I just started playing it last Sunday. I too am enjoying it a lot. I also
played Rolemaster to death. :)
I love the skill/attribute system. It makes sense. I like, contrary to
what some people have said, the way your character looks. I like the fact
that everyone doesn't look exactly the same, depending on class. Piecemeal
armor doesn't look as nearly as stupid as it does in EQ, either.
My only complaint is the disk thrashing as you walk through the land (which
looks 10000x better than EQ's "landscape", IMO.) I don't have a slow
computer by any means (400mhz Cel, 256M ram, decently fast HD it's on,
etc..) but the pausing when it accesses the disk is annoying. There should
be a way to have it retain textures and such in RAM when you've got a ton of
it. Unless I just don't know about some way to fix that.. (checking AC
websites....)
However, like you, I will be keeping my EQ account active for the time
being. Don't know how long that will be. I hadn't played since last
Friday, log on today, go LD within 10 minutes. Get back on, and all
cerf-net servers are being shut down, so I have to log. :) Unfortunately,
there's a problem with characters not appearing when you login to AC right
now, or else I'd be playing that. :)
> From: "Reece, Tom CPT- 25IDL G4" <g4mntofcr@...>
>
> My server has been on the blink recently so I haven't been getting any
> eqbard emails. Got a flood of them today now that its working finally.
> Thought I would comment on this topic as well.
>
> My RL best friend bought AC and convinced me to buy it as well. The price
> was only $25 at COMPUSA and you get a month free so I figured even if I
> didn't like it I would get my money's worth. After playing it for the
past
> few days and getting my character up to 5th level, all I can say right now
> is that I am thoroughly enjoying the game. I played Rolemaster a lot in
> college and the way the stats and skills work in AC are very similar. And
> on the topic of stats and skills, they actually work. When you increase
any
> of these you get noticeable
> effects.
>
> The original poster covered most of the pros and cons so I won't go into
> those. As it stands right now, I'm going to keep my EQ account active for
> now but I think, in the near future, I will end up spending most of my
time
> playing AC. Here are the key factors why:
>
> 1) Get to play with my best friend online.
> 2) AC is much better than EQ for casual gamers. If you don't have but an
> hour or two to play, you can still log in and accomplish something.
Soloing
> is a viable alternative, whether outside or in a dungeon.
> 3) No overcrowding and therefore no fighting over spawns.
> 4) Fast respawn rate. In the places I've been so far, the respawn rate
is
> somewhere around 5 minutes. Basically nonstop action no matter where you
> are at.
> 5) No camping. Loot is randomized based on the level of the mob you are
> fighting.
> 6) No hell levels!!
> 7) No EXP loss when dying. Vitae penalty worked off gradually as you
kill
> more mobs. Plus you keep almost all of your equipment when.
> 8) Dungeon crawl mode of adventuring is the standard.
>
> So if these issues are more important to you than having a bank to store
> stuff, traditional fantasy classes/monsters, secure trading windows, and a
> better chat interface, then you might enjoy AC.
>
> If anyone decides to give it a try, look me up on the Morningthaw server.
> My character's name is Ott Numah.
>
> Later
> Galtin of E'ci