After 5 months; Likes, Dislikes and Desires

[NiasTrams]

I've been playing DDO about 5 months now. I probably spend more time playing then the average player because I am disabled.

I am also investing in a second account at this time in the off chance I stay here 5 years like I did with NWNs and privately built free servers. (This option is looking less likely at the moment.)

LIKES:

Have developed several friendships and good acquaintences.

Almost 24 hour accessible/reliable service. (Erratic sleep schedule at times.)

Can reset a character's enhancements. Big + with me, especially since there is currently no way to level and de-level characters offline to see how they actually function with different feat and enhancement combinations.

Chance to reset feats. See above. (Would be nice if Fred only required coin or chance of getting Dragonshards increased.)

DISLIKES:

Not enough "soloable" quests without uber builds unless you run lower level quests which give you no XP. Sometimes I want to run around alone and it seems like DDO is doing everything they can to discourage that.

Partnering with only 1 or 2 other people is usually an adventure, but the results are negative XP because frequent deaths, frequently leaving with no mana (SP) and returning with mana (SP) because rest shrines are limited if available.

DESIRES:

Rest shrines reseting every 5 to 10 minutes for those of us who like to take our time exploring the quests and not doing speed runs.

Short term fix: allowing higher level characters to get XP in lower level dungeons when alone or in a party of two ro three. Long term fix would be, as posted in another thread by someone else, check box customization of quests for party leaders.

There are multiple servers, why not customize different servers for different play styles. XYZ server caters to power gamers and speed runners while ABC is designed more for 6 person parties. When I first logged on after downloading the upgrades for the software I thought, "Look at all these different worlds, I won't be bored for a long time". Then I visited another world to find it was the same. Lots of servers with lots of sameness.

Showhelmet on/off is a nice start, but would love it if you had a catalogue of all the different helmet appearances and instead of on/off I could punch in a code to have my helmet look the way I want, and the same for the rest of the wearable items. NWN has a CEP team working for free because the community loves to customize their characters appearance, I bet a survey would show that an enourmous amount of DDO's customers would find customizing one's appearance would be an incentive to stay on DDO.

After five months, those are the main things on my mind.

[~Jules921]

There is an offline character building program that will allow you to select your levels, features etc. http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO/

I also work odd hours, but have found since joining a guild, that I can usually find someone to group with who knows my playing style. This helps a lot in that we both get to know what we are each capable of.

Jules

[Katianara]

There are multiple servers, why not customize different servers for different play styles. XYZ server caters to power gamers and speed runners while ABC is designed more for 6 person parties. When I first logged on after downloading the upgrades for the software I thought, "Look at all these different worlds, I won't be bored for a long time". Then I visited another world to find it was the same. Lots of servers with lots of sameness.

You really think people would play on any server but the one with the fastest progression? And before you say, "Yes!" Let me say, no, no they wouldn't.

This also means that their content would not last as long, and people would get bored faster. Very few games have ever had an alternate ruleset server, and if they did, it was a novelty.

Showhelmet on/off is a nice start, but would love it if you had a catalogue of all the different helmet appearances and instead of on/off I could punch in a code to have my helmet look the way I want, and the same for the rest of the wearable items.

MMOs are not single player RPGs and part of the experience and fun is collecting things which have different appearances.

[Theboz]

I've been playing DDO about 5 months now. I probably spend more time playing then the average player because I am disabled.

I am also investing in a second account at this time in the off chance I stay here 5 years like I did with NWNs and privately built free servers. (This option is looking less likely at the moment.)

LIKES:

Have developed several friendships and good acquaintences.

Almost 24 hour accessible/reliable service. (Erratic sleep schedule at times.)

Can reset a character's enhancements. Big + with me, especially since there is currently no way to level and de-level characters offline to see how they actually function with different feat and enhancement combinations.

Chance to reset feats. See above. (Would be nice if Fred only required coin or chance of getting Dragonshards increased.)

