Maybe I'm missing something about the death system. It sounds like unless you are adventuring with at least one other player character, or you happen to die sufficiently close enough to a resurrection shrine or zone border (or 'city'), you are stuck as a ghost.

This can't actually be the case, right? I know that a lot of the MMOs are pushing player toward grouping in an attempt to artificially inflate the sense of community within the game, but there are still a _lot_ of players that prefer to solo play a majority of their time. Surely DDO isn't going to leave a solo player stuck as a ghost for some indeterminate period of time?

-webshooter

"Will we lose a level if we are just new into it?"

As per his answer in the questions;

"The amount of XP lost is far less than a total level as it is in the pen-and-paper game."

So while some might find it aggravating I think its alot better then say losing all your equipment, gold, etc. Personally I feel it should be like pen and paper dnd with great benefits to staying alive, and harsh penalties for dieing. That will stop people from charging ahead thinking they are, forgive the leet speak, the "uberest of them all".

He answered the high level raid content question with merely a "Yes."

Well, expand upon that!  Geez.  Somehow, since D&D Online is now only levels 1-10 instead of 1-20, the high level content won't be in for quite some time.

Raiding?  Yes.

Okay, now if you want me to panic, to run around in circles, to scream that the end of the world is coming SOON, you could not have choosen a better answer.  Yes.  But yes what?  Will you screw non-raiders like they all do?  By default, I assume YES!  However, it may be exactly because they are doing a side game that focus on raiding only that dont affect non-raiders...who know?

Maybe I should just freaking leave the online games for 10 years and come back AFTER they mature and understand what it mean to not screw their players.  I swear, some folks at SoE have no clue about how badly raiding screw all the rest of the game, then everyone else like to act just as cluelessly!

Raiding dont have any link, in any form, to what D&D is.  A raid was wipe much more easier by dragons then a single hero, no matter if I think about DragonLance or Drizzt or Elminster, soloers always does better then raids...I have nothing against raiding, as long as it dont step on my grouping and soloing area!  If it does, I change product!

Damn, shot me someone!

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Originally posted by webshooter

Maybe I'm missing something about the death system. It sounds like unless you are adventuring with at least one other player character, or you happen to die sufficiently close enough to a resurrection shrine or zone border (or 'city'), you are stuck as a ghost.

This can't actually be the case, right? I know that a lot of the MMOs are pushing player toward grouping in an attempt to artificially inflate the sense of community within the game, but there are still a _lot_ of players that prefer to solo play a majority of their time. Surely DDO isn't going to leave a solo player stuck as a ghost for some indeterminate period of time?

-webshooter

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Raids in D&D?

I vaguely remember AD&D campaign type games where you play either a field commander do battlefield stuff. However, I do not recall a game module that required 20+ players to camp a dragon for hours on end to get a random uber drop.

There were always a means to figure out to win the mission without such measures. Leave the raiding to the Evercamps and the ilk.

Make DDO a game that requires skill or intense information gathering to learn how to complete the adventure.

If you want a massive multiplayer feel , set up a battlegrounds or war type mission where hundreds of players can strategize against each other (or the AI) to complete tasks. Raid a castle and its inhabitants, but throw in random traps and strategic defenses that thwart the braun approach. Once the castle is cleaned out, the guild keeps it for a prize (Dark Age of Camelot is a good model)

I've always wondered why that endgame mob would sit there and allow itself to be pulverized by an army of players for hours on end to deplete its million hit poins.

I was hoping DDO does not go this route..

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Originally posted by netboyz

He answered the high level raid content question with merely a "Yes."

Well, expand upon that!  Geez.  Somehow, since D&D Online is now only levels 1-10 instead of 1-20, the high level content won't be in for quite some time.

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As of right now, their faq page still says the lvl limit is 20. So unless they've said something different in an interview/dev chat/forum post and havent updated it.....

I never had much faith in D&D being treated right when the inevitable MMOG became a reality and these Q&A sessions makes for depressing reading. There will be no freedom to roam around and explore the world. The combat system is different. The magic system is different. Death, feats and racial abilities, different. I'm assuming the list will continue as the Q&A sessions do.

Is there anything other than the logo to suggest that this is actually D&D?

There are few things I really like(d) about D&D online

First of instancing and small community build. Because it actually makes the game more social.
And it does make it more D&D quest like.

But then we get the tick based combat. It is great - but hey! Not in first D&D online game! Go experiment somewhere else!

I want all my D&D classes , 20 levels + epic. Prestigue classes , all skills and feats!

Why can they realise that D&D is great system - It works , it is playertested , and people adore it!

Ah well , or should we wait for NWN2 it will be much better anyway

I think there's a difference between tweaking something and ripping out everything that defined it in the first place. Don't get me wrong, if they can surprise with a good game and pull me in, then I will be very happy, but so far it doesn't sound very good at all. Currently, I'm not sure why this has to be subscription-based at all. The only point where it will be Massive Multiplayer is in the cities and villages where you actually get to interact with other players and form a party. That could have been solved without turning it into a MMOG, but there is big money in MMOG's and slapping the D&D logo on the box more or less guarantees success.

A chance to prove themselves?

They are heading for a wall, and it is gonna hurt.  Ghetto example:

Cleave:  They are going to make your next melee attack an AE melee strike in a little cute looking arc.  (This dont allow to stack an extra attack on 1 target, it is only good against weaks opponents that can be down in 1 blow)

2 solutions that even tiny me think of:

What they could have done with Cleave: 

- Your character execute a kick (eh, you know the kick move that is lost for so long that we all remember a DM giving to a player here or there in our early game), you dont select an opponent, but at least it is immediate and you can attack whoever is damaged by your kick right after, it is almost as good as cleave is in PnP (and yes, for once the kick damage can be your full melee damage when it is a cleave kick).

- Your next attack could automatically deal double damage if done in a fixed time limit(can be improved with a feat like sidestep).  Also, should you have been damage by a mob you kill with that attack, the blow was superficial and you regain the lost HPs.

This talking about Cleave led us to think about...

WTF will they do with multiples attacks, how bad will they mess that?  I dont want to even start thinking about it, but if I am to make an assumption based on what they displays so far, they are going to screw it completely!

*shrug*  They may fast talk Atari & Wizard of the Coast easily and have the best selling team on earth, it dont help them on the Designers department!  Especially if Wizard of the Coast bump random request like:  ''You must include raiding in a form or another!''  And there you are, with a Design team who have no idea what to do.

Oh well...I still WANT to believe in this product!

Imo, your suggestions for Cleave aren't muchr better then how ddo handles them.

As for changing dnd pen and paper to dnd online, ofcourse they had to change. They didn't want to implement spell points, but they found out after playtesting they HAD to. I'm pretty sure they want to make everything as much as pnp dnd as possible, since thats what their players (read: buyers) want as well. But when your converting dnd to online dnd, you have to make some sacrifices or it simply won't work.

As far as I know, there has been no statements that there will be no non-instanced zones besides the city. Although I can't understand why you would really need that desperatly, in Guild Wars having just the city's as non-instanced works like a charm, and negates alot of typical MMO flaws. (kill stealing, mob camping, long walking times etc..)

I say don't overreact on your fear that it won't be 'like real pnp dnd' but check it out with an open mind when the game comes out. (or open beta or whatever)

how u play these games

i believe he says if you die your soul becomes attached to a soulstone on the ground there. and you can wait and be picked up by a player, who would have to be in the instance with you since its all instanced, and take it to a resurrection shrine within the dungeon, like a bind point in a dungeon that your party members have to deliver you to.

also, he said you can travel from your soulstone a short distance as a ghost. with that it seems you could drag mobs back to near a shrine, and continue to resurrect yourself and throw yourself at a mob if you wanted to take some exp loss over and over.

also, also... if you dont want to solo-zerg 5 a monster, you can "release" back to town. and find a friend.

one other thing, if your limited range ghost-walk becomes linked to the carrying player. an intrepid adventurer could scout rooms ahead of the party with teamspeak or such. unless the mobs are triggered by someone walking in the room or something.

so.. you dont get "stuck" as a ghost, no.