05-17-2004, 10:44 AM
Welp, looks like I'm staying with Lineage II.
This game is Shadowbane minus the suck. I mean literally, even the point-and-click interface and the autofollow and rather simplistic selection of special attacks, this game is totally Shadowbane. This game is what I originally created Purgare.com for.
1) PvE is mundane, no doubt about that. It's better than Shadowbane but that's not saying much. It's very much your basic low level EQ slash-fest with no worries about anything like, say, storyline. There are quests but they're pretty mundane, mostly useful for helping pass the levels. Like you're killing wolves anyway, and you're going to have to kill 100 of them, so here's a quest to collect 40 wolf pelts while you're at it.
Leveling is not particularly fast (though low levels are faster than COH) and downtime is relatively extensive.
2) PvP.
This alone makes the PvE bearable. There's always people around and in the back of your mind you know that at any moment, one of them could decide to kill you. You have to keep an eye out for the occasional full time PK with the $1.4 million bow who will kill you in one shot. If someone starts being an asshat and/or killstealing you also know you have the option to stick them right in the eye with your sword.
But there's consequences to PvP --
People are in one of three states, white, purple and red. White is default.
If you attack someone for any reason, you go purple for about a minute. Anyone can kill a purple with no lasting consequences, but they will also go purple when they do this thus opening themselves for short term attack as well.
If you kill someone who has a white name, you will go red and you'll stay that way until you kill some number of even-con or higher creatures. Like purple, anyone can attack a red with no consequences (other than going purple themselves for a very short time). Basically, purple is a short term "SHOOT ME" sign, red is a long term "SHOOT ME" sign.
Also, town guards will attack reds and purples. Guards are also at some key bridges, so basically you don't want to run around red forever or you won't be able to easily find trainers or vendors.
So this creates some interesting situations.
If someone is killstealing you, you can whack them. If they fight back, everything is cool. You attack him and go purple, he fights back and goes purple, you kill him and go back to white. He was purple when he died, so no penalty for you.
If he doesn't fight back then you have to decide if you're willing to go red and thus wear that big "SHOOT ME" flag for a more extended duration.
Newbie slayers who one-shot whitenames will obviously be stuck as red for a while, opening themselves up to any other high levels who come across them.
It's PvP with honost to goodness consequences.
The June patch is supposed to turn on castle sieges, which is fine since I don't see myself being in any shape to do that by then.
So far I like Lineage II simply because it brings back that thrill of PvP, the thought that even while I am standing here dully swinging my sword at this stupid dog, even while I am sitting here regenerating hit points for 2 minutes, I have to keep an eye out because at any moment someone with a redname could walk over the hill and decide to stick a spear through my kidney.
I liked COH but knew that continued enjoyment would rely on the PvE evolving as I leveled with new and interesting attacks and NPC enemies to keep the variety going.
With Lineage II, the continued enjoyment is based around asshats. As long as there are asshats in the game, I know that I will want to keep playing so that I can kill them. PvE based games are hard to make because the content update requirements are steep in order to keep people like me interested. PvP based games are easier because there's always plenty of asshats around to goad me into playing for yet another month.
In fact, there is one asshat called something like HazardouZz or something very close to that. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to leveling some more so that one day I can risk going red just to kill him.
It's like Everquest. You wanted to level to get the next piece of phat lewt or the next spell rank or discipline or AA. Lineage II has a little bit of that, but it has something far better, the ultimate carrot: if I level, I may get phat lewt, I may get a new skill, but best of all, I will be better able to kick the shit out of people who desperately need it.
This game is Shadowbane minus the suck. I mean literally, even the point-and-click interface and the autofollow and rather simplistic selection of special attacks, this game is totally Shadowbane. This game is what I originally created Purgare.com for.
1) PvE is mundane, no doubt about that. It's better than Shadowbane but that's not saying much. It's very much your basic low level EQ slash-fest with no worries about anything like, say, storyline. There are quests but they're pretty mundane, mostly useful for helping pass the levels. Like you're killing wolves anyway, and you're going to have to kill 100 of them, so here's a quest to collect 40 wolf pelts while you're at it.
Leveling is not particularly fast (though low levels are faster than COH) and downtime is relatively extensive.
2) PvP.
This alone makes the PvE bearable. There's always people around and in the back of your mind you know that at any moment, one of them could decide to kill you. You have to keep an eye out for the occasional full time PK with the $1.4 million bow who will kill you in one shot. If someone starts being an asshat and/or killstealing you also know you have the option to stick them right in the eye with your sword.
But there's consequences to PvP --
People are in one of three states, white, purple and red. White is default.
If you attack someone for any reason, you go purple for about a minute. Anyone can kill a purple with no lasting consequences, but they will also go purple when they do this thus opening themselves for short term attack as well.
If you kill someone who has a white name, you will go red and you'll stay that way until you kill some number of even-con or higher creatures. Like purple, anyone can attack a red with no consequences (other than going purple themselves for a very short time). Basically, purple is a short term "SHOOT ME" sign, red is a long term "SHOOT ME" sign.
Also, town guards will attack reds and purples. Guards are also at some key bridges, so basically you don't want to run around red forever or you won't be able to easily find trainers or vendors.
So this creates some interesting situations.
If someone is killstealing you, you can whack them. If they fight back, everything is cool. You attack him and go purple, he fights back and goes purple, you kill him and go back to white. He was purple when he died, so no penalty for you.
If he doesn't fight back then you have to decide if you're willing to go red and thus wear that big "SHOOT ME" flag for a more extended duration.
Newbie slayers who one-shot whitenames will obviously be stuck as red for a while, opening themselves up to any other high levels who come across them.
It's PvP with honost to goodness consequences.
The June patch is supposed to turn on castle sieges, which is fine since I don't see myself being in any shape to do that by then.
So far I like Lineage II simply because it brings back that thrill of PvP, the thought that even while I am standing here dully swinging my sword at this stupid dog, even while I am sitting here regenerating hit points for 2 minutes, I have to keep an eye out because at any moment someone with a redname could walk over the hill and decide to stick a spear through my kidney.
I liked COH but knew that continued enjoyment would rely on the PvE evolving as I leveled with new and interesting attacks and NPC enemies to keep the variety going.
With Lineage II, the continued enjoyment is based around asshats. As long as there are asshats in the game, I know that I will want to keep playing so that I can kill them. PvE based games are hard to make because the content update requirements are steep in order to keep people like me interested. PvP based games are easier because there's always plenty of asshats around to goad me into playing for yet another month.
In fact, there is one asshat called something like HazardouZz or something very close to that. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to leveling some more so that one day I can risk going red just to kill him.
It's like Everquest. You wanted to level to get the next piece of phat lewt or the next spell rank or discipline or AA. Lineage II has a little bit of that, but it has something far better, the ultimate carrot: if I level, I may get phat lewt, I may get a new skill, but best of all, I will be better able to kick the shit out of people who desperately need it.
![[Image: glarebear_av.gif]](http://thepurge.net/turnip/glarebear_av.gif)
![[Image: sterb037.gif]](http://www.getsmileyface.com/sm/violent/sterb037.gif)