Ravens Forums
General => General Chat => Topic started by: eKo on April 23, 2014, 08:59:16 pm
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Does anyone want a key for the weekend beta of Wildstar (http://www.wildstar-online.com) this weekend (from Friday April 25 at 7:00am PDT until on Sunday April 27 at 11:59pm PDT)? I got one on my second email address, but since I pre-ordered I can already participate in the weekend betas :). I played quite a bit last weekend, but not sure if I'll have much time this weekend anyway.
It does have the same cartoony graphics of WoW (and as such is bright & colourful unlike ESO), but the combat is action based like Neverwinter Online or ESO. You do get a limited amount of skills (eight) on your actionbar, but the skills can be upgraded & swapped at will. You also have a talent tree of sorts (AMP).
They're not trying the reinvent the wheel, but like WoW (Carbine consists of ex-Blizzard employees after all) they borrow elements from other MMO's and bring it into one streamlined package. It's not the most inventive game, but I had fun so far mainly questing, doing a shiphand mission (soloable story based mission) and an adventure (group based VR mission with different branching paths). I'm not high enough to do a dungeon (there are 2 at level 20 I think) and haven't tried any PvP.
I love the cartoon style (well, I do love cartoons) and the humour, especially when rezzing ("Oh you died ... again."), teleporting ("Do you want to be transported in one piece or one piece at a time? ... So predictable!") or taking taxi's (they tell groan inducing puns). The UI and the quest tracker especially need some more work (as there are *tons* of quests). The game is also challenging and they intend to keep it that way (I've heard the first dungeon is punishing as a PuG :P), which is good. (Last weekend the mobs were too easy for a day, but they patched that during the weekend. Mobs were way too easy, I could easely solo mobs meant for 2 or 3 players which removed most of the challenge.) Yes I've died quite a bit and yes it can sometimes be infuriating to be taunted while rezzing ;D).
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The humour looks good in it :) Thanks for the offer but I'm away most of the w/e anyway, so wouldn't make good use of it. Keep us updated on how it's going !
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I was in the early beta, but lost my beta access because I didn't level quickly enough (I only got to level 15 on my Engineer). The game was fun, in a brash cartoony sort of way. Unfortunately it ran like a total dog on my system, so I wasn't able to progress very far. Unless they've made some radical optimizations to the game engine, a beta key is wasted on me.
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Sounds interesting but have several things to sort out this weekend, maybe look into it again in the future though!
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open beta starts tmr, so will have a look :)
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Yeah, open beta has started today until the 18th. Since all my characters ended up copied on German servers, I started a new one on Eko (Yeah they named a server after me ;D). Katsui, Chua engineer (I love the Chua animations, they're awesome). Though I'm planning to play Exile on live (Aurin spellslinger, Mordesh medic & Human engineer are planned already :P).
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/wave @ shi ! :)
lol, they named a server after you ? Sweet !
If we can play for a couple of weeks I'll DL the client and take a look. Though I suspect I won't buy/subscribe, it all looks a bit too cutesy to me (sorry Eric!)
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Hey Las! :)
I spotted now Cern's remark about the performance, weird. It seems to me a game less demanding than GW2, so must be sth wrong with the engine.
I got the beta yesterday and played through the noob zone, then landed on the planet.
I definitely enjoy such type of graphics, it feels very much like WoW in that respect :)
I experience though one major gfx issue, hope they fix it, getting a blank screen and weird sounds after pressing P for the skill panel, weird, can still log out, so it's not a complete system crash hehe
No clue what server I am on :) sth starting with V or A lol :) , Exile side, playing some bunny looking race, class oriented on healing.
Not sure for the release. Maybe.
June becomes quite busy with the world cup start ;) I dont mind the scary news about the endgame, anyways i never reach it :D hihi but they need fix the performance and this weird gfx bug.
btw, in case you missed the news. You can pre-order the new WoW xpack.
It is worth it imo, since you get some goodies for Blizzard games, and also in the package a free lvl 90 boost :)
That's a new paid service Blizzard introduced, only 50e (haha), but with preorder you get 1 free for your account :)
And since, well, you gonna try it anyways, despite the usual "Im done with WoW" , so why not get the extra goodies :)
Release, coming december.
(apparently there is some sort of housing, omg, thought not gonna live till that moment :D)
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To be fair, my performance problems were with the early closed beta client, which I expect wasn't optimized at all. I didn't make it into the later closed beta stage.
