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I know this seems crazy but, try Shadowbane today!
Agricola1
Member UncommonPosts: 4,977
Yeah I know, I would've thought the same. This guy is some 12 year old dweeb that got cut off from daddy so now plays a F2P turd, or he lives in a basement is 40 years old and his mother made him choose between his MMO and porno site sub.
The facts are, I've played a plethora of P2P. Whenever a new one comes out I give it a try if it's offering good PvP, each time it's a turd and I got taken by Dev lies. I got to the point where I didn't even try Warhammer not due to lack of funds but because I'm just so used to the BS before a P2P is released I new it would kamikazie like all the others have. So since I'm not playing any MMOs right now due to them all being crap I decided "WTF I'll give that Shadowbane turd a try, it's free so what could I lose?".
Well I have to say it's been alot more fun than AoC was, I can actually participate in a siege in SB unlike AoC. There is no insane quest grind, PVE is more like pre-CU SWG. One of the most diverse character creation.progression systems I've come across since pre-cu SWG, city building, nation building and you loot your enemies inventory if you kill them. It's a PvP game with PVE kept to the bare minnimum, and the PvP has conequences.
The only downside is the graphics aren't up to current standards, although I believe the simpler graphics allow for smoother gameplay, no instancing and larger siege and pvp battles and am quite happy to sacrifice look for improved gameplay.
A word of advice, forget about the F2P stigma and try out Shadowbane. If you don't like it, well it was free but I have a feeling there are many who refuse to play F2P that would enjoy it far more than any P2P turd released this year!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Comments
SB is a good game, though I always found the controls frustrating and that was what ultimately made me leave the game.
you left SB cause of controls? i mean yea it takes some getting used to, no WASD and the mouse controls are reversed from most MMO's but aside from that one thing you still can use mouse push on the screens or bind keys to rotate the camera, after that it's just one mouse button push to move to the spot you want ;o
you're missing out on some great open ended pvp
I prefer the control system to WASD myself, I can sit back right click the minimap and drink a coffee or watch the TV. No annoying invisible walls or getting stuck in terrain, and no need to be eternaly holding down a button or forever correcting autorun. I got rather sick of the WASD system in MMOs myself, it's required for twitch gaming but for MMORPGs? I think it causes joint pain for no good reason!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
I installed it and created a character, but, didnt play it for more than 30 mins. I've been way too busy (developing my own MMO) . I will make efforts to take a break and give a full go this weekend. What your server and character name?
Server name: Thurin
Character name: Agricola
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Shadowbane was good, much like DAoC was good, but they're both just kind of old now and have lost alot of their players
The graphics are dated but Thurin server has plenty of players, certainly not a low population. You'll see more players in Shadowbane on Thurin server than any in AoC.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
I don't care how good the gameplay is. I am not playing a game that looks like Shadowbane.
Shadowbane is free now, but didn't start out as a free to play game. It doesn't really have the f2p stigma that the f2p crappy asian grinders have, IMO.
There are different categories. Games that didn't make it and went F2P, and games that were designed as F2P from teh very beginning. The ones designed to be F2P tend to be crappy item malls, which I would never play.
The ones that go F2P just didn't get enough subs, but that doesn't mean they were designed as crappy asian grinders with item malls.
The other thing you have to get over with Shadowbane, IMO, is click to move. It's hard when you are used to WASD.
Its not very demanding if you can watch tv and drink coffee click and move watch a terrible looking game move like a sled AC 2years made before SB its was already far ahead of shadowbane on grafhics and free for all pvp with full loot and skill system, SB is realy not wurth playing.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Ah, another Graphics > Gameplay post.
I don't get it. How can you play a crappy game with great graphics over a great game with mediocre graphics?
Ah, another Graphics > Gameplay post.
I don't get it. How can you play a crappy game with great graphics over a great game with mediocre graphics?
It just isn't a great game without sufficient population, though with enough players it is...but it's been a long, long time since they had enough players.
The account wipes didn't help, if that went through. I was looking into returning when I heard that was going to happen, so I didn't bother. I'm not going to relevel/regear all my characters again, it was enough of a hassle the first itme, and some of that gear was a pain in the...to get (peerless of vamp Graces don't grow on trees).
Ah, another Graphics > Gameplay post.
I don't get it. How can you play a crappy game with great graphics over a great game with mediocre graphics?
It just isn't a great game without sufficient population, though with enough players it is...but it's been a long, long time since they had enough players.
The account wipes didn't help, if that went through. I was looking into returning when I heard that was going to happen, so I didn't bother. I'm not going to relevel/regear all my characters again, it was enough of a hassle the first itme, and some of that gear was a pain in the...to get (peerless of vamp Graces don't grow on trees).
Take a look at Thurin server and you'll see plenty of people, also leveling a char is quick and easy. I've been playing less than a week and from scratch am at lvl 66 now, the leveling is simple as the focus is PvP. You also get XP from PvP victories.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
a lot of people are pissed from when Shadowbane was still a p2p game, and even from before. i did the beta, and a lot of the things the devs promised never made it in (i only betad the last 3 or 4 months, and it was pretty clear a lot of the features weren't there as promised, and it didn't get better as release approached). you're right though, this game is a gem. i'd still play it if i could get past the controls and shitty gfx, although i might give it another shot if the f2p zerg monarchy has been wiped off the servers
My favorite MMO to date, no longer playing it, but have gone back to it so many times that I lost track quite awhile ago. Developers really should look to the example set by Shadowbane's gameplay.
I actually agree with the OP, shadowbane has a better community than many people give it credit for. The low amount of servers consolidates the players and the time windows for pvp action are well managed. Thurin actually boasts a decent enough population to have a good time. It is a shame how far it's decreased since it's peak though, there were epic politics and raging wars at one time.
The character creation and development is probably the most intelligent and complex system I've ever played on. There are an amazing number of builds and ways to play this game, and you only discover more once you think you understand how it works. Also, it requires team strategy and good fundamental pvp skills to be able to beat people on the field or even to survive without getting ganked in some cases, not to mention building a city from scratch.
I've held on to Shadowbane for awhile though. I've played it less and less since it came out, but I still pick it up every so often to see how things are going and check out what new builds are possible. I wish some company would step up and pick up PVP where Shadowbane left off in MMOs. Every MMO player would be better off if they got called gimpy and slaughted repeatedly in Shadowbane before moving on to whatever other game they want to play, cause I'm sick of how much people complain and whine for the nerfbat if they lose in games these days. In Shadowbane getting stomped is natural, and the only thing you can do is open a can on someone before they can do it to you.
One final note... graphics over gameplay? I still play SNES regularly for poop's sake, and if you don't know what I mean you're not a gamer no matter how much you post on forums (Go beat Mike Tyson in Punch Out on NES and then we'll talk). You can't forget that most of these MMOs somehow stemmed from pen and paper games. Looking pretty helps to immerse yourself, but nothing beats a creative imagination.
Well, some people prefer graphics, some others prefer gameplay. If you're looking for shiny graphics, then of course SB might not be for you. Me, I'd rather play an interesting game with not-so-good graphics than a grinding fest that looks good (besides that my comp is a real PoS, so I'm all for low reqs). I guess having played DnD for quite a while and quite some old school MMOs, I never gave a shit bout how well I could see my char.
But yeah, if you guys are bored of the usual MMO and are interested in PvP, definitely give SB a try. Takes a while to actually learn to play (I'm still at it), but the wide choice in character customization, all the possible ways to setup your character, learn how to pvp adeguately by yourself and in group, the open PvP where you never know when you may get attacked (can't really sit back, spam 2 buttons and relax here)... it's really been a long while since I had so much fun in a MMO
Probly gonna stick around till DF comes out. And if it fails....Well, then I'll see you in Thurin (and be depressed for the failure of what might have been a push in the right direction in the MMO genre, but I guess I'm going off-topic here)
Btw, feel free to send me a PM in-game.
Server: Thurin
Chars: either Ydriel or Gunthar
Just started a few days ago and i'm having a blast this game is great fun
after playing to many bad mmos i got myself a new fav.
no time to talk i'm playing shadowbane
The need for graphics player have never belonged in SB and never will belong there. They were the sheep to be slaughtered in the begining and now the wolves prey on the weaker wolves. The I cant stand to play a game that is click to move players are beyond me. It doesnt get any easier to move than SB. If you cant adjust to that you really need some help. PvP King...no one has the guts to put out a game with this hard core of PvP. They are afraid it will lack mass market appeal. I dont play anymore because 5 years in a game was to much but I have found no other games that gave me the fun that SB did.
Holy Hell! Agricola lives!
You must not know about CN in Shadowbane.
Shadowbane is a good game and sadly is the best game I have played in the past few years.
The good:
Guild cohesion - United you stand, divided you fall hard
PvP with a reason - take mines for resources by killing the other player before they claim it, seige enemy towns, protect your own town, harsh politics, wait until that group has a 40 int drop before you kill them and take it
Stealing - Thief class!
Its free - You lose nothing but time.
Play to crush motto! Developers will never restrict the PvP (outside newbie island).
Class and race - No other game has this many
The lore - May not be seen much in-game, but Meridian did a good job at making a reason for everyone to kill each other, if you want to follow the lore.
The bad:
Graphics engine uses OpenGL and was developed by players who left UO because of Trammel, so it crashes from time to time and looks dated. Ubisoft also pushed its release (what MMO hasn't been pushed to be released?).
Its free - CN can not farm and sell gold like they can in other games, so they try to destroy the servers.
The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
I started new character yesterday on Thurin and i found the game very very alive.It was very populated , there was leveling group everywhere i went, i found guild fairly easy too, cities are crowded.People who say "graphics sux , its old lolol,controls sux" realy need to back off, this game doesnt need crybabies , its harsh game anyway.HF