Dungeons & Dragons Online Forum News (Jan. 06, 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.

Nik Davidson, Administrator

DEVS will hacking be allowed ?

Hackers will be found and banned. I'm fairly certain we've answered this before.

A (long) Argument in favor of a large, open, traversable world

There's been some very good discussion in this thread, and I think you've really nailed the fundamental point at which our visions split. We definitely agree on what MMORPGs have been, but perhaps we disagree on what MMPORPGs can be.

I worked on both AC1 and AC2, and while the feeling of a large, open explorable space definitely added that feeling of "world", it sometimes did so at the expense of the feeling of "game". This genre is far too new and far too small for us to be cannibalizing the same ideas over and over - DDO breaks a lot of new ground, not just in what unique things it has to offer, but in what it chooses not to focus on. In the age of sequels and add-ons, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that more is not always better. We continue to strongly feel that keeping the playable spaces tightly focused is one of those cases for this particular game.

Character Stat Generation

When my alignment swings farthest toward evil, I really want us to do 3d6 in order, and we charge you a nickel to reroll.

Mwahahaha!

We're not doing that. It'll be point-buy, though we're still picking the number.

Copyright Infringements in Naming and Offensive Name Control

We're going to be very strict about offensive names, but I don't think it's practical to take as hard a line about names from other sources. (books, movies, etc.) Especially with lesser-known character names, it becomes very problematic.

This is never an easy topic - we once ran into someone whose name was that of one of Mao's generals during the revolution. I was asked if that counted as an offensive name. "Hell if I know," I replied. I mean, it's a common enough name, so as far as I knew, it might be the guy's real name. Maybe he just picked it because it sounded cool. There are certainly some people who would find it offensive, but coming from a different background, he might be some sort of a folk hero. I think we left it alone (nobody reported it as offensive, it was just noticed by one of our people took too many Chinese History classes) but it does illustrate the difficulty we face with this topic.

Long story short, I'm going to cop out on this topic and say that we'll release more information regarding our naming policy when we get closer to launch.

Special Servers (a lengthy examination)

Person A: I want [Thing X]!
Person B: No, I want [Thing Y]!
Person C: Hey, they should do BOTH!
Everyone: Yaaaaaaay!

If I had a nickel for every time this exchange had gone on in a game forum, well, I'd have a heck of a lot of nickels. A plethora of nickels. I would live in Nickeltopia.

And often, were we to do just that, it would work to the detriment of the game. If you have the choice between doing one thing well, three things decently, or five things crappily - we choose between the first and second option, never the third. And for this game in particular, we're biased toward the first, across the board.

Special Servers (a lengthy examination)

We've discussed alternate rules servers extensively, and have not ruled them out. I believe Ken Troop expounded on the matter in an interview. They are not our current priority, however.

Grouping GUI/Tool

Very good topic, and timely too - we're due to be working on these systems in depth soon.

Grouping GUI/Tool

Just to be clear, when I say "these systems," I'm referring to grouping systems in general, not a Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V of your post.

Worldwide Comunication.

In part because some of those systems are still in the works. We'll have more info in a few weeks once we nail some things down.

Why not Take DDO to the next level?

Posters here have pretty much nailed it on the head - it's not that it's a bad idea; it's a really interesting idea, but it would require that you decide up front that that's your game, entirely. The entire design, content, and even business model would need to be constructed around player created content. It's not something you can just add on at the end

Multi-classed characters

Because they're broken as hell.

Ebay and DDO

So, let me try to put this one to rest, as much as it ever will be.

We have not announced our terms of service for Dungeons and Dragons Online, however I can discuss the policies and procedures that are already in place for other Turbine games.

It is a violation of the terms of service to sell in-game items, characters or currency. We can and do currently work with eBay and other sites to shut down online auctions of these items.

Naturally, we don't catch everyone. But it's a clear violation of our policies, and we do ban a lot of people for it.

Crafting eventually?

Eventually, sure. Gotta like "eventually" - a deadline you'll never miss.

Xundau, Community Relations

Don't Destroy D&D! Dont make this game!

Just to reinforce what others have said, this is Dungeons & Dragons Online, not Dungeons & Dragons 4.0 -- we're not looking to replace PnP D&D, but rather create a D&D MMORPG that will coexist peacfully with the PnP version of the game.

There's one analogy that we've used before that I particularly like: we're trying to do something similar to what the Lord of the Rings movies did with the original series of books. Peter Jackson & Co. recognized the importance of remaining faithful to the original material, but they were also realistic about the differences between 1000+ pages of text and 9 hours or so of film, and they didn't hesitate to make bold decisions and big changes when necessary.

Similarly, one of our stated design goals is to stay as close to the original D&D material as possible. But another one of our goals is to create a fun, compelling gameplay experience for all of our players. These goals are sometimes at odds with each other, and when they are, gameplay generally wins. Other changes are simply dictated by the technology and economics of today's MMORPG market -- for instance, there's no way we can program an AI that can come anywhere close to allowing the freedom that a human DM can provide. We also can't hire DMs for all of our players without making the game prohibitively expensive.

An interesting side-note here is that this viewpoint is one of the things that allowed us to get this license in the first place. When we proposed this game to the folks at Atari and Wizards of the Coast, we were very up front about the inherent differences between a PnP game and an MMORPG, and the types of changes that would be necessary, and they agreed with us 100%.

Most If Not All the 3.5 Edition Rules At Your Fingertips

Phobophobia.

(ahem)

You can also find the d20 rules, which are derived from 3.5 D&D, here. Please keep in mind that not all of these rules are going to be in DDO.

Class Kits

Thanks for answering everyone -- everything that's been said has pretty much been spot on.

