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For Anyone Desiring a Serious Review...
SaintedOne
Member Posts: 118
Okay, before I begin telling everyone about my beta experiences inside the game, I'm going to state just how much research I had done on the game before I actually logged in... I read every interview with the developers and beta managers I could get my hands on. I thoroughly reviewed the website content for the game, and got an in depth understanding of the features of the game - and why they were implemented the way they were. Now, I've read over some of the various posts on this forum about people's experiences in the game and it just blows me away how naive and ignorant some people can really be... I would be very pleased if everyone who just wrote a review of the game and bitched about the PvP or Instancing systems would simply go back to playing World of Warcraft and leave this game for those seriously interested in what it has to offer - and why it offers exactly what it does. So, without further adu, I give you my experiences and understanding of the game...
In Terms of:
PvP - This game has none. Which is fine for me, as I've played 18 MMORPGs now, and completely understand the reasoning behind Turbine's decisions to leave it out of this game. This is an electronic world based after a pen and paper game after all; I've shared in my tabletop experiences with friends, and though we would occasionally battle one another, you never saw PvP on a large scale. I fully support leaving this feature out of DDO - it only makes sense. If you're looking for PvP, go play Shadowbane, WoW, or drool over the upcoming Dark and Light.
Ebberron - I keep hearing gripes and complains about the game world being set in Ebberron, one of the newly introduced campaign settings from the 3.5e world. Now, I no longer engage in tabletop RPGs, but I have a group of friends who do - and who are thrilled about the new setting of Ebberron. As I understand it, it is a magical, vibrant world full of excitement and ambition. You need to understand why Turbine chose this world, and Stormreach more specifically, for the setting of their new MMO. Giving players the opportunity to partake in adventures in such a new world does not limit or hinder their play to map out particular quests that are known from other other worlds. Stormreach is a town in simple passing in the new campaigns, so this gives the developers (and the players) a great deal of room to expand upon the story here. They are less limited to the exact content and experiences that players are used to from worlds of previous campaigns. As well, the player experiences within the Ebberron DDO world are even up for consideration to be included in future books and campaigns released by Wizards of the Coast. So, due to the free ability to expand and be original in this setting, I completely support this choice by Turbine.
Instancing - This feature is such a common sense issue that anyone who gripes about it just needs to be slapped... Now, I've never been a huge fan of completely instanced games (such as Guild Wars, for example), but could not be any more supportive of this being the case in DDO. When was the last time that you experienced a tabletop game with a hundred people? A thousand? How about one hundred thousand? You haven't, as it just isn't a plausible situation... This game has been designed to appeal to small groups of friends interested in partaking upon the quests together. I found plenty of interaction with the other players on the starter isle and in the docks/taverns, that I didn't feel as secluded as I did in Guild Wars. Even with the quest zones being instanced, I found myself feeling more involved in the taverns and towns than I did in Guild Wars, whereas the instance areas were a secondary experience. Having the private adventure within the zone offers options of less lag, less over-crowding, and a more personal sense of accomplishment and adventure with your party. I couldn't imagine a game being based after Dungeons and Dragons being played in any other sense.
Combat - After playing a few hours of the game (and admittedly getting my butt handed to me on several occasions by a certain Dark Follower in some mines beneath the Stormreach Port Tavern), I have to say that this combat system is very innovative and unique. I have never seen anything like it in any other MMORPG to date. The ability to block and tumble is actually a necessity if you want to survive a head on encounter with your foes! No longer can you set your character to auto attack while standing still and exchanging blows with your targeted enemy... You actually need to time and plan blocking, rolling, maneuvering, and attacking to best your foes and preserve your HP! I think the tumbling system and timing between blocks/attacks could use a little work, but all in all, I was definitely impressed in this area.
Connection- To start, I love the fact that you can leave the game engine minimized as a toolbar icon next to your system clock to monitor the servers for updates (and automatically download and install them at your absence). This is a huge step in the industry, in my personal opinion, as I no longer have to anticipate long download times every time I get the chance to play after a patch has been released. Not to mention the fact that the software and game patches downloaded quickly and efficiently, even on my limited internet connection. Now, realizing the game is still in beta, I expected a lot of lag... I remember the first days of the release of Shadowbane, and how we players could not even log in until the second day due to the extreme server issues. This isn't the case with DDO... I did experience some latency issues from time to time, though I expect those will also be worked out by the time of the actual game's release. Even at my worst moments, the lag would only hinder me for 5-10 minutes, then would clear up enough that I could continue on my adventure.
