Well theres two servers. One is dead, and absolutely and completely dead if you choose the wrong faction.
The other server, starts with an N...that server feels much more populated...theres actually some life in the starter areas.
Just my opinion, but seems like a bit much of group content in the 1-11 starter area city, on the populated server it does seem quite a bit difficult to get people to do them. Its even harder to find a balanced group since most players are sorc/summoners/scouts/bards...dont think ive seen a tank in the starter area yet and mabey one healer.
Most of the group content is doable with a mass of dps classes, but i do know theres a dungeon towards the end, i see an occasional spam looking for tank/heals/dps for it.
Im not anti-group content, it just sucks seeing all these non soloable quests and also have it be nearly impossible to get a group together to do it.
Good news for this game and games like it is that were in kind of a AAA mmorpg dead zone for the time being. Theres going to be lots of people looking for a cheap filler game untill the next round of major launches. This game isnt terrible and relativly unknown. Id expect the pop to grow a bit leading into the summer due to this. People are looking for something diffrent and something they havent played yet to fill the gap if you will.
This game died after Open Beta introducing the pvp parfumes for me.. Dunno how is it now, but I think they just need a better publisher, because the game itself is great.
Its the cash shop thats killed/is killing the game.
Once people realize the center role of the cash shop in the game...they start to lose interest in the game.
Especially when there are other games out there that have nothing more than xp boost items/ costumes / pets / stat potions.
This game seems to require that you spend real money on runes (which can be seriously expensive) and for in game gold just to play...on top of all the stuff in normal cash shops.
The more people i talk to in game who give me advice on what endgame is...the less i become interested...despite the actual content sounds great. I can expect to be barred from any decent goups without having invested hundreds-thousands of dollars in pay to win items and the in game currency to compete.
I have no qualms with financially supporting the games i play...but this game is out of control with the cash shop.
I mean theres raids that havent been cleared yet because all the raid members havent spent enough in the cash shop on runes ect....theres still world firsts that havent been achieved because of this....not because the player skill or the time devoted wasnt there but because everyone hasnt spent enough in the cash shop...thats just crazy.
Really is sad because its a good game mechanically....its fun and complex and you need to think things through with progression...honestly never seen a cash shop this bold.
They should release this game on Steam. They did it with Forsaken World and Pandora Saga, both of which suck, and the games got a second lease of life.
As to the cash shop...that all depends on your gaming style.
I play to have fun and craft, an attempt to leave a working day behind. As such I never use it although I will at some point just to change my toons appearnce.
If you are a hardcore gamer on the other hand then as far as I am aware, a full set of Runes will set you back 150 euros over time and they aren't as important as they used to be. As to everything else, I think you have to stack it up against a Years sub if you plan on sticking it out that long. You will probably find it balances out give or take a few quid. The rest will probably be down to being an over enthusiastic shopper
If anyone hasnt played this before I urge you to give it a go. It is most definately one of the better ones out there.
Edit:
I also believe that in-game gold can be exchanged for cash shop currency although I haven't tried this yet.
They should release this game on Steam. They did it with Forsaken World and Pandora Saga, both of which suck, and the games got a second lease of life.
As to the cash shop...that all depends on your gaming style.
I play to have fun and craft, an attempt to leave a working day behind. As such I never use it although I will at some point just to change my toons appearnce.
If you are a hardcore gamer on the other hand then as far as I am aware, a full set of Runes will set you back 150 euros over time and they aren't as important as they used to be. As to everything else, I think you have to stack it up against a Years sub if you plan on sticking it out that long. You will probably find it balances out give or take a few quid. The rest will probably be down to being an over enthusiastic shopper
If anyone hasnt played this before I urge you to give it a go. It is most definately one of the better ones out there.
Edit:
I also believe that in-game gold can be exchanged for cash shop currency although I haven't tried this yet.
I haven't seen a single one of my friends even DL Forsaken World, and they dl pretty much all the free games on Steam. This thread should be called The Dead Allods.
They should release this game on Steam. They did it with Forsaken World and Pandora Saga, both of which suck, and the games got a second lease of life.
As to the cash shop...that all depends on your gaming style.
I play to have fun and craft, an attempt to leave a working day behind. As such I never use it although I will at some point just to change my toons appearnce.
If you are a hardcore gamer on the other hand then as far as I am aware, a full set of Runes will set you back 150 euros over time and they aren't as important as they used to be. As to everything else, I think you have to stack it up against a Years sub if you plan on sticking it out that long. You will probably find it balances out give or take a few quid. The rest will probably be down to being an over enthusiastic shopper
If anyone hasnt played this before I urge you to give it a go. It is most definately one of the better ones out there.
Edit:
I also believe that in-game gold can be exchanged for cash shop currency although I haven't tried this yet.
Well, part of the big turn off with this game falls into two categories really.
First experience with the game is that it doe really have a look that makes you think of another game...lots of people called it a complete rip off of this game, despite mechanically its completely diffrent...it has that look and feel i guess.
Second turnoff comes after youve been playing, its cash shop related. Yes you can convert farmed gold to cash shop currency and vise versa. Problem is this game is loaded with gold sinks, mostly related to the rune system. Runes can cost thousands of dollars apparently, exponential combining to get higher level runes. Runes require cahs shop items and in game gold. Doing it for free with in game gold requires an insanse amount of gold.
