Hi guys/gals,

I'm currently playing Atlantica Online, and while I love the game, I find myself missing single-character MMORPGs now and then. I miss micro-managing a single character rather than 9 of them at once. I've been out of the F2P MMO loop for a few years now, and I was hoping some of you kind souls could help guide me in the right direction. Here are a few things I'm looking for:

- regulated or consent-based PvP. I'm not one for PK, either causing it or being the victim of it. I love PvP when both parties are willing, though. No PvP or PK is fine as well.

- features that can occupy players apart from mindless grind, or apart from quests that require mindless grind. Perhaps a good crafting system, fishing, gambling, mini- games/events, etc.

- non-cartoony graphics and a more mature playerbase (I realize the latter might be a pipe dream, but I'm looking forward to the former, especially if the graphics are as stunning as in Lineage 2)

- not too much advantage on the item mall user. I've shelled out cash on F2P games a number of times, and while I enjoy doing it and recognize that games rely on people's money to keep running, I don't want to feel like I have to pay just to enjoy the game with everyone else. If the item mall items are all tradable in-game, and if regular users have a decent chance of making enough money to buy them in-game, I'd love to give that game a shot.

Another perk would be having auto-move (either in general or for quest NPCs), but I can live without it. Not being able to kill-steal, not having to loot corpses, and not losing items upon death are pluses too.

Two games I'm considering trying out right now are Runes of Magic and Requiem, though I admittedly know little of both. I have tried out Rappelz but the grind chased me away, and account problems and poor customer support made me flee from Perfect World. If anyone else has any recommendations, please let me know.

Update: 

Runes of Magic: tried it out for a day, a bit too similar to Perfect World for my tastes. I guess Dragon Oath is out, too.

Spellborn: it almost has an FPS feel to it, and that's not my thing either. There's also a ton of bugs and the development hasn't moved in several months, it looks like. I'll wait 'til after maintenance and try it out a bit more, but so far, it doesn't strike me as something I could get into.

I'm starting to think I'm being way too picky :(

 I just started playing Runes of Magic despite my hate for F2P games and it really is not all that bad requiem I tried because of the theme and that one is pretty grindy can't speak for the grind of Runes of Magic as I have just recently got to 10 and starting to level my alternate class. But the fact with all F2P games they will always have grinds and cash shops the cash shop is to help the grind by you buying exp bonuses. I would say check out Runes of Magic I'm enjoying it so far and you can get to 10 kind of quickly.

 Spellborn ? Graphics are awesome, i enjoy spellborn by only questing, quests are different and interesting ,  best combat system i've played in any mmo, playerbase looks pretty mature, i was shocked by support i get from other players, just ask and u'll get help anytime. Don't know bout crafting, u can craft some stuff, but i don't think that there is anything like crafting lvls. It doesn't have item mall at all for now. PvP is very fun and addictive and depends on player skills mostly, even 10lvls difference is not a problem for good player, not even talking bout gear differences. 

People always ask for unique mmo, and when they get one they don't even look at it, that's sad.

Originally posted by riversong

Hi guys/gals,

 

I'm currently playing Atlantica Online, and while I love the game, I find myself missing single-character MMORPGs now and then. I miss micro-managing a single character rather than 9 of them at once. I've been out of the F2P MMO loop for a few years now, and I was hoping some of you kind souls could help guide me in the right direction. Here are a few things I'm looking for:

 

- regulated or consent-based PvP. I'm not one for PK, either causing it or being the victim of it. I love PvP when both parties are willing, though. No PvP or PK is fine as well.

- features that can occupy players apart from mindless grind, or apart from quests that require mindless grind. Perhaps a good crafting system, fishing, gambling, mini- games/events, etc.

- non-cartoony graphics and a more mature playerbase (I realize the latter might be a pipe dream, but I'm looking forward to the former, especially if the graphics are as stunning as in Lineage 2)

- not too much advantage on the item mall user. I've shelled out cash on F2P games a number of times, and while I enjoy doing it and recognize that games rely on people's money to keep running, I don't want to feel like I have to pay just to enjoy the game with everyone else. If the item mall items are all tradable in-game, and if regular users have a decent chance of making enough money to buy them in-game, I'd love to give that game a shot.

 

Another perk would be having auto-move, but I can live without it. Not being able to kill-steal, not having to loot corpses, and not losing items upon death are pluses too.

 

Two games I'm considering trying out right now are Runes of Magic and Requiem, though I admittedly know little of both. I have tried out Rappelz but the grind chased me away, and account problems and poor customer support made me flee from Perfect World. If anyone else has any recommendations, please let me know.

Guild Wars?

