Hmm...I guess it's time to make a blurb about MMOs in general. I tried to stay away from the political aspects of this genre, but really it is an almost impossible task. It's ok to try to be ignorant and continue to be blissful playing one's game once in a while, but the hard, cold reality is that one can not forever.
It seems that I am not alone, and the old school MMOers are feeling this empty satisfaction that we believe MMO games should give us. Is this a delusion? Of course not. We are paying customers, not just on the inital purchase, but continuing paying customers...the question is for how long? Most and perhaps all companies say customer service is their top priority. Well how about making a product that you are proud of being a top priority! We have seen the marketing and the administration department rule MMO companies long enough and look at what it has gotten us. Mostly utter junk.
Gone are the days of innovation, and the want of making a good game. Hello to the days of making the most or quickest profit for your investors/shareholders. We have seen how that has gotten us with Vanguard, and AoC. We have seen companies like SOE completely ignoring their player base and do any changes they feel are necessary, which created their image of a bastard company and created a huge exodus of their SWG game. Combined with making tons of updates/expansions to maximize their dollar (i.e. EQ2), I too have shunned them as a company.
I can't blame MMO companies on a whole. They see the massive profits and playerbase of WoW and want a piece of the action. What gaming company would not! I can almost hear the administration leading these companies shouting, "We need an MMO!" when they heard about WoW's numbers. It distictly reminds me of the .com days when Linux companies hit the stock exchange and made stunning turnovers in profits. I remember my CEO of the .com starter company I was working for coming to me at my desk and saying, "I want 200 Linux programmers." I can see these same luntic CEOs and heads of companies ranting the same expressions wanting a piece of the pie.
However, like the .com boom collapse of empty .com companies with no product or idea, but all market hype, buzz words, and the sole idea to sell their companies to a bigger company; the MMO companies are facing the same plight. The community of MMO players (for the most part) have woken up to what is going on. No longer do many believe in MMO games by pure hype alone. We want hard, cold evidence of the game being good. All the buzz words of "epic battles," "pvp," "end game," "player run economy" are done for. Show us! What that means is bring back Free Open Beta and lift the NDA at least a week before release. If the company believes their game is great and is ready for release, then what is the fear of lifting the NDA for CBTs to talk about the game? If the game is so great and ready for release, then what is the fear of letting people tryout the game themselves?
The short answer is that so many MMOs have failed because they were not ready, and in some cases not even close to being ready for release. Currently, there are tons of MMOs being made for the market, and the playerbase is surprisingly growing, rather than strinking to all the upsets of the past few years; however, these companies need to learn that MMOers are not putting up with the shit for much longer. I for one am almost done. I have been playing MMOs since UO's time, which is close to 10 years. Back in the good ol' days, sure things weren't perfect, but it worked because it was new, and the level of competition was not there. Furthermore, companies needed to make a good game otherwise people would stop playing it, which isn't the case now. Moreover, those people of the good ol' days were teenages. Now, 10 years later these "boys" are in college, out in the work force, or married with kids. They expect and require way more detailed thought in gameplay, and innovation than what is currently out there.
We saw Vanguard fail due to utter fail tactics of hardly any QA. How could the company believe they had a solid winner if no one tested the game! It utterly baffels the mind. It's like trying to make a world famous restaurant which will serve hundreds of thousands of people, but not once trying the food on the menu.
We saw AoC fail due the utter crap game design and again QA. The release of their product was so buggy it was unplayable for the majority of the player base. People with even moderate video cards were getting 5-7 FPS. Furthermore, their live patch fixes were wrong or buggy; as well as, some of their decisions on the "correct" fixes (which is the main reason why I left. If the devs add to the problems they believe is a fix, it means they are hopeless and have no clue what they are doing). So again, it comes down to QA!
WAR is failing because it tried to basically be an improved WoW. "They say" ("they" being that guy and the other guy) "that imitation is the best form of flattery," but wait a minute. Why would a logical person leave WoW to play another type of WoW game? Especially, one that is new and buggy, and not as streamlined as the game they are used to. I believe that one of the guy's who worked at Blizzard stated that 80% of the people that left for WAR has returned to WoW. Stop with the cloning already!
We want innovation, thought, and an all around good game that YOU the developers will play and love. And even though there are many great looking MMOs on the horizon, I personally will not preoder another MMO again (I did it for AoC, WAR, and DFO); unless they lift the NDA at least a week before release, and give the players a free Open Beta. Well at least there is one less sucker in the MMO mix...I hope others will follow suit.
I got inspired from this recent MMORPG.com post:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/232526/page/1
P.S.
Even though I no longer play Eve, everything that has been stated so far does not apply to the company CCP and Eve. They are by far the most amazing company I have seen to date for their playerbase. The length and depth they go through...well I wish other companies would take a page from their book. They give a good time for a trial, all their expansions are FREE, and they pump out expansions on a regular bases. They have created a player elected voice for the community. The company then flies these members to the company in Iceland to meet with the developers to discuss changes to the game. They have hired an actual economist to monitor their player run economy, and they did EveTV (CCP paid for all the bandwidth).
Monday, April 20, 2009
Update and Suggestion
Well, sorry for taking so long to update this blog. I had big ambitions to make this a daily thing, but in my heart I knew I would never be able to pull it off. However, I do love writing, and it is a nice place to keep some well keep memories.
Last I wrote we were doing the bank heist. We haven't done it in ages, and I think it's because people have caught on or...to be honest, I am not sure why we haven't. I guess we have better things to do these days, like going around and killing people. The only problem with the bank heist trick is that we first have to find a buyer/seller that has enough of something to make it worth while, then the person also has to agree to travel to that particular city. Sometimes, it can take like 30-45 minutes of traveling. So finding a buyer then the added traveling time, we sometimes wait doing nothing for over an hour. So basically, in that time frame we could have a wandering group of guys PKing people and taking their gear and items, which is more fun and perhaps equal on loot. Oh well, it was absolutely hilarious when we were doing it. We were all laughing our asses off on vent (a program where people can talk over the internet with mics).
One of the members of the guild made a few videos. His selection of music is questionable (recommended to watch with the sound off):
Anyways, since those videos were made, other things have been going on. I'll just write about one incident.
Hmm...let's see, so yeah, we are just basically a small little guild of about 30 people. We have like 8-12 people on at times, so we can't do too much, but what we lack in number we make up in skill and tactics. So for example, a group of us were riding around on our mounts looking to pk people. We then heard that two alliances were going to fight over a hamlet (a very small town in the game) in about 2 hours. So we got the location of the hamlet and headed there. It was in the middle of a forest and we noticed there were giant trees surrounding the hamlet. Most of the guild members had a spell called "launch" which effectively launches you up in the air. We launched ourselves up into the tree tops and waited for the chaos.
We waited for about 45 minutes and then the fun began. The defenders came first, which were about 50 or so and we told them we would help them out. Then the time for the siege started and the attackers arrived, which numbered about 80-100. We got out our bows and staffs (to use magic) and rained down our terror on them. A few of them also had the spell launch, but we were so high up (we did a few launches to get to our spots) that they couldn't reach us. Unfortunately, the defenders got destroyed amazingly fast and we were left all alone (about 8 of us) to defend off about 80 people. Eventually, they surrounded the tree and started attacking us on all sides with arrows and magic. Also, a few of them found their ways up on a tree branch next to our tree so they could attack us on an even level. We called the fight and jumped off and ran into the water. Unfortunately, since my graphics card basically sucks (Nvidia 8700) and my ping is already god awful, I was one of the two guys that died to a hail of their arrows and magic.
Hmm...there were some other interesting fights, but this blog is already too long. Anyways, so far I haven't had a chance to play for a week or so because of personal issues of trying to find a new job and moving, so it's doubtful I will have any news of Darkfall for a few weeks.
So far the game is ok. I think it has massive potential, as I always thought; however, there are some issues that I am unsure if the devs will address. The world is utterly stunning, and streamless. However...well I don't want to get into all the details of it's issues, but I guess one glaring one is the problem of zerging, and how the world is basically changing into 3 big alliances ruling the game world. It reminds me of some of the servers on Shadowbane where it was basically 2 alliances...so in that regard DFO fails.
Last I wrote we were doing the bank heist. We haven't done it in ages, and I think it's because people have caught on or...to be honest, I am not sure why we haven't. I guess we have better things to do these days, like going around and killing people. The only problem with the bank heist trick is that we first have to find a buyer/seller that has enough of something to make it worth while, then the person also has to agree to travel to that particular city. Sometimes, it can take like 30-45 minutes of traveling. So finding a buyer then the added traveling time, we sometimes wait doing nothing for over an hour. So basically, in that time frame we could have a wandering group of guys PKing people and taking their gear and items, which is more fun and perhaps equal on loot. Oh well, it was absolutely hilarious when we were doing it. We were all laughing our asses off on vent (a program where people can talk over the internet with mics).
One of the members of the guild made a few videos. His selection of music is questionable (recommended to watch with the sound off):
Anyways, since those videos were made, other things have been going on. I'll just write about one incident.
Hmm...let's see, so yeah, we are just basically a small little guild of about 30 people. We have like 8-12 people on at times, so we can't do too much, but what we lack in number we make up in skill and tactics. So for example, a group of us were riding around on our mounts looking to pk people. We then heard that two alliances were going to fight over a hamlet (a very small town in the game) in about 2 hours. So we got the location of the hamlet and headed there. It was in the middle of a forest and we noticed there were giant trees surrounding the hamlet. Most of the guild members had a spell called "launch" which effectively launches you up in the air. We launched ourselves up into the tree tops and waited for the chaos.
We waited for about 45 minutes and then the fun began. The defenders came first, which were about 50 or so and we told them we would help them out. Then the time for the siege started and the attackers arrived, which numbered about 80-100. We got out our bows and staffs (to use magic) and rained down our terror on them. A few of them also had the spell launch, but we were so high up (we did a few launches to get to our spots) that they couldn't reach us. Unfortunately, the defenders got destroyed amazingly fast and we were left all alone (about 8 of us) to defend off about 80 people. Eventually, they surrounded the tree and started attacking us on all sides with arrows and magic. Also, a few of them found their ways up on a tree branch next to our tree so they could attack us on an even level. We called the fight and jumped off and ran into the water. Unfortunately, since my graphics card basically sucks (Nvidia 8700) and my ping is already god awful, I was one of the two guys that died to a hail of their arrows and magic.
Hmm...there were some other interesting fights, but this blog is already too long. Anyways, so far I haven't had a chance to play for a week or so because of personal issues of trying to find a new job and moving, so it's doubtful I will have any news of Darkfall for a few weeks.
So far the game is ok. I think it has massive potential, as I always thought; however, there are some issues that I am unsure if the devs will address. The world is utterly stunning, and streamless. However...well I don't want to get into all the details of it's issues, but I guess one glaring one is the problem of zerging, and how the world is basically changing into 3 big alliances ruling the game world. It reminds me of some of the servers on Shadowbane where it was basically 2 alliances...so in that regard DFO fails.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Oh the Fun to Be Had
Well, things have been interesting as of late. For example, as usual the guild and I are on mounts looking to cause trouble and kill whoever we come across. Well for some reason, one guy in the game has a live video stream of him playing Darkfall.
I guess he is trying to be nice and to show the world Darkfall. It's an ok concept, and with the world of the Internet as it is, there are a lot weirder things out there. So ok, nice little project buddy; however, there is just one problem...when you play the game most people have the minimap on their screen. So, we had one guy in our guild watching his video stream and telling us where he was going and with who. It took about half an hour to pin point their location and we set up an ambush for them. They saw us and ran for a friendly race city. The guy with the camera just barely made it alive into this one player city that was guarded with guard towers, but I guess he accidently hit another fellow race and he turned rogue. Then one of his own race players decided to kill and loot him. Apparently he wasn't happy, and the guy that was watching his live stream was telling us how he went emo and wrote some rant on the forums about something or other. haha, gg, buddy. Now, I guess he has smartened up and has his minimap covered in the video or something. I am not sure, since I was never bored enough to actually visit his site.
And of course, as usual we roll through the guilds that have war decc-ed cause...well we like to pk and grief. It's the reason we waited so long to play this game!
Ok, so another major and hilarious grief that we have been doing is well...kind of secretative, but I am guessing it will get fixed soon. In town you are relatively safe, because if someone attacks you the guard towers will shoot you until you are not rogue anymore (10s). However, the range is limited outside of the city walls. Well there is this one city where the bank is at the top of some tree and it's just a platform. Hence, there are no walls around the city to protect it, because it's just a huge platform way up in the sky. The problem with this is that there is an ability in the game called "knockback" where you can knock people back. So what our guild has been doing is asking the public chat to buy or sell lots of expensive things, then when the guy comes and takes it out of the bank we have one guy knock them off the platform, have them fall and take falling damage (about half their life), and we have about 4-6 guys down below out of guard tower range and just kill them and take their loot.
We have gotten quite a bit from this, and when we were doing it, it was just one of the most hilarious things that we have done in a long time...god, I love this game.
Also, since last time a few more guilds have war decc-ed us. Perhaps friends with other guilds or just because we have griefed their members. We rolled through about 4-5 player towns today and just went in and caused serious havoc.
Our first fight we had a pretty decent size group of about 13 of us. We rolled into their town and started killing all their macros. Then they all came out to try to kill us. We backed up into a cave with an elevator that goes to the top of their town. We basically held the back and front of the cave killing many guys. More and more started to come, so we backed off and mounted and ran off. I am not sure how many we killed, but at the end we were quite outnumbered, but none of us died. A GM or two also appeared to watch the fight. The good thing is, I don't have the best PC or video card in the world (8600 GT), and I had zero lag. It was so great.
We also had a pretty decent fight when we were griefing below that one town, so far our guild seems to able to hold it's own vs some of the bigger and well known PvP guilds on the server. I just wish my ping rate wasn't always between 350-400 ms, while most people have their ping at like 50-120 ms...currently, I can not PvP 1v1 very well, just because I lag 3x more than the person I am fighting, which is a lot in a game like this...basically, like a FPS.
Anyways, that's all for now.
I guess he is trying to be nice and to show the world Darkfall. It's an ok concept, and with the world of the Internet as it is, there are a lot weirder things out there. So ok, nice little project buddy; however, there is just one problem...when you play the game most people have the minimap on their screen. So, we had one guy in our guild watching his video stream and telling us where he was going and with who. It took about half an hour to pin point their location and we set up an ambush for them. They saw us and ran for a friendly race city. The guy with the camera just barely made it alive into this one player city that was guarded with guard towers, but I guess he accidently hit another fellow race and he turned rogue. Then one of his own race players decided to kill and loot him. Apparently he wasn't happy, and the guy that was watching his live stream was telling us how he went emo and wrote some rant on the forums about something or other. haha, gg, buddy. Now, I guess he has smartened up and has his minimap covered in the video or something. I am not sure, since I was never bored enough to actually visit his site.
And of course, as usual we roll through the guilds that have war decc-ed cause...well we like to pk and grief. It's the reason we waited so long to play this game!
Ok, so another major and hilarious grief that we have been doing is well...kind of secretative, but I am guessing it will get fixed soon. In town you are relatively safe, because if someone attacks you the guard towers will shoot you until you are not rogue anymore (10s). However, the range is limited outside of the city walls. Well there is this one city where the bank is at the top of some tree and it's just a platform. Hence, there are no walls around the city to protect it, because it's just a huge platform way up in the sky. The problem with this is that there is an ability in the game called "knockback" where you can knock people back. So what our guild has been doing is asking the public chat to buy or sell lots of expensive things, then when the guy comes and takes it out of the bank we have one guy knock them off the platform, have them fall and take falling damage (about half their life), and we have about 4-6 guys down below out of guard tower range and just kill them and take their loot.
We have gotten quite a bit from this, and when we were doing it, it was just one of the most hilarious things that we have done in a long time...god, I love this game.
