Originally posted by Bedouin

I was really enjoying this game up until I reached the point where I noticed how much I was spending. 

If you can't control yourself while spending money it is only your problem. Don't blame others for that.

If you can't play without warrior pack/blessing license, its your problem too because many people can.

Don't tell me it is impossible to play on high lvls without this or that, because I did every single quest in this game and made it to the highest pvp rank.

The problem with all of you is that you want everything NOW and EASY. You see the exp needed for 130lvl, you think "omg its impossible" because you can't reach it TODAY or TOMORROW and rage on forums because you think the game is grindy.

You see the latest mount in game and want it, but you don't have enough in-game money to buy it on your lvl 70 (wrtie your lvl here) so you think you can't get it without real cash.

Because the game is really well put together.

It is a rather small game all things considered compared to the bigger open world titles and the turn based nature is not typical MMO fare.

But almost everything is done well. The turn based nature makes lags so typical for F2Ps played across globe into non-issue. The cash shop allows you to spend fortune but also gives you option to play like human for reasonable fee. It has working well tuned PvP. It has lots of side activities and social features. It has good pacing - lots of fast levels, ability to reach crucial levels in reasonable time yet still having something to look forward too, like more levels or leveling mercenaries.

It is very important for me to know that the MMO developers know what they are doing, can make it materialize and stick to it, because such games feel more safe and secure on the metagaming "investment" level. Compare it to Allods that goes in all different directions, goes ahead with superfluous stuff that they know they cannot make working, devs and publishers keep changing their mind,  and the game cheats you about PvP, about level cap (meaningless or even harmful without gear), about shop (now you can get monthly "sub" - but it does not cover death and looting, lol), left and right.

It's a fantastic game that is quickly being ruined over the last 8 months or so by an overzealous series of nerfs and pushing of the item mall.

I am level 130.  I ate, slept, and breathed this game for well over a year. 

Once you're 110+ having the 15 dollar a month Warriors pack is almost a necessity.  It's assumed (in groups and dungeons) that you have it and puts you at a mighty disadvantage if you don't. 

At that same level having a Blessing license (also 15 dollars a month) is... while not required, the difficulty scaling of the game gets MUCH more difficult around level 112 or so and without it you'll be beating your head against the wall unless you grind for months to get levels ahead of the content you're attempting.

In other words, without spending at LEAST 30 dollars a month, you're at a HUGE disadvantage, although to be fair, one of these items (blessing license) can be traded in-game for gold (Warrior's pack can not be traded)

To get decent gear, you need to use enchant stones or gamble to put plusses on your gear.  This is 100% necessary.  A few months ago, Ndoors got rid of enchant stone IV and V drops for enchanting high level gear so your only options are to gamble 50/50 blowing the equipment up or use the item mall only item 'Atlas' which STILL has a chance of failure.

Loot from higher level dungeons has been cut to about a third of what it was a year ago through a nerf literally every patch.  It's become a running joke on the official forums.  People newly comign to the 100+ levels are finding it impossible to gear up without using the item mall (this problem never used to exist when I hit 100 a year or so ago)

In conclusion, GREAT game, ruined by nerf after nerf after nerf to the point where it's impossible to play at high levels without heavy  item mall usage or 80 hours a week of grind.

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by Silver_Leaf

First of, combat is turn based with all of your guys in a line. You pick which battles you enter, and while graphics are allright I wonder how much time is spent in the game world.

Secondly its one of those takes forever to reach level cap games.

I mean, what does this game have to deserve the position of BEST released game on mmorpg.com? Not to say it sucks, its just not my cup of tea. But seriously. The BEST game on mmorpg.com?

First off, you need to like turn-based gameplay to enjoy it - why force yourself if it's not your thing?

Plenty of us have been doing it for decades and stil enjoy it.

 

Secondly, I got to level 70 of 120 in about a week. I didn't realize that was too long, but maybe I am just getting oooold.

