Ok, so I posted something similar in the Member forums a while ago, however in-case some of you didn't notice it there, or some of our regular visitors might be interested:
They have had a 14-Day trial in place for a while now, and it is still going on. Not sure when they will stop offering it, but my understanding is that it will be soon. Probably before they release the Hoth content.
So what would you be getting into? Remnants of the Old Avian: You will most likely find you Houses packed up in your datapad, as the House Pack-up event hit our city pretty hard. When I got in-game I found my houses, as well as the PA Hall, packed up in my datapad. (was actually on the wrong character so I thought I'd lost it all) The same goes for your Harvesters and Factories. It seems that there is no active mayor there, so unless someone who still has a house in the city starts running for mayor don't expect to be able to drop your house back down there.
Game Playability: Although the NGE is still in effect they have made many improvements to it, and are still doing so. The actual playability of the game has gotten much better. The Auto-Attack of yesterday is gone, and will be missed by many, but it was a bad crutch IMO. Many changes will be a surprise, such as you are no longer able to add anyone to Harvester Admin, so only the Owner of the Harvester is able to maintain and operate the Harvester. The benefit is a huge reduction in Harvester Fields. Since many were in place using lots of cancelled accounts, the sheer number of Harvesters in the game has actually reduced. The biggest negative impact on the game right now is Server Population. The current Dev team supposedly has a plan in place to address this, however they have been fairly tightlipped about it.
Account Issues: So previously the 14-Day trials were not working very well. Many people were unable to access the trial through some of their accounts. That seems to be resolved this time around. The only people who are not eligible for the trial this time around are accounts that had previously been banned. As far as people forgetting their Account information, or no longer using their old Email account, there are a number of remedies for that. First, if you no longer have the email account, but you did set up a Secret Question on your account, you can still get into the account to change the email address. If you never set your Question, or if you did set it but forgot it, and you remember your old email account but just don't have it active anymore, you should be able to get a CSR to reset the password for you on the account. I had 3 accounts, and actually had a different problem with each, but was able to eventually get all three to the point I could use the trial on them, and have my Main account activated. I will probably activate a second account shortly.
Good Oportunities: So, if you are interested in trying out the game again, things to look forward to in the future. They are making a very nice effort to update content and Professions by working with the Correspondents to identify key issues, and addressing those issues in turn through their current content release process. There have been a good many changes in the past, and the next content release after HOTH will be addressing Player Cities and Guilds. Speaking of HOTH, this is the Big Thing coming in the near future. They haven't release the date of this yet, however it looks to be coming fairly soon. They are only releasing bits of information, however it does look to be an exciting addition to the game. I expect they will have the Free Trial end about a month or so before HOTH is released. They do plan on addressing the Server Population issue soon. My bet would be they will do this right before they do the HOTH roll-out, so that whatever method they put in place to do this will be in full force before HOTH is added. My best bet on this is some kind of Server Merger. But everyone is just guessing at this point, as the Devs have been quiet about this other than ruling out a few possibilities.
Where should I go?: So, if you plan on coming back to the game for just the Trial, or for a more extended amount of time, you will likely have a problem when it comes to setting down roots. Where do you go since there's nobody left in our city on Tatooine to allow you to drop your house there? Where do you go where you have the best chance in finding like minded friends playing the game for the short-term, or maybe longer? Well, you are definitely welcome in Tsarin, TCO's city on Talus. Currently we have 8 to 10 people playing, some sporadically, some quite a bit. We have a pretty cool set-up, as we have a mayor in place, and some good quality Crafting Stations set up. We're in the middle of revitalizing the Server, and they are welcoming quality gamers with Open Arms right now. Avian's should have no problem finding a spot to lay down a house without having to worry about joining TCO. Non-Avians would have to joing TCO before planting a house, but heck, what better bunch of guys to join up with, other than Avian.
So, if you have an old account and you want to reactivate it or try the trial, or if you don't have an account but you are interested in giving it a try, come on over to Tsarin on Talus, Chilastra Server, and join in the fun.
And if you need help grinding up a Crafter, or Questing a Combatant, let us know. We've got both going on, and I for one am acquiring a large amount of Grinding materials at the moment.
_________________ "Loose with Dignity" Robert Second President, Avian Gamers
DDO - Cannith - AlistairItor - Rogue/Ranger (5/3) - Main DDO - Cannith - Guijanitor - Paladin/Rogue (4/1) DDO - Cannith - RicochetItor - Rogue (5)
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