Wow... didn't realise so many were still playing CoX.
I've considered going back into it to see how things are and I remember enjoying the controller class and customisation a lot. I have to say though... City of Villians didn't really 'catch' me. I much prefer the archetypes and environments hero-side and when I was making up the history for my characters I realised I wasn't very good at making a character that would represent me into a villian... most of them were 'good at heart' sort of people who either had a strange sense of right and wrong (My kittygirl and her mechanical army), just ended up on the wrong side of law by accident (My fairy with her flak jacket and ripped jeans) or got into trouble for being different (My dryad char who I scrapped because I didn't like the way she looked in the end). I guess if I do reinstall and shove some coins in the subscription slot I'll no doubt be making heroines again instead of villanesses :p
I wouldn't touch Vanguard for now and even in the future I'm dubious as it's built to appeal to the old EQ fanatic (MMOs are about hard work, not fun!) crowd. That said if I get the chance I'll maybe give it a shot.
I've still got a free WoW account for the rest of the year so I'll no doubt look into it now and again but I'm pretty bored with it.
Hopefully once I get moved into my new flat properly I'll be online again properly (right now I just check the forums during lunch at work :p ) and maybe play stuff, though I can see myself playing more console games at the moment.
<!--quoteo(post=1619285:date=Apr 6 2007, 01:22 PM:name=Geminosity)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Geminosity @ Apr 6 2007, 01:22 PM) [snapback]1619285[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> I've still got a free WoW account for the rest of the year so I'll no doubt look into it now and again but I'm pretty bored with it. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> A free WoW account? And you're bored with it? Get someone to pay you to play on it, reap the benefits!
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
hehehehehehehe
I remember how many times Gem would reroll b/c she didn't like the way her toon looked/played (I will side with her on this tbh, if you character doesn't feel right, I really suggest rerollign quickly. You eventualy can get Respecs, but they are kinda hard, and retailoring can get very expensive for new players. Also, if you picked the wrong powers at start, you are SoL)
However I have good news for you Gem, any existing characters you have probably have a good number of free tailoring sessions by now <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> (don't quote me, I know the EU servers are run seperatly, but my mains have something like 17 free tailorings and 2 or 3 respecs, I also have payed for enough months that I have the first 2 veteran rewards, so all my toons start with 2 free tailorings)
I feel like putting in a few more notes about CoX.
1) If you don't like the archetypes on one side, you likely will not be playing it that much. It is also more likely that you will nto be all that interested in the Villian ATs as most of the types of characters were covered a bit better on the Hero side (I think). The one big exeption to this is of course Master Minds, there is no real pet type for heroes (Controllers get some non controllable pets if I remember correctly).
2) There are alot of complaints that you don't feel very evil as a Villian (Hell, you often spend more time just fighting other badguys then heroes).
Ahh Vanguard just remind me why I quited Everquest (Screw you Shadow of Luclin!) in the first place. Buggy buggy buggy game that makes my PC cried. I have to turn all the graphics to the lowest setting, and that didn't help much. It's not like my PC has a terrible spec (x800, 1gig ram, etc...). The environment was just... bland, but then I only went so far in the newbie area.
WOW and COH did it right when they go for artistic style over polygon counts. This is MMO, dev, not a FPS.
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
Hell, I argue that it doesn't matter in an FPS either.
If the game looks good. IT LOOKS GOOD!
When I was testign out Vanguard I really couldn't do much, I started off with the specs at medium, and it looked ok, and ran like poo. So I lowered it to the lowest specs. It looked ok, and ran slightly less then poo. I turned it ALL the way up, and it looked ok, and didn't really run. I had fun pointing this out to the rabbid fanboys in Vanguard <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> (baiting fanboys is always fun)
I have seen it in a few other games, sure the poly counts must be huge, but if your modelers/skiners suck, it isn't gona save you. Also, if your art director has no sense of taste.....
hasn't anyone tried lord of the rings online? Starting today, I think it's free for everyone til the end of the month... provided they're not out of free keys already, I dunno. I'm trying it tonight, and if it sucks, I'll give guild wars or CoX a whirl =p
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
well, I am down to 1 CoX key, so yalls might have to hit up some one else (unless the people I give keys to buy the game).