On top of the rune system, just about every mechanism in the game that allows you to farm gold sucks that gold away. Its not easy to farm gold in the game, not nearly the amounts you need to stay competative. You will get shunned from endgame activites without all runes being of a certain level, theres 6 of them. 3 flat rate increase your dmg by a % other 3 flat rate increase damage taken. You can pretty easily get level 2-3 runes across the board. After that it gets kind of crazy. Max is level 13.
http://allods-wiki.gpotato.com/wiki/Runes (theres a slider that allows you to spend more or less cash shop chips in exchange for more gold dust the in game gold item needed hence all the variations in gpots/gold listed) Its exponential so to make a level 3 rune you need to make two level 2 runes then combine them if you care to calculate how much $$ it would cost to make a certain level rune, again above level 10 its too expensive to really bother listing but you can get a good idea) At $30 for 3k gpots it would take about $1,140 to make a single level 11 rune not including 1,800 in game gold needed with that. Just a frame of reference on what people spend, theres 6 slots...ive seen people wil 3 level 11 and 3 level 10 runes in game.
Notice that the guide stop before the max rune level, its quite expensive to combine 2 level 10 runes to make an 11 ect and then continue on to level 13. I think most require at least level 4-5 for low level endgame. I hear that the top tier instance hasnt even been completed with fully geared players due to lack of rune level....yeah theres still a raid that no one can complete.
Anyway...ignoring the games mechanics to get you to spend big to win, the games pretty fun mechanically. Very fun and interesting classes, good themepark attractions...unique russian feel to it. Its just a shame they got carried away with the cash shop...and my experience was after they drive their playerbase away by making the game more cash shop dependant...its apparently many times better now.
A very good game however if you LOVE to farm. Youll never run out of gold to farm for things in the cash shop. You always will have a goal on something you can buy from the gold you farm. Just dont expect this to be a game where you running top tier raids in a month, unless you spend thousands of dollars in the cash shop.
I dont think in its current state that putting the game on steam will do much, its a game that going to drive away most people outside of the "god i love to farm endless amounts of gold" players and those who like to show off how much they can spend in the cash shop.
Well, part of the big turn off with this game falls into two categories really.
First experience with the game is that it doe really have a look that makes you think of another game...lots of people called it a complete rip off of this game, despite mechanically its completely diffrent...it has that look and feel i guess.
Second turnoff comes after youve been playing, its cash shop related. Yes you can convert farmed gold to cash shop currency and vise versa. Problem is this game is loaded with gold sinks, mostly related to the rune system. Runes can cost thousands of dollars apparently, exponential combining to get higher level runes. Runes require cahs shop items and in game gold. Doing it for free with in game gold requires an insanse amount of gold.
On top of the rune system, just about every mechanism in the game that allows you to farm gold sucks that gold away. Its not easy to farm gold in the game, not nearly the amounts you need to stay competative. You will get shunned from endgame activites without all runes being of a certain level, theres 6 of them. 3 flat rate increase your dmg by a % other 3 flat rate increase damage taken. You can pretty easily get level 2-3 runes across the board. After that it gets kind of crazy. Max is level 13.
Well, it has that WoW look, no doubt about that. I actually think it looks better than WoW and has an added twist with the Allods and Astral theme. So while it's no doubt heavily inspired by WoW graphics, I wouldn't say it's a complete rip off.
Second the cash shop. You're right that the game is cash shop driven and the game has a lot of gold sinks. This however has an upside to it. The demand for gold is always quite high and keeps the shard prices in check. The exchange rate has been going down, down and further down since they installed that Shard NPC with the latest patch. Imagine those shard prices if the spenders had no real use for gold.
The offensive runes give a 3.333% increase to damage per level. The defensive runes actually decrease the damage taken, not increase, by about 2.5% per level. So per 3 runes on offense +10% to damage, 3 runes to defense -7.5% to damage taken. I disagree somewhat on things getting crazing after level 2 or 3 however. I'm working on getting 7's across the board now, that gets a bit crazy granted, but 4 or 5 should still be quite feasable if you put your mind to it. You might not be overly popular with just level 5 runes, but it should be doable to experience the real end game without needing to put real money into the game. You won't get there in a month but you can get there.
Well the wow like look is something i would describe as a HD version of wow with better colors but no lighting effects, however ive only played wow for a very short period of time back i think during the litch king expansion, not sure if i stayed the full month...so the graphics may be diffrent now. Either way, i think its how the characters move and the general feel that will remind people of wow...thats not a positive these days. Again that fooling fades once you have to deal with the interesting classes and the fun character building with rubies talents and stats...i miss that kind of stuff in modern games.
The cash shop issue is the big one, people need to decide if they want to remain in the game, make a large investment of time and money or move on...Yes you can probably get all level 5 runes and do most of the content eventually for free...most players are looking for endgame within a month which is only possible with the cash shop and the investment required trumps most AAA p2p mmorpgs over a long span of time....
Also now you got games like Aion going totall f2p, and their cash shop is good and relativly cheap considering.
The game missed its chance, they had tons of players and decided to make the cash shop non-optional and very expensive, its why most left, yes its been toned down a lot but the issue remains...bang for your buck theres a whole lot better out there.
This game has unique and niche going for it, something thats well hidded by its wow-reminding-feeling early on.
I would also like to point out that its publisher, Gpotato has been cleaning house with games that had similair populations...they just diched two games and shut them down. What do you thinks going to happen to those with level 10-11 runes who did actually spend $5000+ (not joking either) if the game gets shut down?
