Solo adventures announced

P8riot · 06-13-2006, 10:05 PM

This evening, Turbine announced a new patch to adjust game play. Included in that patch are new, low level solo quests..

Quote:

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: Stormreach™ delivers the most exciting group-focused experiences available in online gaming today. Up till now the city has held dangers that are to difficult for a single player to overcome. An all new solo setting is being introduced to help DDO players navigate through content on their own, allowing them the time and space to learn about their characters, try strategies and face monsters for the first time on their own. Players will be able to play at their own pace without having to worry about finding others to group with. For the full article on the new solo play features click here.

Patch notes are available here.

A further evaluation will be available as time permits in the D&DO forums here at Tactical Gamer.

P8riot · 06-14-2006, 07:22 PM

More information from the D&DO forums

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbine

The Harbor Solo Option

Quests in the Harbor have a new option available to you, opening up solo gameplay during your character's earliest levels. In addition to the Normal, Hard and Elite settings already available for each dungeon, the Solo option allows you to take on a dungeon at a difficulty setting suited for a single player. When you enter a dungeon on the solo setting, it contains monsters and traps that can be defeated without the help of a party.

After completing the solo adventures, you will be better prepared to gather allies and gain the best Experience rewards and loot, only available at the higher difficulty settings. Solo mode will not unlock the Hard and Elite difficulty settings. To gain access to the increased danger and reward from the Harbor's higher difficulty settings, you will need to complete each dungeon on its Normal setting, just as you do today.

The Waterworks, Irestone Inlet and the Kobold Assault dungeons will remain areas that require a team to conquer. The Solo difficulty setting will not be available in these areas.

I like it.. In my opinion - there was a definite problem with players too young in their lives jumping into the Waterworks, Irestone, and KA dungeons without experiencing more extensive adventuring.. now maybe, this will encourage them to spend some time learning a little more about what adventuring is all about.

**eGoatBoy** · 06-20-2006, 01:49 AM

Gents,

I have played a few of the solo quests using a lvl 2 wizard (Romestamo). Partly to get some of the game skills down and partly to try and collect a few XPs.

I'm not a newbie to DnD, just pretty green at DDO. Anyway, my point being that I'm not a rusher, and I know how to crawl a dungeon. Granted, a low level wizard may not be the best choice, but they are supposed to be solo quests afterall.

What I have found is very little middle ground. I've had a couple total cakewalks, and unfortunately a couple butt-kickings...with lot's of resources consumed and the all-too-unfortunate accumulation of negative XPs as a result of death.

I think the game overall may be skewed towards melee combat and there is obviously less room for (magical) creativity than in PnP DnD, so perhaps these solo quests suit the fighting classes well, but there is certainly a balance issue in my opinion.

My solo days are numbered...I need Thadious Bellock and Mahblung to bail me out way to regularly. Hopefully they don't mind...at least I'm good for a couple 20pt Shocking Grasps on the named foes.

To summarize my review of the solo quests...some can be a good place to practice, but generally they are badly balanced.

Cheers.

P8riot · 06-20-2006, 10:17 AM

I still need to go through a few of these myself and see how they play. It makes perfect sense that some are easy for you and some are difficult - D&DO was simply not balanced to play solo - there isn't much they can do to except make the ai in the game smarter to adjust the solo quest to the class of the participant - sounds easy, right? Well maybe they will one day-

If you think about it, all it would take from keeping my fighter, ranger, or barbarian form finishing a solo quest is one locked door or a single trap.

Nobody minds bailing anybody out.. even that is part of the game. Now those Shocking Grasps.. thats just the cats meow.