WildStar... Is it worth it? Come Discuss

[CreativeXtent]

Hello everyone.
Figured i would start a discussion on this.


WildStar... is it worth it?

By worth it, i mean is it a WoW killer.
There is a lot of view points and things that come in to play when trying to make this decision. And of course can only be measured by sales and time.
We all know about the last game thought was going to kill WoW ( Elder Scrolls Online ), but as we know, this will not be the case.

I will draw this decision from my own game play experience and opinions.

First Impressions -

Logging in-
When i started up the game, it seemed extremely nice and smooth with the UI. a simple config button and login with some lower end 3d graphic

Character Selection -
The first thing you notice when logging in to WoW is a simple list of your characters with character graphics. This seems to be the same with Wildstar. So a bit copied but there is not much you can do to make it more simple.

Character Creation -
When clicking the create new character button you are shown two factions to choose from. You would not be able to really tell that unless you read the Text on the right.
When selecting a race, there is 4 choices per faction. and of course each choice has male or female models. But you cannot customize their looks, color etc. This is what a lot of MMO players look for when wanting to play an MMO. They

want to make them selves in to the game. So this is a big down side, since you do have to star at this character forever!

When trying to select the proper character of your liking, this may be a bit hard. As most races cannot have certain classes. This is almost the same as in WoW, but you could almost be anything you wanted to be.

When selecting your path, unless you know to read all the small text on the bottom right, you had no idea what you were choosing. This should be changed with a bigger shorter fast text explanation.

In-Game Impressions -

Movement -
The movement feels very smooth and not clunky. The same controls as most MMOs, wasd and space to jump. They added a rush key [shift] when held down you can run faster. Which is nice in some situations.

Quest -
They are extremely guided and restrictive. Must like SWTOR. You have to go where you one quest line is leading you and you cannot really leave the area until it is finished. I prefer an more open world MMO than anything else.
If i wanted to go to another room and find a monster or a bad guy, i cannot, i am stuck doing the quest line. The guidance of going to a quest is quiet unique. When you select the quest you are on in the quest text, it will show you a
guided arrow in front of your character for a few seconds. I think the way the NPCs show quest could be changed. As they show a quest marker even after you pick up the quest.

In-Game UI -
I find the default settings a bit to compact and in my way.
The char screens on the left side as in wow, but have mixed chats, which can be annoying as hell.
And it is extremely tiny chat, so hard for the impaired people. To switch channels, next to the chat bar is the switcher. You may not know that is the button due to it being named the chat you are in. You are not able to create your own
chat channels, which can be not so fun for people who use them.
Quest giver or other NPCs text and boxs are way to small and horribly hard to read.

The quest UI is a bit small and off to the bottom right. Hard to see again for people who are impared again.
There is a history box you can minimized, if you use this sort of tracker for lore.

The health and mana/focus/whatever your toon uses. are directly above your skills bar. They are a bit confusing at first, as the small thin bar for mana/focus is above the larger HP bar. which is definitely different.

You have a minimap with the same options as wow, but tuned to Wildstar for tracking things. and of course the key to open your large map.

you also have a menu on the top left, must like GuildWars 2. Inventory, bug reporting, mail, social, abilities, group finder, lore, character and search interface options are listed there and extremely tiny.

--When choosing inventory, you are brought to a small bag, from their you can use items in the bag, or open a supply satchle, drag to delete items button or salvage it with the salvage button. Which might be annoying for some...
--When choosing social you get a selection for making Circles ( no idea, i guess a weird friends list.) making a guild, and a friends/rival/ignored list. I can see the Rival list becoming something super cool. when wanting to remember

bad people.
--When choosing abilities, it will bring up your toons abilities screen. It is a bit confusing when using this screen, and i have not figured it out 100%. but i am sure you choose an ability slot, select the ability to add it to it.
Abilities are unlocked by level and not by anything else. You can level up the abilities by level as well. up to a tier 8 level. Something new to get used to.
--When choosing group finder, it is pretty strait forward. You can find battle grounds, but for some reason you can turn your PVP status off or on here.
--When choosing lore you get to see tales, journals, and datacubes to read lore about everything you have been through. It is a small selection screen, this could be expanded a lot for lore heads sake.
--When choosing Character, it is pretty much the same as WoW, just reworked a bit. You see your item slots and items, a quick character preview and your stats. Nothing special.
--When choosing search interface. It basically lets you search your UI for things, this can be very helpful for new people.

