D
DeSlisser
Guest
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Date Posted: 7:55pm Subject: Ant's opinion of Atlantis - Date Edited: 8:04pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Ant_ButterNut
Okay...
1. Trials -
The Trials are hard.
VERY hard.
Each Trial is 10 steps (or mini-quests). You can do steps 1-9 in any order, but you have to do step 10 last. Some are easy, some are hard, some are near impossible on a good day with Jesus Christ as your buffbot.
Some steps you can do solo.
Some steps you HAVE to do solo.
Some you will need to bring 4 groups and 8 tanks. (Not those pitful paladins and frakelfriar-wussies... I'm talking Abrams and Panzers).
In most trials I saw you have to THINK and EXPERIMENT.
You dont just run in with 40 people and kill a mob and go "woot". You have to figure out how to open a special door, or trigger a gate, or turn off a monsters invulnerability. Maybe you knock pillars down on the boss monster, or maybe you have to assemble and use a siege ram on the bottom of the ocean. (I'm not kidding, both of those are solutions that turned out the be the right answers). Sure, there will one day be walkthroughs all over the place... but only after someone figures out that you can only open a door by having three lurikeens in pajamas turn windershins on a giant badger chanting 36 times "MUSHROOM MUSHROOM... SNAKE!"
Trials are LONG and TOUGH.
Think of 9 epic quests...
Now think of 9 epic quests that were written by your ex-wife's lawyer...
(Yes, I fully believe your ex-wife's lawyer is now a Mythic ToA developer. I think they also hired my ex-wife, too!)
2. Artifacts -
Artifacts are in my opinion the most powerful and dangerous thing to enter the game. Everyone is running around in circles yelling "THE MASTER ABILITIES ARE COMING!". So much has been said and speculated about the MAs that kobolds are hiding their babies inside snowmen, while naked trolls stand in the street covered in green jello with smiles of anticipatory glee.
Forget MAs. Or at least do not worry about them so much. They are all little changes here, little changes there. Group bonuses and group debuffs.
Fear Artifacts.
Artifacts are special items and weapons that make a 16.5 dps polearm look like a big stick. Okay... a 16.5 dps polearm IS a big stick... not a good analogy.
Picture yourself walking across a meadow when you suddenly see a screaming lurikeen in a pink tutu coming straight at you on Speed 12 with 25 shaven badgers velcroed to his body. wow. what a image. That's an artifact. If you don't feel the fear then you havent seen a shaven badger.
Artifacts LEARN.
They get BETTER.
They get STRONGER.
They develop new abilities, spells, styles, etc.
Feed an artifact enough of the right type of blood and it will make even the most confident Left-Axer lose bladder control as he sees you approach.
MAs are going to affect RvR, but they will affect groups... Artifacts are going to affect YOU.
3. Legendary Weapons and Weapon Drops -
These are awesome. They slice, dice, and come in the most vivid neon colors and retro designs. (Your Galla weapons are going to be hand me downs to your alts.) They arent quite as good as Artifacts in the long run, but they are better than most of the current drops.
Weapon and item drops can have 5 and 6 stats.
The stats often include powerful combos like a ring I got of +25 str, +12 dex, +12 con, +8% matter, +8% spirit.
Often one of the stats will be something like:
+3 to ALL melee skills
50 focus to ALL lines
+7 to strength item cap
+10% to all melee damage
My ranger is normally capped at +75 strength... well right now he has +98 to strength from items. I can bend small dwarves with my bare lurikeen hands. (Except lurikeens dont have bare hands. I take off my gloves and i have... undergloves? weird! )
4. The zones -
The first zone, called the Remnant zone, has monsters green to a level 50. Mostly underwater.
The 5 ocean zones, laid out in a cross, are mostly full of yellow to red monsters. And I mean FULL. I once stood, or swam, in one spot, and counted over 100 squids in my line of sight.
Stygia is to the north, the land of deserts. A level 50 can wander over most of this pretty safely, if you watch out for orange scorpions and jackalmen. But watch out for agro, as they appear to never stop chasing you. And don't attack something that looks like a camp boss unless you want 25 orange monsters chasing you all the way to Mag Mell. Respawn rates are very high, so you will need a group to clear most camps to get to the bosses and the interesting drops. Also in Stygia is the Fort of Storms, a desert fort with about 100 monsters in it, surrounded by deadly electrical storms. And, of course, the pyramid. Inside the pyramid is the Manticore... half giant lion, half giant black scorpion. So purple that your tounge turns blue before you even think of licking him...
