I played the game for about an hour or two just yet, and I must say that I am quite surprised by how it felt! The intro dungeon already made me smile and it actually felt like a little adventure. The combat system is so far the best I've ever seen in an MMORPG. Very responsive and meaningful. No silly characters standing minutes in front of each other bashing their heads in, but action-based combat with possibilities to dodge attacks and things like that. Simply stunning!

This game caught me by surprise.

I play the game from Europe (The Netherlands), by the way. No problems with connecting to the USA. No lag whatsoever!

Originally posted by Wootson

I played the game for about an hour or two just yet, and I must say that I am quite surprised by how it felt! The intro dungeon already made me smile and it actually felt like a little adventure. The combat system is so far the best I've ever seen in an MMORPG. Very responsive and meaningful. No silly characters standing minutes in front of each other bashing their heads in, but action-based combat with possibilities to dodge attacks and things like that. Simply stunning!

 

This game caught me by surprise.

 

I play the game from Europe (The Netherlands), by the way. No problems with connecting to the USA. No lag whatsoever!

I am from the Netherlands to, (I play on Cannith)

And i never mentioned lag as i am having a good connection to the US. (we all have in Holland, as we are the Internet backbone of europe) In the lower levels there are allways enough people to group up with at the european main time. SO thats not an issue..

This is my most fun MMO since EQ, DAoC and WoW (yes i actually had fun in that game) that gives me the feeling of playing a new game and not just another MMO.... I love that, next to that this game till now is very sweet for my casual playstyle.

There are some things i'd love to have seen different, espescially the wilderness zones should have allowed multiple people/groups to access it would have made the game a bit better, more to my liking and almost perfect. I still think every MMO needs open zones where everyone can enter and meet other people in the wild.

But thats the only true weekness of this game so far....

Im playing a favored soul on Cannith server -- name Tyna

grouping has been very easy under level 6

all you have to do is pick a quest and then be willing to look for more to join you in the Create Party panel

on Cannith at least, I find that there are more people LFG than starting groups

- so if you start a group, you will get join requests without too much delay

I'm currently level 8 and finding that the number of free adventures are diminishing but I'm still having fun

Originally posted by Nadia

 

I'm currently level 8 and finding that the number of free adventures are diminishing but I'm still having fun

I think the game might be word some investment at this level, the payed adventures I have seen are worth their moneys value. This offcourse is part of their subscription model. At some point the game makes you feel you are better off with a subscription.. This might be the best subscription model ever ...  

They missed a chance with the wilderness area's..

They should have allowed multiple people (maxed out at 40 or so) in the wilderness zones... with multiple instances of these zones.

I think that might make the game even better... But then a lot of the wildreness zones are not that huge... So maybe they should only start adding these zones in expansions... ((Tip... add them in variety PvE and PvP))

I can live with the current zones, nevertheless Some open zones would be a great addition to this game...

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Combat is fun, and the world feels like a true fantasy world, all this fun makes me wonder why this game failed in the first place. The Dungeon adventures with sproken (GM like) hints tell a story of them selves. I still have no clue what this world expects from me, everyone wants something from me... but its far from Epic...But then this may change soon.

It will indeed get epic soon. I have to comment that the game didn't fail - it wasn't the massive hit they were expecting before launch, but it has been growing ever since and always had a loyal core of subscribers. As for the trouble it had at alunch.. everything outside of Stormreach was added after that.. and I think it is as simple as that in 2006 the world wasn't ready for an instanced, group-focused game.

Originally posted by moorewr

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Combat is fun, and the world feels like a true fantasy world, all this fun makes me wonder why this game failed in the first place. The Dungeon adventures with sproken (GM like) hints tell a story of them selves. I still have no clue what this world expects from me, everyone wants something from me... but its far from Epic...But then this may change soon.

 

It will indeed get epic soon. I have to comment that the game didn't fail - it wasn't the massive hit they were expecting before launch, but it has been growing ever since and always had a loyal core of subscribers. As for the trouble it had at alunch.. everything outside of Stormreach was added after that.. and I think it is as simple as that in 2006 the world wasn't ready for an instanced, group-focused game.

 

 

Sorry but DDO was not growing since launch. It has grown greatly since the F2P launch, but since 2006 the game steadily got smaller. Turbine did not do enough to make the game ready for the MMO market, the world was plenty ready for a great MMO, DDO was not that game then.
 

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

Originally posted by moorewr

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Combat is fun, and the world feels like a true fantasy world, all this fun makes me wonder why this game failed in the first place. The Dungeon adventures with sproken (GM like) hints tell a story of them selves. I still have no clue what this world expects from me, everyone wants something from me... but its far from Epic...But then this may change soon.