DISLIKES:

Not enough "soloable" quests without uber builds unless you run lower level quests which give you no XP. Sometimes I want to run around alone and it seems like DDO is doing everything they can to discourage that.

Partnering with only 1 or 2 other people is usually an adventure, but the results are negative XP because frequent deaths, frequently leaving with no mana (SP) and returning with mana (SP) because rest shrines are limited if available.

DESIRES:

Rest shrines reseting every 5 to 10 minutes for those of us who like to take our time exploring the quests and not doing speed runs.

Short term fix: allowing higher level characters to get XP in lower level dungeons when alone or in a party of two ro three. Long term fix would be, as posted in another thread by someone else, check box customization of quests for party leaders.

There are multiple servers, why not customize different servers for different play styles. XYZ server caters to power gamers and speed runners while ABC is designed more for 6 person parties. When I first logged on after downloading the upgrades for the software I thought, "Look at all these different worlds, I won't be bored for a long time". Then I visited another world to find it was the same. Lots of servers with lots of sameness.

Showhelmet on/off is a nice start, but would love it if you had a catalogue of all the different helmet appearances and instead of on/off I could punch in a code to have my helmet look the way I want, and the same for the rest of the wearable items. NWN has a CEP team working for free because the community loves to customize their characters appearance, I bet a survey would show that an enourmous amount of DDO's customers would find customizing one's appearance would be an incentive to stay on DDO.

After five months, those are the main things on my mind.

Not enough "soloable" quests without uber builds unless you run lower level quests which give you no XP. Sometimes I want to run around alone and it seems like DDO is doing everything they can to discourage that.

What do you mean DDO is not doing enough, Since I have been here they have added a solo option to quest, and they are continuing to add more solo quest. You have understand they have to redue a quest to make it soloable and some they would not be able to make solo.

Rest shrines reseting every 5 to 10 minutes for those of us who like to take our time exploring the quests and not doing speed runs.

This would never happen, it would be exploited, as of now Rez shrines are reusable.

Short term fix: allowing higher level characters to get XP in lower level dungeons when alone or in a party of two ro three. Long term fix would be, as posted in another thread by someone else, check box customization of quests for party leaders.

Why should you get exp. they cant just give XP away.

There are multiple servers, why not customize different servers for different play styles. XYZ server caters to power gamers and speed runners while ABC is designed more for 6 person parties. When I first logged on after downloading the upgrades for the software I thought, "Look at all these different worlds, I won't be bored for a long time". Then I visited another world to find it was the same. Lots of servers with lots of sameness.

This will never happen in DDO.

Showhelmet on/off is a nice start, but would love it if you had a catalogue of all the different helmet appearances and instead of on/off I could punch in a code to have my helmet look the way I want, and the same for the rest of the wearable items. NWN has a CEP team working for free because the community loves to customize their characters appearance, I bet a survey would show that an enourmous amount of DDO's customers would find customizing one's appearance would be an incentive to stay on DDO.

I would like to see something like this, and I think we will not to far off into the future, with crafting, but you wont be just able to punch in a code you will have to be able earn it somehow.

[Knightrose]

DAOC has different server types, based on their TOA expansion pack. Of course their mistake was dumping their RvR system with overpowered loot (World of Warcraft anyone?)

Although that doesn't apply in DDO I too believe that different server 'play-types' is a bad idea. Splitting a population of players in a game that encourages group play is a no-no.

[NiasTrams]

NiasTrams:
"Rest shrines reseting every 5 to 10 minutes for those of us who like to take our time exploring the quests and not doing speed runs."

TheBoz:
"This would never happen, it would be exploited, as of now Rez shrines are reusable."

Most powergamers and speed runners would be long gone before you could use the rest shrine a second time or third time, hence the time delay, but players who want to thoroughly explore the dungeon/quest area could camp it, not get any more XP allowed unless DDO started having named chests, regular chests and bosses respawn after "X" amount of time. The XP award isn't based on how much you kill or explore, although it could allow you to go from Agression Bonus to Conquest Bonus.

