Category Archives: Games

#Wildstar – Shmorgasboard of options

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Let’s see if I can find the link.  I think it’s a fair assessment to compare GW2 to Wildstar in terms of content availability and options.  I know most people compare to WoW but really, from 1-max, the only thing you’re really doing is PvE leveling.  Crafting and dungeons are both, in my opinion, broken for people who level up. GW2 takes an approach of “do what you want”.

Wildstar gives you leveling through main quests, tasks, contests, open events, dungeons (hard!), and adventures (also hard!).  Crafting is actually relevant and multi-dependent on other streams.  In that I mean that if you were a leatherworker in other game, you would only need leather.  Here, you need leather and plants and cloth.  Grouping is also highly encouraged through not only guild “credits” which allow the guild to buy perks but also through renown, an additional currency to purchase customization options (housing, costumes, etc…).  And that’s not even talking about the Path quests (I took Scientist).

All that said it makes me feel like I have “dog with a puffy tail” syndrome.  I try to set myself goals when I play but darn if I don’t end up chasing rainbows all over the place.  An example.  I’ll be running a main quest in a part of the map.  I’ll likely find another quest from an item on the ground.  Or I’ll trigger a competition by finding an object, or killing some random enemy.  Or I’ll get a quest given to me over the communicator.  Or I’ll see my path icon which has me scan a bunch of stuff.  So what started out as a 1-2 quest initiative usually ends up as an actual dozen.

Off the beaten path

Off the beaten path

And that’s not even counting me looking at the map for additional harvesting nodes.  Oooh, a new node and I end up a bit further away from the core path and find more quests.  Then when I’m done all of that, I look at the map and see there’s a section I have not explored.  Or a point on the terrain that looks really cool.  I end up going there and 90% of the time, the cycle starts again.

The “neat” stuff is that crafting stations aren’t super common, so I don’t end up spending dozens of cycles making items.  Also, since item drops aren’t super common and I’m not actively farming materials, I can only make a few items at a time anyway.

Next up is running some adventures and dungeons.  They automatically set your level based on the event, so you can easily run stuff lower than your level (or above) if you want.  I’ve built a healer Esper, including AMPs but since play is based on damage, I need a 2nd set of gear in my bags.

Asmiroth.140602.223644

Back to the original GW2 comparison.  That game had the same effect, where you would more or less organically traverse the map finding new objectives.  The difference between the two is that GW2 had absolutely no story linking the stuff together (other than the personal story, 1 quest every 3-5 levels).  Wildstar takes a much more integrated story approach, at the hub, zone, map and entire faction perspective.  What I mean is that characters appear in multiple places, adding consistency.  WoW does this pretty well, especially after the Cataclysm patch.   It’s good, it makes you feel part of the story.

I am having a blast!

Theorycrafting – Guides

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I am a numbers guy and a freak around optimization.  I guess it borders on OCD.  It’s something I (luckily) get paid very well to do and my hobbies usually focus around that too.  Sure, the context of that is important but the action is doubly so.

In that vein, I’ve made quite a few posts on two particular topics over the years.  First, the concept of money and markets.  I’ve made a static page that’s accessible from the home page to collect all that data into a single place.  As I write more about the topic, I’ll update the page.

I’ve also written a fair chunk on character optimization.  While the static page is a bit more high level than the posts, it’s still a very good spot to get started on.  Again, as time progresses, I’ll add some updates to it.

In the meantime, take some time to read up and let me know what you think.

#Wildstar – Let’s Go

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Success!  By luck of events, this weekend gave me good fortune to get a fair amount of time into the game.  And it would appear, that by and large, there were next to no server starts woes.  ESO was a good high bar and Wildstar is right on pace.  It does put other games into stark contrast when you think about it (Watch_Dogs, D3, SimCity, etc..).  In the age of the interwebs, you’d hope they’d get this part down and Carbine did a fine job.

So, with my name all nice and reserved, I made my Exile Human Esper Asmiroth on Evindra.  What a mouthful.  I decided to take a trip to Algoroc as a starting zone, which has a more wild west meet sci-fi vibe.  Rocky canyons, cliffs to climb and a secret robot base.

One fun quest was out in the middle of nowhere, with no breadcrumbs to get there.  Here’s a video.

I just hit 15 and got my house too, so the next little while I think is going to focus on my customization.  Until that time, here are some screencaps.

Rocket Man

Rocket Man

That's a big gun

That’s a big gun

Big bad robot

Big bad robot

#WildStar – Getting Started

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So WildStar is up on Saturday.  I won’t be able to actually play on Saturday, what with being a parent and it being the weekend and all but that’s another topic.  Maybe I can find time to create a character.  Bah, best not to get the hopes up.

That said, I do know the following.  I’ll be on Evindra.  Twitter world seems to have picked that one and being an RP server, experience has taught me that’s my kind of crowd.

I’ll be rolling an Esper too.  My beta time really pushed me down that path for some reason.  I like healing, so I was stuck with Spellslinger and Medic as other options.  The former isn’t bad, it’s just has an odd Spellsurge mechanic that I’m not too fond of.  Medic is too melee for my tastes.  Nearly 10 years of playing a rogue in WoW has taught me to avoid melee.  Oh, and the Esper is seemingly the most borked of all classes and massively under-represented. I like me some underdogs!

Race and faction are a slight bugger though.  Twitter is running Exile, though I know the Alliance of Awesome (not sure if this is on Evindra though) is running Dominion.  I don’t like the Aurin personally and when you don’t like a race and have to stare at it for a few hundred hours – meh.  And I’ve never been a fan of the humanoid races either.  I did play Chua in the beta and I’ll be honest, playing as a Mogwai is a lot of fun.  I guess we’ll see where that ends up.

The Ebb and Flow of Game Time

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If you were to follow a release schedule over any given year, you often see the fall spike, winter lull and spring/summer oddities.  I am sure most people have the most free time in the fall but the other months are a good question.

Being a Canadian, our dogsleds and igloos don’t get much use in the summer.  Then again, they don’t get much use anytime.  But the summer months, as short as they seem to be, as a prime time to take advantage and step outside.  I think if I lived in a more temperate climate I’d have more options but as it is, I have snow season, rainy season, bug season, 2 weeks of ok time, then the fall which is also pretty neat.

Scree brings up an interesting/sad story about the death of a guild.  After 10 years, people have simply moved on.  Looking back 10 years, I was in the WoW beta prepping some guides.  Funny side story actually, I was posting on wow.net forums doing what eventually became known as theorycrafting.  I had 3-4 offers to write guides for it and took it up.  Considering I was making ~$15/hour at the time, it seemed like a great deal. Over the years, it’s paid for every piece of tech in my house.

So, 10 years ago I was in a relationship, living on the cheap in an apartment.  I had a fair amount of free time outside of my shift work.  A year or two in, and I got a new job doing some tech support for a pretty decent chunk of change.  Without shift work and with more money, I had more free time.   Eventually that relationship ended while I was starting a new job with a rather huge time commitment.  If I recall, I dropped most everything to do some 7-7 days, along with some overtime on the weekends.  Gaming really fell to the side but was used as a de-stressor.

That job evolved into something else and I found a new relationship.  Eventually got married about 5 years ago and I guess you’d say I grew up then.  I still found time to game a fair amount, while the S/O watched TV or did her own thing.  I did however ensure I put some focus on RL commitments as she didn’t share my passion for gaming.  A few kids along the way cut even more out of my schedule.  I think the largest impact was while playing Rift.

I was in a fun guild and we were trying some of the public raids (big rifts).  It’d be 10 at night, they were rather pick up and play, but with a baby crying you’d need to get up and take care.  It really changed my priorities.  I haven’t really raided in a focused mindset since then, since the call of RL typically trumps any gaming moment.  Heck, most social settings require this and I’ve always found it weird to hear about people holding kids and giving bottles while raiding/grouping.

Reading the previous paragraph, I think that’s the core of the issue with people who grow up.  While I can set away a few hours to play a game of hockey or a night out with the guys, it’s quite hard to do the same when you game in the same building as your family lives.  There’s still a social stigma, as they see it more like TV, where you can just “poof” stop and don’t see the people on the other side.  It would honestly be easier to leave the house.

Today’s gaming time is an odd mix of an executive career’s time commitments, juggling kid’s expectations, finding time with my wife, exercise and then finally getting some downtime to game.  I could, and have, gone 2-3 weeks without 15 minutes to myself.  I’m still working on finding balance and perhaps, once the kids get a bit older, I can share some time with them in a game or two.  Until then, it’s best effort.

