Vindictus (Mabinogi Heroes) Goes OB

[Nija]

I'm playing as "Boggle".

[NiX]

Do not forget to list your screename so you can y'know, be found in the damned game.

Server too.

[Cadaverine]

In as Golgothan on the west server.

Also, I've got two keys available if someone from here wants one.  Just send me a PM.

[Chinchilla]

Ok, I'm gonna have to go to their tech support to see if I can find out what is going on.  Everytime after I click the race/class I want to play it starts to try and load another screen and it says "Serer connection lost..." or something like that.  So damn annoying!

[climbjtree]

I've got 2 keys - PM me for them.

[PalmTrees]

I'm enjoying the game so far. I can see where I'll eventually get frustrated with it though. This random quest drop off boss mobs so you have to run the instance again and again is just a pain. I've killed that named wisp 7 or so times and even with 3 drops per kill, still no heart.

[jakonovski]

Looks like this comes with Pando Media Booster of LOTRO fame. All of a sudden I'm having second thoughts about installing the client...

[Lantyssa]

I've been enjoying it, however I can see the difficulty really ramping up like the old Mabinogi.  The last couple of dungeons for the first arc get hairy.  Title collection is both fun and useful.

The combat is one of the best things to come out of an MMO, though, and makes me really look forward to GW2.

[climbjtree]

I play on East as Fleisshausen.

[Jherad]

I now have two keys, PM me if you need (thanks Climbjtree!).

Edit: Both now gone

[Der Helm]

Pick me! Pick me!

I am a sucker for open betas! 

[Ghambit]

East Server:  "Siulung"
West Server:  "Ghambit"

This game is crackity.  I especially like what they did with the dungeons in regards to scaling.  Sure, you run them more than once many times, but each experience feels subtly different, largely due to party size, some random generation, and difficulty settings. The Titles (which give kickass stats for you stat-whores) make things a lot more appealing and the "oaths of honor" are a nice mechanic.  Overall, the most polished game of this type.  You want a slick, simple actiony dungeon-runner mmo, this does the job pretty well.

The mission meeting area is simple genius.  Not only do you get to practice skills you've just learned and get to know your teammates, but you can buy/sell items, AND most importantly test your P2P connections.  In this sense I've never had a laggy mission because if I find a party with ping issues I just back out.  I've been in 5-mans with perfect ping.

Quests are my biggest concern.  Right now it's pretty entertaining (short-sweet dialog, simple goals, and varied)  and they've obviously spent a lot of time sewing everything together, but down the road I'm afraid that things will tail off pretty substantially.  We'll see.

One question:  anyone figured out how to 'reprocess' yet?  I have the feeling they havent implemented it.  I've got a billion spiked-clubs to breakdown.

[veredus]

Have an extra Beta key - PM me for it.   

Key gone. On west server as Veredus

[Jherad]

One question:  anyone figured out how to 'reprocess' yet?  I have the feeling they havent implemented it.  I've got a billion spiked-clubs to breakdown.

I'd assumed 'reprocess' was fancy talk for 'can be used in crafting' (I think I used spiked clubs to make a better longsword) - that not the case?

[Hawkbit]

I'm not really sure what went wrong, but I'm actually having fun with this title.  It's not quite a time investment of a full MMO, yet I don't quite feel like I'm wasting my time on a F2P.  It's fun in doses.

[Ghambit]

FYI bagspace:  You get another bag (from Aodhan I think) as a reward when completing the Veterans Raiment Set, around lvl 10 I guess.
And the more I play this the more I get the feeling of a stripped down, simpler DDO that you can just fire up and play randomly (albeit the dungeons here are so far pretty weakly designed; it's all about the mobs).

Anyone gotten further into the game and seen longer, more complex level design?

[Mrbloodworth]

I would like to hear more about the combat.

[Der Helm]

Hm. I got a key now (thanks Ragnoros), but I can't creat a new "passport". The site simply refreshes after me clicking "done" and the verification code changes...  

edit: Got it working, needed another email-adress, gishpuppy was not accepted.

[Hawkbit]

I would like to hear more about the combat.

I'm not as familiar with the games that it is designed after, but it feels to me more like a console hack and slash action game.  It also has a Diablo "kill lots of enemies, break boxes, get loot" feel to it as well.  Build combos, execute finishers.  It's simple, but really well done. 

This one is supposed to launch as F2P, right?

[Der Helm]

*sighs*

Now I can't log in... "Authentication failed. Please try again later."

It's because i am from Europe, isn't it ?

[Draegan]

I believe it's always to be F2P.  I think there may be a limiting factor for how many dungeons you can do a day freely and you have to buy passes.

I want to play the spellcaster.

[Lantyssa]

I would like to hear more about the combat.

Have you played the original Mabinogi before?  It's very similar but a 3rd person over the shoulder perspective.

You hit what your sword swings through.  Attacks are chains.  LB+RB, LB+LB+RB, LB+LB+LB+RB+RB, etc.  You can also do grabs, which have context sensitive tosses, kicks.  Lann has dodges.  Fiona has guard and rolls.  Evie, the magic user isn't released yet.  Secondary weapons can do stuns or holds.

Minions are mostly fodder, but a lot of fun to beat up.  Bosses are much more challenging, though I find they get repetative, and can easily wipe the floor with you if you're not careful.

Lots of destructable objects, which can also be used as weapons.

[Mrbloodworth]

I would like to hear more about the combat.

Have you played the original Mabinogi before?

This one?

Very briefly, I found the controls kinda clumsily.

[Lantyssa]

They're cleaned it up a lot.  WASD, Left Mouse, Right Mouse, E for grab/use, R for kick (sometimes Right Mouse will do this for you), Space for guard and dodge, and F for thrown.

[Ghambit]

'Tyssa summed it up pretty well.  You do also have a hotbar though with a slew of traditional stuff you can use like pots, res agents, spells, secondary weapons like spears, bombs, chainhooks, etc.  When you get further in the game, you DO die a lot and have to develop contingencies to handle this, like armor repair kits and res. agents, etc.  Anyone can resurrect a partymember as long as they have a feather.  You cant resurrect urself unless you have the 'Grace of a God.'  Which are earned I believe.

What's truly unique about this game (in this particular genre) is the destructable world.  Most everything can be used as a weapon, including mobs (whether alive or dead).  If it cant be used as a weapon, it can be destroyed and THEN used as a weapon (including mobs, which turn into stone many times).

Also, there is indeed mining/crafting within the dungeons if u have the right tools (bombs I believe that blow up the rock to get to the ore vein).  At low levels stuff is so cheap though that it's a waste of time to do.

Combat itself is mostly mindless combo-button mashing (for melee that is).  The real test comes with positioning (there is no tab-targeting), timing (mostly with dodge and picking up objects), STA mitigation, and aim both in melee and ranged.  Down the road you gain skills that'll give you stunlocks, aoe, etc. if executed properly.  Battlepoints are largely dependent on DPS, so getting good at doing dmg. is very important.  And said BP is used to generate certain titles and rewards.

AP is spent on skills (there's an assload of them) which generates over time as you play and a bit whilst offline with the meditation skill.  You also earn them in some ways and as you lvl.  

Lastly, they've done a masterful job in capturing the 'bling' feel everyone wants.  There's ALWAYS something going on advancement-wise.  There is very little grindy feel because of this, even when you're clearly grinding a dungeon.  Seems like every 2 seconds there's a shinay in your face or some such dramatic music/sound-effect denoting a reward.  And what downtime there is becomes spent fooling with crafting or buying/selling gear on the marketplace... which most of the time generates yet more blingy sounds and shinay.

I'm sure this will tail off as the lvls pile up, but so far it hasnt for me up to lvl 10 and given the shear volume of story-quests and titles there are to get it's doubtful it'll wear off any time soon.  And of course, if things get slow I can always pop Hard or Hero mode and throw in 'Season of Ganesh' or wtf is it called, which makes bossmobs near gods....  things get REAL tense then.  BP, rewards, and XP scale of course so you get what you earn in this sense.

And yes, there is a Raid Mode... but I'm nowhere near fooling with that yet.  Anyone else have?

[PalmTrees]

Some of the dungeons have had bits of fun design. There's a rope bridge you have to run across before the kobolds cut it, have seen some group mates fall. There's a narrow bridge with a series of logs swinging back and forth that'll knock you off unless you avoid or break them. There's sloped passages with boulders tumbling down them you have to dodge on your way up. There are big crushing engines you have to avoid or get steamrolled. Not really prince of persia level platforming, but fun. Double tap movement key to run. Didn't find that out for a while and got smushed a few times.

I like the pick up just about anything and use it as a weapon. Throw an gnoll into a pillar, pillar breaks, pick up a chunk of stone and smack the gnoll over the head with it.

They need to tone down the realistic physics of the coin/health gem drops though. Break a pot and the coin flies across the room like you punted it. Gets annoying to have to track them down.

[Lantyssa]

My preference is to throw a gnoll into other gnolls.  The over-the-shoulder toss never gets old.  Also the smashing a gnoll into a wall then either body checking it or scraping its face off.

[Ghambit]

I do indeed get tired of killing gnolls.  The killing is fun.  The fact that they're gnolls every time is blah.
I enjoy the coin/health gem drops though - it's like a minigame... "Find the loot"

[Rendakor]

Does this have talent trees or any skill customization to speak of?

[Draegan]

I know you can train skills with points.  I don't know if it's limited though or how they work with pre-reqs.

[Lantyssa]

Like the original Mabinogi, Skills are on a 16 point system.  Ranks F-A, 9-0.  (I'm not sure if they actually go to 0 in either game.  Only went to 6 when I played the original.)

Besides XP, you get AP which you spend towards the skills of your choice.  Your general skills follow a progression of 30, 50, 90, ... AP.  Most probably have further restrictions, such as I can't raise guard from B to A until I am level 20.  You can have a maximum of 100 AP at any time, so you need to make sure you spend it when available.

[Ard]

Does the game have the forced grouping mechanism that DDO had where you pretty much have to have a full group to get anything done?  I stopped after the tutorial mission because that's what it looked like to me.  If that's the case, I can't imagine trying to do this without a fixed group.

[Lantyssa]

I've soloed everything except one double-boss mission.  It might be possible since enemies can hit one another, I just haven't tried.  Duo made the final two bosses of the first area much easier (level 1-10 dungeons).  Once past that, I was able to solo again.  Grouping seems like it's really easy, but people scare me.

[Ard]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of people either, but if I can duo with my wife, it might be reasonable.  I liked both DDO and Mabinogi, and this really feels like a blend of the two ideas.  I swear even trying to get 3 of my friends organized to do things these days in games is like pulling teeth though.

[Ghambit]

More tidbits:
-BP actually is cumulative, not earned in just one sitting.  So, unlike other games of this type, when you replay dungeons you're adding to your overall BP, not just what you earned in the one battle.  [edit: apparently difficulty has no bearing on BP, unless it's broken] BP has nothing to do with dmg. output during a mission.
-AP and/or XP MAY be dependent on dmg. output... but not sure as of yet
-Grouping isnt forced since mobs scale dependant on group size.  I've fought a hard-macha solo and pwned him... but, gotten pwned in a group of 4.
-Macha only effects the boss mob it seems whilst hard effects minions