Hello Cyrix!

Well, BDO for the US is currently a buy to play (on the cheap side) - game packages are available for $10/$30/$50 depending on what you want to be included (digital bonus items/etc). I will shoot you over a key in a PM for a 7 day eval and you can check the game out for nothing!
beer

As for the game itself - I have been (and most of the KGB folks in-game) playing BDO for more than a year. It has "active" combat system, so no tab-targeting and mashing 1..2..3...1..2...3; additionally no telecasting of attacks (with colored circles/etc) on the ground. You can actively see what is going on in-game and you need to react (get out of the attack AOE) or counter it.

Here is a good video talking about the combat system:


We don't have a HUGE group of people playing BDO (as compared to ArcheAge) - so most folks are concentrated with leveling their gear and helping each other out (and new players) to get characters leveled and have fun playing the game. There is a TON of stuff you can do in-game outside of just leveling; questing, crafting, horse-training, and other things.

Personally, I would say in general - about the only down-side to BDO is that you can't get gear/items in-game from other players(guild) so you do need to pretty much work on your gear on your own. There are tons of ways to do that; and lots of great KGB folks are in-game and able to help you get going. There isn't any "pay to win" mechanic in-game, so throwing your credit card at it won't help (I call that a feature though personally - some may disagree from other games).

Our faction has elected to use Discord for in-game comms; mostly because the world-boss announcements are broadcast by other players on discord channels that you can subscribe to if you want notification. I will shoot you the details of how to get in there via PM as well (if it isn't above already).


I am also VERY excited for Star Citizen - backed it in Kickstarter, along with SoTA. SoTA ended up kind of becoming a game that diverged from the original Kickstarter idea/concept quite a bit. It is still in Beta, so not "out" yet - but if you buy in you can play. We do have a few BDO folks playing that - and Star Citizen off and on (some weekends) - so yea, maybe coming to BDO and hanging out with us might be a GREAT way to get a bit of game time in while we are working towards Star Citizen release.

Hope to see you in-game!

Taxman

"Any group is weaker than a man alone unless they are perfectly trained to work together."
- Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers