f13.net forums - WOW Beta Emails Sent

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April 20, 2024, 05:04:50 AM

we're back, baby

http://www.blizzard.com/wow/

or

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

From the looks of the message board, not many people got the email. Im hoping it delayed a bit, as I would like to try it out.

Any of you guys get lucky?

::waves:: hi. Yeah, I'd be a lucky one.

with the beta release Alpha NDA has been lifted.

I've tried a few times this week to write up a review for you guys of WoW alpha and have failed. I can't be quite cynical and jaded enough about it to do any type of unbiased review.

So, I'll try for a few simple thoughts, and will keep it kind of short for now.

It's fun, I like it, and I don't feel I have to cat-ass to have fun. Levelling is much faster than EQ or DAoC. Content is fun starting at level 1. You'll hit your first dungeon around level 2 or 3. For a reference point, my definition of fun: DAoC Battlegrounds and a few other bits of DAoC, old NWN PvP, a lot of AO (after stabilization, of course), not SWG, not TSO, not EQ.

Artwork and animation is fantastic, everything fits together beautifully. The cartoon-ish colors hurt my eyes the first few days. But now I enter DAoC and think it is so washed out. Heh.

It was a large alpha, typically ~800 testers on a night. Alpha has been good since the day it started -- more complete than some final betas I've been in.

Potential pains: competition for ore and herb resources (but I see this as a mixed blessing, these things aren't absolutely essential or astoundingly rare, and gives a low-grief way of people showing their true colors.)

That's all I can think of for now. Going home to go play ;) Perhaps I'll figure out something else to say about it if anyone has questions. Hope someone here gets in beta and can give a good critical review.

Quote from: tanandae

Perhaps I'll figure out something else to say about it if anyone has questions.

Yes, PvP.
My faked account didn't get accepted for now anyway.

Godammit, still waiting for my invite. :(

I didn't get an email and was disappointed at first. Then I realized that it's just another mmorpg and I honestly don't give a shit anymore.

Kind of amazing how it just hits you all of a sudden.

tanandae,

Can you go into a bit of detail on what character customization was like in the alpha, and the max level attainable? I'm curious to hear reports of what the 'higher end' content was like, if at all present.

we're gonna want a review on it here, seems I didn't get in. Please contact me and joe if you're willing. Or if you got an invite and didn't like the game. Thanks.

Quote from: tanandae

It's fun, I like it, and I don't feel I have to cat-ass to have fun. Levelling is much faster than EQ or DAoC.

Until they nerf experience gain because the powergamers are burning through content too quickly. And all other problems aside, this was a big problem with AC2. People just went through the content that was there too quickly. They're going to want to strike a balance and it usually falls a slight bit in favor of the catass when these games get released.

If any one gets in and would like to help me out. See, I got bitten by my cat (Long Story, maybe a different post) and its quite bad, so I probably wont be working for the next week, If some one doesnt like it, I would *really* like to try.

Quote from: Morphiend

So would you, schild and a million other people. Chances are that you'll get into the beta at sometime, they are probably just starting out small for now.

Quote from: Dravalen

So would you, schild and a million other people. Chances are that you'll get into the beta at sometime, they are probably just starting out small for now.

Oh, heh, I should have clarified, I don't want to play, I just want a review with screenies up. Shit, I'd rather let Boog play at this point in 'beta.'

What about 24 hour game clock? That was one of the few things I thought was asinine. I really hope they change that.

Quote from: Soukyan

Until they nerf experience gain because the powergamers are burning through content too quickly.

That's one of my question. What those 800 players have done in these months? If I'm able to exp quickly in DAoC I have the RvR at the end. If I'm able to exp much faster in WoW what's at the end? What did the average player in the game.

I don't think everyone just leveled dozens of chars, so what they did during the test? Exp is boring, it's good if it's faster but where the interest is moved to?

Quote from: jiffy

What about 24 hour game clock? That was one of the few things I thought was asinine. I really hope they change that.

Eh? Are you saying day is 12 RL hours and night is 12 RL hours? If so, yes, an insanely asinine idea.

But hey, why stick to any of the other conventions from the days of text games and MUDs when you're tossing something as basic as calling a MOBile a MOB. Meh.

I've been pretty skeptical about WoW, but one thing I gotta say I am impressed with is a beta with no NDA!

Have they talked much about the end game? Only thing I have seen is the 30 person raids mentioned - uggg.

The zoned PvP they are going after seems a bit silly, but are there at least objectives and things to fight for in there? (ala Daoc)

How is the combat system? Is it more group oriented or soloable? Any twitch to it? Which class(es) did you play?

