DDO going solo

Jd1680a · June 2006

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/ddonline/news.html?sid=6152447

looks like turbine blinked. they are going to allow some solo content. this will be interesting to see what they have added into the game to make it solo.

also whats interesting is they are lowering experience to level by 10,000. i guess turbine figured after people do a quest 5 times they loose too much experience, making it take longer to level up. to me i think they should just simply take out the experience decrease each time someone do the quest.

Shurijo · June 2006

They aren't adding any new content. Just a new difficulty level of "Solo" that gives -50% of the "normal" difficulty of the dungeon. Right now, they have normal, hard, and elite. So the Solo difficulty will just lower the CR value of the mobs and give less XP.

The 10,000 is only removed from the total XP required to go from lv 1 to lv 3. The total XP from 4-10 is still the same. Its to help get players to lv 4+ quicker, since they have very little content for lv 1-3 and probably won't be investing much time in the lower/newbie levels.

Slntasn · June 2006

hmm, i might even buy this now

kystrom34 · June 2006

Sounds like an interesting option, still holding off a few months to see where this goes. Solo options will sway me more than forced grouping

Brip · June 2006

is grouping hard to do in game? not enough online or ?

brostyn · June 2006

Originally posted by Brip
is grouping hard to do in game? not enough online or ?

During my free trial grouping was very hard. I don't know if it lacks population or what, but no one was interested in grouping. Reminded of my EQ days being lfg for 3+ hours. Very frustrating. I still have 6 days left on the trail, and I don't think I will log back in.

Elnator · June 2006

I'm currently on Free Trial #2 and no, grouping isn't hard at all. I don't know what classes Brostyn played or what times he played at but I play pretty widespread timeframes. During the weekend I never have trouble getting a group and during the week I typically play between 6pm and 11pm eastern and never have trouble getting in a group then either.

Most needed classes in a group are rogue and cleric... But every other class is welcome. Heck, my ranger gets in groups with ease.

No problem with grouping. I just wish there were more to do than just quest after quest after quest.... If they add more variety to the game I'd buy it. But at this point it's not worth a monthly fee to me.

primal303 · June 2006

Wow! Step in the right direction as far as myself and my friends are concerned.

But seriously, bout time the devs actually realize that people need something to do while waiting for friends to log on. I understand that D&D, has for the great majority of the time it has been around, been a group only endeavor. But that was when your friends actually lived near you and scheduleing playtime wasn't a PITA. Now people form online friendships, especially the 25-40 age group. My local friends are in no way interested in playing DDO but when I was playing, I had friends that lived in Victoria, Edmonton, and Las Vegas. It was still hard to get everyone to log in within a halfhour time frame. And when I say hard, I mean impossible.

There is still no tradeskills or exploration, and from the minimum info that was released, it seems that the majority of large, multi-part quest dungeons will still be group only. But, if this brings back more previously subscribed players, it may also open up a larger/better selection of groupmates. I know if I were on a solo mission and got invited to a large dungeon crawl I would abandon the solo with little hesitance.

Probably still gonna wait a bit after the patch. Guess I didn't take a big enuff hit on the DDO pipe to get hooked.

ValiumSummer · June 2006

Caught my attention. I think though, that even with the solo content... D & D online sounds too much like Guild wars, Except guild wars doesn't require a monthly subscription fee.

Can your character "jump" in DDO or is he cemented to the ground like Guild Wars?

Valkanisar · June 2006

not sure if this new solo content patch will do much. for some reason i think it will be worse leveling up solo then it will be for grouping. since this option is just for low levels, they will probably use this solo content to discourage people into actually playing solo by making it feel alot more rewarding to group up and tackle this instances. Just a way to sucker people into the game again. Will be an even worse time sink then grouping and since this is just for lowbies its going to suck for 80% of the population that already have their character slots full with lvl 10s.

