Asheron's Call Goings On

[Telemediocrity]

So the storyline has heated up big-time this month; the Civil War continues full speed (There were factional PvP battles last month with some limited but permanent server divergence), the Island of Doom has risen from beneath the waves, and Grael, the Black Spear of the Kemeroi, is rampaging across the landscape and owning everyone.  Really, really fun.

Oh, and the last of their changes to streamlining the newbie experience went live this month.

Those of you who played back when Bael'Zharon roamed the land may remember the waters going red with blood...  Well, with Grael, there's been this giant cloud of shadow emanating out from his Island and slowly choking out the sky.  Very Low-res screenshots here, but this should give you a decent idea: Pic1 Pic2

Anyone else playing at the moment, or considering coming back?  There's literally tons of new stuff.

[squirrel]

So the storyline has heated up big-time this month; the Civil War continues full speed (There were factional PvP battles last month with some limited but permanent server divergence), the Island of Doom has risen from beneath the waves, and Grael, the Black Spear of the Kemeroi, is rampaging across the landscape and owning everyone.  Really, really fun.

Oh, and the last of their changes to streamlining the newbie experience went live this month.

Those of you who played back when Bael'Zharon roamed the land may remember the waters going red with blood...  Well, with Grael, there's been this giant cloud of shadow emanating out from his Island and slowly choking out the sky.  Very Low-res screenshots here, but this should give you a decent idea: Pic1 Pic2

Anyone else playing at the moment, or considering coming back?  There's literally tons of new stuff.

You know i hate to be a snobby graphics whore but as much fun as i had on Harvestgain and Darktide i'd only return if they upgraded to a modern engine. Which, you know, probably would have made AC2 a success...

[Telemediocrity]

You know i hate to be a snobby graphics whore but as much fun as i had on Harvestgain and Darktide i'd only return if they upgraded to a modern engine. Which, you know, probably would have made AC2 a success...

For what it's worth, they did really upgrade the quality of the textures with the expansion pack; it's harder to see in screenshots because almost nobody runs the game in the highest graphics mode, though - if we were graphics whores, we probably wouldn't be playing AC. :)  All I can say is that if you go ingame, it really does look a lot better than it used to; the upgrade to the trees, especially, was really needed.  Still not a modern graphics engine, but hey.



To some extent, though, what you want and good gameplay are mutually exclusive; fighting 30 monsters at once or having pretty good twitch-based gameplay is hard to do with an AC2-like graphics engine.

[Cheddar]

So the storyline has heated up big-time this month; the Civil War continues full speed (There were factional PvP battles last month with some limited but permanent server divergence), the Island of Doom has risen from beneath the waves, and Grael, the Black Spear of the Kemeroi, is rampaging across the landscape and owning everyone.  Really, really fun.

Oh, and the last of their changes to streamlining the newbie experience went live this month.

Those of you who played back when Bael'Zharon roamed the land may remember the waters going red with blood...  Well, with Grael, there's been this giant cloud of shadow emanating out from his Island and slowly choking out the sky.  Very Low-res screenshots here, but this should give you a decent idea: Pic1 Pic2

Yes.  Though I am sure I will quit after a month.  I still have extremely fond memories of AC!  Darktide, here I come!
Anyone else playing at the moment, or considering coming back?  There's literally tons of new stuff.

[Telemediocrity]

I'm on DT, playing in two different allegiances.

My newbie, Sunshiney Day, a level 37 no-magic sword that I'm levelling only via quests and using only quest weapons/gear, no spoiler sites (only ingame clues and rumors), etc. is in an allegiance called Endrin the Mercenary, which is very new-player friendly; lots of lower level folk, and always-on buffbots in case you so desire.

My main, Quink, is in an all-rPK guild (Evil Yeti) that requires you to be level 140+ to get in, good when you just feel like fighting all day.

It's actually a lot easier to find fights on Darktide these days - if you want, I can give you a rundown on the server's current political situation.  I also recommend either of the above guilds for any returning players, particularly Endrin as they're very friendly to new people.

