Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Drop in the bucket review from a casual player
Decadentia
Member Posts: 464
I don't frequent these boards as much as I used to. Admittedly I have rarely ever posted, however it would be nice to just see if anyone else feels similar towards this game as I do. While I enjoy the game, it also frustrates and even bores me at times. I may be far off base for some, and that's fine, perhaps i'm just venting. This will probably be long, so if you don't have a few minutes i'd probably just TLDR 
My Issues:
- PVE and PVE Quests - Now wait a minute you say, this game is for PVPers! That is completely true, I would also consider myself one. However, I think they could have worked slightly harder on generic quests. I'm not talking about Public Quests, or anything else, simply run of the mill quests. I can't count how many times Sergeant A has asked me to find Buddy Guy B who has gone missing....almost every time I find a body laying somewhere I have to investigate. That's fine with me, just don't make every 3rd quest I have to do investigating this dead body. I wish they had of just spent perhaps a week just brainstorming up other possibilities for quests, hell a drunken night at Mythic for all I care to brainstorm something up. Just throw me a bone. It just makes it more tolerable between my PVPing. That's not saying the WHOLE leveling system is a negative note, quite the opposite actually (i will hit on this later), just your run of the mill quests.
- Graphics - I personally find the graphics in this game to be quite bland. While some areas look beautiful and together, most of them seem as if the art direction was off. It reminds me similar of my opinion of EQ2 and the art direction they had going for it. I think this game looks more like an unpolished Guild Wars, with less sheen than anything. Which saddens me, because they have such a rich history and lore that I feel they are losing out with the current engine/graphics what have you. The graphics are an incredible turn-off for me, while I do enjoy content more, there has to be a slight appeal at the same time. I would relate it to going on a date with an incredibly nice and funny woman, however you just cannot get past the fact that you have no attraction at all.
The next part I would directly equate with graphics...
-Performance - I'm assuming the coding for this game is not tip top. The performance is absolutely horrible for the animation/graphics you get. While I understand the "War is out there" mentality, and a possibility of constant large scale fights between realms, the performance is simply not up to par. I would never reference a non-mmo to compare, so i'll compare two completely opposite spectrum games. 1. AOC, game looked beautiful, I could have it in large part on higher tweaked settings that had comparable stuttering with what I get in WAR now. 2. WoW, needless to say I could run multiple instances of it at the same time and nothing would go wrong, worse graphics...however the art direction to me made the game look better.
I guess what I am trying to say, the finished product does not look good, nor does it perform well. I would have preferred it to look even worse with better coding. Or perhaps invest more into the game, delay it another year, and make it look better with better coding.
For reference my specs: 8800GT 512mb, AMD x2 5600+ 2.9ghz, 2GB DDR2 800 ram
I have tried many of the "Player to Player" fixes and have seen some performance gain, but to me it still baffles me this game can stutter when really it doesn't seem like it should be using so much juice.
-Order vs Destruction Population and Class Population - At first it did not bother me. I experienced it in Beta, I read about it everywhere, I knew first hand that Destruction was going to outweigh the order. It's actually the first game where I didn't choose what I first wanted ( Destruction ) and rolled Order to help the numbers. I'm a drop in the bucket, but I feel i'm helping a bit and still having fun. The population differences are definitely noticeable, while generally the ratio for most servers seems to be Order/Destruction 1:1.5 - 1:2 , it still affects the game heavily I find.
Class population really becomes frustrating. Because some realms are more popular than others, and some realms have no tanks, you get very odd makeups of groups. As Empire, it's nothing for me to have a full group of Witch Hunters running around with me, me trying to heal and unfortunately tanking as well as a Warrior Priest. I've experienced a few instances where we have had balanced groups, but its a rarity. This especially becomes a problem in Scenarios and RVR, as I find at least on my server, Order has very few tanks.
My praise:
-Non-linear leveling- I find it refreshing that I have multiple choices to level up my character. I still have the possibility of those classic aforementioned "Find Mr A....oh look, Mr A is dead, I better investigate his body" to Public Quests which really is quite the ingenious new addition to MMOs, to Scenarios and RVR. It's nice to just drop everything when a Guildie wants to do scenarios and still gain XP/Renoun for it.
