I am really looking forward to this title. I hope that they get a lot of killer feedback and squish them bugs that inevitably rear their ugly heads. Man I wish I was testing. I signed up as soon as the offered the chance to. This is a must have title if they do what they have set out to do with this game. I cannot wait until open beta!

But not by much I must content. ^___^

Originally posted by mz3r2t

For me, it comes down to either Champions Online or DC Universe and who has the most tolerable mt's.

DC Universe looks better to me, but if Champion's mt's are more subtle, then I"m going for that.

I thought mt's were supposed to be for free to play games. Free to play, expensive to enjoy...

Same for me, buddy. It is like ALL the games are MT based now. Even CoX is MT to some degree now days with its' expansions+content update model. Sad, but it is odd that way. So far ChampO has a light model they are talking about. Nothing world shattering, but time will tell. DCUO may be offering whole powersets as MT exclusive content and that is painful. You know you are going to want to play those powersets too. Ouch. If both go that route I will be really unhappy. I'd rather buy expansions. Stuff I can pass on and not feel ripped off.

This thread is full of really interesting stuff. I learned a lot actually.

I will be super honest. I have so little faith in Sony Online Entertainment that until this comes out and I have at least 5 friends, close ones, playing and loving it that I would rather just steer clear of it all together. That is how burned I am on SOE. Besides that it looks interesting, but I want to hear more about their F2P+Cash shop architecture before I even hazard a guess. They could offer scads and scads of pay content that forces you to have to pay for simple things. Also the rumor that you will only get 2 character slots, generic costume options (unless you pay) and limited powers sets (again...unless you sell out the cash) has me worried. All this is speculation.

With Champions, you have it sitting there. You know what it is about. There isn't a lot to worry about coming down the pipe or mysterious features/costs that still loom. It is all laid out for you. CO has serious content issues, that is for sure. The PvE aspect of the game is limited. Scary limited. You play the missions though a linear progression and God forbid you do anything else. All the missions are practically essential to power/level up. Essential. There is a good chance you will have to grind in the higher levels since the content (XP and mob difficulties) have been adjusted and you will have missions handed to you that you will be too weak to take on for a little while.

I love CO even with all the faults in PvE.
I WANT to love DCUO, but HATE SOE.

At the end of the day we will all be sitting around with bated breath waiting to see what DCUO becomes. Right now there is too little concrete to say anything intelligent other than what we can glean from our past experiences...

I must be crazy because I am enjoying my butt off. I like this game. I really do. I like that it is more challenging now. I like that a lot of people exploited their butts off and are nerfed now. I feel fine. My builds are solid. I am functioning well and getting through content solo and in a small team when I feel like it. Nothing is world shatteringly broken. You just can't roll certain builds and plow through the game. What is wrong with that?

What I do not like is what happened to some of the people like the poor person above me. Completely losing your powers? WTH!>?!?!

I had heard that they just awarded you the base set and sent you on your merry way to have to pay a respec fee with you left the tutorial, but it appears they didn't. That is messed up. Have you posted on the official forums? Also if you were in the tutorial did you save you costume? I save every one before entering the game. That way you could delete the character and hope right in. Also they have a unique naming system that attaches a unique tag to your username. (IE there can be 15 bulverines because they are bulverine@someguy and bulverine@someotherguy to prevent just that from happening!) Did you try to reroll? That is messed up.

Life subber here. Got it since launch. Got it for the IP and the history. Have lots of RP buddies. The game is fun if you have the right friends. There is a serious brick wall though.

I bet like 5 more people take advantage of the offer. Seriously, most of the folks that COULD have gotten a lifetime or 6 moth sub HAVE gotten one already. Bottom line is this is just people screaming foul to make themselves feel better before moving on the next big thing pretty much.

Either that or pretty much ALL the interested parties will get the subs and then we can look forwards to billions of microtransaction based expansions to the game to even out the costs.

ALSO

Why does everyone forget that ATARI is running the subs and publication for this game? Cryptic don't really own the servers or so I was led to believe. Is this not the case?

ATARI is low. Look into what they have done time and again and I cannot believe anyone does business with them. I mean look at the Champions Online lifetime/6 month subscription deal debacle. Cryptic is taking all the slack on this one when ATARI is primarily to blame. They are the ones that also handled that game's preorder deals.

