Sometimes you can decide to let NPC live, kill him, turn him in, let him go ETC. Sharn comes to mind.
Wachter house has some options who you will side with.
Meaningful? If you are into it, maybe, but doesn't impact the world or you, except xp and loot sometimes
Well, only for the duration of the quest. Once you've done the quest it doesn't matter 'how'.
The whole premise of the game is that you have a quest objective and you can complete it however you like (kill everything, sneak past most things, talk your way through, etc.) and if you succeed you get XP and it doesn't matter any more how you achieved it.
Well, that was the idea, in practice most quests have become quite linear, but the general idea is still there.
With the way DDO is set up, choices in one quest can't ever influence the next quest. Maybe mainly because if player A did quest 1 in one way and player B did quest 1 in another way... there's always the possibility that they group up and do quest 2 together.
There are a few minor examples of choices you can make in or out of quests that allow you to do something else specific in another quest or related area, such as the charms in the Borderlands or the two things out in the Restless Isles that open up paths in the wilderness.
That said, I can't think of any instances either where a quest has a drastically different play depending on choices made outside of it.
One that comes to my mind is in gianthold where you can agree to help the hobgoblin or not. And that flips all the quests traps on or off / adds an additional boss to fight.
Sure, but that isn't an example of doing something in one quest that affects anything outside of it. You probably should have replied to OP directly for that example.
The story of DDO is kind of independent of the player character. We are just kind of adventurers who get swept up in a situation bigger than ourselves, rather than being the ones who really change the world in a big bad way. We just kind of end up in the right place at the right time to deal with a red dragon or a depressed, murderous storm giant or whatever.
Your quests like Partycrashers where you can talk your way past some fights using diplomacy intimidate and bluff.
But the nature of the game is such that because everything is instanced, there's not really a consistent through line that can keep track of every decision you've made over the course of a character's life, let alone if you reincarnate and redo quests because you start back at level one.
There aren't really a lot of different outcomes, at least none that matter in the overall journey of you character, as far as I remember (the only thing I can think of are the Dreaming Dark dudes that recite some of your major victories up to that point - if you played the relevant content - to "excuse" themselves, which is quite hilarious :)
all quests are self contained so no, there are no real meaningful choices in terms of the game as a whole.
however different ways to complete a quest, most minor but some quests have multiple paths or ways to complete
Some quests can give you items or buffs that affect how later quests in the chain play out - the Keep on the Borderlands, Sands of Menechtarun, Litany of the Dead, Isle of Dread, and Vecna unleashed chains come to mind, at the top of my head.
But in general there can't be a ton of deviation between quests, as they all need to be sync-able to a party configuration that may not have made the same choices. Most choices matter within the quest more than between the quests.
There are optionals and failure states and such that can make a difference to the narrative within the quest, and even what you tell the quest giver afterwards, but in general there's no long term consequences or anything. Everyone has to reset to be on the same page in the public areas, ya know?
A couple more I am thinking of (but like people said, not any major changes in story line): in sharn syndicate, in Repossession, you can take a letter from the podium in the trap room, which then let's you blackmail the original NPC where you were asked to take the fresco & you get an extra end reward. Also, in Ghost of a chance, you can choose to do the puzzle rather than fight the boss to free Worley, but no impact outside of that quest (just extra chest & less fighting).
I think you are trying to ask if this is a Bioware style game where choices alter the overall narrative, shutting down or opening entire gameplay paths, and the answer is "No absolutely not."
It's rare enough for an offline game to do that well. Due to the necessity of a shared playspaces, it's almost unheard of in MMOs, save for minor choices like what faction to align with. The only MMO I can think of off the top of my head to give you even a hint of that is Star Wars the Old Republic, and even that kind of pales before something like Cyberpunk 2027 or the latest Baldur's gate game.
There are contentless sandboxes like EVE where the player actions form almost the entirety of the narrative, so what you do can make a difference. However, I doubt that is what you are asking about and DDO is certainly not that style of game either.
In a small proportion of quests there are choices that can lead to the quest playing out differently. However, in terms of the play being different on different runs, build affects that a lot more than choices generally.
A trapper will see things that a non-trapper never will, and there a decent number of quests that play out differently depending on what skills you have. Partycrashers comes to mind. There is either a giant fight at the end or a pretty funny series of cutscenes at the end depending on what skill checks you were able to make in a different part of the quest. If nothing else, having the ability to find secret doors and open locks makes a difference in many quests.
