Here's my two cents on this one. Came in fresh but I'm feeling disillusioned at the time of writing, as I'm sure you will notice. 
The module is beautifully designed and crafted. The haks are used to great effect. The layout is quite well thought out and it operates as a spider webbing out from a village hub with a city nearby. Dungeons are spread around offering challenging encounters though coin is scarce so you have to party up. I had a strong character and proceeded carefully but the healing vials are expensive and loot just doesn't seem to cover it.
The problem here is that a big portion of the player base seems to be made up of the people involved in making and running the server. It's their sand box and you feel more like a grudgingly tolerated guest than a valued player. It's up to you to prove yourself worthy and fit yourself nicely into their play time. It's a cliche, basically. Rather than spontaneous adventures, the entire server gathers together to form one group, explore a cave and then divide the loot at the end. The server is designed in such a way that you have to adventure with the cliche and soloing is difficult due to the cost of healing and small amounts of loot. There may be dungeons designed for soloing but as a new player, I wasn't able to find one.
That's not necessarily a bad thing but it relies heavily on how friendly the player/character base is. It means that you have to bend over backwards to tolerate the established characters even if they're insulting your character. There's not much room to be picky about who you chose to adventure with either. I felt disrespected as both player and character, being greeted with "That's a big sword, it matches your boobs". Now, I'm not a feminist but when you make a fully clothed character and are greeted in this way and you're playing a sort of character who'd not tolerate being dishonored, you'd want to punch them in the teeth and certainly not want to travel with them. My character was good aligned so she decided to rise above it and simply walk away. However, since the server is a cliche and it's designed in such a way, you kind of have to party up with these guys regardless.. unless you want to try it alone which as I said, just doesn't really work.
Later, I entered into the server group and we adventured with me staying back as I was the lower level. Things went very slowly and carefully and after hours past of trying to help but mostly just watching them kill goblins, a group of enemies spawned right on top of me and my character was killed.. while I was briefly looking away from my monitor. It was late, my character was dead, I was disillusioned, I "ughed" and I quit.
The next day I asked someone if it was possible to raise back to life and I didn't get a straight answer. Again, it felt like I was just an unwanted burden, tolerated but unwelcome. I was questioned as to why I logged off and that I might not be told how to respawn because of that.. I had to look through the journals instead. Why he couldn't have just been helpful and given me a straight answer? I assume it was because I wasn't worth it. I asked for clarification and didn't get a response. That's the real issue I have here, you're treated like a second class citizen until you've presumably proved yourself worthy. I didn't want to lower myself to that, I wanted to be myself and forge my own heroic path for my character. Here you're supervised and judged by the very players you're playing with and the server itself is designed to force you into relying on them. Basic questions will not be answered if you aren't following their expectations.
I didn't feel like there was any room for me as a player or a character.. at least not until I had presumably dedicated more time to the server and become a known face. But, I ask myself.. why should I invest my time in a place that doesn't even seem to want me?
My review will probably be refuted by the current cliche of players on the server. But isn't it the point, that one voice can so easily be drowned out by the many? All I can do is to share my experience here.
So, I say check it out and make up your own mind if it's the place for you or not, but don't tolerate them treating you like you're dirt. There are alternatives out there.
Retour en haut
