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DDO Rocks!!!
Ayeohx
Member Posts: 18
Seems these days only negative people are posting (you'll find it on any forum I suppose) so I wanted to have one post that doesn't bash the heck out of this game.
So far I hear gripes about interface, PvP, soloable content, 10 levels max and limited content. Lets address some of these concerns.
You can move every interface window, make multiple selection bars, it even has weapon combo quick buttons. It does have some problems but they are getting addressed. I've played many mmorpgs and this game has a very good interface. Even WoW's interface wasn't this good till a few community addons inspired their new slick interface. I'd like to be able to add my own bars and such (DDO does not support user addons) but its definately good enough.
Soloable content just got added and from what I've seen I like it. It appears to only support you to level 3 but once you're there soloing the dugeons on harder levels isn't too hard. And from what I hear they are going to eventually make higher level dungeons soloable, so I can wait.
The level appears to be a lot lower than it really is. For casual gamers, people with jobs that have other activities other than playing mmorpgs) the 10th level ceiling isn't that bad. Admittedly I sink about 20 hours a week into DDO, sometimes less, sometimes more. I've been playing for 2 monthes now and my highest character is level 6 (nearly 7). Mind you I do have 2 other characters at level 3 but as you can see this isn't as bad as people think. For the addicts pushing 6 hour a night and just playing to level as quickly as possible, yes, you will cap out quickly. But even then it should be worth the experience.
As for content, again, it matters how much you play and how you play. I play to explore the game. Most of the whiners are angry that they have only a few gigantic dungeons that give uberleet swag. But many I've noticed never go to the "lesser" dungeons. The ones that don't end in a supersweet prize. They don't see the beauty of the game, just the numbers. I use to be a powergamer, so I know where they are coming from. I can also tell you as a former powergamer that you are never going to find a perfect game for yourself, your mmorpg gaming days will be one let down after another.
And the great PvP debate. Lets get this out first: I'm all for PvP though I rarely PvP myself. The main reasons people are freaking out about PvP is that they don't want to have to always watch their backs and they don't want the devs to nerf all of the classes. From what I understand PvP will be mutual, you either do it or you don't. So? DON'T PVP IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT. Easy, eh? As for the class balancing? I don't think it will happen. Turbine has went through some great pains to make this game true to the pen and paper game and they show signs that they are continuing to do so. They can not change the characters without violating what they are seeking to accomplish.
It short DDO is awesome. The game has changed for the better since I started and appears to just keep getting better. If you play 20 hours a week, or play another mmorpg and just want a second, take a shot at this one. They even have a 7 day free trial. But if your looking for a replacement for life this may not be what you're looking for.
Enjoy,
Ayeohx
So far I hear gripes about interface, PvP, soloable content, 10 levels max and limited content. Lets address some of these concerns.
You can move every interface window, make multiple selection bars, it even has weapon combo quick buttons. It does have some problems but they are getting addressed. I've played many mmorpgs and this game has a very good interface. Even WoW's interface wasn't this good till a few community addons inspired their new slick interface. I'd like to be able to add my own bars and such (DDO does not support user addons) but its definately good enough.
Soloable content just got added and from what I've seen I like it. It appears to only support you to level 3 but once you're there soloing the dugeons on harder levels isn't too hard. And from what I hear they are going to eventually make higher level dungeons soloable, so I can wait.
The level appears to be a lot lower than it really is. For casual gamers, people with jobs that have other activities other than playing mmorpgs) the 10th level ceiling isn't that bad. Admittedly I sink about 20 hours a week into DDO, sometimes less, sometimes more. I've been playing for 2 monthes now and my highest character is level 6 (nearly 7). Mind you I do have 2 other characters at level 3 but as you can see this isn't as bad as people think. For the addicts pushing 6 hour a night and just playing to level as quickly as possible, yes, you will cap out quickly. But even then it should be worth the experience.
As for content, again, it matters how much you play and how you play. I play to explore the game. Most of the whiners are angry that they have only a few gigantic dungeons that give uberleet swag. But many I've noticed never go to the "lesser" dungeons. The ones that don't end in a supersweet prize. They don't see the beauty of the game, just the numbers. I use to be a powergamer, so I know where they are coming from. I can also tell you as a former powergamer that you are never going to find a perfect game for yourself, your mmorpg gaming days will be one let down after another.
