Month: June 2005

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Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.

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Tour Beautiful Striga Isle!

[City of Heroes] To my mind, the reason to play City of Heroes right now is to play through the 20s. Issue 3 brought some of the best content in the game, and you should go play it right now. Not everyone likes it, but Striga Isle has higher design standards then pretty much any zone in the game. Statesman, our fearless leader in CoH, has said that Striga is the design standard for other zones. This makes me hopeful for a new place expected in Issue 5, as well as potential retrofitting of zones to be more user-friendly. Care for a brief guided tour?

Your first contact in the 20s will send you to Striga to meet the first contact there. You can ignore her, or you can follow the line of four contacts in Striga. These combine to 25-or-so missions of various types. You have the standard “Arrest all villains in base,” “Defeat 15 Council in The Bog,” “Defeat base commander and his men”; the most innovative involves attacking a Council vampyre creation plant, in which you must fight vampyres as they come out of the transformation capsules. Striga introduces a new tile set, the boat, and has a few vertical shafts in missions (think Castlevania, the original, when you drop down that long shaft into the underworld). One mission uses two different tile sets, which I have not seen anywhere else.

There are four different temporary powers, all useful. One gives resistance to all (including psionic, and it is a toggle), another lets you summon a Council War Wolf boss as a pet (5 charges, they do *nice* damage to Archvillains). You also get your zombie-hunting shotgun, so you can pretend to be Ash. “Defender with boomstick? Check.”

Striga includes two task forces. One gets you most of the way through your Silver Bullet and Slayer badges, so you can get the Atlas Medallion accolade (passive +5 endurance). The other is the best task force in the game, and you need to go do it right now. The 26-30 TF has several unique maps, including the spectacular last mission. You get previews of this last one in the missions leading up to it, which have windows facing into the last chamber. Yeah, you see that thing? That’s the final showdown. :)

All that, three exploration badges and one history, plus a trainer in-zone. So what about the zone itself? Striga is designed rather nicely, with a main island and several smaller ones around it. The contacts lead you logically from the docks, through the defenses and the monster-infested jungle, and into the Council’s secret volcano lair. Zombies, werewolves, and vampyres abound in the jungle and graveyard. There are zombies hiding beneath the waters, ready to swarm up around you. There are fights between the various factions who want control of the island. There are dogfights between Sky Raider Sky Skiffs and Council Hoverbots. There are robots on patrol. There is a new enemy group in the form of missile turrets.

I am probably leaving out some things, which is for the best. I have already outlined most of the sights to see, so come see the rest. Stand on top of a volcano that stretches from the ground almost to the flight ceiling. Check out the sprawling Council compound and watch them fight off invaders. Join the attack and protect Paragon City from the Council’s new schemes. Find your favorite little touches in an excellent use of space.

One hint: the road runs straight through, from the entrance to the Council base. If you cannot find the Wolf’s Throat, just follow the road into the tunnel. The tunnel is the Throat.

: Zubon

The Final Countdown

[World of Warcraft] Well, I’ve been level 59 for about a month now. I hit it right before finals week and my camping trip so my efforts to hit level 60 have been somewhat slowed. While I still enjoy playing the game, it does seem as if a lot of people are quitting. My realm is often empty and the people on my social list aren’t logging on as much as they used to. Even my real life friends have been largely taking a break from the game.

Maybe it’s just the people I play with or just my realm, but from what I’ve been reading on the MMO blogs it appears as if WoW may be dying a bit. As a guy that has owned a PS2 for the past 3 or 4 years and has yet to beat a game, I consider myself a pretty casual gamer. I don’t know what I’ll do when I hit level 60, but what most people seem to do is either concentrate on PvP or start raiding to get the the high end gear. I’m not sure those goals appeal to someone that enjoys a more casual experience. Several of my friends who are fairly casual gamers have quit the game already. With the exception of a few people I know who are very hardcore players, everyone else that played with any regularity is either taking a break or playing with alts.

The overall problem seems to be that there isn’t much to do for those gamers in the middle. Much like you’re stuck pretty much being a Republican or Democrat in the United States, in WoW you’re either a guy that has fun taking a month to get to level 10 or you’re someone that plays 5 hours a night every night. Those of us who play with some regularity, but lack the ability or desire to devote that much time to the game are usually not asked to join large guilds. Without a guild it is near impossible to do raids that require 30-40 people (and if you do you know you’re going to get ninja looted). The attitude a lot of people have (Blizzard included) is that things are the way they are as to encourage people to socialize and work together. I can see their side, but since I am personally clearly not able to do this; perhaps the game is not for me. My plans for now are to hit 60 and see how things are once they release Battleground (tomorrow maybe? hope hope). If things don’t improve, the end of my account may be near. Until an expansion comes out of course.

