Shadowbane closing, opening servers

[Mark Asher]

Some interesting stuff going on with the game - new world maps, new servers, and old servers being killed off.


On December 4, the Carnage, Death, Deception, and Dread servers will vanish from the Shadowbane universe to be made ready for the new Vorringia ice world launch currently scheduled for January. Further details concerning the re-launch of these four servers will be made in an official press release announcement from Ubisoft in early December.

The Fear world will also be taken down and immediately replaced with a new server called Cataclysm. This new server will offer an intense challenge to all Shadowbane nations, guilds, and players - a never ending world of constant battle and strife! The new Cataclysm server will use the new Dalgoth strategic map, and like the Corruption world will have its own unique ruleset.

The players that already exist on Carnage, Death, Deception, Dread, and Fear will be allowed to migrate their characters to one of four servers: Vengeance, Chaos, Mourning, or War. As with previous migrations, transferring characters can only cross worlds with the items they have equipped. So over the next week, players should carefully consider what gear they will equip for the transition.

When Migration begins on December 4, the new Cataclysm world will also appear. This new server will operate very differently than other Shadowbane worlds as it has a revolving life cycle of three months. This means that every three months the world will destroy itself and restart anew. However, after each "Cataclysm" and re-birth, one of the Freeholds will be renamed to give tribute to the winning guild of its previous cycle. On the fragment of Cataclysm, your Guild can not only change the world, they can conquer it!

The rules of Cataclysm will also differ in other ways. Experience will be gained twice as quickly as other servers, and gold will be more plentiful. Furthermore, Cataclysm will use the Maintenance and Upgrade System currently found on the Corruption server. This means that city maintenance costs will be very inexpensive, but upgrading costs will be more so.

Cataclysm will not be using the faction based Guild Experience system currently in place on the Corruption server.

One question that remains is how we will determine which guild wins after a three month life cycle ends? We are still engineering a system that will automatically calculate Victory points for each city during a three month life cycle and more details will be announced on this system very soon. Some of the things we will say at this point is that Victory Points will be awarded based upon many aspects of a Guild city itself: population, longevity (based upon the date the city was founded), and the Creation and Ranking of the structures within the city. Different structures will yield different point values: for instance, Barracks award no points while Forges will be worth five points apiece and Citadels ten. There will be many other factors in the point system and we will announce those soon.

And what prize do the victors claim? As mentioned before, when Cataclysm restarts one of the Safeholds on the world map will be renamed after the victors' city, and its emblems will shift to their Guild crest. Individual structures within that Safehold may also be renamed to commemorate the achievements of the winning Guild, or its officers. Finally, the deeds and conquests of the winning city will be added to the Chronicle of Strife, with exclusive interviews and detailed accounts that will ensure that their glory will endure forever.

Four of my five characters are on servers that are closing. This is actually good news for me because I can now migrate them to a busier server, probably Vengeance. Of course, I don't have a city or stuff like that. For those players and guilds, it kind of sucks. Of course, they may welcome getting to move to a new server as well.

The new Cataclysm server sounds interesting. With the 2X XP gain, you'll be able to level a character in a week or two. Of course, your character will disappear every three months. Heh. Still, it will be a server with something to fight over and the incentive to get busy about conquering the world right away.

Also, Gamestop was giving away Shadowbane for free. After you entered some code, it was free except for the shipping. The new expansion should be out in December as well.

[J.theYellow]

This is definitely do or die time in Shadowbane land, and everyone knows it. The good news is that everyone in a position to do something about it seems to be doing just that. Making the game less persistent on the Cataclysm server seems an elegant way to recapture the spirit of beta testing, when some of the most fun came right after a server wipe, and everyone hurried to rebuild and get ready all over again.

[Mark Asher]

Yeah, and with the 2X XP gain, it will be painless to make new characters. People will hit level 50 in a week or sooner.

I'll probably go back and forth between the new server and Vengeance, where I'll have my current R5 characters after I get to move them off Fear and Deception, which are closing.

They really should let us have a few more character slots. Five (six if you get the expansion) isn't enough.

For all its flaws, SB is still my favorite MMO. I just wish it would run on my new PC.

[Qenan]

Sounds interesting... may be worth giving Shadowbane a try if I can find it cheap. (I'm not going to pay full price for a game that may be out of business in a year...)

[Nathan Phoenix]

This really does sound interesting, but not that long ago when Ubi reactivated everyone's account for a free 2 weeks or 30 days or whatever it was, I tried it and I just couldn't handle the wacky UI. I don't know, I really dig FFXI's unique UI, but the mouse-control style of SB feels really unintuitive to me.