You reached 70 in a week?  I highly doubt that....unless you played 12-16 hours everyday straight with a bunch of help

Originally posted by Silver_Leaf

Well I believe quick thinking is the key and there is no skill in playing chess where you have 10 years if you like to think of your next move. But thats not the subject of debate. The fact is even the staff here rates it an 'average' 7.5 and I would give it a low actually (partly due to imba cash shop). The cash shop is really... too much to put it in civil terms. Most games with cash shop (like Dragonica, the one I'm playing) provide stuff that either speed up what would take slightly longer (exp multiplyers), cosmetic features (nice outfits). It is going in very dangerous terriroty by allowing RMT to gold transactions but that actually makes the next point slightly better.

Unfortunately DGN has also started giving out cash items with +stat, though they are rather... minor.

The point is, if you're going to put in a cash shop, the stuff in the cash shop had better not affect gameplay OR there should be a way for those with $0.00 in their bank account to get it. Like the way DGN has done it, gold to cash.

However, there is a risk of gold inflation as everyone goes for the more desirable cash. THerefore, they have learnt well from eve. Total gold earned by all players = NEARLY equal to total gold lost by all players.

um.. you say dragonica. you know that game is a heck of a money spending game in order to be good at it. infact some bosses you need to have a ciertian attack power inorder to harm them.

so how was thach achived. via the cash ship upgrading your weapon and buying insurance scrolls. low wepon upgrade % = spending alot on insurance scrolls.

if you played the thq version from the start you may know who firin used to be. spend 2k to become unbeatable in the game by maxing not only the best wep in game but all his armor also. he was unkillable in pvpemporia due to his rediculously high armor and can kill everyone else in a few hits.

of course he was caught cheating off a buddy program and lost his char. but yea that game is utterly IMBA to those who invest money. insurance scrolls are a cash item from the cash shop and thats where they really make their money.

oh and lets not forget those cash shop items that are to change stats on a wep so you can blow money on them for a chance to get a stat you want. which , of course leads to spending more money on insurance scrolls. those cash shop items with stats can be enchanted also and give more armor.  so one or 2 cash shop items is what gives the money to the company , the rest is fluff. IMBA stuff.

you know just sayin since you said their cash shop is how it should be. its NOT

I think that people rate it high because it did something different. There is no real turn based online MMORPG's that are played out in this size and amount of content. Sure it seems grindy to some, but it isn't at all, you just follow quest chains, they have a lot of killing mob quests because the fan base of the game play it for the combat system most likely, and since killing mobs is involving that system, then it is quite fun to grind sometimes. I played until about level 84, and got kinda tired of the game, mainly because my friends stopped playing. It's a great game, that's why people enjoy playing it THAT much.

An important thing to bear in mind about Atlantica's levelling is that while, yes, it does take a long time to reach level cap, it is very very far from the "game begins at cap" model that most MMOs seem to use these days.

I was able to start contributing usefully in guild and nation dungeons (Atlantica's equivalent of "endgame raiding") when I was in the high 90's. The high level players in my nation (including the few 130s) could work solo in the dungeon and handle bosses; the lower level guys like me would group up in twos and threes and handle the weaker mobs.

Competitive PvP is available from level 20 onwards. No you're not going to win the weekly cross-server championship unless you're max level and astonishingly well geared, but you can fight in the Free League against other people in the same division as you. 

Originally posted by Banquetto

An important thing to bear in mind about Atlantica's levelling is that while, yes, it does take a long time to reach level cap, it is very very far from the "game begins at cap" myth that most MMOs seem to use these days.

Fixed.

Seriously, you would think that everyone has come to the realization that reaching endgame means running into the most boring, repetitive content the game has to offer. People quit over it, but keep lining up for more on the next game like there isn't a lesson to be learned here...

Originally posted by Silver_Leaf

First of, combat is turn based with all of your guys in a line. You pick which battles you enter, and while graphics are allright I wonder how much time is spent in the game world.

