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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. Wow, bugs and crashing? Is this before Open Beta? 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. It's called open parties, you clearly have no idea how to join them, because there are always a few of them dedicated to RvR, and the point of RvR was so that you could just run in and cast spells. Order wins every time on the server I played on, they haven't implemented balancing mechanics yet. Too small? Wait till Keeps. 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. You must have rolled on an usually quiet server. The chat was flying so fast I couldn't even read a sentence. 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. This is before Open Beta, there is still 26 days to fix major bugs and tweak damage. You really have no clue. 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. Read above. 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. I leveled doing PQ's, and I have leveled a few times from scenarios. I have not grinded or quested ONCE, and I am Rank 9, RR5. 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. Or maybe you need to go kill a few things, there are quite a few mobs that drop 30-60 bronze per kill. The set is about 1 or 2g I can' quite remember, but it's not to difficult to collect if you do Scenarios and PQ's, etc.
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. Mmm.... PRE OPEN-BETA. 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. Read above, and that wouldn't work, part of the mechanic is so that you can't have 50 people bashing 1 guy with a hammer. 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. Cookie-cutter? Are you stupid? PQ's, open world RvR, city sieges, keeps, 20 unique classes, city ranks, guild levels, renown ranks? And the excuse really does hold, what do you think they are going to do for the 2 weeks between preview weekend and open beta? Take a vacation? 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! He's still going to play it :P
Fixed.
how are they going to put stuff to balence open world rvr
Originally posted by mrroboto40 Read above, and that wouldn't work, part of the mechanic is so that you can't have 50 people bashing 1 guy with a hammer.
That's true, and it's something I hadn't though of. I suppose this is one of those mechanics that just takes some getting used to.
As for the rest of your "response", it's hard to take you seriously when everything you say can be summed up with "it's beta and you're an idiot". Please try to troll less and give examples like the above, otherwise your opinion is irrelevant.
Honest review. I disagree about RvR and PvE. I find them both challenging, fun, and propely designed. The money thing is dead on. I never had 1 cent because it all went to spells. It's a stupid system.
Nah, it may need a little tweaking...but realistically a game NEEDS heavy money output. Otherwise you end up with a blisteringly inflated economy in less than a week. Just look at WoW, ever since they added the gold-heavy daily quests its economy has shot up fast. Things that would have only cost 2 gold are now reaching up to 300-500 gold a pop since release.
Some control MUST be maintained over the amount of gold floating around in these games....else it gets silly.
I did'nt uninstall it yet, but will probably NOT buy the game. I find myself already bored with the game, it's way too similar to all the others mmo out there, like WOW, LOTR. Playing WAR feels exactly the same.
Am I the only one that finds it funny that he complains about the RvR and that no one knows what they're doing when everyone been playing for a day? What exactly to you expect from a bunch of people who started playing the game yesterday?
Something else I forgot to mention were the Public Quests. They were a disappointment as well. I (and many others, likely) were expecting a huge effort that you can jump into, solo a bit, get some loot or whatever and feel like you are a part of something larger that contributes to the game. Instead, it's obvious that the PQs were designed for like 5 people, instead of the 30-40 that play them. The population between PQs is imbalanced as well, leaving probably 3/4 of them to be totally empty. The few that are completable have so many people working on them, you can't possibly have any hope of getting loot. Only the top 3 or so contributors actually get gear, unless you count the Influence Rewards which is usually only 1 usable item per zone.
They should have done it like the Battlegrounds in WoW, let people participate on a solo or small-group basis, earn Influence, exchange the Influence for gear and let them come back for more. Add the purple and blue items as Influence rewards and make them very, very expensive. As it stands now, 99% of the game's population has no hope of ever seeing a purple item before Rank 40, which gives those few who do get them a big lead in RvR.
Also, the bosses in PQs are too weak. With 30-40 people doing the PQ, the boss dies in 4-5 seconds. They should have anticipated that so many people would want to participate, or at least design the PQs to be dynamic and scale up with the number of people. It's very underwhelming.
