I been playing a ton of this lately. It's an MMO very, very loosely based on the historical Silk Road trade route from china. The premise sounds boring, but it's really pretty awesome. You visit countries like greece, babylon, china of course, and lots of other places, and you do battle with the local mythological creatures. The magic and combat system is very action-oriented, like CoH/V. It starts simple, but quickly grows very complex and customizable as you level.

The graphics are also pretty darn good, with reflective water, nice textures, and excellent animation and special effects in everything. Here is a screen shot of my character. My gear is kinda plain right now because I'm still pretty low, and I'm also wearing mainly caster gear to amplify my magic.

It is free, supported by the ITEM MALL in the manner of Gunbound. Like Gunbound you can go the entire game without ever buying anything from the Item Mall and not even really be hindered.

If you're burnt out waiting for burning crusade to be released, check it out some. I'm on the Greece server with 5 or 6 friends from work who are trying to get a guild together.

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Bajahing:
Very WoWish UI there, but looks worth checking out, I suppose!

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The UI actually works a bit more like DAoC than WoW, imo.

The big note button in the bottom right pops up your universal window that toggles through your inventory, quest list, character sheet, skill sheet, and an "activities" list.

Maradon! fucked around with this message on 09-06-2006 at 06:42 PM.

as in

$Maradon sup duder

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Willias had this to say about Cuba:
So, is this like every other Korean MMO where you run around and kill 5 million mobs to get to level 10?

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Yes, though compared to the average Korean MMO the chat system is much worse and the PvP system is better.

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Talonus had this to say about Duck Tales:
Yes, though compared to the average Korean MMO the chat system is much worse and the PvP system is better.

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ugh

And it looked pretty cool.

Oh well, I still might give it a shot. Can't be as bad as Lineage 2.

What's the PvP like? WoW style where dying really doesn't have a penalty? Or is there a penalty involved here?

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Williasing:
So, is this like every other Korean MMO where you run around and kill 5 million mobs to get to level 10?

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Yes and No.

Leveling is actually pretty quick and it has WoW style quest hubs.

But, if you just level straight out you'll only get to level up two skill trees (usually one magic and one weapon) effectively. This is not all that bad since you can only really use two at a time, but if you want to diversify for whatever reason and don't feel like starting a new character, you have to farm SXP.

To do this, you stop spending all your skill points entirely and go powerlevel. As your mastery level falls behind your character level, you'll gain a multiplier to all skill points earned. This... gets to be painfully slow. We're talking EverQuest slow.

It's never necessary though and mainly only for obsessive people who can't pick a weapon type and settle on it, and ultimately they end up fucking themselves anyway because you can only have a total mastery level of 300 in all your combined skills.

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x--WilliasO-('-'Q) :
What's the PvP like? WoW style where dying really doesn't have a penalty? Or is there a penalty involved here?

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No penalty for PVP death.

Basically, once you get to be a certain level you get to pick a job: Trader, Thief, or Hunter.

Traders run trade routes and make ph4t c4sh. Hunters protect traders. Thieves are extremely powerful, and attack traders for their shits.

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Maradon! Model 2000 was programmed to say:
Yes and No.

Leveling is actually pretty quick and it has WoW style quest hubs.

But, if you just level straight out you'll only get to level up two skill trees (usually one magic and one weapon) effectively. This is not all that bad since you can only really use two at a time, but if you want to diversify for whatever reason and don't feel like starting a new character, you have to farm SXP.

To do this, you stop spending all your skill points entirely and go powerlevel. As your mastery level falls behind your character level, you'll gain a multiplier to all skill points earned. This... gets to be painfully slow. We're talking EverQuest slow.

It's never necessary though and mainly only for obsessive people who can't pick a weapon type and settle on it, and ultimately they end up fucking themselves anyway because you can only have a total mastery level of 300 in all your combined skills.

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Ah, well, that doesn't sound too bad.

And EverQuest isn't that slow. You want to know slow? Lineage 2 is fucking slow. I tried that game in open beta, and never saw level 20. I played for 10 hours a day for 5 days, at level 19, and never got close. And I was killing shit 2 levels higher than me too (and wasn't dying, which incurred exp loss).

And the max level was fucking 75.

Edit: HMM. I'll download this later tonight.

Willias fucked around with this message on 09-06-2006 at 07:02 PM.

