No blogs for a couple of days so what have I been upto? Well I’ve been trying out Ragnarok Online as you can see from the screenie above. I’ve created a character called Sparrow Hawk after the main character in Ursula le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea book.
So what do I think so far? Hmmm……I don’t know whether I like this game yet. The controls are fine and dandy but the introduction was anything but helpful. For starters, half the NPC’s you speak to tell you about stats etc but not what you’re actually meant to do.
The last part of the tutorial is combat and your basically sent into a field with a shell helmet (the one i’m wearing above) and a knife. I tried killing small bugs, medium bugs and anything I could see and died every single time – this is no fun! I know i’m a novice but come on!
I finally found a doorway at the top of the map (the exit that they only mentioned in a round about way) and faced the personality questions. Then I decided to be an archer and was whisked away to Payon to become an archer – or so I thought.
I arrive in a room and a very unhelpful receptionist tells me I cant become an archer until you have the requirements: get 3 logs that you get from willows ‘walking’ around the forest, a job level of 10, and all the basic skills.
So I go for a wander and find myself in a sea of greenery – the map is so unclear that I don’t even realise Payon has a city. I look for it, walking through portal after portal, I even meet a guard who says welcome to Payon but when I enter I can’t see anything remotely like a city or these willows they keep talking about. I suppose it’s the overhead view, even with the tilting, rotating & zoomable camera, it’s easy to miss things – they really need a better map. Every fansite has the same one – a pattern of coloured squares.
Needless to say my first night playing iRO was not a pleasant one. I left feeling very frustrated. I didn’t even come across a real person to talk to or if I did they didn’t feel like helping the lost newbie – even in Eve where the questions are thick and furious newbs are almost guaranteed a response if they’re polite. So far iRO feels so lonely, you see lots of characters but they don’t talk or must all be whispering – where’s the thrill of the hunt, the teaming up?
Day 2 then- well I found the city (more like a village), I even found Payon Palace but I haven’t taken up the offer of a free look inside yet. I read up on some websites about the game and that helped me get a general idea of what I’m supposed to do and what monsters I can actually kill (I kept dying again in this area). I tried various portals until I found one that led to a forest and I starting exploring.
Turns out I can kill Porings. Squishy pink balls that eat up all the good items their fallen brethren drop if you’re not quick enough. I also found some willows, hurrah! They seem to congregate in some parts of this area more than others so I managed to rack up quite a few kills one after another.
I spent tonight (Third day) killing Porings and Willows and levelling up and I’ve collected lots of different quality logs (and other junk) that I figured out I can store with Kafra services (The storage/respawn and telportation company in the game). So I now have HP of 89 which means I can comfortably kill Willows without dropping below 70 HP if i’m taking a beating, and the Porings barely scratch me (They take about 5 HP if they manage to hit back). My basic level is 10 and my job level is 9.
So I need to get the job level upto 10 in order to meet the requirements but i’m not sure where the ‘basic skills’ requirement comes in. Is this my basic level which is at 10 or the basic icon in my skills folder which is currently at 7. How do I know if I have all the skills? I’m hoping I don’t need 10 as it seems to take ages to go up! I’ll find out tomorrow night when I have another go and I might read up on what action/item actually affects what skill.
I’ve also been playing Dawn of War and i’m on mission 8 I think. I’ve just obtained Terminator squads which kick ass! Anyways, I think i’m due a coffee about now so this is Rambo signing off…
October 29th, 2005 at 3:01 am
The basic skill does take a while to level up, but that’s what they require. You have to get the basic skill level up to ten, sorry. It took me a while to get there, too.
In this game, anyone that’s around, or whose character doesn’t wiggle while in place, is a player. Most people will help you out, if you only ask. And trust me, it’s not lonely on iRO at all, you’re just in the wrong town for crowds. Not too many people sign up to be archers, and nobody ever really stays in Payon. Go to Prontera, it’s so crowded!
My advice is to keep playing, it gets better. And I agree that the intro thing could use some work, it’s kinda unhelpful.