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Positive review of MO for balance here.
Dunraven
Member Posts: 9
Briefly looking down the page here of MO topics gave me the feeling people may not be quite getting a full picture so here goes with an attempt to offer some balance and unbiased info.
Hope it helps a little for those who truly want to see how MO is doing or what it's like.
Open Beta & LAG
The Lag issues have only become a problem again with the Open Beta and was not a problem for a long while before that.
The Lag issue is supposed to be an issue with the Database (i.e. how the servers are getting info. off/on the Database when interacting within the world etc) and the devs are hoping to have a patch out soon to fix it.
Also, remember that OB is there to test and see how things perform with a huge, new wave of people on the servers. This is not some sort of vanity, pre-launch "Headstart" but a real OB for TESTING and so finding problems can be good as they get to fix them before people start paying.
Open Beta is free and for Testing
There is no need to purchase the game to access Open Beta. Those who have Pre-ordered the game are still playing for free and will get a free month of play after launch.
This is remember for testing the game performance, bugs & functionality. They are leaving a lot of the actual content out until launch as well as changing the details of things like vendors, pricing, skill pts speed etc. come launch.
Content is lacking
Indeed, the PVE content is indeed rather lacking (maybe a dozen or so types of mobs ingame atm) but this is easy to add & increase later. The game is from a smaller, independent company so they don't have unlimited funds or workers to provide the game with polished, finished content like some others games we're now used to using as a "Gold standard".
As long as the CORE functionality & features are in place and playable the extra content is easy to add on top. Mobs are easy to add later as are spells, dungeons, extra cavern systems etc. but it's not so easy to go about and change the combat system, skill system etc.
What Core functionality is in-game now?
*) Deep skill system - primary & secondary skills, complex relationship & interdependencies between different skills, attributes)
*) Deep Crafting system - allowing all in-game items to be crafted, recipes to be experimented with by players switching different materials and amounts used to create their own recipes, retrofitting items found into crafting recipes etc.
*) House System - Build, Reinforce & upgrade houses wherever you like and with own special features such as crafting workbenches, vendors etc. Houses can be demolished, have storage & a lock system with crafted keys that can be given out to whomever one wishes.
*) AI Mobs - Mobs are cunning and complex , affecting how or if they attack, run, etc depending on if you approach with a weapon drawn, they are in a pack, type of mob they are etc.
*) Taming system - needs work right now but able to tame (& control) any sort of in-game mob eventually i.e. Horses that can then be sold as mounts to others, Birds, Wolves, Minotaurs, Dragons (?)
*) Epic & one-time only mobs - Mobs are difficult to kill i.e. a Razorback boar can be a huge feat for asingle, skilled hero to kill.. Lizardmen may require a group to hunt them, a minotaur in a cave may be impossible without a raiding force. The secret one-time only bosses that may be discovered are said to be rare, may be GM controlled events etc.
Quote from devs "In other games you'd kill one a hundred times and perhaps die once, here - it's likely they'll kill you a hundred times and die once"
*) Skill progression through action - Skills rise through using them. At the start, many skills seem very bad and useless i.e. jumping is very low, sprinting is slow and resting may not recover much health quickly. As you raise these skills, you can jump a lot higher i.e. maxed jumpers can leap accross buildings or over walls etc.
*) Weight & Encumbrance system - carrying items increase your carrying weight and encumbrance which have a real, practical effect on your character. You can easily drown if you try swimming a river while encumbered, movement is slowed etc.
*) Magic system needs major improvement and there are limited spells now but magic requires regeants to cast spells and these can be costly or hard to come by i.e. from extractors or refining crafters, certain monsters etc.
*) Flagging system - a complex flagging system for PVP that actually does punish the true murderers with statloss for an amount of (online) time as well as "hidden crimminal" flags for thieves or snoopers etc.
*) Thieving - skills are in for snooping and pilfering which allows for people to truly play thief-types. Hopefully we may get Crouching etc. in eventually as well but with the FPV, even without crouch, a thief can truly succceed in the world if they're careful and cunning.
*) Local vault storage - yes, it does depend where you bank your items and have to return to that location to retrieve them. This makes for a while extra strategic & thought-provoking aspect to the game, territorial wars, geographical advantage etc. etc.
*) Limited chat features - No global channels and never will have them. "Say" has a very limited distance and "whisper" & "yell" available but that's it for now. Guild chat needs a Guildhouse and stone to be unlocked and anytime soon perhaps we'll get group chat if grouping ever gets added but things have to be done the hard (fun?) way, atm. 
