Where does Dragon Empires stand compared to other titles?

Feneant · July 2003

In my opinion, Dragon Empires is going ahead with very little competition. Some games such as World of Warcraft, EQ2 and Horizons are all competing for the same part of the market but Dragon Empires is going into an almost untapped market. The way it's made is basically a mix between Everquest and Shadowbane making a title with adventure, raiding and PvP but the main part being city combat of one of the 50 cities in the world.

This is what Shadowbane should have been instead of a PvP only game where you could grief to your hearts content and do nothing else except level to R5 and no longer have mobs to fight.

If the game is released as it looks now, it should be a big sleeper hit (sleeper as not many outside of the community discuss it) and replace current titles such as Shadowbane and Dark Age of Camelot.

www.dragonempires.com for those interested, Beta started yesterday with new people added monthly and October scheduled as the next big milestone.

This is my opinion only, don't flame me if you don't agree.

RiverWood · August 2003

Well, I agree with you...*flame*...

Metaplayer · November 2003

I don't think it will be an easy task at all.

EverQuest is old now. So it is very smart to wait out that game like they have. Unfortunately many of the EQ people will take a look at EQ2 too and that would be one of DE's main rivals.

But it was no problems convincing my friends that this might be a good looking game, even the EQ playing ones. But the developers REALLY have to implement ALL of their promises at day one to have even the slightest chance of even raising an eye brow. All MMORPG seem to promise many of the features presented for this Dragon Empires, if not when they were released, then in some "near future". I've seen it fail so many times that I am now under the impression that there is some impossible game balance issues in the way when trying to put together things like a working pvp, item crafting/vending and player controlled buildings. Maybe it's some kind of exploit that isn't possible to balance away or maybe it's simply to much work. I don't know, but there has to be some reason for a developer to look the other way when a whole online-player community CRAVES these things.

If they realize this they stand a small chance of success. But not even then will the conquest of players be an easy one.

Pieter · November 2003

I quit EQ for this one although I've been following it for quite a while now.

To me, it looks like Codemasters is really thinking over the balancing issues which you can see by the limits they put on skills, the fact they only have 3 races which all have clear downsides while I guess the upsides of the others is they don't have the downsides of each other. Although I first feared that people were generally going to choose for the stealthy Shadows because of their great classes and just the cool skills that go mixed, it turns out that everything is pretty much even in polls so that's a good start.

I now am in doubt about the Unbound class which could crush the whole system...or show it's greatness. We'll see but I think everyone has to make up their own mind and check it out for themselves*plug*

BurningMan · November 2003

I heard good from this game so i might try it

http://www.kingsofchaos.com/recruit.php?uniqid=8mj35887

Lunar_Knight · November 2003

If you guys are interested in beta testing for this game, CodeMasters is about to go through it's beta applications again and get 3,200 new beta testers. So if your interested in testing for Dragon Empires you better sign up soon as they will not need more tester for a while after this.

you can sign up here http://www.codemasters.com/dragonempires/uk/index.php?id=314

good luck

Lunar_Knight · December 2003

BTW, here is the link to the recently created Dragon Empires Advent Calendar.

http://www.dragonempires.info/xmas/index.html

Looks like they found a new way to make us go mad with there slow release of screen shots and various DE goodies.

WHY DO YOU TEASE US LIKE THIS, CODEMASTERS?!

Lunar_Knight · December 2003

Just a quick post to tell you guys that the advent calendar is now full of cool images (24 in all, plus the human female character model!) so go check it out at the link in the above post.

.....................................

but time flows like a river

and history repeats

Blood_Hawk · December 2003

I think this game shows great potential. It brings several worlds together and sets you free to go in whichever direction you choose.

"This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away, to the horizon, to the future. Never his mind on where he was hurmph! What he was doing Hurmph! Excitement heh. Adventure heh! A jedi craves not these things. You are reckless."

cedori · December 2003

I've been signed up for a long time on this one, but since I haven't received a beta invite I might just wait on something else to test. I'm sure it won't be long til the release of this game since beta's been running for quite awhile now.

Lunar_Knight · January 2004

I know how you feel, they have had a lot of us stringed along for sometime now.

I just wish they would give us the final date of when the will open doors for the next 3200 beta testers. It would put my mind and all of the other applicants at rest.

