Monsters! Monsters! Monsters!!!

Beholder from DDO 

Apologies for the lack of updates. Seems I have only been able to update after holiday or on holiday break, but as we move deeper into summer I hope to get a chance to play more. My dwarf paladin joined a guild last night!!

Lately I have been reminiscing about my youth as I dusted off my old 1st edition D&D books from the garage, it brought back a lot of old memories, some of these memories are the reason I play D&D video games today, and fantasy themed games and mmos like World of Warcraft and Dark Age of Camelot.

I can vividly recall sitting in the front yard of my parent's house as a boy, as I attempted to DM adventures for my brother, cousin and junior high school buddies, later carrying the hobby into my high school years, even though it was mostly a secretive activity back then. The jocks and popular kids would have branded you a nerd or geek and never spoken to you had they realized you were a DM, running strange adventures, much the same way geeks had been ridiculed these days, until the mass media started cashing in on the geek lifestyle through super hero movies and other ways to make money off the masses.

Well, one thing I think is lacking in DDO and which would make the game more fun is to incorporate some of the old classic D&D monsters into the game. I can't speak about later editions of D&D as I never really played them, but at least from the classic first edition Monster Manual and from Monster Manual II, even though I have encountered some of these monsters and foes in the game, like kobolds, Bugbears and even the epic beholder, a lot more from these classic pages penned by Gary Gygax should be incorporated into the flavor of the game in my opinion.

Of course, some might argue that the initial problem was that DDO is set in Stormreach, therefore precluding a wide range of baddies from popping in,simply due to the nature of the setting. Fair enough, but now that DDO is being expanded into the Forgotten Realms and beyond with the new expansions, there is ample opportunities to populate the game with some more of these classic creatures.

The developers did incorporate a bestiary in game a while back, which I thought was a magnificent addition to the game. In one handy resource, a player can look at the creature he has encountered in game thus far, and see how many of these kinds of creatures he has slaughtered by himself or with a party. DDO wiki also has this list of creatures currently found in the game. I can tell you that I have already taken down a great number of zombies myself through my DDO travels in Stormreach. What was significantly satisfying playing those old D&D modules back in the day, was each brought its own flavor and style to the given campaign being run. For example, "The Lost City" adventure module by Tom Moldvay introduced banshees, Cynidiceans and Werefoxes, which was not uncommon given the theme of the module. DDO needs to be able to renew itself and adding classic D&D monsters into the mix will give new players an introduction to these creatures and will make long time players such as myself feel nostalgic therefore more attached to the game. It's a win, win!!

Shadowfell Conspiracy Causes Dissent Among Some DDO Vets

Well just as I was getting ready to fully jump back on DDO this summer, there appears to be a minor controversy brewing regarding the new expansion The Shadowfell Conspiracy, essentially the game's second expansion (following the Menace of the Underdark) and specifically having to do with Turbine's new DDO iconic characters.

From the Turbine Developer Diaries, here come the DDO iconic heroes!

What the heck is an iconic character you say? Thanks to Youtuber Pr8Dator1 we have a video detailing the new Bladeforged and Owlbear permanent hireling. (See embedded video footage) but according to DDO's developer diaries, there will be four iconic heroes: The Bladeforged, Morninglord, Purple Dragon Knights and Shadar-Kai. These start at 1evel 15 and have their own race and game restrictions. (True Reincarnation etc.) More of their stats and detailed info can be found here, but what I find most interesting is the uproar their introduction has caused in some of the game forums, especially among veterans, with at least one polarized enough to call it quits, and dramatically calling it "the death of DDO"

Essentially this is a seven year old game and in order to compete with the barrage of game options and mmorpgs out there, including that other D&D mmorpg, Turbine is upping the ante on their Forgotten Realms adventures, while re-imagining their game with new character creations, new builds and a host of other features.

Source VG 24/7 had the scoop on all the new features to the game's third expansion due to launch on Aug. 19:

• Two New Forgotten Realms Adventure Packs — Featuring new wilderness areas with new D&D monsters, dangerous encounters and challenging dungeons.
• Wheloon: Horrors from the Shadowfell pour into the prison city where Netherese agents conspire to forge an army out of the Kingdom’s enemies. Players will masquerade as a traitor to infiltrate the Prison City to out the agents, and fight loads of monster.
• Stormhorns: Deep in the Stormhorn Mountains, the Netherese Empire is preparing a secret weapon to use against the Kingdom of Cormyr. Players will need to make it through the griffon laden territory and deal with harpy ambushes along with giants and other creatures.
• Iconic Heroes: New prestige characters that start in Forgotten Realms at level 15 and feature unique looks and skills. Each of these classic D&D characters are a paragon of their race and class and feature custom gear, appearance options and new abilities.
• Level 28: Player will gain new epic feats and spells through three new Epic levels of advancement.

