Pumping Irony

The mayor and citizens of Korthos Village are excited and grateful that we have rescued several villagers whom the Devourer cult had recently kidnapped for indoctrination into their cult, as well as foiling the cults’ plans to awaken a gelatinous beast frozen by the giants thousands of years ago (an ancient minion of the Devourer god?) and their attempt to form an army of undead re-animated by the cult’s necromancers. Cowardly turncoat Jacoby Drexelhand has gotten his just rewards and the wizard Lars Heyton, last surviving member of his family who always led the charge against the sahuagin, has a plan to break the cult’s hold over the white dragon which should weaken the sahuagin and their cult.

Lars asks that we journey across the island to Misery’s Peak, where his warforged companion Amalgam awaits us. Misery’s Peak is the tallest mountain on the island, all the way to to the southeast corner. The closer we get, the colder the temperature and the land is more covered with snow and ice. The white dragon must have made the mountain its home! Climbing a snow-covered hill, we’re attacked by a few ice spiders, another new monster introduced with Module 8, then we come across a makeshift camp with a dwarf vendor Ves trying vainly to warm himself by the campfire. He tells us the warforged, Amalgam, has been awaiting our arrival. Amalgam, who we see pacing at the other side of the camp, says his master Lars Heyton is inside the mouth of Misery’s Peak and directs us up a narrow pathway leading into the the mouth of Misery’s Peak.

Occasionally the white dragon itself can be seen flying a circuitous patrol over Korthos Island! The dragon stays far overhead but is well-animated and moves very quickly. The dragon has actually been occasionally visible at various places on Korthos Island, including when we first washed up on Shipwreck Shore, but I waited until I was actually writing about the Misery’s Peak phase of the tutorial to mention it.

Stepping into the cave leading into the depths of Misery’s Peak, we see Lars Heyton along with our merry band of Hirelings again! Two corridors lead in opposite directions, each with a magical barrier preventing entry. Lars shares with us that an Illithid is bending the dragon’s mind to its will, forcing it to ally itself to the sahuagin and their Devourer cult. Normally dragons should be immune to such things, but this mind flayer has a Quori artifact — the Mindsunder — which amplifies its innate psychic powers and enables it to overcome the dragon’s natural defenses. Lars’ plan is to have Cellimas, Jeets and Talbron draw attention to themselves while we find and destroy the Mindsunder, freeing the dragon from the illithid’s mind-control. Lars drops the barrier to the left corridor and Cellimas leads the charge as the Hirelings rush into enemy forces to distract them away from us. He then drops the barrier to the other corridor, provides a magical defense to prevent the mind flayer from detecting our presence, and sends us headlong into Korthos’ final destiny.

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The traitorous Jacoby Drexelhand has been defeated and the sahuagin’s secret passageway into Korthos village secured, there is still the problem of the Devourer cult. Most human cultists are former Korthos citizens who were taken and brainwashed into the evil cult of the Devourer. More villagers are still missing and suspected as being held prisoner before being taken one-by-one up to Misery’s Peak where their indoctrination occurs.

Unlike Phase II where the tavern keep Sigmund Bauerson would direct you to each quest individually if you had not grabbed them already, Phase III gives no such direction. In the village, you’ll notice three new quest icons on the minimap, so take each one, as each quest location will be found within Korthos Island, where we continue our adventures.

First we meet the mayor of Korthos village, Viggie Storr, who’s daughter Arissa has been taken along with other villagers. His information suggests villagers are held in the Cannith aqueduct before being transported to Misery’s Peak where they become Devourer cultists. Next is “Handsome Wilm” one of the crew of the Sojourn, a Khorvaire ship frozen in the ice just outside the docks. His employer, mistress Drusen d’Jorasco, was taken by cultists with undead minions. He followed them to some catacombs near the aqueducts, and wishes to hire our services to retrieve Ms. d’Jorasco. Finally, near the village gate we meet Ursa Jernsvard, a friend of Sigmund’s daughter Kaja who is convinced Lars Heyton is indeed alive — she saw him! Near the old Cannith Manufactory where long ago mages from House Cannith created sentient construct — who later became the Warforged — Ursa claims she saw Lars briefly and thinks he may be inside.

The gates into Korthos Island were previously barred until we completed The Collaborator quest. That’s done now, so entry onto the island itself is permitted. Korthos Island itself is an all-new wilderness landscape, and like all DDO wilderness landscapes, its quests are gained automatically upon zoning in for the first time. In addition to the standard incremental Slayer quest, Korthos Island has twelve Explorer locations to find, and three Rare Encounters. Rare Encounters are random each time you enter a wilderness landscape; sometimes none spawn, sometimes one or two. I don’t recall ever being in any wilderness landscape where all rare encounters spawned in a single session, but perhaps it’s possible. Defeating the rare encounter boss will spawn a chest to loot. Wilderness areas certainly cover the Explorer and Killer categories of the Bartle Player Types, and perhaps to a much lesser degree the Achiever who may stand a chance at new gear from a chest.