And the great PvP debate. Lets get this out first: I'm all for PvP though I rarely PvP myself. The main reasons people are freaking out about PvP is that they don't want to have to always watch their backs and they don't want the devs to nerf all of the classes. From what I understand PvP will be mutual, you either do it or you don't. So? DON'T PVP IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT. Easy, eh? As for the class balancing? I don't think it will happen. Turbine has went through some great pains to make this game true to the pen and paper game and they show signs that they are continuing to do so. They can not change the characters without violating what they are seeking to accomplish.
It short DDO is awesome. The game has changed for the better since I started and appears to just keep getting better. If you play 20 hours a week, or play another mmorpg and just want a second, take a shot at this one. They even have a 7 day free trial. But if your looking for a replacement for life this may not be what you're looking for.
Enjoy,
Ayeohx
Comments
Ya ok. sounds good err sounds like BS to me. Going to take alot more convincing than this to make people play that game. Going to take alot more content than a movable interface and playing solo. Adding the solo stuff isnt really adding anything at all. not really any content in allow previous content to be played solo. That is the major thing with this game charging a premium price without the content to make up for that price.
Maybe in a year or so. Looks like turbine is doing this on purpose probably to drive all their customers to TLOTR online. Will be sad when they release that and it is just as much garbage as DnD. Waste of time and money
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I have never bashed the game. I have, however, pointed out the flaws I see in it. He doesn't comment on any of the flaws I've seen with it at all, I might add
My complaints have always been:
1) Nothing to do EXCEPT QUESTS... Now and then it would be fun to craft or wander around the world just exploring.
2) No mounts, no ranger pets, etc. Not that I've seen yet anyway.
3) I don't like that the UI is kludgy... you can't get stuff flush with the edge of the screen and if you unlock the toolbars one will go closer to the edge of the screen than the other. That's just lazy coding. The UI itself is fine, they just need to knock the kinks out of it.
4) A world to explore and cities beyond stormreach. Non-instanced world, mind you. I like that the dungeons and adventures are instanced. But it'd be nice to have a non-instanced landscape to travel across to other cities where even more quests would be. I am still holding out hope that they will implement that with an expansion.
5) More friggen character customization. I REALLY hate that there is no way to dye your armor. In AD&D your character description was a big part of the fun. In Stormreach you're limited to whatever the shape and color of the armor you get is... there's no way at all to customize it... no dyes no crafted armor, etc. Character creation is also pretty pedestrian as far as choosing looks... very few choices and all the faces look pretty much the same.
Those are my feelings on the game. They have nothing to do with the 'shortcomings' the OP listed. My reasons are why I feel the game isn't worth a fee. Not his
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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I can see where you're coming from Elnator. For me its a bit different though. I just got off my WoW addiction a few months back and this game was perfect for me. WoW has a pretty large world to explore, mounts (to traverse said world) and multiple cities. I totally dug it, the game was beautiful (if a bit too cartoonish for me). But after running to and fro for hours on end, dodging critters just to get to an Instance sucked!!! And doing quest just to get crap rewards (there was very rarely any rewards worth getting) was a downer. DDO has decent to excellent quest rewards a lot of the times. I really like the ability to just sign in and get down to adventuring. Same reason I like City of Heroes. I love to finish missions and quest, I hate the grind. I think thats another reason DDO appeals to me. Because there is no sprawling landscape littered with critters (and no xp rewards for random monster killing) and you don't have to just go grinding (FFXI was the worst).
Being able to get some serious character customization going would be awesome. Armor alterations and such would be great, but I don't think the engine could take it. And more faces, or facial structure modification options like City of Heroes or Star Wars Galaxies would be welcome.
In short, if you want a huge game world to explore DDO is not for you. WoW would be a better choice. But if you want to be able to jump into a dungeon shortly after signing on, DDO may be worth a look.
All there is in DDO is "jumping into dungeons". There is no depth to the game, and the level of immersion is very low. Compare it to ANY other MMO on the market and it is missing so many features it pales in comparison even to the original EQ. Nothing to explore. Repetitive and limited content. There aren't many dungeons for the amount you pay to buy the game, let alone the amount they expect for a monthly fee. There are so many ways this game falls short, and that's the reason you hear mostly complaints and "bashing" on these forums and even on the official forums from disappointed and upset customers.
People expect a lot when they pay for a game. They want it to be better than the last thing they played, and they want it to be a rich, immersive experience in most cases (sure, some people only play for PvP and to "pwn" others). When you push out a title in a short time, release it incomplete and with VERY limited content, you're asking for trouble. When most casual players can reach level 10 in under 2 months, they've done something wrong. When you're there and there is no end game (which there's not), there is no reason to stay subscribed until they release another module. And their "regular" modules seem to be coming out anything but regularly. Quarterly releases are a huge joke...
I like EQ2 but I don't really feel like feeding the SOE monster right now
DDO is good... dun get me wrong... it just kinda gets boring since it offers so little in the way of variety.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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I like EQ2 but I don't really feel like feeding the SOE monster right now
DDO is good... dun get me wrong... it just kinda gets boring since it offers so little in the way of variety.
Lets stay honnest here, shall we?
you won't hear me say WoW has a lot of depth, but less depth then DDO? not possible. WoW's crafting is bad, but at least it has crafting. WoW at least could be bothered to make an entire world in their game. at least it has exploring added to its game. City of Heroes and Villains could make a big "world" out of one city, I see no reason Why Stormreach can't.
Let's go back to your original post. I'm glad you're enjoying the game. I enjoyed it for a while, too. The reason I quit the game was due to limited content and numerous class bugs that I encountered. I played all the "lesser" dungeons, and there still wasn't enough content to keep me happy. Worse, there was very little ORIGINAL content. Some DDO world designer came up with a very bad idea. He said, "hey, let's design a series of quests that force the player to conquer that same dungeon layout time after time. We'll only have to design one dungeon, yet we can milk the dungeon for 3-5 quests, and increase our quest count! That will ease our work burden and give the marketing department something to brag about!!"
I won't even go into the various bugs I encountered with my wizard.
In short, DDO was always all about the content. Not a bad idea, if they could have pulled it off. But, they didn't. Turbine cheated. They thought it was ok to recycle dungeons. They thought it was ok to use a very bland tool to design all their dungeons. They were wrong.
I hope Turbine pays the price for their mistakes...
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
See that's just it. If I wanted to play WoW I'd play WoW. I want to play AD&D online... not WOW... Matter of fact I'd rather bash my head in with an icepick than play WoW... imo it sucks.. it's shallow, has no depth whatsoever and the endgame is horrid. No, sorry, WoW is nothing compared to the depth that's ALREADY in DDO...
I like EQ2 but I don't really feel like feeding the SOE monster right now
DDO is good... dun get me wrong... it just kinda gets boring since it offers so little in the way of variety.
So if you bashed your head in with an ice pick...Im guessing you would hold it by the pick and smash your head in with the handle? Or am I thinkign of a totaly different thing?
I like EQ2 but I don't really feel like feeding the SOE monster right now
DDO is good... dun get me wrong... it just kinda gets boring since it offers so little in the way of variety.
Sounds like you're getting a little burnt out on mmorpgs. What are you currently playing right now? And I agree about not wanting to feed SOE, they screwed me during EQ (wouldn't stop billing me) and they jacked up Star Wars pretty badly. I just don't trust them.
I am a fan of Eve, did very good, just got to that place where it was quit or join a large corporation. I quit.
And I can see D&D getting boring fast, but since I've been so busy lately it gives me the ability to jump in, play for an hour or two and feel satisfied by the gameplay.
If you guys have had the run of games that I have (Final Fantasy XI to WoW in the last two years) you'd know what I mean. Both games are a constant grind with few rewards. You spend a lot of time (hours sometimes) trying to get a group. FFXI was the worst on grouping.
DDO is a very good game if you don't have a lot of time to spend looking for a group and you just want to finish a mission before going to bed. Grouping comes fast and there are missions that don't take forever to finish (though there are some huge chain quest, but they split them up into shorter missions that you can pickup later on). Its the same reason that I still play City of Heroes right now.
And you guys are right. DDO doesn't have crafting. I don't know about games other than SWG, Ultima Online, WoW or Final Fantasy XI but crafting in those games wasn't all that important. I crafted in every game I've played and ultimately the skill was useless. Sure you can make low level armor for your friends but it was easily replaced and you could never make something better than you could find (SWG was an exception, but who cares, it was SWG). Either way I don't want to spend my time crafting, I want to spend my time adventuring either by myself or with a team.
As for uberleet swag? In DDO you don't have to make a beeline for it (like in WoW). You're character still rocks with the gear that you get everwhere else.
I like EQ2 but I don't really feel like feeding the SOE monster right now
DDO is good... dun get me wrong... it just kinda gets boring since it offers so little in the way of variety.
Sounds like you're getting a little burnt out on mmorpgs. What are you currently playing right now? And I agree about not wanting to feed SOE, they screwed me during EQ (wouldn't stop billing me) and they jacked up Star Wars pretty badly. I just don't trust them.
I am a fan of Eve, did very good, just got to that place where it was quit or join a large corporation. I quit.
