I don't have a problem with solo or group centric MMOs, however as long as there is one decent group based MMO I will play that. I just find that content designed for group play has a lot more potential than anything designed for all to solo, simple as that.

Now soloing content designed for a group, that is really my cup of tea challenge wise.

Try DDO, has a lot of the D20 stats and skills, with enhancements on top of them. Massive variety in builds, even before multi-classing.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Oyjord 

You're confusing MMORPGs with FPS's.  Please don't.  I hate when devs try and appease the other audience by mixing both genres.  Please do go enjoy the PEW PEW FPS's, allowing for strafing and bunny hoping and terrain exploiting and all the like.  I prefer the slightly more cerebral MMORPG fight where I have to make quick choices (based upon numerous conditions) and not just rely on me having less lag and latency than my opponent.

MMORPG doesn't preclude maneuvers.

If you have played WoW, I assume you didn't use abilities like Charge, Sprint, or Blink. Correct?

I wonder what is considered acceptable and unacceptable movement. People seem happy to run away for instance, but if they move behind cover and are shot through it that doesn't seem to affect their immersion at all (totally ruins it for me).

Personally I consider diving for cover or jumping out of the way all part of what my character could do and so part of the role. With the caveat that I shouldn't be able to move my character any faster than its stats allow.

Back OT though I would be happy with 4 simple abilities like, Strike, Grab, Throw and Dodge. Especially if I could grab a mob use it to block anothers shot, then throw one at the other. Is that FPS well hardly, as it doesn't involve shooting or being in first person view, which are sort of essential to the acronym.

Depends what they were, if it were just 4 abilities in a click and forget bar then no (in fact could be 100s you just click, and it wouldn't do anything for me). However if they were 4 abilities that interacted with positioning, the environment and each other in a fluid manner then yeah 4 could work, as the actual combinations would be very circumstance driven.

DDO is probably as close as you will get to quest driven content (where quests are not noddy collect, kill and deliver) but you will have to repeat quests on different difficulty levels to reach cap.

It is F2P for some of the content so you can at least make a decision on whether it is what you are looking for at your leisure.

Try DDO, quests are well beyond your usual MMO dross.

Give DDO a try it is at least different and has a F2P option.

Originally posted by batmanuel2

1) DDO - Was fun but I don't like the repetition of the dungeons in ddo and not as much variety. Trap disabling was nice but I just got bored of the game and you can't really solo certain parts of the game as a rogue. (Didnt get to prestige classes, you guys think it will be worth it if I hit prestige?)

Try a Ranger rather than Rogue and max your Hide and Move Silently skills. The mix of stealth and ranged combat can be very effective for soloing content. It can still be very challenging at higher levels and elite setting but doable if that is what you are looking for, plenty of variety as well.

One small note the monster sensing AI is very good in DDO so some mobs like spiders sense by vibration and some react more to noise, so you can move mobs away from doors long enough to open them if you can create a distraction noise for them to investigate, is very cool but you have to do it for the challenge as there is minimal or no reward for the effort.

Finally invest in Jump skill as well, being able to go over things or get in positions they can't reach you is all part of being able to solo and stealth.

I seem to remember reading somewhere this problem can be caused by a browser/ISP problem, suggestion try a different browser or ISP if you can.

compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Skill:Heal

High Heal skill helps you and people around you when shrining, not how much you get healed for by any other means. I would actually recommend that you skip putting too many points in Heal and just look for a good +Heal item to swap in and out when using a shrine.

I'm from the EU servers and don't recognise the elitist knob like behaviour described above. Yes you will find some people that are socially retarded but generally they are easy enough to avoid.

Originally posted by marks4902

hey im new to ddo ive been foolin around with it for a few days and i need to figure out how to build a character i like but i dont know much about how to build or the build system ultimately i like characters that are hard to kill can heal self heal bubble rez and possibly dual weild a huge mace or a sweet lookin shield iknow there is paladin and cleric and some new healing class b ut i dont knpow enough about the jobs to choose one so i would like some guidance any help is appreciated

Give Ranger a try, you get limited healing and some nice buffs and you get the two weapon fighting feats for free. Personally my favourite character is a Warforged Monk (that I have no problem soloing with). Great immunities and resistances, two types of HP recovery (Heal & Repair), good HP/AC, run like the wind and if you can catch a break you can normally heal yourself up.

Try DDO it has stat based twitch for both Melee and Ranged, also does collision detection on projectiles, so you can hit a mob other than the one intended if it moves in the way of a shot, or block a shot from hitting someone else.

Edit: Should have mentioned has first or third person views, also tombraider style ledge grabbing, jumping and climbing.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

So what do you think of the ftp AD&D feature: you get a next key  level when you can find it in a quest and dungeon set up.

OR you can buy the key in the shop (lame).

I think the option is challeging in itself. Do I quest for it (perhaps very long I don't know yet), or do I cheat. (let's re roll the dice in that dungeon remember the old times :)))).

There can be so many twists around ftp games.

 

 

Tricky one as this was added to get some income from F2P, P2P players don't need to do it. So it isn't like a buy your way around a natural part of the game, it is a F2P only hurdle. A better example would be the effort in unlocking a Favored Soul compared to buying it. Now this is a clear way both F2P and P2P can pay to avoid a lot of effort in game.

Early days but the xfire numbers are interesting:

GW #9 (B2P) - 5324 users

EVE #12 (P2P) - 3368 users

ROM #18 (F2P) - 2686 users

LOTRO #24 (P2P) - 1857 users

DDO #27 (new F2P/P2P) - 2348 users

CO #31 (new P2P) - 1524 users

AoC #49 (P2P) - 740 users

Warhammer #55 (P2P) - 866 users

Might indicate a F2P move could give some games a new lease of life, but needs more time to tell (I would say at least 6 months).

Try DDO and start on the new server Cannith (only been up a couple of weeks).

Originally posted by ic0n67

Originally posted by Dr.Rock

Originally posted by ic0n67

My major question is WHY is there a penalty for moving and attacking in this game. I mean I could see in p&p you don't have much in the way of moving, but in an MMO you are moving a lot mobs walk away from you as you get closer and you have really no time to walk up stand still then attack before the AI is smart enough to take three more steps away. idk ... it doesn't translate well at all and I could never find any forms or anything to suggest crap for the beta anyway.

 

It is harder to hit a moving target than a stationary one, and the mobs know this, so ranged and casters don't make it easy for you (would you stand still and wait to be hit?). You can invest in feats to allow you to attack on the move, but possibly not worth it as you will get more accurate as you level anyway, to the point movement isn't really an accuracy problem.

I think most MMOs are lazy when it comes to combat, DDO makes movement a skill and it can be the difference between victory or defeat, rather than just your stats.

 

I do realize it is harder to hit a moving target. As stated I haven't played D&D for a while and in my experience we played with an actual grid and game pieces like how must tactics games are today. You can move so many spaces per turn and you can do so many actions per turn once all those are used up for all players then you start over. I still love those old school early 90s PC games they had for D&D and I'd play them if I had a floppy disc drive still. So I still see D&D along a grid -- again my fault there -- and I just don't see a translation to a non-grid field. 

I have played other MMOs, primarily FFXI, where you are still sort of rooted to a spot. Even when I play WoW (I am not a fanboi, okay game, shitty player base, omg I'm probably going to get another warning for badmouthing WoW players because the admins of this site are freaking obsessed with it and boot anyone who talks bad of their Jesus game) I end up standing still even though I can run around.

Its cool there are feats later on that you can move and attack better because honestly that one mission in the first major town you hit, the one where you have to kill 200 kabolds and that one trog -- you know which one -- kicked my ass so badly. All those archer/mage types throwing attacks at you while and by the time you get to them and swing they just run away. I ended up feeling like I was cheating when I beat it. I ended up calling a cleric companion and hanging out next to the resurrection stone. I got to about 75 left before we died and she was out of MP. If my bleeding stopped I would just get up and try to get her resurrected. If the bleeding didn't stop I died, but was right next to the shire so I could resurrect. Knock out one or two and then repeat. Took about 10 times of doing that just to kill the Trog. It felt exploitative; I know it wasn't how I was supposed to do it, but within the rules somehow. I can't see how anyone can do that mission at level 3 like the game suggests. I tried doing it during the beta, went in and maybe 10 kills in I got a message about the servers resetting in a half hour and I didn't finish before they reset. Maybe I am just doing something wrong .....

 

 

If it is any consolation not everything acts like a Kobold, they know they are weak so try not to get hit, an Ogre for instance will quite happily go toe to toe with you, as will most large mobs. Best way to deal with Kobolds especially casters is to reduce their movement with your body or the scenery, so back up to a corner and let them come around it, if you do chase don't hit them in the back, try and get around in front and block them, then hit.

I did do a walkthrough on how to beat Kobold Assault on elite solo:

community.codemasters.com/forum/showpost.php

Originally posted by ic0n67

My major question is WHY is there a penalty for moving and attacking in this game. I mean I could see in p&p you don't have much in the way of moving, but in an MMO you are moving a lot mobs walk away from you as you get closer and you have really no time to walk up stand still then attack before the AI is smart enough to take three more steps away. idk ... it doesn't translate well at all and I could never find any forms or anything to suggest crap for the beta anyway.

It is harder to hit a moving target than a stationary one, and the mobs know this, so ranged and casters don't make it easy for you (would you stand still and wait to be hit?). You can invest in feats to allow you to attack on the move, but possibly not worth it as you will get more accurate as you level anyway, to the point movement isn't really an accuracy problem.

I think most MMOs are lazy when it comes to combat, DDO makes movement a skill and it can be the difference between victory or defeat, rather than just your stats.

I have been playing since beta but very casually (0 to 10 hours a week) and never felt disadvantaged. The massive number of build options and the need to use movement and twitch does take a lot of the min/max need out. Not that some don't min/max like mad.

Originally posted by DrWalnut

I played DDO in April but quit because soloing as a Monk was no longer an option (at least without repeating the same quests over and over). I basically want to solo as much as posible but group when it is possible. I made it to like 3? in April but there were no groups around my level doing things so I quit. Is soloing better now, and better yet is it much easier to find a group at low levels? Thanks.

I have a WF monk and managed to solo a lot of the content up to Elite level (GH and below) and some of the Vale on Normal. It isn't quick or pretty at times, but doable. Happy to help if you can be more specific about where you hit a barrier.