| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Mordakay of Thay |
Posted - 09 Apr 2006 : 22:47:58
Hey,this my first post on these forums :D.I don't know if this is the right place to post this,considering its Eberron and all.Has anyone tried out D&D online?Whats your opinion about it?Is it worth it? |
| 23 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Varl |
Posted - 19 Jul 2006 : 01:56:57
I'm horribly jaded when it comes to all of today's MMOGs, DDO included. Grind, level, collect phat lewt, "roleplay", rinse and repeat until your head hits hthe keyboard. Yawn. Bedtime. See you tomorrow. Dewd. 
I played in DDO briefly with a friend, and most quests required a group we found, and our excitement was instantly killed when the first group we ran through a tougher adventure with, literally blitzkrieg'd the place faster than we could barely keep up. Breakneck running around to get to the places they already knew about, and we could immediately tell they had ran through it 100s of times before, so they knew exactly where and what they had to do to complete it. How exciting is that?
My character's epilogue regarding her first adventure in DDO with a group:
"They were pulling us through that dungeon so fast, I don't think our character's feet got wet. I badly needed a bath from the hail of creature gore the leaders showered me with, when I could actually get a swing in and connect before it exploded in front of me, and my shield is a total disaster. I think some of the goo on it has actually fused with the steel because my sword edge won't cut it and just rolls over it, plus, it's really starting to smell."
"I think I'm going to retire from this profession. Tailoring seems safer, and a whole lot cleaner."
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| GothicDan |
Posted - 19 Jul 2006 : 00:53:59
Badassery?
Ah, youth.
Anyway... I run away from this scary discussion now. G'day! |
| Sarephim |
Posted - 18 Jul 2006 : 22:43:38
quote:
Originally posted by GothicDan
No, NO NOT WoW!!!
I like the Warcraft Mythos nearly as much as I like the Realms... I mean Illidan and Arthas are just badassery incarnate. |
| GothicDan |
Posted - 18 Jul 2006 : 22:36:13
No, NO NOT WoW!!! |
| Sarephim |
Posted - 18 Jul 2006 : 22:33:25
Personally I hated this game... for all the reasons previously listed. I expected something grand... and was sorely dissapointed .
*goes back to playing WoW* |
| Chyron |
Posted - 07 Jun 2006 : 08:22:06
quote:
Originally posted by CrennenFaerieBane
Let's be serious... the next build should have Dark Elves...
Ummm...no, don't agree there. If you want to be serious then the next build should have core races like Gnomes or Half-orcs or how about actual Eberron PC races like Shifters or Changelings.
In nearly all official cannon references the drow of Xen'drik are listed as evil. (with the one exception I have found being the module Voyage of the Golden Dragon). And evil is not a playable alignment in DDO...
...so this means that it takes DDO an even further step away from the Eberron campaign setting in an attempt to cater to the drow lovers and Drizzt wannabes rather than make a quality game based on source material. It has also been pointed out that it is simply an easy addition by using the existing elf models and just creating a dark skin palette.
a large drow population wandering freely about Stormreach makes about as much sense as it would in a city like Waterdeep (outside of Skullport).
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| Crennen FaerieBane |
Posted - 07 Jun 2006 : 07:11:06
Let's be serious... the next build should have Dark Elves, and they are moving to a serious upgrade on lvl cap. D&D online has a lot of good pluses, but...
Well, there are still issues on this game. I pray WotC and the publisher help this out and fix all problems.
C-Fb |
| Chyron |
Posted - 05 Jun 2006 : 05:18:36
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
That being said, since there is no real reason to solo, there's no real reason to not go in a dungeon without a full group. That in essence isn't D&D.
While everyone has a different background and their own personal experience, but 1st Ed AD&D was almost always about the 'group'. Most modules are for parties of 4 - 6 players with the standard Fgtr, Clrc, Mag, and Thf being the core for many adventures.
I think the idea of smaller parties and solo content stems more from the Nintendo generation of gaming. And we see this incorporated in 3rd ed rules with a much easier platform for multiclassing...and in games like NWN, where you can sit and instantly rest (in the official mods) in nearly any location, thus diffusing the need for the original group dynamic.
The original intent of DDO was to try and capture this original 'grouping' dynamic from earlier editions...but IMO the 3E ruleset reduces the need and efficiency of classes. The best example of this is the Rogue. Currently it is possible to multiclass with 1 level of Rouge and slowly add to the rouge skills (at cross-skill costs) Disable, Search and Open Locks. Thus really eliminating the need for the straight rogue. (There is currently no exp penalty). This is due in part to a lack of ‘useful’ skillsets for non-rogue classes to choose from. Perhaps this will become less of a problem with expansions, but who knows…
The points on experience are somewhat valid. Treasure also functions the same. (i.e. go to dungeon X with a group of 6, and the chest will give each player 3 items varied between gems, gold, scrolls, mundane items and/or magic items (3*6=18). Do the same run on your own you will fight the same number of creatures, but the chest will still only give you 3 items and the same amounnt of XP. But these rules are in place to ‘try’ to generate a need for ‘grouping’.
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| sleyvas |
Posted - 04 Jun 2006 : 22:01:16
Yeah, I've had about 2 months now to try it out, and I have to admit, there's many flaws. I can complete a 2nd lvl dungeon solo as a 5th lvl player and I get the same experience as if I had dragged along a whole party of 6. Given that the xp you get for a 2nd lvl dungeon is next to nothing, if you solo something you should get a sizable xp bonus (at least triple, although I'm inclined to say 4 to 6 times xp). That being said, since there is no real reason to solo, there's no real reason to not go in a dungeon without a full group. That in essence isn't D&D. If I kill more things by myself, I should get more xp. Some will say that you aren't as challenged with a lower level dungeon, but let me tell you if you aren't a healer you're very challenged by it.
That being said, I was hoping to see prestige classes come out by now. After all its an MMORPG and they're constantly doing updates, right? Yeah, right. So, my whole character base was to eventually become something like an eldritch knight.
The magazine articles I read prior to release that hinted at item creation feats eventually coming out? I'm guessing that won't happen. Oh well, I was hopeful in the beginning, and I'll probably give it another 2 months only based on the name, but for now I'm headed back to EQ2. |
| Chyron |
Posted - 22 May 2006 : 07:38:28
As much as I hate to admit it, SirUrza is dead on in the depiction of the game. I have been playing it about a two months and there is more to dislike than to like. The changes of rules move it too far away from D&D. I like Eberron (not as much as the Realms of course ), but nearly all of what makes Eberron EBERRON is missing. And I have seen more advanced interaction in player created mods on NWN than I see in the NPCs and AIs on DDO.
Now, in spite of all the complaints by the PnP crowd, the developers decide to give us two things which simply add insult to injury: Drow and PVP.
While Drow do exist on Xen'drik, they are typically NE in alignment. As Sir Urza points out, you cannot even select this as a playable alignment....so I will hold out till NWN 2 surfaces...then I will abandon ship...that is if they have a ship...which they don't...all travel is simply a load screen (even EQ1 had a ship).
But I guess there is one good thing that can be said of this 'experiment'...if it does go down the virtual drain as many predict...at least it does not carry the name of our beloved realms with it....Here is to hoping that we can all one day meet online at the The Old Skull  |
| SirUrza |
Posted - 17 Apr 2006 : 02:05:12
It's a poor hack & slash. Dungeon crawling that REQUIRES a party. There's only 10 character levels, and they expanded the XP requirements. For example, a level 2 character in DDO requires about as much XP as a level 3 character in Pen & Paper. A casual gamer will run out of content in about two months, a hardcore game runs out of content in about 2 weeks.
On a hole, Stormreach is SMALLER then the smallest cities in World of Warcraft. Nothing you do has an effect on the world/server and often times you find yourself repeating quests because of the lack of things to do and good loot acquired WHILE in the quests. There's too many "missing person" quests. As far as it taking place in Eberron, do a find/replace in the source code for a few character names and remove Warforge and there's nothing Eberron about this game.
While I prefer the lack of Player vs Player, I don't like that you can't play an evil character and do anything that's evil (like in one quest you find the girl you're looking for tied up. You have the option to untie her or leave her and continue exploring the dungeon. Leaving her tied up just means the quest doesn't complete.) The vendor buying system has no confirmation when buying, you find yourself accidently wasting all your gold on an item you wanted to examin not buy. The character selection screen has no confirmation for deleting, so if you have a brainfart (and soooo many people have apparently) and hit the delete button instead of enter, you just lost your character and it WILL NOT be retrieved by Turbine for you. In game customer support is non-existant. It takes 30 minutes to an hour to get one of the in game GMs to help you, most times they ask you a bunch of questions and then tell you your SOL with whatever bug or error you're experiencing. Most cases this involves high level or long length dungeons that ends up being able to not be completed because something didn't spawned, de-spawned, or whatever causing you to lose hours of game play.
Turbine took several questionable liberties with Stormreach. For example... a level 2 ranger / level 1 fighter can wear Fullplate armor and dual wield because rangers and rogues don't lose their class abilities from wearing medium and heavy armor. As you would expect, sorcerers and wizards have spellpools instead of spellslots. Not terribly horrible except for the fact that many spells in the game are missing or just server little to no purpose. Druid, Monk, Half-elf, and Gnomes are missing. Warforge are hated and shunned. None of the elven subracers are in the game.
The 30 day free trial since game launch has recently run out for most players and the population has noticably. If STORMREACH makes it to the end of the summer I'll be surprised.
I refuse to call this DDO because for all their problems, Neverwinter Nights, Pool of Radiance 2, and Temple of Elemental Evil did a better job of portraying D&D then Stormreach does.
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| Mordakay of Thay |
Posted - 14 Apr 2006 : 23:39:36
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
>>Underdark beneath Thay?Nice.Allways pictured Thay as a less Underdarkish realm :)
Don't ever discount the drow. There's several drow cities beneath Thay which are linked via portals. Then of course, there's the Thaymount with all of the insanity of the ancient lizard culture that used to be there (possibly Sarrukh?). There's also some gray dwarves down there as we saw from one of the recent novels. I imagine that there is probably some lucrative trade between the red wizards and those drow cities for food (from Thayans) in return for slaves (from drow). It may even be that some Thayan slavers use the underdark as a means of transporting such slaves from nearby "local" countries.
Wasn't discounting them,i ment it was a less drow populated zone(wich from what u tell its not):). |
| Crennen FaerieBane |
Posted - 14 Apr 2006 : 23:02:28
Well, on that same point, every MMO gets boring after a while. I have an Elder Jedi on Galaxies that's done everything = boring.
C-Fb |
| Crennen FaerieBane |
Posted - 14 Apr 2006 : 23:01:32
Well, on that same point, every MMO gets boring after a while. I have an Elder Jedi on Galaxies that's done everything = boring.
C-Fb |
| Crennen FaerieBane |
Posted - 14 Apr 2006 : 23:00:54
Well, on that same point, every MMO gets boring after a while. I have an Elder Jedi on Galaxies that's done everything = boring.
C-Fb |
| Mordakay of Thay |
Posted - 14 Apr 2006 : 22:52:27
quote:
Originally posted by CrennenFaerieBane
Just play WoW, it's more bang for the buck overall, and that's a sad thing. D&D should offer so much more.
C-Fb
LoL,I just quited WoW,did all the posible things in it,it got so boring,and the late raids...no thx. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 14 Apr 2006 : 16:01:14
>>Underdark beneath Thay?Nice.Allways pictured Thay as a less Underdarkish realm :)
Don't ever discount the drow. There's several drow cities beneath Thay which are linked via portals. Then of course, there's the Thaymount with all of the insanity of the ancient lizard culture that used to be there (possibly Sarrukh?). There's also some gray dwarves down there as we saw from one of the recent novels. I imagine that there is probably some lucrative trade between the red wizards and those drow cities for food (from Thayans) in return for slaves (from drow). It may even be that some Thayan slavers use the underdark as a means of transporting such slaves from nearby "local" countries. |
| Crennen FaerieBane |
Posted - 14 Apr 2006 : 05:59:24
Just play WoW, it's more bang for the buck overall, and that's a sad thing. D&D should offer so much more.
