Well I still can't get into Neocron, while I had no plans to resubscribe anyway it would have been nice to have spent alittle more than 2 evenings messing around with it. I've posted about my connection problems in the official forums but haven't had any decent suggestions. I would email their tech support but I've already got them on my old character transfer ticket (which I suspect they won't get around to doing until the free trial expires) and I probably won't get any decent help out of them anyway (since it appears to be a problem at my end and not theirs - most games support is crap when it comes to things like that). The odd part is that it seems to work fine on my old dial up connection which leads me to suspect it's either my firewall or my broadband. Thing is neither of these have changed and nothing else has stopped working. The more I think about it however the more it occurs to me that all the crashes I reported in my previous blog were a product of the same problem (it just got alot worse thats all!)
Whats worse is that I really could have done with getting into Neocron to give me something to do. I'm kinda burned out on EQ2 monster bashing (and tradeskills are just as much or a grind) which is not a good sign when you're only level 23, and can't find a decent reason to play anything else I'm subscribed to right now (which would be Matrix Online, Star Wars Galaxies and the free Anarchy Online account I've barely touched since I opened it). I'll admit I've got a desire to play Eve again but I know it'll be just like last time and once I get in, realise all I can really do is mine or low level 'rat hunt (unless I eBay credits or items) I'll have just wasted a months sub on an evenings fooling around nostalgia trip - I'd get another trial account except I'll be able to do even less with that!
I suppose I really ought to sort out a Face of Mankind login since I downloaded and installed the bloody thing, otherwise the beta will be over and it'll all have been a waste of time.
Theres another part of me that wants to play Quake 4, I did a couple of levels last week when my server was down for the evening (through no fault but my own) and it was cool. But theres always this thing when I play offline games where I'm sat there thinking that I really ought to be online since I playing a monthly sub and not using it.....
SWG continues to crash and burn and the patch notes just seem to make a bad situation worse (harvester nerf followed by a species ability nerf), some of you may have noticed that Jeff has removed the blog entry that my first ever blog linked to (and not posted a new one in quite some time). Guess he's decided to get out of that particular kitchen (seriously dude, you killed the game for thousands of people (me included), did you not expect there to be a backlash?)
Monday, December 12, 2005
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Neocron Evolution 2.1
Well first impressions weren't good. My first 30 mins of play were filled with bugs that have existed since the beginning of Neocron 1 retail (which is about 3 years ago).
I started with the bug where your username/password is just ignored the first time around and you are dumped back at the login prompt, then I got stuck in a closing door in the new Zoo. I quit out but couldn't get back in because of the 'Proxy error' (where you have to wait for the game to realise you have disconnected - even though you quit correctly rather than crash!).
Then I had the problem where you login, can't move and have no money or equipment (basically a blank character) and also while trying to get back in I got a similar bug where you inherit (termporarily) someone elses gear. I also encoutered a couple of the infamous 'syncronising errors while zoning (you get stuck zoning and the server kicks you out of the game after the timeout period for zone changes expires).
All this was while playing it on my WinME box (say what you will about WinME - Neocron always ran more reliably under ME than it did under XP - don't ask me why).
However all those things aside I did get a hour or so to check out the new patch and heres what I think.
The new graphics are a nice touch, I'm using a patched client (as opposed to the new full client) so it's not as good apparently, and most of the improvements are supposed to be in the wastelands, which unfortunately I didn't have time to check out.
They have made some nice changes to Neocron city though. Once of the nice things about the Dome of York when it was introduced was that it had what are best described as newbie levelling zones which were small, self contained areas set on the outskirts of the city. Using the city as a backdrop the player got a good idea of how big the city was actually supposed to be.
The newbie zones in Neocron city were however all underground (either sewers or basements) and it was only in the apartment zones that you got any idea how big the city was supposed to be. Well some of these underground zones have now been removed (as far as I can see) and new zones added to the 'edge' of the city in the same was as the Dome has.
One of my personal gripes about the original game was that there was so much unused potential. I suspect this was because the developers ran out of time/resource/ideas when filling in all the space that had been created. For example in the military base there is a secret hidden section referred to by the players as the BYB (big yellow ball - so called because in there is a big yellow ball!). Some of these 'empty' areas appear to have been 'fixed' in the new patch, for example the Zoo is now finally open. This was originally the Neocron bank which was never needed due to all the stock exchange functions being added to all the terminals scattered around the city. The Conference centre now has a function as well (if the playerbase is anything like I remember few will use this though which is a shame) however at the same time new wasted areas have been added in the same way as the newbie zones (theres a 'machine room' in Pepper Park I think which appears to serve no function whatsoever). It's possible that these might be used in some of the new missions that have been added (I havent found any yet) but on the surface it seems like another waste which is a shame.
The faction system has undergone some change (and more changes are in the pipeline I believe). Personally I didn't really have a problem with the Neocron 1 system (but then I didn't play to PvP) and the only problem I had with the Neocron 2 system was the devolution into what was basically a 'red vs. blue' system. The new system seems to be ok on paper but as I said before I never played to PvP.
