14-03-2005 21:37									#31
	Increase Your PM Length

quote: Originally posted by snoopy369 Don't forget to consider FFXI, if you are interested in a good MMORPG. I played it a bit, and if it weren't for the fact that I just don't spend enough time playing a MMORPG to be worth the $13 a month, i'd still be playing it. The combat system is adequate, the advancement simple but good enough, and there are so many players out there that you rarely are hurting for a party. Of course it helps if you speak japanese but you don't have to - there are tons of english players, and plenty more japanese players who speak english. It's definitely nice that there aren't too many down times - as you have people halfway around the world on the same server as you, there's always *someone* online

I'd recommend he steer very clear of FFXI.

I played it for months on my BF's insistence...I found it a terrible game. You need to group to kill something your level in later levels, progression is glacial, costs are ridiculous, farmers screwed up the economy, and it has the worst game interface I've ever seen.

	14-03-2005 23:30									#32
	Support Apolyton

quote: Originally posted by Asher I'd recommend he steer very clear of FFXI. ....it has the worst game interface I've ever seen.

It was designed for consoles.

	15-03-2005 00:27									#33
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Is it possible to group with different people from session to session? I.e. one day you group with players A, B and C. And then the next day with players D, E and F?

Asmodean

	15-03-2005 00:54									#34
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Originally posted by Asmodean Is it possible to group with different people from session to session? I.e. one day you group with players A, B and C. And then the next day with players D, E and F? Asmodean

Absolutely, that's how it almost always works.

Groups are disbanded when you log, or when you leave.

They're formed very easily as well -- you click on the player's portrait and select Invite (or type /invite playername). At this point, if you were not in a group already, you become the group's leader and can invite others to join you.

You can have up to 5 people in a group, and 40 people in a raid (which consists of 8 groups of 5).

There are also good "loot" options...the most common is called "group loot" -- it does a round-robin system where players take turns looting a kill, and all money is split from the corpse. The player whose turn it is to look can take any "common" items (white or grey) by default, and anything "uncommon" or higher gets rolled for. A window will pop up on everyone's screen showing the item and its stats, and if you want to "roll" for it, you click the dice, and if not, you click the 'pass" button. The winner with the highest roll gets the item. You can also change this threshold if you want, to say...rare (blue) or epic (purple).

	15-03-2005 00:58									#35
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

The purpose of guilds is you help eachother out. I'm a L60 Paladin on my main char (the max level at the moment), so I help my guildmates. I'll help them level, do instances, make then items (I'm an armorsmith), lend them money to buy mounts, etc. Guilds are just associations you belong in.

Each guild has their own ranking system with custom names, and own rules and traditions...depends on who made the guild. You're not forced to group with them, but it's common to group with guildmates because you form a rapport with them and learn their playstyle.

In my case, all my guildmates are friends of mine from Calgary or from work here in Toronto, and then their friends, etc...

	15-03-2005 01:14									#36
	Increase the size of your Attachments

did they ever get more servers for this game? how is the lag and crowding issues?

	15-03-2005 01:52									#37
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Dissident did they ever get more servers for this game? how is the lag and crowding issues?

They have lots of servers, enough anyway. I've always been on a "low" pop server, I don't have lag and crowding issues.

	15-03-2005 03:24									#38
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Dissident did they ever get more servers for this game? how is the lag and crowding issues?

Lag and crowding issues are serious serious problems on high population servers; however, on Bonechewer (PvP nice 1:1 ratio) the server that I play on, there is almost never any lag or crowding. When the other servers go down, mine doesn't. This is the case with all of the low pop servers.

	15-03-2005 03:29									#39
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

BTW... as far as ganking goes....

Most people that would bother to attack someone 10+ levels below them suck anyway. With skill and a little luck I have managed to take out players up to 14 levels higher than me 1v1. Obviously, this wouldn't be possible if they were any good, but like I said, the people that enjoy this kind of thing do it because they aren't any good and can't kill people their own level.