Jd1680a · June 2006

Originally posted by ValiumSummer

Can your character "jump" in DDO or is he cemented to the ground like Guild Wars?

Your character can jump in DDO.

Elnator · June 2006

Originally posted by ValiumSummer
Caught my attention. I think though, that even with the solo content... D & D online sounds too much like Guild wars, Except guild wars doesn't require a monthly subscription fee.

Can your character "jump" in DDO or is he cemented to the ground like Guild Wars?

Yes, you can jump, and even swim, in DDO. The game is pretty fun. I monkeyed around with the solo content a bit while waiting for a group (got an invite when I was about halfway through the dungeon). It's pretty well done. I had no problems with it either on a healer toon nor on my ranger (no healing other than potions) and my mage ripped through it with relative ease. Looks like the solo option works pretty well. While the loot wasn't as good as in a group it was still decent, got 2 +1 items and a few potions out of the 3 trips (this was a level 2 dungeon)

Still not sure I'd subscribe but now that there is the option to solo while looking for a group rather than standing around with your thumb up your rear it is a lot less tedious....

Going to start free trial #3 tonight

monkeypaws · June 2006

When they removed the ability to solo in beta there was pretty much a clear consensus among the beta testers...you've just lost thousands of subscriptions.They stood firm with their assertions that this game was meant to be group oriented due to the fact you don't solo play the PnP version. Guess they changed their minds after they got their subscription numbers.

If they didn't charge a monthly fee I wouldn't have an issue with forced grouping but for many grouping isn't something they can do on a regular basis due to time constraints. Maybe once a week I could dedicate several hours to grouping and that's not worth paying a monthly fee.

hatebreed0 · June 2006

I'm just waiting to see Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and not a Final Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons style.

I had a cleric and a fighter. I was pretty much forbidden from fighting I could omly heal (boring) So I made a fighter when you swing a 2 handed weapon and on the 3rd swing you jumped up to attack made me go

when i didn't see Monks in the game i was, upset. cause monk halflings pwn all.

Pyroz · June 2006

The 10,000 XP shift and solo content work in tandem to allow people space to learn the game before they join parties, that way they don't have to weigh anybody down. Once players have an understanding of the game they can fully contribute to groups they join.

Originally posted by hatebreed0

I'm just waiting to see Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and not a Final Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons style.
I had a cleric and a fighter. I was pretty much forbidden from fighting I could omly heal (boring) So I made a fighter when you swing a 2 handed weapon and on the 3rd swing you jumped up to attack made me go
when i didn't see Monks in the game i was, upset. cause monk halflings pwn all.

I don't really know what you mean by forbidden from fighting, a group wouldn't much benefit from that kind of attitude. A properly armed and armored cleric is a noticeable factor in combat.

hatebreed0 · June 2006

I think it's the whole "healer" trend.

"Ok, you stay in the back and heal, we'll do all the damage, you just heal."

"but I got flamestreds flamestrike, I can put a dent in them."

"NO, your a healer. Healers have weak offense spells, just heal."

Everytime I got in a party and i would even get near the mob, they would be like..

WTF r u doing, your a clerik, you can't attack just heal. So i would leave at a very critical time. I got to level 6.4 or something retarded. Now I play once every 2-3 weeks now.

I guess it was previous RPG's that gave healers the perception that all healers have weak offense spell and such.

Parsifal57 · June 2006

I'm not sure that solo play will help DDO if they are lowering the XP cap, it seems pretty easy to reach the cap as it is. If they do lower XP caps they need to adjust the subscription for the game also.

Additionally the next expansion is unlikely to please even the hardcore fans of DDO who are at max cap since the expansion as stated by Turbine raises the cap from level 10 to level 12, which means that probably the week after the cap raise people will be at cap again.

