Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) goes free to play

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DDO will be free to play for everyone on 09/09/09.

http://www.ddo.com/

If you've never played it, it has a flexible class system where you can multiclass, pick different skills, feats, and enhancements for your character. The combat is pretty interactive, lots of running, jumping, and tumbling in the game. All the dungeons/encounters are instanced for your party only (much like Guild Wars).

There's now an in-game store where you can purchase items with Turbine points, including adventure packs (dungeons), consumables, extra classes and races. Turbine points cost money, but you can earn points even as a free to play player by questing and gaining favor. There's still quite a bit of content there even for free to play players.

One other thing to note - if you ever bought DDO in the past you are already a 'Premium' player and can create 4 characters per server rather than 2 for free to play players. Here's a chart showing the difference in subscription levels:

http://www.ddo.com/vip
 
Thanks for this. I like free to play games since I can sometimes get very wrapped up in work and not play for a while. I'm gonna have to check this out.
 
Game opened to everyone today. Cannith is a new server that just opened maybe a week ago, lots of new players running around Korthos and the Harbor. Good times.
 
RoBi3.0 has a good free to play guide over on the official forums, worth checking out to see exactly what you can and can't get when playing free.

Here's a templates for new players thread that has some good builds for new players. The character creation system is extremely flexible so it's pretty easy to screw up your character early on and end up with something pretty gimp at end-game.

There's also a great user-created character planner available, with instructions here.
 
Played for a couple of hours today. I'm really impressed from what I've seen so far, to the point that I might open up my wallet a couple of times today just to unlock the extra classes and races. But, if I were any more patient I could hold out and earn enough FP to unlock them for free.

Yeah, I'm not that patient...

This could be my f2p mmo of choice, ousting Dragonica from the number 1 seat.
 
Yeah before I open my wallet I'm going to get one character to 100 favor on each server first. You'll end up with 750 Turbine points this way (125TP X 6 servers), plus it's a good way to try out the different classes. Once I settle on a class I really enjoy I'll focus on going through all the free content before I buy any adventure packs with the points I've earned. I think the first one I buy will probably be Tangleroot or Delera's. But I'd really like to unlock Warforge, so I might get that first.
 
For low levels, I'd recommend Tangleroot Gorge (nice xp, and decent end rewards), Halls of Shan-To-Kor (short, but fun, with average rewards although a ring worth a few thousand platinum on the AH can drop), and Sharn Syndicate (new quest line, decent low level rewards, and well put together imo). Delera's Tomb is another good quest line narrated by Gary Gygax and offers you a 5% exp boost trinket as well as some other nice items, but I wouldn't try it until you're with a group of level 6-8 characters.
 
[quote name='redline']Here are a couple of great articles on earning Turbine Points and how much things actually costs if you include the sale prices that seem to rotate on stuff. These were posted by Furluge over on the DDO forums.

Let Free-dom Ring: Getting the most out of DDO Free to Play

The True Price of DDO Unlimited Free to Play[/QUOTE]

Thank you very much, I'm glad to read that in order to reach the level cap you don't have to pay a cent, but there's a lot of work involved. I'll probably end up getting the premium membership (Not VIP) by just buying the lowest amount of points available.
 
Just played today, this is actually a pretty fun game. Enjoy the interactivity it offers with combat letting you attack and block on your command, the light platforming elements, and the traps/puzzles are great for an MMO. With rewards for actually exploring a map/dungeon and finding optional objectives I can definitely see myself playing this for awhile. The narrated dungeons are great too. It feels more like a single-player RPG experience than a MMO game, which to me is fantastic.
 
Yeah it's pretty refreshing especially if you're used to the standard Everquest-type MMO. Jumping, swimming, dodging are all integral parts of the game. Mob AI isn't too shabby either. I was just running Stealthy Repossession in the harbor and near the end where you grab the gem I got totally swarmed, couldn't move anywhere or jump to get away from all the kobolds and they destroyed me.
 
well at genocidal's suggestion i picked up the sharn syndicate quest as it was on sale and i had earn enough points for it.

the first two parts were fairly boring, defend two guys in a bar, um.. i don't even remember the second part. after those though, theres a bank robbery fun, art stealing/smashing fun, rescuing hostages fun, and finally assasinating and escaping via the rooftops fun.

however, as a cleric, which is supposed to be one of the easier classes to solo with, I was unable to beat the final quest on normal or solo difficulty (solo is actually harder since you can't use a hireling). so it took me quite awhile to find people to finish it off and unfortunately didn't get a nicking weapon i could use.
 
My main is a Sword & Board Cleric and uses Heavy Maces/Morningstars and Long Swords (Dol Dorn's Champion Enhancement) when I'm not healing/offensive casting, assuming you didn't take any weapon feats those are probably the best weapons for a cleric and there should be nicked versions of each of those available.

If people are still interested in this game when they hit level 12 or so, I can't recommend Gianthold enough. That and the Vale of Twilight are probably the best bang for your buck adventure packs and should be able to comfortably carry you from 12-20. Gianthold has 10 regular quests and a raid at 995 points, while the Vale of Twilight pack has five quests and three raids at 700 points, and includes the raid that allows you to custom craft uber end game weapons, The Shroud.

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I might have to check this out. Thanks op wouldn't mind getting into an mmo that I don't have to pay for.
 
[quote name='Genocidal']
If people are still interested in this game when they hit level 12 or so, I can't recommend Gianthold enough. That and the Vale of Twilight are probably the best bang for your buck adventure packs and should be able to comfortably carry you from 12-20. Gianthold has 10 regular quests and a raid at 995 points, while the Vale of Twilight pack has five quests and three raids at 700 points, and includes the raid that allows you to custom craft uber end game weapons, The Shroud.[/QUOTE]
Yeah I'm nowhere near level 12 yet, but I went ahead and purchased Gianthold when it was on sale. Also got Tangleroot and Sorrowdusk. I've been leveling up characters on each server to get that first time TP bonus. So far I hit my goal of 100 favor on each server, which netted me 750 Turbine Points. My next goal is 500 favor on each server. With just the free points I've been able to purchase Warforge race and Sorrowdusk, but I bought some points to get the other 2 packs when they were on sale.
 
what servers are everyone playing on? or maining on i should say.
i started out on that newish server.. the one that starts with a C, but I convinced a couple of friends to together for some nightly action and they made their chars on the G named server, so thats where I've been.

Have a level 5 damage casting cleric (no melee), a level 4 dwarf fighter face owning guy (my fav so far), and a level 3 rogue for playing with my group someone had to be the trap/locks bitch.
 
I have a 7 monk and a 4 sorc on Khyber.

Monk is crazy worth it, just playing the sorc now while waiting for my punkass friends to catch up.
 
And now I've come across a major problem with the game. Once you leave the Harbor and certainly once you leave the Marketplace, you need a party to do the quests.

This would be fine if people played the game, but after sitting for literally hours in House P with a group made and only having a single wizard join the group and then leave shortly after, its pretty easy to see why the game went free to play, no one plays it anymore.

It seems that once you get past a certain point where all the free players are "trying" the game out, you hit the dead zone of what the game was like before it became free, with no one in the lower areas.

Its a shame really because I was having a great time with the game, but without a party, there is no way to progress and so there is no point in playing.
 
[quote name='crystalklear64']And now I've come across a major problem with the game. Once you leave the Harbor and certainly once you leave the Marketplace, you need a party to do the quests.

This would be fine if people played the game, but after sitting for literally hours in House P with a group made and only having a single wizard join the group and then leave shortly after, its pretty easy to see why the game went free to play, no one plays it anymore.

It seems that once you get past a certain point where all the free players are "trying" the game out, you hit the dead zone of what the game was like before it became free, with no one in the lower areas.

