Originally posted by jeroen84

If any upcoming game is thinking Out of the Box, then its The Chronicles of Spellborn.

www.tcos.com

It has a combat system thats very different from the current EQ2/WoW autoattack&press for skill system.

Also, its a fantasy setting, but a complete original one. No elfs or dwarves there.

I could go on for a while how much TCOS fits Outside the Box perfectly, but I have to keep it short. Check it out. ;)

Originally posted by grndzro

Originally posted by jeroen84

If any upcoming game is thinking Out of the Box, then its The Chronicles of Spellborn.

www.tcos.com

It has a combat system thats very different from the current EQ2/WoW autoattack&press for skill system.

Also, its a fantasy setting, but a complete original one. No elfs or dwarves there.

I could go on for a while how much TCOS fits Outside the Box perfectly, but I have to keep it short. Check it out. ;)

Tcos is Vaporware in the same league as Mourning and D&L. By the time Mourning is released it won't hold a candle to any of the major projects going on right now.

I played Vanguard Beta and I'll have to say that the Diplomacy system is excellendt, and it had me forgetting all the hack and slash while I was doing it,  Many hours of forgotten hack and slash.

Please.. the same could have been said for Vanguard up until resently..

Anywho I like this 'outside the box' thing however as most people are demintrating 'the masses' don't want inerventivity as long as games like WoW coninue to feed their epeen sadly leaving the rest of the market streched between these other titles.

Games like Vanguard and TCoS do have what this market needs a new twist in the current format of MMOing,

In the case of Vanguard Sigil looked at the market and saw these games just throwing themselfs into the 'instenced end-game' as WoW 'has' the 8 million playerbase so the profitable option looks like 'do a WoW', Sigil took a gamble and said 'lets make a world not a hub with dungeon bubbles' and from some players point of view it's paid off but from many others (ie 'the masses') as the game is so large it takes a toll on the players PC making it less 'acessabile' then what they have been used to therefore instanstly deeming the game bad because their 5 year old pc can't handle of 'moden day' game, a game which irronically has near enough the same quality as their console title if the pc can handle the maximum settings, something which they would buy purly on that basis. The Diplomacy system also one hell of a great item in the game along with the crafting system having their own level bracket, great ideas, it's realisic, not everyone in the word 'needs' a sword to rule overall, however from a 'gamer' point of view 'combat > all' I can hear in their minds: 'I don't wanna read text and descover WHY the world is what it is, I want big moves so I can beat up players with big effects'. The problem is these days 'the masses' want a game to feel uber in, not a world to be respected in, Vanguard brings back MUDs for us again, but to bring back a MUD style game is to try and make pen and paper D&D look 'cooler' then an Xbox360, too many of the market would rather play a '360' then do 'D&D' it's just not 'cool', WoW is the 'cool jock that everyone wants to hang around with in the school yard' of the MMO world, Vanguard is the 'chess club nerd', people would rather be a jock then be picked on as a nerd.

For TSoC it's a tad different, again with the looming WoW shadow it doesn't have the 'knownness factor', and it is pracically like slapping MMOest stats to an FPS game it's not actally 'new' it's been done before, what IS 'outside the box' for it is it's combat skill system it doesn't allow a player to just run up to another player and hit the 'I win' button it actally requires tactics becuase you have to plan ahead with your skill chains plus adapt to what your oppent throws at you becuase like I said it's not as simple as run up hit kill and run away, they actally know your there and will actally take more then 2 seconds of combat to kill them. The problem with that is that from an FPS point of few usally from my experence players generally go for either the biggest weapon that can kill the most players in the fastest time or the sniper basically the one hit killer without needing to go into combat at all, those players don't like the fair fight they want the win easy, same with a MMO's PVP system why go into the 'fair fight' with a chance to lose or just go into the fight where your most likly to win. I like TCoS' look at this as not matter how many 'big weapons' you have combat always will start off at an even match it's just that can you last out in the fight to use your bigger guns?

Like I said I like this new fechure on MMORPG.com but are 'the masses' wanting games to go outside the box and bring us more complex items or are they just happy with games to pollish off their epeen? People have always said it's 'casuals' VS 'hardcore' but is it really D&D VS the consoles?

Originally posted by grndzro
Tcos is Vaporware in the same league as Mourning and D&L. By the time Mourning is released it won't hold a candle to any of the major projects going on right now.

I played Vanguard Beta and I'll have to say that the Diplomacy system is excellendt, and it had me forgetting all the hack and slash while I was doing it,  Many hours of forgotten hack and slash.

You do know what Vaporware is right? >.>

Vaporware is software or hardware which is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge, either with or without a protracted development cycle. The term implies unwarranted optimism, or sometimes even deception; that is, it may imply that the announcer knows that product development is in too early a stage to support responsible statements about its completion date, feature set, or even feasibility.

-wiki encyclopedia

It's obvious you didnt even give The Chronicles of Spellborn a second look if you think its vaporware. For starters, they are quite on schedual with their Beta. Also, as far as I know they haven't announced stuff that they aren't making true.  In fact, they dont release information that isnt in the final stages at all.

Let me make a list of out of the box features from TCoS that I can think of out of my head:

-Very creative and original backstory

-A deffinate Out of the Box combat system (Ill ellaborate below.)

-Npc's walk up to you to offer quests instead of other way around.

-Good gear has nothing to do with the looks of the gear. (A lowly lvl has good looks. Basically you can let your character look how you want and upgrade the gear depending on your level with upgrading slots and such.)

-Fantasy mmorpg, yet no elves!

The combat system consists of two things. An FPS-like pointer in the middle of the screen that has to target the monster/player you want to hit. (Its not first-done in a rpg, there's been a different rpg who had that idea.) There is no auto-attack. Furthermore, to determine what attacks you do and special abilities you use,  you have to pre-set multiple skillbars.

As soon as you use a skill on your skillbar, it turns to the next skillbar. You then can only use the skills on your second skillbar, and so on. I think there are up to 10 different skillbars. Basically you have to think ahead before the combat starts on how you make your "skill deck". There are also combo skills which you can place on the different skillbars to create combo attacks.

Im not sure if I explained the tcos combat system clearly, but there are good explenations available on the web.