Pre-CU SWG, for me the CU wasnt that bad, the NGE killed it for me.
SWG before the NGE was the most fun i ever had in an MMO, i could be what i want, do what i want, and it went with the story. Now u cant be what u want (To an extent) you cant do as much anymore, and there are soo many damn jedi if u dont see one your lucky.
It was the sequel to AC1 and the graphics were much better but the class system was revamped.... you could play what used to be monsters in AC1 and none of the same classes that u used to (mage, sword, archer.... etc... AC1 players were almost all customly characterized because u needed to do that if u wanted your character to not be horrible) . In AC2 you could play a drudge, tumerok, and a couple other Asheron's call monsters if i remember correctly.
it came out in NOV. 2002 and some of the AC population left to try it out and almost all of them came back very soon or eventually..
and then turbine stopped making content for AC2 sometime in 2005 (still makes monthly content updates for AC1)
does anyone know if it was 2005 that turbine stopped making content for AC2? for some reason i think they might have completely took down the servers?
the ac1 players didn't care enough about graphics to adjust to the bad gameplay compared to AC2. i never tried out ac2 myself but 99.8% of AC players think AC1 was better and im positive i would think the same because ac1's gameplay IMO beats any other mmorpg ever
Ujirik: this is just my opinion though, i respect yours
Well you are in luck. The AC2 engine is actually the engine Turbine is using for LOTR (although updated a bit), so play LOTR and you can get an idea of what the AC2 gameplay was like.
It was the sequel to AC1 and the graphics were much better but the class system was revamped.... you could play what used to be monsters in AC1 and none of the same classes that u used to (mage, sword, archer.... etc... AC1 players were almost all customly characterized because u needed to do that if u wanted your character to not be horrible) . In AC2 you could play a drudge, tumerok, and a couple other Asheron's call monsters if i remember correctly.
it came out in NOV. 2002 and some of the AC population left to try it out and almost all of them came back very soon or eventually..
and then turbine stopped making content for AC2 sometime in 2005 (still makes monthly content updates for AC1)
does anyone know if it was 2005 that turbine stopped making content for AC2? for some reason i think they might have completely took down the servers?
the ac1 players didn't care enough about graphics to adjust to the bad gameplay compared to AC2. i never tried out ac2 myself but 99.8% of AC players think AC1 was better and im positive i would think the same because ac1's gameplay IMO beats any other mmorpg ever
Ujirik: this is just my opinion though, i respect yours
AC2 was a HUGE disappointment for 95% of AC fans. They seemed to leave out all of the stuff that made AC great. I actually remember the E3 before Turbine launched AC2. They were much more interested in pimping out their engine than talking about the game. In the long term the engine has made them more money but so far the games Turbine has launched since AC have been a disappointment.
I have subscribed to it for 4 years and it still has kept my interest. The PvP is great and the game has a good community.
All other games I have tried just end up leading me back to DAoC.
-------------------------------- Desktop - AMD 8450 Tri Core, 3 gigs of DDR2 800 RAM, ATI HD 3200 Graphics, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Laptop (Dell Latitude E6400) - Intel P8400, 2 GIGs of RAM, Intel X4500, Windows XP Professional
Though I've played many mmo's, I would have to say my overall fav was Anarchy Online. I really enjoyed the depth of the character twinking, and the community was great. (still is) One reason I think FunCom will do a ghrat job with Age Of Conan.
UO was good as well but SWG took everything UO did right and built on it.... if they'd ever stopped changing it and just fixed the damn bugs it would have been as popular as WoW.. maybe even more popular.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online. Sig image Pending Still in: A couple Betas
My first MMOG was AC 1 - I think the first time you sit across from all your friends in real-life at a virtual cafe or bar is the first time you realize the power of MMORPGs. That moment for me was in the Sho starting town - I had just recently moved to the West Coast and it was good to be able to meet up with old friends back east.
COH and believe it or not WOW both come in close seconds. I loved the character variety and community of COH and before I was left with the decision of either raid or PVP, I loved WOW. Certainly going through theUndermine, Shadowfang Keep, or Scarlet Monastery for the first time are great gaming memories.
If I'm honest, I'll say I've also had dozens of hours of fun and made many good friends in GW - though some would say this isn't an MMOG so take it as you will.
