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Annoyances (so far).
ssnautilus
Member Posts: 373
Hi. I have just started TCOS and am having a rough time liking this. Reminds me very much of Saga of Ryzom for some reason.
Things that I like so far:
Character creation clothing & armor options.
Things that are irking me:
* Very limited character facial/ racial/ body/ etc options at char creation.
* Needless and uninspiring intro - the camera panning was poor - landscape was more or less the same with lots of trees - the voiceover (which started off amazing for the 1st couple of lines) becomes boring with the plethora of "whispers" - what was the reason to whisper anyway? Create a mystery, fantasy, or storyteller awe? Not quite. Good idea - poorly executed.
* The demon character movement is terrible - he clippity-clops and does not run.
* Mouse-click interaction is flakey at best. The mouse pointer is AUTO-MOVED to the center of the targeting reticule everytime we LMB/RMB a any part of the screen/non-nteractive npc/object etc. (NEVER force-move the mouse unless absolutely necessary! Bad design!)
* No tooltips?! Reality or not - I'd like to know who X_NPC is from a decent distance without having to run up to every object/npc and waiting for their names to become "visible".
* Alienating quest givers: VERY VERY BAD. Every player that logs into a virtual world wants immersion. Now the first quest givers I encounter treat me in a military "you scum of the earth" bull$sh!t manner? What is this supposed to be? Original? Creative? Fun to treat me like dirt? Am I supposed to be thrilled or entertained by the intelligence of the devs here? Remember: First impression MUST be good if you are to survive in today's cut-throat MMO world.
* Standard cookie-cutter quests (so far). Fetch this. Kill that.
* Total lack of any population whatsoever. I have yet to come across any player!
* The rolling tier system of hotbars is needless. I see no player benefit nor fun from such a system. It is a novelty that wear off in about 5 minutes after being FORCED to manage combos. Forcing people to do what DEVs think is fun - is NOT the way to design MMOs/games. People are different and must be allowed to completely customize their own options and gameplay styles.
Hmm... this game came highly recommended by a friend... but am having my doubts. Am certainly deleting my char and switching to human - so I dont have to endure the hop-hop-running atleast. I certainly hope this gets better.
Can someone tell me the fun things to look forward to please. Thanks.
edit: Yes. The human runs much better.... !! (Still looks like an arthritic old man running with a pain in the bum!)
Comments
Its funny how some people see the rotating hotbar as a unique and interesting puzzle that adds an element of deck building strategy that we've never seen before and adds tons of depth to the game. Others see it as an annoyance that only gets in the way.
Everything else you said is pretty much right on and I generally agree.
Of course one of the strongest points of the game was completely overlooked by your impression. Maybe you're just immune to it, but the aesthetics in TCOS are wonderful. The general atmosphere is very relaxing. There are some nice subtle sound effects. The map layouts are natural and interesting.
Yup, I love the whole look and feel, very fresh artisticly...
Well what's to say that that isn't immersive? Should every npc essentially kiss your ass? (to use a phrase)
I'm coming to the conclusion that people have no idea what "immersion" means.
Immersion is creating a world which is not only believable but the game mechanics do as much as they can in order to eliminate the feel that you are in a game.
That's it.
So if they are talking to you in a military "you're in the army now" voice then maybe that's because you're in the army?
How are they supposed to talk with you? If anything the npc's should speak to players in a voice that makes sense not only to who they are but the station of the player as well.
You might not have liked the tone of the npc's but then isn't that going to be hit or miss? What one person doesn't like the next person might like?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
The early quests are somewhat typical fair. But very early on you are involved in quests that aren't about killing or collecting anything, rather they are about talking to people and paying attention to what is said. As the game progresses this becomes much more prominent. Spellborn will allow you to level without actually fighting or grinding mobs (hence the two level systems/somewhat). Personally I found it quite refreshing to have exploration quests and quests were my answers actually mattered. You can break a "chain" in spellborn by doing the incorrect thing. This is good.
As to the character's interaction with the first NPC, it makes sense if you have been prepped with the back story. This needs to be redone to explain to people who haven't followed the lore, or who don't have something on paper to read, why everyone is behaving the way they are. This is a very complete "universe" with people who act for specific reasons but the game doesn't tell you any of this before you play.
The rotating spelldeck is a good way to hide the latency and lag of internet connections while still giving everyone equal footing on playing well. Since Spellborn isn't a FPS you don't want instant keypress actions, but you also don't want to fall into the WoW trap of making a button masher. The spelldeck forces you to think about how you will play your character and deploy their various skills. The deck also allows for a large variety of variance in playstyle even within the same character class.
