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My Beta Experience
I got a beta invite to this game today and after reading the stuff on the forums almost didn't bother installing at all...
I did the install and everything went pretty smooth. It was quick and there were no patches. The one problem I had with the install was that it seemed to hang at the end. I'm assuming it was trying to add the game to the start menu or something and for whatever reason hung at that point.
I killed the client and ran the program from the install directory.
I ran it in default settings it looked like 1024x768 in a window. The game loaded up fine and I didn't see any of the lag issues people mentioned.
character creation was kinda confusing as there were no mouse overs and I didn't see any racial options other then human. Classes only showed four options, soldier, ranger, healer, magus. Seemed kinda limited. I hit random a few times on character appearance and it seemed to create characters that strongly reminded me of wow.
It forced me to choose a last name which was somewhat different. And then I was in the game.
I didn't play long but again the game play worked fine for me. I didn't have any major issues. There was one minor lag issue in that my mage would case a bolt spell at a mob and the mob would take like 1-2 seconds to react to the initial hit. Other then that I ran around and saw other people. Things looked very much like wow.
Looking at skills and skill trees everything was very much like a wow knockoff. In fact there wasn't really anything I noticed off hand that really distinguished this game from wow except a general bit of roughness showing that it wasn't as mature as wow. Most of the UI elements felt like direct copies of wow although clearly redone and in the redoing became a bit less polished. ie UI graphics don't look as smooth, antialiased and nices as the wow ones. It is a minor thing but it does show at least they didn't just directly copy the wow graphics.
Similarly world graphics look artistically like a complete copy of wow. I had to kill 10 wolves for my first quest and everything the wolves, the buildings in town, the dialogs all looked virtually identical to wow.
That said I didn't run into any issues or problems with the game in the first 20-30 minutes of play.
Personally I think runes of magic seems like a better game based on my first 15 minutes.
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Ethion
Comments
You were a mage and missed the tanking and res tree?
No idea what that's supposed to mean.
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Ethion
He's saying mages have a tanking tree and a "res" tree (restoration)? He's saying that a mage should look into that unique feature before passing judgment on the game's originality or lack thereof.
No idea what that's supposed to mean.
What he meant was that each class has three distinct paths they may pursue. For the Magus these are the Fire tree (DD); the Frost tree (tanking) ; and the Storm tree (Resurrection; aggro management etc.) Conversly, the Ranger in this game can heal; the Healer can do DD etc. This permits groups looking for a typical tank, CC, or healer to have alternate choices, if no (Soldier, Healer , or Magus is available; just grab the complementary class and they can fill that role as well as supply some of their core abilities during the group encounters.
What your cursory write-up aptly demonstrates (though perhaps unintended) is what the developer's of Alganon aimed for, a game in which players can easily grasp and feel comfortable with UI and elements so the learning curve is minimize. Additionally, this game was designed to be a casual gaming experience to supplement one's other MMO's. not necessarily a replacement. In that goal they succeed. But later is planned Crusades which will pit the Humans and Talrok against one another and the planned use of "GMs" playing in-game deities along with an off-line study system and built-in Library of content, certainly are different elements than found in WoW.
Btw, unsure why you may have been restricted to only a Human selection, but it occurred to me that perhaps you did not know to click on the opposite symbol at the top of the character selection screen; that shifts the selection to the other race.
What may have happened is that he may not have noticed the other faction was a different race. I didn't notice immediately - I thought the two factions were both human, since the Talrok pretty much just look like humans with tattoos.
I think people in general are going to have a really hard time seeing past the very obvious, numerous and blatant similarities between Alganon and WoW, and will miss the few things that Alganon did differently. This is not an Alganon apology, or a fanboi response either. This is way too much of a WoW clone to be taken seriously. The unfortunate thing is, there are some interesting concepts in Alganon that will be overlooked. Either way though, noone is going to pay AAA prices for this MMOG when a perfectly good F2P WoW clone already exists in RoM. I think what may have happened is that some developers had a couple of interesting ideas, a fairly stock fantasy story to tack onto it (that someone I am sure thought was the second coming of Tolkien), but not enough money or creativity to even attempt to make their game look or feel different or unique. So instead of bothering to try they just straight up stole the rest of the game they needed from WoW...
