Same as fighting alone really, just more. Your formation can be a Max of 9 Mercs, you can party with two other player formations for 27 Mercs total. Which you can then fight 3 Mob formations of 9 each together.
Turns out my guild is really into betting on the npc arena matches. It's actually really fun to bet and watch them. Seems like more of a crapshoot than anything on who wins, though.
Hey, at this point I might be impressed if we could just manage to get on at the same time!
Being in a guild opens up an item slot and lets you take some optional quests, but most interesting guild-specific activities tend to require at least three mid-level+ people on together, so to be truly awesomesauce we need to get more people back on. On the other hand, you're still at a point where you should be breezing through levels on the early quest chains.
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KlatuAussie Aussie AussieOi Oi OiRegistered Userregular
edited April 2009
I'm downloading the client again atm having deleted it a while back. My char should still be there, but I'm thinking I might start over seeing as I know a little more about how things work this time and I wont have a useless merc set up lol.
I might start over seeing as I know a little more about how things work this time and I wont have a useless merc set up lol.
Speaking of that, when do I start to get into this kind of thing?
I have my ones I got from the training, I picked two spearmen and a gunner. What eventually starts to happen?
Also, do I level my guys up in anyway manually or is it all handled auto when they go up? How about a skill trainer or something to get new magics or make current magics stronger?
- you can get more through quests, NPC sellers and wandering mercenaries. Every ten levels you can hire an extra mercenary, this usually coincides with a quest of around that level.
- you can level up manually with exp books, you get those for playing in a party, the more exp the party gets the more exp books you get. You do not have to be in proximity of each other for this.
- Skills are learned through skill books, these are monster drops and quest rewards.
So ive been messing around on this while taking a reprieve from the evercrack and have a 56 muscian thing, its wierd playing on a real world map and the progression from the newbie areas in the East and moving west seems an odd concept.
The game seems to be a very strange mix between FF style combat (im up to 10) and the ongoing struggle with inventory management.
Honestly the # of quickslots and then inventory slots is a horrid burden, particularly if you arent loaded with enough cash to finish off enchants (either buying that last + x item to combine with the + x item in your inventory so it gets to be + y which matches the + y item you are using so you can further enchant it up to z, the inability of stacking equipment makes crafting a set of equipment (15) take up 1.5 full npc slots worth of inventory space.
Every time I start to enjoy a progressive quest (such as brans castle with dimitri anasstasia and heinrich) I have to stop because ive been loaded up with enough junk that i have to offload it.
I understand this is one of the ways they make money off their micro transactions but it is very tiresome to deal with
This was one of my qualms as well. I did get hideously rich from selling all those crafting items on the market, but it sucked to port back to town every hour.
Also, you can dump stuff in your bank in Rome, there is a teleport button on your UI. Just gotta figure out how to get back after that, there's a few teleport options, but those cost you gold.
So ive been messing around on this while taking a reprieve from the evercrack and have a 56 muscian thing, its wierd playing on a real world map and the progression from the newbie areas in the East and moving west seems an odd concept.
The game seems to be a very strange mix between FF style combat (im up to 10) and the ongoing struggle with inventory management.
Honestly the # of quickslots and then inventory slots is a horrid burden, particularly if you arent loaded with enough cash to finish off enchants (either buying that last + x item to combine with the + x item in your inventory so it gets to be + y which matches the + y item you are using so you can further enchant it up to z, the inability of stacking equipment makes crafting a set of equipment (15) take up 1.5 full npc slots worth of inventory space.
Every time I start to enjoy a progressive quest (such as brans castle with dimitri anasstasia and heinrich) I have to stop because ive been loaded up with enough junk that i have to offload it.
I understand this is one of the ways they make money off their micro transactions but it is very tiresome to deal with
I don't think this is a cash-shop issue at all. (For one thing, the cash items don't change this a whole lot.) Limiting inventory forces an active game economy, and I consider the economy definitely one of the game's draws. If everybody was able to hoard more or less indiscriminately there would be a lot less movement in the market; this way people have to sell things.
I do some planning (leave some slots open and don't open boxes outside of town), but I also typically have a few mercs' worth of inventory slots taken up by gauntlets waiting to be sold and crafting materials for gauntlets I bought in bulk. And I haven't had serious inventory trouble since I was at 5-6 characters.
Is there an option for opening all boxes until your inventory gets filled? If not there should be
The box opening system is WRETCHED, at the end of a gaming session, i return to town with 40 armor/weapon boxes, 60-70 community boxes (with the skill books), and 20-30 crafting resource boxes, and of course 20 or so enchantment boxes, and have to spend the next hr or so clicking.
needless to say im still having inventory issues (i guess i just need to hammer away more of my crafted garbage)
The 200 or so crafting books and 500 or so experience books are pretty worthless unless I track down the one traveling merchant who will combine them for me (seeing as reading a book costs 10 will)
Box clicking is part of why I stopped playing. It's too annoying and time-consuming. It's optional, of course, but the economy is such that you lose out on a huge amount of money if you just sell the boxes unopened. And yes, I know that's exactly what the developers intended. I made many millions just by watching TV while clicking, but ultimately decided even that wasn't worth it. (Plus I hit a roadblock of quest difficulty right before level 50.)
