Getting ready for Allods Online CBT#2

Tomorrow at 11am PST the second closed Beta test begins for Allods Online.   If you do not have a key yet, and you want to try the game, it’s probably a good idea to grab one.  However, there’s really no rush.  Several websites have keys including us.

MMORPG.com – 3000+ Keys remaining
Massively – They should have some left.
Keen and Graev (us!) – If you need a key we have some to hand out.  Just ask for one in the comments section and be sure to fill out your comment with a valid email address (Only I can see it, don’t worry). Update:  Gone!

If you’re just joining the party, Allods is a free to play (F2P) mmorpg. I’ve written my initial impressions of the early-game and created a video with more impressions.   “Sneak Previews” of the game are showcasing the new zone and monsters that we’ll get to experience with the level cap raising to 20.  We’re quite behind the Russians though who have tested the game to the level cap.  Plenty of videos, impressions, screenshots, and videos are available from their adventures and much of that information can be found in the K&G Commnity’s ‘Tidbits of Interesting Info‘ thread (or Wave!).

There are a few key points that I want to emphasize right now about the game.

It’s F2P.  That means there is a microtransaction model in place via a Cash Shop.  How intrusive will the cash shop be?  Right now I can’t say with absolute certainty that it will be no big deal.  In fact, it’s my biggest concern and will be the deciding factor whether or not I will even bother spending time playing.  However, since the cash shop was visible during CBT#1 and the Russians have been playing the game for a while, we do have some idea of what to expect… assuming they stick with the same thing for NA release.  It appears that you can not buy success in Allods like you can in a game like Runes of Magic.  Allods takes a more cosmetic and convenience approach.  You can buy costumes, potions (Alchemists in-game can make these too), bigger bag/bank space (available through quests in-game too), scrolls to teleport, and that sort of thing.  You can also buy Chests.  Chests drop off mobs as well.  Inside these chests you’ll find a random item.  So, in a way you can get a random item if you’re willing to gamble with real money.  I found several chests while hunting so I see no reason to spend real money on a gamble.  The only real advantage one can buy is gold.   Will this be a problem and if so how big?  I just don’t know yet.

There are Dungeons and Raids.  We know this because the Russians tell us so.  There are videos that you’ll find linked to in that tidbits thread as well as ones on Youtube if you search well.  The content in Allods appears to be on par with a solid AAA title, and on par with Vanilla WoW.  Again, this is what impresses me so much.  We’re seeing titles release without low-mid level dungeons these days because developers have stopped caring about the journey as part of their game and only focused on creating this urgency to reach the end.  There is also group content in Allods.  I experienced a couple of quests during CBT#1 that required me to seek out a full group to kill an elite mob.

Allods Online is a PvP game too.  I don’t really know to what extent the developers intended the game to revolve around PvP.  I know, from reading an interview, that their original goal was to create a PvE game but they decided that PvP was important.  I guess they decided that it was super important because there are several styles of PvP in the game.

Open World – It’s been spoken about many times as being a blending of Stranglethorn Vale and Hillsbrad on a PvP WoW server back in the old days.  You’ll be questing in a zone together with the opposite faction and it’s inevitable that you’ll end up fighting each other.

DAOC/WAR style Objective Based -Players fight each other for special points in the Holy Land. I wish I knew more about this.

Arenas – Think STV’s Arena.

Goblin Ball – a mini-game type event.

Astral Ship Combat – Worthy of an entire article or two explaining it. Essentially you get enormous ships that you work towards in the end-game. They take 5 or 6 people working together to pilot them in the Astral area. You can play like a pirate and attack enemy ships or you can simply use your ship to explore for treasure. There’s a lot to it and I recommend the various articles.

Clearly we haven’t seen this amount of variation in an MMO’s PvP gameplay done well in a while.  A couple of us are intent on leveling up and experience how some of the PvP works in the CBT#2.   We want to figure out if the good ideas are executed properly, because in the end a good idea means nothing if you just don’t implement it correctly.  I believe that the Holy Lands stuff starts a little bit after level 20; maybe they’ll open it up for us to try.

Like always, our community likes to play together in these things.  You’re welcome to join us.  We’ll be playing both sides to figure out what we like more (and for some avoiding the side we know we’ll play so that we don’t spoil it for launch).  You can visit our board we just launched for Allods Online or hop on Ventrilo to get involved.

  • I would like a key please! Tried to register for mmorpg but it wouldn’t go through for some reason (dodgy proxy server at work most likely)

    I see from the wikipedia page that this is done by the same developers as the Silent Storm series, loved those games (wish they would bring out some new ones)

  • I’m already in the Beta so I don’t need a key, but I would definetly like a group to play with, I plan to play Empire at launch, and I’ll probably play in Beta as Empire too…

    What do you plan on playing as in Beta/Launch Keen?

  • @Raex yes you can buy respecs from the cash shop which annoys me there called ‘water or death’ or something but apparently the item drops of mobs as-well so i assume you will be able to buy it from the trader with in-game money

  • Great overview for tomorrow’s launch, Keen. Thx!

    “What do you plan on playing as in Beta/Launch Keen?”

    Chris: Keen mentioned on the forums he’ll be playing “League primarily” but he’ll still test both sides out during the beta.

  • Hey Keen, been reading for a while. I’ve been trying to introduce my girlfriend to MMOs for a while and when I got into the beta for Allods I signed her up because it was so damn fun (also, she speaks Russian so she’s been helping me track down existing guides). I play Empire side on Misanthrope, drop me a line, will you?

  • For some reason the uniqueness of the “Gerbil” race makes me want to try League. I like the fact I can name all 3 of them! haha

  • @Raex: Yeah, as pointed out the respecs for stats and talents can be bought with real money. I thought a lot about this and and decided that it wasn’t that big of a deal to me. As Malik pointed out, you can get the items (although I hear they’re very rare) in-game from mobs (reminds me of DAOC’s way of doing it back in the day). Respecs might actually be one of the few things I’d buy in-game because I am always of the mindset that you should be able to correct a mistake but you should have the incentive not to make those imstakes.

    @Brunix, @Deigh: Keys sent.

  • @Misanthrope

    You should talk your girl friend into translating some of those talent tree builder things. 😀

  • @Cain, @Ludo: You guys should both have your invites.

    I have a couple more to send out. After they’re gone you guys will have to hit up mmorpg.com or Massively. 🙂

  • Sounds very promising.
    I would like to test the game, so if you have a key available, I would like to have one.

    Thank you!

  • i played CBT 1 and was impressed, however the early game combat is very very slow, i thought WARs was slow when it came out but this makes WARs combat look like it has an addiction to cocaine.

    Also, the intro/opening missions you do was what really amazed me and sucked me in right away…something i haven’t experienced playing in an MMO in a very long time. Character customization, the different range of classes and how well polished and fluid the gameplay is honestly very impressive. my hats off to the people developing this game because if they continue on the path they are going id like to state that i would actually pay money to play this.

    if you are bored of any mmo you are currently playing or are just looking to pick up something new – this is it.

  • @Darkan, @Argorius: Alrighty guys, you got the last 2. Enjoy!

    @Atrell: Yes, it’s very slow. You will see huge improvements to the combat speed as you level up just a few levels and put more points into expertise/perception or whatever your stat might be that increases your chance to hit/deal full damage. Once I upped my Warden’s perception I was burning through mobs (level 8).

  • I had to create a second gPotato account and this time it worked. The unsuccessful beta key screen allowed one to paste in the code whole, while the successful one had 5 boxes in a row to enter in the code 4 digits at a time. Perhaps it might have worked if I put dashes in after every 4 alphanumeric values?

