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citizen059hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited June 2008
IMO, the combat bots were a product of XP Chains.
I remember reading threads about what people in XP chains had to produce in order to keep their places, and I thought to myself there was no way in hell it could be done.
I never thought about bots as the answer. But after a while it made perfect sense.
Personally, I thought the trade bot was a great solution. Trading was a pain in the ass, even after the trade window was introduced. You had the option of standing around a populated area, spamming your items and annoying the hell out of everyone, or you could gather a list of stuff in your inventory and post it on a forum for people to bid on.
Total pain in the ass, and I hated it.
After trade bots came about, even I could sell stuff. Loved it.
Buff bots, I also don't mind. Especially considering my axe warrior was arcane only until 55, and then item only after that. Most of the time I used my arcane set when out with friends so I didn't have to bug anyone for buffs, but if I just wanted to hunt for a while solo I could always pull out my high AL stuff and let the buffbot take care of it. Again, to me it was an enhancement.
People complain about low levels using them to level up faster than they should be allowed to, but in reality most of those low level characters were alts. Levelling up "the hard way" was fine, just to say you did it once. I wouldn't want to do it over and over.
In the end, it's a game, and it's meant to be played for fun. Some people took it a lot more seriously, but I was never one of them.
citizen059 on
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KlineshrikeCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
edited June 2008
A lot of those things occured because of the fact AC had no real end game, cause there was no real end. There wasnt a max outside of a maxed stat, which took forever and you had quite a few of them to max. This was the games biggest charm because you ALWAYS felt like you were improving, and you didnt have to be like "lol I hit 60 now I REALLY play the game". You were always REALLY playing AC.
That is, untill botting. It pretty much happened because it could. half because untill turbine took over, noone gave a shit (micro refused to allow them to implement anti botting rules). Half because As the mudflation occured and the level average spread out, it became harder to "catch up" so people needed alternatives.
Honestly, if one wanted to experience a half decent AC experience they would need to run thier own server. Unfortunately this is prolly still against the rules, but it would be damn sweet if it could happen. That games base structure will never be outdone. Noone has the fucking balls to bring back projectiles for arrows and spells -_-
Klineshrike on
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citizen059hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited June 2008
There was actually an attempt to run a private AC server, I got to play on it a couple of times. About all you could do was run around an empty world; they didn't have any NPC or spawns.
Unfortunately, the project never moved forward. I'm not sure if they just couldn't figure things out, or if they were ordered by Turbine to drop the project.
citizen059 on
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KlineshrikeCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
edited June 2008
There used to be the tech, but yes it was very much opposed by turbine. Obviously.
From what I remember however, noone ever got a server up and running. Maybe a few personal worlds but no real server. A server would have NPCs and such.
Basically, more and more I feel the only MMO experience left for me would be to reacte oldstyle AC somehow with revised rules and ways to make leveling real again.
Klineshrike on
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citizen059hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited June 2008
I've come to the conclusion that I'll never enjoy another MMO the way I enjoyed AC because I'll never be a newbie again.
I'll never be able to just focus on enjoying the game and exploring the virtual world and discovering things. I've played MMO's too long, and my mind is just too trained to focus on the levels, the XP, the loot.
I've tried to break myself of that habit, but I have yet to be successful, and as a result everything I've played has been less than fulfilling.
They closed down the AC2 servers, what, three years ago come christmas now I think? Do you imagine they'll ever do anything with the AC universe again?
seabass on
Run you pigeons, it's Robert Frost!
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AngryThe glory I had witnessedwas just a sleight of handRegistered Userregular
edited June 2008
god i hope so.
for all the things ac2 did wrong, it did a lot right.
i miss my lugian zerker/raider/jugg.
Angry on
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I played AC2 during the open Beta, and that was enough to tell me that, for whatever it did right, it was just not AC anymore. I had such high hopes that AC2 would take all the awesome lore of that universe, not to mention the great character mechanics and all that, and roll it into a better, smoother graphics engine.
Instead, AC2 felt completely dumbed-down and lifeless. I'm guessing a lot of people agreed, because the game really went nowhere.
