Define ‘dungeon’. If you mean instanced area, you do that right away at level 1 in the town itself through sewers, warehouses, haunted homes, etc. As you get to level 4 or 5 I think (it’s been awhile) you can venture to the outer edges of the town to more involved dungeons, and by 8 I think you can start going on even larger quests that take you to various regions outside the city, although keep in mind that all dungeons are instanced, which is actually a good thing.
The big difference I recall was that rogues were almost as critical as tanks and healers due to the heavy prevalence of various sorts of traps and locked doors. And while I believe there were some anemic “wander around and kill mobs outside” areas, the emphasis was on instances right from the get-go. The first dungeon or two was solo, but beyond that…
(Not that they were all dungeons. I can recall visiting an island full of ogres for one quest, for example.)
By dungeon I’m meaning something analogous to WoW’s instances. 5-man, instanced content. If you know WoW, you can hit your first instanced dungeon in the neighborhood of level 10 (Ragefire Chasm for Horde).
I believe as soon as you’re out of the tutorial dungeon.
Cool, thanks for the info.
I went back for a month or so a few months back. The character feat/perk handling was greatly improved, as well as the opening area, and you can go up to Level 16 now, and likely soon 20.
What I like best about DDOs are the adventures, which are much better than MMOs typically have, although the system still encourages you to grind them repeatedly, and pick up groups are full mostly of players who’ve done it all before. However, if you play mostly with a fresh group, there is a nice sense of exploration, with traps, the occasional puzzle, uses for non-slaying skills, etc.
I’ve been considering going back again, even without this news.
You can get the client from their site, and if you have disks you don’t want to use them anyway, as you’ll have to patch.
-Limited levels at release
-Missing key D&D character classes at release e.g., Monks and Druids
-The smallest amount of launch-day content I have seen in any major MMO in the last few years.
I did enjoy the fps-esq combat system, which made for more immersive combat than other MMO’s and D&D munchkinism. However, these did not make up for the game’s obvious short comings.
There is no suprise that the game flopped. Frankly, it should have been pulled and retooled or canned before release.
For free it might be a good game to jump into with a group of friends for a weekly D&D game.
right out of the first dungeon you can start doing grouped instances- and really the final mission in the newbie zone is far more fun with a few people, tho you can do it solo.
I played the 15 day demo about a year ago, and enjoyed it. Not enough to subscribe, though. I would probably start playing again when it goes free, particularly if I could get a regular group together.
This is a game I tried when it first came out and god fed up pretty quick. My computer at the time couldn’t run it very well, so this played a huge part in my dissapointment, but if it seemed any fun to me at all I would have simply upgraded my system in order to play it.
I disliked the color palette, as everything I experienced was a version of brown. Every dungeon, The city proper, brown brown brown. This brought back bad memories of a couple EverQuest expansions that had forgone colorful lands and dungeons and instead added a couple dozen brown zones with brown and white enemies in a couple very poorly received expansions. Although I agree with the idea of not judging a book by it’s cover, I couldn’t help but lift my eyes from my monitor and gaze at all the Keith Parkinson artwork I have adorning my walls over my monitor. Fantastic colors everywhere in his version of D&D, but none in a D&D game.
Recently I’ve been getting back into table-top D&D gaming and have been trying to find a regular group to play with. I’ve also considered re-examining D&D online in the hope of finding out how much better it is now compared to the original release. What has been holding me back is that I don’t like to put myself in the position of playing a group-oriented game with people I don’t know who expect me to know what I’m doing when I’m still a newbie. EQ players were rather unforgiving because everybody had to rely on eachother so heavily back when I played.
I’m not sure if I find the new free-to-play pay-to-be-competitive subscription model appealing or a turn off. I really liked things simple: Pay $10-15 a month and experience everything the game has to offer. Even if I do subscribe and get the VIP treatment they offer on the website for DDO it seems that I am still allotted 500 points to spend, which indicates I’ll probably have to buy more and more to stay competitive. Instead of going out and subscribing now I guess I will wait until the free-to-play release comes out and see what others have to say about it.
Microtransactions, mini-expansions and amultitude of normal expansions are killing my enthusiasm for PC games. I get the feeling that some games are intentionally cutting features/content out of the original release in order to turn around and sell you much-needed content as an expansion. Sometimes I feel like I’m buying half a game for full price only to be forced to wait for the installments before I can enjoy the full game experience.
Although I am a fan of expansion content, some companies, like Sony Online Entertainment and Electronic Arts are starting to over-do it. I wonder how this will affect the fun-factor in a game like DDO. Aside from character slots and the like, I wonder if the micro-transactions will only allow you to purchase mundane but stylish items, or required items that allow your character to compete.
We need this in Europe.
I really liked the game, the grouping, the dungeons, the atmosphere, etc. I thought at the time it was the perfect candidate for a Guild Wars or a Free to Play model, apparently I wasn’t wrong.
I would love to get back in the game :(
At first I thought this was great, but after looking at the website:
- Free to play players are limited to “stormreach and vicinity” (whatever that means)
- Free to play players have to pay money to unlock certain classes (I dont think it’s clear how many) and races.
- Free to play players get a couple of adventure packs for free but have to pay for the rest.
- Limited Mail/Auctions/Gold storage (again, not sure what that exactly means).
I realise it’s free, but let’s say I wanted to unlock all of the content that is in the full game, I can easily see myself being charged significantly more than it would cost to buy the full game right now and a few months subscription.
Nevertheless, i’m certainly going to give this a spin!
Stormreach and vicinity, is a pretty big area.
Races- Drow- you cant use them until you max out anyway, so as a new player this isn’t really a penalty.
Yes, paid content. There is still a ton in there that will keep you busy for oh, 120 hours or so, it is newer content that will be charged for. Tbine does not build stuff for free.
if you want all the content, you could just subscribe, not pay ad hoc for each piece, that would be silly.
This is how I look at it- i can buy what i care about- I want a drow, buy the race, if I’m a content junkie, i buy the modules…
I would do this with a table top game right? Or Magic? Or Warhammer? why not an on-line game? I’d rather this than a monthly sub myself. There are months that I just don’t play some games- why should the company get my 14 bucks then? Sure I guess I could cancel, then resub, but then I lose vet rewards, badges whatever for not being subbed. I’ll take the member forever, and if I need something more I can just buy it as I need it.
Because you get something tangible for your offline purchases when buying Books and Minatures. You can also trade armies and modules etc.
I’d rather this than a monthly sub myself. There are months that I just don’t play some games- why should the company get my 14 bucks then? Sure I guess I could cancel, then resub, but then I lose vet rewards, badges whatever for not being subbed. I’ll take the member forever, and if I need something more I can just buy it as I need it.
And then you’ll have to buy something more. and more. and more. and more. And then you’re stuck weighing the decision to spend more money than it would have cost you to just subscribe in order to be competitive without being a drag on your group. And then buyers remorse sets in.
I think the overall idea though, is to get people to try out (or try again) the game in it’s earliest stages and determine if they want to subscribe at that point, or just pay for a few things that would make their experience more enjoyable. It’s like a demo that never ends, and you can add on to it. If you feel that you want to jump in, then you can subscribe and avoid the scenario that you describe above.
Chances are vet rewards (if they continue to exist in these types of games) are going to based on sort of monetary participation, because vet rewards mean nothing without the subscription fee attached. The other issue is many, many people like to pay for a complete experience/service rather than be nickel and dimed. That said, I don’t have a problem with what DDO is doing as long as they retain the normal subscription service also.
Is kerzain a crazy kitsune? You write some awfully long posts.
Yea, I do. I need an editor.