Dungeons & Dragons Online

Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited (abbreviated as "DDO") is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine for Microsoft Windows, and originally marketed as Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. Turbine developed DDO as an online adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) based loosely on the D&D 3.5 Rule-set. It is set in the Eberron campaign. Internet access is required.

DDO is a fantasy action role-playing game. Progression is defined by completing quests and leveling up. After creating an avatar on the character selection screen, players are required to go through a tutorial, which may be skipped after completing once. Players receive quests from non-player characters. After accumulating enough experience points through quests, the character is entitled to gain a level, which grants access to feats, spells and skills. The game has progressively increased the number of character levels from 10 to 20. Each module added quests and areas.

Development
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach was developed by Turbine over two years. The initial prototype and concept was done by Jason Booth, Dan Ogles, Cardell Kerr, Ken Troop, and Michael Sheidow, in coordination with Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of the Dungeons and Dragons pen and paper game. Later, this initial team moved to work on Turbine's other title in development Lord of the Rings Online, or left the company. Development was then led by James Jones, and DDO was released on February 28, 2006. It is published by Atari.

Setting
DDO is set on the fictional continent of Xen'drik, in the world of Eberron, a D&D campaign setting. Players can create their characters following the revised edition of D&D 3.5 rule-set fashion, and play them in both indoor and outdoor environments, including dungeons.

Although the game is based in large part on the tabletop D&D 3.5 rule set, it contains changes from the tabletop game, some which were introduced due to differences in the dynamics between the media of computer game combat and tabletop gaming. For example, Turbine wanted DDO to use a real time combat engine, whereas tabletop D&D uses a turn-based system. This brought about considerable changes in the handling of combat, character skills and feats; situations where Turbine felt the turn-based combat system and real time combat did not mesh. Notable differences are: increased hit possibilities in a round (as much as twelve times more), increased spell casting resources over rest periods, and the use of a spell point system instead of spell slots. Magical items are underpriced (they average 1/8th of the tabletop D&D prices), magical weapons and armors have a maximum of only two abilities, characters have higher stats, and offensive effects created by characters do not harm their allies. A list of other differences between DDO and tabletop D&D is on the DDO Wiki.

The core of the game is set in the city of Stormreach, a giant-scaled city built ages ago, and recently settled by humans. Areas in Stormreach are: The Harbor, Marketplace, and four Dragonmarked Houses (House Deneith, Jorasco, Kundarak and Phiarlan). There are adventures beyond the city walls into other areas across the continent, each home to quests.

Generally, the issues of the game revolve around these dark plots:
 * Giants attempting to regain mastery over the city of Stormreach and the continent of Xen'drik
 * The gate to Xoriat attempting to be reopened
 * The Black Abbot and his minions of Khyber (Eberron) and other undead attempting to gain power over Xen'drik
 * Devils from Shavarath attempting to invade and conquer Eberron

Subscription information
As of September 9, 2009, DDO can be free to play in the USA, with an available micro-transaction store; players can gain VIP status by paying a subscription fee, which garners them additional rewards every month. A free-player's first micro-transaction converts them to a "Premium player" with additional perks (though less than those of a "VIP").

There are five DDO servers for the North American market (merged from the original 14), named after geographic aspects of Eberron. For the European market there were initially five servers, named after Eberron deities. After a server merge in early 2007, two remain. In North America, Turbine themselves deploy the game and maintain daily operations. In Europe this was outsourced to Codemasters with the help of Alchemic Dream. In China, the game is operated by Shanda.

There are no servers for the Southern Hemisphere market. The game distributed in Australia by Atari is the US version. Players in that region will get a ping of ~300 ms to North American servers.

Turbine does weekly maintenance from 6:00AM to 10:00AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on Monday or Tuesday mornings, game upgrades and patches are generally applied from 6:00AM to 2:00PM Eastern (-4 GMT) on Thursday mornings.

In Europe the game is maintained by Codemasters and remains subscription based, although European users can register and play for free on the Turbine servers in the USA.

