All Posts by mutantmagnet

Is it a non-linear game? Sort of. There are quests specifically designed to be altered by the choices you make. But nothing you do in this game will be changed unless the devs intend for it to be done. Anything that was world changing was revised in a way where you are acknowledged for figuring out certain big quests first with statues and items specific to the house you belong to.

Is it skill based? That depends on what you are looking for to enhance your skills. I'm only saying this, because I'm of opinion that being the best in games even with random factors like WoW pvp or poker takes skill so my judgement runs counter to many people who don't think games like that require skill.

To get to the point if you hate random factors than TCOS won't piss you off.
If you want low levels to have an even remote chance against high levels then you'l be happy with TCOS.
If you are hoping for collision detection then be prepared to be disappointed.
If you desire aiming to matter you'll be bothered by some of the gaming mechanics (aiming with ranged skills is more simplistic than aiming with melee skills).
If your playstyle hinges on kiting your going to love or hate the limitations the devs put in that balances melee with range (you can't run and shoot with most moves and there is a deadzone for all ranged abilities).

Is it a pvp game? That depends on what you mean by pvp.

If pvp means to you the abilitiy to change the world around you with your sword and skills, then mostly no. They had a system in place and have the assets built for that type of content but decided to push that back indefinately. So all there is right now are the resource areas situated in pvp zones and noone knows if they'll be adequate.

If pvp means you are able to exert your will on other people for your own satisfaction then technically no. I only say technically because most pvpers of this sort are unimaginative. The griefing seen on Second Life is a form of pvp for those who think this way and actually have the brain cells to think of ways of influencing people even if they can't hit their pixelated bodies.

If pvp is about fair competition then spellborn will have that in spades.

The devs have a working deal among their publishers that allows people outside of their region to play the game. This is probably one of the reasons why it's taking them so long to get a US publisher.

People are failing to realize how expensive and massive an undertaking it is to survey 3 million people. In the late 80s surveying around 200,000 people across 52 countries for the Globe project IIRC was the biggest undertaking in gathering data by any single company.

You also have to consider that the estimated size of subcribers at this point is about 30-40 million people. sampling 8-10% of the probable population is excessively accurate.

Just to vouch for Kelnnay, he is correct. You'll also have the option to play on the asian servers as well.

...you can now rely on NPD in the near future. But keep in mind that NPD charges for the majority of their reports and they aren't cheap.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17327

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Originally posted by pirateer
but little 10-year-olds running around calling me a n00bzerz because they have spent 100 more hours on a game than me, it breaks the game.

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Pro-tip, they aren't calling you n00berz because they played longer than you. They are calling you n00berz because they like to prey on the overly emotional people like yourself.

I played Runescape recently after it launched and it made no difference if you were 50 combat levels higher than such immature people.

Actually, it mattered to some degree; because they would either worship you a bit and ask for tips on how to play, follow you around asking for money (heck even being 10 levels higher than beggers would get their attention) or tried taunting you into pvp fights you didn't want to waste time on even if it would take seconds to kill someone so obviously mismatched, but as much as levels mattered immature people will act immature and say stupid things like n00berz, or shout words with random neon colors.

Runescape was and still is a good game for what it's worth. Things like quests, spells, proc-weapons, agility, farming and trading made it a lot of fun.

Only two people here managed to acknowledge Runescape so far. The game last time they made an announcment had about 10 million players 1 million of which actually subscribed.

Though this announcment was made before that debacle when the removed the concept of the wilderness which made a significant percentage of their playerbase riot and protest in and out of game. Maybe things have gotten better now but I can't believe Jagex changed a fundamental concept of their game. It's like asking fans of Mario brothers to accept the series new direction as FPS game instead of a platformer.

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Originally posted by Delanor
  It is just meant for players to change their looks while they progress in the game. I don't think they will change that. Not any time soon, anyway.

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That's incorrect. Players can craft sigils which are stats for their characters. Due to the rarirty of components players can take pride in branding their crafted goods because people will know goods made by one player will contain certain stats different from anyone else. Then there are consumables to take into account which provide temporary buffs.

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Originally posted by BesCirga

As it is now..

• Questing caters adventurers
• PvPing caters PvP'ers Crafting caters PvP'ers and adventurers Roleplaying...well they already have a hard time and probably have to cater themselves as usual

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You touched on a good point without realizing it. The lead developer made an interiew on a European gaming news source called Gamona IIRC. He stated that unlike most MMOs which created too many timesinks for players Spellborn is supposed to play out as an adventure game. This ties in directly with their view of crafting.

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Originally posted by Leoj

Why does everyone say there is NO crafting...there is crafting, the only difference between this game and any other MMO with crafting is I can make anything I want at any time....now that sounds like a lot more fun to me.
Maybe your not actually the one pending 3 seconds making  your hands move so that *poof* I have a new sword....but your doing the SAME thing when you bring it to a crafter.

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You have to understand the mindset here about the people complaining. There are a few reasons why they don't like the system but I'll only explain two that I'm most familiar with.

The first is that being forced to have the smith refine the materials means your character isn't crafting the goods. This breaks immersion for people who want to pretend they are smith.

The second is that the Spellborn system is very eglatarian. Anyone can craft in this game. There's no barrier to entry beyond taking the time to find and gather the materials. Without barriers, like levelling up your crafting skill, crafters can't distinguish themselves as easily as in other games. This uniqueness is important because they can wield more monetary power over other players who don't level up crafting or choose a poorer profession. This uniqueness is also important because crafters can act as social hubs. Some people like the idea of other people being dependent on them.

There are other reasons but there's a start in understanding the underlying reasons of what's being discussed here.

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Originally posted by Munki

if you regularly watch his reviews... he rips apart every game.

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False unless you mean giving a final verdict of it's ok to buy or play this game doesn't undo any criticisms he makes about the product. He actually gave thumbs up for two games, one of them being Crysis of all things.

The average Aussie complained about having 600 ms latency. That's a 20% dps loss compared to 200 ms players. It also means instant abilities aren't instant.

It's a big deal.

Yeah the OP is mistaken on the targetting rules.

With ranged attacks you have to aim the cross hair on the target. If you click exactly at the same time the crosshair is on the target you will definately hit. But the reticule doesn't stick on the target. If it moves you have to move your reticule to match the movement.

With melee attacks though you have to lead your weapon swing in the same way you lead bullets in other fps games.

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Originally posted by Nomatica
I played many mmorpgs and i think blizzard is the only company that really perfected the talent system. And still does, i have yet to play a mmorpg with a AA/Talent system like WoWs, because for one reason.
When we play WoW from 1-40 40 talent points in there really is a TRUE change to the class it makes it feel like playing a whole class all together kind of like a new class. Once at 40 you can tell a major difference between a Prot war/ fury war/ arms war , Holy priest/Shadow priest, etc. I think talents are a must have in any mmorpg because it really allows you to be more unique to your class WoWs system is ALMOST skill based mixed with a level based system.
I Tried EQ2 talent system and for some reason it just doesnt hit the spot like WoWs does.

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The only thing I will say to this is that their talent system isn't perfect for two reasons.

The first reason is that they actually managed to break talent builds.

For example priest were the only classes that could feasibly tri-spec (putting an average of 9 points in each tree). Their flexibility was so high that even with the mismatch of holy and shadow they had about 9 viable talent builds But when patch 2.0 came out Blizzard tuned the trees in a way that reduced priests viable options to about 5 builds and obviously trispeccing wasn't feasible anymore.

The second reason is by their own standards the talent system isn't perfect. They want all trees to be viable for pvp or pve. They are getting their with rogues but the vast majority of classes are no where near to achieving this goal.

I will say that even though they aren't anywhere near to reaching that goal it is obvious they are trying to reach it and they could reach it once the increase the level cap one more time after Wrath. But their biggest problem is that even if they do reach it that achievement won't last for long because of the way classes' abilities scale with gear.

Certain abilities scale faster than others and as a result abilities that were crappy with greens become viable or the best abilities to use with high end purples. Blizzard intentionally designed the classes this way so players have the joy of constantly experimenting with their class.

Unfortuneately beause of the way disproportionate scaling works Blizzard has to constantly mess around with coefficients and other values to prevent fast scaling abilities from being powerful forever. This leads to nerfs that fundamentally change how classes work. This requirement for fundamental change means that any perfection achieved from the talent tree retuning will always be very short lived.

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Originally posted by Sharajat

Overall, the fact that they obviously don't have marketing people can only be a positive.  I look forward to hearing more about this one, hopefully from real actual human beings, and not marketing automatons. 

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Without marketing a game has less chances of attracting subscribers. Less subscribers just leads to complaints from current players about barren worlds. Less players alos leads to less content updates. :|

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Originally posted by byrney2004
Sorry for not getting back to this sooner (v. busy)
All of that info. is very helpful, thanks!!
Its not that I only want to play alone, its more that I hate having to rely on forming large groups after you get past a certain point. If you are part of a large guild then this wouldnt be a problem. But as a part-time player I would imagine it hard to stay in a guild.
I have decided that this will be te next game I play, cant wait. Shouldnt be too long now

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That's cool. I was curious so thanks for responding.