Truth about SI from someone who played the game since day 1

[-Lonewolf-]

Disappointing so very very disappointing

I will try to indicate all the problems and this is just an opinion so flame all you like I am just passing experiences over

The gfx engine truly is nothing special, yeah it looks a little more refined but without a GeForce 3-4 you'll get blurry screen all the way a real pain as for the shadows and such you hardly notice the difference its like its just the same after a week or so of playing

As for the new classes man are they under powered, some are so under powered its hardly pointless playing them

I played a Savage and a Necromancer mainly but its just sad to see that of the 6 new classes 3 are pet based which we all know is quite useless in RvR to a point

As for the savages man they are so weak I played one upto 20 and was having immense difficulties killing oranges with a cleric buffbot healing me, I am on Gaheris btw well was

As for necromancers fancy spells but everything and I mean everything they do goes through their pet, completely dependent on their pets

I personally was very disappointed but of course I think my expectations were very high

Still have it on my comp

 

[speshneeds]

was the zerg lag less tho?

 

[old.Zorewin]

without a GeForce 3-4

well good gf4 here so no probs for me then eh

 

[-Lonewolf-]

Well to be honest with a 2.8ghz Athlon and ADSL its kinda hard to tell if there is less lag cause I wasn't use to the lag anyhow, but I think there is a slight improvement in FPS

But to be honest think about it

Its an improved gfx engine with now shadows greater lighting effects greater water effects

It seems illogical that the lag would lessen when the gfx engine now has a greater amount of variables putting a strain on it

 

[Teh Fonz!!1]

The old engine has a horrible graphic memory leak though so yeah it could.

Also the old, current engine draws characters on screen in the entire glory, even if you see them in the distance as a few pixels, the engine has drawn everything on them, sword, face paint, shield etc...

The new engine doesn't do this and just draws what you see, a few pixels.

New, pretty engine wrote well > Old, basic engine wrote very badly.

 

[-Lonewolf-]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy!

Hes probably right I ain't no techy ggek

 

[old.Trine Aquavit]

I would also hope to switch off some of the "prettyness" anyway for smoother performance (shadows are a luxury). If I can beat my current 3SPF (seconds per frame) in a zerg I'll be happy.

Remember that SI is an expansion (a glorified patch) not a new game, folks.

 

[mavericky]

Savages apparantly do have a hard time in the lower levels, but sweeten up dramatically when you are higher. (as the get better evade buffs, and higher chances to double, triple and quad strike targets)

Also the nercromancer isnt a traditional pet class, usually in RVR with current pet classes the pet is ignored and the caster is taken out. The beauty of the necromancer is that they cannot be touched unless there pet is dead, So a powerful pet really is an advantage for them in RvR.

 

[-Lonewolf-]

But the AI of pets is useless and when ur pet dies as a Necro
ur health is |---| and thats all

Can't run bam ur dead bummer

But I will keep lvlling mine for the hell of it

 

[Keri]

I'm playing as a casual player on Gaheris, due to limits on my ability to play for very long at a time right now. I'm really enjoying it, even though my PC is way below the minimum specs for SI (P3 500, 256 MB, GeForce 2 MX400). I have no lag, but I do have to relog from time to time because of a gfx bug I never had on the original DAoC. Gaheris is a great server to try SI on, due to the fact that you can make 8 characters in each of the 3 realms, if you want to. And remember, the new races are not necessarily the best race for each of the new classes ... e.g. my Bonedancer is a kobold. I think it would be great if GOA could launch a co-op server like Gaheris to coincide with the SI launch ... players on Gaheris are much more helpful and .. well .. just plain "co-operative" than on regular servers.

Don't let one player's opinion of SI put you off. The cost of the game is not so great as to feel you have wasted a fortune if you try it and then decide you don't like it. Oh, and btw .. the new Prima's Official Strategy Guide for SI is well worth buying .... I was lucky ... Santa dropped it in my Christmas stocking.

