My impressions of Shadowlands from a player's perspective.

**Jayde** · May 25th, 2002, 00:01:16

Did an interview over at the Funcom booth yesterday, but couldn't post anything up until day due to a lack of media discs at their booth.

Anyway, my impressions can be found here:
http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2002/1515.html

My find some facts in there that the IGN folks didn't cover, may not. I haven't had time to look at IGN since I've been so busy with E3 stuff. =)

Anyway, some comments based on my perspective as an AO player...

-Generally great stuff here. Much more interesting than your average, run-of-the-mill expansion pack. I would consider this being worth the money--whatever it will cost. (Which hasn't been decided yet.)

-Reliability and support. Some of what the Funcom folks said helped ease my worries about lack of support. First off, it looks like it will be mostly the same code-base as the "normal" AO...in that, they will probably make balance changes, bug fixes, etc. over both simultaniously. Either way, they reiterated that they would maitain the standard path schedule.

-Manpower. They have now officially pulled everyone off of Midgard. I believe they stated that they now have a staff of around 150 people working on Anarchy Online right now. That's great news, especially for those who are worried about things bogging down.

-The new, bigger missions. Don't have screens of it, since they weren't on the media disc, but the video they showed us of the new missions were light-years ahead of anything we have now. Apparently, some level designer from well-known FPS games is now on staff and helping with mission design, and the influence was pretty immeadiatly recognized. The dungeons were far more grand and exansive, and looked simply great. If they can modify the random mission generator to look like this, missions will be a treat. =)

-Jobe. Very cool. It's neutral, which should make us neutrals happy-campers, and looks to be pretty huge. Very much looking forward to this one.

-Target level. The new areas introduced in the expansion are targeted at level 35-45 and up. They're not catering to newbies, and The Shadowlands will probably be quite challenging.

-Neutrals. Aside form Jobe, it looks like they're gonna be harsh on us. Shadowlans has the desire to bring out the conflict into a real presense. No more of this wishy-washy psudo-war. Because of this, they are aiming to make neutrals "choose a side" if at all possible. I don't think we're going to be strong-armed into it, but it's probably going to be heavily encouraged.

-Specializations. These sound great, but they really didn't go in-depth on this one. It sounds as if it will be handled like a secondary IP system of sorts.

Anyway, I need to get back to the show here...I may be able to answer some more questions of things I forget to mention.

-Jayde

**_________________Mor** · May 25th, 2002, 04:44:52

No one is posting in this thread

I guess if they can't find anything bad to say, they don't say anything at all lol

The ONLY thing I KINDA think is KINDA bad... is the whole evil versus good thing. Other than that, it rocks

**uburoi** · May 25th, 2002, 07:52:50

Has anyone from Funcom Talked to any Clanners or Omni For that matter?

Clanners are the reason i went Omni in the first place!

;P

Vergil OT NT
Newland Block 10

**Simehiri** · May 25th, 2002, 11:22:59

To me, both sides have commited and continue to commit atrocities. No matter how the Shadowlands portays, I consider them both evil. Follow the manical company or the chaotic mob rule? I'll remain a free, peacefull Neutral, no matter how daunting that road is...

**Destria** · May 25th, 2002, 17:58:59

Hey, quit with that positive attidude! It's scaring me!

Remember... AO: Shadowlands will do one of three things

1) Suck
2) Come out after SWG and thus nobody will care because (*Gazes into her crystal ball*) SWG will be the best thing since sliced bread and have no problems on launch
3) Never be released because Funcom is t3h suq

Seriously, nice to hear it's looking rather nice

**_________________Mor** · May 25th, 2002, 18:02:58

Originally posted by Simehiri
To me, both sides have commited and continue to commit atrocities. No matter how the Shadowlands portays, I consider them both evil. Follow the manical company or the chaotic mob rule? I'll remain a free, peacefull Neutral, no matter how daunting that road is...

