Figured I'd start a new topic as I'm really getting into this now on a guild server and think you guys (Satis and Peltz, looking at you) will really like it.

I'm finding it an odd but good mix of different styles. For example, it's a survival game so you do have to "eat" (i.e. drink blood regularly) or you will start losing health and die, but you don't lose all your stuff when you die. Your equipment is "blood bound" so it stays with you. You will drop anything you've looted such as resources or research books but this is just a case of running back to your body to get them back if you really want them.

The other odd thing about it is that it has a quest system of sorts. You have tasks that auto update from the very start and essentially guide you on how to play the game so although you can take it easy and do your own thing there is always a goal to work towards. You unlock most things by defeating the boss creatures and feeding on their blood. These normally give you a power similar to something they've used against you and sometimes will unlock a structure to build, some recipes to craft or some new equipment. You can also find research books as random loot that will unlock new equipment and decorations for your castle.

The castle building takes a little getting used to but is quite good. I've managed to build a 3 tier castle so far. There's a room right at the top for my coffin, then there are some stairs down to the next room where my servants have their coffins, then there's the main floor with my crafting stations and a little garden. Everything is based off a castle heart and you can upgrade this to allow yourself more floor space and better structures. It's all based on a grid system and structures can easily be torn down as needed or moved around. The heart has to be powered by blood essence or it will all start to decay so if you're going on holiday (like I am soon) make sure to stock up on plenty! Luckily it tells you how long it is powered for.

As I said above, you can have servants. One of the tasks unlocks a skill that lets you dominate any human under 30% health. You can then take them to your castle and if there is a spare coffin, turn them into your servant. Servants can be equipped and will wander around your castle, defending it as needed. You can command them but I don't what you can tell them to do yet, as that's my next task; to build a throne then command a servant. Depending on the type and power of the human you dominated you will get different bonus effects from having a servant.

The blood you drink also gives you different bonuses. The base one is "frailed" and gives you nothing. When you drink from anything you will see a type and a %. The type effects the bonus you can get, for example a brute will give you life leech on hit, a creature gives movement speed, and the % determines how powerful that is. The higher the percent, the more bonuses you will get. Brute I think lets you deal extra damage once you get above a certain %. They all seem to have 5 tiers with the final one giving a boost to the previous 4 bonuses.

Sun damage bloody hurts! But it's not too frustrating. The day is actually shorter than the night and if you're caught outside as the sun rises you can often find some shade to cower in until night falls again. You can also get equipment and potions with sun resistance. There are waypoints you can teleport between to help out (as the map is huge) but resources can't be teleported and I know you can ride horses though I haven't reached that bit yet.

The combat is fun once you unlock a few skills and figure out what you're doing. Every weapon has a primary and secondary attack, then you can also equip 2 combat skills plus an ultimate skill (haven't unlocked one of those yet) and a travel skill. I usually hate slow weapons in games but I'm currently having loads of fun with a giant mace. Regular attack is slowish but the secondary attack does a big leap and smash at the target. I have this paired up with an area of effect spell I can put on the ground and a spell that sends a line of chaos in front of it, does damage to anything it hits and then makes them take damage over time. My travel skill boosts me forward a few feet and makes my next normal attack do a bolt of damage that jumps between foes. So despite using a slow weapon I can actually bounce around the battlefield quite effectively. You also don't have to be directly next to someone to feed from them, just close, so when you get them down to low enough health it's worth feeding just for an insta-kill. You can abort feeding if you don't want their blood type and it will just kill them outright. If you remain feeding it does take a second or two and you are vulnerable to attacks in that time.

You don't have a character level either. It's all based on your gear score, so that is basically your level as the gear stays with you even through death. The server I'm on has PvP but it's a small group of people, a bit like here, so PvP is consensual rather than suddenly getting murdered from off screen somehow. I tend to avoid PvP but if I get dragged into some I'll report back on that.

Thanks for the information. I think it looks and sounds pretty interesting, and at $20 it's probably worth checking out. I let Shiny know to take a gander at it as well. If she's game, I may set up a dedicated server.

That'd be cool, I'd jump on with you guys too. I've actually ended up restarted 3 times in 4 days. First was singleplayer (so still got that) and had only put about 90 mins into it. Then a friend set up a server. Played it for 2 days pretty much straight. Then his cousin wanted to join but didn't want to be 'behind'... so the server got wiped. I was annoyed but it's fun and it only took me maybe 6 hours to get to where I was, since I knew what I was doing this time around. Not that I'd put up with him wiping again so soon! Like Ark you can tweak the server settings. I think the one I'm on has 1.5 x gathering rate and also allows us to teleport with resources.

It wasn't a game I'd heard of either but Niall randomly heard something a couple of months back and mentioned it to me so I've had it on the wishlist and got the email saying it had gone early access.

Thanks for the info! Now I want pictures of that castle of yours!

Well if he ever sends me the save file I will get pics. The guy and his cousin leapt ahead of us all and got to end game then decided not enough people were playing so he took the server down, but will distribute the file to those of us who want it. But I have yet to receive it *sigh*

That sounds like a dick move! Are these people you know personally or just some randos running a server that you stumbled on to?

I've known him about a year, he runs a UO server I'm part of which has been running for years now. Mostly he just runs guilds in other MMOs though so I'll avoid any other servers he runs from now on.

I try to run most of our servers just so we don't lose the files. Unfortunately the Ark server I'm on right is being hosted by a rented server another guy is paying for. Last time we played he did the same thing and everything we had was lost. There's something said for starting over, I guess. Shiny was very upset, though. She gets quite attached to her virtual pets.

Servers I can host would most likely be 50ish ping for the EU residents and 190ish for the US. Its a 100/100 connection.

Yeah starting over can be ok but not when it's 3 times within a couple of weeks! Ark it's understandable to be more annoyed somewhat if you've put a lot of time into breeding/mutating creatures. V Rising there isn't much time put into things; it's just gathering materials (which we had a high rate on the server for anyway) but still aggravating doing the exact same things over and over.

I'm genuinely surprised how good some servers are these days though. The UO one I'm on is hosted in New York (guys own server) and I generally get under 100 ping. Don't even get that on some commercial games haha.

I host servers locally on my 75/75 connection, but being in Dallas I know the connection isn't so great for you Euro peeps. Oh well. Just need to get that faster-than-light internet up and running.

Would this work, or still not good enough to compensate for the distance?

To be honest I had very little issues when joining Satis' Conan server, just the odd lag spike from time to time and England has more crappy internet than France (even my parents in a tiny hamlet of 13 houses have fibre to the house, most of the UK still just has copper wiring everywhere)

Yea, it's not bandwidth that's the primary issue (though that can be a problem), it's the lag. Due to the distances involved and the pesky physics rules about not exceeding the speed of light, much of that is unavoidable. You're always welcome to come jump into one of my hosted servers if you feel like it. I currently have Valheim, Conan and Satisfactory servers set up, but they're all currently shut down. I'll probably be firing up one or both of my Conan servers when the new update goes live... they're adding a new way to build (Conan's building is better than Ark's by a lot) and magic, so probably worth another round.

If you start it up again for the update I'll definitely join Conan again, I was enjoying that. Can't even remember why I stopped playing, probably got distracted by something else.