I dont know why I even bother asking and posting this, but as of late, I've been playing EVE.  And like every other time I play EVE, I get severly bored.  Not bored of playing the game, bored of waiting for skills to train up, as combat in EVE is pretty boring (PvE) and don't have a character that can PvP well.

I've been searching lately for a good MMO with a death penalty.  In short, im searching for a MMO like old school EQ.  A MMO that has some challenge to it.  I've been seriously thinking of trying FFXI, but I fear it may be too old.  In terms of PvE, i've been thinking of trying LOTRO.  I know there isnt a harsh death penalty, but im also looking for something with good PvE.

If you don't mind 2D, Seyken is a good game with an annoying death penalty.

Originally posted by kidRiot

I dont know why I even bother asking and posting this, but as of late, I've been playing EVE.  And like every other time I play EVE, I get severly bored.  Not bored of playing the game, bored of waiting for skills to train up, as combat in EVE is pretty boring (PvE) and don't have a character that can PvP well.

I've been searching lately for a good MMO with a death penalty.  In short, im searching for a MMO like old school EQ.  A MMO that has some challenge to it.  I've been seriously thinking of trying FFXI, but I fear it may be too old.  In terms of PvE, i've been thinking of trying LOTRO.  I know there isnt a harsh death penalty, but im also looking for something with good PvE.

Vanguard: SoH has often been described as the spiritual successor to EQ, and for good reason.  It was developed by many of the original creators/developers of EQ.  It is also one of the most comprehensive and definitive PvE experiences out there.  Bold words and I stand by them; VG is a very unique and very good package, for all the faults and shortcomings it might endure.

It does have a death penalty which, although I don't think it's harsh enough, can still sting quite a bit if you keep dying.  If you die, you respawn at the "nearest" altar (which can still be quite a ways away).  Your tombstone is left where you died, holding all of your non-soulbound items.  You lose a pretty good chunk of exp.  Two things you can do: make a corpserun to recover your items and 90% of your exp (if I recall correctly), or summon your tombstone at the altar and forego the exp.

I'll just say I make every, and I mean every, effort to reclaim my tombstone.

Couple this with a massive, seamless (no zones -- unless you count a whole continent as one zone -- no instances) world composed of three very large and unique landmasses; player crafted housing and ships; non-instanced housing and npc buildings; fully player-controlled flying mounts (there's a functioning z-axis); quests galore; still-meaningful travel (in spite of riftways); combat that requires thought, complex crafting, and strategy-based diplomacy (each sphere levels up independently and requires its own gear); tons of mounts, with horses being available by level 10 (they have their own gear, too); a world that's an explorer's dream, with a great many points of interest not marked on the map, but waiting to be discovered; beautiful music and appropriate ambient noises (in my opinion); mentoring; and so forth.

Sadly, no game is perfect, including VG.  VG starts off with a lower pop than more popular games, and the massive, seamless world lacks a linear path for players to follow.  As such, it doesn't facilitate the sense of a very busy pop like zoned games would.  Players can and do spread out, and things feel more like a world than a game with boxes.  Not necessarily "better," but I personally can't stand zones and instances anymore.  People aren't bursting at the seams everywhere in VG, and I actually prefer that since it fosters the feeling that it's an actual world.

That being said, there are two very healthy servers, Seradon and Xeth, that are well-populated.  If you want a social experience, however, you will still need to be proactive and not be a wallflower (again...no linear path, no zones, and three landmasses means people are spread out all over Telon).  Although my bf and I have had a few PUG's pop up, most of the time you'll need to look to form a group.  Regional chat, the social window ("O" key), joining/forming a guild, bringing/making friends, etc., can all go quite a ways in making the process easier.

Also, because of the smaller subscription base (it's growing, but slowly), content is steadily, if more slowly than I'd like, coming.  For a good, significant chunk of time after release, the dev team's focus had been in releasing a major bug-patch, and tweaking the game to become more playable.  Inspite of that being their primary focus, they did release new/updated content.  They still have many plans for new content as well and recently we have gotten mentoring which helps a lot.

sounds like red war edems curse would be perfect for u man