Gameplay
DDO is played from a third person perspective. There is the option to move the camera view to first person perspective. The camera follows behind the player and can be adjusted to view surroundings. The game is controlled either by keyboard or gamepad. Every action in game can be remapped to suit the player, even controller buttons. This allows a player to play the game like a console game if desired. DDO makes use of macros. Within a toolbar on screen, items and action abilities may be placed and activated at will. Exploration and battles are real time; characters move in 3D with directional keys and may dodge long range attacks.

A party system is in place, placing more emphasis on multiple players grouping (more so than some other MMO games on the market as of 2010). Joining a party or creating one is accessed by the Grouping panel. Players interact with screen chat windows. Voice chat is possible between party members.

Progression
Standard groups can be up to six characters. Characters gain experience by completing quests. Killing monsters increases the experience reward, but is not always central to the reward. In some cases, simply running through a quest from one end to the other grants an XP reward. Raid parties may be up to 12 characters. They are usually high level adventures with multiple tasks to complete. There is usually a specific method of unlocking them. DDO supports solo play with a "Solo" level of difficulty on some low-level quests. Since the "Mod 9" update (September 2009), "Normal" difficulty scales well for solo players when "Solo" difficulty's not available for any given quest. A more typical party consists of multiple characters filling roles such as "tank" (melee types), healer (clerics) and caster (magic users).

The quests in DDO are organized by character level, difficulty, and length. Each quest has a base level, and the XP reward increases if all of the party members are below that level, and decreases if any of the party members are above that level. Characters more than three levels below the "base level" are not allowed to initiate a quest, however they are able to join a quest started by another party member.

Most quests have an item or monetary reward when finished, but the character must talk to the quest giver to receive the reward. Some dungeons require several visits to the quest giver to complete the entire quest chain. Speaking to the quest giver allows players to repeat the quest. Completing a quest multiple times reduces the amount of XP awarded.

The quests are narrated by a "Dungeon Master" who gives information to the players about what they see and hear. For the "Delera's Tomb" quest chain, the dungeon master duties are performed by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax. In his memory, a special shrine area of the graveyard was added. A higher-level quest chain features the voice of D&D's other co-creator, Dave Arneson.

There are five difficulty levels for quests: Solo, Normal, Hard, Elite and Epic. Hard and Elite increase the XP bonus the first time the quest is run at the given level, and generally provide a much more challenging experience to the players. As a bonus, the quality of the "loot" (items, equipment, etc.) in the chests in hard and elite is better. Generally speaking, the highest level quests on the Elite setting offer the best treasure, although that is not always the case. Epic difficulty is available in very few quests, and only to characters who are level 20.

On the other hand, Solo offers little loot, and few special items. Generally, the Solo difficulty section were added to the game in June 2006 to make it more accessible to lower-level characters who do not have a group. There was until Module 6 a XP reduction for solo play (this was reduced from 50% to 20% with the launch of Module 6), and only some low (6th and lower) level dungeons offer this capability.

Features
DDO is an instanced game, where each party receives a private "copy" of a dungeon for their own use. Marketing, socializing and quest selection are done in community areas.

There are localized versions for the European market. Languages available are English, French and German.

A gamepad is supported, as well as a virtual keyboard.

Races
All races are initially available in the game, except for Drow and Warforged, which must be unlocked. Current player character races are: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Warforged, and Drow. The game does not feature a full complement of playable races from the Dungeons and Dragons world, and is missing core races (Gnome, Half-Elf and Half-orc), as well as the additional Eberron-specific races of Kalashtar, Shifter and Changeling.

Classes
There are 11 playable classes with no race restrictions. Following the 3.5 edition rules and the rules of the Eberron campaign, players choose a class to begin with but are not limited to remaining in that class.

At the character creation screen, the player is allowed to choose a path or to customize their stats. Choosing a path will automatically give the character feats when they gain a level.

Absent from the table are the standard classes of Druid, the psionic classes and Artificers (an Eberron-exclusive class). Prestige classes do not exist as standalone character classes (although many are available as enhancements to base classes). There are no experience penalties for multi-class characters. Apart from alignment restrictions there are no restrictions on multi-class combinations.

The class Favored Soul was added in the content update along with the free to play and a store.

The Classes

 * Fighter: A warrior with extra feats, allowing him to specialize in melee.


 * Paladin: A warrior that trades some of his melee power for the ability to cast divine spells.


 * Barbarian: A warrior that has special powers when angry and specializes in damage dealing.


 * Ranger: An archer and a dual-wielding melee (in exchange for removing animal companions, DDO gives all rangers both combat styles).


 * Monk: A combatant usually fighting without weapons, without shield and without armor, that performs amazing techniques in battle by using a power source called Ki.


 * Favored Soul: A divine caster that follows the path of the Cleric but is able to throw spells with surprising ease.


 * Rogue: Has the highest melee damage with sneak attacks. Also has the most skills in the game. He can find and disarm traps, open locks and find hidden doors.


 * Bard: Has a lot of skills and is a solid arcane spell caster. Also has useful bard songs.


 * Wizard is an adaptive caster.


 * Sorcerer is a focused caster.


 * Cleric: a strong divine spell caster that uses all armor without penalties.

Alignments
Dungeons and Dragons Online does not have all alignments available in Dungeons and Dragons, instead limiting itself to good and neutral alignments. The ability to play evil aligned characters is unavailable. Some character classes have restrictions based on alignment. A Barbarian and Bard may not be Lawful. A Monk must be Lawful, and a Paladin must be Lawful Good. A character may not multiclass into those classes if the alignment is not allowed for that original class. In addition, some weapons and equipment have alignment restrictions as well.

Feat, Skill and Enhancement system
In DDO, there are a number of progressive systems in place for additional variety between characters. Feats are special abilities that grant a character additional actions or abilities. Skills can be increased to give better proficiency of talents. Enhancements can be chosen which augment feats and talents.

Feats are divided into regular feats and class feats. Whereas most feats are available to any class (so long as the requirement is met), class feats can be chosen only by specific classes. For instance, Ranger is the only class that is able to choose Favored Enemy, which grants an attack bonus against certain monsters. Every class is granted at least one feat during character creation, as well as one every level of a multiple of three. Other feats include Toughness, which grants additional Hit Points, and Whirlwind Attack, which lets a character perform a special attack where the character spins 360 degrees.

Skills are available to all characters. It is a fixed list of talents such as Jump and Tumble. Upon leveling up, a character adds points to those talents based on the Intelligence statistic. For instance, putting more points into Jump allows a character to jump higher. Each skill is augmented by a character's stat. For instance, Tumble is connected to Dexterity. The higher a DEX score, the more a character is able to dodge attacks by rolling away. Finally, Skills are dependent upon classes. Each class has skills. Class skills cost one point to raise one point. A skill not connected to a class costs two points to raise one point.

Enhancements further customize characters. Levels have five tiers, each reached by accumulating XP grants one Action Point(AP), for a total of four AP's per level. These can be spent at any time, and are traded into a trainer NPC for an enhancement. These are similar to Feats, but do not provide as significant an alteration to a character's attributes. Each enhancement costs a certain number of AP to attain. An example is Fighter's Critical Accuracy II, which costs 2 AP, and requires Fighter's Critical Accuracy I. That ability gives a Fighter a better chance to deliver a critical strike when a hit is delivered, doing more damage than an ordinary hit.

Prestige Enhancements (PrE's) are similar to Prestige classes. Instead of Prestige classes in the game, some classes can purchase enhancement lines that grant much the same abilities. For instance, a Rogue is able to become an Assassin by purchasing Way of the Assassin, thereby doing greater damage when doing a sneak attack. All prestige enhancements require other prerequisite enhancements or Feats.

Updates and modules
Turbine releases major content updates as modules, named after the module concept in the pen-and-paper version of D&D. Additional content was released between modules as "updates." Starting with Module 5, the development team decided to stop releasing interim updates. Responding to the player feedback that the interim updates do not provide enough new content, the developers instead focused on creating larger modules. Prior to the launch of DDO: Eberron Unlimited, there was a 10-month content gap.

Module 1: Dragon's Vault
On April 5, 2006, Turbine released its first module. It included a new dungeon, fixes to the combat system and tweaks to the user interface. Update 1.1: The Harbor, included changes to the low level harbor quests. Update 1.2: Solo Enhancements, made changes to the harbor area, including the addition of some solo-only quests.

Module 2: Twilight Forge
Released July 12, 2006, it added a new player race, the Drow, as well as new enhancements, spells, a patron system, in-game mail, and adventures set in the Restless Isles, a new outdoor area. Update 2.1: Litany of the Dead Part 1: The Necropolis, introduced a quest series. The update had five quests, culminating in an encounter with a powerful vampire. Update 2.2: Stormreach Under Siege! introduced the first quests above level 10, other than the Twilight Forge raid.

Module 3: Demon Sands
This module was released on October 25, 2006. It introduced the concepts of explorable areas, consensual PvP (Player vs. Player) elements (in the form of "Tavern Brawl" arenas and objective-based quests; Capture the Flag, Indoor and Outdoor Deathmatch), as well as an auction house. It raised the level-cap from 10 to 12. Update 3.1: Evil Resurgent, included a rework of the social panel, bug fixes, and six high level quests. Update 3.2: Litany of the Dead Part 2, released new monsters, along with five quests for party levels 8-9. These quests continue the storyline of The Necropolis from Litany of the Dead Part 1. Update 3.3: Academy Training, revamped the Action Point enhancement system. In celebration of DDO's one-year anniversary, all treasure chests were at +1 level, and all XP awarded was +50% from February 28 to March 4.

Module 4: Reaver's Bane
Introduced in April 2007, Reaver's Bane raised the cap from 12 to 14 and introduced a terrain mechanic along with new spells and abilities for characters of all levels. Two new areas (the Cerulean Hills and Gianthold Ruins) use the new mechanic that includes entrances to traditional quests plus three new types of quests: slayer quests (where you get experience for how many monsters you or your party have killed), explorer quests (where you get experience just for visiting a new part of the area for the first time), and rare encounter quests (where you get experience for killing infrequently spawned named monsters). Update 4.1: Mark of the Dragon, implemented Dragonmarks and the addition of a new encounter area: Ataraxia's Haven. Update 4.2: Searing Heights, revamped the Menechtarun desert landscape and the Waterworks adventure area. There was an added landscape for level 4 characters called Searing Heights, new spells, abilities, and enhancements including Holy Sword and Warchanter. Players get three more weapon set configuration slots for a total of seven. Also fixed were several bugs. Many new spells were added for all spellcasting classes. Extra enhancements were also added. One additional level 4 dungeon was added.

Module 5: The Accursed Ascension
Released in September 2007, this module includes parts 3 and 4 of the Litany of the Dead; by doing so, it doubled the amount of quests in the Necropolis area. It ends with a new high level raid. Apart from the addition of new enhancements and some minor corrections, the metamagic system went through a major revision and the item tool tips were vastly improved. Collectible and gem bags were added, made to reduce the cluttering of inventory space.

Module 6: The Thirteenth Eclipse
The January 2008 update, the Thirteenth Eclipse, raised the level cap from 14 to 16, and opened a previously locked area that was partially accessible by players, The Twelve. Also with this area is a new set of quests and a new raid located in an area connected to The Twelve, called the Vale of Twilight. Included is allowance for subscribers to customize the player interface as is available in Turbine's other MMO "Lord of the Rings Online." Also added with the new area was a new feature of the game, crafting. Crafting requires numerous ingredients which, when put in the Eldritch Devices in a specific combination will produce an item or alter an existing item. Update 6.1 introduced an ongoing live event, as well as a slice of anniversary cake. The anniversary cake summons a Djinni that will grant a wish (as the Wish spell)

Module 7: Way of the Monk
This update, released on 3 June 2008, introduced the Monk class to all servers. It had been in testing on the Risia preview server. Included were city upgrades, bounty subquests collecting remains of monsters, and UI interface tweaks. Other things added were two raid quests, located in a massive raid wilderness area, feats and enhancements, and a memorial to Gary Gygax.

Module 8: Prisoners of Prophecy
This update, released November 6, 2008, introduced a low level area called Korthos Island. It replaced the starter area in the Harbor, the tutorial area, as well as updating many of the low (level 1 through 3) quests. Four wilderness areas were added as high level content. DirectX 10 have been integrated into their graphics as well. NPCs known as hirelings have been integrated into the main game, which are controlled by the player while on quests. The number of character slots available for users was increased to 10. New spells, Enhancements and UI improvements round out the module.