What I would give for an AC3 that did what AC2 should have done. I think it should be pretty obvious to Turbine at this point that the game has fans, and if they cleaned it up and brought the game into the modern age graphics-wise, they could certainly compete with what's out there today.
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Products, Transition Teamregular
edited June 2008
I don't see why it needs to be AC3...
Just take the AC1 foundation, which is already in 3d with all the tracking necessary for a proper 3d environment, and build an amazing new skin for it.
Bring it up to LOTRO graphically, incorporate some of the 3rd party app features everybody used, put an auction house in the hub so that merch bots are no longer essential, and expand the landmass.
Then, after you are done, discontinue support for the old client and bring everyone into the new world.
Also, mac client. Wow has a metric fuckton of Mac users, mostly because the Mac MMO fan has so few options. I am surprised no other MMO company out there invests as much effort into apple... its a much less crowded pool to swim in.
syndalis on
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Well it wouldn't need to be AC3, I just figured they should call it that to separate it from the old game. But essentially my idea that I called AC3 is identical to what you laid out with more specifics, syndalis.
So yeah, what you said. I don't honestly care if it's called AC3 if they went through all that, it just seems like it might signal a new beginning or something if they re-titled it. Maybe they could just call it an expansion pack instead? Something to get it on store shelves to help raise awareness of the game.
AC was also the cleanest looking HUD of any game I have ever played. Every other game feels so cluttered, so much going on. AC was clean cut and easy to lose yourself in.
Ah, the customization! None of that pussy hand holding 'class' nonsense that is everywhere today. You could fuck up a character and make it unplayable!
Ah, and I can still remember the days of when you had to research your spells.
I really am glad I got out before third party programs took a giant dump all over the game.
Shorn Scrotum Man on
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Ah, the customization! None of that pussy hand holding 'class' nonsense that is everywhere today. You could fuck up a character and make it unplayable!
Ah, and I can still remember the days of when you had to research your spells.
I really am glad I got out before third party programs took a giant dump all over the game.
To be fair, it was tough to make a character that was unplayable. As long as you had X weapon skill (or magic school), and melee defense skill, you were good to go. The builds that added Item or Life to the mix were what fucked everything up - now, everything had to be balanced for those builds, and the people without either re-rolled, or got steamrolled by the new content.
I've downloaded the trial and will be giving this a shot. The notion of a game with collision detection, projectile attacks, and the ability to wander around and do just about anything, with a great storyline has intrigued me. The graphics scare me a bit, but I'll just have to see it for myself!
I'll be rolling on Morningthaw if this works out *fingers crossed*.
After playing WoW there is no way I could ever play an old MMO again. I tried a trial of DAoC not long ago for kicks, and dear god, the interface and controls were unbearable. It's easy to overlook details like that in all the nostalgia but WoW has really forced the MMO genre into modern standards of gameplay.
I don't know... I think it may have been difficult to completely ruin your character, but there were ways that you could make yourself less good, or something. I, for instance, played a sword guy who was a great melee-er, and I believe had Item magic though it's been so long since I played (probably 6 years or more). He was really awesome in the lower levels, but as I started getting into the upper 40's, I found that my sword fellah was no match for the dagger-wielding people who had suffered a bit in the low levels to have 3 schools of magic (Life/Creature/Item). I'm not sure if I would have been able to turn him around with some more levels, because I kinda grew bored of the game when some bad feelings arose between me and my RL co-workers with whom I had joined the game.
After all this time, I can agree with Zek... I could never go back to it, despite all the fond memories I have. This is why I was talking about the re-skinning idea before, because I think the mechanics of AC are sound and hold up even to this day, but I require some eye candy to keep me interested.
I don't know... I think it may have been difficult to completely ruin your character, but there were ways that you could make yourself less good, or something. I, for instance, played a sword guy who was a great melee-er, and I believe had Item magic though it's been so long since I played (probably 6 years or more). He was really awesome in the lower levels, but as I started getting into the upper 40's, I found that my sword fellah was no match for the dagger-wielding people who had suffered a bit in the low levels to have 3 schools of magic (Life/Creature/Item). I'm not sure if I would have been able to turn him around with some more levels, because I kinda grew bored of the game when some bad feelings arose between me and my RL co-workers with whom I had joined the game.