-Scenarios and RVR - I won't go into heavy detail into RVR, I think the Tier 1 zone had a lot of fun, and it started to drop off a bit after that ( primarily due to population issues ) for Tier 2+ etc. I have yet to get to end game so I can't comment on what the bulk of this game is meant for. However, the scenarios were extremely fun and addictive. Before my guild went belly up ( I logged on one day and it seemed the bulk of the guild had gone back to WoW ), we were doing scenarios as a group almost everynight and it was an absolute blast.
-Classes and class implementation- This game has a very interesting set of classes to choose from. I find them very different from the norm. Between most of the hybrid healers who benefit from doing damage to heal better, to Tank classes who actually serve a vital role in PVP. They really have created a great variety of classes, most of which I am semi-interested to try at some point or another.
Note: I personally play a Warrior Priest, one of the most difficult/multi-tasking/situational classes i have played in any MMO before, very interesting class. It seems difficult to fully master.
-Guild Focus - This game is very focused on Guilds. As they level up together they gain new abilities etc. I can see this game being very alluring towards guilds fizzing out in other games.
What does it all mean
Well, it means little to you if you don't agree with anything i've mentioned. But to those that may kind of agree with being torn about the game...Personally I don't know if I will continue to sub. I haven't had much of a desire to log into the game this last week. Admittedly because the fun guild i've been leveling with suddenly decided they were all going back to the juggernaut WoW. I'll probably try and find another active guild and try to have another go at it.
I guess i'm kind of disappointed in the game though, I really thought it held a lot of promise for me. I really have very little faith that the issues I have with the game will be fixed. Primarily due to the lack of acknowledgment towards performance that Mythic seems to have towards its customers.
Time will tell I suppose. Appreciate anyone who actually read this and any further comments. To anyone else, TLDR and I totally understand.
Comments
Took me a little while to read, but a nice post with credible observations. I would have to agree with your graphics/performance gripes. My system is comparable to yours (with 3gb ram instead of 2gb), and it really bothers me how even on low settings it stutters. As far as the generic quest, I also agree, but I will state that they get a little better in Tier 3. At that point, they start to throw in a lot more quests that involve interacting with objects, summoning NPC's, etc. It's still nothing to write home about, but it's definitely improved from T1 and T2.
Good post. I agree with you on most of your issues seeing as they're the same for me.
One of the clear issues I can't seem to properly label is the combat action/performance/gameplay. I find the cooldowns and spam attack button #1 to be very...childish. My character swings and attacks only to have the damage come about 1 second later. I'm not sure if this is because of lag, bugs, or simply this is how the game works but it seems slow. This is really bugging me. I know its not my computer and I have great FPS at all times.
Is this nagging at anyone else or am I alone here?
Another issue for me is the crafting system. Despite this is such an immersive and lore rich world, WAR has to have the poorest crafting system I've seen yet. The crafted items aren't all that useful and there is little to no explanation how the crafting systems work.
Im still enjoying the game but if this remains the same I can't see myself playing this game in 6 months.
I rarely post here but I do read the forums quite a bit. I wanted to speak to the game performance aspect of the OP's comments.
I originally bought WAR running a 3.0 single core P4 with 1 Gig of Ram and a Nvidia 6600. I didn't even know if the game would run off my rig. It did, but the game ran asstastically on low settings with frequent crashes. It was horrible and barely playable.
So I rush ordered a new computer off of newegg for less than $700. I got an AMD 3.0 dual core processor, 4 gigs of 1066 Bus Ram, 9800GTX graphics card. PCI Express 2.0 on the motherboard and the rest really doesn't matter. Oh I also run your local cable internet.
I have a 19inch CRT viewsonic. I'm running in 17xx by 13xx resolution settings. (Max settings for my monitor). This is extremely high resolution. I'm also now running on the highest available graphics settings. Here's the kicker. I have no problems whatsoever running WAR. It runs perfectly. There's no hitching, pausing, game crashes. NOTHING. Like I already said it's 100% perfect.
I also play on Phoenix Throne which is a very highly populated server. I occasionally get Minor server lag. Otherwise I have no problems at all on my new rig. I'd also like to reiterate the server lag is very minor and not upseting at all. So in my opinion the problem is your computer and not the game. Go get a new computer and you'll see the difference. From my perspective it's hard for me to understand other peoples compliants about game performance and server lag. I simply do not see a problem.
However, I did enjoy your post. It was very well thought out. Unfortunately, I'm at work and don't have alot of time to go over mine with a fine tooth comb.
Wow Spike, that's very strange! I get some hitching, but my FPS is stable and especially in beach-like or mountain areas, the game runs like butter for me. However, in the forests of The Blighted Isle and Nordland, the stuttering kicks in. I'd say it's bad texture loading for the vegetation - if they made it smoother, most of the hitching would probably disappear.
Nice review overall, I have some of the same issues, especially with the performance, but it's still fun for me
.
It's not the system, its the engine itself. Seriously WAR's performance reminds me of Anarchy Online's constant drawing of distant objects as they come into view range. It's like WAR is designed to run on DX7. I feel my 9600GT isnt even being utilized by the program.
Spike did you read my specs? I'm a hardware enthusiast myself however I would never tell someone that my specs are not enough to run an MMO. I'm really happy that it works fine for your system, but for the bulk of people (just check the WAR Alliance forums) it runs absolutely horrible. I'm not even saying it runs horribly on my system, however it SHOULD run like absolute butter. The graphics for this game are nothing spectacular, they are years old, it is the coding for the game and the engine itself.
Even AOC I wouldn't claim to have the greatest coding, but I have similar performance with high settings on it compared to WAR. The difference between stress those two games should cause are worlds apart.
Recommending to buy a new computer would be a horrible thing to do for anyone at this point for WAR as it's simply not the issue. I have a friend with a comparable, if not better system than your own, Maxes out the settings ( which still does not look very great) and it will not have good framerates.
It's not the system, its the engine itself. Seriously WAR's performance reminds me of Anarchy Online's constant drawing of distant objects as they come into view range. It's like WAR is designed to run on DX7. I feel my 9600GT isnt even being utilized by the program.
I would say this is closer to base. Distance draw seems downright lackluster in this game.
I actually forgot to put this in the review, it was something certainly on my mind. The combat comes off as a bit sluggish, sometimes i'll have queued up the next attack and it will go with a delay, sometimes it will not go at all. The combat simply does not look like it is flowing like a lot of other games. The combat almost reminds me more of old system MMO's
this is a very fair well written review, i agree with it, though i would weigh somethings less than others, but the point and where the OP is coming from.
Problems I have 1) Gold spammers. Please let me have an automatic report function. 2) Chat box, please allow me to bring up separate chat boxes if I am whispering to someone. 3) Please give the empire a tank. 4) The grouping method could be improved on significantly.
If you are not being responded to directly, you are probably on my ignore list.
Very well written post. And i agree with almost everything you said, except for the graphics. I know i'm in a minority here, but i actually like the graphics. I think when you balance that they had to make make huge battles possible without horrendous lag, they actually did a very good job.
But on the other hand it makes you wonder why if they made it with those thoughts in mind, why the hell does it run so horribly for some people when theres hardly anyone else on screen.
I have a decent system : amd x2 6400, 8800gt, 2 gigs of ram., and my pc is clean. I'm religous about keeping it that way. I improved performance a lot by following advice on these boards and Warhammer Alliance, but i still get stuttery moments on balanced settings, and it actually seems to be getting worse over time rather than improving.
The performance can be fixed, and i'm sure it will be in time. For me the real killer is population imbalances across the servers. That i fear will not be so easily remedied.
I'm going to see my free month out and see where we stand then.
I f i've learned anything from this experience, it's that from now on i'll probably not buy games as soon as they are released anymore. Seems a better option to just wait a while and follow the game and see how it pans out, before handing over my cash.
