My thoughts on Allods CBT#3 (warning I was bored when writing, kinda long)

[Imfir]

Okay, I am bored nothing to do, so thought I would write a review what I thought of Allods CBT#3

Name: Allods ( Close Beta Test 3) NA Version
Genre: Sci-fi / Fantasy
Style: MMO RPG
Combat Style: Button mashing
Learning Curve: effortless
Crafting: did not try it in this beta test, so no comment
PVP: Voluntary after early level 20, but if you want better equipments for PvP, you best get more into the PvP
Role-Playing: Should be there, just the Community does not RP
Leveling style: Level based, with a bonus system called fatigue
Server Pop: there were 2 servers for CBT#3, Sever 1, very populated. Server 2, at the beginning you may not see any one for a while, towards the end, very populated, But, I think the amount of players allowed on Server 2 was a lot less, Server 2 I never saw it reach the same amount of players like in server 1, but yet there were times you were on a query, waiting to log into server 1 or 2

Immersion: 8.5/10
Graphic Quality: 5/10 it’s beta and still had some glitches, if no Glitches then I would give 7/10
Sound Quality: 8/10
Content Quality: 8.5/10
Overall Rating: 7/10 in its current stage

Brief Description:
I’m going to be lazy about this part and copy part and link the rest from the Allods web site
About Allods
Allods is a revolutionary massively multi player RPG from Gala-Net, publishers of Flyff and Rappelz, and Astrum Nival, developer of Heroes of Might & Magic V and Rage of Mages. The largest game development project in Russian history ($12 million), Allods features state of the art graphics by top award-winning artists and a cinematic soundtrack by Mark Morgan (Dexter, Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment). The game is one of the largest and most comprehensive MMORPGs ever created, featuring a vast and gorgeously realized world, astral space exploration, and flying ships which can be crewed by multiple parties to explore new realms and pillage other astral travelers. Allods won the Best Game 2009 & Audience Choice awards from the Russian Game Developers Conference.
gPotato Presents ALLODS ONLINE - A Completely Free To Play Online Game!



Other Comments:
Okay, here I go.
I downloaded the game, press Install, and had problems at the start. My problems was I do not have a C:drive, and even tho I directed everything to go to the Drive I do have, it still insisted to use C:drive. No problems, they have a fix-it tool on the launcher, unfortunately for me, it was going to replace everything again, which meant possibly going over my bandwidth usage, so I stopped it, and was looking for other alternative way to fix it. But it was too late, the fix-it already removed 1/3rd of the content, so I had no option but down load the client again. And then let the fix-it do its thing. I had to create some folders for it too, this helped where the Fix-it did not remove almost everything again. It worked, but at a cost, it took me beyond the bandwidth, so my speed was now slower, and it still insisted in placing folders in a C:drive, like the screen shot folder for one.
Now the game launches, and I go into creation, I cycle through them all to get a good look what each character and their class looked like. Prior to Allods CBT#3 starting I did some asking about the classes. I decided on a Summoner, Since I saw most of the TOG was League, I started on League on server 1, with a elf Summoner. Not long into it I saw that Summoner was not for me. Once I arrived on Evermeet Isle, the place was crowded, and I was experiencing lag. There were just too many there for my comfort, and the class was not working out for me. So back to the creation. This time I went Empire, choose Arisen race and gave the Psionicist a try. Hey I like it, big difference between starting League and Empire.
In League you see your leader get killed, then the Allod you’re on is falling apart and you must escape, then you’re stranded on an unknown Allod . So now you start questing just to get to the Home Allod. Area is small and I know for me, I was like “Get Me Out Of Here” . Now on Empire, you’re on a ship, it is being attacked, you need the save the ship and become a test subject. Then your in the motherland, and the story begins.
League storyline and Empire Story line are different, but yet still Parallel with each other, What I mean is, in League it like “take a Knee” and listen to the story, in Empire, it’s “Those Bastards, here is your weapon, here is your boots, now sic ‘em boy”

