Some info guys? :)

S

ShiShi

Guest
hellos,
could some beta testers here post some more info how xping and pvp system works in shadowbane? :)

i'm kinda getting bored and irritated by daoc , the huge amount of time it takes to lvl a high char for a casual player and the return of fun u have later from that, beeing a sad owner of a lvlv 50 mentalist, kinda upset by latest changes made to hib mages ability to kill anything and survive same time...

would really appreciate some more info
cheers
S.

ps. i simply dun intend lvl a high char for months to find out the developper patches sth and screws the fun of that char, like i feel now in daoc
 
S

seranu

Guest
Hi there ShiShi ;)

Well to try to answer your questions:

First of all, Shadowbane lvling is a LOT faster than daoc lvling. This is for a few reasons. To begin with, it will simply allow casual players to be more viable, and while it will give the powerlvlers a slight advantage, this will not make the powerlvlers uber under already from the start. It still takes time lvling, although not at all as long time as in DAoC.
Second of all, the game does not need to 'hide' behind a never ending lvling treadmill. Instead they concentrate on making pvp and gvg fun and exiting.
And third, people get quite tired of just killing mobs constantly...

So will this mean that everyone will be maxed out in a month, and there will be no lvl difference?
- My answer to that would be no. Although you will lvl faster than in daoc, as I said it will still take a little time. This will lead to that there still will be high and low lvl players, just that it's not as painfull getting high lvl as in daoc.

Will easier lvling make powergamers feel they are not getting advantage of playing day in and day out?
- Not at all imo. First of all, they will lvl past everyone the first month perhaps, but that isn't really much of a prob as people fairly quickly will gain lvls as well. Although the big advantage the powergamers have, is to have the option to be able to create, run and upkeep an empire and dedicate many hours a day to it.
Although being a leader of an empire is not about being able to sacrifice hours each day, but it requires great skill as well. The powergamers might get to know more people, will be able to explore the world in a different way perhaps, and just simply have a lot of time to plan things.
But as I said, to be a successfull leader, is NOT only to sacrifice xx hours each day, it's a whole lot of skill as well.

Does this mean that casual players won't be able to have successfull empires?
- Of course casual players will be able to lead an empire if they have the skill, but it will maybe take more planning than a powergamer. You might need assign officers of the guild to different departments, say for example you have one officer to be able to lead all your melee forces in case of a seige or battle and you are not around. So basically, all it needs, is a bit more planning to be able to do it.
My tips for the casual gamers that want an empire, is first learn the game so you know it's ins and outs, and then maybe at night before you go to sleep, you take up a pencil and paper, and start skissing your guild structure. Plan on who does what and so on.

Now say you already have created your empire (from a casual players point of view now), and you have your guild structure set up, and you've recruited the officers and some general members. So how would you be able to upkeep your empire as a casual player?
- Well simply give your dedicated officers to at the end of the day, give you a brief summary of what's happened while you were away. You could log in at night before you go to bed just to check up if anything urgent has happened. You take down notes if something in the guild needs to be fixed, you log off, go to bed, and then think about how to fix the situation, and then the next day reveil your plans to the rest of the guild.

This will give casual players the chance to lead an empire as well, but as I said, it will take a bit more planning perhaps...


Ok so now for the PvP part of the game. As you might know, the intstead of purely PvP there is GvG (guild vs guild) warfare. In short, GvG are empires fighting about power. Everything is a big RvR zone except the few safeholds there are around. If you compare with daoc, you could say that the cities are like the keeps in daoc. Although the cities actually mean a lot which the daoc keeps don't. A city is what puts a guild on the map, and it's the pride of a guild who has one (or more).
And the cities are not just stone walls surrounding nothing but a few guards and a Lord like the keeps in daoc. They are living cities which players (that are not hostile to the leader guild of course) can access, and depending on the funds of the guild and how they built it, it will have trainers, merchants, bursars, builders and most things you could wish for. Now all these NPCs and buildings the guild has to pay for to get, and also pay a wage, so don't count on that small newly created cities will have all this.

Anyways, when you want to seige a city, you need to through in a bane circle. This is like declaring war. The defending city now has to decide when the war phase should start, and it's ranging from 24 hours, to 72 hours (real time), which gives both sides time to prepare for a war. This also gets rid of ninja raiding a city during the late night or early mornings.