[Mark Asher]

Yeah, it's different, but after I got used to it I really liked it. It takes a single click to move and that's it, and it's really easy to swing the camera around to check out what might be coming from behind you or from the side.

[Mark Asher]

You can get Shadowbane for free from Gamestop.

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=644839

The code you enter is: SBFREE

You have to pay for the shipping.

Or, you can wait and buy the expansion for $20, which includes Shadowbane. This is a Gamestop deal also. I don't know if the expansion will include the original game elsewhere. My advice is to get the free SB and not worry about the expansion until you see if you like the game or if it even runs.

The new server that gets wiped every three months will start on December 4th, I believe.

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

I love the idea of Cataclysm--sounds like the perfect server for a MMORPG fan who doesn't have a ton of time to play--like me! :P

I'm downloading the Shadowbane demo as I type this... I hope I like it!

[Mark Asher]

I love the idea of Cataclysm--sounds like the perfect server for a MMORPG fan who doesn't have a ton of time to play--like me! :P

I'm downloading the Shadowbane demo as I type this... I hope I like it!

I'd suggest playing on Vengeance or Corruption, although the latter has slower than normal XP.

[Qenan]

Thanks, Mark. That's a great offer -- but I'll swing by Gamestop tomorrow and see if I can pick one up for the $5 price. If not I'll go with the free + shipping. Either way is a great deal.

[Mark Asher]

Thanks, Mark. That's a great offer -- but I'll swing by Gamestop tomorrow and see if I can pick one up for the $5 price. If not I'll go with the free + shipping. Either way is a great deal.

I think that's an online-only offer. You may want to make a phonecall to your local Gamestop and see if they'll honor the price.

[Qenan]

Yeah, you were right. They were selling it in the store for $19.95. :roll:

Oh, well, maybe I'll get to try it next weekend.

[Mark Asher]

Yeah, you were right. They were selling it in the store for $19.95. :roll:

Oh, well, maybe I'll get to try it next weekend.

Yeah. There is a super-cheap shipping option at Gamestop. I think it's $2.99 or something like that, but it will take 5+ business days to arrive.

[Anti-Bunny]

Best buy is selling it for $10. I just bought it, installing now.

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

I'd suggest playing on Vengeance or Corruption, although the latter has slower than normal XP.

Well, I tried it out and hated it. The engine felt very ameteurish. The sound was god-awful. The graphics were murky and hard to focus on. The gameplay seemed like a NWN / Diablo hybrid.

Eh. Shadowbane's not the one for me.

[Qenan]

Best buy is selling it for $10. I just bought it, installing now.

I dropped by my local BB earlier today. The check-out line went to the back of the store, where the computer games are. Must have been a 40 or more minute wait to check out. I decided I could wait a bit and ordered it online.

At this price there just isn't much to lose.

[mtkafka]

I'd suggest playing on Vengeance or Corruption, although the latter has slower than normal XP.

Well, I tried it out and hated it. The engine felt very ameteurish. The sound was god-awful. The graphics were murky and hard to focus on. The gameplay seemed like a NWN / Diablo hybrid.

Eh. Shadowbane's not the one for me.

I actually liked SB's classes and races... but the graphics are so AC 1.5.... I guess I'm waiting for WoW or Lineage 2... the graphics in Lineage 2 look so damn sweety.

etc

[Mark Asher]

Yeah, the graphics engine in SB isn't very good, but I do like the character models. Well, most of them.

[TrodKnee]

The main problem with ShadowBane is that the endgame is unplayable. If sieges were more than laggy slideshows and crashes it would be a great PvP game. Browsing the Corruption political forum lately revealed that even though the two main mega-powers despise each other (the game tends to inevitably result in a two sided war), there were talks of cease fires and truces...because when both sides bring all their allies to do battle with each other the entire server becomes unplayably laggy.

[Jaysun]

The main problem with ShadowBane is that the endgame is unplayable. If sieges were more than laggy slideshows and crashes it would be a great PvP game. Browsing the Corruption political forum lately revealed that even though the two main mega-powers despise each other (the game tends to inevitably result in a two sided war), there were talks of cease fires and truces...because when both sides bring all their allies to do battle with each other the entire server becomes unplayably laggy.

Two sides.

Bah. What a bunch of pussies. I hate when servers factionalize into two sides. Borrrrrring.