There's lots more to be added after release as well and we don't quite known for sure what will be added when or the detailed timetable or features. What we do know is their vision for the future of MO and how they see the game. They are not working on a PVP-centric game (Like Darkfall for example) but a true sandbox game that allows for all sorts to live in a seamless world where all is possible but ehere are real consequences for action. They want to encourage co-operation & interaction not just killing.
PS. I'm hoping very much they'll add local "Bulletin Board" system where we may post adverts to buy&sell items, publicise a business or company, offer character quests, bounties, guilds and so much more. I'd wager with a company like SV such a system of "Bulletin Boards" would be quite possible to appear in the not to distant future.
The lag will be fixed soon I am hoping and then one may get the true picture of what the game is actually like.
I enjoyed the game very much in closed beta and am very much looking forward to supporting & watching the game grow and develop into a truly unique & special sandbox game where anything is possible.
I have recently begun starting a guild with a few, good like-minded individuals and we hope to forge ourselves a small part of this wonderful future and to be able to contribute to the RP & wider community of Mortal online. Anyone who is interested in knowing more, come nudge me somewhere here or on the Official MO Boards or visit us at http://www.electumcociety.com
Edit: Removing the "Unvbiased" as it's just an excuse for any nay-sayer to focus on that than any of the actual content so I'll leave it at "Positive" and hope more will consider the actual message & meaning of the post than any pedantic issues with a title.
Comments
Asheron's Call did 90% of all that 10 years ago....
*Smiles and nods*
Indeed, but this is a decade or so later now and things need to move on, right?
I'm sure there must still be people playing AC (and good luck to them) but I'm not one of them and so this game is ideal for what I want out of a game in todays market.
Innovative, unique & superb vision - makes me think there's a bright future ahead and I have my fungers crossed for it.
Just trying to get accross that right atm isn't the best time to judge MO as the lag makes it unplayable but that will be fixed and is simply a result of the OB and the influx of people. Give it a chance and see what it's like once the lag aspect is removed.
It's early days.. it's Beta.. It's a small, independent company and eary days to judge these things decisively.
Yea, but no one is doing it now. And who wants to go back and play AC after all these years.....
The first night of open beta was extremely frustrating because of the horrible lag. I finally logged out in disgust after 45 minutes.
Last night was a little bit better. I was able to actually explore a little bit and do some harvesting and crafting. The lag still sucks, but it seems to slowly be getting better.
I'm starting to see the UO factor in the game. I like the fact that you are just dropped off in a town with nothing but a starter axe and have to figure out everything on your own. No quest givers with yellow exclamation marks over their heads pointing you where to go.
There are tons of themepark games out there and many more coming soon for those who like that kinda thing. Mortal Online still has a looooong ways to go, but I can see the potential. Hopefully they can pull it off. MO is the last of the sandbox games being released anytime soon, so if it fails it's back to free UO servers for a couple more years.....
Currently Playing: DAOC Uthgard
Previously Played: UO, DAOC, Shadowbane, AC2, SWG, Horizons, COX, WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, Vanguard, Rift, SWTOR, ESO, GW2.
A couple things...
Your review does NOT sound unbiased. Lately, when that word is used on this forum, you can expect the exact opposite. It sounds like you have pointed out some good and some not-so-good, but it seems, to me, that you try to put a positive spin on the not-so-good. It sounds more like shilling, and less like honest reporting.
In particular, I find the two quotes above disturbing. No guild or EVEN GROUP CHAT at this time? Huh? They are having lag problems and they don't even have these basic functions operating in the background? That is not promising. The first statement completely contradicts the second. They want to encourage co-operation and interaction...but give you no method to chat with those you are cooperating with? Huh? You say "Fun?". I say "No!".
Unbiased??? LOL You sound more like a shill doing damage control
So why have you finally decided to grace MMORPG with your presence today? Didn't you have an unbiased opionion of MO prior to the OB?
1. Lag was less of an issue in CB because there was hardly anyone in it. Even last weeks stress tests failed due to lack of interest. The game cant handle more than a few hundered people. As people continue to uninstall the client, performance will magically improve. Job well done SV
2. They didn't leave out ANY content for OB, what you see is what you get.
3. Try listing the core features that aren't broken/ need work.
The OB is the best game SV can offer at this time. PERIOD!!!
I win!!! LOL@U
Well, no doubt your post was positive, but it seems like you had on a pair of rose colored glasses when you wrote it.
