Only thing stopping me buying this game is the fact that I've seen serveral posts claiming that the game is much like SWTOR when it comes to the storyline.

I'd really like to avoid being solo 24/7. Are a lot of the zones intanced? I don't want to buy  another singleplayer RPG with Co op options that costs monthly.

SP with co-op is what themeparks are in the first place. Zones aren't instanced. You can do anything in a group, nothing is stoping you, expect for solo instances. These are used for certain missions, but, since i'm not playing yet, they seem to be only a small part of the game. Also, you can avoid them if you want.

MMO is what you make of it, unless you wnat open world bosses to zerg with other players, in which case you have lair bosses that you can summon which are for 10 players. The rest is the tradtional TP stuff, like dungeons and pvp, which are group of course. Beyond that, FC as plans for social locations in the hubs like theatres, but i'm not sure if it's been installed yt.

Thank you <:

One more question! Is the game 'smooth' and does it have that freedom feeling? Or is TSW filled with invisible walls and un-responsive attacks?

Wish I could try a trial before buying.

It has the feeling of a sandbox with the way the quests are set out and the zones are pretty big. The only instancing is a few solo quests, found around 4 so far anyway. There currently trying to make as many as they can groupable but a few won't be possible because of the mechanics such as sabautage missions.

Seriously its worth the box price at least and if you like it support a devloper which isn't doing the usual wow copy mmorpg.

Haven't played SWTOR so can't really compare, but TSW is very solo friendly and instanced so far. It's a lot like Age of Conan in that sense if you've played it.

Zones do seem populated in my experience so far, but they are instanced, meaning that once the population reaches a certain limit a new instance of the zone is created. Actually, the most popular workaround if a quest is bugged is to get invited to a group by someone on another instance (or dimension, kinda like servers on other MMOs but that you can enter at anytime), and when grouping you go to their instance where the quest will hopefully not be bugged (note that not many quests are bugged and suposedly today's patch should have taken care of most of them). There are also several "solo dungeons" that are basically short solo areas where you go, usually for a specific missions.

That said, nothing prevents you from grouping, and actually I've done it several times so far, and each zone has one dungeon on it and people seem to be asking for groups (or people for those groups) constantly so doesn't seem to be hard to get into one.

The storyline so far, though, seems to be a purely solo thing.

Originally posted by citalkay

Thank you <:

 

One more question! Is the game 'smooth' and does it have that freedom feeling? Or is TSW filled with invisible walls and un-responsive attacks?

 

Wish I could try a trial before buying.

No invisible walls that i know off, but maybe i missed them. The way the game is setup is that you go to Kingsmouth first, then you keep moving to the next zone (no levels, but still require certain gear QL). In each zone however, the quests aren't hub based, so you can go in any different.

There are buddy keys, which if i'm not mistaken, will let you play the game for 1 day. Atleast that's how i think it works. Try to get one

Originally posted by L0C0Man

Haven't played SWTOR so can't really compare, but TSW is very solo friendly and instanced so far. It's a lot like Age of Conan in that sense if you've played it.

Zones do seem populated in my experience so far, but they are instanced, meaning that once the population reaches a certain limit a new instance of the zone is created. Actually, the most popular workaround if a quest is bugged is to get invited to a group by someone on another instance (or dimension, kinda like servers on other MMOs but that you can enter at anytime), and when grouping you go to their instance where the quest will hopefully not be bugged (note that not many quests are bugged and suposedly today's patch should have taken care of most of them). There are also several "solo dungeons" that are basically short solo areas where you go, usually for a specific missions.

That said, nothing prevents you from grouping, and actually I've done it several times so far, and each zone has one dungeon on it and people seem to be asking for groups (or people for those groups) constantly so doesn't seem to be hard to get into one.

The storyline so far, though, seems to be a purely solo thing.

You mean zoned. There's no copy of the same area. The game isn't seamless in the sense there's no loeading screens, but then again, that's 100% impossible in this game anyway.

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

Originally posted by citalkay

Thank you <:

 

One more question! Is the game 'smooth' and does it have that freedom feeling? Or is TSW filled with invisible walls and un-responsive attacks?

 

Wish I could try a trial before buying.

No invisible walls that i know off, but may i missed them. Thway the game is setup is that you go to Kingsmouth first, then you keep moving to the next zone (no levels, but still require certain gear QL). In each zone however, the quests aren't hub based, so you can go in any different.

There are buddy keys, which if i'm not mistaken, will let you play the game for 1 day. Atleast that's how i think it works. Try to get one

Brilliant! Thank you ^^

I don't mind instancing when the players in a zone reaches a certain level, just as long as it isn't just me in an entire zone thats locked to me and my party like a lot of games haha.

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

SP with co-op is what themeparks are in the first place. You say that like it's not terrible game design for a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER game  Zones aren't instanced. Almost everything in the game is instanced, especially all the areas with content. You can do anything in a group, nothing is stoping you, expect for solo instances. Which is the vast majority of the game, and the mechanics don't encourage you to group. aaaaaaaaaaaa

Long story short, this game is almost entirely instanced/singleplayer.

Originally posted by Garvon3

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

SP with co-op is what themeparks are in the first place. You say that like it's not terrible game design for a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER game I know it sucks, but i'm talking about the actual game, not my opinion on the matter  Zones aren't instanced. Almost everything in the game is instanced, especially all the areas with content.  Instanced are copis. My your definition, every game with zones is instancedYou can do anything in a group, nothing is stoping you, expect for solo instances. Which is the vast majority of the game, and the mechanics don't encourage you to group. No, it really isn't. Maybe later on, because i'm not playing like i said. aaaaaaaaaaaa

Long story short, this game is almost entirely instanced/singleplayer.

In a single player, i can't play with other people.

Originally posted by citalkay

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

Originally posted by citalkay

Thank you <:

 

One more question! Is the game 'smooth' and does it have that freedom feeling? Or is TSW filled with invisible walls and un-responsive attacks?

 

Wish I could try a trial before buying.

No invisible walls that i know off, but may i missed them. Thway the game is setup is that you go to Kingsmouth first, then you keep moving to the next zone (no levels, but still require certain gear QL). In each zone however, the quests aren't hub based, so you can go in any different.

There are buddy keys, which if i'm not mistaken, will let you play the game for 1 day. Atleast that's how i think it works. Try to get one

Brilliant! Thank you ^^

 

I don't mind instancing when the players in a zone reaches a certain level, just as long as it isn't just me in an entire zone thats locked to me and my party like a lot of games haha.

 

 

No, each zone is open ended. Like i said, in each area there're solo instanced for you only, no group. Also, like i said, not sure how it flows in later regions, so it could get worse.

As long as the social aspect of the game isn't dead and as long as I can see other players running about whilst I do missions/quests, then I'm happy.

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

Originally posted by citalkay

Thank you <:

 

One more question! Is the game 'smooth' and does it have that freedom feeling? Or is TSW filled with invisible walls and un-responsive attacks?

 

Wish I could try a trial before buying.

No invisible walls that i know off, but maybe i missed them. The way the game is setup is that you go to Kingsmouth first, then you keep moving to the next zone (no levels, but still require certain gear QL). In each zone however, the quests aren't hub based, so you can go in any different.

There are buddy keys, which if i'm not mistaken, will let you play the game for 1 day. Atleast that's how i think it works. Try to get one

I've found some invisible walls... but only at the edge of the maps when I was trying to swim off to the horizon on kingsmouth.. :)

Usually nothing prevents you from going to other areas (sometimes there are restrictions if you haven't reached a certain point in the story, but not always). You'll probably die a LOT if you go with gear below the recomended QL.

Once inside a zone it's VERY free, you can move anywhere you want, and don't be afraid to jump off high ledges and things like that because there's no fall damage. As other people said, no quest hubs, most you'll find are some places where two or three quest givers might be there, but most of those times you can only take one of their quests at a given time. Sounds annoying in theory but works very well in practice to really inmerse yourself in why you're doing that particular quest IMHO. It's actually very common for you to pick up a quest, find another one on the way to it, or when you finish it that takes you to another place, find another quest there and so on.

In general the world is very well done, wherever there's an area I'm not supposed to go (like a mountain ir something) I've never found an invisible wall blocking my way, but usually more organic ways to block it, like tall rocks and stuff like that. Normally if you can see a way there, nothing blocks your way from getting there.

Quite often when i'm soloing and get to a part where it's hard due to mobs or the like, the people also there end up working together, with or without teaming and the cooperation serves all.

Quite a few people has ended in my friend list due to this.

Originally posted by citalkay

As long as the social aspect of the game isn't dead and as long as I can see other players running about whilst I do missions/quests, then I'm happy.

Kingsmouth and savange cost youll see a lot of people off on their own and youll probably be soloing.  Once you hit blue mountain youll see a whole lot of people running in pairs and small groups as the content get harder, and will find yourself wanting to group up to make some of the final tiers of missions easier...also theres a lot more mob density, and these mobs seem to NEVER give up chase, which makes dashing through mob areas a bad idea, but it also makes soloing in an area very fustrating since youll aggro more than you can take often.

