Month: February 2009

Locusts and Lemmings

“Montana Sucks! Now go home and tell all your friends!”

Recent discussion of WoW tourists brings to mind the problem of all tourists: “let’s go somewhere different and whine about how things are not like they were back home. The food here is funny. The toilets are weird. They act like they don’t even speak English.”

The tourists go looking for virgin wilderness, something pristine and untouched. Then they leave tire tracks, litter, and poo; they call for modern conveniences, ideally heated cabins with indoor plumbing and room service; they mock the locals as yokels and wonder why they are not friendlier.

Continue reading Locusts and Lemmings

Mines of Moriaâ„¢ Day 10: The Wandering Years

We conclude this series with another double-length binge spent roaming the tunnels of the world’s largest dungeon.

I have been to the north, where the cave opens to the snow-blown mountaintop. I have been to the south, where the fiery depths begin and where the spiders lie in their holes. (As the map shows, north is up and south is down.)

I have been to a garden, kept alive underground with light reflected from the surface. I have been to a grand cavern of fungus, where one might live out shadowy years on mushrooms and brackish water.

I have seen rooms and tunnels carved with great care, wrought stone columns supporting an unnecessarily high ceiling. (Compensating for something?) I have seen natural caverns that twist and lurch, where flowing water slowly carved a path and where dripping water is gradually rebuilding walls of stalactites and stalagmites. I have seen a cavern so huge that one might forget there were walls, were it not for the lack of a sky; and the tramp of a million orcs’ feet has made the uneven floor smooth, like a sand-blasted desert.

I have banished wights in the Forgotten Treasury, down and down a winding ramp following a borehole that continues to unseen depths. I have fought goblins in the Cooling Chamber, which collects water for the dwarves to drink, and I have fought worse in the deeper Waterworks where wheels still turn in the endless flow. I have saved books in the burning Library of Steel and dwarves nearly everywhere. I have followed incomplete maps to a hidden forge, still lying pristine, and I have chased riddles all across Moria to a simple chest at the end.

(I have slain my first level 60 enemy. I have found my first Second Age relic and given it away.)

I have seen the 21st Hall, and the 16th Hall, and the Second Hall, and the First Hall. I have found the eastern doors and looked upon the forests of Lothlorien.

I have not nearly seen it all.

: Zubon

A Twinking Story

Our buddy Syp links to a GameSpy column on how irrelevant and easy the original 60 levels of WoW have become. Beyond quicker leveling, and even quicker leveling with refer-a-friend zebras, old-fashioned twinking has been re-introduced:

…after putting the Greater Inscription of the Gladiator on it, my little level six Rogue had an extra 30 stamina and 15 resilience. An extra 30 stamina is a sizable boost at level 80; at level six it’s just overpowered. The real reason to pick these up, though? The passive 10% boost to experience gained from killing monsters. That, my friends, is leveling made easy.

/faceroll

At level six my character had more than triple the health of a normal rogue of his level, and dealt more than four times the damage, not counting when the fiery enchant on his sword would go off. Just for fun, I dueled some level 11 and 12 characters who were going at it in Brill, and it wasn’t even close. I was killing characters twice my level in seconds, while barely getting scratched. No need to stealth. Just walk up to them and Sinister Strike until they’re dead.

Any challenge that I may have encountered while leveling this Rogue through the starting areas was completely taken out of the equation. I don’t even bother with stealth anymore, instead focusing on the delicious ham sandwich I’m eating as I cruise through the levels.