I've patched up to the open beta client so will take another look. I hope it's playable as what I was able to see before looked fun.
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Well, the open beta client is definitely running better than the closed client for me. Still not getting very good fps though. I think it's because of the sheer amount of stuff constantly going on in game. Whilst the graphics are cartoony, there's a shedload of stuff always happening on screen. Speaking of which ....
I'm finding the game fun but really exhausting to play. It's very very busy and chaotic, both visually and in terms of gameplay.
Missions and tasks get constantly thrown at you from all directions and pull you all over the place, NPCs constantly jabber at you, stuff aggros you here there and everywhere, the combat is a mess of criss-crossing and overlapping telegraphs, there's constant visual effects and events of one kind or another. Even just trying to read the quest dialogue or choose a reward is usually interupted by something or other.
The game seems to have a bad case of ADHD - or perhaps that's the target audience :D
Not saying it isn't fun, it is in a chaotic sort of way, but it's exhausting and not the sort of game I feel I could settle into a long session of.
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Got a chance to play this some more over the weekend and got my Chua Engineer up to level 16. Have to say I'm having fun and my PC is handling the beta client reasonably well. Hopefully the release client will be a bit better too.
I'm still finding the gameplay chaotic and frenetic and the UI is definitely too cluttered (will have to see if there's any good mods / addons available). But I installed a custom FOV addon which has really helped make the game less visually tiring and started to get more of a feel for how the flow of the game works.
There's a lot of stuff to explore and stumble across and you aren't forced to follow too linear a path, apart from the main story of course. I bumped into a Shiphand mission at level 13 which took me off world on a mini adventure I wasn't expecting. The Challenges that pop up from time to time are fun and often have some good rewards. The general tone of the game is fun and doesn't take itself too seriously, which makes for a nice change.
Tried the PvP. The 10v10 stuff seems pretty standard, but I hear there's other modes later such as Warplots. PvP isn't really the main draw for me in a game like this, but will probably dabble.
The crafting looks interesting but was mostly buggy so couldn't progress far.
The player housing is great. I made a basic house and then wondered what was possible so had an explore around some neighbors' houses. Some people have got really creative already and I'm sure more is possible as people collect decor. One even had a mini game installed on their plot.
Since I've bailed on ESO for the time being, I think I'll take a punt on Wildstar at launch. Dunno what server to roll on though, other than a PVE one. Anyone else going to be playing?
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didnt get my butt in seriously yet due to DAOC distraction.
But if you folks plan to play it I could give it a go :)
What is the release date??
ah 3rd of June.
Hmm, guess could give it a go for 2 months.
Planning on move mid July, so after then it will go hectic online-timewise..
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Yeah I'll play for sure (since I pre-ordered). Was gonna go Exile, but my Chua is actually growing on me, so might go Dominion after all (especially since Chua can be Spellslingers, yay!). I really like how the Chua swim (paddle) and their huge grin when they shoot stuff fits well :).
Talking about chaotic & frenetic: I did a world boss (Metal Maw) in a 20-man raid this weekend and it was funny having all those effects flying around (fps went down to 10-ish). We managed to kill it without deaths, but it only seemed to drop crap loot, so it wasn't really worth it.
They managed to totally bug crafting, though the patch of today is supposed to fix it. Housing really is great, though you need patience as the interface isn't so great, but it's powerful. Check the Housing forum section on the official forums to see what some people have been able to build. (Plus there's already a huge customization selection out of the box).
Still haven't done any PvP, but think I'll have to finally swap to using WASD (prefer arrow keys) or need an addon to autopress right mouse button in combat only (there's Steer & Deadlock Extended which are good, but I only need it in combat really). There's some addons already (Bijiplates to replace nameplates is good, so is BetterQuestLog) and more in the works (check on Curse), so that's looking good.
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I took the plunge and pre-ordered.
Exile has the storyline I can identify more with, but Dominion has the Chua - a psychotic rabbit with a heavy gun is hard to resist :D
So I think it's Chua Engineer for me to start with. I want to see the Exile storyline as well, so bound to start an alt - perhaps a Medic as I experimented a bit with that and enjoyed the playstyle. Spellsinger looks interesting too.
I think they are keeping the same EU server names from beta for launch. Currently playing on Eko server for the beta, but happy to roll anywhere else if anyone has a better suggestion, or knows of a guild that's forming - are any from Roses or Legion Inc going to be playing?
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I'm for crazy rabbits on Eko, and pick a server for Exile alts, ill try resist as long as I can ;)
Im lobbying within Legion Inc on FB, but so far the response is limited.
Will ask also among the Face Dancers from WoW. They bunch is often up for any new MMO that shows :)
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You can roll both factions on the same server, but only for PVE servers. PvP servers are faction locked, but thanks to WoW I'm allergic to those anyway :D
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You can't beat a good bit of impromptu PvP whilst leveling, I actually regretted my decision to go PvE in the end. Some of my most memorable WoW adventures involved killing another player, rather than a mob! :)
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That's true Sax, some of the most memorable 1v1 fights I had were on skullcrusher and totally unexpected whilst levelling. They still stay in my head to this day, one in particular where i jumped off a cliff because I was low health with mobs on me and the rogue followed me (like a lemming) and I then used the priest featherfall ability. i was laughing pretty hard all the way down :) that said, i also remember the other 99/100 times when I got ganked from nowhere usually at half health and a mob on me :p
Not sure I'll join Wildstar, seems to have grown on you Cern but my impressions are more like your first post. Its not exactly relaxing and just shoves shit in my face all the time :) If you're all still raving about it a few months then I might get off the fence but i suspect it's just WoW behind all the ADHD stuff :) not sure I get on with the whole cartoon thing either - I do like the humour though, liked it since you first posted about it a while back eko.
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Not sure I'll join Wildstar, seems to have grown on you Cern but my impressions are more like your first post. Its not exactly relaxing and just shoves shit in my face all the time :)
Yep, totally agree with this, particularly for about the first dozen levels or so. What I found is that this calms down once you get to around level 13-14 and onwards and away from the first couple of starter zones. This holds true for both factions.
It's as if they tried to cram WAY too much into the early part of the game, perhaps for reviewers, perhaps to try and capture the modern gamer with the attention span of a gnat.
So within the first 12 levels you get bombarded with learning your class and skills, learning your path, the main storyline, offworld missions, challenges, crafting, gathering, customizing gear / your character, PvP and more. Then when you think you got a handle on all that, at level 14 they throw player housing at you, which is a curve ball all of its own. And all this before you get anywhere near a dungeon.
Now it may be that this is to cover up for a lack of content at higher levels. Perhaps, but I haven't seen veteran beta testers complaining of that. In fact I hear that the endgame is highly developed and where the real core of the game is. If so, then it's just a case of badly pacing the lower level content and throwing too much at the player too soon.
Whatever the reason, the early assault on the senses is likely to burn out a lot of players before they even begin. It nearly pushed me away. The reason it's grown on me is I was able to progress into zones which were a bit more relaxing to play than the early stuff. But it might just be a lull before the storm, as I hear PVE difficulty really picks up at level 20. Will have to see what happens at launch .... watch this space for a meltdown :D
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If you were l33t skillzor player like me Las, you wouldn't get ganked ;)
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hey
have you guys figured out any useful addons yet?
Cern, you mentioned the FoV one. Need check what difference it make, surprises me, 1st time i see such type of addon.
I saw a couple modifying the quest interface, need try them out - thye are consolidating it into a more friendly panel, bit like WoW, well, saw 2 addons, need see which one is better.
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I'm going to resist trying out too many addons until I build my new PC. Wildstar is playable on my current PC now, but it wouldn't take much to push it over the edge and addons tend to have an overhead. The FOV addon was essential though, it totally transforms the game for me. The default FOV of 50 was really messing with my eyes. I have it set to 80 now and it's so much better.
Here's the link:
http://www.curse.com/ws-addons/wildstar/220180-customfov
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Not sure I'll join Wildstar, seems to have grown on you Cern but my impressions are more like your first post. Its not exactly relaxing and just shoves shit in my face all the time :) If you're all still raving about it a few months then I might get off the fence but i suspect it's just WoW behind all the ADHD stuff :) not sure I get on with the whole cartoon thing either - I do like the humour though, liked it since you first posted about it a while back eko.
Pfft, you're just getting old ;D.
There's nothing wrong with having a tutorial or 2 pop up, having the level up animation and having a challenge or 2 activate while being in combat :P.
It's kinda strange as I haven't felt that at all, though yes there can be quite a lot going on. Some people even find the tutorial on the ship boring, though I find it introduces the game mechanics well. And yeah it's mostly up to level 15-ish, after that it is calmer. As far as I know there will be more shiphands, adventures & dungeons than are available right now in beta, but that's mostly 15+ anyway.
And I'm not ever gonna play on a PvP realm again, it sucked in DAoC and also in WoW. You hardly ever get in a fair fight anyway, mostly they either outnumber you or wait for you to engage a mob. PvP in battlegrounds/arena is good enough for me, plus Warplot PvP sounds like a great idea. (And else there's still PS2 for a PvP fix). My biggest gripe is that raids/warplots will be 40-man and thus could be hard to organize and means you need a huge guild. Though there should also be enough solo/small group content available (shiphands, adventures & dungeons).
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those good memories from pvp server experience are pure nostalgy, bit like recalling Rambo, not that id like to watch and would enjoy it again :D
hihi
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Bah, you've all gone soft!
Come on we can do it!! ;D
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Shi, myself and a few others will be rolling on the Ascendancy EU PVE server at Wildstar headstart. We'll be on Dominion side, but you can play both sides on a PVE server, so no doubt we'll also try Exiles too at some point.
The Eko server has a cool name and all :) But it was rather quiet during beta compared to Ascendancy and it looks like Ascendancy will have the higher population at launch, with more guilds announced for it, one or two of whom I've teamed with in other games.
As it happens, it looks like the PvP server will be the most popular of all, but Carebears ftw :)
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Have you guys been playing yet? I've been looking for you, but unless you changed names I haven't seen you on yet. Started Katsui, a Cassian spellslinger, on Ascendancy, but also reserved some names on Eko just to be sure.
The PvP servers are indeed more popular, glad I didn't play on one since the queues this weekend were bad enough on PvE. Though the third PvE realm has alleviated the load and I haven't had to queue at all this week.
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Yep, we're on Ascendancy. My Chua Engineer is Cern and Shi has a Medic called Shiin. I've just sent a friend request to Katsui so hopefully you'll see that later.
We haven't formed a guild yet, but we did make a Circle (sort of a 'guild lite' feature) you can join. Still working out what to do about guilds.
Queues were bad for a few days but seem to have eased off now they opened a few new servers and offered free transfers. Population on Ascendancy seems good and community pretty friendly, so planning on staying rather than using the free transfer to move elsewhere. PvP server sounds like the usual gankfest :)
BTW, if anyone wants a guest pass (free 7 day trial with a few limitations I think) then I have three, so just give me a shout.
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feel free to chuck a pass this way Cern, wouldn't mind having a look
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Check your messages (on forums here) Brigh, I've sent you a guest pass.
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nice avatar Cern :-)
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Cern, if that's your avatar you really need to change your title ... Bearded Wonder doesn't really work anymore :)
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My Space Hamster has a beard! :D
But yes, time for a new title.
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Brilliant! :)
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givf screenies :P
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Did anyone play this much?
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I played Wildstar until I hit the endgame, then hit a massive wall. Nothing new in that, have hit a few MMO endgame walls in my time, but Wildstar has a biggun :)
Levelling is hugely fun and the combat system is great. Loved my Chua Engineer. But once you hit level cap, everything is gated, everything is designed to slow you down, everything is geared towards hardcore progression raiding and there's some truly enormous time and gold sinks. Probably great if old school attunement grinds, reputation grinds and re-running the same dungeon 100x to get a certain drop is what you want from a MMO, but for me the endgame felt like stepping into a time machine. MMOs have moved on, for good or for bad, but WS seems to be stubbornly stuck in the past. To be fair, this is a deliberate design decision and they haven't tried to hide it. But it's not for me and if the subscription numbers are anything to go by it's not for many.
Since you can buy subscription time with in-game currency (CREDD) I could actually play for 3 or 4 months for 'free'. But I'm just not motivated enough to even do that, even though if I don't use my CREDDs within the next month or two I'll lose them. Which speaks volumes really.
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So you are no longer a space hamster ? :) Hope it was fun whilst you played it up to endgame anyways !
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Semi-retired space hamster :) Technically I still have game time via the CREDD system, but unlikely to do much with it.
Levelling was great fun and time well spent, no regrets. But as with any MMO, when you hit the endgame you have to ask if the time you're being asked to invest on the grind treadmill is actually worth it. This space hamster has slumped in his wheel :)