Author: Zubon

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[LotRO] Premium Barter Wallet

LotRO launched in 2007. Since 2008, I have been saying that the game needs a barter wallet for all the tokens it keeps adding to the game every expansion. I enumerated these in 2009. At the end of 2010, they added a limited version that addressed two types of tokens. For 2012, they are implementing the full shebang, at a cost of $10 per account (or two months of subscribers’ TP).

I certainly have the TP, but something still galls about implementing a feature half-heartedly then charging for the full thing. I have never enjoyed crippleware as a design scheme. No, it’s a “premium” feature, see, it says it right in the name! There is precedent in charging for shared storage, and LotRO needs to monetize lifetime accounts; I expect that this will generate more revenue than it drives away.

: Zubon

Unrelatedly, the LotRO store free sample of the week is the 800 TP Scroll of Combination. Use coupon code 33CDC1.

[LotRO, GW] The Tyranny of Trash

The last instance cluster of LotRO’s previous expansion, “In Their Absence,” was rather good. It had interesting and fair puzzle bosses, a boss fight that involved slapping hobbits, and meaningful trash mobs. Fighting trash took you through a progression of enemies to let you get comfortable with your team, to introduce new mechanics gradually, and to explore variations on those mechanics. The first group might have a few normal spiders with a new poison ability, the second with one bigger spider, and so on until you get to the spider boss fight. Another wing has several types of poisonous goblins, introduced one at a time until the fight where you get to navigate all their abilities at once. And so son. The little of the raid that I saw had genuinely difficult trash fights, in which raids would work out how best to deal with this half-dozen enemies and their abilities given the group composition.

Guild Wars uses more of the standard copy-and-paste approach to trash. Continue reading [LotRO, GW] The Tyranny of Trash

[GW] Very Flashy Blades

Playing a ranger in Guild Wars, you develop the appropriate hatred of enemies that have strong counters to physical attacks, such as enemy rangers using Lightning Reflexes. Assassins have a skill called Flashing Blades that lets them block attacks and return damage every time they do so.

This works at a range. You shoot an arrow from a longbow at maximum range, the assassin deflects it with a dagger, and he slashes you as a part of the block. That is a very flashy blade.

: Zubon

[GW] Elegant Data Display on the Map

The Guild Wars world map is subtle and powerful.

The map is the primary means of travel: click on a town and you are there. This means that almost every zone is immediately accessible once visited, and reaching a new town is also a unit of character progress. This gives extra weight to the few places that require crossing multiple explorable zones to reach.

The map also shows progress on multiple tracks. Blurry terrain indicates Cartographer points to find, although you need a mod to get great precision. Each mission is tied to a town, so the town’s icon changes to indicate mission completion and whether you completed the mission bonus. Missions yet to be done flash gently. You can switch the map overlay to hard mode to see mission and Vanquisher completion there. All of this provides a trail of breadcrumbs for when you lose your place.

As is now common, you can track a quest and have its location appear on the map.

The weakest point is leaving a map. There are three maps for the three campaigns, and Eye of the North shares space with Prophecies. You switch maps by clicking on a boat, which makes sense in that you are sailing between continents. There is one major harbor per continent, and only Factions allows a team of eight in that town, so you need to re-select your heroes with most campaign switches. (You can get around that via Embark Beach or visiting Prophecies through the EotN portal.) Underground and hidden areas are not on the main map at all, so you need to go through portals or remember which explorable areas are caves that are not part of the world map.Part of Nightfall happens in another dimension, with an off-map mini-map. Dungeons are off-map, but their entrances are helpfully marked. I do not know what was supposed to indicate a secret portal from the Chantry of Secrets, but the wiki helped me when I was using reverse induction to find my way to a goal.

Of course, all of these are weaknesses within the context of the virtues. Most games use maps as maps with no interactive elements apart from fogging out unvisited areas.

: Zubon

Unbattening Hatches

I assumed that most of our readership would be focusing on Guild Wars 2 last week, so I didn’t want to interrupt. Let’s ease back in with an off-topic post. I could find some way to make this link on-topic, maybe connect it to this old post, but why bother? As I have said, primate brain, fire, ooh.

The inherent awesomeness of that link is increased by the subsection “Examples with Zombies.” People don’t always believe me when I tell them that the CDC has a web page on preparing for the zombie apocalypse. The Infernal Retaliation picture, to note, is not an example, because he set himself on fire; the alien he is fighting loses its powers around fire, like Superman with kryptonite. Under the “comic books” tab, however, read the X-Men example. Choice.

Game commentary returns very soon.

: Zubon

[GW] Features That Probably Do Not Exist

I have figured out using and loading templates on heroes/myself. Handy, that. There is not a way to combine that with choosing heroes, I presume? I frequently pass through solo missions or four-hero zones, to say nothing of changes for missions, and it can be tedious to re-select my heroes from what is now a long list. I would love to be able to click a few times and reload my default hero/build setup.

