Dungeons & Dragons Online Beta

[Renzatic Gear]

I've heard some mixed things about this one, but truth be told all the bad things most people seem to complain about would be regarded as high points for RPG nuts like SBS or DBS...so I figured it might be worth a go. I could go into a huge spiel about it, but it'd be better if you checked it out for yourself (http://www.gamergod.com/fansite.php?category_id=59&fansite_id=160)

The one thing that's drawing me into it is how the dungeons are designed. I realised recently why I've been getting bored of games like Guild Wars and World of Warcraft...dungeons aren't really dungeons, just interesting backdrops to fight loads of monsters against. Really that's how you spend 99% of your time in any MMO, fighting monsters and maybe doing some tradecraft to occupy the time between. One thing that DDO seems to have gotten right is that dungeons are now as big of an enemy as monsters. You have to climb rocky walls, disarm traps and unlock doors, sneak around and find safe places to rest when you're weary. That seems more interesting to me by and far, and it's at least piqued my interest enough to join the beta.

If anyone wants to join me, just hit up Fileplanet (sucks, I know..you'll have to have at least a free membership to get it), and download the 2 gig file. Since the game is almost impossible to solo apparently (which is probably a good thing considering), I could probably use the help.

[BaneNWN]

I requested to beta test that some time ago and they never got back to me

[Renzatic Gear]

You can just go in and download it now...though I have no idea how much longer the beta test is gonna be going on.

[DBS]

Ok..I also wanted to beta test it and it is made by the people who made Asheron's Call which I did like.

[Mochan]

We don't need to sign up for a beta account? Just download and play? If so I will try to download the Beta, but my connection is freaking up at the moment. I am downloading Brothers in Arms right now and it got stuck. Not sure how soon I will be able to get my connection going again. Hopefully before the weekend is over, I wanted to enjoy this long weekend.

I do agree that less emphasis should be put on just plain fighting. Diablo has cast such a bad pall over RPG game design. I mean I enjoyed Diablo and all but there should be more variety in game styles. Having a "dungeon" sounds like as a good a place as any to start; platforming could be a nice thing to introduce back to RPGing so that the "adventure" gets back into RPG.

[Mochan]

Can't seem to find where to download the client. Well I'll just hang tight here for now.

[Renzatic Gear]

I just installed it...as it turns out it's just a pregrab for when the beta goes live January 17th. So everyone still has plenty of time to get it if they want it.

[prettypaine]

I signed up a while ago for beta testing and I got it but I forgot all about it being busy with other games. This is one I should check out cause I love my rpgs :)

[Mochan]

Renz, could you link to the client download? I'd like to try this one out.

[Renzatic Gear]

Go here (http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/ddo_stormreach/preview/)

You'll have to have a free Fileplanet account to get it, but that shouldn't be much of a problem.

[Ethion]

I didn't see this message but I've played DDO through several beta tests. Personally I'm pretty excited about it and I have preordered a copy.

In my opinion it is more of a nich game. It is quite different from typical MMORPGs. It is all about group dungeon adventures. It brings back the diversity of classes as well. So fighters tank, rogues do utility (traps), clerics heal, wizards & socs do dps, and bards keep everyone happy :)

Probably the biggest changes which I love both of are resource managment and hidden doors/traps. In ddo I have to think about conserving mana and hp when I'm doing something. Makes using non combat solutions or strategy more important. The other thing is finally rogues are free of the light melee/dps role and back to there core. Opening locked doors, detecting and disarming traps. Don't have a rogue? expect to take some serious trap damage which when you take into account the resource management issues paints a whole new picture.

Anyway, the testing I did impressed me with the game. What did you guys think? Is anyone gonna buy retail? I'd love to have a group of people I know to form groups with :)

[Renzatic Gear]

I haven't played it yet, but considering both your description and what I know about the game, I'd say I'm pretty interested.

I'll probably give it a go when it comes out...for at least a month or two.

[DBS]

RG, you been in GW lately? I am about WoWed out.... I been in mostly fps games lately just to get away from the mmo's. I am interested in this too but I think I simply do not want to give it the time it would require. I have to get away from these for a bit.

[Ethion]

I did Guildwars for a bit but have moved on.

I'm into city of villians at the moment on Justice (@balthor). I think this will keep me busy till DDO actually comes out.

One thing I laughed at the other night was I created a group to run some dungeons in DDO. So I bring up lfg and start building a group. After like 10-15 I have a full group and tell everyone to switch to instance 5 and come to me.

So after a bit we are all together outside an inn and ready to go. I lead people to an npc and tell everyone to grab his quest. Then we head into the dungeon. It is a moderately large dungeon that I've done before. We are doing it on normal difficulty setting which some people whine about but I say until we know each other better dying just won't be much fun...

So we head in. We have a rogue in the group and I'm a cleric. I tell everyone to stay behind the rogue and follow his lead. Rogues can spot and disarm traps better than anyone. I'm pretty high on wisdom so I'm good at finding hidden doors or at least noticing something is up.

So we move forward, and within like 5 minutes I know there is gonna be trouble. The fighter is acting overly eager running ahead opening doors etc. I tell him stay behind the rogue. He says don't worry he will be ok.... I think sure he will... Guess I'll be tanking soon...

sure enough the fighter runs ahead and opens a door. Upon opening the door he spots a lovely chest sitting in the corner of the room. **In DDO chest all drop individual loot for each player, so there is no possibility of someone ninjaing your share**. Anyway it is too much for him to cope with and so he charges in.... He manages to set off two lovely fire traps on each side of the door the catch him in a spectacular crossfire mid jump. His corpse tumbles into the room. Sigh, rogue please go to work so we can get his soul shard. Rogue disarms the trap we pick up his soul shard, and loot the lovely chest. Then head back to a spirit shrine we passed a little while ago.

So we get him rezed and he blows the rest shrine to get healed up. Most of us are ok on hp for now so we save it knowing we will need to come back later to rest and restore hp and mana. So we lead him back to the chest and I reitterate, that's why you need to stay behind the rogue. He is like OK I got it now!! So onward we go.

Maybe 20 minutes later we haven't seen a trap recently and he is becoming overconfident and running ahead again. Serious memory issues I guess.. Well it isn't long before he runs upto a door and as he approaches it spike shoot up from the floor, and blades some swinging out from the sides. He jumps back but not before taking some heavy damage. I think he had like 5hp left.... So I heal him up and he is I'm soo sorry... I tell him well he just burned a nice chunk of mana, I hope we don't run short later.

And so it goes (hah just noticed I'm using expressions from B5, I'm watching the entire series over). Eventually we finished the dungeon which was a log of fun. He got his loot and even scored a +1 long sword. This was an important mission as it unlocked the entrance to the inner city opening up a massive new area just full of shops, collectors, and new adventures! Alas, I was able to buy an nice masterworks full plate armor and looked very nice but didn't have time to explore any of the new quests...