2011 MMORPG Thread

[tyketime]

Because I haven't purchased enough games over the holidays, I thought I would download and play the 14-Day trial to Darkfall. I read some articles. I found a cool 4-part series of videos that give some ideas of how a new player should spend his/her first few playing sessions. So I followed along, leveled up some skills. Had a good time, but it was just me hacking away against goblins - no PvP. I then read there is a clan called "NEW" that takes in new players for 30 days, helps them out, and then sends them into the big scary world. So I sent my invite yesterday morning. I then trekked to Hammerdale where I was attacked by the Guard Towers as I approached. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. I put my weapon away and approached again, only to be chased back by the attacking Towers. I logged out and scoured the forums. It turns out my timing was impeccable. There was apparently a coup that occured recently, and everyone was kicked out of the NEW clan. As I read more info about the game, another new player asked if he played 6 hours a week, would he be competitive in the game (meaning 1v1 pvp). Most responses were a definitive NO. They said it would take him 1-3 years (at that casual pace), to build up his skills to that level. Well that has certainly chased me off. I probably play 6-10 hours per week, but split across a couple of games. I guess Darkfall won't be my next MMO. Unless one of you has a different take...

Any of you playing a PvP MMO that you would recommend to a "new" player?

I'm anxiously awaiting Guild Wars 2, and cautiously optimistic about RIFT & TERA.

[CleBrownsfan]

I'm looking forward to DC Universe Online for the PS3. Probably my most anticipated game of 2011 - hope it doesn't disappoint....

[Apathetic Lurker]

It probably will

[Peregrine]

I'm pretty happy with Rift so far from the betas - but I have not tried PVP. I am currently playing World of Warcraft. I have heard that Darkfall is a heavy grind to get competitive, but pretty fun once you get to that point.

[aran]

I wish that MMORPGs would progress past the reward-treadmill skinner box partially fueled by social pressure model.

[tyketime]

I'm pretty happy with Rift so far from the betas -

Have you preordered?

[Peregrine]

Have you preordered?

Not yet - I've recently started giving WoW another shot so I think I will play that for a while.

[tyketime]

I'm definitely considering pre-ordering. I usually wait until after launches for MMO's, but this seems to be an exception. And if you preorder, you automatically get in the rest of the beta events. Any reason I should reconsider?

[Thomkal]

I'm looking forward to DC Universe Online for the PS3. Probably my most anticipated game of 2011 - hope it doesn't disappoint....

Well the beta ended a couple of days ago and the game opens on the 11th, so I can share now some of my experiences. I got into the beta fairly late, and experimented with all six main classes so only got level 10 or so with them. I also didn't keep up to date on changes so some of the things may have been fixed/changed. Some Pros and Cons then:

Pros:

-OMG! you are playing in the DC universe as your own hero/villain alongside the greats. You get to choose one of three "mentors" that determines your early missions and the city you start out in. It's Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman for the heroes, Lex Luthor, the Joker, and Circe (a bit of an who? on that one). If you are a comic book geek like me, you will be geeking out big time as you hear from your mentor often and also have Oracle/Calculator as secondary mentor/quest givers. You'll usually run into a hero/villain in the main mission of each "quest" fighting alongside them to take down the baddie/goodie. Examples you'll find early on: Zatanna and you vs/Felix Faust. Parasite and you vs Power Girl, etc. You'll see a few heroes or villains roaming around in the various safehouses.

-Metropolis and Gotham City are awesome. I'm not sure either city is like what I had pictured in my mind, but both are huge and far better than City of Heroes cities in looking/feeling like a living breathing city. For those of you starting in Gotham, the very first thing you should do when you get out of the safehouse is look up into the night sky. Serious chills. Booster Gold provides a number of guided tours of the various sections of each city in his unique "style". Brainiac is involved in the main theme/plot whether you are a hero or villain as you find out from the tutorial mission. Sections of both cities are occupied by his forces and the visuals are incredible. The Brainiac missions continue past the tutorial and are basically the same for each side, but fun-especially the one where I got to fly to hovering platforms hanging over the city and take out his forces and destroy equipment on them.

-You get to go to the JLA Watchtower-which is in orbit around the Earth or the Hall of Doom for villains, right from the moment you enter the first safehouse after the tutorial mission. (but see Cons for a downer). Many familiar heroes/villains are there and the visuals of the earth/the swamp outside the windows of each-just another geek moment. You'll get a mission to go to the Watchtower/Hall of Doom around Level 9 where you will be given a guided tour (see the Cons) of each place.

-the game is incredibly stable/ready to go when it opens on the eleventh. Most games these days aren't ready, or have enough content. DC Universe could use some more content in terms of mobs set aside from the mission mobs in various parts of the cities so you can just go beat up on things when you want. There are some citizens you can save/beat up but I liked City of Heroes with a mob on "every street corner" that I could beat up on and weren't involved specifically in a mission.

-missions are generally good. You get sent to the first part of a mission chain where you'll have the usual "kill 10 whatevers" but then they range out-kill 10 and destroy 5 of these devices, kill 10 while trying to carry people back to a safe zone so they can be treated, etc. Be sure to look for beacons of light from the ground to the sky for secondary quest givers in many of the stages of the mission chains.

But the end mission in each chain really shine. You are sent to building to fight the main bad/good guy of each mission-usually you'll encounter a "teammate" at some point in the mission who will help you fight the main bad/good guy and sometimes the various mobs you'll encounter. These missions have kind of a feel of sameness to them in that they are mostly square buildings that you will go up and/or down levels into mostly square rooms, but wow what an individual look they've given them. City of Heroes missions sent you to one of many generic buildings that had slightly different layouts/furnishings/colors etc. DCO had end missions in Madame Xanadu's Mystic Shop, a STAR Labs, Warehouse, Lighthouse, etc. There's usually secondary missions for each-look for the light beacons near the entrance. The "boss fights" themselves consist of several stages where the villain changes tactics/brings in bad/good guys to help fight you, etc. They are very long and drawn out, and from my viewpoint at least, easy to lose and too long and drawn out.

-Expanded Movement Powers-Didn't get the chance to look at this closely because you don't get them until level 10-but then they have their own "skill tree" like Powers do-makes them more than just a transport me to the next mission/zone skill. The three movement powers themselves, Flight-Acrobatics-Superspeed are cool-running, climbing or flying over a skyscraper is a must thing to do early on just for the fun on it.

-Multiplayer Team Side missions: I generally play solo, but tried one out to get a feel for it. There are four and two and I think eight player "raids" where you can team up and go on a mission to totally different areas like Area 51. The one I went on (till I crashed) was set up in various stages like the main end mission in a mission chain-you complete a stage and move the storyline on to the next stage. Would be fun to do with friends who could put up with my slowness. :)

Cons:

-It's not free to play like many MMO's are these days. I can't afford to play a monthly subscription MMO right now, so won't be playing given my other main cons about the game which I'll get to.

-As mentioned above the con with the Watchtower and Hall of Doom is that they are incredibly confusing to find your way around in even with the "quest helper" arrows on the mini-map. Many of the rooms are huge (and more than one level) with many exits and not all are labeled. There are three separate wings-one for each origin type to navigate and then the rooms of each place itself. The guided tour quest will likely leave you getting frustrated trying to find some of the areas. Also its a bit strange when various heroes/villains like Power Girl and Bizarro serve as vendors in each place for some of the collectible armors you can get at higher levels. Just an odd choice in my mind.

-Movement outside Flight can be hard to control/frustrating to use when you are trying to travel to an area and run through a place where you can get hit by bad/good guys. It slows you down tremendously and can become annoying when travelling long distances. I just prefer flight so I can just fly over all trouble. But you can get grounded if attacked, so beware!

-More Powers Needed: Right now there is six main powers-Fire, Ice, Mental, Nature, Sorcery, Gadgets. Many more are needed. Each has a "skill tree" (and two different skill trees with each power) that gives you a different way to use the power or do something like raise a stat, heal or protect more, etc. The visuals on the powers are great though. You also get access to Iconic Powers at some point which I never got to so can't comment on.

-Each Player uses a weapon. Yep along with your powers each character chooses a separate weapon to use when creating your character-things like bows, staffs, hand blasters, rifles, etc. I cannot tell you how much I dislike this. It just feels out of place to have every character use a weapon-and you will need to use them extensively in battles. They should have been the seventh power class rather than an addition that each player must use. Totally ruins the atmosphere for me.

-lack of MMO controls/combat. Biggest con for me. If you are use to playing games on a console, you will have no problem playing the game. This game is a button-masher when it comes to combat and plays more like a console game. I don't play them, so I'm not used to having to move the mouse around during combat, and not having a cursor/arrow I can hover over my powers, items, bad guys, etc. Combat is a weird fusion of being able to hit a number key like normal MMO to use your powers, but then moving the mouse around to keep your bad guys in sight, and then either tapping a mouse button, or holding it down, or some combination of the two, with some powers two or more taps, holds-and you arent sure if you are holding it long enough before beginning the second hold you need to do, etc. Its just incredibly confusing and since I can't cursor hover over my various weapons power to see what I have to do to activate the combo I just get beat to pieces by many regular mobs, let alone the bosses. If you play console games this is nothing new for you and will love it no doubt. It makes the game a near no-play for me.

Like I said I didn't keep up to date on things, so I may be wrong/out of date about some of this. I'll be happy to answer questions if I can.

[Matthean]

Odd, I thought Sony said their plan as a do the Guild Wars model where it was free to play once you bought the game. If it has a sub, it's an instant no go for me.

[Peregrine]

Rift Beta 4 is this weekend - and they have their usual lengthy patch list. I especially like that they are adding a full ability queue - something the game definitely needs.

[CleBrownsfan]

Thanks Thomkal - Looking forward to Tuesday;s release! I watched a hour video gameplay on Gamespt this morning - looks promising

[tyketime]

I preordered RIFT and so that gives me access to all future Beta events. I played in the Beta 4 event this past weekend. Since this was my first time in the game, I was much more focused on characters, classes, abilities, etc. So I didn't make it into the PvP portion.

I probably rolled 6 different character types. Usually I prefer ranged type characters, and so I leveled up my Ranger/Marksman/Riftstalker. I don't always like the "pets" aspect of these characters, but my survival depended on my pet keeping the enemy at range distance. I also like Healer characters, but I wasn't enjoying that archetype as much as I have in other MMO's. Of course, having only played each character for a couple of hours is NOT enough time to make any long-term conclusions (and it is only a beta). Finally, the character type I usually play the least is the Warrior type. And wouldn't you know it? It was the last character I created and probably the most fun I had with any of mine so far. I love the Bull Rush!

