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Tried DnD Online since I left beta
Enigma
Member UncommonPosts: 11,384
And I still have to say that I am sorely let down by this MMO.
The grandaddy of playable RPGs and for them making their first MMO, they completelty struck out on this one. They havent changed a single thing since beta (well....maybe a couple bugs here and there but that's it).
The character looks are completelty anti DND (even if it is Oberron or whatever the DnD expansion is with the glowy crystals and paladin robots). For example, a halfling looks just like a human except its one half the human size. Halflings in the DnD universe looks more like hobbits than humans half their size. Also, the race selection is pitiful and non excusable considering it's DnD. You choose from Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Glow in the dark robots (I hate those things as playable races lol), and if you hit your lvl cap of 10 (OH WOW) you get to choose a drow (which is the elf with different hair styles and darker skin pallates).
About lvls....yes, there is only 10 lvls in the game. Yet so many people say "yeah, but they're also 4 ranks to each lvl so it's like you lvl 40 times!!! Wrong. When you achieve a rank, you do not lvl up in any sense of the word. The most that happens is you get to choose a small advancement in a proficient area. You do not get to choose a feat, you do not get to raise an attribute score, you do not get to do any of that until you reach the literal next level....which is 1-10).
Others say it takes a while to reach lvl 10. I have to disagree. After 7 days of game play I had a lvl 6 wizard, lvl 7 Fighter and a lvl 6 Cleric.
Every human male looks like they're in their 50s and the male dwarves look like they're in their 70's (give or take a few years), and the male elves look like they're strung out on Methaphantamines and crack cocaine.
The combat model is ok but is scarily reminscient of the new fango SWG mouse attack (unless you decide to auto attack and if you choose that, the chances of you going into a self induced seizure as you whip your character face forward as your mob dances over you like a crazy yoda increases by 45.8%).
Grouping isn't hard to do at all. However, it's not all peaches and cream either. Once you get in the dungeon there is never time to explore as the rest of your party runs off to achieve quest goals like a set of racing cars in the Indy 500. You never really get a chance to fully explore anything...unless you find a grp that likes to explore vs quest racing (which is rare).
Establishing a lasting guild in this game is difficult to do also as literally 9 out of 10 people I met in game in the last 7 days were trial people and when asked what did they think, they're reply was "ehhhh...i dont know yet. It's not the greatest MMO ive played....not worth the current 50 bucks either)
If you decide to go solo, your solo quests are limited to a small area in the city (as the DEVs havent quite yet created the rest of the quests solable) and the rewards in the chests you find if you solo suck in comparison to the items in the chest you find while in group. For example, if you solo you can find a heal pack, rusty thieves tools, and 3 gold. If you grp, your chest could consist of scale mail +1, long sword +1, 55 gold, various rubies and other gems.
If the game was 30 bucks and there was no monthly fee i would probably play it.
However, since the game is 50 bucks with the normal MMO monthly fee attached to it, I'll think I'm gonna stick to NwN2 when it does come out. Turbine really messed this one up.
Big time.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
Comments
I agree with you on most of your points. I'll add a few thoughts of my own:
Enhancements are more powerfull then feats and ruin the game IMO-
Because enhancements are more powerfull than feats it ruins multiclassing- you need the level 10 enhancements and any combo of 5/5 etc. will be very underpowered.
Ive given this some thought - if this game axed the resting in dungeons and brought in some sort of mana/power regen then opened the game up as an explorable world this could be a great MMO.
the only this I would disagree with you about is your statement reguarding the looks of halflings- if you look at the new 3.0-3.5 ed books the "new" look of halflings reflect the half-human look rather than the tolkien-EQ hair-foot halflings.
Lath
I also didn't like the lack of variety. The ONLY other thing to do in the game besides a quest is to buy or sell gear from a vendor. And like i said before, leveling after lvl 3 basicly amounts to doing quests like STK, Storm Cleave, T-root over and over. I know there is no crafting or harvesting or anything like that in PnP D&D but that doesn't change the fact that it makes for a very boring mmo. The 1st month or so was pretty fun but after you've done everything for the 10th time its completely borring. I can't understand how ppl have 5+ lvl 10 toons. Even if the game were free i would have uninstalled it by now.
About the only thing they did right really.
Postmortem Studios
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Personally I love the game and am having alot of fun. I played for a few months after release but left and tried something else for awhile since I am riddled with attention deficit disorder and cant focus on a single game for long. I came back when I saw that they had added Solo play. It's not perfect but at least it gives you something to do if you cant find a group right away.
I will admit, however, that it's not a perfect game. If I had been in charge of development I would have done alot of things differently. Most noteably I wouldn't have confined the players to a single area of the world. One of my favorite things about MMO's is exploration and that is sorely lacking here.
Still, I give the devs credit for trying something other than your standard EQ clone. Plus, I personaly have been praying for a game which moves away from single click combat for years.
...my 2 pennies
I have the same opinion as Drytt. I am enjoying DDO, but I love to explore, and being able to get out into the winderness of Eberron and into dungeons anywhere is something I love to do.
Still, I think DDO is great. I am not a powergamer, so I do not progress through the content quickly at all, and I am not at all upset about the lack of content. I play the game the way I think Turbine meant for us to play it, and the way D&D has been played for years . . . with a group of friends. We play once or twice a week. We take our time and enjoy what the game has to offer, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the same ol' stuff we've experienced over the years.
The problem with DDO is that although there is some good, that good is such a small portion of what would make a great MMORPG that you could only take that good and use it to tweak an almost perfect game, there's not enough here to provide even the barest foundations of a great MMORPG.
I don't know how the game got to Beta in the form it did. Beta should have been enough for them to kill the game or send it back into a full redevelopment cycle. There is not enough here for a solo RPG, let alone an MMORPG with monthly fees!
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I think that's one of the things that kills the game. It does not have appeal for the vast, vast majority of the MMO community needed to succeed as an MMORPG. You then look at the niche it does serve and realize that niche is better served by an older, cheaper product with no monthly fees, which is close to releasing a sequel, once again with no monthly fees, that looks to out do what DDO does best for it's niche.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Maybe I expected too much due to fond memories from plaing Dice and Paper D&D but this game is the biggiest let down for me sinnce SWG
Aang
I used to love to explore a new dungeon - but after doing it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over (And a few more times) again - there is little point into "exploring" - so i do understand all the players who "rush" the dungeon - since they know every little thing about it already.
I never got the point in being inside a guild in this game - there are not "guild" activities to do - no PvP - no ranking - no "special quests just for guilds" - nothing.
The game lacks some sort of "global chat" as well - the only players u can talk to are the ones in ur party/ ur guild and in PMs - which is really lame since there is no "communication" inside the community like this....
The game has some good things - just not enough to P2P for...
sunflame.
I also didn't like the lack of variety. The ONLY other thing to do in the game besides a quest is to buy or sell gear from a vendor. And like i said before, leveling after lvl 3 basicly amounts to doing quests like STK, Storm Cleave, T-root over and over. I know there is no crafting or harvesting or anything like that in PnP D&D but that doesn't change the fact that it makes for a very boring mmo. The 1st month or so was pretty fun but after you've done everything for the 10th time its completely borring. I can't understand how ppl have 5+ lvl 10 toons. Even if the game were free i would have uninstalled it by now.
I don't want to flame anyone, but something needs to be said. This isn't intended specifically for any one poster but in general.
If a gamer says they only ran the most common five out of the several hundred quests that are in place and then gripes about a lack of variety, and complains there is no time to explore because the groups they were in wanted to blitz the dungeons in the shortest possible time, then there seems to be a measure of self defeating contradiction there.
Recommendation: Explore other quests. Get your own group together and try to make it a point to never run the same quest twice in a row. Get your own select group together and adventure a little instead of approaching every MMO in the same old way. Don't just go for MinMax methodologies, go for the adventure and the cameraderie. Get your group toigether carefully, explaining your issue and seeing if they agree. If they do cool, and if they don't then let them find a blitz group. Or just take your time and weed out those you don't want by letting them seperate themselves for you... and keep a list of those you enjoy when grouping your way. Thats why there is a 'friends' list.
Why change games at all if you intend only to repeat your past methodology in approaching them?
It is as if people were disappointed in chess because the methods you won with in checkers don't apply.
Try approaching different games as themselves rather than the last game you misplayed. DDO isn't EQ and it isn't WoW.
Honestly each MMO has a different design, yet it seems like most players haven't sufficient gamesmanship to adapt.
To dream, perhaps to be.
This game gets thrown into my "MMO garbage pile" along with Dark and Light, Lineage 2 and The Matrix Online. Everything about DDO is just wrong.
Spot on as usual Enigma.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
I don't want to flame anyone, but something needs to be said. This isn't intended specifically for any one poster but in general.
If a gamer says they only ran the most common five out of the several hundred quests that are in place and then gripes about a lack of variety, and complains there is no time to explore because the groups they were in wanted to blitz the dungeons in the shortest possible time, then there seems to be a measure of self defeating contradiction there.
Recommendation: Explore other quests. Get your own group together and try to make it a point to never run the same quest twice in a row. Get your own select group together and adventure a little instead of approaching every MMO in the same old way. Don't just go for MinMax methodologies, go for the adventure and the cameraderie. Get your group toigether carefully, explaining your issue and seeing if they agree. If they do cool, and if they don't then let them find a blitz group. Or just take your time and weed out those you don't want by letting them seperate themselves for you... and keep a list of those you enjoy when grouping your way. Thats why there is a 'friends' list.
Why change games at all if you intend only to repeat your past methodology in approaching them?
It is as if people were disappointed in chess because the methods you won with in checkers don't apply.
Try approaching different games as themselves rather than the last game you misplayed. DDO isn't EQ and it isn't WoW.
Honestly each MMO has a different design, yet it seems like most players haven't sufficient gamesmanship to adapt.
Of course I and i'm sure many other people tried to do other quests, and tried to make our own partys to do them. The problem is, like i said, that most of the people who are leveling are leveling their 3rd or 4th character and just want to get the first few levels out of the way asap so you end up frantically trying to fill the spots in your party before the people who already joined get fed up or have to go. Its very hard and takes forever to find people like that who happen to be your level and the job you need, let alone finding a group that can meet the same time every day or week in the same time zone etc. that could take months. On top of that, the reason these few quests keep geting repeated is because they are WAY more rewarding loot and XP wise which is the designers' fault. In other words; your choices are to join the blitz partys or spend 3-4 hours puting a party together to do a 45 min quest for crappy loot and insignificant xp. I don't see how having a problem with this shows my lack of "gamesmanship" whatever you mean by that
Been playing the trial for about 3-4 days. Not a bad game really. I love the ruleset... played it in the 70s... (yea, i'm that old!).... But it's really NOT an MMO, at least in the $15/month category. GW has everything DDO has, plus henchmen if you can't find a group, plus PVP arenas and games, and they are charging zero per month. Follow that up with the soon to be released NWN2, which has a large single player story, the ability to host multiplayer areas, and user-created content, all for zero per month once again... this game is doomed.
It's sad because it is a pretty fun game....but it's just not an MMO in the category with everything else on the market. You can't charge 15/month and have LESS than other people in the market (wow, eq2) and get away with it.
NOW: if this game was free to download, or costs maybe 20 bucks, and it costs around 5/month, then I might sign up. And NOTE, it's not the fact that 15/mo is a lot of money... it's just that it costs 15/mo and it delivers so much less than other games that cost that much.
I think they missed a potential niche by overpricing. All the people who are tired of wow, and want to play a game for a few months till the xpack comes out, or some other games appear. They would pay 20 and 5/mo i think. As it is, they are overpriced. Then they come out with a FREE download and 7-day trial? So now everyone can download it, play it for a week, get a new account with another email, and play another week.... repeating this a few times....while they wait for wow xpack, eq2 xpack, and other games, and Turbine will make ZERO.... actually worse than the 20-5/mo.