[ddo] lo

Tue May 30 17:51:52 IST 2006

running for a taxi now - be home in 40 mins ..... not slept in 2 days so buy
healing pots

-----Original Message-----
From: ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com [mailto:ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com]On Behalf Of
Mike Kelly
Sent: 30 May 2006 15:08
To: ddo at dspsrv.com
Subject: Re: [ddo] lo

Interesting dissertation, however I want to see a references section, if
this was the final version it'd be a B but you *can* get an A, Joe. ;)

On 30/05/06, Joe Vaughan < joev at jarhedz.com <mailto:joev at jarhedz.com> >
wrote: 

I'm mad up for it tonight... been feeling kinda "cold turkey" this week
and GuildWars just isn't scratching my itch...

Get an anti-fungal cream, Canesten Duo works well, remember to keep applying
it for two weeks after the symptoms disappear. 

Like Leigh, I enjoyed last week immensely but still would like to try to
remove more "WoW" from our play style. We've done the 80% that only 
takes 20% of the effort... now it's time to work on the other 20%.

We were mostly effective last week... the skelly army was fun :) but
when we were down to our own devices it was still a bit messy.

That was excellent and it was nice to see that you can do things differently
in DDO. That you're not part of some obsessively "(un)balanced"
rock-paper-scissors class structure. 

I was impressed by them (Turbine) last week, they're quite clever really,
notice how they give skellies swords and bows, skellies having damage
reduction 5/Bludgeoning ( i.e. the first 5 points of damage are absorbed
unless you use a bludgeoning weapon) and zombies, with damage reduction
5/Slashing, just have bludgeoning attacks so if you control a bunch of
skellies they aren't great against other skellies but they'll whip the crap
out of zombies and vice versa. I was hoping we'd come across a bunch of
zombies when we had your undead horde, the hilarious carnage would have been
even more hilarious. 

a) Noone should enter a room/area till the rogue clears it

A good idea, also we need to hold the doors when underground. Odile is ideal
for that, except that casters stay back blasting the people in the door and
a lot of Joes spells are quite short range. I don't have a solution right
now. Maybe me and Conor hold the door in situations where there are a lot of
casters/ranged characters and Diarm and Annabelle mill in? 

We do need to communicate (what we're doing) more and I think we're having
some issues with the voice comms, I know Diarm breaks up all the time (I
rarely get the start or the end of any Diarmspek) Joe, Conor and Leigh's
comms are normally great, I don't know what mine is like. 

Remember this from last week, I know I do:

Me: "Trap, don't use the switch" 
Odile: <runs over and starts using the switch>
1 sec later. 
Me: "I said DON'T use the..."
Trap: <Sproing>
Odile: Ouch!
Us: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA! ZOMG NOOBORZ! ROFLCAKES! etc.

I reckon that my comms broke up, or Diarms client didn't hear me or the
message was delayed or... who knows... funny stuff though: as Faith no More
put it in Ricochet: "It's always funny until some-one gets hurt and then
it's just hil-ar-ious!" :D 

b) We shouldn't wander anywhere alone. not even "x is resting, lets look
at the next bit". Rest shrines take 30 seconds tops... are we that 
impatient we can't wait that long to keep the team together. please gods
say we're not :)

I hope it's noticed that I normally stand guard in the doorway while the
spellicasters rest (clothies being a hugely inappropriate term as it
includes Conors platearmoured ass). I'm a (chaotic) *good* ranger! Yay! 

c) Don't run off when the healers/casters are buffing/healing.

A word on buffs, I know Conor likes to buff Odile with Bulls Strength which
is cool as it gives a +2 to hit and damage, however I think that Annabelle
could make a better use of it (Odiles Attack Bonus probably being close on
+10 and Annabelles being about +4) . 

A pity we didn't get Bren involved, his bard's buffs would be excellent,
spellpoint free additions. *Grumble* stupid Joe's brother.

d) if/when we do have to release, and we're trying to get back to assist
the party asap, then don't be "selling" to vendor and collectors.

Aye aye. Although the temptation is there particularly when my bags are
stuffed with arrows. 

e) We still have a tendency to "mill in" before reading quest texts... 
and an impatience to do so. I want to savour the content of this game,
not just rush through it as I did with WoW. I think most of us do. We
have to take the time (and if you've already read the quest or just
"Next, Next, Next"ed allow the others the time) to *read* texts. We
would have possibly avoided loads of hassle with that wraith last week
if we had.

I agree, I like the flavour of DDO, i like "playing" a Ranger, I love the
fact that I can use my skills passively: e.g. my spot allows me to see
stealthers a mile off and plant an arrow in the bastards. But we need to
slow down a bit on the interpersonal side, sometimes it's kinda hard follow
the quest text, especially when only one person can speak to someone before
triggering something (this is a problem with the client IMO, a time-delayed
speech bubble like WoW would be clearer). 