My other gripes are that some of the voice-overs in game are stiill wrong (some dating back to release) and that they haven't re-enabled mouse look while on the subway (or the hovercabs) which makes it a pain to see what subway station you have arrived at (if you weren't paying attention) or get to see your current zone from the air while in a hover cab.
I'm not able to test any clan [guild] related functions because my character is too poor (and has been since he got nerfed in the Neocron 2 character transfer) but I'd imagine that the LE [law enforcer] chip (which keeps you safe from PvP) still prevents you from forming a clan. While I understand why the developers have done it this way (clans are fundamental to PvP fights over the wasteland bases, non-PvP clans would require additional coding to prevent those clans from claiming a facility) it's a serious blow to role playing in a game with a huge potential for it, unfortunately the game is PvP-biased and the attracted/remaining playerbase reflects this, thus the developers support their core customers.
In summary Neocron Evolution 2.1 is certainly not enough to get me to play again, but other than failing to address basic client stability issues that have existed since lauch being a significant black mark against the developer for returning players, theres little to complain about in terms of whats changed. The client issues may however be addressed in the new Evo 2.1 client and I hope to have the time during my 14 days free period to try this out.
I started with the bug where your username/password is just ignored the first time around and you are dumped back at the login prompt, then I got stuck in a closing door in the new Zoo. I quit out but couldn't get back in because of the 'Proxy error' (where you have to wait for the game to realise you have disconnected - even though you quit correctly rather than crash!).
Then I had the problem where you login, can't move and have no money or equipment (basically a blank character) and also while trying to get back in I got a similar bug where you inherit (termporarily) someone elses gear. I also encoutered a couple of the infamous 'syncronising errors while zoning (you get stuck zoning and the server kicks you out of the game after the timeout period for zone changes expires).
All this was while playing it on my WinME box (say what you will about WinME - Neocron always ran more reliably under ME than it did under XP - don't ask me why).
However all those things aside I did get a hour or so to check out the new patch and heres what I think.
The new graphics are a nice touch, I'm using a patched client (as opposed to the new full client) so it's not as good apparently, and most of the improvements are supposed to be in the wastelands, which unfortunately I didn't have time to check out.
They have made some nice changes to Neocron city though. Once of the nice things about the Dome of York when it was introduced was that it had what are best described as newbie levelling zones which were small, self contained areas set on the outskirts of the city. Using the city as a backdrop the player got a good idea of how big the city was actually supposed to be.
The newbie zones in Neocron city were however all underground (either sewers or basements) and it was only in the apartment zones that you got any idea how big the city was supposed to be. Well some of these underground zones have now been removed (as far as I can see) and new zones added to the 'edge' of the city in the same was as the Dome has.
One of my personal gripes about the original game was that there was so much unused potential. I suspect this was because the developers ran out of time/resource/ideas when filling in all the space that had been created. For example in the military base there is a secret hidden section referred to by the players as the BYB (big yellow ball - so called because in there is a big yellow ball!). Some of these 'empty' areas appear to have been 'fixed' in the new patch, for example the Zoo is now finally open. This was originally the Neocron bank which was never needed due to all the stock exchange functions being added to all the terminals scattered around the city. The Conference centre now has a function as well (if the playerbase is anything like I remember few will use this though which is a shame) however at the same time new wasted areas have been added in the same way as the newbie zones (theres a 'machine room' in Pepper Park I think which appears to serve no function whatsoever). It's possible that these might be used in some of the new missions that have been added (I havent found any yet) but on the surface it seems like another waste which is a shame.
The faction system has undergone some change (and more changes are in the pipeline I believe). Personally I didn't really have a problem with the Neocron 1 system (but then I didn't play to PvP) and the only problem I had with the Neocron 2 system was the devolution into what was basically a 'red vs. blue' system. The new system seems to be ok on paper but as I said before I never played to PvP.
My other gripes are that some of the voice-overs in game are stiill wrong (some dating back to release) and that they haven't re-enabled mouse look while on the subway (or the hovercabs) which makes it a pain to see what subway station you have arrived at (if you weren't paying attention) or get to see your current zone from the air while in a hover cab.
I'm not able to test any clan [guild] related functions because my character is too poor (and has been since he got nerfed in the Neocron 2 character transfer) but I'd imagine that the LE [law enforcer] chip (which keeps you safe from PvP) still prevents you from forming a clan. While I understand why the developers have done it this way (clans are fundamental to PvP fights over the wasteland bases, non-PvP clans would require additional coding to prevent those clans from claiming a facility) it's a serious blow to role playing in a game with a huge potential for it, unfortunately the game is PvP-biased and the attracted/remaining playerbase reflects this, thus the developers support their core customers.
In summary Neocron Evolution 2.1 is certainly not enough to get me to play again, but other than failing to address basic client stability issues that have existed since lauch being a significant black mark against the developer for returning players, theres little to complain about in terms of whats changed. The client issues may however be addressed in the new Evo 2.1 client and I hope to have the time during my 14 days free period to try this out.
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