MMORPG's

[freshie]

I'm a big fan of RPG games. From early on (Wizardly: Proving Grounds) to recent (Baldur's Gate II, Morrowind).

Online gaming with Nox and UT have been quite fun. Indeed I've been playing for like 3 or 4 years or something, and it's still a blast.

However, I haven't ever made that leap to MMORPG's. In fact I could barely even handle Diablo II online bits. I think I played for an hour then stopped.

Here are the problems:

*Having things like a full-time job in the securities industry, a gym schedule, debilitating alcoholism, and a live-in girlfriend doesn't leave a lot of time for gaming. I have to grab an hour or three during the weeknights, and then get my Sunday evening gaming sessions in. For some reason I don't think this is enough time to dedicate to an MMORPG. You need to dedicate half-an-hour just to finding your friends.

* The seeming repetition of meanial tasks seems a bit much. Killing loads and loads of Rats is the MMORPG cliche. I hear alot of MMORPG's are about getting out what you put in. Me I put a lot of effort into Work, Drinking and annoying the girlfriend. I don't wish to put in that much. I don't have to work to try find a game in a piece of chat software someone is selling for $49.95.

However, I always thought the idea of MMORPG's would be a cool one. I always if you could capture the magic of Ultima IV and bottle it so a bunch of people could play at the same time, you'd have a really fun role-playing experience.

However, I suspect in practice it's no fun to play the baker who sells bread on the corner all day long. I think what the genre needs is limited player online RPG cooperative or non-cooperative environment. It plays like a normal off-line RPG with NPC's and quests. But quests can be unique for each player, and the effect of actions from one player have an affect for all others.

What I think we have out there today, is multi-player 3-D Angband/Nethack clones. Get a party together and go slay some monsters. Huzzah!! Sit around for the weekend and brew up some potions to sell to other players.

Anyway, and this project
Guild Wars (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/guildwars/preview_6025496.html) sounds like an interesting online RPG.

[Dorkorama]

Well, my dad started a group up on Diablo 2, and since some of the people tend not to be able to make it, me and my brother have become part of the group as well. We only get together for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours every weekend, but since we do know what we're doing, it streamlines it. Yeah, may be short, but it's still fun.

One of our members always calls us here at the house for 'voice communication' (he doesn't pay any bit more since it's his long distance line.) I'm sure you could use TeamSpeak instead, but that'd require a dedicated server and all players to have better than a dial-up connection.

I think this really only works so well in Diablo 2 because it really isn't 'Massively Multiplayer', just multiplayer (8 people per server is tiny compared to true MMOGs.) These smaller scale games are probably your best bet for any sort of online game that'll require more than a half hour chunk of time.

[CJHobbes]

As a person who has played Everqust for 3+ years, and tried numerous other MMORPGs, they all have one thing in common: timesinks.

Whether it be leveling, making money, working up your tradeskills or building a house, you will need a good chunk of time if you want to feel you have accomplished something.

In Everquest, my main character was a Barbarian Shaman. I stopped playing the game when she was lvl 56, and there is a lvl 65 cap on the game. I began her about 3 months after Everquest launched, and yes, I didn't get her to the max level. She has over 120 days of gametime played, and would be 3 years old if you went by real-life calendars. So, in essence, if you played Everquset 24 hours a day for 120 days straight, you would have my character. (negating the changes in experience and items from expansion to expansion).

She has good equipment for being a mostly non-guilded character. The only reason she wasn't leveled up was because of the time I put into questing and working up my tradeskills. Why? To make more money to get more items for myself or friends, or to fund one tradeskill with another (blacksmithing and brewing, for instance).

But compared to a lot of characters, she has barely touched the beginning of everquest. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you don't have at least 3--5 hours a night to put toward the game, you won't like it because you will not have accomplished much of anything.

*reminisces of the days of sitting in the same spot for 8 hours to kill one spawn*

Current games are trying to get rid of the timesink, but they have not found a happy balance between timesinks and content. Make the game for the casual player, and you have powergamers crying that there isn't enough content. Create too much content and depth, and you have the casual gamers feeling left out and crying that they don't have enough time to properly experience the game.

It's $12/month for a subscription, on average. We've argued over charging monthly for the service in other threads, so I won't start an argument here.....but from my experience in playing these games, I don't think you would enjoy it. Dorkorama is right in saying you need a more restricted online game, like Diablo 2. If you play any MMORPG, get ready to spend a lot of your time in the virtual world of wherever you're slaying beasts.

