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Has it improved?
Bahemoth
Member Posts: 126
I played beta and then I also played trial about 1 year ago and I'm wondering if it has improved any since then
when i played it seemed slow asfar as grind was concerned and also seemed to lack story content, you could also not play evil and there was no pvp.
has any of this been changed and do the things i do ingame accually mean anything later or are they just an instance that has no real effect on the story?
Comments
The grind is the same, but there is about twice as much content as from launch so you do have some choices in what to grind.
Some of the stories are tying together but there really are only a very small number of "major" storylines.
You still can't play evil, and probably will never be able to. The added PvP to some taverns as brawling pits and a couple battlegrounds but nothing outside of that. PvP is usually a who can {crit, finger, stone, fascinate} the fastest... I've never had a PvP battle last more than a couple seconds.
Everything is still instanced, but with the recent live event they are starting to move into world changing events to change things up a bit.
On the other hand they've added auction houses, favor rewards, and a new enhancement system which is really an improvement over the past "pick 4" system.
So overall, it has improved a great deal but not so much in any of the things you are talking about.
DDO has a bad grind and lacks story content? Even back during beta I'd have said, "Huh?" if hearing that. It's only a grind if the person insists on powerleveling and running the same quests over and over.
A "persistent world" in MMOs is pretty much a myth regardless of the game. They're persistent for about five minutes.
A LOT has changed in the past year or so, overall. PVP is only in certain locations.
it did lack story back in beta... then again i really shouldnt try to hold it anywhere close to comparable to its namesake i mean its hard to get an interactive world and super storydriven world without a real DM....
Would you be willing to explain why beta should dictate an opinion on a finished product 2 years after it went live?
There's a story, you just have to read.
I agree with DDO not being 110% accurate to D&D. The reason here is that the majority of us who played Dungeons & Dragons did so through our imagination and only used the rules as a guide. Each DM had their own style and the games played reflected that. Turbine is the DM in DDO and other then a few instances (blanket imunities) they've done an extremely good job at providing for an wholesome experiance set in dynamic environments.
Now to answer the initial questions:
Grind - Only if you want it. If you're the type of player who likes power gaming and grinding out content then you can very welll play that way in DDO. Thankfully it's not required unless you expect the results of being a power gamer. Casual players feel like there's a grind when they want something without putting in the effort and this could apply to you.
Evil - You can roll play an evil character. Make it neutral, as a disguise, and use "/emote bellows with glee: Muahahaha...!!!" every time you kill something. I would never have let you play an evil character in a D&D campaign and I've never played with a group of people were the DM had done so.
PvP - it's based on D&D. What do you think would happen to a party full of fighters who went up agasint the lone high level caster? It applies here as well. Balance of DDO's PvP system is governed by the players who are making up the party to engage each other. It's unwise to have all the casters on one team and splitting them up is one way to balance it. The Capture the Flag and Death Match, not to be confused with tavern brawls, is some great fun in DDO. Currently, there is no reason to do PvP other then personal "fun", and it's usually a lot of fun!
instance - just an instance? Not to be rude but if you're unable to see it as a personalized experiance then you'll probally want to look at games where camping spawns and kill stealing is common practice. The Instance system in DDO is by far the best directed questing mechanism in the current list of MMO's. The isntancing double as a way to balance game content so it plays well.
I also played DDO back in beta and a little after and was not impressed. I liked the combat system and I love the D&D ruleset - but the mediocre graphics engine and the fact it's an Eberron game totally turned me off. Not to mention it suffered from new-MMO-itis. Like any new MMO it had plenty of wrinkles major and minor that demanded to be ironed out.
OK, so in the interim I have going on with my life and last year decided to get LOTRO at it's release largely due to all the praise it was receiving. Because of my experience with DDO I probably wouldn't have rushed into that one without it's glowing reception into the MMO multiverse.
