All Posts by Wizardry

They all end up pretty much in the same heap or trash bin.Many of them at first glance are fun to play but they all end up boring in a short time.IO have tried so many it's not funny,and funny thing is no matter how much bragging or hype some the players give a game ,i go in and it's like WTF ! this is horrible.

My latest try was a often talked about sword of the new world espanosa or whatever it was called.Even the advertising states AWESOME graphics[rflmao].I couldn't last in that game for anytime at all,it was that bad.I don't even have the time to state everything and it's flaws or cheap design.I mean most of these F2P games seem like they were made for nintendo or playstation 1,and they prolly were.

What is even funnier is that 90+% of the player base in F2P games are playing an MMORPG online game SOLO !,lol whats the sense?

Originally posted by nomadian

is it AoC and their latest offering or another mmo?

Most have prolly never played FFXI,so they will not know that FFXI has by far the most unique and best skilled  battle system.Of course after many years ,the player based have dumbed it down and pretty much try to speed kill everything, rather than enjoying the battle play.Everyone and there mother seems to think all games are a race to see how fast you can level up.

The OP mention of AOC is further fact to the fodder by showing how many players were like level 50 in two weeks.I guess the game can't be that good or have that much content if players just want to fly through levels and not stick around to enjoy any of the game.

FFXI has your piercing/slashing ideas,it also has sub jobs that throw a mix into the fray.It also has mob weaknesses,combos,magic bursts,hate control it's got it all.It has weapon skillups,shield blocks,evasion,parry,yep if a game has it so does FFXI and then some.Oh i didn't even mention that FFXI battle system is much more realistic than the typical korean god speed animations.FFXI's battle system allows for battle actions and reactions,basically it allows you time to think and react,you are not encouraged to button mash.I might also add that in FFXI some of your very low level spells are still VERY useful at higher levels[paralyze/sleep/bind to name a few]unlike most games where it is just a case of upgrading or button mashing your highest level icons on the hotbar.

As a matter of fact it is pretty much the main reason i ever stuck around to play ffxi so long,and it's story line is very good.FFXI does have a lot of other flaws but you asked for battle system ,so i pick FFXI.

No,i have actually mentioned this before.Blizzard is a follower weather blizzard fans like to admit it or not.They will only copy some one else's success.Or they will rehash old games they feel they can muster enough of a following just from old blizzard fans.Stuff like starcraft /diablo they might re vamp ,otherwise they will wait and follow up on someone else idea,as they did with EQ.

Remember when everything blizzard was free to play on there F2P network?[battle.net ]i believe it was called,well soon they saw SOE charging and making money off of EQ,they decided hey maybe we can make money off the same idea.They quickly put together WOW,and although it was inferior to EQ,it soon gathered a craze of followers that soon snowballed as everyone and there friends were following each other into the game.

Blizzard is at the point now ,where they have to charge for everything they make,there overhead is just too massive.So putting out an inferior product now will hurt them badly.Now is a very bad time to put out inferior products because so much of the gaming public is MUCH more knowledgeable than when WOW came out.At that point most gamers still had only seen stuff for consoles and were awestruck by anything that came out,not the case anymore.

To sum it up,do NOT expect anything ground breaking or unique to come out of the blizzard camp,you can bet on it.

Originally posted by Majestico

I have often wondered about this.  Nearly every Asian-style MMO I have played has been a grind-fest.  Little or no story lines, no emphasis on role-playing.  No plots, hardly eny meaningful quests.  Just grind, grind, grind, grind.

What is the attraction?  I cannot get my head around it.  I know it has something to do with a cultural differences, and someone once mentioned that it was because they are more community based, but what has that got to do with grinding games?

I wish I could understand it, as then I might be able to enjoy some of them more, if I realised the point.

I hope this post does not sound patronising, as it is not intended.  I am not saying that our games are better than their's.  I would just like to know what it is about.  If I could suss it out, then I could really get into some of those free2play's in my hard drive.

Only the korean games not asian as a whole.That is because the korean games ALL seem to be F2P,so the premise is to make the grind SOOooooooooo bad you are basically forced to buy item mall stuff to speed it up,or make the game more comfortable.This is also forced upon you because the item mall games have almost zero content ,meaning your only option is to level.

