So, our first serious look at something to replace CoH. DDO has been out for a while, and seems to be doing decently. It has a limited (to level 20, I believe) F2P model, with microtransactions galore.
Pros
- Graphics appear competent.
- If you know D&D 3.5, this is a simulation of it.
- Quests, maps, all that, seem decently crafted, at least in the initial island area. (I’ve read things in the “real world” behave a bit differently).
- Duoing seems possible, esp. with hirelings to fill in the party’s functional gaps. (The latter is what I’ve read.) It’s also a lot easier with both of us in the same room.
- Having fun.
Cons
- Two toons, but you can buy more.
- Paper dolls limited to heads (facial expressions, a few scars, decent number of hairstyles and colors, skin colors, eye colors). Costumes determined by swag you pick up.
- I can see that encumbrance is going to be an issue. Plus I can see it measuring weight, too, which is even worse.
- If you don’t know D&D 3.5, there’s a lot conceptually here you’ll be floundering with.
- The initial tutorial system doesn’t really help. For example, I’m a cleric. While I got some basic drill on “here’s how you hit things,” I got nothing on the spells I have, how they relate (or differ from) Wizard and Sorcerer spells, what (if any) components they take, cool-down periods or mana usage or anything like that. Feeling my way through, and I’m actually passingly familiar with the system.
- Apparently the entire min-max / twinky / feats and multi-classing mess (or opportunity) that 3.5 was is possible here. That’s actually a pro, if you’re into that. But it’s a bit daunting checking out the boards and seeing, “Why, yes, of course you can do that, if you have the particular build here that I’ve taken.” That’s not necessarily different from some of the extremes of the CoH boards, to be sure, but for a noob, it’s not a positive thing.
- Advancement seems slooooooow. Also, it seems easy for a duo to get out of sync.
I don’t feel like I can give it a grade yet against my checklist, but we’re both interested in playing after Margie gets back from her trip, so that’s good news.