However, unless things have drastically changed in the last couple months, opening low end non-equipment boxes is a great way for newbies to make cash.
HarshLanguage on
> turn on light Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
It doesn't help that they're so numerous earlier on, but once you get to shogun's boxes or so, you will squeal with glee when you find even a single box.
Worthwhile options are De Mere in the athens bazaar or just selling the boxes outright. When you're get so many that you can't feasibly open them all it's time wasted when you could be making money through more efficient methods than endlessly right-clicking
It doesn't help that they're so numerous earlier on, but once you get to shogun's boxes or so, you will squeal with glee when you find even a single box.
Worthwhile options are De Mere in the athens bazaar or just selling the boxes outright. When you're get so many that you can't feasibly open them all it's time wasted when you could be making money through more efficient methods than endlessly right-clicking
I was trying to learn every crafting skill available so that when I hammered anything I didn't want, I would get craft exp as well as the sellable stuff that comes from hammering things.
I was trying to learn every crafting skill available so that when I hammered anything I didn't want, I would get craft exp as well as the sellable stuff that comes from hammering things.
The money from selling elements can be decent. Dismantling xp, on the other hand, can be okay for getting your first few levels in something but it's worth peanuts in the long run, and trying to craft everything will grind to a halt real fast past level 35-50 equipment.
Also once I got to over lvl100 I was basically logging on only to do Individual dungeons because the box droprates and xp gain from it was way out of whack with regular questing and such.
I just hit level 30, you can find me in game as Tylira. I'm already in a guild but I'm always down for some LDP. For some reason there are times when it's difficult to find anyone who wants to party for free XP
Well I am finally hanging it up in this game(109) but for a free mmo I have to say it has some pretty strong pts
-- diverse set of mercenaries allows for a few different play styles
-- a real dedication to making the pvp fun (not balanced but fun)
-- interesting quest settings
-- small learning curve if you have played a ff game combat feels like 2nd nature
-- uptimes/updates uptimes are good and updates do happen
-- working turn based combat
-- worldwide player base is kind of fun (more fun that ff11)
-- Game differential between those that participate in micro transactions and dont is not earth shattering (thats right Im cheap)
it definately has its flaws
-- clickfest
-- limited customization of avatar
-- class balance issues
-- game mechanics vary greatly between pvp/pve
-- horrible UI for chat
-- update lag between korean version of game and english version sometimes makes english servers 2nd class citizens
-- limited content 100+ (log in run indy dungeons 90 94 101 maybe 98 pvp a few and log out)
based off this anyone have another mmo to suggest to move onto based on the above?
farbekrieg on
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KlatuAussie Aussie AussieOi Oi OiRegistered Userregular
edited August 2009
I made it up to 97 this time around, but I think I'm now over it again.
Soloing content has gotten really hard at my level now, harder for me than for some of my guildies anyway. It comes down to poor group set up I think and also poor gear for the area i'm questing in. I'm sure once my mercs level 2-3 more times and I can change them into Conq armor (the lvl 97 stuff) it would really help, but I don't have it in me to continue.
Also I think if I had a better merc set up I'd be having less trouble than I am. I'm too melee based and I really need more ranged and AoE ability to kill the groups of 3 faster.
Just the fact that you got so far in the game goes to show just what quality there is in the this game. I burned out much earlier than you lot, but damn if this game isn't smooth like butter.
I do have two more cons
-- Crafting is a weird clusterfuck that nets little to no results unless you spend hours on it
-- The amount of quests makes it so that you practically have one route to follow with only a select few quests (this might have changed after I stopped playing, though) along the way. There is little exploring involved.
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KlatuAussie Aussie AussieOi Oi OiRegistered Userregular
edited August 2009
Nah, it stays pretty much that way.
There are a couple of times when you can do some quests on the side of the primary line, but they are few and far between.
I started playing again yesterday, and the new stuff is pretty interesting. There's quite a bit, too. It's actually kind of neat how it's like the civilizations are actually expanding. Like, Scheherazade used to just be standing out in the desert by a tree, but now she's smack in the middle of some roads and buildings that continue out to a bridge. But maybe all of that stuff was there before and I just missed it because I was on low settings... Really, if they got some interesting quests and decent dialogue writers, they would have an extremely nifty setting going.
And if they'd just make a few small changes (a few interface things, tiny/moderate cuts in exp and quest requirements, making higher tiered mercenaries more accessible) it would be absolutely amazing. Crafting still seems pretty wonky, too. But I can still see myself at least getting the thirty or so levels to reach 100. And the fact that they update pretty consistently gives me some hope, or at least passing interest, for anything beyond that.
