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So I uninstalled WAR today...
Aethios
Member Posts: 1,527
NO YOU CAN'T HAVE MY ACCOUNT. I only got in for the Preview Weekend, which ends tomorrow. Target is selling the pre-order box for $1. Go buy one and you can play on the 7th.
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Maybe my expectations were too high. I don't know. All I can say is that WAR was too much like WoW, and with all the bugs and crashing and stupid quirky things that just weren't right, I'd rather be playing WoW (which is to say not at all). To give a little background, I played a Chosen and made it to Rank 10, Renown 7 within a few hours. My issues are not with the Chosen class, I liked it very much, but with the game as a whole.
RvR and PvP
RvR is a bit of a mess. Nobody has a clue what they are supposed to be doing. Good luck finding people to group with, everyone (including people who rolled healers) just run into the fray head first and start spraying spells. On the realm I played on, Destruction won every time hands down, but it was still like walking into a meat grinder. The Order players would all bunch up at a bottleneck and toast anyone who came too close. Not that this is a bad thing, but it's far flung from the dynamic, PvE/PvP mixed battlefields I was expecting. I also felt the RvR areas were a bit small, but that's probably because they were in the early game and the zones were focused more on PvE questing. I'm sure they get bigger towards the upper tiers.
Community
The community is not bad so far, but it's very very quiet. I've seen the usual "it's still in beta so your opinion doesn't matter" trolls, people who steal kills, people who get upset because they can't solo PQs or whatever. I've also had random strangers save my life, random strangers answer cryptic questions with detailed answers, random strangers offer to give away loot that's not for their class. Overall I'd say it's pretty balanced, and a little better than you'd expect from any MMO.
PvE and Questing
The PvE element is, to be totally honest, a complete joke IMO. I would frequently have to turn off my auras (Chosen are like reverse Paladins) to avoid aggroing every mob in the area, including non-hostile mobs and even level 1 critters. Even if I did aggro them all, I had no problems soloing 5-6 mobs at a time, as long as they weren't Champions (WAR equivalent of 'Elite'). NPC damage is a joke.
I would often have mobs run away for no reason, even before I had done any damage. At first I thought maybe this was part of the AI, but as I played on it became obvious that even mobs who shouldn't run away (such as Champion mobs) were still tucking tail and running. I can only assume it's a bug.
I think people are expecting to be able to level from RvR alone, and I can tell you now that doing so would be painful. It would take easily 3-4 times as long to do it that way. The quests give HUGE amounts of experience, and you simply can't compete with that in RvR. Also, the gear that you can buy once you've reached a certain Renown Rank also requires a PvE Rank, usually higher than the Renown Rank. This means you'll have to do a lot of PvE questing/grinding to get where you need to be.
Money
That brings us to the money issue. Even playing as far as I did, saving every bit of money I could, gathering skills and all included, not to mention all the extra grinding I did just to farm money, I was still able to buy only 4 of the 12 pieces of the Dominion set. There were times where I struggled to be able to afford even my basic class spells. Needless to say, prices on gear and spells are too high, or money drops are too low.
Crashes
As was mentioned several times before, I believe, crashing is a serious issue right now with the game. My own client crashed roughly every 30 mins, and it seemed to get much much worse when I tried to do RvR. Often after a crash I would lose levels or quest credit, and I'd have to do it again. I thought maybe it was my system causing it to crash, but after doing a little research I found hundreds of posts and dozens of comments in game from all kinds of people who were having the same issue. It seems to be totally random, and a problem with the client rather than with our systems.
Collision Detection
In my experience, the collision detection didn't work properly either. Sometimes I would get hung up on small objects (like a brick in the road) and other times my character would teleport on top of objects that he clearly couldn't climb (like trees or lamp posts). Player collision was sketchy at best, and worked roughly half the time. It was also frustrating being a tank and getting blocked in by my own team mates. I think collision detection would have worked better if it didn't apply to people of your own faction.
Conclusion
I won't tell you not to play this game, because I do have a sincere respect for what they were trying to do. I think, though, that they shaved it a little too close to the WoW cookie-cutter and focused a little too much on the aesthetic decoration. Maybe the game will be better closer to release, but I doubt it. With about 3 weeks to go, "it's only beta" doesn't really hold water anymore. All we can do is wait and see.
EDIT: I tried to break it up a bit so it's not such a wall-o'-text. I hope it helped.
EDIT 2: Added a few points that I forgot, and a notice at the top. Please stop sending me PMs to beg for my account!
Comments
All i can say is play it later in levels, but to each their won. This game is a gem to me. Bottom line is not everyone likes the same things. Now back to preview weekend.
maybe the game is just not for you.
or maybe you shouldent beta test games
you expect to mush from a beta.
hopefully they will fix all this by release......lets hope that they dont do what aoc did....