As far as my impressions - so far I am really liking what I see. I know they have the frequency of Rift Invasions cranked up very high, but they are very enjoyable as a dynamic "public-quest" type activity. You hear the horns sound of a nearby attack, and everybody runs to the defense. You are then each "rewarded" based on how much you contributed to repelling the invasion. The ground actually changes to reflect the invasion area. I wish they had starter areas for each race, and not just Guardians vs Defiants. Maybe they will add that in the future. If not, then other than a couple minor racial abilities, there's nothing to distinguish them from each other.

Were any of you in Beta 4?

[Lonnie]

I preordered Rift as well and just got in on Beta 4 this weekend. Like you I played each type to get a feel of them. I leveled the rogue up to 15.

The rifts did make it a lot of fun, but I hope that at release it doesn't get like Warhammer's PQs where there was not enough people around at times to gang up on them. That would make major rifts a hinderance to just getting around and leveling, but like you said they had the frequency cranked up for the beta.

I did participate in the PvP. It was a grab the idol and hang on as long as you can while it damages you scenrio. I think they had that one in Warhammer. I was 13 at the time and the range was 10-20, but I still held my own pretty well. I played three rounds and then moved on to see more content. It was acceptable. I played on a PvP server, but did not reach any areas that overlapped with the enemy to see how open world PvP would be. I am very interested in how that plays out.

I really like the character/soul development. I didn't notice until the end that you can have several specs with the souls that you have collected. That will make switching from a solo questing offensive cleric to a healing raid style cleric easy.

I also had to turn general chat off as I was tired of hearing people say that they copied WoW. That seems to be the general consensus of the people that have only played WoW. I see influnce from many of the modern MMOs as well as some original ideas. The interface is very WoW-like, so it will be easily picked up by those familiar with it.

Overall I am impressed enough to say that my preoder was not wasted. I look forward to release.

[tyketime]

The rifts did make it a lot of fun, but I hope that at release it doesn't get like Warhammer's PQs where there was not enough people around at times to gang up on them.

It's my understanding that Rifts scale up based on the number of players in the area, so hopefully we'll have a fighting chance regardless.

[Blackadar]

I preordered RIFT and so that gives me access to all future Beta events. I played in the Beta 4 event this past weekend. Since this was my first time in the game, I was much more focused on characters, classes, abilities, etc. So I didn't make it into the PvP portion.

I probably rolled 6 different character types. Usually I prefer ranged type characters, and so I leveled up my Ranger/Marksman/Riftstalker. I don't always like the "pets" aspect of these characters, but my survival depended on my pet keeping the enemy at range distance. I also like Healer characters, but I wasn't enjoying that archetype as much as I have in other MMO's. Of course, having only played each character for a couple of hours is NOT enough time to make any long-term conclusions (and it is only a beta). Finally, the character type I usually play the least is the Warrior type. And wouldn't you know it? It was the last character I created and probably the most fun I had with any of mine so far. I love the Bull Rush!

As far as my impressions - so far I am really liking what I see. I know they have the frequency of Rift Invasions cranked up very high, but they are very enjoyable as a dynamic "public-quest" type activity. You hear the horns sound of a nearby attack, and everybody runs to the defense. You are then each "rewarded" based on how much you contributed to repelling the invasion. The ground actually changes to reflect the invasion area. I wish they had starter areas for each race, and not just Guardians vs Defiants. Maybe they will add that in the future. If not, then other than a couple minor racial abilities, there's nothing to distinguish them from each other.

Were any of you in Beta 4?

I'm right with you, tyke. I was also in Beta 4 as my first exposure to Rift.

I found Rift to be derivative but extremely solid with an excellent class (soul) system. I'm pre-ordering a MMO for the first time since Warhammer Online (2 1/2 years ago), so that's saying something. The quests are Wow circa 2005, but there's the dynamic content (Rifts) which act like Public Quests, some good PvP (both instanced and open world), a great engine, really beautiful graphics and the aforementioned soul system. Add it all up and this could end up being a very, very good MMO. I've really never seen a MMO this polished two months before launch.

[Matthean]

After a 3 month break I logged into CoH. Ah, it's like giving a drug addict some drugs after a nice long break of being clean. :lol: I played my Rad/mm blaster, but I'm still thinking I like my Ice/mm more. There's just something off on Radiation blasts that I can't get behind and I'm not sure what. I'll probably play my lower guys until I can figure out what in the hell I want to do alpha slot wise with my 50s.

[tyketime]

Saw this about DC Universe Online... ouch!

Imagine a MMORPG comes out and nobody notices. That's the impression I had about the general lack of reporting in the MMO blogosphere about DC Universe Online. Now I've finally seen the first review, from Gamespy, and they say: "Everything about this game is so unbelievably bad that I do not know where to begin." As far as I could make out from the review, it is an "action" MMORPG, with that "action" being frantic mouse-clicking, and the "MMORPG" part being lots of grindy kill ten foozles quest. Guess we haven't missed much.

[CleBrownsfan]

Saw this about DC Universe Online... ouch!

I played DCUO a lot over the weekend - most fun I had with a game in a long long time. Sure it has it's bugs and annoyances but it's the first week of a mmo - that's expected.

EDIT: I am playing this on the PS3. It could see how it is more geared for a console since it is a "button masher"

[Thomkal]

I think their "quests" are actually one of the game's strengths. Yes there are "kill ten" parts in each stage of a quest, but often something else you have to do-remove people from the danger zone-destroy/collect something, etc. And I like how they move you to the next stage of the quest without having to contact or go back to the quest giver in most cases-the game advances to the next stage for you right there and the next stage is then close by. And I like how it all builds to the end mission in the quest with fighting a "boss" The boss missions are well done too I think.

Yeah I can't play the game due to the console click happy combat, but the rest of the game is certainly not "unbelievably bad"

[BYU 14]

Hadn't heard about Rift but just watched the video, looks very nice and I have to say I love the concept. Will have to check this out.

[Matthean]

DCUO doesn't seem to have taken much toll on CoH either. Every server was yellow except two when I logged on yesterday and Freedom, the busiest, eventually was red.

[BreizhManu]

might try "Star Wars the Old Republic" and will certainly try "The Secret World"

[frnk55]

I play LOTRO and WOW. Is Rift similar to those games? I don't PVP I just like PVE.

[Blackadar]

I play LOTRO and WOW. Is Rift similar to those games? I don't PVP I just like PVE.

Yes, it's similar. It's almost identical to WoW circa-2005. Questing isn't great, but the Rifts help spice things up.

[Mota]

I like the idea of Rifts. I'm sure I will pick that one up. Isn't the old producer from EQ2 on this team? Sure looks and feels a lot like EQ2.

[larrymcg421]

DCUO doesn't seem to have taken much toll on CoH either. Every server was yellow except two when I logged on yesterday and Freedom, the busiest, eventually was red.

Agreed. I've been on and off with COH for a long time now. Part of my frustration for a while was the dearth of people available to team. For a while there, especially in the early days of Champions Online, it looked like COH was dying a slow death. Now the zones seem more populated than ever.

I started a Shield/Super Strength Tanker and he's the most fun character I've played yet. at lvl 37, I've already got him softcapped and now working on getting his recharge down and improving his end recovery. Once I get Foot Stomp, I'll be soloing with ease.

[Matthean]

Agreed. I've been on and off with COH for a long time now. Part of my frustration for a while was the dearth of people available to team. For a while there, especially in the early days of Champions Online, it looked like COH was dying a slow death. Now the zones seem more populated than ever.

I started a Shield/Super Strength Tanker and he's the most fun character I've played yet. at lvl 37, I've already got him softcapped and now working on getting his recharge down and improving his end recovery. Once I get Foot Stomp, I'll be soloing with ease.

If GR was going to create an issue I thought it was starting out in three different areas, but I think people have started to avoid Praet. and only use it on a as needed basis. I will say that the game feels like there is too much to do and all the more so if you have a lot of alts. (waves) :lol: The servers are busy, but people do seem to be all over the place though. Doing PuGs isn't like how it use to be.

I did try Shield, but I haven't gotten far with it. Initially tried brute, but might go scrapper since KM/sd would get the most benefit on scrappers. I have a tank for each server I play on and my highest are Dark/stone and Ice/ice. I would love to play at least one of the for 2xp weelend, but that's going to my Kat/sr and Ill/rad.

[JediKooter]

might try "Star Wars the Old Republic" and will certainly try "The Secret World"

Being the Star Wars fan that I am, I will try out the Old Republic.

[Capital]

I picked up DC Universe and am having fun with the game. Sure, it's a button pusher (something that generally doesn't interest me in my late 30s) but I understood that going in. The way I see this game, it's not really a MMO, but a comic book game that will keep me going for a couple of months. Then I will move on to something else.

If you go into this game with more of a standalone mindset, you may enjoy the game. Just don't think you will likely be playing the game a year down the road.

[CleBrownsfan]

I picked up DC Universe and am having fun with the game. Sure, it's a button pusher (something that generally doesn't interest me in my late 30s) but I understood that going in. The way I see this game, it's not really a MMO, but a comic book game that will keep me going for a couple of months. Then I will move on to something else.

If you go into this game with more of a standalone mindset, you may enjoy the game. Just don't think you will likely be playing the game a year down the road.

Still having a lot of fun with DCUO. I'm up to level 21 and I'm hearing more and more the "end game" is pretty damn exiting - looking forward to getting there. I'm hoping there will be enough new content to keep my interest long term.

Captial - what server are you on? I'm really looking for more people to jump on with and group up. I'm on the Justice server playing as a Hero.

[larrymcg421]

If GR was going to create an issue I thought it was starting out in three different areas, but I think people have started to avoid Praet. and only use it on a as needed basis. I will say that the game feels like there is too much to do and all the more so if you have a lot of alts. (waves) :lol: The servers are busy, but people do seem to be all over the place though. Doing PuGs isn't like how it use to be.

I am an altaholic, so bad that I have actually never gotten a character to 50. The higher levels are when I start to feel the grind, plus I usually get bored with playing one powerset for too long and I'll see someone with an interesting combo so I make one to try out myself.

I did try Shield, but I haven't gotten far with it. Initially tried brute, but might go scrapper since KM/sd would get the most benefit on scrappers. I have a tank for each server I play on and my highest are Dark/stone and Ice/ice. I would love to play at least one of the for 2xp weelend, but that's going to my Kat/sr and Ill/rad.

Shield/SS is a great combo because of the damage buff stacking you get with Against All Odds and Rage. Also, you get a great combo of AOE powers in Shield Charge and Foot Stomp. I just picked up the latter at lvl 38 and now I'm soloing at +1x8. I will increase that as soon as I get my end under control, which is my only enemy at the moment. I'll probably use the 2xp weekend to make this guy my first 50.

[cuervo72]

I started a new toon in Praetoria on Champion, and it is sparse. Not that I team much anyway, but I think that most are avoiding Praetoria, or at least are done with it. They're either leveling their Praetorians from 20-50, or are playing 50s more with the Incarnate System. I know I'm certainly doing the latter.

+1x8 at 38, huh? That's pretty impressive. I have a WM/SD brute that I really like, but I don't go to x8. Even at x5, it just served to slow down the rate I could finish tip missions.* Plus I had to really be careful if facing certain foes. Longbow and PPD Awakeneds can floor my defense REAL quick.


* I figure with the nice rewards from A-merits, it doesn't make great sense to run those missions at difficulty levels that will slow me down. Get in, get out. I have like 14 50s and other alts, maybe a half-dozen that are already looking for incarnate shards, so best to spread the play time around.

[larrymcg421]

When I'm trying to finish my 5 Hero Tips for the day and I'm in a rush, I just set it to the lowest setting possible (-1/1) and rush through them. The +1x8 was just to test the limits of my character and have fun. Foot Stomp allows me to kill big mobs pretty quickly, and I love having the constant saturation of AAO. The only problems I've run into yet are Devouring Earth (those damned Quartzes!) and Nemesis when they pop Vengeance (but I've learned now to kill the Lieuts last).

I've spent alot of influence on him by 38, far more than I've ever spent before (I've never been a set bonus cruncher in the past). I got lucky and picked up a purple recipe when invited to a mission in PI. That netted me $200 million, then I got another $200 million by using 2 Hero Merits to buy a LOTG 7.5% Recharge. I'm now 5 tip mishes away from another LOTG.

[Matthean]

DE are the bane to many. I played my Dark/stone tank last night and got on a team that was running +3/4 with DE in them. Yeah, I faceplanted a lot. I got on another team and I got to 32 so I can switch to level 35 common IOs and slowly build up for the level 50 rework. The build is old enough to where it already has Stamina, and I don't want to pop a respec and have to deal with switching it over just yet.

Currently it just needs to level up and finally get 3 slots instead of 2 so I can finally fill out the build. I think a number of builds, ie support, can get away with the lesser slotting, but tanks really seem to benefit from filling out the build. Outside of the +3/4 factor, my controls aren't slotted up enough to really do much. Stuff got stunned, they just didn't stay stunned. The build is going to be a beast once I can turn the corner with it.

Really trying to fend off rolling a new character. Closest thing I can think of that mimics my Titan's Quest character would be a widow, but I don't like the look of them. Maybe do Claws/sr on a more popular server, KM/sr, KM/wp, or KM/nin. I have a lowbie KM/sd brute in Praet, but now I got to get him out to see what it really feels like. Brutes to me feel incredibly awkward before 20ish. Once they gel, SMASH! :lol:

[cuervo72]

Heh. *You* may know to get the lieuts last, but Frostfire and especially Miss Thistle don't. :D

[larrymcg421]

Heh. *You* may know to get the lieuts last, but Frostfire and especially Miss Thistle don't. :D

Heh, just played this mission again last night. It was a pretty overpowered group so it didn't really matter when we killed the LTs. Vengeane was no match for us.

With my last two hero merits, I bought the Miracle + recovery unique and that has solved my end issues. Just soloed a +2x8. I went Pyre for epic because I want Fire Ball for an extra AOE power at lvl 47. That should be fun.

[Lonnie]

Anyone wanting to get into Rift Beta here is a VIP code I got in the newsletter. Beta 5 is running Tues-Thurs next week:

VIP BETA KEY!

Many of you have asked for keys to get your guilds into the RIFT beta, and we hear you! As a special thank-you for subscribing to the newsletter, here is a VIP beta key that can be used 25 times. Now your friends can join the ranks of the Ascended for all remaining beta events. Post it on Facebook or your favorite forum! Tweet it! Shout it from the heavens! It's yours to use as you please.


KEGH-9NYQ-7LQR-HDE3-TLHH



To Apply the VIP Code:



1. Go to account.riftgame.com (https://account.RIFTgame.com) to login or create a new account.
2. Click "Apply Code" on the left-hand navigation bar and enter your VIP key.
3. You're done! You will automatically be invited into the remaining beta events.

[CleBrownsfan]

Thanks Lonnie - I'm going to try it out!

[Thomkal]

Here's my code:

FJD7-TMQ3-PZMP-QF7D-DFKG

[Capital]

Still having a lot of fun with DCUO. I'm up to level 21 and I'm hearing more and more the "end game" is pretty damn exiting - looking forward to getting there. I'm hoping there will be enough new content to keep my interest long term.

Captial - what server are you on? I'm really looking for more people to jump on with and group up. I'm on the Justice server playing as a Hero.

Sure...my character's name is Capital but unfortunately, I'm on the Brave New World server.

[CleBrownsfan]

Sure...my character's name is Capital but unfortunately, I'm on the Brave New World server.

Once I cap out with the character I'm playing with now I'll start a new one on your server... I'm @ lvl 25 now.

[Capital]

Thanks for posting the Rift beta key. I just signed up and looking forward to trying the game. Based upon the videos on the main page, it does look interesting.

[Lonnie]

No problem. I am traveling this week for work, so don't know if I'll be able to play this beta or not. If I do, I'll post on here so we can team up or something.

[Matthean]

Looked up the Rifts game. I tend to prefer bow users so I looked at rogues, but rangers use pets and marksman uses guns. Not that I'm against pets, but I just wished games did more of a straight up bow user. Heh, I looked up the other classes and mage and cleric have some interesting options. I'm still waiting and seeing on GW2 and TOR, so Rifts still would rank below them and any game still has to get me away from CoH. :p This says nothing of my game backlog, or Steam holiday sale buys.

[Mustang]

Thanks Lonnie.

I signed up for Beta a few weeks ago, but hadn't been invited.

[Matthean]

I don't know why I have never done a mothership raid. I did my first one on a level 24 Fire/storm controller. It was far from intentional and I even asked if they wanted me to switch to a level 38. I haven't touched the RWZ on Victory so nobody is part of the Vanguard either. Regardless, you can assume the comedy of errors that followed. I ended up being level 26, and I want to get my level 31 DB/elec scrapper up to 35 and I think she'll make RWZ her home until 50 since Rikti basically do energy damage, which Elec armor laughs off.

[cuervo72]

I've participated in a few in that I followed some teams around from pylon to pylon during the raid, then to the bowl. I didn't really know what to to beyond attacking the mass of Rikti (I know there *are* bombs to set, but beyond that...).

Love running Rikti missions on my brutes though (the WM/SD and a KM/EA).

[larrymcg421]

I've never done a Rikti raid either. I actually just did my first ITF the other day. It went fine until we got to Rom and it took us forever. We had low damage output (three Tanks!). Three team wipes until we finally beat him.

My Shield/SS is now at 45 and is the most fun I've had with any character I've played. I went /Pyre for Epic and looking forward to lvl 47 when I can combine Foot Stomp, Shield Charge, and Fire Ball for some good AOE destruction.

[Matthean]

I need to do a ITF now that I have a newer PC. It was nearly unbearable to do with my old PC.

[Thomkal]

Just a reminder that Champions Online Free to Play starts tomorrow as does the next Rifts beta. Decisions, Decisions....

[cuervo72]

Free to play, but still need to purchase the box, yes?

[Thomkal]

Free to play, but still need to purchase the box, yes?

No you don't need to purchase the box. Many F2P work that way now. Just need to download the client from their website after creating an account there. I'm downloading now, but I'm not sure if this is the correct client. It's a very big download, so be ready for that.

[Thomkal]

Free-to-Play FAQ | Champions Online Official Site (http://www.champions-online.com/f2p_faq)

[Lonnie]

Rift beta 5 started today. I'm playing of the Sunrest shard.

[tyketime]

Rift beta 5 started today. I'm playing of the Sunrest shard.

Yep. I've been looking forward to this!

[Thomkal]

After some initial problems logging into the game due to numerous amount of people trying to get in at the same time as me, I got into Rifts for the first time. Initial impressions are good-many MMO's storylines start out where the game world is in a time of crisis, but rarely does it feel/look like it when you start playing. It certainly does in Rifts. The world has suffered (and continues to) from an unimaginable devastation and you are thrust into it right away. No nice cheery safe looking villages here-the town you quickly come to looks like its been through a war, one that it has lost and scavengers are there picking at its bones. (make sure you go into some of those bombed out buildings for things you can find in them)

Was stable for me-they brought the game down a couple time for quick patches. Graphics are good, no lag, nice tutorial hints that pop up from time to time to explain things. Not sure if I'm going to like being able to play 3 classes with one character (you start out with one and quickly gain another). But the second class (Ranger) gave me a pet that helped keep my foes at a distance so my original class (Marksman) could take full advantage of them. The game suggests good combos when you pick your initial class and second class and some classes are much more suited to PvP play over PvE play so pick accordingly.

[DataKing]

This would happen to be a game based on the Palladium RPG, Rifts, would it?

[BYU 14]

After some initial problems logging into the game due to numerous amount of people trying to get in at the same time as me, I got into Rifts for the first time. Initial impressions are good-many MMO's storylines start out where the game world is in a time of crisis, but rarely does it feel/look like it when you start playing. It certainly does in Rifts. The world has suffered (and continues to) from an unimaginable devastation and you are thrust into it right away. No nice cheery safe looking villages here-the town you quickly come to looks like its been through a war, one that it has lost and scavengers are there picking at its bones. (make sure you go into some of those bombed out buildings for things you can find in them)

Was stable for me-they brought the game down a couple time for quick patches. Graphics are good, no lag, nice tutorial hints that pop up from time to time to explain things. Not sure if I'm going to like being able to play 3 classes with one character (you start out with one and quickly gain another). But the second class (Ranger) gave me a pet that helped keep my foes at a distance so my original class (Marksman) could take full advantage of them. The game suggests good combos when you pick your initial class and second class and some classes are much more suited to PvP play over PvE play so pick accordingly.