Secondly its one of those takes forever to reach level cap games.

I mean, what does this game have to deserve the position of BEST released game on mmorpg.com? Not to say it sucks, its just not my cup of tea. But seriously. The BEST game on mmorpg.com?

  It has more appeal with "older" gamers, people who enjoyed any of the Final Fantasy games over the past two decades, or simply just fans of the JRPG genre.

 For the type of game it is, it definatly is the best at what it does, too bad it's community is one of the worst, tons of goldspam and bots running around too, hacking was starting to be an issue when I quit over a year ago, but that's just something you learn to expect from any ijji game these days.

Originally posted by just2duh

Originally posted by Silver_Leaf

First of, combat is turn based with all of your guys in a line. You pick which battles you enter, and while graphics are allright I wonder how much time is spent in the game world.

Secondly its one of those takes forever to reach level cap games.

I mean, what does this game have to deserve the position of BEST released game on mmorpg.com? Not to say it sucks, its just not my cup of tea. But seriously. The BEST game on mmorpg.com?

  It has more appeal with "older" gamers, people who enjoyed any of the Final Fantasy games over the past two decades, or simply just fans of the JRPG genre.

 For the type of game it is, it definatly is the best at what it does, too bad it's community is one of the worst, tons of goldspam and bots running around too, hacking was starting to be an issue when I quit over a year ago, but that's just something you learn to expect from any ijji game these days.

I've never recieved a single gold spam message outside of Rome (and even those are rare these days) and I've encounted a low level bot group ONCE in Atlantica.  Ever.  And I've played since open beta and am 130.  There are plenty of negatives to this game, but gold spam and bots are nowhere near the level of problem in this game as any other MMO that ive played.  Even Pay to play MMOs (Aion, LOTRO, WOW, etc...) have worse spam.

The community is also one of the most mature and helpful to newbies I've ever seen outside of LOTRO, at least on Thebes server.  As long as you're not a beggar, you're generally treated quite well as a lowbie by high level people.

Originally posted by Regomar

The community is also one of the most mature and helpful to newbies I've ever seen outside of LOTRO, at least on Thebes server.  As long as you're not a beggar, you're generally treated quite well as a lowbie by high level people.

This is true, and in fact, the complaint of AO having a bad community is the first time i've ever heard it. Ever.

I played it to about level 80 and found nothing but helpful people, but this is mostly due to the extremely slick social devices in play - like long-distance grouping, trading monster info, guild towns, etc. Best F2P community I've ever seen, so the complaint makes zero sense to me, and just makes me question if he is speaking on the same game.

Loved it till lvl 100-ish, then i hit the wall. And no, it wasn't the huge XP curve, i could deal with that. The game changes drastically in a bad way after lvl95.

Atlantica is a game where, after lvl 95,  you need equipment from "harder" zones to "get past" the zone that you're in. For example, at lvl100 you get access to a new "quest hub" zone. Can you finish that with the equipment which drops in the previous zone? No, you cannot. The equipment which drops in the current zone, is it Enough for you to be able to enchant / enhance it to decent levels, again to be able to "finish" the zone? No. Actually it drops less and less, the drops from "normal" mobs are 0,0x%. The chain nerfs almost made many of the dungeons where people used to farm the needed equipment useless, running those now is generating debt, not profit. What do people with a life do? Buy things from item mall and sell them for ingame money.

I just want to be able to follow the "main questline". I am willing to pay for commodities. i bought Warrior Pack, but it is not enough. Blessing license is also almost a must in later levels. That makes the game 30bucks/month to be "playable". Combine those two items into a 15bucks/month pack and yes, me and lots of others would consider not leaving.

Yes i know that those who say "i soloed to the cap without a dime invested" will jump on me. Yea, i know lots of people which took 1 year 100-120, pre-nerfs (yes this is very important, they compare their easy gearing-up experience with what we have now) triple boxing (playing the main, having a fishing alt, doing columbus with a 3rd alt, leaving the computer on over night). I dont care for those who want to prove that they're able to cut their veins and still live with half of their blood, yelling "it's doable" (something which is classic to F2P).

