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AC1 Still Is My Favorite MMO...
Playerh8er
Member Posts: 62
AC1's gameplay still beats any other MMO I've played. The sheer fun factor of that game still makes me go back and play it from time to time.
The character development was unique, every point of xp earned you got to decide what skill it went into. There were no limits on what skills your character could choose, and no pre-designed templates that you had to stick to. Want to be a sword weilding magic caster in plate armor? So be it, if you have enough skill credits. Also there is no downtime in that game. If your low on heath, use a healing kit. Low on stamina? Drink a potion. Low on mana? Cast a spell. There is always something you could do.
There were plenty of quests to finish to get cool items and level up, but if you got tired of them you could head to your nearest Black Spawn Den for some good old-fashioned dungeon grinding and beat the heck outta 20 tuskers at once. It seems now no matter what fantasy game you play you're going to end up killing the same stuff (ogres, trolls, dragons, undead.) It's like they're your evil mmo enemies and they're stalking you from game to game. There's only so many goblins you can kill before it becomes blatantly obvious that mmo's have shifted from a creative form of fun entertainment to a money grubbing business that regurgitates the same content to fatten thier profit margin. Think of big game development companies as used car salesmen, both will do anything to sell you a worn out piece of junk that looks pretty.
Unlike the rest of the cookie cutter mmos out there, Asheron's Call at least tried to be unique with it's compliment of monsters. Ever fought a drudge, olthoi, or lugian before? (yes, I know drudges look strikingly similar to goblins but that's just because the graphics are from 1999 
) Drudges are dastardly creatures that seem to thrive everywhere in Dereth. No one really knows why they attack you on sight, but they give out an interesting WEEEERRRR sound right before you kill one.
It's cheezy at first, but before you know it you're searching for drudges to kill to satisfy your WEEEERRRR addiction. P.S. The death animation when an ursin dies is by far the coolest sequence in any game.
AC1 = PVP
The PVP in AC1 is outstanding. Combat is determined by the skill of the player at the keyboard not the level of your character or the equipment they have. Players can dodge magic spells, arrows, bolts, darts, and javelins based on how well you move and play your character. Even today, a level 90 can beat a level 270+ character if they play better. In every other game, PVP combat is determined by who has the highest level, the better gear, or the most friends. I would go so far as to say that AC1 is the only mmorpg with true player vs player combat. All other games have character vs character combat.
In the early days of Asheron's Call, death in PVP meant something. If you died, you not only dropped a number of items based on your level, but you suffer a 5% reduction to all of your skills called vitae. You get rid of vitae by earning experience, but while your burning your vitae debt, the guy that killed you is looting your corpse and taking your death items. This may sound a bit harsh, but it prevented someone from attacking you repeatedly without consequences. Nowadays AC1 has "pklite"..... No, seriously, it's called "pklite." 
You have an option to not loose any items on death and do not suffer a vitae penalty. The only place where death means anything now is on the all pvp server called Darktide.
The old days of AC1 were the most fun I've had playing a mmorpg. It's a pity the game is 8 years old and nothing like it used to be. To bad WoW is such a success, now I have nothing to look forward to but the endless cookie cutter knock offs it will breed. Gone are the days when games were created for fun and entertainmet, enter the time of big business.
Oh, by the way... WEEEERRRR!!! 
Veteran of: EQ1, EQ2, Eve, WoW, DaoC, GW, MxO, SWG, Lineage II, BF2142
Master of: AC1, AC2, Planetside, WoW, CoH, CoV
Comments
I am glad to hear that Darktide still has the death penalties. I got scared when I started reading about Pklite or whatever its called. The old Darktide was fantastic PvP. The whole structure of the community on that server when I played is something that I will try almost every PvP server in any game I can get my hands on to try to recreate.
In the days when I played, there were the evil Bloods and Red Devils. Then the variety of guilds making up the "anti" alliance (which I chose to be part of) which would have control of basically one city and try to hold that and keep the enemies out so we could shop and chat in peace. Ahh the good times...the raids attacking "our" town, then the counter raids into the wilds to try to take over their hunting grounds.
When I think about that game I think more about the community than the game mechanics itself (which were good). I remember one PK Guild which for whatever reason roleplayed that they were Smurfs...yah thats right..the little blue and white creatures from the old childrens show. They would attack basically anyone on site, but if they defeated you and took your items, if it wasnt blue or white they would meet with you to give it back because it wasnt "Smurfy enough". As lame as that sounds, it definitely gave that game character.
I have flirted with the idea of going back for a month just to see what its like these years later but I didnt really want to taint my feelings of the game, from trying everything else under the sun for whatever reason it seems that PvP communities like the ones that existed in AC years ago are extinct.
Has anyone went back to play ac1 ? I've thought of it, just hate to go back to a game thats had players in it for years and I don't even remember how to play. We can only hope someone will pick up the banner and carry on with such a great character progression process. lol, can you actually imagine the outcry if players had to figure out tapers and such in games these days.
Even today, 8 years after launch, AC1 has more innovation in it than games being release in the past few months.
I still think that it has the best gameplay model ever for stats/skills - every other game, including that so-called 3rd generation MMO Vanguard, is way behind AC1 "out of the cookie cutter box" thiinking that AC1 had when it launched. I still find it funny that some games are touting "new" features that were in AC1 from the beginning.
A number of factors combined to push AC1 into "also ran" status, including the Microsoft ownership fiasco, the AC2 flop, the failure for so long to upgrade graphics, the ancient gaming engine made it difficult to add new features, etc etc.
And who could forget training the killer bunny to town...
Still one of the best MMO games out there.
Playing EQ2
Quit - LotRO, EQ, EQOA, EvE, FFXI, DAoC, TitD, AO, AC1, AC2, AA, CoH, CoV, D&L, DS, DDO, EA, GW, HZ, IW, L1, L2, M59, UO, MoM, MoUL, N2, RS, RO, RoE, RYL, SB, SO, SWG, MxO, UO, VSoH, WoW
--AC: TD DT (retired 2002)--
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