Shadowbane Beta Impressions

[Eida]

Anyway, a few days ago my friends and I quit AC2 for many reasons. We all decided to jump into Shadowbane considering the beta accounts are easy to get. I'll try to summarize initial impressions.

IMPRESSIONS....

A) Very unfriendly to newbies. There is no newbie dungeon with Teaching Stones or anything of the sort. You're essentially dumped into a small town with starting equipment. Perhaps some form of tutorial is intended, but even a jaded UO/EQ/DAOC/AC veteran like myself was a bit put off as I worked my way through the newby stage.

B) Graphics. It won't win any beauty contest, but it definitely gets the job done. Nothing is more satisfying than being able to move around with 30+ people and have no noticable frame lag. I can't recall the last time I went near more than two groups of people in AC2 and could function in any sort of efficient manner due to horrid FPS. The screenshots don't do the game justice, either -- and nothing in all of my MMOG experiance can describe the thrill of seeing 100+ enemy guild members lined up with catapults outside your city. My experiance with AC2 left me feeling such a pretty engine was ultimately dysfunctional for MMOG's in general. In AC2, a playable framerate out on a deserted desert plain is NOT a playable framerate in a pvp fight with more than 5 people. Bad.

C) Lag. Beta lag has been quite common, although my friends are doing much better than I am and I'm wondering if its my wireless connection thats not working well at the moment. Playable? Yea, easily... although I don't give up easy, and coming back in 15 minutes at the end of a lag bubble works alright with me. The lag will have to be fixed if SB wants to remain competitive against SWG. We'll see when the time comes around, although WP is applying a server patch tonight. I may sound more optimistic than other beta testers, however -- I haven't actually tried to organize a raid in a laggy peak period... and there is something to be said for the fact that two of the SB servers are packing 1500+ people and the new server is packing 600+. Which is what... all of the AC2 release servers combined? Lmao, sorry... anyway to continue...

D) Complexity! I cannot express in words how glad I am to play a game with an actual character creation process. Choose race, sex, base profession (fighter/mage/priest/rogue)... then traits. I.e. "Trained By a Master Thief" (+15 dex, -10 str... or something like that). At level 10 choose advanced profession (i.e. Scout, Warrior...). At level 20 choose your first Disicipline (Black Hand--crazy assassin type... can "Pass Wall", awesome for sieges). Its absolutely wonderful coming from a game where character creation = choosing race, sex and some facial features.

E) Loot/Items. AC2's loot system never really did it for me. SB is easily comparable to Diablo 2's loot system, which I loved... if that's your type of thing then you will get along well with SB. There are regular items and magical items so far. Good stuff comes from mobs and also can come from player-owned vendors. The crafting system is too complex to easily explain but it's very nice. On my server, we have a guy called Sinbad who runs a series of shops a bit south of one of the major outposts. He does quite nice business, and also protects his customers.

F) Group system. Believe it or not, but there is absolutely no penalty to grouping. EXP per kill is the same as if you were solo, and gold is split evenly. For a game that claims to be PVP-centric, this is a wonderful addition. Leveling isn't a chore, I'm lvl 26 after 2 days. Granted, my powergamer ways may be a bit faster than normal but not by much.

G) PVP opinion. So far on the new server, I have yet to be attacked by anyone. Whether this is because I'm not important enough to warrant it, or because the political system actually works is hard to tell. This isn't a gank-fest however. Maybe we can attribute it to the newby island (lvl 1-20) being flagged totally white. Still, feels rather odd actually exp'ing, chatting, and trading with fellow players and not being attacked at all.

H) Towns? I can't really speak much about these. Suffice it to say, they're a serious economic undertaking and after the game goes release, we won't see any 15-man roleplayer guilds owning their own cities. They could afford it, eventually -- but defending it would be all but impossible... UNLESS, they're sworn to a larger guild and are geographically positioned so as to be easy (and worthwhile) to defend. And yes, this sounds excellent to me.