After all this time, I can agree with Zek... I could never go back to it, despite all the fond memories I have. This is why I was talking about the re-skinning idea before, because I think the mechanics of AC are sound and hold up even to this day, but I require some eye candy to keep me interested.
Especially with the respec stones, you could have turned him around. Even sword and bow users ended up eventually with item/life/creature, even if it was at level 110/120.
I've downloaded the trial and will be giving this a shot. The notion of a game with collision detection, projectile attacks, and the ability to wander around and do just about anything, with a great storyline has intrigued me. The graphics scare me a bit, but I'll just have to see it for myself!
I'll be rolling on Morningthaw if this works out *fingers crossed*.
Don't be afraid to ask for help. There's a general chat channel, use it. Let people know that you're new, and that you're trying AC for the first time.
People love newbies*, I'm pretty sure you'll get tons of offers for help. Do not accept requests to join someone's allegiance/become someone's vassal, not just yet. Play the game for a bit, and don't swear allegiance to someone that hasn't taken time to help you in person.
* = unless you're on Darktide, in which case you should know that people still love newbies. Because they're easy kills.
And while you couldn't ruin a character, you could gimp one pretty good. I remember having an Archer/Item toon and once I got Item I pumped in all the xp I could to get portals quickly and neglected my Bow skill. Couldn't kill anything my level, but I could summon a portal!
I remember when I played back in 2000 as a Spear user. Not a damn person used spears, and when people saw me trundling around with one, they'd literally just dump the damned things on me. I don't think I had to buy or grind for a weapon, aside from that one "top tier" weapon at the time... the one that requires all the motes and such.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Yeah spear users were pretty rare, as far as I remember. I think swords were only as popular as they were just because people (like me) always envision heroes wielding swords. They were pretty impractical in terms of points cost, and I remember wishing I had gone with a less expensive weapon towards the end of my run with the game... We had an Axe guy who just murdered everything, which was initially when I started feeling pretty gimped.
I also do not remember respec stones during my playtime, though they could have just been something I had never heard of. If I had stuck with the game, I'm sure I would have picked up another magic school (Creature probably, though it's been so long I can't quite remember) and been OK.
Bandit Hilts were added sometime after the Shadow War ended and the Vesayen Islands opened. They made having a Sword so worth it, my brother an Axe-Wielder would get jealous when he saw what I was doing on my gimp sword user. And it made Dagger users almost godlike since it only cost Aluvians 4 points to spec as Dagger, opening up a lot of points for other things. And with triple strike daggers would deal more damage by far then other weapons.
But after awhile Turbine made some adjustments which brought other weapons back to a point where they were stronger then Daggers. But that didn't happen until after the respec gems were added.
I think that was mainly due to the introduction of the crafting system(a little before respecs). It made bandit weapons completely useless, and it put daggers more in their place, but swords remained good, and in general weapons were more evenly balanced.
Septus on
PSN: Kurahoshi1
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Bandit Hilts were added sometime after the Shadow War ended and the Vesayen Islands opened. They made having a Sword so worth it, my brother an Axe-Wielder would get jealous when he saw what I was doing on my gimp sword user. And it made Dagger users almost godlike since it only cost Aluvians 4 points to spec as Dagger, opening up a lot of points for other things. And with triple strike daggers would deal more damage by far then other weapons.
But after awhile Turbine made some adjustments which brought other weapons back to a point where they were stronger then Daggers. But that didn't happen until after the respec gems were added.
You didn't need bandit hilts to make dagger awesome.
I found out early that he was being removed from the game, and bought 3 packs full of the damn things. Sold/traded them for so much. ;-)
Bandit Hilts were added sometime after the Shadow War ended and the Vesayen Islands opened. They made having a Sword so worth it, my brother an Axe-Wielder would get jealous when he saw what I was doing on my gimp sword user. And it made Dagger users almost godlike since it only cost Aluvians 4 points to spec as Dagger, opening up a lot of points for other things. And with triple strike daggers would deal more damage by far then other weapons.
