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Twilight Forge Module impressions? Soloing?
Effect
Member UncommonPosts: 949
So now that the new Module is out, just how is it so far? How is the soloing? Is it just the really lower levels? New areas, etc?
Comments
1) Servers coming down for update for Module 2...
2) Sorry folks servers still down for Q&A... should be up shortly...
3) 4hrs later: Servers coming online
4) 2 hrs later: Servers coming down due to dupe bug
5) Currently ( 3 hrs later): Servers still down, no ETA
So I'd have to say that so far the new expansion is fairly lame and boring
Fortunately I'm playing for free so I don't care.... I bet the paying customers are pissed though
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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I was a bit dissappointed because we barely just finished one of the new quests that was pretty good. To be fair to Turbine, they did an excellent job of keeping the players up to date on the status of the downtime. There first announcement stated that they were looking into the bug and had no estimate on when it would be fixed.
Soloing wise I haven't had a chance to do any of the new solo quests, but I just made a drow bard so I will be trying them out. The current solo quests before module 2 could get you pretty close to lvl 3 with the xp adjustments that were made I believe. Once you hit lvl 3 you pretty much will be grouping up and I don't think that will ever change much. The game is designed to be a group oriented game so if you don't enjoy that, this is probably not the game for you.
Don't bother. After 6 months my wife and i cancelled today due to the twighlight forge module. What a total piece of crap. 7 years of MMO's, never have i seen a game company release half of what they promised, and of what they did release was so bugged it was unplayable. Item duplication exploit with no rollback, not being able to enter the new raid zone because in order to get to that zone, you have to go through a dungeon that is made for only one group, figure out how that made it by Q&A, the new race drow is extremely bugged, that is if you want to delete a toon to play it, since we didnt get a new character slot, and you have to earn patron status PER SERVER to play one.
Advice from a former DDO fanboi, wait for NWN2, and stay away from DDO.
0 effort, in other words.
As to the new quests? I haven't even bothered going to the new area yet. I've heard they're "ok" from friends who have done some of them.
And, yeah, the way they handled the dupe exploit was lame. Exploiters: 90000000 Honest Players: 0
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
talon 7 years and you have never seen this before? what games have you played??
list
1 UO any expansion
2 EQ1/2
3 Shadowbane
4 AO
5 WOW
6 SWG
7 want me to list more? cause i can.
every major game even some minor ones release with tons of stuff missing/buggs.
the only exception is DAOC.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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El how did WOW, UO, SWG, ect deliever what they promised at launch??
i was there for all of them i listed except UO when they launched.
edit i wasnt there for EQ1/2 but have RL friends who where and i listened to them about there problems at launch.
my biggest thing about defending this game is that this is a casual game like if me and my tabletop group said lets run a game on DDO we could and it would work perfectly fine. i could also see this as just a pc game working well as a lan party.
What you have to realize is that you have the luxury of a pre-set group of friends to game with. When you walk in the door with friends around you, tiddleywinks is fun.
Take the time to think outside of your cocoon of friends. Imagine if you had to rely on PUGs or a guild of people whom you don't really know, like 95% or so of the players out there. This game does not lend itself to either. The player communication tools are just dreadful, and the playerbase consists mostly of either cranky PnP players arguing over their interpretations of the 3.5 ruleset or XP/loot whores racing though dungeons as quickly as possible so that they can click the return button and get their reward like lab rats in a maze.
I'm glad that you and your tabletop group are enjoying themselves, but don't you think that it's in any way possible that all of you are simply enjoying each other's company? Friends being together can enjoy themselves at watching a bad movie ... or playing a bad game.
DDO is a bad game.
SWG I can agree on. That was a mess from day one. HOWEVER: They did deliver every aspect of gameplay, at release, that they promised during beta. There were some things on their "it would be nice" list that didn't get added till later.
UO delivered every single solitary item that they promised, and then some. Granted it had bug issues but that's not a delivery failure so much as a 'first real MMO ever created is going to have some technical problems'. But as for what it delivered? There wasn't a single thing left out. Origin lived up to their reputation and delivered exactly what they promised. If even half of the MMORPG's on the market were as good about attention to detail, quality control and delivering on their promises the MMO Market would be one heck of a lot better off.
DAOC: Had an absolutely flawless launch and delivered every single aspect of gameplay promised.
Shadowbane: Delivered every aspect of gameplay they promised. Unfortunately the graphics were so dated that they turned most off and the gameplay never really caught on.