[Cheddar]

What is the political situation, currently?  I loved the AC lore and am looking forward to jumping back in!

Yikes!  I still have my 2 characters on DT, a level 75 dagger dude and a 63 Swordsman.  Seems I am no longer in Fallen Angel, but am still under my old patron (woot! Scarer rocks).  Hopefully he is still active!  I will probably create a nooblet tonight and relearn the game.



edit. Additional.

[Telemediocrity]

A few notes, for anyone reading along who hasn't heard, about the "structure of politics" on DT through the ages:

The "golden age" of DT politics were the almost two years prior to late 2001, when they added in player housing.  With no player housing, guilds had to own their own lifestone; limited portal travel made where you lived important, and limited hunting dungeons meant they were fiercely contested.  Guilds could really hurt one another.

2003 to 2004ish was the low point:  Falling population numbers combined with 10 to 20 times the number of levelling dungeons, an explosion of portal travel options, and protected allegiance housing so that nobody had to fight over towns.  DT seemed more like a ghost town, and nobody owned actual territory because there was no reason to.  Player's defensive capabilities continued to rise, outstripping attack capabilities and making fights interminably long.

More recently:  Things have been centralized a lot.  They converted the four nexus towns (Shoushi, Holtburg, Yaraq, and the Viamont capitol of Sanamar) into true 'hubs', with portals to many other cities and forges that make them a prime place to do crafting.  The end result is that these four towns are actually pretty well populated, and any given time you go there you can probably find yourself in a fight.  They added in new recall options, so fights can escalate pretty quickly.  Since the level cap was extended from 126 to 275 (Though a 126 still stands a decent shot against a 275 in a fight, and in group fights their contributions will be similar), the relatively smaller number of levelling areas/dungeons catering to the new "high level" cap means that levelling spots can be raided once again.  They did a full rebalance of PvP, and it's pretty good now between melees, archers, and mages, so a lot of old DT'ers have been returning and server pops have been rising - DT is now the most popular AC server.


Now if you're talking about guilds:  Rather than one or two 'huge' guilds like Blood and TLS (Khao) of the past that align themselves anti or PK, these days you see many more "band of brothers" PK clans, usually with about 20 active raiders who become very tight-knit.  They're all rPK by definition, though they sometimes form into alliances of two or three clans that shift based on personal feuds.  In any given scenario, rPK does not mean you'll definitely be attacked; it depends on how you act, how you talk, what the odds are.  Guilds you'll see around include Og, Blood, Khao, Get Down, Evil Yeti, Endrin, Underworld Dreams, Templar Knights, Team Zissou, and many more.

It's a lot more anarchic than it used to be (back when there were anti clans that controlled territory); you can't enforce your hegemony over another clan the way you could in the past, though the fights are really good.

For those who have never seen AC PvP before, this video is a decent intro:  It's mainly a series of mixed 2v2 fights on level ground, held at DT's "fight club" event.  Since combat in AC is generally twitch, it's pretty easy to follow what's going on even if you haven't played the game.  People shoot projectiles at one another that have actual physics, and actual twitch skills are required to dodge; you can vary the delay on your shot, the tracking (either have it try and predict the enemy's movement or launch straight at where he's standing), the point of release, etcetara - in order to trick the other guy.  Projectile combat in AC is often like a game of chicken; you have to put yourself in a vulnerable position in order to dish out damage.

(Oh, and Cheddar, this may or may not have been the case back when you played - melees have two classes of shields now, the usual type that defends against physical attacks, and one with no armor but that gives about a 25% damage reduction from magic attacks.  Archers work similarly; either they can use the normal bows which give a bonus to melee defense, or they can use bows that dampen the impact of magic.  Archers can also now switch between tracking modes on the fly, just as mages can by using bolts or arcs.  I'm not sure when the last time you played was, so I'm not sure how many of these changes are new to you).

In terms of where you'll be fighting, fights happen all over the place these days, but these locations are most common:

Sanamar, Yaraq, Shoushi, Holtburg - the four main cities.  Also, there are a few locations that you access by punching in one of the following commands:

/pkarena
/marketplace

That get a decent amount of fight activity.