Maradon! fucked around with this message on 09-06-2006 at 07:04 PM.

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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Stalwart Steve who doth quote:
I might give this a shot. I'm not exactly clear on the details yet, but I'll probably have a European character.

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You can only make chinese characters right now

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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Stalwart Steve who doth quote:
GAYGAYGAYGAYGAYGAYGAY

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You can make a demon-looking character.

Or one that floats.

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Stalwart Steveing:
I'm still not even sure of the mechanics of the game but I think I might make a blade/force user. (A paladin basically)

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Blade/Force can actually be pretty decent offensively.

If you focus more on strength, force will augment your weapon abilities for decent DPS and survivability.

If you focus more on intellegence, you'll basically be a very survivable healer/buffer, but soloing will be more of a pain.

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x--DemosO-('-'Q) :
I had a fire/polearm char I got to 20 then got bored. Thief skill is friggin impossible to level without a bunch of friends; otherwise you get ganked to hell and back by the 20 other traders/hunters on the same road.

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Hunter and trader are friggin impossible to level without a bunch of friends, otherwise you get ganked to hell and back by the roving bands of invincible thieves.

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Maradon! got all f'ed up on Angel Dust and wrote:
Blade/Force can actually be pretty decent offensively.

If you focus more on strength, force will augment your weapon abilities for decent DPS and survivability.

If you focus more on intellegence, you'll basically be a very survivable healer/buffer, but soloing will be more of a pain.

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So wait, Force is like, support and crap?

I was hoping I could make a mage type character, but that'd suck if I was going to be forced to group. :/

Edit: Ah, I see. Force Power is Healing and stuff. Nevermind!

Willias fucked around with this message on 09-06-2006 at 09:57 PM.

They are extremely hard to level unless you go bow/ice.

I think you're getting confused by the ambiguous use of "Force": All magic is dubbed Force, there are four different types of Force: Fire, Ice, Lightning, and... Force.

Maradon! fucked around with this message on 09-06-2006 at 10:06 PM.

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Verily, Maradon! doth proclaim:
Mage type characters are called nukers and they're easy to make, just dump all your points into INT and all your skill points into fire, ice, or lightning.

They are extremely hard to level unless you go bow/ice.

I think you're getting confused by the ambiguous use of "Force": All magic is dubbed Force, there are four different types of Force: Fire, Ice, Lightning, and... Force.

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I see. :/

Roaming around, taking on champions and shit, combined with a diablo-like item system makes it a great time waster.

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Demosing:
That, and taking on the Giant mobs and going berserker when someone tries to steal it is fun. Its...ninja-flipping-out caliber.

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Haha, I so did that

Which is surprising.

Probably won't last beyond level 10. But for now: Thanks, Maradon.

LeMiere fucked around with this message on 09-06-2006 at 11:48 PM.

Come on, this is one of the most basic functions of a user interface. Then again maybe I have been spoiled by ten years of smooth movement and comfortable keymap schemes.

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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Tyewa Dawnsister who doth quote:
Well the game certainly looks interesting but the inability to remap the movement keys causes it to fail.

Come on, this is one of the most basic functions of a user interface. Then again maybe I have been spoiled by ten years of smooth movement and comfortable keymap schemes.

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Yeah, that does suck, but really I rarely use movement keys for anything other than traveling very long distances, and click-to-move is easier for that anyway.

there's an autorun action in the action pane, but I don't know how to use it

or at least a note

I'm Maradon in game. It is not hard to predict that.

Maradon! fucked around with this message on 09-08-2006 at 12:03 AM.

For a free game, I actually enjoy it. No way in hell I'd ever pay for something from the mall, or subscription for it. It does however give me a break from GuildWars. I Love GW but after a couple matches an hour, I need to look at something else.

Where are the hand blades, omg.. All the images, artwork, even the splash screens and install screens show all these characters with hand blades (Claws!) but they aren't actually in the game.

I have difficulty with several of the servers for some reason. The only one that really works for me is Greece.

I wish you could Berzerk more often. That's amazingly fun.

Faelynn LeAndris fucked around with this message on 09-08-2006 at 08:54 AM.

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Faelynn LeAndrising:
I wish you could Berzerk more often. That's amazingly fun.

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You can find berserk (vita) grains that add berserk bubbles.