: Zubon

Seven Favorites: City of Heroes

  1. Favorite Zone: For rockin’ times, I must go with Perez Park. It was a horror when you got the “Defeat 10 Circle of Thorns in Perez Park” back in the day, but the Park is a great place for low-level group fun. Get four to eight friends together and rampage, hitting Blood Brothers and Skulls in the street or, at later levels, all the slime monsters in the lake. Great smashing fun, plus the occasional Giant Monster to play with.
  2. Favorite Origin: Race doesn’t mean much in CoH, does it? I used to make everyone a mutant, because there were the most mutant-origin enemies in game, so you had a better chance of getting free enhancements. Then they re-arranged those one fine day. Technology gets the nod: it gives you a damage bonus on the Nemesis Staff, and its level 1 bonus power has a chance to hold, which lets low-level Controllers start using Containment early.
  3. Favorite Archetype: Defender. On paper, I like Controllers more (full control + 80% of support beats full support + 80% of damage), but revealed preferences (3 level-capped Defenders) suggest that I am a Defender at heart. I thought I would like Corruptors more, but I seem to have a preference for playing blue-side, where there are more support powers in play.
  4. Favorite Feature: The costume designer. No one does it better. Good luck to Cryptic in topping it in their next games. Second place: scaling instances, which adjust the number of difficulty of opponents based on how many people you bring. The same mission is solo, small group, and full group content. Third place: sidekicks and exemplars, which let you play with your friends even if your levels are very different. Wow, CoH has a lot of great features that too many games have failed to copy, even though the game is more than four years old.
  5. Favorite Power: Fulcrum Shift. It is an area-effect damage debuff, and every enemy that is debuffed gives off an area-effect damage buff, and the caster gives off an area-affect double damage buff. If people are not spread out, it means that everyone is at the power cap. It stacks with itself, in case everyone is spread out. The debuff stacks, so if you have any other sort of damage debuff (and Kinetics comes with one), you can keep an archvillain at the damage floor.
  6. Favorite Task Force/Story Arc: “The MegaMech Cometh,” Ernesto Hess’s task force. A little of the logic was broken with the release of CoV, but its gameplay is top-tier. It caps a set of story arcs that led you across the zone, starting at the docks with the task force completing in the mouth of a volcano. It is usually around two hours, so a good evening’s activity that does not drag. It has some very fast missions, one-room big fights, and it actually has a reason why you do not start with the contact’s phone number. The Council is a fun villain group with variety in its members. You can see the end coming as you fight in the Council base, with windows facing inside the volcano where the final fight happens. And then you have the last scene, fighting your way up scaffolding inside a volcano to keep the pilot from entering a mech. Second place: Lady Grey, with the added bonus of being able to team with your villainous friends.
  7. Favorite Issue: I feel boring going with Issue 3, since I picked its Task Force as my favorite, but it had a lot of good stuff. Striga was the first themed zone that walked you through it via contacts; the TF is awesome; the story arc provides interesting temporary powers; oh wait, there is a second Task Force, one that starts with caves full of vampires and werewolves; we missed the Fifth Column, but the even that ushered them out was a lot of fun, as well as the first time enemies actually fought each other instead of pantomiming; Kheldian and epic power pools; and the short-lived Calvin Scott Task Force (3!), which was enjoyable. Some of the other Issues brought more important features, but I could not pick one that finished what was missing at release (adding levels 40-50 (twice!), giving heroes the villain content, maybe revamping zones).

: Zubon

Guild Wars 2 – Ripples from Friday

After the shareholder’s report released Friday, there were many interesting things that happened through the Guild Wars community and news sites.

The first thing I found really interesting was the disregard for Aion.  The report gave us a fairly tight window for a U.S. release of the MMO.  Massively left Aion out of the subject line but mentioned Guild Wars 2 in the subject line and used the Guild Wars 2 logo in the post.  Ten Ton Hammer also overlooked Aion’s release window and focused on the Guild Wars 2 “delay.”  I think this should be pretty telling about NCSoft’s 2009 offering.  Aion marketing has their work cut out for the western world.

The second thing of interest was the an open letter from Mike O’Brien, Guild Wars 2 overlord, in direct response to the community reaction caused by the released report.  He stated that Guild Wars 2 would be released “when it’s done.”

I think it was a good letter, and is smoothing over the reality that Guild Wars 2 is not really on the horizon yet.  It is on Valve-time.  I am really happy that ArenaNet is in a position to seemingly afford such a luxury.  Guild Wars Factions, Nightfall, and especially Eye of the North were on very tight development schedules, and the feeling of a rushed schedule came through sometimes (even though some were outright delayed).  What would the series have been like if ArenaNet was on Valve-time from the start? I digress…

However, this was not what we were led to expect with Guild Wars 2.  Somewhere ArenaNet shifted gears into a long development time, and they forgot to make sure their community was on board.  All we knew was that the originally stated plan was out the window.  I think what Chris Chung said in the conference call and Mike O’Brien’s letter are definitely smoothing out that gear shift.

–Ravious
not everything is a trap

A Philosophy of Fail

Colin Brennan, over at Massively, pulls no punches in describing the World of Warcraft’s current state of the early game.  I also do not understand Blizzard’s decisions with the features Colin sets forward.  I do know that Blizzard makes some incredibly polished content, and I do know that running through ~70 levels before getting to the “actual” game is not very fun.  New players want to know they have a fun game from the start until they catch up to their friends.  Not a fun, brief start then agonizing, lonely grind even if it is quicker than it used to be.

The failure, I feel, is that Blizzard is not trying to cultivate an enjoyable journey through the whole game for new users, newly returning users, and alternate characters to enjoy.  They are pushing players past some really good (old) content at ever increasing speeds.  Without the raid treadmill, or similar content gating, every long wait that ends with Blizzard making more content grays out a lot of the prior content.  And, in the end I just see a pile of band-aids.

–Ravious
just a flesh wound

New Earth Eternal Site

Earth Eternal has a new site, with a better look and more information. It still has the waving mushroom.

If WoW is too cartoony for you, this is a step in the wrong direction (see the screenshots). If you like the free-to-play/pay model, this is a step in the right direction (see FAQ 27). This is aiming at the MMO space that Wizard 101 and Runes of Magic are currently seeking to occupy in the Western market. The game does not look revolutionary or even particularly innovative, but it could be a fun take on the standard MMO-Diku play. It makes the good decision of letting you play through a browser or a downloadable client.

My interest in the game is significantly based on respect for Matt Mihaly and the expectation that they will bring something interesting to market. Also, my wife and I like bunnies and bears and badgers. Checking our archives, I see a two-year gap in mentioning the game since its announcement, which goes well with my recent plan of not caring about anything more than a month from release. I thought it would be out in 2008; they are currently planning on 2009; I will mention it again a month before you can actually see it (say, open beta).

