Pumping Irony

I said I would split Module 8 into two articles, Character Creation and the new Tutorial. After having gone through it all twice now to make sure I had a grip on the storyline, I’ve decided the New Player Experience is essentially divided into four phases, so I will make a separate article for each phase.

Like the previous article, these will be image-intensive so here’s the break!

Phase I is solo-only and consists of two areas: Shipwreck Shore and The Grotto which introduce us to the basics of DDO’s game play mechanics as well as tossing us headlong into the story, which I will also describe as we go.

Shipwreck Shore

After creating a character, you load into the game world in an area called Shipwreck Shore with a halfling rogue by the name of Jeets Shimis in front of you. A quick glance at your surroundings, as well as speaking with Jeets, makes it obvious why the area has its name — you have just awakened from a shipwreck, unarmed, empty pockets and wearing nothing but rags. Think the very beginning of Age of Conan, minus the intro cinematic, and you have the basic picture here.  Jeets tells us that a dragon attacked the ship and so far our character is the only survivor to wash ashore. One of his initial chat bubble texts asks if we’re undead, which serves as a hint of what’s to come later. (Optionally, the last choice in Jeets’ dialogue tree allows players to skip all this and go directly into Korthos Village, where they will automatically receive the rewards from The Grotto.)

Jeets has us follow him up a path where a friend, a warforged sorcerer Talbron Tewn has set up a small camp. Jeets gives us a weapon and instructs us how to use it, then suggests we follow him further up the path to meet another friend. Along the path are crates and barrels to destroy to practice using your weapon and have a chance of dropping coin, potions, or other loot. The path ends at the entrance to The Grotto, where we are shown our first quest difficulty dialogue. The Grotto is solo-only but the dialogue and hints teach us that DDO lets us select difficulty levels for quests prior to entry.

The Grotto

The Grotto is our first introduction to a DDO-style dungeon crawl. Immediately inside is the final friend Jeets spoke of, a cleric named Cellimas Villuhne. She gets us into the next chamber where a locked gate prevents us from continuing. Cellimas suggests we climb the nearby ladder. More hints pop up telling us how climbing works, as well as jumping from platform to platform in the next segment. We drop into the next room and are introduced to pulling levers, another staple in DDO’s quest mechanics. Pulling the lever opens the gate so Cellimas can join us. Jeets and Talbron have entered The Grotto now as well, and join us to make a group of four.

Now, most NPC’s in most MMORPG’s might give a title for that NPC such as Vendor or Trainer, etc. However these three tell their class rather than a title. That’s because these are not just NPC’s, they are your introduction to DDO’s new Hireling system! In this case they are mostly scripted, with only a single interaction where you actually tell one to do something, but it still shows the promise for the system. As of this writing, Hirelings are not available for work in the main game world yet but will soon be introduced via live events.

At the next doorway Cellimas feels an evil aura in the next room, emanating from sahuagin! Yes! Module 8 introduces the evil fish-men into the game as one of the primary villains in the Korthos tutorial area. I thought they were very well drawn and animated, and a welcome change from the kobolds which populate so many of the low-level quests in Stormreach.

As the door opens, Cellimas leads the charge into battle! The rest of follow and… nothing? But wait! The door behind us rolls closed, and Talbron wisely (it doesn’t take a genius here, folks) suspects a trap and casts a buff on himself just as several sahuagin spring from the ledges above. Cellimas buffs the group with Prayer, and keeps the buff going when it’s about to expire, and all the Hirelings fight the sahuagin along with us. After the battle, Jeets tries to open the next door but is unable. Talbron steps on a hidden switch revealing an underwater chamber with a key at the bottom, and of course we’re swim down and retrieve it. The next room contains rest shrines along with a hint that describes their use in the game.

Continuing past the rest shrines Jeets discovers a deadly blade trap in the next doorway. Playing a paladin, I am unable to disarm traps so a hint pops up describing traps and suggesting I ask Jeets to do it for me, which is an introduction to how commanding Hirelings will work in the game.

Jeets disarms the trap and we continue into the next area where we meet a sahuagin high priestess, our first red-named boss. A hint tells us red named bosses are much stronger than most enemies of their challenge rating would be. After defeating the high priestess the group enters her shrine where Cellimas casts some spells to cleanse it of its evil energies. Jeets runs up to a platform and calls our attention to our first chest, yet another DDO staple. After claiming our rewards from the chest we continue to the next area where Jeets feels there’s “something fishy in this room” and suggests we search. (Sahuagin? Something fishy? Ugh…) Here we get to use the Search skill, which all characters can use to various degrees. We discover a secret door, which when opened leads to a final chamber and the doorway into Korthos Village. Cellimas gives a final reward of a piece of magic jewelry and a fiery magical weapon, completing The Grotto quest, then we load into Korthos Village to begin Phase II of the New Player Experience.

Phase I was a lot of fun and I thought it did a great job of introducing most of DDO’s game play elements and mechanics at the appropriate time. The Hirelings here were fun and did their job well working with me and showing me how the command system will probably work once Hirelings are in the real game. The combat was fun and nearly always against groups of three or more enemies. The fast and furious combat with the Hirelings, along with pulling levers, climbing ladders and jumping platforms I felt did a very good job introducing new players to the “Action RPG” feel of DDO. It was also a nice touch at the end teaching us about the Search skill, something we wouldn’t think of coming from other MMORPG’s and playing a non-rogue class. I thought it a terrible shame that the Hide skill was not also introduced here, another ability all classes have available but may not be immediately obvious to new players. Phase I was all solo, but fairly short and to the point. Korthos Village is a public quest hub, so from Phase II onward, it’s all multiplayer.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 3:40 pm and is filed under DDO, MMO Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.