I think I know what I will roll, going to make a warrior and a spell slinger,
The warrior will be a rock guy named Skragg and the spellslinger will be an exile human with a big old stach named HandsomeHadwell like some kind of old west outlaw
If anyone in here has progressed to higher level content, I'd like to hear your opinion on a few things, because Beta left me equal parts excited and disappointed but I only made it to level 10-
Does the UI remain obtuse, or do familiarity or add-ons solve the usability/confusion questions?
Raiding - is it awesome? Is PA going to have the kind of numbers to make this happen?
PvP - gear dependent? Well balanced?
My extremely limited impressions were that this game has an insane amount of potential. I think the telegraph system, dash system, and very fast-paced combat are a revolution that I REALLY want to be a part of. On the other hand, literally from the first 5 minutes in the game I thought to myself "oh... these guys needed another $10 million and 6 months to polish." I also was having some thoughts about how quality of life didn't appear to be a very big dev concern. I've already pre-ordered, and I'm getting in, but I'm still on the fence whether this is going to be an FFXIV where I'm one-month-and-done, or a SWTOR or GW2 where I'm in for the long haul. What are some impressions from people who have spent some real time with the game?
If anyone in here has progressed to higher level content, I'd like to hear your opinion on a few things, because Beta left me equal parts excited and disappointed but I only made it to level 10-
Does the UI remain obtuse, or do familiarity or add-ons solve the usability/confusion questions?
Raiding - is it awesome? Is PA going to have the kind of numbers to make this happen?
PvP - gear dependent? Well balanced?
My extremely limited impressions were that this game has an insane amount of potential. I think the telegraph system, dash system, and very fast-paced combat are a revolution that I REALLY want to be a part of. On the other hand, literally from the first 5 minutes in the game I thought to myself "oh... these guys needed another $10 million and 6 months to polish." I also was having some thoughts about how quality of life didn't appear to be a very big dev concern. I've already pre-ordered, and I'm getting in, but I'm still on the fence whether this is going to be an FFXIV where I'm one-month-and-done, or a SWTOR or GW2 where I'm in for the long haul. What are some impressions from people who have spent some real time with the game?
I only reached 23 through the betas (though I experimented a lot with all the classes). But, I've been trying to keep up with the game so can hopefully shed some light on this stuff:
UI: Yeah, it's not great. You know this, I know this, the devs know this. They're actually still working on it a bit and even if some of those fixes don't come by launch, I expect this stuff to roll out pretty quickly. With that being said, add-ons are super great. Every day I notice more and more on Curse so it's going to be a very active thing. In fact, there's probably an add-on right now for almost any gripe you might have. I'd recommend taking a look through them, though I will also say I hate the base UI less and less as I play. I'm not really fighting against it anymore as I know where to find most things.
Raiding: Honestly, I don't think anyone here has tried the raids. However, based on the first dungeons, I can tell you that the potential you see in the telegraph system REALLY comes to life. These devs are so very aware of what they can do with the system and it's obvious they plan to use its potential in raids. Look around for videos of people testing the raids, they're out there I just don't have any off hand. Under level 10 (maybe even to 15 or so) the telegraphs are all pretty basic, but if you're seeing the potential there it only gets crazier. I don't know if I'd count on PA fielding a full 40 man raid but I'm pretty hopeful enough people will hit the 20 man content at least. PA guilds have a history of imploding though, so we'll see.
PVP: I haven't messed with much, but from what I can tell the telegraph system also helps there. People seem pretty positive about it, however.
Everyone is also aware that the early game is easily the least polished. Most likely because as much as they might like to, you can't throw the whole game at someone right out the gate. You have to slowly introduce some of the new concepts. Basically, 1-15 comes slowly and isn't all that exciting. Then you unlock your first adventure, then soon after your first dungeon, then you start running into solo quests that you can't just half pay attention to and standing in a telegraph makes the difference between you living and dying. It's unfortunate since first impressions are very important, and they are wanting to improve this, but I felt the same way the first time I tried the game. Luckily, once you get past the early levels everything actually feels better.
I feel like Wildstar is doing a lot of things right even if some parts could use improvement. We're talking about a team who has proven time and time again that they listen to player feedback and has a full schedule for the next year and a half of monthly content. If the question is "Does Wildstar have longterm potential?" In my opinion? Absolutely. If you feel the need to let it mature a little for the next few months, the game will still be around and the quality of life aspects will likely be improved. But personally, I kind of like the idea of getting in on the ground floor of an MMO that has this much potential even if it might be rough to start.
