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Day One - Impressions/"Review" - UPDATED
First Impressions:
The World - Is HEAVILY instanced, you use the city as a central hub and you select missions/quests from the globe and go there to complete tasks. The largest 'area' I've been to so far looked absolutely beautiful, but there are invisible walls everywhere you go. The terrain is fantastic, but you only get to see roughly 10% of an area that looks like it would be fun as hell to explore out in the open. You can not swim (at least in the locations I've been to, it automatically forces your character to turn around.)
Combat - The combo system is pretty damn interesting and being able to change your class on the fly and at any given time is pretty great as well. It certainly helps to keep it fresh. I've been sticking with the paladin thus far and it's been fun, but the progression is a tidbit slow. Though to be fair I've only spent roughly 7-8 hours in game throughout the day. (I had a D&D game to go to!)
Cash Shop - Not in the game yet. There are a few MAJOR warning signs though that scare me, item enhancement stones being the major one from ranks 1-3. To upgrade your gear, it costs enhancement stones AND in-game currency. You'll be able to use the Argents as they are called, are the cash shop currency to trade in for in-game credits based on how it read.
Gear - When you pick up an item IT DOES NOT CHANGE THE WAY YOUR CHARACTER LOOOOOKS! It's very similar to The Secret World in that you unlock outfits by completing missions/quests and no doubt you'll be able to purchase them for the cash shop currency and in-game currency to farm.
WEEKLY LIMITS! There are WEEKLY limits on how many credits/ability points you can earn. I believe it's roughly 10,000 ability points and 60,000/600,000 credits (I can't remember which.) I guess this is to prevent grinding/gold bots. I'm not really sure.
INVENTORY - You can purchase inventory spots with in-game currency. That's pretty cool and it's relatively cheap. You can also use cash shop currency.
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NEW STUFF:
So as it stands right now the game has more or less stayed the same, I've gotten to a number of 'open' areas but keep in mind that these places are still not NEARLY as open or as expansive as one might expect from a true MMO. This game is very much like Vindictus or C9 in comparison when it comes to the missions. The large questing areas have zero side quests. You teleport into the area, there's generally a single NPC in front of you who either gives you basic lore/info or actually provides you with a quest. Beyond that as soon as you enter a location all of the quests in the area are shown in a list to the right side of your screen. Most quests continue to be: Kill these small groups of lifeless mobs in the fields who don't move, click on an item to get credit, kill things and pick something up, etc, etc. It's all very standard.
BOSS FIGHTS - They're starting to become tedious and drawn out. Most big bosses have x10 health bars and their mechanics rarely change throughout the fight. There are a few notable examples of the bosses getting one or two more skills as you tear through their health, but for the most part it starts to become obnoxious as you sit there and bash them again and again. (Especially as a paladin.)
Classes - Cryomancer, there's really no other reason to play the other two classes at this point. I'm the type of player who despises caster classes in all things RPG, I never play them. So with Paladin being my only melee option I went with that and stuck with it. I can kill things easily enough, but when switching to Cryomancer it becomes painfully obvious just how weak the paladin is. The Cryomancer does more damage, can slow targets and you can mostly find yourself kiting most moving boss fights. (There are a great number of bosses who like to sit in the middle of the room and not move, only spitting out mechanics at you.)
Character Progression - For most players who don't look up information on either the actual Skyforge website or some type of guide, few will ever figure out just how in-depth the system gets. Sadly that's probably going to hurt them badly. You have to go through and get your ultimate ability before unlocking the higher atlas tiers where you can start to try to go towards new classes, etc. It's a time investment. Not a huge one, but it's one that will probably take long enough that it will leave a bad, very narrow impression of character advancement on a lot of people. (It did with me at first, but I powered through it despite not really enjoying myself at the time. I'm still kind of there at this point.)
Combat - My wrist/fingers hurt. There's very little skill involved in the combo system, as you slash with your left click you'll find new skills open up on your right mouse button depending on how many clicks you've cycled through. One is an uppercut for the paladin, an AoE lightning strike and then a double-triple slash attack along with their executioner ability that you can use, their special AoE abilities and their 'ultimate' abilities. Dodge is also freaking useless as far as I can tell. Most projectiles/spells/melee hits still connect with you no matter what. There are only a few abilities that bosses do that dodge is useful with. Most of which are just 'get out of the fire' on the ground type mechanics. So don't go in expecting GW2 level stuff here.
Comments
Pretty much like Guild wars 1, a system that did not bother me in that game
Looking forward to the combo system, i however dont like games with easy respecs... I prefer the feeling of building a true and unique character... in this system the classes have no crossovers, which is a pitty.. als would have loved to see a trinity with healing.
If it works anything like DCuO i will be extremely happy
Limitting things with hardcaps has fail written all over it. Tough it wouldnt surprise me if you can buy stuff in the online shop to stretch this limit.
All in al sounds like l a decent game... As it is free to try, i will certainly play it for some time.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
THE CASH SHOP IS NOT ONLINE YET, so how can we know=
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Playing: FFXIV, DnL, and World of Warships
Waiting on: Ashes of Creation
So when it comes to questing this is what I've gotten so far:
I had to go into a decently sized 'chunk' of an area, by chunk I mean it probably took me a whole 5-8 minutes to explore the area. If that. I had to kill groups of small, easy to kill rat people. I had to run about and grab ritual torches and fix them up. Then I had to destroy burrows, take on a little mini boss and then kill a few more slightly difficult mobs. (Think minor elites or something.) That was a whole quest area. It took me roughly 15-18 minutes.