Personally, I can see the potential in SWG Pre-CU, but that game still left a bitter taste in my mouth. Part of it was the extremely laggy launch and the bad customer service when my character suddenly disappeared from the server on the third day or so. Part of it was I chose to follow my guild of buddies from AC 1 into a roleplaying community which there was just far too much backstabbing. But I think maybe the biggest reason I never got into SWG was the lack of real central storylines. I like games where you can go do a bunch of side quests or get involved in crafting/trading, but if you want you can still go advance a major quest leading to the inevitable showdown with a badguy. Probably why I liked COH and GW (both quest oriented) and WOW until all that's left to do is join a second job raiding.
Can't dispute though SWG was one of the prettiest Star Wars themed games I've ever played.
Asheron's Call 1. Most original game that was years ahead of its time. It had the best character advancement system to date, a huge seamless overworld, almost limitless amount of content, and random loot drops. This is exactly the game the most people want to play today, but no company has yet to be able to get us back to where we were 8 years ago. Vanguard tried the seamless overworld and botched it. The only game that looks like the spiritual sequel is Darkfall. AC2 killed what could have been the best franchise of all time. If AC1 became free to play or updated graphics id be back in a heartbeat. This is the game that company's should be looking at, but sadly they won't because it never achieved the financial successes that games like WoW do. We can only hope that Darkfall sees the light of day, or that some company will look at AC1 instead of cookie cutter games when trying to come up with innovative games that provide depth and challenge.
So True! AC1 for me as well!! I throw in my vote here aswell, AC1 was and always will be the king of all games. If it was easier to get back into it, and I could be assured taht the bots are gone, I'd return.
Darkfall... if it 'ever' comes live might bring back some, if not most, of the feeling AC1 had.
I agree with Mastaofmurda, AC1's gameplay still beats any other MMO I've played. The sheer fun factor of that game still makes me go back and play it from time to time.
The character development was unique, every point of xp earned you got to decide what skill it went into. There were no limits on what skills your character could choose, and no pre-designed templates that you had to stick to. Want to be a sword weilding magic caster in plate armor? So be it, if you have enough skill credits. Also there is no downtime in that game. If your low on heath, use a healing kit. Low on stamina? Drink a potion. Low on mana? Cast a spell. There is always something you could do.
There were plenty of quests to finish to get cool items and level up, but if you got tired of them you could head to your nearest Black Spawn Den for some good old-fashioned dungeon grinding and beat the heck outta 20 tuskers at once. It seems now no matter what fantasy game you play you're going to end up killing the same stuff (ogres, trolls, dragons, undead.) It's like they're your evil mmo enemies and they're stalking you from game to game. There's only so many goblins you can kill before it becomes blatantly obvious that mmo's have shifted from a creative form of fun entertainment to a money grubbing business that regurgitates the same content to fatten thier profit margin. Think of big game development companies as used car salesmen, both will do anything to sell you a worn out piece of junk that looks pretty.
Unlike the rest of the cookie cutter mmos out there, Asheron's Call at least tried to be unique with it's compliment of monsters. Ever fought a drudge, olthoi, or lugian before? (yes, I know drudges look strikingly similar to goblins but that's just because the graphics are from 1999 ) Drudges are dastardly creatures that seem to thrive everywhere in Dereth. No one really knows why they attack you on sight, but they give out an interesting WEEEERRRR sound right before you kill one. It's cheezy at first, but before you know it you're searching for drudges to kill to satisfy your WEEEERRRR addiction. P.S. The death animation when an ursin dies is by far the coolest sequence in any game.
AC1 = PVP
The PVP in AC1 is outstanding. Combat is determined by the skill of the player at the keyboard not the level of your character or the equipment they have. Players can dodge magic spells, arrows, bolts, darts, and javelins based on how well you move and play your character. Even today, a level 90 can beat a level 270+ character if they play better. In every other game, PVP combat is determined by who has the highest level, the better gear, or the most friends. I would go so far as to say that AC1 is the only mmorpg with true player vs player combat. All other games have character vs character combat.
In the early days of Asheron's Call, death in PVP meant something. If you died, you not only dropped a number of items based on your level, but you suffer a 5% reduction to all of your skills called vitae. You get rid of vitae by earning experience, but while your burning your vitae debt, the guy that killed you is looting your corpse and taking your death items. This may sound a bit harsh, but it prevented someone from attacking you repeatedly without consequences. Nowadays AC1 has "pklite"..... No, seriously, it's called "pklite." You have an option to not loose any items on death and do not suffer a vitae penalty. The only place where death means anything now is on the all pvp server called Darktide.
The old days of AC1 were the most fun I've had playing a mmorpg. It's a pity the game is 8 years old and nothing like it used to be. To bad WoW is such a success, now I have nothing to look forward to but the endless cookie cutter knock offs it will breed. Gone are the days when games were created for fun and entertainmet, enter the time of big business.
