Good Mmorpgs?
<div class="IPBDescription">no fairies and trolls!!</div> I was woundering what good MMORPGs you guys knew about that weren't fantasy based. Ones I've found:
Released:
<a href='http://www.neocron.com' target='_blank'>Neocron</a>
<a href='http://www.sgalaxy.com/' target='_blank'>Shattered Galaxy</a>
<a href='http://www.jossh.com/join_today/index.html' target='_blank'>Jump Gate</a>
What other ones do you guys know of?
Released:
<a href='http://www.neocron.com' target='_blank'>Neocron</a>
<a href='http://www.sgalaxy.com/' target='_blank'>Shattered Galaxy</a>
<a href='http://www.jossh.com/join_today/index.html' target='_blank'>Jump Gate</a>
What other ones do you guys know of?
Comments
Shattered Galaxy IS very fun but its not something I'd pay for.
Jumpgate looks really good never got a chance to play it but the basis of it sounds excellent.
Edit: Planetside is pretty good. (If you can get past the overpowered weapons and what not)
you could wait for Face of Mankind to be released. (Its Neocron with shinier graphics, better story line and more along the lines of what William Gibson wrote, not a mix of his work and Fallout like Neocron) Should be out this year.
World war 2 onine. Crappy Graphics but its pretty fun.
Only things I can think of... (wants someone to make a Shadowrunner MMORPG)
Its cyber punk (whhhooo hoooo cyber punk!)
It is the closest thing I have seen to SR Online
There are races and magic however the feel is still SF not Fantasy (magic is explain away ussing nano tech, races are Geneticly enginered or aliens)
Most of your time is spent making a party and doing quests
simply walk up to a mission terminal and it provides you with a mission appropriate for your group. These missions are for your group ONLY, no worying about people camping and such <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
There is also the constant war between the 2 factions for land controll (baiscaly there are these big towers that guilds can put up, and then defend from the other faction, its surprisingly cool).
Also landcontroll gets your entire faction stuff (I believe $ and an XP boost)
All in all most people there are rather nice, the game world is cool, most of the classes are cool (some are borked) <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Crappy combat system, god-awful camera, I just in general hated it. It didn't last more than a day.
It looked incredible, and I thought it was gonna rule. I hated it.
Everquest, AO (duh), Shadowbane, Rubies of Eventide, plus a hell of alot of others, just cant think of the names off the top of me head.
Some people like this type of play, others dont, I dont care either way, as long as its fun and immersive.
I've been in the beta for ages, i'm just waiting for my turn to play.
I want an MMORPG with feats!
ALL RPG games has the comp fighting for you.
You want an MMO ActionRPG?
umm, Planetside is the only one that I know of (and in the demo of that I couldn't stand the horrible horrible lag)
honsestly, AO gives you alot of combat options.
You CAN do hit and run tactics
Depending on your class you get ALOT of different options (every one gets magic of some sort)
There are things similar to D&D feats (power attack, and such), they are just called skills and you can level them up more so then with D&D feats.
Infact the hotkey system is essential if you want combat to be sucesful.
An example of what I am talking about:
Agro (how **** a mob is at you) is an important stat that you realy need to play with.
Things that effect agro:
Amount of dmg you deal to it, healing some one it is in combat with, and certian nanos will increase/decrease aggro.
So there is the comando (snipers/espieanoge) they can deal MASSIVE amounts of dmg, however that instantly pulls the aggro on to them (something they can't handle)
Then there is the enforcer, your clasic warrior, though generaly better at taking dmg then disshing it out). So he will generaly not pull as much aggro as the other chars who are doing big hits, thats a problem... So the Enforcers get nanos that pull agro onto them.
So you have the enforcer sitting there pulling all the agro as his party rips into the mob.
Now, if you think thats the comp doing all the work then you have another thing comming <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
The major problem with this is that most people DON'T GET IT.
Atrox (troll) Enforcers are inumerable. The number of enforcers (trox or not) that actualy can handle their agro nanos properly.... Miniscule.
As for AO and it's kin, it's still the computer doing it for you pretty much than, the battles in that are more 'tactical', almost all your involvement is planning and stratedgy. Anyone can hammer ability buttons =3
I think they could take it a step further though. What I'd really like to see is the introduction of a action game - role playing game hybrid. Something similar to a mmorpg only you fight like you would in say half-life for example. I'm pretty sure that's the next generation of role playing games. You won't see any more.. little midget on bottom of screen steps forward and sparks fire above his head and 3 seconds later a monster on the top part of the screen says hit or miss. Check out world of warcraft rpg that blizzard is coming out with. I'm sure that will be as close as we've come to such a hybrid game so far.
DII is also not a massive game <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> (massive = persistant world and things like that)
Planetside = MMOFPS (with a few tiny smaterings of RPG elements tossed in)
It sucks <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
comunity bites, basicaly fill a comunity with myg0t members <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
and the lag is attrocious <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
And don't ever thing that clasic CRPGs will ever die out, cus they aint gona <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
there is a reason why the FF series is so friken popular, they are ACTUALY good <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
yes, we will never again see the days of ff1 *step foward* *hack hack* *step back*. But all that is is grafix.
Oh, and morocrack is still basicaly a normal CRPG (just friken big <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->)
Yes, the fights take place in real time but there is no twitch skill involved (well, POSSIBLY for archery but still not realy) it is all a matter of stats and tactics.