DC

Identity Crisis

When I was 10 years old I remember getting excited because a friend of the family loaned me a game named Guild of Thieves, and then Hollywood Hijinx. Both of these titles were text adventures, meaning there were more or less no graphics. Some of them had a few bitmap images to go along with the text, but no movement as we are all used to today.

Back then, your imagination was responsible for creating not only your environments but your character as well. Nothing relied on the cost of your GPU or how much memory you had. As long as your computer could display text, you could play the game as well as anyone else.

These days bring many changes. Now a game without bleeding edge eye candy is considered below par and dies on the discount table. MMOs are reviewed and rated based on their cosmetic level holding as much importance as the design of the game itself. Those who still partake in pen-n-paper RPGs are considered nerds and losers. Times do change indeed.

All current games share one common element. The perspective of the player exists, and is therefore relevant to the design. Whether the player is assuming the role of God or a highly trained dark elf shaman there exists a self awareness which must be illustrated. Black & White represents this character with a hand cursor which changes depending on the player’s choices in the game. Many MMOs represent this with a three-dimensional avatar, while others like EVE online put the focus on the player’s ship (with a still image of the pilot as a backup).

My interest is how much the character representation affects the player. I am referring primarily to the depth of customization designed into the game. Let’s look at a few case studies.

  • EVE Online – Player character is represented by a still image with the selection of four lighting types. All other customization is based on the character ship in-game.
  • Everquest II – Player is able to customize character with a medium range of physical features and hair styles. Hair color and skin tones restricted to race. All other customization depends on in-game armor restricted to level.
  • Lineage II – Player is able to minimally customize character hair style/color and predefined faces restricted to race and class. All other customization depends on in-game armor restricted equipment class restrictions. Armor appearance changes per race.
  • World of Warcraft – Minimal character creation. All other customization in-game based on armor restricted to level. Due to the unique graphic engine, detail of avatar is low.
  • The Matrix Online – Very minimal character creation. Lack of creation ability counter-balanced with wide range of player created and dropped clothing and weapons.
  • Star Wars Galaxies – Most likely the highest amount of character customization to date. Full physical modifications including weight, height, bust size (females), tattoos and player created clothing/armor based on hundreds of base templates. Also, in-game appearance changes possible by player ran Image Designer profession.

I believe that the importance of character customization is directly related to the player’s style of play; what they enjoy. Some old school RPG players do not require much customization in order to enjoy a game because they have adapted to making use of imagination in order to succeed at role-playing their character. Others put a lot more weight on a character’s appearance to present themselves to others in game.

All of this falls back upon the foundation principle that RPGs are about playing the role of a different creature. Whether the player requires a completely unique avatar or simply their mind, they are representing themselves as someone different. This goes along with males who prefer to play female characters and vice-versa.

Many of the guides which we would normally follow in a discussion like this are clouded by the fact that as MMO production gets closer and closer to the main stream market, game populations become less focused on hard core role-playing and therefore more so on popularity ladders which, as time has proven, always put a high importance on cosmetic elements. :)

I am a person who while enjoying serious role-playing, also requires a good amount of avatar customization and presentation ability.

What about you?

-Spot

An EVEning With Pirates

integrale destroyer[EVE Online] I have a new ship now, a destroyer I call “The Integrale” (picture shown). One of the advantages of this ship, besides the improved cargo space, is the fact that I can run multiple mining lasers and multiple weapons. This can come in handy for defending yourself from pirates while mining. I needed it last night.

I decided to travel to a less secure system, because you can often find more valuable ores to mine. However, the lower security also means an increased chance of aggression. I went to visit the system that Zxyrox was in as he was going to mine with me. It was a 0.7 system.

