[ddo] I have an idea

[Joe Vaughan]

Cliffy wrote:
> I played an instance last night (Western Excavation on Elite), was 
> good fun and saw another new tactic that I liked. Which is kind of 
> like what Brian is decribing but at least has the advantage of backup 
> if things go wrong.
>  
> Basically the instance we did was made up of big areas and doorways, 
> so the tactic was simple.
>  
> Enter the instance, fight the way to teh first doorway. Tanks 
> aggro/block (and I mean BLOCK) the doorway, all is takes is one tank 
> blocking and the others can mill in - but not pass the doorway. Once 
> the beach-head was established the rogue would then scout the area, do 
> all the trap stuff and then either the rogue or the ranger would pull 
> (with bow) the mulch to the grinder.
>  
> Once it was logical (ie the rogue said we could) we would move on to 
> the next doorway.
>  
> It was really good fun - we did still wipe a few times, but it was 
> nice to slow down - use tactics and slowly but surely make our way 
> through.
> The waiting for the pulls was perfect for me because it gave me time 
> to heal buff people between scraps without them running off like 
> headless chickens.
> Boring for me in other ways cos all I got to do was heal and heal and 
> heal - but sure there ya go, if its done right that can be fun too.
Mike said in one of his mails: 'I think we lost the "treat it like PnP 
D&D" vibe, though.'

I tend to agree with him.

Fundamentally, our original "contract" with each other was to play 
together once a week. We agreed not to powerlevel off into the beyonds 
because part of the fun and adventure of the game was to discover new 
content together. To make mistakes together. To get our arses kicked and 
our entire party wiped together...

Please don't think I'm jumping on the "bash Conor" bandwagon. I'm not. 
But, there is a definite split now of the wants and needs of the group 
and rather than pussy foot around it I'm going to address it head on and 
please don't think I'm trying to get at you or anything.

For me, and I see from their posts, Mike and Leigh have the same 
opinion, I want to play once a week (sometimes more if I can fit it in 
and ppl are around but predominantly just the once) and I'm only really 
interested in playing *new* content with all of you guys (or redoing old 
content if we're twinking alts). I have really enjoyed our dynamic so 
far and I think we've stuck to our charter quite well thus far.

But you, Conor, and perhaps some others (don't know what Diarm or Bri 
want) have more time and want to play more. I've absolutely no problem 
with that. I tend to look at it this way: You pay your subscription so 
it's your choice how/when you play and there's no way in hell I'd ever 
try to force my opinion upon you... nor allow anyone else to! However, I 
hope you can see that your need and mine are at odds.

Fundamentally, as it stands, our requirements are in opposition meaning 
we can't really play together any more. I've no interest in having my 
main character twinked by your higher level character. (It's great to 
get gifts... but personally they always seem sweeter when I've been 
party to obtaining them) or following you around a dungeon you already 
know as little more than a utility-belt when I can spend the same time 
with some others and enjoy discovering it for ourselves. I've kind of 
gone along with it for the last couple of weeks because, basically, 
we're totally dependent on your character for healing... but I'm at the 
point myself now where I'd prefer to spend a fortnight twinking a cleric 
of my own or waiting for someone else to, than to keep going the way we 
are. It's just frustrating the heck out of me and that's not the way I 
want to be spending time with you guys.

Don't think I'm saying this is a bad thing, I'm just pointing out that 
we have a split of priorities for two sub-groups within our overall 
group (of friends).

Therefore, for those of us who I'll call the NCOs (new content onlys) 
I'd like to get back to basics. We have a specific play night. At the 
moment that is Tuesday 8pm. Let's decide (again) which night it is and 
stick to it. We assume that people are going to make it. If they can't 
then please let us know as soon as you find out you can't. If we have 
more than two who can't make it we postpone "main" playing to next week 
(we can go do alt twinking or something instead if we wish)

Basically, in summary, I think we have a split in our needs and 
therefore we need (at least) two groups.. the powerlevelers/munchkins 
and the slow-poke RPG types. Rather than trying to keep the two together 
why not agree to split ourselves along those lines and meet up sometimes 
to do stuff together but not as a regular thing. This will reduce 
frustration and keep us (at least nominally) together as a group while 
serving the individual needs of us all.

joe.