C-Fb |
| Mordakay of Thay |
Posted - 13 Apr 2006 : 23:13:20
Underdark beneath Thay?Nice.Allways pictured Thay as a less Underdarkish realm :) |
| ode904 |
Posted - 13 Apr 2006 : 06:58:40
I have to admit that D6D Online's only good thing is D&D. As a game it isn't so good. Graphics are
equal to f.ex. Guild Wars, but the requirements are much higher. OK, the game seems to be quite large. I haven't bought it, i was a betatester. I'm waiting for NWN2, the release isin 3 months |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 12 Apr 2006 : 21:11:41
aye, I absolutely understand. working a full time job, playing eq2, handling the wife and step-son, and dm'ing a campaign in the underdark beneath Thay. I SOOOOOOO much want to write a story around Velsharoon, just to feel like I'm still committed, but I don't seem to ever have the time. |
| Mordakay of Thay |
Posted - 12 Apr 2006 : 21:00:28
I'd sure join u if i get it.But i don't know if I have time for it.I have to study for school,play warcraft 3,and work on my campaign(DMing a group in the High Forest area)=(. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 11 Apr 2006 : 21:53:19
I just picked up a copy on Saturday. I'm almost to level 3 now. There is in-game voice built in, which my friends love. I can't get it to work (YET), but I can listen (just can't speak)... and I must say it helps. Its very nice because its not like teamspeak where you have to let people know where to log in... you group with people, you can talk to them. You can only level through questing, and most quests require a group. However, I've never seen a game that made finding a group SOOOOOO easy. Once I was 2nd lvl, I turned on my lfg tag and within a minute had an offer (at 1st level, its a bit harder to find folk).
Anyway, with it requiring you to quest for xp, it means that people coming on and just botting in a killing field to level is out. That's one thing that's growing old for me in EQ2 (a game which I solo in 90% of the time, because everyone can solo and therefore its harder to get groups). Still, I like EQ2 for its graphics, its broker system is wonderful (even a new character can broker items and make some cash), and the fact that I CAN make my own gear.
I am hoping strongly that they soon introduce prestige classes. I really want to play an eldritch knight and I'm building my character with that concept in mind (I'm going 2 levels ranger, then switching to wizard). It'd be even better if they bring in the spellsword, but I'm betting that's not gonna happen.
I've also read in several magazines that they plan to implement the feat driven crafting idea in the game. I would literally LOVE it if they did this. I have a lvl 62 sage, 60 alchemist, 60 tailor, 35 weaponsmith, and 40 provisioner in EQ2. Crafting is a time sink, but there are people out there who have written botting programs and therefore the programmers have to make it time consuming to level up. Therefore, the true crafters like myself find ourselves punished. With the feat system, the person has to be able to earn his own xp in order to make items. Therefore, there won't be anyone able to just pump out 60 of X magic item in order to make cash, because they have to take the time ENJOYING THE GAME before they can make something. Also, they couldn't make a character that has nothing but crafting feats because then they suck at earning XP... which they need to make items. Then they can also throw in that X game time has to pass before the item is made (more powerful items take more time right?) I really hope they do introduce this... nothing would make me happier than to make my own specialized armor for casting and weapons for fighting.
All that being said, it follows the rules in spirit, but it doesn't necessarily follow the rules exactly (some things work well on paper, but not necessarily in a real time game). For instance, the practice of wizards memorizing spells is converted to a spell point system (which I've yet to play with so far). I haven't gone horrendously in depth (being only second level and played only 2 days), but so far its good.
Oh, and graphic wise, its using the graphics from Neverwinter Nights (if you've ever switched to first person view in Neverwinter Nights and looked at your character, the character in this game looks much the same). The graphics could use a little cleaning up for a little less eye fatigue if you play a lot, but they aren't bad at all.
Anyway, because its officially D&D, I've finally broken a cardinal rule of mine. I've actually named my character Sleyvas Of'Thay. So, if you're ever on the Thelanis server look me up.
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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