Crafting - This is another one of those plainly obvious issues where anyone who gripes and complains about it should have never even looked at this game in the first place... When was the last time you remember sitting around the tabletop during a campaign and spent hours crafting armor or weapons? If you did, then I'm certainly glad I never partook in your campaigns, as that would have certainly been one hell of a boring time! This game is about action and adventure, not about fine tuning a piece of equipment to get it just the way you like! They are turning your PnP experience into a graphical world online to share with your friends, and as such, they are going to leave out exactly the things that you didn't do around that table - this including crafting. Now, I've spent countless hours crafting on other MMORPGs and love that feature in some of the other titles, but I will again agree with the developers for leaving it out of DDO.
Graphics - I was personally impressed with the graphics of this game. There were no rough edges, and eveyrthing was colorful and well lit, with vibrant shadows and spell effects. I'm running the game on my laptop out here in Iraq, and even with the settings turned up pretty high, I experienced no slow down for doing so. I think Turbine did a great job with their graphics department in the production of DDO - just enough detail and glamour to keep me interested and running my adventure smoothly.
Questing - Whether you are going alone or heading out with a group, I found quests to be very satisfying. I even went through each of the tutorial quests, and was entertained each step of the way to read the detailed help boxes that guided me on my path to success. Normally, a tutorial system in an MMORPG is bland and uninvolving, generally boring and unable to captivate my attention long enough to want to do anything but figure the game out on my own... But with DDO, I actually went through and learned a lot in the tutorial system. I love the fact that whenever you first enter an instanced zone, it tells you the difficulty and time length of the quest you are about to take on. This can be a huge help in determining just how large of a group you should have together, and whether or not you need to ensure that you have enough time to spare to do the quest. Being that I'm deployed overseas and at war, I really can't offer more than a few hours each time I log into the game, so it's great knowing exactly what I get into before starting each quest. I was also a huge fan of the DM voiceover telling me about each area I would encounter in the quest.
Classes - The Character Creation and Class selection process was very interesting to me... I had a lot of fun designing my character to have the exact look that I wanted for him, and was able to fine tune my rogue with the selection of character stats, abilities and feats. I think they did well with their options for races and classes, and stayed true to the DnD rules of character creation here. Very well done!
In conclusion, I think that Turbine and WOTC have done a great job on their soon-to-be-released MMO, Dungeons and Dragons online. They stayed true to the PnP aspects and feel of the game, while offering players a unique experience in a world free to mold and expand upon. For anyone that's a fan of the PnP version of Dungeons and Dragons, I strongly reccomend this MMO; but for any die-hard fans of WoW who need level grinds, PvP, and crafting to keep them entertained in an online game, please - do the rest of us a favor and stay away.
Comments
Nice post... I don't agree with parts of it, but all in all it is well done.
My post is pointless just skip it. Yes, I edited the original.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
....... oh joy. i wrote a point per point answer to this... and it got lost.
Well, in brief:
I came to the game with some interest, being it D&D and an interesting premise and all.
My experience is limited to the stress test and the european beta i am in at the moment.
I understand and agree with the Dev's decision about no pvp, full instancing, Eberron setting and no crafting, they are the right decisions.
The game still sucks. Questing is horrible, Yes, the dungeons are nicely done and all... but soloing is completely out of the question when a 1st level warrior is almost killed by a freacking kobold because he can't hit the beast by rolling 1s like if it rains while the kobold hit me all the time laughing at my half plate, tower shield, AC 19.
I didn't give up. my 1st level cleric get kicked in the ass all the time by a certain "Ironspike" , even by using all his magic and giving it all... no avail. it is the FIRST quest out of the first area, for god's sake.
My wife rogue can't even complete the quests of the first area! So much for soloing a possibility.
Also, the concept of "quest repetition" is even worse than monster grinding! Even better, the devs seems to support this way as their design philosophy as said in certain interviews and proved in thir latest patch (-25% xp for first time completion, +25% xp for third time completion).
So my point? I am NOT against any of the major devs decision about instancing, no pvp, no crafting etc etc, i actually think they are the right ones... But i find the game still not fun. I hope before release they fix those problems i listed before, but seemingly their dev philosophy goes the other way.
Have a nice day
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
Volkmar,
I will agree with your views about the difficulty in soloing... As I stated, I met more than my fair share of deaths down below the Tavern in the Stormreach Port, but did manage to make a friend in the Tavern itself. He, himself, got through the same quest on the first try - so I'm not sure if it's due to personal skill or just complete luck, but he reassured me it was possible (with a lot of well timed blocking). My opinion of this is just the necessity for a better understanding of the combat system. As an avid MMO player, this is my first experience in such a game where I have to pay such particular attention to the detail of my character in combat ; maybe that's why, even in the peaks of my frustration, I am able to give Turbine some credit here. I've always been a pretty good gamer, so it has struck me as odd that it's taking me so long to catch on... But also understanding that my Rogue is only a secondary fighter class, I will continue to push on and try to overcome these obstacles. I'll post more here in the coming days or so as I experience the game more (my time on the servers are limited due to my deployment). You do offer very real experiences and good points in your argument, so I will show some appreciation to your complaints. However, personally, I'm ready to believe that Turbine still has time to polish these problems before, or even shortly after, the game's initial release.
