Annual X-mas Wizards of the Coast Layoffs
Rich Baker @ Wizards Community BlogToday, Wizards of the Coast eliminated my position. I have unfortunately been let go, after more than 20 years of employment with TSR/WotC.
Rich was at the forefront of Wizards of the Coast’s range of Forgotten Realms and core Third Edition D&D accessory books, and author of several novels set in and below Faerûn. He also answered questions about the Forgotten Realms at the Wizards website’s forums – see the below external links. He also headed design on the 4th edition D&D iteration of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, along with numerous other credits for that edition of the game.
Also rumored to be let go was Steve Winter who joined TSR in 1981 as Games Editor.
Right on schedule WotC:
- Dec 2000 WotC Layoffs @ TheForce.NET
- Mar 2001 WotC Layoffs @ Salon – WotC Center in Seattle Closed
- Sept 2002 WotC Layoffs @ RPG.NET
- Jan 2003 WotC Layoffs @ The Seattle Times
- Dec 2005 WotC Layoffs @ Steve Jackson Games Forums
- Dec 2008 WotC Layoffs @ GameGrene.com
- Dec 2009 WotC Layoffs @ ENWorld
- May 2010 WotC Layoffs @ ENWorld
- July 2011 WotC Layoffs @ ICV2 (Also on ENWorld)
You can follow the Dec 2011 Layoff discussion at ENWorld’s Forum.
Nearly an annual trend ever since Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast in 1999 and it looks like there are not many of the old D&D guard on the permanent payroll.
D&D Virtual Table Open Beta for DDI Subscribers
Steve Winter, WotCAs a limited time bonus to DDI Subscribers, Wizards of the Coast is excited to extend an invitation for you to participate in the Dungeons & Dragons Virtual Table Open Beta! The D&D Virtual Table provides an online environment where DMs and players can get together for a session of D&D, no matter where they are in the world. Build maps, create characters, and run private or public D&D sessions. This is your chance to get in on some games and check out the features of this easy-to-use tool.
Playing table top D&D (any edition) is good news in our book! Give it a try and give your feed back to Wizards of the Coast!
DDO Update 12 on Released on November 9th?!
Pwyff of ZAM.comNow I can say you heard it here first...ish! DDO's Update 12 will be officially shipping on November 9th. Stay tuned this week or early next week for ZAM's "much more entertaining than anyone else's*" in-game tour of Update 12!
Turbine has a habit of telling the press sites when a new update will be released, and this time they told ZAM. Confirmed by Cordovan in a few words on the DDO Forums: “indeed” and “With a caveat of unless something happens between now and then, yup!”
Update 12, Open for Business on Lamannia!
KookieKobold, DDO Lamannia CoordinatorLamannia is back online with the first portion of our U12 preview! Come take a look at a few of our new Challenges. Release notes and Known Issues will be posted shortly. (As soon as Tolero finishes sorting them out!)
DDO Forums Still Down!
Turbine SupportAs an additional precaution we recommend that all players change their passwords by visiting https://myaccount.turbine.com. Please remember to use unique, hard-to guess passwords that are not associated with other online services or sites, and always look for and report unusual activity in your account to Turbine customer support.
Update 10/18/2011: DDO forums are fixed and are now up and running!
Hey gang, its been nearly 4 days since the forums went down. Still no word on when they’ll be up or why they went down (only some speculation). But Turbine has updated their Forum Status page and suggested that you change your passwords at https://myaccount.turbine.com/
IMPORTANT: We’ve gotten reports from players getting a Phishing emails asking for your account information! DO NOT click on links from these emails! DO NOT give them your account information! Turbine or any sound company would ask for your account and private information over email!
Never fear! DDO team is active on the Facebook with small news bits. They’re also on Twitter posting riddle games. If you’re looking for a place to post your DDO bugs visit the DDOQABlog on the MyDDO site.
If you’re looking for something to do, you can listen to our latest episode, DDOcast 237, or tune in this Saturday for DDOcast 238 LIVE on Ustream.
DDO Forums Down for over 12 Hours!
