All Posts by TeflonEddie

The issue of RMT is an old one, and will probably never be completely resolved, but to reference something that the OP said:

"People are forced to either buy gold or use an unreasonable amount of time in order to catch up with the crowd."

This statement is marginally true in that there are people who play MMO's to "win", which is a pretty ludicrous goal in a game with tens of thousands of players. These people have, and will continue to buy gold in order to pursue their goal which they will of course, never achieve. However, the OP does have the glimmerings of a point in regards to his comments on game design.

To use WoW as an example; there are the hardcore raiders in their shiny T6 epics. Conversely, there are the arena PVPers in their shiny S3 epics of roughly equal "power", and the heroic dungeon/karazhan/ZA casual PVE raiders with their shiny Badge of Justice bought epics which aren't far behind the T6/S3 epics power-wise. Nowhere near the "in a matter of days" that the OP mentioned, but still a casual-friendly grindable way of "catching up with the crowd."

This is why WoW is successful. It caters to all four of the major MMO food-groups; Casual/Hardcore PVE and Casual/Hardcore PVP. It's a solid model for keeping subscriptions and, as it's something that no other game has (that I've seen) realised yet, it's the reason that WoW will continue to dominate the MMO market despite many of it's players being fully aware that the game is actually a bit crap.

I ended up a tad off-topic there, but to conclude: Gold buying is never necessary. Ever. If you feel you can't invest enough time into a game to enjoy it, then you should quit and find another game.

Game designers are never going to get the message that they need to be more casual-friendly when the casuals are "cheating" by buying money to stay competitive in a game that is too hardcore by design.

Edit: My no typ gud.

While SOE continues to do more harm than benefit to my chosen gaming genre (MMO's) then I'll continue to hate them; their children, their children's children and six generations of their ancestors.

If SOE want to pull their name from the toilet (I can't imagine they care in the slightest) then they are going to need to prove themselves big-style, 'cos the overwhelming public perception is that SOE = where good games to go die.

Yes,

I'm 29 and have been a gamer for around 15 years.

I first got into MMO's with UO back when it first came out; played a few; primarily SWG, EvE, WoW and am currently playing Tabula Rasa. I wouldn't say that my gamer spark isdying at all, but it is getting a tad duller.

My problem is that MMO's used to be a niche market for the early online gamers but they're evolving in a way that I'm not too happy with. A poster above mentioned 40 man/20 man raids (which typically last 3-4 hours) and this type of thing seems to be indicative of the MMO's of today; they are designed to require:

1. A massive time-sink in order to be competitive.

2. Protracted periods of uninterrupted play time.

3. Dumbed down "commercialised" content aimed at the poorer-skilled players, which leave the higher-skilled players frustrated at the lack of difficulty.

Like the majority of gamers my age, I've a life outside games. I work, have a social life and as such I get to spend around 10-15 hours a week on games, and these days it's increasingly starting to feel like I'm not the target audience for MMO's anymore.

Level 45 minimum to make your crafter so that they can use every schematic.

Originally posted by abhaigh

 

Originally posted by Drolkin

Yes you are paying to play a Online Action Shooter with RPG elements that is being constantly updated.

 

Constantly updated? WTF you smokin Willis?

one muchly needed patch in 2 months, one that broke as much as it fixed, is not 'constantly updated'

effin fanbois make me wanna puke

Actually, not quite 'nuff said. Regarding patches, ignoring the holiday period where the devs weren't working; we're getting around 1 patch per month that's including considerable amounts of changes/fixes/new things (and of-course, new bugs too). That's considerably more than most MMO's out there.

Originally posted by sabutai22

TR is nothing more than a cookie-cut level based grind fest with no content

I think you just described every 3-month old MMO in the history of gaming.

Originally posted by Euthorus

 Lets take a look at the EXCELLENT SINGLE TARGET DPS - my Sniper with Pump5 in Shredder, Target Paint, Crit and Firearms used to be able to drop a even level Stalker in a single shot - mind you that 3 Logos abilities stacked followed by a 4 sec shot - the whole sequence taking 20 secs to barely pull off while hoping the target is still in range by the time you fire. My sniper did 20-30k dmg that way with a purple rifle at lvl 32.

