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Thinking about picking the game up.
kilun
Member UncommonPosts: 829
I've bounced around a few mmo's lately, trying to find a nice little one to suit me, and D&D is one I've been looking at lately(might be the 5dollar price tag at gamestop though to boot)
I want some small group experiences, and from what I've read in these forums this maybe the game for me. But, I have at occasional, a lot of 30minutes to play at most, or an hour. So soloing sometimes is a must for me.
Anyone fill me in on the grouping in this game?
Comments
The game is primarily group focused, but soloing is possible once you get the hang of it. Also, a new feature is hirelings, that is a computer controlled ally to help you in quests.
I have played it a couple different times now; not a bad game for the beginning areas - decent graphics as well.
One thing that was hard for me to get used to after playing games similar to WoW and such; is the fact your "mana" doesn't auto-replinish which in the "instanced" parts. you have to either rest at a shire - wich if there is only one shrine liek thing u can only rest one time; or u have to leave the instance/mission area and then go back in.
Other than that; I think if you jst want something else to give a try; I recomend it.
But it for a few bucks, you'll get a month free to try ti out.
Been deciding between trying this game again, eve, or everquest 2; lol. I'm playing and liking WoW but I have always kinda wanted to have two different pay-for games going - isntead of just WoW and a few free games.
Well, this post gives you a basic idea whatthegame is all about : http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/163/view/forums/thread/214759
Next, ifyou do decide on thegame, one word: THELANIS.
THen look me up, I play almost every day. My alts: Trissa, Kleo, sousake, kaname, tnannet, healbotatron, scully, mulder, caboose, oncoming, keatheran,riversong, allura, roselyn, courwin.
THe grouping: this game is all about the team. While you will start out solo'ing several quests on Korthos Island, the majority of hte game is teamwork. It is suited forthe casual player. However, the higher levels you go, the more time you will need. Also quest chains will be hard to complete (say Tangleroot) without two hours of gameplay.
Sayingthat, it isn't that bad, and long hours of playing, especially in a PuG, some raids will be impossible (Titan) while others (say Reaer) wil be a snap. There are explorer areas for you to solo or team up with when time is short.
Wow, you found the game on the shelf! THat's a miracle! Load it up and take it around the block. If you decide on THelanis as your server (and that goes for anyone else reading this and might be interested in playing) lok me up! IF RL doesn't get in the way, Ihave no problem helping new people around the game!
Yes, I am a gamer girl.
Dungeons and Dragons Online: April 2006
THELANIS: Guild: Merc's Only. Trissa, Kleo, Sousake, Mulder, Roselyn, Caboose, Kaname, Scully, Courwin, Oncoming, Lanarissa, Doomlord, Tnannet, Healbotatron, keitherland, Keatheran, Allura, Riversong, Johnsmith, Jennysmith
I also play Star Trek Online and LotRO, on occasion.
Thirty minutes of game time is going to be a barrier in almost every MMO environment. I think the ideal amount of time to get the most out of DDO is going to be closer to 1 hour. The main issue with th e30 minute window is you'll need less things to do, by design, to feel as if you're accomplishing something.
The game rocks and is very solid if you like strategy and dynamics in character building, but you might miss the most of the game with only a 30 minutes to play. Five dollars for a retail copy of DDO is very well worth it. You'll get a full month to find what playstyle suits your limited game time.
I'd recomend the free trial. Try connecting with an active member of DDO who's posting on these forums. They'll likely be able to assist with questions, advice and show you how group dynamics pan out.
The Hirelings add a nice touch to those who want to play solo. Four of us were playing the other night with lvl 10-11 characters and decided to grab a Paladin and Cleric hireling since we were running a quest on elite; ie, effectively a level 14 quest. The players can issue commands to the hirelings such as to heal party members, attack mobs, stay in place, etc. I was a little amazed that the Paladin hireling was using Lay On Hands on us without telling it to do so - very cool!
In my opinion I would say that the ideal game time is 60-90 minutes inorder to complete anywhere from 1-3 quests and enjoy the social aspects of what DDO has to offer. It's highly recomended to get into a guild so you have direct access to others who might have a better idea as to what would be accomodate your game time.
p.s. I'd recomend trying the game for free, but $5 is an awesome deal for DDO that's difficult to pass up. If I saw a copy for $5 I would purchase it as a gift. Paying $4 for a coffee makes the five dollar price tag quite trivial.
Thirty minutes of game time is going to be a barrier in almost every MMO environment. I think the ideal amount of time to get the most out of DDO is going to be closer to 1 hour. The main issue with th e30 minute window is you'll need less things to do, by design, to feel as if you're accomplishing something.
