How is the actual mainland gameplay?

[shamuth]

I've been enjoying my stay on atys and trying my best to learn the ropes. Recently however I've hit a few stumbling blocks that make me wonder about how the gameplay will be on the mainland. I'm hoping to meet reassurance or atleast an outcry of how I've caused my own problems.

I'll start with the most asthetic and less important problems.

First, from my understanding armor/weapon looks are created by the plan type, the color of the items used to make it then the type of the items. All Matis Heavy armor looks the same with the exception of color and minor adjustments for it being basic, fine, or high quality (not the Qnumber but the grade). Will my character basicly continue with the same look with minor adjustments as my gear improves?

Next, I've spent half my game play in the dark of night. I toggle on/off the light around my character but I'm still rather limited in my sight distance at night. This is understandable and realistic but it gets to be a real pain when your exploration of new lands turns into stumbling half blind then being awed when the sun comes up by the graphics that are hidden for a half hour then suddenly revealed. Should I simply get use to this? Its no where near as bad as RV being almost unplayable for 3 hour spams of night time till you get a tourch but still.

I'm not that big of a crafting nut. I don't like to look for nodes and start digging, it gets better and it gets more accurate I've been told but attaching myself to the ground and hitting a button doesn't make me lick my lips as I'm watching my inventory fill up with valuables. I love building stuff however. Will I be able to get by with parts from animals being my only mats? I've already noticed that trying to do that means having uneven mat types, a hundred blades and counterweights but no grips or a dozen hides but no clothes. Ok I start to balance the type of mobs I fight to compensate for this. The problem I run into is that one type of item will lack quality, will the variety on mob types and mob levels on the mainland alleviate this? Will I be able to hunt all types of mobs at the same level or will I have the island problem of all mobs of a certain level being one type.

Can I skip Crafting altogether? It seems crafting trails behind my needs in combat, I may be able to use Q50 items but Q30 isn't easy to throw together yet and its always seemed to trail behind. The Quest items being used forever don't encourage this either, even if the mainland won't have them. I did notice that I can make a profit selling Mats alot easier then using them and selling a finished profit. Would providing mats for items be a less time consuming route to finding my place in Atys?

I must close with a few questions I can't say as much about.

How is the population spread level/zone wise? Easy to find players anywhere working on something or is there a main cluster of activity in only a couple spots like the starting zone and the high level content.

Is ranged combat and making your own ammo a viable trade and is it helpful in a group setting compared to casters/healers/tanks? I've read old posts denoucing its use for anything more then Skill points. And is medium armor good for this?

Do quests to gain faction inspire you to serve that cause or feel like your doing something for that group?

Thanks in advance to any answers to this lengthy post.

[chessack]

First, from my understanding armor/weapon looks are created by the plan type, the color of the items used to make it then the type of the items. All Matis Heavy armor looks the same with the exception of color and minor adjustments for it being basic, fine, or high quality (not the Qnumber but the grade). Will my character basicly continue with the same look with minor adjustments as my gear improves?

You can wear stuff from each of the 4 races, so you will have 4 looks to choose from for overall style. Then there is color. Then there is the fact that you can (and many people do -- I've seen it on the mainland repeatedly) mix different armor types (medium chest, heavy pants, light arms and boots, etc). If you retain the same type of armor exactly (e.g., red matis heavy armor) yes it will look similar the whole time. But there's no reason to do that except if you want to.

Next, I've spent half my game play in the dark of night. I toggle on/off the light around my character but I'm still rather limited in my sight distance at night. This is understandable and realistic but it gets to be a real pain when your exploration of new lands turns into stumbling half blind then being awed when the sun comes up by the graphics that are hidden for a half hour then suddenly revealed. Should I simply get use to this?

There is no graphical difference (that I can tell) between night on the island and on the mainland in terms of how dark it gets, etc. I have not had any issues but some of this is graphics card related, some monitor related, and some graphic options related. You really can't do much about the first 2 (unless you want to buy new hardware just to play a game, which IMO is a little batty if you're not rich)... but for #3, you should try mucking around with the settings like gamma and whatnot and see if you can come up with something pleasing.

Will I be able to get by with parts from animals being my only mats? I've already noticed that trying to do that means having uneven mat types, a hundred blades and counterweights but no grips or a dozen hides but no clothes.

This is the drawback for animal materials. Harvesting from the ground will eventually (when you get good enough) lead to large amounts of exactly the resource you want. There is no way (that I know of) to get quartering to give you an exact drop type... so Kitins will drop say shells and mandibles, and if you just want shells, you are not able to choose that. What you'll need to do is some legwork, just like with harvesting. Where a harvester keeps track of locations, making landmarks where he can find good materials, a quarterer is going to have to keep track of mob types. As you go through the game make a list, e.g. "Kitins drop shells and stuffing," and "Cratchas drop lining." Then when you need materials make a "hunting list" (like a shopping list) and go hunt those things specifically. Toss or sell the drops that don't fit what you want.

