Entertain this idea, if you will.
Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 7:36 pmA lot of people are suggesting other private servers to play on now that Nostalrius is down. I played here casually, occasionally reliving the only pvp I've ever enjoyed. Before Nostalrius, the best private server I ever played on was Scriptcraft. I met a ton of people, and friends who I still talk to (this was ~4-5 years ago), and it reminded me of why every MMO since has kind of blown, that being there was a community and your character/yourself actually maintained a reputation. I'm not going to blabber on about that, it's been beaten in pretty hard, and everyone here surely already knows it.
There's a fractured community here, splitting off into different places. Different servers (if elligible) could possibly result in the same fate as Nostalrius. The reason I don't dedicate as much to private servers anymore is because of how volatile their existence tends to be. Either with not being motivated anymore and/or drama from the creators/owners (Scriptcraft), or with getting too big for Blizzard (Nostalrius), it always ends in heartbreak.
There's only been one game that has sated my need for PvE content and also provided a social experience equivalent to WoW (vanilla-BC), and that's been Wildstar. The game has a pretty bad rap, and I'm sure there is a decent chunk of the community here that has tried it. Give me a second to explain why you should give it another chance, because the game emulates some of the great things that made vanilla WoW great.
Community/Reputation: The community is not large by any means. The only queueing system the game has is for pvp and dungeons, however a lot of people form groups in the global LFG chat more than queueing (just so groups have the same expectation). There are constantly PUG raids being formed for those that are not able to make a specific raid schedule. There is no LFR or raid group finder. There is only one server for NA and one for EU. Because of this, you have a reputation behind your name. As most of you are aware, reputations tend to keep people in check from devolving into subhumans and treating others like garbage (tend to, it's still not impossible). Partially because of this, the community tends to be very friendly and very involved with one another. There are advice chats in each city, and global chats for each faction. If you have questions, you can post in those chats, and people will usually do whatever they can to help you. I could keep droning on about this, but the main point is that it feels like vanilla, where community and reputation were vital to the game.
Housing: This game has pretty great casual content within the housing system in the game. There is a zone chat specifically for people in their houses, and there is a pretty bustling community there as well. Here's a picture of the base housing plot (with one of the raid boss's trophies oversized because I'm a dingus) http://i.imgur.com/CIsU3LL.jpg.
Here's a video of one of my favorite houses that a guildmate of mine made (every single object/floor/ceiling, everthing was uniquely placed and scaled) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FDFIN8Y5r0&feature=youtu.be.
I could go on, but there's so much customization and such a fun sub-community within the game. They have competitions and what not as well, tons of room to grow.
Combat: The telegraph system that Wildstar uses is loved and praised by some, and hated by some. It's a personal preference, but it allows some pretty unique mechanics that other games do not have. I find it incredibly engaging and it adds another level to combat complexity. On top of this, you can only have 8 abilities on your bar (not only 8 buttons to press, but just assigned abilities). Each class has 30 abilities, and certain fights require certain setups that others do not.
Class builds: Every class can fill one of two roles, dps/healing or dps/tanking. This allows greater group flexibility. The game offers a specc'ing system similar to WoW (assigning talent points), but these builds can be very dynamic and also change between fights (not required, but it does make some things easier). The game's classes are all about personal preference with a lot of flexibility. Every class is viable in either of the two roles they can fulfill, performance is fully dependent on player skill.
PvE: This game has some of the best and most challenging PvE content that I've ever experienced. At appropriate gear levels, everything offers reward for doing things well. In dungeons, there are challenges that offer greater and greater rewards the better you play, and raid bosses drop more gear/better gear/special gear for completing challenges. If you join a guild progressing through content, every progression kill feels like an accomplishment. It doesn't have that cheap LFR feel a lot of games offer. There are very rarely hard DPS checks on bosses, which is usually replaced with mechanics checks.
PvP: The arenas in the game are crazy fun. All kinds of comps that are viable, usually a pretty great time. The battlegrounds leave a lot to be desired because of the telegraph system. I don't know if there's a fix for that, but it's usually a crazy brawl. Can be hard to follow what's going on without setting up specific settings for your telegraphs.
Customization: The game's base UI has it's own flavor that some appreciate. Personally, I prefer a more minimalistic UI, and there are a lot of addons that allow you to create the UI you want. There are also tons of things like aura setups that allow you to remove your bars entirely if that's your fancy.
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Those are kind of positive outlines of some of the big points in the game. Here are some of the negatives:
Population: is not huge, and most of the game is at end-game. It takes about 8 hours to level to it, and because of a low population, dungeon leveling isn't really an option currently, and neither is PvP leveling (it is possible if there are people around). Leveling zones will not be very full, you might see a couple people here or there, but nothing to be considered "bustling".
Content drought: Currently the next raid tier is being worked on, and should be released in a few months. There are currently three different raids (two full raids, and one boss in the box that has an optional hardmode) that are vertically progressed through.
There are also only 6 dungeons, which for new players can take a pretty long time (the shortest taking ~15-20 minutes, the longest for new players could take 2 hours, though veterans complete it in about 20 minutes). This can be a little intimidating, but I remember always having fun in scholo and ubrs runs that took 30 minutes each usually, so it depends on your take.
Bugs: The game is not perfect by any means, and there are some things that are buggy. Nothing that is game breaking or keeps you from progressing, but just little annoyances here and there. Being a private server crowd, it's not as buggy as some servers, but they are there, and there are work arounds.
Crafting: Vanilla WoW wasn't known for it's crafting, and neither is Wildstar. It's a lot like WoW's, with maybe a little more depth, but nothing to write home about.
Graphics/Optimization: The game has kind of a timeless look for me, but others see it as too cartoony. That's all personal preference. I get the complaints, but I don't share the opinion just because I'm tired of boob-physics simulators that a lot of games are adopting. Besides that, optimization with certain systems is not that great. AMD systems can play the game, but Intel systems will have better performance.
----------------------------------------
I'll shit sandwich this a bit to end on a decent note. There is a steam release coming up that will help boost the player population. There is a decent amount to do, there's a population to play with, and a close knit community that has a ton of room to grow. The game is F2P, zero P2W, and offers some small incentives through the cash shop that are all earnable in-game (and even stuff on the cash shop can be bought with a currency you earn in-game from level 1).
It's a great game that the people who stick it out to end-game have called the most fun/rewarding they've experienced. I'd say give it a go if you're not playing anything else. At the most, you'll just wait a little bit of time.
Bonus: Here's my guild clearing (not my perspective) the second raid in about 2.5 hours (which is pretty fast): https://www.twitch.tv/artyoscar/v/60426518
If you have any questions, feel free to respond here or contact me on reddit (/u/Lawlta).
Cheers!
There's a fractured community here, splitting off into different places. Different servers (if elligible) could possibly result in the same fate as Nostalrius. The reason I don't dedicate as much to private servers anymore is because of how volatile their existence tends to be. Either with not being motivated anymore and/or drama from the creators/owners (Scriptcraft), or with getting too big for Blizzard (Nostalrius), it always ends in heartbreak.
There's only been one game that has sated my need for PvE content and also provided a social experience equivalent to WoW (vanilla-BC), and that's been Wildstar. The game has a pretty bad rap, and I'm sure there is a decent chunk of the community here that has tried it. Give me a second to explain why you should give it another chance, because the game emulates some of the great things that made vanilla WoW great.
Community/Reputation: The community is not large by any means. The only queueing system the game has is for pvp and dungeons, however a lot of people form groups in the global LFG chat more than queueing (just so groups have the same expectation). There are constantly PUG raids being formed for those that are not able to make a specific raid schedule. There is no LFR or raid group finder. There is only one server for NA and one for EU. Because of this, you have a reputation behind your name. As most of you are aware, reputations tend to keep people in check from devolving into subhumans and treating others like garbage (tend to, it's still not impossible). Partially because of this, the community tends to be very friendly and very involved with one another. There are advice chats in each city, and global chats for each faction. If you have questions, you can post in those chats, and people will usually do whatever they can to help you. I could keep droning on about this, but the main point is that it feels like vanilla, where community and reputation were vital to the game.
Housing: This game has pretty great casual content within the housing system in the game. There is a zone chat specifically for people in their houses, and there is a pretty bustling community there as well. Here's a picture of the base housing plot (with one of the raid boss's trophies oversized because I'm a dingus) http://i.imgur.com/CIsU3LL.jpg.
Here's a video of one of my favorite houses that a guildmate of mine made (every single object/floor/ceiling, everthing was uniquely placed and scaled) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FDFIN8Y5r0&feature=youtu.be.
I could go on, but there's so much customization and such a fun sub-community within the game. They have competitions and what not as well, tons of room to grow.
Combat: The telegraph system that Wildstar uses is loved and praised by some, and hated by some. It's a personal preference, but it allows some pretty unique mechanics that other games do not have. I find it incredibly engaging and it adds another level to combat complexity. On top of this, you can only have 8 abilities on your bar (not only 8 buttons to press, but just assigned abilities). Each class has 30 abilities, and certain fights require certain setups that others do not.
Class builds: Every class can fill one of two roles, dps/healing or dps/tanking. This allows greater group flexibility. The game offers a specc'ing system similar to WoW (assigning talent points), but these builds can be very dynamic and also change between fights (not required, but it does make some things easier). The game's classes are all about personal preference with a lot of flexibility. Every class is viable in either of the two roles they can fulfill, performance is fully dependent on player skill.
PvE: This game has some of the best and most challenging PvE content that I've ever experienced. At appropriate gear levels, everything offers reward for doing things well. In dungeons, there are challenges that offer greater and greater rewards the better you play, and raid bosses drop more gear/better gear/special gear for completing challenges. If you join a guild progressing through content, every progression kill feels like an accomplishment. It doesn't have that cheap LFR feel a lot of games offer. There are very rarely hard DPS checks on bosses, which is usually replaced with mechanics checks.
PvP: The arenas in the game are crazy fun. All kinds of comps that are viable, usually a pretty great time. The battlegrounds leave a lot to be desired because of the telegraph system. I don't know if there's a fix for that, but it's usually a crazy brawl. Can be hard to follow what's going on without setting up specific settings for your telegraphs.
Customization: The game's base UI has it's own flavor that some appreciate. Personally, I prefer a more minimalistic UI, and there are a lot of addons that allow you to create the UI you want. There are also tons of things like aura setups that allow you to remove your bars entirely if that's your fancy.
-----------------------
Those are kind of positive outlines of some of the big points in the game. Here are some of the negatives:
Population: is not huge, and most of the game is at end-game. It takes about 8 hours to level to it, and because of a low population, dungeon leveling isn't really an option currently, and neither is PvP leveling (it is possible if there are people around). Leveling zones will not be very full, you might see a couple people here or there, but nothing to be considered "bustling".
Content drought: Currently the next raid tier is being worked on, and should be released in a few months. There are currently three different raids (two full raids, and one boss in the box that has an optional hardmode) that are vertically progressed through.
There are also only 6 dungeons, which for new players can take a pretty long time (the shortest taking ~15-20 minutes, the longest for new players could take 2 hours, though veterans complete it in about 20 minutes). This can be a little intimidating, but I remember always having fun in scholo and ubrs runs that took 30 minutes each usually, so it depends on your take.
Bugs: The game is not perfect by any means, and there are some things that are buggy. Nothing that is game breaking or keeps you from progressing, but just little annoyances here and there. Being a private server crowd, it's not as buggy as some servers, but they are there, and there are work arounds.
Crafting: Vanilla WoW wasn't known for it's crafting, and neither is Wildstar. It's a lot like WoW's, with maybe a little more depth, but nothing to write home about.
Graphics/Optimization: The game has kind of a timeless look for me, but others see it as too cartoony. That's all personal preference. I get the complaints, but I don't share the opinion just because I'm tired of boob-physics simulators that a lot of games are adopting. Besides that, optimization with certain systems is not that great. AMD systems can play the game, but Intel systems will have better performance.
----------------------------------------
I'll shit sandwich this a bit to end on a decent note. There is a steam release coming up that will help boost the player population. There is a decent amount to do, there's a population to play with, and a close knit community that has a ton of room to grow. The game is F2P, zero P2W, and offers some small incentives through the cash shop that are all earnable in-game (and even stuff on the cash shop can be bought with a currency you earn in-game from level 1).
It's a great game that the people who stick it out to end-game have called the most fun/rewarding they've experienced. I'd say give it a go if you're not playing anything else. At the most, you'll just wait a little bit of time.
Bonus: Here's my guild clearing (not my perspective) the second raid in about 2.5 hours (which is pretty fast): https://www.twitch.tv/artyoscar/v/60426518
If you have any questions, feel free to respond here or contact me on reddit (/u/Lawlta).
Cheers!