back to my Psi,
well Empire was even worse crowd wise, I could barely get a quest completed because there was a tone of KS’ing going on.
Now I decide to check out server 2, because the community in server 1 was killing the game for me, mostly the chat was 98% utter crap being said.
This time I decided to go Scout, I chose Kanian (they be normal humans like you and I) I actually truly fell in love with this class. Now, here is the thing, I was server 2 on day 2, I saw maybe 4 others on Evermeet Isle, so I had to solo this guy. He did fairly well at soloing too, I left Evermeet Isle ad went to the Homeland, and commence my questing there, and quest . . there are a lot of them, you just need to find them, but that’s not hard to see where you have a new quest at,, once you were near a NPC that had a quest for you. so I spend a day n half with this guy, but still the server pop was low, so I needed a partner, I opt to start a Warden, Again I chose Kanian race. Males get a Grizzly pet, and females get a Lynx for a pet. I find the Warden was a easy build to build on, Hmm now I am at a conflict, I liked the Scout but this Warden is really fun. By this time the server poop was growing and now I can get in Parties much easier. I was having a good time with the Warden, but wait . . lets see what Empire is like on Server 2, So server 2 I go. I actually created 2 characters before starting, First was a Orc Warden, the second was the Arisen Healer. I decided to test out the healer first, “Oh damn” I like this healer, but I was too low level of a healer to join any party’s that needed (requesting) for a healer. I went mace and shield with this guy, and basically going a casting build. (Later I read that Melee builds are the way to go). I go back to League, there was something I wanted to try with a Warden so made a warden again, the results were not what I thought, so that warden was deleted, I then wanted to try a Warrior, oh forgot to mention I did Try the Paladin on server 1 Elf. I liked the Warrior, I would actually define the warrior in this game more of a Ranger, then the Scout as a Ranger. But that’s me, and how I see it, others may think different.
Since I enjoyed that Healer on Empire and I actually made a good friend while in Evermeet, I decided to start a healer, again I choose Kanian. I plan to make this one Pure healer.
At starting levels the healer is like useless for heals. I had to do a lot of asking and prying to get the answers I seek to get a healer in this game as a pure healer. Okay me and this new friend made a couple others, friends, and we’re now in a dedicated party. Oh and if you log off, if they do not boot you from party, you will still be in the party when you log back in, so it is very easy to be in the same party.
A course there were times when the whole party was not there, and we did not want to have uneven levels in the party, so we opt to make a Alt characters for those moments, the friend wanted to start a Pally, and I still was curious about the mage.
I liked the mage, I found the mage easier for me to solo then the Warden
Don’t worry I’m almost done here
we stayed on Evermeet isle longer then we really should, but that was just because we wanted to kill the Cave Troll, well after a couple days and CBT#3 coming to a end, we gave up, the higher level we were getting the easier the Troll was killing us, and we could never get any others interested in killing the Troll. So to the Mainland we go
now they were lvl 9 but I was lvl 10, you can get to the mainland as early was level 5, but majority of everyone proceeding to mainland are lvl 6. So we had a large amount of quest to catch up on, these quest start at lvl 5.
So we have some catching up to do.
On the last weekend of CBT#3 I had some RL things that I needed to get done, damn timing, was supposed to had happen the weekend earlier , oh well, so the last few days all I gained was one more level.
Now I wait till CBT#4, which starts on the 19th this month

The worse thing about this game, is your inventory size, it is just too small .. Way way too small
You can create 8 characters I think 9, but 8 for sure can be created.
It was said you can only choose one faction per account, but in close beta you can play both, it is still up in the air if they will keep it that way
After all close beta testing is done, the characters will be wiped, you need to start a new in open Beta
if it was not for my Bandwidth issue, I would be playing EU.Allods right now
some useful links
Allods Wiki
Allods Archives
News



Payment options: Completely free/(pay for enhancements.,will happen when Game goes open Beta)
Download Size: 2G + updates (small)

[Imfir]

oh, forgot to mention why I do not think too highly of the graphics,
I mean for not lagging on my old AGP card the graphics was great, I’m talking about some of the art graphics.
I have no idea how no one saw the size of the Kanians hands, but how the hell could you miss that ?? I mentioned it in the Party and they all busted out laughing, they never noticed how big they were
but there were also a few other things that were out of symmetry that I did not get a screen shot of
This is why I just can not give a high score for graphics, I was being very generous with the score I did give it

[HenriDeacon]

Very good review and you make plenty of good points. I have still not been totally compelled by Allods. Too many annoying things, and yes the pack size is a shocker, basically spending the first 10 levels dropping items every few minutes to make room, especially when doing multiple quests.

I will continue to play Allods occasionally, but Runes of Magic is an all-round better game at this point.

[Ariya]

I think these low level maps won't be as crowded once the game goes live. After a few weeks everyone will have moved on to other maps, some leveling really fast and others take their time. So these kind of issues will sort themselves. They also can decide on making extra channels if necessary.

That warden class you described seems a lot of fun. Maybe I'll try that after the CB. Oh and you're right about the graphics, post up your screenshot on the official allods forum, it's worth mentioning details like that. Developers sometimes actually read the feedback from their players (not on all games sadly enough).

