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Beta Phase 2: My Second Impression
I had much more fun last night!! Though it was due to a couple factors outside of the game itself. Tomorrow, I'll post another impressions thread regarding partying, because I haven't done that yet (side note: I really like how you can solo effectively in this game).
1) I turned off the glow effects. I don't know if this was directly related, but I didn't crash once last night.
2) I used my gamepad (nostromo). This helped a lot with the movement concerns that I had, but it's not a full fix because when I get more skills, it will be harder to configure it. Does anyone know if there are key mappings for the extra skill bars that you can have appear on your screen? (ie. Shift-F1, Alt-F1, etc) I still think that having a key mapping option is a better fix for this.
3) I found, downloaded, and printed out a key mapping picture from the official forums so I could review which buttons opened which menus.
4) I bought myself a few 99-stack health pots and 99-stack mana pots. I was drinking these like there was no tomorrow. I highly recommend that you guys conform to this new playstyle as it seems this is how the game is supposed to be played.
5) I followed the quest lines and went quest by quest (remember, you get these automatically and can turn in from anywhere). You won't be able to do this without following my #4 point, but this has allowed me to engage in challenging battles while maximizing my pt and xp gain.
Things I'm still confused or annoyed with:
Chat System
This imo needs to be developed much better (or I'm just unaware of all its features). The general channel needs to be split up into different sections (ie. general, trade, looking for group). The /Map chat can get really busy and you'll miss 1/2 of the posts especially when fighting.
Mining
I tried this out yesterday and it was interesting. I don't really know what I think about this. You simply equip your mining tool, make sure that you have a battery in your inventory, and go to the Crag Mines. To mine, you just stand there and it will automatically pick up what you mine. I was told that it's ment to be done while you are AFK. You can even choose what color of ore that you want to recieve and that's the only thing that you will get. If you aren't a specialist (ie. crafter), then this is by far the most lucrative object to sell for money (trade or to NPC).
My biggest question here was that, when I went back to the crag mines for a second time, I couldn't mine anymore. I don't know what happened. Anyone know the logistics of when and when you can/can't mine?
Tip: Don't buy your own mining tool. You will get the Crag Mine Map, a Mining Tool, and a Small Battery as a quest reward around level 7 or 8.
Attacking
As a spiratulist, if I cast a damage spell, the auto attack will turn off and I will have to press spacebar again to start attacking. This doesn't happen with my self-buffs. Very annoying.
If I had an add, I would kill the first, then turn my attention to the add. While fighting the add, I would press spacebar to pick up the first mob's loot. It wouldn't pick up. Any help here? I don't want my loot to get stolen.
Armor
The armor that I'm still using is level 7 armor. The next step that I've seen is for level 16. Is there something inbetween these? Because my armor seems very week with the mobs that I'm killing now and it's making my pot consumption be a little more than I think is intended. I'm also dying a lot more than I'd like to be. 
Comments
Thanks for the reply. I don't want to die as much tonight, so do you remember which mobs drop the level 10 armor?
I have been looking for openions on this game regularly. Lelu thanks for posting your experiances. I am veryiintersted in the mining aspect of the game. I have decided to preorder based off of what I have read here.
With phase 2 you get in the beta if you preorder right?
Yup, preorders get into Phase 2.
I highly recommend that you preorder from EBgames.com because you will recieve your preorder key in your order confirmation (rather than having to wait a week for another email).
Warning: no matter who you pre-order it from, you may not be able to cancel it if you want to cancel it later.
Good feedback from the OP, I agree with a lot of it. I can answer some of your questions too.
I will go by the numbers you used so it doesn't get confusing...
1. Yeah, Glow effects seem to the be the problem for now, so good work there.
2. In terms of extra bars, you can have up to 5 I think, just look next to the bar at the bottom. You can scroll through them, or select an extra bar and pull it out. I'm not sure how to hit an "F" key to access the extra bar though.
3. I need to print that out, I've seen it, and I'm sure it helps a lot.
4. Yes, I agree. You have to use pots in this game regulary if you want to achieve anything. It is part of the structure, don't fight it. It is also one of the reason that money is so easily accessible, because a lot of it is gettnig recycled back into the system, so not everyone is uber rich.