Played for a couple of hours last night and certainly agree, my beginning area was under siege and it was like being dropped into total chaos. The early quests are fast paced as would be expected and the interface is pretty much MMORPG standard, but I really like the concepts of souls and the sole tree, started as an Assassin Rogue and and have already added Blade Dancer and will later add Rift Walker as sub specialties. Even at this early stage this game just seems different and the Betas will give me a real good idea if I am going to buy by March release.

[tyketime]

...started as an Assassin Rogue and and have already added Blade Dancer and will later add Rift Walker as sub specialties.

I know they were doing a lot of stress testing on the servers, so I experienced two server drops and a lot of lag before I called it a night. I rolled an Assassin and added RiftStalker for the teleporting abilities (I can't wait to get Shadow Stalk where you teleport behind the target). Perfect location for an assassin!

[Aylmar]

This would happen to be a game based on the Palladium RPG, Rifts, would it?

No, it's got nothing to do with it. In fact, Palladium sued them last year over the use of the word "Rift".

Rift - Palladium Books Sues Trion Worlds - MMORPG.com (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/16953/Palladium-Books-Sues-Trion-Worlds)

[DataKing]

Pity. I would love to see a Rifts MMO.

[tyketime]

I had a blast playing in the Rift Beta 5 event last night. And in case you missed it... they extended the beta for one more day! Woo Hoo!

I leveled an Assassin/RiftStalker/Saboteur up to Level 14 and made it to Meridan before calling it a night last night. I keep my Assassin maxed out with the rest of the points going to RiftStalker. At this point, I've only used the Saboteur bomb to slow the enemies. Although I'm on a PvP server, I haven't ventured out into the big nasty world. But I will tonight!

But I do have a question about my Assassin. I find that a fair amount of my creature targets detect me as I try to sneak up behind them. Is that because I'm moving too fast (does that have anything to do with detection)? I have upgraded to the 15% harder to detect skill, but more times than not, I hear that whistle indicating that I'm being detected. I need to figure this out before I start trying to battle other players.

I started having to shift some of my abilities around on the Action Bars. At this point, I am trying to limit myself to 2 action bars, but I may reluctantly add a 3rd. I think I now have 3-4 "finishing strikes", but find I mainly use one and rarely a second one.

So my questions are:
1. Do you keep multiple finishing moves on your action bar?
2. Do you swap out the older ones for newer ones to limit how many you keep on the action bar?
3. At this point, do you really pay much attention as to whether it does Fire damage, Water Damage, etc? Or do you just swing with the one that has the most total damage points regardless of "type"?

[Thomkal]

I keep multiple finishing moves on my action bar-I can use another while the other recharges.

I swap out older regular attacks and will likely swap out older finishing moves as I get better ones-I haven't started a second action bar yet for attacks-I've moved things like pet summons to a second bar. Given that I have three souls now, I likely will have to start a second attack action bar to take the excess ones that I can't fit on the first anymore.

I dislike that you can get all three souls so quickly-maybe they will space them out more in the regular game-I have all three by level 7, and am already dropping my oldest attacks to make room for the new soul stuff. I'd like to see them space them out more so I can get to know the soul I have and build up some Soul points in them before getting the second one and then the third one.

I haven't seen any reason to pay attention to what type of damage an attack uses so far, so I'm just going with what does the most damage.

[tyketime]

I dislike that you can get all three souls so quickly-maybe they will space them out more in the regular game-I have all three by level 7, and am already dropping my oldest attacks to make room for the new soul stuff. I'd like to see them space them out more so I can get to know the soul I have and build up some Soul points in them before getting the second one and then the third one.

It's my understanding that they have quickened the pace of receiving the 2nd & 3rd souls in the Beta so they could test more earlier in the game. But I can't quickly find anything to either back up my assertion or indicate how they will be spread out when the game goes live.

[Radii]

I keep multiple finishing moves on my action bar-I can use another while the other recharges.

I swap out older regular attacks and will likely swap out older finishing moves as I get better ones

Same for both.


I dislike that you can get all three souls so quickly-maybe they will space them out more in the regular game-I have all three by level 7, and am already dropping my oldest attacks to make room for the new soul stuff.

At level 14 (or thereabouts, I picked it up at 14), you can get a quest to earn a 4th soul. The mage guys that have these quests are all in the argent dawn college, and the other base class guys are all in Sanctum... err for the guardian side at least. I haven't tried Defiant yet. Seems like they want to give people max flexibility early, though yeah there's a chance its sped up for Beta and will change, I haven't done any reading yet on the forums or whatever to try to learn about that kind of stuff.


I haven't seen any reason to pay attention to what type of damage an attack uses so far, so I'm just going with what does the most damage.

Same, I suspect this will matter more in pvp and perhaps some dungeons/bosses.


I'm really impressed with how polished this game feels.

[Thomkal]

I suspected they sped up soul obtaining for the beta-don't have a problem with that-I just hope this isn't the way it will be in the real game. The game does seem very polished and streamlined-perhaps too much. You rapidly move from small area to small area doing a couple quests and move on, just used to bigger areas where I can hang out for a while before moving to the next area. The game really pushes you to move on for theme purposes-especially for the defiants.

[Matthean]

2x exp weekend for CoH. I got my Kat/sr scrapper from 42 to 45.2 so far. Taking a break and getting to 46 and calling it good on him for the night. 46 to 50 on Sat. and then poke around with other guys as I'm only doing a partial weekend this time. I'm off to Florida on Sunday. Some day, I'm taking a three day weekend and seeing how many guys I can get to 50. I have three more sitting at 37-38.

[cuervo72]

I think I'm going to spend time with my Elec/Sonic controller (@17) and *maybe* my AR/Dev that is somewhere in the 20s (an old, old character).

[larrymcg421]

I got my Shield/SS Tank to 50 just before double XP and in the process of completely IOing him out. Got his global recharge up to 40% and I plan to add 5 LOTG's which will bring him up to 77.5%.

For double XP weekend, I rolled a Fire/Rad corrupter and already have him at lvl 24. I might also spend some time with some of my older characters, like my Grav/FF controller, Ill/Kin controller, MA/SR scrapper, and Kin/Sonic Defender.

[BYU 14]

I had a blast playing in the Rift Beta 5 event last night. And in case you missed it... they extended the beta for one more day! Woo Hoo!

I leveled an Assassin/RiftStalker/Saboteur up to Level 14 and made it to Meridan before calling it a night last night. I keep my Assassin maxed out with the rest of the points going to RiftStalker. At this point, I've only used the Saboteur bomb to slow the enemies. Although I'm on a PvP server, I haven't ventured out into the big nasty world. But I will tonight!

But I do have a question about my Assassin. I find that a fair amount of my creature targets detect me as I try to sneak up behind them. Is that because I'm moving too fast (does that have anything to do with detection)? I have upgraded to the 15% harder to detect skill, but more times than not, I hear that whistle indicating that I'm being detected. I need to figure this out before I start trying to battle other players.

I started having to shift some of my abilities around on the Action Bars. At this point, I am trying to limit myself to 2 action bars, but I may reluctantly add a 3rd. I think I now have 3-4 "finishing strikes", but find I mainly use one and rarely a second one.

So my questions are:
1. Do you keep multiple finishing moves on your action bar?
2. Do you swap out the older ones for newer ones to limit how many you keep on the action bar?
3. At this point, do you really pay much attention as to whether it does Fire damage, Water Damage, etc? Or do you just swing with the one that has the most total damage points regardless of "type"?

I am having a blast with RIFT too, there is always just so much going on around, very fast paced game. I have a Rogue Assassin and found that I was getting too close and being detected. I have had a lot more success sneaking up slower and launching my stealth attack from a bit father away.

I opened too bars for combat on the bottom of my screen. The top bar is for stealth and its related skills (assassinate, puncture) and healing potions and combat buffs.

The bottom bar is all melee and contains both finishing moves I have (level 6 right now) and the attacks are lined up with the base attacks first, the bonus attacks they trigger next and the finishing moves last, works out well for me.

I put up a third action bar on the side for my out of combat buffs/actions, water, poison weapons, etc.

[tyketime]

The top bar is for stealth and its related skills (assassinate, puncture) and healing potions and combat buffs.
It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but in case you didn't know (and I mean no offense if you did), when you enter Stealth mode, a new action bar is created where your first action bar normally resides. So I got to a safe place, entered Stealth mode a few times, and moved my stealth skills (assassinate, etc.) onto that bar. That enabled me to free up space on my "regular" action bars. Once you come out of Stealth mode, the first action bar returns for you to continue your assault. So the only Stealth-related skill on my regular action bars is the Stealth ability itself. Make sense?

[Matthean]

2x exp weekend for CoH. I got my Kat/sr scrapper from 42 to 45.2 so far. Taking a break and getting to 46 and calling it good on him for the night. 46 to 50 on Sat. and then poke around with other guys as I'm only doing a partial weekend this time. I'm off to Florida on Sunday. Some day, I'm taking a three day weekend and seeing how many guys I can get to 50. I have three more sitting at 37-38.

Dinged 46 and then switched to my DB/elec and got a level on them so they are up to 32.

[Eaglesfan27]

Is CoH one of the free ones?

[cuervo72]

Nope, it's not. Well, there's a free trial but it's quite restrictive.

CoH still has a $15/mo fee (buying the box gives you the first month, and sometime you can get the old boxes on the cheap), even though it's nearing its 7th anniversary. It's stuck with that model so far rather than going the microtransactions route (base game is free, but if you want X or Y or Z you pay for those features; with CoH, most new features are covered by the sub*). A number of FOBLers (Thomkal, Malificent, PineTar, Morgado, TRO, CubsFan) got me into it in 2005. They moved on, I stuck around.


* exceptions have been large box expansions (Villains, Going Rogue) or "booster packs" that give special account-wide powers, emotes, costume parts

[Thomkal]

<----still hopes to come back to CoH some day :)

[BYU 14]

It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but in case you didn't know (and I mean no offense if you did), when you enter Stealth mode, a new action bar is created where your first action bar normally resides. So I got to a safe place, entered Stealth mode a few times, and moved my stealth skills (assassinate, etc.) onto that bar. That enabled me to free up space on my "regular" action bars. Once you come out of Stealth mode, the first action bar returns for you to continue your assault. So the only Stealth-related skill on my regular action bars is the Stealth ability itself. Make sense?

I hadn't even paid attention to that and just realized while playing later, which is cool since it frees up a whole bar now :)

Rift is definitely a strong game, runs a bit laggy at times but is still very polished at this early stage.

[Matthean]

Nope, it's not. Well, there's a free trial but it's quite restrictive.

CoH still has a $15/mo fee (buying the box gives you the first month, and sometime you can get the old boxes on the cheap), even though it's nearing its 7th anniversary. It's stuck with that model so far rather than going the microtransactions route (base game is free, but if you want X or Y or Z you pay for those features; with CoH, most new features are covered by the sub*). A number of FOBLers (Thomkal, Malificent, PineTar, Morgado, TRO, CubsFan) got me into it in 2005. They moved on, I stuck around.


* exceptions have been large box expansions (Villains, Going Rogue) or "booster packs" that give special account-wide powers, emotes, costume parts

They have gone kind of booster pack happy with those, but they aren't required. It would be nice if they offered some of the older ones in packages. To me most of what the booster packs are about are the costumes. One the plus side, outside of a top notch costume creator, there's enough options even in the default setting to let you spend hours trying to make your characters right.

[cuervo72]

For the most part the packs have a little bit in there for everyone. I like the costumes, but now that I think about it...I don't think I've actually used any of them. Well, maybe the cape from the Magic Pack. Emotes I don't really care about.

The powers though are nice QoL additions w/o being game breaking (Matthean knows this, just expounding for others). Ninja Run is great for the lower levels or for toons where you don't want travel powers. Mystic Fortune is a neat little teammate buff. Self-Destruct is situational, but has some uses. I think the Jump Pack and Pocket D teleporter are really, really handy from the Good v Evil edition.

Things like the Wedding Pack or the Party Pack...eh, not so great. But, you can save your money and not miss out.

[larrymcg421]

Got tired of the Fire/Rad corrupter and rolled a Cold/Ice defender. Up to lvl 25 now and having a great time with him.

[Matthean]

I think the Jump Pack and Pocket D teleporter are really, really handy from the Good v Evil edition.

GvE edition is what got me a level 50 that used super speed as a travel power.

Got tired of the Fire/Rad corrupter and rolled a Cold/Ice defender. Up to lvl 25 now and having a great time with him.

Mine is level 32-34ish. I rolled it waiting for /cold to come to controllers, but liked it enough to just play the defender version instead. I even had a name picked out for it as well, Comfortably Benumb. Sleet and Benumb should be switched in terms of order. To get Sleet at 26 is a crock.

Got my Kat/sr to 47.8 last night. Got on a horrible for exp mothership team, but at least I unlocked the Vanguard sword for Katana. It was late due to wanting to finish the updated Praet. AVs arc, but by the time I got back from eating I didn't see hitting 50 before going to bed in the works so I called it a night. Off for vacation today so I won't get any gaming done today. I figure I'm close enough I can just do the end game TFs and ding 50 by default.

[larrymcg421]

Didn't get as much out of Double XP as I wanted, mostly because I wasted so much time on my Fire/Rad corrupter. I played my Cold/Ice Defender up to lvl 28 and in the last few minutes of double XP I rolled an Ice/Ice dom and got him to lvl 6.

Last night I busted out my lvl 50 Shield/SS tank again and ran the wall in Cimerora a few times. It was way too easy and didn't get any decent drops. I think I'll stick to tip missions for now. As soon as I finish IOing him out with 4 LOTG 7.5's, then I'll get to work on his alpha slot. I'll probably go either musculature or cardio.

[DataKing]

One of these days I may go back to CoH/CoV...used to have oodles of fun running with a buddy of mine with a pair of SS/Invul brutes.

[cuervo72]

I think I'm going to spend time with my Elec/Sonic controller (@17) and *maybe* my AR/Dev that is somewhere in the 20s (an old, old character).

I got the Elec/Sonic to 25 and the AR/Dev to 26 (was at 21). Ran a couple of Lady Winter missions with my Peacebringer teamed with my son's Peacebringer. Didn't make much headway (still at 28), but had fun.

[tyketime]

I know the title is MMORPG, but I was thinking about real MMOFPS's. Do any of you have experience playing them? I did some quick research, but the ones I ran across sound more like the Call of Duty multiplayer mode. But there wasn't a sense of real MMO.

I can fully appreciate the appeal of the current Call of Duty multiplayer mode with 10 minute games. But why couldn't a larger company come up with the "next step". I envision a combination of Call of Duty & Battlefield Bad Company 2. Clearly you have roles (snipers, healers/medics, engineers, assault, etc.). And the model is already there to gain experience and level up.

So the next step is to create a world where you have quests - the typical kill 10 foozles. But in addition, you could run supplies from the depot to the "front lines" (which dynamically change based on who controls a certain area). If you are a medic, you have to actively heal 10 players to complete that quest. While YOU are only one soldier, (and you advance based on completing quests, raids, etc), you are also really part of something larger - your "army". Guilds could be defined as battalions.

And obviously this would allow for PvP as well. Nothing to prevent you from sneaking into an enemy camp and popping a player or two.

Is there something like this already?

Edit: Hmmm, just came across Planetside. Anyone play that?

[Mustang]

Is there something like this already?



Yes, World War II Online.

[Thomkal]

The Rift Events in Rift are just plain crazy. :) They start out small-small rifts open here and there in the zone and if people don't do anything about them they quickly get bigger and nastier to deal with. I think the devs wanted to show us what would happen if things got very bad earlier today. The whole sky turned black-rifts all over the place, NPC's from various areas on the map calling for help, bands of evil guys from the rifts running rampant, several major nasty "boss" monsters-a dragon, giant, and Iron golem I think, taking at least 10 minutes to defeat even with lots of players attacking them, etc. Just crazy.

The Rifts themselves have stages to them before you can close them up, and I spent a good hour this morning during this event just going from rift to boss guy, a whole bunch of us moving and attacking together, plus most of us had a pet. I had a lot of lag in the last beta event last week, but had very little this time around so that's a good sign.

[Lonnie]

On my server last night, there was a crusade called by the Guardians against the Aelfar. This was in the 10-20 zone and spawned a living idol surrounded by a force field. While the idol stood, there were 20 rifts opening up all over the zone and two level 20 elite tree guys (Preservers) that must be taken down before the idol could be destroyed. Every rift would spawn invasions non-stop until that idol was put down.

I was two hit a few times by the elite 20s on my 20 rogue. It was hard to do anything buy join in on the fight. Finally we banded together and assaulted the Preservers. Each one took 10-15 minutes followed by the 10-15 minutes on the idol itself. Quite intense indeed.

[BYU 14]

The Rift Events in Rift are just plain crazy. :) They start out small-small rifts open here and there in the zone and if people don't do anything about them they quickly get bigger and nastier to deal with. I think the devs wanted to show us what would happen if things got very bad earlier today. The whole sky turned black-rifts all over the place, NPC's from various areas on the map calling for help, bands of evil guys from the rifts running rampant, several major nasty "boss" monsters-a dragon, giant, and Iron golem I think, taking at least 10 minutes to defeat even with lots of players attacking them, etc. Just crazy.

The Rifts themselves have stages to them before you can close them up, and I spent a good hour this morning during this event just going from rift to boss guy, a whole bunch of us moving and attacking together, plus most of us had a pet. I had a lot of lag in the last beta event last week, but had very little this time around so that's a good sign.

The Rifts are indeed intense, I was involved in one Saturday that had over 40 people grouped at a big Rift, the lag was horrible at that one, but much better later with only 20 or so players at another Rift. It is definitely a concept that makes the game interesting and unpredictable, especially when they open in the middle of an area already infested with other mobs.

[Icy]

Yes, World War II Online.

Agree, i played it for 2 years and it was a blast, in fact i stopped to play because i was too addicted to it and was affecting my work and "offline" relationships.

[Mustang]

Did the Rifts Beta this weekend.

Definitely a WoW clone in mechanics, but not storyline. The costs of items/skills compared to the money you found seemed off though so, not sure if they will tweak that. Had a problem with lags around the rifts and everything just got too muddled to know what was going on. Overall seemed pretty solid.

[Matthean]

Trailer for the Animal pack for CoH. Glad they finally let characters run on all fours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFpofz4RLWo&hd=1

[Matthean]

February Producer's Letter: Incarnates | City of Heroes (http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/news_archive/february_producers_letter_inca.html)

Newest newsletter for CoH. Not sure how I feel about 48 person teams.

[cuervo72]

I'm hoping they are "teams" similar to how teams are formed for Rikti Invasions, GM fights or the winter event. "Hey, there happen to be X of us gathered here; let's get some teams started, PST if you're looking for team." That or team leads just send out invites until a team is full. In this case perhaps the queue system just helps to populate the teams.

[DataKing]

Just an FYI, if anyone is playing LOTRO on Landroval server, I've been messing around with that again off and on. If you're in need of any armour just give me a shout (probably easier to leave me a message on the board here than to try to catch me in game though). Supreme master metalworker and grand master tailor at your service...

[Matthean]

While I officially have to wait to sell some stuff on the market, I have all, but broken the 1.5 billion influ mark in CoH on my main. 2 bill is the cap for those who don't know. If my purples would start selling a little faster I could hit near the 2 bill mark rather quickly and just start skimming the extra off to other characters. I have 3-4 characters that have around 150-250 mill on them already. I'm close to getting a 2nd character crafting purples and once that happens their earning rate will go up as well.

[cuervo72]

Matthean - do you roll A-merits? Seems like they're the easy path to inf (not that any path is really that hard). I have three characters with 1B+, the most a little under 1.5; my Grav that I dusted off with I19 has over 400M (started out probably at like 50M). My AR/Dev that I'm leveling up now (36) even has like 400M. That's pretty much with hoarding most of the purples I get.

[Matthean]

I due it pure market vastly finding certain IOs that sell well and grabbing stack of 10 of the level 50 versions of them. That's how I kind of ground out going from poor for having a level 50 to getting some decent influ. Even to start crafting/selling purples I consolidated money to my main and went from there. I currently have 6 guys hammering the market.

I have only recently started to look at merits and tickets as a way to roll for stuff as well. Oddly enough, I have 3+ servers worth of guys and none of them would be considered good for farming of any real sort. I did make some more AoE based guys as of late and I'm starting to get into that aspect, but the highest is 32(DB/elec). Most of them aren't even the uber type of AoE builds. Only the Fire/kin would be a known build for it and it's 26 and I'm finding out I'm not much a fan of Fire control. I am trying to use my Ill/rad for hero merits. I got a KM/sd stuck in the AE as for now. I might officially axe my Dark/elec brute and make a Spines/elec in part due to the power customization of Spines. The Fire/kin can be a 2nd option and I'll just make the Spines/elec the main AoE death machine.

I would have a lot more influ if I hadn't taken so many breaks from the game. Even just three months of just logging on and hitting the market would have done me a lot of good. I've done so much of the market I'm rather ignorant of the other stuff even though I know it's an option.

[mrkilla22]

Just an FYI, if anyone is playing LOTRO on Landroval server, I've been messing around with that again off and on. If you're in need of any armour just give me a shout (probably easier to leave me a message on the board here than to try to catch me in game though). Supreme master metalworker and grand master tailor at your service...

Hey DK. I'm on that server as well if you want to look me up. I'm on either Clabo (Burglar) or Clybo (Minstrel) at the moment.

[larrymcg421]

You don't really need a good build for Hero Merits. You can run the missions on the lowest settings (-1/1), which is doable even with the weakest, most gimped build possible.

Even with my really strong lvl 50 Shield/SS/Pyre Tank, I've been putting it on the lowest level to quickly do my 5 tip missions really quickly, then I change the setting back up and move on to other things.

[Marmel]

CoH talk? I'm in!

Best ways to make $

1) Pure marketing. Probably the best way if you know exactly what you are doing. I find it so boring so I don't do this.

2) Earning Hero Merits and cashing them in. So easy and gives you a nice steady stream of money. I worked this quite a bit for a long time. Use a 50 to do this and maybe get purples along the way.

3) Farming for purples. Most people hate it, but I find it pretty fun for about 4-5 runs then I need a break. I still think the demon farm is the best map out there. I had a fire/kin controller but recently I run a fire/WP brute. Even level times 8, no bosses. I swear the purples rates have been increased at some point. I used to go a long time between purple drops, now it seems I am almost guaranteed one if I run this farm 4-6 times. Often times I'll get 2 in spam of 6 runs. Plus you get some useful recipe and salvage drops.

I farmed with an ill/rad, but it is not efficient. Still doable though.


I've earned enough to retire from farming, unless I just feel like mass killing stuff. 10+ billion after buying my own enhancements.

[cuervo72]

Yeah, I've never actually tried to farm hard-core. Most I've run is x5, with bosses, on my WM/SD. And those were villain tips, so I was dealing with Arachnos, Longbow, PPD Khelds - so fairly tricky (too many debuffs). I bet I could run x8 against Rikti in the RWZ all day if I wanted to though. But, no point really - I'm not going to be buying any PvP recipes or even purples for the most part (I did for my Ill/TA to get PA almost-perma...need a couple more Apocalypse, but haven't really tried to get them). So I just play, and craft and sell what I get from A-merits.

[Matthean]

i20 is up and running for CoH. Globals, and channels are currently borked. Yes, I know. Please contain your shock at that statement. :lol: I just got on real quick and haven't started to team yet to really see about the new team UI yet.

[cuervo72]

Played one trial last night and had some annoyances with the UI.

First, the chat window is wider than I'd like. To get it where I want I have to scale down its size and then up the font (.9/12 works ok). A nuisance to have to repeatedly do.

The new team ui...not really a fan. Now, part of my problem is that I had it docked, which apparently WHOA LOOK AT THOSE HUGE BUFF ICONS GOING HALF ACROSS MY SCREEN. Yeah. Beyond that though, I don't like the taller health bars or the playername text that is harder to read now. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I was having trouble trying to figure out who was who. Not of concern on most characters honestly, but on my Empath? Yeah.



I also need to revisit my numpad mappings. Before I thought I could target and fire a heal in one keystroke, but only the targeting appears to be working (oh - that's the other thing; seems harder to tell what number on the list teammates are...or maybe I just need to be able to absorb elements of the interface while I'm not dealing with waves of robots).

[Matthean]

Yeah, once I got on a team and saw the new team UI I was rather disappointed at how bad it looked. Even the "classic" look is just the old look and new mixed together.

[Marmel]

Not that I have given the new issue a fair shake yet, but I am underwhelmed. So, we are supposed to grind out the two trials over and over and over again so that our characters become uber powerful so that they can then........do the 2 trials over and over and over again?

[cuervo72]

Yeah, valid concern. My son asked me day after day if I20 was live yet, but I really didn't share much of his enthusiasm (which is funny, as he doesn't even have a 50). The content is basically two trials and two TF. I seldom do TF, and really I never much play my 50s. I'll probably play these trials from time to time (like how I'd participate in the winter lord event if I happened upon it), but not over and over. I'll still likely default to leveling alts.

With only two trials currently out there, it would seem to me to be a good idea for I21 or even I20.5 to come out soon after this with a couple more trials, just to round things out some.

[Matthean]

I am still ignoring end game content. I have yet to finish the alpha slot arc on any of my 50s. I have about 2 rounds of guys to get to 50(first group is 40+, next is 32ish) and then I'll have a tough time having a burning desire to level specific builds to 50 outside of maybe 3 to 4. I'll play a guy here and there, but at that point I think I'll have a stock of 50s that I'll mostly focus on them for playing.

Eventually, there will be end game content that makes all of the alpha stuff worth it. You can be level 53 for trials now and there will be a reason for that. Def soft cap for certain trials now becomes 59% instead of 45%.

Got Quills on my Spines/elec. Squee! :lol: Just need to hit 21 and slot up dual IOs to further help end issues and wait for Power Sink to unlock. Considering people's love for doing TFs on even level, he'll mow through mobs.

[Matthean]

For Incarnate stuff this is how I plan on doing it. Open the alpha slot and get your level bump while knowing what you want to put into the alpha slot. Once that is done, get the level boosts that can be gotten for trials. After that, decide if you wish to complete the Incarnate stuff as much as possible, or move on to the next guy. About 25% of my guys I have a real desire to get to 50. Within that list, I would say about the same percent I have a desire to do the Incarnate stuff for them. I zero desire to get all of my guys to 50 and fully Incarnate them.

[cuervo72]

(at what point should I branch this into a dedicated CoH thread? :D )

I've done three BAF trials now and...actually am getting to kinda like it. Even succeeded in one last night, which had my adrenalin going. At the end I was lucky enough to get a purple reward table. I don't know if I will ever actually get to *use* the salvage I got (unless I break it down it can only be used for tier-4 abilities), but it got me looking more at the trees and I found myself getting more interested in them.

I like the turnstile system when it works. I had much more than the "1m average wait" last night, and even got booted out of one instance right after it started (I think the whole group did). I like it because I don't have to be pro-active about joining. No replies to PMs, no worrying that my AT/sets may not work with the already assembled group. I enter the queue, and it plops me down in the instance. Others can figure out what team I should be assigned to. I'll just go where I'm told.

I also like that failure IS an option. I was on a failed ITF a few months ago. Yeah, it's still possible. Spent about two hours and had just about nothing to show for it. Not the case with the trials - you still get iXP and Astral Merits. Thumbs up.



There's no way I'm going to be able to trick out all of my characters though. Going through this for 15 50s? Not happening. Heck, not all of them even have Alpha unlocked. I think the order of preference will be:

Ill/TA Troller - has the +1 Alpha, is near perma-PA, is versatile and just generally fun.

Emp/Psi Def - Because, well, she can't do much by herself. But, I do like the character. So content where teaming is required seems like a pretty good thing for her to do.

WM/SD Brute - the most complete of my villains. For whatever reason I don't really like teaming with my melee types (some burden of leadership), but I wouldn't mind it with him.

Fire/Fire Blaster - fun factor. I love blasting, blasting and more blasting.

Grav/Storm troller - again, versatility. Plus she's my only other toon with the +1 from Alpha thus far.


After that, probably nobody gets much focus.

KM/EA brute - possibly. A recent 50 that does get played still.
Mind/Kin troller - maybe. Would be useful for the kin, not so sure otherwise.
Inv/EM tank - bleh.
BS/Regen - eh, probably not.
DB/WP - not too exciting.
Night Widow - never feel like playing her much.
Plant/Thorn dom - ditto. Usually even forget I have him at 50.
Ice/MM blaster - nice, but not as fun as the Fire.
NRG/Kin corr - eh, she's just a mess.
Mercs/Poison MM - getting tired just *thinking* about the resummoning.


Actually, a couple that I might really like to have eventually try are my Warshade and my Elec/Sonic troller, but they are at I think levels 28 and 33. So a ways to go (and the WS is on Infinity. Nothing against Infinity, but really I have no other toons there).

I also kinda want to roll another defender or corr, or at least level one I already have (Sonic).

So I'll really have to see. I may not make a dedicated 100% effort with one character, I'll probably bounce around putting more emphasis on a couple.

[Marmel]

I am 0 for 1 on the BAF and 1 for 2 on the Lambda. We completed Lambda last night with less than 10 seconds left on the timer. Good times!

I only have 3 50's that I care about and only 1 that I really see myself advancing through incarnate stuff, my Fire/WP brute. But I don't know how many times I can run these things so my journey will be awfully slow. Getting that 4th level of each slot is a long, long process (even the alpha 4th level).

[cuervo72]

Right. I can't see going for the tier 4 of any of these, at least not intentionally (hence my comment about the purple salvage). It's such an investment that it's just not in the plan - and if Alpha is any indication, the reward/time tipping point is really tier 3.

[Marmel]

OK, I have to completely revise my stance on these iTrials. It is pretty amazing how quickly these have been mastered. The hardest part is putting together a 16 or 24 person team. The Lambda is harder than the BAF, but both are fun and not all that hard to complete with full teams.

I've made decent progress on two of my toons and I am glad to see you can use everything you unlock in normal missions except for the 2nd and 3rd level bumps.

Judgement slot is beautiful.

[cuervo72]

Yep. The BAF I pretty much liked right away. My first Lambda was a harsh experience on my Emp, because I was both lost and a little laggy. Trying to navigate through the lab to get to the containment chambers was impossible once I got separated from the group. I also gave up on trying to help with turrets (darned TP). My other attempts on my Ill were much better.

So last night I noticed that they changed the WSF target from Posi I (wasn't awarding notices) to Sister Psyche. Did one...then realized that change wasn't going into effect until today. Whoops. Ah well, I needed some shards anyway (Emp used the trials to unlock Alpha, isn't slotted).

[Matthean]

Atari Divests Itself of Cryptic StudiosCO Champions Online News - MMORPG.com (http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/loadNews/20628/utm_campaign/MMORPG%20Daily%20Digest%20Email/utm_source/MMORPG/utm_medium/email/eatrack/[email protected],8)

This is the result of putting out half-baked games does for you. Since Cryptic made CoH, I can't hate on them too much. I'm just amazed how much they floundered after CoH. Their post CoH resume is as follows. Get rights to do a Marvel MMO. That gets dropped so they pick up the Champions IP, finish the Marvel MMO, but with Champions slapped onto it. It losses enough money it goes F2P. They put out Star Trek and it's as close as they have to a decent game for them, but it's not near the potential cash cow that it could be. They get the rights to do the NWN MMO, but then Atari ends up dumping them anyway cutting their loses before they get worse.

[Matthean]

Don't Say a Word! (http://www.justin.tv/archive/archive_popout?id=285836649)

90 minute video of gameplay for TOR. I think my issue is that it's vastly like a number of fantasy MMOs out there, but it has the Star Wars name on it.

[Atocep]

90 minute video of gameplay for TOR. I think my issue is that it's vastly like a number of fantasy MMOs out there, but it has the Star Wars name on it.

This is what nearly every preview I've seen has stated. If you're looking for something new then TOR is definitely not it. The gameplay is almost identical to WoW with the main differences being the quests have full voicework done and it has the standard Bioware dialogue wheel.

I have friends that are incredibly excited, but I don't think it's for me.

[DataKing]

I miss Star Wars Galaxies. You know, before Sony ruined it.

[Matthean]

This is what nearly every preview I've seen has stated. If you're looking for something new then TOR is definitely not it. The gameplay is almost identical to WoW with the main differences being the quests have full voicework done and it has the standard Bioware dialogue wheel.

I have friends that are incredibly excited, but I don't think it's for me.

It's basically Star Wars WoW with morality choices. Let's just say I was wanting more than that.

[Matthean]

If nothing else, Bioware still knows how to make a trailer.

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/return?sourceid=eag3006

[JonInMiddleGA]

City Of Heroes Free To Play After Upcoming Rebranding As "City Of Heroes Freedom" - G4tv.com (http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/713883/city-of-heroes-free-to-play-after-upcoming-rebranding-as-city-of-heroes-freedom/)

[Matthean]

City Of Heroes Free To Play After Upcoming Rebranding As "City Of Heroes Freedom" - G4tv.com (http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/713883/city-of-heroes-free-to-play-after-upcoming-rebranding-as-city-of-heroes-freedom/)

Already in the CoH thread. :D Not that link, but it's the talk of the player base right now.

[Thomkal]

World of Warcraft goes F2P...well sort of:

World of Warcraft goes free to play… Almost… - MMOBomb.com (http://www.mmobomb.com/news/world-of-warcraft-goes-free-to-play-almost/)

[Thomkal]

And just in case that link wasn't clear, this change has already happened. Just checked my trial WOW account and I'm getting the Starter Level 1-20 free edition right now.

[Matthean]

I won't sub for it, but if it's an actual unrestricted 1-20, then it will be fun to at least kick the tires on some stuff.

EDIT: Looks like a trial account with some thing made better, so still no reason to poke around just yet.

[Thomkal]

yeah lot of restrictions on chat and such, but after so long away from the game nice to play and see what's new and such without having to worry about how many days I have left to play in the trial.

[McLovin]

Star Wars- The Old Republic pre-orders went on sale this morning. The collectors edition for 150.00 is almost sold out.

[Matthean]

I don't see the CE as being worth it. To each their own I guess.

[DataKing]

Great Cracked article...
The 7 Biggest Dick Moves in the History of Online Gaming | Cracked.com (http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-biggest-dick-moves-in-history-online-gaming/)

[Matthean]

NCSoft's Carbine Studios finally revealed their MMO WildStar. Link has the trailer and 8 minutes of gameplay.

NCsoft unveils 'WildStar' MMO with debut cinematic, features animated style - Neoseeker News Article (http://www.neoseeker.com/news/17146-ncsoft-unveils-wildstar-mmo-with-debut-cinematic-features-animated-style/)

[SirFozzie]

Neverwinter delayed to late 2012 as part of the Hasbro/Atari showdown. At least it won't get killed by SW:TOR now

[Coffee Warlord]

In development, worth a glance over if you liked DAOC. 3-faction PVP, which still amazes me hasn't happened SINCE Camelot.

Prime Battle For Dominus (http://www.primeonline.com/)

[Atocep]

NCSoft's Carbine Studios finally revealed their MMO WildStar. Link has the trailer and 8 minutes of gameplay.

NCsoft unveils 'WildStar' MMO with debut cinematic, features animated style - Neoseeker News Article (http://www.neoseeker.com/news/17146-ncsoft-unveils-wildstar-mmo-with-debut-cinematic-features-animated-style/)

A friend of mine was a developer at Carbine until he was hired by Riot to work on League of Legends and he was pretty excited about this game. He couldn't tell me much about it at the time, but he said the technology was amazing and it was different than anything out right now.

[Scoobz0202]

Really really excited for GW2, and I've never even played GW1.

Have a pre-order for SW:TOR, but I have a feeling I'll put a month into it and be done with it. I feel like it will be just a rehash. I hope I'm wrong.

[Atocep]

Really really excited for GW2, and I've never even played GW1.

Have a pre-order for SW:TOR, but I have a feeling I'll put a month into it and be done with it. I feel like it will be just a rehash. I hope I'm wrong.

I'm in the same boat. I'm really get excited to try out GW2 because it's a MMO that's trying to do new things. Most MMOs today are still using the framework used by Everquest in 1999 (granted, with lots of improvements). GW2 is finally attempting to do some of things people were predicting of MMOs after Everquest launched.

I have SW:TOR preordered, but everything I've read and seen on it looks like WoW with lightsabers. I watched a 9 minute PvP video a couple of days ago and it looked exactly like WoW pvp. At this point it's going to take more than WoW with voiceovers and a deep story to get me excited about playing a MMO.

[Scoobz0202]

Yea. I've read some beta testers post that it's more like WoW vanilla then Caty.

I'm not going to cancel my pre-order though because I'm not putting everything into what a few beta testers say. I'm still excited, but my excitement is dampened. Not sure why I expected something crazy different, though.

I've even read that the voiceovers are a royal pain in the ass, btw, and that they add nothing.

[Scoobz0202]

I mean...

<iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vNJVYf8PCHE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That's a fucking race. That's not just some bullshit furry looking thing thrown in.

[Matthean]

Perfect World Entertainment confirms Star Trek Online going F2P this year | Massively (http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/08/31/perfect-world-entertainment-confirms-star-trek-online-going-f2p/)

STO going F2P. Not surprising considering Perfect World's big thing is F2P games.

[SirFozzie]

So, just some random thoughts:

Hit the wall in WoW, because I've done everything but one of the new heroics (and unlocking the firelands stuff), but my gear acquisition has a hit a wall because the remaining Tier 11 items require a drop that only occurs in 10 man raids. I am not in a raiding guild (and in fact, me and my alts are the only active members, so I have to manage all the stuff).

Any of the PUG raid offers for Cataclysm on Moon Guard require you to have the acheivement first so I can't get my foot in the door, so I'm trying to figure out what to do with my character.. (who's really getting good stuff mind yo, Wow-heroes says that I'm ready for raiding)

So I've been doing a bunch of solo Burning Crusade heroics and the WOTLK 5 mans solo along with the 85's (normal, heroic and trollheroic) along with unlocking the new firelands stuff.. but I dislike doing dailies.. give me new stuff! :D

[tyketime]

Hard Drive Size Check Please...

The new build of Star Wars: The Old Republic will require testers to re-download the entire client... currently weighing in at a 27 gig download

[CleBrownsfan]

Is anyone playing League of Legends? I just started playing last night for the first time. Started around 8:00 and next time I looked at the clock was 12:30 - ooops ;)

Fun fun game! My tag name is Broth32 if anyone wants to friend me.

[CleBrownsfan]

Hard Drive Size Check Please...

I just want in as a tester... I keep looking for that e-mail but nada. Anyone here get in to test yet?

[spleen1015]

I am still hoping to get a beta invite as well.

[Matthean]

Is anyone playing League of Legends? I just started playing last night for the first time. Started around 8:00 and next time I looked at the clock was 12:30 - ooops ;)

Fun fun game! My tag name is Broth32 if anyone wants to friend me.

I tried signing up when people from a different forum were getting in on it and I found the signing up/download/contacting support process a completely fubar type of experience. I might have missed something to make it a lot easier, but I tried numerous times to get it to work.

I just want in as a tester... I keep looking for that e-mail but nada. Anyone here get in to test yet?

I got an e-mail saying how I shouldn't miss out on beta testing it by not getting a preorder. My guess is they have enough preorders to not really need anybody else for beta. I'll assume they are getting close to beta though.

[CleBrownsfan]

From what I heard the closed beta started this past weekend.... but who really knows. I just want a freaken release date!!

[spleen1015]

They've been in beta for a while now. The beta weekends started this past weekend. They've implied that pretty much every one signed up for beta has a really good chance to get in for a beta weekend.

[CleBrownsfan]

I've been listening to gamebreaker podcast (http://www.gamebreaker.tv/category/the-republic/) of SWTOR to kind of keep my up to date on things.

[Mustang]

SWTOR is a rare game in that I wouldn't want to Beta test it just because with Bioware titles, my guy is my guy. Beta would ruin that for me I think.

Then again, I'm odd when it comes to my Bioware characters.

[Matthean]

From what I heard the closed beta started this past weekend.... but who really knows. I just want a freaken release date!!

This actually wouldn't surprise me because I got the e-mail last week. I signed up for beta maybe in 2009.

[GrantDawg]

I am surprised I didn't get one. I was in on a early test, but no beta. :(

[Atocep]

A friend of mine got a SW:TOR beta invite a couple of weeks ago, which was surprising since he hadn't even bothered to preorder. I found it odd that with 300k+ preorders that they're still sending out invites to people that haven't. With a collectors edition that's $150 I assumed those people would at least have invites by now (I wouldn't be in that group).

