what's a good RPG game to play?

[SwissMercenary]

Traveling solo is a big no-no, unless you're WAY over-leveled and get lucky with your Henchmen. However, once you find a city, it's a piece of cake to warp around the world, so it sort of evens out.
[right][snapback]109154[/snapback][/right]

I've only encountered a few travel 'bottlenecks', so to speak. By bottlenecks, I mean either moments where I give up, and reroll the map, to try again, or have to zerg the enemies from the nearest resurrection shrine. But I agree on the Death Penalty, in the respect that if it gets to -60% on a character, that character is just about guaranteed to die every battle, without liberal use of Protective Spirit and/or Healing Seed. They won't be working off that DP anytime soon, unless they're turning in a quest.

[roguebanshee]

Traveling solo is a big no-no, unless you're WAY over-leveled and get lucky with your Henchmen. However, once you find a city, it's a piece of cake to warp around the world, so it sort of evens out.
[right][snapback]109154[/snapback][/right]

Solo (as in no party at all) can be hard depending on area, skills and, to a degree, equipment. Travelling with hench is fairly easy once you learn how they react and how to use those reactions.

The first time I walked to the Temple of the Ages I was at 60% DP before I got halfway, with hench. And it took me more than an hour from Bergen Hot Springs. But I made it due to my lack of will to give up. These days I'm capable of running my Warrior from Bergen to ToA in about 5 mins, with the right setup.

Experience with the game helps a lot when going somewhere.

[Taem]

The death penalty is rather harsh. Even 50% would be hard to swallow, but still liveable. Beyond that, though, and you're more than crippled. :P

Traveling solo is a big no-no, unless you're WAY over-leveled and get lucky with your Henchmen. However, once you find a city, it's a piece of cake to warp around the world, so it sort of evens out.
[right][snapback]109154[/snapback][/right]

60% is too lenient IMO. Death should = death, not immortality with a slight chance of repercussions for a few minutes. I've been playing Sacred (Hardcore) as of late and I tell you, absolutely nothing beats hardcore. I just can't, and never will, understand why anyone would ever subject themselves to immortality.

But I've given this a lot of thought recently. I'm the type of person that likes to take risks and I don't enjoy my work unless I'm constantly being pushed and stressed. When I was a waiter, nothing was as fun to me as having twelve tables fill up in about two minutes and have to deal with irate and hungry customers. When playing poker, nothing is as fun as going to the "No Limits" table after having won several hundred; that rush you get when you go "all in" and someone calls is so intense, you can feel your heart drop into your toes! I think it's this logic that makes me want to play hardcore only type of games and finds softcore to be redundant and mundane.

[Rinnhart]

60% is too lenient IMO. Death should = death, not immortality with a slight chance of repercussions for a few minutes. I've been playing Sacred (Hardcore) as of late and I tell you, absolutely nothing beats hardcore. I just can't, and never will, understand why anyone would ever subject themselves to immortality.

But I've given this a lot of thought recently. I'm the type of person that likes to take risks and I don't enjoy my work unless I'm constantly being pushed and stressed. When I was a waiter, nothing was as fun to me as having twelve tables fill up in about two minutes and have to deal with irate and hungry customers. When playing poker, nothing is as fun as going to the "No Limits" table after having won several hundred; that rush you get when you go "all in" and someone calls is so intense, you can feel your heart drop into your toes! I think it's this logic that makes me want to play hardcore only type of games and finds softcore to be redundant and mundane.
[right][snapback]109193[/snapback][/right]

In a traditional MMO, permanent death is very limiting.

[Drasca]

60% is too lenient IMO.
[right][snapback]109193[/snapback][/right]

I disagree.

Have you ever played Guild Wars? 60% penalty usually means two second KO, or rather, virtual death, because most attempts to continue fighting means the you simply won't survive. Let's see... most level 20's have around 500 health (or less from runes), after 60% penalty, that's 200 health left (125 with one superior rune). Spells can spike up to 130 damage each, normal attacks do around 30ish damage every 1-2 seconds. Suffice it to say, your practical chances of survival drop dramatically to nil after the 3 second mark against a single enemy. Against multiple, which is more likely, 60% death penalty means you're virtually ineffective, and if you aren't prepared, your 10e skills will become unusable as well.

To reiterate, at 60% DP, it is very possible to both be unable to take the brunt of attacks be able to retaliate with any of your own abilities. That's worse than permanent death while you're fighting. With permanent death, at least you have full access to your abilities while you're alive.

Tell me, would you play standard poker with only 2 cards in your hand, everyone else with 5, and no shared 'house' cards (as in Texas Hold'um)? That's what death penalty really is in Guild Wars.

[Taem]

Have you ever played Guild Wars?
[right][snapback]109203[/snapback][/right]

No, only the free beta's they offered.

To reiterate, at 60% DP, it is very possible to both be unable to take the brunt of attacks be able to retaliate with any of your own abilities. That's worse than permanent death while you're fighting. With permanent death, at least you have full access to your abilities while you're alive.
[right][snapback]109203[/snapback][/right]

I disagree. With permanent death, your dead, end of story. What could possibly be worse than that? In an MMO where you are immortal, the debilitations suffered from death are without a doubt a nuisance - as you point out, however the point I was trying to iterate is my dislike of "immortality" in modern MMO's.