Japanese/chinese games as a whole tend to be much closer to what i like in a game.If i was to lump there games into  one pile, i would say they prefer games with a challenge[KOEI/FFXI].Some people still like to call anything that is challenging a grind,wich is anything but true,they are not related at all.Still people will start excuses like i don't have the time to face that challenge "it's nothing more than a grind" cliche begins.Fact of the matter is that a lot of people /players out there are kinda like babies and need everything spoon fed to them,spelled out to them and basically told exactly how to play there player.

We can not relate to grinding /slow paced games with no content here in north america because frankly the item mall idea is just now beginning to hit here.These games have the premise of satisfying players on the sole premise that it is free.This is also why you won't expect much in the way of content from these F2P games.

I might also add that KOREA is light years ahead of the world when comes to gaming[not to be confused with development],they also have millions more gamers than the rest of the world ,so it's no wonder item malls and other marketing ideas begin over there first.

Originally posted by tombear81

I kept the game on my hard drive waiting for a free trial / period. Sadly though VG did not appeal to me and I am no longer playing even though the free trial has not finished. Some reasons are :

 

Bad graphics. Namely the stiff walking  animation and thunderbird plastic models. The fact certain models look like a bad copy of WoW... sorry guys its true. The popping of medium distance objects to close distance e.g. fences is totally immersion breaking. I don't asked for seemless but sudden apperence of objects close to your charecter is bad. Bump mapping parts of the landscape makes it all look like some type of felt like fabric.

Performance is OK but not great given the above issues. Personally using the UT2004 engine for this game was a big mistake and I continue to believe that.

The vast and mostly empty world is a real turn off and just says "fail" all over it. Sadly.

The real killer is I could put up with the above if the game world was not so static or typical fantasy affair but I dont think VG is going to revolutionize itself.

Finally, I'll add that VG needs more than to "fix" itself. It also needs to say "sorry" for the worst launch in history. For a boxed product which should never have been published so early.I dont think to be fair that VG can ever get itself onto that level.

i would say most of your comments are far out to lunch except the unreal engine part.I also believe it may have been a mistake as that engine is nice to mod with ,it is also a hog when comes to lots of online action. VANGUARD has IMO the BEST graphics of ANY game out there ,in the RPG market of course.

The rest of what you are talking about is VIEW DISTANCE,sounds like you had bad settings.I know very early in the game some of the sliders didn't do anything or weren't in full working order but wasn't long after ,like within opening week that they all worked fine.BTW EVERY single game does this,so not sure your need to single out vanguard.As a matter of fact vanguard's view distance from opening day ,even when the so called problems were in effect was brilliant and the best i have seen from any game.

The graphics was the one thing i gave the game full marks for right out of the hop,i don't care if you couldn't play it or run it, i could and with very few problems.

Truly from day one i thought the game was sheer brilliance,because i had very few problems that others claimed to have.There was two reasons i quit the game.One there just wasn't enough players in such a large world to make it fun.Two i didn't like the idea of spending countless weeks/months trying to gain faction for every single spot in the game.I didn't like being attacked miles away from the next factioned area[seemed unrealistic aggro]. I guess i also didn't like the game economy that showed very quickly to be full of cheating.They quickly started booting lots of the cheats ,who of course claimed foul,but it just started to look bad so i got out.Sorry had to tell my fourth pet peeve lol...high level players camping quest needed mobs for there drops,that really po'd me.Other than my pet peeves the game is REAL GOOD and deserves nothing but praise.

I wonder if the OP is living under a rock?

In case he has been living under a rock,he might not have noticed RMT activity is the players responsibility and has been blown wide open by the players for quite some time now,LONG before SOE had anything to do with it.Even one of the oldest games UO has a ton of RMT activity.

All SOE has done is try to keep the money where it belongs with the developer who makes it possible,w/o there game there is no rmt period.They also allow you choice,to take part on  a RMt server or not,at least that's the way it was when they first started it.

It wouldn't matter one bit if SOE tried to reap some of the rewards because there is MILLIONS of dollars been spent through RMT activity in all games,  WOW is the biggest culprit.That is why WOW snowballed into mega subs ,because MANY players saw it as a chance to cash in on RMT such as selling easily made accounts.

I repeat already done in FFXI.That game you can pick many different weapons to skillup and there is skill in that you can pick a better option of weapon depending on what you fight.The system is not nearly enoguh perfect but works decently.The reason it is not perfect is because for a lot of classes they do nothing but use duo axes and spam the same weapon skill.There are many weapon skills to use but most pretty much stick to one.

I don't believe in any form of levels be it player levels or skill levels.They always add  up to the same result.You have to realize that a game developer is not totally dumb to the idea there not going to allow you to break there game.So your never going to have a totally unique build to any class.

Example..you mentioned add points to running,well imagine you have such a running ability to break the game that you can kite everything with no fear of ever being caught.Most games don't put enough effort into designing battle skills to make for diversity.By this i mean players will soon spam the chat channels asking what the best weapon for each class is and the best way to build it.Players will re -roll many times until the majority of the server all have the exact same build.

The only way around this whole fiascal is to make nothing in the game revolve around levelling up and should make use of the paper/rock/scissors idea.

Zera online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyptRWIJEbw&feature=related

Secret new world [FUNCOM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QMJb2E8Icw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElHi2H8rfsQ&feature=related

 Supreme destiny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtPty9matC8&feature=related

three kingdoms online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3az_MqZMZfA&feature=related

Sangokushi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kilZWqvPtbo&feature=related

Sorry no direct links ,this site seems to cutoff any links that are too lengthy.These games all look quite decent and offer something different in each of there designs.Maybe someone could shed more light on these games,as some are foreign language games.

Originally posted by JadKni

One with a leveling system in which you get experience in different skills, not one large pool for killing things.  IE; you successfully hit something with a sword, you get sword experience.  You block an attack with a shield, you get shield experience.  You cast a spell, you get experience in that spell.

 

 

What really pains me about saying this is that it-which-should-not-be-named is the only MMO I know of that does something even remotely similar to this.

EDIT: Realism?  Yeah, they've got an MMO out there like that.  It's called RL.  It's got over 6 billion subscribers, and growing.  Really shitty PVP though, and leveling up is impossible.

Already done in FFXI's battle system.

Personally i would like to see no levels in any category.I used to be a believer levelling was fine but after seeing how superficial gaming has become, it ruins the games.I would say more than 50% of gamers do nothing in a game except strive to get there next level.Getting your next level serves no purpose what soever other than just that,getting a new number beside your name.

Sure you get new spells or upgraded versions of the same spells,but there no different in that they will do damage related to the level of mobs you face.So you had level 10 spells doing 50 damage now you got some fancy new named spell that does some 70 damage but the mobs have 150 more health ,so it just evens out.Leveling up really accomplishes nothing.For some players they strive for that one level that might give them a mount or a pet,but we deffineately don't need levels to accomplish that.

So ya get rid of levels would make gaming as a whole a lot better,and start to force designers to use some creativity in there designs.

I got to say one thing....they will stand by there design and not nerf anyone.Well if there design shows down the road to have very unbalanced classes,then isn't that the same as nerfing the weaker classes?especially since they say they will not fix it and stand by there design.

You should never use the word nerf,because it is misused and over used and never say the game design is beyond improvement or fixing.

They deserve some credit,there models and artwork seem decent enough.

Originally posted by n00bit

I've heard a lot about it over the past years, both good and bad. I tried out the trial a while back and cried a little when my first quest was to mine some ore. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy gathering resources and crafting, but it just didn't seem like the first thing I wanted to do when I floated out into space. I uninstalled it after that quest, deciding that the quest had personally insulted me. Anyways, here I am again thinking about trying it out and actually giving it a decent shot this time. Before I do, I've come to he forums to ask if its worth starting at this point. A few things I'd like to ask:

 

At this point in the game, is it possible to catch up to other players in terms of upgrade and level(do they even have levels)?

How does the PvP work...turn based, twitch, a mix?

I've heard a lot about being able to train abilities offline, how does that work?

Once I reach the max level, or the peak of my upgrading, what is there to do?

How long will I have to play before I can start contributing to the community through PvP or crafting/gathering?

Is it true that the GMs are corrupt and favor certain guilds?

