[Megathread] Wildstar - Now F2P

[Matt0193]

I'd actually say for Wildstar that leveling is a learning curve. If you play like you do 1-15, the level 15+ zones will chew you up. I just wish that the game focused less on trying to force you to group up for things, between absurdly fast regenerating Interrupt armor and quests/challenges being difficult to Gold without kill tagging it's a pain being a solo player, especially as I'm not an Engineer (Pet taunt op nerf).

[Arlee]

OK, so I downloaded the beta but it wouldn't let me log on - eternal hamster wheel. Googling told me that I have to open some ports in order to play the game at all. Which means I need to figure out the router passwords and, yeah, not going to do it.

I've heard great things about the game here and elsewhere, so I may yet go to the effort of making it playable on my machine. But I wonder - is this port requirement something that they're fixated on, or might the issue be fixed so that I don't need to make the effort if I buy the game when it goes live?

I really, really don't want to mess with opening ports on my family's router.

I have heard about people having these issues (I had the same issue on WoW years ago). However I haven't had that problem with Wildstar. All I need to do is launch it as Admin and occasionally I'll get a pop-up asking me if I want to allow it access which I said yes to. So there has to be some way around doing all that.

[Katchii]

The whole idea of leveling teaches you how to play is a good one in theory

It is a good idea, but fails on one main point imo; how to function in a dungeon or raid environment where you have more things to worry about than just your abilitiy rotation. Leveling generally does do a good job at teaching you your rotation, however, leveling usually does not teach you the skills you need in raids.

Wildstar seems to break this mold though, with every enemy doing something that requires you to pay attention to more than just your rotation, so maybe this will be different...

[Kelimbror]

It's how the Wildstar Devs describe the leveling experience themselves. The combat starts out much simpler in the beginning and throughout the leveling process it picks up and players are introduced to harder and harder fight mechanics so that when they reach endgame it won't be some insurmountable barrier to learn at that point. That is exactly how they view leveling in their game.

The fact that they view it that way is only further prove of how large the fallacy is. Leveling Dungeons are a more appropriate form of training for end game. Questing does not function to teach you much of anything, regardless of how proud they are at the presumed difficulty ramping.

[Tyris Flare]

I wasn't a fan of FF14 for other reasons, but the way they gradually spoon-fed you group content and proper group roles was probably nice for new players. This game (and others) could probably benefit from something like that.

It's been a long, long time since the days of EQ-style group questing and whatnot where getting to the level cap was a challenge unto itself, but it doesn't seem like modern games put any learning mechanisms in their place.

[Simulacrum]

Meh, I really wanted to try their dungeons, but I'm level 12 now and I just can't stand it anymore. The questing content is so insanely boring I can't keep it up anymore.

Doesn't help that the movement system is really clunky and unresponsive, along with the combat system, posing a constant source of irritation throughout every second of gameplay.

I don't understand how people can say that the combat system feels good. Why can't I use abilities while sprinting? And why does the game need a diva break between me letting go of the shift key and it realizing that I'm not sprinting anymore? Why can't I can't toggle auto-run on/off unless I've entered NO inputs to my character for something like half a second at least (it's hard to describe how irritating this is when constantly running from point to point), and I can't even interact with world objects before my character has come to a complete halt from movement, which also takes like half a second. Oh and it likes to lock me into auto-run if I'm running while a cutscene randomly initiates, which it won't even let me disable until like half a second of running has already taken place after I was supposed to have re-gained control of my character.

When I have to sit there and not do anything for half a second every time I want to perform another action, because the game doesn't let me perform more than one action at the same time, and it even takes half a second to register that I'm not doing anything, that's the opposite of engaging.

Dunno how they manage to plan their release a decade after WoW, yet manage to not even get close to the level of freedom of movement over your character that WoW has had from day one, especially considering it's one of the main-selling points of the game. Why does every MMO do this so much worse than WoW does? I don't understand.

Well, whatever.

[Rooflesstoofless]

Aside from the connection issues that seem to be problematic today I've been having a lot of fun with the game. Reminds me of a cross between WoW and GW2 in terms of combat and when the servers aren't acting up fighting feels pretty good. I enjoy the art style even if it comes off a little dated.

[mkultra55]

I can't buy the excuse that is a training for end game. Since the end game is raiding, I fail to see how questing trains you for raiding. Dungeons maybe but questing? You don't need to do any kind of specific rotation or optimization in your action set to be effective in questing nor is there really any strategic mob AI comparable to raiding in questing. You have little group quests but those just tend to be beefed up regular mobs (hiwhitedamageplzcomekillmecausewhitedamage).

The two have little to no connection with each other besides maybe a quest telling you to go raid.

Well we used to have training "progression" in WOW.

Quests in Vanilla taught you about aggro range and helped with spatial awareness. You could easily pull too many mobs and/or get into the aggro range of other close by mobs while fighting unless you had an awareness of your surroundings. Multiple mob pulls back in the day would likely mean death or running for your life.

Dungeons took what you learned while questing and added group awareness, more critical aggro awareness and extra Class skills that you may have never used while questing.

We've pretty much lost any "training" in the quest content in WOW and there's even little need for an understanding of how skills synergize.

[Lightwysh]

Well, I'd like to give it a go, but I guess my NCSoft account is frozen. I've contacted support and will see how long Support takes to fix the problem. If its anything like when I tried to reactivate my GW1 account a couple years ago, I probably wont get to play in the beta and frankly wont be buying the game because the previous support was shit.

[Loyrl]

I remapped my auto run to a mouse button and I have steer installed. I have to hit the button a few times for it to auto run, is it because of the re-mapping or steer, or just a bug in general?

[Airlick]

Well, I'd like to give it a go, but I guess my NCSoft account is frozen. I've contacted support and will see how long Support takes to fix the problem. If its anything like when I tried to reactivate my GW1 account a couple years ago, I probably wont get to play in the beta and frankly wont be buying the game because the previous support was shit.

Pretty sure Carbine has their own support for Wildstar related issues, just not the account & billing stuff.

Back in Closed Beta I got my answer from their support within 24 hours, I was actually amazed.

[ButterDunker]

Well, I'd like to give it a go, but I guess my NCSoft account is frozen. I've contacted support and will see how long Support takes to fix the problem. If its anything like when I tried to reactivate my GW1 account a couple years ago, I probably wont get to play in the beta and frankly wont be buying the game because the previous support was shit.

Or, you could make a new NCSoft account to try the game out. js

[Kelimbror]

I remapped my auto run to a mouse button and I have steer installed. I have to hit the button a few times for it to auto run, is it because of the re-mapping or steer, or just a bug in general?

Steer does nothing to impede the functionality of auto run. All it handles is camera locking and the keybinds to disable it, etc. Are you also using Keybind Freedom or Carbine's default keybind system?

[Loyrl]

Default keybind system.

[Tekkommo]

I remapped my auto run to a mouse button and I have steer installed. I have to hit the button a few times for it to auto run, is it because of the re-mapping or steer, or just a bug in general?

I get this sometimes, didn't happen to me until I installed Steer.

[Kelimbror]

Default keybind system.

Try using Keybind Freedom and see if you have the same problem? Steer doesn't affect your keybinds (outside of your preferred button for getting your mouse cursor back) or your ability to autorun. By contrast, I can use the default numlock fine and I have my mount bound to the middle mouse button which also works fine. I'd give KBF a try and see if you have the same problem. If you do, it's either something wrong with your mouse or the actual game.

- - - Updated - - -

I get this sometimes, didn't happen to me until I installed Steer.

Odd. There's no reason why this should happen, but bugs are possible with any program and addon. I guess take what I said with a grain of salt, but also see if KBF resolves the issue. It's the same mod author, so maybe there's an accidental dependency.

[Tekkommo]

Try using Keybind Freedom and see if you have the same problem? Steer doesn't affect your keybinds (outside of your preferred button for getting your mouse cursor back) or your ability to autorun. By contrast, I can use the default numlock fine and I have my mount bound to the middle mouse button which also works fine. I'd give KBF a try and see if you have the same problem. If you do, it's either something wrong with your mouse or the actual game.

- - - Updated - - -


Odd. There's no reason why this should happen, but bugs are possible with any program and addon. I guess take what I said with a grain of salt, but also see if KBF resolves the issue. It's the same mod author, so maybe there's an accidental dependency.

It doesn't happen that often, what happens is I click auto run, I'll move around one step forward, the cursor disappears (steer starting to work), then my character stops and my cursor reappears.

I also have auto run bound to a mouse button.

It doesn't happen enough to annoy me.

[Kelimbror]

It doesn't happen that often, what happens is I click auto run, I'll move around one step forward, the cursor disappears (steer starting to work), then my character stops and my cursor reappears.

That makes me think that something you are doing (whether it's your hardware or addons or stray key presses) are stopping your character, which is what makes the mouse return while using steer. If I could replicate the problem, maybe I could pinpoint it, but I can use my autorun just fine with Steer + KBF. Make sure your addons are updated, make sure your mice aren't wonky, try out KBF to see if it resolves the issue? I don't know any other solutions tbh. Maybe this has been reported on curse for Steer, can't check at work.

[KCguy]

I'll be honest. I haven't played much, but first impressions are "so so". Nothing screams amazing so far. I'm getting 40 fps, but it doesn't feel smooth when I run and jump and attack (if that makes sense).

[Loyrl]

Yeah at work right now too, if I log on tonight ill try a few different things, then report it.