MMO vet looking for... a lot

Rotak

Hey everyone.

 

I've been playing MMOs since AC came out in '99, but can't seem to stick with one the past couple of years... I'll explain what I am looking for, in order of importance.

1.) Customization - I want to feel like a unique snowflake. Whether that be due to classes/races, plethora of armor/weapon stlyes, different skills, etc.

 

2.) Some sort of conflict that I can build to. I don't RP much anymore (never was that big into it, I'm a casual guy and like to mention stuff about r/l in chat), but I do like to be immersed. Realm PvP like what DAoC had works well, but even in PvE games something like the Olthoi in Asheron's Call does the same thing, just to where I feel like there's some purpose.

 

3.) 3D game... truthfully, not interested in a 2d game. Had some fun with Maple Story but not my thing.

 

4.) Entertaining combat. (Not a must have but if I can't eat while playing, that's a plus)

 

5.) Can't be a dead game... I like to actually talk to other people. This is sort of a must, really. Good community a plus.

 

6.) Large world to explore would be cool.

 

7.) Enjoyable even at lower levels. I don't mind "grinding" to get to high levels, but I do value my time too much to play a game that is slow torture. Grinding can be fun, but something like the early-level FFXI gameplay killed me (literally was reading during combat and stuff at lower levels, not fun).

 

A free trial is a huge plus if I haven't play it (played: AC, EQ1/2, DAoC, WoW, AoC, TCoS, V:SoH, SB, L2, AC2 (lol), WAR, PS, LOTRO, AO)... but I might not have given some of those a fair shake. I really am interested in trying Vanguard and EQ2 again, but my concern with VOH is that it seems really empty, and with EQ2 I'm not sure... well... what the point is. I'd try the PvP servers but I hear it sucks there for new people, and otherwise I don't know what my character's "calling" is other than to get powerful... not a big raider btw, FWIW. However, I am open to whatever you say, as I figure you guys all know more about your respective games than I do.

 

Thanks so much!

Rotak

dmiasek

Perhaps try City of Heroes/City of Villains?

It has huge huge customization and you will be a unique snowflake.  Perhaps The Amazing Unique Snowflake, with ice powers?

For immersion, try Virtue, the unofficial RP server.

It is a 3D game.

Combat is entertaining (this is of course subjective).

The world (well, city) is large but there is not much exploring to do in the traditional sense, so I cannot recommend CoX based on that.  With super speed and flight exploring would be too easy to be an adventure.

CoX is not dead.

CoX is enjoyable at lower levels.  Indeed, it tends to favour players who reroll lots of alts (though this is not necessarily a good thing).

I don't know what the status of free trials is for it.  I notice you mentioned PvP, but note that CoX's PvP is quite lacking.

Good luck!

Rotak

Thanks for the post. Could've sworn I replied days ago.

 

Anyways, what does one do in COH for an "endgame"? I used to play back when it came out, and enjoyed it a significant amount, but I was more into PvP then (still am, but WoW and WAR are not the game for me and not impressed with anything else), and decided to wait for COV. Kind of surprised the PvP didn't take off, I would've thought COH would've added that. It was a fun game at the time, definitely customizable =P.

Quizzical

The answer is Guild Wars. 

1)  Armor skins and stats are separate, so you can get whatever stats you want on whatever armor you want, rather than having to wear the same armor as everyone else because it gives the best stats.  The same applies to weapons.

You can also have fairly unique builds if you like.  Each class has around 100 skills, and you can only have eight on your skillbar at a time.  If you're smart, you'll change which eight you use, and often, to adapt them to what fits the mission at hand--and you can because you can respec for free as often as you like in any town or outpost.  You can also take a secondary profession and use arbitrary combinations of skills from the two professions of your choice.

Guild Wars doesn't have some of the other customization stuff that some other games have, though.  There's only one race, and while you do get some choices as to what you look like, it's not insanely overdone like a few other games do.

2)  I'm not entirely sure where you're going with this.  Guild Wars does have a coherent storyline (which is more than can be said for a lot of games) with copious cutscenes to explain and advance the story as you go.

3)  Guild Wars is 3D.

4)  You pretty much have to be constantly clicking on skills (and different skills; not just spamming one) and/or moving around to be effective in combat.  For an easy enough battle or once a battle is well in hand, you could eat and let the rest of the group do the work, I guess.  But you could do that in most games.

5)  Guild Wars doesn't have as big of a population as WoW, but it's in the next tier of games that could plausibly be second by some metrics.  Indeed, if the metric is number of active accounts that have paid some actual money at some point (to exclude trials and "free to play" games), Guild Wars would almost certainly be #2 behind WoW.  Also importantly, Guild Wars doesn't partition players into separate servers to make you unable to have any in-game contact with the overwhelming majority of the playerbase.

6)  It's not so ridiculously large as to be nearly empty like, say, Vanguard, but Guild Wars does have a decent sized world.

7)  One could argue that the entire game is the lower levels.  The level cap is 20, with most content done after you reach the level cap.  The game doesn't make you slog through a bunch of grinding to get anywhere, but throws you into the thick of things very quickly.

Guild Wars does have a free trial.  I haven't tried the trial, so I'm not sure what it consists of.