Also, your chances of getting attacked decrease by like 80% just by having 1 other person around to quest with.

The really good PvP players will almost always fight honorably, i.e. ask before dueling, fight 1v1 at full health. Even though you can't type to other factions, you can use emotes like /ready and /taunt and /no to communicate what you want. Currently you can type 1:1 and it isn't filtered, but that will change in the next patch.

	15-03-2005 06:40									#40
	Increase Your PM Length

How much lag will I get with an ADSL connection, 3.2 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, ATI Radeon X850 XT PE, and is there a lot of graphic variation between different systems?

	15-03-2005 07:06									#41
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

The lag is almost always server-side, it doesn't have anything to do with your graphics card. If you have DSL, you should be fine.

And there's surprisingly not too much graphic variation -- it still looks great on the Radeon 7500 32MB on my laptop. The only real difference is the systems with pixel shaders do have a lot nicer effects, like a soft glow effect and beautiful water, etc.

	15-03-2005 07:47									#42
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Actually I think the water looks kind of crappy. And what's up with the water in places like Ashenvale where there's a river on an incline and it's not flowing fast at all. The pixel shaders are nice though. I just wish that the light source would move instead of being fixed in the NW.

	16-03-2005 00:20									#43
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Thanks guys...based on your recommendations in this thread, I have decided to get WoW. I am already looking forward to playing it.

And since I never do anything half measure, I have decided to get the collectors edition. I have a already placed a bid on eBay (why wait when you can play next week )

Asmodean

	16-03-2005 00:38									#44
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Just so you know collector's editions are nearly always crap, aiming to squeeze more money out of you for no real benefits.

	16-03-2005 03:02									#45
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

I will probably get this as well. I still have a $50 gift certificate from Best Buy leftover from Christmas.

I may be getting it tomorrow.

	16-03-2005 03:07									#46
	Increase Your PM Length

no one is interested in an Apolyton group are they? It might be difficult to coordinate the playing times and servers.

But I am curious what servers most of you are on.

BTW how many characters can you have per account?

	16-03-2005 03:15									#47
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

The character count is unlimited I think. You can have I think 8 per server, but there's 90+ servers...

I play on Nathrezim. It's a mountain-time PvP server with low population.

	16-03-2005 03:29									#48
	Increase Your PM Length

I'd be more than happy to help people out if they choose Horde side on Bonechewer (Pacific PvP Low-Pop). Or choose Alliance on that server and I'd be happy to kill you a bunch .

And get this... I actually got ganked by a couple idiots yesterday (I was fighting a mob, had less than 50% health and mana) and one of the guys who killed me was named Agathon. I thought it was funny.

	16-03-2005 04:37									#49
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Several of us 'Polyers have a guild on Argent Dawn. We also have a new set of alts on Shadow Council, so if you're just starting out, that would be a good one, as the guild would be more similar in level.

	16-03-2005 09:19									#50
	Got spare money?

Yeah, as Zargon said , an "unofficial" Poly guild is the Lux Musae Alliance guild on the Argent Dawn server - Arnelos, Zargon, GodKing, Genghis Farb and myself are on it plus a couple others who aren't part of Apolyton.

The guild hasn't been yet formed on Shadow Council (we are all still too broke to afford the guild fee ) but all of the same people plus BigDork are there as the Horde on Shadow Council.

	16-03-2005 09:50									#51
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote: Originally posted by Asher I'd recommend he steer very clear of FFXI. I played it for months on my BF's insistence...I found it a terrible game. You need to group to kill something your level in later levels, progression is glacial, costs are ridiculous, farmers screwed up the economy, and it has the worst game interface I've ever seen.

As Dr Spike said, it was designed for consoles. In my case, playing it on a PC, I used a gamepad - and it worked beautifully. Once you get used to it, it's a piece of cake to play, actually easier to play than a lot of other ones i've tried (ie everquest).

The costs aren't that bad if you know how to shop for things - and I *never* farmed or anything else.