It seems like Princess is still terrible though : (
Like, Scheherazade used to just be standing out in the desert by a tree, but now she's smack in the middle of some roads and buildings that continue out to a bridge. But maybe all of that stuff was there before and I just missed it because I was on low settings...
I reinstalled about a month and a half ago. There has been a fair amount of terrain reworked in both the world map and some dungeons, yeah. As far as gameplay updates have gone, it's not a fundamentally different game, but even at low level there are more quest possibilities and stuff like new PvP options.
Anyway, character name Reana (on Thebes, of course).
I started playing again yesterday, and the new stuff is pretty interesting. There's quite a bit, too. It's actually kind of neat how it's like the civilizations are actually expanding. Like, Scheherazade used to just be standing out in the desert by a tree, but now she's smack in the middle of some roads and buildings that continue out to a bridge. But maybe all of that stuff was there before and I just missed it because I was on low settings... Really, if they got some interesting quests and decent dialogue writers, they would have an extremely nifty setting going.
And if they'd just make a few small changes (a few interface things, tiny/moderate cuts in exp and quest requirements, making higher tiered mercenaries more accessible) it would be absolutely amazing. Crafting still seems pretty wonky, too. But I can still see myself at least getting the thirty or so levels to reach 100. And the fact that they update pretty consistently gives me some hope, or at least passing interest, for anything beyond that.
It seems like Princess is still terrible though : (
oh the subject of the princess that fact that her special takes 3 turns to activate sucks but farking over bows is oh so required for pvp, the smoke grenade she combos with the cannoneer is useful, and she is required to even get the inventor which sells really well.
crafting is beyond wonky around 105 it is about the only consistant way to upgrade gear but you are talking about workloads in the 40-160m (i try to do 2 at a time for enchanting after), on the other hand i got a +4 depraved (110 armor) finished this morning before work, and it ALMOST makes up for the string of +0 113 gear i had going (+0 armor instrument gloves)
if you need any crafting level ups on thebes i can probably help (alot of crap getting to 51 can look up farbekrieg
Urrgh..Mass Effect 2 coming out, must avoid thread as to not get sucked back into AO
well if you are 105+ there are alot of nerfs going on to prevent you from advancing at a reasonable rate and spend your days lamenting that after repairs to your armor you are barely making any money at all, my original reply below was full of that crap but decided that dwelling on the negative sucks and if i really felt that way and that it is only getting worse i need to eject myself.
sadly me2 is kind of meh for me, i could list my handful of complaints (it is a good game after all) but never before in the history of the universe has exploring the galaxy ever felt so claustrophobic. But i suppose randomized instanced encounters and areas are not biowares thing.
The handling of dragonage premium content has also made me wary of going back to bioware after their aquisition by EA (despite how cool the bw guys seem in the me2 thread)
For my princess I have I think five levels of the cannon spell, and then 20 or 40 in Princess' Order. I figured stun really kills me in general since I don't have a monk, so I focused on that.
PVP stuff
My formation is
Witch-Beastmaster-Gunner
Exorcist-Archer-Spear main
Prophet-Shaman-Princess
For my prophet I was going for the anti-axe spell and concentrate. Is that generally an okay choice? Witch in the front row is pretty awesome most of the time. Throw out meteor strike right before getting frozen or stunned, and a lot people waste magic attacks on her. Also limits axe attacks to only hitting two people.
Basically just focus on stunning a bunch of stuff and limiting abilities with mana seal and silence. I kind of wish I'd kept a second gunner instead of the archer, but silence is still useful and she's super useful for killing stuff (outside of arena, too!), and a single gunner seems to get enough AP to still be pretty valuable on her own. Plus I just like having an 'extra' class instead of two of the same.
My wins and losses seem to be pretty evenly divided between people who have some idea what they're doing and people who don't. But my record isn't even that bad! So I'm pretty satisfied with being really suboptimal. It'll still be fun as long as I'm not losing every single match in a landslide.
I really like this setup for PvE stuff, though. Put Princess, Exorcist and Prophet all in the back row, and just have my witch act as a mana battery with mana drain and recharge. The constant healing for everyone is really noticeable, and pretty much everyone can do something useful against flying things except the beastmaster, really.
A lot of you guys still playing? I have played off and on and seen that they did a content update and such, thinking about giving this a serious try again, kinda sick of playing the same MMO that every company seems to think are very different.
Also kinda missing some turn based action, haven't really played much since FFX accept when trying this game out when it was new. I'm going to look this game over, I'm having trouble finding a free MMO that I can get into that doesn't have the flaws that most seem to.
Here is a list of things that seem to be haunting free or even some paid mmo's that I find annoying
Bad in game and forum support
Little to no info on content patches or bug fixes
Little to no added content
Having to buy content to either hit max level or to compete in the end game.