I've come to except other's lack of comprehension for my "hardcore only" stance, and that is fine with me. It is only recently that I really asked myself "why" I felt the way I did and drew some conclusions based on the things I personally enjoy in life and the similarities of playing "hardcore."

[roguebanshee]

In a traditional MMO, permanent death is very limiting.
[right][snapback]109197[/snapback][/right]

Limiting in the amount of cash that will be spent on it.

The risk of losing a max level character permanently after several hundred hours of play doesn't appeal to the general public. Most people play games to relax, not to get stressed. Virtual Immortality, almost regardless of what penality recieved upon death, is more relaxing than Permanent Death.

[Drasca]

What could possibly be worse than that?
[right][snapback]109226[/snapback][/right]

Try playing poker with only two cards, as I suggested.

[Wyrm]

Permanent death would be really stupid, dying is an integral part of Guild Wars. Once you take a character into PvP, which GW is more or less centered around, you're going to be dying a lot no matter how good you are. Even with PvP slots, permanent death would get annoying since you'd have to remake the character every 5 minutes.

The game isn't Diablo where you can mass slaughter everything in 10 seconds. Your party of 8 going against a mob of 10+ is going to take casualties. There are no healing potions to get you through things, you're pretty much dependent on the monks that go with you, although some of the non-monk classes have decent self-healing. I consider myself to be an above average monk (unless I'm playing at 3am and exhausted, then you can ask Swiss how effective I am) and I'll still lose people just because I can't keep up with the damage the enemies are putting out.

I used to play D2 HC exclusively once I got into it, I like that extra challenge. I would not even consider playing a GW char in HC mode. There's no real way to do it.

[.Plaid]

A few friends and I have slowly been getting tired of the RPG's we've been playing, such as WoW and FFXI, RF online, etc. 

We all had been Diablo (I and II) fanatics in the past.. and are looking for a game nowdays that is multiplayer and interactive / cooperative..

any thoughts?
[right][snapback]108107[/snapback][/right]

This doesn't pretend to address the 'right now' aspect you mention, but MSNBC.com has a rather interesting review of some upcoming MMORPGs. Over 10 titles are summarized.

One game in particular reminded me of a Lurker: America’s Army: Special Forces (Overmatch). I seem to recall a few years ago a frequent poster deployed with the Air Force(?), and they'd offered up a "day in the life of" post or letter. I mention it because a veteran of the U.S.'s invasion of Afghanistan is featured in the above-mentioned game; reading about it got me thinking about that post, and the poster. No point really, except I wondered briefly how a game featuring that Airman would play. Is he/she still around? Welcome home...?

Anyway, some of these games look pretty interesting; others not.

.

[Occhidiangela]

I seem to recall a few years ago a frequent poster deployed with the Air Force(?), and they'd offered up a "day in the life of" post or letter. I mention it because a veteran of the U.S.'s invasion of Afghanistan is featured in the above-mentioned game; reading about it got me thinking about that post, and the poster. Welcome home...?

Plaid:

That might have been me, might have been TaMeOlta. FWIW, I was deployed to the CENTCOM AOR at the CAOC (Combined Air Operations Center) in Qatar. My job was to get on patrol and on call Close Air Support (CAS) overhead of Marines and Soldiers, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, with weapons ready to deliver, when they needed it . . . among many other things. That particular endeavor was what I cared most about, though we did a lot of Search and Rescue, Humanitarian, and other air support as well.

Thanks for the welcome home, I've been back a year and a half, and retired from the Navy.

As to RPG's, have any of you all looked into this?

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2006/05/16/first-m...-to-hit-the-ds/

[roguebanshee]

Something that may be worth looking at:

http://www.dungeonrunners.com/

[Occhidiangela]

This doesn't pretend to address the 'right now' aspect you mention, but MSNBC.com has a rather interesting review of some upcoming MMORPGs. Over 10 titles are summarized.

One game in particular reminded me of a Lurker: America’s Army: Special Forces (Overmatch). I seem to recall a few years ago a frequent poster deployed with the Air Force(?), and they'd offered up a "day in the life of" post or letter. I mention it because a veteran of the U.S.'s invasion of Afghanistan is featured in the above-mentioned game; reading about it got me thinking about that post, and the poster. No point really, except I wondered briefly how a game featuring that Airman would play. Is he/she still around? Welcome home...?

Anyway, some of these games look pretty interesting; others not.

"Get them while they're young, Evita, get them while they're young!"

“Project Wiki.”

Hook the kids on MMORPG's at age 9, and they'll feed you that 15 dollars per month by the time they are 12. This game needs to be killed now. The alleged "protection from stalkers" tidbit nearly made me hurl.

Occhi

[Drasca]

I can't help but come back to this space action RPG:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/

Classic looks, obscene customizeability and utterly huge storylines, yes, there are not one but several major storylines. Missions everywhere, somewhat balanced (players always own AI one way or another) but cool and varied combat.

