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Worried about first 20 levels
Lobotomist
Member EpicPosts: 5,981
Back when i was young and AOC was announced (hehehe kidding) Funcom claimed that beginning pf the game will be single player. It sounded good then , and i even thought it is a good idea.
As they explained it then - AOC would be like a standalone singleplayer RPG until a certain point where it becomes MMO.
This was an interesting concept , but only in case that first 20 levels (singleplayer) would be subscription free (as a normal RPG) and than if you want to join MMO part you start paying subscription (and still get 1 complementary month). In this way AOC would offer a game for both type of player ,and even drag some single players to MMO... anyway this is how they explained it, and how i thought it will be back in the day..
2008 AOC is at the door, and Funcom still didnt drop 20 lvl single player.
So where is the problem ?
It is single player RPG with limited multiplay - but you are not in AOCMMO world (excluded from events,economy,cities,resource gathering) - but still you are paying monthly sub
Now if you power player you are likely to burn trough 20 levels in 4-5 days , but if you are casual player it can take you a whole month to reach the "Mainland" and real MMO
This gets even worse if you make alt. Here even powerplayers will start grinding teeth.
NOTE
The system is good. Newbie area separated from the rest is not a bad idea. LOTRO uses it too.
But it is only 6 levels - and even that is cumbersome after you played your first character.
This is why in LOTRO you can skip it alltogether.
So what with AOC ? I understand Tortuge is great area , with lot of detail and great quests. But it is area
most of people will wish to skip and pass as fast as possible - to join their mates on AOC mainland.
And how long does take to pass it for a casual player ? Week ? Month even ? 20 levels are hell lot to play in newbie area 
Comments
From what I've come to understand from whispers around the net, the first 20 lvls are like 2-3 hrs tops!
Kemih ~ 13 Red Mage | Currently playing FFXI & LOTRO, awaiting Warhammer Online & Aion...
It's been covered in these forums a million time, Lobo, but I'll go over it one more time:
1.) The 20 level tutorial is for your first character only ( you can head straight to the main gameworld on every character after that).
2.)You can play with other players online in those 20 levels. You can hunt solo in the daytime and team up in the nighttime ( or vice-versa, can't recall ). All you do is sleep at the inn to go from daylight to night.
3.) You are not charged for the sub until you graduate from the tutorial the first time and head to mainland.
My personal opinion is that every game should have something similar to this. It is to force people to learn the basics of the damn game. I can promise you, every person who asks a question of "What do I do?" that was covered in the tutorial will be automatically added to my ignore list.
The singleplayer part was always part of the MMO not a standalone thing.
Apart from that the devs have made a point of saying that only the first hour is pure singleplayer. After that point it is fully playable as an MMO or you can do instanced online singleplayer.
Hey Mate, hope your having a good week (saw all that JG stuff
)
Alright, so there will be the option to skip the newbie area if you want, say with an Alt. They are going to add in the ability to get 'smuggled' off the island. Although when on mainland pretty much everything like quests and such will be geared for around lvl 20 players.
They are also looking at ideas, just to skip after the first 5 levels (pretty much the first 30 mins of play to the main gates of tortage) As seen in the video from the GDC (fly by but gaute expains a bit)
The single player part wont be sold as a seperate part nor be available if you dont pay your subscription.
All that happens is your transfered to a diff server with the ability to 'talk' to anyone in the game.
Switching between day / night cycles just requires talking to an NPC in the 'Thirsty Dog Inn', Apparently you may find yourself switching a few times during a play session in the early levels.
The whole idea is that you have time, can relax, learn new skills without a rush, treat it like a normal RPG single player. Dont have to worry about grouping, learn at your own pace etc etc.
Everything is tied in with the populated server, so when you switch everything goes with you. You can't split them say and just play night from home without paying a sub, because when you do you can just transfer all that money across from repetitive play. (Coin drops etc)
Night time is the chance to do the majority of your Destiny Quests, you find yourself (in game - your background) and progression.
