Wildstar Launch Thread - Server: Stormtalon | Faction: Dominion

Bondurant_sl said:

Facts as of today :

- 7 full zones yet to be implemented.
- No content past 36.
- No 40 man content (raids and warplots, which is their endgame content)
- Only 2 BGs

I won't talk about LAS or AMP systems since it's more like a matter of opinion (or forcing 40man format in 2014), but I've beta tested most of the major MMO failures out there (I did buy them, I'm not being edgy) and from what I've seen there is no way they'll be ready for launch if we're talking about a April / June release if the Januray beta patch isn't all about what is actually missing.

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Will have to wait and see. The first two could literally just be a matter of turning them on(you can see the barriers up keeping players out).

The 3rd I have no clue. I would be shocked if they open up raids to general testing at all. I see that more as specific invites to guilds and internal. Warplots I can see opening up though to general testing and be ready.

BGs are meh. If its only 2 its only 2, that plus arena, plus warplots is enough pvp for me(not counting me playing on a pvp server) at launch. If they have more cool, if not , no big deal to me.

The bad of Wildstar:

- The leveling is dull and uninspired. No one likes quest hubs anymore and this game has a crazy amount.
- The game is extremely buggy. I haven't seen anyone talk about this much but for a studio that has so many WoW devs, I feel like it lacks polish.
- Most classes are missing a few combat abilities that add skill / break up your standard rotation. There needs to be more off GCD abilities and more unique abilities per class.
- Lack of optimization. I get that it's beta but there are too many zones/areas that lag decent rigs (and this is not a grapically intense game).

The good of Wildstar:

- The humor & story in the game is great. I feel for a new IP they've done an excellent job at making me care about what's going on.
- The action combat is fun. Yes, leveling up is super easy but there's a decent amount of rewarding good play (dodging telegraphs + stunning telegraphs).
- The dev team seems to 'get it'. They've answered all the questions correctly and I appreciate that they actually took the time to take beta down in order to fix a lot of the problems that the game previously had.
- The potential for difficult content is there (it's just not in the solo content). I can think of a few group 3+ mobs that are incredibly challenging to solo at the appropriate level. If you've ever done Skullcano, realize that part of the hard mode challenge requires no one in your group taking damage during the obstacle run. It's been a crazy long time since I've felt that a game was going to actually have difficult content like I do in Wildstar.

I get where people are coming from when they don't like the game. I just don't particularly give a shit about the leveling experience like a lot of the people here seem to. I'll be level 50 within a day or two of launch so the only thing I care about is whether or not they can deliver on difficult content and if they can make 40 man raids fun. I agree that the next big patch is going to be huge in that regards but I'm more optimistic about Wildstar then I've been about any recent MMO.

Voldeth_sl said:

The bad of Wildstar:

- The leveling is dull and uninspired. No one likes quest hubs anymore and this game has a crazy amount.
- The game is extremely buggy. I haven't seen anyone talk about this much but for a studio that has so many WoW devs, I feel like it lacks polish.
- Most classes are missing a few combat abilities that add skill / break up your standard rotation. There needs to be more off GCD abilities and more unique abilities per class.
- Lack of optimization. I get that it's beta but there are too many zones/areas that lag decent rigs (and this is not a grapically intense game).

The good of Wildstar:

- The humor & story in the game is great. I feel for a new IP they've done an excellent job at making me care about what's going on.
- The action combat is fun. Yes, leveling up is super easy but there's a decent amount of rewarding good play (dodging telegraphs + stunning telegraphs).
- The dev team seems to 'get it'. They've answered all the questions correctly and I appreciate that they actually took the time to take beta down in order to fix a lot of the problems that the game previously had.
- The potential for difficult content is there (it's just not in the solo content). I can think of a few group 3+ mobs that are incredibly challenging to solo at the appropriate level. If you've ever done Skullcano, realize that part of the hard mode challenge requires no one in your group taking damage during the obstacle run. It's been a crazy long time since I've felt that a game was going to actually have difficult content like I do in Wildstar.