Sanctuary and the Tusker Island see a good number of fights as well, as do the new high-level islands (Vissidal Isle and the Island of Doom) and the highest-level towns, Candeth Keep, and Ayan Baqur, in the South dires.

Whew.  That came out a bit long. But anyone who hasn't played AC, I recommend checking out that video as a good intro to how the game's PvP looks and feels.

[Telemediocrity]

My advice if you're levelling a newb:  Start out in Sanamar, and do the quests in all 4 starter towns.  That alone will put you to level 20ish and give you a good feel for how things have changed.

When did you stop playing?

[Cheddar]

My advice if you're levelling a newb:  Start out in Sanamar, and do the quests in all 4 starter towns.  That alone will put you to level 20ish and give you a good feel for how things have changed.

When did you stop playing?

Maybe a year ago.  I believe it was around the time that the new expansion came out (like weeks before it did).

[dEOS]

Now if you're talking about guilds:  Rather than one or two 'huge' guilds like Blood and TLS (Khao) of the past that align themselves anti or PK

Aahh memories.
The guy that originally created Khao on DT (and before that the Khao on SC) was a friend of mine. Good memories of seeing him fight when slidecasting was still possible.

[Telemediocrity]

You knew Khao in RL?  Wow, small world.  I used to be a core (I think?) in his allegiance wayyyyyy back when - I remember him as being a family guy, with a little kid in tow?

Oh, and slidecasting is still semi-possible; You just have to end in roughly the same place as where you started. 

[Jayce]

Do you happen to know if Evil Yeti is the original player of Yeti?  He also had a wide variety of other characters over the ages (missing link, Yeti X, Dread Yeti (I htink), some of which were sold and at least one that was stolen.  He was a good friend of mine when I played.

He always said that he'd never play another game, so there is a chance it really is him still (lo these 6 years later)

[Telemediocrity]

Pretty sure it's him, yeah.  I'll doublecheck next time I see him ingame.

[dEOS]

You knew Khao in RL?  Wow, small world.  I used to be a core (I think?) in his allegiance wayyyyyy back when - I remember him as being a family guy, with a little kid in tow?

Oh, and slidecasting is still semi-possible; You just have to end in roughly the same place as where you started. 

Original Khao is French and was single as long as he played AC1. We met way back in the time when online gaming was confidential through Quake1/QW.

He originally developped a toon on SC (Khao-UA spec) in Psycho Killers. He was perma-PK already.
He then moved to DT where he founded with other members from SC the guild known as The Gimps.

He left when they removed slide-casting from the game and sold his account to an american I believe that made it the head of TLS.
He was a precursor as he had a Life-Crea-Magic Def specced build in a time when you could not spec at will. He got War Magic at something like level 95. That was some intense powerleveling achieved by duoing with a UA melee friend doing only debuffs and finally macroing his way in Aerlinthe dungeons by draining life.

Hardcore!
:)

[Nija]

I know the original, French, Khao too. Actually him and TG tried to play AC2 (as did I) and they quit at basically the exact same time as we (I) did.

Those French dudes are ruthless, at least in online games. I guess it's their time to try to be badasses when they're not protesting and white flag waving in RL.

Is there a trial going for AC1 with the new engine? I might be game. I quit when matty robes went into the game, so I'm uhhh a bit out of practice.

[Telemediocrity]

Is there a trial going for AC1 with the new engine? I might be game. I quit when matty robes went into the game, so I'm uhhh a bit out of practice.

It's literally a whole different game between then and now; that's what, month one of release? Heh.

A CD key is 20 bucks (There migh be a promo code that knocks it down to 15? I can try and find that if you're interested), and you get one month free - you get the free month whether you're a new player or returning and just upgrading to Throne of Destiny.

Within the span of a free month, you can generally get a good feel for the game.

