There are continuous quests. I’ve never run out of them, and you can always move to a different area and get new quests (for instance move from the dwarf area to the human area). My one problem so far has been that sometimes the quests are too hard for your level. But the solution is to simply move to another area thats easier (like I said, if you are in dwarves area move to human area). BTW, quests are VERY easy to get…all you do is look for an NPC with a big yellow exclaimation point over his head. Same with if you have to go see an NPC as part of a quest…look for the guy with a big yellow question mark over their head. Its really that easy. And the quest log is pretty good…really helps you. The maps are really good too, with a map accessible for the entire area you are in, as well as a mini map (that has zoom feature) thats up all the time.
He always does that. At least in Diablo I was a beautiful kick ass Amazon. Now I’m a funny looking Night Elf with floppy ears. If he wants to get lucky, he should pick better looking characters to name after me.
I should point out that I did spend some time on the character selection screen making sure I had the hottest configuration I could. And I find the ears to be exotic.
All I’ve heard for sure is that with each push they will be adding more people to the beta. Also that they plan on pretty much inviting all those who applied into the beta at some point. Other than that, its all just rumor and speculation. Personally I think they might allow an open beta towards the end.
I also heard a rumor that they are shooting for October as a timeframe for going gold with this thing. But as with everything else, its just a rumor. My friends at Blizzard won’t tell me any of the good stuff.
I’ve been playing for a few weeks, since they started the human/dwarf/etc push. It’s pretty cool, but I can’t say whether or not I’d buy it when it comes out. For one thing, I haven’t been able to try any of the Horde races yet, and for another I haven’t yet been able to play with any of my friends.
So far, it seems to me more like “World of Diablo II.” The gameplay’s a lot more oriented towards quick action, frequent battles, simple quests, and character building, than towards strategy and tactics like an RTS. I’ve played as 4 different classes (warrior, rogue, warlock, and priest) and like Diablo, each class has its own playstyle that’s fairly unique.
The good:
– The game is pretty damn solid, especially considering the beta’s just started. As xtisme mentioned, other MMORPGs have shipped in this state.
– They’ve obviously done a lot of playtesting and balancing to minimize the downtime and other annoyances in MMORPGs. Your health & mana constantly regenerate, you can usually solo against 3 or 4 monsters around your level before having to rest up, and even then you can usually get back up to full in less than 30 seconds.
– Even though the gameplay is fairly simple (talk to someone, kill stuff, repeat), it has yet to get tedious for me. But of course, I loved Diablo II, and that’s even simpler.
– You can solo! The “designers” of a lot of MMORPGs set the games up so that you have to get into a party to do anything, as if it’s their duty to force you to be social. In WOW, you benefit from joining a party in that it’s much faster, but there’s no penalty for going solo.
– Death penalty is exactly how it should be done.
– It’s beautiful, and what’s better has a real art style and imagination instead of just being a bland rehash of tired old fantasy stereotypes (EverQuest, I’m looking at you).
The bad:
– There are tons and tons of quests, but they’re simple and pretty much the same thing over and over again – kill 9 of this, get 3 of these, go there.
– As good as the world looks, the characters are a little disappointing.
– Related to that, it’s unclear how much longevity the game’ll have. Maybe the Horde vs Alliance stuff will make things more interesting.
– None of the NPCs talk to you at all unless they have a quest to give you. I hope this is just an alpha/beta thing, and they’ll add more life and character to the world before ship.
– The maps are inadequate. 90% of the dialog in the text channel is from people asking “where is X?”
– Other stuff that’s planned but currently missing, like an auction channel, better chat interface, etc. Too early to tell.
It’s already the best MMORPG I’ve played (previously Final Fantasy XI).
Great post SolGrundy! You made some really good points about the game I think.
The one comment is more by way of emphasis…the game is beautiful and pretty unique IMO. The land is vibrant and the houses and such are full of all kinds of interesting objects (which you can’t touch or pick up unfortunately). Also, as I said myself, the death penalty is perfect IMO…just right.
As to the quests, I agree that they are pretty simple and straighforward. Most are basically kill x number of a certain type of monster or monsters, or get x number of items (baskets, shimmer weed, etc). Remember though that the current level limit is 30. The game, when it ships from what I hear, will have a 99 level limit. I imagine that the upper level quests will be a lot better. At least I hope this is the case anyway.
I’m not sure why the characters are disappointing to you. To me they look a lot like the characters from the Warcraft games. I love the dwarves and the gnomes are just a crackup (have you seen a high level gnome warrior in chain? Its a riot!) Also I think the Taurent are really cool, and Night elves too. The only one I’m really disappointed in is the undead…I wanted it to be more like a skeleton.
As to longetivity, I don’t know either. As I said, there is supposed to be a pretty high level limit. In addition the trade skills give a lot of live to the game, especially if they put in more and more items you can make. Already there are some VERY cool items you can make. In addition, the ‘end game’ will most likely be AvH combat sort of like DaoC I imagine. That could give some longetivity to the game I’d think.
I hope they have more interaction with the NPC’s also. I also hope that they make some more interesting and complex quests, at least at higher levels. You kind of expect easier and less complex quests for the lower levels, as people need a decent learning curve to ramp up playing the game. I hope that the upper level quests are much more complex and meaningful…adventure type quests. There is a hint of this already btw. There are special quests in the game now that you might not have done that open up a dungeon just for you and your party to be able to adventure in for some goal.
I agree on the maps. I wish I could ‘mark’ my main map with notes for instance. Also it would be nice if all the quests that had you go somewhere or talk to someone would show up on the mini-map the same way towns and members of your party show up.
Well, there is a trade channel already in the game (/2) so I’m not sure exactly why an auction channel would be needed. Seems most of the channels and chatting stuff works pretty good to me, maybe you could expand on your thoughts on how you think it should be?
Is camping eliminated or reduced compared to EQ? I was reading the WoW forums and they’re talking about a dungeon that was knee high in corpses, which makes me think that there must be a lot of competition for primo hunting spots.
Obviously this may change once more content is added, but it may be a good indication of how things may look in the future…
Its a different kind of camping, and I think its more due to the nature of how they did the alpha. Hopefully when the game really ships it will be different. Let me describe the problem as it was in the alpha and to a lesser extent how it is now and you can draw your own conclusions.
Several of the quests have you go to a mine/dungeon and slay X number of mobs or pick up boxes scattered throughout the mine/dungeon, or kill a very specific mob or set of mobs that can only be fond in a certain area. In the alpha only one race was put in at a time, so EVERYONE was in the exact same area. This lead to hordes of people who were going after the exact same quest, thus the situation you describe. Even in the beta when the entire alliance is open, the horde characters/lands are locked, so to a lesser degree you have a similar thing happening.
However, as the game is meant to be played, there really AREN’T any ‘primo hunting spots’ to camp. You are basically moving from quest to quest, not camping per se…except when you need that box or that certain item thats only found in the one mine, you you need to kill a certain specific mob that others are also trying to kill for the same quest.
I think when the full game ships and all the lands are open, as well as when there are multiple servers available, this will be a smaller problem. I’m sure there will still be time when people are competing to do the same quest, but I can’t imagine it a major problem when folks are spread out.
Sure Brainiac4. I’ll be playing in Loch Modan knocking out the low level quests there tonight (troggs and such) with two friends with my new gnome warlock, littlebitz (level 10). If you or anyone else wants to hook up and do the quests with us just send me a tell, I’ll be on about 7pm est and will probably play for several hours. If you are a human you can take a griffon from Stormwind to Iron Forge then just hoof it to Loch Modan.
My characters in the alliance that I also play are:
This thread got me so pumped up to play this game I broke out my Warcraft 3 CD last night and started playing it again! I know it’s not the same, but it’s the best us non-beta folks can do.
How is kill stealing handled? It is like EQ in that whoever does the most damage to a mob gets the credit for the kill, or is it more like FF XI where the player who engages a mob first “locks” it so no one else can attack it? I like the FFXI system better myself, if only because it eliminates a lot of whining.
Also, how does the general player population seem? I’m old, so I prefer a more mature player base. My biggest worry is that the game will be filled with annoying little freaks like Battlenet seems to be.
I think it would be the group or person that does the most damage, but honestly I haven’t had it happen to me in this game so far so I’m not sure. It definitely doesn’t ‘lock’ after combat starts though. The looting can be set up (if you are in a group) to be either round robin (the best way IMO) or free for all. A good group leader will set it to round robin until all but one or two people in the party doing a certain quest has the items they need, then set it to free for all so that last guys can get the item (if its a loot item).
Well, I’m young (only 16) but my dad also plays and he’s pretty old (42). I can’t really be a judge of the maturity of the player base though…they seem ok to me for the most part. In the alpha it was a lot of Blizzard employees and their friends only. The beta seems more diverse.
I think the game player base is a lot different than on Battlenet though. Also, its a totally different environment with respect to the hacking and cheating and harshness that was Battlenet as I remember it anyway.
I just read that the download for the beta is two gigabyes. Yikes! Anyone know how long that would take one of us on a dial-up connection? If I do get in the beta, I’ll probably take my computer over to my brother’s house and yoink his cable connection for a few hours. I can’t imagine that a 2 gb download would take less than a couple days to complete.
And I’m definitely thinking that guilds are the way to go in order to deal with mature players. Already I’ve seen a reference to the Geezer Guild, a group of beta-ites who are mostly over 20 or 30 and who are going for a mellow, laid-back, friendly play-style. Perhaps when the game releases, we can form the Doper guild.
Damn…the board ate my post. Well, to respond again to LHoD, the conversion from alpha to beta took me 8 hours on a cable modem. Blizzard is using Bit Torrent technology to do the downloads, which in theory gets faster the more people downloading (its a peer to peer distribution protocol). However, IMO your best bet is to go to your brothers house to do the download. Not sure how it will play from dial in either. It plays very smoothly over cable modem or at my dads office (they have a T1).
I think it’s a bigger problem than you make it sound, actually. Granted, it doesn’t impact the balance of the game itself – at least with the relatively low numbers of people on the alpha and beta servers, I’ve never run into a problem where it was just impossible to get the mob(s) I needed, the worst I’ve had to do is wait a few minutes.
It does, however, completely kill any notion of the story or plot development. I got an early quest to kill an NPC and bring back his head. When I went to the place he was hiding out, there was literally a line of players queued up waiting to kill him. He would spawn, the front of the line would go out, kill him, say “next,” and then the next person would wait for the NPC to respawn. The majority of quests aren’t like that, but there are enough that depend on your waiting for a single NPC to spawn that it’s annoying. We’ll see if the higher-level instanced dungeons help with this at all.
The characters themselves look fine, and they keep with the artstyle of Warcraft III, of course, I just felt that there wasn’t as much flexibility in customizing your own character. They can all look vaguely different, but nothing really stands out. It’s still a lot more variety than FFXI offerred, and you can change the look by wearing different items.
The Horde vs Alliance stuff will definitely add some longevity to things. I never played Dark Age of Camelot, but I liked the concept a lot.
As for the tradeskills, sure, there’s a lot there, but it’s all just going up a ladder. SW Galaxies proved that just having a lot of levels of tradeskills doesn’t make them any more fun. There’s a set of known recipes, a set of known ingredients, you combine them to make a set of known items. Seeing as how this is Blizzard, I was hoping for something a little more Diablo-ish, where there’s some randomization and discovery in creating or enhancing items – you can discover your own recipes, or based on your skill you can create better items with some random enhancements. Maybe the higher levels are different, but I’ve been playing with the enchanting and engineering tradeskills and don’t see any capacity for randomization or surprises.