I get where people are coming from when they don't like the game. I just don't particularly give a shit about the leveling experience like a lot of the people here seem to. I'll be level 50 within a day or two of launch so the only thing I care about is whether or not they can deliver on difficult content and if they can make 40 man raids fun. I agree that the next big patch is going to be huge in that regards but I'm more optimistic about Wildstar then I've been about any recent MMO.

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I agree with everything except the bugs... aside from the memory leak (which is admittedly a gigantic pain in the ass), most of the bugs I have run into are very minor and would clean up in a polish pass (which obviously they are not doing yet with no content over 36 even in testing yet).

I REALLY wish they would make changes to the class power if not all the individual ones to make them more interesting. The whole 'click a button for a 50% buff every 90 seconds' thing is.. just dry and boring.

Anybody by chance involved in a guild for this game that plans on raiding maybe 2 or 3 nights a week at like 8 or 9 EST? Looking for a kind of middle of the road guild. A guild that is interested in progression, but isn't a second job. I am having shitty luck on various Wildstar forums' guild areas.

Definitely planning on forming a guild for this with some of the board posters. Will post more details once NDA drops to avoid the potential bad (for anyone interested).

Is there any comment from Carbine on the release window, perhaps even with a link quote? I keep hearing April and June thrown around elsewhere but when questioned the posters always go "uh read it somewhere" or "they have to launch by then or stupidreasonthatdoesntmakesense".

Mr Creed_sl said:

Is there any comment from Carbine on the release window, perhaps even with a link quote? I keep hearing April and June thrown around elsewhere but when questioned the posters always go "uh read it somewhere" or "they have to launch by then or stupidreasonthatdoesntmakesense".

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You won't find an exact quote from Carbine but here are some links that are somewhat reliable to give you an idea of where the dates are coming from:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/08...14-release-wi/
http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/08...ldstar-launch/

Basically, NCsoft originally intended to launch in 2013 however the feedback from the beta / studio suggested that it wasn't ready. They brought the game down for a few months and delayed until 2014. Massively posted that in speaking with Gaffrey that they're looking to launch in 'Spring 2014' but nothing suggests that they won't delay it if the game isn't ready / doesn't want to compete with WoW's expansion.

I personally believe Carbine will want to actually launch it when 90% of the end game, or more, is ready. But NCSoft may want to launch it whenever the fuck it wants to compete with some other launch title (Whatever the fuck Blizzard is launching/TESO). I really want to play the end game, but I'm willing to delay a 6 more months from the initial goal if it means we don't get shit on. Nothing is worse than hitting max level faster than the company anticipates and then waiting around for content patches to have shit to do (SWTOR).

Anyone know the budget for Wildstar?

No.

huh I didn't realize wildstar was gonna sell gametime for gold ala Eve/TERA (1.0)/etc using their credd system
Business Model | WildStar MMORPG

its worked really well for Eve, allowing people to sub for years just with game currency and setup multiple accounts etc. I don't think it really worked as well for TERA, the prices of sub time dropped super fast and it basically was available for maybe a few hours of farming gold - dunno how long it would take in EVE to "farm" 1 month of sub time.

I don't see it working well here though, it works great in EVE because its a single megaserver and people seem to put a real strong value on eve currency, which has a lot of things you can spend it on. For a fantasy MMO though the value seems to drop rapidly, and unless raid and PVP groups will be able to sell loot (which is a big can of worms) your gold isn't really worth that much. If its like TERA was, I'd guess a decent CREDD market the first few weeks and then the value of it drop rapidly on the "good" servers.

It is a good way to combat asian gold farmers though, I hope Wildstar has anti spam stuff in place so its not a repeat of FF14 re-launch.

spronk_sl said:

huh I didn't realize wildstar was gonna sell gametime for gold ala Eve/TERA (1.0)/etc using their credd system
Business Model | WildStar MMORPG

its worked really well for Eve, allowing people to sub for years just with game currency and setup multiple accounts etc. I don't think it really worked as well for TERA......

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It works if they allow you to put high tier raid items on the Auction house completing your money loop.