FFXI: Delivered everything it promised
Guild Wars: Delivered everything it promised
EVE: Delivered everything it promised
E&B: Delivered everything it promised (actually they delivered quite a bit more than they initially promised)
EQ1 & 2 both delivered everything they promised. EQ1, like WoW, suffered from overwhelmed servers at launch. They just absolutely did NOT expect so many people to log into the game. In the first 3 weeks EQ was out more people logged into the servers than UO had as a playerbase. Verant/989 just had no idea how big the response would be to the game. The "issues" EQ had at launch were 100% due to overwhelmed servers and network infrastructure. Matter of fact their ISP had to upgrade their internet PoP 2 times within the first 6 months of the games release. How do I know this? I was there.
EQ2 did deliver what they promised but because they rushed it to market (to beat WoW to the shelves, which was a huuuuuuge mistake that all of us in beta warned them against). Because of their rushing it out the door a lot of bugs that should have been fixed prior to release didn't get fixed till 2 or 3 patches down the road. Bottom line on EQ2: It launched about 4 months too early. If they'd waited those 4 months what released would have been FAR more popular. But ok I'll accept your arguement on EQ2. I didn't buy it at release either. I bought it about 4-5 months later, once they finished fixing the initial beta bugs. Overall, however, everything that EQ2 promised was in the game at release.
If you want to talk about "launch problems" every MMO in existance (with the exception of DAOC) has had "launch problems". Nobody here is talking about "launch problems" we're talking about gameplay 6 months after launch.
Shall I go on?
In fact: If you go to the DDO official forums there is a thread in their general discussion forum about server population counts the players have been doing (since March). The server populations in DDO *now* at peak time are HALF what they were in March/April.
That alone should show anyone with half a brain that DDO is in trouble. The fact that Turbine is adding solo content and PVP should also tell you that DDO is in trouble. They wouldn't be deviating from their original plan if DDO was going the way they wanted it too. Or have we forgotten the add campaigns: Friends don't let Friends solo and "PVP has no place in D&D"?
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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el umm.. wow i must have been playing differant games then cause i didnt experence any of what you listed. i am more talking of bugs than anything else delivery they all did well but there where still things missing. every single one had one or 2 things missing at launch every game does. thats a fact.
as to playing with friends yes im lucky but if you sit down and look at all the info before launch its crystal clear that thats what it was made for not your usual "me hack me slash maybe me find some other people me explore"game. and thats all i hear people bitching about. you cant go and explore so what. then its not a game for you PERIOD. i on ocassion find a random group like i did in DAOC, WOW, ect.. and hmmm 2 hours later we are talking like we have been friends for years im sorry you all havent ever experienced anything like that but i have. my wife still talks to alot of people from daoc and wow. one friend from wow lives on the east coast and we talk on the phone all the time. yes granted you have to go through alot of people to find good people but thats life.
my sugjestion to everyone take your time slow down and only play one maybe two hours everyother day. this game isnt ment for grinding AT ALL!!!
i like this game cause its not like every other mmo out there.
WoW delivered every aspect of gameplay save for PvP at launch. They delivered PVP shortly thereafter. I don't even like WoW and I can be honest that they had a phenomenal launch. Granted the absolute HUGE response they got overwhelmed their servers at launch but the game itself was very solid at release.
SWG I can agree on. That was a mess from day one. HOWEVER: They did deliver every aspect of gameplay, at release, that they promised during beta. There were some things on their "it would be nice" list that didn't get added till later.
UO delivered every single solitary item that they promised, and then some. Granted it had bug issues but that's not a delivery failure so much as a 'first real MMO ever created is going to have some technical problems'. But as for what it delivered? There wasn't a single thing left out. Origin lived up to their reputation and delivered exactly what they promised. If even half of the MMORPG's on the market were as good about attention to detail, quality control and delivering on their promises the MMO Market would be one heck of a lot better off.
DAOC: Had an absolutely flawless launch and delivered every single aspect of gameplay promised.
Shadowbane: Delivered every aspect of gameplay they promised. Unfortunately the graphics were so dated that they turned most off and the gameplay never really caught on.
FFXI: Delivered everything it promised
Guild Wars: Delivered everything it promised
EVE: Delivered everything it promised
E&B: Delivered everything it promised (actually they delivered quite a bit more than they initially promised)
EQ1 & 2 both delivered everything they promised. EQ1, like WoW, suffered from overwhelmed servers at launch. They just absolutely did NOT expect so many people to log into the game. In the first 3 weeks EQ was out more people logged into the servers than UO had as a playerbase. Verant/989 just had no idea how big the response would be to the game. The "issues" EQ had at launch were 100% due to overwhelmed servers and network infrastructure. Matter of fact their ISP had to upgrade their internet PoP 2 times within the first 6 months of the games release. How do I know this? I was there.
