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Alganon Beta First (and last) impressions.
TL:DR at the bottom.
I decided to try Alganon’s open beta after the recent articles in massively especially the http://www.massively.com/2009/11/12/anti-aliased-we-put-the-no-in-innovation/ “we put the no in innovation” article. I was A bored, and B wanted to see if the game was ACTUALLY that close to cloning WoW.
So I downloaded the client for an hour, then hit launch and waited and waited, 3 minuets later the log in screen came up, I logged in and waited and waited, and then a loading screen came up and FINALLY the character selection screen came up. So I made a human Soldier and hit create. The game crashed. Restarted same long wait.
Made a whatever the other race is Soldier and FINALLY got into the game after a 3 minuet loading screen.
For reference my computer loads WoW from launcher to character selection to playing in under 30 seconds with the graphics almost at max. WAR takes about 45 seconds, star craft literally takes 10, Warcraft III takes about 15-20 to get on battlenet. (I timed this all to get a comparison)
The interface dose in fact clone WoW. And my clone I mean some sections are practically identical. Not the same general layout with various differences like WAR or Lotro but virtually identical. The talents system for example uses the EXACT same system and the EXACT same interface. My soldier which uses a mechanic called “anger” that is suspiciously similar to rage even had a 5 point tier one talent that gave a +5% to parry in the “weaponry” tree. Just like the arms tree in WoW….
After much eye rolling on my part I started playing. The starting area was full of neutral level 1 mobs there was a quest giver standing 6 feet from me. After 6 tries I finally managed to accept the beginner quest. Continued questing and killing the very laggy buggy mobs until level 3 then went to the nearest town and found my class trainer.
Got an ability that was very reminiscent of rend and another ability that served the same function as battle shout. The lagg was getting worse so I relogged. Which just made it even worse. I gave up for the night after setting my character to study..
Next day everything lagged less and a new patch had been deployed. Still took 3 tries to get the game to launch and when I tried to create a human the gamed crashed again. Continued playing my soldier. The study system that the devs hype so much is underwhelming to say the least. Oh goody I can spend “study points” to gain an utterly insignificant bonus to melee attacks ten hours from now!
Levels seem to be EXTREMELY important in this game. At level 4 I tried to take on a level 6 enemy just to see if I could. Within 5 seconds I had lost 1/3 of my health while barely dinting the mob (which was warping like a star trek fanboi). So I tried again on a level 5 mob with similar results. However I could 3-4 shot level 3 mobs.
Eventually I had had enough. The game would be a mediocre WoW clone if it was polished and everything worked at launch. The Devs appear to be wanting to charge a initial price at download followed by $15 a month which I find ridiculous. Free download and $5 a month would be more acceptable and only if they get everything fixed by launch which I doubt very much.
The development channel is full of people reporting all kinds of wonderful glitches, malfunctioning abilities talents that do nothing, crashes, errors flying mobs, warping mobs, broken quests and all kinds of other fun stuff. The sort of thing you expect in early beta not 2 weeks before release…
The devs are EXTREMELY defensive both on the forums and in game. One person crudely but accurately joked, “You’d swear I was trying to deflower their 13 year old daughter not offer constructive criticism about a game.” They constantly dismiss similarities to WoW as “coincidental” or “unimportant” and insist that the game is new, exciting, fun and a breath of fresh air.
They also insist that the study system makes them part of a “next generation of mmorpg”. (They even tell you that on a loading screen tip) Which is BS because Eve has used a similar system for years and it dose NOT translate well to fantasy wow rip offs.
TL:DR In my opinion the game clones wow to a degree that is incredible, it would be mediocre if everything worked which so far it doesn’t. Admittedly I didn’t play the game that long but I don’t think there is ANY way it could impress me after my first few hours.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
Comments
How do you like the jump-animation?
I crashed when I tried to jump down a small drop...... I saw another player jump over a fence though and it look pretty awful.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
I crashed when I tried to jump down a small drop...... I saw another player jump over a fence though and it look pretty awful.
