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Title: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Signe on September 19, 2008, 11:21:18 AM Only because it exists. :oh_i_see:
Quote Citizens of Egypt, It's been far too long without a newsletter. Over the course of our third Tale in the Desert, we've been challenged by new Tests created by our ancestors. In the Test of the True Leadership, we've given recognition to those that spearhead Egypt's great projects, to those that craft our laws, and to those that assist others in the Seven Disciplines. In the Test of the Oyster Catcher we have explored Egypt's shores in a quest for oyster beds bearing rare pearls. In the Test of Leavened Bread, we have learned to grow wheat, and bake it into loaves of nourishing bread. In the Test of Ka, we have built tombs that will one day carry us to the afterlife. And we have also puzzled over the Test of the Archaeologist, the Test of the Coalition, the Test of the Plantation, and all of the Tests of Harmony. But one great challenge remains in our Tale - construction of the seven Great Monuments that will allow us to create new Tests, to leave our mark on the land, to challenge our descendants in A Tale in the Desert IV. Plans for these monuments are said to be inscribed on stone tablets deep in the desert, but the areas rumored to contain them are inaccessible - blocked by rings of mountains. Intriguingly, inventor Ktisibios has been seen in a craft that would easily cross the mountain rings, and there are whispers of his return over the weekend. I'd like to invite all previous Citizens of Egypt back for the weekend - no cost, no credit card needed, no strings attached, starting Friday September 19, 2:00 EDT (GMT-0400). Reconnect with old friends, learn about all that has been discovered during the course of our Tale, and learn about plans for A Tale in the Desert IV in a special chat session: Saturday, September 20, Noon EDT (GMT-0400) Looking forward to seeing everyone. On the Nile, Teppy (Pharaoh) Standard Stuff: Download for Windows, Linux and Macintosh. http://www.atitd.com Official IRC chat channel: irc.sorcery.net port 6667 channel #ATITD Mailing list removal and privacy policy you won't believe: http://www.atitd.com/newsletter.html Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on September 19, 2008, 12:25:32 PM Plans for a 4th Tale? Teppy has all but been a ghost in the last telling.
Makes me wonder if his other project (Alvin's world) vaporized. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Yegolev on September 19, 2008, 12:34:40 PM Have there been any actual game changes?
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on September 19, 2008, 12:43:03 PM A leveling system was added in Tale 3. I hated it. It seemed to cockblock the best part of ATitD; the part where you could just log on and enjoy the aspects of the game that were fun to you. Now you have to attain levels in order to unlock different skill/craft trees. While it's a good thing in forcing people to try new playstyles outside of their comfort zone, I think it drove away quite a few players that enjoyed the game for its sandbox aspects.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: naum on September 19, 2008, 01:57:22 PM A leveling system was added in Tale 3. I hated it. It seemed to cockblock the best part of ATitD; the part where you could just log on and enjoy the aspects of the game that were fun to you. Now you have to attain levels in order to unlock different skill/craft trees. While it's a good thing in forcing people to try new playstyles outside of their comfort zone, I think it drove away quite a few players that enjoyed the game for its sandbox aspects. THIS Yes, wonder what is going on with Teppy & crew… …weren't they supposed to be doing a world based off Orson Scott Card Ender's Game? Or did that get 86ed long ago? Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Yoru on September 19, 2008, 01:58:58 PM Leveling, blah.
I presume the game is also still RSI Incarnate, since doing anything interesting used to require hours of gathering materials to fill lower tiers of the economic tree. Which always boiled down to picking fucking grass and making bricks. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on September 19, 2008, 03:20:06 PM The compounds were bad enough. We used to be able to build whatever we wanted, wherever we wanted it, except there were "crowding" rules whereas too many objects would crowd each other out. You had to space things carefully. But now you have to build a big ugly garage and put your stuff in there. No more open air pottery.
But yeah, I'll be there for the monuments. I always am.... Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Yegolev on September 22, 2008, 08:01:15 AM Levels? I was already relegated to the brickmaking end of the power pyramid (which is, I suppose, a step above the slate-gathering part). No thanks.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on September 22, 2008, 08:12:05 AM ATitD is a chat program with a 3D interface. Most of the seasoned players used scripted macros to do almost every mundane task. The addition of levels just reinforced the grind for those of us that still liked to manually do every task. I had some fun with it for the first 10 levels, but found that it really diluted the content. When everyone has to pass art and puzzle tests just to be able to do other, unrelated things, the landscape became filled with reminders of crap from "gamed" tests. This was the deal breaker for me.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Trouble on September 22, 2008, 09:17:54 AM It's funny to see all these people here posting that I recognize the names of from atitd. Knew these names before I ever knew what f13 was.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Hutch on September 22, 2008, 10:36:07 AM When everyone has to pass art and puzzle tests just to be able to do other, unrelated things, the landscape became filled with reminders of crap from "gamed" tests. This was the deal breaker for me. Hmm. Judging by the number of Art tests that lined the roads in T1, you'd think there were levels back then, too. Although back then you only "had" to do the Art sculpture if you wanted to unlock the rest of Art. So: either Egypt had a mass of budding Art students in T1, or that test was just so easy to put together that nearly everyone gave it a shot anyway. Having said that, I agree about the levels. In T3, I found myself participating in the Demi-Pharaoh test just because you leveled up if you got past the first round of voting. That never would have happened without levels. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Yegolev on September 22, 2008, 11:17:56 AM It's funny to see all these people here posting that I recognize the names of from atitd. Knew these names before I ever knew what f13 was. Hopefully you don't recognize my handle, or I daresay you were doing it wrong. I know I was. :oh_i_see: Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on September 22, 2008, 11:50:55 AM Hmm. Judging by the number of Art tests that lined the roads in T1, you'd think there were levels back then, too. Although back then you only "had" to do the Art sculpture if you wanted to unlock the rest of Art. So: either Egypt had a mass of budding Art students in T1, or that test was just so easy to put together that nearly everyone gave it a shot anyway. I remember when Indonesian bee hives were available. We all wanted Indonesian honey and fruit trees, but you had to win a beetle competition to build them. And to win a beetle competition, you needed a winning sculpture. Suddenly Egypt was awash with piles of crap, sticks, and mud, all titled "plz help me breed beetles." It did meet a bit of resistance back then. People were wondering why the hell we needed to jump through so many hoops, it didn't make sense, etc etc. So yeah, levels are the crap-sculpture phenomenon times infinity. Teppy mentioned in a chat that he realizes levels weren't perfect (OMG!) but he feels they did help a bit with player retention. Hopefully he'll figure out what needs to be done: keep the levels, but remove all the restrictions they impose. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: cironian on September 22, 2008, 11:57:30 AM Hmm. Judging by the number of Art tests that lined the roads in T1, you'd think there were levels back then, too. Although back then you only "had" to do the Art sculpture if you wanted to unlock the rest of Art. So: either Egypt had a mass of budding Art students in T1, or that test was just so easy to put together that nearly everyone gave it a shot anyway. I think those introduction tests were actually done exactly right. Each discipline had one test that was a really, really simplified version of the actual tests you would find in there. If you found that introduction test was not to your liking you could ignore the whole discipline, knowing that you have not wasted much time. If you didn't want to place a simple sculpture, all the art tests were probably not for you. At the same time, this never blocked you from completing any of the other disciplines. The level thing is bad because it makes people jump through hoops that are completely unrelated to their interests. Like killing lots of foozles to gain high enough level to do the crafting you want to do in other games. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on September 22, 2008, 01:16:47 PM I wish they'd just bring back the Tale 1 world and let us play around in it forever.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Hutch on September 22, 2008, 01:34:39 PM I remember when Indonesian bee hives were available. We all wanted Indonesian honey and fruit trees, but you had to win a beetle competition to build them. And to win a beetle competition, you needed a winning sculpture. Suddenly Egypt was awash with piles of crap, sticks, and mud, all titled "plz help me breed beetles." OH talk about gamed! Those beetle contests were rigged. I entered a couple contests with my awesome and delicious beetles, and lost to people who'd barely tried. This was one of the big clues that ATITD hinged more on socialization than it did on actually building stuff. I loved beetle breeding though. That and beer brewing were my primary projects in T1. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Kamen on September 22, 2008, 02:54:56 PM Teppy mentioned in a chat that he realizes levels weren't perfect (OMG!) but he feels they did help a bit with player retention. Tell him to look over the census and tell me again how it's helping with player retention. Last I looked he was down to 1050 subscriptions or so. The bottom line is that they are a mistake, and he simply won't admit it. Anyway, Tale 1 of ATitD will always be one of my most fondly remembered gaming experiences. I had an absolutely great time. In Tale 3, the combination of compounds, levels, and Lung Spore Disease finally drove me to quit. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Yoru on September 22, 2008, 04:12:27 PM What in the living fuck is Lung Spore Disease?