I looked for some descriptions of the different security ratings so I could explain them somewhat here. I found lots of information on EVE-I and I summarized it below:

  • 1.0 – 0.8 Security: Safe around stations and gates, no NPC pirates. Players could possibly destroy your ship and pod you before the police get there, but it should be rather rare.
  • 0.7 – 0.5 Security: Safe around stations. Most asteroid fields and gates will have NPC pirates around them. The lower the security, the tougher and more numerous they will be. You should be safe from players, but if someone is determined they can destroy you before a police arrive.
  • 0.4 – 0.1 Security: Little or no police presence, numerous NPC pirates around asteroid fields and gates. Other players can attack you with no police intervention. The sentry guns around gates and bases will fire on anyone starting an aggressive act (within range).
  • 0.0 Security: The worst NPC pirates and players are in these systems. It’s free-for-all when it comes to combat. Fire first with no intervention, no sentries, no police. Don’t enter unless you have experience.

So you can see I was still in a pretty safe system, but I had a good chance of getting attacked by pirates while mining. And by good chance, I mean that they did. Several times.

After insuring my ship to guarantee I’ll get a good chunk of the cost back should it be destroyed, and cloning myself to make sure I don’t lose any skills should I be killed, we warped out to the asteroid field. On the way, I created a “safe spot” by marking my place in space during the warp. This bookmark is a random spot created for escape should I need to. Odds would be good that it is empty of pirates and the chance of someone finding me right away are slim. All I would need to do is to warp to the bookmark and I’m safe.

Zxyrox and I started to mine, him in his mining barge and me in the destroyer. It was not long before some NPC pirates warped in. I stopped my mining temporarily and locked onto the closest pirate. I set my ship to orbit about the pirate at the optimal range for my railguns. When I got within range, I opened fire. I made short work of all three pirates this way and looted the ruins of their ships for goodies. Back to the mining.

As my cargo hold approached full, Zxyrox told me to jettison the ore. I did that and it created a canister which I named as mine so it would hopeful discourage someone from stealing my ore. This is where I learned of the first immersion breaking aspect of this game so far. The canister I jettisoned from my ship had a capacity much greater than my ship. How does that work? Anyway, what I would do is keep the mining going and transfer ore from my ship into the container as it got full. Zxyrox was doing the same.

We were attacked by NPC pirates a few more times during the mining operation, but my destroyer was making easy work getting rid of them. In fact, I didn’t take any damage at all. Once Zxyrox’s container was full, he warped back to the station to get a ship with a large cargo hold to haul our ore back for processing. While he was gone, some additional NPC pirates came in but again I dispatched of them quickly.

It took a couple of trips to get all the ore back to the station, but after processing it all and splitting up the profits, I had a cool million ISK in my wallet.

I found out I am really enjoying the slower pace of the game. It may not be good for someone that wants to interact with the game all the time. Truth is, I watched TV while I was playing. Mining is simply “press a key” for each mining laser and wait for your cargo hold to fill up. Of course adding in NPC pirates and player pirates to the picture means you need to be alert. But still, in general the pace is slower than your typical MMO and I am thankful for that. It’s just right for my playstyle at this time in my life. That’s not to say it is always slow. I imagine combat with other players could be quite fast-paced and overwhelming.

I’m subscribing when the free trial is over. Any questions about the game, feel free to ask and I’ll try to get them answered. Oh, one other thing. In EVE, they call pirates “rats” so I guess my site name still applies, heh.

– Ethic

Is anyone out there…?

[Lineage 2] I am completely enjoying my time in Lineage2, with the exception of one thing. It is impossible to find anyone. There is absolutely no method for locating another player. In fact, there are not even topic centered chat channels. The only communication one has is spatial, private whisper, and clan.

To put this into perspective, I have about 50 hours of game play in L2 right now. I have grouped twice, and once was with my roommate. Never have I been in a group with over three players (including myself). The only way to possibly meet new people is to yell at them while they are running past you and hope they notice, and then have the kindness to actually respond.

The players who do respond are never interested in grouping. L2 is primarily intended as a PvP environment; however the lack of social interaction leaves you with a big hole.

A person I happen to have on my friends list because of a long wait for the ferry to arrive one day, recently told me that he was very lonely in L2. I cannot agree more.

In EQ2 the game would just completely bore me quite often. Then I would get in a full group of good people and would be reminded as to why I enjoyed the game so much. I could easily waste an entire Sunday playing EQ2 with a good group.

My next assumption from the perspective of a designer is that this is designed to push you toward a clan. Makes sense, and is most likely working. The only problem there is that even with the highest level clans there is a member cap of 40 players. That means if you live in the U.S. and play pretty late at night most of the time (like me), your clan is never on, therefore putting you back at the beginning.

I am not as annoyed over this lack of interaction as I am interested in its purpose. Many things exist beyond our understanding, which is why the world is such a colorful place. :)

-Spot