D7D - Stormreach

[EvoG]

Odds are I'll never play it simply because its an MMO, so regardless of it being good or bad or 'aight, I have to say that Gamespy preview was eye-opening. Treating mana and health potions as expensive and rare, and capping the level to 10 AND not doling out XP and loot-drops for combat sounds excellent, and entirely opposite of WoW power-gaming.

Seems like some solid thought went into avoiding what one would expect from an MMO(as the Gamespy previewer stated), and I think thats really refreshing.

 

[Vultok]

I got to play it for a few days and I rather liked it for the following reasons:

D&D character creation

D&D character progression

Meaningful party roles (rogues are cool and useful)

Greater variety in types of characters.

OTOH, parts of it kind of suck. While potion drops are rare, loot is not. Eberron is a high magic setting, but I received a +1 greatsword in the first 15 minutes.

My impression is that the dungeons are balanced for 4 players. If you go into them with 6 players, it's a cakewalk. In addition, the early dungeons (say, up through level 3) really don't require much strategy at all if you have a decent party. That being said, it can be a lot of fun if you go into dungeons with 2 other people who you know well.

And, obviously, people can be annoying. Most fighters have no interest in waiting for the rogue to find traps. Once they run through the trap, they immediately say "heal me". And of course, you can't effectively solo.

As far as the 10 level cap goes, it probably took me 30 hours to get to level 3, so I don't see the problem. Furthermore, it's obvious that they plan on raising the cap at some point (unless everything goes to hell for them). And the repeating instances thing doesn't really bother me either. If you start or join a pickup group, you might end up doing one of the quests you've already done because somebody hasn't done it yet or they just thought it was really cool. I'm not sure I see the problem; don't you have to go into the same areas over and over again in other MMO's?

I'd recommend it if you're into MMO's and/or D&D. Provided you're willing to deal with the kiddies that you'll inevitably run into.

 

[merry andrew]

I'm not sure I see the problem; don't you have to go into the same areas over and over again in other MMO's?

I just assumed it would be possible to advance without redoing the same quests. It seems like too little content for something that requires a monthly fee. Then again, I'm not much of an MMO player, as I've played many but I usually only last about a month before I cancel my subscription.

 

[DemonKing]

So has anyone played the full game yet?

I haven't tried a subscription MMPORPG since Everquest/UO (neither of which did much for me) but if D&D Online is just a version of Guild Wars you have to pay for I don't know I'd be interested.

If it's ok though I might try and persuade some of my mates to get into it with me.

 

[Kenneybounces]

Hmm here are my thoughts:

DDO is DnD from level 1-5. Superbly engrossing and fun.

DDO is just another grinding mmorpg(WoW,eq) from Lvl 6-9. Moderately fun.

DDO is horribly boring at lvl 10. No fun at all. You'll be starting 5 other alts and there's still no new content.

Too many violations of the d&d rules because the designers felt like it. (IE: way overinflated monster stats, melee # of atks, spells)
DDO doesn't encourage multiclassing. Borrowing from the term min/maxing a character, maxing IS the minimum at higher levels. (Be it stats or classes)

Most players i know signed up for ddo because they wanted d&d. Most of them didn't get it, and most of them did leave(due to lack of content and deviations from d&d). DDO's current subscriber base is at 90 k or so. Pretty bad if you ask me.

I left ddo after playing for about 2-3 months, and am now enjoying myself in eve-online.

 

[CrusaderTemplar]

Well did you try the Raid Party Quests. Von5 and 6 (vault of night). I heard the dragon is hell to beat. The Restless Isles is enough new content from last month. I find its boring alone, Fun with friends.

 

[kenney bounces]

Yep, killed dragon, did everything. Personally i left because i didn't see a future in DDO. No designers can pump out new content in a reasonable amount of time when so much d&d rules have been deviated from. Worst of all, these deviations are solely "opinions" and not out of necessity.

Left eve-online.. too hard to play unless your character is one year + old. Due to the fact that skills only improve by time, you'll have to leave your char for roughly one year before you can actually stand up against other players in 0.0.
Good game overall though.. but just too tough for a newbie to get into now that the game is 3+ years old, and tech 2 weaponry really kills noobs fast.

Overall, I was much more satisfied with eve than i was with ddo after playing both of them for a few months.