Two good signs of game health are crafting and the low level instances (if the game has them).
If there is a healthy population then low level crafting materials will be bought through auction or stall by other low level crafters trying to improve their skills.
In Allods the only craft worth doing for money is herbalism and by connection alchemy. Since coming back I have tried dissassembler, mining and blacksmith. Anyone playing now either doesn't craft those because their is no money in them or because they are such high levels those materials are no longer needed.
Putting it briefly, there are not enough new players to create a broad crafting base to make all of them usefull.
Secondly, if you can find anyone to do Oreshek Fortress apart from a couple of scouts then that doesn't bode well either.
If this game is to continue it really does need some serious advertising, a new cash shop model, and divine intervention.
Quit this game when they announced the new patch. They announced it way too early. Since it would make most of the activites at the time obsolete, there was really nothing to do for like 2-3 months but wait. Why collect gear that you are going to be npcing in the near future? Same with ship parts and astral gems.
I logged on 2 days after the 51 patch and all of the active people in my guild had already hit cap...seemed like just more of the same. Been playing off and on since the first day it came online, Gipat patch was a real low point as everyone knows(I quit for a year), Kirah patch was the high point for me. My chosen class (mage) was most fun to play during this patch, the new changes are just weird and take most of the fun out of the class IMO....
In short, yeah it's a fading P2W gear/gold grind that couldn't have been handled worse. It looked like it might turn around there for a minute, but it wasn't meant to be. For anyone still playing, let it die guys. Let it die : (
Logged in tonight (EU Version) probably for the last time. I have a character in each faction and both were ghost towns. Have been trying to get a group for Oreshek now for 3 days with no luck.
Just not enough players coming up to create a balanced group. It has so far been a couple of scouts or one or two bards and thats it.
This game is dead and is just not bright enough to fall down. Shame as it was one of the better ones (cash shop aside :S )
I don't even think its worth saying' give it a go its free' because the isolationist experience will not do it justice.
Logged in tonight (EU Version) probably for the last time. I have a character in each faction and both were ghost towns. Have been trying to get a group for Oreshek now for 3 days with no luck.
Just not enough players coming up to create a balanced group. It has so far been a couple of scouts or one or two bards and thats it.
This game is dead and is just not bright enough to fall down. Shame as it was one of the better ones (cash shop aside :S )
I don't even think its worth saying' give it a go its free' because the isolationist experience will not do it justice.
I haven't done anything on the EU servers, only US. The group quests can be a problem if you just start out now. I usually had to do them at higher level too on my alts, basically for the world mysteries. When you're several levels higher than the mobs it's quite eas. You don't need a full team if you can't simply solo the whole instance. A level makes a significant difference in this game.
And quit trying to delete the fb comments when someone spits the truth about this game.
Lol so true.
A strange thing happened on the way to the forum :P
On the EU site there is a post about upcoming updates such as new map graphics and auto pathing etc.
Most of the commenters are either meh about the whole thing or are asking why time is being wasted on such an update when so many other things need fixing or adding. A few are quite blunt.
My bro wrote a simple comment saying that, and I sort of quote, "hadn't they better concentrate on getting players instead of bimbling around with cosmetics".
According to him it took about an hour before the post was removed and he was temp banned for trolling.
I had warned him lol XD.
The result of all this is ... well ...meh to be perfectly honest. For a company to be blinkered about player concerns re the most crucial aspect of the game ie population, is just beyond belief.
As we had both noticed, the game is dead. The only people left are the high level players and maybe one or two alts. This new update will not save the game, if anything the autopathing in itself will put so many off they will leave without downloading.
At the end of the day, it is not my brothers or my business so what do we care. All we can say is goodbye and good luck to Allods. Both of us have quit/uninstalled and it will take a miracle to get us back.
On top of all this, if Allods survives the release GW2 I will be genuinley surprised.
And quit trying to delete the fb comments when someone spits the truth about this game.
Lol so true.
A strange thing happened on the way to the forum :P
On the EU site there is a post about upcoming updates such as new map graphics and auto pathing etc.
Most of the commenters are either meh about the whole thing or are asking why time is being wasted on such an update when so many other things need fixing or adding. A few are quite blunt.
My bro wrote a simple comment saying that, and I sort of quote, "hadn't they better concentrate on getting players instead of bimbling around with cosmetics".
Just curious cause I see people say this type of thing about loads of games, why do you think they should leave that comment there? There's nothing constructive in it and it comes across as someone whining to me, which is what I see people complain about a lot on mmorpg.com about their posts being removed (comments like: 'this sucks' getting removed for example)
And quit trying to delete the fb comments when someone spits the truth about this game.
Lol so true.
A strange thing happened on the way to the forum :P
On the EU site there is a post about upcoming updates such as new map graphics and auto pathing etc.
Most of the commenters are either meh about the whole thing or are asking why time is being wasted on such an update when so many other things need fixing or adding. A few are quite blunt.
My bro wrote a simple comment saying that, and I sort of quote, "hadn't they better concentrate on getting players instead of bimbling around with cosmetics".
Just curious cause I see people say this type of thing about loads of games, why do you think they should leave that comment there? There's nothing constructive in it and it comes across as someone whining to me, which is what I see people complain about a lot on mmorpg.com about their posts being removed (comments like: 'this sucks' getting removed for example)
This is absolutely true and as I said I did warn him although I fail to see how a comment about player numbers is considered whining . Not to mention he isn't even remotely bothered about the ban and is not contesting it.
But, if the other comments from the same post are..
"They have time to make those useless quest interface changes, but no time to fix the damn bug of the dragon mask. (already passed 2-3-4 months?)"
or
"They have time to make those useless quest interface changes, but no time to fix the damn bug of the dragon mask. (already passed 2-3-4 months?)
Yea, eigher fix it or remove it from the game and pay us back 500 BC. Now it's just our waster money."
and they are still there, then I find it curious that a less strident comment about giving the dwindling population a priority over interface changes warrants any kind of ban. Well not unless any reference to the population is undesirable. :S
At the end of the day if its company policy to censor that particular subject then so be it. More fool him for not reading the T & C.
Also, as my bro and I have left the game because of said issue (low population) I care about it as much as he does which is I dont. I only mentioned it in passing as it is sort of an indicator as to how a company views its customers and I found it funny coz kinfolk got spanked .
See i've moderated forums before. I would have binned your brother's comment too because it adds nothing to the discussion, it's just a player trying to be funny/whiny or whatever. There's nothing in that comment that is helpful to that topic in any way.
The other two comments you highlighted actually are problems that need to be fixed. They bought an item, the item doesn't work and they want it fixed or for a refund to be given. That's fair to me and I'd be annoyed if they censored those comments. Your brothers post added nothing though.
The dev is Russian and chauvinism seems to work. There are no guarantees that this game will be (can we even say remain?) successful in the US. It's gone downhill since the first cash shop was introduced really.
Unfortunately they completely botched their cash shop system in that game. I would imagine by now it has been fixed but people left in droves when they launched due to their exorbitant pricing structure.
Could have been a great game.
But coulda, woulda, shoulda can be applied to more than a few mmos anymore regardless whether they're f2p or p2p.
My friends loved it until the cash shop. They told me horror stories about its pricing and the functionality of the items.
I played it at the start, during open beta and into launch, and it looked damned good for a MMO out of left field that I had never heard of before... but I was deeply entrenched in a WoW raid guild at the time and just didn't have the time for two similar MMOs.
The other two comments you highlighted actually are problems that need to be fixed.
Ah, so a rapid decline in game population isn't a problem that needs to be fixed? Interesting view.
I would question the logic that accepts one persons gripe about a dragon mask in the same thread, over a comment about the death of the entire product, which for some reason is found to be unnacceptable.
In fact I would question the judgement of the admin that allows player comments on a 'latest development news' topic instead of locking it and leaving it to the relevent discussion section for players to put forward their opinions. The last thing a company needs is for those that read and don't post watch the latest update get trashed by the community.
Plus as paying customers (in the main) I believe they are entitled to question the priorities of a company that thinks autopathing and watching your toon folllowing a ball of wool is more important than actually having players there to appreciate it.
Just to let you guys know. When i posted this thread i was at endgame and doing these astral runs for gems. Which in my book was a waste of time and thank god Gpotato took that quest out. I think alot of people gave up over that or just stop playing for one reason or another. I was on the verge of quitting and had for a bit til the Patch was released. Gpotato listened to the fanbase and fixed this game good. Now only if Gpotato can do damage control. Its really hard to get people back into playing this game. Im having more fun playing this game than i did when i was leveling my character. I remember all the quest being bugged and jobs not being balanced out. I thnk anybody who is reading these post should give this game a try if they are deciding wether or not to download this game.
I think its really safe to say that cash shop was really not or is a issue. I bet the majority of people who use the cash shop is to buy for want. I bet the biggest selllers are cosmetics and mounts. My biggest bitch was the lack of content in this game wich drove people away.
Just to let you guys know. When i posted this thread i was at endgame and doing these astral runs for gems. Which in my book was a waste of time and thank god Gpotato took that quest out. I think alot of people gave up over that or just stop playing for one reason or another. I was on the verge of quitting and had for a bit til the Patch was released. Gpotato listened to the fanbase and fixed this game good. Now only if Gpotato can do damage control. Its really hard to get people back into playing this game. Im having more fun playing this game than i did when i was leveling my character. I remember all the quest being bugged and jobs not being balanced out. I thnk anybody who is reading these post should give this game a try if they are deciding wether or not to download this game.
I think its really safe to say that cash shop was really not or is a issue. I bet the majority of people who use the cash shop is to buy for want. I bet the biggest selllers are cosmetics and mounts. My biggest bitch was the lack of content in this game wich drove people away.
So your saying that the cash shop rune system isnt a cash shop factor? You do know that people exclude players with low level runes right.... and getting a 30-40% flat rate dmg and def boost from them isnt "optional", especially for serious pvp and endgame. Yes you can spend a year farming gold and nothing else and get the minimum rune level...otherwise it costs *no joke* thousands of dollars.
With that said...what killed the game was the old cash shop, there were tons of people playing and they added several cash shop systems on top of the ridiculous rune system, on top of the decorative and convienience items people want to buy in the cash shop. Luckily they got rid of the curse items making them free in the cash shop.
Dont be fooled, once you realize the cash shop in the game, in its current form, youll need to make a decision on if the game is worth it to you. It drives most people away whould otherwise spend thousands less on a good p2p game and have access to everything. That is this games biggest downfall.