[Imfir]

Well I looked in the Item mall, and the extra storage I see there, is not much bigger, but what I am not sure of, if it is like an extra pack, or you’re only allowed one bag. If it is an extra bag then it’s not so bad. Not sure if anyone ever asked that question on the official forums.
Curious of what some of the other annoying things are ? So I can be prepared for them if I run across them.
Well I would be joining the rest of you on RoM, but that will be over 5g download, I can not afford to do a DL of that size yet, unless I want my connection speed slower then Dial up. I will need to find another way of getting it downloaded.

The over crowded newbie areas will always be that way, it’ll be worse once it goes OB and Live.
League side it’ll just be a short time, because your next 2 levels are separate from the Mainland, where on Empire, you’re tossed in the Motherland after you leave the ship. Till level 10 or 11, your pretty much in this Crowd.
From what I have read I think it is lvl 23, you get to enter Holy Lands, which that is where both Factions quest. In it’s current state I can see that being over crowded, and higher levels ganking on lower levels. Tho in CBT#4 they are adding Astral map and another map, so there should be relief from being Ganked. Doubt that will keep those that can only kill lower levels from stopping from going back to Holy lands.
There is a Flag system, if it is on you earn 110% but your open to being Ganked, or you can turn it off, but your exp earned will be 90%. Right now the Flag system is turned off. I think it should be tested before OB. Some players just want to play a MMO and RP just the PvE side of the game. if that Flag system does not work as it was meant to, then players will need to live with a Known bug.

The Warden has a HoT, which helps a lot. The summoner has a heal that is actually a better heal then the Healer at the lower levels. They both have pets, but the summoner will need to resummon their pet if the pet dies. The Warden the Pet is still there but if it dies, it just heals itself, once fully healed they come out fighting again.
One described the pets like this, the warden pet is your partner, he works with you, the summoners pet are your Slave they do as you command. I would say the only difference between playing a Warden and a Summoner, is the Warden is Melee, the Summoner is a Caster
I never got very far with the summoner, just going by what I have read about them.

[HenriDeacon]

Most of the annoyances are minor, but covered in my review: Post #35.

The review may not be 100% correct, as I was very new to MMOs at the time.

The Free MMO review and discussion Thread

[Imfir]

Originally Posted by HenriDeacon

Most of the annoyances are minor, but covered in my review: Post #35.

The review may not be 100% correct, as I was very new to MMOs at the time.

The Free MMO review and discussion Thread

your review was probably accurate for CBT#2 , I am guessing that was when you played it ?

Most of the downside you listed will be fixed, but some, well they will be there, and in some cases it can be like that in all games.
one thing I do not see getting any improvement is the crafting, if someone is into Crafting in Games, the crafting in this game would be very unsatisfying . The best equipments are earned from Glory points, which can only be got by doing PvP.

Here I would like to place this quote from one of the players from the forums, I think it helps with some of what they say to know a little more what the game is about.

This game is basically about teamwork PvP. And focused on a faction vs. faction framework, with the end goal making a guild ship (to use in Astral space) to find Allods (floating islands) with booty to loot, but there are also these ginourmous astral monsters around, and of course other player's ships.

from what I read about the Astral battles, having a Voice coms is extremely useful, almost a must to have good success.
Basically, your're in a PvE till level 22, which at that point you can enter Holy Lands, now your in a Open PvP world and PvE. then after level 30+, this is where the bigger battles are. More something that is guild related. I get the impression after lvl 30 you best find a good strong guild to be in.

As for the slow leveling. I think it is a bit fast if not just right. max level is 40, and in some games that can be accomplished in a day or 2. but in those games Max level is much higher.
If you use your fat wisely, you can double your leveling. Don't use your fatigue (fat) every day, it is not something you use or lose situation, just save it up, your max fat earned increases every day. I do not understand why someplayers will use their fat
just before reset, you don't need too, use it when you need iot or want to. I like saving it, so once I do use it I skip past a level. And once you do use it, your daily max then drops, so it actually hurts you more using it every day then saving it.
also, you would not want to level up too fast if your soloing alot, and your like a class that can only wear Cloth, this way you can still get decent EXP from easy mobs till you have the rep to get good rep gear.

well I see I am finished patching, now just have to get some rest and wake up and play , servers will be up in 7.5 more hours

[HenriDeacon]

I only learned to use the fatigue near the end of the beta, then could level much faster. Will be doing my patch now