I find that Destruction is relatively overpowered. Thankfully a lot of the time they are not well organized, but when a well organized party of Order players faces a well organized team of Destruction players, Order gets stomped a majority of the time. My Bright Wizard can lay down some heavy damage, but some of my spells take so long to cast that they are quite often interrupted before I can cast them. I suppose that goes back to the fact that order has very few tanks given that you have the choice between a stubby dwarf and a gay elf that runs like his panties are stuffed up his crack. Warrior Priests are decent, but no match for a Disciple of Kaine. DoK is the hardest class to kill IMO. I have faced ones that were 3 levels or more below me and still managed to take me down. Being a glass cannon I am used to being near the top in deaths in a scenario, but sometimes it's ridiculous how fast they can cut me to ribbons. Healers can't heal me fast enough even when they bother to try, and potions are a complete waste of time. Ooh it will heal me for 430 damage, whooopee, that's good for about half of the time it would take me to try to cast fireball.
I like the game, sometimes I am just frustrated by my chosen class.
Hmmm does anyone else with 4gb ram have the stutter problem? Kinda stupid that a mmorpg like WAR which is building itself on WoW's "can be played on almost any computer", yet fails so horrible, without even having the GFX being superior.
I was starting to be tempted about buying WAR despite my scepticism towards the game but now i have this odd feeling that even my system will suffer from this.
intel core2 duo @ 3.2
4gb ram
ATI 4850
Anyone with similar specs, who could comment on their performance? I honestly would have thought that with OP's system, he should be having no problems running at max settings in WAR but since it's not the case, it is clearly the game's coding or horrible memory leaking that's the problem.
After AoC "pre-launch" phase, i thought ANY mmo company knew bad performance = bad business.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
I can see where you are coming from on most points, even if my personal opinions may differ.
One thing I've noticed after having leveled a few alts of different races and factions is that not all zones are created equal. The worst quality of art direction and quest implementation seems to be in the Chaos starting area, with the Dark Elf and High Elf being the best. I'm going to guess that the Empire and Chaos lands were the first to be created.
Same goes with animations, some races are noticeably better than others.
On one hand, it's a shame the quality isn't consistent, on the other hand a change of race or just moving to another race's tier can often lead to a better personal fit on a number of subjective points.
Tier 2 for many races seem better designed than Tier 1, so perseverance can also pay off here.
As far as performance, I agree. I have a very capable rig, bug hitching and lag during frenetic encounters are an issue for me.
For me, performance took a very noticeable hit between the end of Open Beta and the start of the SE head start.
The last day or two of Open Beta, there was a brief period where the only server up was the newly created Open RvR beta server. Everyone flooded that server at once and there were over a hundred people running around the prologue area I logged into. Even with the toons as thick as may flies, I had zero hitching or lag.
I remember thinking "Wow, well, they will definitely be able to pull off massive RvR battles with this engine".
I don't know what they messed up, but at least there is hope they may be able to fix it.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I agree with all your negatives completely.
Fortunately, the fun factor wins over, and I still find myself enjoying the game. Not as an MMO though.. really all I do is log in and play some scenario's like its a FPS game. Only I get Ranks and Renown rank-ups for doing so, which is cool.
I might make it to end-game. Probably, I'll even push through my annoyances to get there. I hope it stays fun or even gets more fun by then.
Public quests are a beautiful idea but an epic fail. They contradict themselves, personally I'd rather substitute them for some nice Instance dungeons that give great grouping XP and boss drops.
Gold Spammers. This is definitely an issue. I didn't reference it as personally it does not affect me that much. Though be noted if you are thinking about getting WAR, you will get Gold spams a plenty.
Gold Spammers. This is definitely an issue. I didn't reference it as personally it does not affect me that much. Though be noted if you are thinking about getting WAR, you will get Gold spams a plenty.
Just use /hide to disable gold spammers, as they use the search function to find people to randomly spam. You can also create seperate tabs and define what you want to go to them, from different channels to who killed who in RvR combat, as well as change them all to different colors.
