It's so sad to see this game being so low-populated now, not that I don't understand why.
Still it has the best PVP-system ever, unlike WoW where all missile objects are homing, you have to actually dodge everything by stepping to the sides or hide behind objects.
Unique spell/buff system, has to be tried.
The flexibility and control you have above your character in this game is incredible compared to others.
The down sides as I see it.
The game was never promoted very well, that means it never got the population it could have.
Nowadays the graphics in this game are so very outdated, this alone should keep anyone from ever wanting to give X-amount of dollars a month to play this game, also a server merely has 200 players on it.
the game is still alot of fun and very fulfilling. I would rather play with 200 AC players than 2000 WoW players every night of the week.
Tinkering is a very cool crafting system. what other game allows you to customize your armor and weapon statistics in ANY way that you choose. Every other game has crafting that is nothing but cookie cutter.
I agree that house recall helped speed the population's decline, but when housing was released it was "the next big thing" in MMOs. I think that mansions hurt the population not housing as a whole.
AC is a complex game that took alot of risks in development. Those risks are alot of what we all love about the game. It is also one of the things that has always made it a niche game. AC is for explorers, loot hogs and mother hens. It's not for eye candy addicts.
the game is still alot of fun and very fulfilling. I would rather play with 200 AC players than 2000 WoW players every night of the week. Tinkering is a very cool crafting system. what other game allows you to customize your armor and weapon statistics in ANY way that you choose. Every other game has crafting that is nothing but cookie cutter. I agree that house recall helped speed the population's decline, but when housing was released it was "the next big thing" in MMOs. I think that mansions hurt the population not housing as a whole. AC is a complex game that took alot of risks in development. Those risks are alot of what we all love about the game. It is also one of the things that has always made it a niche game. AC is for explorers, loot hogs and mother hens. It's not for eye candy addicts.
I agree with a lot of your points but not all of them.
I agree on the population thing.. In theory at least. I would prefer the AC population to the WoW population any day of the week but 200 on a server just isn't enough to make a game feel alive. I started playing again some time ago after taking a long break, but it felt so dead. Like a ghost town.. So I quit again and I doubt I will ever be back.
Tinkering is the worst crafting system EVER imo. The idea of being able to modify your armor to your personal needs is very cool but in reality it ended up being a necessity making plain loot feel worthless. The problem is that monsters need to be balanced according to weapons and armor or the game would be way too easy for the ones with tinkered items. Unfortunately that means that untinkered items are not good enough anymore.
So in the end it wasn't a feature but a requirement..
I would much rather be able to craft an item from scratch and having it be on par with loot and rewards.
I agree completely on the housing issue. The mansions killed the population in the towns and that made the game feel empty and dead. They went nuts with recalls, portals etc. and that killed the roads. You would almost never meet a guy going from one place to another anymore, which was a very bad thing. That's how I met my AC friends to begin with..
AC (Turbine) did take some risks but at the time there wasn't a "cookie cutter game" out that everyone tried to clone. (WoW anyone? ) so risks was the only way to add anything to a game.
AC is/was for explorers and mother hens. Hehe but I don't agree on the loot hogs group. Ofc some of the AC players might have seemed like loot hogs in the eyes of the explorers etc. but the fact is that items in AC were very boring and pretty much all the same compared to real loot hog games.
I liked the way they did items in AC though. It always seemed retarded the way items made your character in WoW etc. A high level character in WoW would be a newbie if it wasn't for his items. Qalabar naked runs would not be possible in most games today.
AC was my first MMO and it truely was a great game, it had me hooked for around 4 years and I would go back now if only more people sill played. I re subbed my old accounts and checked out darktide again last week and its sad to say that the server is now virtually dead.
No other game has even come close to making me feel so vunerable and actually being scared to die.
MMO's now seem so small and claustrophobic compared to AC., AOC was just horrid with the small zoned areas, WAR feels exactly the same, you can see the enemy hiding in their warcamps but can't get near to them as you'll get one shotted by the hero guards.
I want the freedom to go where I choose, when I choose and not be stopped by unpassble mountains or invisible barriers or guards that are impossible to kill.
I'm hoping that Darkfall will recreate that sense of freedom that AC gave me...or Turbine if your listening please just make us all a new AC
I remember dying in the middle of a forest, and my best rare piece of armor dropped with my corpse. Any other game it would have been simple to know where you died. Not in Asherons Call, the world was so big! I went on the mother of all search and rescue hunts to find my corpse, trying to retrace my steps through the landscape. It took forever and when I finally found it, it was like christmas day. What modern MMORPG has corpse retrieval be so important and involving that it's actually like a mission in itself? None. Just one reason AC was awesome. World felt real and unforgiving.