How is the loot vs. crafting equipment coming out? I know most people don't bother to try crafting in the beta, but I gotta ask anyway.

How is the death penalty? Seemed very weak from what I read, but it'd help to get a first hand account.

Put me down for another "What's PvP like?"

Also character customization - lots of options? Or models A, B and C only... what about equipment options? Varies? Or is there only one flavour that's suitable per level/class?

No invite for me :(

For those that got in: what's playing a healing class like? I've enjoyed playing a cleric in EQ for 5 years but I couldn't stand it in FFXI, AC and other games. Is it just sitting and healing and buffing or do they throw in decent anti-undead spells or other offensive abilities to mix things up?

There's a thread over on shacknews, it's got some interesting information. It looks like PvP wasn't even tested yet in the alpha.

Quote from: HRose

Quote from: tanandae

Perhaps I'll figure out something else to say about it if anyone has questions.

Yes, PvP.

Bah, unfortunately, no PvP yet. Not tested, and it's killing me. That's my favorite part of a good game.

Quote from: agris

Can you go into a bit of detail on what character customization was like in the alpha, and the max level attainable? I'm curious to hear reports of what the 'higher end' content was like, if at all present.

Character customization: I'm a little bummed about not having a height selection or body size selection. The rest is very good though. You have a choice of several faces (a good range of ugly, pretty, plain, young, old). Skin colors (and changing the skin color changes the color of lips, eyes, etc, so it all matches nicely). And the typical hair styles and hair color choices (and some are very nicely shaded, not just one flat color.) Most all races have some sort of facial feature to customize too, males this is usually beards. Heh, except undead. Then you get to chose how decayed your jaw is. Women have choices of earings, tattoos, or facial decay. Overall, pretty good. Not as customized as SWG, but more customizable than DAoC or AO (even considering no body adjustments).

Max level in alpha started at 15, was raised bit by bit to 30 a month or two ago. So no, can't really comment on the upper upper end, though we could "run through," or fly over, the areas for those levels. They are there and populated, we just have no experience there.

Quote from: Soukyan

Quote from: tanandae

It's fun, I like it, and I don't feel I have to cat-ass to have fun. Levelling is much faster than EQ or DAoC.

(ugh, forgive me for making this look like a Sir Bruce post ::shudder::)

They actually have nerfed the exp curve once -- someone on the forums guessed at a 22% per level increase (and it is still much faster levelling than DAoC). The experience curve seems to fit with the quests a bit better now. I grumbled about the change at first, but eh, it really seemed reasonable afterwards. I like going along with the quests. So far, I've never NEVER killed something for experience. NEVER. Never sat at a "camp spot" and just pulled to get experience.

I have quested for experience, I've killed things for their scraps of cloth to tailor with, but I've never just killed for experience. (okay, so I've killed some extra harpies .. but that's because they pissed me off when I was young and I like watching them die.)

I've been passed up by the catasses quickly -- they are all sitting at level 30, and I have a max character of 18. I dawdle, I don't play for long hours, and I like trying out the lowbies of all the classes and exploring all the newbie areas. I'm not in a hurry. So I think Blizzard is aware of what the catasses can do at this point. Blizzard could nerf exp again, but I'd guess not.

Quote from: jiffy

What about 24 hour game clock? That was one of the few things I thought was asinine. I really hope they change that.

It's still there. I hated it at first, now I just don't particularly like it. They've put sunset around 9pm PST, and full dark at about 10pm PST. This is NOT EQ-type dark, or even DAoC-type dark, though. You have the same visual range, everything is just shaded differently; a bit less saturation.

Quote from: HRose

What those 800 players have done in these months? If I'm able to exp quickly in DAoC I have the RvR at the end. If I'm able to exp much faster in WoW what's at the end? What did the average player in the game.

I don't think everyone just leveled dozens of chars, so what they did during the test? Exp is boring, it's good if it's faster but where the interest is moved to?

The alpha started with .. I dunno, about a hundred of us in late November. The alpha has been set in several stages (they've ended up being called "pushes") and has added testers along the way. First push was humans, three classes, with a lvl 15 cap. Cap was raised to 20 I think, then there was the dwarf push. Dwarves started with the same three classes, we were locked from our old characters and only could play dwarves. Then only undead, with some added classes, then the Horde push with Tauren, Orcs and Trolls, and added classes. Then we came back to "all alliance" and did humans, dwarves, gnomes and nightelves.

