TCOS Beginners Guide With Feedback!

Before I go any further, please don't consider this as a huge review of the entire full version of The Chronicles of Spellborn. Consider this as more of an enormous amount of feedback from one player's perspective from playing the European "Freemium" version of the game. Consider most of the sections in here as a player guide as well.  Honestly, I just recommend you skip around and find what you need to know about the game since there is so much to read altogether.

 - Cidolfus

------------------------------------------ABOUT THE GAME------------------------------------------

The developers of The Chronicles of Spellborn made deals with two separate publishers, Frogster Interactive and Acclaim. As some you may know, The Chronicles of Spellborn is a European MMORPG. Due to this, the developers decided to make Acclaim their overseas publisher in order to bring the game to North America. While Acclaim is to have publishing rights for the game in Canada, U.S. and U.K.; Frogster will be publishing the game for the rest of Europe (France, Germany etc.). Frogster Interactive recently launched the European version of the game on December 5th, 2008 with two French servers, two German servers, and two international servers where English is the primary language. Acclaim has decided to release their version on January 9th, but don't expect them to mold the game any differently. Based off of what I've seen, the deal was made under very strict guidelines between the companies so everything should be intact compared to the European version.

For those of you who don't know, the "Freemium" version of TCOS provides everything contained in the full version of the game with a restriction on level cap and zone progression. This version allowed me to reach up to fame level 7 and venture into two separate zones, Hawksmouth and Aldenvault. I'm going to start this off with my overall perspective of the game based off what I have seen and done progress wise up to this level.

To start with, the game delivers everything wanted by those of us who crave something new and unique compared to the common MMOs that fill the genre. In most aspects of the game, TCOS is one of a kind. I say most and not all because there are a few aspects existing in the game that are common in every other MMO. But don't compare this game to them; these few aspects are needed regardless of the MMO type. I'm assuming most of you know a decent majority about the unique features of TCOS, so I won't take more time than necessary to explain what things are, but more of how they perform overall.

---------------------------------------------GRAPHICS------------------------------------------------

=== PERFORMANCE ===

I was able to test the game on both a low and semi-high grade computer. I first tested the game on my old P4 3.0GHZ, 2.0GB RAM, ATI Radeon X700 that I built back in 2004. I was able to run at a solid framerate on the lowest settings with view distance maxed and resolution at 1280x1024. I then tested the game on my Intel dual-core laptop, 4GB ram, GF 9700M GTS and I was able to run solid with all settings maxed. We had a local zone chat going on the other day about video card performance on this game. Based on what I saw, almost everyone on there was satisfied with the performance they were receiving with both ATI and Nvidia cards. Hopefully most of you won't encounter any graphical issues yourselves when you get on there in January.

=== DETAIL ===

What can I say except that this game looks absolutely amazing for running on a graphics engine as old as Unreal 2.5. The buildings, the trees, the sky, the design is just plain beautiful to look at. Even on a low grade computer, as long as your view distance is maxed or near maxed, you will still be amazed at how good the game looks overall. I was most impressed with the inside of the buildings and the sky. Everything inside the buildings is so detailed and fleshed out. The sky was actually the inside of the Parliament shard. You could see sunlight seeping through the holes of the shard surface which really showed how well they did on the lighting textures and bloom effect. The unique art direction of this game is very well done, it's something that you really do have to see for yourself. It's detail like this that contributes to the overall unique feel of this game and I think alot of you will appreciate that when you play it yourselves. Most of the players I talked with on there couldn't help but acknowledge the games unique design and beauty.

----------------------------------------------SOUND--------------------------------------------------

=== MUSIC ===

This is another "What can I say?" because the music really is top of the line.  The music has an array of different choruses and chords. I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but I recommend all of you take the time to listen to the music in the game so you can see for yourself. Right when I entered the character select screen, the song already had me convinced that this game was something unique. If music isn't a factor in your decision to play Spellborn, then there's always your custom MP3 music in the background to cover it up with.

