Dungeons & Dragons Online: New Dev Diary

FrankyBones

There has been a new dev diary posted and some significant news about spells.

Here's an excerpt:

Members Only Forum! New Dev Diary!          For the last several months, designers here at Turbine have been wrestling with a sticky problem, and today I want to take the time to give you an update on a decision we’ve made. Just as important, I want to tell you about how we reached the decision. As more and more of Dungeons & Dragons Online becomes “ready-to-play,” we’re spending more of our play time running through dungeons the way the game is meant to be played. This means no cheating by using admin commands like “immortal” and “spell god.” When we stopped using the latter of those two cheats — unlimited spellcasting — we discovered a big problem: spellcasters were running out of spells very early into each dungeon.  - Steve "Xundau" Moy

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vanidor

That problem is what D&D is all about.  Spellcasters must know when to use their spells effectively and when to rest. The rest of the time they need to be scholars and be protected by the group.

LightningRod

I am with vanidor...

They are one of the most challenging yet rewarding classes to play...

A stupid spellcaster is a dead spellcaster...

That is how it should be...tweaking them up is NOT going to balance or improve the game in any way whatsoever.....

They are a class that requires planning and wits - just as one would imagine an actual spellcaster to be...

darquenblade

I think what some people simply don't realize is that there are some aspects of D&D that just don't work well in an MMO landscape. The difference in the pacing of a table top game and an MMO are virtually like night and day.

Don't get me wrong--I'm a pretty hardcore D&D nerd myself, and feel that careful planning and strategy is key in playing a wizard. However, I totally agree with their decision to go the spell point route. Think about it--in a normal D&D campaign, the player conrolling the mage picks out all of the spells he will have memorized before the adventure, thus not really slowing anyone down. Also, the spells he has chosen will also more than likely be enough to get him through the adventure.

Now take the much faster pacing of an MMO, where you're fighting ten times the monsters, throw in the spell slot system, and you have a one way trip to hellish boredom on your hands. Within the span of 10-15 minutes, the wizard player has used up all of his spells, so the party needs to rest. No big deal, BUT as the wizard gains in levels, he begins to take longer and longer to carefully select his spells again. Everyone ends up waiting around for him each time.

Well, to shut myself up, I'm basically saying that porting the standard D&D spell system wholecloth into DDO would result in just waaaay too much downtime.

Nightfyre

Yeah I was wondering how they going to handle this problem. Trying to keep the game true to D&D their isn't a real way to fix this unless tweaking the system. Which will then draw it away from D&D and into Everquest and like games.

You could go Neverwinter Nights way and just let the character sit there and do a speed rest of 8 hours. But that'd just mess up time, and if monsters respawn, so that'd be a little off for this game.

Distribute regen spots, that will restore 1-4 spell slots of your choice. Will then be unusable by that character for may 1 hour to a whole day on outside world, And just usable once in the instance style dungeons.

Anofalye

Why not have both?

 

- A limited amout of spells which are incredibly strongs (to compensate the lack of HPS mostly).

 

- Mana for weaker spells which is what you use most of the time.

 

Explanation:  A caster using a memorise fireball slot should pretty much clean the whole room except for the name(s) who will still be crippled from the spell.  Magic missiles memorise should does insane damage.  However, mana pool and weaker versions of spells should make you similar to a low hps melee player.  So at level 1, you have your few spells who are very strong, and after that you are a ghetto melee(well, ghetto version of archery most likely).

 

Solution 2:  Maybe a used spell could be restored when you meet some requirements(casting 10 times a particuliar spell restore fireball as memorised, earning a specific amount of XP restore Magic Missile, and so on, all differents conditions that must be meet and can be somehow hard to do).  Between missions all spells should be restored of course.

glue

Solo play is something that is often overlooked in many MMORPGs and in my opinion the biggest reason why some are not as sucessful as they potentialy could be.  Look at the sheer facts:

1) People from all over the world play and usually at different times.

2) Getting a group together to go on a hunt can sometimes take longer than the hunt itself.

3) Many players are not able to sit down for hours upon hours to play, some only get their few minutes at lunch or in between schoolwork at home or cleaning and cooking dinner.

 

Point 1 is simply when someone in the US is playing at prime time someone in England is still asleep. Hard to hunt in a group of player if they are not on at the same time.

Point 2 I personally do not find any fun in going to battle something that is dead in 15 minutes - if it takes a group of 5 or so players an hour to get organized. I pay to PLAY not to sit there for an hour waiting.

Point 3 Unles I am lucky I cannot sit down for more than an hour to even play a game, I have housework, a baby to feed and entertain, dinner to cook, and a job. 

Bottom line is if you want players to choose your game it is a must have to be able to cater to the solo players.