That's all I can really think of at the moment; I'd appreciate any input from honest players. I'd rather not have a fanboi come into the thread and tell me that god himself created the game =).

I can sum it up very simply for you.I'm not here to try and turn players away from the game, but i do like people to know the real truth before spending there money.The basis of the game is to fight ship vs ship.The graphics during the fight sequences are extremely weak.Like most games that have been around you can go straight out and buy the best upgrades and ship through RMT.The skillset IMO is again very weak,it offers no real USER skill but just click some skills you want raised and they auto start to upgrade over set times depending on the skill.Docking into stations,really isn't like docking,it's merely a screen that gives you a few choices.

So if you consider user thinking[wich skillsets to rise]as a great skill agenda and don't mind very weak graphic battles,then you might like the game.I found travel[distant travel]very hard to figure out as a noob,you got all the constelations linking to other constellations and hundreds of galaxies and planets to try and remember where each is.There is some kind of system that allows you to auto pilot, but been quite awhile since i played so i can't explain it that well,but auto piloting IMO ,why bother to play if that's what you gonna do.I am sure most do auto piloting because travel becomes boring very early in your noob game.

I think EVE and it's ideas had/have a lot of potential,but the game is very old looking and needs to be re done but with modern code and graphics,basically make it a game that plays like a modern game.

i have always been a fan of EQ2 so i went back also.The problem is that every server is severly under populated.Peeps constantly ask me how i know this,well it's simple really,the tools are there i shouldn't have to explain it again for the umpteenth time.

No matter,the truth is that most say Crushbone is  decently populated,but at 800 peeps a time it shows how bad the game needs a server merger.I know full well the consequences of doing that and i am sure SOE won't do it until at least there next expansion.If they do a merger now before there next expansion it gives the impression the game is dying/hurting so that is why they won't do it just yet.If they don't get enough of an impact come there next pack,then i figure it's time.

It is too bad the game can't get the subs they need ,i know there is a lot of SOE hate and a lot of other games peeps are trying out.The game is still as good as any out there and they have also bowed to pressure making EQ2 a lot easier and more user friendly.It should appease to a very large crowd now.

Unfortunately every pic is of levels 50+/beseiged/end game or campaign.Not much of a true look for any new player.They will see windhurst/san doria/bastock/rabbits/crabs/pugs/gobs/sarutabaruta/ranfaure oh did i mention yagudos ..lol.

Show some pics that a new player will actually see to be fair and accurate to the game and the new players.

I have no confidence in bioware at all.I hear a lot of talk about polished but most are naive to the use of that term.If a game removes things it can't polish how would you know?You may get a totally low budget effort that you will say is polished but in reality it's something that any dev should have been able to release polished as you say.

IMO bioware will put out a piece of junk,that will so remind me of WOW with it's blizzard followers that will follow bioware into the sewer no matter how bad the effort is.I guarantee you that i will admit i was wrong if i see that they at least put out a good effort even if the game is not for me.I am not one to bash any effort just because the game is not for me ,i look at it's whole sum and disect it's effort.I just have zero faith in bioware and an MMORPG.

Originally posted by UNATCOII

 

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Originally posted by vontornm

 

I just hope that someday a company will break the mold and bring us another universe that we can live in and not another theme park. 

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It'll require players to learn a new playstyle. And as you can see with the infighting between PvE and PvP/solo and groups, that's a challenge that won't come easy, if ever.

It's not that there can't be innovation, it's if there's enough players willing to support it. Indie development doesn't get the numbers to support the MMO in the MMORPG. Takes many people online to make the MMO part of the game.

We can have hope, and pray for luck, but that's about it now. Players want Crysis for a MMO (not happening in 10+ years). They want play styles that simply don't mix all in one world together (destroys games). They want interaction and Myspace (forget actual gameplay, since it's more a social MUD than a game). In that soup, you get fast food for the masses.
 

Geesh are you my twin or something? lol.I think for once someone actually has paid attn to what goes on out there.

Your second part about players not supporting is oh so accurate.What do players do the most in the mmorpg market right now?They try to do NOTHING but level up as fast they can and talk trash about END game.There seems to be NO other trend than that right now.So a game could spend thousands developing content to appease who? a small majority,sad really.Most players fly by levels so fast they would'nt even take time to enjoy any of that content until there way over levelled and mobs are greyed out or no challenge whatsoever.