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"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
That bit is still what disappoints me, considering Alganon comes from the same mind that dreamed up Horizons... a much grander and more interesting game, in my opinion, even in its considerably stunted and tormented execution and existence.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
So is this game complete? I have played it a bit more and I'm waiting on training for the professions but so far the basic crafting trainer doesn't have any training options for me.
The second class things is interesting but didn't RoM do that as well?
The small number of classes is kinda disappointing. Where are the unique different classes that might have clearly distinguished this game?
How is the game at higher lvls? Does it have deep involved quests? Great instances? Lots of grouping etc?
I'm afraid that on the surface it seems like a basic version of wow that doesn't have much that is unique and doesn't come close to matching wow in quality, variety, or depth.
I think it might work as a free to play game but unless there is something huge and compelling past the outer exterior of the game this game is gonna be still born...
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Ethion
If you go to a bigger town you'll find the real crafting trainers. They will train you in herbalism, alchemy, skinning, leatherworking, mining, blacksmithing and tailoring, all of which are 100% identical to WoW, or salvaging, which is basically WoW's disenchanting without the enchanting.
If you go to a bigger town you'll find the real crafting trainers. They will train you in herbalism, alchemy, skinning, leatherworking, mining, blacksmithing and tailoring, all of which are 100% identical to WoW, or salvaging, which is basically WoW's disenchanting without the enchanting.
I am sorry....what....Blacksmithing, Leatherworking and Tailoring 100% identical to WoW?
Ah, good, I will just log into WoW and get my blacksmith to knock my priest up some armor, and get myself some heavy armor from my tailor.
It helps if you speak to the trainer before deciding cos the name is the same, the craft is the same
Make sure you do it while the recipe is still orange - it'd be a shame if it went yellow and you didn't a skill-up from the craft!
And don't forget to go back to town when your skill hits 50 so you can buy the next tier of the tradeskill!
And are you sure you want to take blacksmithing and tailoring - remember, you can only learn two primary tradeskills, no more!
But don't worry.. you can make bandages for first aid, and cook, without that counting against the limit of two!
Sorry.. I forgot.. which game am I talking about again? WoW or Alganon?
Make sure you do it while the recipe is still orange - it'd be a shame if it went yellow and you didn't a skill-up from the craft!
And don't forget to go back to town when your skill hits 50 so you can buy the next tier of the tradeskill!
And are you sure you want to take blacksmithing and tailoring - remember, you can only learn two primary tradeskills, no more!
But don't worry.. you can make bandages for first aid, and cook, without that counting against the limit of two!
Sorry.. I forgot.. which game am I talking about again? WoW or Alganon?
I thought you meant LOTRO or EQ2 for a moment there anyway.
And its not 2 primary, its 2 of any craft...gathering ones are counted too, although you forgot that while making the other things in novice aside from cooking and first aid, neither of which I have touched while levelling novice.
It is not cloth...it is light armor...Tailoring is for offensive stats, you know, soldiers in dresses and all, Blacksmith is for defensive stats, hence my tanking mage wears BS gear, but, meh, if you think it is the same based on the fact you can level 2, and you need to train them, thats up to you
Where would I find the studies in WoW for my crafts, is it just behind thrall in orgimmar, or maybe lurking in Icecrown...
Ahhh good, more "complaints" from people who have not leveled very far into the game, don't even know what crafts make what kinds of gear, and haven't even looked at their skills training nor class training enough to even KNOW that it's any different from what they assume from a simple first impression. Classic.
Gotta love it, yup.
I expect to see a lot of this sort ot "WoW clone" talk from people who don't take the time to look beyond the surface level of things. I have to wonder if those same people judge everything in RL by it's surface outward appearances as well, or if they "inconvenience themselves" by looking more deeply into things? This may be more a personality trait in some people, more than a reflection of the thing that they are examining.
