| ESRB:Dungeons and Dragons Online - Module 6 Preview
MMORPG.com News Manager Keith Cross recently had the opportunity to take an early look at Module 6: The Thirteenth Eclipse for Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach. Today, he files this report on the new module as well as a quick look at the game since launch.
My journey through the world of Dungeons & Dragons Online began with a picture book tour of the game as it stands right now, up to module 5. I was briefly teleported to a number of different regions to see a snapshot of what each previous module added to the game, and how the game has evolved into its current incarnation. When DDO first launched, there were several things that seemed like they were missing. The game had plenty of dungeons, but where were the dragons? ‘Dragons’ is right there in the title, so one would think they should be there. And there’s an ampersand in the title too but I didn’t see any of those running around in the game either.
My guides explained the reasoning for the lack of dragons at first. Dragons are tough. They’re not really a fair challenge to lower level characters unless you water them down a bit. But watering down wasn’t an option for Turbine because they had decided to go with the 3rd Edition D&D philosophy that dragons were special. You won’t meet a dragon in a random encounter, and each dragon is unique, with their own name and powers. Their name is in the title after all, so it makes sense that they’re among the fiercest foes in the game. The first dragons that players could battle were added with module 4. A trio of young chromatic dragons that looked like they’d jumped straight from the pages of the Monster Manual.
Capturing the look and flavor of 3rd Edition D&D is something Turbine has done very well. During the initial tour we ran into several other classic D&D opponents, such as the Marilith and a Beholder with a spectral template, and they each looked exactly like pen and paper counterparts. The artistic devotion to D&D’s core books continues in Module 6, and I was excited to see Gnolls (a personal favorite) and a variety of Devils done in a style so true to the original sources.
While the visual style was there from the start, the actual feel of D&D took a bit longer to develop. I have to give Turbine credit for listening to their audience, as most of my complaints about the earlier version of the game have been addressed in subsequent modules. I had actually tried to get into DDO when it first came out but I found the beginner quests a bit too tedious and I could only hack a few hours before I would get bored and abandon the character. Turbine heard these complaints from people with more patience than myself, and revamped the early game. They say they will be looking into redoing more of the early content in future Modules. There were dungeons aplenty at launch, with a friendly Dungeon Master voice-over, reminiscent of old booked adventures, but the game lacked wilderness adventures, a staple of both MMOs and Pen and Paper. Players also complained that it could often be a hassle waiting to form an adventuring party, and they wanted the option of a more casual or solo experience so they could have something to do while waiting for friends. Seeing these shortcomings, Turbine set out to add more open landscapes, exploration quests, and solo content over the course of several modules, and Module 6 is no different.
And after four paragraphs we finally get to the point of this article, Module 6 and all of its secrets. So what’s new with Module 6: The Thirteenth Eclipse? New challenges and new adventures of course, and a few new rules as well. The big news for all the adventurers of Stormreach is that the level cap will be bumped up to 16, opening up more room for advancement. There’s good news for the accident prone as well, as the death penalty will no longer carry an experience penalty, but rather a temporary resurrection sickness. If you’re the type of player who likes to avoid death as much as possible, aka a coward, they’ve dotted the landscape with more strategically placed rest shrines to help keep the game flowing and to support solo players.
;)
Beyond a few rules changes, the real story with Module 6 is, um, the story of Module 6. The action takes place in the Vale of Twilight, a region that is closely linked to the Outer Planes. Every 3000 years (has it been 3000 years already?) the 13 moons of Eberron align with each other to form an eclipse, hence Module 6’s title, The Thirteenth Eclipse. You’re probably wondering why hardened adventures would be interested in 13 heavenly bodies aligning in a celestial event that occurs once every 3 millennia. To answer that we have to take a look back at the end of Module 5 and the Black Abbot Lich and his designs on godhood. If you’re playing Module 6 then you’ve already foiled his plans, which is good, but the whole mess has thrown the planes out of whack. That’s bad. Remember how the Vale of twilight is linked to the planes? You should, because I only mentioned it six sentences ago. The Vale is currently linked with one of the more benign planes, but that link changes every 3000 years when the eclipse occurs. Whichever plane is the most influential when the eclipse ends becomes the dominant plane in the Vale of Twilight, and the instability caused by the Black Abbot has allowed the Devils of Shavarath (Eberron’s 9 Hells) to seize the initiative and attempt to bring Shavarath’s influence to the Vale of Twilight for the next three thousand years. And that’s why adventurers should care.
When the players arrive in the Vale of Twilight they’ll need to find the public hub where they can track down a friendly quest giving NPC. Long time players will be pleased to know that Module 6 will finally open up The Twelve, and while in the Vale of Twilight you’ll be working for the mysterious group. All of their secrets won’t be revealed in this module, of course, because you’ll be too busy fighting off Devils and their servants to unravel their web of mystery.
The Vale of Twilight itself is divided into five sub regions. The first of these regions that I visited was Twilight Canyon, where the previously mentioned Gnolls make their home. The Gnolls have formed an alliance with the devils and are their servants. The Gnolls of the Twilight Canyon are the warm-up monsters, being weaker and more numerous than the Devils.
The next phase was a location dubbed ‘The Gauntlet’ on account of the seemingly endless foes that come from portals which pop open with little waning and in large numbers. The idea of this area is to fight tactically. The faster you can close the portals the easier the area is. My Guides informed me that in this area, it “doesn’t matter if you don’t have the top tier loot from the last raid” if you fight smart, you’ll be fine. If you can’t find a way to close the portals in a timely fashion, it becomes harder and harder to complete you’re task, and even harder to maintain you status as one of the living. The end of this area is also where they introduce the prototype of their crafting system. Players will have the opportunity to enhance a few of their items before moving on to the next area. The system itself is fairly simple, just put the appropriate ingredients in the magic box and presto, you’ve got a holy sword that shoots lightning. Or whatever, there are 1100 recipes so you don’t have to go the holy thunderin’ route if that’s not you’re style.
The next region is nick named the Packman level on account of the fact that the area is a square maze with bad guys inside, and when you kill the nasty Devils their ghosts float back to the centre of the map. This is another level where team work and tactics will win the day over brute force, although you’re new weapon will be helpful. I’m not going to tell you the trick to beating the level though, mostly because I don’t want to ruin your fun, but partially because I’m just a jerk.
;)
The next area was another maze like area, but with a twist, there were no monsters to fight. Instead you find yourself isolated from your companions alone in a small room with a puzzle on the floor. The puzzle on the floor opens the door to freedom. Unfortunately for me I was one step from solving it when I stepped on the wrong square on my way to the right one. The level is well designed though, because there is more than one way out. A friend could come by and open the door from the outside, or if you get annoyed by making a stupid mistake you can take out your frustration on the large glowing crystal in the room, which when destroyed also opens the door. Then you use teamwork to solve the larger puzzle to leave the maze entirely. At this point I should mention that when I said there were no enemies in this level I wasn’t being completely truthful. There are no bad guys to fight, but there are hazards to avoid, like the blade barriers, and the roaming prismatic wall.
The final phase is the fight with the end bad guy. I won’t say much about him, but this time I’m not being mean intentionally. It’s because my guides asked me not to ruin the surprise for people. All I’ll say is that he’s an iconic D&D nemesis, and once again he looks exactly like his monster manual description.
By the time players have battled their way throughout module 6’s content they’ll feel like they’re well prepared to face off against any infernal threat. My guides describe Module 6 as Fighting Demons 101, because that’s what it was designed to be. With what’s on the way for Module 8, players will be pleased to have a little training, as Module 8 will take characters to Shavarath itself, and other exotic planes of existence.
Beyond that, the future of DDO can best be described as delivering the rest of the Player’s Handbook, with the addition of the Monk, the Druid, and Half-orcs. Rogues will be getting some love as well, as they’ll gain a few more skills direct from the PHB, like skill mastery and defensive roll. What happens when they run out of PHB content? Levels beyond 20 and epic level content, but that’s all they’ll say.
So will there be explorable, open wilderness adventuring? I didn't catch that in the article.
I didn't write the article, so I can't say with certainty, but I'm pretty sure they already have some of that...
Sounds good, I think it's time to get my hands on one of those trials and check this game out again.
Any Idea when this upgrade will launch? Sorry if I missed it in the article ...?
It launches tomorrow, January 30th.
Best MMO in the market so far, and it keeps getting better, I encourage everyone to check out the trial and see for yourself
. All of those complaints that people had at launch of this game have been long resolved and the player is now left with an mmo experience unlike any other.
So what server has the biggest and friendliest population (roleplaying or otherwise)? With such a group oreinted game, I'd like there to be a big population to commune with.
With the server merge last summer, there is no more dead (or, on the other side, signficantly bigger) servers. So pick whichever you like. You can check guild listings on the ddo forums as finding a guild is the best way to enjoy DDO's grouping experience.