But after awhile Turbine made some adjustments which brought other weapons back to a point where they were stronger then Daggers. But that didn't happen until after the respec gems were added.
You didn't need bandit hilts to make dagger awesome.
I found out early that he was being removed from the game, and bought 3 packs full of the damn things. Sold/traded them for so much. ;-)
I did the same, but gave mine to friends & allegiance members.
I kept one for myself until the day I left AC.
citizen059 on
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KlineshrikeCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
After playing WoW there is no way I could ever play an old MMO again. I tried a trial of DAoC not long ago for kicks, and dear god, the interface and controls were unbearable. It's easy to overlook details like that in all the nostalgia but WoW has really forced the MMO genre into modern standards of gameplay.
Just because wow took the (vastly inferior) style of MMO and perfected it, doesnt mean it forced them into modern standards. WOW was basically a perfected EQ. AC was the other side. If anything, WOW ruined MMOs IMO because they all feel they need to adhere to this inherantly boring but rediculously addicting style of game. IMO MMOs are dieing because this style of game cannot go anywhere.
If they were to ever try and moderize the AC style of game, it would need to be a new game. They had enough trouble trying to create that grafically enhanced expansion because the code was so archaic that they just couldnt upgrade. All the people who did it were gone. It wouldnt be hard anyway - considering how far behind thier code is now it would be stupid not to just start from scratch. Just create a new game that is basically the same thing with upgraded grafics, UI, and possible a few engine based things (I am sure if a 9 year old game could have projectiles on 28k standard modems, you could improve this a bit).
The only iffy thing about this was the beauty of AC was some of its bugs served as gameplay enhancements. Fast casting and such added so many levels to the game. It didnt break it, just made it involve a level of skill that while unorthadox, separated the boys from the men.
As for the character creation- I agrued about this with someone when WOW was first coming out as it was my fear that talents would never replace ACs character creation. I was right, hadfed classes could be entertaining but it was never the same as being the one to DESIGN your class and it be fucking named after you. Also, I will never forget the day I made a char with 10 in ever stat, trained in every weapon, and named him MyNameIsNoob and ran around like an idiot fighting random low level characters, then created a story out of it.
I would be tempted to fire up a trial but I would only do it if there was a somewhat significant number of people doing the same. AC was the only MMO I had real life friends playing, so that part of the experience would be very difficult to replace.
Klineshrike on
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Bandit Hilts were added sometime after the Shadow War ended and the Vesayen Islands opened. They made having a Sword so worth it, my brother an Axe-Wielder would get jealous when he saw what I was doing on my gimp sword user. And it made Dagger users almost godlike since it only cost Aluvians 4 points to spec as Dagger, opening up a lot of points for other things. And with triple strike daggers would deal more damage by far then other weapons.
But after awhile Turbine made some adjustments which brought other weapons back to a point where they were stronger then Daggers. But that didn't happen until after the respec gems were added.
You didn't need bandit hilts to make dagger awesome.
I found out early that he was being removed from the game, and bought 3 packs full of the damn things. Sold/traded them for so much. ;-)
I did the same, but gave mine to friends & allegiance members.
I kept one for myself until the day I left AC.
I was in a decent allegiance, but they had all grabbed a dagger for themselves from Gertarh the night before his assassination. This was purely a profit grab.
Originality is dieing, thats for sure. I mean look at the first big 3, Everquest, Ultima Online, and Asheron's Call, all pretty significantly different gameplay systems, but EQ was the most popular so everybody copied it, which eventually led to WoW and it becoming huge so everyones copying it.
Just because wow took the (vastly inferior) style of MMO and perfected it, doesnt mean it forced them into modern standards. WOW was basically a perfected EQ. AC was the other side. If anything, WOW ruined MMOs IMO because they all feel they need to adhere to this inherantly boring but rediculously addicting style of game. IMO MMOs are dieing because this style of game cannot go anywhere.
