D&D Online

D&D online is scheduled for release next month. I've been looking at the reviews and looking at their website, but I'm still not sure how good its going to be. Anyone here have any opinions or insights?

I think it looks cool if you like questing with a party. If you like to solo or hunt or craft there won't be anything to do. I hate forced grouping so I doubt I'll check it out at all.

After years of playing DND I am going to check it out. I am not so big on forced grouping wither, but then a lot of people from second life are planning on playing it seems, so it may make that more palatble. I think NWN2 is shippig second quarter of this year. I will for sure get that. But I have preordered my copy of DDO.

I'm more looking forward to Turbine's other project, LOTROL. That one at least they're developing to be solo friendly.

I've never been overly impressed with solo play or crafting in an MMO. Both activities are done much better in stand-alone games and when I feel the urge to do either thats where I look.
Solo games: single player RPGs and first person shooters
Crafting games: Sim City, Railroad tycoon etc.

Although wrt to crafting MMOs do offer the opportunity at playing the market, which I think is a very fun thing to do and not easy to replicate in a single player game.

For me an MMO should be focused on interaction with other players. Many recent MMOs are focused on solo play and I found them boring and lacking in community.

Sounds like D&D online may be a good fit for my playstyle.

It's pretty fun, once you start looking for a group. If you have just an hour to play there's not even a reason to log in... just the same as any other MMO. It takes at least that long to setup the group, meet together, and account for all the players before actually doing the quest.

Once you get into the quests it's a lot of fun. It's possible to duo most of them if you find a class that supports you... a Fighter and a Cleric, for the most obvious example.

If anyone else is in beta, i'm on the first server... forget the name, the one that starts with 'O' as Eileene Valentine, level 2 Fighter. wewt.


Another thing that bothers me is the character model for the female humans. Their shoulders are slouchy when standing up straight, and their arms are a bit too long to look right. All the other models look great though, and the graphics themselves are very nice.



As for the MMOs being interactions with other players... why does grouping have to be the 'interaction?' Why can't I log in for an hour and talk with my friends or my guild while I solo some easy quests or craft something? Why is that not a viable playstyle for MMOs? Grouping is hardly that interactive sometimes anyway... "lvl 40 war lfg for tlvm pst" then 10 minutes after joining up... "omg u guys suck im out."

wewt again.

I preordered and got a 10 day beta, but in theory I am also under a NDA and cannot talk about game content and such.

The one thing I will mention is that to really experience it, you should turn your graphics settings up a lot. The default settings reall don't give you a feel for how pretty it can be.

hehe, exactly. What I love about SL is that I can do whatever I feel like whenever I feel like without being penalized for it. I mostly prefer to do my own thing but love doing it in a living world with other real people around me. I like that I can go do something else for a couple of weeks and not come back to find that all my friends are a dozen levels ahead of me and I can't play with them anymore. Give me an MMO where hunting solo is fun, has strategic depth, and isn't a waste of time, where I can go into town and be social when the mood strikes and I'll sign up today. Anarchy Online had the right idea with instanced missions tailored to the size of the party. Now if only someone can do that without them being completely cookie cutter and repetitive.

It's an open beta now, so they dropped the NDA. There is discussion of specific gameplay things on their public forums, so it's not a worry.

I would hope that grouping isn't the only interaction! I have no problem with those other play styles you mentioned, I enjoy them from time to time too, I never said it wasn't a vaild playstyle.

In most MMO games the primary focus is on "hunting" monsters. I find doing this alone rather boring and I enjoy the challenges of doing so with a group of other people much more. A lot of recent MMOs seem to have substitued "action" in place of "group strategy" so that even when you are gruoped with other people there's very little chance or opporutnity to interact, in many ways that is worse than soloing.

Well alrighty then ( the client still makes you agree to the NDA which is why I mentioned it ).

Specifics:
I've been playing around with clerics (hey it's good to get in groups), and they match up fairly well with pencil and paper thus far. The differences that seem to be in play here are the ranks, action points, and 4 enchantments you are allowed to have on your person. Essentially to make D&D levels less of a grind they have 5 ranks in each level. Each of the 4 ranks before the 5th earns you an action point (the 5th is lvl up). The action points are spent on various character improving enchantments that are race and class specific. Like Human Versitility (+1 to all skill checks) or Divine Vitality (Convert undead turning to provide an ally (not you) with spell energy).

The spell energy thingy they went with is a bit different from having x many spells per day. It's much like the optional spell point rules that we see often used in games. You have x amount per 'day' and once you use them you have to rest before you can get more. As an example, I have rather high wisdom, an action point enchantment that increases spellpoints by 30, and a human feat I got at level 1 that increases them by 10 initially and 5 per level and I have 209 points at level 2. Cure Light Wounds costs 10, so you can imagine that I can cast it a lot before resting.

Resting: You can either rest at a rest shrine during a quest or in a tavern. You will rest fairly quickly at the shrine and it will fill up your hp and spell points all the way (on a warforged it didn't seem to heal all my hp sometimes). In a tavern, the tavern regenerates your hp and spellpoints slowly. But you can eat food (hp) or drink (spell points) to regenerate faster.

Magic items are expensive, as they should be. Thus far I'm having better luck finding what I need than buying what I need. Also a lot of the really decent stuff is level restricted even if you have enough money and the skill to use it. I blame this largely on the lack of diversity in shopkeepers, but I expect this problem to sort itself out. Wands are really important because if you're a healer and you run out of energy people start dying. So a wand of cure light wounds is another 50 cures. Blindness removal potions are also insanely useful in dungeons where things can blind you. Essentially because your screen goes black and you're, well, blind.

