Okay, DDO is out. Anyone have it? Opinions?

[Harkoliar]

Opinions from a player who played D&D.. THis only shows the negative things he has experienced in the game.

link: http://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11041

...I am in meh early thirties and played PnP as a kid, often. My only online gaming perspective comes from Guild Wars and a few others, so keep that in mind. Anet's support has been regular, consistant and ever-nerfing but they ARE committed and knowledgeable. Here are 10 points: First, DDO has virtually NO single player aspect after the inital few missions. Second, SERIOUS server instabilites as well as a constant jerkiness in all aspects of the game. Third, the game is VERY nice graphically, especially with the advanced options. I mean these scenes look like oil paintings sometimes. Now, Unless you have a PCI-E dual SLI setup, forget about actually PLAYING with those graphics settings. Fourth, unless you are an expert hotkey/skillbar navigator, you'll get overwhelmed...fast. You can allot nearly all items to a skillbar, and its good because you have to...with EVERYTHING. This isnt turn-based so you can't be digging around yur inventory sack during a battle. Lucky for you, Turbine lets you have like 10 skill bars or some obscene number with 10 slots each, so have fun perusing for yur shield potion because its blue...just like every other potion. Oh, yeah...all heal type potions are red...oops just drank disease remover when I was at 3hp instead of cure....doh! Fifth, Imagine a game where teamwork is essential, where patience can win, or lose, the battle. Now imagine a 12 year old with ADHD playing your thief. LOTS of them in this game...TONS in fact. There are some mature players out there...good luck trying to find them. Sixth, Imagine limited storage....now remember all those PnP component rules you never played by cuz it was tedius minutia...now imagine that minutia added to non-turn-based gaming...you got it, Turbine's spellcasters. Seventh, for a genuinely positive note, if you get fortunate and in a guild with people who play often and are mature players, the game can be fun. However, those criteria are not easily met. I got with a group and we all used my Ventrilo chat (see "Eight") and enjoyed playing for about 2 hours...and then, of course, the server dumped us all. Eight, Don't even bother with the in game chat. "Bad" doesn't do it justice. Ninth, VERY little toon customization. I was really pretty surprised at this. You can change eyes, eye color, hair, hair style...but something just seems missing...Its like except for the eye glasses and facial scars (3 types only), all your elves pretty much look the same...all the dwarves...etc. Your characters just seems to lack any uniqueness. Tenth, and last, The game is simply irritating at times. I mean REALLY irritating. Forget all the tech stuff...if you get seperated in this game....OMFG...forget it. You can use each rez shrine you find once. When you die you release a crystal and someone gets it and runs it to a shrine and you rez...once thats done, you have two choices: follow as a ghost and HOPE there is another shrine or rez at a waypoint outside the current dungeon. So, if you die deep in a crawl, near the end, with no rez ability left, you goooo aaaaalllllll the waaaaaaay back to your spot and you have to pray they don't finish quest before you get back. Comp: Intel865mobo, P4 3.02ghz, 2 gig dual channel 400mhz mem, Geforce 5700 GT Ultra w/256mbDDR, SATA 160HD, Intel Surround DTX Optical

[SpiritWarrior]

Yeah I'd have to agree with that guy. I had posted a small review of late beta here on the forums, some of you may be interested.

http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/cg...;f=32;t=000293

[Timber Loftis]

Well, silly me I picked it up before reading this. I installed it and will try it out tonight -- or, erm... the first night I can drag myself away from WoW. I'm not hopeful, and I'm expecting to be disappointed.

Btw, if this game fails me, I will never, ever, ever, ever again buy from Atari. 3 strikes is all any game-maker gets.

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Well, silly me I picked it up before reading this. I installed it and will try it out tonight -- or, erm... the first night I can drag myself away from WoW. I'm not hopeful, and I'm expecting to be disappointed. Btw, if this game fails me, I will never, ever, ever, ever again buy from Atari. 3 strikes is all any game-maker gets.

You mean Turbine.. Atari just publishes it.. REMEMBER, NWN2 is published by Atari, and NWN2 will be amazing! (for a fact) [img]smile.gif[/img]


Screw Turbine then, [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Timber Loftis]

Well, okay a fair point for NWN.

But Atari screws things up as a *publisher* IMO. Remember ToEE? I do. I played it like... none. It sucked. And, I had to fight with Atari SecuROM issues just to get it to work. Note that Atari is the big reason this game was underdeveloped, too -- they were pushing it to publication when publication should have been delayed.

NWN2 *may* be amazing, but because Atari's publishing it, I ain't gonna hold my breath.

Anyway, this is a DDO thread -- and I'll stop hijaking it until I have some comments about the game.

[ 03-13-2006, 12:16 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[Mirac Honorguard]

Hi, Im back from a long long time away from here.

Anyway, Im reading this post here and I must say Im a bit dissapointed by the poor and rather quick judgement on DDO.

I've played european beta for DDO and its one of the better MMO's around for my taste at least.
Why? Because its a group play game, where you meet nice folk (well usually) and where you can use the original dnd rules (3.5)
It isnt like the endless (and pointless imo) grinds like WoW.

The graphics are good, the game is really stable still (you can never tell with MMO's) and its been a good launch for us europeans anyway.

The quests arent some pointless non-story kill x of these ect. they are actually well thought about.

Ive bought retail and I cant say I regret it, knowing some background information that hasnt reached the web alot for some reason.
Atari pushed turbine to release DDO in a to early stage of the game, making it only goto lvl 10. So the lovely power grinders (which shouldnt have any business in this game anyway imho) already reached 10 and started complaining about there being no endgame.
Turbine has though, planned alot of content for the months april, may and june already and rumor has it, DDO will already goto lvl 20's in april.
Coming back on the point of Atari pushing DDO to release is probably because NWN2 (which Atari is also publishing) is soon ready for release and they dont want both games to be released after eachother.

Again like I said before, DDO is so far running very smooth, its instanced so almost no lag, high group-ability, which means pickup groups can sometimes be annoying, but if you get all the good and nice people in (your) a guild, it will be really much fun.
Integrated voice-chat is also a really nice addition.
Its one of the best release in MMO history as far as Im concerned.

My advice to you all, if you think DDO doesnt have enough content yet, wait until may maybe june and see whats it like then. Hopefully Turbine wont fall for the MMO killing PVP crap, they said they wouldnt (for a long while).

Oh and the campaign setting is actually a nice thing, something new never hurts.

[SpiritWarrior]

Well, I am glad you enjoy it and have found a good game in this one. I would disagree with some things you say but no use in reposting 'em here since I posted my gripes above.

I would veer around here and point out that despite it's faults this game certainly has a target market and I think will draw in a 'niche' group of people. It doesn't feel like an MMO, more like a D&D lanparty, which is I mean, what some people are looking for...that group of buddies you meet after work to play D&D with, locked away in a room or garage. I myself would maybe play it for the free month, I just wouldn't pay for it monthly I don't think.

[Timber Loftis]

Well I tried the first few training missions last night, and it's okay so far. I did have to spend some time moving the bars and menus around to make it look like WoW - but only because that's what I'm used to.

It seems more sensitive to the graphical models than WOW is. In WOW you can be running a good bit away from a mob trying to melee you and still get hit -- DDO seems more sensitive to physical space. (Note: tumbling = fun.)

Oh, and you won't be running through any monsters here. Nope, believe it or not it seems this MMO believes that only 2 things can occupy the same space at the same time, how interesting.

Game looks good so far. Oh, and don't screw up like me and think 1 gold = 100 silver (WoW) because you're back on the regular D&D system now. [img]graemlins/doh.gif[/img]

[ 03-14-2006, 09:40 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[Mirac Honorguard]

First, DDO has virtually NO single player aspect after the inital few missions.

Pro for me, no endless grinds (read wow [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) ; (they also announced that the game would be a group game)

Second, SERIOUS server instabilites as well as a constant jerkiness in all aspects of the game.

No server problems at all, there are just memory leaks in highly crowded area's (which are comparable to WoW's Ironforge bank/AH)

Third, the game is VERY nice graphically, especially with the advanced options. I mean these scenes look like oil paintings sometimes. Now, Unless you have a PCI-E dual SLI setup, forget about actually PLAYING with those graphics settings.

Im running it almost at max. settings (with a few options on medium) on a 6600GT and I still run a stable 50 fps on average.

Fourth, unless you are an expert hotkey/skillbar navigator, you'll get overwhelmed...fast. You can allot nearly all items to a skillbar, and its good because you have to...with EVERYTHING. This isnt turn-based so you can't be digging around yur inventory sack during a battle. Lucky for you, Turbine lets you have like 10 skill bars or some obscene number with 10 slots each, so have fun perusing for yur shield potion because its blue...just like every other potion. Oh, yeah...all heal type potions are red...oops just drank disease remover when I was at 3hp instead of cure....doh!

Maybe this guy will find out that this game means no rush and plan (which will show again in some points he makes below as well)

Fifth, Imagine a game where teamwork is essential, where patience can win, or lose, the battle. Now imagine a 12 year old with ADHD playing your thief. LOTS of them in this game...TONS in fact. There are some mature players out there...good luck trying to find them.