Originally posted by Lexin

 I just started playing Runes of Magic despite my hate for F2P games and it really is not all that bad requiem I tried because of the theme and that one is pretty grindy can't speak for the grind of Runes of Magic as I have just recently got to 10 and starting to level my alternate class. But the fact with all F2P games they will always have grinds and cash shops the cash shop is to help the grind by you buying exp bonuses. I would say check out Runes of Magic I'm enjoying it so far and you can get to 10 kind of quickly.

Thanks for the reply! It's a shame about Requiem, the theme grabbed my attention as well. I know about the grind in MMOs, but what I'm looking for is a game that provides other avenues alongside the usual kill / loot / kill / loot sequence so that it's not very repetitive or boring. I probably worded it wrong, sorry :( Runes of Magic is next on my try out list, and I think I'll knock off Requiem for now. Thanks again!

Originally posted by Tyrantas

 Spellborn ? Graphics are awesome, i enjoy spellborn by only questing, quests are different and interesting ,  best combat system i've played in any mmo, playerbase looks pretty mature, i was shocked by support i get from other players, just ask and u'll get help anytime. Don't know bout crafting, u can craft some stuff, but i don't think that there is anything like crafting lvls. It doesn't have item mall at all for now. PvP is very fun and addictive and depends on player skills mostly, even 10lvls difference is not a problem for good player, not even talking bout gear differences. 

People always ask for unique mmo, and when they get one they don't even look at it, that's sad.

Cool, thanks for the rec! Will check out Spellborn later. I haven't actually heard of this yet, and the graphics look promising.

Originally posted by Sovrath 

Guild Wars?

Did Guild Wars turn F2P?

Give Dungeons and dragons online a go

grind is minimal, you dont realize that you are leveling up until you actually level up, the fun part is doing the dungeons with friends

Originally posted by riversong

Originally posted by Sovrath 

Guild Wars?

 

Did Guild Wars turn F2P?

i dont remember ever paying a monthly fee for it... you buy the box and you play all you want

I would suggest SUN online, it's more or so missions questing. In fact thats all you do. Though don't think there isn't large amounts of fighting in doing the quests and such. most of the game going through them is killing off captains and reaching the boss at the long end of the fight. to be able to advance in story.

Originally posted by Squal'Zell

Give Dungeons and dragons online a go

grind is minimal, you dont realize that you are leveling up until you actually level up, the fun part is doing the dungeons with friends

Thank you, I'll add it to this list. The graphics don't really do it for me, but I've heard some nice things from a friend so I might give this a go, too. Thanks!

Originally posted by Squal'Zell

Originally posted by riversong

Originally posted by Sovrath 

Guild Wars?

 

Did Guild Wars turn F2P?

 

i dont remember ever paying a monthly fee for it... you buy the box and you play all you want

Oops, sorry. Must have been thinking of another game, then. Considering how much I've spent for games in general this year, I think I'll pass on Guild Wars for now, though if nothing else works out, I'll give it a whirl. Most of my reluctance from trying it stems from encountering far too many players who had been playing it and left to find something else, although they did have some very nice things to say about it!

Originally posted by loreofchaos

I would suggest SUN online, it's more or so missions questing. In fact thats all you do. Though don't think there isn't large amounts of fighting in doing the quests and such. most of the game going through them is killing off captains and reaching the boss at the long end of the fight. to be able to advance in story.

Thanks for the rec, but I don't think SUN online's what I'm looking for. The graphics are extremely tempting, but the gameplay and features don't really grab me, sorry :( I appreciate your taking the time to reply though!

Originally posted by riversong

Originally posted by Squal'Zell

Originally posted by riversong

Originally posted by Sovrath 

Guild Wars?

Did Guild Wars turn F2P?

i dont remember ever paying a monthly fee for it... you buy the box and you play all you want

Oops, sorry. Must have been thinking of another game, then. Considering how much I've spent for games in general this year, I think I'll pass on Guild Wars for now, though if nothing else works out, I'll give it a whirl. Most of my reluctance from trying it stems from encountering far too many players who had been playing it and left to find something else, although they did have some very nice things to say about it!

You should try downloading the trail I think there's one if you want to try guild wars before buying it.

Guild Wars honestly wasn't all that much of a grind. There's enough to keep one entertained for a while.

Then sandboxy games like Ryzom, Roma Victor, Face of Mankind, Ultima Online, etc aren't too grindy.

But as you're looking at F2P games, until FoM comes out and I can start really recommending it, I'd say take a look at CrimeCraft, which is a neat game. It's mostly FPS matches in combat though.

Maybe Huxley will suit you when it's out?

Originally posted by johnmatthais

Guild Wars honestly wasn't all that much of a grind. There's enough to keep one entertained for a while.

Then sandboxy games like Ryzom, Roma Victor, Face of Mankind, Ultima Online, etc aren't too grindy.

