketplace. Has the game been rebalanced so that you *need* to buy these “convenience†items? Nope. EQ2X is exactly the same game that you’re playing currently on the EQII servers. Those items are just there if you want them. They are true “convenience†items.
There’s lots more details about all of this (and you can find the FAQ at http://eq2players.station.sony.com/…ay/extended_faq), but remember…this only affects you if you want it to affect you. If you ignore EQ2X completely, then your existing subscription, game, and support are unchanged.
If you’re a current subscriber, and you’d like to take a peek at “EverQuest II Extended†on its new Test server, you can jump into the game at the Free membership level by clicking here and streaming down the game client you’ll need. (http://launch.soe.com/eq2x/) This is the Alpha version of the service and its currently only available to existing subscribers so you can see it for yourselves before the public sees it later. The beta launch of the EQ2X service will occur in mid-August.
Whether you check out the new stuff as a Live subscription player, or as an Extended player, you’ll see examples of how we upgrade the content simultaneously across both services. We’ve significantly improved the UI, skill progressions, new user quest content, tutorials, created the “Regions of Interest†system so you can see where your quests are located, and much more.
Enjoy.
It is not what I expected at all. It is going to be a completely separate game, with its own servers and forums. That’ll be good for some people, as it means we can pretty much ignore it going forward. Or we could if game design decisions made to benefit EQ2 Extended were not also going to affect EQ2 Live, which they blatantly will and probably have been for a while in the run up to this. I strongly suspect GU 57’s decision to make a bunch of classes neutral, and thus playable on both sides, has a lot to do with EQ2 Extended’s need to have it’s free classes available everywhere, but as it happens I think it’s a good change anyway.
By making this a separate service, the chance that it will bring life back to the EQ2 Live servers is limited. In many ways, it feels like a missed opportunity. I don’t see it repeating DDO’s success, for a variety of reasons.
If you want to play for free, you’re going to be restricted in a number of ways.
Free Races: Humans, Erudites, Barbarians, and Half-Elves.
Free Classes: Swashbuckler, Brigand, Wizard, Warlock, Guardian, Berserker, Templar, and Inquisitor.
That’s fine. Obviously a F2Per needs to have things to purchase, and additional classes and races are perfect for that. The classes available are ample, though I think including halflings or dwarves in the free races might have been a good thing.
Here is a chart of the different capabilities of the various membership levels for EQ2 extended. It’s ridiculously wide, so you’ll probably need to click on the image to expand it to make it readable:  Everquest 2 Extended Membership Levels. There’s a lot to take in, and I’ll probably revisit this once I’ve had a chance to mull things over. I have one major problem with it as it stands though.
In DDO, a F2Per is restricted in class and race choice, and also in available content, but within those parameters they can be exactly as effective as a subscriber. EQ2 is taking a very different road, and Bronze members will be restricted to the Adept version of any spell or ability, putting them at a great disadvantage to subscribers. Silver members will be restricted to Expert. They are also prevented from using any Legendary or Fabled gear. This will lead to behaviour very similar to Gearscore causes in WoW, where people will be unwilling to take the less shiny sorts of members along on raids and the like.
To be utterly blunt, Bronze and Silver players are going to be gimped. With their inferior spells, and Treasured level gear you would have to be either masochistic, or of exceptionally generous spirit, to want to take them along on anything remotely strenuous. While I can see that SOE would want to put as much pressure on people to upgrade as they can, I think they’ve missed the lessons that DDO taught. People buy extra content in DDO because they’re having fun and want more, not because they have to do it to be able to be on a level playing field. May Rodcet have mercy on the souls of any Bronze members who try to take part in Battlegrounds or other PvP.
If you want to use Master Level spells, and legendary/fabled gear, you have to be at least a Gold Member, which costs as much as an EQ2 Live Subscription does anyway!
It’s also a little peculiar how a Platinum membership costs more than a regular EQ2 live subscription, and they’re still restricted to only 4 races! Who is this for? Surely almost everyone willing to pay subscription level prices would rather play on the EQ2 Live servers? The whole thing seems weird, and I’m uncomfortable with it. This is not an F2P system like DDO or LOTRO’s where you can just buy little bits and pieces here and there as you choose, on a living server that you share with all the different sorts of player, and where being a Premium player (Basically an F2Per who occasionally buys things) is a perfectly viable choice for the long-term. It’s a glorified trial, designed to push people into subscribing.
