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Never mind the rails, here come the Xsyon Reflections from 2 days in game.
jamigre
Member UncommonPosts: 280
So I wrote something similar but then MMORPG.com logged me out, and I lost it. For the good of the community here it is again.
Outline
1. Foreword
2. Day 1
3. Day 2
4. The Bad
5. The Good
6. The Ugly
7. Final Thoughts
Foreword: When I first heard about this game about a year ago, I was the first to scream vapor, the feature list just seemed to good to be true. What I’m about to relate is in a lot of ways me eating my own words and being very happy to do so. The game has good and bad, like any, but if you don’t want to read this posts entirety I’ll summarize, here, it’s a unique true sandbox experience that is in its early state a sandboxers dream, and if you enjoyed UO, pre-NGE SWG, etc… you wont be disappointed. Now without further ado, the meat.
What happened in the two days I’ve been playing:
Day 1: The Long Way Home
There’s a wipe and update. The game is about 3.6GB and it downloads quickly (at least on Verizon FiOS) in NY. So I log in, and get taken to the character creation screen. My first though “ew” – the character models are not pretty, the shading is very archaic and nothing to write home about, however the height / weight ratio is spot on as I make a dude my height and then give him my weight, it was kinda like looking in the mirror. Anyways, I make my guy assign him stats and what not and get in game.
Logging in, I see it’s Autumn and it’s snowing a bit, and raining a lot. I have no idea what I’m doing so start asking for help in global chat (which will be taken out for release) and after about an hr or so I get my bearings with the game mechanics, & I log out as I have to work.
Later on that day, Log back in. The entire world is now covered in Snow. Seems like a blizzard came though while I was offline. So I start walking around trying to figure out what to do, etc… when I see a random guy crafting something or other. Now instead of being civilized and just talking to him, I go ahead and kill him, loot some things, and then move away – note I wasn’t able to loot everything because I was encumbered. I go kill him again, and move on. Looking around and exploring I find a rubbish pile, so I start collecting scrap metal, and scrap plastic to make some tools for myself. I keep on making tools and tools in the hopes that my guy will have a realization and figure out how to make needles, I need one to start tailoring. Well, he doesn’t, you see in XSYON the recipes you learn are random, so two players with the same crafting skill level will have two different recipe sets.
I ask around if anyone has one to trade, and sure enough they do, however they’re all far, aside from the guy I killed who refuses to trade with me due to aforementioned blood lust murder. Ooops, my PKing ways are working against me.. I keep asking and finally a guy decides that he’ll trade a needle and a weaver for an axe. Ok. Progress, I guess I’m being socialized.
I run down the coast to where to guy is, takes me about 20 minutes or so, and I get to his little peninsula. He’s built a little base, made some baskets, and we trade. But who shows up in his tribe, the dude I murdered. After some reasoning, I ask if I can join the tribe, and they let me.
The next few hour are spent cutting down trees, carrying the logs across the river to camp, and doing general prep for building the village. At night I can see about 4 different fires, indicating that people have set up camps, and the closest is just up the hill, so I go visit our neighbors. Turns out they have a saw, and can cut wood. Awesome, they’re willing to do it for free, but as a gesture of good will I ask if they need anything. Extra pliers. Done. I give them pliers, they cur our wood.
At this point I get a PM that the guys I’m actually planning on playing with are online and at our base. So I pilfer whatever tools I think will be useful, some rares, tell the tribe im off to explore, and when deep in the woods, abandon them. The night ends with me getting to our newfound tribe lands.
Day 2: Can I haz this Base are belong to us?
Log on to see that some digging has happened to our area, we now have a raised wall, logs have been cut etc… As there’s a rumor that they’re removing cords for launch, navigation is going to rely on your special awareness, meaning I should probably make a map from the starting area to camp. So I begin heading back to Lake Tahoe, but fall into a big hole and can’t get out so a gm has to help me get out, I ask to get ported back to our home.
The rest of the day is spent testing things out, PvP, hunting, gathering resources, moving sand and dirt to build our bases walls and just figuring the game out. No real super exciting stories, just really delving into the game’s mechanics.
And I have to say they are outrageously intricate. This game lets you be what you want, who you want, and build what you want. But moving onto the Bad.
The Bad: Could be worse
There is absolutely zero newbie experience, and the game does not hold your hand in any way. You get plopped into this world, and it’s “there you go, now figure it out.” – Luckily the community is friendly and helpful, but it’s a steepish learning curve, no where near as bad as EVE though.
The character models, are, Ok, I’ll say it, just plain ugly. Your guy is going to look beat. Nothing to do about it, but hear him up with the thousands of things that can be crafted and worn.
The PVP – Fighting is press C, and click your mouse. You can move around, but it’s not exactly the most amazing experience ever. Weapons are also completely unbalanced at the moment. Some do much more damage than others. No ranged either, but that should be coming soon.
At times the world feels empty, but then again there was just a wipe, and I believe a lot of players are waiting for launch. Either way these are just my reflections.
For some reason all animals will attack you, be it they have rabies or some other reason, they just beeline it for you. This is a little unrealistic.
While the crafting is spectacular, SWG crafters are still going to reminisce about swg.
The Good: Could be better
Man where to start, there’s just so much of it. The game is a sandbox in the truest form, in a lot of ways it reminds me of UO, in others a bit of Tale in the desert, in others SWG (pre NGE of course). You can tell a lot of thought went into this game to fill that niche which has been missing for so long.
The PVP – while combat ain’t nuffin to write home about, you can’t really just go about ganking people, simply put, the game needs social collaboration, and while being an outcast will probably be playable, it will also be very difficult. Additionally PKers incur spawn penalties, and then there’s the full loot system, so you’re really better off not murdering anything and everything.
The world is a completely clean slate, meaning you can do with it as you please, build what you want, change the terrain, build a huge castle on a hill, or a shack, or live in a tent village. It’s just that cool.
The RP possibilities are really endless.. Other games put you in roles, be this be that, we’ve defined the game for you, here you can be who you want and how you want to be it.
The game itself is pretty good looking. Speedtree implementation is great, and Tahoe looks like Tahoe, this world finally feels alive, and not like some piece of static rubbish.
Season, real living seasons, spring, summer, autumn fall.
The crafting. No two players of the same skill level will craft the exact same items. This is because the schematics you get or conceive of are random. A feature where crafters could teach each other how to make things would be a nice add in.
The Ugly: Could be prettier, but nothing major really.
Character Models. Character Models and Character Models, they’re dated, but with money, I’m sure they’ll do a grafx revamp. FE did it, and I don’t see the devs not throwing money and character models. And what they lack in shiny, they make up with gameplay. Also sprinting is reminiscent of a tweaker fit. The thing is, you don't really spend that much time just scoping out your dude.
The animations all together need work, and a good amount of it, also a lot of the terrain maps, i.e. granite, rocksides, etc.. looks like it was made in a map editor. Again graphics. It’s not the prettiest game out there by any means.
The login/char select screen isn’t the best either, but I reckon that will change as well.
Final thoughts on this little MMO that could?
40 bux for game + 2 months play time is a win. No matter how you look at it, you’re also helping to support an indy MMO with the cojones to develop something drastically different from the mold.
As for performance, it’s also well optimizded, I’ve got a AMD Phenom x2 550 @ 3.2 GHZ, 4 GB RAM, and a Radeon 4670 and the thing doesn’t stutter @ 1600x1050. Can’t say the same for a lot of products with much higher budgets.
Hope you enjoyed these thoughts on XSYON, and if you feel like RPing Evil come check out http://templarkx.com/
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Check out my side project http://lfger.com/ - a mobile lfg tool for any game, any time.
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Comments
Good read all in all. Im sure I will be jumping into Xsyon very very soon.
Even with the dated graphics it sounds like complete gameplay > graphics and thats something im sure ill enjoy.
I really would like to wait for launch which is what im sure ill do.
I must say, the lack of tutorial is killing me so far after 2 hours of play. I have no idea what to do, like, at all. Reading your review is giving me some courage to continue trying to craft things.. even if most of these things seem to be completly useless.
1 question: How do I eat stuff? Is it because my food bar is always empty that my character is basically a wimp that need break from just walking every 30 sec?
to eat click the item you want to eat in your inventory and a menu tab will come up and say eat
if you don;t have food you can "forage" for edible plants and eat those, but fishing is much better, a fish pretty much fills your hunger bar a plant not so much
"All expectation leads to suffering" Buhhda
It's a shame that they use "sandbox" as an excuse to not give any kind of tutorial. They really do hide a lot of flaws and laziness behind the term.
I preordered. I cancelled my preorder the next day. The game is utter crap.
if you dont eat / drink , every action will cost you more energy/stamina....
for food you can try forage berrys from the ground... or you need to do some fishing (you need a fishing pole for that)
I'd also suggest you to find people to play with, its a lot more fun that way, also I don't think that many people are playing atm, because everyone is waiting for the final wipe (18th feb).
Youtube has some good tutorials that will help you get adjusted to the game.
Heh, to eat things, right click on a food item in your inventory and click 'eat.'
How do you get things to eat? You can forage and scrounge up some berries or you can equip a fishing pole and head to a body of water.
So is everyone in this game a dick like the OP? or are the vast majority banding together against the end of the world?
Sorry OP but your behaviour is exactly why FFA PVP and full loot games will never ever come close to the more theme parkish games in terms of player base and mass appeal. What you did was quite nasty and worse you dont even seem to realise that those are other players on the other side, now sure, they paid their money they take their chances but you deliberatly set out to be deceitful, and spoil other peoples days (especially robbing the tribe who gave you a second chance after you were a dick for no reason anyway).
While the review is nice ,the fact that its not the game but shallow people that put me off says a lot.
About the missing in-game tutorials, I don't know if the DEVs are just lazy or if the priority is low, but if that is already bothering you, I don't think the game is for you. It's a lot about figuring out stuff by yourself, or together with other players. Personally I never liked tutorials, instruction manuals or the like. Guess thats one of the reasons I like this game (for the moment ).
So lack of proper documentation is the best thing this game has going for it? lol
There is a manual which explains the basics, so it helps you to get started.
The way the OP started his gameplay is really not a good idea, if he doesn't change his character name after the final wipe he will very soon get a bad reputation. In a game where you do need other players to make your life easier thats a pretty bad thing.
Word of mouth goes with lightspeed and soon he won't find anyone to trade with him or help him out apart of his tribe mates.
you just shouldnt play this game, there are information / documentation out there, its just not handed to you easily, you have to search for it. You are obviously the handholding type, which is pretty lucky for you, since like 95% of the mmo games nowadays will satifsfy you in that aspect.
There's a old saying, don't judge a book by it's cover.
I realize that most people have been spoon fed content for years but do yourself a favor and watch these tutorials if you're going to buy this game. This ain't your momma's themepark.
Thanks for the indepth review, much appreciated.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
The one thing i can't wrap my head around on the latest non fantasy sandbox games to come out is, why are they set in a post apocalyptic setting. FE,ER, and Xyson are all set in a time when by large alot of the human race has been destroyed. Wouldn't it make more sense to make a game in the same vein as SWG or EVE, where there was alot of people and NPC,s roaming around that would make the game feel more alive.
Now, i'm not knocking this game at all, since i have never played it. Just kind of interested in it .
It's simple in case of Xsyon. Jooky wanted the world to be totally player driven, if there was no apocalypse we would have to have premade cities, NPCs, established economy, premade items on the market, more advanced technology(hence less evolution expansions), more premade content, quests, storylines as upates limiting sandbox experience.
The way it is now we have to establish the world order ourselves, within basic ruleset.
Lol the OP's behavior really is bad....
We need OP's behaviour. Without it there would be no danger in the world and we would all become complacent.
Damb good read o.p. Made me laugh that the first thing you did in game was gank another player and then ask to trade with him later on. Though I do not condone your behavior it makes for entertaining reading:)
haha yeah i know. But still first killing this guy 2 times and robbing him. Then he forgives him and lets him into hes tribe. And as thanks for that he robs him of tools then runs away. BAD... I feel sorry for this guy.
I understand the players are to make the game themselves, I guess it's the initial lack of objectives that threw me off guard. I don't really need a tutorial, but at least a text with some background would be nice when you first log in, explaining that the apocalypse struck hard and levelled everything and "go build a society to live in" kinda text.
Although I would never do what the OP did, I applaud him/her and salute Xsyon for allowing the freedom to do it.
Sandbox is about freedom to me. Any step to restrict the freedom is a step toward every other game out there, and there's enough of that already,
The playerbase shunning the OP in a community driven sandbox is exactly what should and will evolve, and I would bet my life that the OP is well aware of that (you can tell just from reading the post) and willing to accept the consequences. The freedom for the playerbase to instill those consequences are just as lovely. the desire for this freedom in these games will always be niche, which is also a great thing in many ways,
Thanks to all who are posting about this game. This site has brought it to my attention and now it's not only on my radar but also likely on my computer within the next several days. More research first, but so far I love what I see.
edit *** 2 million typos... need more coffee
I was very intersted in this game right up until i found it out it had FFA pvp and that killed it for me. No matter HOW GOOD the rest of the game is. FFA pvp will kill it for the VAST majority of people. Why because most if not all people will act like the op and be a total asshole. Just like in eve.
Top 3 MMO's PRE-CU SWG GW1 GW2
Worst 2 wow and Lotro Under standing stones it went woke
Hey, glad (most of) you liked the post.
While there is no in game tutorial, this dude Saintbob has put out a series of YouTue videos. It's pretty damn important to watch them until you grasp the mechanics. http://www.youtube.com/user/Saintbob001#p/u/3/y4mAmBUQBZs
Also, while I don't condone reading the instructions to games by any normal human being, the ones for Xsyon (which are on teh same Xsyon Forum post as the d/l link) do tend to explain what the attributes mean etc...
And here are a few more
- you know from us horrible evil people who pvp *gasp*.
http://www.xsyon.com/forum/showthread.php/2953-Character-Creation-Guide
http://www.xsyon.com/forum/showthread.php/2954-You-ve-Survived-now-what-A-Guide-to-Get-You-St
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Now to counter some of the whining about the ffa pvp and reasons for being "evil", here's my cheese.
1. the FFA pvp in this game is like no other, it has so many checks and balances that unless you're a total masochist you're just not going to go around slaughtering other players, it just doesn't make sense. You could of course form a tribe of evil murdering thieving bastards
and that could create a level of self reliance.
2. With there being no retarded goblins, evil spiders, minotaurs, feral hell wolves, people killing elves (Can I tell you how much I hate elves) and god knows what other spawns, where is the element of the enemy going to come from? Who do the masses have to band against. No one, it's a happy go lucky world where the hardest thing you can kill is a bear? With evil aligned players, with people or bands roaming the countryside you feel a "tension" that someone out there could potentially kill yo' ass. There could and will be evil towns / player built castles that you can raid
3. Someone posted that the people who kill don't realize there are other people on the other side. I mean seriously, it's a game, potentially being killed by someone is a ruleset of that game, losing a few items a ruleset of that game. I don't understand then why people who get killed by mobs, respawn and get killed by mobs again, don't yell scream and shout that the said retarded goblin is ganking me. In fact having someone on the other side make it more exciting, the human brain is the best AI we've got.
And seriously, it's not like people go kill other players have some magic ability that makes us impenetrable to attack. When I play evil I die plenty. This argument that it's ok for mobs to kill me but not other players just seems a bit contrived to me. But moving on.
4. In Xsyon PVP you sprint quicker when you're not in combat mode, train up your running and you'll be able to get away fairly easily.
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Anywho... this game isn't dakrfall, it's not MO (thank god) either, there is combat, there is ffa pvp, it's really as close a simulation of real life as I've ever seen. collaboration is key, hell, it's everything.
And remember, if there was no evil, there'd be no good, there'd just be boring, & if you think about it, han solo would'ev probably been a pker, and everyone out there love him.
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Check out my side project http://lfger.com/ - a mobile lfg tool for any game, any time.
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