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
I had already won in a 1v2.
After the third cheap shot-kidney shot combo, a fourth rogue who didn't want to wait joined in.
I was stun locked for 40 seconds, they got me to 10k hp.
I popped trinket in the 4th kidney shot and all my self regeneration/defensive steroids and killed all 4 of them.
Others were building protection warrior with damage since cc and mitigation come innately.
I was pure stamina/resilience, maximizing self regeneration and mitigation for 10v10 battle grounds to the utmost.
I had prepared my tank to take a beating like no other. Between the build and defensive steroids I could take a beating from 10 while carrying the flag for almost a minute without healers.
It was a tactical decision that payed out in an unexpected challenge.
A strong man stands above and conquers all!
Heroes Fade but Legends last forever
Black Desert Online - I remember one time the guild I was in summoned a boss. Another guild was trying to intervene. A guildie and I were chosen to hold them off just outside of the room where our guild was fighting the boss. At some point we were holding them off 2v6, at least (while we killed them off in turns, not like their whole guild was just 6 people). We did pretty well while occassionally dying and returning really quickly to push them back again.
1) My first RvR experience......I was a couple days into playing DAoC, my first MMO and was playing a lowly Alb Wizard. I had just been given a quest to journey out into the Realm area for the first time to kill some evil trees. I was dusk and I was walking along a path and all of a sudden a flash of light and 2 sec later I was looking at my dead body. I IMed my friend, explained the situation and asked what the **** had just happened. He told me I was probably just PKed by a Mid Shadowblade since I didn't ever see him. I was like, THAT WAS AWESOME! I was hooked.
2) Then there were the numerous BGs I participated in, standing vigil in the little keep in the center.
3) Watching my friend perform the impossible......in the BGs he was playing a Berserker and charged the Albs entry point (where people would gather because it was safe due to NPC wizards) Well he ran up to where they were all standing and mowed down like 10 of them, all the while taking both NPC Wizard fire and other attacks. He did it a a WTF move but other realmmates were furiously healing him and......he made it back down the hill alive! We all laughed and laughed.
4) Darkness Falls. What else can I say? I spent more time in there than anywhere else. Nothing beat the thrill of doing some PvEing and all of a sudden being jumped by a rogue group. Or having your portal cut and then grouping with the others left to fight the inevitable enemy coming to clear out your side.
5) Successful keep defense. It was great after having the doors busted down and the enemy pouring in that you were able to band together and repel them.
I could keep going..../sigh
This was about 12 years ago; to have a little context I Had never played any sort of MMORPG before so it was a brand new world for me. A friend and I started playing Lineage 2 in a local Cybercafé and it took us a while to learn the classes and the game itself. One day I asked the kids around, what would be a good mage type DPS… someone told me to try an Elven Elder.
So I started leveling, and killing… mostly dying to mobs because my skills were not that powerful, but I kept going, with the dream that maybe in the “ Class Quest “ I would learn better skills and spells. That day came, and slowly I realized that the class that I choose was not a DPS at all, but a Healer/Support.
Somewhat frustrated, because I wasn’t able to play alone and kill stuff, I started looking for groups and fighters in the main town. Lucky me, there was a demand for supports, and I took my job very seriously, no one would die on my watch I said.
So after a month, more or less of grinding a few hours a day, I reached lvl 47, Had a few mana regen spells and great Heals, lots of utility like Root and Bind, this was fun man!! I had found my calling as a support and I enjoyed it.
Then I found a Clan (Guild), they had a pretty good amount of players and they were really active, helping out the newbies, making random parties to go farm, defending spots etc.
So off we went to a good farming spot, I was so excited, high tier mobs, the chance of very good drops, and I just started using TeamSpeak 2, and we had about 20 people in the channel, laughing and chatting away. It was really fun. But guess what, an enemy clan wanted the same spot…
Tension became ruler in the TS channel: “Hey guys, heads up, there are two enemy parties watching us right now” -Said the party leader. So we killed our mobs and moved out a bit so we could regen and rest. The leader started talking with another party that was nearby, telling them that we might get attacked.
We were two healers that day, One Bishop (Heavy Healer, experienced player) and Me, an Elven Elder (Half support buffer / half Healer). I started PM him, what should I do, should I focus on rooting and annoying the enemy? Should I focus on heal? And he just told me: “Resurrect me when I go down “.