While the lag issue/open beta card is reasonable at this point, the fact remains this developer intends to release this game in the very near future and by most accounts (besides yours) there are many unfinished items and things missing from the game which are normally expected for a released product.
You may not pull out the "indie" developer card to excuse this behavior, it is just unacceptable and if a small developer can't build a reasonably full featured game at launch, then they should never undertake the endeavour regardless of how bad you want to see a game like this made.
Every poorly launched game just sours the player base towards games, and in general, open world sandboxes have suffered because no one in recent memory has managed to launch a good one cleanly.
DFO is cleaning up their act, but they may have damaged themselves too much at this point to ever really recover and get people to give the game a fair chance.
MO is heading down this same road (even more so if early reports are to believed) and they'll just end up killing off any chance this game has of succeeding if they release it too early.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
A couple things...
Your review does NOT sound unbiased. Lately, when that word is used on this forum, you can expect the exact opposite. It sounds like you have pointed out some good and some not-so-good, but it seems, to me, that you try to put a positive spin on the not-so-good. It sounds more like shilling, and less like honest reporting.
In particular, I find the two quotes above disturbing. No guild or EVEN GROUP CHAT at this time? Huh? They are having lag problems and they don't even have these basic functions operating in the background? That is not promising. The first statement completely contradicts the second. They want to encourage co-operation and interaction...but give you no method to chat with those you are cooperating with? Huh? You say "Fun?". I say "No!".
*Nods*
It does make things interesting though
I get the impression they are going for slightly more "realism" and not making it so very easy for us. There is no radar or in-game world map either (they want to add cartography skills and crafted compasses eventually ).
Guild chat is done in "say" and seems fine to me and a lot more fun as you have to take into account who may be nearby etc. than some secret, magic chat between grouped members. Guildchat is near I think - a patch is due anytime soon and they are purposely keeping things back for launch as well so can't say when/if it'll be added by launch but it may well be.
Indeed I'm trying to be unbiased but couldn't help letting a little positivity slip in just to combat the obvious anti-MO atmosphere I'm getting from the first page here and wanted to at least offer a counter perspective. I've listed the negatives as well but I'm naturally a positive person so couldn't help seeing the bright side of it all.
I do hope MO manages to survive for enough time to see it maange to implement it's vision but this will likely depend a lot on the MMO community and it's willingness to support such a game rather than just wish or vocalise the need for such a game without wanting to support it, practically. We shall see and time will tell, I guess.
Unfortunately the only developers releasing sandbox games at this point are small indie companies who don't have the resources to release a complete game. All the big boys who have the money are releasing themepark games.
I guess the bottom line is that if you want to play a sandbox game you have to put up with half-finished games which will hopefully be completed in the future, since there really is no alternative. It's not an excuse to release a half-finished game, I hate it as much as the next person, but it's just the way it is.
Currently Playing: DAOC Uthgard
Previously Played: UO, DAOC, Shadowbane, AC2, SWG, Horizons, COX, WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, Vanguard, Rift, SWTOR, ESO, GW2.
You stick to your guns in a positive way; I can respect that.
While magicly chatting privately with a guild does seem less real than having to say everything in the open, I am getting older. I don't know that my reflexes are good enough to be able to pick out text in a chat window that I care about. With 100 people standing about talking, I imaging there will be a constantly scrolling wall of text, with something you would be interested in scrolling away before you even had a chance to notice it.
I'm being picky about chat, mainly, because that is why I pay to subscribe to an MMO versus playing a single-player game. I like to interact with others, and chatting is a major part of that. Maybe, on trial, I would find it not so bad. But on paper...It's just not for me.
I hope you can remain positive, and enjoy your game.
Can a maxed jumper really leap over buildings? Thats seems a bit weird, pvp ala crouching tiger hidden dragon?
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
*Chuckles*
No, that would be very strange. I meant it to mean "Max jumpers can leap from building to building i.e. accross alleyways etc" I think they leap about 6-7ft though I'm not maxed in it myself yet but it makes a huge difference.
The reason for trying to point this out is because often you see a newbie complain because they can not seem to jump very high at all or swim or run fast.. this is because they are only at the start of that skill, ofc. (It's even very easy to drown in water with no swimming skill and it feels like swimming in waves etc)
With high pts in such skills, the skill is so much more effective.
That was what I was trying to say with that. Sorry.
One of the things I've noticed is that their mish-mosh of design that tries to introduce realism, they add an important element -- frustration and tedium.
WOW has a killer formula, and it's not because of the "theme park" aspect, but it's because it has systems that are explanatory and gradual (so you adapt over time), it has an easy to learn UI, everything is laid out in simple fashion and grows with the player. They make the job of grinding (which is a large part of the game) more enjoyable than if you had to do the same in MO. The idea that there aren't floating names, even if you mouse over a user, no way to differentiate who is in your guild, and who is not, no balance in terms of combat and it being one dimensional is kind of salt on the wound, thievery imbalanced and magic basically unusable does *not* make a game.
Unfortunately, they tried to take Ultima Online, dump it into an entirely different game, and that was their design. There is no foresight, afterthought, consideration or anything like it given -- there actually is no real design unless you consider "copying UO" a design. A game that has friendly fire and they introduce statloss does not work. A game that is first person and there's no crosshair, even though the game itself has an 'invisible' crosshair that is the center of the screen. A game that doesn't allow for global chat when people will just jump into IRC to do the same thing. A flagging system not fleshed out so if a thief steals from you, and you call the guards -- they kill YOU. Thieving so imbalanced that a thief steals all your stuff and you're sitting helpless.
This is the game they have delivered, and due in large part to the fact we now know, that there isn't a *single* programmer on staff. They have shipped, either individually or as a team, ZERO titles in their careers. The lead developer is a unreal modder and the patching system was written by somebody as a volunteer job. Same thing with the account link to the forums.
There has been rumor of people holding out hope for a 'buyout', so that MO gets the resources it needs. But any good businessperson will look at this game, and realize that it was just some kid who liked games and had money, so he wanted to make a game. It has no sound business logic to it, it has no plan for customer retention, and PvP and sandbox games generally speaking, attract a rough crowd so you have to make proper considerations when building your business plan. SV doesn't have one. And you'll see soon after launch that with the sheer amount of bugs, the easy ability to hack the client and cheat, the latency, the sync issues... that this isn't a game. It's an unreal mod with a big map. And a bad one, at that.
It could have taken 'bunny hoping' to a whole new level. Since STO has now stuck their shop up now I will be updating MO tonight, how long does it take to patch from the disc? roughly? I there a patch only torrent from the disc to current? If you know that would be handy, although I guess I'm going to find out soon enough.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
there is guildchat.
you guild needs to build a house and get a guildstone that way you can make your guild in game and have the guildchat available to you.
even when your house is broken down guildchat remains
the real angarato
-| Website | Myrmidon's Ventrilo| Guild Thread|-
I would just download the entire client again. It only took me a couple of hours to download and patch it.
It will probably save you a lot of frustrations.
Currently Playing: DAOC Uthgard
Previously Played: UO, DAOC, Shadowbane, AC2, SWG, Horizons, COX, WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, Vanguard, Rift, SWTOR, ESO, GW2.
Thanks for the concise writeup. I'm downloading the beta client now and trying to go in with 0 expectations. I'm hoping the dev comments about monsters being difficult to kill is a testimony to their ai and not the games interface but we'll see. It's worrying that there are only 12 mob types. I always imagined making the beasties to be the fun part of putting a game together.
If the game is playable and the world is immersive enough for my imagination to breath a bit of life into it I might even have fun.
Currently Playing: The Game
they already said they were gonna ship out disks that would probly be useless by the time you get it. thats why when the game releases they're gonna ship out the gold version for no extra money.
[Mod Edit]
the real angarato
-| Website | Myrmidon's Ventrilo| Guild Thread|-
*Chuckles*
No, that would be very strange. I meant it to mean "Max jumpers can leap from building to building i.e. accross alleyways etc" I think they leap about 6-7ft though I'm not maxed in it myself yet but it makes a huge difference.
The reason for trying to point this out is because often you see a newbie complain because they can not seem to jump very high at all or swim or run fast.. this is because they are only at the start of that skill, ofc. (It's even very easy to drown in water with no swimming skill and it feels like swimming in waves etc)
With high pts in such skills, the skill is so much more effective.
That was what I was trying to say with that. Sorry.
Me thinkest thou doth chuckle too much.
It is a rare talent to be a snakeoil salesman in this informed day and age.
Just keep adding those smileys though....some will buy what you are selling my 4 posts friend.
Me...I like to look behind the curtain.
It's better to lurk in forums and be thought a fool...than to endlessly "Quote" and remove all doubts.
Don't argue about it, jesus.
Thanks for the answer about forgeting the disc saved me time there.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.