Bugs are expected. I just don't think their development time and budget was well spent when I noticed that without the incredibly well-done voice overs the game feels weak compared to others in the number of features offered. It boils down to questing, warzones (limited to own server) or flashpoints (limited to own server and forming groups via chat). Further on there is Illum PvP which we all know how many issues has faced so far and lastly Operations which do not feature better loot for higher difficulties and the guaranteed loot takes the incentive away from repeating them or trying them at a higher difficulty.

This was kind of IP that would feel incredibly interesting to add some gameplay in cantinas, more minigames such as pod racing, and the minigames to have more depth (flight combat I'm looking at you and your currently unused potential).

I don't consider the game to be flawed, just incomplete.

Graphics: They left high-res textures out of this beta, it will be an additional 7 GB download for the second beta if they're ready by then.

Controls and casting: Felt the same, but a friend of mine said there are glyphs that allows usage of skills while moving. Haven't checked this out though to see if it is a fact or a myth.

Framedrops: Can't comment on that one as I didn't experience any abnormal frame rates so far.

I don't think the AI will allow you to train a mob far from its designed area, as ANet mentioned somewhere that when they design a feature they have their brainstorming of "how can players screw it up" in their anti-grief policy.

Now something that isn't really known is how far DE will go. Sure, not killing a centaur camp might not mean the end of the world, but not killing the Shatterer and other "bosses" should eventually lead in capital cities being in danger and eventually attacked. 

I don't really think this will happen anytime soon though, the huge number of players coupled with fast traveling and probably not such a huge game world in comparison to the number of players the server can support (not saying the world will be small, just that it won't be big enough for deserted areas to exist, especially when compared to games like UO, Darkfall or EVE) these major DE will never be left uncompleted long enough for us to see this happening.

Very refreshing gameplay indeed (combat), hopefully this game will serve as a wake up call for future MMOs to bring something refreshing to combat before they even attempt to release. This game seems to have broadened the appeal because IMO it has a chance with the folks that enjoy action games and/or find themselves bored themselves with the current generic MMO combat gameplay.

The combat from this game made me completely overlook the generic questing text and linear paths offered, because combat feels that fun compared to previous targeting titles that I didn't mind grabbing quests without reading the text and using the tracker functions to find out the mob locations (but, as I mentioned, I completely ignored all quest text except for the absolute necessary which is offered through highlighted text on the quest log or clickable text on the tracker  that can be clicked to create map waypoints showing spawn locations and on rare occasions in which there is no highlighted "hyperlink" text actually read text to find out the objective).

Had zero issues here lag-wise playing from Brazil besides the expected latency, except for when the server crashed (at least twice on this weekend).

I recommend you check on their forums if there are others complaining from an abnormal unacceptable lag spikes, because from what you say there certainly exists some issue that needs to be figured out and fixed, even if it's some routing issue to your area.

Originally posted by stealthbr

You mean like EVE?

It indeed sounds like EVE, which is currently one of the closest things we have to this model, just differing because it's a whole universe instead of a single world and because the level up progression is different from the usual experience rush-to-the-cap-then-go-raiding-until-the-next-patch.

I heard Perpetuum is similar to EVE, but does it employ similar server infrastructure?

This should be plain impossible right now for the usual theme park model MMO, even with the extreme instancing seen on end game they still feature multiple servers.

For a sandbox, a land-based one should also be extremely hard because it requires the game world to be big enough for whatever number of players is expected, so IMO it would absolutely not have its release preceded by extreme media hype campaign such as the usual AAA releases. It would make sense though, a civilization starting slow with a limited view of its world.

If you want to play a predetermined scripted storyline, why do you want to play a MMORPG? Isn't the point of "RPG" to give you freedom?

As pointed above, a good sandbox will feature a story that unfolds itself by the community of the game as long as the tools in the sandbox are there for players to make their changes in the sandbox, which is what will create the community and bind it together creating a feeling very different from what a theme park will give you.

Originally posted by Derza10

There will be no wipes from beta to beta... but a wipe at release... Not sure if you knew that or not due to the way you worded it, it sounded like you thought the beta char would stay for release.

Yeah, bad reading comprehension on my part, the way they worded it made me think as something special, will edit that to avoid misleading anyone.

I have a question for you who pre-ordered directly from En Masse.

Have you been charged the full game value, or only a partial amount, being able to cancel your pre-order before release?

The reason I ask this is to know how much I would have to risk in case the NCSoft lawsuit goes somewhat through and delays release of the game.

Thanks for this thread, I was able to get a key and I am downloading the game right now.

Remember folks, the game was called Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa. Keeping the game online could have implied in several legal issues even if they just changed the name after he left NCSoft.

Even though I'm on South America and it isn't getting blocked, it's pretty ridiculous to see such a measure, those with ill-intents can just use proxies to commit their ToS-violating deeds in the game while you will force the legitimate potential players to either not even bother with the game or go through the same method.

It's like they aren't even trying to have lots of subscribers, supposing their game is ever released on NA considering the lawsuit and the existing conviction on South Korea.

Honestly, the VO has been fun to me up to level 35, from which point it became an annoying experience and after level 40 I decided to just skip dialogues. It was refreshing indeed, it made me go way further than I would if the game featured traditional quest text.

Originally posted by CujoSWAoA

I don't know why EA bothers. Their orgin program will never outdo Steam.

 

I wouldn't be so blind even though I deeply dislike EA for how it is attempting to increase Origin popularity - instead of features it is using exclusivities to appeal to Steam customers (no SWTOR, no BF3 and recently announced no ME3).

Originally posted by MarlonB

Anybody still playing this game ?

 

Nope, nobody plays WoW either.

75-90% retention? That is so absurd on so many levels that just serves to prove how clueless analysts, the ones who can make or break a company stock, can be regarding MMOs. 

Good insight on budget and costs though, didn't know they hired that many voice actors and had multiple studios/locations involved.

I don't know about EA but I wouldn't be any happy seeing such impossible expectations being set for their MMO.

Originally posted by smh_alot

Originally posted by EricDanie

IP costs, voice acting and cinematics can be pretty expensive.

 

Not THAT expensive, esp seeing how other MMO's like GW2 and TSW are using huge amounts of VO and cinematics too; even if they're not on the amount of TOR, it's still pretty extensive what they'll be implementing. So, that'd mean that GW2 and TSW would have 30-50% the additional cost of VO/cinematics that TOR would be having? From what I recall gtom the IP, the cost of it'll only get activated after the initial costs are recovered, so it doesn't seem to be included in the development budget. Don't know how it was for the Tolkien IP for LotrO btw.

In the case of GW2 it only has one "faction" so that basically cuts voice acting of quests in half or more if you consider that the game has no quests but the dynamic events feature which doesn't seem to require the whole dialogue you'd need for a quest story especially with the much more efficient approach to make players FEEL the situation instead of telling them through voice acting ), but SWTOR got into the Guiness for the "Largest Entertainment Voice Over Project” with over 200,000 lines of recorded dialogue.

Isn't GW2 using that painting art style for cinematics? It seems to make it considerably cheaper than using the game engine itself for complex cinematics.

Edit - been editing this a bit for clarity, I do know about GW2 but not about TSW

Originally posted by Pelaaja

Originally posted by EricDanie

Originally posted by brutality123

""Specifically, initial sales appear to be below expectations"

quote from the link.

 

OMG  just how many intial sales were they expecting?  I'm not saying that the game is perfect. I'm just saying that initial sales of the game were not bad

Indeed. He would be right if he mentioned expected subscription retention, but sales?

They want quick cash-in and then steady profit. But the initial buy is important, because it reduces the risks and frees the money to be invested to somewhere else.

My point is just how high this analyst expected initial sales to reach? The game has like 150 servers on NA + EU.

Originally posted by brutality123

""Specifically, initial sales appear to be below expectations"

quote from the link.

 

OMG  just how many intial sales were they expecting?  I'm not saying that the game is perfect. I'm just saying that initial sales of the game were not bad

Indeed. He would be right if he mentioned expected subscription retention, but sales?

IP costs, voice acting and cinematics can be pretty expensive.