Shadeth's page

33 next month

My question if combat stance will be tweaked on, sword perpendicular to the ground and arm extended out just doesn't seem right to me. Too rigid I guess if I had to term it.

Otherwise I like what I see and look forward to seeing how things pan out.

I am so sick of this cash shop nonsense...

Why cant game developers remove their greed from an MMO so that people feel that they have a fair shot at a game without cheating.

Thats is all cash shops are, a way to cheat that gives the developer more money.

If they really go any farther then Goblin Balls then I am not likely to play long.

Turbine, at least in DDO, is a very modest store. There really isn't anything that gave players advantageous. Stat tomes are debatable but that only allowed players a shortcut from a very gruesome process. Doing 20-40 runs of the raid that are on a 3 day time for that tome and still not getting the tome you're needing.

Granting with the addition of the Astral Diamond Auction House that added a P2W factor but it was never any some uber gear that one can demolish other players.

Lacking a sub the company needs to make revenue, people need to realize this and quite expecting a cheap free game of AAA quality. While some models are extremely bad like SWTOR who charges for addition hot bars and Neverwinter where it was so intrusive that it caused many to quite and started hearing the term P2E (Pay to Enjoy)but one could still enjoy all the content of the game though, while some got a very good model like Turbine's DDO where there was no advantageous uber gear but you were very limited to the content. GW2 is another example of another good model of a CS. They are out there.

With the game being , from my limited understanding, that all the gear will be crafted, can be lost if not threaded, and true power will come from your skills that you train in that take real time to complete just like EVE makes the cash shop unable to be a P2W.

Would you consider EVE P2W?

In GW2 (free after purchase with cash-shop) you can freely exchange in-game gold and cash shop gems for each other. So with real money you can trade for in-game gold to buy things in the game or you can work on getting in-game gold and trade it for the gems to buy cash shop stuff.

In Wurm Online (F2P with skill cap, premium subscription with complete skill gain) everything is paid for with in-game coin. You can purchase a month of premium time in-game with the same coin that you purchase goods and services from other players. Players can choose to purchase premium directly at Wurm's website or coins. Those are the only things sold out of game. There is no difference in price for a month of premium vs the amount of coin you would get to pay for a month of premium. Players actually purchase/own/build their own land called a deed. Deeds have a monthly upkeep with the price based on the size of the deed which can be sized as the player wishes. So there is a good cycle of coin that goes on in this game.

The issue with GW2 is it can easily be player manipulated and was actually cheaper to buy from 3rd party vendors some in game gold than it was to buy through ANet themselves. It always boils down to how much time you willing to give up. With school rearing up and will be working some hefty schedule I will likely be spending money because my time is extremely limited. Never though I would ever say that but that's how it is. Don't know if ANet ever addressed that issue with player manipulation of gold/gem price ratio.

I personally really like Turbine's setup with DDO's hybrid model, as I've said. It accommodates a lot of different types of players in that free time vs available money spectrum.

I don't really worry about too many people grinding and staying entirely F2P. So long as the grind only gives small increments (like Nihimon said, run through an area 4-5 times to unlock another area, but obviously different from that because this isn't a themepark) of Cash Shop funds, it can keep some people in the game who wouldn't be in it otherwise, for lac of IRL funds.

I think the most obvious problem I see is automation of grinding leading to Cash Shop currency. One possible solution is to keep the bonuses as one-time only deals.

Trade is limited I think somewhat, one can only post so many items on the auction house and a F2P player can only hold so much in game currency (at least the old currency of platnium). Even a sub player has a limit of auctions they can post. And the distinction gets a little hazy between F2P, Premium, and VIP. The only difference between a F2P and Premium is one completes one transaction in the Turbine store regardless of the price.

F2P can't send tells I believe. Guilds are not an issue I think as anyone can join regardless if they are a F2P player.

For DDO one has to complete quests which are instanced to the party, like dungeons in any typical MMO. I don't know what you mean by automation but I don't think that's an issue.