On a side note, MMORPGs don't have to be monotonous. Especially more recent ones, you can fight along with tradeskilling, creating armor, weapons, even houses for others to dwell in. You can work on quests, you can start new characters and experience the same world through different eyes, or you can fight in a party and chat with friends. It only gets boring and like work if you powergame it, trying to reach the highest level the fastest.

So, in all reality, what you heard is right Freshie: you get what you put into it. Plain and simple. You set your own goals, you make your own mark on the world. These games CAN be played casually, with a feeling of fun and accomplishment, as long as you set for yourself a realistic goal. But if you're going into the game hoping to be the leading wizard of the server, get ready to spend 18+ hours a day playing.

Hope this helps. I ditched EQ, and right now I'm playing Dark Age of Camelot.....but I'm only playing it about 4 hours a week and am having fun. It all depends on the person and what they want out of it.

[Idle Idol]

i played everquest in 2 stents, totaling...i don't know, like a year and a half or so. My main was a level 52 druid. He was 52 because the guild I was in (a small one) had routine "raids" on a certain dungeon. These weren't really my "guild"s raids, this is a very important raid, when the game first came out it was one of the 2 climaxs, essentially. (that of killing 2 dragons, a red and blue. This one was Lady Vox, the blue dragon) my guildleader ran the server-wide raids on vox, and I wanted to keep going with him so I purposely stalled on 52.

It can get monotonous, thats why i quit kind of. I just lost drive because of my choosen character, a druid. at the time, druids on high-level encounters were less than desireable. You need specialists who do one thing REALLY well, basically, at the high end. Shamans cast beneficial spells better than anyone, enchanters are MANDATORY for crowd control/mana replenisment, clerics heal, warriors take the damage, etc. Druids are kind of jacks of all trades...they do a lot pretty good. Sony has since worked to fix this problem for them, but at the time I was pissed that a chracter I put countless hours into was more or less considered useless at the upper echelon of the game. And I really wanted to get involved with the more large scale encounters, and no one wanted me. (just like real life... <sniffle>)

But I had fun, even if it does get hum-drum, it takes a while to get there. And it's very fun in the interem. But you do need signifficant amounts of time, as you progress in level. At first, you just drop in and start kicking ass. As you get older, the preparation time for things increases dramatically. Be it trying to find groups, or get where your going, etc. And at the very pinnacles of the game, my god.

On these "lady vox" raids, we had to first off all collect around 40 people at the dungeon, which is WAY far away from anything people of that level would normally be around. (with advance notice on the message boards and through guilds and stuff, still takes like 30 minutes or so to get everyone there)

Get organized into groups (~15 minutes)

Pound way through the yard-trash to the real resistence (~15 minutes)

take out the more difficult guardians (the more elite frost giants...~30-45 minutes)

Move to the prep area (it's harder than you think, 5-10 minutes)

Put up spell defenses in a specific order for specific reasons for the dragon herself (~20 minutes)

Assault the dragon and (hope) you win (about 2 minutes, heh.)

And thats really not much compared to planar assaults, and the like.

It's fun though, at that point, just time consuming :)

--Idle, sitting on his arse like a druidic tool

[freshie]

Originally posted by CJHobbes
But if you're going into the game hoping to be the leading wizard of the server, get ready to spend 18+ hours a day playing.


What if you just want play through for an interesting end to the story?? It sounds like it's all about power-gaming or interactivty with other players.

Originally posted by CJHobbes
I ditched EQ, and right now I'm playing Dark Age of Camelot.....but I'm only playing it about 4 hours a week and am having fun.[/B]

Dark Age of Camelot and Shadowbane, are from what I gathered, the two interesting MMORPG's out there.


Originaly posted by IdolIdle

On these "lady vox" raids, we had to first off all collect around 40 people at the dungeon, which is WAY far away from anything people of that level would normally be around. (with advance notice on the message boards and through guilds and stuff, still takes like 30 minutes or so to get everyone there)

Get organized into groups (~15 minutes)

Pound way through the yard-trash to the real resistence (~15 minutes)

take out the more difficult guardians (the more elite frost giants...~30-45 minutes)

Move to the prep area (it's harder than you think, 5-10 minutes)

Put up spell defenses in a specific order for specific reasons for the dragon herself (~20 minutes)

Assault the dragon and (hope) you win (about 2 minutes, heh.)

