Allods.. the Good and the Bad

graham187

Been playing the game grouped with my wife for the last couple of weeks and we've both enjoyed the experience, some good and bad points.

Good

- Tons of Quests with good XP quantities. XP from killing mobs is fairly low so you avoid grinding and spend time questing.

- Abilities you have to think about while using them (Warrior, Paladin, Psionicist)

• Many abilities have to be combo'd in order to be truely effective, this means button mashing won't work as well
• Typically combo'd abilities return something to the caster.
• Limited abilities but upgradable and modifiable to preferred play style (after level 10)

- Established Rolls for characters that do come into play... eventually

• Warriors & Paladins take the damage
• Healers & Wardens heal the damage
• Cloth wearers and scouts deal out the damage

- Interesting stylized graphics that are appealing to explore

- Astral Ships look like a very very interesting feature

- Tons of items drop and have differing graphics on the toon to create interesting looks

- Every race emotes differently and none dance well

 

Bad

- LAG .. and it can be really unplayably bad some days.. I hope this is a result of the closed beta and not something the game will feature.

- Sound .. the sounds that are there arn't good. the music is boring, barely plays, and has no situational relevence. Sounds are the same volume no matter what the distance from the mob (you can hear other people fighting as if they are beside you and not be able to visably see them)

- Level's 5-10 .. The newbie area is not for grouping (with exception to a few dungeons and a few group kill mobs) .. poor XP splitting, quest updates that are dependant on drops (and if you need 10 bear heads, each player in the group needs 10 bear heads and only 1 drops per mob making for some painful searches on some of the rarer pieces. The newbie zones are extremely easy. Mobs deal next to no damage to any players and while death is possible, it's not likely and won't be an hinderance even if it does happen. At low levels healers get really crappy heals, and tanks get no taunts.

- Respecs .. Don't count on em, since the newbie zones are easy your better off saving points up and deciding later, reading some build guides and allocating. While one free respec would be nice incase you made a mistake, all respecs will pretty much be item mall items (the item can drop in the game but  I wouldn't count on it being frequent ) Building from scratch is always an option.

- 28 classes? Try 8, Warrior, Paladin, Scout, Healer, Warden, Psionicist, Mage, Summoner... the  sub classes all have the same skills from what I've seen .. although I havn't made it to level 10 on two of the same subclass so maybe they will split off when assigning rubies to skills after level 10.

- Server lines .. Can't really complain, not paying a monthly fee and it should keep lag lower by preventing the server from overloading, but waiting is never fun no matter what game or how free it is to play.

NadsFall

Originally posted by graham187

[...] Bad

- LAG .. and it can be really unplayably bad some days.. I hope this is a result of the closed beta and not something the game will feature.

Not sure which server you were on, as there were reports of constant lag on server 2. Been playing on server 1 myself since the beginning of this beta phase and had absolutely zero lag on my end.

- Sound .. the sounds that are there arn't good. the music is boring, barely plays, and has no situational relevence. Sounds are the same volume no matter what the distance from the mob (you can hear other people fighting as if they are beside you and not be able to visably see them)

Music cutting in and out is supposedly a know problem and is being fixed. I had no real issues with sounds, they're a tad repetetive, but not any more than any other game. Also haven't noticed the distance issue you're describing. As far as I recall, fading in the distance worked. I'd fire up the client and check if the servers weren't down atm. (But then again, maybe I just never noticed it)

- Level's 5-10 .. The newbie area is not for grouping (with exception to a few dungeons and a few group kill mobs) .. poor XP splitting, quest updates that are dependant on drops (and if you need 10 bear heads, each player in the group needs 10 bear heads and only 1 drops per mob making for some painful searches on some of the rarer pieces. The newbie zones are extremely easy. Mobs deal next to no damage to any players and while death is possible, it's not likely and won't be an hinderance even if it does happen. At low levels healers get really crappy heals, and tanks get no taunts.

Have to disagree with you somewhat on the grouping. Allods had by far the most low level group content i've seen in a while. I was impressed to find a raid boss at level 6, the Damned Soul on the League side. (Which is another "pro" for grouping, as all raid members get kill credit) In the next zone (up to lvl 11ish) were 4 or more group only bosses.

Empire's elites were tad easier I thought, but nontheless there was a healthy amount of group quests. Either way the zone chat is full with LFGs and LFMs. You're right in the fact that regular mobs' damage is a bit on the low side in the starting areas. It gets harder in the instances, clothies can get 1-2 shotted. It also gets a lot harder in the mid teens zones, when even regular mobs your own level give you a run for your money. Without rep gear you'll be a frequent visitor in the death zone. (Severny Steppe content comes to mind).  

Healing is painful at first, it all changes when you get your first batch of blue rep gear. (lvl 5 for League) At level 10 i had no problem healing Xaes (Haes) or Oreshek. On that same note I've also encountered a few pally/warri tanks that kept aggro at those levels, despite not having a taunt. (Though I agree that its location in the 3rd tier of the tree is a bid weird)

Agree with you on death, currently it's not much of an obstacle. Who knows, maybe we'll get the russian death debuffs in our version once OB hits.

As far as playing side by side with someone else goes, agreed, XP sharing (off mob kills) is crappy at best. Only other game i played in that fashion (side by side with someone else) was WoW, and scaling + collection quests were a pain in the rear there as well. Not even sure if (or what) other games do it differently.

- Respecs .. Don't count on em, since the newbie zones are easy your better off saving points up and deciding later, reading some build guides and allocating. While one free respec would be nice incase you made a mistake, all respecs will pretty much be item mall items (the item can drop in the game but  I wouldn't count on it being frequent ) Building from scratch is always an option.

This is the case for all cash shop games, though the exception here is that not only is the respec item a rare world drop, but also drops off high level bosses as well. You're not entirely dependent on the shop.

- 28 classes? Try 8, Warrior, Paladin, Scout, Healer, Warden, Psionicist, Mage, Summoner... the  sub classes all have the same skills from what I've seen .. although I havn't made it to level 10 on two of the same subclass so maybe they will split off when assigning rubies to skills after level 10.

I'm not entirely sure where the 28 number comes from either. I havent seen any options to pick a subspecialty or subclass. Just the talent tree + grid. Maybe something gets unlocked in the next beta phase? From the notes:

What content is available during CBT #4?

Closed Beta Test #4 content includes all 6 races, 8 classes, and 28 archetypes. Additionally, all content between levels 1 through 40 will be available for play, including the highly anticipated Astral, Goblinball and new high level instances.

 

Additionally:

Good:

-Not only is there a large choice of quests, but I also find them well written and engaging. (despite the many localization/spelling errors). Many of them make you feel like a part of the Lore. (Invention of teleportation for Empire for example) This is one of the few games where I'm actually compelled to read the quest text. The story arcs make sense, like most of the quests in the Igsh area dealing with th Red vs Blue conflict.

-Love the faction/race designs! The dystopian sci-fi feel of the Empire faction vs the rustic, classic fantasy feel of the League. Very good vs. Evil at first, but as you explore more and more of the Astral, you'll find that in a war both factions will commit unspeakable acts. Gibberlings, Arisen are very impressive and this is one of the two games (WAR being the other one) where I feel Orcs are properly molded. (Plus: You havent seen an Orc, until he's wearing a russian military uniform!)

-Though a matter of personal taste, I have enjoyed the crafting aspect of the game. From hunting down the orbs for your gathering profession all the way down to the crafting minigames needed to create items.

-Talent grid: Talk about character customization! You pick the skills you want to use in the tree and then have a ton of augmenting options. You can adjust your build to your playing style. (At the very least it appears to be that way)

-Tanking! Not sure what life's like on the warrior side, but Pallies are a blast to tank with. Barrier management makes it so much more than taunt+rotation spam. Similar for healing, where you have to pay attention to wounds.

-Reputation gear available at lower levels. And the rep grind itself is not too bad either. Usually after doing all the quests for the factions it comes down to 5-10 hand ins of the repeatable quest. Maybe a matter of prefference but to me this is a lot better than grinding an instance hoping for stuff to drop. (though that will happen at the high levels anyways)

-As mentioned above a lot of even level, regular mobs can present quite a challenge. Not everything is a 2-3 nuke kill. On that note the game shows no mercy even at the lower levels, in instances or harder group quests for example, the individual classes need to be familiar with their class mechanics and stat allocation. Such as tanks and barriers, healers and wounds. DPS going all out, pulling aggro die.

-An amount of polish that not only exceeds the usual F2P standards, but even puts a lot of the P2P offerings out there to shame.

+everything the OP mentioned!

 

Bad

 

-Levelling progress can be quite slow at times, though gear/spec affect this a lot.

-Community in the lowbie zones can be nothing short of a pain in the neck. This problem almost entirely disappears in the higher teens though. This probably will get worse once the game goes live.

-PvP needs more balancing.

-Voice overs in the translated version are bit bland compared to the russian originals (though there are only a few lines at the start)

-No mounts, travel is fairly slow (though they've been announced for release)

-Still need to see the finalized version of the cash shop to see how it's going to affect the game

 

graham187

Originally posted by NadsFall


- LAG
Not sure which server you were on, as there were reports of constant lag on server 2. Been playing on server 1 myself since the beginning of this beta phase and had absolutely zero lag on my end.
It was server 2 for most of the time, when my wife and I rolled toons on server 1 we didn't experience much lag at all, which was unexpected being  the server had considerably more people.
- Sound
Music cutting in and out is supposedly a know problem and is being fixed. I had no real issues with sounds, they're a tad repetetive, but not any more than any other game. Also haven't noticed the distance issue you're describing. As far as I recall, fading in the distance worked. I'd fire up the client and check if the servers weren't down atm. (But then again, maybe I just never noticed it)
The music isn't really the main issue, it's the sounds, spells can be heard from all around as if they were right beside you (3D positional sound has been a feature of most 3D games since Unreal released, but certainly the sound should be quieter if the person isn't near and that is definately NOT the case) Some monster death sounds carry on for a long time after. Sound is a major aspect of a multimedia experience and in this case it looks as if gpotato doesn't care. Putting .mp3's on and muting the game sound works fine though.
- Level's 5-10
Have to disagree with you somewhat on the grouping. Allods had by far the most low level group content i've seen in a while. I was impressed to find a raid boss at level 6, the Damned Soul on the League side. (Which is another "pro" for grouping, as all raid members get kill credit) In the next zone (up to lvl 11ish) were 4 or more group only bosses.
Empire's elites were tad easier I thought, but nontheless there was a healthy amount of group quests. Either way the zone chat is full with LFGs and LFMs. You're right in the fact that regular mobs' damage is a bit on the low side in the starting areas. It gets harder in the instances, clothies can get 1-2 shotted. It also gets a lot harder in the mid teens zones, when even regular mobs your own level give you a run for your money. Without rep gear you'll be a frequent visitor in the death zone. (Severny Steppe content comes to mind).  
Healing is painful at first, it all changes when you get your first batch of blue rep gear. (lvl 5 for League) At level 10 i had no problem healing Xaes (Haes) or Oreshek. On that same note I've also encountered a few pally/warri tanks that kept aggro at those levels, despite not having a taunt. (Though I agree that its location in the 3rd tier of the tree is a bid weird)
Agree with you on death, currently it's not much of an obstacle. Who knows, maybe we'll get the russian death debuffs in our version once OB hits.
As far as playing side by side with someone else goes, agreed, XP sharing (off mob kills) is crappy at best. Only other game i played in that fashion (side by side with someone else) was WoW, and scaling + collection quests were a pain in the rear there as well. Not even sure if (or what) other games do it differently.
The warrior/pally's can keep aggro through dps hate gain, but that is just a luck roll. After level 10 the taunts become available and life is made simple, but having a taunt available earlier for people who actually wanna group. I was focusing on dps with my wife because of no taunt and she would just cast healing spells with no damage and pull the mobs off me pretty much constantly at level's 8-10.
This is the case for all cash shop games, though the exception here is that not only is the respec item a rare world drop, but also drops off high level bosses as well. You're not entirely dependent on the shop.
Still, being there isn't much explination of how it's gonna work in the future and unless you delve into others people's character design lists, you wouldn't even know there is a grid of talents purchasable at level 10. Not knowing what the value of the talent is on the list until it's actually picked makes for a waste of points without being able to respec. (On my first character within 12 levels I counted 5 points in skills I used rarely or never, not a mistake I made on my second character of the same class, but having to level a trial character up to see how it's gonna work is a hassle.
- 28 classes
I'm not entirely sure where the 28 number comes from either. I havent seen any options to pick a subspecialty or subclass. Just the talent tree + grid. Maybe something gets unlocked in the next beta phase? From the notes:
What content is available during CBT #4?

Closed Beta Test #4 content includes all 6 races, 8 classes, and 28 archetypes. Additionally, all content between levels 1 through 40 will be available for play, including the highly anticipated Astral, Goblinball and new high level instances.
Maybe, I hope so anyway, advertising 28 classes because they called them a different name when the abilities are identical is misleading to say the least. I'm fine with 8 solid classes that have their own roll but don't pretend like you've got the class depth if you do not.
  -As mentioned above a lot of even level, regular mobs can present quite a challenge. Not everything is a 2-3 nuke kill. On that note the game shows no mercy even at the lower levels, in instances or harder group quests for example, the individual classes need to be familiar with their class mechanics and stat allocation. Such as tanks and barriers, healers and wounds. DPS going all out, pulling aggro die.-PvP needs more balancing.
Additionally:
Good:
-Not only is there a large choice of quests, but I also find them well written and engaging. (despite the many localization/spelling errors). Many of them make you feel like a part of the Lore. (Invention of teleportation for Empire for example) This is one of the few games where I'm actually compelled to read the quest text. The story arcs make sense, like most of the quests in the Igsh area dealing with th Red vs Blue conflict.
Can't do it, can't read text blocks. Feel bad about it sometimes since the designers put so much effort into writing the things but there are so very many, and my time is better spent clicking accept instead. Thankfully the game doesn't require it as all quests are summed up in a sentance.
 
-Though a matter of personal taste, I have enjoyed the crafting aspect of the game. From hunting down the orbs for your gathering profession all the way down to the crafting minigames needed to create items.
Crafting is fine in pairs, but you only get 1 free profession and you can choose either a gathering or a manufacturing craft. Can't craft much without someone to get the gathered mats, gathering mats won't help you if you don't have someone to craft the items.
-Talent grid: Talk about character customization! You pick the skills you want to use in the tree and then have a ton of augmenting options. You can adjust your build to your playing style. (At the very least it appears to be that way)
Tis impressive, somewhat imposing, and you can spend rubies on nothing to get to something faster.
 
-Tanking! Not sure what life's like on the warrior side, but Pallies are a blast to tank with. Barrier management makes it so much more than taunt+rotation spam. Similar for healing, where you have to pay attention to wounds.
Warriors are a pain until after level 10, having to balance DPS vs Protection. Duel wield can crank out dps quickly with little energy, but losing a shield makes mobs hurt lots after level 10, (shield added 20% damage absorbtion for me and took my toon from 10% with duel wields, to 33% with the shield on. Hopefully good armor becomes available quick.
 
Bad
-Levelling progress can be quite slow at times, though gear/spec affect this a lot.
Leveling does feel slow, but that is probably mostly because I was so interested in getting to the next level so I could get a ruby to pick up that new skill I've been looking at getting. Supposed to enjoy the journey to the endgame too I guess.


-Still need to see the finalized version of the cash shop to see how it's going to affect the game
No matter what I can't see dropping $180 on the cash shop in a year (the price many mmo's cost paying month - month) Picking up a second crafting skill, a few respec potions and a few keys to open chests and I should be pretty much satisfied.