PSO was just about right but if you've never played it you can't imagine what it's like... it's not twitchy like quake but it's more involved than crud like el Diablo XD
heck you actually move your char around instead of pointing with an arrow and there's no daffy 'click and watch' attacks; if you want to keep attacking you have to chain the hits with timing and the melee weapon types are genuinely different; some allowing you to attack multiple enemies with a single swipe while others let you attack twice with each strike. Shame they're dumping what was a promising start for a trading card game battle system o.O
Sure than, the CRPGs'll stay around than, because mugs will keep buying them, play them until they realise it's a glorified chatroom and move onto the next serving of exactly the same thing with a slight twist =3
As for FF, people love the stories, places and chars and that's the main reason they sell more than anything. They're epic beyond belief <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Sure the combat systems change (slighlty) but they are basicaly the same (even KotoR, wich I am curently addicted to is just point and go, infact its just a PnP RPG rule set on the comp <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->)
as for DII, there are more action elements in it then alot of other games, but yes it is still mostly tactics (something I like <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->)
one of these days I am gona play PSO (well atleast the single player version, there is a single player one for Dream Cast, yah?)
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It's not neccesarily bad though <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
DIABLO II ROXX0R!!
I can't wait for Episode 3. You have to wonder what else they could add to the original PSO gameplay, you know? Some new mags, perhaps a new double saber or S-Ranks? Nothing truly unique. Episode 2 proved that they're starved of ideas, really. They tried new levels, but rarely does anyone play them when the Ep 1 levels are more straightforward (Temple may be the worst thing ever). Episode 3 will at least provide a brand new gaming style, and in the PSO universe, no less.
My HUnewearl's deck will dominate, anyway.
Imagine yourself with a crossbow sniping someone from a distance. You hit them in the head, and you get 500 xp and slight bonus credit to your sniping skills, or perhaps going at somebody with a sword in your hand and a shield in the other. How you fight is how you fight. There are no statistics other than the statistics you create yourself. This is the way it should be like. The epiphany of role playing fighting environments has never been forward swipe swipe hit or miss. That's what they did because they didn't have the graphics to do better. I doubt that in 20 years and the Geforce 10, they'd still be producing games like forward swipe swipe hit or miss.
Ideally, anything you can do in the role playing environment, you can do in real life as well. It would be very graphical and detailed down to the flies buzzing around. When you fight and win, you gain skills/spells/gold. You couldn't increase accuracy since YOU'D be the one to make something more accurate, but perhaps in its place, your statistics would be kept on record for those to see.
That's what we're heading towards. If D2 looks different, it is only because it is heading in that direction. Get used to it.
The defenition of RPG includes stats.
What you seem to want is a fighting game, if so go play Oni or its like where it is basicaly a fighting game with plot and levels (instead of just 1 v 1 combat), and btw Oni rocks, don't try and fight it <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
if you don't like your actions atleaste insome way being dictated by your stats then RPGs are not what you are looking for.
oh, and DII has very little action in it, there is ALOT of strategy and skill involved but little to no action (or twitch skill).
And yes, I do love DII (My house mates and I are currently playing through together <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Howver, good DII players are not masters of the twitch, they are masters of strategy (knowing things like running from a battle is a STUPID idea b/c your deff literlay is non existant, if a monsters attack touches you on scrn you get hit. However if you walk out of range then you still have all of your deff bonuses <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->)
running away is running away (a tactic) not dodging <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Dodging is being able to move out of the way of an attack (something you CAN do in DII, just not that much and only with certain ranged attacks)
edit: *Shudder*
<a href='http://www.play.net/gs4/new.asp' target='_blank'>Gemstone IV</a>
They give you 30 days free to figure it out, what could be better ( CC required I think)
and BTW Diablo II is an RPG by definition.
as for RPG having stats, that's only the new 'false' definition wrapped around FF games. Buuuuut that arguements been done to death a million times, lets just stay away from the misconception of 'stats = RPG' huh? =P
If the stats were hidden and went up via use rather than the fuddy duddy pnp xp system games are still stupidly using it'd be good but that's for another thread or three.
Tony, there's no waaaay that system was exhausted; they could've done so much with it but they didn't take it up with EPII, they just played about with some stuff which didn't really pay off (the only good thing about epII itself was the last level, the new end boss and maybe the gargriffon =3 ).
Course, what they really needed to do in my lil opinion would've required revamping whole parts of the game; changing how guns work, elemental weapons (sorry but the special attacks for the vast majority of the weapons utterly sucked) and even the combo system could've been built on for some amazing gameplay... buuuut they just didn't do any of that, instead they sat about playing with the balance of the classes which, though needed, was nowhere near as important as taking the next step from such a promising start =/
oh and is gemstone a text mud? I can't find any screenshots and my spidey senses are tingling =3
SG is still somewhat free, but those leeching off the free account get their units whiped every 3 months or so. and a few other things.
Course, what they really needed to do in my lil opinion would've required revamping whole parts of the game; changing how guns work, elemental weapons (sorry but the special attacks for the vast majority of the weapons utterly sucked) and even the combo system could've been built on for some amazing gameplay... buuuut they just didn't do any of that, instead they sat about playing with the balance of the classes which, though needed, was nowhere near as important as taking the next step from such a promising start =/ <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think the PC demo servers are down now anyway, and you sure don't want to play it offline.
It's not that PSO is starved of ideas, it's more that I'm looking forward to a completely new stance on the universe - far more so than I would the same game with a pretty seaside level. Do you see?
But hey, in Ep2's defence, at least they made Forces more than the novelty they were in PSOv2. And new costumes! Loved those.
All they need now is PSO Episode 4: Challenge Mode +99.
And the seaside level really <i>was</i> pretty.