Questing: If you ever played the pencil and paper and had the DM who tried to do the voiceovers for his villians, you'll get a chuckle over the voiceovers. The quests almost always involve some element of hacking and slashing, but I imagine a rogue soloing could get a lot done sneaking around. There's also pretty good reasons to bring a strong guy and a smart guy with you as sometimes you need to do a str check or an int check (or both in at least one case). Also of note is that each quest is an instance like in guild wars. So you don't have to worry about some other party coming along and pwning the boss you need to kill or ganking the item you need to get. Another thing like guildwars is that loot chests will always contain items reserved for particular players and that a chest will always have items for everyone if that person looks into the chest. There are ALSO plenty of barrels and crates to smash which drop small amounts of money, potions, and ammo that you can ninja loot

Network: So far it looks like they use system much like guildwars where town areas can hold a specific amount of people (which is a decent amount) then they split to a new district and quests will only ever contain your party. You can also leave and re-enter the quest area in progress if you want to (you may take an xp hit for this though, moreso if you had to leave because you died lol). My biggest gripe is that thus far the party chat server seems to go down a lot or something and this REALLY makes it hard to do anything coherently. The voicechat system for parties does work, but people need to realize they need to shut down DDO completely, shut down TEAMSPEAK, then start up DDO, enable voicechat, then restart, to get it working without conflicts or problems. Also, ffs, get a headset. I want a 'strangle idiot' emote animation the next time I hear someone's game sounds :/ (compressed, through a bad mic from tinny speakers, c'mon).

Crafting: Someone on the DDO forums put this very, very nicely. I'll attempt to summerize. The world of eberron has a thriving magical item industry. As such the occasional powerful wizard may produce something of their own, but they're just as likely to buy it on the market to save themselves the trouble. It would be unheard of for an adventurer to attempt to compete in such a well established industry as they would certainly lose money in the endeavor. So there you have it.

Looking For Ham!!!

Its more of an action oriented game than the other MMORPGs out there, plus a Rogue is a Rogue not a weak warrior with stealth that some MMORPGs have.

P.S. I just checked my E-mail and it confirms that the DDO NDA has been lifted and its scheduled to be released on February 28th

Edav, since I am a rogue in WoW (which I like ALOT), could you please detail what you mean on the difference in DDO and WoW in Rogues. You mentioned something the other night in guild chat about it and then logged off so i didnt have a chance to follow up and ask you when i unbusied

for the record, in old school D&D i was a thief assassin and I guess at some point after i stopped playing that class was morphed into a rogue?

for the record, I enjoy the Rogue combat in WoW, i guess unlike Edav. I think with a good build the whole sneaky-ambush-opportunist aspect of WoW Rogue is pretty good. You don't have a lot of armor so you can't last long. If you don't chain and combo your moves right off the bat you are in BIG trouble when out in the open. Certainly no tank and if you play it like a warrior you die fast (although you still can put quite a hurting on)

I'm really getting into stun lock combos, and even the names (such as cheap shot and kidney shot) give plausibility to the strategy of being a sneaky assassin (as apposed to machismo honor bound face to face lets be fair mano to mano ) who would rather take advantage of your weakness than run up to you and brag on your strength. I have been doing a CS-BS-Gouge-BS- 5 point Eviserate combo on mobs my level and am to the point where i take maybe 5% damage on a 1 on 1 with same level monsters.

I just got blind last night before I went to bed so i haven't been able to test that aspect.

Obviosly, in PvP my results aren't that good as far as how much DPS i can give vs. take but thats how it should be.

But i can Sap my way into winning 2 on 1 and even 3 on 1 same level players (and boy am i waiting for improved sap. a well timed vanish and i think i can beat unskilled 4 on 1 players of the same levels)

So, in essence, I am quite happy with WoW rogues, and the way I play the char is pretty much how I feel a rogue should be played. I am quite curious to hear a comparison now that the NDA is gone. I am also curious to hear why you think the WoW rogue class is lacking and where DDO is a more immersive experience.

my hubby played the stess test of this game (last month?). He and I will be playing it. Though he knows that I will be taking a minor role due to wanting to be in SL. We have a guild of friends that have played various MMORPGs for over 7 years together now. So I have to at least do a minor thing. Plus the game looks fabulous from what I watched. Maybe I'll see some of you in there!

I put in my preorder but now I have to wait to start my 10 day beta. At least I'll have a chance to decide on a race/class for the live game.

oh yeah, is there PvP in DDO?

and if so, whats the setup?

nope

I have preordered it and I am in like day 5 or 6 of the 10 day beta. I will definitely be playing it at launch.

no pvp = no mulch

=(

Yes Mulch is all about the killing of the peeps.

my name is based on my old pvper, Mulch Maker

I am a spinning blade that shreds organic matter into pulp

if you were wondering where my name came from...

I'd rather work with people and have fun than work against them and have fun at their expense.

you are missing out!!!

and besides, it is a PvP server, not like they aren't begging to be gutted

Mulch,

I'm just stateing my experience in the beta so far, which I should have made clear in my above statement:

All the nessasary skills of a Rogue are givien to you at the start. No having to wait till level 16 to get lockpicking, 22 to get detect trap and 30 to get disarm trap. You are a Rogue at the beginning. In DDO Rogues are a very essential part of a party, if they want to avoid traps.

Sneaking around is more skillfull, you have to stay in shadows like in the Thief series of games. (Anybody can sneak, its just that Rogues get bonuses for it and Halflings get an extra bonus because of their size)

They more I play it the more I'll know. I haven't played it any since Sunday. Was going to try it today, but they were putting out a big patch and its taken them longer than expected to get it back up.