I did'nt uninstall it yet, but will probably NOT buy the game. I find myself already bored with the game, it's way too similar to all the others mmo out there, like WOW, LOTR. Playing WAR feels exactly the same.
GUYS AN MMO PLAYS LIKE THE OTHER MMOS OF THE GENRE.
I feel the same way, i'm bored of FPS, i want a different system besides point and click with weapons. We should make an FPS and call it an MMO and have it play like an RPG right?
Originally posted by krackajap Am I the only one that finds it funny that he complains about the RvR and that no one knows what they're doing when everyone been playing for a day? What exactly to you expect from a bunch of people who started playing the game yesterday?
I would expect an RvR game to teach you the basics of RvR, and encourage people to group up and cooperate. Instead, we get constant reminders that scenarios are "available at any time" and encouragement to "just jump in and play!" which obviously leads to people playing their classes badly and soloing/zerging. They could have tried a little harder to point people in the right direction.
Originally posted by Seaka GUYS AN MMO PLAYS LIKE THE OTHER MMOS OF THE GENRE.I feel the same way, i'm bored of FPS, i want a different system besides point and click with weapons. We should make an FPS and call it an MMO and have it play like an RPG right?
If that's the case, why make more than one game at all? Why not just have one MMO and make all the other MMOs shut down, since they will always be exactly the same game?
Am I the only one that finds it funny that he complains about the RvR and that no one knows what they're doing when everyone been playing for a day? What exactly to you expect from a bunch of people who started playing the game yesterday?
I would expect an RvR game to teach you the basics of RvR, and encourage people to group up and cooperate. Instead, we get constant reminders that scenarios are "available at any time" and encouragement to "just jump in and play!" which obviously leads to people playing their classes badly and soloing/zerging. They could have tried a little harder to point people in the right direction.
God forbid the players actually experiment for themselves and learn how to do things on their own instead of getting their hand held the entite time. If you are able to understand the basic concept of what you're supposed to do, imo Mythic did their job. It's up to the players to organize and heighten their gameplay.
I think the OP made some decent posts. I too agree that the "it's beta" excuse is weak due to the proximity of release. We saw the same argument last year with Tabula Rasa and even Vanguard before that, and some might argue AoC too. Look at TR and VG, it took them both nearly a year to get to a point that was approximately what people expected upon release.
My overall opinion: Games are releasing far too soon in the development cycle for today's fickle mmorpg players. Yes there are other issues with the new games like the "been there, done that" syndrome, but really I think the biggest complaint I have is the unfinished releases.
GUYS AN MMO PLAYS LIKE THE OTHER MMOS OF THE GENRE.
I feel the same way, i'm bored of FPS, i want a different system besides point and click with weapons. We should make an FPS and call it an MMO and have it play like an RPG right?
If that's the case, why make more than one game at all? Why not just have one MMO and make all the other MMOs shut down, since they will always be exactly the same game?
What a silly, pointless post.
Well GEE!
Why don't we just pick one FPS and stop selling all of the others? How about we just pick one RTS game and let all of the others go unsold? All of those games are very similar to one another. That's why it's called a GENRE!!!
People who complain that game X has similarities to game Y of the same genre are the ones that make the silly, pointless posts...
Thanks for the honest beta review. I'm in the beta as well and pretty much agree with your findings. However, the only crash I encoutered was with a server-wide crash last night. Also, I totally agree with your disappointment on some of the WoW cookie-cutter stuff. In particular, I was very disappointed with the combat. It's straight EQ, WoW, pretty-much-every-other fantasy MMORPG click-and-wait styled combat. I was hoping for a little innovation, but I guess that's one part of the wheel Mythic didn't want to mess with - too bad. It's not a game killer for me, since I did have fun last night while playing, but I just felt like I was playing every other MMORPG out there while in combat.