Maybe. The most promising thing I’ve heard so far is the mention that there may be some mobs that can see ghosts, and some quests that are only available to ghosts. That’s the most original and intriguing idea I’ve seen yet – the rest of the quest system is rock-solid, tuned, balanced, but ultimately boring. (Blizzard’s M.O.)
The chat channels aren’t that big a concern; I just wish there were a nicer UI for interacting with the different channels, instead of dealing with all the slash commands. (And since the UI is completely customizable, that’s a definite possibility).
The auctions are a different matter altogether. Having to do them “by hand” over a chat channel is just bad (and I’ve read that they’re planning for a fancier auction interface). Again, Final Fantasy XI is the one to look at here; their auction system was perfect. Set up an auction house, put an item up for bids, and check your results. You don’t have to do it yourself, you don’t have to meet up with the buyer/seller, etc.
It’s definitely not FFXI’s system. In fact, there’s currently no indication whether or not someone else has started attacking a monster, so there’ve been several times I killed something only to turn around and see that someone else had been attacking from a distance. (I put in a suggestion that they switch to FFXI’s system, but I doubt they’ll do it). When that’s happened, it seemed to give looting rights to the character/party that did the most damage. Within a party, looting rights are determined as described earlier. (Incidentally, that was another thing that FFXI handled better, IMO).
Over 20 qualifies as “geezer”? Yeep. I’m 32, and I wouldn’t say I’m going for more “mellow and laid-back” so much, just less “PWNED! U SUX0R!” In any case, I think the first rule for me with WoW is to avoid the forums – Blizzard fans obsess over the most minute details (“Necromancer got TOTALLY NERFED when they changed LVL32 Balls Of Fury attack to do +3 dmg per second instead of +3.5!!!”) and suck all the fun out of the game, IMO. The same thing started to happen in FFXI, where the fansites, although helpful, would detail every single stat of every single item, and give lists of exactly what character combinations and playstyles were “most efficient.” It just took away any semblance of discovering anything, or just playing for fun.
I think their “geezer” appellation is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the huge number of thirteen-year-olds throwing leetspeak, homophobia, and racial epithets all over battle.net. I’m not yet thirty and am willing to be a geezer if it means minimizing my contact with such fools.
(Note that some thirteen-year-olds are delightful people, and some thirty-year-olds belong in a zoo; I’m just make crass overgeneralizations).
I found a cool article about the game on the Warcraft Vault for anyone still interested in this discussion.
It gives a good overview of the game in general and points out some of the cooler features. At this point I’ll let the thread sink into obscurity unless someone has any further questsion or comments about the game. I will probably revive it when the next push comes out to describe the new races/classes. Also, when/if Blizzard gives out some additional information on the higher level ‘Hero Classes’ we are all waiting for. If you played Warcraft III you know what Hero Classes are…and they are going to be incorporated into WoW for +40 level character, but no details yet except that there will be Demon Hunter (Night Elf Hunter) Mountain King (Dwarf).
The recent EverQuest patch fiasco has rendered my computer worthless for EQ; althought he graphics card is supported, it simply doesn’t work for shit anymore and the limited solutions EQ Tech Support is offering have no effect.
On March 22 my computer ran EQ perfectly.
On March 23 the game was totally unplayable.
So if WoW is playable and good, they may get my money.
Same with if you have to go see an NPC as part of a quest…look for the guy with a big yellow question mark over their head. Its really that easy. And the quest log is pretty good…really helps you. The maps are really good too, with a map accessible for the entire area you are in, as well as a mini map (that has zoom feature) thats up all the time.
Well, to respond again to LHoD, the conversion from alpha to beta took me 8 hours on a cable modem. Blizzard is using Bit Torrent technology to do the downloads, which in theory gets faster the more people downloading (its a peer to peer distribution protocol). However, IMO your best bet is to go to your brothers house to do the download. Not sure how it will play from dial in either. It plays very smoothly over cable modem or at my dads office (they have a T1).
I think their “geezer” appellation is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the huge number of thirteen-year-olds throwing leetspeak, homophobia, and racial epithets all over