I've never understood this. AC was my first MMO, and I loved it, but seriously, there was nothing more to the gameplay than grinding endlessly(with the exception of the terribly harsh Darktide server). PvP had no rewards, and could be fairly exploitative(the silly rapid side-strafing crap). The vast majority of pve was just killing mobs over and over, and in the background was some very cool lore, but that came in some fairly sparse chunks. Then occasionally you'd have a genuinely nifty new dungeon to go explore, but you could get all the rewards available in a short period of time.
Then crafting came into the game fairly late, but consisted of nothing more than looting materials off the enemies you were already fighting, and clicking a few times on some items.
It was a very good early MMO, but I don't see how it can stand up to modern-day versions.
Septus on
PSN: Kurahoshi1
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Just because wow took the (vastly inferior) style of MMO and perfected it, doesnt mean it forced them into modern standards. WOW was basically a perfected EQ. AC was the other side. If anything, WOW ruined MMOs IMO because they all feel they need to adhere to this inherantly boring but rediculously addicting style of game. IMO MMOs are dieing because this style of game cannot go anywhere.
I've never understood this. AC was my first MMO, and I loved it, but seriously, there was nothing more to the gameplay than grinding endlessly(with the exception of the terribly harsh Darktide server). PvP had no rewards, and could be fairly exploitative(the silly rapid side-strafing crap). The vast majority of pve was just killing mobs over and over, and in the background was some very cool lore, but that came in some fairly sparse chunks. Then occasionally you'd have a genuinely nifty new dungeon to go explore, but you could get all the rewards available in a short period of time.
Then crafting came into the game fairly late, but consisted of nothing more than looting materials off the enemies you were already fighting, and clicking a few times on some items.
It was a very good early MMO, but I don't see how it can stand up to modern-day versions.
It can't.
The draw was the storyline. The plot and information was far more than just sparse chunks, however. Almost every quest had background information, some of it that could be measured by pages rather than paragraphs. Each bit of lore played into the next, and everything was interwoven perfectly. New quests came in, with their own lore. New events occurred, new items were added, and on many levels, the face of the entire world changed multiple times, whether through new lands being added, or others being destroyed.
Asheron's Call was about finding the story and immersing yourself in it, rather than being forcefed questlines and item rewards. It can't hold up today because we've already experienced most of it. However, if it was a new game, starting from scratch (i.e. precursoring the Shadow War, and the introduction of Frore), we could all enjoy it.
Just because wow took the (vastly inferior) style of MMO and perfected it, doesnt mean it forced them into modern standards. WOW was basically a perfected EQ. AC was the other side. If anything, WOW ruined MMOs IMO because they all feel they need to adhere to this inherantly boring but rediculously addicting style of game. IMO MMOs are dieing because this style of game cannot go anywhere.
I've never understood this. AC was my first MMO, and I loved it, but seriously, there was nothing more to the gameplay than grinding endlessly(with the exception of the terribly harsh Darktide server). PvP had no rewards, and could be fairly exploitative(the silly rapid side-strafing crap). The vast majority of pve was just killing mobs over and over, and in the background was some very cool lore, but that came in some fairly sparse chunks. Then occasionally you'd have a genuinely nifty new dungeon to go explore, but you could get all the rewards available in a short period of time.
Then crafting came into the game fairly late, but consisted of nothing more than looting materials off the enemies you were already fighting, and clicking a few times on some items.
It was a very good early MMO, but I don't see how it can stand up to modern-day versions.
You say this because you are bred to need THAT reason to play. That reason being gear.
EQ and ultimately WOW bred off of the gear aspect to keep someone playing. And it works extremely well. The problem is the rest of the game wasnt as entertaining. There is senseless grinding in the other games too. WoW is senseless grinding, and even raiding is senseless grinding.
The only thing in MMOs that has any lasting power is being rewarded and PVP. AC was great because of its pvp and combat. That grinding was WAAAAAAAY better than EQ. the combat was much more interesting. Mosters had personality. And PVP was perfection. Plus there was an axctual economy. And not the whole stupid AH some things being farmed cause they are rare economy. Money in AC almost became useless because people actually traded ITEMS for items due to there being an economy. And on Darktide there was a political side unmatched by any game since.
Also, AC never ran out of progress. Thats what makes the EQ style so stupid IMO. In AC you kept gaining experience, kept gaining stats, kept getting stronger. You didnt need an end game cause you didnt... end the game. Max levels being the "beginning" of an MMO was a stupid idea. The stupid idea that again, IMO, is why they have come as far as they can and are slowly becoming shit.
I am probobly different from most people here in that I never once played EQ. WoW was my first non Godwars mud or Darktide AC experience (in other words, my first gear based grindfest). So I am probobly horribly jaded. However, even though I played WoW for 3 years I still felt my time in AC was better even though all I did was pretty much constantly level characters to 50-60ish and become involved in PVP. Taking over towns (and not in a literal sense, but in a political sense) and such.
I played AC for over a year and then moved into EQ because some friends were playing it. Quit after like 2 months. Just couldn't take it, AC was soooooo much better.
Does anyone remember before they put in secure trade? Standing in Arwic you'd be like, okay I'll give you half the stuff, then you give me half, etc etc. Some people just became notorious thieves, and you'd have to be a discerning motherfucker come market time. I was once in a position where I basically could have stolen a full suit of pre-patch GSA (when it was worth like 600 bucks) while I was on an alt, but I didn't do it! Raaah, damn morals.
I can honestly say that, just getting together with two people in Holtburg and setting off down a random road toward the mountains when I was level 5 remains one of the most awesome experiences of my gaming career.
Posts
I remember reading threads about what people in XP chains had to produce in order to keep their places, and I thought to myself there was no way in hell it could be done.
I never thought about bots as the answer. But after a while it made perfect sense.
Personally, I thought the trade bot was a great solution. Trading was a pain in the ass, even after the trade window was introduced. You had the option of standing around a populated area, spamming your items and annoying the hell out of everyone, or you could gather a list of stuff in your inventory and post it on a forum for people to bid on.
Total pain in the ass, and I hated it.
After trade bots came about, even I could sell stuff. Loved it.
Buff bots, I also don't mind. Especially considering my axe warrior was arcane only until 55, and then item only after that. Most of the time I used my arcane set when out with friends so I didn't have to bug anyone for buffs, but if I just wanted to hunt for a while solo I could always pull out my high AL stuff and let the buffbot take care of it. Again, to me it was an enhancement.
People complain about low levels using them to level up faster than they should be allowed to, but in reality most of those low level characters were alts. Levelling up "the hard way" was fine, just to say you did it once. I wouldn't want to do it over and over.
In the end, it's a game, and it's meant to be played for fun. Some people took it a lot more seriously, but I was never one of them.
That is, untill botting. It pretty much happened because it could. half because untill turbine took over, noone gave a shit (micro refused to allow them to implement anti botting rules). Half because As the mudflation occured and the level average spread out, it became harder to "catch up" so people needed alternatives.
Honestly, if one wanted to experience a half decent AC experience they would need to run thier own server. Unfortunately this is prolly still against the rules, but it would be damn sweet if it could happen. That games base structure will never be outdone. Noone has the fucking balls to bring back projectiles for arrows and spells -_-
Unfortunately, the project never moved forward. I'm not sure if they just couldn't figure things out, or if they were ordered by Turbine to drop the project.
From what I remember however, noone ever got a server up and running. Maybe a few personal worlds but no real server. A server would have NPCs and such.
Basically, more and more I feel the only MMO experience left for me would be to reacte oldstyle AC somehow with revised rules and ways to make leveling real again.
I'll never be able to just focus on enjoying the game and exploring the virtual world and discovering things. I've played MMO's too long, and my mind is just too trained to focus on the levels, the XP, the loot.
I've tried to break myself of that habit, but I have yet to be successful, and as a result everything I've played has been less than fulfilling.
I was beating a long dead horse T_T
for all the things ac2 did wrong, it did a lot right.
i miss my lugian zerker/raider/jugg.
I wouldn't have minded AC2 so much, but the animations seemed... off. Combat particularly, as the characters seemed to just flail about.
Still though, live music.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Instead, AC2 felt completely dumbed-down and lifeless. I'm guessing a lot of people agreed, because the game really went nowhere.
What I would give for an AC3 that did what AC2 should have done. I think it should be pretty obvious to Turbine at this point that the game has fans, and if they cleaned it up and brought the game into the modern age graphics-wise, they could certainly compete with what's out there today.
Just take the AC1 foundation, which is already in 3d with all the tracking necessary for a proper 3d environment, and build an amazing new skin for it.
Bring it up to LOTRO graphically, incorporate some of the 3rd party app features everybody used, put an auction house in the hub so that merch bots are no longer essential, and expand the landmass.
Then, after you are done, discontinue support for the old client and bring everyone into the new world.
Also, mac client. Wow has a metric fuckton of Mac users, mostly because the Mac MMO fan has so few options. I am surprised no other MMO company out there invests as much effort into apple... its a much less crowded pool to swim in.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
So yeah, what you said. I don't honestly care if it's called AC3 if they went through all that, it just seems like it might signal a new beginning or something if they re-titled it. Maybe they could just call it an expansion pack instead? Something to get it on store shelves to help raise awareness of the game.
Ah, and I can still remember the days of when you had to research your spells.
I really am glad I got out before third party programs took a giant dump all over the game.
To be fair, it was tough to make a character that was unplayable. As long as you had X weapon skill (or magic school), and melee defense skill, you were good to go. The builds that added Item or Life to the mix were what fucked everything up - now, everything had to be balanced for those builds, and the people without either re-rolled, or got steamrolled by the new content.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
I'll be rolling on Morningthaw if this works out *fingers crossed*.
After all this time, I can agree with Zek... I could never go back to it, despite all the fond memories I have. This is why I was talking about the re-skinning idea before, because I think the mechanics of AC are sound and hold up even to this day, but I require some eye candy to keep me interested.
Especially with the respec stones, you could have turned him around. Even sword and bow users ended up eventually with item/life/creature, even if it was at level 110/120.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Don't be afraid to ask for help. There's a general chat channel, use it. Let people know that you're new, and that you're trying AC for the first time.
People love newbies*, I'm pretty sure you'll get tons of offers for help. Do not accept requests to join someone's allegiance/become someone's vassal, not just yet. Play the game for a bit, and don't swear allegiance to someone that hasn't taken time to help you in person.
* = unless you're on Darktide, in which case you should know that people still love newbies. Because they're easy kills.
And while you couldn't ruin a character, you could gimp one pretty good. I remember having an Archer/Item toon and once I got Item I pumped in all the xp I could to get portals quickly and neglected my Bow skill. Couldn't kill anything my level, but I could summon a portal!
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I also do not remember respec stones during my playtime, though they could have just been something I had never heard of. If I had stuck with the game, I'm sure I would have picked up another magic school (Creature probably, though it's been so long I can't quite remember) and been OK.
I think respeccing was in the game by the end of 2002.
But after awhile Turbine made some adjustments which brought other weapons back to a point where they were stronger then Daggers. But that didn't happen until after the respec gems were added.
You didn't need bandit hilts to make dagger awesome.
I found out early that he was being removed from the game, and bought 3 packs full of the damn things. Sold/traded them for so much. ;-)
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
I did the same, but gave mine to friends & allegiance members.
I kept one for myself until the day I left AC.
Just because wow took the (vastly inferior) style of MMO and perfected it, doesnt mean it forced them into modern standards. WOW was basically a perfected EQ. AC was the other side. If anything, WOW ruined MMOs IMO because they all feel they need to adhere to this inherantly boring but rediculously addicting style of game. IMO MMOs are dieing because this style of game cannot go anywhere.
If they were to ever try and moderize the AC style of game, it would need to be a new game. They had enough trouble trying to create that grafically enhanced expansion because the code was so archaic that they just couldnt upgrade. All the people who did it were gone. It wouldnt be hard anyway - considering how far behind thier code is now it would be stupid not to just start from scratch. Just create a new game that is basically the same thing with upgraded grafics, UI, and possible a few engine based things (I am sure if a 9 year old game could have projectiles on 28k standard modems, you could improve this a bit).
The only iffy thing about this was the beauty of AC was some of its bugs served as gameplay enhancements. Fast casting and such added so many levels to the game. It didnt break it, just made it involve a level of skill that while unorthadox, separated the boys from the men.
As for the character creation- I agrued about this with someone when WOW was first coming out as it was my fear that talents would never replace ACs character creation. I was right, hadfed classes could be entertaining but it was never the same as being the one to DESIGN your class and it be fucking named after you. Also, I will never forget the day I made a char with 10 in ever stat, trained in every weapon, and named him MyNameIsNoob and ran around like an idiot fighting random low level characters, then created a story out of it.
I would be tempted to fire up a trial but I would only do it if there was a somewhat significant number of people doing the same. AC was the only MMO I had real life friends playing, so that part of the experience would be very difficult to replace.
I was in a decent allegiance, but they had all grabbed a dagger for themselves from Gertarh the night before his assassination. This was purely a profit grab.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
seriously.
It has been a pretty long death so far, I think I first read random internet people declaring the death of MMOs 8 years or so ago.
I've never understood this. AC was my first MMO, and I loved it, but seriously, there was nothing more to the gameplay than grinding endlessly(with the exception of the terribly harsh Darktide server). PvP had no rewards, and could be fairly exploitative(the silly rapid side-strafing crap). The vast majority of pve was just killing mobs over and over, and in the background was some very cool lore, but that came in some fairly sparse chunks. Then occasionally you'd have a genuinely nifty new dungeon to go explore, but you could get all the rewards available in a short period of time.
Then crafting came into the game fairly late, but consisted of nothing more than looting materials off the enemies you were already fighting, and clicking a few times on some items.
It was a very good early MMO, but I don't see how it can stand up to modern-day versions.
It can't.
The draw was the storyline. The plot and information was far more than just sparse chunks, however. Almost every quest had background information, some of it that could be measured by pages rather than paragraphs. Each bit of lore played into the next, and everything was interwoven perfectly. New quests came in, with their own lore. New events occurred, new items were added, and on many levels, the face of the entire world changed multiple times, whether through new lands being added, or others being destroyed.
Asheron's Call was about finding the story and immersing yourself in it, rather than being forcefed questlines and item rewards. It can't hold up today because we've already experienced most of it. However, if it was a new game, starting from scratch (i.e. precursoring the Shadow War, and the introduction of Frore), we could all enjoy it.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
You say this because you are bred to need THAT reason to play. That reason being gear.
EQ and ultimately WOW bred off of the gear aspect to keep someone playing. And it works extremely well. The problem is the rest of the game wasnt as entertaining. There is senseless grinding in the other games too. WoW is senseless grinding, and even raiding is senseless grinding.
The only thing in MMOs that has any lasting power is being rewarded and PVP. AC was great because of its pvp and combat. That grinding was WAAAAAAAY better than EQ. the combat was much more interesting. Mosters had personality. And PVP was perfection. Plus there was an axctual economy. And not the whole stupid AH some things being farmed cause they are rare economy. Money in AC almost became useless because people actually traded ITEMS for items due to there being an economy. And on Darktide there was a political side unmatched by any game since.
Also, AC never ran out of progress. Thats what makes the EQ style so stupid IMO. In AC you kept gaining experience, kept gaining stats, kept getting stronger. You didnt need an end game cause you didnt... end the game. Max levels being the "beginning" of an MMO was a stupid idea. The stupid idea that again, IMO, is why they have come as far as they can and are slowly becoming shit.
I am probobly different from most people here in that I never once played EQ. WoW was my first non Godwars mud or Darktide AC experience (in other words, my first gear based grindfest). So I am probobly horribly jaded. However, even though I played WoW for 3 years I still felt my time in AC was better even though all I did was pretty much constantly level characters to 50-60ish and become involved in PVP. Taking over towns (and not in a literal sense, but in a political sense) and such.
WoW is not in the top 5 either.
I can honestly say that, just getting together with two people in Holtburg and setting off down a random road toward the mountains when I was level 5 remains one of the most awesome experiences of my gaming career.