So to make a long story short, LOTRO deserved it's high praise and continues to earn it to this day, which has caused my opinion of Turbine to go up quite a bit. So I've been on a D&D (mainly NWN) jones the past month and I decided to give DDO another shot.
My general opinion of DDO has been negative (I keep up in the news, so reading about the release of the auction house - how long after release? Like a year and a half? - stuff like this caused my general negative opinion). Also it seemed like there were quite a few, how-to-put, socially-challenged players. I mean there seemed to be a concentration of assholes, even for an MMO.
OK, rambling again ... Based on the esteem Turbine has earned from me with LOTRO, I decided to give DDO another shot rather than just re-install NWN1 or go through Baldur's Gate 2 for the n+1th time. And I was totally NOT DISAPPOINTED!
Good job Turbine! The game has been fleshed out very nicely. Even though I still find the graphics engine mediocre, the rig I now use can handle it at it's higher settings. Still a bit of stutter, but not as bad as LOTRO. And I am smarter also about my graphic settings now, so that helps.
My personal selling point was expansion of solo content. I just love soloing dungeons, what can I say? That makes it even more fun when I pick up one or two other people to explore with. Plus, I think I see soloing evolving as a meta-game within DDO which gets me even more stoked over it.
SO that was a long ramble. If you like D&D and are not a rule-Nazi (i.e. you won't be upset that it is not a 110% copy of PnP) you will like this game. Even Eberron has even been slowly finding a little space in my heart (but only a TINY one dammit - lol).
My suggestion is to do a lot of research on optimal builds first, even if you aren't the powergaming-type. Just reading through the forums on that topic will allow you to make better informed decisions when you create your character.
Also, to address an earlier-mentioned dislike of DDO I had, I re-established myself on Sarlona and have found a very low jerk-quotient. I don't know if that's because Sarlona is just a good server, most of them left the game or they just mellowed out. Or maybe I was just online at the wrong time during the game opening and got an unjustified bad impression.
yes,
much more interesting content, raising the level cap makes the experience last longer, and a new cap raise is happening soon. The revamped enhancement system is much better. The combat engine is the best currently available. No other game I've played even comes close except city of heroes, and DDO kills that. The monsters move around constantly in combat, trying to gain positional advantage, and it causes combat to FLOW!
The graphics are decent and will above games like WOW, and almost never experience any lag and I have a relatively slow dsl connection.
The many classes that are all worth playing provides a great deal of variety to the game. The upcoming monk class adds to that list.
Rigghawk
Rigghawk
I don't like how they added weapon's that you now have to upgrade. I think they call it a crafting system.
Basically, you need to run The Shroud quest over and over. It's another grind they added to the game.
Except that it's 100% optional...and those weapons are far from "required" items to own.
This statement is absolutely meaningless, since the game itself is "100% optional".
This statement is absolutely meaningless, since the game itself is "100% optional".
Actually, it's not. In many games "grind" is required to level or to access "X" areas of the game or to gain "X" required equipment.
In DDO, the grinds (favor, tokens, crafting) are 100% optional. Your character is completely viable without ever doing any of it, you can access completely viable equipment without ever doing any of it, etc.
Additionally, you can simply purchase the crafting items if you really want to and not grind at all.
I used to be a staunch DDO hater. I now love the game. There has been lots of changes for the better.
The most significant for me are the lfg tools, which are simply amazing, the ability to solo the low level quest to get you started, the multiclassing, and the feats/enhancements.
This is the only game that I can find where people actively group at all levels. The community is also top-notch.
My only complaint is voice-chat. It kills roleplay, but I'm not a big roleplayer. I can't really complain too much about it.
I replied to this on another thread, and I feel that I need to reply here just so other people who used to play and quit won't infer the same thing that I did from these forums.
I went back to DDO last month after a year and a half layoff. I still like the game a lot, (Actually the system and mechanics are great!) but I'm going to quit for the same reason I quit last time - lack of solo play. I'm not sure what those of you that mention the expansion of solo play means, but without a tweaked character, it's extremely difficult. And to be quite frank, there are only a handfull of dungeons after level 2 that are soloable. Most don't even give you the option. It's still "boxed" out. The difficulties are as they have always been: easy, moderate, difficult, elite, etc. I don't even know them because I prefer solo play in the dungeons and roleplay outside of them. I mean, Waterworks and the Catacombs don't even allow you to check solo yet!
If I am missing something, please feel free to correct me. I would actually be greatly appreciative, because I want to continue playing this game. I like it. But, the lack of solo play is annoying. And it's even more annoying to hear people speak about it as if it exists everywhere. In my experience, it is extremely limited when compared to most other mmorpg's.
The "Adventure" or "Explorer" zones are EXTREMELY solo friendly, and offer enough exp by themselves to level a character to 13th I believe (if not higher).
Plus, a HUGE portion (most I believe) of the quests up to level 5 or 6 now have the "solo" difficulty setting, apart from the series quests.
Really depends on what you mean by soloing, if you mean building your character to solo, then tackling quests on elite alone, it really is light years ahead of anything else, and is a real adrenaline rush. If you mean spoon fed simple content made for one, then this isn't the MMO for you.
Nothing wrong with that, we all have different tastes. Personally I would rather have group designed complex quests that are a real challenge than scaled bland solo content, which is the standard in MMOs.
p.s. I believe they are going to add in some, go kill x, and take this message type quests. As well as the explorer areas, for those that want them. Seems a good idea as it doesn't really take much effort compared to real quests, and I suppose it could be considered a sort of content.
Well Vincenz, I wouldn't say a "HUGE" portion of quests after 2nd level have solo, but perhaps 20% of them do.
To pnp: The thing is, you CAN solo if you want - you just need to be able to LEARN! Learn some tactics, learn what gear is required [here others may disagree with me, but I've experienced the difference a "proof vs poison" item makes - from almost auto-fail to easily won in "Freshen the Air", "Redfang" as two examples], learn your own playstyle - what you can and cannot handle [I suck at leaving optional undone - I fell I HAVE to make xp each run - and sometimes fail because of trying to go a bridge too far].
<p align=center><a target=_blank href=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm><img border=0 src=http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/20.jpg></a></p>;
While the outdoor exploration areas do offer the potential for quite a lot of soloing XP, you must realize you are talking about repeating that content in the extreme in order to squeeze that much XP out of it.
In one complete run of any particular exploration area you can find all of the explore spots, perhaps a third of the rares, and a modest number of mobs which will contribute toward the first slayer rank or two. Then you have to repeat it, again and again. And again. And even again. Not my idea of solo content.
As far as solo quests there is not a huge portion with solo difficulty beyond level 2. As a matter of fact there are just 14 total: 4 depths quests, Redfang, Signet, Freshen the Air, Chamber of Insanity, Lair of Summoning, Ruined Halls, Mirras, Heretics, Predators and Caged Trolls. That's it.
DDO is just not a soloing game past level 3 or so unless you are twinked out and have insane amounts of patience. It's just absurd to even pretend that it is solo friendly at all.
You want solo... do WoW where you can solo 70 levels without repeating a single quest.
You're kidding right?
Fetch X rat tails. I've never seen anything like that more then once.
I have always felt as if WoW had the exact same content with a different skin. Killing a set number of creatures never felt like a real mission to me...
Maybe I'm coming at this from the wrong angle, but here goes...
DDO was my very first MMO. I'd just started playing video games in general a few months prior after having met my then boyfriend who introduced me to the fun of gaming. From the very beginning I was totally addicted to DDO. (I mean, from beta to launch and then some!) I ate it up like a kitten with cream.
Real life put a huge crunch on my time, still I squeezed in as much as possible. It was my drug of choice.