If that is not available, I hereby nominate it for a future update. Also, other games? If you give the player the option of choosing seven heroes from a list of twenty-seven, then giving each of them eight skills from a list of 1,235, that would be a good feature for you to have, too.

: Zubon

Of Checklists

One reason I like achievements is because they give you a checklist of things to do. I like seeing the entire game, and large, complex games have facets I would not even think to look for. There are many ways to direct players to that content, but an easy one is just listing, “Hey, have you tried X?” In Guild Wars, the Hall of Monuments and the wiki are helping me find all the things I can do.

Honestly all I can think of when I start reading this kind of stuff is… work. For some reason, it just all seems like too much effort for not enough reward. To me, when I feel like I need to read a guide about how to make something happen, it feels like the game designers really messed up. I have like 3 points and I guess that is about all I’m going to get.

Bah.
— Ethic

I obviously differ, but let me point out that, if you have played through Guild Wars and have Eye of the North, you already have more points than you may know. If you have completed any campaign, you have at least 5 points available (3 for linking, 2 for first Honor monument). A level 20 Ranger pet is another 2. Any miniature is another 1, 2 if rare or unique, 3 if you have both. Any fancy armor or weapon is another 1-4. If you already ran through the campaigns and have your Monumental Tapestries up in Eye of the North, you just need a few minutes to figure out how to cash in your checklist. And from there, you can see if there is anything else interesting you forgot to try. Getting a lot of points is work, but you can get a dozen on accident.

: Zubon

[GW] Hall of Monuments Time

I had a big Saturday in-game. I ran my first challenge mission and I joined some guildmates for my first visit to the Underworld. The guild leader was recently traumatized by my still being on the easy Hall of Monuments points, since the veteran players are mostly at the point where getting another HoM point requires maxing five titles. After we cleared the Underworld, he asked, “So, Zubon, did you get five points today?” He was gobsmacked when the answer was “Actually, yeah.” That challenge mission filled my Fellowship monument, and Underworld was my fifth title.

As I recall people saying of the Hall of Monuments, 15 is where it stops being easy, 30 is where it stops being sane, and 50 is where it just stops. Steam says it took 215 hours to reach 16 points, so there is your barometer if you want to know what is possible/convenient for getting HoM points for GW2. I started with absolutely nothing, and some of that time has been spent on longer-term goals like my pre-Searing character that is level 13.5 (halfway to Legendary Defender) or about a day AFK during the festival. A casual, 10 hour/week player can probably get to 15 points before GW2 launches, and a really hardcore player could do it before open beta.

Added: HoM guide. You’ll get most of the way there just running the campaigns and playing normally. Getting later points takes work and grinding, but I haven’t ground anything yet.

: Zubon

Quote of the Day

…I often play female characters in MMOs: not because I want to look at a cute bottom, but because I enjoy the juxtaposition of taking such an incarnation of loveliness, wrapping her in a hulking suit of armour, and having her kick the ten living arse bells out of a muscleheap of ogres.
— Melmoth

[GW] Status Check

I have had Guild Wars for two months now, as you may have guessed by the sudden change in posting topics. So where is Zubon?

I have completed Nightfall and Factions. I am a few missions from the end of Eye of the North and a few into Prophecies. I have a couple dozen elite skills, a set of prestige armor and a maxed bow on my Ranger, and all but one of the heroes that do not require the completion of post-campaign content. (I will not be trying Winds of Change until I vanquish Cantha. I can read the story on the wiki.) While I have a full set of runes and insignia (maybe not the best, but it’s something), my heroes do not, and the new heroes from finishing Nightfall are still below level 20.

I have 10 Hall of Monuments points. You can check “Zubon Ganaimad” if you’re curious. I have several potential statues on the cusp, like an un-leveled phoenix and Protector of Cantha nearly done, but I am not going to worry about cleaning those titles up right now.

My next priorities are adding a little more strength to my hero options and starting to participate in guild events (now that I have two campaign hard modes available). I want to finish leveling the Nightfall rangers so that I can use them as touch rangers. I want to push into Prophecies to pick up some elite skills that most people seem to take for granted (Offering of Blood, Panic, Unyielding Aura). I want to finish the campaigns to open up all my options. I want to drop a bit of money on runes and insignia to finish decorating my heroes.

Then I can just mess around doing whatever I want, because I will be a full participant in the endgame. :) Since I have been doing a lot of “whatever I want” along the way, this will not be a huge change. I also have some alts to try, but they are all in the single digits (except the gradual Legendary Defender of Ascalon character, at level 13 right now).

: Zubon