The demand for balance is making PvP focused games fail. There is no such thing as balance but developers who pursue this misguided notion find themselves trapped in a never ending cycle of nerf's and buffs. Newer developers are realizing this and avoiding it altogehter by putting little focus on PvP. Trying to find balance in an MMO is like trying to find equality in life. It is a  pipe dream that only a fool chases. 

Originally posted by skoupidi

Originally posted by spankybus

 

VFX:  The Spell effects are quite cool. When I was a mage putting the smackdown for a lighting spell…it felt powerful and the lighting looked awesome!  Underwater effects are a bit extreme…the massive distortion effect can be annoying. As you might be able to shut this off, it’s a quibble.

 

It’s not totally over-the-top magic effects like the more Asian games, where you launch a fire spell and the sun envelopes the planet just to kill one rabbit (Final Fantasy players are familiar with this concept).

 

Animation: In my humble opinion, this is one of the most important aspects of a game. I think often of the comparison between the flying gryphon’s in WoW and Everquest II when they launched.

 

The Everquest mount was very detailed in its model and texture….more along the lines of realistic. However, when it flew it felt like it was dead, stuffed…only its wings moved, very little secondary motion...it was WAY too rigid for a living creature.

 

Then you look at the Gryphon’s in World of Warcraft. They are alive with motion, everything is in motion as they fly, head, legs, feet, tail tons of secondary motion. It made the cartoon bird infinity more realistic.

No, with RIFT, the animation seems to be well done. Looks like a lot of decent motion capture animations for the character movement, spell casts, weapon strikes etc. Nothing about it took me out of the experience….except the horses!

 

They were running in slow-Motion, covered with Molasses! When you imitate the sound of a horse running, it’s always three noises with the last one being longer than the first two…another words, the timing is not even. However, the rate of the horse’s motion feels too smooth and ‘Floaty’.

 

I understand they needed the horse to run slower that its animation would really propel it…but then animate a horse trot and use that for the slower animals. Walk, trot, then gallop….as appropriate (Red Dead did a great job on this).

All this said, I am mostly satisfied with this aspect of the game…but I have a feeling that horses will not be the only creature animation that will annoy me. Again, as an artist this stuff bugs me…perhaps more than it should. But I also know from experience that our work is frequently gimped by the necessity of the game engine or gameplay requirements.

 

I stoped reading here.I dont know if you checked any other classes, but the skill effects of the melee and the ranger class were 100% poor.

Most important: the animation.Have you checked the holster/unholster weapon animation?When your characters moves his hands to grab his/her weapon, it magically moves through the sholuders-chest-belly and then reaches your hands.Same for holstering it.Havent seen a worse animation for years and this "is" supposed to be an AAA next generation 2011 mmo.I would only exxpect less if it still was 2004.But i instantly deleted the game after i ran across those poor design choices.

To bad that i have to wait longer for my type of game to show up:/

I have yet to play the game so it may be horrid. However, if you seriously uninstalled a game only because of those animations in beta, I can safely say you will never find a MMO to your liking. 

Think about a car. It can be stylish, sporty, and have great accessories but if it doesn't have an engine it is going to sit and rust away.  In much the same way MMO's today fit this model.  Oh they look great and have all the accessories but where is the engine?

EQ1, Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, and even WoW to some extent all did one thing well. They immersed you in a virtual world that you didn't want to leave.  Whether it is theme park, sandbox, or instanced game, none of these things are important if you can immerse the player in your world.

So what is it about these games that made players feel apart of their world? I don't know the answer, however if I were an MMO developer this would be the question I put all my effort into answering before I started to designing anything else. It is the engine that makes the MMO go and without it, I  don't care how pretty your game is, it will sit and rust.

I challenge you MMO devs, make me want to live in your world, if you can't do that stop wasting my time.

No they haven't. They are still locked.

I've tried pretty much every big name MMO there is except the first FF online. So figured I'd give this one a go.  After 4 hours I canceled.

I know, I know "YOU CAN"T PLAY FOR 4 HOURS AND LEARN ANYTHING", that is what some will say, but they are wrong. There are some things you can figure out about any MMO right away, the UI, Controls and Combat. 

The controls and UI are horrible.  You can't just change the controls to your favorite MMO keybinds either becuase they lock a bunch of the keys.  No Jumping? I couldn't find any control to jump and didnt' see anyone jumping around either.

The game feels dated, EQ1 or 2 would be closest to what I can compare it. Even the graphics are nothing special and I have a high end system.

Spent the first 30 min or so of the game doing nothing but watching cutscenes and running around. 

I made an archer. I either don't understand combat at all  or it is horrendously bad. I basically had auto attack. I would target a mob, fire and stand there pressing 1.  It wouldn't even let me move while attacking. Maybe it is suppossed to be that way, I have no idea. I can't imagine who thought this would be a good concept for an MMO in 2010. It felt like playing EQ1.

I am sure some will find this game fun, probably the diehard FF players will flame me. That's fine.

The overall idea of FF looks interesting with the one character that can be all classes and such. This is the reason I tried it. My first impression of the game though ruins any depth the game has. I suppose i've grown acustom to the fluid movement in WoW over the years. If I were coming from a game such as EQ1 or 2 this probably would not feel nearly as bad.

I may give this game another try sometime but for now it goes on the evergrowing heap of failed MMO's.

First impressions are everything for an MMO and this game's is terrible. It may be a great game down the road but I suspect most that aren't FF fans won't get past the first few hours to even see.

Originally posted by XH4ID3N

The game is "FREE TO PLAY" nobody said nothing about "BEING FREE TO ENJOY".

 Luckily it's also "Free to quit" and "Free to never play". Think I'll go with last one, I'm not into gaming scams.

Originally posted by John.A.Zoid

I played Everquest the other week and the world is barren and theres too many crap starting areas. I was walking along around aload of zones and it has the worst level design I've ever seen, it's like they juat shaped the terrain and put a river and some trees down and then put 1 mob in there lol. I also hate all the loading between zones and wonder why they couldn't have just had it seamless with just loading between conts or something.

World of Warcraft has a much better open world but just a shame Battlegrounds ruin it.

Welcome to completelymissedthepoint.com.  Enjoy yourself and thanks for signing the guest book.

Originally posted by javac

Originally posted by Vutar

Originally posted by javac

Originally posted by jonyak

Originally posted by Frostbite05

the only thing unbelievable is that people would pay for this garbage in the first place. Even for an indie company its rather simple to start of a new server on a different continent.

 

Hey I don't know why people would pay for the garbage that is WOW, AOC or WAR but they do.

have you ever released a game on a different continent with no big supporters?

 

I agree, AOC and WAR were garbage, which is of course why they lost 50-80% of their subs in the 3 months after release, which caused funcom to fire entire offices of GMs and the game producer.

 

WOW is like the ultimate scam of all -- get a bunch of people to pay you for a second job, grinding repetitive, dumbed-down pointless quests and scripted bosses over and over, and then simply copy'n'paste 90% of existing content into the next expansion and reset the levels making all their effort worthless and then get them to do it all over again. It's both hilarious and sad, yet true.

Welcome to MMORPG's, judging from your WoW comment's you apparently just started playing them. 

 

in other words you agree with me? ok right, thanks for posting.

 

No, had you said all mmorpg's are like what you describe WoW as then I would agree with you.  However, you act as if WoW is the only one like that. Which is ridiculous and only someone new to the genre would think that, hence my original comment. 

Originally posted by javac

Originally posted by jonyak

Originally posted by Frostbite05

the only thing unbelievable is that people would pay for this garbage in the first place. Even for an indie company its rather simple to start of a new server on a different continent.

 

Hey I don't know why people would pay for the garbage that is WOW, AOC or WAR but they do.

have you ever released a game on a different continent with no big supporters?

 

I agree, AOC and WAR were garbage, which is of course why they lost 50-80% of their subs in the 3 months after release, which caused funcom to fire entire offices of GMs and the game producer.

 

WOW is like the ultimate scam of all -- get a bunch of people to pay you for a second job, grinding repetitive, dumbed-down pointless quests and scripted bosses over and over, and then simply copy'n'paste 90% of existing content into the next expansion and reset the levels making all their effort worthless and then get them to do it all over again. It's both hilarious and sad, yet true.

 

 

Welcome to MMORPG's, judging from your WoW comment's you apparently just started playing them. 

Agree with many of the OP's points.  The only thing's I disagree with are his last two points.  We don't need more MMO's giving handout's to casual players.  That is what is ruining the genre as it is.  Games are so shallow that they are being played like single player games. Play for a month then move on to the next game.  I'm a casual player now, but I still would much rather play a game that has a lot of depth/difficulty.  If I never get the best stuff in game, so be it.  I like knowing that there is something better always out there that I can try to achieve. 

Originally posted by maxkill42

Originally posted by maxkill42

Hey guys start downloading lol, its 13 gigs

 

I created a quick trail account and just used that download link

40% done 15 hours left.............................

 

Just got my email with my download link :P apperently that download is 6 gigs instead of 13.........

Ya email says 6 gigs....but I'm DLing from the link atm and it is on a 11.4 gigs part atm. 

Originally posted by Afrolas

I confirmed mine and now am just waiting for the email with the d/l link.

 

I plan to d/l and play it since i'm in between mmo's atm. I've stayed away from this one because of the negative things i have heard, so i'll give it a fair shake since it's free...

Same for me, I never tried it because of how bad everything I read about it was.  Can't beat free though, may as well try it.  If they ever send this link that is.....

I won but have yet to receive a link to download the game or even a key for the game.  I confirmed and when I log in it shows it as confirmed but still nothing.  Have you guys actually received the link and keys?

Originally posted by Bureyku

I used to have this re-occuring dream where werewolves would be outside my bedroom window clawing at the glass and right before they broke in I would wake up sweating and scared as hell.  Then one night in my dream I said screw it and went and opened the window and they came in and ripped me to pieces and ate my heart.  After that night I never had the dream again.  Was really cool.

And a nerve is struck....

NCsoft won't listen to my whining about what "I" want in "my" mmorpg therefore I hate them.  If they would just listen to me, everything would be perfect.  All they have to do is design their game around everything I like and am used to from other games.  You'd think by now MMO companies would just ask my opinion first.  It is clear Aion will be another failure which all could have been easily avoided had they been more informed of my wishes for it. I'll sum up my first 10 levels playing WoW with a new name. 

FIrst I log in and they expect me to create a character...heh like that hasn't been done before.  Can anyone say WoW?  Next, I get in the game with my warrior and I'm killing mobs with a sword.....they may as well have just copied WoW's source code.  After killing five mobs or so, you guessed it, I gained a level.  They aren't even trying to hide it.   After gaining a few more of those level's  I got to my first small town and what do I see?  Class trainers.  Do I really need to go on?  It is clear after getting to level ten that Blizzard needs to take legal action.   I haven't seen for myself yet, but I've heard rumors that you have to actually pay a monthly fee.  This is a slam dunk case for Blizzard. 

/sarcasm off......

Originally posted by Keridwen

Originally posted by spyder2k5

WAR will improve, it takes time, main compalint is the end game, on comparison WoW's end game sucked for 2 years before it was hafl way decent, give Mythic time to do their thing, this game will grow, and make a come back.

 

AIONs end game is brilliant now, and you won't have to wait 2 years. WAR is already dead and buried. AION will deliver the final blow when it is released in September.

This

The quest grind by many recent MMO's is no different than the mob grind from games like EQ and L2.    I'm getting pretty sick of quest grind games myself. 

Originally posted by mantii

I tried the beta this weekend and I thought it was mediocre.  I was ultra psyched about the game before I tried it.  I built it up way too much in my head.  The graphics are beautiful though, and the sound is absolutely the best.  The controls are ok. (response time to casting / moving) 

The few things I just plain out dont like about it are the slow movement.  Yes I understand you will probably...maybe have a mount later although I haven't seen or heard anything about that feature so I could be wrong.  Another thing that bothered me was the way the quests were set up.  I would run halfway accross the starter map and get a quest, then I could do the quest but the turn in was back at where I loaded into the game upon creating my character.  What is the point in having to run that far to turn in a quest?  I didn't get it and don't like it.  One thing that I didn't like very much was the fact that when I cast a spell and im already hitting the button to cast again it isn't registering that im hitting that button until the global cooldown is completely finished cooling down.  I like to know that when I press the button that it is registering as an attempt to press that button...yes just like in wow if you are a mage casting a fire ball and hitting any other spell it shows an attempt to cast the next spell while you are mid cast of another.  It's a small preference and definitely not a game breaker but I don't like that either.  

Another thing that I don't like is the fact that I have to start out as one of 4 basic classes and then at level 10 chose which class I want to be.  It makes leveling 1-10 extremely boring if you plan on leveling alts and such.  I don't understand why they couldn't have put in ~10 unique spells per class and just had you chose which class you wanted from the beginning instead of making everyone the same pretty much. 

I thought the game was decent and I had preordered the collectors edition.  I will be going to cancel that pre-order this week.  I guess i'll have to stick to EVE and SWG until the new SWTOR comes out or hell maybe even Champions.  

You'll probably have the same experience with SWTOR or Champions becuase as you said you built it up in your mind.  No game will ever meet a person's imaginination.  Better off not following game development much, games are more enjoyable that way. 

Oh and BTW  not sure you can cancel pre-order if you have already played beta.  I know the gamestop pre-order specifically says you cannot cancel pre-order once using the beta code.

Nice game so far. Nothing revolutionary but since all the "new improved" games are failing, why not something that works? The majority of whining I see on the beta boards are from WoW players wanting it to be more like WoW. This is good news, long as NCSoft doesn't listen to them.
 

Originally posted by Pinkerl

Alot of people claim that mmorpg pvp is mind thinking and strategic.. well how strategic, tactical mmorpg pvp is, it all gone down the toilet when high level can one hit you. Also ebayers will always win against legit players so the claim about mmorpg pvp being strategic is bs.

Monthly Fee MMORPG = ebayers win / high level win

Free2Play MMORPG = cashshopper win / high level win

PVP in MMORPG = [b]FAIL[/

 

 

 

 

1.  If you are talking about one shotting people I'd like to know what game that is. No I am not talking about low level pvp either. I'm talking about max level.

2.  You say there is no strategy for PvP in MMO's?   I can only assume this means you run into battle mindlessly mashing buttons, die repeatedly, and then proclaim there is no strategy in MMO's.  In other words becuase you don't use strategy and such,  that must mean the game has no stategy.

3.  You talking about ebayers will always win over legit players, well that would go for PvE also.  So what are you suggesting? Get rid of MMO's entirely?