To the east of the oceans is Volcanus. These zones are in perpetual twilight, with a red burning sky. Lava rivers criss-cross the land barring your path. To get through the zone you have to kill minotaurs. there are 12 to 24 to a bridge, and they are red or purple, and they self-heal. Not user friendly.
To the south of the oceans is Areos. A tranquil land full of lovely trees, it brings a song to the heart of every hibernian, and a curse to the lips of the norsemen. And you learn quickly it may be the most dangerous land you have ever entered. There is a good reason the last trial is in Aeros... giant sex-starved drug-crazed NRA-voting Centaurs. They work in teams, they run for help, they come back with 75 of their pals. Their pals bring pals. These guys think "BAF!" means "Bring a Freaking-army!"
5 - Quests
An expansion pack wouldnt be complete without Quests. There are tons of quests, and most have very interesting stories. Be ready for deciet, betrayals, and backstabbing. Also be ready for to /release. And run back and try again because the end you will stumble home clutching your prize muttering "my precious... thems will not take precious from me again!" Therefore, I suggest you decline the Mount Doom quest
6. Monster Models, Artwork, and Sounds -
In all my time in Atlantis, I never saw a single monster model from SI or Classic. Every single one is unique to Atlantis. That explains why ToA is on TWO CDS. You will fight everything from squids to a 30 foot tall red cockatrice with razor wingtips and fire breath. You won't see a single badger, bear, spraggon, or green snake. Thank god.
There is so much artwork in Atlantis that you will miss most of it. After a large battle, look up. Yes, they even decorated the ceilings.
Along with Atlantis there are a ton of new sounds. When you open a fort door you hear a ominous deep grinding noise. When you drown you almost want to drown to hear the sound again. Monsters frequently surprise you or make you jump with unusual sounds. And then there are the interesting sounds I havent found yet but see loaded... like "whip_hits_flesh.wav", and "airship_crashes.wav"? Moody, scary, and yet strangely kinky...
In summary, I give Atlantis 4 badgers and a Mushroom.
I would give it a second mushroom, but then it would not be an expansion pack, but (as every hibernian knows) would qualify (per Mythic) as a town.
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Date Posted: 7:55pm Subject: Ant's opinion of Atlantis - Date Edited: 8:04pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Ant_ButterNut
Okay...
1. Trials -
The Trials are hard.
VERY hard.
Each Trial is 10 steps (or mini-quests). You can do steps 1-9 in any order, but you have to do step 10 last. Some are easy, some are hard, some are near impossible on a good day with Jesus Christ as your buffbot.
Some steps you can do solo.
Some steps you HAVE to do solo.
Some you will need to bring 4 groups and 8 tanks. (Not those pitful paladins and frakelfriar-wussies... I'm talking Abrams and Panzers).
In most trials I saw you have to THINK and EXPERIMENT.
You dont just run in with 40 people and kill a mob and go "woot". You have to figure out how to open a special door, or trigger a gate, or turn off a monsters invulnerability. Maybe you knock pillars down on the boss monster, or maybe you have to assemble and use a siege ram on the bottom of the ocean. (I'm not kidding, both of those are solutions that turned out the be the right answers). Sure, there will one day be walkthroughs all over the place... but only after someone figures out that you can only open a door by having three lurikeens in pajamas turn windershins on a giant badger chanting 36 times "MUSHROOM MUSHROOM... SNAKE!"
Trials are LONG and TOUGH.
Think of 9 epic quests...
Now think of 9 epic quests that were written by your ex-wife's lawyer...
(Yes, I fully believe your ex-wife's lawyer is now a Mythic ToA developer. I think they also hired my ex-wife, too!)
2. Artifacts -
Artifacts are in my opinion the most powerful and dangerous thing to enter the game. Everyone is running around in circles yelling "THE MASTER ABILITIES ARE COMING!". So much has been said and speculated about the MAs that kobolds are hiding their babies inside snowmen, while naked trolls stand in the street covered in green jello with smiles of anticipatory glee.
Forget MAs. Or at least do not worry about them so much. They are all little changes here, little changes there. Group bonuses and group debuffs.
Fear Artifacts.
Artifacts are special items and weapons that make a 16.5 dps polearm look like a big stick. Okay... a 16.5 dps polearm IS a big stick... not a good analogy.
