Choose my Adventure: The Marketplace
by Shawn Schuster 
Nov 4th 2009 at 5:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Culture, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Roleplaying, Choose my Adventure
This week, we've made our way through the rest of the Waterworks quests in Dungeons and Dragons Online and into the Marketplace and the Cerulean Hills. Despite our limited time together, the Critical Mass bunch are really making headway through these quests.
We've finally brought back the polls for this week, as you'll have a chance to not only vote on where we go from here, but also enjoy a revisit to the use of Turbine Points earned so far. Follow along after the jump for Fahryn's in-character journal, my impressions and the return of the polls!
~~~
There's no quick writing from a quiet corner of the bar this time. Today I write after a full day of needed recovery.
We encountered some orcs yesterday in the Cerulean Hills. I take back every bad thing I've ever said about kobolds, because orcs are thrice as mean and ugly. Turns out there was trouble out at Nash Braza's farm and we were hired to clear the area of those disgusting humanoids. Of course it didn't stop there; since we did so well recovering Nash's property, we were paid double to go through to the orc's Grul tribe outpost and put an end to their advancement in this area.
Not only did we clear out the tribe's new camp on the islands, but we also saved several captives, including Lady Azdel herself who was captured while traveling to Stormreach for a meeting of the Twelve. When we returned to Stormreach harbor to inform Pearl Drumling of our findings, she was so pleased that she gave us one of the Lady's baubles as a reward. I'm sure this will go for a few shiny plat at auction.
The following day, I figured I would spend some of my hard-earned gold on a new outfit. This old chain shirt was beginning to show signs of rust, and the weather was getting a bit colder as we ventured further into higher altitudes. So I decided to buy some furs and a hood.Unfortunately, they didn't last. Between Nver's constant reminders that I looked like some sort of vagabond brothel owner, and the fact that they began to stink like rotten boar's feet after a few days, I decided to trade them in for something a bit more elegant and protective.
We spent a good part of our week in the Marketplace side of the city. Here, wealthy Coin Lords and even wealthier travelers were eager to give their gold coins away to anyone willing to help them with the simplest of tasks. I would have never thought the world would get to a point where assistance was needed for something like killing a spider. Sure, the spider was 10 feet wide, but that's beside the point.
Yes, this is something I've been stwewing over in my mind for a long time. With all of this work we're doing for others, are we helping or contributing to the problem? I see a day when our entertainment is reduced to pulling a lever to change a puppet show or jester, and pulling another lever for another jester or puppet show. Would we all become like kings, then? Would we all become unsatisfied and overweight? I've made a promise to myself that no matter how much gold I acquire in my adventures, I will not go the way of the lazy kings.
Alas, forgive my fragmented and disjointed thoughts. It's been an intense week and I can't stop thinking about the trouble we had with that awful Quickfoot gang.
We infiltrated their hideout to recover a signet brooch for Grinwhite. Of course those crazy human thieves were not willing to part with their treasure that easily. Fighting savage beasts and ankle-biting kobolds is one thing, but these Quickfeet were ready for us. I have never in my life seen so many traps and alarms set, instead of mindless guards as the orcs and kobolds tend to do.
We knew that Thual only used the Quickfeet as a distraction while he concocted his plan to poison the water supply of Stormreach. The sadistic alchemist needed to be stopped, and that was our number one priority.
We charged ahead through narrow passageways and twisting turns. Upon reaching a small flight of stairs, we emerged to find the most horrific site we've seen thus far. Thual was no Quickfoot. He wasn't even a man. An enormous beast stood before us, with the head of a Drow and the body of a scorpion. He hissed at us when we entered and his minions headed us off before we could react.
With the water supply safe and the Quickfoot gang disbanded for now, we carried each other back to The Rusty Nail for some rest and recovery.
That night, Thutmosis shared a tale of the Houses of Stormreach. Apparently, it would be beneficial for us to win the favor of one of these Houses, as we've now gained the rank of trusted adventurers. Soon these Houses will be fighting over us, but we first need to see what they have to offer. We're looking out for the best course of action for us and the people of Stormreach, so we will certainly do our research.
~~~
Another great week in DDO as we not only finished up the Waterworks quests, but also cleared out as much as we could of the free Marketplace quests. But this is where it starts to get challenging with picking quests that can only be run as a free-to-play character. We're still facing challenges on Hard mode, so we have many of these to repeat on Elite mode, if needed.
Speaking of challenges, we had quite a time in the Proof is in the Poison quest. With more than six people this week, we split into two groups and tried it on Normal Mode. This posed quite a challenge, and we died a lot. Let's just say that if I was playing a permadeath character, I'd be on my 6th or 7th restart by now.