If the cash shop isnt the reason why dont we tell potential players how much real money it would take to go from level 3 runes (something that is hard to do in game but not crazy) to level 7? I think i linked the site that explained, but lets highlight this issue. How much to go from all level 3 runes to all level 5 (bare min) then 6 then 7...break it down for us how the cash shop couldnt possibly be a factor. Ignore bag expansions (very needed if you plan to farm gold) cosmetics extra earring slot so on and so forth...lets focus on the raw dmg and def stats from runes and their cost....especially since having low runes will get you excluded in game.
My guess is you wont...since its a crazy amount of money.
Just to add..the point of this game in its entierty is almost completely focused on farming gold for the cash shop items. Less you drop $5,000 off the bat....otherwise your goal is to farm gold so you can buy pay to win items and participate in endgame.
Just to let you guys know. When i posted this thread i was at endgame and doing these astral runs for gems. Which in my book was a waste of time and thank god Gpotato took that quest out. I think alot of people gave up over that or just stop playing for one reason or another. I was on the verge of quitting and had for a bit til the Patch was released. Gpotato listened to the fanbase and fixed this game good. Now only if Gpotato can do damage control. Its really hard to get people back into playing this game. Im having more fun playing this game than i did when i was leveling my character. I remember all the quest being bugged and jobs not being balanced out. I thnk anybody who is reading these post should give this game a try if they are deciding wether or not to download this game.
I think its really safe to say that cash shop was really not or is a issue. I bet the majority of people who use the cash shop is to buy for want. I bet the biggest selllers are cosmetics and mounts. My biggest bitch was the lack of content in this game wich drove people away.
So your saying that the cash shop rune system isnt a cash shop factor? You do know that people exclude players with low level runes right.... and getting a 30-40% flat rate dmg and def boost from them isnt "optional", especially for serious pvp and endgame. Yes you can spend a year farming gold and nothing else and get the minimum rune level...otherwise it costs *no joke* thousands of dollars.
With that said...what killed the game was the old cash shop, there were tons of people playing and they added several cash shop systems on top of the ridiculous rune system, on top of the decorative and convienience items people want to buy in the cash shop. Luckily they got rid of the curse items making them free in the cash shop.
Dont be fooled, once you realize the cash shop in the game, in its current form, youll need to make a decision on if the game is worth it to you. It drives most people away whould otherwise spend thousands less on a good p2p game and have access to everything. That is this games biggest downfall.
If the cash shop isnt the reason why dont we tell potential players how much real money it would take to go from level 3 runes (something that is hard to do in game but not crazy) to level 7? I think i linked the site that explained, but lets highlight this issue. How much to go from all level 3 runes to all level 5 (bare min) then 6 then 7...break it down for us how the cash shop couldnt possibly be a factor. Ignore bag expansions (very needed if you plan to farm gold) cosmetics extra earring slot so on and so forth...lets focus on the raw dmg and def stats from runes and their cost....especially since having low runes will get you excluded in game.
My guess is you wont...since its a crazy amount of money.
Just to add..the point of this game in its entierty is almost completely focused on farming gold for the cash shop items. Less you drop $5,000 off the bat....otherwise your goal is to farm gold so you can buy pay to win items and
Well your bitching has no real basis. If you played this game long enough which by the sounds of it you didnt. Then you would know that you dont have to open your wallet or purse to play this game. Gpotato offers you many options of getting gpots and getting runes. Not once was i forced to buy from the cash shop. I used the cash shop cuz i wanted. IF you cant farm in this game , then you dont need to be playing mmorpgs then. Its a requirment for all mmorpg. Oh just for you information i didnt spend no more than 20 real dollars on this game to buy Gpots. I got my runes to 7. No since gpots can be bought and sold through exchange system the cash shop is irrelavant.
Comments
Well theres two servers. One is dead, and absolutely and completely dead if you choose the wrong faction.
The other server, starts with an N...that server feels much more populated...theres actually some life in the starter areas.
Just my opinion, but seems like a bit much of group content in the 1-11 starter area city, on the populated server it does seem quite a bit difficult to get people to do them. Its even harder to find a balanced group since most players are sorc/summoners/scouts/bards...dont think ive seen a tank in the starter area yet and mabey one healer.
Most of the group content is doable with a mass of dps classes, but i do know theres a dungeon towards the end, i see an occasional spam looking for tank/heals/dps for it.
Im not anti-group content, it just sucks seeing all these non soloable quests and also have it be nearly impossible to get a group together to do it.
Good news for this game and games like it is that were in kind of a AAA mmorpg dead zone for the time being. Theres going to be lots of people looking for a cheap filler game untill the next round of major launches. This game isnt terrible and relativly unknown. Id expect the pop to grow a bit leading into the summer due to this. People are looking for something diffrent and something they havent played yet to fill the gap if you will.
This game died after Open Beta introducing the pvp parfumes for me.. Dunno how is it now, but I think they just need a better publisher, because the game itself is great.
That nad QQ is rough.
Life IS Feudal
Its the cash shop thats killed/is killing the game.
Once people realize the center role of the cash shop in the game...they start to lose interest in the game.
Especially when there are other games out there that have nothing more than xp boost items/ costumes / pets / stat potions.
This game seems to require that you spend real money on runes (which can be seriously expensive) and for in game gold just to play...on top of all the stuff in normal cash shops.
The more people i talk to in game who give me advice on what endgame is...the less i become interested...despite the actual content sounds great. I can expect to be barred from any decent goups without having invested hundreds-thousands of dollars in pay to win items and the in game currency to compete.