=== SOUND EFFECTS ===

The environmental sounds are top-notch. Everywhere I go, I get that sense of realism in the ambience. You'll hear soft steps from the floor upstairs in the Gilded Leaf tavern during night time, crickets chirping during the night, trees moving with the wind during the day, and fire cracking and burning in the forge and around campfires. These are all just examples of course, but the sounds really do flesh out in this game. Nothing is ever dead quiet in the environment. As for character sounds, the combat sound effects are very good. Whether you're spellcasting, shooting a bow, or swinging a weapon, the sound effects will always contribute to the combat at hand and you'll notice it too. Most of the other character sounds are all very basic and typical as in other MMOs, but this doesn't merit any disregard because the sounds are all good and acceptable in my opinion. In otherwords, nothing sounded out of place in the game.

--------------------------------------CHARACTER CREATION-----------------------------------------

=== ARCHETYPE CLASS CHOICE ===

This is your typical basic class choice. While there is no real explanation of how each discipline plays out right then and there when your picking the archetype, the Spellborn website itself will provide you with enough information so you can make a smart decision. I myself picked a Daevi Bloodwarrior and so far he has played out exactly like the website informed me he would. I'm aware of my role in the future for both PvE and PVP and as long as players take the time to look on the community forums concerning each class role and skill layout, they shouldn't have any issues in selecting an archetype/discipline that will suit their play style.

=== BODY STYLE ===

This part really shines, there are no racial attributes so your choice is really based on how you want to look as a character of Spellborn. As far as body type goes, a human's height and weight graphic is based off the body style chosen. You can choose between skinny, ripped, fat, or huge/muscular. For the Daevi, height and weight are at a common standard; the body style difference with them is based off of their skin design. You can choose from 3 different skin designs. While this may sound unappealing to most, I found this to be a very unique take on a new kind of race. After this, you are then able to create your face. Each race, gender, human size, and daevi skin type has roughly 20 different faces to choose from in each category and 100 different skin colors to apply. I found this to be satisfying enough without being too complex.  The hairstyle selection for each race and gender is plentiful as well.  You can also apply tattoos to your chest, arms, or both with roughly 7 different tattoo designs to choose from.

=== VOICE ===

 After selecting your body style, you'll have the option to choose from 8 different voices per gender. While at first I found most of these voices to match more of a human aspect than Daevi, I then took some time to listen to every phrase that each voice offered and realized that some of these actually could qualify towards the Daevi aspect as well. All in all, the voice selection is a good enough list to choose from. Most of them have a light British English influence in the tone and that suits the environment well in my opinion. I don't think many of you will find any issues in selecting from one of these voices for your character.

=== CLOTHING, ARMOR, AND WEAPON SELECTION ===

Remember, your gear will not play any role in stat increase, leave all of that to sigils, base attributes, and states. With that in mind, the variety of gear is good for starting off. There are roughly 20 types of clothing sets to choose from, by clothing sets I mean shirt, pants, gloves, and shoes etc. You do not have to select the same set item for all slots and each race has a different amount of slots included in their set. Another 100 different colors will show up so you can select both a primary and secondary color for your clothing. After selecting your clothing, you then move on to the armor selection screen. This plays out in the exact same way that the clothing selection did. You pick from 20 different armors which can again be mixed and matched. The 100 colors also applies to the armor. The armor sets include helmet, wrist guards, chestpiece, thigh guards, shin guards, waist guard, and shoulder pads. As far as weapons are concerned, there are roughly 9 categories of weapons with 3 different weapon designs to select from in each category. The categories are 1-handed sword, 1-handed dagger, 2-handed sword, shield, 1-handed axe, 2-handed axe, 1-handed hammer, 2-handed hammer, and bow. Color options do not apply to the weapons and the shield option only applies to all 1-handed weapons. I have to admit that I was somewhat disappointed not to see staves, dual wield weapons, or any other types of long range weapon variants such as the crossbow on there, but then again these are just the starter weapons that you're selecting from. It could be possible that these other kinds of weapons are waiting to be discovered or at the very least, the devs may give out an update in the future that will allow us to utilize them. Keep in mind that this is not all of the gear that Spellborn has to offer. There is plenty of gear to be discovered as you make your way through the game. And remember, gear can always be swapped in and out at any time in your inventory since none of it will affect your skill performance.

=== SKILL CHOICES ===

Depending on the Archetype that you choose from, a certain list of selectable skills will open up after you have designed your character. I'm not going to go into too many details on this since there are so many skills to choose from for each Archetype, but keep in mind that you will receive 2 skill points to spend on these starter skills and you get the default skills for free. Typically, these default skills are your basic hack, slash, and bow attack which you'll obviously need to progress with in the beginning of the game.

---------------------------------------------GAMEPLAY--------------------------------------------------

=== SKILLDECK ===

I'm going to say it right now, you'll hate the skilldeck until you unlock the third and fourth tiers as you progress in level. It's then when you'll really appreciate all of the custom skill combos you can mix into it. When you start the game, you'll only have tier 1 and 2 available to you. Keep in mind that this is only 1/3 of the entire skilldeck so you'll probably be using just a slim amount of skills until around fame level 5. At that level not only do you unlock tier 3 of the skilldeck, but you also get to pick your Discipline and a whole new array of skills to learn. I could make a whole new section of all of the skills, but that could take more time than necessary to bring the point out. Simple put, the skilldeck will contribute to the steep learning curve that you'll no doubt be hearing about in future reviews, but once learned and mastered you'll probably love it as much I have and accept it for what it is in a quick thinking MMO such as this.

=== COMBAT AND TARGETING RETICULE ===

While the skilldeck will take some time to learn, the targeting reticule can be much easier to comprehend as far as how it works in combat and in the environment overall. There are several ways to move around and use this targeting system; I prefer to hold the right click on the mouse which disables the pointer and brings the crosshair up. You can use this crosshair to select and attack targets, open doors, talk to NPCs, pretty much anything that has to deal with interaction within the environment. In a combat situation, the targeting reticule must be on the target and display a dot in the middle of the crosshair in order to perform an accurate swing of your weapon, spellcast, or bowshot and gurantee damage dealt. If the dot isn't there when the attack is done, then no dmg is dealt to the target. While swinging your weapon at the front of the target will deal standard damage, swinging from behind will grant you a critical strike which will enhance the damage dealt from that blow. The targeting reticule provides a really exciting feel every time you enter combat; I never get tired of it. When the crosshair isn't needed, you simply press R and your pointer is brought back up for you to configure the HUD with. Combining the crosshair with the skilldeck brings almost pure skill to the table whether you're in a PvE or PvP situation. I say almost because Sigils, States, and base attributes will still provide small statistic boosts to your character; some temporary and some permanent.

=== USER INTERFACE HUD ===

Most of you know how a HUD works in these types of games. On the lower left of the default is your chat box. you can choose betwen Local, Zone, Guild, Party, or Whisper chat. The amount of emotes to type in for your character are limited, but enjoyable. On the upper left of the HUD displays your name, 3-D character portrait, fame level, PeP level, and state bars, while the upper right displays your map radar, time of day, body slots, and the name of the zone you are currently residing in. The lower right of the HUD displays your option bars such as system settings, quests, skilldeck, skill book, guild, character, inventory, map, and equipment. And of course, in the lower middle of the HUD will display a small button that will bring out the skilldeck right on top of it and put you into combat mode. You can also bring out the skilldeck by pressing F which is what I prefer to do in a quick combat situation.

=== SKILL STATS ===

Your skills have five stats of their own that determine how they play in combat. The first skill stat is the "combo type", almost every skill I encountered was the normal combo type meaning that it can be mixed with all of the other skills on a skilldeck to make your own custom combos. The standalone skill combo type is labeled "none" and usually is a one use / long cooldown kind of ability similar to body slots. The second stat of a skill is the "skill attribute". This attribute signifies what boosts the skill's performance in damage, buffs, debuffs, etc. and deals with mind, body, and focus. The third skill stat signifies the "attack type" which is labeled as melee, ranged, or magic. Since every single skill in the game is influenced by one of the three magic groups, the fourth skill stat tells what that group is. The type of magic will be labeled as either rune, spirit, or soul magic. This corresponds to an enemy or allies magic affinity (resistance) to that magic type. The fifth and final skill stat is the cooldown of the skill itself. Typically, the longer cooldowned skills will perform more damage, a stronger more long lasting buff, or debuff etc.

=== BODY SLOTS ===

I saw so many players on here confuse this with sigils. The body slot is based off of the discipline you chose. It does not go into your equipment by any means. Instead, it goes into your body and is used as a permanent F1, F2, F3, F4, F5 skill with a cooldown. Think of it as a special ability that only your class gets. You receive a body slot every 5 levels which you can buy at your discipline's corresponding rune, mind, or spirit spellshop.

=== SIGILS ===

Because I know many of you are confused by these as I was, I'm going to clarify this mess. Sigils only go in two different pieces of gear: your chest armor and weapon.  Not to compare games, but think of these sigils as the gems and gem-sockets of games like WoW or Diablo 2, except that the equipment in here has no statistic itself. Instead, the stats all have to do with the sigil that you plug into it. These are what bring the stats to your character. Many sigils are shaped differently, some are square shaped, triangle shaped etc. The point is, you'll know what kind of shape you'll need when you mouse over your equipment piece. It will show you the exact shape you need. This makes for some neat trading amongst other players for the right sigil needed. These sigils can provide stronger heals, more damage output, more defense input, better resistances, and much more. I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure that the shape of the sigil has to do with the type of statistic it will bring to you once plugged into the slot. The best part of all of this is that if you find a better looking piece of gear, you can then take the sigil out of the old equipment piece and plug it into the new one so you can still receive the same stat effect. These sigils can be found off of NPC mob/boss drops, city shops, and quest rewards. Rarity of the sigil can play a major factor as well depending on how and where you obtained it.

=== CHARACTER STATES ===

These bring a new unique take on the whole buff and debuff system. They are labeled under three categories: Physique, Morale, and Concentration. Each category has a 10 bar system with a small peg point on where that character statistic will eventually move back to after the buff or debuff runs out. By default, your peg will be right in the middle between bar 5 and 6 on every category. In the case of Physique, this means that you are at the neutral movement speed. Buffs and debuffs will enhance or dwindle the bar and either decrease or increase your movement speed for a temporary amount of time. For example, if you or your party members buff your Physique up 3 bars, then you receive +30% movement speed for however long the buff lasts. Once the buff runs out, your movement speed will eventually go back down to neutral, same goes for debuffs the other way. Morale has to do with your attack damage from ranged, melee, or spells. This has the same exact concept as I mentioned before with physique and can also be debuffed or buffed to increase or reduce attack damage, but will eventually go back to neutral attack damage. The last character state is Concentration, this has to do with how fast your attack speed is; in otherwords, how fast your skilldeck spins to the new tier. This has the same neutral peg as the others and can be buffed or debuffed to a maximum 50% or -50% just like the others. Just remember, no skill buff is permanent so eventually you will always go back to whatever your neutral peg point was set at.

