D&D Open Stress Test - Coming Soon

[Klade]

Saw this one over at Blue's (http://www.bluesnews.com):

Dungeons & Dragons Online Stress test will open to all registered fileplanet accounts (http://www.ddo.com/index.php?page_id=55) on Tuesday, December 13 through Saturday, December 17. This includes all of us non-paying folk as well.

There's supposed to be a special stress test event on Friday, December 16, from 6pm EST until 10pm EST. If this is like any other Stress Test event it will probably be so laggy you can't move. If however you do move and actually win this event (whatever it might be) you will gain a spot in the regular D&D beta.

You may now discuss.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Been signed up and installed for a few days.



~~

Play Times and Dates
--------------------

We will begin taking signups on a first come first served basis

Monday at 9:00am PST registration servers go live

Tuesday at 9:00am PST game servers go live. If you received a key and created your stress test event account you can begin playing the game

Friday night player event starting at 3:00pm PST and ending at 7:00pm PST.

Everyone in the stress test will have the opportunity to win a closed beta account

Saturday at 11:59pm PST game servers close

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Stress Test Event – December 13, 12:00pm EST

The Wayfinder server is now open! We hope you enjoy your play experience. Please keep in mind that this is a stress test. That means it is possible the servers will be down as we test their limits and there may be periods of lag. There is no customer support during the Stress Test Event. This includes in-game and technical support.



Time to play!

[drakkarim]

i despise fileplanet, one of the bigges piles of commercial bloatware out there.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Fileplanet is great... Nothing like down speeds over 1mbps...

[Malovech]

Fileplanet is a blight on gaming. They represent everything idiotic and foul. You shouldn't have to pay for what other sites are giving away for free. They are also responsible for GameSpy Arcade - the crappiest piece of garbage ever programmed.

[Citizen Philip]

So.. Warforged.. they are allowed? I don't see anyone else wanting to play anything else.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Ive seen mostly humans I think, not a ton of Warforged. Im a Halfling Wizard.

As for FP... the main reason I like it is the down speeds... wait in a queue for an hour to get 5kbps, fuck that. Also the Betas and other little things.

[Mr.Green]

We hear the freakin commies cry every god damn time Fileplanet is mentioned. We get it, you have more hate than money. Let's move on...

[Nameback]

NOOOOO! Why the hell do you have to be 18 to partcipate?

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108/Suicidal_ShiZuru/ddsf.jpg


Heres a full size. (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108/Suicidal_ShiZuru/DDSelf.jpg)


Hi-Res Client all maxed out.


Controls and interaction took a few minutes to get used to but its pretty fun, highly recommended to try it. Hopefully it doesnt crap out soon. Also there really arent any problems so far, other than the occasional lag spike. The load times are really slow though and I think they use a "zone" feature similiar to Guild Wars.

[vornskr]

why did I leave my gaming computer at home?

*frowns and studies for finals*

[GrinR]

I like DDO a lot. So far, not as much as WoW, but... I could come to love another.

[Librum]

So.. Warforged.. they are allowed? I don't see anyone else wanting to play anything else.

Considering the actual benefits of playing a Warforged in tabletop D&D are fairly minor and largely cosmetic, it's not that big of a deal. I'm curious to see how well they've integrated the tabletop gaming mechanics into the system. If it's not substantially like D&D, or more entertaining than WoW, I can't see it doing very well, despite the name recognition.

[Crabby]

The game kind of sucks. I've experienced it for a while and everytime I try it out I always log off with my head hanging low. It just...kind of sucks.

[CrysDark]

There is none of the speical magic that FFXI, WoW, or even EQ have in this game, nothing to reach out and grab you and make you want to keep playing. It is sad really, they have one of the most well known IP's and they squandered thier opportunity with piss-poor graphcis (I am talking only a little better than FFXI, hurrah for spandex plate!). A terrble quest system, trash grouping mechanics, trash mob mechanics, and trash social mechanics. No Crafting system (it will be in after launch (*laugh*) ) The entire game is just awful, but what do you expect from the same people who ruined AC and killed AC2.

[Crabby]

There is none of the speical magic that FFXI, WoW, or even EQ have in this game, nothing to reach out and grab you and make you want to keep playing. It is sad really, they have one of the most well known IP's and they squandered thier opportunity with piss-poor graphcis (I am talking only a little better than FFXI, hurrah for spandex plate!). A terrble quest system, trash grouping mechanics, trash mob mechanics, and trash social mechanics. No Crafting system (it will be in after launch (*laugh*) ) The entire game is just awful, but what do you expect from the same people who ruined AC and killed AC2.


