MMORPG's Again

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Xisdibik

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Messages
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So, Ive taken a fair break from MMO's been playing CS:S, GTAIV, Prototype, and working alot. Im ready to go back to them and I'm trying to figure out as most of the posts are which one I want to go back to. I have played all the ones out, so there is no real need to trial them for gameplay elements, I am more looking for the current state of them from players standspoints. I do NOT want to play WoW again. I do NOT like Eve.

The games I am considering are

AoC, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Everquest 2, and FFXI. I would like your general opinion on the state of the games you play currently. Currently im leaning more towards EQ2 with maybe getting the Station Pass giving me access to alot of stuff, but not sure yet.

Thanks in advance for your input.
 
Should def give AoC a try with all the new stuff. When I played it during release it was a blast, but then I remember after leaving the starting area (which was extremely long and very fun) the game changed in a way that made me want to quit. Either way, you should give it a go.

Also, avoid FFXI like the plague.

Lastly, Vanguard's crafting system is great. Especially since it actually requires a shit ton of time (probably twice the time to max level) to get the crafting skill fully leveled, leaving you with a great way of making a tremendous amount of money. I had 3 characters with the max amount of money a couple of months after release.
 
What are some of the major bits that you would highlight for AoC changes?


Besides the crafting how is Vanguard doing these days? I remember it was rather ghosttownish the last time i looked at it (which was a bit after release, which was the first time i played it)

Also why would you suggest avoiding FFXI like the plague?

I mean after playing Prototype, the plague is awesome ;)
 
I got AOC cause I figured $10 not a loss if I dont like, well I do like it thus far, I wouldnt do any justice with any details. Its your typical MMO with RP/PVP servers etc...I like the world and the people, joined a guild and made some friends with some cool people.

Worth the try, Im on Cimmerian RP/PVP server, I have an Assassin.
 
I just finished the closed beta for Aion and it's gonna be a good game. And yes, avoid FFXI like the plague unless you like a grind fest.
 
Aion looks too much like a Korean MMORPG (wonder why), like Lineage 2. I hear it at least got the keyboard controls like WoW which is a +. I cannot stand bad movement games like Lineage 2. But at the same time all the attack animations looked like 15 second long things. cant someone just run behind you and attack you while your doing your amazing earth shattering smash of doom with cool particles going everywhere? Please correct me if im wrong though id be interested to know.
 
Xisdibik said:
Currently im leaning more towards EQ2 with maybe getting the Station Pass giving me access to alot of stuff, but not sure yet.
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The main issue with EQ2 is that there is next to no one doing old content. You will be leveling alone, no one can be assed to run the instances you need for some quests, so you will be missing out on that content. Gear and spells are very expensive for your limited resources while you level up. You could make some yourself, but that just adds a boring repetition time-sink to the game as you level up your tradeskill(s). Then you get to 80, and since you didn't do any of the instances leading up to that your gear sucks. Gear nazis won't even take you into their pickup groups. EQ2 can be enjoyable, but it's not for the faint of heart if you can't deal with the frustration you will likely experience when you are unable to find anyone willing to even just help you out with a quest mob really quick.

While the mentoring down (high level players can lower their level to your level to do content with you) works well, there are fewer and fewer players willing to actually do that because after so many years they have done the content you'll be going through so many times that they just don't see the point of doing it yet again. Then you think about what they are saying and you realize the futility of it all, grind grind grind, grind grind grind grind grind, grind grind, level cap, grind grind grind grind grind for gear, the hours go by and you got nothing. Then you get the retards who will want to charge you 100plat to take you on a VP raid, etc. etc.

While SOE does a good job of developing one new expansion per year there's imho no real sense of community left in EQ2. It's full of old jaded players and folks who use it as a glorified IRC chat client. I enjoyed EQ2, I still play it occasionally, but I wouldn't recommend getting into it at this time anymore. The game is on it's way out. I wouldn't be surprised if they were to announce server merges later this year a la EQ1.
 