Again, I am more concerned with the community reaction, and not all of it is good. Turbine asked players to discuss and give feedback on the iconic discussion thread of their forums back in October last year, but players were confused about what the discussion should entail as no concrete details about the expansion had been given at the time. "If we are not able to TR, why should we even be interested in them" chimed in one player. Blogger Gamer Geoff in his blog, posted that he thought prebuilt characters sounded like it was "dumbed down" from the existing system and had this to say: "I personally think that this is the wrong direction for the game, I truly believe it has survived and thrived precisely because it isn’t simple and streamlined. There are lots of other MMOs out there that are simple and streamlined but only one clunky, complex, Dungeons & Dragons-based DDO."

Well said, I had the same reaction when I first heard about these characters, but I am willing to give the devs the benefit of the doubt, because as I mentioned already, with so much competition and choice, Turbine has to try to keep their game fresh. Another player said it was sad that they were trying to get away from their campaign setting to focus players into the Forgotten Realms. You would not expect an mmorpg to start you off in Eberron for example, and then shuttle you off to say Azeroth.

What do the rest of you think? Are iconic heroes a mistake on Turbine's part or a good thing for DDO? 

House P adventures for the not so faint of heart

Bogwater Tavern in House P. A lonely place until you have found someone to run hard and elite with you 

Wow has it really been 3 months since my last update? Well since my first year in grad school officially came to an end earlier this week, if my internship does not take too much time away, I may be able to make more progress with my warforged this summer and advance in the ranks of DDO and also update this blog once more with more frequency.

To this end I logged on earlier this evening, determined to pick up some XP and concurrently completing some of the House P quests that I have been wishing to run. I should preface this by saying that I had been trying to log on for days but Turbine's launcher was highly unresponsive, but I attributed this to the fact that the game may have been updating itself in anticipation of the Shadowfell Conspiracy.

So I ran: Rest for the Restless and Purge the Heretics, the latter initially in hard since we had no elite opener and then in elite once we finally found an opener and a trapper. Best part, after two hours of bashing skeletons and running through these House P quests, I found out that my new PUG friend actually belongs to a static along with some Canadians on the Sarlona Server. So this blog may focus on whatever toon I roll on that server from now on, while still occasionally trying to get Doomar (my current main) to level 20.  Wondering if I should bother dual speccing for extra healing? At the very least I will try to continue to improve my WF on Orien, my current server until I get him ready for some prime level capped action.

Playing again on Tuesday, so stay tuned for updates from my new static group adventures, and a lot more.

 

Doomar the Uberstrong WF and his new PUG buddy about to take on the perils of the dungeon.

The eternal question: Sandbox vs. themepark

Lieutenant Morkag-Khor

First, my apologies for not posting sooner, grad school has eaten a large chunk of my playing time. I hope to blog more steadily now and into summertime. Second, I have been following the debate over what elements should be incorporated into the upcoming mmorpg Camelot Unchained by famed DAoC developer Mark Jacobs. In fact, the discussions over whether it's wise that it feature only RvR (3 faction pvp like in DAoC) and gloss over PvE elements has also sparked the old debate of themepark vs. sandbox mmos.

My inbox has been flooded of late from posts and bloggers who have weighed in on the issue, but that's one of the things that I love about playing ddo, Turbine has taken care of making the gameplay radically different than most mmos, but not too different that it won't satisfy a fantasy action junkie like myself. What makes DDO unique in the sandbox vs. themepark debate is that it doesn't neatly fit into any one category.

Since DDO is mostly composed of instanced dungeons with wilderness areas and no significant pvp to speak of, one would be tempted to say that it's mostly a themepark, you do follow a linear pre-designed pattern, i.e. starting off in the Korthos island tutorial and early level content before graduating to Stormreach Harbor. However, DDO has some sandbox elements. For example, you don't have to do quests in order, per se, although I suppose you do if  you want to progress onto capping a character, but seeing as you have relatively more freedom to quest in Stormreach either solo, with a party, or engage in other activities such as collecting, etc, DDO feels less like a linear quest hub to quest hub than World of Warcraft to me.

