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It's worth a look, but after 1 week, you'll be "done" with it, and why...
HappyFunBall
Member UncommonPosts: 221
I LOVE games like UO, and I've been waiting for a Sandbox world to explore for many years now, and just really haven't found it.
I'd play UO if they made a decent client with all the functionality of razor, uoassist, and the original client combined, but sadly, they failed each time they tried, then scrapped each project. Epic fail(s).
Anyway, I never even heard of Linkrealms until a week ago... maybe less. Odd, b/c it's been around for 3 years in one form or another. The dev team, I'm told, is just 2 people. Even that doesn't explain how it's only where it's at in 3 whole years, even if they work on it part-time. I'm a principal software engineer, so take my word for that 
Honestly, take a look, but there's no compelling reason to stay and play it... Why? Because it's not even close to done and you will run out of things to do in just a few days of playing. The world is TINY and for the most part, EMPTY. In a few days of playing, I've seen bascially seen the entire "world". It's unfinished, unpolished, and not even close to complete.
There aren't really many quests, and when I said "aren't many", I mean that there's about 10 quests total. They are all newbie quests with terrible rewards, and only help you learn to play the game. I gave up after 3 of them.
There's only one main town. If you go "explore", you'll find bascially pretty scenery and nothing else. Really, almost no wandering monsters, places of interest, chests, loots, NOTHING! Also, each "zone" is absolutely tiny. You walk for 15 seconds, and you're in a new zone again... it makes the game feel terrible UN-seamless...There are also dead ends and usually only 1 way to get somewhere which is irritating as hell for a sandbox game.
There are hardly any players, and I mean, around 5 at any given time! I did see about 10 people on today, yeah, 10, and I was fairly surprised. Most days, it's 3-5 players. So, economy and that sort of thing are bascially non-existant.
The skills aren't flushed out well and they simply aren't worth the time to level up. The time it takes you to raise your cooking skill, for example, to make anything worth the health gain you would get from it (eat food/drink gains you health during battle or whenever) is ridiculously long and TEDIOUS, especially since you can go to the only dungeon I've found that drops much of anything, and get high end food items for free (you small barrels), all in about 10 mins of time... with little risk of dying too.. you run faster than every mob I've ever seen. So again, spend 2 weeks on your cooking skill, or go to a dungeon for 10 mins. What would you do?
Lockpicking takes 10 seconds per attempt. Then, while attempting it, monsters spawn around you and interupt you, so you have to start over. It took me hours to get my skill up to 12, and the rewards are absolute garbage, even if the chests were just unlocked! I hear the high level chests are worth it, but I'm not making a career out of raising the skill for some randomized loot.
Like dungeon romping? I found 4 dungeons. 4. That's it. Three of them are for newbs only and have almost no reason to exist besides leveling up your skills. I found only one dungeon with monsters that actually drop "ok" loot. But, I quickly found the best gear I could from them, and now everything else goes to vendor-trash if I even care to make money, which also seems fairly useless in the game. I mean, you need money for only various things, and that's it.
There's this "thing" where you can "buy" and build your own realm (with their free map editor) but I read about it, went to a couple player realms, and was like, "meh".. You have to pay real money for this as well. I found no compelling reason why I'd want to pay for something like that. It's akin to just a castle or other property, in UO.
There's even a cash shop that to me, seemed more flushed out than the actual game. It's a beta, and I detest asking players to contribute to a games development (an unfinished game!), but I understand why they do it... especially if they have zero financial backing. It bothers me more because the game isn't even close to done. So why buy anything?
Anyway, the game has a TON of potential, but after 3 years, I wouldn't hold your breath that it's gonna be anything any time soon. Maybe if they hired a dev team and designers, etc, who knows.. but it doesn't seem like that's ever gonna happen for this game.
I really wanted to love this game, but after less than a week, I've seen and done almost everything there is to do. I could stay and mindlessly grind skills, but why? With no compelling reason to do so, it would just be a waste of time.
Comments
The world is too small and empty, there's no economy (and no players), it's very grindy, etc. I always felt it's a game that's almost perfect in its niche way, but that "almost" seems to be a permanent handicap. I think most people try it for a short while and then move on, simply because as you said, there's no real reason to stay.
Yep. Always nice to have someone agree with you.
The tiny player-base does back up my claims though...
It's a real shame. I really loved it for the first few days and just assumed there was an entire world to explore. After I got strong enough to explore, I found nothing out there and hit the "end" of the map in 30-60 mins. It's akin to reaching "end-game" in another MMO in just a few days of playing (I did play a lot those days) - except many other games have either some or a lot of end-game content.