A strange vibe around the community and rumors and signs of the game "Dying"
Maybe I'm asking for the world, but seems like you cant even find games without these flaws when you pay to play, if it isn't WoW (eww) but I have always heard positive things about AO. So seeing pretty extensive content coming to the game is a good sign for me, not sure how frequently that happens but I also remember when they added guitars for weapons the last time I played and I thought that was pretty metal!
A lot of you guys still playing? I have played off and on and seen that they did a content update and such, thinking about giving this a serious try again, kinda sick of playing the same MMO that every company seems to think are very different.
Also kinda missing some turn based action, haven't really played much since FFX accept when trying this game out when it was new. I'm going to look this game over, I'm having trouble finding a free MMO that I can get into that doesn't have the flaws that most seem to.
Here is a list of things that seem to be haunting free or even some paid mmo's that I find annoying
Bad in game and forum support
Little to no info on content patches or bug fixes
Little to no added content
Having to buy content to either hit max level or to compete in the end game.
A strange vibe around the community and rumors and signs of the game "Dying"
Maybe I'm asking for the world, but seems like you cant even find games without these flaws when you pay to play, if it isn't WoW (eww) but I have always heard positive things about AO. So seeing pretty extensive content coming to the game is a good sign for me, not sure how frequently that happens but I also remember when they added guitars for weapons the last time I played and I thought that was pretty metal!
Dont get me wrong the experience from 1-95ish is a real interesting well thought out and planned game, and was ALOT of fun for me as I felt I was in command of a ff game / tactics hybrid that had some pretty good turned combat and better than average art, and didnt require the cash store to have fun. And there is alot of fun as you first experience indy 90, 94 98 guild dungeons like valley of oblvion and gold dragon cave, nation dungeons like alcatraz, ghost ship and tower of babel.
I highly recommend playing the game up until your middle 90s early 100s
The problem is (spoiled for crying and whining.. also long)
from 95+ you will be seeing alot more of these things than actually dungeon progression that made the previous levels so much fun. However new game elements i had never had to worry about before start to pop up.
The quest pathes make you fight such hideous guys as the servant leader, sedna, wreckless machine, which require a title and blessing to beat. (and deity help you if you dont have deathproof title and want to advance past 120). No more can you pretty much use whatever rag tag group you want and still win (I did a guns ablazin party and wanted a cowboy hat with 2 gunners an inventor and a janissary (princess mnk musician prophet) but frozen aldivan pretty much ended that.
The Grind really sets in around 100 you go from getting a few lvls a day to maybe 1 to maybe 1 level in a week, instead of progressing through regional dungeons you are playing the roll through the indy dungeons every day or every other day in the case of 101 and 105, or the gonzu area on saturday/sunday only. I have been hung up on Tlatchlal in the aztec ruins for over a month because of their you have to use a medicine or the mobs one shot you, you need a key to get into the room to kill the guy, and i dont want to waste a 5m potion for a 30 min fight and leave. Im usually seeing a "week" as in 40 hrs of play time for my mercs to make the progression from 115 to 116.
Item durability I never had to repair an item from 1-105 but now every 12 hrs or so of play time reduces one of my items to the horrible hammer above merc head status, the repair stones are reasonable(ish) 150k per tier 3 (60-100 gear) and 300k ea for 105+ gear.
The issue is if you dont have to the skill to make the item or its equivalent level grade and repair it yourself the max durability goes down by 5, meaning you will be back to repairing it even quicker next time.
Getting someone else to repair it for you isnt too hard assuming the item isnt notrade and you can find someone you can trust to do so (it can be repaired from inventory no problem) but if it is notrade you have to request a repair from that person it consumes 100% of their will and it will cost you 4-8m gold (sometimes they will return it sometimes they wont)
Not to mention box drop rate which heads south at 80 is made worse because they have reduced the amount of boxes that drop in the indy 90-4-8. So catching up to the next tier sets for 97 100 105 110 and a113 are long painful slow processes (getting 1 upgrade a week is a good week for me at this point, and that is usually from indy 101 or making lvl 110 depraved gear)
Premium "B" Class mercs become available (and having at least one seems to be required at 100 (spartan pirate elementalist druid) whos books run in the millions (each) and their upgrade crystals are a friggin nightmare (collect 12,000 crystals and other mats to upgrade them to level 100) is a nightmare, let alone the 120 upgrade (which im dreading every day as im still trying to upgrade mercs that live in merc rooms to 100 let alone prepare for the killer 120 upgrade)
At this point I am hanging in game more for my friends and guildies than the fun derived from oh damn im going to lose so much money if this crafted armor doesnt turn out +1 or better... Yeah bits and peices are fun but not participating in the cash store means i can compete with the 'elite' people who do. Which is how these free games operate and i shouldnt be so shocked or suprised.
So does the cash shop make it possible to enjoy the game more, progress faster and reduce the chances of item crafting failing on you?
Because back when I played I really liked what I was seeing and was thinking about giving them some money, but there were no items I could spend the money on. I never got higher than lv50-or-so, though.
So does the cash shop make it possible to enjoy the game more, progress faster and reduce the chances of item crafting failing on you?
