Author: Zubon

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[GW2] Fountain of Boons

My first GW2 level 80 is an elementalist, and my current trait build is based around Elemental Attunement. This embraces the dissociative identity disorder that is the elementalist class: this character does not take a role, instead cycling through them as fast as skills recharge. If the point of my class is trying to use 16 skills plus 4 different auto-attacks as efficiently as possible, darn it, I am going to cycle attunements madly. Continue reading [GW2] Fountain of Boons

Work in Progress

More than other games, MMO experiences have a time stamp because the game itself changes and our experiences with the “same” piece of content might be radically different.

This is especially true in the early days. Yesterday’s dungeon discussion had some sharply divided experiences, and those could be caused by class, gear, strategy, or the dungeon’s having been updated a half-dozen times in a month. I finally tried WoW so I could see how the zones looked before the Cataclysm revamp only to find that the veterans’ experiences were radically different due to other changes that had accumulated over the years. My trip through Guild Wars: Prophecies included heroes, lots of elite skills, and PvE skills, which changed everything even if none of the Prophecies content had changed.

As a LotRO player, I recall approaches to Moria boss fights that went from “standard practice” to “exploits we patched away.” Sometimes you need the good bugs to get past the bad bugs. Some grognards talk about how hard X was during their day, and some of them did Y while it was easier, broken, bugged, etc.

The population shift is also a big change over time. The original wave of Warhammer Online players experienced public events 1.0 as intended, but as early as a month later many zones were ghost towns and you never saw the last event phases. In September 2012, players bemoaned that the Guild Wars 2 economy was broken because scraps of jute were very expensive. Come September 2014, players may bemoan that the Guild Wars 2 economy is broken because craps of jute were almost worthless. It seems to be a rare event for a game to maintain a steady population spread rather than having huge clumps at the top and bottom levels.

“Trammel” and “NGE” are extreme cases you need not mention. Everyone knows to distinguish between before and after those chasms.

: Zubon

[GW2] Arah

This weekend, I played The Ruined City of Arah in story mode. This is GW2’s final dungeon, where you and the reunited Destiny’s Edge fight Zhaitan itself. It is probably the worst instance I have ever run, second only to the collective, multi-hour pain of the City of Heroes Shadow Shard task forces that spanned entire zones. The two big problems I see are balance and boredom.
Continue reading [GW2] Arah

Project Gorgon Kickstarter

Kickstart here.

You have probably reading about the really indie MMO development of Project Gorgon at Elder Game, friend of Kill Ten Rats. The latest update was about randomly generated weapons that give animals emotional problems. Previous updates have discussed cow PCs (and milking them) and other fun quirkiness. Calligraphy is an important skill for improving your swordsmanship.

The developers (both of them) worked on Asheron’s Call 2. Give them money.

: Zubon

Useful Loading Screens

Most loading screens I see have tips these days, occasionally trivia. These are generally useful for your first few weeks, then you have seen them all or already know everything in them, then you start tuning them out or mocking them. Until then, they can be quite helpful in highlighting non-obvious things, like a game mechanic or a subtle menu option.

Customization could make these more useful. Add some variables to your canned responses, then tune them for the character or player. Torchlight 2 has a great example: the “spend your level-up points” indicator is subtle, but when you zone, the top of the loading screen explicitly says how many points you have to spend. Team Fortress 2 has standard tips on its loading screens, but its death screens have friendly congratulations about how you did that life.

The game does or can track lots of things. Plug those into your loading screens. Continue reading Useful Loading Screens

[TL2] Removed Functionality

Last night, I decided I was done with my first Torchlight 2 character. I had beaten the game, messed around with the Mapworks a bit, and I was ready to retire and start a new character. I had started on “normal” difficulty, and as Tycho says, that is not a satisfying fight. “Right click to kill the five nearest monsters.”

The retirement system from Torchlight 1 has been replaced by New Game Plus in Torchlight 2. That is surely documented somewhere, but it had not even occurred to me to look for it. I liked retirement, I thought it was a good system (cash in your current character for a small boost to your next one, cumulative across generations), and it did not strike me that leaving it out was an option. This usually happens at some point when you upgrade systems and/or programs, but it is always a disappointing moment when a tool you occasionally deployed is no longer in the toolbox.

I wonder if a mod will bring it back.

: Zubon

[GW2] Currency Count

At launch (and these tallies generally go up), Guild Wars 2 has:

  • coin for merchants
  • gems for the cash shop
  • karma for events
  • influence for guilds
  • glory for SPvP
  • badges of honor for WvW
  • 8 different dungeon token types

There is also supply in WvW, skill points become a sort of currency with a few vendors, and mystic coins could be considered a 9th token type. You also have an achievement point count. Some of these are inventory objects, others are just variables attached to your character/account.

Since I complained at length about the need for a LotRO barter wallet, which was implemented years later through the cash shop, I thought I would take stock as GW2 started. WoW and CoX were also noted for their problems with proliferating currency types. Let’s see how ArenaNet handles this.

: Zubon

[GW2] Cherry Tree

Trahearne is not the most beloved character in GW2, but Sieran is a strong competitor. For those of you who have not tried the Durmand Priory personal story arc, try the Durmand Priory personal story arc. Magister Sieran is your guide, and she is the happiest adventurer around. “Cherry!” (or sylvari cursing: “Thorns!”) We’re going into certain death: “It’ll be an adventure!”

Everyone gets the lesser version in the Pact story arc, Carys, who is enthusiastic about running in and whacking zombies with a big hammer. I tried this on a sylvari guardian, and it is indeed satisfying to whack zombies with a big hammer, so I can see why she is in such a good mood. Still, Sieran is the full version, the physical incarnation of joy and enthusiasm.

: Zubon

[GW2] Queue

This is not unfair. We tried to put a guild WvW group together last night, but after an hour or two, only two of us had made it into Eternal Battlegrounds. Hey, weekend prime time, right? There is a problem when the game becomes unplayable only when people want to play it.

The PvE was still working just fine, though. Guilds war, just not with each other.

: Zubon