After leaving the village into the wilds of the village, we see a scout up ahead, Gunnar Bauerson, son of Sigmund. Gunnar warns that the sahuagin have discovered a great beast which has been imprisoned underneath the island since the age of giants. A giantish device keeps the creature trapped in eternal slumber but the sahuagin are trying to sabotage the device to awaken the creature.

All said and done, we now have four new quests all located within the Korthos Island wilderness landscape, in addition to the slayer and explorer objectives. As with Phase II, these four quests are all re-imagined versions of original Stormreach Harbor quests. In Phase II the physical layout of the dungeons and their objectives were largely unchanged. In Phase III, however, Turbine raised the bar by adding all-new graphics to some areas, altering some of the layouts and objective, and adding new puzzles. Unlike the Phase II quests, veteran players who recognize the layouts of the Phase III quests and think they know exactly where to go and what to do may be in for a bit of a surprise.

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The village of Korthos, usually peaceful, has been besieged by a force of evil Sahuagin… and something worse.

Phase II of DDO’s new tutorial area begins when we load into Korthos Village, a public quest hub. After talking to an NPC, Randall, who is surprised at our sudden appearance in the village, we can freely explore the village with other players. The village is heavily populated with NPC villages, a vendor, class trainers and so forth. Three quest NPC’s also show on the minimap but rather than simply grabbing them all I let the story, told via the NPC’s and quest log, direct me along in sequence. Additionally, while the rest of the tutorial is multiplayer, I did the whole thing solo so I could stop and take notes and screen shots without annoying other players. Randall suggests I go see Sigmund Bauerson in the Wavecrest Tavern to continue my adventures, so off I go!

Experienced DDO players may recognize those names. Yes, it’s that Sigmund Bauerson and that Wavecrest Tavern! There are a few other familiar names as well; indeed the majority of the New Player Experience is comprised of some of the original quests from Stormreach Port where new characters began their first adventures in Stormreach. The quests have been given a facelift, in some places expanded with entirely new areas and objectives, re-imagined and totally re-purposed to fit in with the Korthos’ storyline. The quests contained in Phase II differ only slightly from their original incarnations, with different or additional mobs being the main difference along with a few cosmetic changes and occasionally minor alterations to how the objectives are completed. In Phase III, Turbine kicks it up a notch with adding all new graphics and complete renovations to the dungeons with all-new objectives that might throw off veteran players who assume they know where to go and what to do.

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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!

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I ran through the entirety of the DDO’s New Player Experience today. I’ll split the Module 8 hands-on into two articles. This one will discuss the new character creation process, while the next one will get into the actual game within the new tutorial area.

To ensure a clean view for screen shots, I created a new character on the Argonnessen server. I have an ulterior motive for choosing that server, but I will reveal it at a later date. I’ve never played a D&D paladin either, so that is the class I created. For experienced DDO (and I presume, D&D) players familar with D&D 3.5 character creation, the original character creation system still exists, but I used the new system which has templates to prevent gimping your character before you even play it.

This will be image-intensive, so I will be kind and put a break here! :grin:

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DDO’s much-anticipated Module 8: Prisoners of Prophecy was released this morning!

I’ll just list a few of the highlights rather than quoting the rather lengthy full release notes.

• Prisoners of Prophecy continues the epic end-game story of the Stormreaver and the dragons of Argonessen who find themselves in a fragile alliance with an undead dragon. The story is told in four new dungeons, four new wilderness landscapes and a new two-part public quest hub.
• New Player Experience combines an all-new character creation screen with template paths for new players along with a completely new tutorial experience with adventures on the island of Korthos prior to journeying to Stormreach.
• Beta DX10 Support is finally in-game. I’ve seen screenshots comparing the same scene in DX9 and DX10 and it’s pretty! The shots of LOTRO and DDO are almost enough to make me consider finally downgrading to Vista just so I can upgrade to DX10.
• Hirelings are not included with Module 8, but will be introduced via a series of live events afterward.
• Stormreach remodeling is still underway, the Harbor and entrance to the Subterrane seeing some changes.
• Collectibles see a nice change. Defeated foes that drop collectibles now drop them in bags which remain even if the mob’s body is destroyed or despawns. Also collectors will now automatically take the collectibles directly from your inventory as well as your collectible bags.
• More character slots! All players now have 10 character slots which are immediately available and no longer have to be unlocked.

Good stuff! I plan on spending some time tomorrow with the new character creation and tutorial. Hopefully I’ll keep my wits about me and remember to take plenty of screenshots and notes to write a comprehensive article of my experiences.

