Thought I'd give this a shot.  I logged in and got the tutorial quest.  A female adventurer told me I had to learn about 5 things for adventuring and to go talk to someone to learn the importance of items.  I went to that person.  She said "Items are real important for adventuring" and sent me back.  I went back to the main quest giver.  She said" I hope you've learned about the importance of items and adventuring!"

I sure did.  I logged out after that... 

lol, well you made it further into the game than I did.  Apparently one of the reasons the game takes so long to connect (usually if you wait for a while you will eventually connect) is because the character builder follows the old Wizardry formula of granting bonus points.  The bonus points vary, and very rarely you can get a humongous roll of up to 80!! in bonus points. This is fairly significant, because usually you only get rolls of 12 or lower. So, most people are using bots or macros to keep rerolling until they get a bigger roll.  I'm sure this leads to the extended queues.  Overall, a very poor design decision.

Right now it's suffering from typical SOE opening week jitters. Interminable waits to get online due to invisible queuing, and often you don't connect at all.  I've gotten in game once so far.  I can post more once I actually get to play for a bit.

If anyone can tell me how I might play the PC version so that it can display fully on a wide-screen monitor, please let me know.  I have fond memories of these games as well.  Wish they'd just re-release them all with wide-screen compatibility and the added content (just throw the guys who finished KOTOR 2 some bones).

Funny you mention - I JUST did this myself.   I used the links off this site on ModDB to get KOTOR 2 up to snuff widescreen:  http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-sith-lords-restored-content-mod-tslrcm

For KOTOR1, it's a bit more work, but this mega-thread covers it for the original title:  http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=196884

I wish I could figure out how to get widescreen to work.  I've gotten the latest restored content mod installed fine, but the application that is supposed to patch it for widescreen gives me error messages.  It says I need to modify the resolution in game to a certain one so that I can use a customizable one, but that resolution is NOT an option in my game. Weird.

If anyone can tell me how I might play the PC version so that it can display fully on a wide-screen monitor, please let me know.  I have fond memories of these games as well.  Wish they'd just re-release them all with wide-screen compatibility and the added content (just throw the guys who finished KOTOR 2 some bones).

Having come from a CIV background, I find it very strange that wandering monsters and bandits don't attack my cities when I leave them undefended. They just stroll through the area, and keep on ramblin'.....

Yeah, I noticed that.  I just assumed that our city defenses appeared strong enough with their militias.  Not sure though.  I suppose the wandering monsters may have other goals in mind than taking over cities.

Ok...I've started a couple of games and I'm having fun so far, although I honestly don't know what I'm really doing--even having a background in all of the Civ games, Shadows of Magic, MoM, etc.  Looks like it is time to read the manual, because my cities seem to be growing at a much slower rate than my opponents.

Any tips on city placement and building?  What's the general consensus on how quickly you should build a second city and how far away it should be from your first?

I picked up Dishonored and Fallen Enchantress.

I got it.  I haven't gotten into the new content yet, but I was annoyed to start it and see it flickering like crazy using Crossfire with my mobile 5870 cards in my laptop.  I haven't tried Catalyst 12.7 beta drivers yet because many people say they are just as bad, BUT I'm guessing that 1.7 and Dawnguard has been set-up to believe that Crossfire now works in the game.  Anyway, I just made a new application profile to disable Crossfire when playing and everything works fine.

Haven't found a crossbow yet!

big patch on Steam today:

Patch Notes 1.2

Multiplayer and Diplomacy
• Players can now play Multiplayer games! (Steam is required).
• New Diplomacy system in Multiplayer and Single play: Now when a player sends a proposal to rival Mage it will be delivered on the beginning of his/her turn. You will receive an answer on your subsequent turn. The Diplomacy Screen was modified accordingly. Also a player will never know for sure if his\her proposal would or would not be accepted - there will be seen only a prediction of it before the message is sent.
• Changed diplomacy effect of relations with gods
• Behavior of AI Mages improved with personalities and new factors

"Lords and Artifacts"
• Mighty Lords come to your service! They can learn faster than normal units and receive many powerful abilities as they progress through level-ups. You can hire these heroes as they come occasionally searching for job, find them in monster layers or even receive them as quest reward.
• Lords can use powerful Artifacts which could be found in monster dens, received as quests rewards, gained and lost during battles, bought from Trader of Artifacts or smelted to mana.