DDO is a good idea but with the pricing plan they have I really don't see why NWN2 wont destroy it, because with DDO aimed seemingly at the PnP crowd which is typically less than 5 - 10 people who gatrher to play NWN2 at least offers the ability for more play by allowing user created modules.

seabass2003 · June 2006

Originally posted by hatebreed0

I think it's the whole "healer" trend.
"Ok, you stay in the back and heal, we'll do all the damage, you just heal."
"but I got flamestreds flamestrike, I can put a dent in them."
"NO, your a healer. Healers have weak offense spells, just heal."
Everytime I got in a party and i would even get near the mob, they would be like..
WTF r u doing, your a clerik, you can't attack just heal. So i would leave at a very critical time. I got to level 6.4 or something retarded. Now I play once every 2-3 weeks now.
I guess it was previous RPG's that gave healers the perception that all healers have weak offense spell and such.

Sounds like you just got into a really shitty group, its funny when I group I don't really care what anybody does, as long as they also do what they should be doing.

What I mean by this is if your a healer and you want to kick some ass thats cool have fun smashing things just make sure you drop a heal here and there to make sure no one dies.

On the other hand I have seen rogues who say I won't do traps or find secret doors and I have also seen clerics bashing everything around them healing themselves while the rest of the group lays on the ground either bleeding or dead.

finnmacool1 · June 2006

Soloablility is a nice addition but the game has so many other issues that atm it just isnt enough. As long as the game is 100% instanced,there is no explorable land,and there is no randomness to quests, its just a waste of time.

Mikes123 · June 2006

DDO has me stumped............ i was really looking forward to "Dungeons and Dragons Online" but...

DDO offers (imho) a great combat system and incredible dungeon crawls, if only they had spent another year developping content.

and now were seeing: a greater and greater bastardization of the DnD ruleset with every patch to "adjust it for MMOs".... hello, i didn t want a traditional MMO, i wanted Dungeons and Dragons Online!.

Turbine seems to have realized they screwed up content wise, but instead of producing content that stays true to the games original path of intense dungeon crawls we seem to see a greater and greater "bastardization" not only of the "DnD ruleset" but of the content as well to conform to "established" MMO standards.

"Oh crap out game doesn t have enough content, what shall we do?"

1. Lets implement an über raid dungeon with über loot that rewards only 2 out of 12 people! hey loot envy keeps people busy in WoW and EQ why shouldn t it work for us!~

"oh crap, didn t work, fans are yelling even louder at us now, what shall we do?"

2. solo content! yay!
3. PvP, yay!!

the game was never built with soloing or pvp in mind... and now they tell us they will develop game mechanics for soloing and pvp in a game that was never meant to have either that are "well thought out" and "as fun as in other games" ...within 2-4 months of dev time between content updates ? ........ when content quantity that is ingame already is ample proof how few things get done at Turbine within 1-2 years? .....gimme a break lol.

i fully expect the "solo" and "pvp" content to be just as lame as the attempt to copy "raid/über loot" content in the dragons vault update was. ....... Now if they had come out and said they would focus on creating the most enjoyable coolest dynamic dungeon crawl experience for one group of adventurers ever,.... i d still have hope...... but what do we see? a lame attempt to bring different game mechanics into DDO because "other games that have them are more successful"......... that won t help the game, that will just kill it completely ... my subscription is canceled since yesterday lol.

bottomline: Turbine should have decided what DDO stands for, grouping, soloing, pvping or raiding, .... and then designed the game around it.... and stay to that path and not try to do patchwork fixes to accomodate everyone after the fact that will ultimately please no one. They propably should also have decided wich game to make "DOO" or "LotRO".... instead of trying both in a halfa**** way.

Drgonzothx · June 2006

I agree with you. DDO is like Turbine decided that people liked to travel by sea so they build a boat, then they realized more people want to travel by air so they put wings on their boat. It might fly but it ain't gonna be pretty. They should be catering to all those people who wanted what they gave them. Instead they are adding things to a game that was never designed to support them. Pick a design and stick with it.

seabass2003 · June 2006

Bleh!