After the patch with the same exact build and nearly maxed crit attribute I am landing a 5000 dmg shot on the same Stalker and dieing 3 secs later. If I hit the Stalker at 80m he gets to me by the 3 shot and his armor / health regenerate to full by the time I get OMGWTFPWNED trying to kite. WTF kind of "tactics" am I supposed to use now ?

By "Firearms" in the above example, I imagine you mean Torqueshell rather than the Recruit skill Firearms.

Your problem is that you're using a sniper rifle against a stalker and are specced full spirit, which gives you a slightly increased crit rate and the survivability of a chocolate gateaux in an american fat-camp.

As a sniper, the ideal weapon to use against a stalker is an EMP chaingun, with EMP shredder ammo, Target Painting 5 and Rage 3. Mine can drop a same-level stalker/strider without even breaking a sweat using a blue level 28 EMP chaingun and he's a Level 30 Brann hybrid with 131 Body, 128 Spirit, 10k Armour and 6.7k HP. I can do the same with a level 30 EMP pistol, but it takes a little longer.

Originally posted by bstuart

most are bugged i had to have well over 20 quests completed by a gm I've had maybe 3-4 missions completed by a GM in total, that's from level 4 to 50.

"missed point  i didnt say quests are a grind  i said there are hardly any quests from lvl 42 to 50 in fact from 42 to 49 i had to grind as there were no quests available .  Then you were not looking in the right places. There are missions from 42-50. Not enough, but there are quite a few.

all those quests you are talking about  you are done with by the time you hit 42 No. Descent alone is mid 40's, Howling Maw is late 40s. If you rush through the content and skip things along the way, you can have the problems you describe, but in no way can you complete every mission before 43. Most aren't even available to accept.

are you talking about this game cause to make lvl 50 you need 10.7 mil xp from lvl 49 its always been the same amount even from beta  I remember having to grind around 4-5 mil XP from 49 to 50, and I got the rest of the XP for it from the missions that opened up in Howling Maw at level 49.

item nerf purple items no longer drop except from instance bosses they used to randomly drop from all npc's thats a nerf plus as a medic both patches have nerfed my profession greatly plus you dont consider having gravatron armor ,hazmat armor ,and motorassist armor reduced greatly a nerf? and as fro the combat system yes it is a change the tide of combat is much slower now and many "specials" have had there timers increased and have had there abiltys lowered plus lets not forget about the raise in price for emp bombs from 80 cr to 10000 cr each I had the foresight to buy 20,000 Class X EMP bombs before 1.4 hit, so on that score I won't comment as it doesn't really affect me. Also, mobs outside instances do randomly drop blues/purples, it's just a reduced drop rate and no more purples from mission rewards. As for armour being reduced; you're ignoring the attribute changes. Now, a full body Thrax hybrid guardian can have 105k armour and 45k health, plus the much-increased regeneration from Graviton.

this is only true for some professions for others it has made the game almost unplayable Absolutely not the case. If you're a guardian trying to kill striders with a slow staff, or a Spy still trying to run into groups of 20 mobs while fully Spirit specced for high uber crits, then you're just begging to be owned; but every class is still entirely playable if, and only if, the player has a clue as to how to spec/train their characters and what weapons to use.

also your engineer has the best armor in the game now mech armor engineer was one of the professions that made out better armor and cheaper ammo It has the highest base armour in the game now (same as graviton) but only half of the regeneration of graviton which is a considerable nerf to an engineer's regeneration (and indirectly to Base Wave too). It originally came as a shock to find myself vulnerable again, but it didn't take me long to adapt.

until you hit lvl 30 then between the lack of quests (yes they are harder to find and theres not many of them) This used to be true, but more missions were added recently to the mid-30s and since Mires is now fixed, the missions don't dry up quite so early, although you're correct that it does dry up at later levels.