Bug Fixes and Improvements
• A player may turn on/off Victory Conditions on the Game Start.
• Player can now destroy his buildings from city interface
• Mages, Veterans and Halberdies got new skills. Mages can learn to cast fireballs and Veterans now have ZoneOfControl perk.
• New actions for Galleons units of humans and mosters
• Implemented a News message when you successfully research a new spell.
• Implemented a News message when any of the Great Mages controls a certain percentage of Holy Grounds.
• The Unity Spell cannot be counterspelled anymore, but its casting time was made longer. Also starting to cast a Unity spell worsens relations with all Great Mages.
• A Message "A Great Mage is Defeated" now looks better.
• AI now uses Dispels smarter and more aggressively.
• Teleportation spells casting interface logic is more intuitive:
now you can select a spell, then a target unit, and then a hex to move.
• Fixed an issue: an enchantment cast on a unit in transport ship is now shown properly on unit when it disembarks.
• Game loading has become faster.
• Great Mages now think 10-15% faster.
• Settlers do not receive experience points any more.
• Fixed an issue when a player could remove a "self-destruct" perk from units summoned by other units.
• Fixed a crash on clicking on a News message about a new unit if the city was destroyed.
• Fixed an issue with the unit's experience when a unit is upgraded twice the same turn.
• Fixed an issue with game camera position at the game start.
• Fixed an issue when unit movement points and "cooldown" timers could be higher than their current maximum.
• Fixed some issues with duplicating perks.
• Fixed a rare crash when a player disbands his unit.
• Fixed bug with flying units teleportation on water hexes

Known issues
• Sometimes you cannot enter text - fixes with restarting game from menu
• Disconnect not always works well

Hmm....looks like they just added heroes.  Seems to be getting closer and closer to MoM.  Anyone playing try the new patch?  I'm curious to hear what people think.

Well, I have an Alienware laptop with Radeon Mobile 5870 chips in Crossfire.  I fell prey to the "hang" on the authentication step, and I had to disable all shadows to get it to hook up.  They figured out the work-around (disabling the shadows) and posted it on the login page.  Later, when in game, I tried activating shadows and it was a mess.

Part of it may be my fault because I am a driver behind, but the drivers that originally came with the machine have worked so well I've been reluctant to update them.  I've noticed in one other game -- SWTOR -- that the shadows can sometimes appear a bit odd.

Well, I tried the game out during the beta this weekend.  Although I liked the story and the general plot, the implementation left me a bit cold.  The whole world feels very clunky--not to mention the game does not like AMD graphics cards (I had to employ all sorts of work-arounds just to play).  Anyway, I'll probably be passing for now, but if they improve the feel of the combat and animations I could try it out at a later date.  I really felt like the world implementation was more like something I'd expect out of game from 2006.

not that the game isn't failing, but server merging isn't as big of a deal as people tend to make it out to be

Well, "failing" is a bit strong.  I think with the sheer number of MMORPGs out there now that it's difficult for any of them to sustain a large subscriber base.  WoW came in at the right time (EQ2 had a very poor launch and many simply left it for WoW), and that's simply not possible any more with gamers being spread so thin.  The trick will be whether SWTOR can stabilize at some point.  They will need to add more content quickly, and their "engine" makes that more cumbersome than most.

Well, I'm still playing and just got transferred over to the PvP Fatman server frmo Hedarr Soongh (sp?).  All I can say is--the game is fun again!  The declining populations were terrible, but Fatman has TONS of players, playing across all the levels.  You'll actually find new players and old players on alts in the early zones again to group with.

As far as MMORPGs goes, SWTOR does offer some of the best PvE stories to run through with friends, so I heartily recommend playing it if you have other family members or friends to play with as you level.

I would check your memory if you're getting BSOD.  I played the last two betas on 4 PC's of varying ages and power levels and they were all rock solid except for a launcher issue on one system during BWE2 which was a known issue.

Yeah I ran memtest through 5 passes with no issues.  I can play hours of Skyrim, Diablo 3, Civ 5, etc with no issues.  One of the posters over on OO posted very similiar issues, who has the same exact video card.

I've been in both beta weekend events and I finally got a BSOD this past weekend.  It only happened once, but it sounded like my laptop was about to explode.  I have Radeon Mobility cards in Crossfire.

So far I'm liking the game, although I'm curious to see how they further develop the cutscenes.  I've been a bit spoiled in that department with SWTOR.

I'm also curious about class balance.  At the moment, certain class/weapon combinations seem very OP compared to others.  I gave significant time to an Engineer this weekend, and felt fairly underpowered compared to both a Ranger and Greatsword wielding Warrior I played the last time.

Anyway, I tried to stay online through the mass beta ending world event, but eventually got booted and couldn't get back in.

