Swordsman Beta

     When I went to load Neverwinter a few weeks ago it popped up a window at me asking if I wanted to sign up for the Swordsman Beta. Eh, why not? It's an MMO with martial arts and a quick glance over it looked interesting enough so I clicked the button to sign up and then promptly forgot about it. Until they sent me a beta key two days ago. Beta started today, and I was mostly excited to spend time in the character creation screen, which is seriously one of my favorite things in a new MMO.
     Not bad. Don't like it quite as well as Aion's which is the best I've seen but it beats most of the others I play in some ways. I made two characters before I actually got around to...clicking the enter world button and actually seeing what the game was about. I haven't done much. It's a beta. It just launched and is very very crowded. But since I double checked and there is no NDA here are some initial impressions.

     This is Quilian. A website assures me that this name means Autumn Lotus in Mandarin. (It's probably a girl's name if the site is actually correct. Oh well. Still a better name than most I see in Betas.) Quilian belongs to the Zephyr school. Martial arts school where he gets to dance around hitting people with a fan and being ridiculously pretty? Yes, please. The other character can be the tough, manly one.
     The game is pretty. Unfortunately, remember me complaining that Neverwinter is obnoxious to take screenshots in? Swordsman is oddly much much worse for me. There's a lot more freedom with them, a lot more control but to me the controls for them feel very counter-intuitive and worst of all they can't be taken without entering a special camera mode and using an on screen button rather than the keyboard one. To make this even worse, my keyboard, which I love for fitting onto my very small tray with room for my mouse is a media one. so Buttons F9 to F12 are functionally useless for most MMOs. F9 is supposed to be the quick camera mode toggle... so to enter the fabled camera mode I have to hit escape, select it from the menu then try to figure it out before I can take the screenshot.
     I feel like the universe heard me complain about Neverwinter screenshots and said: Want to see how it could be worse? Maybe it won't be worse when I get the hang of it... and if I can ever find a free hotkey to bind the camera mode to. Won't recognize my mouse buttons for keybinds, so I can't use the one I use to clear the interface in Aion either. First world screenshot addict problems.
     Now onto gameplay. There are three control mode set ups. I've tried two of them. Right now I'm using the 'action' one... which is... interesting and I don't really like it but it's similar-ish to Neverwinter so at least I'm not utterly lost. I'm still very much figuring things out.

    The world is pretty so far. Not eye-popping spectacular, never seen this before yet. But then maybe I've been too annoyed with the screenshots. Quilian has a fan. He beats people up with it.

He also periodically takes time out from beating people with his fan to dance around the battlefield making himself feel healthier. I freely admit that I love the dancing around healing. Makes my day.

     So far... at the exalted and experienced level of 6. (Level ups are incredibly unobtrusive and I keep missing that they happen) this is where he got left until more playtime happens. So far the story modes are my favorite part of the game, but I think only because they are not crowded with other players. Still this little area I left him in is really pretty lovely. (And I think he's about to learn more sword techniques or something.)
     I'm definitely not sold on this yet. But I will be fair and give it more than a few minutes and six levels before I drop it. More thoughts to come.

Minstrels and Horses

     There's been a lot more Lord of the Rings Online in the last several days than I anticipated. It's not a very high graphic game compared to some it's true but the next time I logged in again it was to find that I had been sent more goodies from my kind and helpful Kinship. I've never played in something so friendly! Sadrondir has been entirely outfitted with crafted armor and a nice sword, and had his bags stuffed with food by the bunch of kind people who invited him to join them. Because of that kindness I at first felt slightly obligated to log in a bit more often, but then... well something happened.

     I started to get rather attached to this silly face. I started to get really interested in the storylines he was questing through. And I started noticing that though the character graphics might not be the best there are so many little things that were done very right.

Working on his Jewelry Making. And that really is exactly what it looks like he's doing.

      He saved up the points from doing deeds to buy himself the riding skill and then finally went off to Bree on his free starter horse to buy himself a horse he can keep. He named it. (Because you can do that!) And now that he's reached level 15 he's saving up to buy himself a house. I went and looked into the elven neighborhood because of course that's the sort of house it will have to be. They're lovely, but he'll have a lot of questing to do to earn the gold to have and upkeep one.
     In Bree he went to the Prancing Pony and picked up a few more quests but even better... a harp.

     This makes me very happy, and is what I had in mind for Sadrondir from the beginning. I have a feeling this one will stay on the list for a while. And I think part of the reason for that is the story and lore. I love things where I can really immerse myself into the Lore and even more than WoW LOTRO has that. Of course, stories I can get into leads to wanting more stories of my own and several elfy alts have already sprung up in my head, though for now I'm trying to resist the urge to do much else with them.

Thoughts on Lord of the Rings Online

 

       I'm on a bit of an MMO exploring binge. Just poking into things here and there as stuff slows down in my main game. This one was an interesting choice for me, one that was largely inspired by people in my blog list. A few years ago when it was newly free to play I had downloaded Lord of the Rings Online and decided to give it a shot. I made an elf hunter (but of course) and did approximately the first five quests of the tutorial before I uninstalled it. I apparently hadn't been impressed though I can't draw to mind now all of the reasons why.
     But I'd seen blog posts of people who loved it and for the longest time the scraps of paper with that first elf's carefully researched name on them hung around my desk taunting me. Until finally a few evenings ago I decided 'what the heck, I've got the drive space' and re installed. There was no indication of what server I'd played on before. I couldn't remember. Then I looked through the list and went 'Arkenstone, that looks like something I'd have picked.' Sure enough, my hunter was still there. But I didn't want to revisit him without having done the tutorial. I didn't remember how to play. So I made a Minstrel to take as far as the hunter had gone before switching back, if I didn't just give up on it at that point.
     Only that isn't what happened. Sadrondir got through as far as Mistelir had... and then just a bit further. This isn't so bad, either they'd changed it or I've grown more adaptable. The characters of course aren't nearly as pretty or customizable as those in Rift or Aion, sadly. But the world is Middle Earth and it's surprisingly lovely. Sadrondir kept going, I kept telling myself I should switch back to Mistelir, but the truth is almost every game has a hunter archetype and that is often what I play but it isn't often that I get to play a well done bard. Sadrondir made his way all the way out of the tutorial last night. And then ran into a lovely person in the first town in Ered Luin who stopped and invited him into her kinship.
    I didn't know what a kinship was. She told me and invited me and spent at least half an hour offering me helpful advice and tips on how to play, where to find things, crafting. Ever so warm and polite and helpful. The other person online chimed up to welcome me... and then just before I logged off I found a mailbox and found that in his silence he'd also made a bunch of food and mailed it to me to help out. I'm a little bit floored.
     My guild in Rift is also really nice if predominantly the other faction. But these were the only two people I'd met in the whole game so far and they stopped and did a bunch to help me out. Is it any surprise that this morning Sadrondir logged on to do more quests to try and earn himself enough store points for riding? And I'm told there are houses. Elf houses, that you can decorate! And Minstrels can actually stop and play their instruments, using number keys a bit like a piano!

And the game is pretty even if the characters aren't as fancy. I'm not sure how far I'll get, but for now it's on the list... and I can't help wondering what it was that I didn't like the last time.