Post and Trailer:
http://sf.my.com/forum/index.php?pag...
It reminds me of Aion or TERA with more modesty. It supposedly will have a lot of classes that you can switch out so maybe something like RIFT. Allods did have a lot of cool classes. I just hope progression doesn't fall off a cliff at level 10 like Allods.
Obsidian? Huh.
I really enjoyed Allods, but damn it was so much a clone of WoW that it literally got me to resub back to WoW and stopped playing Allods.
A lot of the twists on traditional classes in Allods were fun. The paladin had really neat absorb shield mechanics.
But you are right. If I wanted to run, run, run, run and then kill or click something or turn in a quest, I would just play WoW. Though looking back I find it interesting that the WoW monk reminds me more of an Allods class in its utility and power than a WoW class. (other than the death knight for sure)
Video with class info from Gamescom. http://vimeo.com/103604188
Definitely jumped onto my radar.
You can sign up for beta now: http://sf.my.com/us
That video is great!
The slayer looks so cool! (totally right up ranalin's alley there)
The combat didn't look stilted like TERA. This may/will give BLack Dessert a run for its money. (though I am sure both games will co-exist nicely)
I'm not so sure I like the god summoning. It is one thing to get help but that looked like instant trivializing of content =(
hehe ya that classes looked cool!
The god summoning reminded me of another game or game idea I've heard/read about and was interested in. Hopefully they're making it where it's not easy to make it easy. Definitely gives the end game a twist. You're out farming and get asked to help out some lowly peons 
Sounds fun depending on how they implement it.
And yea TERA combat was annoying because while you could move around you had to stay still to cast spells.
I don't expect it will be enough for a good season (I did say 5-11, after all), but with Dallas cleaning their books with a massive cap purge this year, that offensive line will be a foundation for them to build on going forward.
One of these things is not like the others.
The football gods? Maybe they can be summoned later? Joe Montana comes down in a beam of light and takes out all the surrounding enemies with rapid fire passes?
He can summon Jerry Rice!
A small batch of invites went out for what they are describing as a technical weekend, so check those in-boxes.
Dev's streaming from the test weekend on twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/gamesdehttp://w...
Video of their first official live stream:
Oh man this game can not come too soon!
I am going to play the crap out of this game. Where is my early access pre-order?
Gunner is looking amazing!
Founders packs for sale. Includes automatic entry into the closed beta. I might pull the trigger on the 20 buck option.
And done!
@ the $20 price point...
Can't wait for tomorrow!
Not sure how much I can play but i'm in as well.
Saw this on Reddit.
That video actually got me pretty interested in the game! I'll keep an eye on it but have WAY too much to play at the moment.
Are we allowed to give impressions?
Are we allowed to give impressions?
I will allow it!
Apparently they are letting people stream the CBT so I will give some impressions.
I really like the game. The combat feels like it fits in between Guildwars 2 and Tera in terms of pacing. You are definitely more godlike with being able to handle lots of enemies at once. It is a lot like Diablo 3 in that regard where you can kill swaths of minions (typically 5 at a time but not restricted to that little) and even being able to take on several champions at once and soloing bosses and mini bosses. It does have the dropping of the health globe mechanic albeit much more frequently than in D3.
Big abilities are on relatively short timers and are quite spectacular. I have spent most of my time playing the cryomancer but the lightbender is great too and the only reason I am not playing that class is that I am so far along with the cryomancer that I am close to unlocking the gunner class that I have been drooling over since its announcement.
My sole concern is repetitiveness and so far it seems to be managed pretty well. They introduce things like managing followers and building chapels and breaking down components for upgrades to keep things from getting stale.
They also essentially have 4+ different kinds of xp "currency". Each currency is used to unlock nodes on the skill tree. So it can be a hassle if you have 250 of the other types when you need 125 of the type that you have only 45 of. Thankfully the 4th currency is class based (hence 4+ currencies) and can be used as a substitute for any of the primary three. (be warned there are skill tree nodes that require the class xp currency only)
You earn these xp currencies from completing missions and the type earned is displayed on the mission select screen. These rewards rotate every 40 minutes. This seemed like it was going to be the cornerstone of my concerns regarding repetitiveness. However, there are many types of missions to choose from as you get stronger.
Which brings me to my favorite type of mission which is a larger more open world mission filled with multiple objectives. The other types of missions are like small instanced dungeons with the goal being "get to the end, save the princess" in nature. These aren't bad but I like the open world areas better due to haphazard collaboration with other player running around. If you think 1 player is over the top with skill power, the combined power of even 2 players is even more incredible! The other benefit of these missions is that much more xp currency of all different types is earned throughout.
Their loot system is pretty neat also. You do get minor upgrades from looting but by breaking down unwanted items, you can then use those components to upgrade the equipment slots. This makes it much harder to gimp yourself and much easier to keep improving in power if the rng loot gods are not kind to you. You also start to find special weapons that increase damage or reduce resource costs for skills.
Another thing along these lines is stats. Stats mean the same thing across the board to all classes. Might increases base damage no matter if you are a tank, melee dps, support or ranged dps. And you get more stats from your jewelry slots. So the way you customize the feel of your character is by changing out the four rings. Each ring has 2 stats so you can choose to go with more base damage and more health or more crit damage and more base damage or any combination in between. And yes, you can upgrade your jewelry slots as well.
So I do feel they are successfully navigating the balance between having stuff to do over the long term without being to much of a grind and too repetitive.
Did I mention they have story/cut scenes a la SWTOR. Well there aren't as involved as and lack some of the depth of SWTOR's but there are more of them.
Sounds great! Thanks for the lengthy write up!
Is CBT right now only certain weekends or is it a 24/7 closed beta? Despite the amazing amount of games I have to play otherwise, this one definitely seems interesting!
So far 24/7.
It started the 11th. and I logged in last night til after midnight.
Other notes:
If you like the Sorceror or Sage in SWTOR you will love a few of the skills of the Kinetic. (gravity stuff and hurling boulders)
The slayer's stealth stuff and backstab is awesome.
The necro has summons and a "lich" form that is awesome. Also their finisher skill is a fairly large aoe!
I hit a possible snag last night.
TLDR - unlocking classes looks to be too expensive, too time intensive or too grindy.
So I finally had enough skill xp to unlock my ultimate ability which also unlocks the "upper" ascension atlas.
The upper ascension atlas is how you unlock other classes than the 3 starting classes (paladin, lightbinder and cryomancer)
Now you can pay more for starter packs that allow you to start with the gunner and berzerker classes. but those are fairly expensive. I would definitely pay $60 for a founders pack that let you play as all or most of the 9 classes at the start but they are charging $60 for just two more classes. So are they planning to have a $100+ pack for all the classes or are they going to force you to unlock half/some?
And then lets talk about the craziness that looks to be how to unlock the classes. Well it is organized so that the starter classes location on the tree is in the middle of nowhere. And each class is easily as far away from each other as they are from the starter classes. So it took me nearly 20 hours to unlock the cryomancer's ultimate skill and it will take me at least that long to get the nearest classes unlocked (per class) and then another 20+ hours to get the classes that are further down the tree (per each class)
One option for this is that you can earn another special currency that can be used to unlock any of these upper ascension nodes. Unfortunately this requires having one of the classes's skill tree completely unlocked which I would estimate is going to take a minimum of 60 hours and more likely 100 hours.
So this is not cool. I am under the impression that this game is b2p so it would seem they are adopting the GW2 model. If they had a completely f2p option I could understand the planned grind to unlock the classes and only offering a trickle of starter classes. Another much more acceptable option would be that depending on how much you pay (20-60$) you can select which 3-5 classes you start with. But to pay $60 to get 5 of 9 classes available at the start is totally unacceptable.
side note: of course the classes they lock away are absolutely awesome. Once you unlock the upper atlas you can go to the training room and test them all out. The slayer, kinetic, necromancer and archer are all pretty awesome! The archer is less awesome than the others but it packs quite the single target punch without lacking in the aoe dps. Unfortunately the gunner in the training is broken so I couldn't test them out.
I hit a possible snag last night.
TLDR - unlocking classes looks to be too expensive, too time intensive or too grindy.
Honestly that was my biggest concern with this title. I played Allods a good bit early on, and while it was an extremely polished and fun game, the cash part is what turned me off because while it was technically optional, realistically after a certain level it wasn't and their prices were insane.
I hear you. The thing with that game is that at least you had access to all the classes and races from the start.
Skyforge doesn't look like it will have races though you do have access to a decent amount of skin/eye colors. The outfit options are limited by both raw number (more available after unlock) and number of slots (outfit, mask, hat, earrings).
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