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Dungeons & Dragons Online: PAX East - Menace of the Underdark Preview
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
We had an opportunity to check out the upcoming Menace of the Underdark expansion to Dungeons & Dragons Online at this year's PAX East and we've got the full report (and video!) for you.
Before we got into the actual content of the expansion, Fernando gave us a rundown of where things are now following the events of Update 13. In Update 13, players were introduced to the storyline that would connect Eberron to the Forgotten Realms with the new expansion and that particular story arc culminated with the opening of a portal from Lolth’s domain in the Demon Web into Eberron. The Spinner of Shadows, Lolth’s aspect in the realm of Eberron, escaped into the web and this is where players will enter and ultimately come out into the Forgotten Realms once the expansion goes live.
Read more of Michael Bitton's Dungeons & Dragons Online: PAX East - Menace of the Underdark Preview.
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*stares at tiger dude* Why are his hands on backwards?
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Because it's a Rakshasa?
It's not an error, this monster really do have backwards hands. It is part of their lore.
You guys have to work on your sound. This is not the first video.
But thank you for the interview.
Uh, Mike... Those things sounds a lot more like random encounters than dynamic events...
It is common in P&P and have been around in some single player games since way back. Still a great addition to the game though, something that many MMOs could use.
A random encounter is a regular quest or spawn that happens some times when a player passes by.
Dynamic events on the other hand are more complicated affairs which often can happen without any players near and can affect the gameworld one way or another...
Yeah, I am a RPG geek.
nothing like 3.5 Faerun. i hope at some point they add starter areas as well.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Uhh... they have significantly upgraded the engine of this game (which is the same one as LOTRO if I recall correctly), upgraded textures, added DX10 and now DX11 features.
The game and the characters look way better than years ago.
I hope someday there's an open world dnd game, faithful to char creation and combat.
Why ? That's not what Dungeons and Dragons is about...It will not adept well to an open world ..unless they cut huge corners to the DnD rules..and then it will not be a DnD game any longer.
It's the same with PvP, it was added because of player whining, and now..almost zero players use the PvP in the taverns...It doesnt belong in DnD..
LOTRO still looks a lot better than DDO, regardless of same engine and DX10 and DX11.
This really didn't make me want to play the expansion, it made me want to replay NwN Hordes of the Underdark.
This. I don't see why people want to make DnD into a sandbox/open world type game (which there already are plenty ). DnD was created for small group quests/modules, not hundreds of people running around killing random mobs in the same area. Talk about breaking immersion-your group fights through an Orc stronghold to get to their ogre leader to find another group standing over his corpse...oh, well, let's gust wait for a respawn.
Even DnD campaigns made from DM imagination, without modules, still was a crafted and controlled (though adaptive because of live DM-which computers can't simulate) quest, driven by a story you played a role in.
@Adam- NWN is very different than DDO because it is an action game, not turn-based (though it does look pretty good and the Fopundry has me interested-Cryptic though "?". It should translate well to the 4.0 rules as that was created to reach the video game crowd, as less rpg more min/max power/action gming. I think DDO did a great job with the ruleset for 3.5 (within the constraints of video game mechanics), specifically with the casters and spells. Melee can be a bit boring, but playing on elite difficulty is very challenging, with multiple deaths (one trap can kill half the party if not careful).
As much as i love the DDO gameplay, after many years the cumbersome UI and very clunky models are killing the gameplay for me.
Model part of that engine was old even when they relised it as i remember all the people mentioningthat aspect both here and in lotro.
No mater how many dx11-12-13 they add or how many extra small speical effects they add most of the reasonabely looking zones will be only available at the endgame and rest of the game will still look like 2005.
I really relaly tryed to get in to the game for the last 2 years but after many high quality mmo titles and even better looking sp games i just cant get in to it anymore.
Its like trying Doom after 10 years. It looks far better in your memory than it actualy is.
I still they will do very well with the low performance pc market, but many more demanding players will chose the new neverwinter nights if it will end up as good as they promise. And its FR world from the begining not for the selected few engame players. And its not hub gameplay but actual presistent world.
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Eberron was always a bad choice. They should have gone Forgotten Realms right form the start instead of trying to help WoC to sell the crap that is Eberron.
Druids is nice indeed.. took them almost 5 years to bring somethign that should have been available at release..
But i think this change of direction came late for DDO.. should have been done like 4 or 5 years ago not now.. Now this game needs much more to bring it a new life.. an updated graphic engine for starters would be nice. This game feels so old... old.. old..
Maybe Neverwinter Nights Online can bring new blood to our D&D additction and online gaming.. who knows.
I hope they break away from the atrocious gear grind and the TR stats game with the xpac. Boubtful as it seems they are making it worse from what I've read on the epic lvl stuff, forget waht they called it but looks like another grinding mechanic they are adding in.
My money is on Neverwinter though for the DnD MMO.
Some bland eye bleeding models that might be acceptable 15 years ago. What DDO really needs is a reboot like ANet did. The graphics are an eyesore and still a lag fest in the game.
We'll see how persistent the world is. As for gameplay, the video I saw made me think of Gauntlet-style action zerg. It's early yet, but will it be anymore than a hack n slash with no depth? (as Cryptic isn't known for depth) Plus, the 4,0 ruleset is horrible (for PnP, at least), but since it was made to attract a more video gamer market, maybe it will turn out well.
Just so people don't get overhyped about stuff, NEVER, EVER listen to Fernando's first words on anything. He almost always gets 'something' wrong, and usually its something thats very important.(Or just outright missleading/false)
His ONLY job is to hype/sell the game, he really has no control or dev powers, and hardly even understands the game's very basic mechanics.(I doubt he has even played ddo)
Yes..This is spot on..
Also..Forgot to mention the lame outdoor areas in DDO that also wasnt part of the original concept..They also came to be because of player whining ..The outdoor areas are ...not well suited for DDO and DnD and they are mostly used by players who refuse to group or refuse to understand what DnD really is about..
And yet there are Slayer areas. why not work it in like that and Please more people and still stick to the Concept
u mean p2w perfect world game k have fun and enjoy not being able to do the hard stuff without dumping a ton of cash