Mortal Online - Review, not so "comprehensive"

[Trelin]

Well I just came back from Moh Ki to Vadda the other night, took me 15 minutes. The original trip took me 3 evenings ... So its a pretty brilliant design to have a small world which is hard to find you way around in; basically it feels like a large world but you constantly encounter other people on your travels which makes it feel more populaated than it is.

I am still hanging the noobie cities because I decided to start a character all over again (drrr) so that's probably why I don't see more than half a dozen people at any one time.

Also, it doesn't get nearly as dark at night! I have mixed feelings about this.

[Gusy]

aww i remembering how fun it was to go into pok after a rumble and being like /ooc hey speedd you dropped something back there (link insignia) harharhar

Oh, I think you played when I did. Were you a Flower? I wasn't and knew nothing about them.

[Crying Eyes]

I went flower after the server merge on account of in the sullon zek days i was a newt who may or may not have bagged more than one happy sig =P
was a fan even when i was neutral though.

[Trelin]

CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH

[Gusy]

I went flower after the server merge on account of in the sullon zek days i was a newt who may or may not have bagged more than one happy sig =P
was a fan even when i was neutral though.

It seems like you told me this before... I was a neutral too. What was your name? I think we played around 2002 to 2004. I remember seeing PoK books on my first day, so it must have been late 2002.

[Trelin]

holy kiss my life. I really don't think I have the time to play an MMO afterall. Tonight was a good night in terms of time to play, and all I managed to do was lose a set of gear to some faggot on a horse with rediculous spells and obviously a whole lot more time to put into this game than I do. The beauty of it is that my gear will be of no use to him and probably just get deleted. Although in theory this sort of hardcore ruleset opens up a lot of possibilities; I am a little concerned that all of these hardcore players are just going to scare off people just trying to have a good time and try something a little different.

The fact that I am now 3 months into this game and still do not have a finished PvP-ready character is a testament to how precarious this is for me. It really should only take 2 weeks. And just now, if I had been playing, I would have had to leave the game suddenly with a 40 second log out timer to run upstairs and would have probably lost another set of gear.

There is too much at risk in the PvP to still have bugs that kiss up collision detection so bad that I can't even escape because I am stuck inside the body of my mount, his mount, and the mob I was fighting: completely unable to see what the hell is going on and why my mount isn't moving. How can I tell what way to turn when surrounded by a cluster kiss.

And how do I get practice in PvP? That would require farming even more cash to buy the extra equipment that will get lost in PvP, which I can't afford in the first place because people attack me because they're bored.


My life kissing sucks, and I don't even get 2 hours to just sit and play a kissing video game. And not even one day a month free to ever do what I want. Just work work work and then come home and take care of everybody. This is not a good way to be spending one's youth.

Time for a reality check, because putting every precious free minute into a game only to still be lagging far behind obviously won't bring happiness!

Well Mortal, in truth, its not you ... it's me! Me and my stupid kissing life.

[Crying Eyes]

It seems like you told me this before... I was a neutral too. What was your name? I think we played around 2002 to 2004. I remember seeing PoK books on my first day, so it must have been late 2002.

uhh lets see some of my names were Taft Shirewolf, Regalus, Lostboy (was one of i think only 2 70 berserkers on neut) and I think Lostlove

[Trelin]

well maybe I exaggerate the tragedy of my nouveau life a little bit much. but it would just be nice to sit down and have an evening playing a good game, and get it out of my system, you know?

so I have not given up yet. but last night I got cock blocked even harder than usual, to the tune of 5 reds. tonight it happened again, but it seems as though the enthusiastic PKs really only want to kill blue's that are in a guild (i would that this in an attempt to not slash the infant throat of the growing player base!), and once they establish that you`re just some poor sod grinding cash for skills like everyone else had to do, its not so bad. I can`t blame anyone for wanting to pick on guilds, their websites are pretty self-important pats on the ole back in many cases.

nonetheless, it is kind of annoying having to be at anyone's mercy, but I guess for the time being I'll put up with it (no choice really) until I have the rest of the skills I need trained (won't be long) and a few good sets of armour (may take some effort for the cash as I still need it for skills).

I always thought it may be fun to go red and terrorize everyone, but it would be way more interesting to be a blue player that can actually kill these "LEET" red players. maybe I will go full anti-PK, I dunno, but it gives me something to shoot for because "wtf will I do when my character is finished?" is an excellent question!

[Gusy]

Intervention time. You posted a "My gear might get taken!" post on the FoH forums, and from one of the easiest games to level up in short of TF2.

