Initial Impressions

[ShadowHM]

OMG, Shadow deserts RB and sons exiled

KoP

Well....

The invite arrived as a pop-up in-game while cb-13 and I were in the midst of the game. So I clicked 'yes' to make it go away and kept on playing. I found a thread here about in-game guilds that is as clear as mud about the implications of that click...

And the boys will stay exiled in Europe until I can get a subscription. At that point, I will let them have a few slots on the US server. But at this time they are playing solo online, so it matters not to them which server they are on.

[Thenryb]

I can alt-tab out of the game ok so that my desktop "shows" but I cannot control the mouse. This makes virtually worthless the use of XFire or any other program requiring me to alt-tab from game. Besides I cannot figure out how to enable the voice chat for XFire. Unless that is available, I will just use Teamspeak or Ventrillo. As for adding friends, I suspect that will always be by character name and not account, just like WOW. I have found myself logging in, deciding to add one of you to my buddies list, forgetting the exact name of the character and unsuccessfully trying to alt tab out to check this forum. I never had any problem doing that with WOW, but cannot with this game. My system specs are about the same as yours, Shadow.

[KingOfPain]

yeah that's why i think having a guild is the first thing to do. i have been saving all the ingame gold (selling stuff rather than breaking them down) to buy a guild as soon as i can subscribe to the game. xfire is useful for keeping tap of rbers and stuff but i think "guild chat" and "party chat" is where its at when we are ingame.

however, there is an option in the hgl options to have xfire turned on and maybe use that ingame without going to window. we just have to figure that out. still that is no replacement for guild chat since not all of us might subscribe to xfire. we will just have to leave shadow out of the convo when we are in game ;p

KoP

[Zed-F]

I can alt-tab out of the game ok so that my desktop "shows" but I cannot control the mouse. This makes virtually worthless the use of XFire or any other program requiring me to alt-tab from game. Besides I cannot figure out how to enable the voice chat for XFire.

Note, you can get this to work by holding down the ALT button after you alt-tab out. Once you have another window open on the desktop, e.g. Firefox, focus switching seems to work more-or-less correctly. Since the alt button in HG:L is what gives you freedom of cursor movement, apparently there is some holdover there that is not working properly when alt-tabbing, but the alt key does make a decent workaround.

As for in-game X-fire chat, I've yet to figure out how to get that to work. I also miss GW's ability to resize and rearrange the interface as I find the chat window too obtrusive and annoying to control. There also doesn't seem to be any way to control which instance of a town you are in, for grouping purposes, either... I'm sure there must be some way to get that to work but I don't know what it is yet. Overall I've found the game not very friendly as far as chat/grouping goes, compared to GW (even GW at release.) It seems the game could have used several more months of polishing, even without considering all the display bugs, quest bugs, etc.

[cb-13]

1-Note, you can get this to work by holding down the ALT button after you alt-tab out. Once you have another window open on the desktop, e.g. Firefox, focus switching seems to work more-or-less correctly. Since the alt button in HG:L is what gives you freedom of cursor movement, apparently there is some holdover there that is not working properly when alt-tabbing, but the alt key does make a decent workaround.

With windows a left click seems to free the mouse.

2-As for in-game X-fire chat, I've yet to figure out how to get that to work.

In game hit escape-options-aidio options- then check the inable voice chat as default button.


3-I also miss GW's ability to resize and rearrange the interface as I find the chat window too obtrusive and annoying to control.

I agree

4-There also doesn't seem to be any way to control which instance of a town you are in, for grouping purposes, either... I'm sure there must be some way to get that to work but I don't know what it is yet.


Once partied with someone you will see a small blue dot on the lower left of thier avatar ...Alt click this to create a "Party Portal" It will take you directly to your party member. (As long as you are to access what ever portion of the game they are in.)



5-Overall I've found the game not very friendly as far as chat/grouping goes, compared to GW (even GW at release.) It seems the game could have used several more months of polishing, even without considering all the display bugs, quest bugs, etc.

Agreed but I wouldnt have liked to wait several more monthshttp://realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/smoke.gif

[FoxBat]

I took a Marksman through the demo and I'm fairly unimpressed. Not griping about graphics or movement or buginess or anything. Just that the gameplay got old and tired fast. I had a few fun boss fights, but plowing down everything between is just so routine. I guess "Diablo" doesn't really do it for me anymore. Maybe some FPS element like aiming or more enemies that shoot back would've helped.

[Zed-F]

There are more enemies that shoot back as the game goes on. In certain circumstances, the game can dish up a challenge with (for instance) lots of ranged guys shooting you at once. But you're correct that regular monsters are just fodder for the most part, and only the quest boss monsters are supposed to be at all memorable. If you don't limit what skills, equipment, or attributes you use, the game on normal mode is pretty darn easy. Apparently if you want any sort of a challenge at all, you either have to *heavily* restrict yourself or else go to elite mode ASAP. (And I bet you still have to restrict yourself to get a challenge in elite mode.) At least elite mode is not reserved for subscribers anymore (or at least won't be once they get the next patch out.) I'm becoming increasingly of the opinion that going with 2-4 months of subscription per year at most is the best way to go; at this point, the game is IMHO not worth subscribing to, and won't be until their chat/grouping/guild support gets considerably better, and more of the bugs ironed out.

Normal mode, what your first character starts out in, is apparently meant exclusively for green-behind-the-ears casual gamers and those just getting used to the game.

[KingOfPain]

To be fair, the demo is not a good representation in terms of game play, it's does nothing more than to show a tiny fraction of the game world.

It is a pretty decent game (minus all the ughs and duhs) a few of us are going straight to the Founders account, which I have already.

PS: I am putting together a Vampire variant and already I am thinking maybe I have to relax the restrictions a tad because being in a party of two the difficulty scaled many times more than single player mode.

KoP

[Thecla]

Well....

The invite arrived as a pop-up in-game while cb-13 and I were in the midst of the game. http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/huh.gif So I clicked 'yes' to make it go away and kept on playing. I found a thread here about in-game guilds that is as clear as mud about the implications of that click...

It does seem that you've managed to circumvent the usually rigorous requirements for membership in the (excellent) AmazonBasin. They would think twice, or thrice, about letting reprobates such as myself or KoP join their ranks, but they must surely have recognized your quality.

p.s. I decided to found my own guild in HGL ("NewSun"), with only my own characters eligable for membership. and it turned out to be pretty cheap. Now, if I could only see myself as others see me, I could find out if it actually worked.

[ShadowHM]

They would think twice, or thrice, about letting reprobates such as myself or KoP join their ranks

I am not so sure that is so.

There is a difference between the 'in-game' guild and the Basin's (somewhat convoluted) membership.

But it does seem that membership in the 'in-game' guild is character based, not account based, at least for now.