  • I am a bit worried as there seems to be different portals for logging into gpotato; the one at http://www.gpotato.com/ works for me, but the one that I get directed to under “account” from the Allods Online game pop up/login screen (http://en.gpotato.eu/Login/Login.aspx) does not recognize my login name/password combo. The latter has locked me out due to repetative attempts to log in, although I can still log in on the former. I was able to validate my beta key on the former, but the question is will it allow my to log into the game given that the login screen is linked to the latter login site? For what it is worth I also hit “play” on the initial game screen and it gives me an “invalid username/password” error; this might be due to the obvious fact that the beta hasn’t launched yet, but it is worrisome that that linked .eu “account” redirect also states the same thing. Any thoughts?

  • I am stuck on the Astral Ship after killing the opposing commander, it says in the quest log to activate the teleporter (presumably to get back to my ship), but the doesn’t seem to be a way. Others in chat have the same problem…
    Looks pretty coll so far, the Astral mage’s ice flow is nice (said in a Borat sort of accent).

  • yeah the servers were up, and I am still in one stuck on a ship due to a bugged tutorial…
    perhaps they aren’t letting new people to servers until they get a fix…
    one person speculated that the problem is that you lose the “activation key” for the teleporter upon killing the commander…
    another person sais that a GM said the fix would take a few minutes, but that could be gossip…
    my name id “KrispyKreme” btw…

  • If you’re bored waiting for the servers to come up, click on the credits button. Some awesome artwork and a nice remix of what I think is the Allods theme. 😀

  • I can log in up to the point that I select the server a1_gala_us or something like that and I get a “Could not connect to the server” error.

  • the graphics and models are pretty much WoW. I haven’t had a problem with the combat speed, so far, but then again I like freezing those pesky charging warriors, so the more time to get my spells off the better…

  • “Servers are going down to apply a fix for a current issue with the Empire starting zone” – GM Haz 2:21 pm CST

  • servers down 3:35 pm CST…
    Looks like WoW, plays like WoW, …is WoW, but with microtransactions, and I like it!

  • Game seemed kinda fun but I ended up getting booted after going afk for a few. I haven’t been able to get in since, I guess on their twitter feed they stated they are having login issues due to the massive amount of people trying to login.

    Hopefully it will be resolved later tonight.

  • I haven’t had login issues per se, just having servers go down, like has just occurred again, but all that means is it is time for another beer; I have gotten back in fairly rapidly so far…

  • I registered for beta 1 but didn’t play. I got a beta2 key now too. I tired applying it and was told on the official site that my account is already beta clear. Great!

    Installed. Tried logging in the past hour, and it says invalid username or password. WTheck ?!

  • @Were: click on the account button on the initial game popup screen; does it bring you to an “,eu” account login site, if so you need to redownload the client from the http://allods.gpotato.com/ site if your account is not from the European site. See my convo above with Keen…

  • Sorry for the noob question, but I clicked on your wave link, but don’t see anything when I am in Wave. Do I have to perform a search to find the K&G wave? Just not sure how to find it when I am in the program. Thanks.

  • well I created a new account and applied my beta2 to it. then I logged 🙂

    Question: the talent tree – is this all the class will ever have? or is it just for the first 20 levels?

  • The one you have now is really a “skill tree” i guess. You get your Talent grids at level 10 where you’ll have 3 entire trees.

  • would you please give me an Allods CBT key
    ive already tried it in us version but cant finf an us key
    please 😀

  • Anyone know how to contact those idiots?
    The login screen does not work. Throws a php error.
    The help link, doesn’t help.

    On the allods site itself, all the liunks that might have been usefull are not active.

    And who’s the idiot who put dark brown text on a darker brown background?

    Seriously, I can barely read anything on their website.

    Regardless, Since there is no way at all for me to contact them what-so-ever I can guarantee that I will not be using the beta key they gave me nor will I ever consider paying for a game that is so poorly managed the the LOGIN PAGE is broken, and which has NO contact means whatsoever to let them know it’s broken.