Comments
Hard to say. MMORPG are not my favorite games but they convenient.
Favorite game of all time: Go
SWG before the NGE was the most fun i ever had in an MMO, i could be what i want, do what i want, and it went with the story. Now u cant be what u want (To an extent) you cant do as much anymore, and there are soo many damn jedi if u dont see one your lucky.
It was the sequel to AC1 and the graphics were much better but the class system was revamped.... you could play what used to be monsters in AC1 and none of the same classes that u used to (mage, sword, archer.... etc... AC1 players were almost all customly characterized because u needed to do that if u wanted your character to not be horrible) . In AC2 you could play a drudge, tumerok, and a couple other Asheron's call monsters if i remember correctly.
it came out in NOV. 2002 and some of the AC population left to try it out and almost all of them came back very soon or eventually..
and then turbine stopped making content for AC2 sometime in 2005 (still makes monthly content updates for AC1)
does anyone know if it was 2005 that turbine stopped making content for AC2? for some reason i think they might have completely took down the servers?
the ac1 players didn't care enough about graphics to adjust to the bad gameplay compared to AC2. i never tried out ac2 myself but 99.8% of AC players think AC1 was better and im positive i would think the same because ac1's gameplay IMO beats any other mmorpg ever
Ujirik: this is just my opinion though, i respect yours
Wouldn't it have been easier just to ignore the thread then?
On Topic: Nice to see so many different opinions, and yet so many equalled opinions, as far as swg and AC.
Ultima Online - back in the day and Everquest - back in the day.
Nothing comes even close to the addiction I had for those two gems. Apart from Terris, but Paul Barnett is a God after all.
Well you are in luck. The AC2 engine is actually the engine Turbine is using for LOTR (although updated a bit), so play LOTR and you can get an idea of what the AC2 gameplay was like.
Neocron,
the most unique and daring MMO so far,
and it's bloody great.
Played so far: 9Dragons, AO, AC, AC2, CoX, DAoC, DF, DnL, DR, DDO, Ent, EvE, EQ, EQ2, FoMK, FFO, Fury, GW, HG:L, HZ, L1, L2, M59, MU, NC1, NC2, PS, PT, R:O, RF:O, RYL, Ryzom, SL, SB, SW:G, TR, TCoS, MX:O, UO, VG, WAR, WoW...
It all sucked.
UO-EQ1-SWG-DAOC-WOW-EQ2-WAR-GW2-RIFT
It was the sequel to AC1 and the graphics were much better but the class system was revamped.... you could play what used to be monsters in AC1 and none of the same classes that u used to (mage, sword, archer.... etc... AC1 players were almost all customly characterized because u needed to do that if u wanted your character to not be horrible) . In AC2 you could play a drudge, tumerok, and a couple other Asheron's call monsters if i remember correctly.
it came out in NOV. 2002 and some of the AC population left to try it out and almost all of them came back very soon or eventually..
and then turbine stopped making content for AC2 sometime in 2005 (still makes monthly content updates for AC1)
does anyone know if it was 2005 that turbine stopped making content for AC2? for some reason i think they might have completely took down the servers?
the ac1 players didn't care enough about graphics to adjust to the bad gameplay compared to AC2. i never tried out ac2 myself but 99.8% of AC players think AC1 was better and im positive i would think the same because ac1's gameplay IMO beats any other mmorpg ever
Ujirik: this is just my opinion though, i respect yours
AC2 was a HUGE disappointment for 95% of AC fans. They seemed to leave out all of the stuff that made AC great. I actually remember the E3 before Turbine launched AC2. They were much more interested in pimping out their engine than talking about the game. In the long term the engine has made them more money but so far the games Turbine has launched since AC have been a disappointment.
http://www.straightdope.com/
I have subscribed to it for 4 years and it still has kept my interest. The PvP is great and the game has a good community.
All other games I have tried just end up leading me back to DAoC.
--------------------------------
Desktop - AMD 8450 Tri Core, 3 gigs of DDR2 800 RAM, ATI HD 3200 Graphics, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Laptop (Dell Latitude E6400) - Intel P8400, 2 GIGs of RAM, Intel X4500, Windows XP Professional
PreCU SWG
---
Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
UO was good as well but SWG took everything UO did right and built on it.... if they'd ever stopped changing it and just fixed the damn bugs it would have been as popular as WoW.. maybe even more popular.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
My first MMOG was AC 1 - I think the first time you sit across from all your friends in real-life at a virtual cafe or bar is the first time you realize the power of MMORPGs. That moment for me was in the Sho starting town - I had just recently moved to the West Coast and it was good to be able to meet up with old friends back east.
COH and believe it or not WOW both come in close seconds. I loved the character variety and community of COH and before I was left with the decision of either raid or PVP, I loved WOW. Certainly going through theUndermine, Shadowfang Keep, or Scarlet Monastery for the first time are great gaming memories.
If I'm honest, I'll say I've also had dozens of hours of fun and made many good friends in GW - though some would say this isn't an MMOG so take it as you will.
Personally, I can see the potential in SWG Pre-CU, but that game still left a bitter taste in my mouth. Part of it was the extremely laggy launch and the bad customer service when my character suddenly disappeared from the server on the third day or so. Part of it was I chose to follow my guild of buddies from AC 1 into a roleplaying community which there was just far too much backstabbing. But I think maybe the biggest reason I never got into SWG was the lack of real central storylines. I like games where you can go do a bunch of side quests or get involved in crafting/trading, but if you want you can still go advance a major quest leading to the inevitable showdown with a badguy. Probably why I liked COH and GW (both quest oriented) and WOW until all that's left to do is join a second job raiding.
Can't dispute though SWG was one of the prettiest Star Wars themed games I've ever played.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
Darkfall... if it 'ever' comes live might bring back some, if not most, of the feeling AC1 had.
I agree with Mastaofmurda, AC1's gameplay still beats any other MMO I've played. The sheer fun factor of that game still makes me go back and play it from time to time.
The character development was unique, every point of xp earned you got to decide what skill it went into. There were no limits on what skills your character could choose, and no pre-designed templates that you had to stick to. Want to be a sword weilding magic caster in plate armor? So be it, if you have enough skill credits. Also there is no downtime in that game. If your low on heath, use a healing kit. Low on stamina? Drink a potion. Low on mana? Cast a spell. There is always something you could do.
There were plenty of quests to finish to get cool items and level up, but if you got tired of them you could head to your nearest Black Spawn Den for some good old-fashioned dungeon grinding and beat the heck outta 20 tuskers at once. It seems now no matter what fantasy game you play you're going to end up killing the same stuff (ogres, trolls, dragons, undead.) It's like they're your evil mmo enemies and they're stalking you from game to game. There's only so many goblins you can kill before it becomes blatantly obvious that mmo's have shifted from a creative form of fun entertainment to a money grubbing business that regurgitates the same content to fatten thier profit margin. Think of big game development companies as used car salesmen, both will do anything to sell you a worn out piece of junk that looks pretty.
Unlike the rest of the cookie cutter mmos out there, Asheron's Call at least tried to be unique with it's compliment of monsters. Ever fought a drudge, olthoi, or lugian before? (yes, I know drudges look strikingly similar to goblins but that's just because the graphics are from 1999
) Drudges are dastardly creatures that seem to thrive everywhere in Dereth. No one really knows why they attack you on sight, but they give out an interesting WEEEERRRR sound right before you kill one.
It's cheezy at first, but before you know it you're searching for drudges to kill to satisfy your WEEEERRRR addiction. P.S. The death animation when an ursin dies is by far the coolest sequence in any game.
AC1 = PVP
The PVP in AC1 is outstanding. Combat is determined by the skill of the player at the keyboard not the level of your character or the equipment they have. Players can dodge magic spells, arrows, bolts, darts, and javelins based on how well you move and play your character. Even today, a level 90 can beat a level 270+ character if they play better. In every other game, PVP combat is determined by who has the highest level, the better gear, or the most friends. I would go so far as to say that AC1 is the only mmorpg with true player vs player combat. All other games have character vs character combat.
In the early days of Asheron's Call, death in PVP meant something. If you died, you not only dropped a number of items based on your level, but you suffer a 5% reduction to all of your skills called vitae. You get rid of vitae by earning experience, but while your burning your vitae debt, the guy that killed you is looting your corpse and taking your death items. This may sound a bit harsh, but it prevented someone from attacking you repeatedly without consequences. Nowadays AC1 has "pklite"..... No, seriously, it's called "pklite."
You have an option to not loose any items on death and do not suffer a vitae penalty. The only place where death means anything now is on the all pvp server called Darktide.
The old days of AC1 were the most fun I've had playing a mmorpg. It's a pity the game is 8 years old and nothing like it used to be. To bad WoW is such a success, now I have nothing to look forward to but the endless cookie cutter knock offs it will breed. Gone are the days when games were created for fun and entertainmet, enter the time of big business.
Oh, by the way... WEEEERRRR!!!