Oh bugger I'm out of time now, so can't write more, but if you think of anything else during the day, I'll try to answer it tonight, and also continue telling about the warfare and politics and the meaning of guilds ;)

Anyways, hope it's helped a little at least ;)

Cheers :)
 
X

Xtro

Guest
nice post seranu thanks for the info.

Still not sure whether I'll buy though argh...
 
S

ShiShi

Guest
Cheers Seranu!!!

Lots of helpfull intro info as for me :)
though all totally new and confusing a bit still
will troll those days a bit more, and try get it more structured for my wee brain :)
tx again ! :)

S.
 
S

ShiShi

Guest
few questions Seranu if you find few minutes spare to asnwer :)

The max lvl in Shadowbane is 70, right?
Any estimate how long it takes to lvl such char? or i.e a lvl 50 ?

How a lower lvl character fits into this GvG ? can he contribute anyhow? or he suffers lot from the lvl difference? or maybe is it more like in diablo 2 , where this difference was not so significant?

You say all lands are RvR zones, besides cities. Does not that spoils anyhow the fun to lower lvl players --> i.e arent they harassed and pked by high lvls over and over?

I heard from a fellow troll friend that looting bodies of other players is ingame. Could you say few words how it works? Isnt it to annoying feature?

Thx for patience and sorry for all those noob questions :)
I'd appreciate if you could post also some nice link to a shadowbane page with more info about game mechanisms etc.
So far visited the ubisoft official site with all this general info about races , classes and professions.

tc :)
S.
 
S

SilverHood

Guest
afaik, you start of on a newbie, non PK island. You can get to lvl 25ish without having to contend with PK'ers.

From what I hear, it isn't just random ganking.... especially if you're in a guild, because PK'ing can have repercussions.

I heard from a fellow troll friend that looting bodies of other players is ingame. Could you say few words how it works? Isnt it to annoying feature?

You can loot any body you see. Whether you killed the person, or whether it's yours is imaterial.

Sometimes groups guard your body from looters. Other times they loot you blind when you die.

I've heard stories of players with the hidden ability.... they just sit in a group of xp'ers, and when soemone dies, grabs the loot and runs for the hills.

people loot your corpse. You loot others. It's a circle, and it seems well implemented.

Of course, you should never carry more than you would can loose. Unlike daoc, wehere you are heavily dependant on items, in SB, you don't stand to loose much if you die. As long as you got some money in the bank, that is.


The place I frequent:MyMMORPG

Some stuff slightly dated, has some super forums though.
 
S

ShiShi

Guest
thx for the info SilverHood :)

hmm, as i lately checked it looks like we won't have SB in europe soon, and it won't be either possible to play on US servers for players not living in canada/usa....bah :/

S.
 
S

seranu

Guest
Glad I could help, and I'll tyr to answer these as well :p

Originally posted by ShiShi

The max lvl in Shadowbane is 70, right?
Any estimate how long it takes to lvl such char? or i.e a lvl 50 ?

To start, no the max lvl is not 70. In fact, there is no max lvl like in daoc. There is however a softcap (daoc has a hardcap at lvl 50). The softcap is a nice feature, which basically means while you still can get exp from mobs, you can also gain lvls. Although the higher lvl you go, the less benefits you get from lvling. So you won't get as many points to spend at higher lvls than at lower lvls. The softcap is estimated at around lvl 50-60 somewhere, and personally the highest I've seen was a lvl 60. After that it's almost not worth going further, but for those who enjoy it, the option is still there :)



How a lower lvl character fits into this GvG ? can he contribute anyhow? or he suffers lot from the lvl difference? or maybe is it more like in diablo 2 , where this difference was not so significant?

Well the fact that there is a softcap, and that the higher you go, he less points you get, will of course also even things out. Of course a much higher lvl will have an advantage and almost surely will win on a 1vs1 against a lower lvl player, but it's not as lvl dependant as daoc, where meeting someone 1-2 lvls higher than you is no-winner, and meeting one who is 3-5 lvls above is a certain death.
So to sum that up, it's not as lvl dependent as daoc. Higher lvls will have clear advantages 1 vs 1, but that different will be less noticable in an large scaled battle.