TurbineWe have identified a potential issue in the forum system. As a precautionary measure we have disabled our forums while we investigate. We will bring the forums back online when we complete our work. We thank you for your patience.
This from Ten Ton Hammer, LOTRO today:
Earlier today we received an unconfirmed tip that Turbine’s database for The Lord of the Rings Online had been breached. The tip pointed us to tech site Tweaker, which claims that the database for Turbine’s The Lord of the Rings Online had been compromised and was open to anonymous users. The forums for Turbine’s Dungeons & Dragons Online, Asheron’s Call and The Lord of the Rings Online have are currently down for maintenance. Whether or not this rumor has substance and or if it’s just coincidence is unknown at the moment.
Lamannia History: Update 10 Patch 1 Paused
Madfloyd @ the Lamannia Forums >>Everyone,
The train has been stopped. The patch will not ship in its current state.
I will update (probably via a separate thread) when I have more news, but I can say this:
We will NOT require raid loot as ingredients.
We will NOT require bound named items as ingredients.
Many ingredients, and the *amount* of some of these ingredients were out of line.
These changed recipes should have been reviewed by various designers, but weren't (a hole in our process that we have identified and corrected to avoid for the future).
Mournlands did not have an opportunity to see or comment on these changes.
Again, I'll post more info when I have it.
Our sincere apologies for causing panic, and many thanks to all players who offered their well-thought out and constructive feedback on this issue and tried the changes on Lamannia.
"MudFloyd"
This is a historical moment: Play testers on Lamannia actually stopped a crappy update from being pushed to live!
Update 10 Patch 1 on Lamannia
CordovanThe Lammania preview server is now offering a sneak peek of Update 10 Patch 1!
Notable Notes from Lammania Update 10 Patch 1
These release notes were posted on Thursday, July 7th, 2011. These notes are subject to change. Most notable improvements and fixes for Update 10 Patch 1 are
- Items can now be dragged directly from Collectible, Ingredients and other bags into Eldritch, Crafting and other devices. Additionally, Eldritch, Crafting and other devices will pull required ingredients directly from bags when a recipe is selected.
- Several recipes have been removed from the unbound crafting devices, but remain on the bound devices.
- Some crafting recipe requirements have been adjusted to be more in line with other recipes at their level.
- Many higher level crafting recipes have had their ingredients adjusted to make them more challenging to make.
- Crafted items that should bypass damage reduction (such as Holy) will now do so.
- Lesser Vampirism and Vampirism effects can no longer be applied to ranged weapons, since these effects do not work on ranged weapons.
- Ghost Touch crafted handwraps now work.
- The Aura of Menace projected by a Favored Soul’s Angel of Vengeance is now suppressed when the player is sneaking or invisible.
- Greensteel items that were missing their Frost properties now have them.
- The Mantle of the Worldshaper will no longer lose charges when a player hits an enemy with a weapon that has the Vampiric effect on it.
- Items granted by Swag Bag Vouchers are now bound to character.
- Crafting ingredients are now generated separately from normal loot, and will no longer take up a normal loot slot in chests.
- Bless, Scorching Ray, Frost Lance, and Polay Ray can no longer be Enlarged.
- Polar Ray now has its previously-missing double range benefit.
- The effect of Symbol of Weakness will no longer be removed from targets when they leave the area of the symbol.
- Monsters affected by Incendiary Cloud’s blindness effect will now display the blindness symbol over their head.
- Worldwide XP bonuses (such as the bonuses granted during special weekend events) now apply to landscapes as well as dungeons.
Read the full Lamannia Release Notes for July 7, 2011 here and the Known Issues List here. 404error (DDO Dev) wants your crafting feedback here.
You can download the Lamannia client here.
Sad News for Risia Crafters: Craftable Items are not Random Items
EladrinCraftable items are not treated as "randomly generated" by the Risia upgrade system, so those items cannot be modified by it.
Question: Will Risia Ice Recipes work on Crafted Weapons?
Short Answer: No. The Risian crafting alter will only accept randomly generated item. Once you disjunction an item, is no longer considered a random item.