D&D Online To Go Free This Summer

[frankthedm]

Kotaku - Dungeons & Dragons Online Not Going Free In Europe - Dungeons & Dragons Online

 

[JustKim]

I'm an intermittent subscriber, this is interesting news. It'd be great to have more players around for those barren mid-levels where we usually have to fall back on runs. The cynic in me, however, remembers that most of the players of free games consist of internet children.

 

[JustKim]

After reading the VIP comparison it's clear this is not a free game, it's just an extended trial. Some key points:

• If you can't venture far from Stormreach, your effective level cap is 10
• If you can't enter some dungeons, your effective level cap is even lower, probably 6-7
• Limits like 2 packs and 2 character slots are going to be really stifling for most players
• Gold and auctions being limited means you will never buy anything, ever. The economy of DDO is ridiculous because it's mostly max-level characters buying goodies for their alts.
• A bullet list lends credence to complaints.

So don't worry European dudes and dudettes, you're not missing much.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

After reading the VIP comparison it's clear this is not a free game, it's just an extended trial.

As an intermittent subscriber myself, I have to disagree. I disconnected my account because there just wasn't enough content to satisfy me for more than a couple of days worth of playing a month. Plus, I just didn't have time for it.

I only really have 3 characters that I play on any regular basis. I got one character to level 10 in a year of playing the game.

This really makes me want to play again. I'd be happy to live with the restrictions listed if the game was free. And maybe, if I really got into it again I'd consider paying to remove them. The game was really good.

I found the only thing I got frustrated with and what made me quit was a complete lack of randomness in the game. That was the root cause of all of my issues:

-Everyone knew the location of all the traps, monsters, secrets, treasure, and so on in every quest due to having played them ALL before
-Because of that, everyone would rush through every level without slowing down or even stopping for anyone new to the game to explore, read the dialog options or even read the descriptions on their new items
-Once everyone realized that there are only certain chests in the game that roll really high on the random item tables, they stopped playing through quests for XP. They instead played a quest up until the point that they found the chest and would immediately abandon the mission so they could get the mission again and find the same chest.
-There was no one to group with after the first couple of months as the population dropped to almost nothing. For a game designed around the D&D ideal of 5 players working together in order to accomplish a mission, there was almost no one willing to do so.

I think most of these issues can be resolved simply with a massive influx of new players. If 90% of the population hasn't played an adventure before, they'll all be careful, they'll all work together, and they'll likely want to accomplish missions again for something other than the loot. Which makes the game fun again. I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Aran Thule]

Quick question for you or anyone else familiar with it - who playable is it solo or with 2 people? Yeah, I know it's a MMO, but my wife and I really enjoyed WoW either on our own or just the two of us and would like to give DDO a try like that. We're not much into the big group stuff.

You can have a lot of fun as a duo, as long as your characters work well together you can be very effective.
If you can cover the bases, able to heal, able to do damage, able to spot and disarm traps/locks.
Just make sure both of you have a way to get the other up if they fall down.
As long as you approach it from the viewpoint of having fun then it is often better then running with a random group.
If you take your time, do lower level quests and accept that some will just be too tough or impossible to do without help (hard to stand on 4 pads with 2 characters for example)
p.s avoid irestone inlet, it is very easy to get wiped there and missions with timers are hard to do safely.

 

[JustKim]

You can do better than that as a duo if you don't mind spending some money. The recently introduced hireling mechanic lets each person bring an NPC hireling along and they are generally pretty good, especially the clerics. You can also command your hireling to stand on triggers or interact with objects, like switches that require high Strength.

So a duo is perfectly playable. I've actually done Irestone Inlet with two players and two hirelings, and it was a lot of fun.

 

[Urizen]

I've been wanting to check this out for a long time.

I play WoW frequently, and I'm getting really, really bored with it.

It's the same thing over and over again.

What scares me about DDO though, is not being able to find a group, as I hear it's very much a game geared towards group play, and sometimes I just like to do solo stuff.

How do the controls work?

I hear you can do cool stuff like climb walls and tumble, etc.. but exactly how? Is it by using hot keys, or do you have to punch certain buttons in sequence?

Sorry, I'm a newb. I just want to know more about this game.

thanks for any help.

 

[Derren]

I tried it twice, and both time I didn't manage to get out of the starting area.
Its simply too boring to go from sewer instance to sewer instance which each plays nearly the same.
And other than that there is nothing to do.
So far DDO is one of the worst MMOs I played (not counting cheap asian grinders), and I generally play every MMO Trial I can get my hands on.

 

[JustKim]

What scares me about DDO though, is not being able to find a group, as I hear it's very much a game geared towards group play, and sometimes I just like to do solo stuff.

Solo difficulties were added to many quests and dungeons a while back, but if you ask me around level 4-5 it becomes obvious that all they did was scale everything back ~20% and call it a day. There are solo dungeons I could not possibly complete with any build, and on solo difficulty you can't bring along a hireling. You will need a group for these levels and for any major questlines, which don't even have solo difficulties.

I hear you can do cool stuff like climb walls and tumble, etc.. but exactly how? Is it by using hot keys, or do you have to punch certain buttons in sequence?

You run around as you do in most games, click to target and left-click (IIRC) to autoattack. Combat is fluid, enemies will move around and so can you, but you have a -4 penalty to attack while moving. You can block with the shift key to give yourself DR, which improves greatly if you use a shield. If you have the tumble skill you can enter a roll while blocking to get through or away from enemies.
Most other abilities are button-driven. As you amass spells and action points and usable items, you will probably end up with multiple quickslot bars on your screen. There are 20 bars provided for this reason.
There isn't a climb skill and you don't climb walls. There's a jump skill that determines how high you can jump, and a swim skill that determines how long you can stay underwater. Skills like intimidate and diplomacy will increase or decrease your threat, and are also sometimes used as dialog cues, but really not very often. There are nearly as many skills as there are in 3.5, with the exception of knowledge skills and the addition of haggle, a skill that influences buy and sell prices.

 

[DagazUlf]

Anybody who wants a leg up in the game, can find me on Thelanis (Wulf Ratbane, of course, among others).

Wow, in 3 years I've never run across you on Thelanis. You should just start having your storyhour in the Phoenix when they have RP nights.

If Wulf isn't available if you're new to the game, just give me a shout (as DagazUlf).