Anyone else looking forward to Wildstar?

[LostGuy28]

I have three guest passes. Would prefer to give them to someone who will be active and use them alot.

HACP - Id love a pass if you still have one! Unable to PM you due to low post count, although Ive been a lurker here for YEARS lol

 

[Anteaus]

I've got about 10 hours in so far so this isn't a definitive review but I'm going to share my experience as a casual MMO player. It's a love hate situation. The game mechanics so far are predictable and I'm mixed about the interface. The quest tracking needs more work and the quests are shallow. I don't mean that they are the same old quests...I mean they are very light on commentary and in many cases I only get a sentence or two of explanation. The main quest is line is somewhat verbose, but for the side quests half the time I don't know why I'm doing stuff because the NPCs just don't have much dialogue. The game was just released so I'm not going to be to hard on them about this. The game runs great and everything works for the most part, which is more of a big deal than you would expect. With the exception of a little lag, I haven't had any crashes or disconnects at all.

I love the whimsical nature of everything. This game doesn't even bother taking itself seriously and I love it. The music is meh for the most part, but the space/sci-fi elements have a Buck Rogers/Anachronox/Space Quest/Star Control feel to it and it's great. Plus, it's the first NCSoft game I've played that felt like it was designed for the Western Market. No leaning runners!

The game can be a bit by the numbers and by extension.....boring. That said, I'm pushing through because while I absolutely think the game is outright formulaic and is straight up boring in parts, the universe and humor is top notch and it has a ton of potential. I'll judge the game more fully once I hit endgame, so I hope no one things I'm pushing potential gamers away. If you go in expecting a solid 6-7 out of 10 instead of looking for a wow killer there is plenty in it to entertain.

0.02

 

[Anubis]

I wanted to play some yesterday. however I got some access violation bug on my laptop. seems to be vid driver related and I didn't wanna mess with it from Taiwan

 

[Chaptorial]

If anyone has an extra Guest Pass they can PM me I would be most appreciative. Trying to find a new MMO to get into after WoW and SWTOR. Thanks.

 

[Hacp]

I've given away all my passes btw. Sry.

 

[Clemenza]

I've got about 10 hours in so far so this isn't a definitive review but I'm going to share my experience as a casual MMO player. It's a love hate situation. The game mechanics so far are predictable and I'm mixed about the interface. The quest tracking needs more work and the quests are shallow. I don't mean that they are the same old quests...I mean they are very light on commentary and in many cases I only get a sentence or two of explanation. The main quest is line is somewhat verbose, but for the side quests half the time I don't know why I'm doing stuff because the NPCs just don't have much dialogue. The game was just released so I'm not going to be to hard on them about this. The game runs great and everything works for the most part, which is more of a big deal than you would expect. With the exception of a little lag, I haven't had any crashes or disconnects at all.

I love the whimsical nature of everything. This game doesn't even bother taking itself seriously and I love it. The music is meh for the most part, but the space/sci-fi elements have a Buck Rogers/Anachronox/Space Quest/Star Control feel to it and it's great. Plus, it's the first NCSoft game I've played that felt like it was designed for the Western Market. No leaning runners!

The game can be a bit by the numbers and by extension.....boring. That said, I'm pushing through because while I absolutely think the game is outright formulaic and is straight up boring in parts, the universe and humor is top notch and it has a ton of potential. I'll judge the game more fully once I hit endgame, so I hope no one things I'm pushing potential gamers away. If you go in expecting a solid 6-7 out of 10 instead of looking for a wow killer there is plenty in it to entertain.

0.02

Around level 20, the predictability as far as the combat goes, starts to change and the difficulty really ramps up. By level 25, some of the telegraphs from just random world mobs will or almost will one shot you.

I've found myself really enjoying it. The level 15 Adventure zone was a lot of fun and the level 20 dungeon is very difficult, especially with pugs. It's a challenging game that works and isn't riddled with bugs or lack of content (I'm looking at you ESO.)

I'm on Pago, a PvP server and the added interaction of Dominion Scum makes the leveling process pretty involved. Although, for the most part, people have a live and let live attitude and let each other quest in peace. Every now and then you get a nice little scrap worked up.

I agree with the quest tracker though. It used to drive me insane. I guess I've gotten used to it by now, or maybe I under stand it more, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. However, it can be pretty confusing at times with the shear amount of quests that you generally have.

 

[HumblePie]

Around level 20, the predictability as far as the combat goes, starts to change and the difficulty really ramps up. By level 25, some of the telegraphs from just random world mobs will or almost will one shot you.

I've found myself really enjoying it. The level 15 Adventure zone was a lot of fun and the level 20 dungeon is very difficult, especially with pugs. It's a challenging game that works and isn't riddled with bugs or lack of content (I'm looking at you ESO.)

I'm on Pago, a PvP server and the added interaction of Dominion Scum makes the leveling process pretty involved. Although, for the most part, people have a live and let live attitude and let each other quest in peace. Every now and then you get a nice little scrap worked up.

I agree with the quest tracker though. It used to drive me insane. I guess I've gotten used to it by now, or maybe I under stand it more, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. However, it can be pretty confusing at times with the shear amount of quests that you generally have.

Heck, by 15 with the first adventure zone there are two possible bosses (depending upon the story line you chose) that will be a very big ramp up in difficulty over the trash monsters. Many people die their first attempt at the level 12 traveler solo dungeon.

10 hours into play for a casual first timer probably puts him at level 7. Which means he hasn't had a chance to experience the actual hard stuff at all.

For side note, the level 20 dungeons will probably make him cry. For reference, I've done both those dungeons with my stalker as tank and dps. Gone through completely clean many times with no deaths and 30 minutes or so runs. That is with my normal group. Since I am in a large guild, I've also taken my time this weekend to "train" up those reaching level 20 for the first time. I've been running what I would call less than capable players through the dungeon. Even with me explaining things over mumble, there is only so much I can explain. Most of those runs are 4-6 hours to complete the same thing I've done dozens of times now in 30-45 minutes. I take the time now to invest in people learning how much harder this game is compared to anything they have played as an MMO to date.

 

[HumblePie]

I've got about 10 hours in so far so this isn't a definitive review but I'm going to share my experience as a casual MMO player. It's a love hate situation. The game mechanics so far are predictable and I'm mixed about the interface. The quest tracking needs more work and the quests are shallow. I don't mean that they are the same old quests...I mean they are very light on commentary and in many cases I only get a sentence or two of explanation. The main quest is line is somewhat verbose, but for the side quests half the time I don't know why I'm doing stuff because the NPCs just don't have much dialogue. The game was just released so I'm not going to be to hard on them about this. The game runs great and everything works for the most part, which is more of a big deal than you would expect. With the exception of a little lag, I haven't had any crashes or disconnects at all.

I would seriously recommend taking a bit more time. The quest dialog UI still sucks IMHO for the game. First, if you plan to play this game seriously, I would get the following Addons.

Biji Plates
JunkIt
Galaxy Meter
AMP Finder
Track Master
Potato UI
Better Quest Log
Icon Loot
Custom FOV
Threat Meter
Interruptor
Classic Quest Dialog
Group Radar


I personally use all those Addons and they make the game 10x better. Spend the time setting them up properly as they will make things better. Go into the UI custom options configurators for each addon and set them up properly for how you like them. For example, PotatoUI is a great addon for allowing you to see some of the bars, buffs, debuffs, and other things better in the game. You may want to move them around on the screen or color them differently. I also turn off the 3d portraits as it does add an FPS hit.

Since you were complaining about quests details, the Classic Quest Dialog addon wll make sure you are able to read ALL the quest dialog for a given quest. The current questing UI has a log to be desired as some of the quest dialog flies by on your screen before you can read it properly.


To install addons, you can use the Curse client to do it automajickly for you. I personally do it myself though. Bring up a windows explorer. Then go to %appdata%

Or if you can't figure out how to do that it should be

C : \Users\<your login>\AppData\Roaming

There is an NCSoft folder there, and then a wildstar folder. If you haven't installed Addons, you'll have to create a new folder called Addons. That has to be plural. Drop all the addons you download into that folder. You don't even have to exit the game to install new addons. If you are already in game, type /reloadui to install and start using new addons.

 

[drebo]

I played about 4 hours this weekend and got to level 9 I think. The game is pretty generic and everything about it is cluttered, but it is NCSoft, so that's not unexpected.

While I like that it's not a fantasy MMO, it still leaves a bit to be desired...the combat is still very fantasy-oriented, at least to start with. I haven't come across any ranged mobs yet, so as a healer, I just lay down 3 DOT fields in front of me and spam my two AOE DOTs and AOE stun and everything melts in about 3 seconds.

We'll see what happens, I guess.

 

[Anteaus]

I would seriously recommend taking a bit more time. The quest dialog UI still sucks IMHO for the game. First, if you plan to play this game seriously, I would get the following Addons.

Biji Plates
JunkIt
Galaxy Meter
AMP Finder
Track Master
Potato UI
Better Quest Log
Icon Loot
Custom FOV
Threat Meter
Interruptor
Classic Quest Dialog
Group Radar


I personally use all those Addons and they make the game 10x better. Spend the time setting them up properly as they will make things better. Go into the UI custom options configurators for each addon and set them up properly for how you like them. For example, PotatoUI is a great addon for allowing you to see some of the bars, buffs, debuffs, and other things better in the game. You may want to move them around on the screen or color them differently. I also turn off the 3d portraits as it does add an FPS hit.

Since you were complaining about quests details, the Classic Quest Dialog addon wll make sure you are able to read ALL the quest dialog for a given quest. The current questing UI has a log to be desired as some of the quest dialog flies by on your screen before you can read it properly.


To install addons, you can use the Curse client to do it automajickly for you. I personally do it myself though. Bring up a windows explorer. Then go to %appdata%

Or if you can't figure out how to do that it should be

C : \Users\<your login>\AppData\Roaming

There is an NCSoft folder there, and then a wildstar folder. If you haven't installed Addons, you'll have to create a new folder called Addons. That has to be plural. Drop all the addons you download into that folder. You don't even have to exit the game to install new addons. If you are already in game, type /reloadui to install and start using new addons.

Thanks for the suggestions. I tend to prefer to avoid addons but I might indulge in this case. The last time I actively used addons was in the early Wow days.

 

[Clemenza]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tend to prefer to avoid addons but I might indulge in this case. The last time I actively used addons was in the early Wow days.

I would say this you will use addons in this game as well. Although I've been slacking and have not needed any so far, I can see where in raids or heroic dungeons they will be needed and/or required.

 

[HumblePie]

Hahaha! Reading the official forums is too hilarious. General chat forum is filled with people either complaining the game is "too easy" because they are level 10 or so like many in this thread, or they reached the level 20 mark and hit a brick wall on difficulty for them. Those in the later group are complaining the game is way too hard and they can't do the dungeons at all properly. LOL! So funny.

 

[CrowDog]

So are you able to switch from tank to dps or heal to dps easily? Can I solo on a spellslinger as dps and easily switch to heals for dungeons? If so how does this work?

 

[HumblePie]

So are you able to switch from tank to dps or heal to dps easily? Can I solo on a spellslinger as dps and easily switch to heals for dungeons? If so how does this work?

Yes, when you reach level 15 you have another "action set" to configure. Leave action set 1 as your dps set and then configure action set 2 as your heal set. Switching between the two can be done at any point outside of combat. Abilities can be swapped on actions sets as well anytime outside of combat.

The only trouble you'll have is that your dps set requires assault power and heal requires support power. Which means you'll need two sets of equipment somewhat to be effective at both. At lower levels you can get by with just switching out your weapon form the DPS to the Heal weapon.

Edit, it is 15 not 10.

 

[Hacp]

I guess today's the last day I play WildStar. It just has a bunch of problems with it. I still hope the game fixes the problems and ends up succeeding. I'm going to list the problems. I only got to level 7 and couldn't play anymore.

1. UI sucks! The text is hard to read. It isn't easy to tell if you've clicked on something. I keep forgetting to vacuum loot.

2. Questing sucks. There are alot of do this, do that, pick up this quests. I hate those. Hated them in WoW, but I hate them even more in this game because one, there are so many of these quests and two, the rewards suck. In wow, I grinded my way to 60, but in this game, grinding is SLOW.

3. Performance is poor. I'm running an HD7700 and i5-2500k. My framerate is ~35fps at low settings and 39fps at medium settings.

Those things were enough to turn me off of this game. I love the concept of hard dungeons and hardcore raiding. I hope they end up fixing it.

 

[HumblePie]

I guess today's the last day I play WildStar. It just has a bunch of problems with it. I still hope the game fixes the problems and ends up succeeding. I'm going to list the problems. I only got to level 7 and couldn't play anymore.

1. UI sucks! The text is hard to read. It isn't easy to tell if you've clicked on something. I keep forgetting to vacuum loot.

2. Questing sucks. There are alot of do this, do that, pick up this quests. I hate those. Hated them in WoW, but I hate them even more in this game because one, there are so many of these quests and two, the rewards suck. In wow, I grinded my way to 60, but in this game, grinding is SLOW.

3. Performance is poor. I'm running an HD7700 and i5-2500k. My framerate is ~35fps at low settings and 39fps at medium settings.

Those things were enough to turn me off of this game. I love the concept of hard dungeons and hardcore raiding. I hope they end up fixing it.

Level 7 and already calling it quits? Wow.....

1) There are a ton of addons out there that fix various UI problems. The UI is good enough, but if you like something different then try one of the mods that fixes whatever you don't like

2) Level 7 and complaining about grinding and questing? LOL!!! If you don't like questing then don't do it. You can get to level 50 without doing a single quest in this game at all. You can either grind monsters, pvp from level 6 to 50, or dungeon runs from level 15 on. Wanting to grind, but complaining the grind is too long? Seriously did you hit your head when you wrote that statement?

3) Performance is not going to be 100+ fps on this game. Don't know why, but if you are over 30 fps on an MMO what are you complaining about?

 

[CrowDog]

What are the best sites for theory-crafting, guides, quest info and stuff? Doesn't look like there is a Wildstarhead and the official forums are ok but not great.

 

[TheUnk]

Level 7 and already calling it quits? Wow.....

1) There are a ton of addons out there that fix various UI problems. The UI is good enough, but if you like something different then try one of the mods that fixes whatever you don't like

2) Level 7 and complaining about grinding and questing? LOL!!! If you don't like questing then don't do it. You can get to level 50 without doing a single quest in this game at all. You can either grind monsters, pvp from level 6 to 50, or dungeon runs from level 15 on. Wanting to grind, but complaining the grind is too long? Seriously did you hit your head when you wrote that statement?

3) Performance is not going to be 100+ fps on this game. Don't know why, but if you are over 30 fps on an MMO what are you complaining about?

Level 24 and I agree with his complaints.

1) UI is pretty bad. I have to install addons to make it more friendly? Seems silly.

2) Leveling is so boring. Every so often I find a quest that was interesting or fun, but for the most part it's just super boring and grindy. Please don't recommend another grind to replace a grind. If they are going to make leveling take so long it needs to be fun all around. If I had the choice I would just skip it all and be 50. It's that boring.

3) The graphics this game has, it should run a LOT better than it currently does. 780s shouldn't drop below 60 in this game. It has performance issues that need fixing.

 

[HumblePie]

Level 24 and I agree with his complaints.

1) UI is pretty bad. I have to install addons to make it more friendly? Seems silly.

2) Leveling is so boring. Every so often I find a quest that was interesting or fun, but for the most part it's just super boring and grindy. Please don't recommend another grind to replace a grind. If they are going to make leveling take so long it needs to be fun all around. If I had the choice I would just skip it all and be 50. It's that boring.

3) The graphics this game has, it should run a LOT better than it currently does. 780s shouldn't drop below 60 in this game. It has performance issues that need fixing.

1) The UI is minimalistic on purpose. That is why they made the game designed to have addons. Any game that allows for addons to redo the UI is only going to put a bare minimum UI required to play the game. Wow has always been like this, ESO, and others. Deal with it. If you don't like having to install addons for a game that supports them, I suggest finding a game like Tetris that doesn't.

2) If you don't like "grinds" or the progression needed to reach max level in a RPG game.. I suggest not playing RPG style games or go back to WoW. They now sell max level characters for you there. Of course then you are playing the game for a gear grind. Oh wait, you don't like swapping one grind for another? I suggest sticking with puzzle games then because all games that require some sort of effort to progress through a story line is going to force a repetitive action on part of the gamer to complete. Come to think of so do puzzle games. I guess You should stick with something like TV then. No action required at all there to get from point A to point B in your entertainment. Just a cold one and your ass on a cushion.

Seriously, games have grinds to progress. Period. ALL GAMES have grinds. You do know what the term grind means and comes from right? To do a repetitive action over and over again until you achieve some goal from repeating that action a given amount of times. In RPGs the goal is to reach max level. Some like to do "quests" all the way up as their grind. Some like just killing monsters over and over again. Some like pvp. Some like dungeon runs. Oh wow, this game has ALL those options available to reach max level. And you don't want to be lectured on being told to switch one grind for another if you are bored with your particular grind or don't like how fast it is progressing for your taste? Oh the irony!

3) Yep, performance on this game isn't the best. But the game does do 25+ fps on even shitty comps even if it doesn't do 200+ fps on the best. If you are doing 30 fps+ on a game, wtf do you need more for??? This isn't some counter strike tourney where those extra fps might mean something to game player performance. Could they tweak the optimizations? Sure they could. Would it be great if they did? Damn skippy. Worth quiting the game over? No. That's stupid. That's like cutting your nose off to spite your ugly face.

 

[TheUnk]

lol wow.. You sound really upset.

UI is minimalistic on purpose? Nah, that's them just being lazy.

A don't mind a grind at all, never said I did. I just said it was really boring in this game. I have done plenty of grinds, excluding WoW (which I never really played btw so kinda hard to go back to it..) I have no issue at all with a grind, it just has to be FUN. That keyword you completely ignored, "fun". In my opinion the leveling in this game is not fun. You can argue, scream and shout all you want, but nothing you can say will make it suddenly fun for me.

This game is full of skill shot abilities, yet you tell me it's just fine and dandy if you get 25+ fps. Jesus.

 

[HumblePie]

Not upset at all, just because I speak bluntly doesn't make me upset.

A minimalistic UI is on purpose. It was more defined previously in beta and then they took it out at request of the majority of the players. People rather add on what they want. Also, you can disable UI components, even the carbine ones, from the options menu which is a fairly unique feature to this game. Again, the best approach to a UI is the minimum needed to play the game. If players want more to make the game easier for themselves that's all fine and dandy. That is the better programming approach.

IF you aren't having fun, pick a game you do have fun with. Questing in MMO's are always going to boil down to the same basic questing blocks.

1) Kill something X amount of times
2) Collect something X amount of times
3) Stand at this spot for X amount of time (may include combat or not)
4) Go to X amount of spots on the map (sight seeing or escort)
5) Make something
6) Solve a puzzle

That's it. There is no other way to do quests than what I listed above in video games. They all boil down to those building blocks. The basic blocks are boring as shit though. So most MMO's try to weave in story, combine blocks, and change up the order of questing blocks. Most game developers will vary the length, and challenge levels of the blocks as well. Wildstar does all those adjustments with all those basic blocks. Same as ESO, and other modern MMO RPG games. Unless you really do prefer the vending machine style questing. Vending machine style questing is going to specific NPC, clicking on it, get quest to kill 50 more pink fluffy bunnies for reward, and then come back to repeat. That is what I call boring questing. With the sheer variety of quests in Wildstar that is mixed up all the time, I'm not sure why you find it boring unless you dislike the story. Then I suggest this isn't the MMO for you.

Most MMO combat doesn't involve movement and telegraphs and personal player skill. So combat in Wildstar is far more advanced and involved than the majority of MMOs. Which makes grinding on killing monsters for progression far more involved than the average MMO. I can't see how you can call combat progression grinding boring in this game.

Then lets not even start to compared PVP or Dungeon runs for level progressions to the average MMO. The average MMO is YAWN in comparison to the skill and coordination required here.



I said fine if you get 30+ fps, not 25 fps. 25 is doable, but can lead to some player performance problems. Again, only those machines BELOW minimum requirement for the game will have 25 fps. IF you meet the requirements and do some tweaking of the settings you'll have 30 fps or second or higher. As I said, you won't have 200+ fps with even the most kick ass comp. I do agree it's a problem. I don't agree it's worth crying over. Now if you are using a bare minimum machine and are getting less than 30 fps, I can see you crying for help to get what needs to be set to be at 30 fps.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I actually like the questing in wildstar... It's kind of varied. You get neat narrations for new areas you go to. They toss in neat cutscenes here and there. It's not super in depth everything is voiced over, but at the same time they give you a lot of stuff to do and mix things up, which I doubt would be the case if they attempted to implement the former. Then challenges pop up to further mix things up. I did everything (all quests and paths except bugged ones and did each adventure once although I skipped dungeons) as I went and hit 50 inside the crashed ship in west grimvault which was a very cool questing area.

The leveling isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but aside from the bugged quests here and there, I had personally very little complaints.

 

[rci2990]

amen brother.i read the general section in ws forums and just shake my head.this game is awesome in every way.after playing wow from start till i unsubbed in december, this game is definitely a keeper.

 

[nurturedhate]

I guess today's the last day I play WildStar. It just has a bunch of problems with it. I still hope the game fixes the problems and ends up succeeding. I'm going to list the problems. I only got to level 7 and couldn't play anymore.

1. UI sucks! The text is hard to read. It isn't easy to tell if you've clicked on something. I keep forgetting to vacuum loot.

2. Questing sucks. There are alot of do this, do that, pick up this quests. I hate those. Hated them in WoW, but I hate them even more in this game because one, there are so many of these quests and two, the rewards suck. In wow, I grinded my way to 60, but in this game, grinding is SLOW.

3. Performance is poor. I'm running an HD7700 and i5-2500k. My framerate is ~35fps at low settings and 39fps at medium settings.

Those things were enough to turn me off of this game. I love the concept of hard dungeons and hardcore raiding. I hope they end up fixing it.

This reads as "I don't like MMOs so I bought an MMO. I played the MMO and reinforced the fact that I do not like MMOs.

There are issues with the game, yes. Some parts of my UI comes and goes, mainly the gears over clickable items. The performance is interesting to say the least. Solid at the low end but the high side is all over the place. I see framerates from 35-120.

Overall though I am having a blast and it reminds me of the fun that I had in early WoW, vanilla/bc era. Lvl 25 atm. I just hope they are able to create raid content at a fast enough pace to keet the population up.

 

[HumblePie]

So speaking of performance,

Yesterday was a patch that was the first ATI/AMD patch to help fix performance problems with ATI cards and AMD processors. Those using both have a double whammy on performance.

Well I have ATI cards with dual 6970s. I usually get around 35-40 fps everywhere. I don't usually go lower unless there is about 100+ people in a spot like the end event of beta. Otherwise I have perfectly playable fps pretty much regardless of the settings.

Then yesterday's patch hit. My fps jumped up a bit in whitevale. I was hovering at 40 fps there and it went to 55 fps. I was like wow and fps gain! Then I moved.... *stutter**stutter**stutter*

Yah, it was a stutter fest. I had improved fps but the stuttering was causing me problems and making the game literally unplayable. I already had the latest drivers and computer updates. I went ahead and installed the latest ATI beta driver to try that. Didn't work. I tried disabling the cross fire set up. Didn't work. I was about to just reinstall the whole game, when I decided to change my directx loadup. I had already switched my game to run at directx 9. I did this by having the -dx9 parameter added at the end of the target string in the shortcut that brings up the loader application. So I removed it so it would go back to DX11.

Voila! Stutter gone. Smooth as silk again. Even better another FPS jump! I was sitting at 65-70fps in whitevale no problem. I ran around other places and didn't drop below 50 anywhere. Looking forward to the final release of the AMD/ATI optimization fixes to come through!