This MMORPG blows. I played it years ago, hated it, and neevr went back. Rose, Silkroad, Knights Online, even Anarchy Online (the best free one of the bunch) sucked ass. They all blow. If you want a cheap MMO, then buy Guildwars. Don't like Guildwars? Then get ready to shell out 15 bucks a month.
Shadowbane's changed a lot since "years ago". It's among the best mmo's, is well supported, is currently getting a monthly 'content patch', not to mention that it's stark raving free. Oh, and did i mention it kicks ass?
BUT - it's not for everybody. I love it. Some people hate it.... For the same exact reason: TOTALLY UNRESTRICTED PVP. And the entire game is totally player driven. What you do is up to you.
I started off as a complete newb getting ganked silly... and it was frustrating... I knew nobody... But I stuck with it, made friends, joined a guild... to make a long story short, I am now a guild leader and own a city where I can craft items for my guildies in my forges, or I can use it as a merchant center or a training center to earn gold from other players, or use it as a base for waging war and take other people's assets. whatever. It's all up to you what you do with your city.
There are hundreds of cities on the map and all but 4 of them are player owned. The non-player owned cities are 'safeholds' and are the only places where you cannot attack another player. (Besides the starting area that everybody calls 'newb isle' where you can stay to learn the controls and level on easy mobs until you are lvl 20 - of a possible 75).
Besides guild vs guild skirmishes over resource mines, or solo PK'ing, or whatever, the big thing about Shadowbane that no other game has is BANES.
A bane is when you drop a banecircle on another player city (aka 'declare war'). City assest are indestructible until the city is baned. Then the defenders have 48 hours (and the ability to adjust the live time to his advantage as much as possible).
When the bane goes live, your assets become vulnerable. The attacker and defender place giant trebuchets and when the bane goes live, all hell breaks loose. It's very cool imo. Flaming balls of fire flung through the air, impacting the city walls, hundreds of players involved in multiple skirmishes: charges on the banestone, charges toward a breech in a city wall, in short: all out war. It can be total sloppy chaos or a masterpiece of precision, depending upon the skills, tactics and coordination abilities of the participants.
Anyway, The attackers pound the city walls with their trebs trying to breech the walls and bring down the city... and the defenders try to batter down the banestone. The war ends with the destruction of the city's "Tree of Life", or with the destruction of the banestone. If the tree of life falls first, the city is taken over by the attackers. If the banestone falls first, the siege is broken and the assets resume their invulnerable state.
Big fun. Big big heart-thumping fun.
There are NO game mechanics that dictate who is allied with who or where or when the fighting starts or ends. There is no punishment for unruly playstyles... other than that which can be inflicted upon you by the vengeful players you upset. It's all about the balance of power and player-driven politics.
The character possibilites are virtually limitless. The combinations of racial abilities, class skills, and disciplines allow amazing depth in character development. The level grind is far less of a 'grind' than any other mmo I've ever played -- far easier to reach viability than WoW, for instance - and there is far greater character variety:
12 Races: Human, Elf, Aelfborn, Aracoix (birdmen), Vampire, Half-Giant, Nephilim (flying demons), Irekei (red skinned desert dwellers), Shade (undead), Minotaur, Centaur and Dwarf.
4 base classes: Healer, Fighter, Rogue and Mage
22 Profession Classes: Assassin, Thief, Nightstalker, Sentinel, Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Ranger, Scout, Confessor, Templar, Doomsayer, Channeler, Crusader, Prelate, Warrior, Bard, Fury, Huntress, Priest, Warlock and Wizard.
And 47 disciplines of which you can take 4 per character.
It's hard for me to understand how or why UBI is able to maintain the game after having dropped the monthly fee. The only thing I can figure is that it's 'research' for their next project. I dunno. But I dont' look such a nice gift horse in the mouth.
BTW - I actually found this forum because I got into the world editor recently, was delighted by it, and decided to try to make a "Shadowbane" based campaign to share with my guildies (which is coming along nicely thanks to the hive!! - I have learned a lot about cinematics, character modeling,etc, and my guildies will be surprised to find themselves starring in an epic War3 Campaign chronicling some major events in our guild's history, hehe).
Anyhow, I searched the forum for "Shadowbane" to see if any models or anything SB-related had been posted, and found this post. (btw The trebuchet model I found is sweeeet!!! thanks.)
I had to weigh in on this topic. Sorry to bump an old thread and put up such a long post, but I just had to give you the skinny (albeit a rather fat skinny) on my favorite MMO. If you don't like some NPC telling you what to do, and if you find repetitive fetch quests tiresome, and if you're not afraid to PvP at the drop of a hat, any time, any place, then you'll love Shadowbane too. To me, that's what it's all about.
