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An Issue for Issues

My favorite bugs for this patch are not officially “known issues,” although this one is a humdinger: “Using the /option_toggle command will cause a client crash.”

  • Pets now ignore targets under the effect of knockback. My favorite villain character has pets who knockback their enemies. Crap.
  • The final encounter of the new task force is currently somewhat easier than intended because you can snipe 3/4 of it to death without getting any aggro.
  • One of the quality of life improvements was giving you more options on your chat channels. Now global chat channels change color every time you zone.
  • Another lets you re-organize your characters on the log-in screen, handy when you have up to 36 characters. If you do so, it does not save, and instead re-re-orders them every time you log on. My character list consistently starts with a blank slot that it encourages me to buy.
  • Ironically, every time you zone you get the message “Invalid Command ClearSpam.”
  • The hero arc to unlock the Midnighter’s Club makes a neat use of the crafting system by having you create a cure for The Lost. It requires five pieces of salvage, which you receive for completing the story arc missions. If you complete them on a team, only one person gets the salvage, although everyone gets the “Mission complete!” Meaning that you have now finished the one source for that salvage without, you know, getting that salvage.

There are probably more. Personally, I might have waited until after the first bug-fixing patch to re-activate all accounts for the weekend to let people try this. But that’s not my call.

: Zubon

An Issue For Alts

I have played through all the new Issue 12 content you can with an existing hero. It is a long evening of play: a story arc to unlock the Midnighter’s Club, reading things in the Midnighter’s Club, a new task force, look at architecture on the new island, a few missions that are all about reading backstory, and a contact with endless template missions. The new gameplay is pretty much that task force. The new enemy group has fewer than a dozen enemies in it, so you mostly fight the same three minions, one lieutenant, and one boss until you hit an elite boss or three. The last mission includes “defeat 300” of these, so you will be on that map for a while. The guys in my supergroup want that Oracle costume for all their female characters.

This is a time for new characters. I have one more villain story arc to try, then the remaining new content is the villain epic archetype. There are some new powers to try, but most of Power Proliferation is porting existing powers to different archetypes. I can’t knock that, as we had a hoot rampaging with low-level characters using the proliferated powers, but it is a new way of hitting old content. Oh, and I should poke around the redecorated Hollows more, although we hit the zone on our new characters.

Issue 11 recycled old content via flashbacks. Issue 12 recycles old content via new characters. I am hoping that Issue 13 has more new content, although I am not expecting it until October. We are somewhat slower than the stated plan of three new issues per year, although I suppose we could count 11.5 as a significant update. It just feels like Turbine puts out this much content every month or two for its games.

: Zubon

Age of Conan – Early Impressions

I got my hands on a copy of Age of Conan a lot earlier than I had planned on buying my own, so I went ahead and installed it. The following are my first impressions from playing through the very first area on my way towards the town of Tortage. You’ll have to excuse the scattershot topic jumping.

It seems all the male faces are portraying the “less than a full deck” look. I had to play a female instead because of that. Really, are nipples *that* important to the game? One of the first cut scenes used a generic character to represent mine, that bothered me. Can we get some *more* splash screens to click past during log in? Where is the log out option so I can switch characters? I don’t want to exit the game and then log in again. I found a helmet and put it on, did not like it so I chose the “don’t show helmet” option and it took off my hair too (update: I’m told this bug was actually the result of changing into and out of the demon form – I did both around the same time). I crashed at log out most of the time and once when I tried to get a screenshot. I don’t really have any opinions on the user interface. It didn’t get in the way of me doing what I needed to do, so I guess that is good enough for now.

The scenery is lush and amazing (keep in mind this was just in the single player area so far). The male characters run funny. I had a few of those bloody critical kill blows but the only way I could tell is because blood splashed on my screen. My character blocked the view of the big moves. Combat is fun so far, a little different – but nothing amazing about it. It makes you pay more attention, which is good. The world (again, intro solo area impressions only) makes me feel walled in, restricted to certain areas. Does not feel like a seamless world, which is an important thing for the explorer in me. The hints might be helpful but I went out of my way to get them off the screen and did not read them.

Class choices seem very interesting. I tried a Herald of Xotli and a Ranger. The Herald of Xotli could turn into a demon, which is always a cool thing. When I was the Ranger I needed to switch from bow to sword frequently. The key to do that is “Shift + R”. G15 keyboard to the rescue. The sound your character makes when you find something is silly. “Aha!”. I found a broken bottle on the beach, picked it up, and used it as a weapon – cool. I seemed to level up really fast.

It looks like the launch was quite solid and I’m impressed. If you like Conan, this appears to be a big win. There is a lot more to the game I’d like to discover and so I will continue to play it as my second game for now. Congratulations to Funcom for fixing the multitudes of problems I was hearing about from beta testers. I will post more as I get time to play.

– Ethic

CoX Issue 12: live

Patch Notes

Highlights include villain epic archetypes, powerset proliferation, a new zone, and many quality of life improvements. They are also starting to sell extra character slots, and you get two free for “a while.” I had to re-subscribe for the anniversary badge, because I am weak.

The amount of new content is limited, but there are many ways to re-experience the old content. We were having fun tonight with a team of Fire Scrappers and Plant Controllers. If you want a free trial or welcome back code (15 free days with purchase of a month, must have been gone for 90), mention it in the comments and I will send it to the e-mail address you list.

: Zubon

Full disclosure: if I send you a code and you spend money, I get some free time. If you have a friend who plays, have him send you a code and he will get the free time.

Age of Conan Launched

According to Funcom, the collector’s edition of Age of Conan has sold out completely and 700,000 regular boxes have been shipped to retail store shelves worldwide.

Since there is a Best Buy store next door, please talk amongst yourselves while I run over and get a status check.

I’m back! They had 19 copies on the shelf in the normal video game area – second shelf from the bottom. They also had a special table set up with another 15 copies. Interestingly, there was also 4 copies of the collector’s edition available to purchase on that table. I guess they aren’t all sold out after all.

Looks like a pretty good presentation for Funcom, but will they sell? Time will tell.

– Ethic

Job Prospects: Poor

Jay Moore had the opening speech at IMGDC, and it included a point I think many people need: getting a sustainable job in the gaming industry is hard.

Many people want a job making games, which is great if you are an executive. No matter how low the salary, how many hours, or how poor of working conditions, people will apply. As fast as you burn through employees, more will be graduating with minimal training and dreams of making the next WoW or Halo. Elder Game hypothesizes that MMOs could be a refuge from this, because they need survivors to run the live game, but much of the industry is self-cannibalizing. Every highly caffeinated 20-something in perpetual crunch mode makes it that much harder for you to make a career.

That ignores the little problem of revenue. 90% of everything is crud, and there is a good chance your game will not break even. Not you, you did a great job, but those other guys screwed up, or management destroyed it, or the market was not ready for your product, or you got lost in a big release month. However it happens, sustainable applies not just to your ability to survive the job but for the job to keep existing.

With high labor supply and limited demand, the pay is low, the jobs are few, and your players will complain about you at least as much as you complain about the current developers. You face a fickle market where faked screenshots and bribed magazines can trump good gameplay. But you do get to have your dream job.

: Zubon