EQ2 did deliver what they promised but because they rushed it to market (to beat WoW to the shelves, which was a huuuuuuge mistake that all of us in beta warned them against). Because of their rushing it out the door a lot of bugs that should have been fixed prior to release didn't get fixed till 2 or 3 patches down the road. Bottom line on EQ2: It launched about 4 months too early. If they'd waited those 4 months what released would have been FAR more popular. But ok I'll accept your arguement on EQ2. I didn't buy it at release either. I bought it about 4-5 months later, once they finished fixing the initial beta bugs. Overall, however, everything that EQ2 promised was in the game at release.
up there your saying delivered everything at launch.
If you want to talk about "launch problems" every MMO in existance (with the exception of DAOC) has had "launch problems". Nobody here is talking about "launch problems" we're talking about gameplay 6 months after launch.
then here your saying launch problems everyone has them which part am i to believe that you mean????
Frm the start, the fanboy's answer to the game's lack of content has been, "People shouldn't play it so much." In other words, some people believe that Turbine's lack of content is obviously the playerbase's fault. If the playerbase didn't use up content so fast, there would be plenty of content.
Hogwash.
You cannot put a game on the market and expect people not to play it. People said things like this on the beta boards, and my response to it is the same now as it was then. No one is going to plop down 50 bucks for a game so that they can play it for a limited time from the first day they play. To build a game based on this expectation borders on lunacy.
To try to tell others how they should play the game is rude, at best.
As for the game not being meant for grinding ... take a good hard look at the game's mechanics. Grinding dungeons is all this game has to offer it's players. Period. There is simply nothing else to do.
Please tell me 1 thing UO promised during development that wasn't delivered. Matter of fact UO is one of very few games that actually delivered more than they promised.
Please tell me 1 thing that DAOC was missing at release. Try, please.... this should be fun
What was FFXI missing? I didn't see anything missing from the features list when I played it at release.
What was Shadowbane missing? I dont' recall it missing anything.
What was Planetside missing?
The list goes on. You can SAY "every game is launched missing 1 or 2 things" all you want. But the fact is that QUALITY MMORPG's are not released missing *promised* content. Nor is their level cap cut in half the day before release. (yes, really... DDO had 20 levels in beta)
DDO released, after the same length of development as EQ2 did. Both took a couple years of development time.
EQ2's budget was just north of 35 million. DDO's budget was just south of 45 million.
So um... exactly how did EQ2 release with roughly oh.... 1,000x the content, 50 more levels to advance. A robust and detailed crafting system. Excellent communications tools, Graphics that are just as good. Some quests that are just as good. Voice overs on every NPC in the game that gives a quest. A world to explore. Content for both solo and group oriented players, etc? Tell me? You are bitching about 'bugs at release'? Every MMORPG on your list had 10x (or more) the content in them at release than DDO did. And they did it in the same ammt of time. And they didn't have any more bugs than DDO did or have you forgotten the bugs with DDO at release? The constant multi-hour server outages while they applied this or that hotfix?
DDO is half (actually less than half) of an MMORPG. You can try to compare it to real MMORPG's all you want but the fact is that it falls on its face when stood next to a quality MMORPG. Hell even AO has more features and it came out almost 6 years ago.
Missing core features to an MMORPG at release is NOT the same as buggy content at release. Pathing problems isn't missing content, it's a bug. A hole in the world isn't 'missing content'. Missing content is the absolute lack of a crafting, housing, barter, communications system. DDO lacks all of those. The UI isn't even particularly good. It's OK... but not good. DDO suffers where other MMORPG's shine. It has had just as many bugs as any other MMO I have played and, on top of that, has less than 1/4 of the features of the WORST MMORPG's I've played. Even HZ had more, and better, features.
DDO's one (albeit huge) claim to fame is that it has very gripping and interesting quests. That's IT. That's ALL they did right. Even the classes don't adhere to the 3.5 ruleset. Casters use spellpoints instead of memorizing spells. Hell... DDO didn't even have to come up with their own ruleset and they still screwed up the ruleset they were GIVEN. Or are you going to try to tell me that Drow and Warforged are properly implemented now? And the 'action point' system, that's part of 3.5 too right?