And thats really not much compared to planar assaults, and the like.

It's fun though, at that point, just time consuming


That sounds like a lot of fun. I've waited just as long to get a clan scrim together for UT.

[SunnyDay]

So far none of the games have captured my imagination like UO. I mean I could create any type of character I wanted. Like Sam the Fisherman. I could dress him to even look like a fisherman. He even had his own boat!
No one expects a fisherman to be crawling around in the dungeons with mages and fighter guys.
Had himself a few houses and a guildhouse. It was great I owned property! We waged wars with other guilds or PKers. There was just so much to do.

Asherons call was the next best game I played. Unfortunately it did not have a large enough fan base to fill their worlds.

EQ was just plain monotonous. I got a few characters up to level 20 and it was just ugh.... kill monsters over and over- no story, no really making the world feel like it was yours or you influenced it at all. No houses, no mark on the world at all. Nothing. Either kill monsters over and over with a fighting system that didn't use any actualy player skill(boring) or use the game your paying $10 bucks a month for as a graphical chat.

I haven't played a MMORPG since EQ. Just never felt the desire. I'll just play first person shooters or single player RPGs for a while until something is made that gets my attention again.

[CyberFly]

MMORPG'S KILL!

From the PowerUnlimited (http://www.powerweb.nl) .
Gamer died guz he was playing diablo II for 2 day non stop.

[Dorkorama]

Talk about old new, Cyberfly. We een had a whole thread on it already.

As for timesinks, the only one that isn't so bad in that respsct is Dungeon Siege. You can put your character on automatic pilot while you take care of something a little more important. Of course at least one person in your party has to remain active :rolleyes:

The only problems are that not too many people play it ad if the game doesn't have it's players locked before they start adventuring, there's a very long load time when a new person comes in (and the game pauses.)

[freshie]

Originally posted by Dorkorama
Talk about old new, Cyberfly. We een had a whole thread on it already.

As for timesinks, the only one that isn't so bad in that respsct is Dungeon Siege. You can put your character on automatic pilot while you take care of something a little more important. Of course at least one person in your party has to remain active :rolleyes:

The only problems are that not too many people play it ad if the game doesn't have it's players locked before they start adventuring, there's a very long load time when a new person comes in (and the game pauses.)


I played DS multiplayer with F7, Ajenthavoc... and someone else. We only did it once.... for like an hour.

I'm not a fan of the NSMMORPG-ing(Not So Massively Multiplayer Online) then lets form a party and kill things, such as DS, Diablo II or Nox. Although Nox Deathmatch and Capture the Flag are really fun.

[CJHobbes]

Originally posted by freshie
What if you just want play through for an interesting end to the story?? It sounds like it's all about power-gaming or interactivty with other players.


Well, with Everquest you didn't really HAVE a story to follow through till the end. You were the story, and you chose what you wanted to do. I mean, don't get me wrong, they did have stories for the quests and other "lore" in the game, but because of the employment and business changes, the lore was broken, scattered, and just plain not making any sense.

I base all of my opinions on Everquest because that's the only MMORPG I have played for so long, but luckily a lot of companies are looking at where EQ went wrong and are trying to fix that. To answer that question in EQ, you won't see the end of the story unless you can play 12 hours a day, every day, for about a year, and belong to one of the best if not the best guild on your server.

DAoC only has a storyline on the little quests you accomplish at a low level. When you get to lvl 20 and higher, you enter Realm vs. Realm PVP combat, so there really is no need for a story. With Star Wars Galaxies, from what I heard, there is no story to the game. You log in, you socialize while working on tradeskills or killing monsters, maybe do some PvPing if you're high enough level, and that's it.

Again, it all just depends on what you want to get out of the game. Some people play EQ 3 hours a week and have a blast. Some play EQ 60+ hours a week and feel like it's work, but still play it because of the addiction. Some people strive to be the best, and some people are happy creating their own realistic goals and achieving them.