I also encountered a lot of lag, but this is a beta stress test, so no surprises there. Also, AI pathing was pretty bad. I had a white lion that I tried for a brief time last night and it was nearly impossible for me to get that damn lion to follow me anywhere, let alone attack anything I ordered it to attack. I didn't try any other pet class, so I've no idea if this is an across the board occurance or maybe I just got the "special" pet.
The loot drops were utter crap. I dodn't get anything my maurader could use. I got plenty of stuff for other classes, though. Plus, I got a quest reward axe that was lower DPS than my newbie starter axe. WTF? I hope Mythic does a thorough itemization and rewards pass before live. I actually thought itemization was worse than AoC.
I really enjoyed the public quests. I ended up doing that for most of my play time last night. I think this aspect of the game will be a big hit. The regular PvE quests were just standard MMORPG fare, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, imo.
The look of the game was a mixed bag for me. The new character customizations, for example, were basically choices between ugly and uglier, even for the "pretty" races. I even think the customization choices are fewer than WoW's. In this day and age, having such a limited pallet for new character customization is just lazy and a crime. Luckily it looks like we can use armor dyes early in the game, so with a good helmet and armor, I won't have to look at the uglies.
I'll still hang on to my pre-order. I believe with my experience from playing last night there will be enough to keep me entertained for a little while. But by no means is WAR the awesome I was hoping for at this stage. We'll see after live and I get into higher levels.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.
GUYS AN MMO PLAYS LIKE THE OTHER MMOS OF THE GENRE.
I feel the same way, i'm bored of FPS, i want a different system besides point and click with weapons. We should make an FPS and call it an MMO and have it play like an RPG right?
If that's the case, why make more than one game at all? Why not just have one MMO and make all the other MMOs shut down, since they will always be exactly the same game?
What a silly, pointless post.
I just think devs should strive to be unique. I understand why everyone wants to make a game like WoW because it worked for Blizzard. WAR may work and millions of people may play it but devs should try for original game play. I've played dozens of MMO's, free and pay and most have similar characteristics and game play. In the past few years I've seen so little originality in MMO's. While other games are trying to be more unique MMO's are stuck. Their are a few new one that are coming out which look promising so we'll see what happens. I don't know how a true FPS MMO would work, it could work out well but it could also alienate the people who don't do well in FPS games. Twitch games are a monster on their own, if your good at them you'll do well but if you're not good at them then for an MMO I can see it being a turn off to a big amount of people. Also the FPS hacks will likely follow into the MMO world so you'll have auto aim, and see through walls...etc. I guess no matter what online game their are going to be hacks and crap like that though. Their are games that are part FPS but give help to aim, and just let the user tweek the aim if they want to do a headshot for instance. Maybe this would even up the score a little bit. I know you can't make a game that makes eveyone happy.
They way to fix that is come out with many different types of MMO's. Different types of game play.
RvR is a bit of a mess. Nobody has a clue what they are supposed to be doing.
How strange that on the preview weekend of an unreleased game, people wouldn't know "what they are supposed to be doing".. This is a clear sign that this game will fail.
We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot
... with all the bugs and crashing and stupid quirky things that just weren't right.... RvR and PvP
RvR is a bit of a mess. Nobody has a clue what they are supposed to be doing. Community
The community is not bad so far, but it's very very quiet. PvE and Questing
The PvE element is, to be totally honest, a complete joke IMO. I would often have mobs run away for no reason.... I think people are expecting to be able to level from RvR alone.... Money
That brings us to the money issue. Crashes
As was mentioned several times before, I believe, crashing is a serious issue right now with the game. 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. Conclusion
I won't tell you not to play this game....
It sounds like I played an entirely different game from this guy.
~ There are some bugs, nothing major. Strange, quirky things? I have no idea what this means. Crashing??? I played two sessions: one for 7 hours, took a break and then one for 6 hours. I DID NOT CRASH EVEN ONCE. It's not the game -- it's YOU.
~ RvR was excellent, strategic and tactical. I have no idea what the hell this guy is talking about except to say he never played DAoC. If he says that he did, he probably played for one day, just the way he played WAR for one day and now disses it.