Though I'm not to in fan of the whole good guy, bad guy thing... Funcom made Omni the bad guys and the Rebels the good guys from before the game was even released. Some people just didn't know this. It's not really a matter of opinion either. You can find info on this everywhere.

http://download.anarchy-online.com/game/sides.html

**______________Saruzi** · May 25th, 2002, 21:03:44

It really is all opinion. Blurred perspective is always a factor in human decision. I can say that I did not make a clan character to RP good, nor bad. I didn't get a generally "good" impression of them either. To prevent insult I'll keep my thoughts to myself. Bith sides have the potential to be good and evil. In the past what can I say, Omni did appear generally bad, but recently they've taken the initiative for the majority of the peace efforts. I personally want to think that there will be some sort of new bug ridden system that will judge wether you are good or bad.

**_________________Mor** · May 26th, 2002, 00:01:58

Originally posted by Telgi

It really is all opinion.

Wrong, read my link in the above post. If someone says the sun is black and the grass is red when it's not, is that a matter of opinion too? Funcom says Omni is evil and Clans are good according to the story. Like I said, I don't think it was the greatest idea they have come up with, but what is... *is*. Im not going to get shadowlands and say LOOK EVERYONE, my Omni character looks like an Angel of Light, when my characters looks like a Angel of Darkness (example)

Originally posted by Telgi

Blurred perspective is always a factor in human decision.

Nothing is blurred here. It's not blurred in shadowlands either

**______________Saruzi** · May 26th, 2002, 01:26:18

You can think what you want to think, I will think what I want to think. If I told you all plants grew straight and you saw a plant that grew straight, do all other plants grow straight? If someone told me the sun was black, and I saw a yellow sun, someone else would say it was an orange sun. Opinion is everything. I beleive Funcom had made obvious that the upper offices of Omni-Tek are evil, but why should that hurt my character's appearance? Things had better not be blurred in the Shadowlands, because frankly if they were the most evil clanners looking like good things really isn't right. Sure, maybe Funcom stated that the Clans were good, but they said the City of Jobe was made by NTs and/or Nanobreeds and would be in game real soon. They also said they had no intention of making an expansion. They say a lot, and some poeple beleive it all. If I wrote a book on the world, and I said that every country in the Northern Hemisphere was evil and the southern hemisphere was good, does that mean I'm right, it would be my story-line after all. Applying facts to break a person's beleifs either works or it doesn't, and frankly I would perfer to believe most Omni Employees are good hearted while the head-strong and abnoxious clanners go muddle in their deser claiming how great they are. I doubt FC would smother the ability to develop different views of this situation, wouldn't that be stupid? FC says: Omni-Tek is Evil, Clans are Good. If so then why would a good person be pulled into Omni-Tek just to pay their housing bills.
If I was evil and I looked like a fluffy happy angel thing, wouldn't that hurt the RP value as well?

**______________Scorus** · May 26th, 2002, 01:41:44

I guess I have to say that I'll believe it when I see it. Some of the things that they promise here they promised for launch (most especially the storyline stuff). So now they are promising it again, big surprise.

As far as neutrals, that surprises me. Pre-launch they said that that was how they wanted neutrals to be, a brief period before the player picked a side. But Gaute has very specifically said in the last few months that they are now moving toward neutrals being their own faction and being self-sufficient, so what gives? Somebody obviously missed a memo, but there is no way to say who. And I'm sure no Funcom rep is going to grace us with real information.

Did you happen to ask why they decided to develop a Shadowlands realm before putting in the other Rubi-Ka zones, some of which we can actually buy maps for?

Scorus

**Jayde** · May 26th, 2002, 04:27:54

Gonna briefly answer that last question as I just got back from LA and I'm dead tired. =)

They did mention that The Reck would be included, as a passing comment. I didn't really think about it until you mentioned it though. I would assume they will probably include most, if not all, of the areas we can buy maps for in the expansion.

While there is sure going to be doubt about them being able to meet promises, Jorgen made VERY clear when he was asked in-depth questions that he wouldn't comment on them. Why? Because they don't want to have that problem happen again. He mentioned that the inability to implement planned features in the original launch was very disappointing, and that they're trying to only mention things they they KNOW they can implement as they go along.

I'm pretty sure FC wants to make this one work right, and given that they reiterated that facts many times, I believe they're serious about it.

-Jayde

**_________________Mor** · May 26th, 2002, 04:30:34

Originally posted by Telgi
You can think what you want to think, I will think what I want to think. If I told you all plants grew straight and you saw a plant that grew straight, do all other plants grow straight?

