exploring-eberron
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Exploring Eberron: Winds of change
Writing Exploring Eberron is always a bit of a challenge, because last year's free-to-play switch created a distinctly divided player base. On one hand, you've got the hardcore, longtime Dungeons and Dragons Online players. They've been around since well before F2P, are often DnD fans from way back, and have a thorough understanding of all the intricacies of the game. On the other hand, you have relatively new players who love the game just as much, but really only heard about the game and got involved within the past year. This is not a bad thing, by the way. The DDO in-game community is easily one of the best I've ever come across. On any given day you'll see questions in the advice channel from players who installed the game about five minutes ago, and they are always answered in a friendly and helpful tone. It's a community that almost unfailingly welcomes new players with open arms. The challenge comes in offering enough information that everyone can find something helpful or interesting. Veteran players don't need to be told why items in their inventory are different colors, but it's something that needs to be explained to a player who just downloaded the game last week and is trying to use a weapon with a red icon. With that in mind, I decided to change the focus of this week's column -- and the ones to come -- a little bit. Follow along after the jump to find out more.
Exploring Eberron: Community and beyond
This week in Dungeons and Dragons Online, OneDAwesome worked through some of the game's extensive free-to-play content. We picked up five quests from the Ever-Full Flagon in House Kundarak -- if you're a lower-level F2P player, these are quests you do not want to miss -- grouped up, and got our quests underway in record time. One of these quests was Taming the Flames, and I took more than a little good-natured ribbing for inflicting that fiery torture on the group. Cheer up, guys -- Update 5 is going to bump it up a level, so it could be worse! Overall, a very good time was had by all. Next week we're going to stay on the free-to-play path, wrapping up a few last level 5 quests before the group as a whole is too high level. We'll be doing The Depths of Doom and The Depths of Discord from the Hammersmith Inn in House Deneith, Archer Point Defense from Jasper Cruikshanks in the Marketplace, and one level 6 quest: Gladewatch Outpost Defense from Loghan d'Deneith -- also in the Marketplace. We'll meet in the Hammersmith Inn and go from there -- Wednesday at 9PM Eastern time, as always. If you're interested in joining OneDAwesome in DDO, follow along after the jump to see how to get on board as well as what's planned for the future of the guild.
Exploring Eberron: Update 5 and Delera's Tomb
This week's Dungeons and Dragons Online Nights of Eberron outing was an ambitious one: We took on Delera's Tomb, wading through hordes of skeletons, wraiths, and ghasts to help Delera rest peacefully. Delera's has some great loot at the end, but is also one of the lengthier adventure packs for its level, so most of us played a bit later than usual. It was well worth it, however -- everyone had a great time and many of us have a shiny new Voice of the Master for our troubles. Next week OneDAwesome will be venturing back into free-to-play land thanks to House Kundarak. The Ever-Full Flagon in House K has a series of F2P quests in the level 5-6 range that are just too good to miss. We'll be running through four medium-length quests: The Chamber of Insanity, The Forgotten Caverns, Ruined Halls, and The Lair of Summoning. We'll wrap up the evening with Taming the Flames, a longer, much hotter quest. If you've got resist fire potions weighing your bags down, make sure you don't leave them in your bank vault for this quest! We'll meet in the Ever-Full Flagon on the east side of House Kundarak -- look for the little green mug icon -- at 9:00 PM Eastern time. As always, if you're interested in joining OneDAwesome on the Cannith server, just send a /tell to Rubialina in game and I'll send you the invite. With that taken care of, let's take a look at what else is new with DDO. Follow along after the jump for all the latest!
Exploring Eberron: Turbine's downtime and what's next for OnedAwesome
This week's Nights of Eberron was a hit, with one glaring exception. Poor Orvidos ran afoul of one of the lesser-known quirks in Dungeons and Dragons Online, and wound up spending some quality time with Jeets in the tutorial -- something he did NOT want to do. He has a point, by the way. Does anyone really want to listen to "Oi! Can you move? Speak to me!" more than once or twice? Aside from that little glitch, things went swimmingly as we took on Searing Heights. In the rest of the Dungeons and Dragons Online world, the community was buzzing over Wednesday's server downtime and the subsequent account downgrades. So what happened with that, and just as importantly, what's next for OnedAwesome? I've got news on both fronts, so follow along after the jump for all the details.
Exploring Eberron: What's next for Dungeons and Dragons Online?