No i dont want it to take 2 years to go from 100 to 130. No, that does not offer any "leveling experience", it is grinding the same "easy melee" mobs over and over and over again until you outlevel the zone enough to be able to "solo" it with the equipment you have. Even grinding is incredibly bad, you can get decent XP only for around 70 fights/day, then the XP gain is nerfed. Also, if you grind for too long on the same map, your item drops are nerfed.

After all the pain above (because you could not follow the quest and get decent XP and you were forced into doing mindless repetitive stuff)  there comes another zone. Things go from bad to worse. Now we have a 20 minutes-run-back-from-the-ressurection-point, which forces you to buy Warrior Pack. With insanely hard monsters, which forces you to buy Blessing license. Again and again till you hit max, just to be owned by the "game gods" which you cannot ever compete against, they got their equipment in the "good times" (pre-chain-nerfs) and / or invested over 20000 bucks into the game to get where they are. Yes, those people which you see getting 3 of the newest mounts on the day of their release. Getting one of those mounts is 1/25 chances. It's 10 bucks a try. Do the math. Bleh.

As a newcomer, you have zero chances in Atlantica, unless you plan to work 2 shifts of a full-time job there daily, or are willing to sell your car. The idea of the game is great, it allows for high ammounts of customisation and tactical decisions, which makes pvp an intelligent thing, not a "who smashes buttons better" thing. People rant because they see the great potential of the game, which is ruined by the extremely greedy company which owns the game.

I agree completely.  From level 95+ the game changes completely into an ultra grindfest.  And if you think 95-120 is bad, you'd drop dead at 120-130. 

It took me about 9 months of VERY heavy playing to go from 1-120.  I hit 120 last JULY (this was just before the huge chain of nerfs came in).  I only JUST hit 130 this month almost a year later (after all the nerfs, I make less than half the money/equipment from grinding now at 130 than I did around level 110.)  Pathetic. 

120-130 is INSANE.  Made worse because there is absolutly no conetnt for the vast majority of those levels and the only way to advance is to grind the highest level resettable questline (level 112 Hwarang)  Theres a quest hub at levels 124 and 128.  Each of these cannot be reset and dont even give you half a level of XP.

Consider also that the XP needed from level 1-120 is 2 billion XP

To get  to 130 is 8.766 billion XP.

Originally posted by Edli

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by Silver_Leaf

Doesnt work like that. First 10 levels of any mmo I do it in an hour. You took a week to get 1-70. Probably will take you a week to get from 100-101, and a year from 119 to 120 and you can finally start enjoying the game.

What goes on in your head?

There is nothing to do at level 120 besides pvp other lvl 120's and rehash the same end-game content - like... every... other... game... out there. Do you enjoy the endless repitition of endgame more than the first taste that comes with all the prior content that's made obsolete?

Some of you players are wicked strange to me.

These games don't *start* at endgame - they *END* there.

 

Exactly. Peoples racing for endgame like there's something to do in there. It looks like they struggle during the leveling process so they can finish the game as soon as possible. Not realizing that the way to the endgame is the game and if you don't enjoy it than why even bother finishing it.

 

Indeed.

But at the same time the Devs are making enough money from it...especially from certain P2P games *cough*

I don't think I'll ever be brainwashed to the extent I think the game starts when you reach the endgame.

I see it as a journey and when you reach the end of that journey pretty much you reach the level cap and participate it what's left then you're done

In games I believe the journey from level 1 to level XXX should be lengthy, but I don't believe it should take a year to go from 120-130.

  You need to stop paying attention to the blue/orange meter , it's so easy to create 3000 accounts and just spam 10/10.

As far a AO goes , yea the game takes forever to reach level 120 , unless of course you get those xp scrolls but cost 15$ a month . So much for the term F2P eh? LOL.  Anyways I've stopped playing AO once my maniac got 120. the grinding is pretty lame without XP scrolls and power potions. The game in whole is pretty nice. From level 1 up to constantinople ,or w/e the name of the place is, the game has a good flow to it , but once you get in the level 80-90's,start taking out the wallet and buying those XP scrolls and judgement scrolls. 

  AO would of been kick ass if they just do 2 simple things :

1- Eliminate the XP/power scroll from the item mall and implement those bonus permanently into the game

2- Lower their price on mount boxes because seriously me and a few real life friends bought like 150$ worth of mount boxes and didn't even get 1 mount.

 Atlantica Online seriously doesn't help those who have gambleing problems , between a slot machine and AO there isn't much of a difference.

   They should of renamed AO to : Atlantica Online (millionaire edition)  OR at least put a warning like :"For those who win at least 100K a year should play"  OR  " Wallet discretion advised" because seriously you gotta be pretty freaking rich to support all your guys.  And in all my years of playing and trying F2P, AO is by FARRRRR the most expensive F2P MMO currently on the market. 

  With that said , Enjoy!

it's been a long while since i tried this game and what i remember mostly about Atlantica is that it manages to appeal you in so many popular-casual ways when you start: nice scenery, nice music, not much difficulty, the others seem to act nice... but later on you learn what the game's intention is and the magic pretty much ended there.

you get a lot of free stuff - the other players just can't get rid of it so they don't mind giving it away. sometimes it's just an administrator who takes a different name to give you the illusion that someone is kind to you.

you sell stuff at the auction house and seemed to have made a good deal  - the rates suddenly 'change' to the normal ones once you're supposed to pay ... well there go the things you 'invested' in and you're broke instead.

you get a lot of offers for help - turns out those others gain stuff by doing that. several players even offered me gold if i became an apprentice and reached a certain level ...

so you might think you're playing some fun rpg at first and if you want to you can continue to do that but the actual set-up is a game build around economics and the auction house and those quests and such are more there to distract  players when they're tired watching those numbers or just want to socialise in between. well you can choose to not worry about all of that and grind your way through in a casual way but at the time i was so disappointed i quit instead.

Originally posted by menasure

you get a lot of free stuff - the other players just can't get rid of it so they don't mind giving it away. sometimes it's just an administrator who takes a different name to give you the illusion that someone is kind to you.

the gifts you're getting that you think are from administrators are part of a quest so those are actual players.

wanted to throw in though that i agree the game is way too grindy and there isn't a whole lot to do after about 100 and the majority of their development time gets spent on cash shop(item mall) things rather than fixing in game bugs or balancing the pvp.

Originally posted by aekeem

Originally posted by menasure

you get a lot of free stuff - the other players just can't get rid of it so they don't mind giving it away. sometimes it's just an administrator who takes a different name to give you the illusion that someone is kind to you.

the gifts you're getting that you think are from administrators are part of a quest so those are actual players.

Yep, the "Santa Claus" title requires you give away 1,000 random gifts to noobs in the form of cash. I was trying to get it when I played, but you can only do it 10 times a day, and it gets costly, so I'd give 100 at a time. Some guy had the nerve to yell at me saying "if that's all you are going to give, why bother?!". I lolled and sent him an extra 1 in the mail.

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Originally posted by Silver_Leaf
Its the quantity that matters. How long does it take to reach endgame? Most folks would probably never reach it.
 WHy play a game if yo ucan't ever hit level cap?

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Hitting level cap is pretty much a "game over" for me, so i don't really run for it, and if there is enough content i have absolutely no problem with it...

I liked Atlantica until they killed the market with some poor choice of quest rewards. If they didn't i'd still be playing...

It has a really nice balance considering the extensive crafting and combat system. Looking at other mmorpg's I think this one belongs to the top. However I quit because the mods/GM's didn't care about community issues such as some guy being bullied in Rome chat..and that stuff just pisses me off.