To answer your second post, Guild Wars does actually have an endgame that isn't completely stupid grinding.  That's pretty rare for an MMORPG, of course.  The endgame in Guild Wars is hard mode.  You switch to hard mode and it makes the mobs all higher level with more health, faster casting, faster running, and sometimes additional skills.  That is, it makes the mobs harder, so that they're a decent challenge.  Nearly everything in the game can be done in hard mode, and in whatever order you like.  You can freely pick and choose what to do, what to repeat, or what to skip entirely, rather than having to farm one area endlessly to gear up for the next.

Guild Wars also has a PvP system where player skill matters, rather than being dominated by whoever is higher level, has better gear, or has more allies in the area.  I wouldn't call it "endgame", though, as it can be reached immediately upon starting the game if you're so inclined.  You can create a PvP character that is max level with max gear at character creation, but a PvP character can only PvP and does not have access to PvE content.  The reason I bring this up is that some games like to say, PvP is the endgame.  Guild Wars does better than this in two parts:  one, by having PvP that is actually good, and two, by letting you access it whenever you want, rather than having to grind for months first to be competitive.

 

 

 

Letsinod

The answer without any doubt is Vanguard.  I just returned after not playing for a long time and its much better:

 

1) Classes are very unique.  Lots of armor sets etc etc

2) Diplomacy is an entire side game and lore center that no other game has.

3) Check

4) Defensive targets, finishing moves

5) Population is rebounding, this may be the only sticking point but its WAY better than it was 6 months ago.  I never have a problem finding a group for dungeons

6) Arguably the largest

7) Name a game that has more dungeons through the end game.  What game has 4 dungeons for players less than level 10.  Granted there not huge but fun with names beats none the less.

 

 

Crosius

I'm sorry to trump previous posters but Aion is perfect for you.

1. Customization is HUGE. Character creation is almost as vast as CoX. Not to mention it has a more intricate dying system than guild wars. Check it out.

www.youtube.com/watch

2. PvP is a large part of end-game content.

3. Check

4. Interactive Combo system. Easy to grasp. Fun to play. You can still eat while playing though so..

5. Recently being release (unfortunately not in the US yet) and it is growing and growing.

6. Check

7. Quick pickup and quick first levels aclimate you to the game.

Rotak

Thanks to everyone for the responses.

 

GW: Actually, I was following GW looooong before. I used to be DoctorPyr of The District Nudists (who have since disbanded), we were a well-respected pre-beta guild (even had a Dev as a member). Alas, GW ended up losing me... Still installed on my computer, but I didn't like the instanced world and I really felt like there were only 6 looks for the original six classes. Maybe it's changed I'll look into it.

VGSoH: Liked that game a while back, I have the machine to run it, might try it again if the population is on the rebound. I like grouping, what can I say, but the graphics + solo/group freedom is very appealing.

Aion: Already one step ahead of the game, I bought a Chinese account and am downloading the game now... Right now my CPU says I will finish d/l in 6 days... My internet connection is normally okay, but lately I've been getting terrible d/l speeds. Hopefully in a couple days it'll be done, I'm very excited for Aion cause the girlfriend will actually play it with me (she plays FFXI which I tried to like but just couldn't).

Thanks again!

Quizzical

Even if you don't want to mix and match, there are 33 full sets of armor for the warrior class alone in Guild Wars.  Other classes have their own sets, too, so it probably adds up to 200-300 distinct armor sets in the game.  Guild Wars is still heavily instanced, but you didn't say "no instancing" in your original post.

As far as Vanguard goes, it has a pretty good population on the trial island.  Once you get to the main world, the world is so enormous that the players are really spread out.  You can easily run around for an hour in a major city during peak times and never see another player.  Even with public chats continent-wide, the public chats can sometimes be pretty dead.  If low population is a problem for you, the game has a free trial, but you should be aware that the trial is not indicative of the population in the main game. 

Kyleran

EVE.  You haven't tried EVE, and its the game you really are searching for.

But leave the GF at home, the game doesn't appeal to the female mentality very often.

 

Aganazer

Just wait for Champions Online. Yes, you can turn off the cell shading (its always the first question people ask). Gorgeous graphics, fast fluid combat, classless and VERY unique caracters, great conflict.

I've been playing since UO and I loved AC. I have been playing The Chronicles of Spellborn lately. It might be worth trying out since it has a free trial. In many ways it reminds me of AC. It has a "real" combat system and the world has a natural feel to it like AC did.

At around level 9 you choose one of five High Houses to join. The High House conflict promises to make the game have a lot of lasting value. But its a slower paced game in many ways, especially the newbie zone, and the game needs a couple more patches to iron out a few rough edges. Its still a great game as is and definitely worth checking out.

Gordoto

Well

Eve Online is an awesome game.  (Once you get a handle of it)

The learning curve might be the worst part of it, but once you get by that, its awesome.

Huge world

Population has been doubling each year since 2003

Good PvP

Probably one of the most coolest games out there right now.

 

If you wanted a 21 day trial rather than the 14 day trial offered by CCP through their site,

I can get you one through a promotion they are offering in which players can invite others.

Just email me at phtonn@gmail.com and I'll get you an invite pretty quick

only1war

I think you might want to give Lotro another shot. Just beacuse it has everything your looking for. I hope you find your game