This isn't asking for extra chests and extra creatures to drop, just allowing to rest more than once so a player or group of players can try different approaches to different challanges leading to being able to finish a dungeon/quest without having to restart the whole quest because you used up mana (SP) and HP and weren't able to complete it with the original stratagy.

If one person solos the quest in an 3 hours versus 6 people completing the quest in 30 minutes won't change the XP awarded with the current XP award system except allowing players at lower levels to get a bonus for playing a higher level dungeon sooner than they could ohterwise now that they could take longer to do it because they could replenish mana (SP) and HP as if they were camping out and being able to rest over a longer period of time like in PnP soloing quests.

[Ziggy]

NiasTrams:
"Rest shrines reseting every 5 to 10 minutes for those of us who like to take our time exploring the quests and not doing speed runs."

TheBoz:
"This would never happen, it would be exploited, as of now Rez shrines are reusable."

Most powergamers and speed runners would be long gone before you could use the rest shrine a second time or third time, hence the time delay, but players who want to thoroughly explore the dungeon/quest area could camp it, not get any more XP allowed unless DDO started having named chests, regular chests and bosses respawn after "X" amount of time. The XP award isn't based on how much you kill or explore, although it could allow you to go from Agression Bonus to Conquest Bonus.

This isn't asking for extra chests and extra creatures to drop, just allowing to rest more than once so a player or group of players can try different approaches to different challanges leading to being able to finish a dungeon/quest without having to restart the whole quest because you used up mana (SP) and HP and weren't able to complete it with the original stratagy.

If one person solos the quest in an 3 hours versus 6 people completing the quest in 30 minutes won't change the XP awarded with the current XP award system except allowing players at lower levels to get a bonus for playing a higher level dungeon sooner than they could ohterwise now that they could take longer to do it because they could replenish mana (SP) and HP as if they were camping out and being able to rest over a longer period of time like in PnP soloing quests.

you do realize you can recall out and regain mana and health?

[NiasTrams]

There is an offline character building program that will allow you to select your levels, features etc. http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO/

I also work odd hours, but have found since joining a guild, that I can usually find someone to group with who knows my playing style. This helps a lot in that we both get to know what we are each capable of.

Jules

I have joined a guild, but spend most of my late night hours playing with a person, I think, from Australia. We've recently had a third person join us for our long jaunts, but he seemed extremely disappointed that we died frequently and had to leave often to replenish mana and was expected to heal himself since we had no cleric. Even after giving him healing supplies he failed to keep himself healed, don't think he'll become a regular in our late night jaunts. I suspect he will become one of the many that stands around hoping a well diversified party forms so he can do the fighting while a cleric does the healing and a wizard/sorcerer does the crowd control and long range damage.

[NiasTrams]

you do realize you can recall out and regain mana and health?

Me and my friend do recall out for mana and HP despite the -20% XP penalty each reentry, but you don't seem to level fast (or at all) with those penalties racking up.

[Ziggy]

Me and my friend do recall out for mana and HP despite the -20% XP penalty each reentry, but you don't seem to level fast (or at all) with those penalties racking up.

So your duoing everything? what level are you now and what quests are you doing?

unless your just running forward(which it doesnt sound like) i dont see how your getting so many deaths.

[NiasTrams]

Katianara:
MMOs are not single player RPGs and part of the experience and fun is collecting things which have different appearances.

I never finished the NWN boxed game, I played on the customized servers built by other players, some which had upwards of 50 players at a time on; being able to customize armor and clothes at a G.P. cost system (and the more magical the more the cost) resulted in worlds where lots of people spent lots of gold customizing their appearance.

I bring up NWN frequently because it took me 5 long years to get tired of playing it. For the $100 (roughly) I spent on the game and expansion packs, not including my internet connection, I would have to say I got my money worth out of it. And should I get too frustrated or bored to swiftly with DDO there are hundreds of NWN free servers I have not yet tried.