And I can see D&D getting boring fast, but since I've been so busy lately it gives me the ability to jump in, play for an hour or two and feel satisfied by the gameplay.
If you guys have had the run of games that I have (Final Fantasy XI to WoW in the last two years) you'd know what I mean. Both games are a constant grind with few rewards. You spend a lot of time (hours sometimes) trying to get a group. FFXI was the worst on grouping.
DDO is a very good game if you don't have a lot of time to spend looking for a group and you just want to finish a mission before going to bed. Grouping comes fast and there are missions that don't take forever to finish (though there are some huge chain quest, but they split them up into shorter missions that you can pickup later on). Its the same reason that I still play City of Heroes right now.
And you guys are right. DDO doesn't have crafting. I don't know about games other than SWG, Ultima Online, WoW or Final Fantasy XI but crafting in those games wasn't all that important. I crafted in every game I've played and ultimately the skill was useless. Sure you can make low level armor for your friends but it was easily replaced and you could never make something better than you could find (SWG was an exception, but who cares, it was SWG). Either way I don't want to spend my time crafting, I want to spend my time adventuring either by myself or with a team.
As for uberleet swag? In DDO you don't have to make a beeline for it (like in WoW). You're character still rocks with the gear that you get everwhere else.
Riiigh... I am burnt out on MMO's because I want DDO to have more features common to most MMO's
Crafting wasn't important in SWG???? UO??? Are you bonkers? Crafting was the heart and sould of SWG. There was no loot worth a damn in SWG. If you wanted good gear in swg someone HAD to have crafted it. Who do you think put it on the vendors? Midichloriats?
UO Same thing??? How anyone can say crafting wasn't that important in UO boggles the mind. Did you even play UO?
WoW I agree with, Crafting isn't important in WoW because it's a loot oriented system, which sucks. Same with FFXI. I don't want crafting in the game so that *I* can spend my time crafting. I want it in the game because I like the idea of a player run economy. It's nice knowing that my buddy the mastersmith made this suit of armor for me and my other friend the master mage enchanted it for me. THAT is a cool feeling. It adds whole new levels of roleplay to the game.
Who cares about uberleet swag. IMO the best MMO's are the one where crafted gear is among (if not the) the best gear in the game. That way people play the game for the FUN rather than for loot. And if you honestly feel nobody hunts the fat lewtz in DDO you are insane.... It's almost impossible to find groups heading to dungeons other than the ones that drop the best gear in the game.
What I'm playing is listed in my sig, by the way.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
I left SWG right as crafting seemed to be maturing I suppose, about when the kray dragon ingredients were introduced. And you're right, SWG crafting was extremely important to medics (armor and weapons made by PCs were pretty bad still). I suppose if the resource shift didn't occur so often we'd have enjoyed it better but the resource runs became tedious. And UO did have a lot of crafting to do, and I did craft a lot, I suppose I just took some of my contacts high skills for granted. You're absolutely right about the item creation skills in those games. And to further strengthen your point I suppose I should throw in Eve Online's blueprint system (never got into the engineering much but it looked impressive). **sigh** Alright Elnator, I concede. I guess the last 2 years playing WoW and FFXI tarnished my feelings about crafting. And I agree that using a sword a friend crafted for you (especially if it took tons of ingredients and time to make) rocks. You get a special feeling when people ditch their armor to wear some slick gear that you just made them. Just didn't happen as much in WoW or FFXI as I'd like it to have. It seems a complete waste of time harvesting all of those ingredients just to up a skill that became mostly useless.
As for you becoming "burnt out" I was basing this assumption on what you mentioned in the quoted paragraghs. Didn't occur to me at the time that there are some quality mmorpgs that do not have a monthly fee, just slipped my mind.
And I wasn't saying that no one targets only the high loot dungeons. I am saying that you can hit the other dungeons and not feel ripped off by what you get usually. I've joined many groups that just go looking for dungeons other that the big ones (probably people like myself that just want to jump in for a few hours only). And I'm saying that unlike WoW the loot you get from the huge dungeons doesn't totally outclass the other loot you can get elsewhere. You can be a casual player and not be totally left in the dust by people that don't have jobs.
Now going way out of topic I've been curious about Anarchy Online. Do you have to group in it? My girlfriend and I like to run as a 2 man team. Is it feasible? Or is it mostly party based and there's no chance with just 2 people (like FFXI)?
― James O'Barr, The Crow
“Sarah: "Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever...”
― James O'Barr, The Crow
Oh... and AO is only free if you don't pull down the expansions. I've tried it with the expansions and just didn't feel they were good enough to warrant paying a monthly fee (then again I'm really picky). But it is a full featured game with loads of content, even without the expansions.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
Sweet, then I'll have to give AO another go. It looked pretty impressive and free is always nice. If the interface is simple (my girlfriend doesn't see too well, legally blind, still games well enough though) then its our next big game.
Dhampir: A year sounds about right. It should be polished and have tons more to do. I'm hoping for prestige classes, but who knows? Level 20 would be nice by then.
Elitwebb: Nope, not necessarily. If you hate the game you hate the game. I can understand that. Just wanted to post what I felt about it. I think its fun and fits into my schedule pretty well (except for the next few weeks, studying for a networking job... subnetting is giving me a headache...). And my girlfriend likes it so thats a plus. Its not a hardcore mmorpg like WoW (or many other games, relates more to CoH that way) and works for us folk that are burnt out on the grind. Some people dig the huge sprawling worlds and awesome craft systems, and while I love games with that sort of content, I simply don't have the time anymore. For me, D&D rocks. For you, it may suck wang.
Considering that there have been times when I roughed it with my ranger, grabbed some potions, and soloed normal mode dungeons (before this shiny solo content of theirs) and came out alive, if bleeding.
The more I think about it, the more I look forward to crafting. You're a convincing one, Elnator. If they work out crafting, Artificers are just around the corner. The guilds with the Artificers who know where to get their stuff and what the guild needs made to succeed would prosper just as much as those who were well organized and efficient.
The idea of a class that could be so positive to the community and got to help out in quests is somewhat awing to think about.
Assuming nothing goes wrong, and nothing gets in the way...
With their casual play style and the promise in PvP, maybe I won't have to worry about the shame of supporting the game in a while.
Maybe I have too much faith in Turbine.
Nah, supporting an underdog (no matter how ugly it sometimes appears to be) is okay. And Turbine appears to be working pretty hard to make up for the lackluster release. If the game can survive for a year and they keep up the hard work it'll be worth supporting it. From what I've seen I think its a fairly safe bet. I don't think that it will ever be a mainstream game due to engine restrictions but it may become one of the better casual mmorpgs.
Turbine needs to add several MAJOR features... and soon... if NWN2 comes out before they add some true MMORPG features to this game it's going to die, bigtime. Because right now NWN2 has more features than DDO and won't be charging a monthly fee to play online. Pluss that whole neat fact that you can play the whole game solo, if you so desire....
Trust me on this one... Turbine needs to SH** or get off the pot... and soon.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
Turbine needs to add several MAJOR features... and soon... if NWN2 comes out before they add some true MMORPG features to this game it's going to die, bigtime. Because right now NWN2 has more features than DDO and won't be charging a monthly fee to play online. Pluss that whole neat fact that you can play the whole game solo, if you so desire....
Trust me on this one... Turbine needs to SH** or get off the pot... and soon.
While I'm not a fan of the saying Elnator but I do agree with you, and looking at NWN2 it almost looks like there can be no amount of "shitting" that will elevate DDO above NWN2. I don't think NWN2 will have the multiplayer capabilities that DDO will but I sure hope the NWN2 community can find a way (better than the persistent worlds NWN1 had). I'll gladly jump ship if: I get 2 more computers to run it (I'm sure its going to be resource intensive) and my girlfriend can play it well. Mind you I'm still going to play it but I'm talking replacing here. Hopefully Turbine will simply steal the best ideas from Obsidian.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
I had a few gripes with DDO while I was trying it but overall it wasn't the worst game I've ever played and I certainly have to agree with El, in comparison to WoW, DDO does feel like it has more substance, but that's not all that hard besides WoW. Although I think I'm a bit more of a fan of WoW's then El is.
I did try to play it for the 30 day but to be honest, it bored me more and more every time I logged in. I found the UI OK but nothing special, the classes we're ok but nothing special, character creation was about as bad as it gets now days (a real sin) and as El pointed out in an earlier post, there's absolutely nothing to do OTHER then quest and try to find groups, no world exploring, no real role playing and community wasn't all that fun to role play with.
I might come back if they actually add a world but constant instancing completely took all the fun out of everything for me, so yeah, it would take some pretty big changes for me to consider comming back.
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I guess it's a problem that there's nothing too special about it... Maybe Prestige Classes are more important than I initial thought. If they added more D&D specific content, it'd probably feel more original. Or maybe classical is the word I'm looking for, that being D&Ds general standing. It's kind of sad to see what I've always thought of as the original RPG getting so much hate.