 

[-Lonewolf-]

I am not trying to put people off it I just don't want people to do like I did and expect a whole new experience

It just clearly isn't the problem with DAoC is that its ruled by RvR the RvR aspect needs to be developed to improve the longevity of the game

Essentially new areas are great for a month or so but once u have killed the mobs and taken the loot the areas become redundant

Can anyone say Darkness Falls opening on Euro Servers

We all know what happened there

 

[solothores]

Ok, everyone has its own opinion here

However from what I have read the new classes are far away of sucking or lacking in rvr. At least at endlevel stage. During BG1-3 Bonedancer skilled as Suppressionist w. Healing Pets is a Nightmare to overcome. However most players are still in learning process how to handle them and the final common templates are still not made up for all of the classes.
But fact is, brainless number pushing will not work out for the new classes... so you have to act smart and use a lot more brain in fights regardless if PvE or RvR... if you think that you can act the same way like you did before with the standard classes I can imagine that the classes will suck since you won't get anywhere.

Concerning the Performance:

There is a nice Menu in which you can adapt:

--------------------------

Clip Plane:
Far/Medium/Near

Figure LOD:
Far/Medium/Near/Off

Shadows:
High Detail/Low Detail and Classic Shadows
All Figures InRange cast shadows/Only player casts shadows/Near 5 Figures InRange Cast Shadows/Near 10 Figures ÎnRange Cast Shadows/No Figures cast Shadows

Water:
Reflective Water / Classic Water
High Quality Reflection / Medium Quality Reflection / Low Quality Reflection
Reflection Update Often/Occasional/Seldom
------------------------------------------------------------------------

What I can say is that changes are really trully visible only if you play in the expansion pack zones... they feel a lot more natural and realistic there. You will all know what I mean when you make your first sightseeing tour through aegir. Mobs are moving much smoother and textures are a lot sharper than in the normal zones. While the old zones besides water didn't get that much changes at all. But hell who cares about the old zones anyway?

There is a slight change in the old zones though so Trees are a bit more detailed and some of the mobs and player skins seem to be a bit sharper.

Additionally leveling till 20 is much easier and faster doable in Aegir. I was 16 within one Day played and I didn't do much powerleveling at all with my Bonedancer. You get at Lev5 allready Qua 93% unique Drops right next to Aegirsheim. Kill tasks are easy doable within the expansion Zones. etc. There is a shitload of new Quests which finally also make sense and bring more background knowledge to DAoC ^^

From my point of view SI is the only reason that I will stay within DAoC, since at the end It shows that Mythic is walking again on the right path

 

[old.Gronau]

Originally posted by -Lonewolf-
Well to be honest with a 2.8ghz Athlon

the 2800+ Athlon is actually 2.25Ghz, but its still an extremely tasty bit of kit.

 

[-Lonewolf-]

I like cheese

 

[Arnor]

well, bonedancers are supposed to ROCK on the beginning lvls with the insta-lifetap (soloing oranges on lvl 6 just by standing in melee, staffing and lifetapping)

Animists will be hell in keep-defense, but not much more. They also RULE in soloing, necros and animists can supposedly solo 2-3 oranges/reds at a time with very little downtime)


a 50 savage annihilated a 50 friar who used reflex attack supposedly.
And 2h savages are totally UBAR (supposedly) getting quad-attacks with 2h etc etc
But soloing is hell with savages, with LOTS of downtime, they/reavers/Vw have trouble in rvr with no decent anytime style cept the lvl 1.

Reavers own assassins, and so does savages afair


Valewalkers have trouble with low dmg-output i fink



Thats about what I remember seeing, of the top of my head

 

[Jiggs]

Animists are bugged to hell and back.

 

[fatgit]

Originally posted by Jiggs
Animists are bugged to hell and back.

Mythic still havent fixed the existing pet classes, so it was pretty obvious teh new ones would be as b0rked :/

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

I had a look at the various spells and abilities for all the new classes on Camelot Herald. My first thought was that the new classes are going to be hideously overpowered, so its interesting to hear an opinion to the opposite.

My initial thoughts:

Nearly all the new classes seem to be variants of SM/Cabby/Sorc with a bit of tanking thrown in. Ok this covers a wide amount of stuff but its just a generalisation.

I was a bit concerned at the number of insta dd spells available especially ae insta dd on some. Insta lifetap. Mucho oucho. You can interupt an enemy spellcast while healing yourself at the same time. Wow.

Animist ground target pet summoning: nasty. Sorry, but I can think of lots of ways to use this to screw over enemies.

A combat style that can hit multiple enemies. Nice... but ouch. Though it seems to be the tail end of a long chain of styles so how often this happens is anyone's guess.

I have to be honest though, my thoughts are tinged with a slight bit of jealousy, a lot of the abilities we are seeing for bonedancers, necromancers and animists are the kinds of things we wanted for Spirit Masters to fix the summoning spell line.

 

[Tilda]

and cabalists /\

 

[old.Emma]

Originally posted by -Lonewolf-
Disappointing so very very disappointing

I will try to indicate all the problems and this is just an opinion so flame all you like I am just passing experiences over

The gfx engine truly is nothing special, yeah it looks a little more refined but without a GeForce 3-4 you'll get blurry screen all the way a real pain as for the shadows and such you hardly notice the difference its like its just the same after a week or so of playing

As for the new classes man are they under powered, some are so under powered its hardly pointless playing them

I played a Savage and a Necromancer mainly but its just sad to see that of the 6 new classes 3 are pet based which we all know is quite useless in RvR to a point

As for the savages man they are so weak I played one upto 20 and was having immense difficulties killing oranges with a cleric buffbot healing me, I am on Gaheris btw well was

As for necromancers fancy spells but everything and I mean everything they do goes through their pet, completely dependent on their pets

I personally was very disappointed but of course I think my expectations were very high

Still have it on my comp

funny how i saw a lvl 40 savage totally destroying scavs in spindelhalla with out any buffs at all..

as for necros.. there a casters nightmare. there mana drain can cause many head aches and there pet is not only max lvl ie @ 50 the pet is 50 they also take a right beating and dish out some serious pain. bonedancers are impossible to beat in 1 vs 1. mainly because with there healing pets there nasty as hell..

 

[old.Emma]

Originally posted by Roo Stercogburn
I had a look at the various spells and abilities for all the new classes on Camelot Herald. My first thought was that the new classes are going to be hideously overpowered, so its interesting to hear an opinion to the opposite.

My initial thoughts:

Nearly all the new classes seem to be variants of SM/Cabby/Sorc with a bit of tanking thrown in. Ok this covers a wide amount of stuff but its just a generalisation.

I was a bit concerned at the number of insta dd spells available especially ae insta dd on some. Insta lifetap. Mucho oucho. You can interupt an enemy spellcast while healing yourself at the same time. Wow.

Animist ground target pet summoning: nasty. Sorry, but I can think of lots of ways to use this to screw over enemies.

A combat style that can hit multiple enemies. Nice... but ouch. Though it seems to be the tail end of a long chain of styles so how often this happens is anyone's guess.

I have to be honest though, my thoughts are tinged with a slight bit of jealousy, a lot of the abilities we are seeing for bonedancers, necromancers and animists are the kinds of things we wanted for Spirit Masters to fix the summoning spell line.

actually the multi hit chains are fairly easy to pull off the first being off an evade with evade 3 (15% chance) and the lvl 37 evade buff (21% chance) which btw most savages spec for.. the common template being 50 H2H, 42 Savagery, 9 Parry.. gets you the 2nd best of every spell.. sow ith a 36% chance to evade the 3 hit combo is easy to pull off 1 vs 1, and the 4 hit combo just needs you at the side of a target which again is easy to pull off in RvR.

and if you look at the style library on camelotherald.. the 4 hit chain is actually quite nasty..

starts with

39, Kelgor`s Fist... low fat, high dmg, med to-hit, from side of target,
44, Kelgor`s Wraith... very low fat, high dmg, high to-hit, use after kelgor`s fist, target stunned for 9s

50, Totemic Sacrafice... no end use.. high dmg, very high to-hit, hits upto 4 targets

that chain to me seems very nasty indeed.. and with the speed at which savages attack you could prolly pull that chain off a couple times before the stun is gone

 

[old.job]

Lone, that was one negative review, difficulty taking Orange!!
Most chars hav difficulty with an orange, is says you will in the help section.

You make no mention of all the new realms, creatures, boss mobs.

Lone's review of SWG
... loads of wookies, the Jedi's are way underpowered, had trouble taking out Darth Vadar, even with R2D2 healing me! Huge areas to play in with gorgeous graphics, but gets boring very quickly.

 

[Purefun]

Necromancers pet are blue con, think 44 at 50. And yes the pet is hard to kill cause if you kill the pet the caster is just as good as dead, petpathing is bugged as hell especially in keeps/mgs
Supp bd are hard to kill, but thats their only trick, in group/zerg rvr they aren't all that. Yes they are hard for assassins to kill, so what
Savages can use their chainstyles to hit multiple targets any time, this was confirmed by the tl and might be a bug. Ie you can perform the first opening imperfectly (without the prerequisite) and not get a bonusdamage, but the chained styles that follow will still hit multiple targets.

 

[old.Lythande]

You can't double/triple/quad hit with a 2h weapon Arnor, that'd be a tad overpowered

 

[SFXman]

Originally posted by old.Gronau
the 2800+ Athlon is actually 2.25Ghz, but its still an extremely tasty bit of kit.

Hey I was going to say that

 

[horsma]

Originally posted by -Lonewolf-

As for the savages man they are so weak I played one upto 20 and was having immense difficulties killing oranges with a cleric buffbot healing me, I am on Gaheris btw well was

Hm. what i have read about SI savager should be great melee char. Even better tank than a shield warrior. What comes to other chars, bonedancer is only what i have study and it seems to be quite sad char indeed.

 

[old.Iunliten]

20:50:31] You perform your Clan's Call perfectly. (+105)
[20:50:31] You attack Madmartagain with your greave and hit for 326 damage!
[20:50:31] You attack Madmartagain with your greave and hit for 227 damage!
[20:50:31] You hit for 70 (-40) damage!
[20:50:31] Madmartagain cannot seem to move!
[20:50:31] You attack Madmartagain with your greave and hit for 229 damage!
[20:50:31] You attack Madmartagain with your greave and hit for 196 damage!
[20:50:31] You critical hit for an additional 49 damage!

http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=42060614&replies=12

1097 damage in one round of combat against a lvl 50 champion.

with 1.5 Speed delay.

 

[Affri]

Originally posted by -Lonewolf-

As for the new classes man are they under powered, some are so under powered its hardly pointless playing them

I played a Savage and a Necromancer mainly but its just sad to see that of the 6 new classes 3 are pet based which we all know is quite useless in RvR to a point

As for the savages man they are so weak I played one upto 20 and was having immense difficulties killing oranges with a cleric buffbot healing me, I am on Gaheris btw well was

As for necromancers fancy spells but everything and I mean everything they do goes through their pet, completely dependent on their pets

If you really do mean this I have to burst out in laughter. Necros are a bit overpowered, don't expect to just jump in and play every char and own 'cause necros are very different from other casters. If you say they are underpowered you're lying, heh. Sorry to put it this way but the new classes do NOT suck if you know how to use them.

And Reavers are uber RP farmers They can solo ojs np as well plus they're wanted in groups to tank, armsmen / pallies are better tanks but they still do fine.

Tbh. the only class that is a bit underpowered is possibly the Savage (Midgard Viking).

Bonedancers? Don't even get me started on them. They're more overpowered than chanters, 'nuff said.

 

[Ragnarok1978]

Savages are pretty far from weak.

It's true that alot have reported high miss rates and low damage output with their lower level savages, but as they level they get more and more powerfull.

A popular choice is to go with a 2handed weapon to 20 or 40 to make up for Hand to Hand combats weaknesses early on. At 50 a HtH savage should and most likely would kill a 2h savage 9 times out of 10, at least according to duel logs.

The Savagery line is a very powerfull one, which is the main reason it'll cost you hp to use it. Haste and DPS buffs are real mean, parry and evade buffs are nice but especially the resists buffs that can put you up to 50% resistance to a kind of attack, if you have 24% from items.

Not only that, but being on the tank RA and hptable leaves cheap IP and purge and a good amount of hp. Not as high as warriors or zerks, but that's mainly because CON doesn't raise with levels.

 

[klavrynd]

Not only that, but being on the tank RA and hptable leaves cheap IP and purge and a good amount of hp. Not as high as warriors or zerks, but that's mainly because CON doesn't raise with levels.

are you sure about this? they do have 1.5x specpoints (at least that's what catacombs says) and seem pretty hybrid with those spells to me