7/15/2010

DDO Greatness



Borderlands Game of the Year edition announced here

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I'm gonna convince you all to play it, then ill be depressed that you all don't like it and leave. lol
Btw.. sorry, can't find my screen shots.. anyone know where to find them?

Have I gushed enough about the chests and how they reserve items? Yes **everyone sighs in relief**
Did I fail to talk about the drawback? Yes **gasp**

The chests doesn't seem to know what class or proficiencies your character has. So my rogue gets two-handed weapons, reagents for spellcasters, while Capo who plays a cleric gets leather armor (they can wear plate), arrows and bolts (which my ranged rogue uses). In other D&D games, such as Neverwinter Nights in particular, the system knew your class and proficiencies and tailored your chest so it always had something you'd need. Granted it didn't reserve items, sooo.. Capo would get it.

Pictures i took last weekend to keep you interested.. lol

Apparently there is in-game vent in DDO.. i haven't really searched too hard for it since I use a friend's vent, but its critical; DDO is a much faster game than traditional rpg games and requires quick responses that can't be conveyed via the chat box. To activate vent though, I press CTRL and i tend to move alot as a ranged rogue and pressing CTRL-S pulls up the DDO cash shop.

Kiting mobs. I've never been able to do it in an mmo. Usually they're too fast.. or the system doesn't really allow for it in some way or another. In DDO, its the only way I survive as a rogue, especially when soloing, when I can't summon a hireling (best idea ever), or face multiple enemies. There was one solo dungeon that required me to kill groups of 5+ spiders at a time. One would think ranged would be over-powered, but Turbine smartly programmed it so your attack bonus (chance to hit) was decreased while running. So to hit consistently, I would run back 5 steps, the time it takes to reload, pause to shoot, rinse and repeat to infinity. Boss fights are more frantic as they're generally faster, do more damage and have more hp.

Money system. Platinum, gold, silver, copper. At first gold is hard to come by, but soon you'll need thousands of platinum to afford items. There is a special type of currency called Astral Diamonds which are only obtained by using money at the cash shop. It feels like looking at pennies, nickles and even dimes.. useless money that takes up space.. the only time I use that small change is for the parking meters.

There is some festival going on, where you'll get festival coins which you can trade in for special items from a specific collector. It seems to be a 1 for 1 trade; if you trade a copper festival coin, you'll get a copper lvl reward.. like a health potion. I traded in a platinum coin and got a +5 Green Greatsword... on my (at the time) lvl 2 rogue; it had a lvl 13ish lvl requirement... wowzers.

Repeatable dungeons. Don't have anyone to play with/like to solo? Play solo mode. Want to get better loot? Get a party going and do a harder mode. Like a certain quest b/c it hard the perfect mix of story, enemies, loot? Do it over and over.

Hirelings. Best. Idea. Ever. Well actually not ever.. and maybe not the best idea implemented in DDO, but a very good one. Capo and I had a very tough dungeon, and only with the help of 2 hirelings and a summoned creature were we able to squeak by. Without the hirelings, we couldn't have done it, even on lower difficulties. We'd have to find 2 other people to join our group.. which as we know is hard sometimes. Relatively cheap; they last generally for the duration of a quest. Depending on where you are though, the hireling contract may stay with you and only expire in 1 hour, giving you multiple uses and better bang for your buck. Drawback, is they're normally slow, unresponsive and like to watch fights instead of partake.

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