Good and insightful post OP.
I would not call it a review though, more like "first impression".
I've been testing this off an on from September and...
- Instancing
I like how it is used more or less, but I would have liked to see more over world travel handled with instancing too. Let me refphrase that. I would like to be able to take my small group of friends and walk them betwen to towns in an instance and do the things that made D&D fun for me as a kid...like getting ambushed, meeting mischivious faeries and finding secret stashes of goodies. This game lacks that.
- Crafting
While I agree that it is not a despairing thing that it isnt built in, I would have liked to have gotten my cool goodies like in D&D...from chests AND MONSTERS. I cant loot my kills 99.99% of the time. I dont care if they drop ruined or garbage items, I miss that looting kills. Chests are fine, but you want the saticfaction of robbing that pain in the ass kobold...I do at least.
- PVP
I dont care for it, so I am glad it isnt there. It isnt very D&Dish, unless it is like the arenas of D&D, then I am fine with it. That is until they release the *deep booming "James Earl Jones" voice* "CHAOTIC EVIL" expansion. Don't laugh...it is already being talked about as the method for handling PVP.
- Quests
These are so vanilla...I dont know how people love them so. I mean I have seen quests with more flavor, twists and story written up by eleven year old DMs. They are not good...and repeating them is the only way to get ever get to the promised 11+ content that the first major expansion is planned to unlock.
- Grouping
This game has the BEST grouping system I have ever seen. Period. Every role has its place and every role shines in its place. Waver too far from your given role and you will suffer the consequences. I love that about this game and wish such balance was possible in other titles.
- Classess and Races
Because this setting is different several of the old dependable roots of old school D&D player archtypes and races dont feel like they do in the PNP game. That is ok though because they actually feel quite well done for this title. Having run Ebberon but once (the player group of ours tanked it...after I spent a small fortune on books!) I can tell you it is indeed rich and very interesting, but the races and classes feel really keyed down and childs-toylike to me. They still work in the MMO setting though.
- The Controls
I found them fine. Not the best and not the worst I have ever used. My brother, sister-in-law and neice have utterly hated it at times. Especially the fact that tumbling to dodge makes your next attack have a penalty. This system is fine for those that stand still and those that are good at timing their blocks. Most others...well...yeah.
Those are my thoughts. I wasnt going to buy the game, but the girlfriend, brother and neice are getting it and leaving WoW to do so. I will migrate with them, but really didnt find the game apealing enough to leave my lvl60 guild leader in WoW, so I will likely be paying ANOTHER freaking monthly fee.
-Tatsu Oyama
Want my beta code Art?
Nevermind.. you like SWG-nge. I know your tastes lean towards the masochistic.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Tatsu,
Thank you for posting your own review on this thread - it's great to see other beta testers intelligently putting together their experiences, views, and opinions out there for interested players to read.
Everyone,
I spent several more hours in game today, and got a lot better feel for the combat system, the quest system, and the grouping system as well. I wanted to go ahead and share my experiences today with you guys, to further update my review (if I may call it that, Burrek - ha) of the game.
Classes: As of yesterday, I had only played a Halfling Rogue. Today, I started many more characters: an Elven Sorcer, an Elven Wizard, a Dwarven Cleric, and a Human Ranger. I plan to test out some more of the classes tomorrow, and will let you know my experiences with those as well. As for:
The Dwarven Cleric - I greatly enjoyed playing this character. He's currently the most progressed of any of my characters, and is a huge essential to every one of the hunting groups I played him in. I was able to solo some of the earlier quests with him by using the 'Summon Monster' spell to give him a temporary ally. That, plus buffing my Corporel Hound and myself, then using my third slot for my healing spell, I made it through the quests fairly easily. My troubles came when I tried searching for a Healing Elixer in a dungeon full of traps. I partied with a Wizard and a Rogue and flew through this dungeon, and the other two for the Lord in the harbor, before making it to the second area of Stormreach. This class definitely excels in groups, but that should be expected; anyone who plans on spending a lot of their time soloing should not go this route.
The Elven Sorcerer - I'm not exactly the person to turn to when it comes to understanding all of the rules and borders of any DnD campaign, so I wanted to test out the two different spellcasting professions to see which one I found more enjoyable. My first attempt at this was the Sorcerer. This class was a ton of fun... I ran through all of the solo missions with ease, using Burning Hands and Magic Missile. The ability to rush right from one quest into the next was great, as I never had to concern myself with which spells to choose before I went in - though, as I'll state in my Wizard impression, this can be a hinderance also. The Sorcerer had more MP than the Wizard did - I used the same feat on both of them after my initial quest (after earning my first Ability Point), to increase their MP by 20. The Sorcerer came out on top with 220 MP at this point. This made it much easier to fly through the dungeons and kill more mobs before having to rest at a Rest Shrine to recover my mana. This was a very fun class overall, but I've yet to test him in the grouping missions - every class other than my Cleric are at the same point right now (that is, they've done all of the solo quests). I'll update you more on his grouping experience somewhere in the next couple of days.
