Curse

pamelf · Oct 29, 2008, 12:34 PM // 12:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by StueyG

It saez "Mount Rental Merchant" so I saez noe. Well, unless you are into that sorta thing.

I just spat tea out all over my keyboard....

Faer · Oct 29, 2008, 02:59 PM // 14:59

Repeatable quests are presented to you very early on, which not only gives you more of a choice as to how you want to level up, but it also helps out when you start dual-classing (!!!) as you do have to retrace your steps a bit to get your second class up to the level of your first (after the initial "I HAVE TO DO THAT AGAIN?!", it's easy enough to keep them both advancing evenly; repeatable quests don't have any noticeable presence or use until the later levels of WoW, and are all but entirely useless in GW outside of gimmicky farming). Most quests will pair extremely easily with other quests (for example, two or three different quests will have you kill/collect things in the exact same area, reducing the amount of time you spend grinding to complete them / walking around to get between them), which is great considering the majority of quests in the genre consist of running letters from NPC to NPC or killing six billion wild animals (WoW players see this start to happen in their mid-20s and onward, but not to this extent; GW players will note many conflict problems with quests overlapping due to the way the instancing system works, making this sort of thing a shaky concept for the game, at best). Additionally, you have more choices as to what to do with various unsellable items, as some NPCs will want them for quests, while other NPCs will pay you handsome sums for them (as well as giving you some experience for your effort). Crafting and Gathering are brought up very early on in the game, and materials related to both are abundant (even in an extremely overpopulated area) so that, assuming you pick the abilities up as soon as you can, you should never have to backtrack to catch your skill levels up to your character level (non-existent in GW, and WoW players tend to have to backtrack a lot to keep their profession skills up to par, not to mention the fact that under normal play conditions you won't get any until level 10 or so). Mounts can be obtained early on (for an amazingly small fee; see the rental image that started this thread), and while they expire after a short time, they are usually more than worth it and can get you from one end of a zone to the other and back again after completing a quest with no problem (this makes travel time a non-issue for all but the longest journeys, which is something GW solves with map travel but WoW players must wait until level 30/60/70 for, outside of predefined flight path locations). More travel woes are solved by the ability to have a Hearth Recall location (as in WoW), along with additional Mark/Recall (as in Morrowind) locations that can be chosen by the player.

There are a lot of other things I want to add, but I'm already feeling quite long winded, and I'd like to keep this as more of a "first impressions" type of thing until the stress test is over. What I have noted so far are things anyone would notice and (probably) appreciate within five to ten minutes of starting the game. For the most part, they are present in WoW and GW, but not in such a good way, or at such a good time. Runes seems to borrow from both games (among others) to create an excellent experience.

As for the superiority of the game play, if you've ever played an Asian MMO immediately after logging out of WoW, or played WoW immediately after logging out of an Asian MMO, you'd feel incredibly disappointed with the controls, combat, and various other aspects of the Asian game. Runes, on the other hand, feels and functions almost exactly like WoW does, which in my opinion, is incredible for such a game. After playing WoW for an hour, I loaded Runes up, moved around, and could only feel an extremely slight difference in the control sensitivity between the two (Runes, you see, is incredibly responsive, even in highly populated areas; other Asian MMOs will leave you mumbling about how your character doesn't move until a half to full second after you press W/A/S/D, or how it keeps moving for a good second or two after you release the button, and that's when nobody else is even around!). Moving, jumping, swimming (okay, not entirely with that one, but it's still closed beta!), interacting, and fighting just feel right in Runes, as opposed to the shitfest of clunky depressing unintuitive crap present in most, if not all, other Asian MMOs.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to watching anime and playing this amazing new game (and avoiding Guild Wars; I don't wanna test any more bugs this week

). Have to grind my IRL weeaboo title up to max before Christmas!

Racthoh · Oct 29, 2008, 07:32 PM // 19:32

It's a big download; 3gbs. Goes open early November, want to play.

