Neocron 2 is back under active development

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Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 4:03 am

Misha
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Kept waiting for a topic to pop up because I'm lazy but at this stage....

Anyway, neocron 2 is back under active development and has had 5 or 6 patches in the last few months significantly improving on cheating/exploiting/bugs/netcode. New server with no character transfer and the population is the same as Uranus in 2003, peaks around 280-300.
Figured some of the old SSC dudes might be interested :)

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:07 am

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Kon
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I forgot about this. I'm going to install and give it a whirl. Unless 4 or 5 of us do the same, I doubt I'll spend a ton of time on it, but it could be fun to step in and see what's up now that it's reverted back to the pre-Dome of York map, something I never got to experience before.
"We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution."

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:45 pm

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Anubis
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I've been planning to reinstall for a few weeks and give it a go again now, but RL is giving me issues atm and I haven't managed to get to it.

Not really sure I have time for an MMO anymore these days. I really want to try it and hope I'll manage to get to it...not sure when that'll be right now though.

Post impressions if/when you get to it!
"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Forever an eXile and proud of it!

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:09 pm

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Futile Resistance
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I hear they've implemented compatibility with high resolutions? I've always had to play windowed mode at 16xx because for whatever reason the client couldn't run native 1080.

I'll download and give it a whirl!

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 7:35 am

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SL33PY
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you have always been able to do that, trough ini file hack ;)

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 3:39 pm

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Futile Resistance
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SL33PY wrote:you have always been able to do that, trough ini file hack ;)
Tried before. Even had a small thread on the official forums with people trying to help.

It never worked out and I was forced to either played in full screen scretchy / force aspect ratio or windowed mode.

But it's native now! With built in option for x16 ansi filtering (though you could just force it via desktop before too). :thumb:

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 11:56 pm

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Edited some of the massive butthurt out of this review and am going to give it another go along with Isi when he gets it up and running. I suspect, just like in the old days, the bugs will be overshadowed by the fun of playing with others. I will post again later, but these are my first impressions.

HD resolutions are now available from the launcher, but the bad news is that there's no text scaling. On my 17" monitor, 1080p fonts were literally unreadable. At 720p the interface looked normal and perfectly readable.

I got through, made my character and was greeted to 22% server population. As I'm writing this it is now peak play time and population is at 273 (30%). 260-270 players at EU peak is not unusual, and population still remains at about 12% during US evenings.

Unfortunately, I crashed to desktop shortly after starting the tutorial. I rebooted and found myself in MC5. On the way out the door, I watched for over a minute as 2 NPCs ran straight into the side of a parked tank. They occasionally turned to run into each other, but then turned back to the tank.

Dome of York has been removed from the game, at least as a starting location. All Faction HQs have moved back to their NC1 positions. I chose FA as my faction and spawned in the apartment complex near Outzone Station. The interior for these apartments had been redone to use the DoY starter apartment interiors.

The subway system is still one of the most interesting things about NC. I really enjoyed using the subway to move around the city, since it's the only seamless mode of travel. In this day and age, the constant zone-changing really took me out of the experience. Pepper Park still has the unique distinction of being the only MMO red light district, and it does really bring the cyberpunk universe alive.

Unfortunately, despite having higher populations than when I originally played, Neocron still feels totally empty. This is probably due to me coming from EVE and it's massive 40,000+ populations, but even 250 players just doesn't make the world seem alive to me anymore. Without other people to play with, leveling in the sewers and side streets just seemed tedious, and wandering around the city felt quite lonely.

In order to rectify this, I thought I'd try to join a clan as soon as I could. When I looked, I saw that there were only 5 clans in the FA. DoY and R2K are still around, but they both have under 10 members. The only one with more than 10 was STD, with 28. Looking at the OP war map, almost all OPs belonged to TG, with a few Tsunami holdings in the NW corner. At any given time, there were around 15 FA players online, but nobody ever responded to me in Faction chat. Indeed the only communication seemed to be in HELP, which has turned into something of a Global chat.
"We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution."

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 5:48 am

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Isileth
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Having never played and constantly listening to you guys going on about how great it was I thought it would take a look.

