More whining Ranncore Sore shit here, same as the other forums. Just quit and stroke your beloved WoW pandas already.

My top three:

1. When Turbine finally addresses the soul crushing reincarnation bugs introduced in U14, this system provides amazing replayability.  While passive and active past life feats are often overshadowed by epic destinies, being able to TR into a different class while keeping your gear is really attractive.  I'm surprised Turbine never released racial past life feats (+1 to a specific save, +1 to a group of skills, +X spell power, etc..)  Also, Turbine really needs to add a reincarnation heart to swap races without having to TR.

2. Now that they've added the barter UI, DDO's crafting system is solid though it has room for improvements.  If ingredients must be bound, they should be BtA instead of BtC.  Eveningstar Challenge parts and Alchemical crafting I'm looking at you.  Three of Turbine's biggest crafting system success stories don't have bound components (with mostly negligible exceptions): Greensteel, Dragon Armor and Cannith crafting.  My two gripes about crafting: (1) The lack of consistency around parts being bound or tradeable (2) Not adding progression when MOTU was launched (Cannith challenge items are still capped at ML20, and Cannith crafting still lacks the ability to make +15 skill items, Archmagi, Smiting, Banishing and a pile of other random loot gen effects).

3. DDO's instanced quest system is better than EQ/WoW/GW2/Aion/Age of Conan (the MMOs I've played).  This includes minimal travel time required to get anywhere in the game (you can get anywhere within 5 minutes assuming you know where you're going).

I still like DDO.  I think the combat is good because it is active.  I have plenty of options to deal with mobs.  I like options mostly.  Character creation is also pretty good. 

Overall the game itself isn't too bad, it is the stuttering when moving and bugs that I just can't stomach anymore.

mystafyi wrote on Nov 4^th, 2012 at 7:01pm:

What MMOs are you comparing DDO against? 

Quote:

Best in what ways?  While the forums are better moderated than other MMOs, the quality is mediocre.

Quote:

Agree with you on the visuals.  However, the level of build customization is more of a function of D&D rules rather than anything Turbine implemented for DDO.   

Thins I like:

1)  It's D&D.  Yeah, at this point it's bastardized and altered D&D.  Much further away than it was when I started 4-5 years ago, but I understand why it has to change.  Even if I would rather it actually less MMO-ish and more D&Dish.

2)  The combat system.

3)  Character Generation, Enhancement, Multi-Classing system.  Just awesome the number of possible, viable build options.

4)  The quests.  So many are really fun and have a great story. 

5)  The gear progressions.  With a few exceptions (DT runes, Epic Shards/Seals are BtA, CiTW loot) the gear progressions are great.

6)  TR, LR system.  Added huge depth and replayability to the game.  Although I don't understand why you can't change your gender on a TR.  If I can go from a WF to a halfling, why can't I go from female to male and vice versa?

Flav wrote on Nov 4^th, 2012 at 2:07pm:


The catch is that D&D 3.5 doesn't really work to level 20 (ignore those like haxxors who feel that wizards should always win).  DDO got  levels 1-~12 right, and created something workable to 20.  They did paint themselves into a corner with d20, and seem to have a workable kludge.

Things done right:
D&D rules (1-~12) (especially multiclassing and wide-open character development).
Instances (see making it more like D&D)
DM Voice acting (see a pattern)
Kobold voice acting (you won't find much recent work on this side, but the kobold voices made me happy to play DDO).
Gameplay (shocking unlike D&D.  Who would have thought that a MMO that broke the mold (at least in 06) by letting players dodge would be based on a "roll d20 to hit" game?).
PVP almost entirely absent.  All they really need to do is separate lobster chat from the harbor chat.  Something that I noticed coming back from a break.
Lack of transparency:  While it would certainly help if the devs told us what they planned (and would listen to how stupid it was an why), they certainly don't need to hear the constant whining "buff me and nerf everyone else" and "give us more easy buttons".  Increasing dev contempt of players is a bad thing.

Done wrong (what is the point about asking for positives if you ignore the negatives):
Contempt of players.  Pretty much every problem in Turbine is simply due to the overwhelming contempt of the playerbase.
Customer service:  A load of epic elite fail.  Largely set from on high that turbine will literally not lift a finger (when not destroying what a player put years into takes little more) to fix the problems they cause.
Basic game design:  Devs and other Turbine employees shouldn't be expected to play the game.  They already put in a full day's work ther, and shouldn't be expected to spend the rest of their life there.  On the other hand, once they understand that god-moding ultra grindy loot isn't "playing DDO" then they have to actually listen to what players have to say about Turbine's idiotic ideas.  They have the whole Mournlands server, why don't they listen to anybody.
Testing:  Turbine policy is that bugs aren't a problem, they are happy to have as many bugs as the devs can inflict on the codebase.  The "lets change everything" effort of the expansion was proof of this.  Want to make a pointless change for changes' sake?  Best time is when a creaky old codebase that breaks when the slightest bit is changed, then don't fix the bugs (we have a hard release day to hit).  I was amazed that the system could even boot after U14, but don't expect fixing the bugs to ever be put on the dev's job description.

wumpus wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 11:44am:


People keep claiming this - but in my experience a mob will hit you even if you are a mile away from it.

You never had an ogre triple hit you after you saw it wind up and ran 200 yard away?

really?

"active dodging" may work - but it' snot as "active" as you think - the mob rolls an attack roll before you even see it start to swing - if that roll hits - you get hit, regardless of where your client moved your toon to.

It's all an illusion

Schmoe, you forgot:

7. Kormor's belt

I will always love DDO for giving me stainer.  /crony

Quote:


It's only right because it's so wrong.

Flav wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 2:29pm:


Didn't play PnP 3.5 but DM'd a shitload of 2nd edition. 

Unless you cheated as a DM and/or robbed your players it was all but impossible for them not to be filthy rich by level 12-14 if you used ANY pre-made content or the random loot tables.

But same thing with the older editions, game definitely changed after level 12.

One thing that DDO did right until MoTU was not make all your junk from the last pack obsolete.  MoTU ass-fucked that.

wumpus wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 11:44am:

You must be playing a different game than I am.  Voice acting in DDO is horrendously done.  Gianthold falsetto voices make my ears bleed.  The only voice acting Turbine did well is getting the actor for Deckard CainEliminster, but he's got very little dialogue so far.

Bigjunk wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 2:35pm:


This should happen often, and generally by the same NPC.  It is REALLY nice when that rogue NPC starts hiring assassins by the hundreds to kill them with the players money, using their old weapons & magic items, wearing their clothes lol.

Carpone wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 3:52pm:

Quest flagging like the Crypts & using the flagging mechanic from say Red Fens.