To answer the other questions you had...
Chat Window: I know you can filter out the /Map chat, shich should help a bit with spam, I'll try to find out how exactly. There are many other options in chat that not a lot of people know about yet. Just experiment and it should be easier. But I agree that it could be done much better.
Mining: When you went back to the crag mines, your battery was probably all used up. Each battery can only be used for so long. That is what happened to me after my first time mining. You can buy new batteries from a vendor.
Loot: If you turn to fight something else after you killed another, and want the loot... You can still use spacebar, but you need to de-engage from the mob you are fighting. So you can't fight and pick up stuff at the same time. If you auto-target the other mob, just hit escape real quick, then spam space bar, and then continue fighting. It works fine for me.
Armor: There is new armor every three levels (at least early on). Some changes appearance, some does not. If you haven't found any for level 10 or 13, go to the NPC labeled "Armor" and you can buy the gear from him. It normally isn't too expensive. If you don't meet all the requirements to equip it yet, something will appear in red bold text to tell you so. i.e. "Need Ranged PT of 6" in red and bold, if you don't meet that requirement.
I hope this helps...
thanks Velcroy. I actually conformed to the pot usage from your posts yesterday, so thank you there. I have a few things to followup on...
For the Quick Bars. I want to be able to map my game-pad, or hit Shift-2 or something to access the 2nd or 3rd bar *without* having to scroll through the various bars. I already found that you can expand it to see the other ones (I think there's 5 or 6).
For the loot. Ok, that makes sense. It stinks, but I gues that 2nd mob will just get a few free-bee shots off on me before he bites the dust from my uber force abilities. lol
And lastly, Mining. I did have juice in my battery. Actually, I have 2 batteries (one is partially used, the second is full). I wasn't recieving any of the Mining Chat messages saying 'mining started' or 'cannot mine here'. I really want to figure this one out, because it makes a lot of money. I had it mining earlier last night for about 45 minutes and when I got back I had almost 100k worth of ore to sell.
Tip: If you're just mining for money, it doesn't matter what color of ore you pick to mine for. All +1 ores will sell for the same price (likewise with +2 and +3).
Thanks for the heads up on which retailer to use. I hope to be playing tonight !
well for mine there is 2 thing about u cant mine :
1/ if you want mine in the center of the mine u must know only the owner race can mine there (there is war each few days or each days depend how the admin have do about that) ! anyway in the center of the mine if your race is not the owner you'll be killed by the gardian ( the big monster behind bick rock inside center mine)
2/ when u mine u dont need only you mining tool ..... if u dont have the other tool( i dont remember the name) i mean the one who is used with u mining tool ( this tool vanish when his durability fall to 0)
well i hope it's ok now
bump
so new people to the forum can see a middle ground review
P.S. I still am very much enjoying the game!
There is a battle for the crag mine core every 8 hours. Those 25 and up will normally go to fight for it. Whoever wins the battle can mine in the center of the crag mine, rather then at the teleport device, this allows a highly increased rate of mining ore. You get in 20 mins what it would take you 8 hours at the teleporter. If your at the teleporter (where you first enter the map) then make sure you stand where others are, if you are not in the right spot it can be picky. Again make sure you have plenty of batteries. to start mining enter combat mode, select the ore type (only really matters what type if you are specialist and craft) and then hit the button that says "moving mode" and then it should read "mining mode" or something like that. If you don't get messages, then your system message option in chat is probably off, but your going to be out of batteries or in a bad spot.
Keymapping, for those who are used to traditional MMO wsad walking, you can hit "h" on the keyboard to switch from mouse click mode to using WSAD mode, with the exception of "a" and "d" straff rather then turn, to turn use "q" and "e".
There is no easy way to remap keys, other then that. to stop using "F1" keys for spells, you can hit "" and it will use number keys. You have to do each of these each time you log in.
There is no real auto run but you can get it to work by turning off num lock on your keyboard and pressing number 8 and hold it then turn on num lock. To stop running turn num lock off and hit 8 again.
hopefully this helps.