Also, since last time a few more guilds have war decc-ed us. Perhaps friends with other guilds or just because we have griefed their members. We rolled through about 4-5 player towns today and just went in and caused serious havoc.
Our first fight we had a pretty decent size group of about 13 of us. We rolled into their town and started killing all their macros. Then they all came out to try to kill us. We backed up into a cave with an elevator that goes to the top of their town. We basically held the back and front of the cave killing many guys. More and more started to come, so we backed off and mounted and ran off. I am not sure how many we killed, but at the end we were quite outnumbered, but none of us died. A GM or two also appeared to watch the fight. The good thing is, I don't have the best PC or video card in the world (8600 GT), and I had zero lag. It was so great.
We also had a pretty decent fight when we were griefing below that one town, so far our guild seems to able to hold it's own vs some of the bigger and well known PvP guilds on the server. I just wish my ping rate wasn't always between 350-400 ms, while most people have their ping at like 50-120 ms...currently, I can not PvP 1v1 very well, just because I lag 3x more than the person I am fighting, which is a lot in a game like this...basically, like a FPS.
Anyways, that's all for now.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Darkfall or Darkfail?....Darkfall!
Sorry, for the late update, but I have been busy playing!
So the last time I wrote, my experience was mixed. I saw tons of potential in this game, but only if they could fix the sync issues with the server. It took them about a day or two, but the devs (developers) finally fixed the problem and the server went up. Yay! So how has the game changed?
I am loving it right now. Like I wrote before, I have been waiting for this game for over 3 years. Why?
- PvP anywhere, anytime
- Full loot
- No levels
- No classes
- No instances
- Many, many more reasons
Such a world brings back the UO (Ultima Online) feelings and sensations. The game world is a scary place, and dying actually means something besides being sent back to where you bound last. If you have good gear or items/gold on you, you are very cautious in the world. It's full loot, so whatever you have at the time of death you will lose. Many times, my heart has been racing as I run for my puny life with the gear and gold I have worked hard to get as a guy is chasing me shooting arrows and magic; as well as, being on the otherside and chasing a guy because I think he/she is rich and so I want their stuff!
Last night, on my quest for riches a guild member and I went around to some of the hot spots for farming gear from monsters. Unfortunately, we have been killed a few times so far now, since there are only two of us, and we always leave town naked (we don't want to lose anything). This time it seemed like it would be no different. We do our usual run to this one area hoping that it was free for our pillaging, but there were about 3 people farming this area. They were just sitting there resting and we almost didn't see them, but I saw them at the last minute and told my other guildmate to hide behind a tree. It was too late, they saw us and did the same and hid behind a tree.
They looked geared, since they have probably been here a while, and we were naked so we decided to leave for a bit. After a few minutes walk, we decided we should try to check it out again. Perhaps, we might be able to kill a few of them if they are low on hp and stam (health and stamina) from killing monsters and then we would have the place to ourselves. Unfortunately, when we got back they had a fourth member to their party. I decided that I wanted a bit more action, so I ran into the area to get a better assessment of the situation. Lo and behold, I hear a bow being strung and whack, an arrow hits me. Then the rest of the guys start to chase us with swords, and axes ready to slice. We decide to fight them for a bit, but obviously out numbered and outgeared we retreat. They try to chase us for a bit, but then leave us alone.
We stumble to another area where we can kill things, but the loot here is pretty bismal. We quickly get bored/greedy and want the good loot that those other guys were getting. We decide to go back there yet again. They see us and are standing around; however, one of them thinks they are being sneaky and tries to flank us running from bush to tree to tree. We pretend like we don't notice and wait for him to get close and then my guildmate and I both attack him. He beat the guy down pretty bad, but his other 3 friends have already started towards us. We again have to retreat and run away. I later find out that they were trying to message me telling me that we could join them and kill the monsters there. After a bit of talking, my guildmate and I decide, "What the hey, let's join them. If we die, we die."
So we go back to the place fully expecting to be jumped and killed, but actually they keep their word and we farm the area for a while. They finally leave after about an hour and my guildmate and I farm the area for about another hour or so. By the end, we have ok gear, which will come in handy the next day.
The Next Day
The next day, a few of the guildmates decide to make a PvP party. So we gear up, take food and potions and take our mounts. There are about 8-9 of us ready for action. Our first point of attack is a guild that has declared war on us. They declared war on us, because a few of the members in the guild I am in have killed their members who have been macro-harvesting and then taking all the things that they have harvested. I guess they had enough and wanted revenge. Unfortunately for them, we don't have a town, and we are kind of a small guild, so it's hard to really hit us in a place that hurts. For them, they own a town, so we decided to roll through it and say, "hello."
So we get there, and dismount with our bows ready. We roll in catching a few of them off guard and quickly kill them. The alarm was sounded, and as we approached the center of their town they came out in full force with about 15 or so. We shot each other with magic and arrows for a bit, but we were outnumbered, so we started to fall back and got on our mounts and left. We accomplished our mission. To say, "hello" and to kill a few and take their loot :)
Next, we rolled through another race's area. We visited some of the hot spots for killing monsters and ran through there with our mounts and weapons drawn chopping at any of them that got in our way. We then got braver and raided an area closer to a starter town (with tower guards). We quickly killed everyone that was farming there and looted them as fast as we could. A message was posted in Public Chat to all come out and attack us, so about 15 or so came out of the starter town and started to chase us. We easily mounted up and rode off in a hail of magic and arrows that were aimed towards us. Nothing too threatening, but nothing really to loot from noob starter characters either. We decided to look for better places with better people-loot; however, by this time I had to log, but feeling good that the PvP game that I have yearned for so long has finally arrived.