Firefall beta is starting soon. I am in that. A guy I occasionally play League of Legends with is a developer at Red 5 and got me into the upcoming beta.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Anyone play the Free MMO's from Strategy First? Thought I'd give the golf one a spin.

http://strategyfirst.com/products/category/25-free-to-play.html

[Matthean]

DCUO is going F2P for no other reason that it's the only superhero MMO that still has a sub. It took all of 9 months to switch, but again, it was likely out of their hands.

[Thomkal]

DCUO is going F2P for no other reason that it's the only superhero MMO that still has a sub. It took all of 9 months to switch, but again, it was likely out of their hands.

Yep figured that would happen when City of Heroes went the F2P route. Maybe I will play it again (I was in the beta) then despite the fact that its console method of fighting made it difficult for me to control my characters.

[Thomkal]

Anyone play the Free MMO's from Strategy First? Thought I'd give the golf one a spin.

http://strategyfirst.com/products/category/25-free-to-play.html

I played Loong, Power of the Dragon when it was first available. Pretty typical of non-anime graphical MMO's from Asia-beautiful to look at (and great soundtrack in Loong's case) but too easy to level and get good stuff. I was level 10 (I think they have more character levels than US/Europe MMO's) in just 2-3 hours with very little fighting to get there. I think they had a "gift basket" you got with like every three to five levels with good stuff in them (may be confusing that with other Asian games I've tried).

I have not played the golf one, but I'm betting its much the same in how quickly you improve your skills and get better golf equipment.

[spleen1015]

A release date for SWTOR has been announce.

12-20-2011

[CleBrownsfan]

Finally ;)

[spleen1015]

I got an invite for the SWTOR beta for this weekend.

It is bittersweet. I was hoping to get a general beta invite and be able to beta test for a while. I'll take what I can get and play the shit out of it this weekend.

[Thomkal]

Yep figured that would happen when City of Heroes went the F2P route. Maybe I will play it again (I was in the beta) then despite the fact that its console method of fighting made it difficult for me to control my characters.

DC Universe Online has launched its free to play version.

DC Universe Online - Home (http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

DC Universe Online has launched its free to play version.

DC Universe Online - Home (http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/)

Downloading the files right now on the PS3. Looking forward to playing it. Hoping that it leads to more free MMO's on the PS3.

[Thomkal]

Downloading the files right now on the PS3. Looking forward to playing it. Hoping that it leads to more free MMO's on the PS3.

Have fun with it, I think you will find it plays much better on the PS3, than the PC given its console-like way of doing combat (which I still hate)

[Grover]

I got an invite for the SWTOR beta for this weekend.

It is bittersweet. I was hoping to get a general beta invite and be able to beta test for a while. I'll take what I can get and play the shit out of it this weekend.

I am so jealous.

I pre-ordered the CE and have been rather disappointed I haven't gotten a Beta invite of any sort.

I cannot wait for this game.

What are you looking to play?

[spleen1015]

I will be a Jedi Guardian Tank.

When they first mentioned beta weekends, they said they hoped to get almost everyone who signed up for beta into a weekend. There's still a few weekends left.

[CleBrownsfan]

Beta guys... Keep us updated on how you feel the game plays. I haven't looked forward to a game like this in a long long time.

Thanks ;)

[Mustang]

I'm preordered on SWTOR, but have no desire to do Beta.

One thing I was too keen on was the reports of items being geared to those either really on the light side or really on the dark side. The gray area is kind of neglected which sucks... Really don't want it to be a 'ok.. I'm bad so I have to do everything bad' otherwise it hurts you.

[Grover]

Mustang, I hadn't heard that one about the gear.

I've been wanting to play an IA - sniper for so long. The wait has been killing me.

[Mustang]

Mustang, I hadn't heard that one about the gear.


Had to look it up, couldn't remember the source

hxxp://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1210987p1.html

[spleen1015]

Another thing along the lines of LS and DS, your appearance changes as you progress further along the DS. I haven't seen any examples and this wasn't in when I had my beta weekend, but they've said your appearance changes as a result of being DS.

[Grover]

Another thing along the lines of LS and DS, your appearance changes as you progress further along the DS. I haven't seen any examples and this wasn't in when I had my beta weekend, but they've said your appearance changes as a result of being DS.

Much like KOTOR I assume where a darker character is noticeably more evil looking, furrowed brows, permanent scowl. That's what I'm guessing at least.

[GrantDawg]

I got my preorder in. I feel like a boob, because from what I read I could have continued to update my test build and been a part of testing from the point I had my initial invite. I didn't know, and thought I had to get another invite. Now, I've erased the build and they don't send second invites. *sigh*

[Grover]

Just got an invite to a future beta test. I'm assuming that they're inviting everyone as they've said they want to stress test the servers.

[CleBrownsfan]

Oh yeah - just got an invite too!

[Surtt]

A release date for SWTOR has been announce.

12-20-2011

Wow, I think that release date is a disaster waiting to happen. The head start opens on the 15th, with the games going out, on the 20th, into the black heart of the Xmass shipping season. I hope they plan on giving a 2 week grace period.

[JediKooter]

I can not say if I was in the beta for TOR this weekend or not. I can not confirm or deny that, when the lag was gone, the missions were quite enjoyable. I can not confirm nor deny that it was fun over all. I can not confirm nor deny that it 'feels' Star Warsy. I can confirm that I will be buying this when it comes out.

[Grover]

I can not say if I was in the beta for TOR this weekend or not. I can not confirm or deny that, when the lag was gone, the missions were quite enjoyable. I can not confirm nor deny that it was fun over all. I can not confirm nor deny that it 'feels' Star Warsy. I can confirm that I will be buying this when it comes out.

What'd you play as, could you confirm or deny this?

[CleBrownsfan]

Great post Jedi ;)

[JediKooter]

What'd you play as, could you confirm or deny this?

I may or may not have had a Sith warrior, Jedi knight and a trooper. I may or may not have found the Sith and Jedi characters fun to play and their missions appropriate. However, some of the interactions with the Sith (mostly answers you choose in certain missions), didn't quite fit with my understanding of the Sith. Basically, you can earn light side points. Combat for all 3 characters was fun. The Trooper may or may not have gotten the least amount of play time due to lag.

Great post Jedi :)

Thank you! :D

[Grover]

I may or may not have had a Sith warrior, Jedi knight and a trooper. I may or may not have found the Sith and Jedi characters fun to play and their missions appropriate. However, some of the interactions with the Sith (mostly answers you choose in certain missions), didn't quite fit with my understanding of the Sith. Basically, you can earn light side points. Combat for all 3 characters was fun. The Trooper may or may not have gotten the least amount of play time due to lag.


Awesome. Yeah, I've found it interesting that ALL characters can go light/neutral/dark, especially the Sith. You would expect them to ONLY be able to go dark because of the evil side.

I'm in the next beta test, with the rest of the world, I can't wait to try the Imperial Agent I've been waiting nearly three years to play.

[JediKooter]

Awesome. Yeah, I've found it interesting that ALL characters can go light/neutral/dark, especially the Sith. You would expect them to ONLY be able to go dark because of the evil side.

I'm in the next beta test, with the rest of the world, I can't wait to try the Imperial Agent I've been waiting nearly three years to play.

Exactly. Even some of the answers, even though maybe not be entirely 'evil', weren't really light side, in my opinion. So, maybe that kind of stuff will get tweaked before release or I could just be interpreting it wrong.

Nice!! I think the next one is two weeks? If I am able to get on that public beta, I would try smuggler and Imperial agent too.

Oh, the download may or may not be several gigs for the beta test, so, start it up early.

[Bearcat729]

Exactly. Even some of the answers, even though maybe not be entirely 'evil', weren't really light side, in my opinion. So, maybe that kind of stuff will get tweaked before release or I could just be interpreting it wrong.

Nice!! I think the next one is two weeks? If I am able to get on that public beta, I would try smuggler and Imperial agent too.

Oh, the download may or may not be several gigs for the beta test, so, start it up early.

From what I have seen everyone who was registered got invited to a weekend beta soon to stress test the server.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I have yet to be invited. Every single other person I know with an interest has. I'm slightly miffed.

[Grover]

From what I have seen everyone who was registered got invited to a weekend beta soon to stress test the server.

Exactly this.

[Matthean]

I have yet to be invited. Every single other person I know with an interest has. I'm slightly miffed.

I got an invite and I haven't even bought the game. :D

[Raiders Army]

Beta keys available here:
TORgiveaway - Massively (http://massively.enjin.com/torgiveaway)

[SirFozzie]

same with IGN (have to be a paid user) etcetera

[Thomkal]

Star Trek Online Free to Play has started:

Star Trek Online Free-to-Play (http://www.startrekonline.com/frontpage)

[JAG]

Sorry, I saw this Wednesday but forgot until today. There's a few hours left to sign up if you're interested in potentially being a GW2 beta tester.

Guild Wars 2 Beta (https://beta.guildwars2.com/)

Game looks interesting even though not my usual style.

[Blackadar]

I'm signed up for the GW2 beta. I believe the sign-ups end today.

On a side note, after I tried SW:ToR in beta and found it to be a lifeless hulk of a MMO, I'm back to playing RIFT and having a blast. I just worked my mage up to 50 and I'm starting to explore the endgame content (for better or for worse).

[BYU 14]

I'm signed up for the GW2 beta. I believe the sign-ups end today.

On a side note, after I tried SW:ToR in beta and found it to be a lifeless hulk of a MMO, I'm back to playing RIFT and having a blast. I just worked my mage up to 50 and I'm starting to explore the endgame content (for better or for worse).

I haven't played Rift since August, have they made any 'wow factor' improvements since then? Not that the game was not good when I quit playing, I was enjoying it quite a bit, just didn't have a lot of time.

[Matthean]

Everquest is finally going hybrid, ie F2P w/sub option.

EverQuest Free to Play (http://www.everquest.com/free/)

[Mota]

I'm really into Rift again after taking some time off. I have a level 50 cleric, speccing in Justicar (tank). He started off really bad as the quest equipment you get is all caster based. I had no tank armor. I started running dungeons at 50 and within 4 runs had upgraded 5 different items. I've also been saving my dungeon marks and by the end of the weekend should probably be about 30% more powerful than I was. It's making a huge difference to get tanking armor, all of a sudden I'm blocking so much more damage, and the healer isn't burning all of his mana just to keep me alive. I'm looking forward to playing every night and that's a great feeling, I hadn't felt that since EQ2 back in 2004.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I should fire up Rift again...I had a lot of fun playing that casually.