Personally I think Spellborn is the best MMO to come down since WoW. Unfortunately the launch has been terrible in Europe and it looks to be even worse in the US. Acclaim is a joke of a company, they aren't even barely competent. Basic things like updating a web page takes them weeks. They have no idea how to run a real FOR PAY game and provide the level of service people expect now because of Blizzard.
I'm thinking Spellborn is going to be still born, which is a shame, because it is a beautiful world to explore and play in. Give it a shot before it goes away.
Thanks for an informative reply. Appreciated.
I do understand now WHY the deck is rolling and not just flat hotbars (which would have served the purpose easily) - is the fact they are disguising the cooldown timers and latency issues. Nicely done there. As for tactical decks (like in Guild Wars) - again, rolling is not required - but is an interesting "illusion". (As a game coder, am taking notes here.
Disguise EVERYTHING!!! 
)
I still stand by all my observations. And yes, if the quest system is supposed to be intelligent and I'm supposed to read and understand the text (which most people skip) - then even for a military genre - using the typical cliche Americanized "you maggot" approach is again distasteful and absolutely lacks 2 seconds of creative thought. Immersion is lost as the Chronicles of Spellborn is suddenly the American army! (And dont even get me started on the good old US-of-A armed forces image globally!) So this is again poor taste and alienating immediately. (Reality sucks in MMOs.)
As for graphics... well. Good graphics maketh a game not. It certainly helps - and thats why my only mention was it resembles Saga of Ryzom. Yes the cityscapes are organic and unobtrusive. The environment is clean - again nothing "spectacular" - but nice and serene.
I will tinker with it a bit - dont think it has the Oomph! to latch on and take me within - guess thats to do with my lack of lore knowledge - but then again - it is the devs and the investors JOB to ensure and ensnare the players from the moment GO! We dont need gung-ho mindless blasting or spectacular special effects - we just need something that makes us SMILE and say - yes... I have found a home...
Unfortunately the free play ends right before you get to the main city. This is a terrible shame as the city is epic, beyond any you have seen in a MMO so far, it's quite stunning actually.
For example this is just one side of a "zone" you see in the main city:
http://www.thoughtgroup.org/~chris/spellborn/
In most MMOs that area down there (hello WoW) would be roped off. In Spellborn that area is fully explorable and full of some rather nasty mobs. That web directory has a lot of shots of the city for those who want to see how awesome it really is... you can tell they spent an inordinate amount of time and applied much care to the crafting of the city.
The intro, again, is jarring without any of the pre-lore to explain why the guy is on your character so hard. They really need a voice over intro in addition to the whispery funtime that lets people know more of the backstory, because they have crafted quite an elaborate one but it takes effort to read it before hand and develops in the actual game *after* the free play.
Have you made it to the murder quest chain yet? That gives a *much* better idea of what the later quests are like in addition to the typical MMO fare.
The other thing that Spellborn does wonderfully right:
That's me at level 10 fighting a level 27 mob. I won. Spellborn rewards you for having actual skill without feeling the need to apply stupid penalities that limit you off content with arbitrary added minuses to hit/damage to keep you "fenced" in. Not to say beating the level 27 at 10 was easy, but it was doable and provided a nice change of pace.
I was very exited for Spellborn, to the point of even playing on the EU servers via pay proxy. There's still a wonderful game here, but unless it gets a better US publisher, the devs stop being stubborn and combine all servers, or it somehow gets a huge mindshare the game just isn't going to go anywhere. Spellborn is *hard* compared to most of the MMOs that people are currently playing. Not only do you actually have to read the quests and pay attention, but with the real time combat, you really can't take a battle off here and there, it demands focus. This is awesome for the people who want this type of game, but how many of those people are still out there, not being served by another game?
Sadly I see another Hellgate:London in the making here. Games that at some point achieve greatness for what they are, but too late to be viable. I'd love to be proven wrong though!
I don't care how skilled you think you are, in no MMO should you be taking on anything that much higher than you and living... something's out of wack there...
There's nothing out of whack. Spellborn features active combat. That particular mob has melee attacks only. As long as you can dodge and keep your health up why shouldn't you be able to defeat it, regardless of the level? This applies to PVP in Spellborn as well. Someone can be a higher level than you, but if they are terrible, they don't get an instant win/kill. I find this quite refreshing.
This skill-based combat remind me of (Project) Entropia Universe - where a newbie with a newbie gun, a medpack, and some tricky tactics can take down the most menacingly elite critters out there - just have to have the proper mindset and fancy footwork.
I shall definitely explore every nook and cranny possible. But am not sure on subscription. How is the crafting like?