The main storyline offers material that you can and usually should group for, but always ends up with you in a solo instance.  Also investigation missions are often solo instances, but those are more about avoiding mobs designed to be avoided (attacking will get you killed fast) and honestly work fantastic as a solo instance.

People are everywhere in the game, and if your on a server and missing people to group with in your area you can get pulled onto another server with a group invite from someone on that server...so really servers only serve one purpose and thats who you pvp with.

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

Originally posted by Garvon3

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

SP with co-op is what themeparks are in the first place. You say that like it's not terrible game design for a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER game I know it sucks, but i'm talking about the actual game, not my opinion on the matter  Zones aren't instanced. Almost everything in the game is instanced, especially all the areas with content.  Instanced are copis. My your definition, every game with zones is instancedYou can do anything in a group, nothing is stoping you, expect for solo instances. Which is the vast majority of the game, and the mechanics don't encourage you to group. No, it really isn't. Maybe later on, because i'm not playing like i said. aaaaaaaaaaaa

Long story short, this game is almost entirely instanced/singleplayer.

In a single player, i can't play with other people.

This game calls itself massively multiplayer, yet I can never play with more than a small handful of people in PvE. I expect more from an MMO with a monthly fee.

And no, not every game with a zone is instanced. Every zone that is instanced is instanced.

Originally posted by citalkay

Only thing stopping me buying this game is the fact that I've seen serveral posts claiming that the game is much like SWTOR when it comes to the storyline.

 

I'd really like to avoid being solo 24/7. Are a lot of the zones intanced? I don't want to buy  another singleplayer RPG with Co op options that costs monthly.

You are as solo as often as you where in SWTOR, both games have instances you can do while leveling, SWTOR had +2 and +4 areas and TSW doesn't have as many.  SWTOR had instances you would go in to change your story but you could bring in other players. TSW has single player instances to finish parts of a story, I'm not sure if can co op those.

Pretty much the same game when it comes to grouping up. Most players in both just play the game like a single player and co op a few times to get group instance gear.

Ah forgot, the game's use space differently: SWTOR has was more geographic space, at least 6-10 times more so used a channel type system where you would go from one hub to the next and also because of the space it apeared as if fewer players where playing, that two split factions, and a billion servers.  TSW has 8 medium zones and just throws some quest hubs all over the zones. You can only pick up one main quest so it is a lot of back and forth running, so will see more players in TSW but will also reuse the same content often.

I found it even move single-player heavy than SWTOR. SWTOR might have way more quest instancing, but grouping in TSW is boring overall.

Originally posted by tares

Originally posted by citalkay

Only thing stopping me buying this game is the fact that I've seen serveral posts claiming that the game is much like SWTOR when it comes to the storyline.

 

I'd really like to avoid being solo 24/7. Are a lot of the zones intanced? I don't want to buy  another singleplayer RPG with Co op options that costs monthly.

You are as solo as often as you where in SWTOR, both games have instances you can do while leveling, SWTOR had +2 and +4 areas and TSW doesn't have as many.  SWTOR had instances you would go in to change your story but you could bring in other players. TSW has single player instances to finish parts of a story, I'm not sure if can co op those.

Pretty much the same game when it comes to grouping up. Most players in both just play the game like a single player and co op a few times to get group instance gear.

You havent gotten past savage coast then, i rarely see a person alone in blue mountain or egypt, most people roll in pairs or groups.

Yeah theres solo instances, but in no way is it like SWTOR where your solo the whole game.

Did you even play TSW?  Or did you just hop in for one of the beta weekends that was limited to kingsmouth...the starter two maps are pretty easy and you really dont need to group, which might explain your opinion on the whole game if its based off kingsmouth only.

edit: oh didnt realize who i was responding to...which explains the opinion i guess...

Originally posted by Garvon3

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

SP with co-op is what themeparks are in the first place. You say that like it's not terrible game design for a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER game  Zones aren't instanced. Almost everything in the game is instanced, especially all the areas with content. You can do anything in a group, nothing is stoping you, expect for solo instances. Which is the vast majority of the game, and the mechanics don't encourage you to group. aaaaaaaaaaaa

Long story short, this game is almost entirely instanced/singleplayer.

This is an all out lie.  Very few quests have solo dungeon instances and the ones that do are really quite good (the haunted house in Blue Mountain is really fun as is the carnival stuff in Savage Coast).

You obviously have not played the game.  

Most of the "instancing" happens in the main questline which is like Personal Story in GW2 (which is completely instanced lol).