The Elven Wizard - My experiences with the Elven Wizard were very similar to the Sorcerer, but did have some big differencces. First, I chose Magic Missile (after seeing just how useful it was with the Sorc), Chill Touch, and Shield for his spell line up. I had Burning Hands, Lightning Grasp (or something along those lines), Charm (for Humanoids), and I believe a few more spells in reserve to swap out before quests. Having those extra spells for backup seemed like both a blessing and a curse... It gave me a bigger range of options before going into battle, so this I liked; if I needed to change Burning Hands out for Chill Touch due to an enemy's resistance, I had that option. But I also can't deny the ease of knowing that you're already equipped with what you know whenever you run into battle. After getting the 20 point bonus to MP with the first extra Feat on this character, he came out to having something like 140 or 160 MP - either way, it was a noticable fault when going through the starter dungeons. I can only imagine the hinderance later on - considering the Wizard's spells use the same amount of mana as the Sorcerer's. However, I did seem to be a little more powerful with my Wizard's spells than my Sorcerer's... It took 2 casts of Magic Missile from my Sorc to take down a Kobold, whereas most of the time it only took 1 from my Wizard (sometimes more). Maybe I was just more lucky with my rolls, or maybe the Wizard is a stronger spellcaster..? Chill Touch was loads of fun also... The majority of the time, it would kill any Kobold I cast it on (whenever they were attacking me up close) with one cast. I found it handy to hold down Shift to continually block, and have my Wizard cast while blocking - he would break the block just long enough to cast the spell... This is a little easier than hopping/rolling around with a melee charcter while releasing Shift just long enough to get in a blow or two. I'm going to have to experiment further to see which mage class I really enjoy the most.
The Human Ranger - This class was pretty straightforward... Shoot from afar (often killing mobs in 1-2 shots with his bow), and switch to a sword when they got in close, using what I've learned from the melee combat system to tumble around my foe and release my blocking just long enough to strike when I saw the opportunity. Rangers seem to have a great distance on their archery skills, but this isn't always a bonus - considering the fact that most dungeon rooms are not big enough to keep an opponent from being on top of you within a matter of seconds, no matter where you shoot them from. I got through the solo missions pretty easily, and the ranged ability did make it much easier to get through without losing much life. More to come with grouping experiences.
My question to all of you anticipating players out there who don't have the opportunity to beta test the game, and don't want to pre-order until you know for sure what you're getting, is this: What class/race combination would you like me to try out? Any particiular skills, weapon combinations, armor types (for certain classes), spells, etc. you want me to experiment with and give you feed back on? I'll include a poll with the basic list of classes I can try out, but if you want more further detailed experiments, you'll have to post and let me know. Such as: a Great Hammer wiedling Dwarven Berserker that wears Light Armor. I'm at the mercy of all interested parties, and am willing to try out anything you want to hear about!
Grouping: One of the things I noticed about grouping today (while playing my Cleric) is just how much the experience can either add to or take away from your enjoyment of the game. The problems that I encountered with my group were in the fact that I was playing with random people that I didn't know that well... When I go through a quest and play with a group of friends, I like to take my time - enjoy the experience of the dungeon and such. Most people seemed in a hurry to just rush through things, and this took away from my enjoyment of the situation a lot. If you're going to run quests with a group, make sure their play style is similar to yours - to maximize your enjoyment of the experience.
So far I played a rogue, wizard, paladin, and ranger.
I found each of the play styles to be very different. Yet one common thing is that every one of those classes doubles it's potential in a group (even if it's only a group of 2). It is true that in term of solo potential some classes are stronger yet each one has their role in a party.
Although the rogue is the least liked class in terms of grouping. Having 2...3,4,5,6 clerics is allright, but no more than 1 rogue. Yet a single rogue is a necessity.
The ranger is a really great class and a party with multiple rangers doesn't need a cleric since they can probably kill most things before they do any real damage.
Since wizards have little potential at lower levels I can't say much about them.
I think Paladins are the best solo class and are as usful as a fighter when it comes to groups.
...
Good thread, keep it up.
I'd like to hear your opinion of the grouping and the quests. Since it seems like the whole game centers around dungeon crawling quests in small groups, whether this experience is satisfactory or not is key to evaluating the game.
