Yup. Played it pretty religiously three years ago or so. I always loved it and never quite found the same joy with other MMORPGs. However, being poor, I had to stop playing on the live server and kind of just forgot about it.
Well I happened upon my game discs the other day and thought “man, I’d like to play that”. But still being poor, I knew I couldn’t. But then I found something marvelous called a free server! And booyah, back in action!
And guess what? I still suck as much as I did three years ago! It took me two years to get my character to level 40. I’m dying a lot and getting reamed by other players in the PvP areas but damn I’m having a good time doing it.
Anyone else playing on the Uthgard server? Or just used to play it live?
Sorry. I quit after discovering that the developers had (in the original version, anyway) shafted Albions a lot, Hibernias some, and then decided to make up for it by handing out grotesquely butch stuff to Midgardians.*
*After struggling with my Mace-smiting Paladin… I disscovered that while my armor was good, my choice of weapon was useless, as only a few enemies had the requesite armor it was strong against, and none of them were player characters. And then I doscovered that Midgard Wins. Always.
My friend went from an Albion spell-slinger to a Midgardian one. He was better at first level in killing things that his Albion was at fifth. Armor Smarmor - you don’t need it when you kill before they even get to you. And that doesn’t even go into Thane Lag Killing.
I’ve never been very good about recognizing strengths and weaknesses in different classes so I don’t really know if that’s still an issue. I do remember that Mids in the live game were in general jackasses who seemed to always do mass instant mezzes without any repercussions while us Hibs were trying to just kill the damn Shaman.
I haven’t heard any complaints on this server about this same issue and it seems that the keeps are evenly held by the different realms. None of that “mids hold everything” crap from live.
It’s a classic server and from what I’ve read, it’s basically the game as it was pre-Trials of Atlantis. Here’s their website if you’re interested in checking it out. It’s a hell of a download though, like nearly 4gb.
Edit: Oh and I forgot to add. One really nice thing they’ve implemented on this server is XP bonuses to the realm that owns the BG keep. 20% bonus on every kill as long as your realm holds the keep corresponding to your level. Very nice!