 

It will indeed get epic soon. I have to comment that the game didn't fail - it wasn't the massive hit they were expecting before launch, but it has been growing ever since and always had a loyal core of subscribers. As for the trouble it had at alunch.. everything outside of Stormreach was added after that.. and I think it is as simple as that in 2006 the world wasn't ready for an instanced, group-focused game.

 

 

Sorry but DDO was not growing since launch. It has grown greatly since the F2P launch, but since 2006 the game steadily got smaller. Turbine did not do enough to make the game ready for the MMO market, the world was plenty ready for a great MMO, DDO was not that game then.
 

Yea I agree. DDO lacked many of the things you need to have a sucsefull MMO. Some say it was released 6 months to early which may be one of the reasons. And with a smaller playerbase (and no marketing) it becomes harder and harder to add enough content/feauters to keep people playing and attract new players. Good thing that Turbine decided to invest alot of money to re-release it instead of letting it slowly die.

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

Sorry but DDO was not growing since launch. It has grown greatly since the F2P launch, but since 2006 the game steadily got smaller. Turbine did not do enough to make the game ready for the MMO market, the world was plenty ready for a great MMO, DDO was not that game then.
 

Between launch and DDOU we received eight major content updates and the level cap went from 10 to 16. That's about half the quests in the game, all the public zones outside town and nearly all the quests outside Stormreach. How is that smaller?

Originally posted by moorewr

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

Sorry but DDO was not growing since launch. It has grown greatly since the F2P launch, but since 2006 the game steadily got smaller. Turbine did not do enough to make the game ready for the MMO market, the world was plenty ready for a great MMO, DDO was not that game then.
 

 

Between launch and DDOU we received eight major content updates and the level cap went from 10 to 16. That's about half the quests in the game, all the public zones outside town and nearly all the quests outside Stormreach. How is that smaller?

 

Sorry Moore I took growth to mean population since launch not game size. Yes the game itself has continued to grow since launch.

Originally posted by moorewr

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

Sorry but DDO was not growing since launch. It has grown greatly since the F2P launch, but since 2006 the game steadily got smaller. Turbine did not do enough to make the game ready for the MMO market, the world was plenty ready for a great MMO, DDO was not that game then.
 

 

Between launch and DDOU we received eight major content updates and the level cap went from 10 to 16. That's about half the quests in the game, all the public zones outside town and nearly all the quests outside Stormreach. How is that smaller?

 

Public zones outside town?

I only found the wildlands and those are not public...

So are there actually public zones where you could hunt in an MMO fashion and meet other people ?  Or are these zones mere player hubs where people meet without combat just like in Stormreach.

THis is actually my only bummer with the game untill now (2 weeks of intensive playing) I tried out almost all classes and they are all fun to play,  Mobs are smarter, the class system has more depth and espescially the spellcasters have so many options its mindbogling. Mellee is fun. The graphics are good, more then enough to immerse me in my adventures. The adventures are great, they are really really entertaining.

But be warned, this is not a free game, if you really want to enjoy the best, you'll need to unlock some content by paying (adventures) ,.... this can also be done by a VIP account, which actually makes it a payed game...

For now i spend €30 unlocking content, and the VIP account is about €10 a month...

Best of all, the game is filled with nice and enthousiast players.... that love to group up with you.

I also found a great guild, international with many many europeans.

TO BE CONTINUED

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

 But be warned, this is not a free game, if you really want to enjoy the best, you'll need to unlock some content by paying (adventures) ,.... this can also be done by a VIP account, which actually makes it a payed game...

You do not have to pay to unlock content. Get a character to 500 favor on each server and you'll earn 1925 Turbine Points. Enough to buy several adventure packs... all without paying a dime. You'll have 500 favor well before all the free content dries up (over 900 favor possible for F2P).
 

 The other public zones are of the same nature as Stormreach - locations for mailboxes, taverns, etc and access to sets of quests.

Zawabi's Refuge in the Desert

The Gianthold in the ruins of the Gianthold

Meridia in the Vale of Twlight

Reaver's Refuge in the Reaver's Reach

etc.

There's no place in the game to fight monsters in a public zone.

Originally posted by Redline65

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

 But be warned, this is not a free game, if you really want to enjoy the best, you'll need to unlock some content by paying (adventures) ,.... this can also be done by a VIP account, which actually makes it a payed game...

You do not have to pay to unlock content. Get a character to 500 favor on each server and you'll earn 1925 Turbine Points. Enough to buy several adventure packs... all without paying a dime. You'll have 500 favor well before all the free content dries up (over 900 favor possible for F2P).
 

The only problem with that is by the time you reach 500 favor you will have out grown a couple of the packs I think are must haves in DDO. Sure you can do that and waste half a year and buy some higher end packs, but I would think that kind of grind would burn out and cause a lot of people to stop playing.

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

Originally posted by Redline65

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

 But be warned, this is not a free game, if you really want to enjoy the best, you'll need to unlock some content by paying (adventures) ,.... this can also be done by a VIP account, which actually makes it a payed game...

You do not have to pay to unlock content. Get a character to 500 favor on each server and you'll earn 1925 Turbine Points. Enough to buy several adventure packs... all without paying a dime. You'll have 500 favor well before all the free content dries up (over 900 favor possible for F2P).
 

 

The only problem with that is by the time you reach 500 favor you will have out grown a couple of the packs I think are must haves in DDO. Sure you can do that and waste half a year and buy some higher end packs, but I would think that kind of grind would burn out and cause a lot of people to stop playing.

Why would you get the low level adventure packs when there's enough free content in the 1-10 range? As a strictly F2P player, you only need adventure packs to get you through that 11-20 range. 500 favor on each server gets you Gianthold, Vale of Twilight, and Devils of Shavarath if you wait until they are 20%-25% off. It really doesn't take that long to get 500 favor either, especially if you know what you're doing. It's a good way to try out 7 different classes too. 
 

Originally posted by Redline65

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

Originally posted by Redline65

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

 But be warned, this is not a free game, if you really want to enjoy the best, you'll need to unlock some content by paying (adventures) ,.... this can also be done by a VIP account, which actually makes it a payed game...

You do not have to pay to unlock content. Get a character to 500 favor on each server and you'll earn 1925 Turbine Points. Enough to buy several adventure packs... all without paying a dime. You'll have 500 favor well before all the free content dries up (over 900 favor possible for F2P).
 

 

The only problem with that is by the time you reach 500 favor you will have out grown a couple of the packs I think are must haves in DDO. Sure you can do that and waste half a year and buy some higher end packs, but I would think that kind of grind would burn out and cause a lot of people to stop playing.

Why would you get the low level adventure packs when there's enough free content in the 1-10 range? As a strictly F2P player, you only need adventure packs to get you through that 11-20 range. 500 favor on each server gets you Gianthold, Vale of Twilight, and Devils of Shavarath if you wait until they are 20%-25% off. It really doesn't take that long to get 500 favor either, especially if you know what you're doing. It's a good way to try out 7 different classes too. 
 

Because some of the low level packs have great gear that you can use for a while and then pass down to new characters you may create. A couple of the lower level packs have some of the best content in DDO. Ignoring those I feel is a mistake. DDO is not all about the end game, trust me there aint much there yet.

Yea, why grind alot of boring quests with sewers full of kobolds when you can buy some erally cool low level questpacks like sharn syndicate, Tangleroot, Three barrel cove, Deleras tomb and so on. They make the game alot more fun to play, especially if you plan on rolling several alts.

Originally posted by Papadam

Yea, why grind alot of boring quests with sewers full of kobolds when you can buy some erally cool low level questpacks like sharn syndicate, Tangleroot, Three barrel cove, Deleras tomb and so on. They make the game alot more fun to play, especially if you plan on rolling several alts.

I couldn't agree more :)

They are cheap, worthwhile entertainment, from a game that has history with many of us old school PnP gamers. Community is generally awesome, and the Adventure Packs add alot to a game that is fun right out the gate!

 I couldn't agree more, I installed about a month, back, didn't have time to play so came back, now i have some time to play so I've invested come cash into the game, 1500 points is what 18/19 usd thats about 10-12 euro, next to nothing, and i bought STK today, and had so much frekkin fun playing thought only part of it. Hell I can't wait to go back.... hell... i had so much fun playing it that im going to work in 2 hours with no sleep becasue i lost track of the time. 

And like a lot of people trying ddo now for the 1st time, duuuuuuude.... best game in ages!!!!! 

Time for some little criticisme...

1st, the Auctionhouse interface is bad..

2nd there is no real crafting..

3rd The weak part of the D&D ruleset is the gear part... it could be done better with another ruleset.

4th, there is no housing, i'd love to see housing like EQ2 has

5th, the game really needs a few open zones where people can combat and quest together. the wild lands would have been perfect for this.... maybe even add  a public quest series to these wild lands to make them even more special... tough they are a bit small and should be better... 

6th, The game should have been situated in the forgotten realms (personal opinion)

7th, Some great spells are still missing

8th, Turbine is about to damage the game when top items like +3 tomes will get available through the webshop.. 

9th, to get the really best experience people need a VIP account (Adventure packs) yet on cancelation of the account .. or even halting it temporarilly, you loose a lot not only access to the adventures, but also character slots.

10th, The hirelings system is okay... but the next step would be to have true henchman.... (aka Heroes and better from GW)

 Tough its still one of the best games ever....