OnedAwesome began actively currying favor with the Coin Lords of Stormreach this week in Dungeons and Dragons Online, by heading into the Steam Tunnels and tackling the Shan-to-Kor Adventure Pack. So what's next for OnedAwesome? We're taking on another explorable next week, this time in the level 4-10 range. Searing Heights is a bit more challenging than some of the other explorables that we've done in the past, and offers a fair amount of XP -- simply running around the area and finding all 15 landmarks will earn over 4,000 XP, and if you luck out and come across all nine rare encounters, it's another 6,075. You'll find several quests in the area as well, along with the slayer bonus for killing as you go. We'll meet at the gate to Searing Heights next Wednesday, at 9 PM US Eastern time -- the gate is in the Marketplace, just west of the Harbor gate and marked by a yellow "X." I want to take a minute and mention something that I read yesterday that really made me appreciate how exceptional the Massively guild is. Fernando Paiz gave an interview that I'll cover more later in this article, but he made an interesting statement: "Right now, if you're in a guild, you might see guild chat going by, but you don't really run into the people that much in the actual game." OnedAwesome is a glaring exception to that rule, thanks to each one of you in the guild. We play together Wednesday nights in constantly changing groups, something that allows us to get to know the guild members as a whole as time passes. I regularly see members logged in and helping one another outside of our scheduled playtime as well. It's this group dynamic that really brings the game to life, and each of you has my sincere thanks for showing other players how great the game can be with a good guild. Okay, Hallmark moment over (although you guys seriously are wonderful)! There are lots of happenings to discuss in the rest of the Dungeons and Dragons Online world, so follow along after the jump as we get all caught up!
Exploring Eberron: We need a favor
Well, okay, we need some favor. The latest Nights of Eberron in Dungeons and Dragons Online was a bit of a free-for-all -- OnedAwesome got the opportunity to group up and choose any paid content they wanted to do for the evening. Guest passes were handed out for anyone who needed one and the guild was off and running. The evening was a bit of a last crazy hurrah before we settle into pursuing some larger goals. The Massively guild is finding its rhythm quickly, but there are still challenges in such a large and diverse group: new players join every week, older players aren't always interested in moving at the group's relatively slow pace, and instancing presents a much different scenario than a persistent world. The great thing about DDO, however, is that it allows for this sort of thing. With repeatable quests and four difficulty levels for almost all of them, the instancing system is almost an advantage for this type of group. We can have 40 guild members all doing the same quest at the same time while still maintaining a pace for every type of player: specialized groups for those who want to do epic difficulty, those who want to play on normal, those who want to zerg through it, new players who want to take their time and learn -- you name it and we can form a group for it. Our next goal will be to pursue favor and start gaining some rewards. Follow along after the jump to see how the favor system works and what we'll be doing next week!
Exploring Eberron: Grouping is king
Wednesday night's Nights of Eberron in Dungeons and Dragons Online was fun for all, as usual. We welcomed quite a few new members into OnedAwesome, even managing to get one through some Korthos Island quests at light speed to catch up with the rest of the crew. Once we got settled, OnedAwesome descended on House Phiarlan to make our first foray into premium content: Tangleroot Gorge. As a level 3-7 Adventure Pack with a huge explorable as well as a popular series of dungeons, it fit our group nicely. Since it offered more than one method of play, each group was free to do whatever they liked: hunt down rare encounters, pursue the slayer title, or head straight for the dungeons. It's becoming the norm in OnedAwesome for guild chat to scroll madly at the beginning of the evening as we chat among ourselves, share information about the evening's planned activities, and sort ourselves into groups. As the level of actual gameplay rises, guild chatter settles down and goes quiet as everyone gets involved in their activities. Last night's guild channel went silent very quickly, broken only by the occasional greeting as someone logged on or an announcement of an achievement -- much fun was had by all. In the month that Nights of Eberron has been up and running, I've noticed a recurring comment among those participating. Follow along after the cut as I take a closer look at what it is and why they say it.
Exploring Eberron: Getting the most from dungeons
Wednesday's night out with OnedAwesome was...well, awesome, per the usual. Massively's Dungeons and Dragons Online guild ran through five quests taken from the Leaky Dinghy and Stormreach Harbor. We patted Durk on the head and told him that his secret was super special and he was too, busted some evil gambling tables of evilness, fetched an item for House Phiarlan that we are almost certain it was okay for them to have, and walked the Butcher's Path. Things are settling down a bit in OnedAwesome, but certainly not through a lack of activity. The guild is quickly evolving from a random group of people scrambling to figure out what is happening and who is grouping with whom. It's becoming an organized guild where everyone has a bit of a feel about where they fit, and people sorted into groups very quickly Wednesday and were off having fun in record time. I'm very excited to see everyone next Wednesday -- I won't tell you quite yet what our plans are, but I have a bit of a surprise that I hope everyone will love. We'll meet Wednesday evening at 9:00 PM EST, but I'll be around from 8:30 on to field any questions, requests, and guild invitations. So feel free to /tell Rubialina a bit early if you need anything. In the meantime, follow along after the jump for some tips and tricks. This is another one devoted to our newer players, and hopefully this will get you navigating dungeons like a pro in no time.
Exploring Eberron: What is all this stuff in my inventory?