A single bit of advice, since given the timespan involved in your absence you're basically a new player:  Play the game the way you like.  If you want to explore into areas that are way too high level for you, do that.  If you want to dungeon crawl, do that.  If you want to hunt, hunt.  But don't think you "need" to do anything, be it grinding, using buffbots, or what have you.  Bringing that paradigm from other games into AC will just make AC into a poor imitation of those games, and you're less likely to enjoy it.

[dEOS]

Those French dudes are ruthless, at least in online games. I guess it's their time to try to be badasses when they're not protesting and white flag waving in RL.

Khao (& his close friends) had an immense knowledge of the game and... lots of free time on their hands.

[Pig Destroyer]

Pretty sure it's him, yeah.  I'll doublecheck next time I see him ingame.

Yeti was an original JoV member back when we started in AC.  (Ronald McDonald and then Patryn allegiance)  Very cool guy, still talk to him every now and then.

AC was the best PvP game in the history of MMOs, and I sure do miss it.  Do people still use Decal to make the game bearable?  I hated having to keep up with that shit after every patch.  If the game can be played without all the Decal crap then I would consider coming back for a little nostalgia.

[Jayce]

Pretty sure it's him, yeah.  I'll doublecheck next time I see him ingame.

Yeti was an original JoV member back when we started in AC.  (Ronald McDonald and then Patryn allegiance)  Very cool guy, still talk to him every now and then.

AC was the best PvP game in the history of MMOs, and I sure do miss it.  Do people still use Decal to make the game bearable?  I hated having to keep up with that shit after every patch.  If the game can be played without all the Decal crap then I would consider coming back for a little nostalgia.

Actually he was with HoS at first - that's where I met him - then he got fed up with the anti politics and went to the darkside and JoV.  I was in both with him at different points.

Which WTF Man are you, PD? I must have known you at some point.  I was Uranium when I was in JoV.

[Riggswolfe]

Is melee still worthless in AC? Do you still have to have either Item or Life magic not to have a totally gimped character?

AC was my first true MMO love, and probably the one I have gone back to the most often. I played in beta, and quit around the time the one major town got turned into a crater and there were these big crystal things hanging over the other towns. I was quite the MMO newb back in my AC days so I never raided or anything like that. (to my knowledge AC didn't even have raiding at that time.)

Man, just talking about AC makes me feel nostalgic.

[Pig Destroyer]

Pretty sure it's him, yeah.  I'll doublecheck next time I see him ingame.

Yeti was an original JoV member back when we started in AC.  (Ronald McDonald and then Patryn allegiance)  Very cool guy, still talk to him every now and then.

AC was the best PvP game in the history of MMOs, and I sure do miss it.  Do people still use Decal to make the game bearable?  I hated having to keep up with that shit after every patch.  If the game can be played without all the Decal crap then I would consider coming back for a little nostalgia.

Actually he was with HoS at first - that's where I met him - then he got fed up with the anti politics and went to the darkside and JoV.  I was in both with him at different points.

Which WTF Man are you, PD? I must have known you at some point.  I was Uranium when I was in JoV.

I'm Joe.  And yeah, I remember you.  Forgot about the whole HoS thing, he was with us for a very long time though.

[Cheddar]

God, www.wtfman.com.  I love(d) that site.  I still foolishly check it once a week with great hopes for new updates.  Heh.

I hate my current schedule.  Even if I met up with some f13 people in game I will NEVER be able to keep up.  I suxx0rs.

[Rasix]

God, www.wtfman.com.  I love(d) that site.  I still foolishly check it once a week with great hopes for new updates.  Heh.

I hate my current schedule.  Even if I met up with some f13 people in game I will NEVER be able to keep up.  I suxx0rs.

Like you'd play for more than a week before being distracted by something else. Maybe a go at Meridian 59?

[Telemediocrity]

Pretty sure it's him, yeah.  I'll doublecheck next time I see him ingame.

Yeti was an original JoV member back when we started in AC.  (Ronald McDonald and then Patryn allegiance)  Very cool guy, still talk to him every now and then.

AC was the best PvP game in the history of MMOs, and I sure do miss it.  Do people still use Decal to make the game bearable?  I hated having to keep up with that shit after every patch.  If the game can be played without all the Decal crap then I would consider coming back for a little nostalgia.

