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The ideal game... maybe?
Lerxst
Member UncommonPosts: 648
Let me start by saying that I am, in now way,shape or form, employed by any company or stand to gain anything from this game. I'm simply writing this as a long time fan of this crippled game.
What would you say if i told you of a game that used to exist that had most of the features people here are clamoring for?
A large, interactive player base.
In depth, meaningful and economically viable crafting system
Semi-open PvP with a purpose and PvP zones that could change based on player battles
Long, immersive travel, where it became part of the game and a challenge unto itself
Trade routes that players have to actively run and be involved with
Dozens of skills to level through use instead of arbitrary character levels
A huge, 25,000 mile game world
Player factions, where each had to work together to gain a cumulative bonus
Challenging PvE battles where defeat had real penalties
What if I told you most of this takes place at sea, during the age of exploration and used real-world events and real-world locations to immerse the players in?
Now what if I told you that this game may be on the verge of making a comeback?
http://www.mmorpg.com/uncharted-waters-online
Uncharted Waters Online is being transferred to a new company in October. If you sued to play this game, or have any interest in a game like this, I highly suggest you head over to https://papayaplay.com/uwo/ and take a look. there's currently discussions taking place about how they will handle the transfer, with many weighing in on both sides of transferring the old, or starting new. they have yet to reveal which it will be or how it will be handled.
If you want to see everything I just listed, exist in a thriving game world, i suggest you weigh in on the subject and let the new company know where you stand. the more interest they have, the more likely they'll listen.
What would you say if i told you of a game that used to exist that had most of the features people here are clamoring for?
A large, interactive player base.
In depth, meaningful and economically viable crafting system
Semi-open PvP with a purpose and PvP zones that could change based on player battles
Long, immersive travel, where it became part of the game and a challenge unto itself
Trade routes that players have to actively run and be involved with
Dozens of skills to level through use instead of arbitrary character levels
A huge, 25,000 mile game world
Player factions, where each had to work together to gain a cumulative bonus
Challenging PvE battles where defeat had real penalties
What if I told you most of this takes place at sea, during the age of exploration and used real-world events and real-world locations to immerse the players in?
Now what if I told you that this game may be on the verge of making a comeback?
http://www.mmorpg.com/uncharted-waters-online
Uncharted Waters Online is being transferred to a new company in October. If you sued to play this game, or have any interest in a game like this, I highly suggest you head over to https://papayaplay.com/uwo/ and take a look. there's currently discussions taking place about how they will handle the transfer, with many weighing in on both sides of transferring the old, or starting new. they have yet to reveal which it will be or how it will be handled.
If you want to see everything I just listed, exist in a thriving game world, i suggest you weigh in on the subject and let the new company know where you stand. the more interest they have, the more likely they'll listen.
Comments
You may have forgot to mention that while playing you might confuse it for a Super NES console RPG. Of course sound and graphics aren't everything. but those that place a high value on them would be well advised to stay far, far away.
What makes me curious though, if the game is so thriving, why does the company offering it change so often? One would think that such a distinctive, lucrative title would be held fast in a death grip by the company so lucky as to be offering it.
Do you have any insight on that?
I am one who plays Indie games though. I have an enitre library full of low-rez indie games on Steam, like Factorio, Rimworld, Project Zomboid, etc. I also don't consider the graphics to be much worse than any of the original Source games like HL2, or portal... with a slight anime flare,but nothing over the top. If anything, they almost resemble the original Mount & Blade level of quality.
The cons:
The game has been royally f***ed over by its original publisher, especially after the CEo and other employees were discovered and changed with fraud for selling game items and privilege for real cash they pocketed.
They released several updates, then ignored it... possibly because they were too busy with the whole lawsuit and everything. The problem is, one of those updates royally screwed over the entire game economy and there was no one there to fix it.
The next publisher took it over, fixed the one issue, but ignored the devastation it caused and simply put a band aid over it and opened a cash shop to "help" players with the situation.
There's still debate over what this publisher will do with it. Will they restart the game from a clean slate, or will they just carry over the same inflation and chaos that was already created? A simple restart would fix 90% of the game's problems, but we just have to wait and see... because restarting even a sparsely populated MMO is never popular among some of the players.
For every good thing this game has to offer the "lost children" of today's MMO community, its population should skyrocket if handled properly - It's free to play. It has a large crafting tree. It has PvP with semi-looting. It has accurate history and geography... to the point where you can even use a real map to find your position.
There's always the fear, though, that the new publisher won't do anything to fix it, won't promote it, will just let it sit in the background and siphon some money off of it while the old players keep buying items to compete with each other.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncharted_Waters
That was a very good game, too, and was largely crying out for an MMORPG to be made out of it. UWO is what the MMORPG version of it should have been. And UWO does have vastly better graphics than the console game.
The online game's start wasn't helped by Koei not translating it into English until five years after the Japanese version launched. The graphics are hardly bad by the standards of 2005. But if your main interest is fancy graphics, why are you even looking at MMORPGs? Single player games with only a few characters on the screen at a time have a much easier time making those few characters look good.
But twelve years of development since launch means that, by now, UWO likely has more content and more varied content than any other game ever. Yes, I mean more content than WoW--and unlike WoW, new expansions in UWO don't deprecate old content. If you want to play through everything just once, you're probably looking at taking several years to do it. It's the only game I've ever seen where people can pick and choose a fairly small subset of the content as what they're interested in without quickly having nothing to do.
UWO does have far less hand-holding than your standard theme park, so if you always want to be told exactly what to do next, you won't like the game. That does lead to some flailing around and trying to figure out what to do next. But there are very few outright bugs in the game--remarkably few for a game of its size and scope.
The game does have a steep learning curve, but really, any game with as wide a variety of features and activities is necessarily going to have a steep learning curve. I actually can't give you any example, as I'm not aware of any other game with as wide of a variety of activities as UWO.
I've probably spent more hours playing UWO than any other game, ever, of any genre. Guild Wars 1 is the only other game that's even a plausible competitor on that count, though I don't keep track of exactly how many hours I played which game. But while in GW1, I played through nearly everything separately on each of ten characters, in UWO, I had only one character, and that one character necessarily left a ton of things undone because there is so much to do.
1. Large, interactive player base.
I'm going to guess a revival of an old game hasn't attracted a larger community than AA even given AAs recent 3.5 fiasco that lost them many players. So probably points for AA on this one.
2. In depth, meaningful and economically viable crafting system.
ArcheAge's crafting system is quite detailed for a themepark and the best gear in the game is all player crafted. Beyond crafting professions such as exploration, commerce, and fishing are some of the best ways to generate gold. So I'd say tie there based on the info given.
3. Semi-open PvP with a purpose and PvP zones that could change based on player battles.
ArcheAge has Open World PvP everywhere outside the level 1-30 zones for the two main factions. Battle over zones doesn't affect much but there are castles players can fight over that do mean something. You can rob cargo / fish from other players in the PvP zones as well and there is a lot of competition surrounding major world content.
4. Long, immersive travel, where it became part of the game and a challenge unto itself. Trade routes that players have to actively run and be involved with. A huge, 25,000 mile game world. (Grouped these together since they are so closely related.)
I'd say other than the fact that the ocean is a PvP zone ArcheAge's travel/trade is pretty simple, and not that long. Points for Uncharted Waters there if it's as good as your wording implies. The world is big but not massive.
5. Dozens of skills to level through use instead of arbitrary character levels
ArcheAge does use a "class" system and have character levels but classes are a matter of picking 3 skill trees from 10 available options providing 120 possible combinations (Not all of which are very good granted.) UW seems to have a bit more customization but it's also one of AA's strong suits so only a few points for UW here.
6. Player factions, where each had to work together to gain a cumulative bonus.
You can create player-made-kingdoms in AA though they certainly take some effort to get going. The game provides 2 main NPC factions all players start in as well as a pirate faction you are forced into if you gain too much infamy for attacking your own faction.
7. Challenging PvE battles where defeat had real penalties.
Some of the dungeons can be a bit challenging until you surpass the gear level needed for them. Most of the challenge comes from massive PvE events in PvP zones that turn into PvE/PvP events. Death penalties are pretty light aside from it being difficult to get back to some areas after dying and the fact that carried items can be lost and destroyed vehicles are sometimes expensive to repair.
____________________
My own comparisons.
1. Archeage suffers greatly from gear disparity to the point that it drowns out any kind of player skills when players aren't in a similar gearscore range. I spent a lot of time grinding and a lot less time PvP than I wanted to because of this. However I am fairly sure I tried UW at one point and found myself mostly just grinding for the few days I played it as well.
So I'm not sure how need to grind / gear and level disparity affect the game later on. This could be major points for it over ArcheAge or put it in pretty much the same boat.
2. Uncharted Waters Online:
ArcheAge:
Visually ArcheAge feels like a clear winner.
___________________
Overall on my personal assessment I'm still at least asking the question "How is this game a better option for me than ArcheAge?" It has some points it won on for sure but I need a bit more info before I would be convinced those points outweigh the fact ArcheAge is a pretty visually stunning game that's a lot more modern with what I'm guessing is a more active community.
I'm not saying Uncharted Waters isn't better than ArcheAge. Just saying I'm not personally convinced at this point.
As for your comparison points:
(1) I'd be surprised if ArcheAge doesn't have a larger playerbase than UWO.
(2) Very detailed for a theme park is not at all similar to being detailed in an absolute sense. UWO has things like, buy item A from this port, buy item B from that port, craft them together into item C, and then sell item C at some other port for a profit. Ships and ship components are almost exclusively crafted for everything but your basic starter stuff. The best personal gear tends to be discovered by adventuring.
(3) While much of the world is open PVP in UWO (which zones are open varies, though most of Europe never is), successfully attacking other players is hard, at least apart from people who aren't paying attention. You can be a lower level player who would die in about two hits to some of the higher level players and still go months at a time without being beaten in PVP, so long as you're on your toes and quick to flee danger. That can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your views, but it's not what most people think of when told about open world PVP.
(5) In UWO, you don't even have a primary character level. You have 3 main levels (adventuring, trade, and maritime), and leveling skills is separate from that. You have up to 50 or so skills, most of which you can level independently. A "class" in UWO is just a collection of skills that you can level faster and higher, and you're expected to change your class often, generally to make sure that you level faster in whatever it is that you're trying to do at the time. You still keep and can use skills not from your current class, but they just won't level as fast with use.
Second (1) While there can be a huge gear disparity in UWO, it often doesn't matter. Suppose that a level 60 player gets in a battle with a level 30 player. Who do you think will win? Assuming that the battle doesn't end with one player fleeing, the answer is, whichever player was geared for combat will win. The difference between 60 and 30 only particularly matters if both are loaded for combat, which most players aren't at any given time--because the game isn't primarily about combat. (It's unlikely for a player not geared for combat to initiate a battle, and even if it happens, most likely both will flee.)
What usually happens in PVP is that one player is built for combat and trying to attack other players, while the other player has a more adventuring or trade focused load out. The would-be pirate tries to attack, and the other player gets away. If the other player sees the pirate coming, then unless it's his first attack in a long time and he wasn't previously flagged as a pirate, the potential victim probably escapes. If the other player isn't paying attention, he's probably going to get caught and sunk.
The reason that many play MMORPGs despite graphics being better in single player games is that they want to play MMORPGs. As such, that graphic difference isn't a factor.
UWO has a lot of depth and breadth, with a lot of freedom of choice for how you develop your character and play. It is like a simulation-lite of the Age of Sail, so players into that kind of play will enjoy the detail and minutia.
Those that don't like a simulation-lite level of minutia, or don't want to spend an hour of real time sailing between distant ports, may not be as keen.
UWO is not about the typical MMO style of game play. A "zerg guild" cannot exist in the game due largely, to its huge world size making it almost impossible to "claim" any single territory; finding a another player outside populated ports, would be like trying to find a needle in space.
