Okay, so I'm officially out of exhibit hall spending money....just keep telling myself that and rent will be paid at the end of the month.  But wait - that's a pretty cool board game.  and that t-shirt. ooh - anime....

DDO and DDOcast at GenCon 2008: Day Two!

Another fantastic day was had at GenCon!  Man, it's late, but I couldn't get some sleep without first letting you all know a bit about what I've seen.  I also have a bit of updated news and more info on things. 

First off, I actually got the chance to run a whole bunch of the New Player Experience stuff today.  I just don't have time to tell you all about it tonight, so expect some more thoughts in future blog posts and DDOcasts once I've had more of a chance to digest this stuff.  But - what I ran was excellent.  I'm going to intersperse pictures and comments, and provide some thoughts of a general nature about what I ran. 



The Mayor.  He's a bit stressed right now, what with Devourer cultists, a break-in at a tomb, sahaughin and a white dragon causing problems on his little piece of the world.  He's also missing a daughter (at least I think it's his daughter, I'll have to double-check on that)...



Off of Korthos Village, there's a new outdoor area designed for levels 1-3.  It's been pretty easy battling so far solo, but then again - it probably should be, since it's for new players and lowbies.  I haven't yet come across a named, so I suspect that could be more difficult.  It's very cool looking.  There are also some of the new quests and totally revamped Harbor quests in here.



One of the new quests is in the cove below.  It was a very pretty screen.  My digital camera pic doesn't do it justice.  This computer also showed off a bit of DX10 on the water, which really looked excellent.  It moved more smoothly against the shore line, was a bit less "blocky" for lack of a better word and was very rich and deep-looking. 



This is another attempt at a DX10 pic that couldn't really be captured with a digital camera.  The tree's shadows looked super-cool.  Also, when the shadows of the tree branches moved across my character's face, there was movement on my face rather than a "you're either in the shadow or not" kind of thing.  Basically, it brought significant shadow depth to the area.  Very cool indeed.



This picture was sent by a bunch of halflings as so-called "proof" of what they are calling the "flying abominable snowman".  Just kidding!  Actually, I tried to grab a shot of the white dragon as it flew above my head, and even had a bit of help to try to capture it on camera.  However, the shots just didn't turn out.  This is probably the best of the bunch.  The dragon is actually quite detailed and cool. 



I have no idea why these next few shots turned out teal-colored.  They are in fact dark, dungeon-ey and full of different color.  This is an example of a repurposed Goodblades Quest - can you guess which one?  Didn't think so.  Some of these older quests have been totally revamped.  This is probably one of the best of the bunch.  I loved, loved running this one.  There's even a few little secret areas and cool things to discover which I won't spoil for you now.   This takes place in a Cannith Manufactury.



Any closer to figuring out which quest this is?  These crystals will need to be broken, but not before you do some steam-stopping.  This quest is being called "Redemption" and some of the old Harbor-version layout has been completely altered.



No lever-based riddles here!  In fact, the guy on the left is supposed to be protecting the village.  He's doing a terrible job of it, and has decided to hide instead.  This shot was taken in the aftermath of a really cool sustained attack by sahaughin.  Notice the odd metal-machine parts?  Hmm...now where have I seen those before. 

Okay, this is a revamp of the Healing Elixer, and the mechanical bits are downright Titanic!



Back outside in the Korthos outdoor area.  I took this to show a bit more of the effect of the snow and ice on the island.  Very cool stuff was around here.

Character Creation 101:



I made sure to get a few shots of the new character creation screen overhaul.  Basically, the way the character looks has been changed and the background is totally different.  The characters move, flex, etc while you are doing this. 

As you can see, the classes are categorized into Melee, Spell and Specialist.  Melee is fighter, barbarian, etc, Spell is wizard/sorc etc, Specialist is ranger, rogue, bard...When you select a style, you move to a new screen where you can either pick from a selection of pre-made character builds based on various play styles and abilities (aka - trapsmith-type, AC-build, tank, etc).  You can also customize your character, which brings up a set of screens that are somewhat similar to the old way of building your character, but with a graphical revamp and more (and I think more helpful) information about key stats, skills, etc.



Notice the second build from the top?  Heh.  You can see the customize bit here too.  I forgot to take a shot of the customize screen, sorry about that.

News Update:

- I asked Kate Paiz and Eldorudo for a bit more information about the henchmen.  They told me that each character would only be able to have one henchmen active at a time.  I'd asked about the possibility of essentially soloing raids by building up an army of henchmen.  Kate mentioned that the way it will likely work is that there will be a thing kind of like the bounty boards where you can hire various classes for a certain period of time.  Rogues will be there to help with locks, traps, etc, clerics can heal, all classes will be able to provide all sorts of benefits to the group or soloist needing a bit of assistance.  You will then sort of "summon" them once you've entered a quest, at which point they will act on their own if you'd like them to, or you can "command" them.  Sounds very cool.

- I had a few people come up to me to tell me that they'd heard that Turbine announced an increase to the level cap up to level 20 in Mod 9.  I asked the Turbine folks about this and they weren't quite willing to be that specific about it.  The guidance I was given was that Turbine is planning to increase the level cap around the end of the year.  One can sort of put two-and-two together, being that they plan to release Mod 9 around the New Year, but Tolero wasn't willing to definitively tie the mod and the cap increase together yet.   

- Turbine Party! Oh yeah, the party was so incredibly awesome.  So awesome in fact that I completely forgot to take pictures during it until it was way too late.  Sorry!  I'm kicking myself over it, but hey - there were cameras there, so I'm sure the DDO community will be able to provide some shots of the big hangout.  Incredibly cool t-shirts were given to DDO attendees (and LOTRO shirts for the ring-based fans) of a dragon!  I got one, gonna take a pic of it if it isn't put up somewhere soon.  Drinks, food, fun and a really cool promo-video of the monk and DDO in general on many screens.  Awesome, awesome time.  I personally got to finally meet Lessah in person, hang out with Buzzsaw again, meet a whole bunch of great DDO players and podcast listeners and chat with Tolero, Eldorudo, Silthe, Kate and others!  So neat.  There were a ton of people there - easily 200 (?).  Such a good time...

A Couple of Random Pics:



Here's a pic of the monk t-shirts being handed out at the Turbine booth.  There's writing on the back too that's cool. 



Me and Kate!  Thanks Kate for being such a gracious, hard-working and tireless promoter of DDO at GenCon - I know I and others really appreciate it.  You're doing a good job!

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Whew!  Another late night.  Tomorrow is podcast recording day!  I'm hoping to get some tape of some Turbine folks and record the show in the afternoon!  Just FYI - the show won't go up until at least Sunday, but I'll get it to you as soon as I can.

Also, I got the chance to sit down and play a cool board game with Silthe called the Red Dragon Inn.  Ton of fun!  I picked up a copy for myself afterwards.  Also saw some really crazy-cool anime in the theatre during a bit of downtime: Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei (or something like that) and a bit of Ergo Proxy.  Checked out some seminars, ran through the Tower of Gygax (I got killed by the old 1st edition monster that looks like a beholder but is actually a poison gas balloon thing, sorry I can't remember the name at this late hour).  Had other good times, too. 

Later!

Jerry