NockerGeek (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nockergeek) wrote2004-09-12 09:51 pm
nockergeek) wrote2004-09-12 09:51 pm
(no subject)
Well, the World of Warcraft stress test ended this evening, and it was good. Very good. Very very good.
First off, I never felt like I was just killing creatures for XP. In fact, I only occasionally looked at my XP meter at all. Most of your experience comes from quests, which are usually simple; "talk to X," or "kill so many of creature Y," or "bring me back so many of Z, which are dropped by creature Y," or "take this thing to person X". When you finish the quest, you usually get a reward of some kind (money, or perhaps an item), and a large chunk of XP. Sometimes, they chain together into one larger quest. For example, today I stopped by the North Gate from Dun Morough (the starting dwarven area) to Loch Modan (the next area over), and there was a siege tank driver who was worried about his friend, who had gone off in search of supplies a few days before and hadn't returned. The quest? Go talk to his friend in the hills. Went to search the hills, and found a dwarven corpse that triggered my "Use" function. Investigated it, and sure enough, it was the body of his friend. That fulfilled one quest. It started a new quest, though -- his diary had one final scrawled entry, stating that he had been killed by a huge iceclaw bear, so the next quest was to kill the bear and bring a paw back to the siege tank driver as proof. Found the bear, took it down, grabbed the quest item it dropped, and returned to the driver. Two quests, each giving me a healthy chunk of experience (plus the XP for killing the bear), but also, they gave me the sense that I'd actually played a small part in a very personal story in the game.
So, leveling doesn't feel like a treadmill. You do reach points where it becomes hard to run around solo (mostly because the monsters are dangerous/deadly), but finding a group wasn't a problem. More often than not, people were just showing up at the same place, and groups formed from necessity. I got to take part in 2 or 3 good groups, and every time it helped me (and the other people in the group) finish quests that were too difficult for any of us to do on our own. I mostly ended up in groups with other paladins, but I think I got to see every class in action, either as a member of a group, or just as a fellow adventurer. Very distinct classes, which is a good thing.
The game's beautiful as well. I may post some screenshots some time, but even those can only hint at the sense of scale in the world. The world is huge, and it feels properly epic. In Loch Modan, two massive statues of dwarven heroes mark the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. Ironforge, the main Dwarven city, is a massive stone citadel deep in the heart of a mountain, with cavernous ceilings and pits of lava, complete with a Great Forge at its heart. The human city of Stormwind is a sprawling medieval metropolis, complete with winding streets and canals and multiple districts and shops. At the same time, while FFXI had large areas, they always seemed kind of barren to me. Not in WoW; in Dun Morough alone, there's one major city (Ironforge), and several smaller towns/outposts (Kharanos, Brewnell Villiage, Anvilmar, Steelgrill's Depot), as well as a number of dungeons (the Frostmane Troll caves, the Wendigo caves, the Quarry, the Coldridge Pass tunnel). The area is also hilly and wooded, with frozen rivers and lakes (that have holes in the ice for fishing), and the occasional siege tank wreckage. The world just feels... lived-in, and that's a good thing.
Oh, and as well as the world being lived in, people are also dying in it. Death happens, especially as you run into tougher areas where you need groups. There's no enforced death penalty, though. When you die, you respawn as a ghost at the nearest graveyard. Once there, you have 2 choices: run back to your body as a ghost and be raised for free, or be resurrected in the graveyard for a minor/moderate XP penalty. If you don't mind taking the time to run back (and the run feels a bit faster than normal running), you come back and can go about your business. If you don't have the time, or it's not safe where you were, then take the XP hit. However, it definitely encourages you to be heroic. You don't fear character death the way you do in FFXI, so it's okay to be foolishly brave on occasion. :)
I could go on; the interface, the smooth curve in gaining resources and skills (at least for levels 1-12, which is as far as I got), the wonderful trade skill implementation (you can't fail and lose your materials), the quirky sense of humor (there's a shop in Ironforge called, "Things That Go Boom!" -- they sell fireworks)... it's just a wonderful, wonderful game. It even tops the "Oooh, neato," feeling that I had when I first started FFXI. This game has an "Oooh, neato," factor that comes from both the look and the gameplay. I can't wait for the retail release - I have my Collector's Edition copy already pre-ordered! :)
So, that was how I spent my weekend. ^_^
EDIT: Can you see what I see? Yes you can!
Screw maces; I want to fight with one of these!
(Standing on a siege tank in the Hall of Arms, Ironforge.)
They make their heroes big around here!
(On a small quest from Ironforge to Stormwind, and I did some sightseeing. These statues are at the entrance to the city.)
Dwarf
Night Elf
Mage
Paladin
L'il Timmy wanted to sell me some pussy
Oh, that kind of pussy
(A random "merchant" I found wandering the streets of Stormwind.)
Fly the friendly skies
(The gryphon ride back to Ironforge from Stormwind. Note the farmhouses and such outside the city.)
And the unfriendly skies, too.
(Your flights take you over all the territory betwen your departure point and destination, so you get to see places you can't get to yet; some of the places don't look too friendly, like the Burning Steppes.)
Helping the big guy scratch an itch
(The statues guarding the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. The hand there is my mouse pointer in a unintentionally funny place.)
Me, looking heroic
(Trust me; that's a worm's-eye view. The statues are HUGE!)
Hellooooo, nurse!
(A warlock's summoned pet... in this case, a Succubus. Very well modeled.)
Damn, girl.
(A different angle. Almost makes one want to give up being a paladin.)
First off, I never felt like I was just killing creatures for XP. In fact, I only occasionally looked at my XP meter at all. Most of your experience comes from quests, which are usually simple; "talk to X," or "kill so many of creature Y," or "bring me back so many of Z, which are dropped by creature Y," or "take this thing to person X". When you finish the quest, you usually get a reward of some kind (money, or perhaps an item), and a large chunk of XP. Sometimes, they chain together into one larger quest. For example, today I stopped by the North Gate from Dun Morough (the starting dwarven area) to Loch Modan (the next area over), and there was a siege tank driver who was worried about his friend, who had gone off in search of supplies a few days before and hadn't returned. The quest? Go talk to his friend in the hills. Went to search the hills, and found a dwarven corpse that triggered my "Use" function. Investigated it, and sure enough, it was the body of his friend. That fulfilled one quest. It started a new quest, though -- his diary had one final scrawled entry, stating that he had been killed by a huge iceclaw bear, so the next quest was to kill the bear and bring a paw back to the siege tank driver as proof. Found the bear, took it down, grabbed the quest item it dropped, and returned to the driver. Two quests, each giving me a healthy chunk of experience (plus the XP for killing the bear), but also, they gave me the sense that I'd actually played a small part in a very personal story in the game.
So, leveling doesn't feel like a treadmill. You do reach points where it becomes hard to run around solo (mostly because the monsters are dangerous/deadly), but finding a group wasn't a problem. More often than not, people were just showing up at the same place, and groups formed from necessity. I got to take part in 2 or 3 good groups, and every time it helped me (and the other people in the group) finish quests that were too difficult for any of us to do on our own. I mostly ended up in groups with other paladins, but I think I got to see every class in action, either as a member of a group, or just as a fellow adventurer. Very distinct classes, which is a good thing.
The game's beautiful as well. I may post some screenshots some time, but even those can only hint at the sense of scale in the world. The world is huge, and it feels properly epic. In Loch Modan, two massive statues of dwarven heroes mark the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. Ironforge, the main Dwarven city, is a massive stone citadel deep in the heart of a mountain, with cavernous ceilings and pits of lava, complete with a Great Forge at its heart. The human city of Stormwind is a sprawling medieval metropolis, complete with winding streets and canals and multiple districts and shops. At the same time, while FFXI had large areas, they always seemed kind of barren to me. Not in WoW; in Dun Morough alone, there's one major city (Ironforge), and several smaller towns/outposts (Kharanos, Brewnell Villiage, Anvilmar, Steelgrill's Depot), as well as a number of dungeons (the Frostmane Troll caves, the Wendigo caves, the Quarry, the Coldridge Pass tunnel). The area is also hilly and wooded, with frozen rivers and lakes (that have holes in the ice for fishing), and the occasional siege tank wreckage. The world just feels... lived-in, and that's a good thing.
Oh, and as well as the world being lived in, people are also dying in it. Death happens, especially as you run into tougher areas where you need groups. There's no enforced death penalty, though. When you die, you respawn as a ghost at the nearest graveyard. Once there, you have 2 choices: run back to your body as a ghost and be raised for free, or be resurrected in the graveyard for a minor/moderate XP penalty. If you don't mind taking the time to run back (and the run feels a bit faster than normal running), you come back and can go about your business. If you don't have the time, or it's not safe where you were, then take the XP hit. However, it definitely encourages you to be heroic. You don't fear character death the way you do in FFXI, so it's okay to be foolishly brave on occasion. :)
I could go on; the interface, the smooth curve in gaining resources and skills (at least for levels 1-12, which is as far as I got), the wonderful trade skill implementation (you can't fail and lose your materials), the quirky sense of humor (there's a shop in Ironforge called, "Things That Go Boom!" -- they sell fireworks)... it's just a wonderful, wonderful game. It even tops the "Oooh, neato," feeling that I had when I first started FFXI. This game has an "Oooh, neato," factor that comes from both the look and the gameplay. I can't wait for the retail release - I have my Collector's Edition copy already pre-ordered! :)
So, that was how I spent my weekend. ^_^
EDIT: Can you see what I see? Yes you can!
Screw maces; I want to fight with one of these!
(Standing on a siege tank in the Hall of Arms, Ironforge.)
They make their heroes big around here!
(On a small quest from Ironforge to Stormwind, and I did some sightseeing. These statues are at the entrance to the city.)
Dwarf
Night Elf
Mage
Paladin
L'il Timmy wanted to sell me some pussy
Oh, that kind of pussy
(A random "merchant" I found wandering the streets of Stormwind.)
Fly the friendly skies
(The gryphon ride back to Ironforge from Stormwind. Note the farmhouses and such outside the city.)
And the unfriendly skies, too.
(Your flights take you over all the territory betwen your departure point and destination, so you get to see places you can't get to yet; some of the places don't look too friendly, like the Burning Steppes.)
Helping the big guy scratch an itch
(The statues guarding the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. The hand there is my mouse pointer in a unintentionally funny place.)
Me, looking heroic
(Trust me; that's a worm's-eye view. The statues are HUGE!)
Hellooooo, nurse!
(A warlock's summoned pet... in this case, a Succubus. Very well modeled.)
Damn, girl.
(A different angle. Almost makes one want to give up being a paladin.)
no subject
Not sure what a "velious" is (as I've never done EQ), but it sounds like CoH's new items are merely cosmetic (and from what I hear, you can't even get capes and auras until you level up significantly).
And as far as membership fees, I have to weigh it against how often I play and how much the game offers. FFXI's $13 per month was a bit steep, as it stuck me with one character and I only got to play maybe 3-4 hours every week or two (as you have to play the game in 3-4 hour chunks to progress anywhere). WoW, on the other hand, can be easily played in 30 minute increments and still allow you to progress. I could put in an hour of WoW every night and still feel like I'm progressing and having fun, so in that case, a $10-$15 fee wouldn't be bad. CoH, though, probably wouldn't hold my interest to play it more than a couple of hours a week, which wouldn't be worth $10-$15 to me.