DDO

[Pladio]

I just downloaded DDO and some people here said RPGWatch has some players on some server ... Could someone fill me in and give me some starter tips ?

[GothicGothicness]

O, and can someone tell me how I open the first gate ? ( not impressed by the interface )

[Pladio]

Really ? It's quite intuitive I thought. The only thing I didn't like was the tight-click mouse look, but you can toggle that off.

When the lady tells you to climb the ladder, you climb up and then there's a little crevice/hole you jump in.(follow the red signs) Then there's a guard of some species and you kill it. Just behind the guard is a lever to pull ...

[dteowner]

We're all on the Khyber server. A few of us have additional toons on Cannith. If you might ever want to party up with anyone from the Watch, you need to get started on the Khyber server.

@GG- like all interfaces, the DDO one has some quirks. I love the quickbars, but getting them set up to your satisfaction is like having a cactus shoved up your butt. My tab key (targetting) only seems to work properly about half the time, although maybe that's just me. Overall, the UI works pretty well for me though. Plus, as best as I can tell, every single command and keystroke is completely mappable, which allows you to customize things you don't like. This is the only MMO I've ever played, so there's always the possibility I just don't realize how screwed up it is. ;)

[Cm]

Easiest way to find stuff your mouse misses is just hit "Q" then "E". Q will highlight anything close enough for you to interact with and E will initiate the action you can do to that object.

[Corwin]

Yes, if you're on either Khyber (main focus) or Cannith (limited focus by some of us) we can attempt to assist your development. Just let us know when and where in advance and someone will try to be there.

[azraelck]

As said, we are currently haunting Khyber. These are my characters that I play regularly (or semi-regularly).

Rachail - Human Paladin lvl 15
Aerii - Elven Cleric lvl 16
Murii - Warforged Sorcerer lvl 6
Mirys - Half-Elven Favored Soul lvl 8
Ijii - Drow Bard lvl 7
Wiindsong - Half-Elven Monk lvl 4

Rachail, Aerii, and Ijii are officers, so they can invite you to the guild. Wiindsong is new, and hasn't seen a lot of play time, and Mirys is faily new, created with the recent release of Half-Elves in Update 7. Murii I'm not sure on, as I haven't been playing it recently.

Once you get used to it, the UI is fine, though targeting tends to be bugged, and currently some spells are not working correctly at all due to that. You can set up hotkeys for your hotbars by going into UI settings under options. I generally use 4 (set to shift, ctrl, or alt + #) that serve most of my needs, while the rest I just use the mouse to click.

Depending on your class, some of us may have some gear you can make use of, so let us know what you are playing, and we'll see what we can do. I have a bank character as well, which has who-knows-what piled up. It may mean you need to get a level or two to use it, but at least you'll have something to help out in the coming battles.

[Pladio]

Unfortunately, I already got to the point where I don't like MMOs lol. I thought I should try it again, since I hadn't for several years. I found the first quest amusing enough with the little puzzle and I didn't mind waiting a while for some enemies to attack me. But when I came back I could ask the questgiver to give me the quest again...

I might be old-fashioned, but I feel useless in the game. All that I can do is solve a quest and then find that it can be done again. I really don't like that. It's as if what I did did not matter at all. I like being in a game where my actions have some kind of consequence.

So, sorry for starting up a new thread for this, but I probably won't be playing this unless I feel very bored.

[azraelck]

Well, the thing about DDO is it's a grind. You run quests for rare items to use later. You can run at higher difficulties, almost every quest has an elite mode which is much tougher, and a few (more added each update) have Epic modes for level 20 characters only. But you're allowed to run things over and over until you're blue.

You do have an effect on the game world, it's just that you can reset everything. Among the amusing things you can do is slay a lich attempting to ascend to godhood, and on a more mundane level, help stop an invasion attempt.

[DDOer]

I actually think that DDO is much less of a grind then many other MMO's. There are unique, instanced dungeons that can take you from 1-20 on without repeating any content. Now when you start playing more characters, TR (True Rez) then it does become more of a grind. You can find the optimal quests for your level by this great tool at www.ddmsrealm.com/ddo . It is a Top Ten list. Just enter your level range and it spits back the best quests for your level. Here: http://www.ddmsrealm.com/ddo/TopTen.aspx

Everyone has their own likes and dislikes but I think DDO is one of the best MMO's I have every played and I have played a lot. :)

[Corwin]

DDOer, we generally don't allow links to other sites without express permission. Your site link is actually a good one and as a DDO guild leader myself I'm happy to leave the link there, but please avoid doing this in the future. We already have several threads here where DDO is discussed in great detail.

