Impressions from old UO'er

opie

Well, got SoR the other day. Been playing for roughyl a week now, so here goes:

Graphics: The world really is very impressive. I have no real problems in this area.

Sound: I dont care about sound really, so I just wont say its good or bad.

Community: Some have said SoR has a good community...I just dont see it. But the problem isnt really the kind of players as much as the number of them. A handful of good players dont make a community. There were times I would be in the cities and go for an hour without seeing any chat on my channels. Not so much that I needed help, I just felt alone and thats not something I look for in a MMORPG.

Enviroment: Yes, the herding nature of animals is cool, but I wish they had given unique behavior to certain kinds of animals. Aggro or non aggro really is true. It is refreshing to see herding behavior in animals, much better than any other game has done with mobs. Second point on this is cities. I dont like the feel of them. To me they feel like somethign plopped down in the middle of the terrain rather than a seperate, unique, living and breathing thing of themselves. Not like in UO where the cities were always bustling always alive. You never felt alone.

Last is lasting appeal: While the plotted system for pvp seems to be not as bad as EQ but nto as good as D&L im not super impressed. Something else that bugs is how there is a great conflict int he world (homin vs kitin) but you cant play kitin, so you can never be really opposed to anyone else. You can go to war eventually with another guild, but so what if all the game does is reinforce on you that the kitin are the ultimate bad guys. If your a orc killer, people wanna be orcs. If your Obiwan, people wanna be darth vader.....its natural competition and opposition in games and they havent really accounted for it.

Now....I know alot of people are going to say im biased or im WoW fanboi or some crap like that. I think EQ2 and WoW both look poor long term, but ill still give them a go to see. This is me being as honest as I can. I mentioned alot of bad things, but there are alot of good things to SOR.

I think the 8.2 rating for SoR is fair...its a good game, but ive come to expect certain things. While thse things might be fixed, by the time they do EQ2 will have drawn off alot of players, WoW will have and then you have games like Darkfall, D&D online, Dark and Light pushing in also that have some fresh ideas.

I really wish SoR had come out 18 months ago when we really needed a game like this. It would have had the time it deserved to grow into the game it could be.

boutch

[quote]Something else that bugs is how there is a great conflict int he world (homin vs kitin) but you cant play kitin, so you can never be really opposed to anyone else. You can go to war eventually with another guild, but so what if all the game does is reinforce on you that the kitin are the ultimate bad guys. If your a orc killer, people wanna be orcs. If your Obiwan, people wanna be darth vader.....its natural competition and opposition in games and they havent really accounted for it.[/quote]

Have you read all the information about the world and the relation between races ? cause Kittins are insect-like creature who invaded Athys, nearly killing every other race on the planet. You start as a refuge ( Tryker, Fyros, Matis or Zorai )  going back to the surface for the first time since the invasion. Before the invasion, they where conflict between races, for exemple the Tryker where taken has slave for the Matis, so The Matis are opposed to the Tryker. When you start, if you check your fame, you'll see your fame for all races, Kami and Karavan included, some of them will be + and other -, a - meaning your not on their side. You can always gain fame doing missions for each classes. For exemple, as a Tryker, my starting fame is 16 for tryker and -16 for Matis.

 So if I play in a Tryker only guild (all guild should be race specific, to make the game more fun but theres seems to be more and more non-race specific guild...), the Matis would be my enemy and other races could be too.

The kittins should be considered as bosses, or "more important mobs".

To me, it seems like a rich and complete storyline. Pick your races for their values, their history... there is no difference between races except that. It seems like a very good game for roleplaying.

About the community : i use the /who commands (tells how many people are online in your region) and i can assure you that the world population is rising. There seems to be more and more people in my hometown of Fairhaven. Personally in dont read regionnal chat, its nearly always boring or childish (like in most mmo), i only keep an eye on it for LFG, WTS and WTB.

Finally I agree that the towns in ryzom are the worst ive seen in all mmo's ive played but they are functionnal, so it doesnt affect gameplay. Anyway you're not going to stay in towns very long.

opie

The storyline is rich, I agree, but forget the past. The games focus isnt on what happened before the invasion, its about after and the games lore and the feel revolves around this great threat.

Jodokai

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Originally posted by opie

Enviroment: Yes, the herding nature of animals is cool, but I wish they had given unique behavior to certain kinds of animals. Aggro or non aggro really is true. It is refreshing to see herding behavior in animals, much better than any other game has done with mobs. Second point on this is cities. I dont like the feel of them. To me they feel like somethign plopped down in the middle of the terrain rather than a seperate, unique, living and breathing thing of themselves. Not like in UO where the cities were always bustling always alive. You never felt alone.

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I just wanted to comment on this part: If this kind of realism gets you, you really need to check out Star Wars Galaxies. Dispite it's many flaws, this is something the got very right. Herbivoirs herd. The dominant Male will present itself to you in the hopes of scaring you off. The young stay next to the older animals when PC's approach, and they even send out scouts. The way the animal mobs act is incredible.

sleepyguyftl

Just wanted to comment that in patch one they have said that animals will have improved behavior. That more of them will seem to have a type of "agenda". Not sure what that means though.,

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Current player of The Saga of Ryzom. I waited 3 months for promised live events in City of Heroes, it never happened. Ryzom had one in 2 weeks.

opie

I played SWG for quite a while, the herding behavior of critters is much better in SoR. SWG has alot of things SoR doesnt, but in the end I feel they both lose.