Oh for gods sakes, don't act like AoC is ancient, it's 2008. That's not that long ago. As for "for it's time", they aren't that different from whats being done now.
In 2008 the fastest CPU was the 2nd generation Core2Quad Q9800X. AMD was just releasing their Phenom II quads. Most people were gaming with a Core2duo system using an E6600 or a core2quad using a Q6700. The standard bearers for video cards were the Nvidia GTX280 (just released) and the AMD Radeon HD 3870, both with a whopping (for the time) one GB of video memory. Most people were gaming with 512MB video cards, either a GTS8800 or a Radeon 3850. Memory prices had fallen to the point that 'serious' gamers were upgrading to 4GB of memory. Most people were gaming with 2-3 GB. A big hard drive at the time was 320GB. SSDs were not even close to mainstream.
So yeah, 2008 is ancient history in the computer world. The fact that AoC could look so good on a Core2duo E6600 with a 640MB GTS8800 (the main gaming video card at the time) running 3GB of memory is utterly astonishing. Oh yeah, MS had just released Vista, which is what I was running.
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BTW, my edit was to fix a couple of things I fact checked. The GTX280 had just BARELY released, so hardly anyone had one; most Nvidia gamers (including me) were using GTS8800s. The 3670 was a 'baseline' gaming card, the main ATI card in general use in 2008 was the 3850, which was quite inexpensive for what you got.
And yet, somehow the games weren't that much different from what they are now other than in graphics.
Thats because there's little innovation during the "dark ages" which we've only recently started to emerge from.
Do tell me where the innovation is now. The "dark ages" introduced it all. I haven't seen anything original come out on than small gimmicks in ten years.
If you're interested in the world design, I'd have to agree with several others and say LotRO. It's quite well done, particularly the outdoors areas. I'm just moving into Lothlorien (for the first time), and it is very nice. The hills and slopes are reasonable and there are impassible regions, a nice diversion from the "walk up the 85 degree slope that is used for horizons" found in the earlier (1st generation MMORPGS). The foliage neatly provides cover for mobs -- some mobs can (and do) hide behind trees and can jump you when you're not expecting them. The only real complaints I have about the game is the inability to swim underwater. And the "zone into buildings" thing.
Other games seem to have better quality graphics, particularly some of the upcoming games. But we will have to wait to see how well designed the landscape really is.
Yeah, it will be fun for a while. I played the whole beta (where we all BEGGED them to change the sound of the wild cats in the elven starting area because they sound like house cats being tortured by us and they ignored us because they couldn't be bothered to take 15 minutes to make a new sound), and have played it several times since and can't take more than a month at a time because it bores the hell out of me.
Maybe if they did something else other than quests and pvp, I could. The housing sucks. There is no collections. Oh boy, I can dye the stuff I wear.... maybe. How exciting.
Oh for gods sakes, don't act like AoC is ancient, it's 2008. That's not that long ago. As for "for it's time", they aren't that different from whats being done now.
In 2008 the fastest CPU was the 2nd generation Core2Quad Q9800X. AMD was just releasing their Phenom II quads. Most people were gaming with a Core2duo system using an E6600 or a core2quad using a Q6700. The standard bearers for video cards were the Nvidia GTX280 (just released) and the AMD Radeon HD 3870, both with a whopping (for the time) one GB of video memory. Most people were gaming with 512MB video cards, either a GTS8800 or a Radeon 3850. Memory prices had fallen to the point that 'serious' gamers were upgrading to 4GB of memory. Most people were gaming with 2-3 GB. A big hard drive at the time was 320GB. SSDs were not even close to mainstream.
So yeah, 2008 is ancient history in the computer world. The fact that AoC could look so good on a Core2duo E6600 with a 640MB GTS8800 (the main gaming video card at the time) running 3GB of memory is utterly astonishing. Oh yeah, MS had just released Vista, which is what I was running.