Okay… but I didn’t have ress yet!!!! AND BAM!! the enemy party jumped us, party HP started going down, I got a bit nervous and excited, TeamSpeak Channel went nuts! But the tank, that was the party leader started calling shots, targets and assists, I focused on keeping our Bishop with enough MP to heal, defended our mages by rooting some of the enemy melee DPS. Now, the best thing, was that most of the players involved were in the same Level Range ( Say…. 45-55 ) So the battle went on for about 20 mins, you had time to react, there were no 1 shots down, etc. etc.
But people started to go down, from both sides. Our bishop got killed; the bishop from the other guild party was out of mana and running from a rogue. Last resort time, there were 4 of us and 6 of them left. I had a tank, 1 off tank 1 melee dps and me. Between running, and healing, and using my last mana points to give some buffs and oh no… their tank focused on me, next thing I know I’m dead and my team is fighting to the last man…
Silence in the TeamSpeak… Our tank said “We won guys.. I’m alive, they went to the city “
The TS channel freaking EXPLODED, we were all chatting away, we went to the city and took a Clan Photo.. Oh man, the memories…
Have a great Day!
Ulf.
Life on a mmorpg with bad computer setup.
I literalrly had 1-2 fps in daoc RvR at first XD
Despite the awesome huge RvR combat, the servers had alot of instability when 300+ people were in the same area, often leading to "invader lagg" and servers crashing.
Fun early bug was that as you logged back on after crashing, you were up in the air, falling to your death XD
0dbea148-8cb8-4711-ba90-eb0864e93b5f
Shadowbane: Arguably the best combat system I've seen in a game with the ability to scale abilities with skill points and the creative attribute/rune system allowing extreme diversity and range with character customization and builds. The small scale pvp in open world was my favorite memories from this game taking small groups of 3-10 players against larger groups odds against up to 3:1 and winning the fights due to better team work, character builds and group compositions. There were so many memorable sieges in this game sort of hard to list them out with any sort of relevance.
I'm hoping that the overall political scene in AoC plays out similar to Shadowbane as it created really unique opportunities for guilds/cities/people to build alliances and enemies.
Master Assassin
(Yes same Tyrantor from Shadowbane)
Book suggestions:
Galaxy Outlaws books 1-16.5, Metagamer Chronicles, The Land litrpg series, Ready Player One, Zen in the Martial Arts
I was pleased I was able to quickly find my PVP inspiration from over 14 years go in Lineage 2 that helped improve my own approach at the time. The player DVP, would get fully buffed and pvp alone or in duo and take out much larger groups by solid pvp play and tactics. For those that never played L2, the tactics may not be so visible. But for me, the clip is nostalgic never the less.
Lineage 2 1 vs many PvP clips
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DNs-FVfrav0
I`m no where near so versed with what might be best from other games, but I would be pleased to see linked what others consider great examples of pvp and perhaps a little background to explain the clip from their nostalgic pvp events.
This is our guild under our old name in GW2. About 30~ of us smash through multiple guilds and zergs in a almost 9 minute bloodbath while utilizing heavy movement and terrain usage. We got easily a few hundred people. Was one of the best farms I had in that game.
The graphics and gameplay in general are burning my eyes. It's cool to see old PvP clips anyway. Thanks for sharing.
Can't tell what's happening but it sure does look epic. The AoEs on the ground and spell effects in general are kinda messy but other than that good stuff.
Every server in DaoC stoped doing PvP after 9/11 and instead gathered in one area.
0dbea148-8cb8-4711-ba90-eb0864e93b5f
that video
had a good laugh.
A silly bug that warlocks could make their pets op.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/wLVCkeisoRo?list=LL
A unique twist on the meta of the time, this guy plays a really fun destruction spec that dips into self-sustaining dots. Also the song is lit.
DAOC captured a lot of good memories for me about gaming, despite the incredible grind to get to 50 initially. I kind of wonder whether games like that would make it today as culture has shifted fast forward to instant gratification (and why I think Gacha games have some nuanced appeal.)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/0uM-3hDfWkE?list=LL
Many from our guild back then are joining us again for AoC... Gonna make some memories
You had to grind to get to 50 on your toons? I have very fond memories of what was termed the 'leveling treadmill' for both Alb and Mid. You basically got control of DF and then everyone would pile into a massive group and run around the lower level of DF on a designated route (but never ever touch Legion!) until you couldn't stand it anymore. Even if you lost control the opposing realm didn't dare interrupt because they would be mowed over literally. The higher levels would get most of the diamonds while the lowers got the exp. You would see people leveling up and dinging 50 all the time. Ahhh good times.
