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It's a shame...
Yamota
Member UncommonPosts: 6,593
I am currently waiting for next good MMO to be released so I decided to try this game and I was pleasently surprised. I dont think this game is really an MMO, as I didnt interact with other people at all however single player RPG elements were good.
I particularily like the way health and regen are not regenned and this leads to you having to be tactical about what abilities to use in what battles.
However I saw that in the store you can buy all kinds of things to make you more powerful. From healing potions to NPC pets. Really sad to see such a good game being ruined by this P2P system that gives a big advantage to people who shell out more money.
But ah well, I hope I can play the single player RPG element without spending much.
Comments
Interesting that you didn't interact with others. On Kothos (starter island) groups are forming all the time either by the LFG panel or via blind invites. Once you move to the mainland it does down a little just because players start spreading out but stand still near a dungeon enterance and you'll get invites.
About 90% (maybe higher) of the stuff in the store can be obtained in game and that includes the healing pots and NPC hirelings so getting them in the store is in no way a game breaker. Prior to a dungeon run I regularly stock up on 50 mid-level healing pots from a vendor in the marketplace. So where is the big advantage if I get it via the store or a in-game vendor?
While I understand you're new to the game so yes from first glance it probably does look like a typical item shop game, but once you've played awhile you'll see it's not.
As far as playing without spending alot; I've played the F2p version for 8? months now and have only spent $9.95 so I could pick up 3 adventure packs I wanted. The cost of the game is totally up to you.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Actually it is becoming the typical item shop game, not to the full extent but nearly every update adds stuff in the store that gives boosts you can not get in game because unlike in game boosts some of the store ones stack with in game boosts. Or the shop gets stuff that is better than anything in game of the same variety. But these things are kind of needed for Turbine to make money so from a business point of view it makes sense to offer them in the place you make the most money.
As for hirelings, yes you can buy them in game, but the in game ones are limited to one per person, the store bought ones allow you to fill an entire party if controlling 5 hirelings was what you wanted to do on a quest. Also the store has a healing wand usable by anyone, there is no such wand in game that does not require you to be certain classes or have the UMD skill.
Now none of these are really game breaking because DDO has been dumbed down and easy moded until nearly anyone with some minor resources can solo way too much of the game. You can buy almost nothing from the shop and still complete every quest in game and NEVER need a full party.
As with any other MMO you can chose to play alone, such as you had. When I've tried WoW I also played alone, mostly becuase the community is garbage, but does that mean the game is not an MMO?
DDO is a real time strategy hack-n-slash rpg. Once you identify the level of gameplay possible it makes it very hard to enjoy other games. Getting into a decent guild of like minded people rounds out the experiance.
You can loot better stuff then what's in the store. The store mostly consists of "convienence items" that are *not* powerful and do not imbalance the game. They simply function to assist players who all of a sudden say "I cannot do this" and someone else says "you got free Turbine Points, you can pick up item from the store if you haven't found one yet". The pricier items in the DDO Store are more applicable to people who subscribe since subscribers get a monthly stipend of free Turbine Points which has even been doubled for the last 2 months.
The only thing a free player should spend points on is additional content, character classes or races.
I have also been playing this a bit lately, just about to hit level 9 on my Fighter.
The biggest advice I can give you is this:
1) Buy a $6.50 pack of Turbine Points to remove some of the restrictions on the account. You will get 2 more character slots, chat restrictions removed, and auction restrictions removed.
2) Roll a toon on each server up to 50 favor. This will net you 100 Turbine Points per server, so 700 points.
3) With those ~1100-1200 points you should have, make sure to buy the Delara's Graveyard adventure pack. This is a VERY VERY VERY good quest pack to have. High exp and incredible rewards.
Edit: Oh, another reason for you to get the Delara's Graveyard adventure pack is that the Delara's quest line is narrated by Gary Gygax! (This probably only matters if you actually play PnP D&D, and know who Gary Gygax is)
I really think there is nothing game breaking in the shop. As for buying characters to help you through content, this is basically an offering for people who really want to play solo. Many DDO instances are really not designed for solo play, at least if they are being run at the appropriate level, so if you want or need to solo them then buying these npc's will definitely help. They are never needed, though, if you have a group of 3 or more.
I was pleasantly surprised when I went from Apprentice to full 5 star Elite in under 2 months. I was pleasantly surprised again when I went from Elite to just barely Hardcore in 2 weeks. Apprentice, here I come!
Thanks for the tips as I think this game certainly is worth $6.50 but I still dont think this is an MMO. I have no reason what so ever to interact with anyone and the quests are instanced so no random encounters either.
However as a single player game or Diablo like multiplayer game it is quite good, so far.