[Bateman]

What is (are) your guild(s)? I recently joined the game, would be great to team up with watchers!

[dteowner]

Did you get started on the Khyber server? That's where the guild is located. It's remarkably creative name is RPGWatch. ;)

[SirJames]

starter tip: pick a drow wizard. Its the only race with 32 points before you've unlocked 32 point builds. You'll have to unlock drow first, but that wont take long. Roll up a 28 pointer just to experiment then start your first main as a drow wizard. Then when you unlock 32 point builds you can get back to the old classes.

I hate this method of unlocking shit. I don't want to protect crates from kobolds ever again.

[Corwin]

:) In that case, get veteran status, start at level 4 and skip that boring PITA quest!! :)
BTW, I play a Drow Wizard most of the time!!

[dteowner]

It's not really that big of a deal to work your way up and it's a good learning experience to do it once, but you can purchase 32-point build for all the toons on your account as well. Veteran status can only be purchased after you push one character to level 4, so the game really forces you to go thru that "tutorial" at least once.

Fie on that hocus-pocus nonsense anyway! Get a nice sharp stick and do the job right.

[Cm]

We have a thread in the OT forum called Team Corwin. Feel free to post there as well and some good character build tips ect are posted there about DDO by our experts in the field. ;)

[Bateman]

Never seen anybody with that guild-name "RPGWatch". Strange...

[dteowner]

Well, it's a relatively small guild and it's also global (with all the timezone oddities that come with that), so I don't know that I'm particularly surprised. With the way the game is structured, 6 people can fill out a party and 12 can fill out a raid, so there's not really much advantage to being in a guild with hundreds of people.

[Cm]

Post your character name or pm it to one of us and we can send you a guild invite ingame if you like. Guild vendors are cheaper on most items so being in the guild does have advantages. We also have an Airship you can use.

[Corwin]

Plus, Guilds are server specific. Ours is on Khyber. If you play on any other server, the guild won't appear.

[bloodlover]

Epic bump : anyone still playing this?

[dteowner]

Yep. Team Corwin is going strong and has a session going tonight. The RPGWatch guild has about a dozen active accounts. Not a huge community, but we're still there. We're mostly on the Khyber server and the guild is only on Khyber.

[blatantninja]

How long do the sessions typically last? I've always wanted to play something like this, but unfortunately my time is somewhat limited.

[bloodlover]

Do you accept lowbies/newbies? xD

[Cm]

Anyone from the Watch is welcome in the guild. The ship we have offers you buffs that really help out at low levels. And we are going to do an upgrade soon we hope. We are on Khyber. If you go to the Off Topic forum and find Team Corwin thread several people posted up names of characters. Just send one of them an ingame tell or post your character name here and we will send you an invite in game.

Our session on Friday starts at about 6CMT. However groups are limited to 6 and we usually always have six. The rest of the week times vary greatly when you might find one or more of us in game. The membership is pretty internationally spread out.

Try finishing Korthos Island and a few harbor quests, you should know if you really like it or not by then. Hope you do and we see you in there soon. ;)

[dteowner]

How long do the sessions typically last? I've always wanted to play something like this, but unfortunately my time is somewhat limited.The 6 that make up Team Corwin are global, so start time varies from 6pm Friday to 8am Saturday. For your location, it would start at 7pm and generally wrap up around midnight. Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to run with that group for a while without taking a crippling penalty for being "power-levelled". We've all got multiple characters, and some of those are lower levels that could run with you. Outside of Friday night, it's catch-as-catch-can, but that's not as difficult as you might think. Since the DDO ingame chat function is pretty dodgy, we use Skype (which is free) to talk. That's also the best way to check for others being available for a session. I've had pickups like that run from 45 minutes to 11 hours. You'd probably want to block out 2-3 hours to make it worthwhile, IMO.

Do you accept lowbies/newbies? xDIf you're in good standing here on the Watch, you're eligible for the guild.

[bloodlover]

Human female cleric Bebela reporting for duty. I'll end up being some 1337 healer (though idk how raids work in this game). I made a char on another server (sorc) but didn't like it.