Last night I decided to finish some of the quests I had not yet completed in both the Harbor and House P. After unsuccessfully going after Lieutenant Morkag-Khor and party wiping in elite in the tear of Dhakaan quest, (we came ever so close) I managed to do a few more quests, including going back to the Harbor to run "Kobolds assault" in elite. Had a blast earning a few more ranks on my warforged Barbarian, which I seem to prefer playing over the spellcaster, mostly because I am still not as adept at wizard game mechanics in ddo. What can I say? I like to wallop stuff in melee.

So say what you will about DDO, but I don't think that I can firmly place it anywhere in the Sandbox-themepark continiuum with absolute certaintity, but I don't think that is at all a bad thing. 

Our party gathers at the Harbor after a long quest chain

My warforged wizard noob toon

I enjoy playing warforged characters as you can probably tell. I wanted to roll a wizard, so I created this one and have been going through all the early level content trying to level this one up.

I was surprised and happy to learn that ddo.com allows you to look up your character, much like wow does on their battlenet site, so here is my current build and state of my toon.

I was hoping some of you more experienced players could take a look and make suggestions, observations. I decided that I would research as much as I could on equipment, stats and try to optimize the wizard in the correct way, but since DDO is based on D&D 3.5, it can get kind of technical at times, so I have decided not to let that get in the way of my enjoying the game. I think that there are opportunities to change out feats and respec, much like I used to when I was playing Dark Age of Camelot, but I may be wrong about that. Still, any suggestions or observations from the community will be appreciated. Last night I ran through Misery's peak once more with a random PUG and had fun earning xp. I had forgotten what a long quest that was. We shall see how much progress I make this week.

DDO vs. Wow- Revisited

The Drow of the Underdark are a new area of exploration in DDO

Recently, while looking online for info on mmorpgs, I came across this old blog post talking about why DDO can never compete with World of Warcraft. This is not a new comparison or analysis by any means, but since I have played both games, and have been doing so again of late, I wanted to address some of the points against Turbine and DDO which the author made so long ago.

He writes, "There are a number of things blizzard got right with WoW that DDO just doesn’t. In theory DDO should be a brilliant online game- it’s got the power of the most popular and advanced RPG fighting system behind it, the storytelling power DnD is famous for and it’s got all this in an online game with enormous character uniqueness and customization capability."

So why doesn’t it work ? scale. He goes on to compare the games in terms of scale:

"In WoW you are questing out in the world – you don’t even enter a dungeon until level 15, as you quest you meet other players, some will help you with quests some will just pass you by but 90% of all the things you do happen outside in the world. You’re interacting with people all the time."
This may have been true 2 years ago when this post was written, but in the post-Cataclysm era, I find that it is simply no longer true. In fact, there may be more players now logging in daily to raid and do PvP content, but for a long time most will sit in capital cities, or queue for a dungeon and battleground, leaving most of the open world barren in comparison.

"In DDO every time you start a quest, you get cut off from everybody who isn’t in your party (so if you solo quite a bit while leveling to get used to playing your class – you may as well be playing diablo – the fact that it’s online becomes irrelevant)."
This is also untrue, well not the part about DDO being mostly instanced, but the fact about it being less mmorpg than wow as a result. As a matter of fact, a lot of the dungeons in DDO are simply undoable or too hard to solo which requires either using hirelings, or other players. Luckily, the social function built into the game by Turbine allows you to easily and quickly find other players looking for groups and looking to run dungeons with you, most of which will be divided by level, making it convenient to find a party. Once you do, it is nothing like a single player dungeon crawl, rather a fun interactive and co-op experience.

This is why, perhaps, I’ve yet to see a mount in DDO (I think they don’t exist) – while in WoW they aren’t just nice – they are incredibly useful. Because you’re traversing the world, what fantasy hero doesn’t ride on his quest ? Well unless you’re Tolkiens hobbits – nobody else wants to walk everywhere. It also means to get between areas you have to fly/take a boat. You can’t walk and explore because the city exits lead to combat zones – that don’t have another exit.

Well this is true, but as a guildie once said to me when I mentioned mounts a while back, "who needs mounts when you can just teleport?" This is really true, Stormreach is a huge city, but to see most of the content would take a really long time playing the game, and to traverse to other parts of the world, all one has to do is join a good guild with a functional air ship and use it to port in and out of places, at least that's what I and many others do. It would be cool to see mounts, but as DDO is based on Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 rule sets and that game is meant to be played as a collective of players in a party, they are not really needed in DDO.