=== BASE ATTRIBUTES ===

Every level will grant you 2 attribute points to put into either Mind, Body, or Focus. These base attributes will provide more effectiveness to the skills that depend on them. While every archetype has a primary base attribute (Body for Warrior, Mind for Spellcaster, and Focus for Rogue), your discispline skills will highly encourage you not to invest all of your points into just the primary base attribute. You can decide to have a secondary base attribute or even third base attribute if you decide to pick from skills in all three areas. However, This really comes down to what skills you want to use in combat. I won't disclose information about my Blood Warrior's build, but I've seen players chat about how they tend to play this out. Some players will completely ignore a third base attribute and instead just focus on two. Say for example, a spellcasting player whose primary base attribute is Mind really likes DoTs. While Mind enhances all of his direct damage spell skills, the DoT spells require more into Focus in order to be more effective. So this player decides that every fame level he will distribute 1 point into Mind and 1 point into Focus. This way he gets the most benefit out of both skill types and not just one. There are so many ways to dabble with these variations and everyone will have their own unique style when it comes to this, so I'll leave it at that.

=== PERSONAL EXPERIENCE POINTS AND LEVEL ===

Think of this as a reward for staying alive while killing NPCs. While fame level is the actual level that you are as a character, PeP level is more of a semi-permanent rewarded level. Staying alive in this game can sometimes be hard to maintain. However, as long as you maintain it, you will eventually receive a PeP level through the experience you earn from kills. There are a maximum of 5 PeP levels. Once you die, you go down 1 PeP level; but don't worry, this won't affect your fame level in any way. What each PeP level will grant you is a +1 bar increase to all of the default pegs on your character's states and a +1 base attribute increase to mind, body, and focus. So, as far as the default peg is concerned, you will receive a semi-permanent +1 bar increase to Physique (+10% movement speed), Morale (+10% attack damage), and Concentration (+10% skill deck speed) every time you gain a PeP level. Once you die, this semi-permanent bar increase will go down 1 bar per character state and you'll lose 1 point from each base attribute, but it will never go negative because PeP level 0 grants nothing. Another big example would be PeP level 5, say you have attained this after spending hours killing boars... So all of your character's states are maxed at 50% and you have +5 to all base attributes, gratz! But say you just died 5 times after fighting an extremely tough boss with your party members, you lose it all! You're now back down to neutral! But no problem, you can get back up there eventually. Basically, the general goal is to get a couple PeP levels in and maintain them by not dying. I feel like I'm repeating myself in different versions here, but it never hurts to reinforce the information given. The best part about PeP is that even when you have to log off for the night, you will still be the same PeP level when your relog the next day. Being a high PeP level will help you solo much better, kill things faster, and tag boss fights much easier with your party. As far as PvP goes, I was PeP level 0 when I PvPed so I didn't get to see how that played out. Don't quote me on this, but I believe your PeP rank scales with your opponents PeP rank in order to make the fight fair. I could be completely wrong on this, so I'll leave that for you guys to find out for yourselves if I don't manage to find out first. I think PeP was mostly designed for PvE because you become extremely fast, powerful, and quick when you're maxed at PeP level 5. Not only will skill debuffs have little effect on you and buffs no effect at all due to your character statistic bars being maxed, but I could see this being a targeting issue in PvP when you're trying to aim at someone that quick and fast, but we'll have to see.

=== QUESTS AND LORE ===

When you first enter the world of Spellborn, you'll start in the center of Hawksmouth. Near your character will be your archetype quest NPC who will distribute your archetype and discipline quest storylines. The quests in Spellborn demand you to read (YES, I SAID READ) all of the quest text in order to really know what the quest objective is. I found this to be an outstanding idea to some degree. While I considered this as sort of a filter to the MMO players who tend to not appreciate an MMO for it's quest lore and just want to play the game for it's gameplay, I also found it to be a breath of fresh air compared to most of the MMOs out there that provide arrows and markers which can take away the feel for the questing in the game. You must read the quests in this game in order to know what to do. Yes, there is a red dot on your radar that will show you the spot of the individual or task that you need to go to, but that is only if you are near it. Each quest text will explain to you where these objectives are and what to do once you reach them. I found most Europeans to love this aspect of the game as it really encourages a much more mature player fanbase than in the typical MMOs we see today. A green dot on your radar will signify that the spot has a quest NPC for you. It's still a very simple quest system, you just need to accept the fact that reading will be necessary in order to enjoy the quests. As far as the lore of the quests of Spellborn goes, it's really hit and miss. While some quests will want you to kill X many of this or deliver this to that, some quests (primarily the archetype quests) will really grasp you into them. My first hour of the game already had me remembering the names of certain quest individuals. I would often ask in zone chat several different questions concerning the lore of certain quests that I had previously completed. To my surprise, many of them would answer back. For example, I asked "Does anyone know why the boars are acting aggressive in the forest? And shortly after, roughly 10 players would reply in an answer similar to "Because they are forced to eat the contaminated mushrooms". As far as the overall lore in The Chronicles of Spellborn, the beginning quests up to my level just provided an entry into it, but i'm sure that there is plenty more past these 2 zones and my maximum fame level of 7.

