get well soon :p

Hope you guys are feeling better! ;)

I know Kanu isn't bored enough to read blogs but as he's sick I still give a shot just in case :p who knows ;)

We didn't play much yesterday but gave a better try at ddo (played something like 2-3h).
I like it for now, blinky likes the fact it's more RPG than other mmo but find it a bit too dark for now (only did some sewers and dark caves). Couldn't resit buying it at 3€ and well if we really like it we'll of course spam u till u join us ;) but well I liked war at first too and it quickly grew boring to me so not gonna push u to try it, except if you find it at 3€ too ;). (normal price 45€, had quite an hard time to find it downtown (only 1 box but didn't buy it as I wasn't sure I'd find another one, then I went into a smaller shop near home and found THE bargain lol) well ofc my key was fuxored but the customer support went fast enough to resolve the problem (1 day).

Short review of what we saw:

Character Creation: I like it, Blinky found it puzzling. It has a bit more choices than WAR, much less than AoC (ofc). Fact is it follows some DDO rules so after customizing your toon, you have to pick spells, distribute points etc. I like to have a strict canvas that makes u feel u have control over ur char. Ofc when u never played a D&D game it's puzzling.

Graphics: well it's ugly, especially the characters and start equipment. I cranked the graphx up but then I get some slow downs in Stormreach (the main hub/city). Water and light effects are nice (some environment are really cool even if outdated) but the textures are really low and buildings are overly edgy.
The spells are looking very nice imho, not too much but more than what we could see in other games lately.

Controls: Probably the part that takes the most to get used to. Basically it's not like in other games: Right click = swing your weapon. Left click select. You can't go foward using your mouse only. You can turn the camera around using the left button (but then can't select except using tab). There is a targetting mode (key "T") that allows u to move the camera (and character, haven't found a way to make the camera face u) as u move the mouse (but then again can't select or click on abilities). It takes some time to get used to and leads to some mishandling during the first hour. However the game has some nice things for it, like jumping and grabbing an edge, it's quite reactive and u need to swing in the cone (no hard lock on target like on war), it's not aoc ofc (u still need to trigger an ability) but u can jump away from a hit and actually avoid it if fast enough.

Interface: another clunky part. The shortcut bars are easily to move around and duplicate, but you can't resize them (haven't found a way at least).
I don't like the inventory window, too small for my taste (and can't resize) and no hoover text to discover what is something used for. However u can get several bags that allow you to bring directly some items in them and sort them which is a really nice touch. It's not always easy to know where to find the right information.
Biggest grudge are the quests. You don't have a quest summary until you enter the quest area. And all the quests are listed together in the window even with those you have finished (just marked finished) so when u have several quests u don't always know which u just took or finished but didn't brought back. Chat windows are a bit weird too (you can't see everything like no clue how much money u grabbed)

Starting Area:It's fairly fast and boring (cuz it's solo). You have one challenge to make in the tavern that explains u how to play (nice enough) then u have the different trainings per class, nothing stops you to do those that aren't for ur class but you prolly won't succeed them anyway so I don't see the point. Hopefully it's done in 20 mins max.

Quests/Dungeons:All is instanced, so you get a quest to move to a "door" to enter the instance. Those we did for now are rather fast. There are some traps (that you need to avoid) and puzzles, sticking together is a must, blinky already found herself stuck away from me having to battle out before we could regroup cuz she went too fast ahead ;). You can't do the area completely without a balanced group as there are some doors that can only be moved by people with a lot of strength or to those who can detect invisible doors. but the objectives can always be done no matter the classes. It's fairly generic but the closed environment feel is there and I was rather immerse, there just a rush to be the first to crash crates and barrels in case there is something in it (and sometimes there is a surprise lol). As money isn't shared among all group members that tends to split the group. However the game has been fairly easy so far, I almost died once but that's all. Oh and there is a voice over telling u what u see a bit like a dungeon master but it's only for important stuffs in the quest area.