In the past ATARI has kept this shady tripe relegated to low profile projects, but it even spilled over into the popular UNREAL TOURNAMENT series in the late 90's and the "Do something UNREAL" contest prize stuff. They really are a sour bunch over there. I mean, what happened to them?

Anyways I really like DDO, but it feels so restricted for some reason. Also there isn't enough content. Repeating quests over and over is far from enjoyable. There is a lot of that (I mean bucketloads) repeat stuff. I mean was DDO even doing OK prior to this? Not really. LotRO is Turbine's real cash cow I think. (I could be wrong there.) Still DDO seemed so second fiddle it isn't even funny. I would almost like to see another more respectfully done version of D&D as an MMO using the 4.0 rules set, but I doubt it will be much more playable unless they don't go the route of DDO and make you repeat the crap out of things. I would love a random level based quest system along with the main story stuff. THAT would be great.

I just don't know with this one. I don't feel obliged to "side" with either party really. I despise ATARI for what they have steadily become and I don't really know enough about Turbine other than they made a grindfest of a D&D game and a decent (if not down right fun) LotR MMO. I just don't know. heh.

With a possible MCG reboot of this francise/IP there could be renewed interest. I for one think that the title sorely needs a reboot. A lot has been done to tarnish this fantastic IP that could be reversed if it is skillfully and thoughtfully rebooted for a new audience. The original had some fantastic themes in it. After that the movies flopped around really badly. Kind of sad that the best thing to happen since the original was the barely stomachable series. No afront to Adrian Paul, but the stories in that were so repetitive!

I just really hope they fix a lot of the graphical bugs, institute some social spines into the game (dance clubs, churches, superbases, hideouts, caves and mansions would be nice to hang out in!) and add some emotes mighty  quick. I loves me some emotes. *ahem*

Seriously with today's announcement of the cessasion of the lifetime/6 month offer ATARI/Cryptic have a lot of cheesed off costumers ranting. How they react to his outcry will color people's views me thinks...

I welcome the author of this article to come play either CoX, Champions Online or DDO with me and my merry band of losers. We might be able to turn you to the darkside. Come on Dana...you know you wanna!

I could hope that were not the case, but I think that they just might.

With their competition working making their games more "sandboxish" , less about XP and more about acclaim, the grind mentality could kill CO. That would be a shame. Still it would be foolish to think that if 10 months from now they have a couple of other competitors, are watching fans leave and their microtransaction failing because the game was grindy that  they wouldn't at least consider speeding leveling back up. If they are too stubborn to see that will not work then they deserve to flounder.

I am just glad I basically paid a year and a half's worth of subscriptions for "forever" login rights and a bunch of swag like 8 more character slots. It is just that possibility that they will wiggle in higher and higher leveling reqs along with some messed up Micro-T scheme that worries me.

PS - Sorry for all the spelling and grammar errors. I am really tired. Just wanted to pop in and share my 2 cents. Thanks.

First let me say that I LIKE this game right now. I loved this game until open beta. It turned real ugly at that point. A LOT of people were in there swooping in constantly getting at mission clickables/mobs while we were fighting to get to them, there was an awful lot of lag and the number of people simply being butt munches and handing out tripe for advice to newbies was insane. Typical open beta... I eagerly await the time when this immature crowd has settled into the game or moved on after their free taste. Usually this is about 2-3 months after launch. Otherwise THE PLAYERS will be what make me not want to touch this game. Sad, but true.

Anyways at the end of it all my two brothers and I are going to be playing it. 2 of us have lifetime subscriptions and the 3rd only doesn't because college ate a lot more of his funds than he thought it would. I really like the game. Like CoH/V it has a robust character creator and comic book theme, but it has its' own flavor too. I really appreciate the angle they have taken.