Xisdibik said:
Aion looks too much like a Korean MMORPG (wonder why), like Lineage 2. I hear it at least got the keyboard controls like WoW which is a +. I cannot stand bad movement games like Lineage 2. But at the same time all the attack animations looked like 15 second long things. cant someone just run behind you and attack you while your doing your amazing earth shattering smash of doom with cool particles going everywhere? Please correct me if im wrong though id be interested to know.
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timme said:
Isn't Aion a grind fest too?
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Well, its made by NCSoft, so you probably see a similar graphics style. But, the game play is not similar from what I remember of L2. I have played 2 weekend closed beta events and there aren't any 15 second attack animations, lol. The longest were 2 sec cast for my Sorceror, and my Assassin & Templar both had instant attacks with chain attacks, etc etc. I was thoroughly impressed by the stability and had a blast playing it all weekend. So far, I have a 16 sorc, 12 assassin and 11 templar. (Cap was lvl 20). The stability is probably due to the fact that the game's already out in Korea & China, and they're our test guinea pigs :D. What's awesome is that NCWest is changing a lot of core gameplay so that its more "westernized" and less grind grind, at least in the first 1-30~ levels. So far, I haven't had to grind a single bit, in fact I had to abandon quests since I outleveled some of them :D Not 100% of the progression of lvl 40-50. There's a lot of info I'd like to reveal, but I obviously can't. Just wait till open beta and give it a shot, I was pleasently surprised how quickly I got sucked in. BTW, CryEngine looks freakin amazing for how great it runs...
 
Warhammer online is similar, yet different from WoW. Not as polished, but it has some refreshing ideas. Be forewarned it is very PvP centric. If you don't like PvP, you probably won't like WAR.

DDO is play for free right now, so that's not a bad option if you don't want to pay a monthly fee. I haven't played in a while, so i am not up on the current state of the game. I do feel it was very lacking when i was playing it, as in no solo content and no crafting. So if you didn't have any buddies online, there really wasn't anything to do.

AoC, had a blast in the <20 area (the start), but it went downhill fast. Supposedly things have gotten a lot better, but i haven't played since over a year ago so i can't say personally.

Never played LOTRO, but i heard a lot of good things about it. Just could not see leaving WoW for a new game that nobody i knew played.

Looking forward to the Old republic (star wars MMO), but that isn't out yet.
 
Thuleman said:
The main issue with EQ2 is that there is next to no one doing old content.
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A corollary to this is that you don't need a ton of people to do old content. Soloing to max level is easy, and for a first time player it'll be a joy to run through everything once. Heck, you can probably level 3 characters to 80 and only have about 25% content overlap between all of them. And yes, just like every other mature MMO on the market, there's still plenty of people leveling alts... which is a great way to get in with an established crowd.


You will be leveling alone, no one can be assed to run the instances you need for some quests, so you will be missing out on that content.
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The requirement to do old instanced content is few and far between. The solo questlines MIGHT lead to some instances at the end, but usually don't, and aren't required to level anyway. There are thousands upon thousands of quests you can do all by yourself, if that's your thing. Why fret about not getting some mediocre quality item that you'll outlevel in 3 days anyway?


Gear and spells are very expensive for your limited resources while you level up. You could make some yourself, but that just adds a boring repetition time-sink to the game as you level up your tradeskill(s).
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It is not that hard to make enough gold to buy the "mastercrafted" (highest quality player crafted) stuff as you level. The items you get as rewards from solo quests are also more than sufficient for that level of content. Same as in WoW, there is no reason to worry about gear upgrades until you're max level.


Then you get to 80, and since you didn't do any of the instances leading up to that your gear sucks. Gear nazis won't even take you into their pickup groups. EQ2 can be enjoyable, but it's not for the faint of heart if you can't deal with the frustration you will likely experience when you are unable to find anyone willing to even just help you out with a quest mob really quick.
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It sounds like you've either made no friends in EQ2 or have never really tried to solicit help. Most of the time people are willing to give you a few minutes of their time if you ask nicely.