But as you're looking at F2P games, until FoM comes out and I can start really recommending it, I'd say take a look at CrimeCraft, which is a neat game. It's mostly FPS matches in combat though.

Maybe Huxley will suit you when it's out?

Guild Wars' graphics wasn't really to my liking, but I'll give it more consideration since it's starting to sound tempting! I'm not really one for FPS games, but thanks for the recommendation. I've actually heard of Face of Mankind from someone I met in Atlantica, I think the roleplay aspect sounds a bit odd, but it does sound like something I might try once it goes public and if it's F2P. Thanks a lot for the recs!

@bloodaxes - Thanks, will definitely do that when I try it out.

Depending how old you are DDO is a good game.

That is not intended as a slight I have just found that the older gamers that played a lot of PnP D&D really have a lot of fun at the game.

You can play it without buying any of the additional modules and have  pretty good time.

Originally posted by riversong

Originally posted by johnmatthais

Guild Wars honestly wasn't all that much of a grind. There's enough to keep one entertained for a while.

Then sandboxy games like Ryzom, Roma Victor, Face of Mankind, Ultima Online, etc aren't too grindy.

But as you're looking at F2P games, until FoM comes out and I can start really recommending it, I'd say take a look at CrimeCraft, which is a neat game. It's mostly FPS matches in combat though.

Maybe Huxley will suit you when it's out?

Guild Wars' graphics wasn't really to my liking, but I'll give it more consideration since it's starting to sound tempting! I'm not really one for FPS games, but thanks for the recommendation. I've actually heard of Face of Mankind from someone I met in Atlantica, I think the roleplay aspect sounds a bit odd, but it does sound like something I might try once it goes public and if it's F2P. Thanks a lot for the recs!

@bloodaxes - Thanks, will definitely do that when I try it out.

Guild Wars I used to play because my kid brother bought it a while back and I'd play on his account every now and then. It's fun for a time but after half a year to a year, you'll find you've done every quest all 3 games have to offer.

FoM will be F2P as far as I know, possibly with optional subs. Idk, haven't heard much talk of it yet. It's a cool game and if your faction has a good group of players who know their part and do it well, you'll find yourself having a blast as they'll probably be willing to get you started too. Anyone not into the idea of the roleplay thing might find themselves dropping the game after a week though due to some of the penalties players inflict on others (not the game, but PLAYERS) for being out of line/out of place.

Other than that, I won't say much (NDA, sorry...) other than according to players of the first release (dubbed old FoM since the new release has updated graphics), there are record numbers for players. =D

I wouldn't so much recommend DDO though. Seems like it's a tad bit of a grind...idk. Games like that seem to be that way *shrugs* who knows though? I haven't played.

Originally posted by Nomad40

Depending how old you are DDO is a good game.

 

That is not intended as a slight I have just found that the older gamers that played a lot of PnP D&D really have a lot of fun at the game.

 

You can play it without buying any of the additional modules and have  pretty good time.

Haha, I didn't take it as a slight, thanks for the rec! I'm starting to get curious of DDO right now, but I keep hearing it's a grind fest. The graphics don't really tempt me as well, but I'd be glad to forego that if the gameplay is suits me.

Originally posted by johnmatthais

Guild Wars I used to play because my kid brother bought it a while back and I'd play on his account every now and then. It's fun for a time but after half a year to a year, you'll find you've done every quest all 3 games have to offer.

FoM will be F2P as far as I know, possibly with optional subs. Idk, haven't heard much talk of it yet. It's a cool game and if your faction has a good group of players who know their part and do it well, you'll find yourself having a blast as they'll probably be willing to get you started too. Anyone not into the idea of the roleplay thing might find themselves dropping the game after a week though due to some of the penalties players inflict on others (not the game, but PLAYERS) for being out of line/out of place.

Other than that, I won't say much (NDA, sorry...) other than according to players of the first release (dubbed old FoM since the new release has updated graphics), there are record numbers for players. =D

I wouldn't so much recommend DDO though. Seems like it's a tad bit of a grind...idk. Games like that seem to be that way *shrugs* who knows though? I haven't played.

A year's pretty much how long games last for me. Played L2 for a year, then Rappelz, then Perfect World (a few months, I think), and now I'm in Atlantica (turning one year this month, though thankfully game's grabbed me enough that I don't feel like quitting yet). The person I met in Atlantica was an old FoM gamer and was also waiting for open beta. He had nice things to say about the game as well, but the roleplay aspect doesn't sound like something I could get into. When I took a brief look at the forums, most of the roleplay was centered on militia. Not really my thing :(

That's what I hear about DDO as well , but I haven't played it either. Might be worth a shot in case the others don't work out!