Ace of Spades: First Impressions (and 0.75 Beta)

The first thing I noticed about Ace of Spades is that it's pretty close to Roblox.

Really close.  I mean, when I played Roblox, people made worlds where you would do exactly the same.  Exactly.  Except there was more freedom in creating the world.  As long as you had sufficient knowledge of Perl, you could literally make anything.  I'll be honest here- why didn't Roblox become this famous?

But this is not about AoS versus Roblox, so that discussion will be another blog post.  Anyway, Ace of Spades isn't bad.  So I'll start there.

First- it's a FPS (first person shooter).  As a general rule, I am not good at first person shooters.  Actually, horrible.  It's because you're in first person.  You can't see omnidirectional.  That by itself is okay.  (If it wasn't, I wouldn't be playing Minecraft.)  But coupled with long-distance weapons (bows don't count, Minecraft is about more than that), I can't take it.  I'm okay with third-person shooters (namely, Pawn Tactics), but FPS is another thing.

Second- you can build.  It sounds like Minecraft right around here (this is why people say that AoS is a mix of Minecraft and Team Fortress), where you can build to your heart's content.  For the game itself, this is what differs it from other FPSs, in my opinion.  Of course, used correctly, this is a tactical advantage.

I'm waiting for PrizeRebel to process my custom order of the released game.  But while I was waiting earlier today, I played the 0.75 Beta, which is free.  I believe that this post will be more about the 0.75 Beta, because I actually have played it.

Right off the bat, I realized that I would have to get the hang of this quickly.  There was no tutorial, which, in my opinion, is essential to (almost) every game.  So, thumbs down in that category.  In the Beta, they just throw a list of controls at you.

I didn't want to mess up early in my AoS playing, so I chose a random server and decided to spectate instead of fight.  (To be honest, I didn't see the 'Spectate' option coming.  It's like Clan Wars in RuneScape that way.  I like it.)  It served well to let me learn about the controls.

In Spectate mode, you are in a perpetual Fly mode (think Minecraft) of sorts.  The default controls are the same (good old WASD).  The only noticeable difference was the lack of a main use for the Shift key.  Still, I liked that.  Also, I'm still wondering whether or not one spectating can be sighted by those actually on the teams.  (I ran into the line of fire more than once.)

The servers seemed normal enough.  Just like Minecraft.  I noticed, though, that there is no Single Player Mode.  So there was no way for me to learn the ropes by myself.

I joined a server and luckily embarrassed no one on my team.

But that was the beta.  I'm looking forward to the actual released game.

~ReconnaisX

On Dungeoneering With Other People

What a boring title.  I know.  It sounds like a title for a speech.

But really, Dungeoneering with others is much different that going alone.  I usually go alone, because

1) Partners are not always reliable
2) Some people do not wait for me to finish skilling
3) It takes a while to get a partner
4) General lack of patience
5) Potentially quicker

But when you go as a group,

1) It is more fun
2) You get that teamwork feel (the very same as the one in Clan Wars)
3) Shared skilling xp (though not much)
4) Go in a large dungeon (lots of work)
5) You can show off your skills (if you have any)

I'm writing this mainly because of the teamwork thing, though.  I consider it the most important.
Today, I decided to go Dungeoneering, as usual.  I did a few dungeons alone, as usual.  Then I went onto World 7.  (W7 is the official Dungeoneering world.)  Someone invited me, and because I would go dungeoneering anyway, I accepted.  Then, that someone (Boulderbare) collected two others before the four of us went down.
Together, the four of us only did one dungeon.  I don't remember much because it was the first, but there was this guy who was always low on health (1-5%), so I had to feed him a crapload of food (and consequently got the Medic achievement at the end of the dungeon).  There was a level 105 who didn't die frequently, much to my surprise.  And Boulderbare had high skill levels in almost everything.  She got us past almost all of the doors (I'm talking about all of the dungeons we did) except for one that required 105 Runecrafting.  Ha, you can't make potions in F2P worlds in Daemonheim.
So we finished the first dungeon, and started the next.  Immediately, two guys bailed out (I expected them to, a lot of people do this).  Two of us was not enough for the Follow the Leader puzzle in the next room, so we left the dungeon and she reinvited me once we were outside.  This time, she pulled together a crew of five.  We went back in.
I remember this party more clearly-
(In order of invitation)
1) Boulderbare- Party Leader
2) Dragon 09853- Me
3) B I G E
4) like a ghost
5) Villian155

I more or less learned everyone's strengths.  Boulderbare was good at everything (that we needed), I mostly skilled but from time to time worked as a ranger and high-level monster soloer (everyone else was unlocking rooms, and I cleared them out.)  There was this one time that I was ranging a level 134 Icefiend alone (For comparison- I'm level 125, my ranged level is 47, and I was using a Spinebeam longbow with Fractite arrows.).  It took me around 5 minutes to kill it (thanks, Rejuvenate- it's seriously OPed).  Villian was a skiller.  B I G E and like a ghost were the relentless fighters, always pushing forward (and making me heal them).  Very fun- I should do this more.
At the end of a couple of dungeons, we added each other to our friends lists.  In fact, Villian155 was on about 5 minutes ago.
~ReconnaisX

PS: Got an UGC ($10).

Videos+ Moar RuneScape

I've more or less gotten the hang of EoC, so now I don't feel noobish in RuneScape.  I went to the Wilderness yesterday (specifically, Forinthry Dungeon, aka the Revenant Spot) for fun.  Of course, I didn't go in full rune (I don't have that much money to waste).  I went in full iron I had smithed and I picked up a steel sword along the way.  I killed Revenant imps (lowest-level revs), hoping to get Corrupt Dragon.  Well, of course, I got none.  Cool.
I found out that PrizeRebel is legit yesterday when I redeemed an Ultimate Game Card code from there for RuneCoins in RS.  Being the vain RS player that I am (gold-trimmed armor and all), I spent my (hard-)earned RuneCoins on TokHaar Warlord, which doesn't look that bad.  I also bought the title "The Untouchable", because I am a Defense tank.  (My friend reminded me at school today of the Untouchables in ancient India.  Basically, they were the lowest social class, and did the disgusting work that you might expect a janitor to do.  In short, totally different topic.)
If I decide to spend my next UCG on RuneCoins (who knows- I might need some Varium for Omega when it's released), I'll probably get the Solarius Shield (may have spelled wrong) and the Brutal Longsword.  Or maybe I'll wait for cooler stuff to come out.
I know that essentially, everything in Solomon's Store is vain/aesthetic/cosmetic, but I don't like the idea of membership, because I'm usually not sure when I can use a computer- aka not a daily basis.  And besides, with things like membership, once you stop it, it's as if you never had membership.  You'll have to continue the membership to continue your "experience" and continue using your "member stuff".  It's like the addiction of Varium- once you start, you can't stop.  However, with RuneCoins, you can, or at leastst in my opinion.
~ReconnaisX
PS: The ~ is called a tilde.