Its a shame really because I was having a great time with the game, but without a party, there is no way to progress and so there is no point in playing.[/QUOTE]

That's pretty much the main reason I quit after trying the game for the second time about two years ago (I played beta too). I just couldn't stand sitting there not doing anything trying to put a group together. I wonder if Cannith would have more folks in the mid levels since it is the new server, probably not too many at end game yet.

I've been mostly running level 6 and lower quests so it hasn't really been an issue for me so far. I always start my own group if I don't see any groups open for quests I need. The social panel is very well done, actually. You just have to make sure to pick the quest from the list and also type in a description, that way it will show up when people have their filters turned on to hide content they don't own.

A lot of new players don't use the social panel and try to put their groups together in general chat, but the problem with that is if they are in a house area only the people in that area are going to see it. But an open group in the social panel can be seen everywhere, so it's pretty critical to use once you get out of the harbor/marketplace.
 
Yes, this is a party based game; while some of the quests can be soloed depending on your build, it's usually expensive resource-wise to do so.

Which method are you using to try and get a group together? On Thelanis I've rarely had problems and always see plenty of lower level groups up in the Grouping tab of the Social page. No one really uses the LFG, all of the real action is in the LFM/Grouping tab, the best way to use it is to be clear on what you're doing, but also to be flexible -- if you just want to do any House quests, let people know and you'll usually have better luck than if you're looking to do a specific quest, especially if it's one of the less desirable ones.

Barring that, you could try picking up a hireling, but the AI on them isn't anywhere near what you'd get from an actual person. The best use would probably be a Cleric hireling that you park a ways back from where you're at that you can run back to for healing when needed. If you're already a healing type, then you could try using a Fighter Hireling, but I've never purchased one so I'm not sure how effective they are.

Worst case scenario, if you do really enjoy the game, you could start up on a different server (and earn some more easy TP for your first time on the server favor rewards). I've heard that Cannith and Thelanis are probably the most populated in the lower levels and know of a few veterans that are trying to help new players along by grouping up with them. There are also a couple of guilds that formed up around the release of Mod 9 for newer players, if you want a semi-static group to dungeon crawl with.
 
[quote name='Genocidal']Yes, this is a party based game; while some of the quests can be soloed depending on your build, it's usually expensive resource-wise to do so.

Which method are you using to try and get a group together? On Thelanis I've rarely had problems and always see plenty of lower level groups up in the Grouping tab of the Social page. No one really uses the LFG, all of the real action is in the LFM/Grouping tab, the best way to use it is to be clear on what you're doing, but also to be flexible -- if you just want to do any House quests, let people know and you'll usually have better luck than if you're looking to do a specific quest, especially if it's one of the less desirable ones.

Barring that, you could try picking up a hireling, but the AI on them isn't anywhere near what you'd get from an actual person. The best use would probably be a Cleric hireling that you park a ways back from where you're at that you can run back to for healing when needed. If you're already a healing type, then you could try using a Fighter Hireling, but I've never purchased one so I'm not sure how effective they are.

Worst case scenario, if you do really enjoy the game, you could start up on a different server (and earn some more easy TP for your first time on the server favor rewards). I've heard that Cannith and Thelanis are probably the most populated in the lower levels and know of a few veterans that are trying to help new players along by grouping up with them. There are also a couple of guilds that formed up around the release of Mod 9 for newer players, if you want a semi-static group to dungeon crawl with.[/QUOTE]
When forming a group I create one with a detailed description along with whether its F2P or not, and always pick the quest and set it to elite.

On top of that I spam chat with LFG.

I created a new character on Cannith today in hopes of finding more people. Getting ready to head into the Marketplace, so tonight or tomorrow I'll know if the situation is any better.
 
I caved in and bought the shared bank storage yesterday. I have some serious inventory issues with this game, I seem to get loot faster than I can get rid of it. Shared bank storage is pretty handy, purchasing it unlocks it on all servers and it allows all your characters on one server to access it. Even though it only has 20 slots I think it allows for stacking of items, so you could put in three +3 rapiers and they would stack only using one slot. You can even put stuff that is bound to account in it (but not bound to character).
 
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