All Posts by Sepulcher

Get a mouse with at least 3 buttons, then bind your keys.  Now let this thread fall into the abyss.

If you can't bind your keys yet in Conan, then you are SOL.

Originally posted by fansede

SHould have also added Tome of Knowledge unlocks

Well since tome unlocks are based on everything you do I would assume people who are going for that approach would have chosen "mix" since thats what you need to do if you want all the unlocks.

Originally posted by kraiden

WOW was more like taking the gangs and putting them in the YMCA to play kickball insted of letting them in the streets.

I hope there is a huge level of realm pride in this game.  I for one will be a hardcore advocate of "red = dead" when I see any enemy player.

Solitaire.

Endless hours of play.

You can build houses out of cards.

4 different factions.

13 different classes.

Almost all computers come with it and millions play it world wide.

So I have seen many polls asking alot of the standard stuff like: What faction will you play? What race? What class? etc.  But I was curious about another area of the game and I wanted to see where people stand on it.

This is purely to engage people in some possitive discussion and I hope this turns out well.  I am always interested in seeing how other's playstyles differ from my own. 

Now on to the question (about time right?).  What do you plan to focus your time on with your first character? Will you focus on PvE questing and PQs?  Will you rush right into PvP and start earning your renown ASAP?  Will you explore the world and look for hidden lairs and secret quests?  Will you be spending alot of time in social hubs chatting the days away?  Do you plan to do a balance of everything?

I personally think I won't be able to resist the urge to level up ASAP and try to see some of the cool armor sets and focus on making a name for myself ingame (for good or ill).

What about you? Feel free to elaborate.

I agree with the OP on most of his/her points.

Odds are p2p.

Most likely around $15 a month US.

May you rot in the deepest depths of oblivion for even thinking of such an atrocity.

Uh, so hopefully you realize that blizzard talent tree design isnt even original.  Go do some research, it is copied from other things that existed long before MMOs, they just adapted it.

Also who cares?  So what if it looks the same, if it aint broke dont fix it.  Thats like telling tire manufacturers to come up with new shapes for tires because someone else used the traditional round shape first.

Not a large enough market yet for any company to seriously make a true MMO"RPG".

Also how does one enforce the rules for a true role playing game?  Everyone has a different opinion on what is acceptable behaviour in a roleplaying envirenment.  Would be great to see, but honesly you are better off playing a PnP game or making mods for NWN.

First off I will skip over the bugs and technical issues with the game.  It is beta, funcom says they fixed the bugs, and I think that horse has been beaten to death.

Brief history of my experience so I can hopefully avoid an army of people talking down to me like I am new to MMOs.  EQ, AC, AC2, DAOC, AO, E&B, SWG, COH, COV,  WOW, EVE, and LOTRO. Now on to the review.

Avatars: Customization is good.  Textures are a bit bland.  Combat Animations are pretty fluid.  Walking animations are off a bit on their timing and standing animations make characters look robotic.

Equipment:  Armor/Weapons are pretty bland visually. From low level items I have seen first hand in beta to items in higher levels I have seen from screenshots.  I have not seen any piece of equipment that is awe inspiring.  Everything is pretty generic and flavorless.  Lots of earth tones and dull metals.  Very little contrast between characters and envirements.  Everything kind of blends together.  It may fit the IP, but it still doesnt look exciting or stand out. 

Gear itemization is not very obvious for new players.  Tons of stats in game can leave many people overwhelmed and unsure what they need for their character.  Also huge gear quality gaps and very hard to determine quality.  Some level 1 items are better than level 12 items.

UI:  What you would expect. Could be a bit more intuitive.  Maps could use some work as they dont relay much information about what lies between your mark on the map and the mark for where you need to go.  The compass is pretty cluttered but useful once you get the hang of it.  Chat system is outdated and frustrating at times if you dont know the exact /[format] to use.  Pretty good LFG system, better than most.

Combat System:  It is pretty fun but it is no more complicated or inventive than any other MMO.  You have multiple directions of attack and combos to use against foes.  But these are no more than hitting 1,2, and/or 3 after you have clicked a combo attack icon.  Enemies shift there defenses but it is easy to trick the computer into opening its self up and it doesnt seem to respond and shift its defenses after the first 5 seconds of a fight.  Players for the most part just  keep all their defenses even as it takes too much time switching your shields and it is of little gain.

At the end of the day you are still mashing buttons, especially without an auto attack, because every .1 second counts.  But sadly there are few flashy looking attacks and by the 1000th overhead weapon swing its all the same.

Quests:  Pretty standard stuff, plenty to do, and decent rewards for your time.  Stories in the quests are pretty generic.  Get items for this guy, kill badies for that guy, go walk across town and talk to someone else.  There are one player quests that take you out of the multiplayer world to complete small story arcs.  I personally think that kills immersion and while the story for these quests is a bit more intriguing than the standard ones, the actual game mechanics involved remain the same.

MOBs: With all the same information as listed in my Avatar section but with a little extra.  Good variety of enemy designs.  For example the Pict (group of badguys) may all look similar but there are enough variations in their armor and equipment so that they dont look like they came off an assembly line.  Between various factions of humans and various types of wild life, you get enough variety.  More than some games but at about the level you would expect for this part MMO development history.

Envirenments:  Bright skies, a realistic looking sun, and nice surfaces on water areas.  The actually land is a bit cluttered.  I understand it is a primitive world and has lots of jungles and plants but there is too much undergrowth.  The ground is filled with grass, bushes, ferns, and flowers.  It leaves zones feeling over saturated and over done.  I wish they put more attention into the dirt, sand, and rock.  From what I saw there is only one color for each and blending the seems tends to involve stark terrain shifts or a trim of plants to hide the edges.  Ruins have the same type of rock used for all (a glossy grey) and buildings are very drab and repetative.  The layout for Tortage is pretty good, looks like something that real people might build, shops and such seem to be in the right place for the types of business they do.

PVP:  The one available pvp area is not very interactive.  2 starting bases, 2 side areas to capture.  You run around killing eachother with little purpose than to kill people before the timer runs out.  They put a small fort in each teams base but they have no use in game and are merely aesthetic, what a shame.  PvP tends to involve everyone runnning upto eachother and than standing still because you cant move and use combos.  Range classes hit you fast and then just run away.  Without any abilities to catch them it is pretty easy to win like that.  Hopefully that changes later on.  You can run around and just use default 1,2, and 3 to attack your enemies but the damage is very weak and combat becomes more dull.  I will assume they plan to have more types of pvp areas once you level through the game, but the area available in the BETA was boring.

Last words:  Overall the game is pretty standard.  Combat is not complex or exciting, but it does force people to play their character instead of letting the game do it for you.  Characters and envirenments are bland and not distinct,  but are high resolution so there is a bit of realism.  Chat system needs work.

This is a 3 out of 5 quality game.  You can easily get your money's worth out of it, just dont expect a blockbuster.  Within a year this game will hopefully clean itself up and finish out all the things they have started but half finished.  I will most likely purchase this product one month after launch and I confirm that the current lag/bugs are mostly fixed.

"Gat to da choppa!"

Because after playing this bomb of a game you would want to escape before it killed you.

*pulls out the industrial size woodchipper*

Ok who wants to help me shovel these horse pieces into the chipper?  I think its been beaten enough.

The dead are not sentient.  Their souls have departed and necormancers are just using the material (bones) that remain.  I am not a proponent of animals in captivity either.  A pet is something that has a mutual arrangement with its owner.  You feed it and take care of its health and in return it protects you or keeps you company.

Also stop using the excuse "its just a game".  By saying this you are advocating every form of crimal behavior known to man just because its a digital world.  News flash asshat its not the pixels that make the idea offensive, its the idea itself.  Condoning rape, slavery, murder (not killing, there is a huge difference), and all the other dark parts of human behavior is not something a game developer should be doing.  

Where do you draw the line?

There is a difference between fighting an armed opponent durring war times as opposed to capturing and forcing another sentient being to do labor for you.   Allowing slavery in a game would be like allowing rape into a game.  Both are forcing someone to do something horrible they dont want to do.  A soldier chose to fight, slaves dont choose to be slaves.

You obviously do not know what slavery is.  A humanoid is no different than a human in a fantasy setting.  You are taking a living thing that is self aware and capturing it, selling it, and allowing it to suffer just so some other humanoid doesnt have to pay someone to work for them.  Dont try to rationalize an evil thing because you got called out on it.

Sandbox = Player Driven Content

For the most part anyway.

Player housing doesnt fit the setting of WAR.  I dont really see a chaos warrior sitting in a chair and reading a good book near the fireplace.  Or an Orc in the kitchen cooking himself dinner.  Warhammer is about battle and the struggle for survival.  Mortals will be lucky to find a soft patch of dirt to sleep in, nevermind a house with furnishings and doodads.

I could see Guild Barracks as a viable form of housing, because its more of a military base then a place to decorate.

Because we all know its great fun to force people to do things for you...  You are an idiot if you think slavery should be allowed in a game.  Taking a human life and turning it into property is not something that needs to be promoted.  Yah I get it "its just a game", but you are promoting a horrible part of human behavior that has no part in the entertainment industry.  You need to get your head worked on if you even remotely think slavery is a good idea in anyway.

Here is a link to the world map, just to give an idea of what it looks like.

http://graphics.white-wolf.com/exalted/WorldofExaltedMap.jpg