Poor attendance at the Chimps tea party

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » September 28th, 2009, 17:26

I'm lonely

(;_;)

Post by **Roman Totale** » September 28th, 2009, 17:47

I'm still playing, although since the most recent patch I've been rubber banding like a bitch.

Mr. Johnson · Post by **Mr. Johnson** » September 28th, 2009, 18:21

I played, hoping this would hold me in it's grasp, but I still don't think MMONG'S are for me, I don't even know why.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » September 28th, 2009, 18:35

Mr. Johnson wrote:I don't even know why.

I don't know why this one has me hooked, I'm not a great MMOer. I suspect it's due to my main, gadgeteer character being very effective in almost all situations. I tried a might based character and it was painful.

Mr. Johnson · Post by **Mr. Johnson** » September 28th, 2009, 18:46

That might explain it, I chose an ammunition character and I'm rubbish, and I don't feel like restarting with a new character. A sin amongst MMONG players, I know.
I didn't find it very inviting to new players either, in the beginning I was constantly looking on the net and asking other people what things meant. Sometimes it felt too much like work rather than a game.

Post by **HereComesPete** » September 28th, 2009, 21:16

A lot of terms are used now as standard that mean fuck all to the newcomer. It doesn't help the feeling of isolation that sets in a lot.

A lot of the time I'm clueless what's going on in wow because I don't know the million areas or the million dungeons. Still, I find it's quite fun to go find them and die there.

Post by **Roman Totale** » September 28th, 2009, 21:25

The stats in Chimps are unnecessarily confusing - each one does about 50 different things. City of Heroes was also praised for its accessibility as opposed to WoW because they didn't go in for all of that. Hilariously, Blizzard are now doing away with spell power/armour penetration/etc etc in the next update in place of easier to understand statistics.

I've played a few MMONGS, and have generally been confused by the stats in all of them, but Chimps seems to have taken it a step further. Unless get it right for their target audience it will just become another AoC or WAR. Which would be a shame because I like this one.

Post by **FatherJack** » September 28th, 2009, 21:46

Perhaps we could compile a brief list of terms used across multiple MMOs. I say brief, because actually I hate unqualified abbreviations - they should be explained at least once in a message - as they're very unwelcoming to the newcomer.

It was what put me off MMOs for about three years, people expecting me to understand this lexicon of gibberish which seemed to have sprung up from nowhere. It's not helped by things not actually mapping to their supposed abbreviations, or being used in a grammatically incorrect fashion if written in full - making it harder to guess what they might mean when you're not sure.

As I say, I found it a barrier, so I don't actually want to promote use of the terms without explaination - messages and especially articles should make sense on their own - it just might help some people (myself included) when the odd term slips through, and I won't have to nag people so much about defining them.

I think I covered a few in my guides for Warlocks and Death Knights, but they may have been World of Warcraft-specific ones.

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » September 28th, 2009, 22:34

Roman Totale wrote:The stats in Chimps are unnecessarily confusing

This is my main enbuggerence about Chimps. It's just just too much like hard work. They have tried to keep the "just roll and enjoy" aspect of CoX, and combine it with the more in depth character development of "generic MMO Type X".

For me, they have failed on both fronts. I really wanted to like it but, after months of slogging through the beta, I saw nothing that inclined me to buy it.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 29th, 2009, 3:42

Might be worth splitting this into its own thread?

I must agree with a lot of the stuff here.

Ahead lies a wall of text comparing Chimps to CoH and WoW, mainly because they're the 2 MMOs that chimps is reasonably like, and I know both extremely well.

I'll also be pleased to be disagreed with and proved wrong, I want chimps to be good.

Due to the nature of chimps, the stats are retardedly complicated, there's no fucking excuse for this. It's like they decided all MMO players inject stuff like elitistjerks into their eyes. It'd be nice if they allowed a simple mode and say, gave the items that are good for you a coloured outline.

On the difficulty front, I think they did the same as they did with CoH, that is, fucked up. Seems like there's a few types that are extremely easy to play. and a few that are fucking difficult (I've not played much, but that's the impression I get from my experience and talking to friends)

Problem there is that you end up with a really unbalanced game at later levels. (see: CoH, where I'd guess something like 25% of the population is a fire/kin controller) and what happens then is you have a vocal minority of massively overpowered players who you can't really nerf because they're your core players, and often the only way you can level certain classes because they're so crap until level x (due to the fact they were too fucking lazy to balance the classes at all in CoH)

The other side of the coin here, is WoW, where (for PVE at least) all the classes are reasonably well balanced, sure some are easier than others, some have more downtime, some need gear upgrades more often, but nonetheless, anyone can get any class to lv80 with minimal difficulty.

The other thing I didn't like about Chimps was the feel of it, it just didn't feel like I was fighting for a cause, to be fair, I'd probably level the same complaint at CoH if I started new these days. Still, didn't give me any feel of achievement, more a feel of done that, what's next. (though this might be partly because I found my class wasn't so easy to play)

Also, while the single server idea is quite good in theory, I think it hurts the immersion rather, rarely did I get to a quest area and find myself the only one there to save the day, I was usually one of a few people there, didn't really make me feel like a hero, more I'm one of a load of normal people, performing simple tasks for the man. Also, (yes, I know you can disable it) the screen for choosing a zone annoyed me. fucking well make it sortable for a start.

Overall, I like the look of Chimps, and the idea of trying to make it a CoH/WoW hybrid thing, but I think just didn't quite manage it.

I'm hoping it'll get better over time, Most of the issues are pretty easily fixed.

Post by **Dog Pants** » September 29th, 2009, 7:58

I can see all the points here in hindsight, but none of them seemed to be the "oh yeah, that's why I kept forgetting to play" reason. I think probably the closest is that there didn't seem to be much continuity, so once I'd done all I could in Canada (and wondered what I should be doing next), I headed over to the desert, finished what I could there (and wondered what I should be doing next), found my way to the city and didn't know why I was there, what I should be doing, or whether I should be randomly fighting the people I'm randomly fighting.

I think maybe I've just been spoilt by Warcraft. The all-in-one world, the quest chains that ease you into the next zone, the wealth of things to do, all make the whole thing more tangible. It's unfortunate really that every new game has to be measured against it, because it's had so long to develop. It's almost unfair, but even Warcraft had the same start in life. Hopefuly enough current MMOs will survive to a point where they're allowed to evolve enough into something solid in the same manner, and a bang-fizz launch is just part of their lifecycle.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » September 29th, 2009, 9:23

New thread. I didn't want to create a new one just to say I was lonely.

I think the stats are simpler than WoW (I can't speak for CoH as that never grabbed me). However they aren't very well explained. There's an online manual now which gives an overview. But I think that it's supposed to be part of the game to work out what's good for your character and react with powers, items, stat boosts, etc. That's what I've been doing, with a little reading and question asking. You're given stats to focus on from the start, which helped me, but I understand they're not always that helpful.

Recent patches have improved the general look as well as making the crafting and economy easier to understand. Although they're obviously very basic in comparison to mature MMOs. I found that if you level your crafting in-line with your character level you can make some really powerful items, much better than what you can pick up.

Most of all I enjoy the combat. It seems a lot more dynamic than other MMOs, with the blocking and the power charging. Especially with my pets as it feels like a little team.

I've tried to keep this post jargon free.

/edit
And please can someone remove the guild message, change it often or give me the power to change it?

Post by **Grimmie** » September 29th, 2009, 10:13

I like it. I'd like it a lot more if I didn't rubberband.
Will resubscribe when they sort lag issues out.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » September 29th, 2009, 10:32

Grimmie wrote:I like it. I'd like it a lot more if I didn't rubberband.
Will resubscribe when they sort lag issues out.