Because back when I played I really liked what I was seeing and was thinking about giving them some money, but there were no items I could spend the money on. I never got higher than lv50-or-so, though.
cash shop allows for progressing faster? oh hell yes, blessing license gives 100% bonus xp 50% bonus atk damage and 10% defense best value imo, item crafting failure not so much, rather they have a atlas stone feature that will enhance things up for you (detailed below), its kind of risky and not worth it before level 70 gear (and really only worthwhile on 100+ stuff but that is my opinion)
cash shops main four sales items are
1) Atlas Ore depending on the grade of equipment determines how many atlas ore are needed to upgrade the item, atlas ore has a chance of increasing the item from +1 to 5 ranks or degrade the item by -1 (if it is a 2 it goes 1 if 1 it goes 0 if 0 it gets destroyed) Usually Sells in packs of 100, it takes 20 atlas to enchant a +0 lvl 113 item (or try to anyways) and it takes like 1 stone for a lvl 70 item (so the lower the level the fewer stones required). If you fail with an atlas ore you are granted luck pts for your next attempt (basically upper end people get 1k or so atlas enchant +0 100-105 items until they get enough luck to start working on the lvl 113 or 118 gear). But yeah they sell an item that can actually lower your gear stats (they say with no luck should be around 50/50 there are alot of other people who believe differently).
2) Blessing License for 30 days (real time) you get a 10% bonus to defense 50% bonus to damage dealt to PvE only and 100% bonus to xp (these only come from the cash shop but are resold for gold) 2a) Warrior Package (not as useful in my opinion but still sold alot ) licenses you get teleport license (teleport to any unlocked town or dungeon for your traveling will 80-20 depending on lvl) autobattle license, patrol license (click on a mob and see how many and what mobs are in a given party npc or pc, life license see the health bars of your opponents, and a loot bot that appears as a 10th merc who will loot if possible every round
3) Clothes Accessory and Mount Boxes - new clothes for dressup (all clothes and hats at the moment have the same stats 50 vitality but popular reguardless new set every few weeks) since stats are actually worthwhile your vitality gives hps on an exponential scale so very useful, new mounts with higher and higher required levels (0-70 atm and each one has a regular and "armed" or better version. accessories like wings or backpacks which just give stats (usually vitality atk defense) same their exist wings for 20-70 i believe same as horses having a regular and enhanced version of each one.
The thing with these boxes is they could also give you something else like jewels, or scrolls, or other doo dads which are nice but not nearly as farking cool as 1) wings 2) mounts and 3) clothes.
4) extra inventory licenses, mercenary room licenses, they have temporary versions of these items ingame but the ones from item mall are permanent (merc room license means you can hire a mercenary and stick them in a room outside of party) the inventory license i believe is 18 or 20 slots the merc will have 10 inventory slots + 2-5 quickslots for potions the only issue is to shuffle mercs in and out of their room eats 5 will but in general is viewed as a better deal because it gives you greater party flexibility + more inventory slots
So basically if you want to get a new mount or wings I would recommend buying known items like blessing warrior package or merc room licenses and selling them ingame for gold and then buying the new wings or mount as the clothes/mount/wing boxes are random and chances are you wont be lucky enough to get what you want out of them and the trash items arent going to be worth the same amount.
They also run a MS style deal where you dont trade cash for what you want you trade cash for ndoors currency in set amounts and then trade that currency for what you want, somewhat of a pain. Ive bought 2 blessing licenses in my time at ndoors and considering the enjoyment and time spent there consider it a bargain.
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But i have a question,how fighting in a party works:?:
Arena betting is a very precise and enigmatic art.
Jezo
Who wants to guild or friend me or whatever it is we do on this thing?
Also, I just applied for the guild. So lemme in!
I KISS YOU!
So I should just apply and let Atlantica run in the background until it comes through?
Oof.. okay though, I'll do that tonight.
I KISS YOU!
I KISS YOU!
I KISS YOU!
Being in a guild opens up an item slot and lets you take some optional quests, but most interesting guild-specific activities tend to require at least three mid-level+ people on together, so to be truly awesomesauce we need to get more people back on. On the other hand, you're still at a point where you should be breezing through levels on the early quest chains.
Speaking of that, when do I start to get into this kind of thing?
I have my ones I got from the training, I picked two spearmen and a gunner. What eventually starts to happen?
Also, do I level my guys up in anyway manually or is it all handled auto when they go up? How about a skill trainer or something to get new magics or make current magics stronger?
I KISS YOU!
- you can level up manually with exp books, you get those for playing in a party, the more exp the party gets the more exp books you get. You do not have to be in proximity of each other for this.
- Skills are learned through skill books, these are monster drops and quest rewards.
The game seems to be a very strange mix between FF style combat (im up to 10) and the ongoing struggle with inventory management.