So, in that time we've repeatedly gone over low level content. I've heard one comment on the boards that "I'm bored, I'm 30, and I have nothing to do." And that was during the longest push. Just one. Most of us just fiddled around with alts if we hit a cap.

What's at the end? I dunno. hope it's good. But we are gonna get there fast.

Quote from: Riley

Have they talked much about the end game? Only thing I have seen is the 30 person raids mentioned - uggg.

The zoned PvP they are going after seems a bit silly, but are there at least objectives and things to fight for in there? (ala Daoc)

How is the combat system? Is it more group oriented or soloable? Any twitch to it? Which class(es) did you play?

How is the loot vs. crafting equipment coming out? I know most people don't bother to try crafting in the beta, but I gotta ask anyway.

How is the death penalty? Seemed very weak from what I read, but it'd help to get a first hand account.

(ugh, OKAY, I'll write up a real report .. I'm typing much of it here anyway ;)

End game: y'all know as much as I do
PvP: ditto
Combat: ah, here we go, something I have a clue about.
Soloing: I picked my "main" as the hardest to solo class: a priest (of course they are hard to solo, they are a support class). I had NO problem soloing, as long as I did not try to do dungeon quests that were my level or above. Dungeons are designed for groups. I found I could get by on just the more soloable quests though. In other words, I was better in a group, but just fine solo.

I also played a Warlock. Loved. Warrior. Cool. Didn't like shaman or paladin, but that's because I've never liked hybrid classes. Mage, okay, but not my favorite; I've never liked any finger-waggler class though (until Warlock ;) Rogue, fun. Not easy. We haven't gotten to try hunter or druid yet.

Grouping: My husband is also in game, and we often duo. In DAoC hubby and I felt we needed a bot to "duo" (stop with the jokes right. there.). We were fine as a hero and a druid, until it came time to move. Then we felt we deperately needed a bard. So we had a third acct bard. We know botting.

For the alpha we could log on to our account twice (this feature is not longer a possibility though.) We could've botted very easily if we felt the need. We even tried to figure out what a bot would do. Most classes are limited to one or two buffs, and almost all classes have some sort of buff they can give groups or other PCs. However, we never did it. It wasn't worth the effort to make a bot in WoW like it was in DAoC.

Also, as an aside, as a duo we were an "insta group" ... people would join us all the time as pick ups. The quests tend to last a short time (let's say, anything from a couple minutes to maybe an hour for the "worst" ones, but averaging somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes). People tend to be in an area specifically for a certain quest or two (because people are there for quests, not random exp pulling). In DAoC we go out of our way to avoid pick ups, because then we have to be nice and stuff, for hours. Buy them dinner and make sure they get a ride home. In Wow it is more of a friendly "one night stand" atmosphere. Pick up a person, do the quest, say thanks, and everyone moves on. No commitment. If they suck, you are rid of them soon. If they're great, you might hang on to them for another round on the next quest.

Crafting: the uber sword will be dropped, the uber boots are crafted, the uber bracers will be bought, the uber chest peice will be a quest reward. Seriously -- depending on the level, you will have something of everything on you. Quested, dropped, crafted and bought. People craft.

Ah, just thought of another point. Oddly enough, about the time folks on Waterthread started talking about mini games and tradeskills -- WoW introduced fishing. It's a mini game. You have to click the bobber when it splashes (visual and audio). It's a bit tricky, but not too hard. Hah, minigame.

Twitch? Not twitch at all, but definitely timing. You have to know the timing of your spells, or your swings to be good at what you do. You can't "stack" manuevers or spells like you can in DAoC. You have to know when what you are doing will end so you can start the next thing. As a priest, I have to know how long my absorbtion bubbles will last.

Death Penalty: a very small hassle. Low low penalty. A run to your corpse (say, 1 to 5 minutes, and you are immune and invisible to most mobs), or a small experience penalty (equivalent of killing about, I dunno, 5 mobs). I love this. I like the phrase "I will DIE and DIE WELL!" The low death penalty will annoy the catasses. Hopefully they will play through and leave the green to me ;)

For those looking for an account this guy wants to hook you up...

Who didn't see that comming?

Quote from: RVWinkle

For those looking for an account this guy wants to hook you up...

Who didn't see that comming?

$300 to beta a mmorpg? Blizzard should be paying me that much...

I've tossed up some screenshots real quick here:
http://www.lananfrank.net/lana/wow/

Quote from: Merusk

Quote from: jiffy

What about 24 hour game clock? That was one of the few things I thought was asinine. I really hope they change that.

Eh? Are you saying day is 12 RL hours and night is 12 RL hours? If so, yes, an insanely asinine idea.

I think it is more like 8 hours of night. It is still odd.

Quote from: XMackenzie

Also character customization - lots of options? Or models A, B and C only... what about equipment options? Varies? Or is there only one flavour that's suitable per level/class?

Statistical customization or visual? Stat and skill customization is not as tedious as AO, not as lock-step as DAoC. A little bit of this and a little bit of that works well in stats. For skills, you will have all of the spells / melee styles etc that your class can have. You may have to wait a level to gather the money for a spell or two, but that's rare. Lots of statistical options, but I do forsee some "main" builds (for example, warriors are strongly encouraged to a "tank" / defensive build instead of a damage-dealer / offensive build). Visual, insanely customizable. Somewhere around level 5 you can have distinctly different looks from the next level 5 of your class. A good selection of weapons that all look different and have different stats.

Quote from: sergex

For those that got in: what's playing a healing class like? I've enjoyed playing a cleric in EQ for 5 years but I couldn't stand it in FFXI, AC and other games. Is it just sitting and healing and buffing or do they throw in decent anti-undead spells or other offensive abilities to mix things up?

I can't comment much on the healing classes of shaman and paladin, but priests have as much offense as support. They have a HoT, small heal, big heal, stamina buff and absorbtion buff as support (at my level). They have DoT, regular blast, super-agro blast, and sleep for offense. Oh, and a staff or mace .. get in there and bust a move. We do DAMAGE with good weapons. (I typically am meleeing part of the fight when in a two or three person group. At four and five I'm juggling support spells mostly, with sleep and DoTs.)

Quote from: schild

Quote from: RVWinkle

For those looking for an account this guy wants to hook you up...

Who didn't see that comming?

$300 to beta a mmorpg? Blizzard should be paying me that much...

It's up to 1k+ now, sweet jebus.

I came across a link to a well written write up from a WoW alpha tester that I thought you all might enjoy reading. It is rather lengthy, but a good read; don't let the title of the thread get to you.

[WoW] I Was a Teenage Alpha Tester

-Liquidator

Quote from: Liquidator

It's ok to say you found it at Corpnews if that's the case. I saw it there too. Either way, if you give a shit about WoW, it's worth reading.

20 million, funny. Isnt Ebay legaly binding?

Quote from: ebay

Current bid: US $20,000,000.00

Somehow I'm guessing that's not a legitimate bid... hell, I HOPE it's not a legitimate bid...

EDIT: The damn pirate stole my post :(

Quote from: XMackenzie

Also character customization - lots of options? Or models A, B and C only...

I've read it's very limited but good.
Where you have DAoC with all the changes all nearly identic, in WoW there's much more personalization. Still a few premade choices but at least very different from one to another.

What DAoC has and in WoW is missing completely are the different heights. Having the models all at the same height isn't a great choice, imho.

Quote from: Tanandae

There are torches or a light effect bound to a key?

Quote from: Tanandae

What's at the end? I dunno. hope it's good. But we are gonna get there fast.

This is starting to become the main concern everywhere...

Now other questions:
What about the netcode? Lag? Hiccups? When there are hundred of players on screen? Have you watched how much upload/download it uses on average?
And also the client performance in the same situation (crowded cities, raids ..)

Quote from: HRose

a few spelling errors, otherwise some insight.

When did you start thinking so hard about your posts?

No mail for me either =(

I can't wait to hear the reports on pvp and whether PC undead are affected by certain spells that might target NPC undead. I plan on playing an undead priest when WoW goes commercial and look forward to battle with paladins and other holy sorts.

Damn, I need to put "WoW Fanboi" in my sig now.

My roommate just got a beta invite for the second phase. I guess they are informing people now even if they are getting in a later phase. So, no email, seem like we are shit out of luck for the entire beta.

Quote from: tanandae

stuff

I have some questions about the Priest.

Can you spec for damage and be viable?

If you are undead, do you get different spells than the ones that say are for fighting undead?

Quote from: Morphiend

I guess they are informing people now even if they are getting in a later phase. So, no email, seem like we are shit out of luck for the entire beta.

Katricia Said somewhere else that only phases 1 and 2 were sent, I don't want to do too much digging on the Blizzard WOW boards though. Here's a post from my 2 seconds of search which reinforces the idea though.

I think what your trying to say, is that my email is simply caught up in the system and Ill be receiveing it any minute now.

Theres a pretty extensive writeup about the alpha on

http://www.graffe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15526