Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
[Preview] Dungeons & Dragons Online: Breaking INTO Prison
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Yes, you read that correctly. In Dungeons & Dragon Online's next expansion, Shadowfell Conspiracy, players will have the distinct honor of breaking into Wheloon Prison only to fight their way out again. We got a firsthand look at the Shadowfell Conspiracy and have a report to share. Read on!
It has to be unique in the MMO game space that in Shadowfell Conspiracy, players are tasked with breaking into prison, rather than out of it. The expansion takes place at Wheloon Prison, formerly a bustling and very normal village that had the misfortune to fall on hard times when Shar's worshipers arrived and then the Netherese decided to take advantage of the misguided Shar followers and use Wheloon as a base of operations to build an invasion army. Too bad for Mom and Pop who are simply trying to eke out an existence. Rather than sweep in and take care of the issue, the powers that be, in this case the king himself, decided that less effort is better. He ordered the entire town to be encircled by a high wall and the location turned into a prison.
Read more of Suzie Ford's Dungeons & Dragons Online: Breaking INTO Prison.
)
Comments
Totally agree with this.
I disagree about the graphics point of view. Sure, they arent crisp and current, but they are not bad. Run it on ultra and it looks awesome (I do on 2 year old machines laptop/regular). Load times are the only issue when you first log into the game. An SSD disc helps out tremendously.
Overall the best MMO interpretation of D&D out there (3.5 ruleset). Mix and match classes and gear as you prefer. LOTS of customization options.
Huh? Nothing wrong with the graphics. You really have to wonder if people even bother to try the game with comments like this. Not a bad game, but I just don't like the way everything is an instance.
Smile
there is a lot to like about D&D online though the fiction for this expansion is a little on the wonky side for me (but i'm kinda snobby regarding my fiction/lore).
if you've never tried 3.5ed D&D (the kids call it pathfinder these days dont they) you are missing out on a true RPG hall of fame system. the best edition of D&D by leaps and bounds. DDO is a little hit or miss in my experience but where it hits, it's simply a very engrossing, lovingly crafted representation of D&D 3.5.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
No Pathfinder is the successor of D&D 3.5, its a different company than Wizard of the Coast.
Basically Paizo the company behind Pathfinder continued to develop the spiritual successor to D&D 3.5. You can more or less think of it as D&D 3.75
While WoC turn D&D into WoW with D&D 4.0. They've so overly simplified (and stupified) the rules to the point it really isnt AD&D or D&D anymore. It is built to play like a PnP World of Warcraft. Theyve thrown out 35 years of gaming in favor of attracting kids who play WoW. When said kids would rather play WoW than a PnP dice game.
So your statement about "the kids these days" is kinda insulting for many of us who watched WoC destroy 35 years worth of PnP gaming.
What I mean is, Pathfinder is D&D even though its not allowed to call itself D&D. And D&D isnt even close to the D&D that we grew up with, even though its allowed to call itself Dungeons & Dragons.
Yes, I can work myself up into a serious rage over what WoC did to my game, I just thank god for Paizo and Pathfinder.
And since its my post 666, I really should go demonic rant. Hmmm, rant-onic or demo-rant?
Ohh yeah, did you see the concept art for how WoC wanted to rework the Elvish race for 4th ed? No shit, they must have stolen the concept or for WoWs Draenei. I am so not fucking lying. The classic D&D elves were almost turned into Draenei. Hooves, horns, backwards bending goat style legs.
They got fucking ripped on their forums when they posted it, so much so they were forced to change it. But someone in power though that making it more like WoW would attract more players.
I think in the end it backfired. I think Pathfinder sold like 50k units of their game while WoC was struggling to sell 15k units of 4th ed. That was just after 4.0 released, not sure where its at atm.
Sorry, had to do something semi-rant for my 666 post.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
The graphics might use a bit of updating. But it's not that bad and the character animations look good. Better than what I've seen in games like Neverwinter of SWtoR. Dunno in those other games the female avatars have such a strange walking style.
Ebberon offers quite a lot of lore and Turbine could have started adding other continents/cities from that campaign setting. From the start there have been voices which wanted a more familiar setting. Turbine finally caved in.
The graphics engine is okay, and character annimations are still good enough to compete.
What this game really needed was voiced over quests... it helps so much with immersion.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I've been back in WoW for a spell and after about 2 months churning through all the Panda content and hitting 90 with several alts I got severly bored again. From 1-85 you pretty much kill mobs with 3 button presses. It is incredibly boring and trivial.
This is one aspect of DDO that shines. You can choose the difficulty of most quests as it suits you. Got good gear and know your character very well? Do the quest on Elite. Not really sure how things work and pretty fresh in the game? Run it on casual. Then you have Normal and Hard difficulty in between. The big difference between WoW and DDO is that DDO actually offers a challenge. I got burned out on DDO back in april and went through pretty much the Who's Who list of AAA MMO games. And sadly, the only one who actually gives you a challenge packed in with good character customization is DDO. Sadly as in I wish there was more to the other MMOs than just shiny graphics and lackluster design.
However, it must be noted that DDO does indeed have some problems with bugs. Turbine has not been good at polishing content before releasing. But I find it acceptable compared to the fun the game offers otherwise.
Sooo.... you breaking into prison instead of out... whoopity dee doo. Changing the paramaters of a quest does not change the experience. This does not change the experience at all and nothing to toot ones horn over.
There are no jumping puzzles. GW2 has actual jumping puzzles as there is no ez mode unlike DDO. Featherfall, jump spell, boots of propulsion, leap of faith that all can get with ED all will trivilize jumping puzzle.
Allowing choice of attack point is meaningless when people can just zerg through with CC that completely trivilize mobs except bosses, which people won't even attempt epic without people meeting DC requirements for CC. This is what makes the game for the most part so borish for me as it is a snoozefest of mindless beatdown after beatdown. Challenge of trash mobs is out the window.
And don't call these new quests "dungeons" as that is incredibely misleading to many MMO gamers. Dungeons are quality adventures that take time, these same "dungeons" could last only 5 min that people ED farm.
DDO has challenge? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!
DDO is one of the most challengeless MMO games out there as one can completely trivilze fights, and fights are mostly just mindless beatdowns. While it is nice that it offers different difficutly is really only offers 2. Casual and normal are ridiculously easy and are never used unless farming. Hard is a decent difficulty with elite being the hard run which all that means is getting some people with a healer to plow through the quest while epic elite one brings some CC along to faceroll through it. While having CC is a good mechanic it should not completely trivilize mob encounters.
D&D is rooted in tactical combat with using your abilities conserveingly not spam bot mode which the new enhancements are all about... if it's live yet. Mage and clerics have essentially endless resources who trivilize content.
Combat mechanic wise DDO is very shallow and difficulty is pretty much summed up like in Neverwinter. More HP for bosses, more adds. Most MMOs have intricite combat mechanics that keep the fight entertaining.
The game does offer the best character building hands down but that is bout the only thing it really offers, everything else is meh quality.