Escape Velocity: Nova is shareware and the third of its series. Registered buyers of EV:Nova also have access to free official plug-ins available of the prior incarnations of Escape Velocity.

Ah.. here's a good review of the original Escape Velocity
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/mac/review/R827.html

Which pretty much captures my feelings on this game.

[tirados]

Ooo!

Earthdawn is a great game with a great setting! We played it extensively before we ever played Diablo.

Current interesting pen and paper games are:

Dogs in the Vineyard (paladins in the Old West)
With Great Power (superheroes)
Mutants and Masterminds (D20 superheroes)

And, of course theres' Earthdawn Classic, all the old, original books cleaned up and clarified, NIce.

For online play check out Guildwars, which despite the name, has a kind of uber Diablo gaming feel. No wonder, as many of the design team are former Blizzard folk.

Okay, back to my geeky little hole.:)

[Rhydderch Hael]

Escape Velocity: Nova is shareware and the third of its series. Registered buyers of EV:Nova also have access to free official plug-ins available of the prior incarnations of Escape Velocity.

I'll never forget taking on (and taking out) the Voinian Dreadnought with a heavily-modified UE Fighter in Escape Velocity: Override. My crate had the quest-granted cloaking device and was re-armed as a pure gunfighter using a trio of swivel phase cannons. Now, I know that Phase Cannons are weakest against Armor (and strongest against Shields) and taking on an armored Voinian is like attacking a Tiger tank with a welding torch— but Phase Cannons have the range and accuracy to keep the fighter at arm's length from the Voinian's hard-hitting Neutron Cannon battery.

Add a mercenary fleet, a lucky dice roll that put a random UE Carrier in the battle area, and add in the four UE Destroyers assigned to my mission, I was eventually able to cut into that Dreadnought's hull and set her off. In reality, all that support just made the inevitable a little quicker to come by: my fighter was fast enough to dart into gun range, scorch the paint a little, then clear out of the Neutron Cannon envelope with little (if any) damage.

And boy, the blast radius of that Dreadnought is huge. I tried to clear datum and still got nudged around by the shockwave.

[Drasca]

I'll never forget taking on (and taking out) the Voinian Dreadnought with a heavily-modified UE Fighter in Escape Velocity: Override. (snip)

And boy, the blast radius of that Dreadnought is huge. I tried to clear datum and still got nudged around by the shockwave.

You flew... a fighter!??!?! a fighter!?!?! I bow down before your accomplishment. Boys and girls, Rhydderch Hael has essentially taken on a Star Wars Death Star and Super Star Destroyer in one with an itty bitty tie fighter and no 8 meter exhaust port weakness. In real terms, he's sunk a US Battleship with a biplane or speedboat.

I've fought fleets of Kestrels and a nearly invincible alien battlecruiser in EV, Pirate Carriers EV:N, hundreds of destroyer, light capital, and battleship class Polaris ships in waves of 6 (not kidding), but never ever in a tiny super fragile fighter.

Kudos Rhyd.

[Rinnhart]

Imagine Vael with permanent death. Raid content, where an individual's actions can negatively effect a large group of people, is impossible in it's current encarnation without the opportunity to fail and try again.

[Rhydderch Hael]

You flew... a fighter!??!?! a fighter!?!?! I bow down before your accomplishment. Boys and girls, Rhydderch Hael has essentially taken on a Star Wars Death Star and Super Star Destroyer in one with an itty bitty tie fighter and no 8 meter exhaust port weakness. In real terms, he's sunk a US Battleship with a biplane or speedboat.

I've fought fleets of Kestrels and a nearly invincible alien battlecruiser in EV, Pirate Carriers EV:N, hundreds of destroyer, light capital, and battleship class Polaris ships in waves of 6 (not kidding), but never ever in a tiny super fragile fighter.

Kudos Rhyd.

Actually, when it comes to all the fighter classes, I found the human UE Fighter to be the best combination of speed and toughness. Kraits and Cresent Fighters are blazingly fast (Adaras even more so) but you have to dance between raindrops in order to avoid getting killed by escort fighters. The Voinian crates are certainly tough, but too slow to do a decent strafe run on a capital ship— you're stuck in the gunner's arc for too long.

The UE Fighter has good enough speed to zip by a cap-ship, yet has just enough armor and a halfway-strong enough shield to weather a mistake or tangle with other fighters.

And like I said, this particular fighter had a cloaking device installed. Whenever a Voinian Frigate jumped into the vincinity, I immediately cloaked and waited until it left again before I attacked the Dreadnought once more.

Without the cloak, it would have taken forever, since I'd have to tangle with every interloping Frigate that stopped by.

The trick about a ship with massive amounts of protection (be it in the form of shields or armor) is that the regeneration of that protection is agonizingly slow. Basically, the slower it takes for an enemy to whittle away at your hull, the slower it is for that hull to regain full strength. That's what made the Adara so annoying: what little shielding it had instantly came back after it cleared the danger zone (and her speed made that all too easy). This also means the massively-armored Dreadnought had practically no health regeneration.

[Chaerophon]

Okay, back to my geeky little hole.:)

Whoa? I thought this WAS the geeky little hole?