For your information I only play 2 maybe 3 hours a night. 3 only if I'm on a long 'chain quest' like Tangleroot or STK or something like that and the group is moving slow. Typically I'm off the game in under 2 hours. Even then it gets repetitive and boring VERY fast. I'm glad that you and your 5 RL friends have fun in the game. Really I am. But that doesn't make the problems that the game has any less real.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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El that is what this game is made for face the fact its a niche game. my wife when she was playing wow, uo, daoc was a powergamer to the extreme. i hate powergaming most in one day even on days off from work was 4 hours then i would just get tired.
i am not a fanboy of any game im chiming in to say how this game IS not how you WISH it would have been.
i am so glade people like you are quiting this game to me powergamers ruin games. my wife leveled to 50 in daoc in like 2 months i finally got a 50 after a year. i like to play games for fun not to see who can get the best stuff first.
i am a true casual player this game just like wow was made for the casual player.
and its not dictating how anyone plays a game thats why many people go through a bunch of games before they find one they stick with. somethings dont appeal to you ok then look elsewhere.
just like EQ was for me i lasted 3 days on that game wasnt my cup of tea. i moved on never to play eq again.
That said what I am pissed about is that they deliberately removed half of the levels in the game 2 days before release. During beta the game had 20 levels. At release it had 10. During development they kept touting how the game was meant for grouping only and solo content wasn't planned. Then when subscriptions weren't growing as fast as they wanted them to, lo an behold... solo content... but dumbed down, completely pointless solo content. They swore up and down they weren't going to put in PVP and then BAM we get told they're working on PVP.
Why is this? Because their subscribers aren't high enough. A common misconception about DDO is that for some reason the 'fans' of the game seem to think Turbine, Atari and WOTC planned for it to be a NICHE game. BULLCRAP. They flat out stated that they wanted to see 1 million subscribers to the game. Just a clue: Tha'ts not Niche. 50k-60k players is NICHE... anything north of 100k is mainstream. 1 Million+ is a blockbuster.
So please don't tell me this is supposed to be a NICHE game. That's the lamest arguement that fans throw out there. The bottom line is that core features of the game are STILL broken. They claimed up and down that they were going to adhere to the 3.5 ruleset but every patch takes them further and further away from it. They decided to implement warforged (god knows why) and then proceded to completely emasculate the race. Then they went "Hmm how can we increase how long players play the game" (because there IS a problem with player retention. People weren't/aren't playing beyond the 30 day that comes with the box for the most part). And instead of adding CONTENT they throw in a race that has to be unlocked. And as a result you now have mindless sheep in the game doing every damn noob mission on hard... then elite to get enough faction to get their re-skinned elves with game-breaking stats and none of the negatives of the Drow Race. Nevermind the fact that "Drow" don't exist in Ebberon. They're more like 'wild elves'.
DDO is in trouble. Turbine knows it. Most people on these forums know it. And it's in trouble specifically and directly because Turbine made 3 huge mistakes:
1) They made it an MMORPG that is fee based and then did not put enough content into it to justify the fee.
2) They swore up and down to the AD&D fan base that it would adhere to the rulesets in AD&D and then steadily began to break those rules whenever it became convenient to do so.
3) When the BIGGEST complaint in the game was lack of content and the next biggest was 'lack of things to do besides questing' they threw in a new (broken) race that you have to unlock to get and 1 or 2 more quests.
What baffles me is that people continue to defend bad decisions by Turbine. If it was meant to be a niche game then why friggen panic when you have 90k subscribers. If it was meant to be NICHE then they'd have been THRILLED with 90k subscribers. Instead they are in a panic and throwing in things like PVP and Solo content. Why? Because the game isn't BIG ENOUGH for them. They want more subscribers. They want 1mil+ subscribers. They want WoW-Like Success.
And it'll never happen because they aren't listening to the players. Very few people I know who were interested in the game cared about solo content or PvP. That was the LAST things on their laundry list of 'what would be cool to have'. And based on polls I've seen on the 'net about it that is true for most people. Most wanted some form of character customization within the game, dying clothes etc. Many wanted clothing to show more... show the jewelry, capes, cloaks etc. Show the weapons in a sheathe, don't make them vanish... etc. Some wanted crafting... some want a non-instanced hunting world to explore and see. Some wanted other cities. Some wanted more quests. Some wanted the existing quests to be better balanced with one another.
Instead... we are getting PVP and Solo content. WHEE!!! And we're also told: "Oh and here, have a race we know tons of people will want so we'll make you have to unlock it to get it. That'll keep you playing for at least another month or two."
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
Most importantly, if it were meant from conception to be a niche game, servers wouldn't have been ghost towns from Headstart. Turbine was anticipating a large playerbase, hence the large number of servers.
Had they been expecting a niche game, they would have started with a half dozen or so servers. Then if the servers had gotten too crowded, they would have opened new servers. Opening new servers looks good. Combining servers looks bad, which is why the haven't done it ... even though it is sorely needed.
The bottom line is that the game has been an extreme disappointment to everyone ... PnP D&D fans, MMO fans, and Turbine's investors.
Shutting the servers down would be euthanasia. Then a compnay better able to deliver could take a crack at the Dungeons and Dragons license.