Albion Online

Mostly PC, but console and mobile too
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Albion Online

Post by Stranger »

I just wanted to give this game its own thread, as the more i play it the more i like it.

This is an older article about the comparisons with Eve and UO and how small guilds can actually compete with the large ones. really good and i suggest to check it out.

https://www.pcgamer.com/how-albion-onli ... ll-guilds/
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Post by Stranger »

Got my first taste of PvP in this game last night. Got downed by two peeps that were flagged red and then 3 minutes later another guy that saw what happened waited for me to revive and we went and got sweet revenge on them.

Let me start by saying i was downed because i was in a yellow zone, you can't die in yellow zones but you can PvP. There are green, yellow, red and black zones in Albion i'll explain each of them here. Basically the more dangerous zones you dare to adventure have the higher tier resources in them. If you just wanted to stay in green zones your whole life and never worry about PvP you could do so, you can still get the highest level gear by making money off the lower tier stuff and buying the top tier but this would of course take a lot longer to do.

So as you can imagine a green zone is completely safe to roam, you can gather at your hearts content but you will only get up to tier 3 resources. this is where i've spent all my time up until last night, i have all tier 3 equipment but wanted to see if i craft some tier 4 instead of just buying it from selling tier 3 stuff. So i needed to adventure to a yellow zone.

Yellow zones are generally neutral locations. There is limited PvP within each yellow zone. In order to attack another player within a yellow zone, you must flag for PvP combat. if you are attacked and your hit points are reduced to zero, you will be knocked down for 3 minutes and lose 30% of all the resources in your inventory. In yellow zones you are unable to be killed or looted by another player, but can still can lose a substantial amount of materials. So its a fairly safe location to play in, but still has some penalties should you engage in PvP combat and lose. Groups of larger flagged people will show up on your minimap as a red blob, so you can try and avoid larger parties if ya wish.

Red zones are full loot PvP. In order to attack another player within a red zone, you must flag for PvP combat. Once flagged for combat you may attack any player you encounter, but they may also attack you without flagging themselves. If your hit points are reduced to zero in a red zone, you are downed and may be executed by another player. Once executed, your body becomes fully lootable and you will be forced to respawn at another location. Dying in a red zone essentially means losing anything you had with you at the time of death. Once again larger groups are shown as a red blob on your minimap.

Black zones are unlimited full loot PvP. In black zones you are able to attack anyone and everyone that you see, without being required to flag for PvP combat. If your hit points are reduced to zero in a black zone, you die. There is no execution mechanic in a black zone. There is no minimap blob for large parties, so you may or may not run into a guild of 100 looking for trouble.

I haven't been to the red or black yet as i'm not prepared for that but from what i've read alot of people say don't go into red and black zones wearing gear your not prepared to lose. So i guess alot of people will go into these zones with tier 4 gear which is fairly cheap to replace if you do get killed. I just got a full set of tier 4 gear so when ive got enough cash or resources to get another full set with ease i'll venture into the red zones and see what i can do there. Now obviously trying to take on a group 5V1 is futile for someone like me, but i've read lots of posts where solo players build their gear for maximum escapability so when they do get ganked they just run.
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Post by Stranger »

I'm always looking for the next MMO to play since i've slowed down on WoW a while back. Tried New World, but it just didn't click with me. It was released too early, lots of bugs. Needs another year or so of development and content then i think it could be a really good game. I thought the same about Albion Online when i first started playing it, and i guess that was over 2 years ago now. It was very bare bones, very little content to do as a solo player and being a full loot PvP game the zerg guilds running all over the place made it impossible to enjoy anything in the open world.

Since then so much has been added, (a new giant expansion just a month ago). There is content for solo players, corrupted dungeons you can go it alone or click on shrine at the start of the run for the possibility of you invading another persons dungeon or someone else invading yours. Its great because it gives you some PvP action but it can only be 1v1. This can be done in non full loot sections of the map or full loot, the choice is yours.

There's small group content. open world dungeons for groups of 2-5, there can be people already in these dungeons and your group can go in there and over take their dungeon run or you can get yours raided. So there is always a chance you may run into some PvP action. Like before this can be done in non full loot or full loot sections of the map.

There's open world bosses for small groups up to raid groups. Roads to Avalon which are portals in PvP zones that will allow anywhere from only 2 up to 40 people in there at once. Expeditions for just the PvE crowd, this is just a dungeon run for 5 players cue up as a solo or group. Hellgates are 2v2, 5v5 or 10v10 dungeons that have PvE elements with the guarantee of PvP action. Then of course all the big guild content, like Siege camps and Territory control. Or just que up for some arena PvP action if you wish.