People need to expand, not sit confined in their own little world. Empire doesn't need a tank so much as people need to go where the tanks are, perhaps? This is the same argument as people crying that it seems the game is a ghost town. Get out more and meet new people. Take the initiative and say hi to people, or even invite them to a group. It's not like RL. You don't have to hide in your mother's basement. People don't know what you're like RL and they don't really care. We're simply here to play a game. Of course, with all the idiots who press need all the time on items they can't use, people become leery of people they don't know grouping with them.
Grouping method can be improved on? Are kidding me? It's easy as sin to group, even to form a warband. You don't even have to sit in areas and constantly spam that you're looking for a group. You just bring up the open party menu, take a look at what is available, who is in it, and even where they are, click the join button and 'BAM', you're in their group. You'll have to explain yourself a bit better here.
Truer words were not spoken. As you go from area to area, you can notice a giant change. But I find this incredibly frustrating. And just as you put it, I can't believe some zones got so much more attention than others. The only realistic feel I get from barren destroyed lands is how horrible they look. Then other areas are nice and bright, and seem like they were actually given some attention.
I'm actually in game now and will take some screenshots to show some of the dismal landscape along with the distance draw. But of course I will also take some nice screenshots where it seems they actually put some effort into.
Just use /hide to disable gold spammers, as they use the search function to ind people to randomly spam. You can also create seperate tabs and define what you want to go to them, from different channels to who killed who in RvR combat, as well as change them all to different colors.
People need to expand, not sit confined in their own little world. Empire doesn't need a tank so much as people need to go where the tanks are, perhaps? This is the same argument as people crying that it seems the game is a ghost town. Get out more and meet new people. Take the initiative and say hi to people, or even invite them to a group. It's not like RL. You don't have to hide in your mother's basement. People don't know what you're like RL and they don't really care. We're simply here to play a game. Of course, with all the idiots who press need all the time on items they can't use, people become leery of people they don't know grouping with them.
Grouping method can be improved on? Are kidding me? It's easy as sin to group, even to form a warband. You don't even have to sit in areas and constantly spam that you're looking for a group. You just bring up the open party menu, take a look at what is available, who is in it, and even where they are, click the join button and 'BAM', you're in their group. You'll have to explain yourself a bit better here.
There is a lack of communication somewhat in the game it seems, and im wondering if its partly due to game mechanics. However, arguing that certain realms not having a tank is not an issue is moot. You're totally correct in saying that those same people can venture into other zones. However that is not the answer, that is a work-around.
The same could be said for the graphical disparities between realms. Sure I can go play in 1 of the 3 realms for my tier that may not look horrible, but it takes away from the game...away from being immersed in it. You say people shouldn't be so complacent and just go somewhere else, being complacent would be to just accept the things the way they are instead of asking for a better game.
Edit: Was a big large of a quote
Here are some screens I took, amped the graphics full. I was actually not getting too much stuttering tonight which was nice. Unfortunately I use 1680x1050 Res and this forum would cut out almost all of it so i had to size them down a bit.
This one aint too bad, mountains are a bit meh. I think this forum is gonna cut it in half though.
This one is alright, castle up top looks decent, however look at the mountain right beneath. The rendering reminds me of something 4-5 years ago.
This one actually looks good I think, it's dark but most of the Dwarven starting area isn't so dark and barren.
Again not bad
Gold Spammers. This is definitely an issue. I didn't reference it as personally it does not affect me that much. Though be noted if you are thinking about getting WAR, you will get Gold spams a plenty.
Just use /hide to disable gold spammers, as they use the search function to find people to randomly spam. You can also create seperate tabs and define what you want to go to them, from different channels to who killed who in RvR combat, as well as change them all to different colors.
People need to expand, not sit confined in their own little world. Empire doesn't need a tank so much as people need to go where the tanks are, perhaps?
