Grei
10-24-2004, 10:21 PM
Now this review is written well away from any network and even access to the game, so if I muck up some of the terms and names, I apologize in advance.
So anyway, I survived a week now. And I'm sure people have read my ongoing reports of the fun I've had in Beta. So instead of touching on many details, I'll try to cover impressions, lacks, and so on.
When I started out, I had some idea of what to expect though I had been avoiding reading too many of the various blogs and other beta reports that are out there since I wanted to make sure that I followed the newbie quests as a true newbie. Overall, I give the quests on the boat at the start a big thumbs up--other than it should've been a point where crafting was introduced. Now, before people say 'Huh?', I put some thought into this and after the Drakota attack, it could be that the Captain needs something fashioned up to make a repair using the tools (which would have to be added) and supplies on the ship. It wouldn't have to be anything fancy...could just be the tin spike thing.
Now onto the Isle. I've been through the Isle twice now with the first time through being difficult and slow while the second time, after the last major patch, things went fast--in fact I outpaced the class quests in terms of level and challenge. And I wouldn't say that it being the second time through made much difference--I'm playing a different archetype for the second character and the only real difference is less time spent trying to find where I need to be. The only other real issue is that not all of the quests there are clear cut and easy to do--I still haven't gotten anywhere on the gnomish parts, even after killing everything in the areas the Journal hints at, not even a 'no quest item found' message. The crafting quest is a good start, but it doesn't go quite far enough--it should have another step that introduces the events and counters before sending you on your way.
Ok, now into town. I concentrated on being good, so I've only been to Qeynos so far, so this will be biased in favor of the goodies. The racial villages that you start out in are ok, but I had this impression that they would be a bit more extensive--with our choice of where to live in the village (you can live in any village, and at least at this point in Beta, the rooms in the other villages are Free to move in and 5 silver a week in rent, same as your home village) instead of just one Inn. In fact there's only just one inn, one bank, one crafting zone, one repairer/mender, one scribe, one alchemist, etc. in each village. The citizenship quest wasn't that difficult, as I mentioned before, and when I got into Qeynos itself, I was disappointed to find that there isn't any tradeskill zones in the core city zones, which is what I had expected when I found only one of every thing in the home villages. There were lots of housing in some of the core city zones (still haven't found any in Elddar Grove though) but without tradeskill places in those zones, it pretty much will be pointless for an Artisan to upgrade unless they have their own tools at home and even then it'll involve more running and zoning to get supplies since you can't shop at home.
To touch on the introduction quests, overall they were good in introducing concepts and even helping you learn your way around. There were a few issues though, such as lack of clarity as is demonstrated hourly in Antonica by people asking where the Bell Tower is (which is visible from Griffon-back, but newcomers aren't likely to use them). Also the 'meet and greet' Qeynos quest (the quest you're given once you're a citizen where you're told to go around to see the sights and meet people) should be expanded to include a few other NPCs, like one of the brokers and the guild registration NPC (and whatever NPC deals with setting your surname, which I still haven't found out how to do and haven't seen anyone who has theirs set). The rewards for some of the quests are a bit low (11 copper) while others are a bit overmuch (equipment that is still useable at level 13 with a few levels to go before it starts going blue or green) for the difficulty. Of course the equipment rewards might be based on your level at the time you complete the quest, so my impression might not be fully accurate in that case.
As an oldtime EQ player, the biggest change that I haven't quite come to grips with is the bells. You can find the bells on the docks of each home village, as well as the city harbor, plus in a few neighboring zones as well. With the bells, you can go to any other zone that has a bell, which saves alot of running--if you remember they exsist. :) I don't always remember though, and have been known to run through 4 or 5 zones, just to go someplace that is only 1 or 2 zones away if you use the bells. Bells are a good thing though, since they do save time--for instance, to go from Willow Wood to Antonica, if you run, you have to go through Elddar Grove to North Qeynos and then out to Antonica or you can just go down to the docks, ring the bell, and it'll dump you at the foot of the lighthouse in Antonica. I should also mention the griffons here. They're fun to ride, though a bit disorienting when it's laggy, but you can rapidly get from near Qeynos to near Thundering Steppes (the next higher level zone after Antonica) with one of these, or over to the Tower of the Oracle. It cuts down on alot of running around.
To touch on combat and such, I've been mainly soloing. Not because I dislike people, but I really am out to just work on tradeskilling--though unfortunately unless you have a source of resources or money (if you aren't picky on quality), you need to adventure as well. I'd rather adventure with people who are just as prone to going 'Ooooh, let's go harvest that root before we fight' as I am instead of the 'It moves, let's kill it'. Now for the most part, I have found enough creatures flagged 'solo' in order to keep progressing and up until the last big patch, I could solo yellows with difficulty, now it's whites that are giving me headaches. But the solo content seems to be kind of segregated--the low level stuff right around the zone in, but then you have to get through a bunch of group content (often aggro) just to get to higher level solo stuff. There's still quests I haven't finished and zones that I haven't seen all of because of this.
One of the other things that has been bothering me is the lack of quests or even tasks for Artisans. This is supposedly on the way, and there's even an NPC that hints at the task list in the Willow Wood tradeskill zone. Also not all of the chemistry based recipes are in--only enough to support the other Artisan classes but that too is supposedly on the way. Of course I've ranted about how fickle the tradeskill system is, with dropping you down a level in quality without any way of stopping it, but that is also about to change with the new system. :)
And one of the things that has been talked about is the city reputation. I have yet to find anything that'll start me on the path of aligning with one of the factions or even building towards my reputation. I know it's got to be somewhere, since I've seen a guild with their own guildhall (pretty impressive looking structure) and people running around with some interesting mounts. Unfortunately, it's either very hard to find or I've been looking in the wrong spot or it's something for guilds and not individuals. As such, it's prevented me from looking into seeing how effectively a diehard Artisan can earn reputation points for themselves and/or contribute to their guild.
Well, this has gone on longer than I expected. :) Guess that's what happens when you've got no net access, but your laptop with you, and plenty of free time. ;) And I'm sure that people are going to pipe up with things that I overlooked or misunderstood which'll change alot of this as well. :) Plus of course the impending patch that's going to redo tradeskills and the like, as well as add in new things that'll change the game as I've experienced it so far.
To sum up though, unless the upcoming patch is smoother than the last one (the last one resulted in several days of bouncing servers and being unable to log in) and the changes are bug free and easy to use, I would say that there's at least another month left before the game is ready to go live. Unfortunately, it sounds like they're only 2 weeks away...which is just plain silly as SWG demonstrated.
Grei
So anyway, I survived a week now. And I'm sure people have read my ongoing reports of the fun I've had in Beta. So instead of touching on many details, I'll try to cover impressions, lacks, and so on.
When I started out, I had some idea of what to expect though I had been avoiding reading too many of the various blogs and other beta reports that are out there since I wanted to make sure that I followed the newbie quests as a true newbie. Overall, I give the quests on the boat at the start a big thumbs up--other than it should've been a point where crafting was introduced. Now, before people say 'Huh?', I put some thought into this and after the Drakota attack, it could be that the Captain needs something fashioned up to make a repair using the tools (which would have to be added) and supplies on the ship. It wouldn't have to be anything fancy...could just be the tin spike thing.
Now onto the Isle. I've been through the Isle twice now with the first time through being difficult and slow while the second time, after the last major patch, things went fast--in fact I outpaced the class quests in terms of level and challenge. And I wouldn't say that it being the second time through made much difference--I'm playing a different archetype for the second character and the only real difference is less time spent trying to find where I need to be. The only other real issue is that not all of the quests there are clear cut and easy to do--I still haven't gotten anywhere on the gnomish parts, even after killing everything in the areas the Journal hints at, not even a 'no quest item found' message. The crafting quest is a good start, but it doesn't go quite far enough--it should have another step that introduces the events and counters before sending you on your way.
Ok, now into town. I concentrated on being good, so I've only been to Qeynos so far, so this will be biased in favor of the goodies. The racial villages that you start out in are ok, but I had this impression that they would be a bit more extensive--with our choice of where to live in the village (you can live in any village, and at least at this point in Beta, the rooms in the other villages are Free to move in and 5 silver a week in rent, same as your home village) instead of just one Inn. In fact there's only just one inn, one bank, one crafting zone, one repairer/mender, one scribe, one alchemist, etc. in each village. The citizenship quest wasn't that difficult, as I mentioned before, and when I got into Qeynos itself, I was disappointed to find that there isn't any tradeskill zones in the core city zones, which is what I had expected when I found only one of every thing in the home villages. There were lots of housing in some of the core city zones (still haven't found any in Elddar Grove though) but without tradeskill places in those zones, it pretty much will be pointless for an Artisan to upgrade unless they have their own tools at home and even then it'll involve more running and zoning to get supplies since you can't shop at home.
To touch on the introduction quests, overall they were good in introducing concepts and even helping you learn your way around. There were a few issues though, such as lack of clarity as is demonstrated hourly in Antonica by people asking where the Bell Tower is (which is visible from Griffon-back, but newcomers aren't likely to use them). Also the 'meet and greet' Qeynos quest (the quest you're given once you're a citizen where you're told to go around to see the sights and meet people) should be expanded to include a few other NPCs, like one of the brokers and the guild registration NPC (and whatever NPC deals with setting your surname, which I still haven't found out how to do and haven't seen anyone who has theirs set). The rewards for some of the quests are a bit low (11 copper) while others are a bit overmuch (equipment that is still useable at level 13 with a few levels to go before it starts going blue or green) for the difficulty. Of course the equipment rewards might be based on your level at the time you complete the quest, so my impression might not be fully accurate in that case.
As an oldtime EQ player, the biggest change that I haven't quite come to grips with is the bells. You can find the bells on the docks of each home village, as well as the city harbor, plus in a few neighboring zones as well. With the bells, you can go to any other zone that has a bell, which saves alot of running--if you remember they exsist. :) I don't always remember though, and have been known to run through 4 or 5 zones, just to go someplace that is only 1 or 2 zones away if you use the bells. Bells are a good thing though, since they do save time--for instance, to go from Willow Wood to Antonica, if you run, you have to go through Elddar Grove to North Qeynos and then out to Antonica or you can just go down to the docks, ring the bell, and it'll dump you at the foot of the lighthouse in Antonica. I should also mention the griffons here. They're fun to ride, though a bit disorienting when it's laggy, but you can rapidly get from near Qeynos to near Thundering Steppes (the next higher level zone after Antonica) with one of these, or over to the Tower of the Oracle. It cuts down on alot of running around.
To touch on combat and such, I've been mainly soloing. Not because I dislike people, but I really am out to just work on tradeskilling--though unfortunately unless you have a source of resources or money (if you aren't picky on quality), you need to adventure as well. I'd rather adventure with people who are just as prone to going 'Ooooh, let's go harvest that root before we fight' as I am instead of the 'It moves, let's kill it'. Now for the most part, I have found enough creatures flagged 'solo' in order to keep progressing and up until the last big patch, I could solo yellows with difficulty, now it's whites that are giving me headaches. But the solo content seems to be kind of segregated--the low level stuff right around the zone in, but then you have to get through a bunch of group content (often aggro) just to get to higher level solo stuff. There's still quests I haven't finished and zones that I haven't seen all of because of this.
One of the other things that has been bothering me is the lack of quests or even tasks for Artisans. This is supposedly on the way, and there's even an NPC that hints at the task list in the Willow Wood tradeskill zone. Also not all of the chemistry based recipes are in--only enough to support the other Artisan classes but that too is supposedly on the way. Of course I've ranted about how fickle the tradeskill system is, with dropping you down a level in quality without any way of stopping it, but that is also about to change with the new system. :)
And one of the things that has been talked about is the city reputation. I have yet to find anything that'll start me on the path of aligning with one of the factions or even building towards my reputation. I know it's got to be somewhere, since I've seen a guild with their own guildhall (pretty impressive looking structure) and people running around with some interesting mounts. Unfortunately, it's either very hard to find or I've been looking in the wrong spot or it's something for guilds and not individuals. As such, it's prevented me from looking into seeing how effectively a diehard Artisan can earn reputation points for themselves and/or contribute to their guild.
Well, this has gone on longer than I expected. :) Guess that's what happens when you've got no net access, but your laptop with you, and plenty of free time. ;) And I'm sure that people are going to pipe up with things that I overlooked or misunderstood which'll change alot of this as well. :) Plus of course the impending patch that's going to redo tradeskills and the like, as well as add in new things that'll change the game as I've experienced it so far.
To sum up though, unless the upcoming patch is smoother than the last one (the last one resulted in several days of bouncing servers and being unable to log in) and the changes are bug free and easy to use, I would say that there's at least another month left before the game is ready to go live. Unfortunately, it sounds like they're only 2 weeks away...which is just plain silly as SWG demonstrated.
Grei