Wednesday night's Nights of Eberron was its usual crazy success, and the diversity of player types makes for an interesting mix. "Interesting" is a very good thing in this case, as the guild is made up of players on every part of the spectrum from those with several years of experience in Dungeons and Dragons Online to people who are rolling their very first character. For those new players, or even those who gave the game a brief try back when it went free-to-play, it can be a bit confusing. I'm going to spend some time in this column going over things for the newer players, because Dungeons and Dragons Online offers some pretty handy items that you don't want to miss out on. OnedAwesome, Massively's official Dungeons and Dragons Online guild, ran through the Waterworks Wednesday night, killing an absolutely ridiculous amount of kobolds and picking up some handy loot. It was our first foray outside of Korthos, and at the end, there were lots of things in our inventory that were a mystery to many players. Follow along after the jump as we take a look at what they were.
Exploring Eberron: The Offer Wall is gone and Lars Heyton is a big chicken
Wow! It's been an interesting few days for Dungeons and Dragons Online, both on the player side and the development side. The community response to the now-defunct Offer Wall was huge, but not quite in the way that Turbine anticipated. Since the uproar consisted of an approximately 60/40 split between legitimate concern and outraged name-calling, the decision for today's Exploring Eberron was an easy one: we're going to look at the facts. On a much more fun note, last night was the second installment of Nights of Eberron, and a great time was had by all. Things were definitely more organized than during week one, thanks in large part to our very own Justin "Zergmaster" Olivetti and several fantastic OnedAwesome members who stepped up as group leaders. OnedAweseme now sports over 50 members, 33 of whom showed up to party last night. The guild formed their groups and headed out to tackle the Korthos Wilderness areas. How did it go? Follow along after the jump for the full story as well as discussion of the Dungeons and Dragons Online Offer Wall.
Exploring Eberron: the debut of Nights of Eberron
Last night was the first night of Massively's Nights of Eberron group in Dungeons and Dragons Online, and what a night! Let's start with the biggest semi-related piece of news. Justin "Syp" Olivetti, master of bad puns and Nights of Eberron partner in crime, did not join us last night. The newest member of the Sypster clan was born last night sometime near the time we were all hanging out on the dock taking screenshots. Congratulations Justin and family on your beautiful little girl! While Justin was at the hospital, the rest of us in OnedAwesome were busy taking over Korthos Island. The first night of any static group is usually the craziest, and I had my hands full fielding guild invitation requests and directing snowy-side people to sunny-side, as well as helping one or two who opted to work through the tutorial. This is a good thing -- it was so exciting to see so many people jumping in and I am delighted that so many showed up. With such a huge mix of veteran and new players and only one Massively staffer to wrangle everyone, I owe a huge "thank you" to those veteran players who pitched in to help everyone get settled! Now, on to the fun stuff: how did it go last night? Follow along after the break for a recap of the ups and downs.
Exploring Eberron: Getting the most from Adventure Packs
Last week we talked about the ability to truly play for free on Dungeons and Dragons Online, and this week we're going to continue that theme a little bit. You can earn a generous amount of Turbine Points just by playing the free content, and once you've earned a few hundred you can purchase Adventure Packs to open up even more content. Of course, there are quite a few options in the DDO Store, and if you choose to go the Adventure Pack route it can seem a bit daunting. There are currently 27 available Packs, with more on the way all the time, so where to begin? (If you're new to the DDO Store itself, navigating it can be a bit confusing. Check out the starter guide on the official DDO site if you need a bit of help figuring it all out.) Follow along after the jump for a guide to get you started -- I know those Turbine Points are burning a hole in your virtual pocket!
Exploring Eberron: Can you really play free?
When Dungeons and Dragons Online went free-to-play last summer, the change attracted an amazing amount of attention, and brought this quiet little game to the forefront of the MMO world. Nearly a full year later, that hasn't changed. Dungeons and Dragons Online is one of the most continually popular games in the fantasy genre as well as in the free-to-play arena. Before we go any farther, let's clear the room of elephants: Turbine is not a non-profit organization. They are a business created to make a profit, and at the end of the day, yes: they want you to spend money. They are going to make that item shop as attractive as they possibly can in order to draw you -- and your credit card -- in to purchase some Turbine Points. In that respect, they are no different than every other MMO developer out there. They want to provide entertainment in exchange for some of your cash. So what makes them stand out? It's the fact that Turbine managed to hit on that perfect combination and truly offer something for everyone: those who want to simply pay a sub fee and be done with it, those who prefer to pick and choose via microtransactions, and those who want to play completely free. It's that last thing that we're going to look at today. That's the big question for many people: is it really possible, or is Turbine just paying lip service to draw people in? Follow along after the jump and we'll take a look.
Exploring Eberron: A Dungeons and Dragons Online community roundup
Last week we spent some time talking with Fernando Paiz about the success Dungeons and Dragons Online has enjoyed in the past year, as well as what is in the game's future. This week we are introducing "Exploring Eberron", our weekly column about all things Dungeons and Dragons Online. As always, the column kicks off with a community roundup. There is a fair amount of information out there already, if you know where to look. We hope this helps you get started, so follow along after the jump to see what the DDO community has to offer.
