With the debut of Dungeons and Dragons Online’s 90-day permadeath server heading our way on August 16th, it is fairly imperative that Standing Stone Games test out the shard before turning players loose on it for real. Ergo, the studio is running a three-day server preview that starts today and ends on Thursday.
So how will this server work, exactly? SSG clarified in an interview over at MMO Central: “When you die on the hardcore server, you’re done. What that means is that when your hit points drop into the negative enough… you can fall down, somebody can save you and heal you, but when you die, you are swept to the nether realm and that’s it. You can’t be raised, you can’t be resurrected, you can’t use self-rezzes, you can’t use the Jibbers blade, you can’t use a resurrection cake, you’re done […] You can create another character if you want.”
Those dead characters can be transferred to the live game after the hardcore server’s run is done, however, so your progress won’t be lost forever.
As for Lord of the Rings Online’s announcements, the studio said that race changes and the new Stout Axe Dwarves should be in place by this year’s Minas Morgul expansion. And yes, SSG will include the race as part of the base expansion price due to the fiasco caused by keeping High Elves separate from the base Mordor pack.
