DDO goes F2P. - (DDO Unlimited)

[Yegolev]

Microsoft drove me to this, btw. I'm going to have 200 points left in my dead XBL account Forever.

I  SONY

[Pezzle]

Buy a DDO sealed box now for less than $5.  Enjoy free month subscription? (DDO has that, right?).  When DDO goes free to play you will have many advantages of a former VIP.  4 character slots instead of 2, unlimited cash storage, chats etc.  If the swap happens during your free box period you might even get the 500 points.  

*edit*

Those benefits are permanent on your account as of the most recent announcement I found.

*edit 2, The quest for content*
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=185146

First post has the upgrade/downgrade/upgrade info.

[sam, an eggplant]

Sure, why not? I just picked up the game new in a sealed box for $0.01 and $2.99 shipping from an amazon affiliate.

[Rendakor]

The other trap is an actual token based system completely decoupled from currency values, like arcades liked to use.

Am I the only one who's arcade tokens were exactly worth (and shaped like) $0.25? They were just quarters you were commited to spending in the arcade; I never put a dollar in an arcade token machine and got out 5 (or 3, or 42) coins.

[Evildrider]

The other trap is an actual token based system completely decoupled from currency values, like arcades liked to use.

Am I the only one who's arcade tokens were exactly worth (and shaped like) $0.25? They were just quarters you were commited to spending in the arcade; I never put a dollar in an arcade token machine and got out 5 (or 3, or 42) coins.

I used to work at an Alladin's Castle, when it was owned by Bally Midway.  We used to give out 4 tokens on the dollar.  With more extra tokens if you bought larger amounts.  Like if you bought a $5 dollar roll you would get 25 tokens.

[Mrbloodworth]

You know whats funny, those that seem to be hateing on this move for DnD online must be part of that breed of DnD player that couldn't fart with out looking up the Thaco of the pants they have on and "NEVER EVER FUDGED ANYTHING ON MY CHARACTER SHEET" 

I'm seeing some BS reasons to hate on the original premise of DnD, to have fun. (Not here, around)

[Hawkbit]

THAC0 is sooooo 2nd edition.

[Mrbloodworth]

THAC0 is sooooo 2nd edition.

Guess i'm old then. Maybe this is why some people are having such issues accepting that DnD is the king of purchased content.

[Hawkbit]

I'm old too.  I played DnD in high school under 2nd edition.  When 3rd came out I bought a couple handbooks, but lost all my pnp friends and didn't really care for the new rules. 

But yeah, DnD has always been about purchased content.  One could spend thousands on the books and modules that are released for each edition.  The video game is no different.

[Lantyssa]

Does that make me ancient by playing 1st Ed in high school?

Maybe I'm a lich and my original-cover MM is my phylactery.

[Ard]

I used to work at an Alladin's Castle, when it was owned by Bally Midway.  We used to give out 4 tokens on the dollar.  With more extra tokens if you bought larger amounts.  Like if you bought a $5 dollar roll you would get 25 tokens.

I was talking places like Dave and Busters that tend to run off of cards instead of physical tokens, so they can play games with the actual amount you get, as well as charging wildly varying amounts of tokens for different machines.

THAC0 is sooooo 2nd edition.

I miss THAC0, it was such awesome needless complication.  I remember having to keep a chart in front of me because I was too lazy to do the backwards math on it.

[Ingmar]

Does that make me ancient by playing 1st Ed in high school?

Maybe I'm a lich and my original-cover MM is my phylactery.

3 more birthdays and I'll have hit the 'been playing D&D for 30 years' mark. 

[Grimwell]

Does that make me ancient by playing 1st Ed in high school?

Maybe I'm a lich and my original-cover MM is my phylactery.

3 more birthdays and I'll have hit the 'been playing D&D for 30 years' mark. 

I'm only one behind you. I can still do THACO math in my head, but love 4th Edition much more than anything prior. It's win for the DM.

Oh wait, DDO. I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. I think it's a great idea.

[Ingmar]

4e is wonderful yeah.