#Transistor – A Solid Indie

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I will start with a clear message.  Go and buy Transistor.

From the same folks that brought you Bastion, comes Transistor.  You can watch a ton of YouTube about the art and flow of the game, which really is only a portion of the fun.  The real meat and potatoes is the strategic combat.

Background first.  You start in media-res, with little explanation as to why you have a talking sword (the game’s namesake).  He points you around and explains things briefly but the core story is like reading a book, gently exposing more and more story as you move along.  The game is set in a virtual world, where the Program determines people’s outcomes.  Your sword can absorb people’s essences or you can acquire them through choices in the level up process.

Purty

These essences are the skills used in combat.  Each has 3 functions, either as a primary attack, as a boost to another primary attack (2 per), or as a passive boost (4 max) to your character.  Each has a set “value” and you can only equip a certain total amount of values at any given time.  As you level up, you get the choice of adding more to that cap, or unlocking more boost and passive slots.  You also get to unlock Limiters, which drastically increase the difficulty of the game but also increase your experience rewards.  You could enable enemies to deal double damage and respawn quickly for example.  It adds a serious level of challenge.

The core skills are varied enough.  Some are direct short attacks, others long range of over time.  Combining the skills provide additional lore and can make a heck of a difference in combat.  I use a long range DoT attack, that also has a front end damage spike and an AE effect upon contact.  Combined with a Stealth-get-out-of-dodge move, I play a more defensive/stealthy game.  I’ve also tried a brute force attack, which was a combination of a “vacuum” pull attack combined with a big AE and knockback.  I think I’m at about 15 skills now, so the options are pretty wide.

Combat also runs in two distinct modes.  First is the regular active combat in real time.  You also can pause time and use “Turn()” to plan out attacks.  Each attack takes up a portion of the meter but you move so fast that sometimes it’s better to use it defensively.  After you send the attack, it takes a while to generate more Turn and your skills are locked, so you’re pretty defenseless.  You need to really think things through!  If you do end up losing your hit points, you lose access to one of your active skills.  Lose them all and it’s game over.  You can restore skills at save points.

You do get a “home base” of sorts, with challenge rooms.  Some are pretty darn hard but once you complete them, it really changes the way you look at the game.  The game proper is only about 6 hours but there’s a New Game+ option.  The dynamic combat, quick pickup and play and system flexibility certainly give it a lot of replay value too.

I will end with a clear message.  Go and buy Transistor.

#Wildstar – Getting Ready

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To the surprise of no one, I have a rather large hankering for some Wildstar.  Given that the game’s approach to classes is akin to SWTOR (every class plays DPS and either Tank or Healer) and that time has shown me that I have no tolerance for tanking, I am going heals baby!  That and telegraphs in your face aren’t so much fun thanks Neverwinter!  That leaves 3 classes, Esper, Medic and Spellslinger.  I have played all of them to about 15 in the beta.  They play drastically different from each other.

Side note, Wildstar has a “tiered” difficulty setting, per zone.  The starter zone and the tutorial (once you actually land) get you to about level 7-8.  They are cake and meant to show you how all the systems work together.  The next zone (2 per faction) gets you to level 15-18 and shows you every other system but mounts.  It is quite a bit larger than the previous and a fair chunk harder.  The next zones…those ones are where the real difficulty starts.  Multiple enemies, you have access to all core skills, lots of telegraphs, new quests, lots of exploring.  So, tutorial ‘til about 7, learner’s permit ‘til about 15, meat and potatoes after that.

Back to classes, I have to say that I’ve found more fun in the Esper than the other two.  Medic has to get into near-melee range and the Spellslinger’s mechanics with Spell Surge don’t particularly jive with me.  The Esper is a pain in the butt to start, given that their core attack skill requires you to stand still, but the payoff later is a lot of flexibility.  The upside is that they are by far the least played class in the game, which means that if I stink, there’ll be less people to compare to!  I do plan on running Dominion too, just because I like their storyline a bit more.  Unfortunately, the race selection or rather restrictions, mean that I can only really run a Chua Esper.  Not so bad but I was hoping for more choice than Human and hamster.