Game Mechanics: Hard to say at lvl 2 ofc. Levelling is slow (only 16 lvls I think), each level is cut in 5 rank, at each rank u gain one action point that you can spend at a trainer among an amount of feat (more choice with levels, not really intuitive however). Once u level it follows ddo rules, so depending the level you'll get feat points (strenght, wisdom etc), ability points, skill points, spells etc...
What I like is that the game have indeed that strict set of rules, hence lots of mobs are resistance to something and have a weak point (like crushing weps against skelettons). Knowing the lore helps to avoid spending precious spell points on a spell the mob is going to resist.

I'm playing a mage so I basically have to pick my spells beforehand among a selection, can only switch them while resting (at a tavern or a rest point, knowing u can only use the rest point once) so you have to think about which spells to take beforehand. Casting a spell often uses a physical element so you need to have enough in your inventory too.
Food helps recover faster but only in taverns. This means that apart from potions, only heals can help you recover health and only rest can bring back ur spell points. Sometimes it's thus better to hit with a staff than cast a spell.
Another thing I like is that the combat feels more alive because of the dice roll. So when u hit someone you see a dice that tells you how much u rolled. Same goes for heals, sometimes you're healed for 1hp sometime for 6. (am only having 30 at start).
You quickly get quests reward that allows u to change gear it seems, dunno how it evolves. As there are only 2 servers, there are still many people walking around (saw around 20 lowbies yesterday).
What I like less is the Stormreach lore instead of Forgotten realms, having mechanic mobs or forged race doesn't suit me much but the rest of the lore is there also.

Overall I think the game could be fun as a group but dunno what it has to offer on the long run, compared to launch I hope it has enough content now (back then u had to redo quests (u can redo them hard or elite) to reach lvl 4, thing that I hate) but I mostly hope it's more varied than just sewers (I read it's but waiting to see with my own eyes).

Look ... whats that !? is there maybe a new MMO on the horizon?

Darkfall Online

http://www.darkfallonline.com/

In my weekly routine with checking gamesites for upcoming games and beta registrations, I stumbled over this. After filling out the beta registration, which I do usually without the demand to know much about a game, I started reading about the features. To make the story short - no breaking new features - but they picked a lot of good things from other games.

• Graphic looks nice on the screenshots. on the movie you see that they have still some work to do especially the character animations.
  
• Skillbased character advancing frees me from the class picking discussion
  
• Factions
• Solid death penalty
• You can push other people, which makes me wanna meet on a bridge with you :)
• NPCs to hire for certain tasks (bag-carrier)
• no PvP Restrictions with the tradoff to ruin your faction standing
• ...
  

I know that gamestudios tend to be better at promising features than programming them, but I think I'll keep an eye on that game.

De "war"

Well had a talk yesterday with blinky and none of us are convinced by WAR so far. :/
Nothing to do with the grafx, it's ugly but I'm used to it now :).
We knew it was a pvp centric game but didn't expect the pve side to be so barren.
Put it this way: we like instances (dungeons) and there are none :(. That's our main grief.

The game has lots of qualities, it's well thought out, it's polished, there are tons of stuffs to do...in theory.
Basically right now all the Public quests are the same and few are oustanding/surprising (except the first dark elf one and the first empire one so far that have a bit more cinematic approach). The chore of it is all about grinding and after a few it gets boring to me. (also the fact that in the end we fight the same mobs ad nauseum)
Everything feels very repetitive, be it pvp or pve so far. They made a tremendous effort to flesh out the quests but tbh we don't read them much and it's too much run and bring back once more (doing quests in batch isn't a good option so far cuz it'll force u to redo areas).

Ofc the class I play have something to do in it (pretty static) but still the progression doesn't suit me either (not enough gear for my taste) and overall I find the immersion factor pretty poor. I don't even see any other class that would fit my style and meet my "fun" requirements (hear look good enough to my eyes for me to identify to my char)
Where AoC was intense in combat here I feel like mashing the same button over and over again for little gain. I don't feel my skills are counting much as in the end it all ends up to a roll of dice (in pq) or to levels (in pvp).