(I'll likely solo a lot of it where I can...)

You'll have no choice in that.

Yep, until they start merging servers or allowing transfers, the low pop servers are dead.  Make sure you create your toon on a populated server--it makes the game much more entertaining.

I'm still playing the game, but the dropping server populations have kind of been killing my enthusiasm.  The good news is that the developers are talking about making "Mega-servers" which should help.

MMORPG companies should abandon the separate server model at this point.  With the speed with which people power-game through these things and move on to the next game, it is no longer possible.  Instancing (where you can switch instances to group with friends) seems like the better model at this point, even if it may have a negative impact on immersion.

Hey all.  I've been tempted to buy this game because Master of Magic may very well be my favorite game of all time.  But, I was concerned with the bugs and poor AI I read about in reviews, and also about the fact that many people think it's too simple to be compared to MoM.  Well, I see that several patches have come out already, so I was wondering how it's playing right now?  And, would an MoM lover enjoy it? 

I remember back in the early part of the decade that Age of Wonders wasn't too bad, but it was missing some of the empire building magic.  Is this kind of a cross between MoM and that game?

Ok, so I got the game.  Is there any reason to craft?  Considering the sheer number and availability of items available on the AH, I find it hard to believe that I'll ever have a need for anything I can craft.  Can crafted items approach legendary items in power?

How do the mechanics work at finding co-op?  Easy to play with others in PUG fashion?  Or do you need to know other people playing?  I've always been the nerdiest of my close group of friends, so I rarely get to play with people I know.   

I'm still on the fence about getting Diablo 3.  I'm kind of worried that it becomes just a loot grind.  Is the co-op fun, and is it easy to find PUGs?

I was reading the new GW2 database and saw that pets have other abilities such as transferring damage from you to them and debuffing. It may be that they are not meant to be tanks, but rather companions that stay by your side, not wade into battle alone.

Yes people are playing it like a WoW hunter while GW2 is a game that is trying to get rid of the trinity which includes tanks.  So having a pet that tanks just defeats the purpose of what they are trying to accomplish.

Well the bear as a pet can tank pretty well in PvE, especially if you also have the toughness signet which not only increases their toughness but lets you make your pet invulnerable for 3 seconds.

But can it taunt and hold aggro because that defines the role of tank.  Maybe you just meant it's beefier?

No explicit taunt, but I didn't really see stuff breaking off once I sent it in.

Yep, that was my experience as well.  I saw no real value to using any of the other pets, which was a shame.  Whatever utility the other pets had was essentially rendered moot by how little health they had and how quickly they died compared to the bear, especially when trying to complete the story quests.

I think decreasing AoE damage is one possibility, but I think the pets really shouldn't be so disparate in how much health they have.  Otherwise, something like the bird (which dies immediately to almost everything) needs to have some utility that is incredibly useful so that you will feel the urge to use it even if it is not engaging in melee combat.

I've been lucky in that I've been able to play the game consistently with a friend, which makes it MUCH more entertaining as we wind our way through our stories, find datacrons, do PvP and FPs, and even share crafted items.  If I were stuck doing it alone, I think I'd have moved on by now as well.  It really is a fun game that shines when you have someone to adventure with, and you only need one person.  More than that gets cumbersome, unless you are doing FPs.

Well, I gave Tera a spin this past weekend.  As everyone else has said, graphically it looks great, and it runs remarkably smoothly. 

I ended up leveling an Archer to 12, and tried Sorcerer, Mystic, and Priest as well, leveling them to anywhere from 6-9.  The combat was interesting as it is a bit different than your typical MMO.  You have to actually target the Mob to hit it, although I felt a bit at the end of the day that it just resulted in too much spamming on the left mouse button -- my hand feels rather tired this week from all clicking.  In view of this dynamic, as you level you will find that you have fewer abilities than you might find in other MMOs, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.  On my archer, the combat began to feel very repetitive after I hit level 10 because I had the general sequence down.  I didn't have to vary that sequence much.

The PvE questing and leveling gets rather tedious.  I found myself essentially just clicking and accepting quests with no "pull" to read the story or even what I was supposed to do.  I'd just look at the quest tracker afterwards to see the objective.  Perhaps this is an artifact of having plaved SWTOR, where the story really sucks you in with all of the voice acting, but it does remind me of Aion, which is a game I couldn't play past level 25 due to basically the same issues.

