9 Dragons, anyone?

[Pob255]

Just started to play this again after a couple of years, last time I played it it was still in it's very long open beta.

Nice to see it's still free to play, still looks pritty good and is fun, although very grindy and full of shout spam.

Just wondering if anyone here is also playing it?

[scaryjim]

Never heard of it before, will look into it and give it some consideration

[Pob255]

It's from Acclaim
They seem now just specialise in free mmo's and simple "cute" 2d games

http://www.acclaim.com/

[scaryjim]

Yeah, I noticed that; quite like the look of 2Moons too. Will have to download them once I get my study straightened out

[jim]

It's from Acclaim
They seem now just specialise in free mmo's and simple "cute" 2d games

http://www.acclaim.com/

Although I'm sure that this game is very good, that's extremely depressing.

[scaryjim]

This snippet from wikipedia may help to explain the apparent gulf between the Acclaim I knew and loved in my childhood and the MMOG-only Acclaim we know now:

After Acclaim Entertainment filed for bankruptcy, former Activision CEO Howard Marks purchased the "Acclaim" name in September 2004 for a reported $100,000[1]. He, along with Neil Malhotra, created a new company, naming it "Acclaim Games" and taking a totally different direction from the previous company.

source: Acclaim Games, wikipedia.

Wiki's articleon the original Acclaim is under Acclaim Entertainment.

[jim]

Yeah, it's comforting to know that it's not the same company in a way - I can't imagine anything more galling than working on titles like Burnout 2 one day, and then being told that you're replicating Space Invaders the next day.

[scaryjim]

lol, I guess - looks like it might be worth playing the original Spellborn for free while they're adding adverts and microtransactions to it, though

In fact, I like the look of a lot of their free MMOGs, tbh, and I'm not overly bothered by in game advertising or the whole microtransaction thing - I'll be more than happy with whatever gaming experience I get for nada

[Pob255]

There was originally planned advertising for 9Dragons, dureing the beta, every time you changed map you'd get an window labled "Advert" with the acclaim logo on it as part of the loading screen.
Also every time you moved into a new area on your current map a small "advert" window would open for a second or two.
It didn't really bother me.

However these "advert" windows are distinctly missing in this released version.

Looks like they've droped the advertising revinue stream for now and are just running on the micro payment stream.

Been palying for a week now, I'd forgotten how very grindy it is, not only xp + gold grind but all your skills are xp per use based as well.
e.g.
if you want to boost your self buff skill you're going to have to send a couple of hours doing nothing other than repeatedly using over and over.
At Cheng (skill level) 2 you get +0.68% per use for the first basic buff and you need to get it to 100% to get it to Cheng 3
The +% per use decreases per Cheng ranking, roughly halving per rank, basic self buff has a 4second recharge
cheng 1 = +1.24% per use (about 5min)
cheng 2 = 0.68% per use (about 10min)
cheng 3 = 0.36% per use (I think about 20min)
Actual time is far longer because you have to stop to rest to recharge energy and the mind numbing boredom of just standing some place safe and repeating the same skill again and again.
I think all skills cap out at Cheng 12 but that would take far too long for me to bother with.
Ontop of this you can get improved skills that replace these skills every 12 or 6 xp levels (depending on skill)

Throughout the course of grinding 6xp levels I can generally get my current martial art (your attack skill) up to about cheng 6 before the next better one becomes available.

I'm currently working on getting a Shaolin to Opening Chi so I can get my class.
So if any of you decide to give 9Dragons a go look him up.
Toon name is Pob-Hua-Tai

And a cookie goes to the first person to figure out that name

EDIT: I'll go into more detail of the game mechanics if anyone want me too.

[scaryjim]

... I'd forgotten how very grindy it is, not only xp + gold grind but all your skills are xp per use based as well. ...

Sounds a lot like the levelling system for Mageknight - Apocalypse!, a distinctly average kill-things RPG that IO picked up for £2.99 in Zavvi a couple of yars back (and it's actually a lo better, and more fun, than it might at first sound!). You know, it never occurred to me to just stand somewhere and grind skills until I'd reached the next level - obviously I'm not munchkinly enough!