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Well, the beginner quests are easy enough to do alone, and sometimes more convenient. However, once you get beyond the level 4-5 stuff, you will definately want to start finding people to group with. Also, since the level range is relatively small, there is always people within your level range doing something.
Remember, grouping with people does NOT reduce the exp you gain from a quest as long as they aren't more than 3 levels higher than you or more than 1 level over the quest level. Having a rogue (or multiclassed rogue) in party also allows for exp bonuses from disarming traps and finding secret doors
Also, you will almost always need a group to do quests later on, and definately if you start doing hard & elite modes. There are traps that will 1 or 2 shot ya later if they aren't disarmed.
Currently have a Human lvl 12 Fighter and a Drow lvl 3 Bard / 1 Rogue. It is a blast.
Edit: Oh, and certain classes solo much easier than others. Try playing a more challenging class, and you will quickly be finding reasons to interact with other players!
Interesting, as both hirelings and healing potions were in the game long before a cash shop was introduced.
If you're going to bash the cash shop due so for the right reasons. Like the supreme tome, or the hirelings that can't be bought in game, or the new super heal potions that aren't available in game, or all the new gear and crafting resources apperaing. Lots of things to choose from rather than what was in the game years before a cash shop.
By the "supreme tome" do you mean the +2 to all attributes? Hardly anyone bothers with that as it is overpriced and not all the stats will help every class. Not to mention that +1, +2, and +3 stat tomes can be found in game. As for "new gear" appearing in the cash shop... its junk. No one would bother spending money on a few +1 or +2 weapons when they can be purchased very cheap from other players.
As I see it, the only things worth purchasing in the Turbine Store would be Warforged, Monk, and Adventure Packs. Good thing is once all those are unlocked, the game and all of the content will be unlocked permanantly. So if a person plays for a few months on VIP, they quickly find the more popular Adventure Packs that people play, and can later purchase those and cut out the VIP monthly payment. Guess it all depends on how long you plan on playing the game.
great plan but for 1 thing .. DDO has already blocked your no more payment move. the will have new packs out every 3-4 months. bonus for all vip players and more income to game from the premo players . sadly less and less game for the F2P players , but really in games as with everything in life you get what you pay for. a MMORPG with great updates bot free and ontime ingame support , even if there {F2P'ers} content is thin and weak as water , there still getting a good shake .
Turbine is not blocking the no more payment method at all. Their recent and current updates are all low level, most people can avoid buying almost all of the new content since DDO has been low level rich in terms of quests for years. If you want to try the new low level stuff when you roll and alt you can buy it, but as of now Turbine has yet to add a quest that I would feel the need to buy if I dropped from VIP to Premium this year. Maybe when they get around to adding real content again that will change, but between the Sentinals, Carnival and the quests coming this next update they would not get an extra penny from me to purchase them. I will have to check out the underwater combat but Turbine needs to get higher level stuff done and get it done soon.
Right now if you play DDO daily you still have enough content in game to last quite a long time. If you buy the 4 to 6 packs I would suggest you could probably play multiple chars to level 20 and get a year or more gaming in for your minimal investment at this time.
I do have to disagree with these updates being great, as a long time player I have found these updates to have added nearly no fun to my gaming experience in nearly a year.
Item shop sells healing and mana (!) potions and additional shrines that nullify this core element of game. True, shop sells lots of relatively harmless overpriced nonsense (which for some reason is quite popular buy) but also a few reasonably priced items that are totally gamebreaking. And it really only takes one broken item to break the whole game. Also later game becomes less and less about strategy and more about dps numbers, punching more and more fat bags full of hp and immune to most fair tricks, making raw power from shop more useful.
On a sidenote, mana based casting easily leads into situation where you can overhelm encounter by dumping everything into it and having nothing else to do for the rest of day, by intent or mistake. The DnD vancian magic (spell slots) is actually more balanced and more fun, when you take regen out of game.
The positive of DDO is not that it has balanced shop (the whole game is horribly unbalanced and has gaping design flaws so item shop is just fitting part of this mess) but that you can have fun in the game without the shop and that using the shop is mostly fun.
In the end, it is fun that matters.
Are you soloing on normal or something? I have a suggestion. Try soloing the "Proof is in the the Poison". Even on normal you will struggle badly. In fact if you don't get worn down and your ass kicked if you do it on level I will be surprised. The shrine placement is rough.
Anyone claiming DDO is a single player game has never left korthos IMO. Korthos is meant to be soloable and IT TELLS YOU ITS ABNORMALLY EASY.
Soloing and still leveling at a decent speed takes some pretty serious twinking after about level 3 or 4. And forget getting some decent favor if all you do is solo on normal. And of course you miss out if you don't do elite as the mob spells/abilities change.
Well technically, WAS as Gary has since shuffled off this mortal coil.
If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, riddle 'em with bullets
And voice of the master rocks.
I find this sentiment odd. So just because a game doesn’t force you to group it’s not a MMO? DDO gives you the tools to find groups and it gives you the incentive of better loot and faster xp gain for doing harder dungeons. What more do you need? If you are playing the game as a single player game then it’s by choice not because the game forces you to. There is nothing wrong with that, I like to play DDO mostly solo just because of how broken up my play time tends to be but I can see the benefits to grouping and if I played the game more I would search out groups a lot more often.
As for the cash shop I think the cash shop in DDO is probably the best I have seen implemented. It’s hard to conceive spending significantly more in the cash shop then a monthly subscription would cost you and I imagine the typical is significantly less. Compare it to a cash shop in a game like Jade Dynasty where it’s easy to see people spending $100’s of dollars a month if you play a lot and DDO’s cash shop seems very fair and well balanced. JD is a PVP game as well so that money people are spending is to stay competitive where DDO is a PVE game so what gear or benefits the guy next to me has doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.
Oh, you could drop $100 in a single month on DDO... you would then be able to buy almost every adventure pack permanantly.
Yeah it's funny, DDO actually feels more "MMO" to me than any other MMO I play. Most MMOs these days don't require much grouping and you end up leveling solo to the cap. I probably group > 75% of the time in DDO, and there are so many people around and chat is always pretty lively.
You found one entire quest and you think that alone refutes the statement that DDO cna be a single player game? Fact is with the changes to DDO I find myself soloing most builds to level 10 or so if I do not find a group doing a quest I am interested in. A couple of years ago this was very rare for me where as today at any given time I might have 3 or 4 low to mid level chars I am soloing or duoing to mid level and beyond.
I started playing in March 2006, I have left Korthos with about 40 characters that have gone on to various levels or deletion and almost all of them soloed significant potions of this game. At level I can solo most quests on hard and if I build the character for it can do many on Elite. It does not take all that much or really any twink gear these days. DDO is pretty damn easy. Favor is not that important to me I tend to avoid going for favor.
Actually the gear and benefits the guy next to you might have can have a huge impact on your gameplay. If he devs start to design quests for the people spending the most or who have the most, the ones with less suffer. So the new content one day may be too hard for the average player(of course in DDO the chances of this are remote as the game has been getting easier in nearly every patch since F2P went live).
DDO is more like a multiplayer platform than other mmo scale involves PVP. The social is all about team play for doing a quest. If you are a capable character and know more about how to completing a quest, you maybe welcome. If you are not TR and easy to die, know nothing about the quest, your social won't make that up either.
The only thing makes character better from DDO store is +2 Supreme Tomes, I believe a lot of people buying it. The +2 tomes did not makes imbalanced. The True Reincarnation makes the difference.
I saw many TRed players lose their social skill because they don't join PUG anymore, perhaps once a while, then they do think they are downgraded to play with non-TR. Because of TR, they pretending to be well known about everything.
Something like:
1. One time I was in a group, the leader say, cast bla bla here, I don't have much time on this, do you wanna do it or not, or I will removed you from group. I have seen too man people like this, their speech are sharper than their weapon. And they all like to do on elite, if the quest failed, he got someone to take all the responsibility. Shipwreck in IQ is a challenging one for elite with only 1 healer. Honestly, he is not even a warforged tank.
2. Some people doing IQ for shards, then the mindsunder tinme, he booted all members and called for his guildie for the chest run.
Anyway, there are minor nice and friendly people in the game. The game tends to be guild run than the PUG style because TR players know how to do the quest without full group.
Larry the +2 tome is far from the only thing in the store that makes you better. TR is not what causes the imbalance, Turbine and their haphazard development directions are the cause. This is a group that puts out a Prestige enhancement for clerics and then needs to nerf it in two weeks.
It might not be other people with poor social skills, you might be the cause of your own sometimes. I rarely would run pugs and I NEVER TR any character. You do not need to be a TR to run short man groups. We have been doing it for years.
Other games favor the guy who lives in Mom's basement, so working people can outgear them, I say GOOD !!!
But you would be wrong here. DDO does not allow you to outgear them with your credit card. The best items in DDO are not available for purchase.
It is only a matter of time before it happens, and I say good. I am sick of the lifeless players getting it all, the working strike back!
If you have any questions please ask. I have moved on to WoW from eq and no longer have any desire to play a dead game. Thank you. (posted by another selling his account in EQ1)