Comments on: Steal This Old Idea

By: Zubon

Zubon — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:44:41 +0000

My latest 50 is a Sonic/Sonic, so I am right there with you. The thing is, after playing Empathy and Kinetics with 1- and 2-minute buffs, the 4-minute shields feel like such a relief. And then you hit a mission that only needs one shield type — bliss!

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:28:25 +0000

Totally agreed on the City of Heroes buff thing. I have a sonic defender who has three single target party buffs, each with a duration of 4 minutes or less. 8 people x 3 buffs * 20 minute mission maps = 120 buffs for a typical 20 minute mission.

This is not a gameplay mechanic. It’s a horrible waste of time.

By: Ryan Shwayder

Ryan Shwayder — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:44:47 +0000

Yes, please. I really love concentration buffs. The reason I quit my Paladin in WoW was the constant rebuffing. It isn’t fun to recast something every few minutes. I think it’s worth stopping that statement there before talking about how recasting isn’t hard, it’s just annoying, or going further, but it isn’t fun, so I don’t like it.

By: Openedge1

Openedge1 — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:24:14 +0000

@Tipa
QUOTE: “They all seem pretty similar to me these days. It’s all about the people you play with, more than the game itself. It’s not the color of the notepad, after all, but what you write upon it, right?”

I agree somewhat, but there also has to be something about gameplay and mechanics…having played WoW, Lineage 2, EQ2, Guild Wars and more…I prefer EQ2’s style…

Now!..(as before it was a mess).
Yes, people help, but I better like the game also…

Thus……..

@ Ethic
QUOTE: “Believe it or not, LotRO comes closer than the typical MMO. I have entered several areas that affect me in more ways than one. Audio, visuals, and emotion. The designers of the environments of LotRO clearly poured their heart and soul into it. However, several other aspects of the game do not share the same feeling with me.”

You have one word right…”Environments”…as the game has ZERO soul, and 100% stolen ideas from everything else. There is no originality in playstyle, classes…just pretty landscapes pasted onto MMO design 101.

The immersion factor is also key…and visually LOTRO stuns…in landscapes alone…as the characters are bland looking, the movements unrealistic, combat and their animations stilted…
The story is great…but we know it, and trying to read it in teeny point font on a 24″ monitor equals hell, not soul!
An ugly UI does not help either…A UI which when resized gets blurry and pixellized…

The only soul LOTRO has is the one they stole and then tried to manipulate, and came up with…

Landscapes….

By: Zubon

Zubon — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:38:00 +0000

If we didn’t want things derailed, we wouldn’t have comment threads.

By: Ethic

Ethic — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:10:31 +0000

@Tipa - Not going to say WoW, although WoW does have a little spirit. Believe it or not, LotRO comes closer than the typical MMO. I have entered several areas that affect me in more ways than one. Audio, visuals, and emotion. The designers of the environments of LotRO clearly poured their heart and soul into it. However, several other aspects of the game do not share the same feeling with me.

And true, I’d love to play any MMO that I could gather a few friends together to play at the same time.

Sorry for the derail, Z!

By: Tipa

Tipa — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:08:13 +0000

@Ethic — which MMO *does* have heart, soul and spirit? Oh, you’re gonna say WoW — I played and raided up through MC on that game way back when, and that endless grind just killed me. It was so fun up until max level, too… who’dathunk…

But really, aren’t all MMOs just soulless grinds wasting time that we’ll all come to regret later?

They all seem pretty similar to me these days. It’s all about the people you play with, more than the game itself. It’s not the color of the notepad, after all, but what you write upon it, right?

By: Graktar

Graktar — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:40:49 +0000

I hate the absurdly short duration kinetics buffs in CoH. If you’re in a full group you pretty much spend all your time refreshing buffs. It’s so annoying I actually respecced my defender out of the two short duration buffs just so nobody could ever ask me to cast them.

Short duration buffs in any game are extremely annoying, the only allowable exception being short duration/large effect buffs with long cooldowns that are clearly meant for emergency use/boss fights.

The worst offender in WoW are paladin buffs. They took it a step in the right direction when they increased the durations, but they really need to double them again. There’s no good reason for paladin buffs to be shorter duration that everyone else’s, especially when it’s clear that they’re intended to be up all the time. Having short durations on buffs intended for constant use is nothing more than an annoyance — there’s no gameplay value there at all.