I've only played to level 25. My own personal opinion is that Carbine has something special here. They have a clear vision of what they want to put out in an MMO. I am in large agreement that the game suffers the most at the first 10 levels of the game, mainly because MMO regulars know roughly 90% of the concepts presented already. That said, the game has simply gotten better as I went up in levels. The enemies become tricksome, and really keep you on your toes. The dungeons and adventures are flat out *fun* to do. I like crafting in this game, especially the coordinate system, you feel like you are tinkering and add *just* the right amount spice to make that special product. And housing is a goddamn rabbit hole to go down. You can place about 800 items down on your property, anywhere, anyway you want to. You can rotate, shrink, expand, the stuff. Tiny lizard hanging and drying? Enlarge it and you look like you caught fucking godzilla. Twisted trees? shrink them put them in a pot on a table (both also placeable) and you are a bonsai gardener.
Because this is subscription based for the first few months at least (I hope more months), Carbine will not feel pressured to just put out a cash shop and cash shop crap. They can focus on continuing to put out quality content that will keep players entertained and playing. I haven't seen the level 50 content, because I wasn't able to get into closed beta, but looking over the maps, there are quite a few level 50 zones. I think that's important. Where are you going to spend most of your time with a toon? In the first 49 levels, or at level 50? Carbine has mentioned numerous times that they want to make sure they have elder(endgame) content for everyone.
The biggest hurdle Carbine will have to face is the OCD nature that the masses have become. Attention span is at an all time low. I wish it were hyperbole, but its not. Many PA forumers have lamented their friends immediately giving up on the game in the first hour of play, because it wasn't pants ripping from the start. Many PA forumers, started out skeptical, and they got to that magic level 15, and the game clicked for them. And they are now ardent followers, at least for the first month or two. We all have to see what's available at 50 when we get there.
Hopefully, the game will pick up steam as people realize how fun the combat, and by extension the rest of the game, actually is. With that momentum Carbine can take a small amount of time and maybe redo some of the beginning so that its a bit more... gripping... for the OCD types.
Tanking for me really depends on the game. I haven't tried tanking in this game yet, so I just don't know. I hated tanking in WoW and TSW, but I enjoy it in Tera, and the superhero mmos. Same with healing. I really enjoyed healing in WoW, but I'm not a huge fan of it in some games.
Dps is... well. If you don't enjoy dpsing in an mmo there's a possibility you don't actually like the mmo at all.
I hit beta cap and have a number of characters somewhat along, so I'm hardly "in-game" but I've spent an embarrassing amount of time playing this game.
Does the UI remain obtuse, or do familiarity or add-ons solve the usability/confusion questions?
I'm a minority here in that I actually don't mind the UI and my issues with it stem mainly from bugs and tech issues. In fact, I've only installed one addon and that was because nameplates have been broken for most of the week (and still are in spite of a supposed hotfix). However, the modding scene is growing and already there's options like more WoW-style quest dialog boxes and mouse-controll for the camera. We do have one more large patch before launch, and apparently the new UI will be getting some changes.
Raiding - is it awesome? Is PA going to have the kind of numbers to make this happen?
I can answer the former: we don't know. However, PA guilds tend to have issues sticking around in the long term with only a few exceptions like the GW2 guild. However, I feel somewhat confident that at least one of the two guilds can field a 20 man raid.
PvP - gear dependent? Well balanced?
Top PvP players are complaining about the weakness of CC and apparently the two PvP stats are not working properly. While everything in the game is pretty much gear dependent, I can say that the game does show you what your gear rating is when queuing for PvP or Arenas and tries to match you accordingly. Also gearing up for PvP is fairly painless with the currency being used to buy better gear and post-match rewards having a chance for blue and epic items. You might even get PvP crafting recipes if you really luck out.
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BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
If anyone in here has progressed to higher level content, I'd like to hear your opinion on a few things, because Beta left me equal parts excited and disappointed but I only made it to level 10-
Does the UI remain obtuse, or do familiarity or add-ons solve the usability/confusion questions?
Raiding - is it awesome? Is PA going to have the kind of numbers to make this happen?
PvP - gear dependent? Well balanced?
My extremely limited impressions were that this game has an insane amount of potential. I think the telegraph system, dash system, and very fast-paced combat are a revolution that I REALLY want to be a part of. On the other hand, literally from the first 5 minutes in the game I thought to myself "oh... these guys needed another $10 million and 6 months to polish." I also was having some thoughts about how quality of life didn't appear to be a very big dev concern. I've already pre-ordered, and I'm getting in, but I'm still on the fence whether this is going to be an FFXIV where I'm one-month-and-done, or a SWTOR or GW2 where I'm in for the long haul. What are some impressions from people who have spent some real time with the game?
Level 49 beta player here. The game USED to drop you into the game at level 3 at whatever starting zone you'd pick on the arkship. The arkship quests were added for the benefit of someone that has never played an mmo before and were not meant for someone who has played an mmo extensively. There is heavy talk of adding an option to skip the arkship entirely as long as you've completed them once on a character. The game itself was strange in its development for an mmo in that it eschewed a flashy gimmick hook to grab people in the first few levels in favor of constant iteration, development and implementation of content throughout the entire leveling game and beyond. The content is backloaded but not terribly so since the devs want you doing something new about every five levels.
The UI used to be a real wad until they overhauled a month or so ago. You get used to the little doodads and what they do as you level. Elements of the UI can be turned off and on on a whim and can even be set to appear depending on combat state. They're going through QA right now to add the ability to move what you want by launch. Minor headaches with maps and readability can be remedied with addons and there is quite a little library growing on curse. A bit of advice for installing addons, download mission control. It can be found here. What this allows you to do is to basically download the zip files from curse and drag and drop them into this interface and it'll install to the proper directory automatically.
As for numbers, I think we'll at least have enough to dip our toes into 20. As for 40s, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm leaning towards no but I'm not opposed to it.
Beezel on
PSN: Waybackkidd
"...only mights and maybes."
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SaldonasSee you space cowboy...Registered Userregular
So, we're pretty much dead even now for both Dominion and Exile.
Are settlers going to build buff stations at predetermined spots forever, or are there other awesome perks? I grew tired of the settler missions and projects I couldn't complete myself during my first 10 levels (like the Arena in the Draken village - I assume there are other players needed for some of these). Otherwise I am going soldier so I can kill things while I kill things - I will be behind my buddies due to my work schedule, so gathering even more stuff seems to drag things out even longer.
Every path plays off each other. For example, Deradune has robots that a Settler can fix up up and a Scientist can switch on. It then digs up random goodies. Also, apparently paths can be relevant in adventures.
But building stations is the main thrust of Settlers.
Raiding - is it awesome? Is PA going to have the kind of numbers to make this happen?
I can answer the former: we don't know. However, PA guilds tend to have issues sticking around in the long term with only a few exceptions like the GW2 guild. However, I feel somewhat confident that at least one of the two guilds can field a 20 man raid.
We had 3 raid groups is SWTOR for a few months at launch and FFXIV still has like 5 groups that I know of.
The only thing that might hurt it a bit is having people split between factions.
I don't see 40 man happening, mainly due to scheduling.
I actually know @Dr. Phibbs McAthey in real life, so for getting Big Damn Heroes up and running ASAP I can call him at all hours of the night and berate him for not leveling faster, or even log in as him to do the leveling myself. That's nothing against @italianranma though, I'm sure he could rush Dont Mess With Nexus for us too, but I don't know his situation or schedule or anything like that. I personally plan to attempt to play at 3AM EDT when it starts up (god help us all).
Are settlers going to build buff stations at predetermined spots forever, or are there other awesome perks? I grew tired of the settler missions and projects I couldn't complete myself during my first 10 levels (like the Arena in the Draken village - I assume there are other players needed for some of these). Otherwise I am going soldier so I can kill things while I kill things - I will be behind my buddies due to my work schedule, so gathering even more stuff seems to drag things out even longer.
Settler is really the only class that has awesome perks for everyone as part of the in-world path progression. All four paths get some convenient abilities but settler is the one where the path is all about providing nice, long lasting buffs at all times.
Some scientist scans will result in extremely minor, unpredictable bonuses, like you scan this plant and an orb pops out that gives you more deflection for 2 minutes, or you scan a fire canister and it explodes which might hurt some nearby enemies a little. Soldiers can open weapon crates to let others grab the trinkets inside but I have not found these too useful compared to just sticking with the normal attack rotation. I'm not sure what kind of small benefits explorers can provide to others.