Assumption: "That person dresses in all black clothes, therefore....they must be goth and obsessed with death."
Underlying truth: They wear black because it makes them look thin and they also just like that it goes with everything.
Assumption: "That guy has long hair and drives a VW van....he must be a pot smokin' hippie freak straight out of the 60s."
Underlying truth: That guy is an attorney and happens to own a collection of VWs because he owns stock in the company.
Assumption: "Hey...there's a Rolls Royce in front of that house there and wow...look at their lawn...it's perfect! They must be really RICH!"
Underlying truth: That couple is deeply in debt, on the brink of divorce, and very very unhappy.
Moral of the story:
You can't tell a damn thing about the reality of something by looking only at a surface image. Outward appearances with both people, games, products, etc., can be very misleading and rarely reflect the whole of the truth.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
There is no morale in this story. Only harsh reality.
They didn't even try to hide the fact that they bluntly copied a lot of designs straight out of WoW. It's hilarious.
They didn't even bother to reskin the UI a little bit, to give Alganon at least a somewhat unique look. How lazy and unimaginative can a developer be?
The harsh reality is, that the first 15 minutes in this game will remind people of WoW, but then a cheap rip-off.
I had some hopes for Alganon, to come up with something unique and different, but after spending quite some time during beta a short while ago... it left a very bad taste in my mouth and reminded me way too much of that OTHER game. But then a much much worser version of it.
Sorry, but this game is going to tank even faster then The Cronicles of Spellborn. And TCoS actually was different and unique with it's own style, etc.
Cheers
LOL! I love your comparisons.
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"I like wow, I like aion and I like AoC all for different reasons.....the later cause i get to see boobs, but still its a reason!!" - Sawlstone
Girlgeek, please bless me with your knowledge about what is so groundbreaking and un-WOW-like at the core of Alganon and original.
Is the combat system the same-old, same-old? Yes?
What about content, anything new? No?
Well, is there anything to do other than quest-grind to level right now? No?
Well, the instances, dungeons, some kind of content must be in, right? Nope?
Any word on the release of said content? No?
Is there any PVP, anything aside from questing? No? Just crafting?
Well, you can at least have a few different professions? Just two, like WOW?
The guild system must be interactive and offer some depth then, since community is the main selling point as it stands? No? Basically just another chat channel and window to see who else is in the guild?
There must be some kind of group content at least other than group "kill a single boss" quests? No?
There has to be something we're missing or they wouldn't launch in a few days, right? Not unless off-line training is a gamebreaker for you, the system completely lifted out of Eve, and really doesn't fit into the heavy theme-park environment?
The character advancement must be superb then, right!? You have talent trees. And a couple days out from launch over 50% of it isn't implemented ingame. But the talent trees are built, at the core, straight from WOW. The dual specialization is no different from a Shadow Priest, a DPS warrior, or a Prot or Holy Paladin.
What about the death penalty? Corpse-runs to your body in ghost mode!!!
So basically, you have this thing here that QOL presents you wrapped in the letters "ALGANON" that is actually a shell. This shell is meant intentionally to mimic WOW as closely as possible, it's evident in the cosmetics. This shell has nothing inside of it but a combat system.
People are offering their review as Alganon right now. So tell me, what does Alganon offer ingame that is original and un-WOW-like? Nothing? Maybe because they're launching almost completely featureless and as it stands right now it's a generic WOW clone without HALF the content. Go play your empty world with your awesome tanking Magus and quest-grind to cap, then.. quest-grind some more. The developers are going to get feedback about their incomplete package because that's what they presented to the public. Features promised mean nothing until they're ingame.
All the fans keep saying it's so fun and unique. None of that unique stuff is ingame yet. And if the intentions of this game was to be unique, why did they rehash so much? Starting with the cosmetics of the UI, the general feel, everything? That's a good step to the path of uniqueness!
Although the game in general is fun, i gotta agree with syn here. The game really does nothing new and imo not worth the money. It kinda amazes me that alganon was made by the same guy behind horizons.
Um...re instances...you do know the instances arent in cos of the world event at launch right?
They are launching 1st december now.
Ingame, different from Wow...crafting, classes, studies, families. Guilds offer the same functionality with banks etc as in any generic MMO.
I have yet to see an MMO that was medieval fantasy based that wasnt "hit this with a pointy stick or shoot fire from your hands"
The dual spec is different as unlike in other games, you can fulfil your primary role while specced for your secondary..
who the hell runs to a corpse when you dont need to anyway, dont tell me you have been running each time ^^
What did WoW have that was super amazing different at launch?...it had (some) instances, so did EQ2, it had crafting (you could have 2), so did EQ2, it had elves, dwarves, orcs trolls, so did and does every generic fantasy mmo, single player and tabletop game since RPGs were invented.
If I want a non generic fantasy mmo that offers something never seen before ever, then, I will be looking for a long time. I didnt think it looked like WoW when I first logged in, but then I hadnt just logged out of WoW before playing. I thought "its got all the bits I love from EQ, DAOC (char models and armor looks), EvE and WoW without the bits I dont like" Shortly after I thought "eek, I died in pve...thats only happened in Vanguard lately"
Sure, if you want it to be the same, then it is. As I said in my other post, if you are looking for Vanilla/eq2/vanguard playstyle without ToysRUs thrown in, then its for you, if you arent looking for that, then its not *shrugs*
Um...re instances...you do know the instances arent in cos of the world event at launch right? That's not the only reason they're out.
They are launching 1st december now. Nice to push it back 3 days to launch!
Ingame, different from Wow...crafting, classes, studies, families. Guilds offer the same functionality with banks etc as in any generic MMO. My point is made. Generic MMO. Nothing special here. The classes are only different because they're basically nothing but archetypes. Crafting is hardly that different, gathering is the same, studies is lifted from Eve with virtually no changes made. And families = extra chat channels, that is all.
I have yet to see an MMO that was medieval fantasy based that wasnt "hit this with a pointy stick or shoot fire from your hands" Exactly, tho whether it's medieval fantasy or not doesn't matter -- Spellborn comes to mind here.
The dual spec is different as unlike in other games, you can fulfil your primary role while specced for your secondary.. They haven't proven that. The trees are hardly in aside from healer and the mechanics haven't been tested to back that up with that class. I said RIGHT NOW, what you said isn't RIGHT NOW.
who the hell runs to a corpse when you dont need to anyway, dont tell me you have been running each time ^^ Bugged mechanic is a bug. Concept behind death still remains the exact same.
What did WoW have that was super amazing different at launch?...it had (some) instances, so did EQ2, it had crafting (you could have 2), so did EQ2, it had elves, dwarves, orcs trolls, so did and does every generic fantasy mmo, single player and tabletop game since RPGs were invented. I never brought up creativity issues as far as elves, dwarves, and trolls go. I said they lifted shit DIRECTLY. Didn't I stress it's not the ideas being borrowed, it's how they did it. It's plagiarism with half of the UI elements, half the skills named the same, the mechanics the same, the quest progression, it's all the exact same. I don't get on my EQ2 and feel like I'm playing a generic WOW.
I don't care what WOW launched with, I don't care what any other title launched with. WOW launched years ago. Alganon is launching in the midst of AAA titles. And my problem with it is all the claims of originality and community being the major selling point. There is nothing ingame that supports any sort of community functions at all. The guild is about as basic and shallow as you can get, there's really no reason to group currently other than for the kill-a-named-mob quests. The claims to originality are completely bunk when something as simple as the UI is completely lifted, with no shame.
I want to like Alganon, I think it has potential. I've said this since I first started testing a while ago. The problem is all there is is promises. Right now there is nothing but a quest grind, a harvesting grind, and a crafting grind. And that is Alganon.
