Shadowbane

[General Ludd]

Well, I just noticed that Shadowbane has gone gold and will hit the shelves in a few weeks, and I'm thinking about geting it.

Anyone else here planning on geting it? I haven't been following it too closely, so fill me in on any pros/cons if you can.


Also - does anyone know if there will be a roleplaying server?

[pg]

sb used to have a good buzz but lately it's been more negative. sb as i understood it was originally meant to be the ultimate pvp game but most pvp players i heard that played it in beta said it wasn't very good. i take this to mean that old uo was better for pvp since it's generally regarded as the best pvp mmorpg. i think to really like sb you'll have to like pvp since the whole game seems to revolve around it.

[pg]

i some saw more comments on a thread. things don't look promising, but you can decide for yourself.

I was in the beta test for a few months, although I could not stomach the game that long. I have not played SB for the past month. From what I remember and what I have heard, here is the deal...

The game is laggy and unstable. The servers still crash about every 4 or 5 hours.

So far, no city siege has ever worked (and this is The Big Thing) since anytime a huge group of players gets in one area (ie: To siege and defend a city) the servers always puke.

There are still a lot of class balance problems, the game still has very dated graphics (although the avitars themselves are OK), and the world is very empty.

The only big promise of fun in Shadowbane is PvP or GvG warfare, however, since no one has ever been able to actually siege a city without the servers crashing, it remains to be seen if PvP will be meaningfull (ie: there is a reason beyond the personal satisfaction of killing someone) in SB.

I expect SB to be a nightmare for the first month at the very least since I do not think the servers will be able to handle the flood of people trying to play it.

here is another good one...

I can't talk too much about it, since I am employed by the publisher, but it does have its upsides as well as its downsides. Playing AC2 opened my eyes to a lot of the things the SB people did get right.

I can't comment on the stability issue, since I haven't actually tried to play the beta recently, but they were making some pretty massive strides the last time I checked. That said, I expect the launch to be fairly rocky.

One thing you might want to watch out for, though, if you want to be competitive in the game, is that the people who show up on day 1 get a pretty significant advantage. The hardcore folks and their guilds are going to have cities up and running pretty quickly, and the johnny-come-laters will be hard-pressed to keep up with the people who are rolling their own magic items, training at higher levels and for cost, and have the ability to build siege engines.

If you want to play on a level field (and the game is pretty much pvp-everywhere), you're going to want to get in on the ground floor. If you're not willing to risk it on day 1, keep an ear to the ground for new worlds being made available, because getting to the city-building stage first has fairly serious advantages. Or, at least it did.

taken from here - http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2...pic.php?t=2503

some beta impressions -

http://www.waterthread.org/news/104580625822808.html

http://www.waterthread.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=129

[General Ludd]

The graphics don't bother me. (I actually prefer their simplistic style to that of world of warcraft's, actually) and PvP is the only reason I'm even considering it.

But the server stability and emptiness of the world are a bit disheartening... but, I would expect that in a beta. Do you know how long ago these where written?

[pg]

these were posted very recently, only days ago since the nda was just lifted. in fact i think you can go read through the beta boards which had been closed before if you are really interested in sb. the last 2 links are much more positive than the 2 things i quoted but you can still see it has lots of problems.

however, it doesn't sound too much worse overall than any other mmorpg given it's advantages of pvp or gvg gameplay. right now sb seems like a game for only griefers or powergamers which isn't bad as it sounds. summary of the things i'd be somewhat worried about are a) lag and server stability b) there doesn't seem to really be too much to fight over meaning most conflicts are the result of politics/insults/etc c) imbalanced classes d) you still have to fight mindless ai monsters in order to get money(unless you can find a way to do it via pvp or gvg but that seems hard).

[loinburger]

I'd have considered purchasing SB if it had gone gold about two years ago, but now it's strapped with outdated graphics and an outdated engine. The game world also only really works if there are enough players (no point in having a guild consisting of a single player), but I've no expectation of SB attracting a large enough fan base what with the rising levels of competition in the MMORPG market (AC 2, EQ 2, AO, etc). This is one I'm passing by.

[Vesayen]

I beta tested shadowbane for 18 months and the truth is.....it is horrible.


I dont know where to start on the games flaw.

Well I'll start at the most important point.

The game is supposed to NOT focus on levels.......it is. PVP is almost entirley level based-yes you may kill someone of a higher level but 2 level 10's will NOT kill a level 20, the level 20 will eat him for breakfast.

The VAST majority of your time will be spent hunting for gold/xp........though death penalties arent TOO bad. It is HOURS of mindless tedium.


Class balancing is a joke-i've yet to see any real balance in all the time I've played it.


"Raise cities and crush others-play to crush!"-the biggest lie of the game......The game is DOMINATED by people with no life, who-after every wipe would play for basically 48 hours and get the first city up in the mainland.


Side note: There are 2 "areas" in the game, a n00b starter island you stay on till 20, and the mainland, the mainland usually only has 2 or 3 entrances to it, and once you hit 20 you go there automatically, or you can go early but you cant go back.

The first group to get a city on the mainland can then level TONS faster then everyone else, and camps the mainland gateways, preventing anyone else from catching up.......Eventually a second group USUALLY manages to get a stronghold, but they are either wiped out by the nolifers(1 of a few group is always first...they play for 48 hours nonstop, and im NOT joking) or ally with them-thus preventing ANYONE else from getting to the mainland till a new wipe.......


Yes the game has some cool features, some of the class abilities are very cool, flying is nice, cities are..........interesting(dont know how to describe it, alot of good, ALOT of bad)-but those features dont override the general crummyniess of the game.

The game has leveling more tedius then EQ, balancing worse then DAOC and is more dominated by more no lifers then UO..........the suggestion of this tester: Dont waste your time on it-dont even bother getting the beta-it is complete excriment.

[General Ludd]

Could you tell me more about the system used for leveling. You say it's more tedious then EQ, why?


I didn't think any game could have level advancement more tedious then EQ.

[General Ludd]

Well, I've gotten the game and it seems quite good.

The graphics are very good, if you ask me. I don't know why everyone's going on about how bad they are. It also runs about aswell as DAoC did for me, and I don't even meet the minimum requirements of the game. (but I'll feel it alot more since there's more PvP)

I've only gotten to level 4 so I can't say how tedious level advancement is, but from what I've seen it's not too bad, but not good either. There is atleast a ton of ways to customize and develope your character.

The community does not seem too bad either. I was disapointed that they didn't have a roleplaying server, but I've heard that Mourning has been decided apon as a sort of unofficial roleplaying server, and so far about 80% of the names I've seen have been in character (and even quite a bit more creative then I usually saw on DAoC's RPing servers) and everyone I've talked to (admittedly not many) has acted civilized.


If anyone's interested, I'm playing a Centaur soon-to-be Ranger named Staurlon Galeford on the Mourning server.

[pg]

i'd be interested in reading more of your impressions as you become more experienced in the game. especially since this game is so focused on pvp.

[General Ludd]

Well, after visiting a real city I've realised that I can't play this game any longer untill I get my new computer.

I have made it to level 10, though, and have had fun hunting in some large groups of eight people. Despite having the opportunity of doing so, no one has stolen from one of my graves yet, either.

[General Ludd]

I have one big complaint now.

There are tons of ways of customizing the development of your character (which is good) but there is no way of respeccing (which is bad) and very little information on what anything does (which is very bad).

Fortunetly, though, Shadowbane has the quickest leveling ever - I don't know what Veseyan was talking about. I've spent most of my time rerolling characters after learning how different things work. Which is just aswell, I suppose, since I don't think my computer could handle anything off the newbie island. I might aswell take the time to learn the game and iron out what I want while waiting for my new computer.

[General Ludd]

Mostly just a bump... isn't there anyone else here interested in this game?

Well, I've scraped my Ranger, and my Druid, and have made a Minotaur Warrior that I'm enjoying alot (aswell as a couple aracoix characters) - I'm level 23 now and geting a bit of a taste of PvP. Very fun. I almost killed my first elf, but she ran away, sicced her fiend on me, and portaled out (or invsibility or something - I'm not familiar with the spells yet). Typcial.

The last patch was an absolute godsend for me - it fixed a problem the game was having with windows 98 and stalling. The game runs pretty well on my computer now, and actually performs better then DAoC did - and I don't even meet the requirements for Shadowbane, or have to play with lowest graphics settings! (I'm using custom settings that are low-medium)


However, I have started to notice many more griefers and '1337 d00ds' now that the game has been out for a while... but you can always kill them, so it isn't so bad. But don't get me wrong, there are alot of great players, and there is a strong role play community on mourning.

[dudemanjack]

I want the game but I only have a Pentium II, 450 mhz with 128 MB of SDRAM. I haven't a prayer of running it well.

I also will never buy another MMORPG during the first month it is released because they NEVER start good (I got EQ when it first came out, and it was a pain getting in the game). Plus, I'm sure all the newbie areas are filled since everyone is a new player.

[JuffoWup]

Hey osweld:

Nice seeing another rpg'er on the boards. I was considering buying Shadowbane myself, and was wondering: to what extent do you recommend it? Also, should I wait a while before purchasing, or jump on the boat as soon as possible? I'd like to hear more about what you think.