Re: DDO I can't help but think this change is partly in response to DDO no longer being up to date with the pen and paper game edition-wise. Move DDO to a F2P, lower cost of operations model, meanwhile work on a 4e game if you still have the license (no idea if they do), or if you don't, move on to other things with your main dev team.

[Lantyssa]

I'm not sure it's that so much as the subscription model makes little sense given the source.

[WayAbvPar]

Does that make me ancient by playing 1st Ed in high school?

Maybe I'm a lich and my original-cover MM is my phylactery.

I distinctly remember buying my 2nd Edition books when I was in college and ran a game for my roommates for a few months. Right there with ya.

[Numtini]

Is first edition "AD&D"?

[Mrbloodworth]

Is first edition "AD&D"?

O.o

[Samwise]

I miss THAC0, it was such awesome needless complication.  I remember having to keep a chart in front of me because I was too lazy to do the backwards math on it.

I miss THAC0 because it actually made the mental arithmetic easier by keeping all the numbers small, especially at the higher levels.  Subtracting an AC of 2 from a THAC0 of 5 and comparing that to a die roll of 9 plus a to-hit modifier of 5 is easier for me than adding a base attack modifier of 15 and a to-hit modifier of 5 to a die roll of 9 and comparing to an AC of 18.  It's just as many modifiers, but the numbers were smaller in 2E so it was easier to keep them all in your head.

[Brogarn]

I miss THAC0 because it actually made the mental arithmetic easier by keeping all the numbers small, especially at the higher levels.  Subtracting an AC of 2 from a THAC0 of 5 and comparing that to a die roll of 9 plus a to-hit modifier of 5 is easier for me than adding a base attack modifier of 15 and a to-hit modifier of 5 to a die roll of 9 and comparing to an AC of 18.  It's just as many modifiers, but the numbers were smaller in 2E so it was easier to keep them all in your head.

I've played both and I prefer the latter. Adding up is better than subtracting then adding something that's in the negative.

I think I just confused myself.

Ya, definitely prefer the latter.

[Ingmar]

Is first edition "AD&D"?

MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE DAY! NOMENCLATURE TIME!

The major editions:


OD&D = "original" D&D, this is the original box set of rules that was the precursor to all the other ones, there are still a few pockets of people playing it.

1e = the original Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, DMG, etc.

2e, 3e, 3.5e, 4e = more or less self explanatory (3.5e was a major revision of the 3rd edition rules to fix a bunch of errors and balance issues, including new versions of all the major rulebooks); it isn't sufficient to say that 1e = AD&D because 2nd edition was also called that. They dropped the A with 3rd Edition, and just called it Dungeons & Dragons, which they could do because they were no longer making the next thing on the list:

BECMI or RC = the 'other track' of D&D during the 80s and 90s, this would include the red box game with Keep on the Borderlands. BECMI is shorthand for Basic/Expert/Companion/Masters/Immortal which were the boxed sets for this ruleset, RC is the Rules Compendium which was the box sets (minus most of the Immortal rules) combined in one hardcover; there are subsets of this but they're not very different from each other really. At the time this was just called "Dungeons & Dragons" as opposed to ADVANCED Dungeons & Dragons.

If your major experience with the rules is via computer games, this is the basic breakdown: the SSI Gold Box games were 1st edition, Baldur's Gate and its ilk except for Icewind Dale 2 were 2nd edition, Icewind Dale 2 and Temple of Elemental Evil were 3rd edition, DDO is based off of 3.5e.

There are other sub-rulesets out there (late 2nd edition with the Player's Option books added may as well be called 2.5e, for example) but I didn't include anything that didn't revise the actual core rulebooks.

[Sjofn]

Nerd.


EDIT: And while I do enjoy the fourth edition, I think I liked 3.5 a bit more, for reasons I cannot really put my finger on. Now Ingmar is going to make me sleep on the couch. :(

[Ingmar]

The biggest loss going from 3.5e to 4e is the flexibility of the multiclassing system probably, although it isn't like 3.5e wasn't rife with unworkable combinations there. 4e combat is so much more fun as to not make me care that much about that, personally, and PHB 3 has the hybrid system coming that takes the edge off of that.

[Tannhauser]

Started with 1st Ed AD&D.  Currently playing 4e with some of the same guys I played 1e, 2e and 3e with.   

And yes, some of them still live with their Mom!

/Not me though

[Sjofn]

The biggest loss going from 3.5e to 4e is the flexibility of the multiclassing system probably, although it isn't like 3.5e wasn't rife with unworkable combinations there. 4e combat is so much more fun as to not make me care that much about that, personally, and PHB 3 has the hybrid system coming that takes the edge off of that.

Yeah, that's probably the biggest part of it. Building characters is just not as interesting for me now, partly because once you've played, say, a bow-based ranger, you never need to play it again, because there's just not much to do differently. For all the attacks that you pick from when you level, it's actually in practice pretty damn narrow, which makes the part I like best (leveling up, or planning ahead in levels) practically non-existant.

On the other hand, I will never have to cry to myself because I'm out of spells and therefore completely useless again, so that's a big thumbs up.

[Ixxit]

Still have all my 1st edition stuff.

G-1 G-2 G-3 D-1 D-2 D-3 Q-1 --> Best Campaign ever.

Greyhawk rules -- Forgotten Realms Drools

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and Tomb of Horrors 4evah.

Will be definately checking out the changes with DDO.

[taolurker]

I almost was tempted to post about pen and paper games to further derail this thread, when I suddenly realized that my playing pnp games (D&D, AD&D, 2nd + 3rd) for 32+ years means that I am old enough to know better than trying to out geek most of you.

More on F2P DDO plz kthnx

[Bunk]

I'll fight the urge to fan the 4th edition derail here... or not.

I agree combat in fourth is great, but everything outside of combat, well, can be summed up in three pages out of the core books. They turned the game in to a party based tabletop wargame.

And since we are waving our hold old a nerd we are peens here - played my first AD&D adventure at eleven I think. Which also puts me 3 years away from 30 years of D&D.

[Ingmar]

I'll fight the urge to fan the 4th edition derail here... or not.

I agree combat in fourth is great, but everything outside of combat, well, can be summed up in three pages out of the core books. They turned the game in to a party based tabletop wargame.

And since we are waving our hold old a nerd we are peens here - played my first AD&D adventure at eleven I think. Which also puts me 3 years away from 30 years of D&D.

And other editions are full of rich roleplaying rules? Pretty much every edition of D&D is 95% combat rules, mostly because that's the only thing you actually need rules for, at least once you realize that you don't need all that stuff that 1e had about monthly chance of parasitic infection and random thesaurus-fueled adjective+noun tables for prostitutes and dungeon furniture.

Also have you seen the 4e DMG? It is almost entirely 'how to run a game/write a story/etc', very little combat stuff. I'd say of all the DMGs so far it probably spends the least time on fighting-related stuff.

[Tmon]

...They turned the game in to a party based tabletop wargame.

Pretty much this is what the game started out as so you could say it's returning to its roots.

[Ashamanchill]

Dammit, you guys have me intrigued about the 4e rules now.  And just for the record, I never got to experience anything other than the bastardized 3e rules that my friends and I played with, save for games like Baldur's gate of course.

[Murgos]

...They turned the game in to a party based tabletop wargame.

Pretty much this is what the game started out as so you could say it's returning to its roots.

Beaten.  I was just going to say that when I started playing D&D it was a party based table top wargame.  Heck, the box came with a miniature and a map.

[Quinton]

Still have my 2nd edition AD&D books around here somewhere...

DDO sounds like fun.  I'd be up for some casual once a week adventuring.  The best parts of FFXI for me were running the expansion missions saturday mornings with a "static party".  Got a couple hours of fantasy mmo fun regularly, and was content.

[Megrim]

Dammit, you guys have me intrigued about the 4e rules now. 

Have you played World of Warcraft?

[Ashamanchill]

Yes, I am familiar with that game.