I have no qualms with financially supporting the games i play...but this game is out of control with the cash shop.
I mean theres raids that havent been cleared yet because all the raid members havent spent enough in the cash shop on runes ect....theres still world firsts that havent been achieved because of this....not because the player skill or the time devoted wasnt there but because everyone hasnt spent enough in the cash shop...thats just crazy.
Really is sad because its a good game mechanically....its fun and complex and you need to think things through with progression...honestly never seen a cash shop this bold.
They should release this game on Steam. They did it with Forsaken World and Pandora Saga, both of which suck, and the games got a second lease of life.
As to the cash shop...that all depends on your gaming style.
I play to have fun and craft, an attempt to leave a working day behind. As such I never use it although I will at some point just to change my toons appearnce.
If you are a hardcore gamer on the other hand then as far as I am aware, a full set of Runes will set you back 150 euros over time and they aren't as important as they used to be. As to everything else, I think you have to stack it up against a Years sub if you plan on sticking it out that long. You will probably find it balances out give or take a few quid. The rest will probably be down to being an over enthusiastic shopper
If anyone hasnt played this before I urge you to give it a go. It is most definately one of the better ones out there.
Edit:
I also believe that in-game gold can be exchanged for cash shop currency although I haven't tried this yet.
I haven't seen a single one of my friends even DL Forsaken World, and they dl pretty much all the free games on Steam. This thread should be called The Dead Allods.
Well, part of the big turn off with this game falls into two categories really.
First experience with the game is that it doe really have a look that makes you think of another game...lots of people called it a complete rip off of this game, despite mechanically its completely diffrent...it has that look and feel i guess.
Second turnoff comes after youve been playing, its cash shop related. Yes you can convert farmed gold to cash shop currency and vise versa. Problem is this game is loaded with gold sinks, mostly related to the rune system. Runes can cost thousands of dollars apparently, exponential combining to get higher level runes. Runes require cahs shop items and in game gold. Doing it for free with in game gold requires an insanse amount of gold.
On top of the rune system, just about every mechanism in the game that allows you to farm gold sucks that gold away. Its not easy to farm gold in the game, not nearly the amounts you need to stay competative. You will get shunned from endgame activites without all runes being of a certain level, theres 6 of them. 3 flat rate increase your dmg by a % other 3 flat rate increase damage taken. You can pretty easily get level 2-3 runes across the board. After that it gets kind of crazy. Max is level 13.
http://allods-wiki.gpotato.com/wiki/Runes (theres a slider that allows you to spend more or less cash shop chips in exchange for more gold dust the in game gold item needed hence all the variations in gpots/gold listed) Its exponential so to make a level 3 rune you need to make two level 2 runes then combine them if you care to calculate how much $$ it would cost to make a certain level rune, again above level 10 its too expensive to really bother listing but you can get a good idea) At $30 for 3k gpots it would take about $1,140 to make a single level 11 rune not including 1,800 in game gold needed with that. Just a frame of reference on what people spend, theres 6 slots...ive seen people wil 3 level 11 and 3 level 10 runes in game.
Notice that the guide stop before the max rune level, its quite expensive to combine 2 level 10 runes to make an 11 ect and then continue on to level 13. I think most require at least level 4-5 for low level endgame. I hear that the top tier instance hasnt even been completed with fully geared players due to lack of rune level....yeah theres still a raid that no one can complete.
Anyway...ignoring the games mechanics to get you to spend big to win, the games pretty fun mechanically. Very fun and interesting classes, good themepark attractions...unique russian feel to it. Its just a shame they got carried away with the cash shop...and my experience was after they drive their playerbase away by making the game more cash shop dependant...its apparently many times better now.
A very good game however if you LOVE to farm. Youll never run out of gold to farm for things in the cash shop. You always will have a goal on something you can buy from the gold you farm. Just dont expect this to be a game where you running top tier raids in a month, unless you spend thousands of dollars in the cash shop.
I dont think in its current state that putting the game on steam will do much, its a game that going to drive away most people outside of the "god i love to farm endless amounts of gold" players and those who like to show off how much they can spend in the cash shop.
Well, it has that WoW look, no doubt about that. I actually think it looks better than WoW and has an added twist with the Allods and Astral theme. So while it's no doubt heavily inspired by WoW graphics, I wouldn't say it's a complete rip off.
Second the cash shop. You're right that the game is cash shop driven and the game has a lot of gold sinks. This however has an upside to it. The demand for gold is always quite high and keeps the shard prices in check. The exchange rate has been going down, down and further down since they installed that Shard NPC with the latest patch. Imagine those shard prices if the spenders had no real use for gold.
The offensive runes give a 3.333% increase to damage per level. The defensive runes actually decrease the damage taken, not increase, by about 2.5% per level. So per 3 runes on offense +10% to damage, 3 runes to defense -7.5% to damage taken. I disagree somewhat on things getting crazing after level 2 or 3 however. I'm working on getting 7's across the board now, that gets a bit crazy granted, but 4 or 5 should still be quite feasable if you put your mind to it. You might not be overly popular with just level 5 runes, but it should be doable to experience the real end game without needing to put real money into the game. You won't get there in a month but you can get there.
