by Darkgolem on Dec 23, 2006
style="font-style: italic;">By Darkgolem
style="font-family: tahoma;">
Reflecting upon DDO since I played it in Beta, there have been a lot of
changes that have occurred in the game which are interesting to
remember. A lot of strides have been made in the game toward
making the game more fun, interesting and diverse since it came
out. Not all the changes have been ones I have liked, but overall
they have been pretty good. So I thought I would run through some
of them, to give our readers who have not been along for the whole ride
a bit of perspective toward how far DDO has come.
This is the oldest
statement I could find
regarding Dungeons and Dragons being put into beta. I immedeatly
registered on the web page, and followed it's threads occasionally, but
that's about it. Pretty much all that was available for many
months to follow were fragments of information about what was to
come. There were a lot of comments about action points, which no
one really got. The big thought on the forums were some
theorizing on builds, and whether a party full of clerics with a single
rogue would be overpowered (because they could summon lots of summoned
monsters, heal themselves, and so on). If you ever wonder why
summoned monsters are so wimpy, blame that thread, since the developers
read it and (I speculate) acted upon it.
At this point
several movies have been made by the
developers showing a cleric taking on an inevitable (solo), a hunter
fighting giants, and a rogue
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album02&id=img23&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">
alt="Sneaking Rogue"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album02/img23.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="right">
killing several kobolds. The game has now been in Beta, and up to
this point, I never got into it. It was driving me crazy, not
being able to read the beta forums, and, sadly, people were respecting
the NDA. Finally I got access to beta and all sorts interesting
things were discovered.
For one thing, there were all kinds of zany bugs or issues. Jump
had no cap, and occasionally you would see someone jump
. they would
rise about halfway to the top of the market tent, and then after a few
seconds land on the ground. If you were bound in the Salty Wench
at Three Barrel Cove, and died, if you died, you appeared at the tavern
still as a ghose, and would not return to life
.. you had to wait for a
9th level cleric to show up (pretty rare in beta), who would kindly
raise you from the dead. If you lost all your strength, you would
fall on the ground but could still move.. floating along to the nearest
shrine like a human hovercraft. Diplomacy works on chests,
increasing the value of loot.
A good chunk of the quests found DDO were not present then. At
low levels the big quests to run were the waterworks (they gave more
exp), kobold assault, and Shan Ta Kor. I never got past 6th level
in Beta with my cleric, and the big excitement for myself was beating
the hill giant
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album01&id=DDO_Giants&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">
alt="Fighting Hill Giants"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album01/DDO_Giants.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 207px;" align="left">
on the path on the way to threnal by myself, using curse and similar
spells to survive.
The game passes out
of Beta and goes public,
sort of.. there is a week where people who preorder can play before the
rest of the player base. A week into full release the developers
announce that turning no longer does 2d6 turning dice, but 1d6, because
turning was too much like a win button. The forums were redone,
with all old posts removed, and a face lift. The biggest problem
for most players were the costs of remove curse potions. Everyone
talked about how much they hated
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=297">Freshen
the Air (there weren't many
mid-low level quests), and there were many more warforged than now,
mainly because they could zerg low level quests. Redwillow Ruins
in House Jorasco was immedeatly shut down, you should range the giants
without danger from certain places, and people power levelled using
it. It was hard to find a party for anything besides the
waterworks. 15 days after beta someone announces in the Who lists
that they are 10th level first! A rumor is going that diplomacy
still affects loot, despite developer comments. You can literally
get yelled at by party members if you don't allow the person with the
best diplomacy use it on chests before opening it. Lightning bolt
does not work at this point... it passes through opponents and doesn't
damage them.
Launch of the Vault
of Night.
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album01&id=red_dragon_attacks&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">
alt="Velah the Red Dragon"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album01/red_dragon_attacks.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="right">
The way raid
loot is distributed is enormously unpopular (it appears from forum
posts), and people are complaining (myself included) that it is just
ridiculous. Other quests, the vampire in House Phiarlan, the
Xorian Cypher, appear. There are a lot of bugs that are evident
with Velah the Red Dragon, and many complain how easy she is to beat
using magic missile. Her wing buffet is very unpopular.
16 days after the release of the Vault of Night, Turbine decides it's a
good time to release a trailer for it. Risia test server is
opened about the same time, and at the end of April, they start testing
spell swapping for sorcerers and
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=139">bards.
A lot of complaining
occurs among the wizards of DDO, saying sorcerers will now be
overpowered.
Twilight Forge
announced. It won't be
here until JULY, but it's announced now. The drow race and solo
content is explained. Pvp is debated a lot in the forums, and the
developers are quoted from months ago saying they will not have
pvp. Later, spell criticals are announced as coming.
Still waiting for Twilight
Forge. Mail system
and changes to invisibility are announced. Before this point,
invisibility allowed you to be totally untargetable, unlike it's
present form. If you were detected, sometimes monsters would
wander up to you and hover around you, unable to attack. Velah is
beaten on a hourly basis, it seems. Diplomacy is STILL rumored to
work on chests, despite many comments saying it does not any more.
Twilight Forge mod 2
releases, and the servers
promptly crash. They are up the next day. The world becomes
awash with Drow.
July 14 is the date that the first prediction of DDO will be gone in 6
months predicted DDO's end. 10 days after the Twilight Forge is
released, the first 10th level drow is seen on Sarlona server (by
myself, at least). News spells are quite fun, such as
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=71">Niac's
cold
ray. A month after the Twilight Forge is released, the Bloody
Crypt is released. Smaller releases (such as the Bloody Crypt)
are predicted, with larger releases will come in between. DDO is
starting to feel like it is no longer a paid beta to me. As soon
as mail is released, gold farmers become more common, and you start
seeing ads in the mail system.
Stormreach Under
Siege is released.
size="-1">This includes invaders and a few other quests.
style="font-family: tahoma;" size="-1"> Bugs are
fixed. People start running
style="font-family: tahoma;" size="-1"> invaders constantly for
tokens.
Module three is spoken about a lot. People have gotten tired of
squabbling about pvp, in general. The Warforged Titan still have
never been beaten. News that the level cap will rise has people
very excited, and there is wild speculation on spells and similar
coming. It is announced that rangers will FINALLY get the much
needed improvements in ranged combat.
Strange
juxtaposition of events here.
The Warforged Titan is finally defeated by someone, only 3 months since
it is released. Later the same day, Mod 3 is released (and the
warforged titan is nerfed).
Within minutes of it's release, many problems with the auction house
and other items of release are found. That evening the server
crashes. I
manage to contain my surprise.
style="font-family: tahoma;" size="-1">The servers are up and
down a little of the next few days, and there is enourmous lag,
especially in the desert.
size="-1"> Despite this, 5 days after Mod 3 is
released, the Demon Queen is defeated on Sarlona.
The debt costs from recent
issues have been reduced. New
mini updates continue between quests. There are rumors of
multiple dragons found in upcoming quests. I am still playing,
even 10 months after launch.
Like to Comment? Do so at our forums
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?p=16827#post16827">here!