=== TUTORIALS ===

If I was forced to have to complain about one area in the game, it would be the in-game tutorial system. While the PDF manual that comes with the game case will provide you with everything you need to know, we've reached the point where an MMO really should have a good in-game tutorial system. Yes, there are small helpful paragraphs that pop up just like WoW's exclamation marks, but they never pop up at the right time when you needed to know that information. For example, I didn't even know what the character state bars did until fame level 4 when the tutorial information popped up with information about them! By then, I had already asked someone in zone chat. However, all of this can be an easy fix by the developers, and you shouldn't encounter too many issues as long as you follow guides such as this one.

=== PvP ===

Simply put, the PvP in TCOS is one of a kind. You'll never want to stop PvPing once you've started in this game. The entire combat system of TCOS provides an excellent and exciting style of PvP. Everything is very fast and fluent. Fame level doesn't have a huge effect on the combat outcome between two individuals, but it can still help your skills nonetheless. Overall, I see the PvP in this game being a huge success in the future, especially if they decide to add siege battles and shard ship battles. PvPing as a group is amazingly fun as well, being able to assist a teammate on the fly provides a decent amount of comradery between you and your party members. As far as PvP zones were concerned, we managed to find one on the "Freemium" version! If any of you happen to come across Lou's Cavern in Northwest Aldenvault, don't think of that place as a massively empty 3 floored cave system with no relevance whatsoever. That entire underground cavern was put there just for PvP! Right when you walk through the cave entrance, you'll notice a timer in your chatbox alert that you have 30 seconds until you become flagged for PvP. Once flagged, you'll really want to stick with your party since the place is a huge maze of tunnels going every which way. You won't find any mobs in there, but for the sake of PvP it was an amazing experience to fight in a battleground environment like that. Once people start choosing their High House faction, I could see some insane faction battles going on in places like that. Since we were just neutral Enclave members, we could only perform single and party vs. party PvP. Once you join one of the five High House factions, everyone in that faction will permanently be your ally in PvP whether grouped or not. I found that to be a good concept, It'll definitely encourage some nice faction vs. faction PvP wars in the future.

--------------------------------------------SUMMARY----------------------------------------------

To summarize, The Chronicles of Spellborn is an MMO like none other currently out there. While the tutorial, skilldeck, and targeting reticule can contribute to a steep learning curve, it's after mastering that curve that you realize how great of a game this really is. The graphics, unique art style, music, ambience, lore, and of course, the unique gameplay all combine to make a very fleshed out MMORPG. When reality hits though, reviews are reviews, and if I had to give a .5 increment score out of 10 to this MMORPG, I would give it an honest unbiased 8.5/10. Keep in mind that most of the reviews you'll see when the game hits North America may be based upon one individual's opinion. Some reviewers out there will compare everything in the game to WoW and some will treat it as it's own individual type of MMO. Just be flexible and keep in mind that the "Freemium" version will always be out there for you to try for yourself. As for myself, I am actually an American who was lucky enough to be granted access into Frogster's European version of the game and I tell you now that I will be a longtime subscriber to Acclaim's version once it hits us here in the U.S.