D&D Online Euro beta out now..

zekiel

Get it while its hot folks..

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?loadNews=4511&fp=1280,1024,1417145968,20060203090520

only limited keys so hurry hurry

got mine .. see ya's there.

Drakar

I wasn't hugely impressed with DDO. The graphics are good, puzzle type quests are interesting, all in all it's well produced, but there's just nothing particularly innovative. The MMO market is becoming really crowded and apart from having the D&D name, I wasn't seeing anything that would draw players from other games (though the puzzles are a somewhat different).

Zapp Brannigan

Waiting in line to download it now. How big is the client?

zekiel

1.6gb if I remember right.. not at home atm.

Zapp Brannigan

Bah the line was poo, I'll start it tomorrow morning when the server isn't jam-packed. cheers zekiel

balkieb2002

Was reading a review of this a looks interesting, so managed to sign up for the beta, just need to wait for me key to be sent out:

Your unique DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: Stormreach™ European beta key is reserved for you! Guaranteed!!! Due to high demand and release schedule, we are distributing a limited amount of keys each day. You will get your key as soon as your group is released.

Thanks for heads up zekiel

Memnoch

i won't be trying it out, seems the whole game is instanced... which is fine except you still need to pay a monthly fee.

It's like a new version of NVN, there is no MM in the MMORPG that DDO claims to be.

LoBo

Been playing this over the weekend and have to say it's amazing.

Impressions so far:
- d&d ruleset: fantastic conversion, like NWN except better. I even fought a rust monster :>
- action combat: you don't just click attack etc etc, you can actually move out of attacks by rolling or block with a shield if you time it right. Makes fights very fun and skillful.
- excellent dungeons: nice DM voiceovers for certain parts of the dungeons, lots of traps (don't leave the tavern without a thief!), cool quests (I haven't had to collect X kobold spleens once), overall very varied and fun so far
- XP given to whole group at completion of adventure: you get bonus %s to the base xp for the adventure based on stuff like doing optional subquests, smashing enough crates and barrels (heh), disarming traps, finding secrets, doing it first-time, being under the level of the adventure etc. There's no XP or loot from each monster killed. This means you can go in as a support class, help out the group and get the same XP.
- group finding system excellent: never had trouble forming a group with the built in group searcher. And frequently did hours of quests with the same group then.
- plenty difficult: just started to get to some of the level 3 quests, and they are getting very challenging and fun even for a full group. We did a giant spider quest that had a _lot_ of traps and even with a thief along there were a few deaths and people lying on the ground unable to move with 0 str :P We also tried a 'danger' quest that has you defending an outpost against 200 kobolds which was really cool: we eventually died with 41 to go. Challenging = fun for me, and I think it's one of the problems with super-accessible WoW that you can get to 60 and still be terrible at the game/your class.
some cons:
- haven't found a good way to trade items to other players as there doesn't seem to be a general chat channel, though swapping stuff within the party worked well. I'm guessing /say in a tavern? Not sure.
- No pvp that I can see. I'm sure there must be a way to do this .. anyone able to point out the developer's plans for pvp?

Overall I think it's great, very tempted to get it when it comes out. Really found all the questing (right from the beginning) to be excellent fun and engaging - totally blows World of Warcraft out of the water on this.

Anyway if you try it i'm on server Aureon, /tell either Arthur or Vespette.