Atlantica is by no means free. Fine you can get to 100 easily without using IM, but pre 100 is just a trial. Face the facts. Aztec without bless pot and scrolls? No thanks, I'd rather shoot myself in the foot. Not even talking about further maps! FL without health check lic? Free win for the opponent! Your gears two tiers lower? You better outsmart the enemy or just get slaughtered! Buying things with gold, fine fine, forgeting about one thing. Dollars were still spent, ndoors doesn't care if you buy with gold or $$$. Just quit it, for 30$ a month (bless lic+war pack, A MUST HAVE) you can play any p2p game you want, unless you really blindly love atlantica. Just like I did, but I used gold for everything. I quit, and I am a happy man now. Kode of Mycenae here, maybe someone knows me! Ha ha.
Lvl 115 wihout using item mall. The item mall in AO is bearable unlike some other games I tried. Also you can buy the necessary items (if you are too lazy/busy to play without teleport and other stuff) for ingame money.
Lvl 115 wihout using item mall. The item mall in AO is bearable unlike some other games I tried. Also you can buy the necessary items (if you are too lazy/busy to play without teleport and other stuff) for ingame money.
HUmmm...you got to 115 without using the item mall?...as in you got to lvl 115 without using Item Mall Items? It does not matter whether you bought the items yourself or whether you bought the item mall items INGAME with gold. So you got to 115 without teleport, without any licences? Without any blessing points, without any scrolls, you did those dungeons without any bewitching? You've deafeted the kind of bosses and mobs that you would face at your lvl without any Atlas (use to be called Ori) enhanced gear? Sometimes I think people misunderstand what is meant by using the item mall.
Just imagine, no, except for scrolls that can be easily bought from market. Or u specially buy them from the IM ignoring what market offer? I know there are ppl who think that quests are impossible to complete if u can't teleport straight to a boss boosted with blessing potion and 10k different scrolls in inventory. And considering ori/atlas, do you need so badly to enhance your lvl 80, 90, 95, 97, 100, 105, 110 equipment with ori/atlas? If you feel the necessity then it is something wrong with your pve abilities.
They are made for enhancing high end equipment, which is really expensive, and you can buy plenty of them from market or from players.
The feature of AO is that if you need something from the IM you can buy it in game with your ingame money, there are games that make item mall items untradable, so either you pay real cash or you have nothing. In Requiem for instance all potions for hp/mp recovery are item mall items, there is no way to get them in game, except for newbie ones.
There is nothing wrong with the AO item mall, yes ppl who spend thousands of dollars on it, get the advantage, like in all games. But you dont feel like you are obliged to use it to advance. I tried games where it is just impossible to level if you don't use item mall continiously. Ever heard anout games which have premium accounts feature?
hey, you cant even play some games without paying $15 up front monthly. thats besides purchasing the installers for $50 or so. in this game, you dont even have to worry about any thing even if you dont buy from the developers. everything in the item mall isjust for vanity or shortcuts. overall, i love this game
The most ridiculous thing is that the biggest whiners about IM are item-mall whores themselves. When I played PW it was non-item mall users who complained about item-mall advantages, in AO on the contrary.
Quote from the official forum, the guy who doesnt believe it is possible to play without IM:
Thebes IM
I guess I've dumped about 500$ into the item mall since the game opened. So far I've never bought anything in-game for gold. ALl the sets, mounts and "Stuff" I have came from rl purchases.
-----
Russaria
Thebes/109/Spearman
Thebes/65/Chainsaw
Guild Leader : Knightz Of Atlantis
Now I understand why he is so sceptic, he just never bought anyhing in-game for gold, LOL, dude, maybe you try at least once to buy anything for in-game gold?
People, who never bothered to play without using real money, say this game is impossible without IM, its just hilarious...
I've havent played any F2P game extensively, but was thinking about trying this one out. My main concern atm is that I won't be able to compete (specifically in PvP) without purchasing items from the item mall. Is this a valid concern? If it is, how much would you guys consider to be essential?
F2P with item mall are commercial games, just like P2P games. In the case of F2P + Item mall, the game is designed to be played using the item mall stuff. So without it, most players will burn out before max lvl, or before having farmed enough for the top gear. Everything is made slower on purpose, just for the item mall.
If you really dont want to purchase from the item mall, you might have more fun with a game that lets you buy the box, but doesnt have a sub. Like Guild Wars or so.