PvE
Decent, but now a hair grindy. Not like like really bad, but definitely more grindy than CoH/V. The missions are good. I like the open world ones, but I was really hungering for more indoor missions to break it up a little. There is an ok amount of them, but I like door missions or at least private instances once in a while to break up the world quest aspect so many MMOs lean on. You gotta have variety. Still the fact that a civilian or drop can give me a mission is nice and helps break things up. The one thing that really and truly bugs me about PvE from the beginning in CO is that when you start a new character you cannot skip the friggin tutorial. I mean come one! That is like standard fair now. Now many freakin times to I have to be forced to endure that stupid battle. Far worse is that since I will likely be playing it when other players are snoozing I will have to deal with a LOT of the tutorial quirks like when there are a BILLION enraged qularr between me and the end of the tutorial.

PvP
If you were an Ice/Ice/Ice or Force/Force/Force or Ice/Ice/Force in PvP you are pretty much invincible. No really. My brother made a Force/Force/Fire and only those types could take him down. Ice for primary attack, AoE and Secondary is strong. TOO DAMNED STRONG. Ice focused attcks+Ice Focused AoEs and Force for defenses works really well too. Harder to focus than a pure build, but a master at opponent positioning/speed and damage resistance.

The Future (Micro-transactions, Lifetime Members, XP ETC)
As a lifetime member I worry that micro-transactions, as they have been recently discussed, will be something that every player may be forced to pay in order to enjoy the game more fully. I mean XP boosts and in-game items could ruin the game. It is decently balanced right now and I have to wonder what these Micro-Ts with do to the that balance. Also if they become something that REALLY enhances the gameplay I worry that Micro-Ts will become the new "second subscription" that everyone is so worried they will become. We have all heard rumors about additions character slots, access to exclusive zones and costume pieces/swag will be in the store, but worries me is what they AREN'T telling us. You know the "MUCH MUCH MORE" part...*sigh*

Something I am worried about is something someone else mentioned. They recently upped the XP needed to level. For an often solo player like myself (my brothers only play one day on the weekends) this will get really harsh really fast. I noticed something. When got out of the tutorial zone and started doing my missions in the crisis zones that the task NPCs were awarding me items that I couldn't wear for 2 or 3 levels. This not only made those lower levels harder, but I had to make sure not to sell them until I had a chance to wear them. Even crafting has been effected. Usually you can craft something and don it right away. I was capable of making something I would have to wait 5 levels to utilize because of the new imposed XP/leveling system! That is a LONG time to hold onto something to equip it. Unless you grind mobs to level up between missions you could have a contact send you on a mission that is utter doom even for a large group. It was starting to get that way right around 26-28. I can only imagine later in the game...

Anyways I have posted far too much of my opinion. I am glad there are a lot of people giving the game a shot as I think that there is a lot to like about the game. Is it a WoW killer? No. WoW is an "Every Niche" monster that appeals to a very wide spectrum, but isn't great at any one thing. Will it destroy CoH/V? No. That game has momentum going for it. It has been rolling a while and will keep rolling until it CHOOSES to stop. CO is its' own thing really. Similar, but different enough. They reward you different and THAT is what I think leaves room for both. Is it strong enough to be considered alongside DCUniverse and Marvel Online? Yes. THIS is where CO will prove itself out or not. These two unreleased games, in my mind, are its' closest spiritual kin. If it can elbow its' way between these titans their IPs with great gameplay and a uniquely angled perspective it will make it for a long time to come. Otherwise they might bowl it over with their IPs and possibly similar gameplay. The IPs will attract many, but unless those two execute themselves carefully they will be outgunned by CO and its simple fun gameplay in my tiny opinion. CO, to me, is a really good comic environment with the potential to do really well if things stay loose and fun. Otherwise it will become a grindfest. No one wants that...right?

Originally posted by metalhead980

A new content patch with one more month before server shut down?

Either these guys are going to tweak the game to be F2p with a cash shop/ Game ads or they plan to sell this to another company.

If this game goes F2p they will take it down make it more cash shop friendly and relaunch a few months down the road.

TR would be the best F2p on the market if they did that to be honest.

I completely agree. I love this game and would love to see it live on in whatever form, but as you say, if it were F2P with a cash shop...it would utterly dominate. Fantastic observation!

 Want...want bad...

I wish that I could work there. They all seem to know what games mean to me and I wish I could give back. I intend on making many missions for this when it comes out. Maybe I can contribute back to the game that way. Love it and them a lot.

Originally posted by djnso

I believe LOTRO let you keep your open beta characters.

Yeah they did, but there were wipes along the way before beta ended so no one was too far ahead. Edit: Oops I was thinking of another game. In LOTRO They didn't let you save your character did they? Even then anyone that beta tests and/or is really dedicated to MMOs has learned the fastest ways to get ahead in any given game anyways so wipes are really a half assed attempt at slowing those types of people down so the rest of the crowd can catch up.

Being a casual player I didn't get my first level 20 in DDO for months where as the first one rolled off that very weekend of launch. The same is true of other games I have played like COH/V. I have yet to get to 50 in that game (mostly due to lacking the time to), but the first 40 (The game's level cap at the time) was reached in less than 7 days.

In the end stopping people from carrying over beta characters never does what it is supposed to, so I don't understand the proliferation of the activity. I wish they would "reset" your character so that you had your desired name, race and archtypes set when the game launches. THAT would make up for wipes in my mind. That way I don't have to fight for my name in a game with 2,500,000 other players. Let us testers have all our character reverted to lvl 1, but keep our names and what have you. THAT would be better...and they could keep their precious, nonfunctional, wipes in place.

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Incidentally I am not there just to play the game. I want a chance to aid in ironing out the bugs and to have my voice heard on issues that I think need addressing. I also want to see if this game will be worth upgrading my machine, the monthly fee and leaving behind another MMO community in the same genre. (Fantasy MMO) Mostly I am there to see if the game runs smoothly and offer my bug reports, feature input and general opinion of the game. I might even throw in some future update feedback. In any account I am very interested in helping. I know that isn't the common goal of most beta testers these days, but that is mine. I have made games and good strong beta tests make or break some games. I love the premise of this title and wish to aid in making it all it can be. Other people's reasons...not so much. I just wish we all wanted to help out, but it isn't so. I wish I had gotten in sooner to help out, but for whatever reason they didn't. Now I just hope to give them 2 good weeks of feedback.

I have couple of points I would like to insert into this thread.

1) How did you like the interface?
I ask because all the "little annoying things" like a lack of off-hand eqip support through the quickbar and the lack of element scaling really bugged me about the UI.

2) What was your favorite class/race/item/quest in the game and why?

3) What was your least favorite class/race/item/quest in the game and why?

4) What are two other MMOs that you have loved after 6 months?

5) What are two other MMOs that you have hated after 6 months?

[b][quote]Originally posted by burrek[/b]

P.S. It is possible to complete the game without repeating the exact same quest. It is true that you will probably have to do a few quests on a higher difficulty setting. Yet the random quest item placment and increased difficulty keep things fresh. In other words: this game has the most diverse PvE grind ever! You can probably finish the game (get to 10) in less than a month. You will only need to pay the extra fee if you play 30 minutes a week or want the extra content they will release later on.

TATSU SAID: You were misled. The developers have stated in two seperate places that you WOULD HAVE TO complete at least a few quests on the elite (Read at least your third venture into the dungeon...) setting in order to "pass" the game and get to 10. You could alternatively complete several quests lower difficulty quests more times to bridge the game. I like to "unlock" things so I will be playing these quests up until elite just because I like the personal bragging right of saying I have completed a quest on elite. I just personally think it should be forced to level. Maybe some additional quests in a future expansion will solve that. That is my hope anyways. If they do that I will be SOOOOOO much happier!

P.P.S. NWN2 is probably going to be a better game... but it's not here yet.

TATSU SAID: Man oh man I wanna see this game. NWN owned me...I almost lost a job over it. lol

P.P.P.S. If you claim WoW is more in line with DnD than DDO ... that's just sad. To quote a sig I saw around these forums " Silly rabbit, WoW is for kids." I liked WoW alot, but it simply lacks the role play feel.

[b]TATSU SAID: I personally like WoW. I dont love it. I love that it has a large world, but would rather see DDO get instanced city-to-city travel than EVER run around in the WoW world. If they did that and add more quests, I would love DDO. Right now it is equal to WoW to me. To compare WoW to true D&D is silly. Utter rubish. However DDO is not spot on, just closer, to D&D. It has a ways to go itself.
[/quote]

I've been testing this off an on from September and...