But that's certainly not a complaint, as I'm happy to see more people joining up with us and experiencing these challenges with me. And most importantly, we have fun with it. If it wasn't for Nver and Thutmosis keeping me entertained so much, I'd probably start getting frustrated with my reoccurring deaths.
My opinion of DDO almost halfway through this project? I still feel like a complete noob, even after learning so much. I still get lost in Stormreach and can never remember where the quest-giving NPCs are. I'm used to the controls (even though I could have changed them at any time), but still have a hard time remembering which spell does what based on icons that are very similar to each other.
I'm not blaming DDO for all of this, as I'm really only playing this game 5-6 hours a week. I think for any other "normal" MMO player, it would be hard to learn such a complex game with such minimal exposure (while throwing a dozen other games into the mix throughout the week).
So with this in mind, and my current understanding of the game where it is, I would still say that DDO is by far the best bang for the buck in F2P MMOs.
As I said earlier, I'm very happy that the polls have made a return to Choose my Adventure. I look forward to what you have in store for us through the Favor Houses, as well as a revisit to the choice to stay free-to-play. So vote away, and I'll let you know how it went next week!
Which House should we visit first?
- House Phiarlan - An elven dragonmarked house that specializes in entertainment, music, and shadows/illusions.
- House Kundarak - A dwarven dragonmarked house – they specialize in protection and warding.
- House Jorasco - A halfling dragonmarked house – they specialize in healing and resurrection.
- House Deneith - The House Deneith specialty is as warriors; they are specialized bodyguards and mercenaries. As a result, their ward in Stormreach is heavily fortified and utilitarian in nature. House Deneith is a human house.
How should I proceed with F2P vs. VIP?
- Keep playing everything 100% free
- Use currently accrued Turbine Points. This would allow me to use the Turbine Points I've earned so far in normal gameplay, including those points rewarded for being in the DDO:U beta.
- Use currently accrued Turbine Points minus beta reward. This would allow me to use the Turbine Points I've earned so far in normal gameplay, MINUS those points rewarded for being in the DDO:U beta.
- Go for VIP Access. Go for full VIP access for the last month.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
blindside044 said on 6:29PM 11-04-2009
I'm still expecting reparations in my mail next time we play from Nver and Thutmosis for all the repairs and emotional trauma from doing the Proof is in the Poison quest.
Good times. :P
- Antestor
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Pedro said on 7:14PM 11-04-2009
I've got to say that i am loving your adventures in DDO. My computer is broken for two weeks now (the technical assistance is taking a while...) so i haven't played the game for a while now but i am with anitch to play it. :)
Keep up the nice journal you write everytime because it is top quality RPing and very suitable for the game.
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Never said on 9:08PM 11-04-2009
I warned you that the green floor was acid and that the smoking foot in the middle was mine, i cant help it if you were THAT thirsty, and I did yell 'RUN AWAY' every time I came running back to the group with friends.
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Jay said on 10:08PM 11-04-2009
It all comes down to what your average F2P player would do.
Would he have funding from his weekly allowance or after school job or unemployment cheque or thrifty budget to switch to pay to play? He might be that impressed to put his hard earnt money on the line but for fairness to F2P I would like to think you will show the "no" side.
As RL money spent is one of the big few complaints about F2P I really feel you should only ever use what you earn from it. No supplementing the points with cash or using beta points or exploits like toons on multiple realms.
Try to play like an honourable/honest but real cash-savy/cash-poor person to give a true impression of what is possible without spending a cent.
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Mr Angry said on 11:56PM 11-04-2009
Naughty, naughty....
No Turbine Points for you, this one is a free to play walkthrough so gonna have to keep it that way. While it's nice to unlock the content, we did already vote on what we wanted to see, so I'm afraid I will vote again for FTP only.
If Turbine see that you are struggling to make headway, they might even make more content free for everyone ;)
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Dread said on 2:33AM 11-05-2009
I don't often agree with Mr Angry - but this time I will.
FTP ONLY!
ONLY POINTS YOU'VE ACCUMULATED SO FAR!
DDO's resurgence in popularity is solely on the back of the FTP model they've brought in...hell...even I'm back playing it and enjoyed it so much again that I ponied up the 15 Shekels to get it all unlocked.
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ArmanK said on 3:31AM 11-05-2009
It was around the point of hitting the Marketplace that i ended up subbing to VIP, as the missions really start drying up. So you'll probably find yourself having to go through all the houses to find level appropriate missions!
DDO definitely seems to go at a different pace to other MMOs i've played. But i am having a blast with my little guild of friends. And so far i don't regret subbing, as some of the missions you unlock are pretty awesome!