At this point, I haven't seen whether there is anything in the game to break up the tedious PvE leveling. I didn't get a chance to try out crafting, although it seems like there are plenty of "anime" style loot that is used to augment and craft gear, or otherwise provide bonuses.  I also don't know if there are any PvP warzones or battlegrounds like you might find in WoW, Rift, and SWTOR.  I find they go a long way towards breaking up any tedious questing.  I obviously wasn't high enough to try any dungeons as well, although I know they are in the game.

I think it has benefited me that I have a friend who also git the game and weve leveled pretty much at the same rate.  So when we run into a particularly difficult class boss or quest, I have someone I can rely on to help get me over that hump.  I do believe one of the biggest issues the  SWTOR is facing is that WoW pretty much sucked the enthusiasm out of millions of people when it comes to MMO's.  Im not sure if its possible for most people to go into any MMO with out that stigma attached to it.    SWTOR found the answer for me in the form of an MMO that is heavily story driven and can be played either solo or in kind of co-op mode.  I dont know how it long the game will last for me but for now Im enjoying it for what it is and not worrying so much about what it isnt. 

Yep, this is a big issue with SWTOR -- they did a terrible job figuring out a way to get people to group together, and there needs to be more group content that is actually DONE in the game.  It's almost impossible these days trying to find someone to do the Heroic 4s on each planet as you level, and those are a wasted opportunity.  People just do their class stories to level as fast as possible, when in reality the content at 50 pales compared to any other established MMORPGs.  That being said, I'm still enjoying leveling at my own pace, because I know the grind at 50 is not what I'm really looking for in a game.

I was also surprised by the lack of foresight in level design.  I remember wandering through the "PVP" area on Nar Shaddaa and it was a ghostland.  An entire area that was just sitting there doing nothing, but for hosting 2 datacrons and one or two heroics that nobody does anymore.  So many small things could have made the game so much better.  It seems like the developers ran out of steam.

I'm starting to think that these kinds of games need to go back and try and use some of the UO formula rather than the EQ way of leveling.  The current "leveling" process used in most MMORPGs is simply flawed, and people just rush through content as quickly as possible to get to 50, therefore making much of the content the SWTOR developers spent their dollars on a waste.  Very sad.

Well, I was just in the weekend betas, and I played a limited amount of time because I didn't want to spoil it later.  That being said, I leveled my Bounty Hunter up to level 10.  Question -- what exactly is a Flashpoint?  Are there any before level 10?  I remember one quest on Hutta that was given out by a Twilek who asked me to venture into a non-instanced heroic factory and destroy some things.  I recall we also picked up some other item (can't remember the name of the item off the top of my head, but you assemble them into something?).  Was that a Flashpoint, or is it something different altogether?

So, I know that the Wanderers is starting a guild, but is GT also?  We should try to combine them.

At least for Rift, Wanderers was on a PvP server, GT SWTOR guilds are on a PvE server.

From what I read over on the Wanderers boards, it seemed like people preferred PvE this time.  I'm kind of curious about what a PvP server would be like, as I didn't level a character high enough to get to a point where I was questing in an area with the opposite faction.  Anyone try it out in beta?

One thing I was pleased to see that I haven't seen mentioned is that once I hit level 10 I received a reward that allowed me to choose from several different companion "appearance" packs that completely changed the way my companion looked -- ethnicity, hairstyle, etc. -- so I saw less clone companions running around.  I was curious as to how they were going to do that.

So, I know that the Wanderers is starting a guild, but is GT also?  We should try to combine them.

Arc, I think you may be underestimating the power of the force -- this game will be around for a while regardless just due to it being a Star Wars game.

That being said, in my beta testing experience, I've leveled my bounty hunter to 10 and I've been drawn in primarily by the single player storyline -- essentially the class quests where you enter your own "green" instances.  There have been a number of cool unexpected interactions with NPCs, and the voice acting has been top notch.  So if that continues into the later levels, I'll be pretty entertained by the game.

That being said, in leveling up to 10 I've only had to group twice.  Once to run through a heroic factory, and another time to tackle a heroic monster in an area.  I kind of wish the game had some "public quests" like you see in Warhammer Online or Rift -- it would help bring people together in the early levels.  I haven't yet gone in any dungeons or done any PvP so I'm not sure how that impacts things at later levels.

I installed the client a couple of days ago and now I've got some error message when I click the link.  I get: "Certificate authentication failed.  Please re-install to correct the problem."  Not good.  I'm not spending another 5 hours downloading this thing.

got my invite yesterday, downloaded the client, was averaging about 1.9mb/s.  Ready to go!

Yeah, I finally got up to this rate as well, so the download didn't take too long.  I'm all ready to go as well.

Hmm..looks like they are having a big test this weekend.  I got in also, and I'm in the process of downloading the client.  Pretty slow downloading speed though...not even hitting 200kb/s.

I really liked DCUO for the first month or so.  But, as a casual player, after that the populations dropped off considerably, and the world was no longer fun to hang around in.  Even moderately hard core players got to 30 in the first week.  I'm hopeful that the Super Servers will help this as it will force more people into the same areas.

That being said, EQ2 is the deepest MMORPG game out there right now.  Can get a bit overwhelming with all of the things to do, but in a good way.  I think I will definitely take this opportunity to reinstall EQ2, although I'm still pretty absorbed by Rift.

Yeah, we added Fez yesterday.

Yep! Starbuck is now a leveling Defiant Mage on Sunrest.

My whole thing with MMORPGs is *anything* you can do to encourage and help people (friends/guildmates specificially) to group together is good, and anything deterring it is bad.  I want to play these games with my friends at all times, but I know flexibility is required because we all play at different paces and at different times.  I want to be able to logon, say "hey Joe, Bob and Rick, let's group up and go hit a dungeon", even if Joe is a lv. 50 ranger, Bob is a lv 5 elementalist and Rick is a lv. 13 Thief.  I recall so many MMOs where I would see someone maybe day 1, and then not again for the duration of the game.  That should never happen in a game that is supposedly predicated on getting people together.

Yes, totally agree here, and I find it very strange that no MMO has yet succeeded at this.

There is one.  EQ2 has a fantastic mentoring system that allows any higher level character to mentor down to the level of a character in the party.  They even have a chronologist (forget the exact name) that allows you to set your level lower and experience the old content and undertake NEW quests.  CoH had sidekicking, although I don't remember much about it.

but for the most part in WFs in the 40s

  noone is talking about the 40's . we are talking endgame.  Rogues are OK at best, but mostly underpowered.  This new patch may change things, but for me, the pvp in this game is lacking and boring.

Stillmoor really Hark?  how is ganking someone during their dailies pvp?  its just annoying to people.  As I stated I played nothing but rogue since start, racked up around 400,000 favor. Dont think im resubbing. I did overall win way more wfs than I lost, so its not sour apples either, just boring ,unbalanced, design.  Getting killed over and over by some 14 your olds spamming macros in an overpowered class is hardly what I call good design.

Out of curiosity, what MMORPGs have PvP that you've liked?

Well, I have to agree with Hark here for the most part.  At 50 it is tougher, but for the most part in WFs in the 40s I have been able to take on just about anything other than clerics and beat them at equal level one on one.  And I do use stealth whenever possible -- its been very effective in Codex and Whitefall for holding control points or planning a coordinated assault on the opponent's flag. 

Actually, here's a good story -- in Whitefall the other day, as often happens in a match, the Defiants and Guardians were both hiding in their fortresses with the other team's rock.  I snuck over to spy on them and looked for an opportunity to kill the one carrying our rock so we could get a point.  Patiently I waited for them to get a bit impatatient, and sure enough eventually they started leaving to try and attack us and recover their rock.  Left alone at the fort were a cleric and a warrior carrying our rock.  I snuck in, incapacitated the cleric, and beatdown the warrior (slowing him) fast enough so that he couldn't get to to the life boost orb found in each encampment.

This was all done in an Assassin/RS/Ranger build (I have yet to tailor this for the new patch), which sacrifices a bit of dps for more hardiness and escape opportunities.  Forget clerics though, unless I get a serious jump on them, I can't kill them alone, but I can distract them as Hark mentions.

Now, I also agree that pyros are OP, but typically their real bonus is when 2 of them stand together in WFs and spam AoEs.  Very effective near control points in Codex or near the rockcarrier in BG.  I'm not sure how the patch is affecting them yet because I couldn't play yesterday due to choppiness introduced with this patch.  Apparently, the developers left the error handler on in full debug.

Question now is which build to use as a rogue.  Looks like there are several viable options now, instead of just 1-2, for PvP.  Sin/BD/NB looks like a decent one for melee, and Ranger/Sin/MM just started looking a bit better too.

So, who here is in the Defiant guild on Sunrest, and can you list toon names?  Mine is Starbuck...made it this weekend.

Hah!  Nice...I'll see if I can create one this weekend.

You guys are Defiants on Sunrest?  Since Wanderers is kind of dead, been thinking of creating a Defiant, but can't stand the idea of not having bag space.  Anybody able to make decent bags on Sunrest?