Realistic or Stylized

One of the biggest differences between Age of Conan and other MMOs, such as WoW, is their dedication to a realistic look in armor and weaponry.  Funcom went for a purely realistic look in AoC and they achieved it.  Armor is rendered in muted browns, reds and blacks.  Weaponry is of a realistic size and actually looks like something a medieval warrior would wield.    This is in sharp contrast to the fantastical looking armor and weapons in WoW, Aion or even Warhammer.

Do you prefer this...

I liked most of the armor and weapons in WoW but there were some that just went over the top.  For instance, I liked the design of the old Dragonslayer Hunter armor from Vanilla WoW but, come on, gold and purple?  Really?!?!  Hunters are supposed to be nature like and blend in.  Not stand out with garish armor like a pimp on a street corner!  Some of the various doodads, skulls and such that stuck out of your armor were out of place too.  I really do not need a huge globe of light dangling over my shoulders…thank you very much.

or this??

Aion was even worse.  I don’t like Anime to begin with, so Aion really pushed my buttons.  Come now, a guy who probably doesn’t weigh 105lbs, yet he is carrying an axe that is three times his size and probably weighs 300lbs?  Not only is he carrying it but he is doing flips with it?  Nope.  Not for me.

Most MMOs fall squarely in one of those two camps.  Either realistic or fantastical.  WoW, Aion, Allods, FF11 and Tera Online all go the fantastical route.  DAoC, AoC, Darkfall and, from what I have seen, all go the realistic route.  There are some overlaps, however, with EQ2 and Warhammer having a mix of both.

So, the question is; which do you prefer?  Do you like the fantastical armor of WoW or do you prefer the gritty realism of AoC?  The pictures above are not a fair comparison.  The AoC engine is obviously better but, all things being equal, if they were both rendered in the same engine, with the same detail, which would you prefer?

And….I am DONE.

Found this posted over at the K&G forums, originally taken from Allodsfan:

1) Level cap – 42.
2) New location for 40-42 levels.
3) Cursed items. Players will have chance to receive new type of items. Cursed items don’t give stat bonuses. Instead they make attributes lower. E.g. helm which added +100 to your Luck will give -100 when cursed. Cursed items may drop from heroic instances bosses. Also one of player’s items may become cursed after death. Any curse can be removed through special ritual.
4) Cash Shop consumables will now vanish after 7 days after you’ve bought them.
5) New boss in Demon City.

WHAT. THE. FUCK????

Small Level Cap increase: Cool

New Zone to level in: Cool

New boss: Cool

Cursed items that will probably need a CS item to remove: NOT. COOL.

CS consumables that disappear seven days after you purchase them: ABSOLUTELY. POSITIVELY. NOT. COOL.

Yeah, I am pretty much done.  Astrum Nival just does not get it.  Not in any way shape or form.  I don’t blame this on gPotato, these decisions are coming straight from AN.  Regardless, this is idiocy at its finest.  A great game is now dead to myself and thousands of potential players.  A sad thing really.

I had my doubts about the F2P model and, unfortunately, Astrum Nival has proven my initial foreboding correct.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Allods Price Changes Arrive.

Yesterday the first changes to the Allods Cash Shop were announced.  Prices were dropped pretty steeply across the board.  Perfumes were dropped pretty steeply and now can be had for about 25 cents a perfume.  The bag was dropped from $20 down to $3.  A pretty significant drop across the board.

Very good news but is it enough?  Perfume might be particularly worrisome, depending on how easy it is to acquire in game, either through quests or on the AH.  Basically it runs about a dollar an hour at the current rate.  If Perfume is needed at endgame for dungeons or PvP, it may get expensive pretty quickly.

Still, it is a step in the right direction, kudos to gPotato for listening to the players.  Let’s see what else they can do with FoD and the other negative news that has hit the community of late.

By the by, I have not posted a lot in the last week due to work.  I expect to be back tomorrow night with a couple of new posts, including a very beta impression of Mortal Online and a return to Darkfall.

See ya then!

I Have Never Seen Anything Like This…

I have been witness, first hand, to many MMO communities falling apart.  DAoC after the release of Trials of Atlantis.  WAR after its initial release, ditto for Age of Conan.  I have also heard of them falling apart second hand.  Star Wars Galaxies after the release of the New Game Experience and Ultima Online after Trammel.

MMO communities falling on each other and consuming themselves and the game is nothing new.  It has been happening for years and will continue to happen.  What is new is the speed in which it happened to Allods Online.  DAoC took a few months after Trials of Atlantis.  It built slowly and got worse and worse.  WAR also took a couple of months before the reality of the situation revealed itself.

Allods has taken three days.  Three. From Friday of last week until today the forums have been a cess-pool of whines, gripes, indignation and accusation.  Now most of the indignation is completely warranted.  Witness what the players and community has went through over the last three days:

• The reveal of the Cash Shop, which was horribly overpriced for everything except keys to locked chests.
• The news of the newest Russian patch, which made that cash shop nearly mandatory for the enjoyment of the game.  Lengthened Fear of Death effects, a mount that is slow unless you buy something from the Cash Shop and the nerfing of all speed enhancing class effects so that you will need to purchase a mount.
• Finally, the revelation that the current team working on the game may not even be the same team that built the game we are now enjoying and may have no idea what they are doing.

All of these hit us at once, in the space of three days.  The current state of the forums is a witness to that.  A community that was once fairly civil, even in disagreement, is now consuming itself, the game, the GMs and the unpaid forum Mods.

Let me reiterate that I am all for demonstrating to gPotato and Astrum Nival that we are NOT happy with the news over the last three days.  If the Cash Shop continues at these prices and the patch from Russia makes it to North America, I will not be playing.  I will not support a company or a product that does that to its community.  I have gone out of my way to show my disdain to Cryptic and their price gouging with Champions and Star Trek and all of that disdain will transfer in whole to gPotato and Astrum Nival if this continues.

That being said, it is time to dial it back a notch on the Allods Onine forums.  It has become counter-productive.  There is no need for 15 threads to be created for the exact same topic.  There is no need for the name calling, the cursing and immaturity that has been displayed over there.

Ashkiir, an Astral Scholar and unpaid, volunteer mod, has been subjected to ridicule, disdain and threats for his attempted moderation of the forums.  Miss_Sadie, a paid GM, has also been the brunt of attacks by the community.  This is not needed and, indeed, those who have done so should be ashamed of themselves.

We need to show gPotato and Astrum Nival that we are not happy with the current state of affairs and we will not put up with it.  But, we need to show them in a civil and mature manner.

Hopefully, the game and the community can come through this and be stronger for it.  If not, I will probably be in the market for another MMO.

What I wouldn’t give….

With the recent Cash Shop pricing furor, my support of a subscription model went up drastically.  I love Allods Online.  Matter of fact, it may be the most thoroughly enjoyable MMO I have played in a long, long time.  However, I have been leery of the Cash Shop aspect of it from the first and this debacle shows that I was right.

Why does every MMO game released recently have a big but attached to it?  I would love Allods Online but for the Cash Shop.  I would love Aion but for the spammers, grind and bad customer support.  I would love Warhammer Online but for the broken endgame.  Why does it have to be that way?

I am not a “WoW-tourist” by any stretch of the imagination.  I played Asheron’s Call for nearly two years.  I played DAoC for four years.  I played World War II Online for two years and I played WoW for four and a half.  I do not, as a rule, jump from game to game but every MMO released recently has that “but” caveat attached to it.  Every single one.  I just want to find a good MMO, why can no one oblige?

So, back to the headline of the post; what I would not give to make Allods Online a subscription game?  I would pay twenty bucks a month easy.  I would probably go as high as thirty if they continued polishing the game and adding content.  I would pay that just to be rid of the Cash Shop and its potential problems.  I would pay that just to know that every one on the server is on a level playing field.  I would pay that just for the security it provides.

Why can’t gPotato see this?  Allods Online is NOT your typical Free to Play MMO.  It is a great game.  A fantastic game.  People are loving it and people would pay a subscription for it.  I have no doubt about that.

Why can’t gPotato open up one “Premium” sub based server?  Just to try it out and see how it works for them?  Why must they make this fantastic game and then cripple it with the Cash Shop?

Why can I not, for once, find a MMO without the buts?

gPotato Drops the Ball. Badly. Adventures in the Allods Cash Shop

Last night the Allods Online servers went down for maintenance.  When they finally came back up,

gPotato...Blinded by the money?

we were greeted with a surprise.  The Cash Shop was patched in.  The surprise was not only that the cash shop was put in but that the prices were so totally outrageous. Things that were very reasonably priced in the Russian version suddenly jumped up astronomically in the North American client.  Indeed, it seems that every thing in the Cash Shop simply had an extra 0 put on the end.  For a game that has such a communistic art style, it is obvious that gPotato really supports capitalism.  In this case, capitalism at its worst.

Now, this could be a mistake but I am unwilling to believe that.  If it was a mistake then you would think someone from gPotato would jump onto one of the protest threads on the main forum and let people know.  Instead, they are not saying a word.

The prices are so ridiculous that I will not be using the Cash Shop in its current form.  At all.  Period. Most of you who read this blog with any regularity know that I have been a supporter of Perfume and spending money in the Cash Shop.  I want to support gPotato and the entire Allods team.

That went totally out the window with the current Cash Shop.

I will not spend $20 bucks for a bigger bag.  One that only gives six extra slots.  That’s right.  Twenty bucks for SIX extra slots. I will not spend $11 bucks for fifteen hours of perfume.    That is ludicrous.  It was going for around fifteen bucks for fifty hours on the Russian client, yet they expect us to pay that?  What the hell??

I support gPotato.  I love Allods Online.  However, this reeks of a company overestimating the worth of its product and getting greedy.  I will not support this.  I can not support this.  I will continue to play Allods Online because it is a good, nay it is a great game, but I will not contribute one of my dollars to the cash shop.  Not one single red cent.  Not now, not in its current form.

Hopefully, this was a mistake or, if it was not, hopefully gPotato comes to its senses.  The backlash has been huge.  Keen has already written his post on the debacle and I expect even more backlash as other players log on to see the outrageous prices.

The next few days will be very meaningful to the success of Allods Online in North America.  Do the right thing and gPotato will have a hit on their hands.  Do the wrong thing and Allods Online will flounder in North America and a great game will die.

The ball is your court now, gPotato.  Don’t let us down, eh?

Is There Anything Better Than Character Customization?

One of my favorite aspects of MMOs is the ability to customize your character.  I am not talking about your character’s looks, I am referring to the ability to spec your character and make him your own.  I can spend hours on forums reading about possible character specs and gear choices.  A game with great customization options is, as far as I am concerned, ahead of the game when it comes to grabbing my attention.

WoW, to this day, still has one of the best customization systems in the MMO world.  Most games will allow the tank class to do a bit more DPS, or the healer class to do a bit more DPS.  WoW takes this a step further and allows you to completely change your character depending on how you spec and gear him.

Look at the druid for instance, he can be mêlée DPS, ranged DPS, a healer or a tank.  All in one character.  That is pretty extreme, especially since he can do all of those things pretty effectively.  Very few games offer options as drastic all in one class.

Of course, most players will read the forums and grab the most popular “cookie-cutter” build for what they want to do and go with that.  I am not one of those players.  I like to experiment and sometimes my spec is completely off the wall.

Beast Master FTW

I played a hunter through all of Vanilla WoW and most of Burning Crusades.  Throughout vanilla WoW I was a “raider” and was in a raiding guild that had everything up to Naxxramas on “farm”.  Every other hunter in the guild, indeed every hunter I knew, went with a spec of either 5/31/15 (Beastmastery/Marksman/Survival) or 0/21/30.  Those were the “cookie-cutter” builds that raiding hunters tended to go with.  Not me.  I was 31/20/0 (BM/MM/SV).

In those days, Beastmastery was not only frowned upon by raiding hunters but even laughed at.  The pet died too often, he caused wipes.  Or so said the experts.  I made it work.  Through Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, AQ40 and Naxx, I proudly raided as a BM hunter.  Not only did I raid, I raided well.  I was always near the top of the DPS charts.  I kept a close eye on my pet.  I pulled him back when the boss AoE’d.  I treated him like my own little “mini-rogue”.  And it worked.  Despite all the naysayers, it worked.

My off-the-wall specs continued in Burning Crusades.  By this time, I had evolved from a raiding hunter to a PvP hunter but my love for beastmastery continued.  Beastmastery had become a “sexy” spec in the Burning Crusades and though I continued to be a BM hunter, I still had a strange spec.

My main spec in TBC was 41/5/15 (BM/MM/SV).  This gave me the higher stamina, intimidation and Beast Within from the BM tree, the crit skill from the MM tree and the increased stamina and better traps from the SV tree.  As a result, I had a ton of health and access to a lot of CC with my traps.  I never met another hunter (nor saw one on the Armory) that used this spec but it was fantastic for small group PvP.  I could tear through people one versus one and, coupled with my nephew’s Holy Paladin, could destroy the Horde in small group PvP.

Allods Online has, perhaps, an even higher amount of character customization than WoW.  A skill tree that you pick up at level four, combined with three more ruby trees at level 10, insure a high amount of customization.

My obsession with customization options continues in Allods and I am in hog heaven with the available options.  Right now, I am running two characters; my Psionicist and a healer.  The psionicist is going to be a bit different than what I am seeing most Psion players going with.  Most are going with a DPS-centric build because, you know, DPS is sexy.  I, however, am going with a pure control build.

I will be that guy that stands in the back of a group during PvP battles and annoys the holy hell out of the opposing group.  Hypnotizing the healer, hypnotizing the summoner and shockwaving the mage over and over.  To hell with DPS, that is what I call fun!

My second character is a healer.  The healer class in Allods reminds me of the WoW druid.  No, they do not shapeshift but they have a high degree of customization options.  They can spec to be a healer, of course, but they also can spec for ranged DPS.  Even more, they can spec to be a mêlée healer (which has some of the highest burst DPS in the game) or, because they can wear plate at level cap, can spec to be an effective off-tank.

My healer is going to be a melee healer.  After a lot of research, I came across this great post by Taugrim explaining his mêlée healer spec.  That sounds like a whole lot of fun to me and after reading it, I was sold.  I can not wait to see what this class can do with this spec.

So, how about you?  Do you prefer games with a lot of spec options?  Do you tend to go “cookie-cutter”?  Or do you go with a strange spec that is all your own?  Even more, are you one of those people who think healers should be healers and tanks should be tanks?

Interview with Kate Olmstead and Miss Sadie from gPotato

Recently, I was given the chance to interview a couple of the fine folks from gPotato.  My first set of interview questions concerned the future of the game, server types, mounts and the like, unfortunately many of them could not be answered.  Kate (InaraKatt from the official forums) found that she was unable to provide complete answers to some of them or, if she did answer, would have to tread around the question with “marketing-speak”, which she did not want to do.

This was understandable and I appreciate the honesty.  I submitted another list of questions and she got back to me today with the answers.  Take a look and I hope you enjoy!  I added my thoughts in bold.

1. How do you plan to address faction balances on release?  What plans do you have to prevent Empire or League from completely outnumbering the opposing side?

This was a concern we had at the start of the Closed Beta process, however, as the CBs progressed we notice that there was a freakishly even split between the two factions, without any input from us.  As with most MMORPGs I think the game will naturally work itself out to have an even balance, without the need for us to step in and mediate.  If we see that it becomes a problem, we will address it then.

(Thoughts: I have noticed the same actually.)

2. Any chance we see an “Armory” like website that allows us to view our characters and stats out of game?

Currently we are focused on getting the game as polished as possible and making sure that everything is running smoothly.  Perhaps in the future this is something that we can consider developing, as it is definitely a handy tool that I myself have utilized many a time when play WoW.

(Thoughts: An Armory function would be fantastic, but I suppose they have bigger fish to fry at the moment!)

3.  Do you see raiding (multiple groups instanced) as a big end game activity?  How big are the largest raid instances in terms of number of people needed to complete them.  I miss the old 40 man raids in WoW.
We have one end-game raid in the game already and we encourage teams to use the full 24-man raid group.  Our team tried it once with just us and our 40’s and we got rocked. Hard.

(Thoughts:  I may be in the minority here but I enjoy the occasional raid.  I hope to see more of them.)

4. Some of the rumors about Perfume effect say that it is possible to get a buff that reduces DoT effects to 20 seconds between “ticks”.  Is this correct?  It seems that that would vastly reduce the effectivness of Summoners.  Is the 20 seconds rumor true or is it a mistranslation?

It’s more of a misunderstanding than a mistranslation.  As of right now, the Perfumes are only affecting two spells: Icy Grave and Hypnosis. Perfumes will have no effect on a Summoner’s DoTs.

(Thoughts:  Best news so far!  Another mark against the Gloom and Doomers)

5. Allods Online has been steadily growing in popularity, largely due to positive word of mouth on blogs and the like, any chance we see a bigger advertising push as release draws near?

Definitely!  Right now we have been focusing our attention on grassroots efforts, but now that the game is in Open Beta you will definitely see a bigger advertising push in the near future!

(Thoughts:  The word of mouth is great but an actual advertising campaign would do wonders.  But add more servers first….please?)

6.  The in-game sound, both music and combat, seems underwhelming at times.  However, some of the videos I have seen from the Russian client seem much more robust.  Is this because of incomplete translations?  Will we see (hear!) those sound effects in the NA Allods Online soon?

The missing sounds in the Closed Beta tests were mainly caused by bugs and, yes, incomplete translations.  Keep your eyes (or ears) peeled for new sounds coming in Open Beta!

(Thoughts:  The new client has added a lot of the sound back in but there is still some missing.  Hopefully this will be soon rectified.)

7.  Will Allods Online have 24 hour in-game GMs, to deal with gold spammers, bugs and exploiters?  Will there be an in-game report function?

This is something that we will address on an as needed basis. Currently we do not have the manpower to support 24 hour GM support, however if we find we need this, it may be something that we consider getting.  In the meantime we have our devoted group of volunteer moderators, known as Astral Scholars, who act as the eyes and ears of the community and let us know when anything is going a bit crazy!

(Thoughts: The Astral Scholars are great and are doing a fine job but, eventually, the game is going to need GMs.  Hopefully this does not become a problem.)

8.  Are the Gpotato team gamers themselves?  What games do they find themselves playing a lot?  Any other MMOs?

Of course!  Everyone on the team is an avid gamer and we play everything from MMOs to RTSs, rhythm games to first-person shooters, and fighting games to platformers.  We’ve pretty much got all our bases covered.  The current favorites in the office are Street Fighter 4, Smash Brothers, and Rock Band.

(Thoughts:  What?  No MMOs?  Come on!!)

9.  Any chance we get the Orc “toothbrush” mustache back?  It was in Beta 3 but removed for Beta 4 and I miss it!

As of right now, there is no plan to bring it back, as players abused that particular look, however you never know in the future!

(Thoughts:  I am a sad Panda….)

10.  What is your favorite Allods class?  Race?  Faction?
It varies for each team member.  Some of us enjoy the Gibberlings and the League while others prefer playing the Xadaganians on the Empire.  But the team class favorites probably come down to the Psionicists and Scouts.

(Thoughts:  Gotta love the Psionicist love!  Any chance they could remove Mental Overload?)

11. Has there been any thought at all to a possible “Premium” subscription based server?
Honestly, no, we have not given thought to this as it is our goal and our business model to offer subscriptionless games, for life.  A player will never have to pay money to enjoy all that the game has to offer and we would like to keep it this way.

(Thoughts:  I assumed this but I sure would like to see a Premium Sub server.  Disappointing but expected.)

12.  So, while browsing Wikipedia, I noticed that there is absolutely NO article on Allods Online!  This is a travesty!  Any chance one of you folks fix that?
It’s usually looked down upon for developers and publishers to edit and create their own articles, but we’d be happy to provide information to users that wish to help! For Wikipedia and any other wikis out there!

(Thoughts:  Anyone know how to edit Wikipedia?)

Allods Online: Open Beta Day One!

After my post from yesterday, you would assume that the remainder of the day was frustrating as so many Day One MMOs are.  You would, thankfully, be incorrect.

gPotato got the servers up and running about 10 minutes after my post from yesterday.  And they stayed up the remainder of the day.  Not only that, but they stayed stable the entire day as well.  This was quite a feat, as I have not seen a server so jam-packed since the original WoW release.  Tons of people in the starting areas and all the fighting for mobs that go with that.  It reminded me of waiting in line to kill Hogger in WoW.  It was insane.

I was very surprised and impressed with the stability and performance of the client.  Despite the gobs of people on my screen at all times, the game ran very smoothly and well.  This bodes well for massive PvP in later levels.

I did throw myself a big curve-ball yesterday.  I have been planning to go Empire my entire time in Allods but yesterday came and a lot of the people who were going to be playing with me did not, for whatever reason.  This left me with the option to either level by myself or find another group of friends.  After much thought, I decided to join Keen and his Happy Fun Guys Guild on the Legion side.

Of course, this meant that I had to play a Gibberling if I wanted to be a Psionicist.  So, Gibberling it is.  Introducing the Amazing Kreskin:

The Amazing Kreskin

Legion side is extremely well-done.  I find it amusing that the tutorial for Empire is much better but the starting zone Legion-side is notably better than the Empire side.  It has a lot more color and feels more wide-open than the massive Capitol-City/Starter-zone that is Nezebgrad.  The zone flows very well and has many interesting features.  The waterfalls and lakes are particularly beautiful and is something that the Empire side sorely lacks.

So far I am really enjoying my time in Open Beta and I expect that to continue, especially when the population gets spread out a bit.  Questing was pretty tough with so many people in one area.

Another Release, Another Case of Massive Server Crashing.

It is currently 1:26PM CST. I am sitting in front of my PC trying desperately to get into Allods Online.

gPotatos Servers @ 1:30PM CST.

It went up for a minute, showed huge queues and then crashed. Now the website is down.

Typical.

One of these days a MMO is going to get release right. Not too few servers. Not too many. But just right.

One of these days. But Allods will not be it!