Free to play done wrong
DDO because they don’t have a subscription fee pushes the store in your face all the time. True you can earn store points just from playing but that comes pretty slow and so far I’ve spent mine all on healing potions. If you don’t buy you will soon find you cannot compete with those who do. That ultimately slants the game in favor of those with the most cash to burn instead of those with the most skill – and it annoys the hell out of you – especially as a newer player.

I don't think this was ever true, although it is true that a f2p player would find it virtually impossible or would take forever to achieve the same gear or progress than a p2p using mostly the game's "favor" system, now that the game has more a freemium model, the online store is hardly "ever in your face" it is up to you if you want to buy adventure packs or locked classes, but if you prefer to play for free, there is a lot of free content that is still accessible and you can still have a ton of fun playing the game without dropping a dime into it. Is there a competitive advantage? Since there is no PvP to speak of, except for brawling in the taverns as a diversion, I don't feel that there is any significant advantage accrued by VIP players, they simply get parts of the game that are not available to the f2p, and since dungeons can be ran in different difficulty levels, there is content for everyone to enjoy even the newest of players.

Another knock on DDO is a perceived lack of lore, in comparison to the vast game world and overarching back story, but most of the wow players I know don't really care about lore anyway, don't more than half skip reading quest text in favor of going out to grind? Don't get me wrong, I like Blizzard games and I feel the need to play wow from time to time because it is a fun and polished mmorpg, I just don't feel that DDO is lacking in lore, or development of lore in the game, especially now that the Forgottem Realms have been incorporated into DDO, who knows what other DDO settings and staples Turbine will surprise us with next?

MMO Report No More

I was sad to hear that G4 is cancelling the MMO Report. Though I was often at odds with silly host Casey Schreiner, mostly because he tended to focus on his ego more than on the games he was spotlighting, it's always bad when an avenue for reporting on this often overlooked game genre is closed.

Though the MMO Report used to give more coverage to more big name mmos like wow and Rift and waaay too much coverage to SWTOR before that game came out, and though it often sourced material from massively, it was still a good source of news. I will miss it. Check out the video of the last show.

Running challenge dungeons in DDO with my Warforged

It's been a long time, yes I have been gone a long time and things didn't pan out in terms of me playing DDO, but now I am back, because I am on xmas/winter break from grad school. I plan to update daily, if not every other day, as I play more and more DDO, which is one of my favorite mmorpgs (the others being World of Warcraft and good old Dark Age of Camelot)

But I digress. Earlier tonight I was doing the Proof is in the Poison challenge dungeon with my level 6 warforged. What I didn't know is that this dungeon would be extremely hard to finish on elite, and that it was a long adventure. Fortunately, I didn't undertake it alone, I went in with a bard who brought along a hireling, and later (after I died a few times) we invited some extra muscle.

Unfortunately, the power went out in my place went out for some strange reason (could be that the mini heater I was using sucked up all the electrical juices since it's so freaking cold) and as I screamed in disguist, NOOOOOOO, the room went pitch dark and all my xp went out the window. Considering how long this dungeon takes, even on normal settings, you can imagine I was upset, my party probably all died, although they may have made it all the way through as my fellow bard was a pretty resistant and highly skilled player from what I could tell, maybe they finished it. I guess I will never know. I was kicking myself for a bit because I could have gained a while half a rank of xp had I completed the quest since we were running it on elite!

Curiously enough, I have been scouring youtube and the web for DDO content and tutorials, and though there is a lot of significant content online, the best video I found on this specific dungeon was put together by Total Biscuit. If you also play other mmorpgs, most notably wow, you are already familiar with TB's style, but I found it interesting that he attempted (successfully unlike myself) to two-man this dungeon along with a warrior tank for muscle over a year ago.

 His bard has the ability to heal itself and that's what my PUG friend was doing the whole time on our dungeon run, although I was not aware of it at the time.

Mind you, as he points out, Bards are not the only healers in DDO, but they can solo some instances, especially if they are using mystical armor like he was. TB does as a better job of explaining it in this video, but it's a bit of a long one, so make sure you have time to watch the entire thing. I had to stop it right before the end as I did not want to spoil the entire adventure. I am sure I will be attempting to complete this dungeon, preferably on elite for bonus xp in the days to come. Cheers!!