My impressions as a total noob after about 2 months (season 0)

General discussions concerning the world of Requiem and the community.
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Losstarot
Posts: 53
Character: Kalisto Krauss

My impressions as a total noob after about 2 months (season 0)

Post by Losstarot » May 20th, 2021, 4:30 pm

I joined Requiem about 2 months ago as a total virgin to the mechanics and lore. Figured I'd give my feedback on my experience thus far, for both staff and new players alike, who may be interested in a personal opinion.

- First, let me say I was very resistent to come here, despite being invited countless times since Act 5 (looking at you verakke). The reason for my resistance: when checking the site and the systems, at a first glance everything looked way more complicated than what I was used to in other shards, and I felt a bit intimidated to have to learn a whole new system from scratch.

- Since then, I changed my mind. The system is, in fact, much simpler than it looks on the site, which was a surprise when I finally joined here for Act 6. Like all new things, it took some time to learn and get used to, but to be fair it was a very short time, in a day or two I had grasped the system well enough that I felt confident to continue playing.

- When writing my app, I felt that the amount of reading required was a bit overwhelming. The summary of the story looked a bit too cryptic and it felt like it wasn't enough to understand the world I was going into. The rest of the information seemed a bit scattered and some of them, as I was told later, are outdated. To me, as a new player, it was somewhat difficult finding the information I needed and to make connections with the current act.

- The community was absolutely wonderful in my learning process, answering my hundreds of questions in the help channel, which helped me a lot in coming up with a character's build to satisfy my playstyle.

- Speaking of playstyles, I have learned to enjoy this system a lot and the customization possibilities. Having the ability to craft our own "class" is amazing.

- The graphics on the shard also blew my mind, specially the gumps. You guys did an astounding job. It's crazy how old UO is, but still manages to impress. The graphics here are a refreshing sight to an old UO dog like me.

- The survival horror setting is also new to me. I was used to high fantasy or dark fantasy, so the new setting is also refreshing and I have to say I'm enjoying a lot that there's danger everywhere, the feeling on uncertainty etc, these are all new concepts in my UO RP experience.

- On starting, I really enjoyed the char creation process and how it is merged with the game lore, it was easy and intuitive, smooth, elegant. A lot of text, but understandably so.

- From the Rumbling Pass to the Fort, i felt like was being carried by the hand. But when arriving, I felt like was left loose and alone. I was utterly lost in my first days and a little invisible - most players I'd see running around the fort back and forth didn't seem to notice me at all. Occasionally, one or another would stop, [look at me for that 1 animus and then continue on. I'd try to RP with some and caught people afking in the bank or tavern (and still do). It was only when my character didn't look like a complete newbie, that RP started to pick up for me.

- Joining a faction HELPED A LOT. Not only to acquire my initial items / equipment, but also to get into the RP loop. If I had to give one advice to a new player, it would be: join a faction.

- Speaking of factions, I love the faction system here and the ability to build your own settlements or even whole cities is something I never thought I'd witness in UO RP. Really really well done. It's nice to pursue many different goals and quests as a group. I like that the shard encourages group RP through mechanics, really well thought out. The only part in the system that I don't like as much, is the fact factions are too scattered and far from the main rp hub. I wish we had more reason to stick around the main rp hubs, other than recovering grit. Even if the player base here is larger than other shard I've played, having these numbers segregated kinda defeats the purpose of everyone rping together as one big community, as opposed to many small communities.

- I'm not a huge fan of crafting, never been. I prefer to hunt lol. But the crafting here is so engaging I am taking crafting skills on my 2 chars. Crafting to me always felt boring or like a chore, but having to discover recipes of varying levels, and the access to limited resources, makes it a thrilling process. It's so exciting when you finally get that recipe you were looking for, or when you get a MW totally by chance on a first try.

- When I joined, I was told Requiem is very difficult. I did find it difficult, but not VERY. So far, every "stage" presented its own obstacles to overcome. For instance, while hunting as a completely new char, I felt like the newbie dungeons offered an appropriate level of difficulty. And as my char got stronger, the level of difficulty accompanied me up, as I moved to harder dungeons / hunting spots. It was very clear when I shouldn't be in a certain place and when I should.

- I think this impression of a "very hard requiem" comes from its grind intense nature. Personally, I didn't mind. It did take much longer to train skills here than on other shards. A sentence that was said to me upon joining makes a lot of sense: "Requiem isn't a sprint race, but a marathon". Being a marathoner myself, I can relate to this a lot, lol. While I don't mind the grind, being a powergamer myself, I feel like someone who doesn't enjoy the grind side of it might feel intimidated and I guess it could be interesting to find other ways to reward infusion or animus for RP. Because I think someone who doesn't have much time on their hands and would rather spend it RPing would have a really hard time capping their char. PS: i haven't capped my char yet, still some skills to train up and HUNDREDS of perks to buy.

- There are many systems which I haven't messed with yet, but from what I have witnessed ig, they really got me curious and interested. Such as magic, guns, engineering, pioneering, allopathy. They all look so cool and interesting, that I kinda wish we had infinite char slots to try them all, lol.

- Staff has been very mindful and helpful of requests. In everything I needed assistance, the response was usually super fast, including the wait time for application approval. This level of dedication puts a smile to my face. The ticket mechanic over discord is excellent for players to communicate directly with all staff, instead of this or that staff. Really good measure to avoid uhhh.. let's say.. certain less than honorable situations I'm sure we've all been through in other shards in the past.

- Combat mechanics (one of my favorite parts of UO) felt new and refreshing as well, even if using some old themes. A whole new world to explore in it, with skills, perks and abilities all coming together. It's nice to notice when I reach a power spike on my char when I finally get a certain perk, for instance, and planning how I'll progress. The dungeons I have visited thus far all looked different from one another, not only in their design / appearance, but also the enemies behaviours and their concepts, which is really nice.

- I love that the First Province is huge, but it's actually just a small part of a larger world and really all under the same "realm" (or republic, in Requiem's case). I also enjoy the steampunk theme a lot, not something I had seen on UO before.

These are all the points I could think of. This wasn't too much elaborated, I just wrote everything down as it passed my mind, trying to be as sincere as possible. I wanted to share my thoughts in a constructive way. I know I have still a lot to see and learn about the shard, but what I have seen and learned so far has impressed me a lot. Really enjoying playing here, guys, thanks to you all. Requiem definetely rekindled the flame of what I had assumed to be a dying community (UO RP) and I'm grateful for that.

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