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A honest review
thekwong
Member Posts: 5
SOTNW is also known as GE in other versions. Because GE is shorter, I'll be calling SOTNW GE in this review.
About myself and the game:
played singapore's GE (closed beta, open beta) until it was announced that the game would be going p2p. Was level 51 at that time.
eventually joined SOTNW the day it became f2p.
eventually got to level 100 and shortly quit.
Ok, we all know that SOTNW is a f2p game. And quite honestly, SOTNW still is the best f2p game I've tried. I mean I actually got to max level. I gave up at level 29 in Silkroad online (for instance). For everyone that complains about: "you can't afk anymore." You still can, just not if you get knocked down. This just means you have to set yourself up better (since in later levels you get knocked down a lot!)
Even if you don't like grinding, this game's aoe system is insane. Most mobs your level die in one aoe, and sometimes two, which is why the spawn rates in this game are insane. If your alone in an area (the better spawn areas) and run around a few feet, you already have a new group of mobs on you that you have to AOE.
Lets go over some Pro's/Con's because those seem easier on the eyes:
Pros:
- Has raids
- Lots of AOEs
- Pretty unique multi character control system
- The grind isn't as bad as other games
- The best graphics ive seen in a F2P game (i love GE graphics)
- Decent music, but I still turned them off
- Has instances called "missions" and some are worth doing
- Lots of characters to choose from
Cons
- 100% item based game (skills not neccessary unless exact same gear)
- Characters are not balanced for both PVE and PVP
- Raids are not instances
- Skills are repetitive
- PVP isn't as interesting because your characters die fast meaning you can't really micromanage them for a long time
- Drop loot is really random (annoying for raids)
If you look at the Pros and Cons, this game is worth playing until you hit max level. Now, I'll explain exactly why I quit.
The game is way to item dependent. Now that may seem like a lame reason to quit especially after wasting months to hit max level, but it's really not. The way the game was designed is largely influenced by the gear.
Ok, so if you have played this game before, you'd know there is something called defense rate and attack rate. Basically if your defense rate is higher than the enemies attack rate, you'll be dodging. (the larger the difference, the more you dodge). And if you play this game, you'll know there are elite weapons and armors. The highest ones used to be level 84 only, but now there are level 100 ones.
Basically, the right armor with the rice enhancements (like a +5 84 elite plate with +3 dr) can make you unstoppable unless the other player has even more attack rating. Its a lot easier to pump DR because shields give you another +2. This means anyone not using elite weapons can't even hit you. I'm not kidding. Between one person with elite armors and weapons against 10 people with unique weapons, the one person will win, or at least take an hour to die.
So if everyone gets the same gear, in the end it'd be fair?
True, but the strongest guilds would never let you get that gear. It's not impossible to do that. Remember in the cons list where I said Raids are instances? That means that if you and your guild initiate a raid, any other person from anywhere can come to it. That also means they can PK you for it and then kill the boss, and then take the item.
So just fight back?
How? They have so much defense rate because they started farming 84 elites before we did.
There are other ways to get elite 84's?
Well, yes there are. In the past, before the recent updates, there were certain boss monsters that'd drop elite 84s and recipes for them. But then the people in the top guilds would be farming them 24/7 because those bosses have an exact respawn timer. Fun, this means they are doing all the raids, which also have a reuse timer, and the normal bosses in the many maps. So, you're level 100 (or veteren) with nothing to do. Why? Because if you try something, you'll just get pked for it.
Oh yea, its not better in the NONpk server either. If you start a raid, other guilds will come and try to KS your monster anyways. To top that off, the drop isn't exactly based off who or what party did the most damage. I haven't figured it out exactly, but sometimes its really random when one guy goes in, hits the boss, runs away and watches - then you kill the boss and he comes in and takes the loot.
Because the game is so heavily dependent on defense and attack rate, there's basically no skill involved. Don't count on PVP being fun either in high levels unless you and your opponent have the exact same gear. It might be worth a try then.
oh yea, I'd like to add: It's probably actually not that difficult to join of the top clans, but after making friends in a guild you started with, what kind of jerk would you be to leave all of a sudden to join another clan just for loot? Those clans probably take forever to give you the drops of a raid anyways because your the "newest one" if you do even get in. And if you want to catch up and you do get an 84 elite, the other members are already getting the new 100 elites. Even if you do stick it out then, you're going to be incredibly bored.
People are quitting already because A) they couldn't stand the grind to 100 or 
because they didn't have enough gear and kept getting pk'd by people with better gear
soon, the top players (like my old guildmates from singapore GE) will be quitting too because C) there's no "fresh blood" because no one can compete with the top of the top since they can and do control the game
Comments
That seems quite accurate to me. And pretty much the same thing is happening in the US version (SOTNW). Like you say, high end gear is hard to get, period, made even worse because the top clans monopolize the bosses.
Still, at the same time, there might be some hope. The original developer (IMC?) in Korea apparently won't let them (both Singapore and US) release certain sections of the game (Bahamar Swamp) until a certain amount of players actually have decent gear (something like 40% of the players over level 80). So they have to do something. Increase the drop rate, maybe? The Singapore version seems to want to add more recipes to the cash shop (the US version is also apparently thinking about this).
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
I got to 100 on sotnw (the american version) and only 50-60 on the singaporean version. (I quit because it was going p2p). Honestly, I don't think adding more recipes helps because it just makes the gold farmers and bots that pick up items stronger. Everyone else will have to farm for that gold or sell one of their items for millions of gold and then they can afford even more recipes and make the items.
The game needs a revamp on AR/DR so its not 100% the factor of pvp, and instanced raids at least so not the same 3 clans hoards the loot xD. It's going to be a long long long time before 40% of the people above 80 have 84 elites xD
That is something imcGAMES has noticed and are reacting to. I hope you come back and check out these systems when they are released this summer!
Website:
www.apb.com
Twitter:
@G1Neume
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/APBReloaded
oh wow its neume
anyway~ I'm playing other games and enjoying them for now. I may eventually come back after changes though (and after I get bored with all the new mmo's coming out). Keep up the good work and I hope SOTNW is successful in the future.
Nice review, I was playing SG GE for 4 mths, I have 4 VETs, emptied my wallet on the costumes and power up game items in cash shop. Camped 16 hours a day (at times) at boss diablo (with guild mates) and golden spider. Played 12 hours daily, 6 days a week. My life came to a stand still for those 4 mths of playing, except GE. But in the end i still quit, becos of the xtreme botting issues.
Don't get me wrong, I love this game, too cool a game, but the botting issue would not go away. Most games have some botting issues going about, but this game, it has the worst ( by a big margin) botting issue ever. You can see endless trains of bots in 80% of the maps you go to (in lvl 95+ maps too). Almost every monster there are someone else or some bot KSing you. Every server has at least a population of 70% bots and 30% players.
SG GE gm didn't do anything about the botting problem for a really long time, until many players left the game for good, when they finally did, it was too little and too late. Every bot they banned, new bots would appear. This puzzles me becos, beside SG GE being a p2p server, you have to pay to buy the bots as well.
That is not to say we don't have RMT botting issues, but comparatively it is a low amount mostly in low level zones. We are constantly working to stop RMTs from botting, but it is definately a full time 24 hour a day job.
Website:
www.apb.com
Twitter:
@G1Neume
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/APBReloaded
While I'd really like to believe that, pretty much every time I got to a lower level map, it's swarming with RMT botters (at least Tetra, Jezebel Glen, Porto Bello and Theurginwald). And if you go back there hours later, they are still there (I actually guess why I rarely see them on really low level maps, they graduate pretty quickly). Go back the next day, they are either there or have moved on to a higher map. I've seen them make it all the way to Bonavista River and level 75...
I realize K2 probably doesn't have a lot of resources, period, and SOTNW is not their biggest game, but it sure seems like they could do a bit better. In the 3 months I've been playing, I've never ever seen an AM in game, except at special events.
I mean, really, how long could it take to clean out the bot infested maps? They aren't exactly hard to spot, even when they don't move in unison. Maybe 15-20 minutes a few times per day.
And yes, there's not much inflation on the servers, at least for some stuff, but that's probably got to do with there not being a whole lot of new (non-bot) players who stick with the game.
edit: Another example of K2 not doing much about botters is the bot that's often in Rebo, spamming the area with the address of the RMT website. Yesterday he was there for at least 6 hours before finally getting zapped by an AM.
edit2: Correction, he's still there, when I checked last it must have been on a different channel. So he's been there for 24 hours at least. It's also a bad sign when people spend 20,000 vis to heckle the AM into dealing with the bots when they show up for a tournament.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
Thank you for the honest review.
I've been thinking about trying this game for a while but the botting issue has made me stay far away from it. In my opinion it also show a lot about the company if they don't work hardcore on eliminating the bots.
If money is an issue, use trusted GMs, players who has been known for ages by GMs, players or whatever terms you wish to use. It has worked in other games and can work here too.
We used it on another game we designed in the past and it worked well. The players got happy and the cheaters got angry. Case closed
If it ain't dead you're not pressing 2 hard enough.