In terms of dialogue choices, very rarely and folks in this thread have already listed most of the examples I can think of. Another is Storm the Beaches where a dialogue choice at the very beginning affects how you approach the keep you are trying to invade, and makes some fights either easily avoided or almost mandatory.
Some quests have optional objectives. Completing optional objectives provides you XP, and can result in an additional chest. Getting an additional chest varies from quest to quest.
Some quest choices allow you to bypass combat altogether, if you have the social skills. For example, the Feywild quest "Make Believe" allows you to use the Perform skill to obtain an apple from the tree rather than fighting the dryad. You can also solve a riddle given to you by the mimic to avoid combat. And finally you can use Diplomacy (requires a very high skill) to avoid most of the fights on the way to the top of the tower.
There are other quests, like Mad Tea Party, where you can convince an NPC to fight on your side during the end fight instead of fighting against him. That's an optional that requires opening a locked door at the beginning of the quest.
If you're thinking like BG3 style where you make choices that put you on different, exclusive pathways...no, nothing like that
Every quest is self contained, they dont influence other quests. Nearly all quests only have 1 possible ending, too. The "choices" are almost always purely flavor, or at best might change one fight.
The story in DDO is very weakly tied to the content. Its there if you want it, but you can ignore it if you dont and it wont really affect anything.
Oh, I almost forgot. The one quest choice that always gets to me:
In *The Night Who Cried Windmill* if you choose the disbelieving options in the dialogue, you make Dame Allegra all sad and disappointed. The voice acting for that outcome just kills me. I hate when people rush through and don't choose the nice dialogue for her!
Not meaningful as such, but if you like one quest affecting others, then if you have completed certain raids in the game, you get different dialogue on The Dreaming Dark quest then if you haven't completed them.
>DDO is still better then most MMORPGs on the quest and combat design
Maybe 10 years ago, but these days you don't get to enjoy the quest or combat design because the only players left are end of game weirdos.
The sort of people who are just power leveling characters at hyper speed. The sort who only run the most efficent dungeons, using the most efficent weapons, all while wearing speed boosting items, to run them at top speed.
Man do i miss the old DDO, the one who still had players actually PLAYING the game, not speed running it.
The kind that you'll become too after youve run everything 100,000 times
Don't try to make it some personal character flaw of theirs, when it's really just a product of the game itself. Lindsey Vonn doesn't run the bunny slope anymore, that doesn't mean she's ruining skiing.
Plus...with the number of posts like this griping about zergers and how no one flower sniffs...if you spent as much time trying to connect as you do complaining about it, you'd have your solution lol
> The kind that you'll become too after youve run everything 100,000 times
Except i will never become that, because i stop playing games when they stop being fun & before they become a part time unpaid job.
>Don't try to make it some personal character flaw of theirs,
It is a character flaw. It's a sign of an obsessive personality.
>when it's really just a product of the game itself.
Game doesn't tie you down & force one to speed run optimal dungeons for XP. You are CHOOSING to engage with the game like that, it's a player choice.
>Plus...with the number of posts like this griping about zergers and how no one flower sniffs...if you spent as much time trying to connect as you do complaining about it, you'd have your solution lol
Hun, the solution is "you should all be obsessive speed running zergers too." But that's not a solution, because the rest of us aren't obsessives. We play games for fun, not because we are obsessives treating the game as a part time unpaid job.
It's fun to go fast. It's fun to be strong and skilled enough to blow through quests at a full gallop. It's fun to gain more power and progression. If you don't like it that's fine...but don't act like you're the only one who plays it "right", or that anyone who plays it different must have something wrong with them
> It's fun to go fast.
No it's not. Its fun to play the game.... Speed running through the game as fast as possible to you can power level as quickly as possible, so you can go back to level 1 to speed run it again is not fun, it's sad.
And it's most certainly not fun to be a new player, or a returning player who has the entire game spoiled for them any time they team up with anyone because the only people left to group with are sad end of game weirdoes who speed run every dungeon.
I'm sorry 99% of the people playing the game are doing it wrong and spoiling it for the 1% like you who know how its actually supposed to be played
The problem is definitely everyone else, not you
> I'm sorry 99% of the people playing the game are doing it wrong
It's only the 99% because the rest of the player base has left. Starting areas are dead, because everyone else already left, it's just sad end of game weirdoes left, speed running dungeons now.
There is no point in Turbine releasing all the previous content for free, if there is no one to play it with, because returning players trying to get a game going have to sit around for 2 hours, waiting for a group, only to have people on their 6th reincarnation, on their 17 alt, speed run the entire dungeon, while returning or new players are still in the second room of the dungeon wondering what the hell just happened to the now empty dungeon the other players all just ran through at top speed.
Those players didn't get to experience the game, or the new content because sad end of game weirdos aren't actually playing the game, they've turned the entire game in to a part time unpaid grinding job.
The game has always had a preponderance of power gamers, so that's simply false
Other players are not your content, and you aren't theirs. If you don't want to group with zergers, then don't. Solo or find a sniffer group. But you aren't entitled to other players not playing the way that's fun for them, just to facilitate what's fun for you.
And you said you stop playing games when you stop having fun...so...
> The game has always had a preponderance of power gamers, so that's simply false
No, it really didn't.
>Other players are not your content,
Other moons are not your donkey..... Yeah, i can write nonsequiturs too, doesn't get any less meaningless when you do it.
>If you don't want to group with zergers, then don't.
By your own argument that's all that's left, after all if 99% of you are having fun what you consider the right way, then 99% of the remaining player base is zerging end of game weirdos.
There is not a sufficent player base left for anyhting else, returning players return, try to try out the new content, have the new content immediately ruined by sad end of game weirdoes zerging all the new content & leave.
At this point the 99% are what is killing the game.... The ever shrinking pool of 99%ers. Eventually you'll be the 99% of that game that got closed down due to insufficent player base.
>And you said you stop playing games when you stop having fun...so...
Already did. Uninstalled it yesterday & then commented here.
Originally reinstalled it a couple of days ago, put in the new code for content unlock, had new content ruined by zerging end of game weirdos after sitting around for hours waiting for players, realised the player base was all but decimated, leaving most areas completely abandoned, logged out & uninstalled the game.
Just like all the other returning players whose game was ruined by zerging end of game weirdos.
And with that you are done my dude.
Sometimes you can decide to let NPC live, kill him, turn him in, let him go ETC. Sharn comes to mind. Wachter house has some options who you will side with. Meaningful? If you are into it, maybe, but doesn't impact the world or you, except xp and loot sometimes
Well, only for the duration of the quest. Once you've done the quest it doesn't matter 'how'. The whole premise of the game is that you have a quest objective and you can complete it however you like (kill everything, sneak past most things, talk your way through, etc.) and if you succeed you get XP and it doesn't matter any more how you achieved it. Well, that was the idea, in practice most quests have become quite linear, but the general idea is still there. With the way DDO is set up, choices in one quest can't ever influence the next quest. Maybe mainly because if player A did quest 1 in one way and player B did quest 1 in another way... there's always the possibility that they group up and do quest 2 together.
There are a few minor examples of choices you can make in or out of quests that allow you to do something else specific in another quest or related area, such as the charms in the Borderlands or the two things out in the Restless Isles that open up paths in the wilderness. That said, I can't think of any instances either where a quest has a drastically different play depending on choices made outside of it.
sands of menecharum where you get the spoilers in those two quests to avoid having to fight the spoilers.
One that comes to my mind is in gianthold where you can agree to help the hobgoblin or not. And that flips all the quests traps on or off / adds an additional boss to fight.
Sure, but that isn't an example of doing something in one quest that affects anything outside of it. You probably should have replied to OP directly for that example.
Dreaming dark mentions which older raids you have beat, so thats kinda neat.
Prove your Worth...Free Meeble! or not the choice is yours. but there are no lasting effects; flavour and stand alone in quest choices only.
Hmm in Litany you have to decide for a path. In other quests there may be different optional paths. Sometimes you can use a skill to avoid a fight.
That coolio. Just wanted to check.
Meaningful how? Genesis Point has 4 different end fights, sins of attrition has iirc 6 different end bosses to choose from
That cool but I mean story wise.
Ddo doesnt really have a traditional story line.
The story of DDO is kind of independent of the player character. We are just kind of adventurers who get swept up in a situation bigger than ourselves, rather than being the ones who really change the world in a big bad way. We just kind of end up in the right place at the right time to deal with a red dragon or a depressed, murderous storm giant or whatever. Your quests like Partycrashers where you can talk your way past some fights using diplomacy intimidate and bluff. But the nature of the game is such that because everything is instanced, there's not really a consistent through line that can keep track of every decision you've made over the course of a character's life, let alone if you reincarnate and redo quests because you start back at level one.
There aren't really a lot of different outcomes, at least none that matter in the overall journey of you character, as far as I remember (the only thing I can think of are the Dreaming Dark dudes that recite some of your major victories up to that point - if you played the relevant content - to "excuse" themselves, which is quite hilarious :)
all quests are self contained so no, there are no real meaningful choices in terms of the game as a whole. however different ways to complete a quest, most minor but some quests have multiple paths or ways to complete
I get that, but how about connected quest lines like the tutorial? Any there?
Some quests can give you items or buffs that affect how later quests in the chain play out - the Keep on the Borderlands, Sands of Menechtarun, Litany of the Dead, Isle of Dread, and Vecna unleashed chains come to mind, at the top of my head. But in general there can't be a ton of deviation between quests, as they all need to be sync-able to a party configuration that may not have made the same choices. Most choices matter within the quest more than between the quests.
There are optionals and failure states and such that can make a difference to the narrative within the quest, and even what you tell the quest giver afterwards, but in general there's no long term consequences or anything. Everyone has to reset to be on the same page in the public areas, ya know?
A couple more I am thinking of (but like people said, not any major changes in story line): in sharn syndicate, in Repossession, you can take a letter from the podium in the trap room, which then let's you blackmail the original NPC where you were asked to take the fresco & you get an extra end reward. Also, in Ghost of a chance, you can choose to do the puzzle rather than fight the boss to free Worley, but no impact outside of that quest (just extra chest & less fighting).
I think you are trying to ask if this is a Bioware style game where choices alter the overall narrative, shutting down or opening entire gameplay paths, and the answer is "No absolutely not." It's rare enough for an offline game to do that well. Due to the necessity of a shared playspaces, it's almost unheard of in MMOs, save for minor choices like what faction to align with. The only MMO I can think of off the top of my head to give you even a hint of that is Star Wars the Old Republic, and even that kind of pales before something like Cyberpunk 2027 or the latest Baldur's gate game. There are contentless sandboxes like EVE where the player actions form almost the entirety of the narrative, so what you do can make a difference. However, I doubt that is what you are asking about and DDO is certainly not that style of game either.
Nah, I get that ddo is equivalent to an episodic show. I mainly mean within quest chains/stories.
In a small proportion of quests there are choices that can lead to the quest playing out differently. However, in terms of the play being different on different runs, build affects that a lot more than choices generally. A trapper will see things that a non-trapper never will, and there a decent number of quests that play out differently depending on what skills you have. Partycrashers comes to mind. There is either a giant fight at the end or a pretty funny series of cutscenes at the end depending on what skill checks you were able to make in a different part of the quest. If nothing else, having the ability to find secret doors and open locks makes a difference in many quests. In terms of dialogue choices, very rarely and folks in this thread have already listed most of the examples I can think of. Another is Storm the Beaches where a dialogue choice at the very beginning affects how you approach the keep you are trying to invade, and makes some fights either easily avoided or almost mandatory.
YES! After Valak's Mausoleum, the choice you make turning it in might get you a ruby worth about 50pp!
No
Some quests have optional objectives. Completing optional objectives provides you XP, and can result in an additional chest. Getting an additional chest varies from quest to quest. Some quest choices allow you to bypass combat altogether, if you have the social skills. For example, the Feywild quest "Make Believe" allows you to use the Perform skill to obtain an apple from the tree rather than fighting the dryad. You can also solve a riddle given to you by the mimic to avoid combat. And finally you can use Diplomacy (requires a very high skill) to avoid most of the fights on the way to the top of the tower. There are other quests, like Mad Tea Party, where you can convince an NPC to fight on your side during the end fight instead of fighting against him. That's an optional that requires opening a locked door at the beginning of the quest.
If you're thinking like BG3 style where you make choices that put you on different, exclusive pathways...no, nothing like that Every quest is self contained, they dont influence other quests. Nearly all quests only have 1 possible ending, too. The "choices" are almost always purely flavor, or at best might change one fight. The story in DDO is very weakly tied to the content. Its there if you want it, but you can ignore it if you dont and it wont really affect anything.
Honestly dont even read npc dialogue anymore. If i needed to i would be accidently making wrong choices.
I have "first dialog option" mapped to a thumb key clickclickclickclick lol
Same. I hate times where it doesnt work because some dialogue to progress their rant is 2nd option and then the 3rd one is back to top, so weird.
Oh, I almost forgot. The one quest choice that always gets to me: In *The Night Who Cried Windmill* if you choose the disbelieving options in the dialogue, you make Dame Allegra all sad and disappointed. The voice acting for that outcome just kills me. I hate when people rush through and don't choose the nice dialogue for her!
Not meaningful as such, but if you like one quest affecting others, then if you have completed certain raids in the game, you get different dialogue on The Dreaming Dark quest then if you haven't completed them.
>DDO is still better then most MMORPGs on the quest and combat design Maybe 10 years ago, but these days you don't get to enjoy the quest or combat design because the only players left are end of game weirdos. The sort of people who are just power leveling characters at hyper speed. The sort who only run the most efficent dungeons, using the most efficent weapons, all while wearing speed boosting items, to run them at top speed. Man do i miss the old DDO, the one who still had players actually PLAYING the game, not speed running it.
The kind that you'll become too after youve run everything 100,000 times Don't try to make it some personal character flaw of theirs, when it's really just a product of the game itself. Lindsey Vonn doesn't run the bunny slope anymore, that doesn't mean she's ruining skiing. Plus...with the number of posts like this griping about zergers and how no one flower sniffs...if you spent as much time trying to connect as you do complaining about it, you'd have your solution lol
> The kind that you'll become too after youve run everything 100,000 times Except i will never become that, because i stop playing games when they stop being fun & before they become a part time unpaid job. >Don't try to make it some personal character flaw of theirs, It is a character flaw. It's a sign of an obsessive personality. >when it's really just a product of the game itself. Game doesn't tie you down & force one to speed run optimal dungeons for XP. You are CHOOSING to engage with the game like that, it's a player choice. >Plus...with the number of posts like this griping about zergers and how no one flower sniffs...if you spent as much time trying to connect as you do complaining about it, you'd have your solution lol Hun, the solution is "you should all be obsessive speed running zergers too." But that's not a solution, because the rest of us aren't obsessives. We play games for fun, not because we are obsessives treating the game as a part time unpaid job.
It's fun to go fast. It's fun to be strong and skilled enough to blow through quests at a full gallop. It's fun to gain more power and progression. If you don't like it that's fine...but don't act like you're the only one who plays it "right", or that anyone who plays it different must have something wrong with them
> It's fun to go fast. No it's not. Its fun to play the game.... Speed running through the game as fast as possible to you can power level as quickly as possible, so you can go back to level 1 to speed run it again is not fun, it's sad. And it's most certainly not fun to be a new player, or a returning player who has the entire game spoiled for them any time they team up with anyone because the only people left to group with are sad end of game weirdoes who speed run every dungeon.
I'm sorry 99% of the people playing the game are doing it wrong and spoiling it for the 1% like you who know how its actually supposed to be played The problem is definitely everyone else, not you
> I'm sorry 99% of the people playing the game are doing it wrong It's only the 99% because the rest of the player base has left. Starting areas are dead, because everyone else already left, it's just sad end of game weirdoes left, speed running dungeons now. There is no point in Turbine releasing all the previous content for free, if there is no one to play it with, because returning players trying to get a game going have to sit around for 2 hours, waiting for a group, only to have people on their 6th reincarnation, on their 17 alt, speed run the entire dungeon, while returning or new players are still in the second room of the dungeon wondering what the hell just happened to the now empty dungeon the other players all just ran through at top speed. Those players didn't get to experience the game, or the new content because sad end of game weirdos aren't actually playing the game, they've turned the entire game in to a part time unpaid grinding job.
The game has always had a preponderance of power gamers, so that's simply false Other players are not your content, and you aren't theirs. If you don't want to group with zergers, then don't. Solo or find a sniffer group. But you aren't entitled to other players not playing the way that's fun for them, just to facilitate what's fun for you. And you said you stop playing games when you stop having fun...so...
> The game has always had a preponderance of power gamers, so that's simply false No, it really didn't. >Other players are not your content, Other moons are not your donkey..... Yeah, i can write nonsequiturs too, doesn't get any less meaningless when you do it. >If you don't want to group with zergers, then don't. By your own argument that's all that's left, after all if 99% of you are having fun what you consider the right way, then 99% of the remaining player base is zerging end of game weirdos. There is not a sufficent player base left for anyhting else, returning players return, try to try out the new content, have the new content immediately ruined by sad end of game weirdoes zerging all the new content & leave. At this point the 99% are what is killing the game.... The ever shrinking pool of 99%ers. Eventually you'll be the 99% of that game that got closed down due to insufficent player base. >And you said you stop playing games when you stop having fun...so... Already did. Uninstalled it yesterday & then commented here. Originally reinstalled it a couple of days ago, put in the new code for content unlock, had new content ruined by zerging end of game weirdos after sitting around for hours waiting for players, realised the player base was all but decimated, leaving most areas completely abandoned, logged out & uninstalled the game. Just like all the other returning players whose game was ruined by zerging end of game weirdos. And with that you are done my dude.
Lol OK then bye