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Shadowbane: Progress Report
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Guest Writer Timothy Till took a look at Shadowbane and offers up this Progress Report on the game. Primarily this report is offered from the perspective of a fan.
;) Nephilim and Vampires are two of the newest races to hit Shadowbane since release. Nephilim, bat winged demon spawn of chaos, are feared mages and casters that can fling doom from above. Vampires, the generals of the armies of oblivion, are the resilient walkers of the night with devastating drain attacks and impressive vulnerabilities. These two races have dramatically changed the face of PvP.
Sentinels, Doomsayers, Necromancers, and Nightstalkers are the newest character classes to be implemented since release. Doomsayers are perhaps the most powerful of these classes with their ability to drain life, mana, and cripple an enemy with debilitating debuffs. Sentinels come in a close second with their ability to make any PvP group utilizing holy damage to be dramatically more effective in combat. |
You may read the entire article here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
I'm glad you mentioned bugs in one line, but since bugs are what caused me and most of my friends to quit in the first place I'd like to see more info in that area.
I cant believe mmorpg.com still reports news from that pathetic shell of a game.
_____________________
I am the flipside of the coin on which the troll and the fanboy are but one side.
Ok what's the deal...
This game was a cough and a sneeze away from death when I finally got fed up enough to quit (the last of a half dozen friends who started the game together) and it's somehow still on it's feet? Did Ubi suddenly start to care or what?
WARNING: Spelling and grammatical errors intentionally left in document to test for Anal Retentive Trolls.
"The key to wasting time is distraction. Without distractions it's too obvious to your brain that you're not doing anything with it, and you start to feel uncomfortable." - Paul Graham http://paulgraham.com/hs.html
its still the best game out there if you like PvP, if u dont like leveling, if you belive your guild is as strong as they claim to be *this is the game to test that*..... now if you like Graphics, PvE, *somewhat of a lag-less enviroment, after all all games have lag* and very few bugs then this game is not for you..... basically to sum it all up
Pros:
*Easy leveling
*Best PvP of any games put together, simply no comparison
*Inventory Looting
*Good Way to really test the streanghts and weaknesses of your guild *due to pvp*
*Over all when u get to get know the community, which will take at least a month or two, you will realize that these are some of the most dedicated people there are.
Cons:
*bad PvE system
*Bugs
*crappy graphics (however, if you set the setting to Maximum in all aspects, as in shadowing, spell effects, etc.. the game looks VERY VERY good, but at the same time, it will be unplayable when u have like 10 v 10 fighting, even less depending on your system.)
*lag
*A lot of players are assholes (its true lol, even though they are dedicated and love the game)
*hard core, pvp anywhere system, with Inventory Looting. Some times people would just start stalking you until u ither get some help, or log off.... i've done that, stalking that is lol.
Okkkkaaayyyyyyyyyyyy
A Con for some people as well would be the fact that the game isn't solo friendly...at all. It'll be ultra-boring and ultra-pointless to try and play this game alone...at all.
Capitulation
www.rerolled.com
Its the only good pvp game on the market. Its like Ultima Online, before trammel, in 3d, with a ton more content.
Everything else on the market its watered down RvR style games.
2 years ago players gave Shadowbane 3 months to live.. well.. its still kicking, and its a TON of fun!
and no children to ruin the "barrens chat", most of the people I have run into are adults, most children end up banished from there nation (and quit the game yelling how much it sucks!).
Not as pretty as WoW. But with that being said, what Shadowbane offers by far outshines any other game in these ways:
1. Unrestricted PvP - fight anybody, anytime.
2. City building - Fashion your stronghold to your own specifications
3. City Sieging - Tear down and assume control of your enemy's city
4. Player Politics - Sometimes the pen is mightier... the world is controlled by political wheeling and dealing... saboutage... espionage... alliances...backstabbing. Totally unrestricted.
The only game where the players call ALL of the shots. Enforce your will on your enemies... but be careful... they have plans of their own.
I've tried just about all the others. Nothing compares if you like pvp and world conquest on a grand scale. I always return to Shadowbane. Nothing else scratches my itch.
However:
If you like repetitive questing, arena only pvp, no city that is actually "yours", mind numbing leveling grinds and heavy emhasis on PvE, then Shadowbane is not for you.
You mention that this game has "mouse click" actions. I rarely ever use the mouse unless it's to move. I have all my characters set up on "hotkeys" where I connect and action or spell to a key on my keyboard and just press the key. It is much easier and faster to play with hotkeys. Have a duel with someone that plays hotkeys and you play mouse clicks and see who wins (of equal characters). Speed is of the essence in this game.
If you haven't tried this game yet, come to the Redemption server. Vindication is the "lore server" for all the actual roleplayers and it has many restrictions. The other two have low populations. So come to Redemption if you are die hard PvP and want to see where the action is.
Also, in response to the person that said you cannot solo in this game, that is not entirely true. Some characters are group dependent. Most characters are group dependent. But there are certain characters that can solo their way through levels. If you want to try a character that can solo, I suggest making either a Huntress or a Wizard. Both of these get pets that will help you fight. But you can do more exploration yourself and create a good enough character to be able to solo. I don't want to get too much into characters as a big part of the game is character development and finding what works best for your personal play style.
I also want to mention, if you dig through the articles on http://chronicle.ubi.com (shadowbane website) it talks about having a levelling "soft cap" where you can't level higher because there are no higher mobs. This is not current (and they've never updated it). There is a "hard cap" at level 75.
There is currently talk of granting xp from pvp and raising the level cap to 80... with the only way to get from 75 to 80 through pvp xp. But it's just talk atm and nothing has been set in stone.
Dont waste your time this game wont survive the next year. They played their last card with the lorerule server they started after that there will only be the usual bugs, lag, dupes/cheats and incompetence to fix those problems. The community are mainly some hundred hardcore gankers that prevent new players to join and make old ones leave. The amount of paying customers will soon reach the borderline below which the game wont make enough cash to be kept up. To bad but Wolfpack destroyed their own work by their dumpness. The game still has some good aspects and ideas in it, but nothing can safe it now.
I played it for about a year and reached more than the most players but at last they closed the server cause to few ppl played.
This is not true. Everybody I know is happy to see new faces and will gladly lend a hand to show a new guy the ropes, take him in, and help him out.
But like I've said, the game is not for everybody. Some people can't hack unrestricted pvp... but once you embrace it, and get better at it, it's the most fun you can have in a game, imo.
Also - somebody who tends to talk a lot of trash, whines about getting killed in a pvp based game, and generally is an ass to other players will become a target, yeah. And being a target can get old quick I would think... But I've personally taken in a lot of new guys, helped them out, showed them the ropes, protected them, and they've become as attached to this awesome game and as good at the art of pvp as I have.
Also - the populations are on the rise as the game constantly improves and new content is added. I've played a lot of the mmorpg's out there, and keep coming back to SB. Nothing else compares.