Earning Turbine Points is set up like this atm. Quests are completed for favor, which includes raids also, on a solo, normal, hard, and elite difficulty scale which elite offers the highest amount of favor. For every 100 favor you complete you get 25 Turbine Points, which the current maximum favor cap I think with their upcoming Update 20 is 4,000 I think or 5,000. I forget but it will take a very very VERY long time to do. Which your looking at 1,550-1,900 turbine points for one life of max favor which will be at least a month process if not more. This will cover 1-2 adventure packs depending on the pack as the content and pricing varies.

In short, it is an extremely grindsome process, DDO is imo on of the most grindsome games out there because not only do you need to grind gear drops in raids but also in TRs (reincarnation) and some do this anywhere from 3-6 times if not more.

The pro I like in DDOs store is that you can pick and choose content, a lot of content you don't even need and over time a player can build up to getting all the content available if they choose not to bother with stat tomes, xp tomes, cosmetics, astral diamonds, ect ect.

What DDO's store does like tremendously is cosmetics. DDO's artwork with armor is someone that your 5-8 yr old kid could do better. Skin tight plate leggings, shoulder pads that dwarf WoW's, almost no options for helms that look any sort of decency. I can't say what are the real sellers but besides stat tomes and content I see nothing worth while in the store.

I've played DDO extensively and can say one can easily earn the Turbine Points on needs to buy pretty much anything if they can do the grind. Turbine even has a mechanic where you can relevel your toon to gain more power and redo all that Turbine Point farming all over again. It is a bit grindsome (well... very grindsome) but they allow players to buy the content they need without spending a dime if they so choose. However that is not the real money maker. Otto Boxes, raid timer resets, tomes, outfits and the like are where most people spend their points on from my experience observing conversations with guildies. Most go sub to start then transition to a Premium account.

Nothing that's P2W except with the addition of the Astral Shard auction house where one can buy some/most of the higher end loot.

Personally I just went with a sub because it was too much of a hassle with all the gaps in content that you had to buy.

Curious to know if any word or an ETA on when we might get some word of late backers for early enrollment access. A few months ago it was hinted that around this time or coming up soon we would get some word on this.

I assume that Milestone 3 in Oct I believe is when some more details will be given (if any). Wanted to see if could be any confirmation (or reconfirmation) that this info will be "soon" or that there will be an opportunity for people like me who didn't really read or research PFO until after the fact and are SOL to back the game.

Out of curiosity, what backing does PFO have? The Kickstarter amount seemed very low for an MMORPG funding and wonder if there are behind the scenes financial supporters.

Few questions that Ryan left before finished asking and said to ask here. Or perhaps others can answer.

1. Will there be collision barriers in the game. Like melee forming a line to engage the enemy where the enemy cannot run though like they were ghosts to engage the less "tankish" characters like some frail mage or archer? Will formations play a role at all or how a few could hold a pass against a large number and succeed but would fail in an open plains scenario due to being swarmed by all sides?

2. Will holding a dungeon instance be an issue? Like say a player finds a dungeon instance and enters to holds the instance that locks all others out while waiting on some buddies to come along even though it might be an hour or two. Will dungeons be a rarity that cutthroat tactics evolve or will there be more than enough ample instances to support the desire to engage in dungeoneering for all? Also can you describe the length of a dungeon? Will it be a relatively short 30-45 min adventure or will it be a lengthy 2-3 hour adventure?

3. Will combat be a more stationary or will there be all sorts of crazy Flying Tiger Hidden Dragon kind of combat that seems to be a lot of rage recently where unrealistic movement is going one. Like a full plate doing and active acrobat dodge roll or how an archer looks like their doing a ballerina dance doging while shooting the whole time.

Can someone explain the threaded gear concept? Been slowly going through all the blogs and might not have reached that blog yet that explains this. Is threaded gear the gear you have equipped?