My question is "buy why?" 

But why is identifying loot a problem?  Doesn't it make sense that you don't really know what you are getting until you get it home and have a chance to fully inspect it?  On the battlefield all there's really time for is "ooh that ring is shiney" and "ahh that's a big sword".

And...

But why is it important to tier the loot visually with colored names?  For lack of a better word it is so.. fake.  After ID'ing I could see this but why before?  What exactly do you have against the AC1 loot and ID style?

I don't find clicking through loot to ID it fun. The fact is most people use Decal to ID loot, which clearly shows that I am not alone in my feelings. If people resort to using Decal for a task then something is wrong. The devs need to learn to make it fun or simplify the process so it does not require Decal.

I like MMOs to be fun, not tedious life simulations. You don't fight monsters, cast spells, or use icons to identify real life objects, so don't use realism as an excuse.

Jaguar, I have to disagree with most of what you have said. You are talking about simplifying and streamlining many parts of the game. I love Asheron's Call because I am a lover of complexity. I don't want my hand held through a game. I was actually saddened when they implemented prismatic tapers, and increased buff durations because they took away layers of complexity. Yes, the old component system was a pain with all the different components you had to worry about, but it somehow made the magic system feel more... genuine.

Jaguar, I humbly ask you to let us nerds have at least one ridiculously complex mmorpg. In a gaming industry increasingly chasing the casual market, players like me feel alienated.

Random loot is a major staple of the AC franchise.   I don't like the interface for AC for looking at loot (I don't use decal).   AC2 was pretty simple, kill a mob random loot drops, very easy to check stats.   You never knew if you were going to get that really special item.

Bear with me, I have some weird ideas I'd like to see.

Must haves:
- A similar combat system to the one in use now. Maybe it should have a small picture of the targeted entity instead of High/Med/Low, to let you target general areas... head, hands.
- Huge seamless world.
- Ability to play solo if you want (something like DDO's quests, having an option to pick Solo/Easy/etc. was awesome I thought).
- A quest panel that shows you quest timers, and basic info relating to quests that have been completed. This should not hold your hand.
- Must be skill based and not class based. I for some reason or another hate class based games, they never have enough customization available. It is for this reason that I can't get into any other MMO I've tried. I also appreciate the fact that I can make a Mace/Thrown Weapons/Lockpick character if I see fit to do so.
- An actual use for the Deception skill.
- An easy to understand/use allegiance panel. AC1's was great, but I thought it would be cool to have an allegiance map accessible.
- A way to play through the game without NEEDING magic. It should be possible to be a mage, or a melee, or anything inbetween if you want. Needing to be 3-school was great, but it got kinda tiring, felt like I was playing a mage that just so happened to fight with his hands.
- Vaugue as hell quest directions. Low though my IQ may be, I like to be made to think, instead of being told "Meet so-and-so at 52.3N and 23.4E"
- AC2-like crafting. Making my own equipment was completely bad-ass. My character made that club with his own hands!
- Live events. Hell. Yes.
- Hollow weapons. Take that newbie wearing a robe.

Must not haves:
- Friendliness to 3rd party apps.
- Housing system similar to AC1's. In the early days of the game I enjoyed being able to run through the wildreness for hours and just find new stuff. Running into a housing complex every 2 minutes ruined that for me. Lone wildreness houses were always pretty cool though, like the one near Lin or the one on the N. Land-bridge.
- Grandpatron xp.
- +Melee D on wands.
- A hand-holding map. AC's map was originally so vauge you couldn't tell what town you were looking at.
- Majors, so that every single person needs a majors suit.