I have payed LotR:OL
It is good, but it doesnt' seem to have somethign to make it special enough for me to really want to play. I admit I havn't played in about a month (to many other things to do), so I don't know how it is now. My other problem is that it was rather unpollished, there was somethign that just kept me from getting sucked in.
I think part of it is that I really don't like the classes that much, the only one that held my attention was Minstral .
So I just purchased CoX to give that a try and I'm getting back in to levelling my mid-40s priest on WoW. I would grind straight to 60 for the BC content but grinding is boring.
<!--quoteo(post=1619301:date=Apr 6 2007, 10:26 PM:name=Thansal)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Thansal @ Apr 6 2007, 10:26 PM) [snapback]1619301[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> well, I am down to 1 CoX key, so yalls might have to hit up some one else (unless the people I give keys to buy the game).
I have payed LotR:OL
It is good, but it doesnt' seem to have somethign to make it special enough for me to really want to play. I admit I havn't played in about a month (to many other things to do), so I don't know how it is now. My other problem is that it was rather unpollished, there was somethign that just kept me from getting sucked in.
I think part of it is that I really don't like the classes that much, the only one that held my attention was Minstral .
Oh, and crafting was rather a letdown. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The COH Updater does not seem to work (500 bytes/s) My ISP blocks the 6600 port range and routes traffic through a transparent proxy. Any ideas?
It's a cool PVP game with nice graphics and no monthly fee. It's a grind game, but not as hard as Lineage2. You can start ganking people at lvl 15 and it's so much fun. Lots of guilds and guild battles every day. You are free kill everywhere except inside town safe zones. So watch your back while you are grinding.
It's not a carebear game. Gank or be ganked. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
If you dont like WoW you should check it out. I'll hook you up. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
I am outta CoX Keys untill people convert their accounts I gave them (or 2 months).
so if you need a Key, try hitting up some one that posted they play <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1619594:date=Apr 8 2007, 04:51 PM:name=Hellbilly)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hellbilly @ Apr 8 2007, 04:51 PM) [snapback]1619594[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Archlord <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I tried the beta, I simply hated how generic it was.
Also: doesn't it have "points" that actually cost $$ and get the good stuff? So people spending cash on it get (ingame) expensive stuff easier?
edit: <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/archlord/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;review" target="_blank">gamespot gave it 2.7 :/</a>
HellbillyA whole title out of pity...Join Date: 2002-11-02Member: 3931Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
Yeah many reviewers gave it bad score because they were lazy and didnt bother to level past 20 which takes a couple of hours and is not representing how good the game is at higher level. The siege warfare and Archlord system will soon be added and it will change the game alot.
This game isnt for everyone, especially WoW carebears, but if you like PVP, it's great.
<!--quoteo(post=1619692:date=Apr 9 2007, 03:50 AM:name=Hellbilly)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hellbilly @ Apr 9 2007, 03:50 AM) [snapback]1619692[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Yeah many reviewers gave it bad score because they were lazy and didnt bother to level past 20 which takes a couple of hours and is not representing how good the game is at higher level. The siege warfare and Archlord system will soon be added and it will change the game alot.
This game isnt for everyone, especially WoW carebears, but if you like PVP, it's great. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> What if I detest grinding?
For CoV/H: Incoming phat lewt in Issue 9 w/ hamidon for villians.
To be perfectly honest I'm probally going to reactivate my account soon, It's one of those few games I never truly get over my additicion for, I just take breaks fron it inbetween.
As for archlord, well... Archlord is in fact a grind MMO. It's good considering you no longer must pay for it, and for a grind MMO it is exceptonal, but... it is still a grind MMO.
