Why should I play this game? New user here, convince me please :)

[eyelashofdoom]

Hello,
I was looking for Priston Tale fan art, and some page linked to \"another page\" that had similiar free MMORPGs, and this one was rated a perfect 10.

I\'m not sure if any of you tried PT (Priston Tale), but recently it has become unplayable due to server overload and general packet loss.

With that said, I\'m looking for a new MMORPG to get into. So far I like what I see here. From what I gathered this game will remain free as well?

If anyone has a few spare moments, I\'d like to learn more about this game from \"real\" users rather than reading up on the official site (which I plan to after I ask these questions).

1)
Do !you! feel the game world to be large enough to not get bored? Are there plans to add new towns, areas, and what not?

2)
Between the classes, how balanced is the game play? Do certain classes accel much faster than others?

3)
Do you enjoy the leveling system? I assume the game is based on \"Character Level\". In which your main goal is obtain a higher level, get new items, etc..

4)
Are there any \"quests\", or is it just \"run around and kill stuff, try to get better items if you can afford them by trading with other people\"?

5)
How is the item diversity? I\'m a big fan of a variety of items, and \"neat\" things to use (runes, gems, amulets, rings, armors, shields, weapons, boots, gloves, etc..).

6)
How often do the developers of the game interact with the every day users? It\'s nice when they post changes, updates, ETAs on new releases, etc..

7)
Upon getting the initial release, does it maintain itself, or does one have to download nine hundred thousand seperate patches and mods per week to continue to play?


How are the controls and in-game complexity?

9)
When the game gets an update, do your existing characters maintain their current status, or does a \"server wipe\" (start from scratch) usually occur?

10)
*This is the biggest one of all*
Assuming one has a fast computer and an excellent connection, how does the actual game \"play\"? I\'m most concerned with the network ascepts.

There\'s nothing worse than hitting a monster 20 times in a row and watching its health stay at 100% while every time it hits you, you take damage (basically the life of PT player, up until recently, you lose connection with the server every 3 seconds).

---

I\'m sure I\'ll think of a dozen more questions but they\'ll get answered from reading through the guides most likely.

Thanks for your time.

[acraig]

It should be made very clear that PlaneShift is nowhere near a complete game yet ( although it is getting there ).  So everything really is a \'work in progress\'.  We make good strides everyday to make PlaneShift the game we all want it to be.  People like to play now to see how things are and some like to be in at the start so they can tell tales of \'olden days\' when the game is more developed.

Originally posted by eyelashofdoom
Hello,
1)
Do !you! feel the game world to be large enough to not get bored? Are there plans to add new towns, areas, and what not?

The game will be HUGE but only after time.  From what I have seen on some of the maps I don\'t think that people will ever get tired of exploring different areas.  Plus there is always the option to \'magically\' go to other planes, etc.  But again it will take time to develop these areas.  

2)
Between the classes, how balanced is the game play? Do certain classes accel much faster than others?

3)
Do you enjoy the leveling system? I assume the game is based on \"Character Level\". In which your main goal is obtain a higher level, get new items, etc..

This is something that we will have to figure out.  Crystal Blue ( the next release codename ) will most likely have a progression system so we will have to figure out how different skills balance out.

4)
Are there any \"quests\", or is it just \"run around and kill stuff, try to get better items if you can afford them by trading with other people\"?

There are a few simple quests right now that just involve talking to NPC\'s.  Needless to say quests will be very extensive later on as we figure out a good system to manage them.

5)
How is the item diversity? I\'m a big fan of a variety of items, and \"neat\" things to use (runes, gems, amulets, rings, armors, shields, weapons, boots, gloves, etc..).

We hope that there will be a lot of stuff for people to use/craft themselves.

6)
How often do the developers of the game interact with the every day users? It\'s nice when they post changes, updates, ETAs on new releases, etc..

I cannot speak for most others but I am usually on irc and can be contacted by email for anybody that has questions.

7)
Upon getting the initial release, does it maintain itself, or does one have to download nine hundred thousand seperate patches and mods per week to continue to play?

There is an updater application ( needs some more development but works ) that will automatically download new files that are needed for a new release.

How are the controls and in-game complexity?

Should be customizable to a large degree.

9)
When the game gets an update, do your existing characters maintain their current status, or does a \"server wipe\" (start from scratch) usually occur?