No, the empire could use a tank. Failing that I would settle for some greater durability in one of its classes. I suppose the amount available might just heavily skewed by chance. Looking at the numbers tonight(using social tab) I saw roughly 6 tanks (I am not including levels here, just total numbers) and 30-40(I didn't actually count those) other classes. Now when one takes into account who can successfully team with who, it would seem that the tanks are spread a bit thin.
This is the same argument as people crying that it seems the game is a ghost town.
You feel that asking for the inclusion of a character class for a faction is the same as arguing about population distribution? I am sorry but I must disagree.
Get out more and meet new people. Take the initiative and say hi to people, or even invite them to a group.
I see you like to jump to unwarranted conclusions. When using the social function to find a tank (which is difficult given that they are heavily outnumbered by other classes) I rarely am I able to raise a response and get nothing. Though it is possible that I play in a statistical anomaly which simply has fewer tanks available.
It's not like RL. You don't have to hide in your mother's basement. People don't know what you're like RL and they don't really care. We're simply here to play a game.
Man you sure do love unwarranted conclusions.
Of course, with all the idiots who press need all the time on items they can't use, people become leery of people they don't know grouping with them.
That is probably the cause of some issues.
Grouping method can be improved on? Are kidding me?
No
It's easy as sin to group, even to form a warband.
it seems as though in many instances, I find that a person wants their guildmates specificallly. That is of course their perogative and I suppose they could have just invited them individually but when I join a group and hear "sorry guy, waiting for XYZ" or just get kicked off summarily it is bothersome. If there was an option for the lead to put in a note for particulars, I think that would be helpful. Note, I am aware that there is an option for warband additional text but for parties of 6 this doesn't seem to be available which is concerns me. Though if there were such a function, I guess I would really be more complaining that people aren't using it to clarify who can join a group. Perhaps it is an issue of whether it is user friendly enough for people to consider it worthwhile.
you don't even have to sit in areas and constantly spam that you're looking for a group.
Man you are addicted to unwarranted conclusions aren't you?
You just bring up the open party menu, take a look at what is available, who is in it, and even where they are, click the join button and 'BAM', you're in their group. You'll have to explain yourself a bit better here.
I am aware of how the mechanics of how the process works. I am unsatisfied with the result if the issue revolves around groups not being able to add text for their intended party.
If you are not being responded to directly, you are probably on my ignore list.
Nice review btw. I tend to agree with most of what you've written; WAR is 'ok' .
I'm leaning to db issues with performance. Besides the stuttering issues, I've run into instances where others can see the same weird artifacts on screen. My thought was that if the graphics issues were isolated to a single machine, then I'd say it was a client side.
I agree with your assessment of the overall graphics though. Some areas are OK, while others just lack any reflection of effort. I can understand a stylistic approach, but even if that were the case my belief is the EA/Mythic kind of failed.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
OP: I'm not trying to refute your claims, and I'm sorry to hear that you're having troubles running the game. I won't argue you with you about the quality of the engine, because I don't have all of the facts.
The game runs great on my system. I never have any stuttering and my framerate is always good.
My specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0Ghz
Vista Home Premium 32 bit
4 Gb Ram
Dual NVidia GEForce 9800 GT SLI Video
Latest Drivers, Direct X, and runtime libraries.
I don't have a single complaint about the games performance, but to give you some perspective, I have no complaints about Windows Vista either.
Meridian 59 Beta Tester circa 1996
Haha that last line is a good one. I'm sure not everyone is experiencing these issues, and honestly im glad to know some aren't. My issues with the game really aren't even that bad, they are tolerable, its just frustrating seeing it hitch every once in awhile and look at a game that looks like it was made years earlier.
Just to really sink things home, I mentioned earlier that AOC worked quite well even on high settings. Today I downloaded the Vanguard trial, and it performed fine on High settings. I remember playing Vanguard in beta with a lesser system and that game had a TON of bugs and performance issues. The game looks absolutely great, and really doesnt hitch ever, then I logged back into War and shook my head.
it seems very antisocial
no official forums IS a community buster
and WoW is ALL about community/friends (and look how successful its gotten them?)
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.