Month: August 2008

Five Degrees of Awesome in Testing

Testing of the City of Heroes Halloween event started last week.

  1. This year’s addition is Zombie Apocalypse, modeled after the Rikti invasions. I think we can all agree that Zombie Apocalypse is an awesome theme to run with.
  2. It will reappear for the occasional hour throughout the year, in case you miss it or want to experience it again. If the reaction is anything like it is with the Rikti invasions, these will be a lot of fun with massed players, assuming your system can handle it.
  3. City of Heroes Halloween is cumulative, so previous years’ events will be returning. Trick-or-treating is being tweaked to get people moving; doors are still giving out candy, monsters, and costumes; and there are giant monsters to enjoy. Badges, badges, badges.
  4. Halloween was being tested in July. This is the most awesome part: leaving plenty of time to get it tested and get it right.
  5. Because Halloween will be ready months in advance, the test server will be free for Issue 13 testing.

: Zubon

On the Value of Crafting

I have previously characterised crafting in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ as a low-value time- and gold-sink. With quest rewards as you level up and drops in the endgame, the place for crafted items is limited. Commenters argued that I was over-stating the point, and this is true. I wish to re-visit the point.

First, crafting is of very limited value as you are leveling up your first character. I stand by this. Unless you are very aggressively pursuing trade skills and spending a large amount on raw materials, it is unlikely that you will make many pieces of use to you. There will be some, but few.

Second, crafting is nice for your second character. Continue reading On the Value of Crafting

More Issues

Tech-wise, Book 14 has been a bit of a debacle. It is quite common for a patch to break things, but it just keeps happening.

I posted about server issues a week ago. They seem to have mostly cleared up. The third or fourth patch did it. I am still crashing on zoning daily, which had never happened under Book 13, but maybe that’s just me. I also mentioned the new zone in that patch. It is still not available. Two weeks into Book 14, we are looking at another two weeks to having the zone after which the book is named. It is not bugged; we just need to open AQ. As a populous server, we are in 3rd place, more than half-way there. Other servers may be waiting an extra week or two.

Continue reading More Issues

Collector’s Edition

I decided to cancel my Warhammer Online Collector’s Edition pre-order today. It has nothing to do with my feelings about the game. It has everything to do with thinking about my past CE purchases. Did I get value from them or was it just excitement about the game? I decided, even in the case of World of Warcraft, that is was just about getting something that makes my character a little special or unique. Yes, the lovely in-game items.

All in all, I do not feel it was money well-spent for me. Sure, the art books are cool and the soundtrack is nice, but I have not looked at the art book more than once or twice. The big giant boxes also need to be displayed somewhere, I can’t bring myself to toss them out. So, I ask you: Are Collector’s Editions worth the extra money to you? Why or why not?

– Ethic

Endgame Guilds

I am beginning to see the appeal. It would be nice to run instances and raids where the majority of the people knew what they were doing. I would like to do anything without needing to explain it, rather than its always being someone’s first time. I would like everyone to have voice chat on, and for those with voice chat on, I would like them to be using it; I see six people with voice chat enabled, but only two can hear me; and as a side note, if everyone except you can hear me, the problem is probably on your end. I would like to spend less than thirty minutes waiting on people. I would like there to be no wipes on the way there. I would like people to be familiar with the game mechanics.

While I’m at it, I would like a pony.

: Zubon