If you’re willing to put up with being that badly inferior, then you’re probably never going to pay SOE any money for anything anyway. Everybody else would be far better off on a regular server. So again, I ask, who is this for?
However, I dwell on a regular server, where the effects of EQ2 Extended will hopefully be minor, though I fear they may not be if EQ2 Extended proves to be more profitable. Maybe it’ll garner us a few more players, once they get tired of dwelling in the odd Norrathian ghetto that EQ2 Extended is promising to be.
Update. I just noticed this in the FAQ:
Once Extended launches, the 14-day trial will no longer be available to the general public. New players can try the Extended free adventure service instead. However, 14-day trial passes for the EQII subscription service will still be distributed by active players on the live subscription service via the Recruit-a-Friend program. This way, friends can play together on the same server and still enjoy free time. The RAF program will be updated at a later point in time to include Extended invitations and rewards.
This is terrible news for EQ2 Live servers. Our gentle stream of new players coming in from the trial is going to dry up, with them being shunted over to the probably more profitable EQ2 Extended instead. EQ2 Live is going to be cannibalised by its younger sibling. The long-term effect of this could be dire.
The product new players are sent into will cost them more, requiring them to subscribe AND buy races and classes. Sadly, I fear that’s what this is all about. Rather than Turbine’s idea of getting less money per player, but having vastly more players and so making more profit, this EQ2 Extended scheme seems designed to just charge more for the same content.
So, there’s the first big effect EQ2 Extended will have upon the original game.
Update: I’ve followed this up with a look at what the EQ2X shop sells.
GU 57 went up on to Test earlier, and there are some interesting reports coming out of it. EQ2Wire reports that anyone trying to use the Auction House receives a curious error message:
You must upgrade to at least a Gold membership in order to purchase items from the broker.
The assumption is that this is a sign that Everquest 2 is going Free to Play, in a similar fashion to DDO, with multiple tiers of membership. I can’t think of any other explanation that would be plausible for that message to be occurring.
Last year I went out on a limb and forecast that EQ2 would inevitably have to take this step.
I do not think that having both extreme RMT AND a mandatory subscription charge is sustainable. I’d be happy for the RMT to go away, but I think that is not the way the MMO winds are blowing these days.
Given the success of Free Realms, I have a feeling that EQ2 may be making the leap to being Free to Play, supported by RMT, with an optional subscription like Free Realms and DDO have. The streaming technology used by Free Realms has been adapted for use in EQ2 (and was responsible for the dreadful memory issues many people experienced after Live Update 53), and will be enabled at the time of the next expansion to make for a smoother new player experience. We have been promised that there will, at that time, be a great influx of new players, and I doubt that’s going to happen just because they get to start in Halas. My prediction is that Everquest 2 is going F2P. Feel free to poke fun at me if I turn out to be wrong.
I got the timing a bit wrong, but then Halas didn’t make it in time for the Expansion either!
There is, apparently, a big announcement coming from SOE later today. I’ll be watching like a hawk. Whether this is going to work or not depends very much on the exact capabilities of the F2P accounts. If they are too heavily restricted then F2P is just a glorified trial which leads to subscribing. DDO takes the other route, making F2P with the occasional purchase a viable long-term option. That some level of accounts are being barred from the AH entirely is not a particularly great signal, but it depends exactly what a gold account is. If it is equivalent to a DDO subscription then that’s terrible, but if it is equal to a DDO Premium account (One that has bought points or subscribed at any point in its history) then that’s not so bad. Even so, even DDO accounts that have never paid a penny are still allowed to buy from the AH and post a single item for sale on it.
I’ll be back later, once we know what the score is. If it is done right, then I’ll support this move
 Osgard is on a goat. Och Aye!
Get yon axes ready it’s about to go down (yeah, shawty)
Everybody in the place hit the blasted deck (yeah, shawty)
Who ye calling shorty?
Pass the alekeg, let’s go.