Picture yourself walking across a meadow when you suddenly see a screaming lurikeen in a pink tutu coming straight at you on Speed 12 with 25 shaven badgers velcroed to his body. wow. what a image. That's an artifact. If you don't feel the fear then you havent seen a shaven badger.
Artifacts LEARN.
They get BETTER.
They get STRONGER.
They develop new abilities, spells, styles, etc.
Feed an artifact enough of the right type of blood and it will make even the most confident Left-Axer lose bladder control as he sees you approach.
MAs are going to affect RvR, but they will affect groups... Artifacts are going to affect YOU.
3. Legendary Weapons and Weapon Drops -
These are awesome. They slice, dice, and come in the most vivid neon colors and retro designs. (Your Galla weapons are going to be hand me downs to your alts.) They arent quite as good as Artifacts in the long run, but they are better than most of the current drops.
Weapon and item drops can have 5 and 6 stats.
The stats often include powerful combos like a ring I got of +25 str, +12 dex, +12 con, +8% matter, +8% spirit.
Often one of the stats will be something like:
+3 to ALL melee skills
50 focus to ALL lines
+7 to strength item cap
+10% to all melee damage
My ranger is normally capped at +75 strength... well right now he has +98 to strength from items. I can bend small dwarves with my bare lurikeen hands. (Except lurikeens dont have bare hands. I take off my gloves and i have... undergloves? weird! )
4. The zones -
The first zone, called the Remnant zone, has monsters green to a level 50. Mostly underwater.
The 5 ocean zones, laid out in a cross, are mostly full of yellow to red monsters. And I mean FULL. I once stood, or swam, in one spot, and counted over 100 squids in my line of sight.
Stygia is to the north, the land of deserts. A level 50 can wander over most of this pretty safely, if you watch out for orange scorpions and jackalmen. But watch out for agro, as they appear to never stop chasing you. And don't attack something that looks like a camp boss unless you want 25 orange monsters chasing you all the way to Mag Mell. Respawn rates are very high, so you will need a group to clear most camps to get to the bosses and the interesting drops. Also in Stygia is the Fort of Storms, a desert fort with about 100 monsters in it, surrounded by deadly electrical storms. And, of course, the pyramid. Inside the pyramid is the Manticore... half giant lion, half giant black scorpion. So purple that your tounge turns blue before you even think of licking him...
To the east of the oceans is Volcanus. These zones are in perpetual twilight, with a red burning sky. Lava rivers criss-cross the land barring your path. To get through the zone you have to kill minotaurs. there are 12 to 24 to a bridge, and they are red or purple, and they self-heal. Not user friendly.
To the south of the oceans is Areos. A tranquil land full of lovely trees, it brings a song to the heart of every hibernian, and a curse to the lips of the norsemen. And you learn quickly it may be the most dangerous land you have ever entered. There is a good reason the last trial is in Aeros... giant sex-starved drug-crazed NRA-voting Centaurs. They work in teams, they run for help, they come back with 75 of their pals. Their pals bring pals. These guys think "BAF!" means "Bring a Freaking-army!"
5 - Quests
An expansion pack wouldnt be complete without Quests. There are tons of quests, and most have very interesting stories. Be ready for deciet, betrayals, and backstabbing. Also be ready for to /release. And run back and try again because the end you will stumble home clutching your prize muttering "my precious... thems will not take precious from me again!" Therefore, I suggest you decline the Mount Doom quest
6. Monster Models, Artwork, and Sounds -
In all my time in Atlantis, I never saw a single monster model from SI or Classic. Every single one is unique to Atlantis. That explains why ToA is on TWO CDS. You will fight everything from squids to a 30 foot tall red cockatrice with razor wingtips and fire breath. You won't see a single badger, bear, spraggon, or green snake. Thank god.
There is so much artwork in Atlantis that you will miss most of it. After a large battle, look up. Yes, they even decorated the ceilings.
Along with Atlantis there are a ton of new sounds. When you open a fort door you hear a ominous deep grinding noise. When you drown you almost want to drown to hear the sound again. Monsters frequently surprise you or make you jump with unusual sounds. And then there are the interesting sounds I havent found yet but see loaded... like "whip_hits_flesh.wav", and "airship_crashes.wav"? Moody, scary, and yet strangely kinky...
In summary, I give Atlantis 4 badgers and a Mushroom.
I would give it a second mushroom, but then it would not be an expansion pack, but (as every hibernian knows) would qualify (per Mythic) as a town.
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