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[New World] Where we ask the REAL questions! Like, "What is Launch?"
Axen
My avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered User regular
My avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered User regular
https://youtu.be/OKnUBs-Ko44A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Axen on
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Exploration is an important part of the game. There are a bunch of 'Points of Interest' around the island. Ranging from ancient ruins to old forts to magical anomalies. There are numerous mysteries surrounding Aeternum and it is at these points that players can piece together the history. Though the Devs are quick to say that they won't provide clear-cut answers, they'll provide just enough so players can make their own theories. They want players discussing and debating the Lore. If material rewards are more your thing, well you'll get that too.
You can play solo and the game will provide you with matchmaking and raid finders for when you decide you need a group to clear a dungeon or a boss fight or what-have-you.
Players can post jobs/quests for other players to complete.
While PvP is opt-in, if you attack and kill another flagged player unprovoked you can get a bounty placed on your head. This bounty can be collected by players. The Bounty Hunter skill chain will help them track you down.
The Treasure Hunter skill chain allows you to. . . well, hunt treasure. Treasure chests are randomly generated and hidden throughout the world so you'll never run out of things to find. A high skill allows you to track down fancier treasure chest in more dangerous areas. These chests will generally (but perhaps not always) be worth the trouble.
As to the trade skills themselves; here is a list.
Blacksmithing
Engineering
Outfitting
Provisioning
Alchemy
Gathering & Refining:
Logging & Carpentry
Mining, Masonry & Smelting
Harvesting & Weaving
Tracking, Skinning & Tanning
Personal Skills:
Building
Fishing
Wilderness Survival
Bounty Hunting
Treasure Hunting
Repairing
As to weapon types I'm not sure on all of them yet, but those I know of are:
1h maces/hammers
1h axes
2h swords
2h maces/hammers
2h axes
Muskets
Pistols
Bows
Spears
Shields
Magic
Each weapon type has its own skill tree and in some cases they may have more than one skill tree for you to pick from. You also have a couple weapon quickslots so you can quickly switch between a few different weapons depending on the situation.
And anyway, the art style is super neat and that really evil bear stole my heart and I want to be in that world. From an art perspective they've got my attention.
For example;
A lot of people weren't big fans of how much animation locking there was in combat. So they've gotten rid of that and made things smoother.
While people thought the graphics were rather nice they also thought the art style was rather drab. So they've splashed color around and just had fun with armor/weapon/enemy/world designs.
Originally the game was going to be a more hardcore open-world PvP sandbox. However they realized that that is a rather niche market (one I am personally a fan of though). So now, while there is still PvP and sieges are a big part of the game, they also have quests, dungeons, story and other structured PvE content for people who enjoy those sorts of things.
The game had founder packs available back in 2018 when the game was originally going to be F2P. Amazon has said that they will honor these Founder packs. Which I mean, that's cool of them but also the thing that they should be doing anyway.
With the amount of rework they are doing... probably not.
This was supposed to be a full-loot gankbox. Its a total 180 if they are doing real PvE content now and that will either be time consuming to create a sufficient amount, or else quickly consumed. (or both)
Like, maybe they’ve out out some smaller mobile products, but I’m talking “AAA” products they clearly were aspiring towards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Tour_Game
I don't know if they had Founder's Packs, but it was "for sale" on Amazon for $0.00 when it was announced. For some reason, I decided to actually buy it for free. Maybe just as a weird "Remind me in 14 years when this is a thing"?
Anyway, I got this email in December:
So I guess it would be a real waste of my pre-order dollars to not give this a try whenever it's actually a thing.
The harvesting is neat, and the nodes seem to blend in really well with the environment (but there's HUD call outs when you get close).
But that's all the good things I can say.
Combat is bad. Not only is it pretty boring, but the skills don't really seem to add much, and it's just not smooth at all. Hits don't always connect, blocking can be a little finicky, and the movement can be really herky-jerky. Nothing really flows, which is pretty disappointing. We'll see how much changes in 3 months, there's always chatter that we're playing an older build on the test.
Crafting is ok. Nothing special.
Character building doesn't seem like anything special either. You level up by getting experience like any MMO, and when you level up you get to put a point in 1 of 4 stats. Your weapon skills level up by using them, and then you put a point into different skill trees. But right now, combat is so disappointing, none of these skills or weapons get me excited.
