f13.net

This just 'ninjaed' into my email. Thought folks here might be interested. Can't say I've heard anything about it at all  

From the official Neocron's forum - "Neocron 2 Beta client is available" (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=109544)


edit: Just found out- "Neocron 2" is in fact "Neocron- Beyond Dome of York" (The big expansion pack). It is merely marketed to new players as Neocron 2.

Did it remove the need for five separate treadmills from the original game? Did it remove the need to mindlessly hunt rats in a goddamn sewer for hours to make enough money to buy a fucking nail gun?

If either of those questions are answered with a "No," count me not interested.

What about the new graphics engine? On screenshot comparisons, the new stuff was just glowier, otherwise the same.

How did this game even survive to an expansion pack? It looked godfuckingawful.

Well, it is one of those niche games I guess. I don't think they have been doing too good though.

I'll check out the beta. It is supposed to contain a total graphics revamp, flying vehicles, a new hacking system, a new city and a shitload of other new stuff.

We'll see.

Hell, WWIIOL had flying tanks on release day. Beat that with a stick.

Five stats you raise through multiple activities.   The treadmill is never an issue in a MMORPG: the boredom that those activites may manifest is.  

Otherwise it's like you've grown bored of your job, so you're complaining about being paid.

This is the wrong way to play Neocron.   You can get enough money to afford a nail gun very quickly be performing a couple missions.   You can get the skill to wield a nail gun much quicker by practicing recycling than shooting things.

The clincher that got me to stop playing Neocron was that the game was too character power dependant for a semi-twitch game.   A level 30 character shooting a level 60 character generally does 0 or 1 point of damage per hit.   (There's 100 levels in the game.)   In a heavily PvP'd game like Neocron, this is a death knell.

Of course, that was back towards release, I don't know if they changed it since then.

BitTorrent download is currently extremely slow, but once your d/l is finished you can directly create your beta account from inside the client.

I belive their tracker url has gone down, so download speed might pick up once they get that up and running again.

Oh, I wanted to like this game.

But it's way too laggy (with more than 5 or so people in the vicinity), way too buggy (missions from terminals do not work, as in: the client crashes when you try to list them), and it's green, gray, brown - dull. And this is without even seeing the technicolor marvel that apparently is the WoW beta.

Oh, and when people make sequels, they try to make another game. AC2 is different from AC1, EQ2 will be different from EQ etc. NC2:BDoY is really just an expansion, having roughly the same engine and most of the original game inside.

They really need to get the mission system working, otherwise it's just whacking critters in the sewers until you go bored.

*goes back to KotOR*

It is a beta test though, that is why you are playing without paying.

Therefore one can expect obvious bugs (like non working missions) to be fixed before release. Core gameplay won't change.