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Originally posted by kopema
...or else all you're doing is trying to polish a turd.

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LOL! You just turned my whole day around!

I need to add that to my work signature, :)

I agree with the OP. You can't blame Blizzard for the epic-fail POS MMOs that other companies have released.

I tried WoW and didn't like it. But that's just me. I know a lot of people who do like it.

What the other companies producing these failed copycats need to realize is this;

If a person wants to play WoW, then they'll just play WoW. They're not going to play an obvious attempt at a 2nd-rate imitation. And, people that don't like WoW are certainly not going to play a copycat of WoW.

What other companies _should_ be doing (and some are finally getting a clue, maybe???) is they need to produce the "anti-WoW" to grab those that not only dislike WoW, but also those of us that have been waiting and wanting and searching for a new MMO we could call our own.

They need to start from a blank slate, and say "Okay, what would I want to play".

Now, if their plan eventually leads back to the answer of the question "Is this game like WoW?" being a Yes, they need to just stop. Put down the pen... Put down the ponter... Step away from the white-board. Forget about developing something new, and just go play WoW.

I mean, seriously, if I go to the store because I'm the mood for some Oreos, do I come home with Hydrox or some other generic knock-off?? Heck no! I come home with some flippin' Oreos! ;)

So why do gaming developers think that _anyone_ who already loves WoW would play a poor imitation, as well as anyone who hates WoW bother to play a WoW-copy?

ps: If you are a Hydrox lover, please don't bash me... You like what you like and that's all any of us can do. I like me some Oreos, :)

Wanted to give Taikodom a try, so a few nights ago I downloaded the installer, and finally got around to installing it earlier this morning.

When I launched the game my screen flickered and then nothing.

Tried again, same outcome.

Tried to hit their website again, to see what's what, and their website also gives me nothing. It's like they vanished.

I tried their parent company's website as well, www.hoplon.com, and it also does not come up. It's like someone just zapped them from existence.

I'm on a Time Warner Road Runner connection, in the western New York area. Is it just me, or is anyone else seeing the same thing?

Thanks! :)

This game sounds very intriguing, but am I reading this correctly where they are requiring people to pre-pay for a currently un-finished game just so you can help them with the Beta testing?

Isn't it enough that people are willing to help Beta test your product?

In this age of companies that come, promise the world, and fall to their knees all before their product hits the shelves, how many people are Okay with paying to Beta test an MMO now-a-days?

I, for one, am having trouble getting myself to step through the account creation on their website, but maybe it's just me, :/

I love updates, :) Bring'm on CCP, and thanks for all the excellent work!

Oh, and BTW, my first FIRST!

Woot!

So, the setup I've been using for the past couple weeks now is an all-active setup:

-=-=-=-

6x Heavy Missile Launcher II
|--- Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
|--- Hydra F.O.F. Heavy Missile I
1x Drone Link Augmentor I / Small Tractor Beam I / Prototype Cloaking Device I

Mid Slots:
1x Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
1x Dread Guristas Large Shield Booster
1x Shield Boost Amplifier II
1x Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I (loaded with 400s)
1x 10MN Afterburner II

Low Slots:
1x Damage Control II
1x Power Diagnostic System II
3x Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System

Rig Slots:
2x Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer II

Drones:
5x Hobgoblin II

Capacitor: 3937 GJ / 457.50 s
-- Stables out at 63.9% / fulltime A/B / can use SB for about 1 min. 46 sec. before requiring cap-boost, which equates to roughly 32 ticks on the shield booster)
CPU: 631.50 / 693.75
Powergrid: 929.00 / 931.88
Shield: 6306 hp / 960 sec
Passive Shield Recharge: 16 hp/s
Shield Boost Rate: 326.40 hp/3.2 s
Shield Resistances: 78%/88%/85%/80%
Armor: 4203 hp
Armor Resistances: 58%/83%/61%/24%
Structure: 4805 hp
Structure Resistances: 60%/60%/60%/60%
Launcher ROF: 4.50 s
Sig Radius: 317 m

-=-=-=-

This setup has proven very strong, the biggest difference being the 60% resistances across the board on my structure. My shield boost rate will shortly be increased as I'm on the hunt for some nice dead-space modules.

I rarely use the shield booster in missions, but when I do it only takes 5 or 6 ticks to be back up to full shields again, and that's if I wait until they're real low. I have yet to use the cap-booster in missions yet.

The excellent part about this setup is the A/B. I'm zipping along at 400km now, and with a sig radius of only 317m, I'm taking way less damage. For fleet-ops I also have the option of swapping it out for a gank mod (jammer/scram/webber) without effecting the tank. In fleets where there's a couple good logistic pilots to back you, even the cap-booster can be dropped for a second gank mod.

I never thought I'd active-tank my Nighthawk after all this time, but so far this setup has proven stronger.

Excellent read, and as a Sys-Admin myself, well-appreciated. I understand, fully, having to wake up in the middle of the night to resolve server issues. Not for an MMO, mind you, but server issues are server issues.

The biggest problem with MMOs is the whole "dude, what server are you on, I'll join that one". Most MMOs require you to limit yourself to one server, or shard, so that you can join up with others you know. The fall-back from this, of course, is the more popular a server is, the heavier the load. The heavier the load, the more issues the end-user will see.

MMOs and the sharded world most rely on have always experienced this problem. Players want to be part of the most action-packed server. The most action-packed servers, however, will eventually not be much fun to play on once they reach max-capacity.

I think one thing MMO vendors could do is make server transfers free. Not free forever, mind you, but free maybe once every 6 months. This would make it more attractive for players who dislike server lag to pickup and move to a lighter server, or even pick up and move an entire guild to a lighter server for that matter. This would be advantageous to both players and the vendor.

Normally I run everything passive (regen and resists) on my Nighthawk, except for one Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field:

High Slots:
6x Heavy Missile Launcher II
|--- Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
|--- Hydra F.O.F. Heavy Missile I
1x Small Tractor Beam I / Drone Link Augmentor I / Prototype Cloaking Device I

Mid Slots:
1x Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
2x Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
1x Explosion Dampening Amplifier II

Low Slots:
2x Shield Power Relay II
3x Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System

Rig Slots:
2x Core Defence Field Purger I

Capacitor: 3600 GJ / 911.25 s (Stables out at 86%)
CPU: 549.50 / 693.75
Powergrid: 574.85 / 887.50
Shield: 6006 hp / 313 sec
Passive Regen: 47 hp/s
Shield Resistances: 82% / 86% / 83% / 87%
Armor: 4203 hp
Armor Resistances: 50% / 80% / 54% / 10%
Structure: 4805 hp
Launcher ROF: 4.50 s
Sig Radius: 317 m

It's a strong setup, no doubt. And in all my time in 0.0 I only ever lost one, and it was in an 8 vs 1 situation (me being the 1) which took almost 15 minutes to finish. I went *pop*, but not before taking out a disgusting amount of drones, and 4 of their ships. And also not before I heard "Dude, that's a sick tank!" in Local Chat about a dozen times. It was excellent fun!

But all that unused Cap made me start thinking; how could I pump out a few more points in my tank. So lately, I've been messing around with a passive regen and active resists setup:

High Slots:
6x Heavy Missile Launcher II
|--- Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
|--- Hydra F.O.F. Heavy Missile I
1x Small Tractor Beam I / Drone Link Augmentor I / Prototype Cloaking Device I

Mid Slots:
1x Caldari Navy Invulnerability Field
2x Photon Scattering Field II
1x Explosion Dampening Field II

Low Slots:
2x Shield Power Relay II
3x Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System

Rig Slots:
2x Core Defence Field Purger I

Capacitor: 3600 GJ / 911.25 s (Stables out at 40%)
CPU: 591.50 / 693.75
Powergrid: 575.71 / 887.50
Shield: 6006 hp / 313 sec
Passive Regen: 47 hp/s
Shield Resistances: 87% / 86% / 83% / 89%
Armor: 4203 hp
Armor Resistances: 50% / 80% / 54% / 10%
Structure: 4805 hp
Launcher ROF: 4.50 s
Sig Radius: 317 m

A bit stronger, though I haven't really noticed it yet. The thing that I haven't properly tested yet, however, is a NOS situation. I haven't been NOSed in so long, that I'm gonna hafta have a few friends fit'em and hit me with them to see what happens.

So, I've been a pod-pilot of New Eden for almost 3-1/2 years now, and when I heard CCP was ready to re-release a boxed edition to stores I was one of those that were waiting for it to hit shelves just so I could have my copy.

I had planned on simply placing the box on my bookshelf with other boxed editions of other games, and my collection of game-related books.

I opened it, of course, so I could see what lay inside, and then I noticed it. Oh no. The 60-day time card. CCP, you evil bastards! LMFAO!

At first it did not phase me. I simply closed it back up and placed the box on the shelf. But as time progressed, I opened the box a few more times to look at that evil GTC.

I decided to try and rid myself of the evil. I cashed it in, via the in-game interface that allows you to convert GTC to in-game PLEX (30-day pilot's license extension) which are sellable on Market.

Since it was my brother's birthday, I contracted one of the 30-day PLEX to him as a gift from one brother to another, as we both play EVE.

My main account's toon is funded until almost next year, mostly from PLEX that I purchase via ISK (the in-game currency), so I had planned to sell the other PLEX. Yes, CCP allows players to basically "play to pay". You can purchase game time with the ISK you earn in-game. It's a wonderful thing, for sure!

But the more I looked at it, staring at me from my hangar bay, the more I thought about how it'd be nice to have a second account. Each account can have 3 toons, you can train skills on only one toon at a time. So a second account could be very useful. You can train skills on an alt, as well as having 3 toons in other Market regions for things like price-checks and contracts. I've always thought it'd be nice to have an alt that was completely neutral with all the factions, who could haul stuff or mine stuff. And it certainly would be useful to have three more toons for different Market regions.

Eventually I broke. I gave myself a buddy-invite and created a second account. Proceeded to create the account's "main" toon, the one that will be training skills, as well as the other two toons that will simply be Market assistants, in other regions.

I've had the alt now for almost a month. 21 days of which were from the Buddy-invite, which was nice, and now I'm eating into my 30-day PLEX. I plan on keeping this account funded as I do my regular account, from PLEX bought with ISK. My main toon is mostly combat-orientated, so his income is mostly from rattin' and running combat missions. However, I've been told by many that Mining and Manufacturing is where the _real_ ISK is, so who knows. Once this alt is trained it might just be her that funds my life within New Eden, instead of how it currently is.

It didn't hit me until just last night, though. As I was looting/salvaging a level 4 Angel Extravaganza the cargo hull of my Nighthawk filled up quickly. Instead of doing what I normally would do, which is fly back to the station and empty to the hangar bay, I pulled out my alt in her Badger M2, and flew out to pickup the Jettison can I spit out.

As I watched the Badger M2 pull away, headed back to the station, I thought to myself; "Oh noes!!!! I'm officially an EVE geek!!!!", LMFAO!

EVE has always been nice to look at. Since the day I started my career as a pod-pilot in New Eden, almost 3-1/2 years ago, it's always appealed to my visual senses.

With the most recent update, however, a few things have changed. The warp visuals and the new gate-jump visuals had me scratching my head. All of a sudden I noticed something I've not noticed previously. Oh no, blocky pixels were haunting my screen.

Something about the "warp cloud" visual and the jump-gate visual just didn't sit right with my card for some reason.

So, off to work I went. I figured the easiest thing to do was to pump up the Anti-Aliasing to smooth things out. My settings in the Nvidia control panel have always just been set to give me a balance of quality and performance. I've never had to touch anything. So first I updated the video drivers, and then I tweaked my settings to max Quality.

Launched EVE, warped someplace. Nope... Those dern blocky pixels were still haunting my warp-cloud visuals. Jumped to a neighboring system, nope still had a pixelated jump-gate visual.

Back to the control panel I went. Tweaking this, tweaking that. Back in-game, no change. For a day and a half I did this, that, and the other thing. No change.

Off to the Google database I went. After a few minutes I found my way to a page that hosted an application called nHancer (http://www.nhancer.com/). Did some reading, looked at the comparisons, and figured why not. Downloaded, installed, and off to work I went.

There was already a default EVE Online profile available to tweak, which was nice, meant I didn't have to start from step 1. After a bit of adjustments I returned to EVE, and warped off.

Hey! Things looked prettier. My warp-cloud was less blocky, less pixelated. Jumped to a neighboring system. Same result. I had found a possible solution, excellent!

I went back and forth a few more times, and by the time I was all set, not only was my warp-cloud and the jump-visuals prettier, but so was everything else. The in-station visuals, my ships in-general, the outside of stations, other ships in space, general lighting, you name it. Everything was looking much, much prettier. And I _liked_ it! :)

All in all I fiddled around with Anti-Aliasing, Anisotrpoic Filtering, Transparency, Gamma, and a few other settings available from the nHancer interface. Took me about 20 minutes to get things to where I now have them, once I found nHancer, compared to over a day of playing around with the Nvidia control panel. Needless to say the author of this little gem will be getting a little PayPal donation later this week, once Payday is here.

I recommend others give this product a try. It's good for Direct3D and OpenGL titles (I already have a few other games I'm planning on building profiles for), works with something like 185 different versions of GeForce drivers, is Vista and Windows 7 ready, and even works alongside other tuning applications such as Nvidia's default control panel and other tuning tools.

Big Kudos to the author Martin Korndörfer

So, going on two weeks now, and and still on noob-island. There is so much to see, and so many missions to run, I want to make sure I see as much, and experience as much as possible before heading for the Main Land. The guild that recruited me suggested the same thing, especially since by the time everything is said and done I'll have a good amount of dapper, as well as decent weapons, armor, and stats. Though I'm anxious to see the ML, I don't want to rush things, or miss any part of the story, as I just know I'll regret it later.

So far my only complaint, if you can call it that, is from time to time while in Melee-combat, I'll do damage without the combat-animation happening. It sort of ruins the immersion. Other than that things are good.

I've got my client.cfg tweaked to just where I like it; terrain/player/npc/mob viewing distance, LOD, FOV, CPU-ticks, priority, you name it. Pretty much everything you can think of is available for tweaking from within the client.cfg file.

The seasons just changed in-game. It's currently Spring, and man can you tell. Everything was beautiful, green, and lush when I logged in last night.

I've started experimenting with some crafting, and I love how based on your currently skills and the materials you have available to use, determine what type of stats your end product has. It's nice to see complex player-crafting. I haven't had that type of experience since my SWG days, about three years ago. It's a nice change from the MMOs I've tried since then.

I'm psyched to get to the ML, especially now that I've been recruited by a guild. By the time I get there I should be set to start enjoying the rest of the game. Hopefully I'll have enough dapper for a mount, or at least a packer to store equipment. I'm also excited to get a look at the guild halls and player housing once I get out to the real world.

So it's been a little over a week now, and I'm really enjoying Saga of Ryzom. I've started experimenting alot with the ability to create custom actions, and macros, and I'm very impressed with how customizable the game is in this category.

The custom actions are a nice change of pace from any other MMO, as you can build your own custom moves based on the skills you have. You can buy prebuilt actions from the NPC trainers, or you can buy just the skill upgrades and give a go at creating your own actions. I've found this to be a very intuitive way of give the players a way of changing around their character builds on a level not available in other MMOs.

The player community is very helpful. Many times I've had to ask my nOOb question in the Universe channel, and I always get at least one, if not many, response to my question.

One individual was especially helpful, leading me to an excellent website that specialized in tweaking the configuration files, which allowed me to do things like change the height of the 3rd-person camera view, the zoom-out/zoom-in values, even the CPU-ticks that the game consumes. The 3D engine that the game uses is quite impressive, and I've come to realize has actually been released to the GNU/GPL open-source community, which means I can grab a copy and start geekin' out with it, :)

I plan on getting into the Ryzom Ring shortly, where-in apparently players can actually create and add to the in-game world! Talk about never saw that before! Players can create areas and upload them to the server for others to experience, now that's just excellent!

I've still to experience a LOT, as I'm still fairly low-level and still running around nOObville, but I'm having an excellent experience thus-far. Enough-so, so that if/when the game _does_ return to a pay-to-play status I may just actually subscribe to it, which is something I've never considered doing for my "backup MMO" before.

More updates to come... :)

See you all in-game, :)

So, got to reading up on Ryzom. I've been on MMORPG.Com for some time now, and I've seen the name, visited the forums, but never thought about trying it out.

I was an SWG player from just-after initial launch up until about 6 months after the CURB. After SWG I went over to EVE Online, and have been a pod-pilot for 3 years now. I love my career as a pod-pilot, but I'm always on the hunt for a nice secondary MMO to fall into when I need a break. And I've always missed pre-gimped SWG, the complexity of player-crafting, the open-endedness of your career paths, the multi-stat experience-point tree, and of course the sandbox experience that was once SWG prior to being dumbed down into just a handful of professions. Not that EVE isn't a complex-monster in its own right, it is, but a space odyssey such as EVE is an entirely different beast than a ground-game such as SWG was/is.

I've heard from many, and read many articles about, how Ryzom is along the same lines, and since it's currently F2P I figured what the heck.

Well, it's been 3 days now, and I'm enjoying myself. I like the fact that it's not just a basic XP grind, but you actually earn points in specific areas based on you using skills related to those areas. Very much like the old days of SWG.

The crafting also seems fairly interactive, where player-crafted items can vary based on the materials used and your level of expertise.

And I'm liking the self-created moves that a player can make and learn. This is something I've not experienced in other MMOs.

I've been dabbling in a little bit of everything, running missions for combat, magic, and crafting, at the moment. I haven't made it very far from the town my 'toon started in, and I'm pretty much surrounded by others like myself; new to the game, so I haven't had much interaction with old-timers yet. But I'm not seeing any leet-speak or gold-spamming, so it's already better than my experiences with other F2P MMOs I've tried.

I think I'll be staying a while, to venture out and see what there is to see in the land of Ryzom. For now, though, I just wanted to say Hey to all the existing players. If you see a lost female 'toon named Tsillah, point me in the right direction, LOL :)

Yup, people forget about Rockets and Heavy Assault Missiles. You say Caldari and most folks assume we're sitting out 75km, 100km, 150km away from the battle. I've been working on HAM setups on my Nighthawk recently, and it's pretty intense the ROF you get on those things. :)

Signed up for a trial account a couple nights ago, and so far so good.

I haven't read all there is to read about this one yet. I basically wanted to jump in and give things a try. So I'm not entirely sure what there is to do in the "big picture" yet.

I'm primarily an EVE player, and have been for 3 years now. I love EVE, but I'm always looking for a nice secondary MMO to delve into when I need a change of pace.

So far the only thing I'm missing is the ability to see my own ship while I'm out in space. I know, I know, it's supposed to be an in-ship experience, and is twitch-based as opposed to EVE's play-style. But so was Freelancer, as well as the SWG's Jump-to-Light-Speed expansion, and you still had the option to view things from an outsider-type view.

Unless I'm missing a setting someplace. If I am, please let me know, :)

So far I haven't gotten much past the beginner missions. Getting the feel for the twitch-based game play. I'm not new to twitch-based game play, mind you. I spent years mastering my reflexes at such ground-based games such as the Quake titles, Counter Strike, UT, just to name a few. I also enjoyed the X-Wing titles, and the Jump-to-Light-Speed expansion back in the days I played SWG. It's just been a while, and I've gotten older (and apparently slower, LOL) since I last enjoyed a good twitch-based title.

Now, in terms of the "big picture". What's what here? I mean, I understand you character is persistent, being stored server-side. But in-relation to the VO world, how's that work? Is there such things as player-owned starports or stations? Player-ruled areas of space, similar to what you find in EVE with its sovereignty system? Huge, player-run corporations and alliances?

I'm not trying to be an "EVE troll" as I've seen mention in some of the other posts I've picked through on the forum here. But since I've lived in EVE for three years, which is the only space-MMO I've ever played, I'm just trying to get a feel for the VO-universe while I enjoy my trial-account, :)

Thanks! :)

As a 3yr old Caldari myself, I'm one who almost exclusively pilots a Caldari Nighthawk, I will admit that I am sorely gimped in the DPS area, especially against the amazing gun-boats you can build from the other races.

However, while residing in 0.0, on numerous occasions I've held my own against small gangs of frigs, HACs, and BSs, and only ever lost one NH to an 8-man roaming gang of HACs, NANOs, a BS, and countless drones. It was an excellent pew-pew session, which earned me much kudos on my ability to last as long as I did from the aggressors as well as the corp-member I was trying to assist, and fellow alliance members that heard about it later that night.

That being said, I fly it 'cuz I like it. :)

And once I find another 0.0 alliance to join ranks with the Nighthawk will be one of the first ships I fly down to whatever area of space they reside in. If I lose another one, so be it. Pricey? Yes. But oh well. What fun is it if you don't use it, right? :)

Us missile-tossers, as I like to refer to myself and my fellow Caldarians, have always been under powered in the DPS area. Oh well, maybe we'll get some DPS love from the Devs one day, who knows, ;)

Of course I'd be interested in getting in for some Alpha testing. GA name is DanagPCNET.

Cheers!

Agreed. A more advanced PvE experience will be much appreciated by all.

From time to time everyone finds themselves in an NPC corp, back in high-sec, running missions. For whatever reason; changing corps., taking a break from PvP, or just to fatten up their wallets for a bit.

It'll be nice to experience some PvE action that isn't borderline mind-numbing, :)

---

Originally posted by brenth
too bad eve is still  hostile to over half of the potential players because of its heavy handed pvp obsesive mentality.  i know there are many that would like to play eve but left because of this policy.

---

Those who don't like the PvP aspect of EVE are always welcome to live their life in an NPC corp, running missions or mining. I've given buddy-invites to a few guys I work with, and they have even less time than myself to play games. They all are currently enjoying themselves in the various NPC corps, and one of them trained enough skills to make himself his own 1-man corp. They're running missions, and mining, and the guy who made his own 1-man corp and is setting up his own POS. Yes, I've heard it time and time again about the missions being boring, but still, if they like it, then good for them. We'll probably all get together and eventually form up our own corp.

---

Originally posted by brenth
make a world, not a game, we dont want another game.

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Your very signature would make one think that the fact EVE is not as easy and happy-happy as any other game, and is actually harsh and hostile just like real life, is something you would appreciate, :)

---

Originally posted by Suraknar
So, I will be departing from this game, and trying not to look back (yet I'll still keep an eye in case it ever changes, it has great potential in my eyes but it lacks in many areas as it is now).
Cheers to you, wishing you fun! (I'll be hopefully be playing Darkfall soon enough).

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Wishing you the best. Hope you find the MMO that fits you, :)

And of course, what type of MMO player would I be if I didn't ask;

"Dude, can I have your stuff??"

LMAO, :) j/k

Cheers!