D&D Online Free to Play! Menace of the Underdark coming to menace you!

[Gratch]

Makes sense.  As long as I know that's by design and not by me missing something, it's no big deal.

[Rich]

I just saw this and did the sign up for the beta, I played the first month the game came out but found it too hard since I couldn't really play with a regular group of friends, like has been said you could not solo in DDO.  My question is after you sign up for the beta did you wait for an invite to show up in your email or is this an open beta and I'm not seeing the download link?

[Aganazer]

As far as I remember, that was the way Dungeons & Dragons was supposed to work - you get your XP AFTER the mission, and could level up then and so on. Nowadays youths want it all NOW so they cant wait with stuff like that ;-)

I wish more games would do this. How else do you reward stealth? It also allows the designers to let the player use social skills like diplomacy, intimidate, and bluff to get out of some fights. Nobody would do those things if it meant missing out on XP. Giving XP after completing the quest is also a good way to reward success rather than failure.

[Gratch]

As far as I remember, that was the way Dungeons & Dragons was supposed to work - you get your XP AFTER the mission, and could level up then and so on. Nowadays youths want it all NOW so they cant wait with stuff like that ;-)

I wish more games would do this. How else do you reward stealth? It also allows the designers to let the player use social skills like diplomacy, intimidate, and bluff to get out of some fights. Nobody would do those things if it meant missing out on XP. Giving XP after completing the quest is also a good way to reward success rather than failure.

I agree, but it then seems a strange design choice to fill your game world with difficult mobs outside of the actual quests, since fighting these mobs literally gain the players nothing.  Their system reduces every encounter outside of the specific dungeons to nothing more than annoyances and/or frustrations with no benefit, but there's no way to avoid these encounters.  Am I missing a good reason why that would be fun?  Even assigning a minimal amount of XP to these mobs would help somewhat in that regard.

[Razgon]

As far as I remember, that was the way Dungeons & Dragons was supposed to work - you get your XP AFTER the mission, and could level up then and so on. Nowadays youths want it all NOW so they cant wait with stuff like that ;-)

I wish more games would do this. How else do you reward stealth? It also allows the designers to let the player use social skills like diplomacy, intimidate, and bluff to get out of some fights. Nobody would do those things if it meant missing out on XP. Giving XP after completing the quest is also a good way to reward success rather than failure.

I agree, but it then seems a strange design choice to fill your game world with difficult mobs outside of the actual quests, since fighting these mobs literally gain the players nothing.  Their system reduces every encounter outside of the specific dungeons to nothing more than annoyances and/or frustrations with no benefit, but there's no way to avoid these encounters.  Am I missing a good reason why that would be fun?  Even assigning a minimal amount of XP to these mobs would help somewhat in that regard.

you'r assuming you have to be rewarded for everything you do, right? Consider it obstacles, part of the world, the decor, the atmosphere. Ah well, to be honest, I got nothing on that, other that the original game mechanics, which were pretty nice. :-)

[Gratch]

As far as I remember, that was the way Dungeons & Dragons was supposed to work - you get your XP AFTER the mission, and could level up then and so on. Nowadays youths want it all NOW so they cant wait with stuff like that ;-)

I wish more games would do this. How else do you reward stealth? It also allows the designers to let the player use social skills like diplomacy, intimidate, and bluff to get out of some fights. Nobody would do those things if it meant missing out on XP. Giving XP after completing the quest is also a good way to reward success rather than failure.

I agree, but it then seems a strange design choice to fill your game world with difficult mobs outside of the actual quests, since fighting these mobs literally gain the players nothing.  Their system reduces every encounter outside of the specific dungeons to nothing more than annoyances and/or frustrations with no benefit, but there's no way to avoid these encounters.  Am I missing a good reason why that would be fun?  Even assigning a minimal amount of XP to these mobs would help somewhat in that regard.

you'r assuming you have to be rewarded for everything you do, right? Consider it obstacles, part of the world, the decor, the atmosphere. Ah well, to be honest, I got nothing on that, other that the original game mechanics, which were pretty nice. :-)

Interesting.  Removing the carrot from the stick would be a pretty fundamental shift in gameplay thinking.  Having trouble wrapping my brain around that one...

[Razgon]

Yeah, I agree about those that arent part of any kind of mission. I've not encountered them myself, but does seem pretty strange, other that its all part of the journey, I dont know what they were thinking :-)

I liked it in the original D&D game, it made a lot of sense, that when you got back from a quest, you could digest and talk about all you'd learned, and become more experienced that way, learn stuff, after giving yourself time to understand it.

[Harkonis]

There are rewards for the mobs outside as well, in the form of Slayer missions (kill x number of mobs in y zone)

[Gratch]

Is there a way to see how long you've played?