Some of the primary benefits of each path are in their path abilities. These have changed several times over the course of development and a lot of sites list wrong, outdated info, so I'll list them here as they are currently in-game:
Settler: Settler's Campfire - spawns a campfire that heals people nearby and gives them a buff of 3% HP for an hour. Summon: Mail Box - summons a mailbox. Summon: Vendbot - summons a vendbot where you can sell junk or repair. Summon: Crafting Station - summons a crafting station.
Scientist: Holographic Distraction - lets you throw a hologram generator that reduces enemy awareness within 5m of the hologram. Basically it's like stalker stealthing past them. Summon Group: gives all members of the group the option to teleport to your location. They must be on the same continent as you. Create Portal - Capital City - opens a portal to the capital city for 2 minutes.
Soldier: Back Into The Fray - restores you to full power, I assume this means health, focus, class resource etc. You must be out of combat and below 75% health to use this ability. Bail Out! - teleports you and your group to a safe area. It seems that quite often this "safe area" is the nearest graveyard, so it's mostly used when you know you're going to wipe to prevent needing to repair. Combat Supply Drop - call down a weapon locker for you and your friends to use. I haven't seen this ability in action but basically it's a trinket to deal some damage with.
Explorer: Explorer's Safe Fall - damage taken from falling reduced by 15%. This isn't a permanent thing, it's a personal buff on a short cooldown that you need to use before falling. Air Brakes - briefly stops the explorer in mid-air. I think this is supposed to let you jump again but I've never gotten it to work, it just resets your falling speed to 0 briefly. Translocate Beacon - saves your current position, and when you use it again it returns you to your saved position. The further the teleport, the longer the cooldown.
All of these abilities continue to level up and improve as you progress. For example, Explorer's Safe Fall eventually reduces fall damage by 45%, and Holographic Distraction's radius increases to 15m. Mostly the cooldowns get reduced.
Most of them contain text that says they're not usable in dungeons or battlegrounds or warplots or some combination.
There's nothing going on that weekend for me other than a Sunday game of EotE. I'm sure I can get to level 12 or whatever on the first day, barring any stability issues. I didn't really play much of the beta other than to confirm this was something that I wanted to play, so I don't think I'll be able to rush and get the guild up in an hour, but for sure by the end of the night. That shouldn't be unreasonable.
There's nothing going on that weekend for me other than a Sunday game of EotE. I'm sure I can get to level 12 or whatever on the first day, barring any stability issues. I didn't really play much of the beta other than to confirm this was something that I wanted to play, so I don't think I'll be able to rush and get the guild up in an hour, but for sure by the end of the night. That shouldn't be unreasonable.
Awesome, then we should be set either way. If it ends up being DMWN then we'll make sure to send you the gold you need too, though it might be tough at that level. IIRC at 12 you have like 2 gold and at 14 you have closer to 8 gold, money starts rolling in around that time.
Since launch is rapidly approaching at a rate of one day per day: there's no need to redownload the whole client, you can patch beta client up to launch version.
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
And since it will be the same client (sans the next patch) you can pretty much set up the game to perfection before launch.
MOST addons will prolly remain working even after the patch. If the version changes you can force to run regardless of version mismatch. Most of the time, they are fine unless a patchnote specifically says api changes.
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BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
Jeff Kurtenacker uploaded the open beta theme to his soundcloud
Does anyone have a good list or link or anything of favorite add-ons? Surely some blogger or caster has done the work there already. I hate trying to blunder through add-on sites.
I'm a bit overwhelmed by the thoroughness and awesomeness of your responses to my questions on this page. I'm officially linking this page to my friends who I am trying to talk into playing. Thanks!!
Does anyone have a good list or link or anything of favorite add-ons? Surely some blogger or caster has done the work there already. I hate trying to blunder through add-on sites.
Unless things get fixed by launch I'm definitely going to need the nameplates one. Pvp is much less fun if you don't know if you're actually making any progress on killing mans---or even knowing if these pesky humans are friend or foe.
Saw this linked on reddit and it's solid. The only thing I don't really recommend is PotatoUI , but that's because when I tried using it in the closed beta with bijiplates they didn't play well. Probably better now. Spacestash is probably my favorite, it's like Bagnon for WoW (or that's what it's aiming to be).
I murdered thousands for the Emperor and he gave me nothing except his damning silence. Now his lapdogs yap for every life I take, while the gods promise me the galaxy.