Not much at all, to directly answer the question.

[Klade]

I heard that the only way you get exp is by completing quests, so no exp for killing mobs. This means when you do a dungeon if you get all the way to the final boss and die, you get no exp.

[Crabby]

I heard that the only way you get exp is by completing quests, so no exp for killing mobs. This means when you do a dungeon if you get all the way to the final boss and die, you get no exp.


You get...a penalization the next time you try to attempt that quest because you failed once. A penalization that stacks the more times you happen to retry it.

Specifcally, a percentage decrease in the overall exp you will eventually get if you finish.

[MojoJojo]

You get...a penalization the next time you try to attempt that quest because you failed once. A penalization that stacks the more times you happen to retry it.

Specifcally, a percentage decrease in the overall exp you will eventually get if you finish.
Wow. That sounds unfun. Do you at least keep your stuff if you die?

[Crabby]

It takes a lot of playing time before you even find anything you would want to care about, but yes.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

The graphics are much better than FFXI... and so far Im not really bored with it. Yeah its not as fun as WoW but it feels different and its been a while since Ive played another mmo aside from GW.

[51|RandoM]

I'm playing this, actually enjoy it more than post-40th WOW.

No grinding of any type, just one adventure after another. Sure, you can do some quests repeatedly, just to get items out of the chests, but it isn't really an item-centric game like FFXI or WOW.

Thing I'm enjoying most is the quest area designs. They're not the same shit cut and pasted a million times over. Yes, you will get sick of killing kobolds before you're level 3, but that is just how AD&D usually is.

A neat aspect of it is that you don't get exp for just killling mobs(grinding). Since that doesn't work anyways, they don't have to do all of the stupid stuff to prevent it that you find in other games(every mob has a ranged weapon, can teleport you or itself, and can run faster, jump higher than any player). In this game, if you're fighting a mob that isn't smart enough to take cover when you climb a stack of boxes and pull out a crossbow, it is perfectly fine to sit there and turn it into a pin cushion. You get rewarded for using your brain in this game, if you choose to do so. Another example, I was fighting a skeleton captain, but had no blunt weapons at hand(other than fists, and I would've gotten pummeled if I'd tried that route), so instead of trying to fight it out with the guy, I took him back to where I'd found an acid trap earlier and set it off a couple times as he chased me, hitting him instead of me. That killed him pretty quickly.

It won't be much competition for WOW when it comes to the masses, but people who like the AD&D ruleset and/or universes, and are looking for a bit more challenge than endless three-hour raids for a chance at a new item might find it a refreshing change of pace.

[Crabby]

I'm playing this, actually enjoy it more than post-40th WOW.

No grinding of any type, just one adventure after another. Sure, you can do some quests repeatedly, just to get items out of the chests, but it isn't really an item-centric game like FFXI or WOW.

Thing I'm enjoying most is the quest area designs. They're not the same shit cut and pasted a million times over. Yes, you will get sick of killing kobolds before you're level 3, but that is just how AD&D usually is.

A neat aspect of it is that you don't get exp for just killling mobs(grinding). Since that doesn't work anyways, they don't have to do all of the stupid stuff to prevent it that you find in other games(every mob has a ranged weapon, can teleport you or itself, and can run faster, jump higher than any player). In this game, if you're fighting a mob that isn't smart enough to take cover when you climb a stack of boxes and pull out a crossbow, it is perfectly fine to sit there and turn it into a pin cushion. You get rewarded for using your brain in this game, if you choose to do so. Another example, I was fighting a skeleton captain, but had no blunt weapons at hand(other than fists, and I would've gotten pummeled if I'd tried that route), so instead of trying to fight it out with the guy, I took him back to where I'd found an acid trap earlier and set it off a couple times as he chased me, hitting him instead of me. That killed him pretty quickly.

It won't be much competition for WOW when it comes to the masses, but people who like the AD&D ruleset and/or universes, and are looking for a bit more challenge than endless three-hour raids for a chance at a new item might find it a refreshing change of pace.


You're actually wrong in a couple of your assumptions here. In a recent patch they actually *DID* give a lot of "ranged weapons" to monsters that would not normally have them for this reason. Meaning, they're not trying to be as creative with gameplay as you might think, it was just "unpolished."

Also, I don't know why you wouldn't have a blunt unless you dropped the starter blunt they give everyone, along with the other starter weapons?

[drakkarim]

i was really looking forward to this game, but a while back i found out they're gearing this strongly for grouping, so had to 'fogedabadit'.

i wish there was a game out there that had all the 'things' of an mmorpg but could be completely soloable, sigh. (no guild wars is not quite it, but a great step towards it)