Well the wow like look is something i would describe as a HD version of wow with better colors but no lighting effects, however ive only played wow for a very short period of time back i think during the litch king expansion, not sure if i stayed the full month...so the graphics may be diffrent now. Either way, i think its how the characters move and the general feel that will remind people of wow...thats not a positive these days. Again that fooling fades once you have to deal with the interesting classes and the fun character building with rubies talents and stats...i miss that kind of stuff in modern games.
The cash shop issue is the big one, people need to decide if they want to remain in the game, make a large investment of time and money or move on...Yes you can probably get all level 5 runes and do most of the content eventually for free...most players are looking for endgame within a month which is only possible with the cash shop and the investment required trumps most AAA p2p mmorpgs over a long span of time....
Also now you got games like Aion going totall f2p, and their cash shop is good and relativly cheap considering.
The game missed its chance, they had tons of players and decided to make the cash shop non-optional and very expensive, its why most left, yes its been toned down a lot but the issue remains...bang for your buck theres a whole lot better out there.
This game has unique and niche going for it, something thats well hidded by its wow-reminding-feeling early on.
I would also like to point out that its publisher, Gpotato has been cleaning house with games that had similair populations...they just diched two games and shut them down. What do you thinks going to happen to those with level 10-11 runes who did actually spend $5000+ (not joking either) if the game gets shut down?
Two good signs of game health are crafting and the low level instances (if the game has them).
If there is a healthy population then low level crafting materials will be bought through auction or stall by other low level crafters trying to improve their skills.
In Allods the only craft worth doing for money is herbalism and by connection alchemy. Since coming back I have tried dissassembler, mining and blacksmith. Anyone playing now either doesn't craft those because their is no money in them or because they are such high levels those materials are no longer needed.
Putting it briefly, there are not enough new players to create a broad crafting base to make all of them usefull.
Secondly, if you can find anyone to do Oreshek Fortress apart from a couple of scouts then that doesn't bode well either.
If this game is to continue it really does need some serious advertising, a new cash shop model, and divine intervention.
Quit this game when they announced the new patch. They announced it way too early. Since it would make most of the activites at the time obsolete, there was really nothing to do for like 2-3 months but wait. Why collect gear that you are going to be npcing in the near future? Same with ship parts and astral gems.
I logged on 2 days after the 51 patch and all of the active people in my guild had already hit cap...seemed like just more of the same. Been playing off and on since the first day it came online, Gipat patch was a real low point as everyone knows(I quit for a year), Kirah patch was the high point for me. My chosen class (mage) was most fun to play during this patch, the new changes are just weird and take most of the fun out of the class IMO....
In short, yeah it's a fading P2W gear/gold grind that couldn't have been handled worse. It looked like it might turn around there for a minute, but it wasn't meant to be. For anyone still playing, let it die guys. Let it die : (
Logged in tonight (EU Version) probably for the last time. I have a character in each faction and both were ghost towns. Have been trying to get a group for Oreshek now for 3 days with no luck.
Just not enough players coming up to create a balanced group. It has so far been a couple of scouts or one or two bards and thats it.
This game is dead and is just not bright enough to fall down. Shame as it was one of the better ones (cash shop aside :S )
I don't even think its worth saying' give it a go its free' because the isolationist experience will not do it justice.
I haven't done anything on the EU servers, only US. The group quests can be a problem if you just start out now. I usually had to do them at higher level too on my alts, basically for the world mysteries. When you're several levels higher than the mobs it's quite eas. You don't need a full team if you can't simply solo the whole instance. A level makes a significant difference in this game.
Lol so true.
A strange thing happened on the way to the forum :P
On the EU site there is a post about upcoming updates such as new map graphics and auto pathing etc.
Most of the commenters are either meh about the whole thing or are asking why time is being wasted on such an update when so many other things need fixing or adding. A few are quite blunt.
My bro wrote a simple comment saying that, and I sort of quote, "hadn't they better concentrate on getting players instead of bimbling around with cosmetics".
According to him it took about an hour before the post was removed and he was temp banned for trolling.
I had warned him lol XD.
The result of all this is ... well ...meh to be perfectly honest. For a company to be blinkered about player concerns re the most crucial aspect of the game ie population, is just beyond belief.
As we had both noticed, the game is dead. The only people left are the high level players and maybe one or two alts. This new update will not save the game, if anything the autopathing in itself will put so many off they will leave without downloading.
At the end of the day, it is not my brothers or my business so what do we care. All we can say is goodbye and good luck to Allods. Both of us have quit/uninstalled and it will take a miracle to get us back.
On top of all this, if Allods survives the release GW2 I will be genuinley surprised.
Just curious cause I see people say this type of thing about loads of games, why do you think they should leave that comment there? There's nothing constructive in it and it comes across as someone whining to me, which is what I see people complain about a lot on mmorpg.com about their posts being removed (comments like: 'this sucks' getting removed for example)
This is absolutely true and as I said I did warn him although I fail to see how a comment about player numbers is considered whining . Not to mention he isn't even remotely bothered about the ban and is not contesting it.
But, if the other comments from the same post are..
"They have time to make those useless quest interface changes, but no time to fix the damn bug of the dragon mask. (already passed 2-3-4 months?)"
or
"They have time to make those useless quest interface changes, but no time to fix the damn bug of the dragon mask. (already passed 2-3-4 months?)
Yea, eigher fix it or remove it from the game and pay us back 500 BC. Now it's just our waster money."
and they are still there, then I find it curious that a less strident comment about giving the dwindling population a priority over interface changes warrants any kind of ban. Well not unless any reference to the population is undesirable. :S
At the end of the day if its company policy to censor that particular subject then so be it. More fool him for not reading the T & C.