There are plenty of people to group with and MOST of them are mature. The "kids" that will actually play this game (playing @ 10+ hours each day) will get bored and wont play past the 30 free days

Sixth, Imagine limited storage....now remember all those PnP component rules you never played by cuz it was tedius minutia...now imagine that minutia added to non-turn-based gaming...you got it, Turbine's spellcasters.

not sure what hes really refering to, if he means spell components, they are actually used so the game's a bit more balanced and spellcasters dont spam ie flame arrows all the time

Seventh, for a genuinely positive note, if you get fortunate and in a guild with people who play often and are mature players, the game can be fun. However, those criteria are not easily met. I got with a group and we all used my Ventrilo chat (see "Eight") and enjoyed playing for about 2 hours...and then, of course, the server dumped us all.

Again no problems whatsoever (Europe here though) Not even in beta did the server just "dump" anyone.

Eight, Don't even bother with the in game chat. "Bad" doesn't do it justice.

This guys a joke, the voice-chat works fine (I can keep throwing it on european side, but it will get boring)

Ninth, VERY little toon customization. I was really pretty surprised at this. You can change eyes, eye color, hair, hair style...but something just seems missing...Its like except for the eye glasses and facial scars (3 types only), all your elves pretty much look the same...all the dwarves...etc. Your characters just seems to lack any uniqueness.

Its an MMO at its start....how much customization is there in WoW, EQ2?

Tenth, and last, The game is simply irritating at times. I mean REALLY irritating. Forget all the tech stuff...if you get seperated in this game....OMFG...forget it. You can use each rez shrine you find once. When you die you release a crystal and someone gets it and runs it to a shrine and you rez...once thats done, you have two choices: follow as a ghost and HOPE there is another shrine or rez at a waypoint outside the current dungeon. So, if you die deep in a crawl, near the end, with no rez ability left, you goooo aaaaalllllll the waaaaaaay back to your spot and you have to pray they don't finish quest before you get back.

Yes, easy mode excluded, you get a bad pickup group you wont make it.
Rushing is no option in this game and teamwork is essential.


--

Im not trying to convince you to play DDO, its just that these persons always complain and whine on and on and never point out whats good (or give decent feedback on how to actually improve what they think flawed).

If you think Im wrong on some point(s), feel free to correct me with some strong arguments that actually give decent feedback. Saying things like, "I could point out what you missed but I cant be bothered to" will leave the right impression (note sarcasm).

I mean if you want my view on WoW, feel free to ask (in another thread that is) and I will also add in that I played that game far to long (not just beta [img]tongue.gif[/img] (which was ment to have bugs and testphases and server drops ect.) ).

Yes NWN was more explorable, you have more freedom there. It started out as a single player game though with multi-player capabilities.

Also Im hearing city environments effects actually, people talking, in the tavern you hear voice on the background muttering so to say, you can here the sea when you walk along the harbor, you can hear your footsteps in a different way on wood then on stone, when you hit a skeleton it actually sounds like you hit something like bone (blunt scraping sound), massive stones that are used for doors will actually "grind" open....need I go on?

The interface is what it is, its uncustomizable as of yet, maybe it will change due time, its not like wow had a great interface from start (besides I dont have a problem with the current interface (I play at 1200x960 though)).

The icons might need some work, but its not game breaking.

As for lack of content, see my previous post.

As for warforged Im not really into that as well, but its part of the eberon world; I dont mind that they picked something else for a change.

[SpiritWarrior]

I like the team aspect but would like to see at least *some* sp content to do when I am bored or don't feel like grouping or can't stay long enough to commit. Even if it was like 2 missions per level that were actually soloable.

Yeah I'd have to say even in beta the servers were stable enough but the mem. leaks were what killed performance at times.

The voice chat worked perfect for me, no problems at all.

I'd say that there is a severe lack of customization in DDO though. There is/was more in WoW and EQ2 from day one. Certainly shouldn't have to wait and pay monhtly for some to actually be added. Bear in mind in these two games itemization adds a whole new look to your character...it doesn't seem to do this in DDO (think of an Orc and a Human Warrior wearing the same armor set). Many clerics and warriors wearing the same chestpiece look virtually identical in this game. Also, every skin colour seems to be pale or washed, giving your character an undead kind of look.

The interface is clunky and kinda awkward but not horrendous and can be improved. The icons aren't game-breaking but add to the sense of bleakness I got (These are spells, where's the magic?).

There are environmental sounds but nothing close to what would be justifed in a big city. I mean the only thing outside the dungeons is this city, add some life to it!

I found the game to be resource taxing. I tried it on a geforce ti 4600 and a 6600gt and all in all it's a cpu and video hog. They *were* optimizing it still so I can't say for sure but my god it ate up alot at the time. Frames weren't so bad as opposed to texture-caching etc. so maybe they resolved this.