Community Specialist Tolero put up a lengthy post today in the official DDO forums laying out some of the details of the upcoming Hireling system. Hirelings will make their first appearance in Module 8, in what Turbine is officially labeling a beta state, inferring that the system will obviously be going through changes in future Modules and most likely patches in between Module releases.

The Risia test server will soon be updated with all Module 8 content, including a preview of the Hireling system.

Turbine’s forums are not available to readers without current accounts for that game so I will block quote the post after the break…

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Turbine Community Specialist Tolero announced today in the official DDO forums that Module 8 will include another character slot, as well as making all character slots available from the get-go rather than unlocking them. Players will still have to unlock the Drow race and the 32-point build, but all 10 character slots will be available upon Module 8’s arrival.

As a special thanks to our players, we’re pleased to announce that for Module 8, we are increasing the total number of character slots available to players from 9 to 10! Additionally, players will no longer need to “unlock” character slots – all players will start the game with 10 character slots provided. Players will still need to use the Favor system in order to have access to the Drow race and the 32 point character build choices to use with their 10 slots.

Please be advised that any player with more characters than 10 from server merges, character transfers, etc. will need to delete down to the 10th slot in order to make a new character if they so desire. If you have more than 10 characters, we will not remove these excess characters, but you won’t be able to create a new character, as you’ve already consumed 10 slots with the excess characters.

Using Premium Services, players are able to transfer characters onto a server even if they have 10 characters already – the transferred characters will be added to the total number of characters. However, if a player transfers a character from another server using our Premium Service feature to a server on which the player has less than 10 characters, it will consume one of their 10 provided character slots.

Source

Great news for DDO and hopefully LOTRO players will be hearing similar news, since the Mines of Moria expansion is introducing two new classes and there are already more classes in the Shadows of Angmar game than available character slots.

First, MMORPG.com put up their GenCon Overview article, which just included a few bits of vague information of what is coming down the pike in Module 8. A decent read, but really no juicy information.

Jerry from DDOcast, on the other hand, has put up a couple articles of his GenCon experience, including more useful information as well as photos of some of the new content being demonstrated.

Module 8 will have high-end content, continuing the story lines for both the Reaver’s Bane and the Gianthold Tor series, which should keep the level-capped adventurers and raiders happy.

The real treats are some brand new features, though.

First is the New Player Experience, or NPE. Before anyone brings up Star Wars: Galaxies’ ill-fated NGE, this is not an overhaul of all of the game mechanics. It is quite literally a new tutorial area for new players and new characters. Players unfamiliar with actual D&D 3.5 rules (such as myself) will now be able to select character templates so we don’t gimp ourselves during creation. The original system will also remain for those more knowledgeable of the D&D mechanics. New characters start on the snow-laden island of Korthos where they’ll learn the basics of DDO’s gameplay, culminating in a scripted encounter with a white dragon before finally hopping a ride to Stormreach to begin their adventures with the rest of us.

Jerry also posted pictures of some of the early Harbor quests, such as the Goodblade series, which have been completely redesigned and repurposed for the NPE. Looks awesome and I look forward to trying this out. I think I’ll wait until Module 8 goes live to roll either a cleric or paladin for a permadeath guild. I’m debating either the Sublime Permadeath guild on my home server of Thelanis or Mortal Voyage over on Argonnessen. My former guild leader is with Mortal Voyage so that alone is tempting, and I like the permadeath rule set they’ve adopted.

Finally, Module 8 is bringing an age-old mechanic of D&D into the game: hirelings! This sounds similar to what we’ll be expecting in Guild Wars 2: each character can bring a single hireling NPC to help with certain aspects of the quest. In GW2 your companion does not take up a party slot; Turbine has not yet stated if hirelings will or not. Once inside the quest, players can summon their hireling for a limited time. Like GW’s heroes, the hirelings will act on their own or can be commanded. If your group lacks a rogue for traps, one player can bring along a rogue hireling to handle them, and so forth. Again, hirelings are more similar to GW2’s companions in that each player can only bring one, rather than GW1 where a single player can bring up to three heroes.

As a follow-up to my previous posts about Turbine rumors, today the latest one hit: is Turbine bring DDO to consoles? This appeared first on Joystiq, then Massively picked it up and ran with it.

First, consider DDO’s active real-time combat system. This particularly lends itself well to consoles in terms of the base melee aspect. On the PC, melee is a single right-click and your character does a random combat animation. Press a key to block, another to dodge… all combat mechanics very familiar to most console gamers.

The instanced nature of DDO would also be a boon for the console platform, given that consoles usually have much fewer resources and RAM than a comparable PC would. The instanced zones and dungeons would keep performance maximized on the consoles.