Speaking of confusing jargon I had to look up what "rubberbanding" meant. I'm assuming this definition. I can't say I've noticed much lag, but I have heard people moan about the underwater area.

Dog Pants wrote:I think probably the closest is that there didn't seem to be much continuity, so once I'd done all I could in Canada (and wondered what I should be doing next), I headed over to the desert, finished what I could there (and wondered what I should be doing next), found my way to the city and didn't know why I was there, what I should be doing, or whether I should be randomly fighting the people I'm randomly fighting.

This is a common problem that happened to me around early-20s level. Then someone told me about the crime computer and I looked around some more. You're not directed as much as other MMOs, but the missions are around.

Post by **HereComesPete** » September 29th, 2009, 10:33

spoodie wrote:/edit
And please can someone remove the guild message, change it often or give me the power to change it?

Ooh go on then. What does it say at the moment?

Post by **Dog Pants** » September 29th, 2009, 10:33

spoodie wrote:Most of all I enjoy the combat. It seems a lot more dynamic than other MMOs, with the blocking and the power charging. Especially with my pets as it feels like a little team.

I agree. That has been its biggest draw for me, and wil probably be the thing that brings me back. Playing a gun bunny I was very happy with how I could move and shoot, and it looked good doing it, and how I could fire long bursts. I've never seen that in an MMO before and I liked it. The guns all feel meaty too, which is something Tabula Rasa, its closest comparison in that respect, was badly lacking. Unfortunately it makes other classes feel a bit meh by comparison, but I would call that a triumph for the gun class rather than a failure for the others. The fact they've given each class a nice feel that attracts different people is a big thumbs up.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » September 29th, 2009, 10:35

HereComesPete wrote:Ooh go on then. What does it say at the moment?

"You smell like my Grandmother's staircase" or something.

Post by **HereComesPete** » September 29th, 2009, 10:40

Ha ha, I forgot I'd left it on that. I'll poke things tonight.

Anery · Post by **Anery** » September 29th, 2009, 11:02

Father Jack wrote:Perhaps we could compile a brief list of terms used across multiple MMOs. I say brief, because actually I hate unqualified abbreviations - they should be explained at least once in a message - as they're very unwelcoming to the newcomer.

Should be pretty easy to do, for the wiki maybe? I can get cracking on a few, I've played several MMORPGs in my time.

What has stopped me playing Chimps isn't WoW, it's the game itself (believe me I am getting sick of demons and spells I want aliens and ray guns or some such foolery). It's a new MMO and is still struggling with teething and balancing problems. Rubberbanding has been a big issue for me entering zones and really really pissed me off. Stats were initially confusing with the only guide to what stats you needed being at the initial character creation screen. Once they were stuck in your head it wasn't great but it was dealable...until you branch out into another tree and then you have to rethink everything all over again. As a gadgeteer i have had problems with my robots too, not following me down steps, not following me at all sometimes and quite often not obeying any commands, leaving me no option but to kill them and resummon. That wouldnt really be too much to bear but I then have to resummon ALL of the bots, which is not good when you are PvPing.
I didn't really have too much trouble with continuity, I went to desert, then canada and then city, not sure when I will be returning to desert or canada as I have quests my own level in the city even though I know there is at least one my level involving robot cowboys in the desert. Perhaps I will stay in the city forever? or by the time I return to the desert/canada the quests will be too low. Actually, there might be a continuity issue there...
PVP is pretty refreshing though. Apart from the obvious overpowering of some class combinations.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » September 29th, 2009, 11:26

Anery wrote:As a gadgeteer i have had problems with my robots too, not following me down steps, not following me at all sometimes and quite often not obeying any commands, leaving me no option but to kill them and resummon.

I've got used to the problems with my bots and mostly they work. Taking corners wide, making sure the bots are lined up for narrow doorways and waiting as they negotiate steps helps. Another problem I've found is that mostly the two bots move as one and often one is inside the other, so it's hard to tell if you have two or one was killed.