Oh and just a minor quibble about the Esper innate write up, I tested it and you can still use your dodge/dash for some limited movement while it's active but yeah you're pretty much a turret.
Okay, after figuring out what class I wanted to play come launch I told myself "okay no more playing 'til launch so everything is fresh" but I am weak and today is the last day of beta and I can't resist a little binging on Wildstar today.
Anyone on the Dommie guild that can send Kibber a guild invite?
Oh and just a minor quibble about the Esper innate write up, I tested it and you can still use your dodge/dash for some limited movement while it's active but yeah you're pretty much a turret.
I'll do you one better, karoz. You can right click the buff on the esper innate at the moment remove it. Currently this can only be done by right-clicking the icon above your personal health/shield nameplate, can't bind a button to it, or macro it atm. You lose the root, the shield, and the psi generation speed, but you are immediately able to move again. You do keep what psi points you generated up to the moment you removed the buff, so there is that.
This means that you don't have to stay rooted in a position if you make the mistake of pressing it at a movement critical point in fight.
I dare say, you could fake out some people in PvP as well into spending their big hits on trying to hit you when they see you charging up, but is definitely a high risk/medium-low reward tactic.
Bijiplates is almost a necessity for those that get the nameplate crash....and its good to boot. that and the medic resource customizer Medicate is all I have added on.
I am really enjoying medic but I'm rolling an esper, singer and stalker today to feel them out as well. Ive only run a engy, warrior and medic so far.
So, my Chua spellslinger has decided that operating an interactible object is for sissy exiles and compulsively stops operating the object and instead shoots it with Charged Shot. I literally cannot activate this terminal because it apparently must die.
I found Bijiplates to be an absolute resource hog. My FPS just went pbbbrrrt when I tried it and fought like 4-5 enemies at once. Also @Beezel Really I'd say we should use the G&T Teamspeak server for the time being, until we have something of our own. If we even need something of our own, even! It barely gets used as it is, and it's got plenty of room.
Really I'm kind of surprised anyone uses Ventrilo anymore.
Question: is the end of beta event at 10pm EDT (per the thread title) or PDT?
Also, I'm still no closer to deciding what class I'm going to settle on (I thought I had it narrowed down to either stalker or engineer, but am now am also considering throwing medic in the running as well).
Question: is the end of beta event at 10pm EDT (per the thread title) or PDT?
Also, I'm still no closer to deciding what class I'm going to settle on (I thought I had it narrowed down to either stalker or engineer, but am now am also considering throwing medic in the running as well).
The WildStar development team will be celebrating the end of open beta on Sunday, May 18th at 10PM PDT, Monday, May 19th 5AM UTC! Be prepared for the unthinkable and watch out for the WildStar development team on your server as the devs have officially been unleashed!
Did the first Exile adventure Hycrest Insurrection 3 times with a friend of mine, who tanked for 2 of those (I just DPS'd). Really fun. My first and last runs were the same order of choices, 1/2/1, I assume that is the community-decided easiest run or one with best rewards, something like that? Anyway it was good stuff. I really like the variety in missions depending on your choices and how the final boss changes. Sometimes it was beating up a high ranking Dominion official in a ritzy manor as he summoned robot adds, and sometimes it was facing a huge mech in a field as knockdown telegraphs covered everything, giving you nowhere to run.
The best part in 1/2/1 is at the end where you have a 3 minute time limit to hop onto a slow-moving criminal transport train, beat up everyone on board and plant explosives. Fighting atop moving vehicles is always great.
Another time we had to take jetpacks to get onto a chua blimp and disable its systems.
Best moment overall was when the tank died during a mob rush boss phase and I noticed that between phases he became rezzable, so I was able to battle rez him and we won the fight. We also did the last 25% of the final boss with no tank. Maybe it's just because this is the first and easiest adventure, but the game seems tuned very well to let you keep fighting on when the tank dies.
There are always going to be people who want to rush through/do the easiest path in adventures/dungeons. Screw them, that's not the point and the choices are great for mixing things up. It keeps things fresh so you actually want to keep doing them instead of repeatedly running just for exp and potential gear.
Yeah the first adventure is easier and perhaps all adventures are so. They can still kick your ass but they won't punish you as bad as the dungeons which come out swinging.
Something I noticed in the last patch or so is that they made Siege (the level 30 adventure) a bit...hairier, in that each "major" wave can have more than one minor wave spawn after it too.
Bunker Busters have guard escorts now too.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
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The warrior will be a rock guy named Skragg and the spellslinger will be an exile human with a big old stach named HandsomeHadwell like some kind of old west outlaw
Does the UI remain obtuse, or do familiarity or add-ons solve the usability/confusion questions?
Raiding - is it awesome? Is PA going to have the kind of numbers to make this happen?
PvP - gear dependent? Well balanced?
My extremely limited impressions were that this game has an insane amount of potential. I think the telegraph system, dash system, and very fast-paced combat are a revolution that I REALLY want to be a part of. On the other hand, literally from the first 5 minutes in the game I thought to myself "oh... these guys needed another $10 million and 6 months to polish." I also was having some thoughts about how quality of life didn't appear to be a very big dev concern. I've already pre-ordered, and I'm getting in, but I'm still on the fence whether this is going to be an FFXIV where I'm one-month-and-done, or a SWTOR or GW2 where I'm in for the long haul. What are some impressions from people who have spent some real time with the game?
I only reached 23 through the betas (though I experimented a lot with all the classes). But, I've been trying to keep up with the game so can hopefully shed some light on this stuff:
UI: Yeah, it's not great. You know this, I know this, the devs know this. They're actually still working on it a bit and even if some of those fixes don't come by launch, I expect this stuff to roll out pretty quickly. With that being said, add-ons are super great. Every day I notice more and more on Curse so it's going to be a very active thing. In fact, there's probably an add-on right now for almost any gripe you might have. I'd recommend taking a look through them, though I will also say I hate the base UI less and less as I play. I'm not really fighting against it anymore as I know where to find most things.
Raiding: Honestly, I don't think anyone here has tried the raids. However, based on the first dungeons, I can tell you that the potential you see in the telegraph system REALLY comes to life. These devs are so very aware of what they can do with the system and it's obvious they plan to use its potential in raids. Look around for videos of people testing the raids, they're out there I just don't have any off hand. Under level 10 (maybe even to 15 or so) the telegraphs are all pretty basic, but if you're seeing the potential there it only gets crazier. I don't know if I'd count on PA fielding a full 40 man raid but I'm pretty hopeful enough people will hit the 20 man content at least. PA guilds have a history of imploding though, so we'll see.
PVP: I haven't messed with much, but from what I can tell the telegraph system also helps there. People seem pretty positive about it, however.
Everyone is also aware that the early game is easily the least polished. Most likely because as much as they might like to, you can't throw the whole game at someone right out the gate. You have to slowly introduce some of the new concepts. Basically, 1-15 comes slowly and isn't all that exciting. Then you unlock your first adventure, then soon after your first dungeon, then you start running into solo quests that you can't just half pay attention to and standing in a telegraph makes the difference between you living and dying. It's unfortunate since first impressions are very important, and they are wanting to improve this, but I felt the same way the first time I tried the game. Luckily, once you get past the early levels everything actually feels better.
I feel like Wildstar is doing a lot of things right even if some parts could use improvement. We're talking about a team who has proven time and time again that they listen to player feedback and has a full schedule for the next year and a half of monthly content. If the question is "Does Wildstar have longterm potential?" In my opinion? Absolutely. If you feel the need to let it mature a little for the next few months, the game will still be around and the quality of life aspects will likely be improved. But personally, I kind of like the idea of getting in on the ground floor of an MMO that has this much potential even if it might be rough to start.
Because this is subscription based for the first few months at least (I hope more months), Carbine will not feel pressured to just put out a cash shop and cash shop crap. They can focus on continuing to put out quality content that will keep players entertained and playing. I haven't seen the level 50 content, because I wasn't able to get into closed beta, but looking over the maps, there are quite a few level 50 zones. I think that's important. Where are you going to spend most of your time with a toon? In the first 49 levels, or at level 50? Carbine has mentioned numerous times that they want to make sure they have elder(endgame) content for everyone.
The biggest hurdle Carbine will have to face is the OCD nature that the masses have become. Attention span is at an all time low. I wish it were hyperbole, but its not. Many PA forumers have lamented their friends immediately giving up on the game in the first hour of play, because it wasn't pants ripping from the start. Many PA forumers, started out skeptical, and they got to that magic level 15, and the game clicked for them. And they are now ardent followers, at least for the first month or two. We all have to see what's available at 50 when we get there.
Hopefully, the game will pick up steam as people realize how fun the combat, and by extension the rest of the game, actually is. With that momentum Carbine can take a small amount of time and maybe redo some of the beginning so that its a bit more... gripping... for the OCD types.
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Dps is... well. If you don't enjoy dpsing in an mmo there's a possibility you don't actually like the mmo at all.
Does the UI remain obtuse, or do familiarity or add-ons solve the usability/confusion questions?
I'm a minority here in that I actually don't mind the UI and my issues with it stem mainly from bugs and tech issues. In fact, I've only installed one addon and that was because nameplates have been broken for most of the week (and still are in spite of a supposed hotfix). However, the modding scene is growing and already there's options like more WoW-style quest dialog boxes and mouse-controll for the camera. We do have one more large patch before launch, and apparently the new UI will be getting some changes.
Raiding - is it awesome? Is PA going to have the kind of numbers to make this happen?
I can answer the former: we don't know. However, PA guilds tend to have issues sticking around in the long term with only a few exceptions like the GW2 guild. However, I feel somewhat confident that at least one of the two guilds can field a 20 man raid.
PvP - gear dependent? Well balanced?
Top PvP players are complaining about the weakness of CC and apparently the two PvP stats are not working properly. While everything in the game is pretty much gear dependent, I can say that the game does show you what your gear rating is when queuing for PvP or Arenas and tries to match you accordingly. Also gearing up for PvP is fairly painless with the currency being used to buy better gear and post-match rewards having a chance for blue and epic items. You might even get PvP crafting recipes if you really luck out.
Level 49 beta player here. The game USED to drop you into the game at level 3 at whatever starting zone you'd pick on the arkship. The arkship quests were added for the benefit of someone that has never played an mmo before and were not meant for someone who has played an mmo extensively. There is heavy talk of adding an option to skip the arkship entirely as long as you've completed them once on a character. The game itself was strange in its development for an mmo in that it eschewed a flashy gimmick hook to grab people in the first few levels in favor of constant iteration, development and implementation of content throughout the entire leveling game and beyond. The content is backloaded but not terribly so since the devs want you doing something new about every five levels.
The UI used to be a real wad until they overhauled a month or so ago. You get used to the little doodads and what they do as you level. Elements of the UI can be turned off and on on a whim and can even be set to appear depending on combat state. They're going through QA right now to add the ability to move what you want by launch. Minor headaches with maps and readability can be remedied with addons and there is quite a little library growing on curse. A bit of advice for installing addons, download mission control. It can be found here. What this allows you to do is to basically download the zip files from curse and drag and drop them into this interface and it'll install to the proper directory automatically.
Is Raiding awesome?
As for numbers, I think we'll at least have enough to dip our toes into 20. As for 40s, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm leaning towards no but I'm not opposed to it.
"...only mights and maybes."
Switch: SW-1493-0062-4053
Or "Nexus Polling Committee"
But building stations is the main thrust of Settlers.
We had 3 raid groups is SWTOR for a few months at launch and FFXIV still has like 5 groups that I know of.
The only thing that might hurt it a bit is having people split between factions.
I don't see 40 man happening, mainly due to scheduling.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Settler is really the only class that has awesome perks for everyone as part of the in-world path progression. All four paths get some convenient abilities but settler is the one where the path is all about providing nice, long lasting buffs at all times.
Some scientist scans will result in extremely minor, unpredictable bonuses, like you scan this plant and an orb pops out that gives you more deflection for 2 minutes, or you scan a fire canister and it explodes which might hurt some nearby enemies a little. Soldiers can open weapon crates to let others grab the trinkets inside but I have not found these too useful compared to just sticking with the normal attack rotation. I'm not sure what kind of small benefits explorers can provide to others.
Some of the primary benefits of each path are in their path abilities. These have changed several times over the course of development and a lot of sites list wrong, outdated info, so I'll list them here as they are currently in-game:
Settler:
Settler's Campfire - spawns a campfire that heals people nearby and gives them a buff of 3% HP for an hour.
Summon: Mail Box - summons a mailbox.
Summon: Vendbot - summons a vendbot where you can sell junk or repair.
Summon: Crafting Station - summons a crafting station.
Scientist:
Holographic Distraction - lets you throw a hologram generator that reduces enemy awareness within 5m of the hologram. Basically it's like stalker stealthing past them.
