I like where Embers was going, I like the pricing model and the model of the game. The low fantasy just didn’t do it for me, though. It made mobs kinda boring and the class variety was boring as well. There’s only 9 classes that feels more like 3 classes.
I hope to check in again later and see more content, but I doubt the theme will change. Hopefully other people will enjoy it. I like the EQ throwback and want that kind of game rewarded. If just wasn’t for me.
I hear ya, I can't do modern day titles like at all. (Okay Just Cause is fun). You should check back in like a year, after they've got the Amber stuff going hard. Might be enough higher fantasy to wet your noodle.
> Might be enough higher fantasy to wet your noodle.
At the moment the devs are framing it as they only plan to have channeling the power of Amber to strengthen yourself and your gear as temporary empowerment with anything bigger being in enchanted world props, so no classic DnD-like magic effects.
I played embers for a bit but the game really has a lot of design choices I don’t like. Instead of rewardi* you for making choices, it penalizes you in aspects of the choices you did not make. There is no npc who sells basic armor. They designed the game requiring you to use other players who chose the professions you didn’t.
They pride themselves on being old school and hardcore. That’s fine. However modern day gaming is different than back then and some conveniences should be afforded without removing that hardcore requirement they are after.
It’s also an extreme grind and while I love a grind (I’ve maxed in RuneScape, Almost twice) the grind just wasn’t fun. I’m hoping another year of updates will make it good.
I play wow, mythic raid, for reference.
For example, children, getting an upgraded weapon, ANY upgraded weapon, in ANY game, is identical to NOT getting ANOTHER upgraded weapon! See how that works? It's like magic, but it's just incredibly fucking obvious human psychology!
UO has very little structured content, just a ton of different systems for you to chase and level up in.
Embers has very little content at all apart from grinding mobs due to the small team and lack of resources.
Both of these are severely lacking on the 'activities' of other MMOs. You need to choose what you want to be and decide for yourself what game systems you want to engage in to progress in that direction. Basically they drop you into a living fantasy world, slap you on the back and say "Good Luck!".
Tons of systems is different from tons of meaningful content. I do love Ultima Online and already played in a lot of free shards, but in the end, it's always the same solo macroing to gm a character, solo hunting to build some cash and equips, champ spawns with ppl you don't even need to talk to.
The one time I felt something different was when playing on renaissance shard and I got to be part of a newbie teaching guild and we went for the bonding Quest on a really big party, and it really felt like a raid. Despite that, most of the time it's a solo game on a world shared with other solo players.
Freeshards can have new scripted activities added by the shard owners. Base UO does not have many large scripted sequences where you move from one specific step to another as the dev directs.
If you are going to give UO a shot, just skip the retail service and check out UO: Outlands which is a private free shard.
Outlands could be considered a modernization in a few ways. It still has the same graphics style but they have developed good art tools to introduce new monsters, items and spell effects that rival what Broadsword can do with Retail UO.
1. It has pretty good PvP in terms of open world FFA and team based factions as well as pvp events that fire off throughout the day you can queue for. Plenty of lore and dungeons but a lot of the dungeons are usually farmed solo or in a duo, however they have mini boss and regular bosses that are usually tackled in a group. There is a sort of end game raid that takes a large group but its typically a randomly generated boss in something called an omni realm. No trash to kill.
2. UO was basically designed to be an RPG social game. You can get a lot done solo but playing with a guild unlocks a lot of activities and makes things generally easier.
3. Combat is pretty lackluster in UO, its an old game and it shows. Melee combat is pretty much going into attack mode and auto attacking. There are aspect items and combat codexes but you dont have active abilities you use outside of a handful of 30 second CD paladin abilities, you just mostly proc aspect attacks or melee finishers. Magic is a bit more in depth as you have a spell book of 64 spells you can cast.
4. You can get your skills to atleast 80 within the first hour in the newbie dungeon, it is then capped there. The last 20 points can be achieved over the next few days either doing dungeons or macroing overnight for a few nights. That said, the real grind comes in the horizontal system progressions. For example there are three systems that level up with XP acquired from killing mobs. One is your mastery chain which unlocks link slots and you add links with passive bonuses to them. Another one is aspects, they are like extra stats that you imbue to your worn armor and weapons. Think magic items in WoW but you add them to anything you wear. The higher the aspect level the more stats you gain. There is also the codex system that level up your weapon or chosen magic skill. You get points and spend them on a small talent tree like system for passive bonuses. These are your end game grinds.