Anyway, am curious to see how far you can get without having to grind missions constantly to advance. Once you get to that point, put up a poll on what areas you should unlock with your points :)
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blindside044 said on 3:50AM 11-05-2009
Personally, it doesn't really matter if P2P or F2P wins but I think for the sake of this "2-month review", it's best to stay F2P. And that poll isn't that fair, since F2P is spread out in 3 different options, where as P2P just has one, which is why it might win, barely.
Though, I don't really understand why people vote against the accrued points option, and vote instead for completely 100% free. Are you guys aware that those accrued points are obtained through the free play that we have been doing? o.0 So it is pretty much all still is F2P.
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Tom said on 9:45AM 11-05-2009
Good write-up, Shawn!
As for me, I'm inclined to see how it goes as a F2P player using points accrued in-game -- not because I want you to suffer needlessly, but because I want to get a good sense of just how much someone would need need to spend to really enjoy this game (compared to, say, a sub-based game).
I don't begrudge Turbine for making it harder and more restrictive for F2P players -- that only makes sense from their perspective, since they obviously want to make money.
But I am curious to see how it goes if you try to play for free the whole way through (or at least as far as you can get). I want to know just how tough that really is.
One question, though: what happens if you're in a group and one (or more) member(s) wants to run content that you have not purchased access to? How does that work?
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Chadly said on 11:30AM 11-05-2009
Tom - they won't be able to run the content. However,there are "guess passes" you can buy in the store that you can give to your friends to run the mission with you. However they only last about 90 minutes and a guest pass is only good for one person. Point-wise they are pretty cheap but they would add up fast if you used them a lot.
I wound up going VIP about the time I went to the Marketplace. I realized I hadn't even launched Champions in about 2 weeks because I was having so much more fun in DDO. So I cancelled that sub to finance my DDO sub.
My original intent was to hook up with the Massively guild on Khyber but I wound up clicking with some folks while running around on Sarlona, so I made that my home instead. This series is what spurred me to give DDO another try at all, though, so I'm very grateful for that.
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cridkin said on 10:06AM 11-06-2009
like all ftp models there is a downside to being free ,in some mmo this downside is that large parts of the game are unavailable to you ,in ddo if you are a committed free player it is possible to unlock the content without spending a cent however in ddo the downside is that to do this requires lots of repetition , if fahryn completes all the ftp quests ( there are 79) he will of gained 375 turbine points which is enough to open 1 small quest pack .to open all the content you require approx 12000 turbine points ,so you would need 2 characters on each server (seven now) fully maxed out to open half the paid content ,these packs should then allow you to gain the rest of points needed , while running 14 characters may seem excessive many players will easily of rolled this many as the roles in ddo can be very specialised and toons are fairly easy to lvl up when you are more experienced so its fun to experiment with alternative builds . However much of the ftp content is low lvl and it stops completely by lvl12 so lvling up as a free player is prone to speedbumps where you are underpowered for the next set of free quests maybe to the point of being unplayable without either higher lvl help or by repeating quests to farm xp ,obviously if you are penniless you wouldnt mind repeating quests but fahryn will soon meet one of these speedbumps and his journal will end ,my opinion is to review the game he should go paid so he can see all the content ,as long as its pointed out that unlocking it all can be a grind whats the harm?
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Elle Pollack said on 11:49PM 11-06-2009
Because you're playing a ranger (I am too), House Denneth favor is going to be initially the most useful to you. Why? The first favor reward from them is cheap +3 ammo! When you get to the point where you're spending 1000 gold a pop on +1 arrows from the public shop (also located in House D enclave) you'll understand what I mean.
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Never said on 11:10AM 11-07-2009
I think it should be the f2p content with whatever you can purchase with the points you get in the time we're playing. The timeframe we have isnt that long so it should give a good review of what youd expect as a casual player trying out the game then at the end of the story you pick if you want to continue on with the game and pay or just piddle around with it as a free player or even stick around at all. I believe this should be the 'do i want this game' period and the choice to pay or not made after its all done.
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Never said on 11:14AM 11-07-2009
keep in mind that if you do use your beta points and not just the points we've all earned along the way with you that some of us wont be able to follow along into these dungeons and you'll have to pack your own lunch. i'll cheer for you from the sidelines tho in my many dresses of various resistances.
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donweel said on 3:14PM 11-09-2009
Congratulations on making it through Proof is in the Poison, probably the most brutal market place quest next to Devils Assault, the fact that you still love the game says a lot. I would suggest VIP to start as it would give you freedom to explore the game and level. You can bank your VIP turbine points and later drop to Premium and buy the parts of the game you like, now that you know it. Most F2P I have seen so far endlessly grind the same quests in the hope of leveling sigil drops etc . I prefer content to level grinding.
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