That's the other problem with the game. Everyone is so afraid of losing their phat loots and towns that they get as many allies as they can to ensure they will win at any cost.

[Angie Gallant]

City building and management in SB is a blast... at least I thought it was during beta. I also liked the interface for putting stuff in your house. I played a Huntress so combat wasn't too difficult and I ended up really enjoying my time in SB even though I don't like the point and click interface.

Two things keep me from buying the game. The first is bad will generated by the complete lack of communication during beta. I'm not talking about the devs taking time out of their hectic schedule to chat with us, I'm talking about showing any sign at all of having read even a single bug report. Their patches often looked like they must have been made by crazy people and I didn't want to go through that again in retail.

The second is simply that the guild I joined and enjoyed left after much drama ensued. I didn't like the way the other Amazon guilds were turning and I don't really want to have to beg for admittance to a guild then beg for control over one of their shops so I can have the fun with the building management again. And I sure as heck am not prepared to start my own guild, that takes too much time.

SB did a lot of things I liked and some I didn't, but ultimately it's just not the game for me.

[Mark Asher]

The main problem with ShadowBane is that the endgame is unplayable. If sieges were more than laggy slideshows and crashes it would be a great PvP game. Browsing the Corruption political forum lately revealed that even though the two main mega-powers despise each other (the game tends to inevitably result in a two sided war), there were talks of cease fires and truces...because when both sides bring all their allies to do battle with each other the entire server becomes unplayably laggy.

Two sides.

Bah. What a bunch of pussies. I hate when servers factionalize into two sides. Borrrrrring.

That's the other problem with the game. Everyone is so afraid of losing their phat loots and towns that they get as many allies as they can to ensure they will win at any cost.

The 3-month server should solve that problem, at least. Your city's going bye-bye in three months regardless, so there's no need to be nice.

Oh, one of the new rules for that server (it's also on Corruption) is that maintenance costs for cities are cheaper, but upgrading costs are more expensive. It's easier to build small cities, but harder to build big cities and put the buildings under the protection of the TOL.

[Jaysun]

I like the idea of Cataclysm and will probably move one of my characters there, however, are we sure that characters are destroyed at the end of 3 months? It doesn't explicitly say. It will be a great server for character experimentation, either way, since you can build up so fast. There's been some odd things I've wanted to try with some classes and this will allow me to do so fast and easy and if I don't like it, the character is gone in a few months anyway!

[Quaro]

Nice. It's good to see someone trying some new ideas.

[Mark Asher]

I think it does say the server will be completely wiped, so the characters should disappear.

[Naniad]

It was confirmed on the Shadowbane forums that everything, characters included, get wiped from the server.

[Qenan]

Installed Shadowbane tonight. It would be an understatement to say that I found the UI and constantly moving camera hard to cope with... I'll give it another shot tomorrow. I hate mouselook to begin with and this is worse than most so far.

Obviously, no opinion as to the game so far. But I noticed you only get 5 slots. I think that's a mistake. One of the things that made EQ so accessible was the near infinite number of slots (provided you were willing to use multiple servers). It was easy to try out characters early on, and that's good when you are just learning the game. (It's also bad because of all the mules/alts, and I can see the argument for only 1 slot per world -- but only 5 total? Bleh.)

On a positive note, I haven't had any trouble getting it to run so far.

[Mark Asher]

The camera does take some getting used to, but I like it now. One of the things about it is the ease at which you can do a 360 with the camera and check everything out, even while your character is running or fighting or sitting. It's an important ability due to the PvP nature of the game. You need to watch your back constantly (although the mini-map can also alert you to others).

Use the mini-map for running, too. Click on it and your character will run to that spot.

[Qenan]

I get up this morning and try to log in -- I get "error=2". I go through their tech support area and see that it's an error that usually clears up on its own. So I keep trying. Then when I get in I get a message that someone else has recently been using this body... What the heck does that mean? Has my account been hacked in the first 12 hours of use? I sure haven't given anyone else the password...

Definitely not as polished as I would hope for a game that has been out a bit. The gameplay might be great but the initial experience has been a bit disconcerting.

[Mark Asher]

The log in thing is something new I get now that I never got when I first played the game. If I get it, I just keep clicking the log in button and I usually get in after a few tries.

Not sure what causes that using your body message, but it's harmless. It's probably got something to do with the failed login.

[Qenan]

OK, thanks.

Played my mage up to level 10 in no time at all. (Found a group and it went very fast.) Then Shadowbane kept spamming me about how I couldn't level until I got promoted. :roll: (A message or two is fine, but it was interfering with combat...)