Also, I too fondly remember playing ATITD 1 for a handful of months. I had a little commune with some university buds, and we just kind of fucked around with whatever we wanted. Eventually we built up a decent industrial base out in the middle of nowhere, with the only real outside reliance being on some high-end metals and petroleum for our Ore Inferno. I remember coming home one night, stinking drunk and "camping the water bong" (waiting for gems) for all of 2 minutes before something crazy rare came out. Much to the consternation of my colleagues, I grabbed it, loaded it onto the gem table and proceeded to begin cutting in my heavily-inebriated state. Then I cut one of the harder patterns (I think it was the big wheel with the hole in the center?) from it. There was much rejoicing. Tale 2, most of the folks I played with burnt out during beta, especially thanks to the compounds and new mining mechanics. I liked the new toolsmithing bit that involved hammering metals with the two different hammers, as well as the chariot points, but I didn't stay on too terribly long. I burned out after being like the 3rd person to finish the test of the acrobat in that telling, after having taught something like 2200 moves. Tale 3, I never even got past the trial. Blame Eve, levels and not wanting to get RSI picking grass. :why_so_serious: Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Kamen on September 23, 2008, 07:18:07 AM What in the living fuck is Lung Spore Disease? You know Teppy and his twisted societal challenges. Nothing spells gaming fun like having his players getting "the plague". http://wiki.atitd.net/tale3/Plague It's no longer an issue, but at its zenith it was causing all kinds of in game angst. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Xanthippe on October 21, 2008, 10:32:19 AM Teppy mentioned in a chat that he realizes levels weren't perfect (OMG!) but he feels they did help a bit with player retention. Hopefully he'll figure out what needs to be done: keep the levels, but remove all the restrictions they impose. Helped with player retention? How many did it drive away? Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Xanthippe on October 21, 2008, 10:47:51 AM Leveling, blah. I presume the game is also still RSI Incarnate, since doing anything interesting used to require hours of gathering materials to fill lower tiers of the economic tree. Which always boiled down to picking fucking grass and making bricks. If you miss that, go play HKO. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on October 21, 2008, 10:54:46 AM If you miss that, go play HKO. Interestingly, ATitD still has some appeal to me. The early arms race is fun. Figuring out puzzles can be entertaining. The populace is still among the most engaging that I've met in any MMO. If Teppy could implement some ways to introduce fun while staying out of the way of his playerbase, this game would be my primary pasttime. Unfortunately, I get burned out on repetitive tasks and the high school prom queen aspects of the popularity contests. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on October 21, 2008, 12:18:26 PM Teppy mentioned in a chat that he realizes levels weren't perfect (OMG!) but he feels they did help a bit with player retention. Hopefully he'll figure out what needs to be done: keep the levels, but remove all the restrictions they impose. Helped with player retention? How many did it drive away? In the first two tales, most players quit after two months. In tale 3, most players quit after three months. And that's all he's going by. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: DeathInABottle on October 21, 2008, 10:29:23 PM Teppy mentioned in a chat that he realizes levels weren't perfect (OMG!) but he feels they did help a bit with player retention. Hopefully he'll figure out what needs to be done: keep the levels, but remove all the restrictions they impose. Helped with player retention? How many did it drive away? In the first two tales, most players quit after two months. In tale 3, most players quit after three months. And that's all he's going by. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Xanthippe on October 22, 2008, 07:19:23 AM I love the crafting in ATiTD but the other parts not so much. The tests don't engage me, I just don't care. The travel is ridiculously slow and doesn't get faster for way too long. And there's no shooting or killing. Booooring.
