Where is DDO going?

[kaeme]

Hey everyone,

I just started a trial account, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the game so far! I've seen a lot of posts about this, and I hated to contribute to the pile, but I just had to ask about a few things. From what I've read in a few threads, many aren't happy with the amount of resources Turbine has invested in DDO. I'm coming from LOTRO (please don't hate me!) and I see great potential for this game. But my concerns before I purchase this game are just that - will it remain nothing more than potential? I've seen some pretty old threads about things the entire community seems to want implemented compared to threads in LOTRO that seem to be placed into the game with a relatively higher response time. So I want to know is it just because they're trying to get LOTRO running smoothly then they'll start working on DDO with a bit more fervor? Or have they marked this game as a lost cause? Please no flames, I'm honestly curious. My boyfriend passed by the computer as I was playing (he played DDO for a while after it was launched) and made a comment about the UI and wondered if they'd incorporated any of the functionality from LOTRO into it (like skins or scaling). After we looked through the options and didn't find anything, he made a comment wondering about what they've done to improve the game. This made me wonder if this game is worth the investment. I know many of you will say "If you're having fun enjoy it now!", but if their practice is to provide awesome updates for a game in the beginning and taper off when they move on to the next big thing, it makes me wary of LOTRO's future as well, not just this game. So I guess my question is if I'm looking for another MMORPG besides LOTRO to invest in for the long-term, is this one? Or will I find myself looking for another supplemental game this time next year due to frustrations? Thanks in advance for your replies!

[Borror0]

DDO, like you said, has lots of potential. Sadly, lot of it is yet to come.

Turbine has promessed us Monks, Druids, Half-Orcs and Half-Elves for pretty soon. Also, they are planning on adding Guild Housing and Crafting too. We are also starting to see some technologie from LotRO being brought over here. You mentioned skins, does it look like this (http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z167/TheCataclysm/DDOitems/Atonement.jpg) in LotRO? If so, it's currently on Risia, the preview server. It's coming for mod 5, which at the end of the month.

I forsee a good future for DDO. There is a lot coming, just wait for it to come.:)

[Riddikulus]

DDO currently has 177 of the uniquest dungeons in all MMOdom.

It's worth the price of admission to just run through them at least once.

I came from City of Heroes, where you have about fifteen different maps and about fifteen different mobs and they just mix and match. After you've seen one office building you've seen them all... just different mobs and a boss with a different name.

I don't know where DDO is headed but I'm willing to hang in there for a while to see what's coming.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Turbine has promessed us Monks, Druids, Half-Orcs and Half-Elves for pretty soon. Also, they are planning on adding Guild Housing and Crafting too.

For the record, they have never promised Druids.

But what Riddikulus said. Some of the best gaming moments you will ever have to be had right here.

[parvo]

DDO currently has 177 of the uniquest dungeons in all MMOdom.

It's worth the price of admission to just run through them at least once.

I came from City of Heroes, where you have about fifteen different maps and about fifteen different mobs and they just mix and match. After you've seen one office building you've seen them all... just different mobs and a boss with a different name.

I don't know where DDO is headed but I'm willing to hang in there for a while to see what's coming.

That depends...on your group. There are a lot of groups blowing through quests so fast a new player can't enjoy them.

As for the OP's question; DDO's largest shortcomming since launch was content. Turbine has done a good job of addressing that. But do to the ease of leveling a character, they will never "keep up" even with casual players. The game was launched completely unbalanced with crazy monty haul loot. There are a lot of bored players right now just waiting on new content. While Turbine has done a good job with increasing content and making nice improvements, there are some things that get ignored. There are a few old glaring bugs that they seem to ignore. The User Interface is two MMO generations behind. Turbine sometimes seems to ignore what they and others should have learned from MMOs before them.

Having said that, DDO has some great features. The quests can be incredible with a good group. Character progression and customization are second to none, with an amazing number of abilities. Active combat has really grown on me and others. And Permadeath play solves the balance issues.

Try it out. Get with a good group and see for yourself if it's for you.

[kaeme]

Thanks for all the great replies! Parvo (like parvovirus? my boyfriend is a vet med student :)) brought up a good point. So far most of the groups I've participated in have mostly been concerned with getting the quest done as soon as possible with little to no time to enjoy the story. Is this the common practice or have I had bad grouping luck? Are there any guilds that are story-friendly to new players? Thanks again for all your help!

[parvo]

Thanks for all the great replies! Parvo (like parvovirus? my boyfriend is a vet med student :)) brought up a good point. So far most of the groups I've participated in have mostly been concerned with getting the quest done as soon as possible with little to no time to enjoy the story. Is this the common practice or have I had bad grouping luck? Are there any guilds that are story-friendly to new players? Thanks again for all your help!

Mortal Voyage has a no spoilers rule. And as a permadeath guild, tends to move slower through many quests. However, the harbor quests can still go pretty fast with an experienced group. You need to let any group you join know that you are new to the game.

[Vinos]

DDO currently has 177 of the uniquest dungeons in all MMOdom.

It's worth the price of admission to just run through them at least once.

I came from City of Heroes, where you have about fifteen different maps and about fifteen different mobs and they just mix and match. After you've seen one office building you've seen them all... just different mobs and a boss with a different name.

I don't know where DDO is headed but I'm willing to hang in there for a while to see what's coming.

QFT.

[Zenako]

Thanks for all the great replies! Parvo (like parvovirus? my boyfriend is a vet med student :)) brought up a good point. So far most of the groups I've participated in have mostly been concerned with getting the quest done as soon as possible with little to no time to enjoy the story. Is this the common practice or have I had bad grouping luck? Are there any guilds that are story-friendly to new players? Thanks again for all your help!

Let those you are grouping with know you are new to the quest. Most of the time (not all) the others will be willing to go a LOT slower and be helpful and not spoonfeed. That being said, a significant number of characters you see running around the harbor are new toons of veteran players and having run some of those quests dozens of times, are only interested in getting them done in a minimum of time.

Try running with small groups of 2 or 3. All of the harbor quests can be done that way (in fact most can be solo'd once you know them). That tends to slow things down a lot and makes you pull out more abilities for resourceful usage than when running in a full party of 6.

No game lasts forever. Take any game for what it is at the current time, like it as it is or not, and then move on. As for burning through content, there are still quests I have not done after over a year in game, with more new ones coming. DDO is a game, not my life, and if that is the case the content will last you quite a while if you actually got to all those 177 quests mentioned. Also some of the quests run quite differently on the various challenge levels (normal, hard and elite). The mobs abilities and spells change significantly making the quests a LOT more challenging to complete.

[JelloMold]

One of the best things about this game (from what I've heard, this is the only one I've tried) is the ability to customize your character. With all of the available feats, enhancements, and multiclassing without XP penalties, there are quite a few ways to take a character. I'm currently leveling 8 characters at various stages. Heck, you could make several toons of the same class and take each one a different direction with the focus (melee, trapsmith, STR base, DEX base, UMD rogues). Trying out different races, each with their own strengths and weaknesses is a blast as well.

Ultimately, as suggested above, play the game as it is. Don't get all bent out of shape for things that it does not have. Enjoy it. Eventually, if you can't find a way to challenge yourself with it, move on. I've been playing for 1.5 years and I feel like I've just scratched the surface. I'm not too hardcore though.

Welcome aboard!

[tihocan]

What can I say, there have been "ddo is doomed" posts ever since its launch, where people were predicting it would never see 2007.
Development is not always as fast as we would like it to be (for instance mod.5 was delayed by a good month), but we're still having updates with new content, features and bug fixes, and there is a lot of cool stuff being planned for the next months/year. So I think it's safe enough to say you can invest in DDO without too much risk.

[UriahHeep]

Honestly, I don't think anyone knows where DDO is going. That's the fun of it though. I believe we all have a guess of where the game is headed: lvl increases, enhancement changes, new items, nerfs, new feats, new spells, new content, class additions, race additions, and who can guess what else.

As to date, which I've been playing since day three of launch, loved just about all the changes they have made in the game structure so far.

[Mercules]

I came from City of Heroes, where you have about fifteen different maps and about fifteen different mobs and they just mix and match. After you've seen one office building you've seen them all... just different mobs and a boss with a different name.

But... but.. they have millions of quests! Isn't that more content than 177?

LOL

I love CoH, but for their costumes and movement powers more than anything else. The gameplay can be fun. I love the Defender powersets and the variety from buffing -debuffing to healing damage or outright preventing it. So many styles to play. Still, their "content" gets old quick as it is basically:
Random Map selection out of 15 for the tile set.
Random types of mobs but the spawn points on the map are usually the same.
XP/mob and XP reward at end.
Tougher mobs as the size/level of the party grows
Rinse & Repeat

They have levels where there are certain triggers and they don't follow the random setup, but those tend to be even more static than the DDO quest.