All Posts by ProfRed

There is player housing in different started areas where you zone into a neighborhood.  You have to buy one and then it's in that neighborhood instance.  I don't have one yet so I don't know how customizeable they are, but they are on in great locations.  It's cool because you get to know the people in your neighborhood.

I can't speak for all servers but Brandywine seems to always be populated.  I got on at 6:45 am yesterday and got grouped up with a couple of guys immediately and we knocked out quests for a few hours.  This was the level 10-13 area.  Running around the cities I came across hundreds and hundreds of players.  Seemed more alive then most of the games i've played lately actually (WoW on my old server (everyone is 70), EQ2 (Barren Wasteland), Vanguard(The 2nd most popular, and a great game), Lineage II (Barren Wasteland w/Bots).

You can get thousands of people in every MMO out there that can fit any generalized stereotype you want to make whatever point you want.

You will never get enough votes especially on a site as skewed as this to legitimately make whatever point you are trying to make.

The majority of the MMORPG players that exist now due to WoW and as the genre has grown are not hardcore gamers and probably 80-90% play casually.  The more mainstream games coming out are going to be catered towards the majority which are casual gamers, and hopefully some companies still try to make games to cater to the more hardcore crowd. 

I am playing Lineage II and LotrO at the same time which are two extremes, but I can tell you I have friends that have 3-4 50's in LotRO and will do nothing but talk about how polished and well made the game is.  They have been playing MMO's since EQ1, and they normally move around a  lot more than they have since they started LotRO.  I can barely ever even get them to play Guild Wars with me anymore. 

Originally posted by Nubzi

Originally posted by Redline65

IMO the solo content outweighs the grouping content. With the addition of Evendim, Tal Bruinen, north/south high pass, and Forochel it's fairly easy to solo to lvl 50 if you want. To me that would be somewhat boring, but it can be done.

 

Everything that I have seen up to this point in the game (level 32) I'm running out of solo content left and right.  Finding groups to complete group quests is incredibly hard.  To date the way I finish most of the group quests is by getting help from a 50 in my Kin.

 

I'm just saying grouping shouldn't be forced upon people inorder to do quests, there should be enough solo content for people to do if they can't find a group, which up to this point there really isn't.

It sounds to me like what you want is a 300-500 hour single player game with a multiplayer ending?  What the hell has WoW done to MMO's...  I pray that people like you just leave the genre so developers stop trying to cater to you and making games so damn easy that a 9 year old can get to the end game without ever grouping up or interacting with other players.

Originally posted by sinjin

Hi folks,

It has been a long journey to find an mmo that keeps my attention as of late.   I felt the need to come here and thank this community and turbine for the wonderful job they have done creating this game.

The girlfriend and I downloaded the 14 day trial, as I was scared to buy two copies as I beta'd this game last year and it was horrible.  Now I installed the high definition version using DX10 on a 64 bit OS and all I can say is wholey fracking crap.  This games graphics and gameplay is amazing.

This game has come completely 180 from its launch and the features they added are enough to keep the girlfriend and I happy.  So today im going to pickup two copies of the game, my EB Games actually still has a collector's edition on the shelf, im in a small community, thank the lord.

Anyways we hit lvl 8 lastnight and loved every moment, im a great judge of videogames as that is what I do for a living.  The best part is we are in no way LOTRO fans, of course we saw the movies, but we never read tolkien's books or learned his lore.  This game is great, it is a shame, if more people tried it im sure they would be hooked.  I doubted it from my first impressions a year ago but now have changed my mind.

Keep on keeping on!

 

The only two things I find bad is the text used in speech dialogue and on npc and players names, itf you could make that smaller with shadows it would look 1000% better and the game would be complete. The jumping animation should be fixed and look more fluid.

I endorse this message.  Went back and tried it again, and i'm hooked.  I am ridiculously impressed and my situation can be compared almost exactly to sinjin's except that my wife doesn't play games...  She just yells at me when I do, and she hates LOTRO right now which means it must be a pretty damn good game.

Question:  If I were to return to my gladi and then level to 75 to open the subclass system and play a Hawkeye what will be the penalties for Hawkeye fun?

I'm wondering if I should take my gladi up and use subclasses, or roll an alt to level Hawkeye.

With the new Gracia leveling speed I feel like all i'll lose from rolling an alt will be the level 1-40 experience, and having the subclass buffs for Gladiator.

