Officially named Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, it is an MMORPG developed by Turbine, Inc. Turbine has developed DDO as an online adaptation of D&D. DDO is based on the D&D 3.5 Ruleset and set in the Eberron campaign setting. Wizards of the Coast, the current publisher of the Dungeons and Dragons pen and paper game, worked with Turbine during the games approximately two years of development. DDO was released on February 28, 2006. It is published by Atari.
| Dungeons & Dragons Online | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Turbine, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Atari |
| Platform(s) | PC |
| Release | February 28 2006 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
On August 1 2005, Turbine sent out invitations to individuals interested in participating in the Public Alpha Test. On November 1, 2005, Turbine announced that the public Beta test was open [1]. On November 22, 2005 Turbine announced that each copy of the January 2006 issue of PC Gamer magazine would contain a "key" to gain access to the beta. Turbine, in association with Fileplanet and IGN, also completed 3 public stress tests of the game, with the most recent ending on February 12, 2006.
Testing for DDO ended on February 19th, 2006. The game opened February 28, 2006, after a special head start event that started February 24, 2006 for those who pre-ordered.
The Game
Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) is set on the fictional continent of Xen’drik, in the world of Eberron. Eberron is a new campaign world, developed by Keith Baker for Wizards of the Coast. Players can play in both indoor and outdoor environments, including (of course) a large variety of dungeons.
Players can create their characters following the revised edition of D&D 3.5 rule-set fashion.
Note that although the game is based in large part on the D&D 3.5 rule-set, it contains numerous minor changes from the tabletop game, most of which were introduced due to differences in the dynamics between the mediums of computer game combat and tabletop gaming. For example, Turbine wanted DDO to use a real time combat engine, where tabletop D&D uses a turn-based system. This brought about a number of changes in combat and character skills and feats to handle situations where Turbine felt the turn-based combat system and real-time combat did not mesh well. The system, however, is criticized for being less detailed and simulating D&D less well than the critically and popularly acclaimed Neverwinter Nights, which was released over four years earlier.
Characters
Races
The game does not feature a full complement of playable races from the Dungeons and Dragons world. However, Turbine has announced that in a July 2006 update they will add Drow to the list of playable races.
Current player character races are:
Classes
Currently there are nine (9) playable classes with no race restrictions. Following the 3.5 edition rules and the rules of the Eberron campaign, players choose a class to begin with but are not limited to remaining in that class. For example, a cleric may choose to gain a level in the rogue class, as well as any other class the player chooses; up to a maximum of ten (10) total levels.
Current classes are:
Notably absent from this list are the standard classes, Druid and Monk, the psionic classes, Artificers a Eberron exclusive class, and all prestige classes.
Alignments
Dungeons and Dragons Online does not feature the full spectrum of alignments available in Dungeons and Dragons, instead limiting itself to only 'good' and 'neutral' alignments. The ability to play 'evil' villains is not available.
The available alignments are:
Recent Updates
On April 5th 2006 Turbine released its first "Module" which included a new dungeon; this new area included additional content and quests as well as the chance for players to battle a red dragon. Also included were a number of fixes to the combat system and minor tweaks to the user interface.
After the update was completed and servers were brought back online major problems arose including inability to cast spells, use ranged weapons, form groups, or enter dungeons. The game was shut down while the problems were resolved, and the game was back up and running in approximately five (5) hours. Character rollbacks also occurred due to exploits/coding errors which enabled players to make massive amounts of in-game money in the time servers were available. Primary among those was a "split-stack" issue which allowed players to sell a bugged item, now appearing as a stack of items in their inventory, for extremely inflated prices to in-game merchants while still keeping one copy from the stack do with as they pleased.
Future Updates
UPDATE 5/11/06: The Community Relations Manager ("Sporkfire") has effectively confirmed that no new races or classes will be included in the module 2 or 3 updates for D&D Online, outside of the already noted Drow playable race. In addition, they revealed that neither the Druid nor Monk classes (nor the other core player races/classes) have been developed beyond the "concept" stage to date.
Aside from the recent announcement of the Drow race (Dark Elves), no other classes or races have been marked for release in the game to date. Among items included in the D&D 3.5 Core Rules that are currently missing from D&D Online are: core classes (Druid and Monk), core races (Gnome, Half-orc, half-elf), as well as the additional Eberron specific races of Kalashtar, Shifter and Changeling.
New Terms Created by Game
This section's factual accuracy is disputed. |
- "Ransack": DDO uses instancing, where only a party can be in one place together and after they leave, it resets, to prevent excessive farming (re-running the quests for the loot), DDO implemented Ransacking, where after the chest has been opened 15 times in one week by a player, the chest gives out far less powerful loot. One week after the first time the player opened the chest, the ransack timer resets and the loot goes back to normal. Players usually say that they are ransacked on a chest, or that the chest is ransacked. Also players go "ransacking" where they loot a chest 15 times in a row together, the closest thing to farming in DDO.
See also
References
"[2] Dungeons & Dragons Online : FAQ". URL accessed on September 20, 2005.
External links
- Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach - Official website
- Turbine, Inc. - Publisher of DDO
- The DDO Wiki
- OGaming - Online database of items, quests, monsters, and zone
Reviews
- 1Up Network 6.5/10
- Amped IGO 6.9/10
- Gamespy 3/5
- Gamespot 7.5/10
- Game Chronicles 7.6/10
- Games Radar 7/10
- Game Revolution C-
- IGN 7.5/10
- RPG Land 7.5/10
- Underground Online B
- Worth Playing 8.9/10