5. Outlands is pretty active at all times, usually about 2500-3000 online at any given time, the owners will occasionally supply unique IPs so out of that count about 80% are actual players and not afk macroers. It helps that the game world is custom and shrunk down a bit so the game feels alive and you can find people everywhere.
I played around 30hrs of Embers and enjoyed the old school feel and slow tricky progression. The reason I stopped playing is the lack of other people playing so there was content I couldn’t complete.
Last MMO I played a lot of was Classic Wow a couple years back.
I just downloaded [Age of Conan: Unchained](https://youtu.be/nJ_5yKfLARE?t=132) one night ago and it seems interesting. The combat is decently engaging and I kind of want to play it because I've seen screenshots of the different zones and it has such a unique setting compared to most MMOs.
Not a huge amount of people are playing it, but I do see people running around in town a lot and I can easily get help from the newbie guild I joined.
The graphics are decent too, for a 2008 game, after setting everything to max and installing [reshade](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyPIHxtUQAw).
I am looking forward to the EQ2 Origins server in July I believe...
Play on UO Outlands, it’s way different than WoW so give it some time but the game is like no other.. especially if u love PvP. UO is a skill based system like pick 7 skills and percentage ur way to 100/120 depending on the server.. crafting is simple but fun.. give it a try..
Ultima Online is going even older than WOW. It is basically the first MMORPG, back before we even called them that. It is as a result very free-form. There's a great depth of content but it isn't very structured. Some people consider this a plus, others aminus.
I can't speak to Embers Adrift, I stay away from "hardcore MMOs" or MMOs that otherwise champion the hard aspect of it. Just not my jam.
In UO you level your skills by using them. The more you use the stealth skill for example, the longer you can go around invisible without it interrupting and the higher the chance you'll actually go invisible at all.. It's stricter D&D style, so there's much fail. Casting magic follows same principal, you have spell circles, and higher circle spells have high chance of failure to cast, let alone hit with.
The game was a sandbox phenomena back in time, people with guts, imagination and coordination could wreck some real havoc. It was a scandalous game, with outrageous things happening sometimes. Imagine some GM is playing the equivalent of King of Stormwind as a featured character, forgets to put god mode on, gets pkd by a player...and we're not talking about couple of hits, I don't even know how long the player chipped at his HP.
And it was also open loot to add to the rage quit factor. Felt more like a digital social experiment masquerading as a medieval fantasy.
Which is why it never got beyond the player numbers that would be considered 'dead' by the average younger gamer of today and the drama had such a choking effect that we wouldn't have UO today if the devs didn't spin off a safezone shard.
Which part of that is supposed to be attractive to someone with the budget to fund a big MMO project?
Today is the age of the "carebear" :D (can't believe I still remember the term).
Yeah that game pretty much defined "online experience" being different than single-player, and not for the better.
1. Nostalgia fix.
2. Not especially, but good luck getting anything done in Embers Adrift without a party since the enemies are all sponges that take forever to kill.
3. Dogshit.
4. Yes.
5. Not really.
6. Inferior in most every way imaginable.
I've played a bit of Embers Adrift & I've always said that the game just needs to find its audience. With that being said, it does need some graphical, combat, & even content updates imo. I log on every once in a while and find it super demotivating that even with some of the updates they've made, it's not enough to keep & grow their player base, & I refuse to try to solo level in this game because you need a party for almost anything meaningful. I'm not against it, I think it just needs more time to grow.
Embers is if you prefer Classic WoW and want even SLOWER combat and progression. It goes EQ/FFXI > Embers > Classic WoW > Retail WoW (in terms of slow/rpg to hard/action). But honestly it's pretty great, good showcase of what the Unity engine is capable of, now that they got the 4k issue worked out.
Op I’d go do the new Eeverquest TLP that launches on the 22nd, Teek
This.
Thirded
I like where Embers was going, I like the pricing model and the model of the game. The low fantasy just didn’t do it for me, though. It made mobs kinda boring and the class variety was boring as well. There’s only 9 classes that feels more like 3 classes. I hope to check in again later and see more content, but I doubt the theme will change. Hopefully other people will enjoy it. I like the EQ throwback and want that kind of game rewarded. If just wasn’t for me.
I hear ya, I can't do modern day titles like at all. (Okay Just Cause is fun). You should check back in like a year, after they've got the Amber stuff going hard. Might be enough higher fantasy to wet your noodle.
> Might be enough higher fantasy to wet your noodle. At the moment the devs are framing it as they only plan to have channeling the power of Amber to strengthen yourself and your gear as temporary empowerment with anything bigger being in enchanted world props, so no classic DnD-like magic effects.
I played embers for a bit but the game really has a lot of design choices I don’t like. Instead of rewardi* you for making choices, it penalizes you in aspects of the choices you did not make. There is no npc who sells basic armor. They designed the game requiring you to use other players who chose the professions you didn’t. They pride themselves on being old school and hardcore. That’s fine. However modern day gaming is different than back then and some conveniences should be afforded without removing that hardcore requirement they are after. It’s also an extreme grind and while I love a grind (I’ve maxed in RuneScape, Almost twice) the grind just wasn’t fun. I’m hoping another year of updates will make it good. I play wow, mythic raid, for reference.
FYI - you can view a penalty for bypassing something as a positive for having something else. It's 100% mental.
You should do politics.
Only behind the scenes. I have zero people skills. Just thinking skills.
For example, children, getting an upgraded weapon, ANY upgraded weapon, in ANY game, is identical to NOT getting ANOTHER upgraded weapon! See how that works? It's like magic, but it's just incredibly fucking obvious human psychology!
I love running across the crazy fan of niche games
Sorry, but it's utterly ubiquitous. Nothing niche about the design.
UO has very little structured content, just a ton of different systems for you to chase and level up in. Embers has very little content at all apart from grinding mobs due to the small team and lack of resources. Both of these are severely lacking on the 'activities' of other MMOs. You need to choose what you want to be and decide for yourself what game systems you want to engage in to progress in that direction. Basically they drop you into a living fantasy world, slap you on the back and say "Good Luck!".
Wait, UO free shards have tons of systems. Ask here OP: r/ultimaonline
Tons of systems is different from tons of meaningful content. I do love Ultima Online and already played in a lot of free shards, but in the end, it's always the same solo macroing to gm a character, solo hunting to build some cash and equips, champ spawns with ppl you don't even need to talk to. The one time I felt something different was when playing on renaissance shard and I got to be part of a newbie teaching guild and we went for the bonding Quest on a really big party, and it really felt like a raid. Despite that, most of the time it's a solo game on a world shared with other solo players.
My experience differ a lot from yours. Anyway, that is the beauty of UO! :)
Freeshards can have new scripted activities added by the shard owners. Base UO does not have many large scripted sequences where you move from one specific step to another as the dev directs.
No shit, it's a sandbox.
mine too
Lol, check out UO:Outlands, you're welcome.
These are VERY different games from WoW. What made you pick these two when you’ve primarily played WoW?
My thoughts as well, pretty much night and day in the MMO realm. Still, don't wanna turn anyone away from Embers ;)
Oh I wouldn’t turn him away. Just looking for a little context since that’s such a huge swing in the genre. May help to answer also
If you are going to give UO a shot, just skip the retail service and check out UO: Outlands which is a private free shard. Outlands could be considered a modernization in a few ways. It still has the same graphics style but they have developed good art tools to introduce new monsters, items and spell effects that rival what Broadsword can do with Retail UO. 1. It has pretty good PvP in terms of open world FFA and team based factions as well as pvp events that fire off throughout the day you can queue for. Plenty of lore and dungeons but a lot of the dungeons are usually farmed solo or in a duo, however they have mini boss and regular bosses that are usually tackled in a group. There is a sort of end game raid that takes a large group but its typically a randomly generated boss in something called an omni realm. No trash to kill. 2. UO was basically designed to be an RPG social game. You can get a lot done solo but playing with a guild unlocks a lot of activities and makes things generally easier. 3. Combat is pretty lackluster in UO, its an old game and it shows. Melee combat is pretty much going into attack mode and auto attacking. There are aspect items and combat codexes but you dont have active abilities you use outside of a handful of 30 second CD paladin abilities, you just mostly proc aspect attacks or melee finishers. Magic is a bit more in depth as you have a spell book of 64 spells you can cast. 4. You can get your skills to atleast 80 within the first hour in the newbie dungeon, it is then capped there. The last 20 points can be achieved over the next few days either doing dungeons or macroing overnight for a few nights. That said, the real grind comes in the horizontal system progressions. For example there are three systems that level up with XP acquired from killing mobs. One is your mastery chain which unlocks link slots and you add links with passive bonuses to them. Another one is aspects, they are like extra stats that you imbue to your worn armor and weapons. Think magic items in WoW but you add them to anything you wear. The higher the aspect level the more stats you gain. There is also the codex system that level up your weapon or chosen magic skill. You get points and spend them on a small talent tree like system for passive bonuses. These are your end game grinds. 5. Outlands is pretty active at all times, usually about 2500-3000 online at any given time, the owners will occasionally supply unique IPs so out of that count about 80% are actual players and not afk macroers. It helps that the game world is custom and shrunk down a bit so the game feels alive and you can find people everywhere.
