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Has anyone played Age of Wushu?
Mandres
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Apparently this one is set for US release next week. F2P, hugely popular in China, and I keep hearing it described as a 'sandbox' game instead of a 'theme park' game. Has anyone played it? Is it worth a download?
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EVE in China? I'm intrigued ...
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/25302057/#Comment_25302057
While it's free, you essentially need to pay for VIP access to level with any speed. You aren't barred from leveling without VIP status, but the paid service allows your character to continue turning xp into skill gain while offline, which is a big deal if you want to advance with any speed. I don't particularily have a problem with this, but just throwing it out there so you know.
Nintendo Network ID: imperialparadox | 3DS FC: 2294-4029-6793
XBL Gamertag: Paradox3351 | PSN: imperialparadox
"Okay- let's teach you how to fight unarmed. Now, pick a school- where they will teach you their own martial art, thus reducing the chance of you actually using your inferior unarmed skills to almost zero!"
it's an mmo I could see myself getting into if everything was explained a little bit better
I'm not sure that's still true. At least not for the NA version. None of the previews/features I've found mention having to pay in order to keep developing skills while offline. There may be some kind of item you can buy that boosts the rate of skill development slightly, but neutering non-paying players like that doesn't make much sense.
Anyway, the U.S. version goes live this afternoon. I downloaded the client last night but I won't be able to check it out until this weekend probably. If it's fun I suppose I can throw together a proper OP and see what havoc the 36 Chambers of W(u) (t)ANG can wreak
Yeah you have to be VIP...
Welcome to the world of F2P.
You know, back in the day, you just paid a subscription and got access to all the content.
Now you have to pay twice that to get half the stuff.
I guess you could just not log off...maybe that would work? Seriously though, I'm not sure how much this really bugs me. It's basically a sub game, with the possibility to play for free if you aren't in a rush to level. The big thing that sucks though, is there is only one character allowed per account - thus, to have VIP on multiple characters you have to shell out the Texa$. The game basically encourages you to have one main character with VIP and perhaps a handful of non-VIP alts that you use for crafting or badge farming (which is a school-quest thing related to advancement, you can basically farm up badges with alts and send them to your main).
Nintendo Network ID: imperialparadox | 3DS FC: 2294-4029-6793
XBL Gamertag: Paradox3351 | PSN: imperialparadox
To answer your questions about the offline stuff, things like offline cultivation and offline stalls are for VIPs, but that's not the entirety of offline play. Even free players gain experience, money, etc while offline, you just get additional perks for being a VIP.
For people new to the game this guide might be a good place to start for an overview of various aspects of the game:
http://www.ageofwushu.com/material/index
Not quite finished yet, still adding images, cleaning up Engrish, and doing some final editing passes. It's plenty enough to get started though.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=99247006
Here's the Greenlight page as well.
Might want to put those links as well as a link to the main game page in the OP.
http://www.ageofwushu.com/
Might also come in handy for the OP as well, although it seems a touch rough at the moment.
This game has been described as EVE Online with colours, so I feel like the game deserves a decent and elaborate OP that will point anyone interested in the game to the most fun they can have as soon as possible. This might take a lot of effort, because the game is infamous for it's lack of information.
@Mandres Would you be willing to turn this thread into an informative OP? If not then we'll use this thread for now to discuss the game, but I suppose we can start a new thread once we have a clue on what we should tell new players.
@The_Spaniard What is your position with Snail USA? What are you working on right now? How long have you been working there? Are you willing to answer questions about the game mechanics in this thread?
Is anyone in a guild yet?
Awesome, that's good to know.
In terms of changes between the two versions. This one seems easier to get into, but it's still a hassle what with all the menus and screens and navigational buttons.
In terms of the localization, I can't really remember but it seems to be a lot easier to understand (although still pretty engrishy at times). I at least was able to understand most of the basic mechanics during the tutorial parts (having said that, you should take your time with the tutorials to make sure you understand whats going on). The attributes on your character and the skills you get still are hard to understand, but I was able to figure out the overall combat system this time around.
After I got my bearings the game got a lot more fun so if you can go through that learning curve and have everything click you should be having some fun.
Unless you're really against open world PvP in which case you should probably stop.
Unfortunately on my way down I fell to my death and was resurrected in town again.
possibly, it depends on whether I get into it when I check it out this weekend. If it's fun and seems like something I want to play for a while I'll put some work into the OP. I really just made the thread to see if anyone else had played it and if it was good or not.
Can anyone explain the difference/relationship between experience and cultivation? The_Spaniard said that free players would still be able to earn experience while offline, but not cultivation. What's the realistic impact on gameplay from this? I won't play a PvP game where those who pay the $10 have a major advantage over those who don't...
edit: So as I continue following the guide book thing in the upper right hand corner doing things a newb should do, I've picked up a couple gathering type professions. Fishing and Mining in particular are confusing me on how/where to find what I want to get. Other than opening up the profession thing and showing what's in an area, is there ANY way to find out WHERE in that big area to look? Right now I'm looking for Trout and their supposedly in Yanyu Villa where I am, but I've only found Breams, Green Pike and whatever the fish was right next to the trainer. I'll admit I don't think I've scoured 100% of the water area but I've come pretty damn close. Help?
My primary job title is PR Coordinator, but I wear many hats, as evidenced by the fact that I'm working on the guide page/IGN wiki right now. I've had my fingers in a few different pies here. We all pull together and help out in any ways we are capable of here in the US office. I've been working here since October of last year. Well I did offer to answer questions about the game, so yeah!
Experience gets converted into cultivation points which are used to cultivate your skills.
Oh and for anyone that's interested here are the first two reviews out so far:
http://cheatcc.com/pc/rev/ageofwushureview.html#.UWWjZTckTkQ - 8.2/10
http://www.gamematics.net/age-of-wushu-review/ - 7.5/10
Might want to put a running list in the OP of reviews in the OP.
My biggest tip would be to give a cursory thumbing of the guide to get down the basics.
http://www.ageofwushu.com/material/index
And remember this is a sandbox MMO not your typical theme-park MMO. No hand-holding, no being lead by the nose from one quest to the next. This is literally you being dropped into a world and making your own adventure.
Didn't you link me to an article about this awhile back that sort of described the sandbox aspect of it as very Eve Onlineish?
To answer your question in as detailed a fashion as possible: Yes.
I'm considering giving it a go when things slow down with this semester.
You earn XP by completing typical MMO activities, such as turning in quests, doing school tasks, etc., etc..
Experience goes into several different pools based on where you got it from, and these individual pools of experience convert at differing rates into Cultivation. Last time that I checked, 1 XP eventually turns into 1,000 Cultivation. So if you do a quest and get 50 XP, it might not sound like a lot, but it's really 50,000 Cultivation, which is a fairly good amount.
Once XP is converted into Cultivation, it can be funneled into whatever skill you are currently training, through one of three means:
1) Internal Cultivation, which is the process that you will use the most. This happens passively, with X amount of Cultivation going into your chosen skill at Y rate. There are various pills (alchemy) that speed up this process. If you have VIP status on your account, this can happen while you are offline.
2) Team Practice, which is a process whereby you team up with other players and have a martial arts kata session, which plays out like a game of Dance Dance Revolution. It's a bit silly, yet awesome at the same time. Basically you take turns inputting prompted keyboard entries, and as long as everyone performs this correctly Cultivation will be funneled into your skill at a dramatically increased rate. While it takes a large party for this form of training to be efficient, in a full group it will greatly decrease the time that it takes to train a skill. It's fairly common to find people looking to party up for this activity at the schools of each "class," and it's a good idea to do this whenever you can, as it will increase the rate in which you level skills. Note however that you may only benefit from Team Practice so many times in one day due to a stat that you have called Fatigue. I believe that it basically works out to two Team Practices a day.
3) You can spend NPC-Grade silver to buy pills to quickly use Cultivation. When you are first starting out, this will seem like an expensive option, but as you play you will discover that it is very economical. Note that you can only do this so many times a day, though unless the latest patch changed it, the game will give you an error message about not having enough money to continue your training. If you see this message, what it really means is that you've hit your daily limit for this type of training. There is also a button that you can check in this menu to allow you to use the type of silver that is used for player transactions (which is also the type of silver that can be paid for with real-life money). DO NOT DO THIS. While this might seem like the "pay-to-win" option, it is horribly inefficient, and a waste of money. You'll level just fine without it.
Once you get comfortable with the game, you will find that XP is very easy to earn. The main thing that hinders your progress is the time that it takes to turn that XP into actual skill gain. This is why VIP accounts have such an incredible advantage over non-paying players, they can continue to train skills even while offline. Basically you might play for an hour or two, and earn enough XP to advance several skills, though it will take so many hours of real-life time to complete your advancement. So, for the VIP player, they will earn XP, log off for the night with a specific skill set to be trained, and log back in with that skill at a new level. A non-VIP player will only experience skill gain while they are logged in, and thus they will eventually lag behind their paying counterparts. Granted, they are able to earn the same levels as the paying customer, they just won't get there as fast.
You could just not log out, I suppose. I don't think the game kicks you for idling, though you will be disconnected with the daily server reset. You'll even discover that VIP players are logged on idling fairly often, for varying reasons having to do with PVP mechanics and the like. Ultimately, the various real-life time restrictions to character advancement encourages you to level at a steady pace, you can't quickly grind levels because of the waiting involved in skilling up.
Nintendo Network ID: imperialparadox | 3DS FC: 2294-4029-6793
XBL Gamertag: Paradox3351 | PSN: imperialparadox
Oh and if you are the kind of person that likes doing things like that, you can always pay off officials, try to bribe your way out of prison, gamble with a guard, or even have your guild run a prison break.
The PVP system is set up a lot like the real world. It's not like there is a magic force-field that would just spring up if you tried to shoot someone in the face, but you're in for a world of misery if you think you can just get away with doing it.
I went with Blue Dragon based on the advice of the Massively guy. The best reason why to go for the old server is that there is less crazy drama going on and it's actually possible to chop down a tree without fearing for your life.