FlamingMetroid · Oct 29, 2008, 07:40 PM // 19:40

yay, they finally registered me ^____________^

now to download the 3gig client with the internet I share with the few hundred people in my dorm while playing TF2

Faer · Oct 29, 2008, 07:48 PM // 19:48

A note to the hopeful: make no mistake, this game does contain grind. Heaps. It's an MMO, and it's from Asia, so you have to go into the game expecting to spend a lot of time mashing skill hotkeys to kill those six billion level 1 boars (although spamming Flame is amazingly satisfying. HUGE PURPLE BALL OF FIERY DEATH YEAH YEAH YEAH). People who left other games for GW or who have never played an online game other than GW chiefly because of the grind in other games probably won't enjoy Runes that much. However, those that play GW and spend the majority of their time logged in working on their titles will be just fine with Runes (grind is grind, yo, but at least in Runes the grind has some immediately, noticeable benefits).

So, don't hit me with a "You said it was great but it had grind!" type of statement later. I warned you. Never claimed the game had no grind, only claimed that it handled it a lot better and was exponentially more tolerable than the currently available alternatives. :3

Avarre · Oct 30, 2008, 05:52 PM // 17:52

The only question that's important is 'is the pk good?'

Snow Bunny · Oct 31, 2008, 12:36 AM // 00:36

Avarre, go sweatshop me some WoW gold or something.

Faer · Oct 31, 2008, 03:35 AM // 03:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

The only question that's important is 'is the pk good?'

DUNNO YET BRO THEY WON'T LET ME PK BITCHES WITH MY MASSIVE PURPLE ORBS OF FIERY DEATHBOMBING AWESOMENESS. But like I said on the En of Em Ess, the PvP combat itself is solid, so one would expect PK to be fine.

Vilaptca · Nov 01, 2008, 08:27 AM // 08:27

I forgot I put in for a beta key for this game until now.

You've got me all excited now......

Faer · Nov 01, 2008, 12:59 PM // 12:59

omfg Vilaptica lurk moar gawd

But yeah I'm getting everybody excited. Even ESS EMM ESS RAKTHO went nuts until we actually got him in, and he apparently loves it. Mighty mighty Warriors.

Super Igor · Nov 01, 2008, 01:45 PM // 13:45

wuzzat game?

Mike_version2 · Nov 01, 2008, 02:21 PM // 14:21

I forgot I applied for a beta key a while a go, anyway downloading now (on my lovely slow internet).

Super Igor · Nov 01, 2008, 04:51 PM // 16:51

Dis gaem iz 3gigs to donlod -___-

DarkNecrid · Nov 01, 2008, 04:57 PM // 16:57

whats the third bar that is 0/0 on all the frames (in your OP ss) btw

Tyla · Nov 01, 2008, 05:03 PM // 17:03

Okay, my account is verified and I'll be downloading when I get back home (my dad's got a download limit :angry

, my IGN's Tyla.

FlamingMetroid · Nov 01, 2008, 05:21 PM // 17:21

o ya, my IGN is Ninpou

Abedeus · Nov 01, 2008, 05:52 PM // 17:52

Muwhaha, new game to stalk Tyla in.

Say allo to my 6MB net. 3GB is nuttin' for it.

Aww man, 90kb/s seems to be the limit on download from one of the servers... Anyone got a better one?

MMSDome · Nov 01, 2008, 06:04 PM // 18:04

yes as your movement speed will increase and u shall gain money

Faer · Nov 01, 2008, 09:49 PM // 21:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkNecrid

whats the third bar that is 0/0 on all the frames (in your OP ss) btw

Energy/Rage/Whatever from second class, I believe. None of us had a second class yet, so they were all 0/0.

Tyla · Nov 01, 2008, 09:52 PM // 21:52

Crap, you need some sort of beta key? Read it up on the forums, looks like chances are slim of getting it.