Person A with lots of cash but little time to raid, will want to buy the entry level raid gear you put on the AH. Person B, young guy, doesn't wanna pay sub, but has all the time in the world to rep grind, raid grind, gets gear and posts on the AH. On Celestial Hills I don't know about Elite Status since I thought they were account locked, meaning if you bought one it was an account option kind of like account wide mounts. Otherwise I used to sell EMP by purchasing CS items people wanted: character slots, exp boosts, race changes, etcetera. This allowed me to get most of my raid gear straight off the AH and to +12.

So WS would have to allow you to post the end game gear in the AH, which I'm not too happy with

[Edit] I just noticed that they used a similar example on their website but instead of end game gear they used a mount as an example. The use of a mount is a red herring, though, and like you said wouldn't be enough of an economic factor. Also, assuming that their credds go for $14.99 they will still have to compete with the gold farmers. Something these idiots aren't taking into consideration.

Which is cheaper: Buying a credd that is locked at $14.99 and selling it on the AH subject to the whims of the fluctuating economy? Or skipping that and just buying the gold directly from a 3rd party farmer?

It was cheaper for me to buy a billion ISK back in the day from a farmer, than for me to buy the PLEX and resell it. That's what I'm saying. ISK farmers adjusted to PLEX prices and began undercutting them pretty early on. I remember it getting to about $40 or so for a billion ISK compared to the 250million ISK I'd get from a $14.99 Plex.

Selling Credd isn't going to make the farmer go away. Farmers will laugh at them, since they won't compete with the farmer. If they did, then farmers would have a serious issue. Credd will probably stick to traditional pricing models: $5, $10, $20 and so on. Where as the farmer has full liberty to adjust their prices accordingly. Farmers only fear are other farmers. Will it curtail the gold farming issue? A little bit, but not enough to really cause them any harm.

And me? The guy who will go to the farmer to buy gold? If you fuck me over and make it too difficult to get stuff (like high speed mount training in WoW early on) and I have to grind gold, I'll check out the Credds and judge the rate. I'll make an assessment evaluating the security provided by buying the Credd as opposed to the risk of buying the gold from a farmer compared to how much gold I'm getting from both methods. If the farmer is providing double or more the gold for the same amount of money, odds are I'll go with the farmer.

Sorry for going off on a tangent.

Will never get rid of farmers, unless you get rid of tradeable in-game currency.

Will be interesting to see how it works out. I do not mind paying for subs via in-game gold(did it in tera). Though like others of said it will matter if there is actually things worth selling. They have the usual from mmos(mounts, crafting, non-combat items) and maybe housing will keep up a steady steam of economics.

Also you get get enough people that will use "official" channels for $ -> in game currency instead of a farmer if the option is there. These systems seem more of a quality of life for players then any real try at stopping RMT farmers.

Yeah, I don't really see the gold for gametime as stopping RMT farmers, it's more of a move that will regulate them. I'm also not sure if it's going to work. In eve you die you lose your shit. Currency has a more defined purpose, your wallet is really a quick tally of how many quarters you have at the arcade.

We'll have to see. I hope they find a way to make it work, because the potential upside is that it will make the game economy both better and more stable and in doing so make the entire game experience better. Itwouldbe a lot easier to just scrap the idea entirely.

It's basically impossible to know from a client side. Yeah, you can make a few hundred plat flipping the commodities market -- but the volume is tiny, making the markets that much easier to corner. The attitudes are also abnormal. Plenty of people will throw crap up on the market at a loss because who gives a fuck. This is the kind of thing they don't really need beta testers for. You can test this crap more easily and more thoroughly with computer simulations.

Did anyone have an invite for this beta still? If so hit me a PM and I promise never to troll you and always come to your aid.

Sutekh_sl said:

Did anyone have an invite for this beta still? If so hit me a PM and I promise never to troll you and always come to your aid.

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should be a large wave of them coming out somettime in the next 2 weeks

Sutekh_sl said:

Did anyone have an invite for this beta still? If so hit me a PM and I promise never to troll you and always come to your aid.

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bro bro game sucks unfortunately =/ if you're bored of WoW this wont do anything for you.

TecKnoe_sl said:

bro bro game sucks unfortunately =/ if you're bored of WoW this wont do anything for you.

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Just curious, what didn't you like ?