Communication… well, that’s always been a topic in regards to console MMO’s but as I’ve said before, both Xbox 360 and PS3 accept any USB keyboard and the Xbox has a mini-keyboard attachment that snaps right onto a controller. More importantly, while there is a degree of chat in DDO, nearly everyone utilizes the game’s integrated VOIP during adventures. No idea about the PS3, but I think all 360’s come with a headset for use on Xbox Live already so no additional purchase necessary.

Currently, DDO has the typical $15/month MMO price scheme (although I jumped on the $10/month they offered awhile back). Massively Speaking #8 (hey, that was great hearing Cameron in a podcast, by the way!) hinted that Turbine is actively looking at alternate pricing schemes for DDO, including free-to-play. I can see DDO doing quite well for itself switching to the Guild Wars 2 model: pay for the game, play for free, then charge for additional content packs. I’ve stated many times that I foresee issues particularly with Xbox Live’s Gold members when they discover they have to pay one fee for the Xbox Live services they’ve been using, but a totally separate fee for any MMOG’s. Xbox Live users are already accustomed to paying for new Downloadable Content (DLC) so that particular price scheme, I feel, would be a tremendous hit on both platforms and we’d see DDO’s total population grow.

Adding fuel to the fire are two items from Turbine themselves. First, as I mentioned a few days ago, Turbine is looking for a Senior Console Engineer. Then came yesterday’s announcement from Turbine’s Community Manager, Meghan “Patience” Rodberg, that DDO’s popular Weekly Development Activities will be ceasing because what the DDO team is working on is under tight wraps, and that additionally DDO is going to be getting some major PR pushes in the coming months. Here are two blurbs from her announcement:

Q: Why is the WDA going away?
A: There are two critical factors that went into the decision, so let’s talk about them a little:
The first is that following the completion of Module 7, the DDO development team has been working full-tilt on several things that are still under tight wraps. This means we’re unable to include them in the WDA – making it next to useless.
More importantly, though, is that DDO will be getting more and more focus from Turbine’s marketing and PR teams over the coming months. This renewed focus has already begun, in fact, and you may have noticed an increase in the publicity for DDO. This is a good thing! The pickle is that as time goes on, we will be getting even more press coverage for the game; this means that we’ll need to offer exclusives to the media about things that are coming up next for DDO – things that as a result cannot be included in the WDA.

Q: What are these top secret things you mentioned?
A: They are top secret. In time we will bring you more information, but currently we’re not at liberty to discuss them. If we told you, we’d have to… well, you know.

Now for a huge negative: DDO’s UI. No I don’t mean those fugly icons (seriously Turbine, get some new icon art) but the complexity of it all. My highest character is level 7 so far, and I already have the same number, if not more, hotbars onscreen that I had back when I was raiding and PvP-ing in WoW. And a lot of the slots in my WoW hotbars were fluff; just items I put there for convenience not because I needed them. In DDO, I feel like I need those slots onscreen, and I can only see it getting worse as I progress to higher levels. Real-time combat or no, DDO does have a standard MMORPG UI and that is simply unacceptable in a console environment. I’ve wondered if a shift to drop-down hotbars would work, similar to how EA designed the UI for the console versions of their RTS titles, Battle for Middle Earth 2 and Command and Conquer 3. That UI works great within the scope of an RTS, and could possibly work well for our standard turn-based MMORPG’s but again, DDO is real-time, fast action, and I don’t know how that would translate when it comes to a fighter quickly needing a Trip skill or a caster needing to quickly select a spell from his repertoire. If a console DDO is indeed on the “top secret” plate over at Turbine, I am extremely interested how they handle the UI translation.

Now, just to put away all thoughts that Turbine is going to blow all their recent fund-raising just on DDO, I’ll reiterate Time Warner was one of the lead investors last week, and their representative specifically said “Online interactive entertainment is a huge growth market and we are very excited about Turbine, its unique capabilities and the obvious opportunities that exist with our own broad portfolio of IP.” In my previous speculations, I linked Time Warner’s involvement to their Harry Potter IP, but don’t forget the potential aspect of implementing aspects of the Lord of the Rings movies into the MMORPG. Turbine only had a license with Tolkien Enterprises for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit series of novels but nothing with New Line Cinemas. However, Time Warner is the parent company of New Line, so who knows? Maybe as an eventual result of this new turn of events we’ll finally hear Howard Shore’s glorious soundtrack in-game? Maybe we’ll see the NPC graphics reflect the looks of the actors? So much potential here, it would be a shame if it fell short. As their rep stated, Time Warner does indeed have a huge IP portfolio, so I’d still keep a Harry Potter-themed game as a possibility, or any number of their more popular franchises that could be brought to the MMO space.