Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
So the caravans, Freeholds, Node Systems, Guilds etc
I love it when my lvl 16 character feels more capable than it was at lvl 15, after it took me a decent amount of time to get there. Not just be walking to a zone, talk to an NPC, kill 3 mobs and level up instantly.
I'm also a big fan of an in-depth AND useful skilling/crafting system as well as a user-friendly and clear interface for these skills.
So, I guess, I really want a filled out world that has little details that make it seem living, solid ways to interact with the world, lots of graphics options, and a good community.
Meaningful and fair PVP is my second most important thing in an MMO. Black desert, in contrast to my former paragraph and ironically, has a badly designed PVP experience. Warhammer online has the best PVP experience of all the MMOs I've played, WOW comes second.
Instanced: Everyone there is there willingly, and is fair game.
PvEvP: Player vs Player in a Player vs Environment scenario.
Epic: The battles could rage for hours, or in some cases, days.
Strategic: You could join the mindless mob and just fight, but there was plenty of tactical advantages to be had if you knew the rules of the valley.
Why do I bring that up? Because that is what AoC needs. A repeatable, consistently available, epic PvEvP area we can go to test our mettle against one another en masse. Tactical missions, supportive PvE, or simply mindless zerg PvP. It needs it all and it needs to be grande, fun, and rewarding.
I'm hoping that the caravan system will offer some of this. And that the castles/node sieges will offer more of it. But that is what I think is the most important thing for them to get right.
Will they basically be mandatory for players when a new one comes out? I think Blizzard did it the wrong way for TBC; they put in both artificial barriers (the Belf starting zone) and used portals to separate the zones "physically" from the old world.
IMNSHO the increase in mob levels should be enough to (eventually/quickly) halt non-expansion players while at the same time enticing them to buy the expansion when they see it. (If expansions actually increase levels and are not balanced to be able to play without the expansion.)
The Belf starting area not being made part of the old world is just bad design IMO.
Summary: Make up your mind if you want both expansion and non-expansion players playing at the same time and how an expansion is seen by those without it.
And we did get a half answer during a livestream where we got them to promise that a DLC and "expansion" mean the same thing. So you won't see any dodgy shit like ESO where DLC are part of the sub and "expansions" are considered paid extra content.