Anyhow everything you said sums it all up bang on accurate.I think a game should just stick to one theme and make it great rather than the latest theme of trying to appease every sub it can by adding everything it can into the game .This is especially noticeable by the latest PVP trend that is just done horribly by all games.

IMO there is no excuses.If they are experienced in there field then they know full well the issues and extra time needed to test.I can't speak for all but i know a lot of devs use totally different PC's than gamers use,so they need to test there work constantly on a typical gaming machine.I think sometimes it's a matter of a dev making bids that are too low just to try and get the contract.I mean cmon mappers know how long it takes to do there maps,texture makers know how long it takes to make a texture pack and so on.Making sound bytes and music bytes for the zones,it's all been done thousands of times ,they should know there timeline by now.

Anyone that has played FFXI has seen what a truly great effort was done when you consider the restrictions of the playstation machine.They made a decent looking game that plays well,albeit lags like all other games when tons of action involved.FFXI was released with mistakes on judgement,but almost none as far as coding goes.I would say if you want a professional team to build your game then square enix is it.

I havn't seen a finished product yet ,however i strongly believe that cheyenne mountain studios will do a good job on there release.They just seem like a very small outfit but very professional[stargate worlds].

SOE is a giant and has the manpower to take a game in a diff direction and make changes w/o failing timelines.The effort by sigil former SOE staff,was truly a great effort but they obviously lacked size and money to pull off the best effort of any game since FFXI/EQ2.

If we could ever get epic games to put out a MMORPG or the ID games/quake team to role a mmorpg we would start to see the envelope pushed.I am still awaiting to see how roger clemens game pans out.I know a lot of people also hate EA,but i strongly believe the yalso have the experience and know how to pull off a MMORPG.

Originally posted by Pappy13

All this proves is that you managed to somehow make a game that will get 25 FPS on a 486 get 25 frames on a PC that should be getting 120.  That must have taken some doing.  I have 1/4 the PC you have and get 60 FPS.  Congrats.

He obviously has vista,wich is because of various reasons like drivers ,horrible for gaming.If you have the 60 that you say i am willing to bet you are NOT on vista?He also has a duo core to wich WOW couldn't care less about.

As to many people posting about WOW's graphics ,it is and never has been a secret that the game is mediocre at best in every facet of it's design.It was a game made to compete with SOE and EQ,they didn't know how good EQ2 was going to be at the time,so they made a game that had cheap graphics and anything near a consoles ability could run.

In comparison to show just how bad vista is for gaming,i have played unreal tournament since it's inception over 4 different PC's.My original i got around 18-30 fps,my second i got around 80-120 and my third i got around 150-200 give or take 20.My newer vista machine like you said should get dbl the fps but it gets around 44-50...really really sad.

I might also add the OP was showing the differences between the two games GW and WOW on his machine ,so weather or not he had any flaws ,it would have affected both games the same ,so there is no excuses for the WOW engine.When i played WOW i didn't even need to see any fps because the graphics were just bad right off the hop,no website or tom's hardware was needed to tell me what i was looking at.

FFXI is a very unique game.EQ/EQ2 are very close in stature to FFXI.I give FFXI the benefit of having the most unique battle system and sub jobs are a great idea.The game however has tons of flaws that are actually fixed or made better in EQ2.To answer your question straight up ,only EQ2 comes close but that game is also older and has a very low populace on there servers.

As far as keylogging and hacks FFXI is totally safe,there is NO WAY EVER[other than an inside job] to hack FFXI's system.The ONLY reason people get hacked in the game is because there information is gathered/stolen by sites that players visit and should not be visiting.So in other words don't visit those illegit sites and you will never be hacked.If you wander into trouble there is a very good chance you will get trouble.

I know a lot of these hackers use tricky methods like copy and pasting legit website pages but inserting there link into the pages true link and getting people to click there information over too them.The average person wouldn't know the difference.Thing is this,websites pretty much 99.9% of the time will never ask for your information so don't fall for those emails stating there has been security issues you need to login and chan