and the fact that most are broken and need a gm to complete This is wild hyperbole; only a very small percentage of missions are bugged. Most work perfectly, some work imperfectly and a few are bugged and cannot be completed.

the grind is from lvl 30 to lvl 50 MIssions are only a grind if you don't enjoy them; I do enjoy them and hence consider them content rather than a "grind".

and pretty much lvl 42 to lvl 50 there are no more quests to do except 3 quests at lvl 49 in howling mar Wild hyperbole again; there are quite a few missions in Descent/Howling Maw and Thunderhead/Ashen Desert. Not enough to ensure that you can quest to 50, but still WAY more than 3.

so from 42 to 50 is a grind  and that amounts to about 56 million xp to grind give or take a few mil When I made level 50, I had to grind a total of around 20 million XP; and that was in the earliest days of Live; new missions have been added since then so if anything the end-grind should be lessened, not increased.

then you hit 50 and have absolutly nothing to do ( hybred quests all 3 took 2 hours to complete) I can't argue with this; you're right. The lack of end-game is very noticeable.

PS im not even gonna go into the fact that they have done 2 patches so far both with sweeping profession and item nerfs and have already revamped the combat system and the game has only been out since november The most recent patch was not an item nerf patch; the one before it increased the damage of green/blue/purple items by 20/40 and 60% respectively; and the combat system has not been revamped at all.; the mechanics are unchanged, the mobs just got tougher to counter-act how easy the game was before 1.4.

It's the attribute/armour system that was revamped, and it was done in such a manner as to allow people to spend their attribute points to INCREASE their survivability.

As an example, my Engineer had 35k armour and 12k health pre-patch. Now he has 82k armour and 40k health. I can't consider that in any way a nerf.

In my opinion, end-game (or whatever your preferred term is) is what keeps people playing an MMO.

I don't know how many of y'all are level 50 already, but if you are then you'll know that there is currently absolutely nothing to do in TR at level 50 once you have completed all the ToO's, Instances and gathered all the Logos. I'm in that situation at the moment.

I could re-roll or PvP, but I've no interest in either at the momen so I'm left with re-running instances that I've already completed in the hopes of a purple drop or two, and that gets boring very quickly.

Originally posted by pussaykat

With that kind of spirit pumping i don't think i need to use 2 points in it.

Going 2/3 body 1/3 spirit. that should give me 3 body 1 mind and 5 spirit each levels.

I did a similar thing with my Brann sniper and it worked out well. You end up with a miniscule Mind, but the secondary power that you get from the Body stat was enough for me, and the regeneration and health/armour I gained was very considerable.

If you're grinding you're doing it wrong. I read all my quests unless i'm pressed by a party to keep up in an instance. Questing is much more fun and much more rewarding. Grinding to 50 is totaly pointless since there's no endgame yet.

That's the influence of the hardcore gamer; fostering the viewpoint that an MMO only starts once you reach the level cap, and everything that you do before you reach the "end-game" is just pointless grinding, be it XP grinding or mission/quest grinding.

It's a good game, but it's young.

Devs are concentrating on getting the basics in, and as such are neglecting the end-game a bit too much for my liking, but few games at release have decent end-games. The combat IS fun, the game is faster paced than most MMO's and the recent patch injected a level of much-needed difficulty to a game that was becoming so easy it was trivial.

All the patches I've seen have been good.

We complained about ammo prices for weapons with a high rate of fire; the weapon prices were nerfed.

Everyone was playing a spy because they were easymode; Spies were nerfed and now there are a reasonable amount of them.

There's a definate feel that the developers of the game listen to the community, ignore the vocal morons and make the right decisions.

Originally posted by pussaykat

Originally posted by sookster54

Oops I forgot to add the stats:
Human 2 Body, 2 Mind, 2 Spirit
Forean 1 Body, 3 Mind, 2 Spirit, -10 laser/+10 viru resist
Brann 1 Body, 1 Mind, 4 Spirit, -10 phys/+10 elec resist
Thrax 3 Body, 1 Mind, 2 Spirit, -10 fire/+10 sonic resist

Does that mean that a brann gets 4 points in spirit each level plus the 3 points?

By comparison, humans gain +2 Body/Mind/Spirit each level plus 3 x points to spend as you like.

The way I see it, there are three things that would make the cloning system entirely workable:

1. When you clone your character, all the clone points that your main has are removed and added to the newly cloned character. i.e. human has 10, uses 1 to clone into a Brann, human then has 0 and Brann has 9.

That'd solve the problem with potential progress loss that I mentioned in my previous post; we can't rely on completing all missions/getting all Logos, because as soon as new content is added (for example, Sanctus Grotto, which contains a new Logos) we'd still lose progress.

2. We should be able to use a clone credit to respec/go hybrid without cloning.

That'd solve the problem of losing all ToO progress and having to change your first name.

3. At max level, there should be a repeatable method of gaining additional clone credits somehow; either through a repeatable mission or an increasing amount of credits up to a hard-cap.

That'd solve the problem of potentially running out of respecs.

Spies and Snipers aren't unplayable now, they just need to be played tactically.

The game prior to 1.4 was pretty much EZmode; Spies could just run headlong into big groups and chop things up will-nilly. Likewise, Guardian staff weapons were able to kill things very quickly both in ranged and melee damage. Snipers could 1-shot everything.

Now it's different and the players need to realise that it's no longer a case of "1 weapon fits all".

Some advice I would offer to the Guardian/Spy/Sniper community who are having problems:

Take another bloody weapon skill to pump 5.

Staves are weapons with big single hits, great for some types of mobs (miasmas, low HP mobs that can be 1-shot) but they're primarily a defensive tanking weapon and not great for DPS.

Blades are great for damage, but they rely on you being behind a target while not getting shot at, because you lose the advantage of cover and spies can't take much of a beating now.

Likewise, Torqueshell rifles do a lot of damage when combined with other Sniper skills (target painting, for example) but if you're facing a large group of Bane then you will likely get overrun if you just use a torqueshell.

Rage 3 + Firearms 5 or Chainguns 5 (+Shredder Ammo for Snipers) give excellent single-target DPS which also allows you the flexibility to use cover defensively.

Nice to see a positive post; but a word of caution, and advice for any new players just starting/about to start playing TR!

DO NOT RUSH TO LEVEL 50

At the moment, there is little to do when you get here, and if you're one of those hardcore types that obsess about getting to maximum level in minimum time, you will feel frustrated at the lack of level 50 content in-game right now.

As the OP stated, it's a new game and all new games tend to be a bit sparse at release, especially in regards to the end-game. I'm hoping that the devs release some content soon (or at the bare minimum, some information as to the TYPE of content that is planned) or sadly they'll risk losing the hardcore crowd.

My advice if you're of the "play 50 hours a week" crowd would be to stay away for a few months 'til the game establishes itself a bit more.

Im sure there wil come guides for it, but seriously what has happend to exploring/discovering things by yourself (in general?)

With the hybrid stuff though, I don't mind telling people where to find the missions and what level they need to be; 'cos it gives them something to look forward to aside from the usual mission grind.

I can't recall other MMO's you being able to reset or respec your character

I like to be able to test skills out for myself, but in TR I kind of feel worried about spending points knowing that I can only reset them with a clone; which will lose all of my ToO progress and what if, oh noes, I run out of clone credits and am left with a gimpy skill setup forever?

As an example, I've a level 50 engineer. I'd quite like to make him into a Brann but at the moment he has 9 clone points. If I decide to make my engineer into a Brann, then spend 1-2 weeks collecting Logos, completing missions etc, then decide that I'm not happy with my new engineer's skill setup.

I'm a bit buggered, 'cos my new Brann engineer has no clone points. My old human engineer has 8 still, but if I clone from him, I lose the 1-2 weeks of Logos/mission progress that I've done with my Brann.