~ PvE and questing is fine. Again, no idea what this knucklehead is going on about.
~ Mob AI can be a bit whacky. Mythic knows that and will fix it.
~ Mythic has stated from the beginning that leveling through RvR was possible but NOT advisable. You should mix PvE with RvR for the best game experience.
~ Money -- sorry, but they do not dump a ton of gold on starting characters. It's like that in every game. AFTER you have an established character with a lot of gold, the MAIN will bankroll the alternate characters. This is how it works in every game. The first character is always the hardest up for money.
~ WHAT crashes??? I played a total of 13 hours and never crashed once. If you are crashing you have an incompatibility issue with your computer. Fix it and the game will not crash.
~ Collision detection -- works fine, but it is slightly sticky. Back the frak up and jump or run around when you hit an obstacle!
~ He won't tell us "not to play this game." LOL. His whole one-day mini-review was an exercise in negativity. GBTW.
First of all thanks to the OP for writing his thoughts on the game and breaking it down well. On a personal note I think a lot of issues you have stated in your post are quick balance fixes. Damage done from NPC's, XP payout, money etc. Up until the major release date they will see the issues and the responses from people like yourself and it should be sorted in the first month.
I would be more concerned if you said the graphics was very poor or the like. Thanks for the post though, quite informative.
i bet you only tried one class? also what do you consider a good MMO? what cureent MMO are you playing besides WAR? and please don't say conan, vanguard or eve.
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. </end>
are you serious? because there are a lack of options? so now it's the video game industries fault that there are a lack of solid MMOs out there? and WAR is a worse game because these MMO's that don't exist could be better? well when you and your company makes that uber mmo that you are imagining please let me beta test it.
ALSO this is bothering me:
"Also, I totally agree with your disappointment on some of the WoW cookie-cutter stuff. In particular, I was very disappointed with the combat. It's straight EQ, WoW, pretty-much-every-other fantasy MMORPG click-and-wait styled combat. "
please tell me about this "innovative" combat system you imagine? i dont get you people. your complaining about the combat and all, but dont mention what they could have done to make the combat better? please tell us about this revolutionary combat system?
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. 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.
Ya my problem is its not the game for me either. Yet I feel that if *I* try to explain my point of view I'm bashing the game. Then someone will come on and tell me its the best MMO ever (sorry UO was the best imho with SWG Pre-CU in second place).
Its all about opinion and games are subjective... Otherwise WoW would have to be the best MMO ever and I don't like that one either. So at some point you have to realize that its your opinion, mine or someone elses.
I agree in that I'll be happy for people who play and enjoy WAR.. simply because I'm a game player and failed games don't help me.
The MMO market is dull, boring and saturated with the same game over and over. 90% of game companies can talk about how innovative their game is.. but the core of most is just recycled BS that people were bored with by 2000....
The game succeeds due to the IP or the fact the market is so full of crap and this is new crap... I mean c'mon AoC has sold 100's of thousands of copies and how many here still play?
I'll expect WAR to sell/ship over a million copies with ease.. but really I just see another crap game.
Take no offense WAR fans.. everything that is level/class based is crap to me but I still try to play them.
Altho one thing I don't agree with from the quote above...
I don't think any real hard core DAoC fan is going to play WAR just because the market is moldy... I think they will either sit in DAoC with the other 2 to 3 thousand people who play....
Wondering where the fark the origins server is... or playing Origins wondering who the crack dealer was for the people who decided to mutate the actual game into some hybrid of crap...
Or posting on VN about how bored they are... cuz WAR is crap.. DAoC is dead and WoW sux.
I was only in closed beta for 7 months or so and I gave a lot of feedback. Yes they were fast to fix bugs, deal with people who were exploiting or being counter productive to beta... very professional...
But the game was on a fast track with a hard set dead line long before the content cuts (no I don't care that content was cut).
But...