The game rocks and is very solid if you like strategy and dynamics in character building, but you might miss the most of the game with only a 30 minutes to play. Five dollars for a retail copy of DDO is very well worth it. You'll get a full month to find what playstyle suits your limited game time.
I'd recomend the free trial. Try connecting with an active member of DDO who's posting on these forums. They'll likely be able to assist with questions, advice and show you how group dynamics pan out.
The Hirelings add a nice touch to those who want to play solo. Four of us were playing the other night with lvl 10-11 characters and decided to grab a Paladin and Cleric hireling since we were running a quest on elite; ie, effectively a level 14 quest. The players can issue commands to the hirelings such as to heal party members, attack mobs, stay in place, etc. I was a little amazed that the Paladin hireling was using Lay On Hands on us without telling it to do so - very cool!
In my opinion I would say that the ideal game time is 60-90 minutes inorder to complete anywhere from 1-3 quests and enjoy the social aspects of what DDO has to offer. It's highly recomended to get into a guild so you have direct access to others who might have a better idea as to what would be accomodate your game time.
p.s. I'd recomend trying the game for free, but $5 is an awesome deal for DDO that's difficult to pass up. If I saw a copy for $5 I would purchase it as a gift. Paying $4 for a coffee makes the five dollar price tag quite trivial.
Stay out of Starbucks and for $5 you can not go wrong with DDO.
Just FYI, 30 mins is not really enough to group. Once you are experienced with quests it'll be enough for the low/mid level quests, but at high levels you'll need more than that, and as a new player you'll also need more for many mid-level quests.
1h is really the minimum session time for DDO, you can pretty much run anything under 1h, providing you (or at least most group members) have experience with the quest. 1h is also enough to learn (slower) the majority of quests, but probably not the longest ones (you'll need a guide for these if you can't afford more than 1h).
Edit: oh, and soloing is not super-viable in the long term right now, especially for a new player with little resource and no deep knowledge of the game. You can solo just fine at low levels though.
If you want small grouping this game has been excellent for me and my boyfriend. It is the only MMO I have ever resubbed to. I took a little break for a few modules waiting for some mid level content and came back for the hirelings since they now allow us to complete quests we couldn't previously as a two man team.
The game might feel very different to most MMOs when you start it since it is quite heavily instanced and the character creation is much more complex but if you have any experience with D&D character design it will be reletively easy. To make things easier they now have a simplified character creation for those less experienced D&Ders. Regardless I think for $5 you may aswell just get it, there's plenty to do in short bursts of 30 minutes to 1 hour but less to do in this time frame as your levels increase. The only good point to this is that if you are a very casual player it will likely last you a long time before you get to the high level content and your circumstances may change.
I have been playing this game for going on two years now and I still have yet to get a character above level 8 and I play often, I just enjoy rerolling with new character ideas and character combinations so I rarely progress any further than that.
30 minutes is going to be very hard to pull off. Even an hour solo will be rough.
And while parts of this game can be soloed, a lot really can't be soloed by a new person. Among other reasons you simply don't have the money to buy comsumables. A lot of vets will tell you its perfectly fine to solo, but they are buying consumables out the wazoo and spending literally ten times the money you are likely to have.
Also soloing will take you considerably longer. Possibly twice the time. The stuff you can safely spend 30 minutes messing around in would be explorer areas and that will get boring pretty quick.
One of the things to realize about DDO is you can't just stop in the middle. Either you finish the quest or you wasted your time for the most part.
The hirelings will help to some degree. Depends on what class you play. But you can only have one hireling and dungeons are balanced for 4 people. So its not too hard to do the math. Hirelings have limited abilities (ie. a wizard hireling has 4 spells ) and is dumb and equipped in an average manner.
There is no solo content. There is not much in the way of any real solo support, although hirelings is an attempt at it. There is not much in the way of content that can be done incrementally, just Slayer stuff in exploerer areas. Best you can hope for is play 30 minutes and go afk in the dungeon in a safe place then play 30 more minutes later on.
Its possible to solo sure, it is also possible to buy a porsche 911 and drive really fast. But a lot of people don't buy porsche 911s for various reasons.
You might like the small grouping. That is pretty good for the most part. I don't really know why they keep trying to force people into 12 man grind instances though. You might want to look into the "end game" to see if it suits your taste. I personally have no intention of ever bothering with it. But I am a bit worried that level 16-20 will "require" the greensteel items. The progression in DDO is pretty bumpy. Its not a smooth or consistent ride. A level 9 Wizard is worlds away from a level 4 just because of Firewall. And that changes the entire grouping mechanics not just Wizards/Sorcerors. Same thing happens with equipment and things like Wounding/Puncturing items. DPS starts to mean less and less as you get to higher levels.