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Can someone clear some stuff up
Wighty
Member UncommonPosts: 699
I am way on the fence with this game. I am really looking forward to the "Year of Sandboxes" and this is on my radar. However I keep reading so many give and take articles as well as some of the posts from the actual developers that talks about buying skill is legit.
What I would like clarification on is:
1) Is the skill system normally like Eve where it is time progression?
2) To what extreme can you buy skill? and at what price? Does this mean some newbie comes along plunks down $2k and all of a sudden they are a kung fu god?
3) What kind of prices are we talking about?
4) Everything is rental? for how long?
Bottom line is I don't mind paying for my entertainment, but I don't want to be nickled and dimed to death the way I keep hearing about the way this game is monetized. I read how on the Chinese servers they keep "adding new monetizing schemes" which basically obsolete any prior investments.
I am hoping unbiased responses on how it plays out.
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
Comments
I havent tried Eve so not sure how that goes. In regards to your question 1. You can pick a skill you want to train to run in the background so to speak. Meaning it slowly advances the skill to the next lvl while your playing, such as mining killing thieves , whatever. There is also the Practice mode way to advance a skill and this is simply you open up and spend money you have earned to buy the skill up. Yes you can use the slow way for part of the skills advancement then finish it off with the money method or visa versa.
For #2 the price seems to go up based on the lvl the skill is at. As far as somebody buying gold for the game with real world cash then they can maybe do that .. There is a conversion from the bought gold to the in game silver so I assume they could .. not sure on this.
Only been playing the game a couple days on the russian server so in regards to prices, I assume skill prices it takes like 2-3 thousand Wen.. the lowest currency in the game. Some of my skills are costing a Liang or two now already. So I dont imagine anyone spending money to make their toon top dog. Well not unless he just won the lottery.
Yes everthing is rental. the clothing the mounts etc.
Hope this helps in some way.. Btw I like the game. But then I like the crafting and such that goes along with the combat aspect of online games.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
1. yes
2. yes you can max lvl in one day if you pay enough $$
3.not sure the prices on US server
1/ It's similar to EVE's ... but you can't queue up any skill training. Skills also require N cultivation points to complete, if you don't have enough cultivation points (or run out overnight) then the skill doesn't get fully trained until you earn more.
2/ You could buy gold, convert it to bound silver and buy certain skil books from other players (is there might be a limit on how much gold can be converted daily?) not that different to an EVE newb buying PLEX and getting himself a 100mill SP from the character bazaar.
3/ N/A
4/ I think most of the shop rental items are 3 and 30 days. Pretty sure that some crafted items (bags for ex.) have a duration as well.
4. To be clear, do you pay for rentals in the cash shop or can you buy permanent items? If everything is a rental (mounts/ bags, equipment etc) then I'll be giving this one a miss.
currently playing: DDO, AOC, WoT, P101
I am wondering this as well. Is it rental with in game currency or real currency. Do you need these things? As a very casual player P2P works okay for me. . but not if the cost is based on real time.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
1) Is the skill system normally like Eve where it is time progression?
Yes and no. Your skills will progress over time, but the time can increase or decrease depending on what you do. Skill progression depends on the number of cultivation points you have. Cultivations points are converted from xp you gain from doing certain things (like escorting/robbing caravans etc.). If you have a lot of cultivation points you can speed up the time a skill will take by (a) doing team practice until you are fatigued, or (b) spending bound silver (up to a daily limit) or unbound silver (with no limit).
2) To what extreme can you buy skill? and at what price? Does this mean some newbie comes along plunks down $2k and all of a sudden they are a kung fu god?
You can spend real money to progress your skills, but only up to a point. If you don't actually do stuff in game then you won't have xp to turn into cultivation points. No cultivation points means no amount of real money will progress your skills, because you have nothing to progress them with.
Also the combat is quite skill based. So it's perfectly possible if you know how to fight that you will beat someone more powerful than you if they make mistakes. As a "Realized Potential" character I have beaten a few "Martial Intuition" and "Flow with Chi" characters who underestimated me.
3) What kind of prices are we talking about?
I'm afraid I don't know the answer to this as I have only played the NA beta a little and mostly the Russian beta.
4) Everything is rental? for how long?
It's really best to think as gear and bags as non-permanent as this is a key element of the crafting and player economy. Unlike other MMOs where being a tailor is a bit pointless because everyone wears looted gear, here you will have big business in making bags and clothes. Gear has durability which goes down as you get killed (and perhaps over time, not sure) and bags have a timer. The starter bags have 100 hours and crafted bags have 720 hours. As far as I can tell this is in-game time.
Items from the cash shop (cosmetic outfits) have a 30 day timer. Horses also have a timer, again the starter horse is 14 days and others seem to be 30 days. Horses are bought from NPC vendors.
There really isn't much to buy with real money in this game. What they hope you do is instead buy gold to exchange for silver to bump up your skills each day. But if you're diligent you shouldn't have to spend a dime on the game.
"If you're going to act like a noob, I'll treat you like one." -Caskio
Adventurers wear fancy pants!!!
There are no skills in the cash shop... Pure cosmetic.
You have 2 permanant slots for bags. You buy 6-8-10 slot bags from players that deteriorate. Inventory is not for sale in the cash shop.
Can you fix them, if so how? Do other players fix them,or is it a cash shop item?
If not do you have to repeatedly purchase/ make the same item?
And is the rate of decay related to time spent online? If not then it is very disadvantageous to casuals like me.
Is this the last of my questions? Yes.
currently playing: DDO, AOC, WoT, P101
AFAIK you cannot repair nothing and the bags are valid for a set number of hours, unfortunately I don't know if it's time spent online or not. But they are easy to make if you are a tailor (or a craftsman) and they don't sell for much on the market.
I'd worry more about food actually
Yes you can fix items, but never back to 100/100 so in effect you can prolong an item's life by fixing it, but not permanently. It will ultimately reach 0/100 and you'll have to buy a new one.
In terms of repeatedly buying the same item, for bags this is true. I do believe the crafted bags last 30 days of online time, so once that is up you'll need to buy some more. This is good for the economy. For gear and weapons, this is a bit more complex because recipes drop randomly meaning not all crafters will be able to make the same stuff. Then, weapons can be quenched and gear can be embroidered and rubbed with poisons to add stats/defence so once the economy is a bit more mature there should be a reasonably wide range of things to buy from other players.
The game is very playable as a casual, just as long as you don't expect all action all of the time. It's not that kind of game ultimately.
Rate of decay has to do with being hit and dieing I believe not time spent on line. You will have to keep making bags or buying new ones from players, not from the cash shop that is not available from them. You will also have to keep buying food from players. However this keeps the economy going and you wont get hungry unless you are actively logged in I believe. You can easily pick up cook or tailor to take care of half of those needs and then sell goods to pay for the other half.
Thanks for the information. I think I may give it a try.
From what I understand you are pretty much married to the one character that you create and if you go beyond a certain point you must wait to delete it. Furthermore the deluxe benefit is only for the one character you create and if deleted from what I understand those benefits are forfeited.
This leaves me confused as to which art to choose, considering there are 8 to choose from.
I have always prefered melee DPS, rogues, DPS warrior types. In sandbox games I usually skill up melee arts first and foremost.
Can anyone give any recomendations or link to a website?
What are your other Hobbies?
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
Take a look at the links below to get an overview of the different schools and their skills.
Player made guide:
http://www.ageofwushu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1779
Official guide (if you click on the skill images, you can review videos of the skills in action):
http://www.ageofwushu.com/guide/view/4
Before deciding on a specific school, you are free to make numerous free accounts to try them all out.
Also note, you will be able to steal skills from other schools.
Melee dps is pretty much going to be any and all
Wanderer Valley has some nice tricks including the ability to shut down your enemies skills down for a few second (they can still move but not much else)
Royal Guard are masters of controlling other peoples movement, they use chains and hooks to yank you around the battle field like a yoyo. They also have an AoE chain twirl that is rather annoying and a few hand to hand moves that I do not like being on the recieving end of.
Tangman- has some melee but this is the most rangish class in Wushu at the moment. Think ninja with poison and darts and you are not far off the mark. Can be the hardest to kill or the easiest to kill depending on if you can get close to them. If you want to be ranged and stand back in fights tangman does it best. They deal a lot of damage.
Emei- no idea, they seem to be able to heal and kick people around. All girls.
Wudang- One of the most pure power and considered in China to be OP, they have a lot of health moves that give them more health and several sword styles. I hear from the Wulin sites they get even more powerful with future upgrades, but as it stands I kick them around like a soccer ball. They can hide behind their guard like no one else.
Shaolin- Staves and kung fu, these guys are pvp nuts and spying on them is more of an invitation for a fight than any other school at the moment. They can keep you stunned and on the ground until you are dead if they are lucky and good. Slightly tanky as well. All dudes.
Beggers Sect- kind of like shaolin but less daze more hit you in the face with a stick.They have a palm based skill that if use correctly completely shuts me down, but rarely is it used correctly for whatever reason. (might be hard to time)
Scholars- Spin to win, they have an aoe move that can not be stopped, unfortunately they don't have much else to bring to the table with the sword. But the kicks they have are second to none and extremely powerful if you can pull it off in a fight.
later they will add option to make own perma fashion / from taht time almost no one buy fashions in chinese version
You can stay at 100% durability if You repair with tradeable currency, so best to wait till durability will be very low and then fix
later good mounts will be available from guild stable whats now in NA and RU versions is only small % of chinese content which get big patches each few months
Ok so I dove in with both feet and purchased the Deluxe (for $20 you can't go wrong). I created my character and went through some game tutorial...
Everything is fine until I picked a school. I chose Wudang as it seemed like a good fit. However, I am not sure if it is translation, ui, or if I am just a moron but I am very confused here and am hitting a wall.
I am not sure if I totally grasp the progression system... So every few minutes I accumulate cultivation points and if I go to my skills I can use cultivation points on them which takes several hours to advance. I see there are 2 other options Practice Martial arts and Team practice, but not sure where to go for team practice. I see it being spammed in school chat yet noone really reponds.
This also leaves me confused as to which skills I should focus on being that I am a total newb and am suddenly flooded with choices.
I also hit a wall with my questline. I have to duel some evil tiger herald outside of a stronghold. I formed a team by myself and went to progress the dialogue but the person it is telling me I have to fight is not listed.
Again if anyone can help out or direct me to a guide (maybe specific to Wudang or questlines) I would greatly appreciate it!
What are your other Hobbies?
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
Welcome to the crackhouse.
Ok as touched on above this game is similar to the EvE system but at the same time it's not. You get exp from doing various things. This will convert to cultivation points at a certain rate then those points convert to skills:
EXP----(optional booster items)-----Cultivation-----(Optional Bossters)------Skill
Internal Cultivation you will be using most often as the most EvE like skill system. The only downside is there are no skill queues so you need to be aware of the same and further the skill along manually.
Martial Arts is the "P2W" aspect where you pay money for training. You can pay both types of silver and after a few days you should have a decent amount of NPC silver. It's not that bad to pay to the max and get a few points. The Player Silver or silver converted from gold is where you can end up spening a lot of money because there is no limit. Contratry to what people say, you can't just pay and max everything out from day 1. You have to still have cultivation points and if there is no exp to convert, you won't have anything to use.
Team Practice is like DDR where you join with up to 10 people and do keystrokes in sucession. It sometimes takes very long to form a team but it is worth it because the exp gain is pretty massive compared to internal. Also helps for those that don't have or don't want to spend Player Silver on skills.
As far as what to level up, Your school internal skill(not city internal skill) is at or near the top of the list. It isn't the end all be all though because it is mainly for HP and MP. If you keep all your skills at 1 you will still hit pretty weak, especially against other players. So finding the right balance is up to you and your preferences.
As far as the School quests, not sure on that one.
For craftinhg and instances check some of the guides people posted here. They are very good in my opinion.
I think I just did that tiget heral thing.
Once you start and go in the instance did a hunter looking guy appear and tell you to follow him? If not try moving into the fighting area a bit.
This just isn't true. I wish people wouldn't make up stuff like this. I just wanted to clarify in case no one has already done so:
The short is you still need to get xp in AoW, just like any other game, and you cannot pay for it.
The long:
In most games, XP ---> LevelingUp and the translation from XP to LevelingUP is immediate.
Age of Wushu uses a bottleneck system:
XP ---> Cultivation Points ---> LevelingUP
So that in AoW, first you need to get XP. That XP then takes time to turn into Cultivation points, which then takes time to turn into Levels. Imagine a double hourglass. First you fill the top bubble -- which you only can do by playing the game -- then that slowly trickles into the middle bubble, and then that slowly trickles into the final bubble.
All you can pay for with real cash is to open up, or speed up, the rate at which the trickling occurs from the middle bubble to the final bubble -- if you have enough cash you can remove the final bottleneck entirely.
However, the reason you can't just "max lvl in one day" as this poster put it, is
1) because there is no way to remove the first bottleneck. There are potions you can buy that help speed up the first bottleneck a bit, but that is about it. There is no theoretical way someone could max level in a day because of this bottleneck. And
2) in order to fill the first bubble (XP) in the first place requires that you actually play the game. It doesn't do you any good to speed up the rate at which the sand falls from the middle bubble to the final bubble if there is no sand in the hourglass at all. And the only way you get sand into the hourglass is by playing the game (earning xp).
So, yes, if you are ultra rich in real life or in game you can speed up the process by turning the double hourglass into a single hourglass, but you can't get rid of the hourglass and you still need to put sand in the hourglass which requires playing the game. So unless you are playing the game extensively, paying real life money to speed up the leveling process won't even be an option for you.
Finally, powergamers who find some trick to massive xp gains also cannot get max level in a day because A) the amount of xp you can generate is capped (at 999), and you cannot continue to make xp until some of it has trickled into cultivation. Again, think of that hourglass, you can only put so much sand into the top bubble. And
xp trickles into cultivation (top bubble to middle bubble) at a fixed rate. You can speed it up a bit with potions, but you cannot remove it, which prevents a powergamer from leveling up faster than the system will allow.