Decal is no longer necessary whatsoever.

I remember JoV/Patryn; I think you guys were temporarily allied with my old clan, House of Chaos (AKA Xai/Aerious/Liquid X) back during the Kara Wars.

To give you an idea of why Decal is no longer necessary:

-All self buffs now cast with the speed of level 1 casting, and last for an hour.

-For item buffs, you now target yourself and it casts on everything you own.  Cast Impen once on yourself, and it'll buff every single thing you're wearing with it.

So, buffing now takes about a minute by hand and lasts an hour.

I do both the high-end PvP and play my noob, and I haven't run Decal in 2 or 3 years.


Also, on a side note, good to see old AC'ers popping in. :)  I was a huge WTFman fan back in the day.

[Telemediocrity]

Is melee still worthless in AC? Do you still have to have either Item or Life magic not to have a totally gimped character?

AC was my first true MMO love, and probably the one I have gone back to the most often. I played in beta, and quit around the time the one major town got turned into a crater and there were these big crystal things hanging over the other towns. I was quite the MMO newb back in my AC days so I never raided or anything like that. (to my knowledge AC didn't even have raiding at that time.)

Man, just talking about AC makes me feel nostalgic.

Melee is arguably the best class for PvP.  Balance is actually really good now (Yes, archers too), though playing a mage well takes more skill than playing a melee well and playing a good mage is a bit more situational and touchy.

You can run a no-magic melee just fine (I'm doing it right now in fact on my newbie), though I'd recommend picking up item magic for portal spells at the very least, assuming you're going to PvP.  Otherwise, portal travel is ubiquitous enough that you'll be fine even without.

AC has some big boss battles these days, but not exactly "Raiding" as you'd think of in the traditional sense.

I hate my current schedule.  Even if I met up with some f13 people in game I will NEVER be able to keep up.  I suxx0rs.

Levels aren't a huge deal for most things these days; after all, the most frequent battlegrounds are the starter towns, which there's no level cap on.  Powerlevelling has been somewhat expedited, though; if people are higher level than you, by spending cash at the casinos and elsewhere they can get you collector turn-ins that will power up your newb rather quickly.

Also, they've completely changed how XP passup works; chains are much less viable since XP passup drops off a cliff after what you pass up to your patron, but you pass up a much greater percentage of XP to your patron than you used to; 50-90%ish.  If you know you'll be playing less, have someone who intends to be playing more swear to you at the outset, and you should stay relatively close to him in levels.

(They also entirely decoupled the Leadership and Loyalty skills from the Self stat as it used to be, so one isn't biased towards being a mage if they're expecting a lot of passup)

[Nija]

I fired it up Tuesday night but I've been real busy this week and I've not got a chance to even turn on my game PC again. I made Nijasan on DT, but I totally forgot how char creation worked so I just made a default "swashbuckler" template, which gives me item magic. Although I'll never be able to learn Life magic. I think.

I might have time to newb around tonight. I didn't even finish the tutorial before I had to log on Tues.

[Nija]

I don't think I can handle AC1 anymore. The movement is real clunky. I don't mind the graphics but the keybinds are very limited. Even if you bind mousewheel to zoom the camera in and out - it doesn't work. No right click and drag to control from 3rd person. Just real awkward after all these years.

Graphics are fine, but it's just so painful to use 90% keyboard 10% mouse to control my dude.

[Telemediocrity]

I don't think I can handle AC1 anymore. The movement is real clunky. I don't mind the graphics but the keybinds are very limited. Even if you bind mousewheel to zoom the camera in and out - it doesn't work. No right click and drag to control from 3rd person. Just real awkward after all these years.