And let's not mention the travel system was cool. Limited instant travel with bind stones. Also a spell you could only bind portal to one spot, so you had to ask and beg people to open a portal to such and such if you weren't bound there.
The outpost in the desert where you could hang out at the NPCs and hope to buy some good gear that higher level players were selling off.
Comments
I agree..
It's so sad to see this game being so low-populated now, not that I don't understand why.
Still it has the best PVP-system ever, unlike WoW where all missile objects are homing, you have to actually dodge everything by stepping to the sides or hide behind objects.
Unique spell/buff system, has to be tried.
The flexibility and control you have above your character in this game is incredible compared to others.
The down sides as I see it.
The game was never promoted very well, that means it never got the population it could have.
Nowadays the graphics in this game are so very outdated, this alone should keep anyone from ever wanting to give X-amount of dollars a month to play this game, also a server merely has 200 players on it.
the game is still alot of fun and very fulfilling. I would rather play with 200 AC players than 2000 WoW players every night of the week.
Tinkering is a very cool crafting system. what other game allows you to customize your armor and weapon statistics in ANY way that you choose. Every other game has crafting that is nothing but cookie cutter.
I agree that house recall helped speed the population's decline, but when housing was released it was "the next big thing" in MMOs. I think that mansions hurt the population not housing as a whole.
AC is a complex game that took alot of risks in development. Those risks are alot of what we all love about the game. It is also one of the things that has always made it a niche game. AC is for explorers, loot hogs and mother hens. It's not for eye candy addicts.
Which FF Character Are You?
I agree with a lot of your points but not all of them.
I agree on the population thing.. In theory at least. I would prefer the AC population to the WoW population any day of the week but 200 on a server just isn't enough to make a game feel alive. I started playing again some time ago after taking a long break, but it felt so dead. Like a ghost town.. So I quit again and I doubt I will ever be back.
Tinkering is the worst crafting system EVER imo. The idea of being able to modify your armor to your personal needs is very cool but in reality it ended up being a necessity making plain loot feel worthless. The problem is that monsters need to be balanced according to weapons and armor or the game would be way too easy for the ones with tinkered items. Unfortunately that means that untinkered items are not good enough anymore.
So in the end it wasn't a feature but a requirement..
I would much rather be able to craft an item from scratch and having it be on par with loot and rewards.
I agree completely on the housing issue. The mansions killed the population in the towns and that made the game feel empty and dead. They went nuts with recalls, portals etc. and that killed the roads. You would almost never meet a guy going from one place to another anymore, which was a very bad thing. That's how I met my AC friends to begin with..
AC (Turbine) did take some risks but at the time there wasn't a "cookie cutter game" out that everyone tried to clone. (WoW anyone?
AC is/was for explorers and mother hens. Hehe but I don't agree on the loot hogs group. Ofc some of the AC players might have seemed like loot hogs in the eyes of the explorers etc. but the fact is that items in AC were very boring and pretty much all the same compared to real loot hog games.
I liked the way they did items in AC though. It always seemed retarded the way items made your character in WoW etc. A high level character in WoW would be a newbie if it wasn't for his items. Qalabar naked runs would not be possible in most games today.
this game is interesting that gives me a lot of fun. i hope more guys will join this game to make it more thriving.
AC was my first MMO and it truely was a great game, it had me hooked for around 4 years and I would go back now if only more people sill played. I re subbed my old accounts and checked out darktide again last week and its sad to say that the server is now virtually dead.
No other game has even come close to making me feel so vunerable and actually being scared to die.
MMO's now seem so small and claustrophobic compared to AC., AOC was just horrid with the small zoned areas, WAR feels exactly the same, you can see the enemy hiding in their warcamps but can't get near to them as you'll get one shotted by the hero guards.
I want the freedom to go where I choose, when I choose and not be stopped by unpassble mountains or invisible barriers or guards that are impossible to kill.
I'm hoping that Darkfall will recreate that sense of freedom that AC gave me...or Turbine if your listening please just make us all a new AC
I remember dying in the middle of a forest, and my best rare piece of armor dropped with my corpse. Any other game it would have been simple to know where you died. Not in Asherons Call, the world was so big! I went on the mother of all search and rescue hunts to find my corpse, trying to retrace my steps through the landscape. It took forever and when I finally found it, it was like christmas day. What modern MMORPG has corpse retrieval be so important and involving that it's actually like a mission in itself? None. Just one reason AC was awesome. World felt real and unforgiving.
And let's not mention the travel system was cool. Limited instant travel with bind stones. Also a spell you could only bind portal to one spot, so you had to ask and beg people to open a portal to such and such if you weren't bound there.
The outpost in the desert where you could hang out at the NPCs and hope to buy some good gear that higher level players were selling off.