D&D Online

[Elvtin]

Wasn't there somebody that was in Beta?

I was think'n it was NL...

[Elvtin]

but yah, I was asking cause I wanted an update on what they thought of it and stuff so far. NDA permitting. ;)

[Coplann]

Iam in the EU beta.

its pretty cool imo. combat is more action orientated. I like that stuff is designed for groups mostly, not for zergs. and its D&D which makes it even more interesting (feat/skill/class/magic system).

of course there is no PvP whatsoever, but thats what DAoC is for anyway.^^

[Grundy]

I am attacking the darkness!

[Noleader]

I thought it sucked... that being said I never played D&D before though.

[Murrie]

i cast magic missile at the darkness!

[Elvtin]

Can you tell me more Cop? or does the NDA not let you? :) cause I'm all sorts of curious no how the game play is and everything works.

[Arindil]

There is a free Preview (US) that is taking sign ups now (second preview that I am aware of.) It starts on the 7th and runs to the 10th. A couple DA members are playing the preview for a change of pace, look us up if you need someone to group with.

[Coplann]

Iam not aware of a NDA. ^^

just dont know what to tell you. its D&D. major difference is that you got a mana pool. wizards/priests/rangers/paladins can memorize only a couple spells but cast them as often as they want as long as they got mana, bards/sorcs can cast any spells they know as long as they got mana.

you got pretty much all feats/skills you'd expect. pretty much everything you know from Neverwinter Nights for instance.

the physical attributes/skills have a noticeable effect on how agile your character is (how high he jumps, how fast and long he can swim, how/if he can evade enemy attacks by jumping/rolling arround...).

you always see the D20 rolls for every of your actions and there is a DM-text or voice narrating the story elements of each adventure.

everything is based on instances so far, except for few world/raid-quests that happen in the non-instanced zones.

max level is 10 atm, but its divided in 4 subchapters at which you can select 1 more bonus asside from actually leveling.

you can multiclass, but Id not recommend it until they up the level cap to 20 or more after release.

in a dungeon you can only rest at special shrines, which can only be used once so you have to make smart use of your skills and mana. you can also not use a shrine right after you find it and instead return there later when you are in more need.

if you die and are alone in an instance you are returned to the tavern you are bound in. you can return within 5 minutes to the instance to continue, however you will get less xp then for completing the quest.

all xp gains come from quests, not from killing mobs. its not important how you beat a quest (fighting, sneaking, diplomacy) for your xp.

what else is there to tell?`

well rogues can disarm traps, open locks etc. characters with high skill in detecting secrets wíll get a message if there is something hidden in the area. you got to manually search then with the search skill.

there are also some skills for mob control/taunting like diplomacy, bluff and intimitate.

mages dont have familiars until now. however there are summon monster spells implemented.

so much from me ^^

[Elvtin]

Ohhh.. So Mages are alittle different from NWN..

[Allison]

sounds pretty cool

[Noleader]

i cast magic missile at the darkness!

You are attacking the darkness?!?!

[Inez]

Can you roll to see if I'm drunk yet? :laugh:

[malkovich]

hehehe ... are there any girls there ?!

[Ivyrielle]

http://vnfiles.ign.com/camelot/videos/DnD.wmv

[Rooster]

I actually ran into some nerd at a game-area that insisted he had a reason for a 1 sided die (marble).

:bang:

[Ivyrielle]

o.O

[Coplann]

1 more thing, the caster-feats that increase a spells casting speed or duration or effect/damage etc dont take up a spell-slot of a higher circle like in NWN (like a level 3 spell cast with maximized effect takes the memory-slot of a level 5 spell in NWN). in DDO those feats can be activated and deactivated like stances or auras. if one of them is active all spells you cast will be affected by it, but those spells then cost more mana to cast.

so if you are getting pounded on you can quickcast a heal or something that is then not interruptable but takes maybe double as much mana.

[Elvtin]

Hmmmm.... interesting... thats good to know

[Coplann]

had a group of 3 yesterday (me: cleric, Calain: Gimpadin, nother RL friend: fighter).

was pretty fun. the game has voice chat implemented so you can chat with your group freely without having to run another VC programm. this is needed imo cause the chat interface is pretty crappy compared to WoW or DAoC (if you get telled there is no reply button, at least I didnt find one yet, so you have to /tell <name> all the time).

we did one of the longer dungeons then and lost the fighter on the way. I picked up his soulstone and Calain and me started to search for a rest/res shrine. course we didnt find the shrine, instead some mean boss-mobs (black widow). Calain didnt make it out of the room so only the oop cleric was left. the phat spider couldnt leave the room cause it was only a small gap between some chests open to enter/exist. so the spider sat on top of the wall of chests and gave me dirty looks. I got my starter crossbow out and fired away. took about 10 minutes (only 10 Dex) and 60 bolts to kill that bish. ^^

fighter was back then and I took Calains soulstone. we entered the next room and got greeted by 2 more boss-mobs. which killed us once again ^^.
well, I wasnt dead yet (was lying down waiting for someone to use heal-skill on me for revive). so Calain and the fighter searched for rest-shrine but didnt find any, but of course they stumbled onto more boss mobs (dungeon had 6 boss mobs in total lol). fighter screwed up and Calain died again. then he ran back to entrance followed by one of the mobs (orc or bugbear or so). he died there and started to bitch about how this dungeon isnt worth xp for him anymore (you lose like 20-25% of the xp you get when finishing the instance everytime you release) and that everyone who enters now will be killed by the mob. I was like omgnewbs and released too. went back in.

stupic orc attacked me. I took full use of my heavy shield. had to heal me 3 or 4 times, but pwned the mob. couldnt resist to make a witty comment about gimpy fighters per voice chat. :p

took fighters soulstone and went on. of course the first room I went to contained the rest-shrine. too bad the fighter had already released once again, lol. well, we gathered rested up and continued. couple more mobs. found another rest-shrine (lol) and then killed the boss mobs. still got decent xp imo (Calain got about 800+, I got 1200+).

anyway, was pretty fun. but Iam going to tell our fighter in RL today when I see him how to play. :D

[Eseave]

Played it in open beta, for what I played, was ok, nothing real amazing to me. Same ole mmorp, and there are 100's of them out there.

[Elvtin]

I read an artical in Computer Gamer about D&D online.. Said it was basically group only game if you wanted to advance through it.
Which is how FF11 is. if you want to get anywhere unless you were grouped really past lvl 10.
Is that how your experiance has been so far Cop? You hafta be grouped in order to get anywhere really?