Another quest area was a personal instance, I had to go to this robotics factory and bring down another mini-boss who had minor mechanics such as two robots who shot lasers at me while I was trying to turn on these control panels to shock the boss. After hitting 5-6 control panels, his shield was knocked out and I had to bring him down. Took me I believe 23 minutes.
Third quest was to go into another personal instance area and take down these strange naga creatures who have been attacking a town. I kill groups of weak enemies, kill a mini-boss, destroy some eggs and then I had to kill another boss. This time it was a duo. A naga lady who tossed out AoE attacks and then a big croc/crab hybrid who attacked me at the same time. This took me about 20-25 minutes as well.
Ummm so far it's been pretty standard honestly. Kill mini-bosses, kill groups of weaker mobs, click on little quest things and then leave the area once you're finished. At the end of a mission/quest area you get a little prompt that tells you how long it took you to complete the area and then rewards you with ability points for character advancement and some currency.
Everything you have done thus far is pretty much tutorial stuff... later on the maps open right up and there is objectives / missions throughout a whole zone, which are color coded to show what the type of reward you'll get (in terms of the crystals you use to upgrade yourself) and they have solo dungeons / group dungeons etc... so it does open up a lot more, i know in the very first test they did which i had access to after getting a beta key from the facebook promotion they did last year they had a whole zone open which roughly took about 5 hours to get through
The stones used to upgrade your "upgrade " slots are easily obtainable in the game by breaking down any equipment you don't need.
While the Caps aren't finalized, they're actually ridiculously high. That is to say, unless you're putting serious time (all day every day) you won't hit the sparks cap under normal circumstances. The money cap is the same but even higher. That said, anything you don't use is actually carried over to the next week. Consider the cap there as a way to keep some more...dedicated...people from skyrocketing ahead of everyone else at an unrealistic pace. I know some people don't like that aspect of it however I think it's rather reasonable seeing as the game has no levels and therefor no true "cap". You can keep progressing for ages.
A final note (other than that this is a beta and anything is subject to change) is that being able to advance your character faster/easier does not put you at a direct advantage over anyone else. Everything in Skyforge functions off of their prestige system. This includes difficulty scaling, drop scaling, and PvP. In PvP you will be matched with others that have a level of prestige that is close to yours. This tends to prevent anyone from having an advantage that doesn't result in their own personal abilities.
Sounds like complete and utter shit to be honest.
Instanced everything and a limit on character progression? Fuck that. inb4 they sell some item on the cash shop for it.
I'm perfectly fine if all I've done is the tutorial stuff, I'm not trying to say that it's a bad game or that it's a good game based on that information. That's simply what -I'VE- experienced thus far while playing the game. First impressions and all with roughly 3-4 hours of actual play and another 4 sitting and chatting with people while I rolled dice.
So it's good to hear that areas open up. I'm sure I'll see that in a few days as I continue to play and I'll update the post to reflect that.
Agreed.
Sounds like diablo/path of exile , but without random generation, no random loot and item customisation.
All geared and ready for P2W ( The guys that made Allods are making it )
Its not actual MMO
Doesn't sound like an MMORPG for me now.
I love exploration in virtual worlds, but when those are heavily instanced and have invisible walls, then that is already gone.
If you can buy inventory space for real money, then that is a bad sign too. It means that the companys way of making money is not to offer you great stuff for it, but to rather put you in annoying situations (not having enough inventory space) that you should solve by paying money.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
So you're saying that the weekly caps are so ridiculously high (currently) that they are basically irrelevant ?
Why bother with weekly caps then ?
Or is this just a marketing ploy, and the caps will be drastically lowered once the Founder's Packs are sold and the game launches ?
i wasnt meaning to imply that you said it was bad or come across as defensive.. i was just pointing out that the areas do open up and there is a lot more to do in them later on :P thats all
Thanks for the objective report on what you experienced. Refreshing to read something that is not biased and just reports the facts.
My feelings also.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I wish someone would FINALLY enforce hard caps for everything in an MMO.
This way, even if you get an odd exploit (or unintended overly profitable way of gaining X currency), then the effects would be capped while the devs have time to react. It is brilliant and simple. However, with 2 conditions:
- don't set the cap too low; allow no-lifers to still be no-lifers and get their fair share of currencies
- don't ever sell a cash show limit remover
Retards who bitch around these forums randomly are best banned imo, because they only fill up pages of rants... but they generate valuable add income for the website, so never going to happen sadly I guess...
I'm more curious about structured PvE and PvP...exploration in MMOs is wildly unpopular, let us be fair. Go around any large MMO and most large open areas will be empty.
The world is lifeless. Combat is a chore with too much clicking. Boss hp unnecessary high. A lame way to drag playtime. Boring equipments with only 4 rings and 2 weapon slots mean boring loot also. If you are bored of existing mmo and looking for new game, dont bother. If i were to compare similar style of lobby instanced active combat mmo. Neverwinter world and combat feels more alive and satisfying than skyforge.
Dont waste time on skyforge. There are many ready and more polished alternatives out there.