Then you get the retards who will want to charge you 100plat to take you on a VP raid, etc. etc.
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Considering the fact that VP is a raid zone that contains the final update needed for your class' Mythical weapon, and you are there as a casual player, a guest of the guild that is running it, they should charge more. It used to cost 400-700p to buy the raid updates needed for that quest when the content was fresh. Don't complain about 100p. =)

Alternatively, get into a guild and do the content appropriately as it was designed instead of trying to buy your way into the best loot in the game (while simultaneously complaining about prices, wth??).


While SOE does a good job of developing one new expansion per year there's imho no real sense of community left in EQ2. It's full of old jaded players and folks who use it as a glorified IRC chat client. I enjoyed EQ2, I still play it occasionally, but I wouldn't recommend getting into it at this time anymore. The game is on it's way out. I wouldn't be surprised if they were to announce server merges later this year a la EQ1.
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I'll partially agree here. The playerbase is currently heavily skewed towards those who've been around awhile. However, this is because Blizzard has run a rampant advertising campaign for years now, and SoE pretty much sat by and recruited by word of mouth and reputation. You can plainly see the results of that in the quality of the community in each game as well. ;)

I have seen EQ2 ads on gaming and webcomic sites recently, so it looks like they may be opening a bit of an advertising push...
 
Gaiden133 said:
What's awesome is that NCWest is changing a lot of core gameplay so that its more "westernized" and less grind grind, at least in the first 1-30~ levels. So far, I haven't had to grind a single bit, in fact I had to abandon quests since I outleveled some of them :D Not 100% of the progression of lvl 40-50. There's a lot of info I'd like to reveal, but I obviously can't. Just wait till open beta and give it a shot, I was pleasently surprised how quickly I got sucked in. BTW, CryEngine looks freakin amazing for how great it runs...
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It really depends on whether you make a distinction between the pure grind of killing random creatures to get xp versus doing quests which require you to kill a given number of creatures. Aion seems to have a lot of the latter. I was playing in a duo, and by the end of the weekend we were lvl 13, doing lvl 17 quests. That's a bit worrying in terms of having enough content in the longer term.
The character models do look great, I wasn't as impressed by the environments. But yes, it runs very well. I had fun overall, I'm just hoping they do reduce the repetitiveness.
 
The ones I always come back to are WoW and EQ2. WoW is polished and plays smooth (regardless of peoples opinions about balance). EQ2 is a nice virtual world. I have never had trouble finding help or even finding guilds. The only reason I keep quitting is my old machine could not handle it. Now that I have a new rig coming, I may come back once more.
 
Litfod said:
It really depends on whether you make a distinction between the pure grind of killing random creatures to get xp versus doing quests which require you to kill a given number of creatures. Aion seems to have a lot of the latter. I was playing in a duo, and by the end of the weekend we were lvl 13, doing lvl 17 quests. That's a bit worrying in terms of having enough content in the longer term.
The character models do look great, I wasn't as impressed by the environments. But yes, it runs very well. I had fun overall, I'm just hoping they do reduce the repetitiveness.
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Agreed. So far my impressions are still mixed, sorry if I indicated that this game is awesome. I still hope to see what the end-game is like and whether it's a game even worth spending any $ or time in. If 20-50 is just pure grind with little to no quests.. ugh, f that. Glad there's betas.
 
Thank you for the information sofar. Ive played Warhammer, it was dull to me. the PVP was not as great as people made it out to be, but was far better than alot of games out there. The PVE content was incredibly dull though.

I think the two games im leaning towards are AoC and EQ2. still leaning slightly more towards EQ2.

Does anyone with the station pass know if it includes Infantry (or is that game free now?) as I used to play that game back when it was owned by Harmless Games and it was a blast for a jump in have fun and log off not long after game.
 
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