Things I just think would be cool but wouldn't be terribly upset not to see:
- Ability to make your character left or right handed. As a lefty I feel discriminated against!  
- During character creation, allow for height/weight changes. Character customization is very important to me for some reason, makes me get more into my character.
- An innovative healing system, repair broken bones, cuts, etc. (Metal Gear Solid 3?)
- An item appraisal system similar to that of early AC, if you pick something up, no way to know whether it's good or not. It always made finding items more exciting.
- Mapping of dungeons as your run through. Maybe something simialr to that of Diablo or even Etrian Odyssey would be awesome.
- Truly unique equipment / items; maybe just for the first people to run through a quest. Would give great incentive to explore. Keep them balanced, but make them have some extra bad-assery to them.
- Make different weapon sets have their own pros/cons. Dagger should be so fast you can hardly see it, but be weak and cause bleed-out damage. Mace could be slow, strong, and crush bones or break shields. Keep the elemental weapons. Maybe add poison, holy, etc. to the mix.

This is all I can think of off the top of my head. I think about this crap too much.

Originally posted by mastaofmurda

I like that thinking outside of the box Jaguar. without thinking outside of the box, new features would never be implemented to any game :)

 

id have faith in Turbine to keep the dynamic that AC1 had in attempt of recreating an AC3 because so much player feedback is available on the MMORPG forums and the Turbine AC forums...

You want AC3 to be more based on AC2 than AC1?

Ac3 should for most be based on ac2 and some little things that made ac1 great,but mostly continuing with evolving ac2 not ac1.

Ac2 was a great game, but ac1 fanbois wanted a game almost similar to ac1 with grafics upgrade:(

If they would have wait 1 more year and released it complete with hero addon and better performance and better advertising AC2  would still excist.

Well, just seeing as AC2 failed horribly, it would seem to me it would make better sense to base it more off of AC1, as it has been going for a long long time now. I think it'd make much more sense to add little things from AC2. AC2 was a completely different game. With a similar name, everyone was expecting a similar experience, and when it came to be a (from what I remember) moreso class based game, no one really stayed into it for very long; myself included. I'm totally open for a new experience, but it just wasn't in line with what I was expecting.

Originally posted by Darillus

Well, just seeing as AC2 failed horribly, it would seem to me it would make better sense to base it more off of AC1, as it has been going for a long long time now. I think it'd make much more sense to add little things from AC2. AC2 was a completely different game. With a similar name, everyone was expecting a similar experience, and when it came to be a (from what I remember) moreso class based game, no one really stayed into it for very long; myself included. I'm totally open for a new experience, but it just wasn't in line with what I was expecting.

Arn't you generalizing alittle bit?

Imo, Turbine went the right direction from AC1 to AC2, but their execution was horrible! AC2 didn't fail because of the "new skilltree", crafting or any other aspect that sets the two Dereth games apart, it was because AC2 was almost unplayable at launch.

P.S If I had a penny for everytime a disgruntled AC1 fan bashed AC2, i'd be a rich man today...(not aimed at you Darillus)

Originally posted by BesCirga

Arn't you generalizing alittle bit?

Imo, Turbine went the right direction from AC1 to AC2, but their execution was horrible! AC2 didn't fail because of the "new skilltree", crafting or any other aspect that sets the two Dereth games apart, it was because AC2 was almost unplayable at launch.

P.S If I had a penny for everytime a disgruntled AC1 fan bashed AC2, i'd be a rich man today...(not aimed at you Darillus)

I probably am generalizing a bit too much. I actually really really liked AC2, but my computer was too garbage at that point to play it with graphics turned to anything but bare minimum. That's what really killed it for me; that and I remember I couldn't figure the allegiance/faction system out. Also, I thought the crafting system was totally bad-ass.

Now that I think about it, I've had this computer since before AC2 came out......... probably time to upgrade; hahahahaha.

I'm starting to think a of poeple on this thread haven't played AC in a while..

First off: Buff levels based on player level.

BS. At level 9 with spec life magic, I could cast level 5's.  This was self buffed. I should not be penalized becase someone who doesn't spec life magic can't.

Next: Buff bots. -- Re-introducing spell reasearch is a great idea.  Also, eliminating third party apps would get rid of buff bots.  Third party apps are what spoiled the game.  Not buff bots.

Lastly, you talk about it being a pain in the ass to have to buff each piece of armor individually.   this was fixed.  You now click on your avatar and cast the spell.  It will cast it on all available pieces at 50 mana + each additional piece. A full buff cycle now takes LESS THAN 4 minutes for ONE HOUR buffs.  This is on a melee with trained life/item/creature.

If you want to limit the total amount of buffs a player can have, go play AO.  It's an old school game. Quite a bit of fun..  and it has buff restrctions.

Originally posted by Random_mage

I'm starting to think a of poeple on this thread haven't played AC in a while..

 

First off: Buff levels based on player level.

BS. At level 9 with spec life magic, I could cast level 5's.  This was self buffed. I should not be penalized becase someone who doesn't spec life magic can't.

Next: Buff bots. -- Re-introducing spell reasearch is a great idea.  Also, eliminating third party apps would get rid of buff bots.  Third party apps are what spoiled the game.  Not buff bots.

Lastly, you talk about it being a pain in the ass to have to buff each piece of armor individually.   this was fixed.  You now click on your avatar and cast the spell.  It will cast it on all available pieces at 50 mana + each additional piece. A full buff cycle now takes LESS THAN 4 minutes for ONE HOUR buffs.  This is on a melee with trained life/item/creature.

 

If you want to limit the total amount of buffs a player can have, go play AO.  It's an old school game. Quite a bit of fun..  and it has buff restrctions.

Not sure how much of this post was directed at me. I know I made a suggestion about buff restrictions, but it was not based on level, instead it was based on a skill. That way mages would get the better end of the stick and others hopefully wouldn't be as reliant on buffs as they were.

I know I suggested a fix to item magic. Wasn't aware they had changed it at all.

I don't think it is a secret that many of us haven't played AC in quite some time o_O

For your last comment, I have played AO and I did not like it. Funny thing is, even with ACs obvious problems, it was the best MMO out there, even to the current MMO standards. That's my opinion at least.

It's pretty sad to see people asking for a streamlined AC3. It should be an AC game, not a WoW-wannabe. :)

I agree with a lot of what have been said here. The complexity of AC was wonderful. It wasn't all about reaching "the end" as most new mmorpgs are today. I like that that. It wasn't all about completing it all as fast as possible.

Imo they should stick to the "school" system regarding spells etc. To me it seems stupid having to spec in certain skills in other games. But devs today seems to have bigger greed than balls and creativity. Newer games are so dumbed down it makes me sick.
Mages in a lot of games can only spec in one "line" of magic for example and that's plain stupid. That feature alone prevents all the resistances on armor. If a mage can only cast Frost magic, ofc you can't have monster and/or players who are basically immune to frost.

A mage should be able to cast various kinds of spells like in AC1. That allows the mage to learn stuff as his adventures take him through the game and use the best suited spell against the monsters he meets.

Turbine needs to learn from their other games. When I started playing AC1, I met some cool people around Shoushi and Hebian but when they introduced Allegiance Mansions and the market place, they completely killed the towns, the sub/hub (depending on server. ) and the community as a whole.
The towns were deserted and that was just plain annoying.
I kinda like the idea of allegiance/guild/tribe mansions, but not at the expense of the community. If they want to implement stuff like that again, they need to find a new way of doing it.
The same thing goes for the personal housing. The houses and apartments weren't really that bad and didn't hurt the community like the mansions did but they took up so much space and added so many portals that the roads and areas between cities died. In my early AC days, I would usually meet someone if I ran from Shoushi to Hebian but not near the end of my time there. It was all empty. That really killed my fun.

I don't like the idea of quest XP either tbh. If you want to get better at using your sword (or whatever), you should go use it! Collecting plants for a NPC and then getting XP to raise your sword skill is retarded! (to put it in the nicest way possible.)

People seem to forget what made mmorpgs stand out in the gaming world these days. They weren't about finishing the game, hitting max level as fast as possible, raiding constantly or anything like that. They were all about the "life" of the charac