Exploring Eberron: First impressions of Update 5

Update 5 arrived on the Dungeons and Dragons Online servers Monday, making for a rough first half of the week. Guild renown, the underpinning of the much-touted airship system, was bugged to the point that it had to be completely turned off for most of Monday and Tuesday. The servers came down for four hours Tuesday afternoon for a hotfix. When they came back up, guild renown was fixed.

Unfortunately, the auction hall bug was still hanging around, causing players with expired auctions to receive in-game mail containing nothing -- their items had disappeared into the ether. The auction hall was partially disabled Wednesday to alleviate the problem, and hotfix round two brought the servers down for a few more hours.

This doesn't mean that Update 5 was a bad thing. Not even close. The rough start was only one facet of this update's launch week -- there is plenty to talk about after things settled down in that arena, and overall some great additions were brought to the game. Follow along after the jump as we look at the first week in Update 5.
The guild renown system has been the hottest topic of conversation, and it will be interesting to see if it continues getting tweaked and fine-tuned over time. Our very own Justin "Syp" Olivetti (and my DDO partner-in-crime) wrote out some of his thoughts on the effects that renown could have on guilds, and it's definitely worth a look. It's thought-provoking too. How much of the guild renown system is a good long-term goal for guilds to work toward, and how much of it is just an exciting new novelty?

That seems to be one of a few concerns and questions voiced by DDO players, some of which I speculated about last week. Guild poaching, renown or farming requirements, mass inactive kicks, and so on -- all of these things were ruminated on in the days approaching the update, so it's been interesting to see how that's played out. Of course, I can only speak to the internal workings of one guild, but the community at large is not shy about speaking out.

There's been a bit of general talk of guild member poaching, and guildless characters getting mass invite spam -- some large guilds are padding their numbers to help the race for 100. As with anything, though, the new will wear off and it will die down pretty quickly. Leveling a guild with this system is more of a marathon than a sprint, and while the sprinters may pull ahead at the beginning, I firmly believe that the guilds that just do their thing and have their fun are going to benefit more overall.

Speaking of doing your thing and having your fun, what happens when you go to pick up an end reward and find that you have a choice between a great item and a 150 renown token? I'm inclined to say "For heaven's sake, take the loot." Taking the entire renown system so seriously that you must farm renown at the expense of better gear just sucks the fun right out, and before you know it, you'll find yourself howling on the forums about the tragedy and injustice of it all. That kind of thing is pretty universally acknowledged to mean "I'm not having fun," and having fun is kind of why we're here. Enjoy the renown system, get excited and congratulate your guildmates when your guild advances a level, but don't let it eclipse everything. You'll get more out of it in the long run.

Overall, the things that people were most concerned about -- mass inactive kicks, invite spam, poaching, renown-farming requirements -- are all part of the shiny allure of a new toy. As the sparkle wears off, every guild will settle into its rhythm and the frenzy will fade away.

The combat changes turned out to be less of an issue than many people feared. Of course, there are still noticeable slowdowns here and there, and some players still view it as an unacceptable nerf. But overall, it's not a game-breaking change at all. To the casual and new players, it has even less of an effect.

New and revamped spells and enhancements as well as the shiny new list of skills, feats, and abilities (trapmaking!) hold enough potential to make quite a few players roll some new alts to check things out. If you've been considering exploring or learning a new class, this is definitely the time.

The new adventure pack has been talked about quite a bit, and VIPs got to play with it this week. As always, VIPs get to take advantage of the adventure pack a week earlier than everyone else, so access was still limited. I rounded up a handful of VIPs in OnedAwesome and we visited the Illusionarium to do some exploring. I know a lot of players are unhappy that it's a lower-level series, but for the new and casual player it's perfect.

It's a good introduction to what DDO is all about, because the carnival quests aren't just "Hit this thing until it dies. The end." You've got to actually think, and explore, and put the pieces of the story together. The Partycrashers quest line also encourages exploration and experimentation. There are all sorts of little side optionals and darkened rooms that bear investigation, and while that's the only quest that we explored in great detail, the others have the same flavor. Investigate the little nooks and crannies, pull levers, spin wheels, and for heaven's sake let the rogue go first. If you take the "CLEAVE AND SMITE" zerg route right away, you're going to miss out on a lot. Explore and learn first, zerg later. Enjoy the journey -- in this case, it's worth it.

Overall -- bumps in the road notwithstanding -- Update 5 is a good addition for low- to mid-range characters. Epic difficulty in the new adventure packs and the long-range guild renown goals give advanced players something new to do as well. I look forward to seeing further tweaks to the update.