I've havent played any F2P game extensively, but was thinking about trying this one out. My main concern atm is that I won't be able to compete (specifically in PvP) without purchasing items from the item mall. Is this a valid concern? If it is, how much would you guys consider to be essential?
F2P with item mall are commercial games, just like P2P games. In the case of F2P + Item mall, the game is designed to be played using the item mall stuff. So without it, most players will burn out before max lvl, or before having farmed enough for the top gear. Everything is made slower on purpose, just for the item mall.
If you really dont want to purchase from the item mall, you might have more fun with a game that lets you buy the box, but doesnt have a sub. Like Guild Wars or so.
The only way to play without have to expend real money is doing dugeons alone to get a lot of money or have a really active nation and guild that do 3-4 dugeons a day. At least when I was still playing, 2 ppl of good lvl and equips (110+ or 700K + might) could get around 100-200M in one dugeon by selling the boxes rewards and some bosses loots.
Think so everything is so expensive in game because in my opnion it is very easy to make gold (and is really easy to play with 3 characters at the same time if you have some basic licenses and organize yourself well, should have a good computer too).
But my conclusion now of f2p games after playing so many years, is that is better pay for a monthly p2p because you will have more fun for sure (had more fun in all p2p that I played so far).
Someone honestly admitted putting about $500 into the game so far ...
The game has been running since 30 Oct 2008 so thats over $40 a month.
Which P2P pay to play game is $40 a month?
So if you like the game fine but remember F2P means at least double the cost of P2P even including the fact you sometimes have to fork out for the retail copy of the games but not always as seen in EQ2 where changing from trial to pay gives free digital download to games and expansions.
Not advocating play EQ2 just pointing out P2P is way cheaper than F2P and always has better graphics and support.
People might hate the idea of P2P but its a much much cheaper alternative.
I have played all the main F2P games and P2P ones to decent levels so i am not just saying this from a lack of experience.
Buying from the item mall is an option. I do agree that with out it the game will be way slower... but it is still an option. some people do play the game without the item mall. maybe just purchasing tele and health check to make it easier. but aside from that any player can save enough money to purchase things in game.
It make take a lot longer to grind in game than to purchase via im. but this game is still playable for free.
Maybe ndoors does promote IM a lot but the thing is they are not saying anything to players that they NEED to buy. ndoors is still a business and a business still promotes it's products.
Actually it matters to be strong in the game actually. If someone wants to be the best of the best you will be needing things specially in the item mall. But like others says it was your choice if you want to buy in the item mall. If not you can still play anyways... This is a survival matter in the game.
I am level 112 and have a spartan and about 1 billion gold.
I have spent a total of 15 bucks on the game when i started for a 30 day adventurer package. If you can get high level getting money is easy, and you can buy the stuff other people buy from RMT with your gold.
After spending 500$ and still having crappy gear, my conclusion is item mall dont' matter that much.
Unless you willing to spend a rediculous amount of real life money, you wont' be able to buy your way to the top.
And most of the top players have been playing 10 hours a day for a year.
So if new players want to catch up they need to play 20 hours a day for a year. lol
The main thing is progression in this game is very linear. So if you want to be as good as your friend who have 2000 playing hours, you'll have to play 2000 hours to catch up.
That is only if you want to compete against the top players on the server though . Don't get discourage by my comment. The bulk of the server dont' play 10 hours a day, and not everyone have been playing for a year(Infact most only a few month).
Actually almost any mmo out there needs to be invested to be one of the top players. money maybe optional but time is definitely needed. I just mall for the pack and the bless license sometimes, my gears are very suckish but im level 116 right now and around div 2 in fl. the warpack and license is just to speed things up. never had malled atlas, my gears are a mix of freezing and divine. lol. the top playeers are heavy buyers. but still catchable with intense playing. just grind money in game and buy the mall stuffs.
I agree, Like others said if you really want to be a top player and you think you can just attain it by buying in the Item mall, well this all depends on you... I spend real money in the game also but not as everyone spent a lot more... For me you can be a to player if you really know how was the cycle in the game... and if you think you can't afford to buy in real money or through item mall, there's a lot to do in the game to gain gold, then you can buy it in game.... you just need to exert an effort to Craft,Fishing or any activity to earn gold.
^lol. You must play on a dead server. I get 7 mil of the trading post on a good day. Usually it's only 3 million.
And the problem isn't on the item I trade. I trade different item for all 3 of my characters everyday.
Fortunately the blessing license and warrior package is cheaper on my server.
If you want my tip is dont' use warrior package. And dont' even use blessing license unless you play alot per day. I mean really, if you make only 1.5 billion a month, better use it to upgrade your gear.
But don´t let you trick by some posts here. The game does not begin at level 110, it begins at level 1. And the cash shop is the most expensive if have ever seen. And this is a dilemma for me. I totally recommend this game, if you are 30+ and the twitch-based games are too fast. So many good ideas; imagine Blizzard would make a quest at level 60 "give 10 Gold or an item worth it to a character below level 20", reward would be 15g. You as a newbie would wonder, what a friendly community it is.
But the item shop... You can upgrade your mercenaries, when they reach level 20. At this point you get a first feeling, how rich you are. At level 50 not only you can upgrade your mercs again with rare stones, you can hire a merc named beastmaster. This lady not only neads 50 special stones at level 20, or 50 very rare stones at 50, she has an interesting AoE spell. To upgrade this spell you have to... well I used the item shop and sold a blessing license for 390million gold.
"the only people who complain, use item shop" This is an interesting statement. Cash shops are mostly "money vs time". do you have the time to play or do you have the money to pay? This time it is "hardcore" to pay the money.
im currently at level 63 and i have yet to use the item mall. gold is surprisingly easy to make in this game. and if you can earn in-game gold, you can buy stuff people who use the item mall sell in the market. of course the downside with not using the item mall is simply taking more time to get better equipment and other items.
And of course you had 700-800 Ashen Crystals to upgrade your mercenaries at level 50. Did you farm them? Because the stamina-system is a bit tricky. Plus after hunting several mobs in the same location you get a penalty.
Or did you buy them? 700x5000g = 3.500.000gold
Or do you craft lvl60 weapons? ~1 million g for resources for a stack of 10
Did you find enough Enchant stones to upgrade the Equipment boxes and crafted items around lvl 50? If not: 20000-30000 each box
Yes, there is much to do. It just may take a bit longer without cash.
Comments
Atlantica is by no means free. Fine you can get to 100 easily without using IM, but pre 100 is just a trial. Face the facts. Aztec without bless pot and scrolls? No thanks, I'd rather shoot myself in the foot. Not even talking about further maps! FL without health check lic? Free win for the opponent! Your gears two tiers lower? You better outsmart the enemy or just get slaughtered! Buying things with gold, fine fine, forgeting about one thing. Dollars were still spent, ndoors doesn't care if you buy with gold or $$$. Just quit it, for 30$ a month (bless lic+war pack, A MUST HAVE) you can play any p2p game you want, unless you really blindly love atlantica. Just like I did, but I used gold for everything. I quit, and I am a happy man now. Kode of Mycenae here, maybe someone knows me! Ha ha.
Lvl 115 wihout using item mall. The item mall in AO is bearable unlike some other games I tried. Also you can buy the necessary items (if you are too lazy/busy to play without teleport and other stuff) for ingame money.
HUmmm...you got to 115 without using the item mall?...as in you got to lvl 115 without using Item Mall Items? It does not matter whether you bought the items yourself or whether you bought the item mall items INGAME with gold. So you got to 115 without teleport, without any licences? Without any blessing points, without any scrolls, you did those dungeons without any bewitching? You've deafeted the kind of bosses and mobs that you would face at your lvl without any Atlas (use to be called Ori) enhanced gear? Sometimes I think people misunderstand what is meant by using the item mall.
Just imagine, no, except for scrolls that can be easily bought from market. Or u specially buy them from the IM ignoring what market offer? I know there are ppl who think that quests are impossible to complete if u can't teleport straight to a boss boosted with blessing potion and 10k different scrolls in inventory. And considering ori/atlas, do you need so badly to enhance your lvl 80, 90, 95, 97, 100, 105, 110 equipment with ori/atlas? If you feel the necessity then it is something wrong with your pve abilities.
They are made for enhancing high end equipment, which is really expensive, and you can buy plenty of them from market or from players.
The feature of AO is that if you need something from the IM you can buy it in game with your ingame money, there are games that make item mall items untradable, so either you pay real cash or you have nothing. In Requiem for instance all potions for hp/mp recovery are item mall items, there is no way to get them in game, except for newbie ones.
