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Mortal Beta Review
colutr
Member Posts: 333
Originally posted by colutr
Starting experience:
When i enter into the game the character selection is nice. They just updated it and the races look better then they did through most of beta. They also added a few new races in the most recent patches. Creating a character is more than just cosmetic too, different factors change your attribute caps such as age, race height and how you mix blood.
After playing around with character creation I log into the game. Currently you spawn in one of the random starting locations, later on this is supposed to be tied to your primary race. You start out in the world buck naked and your characters are anatomically correct. They plan on adding non-lootable underwear for release but you dont need them right now anyways.
I make my way to the nearby town, there is always a town within a short walk of where you start at. The towns rght now only have the basic vendors we need to test the game. Leather merchants, reagent vendors, house vendoras and such. makes it much easier to test things when you dont have to spend xxx ammount fo time out int the worls looking for it. Also some things cant be found in the world yet so these vendors help.
Next I make my way to the smith to get some starter gear and start crafting. no weapons or armor can be bought at a vendor and you cant sell them either. All weapons and armor, except the starter gear is crafted and must be traded with other players. With this in mind you start out by gathering. While gathering you gain related attributes. So mining increases strength and constitution. Now you talk to a few npc's and you get your ore refined and some gear made.
Crafting:
The crafting process has not been implemented yet and crafting skills havent been added. You speak sto an npc and the UI allows you to take the raw materials and he spits out a weapon/armor. What should be noted here is that with only a small variety of craftable objects you can make alot of variations.
Armor is split up into 8 "sets", each set is basically a different mesh and the materials you use changes the overlay colors, the defensive capability, the weight and the durability. Each one of these 8 "sets" are broken up into 10 pieces. Each one of these pieces can be made with different primary and support materials, and you can use a different ammount of each material. To get a good durability-to-weight-to-effectiveness you have to experiment with using different materials and in varying ammounts. You can mix and match pieces and materials to get a certain look if you see fit.
it should also be noted that armor doesnt add to the overall defense of your character. It adds to the defens of the hitbox you equip it to. So shoulder armor, arm armor and gloves all add to your arm hit box, left arm or right arm. helms add to yotu head hitbox, and etc.
Weapons are dealt with the same as armor, except there is no material ratio. Instead you have up to 3 different parts of a weapon you can play around with. These parts are the Handle Core, Handle coating, and Head. The Handle core is the solid material the handle is made from, the Handle Coat, changes the color of the handle, and the head determines what type fo weapon it is. All materials effect the weight, durability and damage of a weapon.
So if you want to make a spear you would choose a 1 or 2 handed long handle, you choose che core of the handle and the coating. This matters because with long enough weapons you can hit with the handle and if you choose to not add a head then you ahve a quarterstaff. Then you would pick one of the spear heads. Now if you wanted to change it up a bit, you could pick one of the sword heads and your weapon resembles a naginata or you can pick a haberd head and you have a halbard and so on.
Bows work in a similar way and you can either make composite or single material bows. Then you choose if its a recurve, flat, decurve ro assymetrical bot. You chose the materials and you choose where the majority of that material is applied. you can apply material to the back or the belly of the bow. Experimenting with wood types, bow types and where you apply the materials can cause a bowcrafter to become famous.
Currently you see a weird tooltip when looking at weapons and armor. Weapons show the abbreviations of what you made the weapon out of and how you designed it. Eventually this info will be hidden to the player and you will need a skill to see it. That way weaponcrafters will be able to look at a weapon and examine what it was made from and be able to replicate it. Gear also shows the weight and durability. Damage is hidden and only a person with a certain skill will be able to accurately tell the damage of a weapon, this skill hasn't been added yet.
In the World:
Once you leave the comfort of town, you can pretty much go anywhere. Most of what you see can be explored and you can see very far into the distance. Only restrictions on where you can go are invisible walls to keep us where they want us testing at and rugged terrain. Some mountains are just too damn steep to climb, but mountains dont feel like some sort of zone border. In fact there are no zones. Just one big seamless world. About performance tho, sometimes it feels like there is an invisible grid underneath the ground and you walk over a gridline and get a short ammount of lag. Its a known issue that needs to be fixed.