[Destructor]

I just saw this and did the sign up for the beta, I played the first month the game came out but found it too hard since I couldn't really play with a regular group of friends, like has been said you could not solo in DDO.  My question is after you sign up for the beta did you wait for an invite to show up in your email or is this an open beta and I'm not seeing the download link?

You wait for the invite - it's not in free-to-play status just yet. Once that happens, every can play.

And yeah, you really gotta think differently when it comes to this game. You don't get any experience for most fights - you gather all the experience once you're able to go home and relax (beat the mission). Makes sense in the D&D world, but it's annoying when compared to MMOs in general.

[Razgon]

Is there a way to see how long you've played?

havent got the game myself now, but /played or /time usually does the trick :-)

[Aganazer]

Release day was just announced: August 6

The timing is good. There are a couple other MMOG's coming out in September.

[Gratch]

Just posted our preview of the beta. 

[morlac]

That was quick!  Just got in beta.  Anyone else care to dungeon romp together?

[Destructor]

Just posted our preview of the beta. 

A few corrections for you:

It’s worth noting that the most powerful (and likely most popular) Monk, Drow, and Favored Soul classes are only available for purchase through the store.   Once your character is created, you’re thrown onto the island of Korthos to begin your grand adventure.

The Drow and Favored Soul can be unlocked once you gain enough Favor (which you get by completing quests - harder difficulty = more Favor). The Drow is 400 points (I think), and the Favored Soul is 2500. The Monk class and Warforged race require you to buy them (or simply be a paying subscriber). You can hit O (I think - it's one of the visible buttons on the top) to see how much Favor you have on all of the quests available (and it'll show what difficulty you've finished all the quests in so far).

They aren't exactly the 'most powerful' out there - just different from the other classes/races. Although the Drow Elf is a more powerful race than the others, simply because he has more stat points to start (until you unlock 32-point builds at 1600 Favor - then all races get 32 points to start off with).

[Razgon]

Are the servers US & Euro based? I got in the beta as well

[morlac]

Just posted our preview of the beta. 

Good read.

[Destructor]

Are the servers US & Euro based? I got in the beta as well

I thought they were all located at one place in the US. Not sure of exactly where though.

[Razgon]

Are the servers US & Euro based? I got in the beta as well

I thought they were all located at one place in the US. Not sure of exactly where though.

sorry - I meant if there are seperate servers for US people and for Euro people :-)

[Barrakketh]

Are the servers US & Euro based? I got in the beta as well

I thought they were all located at one place in the US. Not sure of exactly where though.

sorry - I meant if there are seperate servers for US people and for Euro people :-)

The Euro servers are run by Codemasters, and they have not yet announced a f2p option. Best to stick to the US servers.

[Razgon]

Are the servers US & Euro based? I got in the beta as well

I thought they were all located at one place in the US. Not sure of exactly where though.

sorry - I meant if there are seperate servers for US people and for Euro people :-)

The Euro servers are run by Codemasters, and they have not yet announced a f2p option. Best to stick to the US servers.

really?? So, one part of the world gets F2P version, and the other one...just goes on like always? Thats pretty strange...

anyways - loading up the game - whats people's names ingame?

[morlac]

Are the servers US & Euro based? I got in the beta as well

I thought they were all located at one place in the US. Not sure of exactly where though.

sorry - I meant if there are seperate servers for US people and for Euro people :-)

The Euro servers are run by Codemasters, and they have not yet announced a f2p option. Best to stick to the US servers.

really?? So, one part of the world gets F2P version, and the other one...just goes on like always? Thats pretty strange...

anyways - loading up the game - whats people's names ingame?

I made a Ranger to solo with named Salnor.  Going to roll up a support class as well named Morlac

[ericb]

That was quick!  Just got in beta.  Anyone else care to dungeon romp together?

Comments removed since I no longer have any reason to be irate 

[Razgon]

That was quick!  Just got in beta.  Anyone else care to dungeon romp together?

Ah, you suck.  I applied over a month ago, long time subscriber to Turbine games and still haven't heard a peep

I got in through fileplanet subscription... its pretty cheap, if you'r interested?

Morlac -I'll add you to friends then and see if I am online when you are as well :-)

[Harkonis]

As mentioned earlier... I'm Harkonis and Ravina

[Razgon]

As mentioned earlier... I'm Harkonis and Ravina

hehe - sorry, it wasnt intentional that I forgot you - I'll add you as well :-)

I like the idea of the game a lot! its just some parts of the implementation thats a bit screwy

[morlac]

That was quick!  Just got in beta.  Anyone else care to dungeon romp together?

Ah, you suck.  I applied over a month ago, long time subscriber to Turbine games and still haven't heard a peep

Sorry to hear that.  I applied Saturday and got in on monday .  I'll put in a good for word ya!








edit: word up!

[morlac]

Are the servers US & Euro based? I got in the beta as well

I thought they were all located at one place in the US. Not sure of exactly where though.

sorry - I meant if there are seperate servers for US people and for Euro people :-)

The Euro servers are run by Codemasters, and they have not yet announced a f2p option. Best to stick to the US servers.

really?? So, one part of the world gets F2P version, and the other one...just goes on like always? Thats pretty strange...

anyways - loading up the game - whats people's names ingame?

I made a Ranger to solo with named Salnor.  Going to roll up a support class as well named Morlac

Make that Salnors...somebody had Salnor.

[Harkonis]

I'm back to playing.  On xfire as Harkonis while playing.

[morlac]

I'm back to playing.  On xfire as Harkonis while playing.

I will look for you, though my playtime is sporadic due to baby.

[Kagath]

Just got my Beta invite. Probably download sometime soon to mess with it.

[ericb]

I got in about a week ago and run across a nice little bonus...I found the boxed D&D at Gamestop for $4.99.  Put in the key and instant upgrade on my account to VIP status which opens up a few things such as the much longer idle logout timer and 10 character slots vs 2.  Plus the obvious of playing the original non-beta part of the game for a month which is nice when the beta server is down.

[morlac]

I got in about a week ago and run across a nice little bonus...I found the boxed D&D at Gamestop for $4.99.  Put in the key and instant upgrade on my account to VIP status which opens up a few things such as the much longer idle logout timer and 10 character slots vs 2.  Plus the obvious of playing the original non-beta part of the game for a month which is nice when the beta server is down.

Of course those will only last for a month before you have to pay $15.00.

[ericb]

I got in about a week ago and run across a nice little bonus...I found the boxed D&D at Gamestop for $4.99.  Put in the key and instant upgrade on my account to VIP status which opens up a few things such as the much longer idle logout timer and 10 character slots vs 2.  Plus the obvious of playing the original non-beta part of the game for a month which is nice when the beta server is down.

Of course those will only last for a month before you have to pay $15.00.

True but I've read on the forums that the VIP status will stay (or possibly drop to premium) even after I cancel the sub.  Worst case is I'm out $5.

[morlac]

I got in about a week ago and run across a nice little bonus...I found the boxed D&D at Gamestop for $4.99.  Put in the key and instant upgrade on my account to VIP status which opens up a few things such as the much longer idle logout timer and 10 character slots vs 2.  Plus the obvious of playing the original non-beta part of the game for a month which is nice when the beta server is down.

Of course those will only last for a month before you have to pay $15.00.

True but I've read on the forums that the VIP status will stay (or possibly drop to premium) even after I cancel the sub.  Worst case is I'm out $5.

Not completely.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=185146

No VIp content anymore only the free stuff
Only 4 character slots instead of 10
No VIP shared banking

you can still make the unlocked races/classes if you have an open slot
you get unlimited gold storage and emailing and auctioning
and that is it.

[ericb]

Not bad then...I'm getting Drow (maybe), 2 extra character slots, removed limitations on the AH, mail, chat and timeout features and the first 500 DDO store points free as long as I'm active when mod9 is applied and the conversion happens (sometime around Aug 6th).  Oh, it's 4 characters per server too which is even better.  Sounds like a great deal to me  And I get to reserve the names I wanted on the live servers now before the deluge of new players starts when mod9 goes live.  A great deal for $5.  I might even consider keeping the sub going if they drop the VIP access to $10...at least long enough to get the points to open a few things up for me.

EDIT: yes, I know the Drow has to be unlocked with favor or points first

[morlac]

Did not realize the slots were per server, big difference imo.  Yea not a bad deal really depending on how much content is left out.  If I can find the time I will do the same as you, have seen it at that price at microcenter and Big lots.

[Scraper]

This one just got pushed to 09-09-2009.

[Aganazer]

This one just got pushed to 09-09-2009.

I was planning on spending a month playing DDO before Champions, but it looks like Turbine is missing the boat on that one. Their previous date was very nicely placed a month before the summer's two big releases. Now it may pass unnoticed in all the hype of other games.

[Blackjack]

I love the Blues News headline about it (wow, talk about a delay!):

DDO Unlimited Delay  

I don't know that DDO Unlimited, Aion and Champions Online are going after the same audience per se, but it does seem a little questionable to move the date right into that range of two brand new MMO releases (I think Aion is Sept. 22 at this point?).