So the last time I wrote, my experience was mixed. I saw tons of potential in this game, but only if they could fix the sync issues with the server. It took them about a day or two, but the devs (developers) finally fixed the problem and the server went up. Yay! So how has the game changed?
I am loving it right now. Like I wrote before, I have been waiting for this game for over 3 years. Why?
- PvP anywhere, anytime
- Full loot
- No levels
- No classes
- No instances
- Many, many more reasons
Such a world brings back the UO (Ultima Online) feelings and sensations. The game world is a scary place, and dying actually means something besides being sent back to where you bound last. If you have good gear or items/gold on you, you are very cautious in the world. It's full loot, so whatever you have at the time of death you will lose. Many times, my heart has been racing as I run for my puny life with the gear and gold I have worked hard to get as a guy is chasing me shooting arrows and magic; as well as, being on the otherside and chasing a guy because I think he/she is rich and so I want their stuff!
Last night, on my quest for riches a guild member and I went around to some of the hot spots for farming gear from monsters. Unfortunately, we have been killed a few times so far now, since there are only two of us, and we always leave town naked (we don't want to lose anything). This time it seemed like it would be no different. We do our usual run to this one area hoping that it was free for our pillaging, but there were about 3 people farming this area. They were just sitting there resting and we almost didn't see them, but I saw them at the last minute and told my other guildmate to hide behind a tree. It was too late, they saw us and did the same and hid behind a tree.
They looked geared, since they have probably been here a while, and we were naked so we decided to leave for a bit. After a few minutes walk, we decided we should try to check it out again. Perhaps, we might be able to kill a few of them if they are low on hp and stam (health and stamina) from killing monsters and then we would have the place to ourselves. Unfortunately, when we got back they had a fourth member to their party. I decided that I wanted a bit more action, so I ran into the area to get a better assessment of the situation. Lo and behold, I hear a bow being strung and whack, an arrow hits me. Then the rest of the guys start to chase us with swords, and axes ready to slice. We decide to fight them for a bit, but obviously out numbered and outgeared we retreat. They try to chase us for a bit, but then leave us alone.
We stumble to another area where we can kill things, but the loot here is pretty bismal. We quickly get bored/greedy and want the good loot that those other guys were getting. We decide to go back there yet again. They see us and are standing around; however, one of them thinks they are being sneaky and tries to flank us running from bush to tree to tree. We pretend like we don't notice and wait for him to get close and then my guildmate and I both attack him. He beat the guy down pretty bad, but his other 3 friends have already started towards us. We again have to retreat and run away. I later find out that they were trying to message me telling me that we could join them and kill the monsters there. After a bit of talking, my guildmate and I decide, "What the hey, let's join them. If we die, we die."
So we go back to the place fully expecting to be jumped and killed, but actually they keep their word and we farm the area for a while. They finally leave after about an hour and my guildmate and I farm the area for about another hour or so. By the end, we have ok gear, which will come in handy the next day.
The Next Day
The next day, a few of the guildmates decide to make a PvP party. So we gear up, take food and potions and take our mounts. There are about 8-9 of us ready for action. Our first point of attack is a guild that has declared war on us. They declared war on us, because a few of the members in the guild I am in have killed their members who have been macro-harvesting and then taking all the things that they have harvested. I guess they had enough and wanted revenge. Unfortunately for them, we don't have a town, and we are kind of a small guild, so it's hard to really hit us in a place that hurts. For them, they own a town, so we decided to roll through it and say, "hello."
So we get there, and dismount with our bows ready. We roll in catching a few of them off guard and quickly kill them. The alarm was sounded, and as we approached the center of their town they came out in full force with about 15 or so. We shot each other with magic and arrows for a bit, but we were outnumbered, so we started to fall back and got on our mounts and left. We accomplished our mission. To say, "hello" and to kill a few and take their loot :)
Next, we rolled through another race's area. We visited some of the hot spots for killing monsters and ran through there with our mounts and weapons drawn chopping at any of them that got in our way. We then got braver and raided an area closer to a starter town (with tower guards). We quickly killed everyone that was farming there and looted them as fast as we could. A message was posted in Public Chat to all come out and attack us, so about 15 or so came out of the starter town and started to chase us. We easily mounted up and rode off in a hail of magic and arrows that were aimed towards us. Nothing too threatening, but nothing really to loot from noob starter characters either. We decided to look for better places with better people-loot; however, by this time I had to log, but feeling good that the PvP game that I have yearned for so long has finally arrived.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
And So It Begins...My First Day in Darkfall
Well, finally after about a day or so the server finally came up.
My initial want was to be an Alfar, but the majority of this PvP (Player vs Player) guild I joined were going Mirdain, so I decided to roll Mirdain as well. It was my first time being in Darkfall, so as what most people said it was a bit confusing. It's a good thing that I watched videos of previous game play; as well as, read up on how to use the interface, so the learning curve wasn't that bad. Actually, I kind of like it in a Vi-sort of way. It will take some time getting used to it, but it's not a bad way to do things at all. So yeah the learning curve was there, but I think after a few hours I got the hang of the interface and combat.