EQTarbos · June 2006

Seabass i have to say u are right This game sucks now D@D was never and i mean never ment for solo play
so i guess Death to solo play

Elnator · June 2006

Originally posted by seabass2003

Originally posted by hatebreed0

I think it's the whole "healer" trend.
"Ok, you stay in the back and heal, we'll do all the damage, you just heal."
"but I got flamestreds flamestrike, I can put a dent in them."
"NO, your a healer. Healers have weak offense spells, just heal."
Everytime I got in a party and i would even get near the mob, they would be like..
WTF r u doing, your a clerik, you can't attack just heal. So i would leave at a very critical time. I got to level 6.4 or something retarded. Now I play once every 2-3 weeks now.
I guess it was previous RPG's that gave healers the perception that all healers have weak offense spell and such.

Sounds like you just got into a really shitty group, its funny when I group I don't really care what anybody does, as long as they also do what they should be doing.
What I mean by this is if your a healer and you want to kick some ass thats cool have fun smashing things just make sure you drop a heal here and there to make sure no one dies.
On the other hand I have seen rogues who say I won't do traps or find secret doors and I have also seen clerics bashing everything around them healing themselves while the rest of the group lays on the ground either bleeding or dead.

I've never seen the rogue phenomena... every rogue I know loves finding and disabling traps. I play a rogue myself (Ranger/Rogue, VERY fun combo) and I have exactly the OPPOSITE problem where some party members are either too rushed, or too stupid (or, more likelyl, both) to give me time to:

WARN them (they go running off 10 miles in front of me) there is a trap
FIND the trap
DISABLE the trap

9 times out of 10 at least one bonehead in the party runs ahead, winds up tripping the trap because they're blasting through the tunnels at mach 10. Then half the time I can't GET to the box to disable it without hitting the trap because it's been activated by the idiot that ran through it and now I have to get halfway into the trap because the trigger is on the far side and the box is in the middle (those are a LOT more common than people realize) Thus risk dying to disable the damn thing. Then the party has the gall to holler at me for not disabling it before it went off.

However, the cleric phenomena is a real problem. A LOT of players make fighter/clerics so they can solo easier (and it does work really really well) and they give the class, as a whole, a bad name. Because they tend to NOT heal the group. Thus the propensity for groups to kind of order the cleric not to fight. I've even had groups tell my bard not to do anything but heal (even though she's a bard/sorceress)... LOL.

But I think you guys are WAY overblowing the addition of more solo content.

It's ONLY the harbor quests Nothing else changed. And, frankly, I'd rather do most of the harbor stuff in a duo or group than take the huge XP hit that playing the content solo gives you. (like 30% less). It also gives worse rewards if you play the quest in solo mode vs. Normal.
About the only reason people play the solo content at all is while waiting to get invited or finding a group. Or just because they know they don't have time to get in a group to play.

I start free trial #5 tonight.... I think I'm going to shop around and if I can find it for $29.95 like someone said I'll go ahead and pick it up. Won't subscribe because with a full month I'll probably get through all the content. But I am tired of starting over again now that I've tried all the various class combo's to level 6. (note, that's level 6 in 7 days.... no way am I paying a monthly fee for a game I'll hit level cap in under a month).

seabass2003 · June 2006

It was at Fry's Electronics, that has it for 29.99. Not sure if you have a place like that.

Unknown · June 2006

That solo mode is only available in the harbor area and not for all quests. No blinking needed. They are just helping new folks to get going. But why listen to me since I love the game (started in beta and it took me awhile before I got past my previously learned mmog habits and got into the tame)? And while it's gotten off to a slow start and will not appeal to the masses I am confident it's going to become something special after the next two modules (one in july and another in august). And just for reference I quit the following games either in their beta's or after 3 to 6 weeks: EQ2, COH, GW,WoW,EVE. I hate to group EvE in with the rest but it's kind of like DDO and will appeal to a niche crowd.

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