If a game like WoW or WAR or even DAOC could incorporate ATiTD crafting, that would be almost the perfect game for me. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: LK on October 22, 2008, 09:38:16 AM A game like ATITD but on a much smaller scale could work. Animal Crossing MMO? The "Massive Single Player" aspects of Fable II also seem very positive: playing through an open world game, being able to see other players in other universes on your map, being able to interact with them and join their games.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: DeathInABottle on October 22, 2008, 10:27:56 PM I disagree about the scale and the travel times; I think they evoke the kind of atmosphere that Teppy's going for, and they give the player a lot of choice about what kind of a game he (or she - it's actually a valid distinction in ATITD) wants. If I want to be in the center of a lot of activity, I'll set up camp in Seven Lakes. If I want to be a hermit, there are hundreds of excellent options in the near and far wilderness.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on October 23, 2008, 10:09:52 AM Leave the scale and let us use tech trees to build transportation. Making working vehicles that use different things for fuel would be a GREAT test. The higher the quality/value of the material used for fuel, the faster the vehicle travels.
Teppy missed SO many good opportunities. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: naum on October 23, 2008, 02:22:27 PM Leave the scale and let us use tech trees to build transportation. Making working vehicles that use different things for fuel would be a GREAT test. The higher the quality/value of the material used for fuel, the faster the vehicle travels. Teppy missed SO many good opportunities. Wow, that would have been cool. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: tazelbain on October 23, 2008, 02:29:07 PM Teppy missed SO many good opportunities. Being a 2 man development team kinda limits your opportunities.Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on October 23, 2008, 02:48:08 PM Being a 2 man development team kinda limits your opportunities. Certainly does. It saddens me that the game never garnered investor support. So much lost potential. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: naum on October 23, 2008, 03:05:18 PM Teppy missed SO many good opportunities. Being a 2 man development team kinda limits your opportunities.Y but were they not also constrained by the game engine too… …that it just didn't lend itself to stepping outside those bounds, and with a 2 man team, kind of hard to rewrite the engine… Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on October 23, 2008, 08:49:47 PM Faster travel and vehicles are brought up a lot, and they wouldn't be hard to do. We've already got them to a certain extent, with run-buff food and road travel versus off-road travel. And we have air ships, boats, and giant robot spiders. Teppy could put more in, but he won't. He likes limiting player travel as much as possible because he feels it creates more isolated communities and nationalism and such. I'm surprised we can increase our run speed at all.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on October 23, 2008, 09:31:41 PM I think that size and isolation would be better serve if there were more in game goods that were regional. There are a few now, but creating trade routes where key ingredients for more important, higher tier items were found would help. I've always wanted an Acro-like test as well, but instead of moves you'd learn languages. Different languages by region would add a flair as would colors, fabrics, and avatar choices.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Xanthippe on October 25, 2008, 09:41:27 AM Great ideas, Nebu.
I love to explore in games, but there's just too much the same for too long in ATiTD. And once you get somewhere far far away, it's not ALL that different than where you were two days ago. If people have a reason to travel, they will. Different commodities in different areas, resources hubs that are more unique but perhaps not useful until later in the game, might work out with Teppy's vision. My vision and Teppy's vision are different, though. I'd like to see a Civilization type mmo incorporating crafting like ATiTD - complete with war. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on October 25, 2008, 10:32:29 AM The problem I've noticed with games where crafting is better than combat, is players complain how the PvP or PvE sucks and the crafters are getting all the love. If the combat is better than crafting, then nobody really focuses on crafting and it's wasted dev hours.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: DeathInABottle on November 30, 2008, 09:46:32 AM The private beta for Tale 4 started yesterday, the public begins on the 6th, and it launches on the 13th. I guess there's not a lot to "beta test" when you're releasing the same game for the fourth time.
Teppy claims that there will be changes, however (http://www.atitd.com/news/t3_newsletter_7.html): Quote You'll notice significant improvements to the user interface and graphics. The mining system is all new: Mining Iron is now very different from mining Copper, Copper is quite different from Gold, or Silver, and so on. Ecology now plays a more prominent role throughout the game. The cooking system, perhaps already the most sophisticated in any online game, has been further refined. I might sign on for the fast running alone.And there are tons of little touches that you'll notice - a whole new system for the use of character stats, dramatically faster run speeds, and new approaches to many Principles. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Signe on November 30, 2008, 10:54:00 AM I don't know, I don't know! I might give it another go for a bit. I'm not sure that faster running will be fast enough to make running in that game completely tolerable, at least scenery-wise. I hope so. I hope they let me run really really fast! REALLY FAST!! Maybe if any of the Somebob/Slyfiend/Xanthi/Rasix/Nebu/etc. or whoever groups play for a bit, I could be tempted. Maybe. Just don't put me in charge of camels! It's not my fault when I kill them!
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on November 30, 2008, 11:26:20 AM Because of the overhead perspective, run speed will always seem way too slow. It is improved a bit, and the game world is smaller in scale. They pretty much redid the whole map.
They made the usual mistake with the art direction; they're going for more realism, less cartoon, and so everything is shades of brown and grey. You can't tell the difference between mud, dirt, and grass. Flax farming is hard, because the flax beds look the same as the ground, so you don't know where to click. Everything looks horribly boring. Avatars are horrible. We have 1950's hair styles, neat and trim, and polo shirts and khaki slacks. I assume they're either place holders, or they just gave up on the Ancient Egypt idea and are trying to be more modern. The UI is a bit cleaner. Overall gameplay feels the same, whereas previous tales have all felt different from the start. There are still levels, and you're still required to do things you hate in order to get to the things you want to do. I suspect Teppy's going to make it even worse, just to spite the players. It's very much become an ego thing for him now, trying to prove the players that their idea of fun is wrong, and we just need to see things his way. I'll stick through the beta, but I likely won't be playing live. Honestly, if you were to show me screenshots from all the previous tales, I'd think Tale 4 is the first one. Everything is so unfinished and hacky, whereas previous tales felt far more polished and refined, even in their early beta stages. They needed to keep the fun bits that worked, not throw them out just because they think they know better. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Numtini on November 30, 2008, 11:31:46 AM I would like to give it a shot, but I don't know if I can handle the levels. I hated the things and I agree with Sly, Teppy is just refusing to listen to reality on them. As someone who's been waiting for the new tale and observing from a distance, it really seems like he's checked out in general, so I'm not surprised the beta is wonky and I'd expect release of T4 will be late.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on November 30, 2008, 12:53:46 PM ATitD is an old chat interface best used while watching your macros play the game. Expecting much more at this point is a sign of denial. Seriously, the most fun I had in this game was in crafting creative macros to play it for me.
FYI: Teppy has been checked out since the mid-point in Tale 2. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: DeathInABottle on November 30, 2008, 05:47:31 PM Seriously, the most fun I had in this game was in crafting creative macros to play it for me. This. Perfecting my oscillating bonfire macro in T2 was tremendous amounts of fun.Thanks for the heads up on the ugliness, Sly. I'll probably play through the trial, but if it's as bad as you say, I'll be giving this telling a pass. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on November 30, 2008, 06:03:10 PM The word is, they understand the textures are too muted and blendy so they're making them stand out a bit more. So at least there's that....
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nyght on December 01, 2008, 09:02:08 AM The UI is a bit cleaner. Overall gameplay feels the same, whereas previous tales have all felt different from the start. There are still levels, and you're still required to do things you hate in order to get to the things you want to do. I suspect Teppy's going to make it even worse, just to spite the players. It's very much become an ego thing for him now, trying to prove the players that their idea of fun is wrong, and we just need to see things his way. I'll stick through the beta, but I likely won't be playing live. Honestly, if you were to show me screenshots from all the previous tales, I'd think Tale 4 is the first one. Everything is so unfinished and hacky, whereas previous tales felt far more polished and refined, even in their early beta stages. They needed to keep the fun bits that worked, not throw them out just because they think they know better. I have played every beta and for some months in every telling. From the sound of this, it will be the first one I skip. Can't even get excited about a free beta after this news. Sad to see this game degraded every telling. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on December 01, 2008, 12:03:05 PM On the plus side, they're adding tons and tons of achievements to the game which sound fun. They're not telling what they'll be, but they're in line with other games' achievements, like eat 100 fresh herbs or climb the highest peak or whatever.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Kamen on December 02, 2008, 09:15:27 AM It appears that Teppy has decided to prohibit building chests outside of compounds or warehouses in T4:
http://www.atitd.net/forum/showthread.php?t=12786 No idea how expensive warehouses will be to build. So now, I guess, instead of finding chests here and there we will find warehouses with chests in them - presumably decaying unless it has a cornerstone installed? Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: WindupAtheist on December 02, 2008, 09:40:37 AM Why on earth would anyone ever play this? I would play Shadowbane before this. I would play Horizons again before this, and my 30 minutes in Horizons almost killed me.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on December 02, 2008, 09:44:13 AM Why on earth would anyone ever play this? I would play Shadowbane before this. I would play Horizons again before this, and my 30 minutes in Horizons almost killed me. The crafting tree is quite engaging. The tech race in the first 2 months of the game is actually quite fun if you have an immense amount of free time and enjoy puzzle/crafting games. The players in the game are also some of the more intelligent that I've come across since my MUD days. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Draegan on December 02, 2008, 11:16:00 AM Why on earth would anyone ever play this? I would play Shadowbane before this. I would play Horizons again before this, and my 30 minutes in Horizons almost killed me. You would think installing that game would make your computer explode. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on December 02, 2008, 12:23:20 PM It appears that Teppy has decided to prohibit building chests outside of compounds or warehouses in T4.... Yeah, that is so weird. I guess instead of tons of little chests all over the world, he wants to see tons of huge warehouses. WTF LAG? Why on earth would anyone ever play this? I would play Shadowbane before this. I would play Horizons again before this, and my 30 minutes in Horizons almost killed me. The thing that most engages me about this is, when players can't fight anything, and frustration sets in, they find other ways to mess with people, sometimes without even knowing it. There's some of the most intense dramas in that game that you just can't find anywhere else. I always feel if a game doesn't get me riled up or excited or stressed out, I'm not getting my money's worth. By that metric, ATITD is the only game I get my money's worth from. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Quinton on December 02, 2008, 08:13:09 PM It appears that Teppy has decided to prohibit building chests outside of compounds or warehouses in T4.... Yeah, that is so weird. I guess instead of tons of little chests all over the world, he wants to see tons of huge warehouses. WTF LAG? Yeah, I don't get it. When I last played it was when the compounds were introduced and I think they ruined the look of the world. I understand, technically, the problem they're trying to solve, but the results are just so depressing. The funky free-standing camps and structures and so on was what made it actually fun to explore in earlier tellings and made places have some character. Now it's like "Egypt: The Suburbs". Bleah! I second the comment about the players. I met some really really nice and thoughtful people in ATITD. Very different from almost every other online game I've played in some ways. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: newcastle on March 30, 2009, 12:06:50 AM What a beautifully cynical crowd! I've been playing atitd 4 since it started. Although I have played a few months of T3, and maybe a month total between T1 and T2, and have always burnt out in those previous tales, something about starting at the beginning of this tale has been a different experience. I've been having a blast playing the game, but this is completely on an intellectual level. I mean, I don't get any adrenaline rush like I did in 8v8 RvR DAoC style, or even WoW dungeon crawling style. However, when I am able to figure something out on my own, or a new system that no one has been able to figure out yet.. that is a thrill!
Maybe I am just a lot older now, but today's MMO's are just not doing it for me. I had such a huge disappointment with both Age of Conan, and Warhammer. Being a big fan of Mythic's DAoC, I was particularly looking forward to Warhammer Online... but as we all know, it wasn't as fun as it could have been. ATITD is a really great change of pace from these other hack n slash games. These games are just so unoriginal to me now, and ATITD is the only game I've seen that stimulates its player base on a purely intellectual level. Its been fun so far! - Daniels Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Signe on March 30, 2009, 05:06:57 AM I always have good fun for a while when I play a new version, too. I think ATITD is very, very clever. It just doesn't last more than a couple of months for me. Then again, neither do the traditional MMOs. I have a dark feeling that it is possible that this is just the way I play games. :ye_gods:
Thank you for calling us beautiful! No one ever does. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: LK on March 30, 2009, 05:15:45 AM No, I just think that once you learn the ins and outs of a system and there's nothing more to it, you move on. ATITD is fun until soul-crushing grind kicks in.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Numtini on March 30, 2009, 06:25:04 AM I found the biggest problem was everyone knows everything and just blew through everything, leaving me feeling very much out of things.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on March 30, 2009, 07:57:40 AM I found the biggest problem was everyone knows everything and just blew through everything, leaving me feeling very much out of things. ATitD has become a high school simulator. There are the "cool kids" that know how to manipulate the system and control the test passage and then there's everyone else. If you aren't on the bandwagon with the "cool kids" you're very much a second-class citizen in the game. It's still fun to dabble in, but don't think for a minute that you'll be competitive unless you're connected politically in game. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: tmp on March 30, 2009, 08:04:03 AM ATitD is the only MMO really that's made me go "fuck it" and never return right after i managed to get through the tutorial and off the newbie island. And i actually like crafting in most games... but somehow they managed to make it feel both extremely grindy and unrewarding.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on March 31, 2009, 01:36:48 PM Maybe I am just a lot older now, but today's MMO's are just not doing it for me. I had such a huge disappointment with both Age of Conan, and Warhammer. Being a big fan of Mythic's DAoC, I was particularly looking forward to Warhammer Online... but as we all know, it wasn't as fun as it could have been. ATITD is a really great change of pace from these other hack n slash games. These games are just so unoriginal to me now, and ATITD is the only game I've seen that stimulates its player base on a purely intellectual level. Its been fun so far! If you like it now, you should have seen it five years ago. It was like they took the ATITD of today, but put in more awesome, and travelled back in time to release it. Mind blowing! And yeah, I totally get the "cool kids" syndrome going on. And I love it. All the game systems in the world can't regulate the kind of socio-political game that emerged, and it surpassed even Teppy's wildest dreams. In that, I think it was a success. But if taken as purely a crafting game, even the devs say it sucks. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Nebu on March 31, 2009, 01:39:15 PM I loved ATitD during the first telling. I played the hell out of it. Every telling after, I couldn't seem to last longer than a few weeks.
I enjoy puzzle games most when people haven't figured out all of the puzzles yet. That and I'm a sucker for the new server arms race. Gets me in MMOs every time. Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Slyfeind on March 31, 2009, 02:11:59 PM In Tale 3, I was a finalist for the Demi-Pharaoh election, and it was late in the telling so people were all rather apathetic. A lot of players were wondering when there would be a debate/chat with the finalists, but we all couldn't get time to play at the same time, so we settled on a forum thread. Then another finalist scheduled a chat for a certain time and date, didn't tell anybody, but it happened anyway. Most people could make it. I could not. I came in last in the election. It pissed me the fuck off to high heaven, and to this day I still get a bit of bile and fury when I think of it. And really, I wouldn't have it any other way. If I got back into it, I would still hate on her for that crap. She made an enemy. And that's something you just can't get in games nowadays. It's all "Oh you took my flag or destroyed my spaceship or something, oh noes here's a bit of downtime for me as I click twice and get back into things NO WORRIES TEEHEE." No, these are grudges. Others have faced worse. I was there for some of the most amazing shitstorms ever seen in an online world.
Title: Re: ATITD: A Good Alternative to Darkfall Post by: Ghambit on March 31, 2009, 07:20:22 PM In Tale 3, I was a finalist for the Demi-Pharaoh election, and it was late in the telling so people were all rather apathetic. A lot of players were wondering when there would be a debate/chat with the finalists, but we all couldn't get time to play at the same time, so we settled on a forum thread. Then another finalist scheduled a chat for a certain time and date, didn't tell anybody, but it happened anyway. Most people could make it. I could not. I came in last in the election. It pissed me the fuck off to high heaven, and to this day I still get a bit of bile and fury when I think of it. And really, I wouldn't have it any other way. If I got back into it, I would still hate on her for that crap. She made an enemy. And that's something you just can't get in games nowadays. It's all "Oh you took my flag or destroyed my spaceship or something, oh noes here's a bit of downtime for me as I click twice and get back into things NO WORRIES TEEHEE." No, these are grudges. Others have faced worse. I was there for some of the most amazing shitstorms ever seen in an online world. this is classic... this type o' shit makes me want to DL this thing (again) |