Battle UI - Fighting things, we all know this is the basics of life in an MMO. With Wildstar it is the same but a tad bit different. Most skills use global cool downs when turn other skills off until it is done. My character is not able
to melee with their hands, so i must assume others cannot, maybe a warrior?

In-game Controls -
As with most games there is a predefined set of hot keys you can use to use your skills. but i find they are to restrictive. You can only link your hot keys with the action sets that are inplace instead of being able to assign any key to
any spot. I find this is an annoying and problematic concept since most gamers like the freedom to do what they please with their skills.

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I currently, in my opinion, believe Wildstar is not up the MMO killer yet. It is still a bit to chunky and lacking in key design features/options that could make it great. It does have potential, but i am getting a SWTOR feeling from

this game.

I may be wrong about some aspects i have said above since i am still a low level.

Please ask any question you may have or anything you want to know about the game as i play this weekend.


Thank you for reading

-CreativeXtent

[Dante]

I do NOT like the movement in the game, doesn't feel fluid at all.

[CreativeXtent]

Which character are you using? maybe each is a bit different.

[OverLordErIcH]

When you bring up the linear questing, is it as bad as cata and mop?

[Jadd]

I do NOT like the movement in the game, doesn't feel fluid at all.

WildStar movement is the definition of fluid...

[Seminko]

WildStar movement is the definition of fluid...

Totally agreed... the movement is very fluid. In the early videos you could see this skating effect which I was worried about very much. But it is completely gone. The movement is very responsive and fluid. The only thing that might be a bit clunky is jumping. I chose Explorer as my path, obviously , and sometimes the jumping feels bad. But overall the movement is great.

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It is still a bit to chunky and lacking in key design features/options that could make it great. It does have potential, but i am getting a SWTOR feeling from this game.

Well SWTOR could have been a good game provided there was endgame.

They are extremely guided and restrictive. Must like SWTOR. You have to go where you one quest line is leading you and you cannot really leave the area until it is finished. I prefer an more open world MMO than anything else.
If i wanted to go to another room and find a monster or a bad guy, i cannot, i am stuck doing the quest line.

Well this really depends on what you are expecting. Sometimes in wow I found myself out of quest and had to run around like crazy to find a quest hub or google for the next quest. Sure it was not common but it happened. Wildstar does not seem to have this problem - I'm lvl 37 now. It only happened to me only once and it was because one quest was broken. But I googled for the next quest hub and everything was splendid. So it is not like you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO do all quests to get further. If you don't like a subzone you can easily abandond all quests and go look for another quest subzone and grab another set of quests.

The thing that I got overwhelmed by a bit was the amount of quests available at the third (I believe) zone. I had 10+ quests constantly and I wasn't yet acustomed to the quest / map system at that time yet. But once you get a hang of it it's alright.

You are not able to create your own chat channels, which can be not so fun for people who use them.

I saw the option in game. Maybe it is not functional yet but it will be ready for launch for sure.

The quest UI is a bit small and off to the bottom right. Hard to see again for people who are impared again.

A built in scale UI addon is being worked on right now by CRB. Just wait a bit
BTW most ppl on the forums complain the UI is actually LARGE.

You can only link your hot keys with the action sets that are inplace instead of being able to assign any key to any spot.

Don't understand. You have your Limited Action Set which you can keybind however you like. Then there are action bars where one can put everything else then skills and Gadgets (trinkets). So for example food, pots, "elixirs", mounts etc. and those can also be bound to any key you want.

[Gbyrd]

I don't have the game yet hoping to get a key but from what i have seen it seems that it has a lot of character customizations. But you said there isn't any....