I'm totally with you here. They have to pull off one heck of a miracle, to pass this game off as a P2P.
EDIT: Not that I'm basing all of this on a lousy jump-animation. It's just really really horrible.
I crashed when I tried to jump down a small drop...... I saw another player jump over a fence though and it look pretty awful.
I'm totally with you here. They have to pull off one heck of a miracle, to pass this game off as a P2P.
EDIT: Not that I'm basing all of this on a lousy jump-animation. It's just really really horrible.
Didja try listening to the audio? Its terribad there is an incessant buzzing noise in towns, mobs make incredibly annoying noises, the music is horrible, ESPECIALLY the overdone sound byte whenever you accept or complete a quest.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
I crashed when I tried to jump down a small drop...... I saw another player jump over a fence though and it look pretty awful.
I'm totally with you here. They have to pull off one heck of a miracle, to pass this game off as a P2P.
EDIT: Not that I'm basing all of this on a lousy jump-animation. It's just really really horrible.
Didja try listening to the audio? Its terribad there is an incessant buzzing noise in towns, mobs make incredibly annoying noises, the music is horrible, ESPECIALLY the overdone sound byte whenever you accept or complete a quest.
I did notice the mob-sound. What's up with that? It can't possible be there on purpose, it's way too abrupting.
To be honest, I didn't try the game for more than 10 minutes. The first impression was way too bad for me to keep on going. I really tried though, it was hard not to press alt+f4 instantly.
I thought it was pretty sweet that everyone has permanent Slow Fall on and you don't even need feathers! Booyah!
Sign me up!
It's gotten to the point where some MMOs have been reduced to little more than success dispensers. Don't think. Don't challenge yourself. Do as little as possible... but still be rewarded for it. Yeah.. *that's* fun.
-- WSIMike
I tried Alganon 3 weeks before it's aborted launch,quite righty they held it back the game was riddled with game destroying bugs,and that was 3 days before launch,the generic gameplay also brings people to immediatley jump on the WOW clone bandwagon which i despise because many have not played all the grandaddy Mo's which WOW ripped off then threw in a bit of Warcraft culture,and generally capture the market which still amazes me to this day.
Now i was expecting something really different maybe FE but with elves and stuff,but i just found a generic game with one outstanding feature,the offline learning which is simular to Eve,but a nice addition all the same everything else was so been there done that,Quest really missed an opportunity Icarus unlike Quest went sod it,let's go nuts with our game create something unique and grab many a niche player into their world and treat customers like people not mindless sheep,and generally seem to love their franchise like a new baby.
What is also sad is they are releaseing against Allods Online a F2P Mo,which yes is generic but does it with so much class in parts it's breath takeing and shows why the best devs in Russia are very gifted programmers,suffice to say Alganon will prob go F2P at one point as u need a little bit extra in this climate,ie gamers are wanting value for money now, by extra take Allods who want's to build a flying ship then have guildmates crew the ship,yeah now that's innovation and sets it apart a bit like FE.
There wasn't really one redeeming quality that would make this game worth buying then subbing.
I actually played the game t0 ab0ut level 10. N0w I can get pass all the crummy ripped 0ff W0W interface and talent tree, but when I attack a m0b as a mage and it just keeps walking and after 6 sec0nds warps in fr0nt 0f me and kills me, that's where I draw the line. This happened several several times.
N0B0DY likes t0 be killed by a warping m0b 0f equal level in any MM0. T0 excuse it as, "a beta issue" is BS. 0nce again lets reference All0ds and the fact it's in beta t00 and that I get n0 warping m0bs. Me and my friend played All0ds f0r like 4 h0urs last night with 0 pr0blems, with the excepti0n Pallys in All0ds made shitty l0w level healers (n0t really a mechanic fault)
In cl0sing I w0uld 100% play Algan0n IF they c0uld c0mpletely and successfully rip W0W 0ff and make the game fluid, AND playable.....w0nt p2p f0r it th0ugh.