Then they changed the enhancement system. My completely wonderful cleric went to something I almost didn't recognize and whether it was inexperience or just a general dissatisfaction with the change, that was it for me. I was cured of my addiction.
Since cancelling my account I have given it two more "one more shot" tries. The decrease in size, the lack of groups, and the still-the-same (back then) enhancement system was a turn-off. I wanted so badly to go back and find the same welcoming embrace, really, I did!
I read the forums and I wonder a lot. Playing Lord of The Rings has definitely made me think about trying again, but we'll see. Turbine had a good idea with DDO. I'd like to see them go back to the basics and build from there.
/endrant
You're kidding right?
Fetch X rat tails. I've never seen anything like that more then once.
I have always felt as if WoW had the exact same content with a different skin. Killing a set number of creatures never felt like a real mission to me...
It does come down to what people consider content (and repeating it), I just can not see content as being different if you ask me to do the same thing with different mobs, maybe in a different place. That isn't content, it is taking the piss IMO.
However I will accept that a lot of people do not see it that way, and I think Turbine are waking up to that as well. They already have explorer areas, so it isn't a great jump to create some mini quests, such as go 'raid the gnoll village and free the hostage' or 'enter the shroud and hunt down the devil general xyz'.
A little scripting and you have the same content most MMOs have, but the option to do it or ignore it for the more involved quests. I actually think this filler content will expand the DDO appeal without distracting them greatly from the real questing.
Is not uncommon when a major change is made to an existing system, especially if you feel your character has been ruined, to become disillusioned.
One thing I am a little surprised about is that you couldn't create, more or less exactly the same benefits through the new enhancement system, as you had with the old. With a lot more possibilites as well, what exactly in the change gimped your build?
I'm in Europe, can't speak for US, but the game has plenty of people on it, and lots of stuff happening, which is especially good considering this is the quiet period between modules. Go on give it another try, you know you want to.
I would dare say the enhancement changes ended up being the single most well received change to this game since launch.
Additionally, the "decrease in size"???? The game has more than doubled in size since launch. Grouping is also a breeze now on the US servers post merge and has been for several months.
Is not uncommon when a major change is made to an existing system, especially if you feel your character has been ruined, to become disillusioned.
One thing I am a little surprised about is that you couldn't create, more or less exactly the same benefits through the new enhancement system, as you had with the old. With a lot more possibilites as well, what exactly in the change gimped your build?
I'm in Europe, can't speak for US, but the game has plenty of people on it, and lots of stuff happening, which is especially good considering this is the quiet period between modules. Go on give it another try, you know you want to.
I really think that the enhancement system was more than I could figure out as someone who was so new to gaming in general. After reading and researching I did begin to understand it a bit more, but back then I feel that I lacked the confidence to even try working it out.
A lot of time has passed between then and now. With the things that I have seen from Turbine and readon forums, perhaps you're correct. Maybe it is time to give it another try.
I would dare say the enhancement changes ended up being the single most well received change to this game since launch.
Additionally, the "decrease in size"???? The game has more than doubled in size since launch. Grouping is also a breeze now on the US servers post merge and has been for several months.
Again, being so new to gaming in general, I willingly admit that the issue may not have been the enhancement system at all. From reading the forums and trying to understand the enhancement system, etc. perhaps now I am in a better position to try it again.
I wasn't aware that the game had doubled in size or that some servers had merged. (This is why I continue to read the forums because often times others are far more in the know!)
Thanks, Vincenz for setting the record straight.
There are now some online and offline programs to help you spend your enhancement points (unfortunately I don't have any links to hand), you just plug in how many points you have and what you want and it tells you what and when to buy to get around the level and previous spend requirements. Alternatively you can just spend them on what you fancy as you get them (or save up), both methods work pretty well. If all else fails you can always just reset them and do it again through a trainer.
Great point docrock, make no mistake...the new system is WAY more complicated, and I use the hell out of the offline enhancement builder...but LOVE the system.