I'll keep an eye on the forums and see the press releases and maybe I'll try the game a few months after launch. Its not like anything ground breaking is coming out soon regardless and by December I'll probably be bored enough to give it a shot.
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.
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.
I think a lot of what you ran into is mainly because this is a preview weekend which means that the game is still very much in closed beta.
Things like people just running into combat with no planning or strats will certainly not happen once people are forming premades and actually are figuring out the classes.
I think one thing to keep in mind is that this is a new game with a different way of doing things. I would take a look at all your skills and see if you can form strats and such. Also I would try finding a group of people through the open grouping system, or maybe finding a group of people that you can run around with.
The game is definitely more fun in a group especially doing RvR, because you know the healer has your back, you have the MDPS' back,etc.
With PvE there are known pathing issues on mobs, and I would suggest reading and enjoying the quest dialog. It's very well thought out. I understand this was just your first impression which is always important, but I don't think you understood a lot of the aspects of the game, mainly due to the lack of tutorial of any kind.
I would give the game a more thorough look and really play the game as if you were paying for it, so that you're not just finding things that you're missing but you're accepting what you have and making the best out of it. The game is very immersive and enjoyable once you get into it and find that group of people you like playing with.
To Antarius: If you haven't played the game in months, it's a completely different game. Hell the game seems to make leaps and bounds of improvement every phase. I would suggest giving it a shot in Open Beta, as I'm sure it'll be different then than it is now by far as well.
--------------------------------------------- I live to fight, and fight to live.
Comments
Fixed.
how are they going to put stuff to balence open world rvr
ps ilike everything else you said
That's true, and it's something I hadn't though of. I suppose this is one of those mechanics that just takes some getting used to.
As for the rest of your "response", it's hard to take you seriously when everything you say can be summed up with "it's beta and you're an idiot". Please try to troll less and give examples like the above, otherwise your opinion is irrelevant.
Balance you say? Why you will become a chicken if you pick on the little guys in RvR territory! Literally!
------------------------------
'Cry Havoc, and Let Loose the Dogs of WARRRRR!!!'
Honest review.
I disagree about RvR and PvE. I find them both challenging, fun, and propely designed.
The money thing is dead on. I never had 1 cent because it all went to spells. It's a stupid system.
-------------------------
I think that is brilliant. It's just appropriate and a funny detail imo.
Nah, it may need a little tweaking...but realistically a game NEEDS heavy money output. Otherwise you end up with a blisteringly inflated economy in less than a week. Just look at WoW, ever since they added the gold-heavy daily quests its economy has shot up fast. Things that would have only cost 2 gold are now reaching up to 300-500 gold a pop since release.
Some control MUST be maintained over the amount of gold floating around in these games....else it gets silly.
I did'nt uninstall it yet, but will probably NOT buy the game. I find myself already bored with the game, it's way too similar to all the others mmo out there, like WOW, LOTR. Playing WAR feels exactly the same.
Am I the only one that finds it funny that he complains about the RvR and that no one knows what they're doing when everyone been playing for a day? What exactly to you expect from a bunch of people who started playing the game yesterday?
Something else I forgot to mention were the Public Quests. They were a disappointment as well. I (and many others, likely) were expecting a huge effort that you can jump into, solo a bit, get some loot or whatever and feel like you are a part of something larger that contributes to the game. Instead, it's obvious that the PQs were designed for like 5 people, instead of the 30-40 that play them. The population between PQs is imbalanced as well, leaving probably 3/4 of them to be totally empty. The few that are completable have so many people working on them, you can't possibly have any hope of getting loot. Only the top 3 or so contributors actually get gear, unless you count the Influence Rewards which is usually only 1 usable item per zone.
They should have done it like the Battlegrounds in WoW, let people participate on a solo or small-group basis, earn Influence, exchange the Influence for gear and let them come back for more. Add the purple and blue items as Influence rewards and make them very, very expensive. As it stands now, 99% of the game's population has no hope of ever seeing a purple item before Rank 40, which gives those few who do get them a big lead in RvR.
