All Posts by Centhan

Originally posted by Jokerkaaos

Class balance is a joke (lol Bright Wizards), crafting is a joke, graphic optimization is a HUGE joke - the list goes on.

Don't understand all the class balance complaints people seem to be making.  I haven't found anything overly powerful on any one class that would make me say "omgz!  nerf that!".  It's called learn and adapt to your situation and the character you are playing at the moment. 

One thing trumps them all, though - the netcode. I've never seen such laughable netcode. Morale abilities don't fire off in mass combat, people warp and rubberband all over the place, etc., etc. How many times have you been pounding away at your morale ability only to see it reset to one second over and over and over and FREAKING OVER until you die and scream profanity in teamspeak?

Have to agree with you here.  I don't pretend to know the technicalities of it, but something is causing very strange "lag" type quirks to happen.  The one thing that is driving me absolutely bonkers (in PvE and PvP) is using a close range power on something next to you, and it says out of range, then the object warps or rubberbands about 50ft away from you.  This is especially frustrating in PvP.  You are actually bumping into an enemy, keep trying to attack it with a melee ability, then he/she instantly teleports 50 ft away from you.  The server sees the object one place, and the client apparently sees it somewhere else.

The Morale abilites are another frustration.  Yes, they share the same cooldown timer as all other powers, but even if you've not used powers for 1 or 2 seconds, you constantly click on the morale power, and it keeps resetting to the global cooldown of 1 or 2 seconds...without ever activating.  Very annoying.

 

Just curious if anyone has seen any info about this.  Being a huge Planetside fan (the style and gameplay rules were nearly perfect), will this be anything like it?  Or will be it more like the uninspirational Tabula Rasa?

Will it lean more towards (or even 100%) PvP, or PvE, or a mixture of both?

I saw the newly released video (which was way too short) and it somewhat reminded me of Planetside, which is why I'm asking.

Originally posted by ZenNature

Queue times for scenarios have dramatically improved on my server now that you can join all of them from any zone within your Tier. I can just do scenarios now if I want for the first time since I bought the game, getting in to one every 30 seconds or so.

The problem for me is similar to yours with the lack of people on lower pop servers and the long queue times to get in a higher pop server. It's a no-win situation. Either I play in zones that feel ridiculously barren or I have to wait an hour+ to even play. I think if they fixed one of those issues, I would be having a lot more fun.

I'm one of those too that simply don't have the desire to log in anymore.  I played the last week of open beta up until now.  I had a lot of fun doing keep raids, the PQ's, and even some of the uninspiring PvE it has to offer.  However, it just feels "blah" to me now, and I really don't know why.

Regarding the population, I had similar experiences to you.  If you played on a low to medium population server, que times seem to be quite long, and open RvR is almost non-existant.  I had to struggle to find a sizable amount of players to make it fun in the open RvR areas.  So then you decide to play on a high population server, but then take the risk of standing in line to log in during peak hours...and that's no fun either.

I don't know what the answer is, but in my uninformed opinion, I really think they need to improve the game code or engine or something so the server population limit can be increased, but still be able maintain game performance.

Originally posted by Terranah

Well no the game isn't perfect.  At the very least it's a pleasant distraction till something better comes along.

 

T1 was fun.  T2 which I am currently in not so much.  For example, I dislike the T2 scenario.  And Order seems to always lose.  Losing all the time is not fun, far from it.  What it actually does is discourage you from playing.

 

They need to put some bad assedness into Order so people will want to play that faction.  Otherwise many people will get discouraged.  This may not be a concern for people who rolled Destruction and are having a blast steam rolling Order.  But it will be a concern when people who play order either quit or decide to reroll destruction and there is little to no one left to play with.

 

Yeah, someone didn't think through faction balance enough. 

This is pretty much my feelings as well.

The fun factor is certainly diminishing for me as I go up in levels (highest character is a 24 swordmaster).  I was loving the game when I first played it (newness factor, etc), then it quickly started the gradual slide downwards when I saw each Tier was basically the same as the one before with simply higher numbers (stats, levels, price of things, etc).  The game is a nice distraction as you said, it's certainly not horrible.  However, I can see it will have no real staying power with me, and maybe be one I return to every few months to a year to see if anything has changed for the better.

Originally posted by dterry

I ordered from Amazon and have also, already received my game.

Same here.  Had zero problems with Amazon.  I pre-ordered it on Sunday the 14th around 8:30AM EST, and almost exactly 48 hours later on Tuesday morning, received my headstart key (about 2 hours after SE headstart launch, good timing).

Surprisingly enough, I then actually received the game on Wednesday at my front door (ordered it with overnight shipping).  Good job Amazon!

I'm surprised at the issues a few seem to be having ordering from them.

Originally posted by JonMichael

Actually, WAR has really surprised me. I wasn't following it much until I got an invite for beta.

I'm not a big PvP'er or RvR'r, but for some reason, I'm *loving* it in this game and will definitely be playing it for a long time to come! 

Pretty much my sentiments as well. Not a big PvPer either, but that is where I am having the most fun in this game. Most definitely in the open RvR, when there are a good number of people and everyone is really “into” it. It’s real blast.

The scenarios are very fun as well, but I suspect and hope they get most interesting after you get out of the tier 1’s. I could see where running the same 3 could get boring after a while. However, I am looking forward to seeing how the upper levels ones play out, as well as sacking the final cities (is this open RvR or scenarios? I don’t know).

Even though I prefer PvE, I still feel it is totally unnecessary in this game. This is not a PvE game, it’s almost like an annoyance actually. I know you can almost level exclusively by doing PvP only, but the PvE seems to force itself in there somehow. That’s really my biggest complaint so far.

Sure there are still a lot of quest and graphical bugs, but during the open beta they seem to be cleaning them up patch after patch. I’m actually thinking about preordering myself now just to get the couple day head start.
 

I kind of like this staff my shaman picked up. It's nice to know I can lend someone a hand if I need to

While playing in open beta, these concerns have been going through my mind as well.  I don't know what the population restrictions where on the beta servers, but I have to say that a high percentage of the time, the open RvR areas were ghost towns (the 1st and 2nd tiers anyway).  Also, there were very long delays (most of the time) between scenerios as well, I can only assume because there were not enough people to populate them, but I don't know that for sure.

I think this game will depend more on population than most other MMOs.  I forsee endless open RvR battles of 5 vs 2, and time gaps between scenerios of 45 mins or more.  I really hope that's not the case because the rare times there were high numbers in the open RvR, it was damn fun.

I just had a very awesome experience as well in open RvR (the beginning "human" area, I went as my dwarven Rune Priest).  It was my first experience in true open RvR in this game, and I recently noticed that there are little battle symbols on the map showing where the action is.

I was in open RvR areas before, but they were ghost towns.  It actually had me concerned that no one would play these great areas, and everyone would be playing the scenerios.

Anyway, it was a back and forth type fight, had to be around 20 vs 20 at the very least.  I joined the frey with Destruction having us pushed all the way back to our gate bordering the "safe" area.  I immediately had frightening thoughts of CoH PVP (I use the term loosely in that game) where it was nothing but a camp fest of one team outnumbering and camping the zone-in area.  To make a long story short, we kept plugging away at them and pushing them back...due to my super healing in no small part  ;) 

We finally captured the 2 points they held after some really tough fighting (there are 3 points in the zone, but we already owned the furthest one from us).

The really shocking and "omg" part was we pushed them all the way back to their starting gate, and we figured on giving them a bit of what they gave us.  However, when we looked to the right up a long slope, they were all standing there like it was a firing range at a turkey shoot, and we were the turkeys.  Since I obviously don't know the maps yet, it was very surprising to see them all lined up there, and it took me quite by surprise with them raining death from above.  It really looked super.

Well, just had to share that.

I'm really starting to like the game a lot myself.  If they clean up the bugs and take care of graphical glitches, they will have me as a player for quite some time.  Personally, I would like to see the PvE in this game eliminated.  In my opinion in serves no purpose, it's not done too well, and they should concentrate on making the RvR the best it can be.

Originally posted by 4Renziks

I guess ive been lucky,  i have yet to crash, and the only bug i see with the archmage is seering touch sometimes doesnt end after i kill a player with it.  I think the hype is well deserved.

Where did I say I crashed?  I haven't had any techinical issues either.  Actually I'm quite surprised how stable the game runs. 

By the way, another graphic glitch I am having with the Archmage is that the Searing Touch beam of light will stay fixed on a mob even after it's dead...and it's a cumulative effect.  Meaning, if I kill 4 mobs, I will have 4 beams of light shooting from my hand to each dead mob.  When I run around, the beams stretch and distort.  It's quite pretty actually...

I have to say that while I agree with you that it is a fun game so far, the things you say are well done and working I would almost completely disagree with you on.

Graphics are crisp but clunky and choppy. However, you did describe this area alright.

Sound? Personally I think it’s some of the worst sound in any MMO that comes to mind. Calling it “sound” is even kind of a misnomer, because a great percentage of the effects don’t seem to have any sound at all, or at least a very muted or dull sounding tone.

