Dungeons & Dragons Online Forum News (Apr. 18, 05)

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Here are today's Dungeons & Dragons Online forum highlights, collected from Dungeons & Dragons Online forums. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Xundau, Community Relations

Skeleton Army Question

Both the skeleton mage and archer are definitely in game. I've killed a lot of them.

Reserve our Character Name Before Release?

We're definitely considering doing something like this for beta players and/or pre-orders. Nothing's been confirmed yet though, and probably won't be until we're much closer to launch.

DOD Communications Compatabilitiy

I did some asking around about this issue, and according to our tech support folks, there is a geniune compatibility problem with AC1 and the WGC-200 router that Comcast often gives to its customers. Apparently the problem has to do with the way the WGC-200 handles loose UDP routing. I'm not a networking guy, so I can't give any more specific info than that.

The good news is that this isn't a problem with the version of the Turbine Engine that AC2 uses (that is, AC2 works fine with these routers), and it won't be a problem for DDO either.

Fumbles and Crits

Critical hits are currently in, and work pretty much the same way they do in D&D 3.5e.

Fumbles aren't in, although rolling a 1 on your to-hit roll will still guarantee a miss.

Ebberon content

Joni-san's right about the lightning rail -- it's in Khorvaire, but it's not on Xen'drik (at least not yet).

As far as specific power groups go, pretty much any group that's listed in the Eberron Campaign Setting is fair game for DDO. A number of organizations are already in the game, and more will be added before launch, but we are saving some of them for later.

I don't want to spoil too much of the storyline by giving away specifics, although I will say that you'll be dealing with a number of different Dragonmarked Houses.

Pulling??

D&D, and by extension Dungeons & Dragons Online, is not so heavy on the "divide-and-conquer" combat model that EQ and other MMORPGs use, in which the key to combat success is pulling, separating, and mesmerizing your opponents and then fighting them one at a time. Although there are mez-like spells in DDO, and it's good to know when to use them, combat won't revolve around them.

Furthermore, because all adventures take place in instanced dungeons, there won't be continuously-spawning monster camps in DDO. It then follows that there will be no need to have someone who specializes in breaking up the camp or the spawn timing.

In general, our combat is very different from what you're used to seeing in MMORPGs; traditional genre roles like "puller" and "mezzer" aren't really applicable in our game.

Linux Binaries?

PC only for release.

We haven't ruled out doing clients for other platforms (Linux, Mac, console, etc.) in the future, but at the same time, nothing's currently planned.

The Forgotten Realms

The final decision was made before I got here last year, but from what I understand there was discussion at some point about putting the game in FR.

We ultimately chose Eberron for quite a few reasons, many of which are mentioned above.

Alpha sign ups officially announced, opened to the general public.

Hi Everyone,

We officially announced alpha registration this morning, and opened up signups to the general public.

For those of you who are interested, the full press release can be found here:

[link]

Do I need to resubmit my app?

No -- you only need to register once to be considered for all phases of alpha and beta.

Lvl Restriction On Items

I just confirmed this with our designers -- we will be using level restrictions on our items, primarily as an anti-twinking mechanism.

In general, we're going to be pretty loose with our level requirements. As Baraquel points out, we've previously said that we don't want level one characters running around with +5 Vorpal weapons, and that's still the case. But we also don't want to penalize players who do dungeons at or even slightly above their recommended level. With few exceptions, if you find something in a dungeon, you should be able to use it right away.

This does mean that some degree of twinking will be possible. And honestly, we're okay with this. If someone wants to give their friend's character or their own alt or even a random stranger a bit of a head start, that's not a problem. Where it would become a problem is if twinking could make a character blatantly overpowered, and this is why we're putting in the level limits.

As for other restrictions, we're mostly staying away from them. A big reason for this is that they're a bit redundant -- a rapier's going to appeal to finesse-style characters anyway, so why make things overly complicated by requiring the Weapon Finesse feat in order to use it? An amulet that extends the duration of the Rage ability will only be useful to Barbarians, so why put an explicit class restriction on it?

Warforged and Healing..

This is in -- since we don't have crafting in game, I'm pretty sure it's just called the "Repair" skill.

Everything else is still as quoted above. We're using the Eberron Campaign Setting rules, which means 1/2 healing from divine healing spells, and full healing from the Repair Damage series of arcane spells (which are implemented, btw). There will also be Oils of Repair available.

Again, we'll keep an eye on this during Alpha and Beta, but we're sticking to these rules for now.

How big do you think StormReach needs to be?

I think you'll like what we're doing with Stormreach then ...

Don't worry -- there are many, many cases where you won't go straight to a dungeon, but rather to the wilderness area in the vicinity of your destination.

The purpose of abstracted travel is to skip the boring, uneventful stuff. So if you're going somewhere that's hidden (a long-lost temple that's rumored to exist three days west of Stormreach) or that's heavily guarded (a hobgoblin fortress), chances are you're going to have to start in the wilderness, well away from your final destination.

Looking for more info on spell points.

Keep in mind that we haven't released many specific details on the spellpoint system yet. We are using the rules for spellpoints presented in Unearthed Arcana as a starting point, but our implementation will almost certainly diverge from those rules.

Goblinoid races and others....

We're not ruling it out, but we'll probably focus on adding more of the playable races from the Player's Handbook and Eberron Campaign Setting before we get to goblinoids.

As an aside, it's my understanding that goblinoids in Eberron are not fully integrated into human society. They get along better with humans and other races than they do in Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk (they don't kill each other on sight), but there's still a lot of tension on both sides.