And LOTRO? I liked it. There are game elements that stink of WoW, but the game world is huge, has tons of room for expansion, and the lore aspect promotes wide-scale exploring of the maps and doing low level quests. There are more quests then you need to level up at any given point. Unlike WoW, your chances of ever actually running out of quests are slim to none. There are that many. Leveling rate is balanced quite good. During the period I played, the leveling was slow enough to give me a sense of accomplishment, but fast enough so I didn't feel like I was grinding.
Now the bad news. The character deveopment is nerfed, hardcore. Stats have hardly any effect on your character, and traits need way too much use of the skill to become avaliable and (usually) don't give enough of an effect to be worth it. The issue is there really aren't enough traits to make characters unique. Paticularlly at low levels, everyone who is the same class is pretty much going to play and act identically. Many people will say "this game plays exactly like WoW!" and they are essentally correct. The only diffrence is there are less group instances (and less of a focus of instance loot) and more instances which are generated as quest scenarios (which may or may not need groups). As you level up, the reqs for a group climb sharply. During the beta this was no issue since there were plenty of lower level people around, but after beta, who knows. Finally, content above level 40 was not thoughly tested, and will remain that way for a while.
that was a pretty good LOTRO analysis :> I'm still enjoying it so far. It may be more buggy than WoW, and less polished since it's new, but I feel like they took a lot of the best parts of WoW and improved on the bad parts. I can see why they made the traits the way they did - it seems to be designed so that the skills you use most will unlock traits that buff those areas... so that if you find yourself healing a lot, you'll unlock heal traits faster, etc. but I do see what you mean that, for the most part, chars will be pretty similar, because a lore-master will be doing mostly the same things as another lore-master... but I'm hoping in the long run, chars will be different. sure, one trait doesn't make much of a difference, just like one talent in WoW, but once you fill up your whole grid with traits like a whole talent tree, I hope your char will be pretty different than someone who's using different traits...
oh, I forgot to mention Monster Play. People who say this game has no PvP ought to check it out, it looks like it has the potential to be the most unique pvp evar =p sadly you can't kill other players with your monster yet, since monsters are all level 50 by default and players can't level past 15 yet... but how cool will it be to be adventuring and have one of the spiders you're facing be an actual player? or being part of a pack of wolves that take down hapless hobbits?
HellbillyA whole title out of pity...Join Date: 2002-11-02Member: 3931Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
edited April 2007
Yeah Redford is spot on, Archlord is a grind MMO (as so many other asian mmo's) but a good one at that.
It just sucks you into wanting that next level armor set or weapon or new skill or whatever to be just a bit stronger then the opponent in PVP.
Leveling in Archlord is not like Guildwars where you can reach max level in a day. It can take months to get to lvl 60's and 70's and trying for max level within a year or two is impossible. But, the lower levels happen fairly quick, you can get lvl 20 easy within a day and only a few hours if you have some starting funds from a friend. Level 40 is do-able in a couple of weeks and if you are hardcore, level 60 within a month. But after like lvl 65-66, things slow down alot.
It all depends on how much time and gold you have how quick you can level and it also helps to have friends who can level share you while you sleep <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
Comments
Actually, I'm pretty impressed with quite a few things in the expansion, namely expanded Quests and Lore.
I've considered going back into it to see how things are and I remember enjoying the controller class and customisation a lot.
I have to say though... City of Villians didn't really 'catch' me. I much prefer the archetypes and environments hero-side and when I was making up the history for my characters I realised I wasn't very good at making a character that would represent me into a villian... most of them were 'good at heart' sort of people who either had a strange sense of right and wrong (My kittygirl and her mechanical army), just ended up on the wrong side of law by accident (My fairy with her flak jacket and ripped jeans) or got into trouble for being different (My dryad char who I scrapped because I didn't like the way she looked in the end).