Game play a 9 or 10?? This is analogous to a movie just coming out, and everybody rates it the best damn movie they’ve ever seen, until the “newness” and hype wears off. It’s rated highly just because it’s fresh and new in people’s minds. Now like I said, I actually am currently having fun, but to say this is the best game I’ve ever played (ie. rating it a 10) is not realistic. The truth is, it’s an average game which does some aspects of the standard MMO pretty well or better than others currently on the market.

Overall, the game feels unfinished to me…and please hold your “this is beta” remarks. In 4 days it will be live (to preorders), and I guarantee what you are playing now will be what you are playing in retail. I would like to have seen the game wait a few more months to “cook” a bit longer, but I suppose they had to release it now to try and get people hooked before the WoW expansion comes out. There are numerous graphical and quest glitches which really have to be fixed. I was in a scenario today (Nordenwatch??) where the map kept resetting itself. It was showing 12 minutes left on the scenario, and no one could leave the starting area. I have Destruction characters on a server, but the server list shows Order. I just don’t think simple, obvious things like this should be happening 4 days before release. It appears rushed, hurried, and unfinished to me.

Yes, these comments sound harsh, sorry about that. I am actually quite enjoying playing my Archmage, but some people are just over-hyping this game which really doesn’t deserve it in its current state.
 

Originally posted by Precur

Well. Karumba and I finally got to try out Warhammer. Here is our first impressions.

- Client Stability: Excellent, neither of us crashed ... we played all day & night got to bed at 2:00 am .. Rock solid.

I agree.  Didn't crash once (Vista, 4GB RAM, quad processor, 8800GTX).  Although things did studder now and then, but probably due more so to server lag.

- Graphics: Are very decent, sure its not AoC eye-candy but it is definitively good much better than WoW imho. I am running the client at 1680 x 1050 all setting at high settings. Note they need to add graphic settings such as gamma. I got the odd pause very short once in a blue noon which is to be expected in all mmos, this is most probably system dependent more than anything else.

Yes, it seems "crisper" than WoW, but still very similar.

- Combat / Spell Animation: This is where I felt Mystic still have some work to do. Combat is slow paced at times I found myself having to wait for spells to fire like a second or two more than the cast time .. this is especially noticeable with spells that are not insta-cast. I am sure Mystics will polish this in time so I would not say it is game breaking. Avatar movement animation is a little odd at times also .. it could be a bit more fluid .. though one hardly notices this after a while.

I personally like the slower paced combat.  Seems to rely more on strategy than bunny hopping and running circles around you (ie. twitch combat).  Animations most definitely have to be worked on.  It not being "fluid" I think is a good way to describe it.  Also, for goodness sake, please let them fix the mob pathing, dead mobs appearing alive and standing, and mobs able to shoot and damage you, yet you get an "Invalid target" or some error when you go to attack them.

- PvE Quests: Nothing really new here, Quest givers and rewards are easy to find. There seems to be a good number of them, we only got to level 7 so it's hard to say at this point if this holds true to max level. Overall I think they did well in this department. I did not get into the storyline too much as I was speeding though them quickly. By what I read they seem to have done a good job on this. The Greenskin quests are pretty funny to read.

After about the 5th or 6th quest, I simply stopped reading them.  Exacty like any other MMO as many others have said.  Super easy, and honesty quite boring.  I really do hope they get better as you play the higher levels, but I would doubt it.

- Public Quests: This is a bit like Raids, where tons of players all participate in a common quest. The rewards for this are nice thus worth doing. It's pleasant to have such a feature in a game as it draw folks together and gives us something else to do.

These are somewhat fun.  The first 2 or 3 beginning ones were fun, after that, not so much.  Still, they are a nice change from the regular questing, and they do seem to bring people together for a short time anyway.

- RvR Scenarios/Quests: I had fun with this, I did my first one at level 2 .. Woot!! as I did not have to wait till end game to get into to large scale PvP. These are repeatable thus one can level up quickly doing these vs having to grind.

Did mine first at level 2 as well.  They are interesting, but I would think super fun when you get a good guild with some strategy involved.  I would also hope the maps get better at higher levels, because the lower level ones are super simplistic.  However, I understand these are just meant to get you familiar with RVR scenerios.

- Gold & Itemization: This seems to be well balanced, I was never short of gold to get what I needed. There seems to be a good variety of items.

Yes, was never short of money, but the whole inventory system feels like it needs some work yet.  It felt clunky and unresponsive at times.

- Character balance: So far so good I was able to level up easily enough with my Zealot and hold my own in PvP heh I managed 20 kills in one scenario. Healing seems well balanced unlike AoC where the heals where crap. It’s still too early to comment properly on this due to my limited play time and exposure to the different classes.

I loved that healers seem to get the credit they deserve in these scenerios at least (I haven't done any open RVR yet).  I played my goblin shaman in one scenerio, and healed 22K points, and came in first in kills (kill assists) and amount healed.  The next highest healer was maybe around 7 or 8K.  I love that it's not all about the most damage gets the most recognition.  Only played 2 characters so far (other was  Bright Wizard) so can't comment on balance other than to say, I've seen nothing that really stands out yet as overpowered.

- Crafting: I have not gotten into this aspect of the game as yet. I did pickup lots of crafting items which is a good sign.

Did some cultivation and apoth, and I'll just say it was not inspiring.  However, I never was heavy into crafting, and that's not why I am trying this game.

At night Karumba (Shaman) and I (Black Orc) made two Greenskin and had a blast .. they are very comical in nature. Nothing like taking a ride on a catapult .. wwwweeeeeeeeeeee ………

I think Mystic have a winner here as the game has tons of features, structured PvP, is casual friendly, good overall balance and a stable client.

I don't know if I'd say it's a winner yet.  The jury is still out on that, but it is more polished than other games I have tried just before release.  I will say it is most definitely worth an honest try.

That's about it for now .. I'll be commenting more on the game as the Open Beta progresses.

Pax Prec

Originally posted by Shard101

someone wants to download a popular Open Beta wihtout being a paying customer of FilePlanet?

 

Heres a tip!  Pay the 7.95

It can be done without paying for it if you started it last night.  I started the whole process around 9PM EST (approximately).  From waiting in que, to completed download, it was done the next morning around 10:30AM or so.  If you happen to have started in que now, it may be ready for you by tomorrow.

By the by, my download speed varied anywhere from 400KB/s to a high of 1.1 MB/s

I thought they looked very good as well...loved it.  I know they will even improve from here for those of you who don't agree (or are just looking for something to pick on for some reason this early in development).  This game has a LONG way to go yet.  See you in 2010.

This kind of sums up my feelings after seeing that...

www.khaaan.com

If this gets developed, I think for their next trick, they should make a Beverly Hills 90210 MMO.

Originally posted by Souvec

Originally posted by Centhan

Originally posted by Enigma

Ill be buying Spore this week and War the next.

 

This was my plan as well.  Spore looked like it could be fun and potentially one of those few games that I would keep reinstalling back on my hard drive every few months.

I'm also surprised no one mentioned Farcry2.  Didn't I see that coming out sometime in October?  That looked very impressive.

Think again.

Thanks to new copyright and more attempts to lock the software, Spore will only allow a set number of reinstalls (3 if I remember right) and requires a net connection to even install.  No bagging, but Spore will not be a game that will even allow you to continue reinstalling it.

Thanks for pointing this out.  I had no idea SecuROM was being used on Spore.  However, look here: www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/spore/show_msgs.php

If this is true, you can reinstall it on your system if you've made no changes to your OS or hardware.  This is assuming this quote is true:

"Let's say your computer is performing poorly, and you want to reinstall your operating system. You reinstall your OS (Microsoft Windows XP, for this demonstration), and reboot your computer. Still running on Windows XP, you decide to reinstall Spore. The game gives you absolutely no hassle. Becuase your OS is still the same, you don't recieve an installation charge. However, if you decided to take another route, and wipe your drive completely, installing Windows Vista in the process, that would take an installation charge, leaving you with one Spore installation left."

Originally posted by Enigma

Ill be buying Spore this week and War the next.

This was my plan as well.  Spore looked like it could be fun and potentially one of those few games that I would keep reinstalling back on my hard drive every few months.

I'm also surprised no one mentioned Farcry2.  Didn't I see that coming out sometime in October?  That looked very impressive.

Originally posted by Volkmar

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62989

This is the best review I could find of the game from a veteran beta tester and not from one of the thousands preview weekend players.

Actually, this review is one of the first that has me very concerned.  It seems to be written by an intelligent and knowledgable person, and not someone with the standard "OMGZ WAR rocks!" or "OMGZ WAR sucks!" mentality.  That said, in my opinion, it doesn't paint a very good picture of the current state of WAR.  I hate to say it, but it sounds very similar (but maybe not as bad) to the state AOC just before release.  Someone please tell me I am way off base on this.

The bugs and broken mechani