Professions:
Currently the only professions in game are Gathering and Taming. Not counting combat professions. So far every animal i have come across can be tamed. There are some sync errors every now and then, so you cant tame a glitched animal, but otherwise they are all tamable. I've even heard stories of people taming the minotaur in his lair, but he is too big to bring out of the cave. (thank god)
The gathering professions that are in so far are mining, woodworking and there are harvestable herbs. No skill has been attached to herb harvesting yet, you just pick em up. it should also be noted that you can lock these skills at 0 and still be able gather, you just need the correct tool. Your gathering rate will be terrible but there is no artificial way to stop someone with an axe from chopping a tree. In this regard you can look at skills as improving your technique, but if you dont want to improve you dont have to.
Housing/construction/clans:
Construction is very simple right now. You buy a house deed, find a place to place it and then you begin construction of your house. Right now there is only 1 house model for testing the system. When under construction your youse is just a foundation and a frame with a chest in it. You can interact with te owner sign and you see how much material is needed to build the house. Now you gather the materials, stone, wood and metal and place them into the chest. Whenever there are materials in your chest you can interact with the foundaton and "work" on the house speeding up production.
Once your house is built you can make keys and distribute them to your friends, upgrade your house with modules and add a second and 3rd floor. Your doors can be locked. there are bugs that allow people to get into a locked house, but they are known and being worked on.
Creating a clan is directly related to buildign a house. One of the addons to your house is a Guild stone. Once you put this in your house you are able to make a clan. Currently you have to interact with the clanstone to do anythign clan related such as invite, kick, promote, and demote members. The ranks are all static and numberes rank 1-Rank 10. You can declare wars on other clans from here, but you are required to know the clans name, you ahve to type it in manually. War declarations are also mutual. Overall the clan UI and diplomacy options need work, btu clans are one of the newest features added and the basics work. You dont get flagged fro hitting clanmates and your clanmates flag changes to a clan shield.
Combat/pvp:
Melee combat is good, it still needs some work, but otherwise its really good. First off people have 5 hitboxes, head, torso, L arm, R arm, and legs. The armor you wear on that hitbox effects the damage dealt to that hitbox, hitting the head deals a little extra damage.
Melee combat has directional attacks. You can swing from left to right, from right o left and stab. No overhead swing yet and not sure wheh were getting one. The major flaw here is that the arc of your weapon swing doesnt hig multiple hitboxes or multiple targets yet. not sure if or when this will be changed.
Archery is working, but some tweaking with weapon arcs and targeting needs to be done. Also seems to be very stamina intensive, but this could be due to people making bad bows, you can make bad weapons too while experimenting with combos. I think its a combination of both. it needs some more balancing and people make bad bows. Another problem with bows is how effective armor is. I had a bow that was dealing somethgin like 25 damage and a guy wearing cloth armor i only hit for 18 and with te same skill hit a guy wearing plate for only 2. Overall these things just need to be balanced a bit more.
Magic needs work. The spellbook is pretty bare and the system is only half available. The absolute basics fo the system is in however. Right now you target a player using the tab key. Notice you do have to aim at then and the hit tab, it doesnt target_nearest like in wow. Once targeted tho all magic attacks are heatseeking if they are within your los.
To cast a spell you must stand still click the hotbar button the spell is on and wait for it to charge. Charge time depends ont he spell and your skil in magic. once the spell is charged then you have xx amount fo time to release the spell, during this timeframe you can move around but if you dont release the spell then your mind grows tired and you have to recharge another spell. Releae the spell by clicking the same hotkey and it casts on the target dealing damage or healing. Holding alt and releasing the spell casts it on yourself.
Mounts/Mounted combat:
Mounts are cool. They make everything except archery much better. Currently there is only 1 mount type in game, thats the steppe horse. Your riding skill changes how fast you can move and how stable your mount is. For instance at low riding skill you can barely do anything ecxept walk on your mount, once you start increasing skill (by riding) you are able to move to the next speed and the next one until you can do a full gallop. After you can do a full gallop increased riding skill makes your gallop faster.
Your mount is considered a pet and you have to do upkeep to your pet. This is done by feeding and bandaging, and letting it graze. With a high enough control skill you can command your pet to do more things. Feeding increases loyalty, Grazing reduces loyalty loss bandaging heals damage, your mount can die if its health gets to zero, you cant resurect your mount, its just like any other animal, except you dont get a carccass (yet).
Mounted combat right now needs to be looked at. When moving really fast it is hard to hit things accurately due to a small target area. Lag is also part of the problem, when you are moving really fast either you or your target seems out-of-sync.
Mounted archery is hard. Combine heavy stamina use, lag and the accuracy penalty you get for moving and mounted archery is a bitch.
Mounted magic is Imba, you can move while charging and casting spells and dont have to worry about aiming once your target is aquired. And if soemone on foot gets close, you knock them down. Magic overall just needs to be worked on, we will see how it pans out once the full system is in.
Mounts have a way of negating the weight system, this is one of the things they are working on. While mounted you can equp weapons that you cant equip while on foot. I dont mind having special mount-weapons, that was a feature that had been spoken about. I have a problem with the weapons being completely OP. Also when mounted and moving at a decent speed, you get a damage modifier to melee weapons. This modifier combined with the aforementioned weapons allows for 1-shotting. They recently nerfed the mounted damage modifier, but peole are still doing crazy damage. Overall the mount system feels right and several things just need to be balanced more.
PvE and AI:
So far they havent added any pve content such as dungeons and quests into the game. They have stated that they wont add traditional questing and raiding like you see in wow. We are still waiting to see what they will add and so far the closest thing to a dungeon is this cave with a minotaur in it. The attacks that the minotaur has are different than standard wildlife. We dont know what sort of dungeons they will add in beta and what the rewards will be for doing them.
Personally I dont see how they can add these unique boss monsters that are based on lore to the beta quite yet. If anything they just need to add a few sample bosses so we can see what we should expect when fighting a boss. I expect the real bosses to be lore-based, they can add them at any time before or after release.
Most of the npc's in game are either beta vendors that sell basic materials, the banker (local banking btw) and the 2 crafting guys. There arent alot of different types of animals out in the world, but they are around and easy to get to from the nearest town. Somethign like 10 different animal types and they are spread out all over the continent in herds.
Creature AI is what you would expect, pigs and wolves act like pigs and wolves. The minotaur does a charge attack and knocks you down.
Overall they need to add different npcs to the cities and such to they feel more like towns, but that can come last. We dont need random npc's walking around town to test what they want us to test. They need to add more creature types tot he world, but they dont need to yet, the ones we have are fine. You get less materials form a pig carcass than a wisent carcass. Different mobs do different damage and react differently to you.
Closing:
When I pre-ordered my copy of MO I diddnt do it so i could "play" the beta. I did it so I could get my boxed copy when it released and with the understnding that when it releases I will be getting a full game. Some other people were expecting to just get early acess or to be able to use the beta as a way to scout the world so they get a headstart for release. I understood that gaining acess to beta was a priveledge and that testing the games systems was the primary focus of beta and not some sort of demo. I knew that my character would be wiped often (every 2 weeks atm).
Overall my experience in Mortal online has been fun. At first i could barely play the game due to crashes and serious errors, and now I play the game several nights a week. There are still some performance issues and things that need to be balanced but you can play and have fun.
Copy pasted from another thread
Comments
yea there exploited weapons something to do with being able to hit done int he crafting before selecting a blade type so you jus thav ea handle. it should be fix once the full crafting system is in. and the over all bugs need worked on if they can get the bugs hammerd out it will be a fun game. right now its up in the air. they are trying tho. there in the beta irc all the time
If I was to base purchasing this game on this post I think I am going to buy it, but I am not ready to dump the money before release, I will wait until beta is complete and then buy it. I admit though the game sounds like it will be amazing once 80% of the features are in and up to snuff.
thats weird, i see it has 7 replys but i can only read 2
My sig is just as logical as your posts are
Copy pasted from another thread
Why?
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
I am the origional author, but that thread was a hater thread, so i gave tthe post its own thread so people can see/discuss it.
My sig is just as logical as your posts are
I know that people here call UO the king/queen of Sandbox mmos.
So do you think MO will be the new king/queen of the sandbox?
WHats are the innovating things about MO?
I know that people here call UO the king/queen of Sandbox mmos.
So do you think MO will be the new king/queen of the sandbox?
WHats are the innovating things about MO?
It may be a different mix of features, but it doesn't sound like there is anything significantly innovative about it. In fact, there are some suprising similarities to Asherons Call (on the PvP server), which I used to play 10 years ago!
I know that people here call UO the king/queen of Sandbox mmos.
So do you think MO will be the new king/queen of the sandbox?
WHats are the innovating things about MO?
It may be a different mix of features, but it doesn't sound like there is anything significantly innovative about it. In fact, there are some suprising similarities to Asherons Call (on the PvP server), which I used to play 10 years ago!
Most of the game is rather inovative. While it may not be innovative in the sense that everything about the game has never been done before, many of the elements are being done in a WAY that I've never seen. It's skill based, and there are plenty of other games that do this, but it's done dif. enough so that I would say that it's rather unique and invoative. The current crafting system (read: placeholder NPC that makes items for you) isn't anything new, but the scope of the system is something I've never seen another MMO come close to. Archery, while at it's roots is just an FPS style and fire mechanic, is dif. enough so that I would say it's rather unique; at least as far as MMO's go.
There isnt' any other game like mortal out now, and none that I'm aware of being made.
The combat is innovative, and unique. There is no other game that I've ever played that does combat the way MO does it. It may not be wholey dif., but it is enough so that it's still unique.
As far as, will MO be the new king/ queen of the sandbox.
Yes.
The only game that compares to MO in that regard is UO.
The only game that comes close is Ryzom.
Hey, great initial post Colutr! I really appreciate the time you put into summerizing the beta and game aspects.
I've been following the forums on MO for a little while (a lot of trolling out there!), and based on what I've read I sincerely hope this game succeeds when it finally releases. My questions now are focused on character death: I gather that when a character dies in MO, he/she is gone for good, loses all equipment (tracking full loot), and cannot be resurrected. Given there are some skills which transfer to all the characters on each account ("primary skills," is it?), how much do you really start over every time one of your avatars dies? My question is based on a concern I have that most of the game will be spent on mindless harvesting/training if your characters continually die often (hey, I can accept a cruel world). So how does the game do (as yet) in preventing that? Can character names be reused, or no?
I assume it pays not to be overly sentimental in a game like this. . . your thoughts?? Thanks again for the post. . .
Where did you get the impession that there was permadeath?
Dying in MO isn't really any dif. then dying in any other MMO.
You rez at a priest.
I'm not sure if I should take your post seriously. It's the first one you've ever made here.
Could be troll bate.
There is no permadeath
When you die your body falls to the ground and you drop a lootbag and anyone can take your stuff. This applies to pvp and pve so death = your shit is lootable.
You are standing where you died at as a spirit and must find a priest. Priests are all over Nave (the name of the World). By interacting with a priest you are resurected, but you are naked.
If you are red when you die then you loose a % of your primary skills. This is so that reds have consequences, and as a way to weed out the wannabe pkers. it causes a red playstyle to not be cheapened cause anyone and everyone can do it.
It sounds like you are talking about the Deva concept for MO. Basically there are certain time-based skills that you learn and once you learn it on one character you learn it on all characters. The idea is that your characters have a spiritual connection, and so you dont have to grind these time based skills x3. This hasnt been implemented yet.
My sig is just as logical as your posts are
Ok, good to know - thanks.. Honestly, I'm not sure where I read/heard that character death was permanent - maybe I'm confusing it with another game. . . but I honestly thought it was MO (like I said, I've been following the game off and on). Thanks for setting me straight on it. As far as it being my initial post and "troll baiting"- well, I guess you gotta start somewhere, man. If it makes you feel better, I freely admit my impression was wrong if you say so; I have no reason to doubt your response (in fact, I'm encouraged by it).
Other questions, though: as beta testers with in-game experience, how do you forsee getting "around" the full-loot aspect (which, by the way, I think is realistic/cool)? Can you leave caches of weapons/armor in the woods somewhere (so no one will find it) and then go back for it if you die? I know you can use a house if you have one, but what about in areas far away from your house? How easy is it to see/detect random armor laying in the environment (i.e. any floating labels/indicators)? Would dropped items it be too easy for others to find? Also, I thought I read on a forum posting that houses could be destroyed. . . is that true or no? If so, I imagine your items would be lost if left inside while a house is burned down. . . correct?
Forgive my ignorance, but (as my name states) I am not an expert on MO - just a guy interested by what it may offer as a game. Bear with me. . . Thanks again. . .
The game has local banking/inventory.
You can put items in your house chast and lock the chest. However house keys are physical objects so if someone kills you and gets your key and knows where you live, they can go into your house and loot your chest. You can change the locks at any time but must be at the house.
Banks in town are like any mmo bank, except they are local so town A has town A items and town B has town B items. Pit stuff in town A you must go to town A to get said stuff.
Its not like UO where you can place things on the ground. being an MMO they would have alot of lagg from people dropping random shit. Not sure if/when they will allow that.
Houses can be destroyed, and currently they are bugged so if they do get destroyed they cant be looted. Once the bug is fixed the owner will be able to loot the house for 2 days and for the next 2 days anyoen can loot it, after these 4 days the debris is gone and anyone can place a foundation.
Right now my tier 2 house has around 1.4 million hitpoints and tier 3 house has even more.
To answer the question on how to "avoid" being full looted, you cant, but with preparation you can always have a few sets of gear in the npc bank. Every other type of storage so far can be gotten into. Also the are going to eventually have a stealing skill so you will need to keep an eye on your backpack too. And remember how keys are physical objects.
My sig is just as logical as your posts are
Great review! I personally want to play badly but i know i will rage quit with the lack of content right now so ill have to wait atleast 6 months after release before i buy.
Very good review, thanks for your input and honesty.
On some responses... you don't rez at the priest, last I was on you were a ghost at your body, had to ghost to a priest, then run back to your body.
Good read, i was just passing by glad i stopped in and had a moment to go over all this info.
I wish more people would post like this, you get some good and you get some bad, with hopes to top it off. over makes for a great review and enjoyable educating read thanks.
I applied to beta, havent received anything, but im not active on the forums over there so, that would be the reason id guess.
FoE Fist of the Empire
Kio.
Open betas are open to all, not invite based, please fix your terminology.
Darkfall Travelogues!
Open betas are open to all, not invite based, please fix your terminology.
Open to all who get lucky enough to get in. There is a maximum for open betas too
In terms of Innovation, atm theres new ways to old ways that they are bringing to the game, but everything has basically been done before so far. If the game is supported enough to go on for another year atleast I believe that a lot of new innovated things will end up coming out, like creating religions, which in turn creates a god. I am not sure if it was officially announced I know I heard it from a Dev but I am not sure if they actually said this anywhere else besides the forums but, basically if you kill a god like creature, taking from WoW like Malygos or Onyxia the MO world will show the consequences of that, the example the dev used was say a new canyon forms. To see what SV is looking to do in the future id look at the powerpoint.