Also, the bosses in PQs are too weak. With 30-40 people doing the PQ, the boss dies in 4-5 seconds. They should have anticipated that so many people would want to participate, or at least design the PQs to be dynamic and scale up with the number of people. It's very underwhelming.
GUYS AN MMO PLAYS LIKE THE OTHER MMOS OF THE GENRE.
I feel the same way, i'm bored of FPS, i want a different system besides point and click with weapons. We should make an FPS and call it an MMO and have it play like an RPG right?
I would expect an RvR game to teach you the basics of RvR, and encourage people to group up and cooperate. Instead, we get constant reminders that scenarios are "available at any time" and encouragement to "just jump in and play!" which obviously leads to people playing their classes badly and soloing/zerging. They could have tried a little harder to point people in the right direction.
If that's the case, why make more than one game at all? Why not just have one MMO and make all the other MMOs shut down, since they will always be exactly the same game?
What a silly, pointless post.
I would expect an RvR game to teach you the basics of RvR, and encourage people to group up and cooperate. Instead, we get constant reminders that scenarios are "available at any time" and encouragement to "just jump in and play!" which obviously leads to people playing their classes badly and soloing/zerging. They could have tried a little harder to point people in the right direction.
God forbid the players actually experiment for themselves and learn how to do things on their own instead of getting their hand held the entite time. If you are able to understand the basic concept of what you're supposed to do, imo Mythic did their job. It's up to the players to organize and heighten their gameplay.
I think the OP made some decent posts. I too agree that the "it's beta" excuse is weak due to the proximity of release. We saw the same argument last year with Tabula Rasa and even Vanguard before that, and some might argue AoC too. Look at TR and VG, it took them both nearly a year to get to a point that was approximately what people expected upon release.
My overall opinion: Games are releasing far too soon in the development cycle for today's fickle mmorpg players. Yes there are other issues with the new games like the "been there, done that" syndrome, but really I think the biggest complaint I have is the unfinished releases.
1 other thing to mention : right now you are playing a massive pug . No RvR is organised at all , healer arent used to heal etc etc .
5-6 month after release with a bunch of guild with ppl at 40 and epic WAR/sack city will be SOOOO much beter than what ur doing right now .
If that's the case, why make more than one game at all? Why not just have one MMO and make all the other MMOs shut down, since they will always be exactly the same game?
What a silly, pointless post.
Well GEE!
Why don't we just pick one FPS and stop selling all of the others? How about we just pick one RTS game and let all of the others go unsold? All of those games are very similar to one another. That's why it's called a GENRE!!!
People who complain that game X has similarities to game Y of the same genre are the ones that make the silly, pointless posts...
Thanks for the honest beta review. I'm in the beta as well and pretty much agree with your findings. However, the only crash I encoutered was with a server-wide crash last night. Also, I totally agree with your disappointment on some of the WoW cookie-cutter stuff. In particular, I was very disappointed with the combat. It's straight EQ, WoW, pretty-much-every-other fantasy MMORPG click-and-wait styled combat. I was hoping for a little innovation, but I guess that's one part of the wheel Mythic didn't want to mess with - too bad. It's not a game killer for me, since I did have fun last night while playing, but I just felt like I was playing every other MMORPG out there while in combat.
I also encountered a lot of lag, but this is a beta stress test, so no surprises there. Also, AI pathing was pretty bad. I had a white lion that I tried for a brief time last night and it was nearly impossible for me to get that damn lion to follow me anywhere, let alone attack anything I ordered it to attack. I didn't try any other pet class, so I've no idea if this is an across the board occurance or maybe I just got the "special" pet.
The loot drops were utter crap. I dodn't get anything my maurader could use. I got plenty of stuff for other classes, though. Plus, I got a quest reward axe that was lower DPS than my newbie starter axe. WTF? I hope Mythic does a thorough itemization and rewards pass before live. I actually thought itemization was worse than AoC.
I really enjoyed the public quests. I ended up doing that for most of my play time last night. I think this aspect of the game will be a big hit. The regular PvE quests were just standard MMORPG fare, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, imo.
The look of the game was a mixed bag for me. The new character customizations, for example, were basically choices between ugly and uglier, even for the "pretty" races. I even think the customization choices are fewer than WoW's. In this day and age, having such a limited pallet for new character customization is just lazy and a crime. Luckily it looks like we can use armor dyes early in the game, so with a good helmet and armor, I won't have to look at the uglies.
I'll still hang on to my pre-order. I believe with my experience from playing last night there will be enough to keep me entertained for a little while. But by no means is WAR the awesome I was hoping for at this stage. We'll see after live and I get into higher levels.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.
If that's the case, why make more than one game at all? Why not just have one MMO and make all the other MMOs shut down, since they will always be exactly the same game?
What a silly, pointless post.
I just think devs should strive to be unique. I understand why everyone wants to make a game like WoW because it worked for Blizzard. WAR may work and millions of people may play it but devs should try for original game play. I've played dozens of MMO's, free and pay and most have similar characteristics and game play. In the past few years I've seen so little originality in MMO's. While other games are trying to be more unique MMO's are stuck. Their are a few new one that are coming out which look promising so we'll see what happens. I don't know how a true FPS MMO would work, it could work out well but it could also alienate the people who don't do well in FPS games. Twitch games are a monster on their own, if your good at them you'll do well but if you're not good at them then for an MMO I can see it being a turn off to a big amount of people. Also the FPS hacks will likely follow into the MMO world so you'll have auto aim, and see through walls...etc. I guess no matter what online game their are going to be hacks and crap like that though. Their are games that are part FPS but give help to aim, and just let the user tweek the aim if they want to do a headshot for instance. Maybe this would even up the score a little bit. I know you can't make a game that makes eveyone happy.
They way to fix that is come out with many different types of MMO's. Different types of game play.
How strange that on the preview weekend of an unreleased game, people wouldn't know "what they are supposed to be doing".. This is a clear sign that this game will fail.
We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time.
-T.S. Eliot
It sounds like I played an entirely different game from this guy.
~ There are some bugs, nothing major. Strange, quirky things? I have no idea what this means. Crashing??? I played two sessions: one for 7 hours, took a break and then one for 6 hours. I DID NOT CRASH EVEN ONCE. It's not the game -- it's YOU.
~ RvR was excellent, strategic and tactical. I have no idea what the hell this guy is talking about except to say he never played DAoC. If he says that he did, he probably played for one day, just the way he played WAR for one day and now disses it.
~ PvE and questing is fine. Again, no idea what this knucklehead is going on about.
~ Mob AI can be a bit whacky. Mythic knows that and will fix it.
~ Mythic has stated from the beginning that leveling through RvR was possible but NOT advisable. You should mix PvE with RvR for the best game experience.
~ Money -- sorry, but they do not dump a ton of gold on starting characters. It's like that in every game. AFTER you have an established character with a lot of gold, the MAIN will bankroll the alternate characters. This is how it works in every game. The first character is always the hardest up for money.
~ WHAT crashes??? I played a total of 13 hours and never crashed once. If you are crashing you have an incompatibility issue with your computer. Fix it and the game will not crash.
~ Collision detection -- works fine, but it is slightly sticky. Back the frak up and jump or run around when you hit an obstacle!
~ He won't tell us "not to play this game." LOL. His whole one-day mini-review was an exercise in negativity. GBTW.
~ Ancient Membership ~
First of all thanks to the OP for writing his thoughts on the game and breaking it down well. On a personal note I think a lot of issues you have stated in your post are quick balance fixes. Damage done from NPC's, XP payout, money etc. Up until the major release date they will see the issues and the responses from people like yourself and it should be sorted in the first month.
