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A sad return after quite some time...
zantax
Member Posts: 254
Well I returned once about a year ago to the game just to see the old portal screen really. My characters were all there still on both my accounts. Heck my allegiance is still there the Paladins of Asheron, on Solclaim server. Well I just returned on Saturday, I reactivated both of my accounts and logged on with the idea that maybe I can play my favorite MMO once again. I have to say I am not really disappointed but I am saddened by the state of the game. The game is just how I remember it, I love the feel of being able to pick a direction and RUN, find some random mobs kill them get some good loot that is random and run some more. The exploring in this game is one thing that makes it the best, I still love it. Character design is still THE BEST out of any MMO I have ever played. No game allows you to design your character with this level of design, skills, attributes and of course clothing all make it still a leader in my books. Sure there are other games with more detailed characters, or better character generator, COV, Champions Online...etc, but none are as detailed when it comes to your characters being truly original.
Nope the thing that saddens me about my return is this, in the hay day of AC, heck even 4 years later populations on each server were always 1000people to 3000 people. This Saturday when the servers should be bustling with activity there was a total of 147 people online on Solclaim, Morningthaw 165, Thisldown 350, and Darktide 347. I went to the marketplace to see some soul there, all I found was an empty room. No life anywhere, after 30 min of just looking for another person I finally ran into a buff bot. I don't want to say AC is dead because it is still there, but it is a frail shell of what it once was.
Lifestones that used to be bustling with Activity, that used to have portal storms around them now lay silent and over grown by the grass around them. Towns that used to be vibrant places are now empty like ghost towns of the old west. In a way it was sad, and I must admit disheartening. The Monsters in the world are still there and still as cool as ever, I had some fun destroying some shadows, a few tuskers, heck even a couple olthoi. Still amazed at the monster originality in the game.
I hate to say it because I love AC to death but it is time to turn off the servers or go F2P. Its time to make a true sequal to the game or let it disappear. I hope that they finally make a true sequal to the game but I doubt it would happen. I may try a new character on Thistledown but not sure if I want to do that, we will see if I do I will post more on this forum.
Comments
Everyone has houses, the only time people hang out in marketplace on the white worlds is to pkl or meet up to open a portal to a quest. The side rooms are also where the white worlds keep all their trade bots.
I'm wondering if perhaps you were playing on darktide. The marketplace isn't really used on darktide since it's a free pk world.
People also don't hang out at lifestones because people have gotten a lot better and don't die as often. When they do they go back to a buff bot and then head back out again. With global chat there really isn't a reason to sit in one spot. Once again if you're playing on darktide most people specifically try to avoid other people since they don't want to get killed. So there aren't groups of people just sitting around.
If you want the social aspect, darktide is not the place to be. I would suggest trying Frostfell or Harvestgain.
They need to remove allegiance housing and marketplace IMO. That would bring back life to towns and make the game seem a bit more lively.
zantax, you should rephrase your last paragraph. It's a bit harsh, specifically the bit about closing the game. You think a game with thousands of players should be shut down. All because there aren't as many people playing now as there were 10 years ago, which is not surprising at all. I bet the people playing, the ones who pay, would disagree.
I do agree a f2p option should be implemented.
Well as for playing on Darktide, no I wasn't. I created a character on there hoping to at least get ganked in a few minutes of logging on but all I found was a buff bot of all things when I logged into Darktide. As for the rest of the answers about hanging out at the lifestone or the market place, honestly I only looked on my world of Solclaim, and it was dead. The comment about the lifestones being dead because people have gotten better I think is something that should be rethought. Some of the best memories of AC are just going to the life stone to trade, the groups there were great and not all just because they died but mostly because people didn't have mansion/house/marketplace recalls.
Please understand in no way am I bashing AC, I think it is still to this day far ahead of pretty much every MMO out there. I just think that in order to move forward I think it is time to tear down what was AC and rebuild from the ground up. Its time to have a true successor to the original, and allow the original which has served THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of players many many thousands of hours of play time. Without a major upgrade to the system, the graphics, and something to re-energize the population and attract people again I think it is time to shut this down. I don't see how having maximum 1000 people spread accross all the servers can keep this game going, I could see if there was 1000 per server during peak times on a saturday ok fine, but at this point if a new person tries AC with no knowledge of what it was, and can get past the graphics I think they will think this game is anything but a Massive MULTIPLAYER Online RPG.
I could be wrong and I would stay subbed if they upgraded that is all they really have to do, but for now my opinion remains the same, F2P or shut it down and put it on the golden classics list of our memories.
Mortal Online looks like it could be the AC successor we've been waiting (and begging) for - just got to hope it makes it to production and doesn't turn off players with a broken or over-hyped release.
Character progression appears to be along similar skill based lines, the environment looks to be a true sandbox "run where you will" experience and overall, it looks extremely promising. It seems to be going through a lesser degree of the extended testing and build-up that WoW did, which was a masterclass in getting potential players hooked before the product was even there, so here's hoping for a smooth launch.
Solclaim is one of the middle pop servers now, try Frostfell if your looking for people.
People use marketplace to shop or pkl duel, although sometimes people do hang out there to talk. Another hub on a lot of servers if holtburg where a bunch of buff bots are.
But most people don't hang out in one spot now because of general chat. Having a global chat channel means you can socialize while being off hunting or questing, you don't have to have down time just to talk with someone. For a lot of people that is a good thing but for you at least you seem to prefer a local chat only and having people hang out.
Given that other MMOs are usually zoned, You will find more AC players in chat and in the world then you would in a zone of another MMO. So the feeling of people being around is there for me. Your thousand player number is a bit low, but like I said you should definetly try frostfell then.
Also this big update did bring back a bunch of returning players, and they have already said there is likely to be another big update in spring with new playable races and other interesting features. They are making the changes to bring in players and it seems to be working.
Yes Mortal online looks like it should be a good replacement for AC, but I could not justify 90$ to get into the beta for it. I could understand 45$ and get beta access would have being great at the time. Now I am not sure if they changed the pricing I haven't looked lately maybe someone can answer that one for me.
As for the General Chat, while I agree with you that people no longer have to socialize in one spot. Now is this because of General Chat or is it because there isn't enough people on the server to have people getting together in mass, well except for buff bots maybe? If there was a general chat back in the day could you imagine 2000+ people trying to talk in General Chat, it would never have worked. Your right most MMO's don't have the numbers in one zone to affect General chat, it is still effective, but in AC with the old numbers it would never have worked. That is what made AC so great it was so big, the world was so big that it was cool to travel to towns and meet different communities of people. Local chat was great back then, as for the marketplace, I remember when it was first implemented. That place was CRAZY busy with Buff bots, sales bots...etc, that became a true hub of activity, but the towns went dead, the alleigience halls were Empty and even the Mansion halls were not as busy anymore. I don't know if any of these things really hurt AC but that is besides the point.
While I agree a major update is needed, I believe that update does not need to be new player races. The system just needs to be brought into the year 2009, If they took the AC2 Engine and graphics and applied AC to it a simple Overlay would be the best example I think THOUSANDS would return revitalizing AC. I love AC, and I don't want to see it die like this, I think it should go out in style, a MASSIVE event, F2P for all and all old accounts reactivated for free for the final month. Everyone could log on and participate in the final event, and have it end with a bang, give the MMO community something to look at and say, "Why can't we get things like that in XXX MMO?" Or like I said above rebuild the game with a new graphics engine and a few new tweaks, I think that alone would keep AC going for another 10 years.
On a side note I last night I decided to go out and hunt a bit with my character. I am level 131 and decided to go out to the Black Death Catacombs. I portaled out there thanks to a device at my monarchs mansion, and was greeted by your standard Olthoi, but a few new ones that I have never seen before. I started attacking and destroying them 1 at a time, then I noticed something these seemed to have the same animation of those scarecrows or whatever they were called that could hit through magic? That was cool, I killed them and entered the dungeon, I fought my way down to the portal to the lower level and then had to log out. Its being 10 years and that place still keeps me wondering if I was going to die or not, I love it. I may end up staying around I don't know but for now I am just messing around a bit.
Sounds like you ran into som hollowminions, they do share the scarecrow animations and can pack quite a punch. Should check out the new gearknights too, they're fun and interesting and a more detailed model then the old creatures.
I know I never sit in one spot when I'm in game but I do use general chat, but I'm not a big fan of just sitting around I like to actively be questing or hunting.
Yes a general chatwould not of worked in the past, but if they were to make the game now they'd do a regional chat like most games do now, so that still would have lessened people sitting around in one spot. A lot of current gamers like to maximize their in game time so they don't like to sit and socialize. It's probably an unfortunate thing to see for an old school gamer who enjoyed that (I didn't hang out much in AC but I did in UO) but it's just how the times are.
Solclaim is a smaller and quieter server though, so you may want to try frostfell before you get to such a high level that you don't want to switch.
Everyone has houses, the only time people hang out in marketplace on the white worlds is to pkl or meet up to open a portal to a quest. The side rooms are also where the white worlds keep all their trade bots.
I'm wondering if perhaps you were playing on darktide. The marketplace isn't really used on darktide since it's a free pk world.
People also don't hang out at lifestones because people have gotten a lot better and don't die as often. When they do they go back to a buff bot and then head back out again. With global chat there really isn't a reason to sit in one spot. Once again if you're playing on darktide most people specifically try to avoid other people since they don't want to get killed. So there aren't groups of people just sitting around.
If you want the social aspect, darktide is not the place to be. I would suggest trying Frostfell or Harvestgain.
