SoG Thingy

[Signe]

Those who are interested in that weird prelude thingy of DnL.. you can register for it at 1800 GMT (1 PM EST).  I think there will be 10K available.  Clicky on this Linky!

[Soukyan]

1:03 PM EST and all the spots are gone? Interesting.

[Nija]

I'm in. Again.

It's almost my 2nd year beta testing DnL!

[Signe]

Really?  Gone already?  I just got one.

I call shennanigans.

[Soukyan]

Really?  Gone already?  I just got one.

I call shennanigans.

Tried three separate browsers and no dice. Hrm. How disappointing.

[Signe]

Righ thinks angry SWG vets camped it and snarfed them all up.  Won't it be a pleasant place when the disgruntled SWG guys log in with their waggly fingers and bloodshot eyes, mumbling insane things under their breath. 

eek!

[Righ]

There were only 10,000 and I think that many people are leaving SW:G every 'insert amusing short period of time here'.

[Soukyan]

Righ thinks angry SWG vets camped it and snarfed them all up.  Won't it be a pleasant place when the disgruntled SWG guys log in with their waggly fingers and bloodshot eyes, mumbling insane things under their breath. 

eek!

Son of bitches... or whatever the Star Wars equivalent of a bitch is.

[Warryyr]

Righ thinks angry SWG vets camped it and snarfed them all up.  Won't it be a pleasant place when the disgruntled SWG guys log in with their waggly fingers and bloodshot eyes, mumbling insane things under their breath. 

eek!

Son of bitches... or whatever the Star Wars equivalent of a bitch is.

Nerf herder?

[Righ]

People are reporting on the SWG forums that they got their whole guild singned up using multiple windows. So yeah, there was heavy camping by the disgruntled nerf herders. Expect SOG to be full of 'special' people.

[Soln]

too funny.  I literally just finished reading a Bloodfin thread which I didn't understand the title and it was about this.  And I read before that another I didn't get the reference to on Bria.  Coincidence?  Oh, and suzz0r's, I registered too and the slots are full for me as well.

[Samwise]

Can anyone remind me why there's so much excitement over DnL?  I honestly don't get it.

[Signe]

Can anyone remind me why there's so much excitement over DnL?  I honestly don't get it.

I don't know.  The hot animal monkey sex?

[Righ]

I think the fact that they are making even more inflated promises than David Bowman did.

[Soukyan]

Can anyone remind me why there's so much excitement over DnL?  I honestly don't get it.

I just wanted to test it out man. Don't be hatin'.

[Hoax]

I wanted in.
Not in a burning desire way but more of a morbid curiosity way...

PVP+!!!!   

Or am I thinking of the wrong game?

[Righ]

It was allegedly both PvP+ and GvG siege oriented, which was why many of the SB crowd were banging on about it wayback. That was back when Dragon Empires was another shining hope too.

[Sky]

Believe it or not, I'm subscribing to SWG when my month is up in a week. I've been having fun.

[Samwise]

It was allegedly both PvP+ and GvG siege oriented

Ah, that'd make some sense then.  All I saw at E3 was lackluster foozle whacking.  Hence my confusion.  

[schild]

I couldn't be paid to care about DnL. The idea of a fully 3d world made by an independent developer spanks of "not enough content for the first "free" month."

Yes, that was an invitation to prove me wrong.

[Righ]

Yes, that was an invitation to prove me wrong.

We could invite SirBruce back for a few months of logical fallacies. As to actually finding more than a month of viable content? I doubt anybody is going to manage that with this game. Maybe they could put in some horrible treadmill so that it takes more than a month to discover that. Wait... it's PvP+ - so that players will create their own content!

[sarius]

10,000 free keys gone in 1 min 20 seconds.  Awful fast.

[El Gallo]

What the hell is this settlers thing anyway?  Is it a "pay to start playing the game a bit before everyone else" thing, or is it really some modified version of the game they are using for the real game's lore or what the hell is it?  Or is this just a "pay to beta" deal to get them some cash to finish up the fetapault physics?

[Signe]

They call it a "prelude".  It's evidently a scaled down version of Dark and Light, complete with no crafting, only a few races and some of the skills.  It's free but you could pay anyway.  They ran out of the 8,881 copies of the DnL pre-order.  It's just that popular.  I will assume that SoG is a masterpiece and that DnL will be a massive disappointment once all the features are in.

I like thinking with the back of my head.  It tickles.

[Signe]

Here are some early impressions from the pre-order people who were actually able to log in:

total crap/

I logged in, no one knows how to draw a sword, no one, actually the whole action button doesnt even work, half of them dont even work.

Players can summon the dragon, but can not recall it, bugged. I feel sorry for pioners who may lose their dragons over these. I have not attempted to summon my pet yet.