Install to HD or play from CD?

We haven't done CD verification in the past, and it's unlikely that we'll do it in DDO. Since you need a valid account to get into the game (and multiple people can't log into the same account simultaneously), CD verification isn't really very useful.

That being said, we haven't finalized these types of details yet, so this could change, especially if we find a good reason for doing it.

The idea of a family pack containing one set of CDs and multiple CD keys is interesting; our plans for the actual boxed product (s) also haven't been finalized, so we'll have to wait and see.

I Hate Rust Monsters

Come on now, you didn't think that you'd be able to keep that +3 Vorpal Sword forever, did you?

Sporkfire, Community Relations Manager

Question for DDO Dev Team

Accessibility concerns are usually addressed in later stages of development, after players have had the chance to give feedback on the UI. And so, that's not something I can answer right now. But make sure and join us when we do open up Alpha and Beta so you can help us refine the interface to be accessible

Alpha Registration Opens!

Turbine and the DDO Team are excited to announce that Alpha Registrations for Dungeons & Dragons Online are now open to the community in the Members Only forum! Please Note: At this time, Alpha signup is reserved for registered DDO forum members only. Non-forum members who attempt to sign up during this exclusive signup period will be disqualified from participating in the Alpha.

So if you are an adventure seeking registered community member, sign up now for your chance to get into the DDO Alpha! The official Alpha start date will be announced soon. We will be inviting players into the Alpha on a regular basis once it begins.

The world of Eberron awaits your arrival, as you embark on the great adventures that Dungeons & Dragons is known for. Register through the members only area today -- and prepare to master this unique new online campaign world!

We’ll see you in Eberron!

Register for the DDO Alpha!

Alpha Registration FAQ

Q. I received an alpha registration invitation over email. Does this mean that I'm definitely in alpha? If so, how do I get my game account?

A. No one has been accepted into the alpha yet. If you received an invitation to register, you are in one of a few different special groups that will receive special consideration for alpha and beta. However, please keep in mind that the number of people admitted into alpha will be extremely small. Even if you received an invitation to register, you should not expect to get into alpha.

Q. I've been an active forum member since September! Why didn't I get an email invitation?

A. The e-mail invitations mostly went to those in the Turbine Beta Rewards program. But, consider today's announcement your invitation!

Q. But people who sign up for the forums today can also register for alpha! Surely you don't think that someone who registers today is just as valuable to the community as someone who's been an active community member since September?

A. Just because we're letting people who join the forums today register for alpha doesn't mean that we're forgetting about our community pioneers. We have lots and lots of data about the community, and our most valuable members will get into alpha or beta at some point. Again though, our alpha will be extremely limited, so no one should expect to get into it.

Q. I registered on Atari's betatests.net website last year. Is my application still in your system, or do I need to register again?

A. Anyone who registered on Atari's betatests.net will need to re-register on the new site in order to be considered for the DDO alpha.

Q. Any other advice?

A. Make sure that you register with the same email address that your forums account is attached to. If you're not sure which email address to use, you can check in the Email & Password section of the User Control Panel: http://www.ddo.com/forums/usercp.php

Alpha Registration Opens!

Just an FYI that we are tracking those people who are having trouble with the application process. I may not know anything more for a little while, but I wanted to let you know we'll look into it and see to it that everyone is able to submit enough of the registration to be considered for the Alpha phase.

The House of Commons chat

A four hour session is rather grueling, especially given the fact that our designers are taking time out of the Dev process (which is very valuable this close to Alpha). We honestly would like to be able to answer every single question on everyone's mind, but everyone has limitations.

Also, in this phase of development, there are just some questions not ready to be answered. There are still decisions being made, and it would be irresponsible to talk at length about topics that are fairly fluid on the Dev side of things.

But I want everyone to know that we have the questions from every chat session forwarded to us, whether we answered them or not, because they still have value - whether for future Q&A's, forum topics that we may want to anticipate and even internal development discussions they might spark. It's a really good window into what is on the community's mind.

SIQ, DDO Q&A Lead

Tips and Techniques for Testers

Destroid beat me to the punch about alpha and beta. The one thing I would add to Destroid's bug reports are exact steps to reproduce the bug. If you are able to reproduce a bug and communicate how to reproduce that bug to our QA and the development teams, it would greatly aid in the overall quality of the game. A bug that one person sees once is very hard for our test team to track down. A bug that many people see once is easier. The easiest one of them all is the bug that someone can tell us exactly how it occurred. I and my team will be on the lookout for unique bugs that are submitted, so please submit whatever you find. Look forward to seeing everyone online in Alpha.

Thanks,

SIG

Calandryll, Director of Community Relations

Will People be contacted if they DON'T get into Alpha?

No we won't e-mail people when they don't get selected. We will post each time we invite people though so if you don't get the e-mail within a day or so of that announcement it's safe to assume you didn't get in that round.

The House of Commons chat

If I could add another quick comment to Sporkfire's comments.

Keep in mind that sometimes we aren't ready to talk about a particular subject. This could be for any number of reasons such as the system isn't 100% nailed down yet or perhaps we are waiting to reveal it as part of a big magazine article.

So sometimes we may see a perfectly good question but we just can't answer it yet. We don't want to fill the chat with a bunch of "No comment" or "We haven't decided on that yet" answers, so we try to take the ones that we know we can give some details about.

As Spork said though, this certainly won't be the last chat.