I would have to see them all, but as soon as I see one that is not growing straight, you would be proven wrong. You would have been wrong before I seen one, but I would not be able to prove it untill I did. Trying to say all things are a matter of opinion is stupid. Funcom saying what they did in that link, is the plant that proves you wrong.

You have much to learn young grasshopper

**Destria** · May 26th, 2002, 07:10:15

Though Funcom could add all the 'missing' zones, is there any guarantee that people will even go there beyond the "it's new! Lets have a look!" period. Half of the zones currently in-game are criminally underused due to the reliance on missions for XP and the lack of outside spawns at certain levels.

**______________Gerinn** · May 26th, 2002, 08:03:23

Interesting, but...

1) What will neutrals look like in the Shadowlands? Maybe they'll be invisible...

2) New faction? Unicorn sounds sort of like that... will they be patently aggressive to everyone (a "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" mentality), or merely elitist towards OT-RK and vicious to the Clans? Given the distaste a lot of folks seem to have for either side, I can see defection here.

3) Jobe sounds awfully big... 3 zones? Sounds like Omni-1. And OT wouldn't allow a city bigger than Omni-1, now would it... question is, will the Admin area be exclusive to nanomages, NTs, MPs, or some mix of the above? I know a bunch of folks were clamoring for that. Looks like we of the modest brains will still have access to some of it though.

**Jayde** · May 26th, 2002, 09:05:46

I didn't get the imression that Unicorn was a faction, per-se.

Seemed to me it's Omni-Tek Inc. way of saying "Omni-Tek Rubi-Ka is doing a pathetic job of maintaining our interests, so we're gonna send in these guys to clean house."

Unfortunately, I couldn't get any shots of them...but these Unicorn guys looked mighty imposing in the trailer video. They had some seriously kick-ass armor. =)

When I asked them if the above hypothesis was true, they did confirm that...with the caveat that "there are other reasons too, that you'll find out later."

Jobe may be big, but it's quite possible that it's, say, 3 Newlands instead of 3 Omni-Ent's in size. I doubt it's bigger than Omni, but it's probably bigger than Tir. Since it was unfinished, it was hard to get an idea for the scale so much.

-Jayde

**_______bunderscratch** · May 26th, 2002, 13:19:56

Heh, I would rather be fire-breathing horned scaled walking tank then whimpy fluffy angel

**_________________Mor** · May 26th, 2002, 15:34:12

Originally posted by bunderscratch
Heh, I would rather be fire-breathing horned scaled walking tank then whimpy fluffy angel

The funny thing is, who said anything about whimpy? Or fluffy for that matter?

Think of the powerful Arch Angel Michael...

**_____________Xed LRK** · May 26th, 2002, 15:49:48

I just wonder how Jobe will be accessed - I'm guessing its Neutral (would be unfair on one side if it wasn't) and (I hope) it will be accessable by Whompa.

Another question arises: how high lvl do you have to be in order to start killing the early monsters in the Shadowlands? - it would seem a awful waste if I need to be at least lvl 100 or something similar to stand a remote chance (if thats the case, bye AO, hello SWG).

**______________Arcone** · May 26th, 2002, 19:24:49

You should be okay at your LVL, as it's 45+

**Jayde** · May 26th, 2002, 20:11:49

Yes, Jobe is neutral.

Something I forgot to mention in my article...

They said that you would need a team to enter The Shadowlands. Not sure how big of a team, or if it will be handled slightly like a mission where it's a unique copy of The Shadowlands or not.

There is a huge boss at the end of the final "area", as well...probably quite uber and all that good stuff. =)

I'd imagine the difficulty gets worse as you move forward. They said at least some of the new expansion areas would be for level 35-45, but I would assume that the later areas are tuned for charcaters in the high 100's.

-Jayde

Thread: My impressions of Shadowlands from a player's perspective.

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My impressions of Shadowlands from a player's perspective.

Evil?!

Heh, I won't retreat from my position as a neutral...

Re: Heh, I won't retreat from my position as a neutral...

Okay, have it your way.

Re: Okay, have it your way.

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