Dungeons and Dragons goes MMO
Summary: Meh.
It's not very polished, like most newly-released MMOs. The interface is a little squirrely at 2560x1600, with some obvious gaps such as an inability to resize text elements or move key interface elements (like the "base" hotkey bar).
One could easily distinguish the WoW players from the crowd-- they were the ones running around constantly swinging a weapon (the default left mouse action in WoW is to select the item under your cursor, whereas in DDO it's the "swing weapon" button).
I started a bard, and I'm not overwhelmed with her efficacy. Granted, I was running around with players 2-3 levels higher, but she seemed sorta useless. No one really wanted the bard's song buff, and the buff lasts for 4 minutes, so who cares anyway? I get 3 songs per "rest" period, so ...yeah.
I rolled a warrior this morning, but I think I'm going to go back and roll a sorcerer/wizard and specialize in enchantment/illusion. I haven't picked between them, but since it seems that the only difference is that wizards can only have a finite number of spells available to cast at any time (switchable at rest) and sorcerers have unlimited access to all their spells (albeit they learn fewer). I'll think about it though, 'cause a high CHA sorcerer could be fun...
I ended up hanging out with Lilibat and her boyfriend(?), and they were kind enough to let me tag along with them while they bashed stuff. Lili, I still think that we need to try voice, not for chatting, but only for in-game comm. I think that you're right, voice *chat* is totally distracting, but voice comm strictly related to game events is useful.
Anyway, that's the brief report. I'll try again tonight, and time will tell if the game stays on my system (and credit card) or if it gets stacked next to the other retired MMOs on my shelf.
It's not very polished, like most newly-released MMOs. The interface is a little squirrely at 2560x1600, with some obvious gaps such as an inability to resize text elements or move key interface elements (like the "base" hotkey bar).
One could easily distinguish the WoW players from the crowd-- they were the ones running around constantly swinging a weapon (the default left mouse action in WoW is to select the item under your cursor, whereas in DDO it's the "swing weapon" button).
I started a bard, and I'm not overwhelmed with her efficacy. Granted, I was running around with players 2-3 levels higher, but she seemed sorta useless. No one really wanted the bard's song buff, and the buff lasts for 4 minutes, so who cares anyway? I get 3 songs per "rest" period, so ...yeah.
I rolled a warrior this morning, but I think I'm going to go back and roll a sorcerer/wizard and specialize in enchantment/illusion. I haven't picked between them, but since it seems that the only difference is that wizards can only have a finite number of spells available to cast at any time (switchable at rest) and sorcerers have unlimited access to all their spells (albeit they learn fewer). I'll think about it though, 'cause a high CHA sorcerer could be fun...
I ended up hanging out with Lilibat and her boyfriend(?), and they were kind enough to let me tag along with them while they bashed stuff. Lili, I still think that we need to try voice, not for chatting, but only for in-game comm. I think that you're right, voice *chat* is totally distracting, but voice comm strictly related to game events is useful.
Anyway, that's the brief report. I'll try again tonight, and time will tell if the game stays on my system (and credit card) or if it gets stacked next to the other retired MMOs on my shelf.