Tobold's Blog
Friday, November 13, 2009
 
WoW in space

Massively has an interesting video preview of Allods Online, a game that looks remarkably similar to World of Warcraft, but with more SciFi elements and space ships. What is remarkable about that game is that it looks pretty good, and will be Free2Play, which would make it basically the second good, free WoW clone after Runes of Magic. In a market where some companies still try to let you pay $15 per month for a *bad* WoW clone, getting a *good* WoW clone for free is a sweet deal, even if you then end up paying $10 for a mount or such things.

I just hope that raises the bar on monthly subscription MMORPGs. Surely game companies must see that if decent quality, even combined with a lack of originality, is available for free, they'll have to offer far more than that if they hope to get $15 per month out of a large number of players for a considerable time.
Comments:
Interesting. I tried RoM for a while, and considered it to be a good game. This looks like it might work out as well.

The Jibberlings look fun. (I can't shake the notion of similar tech for Zerglings, though.)
 
Pigs.. its needs pigs.. in space of course.
 
Never heard anything about this game until this post. Surprisingly it does in fact look pretty good. I've wanted to play a good sci-fi mmo for a long time and this combo fantasy-sci-fi isn't exactly what I was looking for but it looks pretty fresh. Especially with it being F2P, I'll definitely at least be giving it a try.
 
Speaking of which, any comments on Massively's Q&A with CEO of the developer for Alganon? He was adamant that Alganon, while adopting what he took to be now genre defining standards, was a unique game that justified a monthly subscription, and anyone who thought otherwise (specifically anyone who thought it was merely WoW clone) hadn't spent any time playing the game.
 
I thought about trying this game, still not sure if I will. It does indeed look a lot like WoW. Some of the screen shots I've seen of the UI look very similar to it.
 
I play the game at the Russians servers Allods online. The game only superficially similar to WoW. The graphics engine Allods Online more pretty, engine WoW. Although experience designers Blizzard much more than the designers AO. "Shop troves" aka Item Mall, no effect on the game, all that is sold in the store you can get in the game world, but it takes time. Items in the shop are sold for crystals, one chip is worth approximately $ 0,0347. Backpack for loot, costs about 10 crystals.

In game two factions Empire (USSR) and the League (NATO countries conditionally). Hence the motivational goal in quests. Funny game delayed, I advise you at least try, maybe it's been fun for you.

P. S > before I played two years in WoW.
P.S. S > Please forgive me for my English.
 
Looks very pretty, but if you can buy a sword of God slaying for ten bucks, what's the point?

Tobold, didn't you mention that SOE made that mistake with Free Realms?
 
I played the original Russian version, which is now in open beta, and was disappointed shortly.

Your character has as many as 14 basic attributes, some of them obvious, like Strength for bigger damage, some surprising, like Dexterity for "lesser chance of target to evade crit", and some bizarre, like Rage "lessens enemy's ability to restore health". (Not sure how they will translate it in the English version, just guessed)

Then there are 6 races and 8 classes. The Gibberlings race is worth mentioning: puppies that come in triples. Elves got dragonfly wings. The Zem are undead-robots mix. The orcs are ugly as usual.

Classes are completely f'd up: Warriors can't hold aggro, Stalkers (a rogue/ranger hybrid) got nerfed heavily, mystics (magic dps or controller) got nerfed heavily twice, the others are absolute fail. Two classes (Necromancer and Pagan) have pets, which, set to aggressive mode, tag a spawning mob even before it has spawned. One class (Priest) can heal... but healing build can't solo, and they can wear plate and do melee dps and ranged dps... so good luck finding a priest who heals.

The interface is worsened WoW. No minimap, and the developers stated they don't plan it. Three actionbars divided into halves, but first half of the second one (right above the main one) will be unavailable if your class has some optional bar. I tryed Priest, Stalker, Necro and Mystic, and only priest has cells for Alt-1 to Alt-5. No, pet commands are not bound, and are not bindable. And Mystic has a panel to show controlled target (or just tag along most of the time).

