Just saw an ad in PC Gamer that you can have "full, unlimited play" for no charges whatsoever.
I'm going to give it a shot. Don't really care about PVP... I'm hoping for some nice, free D&D. Neverwinter Nights is D&D, you know.
Downloading now.... but at 4GB for the high res version, I won't be playing tonight.
www.ddo.com
Dungeons & Dragons - Online
Initial thoughts from a noob:
I will be comparing things to Neverwinter Nights, as that is the last D&D game I have played.
EVERYTHING is instanced, it seems. When going from town to "wilderness," you get a loading screen. When going from wilderness to dungeon, you get a loading screen. When going from wilderness to town, you get a loading screen. If you are in town and enter a building, you get a loading screen. I've never yet actually seen another player once I have left town.... granted, I've not yet explored beyond newbie island where you go from level 1 to 2 or 3 or 4, depending on how much you grind before leaving. Maybe I will see characters out of town once I explore the "main" areas.
TOWN is instanced. If you return to town and there are too many people, you go into a mirror town with fewer people. Everyone still talks in the same general chat window, but unless you are officially grouped up you and your buddies might be invisible to each other in town.... until you tell the game to take you to a particular instance where your buddy is. It's weird. Also, can't summon pets in town, so you don't get the macabre weirdness of seeing a guy walk by you with a pet dragon, like in other games.
This "free" game is heavy on micropayments. I mentioned before that I am actually limited on where I can go as a free player, and this applies to character classes and items as well. But, even if I remain a "free" player, I can still drop real cash in the DDO store, and buy things on the fly... you start with 50 game-dollars, or whatever. I was in a dungeon yesterday, barely alive and hiding, no way to heal up.... I was about to "recall" with a hit to my experience points, and it said I had an option to shop at the DDO store instead. So I hit the store. And whatayaknow, 10 cure-moderate-wounds potions costs 50 game-dollars. So I bought it, and they appeared in my inventory, and I was able to proceed. Not exact figures, but $5 US currency will buy you something like 500 game-dollars.
Gameplay, compared to NWN: different yet same.
You still have hotkey slots at the bottom, and inventory screens, and character sheets.
Leveling, however, requires you find your class's "trainer" in town... no leveling in the dungeon.
Casting spells: very different. Playing a mage. I can prepare 3 spells at level 1, just like usual.... except I have what amounts to a mana score, and I can cast as many spells as I want as long as I have mana. Mana can only be recovered at heal shrines, which you don't see enough of as a low-level mage. You can only rest/regenerate health/mana at heal shrines. Passive regeneration out in the wild is extremely slow. Too slow, really.
Death... there are a couple different ways to handle it, but the only one I have done so far is that dieing takes you back to the last tavern you visited with a hit to XP.
Playing a Paladin on this low-level newbie island was just like playing Diablo, except easier.
Questions?
I will be comparing things to Neverwinter Nights, as that is the last D&D game I have played.
EVERYTHING is instanced, it seems. When going from town to "wilderness," you get a loading screen. When going from wilderness to dungeon, you get a loading screen. When going from wilderness to town, you get a loading screen. If you are in town and enter a building, you get a loading screen. I've never yet actually seen another player once I have left town.... granted, I've not yet explored beyond newbie island where you go from level 1 to 2 or 3 or 4, depending on how much you grind before leaving. Maybe I will see characters out of town once I explore the "main" areas.
TOWN is instanced. If you return to town and there are too many people, you go into a mirror town with fewer people. Everyone still talks in the same general chat window, but unless you are officially grouped up you and your buddies might be invisible to each other in town.... until you tell the game to take you to a particular instance where your buddy is. It's weird. Also, can't summon pets in town, so you don't get the macabre weirdness of seeing a guy walk by you with a pet dragon, like in other games.
This "free" game is heavy on micropayments. I mentioned before that I am actually limited on where I can go as a free player, and this applies to character classes and items as well. But, even if I remain a "free" player, I can still drop real cash in the DDO store, and buy things on the fly... you start with 50 game-dollars, or whatever. I was in a dungeon yesterday, barely alive and hiding, no way to heal up.... I was about to "recall" with a hit to my experience points, and it said I had an option to shop at the DDO store instead. So I hit the store. And whatayaknow, 10 cure-moderate-wounds potions costs 50 game-dollars. So I bought it, and they appeared in my inventory, and I was able to proceed. Not exact figures, but $5 US currency will buy you something like 500 game-dollars.
Gameplay, compared to NWN: different yet same.
You still have hotkey slots at the bottom, and inventory screens, and character sheets.