You say all lands are RvR zones, besides cities. Does not that spoils anyhow the fun to lower lvl players --> i.e arent they harassed and pked by high lvls over and over?

Well I haven't really had any probs with this. People tend to be casious with whom they mess with, as it can be a fatal mistake if they mess with the wrong guy. Say for example you start messing with someone who is in a large guild in leadership over many cities, and with many players. You migt be put on the guilds city guards Kill on Sight list, which will ban you from their cities, allowing the guards to kill you at sight. And also, most people so far have been very mature, and also very many roleplayers that don't see the fun in brainless ganking, if not done in a roleplaying kind of way (for example if you roleplay a barbarian who is mentally mad).



I heard from a fellow troll friend that looting bodies of other players is ingame. Could you say few words how it works? Isnt it to annoying feature?

Ye tis true that when you die, a grave marker is erected, and all you had in your inventory at that time (not the items you are wearing though) will be plaed in the grave marker, and it is free for all to loot. Although this kind of falls into the same category as the last answer, where people sometimes are afraid of looting others gravemarkers. Who knows if there are stealthers around looking for someone to fool into place so they can bring him down and loot him?
It felt a bit weird at the beginning, but now it seems work out great, and is a nice feature, which gives you some pain when you die, and also some hope that nobody has touched your grave.



And for links, I almost only use http://shadowbane.ubi.com and also check out their boards which are great. Try accessing http://ubbforums.ubi.com as well. Don't know if it's for Beta Only, but there you have all the nicest boards including the Beta board, although it might be blocked out for non-beta testers perhaps.

Hope this coul help some :p

Goodluck and godspeed! :)
 
S

seranu

Guest
Well I just finished answering a guild mate from daoc, so I'll copy and paste if that's ok, as I don't have the patience to rewrite it all ;)
The one asking, is Avindor, Ranger of Draconis Alumni in daoc..
His questions were as follows:

------------------------------------------
Does it have a skill system? What kind?
Related to skills: strict classes ala Daoc or the opposite like UO?
Quests? Rediculous running like in Daoc?
PvP? Who are the enemy? Everyone?
------------------------------------------

Unfortunately I didn't have time to answer the last question fully, but will try get some time for later on ;)

There may be a few 'guildie' stuff inside since I copied this from the guild boards at www.draconisalumni.co.uk

Anyways, Happy reading!

*****************************

/em kisses Avin for letting me talk about SB :p
Oh lord I've written this twice now, because for some reason the page booted me back to loging
Anyways!

Ok lets start with thes skill system then

- If you take char creation and compare daoc with SB to start off. Now in daoc, you choose your raise, and you choose your base class. Then you spec into already given lines. And often there is a 'right' and a 'wrong' way to spec a char, and as a caster especially, spreading your points will gimp you. And then at 50, every class has it's in-official 'uber' spec which makes the class as good as it gets.

- As for SB, it starts out the same, with choosing one out of 10 races. All have special attributes for that specific race for example Minotaurs are granted +35 str, +35 max str, +25 con, +25 max con, increased health regeneration, and can not be stunned. All classes have their own attributes except for human which does not get anything, but in return gets more points to spend on stats (str, con, int, dex, spirit).
At char creation you also have the option to buy runes for your char. These runes give you further more attributes. There is a large numebr of runes to choose from, 50 or so I would guess, and all have their seperate attributes. For example, you can choose the Juggernaught rune, which grants you 5% slash/thrust/crush resist, but also reduces your walking speed slightly. Or the 'Raised by the Centaurs' rune to grant you +10% spear, and so on. There's all from see hidden runes to resist runes.
Ok so now you dump your points into different stats with the remaining points you have. The rune (if you choose one) will cost a given amount of points. You start with 30 points, and some characters cost points to be, for example Half-Giant costs 10 points, thus giving you 20 free points. The human does not cost anything, and you then have 30 points to spend.
Anyways, well into the game, you are known as the base class you chose (the original as in daoc, Fighter, Mage, Healer or Rogue). As in daoc, there is a class trainer as well. Although, the trainers do not work for free, so you will have to pay to train which actually is quite good imo. When you reach lvl 10, you will be asked to choose a proffession. This can be an adventure in itself lol, as it's not obvious where to look for them. There is a large number of proffessions to choose from as well.Once you get to the trainer, he will accept you if you meet the requirements (Not all races can be everything). One thing that makes SB more unique than daoc, is that it isn't so strict. I mean in daoc, when you choose fighter, you have the options to become a Hero, Champion, Blademaster. And the same goes for the other base classes. In SB however, even if you choose Healer as a base class, you will be able to go for Crusader if you s wish, which is also possible to train as a fighter base. As a healer crusader, you will be granted healing skills obviously, and while he will be a good fighter, not as good as a fighter Crusader. Naturally, there are restrictions, so you can't really mix everything.
So on to training skills!