So there is something for everyone now. This is a different type of MMO, it's a sandbox 100%. Other than the intro tutorial quest line, there are no other quests in the game, none. Your character doesn't go up levels, instead you level up your gear and the more you use that gear you are able to use higher and higher tier gear. With this system its really easy to be enjoying just about everything in the game within a day of playing. The game play is a top down isometric view and the action bar is just your Q,W,E,R, D and F buttons that's it. So it plays just like League of Legends. Most MMO's have about 100 buttons you've got to be proficient with and that gets out of control IMO.

So how does the full loot PvP work? You end up building up your economy so that when you go out into PvP zones you go out with gear that you can afford to lose. There are 8 tiers of gear in the game, currently i can equip tier 6 and some tier 7 pieces but when i go into PvP territories im usually wearing T4 gear. This stuff is pretty cheap to buy if i lose it but its not so weak that i can't kill NPC's or even another PvPer that may gank me. Now if someone comes at me in T7 gear then i'm pretty much fucked but that guy is risking losing that gear to someone else. So i like to put some cheaper gear on try and get into a zone and farm up some shit real quick and get the hell out of dodge ASAP. But as i'm building my economy up i'm finding that i can start to wear some T5 without it really hurting me if i lose it. The good thing about this is even a new player can get to T4 gear pretty damn quick, seriously like within a few hours of playing.

Best thing about the game, its free. yes you can pay a $12 montly premium and this is just for getting more fame (basically your XP for leveling up gear) and silver. I've played probably 80% of the game without any premium it really doesn't come in handy until you're really trying to max out your gear level. Plus the game is like a 3GB download, really no reason to not give this game a try. If anyone is interested in playing please let me know i can help get you jump started really quickly.
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Post by Cakedaddy »

tldr: Is the PVP optional? Or are you susceptible when you go out into the wild?
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Post by Stranger »

Cakedaddy wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 8:32 pm tldr: Is the PVP optional? Or are you susceptible when you go out into the wild?
This is a full on PvP game. Read my second post in this thread, where i talk about each zone being a different color on the map. Safe zones all the way up to full loot PvP depending on where you go to.

I haven't played this in a while and things may have changed a bit, but that premise should still hold true.

Tough game to go it alone in those full PvP sections of the map, but the rewards are worth it.
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Post by Cakedaddy »

My wife was looking for a game to play, and came across this one. She saw the farming and crafting and wanted to give it a try. We played for a few hours last night.

How far can you progress without going into PVP zones at all?
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Post by Stranger »

Cakedaddy wrote: Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:40 am How far can you progress without going into PVP zones at all?
I'm not really sure to be honest but i think quite a bit. Unless things have changed, you level up your weapons and armors you can use by using them in combat. Im sure this is accelerated when you go into higher level territories, but i guess it's conceivable that you can get a max level weapon if you grind long enough in the lower levels.

Same goes for crafting, you craft low level gear until you get to the point that you can craft higher level gear. But you will need the higher level mats or gold.

i can't remember much of the farming, i'd plant shit and collect it to sell.

Like i said its been a while since i've played and i'm always seeing the updates as i follow the game on Twitter. I've always enjoyed playing it but solo makes it more difficult.
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Post by Cakedaddy »

Well, we're in here for now if you feel like jumping back in. However, I'm only a few hours in, so just grinding still. JUST equipped tier 3. Will probably be doing mostly PvE type stuff with the wife. She says she doesn't want to PvP.
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Post by Stranger »

The newest content "Beyond the Veil" just came out like a month ago and i've been thinking about checking it out again. So i'll let you know when i get in.

If you're at tier 3 then you are just about ready to go full on. Tier 4 is pretty much the base line you want to be at when going into PvP areas. It becomes cheap disposable equipment that you aren't afraid to lose if you do get ganked and you aren't necessarily gimped because its weak.

Good thing is, there's a lot of content for small groups like dungeons and Hell Gates that's part PvE and PvP. Raiding another person's dungeon or having yours invaded makes for some fun game play.

Just curious, what kind of build are you running? Cause you can mix and match all pieces of gear to play how you wanna play. Pretty cool that your spell abilities are tied to the gear that you wear and not just a class that you pick.
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Post by Cakedaddy »

I'm just doing swords right now, but about to switch to bow. Haven't dug deep into gear abilities and combos yet.
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Post by Stranger »

Cake? whats ur ingame name?
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Post by Cakedaddy »

AlextTheArtist
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Post by Stranger »

sent friend request, but without the small "t"
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Post by Stranger »

do u not see chat window?
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Post by Cakedaddy »

I was just checking out your stats when you logged. . .