Imagine if WOW launched with no instances, only humans and orcs as races. Then you have only priest, mage, warrior, and hunter (with no pet functionality at all). No PVP implemented, talent trees for only one class fully implemented, the rest of them were completely missing. Imagine if the pathing was horrible, and the utter lack of polish that Alganon presents. WOW would of sunk, it would of been nowhere where it is at today. Just like Alganon will be.
Um...re instances...you do know the instances arent in cos of the world event at launch right?
Yes, clearly the reason you don't test instances in Beta is because of the World Event at launch? That makes a lot sense, because nothing could possibly go wrong with an instance?
They are launching 1st december now.
Correct, and he pointed that out.
Ingame, different from Wow...crafting, classes, studies, families. Guilds offer the same functionality with banks etc as in any generic MMO.
Crafting is exactly the same, blacksmithing, tailoring, skinning, alchemy, herbalism, what is different? Classes are the same, the dual-role function is a gimmick. You think a Magus who specs into the tanking tree will be able to dps like a mage that specs into Storm or Fire? Not even close. Studies are different and provide nothing and have zero interaction. It's a reward for subscribing to the game, now when you are sleeping you can still be leveling that skill that will only take 24 hours on non-interaction to level. It's not content and it's not unique, there is no interaction with it and it's just another button you have to remember to click. Families and Guilds are a joke, all they are is additional chat channels! Wow, more chat to fill up your screen!
I have yet to see an MMO that was medieval fantasy based that wasnt "hit this with a pointy stick or shoot fire from your hands"'
But, the point is that it isn't just hit it with a stick, it was supposed to be unique and it isn't. When you have Aion with it's attack skill chains, and then you say we have this really creative and interactive combat system, it's just like WoW's you click shield slam, then you click heroic I mean focus strike, then you wait for rage... I mean anger to build. Soldiers are an EXACT COPY of warriors, there is nothing unique about them.
The dual spec is different as unlike in other games, you can fulfil your primary role while specced for your secondary..
Totally different than Blizzard's Dual Talent System where you swap between two roles at the same time, well except Blizzard isn't obtuse enough to make Mages tank.
who the hell runs to a corpse when you dont need to anyway, dont tell me you have been running each time ^^
Wow, so they cut out corpse runs, awesome! Unique, if you replace the word unique with the word lazy that is.
What did WoW have that was super amazing different at launch?...it had (some) instances, so did EQ2, it had crafting (you could have 2), so did EQ2, it had elves, dwarves, orcs trolls, so did and does every generic fantasy mmo, single player and tabletop game since RPGs were invented.
Well except that WoW and Eq2 where being developed at the same time, and the reason EQ2 was launched first was simply to combat the two headed monster that was WoW. You forget, WoW had 400,000 BETA TESTERS. Most games don't have those sort of subscription numbers. WoW was a beast because it didn't copy a single game, it took a lot of the best parts of several games and then added some awesome features (like the way quests were laid out and how leveling wasn't a grind and how end game was amazing and there were raids in the first month.)
If I want a non generic fantasy mmo that offers something never seen before ever, then, I will be looking for a long time. I didnt think it looked like WoW when I first logged in, but then I hadnt just logged out of WoW before playing. I thought "its got all the bits I love from EQ, DAOC (char models and armor looks), EvE and WoW without the bits I dont like" Shortly after I thought "eek, I died in pve...thats only happened in Vanguard lately"
What you mean to say is, that the Graphics Engine didn't look like WoW, just everything else. Making everything harder doesn't make the game better or more accessible to players, it makes it more grindy and tedious.
Sure, if you want it to be the same, then it is. As I said in my other post, if you are looking for Vanilla/eq2/vanguard playstyle without ToysRUs thrown in, then its for you, if you arent looking for that, then its not *shrugs*
But it's got nothing like Vanguard/EQ2 in it. It is 100% WoW clone. If you can't see that then you are a sheep. Heck even the shirt that the Kujix Warriors start with has a WoW Horde(orcs) symbol on it. Go look at it.