DDO is dead!

[DaveMage]

Just got booted from DDO so they can do another hot fix.

Does anyone know or have a tally of how many hours the game has been down or unavailable since it started?

FYI they booted about 18 of us just now. It was a virtual riot.

I'm sure they will credit your account for the downtime....

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Downtime on DDO is extremely rare, and almost always announced well in advance.

Today's downtime is a scheduled hotfix announced yesterday, maybe Monday.

I can honestly think of no time, EVER, that the DDO servers have gone offline unexpectedly. My own client has crashed, perhaps, twice.

While downtime is usually scheduled server maintenance, today's hotfix smacks of an "OOPS!" I am guessing that today's hotfix is going to fix an unexpected "bug" where Holy Smite stuns all evil opponents for 1 round, with no save. Those Holy Smite wands have been sellin' like hotcakes.

 

[Felon]

Combat. WoW doesn't have combat. You click a button and wait. I think a lot of WoW's success is due to it's combat system's compatibility with people - it's so easy it's, well like I said, pretty non-existant. DDO involves at least a little skill. Even catching those Kobold Shamans is tricky! You're having to move, swing & use spells, feats, skills and items at the same time. YOU actually feel as though you've done something, not just let the computer do it. (For those who defend WoW's combat -would you play a fighting game -Tekken say - if all you had to do is select your enemy and click 'attack'?

I don't play WoW anymore, but I have to say that you're being somewhat unfair. It sounds like you're imploying that there's no combat just because combat is fairly static, with opponents in melee just charging up to each other and standing in that one spot chopping away until someone is dead. While that can be unsatisfying for some, that doesn't really mean that it's on auto-pilot. If you're playing a rogue, for instance, you have to chain up your sneak attack combos. If you just click a button and hope for the critter to drop eventually without any further action from the player, you're dead.

But you have touched upon my big beef with MMORPG's. A traditional computer RPG has a heavy emphasis on exploration, surprises, and problem-solving. A good RPG has easter egs aplenty. MMORPG's seem to feel compelled to go in the exact opposite direction; everything has to be linear, predictable, and most importantly, repeatable. You run through a dungeon and use the same tactics to take down one group of mobs after the next. Surprises are bad for some reason.

I would love to see dungeons in WoW where you face foes in different locations every time you go in, and the boss might be completely different every time. But see, many folks would hate that in WoW because they want to be able to build the perfect team with the right spells and tactics prepared to take down the boss.

 

[Felon]

So, I only played DDO briefly near its initial release. Let me ask some questions.

Is there enough variety that folks aren't just repeating the same handful of quests due to clear-cut flaws in the time-investment/reward ratio? In my day, it was Waterworks and some other higher-level quest.

Are some skills still useless? I remember Spot and Listen helped you find traps, but since dungeons aren't dynamic, the traps are always in the same place. Tumble did not seem to do anything other than look funny, and stupidly enough there was some backflip maneuver you could do, but it required such high ranks that it was only possible when a wizard cast a a Tumble-buffing spell on you.

 

[GlassJaw]

Is there enough variety that folks aren't just repeating the same handful of quests due to clear-cut flaws in the time-investment/reward ratio? In my day, it was Waterworks and some other higher-level quest.

It's definitely not as bad as it once was. There are still some clear-cut winners though. I think there's more of a problem with quests that no one runs unless they need it for favor rather than only a few quests that people run all the time.

Are some skills still useless? I remember Spot and Listen helped you find traps, but since dungeons aren't dynamic, the traps are always in the same place. Tumble did not seem to do anything other than look funny, and stupidly enough there was some backflip maneuver you could do, but it required such high ranks that it was only possible when a wizard cast a a Tumble-buffing spell on you.

Yes, there are still some skills that are essentially useless, and Listen is definitely one of them. Spot is still useful because some of the traps are random now.

I took a break from DDO a few weeks ago, mostly because there are a lot of other games I wanted to play and I just got tired of the constant changes. I completely expect things to change but Turbine will completely rewrite entire mechanics without provocation. I also just tired of the grind and the horrid raid loot mechanic. Not sure if I'll go back. I still want to check out LotRO for a while too.

 

[MarauderX]

Downtime on DDO is extremely rare, and almost always announced well in advance.

Today's downtime is a scheduled hotfix announced yesterday, maybe Monday.

I can honestly think of no time, EVER, that the DDO servers have gone offline unexpectedly. My own client has crashed, perhaps, twice.

While downtime is usually scheduled server maintenance, today's hotfix smacks of an "OOPS!" I am guessing that today's hotfix is going to fix an unexpected "bug" where Holy Smite stuns all evil opponents for 1 round, with no save. Those Holy Smite wands have been sellin' like hotcakes.

The DDO servers were all down over a weekend earlier this year. They credited everyone by giving every single PC a dragon shard. I still haven't used any of mine, but I guess I'll wait until I feel like using a dragon mark or something. It was unexpected and lasted days. The messageboards were then swamped and went down for a time too.

Too bad I didn't get my hands on a smite wand, would have been nice to go along with a vorpal toothpick.

 

[MarauderX]

Yes, there are still some skills that are essentially useless, and Listen is definitely one of them. Spot is still useful because some of the traps are random now.

I think you mean search. I never bothered with Spot or Listen, as in the beginning foes could just materialize whether your scores were high or not. Now that I am playing a ranger it makes a big difference. I went back to a high level fighter with 0 in each and got backstabbed by assassin duergar so many times I wish I had at least a boosting item.

 

[GlassJaw]

I think you mean search.

Nope, I meant Spot.

In DDO, Spot is used for spotting hidden foes and determing the general location of a trap. Some of the traps move around now so you can't just memorize their location.

Once you know the basic location of a trap, you use Search to find it (and make the box appear).

I'm also pretty sure they narrowed the range that Search will work, making Spot more useful.

 

[Felon]

Thanks for the info.

So, how about Tumble? Can characters now execute the uber-flip without arcane buffs?

 

[MarauderX]

Nope, I meant Spot.

In DDO, Spot is used for spotting hidden foes and determing the general location of a trap. Some of the traps move around now so you can't just memorize their location.

Once you know the basic location of a trap, you use Search to find it (and make the box appear).

I'm also pretty sure they narrowed the range that Search will work, making Spot more useful.

Ahh I see. Since I often am in quests where someone knows where the traps are, enough to set off their trapsense, I didn't think spot was used for that.