DDO Stratics Floor Conversation With
Victor “Sporkfire” Wachter
at the Penny Arcade Expo 2005DDO Stratics – The big question for all the fans looking in from the outside - Can you give us a status report on how Beta is going?
Sporkfire – Beta is going well. I’ve been out of the office for about two days now, but as of right now {8/27/05} we should have 1000 people in the Beta. Our goal right now is stress testing the server. We want to have about 200 people on the server at any given time to see how it does under that load. That is really what’s driving a lot of our beta acceptance at this point – How many more people can we get with the stress test to test the server capacity? We’ve also got people in there specifically evaluating the Combat, which is very important since that is one of our three main goals during the development of the game, the others being content and community.
DDO Stratics – Can you describe some ways that DDO will feel uniquely “Dungeons & Dragons” rather than just like any other fantasy roleplaying game out on the market today?
Sporkfire – People have very high expectations of the quality of content they will encounter in a D&D dungeon and as a result, it is very different than what you get in many other MMO games. Monsters act with purpose according to a scripted agenda. We feature intelligently placed traps and events that call to your party to look for multiple solutions to solve the problem. Yes, we’ve had to modify D&D in some ways in order to fit the online space. But, I think we’ve done a really good job of bringing specifically a “D&D feel” to MMORPGs, which is great given that D&D is one of two licenses (the other being LOTR) that REALLY are all about “fantasy”.
DDO Stratics – Can you give us a bit of backstory behind Stormreach and why you chose this city to be the center of DDO’s universe?
Sporkfire – Stormreach is a port city on the continent of Xen’drik. Xen’drik was a continent that contained a civilization of giants many years in the past. Stormreach started as kind of a pirate/smuggler city, but as it gained more population and more influence it started to look to become a legitimate city and a destination for travelers of all races. Xen’drik has not been defined in depth in the Eberron sourcebook, amounting to little more than a few paragraphs. So what this allows us to do is work with WOTC and be part of the process of defining an entire continent and presenting it to the public. Some day, as more Eberron sourcebooks and novels are published, you will start to get to know Xen’drik as WE have helped define it – and that is a really cool opportunity for us.
DDO Stratics - There was a recent poll on the DDO.com forums asking players what they would like to see most between weapons, armor, clothing, etc. Overwhelmingly, the answer seemed to be Clothing, like capes, cloaks, and a variety of outfits to help the players look unique. Considering the priorities of the devs and artists, is there going to be more of a focus on weapons and armor, or will there be a strong effort made on clothing?
Sporkfire – Our focus on customization doesn’t favor either side - we want to support unique characters through multiple clothing options. Both armor and robes are generated dynamically from an array of base textures that make up the overall body of the clothing, and additional geometry that adds features such as mantles, sashes, spaulders and more. These elements are combined and colored to generate over two thousand different robe variations and six thousand armor variations. The greater number of armor variants is due to the many different types of armor in D&D, such as leather, chainmail and platemail.
DDO Stratics – Are there any creatures in DDO that aren’t currently found anywhere else in the D&D universes, including 3.5 D&D PnP or Eberron, that basically you are creating and won’t be seen until it comes out with DDO?
Sporkfire - We have several things that we’ve been able to create on our side that are in keeping with the lore of Eberron. In the build that we’re showing at the Penny Arcade Expo (08/27/05) you meet the Drow Scorpion. Its name may change at some point in the future, but it is similar to the Drider (Drow in previous lore worshipped Spiders, but in Eberron they worship the scorpions).The cosmology of Eberron differs from the traditional planes in other settings, and some demonic creatures have adapted to the differing realms. The Fleshrenders from Shavarath, the Battleground, have deadly poison attacks. The Fire Reavers from Fernia, the Sea of Fire, hurl columns of flame at their opponents, and the Ice Flensers from Risia, the Plain of Ice, can freeze characters in place or create explosive ice shards.
To make sure that they do truly feel “D&D”, they are being created in conjunction with WOTC so that, even though you don’t find them in the sourcebooks today, you will some day be finding them because they ARE being introduced to the world of Eberron.
DDO Stratics – Thanks for your time Sporkfire!
Sporkfire – Thank you and I hope you enjoy the rest of PAX!
Stratics Central