[Thaurin]

Bah, I started again with DDO when I got my new computer, but gave up all too soon after the starting area. Why did I do that? I want to join in a session, too. :( (CET time)

[joxer]

I've played that game a bit, but got annoyed by repeating the same instances on different difficulties just to nail them all down. The biggest problem was I couldn't find ppl to party with me regularily and some who joined were often either useless or too much afk. And I've played thief/mage (thief lvl 1, rest levels mage).

[Corwin]

Joxer, I have a thief/mage, but I gave him 2 levels of thief so I would get Evasion. I hate PUGS, though some people here do play in them. One of the reasons I began the Guild on Khyber was so that we could play with people we know and like. All registered members of the Watch can join. Simply post your character's name either here, or preferably in the Team Corwin thread in the Off Topic forum (I check that more frequently) and we'll send you a guild invite. The guild TAB allows you to see which guild members are online to group with. Many of us have characters at various levels so we can usually oblige. Also, since we use Skype to converse, a quick skype message to anyone showing as online, but not in the game is one way we organise a session.

[Cm]

With the 6 man limit per group it might be good for the people recently expressing interest in the game to post up game play times and character levels and see if you can hook up with each other and any of us.

The original 6 meet on Friday as stated, but several of us have low levels in storage and free time to play. You can alway fill out a group by inviting non-guild members or getting hirelings. 3 players each with a healer makes a nice working party for many of the quests. Post in the Team Corwin thread for consistency in communications. ;)

[dteowner]

If we get enough new players, it might make sense to create a second "Team" with their own schedule. We did that for a while back in the day with NWN, with a Team Corwin and a Team dte running on different nights. There were a couple people that played with different toons in both groups. That made it easier for folks to find a "slot" that fit with their schedule.

[Thaurin]

Well, I'm downloading the client again, so let's see where that takes me. I think I had a very low level, didn't do much after leaving the first starter area. How that's okay.

And I hope there's some time I can even play, being in the CET time zone. Most of you seem to be from the USA or Aussieland!

[dteowner]

Of the "main" group, 1 Aussie, 1 Euro, and 4 imperialist pigdogs. Most of the new wave we're seeing here seem to be Euros. Personally, I think that's a good thing since our usual session time pretty well sucks for the Euros. I'm amazed that Peter is able to do it week after week. If we can get a few of y'all working together on a schedule that makes sense for you, that's going to be good for the guild as a whole.

[Thaurin]

So what's your usual session time?

[Cm]

We start logging in between 5pm and 6pm (-6UTC Central time US and Canada). We start gaming once everyone is online. We use skype to chat as ingame chat does not function for a few of us.

[Thaurin]

Yeah, that would be the middle of the night for me, lol. Not perfect for during the week.

[Cm]

Well a few us US folks are available during the day. ;) All of you need to post up what would be a good day and time to meet once a week, then go from there on the hit and miss.

You have to take the trip to Stormreach once in order to team up at all IIRC. Not sure if that is true if you are in a guild. But I know it was the case way back when. Post your character name if you have not gotten an invite. In the mean time I will try to log on a bit more during the day, now that I know someone is looking.

[dteowner]

There's no mailbox on Khorthos (unless they've added it in the past couple updates), so yes you do have to get to Stormreach to even get your guild invite.

[Corwin]

However, you can sail to Stormreach and then return to Korthos to finish those starter quests!!

[Thaurin]

However, you can sail to Stormreach and then return to Korthos to finish those starter quests!!

Which is what I'm gonna do. Did some quests in Stormreach yesterday, and while it was fun, the dungeon kicked my lone ass a few times. A group would be more fun, preferably with some people that have never done them before either!

Anyway, I'm already in the guild. Still figuring out all the features of the UI, though.

[dteowner]

Anyway, I'm already in the guild. Still figuring out all the features of the UI, though.Best UI advice I can give you is to figure out the hotbars (they're a pain to set up) and don't be stingy. I run 5 hotbars at a time and most of my toons aren't spell casters. Azraelck runs something like 18 hotbars on the screen for all his toons. Obviously, that works better if you're running a high screen resolution, but it's definitely worth giving up some visual real estate.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

However, you can sail to Stormreach and then return to Korthos to finish those starter quests!!

Yes ? Great. I didn't know that ! Now I've got to find out how …

[Cm]

Just go to the dock in Korthos and find the farshifter. I believe she is behind the ship captain. The rest is self explained. You have to make that trip to get your guild invite in the mail I think.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Okay, thanks. :)