When I first logged into the game I went and got the two quests for killing goblins. I checked the mini-map and it told me where the goblin camps were. I headed there with high hopes, but also expecting to see tons of people camping a few goblin spawns since everyone was at the same skill level as me. And sure enough it was very crowded. Noobs were going gray here and there chopping at the goblins and fellow Mirdains. Initially, I just went from tombstone to tombstone to see if I got lucky and could find some unlooted ones. I did, and I was "noob-" rich. However, the place was way too crowded for me, so I moved onto the next goblin camp further from town.
Here, it was pretty busy too, and a bit farther from town meant a few more people going rogue. I actually, saw a red there, but I doubt he meant to go red. This was all a new experience for most of us. The rogue system in place so far is good. Since friendly fire is on, if you damage another Mirdain you are flagged as a rogue for only 10s. So if you do not engage for 10s you will be blue again. This helps people who accidently hurt others, and not be completely outcasted from the start.
The second goblin camp was ok, but I wanted more loot and a better chance of killing goblins for the quest, so I moved onto the third goblin camp even further away from the town. Here, it was ok spawns and people. There was a huge tree there, which you could climb, and a GM was there watching the action. I guess I should mention that by the third goblin camp I really noticed that perhaps it wasn't the amount of people that was causing me to not be able to hit goblins, but there was a sync problem with the server. The devs have acknowledged this and currently the servers are down to hopefully solve this problem. So yes, there I was swinging my starter sword at thin air, when on my client screen the goblins were right in front of me. It was very frustrating to say the least. However, I saw that some people had staffs and were firing away magic missiles. I decided that I may as well level my magic skill while I wait for them to fix this bug.
I went on a looting mission, and held back till a goblin was almost dead. I would unsheathe and run up to the dead body as fast as I could and loot it. At the end, I ended up with about 21g ,and I went back to town to switch starter weapons which cost 20g. I am much happier now with my staff and casting noobie magic missiles. There is an AoE (Area of Effect) to the spell, so it is very easy to go rogue. However, I didn't really care about killing goblins, but more on leveling my skill by using it. I decided to be an ass for an hour or more, so I just shot whole groups who were pounding on a goblin or standing around a tomb to loot. I would go rogue, then run around for 10s and then go back to normal. I decided it might be too dangerous doing this right in the middle of everyone, so I climbed a big hill at the first goblin camp and practiced being an ass as well as my aim. It was pretty fun actually to stand on top of this hill and shoot huge crowds of people in an AoE fashion. I really missing the griefing that other games lack...this brings back memories.
A few people saw where the magic missiles were coming from and climbed up the mountain to see who was causing this ruckus; however, they never engaged me. I think it was intimidating, since I had full health and stam (stamina), and I only used my mana to be a douch. Also, I was completely naked with nothing but my starter weapon (which can't be looted or lost), so I wasn't worried at all. Also, I never hit again within the 10s timer, so the person would know I would be blue any second. A few people from down below got tired of me fucking around and shot some magic missiles back at me. This helped me practice dodging them, which is really, really easy from that distance. Actually, even with the AoE it was still hard to hit people unless they were right in my crosshairs.
So I played around with this other magic user for about 10 minutes. Of course, I had the advantage cause of the elevation. He hid behind some trees, and such, but if he had to engage a goblin, then he was free game for me to target him and cause a bit o' havoc :)
Anyways, I eventually got bored of this, and came down the mountain to my fellow Mirdains. I was missing a lot up on that huge hill, so here I would be able to hit more people more often. I held back, and AoE-d people who were in big groups beating up on one goblin. A few of course went gray from friendly fire, so I made sure that I punished them as long as I could. While I was doing that for about 20 mins, I guess a guy realized I was being a dick and decided to try his luck against me. He had ok gear on, some goblin drop chest and a better sword. His name was Baron A...something. He stood behind me, ready to hit me, and when I blasted a group of people and went rogue, he was sure to give me a few whacks. I ran around a bit, etc, but I had full stam and HP (Hit Points, i.e. life), plus I have a self heal spell so I was never in any danger. We cat and moused it a bit, and I made sure that when he decided he got bored and went to hunt goblins I would AoE him or his group as much as I could. He chased me a few times, but since I only had a 10s timer of being a rogue, sometimes he would hit me when it expired and he would then go gray (i.e. rogue). Then, I would start casting magic missiles at him and he would run away so far away that I couldn't see him anymore.
A few times, he tried to fight goblins and I made sure to shoot him...just to lessen his life so perhaps the goblins would kill him. I made him run away so much that he eventually left the area. lol.
Anyways, so far the game is interesting. The sync issues are really, really bad to the point that the game is unplayable for me. Hopefully, they will fix that. There are some other minor issues as well, but hopefully overtime things will work itself out.
Ok, until next time.
My initial want was to be an Alfar, but the majority of this PvP (Player vs Player) guild I joined were going Mirdain, so I decided to roll Mirdain as well. It was my first time being in Darkfall, so as what most people said it was a bit confusing. It's a good thing that I watched videos of previous game play; as well as, read up on how to use the interface, so the learning curve wasn't that bad. Actually, I kind of like it in a Vi-sort of way. It will take some time getting used to it, but it's not a bad way to do things at all. So yeah the learning curve was there, but I think after a few hours I got the hang of the interface and combat.
When I first logged into the game I went and got the two quests for killing goblins. I checked the mini-map and it told me where the goblin camps were. I headed there with high hopes, but also expecting to see tons of people camping a few goblin spawns since everyone was at the same skill level as me. And sure enough it was very crowded. Noobs were going gray here and there chopping at the goblins and fellow Mirdains. Initially, I just went from tombstone to tombstone to see if I got lucky and could find some unlooted ones. I did, and I was "noob-" rich. However, the place was way too crowded for me, so I moved onto the next goblin camp further from town.