We also need to decide on a case by case basis who speaks to people, Diarm
with his huge intimidate, Joe or Conor with their huge Diplomacy or me and
Annabelle with our... erm... huge... Dexterity? Interpersonal skills might
allow other options in conversation. 

The main thing I wonder about is why do we fear "The Plan" so much? If 
we were a real pen n paper DnD group, every engagement (that we could
forsee) would have at least some basic planning going into it, and the
more dangerous ones could have hours... yet, in DDO we're rushing into 
fights without any thought about strategy. This is the main reason we
keep getting smacked. When something unexpected happens.. even in just
the simple form of a big crit on a key character, we're off like
headless chickens. I'm not saying we need to have a 2 hour debate before 
every single fight... 90% of them we can do with our eyes closed, but
couldn't we have:

1. The "90% of fights will go like this so let's conserve spell points
etc" plan
2. Plans for big fights... e.g. large numbers of humanoids... undead
(immune to charm/sleep/diplomacy/intimidate - what to do?)... animals etc.
3. Specific plans for bosses etc... i.e. we don't just rush in but
instead work out a buff and spell strategy, where to place ranged 
firers.. .where the Diarm tanks them etc... this will take us,
realistically, 2 mins  before a big fight, but I'm sure will result in
less deaths.

It's especially going to be important when you get Fireball Joe, I have a
funny feeling that we won't be immune to your fireballs (I hope we won't). 

Finally... can I suggest, to counter a lot of the problems above, what
we really need is a properly designated group leader. The idea is that 
we don't do anything till the GL tells us to, e.g. "Attack", "Let's rest
then stick together", "Leigh, go scout, the rest of you don't move a
friggin muscle" etc. I'm not saying we have to be shouted at all the 
time before we can do anything, but just generally to control us a
bit... we're an unruly bunch at the best of times and a calming, guiding
influence would probably be a good idea. My suggestion would be Mike,
because he is good strategically, generally at range in combat (and
therefore able to oversee better) and also because those dulcet tones
are calming... kinda hypnotic... Mike nice... must make Mike happy....
Of course, any of us could be. (given that we're also generally "out of 
melee) Conor and I would be the other choices, but no offence to Conor,
I think we're both a bit too authoritarian... and who the hell wants to
play with a dictator? :)

The German race, c 1933-1945? ;) 

I'll give it a shot if you like, but don't start complaining if you find
yourself, in shiny new jackboots, marching on Poland on September 1st. ;)

Thoughts?

Joe.

Mike Kelly wrote:
> I'm ready and eager for tonight... 7.00pm start? Mayhem and
> destruction all round?
>
> On 29/05/06, *Conor Clifford* < Conor.Clifford at fineos.com
<mailto:Conor.Clifford at fineos.com> 
> <mailto: Conor.Clifford at fineos.com <mailto:Conor.Clifford at fineos.com> >>
wrote:
>
>     I'm probably buggered tonight between tag rugby and working late. 
>     No soccer tomorrow though, so should be able to start at decent time.
>
>         -----Original Message-----
>         *From:* ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com <mailto:ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com>
<mailto: ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com <mailto:ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com> >
>         [mailto: ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com <mailto:ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com> 
>         <mailto:  <mailto:ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com>
ddo-bounces at dspsrv.com>]*On Behalf Of *Leigh Murphy
>         *Sent:* 29 May 2006 09:34
>         *To:* DDO
>         *Subject:* [ddo] lo
>
>         Hi Guys,
>         Are we set fot his week? Or is anyone interested in tonight 
>         instead of tomorrow so we could start a little earlier??
>         I think we rushed a bit last week, the 4 deaths by wraith
>         being case and point.
>         Things got a tad to WoWish but I have to say the army of 
>         undead was brilliant :-)
>         There seemed to be too much time wasted between deaths as we
>         ran back as well. I think as soon as you're healed and
>         repaired if necessary hurry back. 
>         There should really be no trading or turning in of collecables
>         when our time is so limited anyway.
>         We had talked of discussing tactics last week before we
>         started but that never came to pass. I think if somone calls 
>         timeout or whatever we should group up and chilll for a sec.
>         If I can't scout (undead/spiders etc..) Diarmuid should lead
>         the way. If Mike protects Joe, I can try and protect Conor. 
>         It went much better potion wise last week though, probably
>         largely due to the army we had with us and that Conor could
>         focus on us instead of defending himself.
>         On a brighter lighter note: 
>         I was standing around the market place yesterday when a lvl 8
>         bard came over and gave me a +1 Frost Rapier -woohoo!!
>         So I'm all ready to backstab :-)
>
>         Leigh. 
>

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