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Keep it on topic people.
Thanks.
To be fair, I expected bugs and issues, and ultimately they aren't what made me stop playing. I just didn't expect them to be so serious. I am honestly disappointed, I really wanted to like this game, and I was hoping it would turn out great so I'd have something to do. Now I'm back to the drawing board, so to speak.
PM sent.
Thx for an excellent review OP, you give an un-bias review and that is what i am looking for, there are so many people here that talk so good of Warhammer they forget all the 'realistic' stuff about the game and other potential players interest.
Yeah thanks for the honest review. Looks like if Mythic doesn't fix things in time then 2008 will be a complete bust for mmo games.
As far as money goes,the auction house hasn't been put in yet.So there is another money maker that will help when it is introduced.
Don't forget this is game is still in beta.
I recall a time, towards the middle of May, when a certain other game was being praised up and down on these forums for being the greatest thing since sliced bread.. and yea... we all know how that's turned out.
Pre-release of MMOs: the fanbois and euphoria of something new are in full swing. Not too long after release, when the ether of "shiny, not WoW-new-ness" settles, the same bashing, hatred, and anti-<insert game here> will commence.
Point being, much like AoC, the game is being hyped, and gushed over, but the reality will set in and we'll all be back here bitching. (Of course, I sure hope Mythic is more competent than Funcom, at least I'm sure they are, but the previous comment stands.)
Now for my take on the game itself.. I've been playing WAR on and off for some time in Close Beta. My issue is simply I can't get into it. There's nothing that draws me back into the game. Same tired quests, sub-par graphics, and near retarded looking character models all are turn offs.
Now, I don't put that much faith in graphics as I do game play, but when both are bland at best, now what?
I'll accept the fact that maybe WAR isn't my type of game, you'll not hear me bash it, or bash anybody who wants to play it. I'm sure it's a good game to many and I'm happy for those people who enjoy it. For me, I guess I was hoping for more out of it than we're getting.
Bottom Line: It's not the PvP or game I was hoping for, and it's certainly not going to be the "end all" to MMO's that other people are worshiping right now. I'm sure however the game will be no failure, it will etch out a solid playerbase and retain subscribers better than most, because both the Warhammer IP as well as DAoC fans, and people who feel they're trapped with a lack of good MMO options will embrace it.
I just think it's sad everybody will embrace and love WAR, not because it's a good game (because it's sub-par at best) but simply because there is a lack of options. Call it a hatred for undeserved success.
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Hey TSW Players http://www.unfair.co/ for Mission guides, Lore Locations and stuff....
If some people are saying it gets even better later levels, then Im sold. I believe no other game has been as fun in the early levels as War. People are judging the game as if the first 10 levels are the entire thing, but this is just the beginning and you're instantly thrown into the fray. In what fantasy game did you ever rescue people from burning buildings in your home town, have to recruit loyal farm folk and have them possibly try to kill you and get uppity, find suspicious barrels floating in the river and find out its like Bilbo sneaking up the river with dwarves in the Hobbit, have to disturb the graves of the dead to release a maelstrom of souls to summon a demon, watched a giant come breaking trees to kill you all, slain a dragon, shot down harpies with a bolt gun, fired huge cannons onto a battle field and flew through the air to leap upon a battlement all before level 10!
I was worried that later content would lose replay value as the fun lower level stuff might if done too often, but stories of how five held an entire siege castle by blocking the main gates and defending makes me optimistic, not to mention all the incredibly badass gear I saw the 30th players wearing in videos. Sign me up, Im going to War.
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'Cry Havoc, and Let Loose the Dogs of WARRRRR!!!'
most of the critisism that i have seen leveled at WAR is that people are bored of class/level based stuff, or that its not different enough from WoW, or that its too different to WoW (generally made by people who only played wow) so thanks for highlighting some other issues.
i think im going to play anyway, i dont expect a beta to be perfect and frankly the fact that people are comparing it to release games speaks in its favour, im sure i can cope with the occasional bug and i think i have the patience to wait until people have a bit more experience playing before deriding the pvp as a mess.
I feel the same way, and the same could be said about WoW for the last several years. The game is simply not good enough to warrant the wild success it's received since release. I can say with certainty that WAR is not going to change that at all, and that's disappointing.
This is why i'm not going to allow myself to have high hopes for the game. If you have high hopes you will also judge the game more harshly, and chances are you will be dissapointed.
I have yet to find a game that is better than wow, and I highly doubt WAR will be better. But i'm giving it a shot mostly because i'm a big fan of Warhammer and used to play DAoC. I hope I will be happily surprised.
I ve said it before, the game is a GEM to me. Not everyone is going to like it, and i think alot had expectations beyond belief. I love it for what it is, and thats fun. That is all that matters to me.
Its not that these are bad games but its just more of the same. The MMO industry just cant seem to break out of the box that they have built for themselves by churning out warmed over reissues of the same tired formulas ad infinitum.
You can call us old codgers or malcontents or elitists. Whatever we are we are not wrong about the status quo never changing regardless of the fact that it has been stagnant for nigh on ten years. With only slight departure from the norm (SWG classic).
Its proof positive that familiarity breeds contempt.
Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
Every game has similar stories, especially EVE. I absolutely loved EVE but my biggest issue with the game was its penchant for leaving loopholes for griefers to exploit and harass innocent people.
My point is that you have to look at the game as a whole, and not just the bits you like, especially gear. The characters look pretty much awesome, and I went through a lot of trouble to get gear for my guy, but ultimately the gear and the cool stories weren't enough to make me suffer through the money grinding and game crashing.
Odd, i haven t crashed once. Anyways it s a great game to me:)
somebody got suicide ganked.
RvR and PvP
The initial zones are extremely small, they pretty much double in size each teir tillt hey are massive. As for folks not knowing what they are doing... you get very similar to that in wow BG's and RvR in DAOC... thats why folks like me only group with guild mates and recruit selectively. Keeps you from relying on that idiot rune priest who thinks nuking that tank for 5% is his job, not saving your butt.
This is what RvR looks like when your running with a group that knows what its doing.
http://files.filefront.com/TDKwmv/;11548029;/fileinfo.html
Yes we are still in the zerg unfortunately at that level... because atm thats really all there is. Now that NDA is down we are working on a Preview weekend video. Should have more locations in it in a few days.
PvE and Questing
Yeah mobs are faily easy early on... your also a tank class and able to take hits more than casters and such. For instance my RP cant take more than 2 mobs or Im dead, and 2 takes lots of healing. As you get higher teirs it gets more difficult... specifically on PQ's. As for the mobs running away, a bug seems to have been implemented this latest patch from the CE CB mobs didnt do that previously. This is new.
As for leveling 100% in RvR... I disagree. My group and I leveled 1 - 5 via quests and 5 - 8 via scenarios. If you win a scenario you get 5000+ xp which at low levels is huge... if you have a good group you win most of your scenarios.
As for open field RVR dot he kill quests they are repeatable. The T1 zone its kill 5 players and you get 6 silver and 1000xp. Take you maybe 2 or 3 hours to get the 1.6 gold needed to get your full pvp gear for that level range and your set. You will also level rather fast. If you take objectives you will also RR very fast. I hit 12 yesterday with doing nothing but pvp after level 5 and Im in full gear and RR10.
Once you get to T2, the kill quest is 10 palyers, and your getting 25 silver a pop... this quickly makes money a non issue.
As for your collision detection issues... in 70 hours of gameplay I have only noticed issues with getting hit by your lagging group mates... thats zone lag due to massive overpopulation IE stress test... I have never ended up inside or on top of a tree...
In conclusion
I think you ran with the zerg and didnt have friends to play with. This lead to frustration due to idiots not knowing what they were doing and getting you killed.
Your issues with PVE and Money were either low level stuff or simple ignorance as the game is new and not knowing the ways to best make cash. The games fine... just need to spend the time to learn it IMO.
you play for a day and say it sux? the game rox. you didnt get get to the point of even building your toon or experianceing half the content. give a review after a few days.
{ Mod Edit }
I know this game isn't for me. I'm just bored of this type of game fighting style. So many mmos play the same way (click on baddie, click 1, click 2, click 3...etc until the baddie is dead). You can't dodge, when you run you can be 10 feet ahead of the mob and they still hit you with their little swords and if they shoot an arrow or do a spell on you it follows you like a heat seeking missle. I'm just so bored of this type of game style. I want more. I won't be playing this or any more MMO's like this. I'll wait until something better comes out.
If you don't like the game you don't like it. However if you kind of like the game but are frustrated by little things I'd try it again when it hits open beta. They most likely will have the full graphics turned on and the debugging software turned off and things will look and feel better.
As for the confused T1 RvR zerg, there are three T1 zones and only CvE really has this issue in my experience. If you don't like the big zerg on zerg then try one of the other ones.
You judge a game by your first impressions. This is true about most things actually. I'm not saying it's right, but it's true.
This is why I don't play betas of games i'm really interested in. I might get a "false" first impression. Because let's face it, we don't play betas to try and find bugs and glitches in the game.
Fixed.
I will wait for the real Open Beta to start and see what people have to say about fixes, and if it sounds promising I will likely try it again. Like you said, I enjoyed a good chunk of the game and I thought it was very clever and full of life, but small issues cropped up every step of the way and it was just too much.
You may be right about the T1 RvR, I don't know. I tried some of the other factions but only enough to find out whether I liked the class or not, and I think the highest I made it aside from my Chosen guy was level 3.