I’m on a goat (I’m on a goat)
I’m on a goat (I’m on a goat)
Everybody look at me cause I be ridin’ on a goat (ridin on a goat)
I’m on a goat (I’m on a goat)
I’m on a goat
Take a good hard look at me level 20 goat (goat, yeah)
I’m on a goat oh ye Hordies take a look at me yo!
Straight blastin on me goat around Dun Morogh!
Boostin 60 per cent, wind whippin at me coat!
You can’t catch me ye daft trog because I’m on me goat!
Zoltoon:
Fascinating indeed! You do know that’s actually a ram, yes? A ram being a male sheep, rather than any sort of goat.
Osgard:
….
Zoltoon:
Oh, don’t let me interrupt. Pray continue with your fine song!
Osgard:
Och! Nevermind. I not be feelin’ it any more.
I was never able to afford a mount the first time I played WoW. This time, I easily gathered what used to be a rather large amount of money, five gold, by selling copper ore on the auction house. A single stack of 20 copper ore, which if you have some basic knowledge of where to find ore nodes takes just a few minutes to gather. But that’s real money. As a comparison, by level 20, when the mount and riding skill become buyable, Osgard had gathered about 1 gold through normal means.
It’s not unusual for MMO economies to change drastically over the course of their lives. As the level cap rises, even the junkiest of the loot and quest rewards found at high level become worth serious amounts of money, so low level goods becomes valued by time investment, and the potential value of time increases with every expansion. To a level 80, ten minutes is probably worth significantly more than 5 gold. Anything which is sold player to player suffers from massive inflation, while things bought only from NPCs for static prices become comparatively trivial to acquire.
Which is all good for me, as it has allowed a bit of a mount buying spree for my old characters.
 Skultroon is on a Green Mechanostrider.
Just a little update regarding what I’m up to at the moment, as I’ve been a bit wretched at posting recently. Quite a number of my MMO-blogging twitter pals have been talking about World of Warcraft’s upcoming Cataclysm expansion in recent weeks. The old world zones are going to suffer great upheaval, with a lot of old content being replaced with new content that possibly even more densely exudes a sense of loss and corruption.
It got me thinking that perhaps it might be a good time for me to pop back and see those old zones again before they change. I did not play WoW for very long, perhaps a month or two, so I don’t have anything like the same emotional attachment towards them as I do for EQ2’s older areas. Even so, I thought I would go on one last pilgrimage through them.
This decision was made a lot easier with the knowledge that (once I managed to figure out my old login details, and convert my account to the newfangled Battlenet variety) I had some free time waiting for me, including a ten day upgrade to Burning Legion. In the four years since I last played I had completely forgotten how to play any of my characters, so I deleted and recreated my old Dwarven Hunter, Osgard, last seen being a Rogue/Paladin in DDO, and before that, an Engineer in Warhammer Online. Wherever there is evil to be vanquished, and gadgets to be played with, you’ll find Osgard!
I’m always fond of pet classes. Possibly because I’m lazy, and would much rather have someone else do all that strenuous fighting for me. That someone, for Osgard, is Bjarn; a rare polar bear that can be found in the Tundrid Hills of Dun Morogh, if you can get to him before someone else tames or kills him. He’s functionally identical to every other bear, and I suspect every Dwarven Hunter these days knows about him and tames him, but he was my boon companion the first time I played, so it would have seemed ungrateful to head over to the Draenei lands and tame a giant moth.
 Osgard and Bjarn visit Westfall. I’m about halfway through my ten free days. I’ll be surprised if I resubscribe, but I may do for the lead up to Cataclysm, as it should be rather fascinating to see how well the game and its community deal with such massive change. If nothing else it has given me a few ideas for posts, and my screenshot folder is full to bursting!
Update: This post is obviously rather out of date now. I’ve written an up to date guide for European players who move to the US servers here.
European subscribers to DDO received this in our email today:
Today we announce the next steps for Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Stormreach™ (DDO) for Europe. After operating the European service for over four years, our operating licence has now expired and it is with much sadness we announce our intention to transfer the European game service back to Turbine.
We have been working closely with Turbine on transition plans for European DDO players, and will be helping players integrate into the existing global DDO service operated by Turbine, where they will receive access to the latest version of Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Eberron Unlimited™ (DDO Unlimited).