BGII is based on 2nd edition rules (with a sprinkling of 3.0), while DDO will be based on the 3.5 D&D rules. While 3.5 doesn't have the kits that were available in 2nd edition, it has far more options for character customization than 2nd edition.

Detecting evil/good and other spells you would like to see avoided

Eberron's ambiguous alignment system emphasizes that creatures with an opposite alignment from yours won't always be your foes, and creatures who share your alignment won't always be your friends.

So for instance, the Karrnathian general that wants you to recover an artifact from the Blood of Vol might be Lawful Evil, but he might be telling the truth, and it might be in your best interest to help him. Then again, he could actually be a member of the Order of the Emerald Claw -- either way, he's evil, so Detect Evil won't really help too much here. Of course, situations like this can arise in any campaign setting, but they're supposed to happen more often in Eberron.

That being said, Detect Evil won't be in DDO, either as a spell or a paladin class ability.

Random Encounters- questions on some details

Good questions, and good answers too. I just did a little bit of reconaissance around the office, and it turns out that the nitty-gritty details on random encounters are still being decided.

So this is a good opportunity for you guys to give us your feedback -- what do *you* want to see in random encounters? What don't you want to see? Should you be able to opt out of some or all of them? Do you want random encounters at all? How frequently?

Beta testers!!

I'm not sure where you got 2006 from -- the last time I checked (earlier today), we were still on track for a late 2005 release.

Multi-classed characters

Our multiclassing rules will generally follow the multiclass rules for 3.5 D&D. You can find the rules in the 3.5 SRD, at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35 -- if you download the doc titled "Character Classes II," the last section deals with multiclassing.

In general, character progression is based on overall character level (CL), which is the sum of all of your class levels. Your character level determines how many xp you need to gain a new level, what types of challenges you're supposed to be able to face, when you get new feats and ability score increases, etc. When you gain a new character level, you can generally advance one level in any class that you qualify for.

Your class level(s) determine your specific abilities. So for instance:
A 9th-level fighter (with no other classes) is a CL9 character. He has all of the abilities -- mainly, extra combat-related feats -- of a 9th level fighter.

A 4th-level fighter/5th-level cleric is also a CL9 character. She has all of the abilities of a 4th-level fighter (extra feats), as well as those of a 5th-level cleric (3rd-level spells and turn undead).
Base attack bonuses (the replacement for THAC0) stack for multiclass characters. So to continue with the above example, the 9th level Fighter would have a +9 BAB, while the fighter/cleric would have +7 BAB (+4 for being a 4th level fighter and +3 for being a 5th level fighter). Saving throws stack in a similar manner.

As for weapon and armor restrictions, you can generally use the best stuff available to you. A fighter/wizard can wear any armor and wield any weapon, although most arcane spells are prone to failure when their caster is wearing armor. Similarly, the fighter/cleric can wield any weapon -- clerics are no longer restricted to bludgeoning weapons, and can wield anything they're proficient in.

I agree that this gives min-maxers a lot to play with, but I think the flexibility and freedom that this system provides is more than worth it. Besides, min-maxing can be pretty fun

Jason Booth, DDO Dev Team

Distobution and Costs

Interesting rant, but it only shows the author's lack of understanding of how the retail market works; or that he's writting only from the "user" perspective (which is a very valid way to go, because user experience should be first priority).

Many developers and publishers would love to cut out the middle man, as the bulk of the money spent doesn't even get to them, but doing so often risks your ability to sell in retail stores at all. The same is true in most industries; Walmart won't let record companies start thier own online stores because it would compete with thiers; Walmart acounts for about 60% of the music sales, so record companies don't sell direct because they would loose that business. In the end, record companies are being squeezed at both ends, and companies without ties in the industry (apple) will reap the benifit of this squeeze(iTunes).

The game industry is even tighter in some ways; games are still specialty items, expecially ones outside of the mainstream. Shelf time is extremely short (most games only last a few months on the shelf), and retailers usually don't have very much room to work with (space in malls isn't cheap). Unlike a lot of music, games 'rot'. Thier value almost always decreases at the same rate as hardware does, or even faster. Most hit albums stay at thier original purchase price, but how much is GTA3 selling for now, $19.99? Less? Like music, most games don't turn a profit; but unlike music, games are getting more expensive to make, where music is becoming cheaper to record.

There are, of course, tons of other factors (piracy, rental, etc) which all squeeze the industry tighter. Personally, I think this will lead to less and less retail game stores; instead, Best Buy, Walmart, etc will be whats available. These large chains will only stock the top sellers, and anything not "A list, big name licence" will be unlikely to get any shelf time. Much like the mom and pop computer stores, the specialty game stores will become more rare. This will eventually force more developers to adopt an online only distribution stratagy because the retail channel will no longer be viable for them. Depending on what gives first, this could be a smooth transition, or a very rocky one. I'd suspect the latter (as the movie and music industries are not having a smooth transition with it).

 

Detect alignment spells are going to be removed. Brilliant. Tell me as much BS about your ambiguous alignment system as you want, if good & evil don't really exist, then there's no need for Good and Evil denominators, let alone a class like paladins.

Another thing is copyright infringement in names. Let's be blunt: the fact that some N^N idiots will name their characters Drizzt Do'Urden or Artemis Entreri doesn't produce any direct monetary loss on the part of the copyright holder. They still distort the vision of the character, that's granted. Seeing N^N "Drizzt Do'Urden" named drow rangers will make you want to vomit even at the mention of the original character. So yes, there can be harm. But of a different kind from royalty lawyering.

Let's be clear:

Taking book character names sucks, sucks, sucks.

Taking the names of historical characters for D&D characters sucks, sucks, sucks.

Taking surnames of famous people and families sucks, sucks, sucks.