The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Please vote in the Forum Structure Poll. Polling will close at 2PM EST on January 21, 2025.
Granado Espada
Zephyr_Fate
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Onyx Obelisk, the official PA guild for Granado Espada, was formed on May 27th.
We are on the Carracci server.
Main Site: www.granadoespada.sg
Family Names on the NA version, we roll on Vespanola server
Zephyr_Fate - Ozymandias
FunkyWaltDogg - Stonewright
Malarik - Descatoire
PikaPuff - Dioquino
Shujaa - Tarinius
-SPI- - Spienzola
blizzard224 - Tawnville
Important Differences Between Singapore Version and USA Version
Okay, let's start this off. The URL that I reference a ton is the Singapore version. It is the main "English" version that you can play on May 17th. This game is being translated by Infocomm Asia Holdings Games. It is all in English, with voice acting and whatnot. Why there is a USA version is beyond me.
The American version is at www.swordofthenewworld.com, which is also in English but is being published by K2 Games.
Update!!
Sword of the New World is F2P almost entirely now, as a new marketing scheme from K2 Games. However, the Singapore version is going P2P.
Full List of Version 2 Updates
These updates will be included when Open Beta comes out in English in June/July 2007(after the Pre-Open Beta in May).
*NEW MAPS
181 new maps will be added, previous version only had 25.
*NEW QUESTS
395 new quests added. These include mini quests, mission rooms, and quests that can be picked up in combat zones, giving players more to do, other than levelling up.
*BARON MODE (AKA PK MODE)
When in Baron Mode, the Baron's icons will show above their party in red. Baron Mode level can be increased by executing successful PK, or decreased by killing normal monsters. Baron Mode gives a player an increased attack bonus, but also generates a possibility the player will lose an equipped item if they are killed.
*AUCTION HOUSE
Basically erases the need to sit around Ragnarok-Online style merchandising items.
*FACTION WARS
Guild vs. guild action. By utilizing Faction Colony Managers present in the major maps of GE, two guilds can battle it out for supremacy. Because of the 3-character system, these battles can become seriously epic.
*NEW ITEMS
1000 new items added. Also added are treasure chests found in dungeons and combat maps as well as an item mall where players can exchange marketing or event materials for rare items.
*ITEM CRAFTING
Combine those useless pieces of metal that you get as loot into more profitable items for more vis!
*NEW NPCS
7 new recruitable NPCs including Diego the Carpenter. 100 new NPCs were also added, who knows, maybe the popular ones will become recruitable.
Source: flaregamer.com
Gameplay Engine
Multi-Character Control System
The Multi-Character Control system allows a user to control three characters at once. This is achieved through the game's Family system. Every character you make has a customizable first name and an unchangeable last name(which you customize before even playing). In-game, this three-person team can be dictated to do many different things. You control exactly how your characters fight. It's much like an RTS, but more dynamic than most other 3-person RPGs that are out.
Assault Mode - This allows you to click on a point in front of you, and your characters fight all enemies in the path that you designated. This is the quickest way to not only get through a dungeon, but level up quickly as well. This mode does not allow you to pick up drops from mobs, and believe me, this game has *tons* of mobs because of the fact that you are controlling 3 people at once.
Keep Mode - This is the same as Assault Mode only you stay in one place, this allows you to position characters at a certain spot. You can keep your healers far away from enemies, or your musketeers(which don't get any armor whatsoever) at a distance. When you are hit in Hold Mode, your characters continue attacking, instead of getting stunned.
Auto-Assault Mode - This is the same as Assault Mode but you patrol and kill enemies in a certain spot. This, along with Keep Mode, allow a user to do what's called "AFK levelling." This nifty feature gives you time to sleep while your characters level. You cannot get drops with AFK levelling, though.
Harvest Mode - This action assigns your characters to pick up all drops in their immediate area.
F4 allows a user to call all of their teammates to the leader, and F9 allows you to change between individual select and team select mode.
Outside of these modes, just clicking on a spot moves all three characters in a general direction without automatically attacking. In battles, you can direct each character to perform certain skills in a WoW hotkey fashion. Healing, for example, can be directed to certain characters with F1, F2, or F3. Your characters gain SP via regularly attacking, so you do not run out of SP very often. There is also an absence of a death penalty until you hit level 51. Before that, your characters resurrect themselves after 64 seconds.
When this game is finally released outside of Beta, a user can create up to 50 characters in their 4 Barracks(where your Family stays).
Duels
Duelling in GE revolves around Family-to-Family battling. In Closed Beta, Duels could not be auto-rejected and thus AFK levellers can be killed easily. No one is sure whether or not Open Beta will include this feature or not. Anyways, duelling is much like a standard PvP battle, that, when won, gives your family reputation points. This probably opens up further quests in the game.
Stance System
Stances are the GE equivalent of WoW's talent trees. Stances are a separate levelling system that gain exp through killing monsters and using skills. Every class has multiple Stances, which give you stat boosts per level as well as new skills specific to that class. For example, you can turn a fast attacking Warrior into a defensive beast. You can buy new Stances from an NPC in the Office of Pioneering Support.
Some basic info on some of the Stances found for most of the classes: http://www.granadoespada.sg/forums/topic.asp?TID=1907
Character Classes
Fighter
Your basic tank, which serves as a decent damage-dealer and defensive tank, depending on the Stance. Eventually, this class can wield a pistol with a sword. This Stance, known as the Heaven & Hell Stance, provides some of the coolest looking skills in the game. The pistol-sword combo can make the Warrior a DPS class, which does help in the middle-game.
Musketeer
Another version of the long-range class. However, they wield badass Winchester rifles or small pistols. This Class has the strongest single attack out of every Class, but needs bullets to be efficient. Luckily, Boxes of Bullets(150 bullets each) are very cheap and thus this Class does not take much to fund. This Class does not have the luxury of much armor, though. Keep them in the back.
Wizard
Your quintessential Mage class, with high attributes in intelligence and constitution. This class has the gamut of offensive magical spells(and defensive magical spells), and eventually gains the "levitate" ability, making them invincible to ground enemies.
Scout
This class is strange, it's a DPS class with high agility but also is your primary healer. This Class will save your life more often than not. However, to utilize it's auto-healing ability, you must take off all weaponry from your equipment.
Elementalist
This is the purely offensive magical Class in GE. They pull all magic from elemental Bracelets, and eventually can equip two Bracelets to create multiple-element spells. These classes need protection during battle, as they are slow and lack defense(much like the Musketeer).
NPC Characters
By completing quests for certain NPCs, you can get their Character Cards. This allows you to essentially recreate these NPCs in your Barracks for use in battle. Every NPC has different stat allocations, different skills, and even completely new classes. For example, one NPC is essentially a trap-layer. He can build objects which trap and hurt enemy monsters, or set them up to be bombarded with AoE spells. Since you can make up to 50 characters, the amount of Character Cards you can get make sense. The sheer variety of party combinations is amazing, especially with this addition. This feature along with the MCC system are, IMO, revolutionary in MMOs.
The rest of the game is fairly standard. I hope more of you are interested in this game through this analysis.
Zephyr_Fate on
0
Posts
I recommend registering for it so you can log-on starting that day, here:
http://passport.iahgames.com/index.php
Dunno, just popped into my head today.
Because it's Korean?
No. It's distinctly anime/manga style. Perhaps with layers of stylization on top of that, but it is undeniably anime.
Just not for me, I guess. The family thing seems cool though.
City of Heroes wasn't very anime looking.
Motherfucking BOT LEVELING.
APPROVED BY A GAME. I CAN GO TO SLEEP AND LEVEL. I CAN GO TO WORK...
AND LEVEL.
Sign me the FUCK UP.
And then, AUTO-LEVEL while I'm at work. GLORIOUS.
My sarcasm meter must be broken. Surely, it should be getting some kind of reading from this.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I played 4 Rag characters to 60+. And, although I love the game, grinding in it made me want to destroy my soul. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did. Of course, not enough to fucking CHEAT at the game, mind you.
It's just that the fact that they INCLUDED this in a MMO is both encouraging, since I won't have to worry about 85 Kabillion bots farming all my shit, and in KMMO's, the less grinding I have to do, the better.
And stomach churning. The fact that, in order to make it LESS grindy, they are packing BOTS WITHIN THE GAME.
But then I see the Anime/Victorian style characters and it makes me want to love it for all eternity.
I'm thinking suicide is the best option at this point.
Er, no, but then CoH was made in California.
The only problem with AFK grinding, is that you do it just for levels and Stance grinding. You cannot farm any monster drops(which are the primary source of money) while AFK levelling. Only use it if you want to tackle a harder dungeon for better drops when you wake up. There are no bots in the game, you just pre-set your characters to continuously attack all enemies in their immediate area.
Also, I recommend Keep Mode so that way monsters can't knock your characters down, ceasing their attack.
Edit: I also, very highly recommend that when you do this, you train in an area where not many people pass through. For now there is no way to auto-reject duels between families, so people purposefully go through areas to duel AFK levellers and kill them for family reputation points. This is the PvP aspect of GE.
Edit 2: This game will remind you of Final Fantasy XII, as it's basically the online version of said game.
It's also not Korean.
So, thinking about Warrior/Musketeer/Scout.
How's character creation? Is there a template for each class or what?
This is the downfall of the game, there's no customization at creation. They all have set stats and looks. Later on you can buy outfits for your characters, and your armor changes your looks, but no initial control.
And that's a pretty good setup, although you might have trouble in larger spawns. Although not as much as I had with my Magician initially.
I remember hearing on CoH Broadcast the one time that one of the things Korean players of CoH often dislike about the game is the sheer amount of customization and creativity you can have just at level 1, and that the game never really matches that again.
Some thing about different cultural viewpoints on MMORPGs and accomplishments, that the Korean players prefer to have to earn everything that makes their character different rather than be able to start with it.
I don't know how accurate any of that is, but it seems to make sense.
Go get it now.
(Hair, face, skintone are selectable, but armor is pretty much set?)
I don't really think you need much customization when you can recruit NPCs in your party. lol.
Even a City Guard, a simple soldier with a spear, can be recruited.
Well, I'm not entirely sure if there's a little girl NPC, but there is a little boy NPC recruit.
Too bad there's only a bit of time between it's beta and the Halo3 beta
Anyways, yes, this is all based on a single person controlling a 3-character party. However, I've heard if you make Squads(essentially "Parties" in other MMOs) with other people you can actually get bonus EXP and level up even faster.
What I love most about the game is that even with a 10-person squad you have 30 characters onscreen battling.
The "automated combat" seems like a blessing at first until you realize that the developers made the game just barely not automated enough to let you actually be afk, so instead you get to just babysit your party. Also, the leveling treadmill is pretty absurd as a direct result of the fact the game mostly plays itself for you.
NPC characters also eventually become available for you to recruit to your party, many of which are far better than your stock characters, leaving little reason to not homogenize your party with the same NPCs that everyone else will eventually use. It's pretty depressing to imagine leveling up my musketeer to 60 then retiring him for Beneli because she does better gun damage.
Customization options are sort of a joke. You can pick the sex and class of a character when you make him, period. Armor models change about every 8-12 levels, so you can expect to look the same as everybody else for long, long periods of time. Oh but you can buy a hat also.
Anyways, don't mean to rain on everyone's parade, but I just thought I'd play devil's advocate here. If you hate korean MMO's then don't bother with this one, the 3 character gimmick, and it is a gimmick, doesn't change the fact it's still par for the korean grindfest course.
The paradox of this game is that people initially think the auto combat is a godsend because it will let you grind while you're not there. What people don't realize is that without the grinding there is no game. It quite literally in a way becomes like a very robust progress quest that requires periodic input and monitoring.