There is nothing wrong with the AO item mall, yes ppl who spend thousands of dollars on it, get the advantage, like in all games. But you dont feel like you are obliged to use it to advance. I tried games where it is just impossible to level if you don't use item mall continiously. Ever heard anout games which have premium accounts feature?
hey, you cant even play some games without paying $15 up front monthly. thats besides purchasing the installers for $50 or so. in this game, you dont even have to worry about any thing even if you dont buy from the developers. everything in the item mall isjust for vanity or shortcuts. overall, i love this game
Ignorance is a blessing.
The most ridiculous thing is that the biggest whiners about IM are item-mall whores themselves. When I played PW it was non-item mall users who complained about item-mall advantages, in AO on the contrary.
Quote from the official forum, the guy who doesnt believe it is possible to play without IM:
Thebes IM
I guess I've dumped about 500$ into the item mall since the game opened. So far I've never bought anything in-game for gold. ALl the sets, mounts and "Stuff" I have came from rl purchases.
-----
Russaria
Thebes/109/Spearman
Thebes/65/Chainsaw
Guild Leader : Knightz Of Atlantis
Now I understand why he is so sceptic, he just never bought anyhing in-game for gold, LOL, dude, maybe you try at least once to buy anything for in-game gold?
People, who never bothered to play without using real money, say this game is impossible without IM, its just hilarious...
I ll'd at that... yeah it is the item mallers that complain about this game. nice concept...
F2P with item mall are commercial games, just like P2P games. In the case of F2P + Item mall, the game is designed to be played using the item mall stuff. So without it, most players will burn out before max lvl, or before having farmed enough for the top gear. Everything is made slower on purpose, just for the item mall.
If you really dont want to purchase from the item mall, you might have more fun with a game that lets you buy the box, but doesnt have a sub. Like Guild Wars or so.
F2P with item mall are commercial games, just like P2P games. In the case of F2P + Item mall, the game is designed to be played using the item mall stuff. So without it, most players will burn out before max lvl, or before having farmed enough for the top gear. Everything is made slower on purpose, just for the item mall.
If you really dont want to purchase from the item mall, you might have more fun with a game that lets you buy the box, but doesnt have a sub. Like Guild Wars or so.
The only way to play without have to expend real money is doing dugeons alone to get a lot of money or have a really active nation and guild that do 3-4 dugeons a day. At least when I was still playing, 2 ppl of good lvl and equips (110+ or 700K + might) could get around 100-200M in one dugeon by selling the boxes rewards and some bosses loots.
Think so everything is so expensive in game because in my opnion it is very easy to make gold (and is really easy to play with 3 characters at the same time if you have some basic licenses and organize yourself well, should have a good computer too).
But my conclusion now of f2p games after playing so many years, is that is better pay for a monthly p2p because you will have more fun for sure (had more fun in all p2p that I played so far).
still, many f2p games have already drastically improved their quality that you would think twice about playing a p2p game
F2P is not free to play .
Someone honestly admitted putting about $500 into the game so far ...
The game has been running since 30 Oct 2008 so thats over $40 a month.
Which P2P pay to play game is $40 a month?
So if you like the game fine but remember F2P means at least double the cost of P2P even including the fact you sometimes have to fork out for the retail copy of the games but not always as seen in EQ2 where changing from trial to pay gives free digital download to games and expansions.
Not advocating play EQ2 just pointing out P2P is way cheaper than F2P and always has better graphics and support.
People might hate the idea of P2P but its a much much cheaper alternative.
I have played all the main F2P games and P2P ones to decent levels so i am not just saying this from a lack of experience.
Again its a customers choice
exactly it's the customer's choice...
Buying from the item mall is an option. I do agree that with out it the game will be way slower... but it is still an option. some people do play the game without the item mall. maybe just purchasing tele and health check to make it easier. but aside from that any player can save enough money to purchase things in game.
It make take a lot longer to grind in game than to purchase via im. but this game is still playable for free.
Maybe ndoors does promote IM a lot but the thing is they are not saying anything to players that they NEED to buy. ndoors is still a business and a business still promotes it's products.
Actually it matters to be strong in the game actually. If someone wants to be the best of the best you will be needing things specially in the item mall. But like others says it was your choice if you want to buy in the item mall. If not you can still play anyways... This is a survival matter in the game.
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/Syreange/mysigcopy-1.jpg
I am level 112 and have a spartan and about 1 billion gold.
I have spent a total of 15 bucks on the game when i started for a 30 day adventurer package. If you can get high level getting money is easy, and you can buy the stuff other people buy from RMT with your gold.
-Danrax
After spending 500$ and still having crappy gear, my conclusion is item mall dont' matter that much.
Unless you willing to spend a rediculous amount of real life money, you wont' be able to buy your way to the top.
And most of the top players have been playing 10 hours a day for a year.
So if new players want to catch up they need to play 20 hours a day for a year. lol
The main thing is progression in this game is very linear. So if you want to be as good as your friend who have 2000 playing hours, you'll have to play 2000 hours to catch up.
That is only if you want to compete against the top players on the server though
. Don't get discourage by my comment. The bulk of the server dont' play 10 hours a day, and not everyone have been playing for a year(Infact most only a few month).
Actually almost any mmo out there needs to be invested to be one of the top players. money maybe optional but time is definitely needed. I just mall for the pack and the bless license sometimes, my gears are very suckish but im level 116 right now and around div 2 in fl. the warpack and license is just to speed things up. never had malled atlas, my gears are a mix of freezing and divine. lol. the top playeers are heavy buyers. but still catchable with intense playing. just grind money in game and buy the mall stuffs.
I agree, Like others said if you really want to be a top player and you think you can just attain it by buying in the Item mall, well this all depends on you... I spend real money in the game also but not as everyone spent a lot more... For me you can be a to player if you really know how was the cycle in the game... and if you think you can't afford to buy in real money or through item mall, there's a lot to do in the game to gain gold, then you can buy it in game.... you just need to exert an effort to Craft,Fishing or any activity to earn gold.
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/Syreange/mysigcopy-1.jpg
I totally agree with u
I am level 50 but my weapon is still 35+3
sucks me
Monster are even better than me
U are kinda fun /////
^ spam post from the aionfan...
BTW... additional tip for non item mall buyer who are 100+... in mycenae blessing licenses are around 500-550m. around 700m I think for war pack
wanted board per day = 8m gold in total. in 30 days = 240m
trading post per day = 10-20m. and in 30 days thats = 300-600m
+all the indy dungeons per day in which boxes can amount to 50m + for 90 94 and 98 if you can solo all dungeons.
that's 1.5 already
That covers war pack, bless license and some gear ups if you don't mall.
This game is still playable without item mall.. just additional grind. ^^
^lol. You must play on a dead server. I get 7 mil of the trading post on a good day. Usually it's only 3 million.
And the problem isn't on the item I trade. I trade different item for all 3 of my characters everyday.
Fortunately the blessing license and warrior package is cheaper on my server.
If you want my tip is dont' use warrior package. And dont' even use blessing license unless you play alot per day. I mean really, if you make only 1.5 billion a month, better use it to upgrade your gear.
AO is an impressive cash shop game.
But don´t let you trick by some posts here.
The game does not begin at level 110, it begins at level 1.
And the cash shop is the most expensive if have ever seen. And this is a dilemma for me. I totally recommend this game, if you are 30+ and the twitch-based games are too fast. So many good ideas; imagine Blizzard would make a quest at level 60 "give 10 Gold or an item worth it to a character below level 20", reward would be 15g. You as a newbie would wonder, what a friendly community it is.
But the item shop...
You can upgrade your mercenaries, when they reach level 20. At this point you get a first feeling, how rich you are.
At level 50 not only you can upgrade your mercs again with rare stones, you can hire a merc named beastmaster. This lady not only neads 50 special stones at level 20, or 50 very rare stones at 50, she has an interesting AoE spell. To upgrade this spell you have to... well I used the item shop and sold a blessing license for 390million gold.
"the only people who complain, use item shop"
This is an interesting statement. Cash shops are mostly "money vs time". do you have the time to play or do you have the money to pay? This time it is "hardcore" to pay the money.
im currently at level 63 and i have yet to use the item mall. gold is surprisingly easy to make in this game. and if you can earn in-game gold, you can buy stuff people who use the item mall sell in the market. of course the downside with not using the item mall is simply taking more time to get better equipment and other items.
And of course you had 700-800 Ashen Crystals to upgrade your mercenaries at level 50. Did you farm them? Because the stamina-system is a bit tricky. Plus after hunting several mobs in the same location you get a penalty.
Or did you buy them? 700x5000g = 3.500.000gold
Or do you craft lvl60 weapons? ~1 million g for resources for a stack of 10
Did you find enough Enchant stones to upgrade the Equipment boxes and crafted items around lvl 50? If not: 20000-30000 each box
Yes, there is much to do. It just may take a bit longer without cash.