Originally posted by cardjester

I've gone though this arguement a million times with friends, people on games etc whining about "Grinding"

 

Like some people have said here, grinding is everything, you all think of grinding as "Kill this bunch of monsters" because you're either too retarded to look for quests or you just whine about it because you don't wanna kill a bunch of monsters to level up.

 

You want the easy way out, well there is no real easy way out of playing a game, would you play a game if it was kill 5-10monsters = level up? I think not, that would take all the fun and excitement out of the game, every game has it's share of grinding. Killing mobs, hunting down items, crafting, mining, herbing, fishing etc it's all a form of grinding, no matter what way you look at it.

 

Most games try to hide the fact of grinding behind a million of useless, but entertaining quests to do. Take wow for instance, it has thousands of useless quests to hid the fact you only grind from 1-80. Same with every other game, you just don't tend to pay attention to how much grinding you're actually doing, why is that though? it's because they have you so focused on the quests so you don't notice you're killing thousands upon millions of monsters and GRINDING.

 

It's funny when you see whiners about grinding. Complain about grinding? Don't play any game! at all, every single game has grind it it. Even saga satan games, geez.

I don't think you understand the definition of grinding.  Grinding = doing same task and/or game mechanic repeatedly, tediously, and/or mindlessly.

Do most MMORPGs force you to grind? yes.  Do most games force grind? no.

The game mechanics of killing one monster in many MMORPGs can be so mundane when asked to do it 50 times in one quest because there is little variety in monster behavior, little the player can do to create variety/fun in killing the monster, and very little if no variety in other influences (such as environment changes, other players, etc.) that affect how you kill the monster and the result.

In other words, while it may be fun to kill a monster the first time, after the 20th time of killing the monster, the lack of dynamicism and control can become horrendously boring.

To make matters worse, in many MMORPGs, most different monsters from level 1 to max behave extremely similar to one another.

To make matters even more worse, it can take several hours if not days for a player to receive an additional game mechanic such as a new skill or for a player to  be able to explore a new type of game environment .

Originally posted by grndzro

Have they removed the Stamina system?

Didn't think so.

Still protesting.

Independent Dungeons do not take any stamina.

 doesn't sound like a good enough reason to quit

 Easily a 4.25/5.

To put it into context, I'd give most F2P MMOs a 0/5 to 1/5 and most P2P MMOs a 3/5 to 4/5.

Atlantica does some stereotypical F2P MMO negative things, but where it dares to be different is how it truly shines.

Originally posted by trapezonian

Having an exorcist is really a big help because it can disable the magic of the Oracle, Monk and the Witch. These three mercenaries are essential in the line up because the Oracle and the Monk are support mercenaries and the Witch gives a hell load of damage with the Meteor Strike. It is feasible not to have an exorcist if you have a lot of stunners but then again there are awakening scrolls and the Exorcist is the best way to disable the Monk.

Well for the Monk mercenary, its is more important than the Exorcist because we only get the Exorcist mercenary to counter the monk.

There are plenty of other ways to counter a monk -- they just take much more creativity and effort

Originally posted by Bootynaka

u cant really live with out both at higher lvls in pvp.

Exo easily can replace swordman

and monk can save ur ass alot. though having 2 shaman is probably nice too.. i never tried though but im thinking of doing it for dual noble sacrifice :)

scrolls can be knocked down easily anyways so definately get a monk

exo cannot easily replace a swordsman - swordsman has many benefits that exo does not - better defense/front-line tank, hex, and flame sword

I don't see monk in every build, and same for exo (including in div1)

And have seen a few (including my own) without either.  There are ways to get by without using either, however they require a different play style than one may expect.....

If you don't have either, my suggestions (which I have yet to fully implement myself):

-have minimal staff mercs. 

-esp. in the beginning of battle, Use skills that focus more on doing outright damage or skill effects that can't be  erased by holy guard (such as lightning strike) rather than hexes/freezing, since you can't prevent them from being erased.

-keep an archer or other collection of mercs that can silence/stun back row (assuming monk is there), especially late in the battle

-attack in columns, spreading damage vertically or focus fire, rather than across rows since healing will destroy your progress

Wow thank you so much for the info :]

I really appreciate what you did , especially with the 3/08/09 priority testing.   Interesting to see Spearman getting attacked more than artilleryman.

 LK, Spartan, Swordsman are even more attractive tanks in PvE simply because they aren't attacked as frequently.  This PVE experience has some influence in the decision-making mentality of players in PvP as well

the new mount is really ungainly and looks inappropriate in the game. 

but, as a result, it's good for a laugh and randomness. 

Out of 5, here are my ratings....

Storyline: 2/5

The story is kind of boring and most of the quest lines are not captivating, though I could say this (and do) about most games.    Most of the quest objectives are similar, and often enough do not adequately fit the context of the storyline.  Additionally, the translation can be a bit peculiar at times. 

Movement: 4.5/5

Highly recommend that future MMOs look at what Atlantica Online did with movement to make things easier for its players.  However, I do have several minor frustrations with the movement at times, more notably.... sometimes auto-move takes some super-long way (not recognizing a portal) and moving to dungeon floors way deep in a dungeon can be a little time consuming and annoying running into monsters (of course there are teleportation licenses if it frustrates you enough) . 

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are definitely solid and the art direction has no major flaws.  However, while fitting for the atmosphere, the art is not as immersive nor as styilized as it can be for MMO.

Sound: 3/5

Similarly, the sound design is more than adequate, but of course after playing for several hours I usually just listen to my own music. :)  The voice acting is ..... let's just say.... rather interesting. :P

Combat and Gameplay: 3.5/5

It's better than most MMOs easily, and the game has a solid gameplay base.  I just constantly wish for more creativity and variety in their mercenaries' and monsters' skills.  PvP is decent, but can be improved.  PvE at times, can be done with no strategy, but more often than not, paying attention pays dividends.  Additionally, while a grind is present, it really is minimal compared to most MMOs.

Community: 3.5/5

Several unique features help boost the community in this game -- people are encouraged to help each other and share information through a variety of incentive systems.  There are very few angry people moaning and bitching around and not a high level of bots.  Still because of the low level of customization and lack of inspiration to roleplay (no super lush environments to explore, not much variety between players, distant quest NPCs, combat-centric gameplay), the community is not as strong as in some other MMOs.

Level of Engagement, During Play: 3.5/5

While the world environment, storyline, and atmosphere not very immersive, the combat, economy, community features (such as guilds), and other elements can be.  Thus there's always something to do if you get bored for a short period of time.  This allows the game to be both appealing to both hardcore and casual moods.

Level of Engagement, Long-Term: 4/5
 

With a level cap at 120, levelling not feeling tedious, crafting, future updates, many incentives along the way to reach level 100, as well as incentives past 100+, it becomes easy to plan for the future in Atlantica.... that is, if you get hooked initially.

Other ratings....

Polish: 2/5

Store/Item Mall, Business Perspective: 4/5

Store/Item Mall, Customer Perspective: 2/5

Potential: 4.5/5

Basically what we have is a very solid MMO.... that, while generic in many ways, has quite a large handful of unique features to keep any MMO player interested for a while.  As nDoors adds more content, perhaps a lot of these ratings will rise :D  Most MMORPGs (especially free ones) can not surpass these ratings due to the fact that they are vastly more unimaginative than this game.

Additionally, Atlantica IS a combat-centric MMORPG.  The developers have done a fantastic job of fusing a variety of community-enhancing, accessibility-enhancing, and other-enhancing elements together to add additional layers of gameplay uncommonly seen in games, thus having little need to pay attention to the more MMORPG-industry-typical attention-grabbing "innovations" in audiovisual, story-based artistic uniqueness and immersion.

Even though there is much to criticize about this game, I never feel heavily discouraged by its shortcomings since they are outweighed heavily by the game's strengths and innovations.  There's always something to do and at the moment, always something to look forward to.

ikkeno, no matter how much your english sucks (and by the way, it doesn't at all), your metaphor relating the game to a mcdonalds cheeseburger completely contradicts much of your post, unless you think the mcdonalds cheeseburger has several uniquely redeeming features. 

Yah.  I have to agree with most people that one of their biggest problems was the (lack of) good advertising and PR. 

To be honest, the characters / avatars look really bizzare, and so they have to be even more creative in how they advertise.