There is also a major event that happens in your quest then currently is 'thee' quest to get off the island.
*Spoiler* (but public info released)
Tortage burns.... It burns bad. There are graphical effects and game environment effect that could only really be done in this single player mode. It was said that things like this were taken advantage of in the quest storyline in delivering more of an experience and welcome to Hyboria kind of way.
At night, different NPC's come out, only some vendors are available to talk to, you can only do certain quests, the whole thing is one epic mini story which sets you up nicely for the mainland adventures. Its a story within a story.
A casual player would love this, even with paying a sub for, you will prob get your first 30 days free with purchase of the game. More than enough time for the very basic of casual player to make it to lvl 20.
Alt wise, there will be a system in place to skip this, but may still have to do the destiny quests as its part of your character progression in game.
Mechanically though, I was told the single player and multiplayer part are so tied together that they wont become seperated, as it wasn't designed like this from the start.
EDIT**ahh man look at these replys when I was writing this.
Plus word is, it does take longer than 3 hrs to do the island....
Info here is based from the community event in Norway (jan 08) including the Q&A videos where someone asks about the Alt and also the recent GDC videos where gaute does the talking. Nothing is set in stone forsure yet and its still BETA!!!
And allowing people to skip the tutorial kind of defeats the whole purpose of even having it.
Oh well, my ignore list will be full, I guess.
I agree with Zorvan. Shout "Do the Tutorial!". I smile everytime I see that come across the local chat line. Why worry about something you have no control over?
And allowing people to skip the tutorial kind of defeats the whole purpose of even having it.
Oh well, my ignore list will be full, I guess.
Thats how they put it to the press and me at that community event. Things are still being worked out though, such as the skipping for alts and implementation for that. So maybe I should stress things aren't set in stone either! srry bout that.
And allowing people to skip the tutorial kind of defeats the whole purpose of even having it.
Oh well, my ignore list will be full, I guess.
Thats how they put it to the press and me at that community event. Things are still being worked out though, such as the skipping for alts and implementation for that. So maybe I should stress things aren't set in stone either! srry bout that.
Alright, thanks Avery. I'll suspend my displeasure until they make firmer decisions on the subject lol.
As it is, I don't mind being able to skip it once it's been completed the first time ( for alts and such ), but they really need to make the tutorial mandatory for first time players.
And allowing people to skip the tutorial kind of defeats the whole purpose of even having it.
Oh well, my ignore list will be full, I guess.
Thats how they put it to the press and me at that community event. Things are still being worked out though, such as the skipping for alts and implementation for that. So maybe I should stress things aren't set in stone either! srry bout that.
Alright, thanks Avery. I'll suspend my displeasure until they make firmer decisions on the subject lol.
As it is, I don't mind being able to skip it once it's been completed the first time ( for alts and such ), but they really need to make the tutorial mandatory for first time players.
Pretty sure you have to play through the first time, it was some French guys asking for the ability to skip it specifically for alts. It was at this point Gaute said that we might put a smuggling quest in to get you out of Tortage but you would still need to do the Destiny Quests (mid teens) - not sure how it would totally play out. I'll see if I can pull a screen shot up from video footage showing some of the destiny quests and levels they are that I filmed. (Not NDA
looking forward to the first 20 levels, and at least people know their classes once you group with them.
Yeah whatever.....Have played almost every MMO in existence and their are always idiots that don't know a lick of what their class can do even after playing it to the cap!! The 1st 20 lvls won't teach anyone anything! I guarantee you your gonna see msg after msg of help me, what this do BS...hehe
Kemih ~ 13 Red Mage | Currently playing FFXI & LOTRO, awaiting Warhammer Online & Aion...
Problem is actually two fold. People might know there class, but that doesn't mean they will know how there class opperates in a group situation. That is always where i have my issues in games, when solo classes get into groups and try to play like they are still solo... Always fun.
Let me see what i gathered from following AOC rants
1. Tortage (20 levels) will be state of the art RPG experience. With excellent quests. Voice acted ... etc
2. You will have ability to enter shared multiplayer (aka "night") but you will not be able to do quests in groups (correct me if i am wrong)
3.You will be under subscription as normal for any MMO in this period
.....
Well so far my concerns are this
Newbie separated zone , is a great concept. Probably invented by Funcom for AOC. But other (faster) developers snached it. Both LOTRO and Tabula Rasa use this. But they use it for first 5 levels.
AOC however uses it for 20 out of maximum 40 levels. This is half game. So dont tell me it takes few hours.
And if it does , isn't is bit strange that first 20 levels are doable in few hours and second 20 take few months?
Also , as stated above - we are talking some of the best quests in game ( i am positive Tortage will be excellent ) so its a shame to rush trough it. But i just know i will rush it - cause i am lame MMO addict that can not wait to get into the "action"
I dont know. It all sounds to me , as a feature that was great in concept , but it is bad idea in practice.
AoC has a total of 80 levels so should be enough to do.
Man I want some of your Liquor!!
Would be nice to see all new MMO adopting a trial isle, or testing area. It's all fully MMO...no single player crap, but instead of just reaching a certain lvl to leave the area, you must pass an in-depth class tests and trials that really make you use ur skills and think to get through them, not click the button and see a fireball hit an enemy...{ok u learned fireball, move along now}
Kemih ~ 13 Red Mage | Currently playing FFXI & LOTRO, awaiting Warhammer Online & Aion...
Ok 80 levels , not 40 .... still 20 levels of newbie island. Its a serious chunk of player levels.1/4 of character progression ...
I really wonder how it will turn out...
You are not listening its seems
The level progression is an exponential curve. Flat at the beginning and steep towards the end. The first 20, most probably the first 40, levels will fly by like nothing. However, you can always and at any time leave single mode just by talking to the guy in the inn.
The idea is very good. They can use that part as trial without any modification. If you dont sub you just cant leave tortage. This is also taking away the server load at release. You are not sharing a zone with 5000 people after first log in. No queueing and camping for quest mobs. Man, that was the worst part of vanguards release. To be number 16 in the queue and when it finally was my turn a fekking caster stole my mobs. It ruined a lot of the immersivness of the quests. You know.. the frist impression counts. You dont get ganked for a few levels if you dont like. And it is a very immersive way to lead a player into the game.
I did a rough calculation and recognized that i never teamed with anyone in any mmo i played for the first 10-20 levels. There usually was just to much to learn.
Did I ever say , I started playing MMO's yesterday ?
The concept of TUTORIAL ZONE was in MMOs since City of Heroes, all the way from EQ2 to LOTRO and Tabula Rasa.
But it never was first 20 levels. Which is a lot of levels no mater how you put it.
And saying that you can reach level 20 in AOC , in just few hours of play ... to be honest , that doesn't sound to good either
Anyway , forget it.
I dont want to sound as I have something against AOC. As I am just eager to play it as anybody here ...
Look at EQ2. You have to be 10+ to be able to leave the city and you have to be 18+ to leave antonica. EQ2 quest design became more and more non-linear, but Greater Faydark, Antonica and Commonlands are basically huge tutorial zones. If Tortage is big enough i dont see any problems with it. Funcom inreased the size of Tortage. It should be ok.
It looks like you have your name right man.Several posters have explained the "why" of this and it seems that you don`t want to understand or is doing it on purpose.If you want to rush whether you play the game solo or in multi go ahead but you`ll miss a lot
Do you think that going from 20 to 80 will be a picnic walk?
In the land of Predators,the lion does not fear the jackals...
Actually its not that bad at all and actually a great concept by funcom. AOC has 80 levels. from the newb area in ANY mmorpg we are ussually alone anyway. The average mmo has level 50-60 level cap. AOC has 80. SO it still works out in the end.
"Don't worry, be happy" - Bobby Mcferrin