EQ2 could be my future, Allods is a keeper, ROM back on the menu and STO on hold.

In another 18 months EQ2 might be home

News is in, EQ2 is adding Battlegrounds.  At this rate, in another year or so, EQ2 will probably have most of what I want for my main-stay MMO.  I'm not being sarcastic either. If the game continues adding in the things I enjoy, the fact that I don't like the questing system will become increasingly over shadowed.  I can't run back to a subscription at this point because the PVP is for max level characters only.  Boo!  Besides which, they need to get through the PVP issues nerfing PVE skills, class balancing, crowd control whining and twink drama that have plagued WOW BGs since forever.  Yeah, I'll skip the initial onslaught of teeth gnashing and QQ.  Grats EQ2!

I canceled my STO pre-order

As much as I enjoy being there with the opening day masses, another week of the BETA left me feeling more uneasy about the game's future. In the past couple of years, I've bought too many games that I was sincerely excited about but didn't last long after the 30 days that came with the box, to go with the lower percentage of lasting past the 30 days, for a game that I'm only marginally enthused over. 

The 180 on the skill cap mechanic was the tipping point for two reasons.  First - class skill tree design in a game with infinite skill points is VERY different from a game DESIGNED FOR FINITE SKILL POINTS.  From what I can tell, the decision has changed without an overhaul and/or thorough review AND TESTING of impact.  You won't know how gimped the situation is until nearer to max level.  Second - Skill, attribute and item descriptions are so poor, it's hard to know if you're even making the right choices for your class, role and spec.  Poor documentation is tolerable when you have an infinite supply of skill points to spend but unacceptable when you don't.

Even though I consider STO as MMORPG-lite, I think it has a lot of potential.  If there was nothing else to play right now, I might risk the box price and see where it goes.  However, I do have other options so I'll see how Cryptic brings the game along in the next couple of months.

Still anxiously awaiting Allods

Allods please come out of BETA and launch!! Yes, I want a polished game but I'm so ready to get back to my vampiric healer and the Empire's steampunk inspired zones.  PLEASE release already and take some of my money!

Surianah returns to Runes of Magic

I left ROM several weeks after the launch day patch that did a complete 180 on my Battle Monk styled character.  I could get over the fact that they'd encouraged spending coins in the cash shop before release, which I'd done.  Yet followed that up with significant changes to how some classes played.  These changes left my combo DOA.  Sure, I could continue on with a completely gimped class, ever at a disadvantage or re-roll.  My plan was to go back after they released the expansion pack which was adding two new classes and the elven race.  I wanted to see what would be available before starting over.  Unfortunately, by the time the xpac arrived, I'd lost interest and was too busy to go back for a re-roll.

Taking a casual look through the ROM forums, I came across a post about resetting your secondary class.  SAY WHAT?!?  Yep, an item shop potion can be used to drop my secondary class, releasing me from my gimped Battle Monk combo.  WOOT.  Time is money, so I'm not apposed to paying for the opportunity to fix the problem without abandoning a level 36/36 character that had a grand 2-story house/crafting workshop, modded gear and was collecting the prettier item shop mounts.

Edit: Using the potion doesn't just wipe the choice, it wipes that half of your character, levels and all.  I still find that more acceptable than a complete re-roll because my house, and modded gear remain available to me.  By doing dailies using the level 36 but turning them in on the new secondary, I can more quickly regain the lost levels versus starting both sides over.  So I don't get bored, I'm going all the way back to the starter zone and will do the dailies in each tier progressively until, she's at least 36/25 or so.  There are also zones I've never seen from the summer xpac to explore.

For the first time ever, I will be playing two free MMOs simultaneously

In the end, STO lost out to the fact that there are two free-to-play MMOs at my disposal.  Allods in it's BETA state, is in considerably better shape than STO.  On top of which, Allods is fantasy.  ROM released in a better state than STO can hope for unless it's suddenly delayed.  Plus I have a vested interest in a level 36 character.  Combined, these two games can easily fill the little time I have available for MMO entertainment. 

STO not completely abandoned

I'm not abandoning STO unless it somehow goes up in flames in the next 60 days.  I liked soloing ground missions with my little crew.  I enjoyed the ship combat very much.  More so, than the EVE PVE content which I thought was decent.  And the micro-management and progression of your character, ship and crew are fun tinkering opportunities which I find engaging when I want to be in-game but not actually doing anything in particular.  Again, lots there for MMO-lite but I'm going to wait to see how the game does in the next couple of months.

Comments

[coppertopper]

Its /e captainsit. One of the funniest blog posts of the year (all 28 days) was on this STO conundrum, but cant remember which Virginworlds blogger did it : /

[Steve K]

If I remember correctly, in an earlier blog post, you were looking for a game that was less "instanced", no?

I've been hopping around the MMO trial scene for a few months now, trying to find my new "hobby" when I stumbled...wholly unexpectantly, into Vanguard.

I can't believe I'm saying this...but I think V:SoH is the most underappreciated MMO on the market right now. Look, I know what crap it was at release...I'm a CE owner...and quit after the first month. It's far from perfect graphically, IMHO, but the mechanics of the game are actually FUN!

[R.W. Harper]

I agree, Allods Online is a keeper! I will be there with you at launch. For now, I am hanging back on Beta waiting for the real release.

[saylah]

Tnx for letting me know. I asked repeatedly in chat. Still you'd think something as fundamental to what Kirkland did while on the bridge would be an obvious interaction. Like what else is there to do there. I wish you could remember the blogger : -(

[Saylah]

Yikes, Vanguard. I own a copy already. I'm sure SOE had done work to stabilize and improve the game. But like STO there are other games that are more compelling and have larger gamer communities. If I had the time for the grind, I'd just go back to Aion. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Saylah]

Ditto. When I switched back to the NA BETA, I created a League character to avoid seeing anymore of the Empire side. I only did that one for a few days so I was in T1 when I decided that I was in love with Allods and didn't want to spoil seeing anymore before Live. I can not wait!

[Iggep]

I also pre-ordered STO, though I hadn't decided to play it, let along pre-order until the final week of the beta. Frankly I wasn't all that encouraged by the reports I had been reading, but finally decided to give it a first-hand try. I like the ship combat, as simplistic as it is, but feel a little disappointed in how little it feels like a MMORPG, and how much it feels like a single person RPG. Still, Ill play it for a while and hope that the PVP aspects interest me.

[Saylah]

Excellent point. It doesn't feel very much like MMORPG but also lacks the immersion of a single player game. It really reminds me of coop-mode on the XBox. Which is fine for what it is and there's enough fun to be had if you're not playing something more compelling. I will definitely give STO a try before a return to EVE. No slight to EVE but I mostly did PVE and that's more fun in STO than EVE, as is to be expected.

[coppertopper]

Saylah - found that hilarious post on trying to sit in the captains chair on the bridge. It's at potshot.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/the-bridge-the-final-frontier

[Saylah]

Sweet! Thanks so much.

[jeremy davidson]

I am looking forward to checking out Allods online but I have a couple of questions. Is it easy to get a beta code? Is there a secondary class like GW of ROM? How many people can fight in a group at once in pve? Is it possible to beat the game without spending a lot of cash?

[Kane Hart]

I played ROM a bit but never had much time to really get into it and was worried what the item mall would do to it since I'm not a big mall user more a sub guy.

STO though... Yeah I don't want to comment and also canceled my pre order after beta.

Looking forward to Allods though :)

[Jeremy S.]

I love reading when people discover Vanguard. I too agree, it might be the most under appreciated MMORPG out there. It might just be my future "home".

I still have not seen anything about doing anything in Allods besides level and PvP. That's not a bash, yes, it is a complaint. I love crafting doggonit, and I am very curious as to how Allods works/will work.

Oh, after a year of playing RoM, I finally started buying some diamonds. Intitially to level and explore the many in-game and pyschological facets paying would have. In the end, I'm too much of a casual player I think. I spend most of my diamonds on different mounts, coloring those mounts, decorating, planting, and opening up bag space so I can horde stuff. I finally made a little video of my 2-story Elegant House, for your viewing enjoyment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCQmWlkxHUU

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@ Jeremy - Wow, it's been a year! Your house looks great. I still think most games under estimate the value and stickiness of having player housing in a game. It dovetails so nicely with crafting and gives people something to do other than advance in levels, faction, yada.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Crafting in Allods - I never got it to work. I couldn't even harvest in CB2 so I gave up. I've found that many games release with borked crafting but it gets addressed within a couple of months after go-live. I'm not sure about the value crafted items will have beyond consumables in Allods. It didn't seem as deep as ROM or Aion. Consumables are always useful and in demand, so there's a safety-net in that aspect at least.

I'm also skeptical about the long haul in Allods. What you do after you level? I'm predicting that large group only astral mechanic is going to prove troublesome. You have to have something highly accessible at the end game or players won't stay. If they don't stay, you lose opportunities for micro-transactions revenue. For me, I'm going in with the thought that I will have fun leveling but there might not be anything at the end to hold me. But since it's a "free ride" - money spent at my discretion, I'm okay with that fact.