(long) DF 1st impressions from a newb - 02/23/09 08:40 PM
So I was able to get into beta for about 2 hours last night and I thought I would share my experience.
The controls take some getting used to. At first I kept stopping myself by trying to right click on stuff. Right clicking basically enables the GUI and shuts down all movement...takes some getting used to but actually ends up being pretty cool.
I grabbed the 2 starter quests right away and ran to find the goblins. I am not sure if there is a way to make your mini map zoom in/out but that sure would have been helpful. After looking around a bit I found the goblin spawn area but no gobs....So I ran in and started seeing if any of the gravestones had any loot in them. All of them were empty and then a goblin spawned right on me. At least I thought it was one goblin. Evidently as I was beating on this one 4 more spawned behind and around me. I killed the first one and then proceeded to be killed rather quickly while the goblins had a fun target practice party on my head.
After waiting 30 seconds to a minute to finally die and respawn I ran back towards the goblins...or so I thought....Somehow I got totally turned around and headed NW instead of SW – this made for a long run of nothing before finally making it back to the starting area and getting my bearings straight. There was literally nothing – trees, rocks for harvesting but other than that – no enemies, no NPCs nothing. I found that a little odd. Actually I did see a dragonfly.
So I go back and kill my 4 goblins this time being more careful of the respawn and staying on the edges of the area. Looting is a pain in the ass. You have to unsheathe your weapon, use the gravestone, open backpack if it is not already and drag stuff into it. Then you right click to leave and unsheathe your weapon again for battle. Seems to be too many clicks/button presses for something that should be simple. That is really one of my only complaints about the game so far. I feel that this is why when in a group it will be very important to have 1-2 people simply looting and letting everyone else focus on fighting.
I got my 4 kills and my 4 axes, returned then for a small reward and then was told to find the Smith. The Alfar starter area is a little confusing at first but you get used to it fairly quickly. Once I found the smith he gave me a pickaxe for mining stone and iron and an axe for chopping wood. Simple quest – go chop 5 of each. Took me a while to figure out how to actually chop so I hopped on vent to ask and actually expected to get ribbed a little but everyone was nice about it. You have to get out of the mindset of other MMOs the controls are different here. Basically you unsheathe your pickaxe and then click as if you were attacking it. I tried everything BUT that
Another mistake I made here was I thought it was odd that I had 10 iron in my bag and my quest had not completed....yeah the quest is for stone and wood not iron and wood Boy do I feel like a dumbass at this point. Rhaikh can vouch for me he was on vent with me being as polite as possible not to laugh at me.
After getting my reward it was time to go back to the starting lady and she sent me to kill 7 goblins in less than an hour. This was cake. I didn’t bother looting and just went nuts. Killed 2 and then died, some guy ressed me and then I learned that I was resting wrong and that is why it was taking me sooo damn long to refresh. Again you have to click the skill and then click as though you are attacking. Seems very odd to me but once you do it once you know how to do it from then on. So after being rested I quickly took down the 5 remaining goblins with 38 mins to spare. Some dude at this points decides hmmmm lets see what mana missile looks like on Vyse 2 hit me and I just look back and start to strafe – he continues to fire so I know he wants some.....not a good idea, he went gray, and me and another dude went angry and swiftly proceeded to beat his ass to the ground. I didn’t even bother looting him and went on my way.
Back to bank more goodies and get another quest. Off to the Arcanist. She gives you a scythe and tells you to go collect some herbs. I went to go do this found the area but no herbs so this is where I decided I should go to bed. Logging out with a smile on my face looking forward to Wednesday I had 200+ gold in my account, 2 bags, most of the starter resource gathering tools and was well on my way. I can still see myself having troubles with the attacking/looting/getting ready to attack again part but other than that I would say I already feel like I can hold my own.
Hope to see you all at launch. I will be there as soon as I get off work at 2pm PST. I hope by that time I will not have missed much.
The controls take some getting used to. At first I kept stopping myself by trying to right click on stuff. Right clicking basically enables the GUI and shuts down all movement...takes some getting used to but actually ends up being pretty cool.
I grabbed the 2 starter quests right away and ran to find the goblins. I am not sure if there is a way to make your mini map zoom in/out but that sure would have been helpful. After looking around a bit I found the goblin spawn area but no gobs....So I ran in and started seeing if any of the gravestones had any loot in them. All of them were empty and then a goblin spawned right on me. At least I thought it was one goblin. Evidently as I was beating on this one 4 more spawned behind and around me. I killed the first one and then proceeded to be killed rather quickly while the goblins had a fun target practice party on my head.
After waiting 30 seconds to a minute to finally die and respawn I ran back towards the goblins...or so I thought....Somehow I got totally turned around and headed NW instead of SW – this made for a long run of nothing before finally making it back to the starting area and getting my bearings straight. There was literally nothing – trees, rocks for harvesting but other than that – no enemies, no NPCs nothing. I found that a little odd. Actually I did see a dragonfly.
So I go back and kill my 4 goblins this time being more careful of the respawn and staying on the edges of the area. Looting is a pain in the ass. You have to unsheathe your weapon, use the gravestone, open backpack if it is not already and drag stuff into it. Then you right click to leave and unsheathe your weapon again for battle. Seems to be too many clicks/button presses for something that should be simple. That is really one of my only complaints about the game so far. I feel that this is why when in a group it will be very important to have 1-2 people simply looting and letting everyone else focus on fighting.
I got my 4 kills and my 4 axes, returned then for a small reward and then was told to find the Smith. The Alfar starter area is a little confusing at first but you get used to it fairly quickly. Once I found the smith he gave me a pickaxe for mining stone and iron and an axe for chopping wood. Simple quest – go chop 5 of each. Took me a while to figure out how to actually chop so I hopped on vent to ask and actually expected to get ribbed a little but everyone was nice about it. You have to get out of the mindset of other MMOs the controls are different here. Basically you unsheathe your pickaxe and then click as if you were attacking it. I tried everything BUT that
Another mistake I made here was I thought it was odd that I had 10 iron in my bag and my quest had not completed....yeah the quest is for stone and wood not iron and wood Boy do I feel like a dumbass at this point. Rhaikh can vouch for me he was on vent with me being as polite as possible not to laugh at me. After getting my reward it was time to go back to the starting lady and she sent me to kill 7 goblins in less than an hour. This was cake. I didn’t bother looting and just went nuts. Killed 2 and then died, some guy ressed me and then I learned that I was resting wrong and that is why it was taking me sooo damn long to refresh. Again you have to click the skill and then click as though you are attacking. Seems very odd to me but once you do it once you know how to do it from then on. So after being rested I quickly took down the 5 remaining goblins with 38 mins to spare. Some dude at this points decides hmmmm lets see what mana missile looks like on Vyse 2 hit me and I just look back and start to strafe – he continues to fire so I know he wants some.....not a good idea, he went gray, and me and another dude went angry and swiftly proceeded to beat his ass to the ground. I didn’t even bother looting him and went on my way.
Back to bank more goodies and get another quest. Off to the Arcanist. She gives you a scythe and tells you to go collect some herbs. I went to go do this found the area but no herbs so this is where I decided I should go to bed. Logging out with a smile on my face looking forward to Wednesday I had 200+ gold in my account, 2 bags, most of the starter resource gathering tools and was well on my way. I can still see myself having troubles with the attacking/looting/getting ready to attack again part but other than that I would say I already feel like I can hold my own.
Hope to see you all at launch. I will be there as soon as I get off work at 2pm PST. I hope by that time I will not have missed much.