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A few questions.
Intotheclouds
Member Posts: 6
Hi,
We're 3 people looking to move from Vanguard. One of the players suggested this and I thought I ask a few questions.
- Will there still be official servers to play on with these new changes that are in the pipeline?
- Is the community friendly in general? With friendly I mean not looking down on newbies sometimes asking stupid questions.
- Does it take a very long time to partake in end game events, like years, for casual players?
Thankyou.
Comments
As far as the changes, it seems as though there will still be official servers, however, the monthly updates will be gone. For a new player that wont mean much, to a vet this is huge. AC had monthly updates EVERY MONTH since its release and many of these updates rivaled expansion packs for most other MMO's.
The community is extremely friendly, though tiny. You will run into players but not many places are going to be loaded with people. You are going to feel overwhelmed as the game teaches you the mechanics of play it doesnt really teach you what is going in in Asheron's Call. You will want to use the /general chat to figure things out as the game is massive and there isn't really a themepark ride through the game.
Which leads me to my last point. Asheron's Call has no "endgame". Levels don't really matter, and aren't even really a thing. When you kill things, or use skills, you gain exp. You can spend exp to raise skills. You do get skill points upon leveling, but they don't go into a tree, they just allow you to specialize or train skills (so that they can either a) be used and raised with exp - trained b) be cheaper to raise and thus higher level - specialized) With this system, levels are more of a relative indicator of where a character is at.
Asheron's Call isn't about raiding, or grinding, or any of that stuff. Asheron's Call is about living in a virtual world. The graphics are total barf but the rest of the game is possibly the best MMO ever created. Many of the things that people on these forums clamor for (open world, random loot, etc.) exist inside AC.
Again, unlearn everything you have learned about MMO's, then go enjoy AC. If you can get past the graphics and the dwindling population you will likely have your mind blown and be sad that they haven't made a newer version of this.
Thank you for the straight answers papabear. I understand that there is no endgame. I wasn't thinking of neoclassical endgame but I'm sure there are level or skill requirements to participate in activities since your game has 275 levels.
What troubles me though is what you mentioned, that they're practically letting the game go and see what happens. This makes me think that it might have less of a chance to be a long term thing. Our MMO Is shutting down and we don't want to join another game to have it shutdown in 12+ months.
I think what Turbine(WB) have done is kind of a c y a move with the game. They now can leave it open and still work on it at their convenience. Any future updates to the game will be considered a bonus. It is costing them very minimal expenses and resources to just leave the game in maintenance mode. But there is no requirement for new content and the expectations of existing players is kept in check.
I have a feeling the FTP part will be dragged out a little while so they can still keep revenues incoming with existing subscribers. By keeping the game active, they can always offer it as a bonus to any future Asheron's Call game they may develop (ie free AC1 & AC2 games if you subscribe to a new AC3 game).
So in short, if they were going to kill AC off they would have already announced plans to do so.
This is an understandable and valid concern. I would be nervous myself as AC is the kind of game that, if you like it, you won't be able to replace it. Hopefully the switch to F2P is an attempt to keep AC relative to some sort of player base while something similar is being developed, doubtful though.
I would seriously consider giving it a shot though. The price is really great, and you get a free month. If you play it for 3 hours you've basically met the same entertainment value as going to the theater and still have 30 days to play. 6 months in Dereth is >>>>> than any other MMO experience IMHO.
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They could run Asherons Call 1 and 2 on the same single server. The code is so old and weak it doesn't take much. Its one of the reasons why other old games are still running, like UO, The Realm...I think as long as they can maintain around 1k paying customers they will keep it up forever. That's more than enough to pay for a server and other costs involed while still making a profit.
I was in the original beta and even today consider this the best MMORPG ever released. Sorry EQ/DAOC, you're close seconds.
Anyway, like the previous poster mentioned, levels are very trivial. I remember as a lvl 60 Life Wizard I was dominating lvl 100 mobs without as much as a sweat, so it's all about how you distribute your skill points.
You could be only level 50, but have 350 war magic and thus have higher skill than most level 200 players, but you obviously would lose points in other areas.
So in terms of "end game" content - you should be fine. But the end-game content in this game is really all about exploring and finding new dungeons, getting loot from ridiculous places that nobody ever visited before. There are some areas out there that are so remote and dangerous that people may have never even stepped into them.
So definitely get into the game once you get a chance. If you can get over the outdated graphics, you will definitely enjoy it.
I personally can't wait for the private servers as I would love to start from scratch with a bunch of other returners and not be threatened by players with 15 years advantage on me.
I review lots of indie games and MMORPGs
I concur that AC is the greatest MMO ever created. It has nearly everything you would want in a real MMO. Even its combat system is lightyears ahead of anything we've seen. It was a privilege to play such a game. Compared to the games created now, AC truly shows what is capable when people put passion into their games.
Glad to hear that its finally going F2P
Asheron's Call truly was a great game during its prime, and it's possibly the only MMO I've played that I can literally say there isn't another MMO out there like it. If the most important thing to you is a huge (truly massive) world to explore, and to be able to create your own adventure, AC1 is truly unrivaled, in my opinion.
That being said, the game is old. Very, very old. Also, in my opinion, it did not age particularly well. The graphics weren't even very good for 1999, but that's okay, because I don't care about graphics all that much. However, the UI is extremely clunky, quite possibly the worst UI I've ever experienced in an MMO. Also, you're likely to be completely lost as a new player, as information is extremely difficult to come by, and there's 15 years worth of monthly updates out there. Then keep in mind that the server populations are extremely small. AC1 really should be running on one game server rather than seven or eight, but they have said over the years that there are technical issues that make a server merge extremely difficult or impossible. Finally, with not more monthly updates, the future of the game is unclear.
That being said, despite all its flaws, AC1 is truly a unique game, and it's only $10 to try. I would encourage you to give it a shot, as I believe it's a game that every MMO should experience at some point.
I'm not really concerned about AC vanishing after some months when it goes f2p. Last time I played it was 2002-2003 something like that. Just looked at it again and saw they added tons of new stuff. Starting with new skill lines, quests, I guess some new weapons for sure and you can even play other races.
Because it is that old I dont really want to pay 15$ a month but I definitly come back when it goes f2p. Hopefully others think the same way. The game also has a great setting for financing a server. F.e. selling SIKs, motes or the...other keys, the main currency...cant remember their name. You can open chests with them and get some big loot, high lvl scrolls and other stuff. If I can pay 5$ for those instead of farming them for 5+ hours, why not? Works great in the game I play currently and it makes the game easier but far from p2w.
And if you can run your own server and modify it then this game will be great. Looking back at all the addons we had, heck.. we even had our own macro language with AC Tool. If this translates to what will be done on private servers then I see a great future in f2p for AC.