I guess if I do reinstall and shove some coins in the subscription slot I'll no doubt be making heroines again instead of villanesses :p
I wouldn't touch Vanguard for now and even in the future I'm dubious as it's built to appeal to the old EQ fanatic (MMOs are about hard work, not fun!) crowd. That said if I get the chance I'll maybe give it a shot.
I've still got a free WoW account for the rest of the year so I'll no doubt look into it now and again but I'm pretty bored with it.
Hopefully once I get moved into my new flat properly I'll be online again properly (right now I just check the forums during lunch at work :p ) and maybe play stuff, though I can see myself playing more console games at the moment.
Warhammer I'm definitely waiting for though :D
I've still got a free WoW account for the rest of the year so I'll no doubt look into it now and again but I'm pretty bored with it.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
A free WoW account? And you're bored with it? Get someone to pay you to play on it, reap the benefits!
I remember how many times Gem would reroll b/c she didn't like the way her toon looked/played (I will side with her on this tbh, if you character doesn't feel right, I really suggest rerollign quickly. You eventualy can get Respecs, but they are kinda hard, and retailoring can get very expensive for new players. Also, if you picked the wrong powers at start, you are SoL)
However I have good news for you Gem, any existing characters you have probably have a good number of free tailoring sessions by now <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> (don't quote me, I know the EU servers are run seperatly, but my mains have something like 17 free tailorings and 2 or 3 respecs, I also have payed for enough months that I have the first 2 veteran rewards, so all my toons start with 2 free tailorings)
I feel like putting in a few more notes about CoX.
1) If you don't like the archetypes on one side, you likely will not be playing it that much. It is also more likely that you will nto be all that interested in the Villian ATs as most of the types of characters were covered a bit better on the Hero side (I think). The one big exeption to this is of course Master Minds, there is no real pet type for heroes (Controllers get some non controllable pets if I remember correctly).
2) There are alot of complaints that you don't feel very evil as a Villian (Hell, you often spend more time just fighting other badguys then heroes).
WOW and COH did it right when they go for artistic style over polygon counts. This is MMO, dev, not a FPS.
If the game looks good. IT LOOKS GOOD!
When I was testign out Vanguard I really couldn't do much, I started off with the specs at medium, and it looked ok, and ran like poo. So I lowered it to the lowest specs. It looked ok, and ran slightly less then poo. I turned it ALL the way up, and it looked ok, and didn't really run. I had fun pointing this out to the rabbid fanboys in Vanguard <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> (baiting fanboys is always fun)
I have seen it in a few other games, sure the poly counts must be huge, but if your modelers/skiners suck, it isn't gona save you. Also, if your art director has no sense of taste.....
Admitedly, so long as it runs and looks good, who cares?
I have payed LotR:OL
It is good, but it doesnt' seem to have somethign to make it special enough for me to really want to play. I admit I havn't played in about a month (to many other things to do), so I don't know how it is now. My other problem is that it was rather unpollished, there was somethign that just kept me from getting sucked in.
I think part of it is that I really don't like the classes that much, the only one that held my attention was Minstral .
Oh, and crafting was rather a letdown.
For that, I am a sinner.
well, I am down to 1 CoX key, so yalls might have to hit up some one else (unless the people I give keys to buy the game).
I have payed LotR:OL
It is good, but it doesnt' seem to have somethign to make it special enough for me to really want to play. I admit I havn't played in about a month (to many other things to do), so I don't know how it is now. My other problem is that it was rather unpollished, there was somethign that just kept me from getting sucked in.
I think part of it is that I really don't like the classes that much, the only one that held my attention was Minstral .
Oh, and crafting was rather a letdown.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The COH Updater does not seem to work (500 bytes/s) My ISP blocks the 6600 port range and routes traffic through a transparent proxy. Any ideas?
It's a cool PVP game with nice graphics and no monthly fee. It's a grind game, but not as hard as Lineage2. You can start ganking people at lvl 15 and it's so much fun. Lots of guilds and guild battles every day. You are free kill everywhere except inside town safe zones. So watch your back while you are grinding.
It's not a carebear game. Gank or be ganked. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
If you dont like WoW you should check it out. I'll hook you up. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
My 61 Berzerker...
<img src="http://www.hellbilly.net/archlord/zerker.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
Guildwar in action....
<img src="http://www.hellbilly.net/archlord/guildwar.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
Fighting over a grind spot....
<img src="http://www.hellbilly.net/archlord/grindspot.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
...and if you are tired of your main character, why not start a Moonelf Ranger deathsquad.
<img src="http://www.hellbilly.net/archlord/rangers.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
so if you need a Key, try hitting up some one that posted they play <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
Archlord
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I tried the beta, I simply hated how generic it was.
Also: doesn't it have "points" that actually cost $$ and get the good stuff? So people spending cash on it get (ingame) expensive stuff easier?
edit: <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/archlord/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;review" target="_blank">gamespot gave it 2.7 :/</a>
This game isnt for everyone, especially WoW carebears, but if you like PVP, it's great.
Yeah many reviewers gave it bad score because they were lazy and didnt bother to level past 20 which takes a couple of hours and is not representing how good the game is at higher level. The siege warfare and Archlord system will soon be added and it will change the game alot.
This game isnt for everyone, especially WoW carebears, but if you like PVP, it's great.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What if I detest grinding?
What if I detest grinding?
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Then you are in the wrong game genre. Grinding is part of the MMO thing, you can't really get around it.
In CoH, I was just interested in clearing the story arc.
To be perfectly honest I'm probally going to reactivate my account soon, It's one of those few games I never truly get over my additicion for, I just take breaks fron it inbetween.
As for archlord, well... Archlord is in fact a grind MMO. It's good considering you no longer must pay for it, and for a grind MMO it is exceptonal, but... it is still a grind MMO.
And LOTRO? I liked it. There are game elements that stink of WoW, but the game world is huge, has tons of room for expansion, and the lore aspect promotes wide-scale exploring of the maps and doing low level quests. There are more quests then you need to level up at any given point. Unlike WoW, your chances of ever actually running out of quests are slim to none. There are that many. Leveling rate is balanced quite good. During the period I played, the leveling was slow enough to give me a sense of accomplishment, but fast enough so I didn't feel like I was grinding.
Now the bad news. The character deveopment is nerfed, hardcore. Stats have hardly any effect on your character, and traits need way too much use of the skill to become avaliable and (usually) don't give enough of an effect to be worth it. The issue is there really aren't enough traits to make characters unique. Paticularlly at low levels, everyone who is the same class is pretty much going to play and act identically. Many people will say "this game plays exactly like WoW!" and they are essentally correct. The only diffrence is there are less group instances (and less of a focus of instance loot) and more instances which are generated as quest scenarios (which may or may not need groups). As you level up, the reqs for a group climb sharply. During the beta this was no issue since there were plenty of lower level people around, but after beta, who knows. Finally, content above level 40 was not thoughly tested, and will remain that way for a while.
oh, I forgot to mention Monster Play. People who say this game has no PvP ought to check it out, it looks like it has the potential to be the most unique pvp evar =p sadly you can't kill other players with your monster yet, since monsters are all level 50 by default and players can't level past 15 yet... but how cool will it be to be adventuring and have one of the spiders you're facing be an actual player? or being part of a pack of wolves that take down hapless hobbits?
It just sucks you into wanting that next level armor set or weapon or new skill or whatever to be just a bit stronger then the opponent in PVP.
Leveling in Archlord is not like Guildwars where you can reach max level in a day. It can take months to get to lvl 60's and 70's and trying for max level within a year or two is impossible. But, the lower levels happen fairly quick, you can get lvl 20 easy within a day and only a few hours if you have some starting funds from a friend. Level 40 is do-able in a couple of weeks and if you are hardcore, level 60 within a month. But after like lvl 65-66, things slow down alot.
It all depends on how much time and gold you have how quick you can level and it also helps to have friends who can level share you while you sleep <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />