Massively's DDO Unlimited developer tour, part 2

by Kyle Horner Jun 30th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Massively Hands-on

The second part of the tour dealt with some of the new content coming with DDO Unlimited. We ventured into Amrath, a dark and desolate place filled with lots of new baddies to fight. The actual zone starts as an incredibly vertical area, but thankfully falling off only results in the game teleporting you back and not your timely, clumsily earned death. Far off in the distance stood The Devil's Tower, an ominous black edifice slathered with a blood red glow. It was quite a sight; so very much so that several screenshots were taken for your benefit.

The Devil's Tower is where the new Amrath content culminates. Players will be raiding the evil structure, no doubt walking away with robust treasure and/or phat loot. I was quite curious what the inside looked like, but it was time to check out the new wilderness area that makes up much of Amrath.

I was told that respawning mobs would be fairly limited in this area. The developers wanted a streamline, minimally frustrating experience -- magically reappearing monsters en mass definitely seemed counter-productive. At this point, we opened up the DDO Store and purchased some hirelings before venturing any further. Each player character in our party was a caster, you see, and we didn't want to be crushed instantly.

As we fought, I was introduced to some very cool new content. Some of my favorite new additions are the summoned demon Hezrou, an entertaining crowd control spell and the new targeting system. Hezrou is both terrifying and disgustingly cute in more ways than one, so naturally I couldn't help but summon him as much as possible. Unfortunately, if the player who summoned him logs off while playing (or get's disconnected) Hezrou will eat whatever flesh is nearest, including that of other party members. Hezrou likes meat, you see -- keep that in mind.

Then there was a spell I really loved to watch. I like to call it the dancing spell, because makes your enemies dance -- complete with techno beat! No Turbine producers were harmed in the shooting of this image. At least, I'm fairly certain none of them were mentally harmed.

The new targeting system is much welcomed, especially by someone like me who tends to be spam-happy in DDO. Its best feature is that, if you're using an ability on a target just as the target dies, the system will automatically snag the closest baddie and go for them instead. It also does this if you try to attack a dead target, which I sadly attempted to do a few times. For someone like myself -- a relative DDO greenhorn -- it was a real lifesaver. The other half of the new system allows for different control modes, such as the FPS mode. As you can imagine, these new controls schemes are being implemented for potential free account players who may find having the 'E' key mapped to the "Use" function quite appealing. I didn't get a chance to delve into these alternative controls too much, but the old setup worked just fine for my needs.

The Favored Soul

Finally, I asked about the newest class addition: The Favored Soul. To me, it kind of sounds like the ultimate soloing class, but that really depends on which build you pick. Balance will of course be your best soloing option. However, there's also a nuker and support build -- and then players can always go full custom build via traditional tabletop D&D.

The team's design goals for the Favored Soul called for the class to always be a desirable addition to any party, whether it was a hireling or an actual player. They also wanted it to have good solo functionality as well, something that's been an increasing focus for DDO ever since launch. To that end, Turbine wanted to make sure that as a Favored Soul, the game could be played solo, with a single hireling for help at times. It sounds like a pretty cool class to me, but until I get some hands on time with it I can't really say one way or another.

Tags: ddo, dev-tour, dungeons-and-dragons-online, favored-soul, hezrou, screens, screenshot, screenshots, turbine, wizards-of-the-coast, wotc

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

K.White said on 2:36PM 6-30-2009

Nice job, Kyle.

I'm in beta myself, and can attest for the all the cool features you've mentioned. One thing to mention is that if you buy points from the store (with real money) the points you purchase will be transferred over to live. So you're not losing any money/points...quite the opposite.

The solo experience is fantastic, but grouping is much better. The store is easy to use (although the prices for many of the basic items needs to come down) and intuitive.

Anywho, nice story, and I hope MASSIVELY gets to run more news items about DDO. I think its going to surprise a lot of people.

Jack said on 3:56PM 6-30-2009

DDO always did feel like a free to play game I did try it when they release the free try out. But when I was playing it I had always the feeling that it was a waist of time like I did go bored fast with the money instant zones of this game it kinda did feel like guild wars to me. I also did miss my friends in WoW and my guild!

So I did return to WoW and never look back at DDO or LOTRO. And I am still happy with WoW and never will play this game ever again. 15 bucks and 40 every 2 years is a pretty good deal with a full on content game like WoW with every 2 months a update or 2. My guild and people in it still going strong after 3 years and we look forward to the great stuff blizzard will bring us next.

Targon said on 8:00PM 6-30-2009

Back when DDO was first released almost three and a half years ago, the level cap was still level 10(you can't compare levels in Dungeons and Dragons to levels in other games, because levels in D&D are BIG increases in skill/ability, and you don't need to get 5 levels or more just to be ready for the next set of content).

Since that time, the level cap went to 12, then 14, and finally 16 prior to the next release which will increase the cap to 20. Unlike other games which require buying a paid expansion in addition to your normal subscription fees, DDO has NEVER required any additional money for new content, or features. We are not just talking about some trivial stuff, we are talking about adding in-game mail(wasn't there at launch), the favor system, a new playable race(Drow), a new class(Monk which came in last year), and now Favored Soul will be added.

Another huge difference between DDO and other games is that DDO is a bit more tactical than other games. You not only need to be in range of your target, but things like what direction the mob is facing comes into play, and mobs will tend to try attacking you from behind while you try to do the same to the mobs. It makes for a more active combat experience than most other games. Some people will think this makes it feel more like a single-player game, but it just feels more like combat isn't a "turn on auto attack, and then hit a few hotkeys to trigger special attacks" experience.

As an established game, the move to DDO Unlimited will bring a welcome influx of new players. If you have played any other MMO, you know that feeling that old areas tend to be fairly empty, and this will keep new players from signing up. This is a big thing to keep in mind, because if you want to take a look at the game, you will have the option to come in and check it out along with possibly thousands of other people who will also be new to the game.

So, DDO has come a long way, and is more than double the size it was when it first launched. We are not talking about added content that is "more of the same old stuff", we are talking about new artwork, mob types, architecture, and so on to make what has been added FEEL new. I encourage everyone to come check the game out when DDO: Eberron Unlimited is finally launched, and you may be surprised. Just don't be TOO surprised if there is some slowness to log in on "launch day" when all the new players, plus the existing DDO subscribers will be trying to log in at the same time. The game may be well established, but there may be a massive influx of new players that will slow things down initially.

Tom said on 9:15AM 7-01-2009

My all-time favorite online game was Guild Wars, but I'm afraid I played it to death and nothing worthwhile is happening with that game now. The single best feature, imo, of Guild Wars was the ability to form a group (using NPCs/Heroes) and just GO. No waiting and waiting and waiting in LFG limbo.

I therefore have a few questions about DDO's hirelings, if anyone knows the answer:

--Are they permanent? (Once purchased, you always have them)
--Are they customizable? (Armor, skills, etc.)
--Are they account-specific or character-specific?
--Do they have names/personalities? (i.e., like the NPCs in GW)

If DDO is anything like GW in this regard, I may just have to give this game a try.

At this juncture, the only game in development that has this group with players or group with NPC options is STO, and it's not out yet.

I keep wishing Blizzard would offer something like this to help players get through the "Old World" dungeons, but so far, no luck.

Bam! said on 9:46AM 7-01-2009

They are not permanent. You buy a contract, go in a dungeon, double click on it, and you have that hireling for that dungeon.

You have much better control over hirings in DDO than in guildwars (which is required due to the more complex nature of the game)

You'll find that there may be a bunch of different level 6 clerics available, and thats because each cleric has a different specialty/skills/personality. All of there personalities are available to read on the DDO wiki from the DDO website.

I am a huge fan of guildwars (just finally got factions a couple weeks ago), but the games are absolutely polar opposites of eachother. It's worth a try anyway though.

Targon said on 10:03AM 7-01-2009

The hirelings are on a contract, and you purchase that contract. You can always purchase multiple contracts for the same hireling though, and re-summon as needed. There are different ones you can hire, and each has a different set of skills and abilities.

For personality, I wouldn't worry too much about it, but they do have their quirks.

Now, since you hire them, they are a per-character type of thing, but you can always hire another for other characters. Money is really no problem once you get past level 8 or so.

Now, something that you may appreciate is that DDO Unlimited is not a new game, but a re-branding of Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach. The key is that there is now the "Free to Play" model where people can decide what content and features they want to buy, rather than paying a monthly fee. As a result of this, there will be MANY MANY people that will be starting the game at the same time you are, so there should be many people for you to group with, so finding a group should not be a problem. On the flip side, since the game itself is NOT new, the problems you see with other games where some things need to be fine tuned and adjusted in the game mechanics and design have been handled already.

DDO is a mature game, and the amount of content is fairly solid at this stage. With people new to the game at the low level, you may find yourself only using hirelings during off peak times or when you don't want to group.