Honestly the # of quickslots and then inventory slots is a horrid burden, particularly if you arent loaded with enough cash to finish off enchants (either buying that last + x item to combine with the + x item in your inventory so it gets to be + y which matches the + y item you are using so you can further enchant it up to z, the inability of stacking equipment makes crafting a set of equipment (15) take up 1.5 full npc slots worth of inventory space.
Every time I start to enjoy a progressive quest (such as brans castle with dimitri anasstasia and heinrich) I have to stop because ive been loaded up with enough junk that i have to offload it.
I understand this is one of the ways they make money off their micro transactions but it is very tiresome to deal with
Also, you can dump stuff in your bank in Rome, there is a teleport button on your UI. Just gotta figure out how to get back after that, there's a few teleport options, but those cost you gold.
I don't think this is a cash-shop issue at all. (For one thing, the cash items don't change this a whole lot.) Limiting inventory forces an active game economy, and I consider the economy definitely one of the game's draws. If everybody was able to hoard more or less indiscriminately there would be a lot less movement in the market; this way people have to sell things.
I do some planning (leave some slots open and don't open boxes outside of town), but I also typically have a few mercs' worth of inventory slots taken up by gauntlets waiting to be sold and crafting materials for gauntlets I bought in bulk. And I haven't had serious inventory trouble since I was at 5-6 characters.
The box opening system is WRETCHED, at the end of a gaming session, i return to town with 40 armor/weapon boxes, 60-70 community boxes (with the skill books), and 20-30 crafting resource boxes, and of course 20 or so enchantment boxes, and have to spend the next hr or so clicking.
needless to say im still having inventory issues (i guess i just need to hammer away more of my crafted garbage)
The 200 or so crafting books and 500 or so experience books are pretty worthless unless I track down the one traveling merchant who will combine them for me (seeing as reading a book costs 10 will)
However, unless things have drastically changed in the last couple months, opening low end non-equipment boxes is a great way for newbies to make cash.
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
Worthwhile options are De Mere in the athens bazaar or just selling the boxes outright. When you're get so many that you can't feasibly open them all it's time wasted when you could be making money through more efficient methods than endlessly right-clicking
I was trying to learn every crafting skill available so that when I hammered anything I didn't want, I would get craft exp as well as the sellable stuff that comes from hammering things.
The money from selling elements can be decent. Dismantling xp, on the other hand, can be okay for getting your first few levels in something but it's worth peanuts in the long run, and trying to craft everything will grind to a halt real fast past level 35-50 equipment.
-- diverse set of mercenaries allows for a few different play styles
-- a real dedication to making the pvp fun (not balanced but fun)
-- interesting quest settings
-- small learning curve if you have played a ff game combat feels like 2nd nature
-- uptimes/updates uptimes are good and updates do happen
-- working turn based combat
-- worldwide player base is kind of fun (more fun that ff11)
-- Game differential between those that participate in micro transactions and dont is not earth shattering (thats right Im cheap)
it definately has its flaws
-- clickfest
-- limited customization of avatar
-- class balance issues
-- game mechanics vary greatly between pvp/pve
-- horrible UI for chat
-- update lag between korean version of game and english version sometimes makes english servers 2nd class citizens
-- limited content 100+ (log in run indy dungeons 90 94 101 maybe 98 pvp a few and log out)
based off this anyone have another mmo to suggest to move onto based on the above?
Soloing content has gotten really hard at my level now, harder for me than for some of my guildies anyway. It comes down to poor group set up I think and also poor gear for the area i'm questing in. I'm sure once my mercs level 2-3 more times and I can change them into Conq armor (the lvl 97 stuff) it would really help, but I don't have it in me to continue.
Also I think if I had a better merc set up I'd be having less trouble than I am. I'm too melee based and I really need more ranged and AoE ability to kill the groups of 3 faster.
I do have two more cons
-- Crafting is a weird clusterfuck that nets little to no results unless you spend hours on it
-- The amount of quests makes it so that you practically have one route to follow with only a select few quests (this might have changed after I stopped playing, though) along the way. There is little exploring involved.
There are a couple of times when you can do some quests on the side of the primary line, but they are few and far between.
And if they'd just make a few small changes (a few interface things, tiny/moderate cuts in exp and quest requirements, making higher tiered mercenaries more accessible) it would be absolutely amazing. Crafting still seems pretty wonky, too. But I can still see myself at least getting the thirty or so levels to reach 100. And the fact that they update pretty consistently gives me some hope, or at least passing interest, for anything beyond that.
It seems like Princess is still terrible though : (
I reinstalled about a month and a half ago. There has been a fair amount of terrain reworked in both the world map and some dungeons, yeah. As far as gameplay updates have gone, it's not a fundamentally different game, but even at low level there are more quest possibilities and stuff like new PvP options.
Anyway, character name Reana (on Thebes, of course).
oh the subject of the princess that fact that her special takes 3 turns to activate sucks but farking over bows is oh so required for pvp, the smoke grenade she combos with the cannoneer is useful, and she is required to even get the inventor which sells really well.
crafting is beyond wonky around 105 it is about the only consistant way to upgrade gear but you are talking about workloads in the 40-160m (i try to do 2 at a time for enchanting after), on the other hand i got a +4 depraved (110 armor) finished this morning before work, and it ALMOST makes up for the string of +0 113 gear i had going (+0 armor instrument gloves)
if you need any crafting level ups on thebes i can probably help (alot of crap getting to 51
well if you are 105+ there are alot of nerfs going on to prevent you from advancing at a reasonable rate and spend your days lamenting that after repairs to your armor you are barely making any money at all, my original reply below was full of that crap but decided that dwelling on the negative sucks and if i really felt that way and that it is only getting worse i need to eject myself.
sadly me2 is kind of meh for me, i could list my handful of complaints (it is a good game after all) but never before in the history of the universe has exploring the galaxy ever felt so claustrophobic. But i suppose randomized instanced encounters and areas are not biowares thing.
The handling of dragonage premium content has also made me wary of going back to bioware after their aquisition by EA (despite how cool the bw guys seem in the me2 thread)
PVP stuff
Witch-Beastmaster-Gunner
Exorcist-Archer-Spear main
Prophet-Shaman-Princess
For my prophet I was going for the anti-axe spell and concentrate. Is that generally an okay choice? Witch in the front row is pretty awesome most of the time. Throw out meteor strike right before getting frozen or stunned, and a lot people waste magic attacks on her. Also limits axe attacks to only hitting two people.
Basically just focus on stunning a bunch of stuff and limiting abilities with mana seal and silence. I kind of wish I'd kept a second gunner instead of the archer, but silence is still useful and she's super useful for killing stuff (outside of arena, too!), and a single gunner seems to get enough AP to still be pretty valuable on her own. Plus I just like having an 'extra' class instead of two of the same.
My wins and losses seem to be pretty evenly divided between people who have some idea what they're doing and people who don't. But my record isn't even that bad! So I'm pretty satisfied with being really suboptimal. It'll still be fun as long as I'm not losing every single match in a landslide.
I really like this setup for PvE stuff, though. Put Princess, Exorcist and Prophet all in the back row, and just have my witch act as a mana battery with mana drain and recharge. The constant healing for everyone is really noticeable, and pretty much everyone can do something useful against flying things except the beastmaster, really.
Also kinda missing some turn based action, haven't really played much since FFX accept when trying this game out when it was new. I'm going to look this game over, I'm having trouble finding a free MMO that I can get into that doesn't have the flaws that most seem to.
Here is a list of things that seem to be haunting free or even some paid mmo's that I find annoying
Bad in game and forum support
Little to no info on content patches or bug fixes
Little to no added content
Having to buy content to either hit max level or to compete in the end game.
A strange vibe around the community and rumors and signs of the game "Dying"
Maybe I'm asking for the world, but seems like you cant even find games without these flaws when you pay to play, if it isn't WoW (eww) but I have always heard positive things about AO. So seeing pretty extensive content coming to the game is a good sign for me, not sure how frequently that happens but I also remember when they added guitars for weapons the last time I played and I thought that was pretty metal!
Dont get me wrong the experience from 1-95ish is a real interesting well thought out and planned game, and was ALOT of fun for me as I felt I was in command of a ff game / tactics hybrid that had some pretty good turned combat and better than average art, and didnt require the cash store to have fun. And there is alot of fun as you first experience indy 90, 94 98 guild dungeons like valley of oblvion and gold dragon cave, nation dungeons like alcatraz, ghost ship and tower of babel.
I highly recommend playing the game up until your middle 90s early 100s
The problem is (spoiled for crying and whining.. also long)
The quest pathes make you fight such hideous guys as the servant leader, sedna, wreckless machine, which require a title and blessing to beat. (and deity help you if you dont have deathproof title and want to advance past 120). No more can you pretty much use whatever rag tag group you want and still win (I did a guns ablazin party and wanted a cowboy hat with 2 gunners an inventor and a janissary (princess mnk musician prophet) but frozen aldivan pretty much ended that.
The Grind really sets in around 100 you go from getting a few lvls a day to maybe 1 to maybe 1 level in a week, instead of progressing through regional dungeons you are playing the roll through the indy dungeons every day or every other day in the case of 101 and 105, or the gonzu area on saturday/sunday only. I have been hung up on Tlatchlal in the aztec ruins for over a month because of their you have to use a medicine or the mobs one shot you, you need a key to get into the room to kill the guy, and i dont want to waste a 5m potion for a 30 min fight and leave. Im usually seeing a "week" as in 40 hrs of play time for my mercs to make the progression from 115 to 116.
Item durability I never had to repair an item from 1-105 but now every 12 hrs or so of play time reduces one of my items to the horrible hammer above merc head status, the repair stones are reasonable(ish) 150k per tier 3 (60-100 gear) and 300k ea for 105+ gear.
The issue is if you dont have to the skill to make the item or its equivalent level grade and repair it yourself the max durability goes down by 5, meaning you will be back to repairing it even quicker next time.
Getting someone else to repair it for you isnt too hard assuming the item isnt notrade and you can find someone you can trust to do so (it can be repaired from inventory no problem) but if it is notrade you have to request a repair from that person it consumes 100% of their will and it will cost you 4-8m gold (sometimes they will return it sometimes they wont)
Not to mention box drop rate which heads south at 80 is made worse because they have reduced the amount of boxes that drop in the indy 90-4-8. So catching up to the next tier sets for 97 100 105 110 and a113 are long painful slow processes (getting 1 upgrade a week is a good week for me at this point, and that is usually from indy 101 or making lvl 110 depraved gear)
Premium "B" Class mercs become available (and having at least one seems to be required at 100 (spartan pirate elementalist druid) whos books run in the millions (each) and their upgrade crystals are a friggin nightmare (collect 12,000 crystals and other mats to upgrade them to level 100) is a nightmare, let alone the 120 upgrade (which im dreading every day as im still trying to upgrade mercs that live in merc rooms to 100 let alone prepare for the killer 120 upgrade)
At this point I am hanging in game more for my friends and guildies than the fun derived from oh damn im going to lose so much money if this crafted armor doesnt turn out +1 or better... Yeah bits and peices are fun but not participating in the cash store means i can compete with the 'elite' people who do. Which is how these free games operate and i shouldnt be so shocked or suprised.
Because back when I played I really liked what I was seeing and was thinking about giving them some money, but there were no items I could spend the money on. I never got higher than lv50-or-so, though.
cash shop allows for progressing faster? oh hell yes, blessing license gives 100% bonus xp 50% bonus atk damage and 10% defense best value imo, item crafting failure not so much, rather they have a atlas stone feature that will enhance things up for you (detailed below), its kind of risky and not worth it before level 70 gear (and really only worthwhile on 100+ stuff but that is my opinion)
cash shops main four sales items are
1) Atlas Ore depending on the grade of equipment determines how many atlas ore are needed to upgrade the item, atlas ore has a chance of increasing the item from +1 to 5 ranks or degrade the item by -1 (if it is a 2 it goes 1 if 1 it goes 0 if 0 it gets destroyed) Usually Sells in packs of 100, it takes 20 atlas to enchant a +0 lvl 113 item (or try to anyways) and it takes like 1 stone for a lvl 70 item (so the lower the level the fewer stones required). If you fail with an atlas ore you are granted luck pts for your next attempt (basically upper end people get 1k or so atlas enchant +0 100-105 items until they get enough luck to start working on the lvl 113 or 118 gear). But yeah they sell an item that can actually lower your gear stats (they say with no luck should be around 50/50 there are alot of other people who believe differently).
2) Blessing License for 30 days (real time) you get a 10% bonus to defense 50% bonus to damage dealt to PvE only and 100% bonus to xp (these only come from the cash shop but are resold for gold) 2a) Warrior Package (not as useful in my opinion but still sold alot ) licenses you get teleport license (teleport to any unlocked town or dungeon for your traveling will 80-20 depending on lvl) autobattle license, patrol license (click on a mob and see how many and what mobs are in a given party npc or pc, life license see the health bars of your opponents, and a loot bot that appears as a 10th merc who will loot if possible every round
3) Clothes Accessory and Mount Boxes - new clothes for dressup (all clothes and hats at the moment have the same stats 50 vitality but popular reguardless new set every few weeks) since stats are actually worthwhile your vitality gives hps on an exponential scale so very useful, new mounts with higher and higher required levels (0-70 atm and each one has a regular and "armed" or better version. accessories like wings or backpacks which just give stats (usually vitality atk defense) same their exist wings for 20-70 i believe same as horses having a regular and enhanced version of each one.
The thing with these boxes is they could also give you something else like jewels, or scrolls, or other doo dads which are nice but not nearly as farking cool as 1) wings 2) mounts and 3) clothes.
4) extra inventory licenses, mercenary room licenses, they have temporary versions of these items ingame but the ones from item mall are permanent (merc room license means you can hire a mercenary and stick them in a room outside of party) the inventory license i believe is 18 or 20 slots the merc will have 10 inventory slots + 2-5 quickslots for potions the only issue is to shuffle mercs in and out of their room eats 5 will but in general is viewed as a better deal because it gives you greater party flexibility + more inventory slots
So basically if you want to get a new mount or wings I would recommend buying known items like blessing warrior package or merc room licenses and selling them ingame for gold and then buying the new wings or mount as the clothes/mount/wing boxes are random and chances are you wont be lucky enough to get what you want out of them and the trash items arent going to be worth the same amount.
They also run a MS style deal where you dont trade cash for what you want you trade cash for ndoors currency in set amounts and then trade that currency for what you want, somewhat of a pain. Ive bought 2 blessing licenses in my time at ndoors and considering the enjoyment and time spent there consider it a bargain.