Chat systems dont work, nothing. YOu can type, but no one hears you. Chat bubles dont work... what else, a lot of things dont work.

graphics are not so good. characters look like cut and paste models. I though mabye the scenery would be up to par... no, its not, its not very nice to look at, at all. Water looks like sludgy snow, but snow does not exist in the medows, and running like a river.

the interface is REALLY tough to get along with. The camara system aslo restrains you from looking around while you are running.
I'm about to throw this game and my pioneer account in the trash. This game isnt even made yet, for a free play SoG game. Pioneers got ripped big time.

I'm going to go back into game of and on, see if something is implemented to make the game playable. There are way too many bugs, mostly where it comes to actions and buttons. Most quests dont work either, the messages get canciled.

a few more things, Frame rate is bad, choppy. Lag is actually fairly good, I had no real troubles here. It was a bit tough to move with like 20 players beside me, but even that was doable, it really was not that bad.

My very first impression: This is confusing.

I had to do a phone order to Ligos to get the codec (they were very nice and responsive). I don't really mind the $14.95, and it turns out the codec was only needed for the animated graphic intro, but all appearances were I had to buy this program in order to run a free game.

Character creation -- half the slider bars (size, skin, eyes) are frozen. You get like two earring choices: none or a big purple thing hanging from your right ear. Piercing is a subtle gold shiny thing on your forehead (this is for a female half elf but all the elves were pretty much identical). Hair is bald, a mop, a scorpion braid, or a snug cap. I did not do much looking at male characters. Brave women get a blond pony tail or a wierd blond close-cut thing high in the back.

You /can/ put a capital letter to start your name. In the name of all that is holy, please do so!

You can toggle around male/female, dark/light, elf/human/lutin/etc. Then you hit Play and into game you go with whatever you made.

Moving around in game was very hard. I really want to use arrow keys. If you click the split moon icon to the lower left, you get various options, including game options. However, I crashed many times while remapping keys to the format I prefer, and finally just stopped with the arrows for movement and brackets for strafing. At least that does give you a list of what keys do what, albeit in wierd formats like "D+LALT"

I was able to spin my camera view with mouse left click and drag, and moving my character back and forth did pull the camera back to behind her.

I think the world is pretty, but I didn't see much thanks to just trying to move around. I did summon my dragon (you have to hit L to bring up your points window -- which was partially in French -- and put 1 point in Mounts, then click on the dragon face button at the left of your hotbar. Double click the dragon to mount it, same to dismount. Flying involves hitting numpad 0. Supposedly S gains you altitude but I glided to a landing every time.

I walked off from my dragon to see if it would follow, and it disappeared. I haven't tried to get it back yet. I did have to delete my first character once, when I ctd'd and then was told "Cannot select that character" when trying to return to the game.

Combat: Oy. I'm clueless. I managed to fire a crossbow at a spider, then it was too close, and I couldn't switch to melee no matter what I did. I died, recalled to my bind point, and boom ctc. Then I started getting the Login_custom-defined_error reported in other threads.

Chat is clunky, it goes in one general chat window that scrolls like crazy. The manual says you can alter your chat setup, boy do I hope so. Saying things out loud puts a rectangular chat bubble over your head that persists a while.

So, this is a very confusing, awkward to control game that crashes a lot. I guess it can only get better *grins*

One word, JUNK

Well, the loading screen is pretty good (that is as far as I've gotten). The slogan is real catchy...

Dark and Light, the largest MMORPG you've never seen!

Actually, I liked it.

No frame rate issues whatsoever, even with highest graphic settings (engine 6 though, don't forget to try that!!!), looks nice with this (AMD 3500+,X850Pro,2Gig). Don't (!) bother with Engine 4 if your computer is somehow like this. After that, turn up the details in "Options".

Not much lag either (2 MBit, though).

As for the gameplay ... I don't know yet. Confusing as hell without a proper manual. Not very precise click-wise in my opinion (a lot of clicking around). Things can get confusing in combat (esp. when your dragon covers the target so that you can't click it). Some options are not translated yet, some are of the usual translation fame ("solded out").

Grouping is a bit tricky - once you leave the group range, it seems very difficult to find your group again. Happens quite often when starting to fly...

One bug: One friend of mine logged in, I could see him, he could see me, however we could not /messenger each other, let alone add ourselves to our friend list ("unknown player").

Overall, I enjoyed it (with the high graphic settings). Flying around rocks, although you get lost easily. Didn't find any content (quests?) beside combat.

From what I understand, either they've not translated the game yet or English doesn't work... everything is in French.  Many people are getting constand errors of one sort or another and crashing.  A lot of objects and even some of the terrain is floating in mid-air.  Anyway... so far it's been pretty negative.  They did announce that the game would be down every Wednesday and most of Tuesday.  Strangely, the 10K freebies are supposed to start tomorrow. 

EDIT:  They just shut down the forums and put up this message:

To ensure a better service at the time of the entrance of the first Settlers in SoG, the Dark and Light forum will be closed the 13th December 2005.

The Client Support will stand in for this service during this day. You can join the Support Team at this address : http://www.darkandlight.net/support.php3

The forums will reopen from the 15th December with new sections dedicated to Settlers of Ganareth.