I know for a fact Thelanis has a few RP guilds, and at least one friendly player (me :p)
I personally would have to say Thelanis is the most friendly server, but I am of course biased. I met folks from that server in a different game (it was not a game that inspired friendliness, but it was a very fun guild to smash other players with) and they pestered me very nicely to play DDO with them. So now I'm in a very friendly guild on Thelanis in DDO.
If I'm allowed to name the guild in the bargain, look up The Exploration Society on the DDO forums. It's a very fun group that's into some other games too.
There are already a number of open adventuring zones, Searing Heights and Tangleroot Gorge to name 2. Each have a series of quests you can do solo or in a group. Explorer quests where you find points of interest around the landscape, slayer quests where you do the kill so many monsters etc. and rare named bad guys to discover and defeat.
If you haven't tried, download the trial, its a great game and I love it. If you are waiting for Age of Conan because of its combat, come and try DDO's and hope Conan's is at least as good!
/sign
was a founder, I might come back to check this out, all the changes sound good. I did like the narrator thou, added to the fun immersion, is that still in with most new additions of quest?
Yes they still have DM voice overs onmost (if not all, I really can;t recall right now, and honestly although I have much respect for Mr. Gygax, Delera's made me turn the DM voiceovers way down) oof the new quests.
Im not sure why the reviewer is concerned about the future once they run out of the PHB. He could know there is PHB II also released. The amount of races and classes they can add is nearly infinite. The game also doesn't stop at level 20, there are rules for epic characters (20-40) and Eberron is a huge world. Xendrik is only one of the four large continents. The amount of spells, feats, items are almost infinite as well even if they would follow just the official D&D book releases.
Huh, I tired to retrieve my account info (I know my user name) but I never got the email. Do they delete your account after a while of inactivity?
Best bet would be go back and try again or contact someone.
Oh when you do get it fixed, you may find your characters elsewhere as their was a server merge several months ago.
yea not sure about this, I got my old founders account re-activated today with no problem. Thou servers are down for this new update I am looking forward to getting back in. I would contact customer support, did you change email sense the last time you were there? Or did you forget you sold your account or gave it to a friend? :) I say it only because I have given my brother old accounts to other games before, illegal or not I have done it, he's family, but I kept my turbine account as it holds many different titles.
Also to the other poster that said the narrator is still in ( NICE :) ) I get why you turned it off, being you probably did allot of repeats, for me thou it will be a whole new experiance so this is nice to know. Thnx for informing, looking forward to diving into this new stuff.
I think they were saying Gary Gygax does a horrible job at narrating the story of the dungeon. I totally agree, it is like he is just reading the story he doesn't try to emphasize anything. I said in another post that he may have helped create D&D, but just a bad vocal narrator, DM.
They added a womans voice as a DM to the new Necropolis areas and a lot of the DDO players enjoyed her voice. I haven't made it that high yet to see. But the original guy is very good at what he does in DMing a dungeon.
Maybe the email address you had on file was not correct? Try http://support.turbine.com and put in a ticket for DDO, they should be able to help you out. I am sure they would do what they can for a potential reactivation :)
I played DDO for a while and got to level 7. It's a good game, but a lot like CoH it's completely group based, and everything is instanced. Many days I sat around trying to find a group, but everyone was too busy standing around at the auctioneer. You have to repeat the same quests so many times that you get sick of them, and I found that the clerics either felt like they were the most important members of the team and you HAD to listen to them, or they were battle clerics and couldn't be bothered to heal anyone. The people all seemed pretty friendly, except for the clerics who, for the most part, were a bunch of elitist snobs. Mages do too much damage for a fighter to keep aggro off of them, and fighter taunts are almost completely ineffective. It's an issue of the GM's trying to make each class capable of soloing, in a game where no one solos, and no one even knows the definition of 'support' class. That and the PvP is a joke. If you aren't a Mage or a Cleric, don't bother. Turbine should have stuck by AC2 rather than ripping it's costumers off, then making a bunch of niche' games. DDO has already done a server merge, and I feel it is headed for the recycle bin with AC2 pretty soon.
Kinda funny.
www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/01/28
Wow - I disagree with the majority of your post:
1. "Completely group-based" After adding solo difficulty, HoT <which I haven't seen yet - does it work IN the instances?>, and some of the changes coming in Mod 6 [re-usible rest shrines in outdoor and lower level instances], DDO is soloable for much of its content. I've only played my "main" to level 5, but have never grouped. I've also only soloed in CoV [didn't care for CoH].
2. I agree that everyone is at the auctioneer and that repeating dungeons gets boring.
3. I haven't seen that problem with clerics nor seen it on the boards other than a few posters who were blasted off the boards with volleys of "I'll heal you when you learn how to play your character and/or stay with the group instead of zerging" I know that I've been uncursed, etc by random clerics while recovering in a tavern. [This was before curses etc wore off over time]
Now, a few questions for those who are CURRENTLY playing:
a. Do you HoT while IN the instances or only while in town?
b. Do SP regen in instances?
I am probably going to re-sub [after almost a year off] in 3 weeks - gotta see what happens on the boards once Mod 6 goes live.
You have to learn to work as a team or your group PUG or guild wise will fail. If you want to solo the entire game get real...high level content is pretty much exclusively group based. Even if you pug your entire carreer you still learn group skills if you try. People are pricks and they're in every game, purposely making it out as if they're only this way in DDO is just blatantly lying to yourself and everyone else.
Considering the constant attention and love Turbine gives to DDO it won't be hitting the trash bin. It'd of died already and they wouldn't spend money on the game otherwise.
A. You do not heal overtime in instances. I don't even think in Mod 6 you will heal over time in instances. Only in the city and in tavenrs do you heal over time. I think the heal has a greater regen in taverns than in the city, I could be wrong. Someone correct me if I am.
As of Mod 6 there is no more death penalty. Also I believe in Mod 6 rest shrines can now be used more than once, but are on a timer.
B. SP also do not regen in instances.
As for waiting to see on the boards to see how well Mod 6 goes over, to each their own. Some may hate it some may like it. My suggestion is find out by doing the trial and find out for yourself. Just use a different email account and give it a try. I'm willing to bet there is going to be a few hotfixes in the next few days of bugs that crept in at the last minute, but try it now.
I'm glad they're making the shrines more usable in 'some' cases wish they were allowing more use of them in all cases!
Thanks for the update :)
The reasons I'm going to wait: 1. EVE - while I've never heard of another company so badly doing an update that the corrupt your boot,ini, I ain't takin' no chances ;)
2. As you mention, I'll wait for the hotfixing to be done [so I miss any exploits, oh well, I solo, I'm not in some uber guild]
3. I get a week off so I'll actually have TIME to play in 3 weeks :)
EDIT: I'm also looking forward to crafting! <3
Ok that's a better excuse. I'll allow it, haha
I was kind of disappointed to read about the death penalty being nerfed. I like games that come with a bit of risk. Although having not played the game I can't comment on this change too much. I plan on giving the trial a go sometime.
I've been playing D&D for over 20 years, yes I am 'that' old. And when I say that the clerics I have teamed with are elitist snobs that know nothing about playing a support class I mean exactly that. Now it could be that I have had bad luck in the groups I have found, but I'm not an idiot, and not a zerger.
One dwarf cleric I teamed with quit healing completely in one quest I was in because one member of the party refused to wait on him to shrine and went to explore. Now I admit that it was a foolish thing to do, but the guy was like 8 or 10, you could tell from his voice, and the cleric was mad because we didn't do anything to stop him. Which wasn't true because we told him several times not to run off, but the cleric just up and quit healing, causing the whole group to wipe. Then he had the audacity to say that it was our fault for not restraining the kid.
Another time I am making a group, and I invite this cleric, who doesn't tell me up front, but lets me find out part way through the quest that he is a 'battle cleric' and instead of staying back and healing, he feels the need to wade into battle like a second rate tank, once again resulting in a group wipe. Which resulted in me having to ask every time I made a group, whether or not the cleric was a 'healer'.
I don't have to make this stuff up, and I honestly wish I were. Almost every cleric I teamed with had this attitude that the whole party revolved around him, and unfortunately it often did. And when you complain that the healer isn't doing his job, he bitches about wasting spell points, and says that I should have came loaded with healing pots, which are egregiously expensive, and really don't heal for very much at all. When I have to down 10 pots to get through a battle when I am tanking because the healer won't waste sp on me because he's too busy healing the mage who hasn't got the sense to attack the same creature I am and starts spamming AoE attacks and complaining that I am not doing my job...*whew* Here I am with my tower shield and +3 adamantine full plate and I am taking hits like I've fashioned my armor out of used tin cans.
The game isn't group centric, it's healer centric, and there are very few good ones.
Here is the new Mod 6 Splash Screen. Mod 6 is now live.
I don't doubt that you've had bad experiences, though I would blame it more on the PUGs than on clerics in general. As a cleric, I would use my sp to heal the tanks first - keeping them above 50% [I've read about tanks that want to be healed full at all times regardless of the condition of the rest of the party], then worry about the rest. The level of the group makes a bit of difference here, though, as a cleric below 9th level won't have raise dead to use on the mage [or whomever] that drops - making keeping the foolish mage alive a priority [until the tank gets close to dropping, then it's decision time!]. Then again, since I don't play in PUGs [I don't group at all since my buddies tried it and left early on], I guess my playstyle doesn't much matter ;)
Clerics aren't the only healers... Bards, rogues with scrolls, potions... there are many ways to heal in DDO [and D&D in general]. IF you build a good party [again, I won't PUG, so I'm not sure if that is truly possible outside of a guild], you shouldn't see the problems that you have.
One other thing that stands out in your post - possibly not intentially - is that you seem to imply that YOUR class is more important, and that the other classes are there only to SUPPORT your class. That may not have been your intention, or be your position, but that seems to come across.
Oh - to the other posters: about the no HoT in instances - Mod 6 notes mentioned that incapacitated characters that stabilized would regain hp at a certain rate. That lead me to believe that HoT either was or would soon be occurring in instances. If not, does it mean that you would regain hp to 0 then need to be healed by a party member, or would you regain to 1 and be able to heal yourself [provided you weren't immediately struck down by whatever dropped you in the first place]? I would ask on the official boards, but am not subbed atm.
EDIT: NM - I found the part in the relase notes: You DO regen to 1 hp after stabilizing!
Support class just refers to a class that uses their abilities to heal/buff/debuff. I'm not saying they are there to support me personally, but the group as a whole. I bash clerics in that game a lot because the party is very dependant on them. I've had a lot of problems with stupid fighters too, don't get me wrong, but it is rare that one fighter being dumb ended up killing the whole group, where as if the cleric didn't know what he was doing, or decided to get up and grab a sandwich without warning, the whole group got wiped. I was using a tower shield and wearing some pretty good armor and the mobs were still hitting me for ungodly amounts of damage. Tank classes are way underpowered in DDO, which was one of the reasons I didn't like the game very much.
DDO was not designed for PvP at all and hopefully never will. I do not believe it is a niche game, over 2 years, it has doubled in content since launch... That's something to be very proud of. Clerics are not needed at all, in fact, most of my Permadeath play is without a cleric or any healing class. DDO focuses on tactics more than roles of classes. Taunting in DDO is a skill (Intimidate) not a given ability like in other MMO's. There are TONS of people who solo in DDO, what are you talking about? Also, level 7 you havent even raided yet.. Raids in DDO take tactics to a new level and everyone must cooperate or else you fail.
Perhaps giving DDO another look with a more optimistic side and hitting raiding levels may change your mind, but even if it doesn't, players that don't appreciate DDO for what it gives that other MMO's have never touched should not be playing, so if that is the case, so be it.
Yeah. I'm not here to argue, or even defend my position, I just gave what my thoughts were after playing the game for a little over a month. I may not have had the same experience as other people, but I related the experiences I had in my own way, with my own words, so that it may discourage others who are looking at the game from playing it. Not because I have a personal grudge against the game, as much as it may look like I do, but in order to give a balanced critique of the game for others who may be thinking about playing it. Do I have to start all of my sentences with; In my opinion? Yeah, quests have solo settings, but *in my opinion* the xp you get from doing quests solo is pretty weak. Yes, you can do quests solo, or even on easy dif without a cleric, but if you are playing the game to get to the levels where you can 'raid' then you will want to group in order to level faster, and if you are playing on elite without a cleric or a healer and you are surviving, then my hat is off to you, because from my experience it's impossible. Is DDO any worse than most of the games out there? No. If this was the WoW forum I'd be ranting about how much I hate that game. But this is DDO, and I don't hate it, just don't care for it. Maybe had I stuck around long enough to get into a good guild, or any guild at all, I would have had a better time. But I was pretty much just casually trying the game out for something to do in my spare time, and these were the impressions that I got.
Figure I would follow up here sense this was the article after all that got my interest back up. WOW guys what a change! I am very pleased with this game now, the only thing I can say is , if you ever liked it but was like me in the aspects of "its missing that certain something" and "where is the dam solo content!" and finally "whats with all the kids!" now it's great :)
So far having a blast and have even gotten to places I have never been before, suprisingly allot of people I am meeting are now the older folks, who like me, don't rush the game to level out, but enjoy it for the story, immersion and versititly no other game offers.
With all the new stuff, this will keep me busy for sometime to come, very happy about this because now any interest in my AOC or WAR is out the window. I thought POTBS was good in beta, it just flopped in retail for me, so I am loving this one thou.
You old timers out there, if you ever thought about coming back, this is the time, oh and population? wow allot of people all the time amazingly, actually really fun!
salu!