I'm not quit to tier 5 equipment so far. I'm tier 4 in armor and bow though.
Last edited by Cakedaddy on Thu Feb 02, 2023 12:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Stranger »

I was whispering you and typing in party chat, i guess none of you saw that. Maybe it was because we were in different zones?? What part of the map are you in? I was in Thetford.

Tier 4 and 5 seem to be what i usually run around with. I can wear Tier 7 swords and some armors but they are expensive and i don't wanna risk losing them in PvP areas.

Have you guys ran any open world dungeons or done any of the PvE expeditions yet?
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Post by Cakedaddy »

We pay zero attention to the chat. . . because we don't use it. We were in discord though. Interesting that I was in a party with the other two, then you invited me to your party, and you actually joined ours.

As far as what we've done, we are still working on the tutorial quests! I 'think' I'm on the last one which is invading the Heretic Keep with 2+ players. As far as the other two I'm playing with, they would be my wife, who only wants to craft stuff and get a house. And my brother in law who will only want to PvE. They are both way behind me. My wife has stopped doing the quests and is just farming resources. Brother in law was lost for a couple of hours last night so has not finished the quests. I think eventually they will both participate in PvE stuff, but it will be a minute.

I have been in a couple of solo dungeons. I can complete the ones in the tier 3 areas. I couldn't beat the boss in a tier 4 by about 5% health. I'd get him so low, but he'd always get me in the end. I was in a tier 5 area for a bit just hitting surface spawn creatures. Was in a group dungeon for a minute, but didn't stay long.

I like how you can play on mobile devices, and it plays well on them. The only thing I do on my phone is fish though because the screen is so small.
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Post by Cakedaddy »

My review of the game so far is. . . it plays like UO, but uses Archage combat mechanics. As far as crafting, it has a lot of similarities to UO after about 5 years with the resources, but is not as in depth with how much you can make.

The economy is 100% player driven. There are no NPCs that will buy your stuff. If players don't want it, it's worthless. But you can recycle everything, so, there's a small value to everything in resource recovery. But. . . there are some things that are odd. Weapons are all player made. So, I buy my bow from a player. The bow wears out and needs to be repaired. I go to an NPC repair station and pay to repair it. This removes the players. . . also, my bow never breaks and is lost. I never have to buy this bow again. So demand for bows is finite. On one hand, this is good as the supply of bows is high keeping prices low. It's bad if you are a crafter, you are competing with a billion other bows on the market. That being said, high tier bows ARE expensive. But I think that has more to do with the grind it takes to be able to make them, as apposed to demand. Markets are local as well. As in, each trading post is its own entity. Each trading post has its own inventory and you go to that trading post to buy it. You can't buy something (or even see it) at another trading post. I came across a site that showed prices in different towns. There might be a market for buying low in one city and selling high in another. Your bank works the same way. Anything you stash in City 1, will not be accessible in City 2.

Combat is a lot like Torchlight, although not as intense. Torchlight is a full on hack n slash with nonstop action. This is more reserved and tactical. It's all about special attacks with cool downs. There's no skill cap (that I know of), so you can do anything you want. Like UO, if you do it, you'll earn XP in that skill. Fight with a sword, get better at it. Fight with a staff, get better at it. So you aren't going up levels, then spending skill points on stuff. As you do things, you earn points in multiple stuff. When I kill a monster with a sword, I gain points in swords, wearing armor, using a shield, doing adventure stuff (literally a 'do things' skill), and probably more. That's all I can think of. So you can do anything and everything with one character.

As far as scratching the MMO itch, this actually does a pretty good job so far.
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Post by TheCatt »

I'm mildly intrigued, might check it out. Does anyone have a referral code?
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Post by Stranger »

Cakedaddy wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 12:16 pm We pay zero attention to the chat
I figured that. it you don't have the right tab open then my message would've easily gone unnoticed.
Cakedaddy wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 12:16 pm I have been in a couple of solo dungeons. I can complete the ones in the tier 3 areas. I couldn't beat the boss in a tier 4 by about 5% health. I'd get him so low, but he'd always get me in the end.
Always carry a consumable on you and potions. I like the cod fish, gives you like 100% health regen for 30 mins. makes a big difference in those dungeons.

I've never tried the hellgates, there are 2v2 5v5 and 10v10 versions. We should try a 2v2 some time.
Cakedaddy wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 12:38 pm also, my bow never breaks and is lost. I never have to buy this bow again
This won't be true once you get ganked in PvP areas and lose all your shit. I've had to rebuy wholes sets of gear many times. And those guys who took all your shit are most likely keeping some of it but salvaging most of it for the mats. So those weapons do get taken out of the system eventually.
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