Problem is right now I don't feel like playing much (I'd not even consider playing war solo), the only thing that makes me wanna play is play with you guys lol. Which is sort of bad when I haven't even reached the end of the free month (usually I get tired of an mmo after the first free month not during, hence my concerns)

Dunno if it's an mmo's fatigue from me (never been doing mmo's non stop for so long and there are games ahead that I'll wanna try for sure lol), but I know blinky isn't happy with it so far either so there isn't only that.

Maybe it'll get better with levels but I sort of doubt it and dunno if I wanna put the effort in it. :/
Tbh I don't feel like going back to AoC now, the wound is still too fresh for us to get back there. I prolly won't before the expansion is out.
And I don't see many games I haven't tried and disliked lol. (as I hate redoing things)

For the moment am thinking of giving a try to dungeons and dragons online: stormreach (I'd have preferred it centered around Forgotten Realms than stormreach but well...) like I told u (when I get time I'll try to check the shops for it). I don't have high hopes for it but the game is dungeons centric (instances everywhere) and would probably suit me more than war.
Again just ranting and maybe next playtime will prove me wrong but well am sort of convinced now that WAR just isn't for me no matter its qualities.

DDO Dancing mobs

Vid of a guy making mobs to dance with a spell. Priceless.
Danger Danger High Voltage!

Server Names

Just copy/pasting the official server names for release:

If we go core I suggest we take the same names as now (Karag Orrud for destr, Karak-Norn for order) for open rvr there is the poll to the right ;)

Core

Axe Bite Pass
Karag Dron
Karag Orrud
Karak Eight Peaks
Karak Ungor
Karak-Azgal
Karak-Hirn
Karak-Izor
Karak-Norn
Karak-Vlag
Karaz-a-Karak


Open RvR
Dragonback Mountains
Eltharion
Finuval Plain
Mount Silverspear
Sea of Dreams
Shifting Isles
Tiranoc

Role-Play
Burlok
Makaisson

RP Open RvR
Alarielle
Ellyrion

My take on tank (tékohntanc?) and blabla

Being semi bored I'll just go blabla
I haven't tried the Black orc but did the 2 others on the order side. Basically by lvl 4 you usually have the mecanic of the class u use it seems. (time will tell if it changes at lvl 12 by much but seeing from the screens showing for each tree what ability it affects I sort of doubt it)

Chosen: Basically you have some abilities u use to hit and some that are auras. You can only use one aura at a time, however they stay 12s after u switch to another aura. So if you spend time switching u could have 2 at the same time. On paper it sounded good and usefull.
In reality it takes 1 second or so to cast, and u'd need to count time or amount of click to be really efficient with it. Basically I usually pick one aura then fight. If the fight longers I'll click on a second one after a few but you can focus on everything (esp that some doesn't stay, like the taunt) So: usefull in pve if worked with (but not tide turning) and almost useless in pvp cuz it's already hard to run around people and hit them.
It seems the Ironbreaker is sort of the same except that he just uses buffs instead of auras. But in the end it's just mash all the buttons u want/can when u can catch something.
Right now the tank seems to have a good survival (but is it really usefull?) in rvr and a very good one in 1v1 pvp, it's also usefull on some public quests (although sometime you spend the whole pq fighting and still manage to rank 7 or so only because u don't do much dps) but well...doesn't make it fun. It's really a boring class compared to the pro active combat from aoc, combat feels slow and not tactical at all. I'm not sure we need a balanced group like in aoc. Maybe a full dps group would be deadlier (when u see how kanu manages to kos everything on its way and survive :)).

Sorceress: I love it for two reasons: huge dps and ability to do even more :D. (u just need to manage your aggro but u get a detaunt etc...really lovely class)
It's a system I like, every hit/spell u make will fill up a gauge. When the gauge is maxed you use it to unleash an even more powerful skill. You don't have to wait for the gauge to be maxed out to use it but it's better of course. The Witch Hunter uses the same system but only with cc hits (so only hits you do with your sword counts, you need to do 5 hits to fill the gauge then can do a special pistol shot.)
Of course if you don't use your gauge it'll deplete (little by little for sorceress, completely for with hunter). I like the system because it brings a little change in the button mashing and it also allows you to plan ahead (yes I use the gauge now or not, if I do 2 hits now I can start shooting the next mob with a big hit) etc...
Right now those two classes are my favorite simply due to that system (and the fact that they aren't ugly)
Problem: Witch hunter doesn't deal as much dps as the sorceress, his pistol shot is very weak and it's really a cc class with the problems attached (running after people in pvp, no aoe) so in the end you're not ranked well in pq/pvp (I suspect it'll change for pvp once u get stealth, but am not really a stealth boy :/)

I also tried a few other classes:
The elven archmage is a mix of a healer and a mage. Problem is that I failed to see any specific mechanic to it.
The Warrior Priest is nice but he really does little to no dps. Fights last ages with him and I really don't feel like healing much (and by lvl 4-5 he already has 2 heals). I mean it's cool when u can heal yourself it's less cool when the responsibility on the group falls on your shoulder and YOU CANNOT FAIL O_O. ouch ehhe;) esp that targeting in the game isn't that easy (all kanu's fault for being so small ;) )

Finally the swordmaster: well I sort of like him because he builds up (a bit like black orc if I understood well) so basically u need to push 1 to get to 2 and then you can click 3. In pvp you just go 123,123,123.
Only thing that made if better for me is that the moves felt more natural and flowing (animations). It's still very basic but his dps aren't that bad (with 2h)

Oh I tried the white lion a little bit too but well, the pet almost never stays next to u (on aggressive he attacks everything even other people mobs, when u click attack he doesn't do anything so you're forced to have him on defense/follow and I fail to see the real point of him. esp that in pvp they seem rather weak) so I didn't feel like trying it more. Haven't been really pleased by the cc approach again.

I Know blinky likes the goblin shaman, nice dps and heals. She liked the witch elf too but it's cc so if it's ok in pve its running around people in pvp and she doesn't like that much.

Oh and funny thing on the Karak Norn server we created the order chars on it seems that the order is winning the fight lol. (there are tons of elves running around) so it seems that population is getting even on some servers.

ugliness at its best

Well I gave it a short shot yesterday evening, just 5 minutes.
First of all here are the available servers:
I don't really remember if I picked Karag Orud or Karak-Hirn tbh, with names like that it's not easy to remember. Not that it matters much anyway, we'll see tonight (if we all have the keys validated lol) which we pick. There are only core servers anyway (so no Open RvR yet)

Then I logged in and euh...well I expected it to be ugly but it managed to surprise me. It's definitely uglier than I thought. I don't know how the people who made nice screenshots managed to do them cuz I'm supposed to be at highest quality (but then might just be my hardware that it considers too low even if I run AoC maxed out lol)
Might be just Chaos area, and haven't checked much, just logged in, made a few steps forward (tried too, had to map the keys) and then logged off.

Chaos is puzzling with muzzling voices and wind blazing. Sound is rather awful too.
As u can see (even if quality of the screen has been lowered) the characters are edgy, the decors are squary (some grey stuff is ground, some other is rocks). Maybe it's first run who does that like in aoc, we'll see tonight but first impression was "omg! Yuk!"

A few other remarks: Running speed is damn slow, Key mappings is sorted alphabetically >_<, Graphics options aren't numberous even with advanced options (might have to force things with drivers there), character creation is simplistic, around 10 faces and 3 that look good, 5 hair cuts and 1-2 that look ok. Sometimes hairs doesn't even stick to the face, u see white holes in between. Clone wars ahead ;) Interface is full of stuffs I don't get directly, some parts are really small.

Oh well we'll see when we play all together :)

Mc Gyver solution

It seems that some have found a way to get the key validation (ofc doesn't do any good until you have an account but kanu could give a try ;) ):
- Identification: Spam F5 until it works
- wait for the end of the loading before clicking on 'product key'
- enter key, check the yes I read blabla, click on validate
- 1013 pop up, don't close it, just put it aside
- again and again until you see "Do you want to verify this key" click yes
- put the new 414 pop up aside too click on yes again
- try again and again until key validation

Seems to avoid a refresh of the page and thus losing connection to the site/page


edit: apparently won't be needed as they are putting out a new page for 4pm. Hoping it'll work this time. Apparently as we didn't get the email we can't stop hoping from what they say. >_<

while waiting - RvR Tier 1

Well dunno if we'll be able to connect today, tried this morning but still haven't got the email and creating a new account doesn't work (didn't get captcha) will have to retry tonight

However I read on forums that Tier 1 is limited race per race. So some people are complaining e.g. on the Empire/Chaos RvR map because Empire doesn't have any tank and gets toasted.
Bit scary cuz I don't know if it's because not a lot of people are moving from their zones or if we won't be able to play together until Tier 2 if we pick different races? O_o

Boar - confirmation

now we know Luxux is going to be smelly too *whistles*

See what class is best for u

http://www.primagames.com/features/warhammer/quiz/

It's not really acurate though >_<

Pink Orcs

It seems that BO would end up with around 1500hp more than a chosen if they spec defense. So they are the big boys ;).
some info on how BO works:
quote:

The only thing a Black Orc needs is a plan. And that’s all you need as someone playing one. A Black Orc runs through a series of plans called, in order of progression, “No Plan”, “da’Gud Plan” and “da’Best Plan”. If you don’t understand greenskins it may be hard to decipher, however it’s very simple (not surprisingly). You have a set of basic abilities like Clobber that leads to da’Gud Plan. Once you have “da’Gud Plan” you can then execute abilities such as Trip ‘Em Up. After this you now have “da’Best Plan” which now open up the final level of abilities like Skull Thumper for example.
The three mastery lines for Black Orcs are Da’Brawler, Da’Toughest and Da’Boss. Da’Brawler focuses on two handed dps increases, Da’Toughest focuses on defensive abilities and Da’Boss focuses on support and buffs

On pets - patch 4.1

4.1 version is the latest for war and it seems that pets still cause problems (mostly for Squig Herder and White Lion as Engineer and Magus uses stationnary pets)
quote:

Pets are still very slow to respond to commands, if they obey the commands at all.

Pathing is a little better, but they have a long way to go.

I'd say at least 30% of the mobs in the greenskin area are evade bugged permanently. I don't know if it's just this area or in general.

The client doesn't pick up on mob locations well, I'll be standing next to a mob and it'll say I'm out of range. This happens frequently with ranged mobs.

just in case kanu considered one of those...
and yes am still bored at work

War beta keys

I know we should probably get the keys the 6th but if you wanna feel safer or give a key out to friends there is a site offering some: www.fileplay.net
(needs to register first)

Server Types

Apparently there are 4 server types:

One is classic RvR (means you can only pvp in dedicated zones)
One is same as before with RP elements
One is open RvR (you can pvp everywhere)
and last one is the same as before with RP elements.

However there a few more things to know.

If you're higher level and go in another RvR zone that is lower level you're turned into a chicken. On an open RvR server this means that you can't go back to lower pvE zones (except in chicken form, 1hp, 1dmg point)

Also I read that if the server cap is reached (e.g. there are 100 Order but 1000 destruction connected) you might be unable to connect (and not just create a char?), unsure about the info though.
It seems that latest beta lowered the unbalance between the sides but we will have to see at release.

Crafting

apparently at release there will be 2 craftings professions and 4 gatherings (in beta apparently there is only 1 proferssion and 1 gathering)
There is talisman making and apothecary (for potions, that's the one that is currently in beta)
One can pick one profession and 1 gathering.
So we'll have to pick one gathering each ;) to have them all.

quote:

Just as an example of how resource gathering works. Butchering is where I go out into the wilderness and see a wolf or a boar, and I kill it and some flies start buzzing around it, and I interact with it. Then I get some loot!
And the kind of loot you get from Butchering is - mostly - going to help you out with the apothecary system. So ingredients you might get to make potions are like guts and blood, and goo and all kinds of disgusting things.
Scavenging on the other hand feels basically like the same kind of skill except that you're doing it on predominantly player races. Anything sentient, like Mark said "anything with pockets". When you Scavenge from them you get things that are slightly less disgusting, things like gold teeth, you might get fleas and ticks, that sort of stuff that's stuck to their body. Generally, the stuff you get from Scavenging will help you out in Talisman-making.

Salvaging is for disenchanting objects (nooo gief me the loot instead :o) so it'd be good for kanu who loves to break things :D ;) and Cultivating for growing things (I'd not mind that looking at grass grow is Phun!) butchering would work for luxux as she'll be able to make necklaces with disgusting things and I guess blinky will be perfect with killing other players to loot their teeth (or kanu the days he has worked O_O hehe )
so yeah 6 professions sort of (if they make it into release at least). but only 2 crafting system, no armorsmith or weaponsmith yet.

Character Creation

Found this vid, you can see which class can be female/male pretty well and gives an insight of the char creation. Rather poor but should be ok, probably will have tons of clone so it'll be difficult for lux to follow us hehe. (except if kanu wears pink too ;))

what is sure is that I'll quickly turn music off >_<

Off to new world :)

Ok we're done with aoc lol left guild this morning so we'll do it slow on pvp and gear up for war. I already see our dreadful team!
Here is the first pic (didn't forget the 2 people we miss for the guild ;)) :

Lux future sexy look

Kanu will be delighted ;). It'll defenitely change us from AoC. hehe

Open Beta

Apparently the forum I read saying that EAStore preorder was not 100% giving open beta access for standard editions has been updated with new posts and it seems that indeed we might get access to Open beta which starts on the 7th. O_o
Would be cool to test out a few classes and makes me think I really need to preorder today :D

Class Choice

edit: 12th sept
So from our long blabla yesterday I recovered this info of what classes appeal to us.
Most likely to change esp on the order side for me.
Again my choice is most likely to change depending on who has the nicest clothes and no that doesn't mean I should play the sims :o

Orla (where do I get new gear O_O?)
Destruction: Sorceress (dark elf), Chosen (chaos)
Order: Witch Hunter (empire), SwordMaster (elf)
Blink (I do doubt she'll go ugly but who knows)
Destruction: Shaman (Goblin), Witch elf (dark elf)
Order: Bright Wizard (empire)?
Luxux (she who dreams of making a pink orc)
Destruction: Black Orc?, sorceress (dark elf)
Order: ?
Kanu (he who doesn't care about ugliness but only cares about being evil)
Destruction: Squig Herder (goblin)
Order: shadow hunter? (elf), engineer? (dwarf)
:p

there is still the solution of all making a goblin and shouting "irk irk irk" in loop until we get ganked. :D

females >_<

Well I just realised that some classes in WAR can't be females :(
(Orcs have no gender, chosen and marauder are male only, dunno about the rest should give a look)
That's pretty disapointing esp if we wanna be "pretty in pink" :p
Hope there is a tank character that can be female somewhere in the game still (and no am not talking about a "female" dwarf :P)

Also discovered that each class has one more face selection at char creation if you have collector edition, but even as fan as collectors usually I'm not sure it's worthy to invest more money just for that :D

Otherwhise I don't know if you think it's worthy to preorder (apparently pre ordering would allow access from 15th september) problem is that I don't find any shop that allows preorder here except EAStore (but that would mean no game box :/)

finally here's a link with some screens of environments (mainly order side)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abriael/show/with/2795533432/

yeah am bored at work :p