Thanks for your understanding,
The Dark and Light Team.

At least they thanked me for my understanding!   

[schild]

SHOCKING.

[Akkori]

I only had 1 problem with getting in, and it was fixed pretty quick (had to delete the .INI file so it would be re-patched). As expected, it was confusing as hell.
I still havent figured out how to fight. I know how to start, but after one swing, I sit and take a beating.
All the chat's worked fine for me. Friends worked as well. You may have to capitalize the person name when adding, and there is a nifty thing where you have to be approved by the person adding you (boy, I wish SWG had done this!). Until that person okay's it, it says "bad name" or something like that.
Flying was indeed awesome. I set up my new Nostromo n52, and was able to swoop and turn and dive and climb... I must have spent 30 minutes just flying around.
The UI is going to take getting used to. Everything is pretty small, which is okay, but there are lots of 3x3 pixel (it seems) buttons that do things. And I dont think you can drag your toolbars or radar around either. You can set the opacity on everything tho, which is nice. Standard and hover opacity are set seperetaly.
Now that the flying thing is mostly out of my system, I can set to figuring out how to fight. There is no incap either... live or die.
Since their forums are closed today, I am not sure I will be abel to get in, as I am getting the "custom login error" thing.

All in all, I think its coming together well. If my cc was getting charged each month, I would be upset, but since its free, I dont mind too much. I consider the $60 to be what I would have spent on the box for a different game.

[tazelbain]

Sounds more like a pre-alpha than beta test.

[Hoax]

I would like to continue to get updates as this happens thanks Signe & Akkori!

[sarius]

I was with Akkori last night (same guild) and the number one problem I had with most of the game was dragon flight had me enthralled for about 3 hours, totally preventing me from doing anthing else. :)

Have to admit, that's a powerful drug there. OTOH, combat is WOW style, with that nasty "have to face your opponent" convention.  I wish clients would just face the opponent automatically.  WTF do I need to rotate a character for to kill a mob...?  I never really liked WOW combat, but the side benefits of mobility in DnL/SoG will probably make me do so.

The overhead map has to be the most unique feature I've ever seen in a MMO.  Mainly, the detail appeals to me, as everything else updates at all levels of detail.  It, like precision flying, takes practice to utilize.

[Signe]

Someone should just write a dragon flight sim so when this poor, tired old game finally crashes and burns, you guys can still be merrily flying around.  Hasn't this game been in development for 4 or 5 years now?  I was told that it's been in "beta" for 2 years.  Yes, yes... lets not give me the bullshit they're handing out on other boards that "this isn't a beta... it's a completely seperate prelude so don't be surprised if it's lousy. "  It's a hunk of DnL code... if it's this raw and unpolished, with mostly non-functioning or completely buggy features after 4 or so years... there's not a lot of hope, is there? 

[HaemishM]

Hope is the first thing an MMOG eats.

[Ixxit]

The game really is buggy.  For some reason I cannot run it full screen, even after changing the .ini file.   Couldn't log  for the longest time (although this was attributable a log in server bug), and when I did had to minimize and maximize the window, before I could click on the various buttons normally, otherwise I had to aim about half and inch below the target button to be able to click on it.  

Since the forums have been taken down, I am not sure if this is some "known issue" with my graphics card drivers (which are the latest from nvidia) or some bizarre never seen before quirk with my system.  Not likely, and even if I entertain that that is the reason, I am really not impressed.

Client performance is extremely poor.  Getting about 12-18fps on a AMD 3200 1.5 gigs of ram, and a BFG 6600 GT even on lower settings @1024x768.  Perhaps if I could get the game to run full screen it will improve , but who knows, there are lots of similar performance complaints on MMORPG.com.  Animations are jerky and stilted, and evertime you jump on a slight incline, you do some ridiculous roll down the hill thingy.

Stuff like this really gets in the way of any "game" that might be there, as all I have managed to do is walk around  and roll down hills a bit before the game crashes or disconnects.   Even when I leave the game by logging out, I get a dnl.exe has crashed windows error box.

I am really starting to think that after  the six or seven years that this game has been in development this is all the devs have to offer.  This IS Dark and Light as it stands today.  Kudos to the devs though for "creatively" selling this as separate build not related to the retail game that is to be released in April.  Of course we hear  of the "double secret beta build" that has all the features and content that is under heavy testing.   :-D  

I am really regretting preording this, and I guess I am getting what I deserved,  but at least for my $60 simoleans I have bought the right to bitch,  


I bet the "legions" of SWG refugees that bragged that they were going with DnL will be back with SOE  within weeks.

[sarius]

I bet the "legions" of SWG refugees that bragged that they were going with DnL will be back with SOE  within weeks.

I'm too scared of HaemishM to even contemplate such a thing.   

[Mesozoic]

I'm amused that anyone associated with this site pre-orders anything anymore.  I wouldn't preorder Massive Multiplayer Pong if it was developed by Jesus Christ, Inc. and beta tested by Vulcans.