by Jeff Woleslagle on Nov 09, 2005
Nonetheless, the pace of combat (or rather lack of pace, it's nigh frag-fest proportions!) was worrisome; I felt like I didn't have time to develop any kind of strategy. Granted, we were fighting baby mobs, and later mobs (like nasty shadow-stepping Wraiths) took a long time to kill. However, I soon found out that I needed to take time and plan out how and when I would cast- I was running out of power. Obviously, caster's run out of power as they use spells, that's true in any MMOG. But in DDO, power and health don't regenerate automatically. I hear gasps and murmuring among my MMO gaming friends, and cheers of affirmation from the DnD set (that actually was yammering for a tougher application of intentional rest: action points and a return to a stricter turn-based method). In any case, you'll need to rest your player by discovering a "rest shrine" within a dungeon instance, taking potions to replenish health and power, having a cleric heal your health, or simply exiting the instance and going back to a tavern. Rest introduces a whole new element of scarcity into a tired "rest, rumble, and rest" mechanic- my sorceror had some really nasty spells, but I had to learn to conserve them and content myself with whapping the monsters with my maple wand from time to time.
Quests in DDO are the sole means of experience, another departure from the grinding ordeal that is dedicated levelling in just about any other MMOG. All players in a group receive the same amount of experience for each success, there's no splitting based on most damage, last hit, etc. While Turbine has hinted at offering limited solo content (Ken Troop: "We like the idea of maybe an outside zone, just going out to hunt rather than complete an eclectic set of goals"), the game shines when it comes to grouping up. Taking into account Ken Troop's zone-scaling idiom ("What's the point in taking the time to get a full group together if the game's going to conteract that... make it harder on you?"), zones won't scale to a group's ability automatically, but players have to earn higher difficulty settings for the quest by completing easier versions. Troop indicates that 6 is the magic number for one party action, but that the current cap of 12 on a shared / danger zone could change. "We may look at adjusting that once we see what our servers can handle," Ken Troop stated.
Nor are quests exactly what you might expect, either. DDO quest implemenation almost feels like a mission set from a console game, and I don't mean this in a bad way considering DDO seems to integrate the PnP DnD (you can actually see the dice rolling!) and the MMO / Community elements so well. Some quests involve a puzzle. We came across a floortile maze puzzle in which we had to turn the tiles to light up a series of nodes in order to open a door, and we were at it a long time. It was fun though, not frustration. Designers have hinted that some quests will involve an amazing level of synergy, e.g. a rogue will have to hurriedly disarm a trap in order to prevent his group from the crumbling floor, while his group protects him from enemies (I got to play a rogue too, awareness checks are very cool). Other promises include a diplomatic solution to some quests, with tough combat as a failure condition, that sort of thing. You can't blame Turbine for taking on the ol' "kill 15 blightrats" approach to questing.
All in all, it was a fun evening spent playing a very solid game. Granted, we saw only what Turbine let us see, but the makings of a true player-favorite are in the works, ladies and gentlemen. Granted, this is a no-frills MMOG; no player housing, crafting, player vs. player, and so on at launch. The game's strength as I see it now is the dungeon experience, and I don't think anyone wants it any other way!