S.C.I.F.I
<Sights, Clouded, In, False, Illusions>
I crashed when I tried to jump down a small drop...... I saw another player jump over a fence though and it look pretty awful.
I'm totally with you here. They have to pull off one heck of a miracle, to pass this game off as a P2P.
EDIT: Not that I'm basing all of this on a lousy jump-animation. It's just really really horrible.
Didja try listening to the audio? Its terribad there is an incessant buzzing noise in towns, mobs make incredibly annoying noises, the music is horrible, ESPECIALLY the overdone sound byte whenever you accept or complete a quest.
I did notice the mob-sound. What's up with that? It can't possible be there on purpose, it's way too abrupting.
To be honest, I didn't try the game for more than 10 minutes. The first impression was way too bad for me to keep on going. I really tried though, it was hard not to press alt+f4 instantly.
When I first heard the sounds in this game I thought my Soundblaster was dying a very violent death. Had to load up something else to confirm it was still working correctly.
I'm exaggerating, of course, but not as much as I wish I were.
I had a bit of trouble decifering your post but I disagree whith what you are (I think) trying to say. I think the offline learning is completely out of place alongside a level/class based system. If it was a matter of primary character progression as part of a sandbox game maybe.
I also disagree with your acessment that WoW ripped of predecesser mmos and threw in Warcraft culture. They took the best ideas of other games and ideas of players of those games polished the heck out of them and added several ideas of their own. (Instances battlegrounds and so on). While they certianly didn't invent the mmo style they refined it and added a lot more innovation than people like to give them credit for.
Mmos like Alganon copy wow in an extreme sense and just make an inferior copy.
I im interested in why your pimping Allods which is in closed beta? do you have acess to the beta or are you just hyping the games based off the videos made by the company and the promises of the Devs?
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
Yikes. From the looks of it I think I saved myself some time by not going into the beta
There is a Madness that has grown in the Light. And it is coming to burn you a cinder
Not really...you're still posting here....
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
I also disagree with your acessment that WoW ripped of predecesser mmos and threw in Warcraft culture. They took the best ideas of other games and ideas of players of those games polished the heck out of them and added several ideas of their own. (Instances battlegrounds and so on). While they certianly didn't invent the mmo style they refined it and added a lot more innovation than people like to give them credit for.
Instances were used in everquest before wow was ever created. Battlegrounds were created in guildwars, and the guildwars team actually made the wow battlegrounds too.
Uh Arena net made wow battlegrounds? Highly unlikely as they were in planning before Wow launched in 2004 and were implemented a month after guild wars launched. I should have qualified the instances coment further but I made is rushing out the door. No they didn't invent instancing but it was one of the things they massiely refiened.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
I think sometimes I have seen defenders, but not recently. I think the true supporters of Alganon won't really try a point for point defense anymore, the negatives are just too numerous and brutal. Maybe honest, but still brutal. I had much the same experience as the OP; I could not often get past the loading screens or they timed out. Once in game it was like playing a pre-alpha.
I badly wanted Alganon to be something more than it is. I don't care about something being a WoW clone. But pre-alpha is NOT the way to release a game. If it was stable and polished (and had a decent amount of content, which it will not at launch) and had most of its promised new features (also which it will not at launch), I would have subscribed without a question and damn the torpedoes, as well as the WoW clone talk. Sign me up!
I'm sorry but I have to draw the line when something is pre-alpha & they are asking us to buy the game for $40 plus a monthly sub. Get it out of pre-alpha, and get those unique features in there. Unfortunately it doesn't look like that will happen by launch. It's too bad, because most of the right ideas seem to be there, including a good community.
R.I.P. Alganon. If you rise from the dead and surprise us all, more power to ya...
I think sometimes I have seen defenders, but not recently. I think the true supporters of Alganon won't really try a point for point defense anymore, the negatives are just too numerous and brutal. Maybe honest, but still brutal. I had much the same experience as the OP; I could not often get past the loading screens or they timed out. Once in game it was like playing a pre-alpha.