I also reserved my name.  Even with the tech issues, no one is getting Asmiroth but me.  Dibs for sure!

But that’s the core of a themepark MMO.  The framework.  What really makes a difference is playing the game.

UI – I like the UI.  It’s a combination of MOBA action with tab-targeting for some other skills.  There’s a lot going on but the simple UI keeps it tidy.  Movement is fluid, telegraphs are very visible, effects are clear, graphics are solid.  The extra bits, lore and whatnot, are in additional UI elements that are hidden from the core set but still accessible.  Even the Path UI elements work well.  The only thing that doesn’t is costumes, as you need to be in the capital city to access it.  I expect that to change.  I also like the art style, which I think is going to be the #1 thing for most people.

Combat – Things work.  Check YouTube for a ton of streams that show how combat actually flows between the various skills.  Resource management works.  Priority skill management too.  Active combat does have some hectic parts but it isn’t so overwhelming.  You aren’t tasked with doing 8 things at once.  If you have to avoid stuff, then that’s all you need to do.  The good part is that you need to pay attention and the bad side is that you need to pay attention.  The days of face-rolling and standing in the fire are done.  Red stuff will kill you, which is going to make for a very steep skill wall for most players.  I think that FF14s success has shown that players are ready for this.

Lore & Flavor – This part is often overlooked but is the heart of the game.  How the various pieces interact and the reasoning for moving forward.  The storylines aren’t throwaway, they are consistent across the entire faction.  While SWTOR set the bar on story delivery it lacked a fair amount of cohesion.  ESO lore is excellent and I can easily compare Wildstar to that.  Lore pieces are everywhere.  Each nook and cranny holds something new.  All the paths except Solider also provide a fair amount of insight into the lore.  I do like that NPCs consistently appear between zones and mean something.  Hemmit Nesingway resounds with people.  I expect to have dozens of those examples within Wildstar.  Plus housing.  I could write an entire post on housing.

Social – The grouping tools were pretty smooth, guilds too.  You can downlevel to play with friends and instances use a Rally system to level you to the correct level for dungeons and PvP zones.  There is little phasing that blocks grouping too and since there are so many open quests that you can re-run, there’s plenty of opportunity to find other folk.  Downside is the spawn rate on some of those open quests.  I think that GW2 and FF14 use this system very well and it seems to work here too.

Economy – This one is a bit different.  Auction house is similar to GW2 with buy and sell orders.  It also separates commodities from items, which is pretty neat.  Beta was not a good example of how this system will work, just due to poor volume and low level characters.  It’s a solid thought but I’m curious as to how volume will “bottom out” the market as it is in GW2 currently.  Crafting is solid though, with 2 separate streams, similar to the AH.  Consumables use a hot/cold mini game to craft.  Items can be mass produced or customized.  They are also generated every other level like ESO, which avoids the “item gap” present in most other games.  A talent-like system is also there, which provides some customization.

 

Now I know this comes off as very fan-boi and there’s a whole lot of truth to it.  You basically have to like the art style, the “theme” of off-the wall zaniness (which I personally find closer to irony than otherwise) and the combat model.  If those 3 click for you, then you’re in for a fun ride.  If they don’t, then there really isn’t a point in trying.  For me, I’m really quite looking forward to a new take on the themepark model.

#Wildstar – Music

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So, while I am rarely a OST fan I think WildStar might be doing me in.  Here’s a quick (super quick) video of the 2nd starter zone for Dominion – Ellevar.  When I say starter zone, I mean the level 7+ zone.

While this is more gregorian chant, the music actually changes to a more instrumental violin affair after about 5 minutes.  While my wife is not a gamer, she was highly impressed by the music – which is the complete opposite normally.  I have earphones on all the time but this one is a likely exception.

Hats off Carbine.

Neverwinter – Icewind Dale

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I make no secret that I am a rather huge D&D fan.  I don’t get the chance to play the tabletop version anymore but the world and rules have always fascinated me.  Neverwinter has that near perfect combination of lore/structure and action-oriented combat to keep me coming back.

Expansion #3 is out today, Curse of Icewind Dale, and it seems to be adding a fair bit of content to boot.  Raids, dungeons, a new campaign with daily quests, new paragon path for the Ranger, a new profession (Black Ice) and dynamic group content (aka Public Events).  While there is some vertical progression, as the game uses a gear score, there’s actually a fair amount of horizontal progression as well.  Experience is no longer “wasted” and you continue to gain “levels” of a sort.  These give you points to allocate to your active skills.  You can’t slot more skills, you just have more skills to choose from.

The previous post spoke about the 3 phases of ESO.  Neverwinter has 2.  First is the leveling aspect, from 1-60.  You have access to companions, customization, foundry (awesome), dungeons, skirmishes (5 minute dungeons) and a whole slew of other features.  Phase 2 starts at 60 and adds 2 things.  First, elite dungeons and raids, where the gearscore/skill requirement is a fair bit higher than before.  This is the typical end-game for themeparks and the time commitment is manageable.  Second are campaigns, which are themed daily quests with gates.  Pretty much what 1-60 gave you, you’re just limited to about 1 hour’s worth per day.

This new expansion seems to add a few more 1-60 things to do without the need for typical end-game progress, which is pretty darn good.  I know that breadth doesn’t equate to depth but we’re not talking about a game that is aiming a whole lot at the latter – it’s an action RPG after all.  I do know from my experience in the dungeons/raids that you need to be attentive to what’s going around.  Proper stat allocation is also pretty important but that part is rather hard to gimp yourself with, due to core mechanics.  SWTOR’s customization (and WoW’s now-dead reforging) provided way more options than Neverwinter.

It’s free, there’s a ton of content.  Give it a shot.

ESO – Veteran Levels

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It’s a simple fact that all games that want to have retention need re-useable content.  Sandboxes have a distinct advantage here as the content is generally created by the players and not the developers.  EvE, UO, ATitD are examples of user-generated worlds.  Themeparks have contained experiences that, by and large, are the same for all players.  The “ride” is balanced against other rides and provides a more uniform experience.  UO, until the shard split, was  near death-trap for any new players venturing outside, with a completely different experience depending on time spent in-game.  Themeparks are the same formula from 1-max level, with a few variations at the top (raiding, achievements, PvP, collecting, etc…)

While I have posted a bit about Wildstar and its approach for end-game activities (there are many), ESO has taken a slightly different approach.  First though, some quick context.

ESO has 3 main “phases” compared to the typical 2 in other themeparks.  There’s the 1-50 phase, following a central quest structure through a half-dozen zones for your faction.  As you level, you have full access to PvP and level appropriate dungeons, across all factions.  Once you hit 50, then you reach the veteran levels, of which there are currently 10.  That’s phase 2.  This phase encompasses a central quest structure for the other 2 factions, split between the levels, with a bit more challenge.  Phase 2 is therefore twice as long to get through as Phase 1.  You still have PvP access and you now have access to veteran-ranked dungeons, which are rather unforgiving in terms of tactics compared to their regular variants.  Phase 3 is what happens at veteran rank 10, and this is where the new Craglorn content comes in to play.  Group-based open world objectives, is the main gist of it. That said, there are dozens of quality of life changes in the pipes (fixing many grouping issues).

J3w3l goes into it from her personal experience.  Phase 1 is simple, phase 2 is significantly more complex and unforgiving and then phase 3 has no relation to either previous phase.  Due to the odd grouping mechanics, where it’s rather difficult to find someone to play with during Phase 1-2 (phasing, quest progress, etc…) you’re in a solo-only world for about 400+ hours.  I am curious how Phase 3, with a heavy if not singular focus on group content will work with the player base.

On top of that, given that 99% of the content is consumed by phases 1 and 2 (all quests across all factions) and that you have enough skill points to fill out 80% of all skills (which works out to more than 100% of the useful ones) there’s no replayability, outside of the 3 class-specific skill lines.  There’s a difference between a Dragonknight and a Mage but not enough to fill out 400+ hours.

Finally, as current metrics seem to indicate that the wide majority of players are in the mid-30s at the end of the first month, or somewhere around 60 hours in, and that the new content requires 400+ hours to even access – you need to wonder about the design direction.  I give a lot of flak to Wildstar for their 20-40 person raid commitment as end-game content (it’s just stupid to do in 2014) but ESO deserves a fair amount of head scratching too.  If you want to retain people, there’s only so many turns on the Magical Tea Cups that people can stomach before heading to the door.