----------------------------------
BTW, my edit was to fix a couple of things I fact checked. The GTX280 had just BARELY released, so hardly anyone had one; most Nvidia gamers (including me) were using GTS8800s. The 3670 was a 'baseline' gaming card, the main ATI card in general use in 2008 was the 3850, which was quite inexpensive for what you got.
And yet, somehow the games weren't that much different from what they are now other than in graphics.
Thats because there's little innovation during the "dark ages" which we've only recently started to emerge from.
Do tell me where the innovation is now. The "dark ages" introduced it all. I haven't seen anything original come out on than small gimmicks in ten years.
If you don't want to see it, I certainly won't be able to show you the way.
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
Sure it got not much coverage here (though I posted about it pretty often), last year premium houses were added, and just recently they've made the hooks totally flexible which was like fresh air to us housers... Still not without flaws, don't get me wrong, but it's massively ( ) better now. Speaking about that: http://massivelyop.com/2017/02/18/lotro-legendarium-checking-out-lotros-housing-improvements/ Only the second half is about the 19.3 changes, the rest is covering the premium houses.
My problem with 99% of the games is that the entire world is tied to quests.....Whn I go to explore in many of these worlds and find a named monster, it is part of a quest and theres no reason to kill it unless you have the quest.....What made a game like EQ1 stand out so much was exploring the world and all these dungeons to find unique mobs and loot.
No one's bothered with that type of thing in at least ten years. At least in EQ and EQ2, there are places to go, things to do, people to see, and unexpected stuff to find. The only place you can find that now is in single player games like the Witcher 3 and Skyrim.
1. Vana'diel of FFXI - feels like a living, breathing place that doesn't care if you're there or not. The world exists despite you. Not for you. There's a believable sense of history, marked by ruins and world features that tell a story, even without a single word ever being explained. There's a true sense of scale - you feel small among its structures and landscapes. 2. Aden from Lineage 2 - Same reasons as Vana'diel. 3. Middle Earth from LoTRO - Beautifully interpreted/designed and detailed. So many "postcard worthy" locations. Great attention to detail, especially regarding specific spots from the books.
If I had to pick a 4th, i'd say Tamriel from ESO.
I never played Lineage, but I absolutely agree with the other 2. Middle Earth in LotRO is very well done. That game screams aesthetics. Everything just fits together so well. From the Old Forest all the way to Gondor it is presented very close to the way my imagination pictured it reading the books years ago. I remember back in open beta head start, I decided to run to Rivendell just to see it. We were locked at 15, so I died many, many times getting there, but it was totally worth it. Looking down into the valley and seeing Rivendell was one of my most memorable experiences from a video game.
Vana'diel is just amazing. It's massive(comparable to EQ in terms of size, I'd say) , but never loses its sense of scale. It feels alive. Quests and missions work in concert with the world, not in spite of it. Trusts make things a bit easier these days as you're always running around with a full party, but vana'diel will still smack you down a notch or two if you get too overzealous. I particularly liked going into the past during the Crystal War and seeing all the towers and outposts not in ruins. And for bonus points, with Windower and a bit of anti-aliasing, it still looks quite impressive on a 40" 4K monitor.
My problem with 99% of the games is that the entire world is tied to quests.....Whn I go to explore in many of these worlds and find a named monster, it is part of a quest and theres no reason to kill it unless you have the quest.....What made a game like EQ1 stand out so much was exploring the world and all these dungeons to find unique mobs and loot.
No one's bothered with that type of thing in at least ten years. At least in EQ and EQ2, there are places to go, things to do, people to see, and unexpected stuff to find. The only place you can find that now is in single player games like the Witcher 3 and Skyrim.
This is why I liked AOC's world, there were a lot of little hidden dungeons and caves to find. If you weren't looking you'd miss most of them. One of my favorite things I happened upon in a game was in AOC. I was out running the typical quest chains when I noticed this little door in the side of a mountain outside of Khemi I believe. I went in and started looking around, while passing by these giant statues I thought I noticed one slightly move.
WHen I reached the end of the hall a forcefield rose on the door blocking me in, then the statues started coming to life. Beat them, and was greeted with a rather tough boss fight. Once all of that was done, a corpse started talking to me and sent me on a fun quest to take revenge on those who killed him and left him there cursed, stuck in his dead body.
Haven't seen much of anything like that in any MMO since.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
[...]One of my favorite things I happened upon in a game was in AOC. I was out running the typical quest chains when I noticed this little door in the side of a mountain outside of Khemi I believe. I went in and started looking around, while passing by these giant statues I thought I noticed one slightly move. [...]
Sorry to spoil it for you, but while Treasury is surely awesome, it is not entirely hidden For those less curious or less adventurous there's a quest, leading them in there.
I agree though, bumping into it as you explore the surroundings, and doing the questline there without any 'prequel' infos is much better. Especially if you're on-level, those statues can overwhelm you quite easily - actually in the AoC episode of TBBT Penny went in solo while Sheldon filled her application form for the dating site "what happened to your group? I dumped them, they were a bunch of wussies"
(edit, I wasn't there quite a while now, but as far as I remember, that particular skeleton crosses you, and those you hunt down for him are not cursed him, so when you go back in he just laughs in your face and don't give any mission reward )
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Comments
Maybe if they did something else other than quests and pvp, I could. The housing sucks. There is no collections. Oh boy, I can dye the stuff I wear.... maybe. How exciting.
"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
EVE online - a lot is player made
Rest is theme park junk. Some games in alpha but useless for now.
No fate but what we make, so make me a ham sandwich please.
Still not without flaws, don't get me wrong, but it's massively (
http://massivelyop.com/2017/02/18/lotro-legendarium-checking-out-lotros-housing-improvements/
Only the second half is about the 19.3 changes, the rest is covering the premium houses.
For the second concern, a patch note from more than 2 years ago: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?555920-Update-14-2-Release-Notes&s=f8cbd337279dbb8b4a10015a593df7f8
This part near the beginning:
Collection system
- Track your collections of steeds, pets, even different chickens and other objects throughout all of Middle-earth!
Since then it was updated with emotes, stable-masters and world map...Next question? :awesome:
Vana'diel is just amazing. It's massive(comparable to EQ in terms of size, I'd say) , but never loses its sense of scale. It feels alive. Quests and missions work in concert with the world, not in spite of it. Trusts make things a bit easier these days as you're always running around with a full party, but vana'diel will still smack you down a notch or two if you get too overzealous. I particularly liked going into the past during the Crystal War and seeing all the towers and outposts not in ruins. And for bonus points, with Windower and a bit of anti-aliasing, it still looks quite impressive on a 40" 4K monitor.
WHen I reached the end of the hall a forcefield rose on the door blocking me in, then the statues started coming to life. Beat them, and was greeted with a rather tough boss fight. Once all of that was done, a corpse started talking to me and sent me on a fun quest to take revenge on those who killed him and left him there cursed, stuck in his dead body.
Haven't seen much of anything like that in any MMO since.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I agree though, bumping into it as you explore the surroundings, and doing the questline there without any 'prequel' infos is much better. Especially if you're on-level, those statues can overwhelm you quite easily - actually in the AoC episode of TBBT Penny went in solo while Sheldon filled her application form for the dating site
"what happened to your group? I dumped them, they were a bunch of wussies"
(edit, I wasn't there quite a while now, but as far as I remember, that particular skeleton crosses you, and those you hunt down for him are not cursed him, so when you go back in he just laughs in your face and don't give any mission reward
GW2 is a beautiful game.
If you like a spooky ambiance, Secret World fills that need.
My overall favorite will always be Everquest. The settings, music - everything comes together to evoke an emotion of some kind in every zone.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests