Thoughts on Diablo 3, and the UO player base..

Even with it being pointed out that DIII is free to play, if someone commits time to it to play seriously why pay for full house decay periods of UO when you're not using it instead of just reactivating it accordingly to keep a house up? I for one do not enjoy paying for services I am not utilizing. You do not necessarily have to find another pay to play game to find reason to drop your UO account (swapping out the charge, I see what people are getting at)

By the way G.v.P. I love the banner. And Ellis. And Jimmy Gibbs Jr

"Ninja sword here!" Haha thanks. If only UO had a racecar, then I could recreate the finale to Dead Center .

I created every character on Test Center then made a log cabin custom house and logged in on each one, making a photoshop layer for each so they appeared next to one another near the house. Of course the zombies broke traditional UO tileset rules and were done differently ;P.

It probably depends on how well the Warhammer MOBA works out. Still think it was weird, but they are trying to keep Warhammer the MMORPG going somehow, and it is a good testbed for other MOBAs.

BioWare is in a weird place right now. If there was a huge decline in SWTOR subscriptions, then they are probably getting the typical EA micromanagement treatment and they are on the road to turning into another Origin or Westwood Studios. If there isn't a huge decline and EA is happy with SWTOR, then we might see them branching out.

Might be good for UO in the long run as well if SWTOR does well. I wasn't joking when I told people that if they like UO they'll get a subscription or two to SWTOR.

I was wondering about a Kingdoms of Amalur MMORPG and if it would impact BioWare (and Camelot and UO) in anyway if EA put money into it, but Curt Schilling is pretty pissed off/frustrated with EA right now, and even let loose on the Amalur forums, bitching about the amount of control EA has over his baby and how he's not happy.

Curt does a much better job publicly articulating his unhappiness with EA than Garriott did, although Garriott was more created, using easter eggs in his games.

I began Warhammer's MOBA--Wrath of Heroes (WoH)--today. I got a BETA invite a couple months ago and I forgot all about it. I'm not sure if the game is open beta still but I'm disconnecting from the lobby/game quite frequently after five games, which doesn't happen when I play League of Legends (LoL). The website navigation is awful--typical of an EA product, I suppose--and I had to go to a wiki site to gather quick and hard information.

WoH features only 11 playable heroes, whereas LoL currently features 94 (DOTA 2 is expected to have 74 on release). There are three different game modes for WoH, but when you queue up for a game the system picks a game-type for you, which is kind of annoying. Queue times aren't bad, though. The interesting thing is the gameplay is 6v6v6 and you can pick a different hero every time you respawn from a death during a game, but if you don't pay real money you're looking at probably a couple hundred games played before you can actually buy one of the rotating three "free to play" heroes (the game encourages you to group up with others in order to get a higher chance at obtaining gold, and, while not in a clan, I'm getting anywhere from 0-100 gold a game, while the cheapest hero costs a whopping 30,000). It's much easier to get heroes in LoL and there are ten rotating free champions every week rather than three.

WoH might still be in open beta, but I am disappoint. It's less strategy and more arcade--fun, but mindless. But the achievement progress is encouraging. After every game there's a summary of what you've done better, or what you did that helped out your team.

One thing of interest to UOers is Kai, who does the UO Herald updates, also manages the updates over at the WoH page. That was fun to see. I haven't tried Kingdoms of Amalur yet, and from what you mentioned I guess we can't hope to expect an MMO/MOBA out of that franchise?

Also, to get back to the topic, Diablo III will feature battle arena PvP in which you can 4v4, I believe (but it'll come in a post-release patch). LoL (and DOTA 2) is 5v5. Hm.

I'm kind of defending WoH - your points are all valid about the game, design, and website, but WoH was designed to be a very short game - no more than 15 minutes.

In some ways, Ultima X reminds me of WoH - take an existing MMORPG and stript it down a bit, but WoH is much more radical.

Kai also does the Warhammer Online and the Camelot sites. Which is why they are what they are - one person doing most of the work is not enough.

Amalur is a lot of fun, has a sandbox feel, and was very polished for a first-time game from that studio. Salvatore created a lot of lore for it, and they have plans for an MMORPG.

With Schilling pissed at EA, who knows. At least he didn't sell his company to EA like Garriott did.

Between Amalur and Skyrim, old-school Ultima fans should be pretty happy that sandbox-type RPGs are still being made.

Well, "technically" first game from that studio...but the studio is staffed by all the major developers from morrowind & oblivion and a lot of old firaxis members, and the art was done by Todd McFarlane...so nobody involved was truely that "new" (Salvatore's writing has been the basis of a LOT of said developers RPG's in the past as well). From the video I've seen from the videos and writing of it it's just yet another level-based grindfest with opt-in pvp though, so I don't really see how people get "sandbox" or "oldschool ultima players will love it" out of it.

I liked I and II. Enjoyed the load test on III. For me it's all the the proper third person perspective. If UO was more akin to III in its polish, yet still held onto its non linear appeal...we would be playing a true contender in today's modern MMO world. For me, I will be playing both until UO is able to offer something to keep me interested full time.