In particular, I'd like to know:
1) Are the quests interesting or are they similiar to the mindless quests in most other MMOs? Is there more to them than just plow through all the mobs and traps to the end? Are there many opportunities to use stealth and cleverness or is the group's hand usually forced into combat? Are the puzzles interesting or just pull a bunch of levers/push a bunch of buttons?
2) How long does it take to find a group? How much flexibility is there in the feasible group sizes, level spreads, and classes used?
3) How is the community (so far, I imagine it will be different after beta is over)? How mature are the players? How much minimax is there compared to role playing? Do groups take the time to appreciate the dungeons or is it mostly a zerg fest of people repeating dungeons?
Great input, burrek... I think burrek answered it pretty damn well, and his opinions are very similar to mine Redhobbit. If you would like me to elaborate any more than he did, I'll be happy to - but that should pretty much cover your question.
Alright everyone; it's time for my nightly update of my experience today within the beta. I only got a few hours in the game today, but got a good start on the Paladin class over on another server from my other characters. I'm going to post a little bit on the class itself, as well as my further review on grouping, equipment, and quests. Tomorrow, I'm going to take a look at the most voted for class on this thread and spend my time playing it. Enjoy!
The Human Paladin - I decided to try out this class today in hopes that I would run into burrek's rogue, and be able to assist him in melee combat and possibly some healing later on. The class starts off pretty slow, as you're basically just another fighter with a cool name. I did get a couple of class only abilities, but it would appear that you don't get any spells until a little later on. One of the added bonuses to this class over some of the others I have tried out is his extensive weapon and armor proficiency; I was able to pick up just about any weapon or piece of armor I came across and use it without any penalties. Though, I can expect only the same from the Fighter and Barbarian classes, it is a nice addition to being a hybrid Fighter/Cleric (as a Paladin would appear to be). I chose to go with Great Swords and Great Clubs starting out (switching between them based on what kind of mob I was facing). I had pretty easy time taking down mobs with my Paladin (using a little bit of jumping around and blocking). It wasn't rare for me to get through the quests completely without taking much damage at all (not until I tried some of the second area quests after the Miller's anyway). I also had a much easier time taking down mobs with a 2h weapon than when I went with my axe +1 (or war hammer) and a steel tower shield +1. I must admit, however that I did enjoy bashing mobs with my shield (holding shift to block, then right click to slam them with your shield). I also took a little less damage using my shield, but naturally took longer to take down my target mobs. I see a lot of potential with this class, especially once he starts to pick up his spells.
Grouping - Using my Paladin, I soloed all of the solo quests (obviously) and my quest for the scrolls. I never intended on going into a group very early with him, but ran into a guy who was looking for help to do the daggers quest. We hooked up and ran the daggers quest and the elixer quest, as well as the underground path quest that took us (on a more challenging route) to the second area. After that we took on the Miller's quest with some ease and parted ways. The guy I was running with was a Wizard named Cornrow (one of the very few non RP names I've seen in the game, but he was a good guy), so my Paladin grouping experiencce is limited to just that. They worked pretty well together, especially when he would summon a monster to soak up damage while I ran up on a mob from behind and bashed it with my 2h weapon. It also worked well for me to draw the attention of the mob and stand there blocking while the Wizard would cast a spell and take out the mob easily - thus keeping either of us from drawing any damage. I'm sure you could find a similar experience from playing any melee character with a Wizard or Sorcerer as well.
Equipment - One of the benefits of meeting up with Conrow and hunting with him all morning was that he had a level 3 Warrior he was retiring. He gave me a bunch of the equipment the character had, thus enabling me to see just what effects a few various Rings, Boots, Bracers, Gloves, and Cloaks brought (as well as magical weapons and armor). One of the complaints I have about the equipment system is that the only graphical update you get with equipment is from Armor, Shields and Weapons apparently. I'm not sure about helms yet, as I have yet to equip one... However, changing out Rings, Cloaks, Boots, Gloves, and Bracers did not affect my character's appearance in the least; it merely added whatever magical property the item was attuned with to my stats. This severely limits customization of my appearance, and that (in my opinion) is always a negative feature of any MMORPG. I am able to over look it, however, due to my enjoyment of the rest of the game overall. The Magical weapons and armor did seem to make a pretty significant improvement over the standard equipment; I replaced my Greatsword for a Tower Shield +1 and some named Axe that had magical attributes on it. Naturally, it took me a couple more hits to take down my opponents, but I had a pretty good to-hit score, so it didn't take too long. I also saw a wizard with a flaming staff - didn't stop to talk to them about how they acquired it or any of it's stats, but apparently they have added that graphical feature to some of the higher-end weapons in the game. That's always a plus
.
Quests - After finishing the Miller's quest, I ran around the second area of the Harbor (which was much larger than the first). I checked out the market a little bit, and the new tavern (which is a building that floats on the water, and according to a guard, gets washed out to sea every few years lol). I picked up at least 6 or 7 quests from various people (though one or two were above my level, so I couldn't begin them yet), and decided to head into a tower that was on a small island out in the water. My quest here was to recover a stolen book for some magical order. Once I retrieved it however, the place turned into a trap filled, skeleton roaming dungeon - go figure
. My character wasn't intelligent enough to use the magical devices for turning off any of the traps, so I had to work my way around them. The good news is, with some timing and attention to detail, it is possible to avoid the traps. I ran into a few skeletons, some zombies, and finally met my end from a skeletal archer - didn't surprise me though, I went into the dungeon with only like half my health and one potion (I didn't care to run back to the tavern to heal up - another feature I'm not a huge fan of [not being able to heal anywhere outside of a tavern without using a resting shrine, magic, or potions]). I did see a lot of potential for me to solo a few of these quests, however, and some great enjoyment of I were to find a good group and take our time going through to enjoy the content and experience of them. The dungeon I did mess around in (with the traps) was well designed, and offered a lot of enjoyment. I look forward to messing around in some of the other dungeons and posting my experiences on here about them.
Well - that's it for tonight! Sorry that I don't have more to post, but my time was really limited in the realms today. I'll put some more on there tomorrow night, testing out the most voted-for class on this thread! So vote now and let me know what you want to read up on!
If you want to solo you need to master a first person shooter technique called circle strafeing, btw this game is ASS.. KTHNXBYE!
I hope Turbine finally goes out of buisness with this one, and stops polluting the world with their shite.
If they did not charge a monthly fee it would still be a subpar game, this just compounds the the atrocity of it all; and the audacity of Turbine.
Seriously, stop those mongaloid troglodytes before they tarnish the good name of LOTR.
I'm not even going to bother responding to FullMetalAlc's post... It lacks any intelligence or articulate support of his opinion what-so-ever. So, moving on - here's another day's experience in the beta client everyone! Earlier today they shut down 2/3 of the servers and kicked off all of the original beta testers. The only people left were those who have pre-ordered the game, and we were all forced onto one server. It was an interesting change to see so many people running around the town and taverns to say the least, and did cause a little lag... My assumption is that they were testing these networking issues: trying to get an idea of what needs to be worked on in that issue when they have a lot of people playing on a single server. I don't know of any updates they did throughout the day (if they did, they didn't pull down the servers to do them), but I did seem to be experiencing a little less lag as my play time went on. This could have been a result of the time zone difference between Iraq and the states, however... Anyway, I started the morning off (just after my last post) by creating a Rogue. I'm happy to report that I got him to level 2, and that he was the only character I played today. Below are my experiences with him, broken into fitting sections:
The Halfling Rogue - This was my second go at a Halfling Rogue... The last time I created one, I couldn't even pass the last solo mission. However, this time I was a lot more successful (which I am pleased to announce, as this character build was my first choice for preference). I started this one off a little different than the last, as I made him proficient with the two-weapons fighting style at creation (rather than boosting his disable traps/lockpicking a few points like I did the first time around). I figure that the extra damage and effiency will help tremendously in battle - and I was right. I flew through the solo missions with ease, and dropped that son-of-a-bi**h mini-boss of the solo missions in 2-3 hits. Serves him right for all the trouble he gave me on my first Rogue... All grudges aside, I moved out from the tavern and got my first group-friendly quests (for the Healing Elixer, Daggers, and Scrolls). Well, I tried to do the Healing Elixer first solo. I had some trouble - even with my 2 weapon fighting (using a sword sword and a rapier), I was having some trouble taking down the metal dogs down in the sewers. I knew that my only chance of getting anywhere with this character was by grouping. But, what surprise is that really? He is a Rogue after all - built to scout ahead in a dungeon, disarm/find traps, and pick locks. He's a secondary or tiertiary fighter at best. So, I hooked up with two other adventurers and flew through the quests. Over the course of a total of some 8 or 9 hours of playing, I ran with a full group through many of the second area quests; looting dungeons, outfitting my character with a few magical and masterwork items, and even experiencing the voice chat built into the game. The only person who stayed in the group as long as I did was the group leader. The Rogue worked wonderously in this group setting: I often ran ahead of my group in some fights (versus blobs especially, when my dual swords would only make matters worse), scouting the path and reporting mob numbers, chest locations, and objective locations back to my group as they broke open every barrell, killed every mob, and roamed together. I disabled several traps and picked a few locks here and there, and one dungeon in particular (the two Kobold Brothers quest I believe) had such an extensive trap near the end that before my disabling it (the group got ahead of me and tried to risk running it), killed nearly half the party. After rezzing them at the nearby shrine, we continued in and completed the objectives set before us. This is definitely a class for those who love to group, and love to be a huge help to their group. Just don't expect to be one of the higher-end damage dealers or damage soakers in any means. You're definitely a support class, but it is a very fun one to play!
Note: If anyone has any further questions of the Rogue's ability up to the point I'm at, please let me know and I'll be happy to answer them. As well, if anyone wants any further detail on my experiences doing the quests today with the Rogue, I'll be happy to help in whatever way possible.
Leveling - The Rogue I started today was the first character that I've actually leveled with. All of the other characters, the furthest I had gotten was 1st level, 2nd ranking. This was due to my constantly switching classes and character builds to get a basic understanding of how each one felt. When I hit level 2 (other than a huge sense of satisfaction, after going through the 4 ranks of level 1), I got to choose from a different set of feats that were previously unavailable at each rank. As well, when I checked my available feats to train in at each new rank, they seemed to be upgraded versions of my original trainable feats - plus a few more. If anyone wants a detailed list of what is trainable by a level 2 Thief (as well as how I've trained so far), let me know and I'll post them tomorrow.
Loot and Equipment - I read somewhere about how someone complained that mobs didn't drop anything when they died... And even further that when they died, they couldn't even loot the corpse 99% of the time. I wanted to set the record straight: mobs occasionally will be lootable upon death, though it is a fairly rare occurance. And when you do loot them, they don't carry coin or gear - they carry collectable items that you can later turn into Collectors in town for various items (Scrolls, Potions, Throwing Daggers, Magical Armor, etc.); the value of the item depending on the rarity and/or number of items you have collected (each collector will ask for three items: 3 of item A, 2 of item B, and 1 of item C; where item C will always give you the best trade). All of your armor and equipment will come either from trading in these items, looting various chests in the dungeons (some dungeons have 1 chest while others can have up to 5 or 6, depending on the length of the quest), at merchants, or by trading. Also, depending on the difficulty set of the dungeon, this will affect not only the mob levels, trap/lock levels, and xp levels, but also just how valuable those items you loot in the chests will be. Generally, I experienced that each chest held 2-3 items per person, and it wasn't always something you could use (though I did find more use out of looted items than quest rewarded items). I made it a habbit to call out my bounty from the chests every time I would loot one, and would trade/give them to group members who I was running with at the time. Due to my eternal bad luck, I would often find items that would fit the same role (yet be noticeably better) in a chest during a quest that were very similar to a quest reward (example: One dungeon allotted me a magical belt, and immediately after finishing I went back to get my reward - another magical belt). The upside is that you usually get multiple options for what you want your quest reward to be. The downside? Most of the items are going to be worthless to you (who needs a Masterwork Shortsword when I have this magical one I found questing?). Often, I would just choose the most coin worthy item rewardable for the quest then take it over to the nearest merchant and sell it - 100 gold seems like a just reward for my troubles
. I also heard about a 'Pawnshop' that you gain access to after finishing the second Water Works mission... I haven't done so yet, so I can't tell you more than I read about it - and that is, it's a place where players sell their items to an NPC and can buy other items that players sold there. From what I understand, you get more money for your items when you sell, but have to pay more when you buy. I heard that you can find some pretty good items there, but have to pay a good deal for them - I still think that's better than broswing the level 1 weapons at the general store. If anyone has anything to add about their experiences at the Pawn Shop, please do so for interested readers.
Voice Chat - Okay, this was a pretty limited experience, as I don't have a microphone set up for my laptop out here in Iraq... However, my group leader was using Voice Chat to basically keep the group informed on information like what quest we were going to do next, where to meet up, how much downtime we were taking between quests to sell and rest up (and pick up quests), etc., etc. It also seemed like it was a lot easier for him to perform in battle and during the quests - I mean, who doesn't enjoy the ease of simply talking to your group while playing than having to stop and type everything out? Now, from my experiences of using voice chat while playing MMORPGs (Teamspeak on DAOC, Planetside, Shadowbane, and a few others), things generally work really well when you're with a group of people you know (at least in game). Having someone on the channel as the group's leader, designating commands and such makes it a breeze, and having some sort of order so that everyone isn't talking at the same time is great also. Whenever someone has their voice chat activated (to talk, not listen), their class icon on the group list has a little green speaker symbol. And whenever they are holding down their voice activate key to talk, their name lights up green - this can be an easy indicator (for anyone with common sense) not to talk during this time. I see a lot of potential and good things that can come out of this built in feature.
Server Population and Lag - Today's testing with everyone on a single server seemed a little iffy in my opinion... There was just a little too much lag while running around trying to pick up my quests and do my routine business in town. Especially when large groups of people would congregate in the taverns and start casting spells endlessly. I actually had to dumb down my graphics to the default setting (from high) to fix latency issues (where, apparently, your graphics settings will pull from your bandwith). Hopefully Turbine gets on fixing this issue to make the servers more stable for large crowds on launch date. In any rate, I'm definitely going to be looking for one of the lower population servers when I start my characters (though it might be an issue that I'll be starting a few days early with the other pre-order players; hopefully I don't choose one that becomes popular with everyone else that buys it on/after the release date).
That's pretty much I have to add for my experiences in the beta client today guys! If you have any further questions, let me know and I'll be happy to answer them. Unless I see a large increase in votes for another particular class, I'm going to continue my adventurers with the Rogue tomorrow. I'll be sure to check the thread before I log in though.
Should I be offended being called stupid by someone who will pay over $40 for DDO and then a subscription of $15 per month? I think you need to reasses the situation as you are the biggest ass here good sir.
Have you not ever heard of the phrases "it's better to be assumed an idiot, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt" or "arguing on the internet is like the special olympics, no matter who wins your still retarded". I have no excuse for myself as I am fully aware of how stupid I am, but you good sir on the other hand just proved that you are at the very same level if not a even moreso lower then myself.
Honestly I don't care about you or your shitty review, this game is a turd not unlike yourself. When you choose to sugar coat it and revel in how noble you think you are for being able to understand this game that is above anyone elses comprehension, whilst anyone with half a brain in their head who calls it like it is says it's utter tripe. Thats what makes me want to berate you with uncouth remarks for being the charlatan you are, trying to convince people there is worth in something that needs to be burned with fire for it hideousness.
In closing, get off my internet.
P.S. WTFPWND
Back to your cave!
so...
Nice to see you can play online games over there in Iraq... I spent a couple of months there lin 2004 (journalist) and played a lot of civilisation... it was very weird playing a game where I captured cities sitting on oil resources, and battled insurgents... then I got up and looked out the window.. tada!
Back to the points you make: I am glad that someone else is showing some positivity towards this game; the flaming on mmorpg.com almost appears orchestrated (of course it isn't, but it seems out of all proportion).
The major point in favour of this game i, to my mind, is that powers are limited, and have to be rationed out.
That rationing means you have to take tactical decisions, with consequences that last.. at least until the next rest shrine anyway. And you have to work together with others.
I love the fact that soloing is impossible: PLEASE! get over it peeps, if you want to solo, this game is not for you. No point complaining... this game is simply not for people who want to solo. End of story. Basta. Finito.
It should say it on the box in block letters: again, this game is a cooperative game, not for solo play. Complaining about that is like buying a first person shooter, and complaining it has no car racing feature. One more time: This is not a solo game. Get the idea? No? OK, for the hard of hearing: This is anot a game designed for soloing. yeesh.
What that means is that, right from the outset, you get teams of people who are learning to complement each other; not a bunch of soloers who come together on occasion to get the big treasure.
And this game really is about complementing each other... while there is still a little rushing ahead aimlessly, that behaviour gets punished quickly.
Even more, each player feels like they are performing a unique role.. you are not just another source of dps, you are the guy with the grease spell. You may only need that grease spell once a dungeon, but boy is it helpful when you bring it out at the right moment.
People will come around, and if they won't, they will leave, which is great, because that will leave the cooperative and good-natured players behind.
But you are buying a first person shooter! That is the whole problem with this game it's a first person shooter, you can solo if you play it like a first person shooter. Only with this first person shooter they added the inane mechanic of rolling dice anytime you shoot your weapon I.E. swing your sword or what have you. Imagine playing unreal tournament like that?
The dice rolls are there for the sole purpose of stateing to the user that this is D&D which it so is not, not even close. This game would have been better if they tried not to bullshit people by adding useless things out of the D&D ruleset and just made this a guildwars/diablo clone properly. To charge a monthly fee in addition, for this train wreck is more heinous a crime then anything Saddam ever did. Turbine really screwed themselves by letting people try this game in the stress tests so now everyone knows it's garbage. It's not even on the ranking list on this website and it comes out in less then 2 weeks?! what does that tell you? You probably think it tells you, you are special and are more intelligent and can apreciate this game and everyone else is a dim witted WOW player or child.
And that is exactly why people like you are such pompous assholes.
You are lying to yourself if you think this game is worthwhile, or you have an alternate agenda such as a plant or trying to make this game not fail so you have others to share in your misery so they don't shut down your precious little game.
This game is a mockery to all that is D&D and Roleplaying. Nobody wants to hear the truth, because the truth hurts.
Just because you are in the armed forces or doing work in Iraq does not give anyone a free sympathy pass. I won't lie to your face while pushing my own agenda like Geraldo Rivera does when he says he supports our troops.
In the history of the internet this is possibly the most idiotic post I've ever read. I won't bother trying to convince you to play, because frankly, I see that as a good thing.
HELLO WORLD