: Zubon

Mines of Moriaâ„¢ Day 9: Runekeeper

Just toss the lore and IP right out the window. Because The Lord of the Rings would be that much cooler if Gandalf had thrown fireballs and lightning bolts. It is a neat little class, but what is it doing in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢?

This is based entirely on the appearance and what the character is doing. At level 8, I cannot say much about the class as gameplay (although fun so far), but I am already throwing lightning, summoning fire, and freezing things. Pointing a rock at the enemy and gesturing emphatically seems to be key here. I also back-hand monsters instead of carrying a weapon.

The graphics have been tuned down from the beta Sith lords, a visual so out of place in Tolkien that they sent the community manager to say it was okay because the promotional screenshots were not representative of actual gameplay. Despite that, you start every fight with a gout of flame, and at level 6 you can summon a bolt of lightning to strike your foes (underground, sir dwarf), in addition to the two electrical attacks you already have. They also summon shoulder-high healing rocks. I wish I could tell you about their higher level flashiness, but the only time I have grouped with one, we also had a Loremaster, so there were competing fireworks.

My Hunter had wondered why Eregion looked like it was having flashing lights all the time: there was a Runekeeper one hill over. Seriously, I thought the in-game lighting might have been broken in part of the zone.

: Zubon

Seven Favorites: Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢

  1. Favorite Zone: North Downs. The different parts of the zone feel entirely different, from the normal plains you start on to the dead lands of Fornost to the sprawling orc camps of Dol Dinen. It is the battlefront zone, where the forces of Angmar meet the free peoples. It is literally the zone between Bree and Angmar, and you can see the enemy hordes starting to pour into the frontiers of civilized lands. It is the transition between shiny, green Bree and the enemy’s blackened lands, and the zone shares in the best of both.
  2. Favorite Race: Dwarf or Man. Out of four choices, these two are almost always the best. They notably have the best panic buttons (resistance, healing). Pick whichever is better suited to the class you want. I have ended up with more dwarves, so I will go with them.
  3. Favorite Class: Hunter. I spend a lot of time solo, and ranged DPS is good for that. I like the flexibility that the teleport skills provide. I have tried to get into other classes, even taking a Minstrel almost to the level cap before the cap was raised, but I have not put in the time to really try out the rest. In theory, I love the Captain, but mine is currently a mule.
  4. Favorite Feature: Fellowship skills. When you are in a group fighting against enemies that call for groups, you randomly get chances for everyone to call a color for damage or recovery. Coordinate well for bigger bonuses. Burglars can intentionally trigger these, so the rogue class is one of the most group-friendly.
  5. Favorite Skill: Guide to X. In a game with this much travel, being able to teleport around the map is invaluable.
  6. Favorite Instance: Carn Dum. I have yet to try the Moria ones, but Carn Dum is a fun (long) run with some interesting variety. I hope the tentacle fiend has been fully fixed.
  7. Favorite Book: Twelve. I cannot speak of the updates like “Month of the [Class]” and all the game updates, because I joined after that, but Book Twelve is the most fun to play through. It is entire group content, and it feels damn epic as you fight your way through the streets of the enemy city. I enjoy the fight to the gatehouse in Chapter Five, and there are three instances, all of which can be replayed via the Reflecting Pools. We are fighting for a to-be-reforged Ring of Power. Yes, this is Lord of the Rings.

: Zubon

Mines of Moriaâ„¢ Day 8: Three-Man

I ran the three-man instances in Eregion, the School and Library in Tham Mirdain. We had some problems working out the bosses, Elite Masters with friends and/or special abilities, but we made it through them all with a Burglar, Hunter, and Loremaster. We might have fared better with a tank in place of one of the first two.

The instances are compact, taking you in and around a central space. The Moria solo instances are similar. This is a good thing for quick questing.

Each has two or three types of enemy groups, repeated a half-dozen times, plus three boss encounters. Dealing with the groups is an exercise in basic pulling, because all the groups are near each other and/or on patrol. Mix in CC and/or tanking as appropriate for your group. It is not too hard to get one group, and it is not too bad if you get two.

About half the bosses went well, although sometimes with a faceplant because we had no heavy armor (but we did have a rezzer!). The rally circle was not the one at nearby Mirobel, but rather a quick trip back to the doors of the instance (inside). This lets you rush back in and keep going, which could uncharitably be described as zerging it, but I find this valuable given the odds of not having a surviving healer with three people in the instance. No one wants to run back from town every time the cloth-wearing healer hits the floor. Rallying inside also meant that, if you were zerging it, you could get multiple deaths, have massive item wear, and still fail and reset the room. Not bitter.

They are good little instances, both of which you could run comfortably with the same group without devoting an entire evening to it. You get a few deeds and titles, notably “Librarian.” If you want all the slayer deeds, with the associated virtue trait bonuses, you will need to run each about a half-dozen times, as seems to be Turbine’s plan for all instances (based on deed requirements versus enemy counts). Unlike the Angmar instances, you can farm all those enemies without dealing with the bosses, which makes things much easier on your small group.

: Zubon