I would be more concerned if you said the graphics was very poor or the like. Thanks for the post though, quite informative.
i bet you only tried one class? also what do you consider a good MMO? what cureent MMO are you playing besides WAR? and please don't say conan, vanguard or eve.
are you serious? because there are a lack of options? so now it's the video game industries fault that there are a lack of solid MMOs out there? and WAR is a worse game because these MMO's that don't exist could be better? well when you and your company makes that uber mmo that you are imagining please let me beta test it.
ALSO this is bothering me:
"Also, I totally agree with your disappointment on some of the WoW cookie-cutter stuff. In particular, I was very disappointed with the combat. It's straight EQ, WoW, pretty-much-every-other fantasy MMORPG click-and-wait styled combat. "
please tell me about this "innovative" combat system you imagine? i dont get you people. your complaining about the combat and all, but dont mention what they could have done to make the combat better? please tell us about this revolutionary combat system?
Ya my problem is its not the game for me either. Yet I feel that if *I* try to explain my point of view I'm bashing the game. Then someone will come on and tell me its the best MMO ever (sorry UO was the best imho with SWG Pre-CU in second place).
Its all about opinion and games are subjective... Otherwise WoW would have to be the best MMO ever and I don't like that one either. So at some point you have to realize that its your opinion, mine or someone elses.
I agree in that I'll be happy for people who play and enjoy WAR.. simply because I'm a game player and failed games don't help me.
The MMO market is dull, boring and saturated with the same game over and over. 90% of game companies can talk about how innovative their game is.. but the core of most is just recycled BS that people were bored with by 2000....
The game succeeds due to the IP or the fact the market is so full of crap and this is new crap... I mean c'mon AoC has sold 100's of thousands of copies and how many here still play?
I'll expect WAR to sell/ship over a million copies with ease.. but really I just see another crap game.
Take no offense WAR fans.. everything that is level/class based is crap to me but I still try to play them.
Altho one thing I don't agree with from the quote above...
I don't think any real hard core DAoC fan is going to play WAR just because the market is moldy... I think they will either sit in DAoC with the other 2 to 3 thousand people who play....
Wondering where the fark the origins server is... or playing Origins wondering who the crack dealer was for the people who decided to mutate the actual game into some hybrid of crap...
Or posting on VN about how bored they are... cuz WAR is crap.. DAoC is dead and WoW sux.
I was only in closed beta for 7 months or so and I gave a lot of feedback. Yes they were fast to fix bugs, deal with people who were exploiting or being counter productive to beta... very professional...
But the game was on a fast track with a hard set dead line long before the content cuts (no I don't care that content was cut).
But...
I'll keep an eye on the forums and see the press releases and maybe I'll try the game a few months after launch. Its not like anything ground breaking is coming out soon regardless and by December I'll probably be bored enough to give it a shot.
By then.. I might decide I like it.
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.
I think a lot of what you ran into is mainly because this is a preview weekend which means that the game is still very much in closed beta.
Things like people just running into combat with no planning or strats will certainly not happen once people are forming premades and actually are figuring out the classes.
I think one thing to keep in mind is that this is a new game with a different way of doing things. I would take a look at all your skills and see if you can form strats and such. Also I would try finding a group of people through the open grouping system, or maybe finding a group of people that you can run around with.
The game is definitely more fun in a group especially doing RvR, because you know the healer has your back, you have the MDPS' back,etc.
With PvE there are known pathing issues on mobs, and I would suggest reading and enjoying the quest dialog. It's very well thought out. I understand this was just your first impression which is always important, but I don't think you understood a lot of the aspects of the game, mainly due to the lack of tutorial of any kind.
I would give the game a more thorough look and really play the game as if you were paying for it, so that you're not just finding things that you're missing but you're accepting what you have and making the best out of it. The game is very immersive and enjoyable once you get into it and find that group of people you like playing with.
To Antarius: If you haven't played the game in months, it's a completely different game. Hell the game seems to make leaps and bounds of improvement every phase. I would suggest giving it a shot in Open Beta, as I'm sure it'll be different then than it is now by far as well.
---------------------------------------------
I live to fight, and fight to live.