Worth it to come back ?

[Placid]

Hi all

(long post ahead, TL;DR at the bottom)

Like many others, i jumped on this game when it was announced, got myself a collectors edition, and played my heart out for a couple of months.

I came from WoW (again, like many others i imagine), and hoped for something new (that it was a Norwegian company, and that i had fond memories of AO didnt hurt either).

So i came over with a group of others, and inside two weeks, they'd all gone back to WoW. I decided to stick with the game, and was second on my server to level 80 (playing a HoX), more or less through brute determination than anything else (quests after 60 or so were... scarce).

So there i was at level 80.. with nothing to do, with nobody to play alongside of, and with most of the game systems broken (crafting never worked, did they ever fix that...lol). Unlike many, i actually had no technical problems, game ran beautifully on my machine.

So after a few months i quit. It was pointless to play, seeing that most servers were ghost towns, anything to advance yourself ingame (like crafting) didnt work, etc.. basically all i could do was run around and gather materials..

Then they started merging servers, and at some point had a "please come and try it out, we'll give you a free level 50 character" offer.. i thought why not, and went back in. The servers were still ghost towns, and i left again soon after.

Then i recently saw it on Steam and thought, this might give it an influx of players, so i downloaded it and tested it again (in FTP mode).

Tried it for a couple of days now (unlocked my 80 HoX, my 50 Necro, and made a new BS for the fun of it), but struggle with some limitations like for example the reduced inventory/bank space. Also, i have no clue what offline leveling and Alternate Advancement is, but figure them to be fairly important (well, AA).

TL;DR : So my question is really, is it "worth it" to come back in a subscription capacity (and whats this "promotional subs" i've read about ?), seeing that i am likely to stay solo. Finding a guild would be nice, by all means, but there dont seem to be that many people about, hehe (Crom EU).

Also, what would i need to buy, there are expansions you need, isnt there ?

ok.. that post got longer than i expected.. and thank you in advance if anyone answers

[Civilix]

If you are looking for that Level 80 content you should really go for a sub, also you need the expansion to unlock AA.

Most of the 80 solo content is only accessable for subscribers.

If you are looking for that leveling experience there is not much to gain other than more inventory space, so if vanity is your game then you better sub asap but if you dont care about wardrobe then F2P is no problem.

When it comes to population the game will never get millions of subscribers like wow, but you will always find enough people to do all the content in the game.

From time to time Funcom offers promotional subscriptions where you get some additional goodies with the gametime, like free mounts, buff potions and/or vanity gear.

[Placid]

Thanx a lot for the answer

I'll look for some promotional sub then, and at least try it

[Placid]

I have a few more questions if i may (figured i'd just use the same thread)

To get "the full experience", i'd need to buy the two expansions (Turan and RoTS), right ? Turan would then always become available, while RoTS requires a premium subscription to access.

What about anything else in the cash shop, is there anything people see as "required" or "extremely handy to have" ? (i noticed a ton of teleport locations, i imagine thats to raids and the like ?).

Weapons and armor i guess is downright stupid, as the two handed sword in the cash shop did like 4 more DPS than the blue sword i picked up at the AH for 2 silver.

Most cash shop items looks to be on a "per character" basis (potentially making things very expensive), while a few items must be account wide as you can only buy one per account (Tortage survival pack, the Crom *something* pack, etc). One pack for example says that it contains "20 potions of XP advancement".. is that 20 pots for each character, or is it 20 to share between them all ?

Is any of this "worthwhile", or is it just a stupendous waste of money ?

The reason i ask is that i'd probably want to level up several characters (i have 9). Only my HoX is 80, then a 50 Necro, a 42 PoM, the rest is around 20 or below.

Thanx in advance for any answer

[Arishanya]

Depending on what inventory bag size you have, you may want to look into getting bigger bags. However I think most, if not all are also restricted to each character you purchase them for. Bigger bags only increase your personal inventory, not your quest or resource inventory, or bank space.

The teleports may not be necessary or more of an as needed thing. If you do subscribe, you will get veteran points to be able to spend on various paths. Some of the teleports in the cash shop will take you straight to instance entrances (and it's a one time use), but using the veteran paths work for most people too, they just run/ride the short distance to the instance they are trying to go to (depending on the path it will share a cooldown with other paths).

[Placid]

Depending on what inventory bag size you have, you may want to look into getting bigger bags.

I have the "default" bag that came with the collectors edition if i recall (16 slots or something like that). If my level 80 has anything bigger, its certainly not much bigger, hehe.

EDIT : My level 80 has a 24 slot Burlap sack

However I think most, if not all are also restricted to each character you purchase them for. Bigger bags only increase your personal inventory, not your quest or resource inventory, or bank space.

ahh, so Resource and quest item inventories are fixed so to speak ? Cannot be expanded ? The bank i dont remember how works, but imagine its like in any other game, fork over a bunch of cash for more space ?

The teleports may not be necessary or more of an as needed thing. If you do subscribe, you will get veteran points to be able to spend on various paths. Some of the teleports in the cash shop will take you straight to instance entrances (and it's a one time use)

Yikes, its a one time use item ? Thats... crazy, hehe. Staying far away from that then

But the Veterans path sounds interesting (something they implemented way after i left i guess). Thanx a lot for the information

Double Edit :
How on earth do you get rid of spammers in this game... the ignore function doesnt work. Enough to drive a person nuts (well, at least me)

Or is that another "perk" of FTP, cannot ignore people ?

[Arishanya]

ahh, so Resource and quest item inventories are fixed so to speak ? Cannot be expanded ? The bank i dont remember how works, but imagine its like in any other game, fork over a bunch of cash for more space ?

Correct - those are fixed bags. As for the bank, you can buy additional slots through the shop but off hand I can't recall the price.

Double Edit :
How on earth do you get rid of spammers in this game... the ignore function doesnt work. Enough to drive a person nuts (well, at least me)

Or is that another "perk" of FTP, cannot ignore people ?

Anyone should be able to ignore another character in-game. If you type /ignore xxx it should automatically ignore that character, but your friend/ignore list does not carry from one character to the next, so you would have to ignore that player on each of your own characters to fully ignore them.

Keep in mind, depending on what kind of spammer you are referring to, some have very similar names (just a letter or two different) so while you think you have it on ignore, you actually might not.

If you see any type of gold sellers or anything of that nature, please feel free to report it by using the /petition in game and a GM will take action accordingly.

[Prima]

I really recommend subscribing for at least a couple months and getting the Rise of the Godslayer expansion to check out Khitai. You can buy RotGS and 60-day time cards for cheap on Amazon, etc. (Most of the Turan content seems oriented toward characters still leveling and characters with 80s that have a bit of gear already, so you could put that off a bit.)

I also recommend leveling up a new character. There's a ton of new content compared to launch, and the curve has been smoothed out a lot. Getting around is a lot easier too. And there are lots of people leveling, so you won't look behind the curve. (Don't wait for lowbie dungeons, though, very few people do them.) Watching chat and easing into the end game slowly will let you pick up a lot of flow and AoC lingo. HoXes have also changed a lot. Check out the official HoX forums (can't you view them even as F2P by logging out?) to get tips on Alternate Advancement, Khitai factions, gear, etc.

As for what to buy in the store and with Veteran points:

• The bags are very handy (and expensive, but worth it, imo).
• Epic mounts are very expensive with in-game gold, and being fast at 80 ASAP is very handy (due to all the faction grinding/turn-ins, dangerous mobs to run past, etc.), so consider the Shop/Vet Store mounts (and mount training).
• I do recommend getting some paths (note: most are not one-time use), but the ones that you choose will depend on your level and focus (solo, raiding, 6-mans, entry-level, advanced, etc.). For example, The Lair (in Atzel's) is fantastic for zipping back there to do turn-ins (Conan likes to send you back there all the time), and to get to Vistrix (Tier 1 raid dungeon) fast (which is nice because sometimes it takes a raid a while to assemble and you don't have to hike all the way there and then stand around waiting); on the other hand, if you're already 80 and don't need/want Tier1 or Vistrix specifically, it's a waste. So I recommend playing a bit and figuring out what places you find yourself commuting to a lot, then look for paths there in the item shop and Veteran Rewards store.

[Placid]

Thanx a lot for the answer Prima

I've subscribed for one month (but cancelled it immediately to avoid auto billing).. and as a consequence, even though i have premium subscription, i can still only post here in the FTP section, hehe

I have 52 Veteran points on my chars (most i guess came from the initial 6 month sub when it launched ?), so i've picked up a couple of things, like the bag, the veteran path, and one Teleport (Khemi).

While my HoX is level 80, my gear is crap, i upgraded everything i wore save an epic something.. (think it was a talisman (King Conan quest reward if i recall ?) from the green stuff i used to wear, to AH blues. Nor do i have any AA points, etc. I dont think i dare going into Khitai, hehe.. i'll likely get owned hard

I ended up deleting most of my characters as they had *nick*423523123123, and couldnt be renamed (i was not about to fork out through the cash shop for that). So i made myself some new chars instead, to level up with and reacquaint myself with the game (31 Demo and 22 Ranger this far).

Now for Funcom to whip up a promotional offer before my sub runs out

[Prima]

Khemi is a good pick! That's the hub to get to Khitai, Turan, etc.

Gateway to Khitai (level 20-40) is a great leveling zone, btw.

Khitai itself is rough at first -- especially for a HoX, who until then has been an AoE class (that stops in Khitai until you get some more gear ) -- but you might want to check it out even with some greens. A lot of the quests aren't too bad; several don't even require combat. And the earlier you can start on getting faction and Marks of Acclaim, the earlier you can start picking up the faction blues, which are as good or better than the culture armor (Nemedian Cursecaller, for HoXes). (If you have plenty of gold, you might buy all Cursecaller and save the MoA for buying the dungeon blues, i.e., the blues that also require trophies from high-end 6-mans.)

If the leveling grind ever starts getting you down, or you find yourself trying new alts a lot, the Tortage Survival Kit (Pack?) is very good, even if just for the double-XP potions (although the starter weapons make your intro to new classes a lot less irritating too ). I think that pack is also one of the ways to get the totem that gives you a free port to your home city (on a separate cooldown from everything else). Especially nice for Stygians because Khemi is the best.