Here, it was pretty busy too, and a bit farther from town meant a few more people going rogue. I actually, saw a red there, but I doubt he meant to go red. This was all a new experience for most of us. The rogue system in place so far is good. Since friendly fire is on, if you damage another Mirdain you are flagged as a rogue for only 10s. So if you do not engage for 10s you will be blue again. This helps people who accidently hurt others, and not be completely outcasted from the start.
The second goblin camp was ok, but I wanted more loot and a better chance of killing goblins for the quest, so I moved onto the third goblin camp even further away from the town. Here, it was ok spawns and people. There was a huge tree there, which you could climb, and a GM was there watching the action. I guess I should mention that by the third goblin camp I really noticed that perhaps it wasn't the amount of people that was causing me to not be able to hit goblins, but there was a sync problem with the server. The devs have acknowledged this and currently the servers are down to hopefully solve this problem. So yes, there I was swinging my starter sword at thin air, when on my client screen the goblins were right in front of me. It was very frustrating to say the least. However, I saw that some people had staffs and were firing away magic missiles. I decided that I may as well level my magic skill while I wait for them to fix this bug.
I went on a looting mission, and held back till a goblin was almost dead. I would unsheathe and run up to the dead body as fast as I could and loot it. At the end, I ended up with about 21g ,and I went back to town to switch starter weapons which cost 20g. I am much happier now with my staff and casting noobie magic missiles. There is an AoE (Area of Effect) to the spell, so it is very easy to go rogue. However, I didn't really care about killing goblins, but more on leveling my skill by using it. I decided to be an ass for an hour or more, so I just shot whole groups who were pounding on a goblin or standing around a tomb to loot. I would go rogue, then run around for 10s and then go back to normal. I decided it might be too dangerous doing this right in the middle of everyone, so I climbed a big hill at the first goblin camp and practiced being an ass as well as my aim. It was pretty fun actually to stand on top of this hill and shoot huge crowds of people in an AoE fashion. I really missing the griefing that other games lack...this brings back memories.
A few people saw where the magic missiles were coming from and climbed up the mountain to see who was causing this ruckus; however, they never engaged me. I think it was intimidating, since I had full health and stam (stamina), and I only used my mana to be a douch. Also, I was completely naked with nothing but my starter weapon (which can't be looted or lost), so I wasn't worried at all. Also, I never hit again within the 10s timer, so the person would know I would be blue any second. A few people from down below got tired of me fucking around and shot some magic missiles back at me. This helped me practice dodging them, which is really, really easy from that distance. Actually, even with the AoE it was still hard to hit people unless they were right in my crosshairs.
So I played around with this other magic user for about 10 minutes. Of course, I had the advantage cause of the elevation. He hid behind some trees, and such, but if he had to engage a goblin, then he was free game for me to target him and cause a bit o' havoc :)
Anyways, I eventually got bored of this, and came down the mountain to my fellow Mirdains. I was missing a lot up on that huge hill, so here I would be able to hit more people more often. I held back, and AoE-d people who were in big groups beating up on one goblin. A few of course went gray from friendly fire, so I made sure that I punished them as long as I could. While I was doing that for about 20 mins, I guess a guy realized I was being a dick and decided to try his luck against me. He had ok gear on, some goblin drop chest and a better sword. His name was Baron A...something. He stood behind me, ready to hit me, and when I blasted a group of people and went rogue, he was sure to give me a few whacks. I ran around a bit, etc, but I had full stam and HP (Hit Points, i.e. life), plus I have a self heal spell so I was never in any danger. We cat and moused it a bit, and I made sure that when he decided he got bored and went to hunt goblins I would AoE him or his group as much as I could. He chased me a few times, but since I only had a 10s timer of being a rogue, sometimes he would hit me when it expired and he would then go gray (i.e. rogue). Then, I would start casting magic missiles at him and he would run away so far away that I couldn't see him anymore.
A few times, he tried to fight goblins and I made sure to shoot him...just to lessen his life so perhaps the goblins would kill him. I made him run away so much that he eventually left the area. lol.
Anyways, so far the game is interesting. The sync issues are really, really bad to the point that the game is unplayable for me. Hopefully, they will fix that. There are some other minor issues as well, but hopefully overtime things will work itself out.
Ok, until next time.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Trials and Tribulations of a New Released MMO (DFO)
So here I am still waiting for Darkfall to be released. I was one of the lucky ones who hammered the web site long enough till I got a preorder of the game. At first, it was pretty bad. The web site was overloaded with connections timing out and giving internal server errors. Then, after about an hour or so into trying to get a preorder, I got the message "Temporarily Sold Out." I was like WTF! I was crushed and started to go emo; however, I just didn't believe this message.
So I went to the forums, and I heard people were getting the same error too, but also some people who said they got it too but kept trying and finally got a preorder copy of the game. So I tried for another hour or so and finally got through.
In the meantime, I have been playing this F2P (Free to Play) MMO called Atlantica Online (http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/center/default.asp). I have been playing it for a few months now. It's actually quite a good F2P MMO, and it reminds me of playing Final Fantasy (the single player version), but in an MMO format. I actually recommend this game to play, if you don't have much time or don't feel like paying for an MMO. It's worth it to play.
Anyways, back to DFO. Currently, I am doing their second over 120 meg patch...not sure what would entail about 250 megs of untested patching before putting the servers live. I guess we will have to see how that goes...
Hmm...well an update was posted as I was writing this blog. Apparently, a bug was found during the final testing of beta, and they said the ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) would be 2 hours...so I am thinking more like 5 hours. Oh well, better that they caught and fixed the bug now then post-release. I have waited for this game for over 3 years, so a few more hours isn't going to kill me...I don't think.
So I went to the forums, and I heard people were getting the same error too, but also some people who said they got it too but kept trying and finally got a preorder copy of the game. So I tried for another hour or so and finally got through.
In the meantime, I have been playing this F2P (Free to Play) MMO called Atlantica Online (http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/center/default.asp). I have been playing it for a few months now. It's actually quite a good F2P MMO, and it reminds me of playing Final Fantasy (the single player version), but in an MMO format. I actually recommend this game to play, if you don't have much time or don't feel like paying for an MMO. It's worth it to play.
Anyways, back to DFO. Currently, I am doing their second over 120 meg patch...not sure what would entail about 250 megs of untested patching before putting the servers live. I guess we will have to see how that goes...
Hmm...well an update was posted as I was writing this blog. Apparently, a bug was found during the final testing of beta, and they said the ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) would be 2 hours...so I am thinking more like 5 hours. Oh well, better that they caught and fixed the bug now then post-release. I have waited for this game for over 3 years, so a few more hours isn't going to kill me...I don't think.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
It's Been a While
Well the title says it all, "It's Been a While." Actually, it applies to so many things, but let me just touch on a few of them.
First, yes it has been a while since I contributed to this "blog" of sorts. It actually wasn't supposed to be a daily blog per se, but a review for my then WoW buddies. I have known some of them for over the 2+ years I played WoW...and now probably closer to 4 years, since I still keep in contact with some of them out of the game.
I wanted to give a review of WAR for the few of them that were interested. Well, of course my opinion of WAR has changed since my open beta review. Please remember, it was all new and I only had a few days of playing it. Also, since it was all new there were lots of people around and they were all my level (all starting out noobs). As the game play developed and I leveled, it started to feel like the classic elements of "the grind." Questing and trying to get renown points.
It was all kind of fruitless; as well as, the bugs in the game and the eventual pitiful showing of the later PQs wasn't fun for me to play. And then, I eventually just did what I did in WoW. I logged in, did some scenarios (BGs), tried to see if anyone was in any PQs my level (the answer was 'no'), and then logged off.
I did some keep battles, but they weren't very fun either. I think I got to level 28 or something on my magus with the same renown and that was about it. I stopped playing about a month or so after the game went live. Even though I played on the most populated Open RvR server, and got into a pretty big and decent guild, the pvp/rvr was very minimal and the keep fighting wasn't particularly fun. It was more all about the zerg more than anything. I think I had another month left on my subscription but I just let it fade away.
The only fun parts were rerolling and playing up to level 10 in the beginning scenarios, but that wasn't worth paying $15/month for.
But finally...the wait is over. Dark Fall Online is suppose to be released in just 2 days!! Let me tell you something, I have seriously waited for this game for over 3 years. Yes, I logged back into my forum account on their web site and I joined in sept of 2005. I have been waiting and watching this game at least every few weeks to see updates and whatever was released on it...and finally it seems it will be released.
So...I have decided that I will try to do a daily blog of my game play of Dark Fall Online. Let's see how that goes, but I am hoping for the best.
First, yes it has been a while since I contributed to this "blog" of sorts. It actually wasn't supposed to be a daily blog per se, but a review for my then WoW buddies. I have known some of them for over the 2+ years I played WoW...and now probably closer to 4 years, since I still keep in contact with some of them out of the game.
I wanted to give a review of WAR for the few of them that were interested. Well, of course my opinion of WAR has changed since my open beta review. Please remember, it was all new and I only had a few days of playing it. Also, since it was all new there were lots of people around and they were all my level (all starting out noobs). As the game play developed and I leveled, it started to feel like the classic elements of "the grind." Questing and trying to get renown points.
It was all kind of fruitless; as well as, the bugs in the game and the eventual pitiful showing of the later PQs wasn't fun for me to play. And then, I eventually just did what I did in WoW. I logged in, did some scenarios (BGs), tried to see if anyone was in any PQs my level (the answer was 'no'), and then logged off.
I did some keep battles, but they weren't very fun either. I think I got to level 28 or something on my magus with the same renown and that was about it. I stopped playing about a month or so after the game went live. Even though I played on the most populated Open RvR server, and got into a pretty big and decent guild, the pvp/rvr was very minimal and the keep fighting wasn't particularly fun. It was more all about the zerg more than anything. I think I had another month left on my subscription but I just let it fade away.
The only fun parts were rerolling and playing up to level 10 in the beginning scenarios, but that wasn't worth paying $15/month for.
But finally...the wait is over. Dark Fall Online is suppose to be released in just 2 days!! Let me tell you something, I have seriously waited for this game for over 3 years. Yes, I logged back into my forum account on their web site and I joined in sept of 2005. I have been waiting and watching this game at least every few weeks to see updates and whatever was released on it...and finally it seems it will be released.
So...I have decided that I will try to do a daily blog of my game play of Dark Fall Online. Let's see how that goes, but I am hoping for the best.
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