[Ramnpage]

I've been looking at Alganon, and decided today to give the trial server a try.

The first things I noticed was how low my frames per second were with details set to max, especially with terrain distance and bloom effect. The graphics of the game aren't bad, don't get me wrong, but I have never had a FPS (frames per second) problem in any other game, and I played wow on max setting for years, as well as Darkfall. As well as my low FPS, the character movement seems clunky and slow, though probably easily fixable. Also, some of the NPC's faces were invisible as well as mobs.

I played around and got to level 5, and jumped on the forums to read what the players have been up to. But, there doesn't seem to be that many people out there playing this game does there? So, I was wondering, the player of Alganon, what are your feelings towards the game?

I understand that the game is in it's "just released" phase, and like all mmogs the release is crucial, but a bad fad seems to be rushing it. I would say Alganon plays like it was rushed, but that's almost expected nowadays. Alganon feels like it could become a very polished and very rewarding game, hopefully with extensive endgame PVP and PVE.

Part of me wants to pay the 20$ to play on the regular server to see what life there is in this game, but my feelings about the bugs and clunky mechanics and lack of players is slightly putting me off. And the other half of me is saying, "you know, just do it. The game is new, the community is new, and you'd be one of the pioneers of helping to improve this game."

So Alganon players, what are your feelings towards the direction of the game? Do bugs get fixed pretty quickly? Do you think content/graphical updates (mobs/spell effects/character customization choices) will be happening regularly in the next few months?

Alganon seems to have a good base to becoming a good solid game, but the minor things like looks and bugs and from what I've read, lack of quests, are keeping me away.

[Dror]

Truthfully, at this point, purchasing the game is little more than a donation to what many of the community agree could, and I say could, be a great MMO. The devs and programmers read everything that is posted on the forums and on the bug report system, but it seems that the small size of their team is just starting to get burnt out and falling behind.

The framework for the game is solid enough that it should attract players, the trick now is getting them to stay. Every bug that gets fixed is a step in the right direction. While they don't seem to hotfix bugs right away, most of my bug reports are responded to saying that it will be fixed during the next content patch, which is nice to hear.

You are correct that the character models should be more quality considering the technology we have available now, but to be fair, and if you feel like digging through the forums to find the feedback, QoL has improved the stability and FPS of this game a ton in just the last few months, so I believe that they will continue to improve the look of the game. Hard to comment on whether or not things will forsure improve, but the big content update on April 1st should give us a good indication of where the game is headed. They have made it clear that they don't want to go outrageous with graphics in order to allow more people to play, which at this point is fair.

Hope this is somewhat helpful.

Dror

[Ramnpage]

The graphics aren't bad, but can be greatly improved without going over the top, so I understand that aspect of it. And honestly, they aren't the most important.

It's good to hear that the developers do work hard on fixing the bugs and such, and it's ashame to hear that the team is small, though that's understandable as an indie company. And I guess it would be easier with a larger player-base finding all of the bugs that need to be fixed.

I really am torn between spending the 20$ and hoping that the game gets more players and content or waiting a few months because the way QOL is doing the feedback from the community to shape the updates and world is pretty cool. I just hope with a small team they can get everything done in time to attract more people to the game.

Are there many people on during the day?

[Dror]

As per population, it really depends on which server and empire you choose. I am on Hokk Kujix, and there are rarely more than 5 people on. Not necessarily because it is a bad game, but just because there is really nothing to do once you hit level 50. The dawning quests can keep you occupied for a time, but once you have all the rewards, there is really no reason to log on unless you want to farm gold, or mats for your tradeskills, and even that gets old fast.

[Ramnpage]

Ah, I wondered.

I read that there was supposed to be a big patch releasing some instance/end game content, but I guess that hasn't come out yet.

I guess that's the main thing keeping people from playing, the lack of end game content, and while I think the developers wanting input from the community to shape the world's future, I think there should definitely be more end game stuff already in.

Well, I hope they implement some good PVE/PVP endgame soon, and who knows, maybe I'll end up buying it sooner then that.

All mmog releases are glitchy, but I guess the thing that sets others apart are content, so I really hope Alganon get's some major content updates soon!

[Kamaile]

Ramnpage, on 03 March 2010 - 07:41 PM, said:

the thing that sets others apart are content,,,

The community in this game is what, for me, really sets this game apart. It's a huge reason why I keep on checking back in until the new content is released. One thing you will not find is a huge quantity of people at this point, that is true, but the quality of people you will find here is stellar.

[Ramnpage]

Yeah, but the community doesn't do much good if they aren't on cause there's nothing to do, hehe.

[Ramnpage]

Also, reading off mmorpgate.com,

"The full Official Release for Alganon is scheduled for April 8th and includes features such as the Tribute Market System, Dungeon Instances and a fully redesigned Starter experience."

I guess April 8th isn't too far away, and that this is the big update to bring some content. Hope it's released April 8th.

[Kamaile]

We'll have something to do on March 11 :) right? right???

[Ramnpage]

I don't get your last comment? hehe.

[Kamaile]

They're planning on releasing the first of the world bosses on the 11th if I understand it correctly... so we won't have to wait clear until April 8th for something to do!

[Ramnpage]

Oh cool, well that changes things too :)

[Hearty]

The Graphics aren't that bad they're just poorly optimized -_-

[Chadeaux]

There are a lot of us players out and about - just not in game atm. A lot of us have lvl 50s and some have multiple chars at lvl 50. The big thing is what you said

Quote

I guess that's the main thing keeping people from playing, the lack of end game content

There are lots of quests still broken. This is what is preventing me from working on my 2nd and third chars and the grind from 40 to 50 was just too much of a drag without more content/ quests.

Do not get me wrong, I LOVE this game, I am eagerly awaiting 3/11. But my explanation is why you are not seeing many people playing the game right now. We are waiting patiently

[b94fy34t1na2mwd]

Hearty, on 04 March 2010 - 12:24 AM, said:

The Graphics aren't that bad they're just poorly optimized -_-

The graphics performance is terrible. It's almost Vanguard terrible. 10fps in this game when I can get 200+ in DDO, 100+ in Allods, and 100+ in EQ2?

Alganon is the ONLY MMO I've played in the past 5 years where my FPS goes lower than my monitor's refresh rate, ever.

Don't kid yourself, it's bad. All other bugs and issues aside, until addressed, poor graphics performance is a game-breaker. Why would someone even TRY this game when the graphics performance is poorer than so many other MMO's?

Here's a hint: It's not that bad if you turn off the UI. Gee, I wonder if the UI could be a source of a lot of the frame loss? Hmm... Let me get out my troubleshooting manual... yep, sure could be!

Evidently, though, given the game required $$$ to play over 3 months ago, this has not been a priority to fix. Seriously, what other priority could possibly supersede the BUG that your client frames-per-second is one tenth of where it should be?

And to the QOL team: If your response is "That's astonishing! We've never seen this bug before! Please open a bug report blah blah blah" or "We haven't seen any bug reports of this" blah blah blah, guess what? YOU SHOULD KNOW ALREADY. IT'S YOUR GAME. DO YOU EVEN PLAY IT?

[Kamaile]

I routinely got 7-10 fps until I did a minor tweak and changed my video card setting from Quality to Performance. Now I'm ripping along at 16-23.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I got used to the horrific FPS and managed to level a couple toons to 50 like that before someone told me what I could possibly do to help it out... LAST WEEK. *lol*

..but yeah. What the poster above me says is absolutely accurate.

*leaves forum slowly...frame by frame...*

[Ramnpage]

I agree that the low FPS needs to be addressed, and if fixed, along with advertisement about some upcoming updates/content, might pull more players in.

It's sad to only see 2 people on the test server, myself included.

[Hearty]

Having 16-23 FPS is not good lol, that's ridicilous when you expect to make a $$$ quality game you need to optimize your stuff, and the graphic engine of the game is horribly optimized i got 9600 GT with 4 gigs of ram and a duo-core intel processor E9400 and i get 20 FPS at 1600x900 resolution and no anti-aliasiang or vertical sync, that's just wicked i can max out Crysis but i can't max out a game which's graphic is actually worse than WoW's :D I was thinking about buying the game from reading the threads but yeah i downloaded the trial and played an Archer, it's fun the talents are really awesomely made and all but from maxed out range i could shoot only once before the mob got to me cuz it spikes a lot due to poor optimization

[Ramnpage]

Yeah. I was also thinking about buying it, and in fact I still am. I'm interested to see how the game progresses, and if graphics do get optimized in the future, as well as the content the team is planning on releasing.

I've payed 20$ for worse games that don't really go anywhere, but I'm hoping this one will.

[Klazgon]

Just to let you guys know, I've talked to our lead client developer and he plans on performing some more optimization passes in the near future (most likely this month). I don't have any specifics other than that the main focus is to increase the frame rate.