Jerith|Tony
02-22-2006, 10:33 PM
Hello Lions! Long time no see! I thought I would drop by and give you guys a copy of some of my thoughts and experiences and opinions of D&D Online after having spent many many months in the Alpha and Beta test.
I also want to let you know that I'm organizing Lost Order of Akalabeths Unofficial DDO chapter. (This is not a recruitment post! It's passing information to friends! You mods know me better than that I hope!) If any Lions end up playing DDO it would be pleasing to see you around and to play together as opportunites allow. LOA is planning on the Ghallanda server. The forums are here (http://www.lostorder.com/vforums/forumdisplay.php?f=75). Drop by and say hi if you're going to play on Ghallanda.
Anyway, onto the impressions and information. (And while parts of it may sound to be "damning with faint praise" it is in fact positive. I attempted to be fair without judging anyones tastes.)
DDO is more action oriented than most existing MMO's. This means if you can walk or tumble clear of an incoming attack, it has no chance to hit you. Likewise for you attacking enemies. Your weapon (or arrow) needs to actually connect with your target for you to recieve a d20 attack roll against their armor class. This means if you hit, you can still "miss". It's not as hard as it may seem, but certainly a basic amount of ability to control a character in a "shooter" style increases the fun factor. Attacking means clicking your mouse to swing. Pressing Shift will bring up your weapons or shield in a blocking motion to ward off or reduce damage of oncoming attacks. Detractors have likened it to Diablo click-fest play. There is an "auto-attack" but it feels like a tacked on hash job. Because it is. The combat system was not designed for auto-attacking. It was designed for interactive play where I believe it excels.
DDO translates a large quantity of D&D rules material to a real-time multiplayer game. This translation means things change. Attacks of Opportunity are absent. Spells slots are replaced with a spell point system. Detractors have been known to refer to it as a dumbed down mana system. Many class abilities and feats and skills have not made the leap. Many have been altered noticably presumably with the intention to balance gameplay or make them fun or usable in real-time. Your favorite class or race or feat or skill may certainly not have made it to DDO. The game launches with a level cap of 10. These are hard facts. DDO is also based on the 3.5 edition rules, and is set in Eberron. Factor both of these things into your expectations. Eberron is a largely generic D&D world where everything D&D exists but with a slight twist. Fans of Eberron note that this twist isn't always noticable in DDO. One might say that this game won't please the hardcore, won't please the casual, won't please the Eberron fans, and won't please those who dislike it. They might be right. The game pleased me. I am officially off the hardcore D&D 3.5 gamer list. I'm still going to DM my PnP game twice a month.
DDO graphics are of a quality I would easily compare favorably to Everquest 2. By this I mean some reasonable attempt to portray scenes "realistically" instead of a stylized comic book or film. The heavy use of natural colors and lighting leads to something some have called a drab and dull world of grays and browns. Other colors do exist. The character models are well rendered and animated, probably not the best you've ever seen, but they are of an easily acceptable quality. The variety in appearances seems to be a little bit of a let down, until you consider how few games really go out on a limb for this. After actually pressing random a few times on a character... it's better than I had give credit for at first glance. Like a LOT of other games this could be much better.
DDO does not have wide open ranges available for exploration. There is almost no "get lost in the wilderness by yourself and have a blast finding new things" factor. I say almost because there are a number instanced zones in which you must travel back and forth through to advance through a series of quests. Some of these are large, interesting and dangerous. Do not mistake them at all for "exploration" or "free roaming". Otherwise travel consists of talking to the woman with the quest standing next to the ship. Tell her you'll help her and you load into the instance of the island that the quest takes place on. Everything you do is centered around the only "modern" city on this entire continent. Stormreach. Every quest either starts in Stormreach, or starts in some remote area of the continent you reached by talking to someone in Stormreach. There is also the impression that the entire game takes place in sewers or basements. A lot of quests certainly do. Some of them even take place in ancient ruins that may very well have been someones basement in the distant past. The background for this continent is that it was the ancient home to a lost civilization of giants. The city is built atop ruins many thousands of years old.
DDO quests are instanced, private areas. It's just you and your team. There is no such thing as kill stealing. No such thing as ninja looting. No feeling of exploring a deep dark dungeon teeming with danger that has already been eliminated by the team just ahead of you. People have compared this to Guild Wars in this respect. Detractors add "except this one costs you money to play and you can't PvP." I do not know. I have never played Guild Wars. It is important to note that quests are the only source of Experience Points. Primary and Optional Objectives only. Gone is the traditional D&D concept of getting XP for killing monsters and collecting treasure. Most of your objectives will have monsters in the way of them. Often optional objectives reward you for certain combats or quantities of enemies slain.
DDO is not a game you will be able to play solo. The game is relatively hard. As a level six bard, I decided one evening to go back and re-do some lower level quests, in search of lower level items to give to a friend on his ten-day preview trial. Third and Fourth level quests were difficult to impossible to solo. First and Second were easy unless there was some circumstance that was a weakness for my character.
DDO (thanks to D&D rules) bends and twists the traditional roles. Multiclassing completely changes everything. Clerics can always heal, but are good at a lot of things. Cleric/Fighters can't heal as much, but can fight really good. You can expect Rogues to find and disarm Traps, but the Rogue/Ranger is probably a lot better at dishing out the damage. The balance of levels and many many individual choices for each class is going to affect the characters capabilities in many different ways. Sorcerers and Bards are some of the largest wildcards. They can choose from many spells, but can only ever have a few. If a bard never takes the Cure Light Wounds spell, he'll never ever be a "backup healer". (Wands and Scrolls notwithstanding.)
Time for the brain to rest. You can ask me about anything you like in DDO and I'll try to give you a reasonable answer.
I also want to let you know that I'm organizing Lost Order of Akalabeths Unofficial DDO chapter. (This is not a recruitment post! It's passing information to friends! You mods know me better than that I hope!) If any Lions end up playing DDO it would be pleasing to see you around and to play together as opportunites allow. LOA is planning on the Ghallanda server. The forums are here (http://www.lostorder.com/vforums/forumdisplay.php?f=75). Drop by and say hi if you're going to play on Ghallanda.
Anyway, onto the impressions and information. (And while parts of it may sound to be "damning with faint praise" it is in fact positive. I attempted to be fair without judging anyones tastes.)
DDO is more action oriented than most existing MMO's. This means if you can walk or tumble clear of an incoming attack, it has no chance to hit you. Likewise for you attacking enemies. Your weapon (or arrow) needs to actually connect with your target for you to recieve a d20 attack roll against their armor class. This means if you hit, you can still "miss". It's not as hard as it may seem, but certainly a basic amount of ability to control a character in a "shooter" style increases the fun factor. Attacking means clicking your mouse to swing. Pressing Shift will bring up your weapons or shield in a blocking motion to ward off or reduce damage of oncoming attacks. Detractors have likened it to Diablo click-fest play. There is an "auto-attack" but it feels like a tacked on hash job. Because it is. The combat system was not designed for auto-attacking. It was designed for interactive play where I believe it excels.
DDO translates a large quantity of D&D rules material to a real-time multiplayer game. This translation means things change. Attacks of Opportunity are absent. Spells slots are replaced with a spell point system. Detractors have been known to refer to it as a dumbed down mana system. Many class abilities and feats and skills have not made the leap. Many have been altered noticably presumably with the intention to balance gameplay or make them fun or usable in real-time. Your favorite class or race or feat or skill may certainly not have made it to DDO. The game launches with a level cap of 10. These are hard facts. DDO is also based on the 3.5 edition rules, and is set in Eberron. Factor both of these things into your expectations. Eberron is a largely generic D&D world where everything D&D exists but with a slight twist. Fans of Eberron note that this twist isn't always noticable in DDO. One might say that this game won't please the hardcore, won't please the casual, won't please the Eberron fans, and won't please those who dislike it. They might be right. The game pleased me. I am officially off the hardcore D&D 3.5 gamer list. I'm still going to DM my PnP game twice a month.
DDO graphics are of a quality I would easily compare favorably to Everquest 2. By this I mean some reasonable attempt to portray scenes "realistically" instead of a stylized comic book or film. The heavy use of natural colors and lighting leads to something some have called a drab and dull world of grays and browns. Other colors do exist. The character models are well rendered and animated, probably not the best you've ever seen, but they are of an easily acceptable quality. The variety in appearances seems to be a little bit of a let down, until you consider how few games really go out on a limb for this. After actually pressing random a few times on a character... it's better than I had give credit for at first glance. Like a LOT of other games this could be much better.
DDO does not have wide open ranges available for exploration. There is almost no "get lost in the wilderness by yourself and have a blast finding new things" factor. I say almost because there are a number instanced zones in which you must travel back and forth through to advance through a series of quests. Some of these are large, interesting and dangerous. Do not mistake them at all for "exploration" or "free roaming". Otherwise travel consists of talking to the woman with the quest standing next to the ship. Tell her you'll help her and you load into the instance of the island that the quest takes place on. Everything you do is centered around the only "modern" city on this entire continent. Stormreach. Every quest either starts in Stormreach, or starts in some remote area of the continent you reached by talking to someone in Stormreach. There is also the impression that the entire game takes place in sewers or basements. A lot of quests certainly do. Some of them even take place in ancient ruins that may very well have been someones basement in the distant past. The background for this continent is that it was the ancient home to a lost civilization of giants. The city is built atop ruins many thousands of years old.
DDO quests are instanced, private areas. It's just you and your team. There is no such thing as kill stealing. No such thing as ninja looting. No feeling of exploring a deep dark dungeon teeming with danger that has already been eliminated by the team just ahead of you. People have compared this to Guild Wars in this respect. Detractors add "except this one costs you money to play and you can't PvP." I do not know. I have never played Guild Wars. It is important to note that quests are the only source of Experience Points. Primary and Optional Objectives only. Gone is the traditional D&D concept of getting XP for killing monsters and collecting treasure. Most of your objectives will have monsters in the way of them. Often optional objectives reward you for certain combats or quantities of enemies slain.
DDO is not a game you will be able to play solo. The game is relatively hard. As a level six bard, I decided one evening to go back and re-do some lower level quests, in search of lower level items to give to a friend on his ten-day preview trial. Third and Fourth level quests were difficult to impossible to solo. First and Second were easy unless there was some circumstance that was a weakness for my character.
DDO (thanks to D&D rules) bends and twists the traditional roles. Multiclassing completely changes everything. Clerics can always heal, but are good at a lot of things. Cleric/Fighters can't heal as much, but can fight really good. You can expect Rogues to find and disarm Traps, but the Rogue/Ranger is probably a lot better at dishing out the damage. The balance of levels and many many individual choices for each class is going to affect the characters capabilities in many different ways. Sorcerers and Bards are some of the largest wildcards. They can choose from many spells, but can only ever have a few. If a bard never takes the Cure Light Wounds spell, he'll never ever be a "backup healer". (Wands and Scrolls notwithstanding.)
Time for the brain to rest. You can ask me about anything you like in DDO and I'll try to give you a reasonable answer.