DDO and initial thoughts.

[Noah EQ2]

I see a lot of Vanguard information on the general boards and figured I would bring up another "generation 3" MMO that is coming out soon but not much has been discussed: Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO).

If you have yet to read about the game, visit ddo.com - there is a large FaQ and lore section to read.

My take at the moment:

DnD is something near and dear to a large portion of people. Some feel it is geeky and others have had it as a hobby for over 20 years. I would be a large amount of people that surf this forum have played DnD at some point in their life. This offers the fantasy of DnD in the MMO setting, but sticking as much as possible to the DnD rules.

Live action combat: If everything works as they are saying, skill might actually come back to the MMO games with DDO. When you want to "Block" you have to use a key to Block. You will controll the actions of your character with keystrokes and not just *stats* that check for automatic affects (parry, riposte, attack). Pretty appealing since someone that developes skill in how to manuever in the game will be a better player. How this will actually play out will be interesting.

Instancing: Looks like they will be huge on instancing for "dungeon crawls". I know people frown on this, personally I really dont care if a game is instanced or not - it is all about if the journey is fun or not.

Race/classes: Just like in DnD there are the basic races and classes. In DDO you can Multiclass and be something like Wizard/Warrior... or Thief/Wizard/Cleric. Of course multiclassing has its pros and cons... versatility vs focused power. Seems it would be appealing to people that enjoy variety. I know ill be picking up a few lvls of rogue.

Challenge: Unknown atm if this will rank with the WoW/EQ2 line of games for lvl progression. If it does, I will probably be pretty disheartened. There are only 20 levels (traditional to DnD) but those 20 levels were extremely hard to climb in the PnP (paper and pen). It would be nice to see the difference of a 12th lvl wizard vs a 20th lvl wizard be enormous like in PnP.

Turbine: I have little knowledge of this dev company cept it released AC and AC2. I don't know if the player base that has dealt with Turbine are happy/put out like some people with SoE. The team over there seems pretty laid back and talks with the community quiet often on the forums.

Overall the game has some promise to it much like Vanguard. Of course most games seem to have "hope" pre-release with the nostalgia of a new MMO. I will play the game due to my geek background of PnP DnD sessions and hope it can bring long term challenge as an MMO.

Take a look and post some thoughts if ya want. With all the Vanguard discussions (yes yes <3 Brad) if figured it wouldnt hurt to bring up DDO as a contender in the G3 MMO games.

[Elgonn]

You don't see much about DDO here because its chances aren't good (and I'm a hardcore D&D fan).

[Jait]

Originally posted by Elgonn
You don't see much about DDO here because its chances aren't good (and I'm a hardcore D&D fan).

http://www.fohguild.org/forums/showt...5&pagenumber=1

Discussion a couple weeks ago if anyone's still interested.

[Noah EQ2]

Thanks Jait for digging that one out. At a quick glance it looked like it turned into some Cleric debate.

If the *real time* combat actually works out, the level of skill a person possesses could play a huge role in the game.

Im sick of hot bars and hitting 123123123123123... Personally I would rather have 98754093876138023759872342349758 - if that makes any sence ;p

[Kashmiir Battlekat]

I was a hardcore AD&D player for many years as well as first person shooters starting at Wolfenstein3D up to Quake3 Beta Test at which time I quit them games for Everquest because I simply got tired of the "twitch" games.

I love the D&D aspect of the game, but this whole interactive combat might actually turn me off some because Ill be honest.. my reflexes are not what they use to be. Im getting old, already fat and the fingers just aint what they use to be.

Hopefully it is not over the top in terms of twitch factor otherwise I just might give it a shot. It sure sounds interesting.

[Szlia]

but sticking as much as possible to the DnD rules

That's where my interest for it, if i had any in the first place, stoped.

[Elgonn]

Originally posted by Szlia
That's where my interest for it, if i had any in the first place, stoped.

You'll be happy to know they aren't sticking very close at all then.

[Jait]

Originally posted by Noah EQ2
Thanks Jait for digging that one out. At a quick glance it looked like it turned into some Cleric debate.

If the *real time* combat actually works out, the level of skill a person possesses could play a huge role in the game.

Im sick of hot bars and hitting 123123123123123... Personally I would rather have 98754093876138023759872342349758 - if that makes any sence ;p

Yeah it's not worth posting anymore there, just grabbed it in case anyone wanted more info.

Personally I'm interested, but would like to see a bit more hype from the producers. And a lot more details. I expect we'll see that, real soon.

[Metranon]

the most important factor in d&d is that there are no real rules. one of the main winning points of d&D has always been its ability to draw on the creative ideas and impulses of it's players to alter the game to play it the way YOU want to play it. Want to play a creepy undead campaign where all the characters are vampires, ghouls, or skeletons? you can modify the rules to do it. Want to play a extremely realistic feudal campaign with lots of miniatures in use, mass battles of medieval armies, and courtly intrigue? you can find rules (or make your own) to do that too.

as soon as you hard-code the rules, setting, style for d&d into a computer you've lost this ability to alter the game to fit your own design and thus, in my opinion, lost the best part of the game.

[Jait]

Originally posted by Metranon
the most important factor in d&d is that there are no real rules. one of the main winning points of d&D has always been its ability to draw on the creative ideas and impulses of it's players to alter the game to play it the way YOU want to play it. Want to play a creepy undead campaign where all the characters are vampires, ghouls, or skeletons? you can modify the rules to do it. Want to play a extremely realistic feudal campaign with lots of miniatures in use, mass battles of medieval armies, and courtly intrigue? you can find rules (or make your own) to do that too.

as soon as you hard-code the rules, setting, style for d&d into a computer you've lost this ability to alter the game to fit your own design and thus, in my opinion, lost the best part of the game.

Ya but they're trying to reach a broader market here. Any time something goes mainstream you piss off the purists. If you cater to the purists you end up with an empty game.

I get your point though.

[Elgonn]

I think they would make more money making a game for the purists actually. I don't think DDO will compete in any fashion versus WoW, EQ2, and Vanguard. Might as well make a game that did what NWN completely failed at.

[xregg]

I will buy DDO without a doubt. I think it will turn out alright. I still have all my old D&D books from way back when

I will only play it part time . I love WoW too much and my guild too much to leave it.



Xregg Shadowknight

Kromdar Warrior
www.bothguild.com

[Jait]

Originally posted by Elgonn
I think they would make more money making a game for the purists actually. I don't think DDO will compete in any fashion versus WoW, EQ2, and Vanguard. Might as well make a game that did what NWN completely failed at.

It's not a bad point at all. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[beepbeepbeep]

Well I hope it turns out ok, I love the D&D style and rulesets, and lore, although I've never played the PnP version.

I won't be "anticipating" it though, so if it does suck I won't be let down.

[Shaof]

All exp from quests, no thanks.