- Instancing
I like how it is used more or less, but I would have liked to see more over world travel handled with instancing too. Let me refphrase that. I would like to be able to take my small group of friends and walk them betwen to towns in an instance and do the things that made D&D fun for me as a kid...like getting ambushed, meeting mischivious faeries and finding secret stashes of goodies. This game lacks that.

- Crafting
While I agree that it is not a despairing thing that it isnt built in, I would have liked to have gotten my cool goodies like in D&D...from chests AND MONSTERS. I cant loot my kills 99.99% of the time. I dont care if they drop ruined or garbage items, I miss that looting kills. Chests are fine, but you want the saticfaction of robbing that pain in the ass kobold...I do at least.

- PVP
I dont care for it, so I am glad it isnt there. It isnt very D&Dish, unless it is like the arenas of D&D, then I am fine with it. That is until they release the *deep booming "James Earl Jones" voice* "CHAOTIC EVIL" expansion. Don't laugh...it is already being talked about as the method for handling PVP.

- Quests
These are so vanilla...I dont know how people love them so. I mean I have seen quests with more flavor, twists and story written up by eleven year old DMs. They are not good...and repeating them is the only way to get ever get to the promised 11+ content that the first major expansion is planned to unlock.

- Grouping
This game has the BEST grouping system I have ever seen. Period. Every role has its place and every role shines in its place. Waver too far from your given role and you will suffer the consequences. I love that about this game and wish such balance was possible in other titles.

- Classess and Races
Because this setting is different several of the old dependable roots of old school D&D player archtypes and races dont feel like they do in the PNP game. That is ok though because they actually feel quite well done for this title. Having run Ebberon but once (the player group of ours tanked it...after I spent a small fortune on books!) I can tell you it is indeed rich and very interesting, but the races and classes feel really keyed down and childs-toylike to me. They still work in the MMO setting though.

- The Controls
I found them fine. Not the best and not the worst I have ever used. My brother, sister-in-law and neice have utterly hated it at times. Especially the fact that tumbling to dodge makes your next attack have a penalty. This system is fine for those that stand still and those that are good at timing their blocks. Most others...well...yeah.

Those are my thoughts. I wasnt going to buy the game, but the girlfriend, brother and neice are getting it and leaving WoW to do so. I will migrate with them, but really didnt find the game apealing enough to leave my lvl60 guild leader in WoW, so I will likely be paying ANOTHER freaking monthly fee.

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Originally posted by fadeblack
What is turning me off to this game is the complaints by the D&D fans themselves. You wont see any Wow fans slamming WOW. You wont find any complaining about Darkfall or Conan either. There fans are all pumped up!!
To say Turbine updated its content on par as EVE is outragous. Eve content update was more like free expantions. Many of them too. Turbine had 2 and you had to pay for them. Eve`s was all free.
Instancing would be great for solo play. But without a multi player persitant world it would hardly be a MMOPW. Maybe a IMO.
I wouldnt worry and cry about the number of quest. They will add many many more. I would be more worried about the game and the 120 something quest actually working day of release.
The fanbase of D&D Online are gong to destroy any chance this game had. Honestly it is not the game I am turned off by but by the community surrounding this game. I can just picture loggin in on release day head to the tavern, and have my chat buffer full of people screaming about sueing Turbine. No Thanks...

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Please play NWN(2) or any of the Balders Gates titles and NOT tell me you would prefer those games with a more robust class system over DDO. Try. It is so unfathomable that two such game series exsist that got it so close to right and DDO is just...well bleh. It is an OK game at best. As for the community, I cannot agree or disagree. I care less about the people in this game because I will...like most DDOers...probably (not actually) be playing it with my friends as I did in beta. That way I avoid the "community all together. That is of course assuming I would be paying for such vanilla game.

Many people talk about how "GONE ARE THE DAYS OF SLAYING XXX CREATURES!" and that is true. Now we are slaying XXX quests...repeating said quests for hours on end. Just as reskinning a creature and making us slay XXX more of them...this game does the same with its' quests. I hate that about almost all MMOs. The repeating crap.