Chat... is just chat with channels, all in one window, unseparatable, and you can't put next line at the same chat as previous without /p or /zone all the time (default is /say... always). World channel is for $$.

Crafting is made of mini-games, but you will be tired after ten tries. Alchemy is made of slot-machine, and others are dice-pocker. So you add raw components (half of them you need to buy from trainer) and gamble: you have 1 attempt to cheat (adjusting a slot), then if the stars are right you craft something nobody needs, or just a bottle of useless booze. For more attempts to adjust you can buy them for real $$.

Two factions, the League being styled "woody Russian fairy tale" (yeah, with elves and triple-doggies) and the Horde... sorry, the Empire being the USSR (yeah, NPC orcs wearing police hats, and the Empire Guards looking like cloned Darth Vader).

And the main dish: the inventory. You start with a bag of 15 cells for items and 15 for reagents. Have to change view. No, tailors don't craft bags. Need a bag? Pay $$. You get bag that will replace your current one.

Locations: imagine WoW's Barrens four time less in square and with four time more players, as everybody just came to a new server (the servers go from 'new' to 'full' status in about 5 days). Wanna get boss's head? Stand in a line of 20-25 players. In 1-1,5 hours you get your chance. Unless a Necromant puts his pet to aggressive and steals the boss before he has completely spawned, of course.
Or you can attempt to join a party. But the head will be lootable for just 1 member, randomly chosen by server, OK?

And yes, the astral ships. Ships being ships (sea-ships, no star-ships), while tea Astral being some violet-glowing LSD experience. No, ships are not implemented yet.

Uninstalled after two weeks.
 
You can't buy armor and weapon in Item Mall. Only the keys that offer your treasure (you can dislodge from mobs), various potions (most bought and conventional premise, and those that are not sold direct to the gameplay does not count), simply costumes for entertainment (e.g. dress of noble) and all in the same spirit, using Item Mall super killer become impossible. Almost all items from the Item Mall, you can put up for sale at auction. Here are a couple of screenshots from the game:
1. http://pics.kz/s3/0c/ff/75/82/0cff7582e12764f9f3dd3491a4f167b0.jpg
2. http://pics.kz/s1/b0/a8/c5/d3/b0a8c5d39924d1866b5be7b765e348eb.jpg
3. http://pics.kz/s2/8e/0c/0a/59/8e0c0a5924604b43d235be384bf372b6.jpg
4. http://pics.kz/s5/5c/8f/77/a8/5c8f77a88b5c4f1b6ad4b99e98cb61fb.jpg
 
Also playing this game for almost 2 months. Have to NOT agree with some things Konstantin said.

Classes are messed up as much as in WoW or any MMO game. Tanks can't hold aggro? Please remove 2-hander and wear shield. Oh, and also use aggro skills, thank you.
Stalkers lose their permanent stealth? Oh, so it's no more death-from-stealthed-aimed-shot-from-nowhere. And so on.

Patches come out on regular basis.
There are NO game-changing items or features player can buy for cash.

Yes, starting bag is small and quest for upgrading it is annoying as hell. So there's an easy upgrade for as much as 30 cents in Item Mall :)

This game is in Open Beta. Anything IS changing and will change indeed. Mini-Map was in early Alpha stages but got removed (there's no real need in it, believe me). Auto-attack also removed - players could only attack actively. Resource system is unique for each class, however "melee" classes use Energy and "magic" classes uses mana. But any class has their unique "combo points" fitting to them.

What IS the real problem of the game - poor designed mid-game. 22+ levels must be gained in Holy Land zone, that is STV and Hillsbrad combined in regards of ganking and PvP. :)
 
Also, have a look at talent calculator for this game - it surely have some novelty :)

http://allodsbase.ru/index.php?r=tools/tallents#kHLDBMNAP:NBFCBFBCFBBBBBBzfBEBBBBBBGzXDFBDEEB
 
MMORPGs seem to be a good investment today. Maybe I should hire some programmers and create my own.
 
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