Ok I start to balance the type of mobs I fight to compensate for this. The problem I run into is that one type of item will lack quality, will the variety on mob types and mob levels on the mainland alleviate this? Will I be able to hunt all types of mobs at the same level or will I have the island problem of all mobs of a certain level being one type.

It's much smoother on the mainland. I can find blue 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, and 5x Kipees (for example) all within easy travel of Pyr, for instance (the Fyros capital). What is not so apparent on the newbie island (because it is all one zone) is that each zone has a "color" and usually then a full range of "star" values for that color. So Pyr is blues of different types. The next zone over (Oasis) is whites. The Thesos zone (I forget the name) is reds. The zone east of that is oranges.

There are usually a range of mob types in each zone (plants, herbivores, carnivores, kitins) so you should be able to find the mobs you want to hunt on the mainland easily enough.

Can I skip Crafting altogether?

Yes. You can get by just fine without crafting anything yourself. You'll make a huge amount of money just selling off all your mats to the NPC, and even more if you get a good quantity of nice mats that a crafter can use.

How is the population spread level/zone wise? Easy to find players anywhere working on something or is there a main cluster of activity in only a couple spots like the starting zone and the high level content.

I have had no trouble. However, I got into a guild about the 3rd day I was on the mainland, so I have fellow adventurers ready-made. However, I will also say that I got into 2 "pickup groups" my first day on the mainland that were reminiscent of newbie island, and have seen people using regional chat to get together.

You have to realize that unlike newbie-land, the mainland regions do not really have a lot of "help me" spam on their channels, and so it is a lot quieter. A simple /who reveals this is not because the zone is empty, but rather, because people in the zone know what they are about (being veterans, for the most part) so there are less questions. After all, I ask way less questions now than I did before myself.

Is ranged combat and making your own ammo a viable trade and is it helpful in a group setting compared to casters/healers/tanks? I've read old posts denoucing its use for anything more then Skill points. And is medium armor good for this?

I can't answer this, as I have not tried ranged weapons. I included it (rather than deleting) just so you know I didn't miss or ignore it.

Do quests to gain faction inspire you to serve that cause or feel like your doing something for that group?

So far the only ones I have done (gaining +1 faction each time, I believe) was to make some jewels for the Kami. That was just to see how it all worked. So someone else would be better to answer this.

C

[pugmak]

First, since I'm restarting from zero, and never had a character get much over 150 in anything, I am still pretty newbert in my knowings...so if others chime in different, probably best to go with them.

Looks:
Armor is armor, more or less. It does change some with crafters learning the upgrades of medium and high qualities and there'll be the usual colors, buff, green, blue, red with the added black and white from prime roots mats.

You can mix and match various race types to vary your look somewhat as those items come available on the market.

Darkness:
You can adjust your Gama setting, as well as contrast and brightness in-game via the "system" icon -> graphics. Set your darkness level to what's comfortable for you.

Crafting:
You can get by without crafting a single thing if you choose. I've known players that never picked up a pick axe or a sewing machine of any sort.
If you do want to play around with crafting, you do not have to rely exclusively on what you get off mobs. You can check the various materials vendors scattered around the towns on mainland to get mats to fill the holes in what you have on hand.
There's a filter on the vendor sale/buy window in the bottom right corner that you can use to look for specific mat types and qlevel and quality range. Makes browsing much easier.

Items:
I havent done much shopping on mainland recently but there's usually plenty good stuff made by players for sale at the npc vendors. If you run into problems due to your range of level requirements, you can always ask on the forums or in region chat when highbies are around...Someone might make you something nice, just to be nice, or for a reasonable cost. Just please dont spam the requests

Ranged:
Not a clue, I've only ever done it for the skill points lol.
I did know a guy or few that would travel around shooting the crap out of stuff with their mektubs in tow behind them as mobile ammo storage tho. They seemed to be having fun.

Population:
That's a bit skinny lately. Hopefully the new newbie island and exposure from that will change things..but I aint gonna lie to ya. It can be lonely on the mainlands until you find yourself a good guild or a dedicated group of buddies.

Faction/fame missions:
Again, aint gonna lie to you here. Those are a grind, plain, simple, grind. This game is so not mission/quest oriented lol. Most of them are simple "kill x # of z type mob" or "deliver this to x npc in zone z". This is one area that probably could use a bit of a rethink but..then again, this game is so not mission/quest oriented, I dont, personally, have any ideas on how it could be done different, without screwing the pooch and turning this into just another cookie cutter "quest driven" game.

In finishing:
The place you find for yourself is simply up to you. You and/or any friends/buddies you make. You, your friends and buddies and any guild you might join.
Much like life, the place you find for yourself will largely depend on who you're with or where you put your efforts.

One thing to keep in mind tho, it is never too late to start working on any by-passed or neglected skill areas. You might completely skip harvest and crafting for now, and later, decide you want to mess around with it...and you can do that. Same with magic, or melee or what ever. No matter what branches of the skill tree you run down, the others are always open to you as well.

P.S. There should be a law forbidding female characters from wearing anything but medium armors.

[thurgond]

I'll try and hit a couple of your questions.