This game is based off of the real world, so much so that any world atlas can dub as a game map in a pinch. The quests are based off of historical figures/events. Ports exist as they did in the real world, specializing in the things they had, even down to the food they sell (you will not find alcohol for sale in North African, for instance). Even the feeling of circumnavigating the globe in 2-4 hours (depending on ships and skills) feels exhausting with the shear amount of disaster that can strike, if you're unprepared, at any given second.
Losing a PvP battle in UWO means a loss you can really feel, especially since, as Qizzical said, ships are outfitted for different purposes. A Pirate may go after their typical prey of a Trader and that Trader will not be equipped to take on a pirate of any type - like in the real world. PvP becomes a game of chess; thinking several moves ahead of your opponent. One player has to figure out how to attack the other, while the other needs to figure out the best method of escape. And for a trader to lose 2+ million dollars worth of cargo, potential personal items and damage their ship, means PvP isn't treated like Quake, or any FPS where people can just throw away their lives on a whim and respawn with no repercussions.
The skills are a "grind" but even that grind requires the player to actually participate in the game world - sailing the seas, visiting ports and trading their goods to raise their skills. You don't get hundreds of AFKers macroing themselves against walls, or mindlessly casting fishing lines into the same pool of water 1,000 times.
The graphics? One word - Minecarft. If a game that has huge pixelated blocks can be a super-mega-hit, then people are obviously capable of looking past graphics. This game has "good" 2005ish graphics, which are either on part or still better than most early access titles on Steam these days. If relatively simple games with poor graphics (Looking at you Terraria!) can attract droves of players, then a more complex game with better graphics stands an even better chance.
So, I'll say it again - this is the game most people on these forums have been waiting for (the relaunch of). You can spend the entire game, playing for free, in a PvE zone, trading goods or fighting NPCs and even a small PvP area (Baltic Sea) for the "starter pirates". Or you can risk more and go for the larger paydays in open, hostile waters to India or East Asia, once you're capable of that journey.
This game has an entire game's worth of content for PvE players. An entire game's worth of content for Crafters. An entire game's worth of content for Exploreers. And an entire game's worth of content for PvP players.
By the way - IT'S FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Pay what you want, if you want, for what you want. There's no need for any cash shop items in order to play the game properly and you're not super-penalized in huge grinding time-sinks if you don't invest money in the game (Yes, I mean you , World of Tanks!).
And, again... IT'S FREE! There's no need to argue or debate any of this here. Wait a few days for its re-opening and try it for free, for as long as you want, without any restrictions, limitations or penalties... which is more than I can say for most games bragging about their "Free" tags.
https://uwo.papayaplay.com/uwo/
So far, at least when it comes to gaming there has been very few times (once in fact) when this hasn't been an accurate assessment.
"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
The "free"ness of the game doesn't bother me. I'm used to spending $15/month on subscription games. Getting a game come along that has the same quality as those games had, that I spent that money on, that is now labeled as "free", only acts as a selling point at this time.Team Fortress 2 did the same thing, and I would hardly call that a "cheap" cash-shop rip-off of a game. And while that too is an older game, the graphics do it justice, for the game you get.
UWO's the same situation. It's not as fancy as newer games in the graphics department. It's not as much eye-candy as the newer games. BUT.... you get a game you don't have to commit to spending any money on, in order to fully enjoy - not like some "free" trials that cap and limit your progress, holding the rest of the game for ransom.
There really is zero to lose, by trying this game out. And the more players, the better the game gets.
I was very interested in it before, and still am, if they'd go to a sub payment model with no cash shop (except for purely graphical items, which I still don't like but for lack of anything else I'd look past).
But I know they won't. Meh.
Once upon a time....
Free is hardly a selling point when it is common. I don't know what games you're looking at but there are plenty of them to choose from.
Regardless, I did download UWO as I wanted to give it a go, but to install the game I had to consent to participating in file sharing of it and download a program for doing so.
I'm not willing to have my computer resources tied up by providing this service for papayaplay, at least not on an ongoing basis.
If there is a way to uninstall the file sharing program after download, or opt out of sharing after helping them out a bit for launch, I'd be willing to check this out and perhaps hang around and help rebuild if I find the game to my taste.