Also, as my bro and I have left the game because of said issue (low population) I care about it as much as he does which is I dont. I only mentioned it in passing as it is sort of an indicator as to how a company views its customers and I found it funny coz kinfolk got spanked
.
See i've moderated forums before. I would have binned your brother's comment too because it adds nothing to the discussion, it's just a player trying to be funny/whiny or whatever. There's nothing in that comment that is helpful to that topic in any way.
The other two comments you highlighted actually are problems that need to be fixed. They bought an item, the item doesn't work and they want it fixed or for a refund to be given. That's fair to me and I'd be annoyed if they censored those comments. Your brothers post added nothing though.
In Russia, Allods are still alive and well.
The dev is Russian and chauvinism seems to work. There are no guarantees that this game will be (can we even say remain?) successful in the US. It's gone downhill since the first cash shop was introduced really.
My friends loved it until the cash shop. They told me horror stories about its pricing and the functionality of the items.
I played it at the start, during open beta and into launch, and it looked damned good for a MMO out of left field that I had never heard of before... but I was deeply entrenched in a WoW raid guild at the time and just didn't have the time for two similar MMOs.
SInce this thread is back id like to share a funny story about why I cant ever play this game
I first tried with my wife when it first released, and we both enjoyed our first try and were loking forward to play more.
The next day I came down with the worst flu I have ever gotten in my life, I tried playing for 5 mins before I felt like puking.
A week later after I recovered we tired again but I suddenly felt nausiated and ill.
Ever since then I cant even think about this game without feeling sick, where was this when I wanted to quit wow XD
Ah, so a rapid decline in game population isn't a problem that needs to be fixed? Interesting view.
I would question the logic that accepts one persons gripe about a dragon mask in the same thread, over a comment about the death of the entire product, which for some reason is found to be unnacceptable.
In fact I would question the judgement of the admin that allows player comments on a 'latest development news' topic instead of locking it and leaving it to the relevent discussion section for players to put forward their opinions. The last thing a company needs is for those that read and don't post watch the latest update get trashed by the community.
Plus as paying customers (in the main) I believe they are entitled to question the priorities of a company that thinks autopathing and watching your toon folllowing a ball of wool is more important than actually having players there to appreciate it.
But hey thats just me :S
Just to let you guys know. When i posted this thread i was at endgame and doing these astral runs for gems. Which in my book was a waste of time and thank god Gpotato took that quest out. I think alot of people gave up over that or just stop playing for one reason or another. I was on the verge of quitting and had for a bit til the Patch was released. Gpotato listened to the fanbase and fixed this game good. Now only if Gpotato can do damage control. Its really hard to get people back into playing this game. Im having more fun playing this game than i did when i was leveling my character. I remember all the quest being bugged and jobs not being balanced out. I thnk anybody who is reading these post should give this game a try if they are deciding wether or not to download this game.
I think its really safe to say that cash shop was really not or is a issue. I bet the majority of people who use the cash shop is to buy for want. I bet the biggest selllers are cosmetics and mounts. My biggest bitch was the lack of content in this game wich drove people away.
Edgar F Greenwood
So your saying that the cash shop rune system isnt a cash shop factor? You do know that people exclude players with low level runes right.... and getting a 30-40% flat rate dmg and def boost from them isnt "optional", especially for serious pvp and endgame. Yes you can spend a year farming gold and nothing else and get the minimum rune level...otherwise it costs *no joke* thousands of dollars.
With that said...what killed the game was the old cash shop, there were tons of people playing and they added several cash shop systems on top of the ridiculous rune system, on top of the decorative and convienience items people want to buy in the cash shop. Luckily they got rid of the curse items making them free in the cash shop.
Dont be fooled, once you realize the cash shop in the game, in its current form, youll need to make a decision on if the game is worth it to you. It drives most people away whould otherwise spend thousands less on a good p2p game and have access to everything. That is this games biggest downfall.
If the cash shop isnt the reason why dont we tell potential players how much real money it would take to go from level 3 runes (something that is hard to do in game but not crazy) to level 7? I think i linked the site that explained, but lets highlight this issue. How much to go from all level 3 runes to all level 5 (bare min) then 6 then 7...break it down for us how the cash shop couldnt possibly be a factor. Ignore bag expansions (very needed if you plan to farm gold) cosmetics extra earring slot so on and so forth...lets focus on the raw dmg and def stats from runes and their cost....especially since having low runes will get you excluded in game.
My guess is you wont...since its a crazy amount of money.
Just to add..the point of this game in its entierty is almost completely focused on farming gold for the cash shop items. Less you drop $5,000 off the bat....otherwise your goal is to farm gold so you can buy pay to win items and participate in endgame.
Well your bitching has no real basis. If you played this game long enough which by the sounds of it you didnt. Then you would know that you dont have to open your wallet or purse to play this game. Gpotato offers you many options of getting gpots and getting runes. Not once was i forced to buy from the cash shop. I used the cash shop cuz i wanted. IF you cant farm in this game , then you dont need to be playing mmorpgs then. Its a requirment for all mmorpg. Oh just for you information i didnt spend no more than 20 real dollars on this game to buy Gpots. I got my runes to 7. No since gpots can be bought and sold through exchange system the cash shop is irrelavant.
Edgar F Greenwood