First day observations

[Morreion]

I'm impressed with Phoenix, the server has no lag, stutter or any other issues for me. Twice the server went linkdead but I got right back in.

DAoC on Phoenix is basically Shrouded Isles and Foundations (the housing expansion) with New Frontiers...with some customizations. It's the Catacombs engine.

There's a good crowd, someone remarked when the server hit 1k population (update: 3200 now).

Leveling is faster. You get Phoenix Eggs as a drop, save them and turn them in to your trainer, I turned in a stack and got one whole level of exp!

Loot is good. There's a lot of weapon and armor drops. Won't have to buy any at this rate!

I got my first gold at level 6- twice as fast as I remember in DAoC.

Also, you automatically get Tasks. Type /task to see your progress (basically you kill humanoids, magic creatures, animals etc.), the level 3-8 Task also includes turning in Eirebug Eyes to a guy in Mag Mell (right click and get info on the eyes to see who) which gives you experience and coin.

Oh and you can train anywhere when you level- type /train.

If you're worried about messing up your training spec, apparently you can respec all you want before level 49 (saw a few different players saying that).

Hope you're all having fun!

[Loendal]

I logged in at exactly 6 AM (EST) when they opened up. I wanted to make sure that I didn't get Popo's name stolen from under me again, plus I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. There's a nasty streak of really heavy Uthgard hatred out there of the typical Internet mob-mentality kind.

My first impressions were very much in the wow category.

The leveling is really very quick, I feel as if I'm actually making good progress at a faster then before kind of rate. I created a Blademaster as an alternative to Popo and I was level 3 within literally a few minutes of stepping out of Domnamn (I'm probably misspelling that..) and had a decent set of gear. All I really did was Tab, Stick, and attack. When my wife and I teamed up, within an hour or so we were proudly strutting around as a Level 10 duo. Pheonix says they expect even casual players to be level 50 with about 48 hours of playtime.

The random gear system they've implemented is fun and helps keep your little newbie butt alive alot longer. Though I worry that quests and such are now completely pointless. Why bother talking with an NPC for a specific quest to go here and do that to get a weapon which you can probably get just by going to the nearest yellow mob and killing it instead? I haven't researched anything about Pheonix's quests, so I don't know if those items have been powered up as well or not.

Resting for HP and Endurance seem to go faster, and the horses are lightning quick (and free); both things which I like.

On the technical side of things, Morreion is right, there's zero lag and I haven't seen any respawning mob issues. I always seem to have something somewhere to kill, as well as the joy my old heart feels in seeing dozens of graves littered all around the most popular camp sites. The sheer volume of people around is beautiful, but I know it's only temporary. Uthgard started much the same way, and within a few weeks, was like a tomb. The community seems to be friendly in that stiffly-internet kind of way (if that makes sense) and you have your usual assortment of opinionated jerkwads who complain even when there's not really much to complain about, fourth-wall breakers, and min-maxers around.

So far, I'm enjoying it, and that's kind of a big deal as I can't seem to get really "into" any games as of late. Robert has played a bit, and he also seemed to enjoy himself and really wants to give those role-player genes he got bred into him from my wife and I for a spin some time, so Haven-ites be warned! If you see a Celt named Rimadalc... Well, you know what to do I'm sure

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