Got to registering and its asking for a mobile phone number, I hate that that's becoming a thing a now, hotmail is always bitching at me for not owning a phone but at least it lets me not have one.


*update*

Registered with the help of Kahn so I will finally get to see what all the fuss is about, installing/updating now so just reading into the game. Very happy that a lot of it has an AO vibe to it, really thing that was my favourite mmo both setting and mechanic wise.

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 3:20 pm

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Anubis
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Kahn wrote:Dome of York has been removed from the game, at least as a starting location. All Faction HQs have moved back to their NC1 positions. I chose FA as my faction and spawned in the apartment complex near Outzone Station. The interior for these apartments had been redone to use the DoY starter apartment interiors.
The Dome is a series of high level dungeons now if I remember right. In the storyline, there was an accident which contaminated the Dome with radiation and made it uninhabitable, so all the anti-city factions had to leave. After that, all of the old levelling spots (Storage, Sewers, etc) had high level mobs inserted into them and became high level dungeons.

As for the rest of the zones, I think the GR in the old City Center is still there, but all others were removed. I think the old Faction HQs etc were just left deserted, but I think the Dome as a whole had its ruleset changed to remove all safezones etc and make it a Warzone. It has been a while since I read about it though. I wonder if the old apartment elevators still work...

I also think I read somewhere that in the new storyline FA are planning to migrate back to TH from the Outzone, but I'm not 100% sure when that'll be.

As for people playing, you guys should see about hooking up with DJ maybe. He's in CM, but I know he's still around and running his Skullz clan. He was who I was planning to hook up with when I got back ingame.
"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Forever an eXile and proud of it!

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 7:02 pm

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Futile Resistance
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Kahn wrote:Edited some of the massive butthurt out of this review and am going to give it another go along with Isi when he gets it up and running. I suspect, just like in the old days, the bugs will be overshadowed by the fun of playing with others. I will post again later, but these are my first impressions.
I liked your original director's cut version ;)

I pretty much agree with your initial take. I didn't have any crashes/sync issues, but having been spoiled by modern day MMO conveniences and overall polish really makes leveling in NC feel like a grind. The setting, atmosphere, and concept still holds my attention, but I just can't justify the time spent in leveling (having a bunch of friends on Tera Online playing daily doesn't help either).

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:47 pm

Misha
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I would recommend that anyone returning try find someone(s) to return with, more than ever Neocron needs to be played in a group to be fun.

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 4:43 pm

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Isileth
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Well ive played for a short time now, initially as an infiltrator and teaming up with Kahn we just did the starter missions then I wandered round a bit on my own, I then created a berserker and blasted through a few levels with that.

So far I cant say im hooked. The setting is certainly interesting and so far it does feel pretty big, even the small part ive seen, although when I ventured outside I was met with a sea of dull brown which I hope gets more interesting as I poke around.
Really though I'm just not excited by the combat at all, as a pistol user the unclear and very short range was a pain and as a melee while it was extremely easy (it is the very start so im not surprised by that) it was just a case of holding down the mouse button and pointing round the room till nothing was left alive, the only real challenge was stuff that got in close and started twitching about so I would miss.

Had I not read the wiki and a few guides during installation I would have been totally lost, still not clear on how a few basic things work but the game does not go out of its way to explain anything while your playing.

I will still give it a go for bit longer, hopefully jump in with Kahn again and maybe be able to do something a little harder and more exciting as well as explore further.

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:23 pm

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M.Steiner
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Don't be put off by the pistols btw, or rifles for that matter as they'll handle like shit to begin with. Weapon quality is one thing you'll need to take into consideration for this. Shop bought weapons and drops will have a much lower quality construction than those made by another player. This directly affects how well the weapon will handle for you too. For example, you'll make much better use of a player constructed pistol marked with "outstanding" stats than you would with a shop bought one with "poor" damage, range etc. Artifact being the highest quality there is at 120%.