Leveling, however, requires you find your class's "trainer" in town... no leveling in the dungeon.
Casting spells: very different. Playing a mage. I can prepare 3 spells at level 1, just like usual.... except I have what amounts to a mana score, and I can cast as many spells as I want as long as I have mana. Mana can only be recovered at heal shrines, which you don't see enough of as a low-level mage. You can only rest/regenerate health/mana at heal shrines. Passive regeneration out in the wild is extremely slow. Too slow, really.
Death... there are a couple different ways to handle it, but the only one I have done so far is that dieing takes you back to the last tavern you visited with a hit to XP.
Playing a Paladin on this low-level newbie island was just like playing Diablo, except easier.
Questions?
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
I played it in beta, and will try it again soon to see what's changed. The main thing I remember is that Dungeon & Dragons online has almost nothing to do with Dungeons & Dragons the paper RPG beyond the setting.
Mana bars? Action points? What the hell?
I'd like to see the new edition of D&D turned into a MMO, the new system would be well-suited to that.
Mana bars? Action points? What the hell?
I'd like to see the new edition of D&D turned into a MMO, the new system would be well-suited to that.
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
Exactly. I wondered if a lot of these changes happened in the 3rd edition (or was it 4th edition?) change to the core D&D rules. I haven't done any pen and paper since 2nd edition. I believe NWN was 3rd edition. I'm fairly sure there has been yet another edition released.TPRJones wrote:Mana bars? Action points? What the hell?
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Yeah, but none of them have those. Not even close.
The latest edition is totally different from 2nd. It's a D20 system with "encounter" powers and "daily" powers etc. But it's still in no way a point system. That's WOW.
The latest edition is totally different from 2nd. It's a D20 system with "encounter" powers and "daily" powers etc. But it's still in no way a point system. That's WOW.
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
If you want to know what the latest edition of D&D is like, I recommend this podcast series (I think it's going to be a five or six-part series, it's up to part four now): http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4pod/20090828
It's the Penny Arcade guys, Will Wheton, and the guy that makes the PvP comic strip, playing D&D with one of the designers of the game as the DM. It's often HI-larious.
It's the Penny Arcade guys, Will Wheton, and the guy that makes the PvP comic strip, playing D&D with one of the designers of the game as the DM. It's often HI-larious.
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
I have no idea what the PVP/looting system looks like, but this *would* be a fun game for us to co-op. It looks like you can just pretend no one else exists at all, and there seems to be lots of content. I like how the quest system works. We could just do those.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Vince and I have played quite a bit. He agrees that it is some pretty good D&D for the price (free).
We hit an interesting mission the other day... sort of a Doom-type Kobold rush. Had to kill 200 of them before they killed you.... we made it to about 120 before we dropped.
We hit an interesting mission the other day... sort of a Doom-type Kobold rush. Had to kill 200 of them before they killed you.... we made it to about 120 before we dropped.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
So I was still on the mailing list, and finally decided to reload the game and see what was up.
First I bought the boxed game for $7, both because I didn't want to do a 9GB download, and because you know of my box fetish. Box showed up and it is such an old version of the game, from before it went free to play, that I couldn't get past the, "Create your account with your credit card" step. So oh well. At least I have the box for the collection.
Went to ddo.com to DL the 9 GB game. Did it. Wouldn't launch. Googling said the last people to have my specific problems were from 2011.
One last shot, DLed and installed it through Steam. Worked flawlessly, I joined my old server, and there are my old characters.... but at level 4 when I had been expecting level 10. I don't know if I am misremembering, of if I lost levels. I only thought I was higher level because I played at least 40 hours of the game... or did I? Just don't remember.
Anyway, got in game, vaguely remembered where I was on the map, then logged out.
So, if anyone wants some light multi, Vince and I did it a while back and it was fun enough.
First I bought the boxed game for $7, both because I didn't want to do a 9GB download, and because you know of my box fetish. Box showed up and it is such an old version of the game, from before it went free to play, that I couldn't get past the, "Create your account with your credit card" step. So oh well. At least I have the box for the collection.
Went to ddo.com to DL the 9 GB game. Did it. Wouldn't launch. Googling said the last people to have my specific problems were from 2011.
One last shot, DLed and installed it through Steam. Worked flawlessly, I joined my old server, and there are my old characters.... but at level 4 when I had been expecting level 10. I don't know if I am misremembering, of if I lost levels. I only thought I was higher level because I played at least 40 hours of the game... or did I? Just don't remember.
Anyway, got in game, vaguely remembered where I was on the map, then logged out.
So, if anyone wants some light multi, Vince and I did it a while back and it was fun enough.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."