The activity in the towns and at the lifestones is what MADE the game feel ALIVE. I agree with the original poster and I haven't played in about 2-3 years. Even then there were few places that felt alive. Yeah there were a few spots where when you logged in you would see 10-20 people pklite or what not but it just wasn't them same as the first 4 years of the game.
The allegiance system used to work so well. I will never forget joining my first allegiance which was my last until a few of my friend started out own. I was a monarch for several years with a lot of people under me. I used to spend almost my entire time logged in talking to people below me, helping them level, or walking large groups through quests, or managing our allegiance with my good friends that made it possible to do so.
Global chat and housing did a lot to ruin the game even though it was something basically everyone really asked heavily for. The towns themselves were were the allegiances made their homes. That made new players drawn into the seeing all the LIFE in the towns.
Once allegiance housing was created the town emptied that the game was much harder on new players and felt a lot less alive then it has prior to housing. They should have put the housing IN the cities in a way that integrated the housing into the cities and made them feel more alive.
The real truth is that without global chat the game would be dead. Yes there are some old players that remember what it was like when everyone had to go to town to talk, trade, form groups, etc. that want the game to be that way. But the majority of MMO gamers do not want that anymore, they don't want down time. Players want to log in and work on progressing their characters which means being able to trade faster/easier and have global chat so that while you're hunting you can work on setting up a group for a large quest.
There won't be an MMO released, that survives, in which there isn't at least a zone wide global chat along with LFG tools. Sure it was an interesting time in MMOs when such things didn't exist, but nobody wants a game like that anymore.
Sorry but I do...Just my opinion but I want a fun gaming experiance with not only a basic goal but a game that feels alive. Don't get me wrong your right AC would be dead right now without it but overall I want a game just like you explained. I guess I am in the minority but I think the social aspect of MMO's in general has being declining constantly they are turning into FPS's. Again just my opinion.
I felt I have to post on this thread because Ac was my 1st MMo. I beta tested UO, EQ and AC. AC was the best by far. A sandbox MMo with PvP and a uber skill and loot system. I think I have played every MMo since. Eq2, SWG, earth and beyond, Eve, CoH, EQ2 , WoW. I can keep going. I also was on Solcalim ,Kaosmage was my name.
The patron system was awesome. Town tradeing was awesome. I loved the old school magic system. I think It took 1 year for someone to hit max level. I loved the buffs. How you could not ID a item without the Lore skill. This game made people work for what they had and I dont think ppl understand that. Yeah the game got simple after they got rid of the taper system, you no longer needed lore, and bots took over, but the base system was god damn brilliant .
I long for a game that could match AC and even though I Was the 4th person ever to unlock jedi in SWG, Played WoW for 4 years finishing all 40 man including Naxx, Still nothing holds a candle to what AC was.
To the best MMo ever!
Sorry but I do...Just my opinion but I want a fun gaming experiance with not only a basic goal but a game that feels alive. Don't get me wrong your right AC would be dead right now without it but overall I want a game just like you explained. I guess I am in the minority but I think the social aspect of MMO's in general has being declining constantly they are turning into FPS's. Again just my opinion.
Count me as another who would like to see a modern game eschew these modern conveniences as people fail to realize that in the quest to maximize their "gametime" they've forgotten what made MMORPG's really great, and that was the social aspects of the game.
Yes, forced downtime, socialization etc are actually what made the early games great, and when they were taken away at first it seemed like a good thing, but as you saw upon your return to AC (I had same experience when I went back to DAOC) they aren't the same games anymore, just hollow shells of what you remembered.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
AC did have some really brilliant ides and I had a TON of fun there. SWG pre nerf and Vanguard were the only games that I can honestly say I enjoyed as much.
The thing that made AC really great was the people; I just went back and hooked up with a good group of folks that still hunts together and shoots the shit. The people I play with still give me a good feeling about the game and even with some of the questionable changes I'm having a lot of fun.
SWG also had a tight group of folks that made the game fun; I think that's honestly a huge part of whats lacking in MMO's now a days. We used to all be a bunch of geeks, but we were nice geeks and enjoyed the atmosphere that the worlds brought us. The folks have changed but you can still find a lot of fun with some games if you can get in with a good group of folks. Honestly if I wasnt playing AC, I would have gone back to Vanguard and got in with a group of decent folks there.
$57.84 (US) to order the Digital Download.
$57.84 (US) to order the Digital Download.
For an MMO and a sub based one at that, its a suspiciously high price, almost as if they dont expect people to resub! i would be very interested in their reasoning behind that kind of pricing, especially for a digital download! and particularly for a game still in beta..
$57.84 (US) to order the Digital Download.
For an MMO and a sub based one at that, its a suspiciously high price, almost as if they dont expect people to resub! i would be very interested in their reasoning behind that kind of pricing, especially for a digital download! and particularly for a game still in beta..
Well that price is converted from Euros. The dollar isn't what it use to be.