) Group Dynamics. How rewarding to actually group with strangers, make new friends... and play an actual role in a group. It seems common public perception is that Shadowbane will only appeal to the gankers and doods. And while I'm sure there are some, I haven't encountered a single one. I'm only meeting mature and experianced MMOG players. And I haven't even dabbled in the political system yet. This isn't to say the gankers/doods bother me -- in fact, I'm rather curious as to where they all are. They can't gank newbies, and maybe they aren't having much luck ganking the people like me who blazed by the newby content and are now rapidly approaching character maturity.

Also, its interesting that my primary role as a Scout in a group is not to deal with monsters, but to make sure enemy players aren't near us. Exactly what I wanted to do when I chose the profession.

Something that always bothered me in AC2 was how generic everything seemed. You were either a damage dealer or a healer... but wait, some classes could do both. And do both better than the classes that could barely do one. Oh well *shrug*

I tried to be as objective as possible but the truth is I'm having more fun than I've had in months. Maybe its the euphoria of something new, but I really like the approach Wolfpack is taking with Shadowbane and I'm hoping I get a chance to build some of my own buildings (or even better, destroy someone elses!) before beta ends.

My honest opinion, however, is that Shadowbane isn't ready YET for the masses to experiment with. I'm so hopeful that WP cleans up the lag issues before release, but I think MMOG tradition has demonstrated that a 1 month grace period is being optimistic. A good tutorial would really help, too... and I feel like a dog for saying it I think the Powergamer Code says I should scorn any form of tutorial or help system. Oh well.

I'd like to see Shadowbane get the support at release that AC2 didn't have. If they clean up the lag and help players get through the 1-3 hour newbie process, it has the potential to be a great game.


Eidal (Snowreap)
Eidal (Deception--SB)

[ShamusChad]

Let's say I want to try SB for a few days...

How long would I have to wait to be told I can beta?

[Eida]

I spent 20 minutes and made 5 ubi.com accounts under the same email address and applied to SB beta on all of them.

Woke up the next morning with an invitation.

[ShamusChad]

Ok I guess I will apply a few more times then....

[ShamusChad]

I made 3 total applications...that should do it.

[Bledynn]

F) Group system. Believe it or not, but there is absolutely no penalty to grouping.

Well, you definitely get a lot less cash the more people you group with, and it tends to get more dull, unless you're with a group you trust enough to try something really tough. I prefer duoing with a RL friend against reds because 1) it's more challenging, and 2) I'm sick to death of dealing with people rushing to loot magic items before you. I'd KILL for a group message of what items dropped like EQ's.

I'm being optimistic and thinking the lag will be mostly over with by release date. It's gotten LOTS better for me in the last few days.

Of all things, my main complaint is the complete lack of any name filtering. I'm hoping when it goes live, they will deal with it. I've learned that there are a TON of people out there that shouldn't ever be allowed to name anything, much less themselves. I'm sorry, but in a fantasy RPG, people shouldn't be allowed to captitalize random letters and name themselves stuff like "LeEt hAxXoR" or "IM GONNA GET YOU". I'm no roleplayer, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

One thing I thought I'd have a problem with but I ended up liking is the point and click movement. It's really not a big deal and it becomes second nature fast. Third person view is great for pvp, too, since you get to see what's going on all around you at once.

The game's got more issues than Michael Jackson, but despite it all, I'm having a blast. Once you get away from the newbie island, things get a lot more fun.

I'm playing a 32 Aracoix scout btw. Only took three tries before I didn't screw up my character. heh They REALLY need more in depth guides for new players out there. It's almost inevitable that you'll screw up at least once.

[Jabberwhacky]

I spent 20 minutes and made 5 ubi.com accounts under the same email address and applied to SB beta on all of them.

When I registered my second beta account it said I couldn't finish because there was already an account using that email, so make sure you have extra email accounts ready and waiting.



The graphics thing is true; screenshots of this game are almost always ass ugly, and it's really not that bad. I just turn everything to max and the res at 1600 and I was impressed by how good the game looks. I've been playing at 1024 with textures on medium and landscape on 0 because of the terrible scenery loading in forests, so it was a big difference maxing everything out. I haven't yet played at this setting (just logged in to see it for a minute) and I don't think it'd work too well when I start grouping (when there are 5 wizards in group so you're killing 10+ monsters at the same time....waaay too much on screen for good FPS).

