Dungeons & Dragons Online: Launch Date Announced, NDA Dropped

MikeB · July 2009

Turbine has set the launch date for Dungeons & Dragons Eberron Unlimited, in an announcement made by the company today. The game is penciled in for an August 6th, 2009 launch.

In addition to the announcement, the NDA has also been lifted on the Dungeons & Dragons Eberron Unlimited beta. So with the flood gates now opened, share your information and screenshots with us on the forums!

To celebrate today's announcement we've got 13 new screenshots of the game. Check them out here!

For more screenshots of Dungeons & Dragons Online, take a peek at our full gallery.

coffee · July 2009

Ill be sure to check it out, on release it was just a small town with a few instances leading off it.. defo not worth a subscription.. but now its free who can complain (just hope the paid shop does not handout advantages to players).

tanek · July 2009

Originally posted by coffee

Ill be sure to check it out, on release it was just a small town with a few instances leading off it.. defo not worth a subscription.. but now its free who can complain (just hope the paid shop does not handout advantages to players).

I think most people have been ok with the offerings in the DDO shop. Sure there is the near-standard xp potion (3-hour and 6-hour varieties) and you can purchase "perks" like additional hirelings (although managing more than one at a time is, from most accounts, a bit of a nightmare) or a limited-use rest shrine, but for the most part a free player is not at much of a disadvantage without these things.

The one thing I am still trying to determine (and Turbine is as well, according to the requested feedback) is whether the leveling sigils are something a free player can reasonably expect to find without purchasing them from the shop. If they are and it is more a convenience thing to buy them, fine. If it becomes near to impossible to find one so you can access the next levels, then we may be in the situation where a bit more will be locked behind the Turbine Points than some players expect.

The developers have been listening to beta feedback, though, and have already made changes a few times based on what players have said, so I believe they will be turnign out a fairly balanced product come launch time.

C8SWE9 · July 2009

Where is the announcement from Turbine about the NDA being lifted? I can't see anything about that in the announcement about a launchdate on their website. Perhaps it is on their forum before the maintainance they are currently doing (so I can't check at the moment). If I were a beta tester I'd keep my info to myself until I heard/read about the NDA being lifted straight from Turbine. (it was on the forum)

Sarr · July 2009

Originally posted by tanek

Originally posted by coffee

Ill be sure to check it out, on release it was just a small town with a few instances leading off it.. defo not worth a subscription.. but now its free who can complain (just hope the paid shop does not handout advantages to players).

I think most people have been ok with the offerings in the DDO shop. Sure there is the near-standard xp potion (3-hour and 6-hour varieties) and you can purchase "perks" like additional hirelings (although managing more than one at a time is, from most accounts, a bit of a nightmare) or a limited-use rest shrine, but for the most part a free player is not at much of a disadvantage without these things.

The one thing I am still trying to determine (and Turbine is as well, according to the requested feedback) is whether the leveling sigils are something a free player can reasonably expect to find without purchasing them from the shop. If they are and it is more a convenience thing to buy them, fine. If it becomes near to impossible to find one so you can access the next levels, then we may be in the situation where a bit more will be locked behind the Turbine Points than some players expect.

The developers have been listening to beta feedback, though, and have already made changes a few times based on what players have said, so I believe they will be turnign out a fairly balanced product come launch time.

People who I spoke to never had a probem with leveling sigils . I think the most restrictive thing is having just 2 character slots by default, other than that, it looks great.

I think D&D Online will shake the ground tremendoulsy. DDO was never so polished, big and fleshed out overall. It's a game better than ever, that could sutain itself having subcription. But that way I think all will benefit - less cash from each player, but there will be likely 10x more players than before - or even more.

Don't be suprised if there are log-in queues at launch . People from all over the world are generally very positive about this game, and most of them played other MMOs (including WoW) before.

Just take my warning - this is NOT WoW-like game. If you'll try to zerg / rush like in WoW, you're dead already. This game is challenging, no less in F2P than how it was before. Just solo-ability rose to the highest level than ever, thanks to difficulty scaling.

tanek · July 2009

Originally posted by C8SWE9

Where is the announcement from Turbine about the NDA being lifted? I can't see anything about that in the announcement about a launchdate on their website. Perhaps it is on their forum before the maintainance they are currently doing (so I can't check at the moment). If I were a beta tester I'd keep my info to myself until I heard/read about the NDA being lifted straight from Turbine.

I don't know if it was anywhere else, but it was clearly posted in the Beta forums this morning by the Turbine CM Patience.

Mrbloodworth · July 2009

Originally posted by tanek

Originally posted by C8SWE9

Where is the announcement from Turbine about the NDA being lifted? I can't see anything about that in the announcement about a launchdate on their website. Perhaps it is on their forum before the maintainance they are currently doing (so I can't check at the moment). If I were a beta tester I'd keep my info to myself until I heard/read about the NDA being lifted straight from Turbine.