Well, that's what the advertising says, yes. In LoL, a game takes anywhere from 15-30 mins to 30-70 mins, depending on the game mode (there are three game modes but only two are really used--plus there are AI-only mirrors, which WoH doesn't seem to have--and you can choose a queue for each game mode rather than queue for all three at once like it is currently in WoH). LoL is set so a player can play the fast mode for a quick fix or the long mode for a bit more strategy. However, if I can queue up at 5-6 am on a Sunday morning and experience a short wait time, that means quite a lot of people are playing WoH, I would think. Certainly enough people are trying it out right now to make the game playable, unlike DOTA 2 beta.

There needs to be a balance between difficulty and fun, and I won't say WoH isn't fun--when you aren't disconnecting from the game. A lot of people dislike DOTA 2 due to the complexity of that game for example, while HoN and LoL softened a bit as they branched out. The WoH games can run longer than 15 minutes, but with three teams the action is, as expected, fast, and simple. It's also unique, for now, as the heavy hitters are all 5v5-based.

A basic premise in WoH is to capture flags and hold them or capture relics and hold those in your base, and the first to 250 points wins. A similar mode in LoL counts you down from 500. Some of those "Dominion" games in LoL last a mere 6 minutes if things get particularly unlucky for the other side.

One thing I should have mentioned, though, in the prior post, is an example of champion/heroes. In LoL, a "Win of the Day" (once per 22 hours) grants you bonus in-game currency to equal that of around 200 points (not bad for 15 mins), while a loss would be more around 40 points. WoH gives you a slot machine at the end with more rotating chances based on your performance in the game and whether or not you're in a clan, so the variance of what you earn is affected by your gameplay but then ends up a matter of the RNG deciding your fate. As I said, I've experienced an average of 50 gold and sometimes get none at all. While WoH's champions currently range from 30,000-60,000 gold each to unlock, LoL's champions range from 450-6,300 points. In other words, if you win three games over the span of three days you can buy your next champion in LoL, while to own a hero in WoH would take, theoretically, hundreds of games, even if you get into the top rankings each game and unlock more slots to roll. I suppose if WoH is merely a probe on the market intended to make some cash then everything is in working order ;P.

Just watching the DIII Arena videos I can tell the PvP looks more fun and polished. I have a few friends who played Beta and complained about DIII being too easy, and bug-filled, so I'll wait a bit after launch to see how its PvP goes.

I played Diablo. Frankly I have no interest in the game. I am looking for a far superior community to interact with.

Ultima Online provides me with that Interaction I am looking for.

not being much of a gamer, my tastes being more towards midnight mansion, Keen, or Jill of the Jungle flavors, I have to ask what happened to D1 & 2?
they go belly-up, someone won? they still learning how to make a game, or milk consumers,or what?

...

Diablo 1 came out in 1996, Diablo 2 in 2000. Diablo 2 is still active on Battle Net and has "seasons" where the game is reset and online characters erased every so often.

Diablo 3 is simply the next game in the series as it's more of a single player Action RPG (mainly hack and slash with a small side portion of crafting in 2 and 3) with multiplayer support. (Think any other non-MMOG series up to and including Ultima)

Diablo is a set storyline, not a persistent world.

Though part of me wonders how the online aspect will be handled with the RMAH (Real Money Auction House) in regards to any "reset" of the game.

Unfortunately I think that UH is exactly correct here ^^^^...

Just sayin.............

Garriott's Ultimate RPG could become Ultima Online 2 • News • Eurogamer.net

Thoughts?

To me it seems like it's actually easier to end relationships with people than it is with UO.

hehe this... I've no desire to quit UO... not now... not later. Until there is a game that offers everything that UO has.... and totally awesome graphics and less bugs with better CS then I'll remain with UO... but that game better have a non-grindy non-leveling choice of characters..... TONS of customization..... cool housing that you can deco and design... RP...... Sandbox.... with taming and pets. Cause I don't think I"d like to give that up...

Could not say it better myself. Its not a true MMORPG and you can't play with friends online

Added: Correction I rushed when I typed the statement above. You can play with friends or strangers online but it's not like UO, War, DaoC, WoW,GW1, GW2 and ect ect just running into people.

Sounds like it's time to quit. Then 1 of 2 things will happen:

Either you'll accept it's flaws and come back or you'll move on. Either way you will be better off than it sounds like you are right now.

You necro'd a month-old thread, one that was stupid to begin with, to post a link to a completely off-topic news article that is itself both six months old and completely debunked and denied by EA itself.

Way to post, champ.

I know that, but if you're waiting around for that to happen...... well.

Well as for that I gave up being Married and Smoking all in the same night. It's not too hard.

I shall have to keep this excuse in mind the next time I fail.

Of course, when I do it someone will post a picture of an easy button, call me a Trammie, and remind me in no uncertain terms that I'm responsible for my own actions.

-Galen's player


EDIT: I'll leave the post up because I'm nothing if not honest when I **** up, but it should be noted that when I replied for some reason I thought that it was Flutter who necro-ed the thread, which was clearly wrong. It was someone I hadn't even heard of.

Unfortunately I am constrained to admit that means it was me who failed on this one, not Flutter.

Oh well; I'll survive.

Sorry!

-Galen's player

Jeesis, I refreshed a thread that ended April 30th! Kill me now Nerd Jong Il.

Secondly, someone had mentioned it and i googled, being an old UO player I got excited.

Get over it , Fatboy.