[crrimson death]

Perhaps some form of tutorial is intended

yay readme file

[Eida]

When I mean Tutorial -- I mean a happy carebear-modeled avatar that gleefully skips and leads me around through the dark world of Shadowbane. Not a horribly outdated tutorial word file that "may mention something about wtf to do but can't really tell due to the bad Lore written throughout the thing"...

I'm a power gamer, but the casual players pay for any MMOG and I want this game to work for them... not be something they return in an hour because they can't find their way to an ant nest or lizardman house.

Bledynn, my experiance so far has been ("Find as many wizards to group with as I can and exploit the hell out of their godly pets.") The EXP/gold I can make duo'ing R3 creatures with my friend carfully is so far below the EXP/gold I can make in a big gropu of wizards doing R4 creatures as fast as they spawn. Hail to beta exploits!

[Weta Smilin]

IS them not adressing/caring about some of the horridly broken aspects of the game specifically a few disciplines.

Sundancing, HORRID its basically a monk .. no armor no weapons... supposed to do awesome damage.

Reality. You do about 1/4th as much damage as every other melee in the game and you take max damage every hit.

Reason. Unarmed combat has NO techniques whatsoever.. Especially until you actully become a Sundancer levels 15-20 are Hell if you cant find a group.. you go down in 4-5 hits to Blue con mobs and do pathetic damage. Once you get the disc its better.. but not much.

Why im pissed. Theyve said they were going to fix Sundancers in EVERY build since early beta.. NEVER happened.. The games going to go live and sundancers are still going to suck.

Not to mention if you put your points in a manner to appropiatly be a Sundancer you basically only put points into unarmed combat.. and sundancing.. so theres kinda no backing away from it once you become one.. you cant just take another disc and bcaome something totallly new because then youd need ot put points into appropiate armor/Disc/Weap and you will basically just suck

This is by far my biggest issue

Birdpeople Archers.

Fire.Fly.. fire without ever getting hit... They can stay up.. and chain arrows without ever getting touched.. melee's without projectiles cant touch em at all.. and archery does wicked damage. I know flying takes Sta but there is ways to get around it if youve played one for a while you prolly know them.


Rogue types Sad Excuse for Backstab that drains your stamina and does horrid damage... Not a big deal because rogues are still awesome. But kinda silly that one of theyre trademarks is basically worthless.


Theres a lot more too..(Can you say Rat Catcher) Disciplines that are SPECTACULAR(Black Mask,Duelist's.all the casters,traveler is pretty good) and then some that just.. suck horridly

[NightKid]

Looks like either their code is bad on their webpage or they purposefully disabled it so no one else can register for beta. After I enter my personal data it sends me to a bad page.

[ShamusChad]

Nah I just sent another app for good measure and it let me do it..

Does anyone know if they send people beta acceptances on the weekend?

[SendaSteel]

When Shadowbane fixes its ass horrid lag, I will continue playing it.

The games lag was so bad 5 months ago I could barely fucking move when I was near 10 other people.

I logged on the other day to see how things had come along, and found that the lag is still ridiculous, however much better they have made it.

Watching the game slow down to basically no response from mobs or vendors for a good 12 seconds every minute is beyond annoying.

If they don't fix that shit, SWG and WoW will eat Shadowbane alive.

(PS: I have a cable connection and a fairly decent computer, so no, it's not that that makes Shadowbane run like the Bazaar)

[Jaytan]

Once youve played it enough you can get to the soft cap in a week (server willing at least..)

[Rastal66]

XPing in shadowbane is obviously not the crux of the game. the above poster is right. I am on my fourth character with about 3 days played invested in other chars before I started him. I have about 2.5 days played on this current char and he is already in his low 30s. xp is not cut down massively like in eq for additional group members. in a 10 person group every individual gets approximately 90% of the normal xp they'd get for killing each mob, so leveling goes very, very quickly. getting to the soft cap of about level 50ish only takes about a week and you can do that even as a pretty much noob to the game. what's left then once you hit 50ish? farming for cash for your guild and pvp. how good is pvp? someone else will have to answer that. it is pretty cool walking outside the city and seeing a row of player run shops that were there the day before all lying in ashes. there are still a few lingering major combat imbalances, but they are easily pinpointed.