Eberron Unlimited Re-Launch
The game relaunch, released on 9 September 2009, introduced the free to play game system, the DDO Store, low-level quests, and six cap-level quests followed by a new raid. The higher-level quests and raid follow onto the story established in the Module 6 and 7 releases and send the player to the plane of Shavarath to battle the invading devils, and included a wilderness area on the plane. The relaunch updated the level cap to 20 and introduced the Favored Soul class. Many game systems, including the Dungeon Alert system and a system to scale monster difficulty based on party size, were introduced with the rerelease, along with many UI features, enhancements, and spells.

Update 1
The Path of Inspiration. After restarting their numbering scheme with the relaunch, the first update to Eberron Unlimited was released on October 28, 2009. This update premiered a dungeon difficulty, epic, retuning the adventures of Module 3 to be challenging to high-end level 20 characters. It introduced a high-level quest series, and introduced features to the DDO Store.

Update 2
The Dreaming Dark, released on December 16, 2009, was entirely a content update, introducing another five-quest, higher level quest chain. This quest chain follows on to Path of Inspiration from the previous update.

Update 3
This update was released on February 3, 2010. Four new quests, all free.

Update 4
Sentinels of Stormreach. Five new quests in House Deneith, all featuring pirates.

Update 5
Rise of the Guilds. Four new quests in the House Phiarlan combined into one adventure pack named Phiarlan Carnival. Also guild housing along with guild leveling has been improved. Players are now available to earn their guild an airship which serves as a guild hall and can be filled with various amenities.

An overview of the added airships was published on DDO-daily.com.

Update 6
Into the Deep. A new wilderness area along with four new quests. One of them introducing underwater combat for the first time in DDO. Wilderness area, Red Fens, can be entered via House Kundarak.

Beta testing
On August 1, 2005, Turbine sent invitations to people interested in participating in the Public Alpha Test. On November 1, 2005, Turbine announced that the public Beta test was open. On November 22, 2005 Turbine announced that each copy of the January 2006 issue of PC Gamer magazine would contain a "key" to gain access to the beta. Turbine, in association with Fileplanet and IGN, also completed 3 public stress tests of the game, with the most recent ending on February 12, 2006.

Testing for DDO ended on February 19, 2006. The game opened February 28, 2006, after a special head start event that started February 24, 2006 for those who preordered.

In July 2009, DDO reopened the beta testing, in preparation for their new free-to-play subscription structure.

Eberron Unlimited
On June 9, 2009, the official D&D Online website announced that Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach would convert to a subscriptionless "free to play" game for players in North America, under the new name Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited. The level cap would be increased to level 20 (also the standard level cap in the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons) and Free users would have access to the majority of game content; some features would have to be purchased with Turbine points or unlocked through play. As for new subscribers or old subscribed players, there would be VIP access with additional features available, as well as free Turbine points. Closed beta registration opened on June 9, 2009 and the game and contents were free to download on September 1 for VIP members and September 9 for the general North American public.

Differences in content available to subscribers and non-subscribers:

Awards

 * Freebie Award: Best Free-to-play-MMORPG, 2009 RPGLand.com RPGs of the Year 2009
 * Best Free to Play MMO, 2009 MMORPG.com 2009 Awards
 * Best Free to Play Game, 2009 Tentonhammer.com Best of 2009 Awards
 * Best Multiplayer Game, 2006 British Academy Video Games Awards
 * Most Anticipated Game, 2005 MMORPG.COM Reader's Choice Awards
 * Best Persistent World Game, IGN.com Best of 2006 Awards
 * Nominee, Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year, 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards
 * Third Prize, Best Graphics, Les JOL d'Or 2006
 * Third Prize, Public's Award, Les JOL d'Or 2006

Media Coverage

 * DDO Reviews at Game Rankings (meta-review site, Average Ratio: 76%)
 * Interview with Alex Rodberg & David Eckelberry from GenCon 2005 at GamerGod.com
 * PC Gamer Video Podcast #3 Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach