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Have players "slowed down" during dungeon crawling?
WSIMike
Member Posts: 5,564
Hello,
I've been popping in on this game, and its forums for a little while now, to see how it's going.
I've tried the game on and off, going back to beta and have had the feeling that the game *could* be a lot of fun...
Unless I was having really bad luck with groups, the type of people playing it when I've tried it out were your highly impatient type, where everything is "hurry hurry hurry!! go go go!! now now now!!".
Every group I'd get into seemed to already have done every dungeon a dozen times and so it was just about "powering through them to get them over with as fast as possible". Every group I'd get into *wanted* to go through them in that manner... stuck in that "rush to level cap" mindset that pervades most very MMO these days.
That kinda "play style" bugs me in MMOs anyway. In an AD&D setting, however... it just seems completely counter-intuitive, and certainly not fun for me.
I realize that this is a video game, and a very different generation of gamers are playing it... so obviously spending an afternoon to finish a single dungeon would be a bit much for many. However, I was in one group, for example, in DDO where people were complaining because 10 minutes to complete a dungeon was "taking too long"; rushing the party through it the entire time.
What I'm curious of is, since many MMOs tend to "shed" all but those who stick around and become their "core" players... I wonder how DDO is these days in that department.
Have players "mellowed out" at all? Or, are many still set on the "go go go now now now hurry hurry hurry" settings?
If there are people who are more interested in actual dungeon crawling - as in really playing through the dungeons instead of racing through to the exit to get their reward - and I can actually *meet* those people, I might give DDO another go.
Thanks 
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Comments
I'm playing mostly on levels 1-6 now. Great number of players from Poland arrived, because I created a torrent with full Mod 8 client and my "Review" of DDO. I help these people out, get them into the game. And they love it!
And as always, you can ask any group leader in the "Looking For..." panel if there will be rush or not (if it's not explained in comment). You're new player and now almost always when I'm in group, everybody slows down for those newcomers. And sometimes even let them lead, even while we some of us know that leader is going to get us in trouble using that switch or that corridor ;D.
Certainly, come and try. Great game now. And Mod 9 is coming, we're very impatient about it ;D. Many changes and new things was already announced - although we don't know anything about new adventures. Turbine probably wants to surprise us, or... they've encountered some problems.
Hard to tell, DDO's anniversary is 28th this month, and excluding character building news, there's silence!
Polish Sword Coast Legends Portal http://www.swordcoast.pl/
SwordCoast.pl Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwordCoastPL/
SwordCoast.pl Twitter: https://twitter.com/SwordCoastPL
Polish Neverwinter Portal http://www.neverwinter.com.pl/
Polish D&D Online Portal http://www.ddopl.com
DDOpl Twitter: http://twitter.com/DDOpl
Great DDO PodCast by Jerry & co. http://www.ddocast.com
Hmm.. That sounds promising
Thing is, I'm not one of those people who tries to tell others "how they are supposed to play". I simply decide whether I can enjoy the game or not based on how many others I can find who share my preferred playstyle (take in as much as I can, be methodical, preferably not power-leveled, etc).
So, knowing this, if I find a group of players who share that playstyle and I can get in with them (and they're not elitist jerks or extremely clique-ish, etc. etc) then I should be set. Just haven't had that fortune yet in DDO.
Maybe I'll give it a trial and see how it is now, before comitting a subscription fee to it.
As for server personalities, which would be recommended?
Thanks again...
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Which server... I'm probably extremely subjective there, but I suggest Keeper. That's the server I speak of. I played on Devourer for some time, but soloed, so I can't tell how grouping there works.
. There are of course some more quiet hours, but generally there are lots of players. Level matter here, but as I said, 1-6 has enough population. And I have an impression there's much more players than few months ago.
As for population... Seems like it has evened out for both servers
Ah... but I play on DDO EU. You're probably from US? If yes, I can't help here, sorry ;(.
Polish Sword Coast Legends Portal http://www.swordcoast.pl/
SwordCoast.pl Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwordCoastPL/
SwordCoast.pl Twitter: https://twitter.com/SwordCoastPL
Polish Neverwinter Portal http://www.neverwinter.com.pl/
Polish D&D Online Portal http://www.ddopl.com
DDOpl Twitter: http://twitter.com/DDOpl
Great DDO PodCast by Jerry & co. http://www.ddocast.com
Which server... I'm probably extremely subjective there, but I suggest Keeper. That's the server I speak of. I played on Devourer for some time, but soloed, so I can't tell how grouping there works.
. There are of course some more quiet hours, but generally there are lots of players. Level matter here, but as I said, 1-6 has enough population. And I have an impression there's much more players than few months ago.
As for population... Seems like it has evened out for both servers
Ah... but I play on DDO EU. You're probably from US? If yes, I can't help here, sorry ;(.
Bah! Guess ya have to move to the States then XD
j/k (obviously)
Well I'm gonna give a trial a go (yet another new account... yay!)
BTW: Checked out your band myspace page.. Was curious.. Is the dude jamming to DT in those vids your bass player? (hard to compare him to the band profile pics, since he's not looking at the camera)..
If so... very good taste in music. "Learning To Live" is a great choice (a personal fav of mine); though I'm partial to the Kevin Moore era stuff anyway. Either way, John Myung is a tough act to follow.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
It's not a mad rush to cap exp as much as the intensity and pacing experianced when players are moving through content at speed of which their characters are able to move. there's a variety of things going on here and it's the players responsibility to identify if the community is good for them. Getting into a guild and/or running with regular like minded people is how you resolve this.
Some of the content in DDO is actually meant to be ran through as quickly as possible. Take Prey on the Hunter, if you're trying to complete that quest in the same sense as a "dungeon crawl" you're going to fail every attempt. Of course if you're not familar with the quest you're not going to understand how or why this is.
If you prefer slow paced dungeon crawls you'll want to find a guild that supports your playstyle otherwise try soloing the content with use of hireling while only inviting others into your group that agree with the preference of the pace you set. When setting up LFM's be sure to list no-zerging as a means to help filter out the type of playstyle you're attempting to avoid. The occasional reminder of no spoilers and taking it slow is also a good means to keep the party on the same page once you've formed the group.
DDO is definitely a 'bring-a-friend" kind of game. Do that and you're set. First time dungeon runs are way too much fun to rush through. I can see how joining a PUG that rushes would spoil that experience.
But for a player that has played a dungeon 5+ times, its very enjoyable to bum-rush the place. So while a new dungeon may be spoiled by such behaviour, the rushing players are simply trying to keep the same old dungeons exciting for themselves.
This is exactly what it is for the more experienced player. Usually by the time you are rushing quests to get them done you are working on a specific build and the lower quests no longer provide much excitement. Slowing down and enjoying them for the 20th simply is not going to happen, but if you start a group and I join and you say you want to go slow or not be guided I will sit back and stay quiet and play with the group.
People do play the quests slowly the first couple of times. Once you know the quest inside and out why go slow? Turbine should have put in a random dungeon creator so many quests would never become old and easy.
I think this is one area that they have been a little slow to enact. For instance, you don't start seeing randomly generated traps until lvl 10 or so. Much of the content below that is going to be nearly the same each time you enter; difficulty will make it play differently due to mobs gaining access to higher level spells and abilities.
It seems that the higher level endgame type of content is starting to recieve more multiple choice pathes to complete a quest rather then a simple Path A to B approach of completion although it's still lacking in a sense that it's something that should be more prelevant. As it is, most of the diversity is through how you form a party of adventurers.