To be fair, there's a reason for this - the gameplay (especially once the projectiles start flying) is more akin to CounterStrike than a traditional MMO in that it requires a large degree of keyboard movement.  Playing AC1 with a primarily mouselook setup, even if it were implemented as efficiently as you hope, would make it very difficult to fight much of anything beyond the newbie levels or the pure melee monsters.  You have to be sliding, dodging, weaving, and using the sidestep keys religiously, combining sidestep keys with the opposite direction rotation keys to arc your movement to dodge projectiles.  Given the variety of ways things can be shot at you (multi-directional volleys, PBAOE's, walls of shot, bolts that attempt to predict your movement, faster arcing shots that aim at your current location rather than predicting, so you can't just always fool the movement prediction by sidestepping back and forth like a madman), dodging them with third-person control would be next to impossible.  And that's just PvE; PvP'ing with mouselook would be even tougher.

If it ain't your thing, it ain't your thing - but it's essentially mandated by the gameplay that you're focused on keyboard control (which does become second nature after a bit).  What mouse-control features do exist are primarily utilized by disabled players so that they can still partake of the game at some level.

[Nija]

Well, I was doing mouse-based circle strafing and that sort of thing before AC was even thought. It's amazing that they've got such limited keybinds.

I watched that wacky pvp video and all that shit is manageable with the mouse. The basics in AC2 were the same with projectiles being dodgeable and so forth, again, mouse is fine there.

It just feels clunky and painful to me.

[Telemediocrity]

Wow, huge live events went off today.  Grael's shadow forces started attacking Asheron's Island, opening up shadow mouths into the island that we have to shut down (new multi-part quest).  Good times.

[dEOS]

Decal is no longer necessary whatsoever.

NerfusBuffus (a great piece of coding IMO) is no longer necessary.

What about:
- loot identification/detection (BanditSight)
- automated salvage (Ust or something like that)

?

[Telemediocrity]

Bandit Sight is helpful if you're really huge into checking all your loot for majors, but that's a pretty minor part of the game.  Easier to just sell everything for MMD notes and trade those for majors.  If I were a grind-hunter, I could see wanting to use Bandit Sight... but if I were a grind hunter, I could see wanting to play a game other than AC ;p

Salvaging itself is pretty simple.  Anything you don't want salvaged, you just put leather on it so it's "Retained" and you never have to worry about accidentally using it.  Then, if you have an unfinished bag of ivory or whatever in your salvage bar, and drag your pack to the salvage bar, it'll dump only the ivory stuff in.

If you're very loot-focused, you may still want Decal.  But they're far from necessary for the average player.

[Riggswolfe]

Melee is arguably the best class for PvP.  Balance is actually really good now (Yes, archers too), though playing a mage well takes more skill than playing a melee well and playing a good mage is a bit more situational and touchy.

You can run a no-magic melee just fine (I'm doing it right now in fact on my newbie), though I'd recommend picking up item magic for portal spells at the very least, assuming you're going to PvP.  Otherwise, portal travel is ubiquitous enough that you'll be fine even without.

AC has some big boss battles these days, but not exactly "Raiding" as you'd think of in the traditional sense.

Sounds interesting. How is melee balanced within itself? Back in the day, hand to hand or dagger was infinitely preferable to swords. You did more damage and it costs less skill point investment as well. (If memory serves it was due to how the races were setup. ) Is this still pretty true?

[Telemediocrity]

Sounds interesting. How is melee balanced within itself? Back in the day, hand to hand or dagger was infinitely preferable to swords. You did more damage and it costs less skill point investment as well. (If memory serves it was due to how the races were setup. ) Is this still pretty true?

It's now fully arrayed, from most skill credit cost (Sword) to least (Dagger and staff), in a coherent order.  The more skill credits it costs, the better it is.  Sword is the best.  Dagger/Staff, when all's said and done, works out to between 66% and 75% of sword's damage.

(Thrown Weapons doesn't suck anymore, either, for what that's worth).

Dagger and Thrown weapons make very good "crossover" skills; Dagger's damage mod is Coord rather than Strength, so it works well with archers, whereas Thrown Weapons takes advantage of Strength as its damage mod and is the only ranged form of attack that uses shields, so it's good for melees.

[Jayce]

(Thrown Weapons doesn't suck anymore, either, for what that's worth).

Yes, but is Thrown Weapons Mastery VII still known as "The Wrong Spell" ?