Wish I had recorded videos of those experiences but that was WAY above my pay grade for technical stuff at the time.
Ragnarok Online WoE. ( War of Emperium (The Yellow stone you see later in the video))
Could not find one of my old guild but this here shows really good what Ragnarok was all about.
Highly organized Guild Warfare.
In the Video the guy filming has his effects and sound ON.
Usally they would be off.
The big white field on the ground is called Land protector and protects Everyone who stands on it from ground targeted skills
Doesnt matter if they are from your guild or from the enemy.
The only way to get rid of the field is to either kill the guy that cast it or to cast another land protector on top of it.
As 2 of the same cancel each other out.
Knowing this you can see the guilds trying to get the destroy the other LP.
High defense Melee like that Lordknight that does not seem to die are disrupters. Rushing into enemy formation casting AoE skills that are not ground targetet to disrupt the mage casting.
The Lordknight of the guild with the green symbol got a ghostring Armor.
Extremly rare like only a handfull of people on a server have it rare.
Makes you near immune to phisical dmg.
But there are ways to get rid of the "ghost" status.
However that guy most likely had a God like gear (even more rare then the ghostring) for dmg as he not only is super tanky but does insane dmg.
The guy with the cast using "Acid demonstration" is a tank killer. Does more dmg the high the defense of the target.
But its phisical dmg so ghostring protects the Lordnight.
At the high of time the game had 19 Unique Endgame classes that each had its own use in the Guild War.
The PVP was Balanced around Guild vs Guild so some classes completely rocked 1 vs 1 while others where fodder but super useful in large scale fights.
Ahh good old memories.
Yeah, when the game was released, people quickly realized that Hib MG (in Emain) was the place to interact for both small scale and larger scale pvp. It also had some of the better leveling options, especially in the mid ranks, at that time: Daughters of Mdeb, Greenbarks near Dun Ailline (amazing I still remember these names), etc. They all gave BAF bonus experience, as well as frontier bonus exp, which wasn't all that common at the time. There was also a great balance of risk versus reward at the time, because these larger exp gains came at the expense of knowing you may get run up on by another group and needed to really pay attention. While that sounds fun, we were also very ahead of the leveling curve. In open world PVP games, you need to really de-incentivize griefing because you can't count on the player-base to act with goodwill. Put a timer on someone from being able to PVP if they someone who isn't worth anything because they con too low, etc.
By and large early grinding required CC (a support class that often wasn't a ton of fun to play solo and required a group to play with at all times - it wasn't like WoW where they had a sub spec they could clear content with and play support for PVP) a healer (see same as above), and then PBAE classes like enchanters, SM's, etc. This made every group that wanted to level quickly and efficiently essentially recruit more or less the same comps (some minor variations - like pulling entire camps versus CCing them and single targetting them down.) Eventually, people realized they would need to level one of these classes, and then run their own PL groups at Fins, DF, or later places like sheeroe/redcaps.
This gave classes a really unique, specific feel and role, but also created a lot of whining about this class or that class being overpowered. It also did make some classes, like stealthers, miserable to level unless you had one of those PL classes yourself to run groups. I'm also not sure in today's gaming era you would see such defined roles without the ability to be able to level or progress on your own. The sheer player base wasn't what it is either, though, and so even having such defined roles if the leveling system was intuitive, easy, and incentivized grouping and leveling it could be fun and work.
TLDR, successful games try and create these nuances, because it's what you remember later. Even the grindy, annoying moments, you sit back and review later with fondness. While you go through it, as long as it is not SO off-putting, most players will get through it if the content, gameplay, classes/combat etc are all good. DAOC also struck a really good balance with PVE and PVP content, although content is really challenging for developers now. You really need to already have your expansion ready when a game releases because it's hard to tell how quickly players will blow through content - or at least have some grindy mechanisms in place that are also fun while this occurs. PVP games at least have that to fall back on, because if you make a PVP combat and reward system that is fun, it kind of takes care of that problem for you.