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DDO plans changes to reincarnation system
Reincarnation, Dungeons and Dragons Online's "do over" system, is slated for a revamp with Update 20. When the update lands, there will be four types of reincarnation available to players: heroic true reincarnation, iconic true reincarnation, epic reincarnation, and lesser reincarnation. At the same time, greater reincarnation will be phased out of the game. These four types of reincarnation reset your levels (either back a few or all the way to level 1) while giving you bonuses like past life feats and more build points for your next run. Epic reincarnation merely resets your epic levels to 20, while iconic reincarnation applies only to the new iconic characters. There's a great amount of information about this complex system available on the forums, including a look at how different forms of reincarnation will work depending on your class. [Thanks to Scott for the tip!]
Turbine announces Shadowfell Conspiracy expansion for DDO
In a post wishing Dungeons & Dragons Online a happy anniversary, Senior Producer Erik Boyer did more than just reminisce on how far the game has come in the last seven years. He touched on a new enhancement system and incoming changes to astral diamond shards before slipping in the announcement of DDO's second expansion, which will launch this summer. Named Shadowfall Conspiracy, the expansion turns attention back toward the Forgotten Realms and will feature new regions, new quests, and an increased level cap (28). Players will also have faster access to the Forgotten Realms thanks to a new prestige character feature called Iconic Heroes that gets you into the action starting at level 15. More information on this feature will be available in the coming months. Boyer concludes his remarks with a hint about the true reincarnation system that will be focused on later in the year and a promise that "this year is going to be another great year for DDO -- with a big, cool new storyline, new D&D monster varieties, and powerful new character abilities."
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Playing as icons in superheroic MMORPGs
For the past week or so, I've been playing Marvel Heroes. If you missed my impression piece on Monday morning, let me spoil the big reveal for your right now: I wasn't very happy with it. It produces some minor thrills here and there, but at this point in testing there's not a whole lot to celebrate about the game. So I'm understandably not champing at the bit to talk more about the game this week, which I had originally planned. I do think there's something to be discussed when it comes to the game's central conceit, however: the fact that you're playing as the iconic characters instead of alongside them. I'm not a fan of the approach in general, but considering the panoply of superhero properties out there, it's worth considering. Could you actually make a functional game in which you play as just the official characters rather than original creations? What sort of things do you need to do to make this work? How would a superhero MMORPG with only the official characters work in practice?