What does this mean to you as a current European player? It means that Codemasters Online will continue to operate the current European DDO service until August 20, 2010. Beginning August 20th, European players will be able to play the global DDO Unlimited service operated by Turbine. To transfer your character to the global service, you will need to opt in with Turbine. Specific instructions on how to opt in to transfer your character will be provided in a later email.
The last full day of service will be 19th August, 2010. All European DDO game servers will be permanently inactive on the morning of Friday 20th August, UK time. The ability to purchase subscriptions will be disabled and all recurring payments will be turned off as of today. Likewise, the creation of new DDO game accounts/subscriptions is now disabled. For further information, please see our DDO Service Transition FAQ in the forums.
You can start playing on the global DDO Unlimited service beginning 20th August. Just create a free account at www.ddo.com and adventure again in the land of Eberron with no monthly subscription required. With the in-game store, you the player can choose how you pay and play. There are many great changes in the game, including guild airships, new hirelings, and many new adventures. When character transfer becomes available, you will be able to move your current DDO Stormreach characters to the newly created DDO Unlimited account on the new global DDO service. The service is currently available only in English, with additional languages expected by end of year.
As a loyalty and welcome reward, Turbine is offering all current and former DDO Europe players 5,000 Turbine Points (nearly a €50 value) when they transfer their characters to the new global service. The points can be spent in the DDO Store to add adventure packs, character slots to your account, and much more.
It has been a great pleasure for all here at Codemasters Online to work on a game that has brought the wonderful world of Dungeons & Dragons Online®, to the online gaming arena. Over the last four years we’ve had the privilege of working with one of the most passionate and considerate gaming communities we’ve ever seen and we hope that everyone who has enjoyed the DDO European service continues to manifest such attributes when the service transfers over to Turbine.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported DDO. In particular, a special mention goes out to those that went the extra mile, bringing the community the wonderful Stormreach Chronicle, player events and dedicated fan sites.
The Codemasters Online Team
Crikey. I expected DDO Europe to go F2P eventually, but I certainly did not see this coming. It’s not so long ago that Mythic also took control of European operations from GOA, but Codemasters have not really been guilty of any GOA-like mismanagement.
As a Premium player in the US, and an ex-subscriber in Europe, what this means for me is that I’ll be getting 5000 free points, and my old characters back, which is pretty awesome. The 5000 point deal is somewhat more generous than US players received when they went F2P, though there is more content that needs buying now, and the transfer system will be a little more fiddly.
Hopefully two new servers will be opened up with the same names as our original European servers, “Keeper” and “Devourer”, making it easy to keep existing communities together. It would be a horrible mistake to just try to roll the migrating players into the already existing servers, not least because all the good names will already have been taken, which would annoy the already inconvenienced newcomers. Nobody likes having to rename an already existing character, and migrating characters should have first dibs on their character names provided they head to the corresponding server. As I wrote in my last post, DDO could do with some new servers anyway.
I do have some questions though:
1. Will European players keep their Founder flagging, and any pre-order item unlocks for any character created? It might sound silly, but I was very fond of my founder’s hat. It made me look like Batman.
2. How soon will the non-English speaking players have access to the same level of support that they got from Codemasters? The Transition FAQ says “later this year”. That this important part of the necessary support is not ready from the get-go suggests to me that this has been quite a rushed decision to not renew Codemaster’s contract.
3. Will the European servers, if they are recreated, stay in Europe, or will they be consolidated in the US? I do seem to lag worse than my US friends when I currently play, so I would personally prefer it if the new ones were hosted in Europe.
4. What does this mean for Lord of the Rings Online in Europe, which is also currently run by Codemasters? It seems unlikely that they would keep one but not the other, especially with LotRO going Free to play. Will there be a similar announcement from the Codemasters LotRO team in the coming weeks?
Update: There has been the following statement on the Codemasters LotRO forum. Thanks to Gizbyt for the headsup.:
There aren’t any plans to merge the EU game servers with the US ones currently. When we go F2P later this year we’ll still have all the European servers and probably with some new additions to that list!
Update: The transfers have happened now. I’ve written an up to date guide for European players who move to the US servers here.
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