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Open world/merchanting game
Hello fellow MMORPG players,
I'm looking for a game that involves a wide open world that can be explored and involves trading (not specifically trading only but the game should have that aspect).
I used to play Voyage Century Online in which you have your own ship and can explore the whole world and pick up goods in Asia and transport them back to Europe for large profits. That's what really interests me in a game.
So I know EVE Online is probably what you guys would recommend me but I'm not really into space and all that, I like medieval/historical/somewhat fantasy games more.
Thank you for time
Comments
You might want to check out Uncharted Waters Online. Sounds just like the type of game you're looking for. http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/555
Yeah, you're definitely looking for Uncharted Waters Online. It has over 2000 discoveries for you to go out and find. It also has over 160 ports and over 400 trade goods, and you can buy goods in one port, ship them to another, and sell them for a profit (or a loss if you chose the goods and ports poorly).
It's historial, set on Earth at an unspecified date but roughly the 1520s. Some things are slightly anachronistic (e.g., Shakespear and Columbus alive at the same time), and a few things are wildly anachronistic (e.g., the Panama Canal), but it's also got a ton of real-life historical stuff in the game.
Uncharted Waters Online, yup
bit like Eve, but with Sea Ships & proper avatars
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Playing : Uncharted Waters Online
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
@vladww
I see you're playing UWO right now, I did some information searching about the game and I'm a little concerned about the publisher of this game, namely Netmarble (who joined forced with gPotato).
The cash shops of gPotato are a nightmare, it's completely pay to win, so I checked out the UWO cash shop and read on the forums the best ships in the game are actually ships purchased with real money.
I find this pretty sad, the game really interests me but the current cash shop just ruins the game in my opinion.
What's your opinion about the game, since you're playing it right now?
The item mall mainly dings players who are into combat, especially PVP. If you're an explorer and/or a trader, you'll probably laugh at Netmarble's feeble attempts at using the item mall to unbalance the game.
The item mall ships are alternate versions of ships that are obtainable through normal gameplay. The item mall version simply has lower level requirements to use. Nearly all of the item mall ships are combat-oriented, and not very useful for either an explorer or a trader. For example, an armored vaisseau has level requirements of 36/24/64. The item mall version, a modified armored vaisseau, has level requirements of 9/6/16. So if you get an item mall ship, you can use a high level ship while you're low level yourself.
That does not, by itself, turn you into a high level player, however. It won't increase your levels, skill ranks, or fame. If you've played WoW, then imagine a level 20 player being able to wear level 80 green items. He'll have a huge advantage over other level 20 players, but won't really be competitive with real level 80 players.
Right now, I'm using a clipper, which has level requirements 52/16/8. For comparison, the level cap is 65/65/65, and will soon increase to 70/70/70. As I'm an adventurer, there are only two item mall ships in the game that aren't clearly worse for me than my clipper. And they're not clearly better, either; just different (slightly higher top speed, much slower acceleration).
If you come in insisting that you're going to spend exactly $0, ever, then not having access to special shipbuilding permits does cripple you somewhat. If you come in willing to spend $10, once, and not within the first two months of playing the game, then so long as you use the money only on special shipbuilding permits and don't get carried away with buying useless upgrades, then maybe it will be time to think about spending a bit more (another $10) after you've played for six months or a year or so. Special shipbuilding permits are hugely useful, but it only costs about $1-$2 to fully upgrade a ship the way you'd want it for exploration or trading purposes, and the upgrades are permanent to the ship.
The item mall does have stuff like +30% experience gain. But it's not one of those games that assumes the higher experience rate and cripples everyone else. It was originally a subscription game in Japan, and nearly everything available in the subscription game is given away for free. Special shipbuilding permits are the only thing in the item mall that isn't easy to acquire through normal gameplay that would even make sense to exist in a subscription game. Netmarble then took the game and asked, what can we add that we can get players to pay for?
While Netmarble doesn't actually seem that concerned about preventing their item mall from unbalancing the game, it's the nature of the game that it's a lot less sensitive to an item mall unbalancing things than most games would be. In most games, if you get a +10% damage item mall item, that's hugely unbalancing. In UWO, that can be shrugged off as basically a rounding error. If one side wasn't at least twice as strong as the other, it probably wouldn't have started the battle anyway.
One thing that is annoying is that the item mall pulls some stuff out of the next expansion and lets you buy it early. But the next expansion should arrive any day now, which makes that point moot. The game was originally released in Japan in 2005, but not in the US until 2010, so there were several expansions out in Japan by the time the game got translated into English. They released 5 expansions (in the US version) in 2010 alone, which covered about 4 years worth of content in the Japanese version, so we are catching up. It's been about three months since the last one, so it should be coming soon. After that, we won't quite be caught up in content with the Japanese version, but the two remaining updates that Japan has gotten are relatively minor.
Now, as I said, for players into naval combat, it's different. If you want to be a pirate and go around ganking other players, then expect to pay through the nose for it. (At minimum, you'd need an item mall ship and an increased sailing speed amulet.)
Personally, I'm an adventurer, so I mostly go around exploring things. I've played for nearly five months, and spent $10 in that time. There are a lot of games that I won't play because the item mall unbalances stuff. But in UWO, it's fine.
If you want some information on what the game is about, try this thread:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/555/view/forums/thread/332238/Well-this-is-different-a-review.html
If you want to know how exploration works, try this one:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/555/view/forums/thread/337275/Adventuring-discovery-guide.html
And if you look at either of those threads and think, that's too long. I'm not reading that, then you won't like UWO, anyway. You wouldn't have the attention span for it. It's a slow-paced game, rather than one that tries for instant gratification, or even somewhat soonish gratification.
You're right : the cash shop sells advanced ships, xp boosters, etc..
(Myself i only use an extra storage option for a few dollars to support the game)
UWO should be played by subscription, like it is in Japan
That said, it's not as bad as pay to win :
There are more than 100's of skills & these cannot be bought
On one side you do get this unbalanced cash shop,
On the other, you get this:
Tons of skills, exploration, 1000's of quests/missions, ultra polished & constantly updated sandbox,
excellent balance of Pvp / PVE, etc..
You can specialized as a cook chef, a shipwrecker, a ship builder, a pirate, an alchemist, a biologist, a ruin explorer,
a swordfighter, an animal trader, etc..
For me, the advantage of having at last a complete huge polished Sandbox (better than Eve imo) outbid the cash shop,
but it's a matter of opinion.
If you try UWO, be aware that the start is quite slow & hermetic
but the content & progression of the game takes you to YEARS of adventuring & discoveries,
not mere weeks like today's wow-type theme parks.
cheers
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Playing : Uncharted Waters Online
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I played UWO for a while because I live on the coast, and being as that is I'm a sailor. I have a boat, I go out and have fun. But in the off season I cannot jump the waters as much as I want. (Not everyone likes freezing cold water smashing their faces in 60 knot winds) I very much enjoyed the game but left it because I was already playing a large amount of other games.
It does take a long time to get started, the tutorials are very spoonfed style I found my self rushing through it than asking questions in the school channel that were answered via the tutorial. But going through the tutorial/school is a good way to go because of the amount of exp you gain from it.
One aspect of UWO that sealed the deal for me was the realism of sailing, it was a lot better than I had expected. Not exact but really close it was fun. Especially after you've taken on a long voyage with barely enough food racing to your destination with a plauge infested boat... Good times. The community is great and helpfull, there are a few derps there but also anough mature people to even it out and really smooth out the game.
Thank you everyone for the great and elaborate replies, it was very informative for me.
I'm definitely going to download this game over night and I'm really excited to start playing tomorrow.
One last question, say, if I were to try pirating and attacking other players (PvP), how much $ would it cost me to get a ship from the cash shop and upgrade it to be competetive? Also, will this be a one-time purchase or do they release new ships month after month (requiring you to buy those too)? I don't mind paying $15 a month on items if they are really necessary, as I'm used to subscription based games, but outrageous sums of money like couple hundred $ like in Voyage Century Online are totally out of the picture for me.
Again, thank you all for your time in answering my questions.
If you're into trading and exploration, then my advice is, don't plan on being a pirate anytime soon. Being a pirate will make everything else in the game much harder for you, as a lot of other high level players who will leave you alone if you're not a pirate will come after you if you're a pirate. And getting sunk by another player if you're a pirate can be devastating, as the other player takes you bounty from you, which can easily run in the millions of ducats.
Even players who have several months of experience and high level everything sometimes try being a pirate, and then decide they can't hack it and give it up before long. In order for the game to function properly, the game needs the overwhelming majority of players (95%? 97%?) on at any given time not to be pirates. So there are a lot of things put into the game to make things hard on pirates.
If your main goal is to get into piracy quickly, then you'll probably want an item mall ship, some other assorted item mall stuff, and several dozen hours of experience in naval combat before you become a pirate. The item mall does not let you skip the several dozen hours of experience part, and if you try to get into piracy with all of your combat skills low rank, you're going to get your head handed to you in a hurry, and repeatedly.
If you don't want to get into piracy quickly, but only eventually, then you can skip the item mall ship. Once you're high level, you can get a normal high level ship, and have no need for the low level item mall version of the ship. To take my example above, if someone in a modified armored vaisseau (the item mall version) fights someone in an armored vaisseau (the non-item mall version), neither has a ship advantage. (Actually, the non-item mall version can't be upgraded as far just yet, but that will be fixed when the next expansion releases, and is not a big deal, anyway.) If anything, I'd bet on the person in the non-item mall ship winning, because having high levels means he's probably got high rank combat skills, too. The advantage to the item mall ship is that you can use it at low levels; once you're high enough level to use the non-item mall ship, you don't need the item mall ship anymore.
As for how much an item mall ship costs, it's random. You pay $2-$3 to buy a random item from the treasure box, and if you're lucky, you get a ship. If not, then you get some consolation prize that you probably don't care about. I don't know what the probability of getting a ship is, but it might be something like 1% or 3%.
Yes, they do bring out new ships periodically. And they do try to hype the new ships as the best ever. But it's mostly hype. For example, several months ago, the new big thing was the Modified Armored Vaisseau. More recently, the latest new big thing is the Modified Special Frigate. Look up the stats on both yourself:
http://uwodbmirror.ivyro.net/eg/main.php?id=50000214
http://uwodbmirror.ivyro.net/eg/main.php?id=50000277
The newer ship is a little faster, and has sigificantly better base turn speed. The older ship can hold more sailors, more cannons, and more cargo. Which is better? You can make a pretty good case for either one. The older ship is a purer combat ship, and would likely beat the newer ship in combat, while the newer ship would be nicer outside of battle--and in particular, when trying to start or avoid battles. Personally, the only use I'd have for either would be to sell them.
That doesn't stop Netmarble from loudly advertising the newer ship as "the best ever". But that's all hype. If they had released the modified special frigate several months ago and the modified armored vaisseau more recently, they'd still be advertising the newer ship as the best ever. And they'd have about as much of a case for it that way as they do now.
OP , Yes UWO is good choice if u go trade/explore . I remember had good time when I played before like 3 months .
Not sure if the game got auction house yet or still using online vending ?
No auction house when I played, still online vendor. I believe if they implemented both for ships, crew, and maybe other things it could really help boost the game. But it might also un-balance it.