	16-03-2005 13:45									#52
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Originally posted by Sharpe Yeah, as Zargon said , an "unofficial" Poly guild is the Lux Musae Alliance guild on the Argent Dawn server - Arnelos, Zargon, GodKing, Genghis Farb and myself are on it plus a couple others who aren't part of Apolyton. The guild hasn't been yet formed on Shadow Council (we are all still too broke to afford the guild fee ) but all of the same people plus BigDork are there as the Horde on Shadow Council.

Unfortunately I can't join you. As a European, I can only play on the EU servers

Maybe if we get enough Euros, we can start a Euro 'poly guild.

Asmodean

	16-03-2005 14:32									#53
	Full PM-box? Change here!

I may do alliance on argent dawn then.

But I admit, I'm most anxious to play as the horde. Playing as the undead seems cool to me .

It isn't required to have any knowledge of world of warcraft for this game is there? I have never played any of the games. I doubt it is, as this game seems easy to get into.

	16-03-2005 14:53									#54
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

An Apolyton guild in WoW would be nice. Bummer if it's split between continents, though. to Blizzard for this, Sony has this better.

I plan on playing WoW more often as soon as my EQ2 character hits the level cap (at the moment 36/50).

	16-03-2005 16:08									#55
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Dissident I've always felt that way about those guys and teenagers that do that real life roleplaying. I forget what they call that. You know when they go into the forest with fake swords and such.

There are hundreds of hobbies that seem strange to anyone not interested in them. Trekking around the British countryside in chainmail does a lot more for my general level of fitness than sitting on my butt replaying Baldurs Gate 2, but I love doing both. Train and Plane spotters, now those guys make me nervous. Oh, and Morris Dancers.


Irrelevant factoid: The genius that ran the best live action roleplaying group I've ever participated in designed and built a lot of the props for the new Doctor Who TV series. I hope that job will be giving him a decent wage for a long time to come.

	16-03-2005 16:14									#56
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

I would do LARP if I could live action sex roleplay with hot damsels in distress.

	16-03-2005 16:23									#57
	Got spare money?

There are more damsels who do LRP than some might expect. A long weekend of fun, exercise and alcohol consumption can have interesting side effects.

Of course there are establishments which can cater more directly to any sexual "roleplaying" needs you might have. That way you don't have to lug a bunch of equipment halfway across the country and camp in a muddy field on the offchance of some action

	16-03-2005 17:22									#58
	Put an end to popups!

I suppose so

anyways I've been looking at screenshots of this game. Most are pretty good, some still look too cartoonish for my tastes. but I think the graphics are adequate enough to play this game. The gameplay looks like it will be more fun than everquest 2. But EQ2 graphics are far superior, but I really didn't have the system to run them anyways. And I still think that game had serious problems.[rant] I could run the game perfectly as long as I didn't do area transitions. As soon as I started too many of those, even at the lowest graphics settings I could not run the game. Shoddy programming if you ask me. And they expect me to pay for that? [/end rant]

	16-03-2005 19:56									#59
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Sir Ralph An Apolyton guild in WoW would be nice. Bummer if it's split between continents, though. to Blizzard for this, Sony has this better. I plan on playing WoW more often as soon as my EQ2 character hits the level cap (at the moment 36/50).

No way in hell would that be better, I absolutely hated that about FFXI (non-regional servers).

No offense, but I like it when everyone speaks English. It's quite amazing.

	16-03-2005 20:02									#60
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by Asher No way in hell would that be better, I absolutely hated that about FFXI (non-regional servers). No offense, but I like it when everyone speaks English. It's quite amazing.

My problem was that i often play when everyone else is asleep in my timezone. That causes problems with finding parties And i met a lot of people from other countries, too (like on 'poly, similar concept) that did speak english. Of course, in FFXI you have to work with people only who speak english or use the autotrans, but you can pretty easily use that. That and the fact that a lot of the japanese players were very *good* players and particularly were good teammates ...