Any tips?  I'd really just like to play with Gladiator and Hawkeye for fun/raiding/guild fights/sieges/pvp.

I'm excited about the game, and it can be something great for many people.  I hope they make it hard honestly.  Lineage II always has a special place in my gaming collection and i'm going to resub with Gracie until Aion comes out and try it for myself.

For the right crowd it could be the last stand, and for the wrong crowd well they can stick with WoW, AoC, or WAR.

I don't know, but I believe Elder Scrolls online is in the works.  The company reserved a web domain pointing towards the fact, and received somewhere around 200 million dollars for a new project..

Huh?  They have been working on a trial Island for some time now and it should be out before too long.  They are also working on new models for characters and a new game update and they may all coincide.

It wont' be long, and this information is all over the forum. 

Edit:: .. and you can get the game for 5-20$ from multiple sources.  I picked up a copy for 3.99$ with 2.00$ shipping on ebay.

The community has been amazing the last few months.  One of the best.  I feel like you are the type of person who experiences one or a small group of people and then stereotypes the whole community to fit their personality. 

Originally posted by banthis

Originally posted by ProfRed

It's not that they don't have enough content that has me worried, but the fact that they planned and designed the game for years around this content.  They had endless meetings and decided it would be the best design and now they are cutting it because of a deadline.

I don't think it's the end of the World, or this game will be bad because of it, but it does scare me.  Changing major design elements this close to launch can have major side effects.

 

Its standard practice with any software development and not just games.  Eventually a firm date has to be reached you don't know that firm date from the beginning with every single project.  Not to mention changes that need to be made over time it all starts to burn up the time thats needed to reach completeness. Eventually that time over runs and delays happen but still eventually there has to be a cut off because if you NEVER put a firm date down and you NEVER decide on an end point the work NEVER ends.

Despite what you think Red its not just Start & End...there's Start.....eventual Middle....eventually decide on an end.  While I'd like the game to have all the content CHOICES (since techincally the end game is there just less choices) its not that far fetched to release without some of the choices to get started.

When your designing something as massive and changing as an MMO over scheduling & design happens, hell it happens with EVERY game.  Its just far more obvious in MMOs than it is in a standard single player game.

The fact is unless your in software design & production (which I am and I can tell you cutting anything out is hard as hell to decide on and HURTS like hell to see something you slaved over go to the way side even if its temporary) you have no damn idea what its like trying to reach an end point.  Eventually everyone wants to be able to sleep and see their families for more than 2 hours a night.  Eventually everyone would like to take a vacation and get replenished.   But if there's no end date insight it just tends to really KILL productivity and morale.

I know man i'm a programmer and I worked on some 6-7 months game projects at Full Sail and a Sim after I graduated and I caught myself gold plating all the time.  In a way you couldn't pay me enough to be on Mythic's dev team right now, but at the same time i'd love to be in the trenches with them. 

I have much respect for Mythic(I hate the hype marketing style though... Maybe I just don't like the ridiculously charismatic presenter) and again I would go the same route they are going, but it still scares me and i'd rather see them delay it for long enough for this to get in, but I know there is a fine line.  No matter what though it isn't good news when something gets cut.  The worst part of it for me is that most of my friends from college are big Warhammer fans and I have been defending WAR from their claims that Mythic is going heavily for WoW and DaOC fans putting Warhammer fans on the backburner and when they cut the cities it was the last straw for them. 

I hope I don't come off as a hater because I like and support every MMO that's ever been released for what it adds to the genre.  The only one I have any kind of beef with is WoW and not because it isn't an awesome game, but because of it's success.  I am a variety whore and that should explain it well enough.

Originally posted by user0996

Sadly, I've been following both games for quite some time.  Both have issues, but after recent announcements, only one has any promise for me.

Aion's been upfront, non-hyped, and really damned open about what beta players say.  So far, they've made a few changes from the original design but it's by far and large the same game with the same feel as it was first pitched.  They give western future players a TON of info, considering all the testing is going on in Korea.  All in all, I'm really looking forward to it, and this is coming from someone that hates 98% of Korean MMOs.

Warhammer's recent changes sealed the deal for me.  I've no desire to play it anymore.  They've removed one of the two classes I liked.  Yes removed.  The abilites from the Knights and Blackguard have been given to the remaining tank classes.  They are GONE.  They may add new tanks later, but it won't be the same as what those two were.  The 2/6 cities is another massive hit.  Yes, mechanically it's sound.  Lore wise? It's total trash.  This isn't DAOC II, this is Warhammer.  Dark Elves and Greenskins are not part of the same faction and all buddy buddy, they are seperate armies.  They just happen to be sharing the same groups of enemies and are temporarily not at war with eachother.  Now, add in stealth, which they were 100% against, the BS lore changes/restrictions for Chosen and Sorcereress.  It's obvious this isn't the game that it was preached to be back at the start.  While it may be a good game, it simply isn't true to the Warhammer IP anymore.

This is why my group of friends from college decided to cancel their preorders.  It became clear to them that the WoW playerbase was more important to attract than the actual Warhammer playerbase.  They even feel like the game is being made to cater to DaOC fans and WoW fans mainly, with Warhammer fans a distant third.  I argued with them on this matter up until the cuts but now I have no ammo. 

Originally posted by Deto123

Originally posted by ProfRed

It's not that they don't have enough content that has me worried, but the fact that they planned and designed the game for years around this content.  They had endless meetings and decided it would be the best design and now they are cutting it because of a deadline.

I don't think it's the end of the World, or this game will be bad because of it, but it does scare me.  Changing major design elements this close to launch can have major side effects.

 

Theres no side effects when it benefits the game as a whole. Why do people insist on posting crap they have no idea about. It was a decision to BETTER the game no to have side effects. Would you rather they released it without telling us, won t mention the company that just did this as we all know. I mean they told us , it s better for the game atm and it will be phased in. Why are people so blind to this.

No I would rather them finish the game the way it was designed.  What is it with you guys being so rude?  You don't know the side effects and neither do I which is why I said it CAN have major side effects.  They will always tell you that whatever they do is good for some reason.  The fact of the matter is that they are cutting content to meet a deadline. 

I even said I don't think it's the end of the World and that the game won't be bad because of it.  All  I am saying is that it scares me.  Do you think being a jerk will make me feel better about it? 

I am a fan of phasing the stuff in if they can and have the time and don't release it as an expansion.  I have always said I am a fan of delivering less more polished content than more unpolished content.  I have also said that if I was in there shoes and I had to deliver the game by the decided date then I would take the same approach they are taking.  That still doesn't mean I wouldn't rather have it pushed back, and yes it still does scare me. 

It amazes me that people can take bad news and spin it around to be great news and then shove their opinions down my throat when I express my concern in a legitimate manner. 

So people like niceron can't spam the blog window advertising their game?  I think it should be monitored and they should be banned for stuff like that.

The same game has bots or something boosting it's rating because it isn't a very good game and it certainly shouldn't have a 7.9.

Good arguments but WAR fans are missing the point.  It's not that it has ENOUGH content that is the problem for most people.  It is the fact that they cut HUGE parts of their game design and original plans months before launch to meet a deadline.  These gameplay elements have been planned for a very long time and a game has been built around them and now they are giving them the axe.  The side effects could be worse than imagined. 

On them being honest developers they had no choice.  If they had followed in the footsteps of Funcom they would suffer a huge loss.  I wonder what actions they would have taken if Funcom hadn't released AoC in the state they did.  I would bet a lot of money that they would have kept all the content and patched it up after release.

On the style of information/hype I think WAR's method is more built around hype and I would take information in Aion's style any day.  WAR has been a snowball rolling down a mountain hype machine since the first video.  They got the most charismatic guy they could find to pimp every aspect of the game making it sound the best possible way it could without really giving a feel for what it would actually feel like to PLAY the game.

At least with Aion I can see beta videos, and see chats with beta players where they talk about what's wrong with the game and what isn't, and then I can see how the developers approach what is wrong and how they try to fix it leading up to launch so I know what I am getting myself into.

I guarrantee you that the hype machine is the worst way to go.  Everyone has delusions of what WAR will be based on how ONE GUY WHO IS PAYED BY THE COMPANY perceives it and that is not what it is going to be like. 

I like Mythic though.  I like the WAR IP.  I like DaOC.  I liked DaOC's launch.  I am scared about the decision to cut major elements of design from a game that has been designed like this for many many years in the last 6 months of it's development.  I am scared at the marketing approach they have taken. 

I already know Aion's flaws.  I know it's strengths.  I've had two hour conversations with beta testers and watched hours of videos of actual gameplay from players playing the game as it's meant to be played and as a result I have cancelled my pre order to WAR, and I won't preorder Aion because I will know on release day whether or not it is worth my time and if it is I will buy it.  It will take at least 1-3 months of WAR being out before I know the amount of data about the game that I know about Aion to make the same decision.

It's not that they don't have enough content that has me worried, but the fact that they planned and designed the game for years around this content.  They had endless meetings and decided it would be the best design and now they are cutting it because of a deadline.

I don't think it's the end of the World, or this game will be bad because of it, but it does scare me.  Changing major design elements this close to launch can have major side effects.

What SOE did to SWG was like taking an Arcade and turning it into a bingo parlor.

Originally posted by Elikal

Why? I watched the video interview here.

SEE: www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/189634

I had Champions Online HIGH on my list, and I practically kicked it out. Why? He said Champions online will be an ACTION RPG, where you duck and cover, jump out of the way and block. Like in console fighting games. Geez. I am SO dissapointed. I had hoped it would be along the City of Heroes lines. I am fed up with everyone wanting to make a Conanesque game these days. :(

The GREAT revelation AoC was to me, as much as some things are fun, that the fast paced, action RPG combat takes away A LOT of strategical depth and character development depth. If combat is like piano playing, you cant give the characters many different attacks, like in a WOW or EQ2 or LOTRO style of skill based combat. It feels exciting at first and grows boring VERY fast, because essentially you do the VERY same from early levels to the end. Everything complex is entirely ruled out in such fast paced action combat.

A pity. Another game bites the dust, another big flop in the making. Sigh. :/

 

/discuss

Ah I think you are just being a drama queen.  Super Hero's aren't slow they are fast, strong, and their fights are epic and almost always destroy buildings.  They are going in a direction to best represent a super hero game.  AoC was a fine combat system, and it's downfall has nothing to do with the combat.  WoW, EQ2, LoTRO strategic?  You get your 5-10 key attacks, you set them up on your numpad 0-9 keys and tell me how many times in a game session you repeatedly press the same key combos.  That combat is boring, and slow.  It takes away the ability for any skill to prevail and it makes a game completely gear based when any moron can press a key every 4 seconds.

I say keep experimenting and pushing the boundaries.  The same old crap is the same old crap and it is getting old fast.  WoW, EQ2, etc. system is dying, and even Blizzards new MMO is probably going to feature more action oriented combat since they were hiring for projectile programmers.

If you want the same old crap then you have all of the games out right now to choose from.  Don't predict a games success on one small element or you will just make yourself look foolish.  If the game flops it won't be because of just the combat system.  

Originally posted by PureChaos

Originally posted by ProfRed

Originally posted by Sepulcher

Originally posted by ProfRed

It isn't finished.  They are releasing it early just like every MMO that has ever been released besides to some degree WoW.

They should push it back me thinks, but if they can pull it off bravo.  Otherwise they will get exactly what they put in.

 

LOL:

  2.4 
  Sunwell Plateau 
  Sunwell Isle 
  New Daily Quests 
  And much more 
 
 
 You have traveled through the Dark Portal and braved the perils of Outland; you faced off against the might of the Burning Legion itself, and you prevailed. Now the journey that began with the arrival of the draenei on Azeroth and the blood elves' inclusion into the Horde is about to come full circle as a mighty army gathers to purge evil from one of Azeroth's most important loci of power: the ancient, magical Sunwell.  
 
 

 

  2.3 
  Zul’Aman 
  Guild Banks 
  Faster Leveling to 60 
  And much more 
 
 
 The stronghold of Zul'Aman has stood for millennia as the Amani trolls' seat of power and bastion of the fearless, cunning warlord Zul'jin.
Zul'jin has spent several years plotting behind Zul'Aman's walls. Furious at the Horde for allowing his hated enemies, the blood elves, to join its ranks, he eagerly embraced a scheme that the witch doctor Malacrass recently proposed: to seal the power of the animal gods within the bodies of the Amani's strongest warriors.

Now Zul'Aman's army grows more powerful by the day, hungry to exact vengeance in the name of its fearless leader, Zul'jin.
 
 
 

 

  2.2
  Voice Chat 
  Mac Movie Capture 
 
 
 Azeroth is alive with the sound of voices. For the first time, players are able to talk to each other in game with the use of the new Voice Chat feature. Also in this patch, aspiring moviemakers can now use their Mac to capture all the in-game action and share it with their friends.
 
 
 

 

  2.1
  The Black Temple 
  Druid Epic Flight Form 
  Nether Drake 
  And much more 
 
 
......

 

 

 

LoL I said to a degree.  They had all their planned classes, and their quests and areas were very polished and fleshed out.  I know there were a lot of bugs, but they delivered for the most part what they were going for close to launch.

I am in no way promoting WoW, but saying it is an anomaly.  I know a lot was missing, but most MMO's are put out unfinished and could not be passed off as a shippable game by any reasonable means.  WoW could, and it is the only one besides maybe LoTRO.  

Way to pick one meaningless part of my post and completely derail the entire post though.  You rock! 

Actually he picks a very important part. No matter what you may say wow was missing things that was planed, just because it got by without them doesnt mean they didnt lie to us or w/e you want to call.

Continue that and now these features that was suppose to be in at launch are now a xpac but we forget since it was a long while ago.

Take that same logic and apply to WAR. Quests are in and work , PQ's work , technicly they didnt have all their planed classes cause hero classes was up on there, and we are just now seeing them. They changed their mind for balancing reasons remember .We have siege weapons, we have RVR we have a capital to attack we have the mechanics.

 

You are talking about a whole different kind of scale.  We are but months from launch with MAJOR gameplay elements and World elements getting cancelled.  Not a year or two back taling about issues where the developer said 'This is PLANNED, but may or may not be implemented.'  We are talking about stuff that has always been planned, always been promised, and always been promoted.  Go ahead and take this as an excuse or comparison to write off these changes, but you are comparing elements talked about 2 or 3 years from the completion of a project that were never actually promised, and elements that have been a major part of the game cancelled 3-6 months from release that have always been a major part of the game.  

Originally posted by Sepulcher

Originally posted by ProfRed

It isn't finished.  They are releasing it early just like every MMO that has ever been released besides to some degree WoW.

They should push it back me thinks, but if they can pull it off bravo.  Otherwise they will get exactly what they put in.

 

LOL:

  2.4 
  Sunwell Plateau 
  Sunwell Isle 
  New Daily Quests 
  And much more 
 
 
 You have traveled through the Dark Portal and braved the perils of Outland; you faced off against the might of the Burning Legion itself, and you prevailed. Now the journey that began with the arrival of the draenei on Azeroth and the blood elves' inclusion into the Horde is about to come full circle as a mighty army gathers to purge evil from one of Azeroth's most important loci of power: the ancient, magical Sunwell.  
 
 

 

  2.3 
  Zul’Aman 
  Guild Banks 
  Faster Leveling to 60 
  And much more 
 
 
 The stronghold of Zul'Aman has stood for millennia as the Amani trolls' seat of power and bastion of the fearless, cunning warlord Zul'jin.
Zul'jin has spent several years plotting behind Zul'Aman's walls. Furious at the Horde for allowing his hated enemies, the blood elves, to join its ranks, he eagerly embraced a scheme that the witch doctor Malacrass recently proposed: to seal the power of the animal gods within the bodies of the Amani's strongest warriors.

Now Zul'Aman's army grows more powerful by the day, hungry to exact vengeance in the name of its fearless leader, Zul'jin.
 
 
 

 

  2.2
  Voice Chat 
  Mac Movie Capture 
 
 
 Azeroth is alive with the sound of voices. For the first time, players are able to talk to each other in game with the use of the new Voice Chat feature. Also in this patch, aspiring moviemakers can now use their Mac to capture all the in-game action and share it with their friends.
 
 
 

 

  2.1
  The Black Temple 
  Druid Epic Flight Form 
  Nether Drake 
  And much more 
 
 
......

 

 

LoL I said to a degree.  They had all their planned classes, and their quests and areas were very polished and fleshed out.  I know there were a lot of bugs, but they delivered for the most part what they were going for close to launch.

I am in no way promoting WoW, but saying it is an anomaly.  I know a lot was missing, but most MMO's are put out unfinished and could not be passed off as a shippable game by any reasonable means.  WoW could, and it is the only one besides maybe LoTRO.  

Way to pick one meaningless part of my post and completely derail the entire post though.  You rock!