I’m not talking about the Shroud raid which was recently taken offline due to exploits. For my two cents on the matter, it’s one of those “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situations, and personally I like their solution of just taking the raid offline while it’s fixed rather than something more drastic or damaging. It sounds like next week’s patch will be putting the Shroud back open for business anyway.
No, this time it’s the Risia test server being taken down for a bit due to a “secret project” coming soon to the game!
The decision was recently made to close Risia to the public in the coming weeks to prepare it for use in an upcoming DDO project (you may have heard us allude to something big coming down the pipe!). However, Murphy’s Law of MMOs bit us with a hardware failure on Risia on Monday during our regular maintenance. Since the closure was already fast approaching, we re-evaluated our plans and have decided to leave Risia closed for the immediate future. We know this will generate many questions, so we’ve tried to answer a few of them in advance. We’d like to thank everyone for their participation in the preview program! Please stay tuned for more announcements:
Q: What do I do with my Risia installation?
A: You can uninstall the Risia client and delete any installation files. New preview server installations will be incompatible with the current Risia installation.Q: Does this mean there won’t be a preview program any more?
A: The preview program has been undergoing some changes based on play patterns. The active population on our preview servers tends to be very small between updates. Activity picks up when a new Module becomes available, and then quickly dies back down. We’ll have more information about the preview program in the future.Q: Can I transfer my characters from Risia to the live servers?
A: Unfortunately, preview characters are not eligible to be transferred. Risia characters are not up to date with the Live servers.Q: So… this “DDO related project”. Can you tell me what it is? Is it super secret stuff?
A: We can’t tell you just yet, but the wait to find out about it won’t be long! More information about the fate of Risia will be available early this coming Year!Source
The response to the second question mentioning active population on the test server is identical to one of the Q&A’s back when Turbine decided to keep LOTRO’s Roheryn test server offline except for when new content was uploaded to it. I predict DDO’s Risia test server will resume on a similar schedule.
As for the “secret project” that’s anyone’s guess right now. Turbine said months ago they had big plans for DDO. The recent Module 8 with its New Player Experience was the first step in that direction. They’ve also committed to renovating more of Stormreach (and the older content?) but I’m curious what the big secret is. Expansion-quality content such as a new city in one of the other areas of Eberron? Public landscape areas with quests, mobs, etc.? The ability to contract multiple Hirelings at once like Guild Wars’ Heroes?
I’m anxious to find out what’s happenin’…
Tags: DDO
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