Anyhow, fun so far. I do have a newbie question: do mages/wizards/etc. get more spells down the line? I don't object to newbie spells being limited, but am hoping things get more interesting as I advance.

In any case, definitely worth the $5.

BTW, I got somewhat used to the UI after the first couple of hours.
---------------
Nevermind, got to the wizard who promotes me and found I had some new spells to train. So far so good...

[Mark Asher]

Yeah, as you can see, you do get more spells. The spells open up as you train different disciplines to higher percentages -- wizardry, sorcery, warding, etc.

Are you playing a wizard?

[Qenan]

Yes, I'm playing Aelred Mindfire (OK, OK, stop laughing) on Cataclysm.

[Mark Asher]

I played a wiz previously, so if you have any questions, you can ask.

One of the things you want to do is decide which bolt you want to use, Mystic Bolt or Mage Bolt. I forget which is which, but one does more damage and one casts faster. You're going to use one or the other, so there's no point in putting a lot of trains in both. The fast-casting one is sorcery-based, while the one with more punch (and some stamina damage that heals your own stamina) is wizardry-based. Grandmaster one of them.

You don't want to train warding too high either. Just train it high enough to get the recall spell (called something else).

Sign of Sorthogth or something like that is a DOT you definitely want to grandmaster. Not only does it do the DOT damage, it's a dex and strength debuff.

Typically, when I solo'd, I'd sic the pet on the mob, wait a bit to let the pet damage it so the pet can hold aggro, DOT it, then start bolting it. The trick is not to cast early enough to get the aggro on you, or if you do get the aggro, make sure it's likely to be dead by the time it gets to you.

Of course, fighting against other players is competely different. They'll ignore the pet and come straight at you.

[Jaysun]

I get up this morning and try to log in -- I get "error=2". I go through their tech support area and see that it's an error that usually clears up on its own. So I keep trying. Then when I get in I get a message that someone else has recently been using this body... What the heck does that mean? Has my account been hacked in the first 12 hours of use? I sure haven't given anyone else the password...

Definitely not as polished as I would hope for a game that has been out a bit. The gameplay might be great but the initial experience has been a bit disconcerting.

It's a fairly common error unfortunately. Here's a few things you can do to try to fix it:

1. Change your password
2. Clear Cookies and Temporary Internet Files
3. Restart your machine

I did all three and it worked fine afterwards, but I've heard some people only clearing cookies or changing their password and it working fine for them...

I've also heard that if you spam the Enter key while it sits there trying to verify, it might let you in. Never tried it, but what the hell. Can't hurt.

[Qenan]

Dumb question time: I'm level 14 (I think), bandits are now giving me 1 xp. Is there anything left to hunt, or is it time to head for the mainland?

I haven't a clue how to find a guild, but I'll think of something. :D

[Mark Asher]

Dumb question time: I'm level 14 (I think), bandits are now giving me 1 xp. Is there anything left to hunt, or is it time to head for the mainland?

I haven't a clue how to find a guild, but I'll think of something. :D

Go back to the runemaster in the town and select the options that let him tell you about what's out there to fight. Short answer -- find the Nail Tooths. That's the path from level 14-22 or so. After that you go to the mainland.

Also, there should be tougher bandits still that give you more XP at level 14. Not a lot more, but more than 1 XP.

[Qenan]

Thanks for all the advice. I don't know if this game is for me, though. I got hit with a -66% stamina curse that lasts for 28000 seconds. In-game seconds, it turns out. That's what, almost 8 hours? For me, that's like forever. It's not completely crippling, but it sure is irritating.

I've been in a bunch of groups now. My experience is that it is easy to find a group (which is good), but there is little or no conversation within the groups (bad). Moreover, the interface seems kind of clunky for chat even compared to EQ (which was not exactly elegant when I played it).

Mouselock is right, the content is kind of sparse. Again, not a crippling lack, but I'm starting to get bored as I run across the endless fields of ... nothing. I like to explore and this game isn't doing much for that part of my Jones.

It's still worth $5, though. I hope that helps them get some more subscribers, because the game world seems kind of empty.

[Mark Asher]

That stamina curse is unlike anything else in the game. I have no idea why they put that in.

Anyway, find a sage in town and buy a cure scroll. They only cost $150 and it will get rid of the curse.

You need to stay close to the roads most of the time to find mobs. SB has vast expanses of nothing. On the mainland, it's to leave room for players to build cities. I don't know why noob island has the big empty spaces, however.