The Mount Viscous PVP area, which you could call end-game content, is so poorly designed, I can imagine what they were thinking when they made it. It's also full of next to nothing besides scenery and some boss mobs if you're able to figure out how to navigate to them.
It doesn't look like a giant maze on the map, but bascially, that's what is it. It's really frustrating because it's like navigating a huge hedge maze, when it comes down to it. You think from looking at the map you'll be able to get to here or there, but there are walls blocking you every step of the way. There are several player castles/structures (I think that's what they are), and your player gets stuck easily when you trying to walk around the outside of them. I think the players designed some teleporters in/on them to avoid this, but they many were not functional, so you had to use the "stuck" command. Like UO, these structures do not show up on the map, and they are as big as UO keeps and castles, so it makes the pvp area even harder to navigate.
The reason I bring up the pvp area is because it's the only place I've really every seen bosses and their minions spawn (minus one cool newbie dungeon), which drop the best loot.. of course they made the idiotic decision to put the best PVE content in a PVP area, and that makes me want to shoot myself in the face at the lack of logic there!
Another analogy I would use that's even better than before is if you were a hunter, creeping around a forest hunting deer, and there were also other hunters creeping around in the same area hunting you, or maybe even the deer too. I simply will never understand why somes games do this. It's makes absolutely no sense.
Not sure if anyone played Rose Online, but they had this map that was only open during certain times. It BY FAR had the most exp of any zone in the game.. you kill the mobs there and they drop special jelly beans (from what I remember) and they gave you enormous amounts of exp. Guess what the main problem with this was? It was also a pvp zone. So, you'd have max-level characters picking you off as you were trying to do this event and gain exp. It was beyond obnoxious. You already had to compete with other players for the exp drops as it was and try to stay alive from all the mobs running around, then had to worry constantly about being ganked. The designer must have been sadistic!
If I won the lottery, I would create my own company, hire a great team, and design and build the best UO-Like Sandbox game known to man.
Too bad I'm never gonna win the lottery, or secure funding in any other way. 
I hope the devs over at LR read my long post I wrote on their forums, or at least in generates some discussion. I offered to help them with development too, and I'd even do it for free for the exp, but I haven't heard a thing. If all they ever want is a tiny niche game with only a few die-hard players, then who am I to tell them otherwise?
I would think they would want so much more, but what do I know?
It sounds like you have not got to experience a good deal of the content this game provides. You won't find many (if any) mobs in the world, which gives the impression it is empty. I'm personally happy the game is not loaded with quests. The quests are designed to teach players how to play the game and that's about it. You don't need to do them if you don't want to.
Let's count the dungeons.
Newbie Dungeons:
Crypt
Cricket Cave
Blood Querry
Vine Jungle
Spider dungeon – easier one
Beehive
Higher level dungeons:
Hades
Blackwoods
Gnome dungeon
Spider dungeon – harder one
Stone Abyss (pvp only)
Tartaros (pvp only)
In order to enter the gnome dungeon, you need to have a realm (or a friend who has a realm) plant crops. This will cause gnome houses to grow in your realm which spawn gnomes you will fight. They have a chance to drop a map that will take you to the dungeon. This is one of the best dungeons in the game. Players will also sell these maps for fairly cheap if you don't want to pay for a realm.
The majority of the creatures you are going to fight are found in these areas and not the open world. There are events that will spawn at random times and locations which will provide some creatures in the world. They are not always active so you can miss them. Here they are:
non pvp: (These will only be marked on your map if you're within 2 or 3 realms of where they are located).
Mushroom spawn
Lizagoths spawn
Wasps spawn
Grizzly spawn
pvp:
Harpy and Minotaur spawn
Crypt Scourge and Darkling Archer spawn
Griffon and Darkling Warrior spawn
Imp and Lizard spawn
There are 4 spawns with varying levels of difficulty active at all times. These spawns change location every 2 hours. Each time a monster is killed, there is a 5% chance an exalted version of a monster will spawn. Exalted monsters are much more dangerous and powerful than their regular version. Exalted monsters have a chance of dropping a Philosophers Stone fragment when killed. The frequency of fragment drop rates is influenced by the difficulty of the spawn.You are more likely to get a fragment from an Exalted Minotaur than from an Exalted Imp. All 4 spawns are clearly marked on the in-game world map, regardless of where you are in the world.
Philosophers Stone fragments stay on your corpse when you are killed, and anyone in possession of a fragment will glow brightly.
When you have collected 20 fragments you may bring them to an NPC near a forge in the Tartaros entrance room. He will accept your 20 fragments and use them to manufacture a random 1 of 17 new artifacts. There is a sign in this room explaining the details of all 17 artifacts.
Skills are worth having. Cooking is pretty easy to raise once you get into it and you can make some really nice heals on the high end. They plan to make more uses for cooking in the future.
I'm not going to go through and explain the reasons for having each skill. But one of my favorites is spiritualism. It's a fun skill to fight with if you have not tried it.
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wow. trying to monetize players who are doing free labour for you (creating content for the game) seems like a REALLY bad idea.
they are also a small percentage of of the playerbase to begin with.
so they really limit the money they make,
AND they really limit what the most important players (to them) can do to help them make the game more interesting.
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Corpus Callosum
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I really appreciate the info, but the newbie dungeons suck, and only really help you build up your skills a bit. Endless random monster spawns with mostly 0 drops. What's the point of killing a monster that doesn't drop ANY form of loot?
The crypt was only a little better, with very crappy drops too. I was done with that place in less than a day.
The Vine Jungle was also a waste of time.
Blood Quarry I liked, as the Trolls had decent drops, at least until everything I got from them was maxed, then their loot was usless, and didn't even sell for much at the vendor. Clothes sell for next to nothing. Weapons sell for more, but are heavy, so you can only carry so many between runs.
I haven't tried the bee hive.. I think. Hmm, maybe I did and found it useless or unmemorable as well.
I did find a spider "dungeon", but it was pretty hard, with terrible drops. Just spider silk which is only good for higher level tailoring, or to sell to the tiny player base (which is so small, hardly anyone will buy it), and money isn't useful in the game anyway, for the most part.
A friend an I went to Stone Abyss, didn't get a single drop, and thought it basically "sucked". Yes, I keep mentioning drops. Why go to a dungeon if you're not going to get loot to improve your character with - like better weapons, armor, money, etc. That's a failed dungeon IMHO.
I found Hades, and unless I did something wrong, it was EXACTLY like the crypt - total newbie content with no drops. I ran everywhere in there I could, and tried the teleporters in there.. couldn't find anything tough to kill. Just ghosts, zombies, and skellies.. same as the crypt.
Another player an I tried Blackwoods, but had NO IDEA how to get it open. We were told you had to kill a zillion ghosts, and we did until we go bored and left. What a waste of time.
In the pvp area, I did find:
Griffon and Darkling Warrior spawn
Imp and Lizard spawn
I was pked quickly working on the griffons, that I was told had good loot, but after killing many of them, the loot was identical to the Trolls in Blood Quarry. Why risk getting pk'd then?
I also cleared the imp spawn and the boss, again, even from the boss, garbage loot. I've have the same gear since day 2-3 and never found one piece of armor or a weapon that's been better. To me, that means, you are wasting your time. All games like this are about becoming more powerful. If I spend hours in order to do this, and I'm NOT getting more powerful, then I'm wasting my time.
The Gnome dungeon sounds interesting, but also sounds like quite the convoluted pain in the ass to gain entrance to. Sorry, but that's my opinion. I shouldn't have to jump through hoops just to "walk" into a dungeon.
I'm surprised the fact that the surface world being empty doesn't bother you, or at least it doesn't sound like it does. It's unrealistic, makes the world, well, empty, barren, and useless. Why explore if you aren't going to find anything. Mindlessly searching for these "spawns" you mentioned seems like a wild-goose chase to me. Like a lot of people, I have limited time to be online. I'm not going to spend 90% wandering around aimlessly hoping a random spawn will occur.
Again, thanks for the info, but this doesn't change my opinion of the game. The only thing I *may* play the game for again is to try to get into that gnome dungeon by buying a map. I talked to a lot of players too, even one that was on there for years, and he never mentioned that dungeon. Odd.
Oh well. I got back into RaiderZ, which, so far, is much more fun, polished, and complete. Totally different type of game (still and MMO), but still.
Sorry dude, but that makes no sense. Form a group for what? To find nothing? What's the point? The world will STILL be empty. Also, I did form a couple groups. It changed nothing.
I played awhile back, and it's cool, I think, but it really is too old school for me. I could live with the isometric view, if it were actually 3D, say like City of Steam or Torchlight 2. Even without the 3D I could probably live with it. The mechanics really are old school though...grind away on one skill forever until it's worth something.
I do like their system of making money though. Players can have their own property in the game. That is really cool.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.