.....................................

but time flows like a river

and history repeats

cedori · January 2004

Wow, you no your right, seems like they've been going on forever in beta. I haven't heard much lately about Dragon Empires either other then the monthly letters. So anyone no how things are progressing?

Lebowski · January 2004

I have no idea about progress. But I do hope that developers will be able to successfully implement all the features they promissed. If the PvP stays balanced this game could be great.

When life tastes like lemmon, take tequila and salt.

Gorukha · February 2004

If Dragon Empires came out today it would be a hit. Sadly it isn't. It will have to compete with the true giants of gaming like Sony and Blizzard. It seems DE has been postponed forever now and I see 0 hype behind it too. Hell even I lost real interest in it I'm having a sense of Deja Vu from when I followed Shadowbane.

It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.

TMcC · February 2004

yeah i followed shadowbane for years and when it finally came out i was to pissed to even give it a try...i did play it at my boys house but it was buggy as hell and laggy.

krityc · February 2004

I like what Blood_Hawk mentioned "POTENTIAL"

So damn funny that so many games share that great yet pathetic feature of having potential. Plain out and simple: "Potential doesn't equal greatness." So many games do one thing increadibly good, but fok up on other things. If one game just did half-ass on everything it would be better than anything on the market. This is by far not a flame, but I'm just hoping DE creates more than potential.

You can imagine a cloud looks like various animals, but it's still just a cloud.

holla!

Oakstead · February 2004

Dark and Light seems to be the best and most innovative of this years games (IMO) at the moment followed by Dragon Empires, and Ryzom.

The problem with Dragon Empires is that the developers refuse to discuss the main game play issue of how cities are selected for take over. All they say is that if a city does not have enough dragon favor then it will come up for a contest. But how does a clan get selected to challenge for the city? The one with the greatest dragon favor?

The point is that clans may not be able to target a city for takeover thus eliminating strategy from the process. If a challenging clan works to interupt trade to a city to bring down its dragon favor there is no mechanism to assure that it is the clan that gets into the city control fight.

Yordo · February 2004

Well, those are questions that the Devs don't want us to know. If they told us everything, that could either make us leave the game or buy the game...They would rather keep us hooked by giving us as little information as possible leading up to release.

kaoss · February 2004

been playing these game for a month now and they dont tell us anything just do these do that

but im still having fun the weather enviromnet is just amazing.

Jutsu · February 2004

I predict......

This game will go very far... if its a click and slice MMORPG.. like Morrowind... THEN IM IN....

I just signed up for beta 2 years ago... So... I hope to god they will let me in.. :P Oh ya..

I want in ryzom too lol.... Might not be able to handle DE :P

(o'.')--------oo----('.'o)

iller · March 2004

Considering that WoW(Aka Everquest2) and EQ2(Aka EverQuest1.5) will have as much to do with Strategy as a pooperscooper, it's really not so much an issue of "competing" with them. Then again trying to fit D.E. into most any comparison with conventional MMOGs or as a Hybrid between current MMORPG's is kind of silly.

Unfortunately for many MMORPG fans, this means their conventional knowledge may only confuse them when trying to evaluate the gaming environment it will present.

iller · March 2004

Well, those are questions that the Devs don't want us to know. If they told us everything, that could either make us leave the game or buy the game...They would rather keep us hooked by giving us as little information as possible leading up to release.

I suspect you're talking about some other game besides Dragon Empires, right? Because there's litterally gigabytes of information and previews available between the Main site, Faqs, Main-Forum threads, Screenies, Articles by dozens of Devs, Dev Chatlogs, Additional posts off-site by Calistas, and even commentary/industryArticles by Developers off-site. ...All for a game that will fit on one CD during most of Beta. The information is readily available for those who search it out.

For example: Clans targeting cities for conquest has already been covered... 1>Most balancing on it will take place in Beta. 2> Because overtaking STRONG cities will require effort from more than just one clan or group, throw in mercenaries, outlaws, spys, and traders into the mix too. 3> They want all other clans, even those who own no cities, to stay busy competing for honor and Dragon-favor by bountyhunting and tourneys in BloodCircus.

Rest assure, there will be plenty of strategy involved in targeting a city for seige later, it's just not going to be directly negative or positive effort, likely a mix of multiple strategies and players all cooperating to be more competitive in more areas than any other MMO has ever allowed for.