Looks -- People wearing higher level armor do look much better. Go to an event with logs of high levels and you'll see what I mean.

Darkness -- I don't like to go wandering around unfamiliar areas on stormy nights, but other times I hardly notice the day/night cycle. (foraging excelent mats excepted)

Crafting -- You can get most of the mats for grinding off of mobs, but as you've noticed there are some which are scarce. Kitin and carnivores drop a lot more mats than herbies or plants. You'll find that some slots are easier to fill with foraging. That said, you'll quickly learn where to get these and as you're foraging improves it will be easy to fill the gaps. E.g. a couple pulls with your pick will get you more fiber for grips or clothes than an hour of fighting herbies. If you want to craft items that sell, you'll need to dig.

Population Spread -- The population can be pretty spread out, but except for a few zones this can vary. You could be the only person in a zone for days then there will be several groups and a handful of diggers.

Ranged -- Ranged crafting is viable because you have one steady customer - yourself. What I've done has been all solo, and medium armor works fine there. With high damage ammo, a ranger should be able to fill a damage-dealer role in a group, but carry and amp or melee weapon for when the ammo runs out.

Missions -- The Kami master claps when I feed him kitin morsels, but then he claps when he hands out missions or I buy teleport pacts. The other mission givers don't respond at all. I spend most of my time grinding fame, and the sense of accomplishment comes when the fame bar moves.

[shamuth]

Great info to digest. I'll have to play with my gamma settings some, I'm kicking myself for not thinking of that.

Is there anything ingame one could do to look for a guild? Like a channel or place to ask other then the usual forum shopping. or do I just ask around in /region and in groups I meet with.

[jamela]

Turning on the "Show Guild Name" setting in your game configuration would be a good start, so that you can see the guilds of people you meet and play with. I think it's

Code: Select all

System configuration > Interface > In Scene > Friends / Enemies

There's no recruiting or shopping channels and most people would, I think, recommend that you base a decision on those people you meet and know, in good time.

[katriell]

Re: guild
List of Guilds
Forum shopping, yes, but it's useful.

[qatzer]

Hi,

With regards to guilds, my situation may or may not be unusual, but I suppose I just happened to be standing in the right place at the right time, was sent a tell asking if I fancied tagging along on a guild exploration, chatted a bit while we went, and joined up 30 minutes later. I'd only been on the mainland a couple hours !

What's more, they're a really nice group and have helped me get off to a great start. Up til that point I was stood thinking "oh heck, what on earth do I do now !".

I was expecting the guild hunting to be a bit of a nightmare, but it wasn't and I'm really happy where I am. Hopefully you'll have a similar experience, I personally think a guild is essential.

The one thing I did notice during that trek was the really nice armour people had, I too was a bit concerned by what I saw on noob island, but there's some lovely looking stuff kicking around on the mainland amongst the higher levels, don't worry, I'm sure you'll be looking smart enough in time

Regarding crafting and harvesting, it's been suggested to me that I don't bother with that til I'm significantly higher level. If you get yourself in a decent guild there will be people that are willing to sort you out with some nice armour. I was struggling to find stuff for sale from the NPC that was any better than my ranger set, but the set that a guildmate crafted for me is significantly better and has helped my soloing enormously.

Grouping is highly recommended, I spent an hour or so in a small guild group (4 of us) this evening and increased my defensive magic by 8 levels, xp is seriously fast in a decent group.

Lastly, faction missions - the message delivery ones are a bit of a nightmare because they're timed and you can spend forever trying to find the NPC you need to deliver it to. (long after the timer has expired). What I've seen suggested in another thread is that you forget them to start with, and as you explore the map and stumble across NPC's in the middle of nowhere, flag them on your map. When you've got a few of them flagged you can then go and pick up the missions for those people and you'll know exactly where they are. Sounded like a really good bit of advice to me and that's exactly how I'm now going to approach it.

Good luck

[mikadou]

Lastly, faction missions - the message delivery ones are a bit of a nightmare because they're timed and you can spend forever trying to find the NPC you need to deliver it to. (long after the timer has expired). What I've seen suggested in another thread is that you forget them to start with, and as you explore the map and stumble across NPC's in the middle of nowhere, flag them on your map. When you've got a few of them flagged you can then go and pick up the missions for those people and you'll know exactly where they are. Sounded like a really good bit of advice to me and that's exactly how I'm now going to approach it.

In Lakelands, I noticed that some NPCs are in instanced buildings in towns there, for 3 of my delivery missions, the recipient ended up being in one of those. Not sure if there are similar buildings in other towns, tho. It threw me off at first, since didn't even know there -were- instanced buildings.

[katriell]

In Lakelands, I noticed that some NPCs are in instanced buildings in towns there, for 3 of my delivery missions, the recipient ended up being in one of those. Not sure if there are similar buildings in other towns, tho. It threw me off at first, since didn't even know there -were- instanced buildings.

Having to teleport into != instanced. I'm curious if they really are instanced (= if two people teleport in at the same time, they will each go to separate versions of the building interior where they can't meet each other). In any case, there are also buildings like that in Natae/Davae/Avalae.