And I guess the end game is supposed to revolve around more PvP stuff, as based on the chatter on the global channels, there's nothing to do at max level, PvE or PvP-wise. So we'll just have to wait and see what they add.
I want to like this, as the environments and feel of the world is really cool. But even for free, I can't see myself getting engrossed in this game.
Right now it strikes me as a game that probably needs to be "live" for 6 months to a year for Amazon to figure out. Unless there's some dramatic changes in the next three months with combat and PvE content, I'll probably come back to this in 2021 to see where it landed, versus playing at launch, getting burned, and then not having the will to comeback to it when patches and updates have "made it good". I've done that with a few games, and I'm tired of sitting through the worst of what's essentially a year of "early access" only to loathe a game that actually ends up being pretty fun after another year or two of incubating.
Yeah, that kind of implication is still there, unfortunately. They introduced 4 different enemy types: the Corrupted, colonizers turned bad; the Lost, soulless immortal ghoul-kinds of people; the Angry Earth, which is nature fighting back; and the Ancients, the original people who left ruins around and are skeletons. So, other than the Corrupted who are more recent transplants, you have 3 kinds of hostile, mindless groups who were there before you and only serve as an obstacle to your need for things.
The problem is that Amazon already has another Big Name MMO title under development so if this one isn't an instant smash hit, they could just put it on life support and move development to that other team. It may not get that 6 months to a year to grow up.
*sigh*
I don't think we'll ever see a AAA MMORPG again.
Hey there's still that new LotR MMO coming up. Maybe fourth time is the charm for Amazon!
Eh? I still have the urge to play LOTRO now and then. What new LotR MMO?
From about a decade ago (last July). No recent news has been released other than speculation based on absolutely nothing.
EDIT: Oh...hahaha...yeah. Last decade! That's the JOKE!
Origin: theRealElMucho
Pre-orders have guaranteed access starting today, it's just the beta signups they're spacing out.
I will say - this thing needs controller support. If it's not already in and I'm missing it.
However, the game seems to front-load PVE gameplay and then gradually sneak more and more PVP into it while scaling down the PVE.
At a point you need to choose one of three "factions" that feel really artificially shoehorned in there purely for the sake of faction PVP, and then guilds are locked to one faction. No second thoughts, no switching faction other than rerolling a new character, so better hope you and your buddies have that coordinated.
That whole thing sours me something fierce. In addition to feeling like MMO design that's a decade out of date.
I don't really know what modern MMO design is supposed to feel like since everything I've tried in the last ten years all felt the same but I'm going to keep an eye on this.
That was my feedback officially during the first test. If your game doesn't naturally generate the desire to PvP without bolting on all kinds of crazy restrictions, then is it really going to flourish if PvP is the main thing?
To me, if the end game is PvP, it's DoA.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
I'm glad they delayed the game to add more content but I really hope they use this time to change everything else a bit. I don't think the game overall is terrible but it's still a far cry from "good". It's like they wanted large scale PVP and then at the last moment were like "oh wait, what will people when they're NOT doing this? Lets slap some other stuff in here." The quest design is the worst I've seen in years.The skill system is at odds with itself. Crafting is actually pretty good! I like the reputation system letting you build up in zones.
Mostly the game is just super all over the place and for every time I say "hey that's neat" there's a "wow, who thought that was a good idea?"
So they started trying to sort of "build the plane as it was flying". Then probably realized things needed a big overhaul, and now this "relaunch" of the beta test...which sounds like things still aren't very good. I've downloaded it, but haven't logged in.
I'm shocked that someone with as deep of pockets as Amazon continues to be such an amateur when it comes to developing video games. Maybe there really is a point where piles of money can't actually supplant talent and good ideas? Shocking, eh?
If nothing else, the one thing that should be amazingly solid about this game is the servers. Half the reason this game exists is to sell companies on Amazon's fancy-pants servers (and they are fancy).
Otherwise I am getting the impression that no one on the Dev team is particularly confident in what they are doing. They seem in need of a strong director. Right now they have $Infinite budget and very little oversight, but without someone with a vision at the helm it is a waste.