(no subject)
I played a lot over the weekend.
1) I tried out Diplomacy again. It wouldn't be fair to call it a mini-game. I dug into the systems and it's quite impressive. I have no idea what the "end game" is, but there is so, so, so much to do in the process. Including a damn fast mount and some epic (diplomacy) gear.
2) Crafting. I picked up a level, but I don't see any additional "things to make" from 51 to 55. I'm afraid that there is no "end game" for crafters beyond what was already in the game. Which means that at 55, the only difference is the things you were doing at 50 are easier.
3) Adventuring. I feel like what WoW must have felt like when Burning Crusade launched. They put in a patch which raised the level cap from 50 to 55 about 3 years ago with a bunch of additional quests and dungeons and such. Suddenly the "epic awesome" gear that I spent hours and hours getting is being replaced with the first quest reward from the new area. And this new gear has a bunch of new stats on it that I'm not sure are good or bad, but they're definitely different than what I was itemizing for earlier.
The game has too much stealth though. The quest hub I went to was a dungeon that was mostly solo with a few optional group encounters. Nobody was really interested in clearing the "trash" mobs, we all just stealthed by them and avoided the mobs that could detect.
I do love the Blood Mage class. Like, OMG, this is how healing is suppose to be. Too many abilities though, especially buffs. They could really cut a few out. And even though he's a gnome.... he's probably the most charismatic character I've ever played, and he's got swagger. When the discussion of gnome punting shows up in region chat, it's... "Hate to break it to you folks, but chicks dig Gnomes. Short and bald, that's how I roll."
With the F2P launch, they merged most of the starting zones. Not a big deal but I noticed that they closed off the gnome starting / main city "Mekalia". I flew out to the area and checked it out. There's an RP post about the coming.
I also went looking for the Dark Elf queen, and couldn't find her. The Dark Elves actually have more than one city (2, maybe 3). I think one of the flaws of the game is that it is -too- big. I got lost in the city, almost to the point of being unable to find my way out.
The High Elf King and Queen are a bit easier to find. But I was disappointed with their models. They also don't have "thrones" in the throne room. I feel bad for them, they're sort of stuck there standing on separate dais. If I had an art department, I'd put updating that room on the to-do list. [Sad] However, the High Elf architecture is -amazing-, as is the back sound track.
The Thestran (European-style human) King is very cool. There is a keep within a castle-city that you have to crawl around in to find him, and along the way you end up passing a bunch of misc. nobles, bureaucrats, and ambassadors. Pretty much what you'd expect on your way into a King's throne room. And now that I think about it, he's not sitting either.
I should have uploaded some screen shots, I'll work on that for my next post.
1) I tried out Diplomacy again. It wouldn't be fair to call it a mini-game. I dug into the systems and it's quite impressive. I have no idea what the "end game" is, but there is so, so, so much to do in the process. Including a damn fast mount and some epic (diplomacy) gear.
2) Crafting. I picked up a level, but I don't see any additional "things to make" from 51 to 55. I'm afraid that there is no "end game" for crafters beyond what was already in the game. Which means that at 55, the only difference is the things you were doing at 50 are easier.
3) Adventuring. I feel like what WoW must have felt like when Burning Crusade launched. They put in a patch which raised the level cap from 50 to 55 about 3 years ago with a bunch of additional quests and dungeons and such. Suddenly the "epic awesome" gear that I spent hours and hours getting is being replaced with the first quest reward from the new area. And this new gear has a bunch of new stats on it that I'm not sure are good or bad, but they're definitely different than what I was itemizing for earlier.
The game has too much stealth though. The quest hub I went to was a dungeon that was mostly solo with a few optional group encounters. Nobody was really interested in clearing the "trash" mobs, we all just stealthed by them and avoided the mobs that could detect.
I do love the Blood Mage class. Like, OMG, this is how healing is suppose to be. Too many abilities though, especially buffs. They could really cut a few out. And even though he's a gnome.... he's probably the most charismatic character I've ever played, and he's got swagger. When the discussion of gnome punting shows up in region chat, it's... "Hate to break it to you folks, but chicks dig Gnomes. Short and bald, that's how I roll."
With the F2P launch, they merged most of the starting zones. Not a big deal but I noticed that they closed off the gnome starting / main city "Mekalia". I flew out to the area and checked it out. There's an RP post about the coming.
I also went looking for the Dark Elf queen, and couldn't find her. The Dark Elves actually have more than one city (2, maybe 3). I think one of the flaws of the game is that it is -too- big. I got lost in the city, almost to the point of being unable to find my way out.
The High Elf King and Queen are a bit easier to find. But I was disappointed with their models. They also don't have "thrones" in the throne room. I feel bad for them, they're sort of stuck there standing on separate dais. If I had an art department, I'd put updating that room on the to-do list. [Sad] However, the High Elf architecture is -amazing-, as is the back sound track.
The Thestran (European-style human) King is very cool. There is a keep within a castle-city that you have to crawl around in to find him, and along the way you end up passing a bunch of misc. nobles, bureaucrats, and ambassadors. Pretty much what you'd expect on your way into a King's throne room. And now that I think about it, he's not sitting either.
I should have uploaded some screen shots, I'll work on that for my next post.