I don't know if it was anywhere else, but it was clearly posted in the Beta forums this morning by the Turbine poster Patience.

That's uh, not clear. lol.

tanek · July 2009

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by tanek

Originally posted by C8SWE9

Where is the announcement from Turbine about the NDA being lifted? I can't see anything about that in the announcement about a launchdate on their website. Perhaps it is on their forum before the maintainance they are currently doing (so I can't check at the moment). If I were a beta tester I'd keep my info to myself until I heard/read about the NDA being lifted straight from Turbine.

I don't know if it was anywhere else, but it was clearly posted in the Beta forums this morning by the Turbine poster Patience.

That's uh, not clear. lol.

I was just pointing out that, as a Beta tester, I have already seen the announcement "straight from Turbine".

Edit: and here you can see a brief announcement on the regular forums letting the rest of the community know the NDA is lifted:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=190593

[Deleted User] · July 2009

The user and all related content has been deleted.

maacaaviityy · July 2009

Originally posted by solareus

Fileplanet has early access right now for all fileplanet users .

It's only for subscribers.

Sarr · July 2009

Originally posted by maacaaviityy

Originally posted by solareus

Fileplanet has early access right now for all fileplanet users .

It's only for subscribers.

You can be a subscriber there for free, just sign up and take your DDO points. Tonight is yet another server stress test with new quests open and contests as well, so expect major numbers of people on server .

maacaaviityy · July 2009

Originally posted by Sarr

You can be a subscriber there for free, just sign up and take your DDO points. Tonight is yet another server stress test with new quests open and contests as well, so expect major numbers of people on server .

I have a user there, but my subscription has run out, and it says that if I want to join the beta, I'll have to resubscribe. So it's only for people who have an active subscription.

[Deleted User] · July 2009

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Sarr · July 2009

Yeah, seems they had INCREDIBLE crowd for their DDO Beta keys. When I checked it out as a free subscriber 2 minutes ago, it said that keys for their free Fileplanet users run out .

But you can sign up here, so it's ok:

content.turbine.com/pages/www.ddo.com/beta_signup/index.php

[Deleted User] · July 2009

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Papadam · July 2009

Got my beta-key from Fileplanet aswell! Anyone know if there will be an unoffical EU-server in US when it launches.

I think DDO:EU is going to be something really awesome

rsreston · July 2009

Originally posted by Sarr
People who I spoke to never had a probem with leveling sigils . I think the most restrictive thing is having just 2 character slots by default, other than that, it looks great.
I think D&D Online will shake the ground tremendoulsy. DDO was never so polished, big and fleshed out overall. It's a game better than ever, that could sutain itself having subcription. But that way I think all will benefit - less cash from each player, but there will be likely 10x more players than before - or even more.
Don't be suprised if there are log-in queues at launch . People from all over the world are generally very positive about this game, and most of them played other MMOs (including WoW) before.
Just take my warning - this is NOT WoW-like game. If you'll try to zerg / rush like in WoW, you're dead already. This game is challenging, no less in F2P than how it was before. Just solo-ability rose to the highest level than ever, thanks to difficulty scaling.

I'm quite eager to give it a 2nd go on DDO but if I'm to stick to it, it has to stay challenging - almost all F2P I've tried, though nice as they might have been, always had the huge problem of being ridiculously easy. If DDO proves to be fun and challenging, my wallet will be more than happy to visit its item shop.

Sarr · July 2009

Originally posted by rsreston
I'm quite eager to give it a 2nd go on DDO but if I'm to stick to it, it has to stay challenging - almost all F2P I've tried, though nice as they might have been, always had the huge problem of being ridiculously easy. If DDO proves to be fun and challenging, my wallet will be more than happy to visit its item shop.

Read my comments here: www.mmorpg.com/blogs/pvthudson01/072009/4185_Dungeons-and-Dragons-Online-grabs-me-after-it-finally-clicks#comments

In other words, when you play on levels 1-3 it can look almost too easy sometimes. But don't let that fool you. Otherwise you'll die a shameful death in mere seconds : ).

DrowNoble · July 2009

I played DDO in the original beta and wasn't very impressed. It wasn't bad really, just rather "average" and nothing impressed me enough to drop my current MMO to roll here. I think part of the problem was the obscure Eberron setting. If they had set the game in Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance, subscribers and interest would of been much higher.

I'm in the Unlimited beta now and I can say that aside from better performance issues (though could be my better PC now) the game really hasn't changed that much. Though now being F2P I will be playing it and heck will probably drop down a few bucks to unlock the drow race too. So, I'd recommend this game since the F2P part of the game doesn't really "gimp" you as compared to the VIP part (subscribers).

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Dungeons & Dragons Online: Launch Date Announced, NDA Dropped

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Dungeons & Dragons Online: Launch Date Announced, NDA Dropped

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