To give an example of reaching the end story in EQ right now. You are in a guild of 50-70 different people. To get to the end story, you need to kill boss mobs in this zone called the Plane of Time. But to get to the Plane of Time, your guild needs to be: 1) high enough level to take the hits and give the damage and 2) have a certain quality of equipment to do it. With the 2nd to last expansion, levels are easy to get, so that is no problem. Equipment, though, is where the time sink is. It's not as if you can get the equipment you need right off the bat. What the guild does is spend 4-5 months killing and looting for equipment, so it can spend another 3-4 months killing better stuff to get better equipment. Right there you're at 3/4 of a year playing time (not consecutive, mind you), and you're kinda close to the end story. Take another 2-3 weeks to beat a final boss to even get access to plane of time (because it's a locked zone for certain guilds who have killed certain boss mobs before). Then, once in the plane of time, you will most likely spend another 2-3 months trying to kill the boss mobs, to get to the end game boss mob. Right now there are only two guilds in the entire game to be at the end boss mob, and they won't be killing it for probably another 2 months.

So looking at it that way, only speaking of everquest, if you want to get to the final story that was implemented into the game you should be ready to spend two years of semi-casual playing.

But, that's Everquest....and that's why it's dubbed "Evercrack" and an EQAnonymous website was created. You kill stuff to get stuff so you can kill harder stuff to get bettet stuff so you can kill the best stuff to get the UBER PH4T L3WTZ SHIZ.

MMORPGs can be fun for the casual player, though....don't let this turn you off from the game. As I've stated a few times before, if you make achievable goals, you will be totally satisfied with the game playing casually. Take the game in stride, and don't get a complex that your new online friends are passing you; once you turn any MMORPG from a game into a competition, you will be sorry.

As far as it being a game of power-leveling and socializing, that's exactly why it's an MMORPG. It's not a Baldur's Gate online clone, with a storyline and NPCs who follow you through combat. It's a game with thousands of other players, and remember that a majority of these players are powergamers or wannabes. Hence, you have a game that's filled with content and fighting to appease these people. Unfortunately, you can't create an MMORPG to appeal to a certain demographic, because it won't last. It must be able to reach a broad range of players, and keep them captivated for years.

[freshie]

Originally posted by CJHobbes
As far as it being a game of power-leveling and socializing, that's exactly why it's an MMORPG. It's not a Baldur's Gate online clone, with a storyline and NPCs who follow you through combat.

Fair enough. So it's an multi-player version of nethack/angband. Don't get me wrong, I've sank plenty of time into angband myself. It's strangely addicting really.

But I think a truly compelling online RPG for me is something like the following.

Different storyline threads for different players that interesect with each other, and require interaction.

I'm a rogue who's on a quest to take the Banner of Redness from Evil Red King. In order to do this I need the Relic of Speed. You're a Level 12 Fighter/Mage who enjoys seering enemies with Fire-Based magic and skewering elves with your longsword. The Relic of Speed is part of your relic collection. Since you have a full set of Relics you have the ability to cast fireballs, rather than just less useful Flamestrike.

This situation creates tension between characters and reasons for either conflict or interaction. I could just try steal it from you. I could recruit you for my quest to take the red standard bannner. You get this sort of interactivity between 20 or 30 players and multiple storylines, you start to have an compelling game. That is the sort of thing I would be looking for in an online RPG.

Or either that capture the flag mini-game.

[_F7_]

MMORPGS' are awesome in my opinion. Not all of them persay, but just the idea. I find it much more enjoyable and much cheaper that traditional gaming.

For instance, when I was playing EQ (I played about 2-3 years), it was $40 for the initial game and $9.90 per month. So let's say the first year was $160. That's the same as buying 3 newly released games at Best Buy. The only difference is you will probably finish those 3 games in about 10-20 hours each whereas EQ is persistent: it never ends. The better value is a no brainer.

The real issue though is time. For EQ, to be in the top percentage of the game, you had to put in at least 2 hours a day on weekdays and weekends would pretty much be marathons. I was at that point in my last year of EQ. I was in one of the top clans (the clan who discovered the Card recipes in Plane of Mischief - Clan of Shadows) on my server and there was always a HUGE raid going on. I'm talking 40+ players all at the same place. Consider usually about 25 of us would be on voice comms to coordinate the raids, and it made for some awesome fun. Personally, I just like multiplayer CO-OP type games better than multiplayer every man for himself games.

However, you can find a happy medium if you just play casually. EQ wasn't the game to do this in except for the earlier levels, but I foresee more games catering to the casual player over the hardcore player. Things like dynamicly spawned dungeons and quests solve the whole timesink/competeing for spawns issues. Look for World of Warcraft, Horizons, and possibly EverQuest 2 to incorporate dynamic quests and dungeons.

Don't forget. MMORPG gaming is relatively a new thing. Excepting of course MUDS which don't count cause they had no graphics. :p As more companies begin developing MMORPGs and they become even more mainstream, expect the genre to become perfected allowing all types of players the same opportunities.

I don't regret my time spent in EQ at all. I had such a blast playing with my clan. I've always been a fan of Tolkien-esque universes since I was young, and giving me the opportunity to actually delve into such a universe as an actual creature was fantastic. By the way, I played a Troll Warrior on the Tarew Marr server named Oogie Loogie. :) When my playing days were done, I sold off my character and his equipment (whatever was NO DROP). When all was said and done, I received $2,500.00 for my virtual character and his belongings. Sure that's probably not the best hourly rate if you try to break it down, but that's $2,500.00 more than I would ever expect to receive for doing something that I absolutely love. Plus it allowed me to purchase the parts for and build a new PC.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is there is a good argument for or against MMORPGs. As someone who has beta tested every MMORPG released since UO, I can say that they are worth the monthly fee. Who wouldn't want dynamic content, a persistent world, and the ability to build your character over time in your favorite game? What's there not to like?

My only regret was that ProphetSix and I didn't play on the same server. :mad: Man P6, we woulda had a ball. There's always WoW though. We WILL be playing that ya bastard!

In the meantime, if anyone wants to get perhaps some Diablo-II games going (there's a new beta patch out now), that would kick much ass. :)

[freshie]

Originally posted by _F7_

In the meantime, if anyone wants to get perhaps some Diablo-II games going (there's a new beta patch out now), that would kick much ass. :)

I've had a slight Diablo II itch. I never picked up the Lord of Darkness expansion either.

[Salyavin]

Originally posted by _F7_
In the meantime, if anyone wants to get perhaps some Diablo-II games going (there's a new beta patch out now), that would kick much ass. :) I've been waiting for 1.10 before getting back into D2. It's been a loooong wait. My Realm chars are probably all expired but heck, they were only in the 50's and none had great stuff.

My only qualm about getting back into D2 is that the only class I haven't played out is the Soceress, and those are likely to be nerfed considering they were the most popular in 1.09. :p

Cheers,
Salyavin

[_F7_]

Sweet! What do you guys say we set something up for this weekend perhaps? Suggestions on when?

Freshie - seriously think about getting LoD expansion. You can probably find it cheap in the bargain bin nowadays and with all the new things it adds I'd have to say it's one of the best expansions of all time for any game.

I also suggest we start new characters so we're all on the same playing field and can enjoy the game together from the ground up.

I wouldn't mind playing a Druid, Necromancer, or Amazon.

[freshie]

Originally posted by _F7_
Freshie - seriously think about getting LoD expansion. You can probably find it cheap in the bargain bin nowadays and with all the new things it adds I'd have to say it's one of the best expansions of all time for any game.


Sunday evenings are really the only time I can dedicate any serious amount of time to gaming.

While I've had the D2 craving, I've been avoiding it because no matter how much it seems like it might be fun, you know in the end your just going to endlessly clicking on things.

But I've wanted to play something lame like Summonmancer.

[oblivionbringa]

omg the 1.10 patch is out?!?

when I bought that game it was in the 1.9 version, and I played it like crazy, I had like several accounts and a lot of level 90+ deuling characters with all the best godly equipment, but lets just say there was this one little incident, and I quit dII and gave my characters away.

I am glad I did, that game is a horrible addiction theres no way I am going back.

[Airlea]

I finally quit my UO account about 2 months ago now. I put more money into the game than I got back but that didn't really bug me. I had some great times on that game.

I met up with some friends on there that were all military and stationed in hawaii. After about a year of playing the game, I asked my friend if she wanted to head to hawaii with me! She didn't say yes until she got laid off. :p Her husband sent her down to keep me out of jail; she told him if she were a true friend, she'd be in jail with me. Needless to say, we had an AWESOME time and those guys are now life long friends.

As everyone else has said, those games are time consuming. They're also addicting. I stopped playing the game about a year and a half ago but I was still paying for the account. Why? Because I had put so much time into it and didn't want to lose everything.

Another friend of mine showed me an article on UO when I had just started playing. Basically, this one poor guy got so involved with the "online life" of UO that he stopped going to work, got fired, spent all waking time on his computer, and neglected himself and his cats. His friend said the situation was terrifying. There's been more cases of it with EQ, as well. To some, it's not just a game, it's their life.

It's hard to think that a computer game such as UO or EQ could "take over" your life, or any computer/internet action. I've met some great people from the net, some weird ones, and some special ones ;) The internet has become apart of my life, but I haven't allowed it to take over my life. Some games can do that to people :angst:

~Airlea~

[Ajenthavoc]

Damn... if i spent time building a character in UO rather than reading through this thread, maybe i'd be able to make 2500 bucks :scratch:

I just got into Ragnarok Online. I'm fairly satasfied with it since it doesn't take proposterously long to level up and it provides for some decent entertainment. But because i've been spending about 35 hrs a week on the game, i dont think i'll let myself play it for long...

[Ghost_Recon]

ahaha, the asian online game hit has hit people in america... soon our dark plot of conquering the world's top spot is now in motion!...
















in terms of MMORPGs...

[CJHobbes]

Originally posted by _F7_

My only regret was that ProphetSix and I didn't play on the same server. :mad: Man P6, we woulda had a ball. There's always WoW though. We WILL be playing that ya bastard!

In the meantime, if anyone wants to get perhaps some Diablo-II games going (there's a new beta patch out now), that would kick much ass. :)

No doubt!!! That woulda been hella fun. The WoW universe will be OURSSSS!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH

Yeah, my last posts kinda throw EQ in a bad light, but from F7, Idle and I you get the good and the bad of EQ. Personally, I don't regret anything about playing the game. It was fun, I made a few friends who I still keep in contact with, and I enjoyed almost every single minute of it.

F7, Freshie - I'll be willing to play Diablo with you guys...I don't have too much time, but just PM me and we'll set something up....I've been itching to try out that 1.10 patch with a brand new char. I'm willing to play an assassin, paladin or barb....doesn't really matter to me.

[radio667]

Hey - If you GROOVY CATS are getting togther to play Diablo 2 this weekend...............ill go out and buy Diablo 2 this Saturday afternoon -just to get in on DA FUN :D ...........btw is Diablo2 like starcraft and do you go on battle-net to fight online ?

[freshie]

Originally posted by radio667
Hey - If you GROOVY CATS are getting togther to play Diablo 2 this weekend...............ill go out and buy Diablo 2 this Saturday afternoon -just to get in on DA FUN :D ...........btw is Diablo2 like starcraft and do you go on battle-net to fight online ?

I've never played Starcraft. But Starcraft is an Real Time Strategy game. On the other hand Diablo II is a straight-up Dungeon Crawl RPG.

So no, Diablo II isn't like Starcraft at all.

Make sure you buy the Diablo II Battle Chest edition, that includes the Lord of Destruction expansion.

So is the Diablo II game on?? Sunday evening, 5pm EST?? Meet-up in the [TN] chatroom??

[radio667]

Cool , Thank You :D FRESHIE for the 411

[Salyavin]

Diablo 2 is an action-rpg. You only control one character. Online play is through battle.net like Starcraft and Warcraft (realm servers) or on open servers over TCP/IP. The 1.10 version is not on the realms yet... it's a beta patch for single player and open servers only.

There's lots of good D2 info at Blizzard's site: http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/ and at http://www.diabloii.net. Like freshie said, get the Lord of Destruction expansion when you get Diablo 2, either in the D2 battle chest or just buying both boxes.

Cheers,
Salyavin

[freshie]

So I just went and picked up the LoD expansion pack.

[_F7_]

Sounds good freshie. Meet up 5pm EST in #TN on the progamplayer IRC network.

Make sure you have Diablo 2 and Lords of Destruction installed.

I'll work out getting a TeamSpeak server for us to use.

[CJHobbes]

Are we planning on playing with the beta patch or do I need to revert my game to v1.09?

I'm in =)

[freshie]

Are we playing on battle.net, or is someone going to host?? I just started playing the martial-sassin class on battle.net and I must say it's pretty sick. I swear I killed Blood Raven with 2 hits. Up to level 6.

[_F7_]

I dunno. Consensus vote I guess.

Battle.net or a private game?

If we do Battle.net we all need the new beta 1.10 patch.

[freshie]

Originally posted by _F7_
I dunno. Consensus vote I guess.

Battle.net or a private game?

If we do Battle.net we all need the new beta 1.10 patch.

battle.net is still 1.09d. Does battlenet still have that problem that you can't use an east coast server if you are the west coast?? If it does, we'll need to start up a private game. Boo-hoo, I'll have waisted two hours getting aritox up to speed.

what is everyone going to play. The Martial-assin in a very cool character. But I'll do the summon-mancer if someone else wants to do an assasin character.

[CJHobbes]

Freshie: Never knew that west coast had a problem logging into East Coast servers....I made a few characters on there before I convinced my East coast friends to move to the west server where my higher levels were. =D

If we play on battle.net, we must use patch v1.09d as Freshie said. 1.10 is only the beta patch, and it only works on single-player games and TCP/IP connections.

I don't mind either way, but it might be a hassle for everyone to install the beta 1.10 patch, then have to revert or reinstall to get the finished patch when it hits the realms.

Also, I think my wife might be joining us, as she has off of work...so we'll have another and you all can talk shi% about me. =P

I'll probably be playing a barbarian then....free potions for everyone!!! =D

[Dorkorama]

Whoa; last I checked, this thread was on-topic. But since we're talking D2 . . .

I'm considering joining this group. Not sure what's left for character classes. (I might try Druid again if it isn't taken already.)

As for Private versus B-net, I'd say just run a passworded game on B-net. That way we don't have to worry about one specific person's connection konking out. We can also start up an impromptu chat channel, and using the buddy list features would probably be a good idea, too.

[_F7_]

Ok here we go:

When: Sunday July 20 @ 5pm EST

What: Diablo 2

Where: Battle.net

As Dork said, we will create a game and password it. Check this thread for Game name and password.

So far it looks like we have...what, about 6 people? Sweet. Let's try to each play a different character. If not, no biggie, but I think it would be cool to have at least one of each character in our group.

If anyone has any ideas for getting a TeamSpeak server, speak up. I was going to suggest the public TS servers, but they suck. Frequent disconnects and very bad sound quality due to hundreds of people clogging up the servers bandwidth. Hopefully something will turn up; it would be really cool to have everyone on voice.

Seeyas tomorrow. :)

[Dorkorama]

Originally posted by _F7_
When: Sunday July 20 @ 5pm EST

What: Diablo 2

Where: Battle.net :eek: :(
Ugh, that's about an hour before the other group I play with starts, and I'm usually doing dishes then. Oh well.
:moreconf: :dunno:

[freshie]

Are we starting clean?? I have 10th level martial-sassin, and 3rd level summonmancer.

Yes, I checked it out, you can change your realm by just clicking on it. You have to set up a new account in that realm.

[_F7_]

Yeah let's start clean. Brand new characters. Would be nice to make this a semi-regular thing.

[Dorkorama]

Well, I would be in, but the timing is fairly bad. Would be better on a Saturday for me, but I already have a play group, so I'd rather not ruin it for others. I may try to hop in for an hour / hour and a half until my other group gets going.

Another question, though; are the characters going to be "clean?" That is, are these characters only going to be allowed to interact with each other without any "twinking?" (Until it's decided to start new characters, of course.)

[_F7_]

Ok here's the deal: We are playing on Battle.Net West server.

Game name: UnrealPlayground
Password: stealthdp

Try to keep it to new, untwinked characters. :p Also, this will be version 1.09 since v1.10 is a single player offline only version.

[freshie]

Originally posted by _F7_
Ok here's the deal: We are playing on Battle.Net West server.

Game name: UnrealPlayground
Password: stealthdp

Try to keep it to new, untwinked characters. :p Also, this will be version 1.09 since v1.10 is a single player offline only version.

UnrealPlayground is too long, so please note the game name is:

UnrealPlaygroun

[Dorkorama]

D'OH! I missed it all. I thought it was 5 PM PST I could have easily made it if I wasn't mowing the lawn. Just tell me what quest you guys got up to and what's the lowest level. I'll catch up in a private game during the week.

Oh, and what character classes have been taken?

[freshie]

Originally posted by Dorkorama
D'OH! I missed it all. I thought it was 5 PM PST I could have easily made it if I wasn't mowing the lawn. Just tell me what quest you guys got up to and what's the lowest level. I'll catch up in a private game during the week.

Oh, and what character classes have been taken?

You didn't miss a whole lot. F7 and I played through the Den of Evil, before he got DISCOnected. Nobody else showed.

[_F7_]

pheh. Now I remember why I hated Battle.Net. :(