Irestone Inlet: Blindfolded

[MrCow]

Just a couple things for forwarning. This accomplishment was done alone, but I had someone from my guild play witness (and also to get several cheap laughs at my expense). He broke a barrel (and possibly stole my wallet), but that is all he contributed to the quest. Also, this was not done as an accomplishment of difficulty as the goal, but to just try something new and different.

So last night this all started with me yammering off the phrase "I've done Monastery of the Scorpion so many times I could probably do it blind". Not much was going on and then the idea crept into my head. "Now what would it be like to do some of these quests I know so well while blind?"

To start this off I made sure I had a Blindness Ward item and set off to Chains of Flame to get Erath's Curse of Blindness. For those who do not know/remember what Erath's Curse of Blindness does, it is a curse that will bestow a no-save permanent blindness effect every 6 seconds. The curse remains when running through town and after shrining, so even if blindness is cured you can be reblinded shortly after. A Blindness Ward item is handy as it negates yourself from being blinded while it is worn, allowing you sight to escape with Erath's Curse of Blindness and get to your destination. Also, when the curse reapplies the blindness every six seconds you get about 1/4 a second of dim sight, so wearing the Blindness Ward item keeps you properly in the dark while you have Erath's Curse of Blindness.

With the curse in tow I set off to Irestone Inlet on Elite. I figured being a relatively flat area it would be a good spot to play around blind, even if I was a level 16 character. Besides, turning Yaaryar's schooner into a floating bomb is always worth it.

After doing Irestone Inlet on Elite from start to finish, blinded, I have this to say. Sight is highly underrated! Killing hobgobs, even if they did pose a fairly small challenge to me, was very interesting as the only mechanisms I could use to tell where they were included noises (hobgob grunts, spell casts, arrows being fired), the mouse-look target in the center of the screen going red if a monster was in front of it, and the string of red numbers when I did damage. The only other things I could see were yellow names of NPCs (such as Mad Anne and the 8 people to save), and a sun glare lens flare if I looked up (ummm... yep... lens flares are visible when blind).



So after stumbling along, having issues looting chests, getting stuck on barrels, struggling to collect the powder kegs, being completely disoriented and slowed to an amazing crawl in solid fogs from Skartounge, cursing the partial uselessness of the Irestone Inlet map, and actually coming close to dying at the hands of Yaaryar and his crew, I made it through this challenge of completing Irestone Inlet blinded.



I also did Bring me the Head of Ghola-Fan in the same night, blind, but I failed to get a screenshot of the completion. Ogres are surprisingly easier to locate and fight when blind (but I kept getting stuck on random wooden posts in there).

After doing these quests in the dark I have found thanks for both the gifts of sight (after having been deprived of it) and sound (which I don't believe I realized how good the sound cues are in DDO, they helped a lot when blind). Thanks for taking a look.

[Lithic]

Next challenge is crucible maze blinded?

Sounds like fun. I've had to finish STK pt 1 elite after getting blinded by the necromancer on more than one occasion (Usually before I remember to buy all the debuff fixer pots...), though usually I had a party to help guide me

[boldarblood]

OMG HAX!

It's an aimbot! :O


Nice job!

[MrCow]

Next challenge is crucible maze blinded?

The maze itself would be doable. The problems I would have would be navigating the trial of agility (blind and -50% movement due to being blind), the way to the trial of insight (the broken floor), the top of the maze with the rune wheels (lack of sight means no ability to know what rune wheels need to be), and possibly the swim. Although I would love to try the swim blinded.

Also, to any who may try something like this, don't forget that being blind can really sink your AC (-2 AC, loss of any DEX bonus, loss of any WIS monk bonus).

[Xyfiel]

I nominate Coal next! And some medication near by if you try it.

[kingfisher]

nice work

[MrCow]

I nominate Coal next!

Good lord no! I know I do some crazy things at times, but that is one thing I plan to avoid doing.

[Depravity]

My thread full of screen capture goodness is here.

[Lithic]

Good lord no! I know I do some crazy things at times, but that is one thing I plan to avoid doing.

Ok ok no coal. How bout the PIT? Doesnt even have to be elite

[Solmaran]

How about elite Freshen the Air or Redfang the Unruled?

[MrCow]

I had a little bit more blind fun and did Redwillow's Ruins:

[gfunk]

nice work!

[wamjratl1]

Now those were fun to look at. Nice job guys!

[Lymnus]

Now try it without the minimap.

xP

[Mhykke]

I say VON 2 next.

[GotSomeQuestions]

After finishing out of Chains and realizing that I still had Erath's curse running, I decided to give this a try myself. Unfortunately, thanks to the changes to blindness, instead of a permanent blindness effect, it applies a brief one every few seconds. That means I had to leave my blindness ward item off completely, and suffer through a brief flash of scenery every time the blind effect re-applied itself. Of course, half the time I was staring straight down at the ground or running into a cliff or a tree, so there wasn't much to see.

If you haven't tried this, I recommend it!

[Havok.cry]

Might the listen skill be of some use while blind?

[MrCow]

Might the listen skill be of some use while blind?

The listen skill doesn't help while blinded because the red soundwaves denoted by hearing a hiding foe is, ironically, a visual cue. You can't see that when blinded.

Using your speakers/headphones to hear, though, is very helpful. The stereo sound of DDO is good enough to use that to approximate how far left or right something is from you.

[Ganolyn]

I vote for Proof is in the Poison next. That maze is insane with sight.

[Havok.cry]

I vote for spies in the house blind next.