For now I think it will be a server wipe since there is not much loss.  We may make special cases for people that want to keep their name.  We will deal with that when the time comes. Later on when there is more stuff we will work out a migration system.

10)
*This is the biggest one of all*
Assuming one has a fast computer and an excellent connection, how does the actual game \"play\"? I\'m most concerned with the network ascepts.

The network stuff is pretty solid in my opinon.  The biggest area is in the renderer which is being developed by a different team ( Crystal Space ).  It is always getting better so we hope the performance in PlaneShift will get better.

[druke]

*applauds Acraig* you handled that a lot more calmly than...anyone i know would have

[eyelashofdoom]

I suppose I should have read up on the game first, then asked questions later (if there were any).

I figured since a game like this is based around a large audience of players, the best idea would be to ask those players their perspective of the game. Most official game sites tend to be a bit biased and never list negative \"features\".

Coming from never hearing of this game to visiting the forums and seeing \"You know you\'re addicted to PS when...\" as a sticky thread, the non-experienced average joe instantly thinks there\'s enough game content for it to be considered a game.

Looks like I\'ll wait until \"Crystal Blue\".

[Kiern]

Originally posted by druke
*applauds Acraig* you handled that a lot more calmly than...anyone i know would have

Yeah, acraig always amazes me on how calm he is

[Djaggernaut]

No reason to not be calm. This guy is polite, seems more involved in what he says that the basic newbie.

Question -> answer

Eyelash: don\'t worry, we listen to players and work for players. Of course there is negative point (especially at this state of development) but noone here is paid, there is no stress in making the game nor need in listening to a publisher instead of listening to players.
So you reply well: let\'s wait for CB

[Drilixer]

while you are waiting feal free to hang around here and possibly contribute to the game\'s development

[kyp14]

Welcome to PS  eyelashofdoom nice to see a newbie who knows what there talking about and doesn\'t come here and start a thread saying IS THIS GAME REALLY FREE which results in a large quantity of insulting replys telling them there an idiot why doesn\'t anyone beleave whats written on the site any way HI most of the people here are nice

feal free to hang around here and possibly contribute to the game\'s development

In the words on Dirx (note spelling mistake)

[Kiva]

I personally don\'t find him any diffrent from the \"IS THIS GAME REALLY FREE - L33T\" people as he does not seek the answers himself before asking questions... I mean, please...

\"Do !you! feel the game world to be large enough to not get bored? Are there plans to add new towns, areas, and what not?\"

That would take any decent person around 10-20 seconds of searching to find... :rolleyes:

[Moogie]

Well, at least he was nice and polite about it. That\'s what sets apart the newbies from the n00bs. Besides, I assume he did go and read the official site after posting, like he said... still made himself look a bit silly though. ^.^

[Kiern]

What\'s funny though is by the time it took him to write all that up he could have found the answers himself

[Keldorn]

He could have, but he wanted to hear from users rather then reading it from the site.

and if you don\'t believe me:

Originally posted by eyelashofdoom
I\'d like to learn more about this game from \"real\" users rather than reading up on the official site

there, ya see

[Thorn]

ya know id say cuz they have kein icon instead of no icon other then that i realy wouldnt know

[macellarius]

ad1 no. currently it\'s as small as my toilet but of course they promise to expand it

ad2 the classes doesnt matter at the current stage. also the gameplay doesnt exist

ad3 no

ad4 it\'s only about inducing retarded NPCs to tell u their quests. no fighting yet

ad5 only cristals /money/

ad6 well there are rarely any updates but you can always tell developers what u think about them

ad7 no

ad8 average

ad9 it keeps your data

ad10 the game performance is quite good

[Skizzik]

I feel like filling out a questionaire!
1) At the moment it\'s a bit small, but it\'ll become a lot larger (CB forever!)
2) there aren\'t any classes yet, but I trust the devs will balance the gameplay.
3) this game isn\'t based on character levels, but on skill levels.
4) right now: 2 quests + running around collecting crystals and buying weapons
5) diversity: at the moment there are 15 different items, ranging from swords and axes to crystals and mugs.  
6) They actually listen to the fans, and that\'s great.
7) yup, pretty self-maintaining, just run the updater whenever there\'s an update.
8 ) okay, and customisable...
9) it maintains their current status, although I\'m not too sure about that when CB comes out.
10) There\'s no need for an \'excellent\' connection, but a fast computer will help reduce the low fps every now and then.