is it realistic to start this game now?

[vesavius]

First off, hey all

Second, my first question (if you know what I mean... hehe)

Is it realistic to start SoR now? Am I going to be a viable character even with newbie gear etc? How is the economy in the game? I will be the first to admit I have just started looking at stuff on the site while the trial downloads, and I'm gonna give the game a go anyhow, but a little insight is a good thing.

Thx in advance

[katriell]

Perfectly. The game is not set up in such a way that one can never catch up to older players. Even if there was someone with 250 in every branch, it wouldn't really matter because they could only use one skill at a time generally. I mean, it's not practical to try to tank with melee and heal at the same time - you need the protection of heavy armour for the tanking, but the action malus on the armour will make your spellcasts cost a lot in HP and Sap, and take a long time to cast and have a shorter range. So if someone has 250 in pike, heavy helmet crafting, jungle foraging, light boots crafting, offensive affliction magic, and fistfighting, all of that is irrelevant if they're choosing to use their level 80 heal skill in a team. Although magic is a bit of an exception since you only need light armour and magic amplifier gloves for all types, so it's easy to switch between spell types.

Anyway, players with high levels are still able to team with lower-level players, because the former probably has a lower skill or two. It'll work and both will get exp as long as the mob they're fighting is higher than the level of the highest skill being used in the team.

Also players of all levels can be useful in both PvE and PvP.

I hope that made sense, and that it answered your question at least partially... o_O

[vesavius]

lol yeah it did, and hell, it even made sense!

Sounds like a great system... far better then the mentoring/ sidekick thing that seems to be the rage right now. Reading through some stuff while I'm downloading, and must say the community here seems nice... thanks for the fast reply.

[pugmak]

Having hibies around is actually benificial in this game world.

The economy is almost entirely player made crafts. The mobs dont drop items (except for one uber bandit boss), they drop materials that items can be crafted from. What doesnt come from critter mobs has to be dug from the ground by player harvesters.

Having highbies around means that better gear is available to you on the npc traders or through personal negotiations with player crafters.

Since this is not a gankers game, there's no real need to compete head to head with anyone too highbie for you to have a chance at beating.

You'll have plenty motivation to level tho, since you'll probably want to get invovled in helping hold or take an outpost with what ever guild you end up joining...and also, there's the always present possibility of the lands being overrun by hoards of kittin boiling out of the ground and heading to over run your favorite city.

[azziane]

Having highbies in a game where alts are optional, if not useless, also makes it more difficult for the beginner crafter. Who is going to buy your QL 70 swords if most of the population is over 100?

That's what worried me the most about the mainland and why I am still staying on the noob island.

[sprite]

Having highbies in a game where alts are optional, if not useless, also makes it more difficult for the beginner crafter. Who is going to buy your QL 70 swords if most of the population is over 100?

That's what worried me the most about the mainland and why I am still staying on the noob island.

There's always new players around, and the "highbies" won't bother themselves with making low level gear

[acridiel]

Having highbies in a game where alts are optional, if not useless, also makes it more difficult for the beginner crafter. Who is going to buy your QL 70 swords if most of the population is over 100?

That's what worried me the most about the mainland and why I am still staying on the noob island.

Well if everyone has the same fears as you and stays on the Island, yes, then it could truly be a problem that noone would buy your stuff.
But I don´t realy think this would happen.

There are always enough new Players to buy your stuff unless they get themselves drafted into a guild and then spammed with good gear.

And, what sense would it make to "sort out" all old players Charakters?
Just so that new arrivals would be equal?
Oh, that would be an interesting Gameing Concept, don´t you think?
Every few month all "high Level" Players will be rolled back to newbe status, just so everyone can have a go at being "old" once
Or, the newcommers won´t have to worrie about their stuff not being bought

Yes, that could proove very interesting, indeed?
What would you say, if you´d just reached lvl250 craft and would suddely rolled back to 0? *gg*

Ah, I get all dreamy...

CUL8er
Acridiel
(master of strange dreams)

[pugmak]

Another issue you'll find different here is the game world's economic relationship to currency.

Once you've got enough dappers (the game currency) to get a few mektubes and and apartment if you want it....then there's little need to hoard dapps.

You might occasionally use them to purchase mats to grind up some levels..or if you see a particularly gooviliscious item for sale on the vendors and you'll need some for teleport tickets.

But in all reality, dapps are easy to make. My main char, with not a single skill at 50 yet, on the mainland, goofin off and doing nothing but faction/fame missions can easily scrum up 100k daps a day from mission payouts and selling mats from killerized critters.

If you craft, you'll make daps hand over fist. There's enough new blood comming in that's not interested in crafting for themselves... and the crafting scheme is complex enough to make even hard corps crafters interdependant for gear and items... there's always some sort of market, if you make decent goods and sell for a competitive price.

And no alts? Why, them folk are just silly (personal oppinion there, dont your bowles in an uproar). I got as many alts as I got slots lol. Gotta have at least 1 per of the 3 factions, 1 of each race (spread over the factions) and one Matis chickadee, just cause they're so dang cute.

[chessack]

Having highbies in a game where alts are optional, if not useless, also makes it more difficult for the beginner crafter. Who is going to buy your QL 70 swords if most of the population is over 100?

That's not really accurate, though. The population may mostly be over 100 in several skill lines but few people are over 100 in everything. Just today we did a guild outing where 2 of us were newbies (level 50-65 or so in melee), and one guy was 250... in 2H swords. So he took us to a lower (orange I think) zone, and he switched to dual-wielded daggers, because he's only level 70 or so in close combat (dagger fighting), and he fought with daggers while we fought with swords or magic. Everyone (including him) got XP and had fun. He is level 250 in 2H swords, but he's still gonna need that nice level 80 or so dagger for his close combat training.

That's what worried me the most about the mainland and why I am still staying on the noob island.

I would not let it worry you. I have bought plenty of low level gear, and made plenty, and sold some. But even if you don't sell to a lot of players, the NPCs will give you decent money for what you make (slightly below the cost of selling the raw mats, but after all you also got XP for that craft so it's a win/win for ya).

Another thing to think about: Getting nice low level stuff is almost impossible. Most crafters making level 60 armor, for instance, do not have it maxed out in the stat bonus. So you'll see "level 60 heavy armor" that gives only +10 hp (the max would be +30, but a lot of times crafters do not have the ability to make that yet). Also, another annoyance I have on the market is that crafters seem to skill up HP bonus first (or only) -- perhaps that is the most popular. Good luck trying to find (on the vendor) a full set of +focus light armor or something, at least below level 100. I've not found a set yet -- heck I've not found a single piece with maxed out focus bonus (weaker ones yes, but not maxed out for the armor's level). Again, this is because the lower level crafters don't have their skills all "in" yet.

Thus if you are say a level 150 crafter and can make some nice level 50 armor with +25 focus per piece, you might well be able to sell it because the level 50 crafters can't really make that yet in many cases.

Well... you get the idea.

C