I badly wanted Alganon to be something more than it is. I don't care about something being a WoW clone. But pre-alpha is NOT the way to release a game. If it was stable and polished (and had a decent amount of content, which it will not at launch) and had most of its promised new features (also which it will not at launch), I would have subscribed without a question and damn the torpedoes, as well as the WoW clone talk. Sign me up!
I'm sorry but I have to draw the line when something is pre-alpha & they are asking us to buy the game for $40 plus a monthly sub. Get it out of pre-alpha, and get those unique features in there. Unfortunately it doesn't look like that will happen by launch. It's too bad, because most of the right ideas seem to be there, including a good community.
R.I.P. Alganon. If you rise from the dead and surprise us all, more power to ya...
If it had all the promised features it woulden't be such a WoW clone it would actually be what they are descibing it as, a mmo with unique and origional traits. Sure it would be SIMILAR to WoW just like WAR or Runes of Magic but not a inferior clone like it is right now.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
Battlegrounds in guildwars? I think you mean arenas.
Instances were not his point, "Instanced battlegrounds" were. I don't know if it's correct that those have not been in games before WoW, but you seem to go trough some real trouble just to prove him wrong with incorrect facts.
To be fair, when commenting on a game that is in beta, you should ignore the bugs and crashes and only comment on the design and concepts. The bugs are perfectly allowed to be there, thats what a beta is for. Aion and Allods having perfectly stable, enjoyable betas isnt the measure - both games have previously had extensive betas in their native market (Korea and Russia), and what we have seen in the west are only localisation betas + very minor bugs.
That being said, the design of Alganon is awful
I can understand why they would rip off WoW. I cannot however wrap my mind arround what must have gone through the designers minds - how on earth did they come up with the idea that someone will leave WoW, for a game that is its direct copy, with uglier interface, inferior graphics and dreadfull sound design, but still costs the same as WoW? Or that someone who hasnt played either would choose Alganon over WoW?
It just puzzles me. Alganon would be a fine as a F2P, providing everything gets fixed in the beta. But this is a fail comming their way and i am sad they dont realize it.
I wouldn't be so hard on the bugs and crashes if it asn't fo the fact that the game is supposed to be launching in two weeks. If this was EARLY beta I would expect all of the above. If you reread my OP I specifically state that. And no I don't understand what they were thinking either. They had some ok ideas they say they will implement at a later date but as it is they are releasing an inferior copy of wow for the price of Wow and an expansion.
I think it would do well as a Runescape sytle f2p if they held it in development for another 6 months and polished it.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!
No one has even mentioned the fact that the Library will actually punish those who level fast. Even if the bonuses are negligable. I agree with the other posters who are just comfounded by the developers reasoning,,,there just is no solid reason to pay to play this game when one can get so much more from the game it is obviously modeled after.
I thought the funny part was this by the OP:
For reference my computer loads WoW from launcher to character selection to playing in under 30 seconds with the graphics almost at max. WAR takes about 45 seconds, star craft literally takes 10, Warcraft III takes about 15-20 to get on battlenet. (I timed this all to get a comparison)
BIizzard Fanboy much?
You can run while autoattacking with a bow!!!
If you enjoyed watching glitter, gigli or battlefield earth just for the laughs i highly reccomend playing the beta as it is laughably bad.
Otherwise stay away.
Currently Playing: Fallen Earth
Played and liked: TCOS, Vanguard, Guild Wars, DDO
Played and didn't like: CO, MO, STO, DF, AoC, WAR, WoW, EQ2, EVE, most f2p
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, Secret World
I like quality games. Also those were the games that I figured would give the best indication of how fast my comp is to load stuff and the ones that arn't off CD's.
But yes I am a blizzard fan. But not a blinded jaded, BLIZZERD IZ TEH PWNAGEAN EVRY UTHER GAEM DEV SUX fanboy.
Dem hibbies! Dey be wrong!