Player made weapons are obtained through the use of research and construction. Not sure what you've read about this yet and not to overwhelm you but it's quite simple really and basically works as follows: You start off with the weapon you want a higher quality version of (like a store bought one) and a researcher character then makes a blueprint of it. This BP will tell you exactly which weapon parts are needed to construct it, 2x Tangent Weapon Part 5, 1x Tangent Weapon Part 8 etc. You'll buy these parts from the faction supply manager NPC (or if we're getting into it, parts can be constructed from chemicals too instead of being bought) and you'll take these parts along with your blueprint to someone who can construct. You'll then have a shiny new weapon.
Sometimes you'll get slots in them too (up to 5) which gives you the option of buying mods from the shops to increase the stats for damage/handling/range/frequency. Unless they're already at 120% and then there's no need. In which case you may want to add an ammo mod for some fire damage, a laser, silencer etc.
It's best to always use player made weapons though. Perhaps getting one constructed every so many levels so you can switch over as soon as you can use it. Medkits, boosters etc are fine just bought from shops or whatever so don't worry about having to do this for everything you use.

The other thing to keep note of are your skills. A weapon may require 20 Dexterity and 50 Pistol combat to use but the higher your pistol combat the better off you'll be and the easier it'll be for you to cap your weapon. This will improve your aiming speed, range etc and goes hand in hand with the quality of your weapon and its stats too. A poor quality shop bought pistol with only the amount of PC needed to use it will handle terribly.

One last thing.
Gentank - Best for Heavy Combat or Melee.
Private Eye - Whilst you could use some melee or heavy, Pistols or Rifles would be much better for a PE.
PSI Monk - Passive or Agressive PSI. A hybrid of both *may* be viable but I'm not sure since this changed many times.
Spy - Rifles, Pistols, Drones. Can also specialise in being a tradeskiller or hacker.

^ From memory at least.
Just use your common sense really. Don't try to have a tank PSI user, or a monk trying to use pistols or combinations like that.
Also don't try to skill to many different things on one character. It can often be handy to have access to your own researcher and constructer for when you need things made urgently for example, especially if you can't find anyone around, but don't try to do all of this on one character otherwise you'll just gimp yourself. Stuff like this may not be much of a problem atm since the population is much higher than it has been for a long time :)
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Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:47 pm

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Anubis
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Wish I could give you some starter weaponry or something that would make your life easier Isi, but not only is everything the clan had on Terra rather than Titan, the rebalancing may have left most of it in a non-fit state for use I fear :( Hope the game grows on you anyway - it's really great when you find a group of people and get into it!

Also, just fyi, last I read the PE was really badly imbalanced (in a horrible way, rather than the PPU way). What MS said about the classes is spot on, but...yeah, I wouldn't use a PE until they get around to rebalancing :)
"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Forever an eXile and proud of it!

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:42 pm

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Dribble Joy
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Kahn, you left me a mail ingame, but did you delete the char or something? The mail said it was from 'Runner does not exist'.

P.S. Sex the sexy peeps.
Fooking 'ell! It's Fred Titmus!!

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:45 am

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Kon
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Hey DJ! Actually I rerolled as a Droner with the exact same name. I guess the mail system is smarter than that though. :)

Isi plays as Isileth. Good to hear from you!
"We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution."

Re: Neocron 2 is back under active development

PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 1:04 pm

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Dribble Joy
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Cool.

Anyway, Skulls is around (though shift times are a bit odd for a couple of the guys) if you need help. Ask for me, Meica, Weazel or Sinch and tell them I sent you.

Isi, a few points in recycle (under Dex) will help enormously.
Go to Crytons Tech Tools in Plaza 1 (it's up the top of the grav lift, you can buy most construction parts here too) and find the vendor selling tools and get a TL30 recycle tool.
Right-click an ammo pack and hit Show Info. At the top will be the Tech Level (TL) of the ammo. You will need a recycle skill of equal or greater than this value.
Place the tool, an ammo sample and the 'junk' that drops from mobs (like the skin, bones, bits of flesh etc.) into your processor (F9 I believe) and hit start. If you have enough junk you will create more ammo.
Medkits and other items can be recycled, but generally have a much higher TL than ammo and you need lots of junk.
Fooking 'ell! It's Fred Titmus!!

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