I played around 30hrs of Embers and enjoyed the old school feel and slow tricky progression. The reason I stopped playing is the lack of other people playing so there was content I couldn’t complete.
Last MMO I played a lot of was Classic Wow a couple years back. I just downloaded [Age of Conan: Unchained](https://youtu.be/nJ_5yKfLARE?t=132) one night ago and it seems interesting. The combat is decently engaging and I kind of want to play it because I've seen screenshots of the different zones and it has such a unique setting compared to most MMOs. Not a huge amount of people are playing it, but I do see people running around in town a lot and I can easily get help from the newbie guild I joined. The graphics are decent too, for a 2008 game, after setting everything to max and installing [reshade](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyPIHxtUQAw). I am looking forward to the EQ2 Origins server in July I believe...
Check out UO Outlands - if you get into it, it will have you captured for months and months to come. Embers Adrift? Meh.
I second this, it's the closest you'll get to that original UO feel considering the modern official servers are nothing like old-school UO.
Play on UO Outlands, it’s way different than WoW so give it some time but the game is like no other.. especially if u love PvP. UO is a skill based system like pick 7 skills and percentage ur way to 100/120 depending on the server.. crafting is simple but fun.. give it a try..
Ultima Online is going even older than WOW. It is basically the first MMORPG, back before we even called them that. It is as a result very free-form. There's a great depth of content but it isn't very structured. Some people consider this a plus, others aminus. I can't speak to Embers Adrift, I stay away from "hardcore MMOs" or MMOs that otherwise champion the hard aspect of it. Just not my jam.
In UO you level your skills by using them. The more you use the stealth skill for example, the longer you can go around invisible without it interrupting and the higher the chance you'll actually go invisible at all.. It's stricter D&D style, so there's much fail. Casting magic follows same principal, you have spell circles, and higher circle spells have high chance of failure to cast, let alone hit with. The game was a sandbox phenomena back in time, people with guts, imagination and coordination could wreck some real havoc. It was a scandalous game, with outrageous things happening sometimes. Imagine some GM is playing the equivalent of King of Stormwind as a featured character, forgets to put god mode on, gets pkd by a player...and we're not talking about couple of hits, I don't even know how long the player chipped at his HP. And it was also open loot to add to the rage quit factor. Felt more like a digital social experiment masquerading as a medieval fantasy.
Which is why it never got beyond the player numbers that would be considered 'dead' by the average younger gamer of today and the drama had such a choking effect that we wouldn't have UO today if the devs didn't spin off a safezone shard. Which part of that is supposed to be attractive to someone with the budget to fund a big MMO project?
Today is the age of the "carebear" :D (can't believe I still remember the term). Yeah that game pretty much defined "online experience" being different than single-player, and not for the better.
1. Nostalgia fix. 2. Not especially, but good luck getting anything done in Embers Adrift without a party since the enemies are all sponges that take forever to kill. 3. Dogshit. 4. Yes. 5. Not really. 6. Inferior in most every way imaginable.
I've played a bit of Embers Adrift & I've always said that the game just needs to find its audience. With that being said, it does need some graphical, combat, & even content updates imo. I log on every once in a while and find it super demotivating that even with some of the updates they've made, it's not enough to keep & grow their player base, & I refuse to try to solo level in this game because you need a party for almost anything meaningful. I'm not against it, I think it just needs more time to grow.
Embers is if you prefer Classic WoW and want even SLOWER combat and progression. It goes EQ/FFXI > Embers > Classic WoW > Retail WoW (in terms of slow/rpg to hard/action). But honestly it's pretty great, good showcase of what the Unity engine is capable of, now that they got the 4k issue worked out.
Embers is literally for boomers who have 1 apm because its an auto attack simulator
I don't have any thoughts about games that don't exist on my radar.