Ok so how does it work when you train skills?
There are some similarities between daoc and SB in this aspect, but also a big difference. To begin with daoc, once you have your class, you also have class trainers located in 2 or 3 places around the realm. In SB, trainers are found in cities, and as it's the player guilds that build and upkeep cities, it is also up to them if they want a trainer to a class. And even if the city has a trainer you are looking for, he might be too unskilled to train you, so all trainers are not grandmasters. This will give you some favorite cities to train in, and at times you might not even have a trainer that can teach you further in a line, so you will then in-directly be one of the most powerfull in the world of shadowbane in that skill.
When it comes to the training part, the skills are messured in '%' rather than a number like in daoc. It works much the same way though, but it removes the skill cap for your lvl. So even if you are lvl 30 it's possible to have for example 110% sword (and yes I know it's weird that you can actually have 100%+ )
Anyways, there are also more options to train in. You get the option to train in Armor as well (light armor, medium armor, heavy armor) which you need to train in if you wish to wear certain armors. So armors have requirements as well. You also train in a weapon of your liking. Other base skills you train in are parry and block. Then comes class specific skills. Although this works slightly different than in daoc. So say you play a healer in SB. As base (not with a class like druid, or priest, but just plain 'ol base) you will have 2 starting lines apart from the weapon/block/parry/armor skills, which are Benediction and Restoration. Benediction gives you buffs, and Restoration gives you heals. Ok so you start out at 15% rest and 15% bene. Now you gain a lvl, and you decide to put that into restoration to get some better heals. Same as daoc so far. But the major difference is, that you also have the option to train in one certain power (powers = spells or styles in daoc). So for example, say I have a heal which is called 'Greater Blessing'. I can then specially train that skill to make just that power better. Every power starts out at rank 1, and eventually a skill can reach GM (GrandMaster status). So for example if you would have an Eldritch in daoc, you would not only be able to spec in void, but also spec in the void bolt to make that more powerfull. This gives the game much more variety, and not just the same old classes over and over again. And once you reach certain ranks in a power, it might unlock a new power. For example, as a stealther, you begin with Hide, which is a stealth where you can't walk. The more you put in hide, the faster you stealth, but still can't move. I the beginning a stealther can stealth in like 6 secs or so which improves the more you spec hide. Once you get hide up to 18, you unlock Sneak, which is a stealth where you CAN walk around. Although hide still determines how fast you can stealth.

As for the quests, I honestly can't tell you as I haven't taken any quests yet. I'll do some soonish, and tell you how they are. Although there will be lots of events and such which will be of great interest You can read journals from beta events on http://shadowbane.ubi.com


As for PvP! It's actually a lot of GvG. The guild in SB plays so large role in the game which is great. It's the guilds hat create the cities, and there is also lots of politcs going on between nations. Of cours ethere are a few strong empires which atm rule, but they have to be friendly and good rulers, otherwise smaller guilds will go together to destroy the guild in question. And by destroy, I mean ruining their cities, hurting them so bad they cant afford to build up again or repair, so they need to start from scratch. So be carefull how you play ( would love seeing NP try to rule the world with their *cough* friendliness)

Bah I'm really out of time now, GF is waiting, but ask a bit more, and I'll try to answer :p

Laters mates, and godspeed!

*******************************

Hope this helps you some more, and once again, if you have something on your heart, just ask away ;)

Cheers, and godspeed! :)
 

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