I got bored and took some time off. This thread inspired me to install an EQ emulator and I've been "touristing" all the old zones for the last week.

Anyway, you cautioned me against the route I was going, so it sucks that you are now in the gear-bind that these games are designed to put you in, while I am not.

I just tried to reiterate my helpful guide to no-risk PvP, but I've had too much wine. I'll post the short version:

Pick mage, raise creature control and taming to max, raise mage spells, go out and kick ass only risking reagents.

Your pet is your DoT which hits 15-30 through armor. Your spells hit 40-60 and ignore armor. All you need is some coal in your bag, not hard to get. No armor, no weapons, no risk. You can't kill more than a solo red this way but what do you want for almost no risk and a bout 12 hours of game time plus about a weeks worth of offline time?

No point playing a full loot game and worrying about being looted. If you play any MMO solo and don't enjoy gathering, you are probably better off with an FPS. I see why grinding / gathering can get boring, but I enjoy the peace and quiet of a day gathering while I read on my second monitor. It is the modern day equivalent to carving pipes or knitting.

The biggest problem to these "young" games is that everything will change in a week. Every trick / bug / exploit / overpower class, etc. change so fast. I think I might go back to a big-name-game once my kid pops out.

[Trelin]

Intervention time. You posted a "My gear might get taken!" post on the FoH forums, and from one of the easiest games to level up in short of TF2.

Its not the pixels I'm worried about, its the time invested. And its not the game, I can't really blame the game, I knew it was an extremely unfinished product before I bought it. Its just the time in my life,and I'm kissing burnt out. What I didn't expect was that in 3 months time I would have maybe one or two nights where I could actually sit down and play the game uninterrupted. Making a second character is really my own fault, but I like to experiment - problem being I still don't have a PvP worthy toon because I split scant game time between two characters. The little set backs seem like pretty big pains in the ass right now, but I am finally getting somewhere.

I'm not sure how I ever found the time for EQ, which is certainly 10x slower to level up than this game. I'm also not sure why I never have the time for hobbies I enjoy! Who's kissing life is this!

There is no such thing as "easy to level up" for me right now. Whatever amount of time you may think something would take, multiply that by 10 because I go days (even weeks) sometimes without getting any "me" time. My time is not my own, and it won't be any time soon, and I'm not sure when it will be - that's what gets me pissed off right now. Hopefully in the winter I can actually sit down and play for a few hours a few times a week, and by this time the game may have some significant forms of playable content.

Out of curiosity Gusy, is your PvP method tried, tested, and true? Or is it theory? The amount of random horse archer PKs I see running around makes your method seem precarious to me (they could either ride away or skewer you dead with 2 arrows), but maybe people are playing different styles where you are? I'm just not sure where you are finding all these reds running around on foot ready to take lighting in the butt? Certainly if you do catch some people off guard, then this method would work well and prove a good distinction between PvP and good ole PKing.

[Trelin]

The biggest problem to these "young" games is that everything will change in a week. Every trick / bug / exploit / overpower class, etc. change so fast. I think I might go back to a big-name-game once my kid pops out.

ha yes. Now this I can relate too. on the other hand you will have any number of characters ready to just play by then, and won't really be grinding cash (the skill books are a major time sink) and it won't seem as bad.

I remember when archery was gimp against armour, so then they made it do more damage thru armour than melee and OP'ed it, and now everyone who wants to PK is a horse archer. 2x horse archers is a hard thing to deal with all you can do is riiiide.

[Gusy]

Sorry, I didn't mean serious defensive or competitive PvP, I meant that I can kill people who are farming and take their stuff, which isn't all that hard with any build. The main difference is that my method is fast to build, and has very little risk since I need no armor, no weapons and just a few regents. If a baby starts crying and I need to walk away from my PC, I'm not going to lose hours of work. The most I've lost ever in this game was about 20 minutes of effort.

No I can't kill mounted archers, but I also suck at video games. I've heard mages were a good PvP class, but I've never been that good at any MMO, so I don't go into any game assuming I'll be competitive in any aspect. I just play them like single player games that have the added fun of occasional of PvP. Most of my fun comes from exploration and figuring out ways to play the game in ways that the devs didn't intend, e.g. in game exploits.

[Trelin]

Well I was raging about many things when I made my rage post, QQ post, etc. I think oxygen may have returned to my brain since then (maybe).

Sounds like you're having good fun Killing people farming is good fun and also pays the bills. A playstyle based around babies crying is brilliant. I may have to move to a quieter area now that Vadda has become horse archer city. Any suggestion of nice areas to finish off a bit of farming for books? I enjoy nice scenery. I was saving up for an expensive book which meant I was stuck there unable to explore until I finished, which I had a few days ago but I was going to bump up reading skill and anatomy before I risk not gettting the skill to 100 and having to buy it again! =/.

[Gusy]

Morin Khur. They move mobs around some, but when I got all my gold, this is where:



Pink are wisent camps, orange are high level tamable mobs (which also make for acceptable cash camps if wisents are taken) light blue was where the horses used to be, and green is where they moved to last week.

Being a tamer and a mage I had almost no strength, so I after about 5 gold worth of wisents (20 minutes) I could not move. So I would tame a dire wolf, use it to kill about 20 wisents, then limp over to a horse almost fully encumbered, tame it, and ride back at full speed. This way I could make about 5 gold every 40 miuntes with luck.

Add to that that all the rare books I needed were in Moh-Ki and Toxai, and I made quick work of everything. You being a fighter might not find this spot quite as lucrative. For me it was all about the weight of the loot, so I needed free horses near wisents. Also, everyone on the boards listed this spot as a good place to get constantly killed via PvP, but I swear I only died twice while I farmed 50 gold.

[Trelin]

Ah ya I know the spot, where there are two clumps of wisents with Steppe horses in the middle? I levelled up my taming there on my horse archer and didn't see anyone PKing even once. Seems like a good spot but awfully far from safety if a band of people come running through.

The other spot I was thinking about is the Gaurs just below the Desert horses near Meduli. It seems remote, and there are like 8 mobs in a close area.

I'm not finding the time or energy to play much lately but I am still managing to get skills trained, finally.

[Trelin]

Anybody been following this game at all? Is it still alive and gasping for air?

I really haven't played in months. I'll have to read up on the forums and see what state the game is in and maybe I'll play again in the winter if I have the time. Doubt it, but ...

[Gusy]

I canceled my account a few weeks ago. I logged in beforehand. They had updated the UT engine which supposedly made a big difference. In an hour of screwing around, it looked exactly the same except that it used speedtree. I mean the entire game seemed exactly the same as when you quit, except for better looking trees.

When I played, it seemed like they were progressing much faster than Darkfall (faster, not farther), but I have a young infant baby on the way, so I've quit games till his due date to work on making games. I know my time is limited, so I'm going to make use of it while I can.

I'll probably play WoWCat though. I'm gay like that for the big games.

[Trelin]

I totally understand man, parenthood is not something you can "sort of do", its an all out 24/7 job and it really tested me at times but its getting a lot easier now at the 7 month mark. Plus my baby is super smart and active which gives me a rediculous sense of pride which I don't hide too subtley to say the least!

Well, the trees did need updated. Any progress is better than none. Any chance you need to be on DirectX 11 to really see the benefit of the graphics update? Now I'm curious. iirc your system was roughly equivalent to my old one, minus the overheating issues, and my system barely ran the game. Looked fine though, such a well designed world.

I think I will give this game a second go in the near future. Seems like a fun game for city vs. city warfare.

[Xena]

Call me crazy for actually liking Speedtree, but I'm biased because I played DAoC when they went from shitty, blocky, normal tress, to the awesome to look at speed tree system.

EDIT: cum c http://www.trialsofatlantis.com/graphicsupgrade.php

[Gusy]

parenthood is not something you can "sort of do", its an all out 24/7 job

I was hoping it would be something I could just "sort of do". I'm serious. I don't think I'm ready for this.

Any chance you need to be on DirectX 11 to really see the benefit of the graphics update?

Not sure.

My point is, it's not a bad game, but it's not a great game either. It has a lot of potential, but isn't worth a monthly fee until that potential is realized. Being one of those guys who "has been there since beta" isn't worth it for most games.

Call me crazy for actually liking Speedtree

I have nothing against speedtree. My post just didn't make sense. Mortal had a really rapid rate of change during the two months we played it, so I expected a more obvious improvement than just speedtree in the amount of time I was gone.

[Trelin]

I was hoping it would be something I could just "sort of do". I'm serious. I don't think I'm ready for this.

you got this mate, no worries. when its your own kid its a different situation, altogether.

[Crying Eyes]

hey fagots remember this game? I wonder if it has towns now

edit: It has a 2 week free trial...I AM SO kissING RAGED RIGHT NOW, hours of weasel slaying and some assclown named Derr Prick slaps me to death and takes all my shit..../sigh I WISH I WAS DERR PRICK AND I WAS STEALING WEASELPELTS but i tried and the guy just beat me to within an inch of my life and had nothing on him and then the guards tries to eat me when i hide in town. this game is hard and dumb still.