DDO Goes Solo 77
Gamespot reports on efforts by Dungeons and Dragons Online creator Turbine to add soloable content to the gameworld. They have added a new difficulty level to the existing missions ('solo'), which will allow players unwilling or unable to form a group to successfully complete tasks. From the article: "Turbine has also adjusted the experience requirements for leveling up. The change heavily favors new players, cutting the necessary experience points to get to level two by half. However, the requirements for levels four and up will only be decreased by 10,000 points."
Dungeons and Dragons Offline? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Dungeons and Dragons Offline? (Score:2)
here you go...
Re:Dungeons and Dragons Offline? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dungeons and Dragons Offline? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dungeons and Dragons Offline? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Dungeons and Dragons Offline? (Score:2)
This helps (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with that is finding said group, organizing them, keeping them there long enough, before I decide I need to go to bed, blah, blah, blah.
But when I was playing Oblivion, I actually thought it would be nice to have other people around to chat with or trade things with (like "I'll restore charges on your weapon for some potions"), or just chat about things in game or otherwise. Some really good discussions I've had came around through old MUD gaming while talking to guild members about Friends or religion or politics.
What we decided is that the fun of MMRPG's isn't necessarily grouping together - it's just the shared experience. I'd be perfectly happy never having a group of people with me on a quest, but just being able to chat or trade with them as I chose.
So, I'd love to see a MMRPG with mostly solo quests that can ramp themselves up if you have a group to provide a challenge - but don't *make* me try and herd these cats you call other gamers if I don't want to.
Re:This helps (Score:2)
Huh? WoW is one of the most solo-friendly MMORGs in existence. You can perfectly well get to 60 without once being in a group.
No, you won't be able to do raid dungeons solo and so will miss out on some loot, but if you want to casually play a MMORG mostly solo -- WoW is by far your best bet.
Re:This helps (Score:2)
Re:This helps (Score:2, Interesting)
On PvE servers, probably. Having never played on one, I can't say
On PvP servers the end-game includes raid dungeons but certainly isn't limited to them.
So yes, its casual to 60 but all the end-game and most of the new content isn't available to casual players.
Again, it depends on what you want from the game. For some people the end-game is raiding and fat loot. For others it's just using WoW as a pretty chat room. Some people treat world PvP as the end-game. It a
Re:This helps (Score:2)
For the majority of players it isn't.
Re:This helps (Score:2)
Chris Mattern
Re:This helps (Score:4, Informative)
That is NOT the problem with end game instances. Once you are in a guild that is of sufficient quality to do an instance then you guys schedule time. For 20 man and 40 man instances - if you have a guild of 100 people it is easy (in fact people are begging to get on the teams).
The problem with the end game instances is the sheer amount of time to finish them. I think MC, assuming you don't wipe, is about 4-6 hours. Usually MC is split into two night events.
The only instance I have ever had problems with, that I generally do not get a guild for, is UBRS. PUG groups (pick-up groups) are nightmares and are almost NEVER done for 20-40 man raids. In fact, whenever someone tries to organize a PUG 20-40 man group everyone laughs.
WoW has a TON of soloable quests, from level 1-60. Just a lot of the more rewarding quests (i.e. slaying the big huge dragon, or defeating the creature that is near god-like in power) requires a group of 20-40 people. You do not have to do it, but you will not get those rewards...and some of the best rewards in the game are soloable (battlegrounds ranks Marshal/Field Marshal/Grand Marshal gear, Cenarian Hold rewards, and more).
Re:This helps (Score:2)
What's an "end game instance"? Is that where you beat the game? Or is it where you quit? If it's the former, then hey weren't even talking about that. If it's the latter, then "yes it is".
I don't want to
Re:This helps (Score:2)
It's neither. Think dungeons and dragons. End-game instances are area's that you get to when you reach level 60 (presently the highest level). People do end-game instances for years at a time because there are amazing items that drop...the only thing is they don't always drop, and there are 40 other people who may
Re:This helps (Score:2)
Sooner or later a publisher will get over this attitude that you too have displayed and release a game that will go on to sell hojillions of copies to those people who don't want their gaming to be an addiction, just a habit.
Re:This helps (Score:2)
Except on Mannoroth, where we PUG Onyxia and Ragnaros weekly.
Re:This helps (Score:2)
Really? So how do you handle who gets what items? Do you guys use DKP? What website is that managed?
That is definitly a rare thing...Onyxia is not that hard, my friend was telling me of a video showing like 12 people downing ONY - though I am sure they were pretty epic'd out to do that. But Rag - that guy is a bear (his son's make it hard)
Re:This helps (Score:1)
Re:This helps (Score:2)
Re:This helps (Score:1)
Re:This helps (Score:2)
Re:This helps (Score:2)
I am not sure how this soloable content is going to work. Are they going to elimiate all traps and stat-required doors? I mean, traps make it so a rogue is a necessity for just about every dungeon, or you are eating some serious damage. There are lots of "stat of XX or greater is needed to unlock this area" locks. There are few if any healing
Re:This helps (Score:2)
So either you group with a bunch of people who just want to clear a dungeon as fast as humanly possible, know exactly where to go, what to do and in what
Re:This helps (Score:2)
First character, Tauren Hunter essentially solo to 60.
Second character, Gnome Warrior essentially solo to 52 (so far)
Third char, Tauren Druid, ONLY play this character with my wife, so we've paired together every minute of this char's existence - to 29 so far.
Fourth char, Undead Warlock to 19
Absolutely you're right, 60 content mostly sucks. I've done all the soloable quests (and a hunter is admirably capable of soloing things), and frankly now that accomplishing anything
Re:This helps (Score:2)
Interesting (Score:2)
I didn't get a chance to try it before he un-subscribed, but it looked like a fun game even if it needed some tweaking.
I will have to tell him about this in case he wants to re-subscribe because of these changes.
Good move (Score:1)
Of course, the premise of the game is to form a group and go questing together -- One of the "M"s in MMO stands for "multiplayer," you know. But even hardcore players, and casual
sounds good (Score:2)
Re:sounds good (Score:2)
Re:sounds good (Score:1)
Re:sounds good (Score:2)
Anyway, you don't seem to get how the comment system works, it isn't only limited to people who make comments because they have a large amount of knowledge about a topic - sometim
solo? (Score:1)
What if another user walks into this area while the the user is going at it? Do they go blind?
Re:solo? (Score:1)
Re:solo? (Score:1)
So, you form your group BEFORE you start your adventure, you go through the adventure from start to finish. You can add people to the group once you have started, but generally, you go through the adventure with your original group. Some quests have multiple parts, with each p
Why wan't this modded funny? (Score:1)
Re:Why wan't this modded funny? (Score:1)
Exploring new levels of geekyness (Score:5, Funny)
A: Playing Dungeons & Dragons with friend.
Q: What's geekier than playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends?
A: Playing Dungeons & Dragons with strangers.
Q: What's geekier than playing Dungeons & Dragons with strangers?
A: Playing Dungeons & Dragons with strangers, online.
Q: What's geekier than playing Dungeons & Dragons with strangers, online?
A: Playing Dungeons & Dragons alone, online.
Though thankfully, LARPing still has all that beat hands down.
Re:Exploring new levels of geekyness (Score:2)
A: Posting on Slashdot about playing Dungeons & Dragons alone, online.
Read this last month (Score:1)
Let's turn it into WoW, it worked for SWG, right? (Score:1)
Re:Let's turn it into WoW, it worked for SWG, righ (Score:3, Interesting)
Or you might start out with the highest level of skill in one category - but if you
Being a former D&D junkie (Score:3, Funny)
What this really means to me... (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, im pretty sure DDO can be quite a cool game with various strategies..meant for the true D&D fan at heart. The cold hard fact is that people dont play online to play the way they do on the table with P&P. They just wanna bash stuff, get loot and fat xp
I said it when turbine came up with AC2 and I'll say it again, they need a game that offer an immersive solo player experience and not only for the beginning of game, for the WHOLE game. You know, another poster said the same thing in this thread. When i go online, what i like to do is chat with my guild, trade with people and go hunting on my merry own or maybe with two or three personal friends. I rarely have more than two hours in a row so I cant afford big groups with lots of coordination, nature calls, laundry breaks and knockings at the door, not that its bad, but on the large scale, thats very time consuming.
playing a mmo for me means interacting with people not being forced to be with a big bunch of PUGs just because my quests forces me to group. That is immensely why wow is so successful. Sure for high end instances you are forced to group for the majority of the quests, you can solo them if feel like so.
People keep saying that soloing quests defeats the purpose of playing a mmo but i disagree, I like to play alone or with close friend but I like mmos because I can interact with people. that is what mmo means to me.
Re:What this really means to me... (Score:1)
Re:What this really means to me... (Score:2)
Guild wars pve is frustratingly bad. The aggro control system is overly simplistic - to the point where I'd say it just sucks. The social interface is bad. The "community" is awful. The equipment and crafting systems are shallow.
Guild Wars made the decision to balance the game on pvp. That is the right choice if you are are going to have pvp and pve use the same ruleset, but they did so at the expense of pve - GW pve is mediocre at its best and godawful
DnD is NOT a Solo Game (Score:1)
Also I am viewing this as a sellout becasue when it was in development the devs stated that DnD is not a solo game and DDO would never
Re:DnD is NOT a Solo Game (Score:1)
B) How long till you were bored of playing with yourself... 5 minutes... maybe? try again...
C) Why in the hell would you even want to play it by yourself? does that even make the least bit of sense to anyone other then the 13 year olds who just want to be L33T or however the hell "the cool kids" spell it.
And I can see you really agree with your argument with your anonymous reply... good work...
Re:DnD is NOT a Solo Game (Score:1)
Sometimes the we would also 2 DM, and split the party and DM them seperately when their characters were split up in the adventure.
Sorry you never got to play with good groups that did interesting stuff.
Re:DnD is NOT a Solo Game (Score:2)
Well except for those bizarre solo modules TSR released back in the mid-80s.
Re:DnD is NOT a Solo Game (Score:1)
Turbine's solution is to make the new "solo" difficulty provide a 50 percent reduction in experience reward. So if you want to solo, the reward will be MUCH lower, but the choice is still there. Some classes will still be unable to solo, and some adventures
Sure it is (Score:2)
Hello?
Then advantage is you don't have to solo. I play at odd times, so having solo content is good for me.
Too bad my trial period is about to expire.
Turbine finally coming to terms (Score:3, Insightful)
The one constant in Turbines two games since the original Asheron's Call is that they fail to acknowledge the warnings of their fans. Turbine has many loyal fans from their Asheron's Call game and most are willing to try anything new Turbine comes out with. Yet at the same time Turbine fails to exploit this valuable commodity and instead ignores them and even at times insults them.
I remember quite well Turbine representatives dismssing the claims that D&DO did not have enough content to launch, was not friendly to players who may want to solo or find themselves in that position. Combine this with a game world which is player unfriendly, meaning all areas are instance, with no real activity other than the dungeon crawl, and it exaggerates the games inherent limitations. Simply put, there is nothing to do other than group.
Yes I know the idea of D&D is to play with others but that ignores the reality of gaming today. If players want to game together there are many other ways they can do so and most of them allow for much more player interaction than an internet MMORPG. The best way to have a successful MMORPG is to appeal to the broadest possible number of players. Purposely excluding potential players is always a road to disaster and Turbine went down the road full speed.
Hopes for LOTR (MEO or whatever its current name is) dimmed significantly when Turbine emphasized the group play as a focus. The classes provided are meant to support each other but not necessarily be soloable. Some classes don't appear to have any real potential outside of groups. If this makes it to production it will yet be another game with limited appeal and a short life.
Re:Turbine finally coming to terms (Score:2)
DDO? (Score:2)
DDO = Not great, but not bad (Score:1)
The problem with the D&D franchise MMOified (Score:1)
The best way to play DDO (Score:1)
Just take my advice and have someone who can deal and take damage (Fighter), someone who can handle the traps secret doors and locked chests (Rogue), and someone who can buff in the beginning
its swirling in the bowl (Score:1)
Unless you are an absolute hardcore fan of D&D you should definitely pass on this game, the only unique thing about the ga
Re:its swirling in the bowl (Score:2)
Aren't you tired of situations in WoW such as the following:
"Hey, I just looted a sword that gives me +30 on my strength!"
"Whoa! What does that do for you?"
"Uhh, boosts my damage by 0.18%?"
Yeah, boosting your strength by 1 or 2 in D&D actually does matter. There is no "curve" where someone with average AC gets hit 30% of the time, but with infinite AC gets hit 20% of the time because that's what the developers decided