[CreativeXtent]

Q:Well SWTOR could have been a good game provided there was endgame.
R: Not really, it starts off nicely, and mid game it drags and is pretty horrible.
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Q:Well this really depends on what you are expecting. Sometimes in wow I found myself out of quest and had to run around like crazy to find a quest hub or google for the next quest. Sure it was not common but it happened. Wildstar does not seem to have this problem - I'm lvl 37 now. It only happened to me only once and it was because one quest was broken. But I googled for the next quest hub and everything was splendid. So it is not like you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO do all quests to get further. If you don't like a subzone you can easily abandond all quests and go look for another quest subzone and grab another set of quests.
The thing that I got overwhelmed by a bit was the amount of quests available at the third (I believe) zone. I had 10+ quests constantly and I wasn't yet acustomed to the quest / map system at that time yet. But once you get a hang of it it's alright.

R: That is the whole point of open world, if you did not see a quest to continue in, in WoW, it is because you most likely did not grab a chain section or you were not leveled enough. || Yeah you do not have to do them ALL, but if you do not you will drag in level and power. And like i stated, it is a closed up world, to go any where most of the time you need a quest... how boring and linear can you get. || I kind of like tons of quest and extras, it helps keep you doing something, which maybe wildstar is trying to hard on.
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Q:I saw the option in game. Maybe it is not functional yet but it will be ready for launch for sure.
A: maybe, we will have to wait and see lol

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Q:A built in scale UI addon is being worked on right now by CRB. Just wait a bit
BTW most ppl on the forums complain the UI is actually LARGE.
A: there is to much and it is all to small haha.

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Q: Don't understand. You have your Limited Action Set which you can keybind however you like. Then there are action bars where one can put everything else then skills and Gadgets (trinkets). So for example food, pots, "elixirs", mounts etc. and those can also be bound to any key you want.
A: I am talking about skill placement with your wanted key binds.

[Harambeqt]

WildStar movement is the definition of fluid...

I started playing wow in late classic and got my first Glad title in S3 (Veng) and for some reason all the games I've played since then have been terrible. The movement is not responsive enough which makes the character control very strange and that's a big minus IMO.

No-go for me, this game is for PvE/House building not for competitive PvP.

[Guinness]

I don't know what kind of crappy machines you guys have but the combat movement has had ZERO lag for me. It's the very FIRST thing I notice about a game. Wildstar is fun.

[OverLordErIcH]

WildStar movement is the definition of fluid...

Jadd my fellow aussie, can you tell me what your experience with the latency has been so far?

[CreativeXtent]

I don't know what kind of crappy machines you guys have but the combat movement has had ZERO lag for me. It's the very FIRST thing I notice about a game. Wildstar is fun.

no need to be hostile about it,
If you like it, then pimp. If not, then pimp.

[Leonim]

By worth it, i mean is it a WoW killer

There won't be a wow killer...

[XFiFiX]

A) You can most definitely customize the look of your character! Are you bad?
B) I wouldn't worry about UI issues, as the one you have seen ingame is a placeholder. They are soon going to release this: WildStar UI 2.0 Preview: Less is More | WildStar MMORPG
C) Movement is great
D) This game is worth it and very, very fun.

[Jadd]

Jadd my fellow aussie, can you tell me what your experience with the latency has been so far?

We won't know until the game is actually released. I'm sure the server hardware and software will both be optimized before the game comes out. Currently I get about 250ms but am expecting 190-180 once released.

The lag compensation is surprisingly well done. The devs have mentioned that they're spending a lot of time on it and are even capping their connections to 200+ms when testing. I've noticed considerably less issues when it comes line of sight in both PvE and PvP, which was something I always had problems with in MMOs.

Carbine have also mentioned the possibility of Oceanic servers, however not in the initial release stages of the game. Hopefully they can bring in enough money to set something up here!

There won't be a wow killer...

What about Blizzard? They did a pretty good job when it came to killing WoW