I want that new graphics upgrade they’re doing. Once that hits I’ll probably try the game again.
Are there any MMORPGs that you DO like?
I have played many other ones including EQ, AC, AC2, DAOC, AO, EVE, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Planetside, Lineage II, just to name a few. To be fair, EQ I haven’t played in a very very long time, but City of Heroes is a great MMORPG and is extremely fun and I would in no way consider it any less of a game because of its reluctance to add things to the game that hinder the overall experience.
Instanced missions with a group can take about 45-60min to play and when you are finished you feel like you’ve accomplished something (unlike camping a single area and/or farming the same mobs over and over).
What levels were your characters in CoH, Ebonstone? How many archetypes did you create, and did you try the alternate power sets for each one?
Personally, I think that you are belittling the game system which does a pretty good job of holding a lot of variety in an easy to understand format. A non-empath defender is likely to be played fairly differently from that is an empath, and there are less obvious but still tangible differences between things like energy secondary power set for blasters and electricity (build-up being one key power that lines other than energy secondary lack).
As for FF XI: I enjoyed playing it for a while, but it requires a significant investment of time to get just about anything done. IE if you have a life, forget it. The problem you run into quickly is that it takes forever to get anyplace, because running around feels very slow and you feel very vulnerable trying to move through certain hub zones to get to other places. DAOC allieviated this problem somewhat with their “horse” (train) system, and CoH has a monorail and travel powers later on. FF XI has a Chocobo you get at a point where it’s like “for fuck’s sake i need some wheels,” and then you realize it’s too little too late and you suddenly need something better-- like the airships you can’t get until way way later too. The only nice things about FFXI that comes to mind are the renkei (skillchain and magic burst) combat system, the auction house and bazaar systems, and the ability to change “jobs.” These all come with downsides, like the renkei combat system being very poorly detailed in the manual (to understand any of the skillchains you need a complex diagram off the internet) and effective enough to matter in the first half of a character’s life to make combat interesting, the auction house has restrictions on number of items you can sell and you have a limited amount of items you can sell at once, and the interesting “advanced” jobs are not immediately available and once acquiring them you have to start all over again to play as them. Oh, and CoH has one up on FFXI in another respect-- XP loss in FFXI can definitely DE-level you, where CoH you just add a bubble of XP debt such that newly acquired XP is more or less halved between your real XP gain and the XP debt (oh and having self-rez inspirations in CoH can be very handy indeed). Lastly, FFXI sucks because it severely stresses the need for White Mages, which are also very short in supply (because, let’s face it, healers are boring to play usually). This makes finding groups to party with a real pain in the ass, far more so than most MMORPGs.
Okay, that rant got way too long. I hope whatever game you pick you have fun! Good luck.
Don’t listen to the “All you do is fight! :(” hype for CoH. That’s all you do in 95% of MMO’s anyway. Sure, in EQ/FFXI you can tradeskills, but many people (myself included) find tradeskills to be a boring, time consuming money sink with little payoff.
If you want to make armor and weapons and such, try Horizons. Just be aware that Horizons apparently has really bad combat. I can’t think of any MMO’s out there that do combat well and also do tradeskills well, except possibly Ultima Online.
CoH is a wonderful game. I have 100+ hours invested into it already, and it isn’t even starting to get old. Not everyone has Ebonstone’s ridiculously skewed MMO standards.
I’m horrifically biased, but I urge you to check out Dark Age of Camelot after the New Frontiers free expansion pack is released in a few weeks. Changes to the RvR system much better integrate leveling and RvR activities and make it, IMO, a nice mix of “get in and go” PvP for newer players while still having a good array of high-end content as you progress.
I’m not even sure exactly what all that means, but I’m pretty sure it’s a load of crap…
if
{
you have the cash to spend now
}
then
1) COH
or
2) FFXI
}
// both are quality mmorpgs.. loved them both
{
or else
- WOW
}
}
We still have to see if it’s viable or not. Consider how much they’ll shatter the playerbase between so many battlegrounds. It could work perfectly but it could also be completely useless.
My fear is that there aren’t enough low level characters to support a fun and quick PvP. And PvP doesn’t exist if you don’t have opponents to fight. Even right now on a normal and crowded server like Merlin the BG in the 28-30 level range is empty.
One of the things they might be able to do with instanced battlegrounds is draw upon all the servers to fill them. Instead of requiring enough level 25-30 Alliance players on one server, that instanced battleground will be filled with Alliance players from all the servers.
If they do something like that they shouldn’t have any problems with low population instances.
Where’s the SWG free trial? You aren’t referring to the one that requires a fileplanet membership, surely?
Well, I was talking about DAoC but it applies to WoW too. We still have to see Blizzard’s plan about that.
The idea is interesting and it remembers an idea I got about a mmorpg where your character is absolute and you can enter a different world/server each time you log in.
But in WoW there could be issues to solve. The first is about colliding names but it could be solved by adding a prefix with the name of the home server.
Well, really, it’s a great idea that opens even more possibilities. I don’t think Blizzard will experiment and innovate this much.
If you want a good introduction to a full-featured MMORPG (i.e., one that emphasizes more than fighting), I would suggest Dark Age of Camelot, using one of the free trials. I started a new character on a new server within the last 6 weeks and there were still low level folks to group with. In my opinion, Everquest is a richer experience, but it’s very unforgiving on new players, and I don’t think there are many folks casually going through the low levels of play.
I have no experience with Final Fantasy XI, but I’ve heard it becomes very difficult to solo very quickly. I’ve found that, despite my best efforts, sometimes there’s nobody around with which to group, so games that allow one to progress solo are preferable for me – soloing in DAoC is fairly easy. It’s pretty rough in EQ if you are new to the game, although easier if you pick the right classes.
City of Heroes is loads of fun, very accessible to new players, and one can solo or group effectively with many types of characters. It does feel like a MMORPG-“lite” to me, simply because it lacks crafting, and the equipment/power upgrades are much less complex compared to games like EQ. I think you should get your feet wet in a MMORPG that contains all the elements, to see what appeals to you. That being said, the developers of CoH did combat very well, and I’ve spent more time with it than either DAoC or EQ in the last couple of weeks.
I have no experience with Planetside; it seemed too FPS-oriented for me. I tried Star Wars: Galaxies for 3 months, and can’t really tell you why it didn’t appeal to me. People didn’t seem very interactive, and I found the missions boring. Technically it was well done – it just seemed sterile to me.
No, I think we concluded that FFXI is the slowest, most grind-tastic MMO on the market right now. At least it was before Lineage 2 was released.
Yup. Anarchy Online: Shadowlands and to a lesser extent, DAoC are both great.
And I honestly have no clue. I played CoH for three hours and never touched it again. No equipment, boring combat, and lame instanced missions killed it dead for me.
Hey Walt, hate to shoot ya down but none of those games are solo freindly. Since he’s new to MMO’s he really needs the support of a guild to learn the games and to enjoy them. As a newbie to MMO’s, not many guilds will take him in, since everyones already in the upper levels of the games.
A newbie game which just released or will release is the best way to go. City of Heroes is about the best place to start right now with MMO Games.
Div
CoH isn’t that solo friendly unless you play a Hovering Blaster.
Want solo friendly? Play Anarchy Online.
You can solo any type of character in CoH for quite awhile before you might feel you need to group to take on the more advanced missions and you can do it with any character type (although a solo controller is not very efficient at dispatching foes but is likewise usually not at much risk of dying, either).
Here are my thoughts on those you mentioned.
-
EQ is the original mega timesink. Expect slow advancement, and the payoff comes late in the game with huge mega raids that take up typically 5-10 hour gaming sessions. If that’s your thing, then great, but most of us have lives…
-
Haven’t personally played it, but from EVERYTHING i’ve seen, this is probably the best bet for breaking into the genre.
-
Awesome large scale FPS game, not really an MMO, except for the whole persistant world thing. It’s all PVP, there are no monsters to fight.
-
Probably the best option for a traditional MMO out there, IMO. Outstanding graphics & fun fighting mechanics. There’s a lot of hate for it in this thread, but I’ve been playing lately in 2-hour sessions and have had no problems having fun in the game or making progress on my character.
As far as other games mentioned in the thread go:
DAOC: While EQ was the original timesink game, DAOC has replaced it as the most obnoxious one. The grind pretty much never ends in that game, and it makes those 5-10 hour raids mandatory if you want to improve your character. Probably one of the easier learning curves for an MMO though
AO: I think this is one of the better MMO’s out there, because it has low downtime and lots of action, plus a cool social scene. The downtime is that it has one of the highest learning curves of any MMO. It’s really easy to screw up a character, and it takes a while to learn the ins and outs of equipment such as armor, implants, NCU, etc. If you have the patience to learn it though, you get a lot out of it.
L2: Run in fear. Run very far, and very fast, away from this game. But the music is fantastic.
As much as I’d like to suggest you try all the free trials you can, the truth is that it’s often hard to tell how much you’re going to like a game just from 2-4 weeks of play, because it can take a lot longer than that just to really get into the meat & potatoes of the gameplay. From experience, all you can really do in your first 14 days of AO is fuck up your first character, which you’re pretty much guaranteed to do… but if you have fun doing it…then maybe that’s okay. All you can really do in you first 14 days of DAOC or EQ is wander around the ghost town that is the low level content.
There are some non-traditional and old-school MMO’s out there too that you may enjoy. I know that many people swear by the original Asheron’s Call as having some of the best solo-friendly gameplay out there, but you have to get over the worse-than-quake-1 graphics if you want to enjoy it.
One place I suggest you visit are the IGN MMO player review boards. IGN boards have a very poor signal to noise ratio, but the sheer volume of the player reviews will probably give you a good idea of the good parts and bad parts about each game. They cover those lesser known games as well. Here’s the link to those boards:
http://vnboards.ign.com/MMORPG_Player_Reviews/b22600/
It’s important to note the date of those reviews too, as newer reviews will be more relevant.
Hey Walt, hate to shoot ya down but none of those games are solo freindly. Since he’s new to MMO’s he really needs the support of a guild to learn the games and to enjoy them. As a newbie to MMO’s, not many guilds will take him in, since everyones already in the upper levels of the games.
A newbie game which just released or will release is the best way to go. City of Heroes is about the best place to start right now with MMO Games.
Div[/quote]
Right, but he’s balking at the $50 price tag.
If you want a good introduction to a full-featured MMORPG (i.e., one that emphasizes more than fighting), I would suggest Dark Age of Camelot, using one of the free trials. I started a new character on a new server within the last 6 weeks and there were still low level folks to group with. In my opinion, Everquest is a richer experience, but it’s very unforgiving on new players, and I don’t think there are many folks casually going through the low levels of play.
DAOC: Probably one of the easier learning curves for an MMO though
DAoC has a very steady influx of new players right now - and we’re directing them to a specific server realm, so they have grouping partners starting the game with them.
And they’re all tossed into a newbie guild to start - with everyone in the immediate starting area in guild with them - and are part of a newbie alliance with every newbie in the realm.
We’re way off topic, though - My primary point was - if $50 is a big concern - check out some of the free options. Truly doesn’t cost him anything.
And, even if the free trial is not enough time, you’re looking at $12.95-$15.95 - vs. $50
-Walt
You on crack? My Ice/Invulnerability tanker solos better than my hovering Assault Rifle/Energy blaster does. Even my level 12 Defender and level 10 Controller can solo groups of even cons.