Summon Group: gives all members of the group the option to teleport to your location. They must be on the same continent as you.
Create Portal - Capital City - opens a portal to the capital city for 2 minutes.
Soldier:
Back Into The Fray - restores you to full power, I assume this means health, focus, class resource etc. You must be out of combat and below 75% health to use this ability.
Bail Out! - teleports you and your group to a safe area. It seems that quite often this "safe area" is the nearest graveyard, so it's mostly used when you know you're going to wipe to prevent needing to repair.
Combat Supply Drop - call down a weapon locker for you and your friends to use. I haven't seen this ability in action but basically it's a trinket to deal some damage with.
Explorer:
Explorer's Safe Fall - damage taken from falling reduced by 15%. This isn't a permanent thing, it's a personal buff on a short cooldown that you need to use before falling.
Air Brakes - briefly stops the explorer in mid-air. I think this is supposed to let you jump again but I've never gotten it to work, it just resets your falling speed to 0 briefly.
Translocate Beacon - saves your current position, and when you use it again it returns you to your saved position. The further the teleport, the longer the cooldown.
All of these abilities continue to level up and improve as you progress. For example, Explorer's Safe Fall eventually reduces fall damage by 45%, and Holographic Distraction's radius increases to 15m. Mostly the cooldowns get reduced.
Most of them contain text that says they're not usable in dungeons or battlegrounds or warplots or some combination.
Awesome, then we should be set either way. If it ends up being DMWN then we'll make sure to send you the gold you need too, though it might be tough at that level. IIRC at 12 you have like 2 gold and at 14 you have closer to 8 gold, money starts rolling in around that time.
"...only mights and maybes."
"...only mights and maybes."
MOST addons will prolly remain working even after the patch. If the version changes you can force to run regardless of version mismatch. Most of the time, they are fine unless a patchnote specifically says api changes.
Jeff Kurtenacker uploaded the open beta theme to his soundcloud
"...only mights and maybes."
Curse ranks them pretty well by popularity, honestly.
The ones I use are:
Better Quest Log for just having a better quest log.
Classic Quest Dialog when it's not totally broken just makes accepting/reading quest text easier.
NavMate for showing more useful icons on the minimap including the location of books/datacubes in the world, great for scientists.
Custom FOV to make it easy to change your FOV to something a bit wider like 75.
Local Time to show your local time, obviously.
Sticky Hint Arrow which lets you shift click quests to make the directional arrow stay up all the time.
http://accomp.me/wildstar/top-wildstar-addons-for-launch/
Anyone on the Dommie guild that can send Kibber a guild invite?
I'll do you one better, karoz. You can right click the buff on the esper innate at the moment remove it. Currently this can only be done by right-clicking the icon above your personal health/shield nameplate, can't bind a button to it, or macro it atm. You lose the root, the shield, and the psi generation speed, but you are immediately able to move again. You do keep what psi points you generated up to the moment you removed the buff, so there is that.
This means that you don't have to stay rooted in a position if you make the mistake of pressing it at a movement critical point in fight.
I dare say, you could fake out some people in PvP as well into spending their big hits on trying to hit you when they see you charging up, but is definitely a high risk/medium-low reward tactic.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
I am really enjoying medic but I'm rolling an esper, singer and stalker today to feel them out as well. Ive only run a engy, warrior and medic so far.
Really I'm kind of surprised anyone uses Ventrilo anymore.
Also, I'm still no closer to deciding what class I'm going to settle on (I thought I had it narrowed down to either stalker or engineer, but am now am also considering throwing medic in the running as well).
The best part in 1/2/1 is at the end where you have a 3 minute time limit to hop onto a slow-moving criminal transport train, beat up everyone on board and plant explosives. Fighting atop moving vehicles is always great.
Another time we had to take jetpacks to get onto a chua blimp and disable its systems.
Best moment overall was when the tank died during a mob rush boss phase and I noticed that between phases he became rezzable, so I was able to battle rez him and we won the fight. We also did the last 25% of the final boss with no tank. Maybe it's just because this is the first and easiest adventure, but the game seems tuned very well to let you keep fighting on when the tank dies.
I already did the FIOS work-around.
Yeah the first adventure is easier and perhaps all adventures are so. They can still kick your ass but they won't punish you as bad as the dungeons which come out swinging.
Bunker Busters have guard escorts now too.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch