Tobold wants to know what's going to happen at Blizzcon. I've looked at this question previously and some of my calls are looking pretty good. It looks like we're going to see Patch 3.0 go live on Tuesday. Blizzard kind of let that cat out of the bag by saying that the arena season would end, but I'm sure they'll announce it like breaking news at the keynote anyway. Blizzard has also hinted that we will finally hear something about the planned ability to allow players to have two talent specs. Beyond that?
WoW
We've already got a fair chunk of info about stuff that's to be included in the post-Wrath content patch. Notably, account-wide achievements and most likely the dual-spec thing will be going in. With a month left to go before the expansion's retail launch, I'm not sure that Blizzard is going to WANT to announce any more major features that won't be ready in time, for fear of making the expansion look unfinished. I expect very very little new information on the WoW front.
Diablo III
Playable on the show floor, with the unveiling (but not necessarily playable debut) of a third playable class.
Starcraft II
Tobold thinks that a release timeline for SC II would be "lame". I expect Blizzard to unveil beta testing at best. Does that make Blizzard partially lame? ;)
Battle.net version 2.0
This may be the most likely area for big announcements, and perhaps even an unveil of the new interface and features. Blizzard has already announced that they will relaunch the service with Starcraft II, that they will move all games towards the Blizzard Account for logins, and that WoW's achievement system will be part of a broader "Blizzard level" system that tracks achievements across multiple Blizzard games (to include SC II and DIII). This is also the one area where they can spin WoW-related announcements as "WoW will be updated to be comaptible with the new BNet" as opposed to "there are features for Wrath that won't be in for launch".
The Mystery Fourth Project?
Not this time.
My track record on these things has been mixed; I'm as likely to have all these things disproven by a leaked press release sometimes in the next 10 minutes as I am to get them all right. Still, I'm not expecting anything groundbreaking at this year's edition of Blizzcon. We'll see how I did come Sunday.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
LOTRO: Storytelling and World Building
Well, LOTRO's latest free re-trial weekend is over, and I figured I might as well get a second post on the topic for my troubles. A few rambling thoughts:
- The High Pass area of the Misty Mountains is larger than I thought. This sub-region, which adds a good third or so to the zone, wasn't ready for launch (along with lots of other things), and I didn't really need it during LOTRO's last free re-trial weekend since I had effectively grinded my way past the level gap it was supposed to patch. Anyway, I wandered back in there to finish the last quest deed I hadn't done, and I was suitably impressed. Aside: There is no compensation for EXP you don't get due to being at the level cap, which is a bit of a flaw because it greatly lessens the incentives to keep doing stuff.
- I've forgotten how pretty this game is. With the graphics set to max on my gaming machine, it really outshines WoW and Warhammer at their equivalent settings. Maybe this is because of the DX10 support, I don't know. Also, the orchestral music is rather well done, even if you do start wishing they'd learn a few new pieces after a while.
Odd graphical glitch, or has Elrond finally snapped and installed Manaforge Rivendell? You decide!
- I'll admit that I'm the first to complain when a season event makes it too hard to get ahold of a special mount. That said, I'll concede that LOTRO's Harvest festival makes it a bit too easy. All you need to replace your plain horse/pony with a special tricked out version is win a short horse race (at worst, you'll be up against 3 other players, but the race is run every 10 minutes, even if it's some obscure hour and no one else is online) and six festival tokens (you can get 1-3 tokens each for simply showing up at the four racial starting areas, and an additional 3 for completing a hide-and-seek emote quest in each area). Cosmetic rewards should definitely be attainable, but they don't need to be obtainable in 20 minutes.
Allarond's new horse, and a bonus pumpkin mask. Wonder what a Hobbit would look like on a Kodo....
- I've made this comment before, but LOTRO really puts a lot of time and effort into the world-building side of the game. The patch notes include a lengthy apology for having to have the members of the Fellowship available in Rivendell for existing quests after they've moved on in game time. (If you enter one of the rooms where the Fellowship is hanging out, you'll see a date displayed to remind you that the events you're witnessing already happened.) This kind of little detail really makes a difference in the game world; WoW just shrugs, nods, and winks as it places the same NPC in multiple zones. The fully customizable costume system is also a far bigger featuire than I would have admitted before trying it - who would have thought of allowing your character to look however you want them to!
- The only downside to the setting is that the player's character is, well, not an actual member of the Fellowship of the Ring. The game's way of dealing with this is to weave a tale of various threats AROUND the Fellowship that would have caused problems if the player characters hadn't been there. The issue comes up when you walk in the front door of Rivendell and have Aragorn, who you may or may not have met previously, ask you to go get a crucial item that he needs to have Anduril re-forged. Or when Elrond has the player's character summoned to Rivendell for the sole purpose of seeing The Fellowship off, and half of the gang are sad that they can't invite you to join the group. Somehow, I prefer my iconic NPC's to be a bit less likely to need my help.
Uh, Aragorn, I'm a freshly dinged level 50 Champion, there are a dozen of us milling about the AH. Also, when the expansion comes out, I'm probably going to take off after you guys instead of doing what you're asking me to and staying to guard Eregion. See you guys in Lorien, thank that noob Gandalf for kiting the Balrog out of Drak's room for me, will you?
- Going forward, I'm curious how the game is going to handle the expansion. Currently, the game is geographically centered around Bree. Travel is already less than convenient at times (I might even have said an unkind word about it), and that's WITH the advantage of having the human racial teleport (excuse me, lengthy but uneventful off-camera journey) to Bree. Are players going to be based out of Rivendell for the Moria portion of the expansion, moving on to Lorien later and leaving Bree behind? Are there going to be towns and questgivers in Moria (/cringe)?
Anyway, that's another nice little visit to Middle Earth. LOTRO is rather well done, and it's a shame that Turbine just hasn't been able to make anything to make it worth staying there long-term.
- The High Pass area of the Misty Mountains is larger than I thought. This sub-region, which adds a good third or so to the zone, wasn't ready for launch (along with lots of other things), and I didn't really need it during LOTRO's last free re-trial weekend since I had effectively grinded my way past the level gap it was supposed to patch. Anyway, I wandered back in there to finish the last quest deed I hadn't done, and I was suitably impressed. Aside: There is no compensation for EXP you don't get due to being at the level cap, which is a bit of a flaw because it greatly lessens the incentives to keep doing stuff.
- I've forgotten how pretty this game is. With the graphics set to max on my gaming machine, it really outshines WoW and Warhammer at their equivalent settings. Maybe this is because of the DX10 support, I don't know. Also, the orchestral music is rather well done, even if you do start wishing they'd learn a few new pieces after a while.
Odd graphical glitch, or has Elrond finally snapped and installed Manaforge Rivendell? You decide!
- I'll admit that I'm the first to complain when a season event makes it too hard to get ahold of a special mount. That said, I'll concede that LOTRO's Harvest festival makes it a bit too easy. All you need to replace your plain horse/pony with a special tricked out version is win a short horse race (at worst, you'll be up against 3 other players, but the race is run every 10 minutes, even if it's some obscure hour and no one else is online) and six festival tokens (you can get 1-3 tokens each for simply showing up at the four racial starting areas, and an additional 3 for completing a hide-and-seek emote quest in each area). Cosmetic rewards should definitely be attainable, but they don't need to be obtainable in 20 minutes.
Allarond's new horse, and a bonus pumpkin mask. Wonder what a Hobbit would look like on a Kodo....
- I've made this comment before, but LOTRO really puts a lot of time and effort into the world-building side of the game. The patch notes include a lengthy apology for having to have the members of the Fellowship available in Rivendell for existing quests after they've moved on in game time. (If you enter one of the rooms where the Fellowship is hanging out, you'll see a date displayed to remind you that the events you're witnessing already happened.) This kind of little detail really makes a difference in the game world; WoW just shrugs, nods, and winks as it places the same NPC in multiple zones. The fully customizable costume system is also a far bigger featuire than I would have admitted before trying it - who would have thought of allowing your character to look however you want them to!
- The only downside to the setting is that the player's character is, well, not an actual member of the Fellowship of the Ring. The game's way of dealing with this is to weave a tale of various threats AROUND the Fellowship that would have caused problems if the player characters hadn't been there. The issue comes up when you walk in the front door of Rivendell and have Aragorn, who you may or may not have met previously, ask you to go get a crucial item that he needs to have Anduril re-forged. Or when Elrond has the player's character summoned to Rivendell for the sole purpose of seeing The Fellowship off, and half of the gang are sad that they can't invite you to join the group. Somehow, I prefer my iconic NPC's to be a bit less likely to need my help.
Uh, Aragorn, I'm a freshly dinged level 50 Champion, there are a dozen of us milling about the AH. Also, when the expansion comes out, I'm probably going to take off after you guys instead of doing what you're asking me to and staying to guard Eregion. See you guys in Lorien, thank that noob Gandalf for kiting the Balrog out of Drak's room for me, will you?
- Going forward, I'm curious how the game is going to handle the expansion. Currently, the game is geographically centered around Bree. Travel is already less than convenient at times (I might even have said an unkind word about it), and that's WITH the advantage of having the human racial teleport (excuse me, lengthy but uneventful off-camera journey) to Bree. Are players going to be based out of Rivendell for the Moria portion of the expansion, moving on to Lorien later and leaving Bree behind? Are there going to be towns and questgivers in Moria (/cringe)?
Anyway, that's another nice little visit to Middle Earth. LOTRO is rather well done, and it's a shame that Turbine just hasn't been able to make anything to make it worth staying there long-term.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Beta Review: Inscription
Well, with a solid 1.1 GB of background download data for the 3.0 patch sitting on my hard drive, presumably to launch in just over a week, and the expansion making its debut about a month afterwards, it's probably about time to write up my final thoughts on the Wrath beta. Obviously there may be another balance pass or five down the line, but the big picture should be in place. Part one, which you're reading right now, is all about the new profession, Inscription.
Experience: I leveled Inscription from 1-400 on a Death Knight prior to writing this review. I got enough herbs for that entire process from stuff I picked naturally while leveling Herbalism to 300 and herbs I came across while leveling in Outland and Northrend. I currently have almost all trainable abilities (there is one more set of scroll upgrades at 425 skill) and a few discoveries.
Is the profession good for anything besides glyphs?
I’ve already discussed some of the various non-glyphs the profession makes. Inscribers can make papers which enchanters can enchant and then sell, an ability that Enchanters have been crying for since WoW launched (and doubly so since TBC allowed Tailors and Leatherworkers to sell enchant-like items on the AH). Blizzard has also scaled up the tarot card system; in each tier of Inscription, there is a recipe for turning unused inks into random tarot cards. Complete a set and you win some exp (probably not enough to convince people to buy the things for cash, but I guess you never know) and a random green item. Inscribers also get to make stat buff scrolls (previously found as world drops and occasionally from vendors) and a Hunter pet rename certificate.
Shoulder enchants in action, the materials are dirt cheap. Also note the large number of inscription-related icons in the spellbook.
In terms of self-only perks, Inscribers are allowed to use the Scroll of Recall, which sends you to your hearthstone point or, if you are too high of a level for that particular scroll, to an arbitrary location which may or may not be useful (if you have some way to get home, should it not be somewhere you want to end up). Inscribers have been granted a set of self-only shoulder enchants that significantly outstrip at least the level 70 Aldor/Scryer ones, though it’s a bit early to tell how these stack up to other alternatives. (Most professions seem to have some similar self-only enchant these days.) Having the profession will supposedly unlock a fourth major glyph slot, though this ability is not yet in the beta. There are off-hand items that are BOP and require Inscription to equip; most are aimed at spellcasters, though there are a few that might, in principle, get used by a Hunter or feral druid (pre-Outland). Finally, there is a new pair of abilities in the game that use up a fair chunk of herbs in exchange for some random inscription products and a high chance of discovering new recipes (usable once per day, and a great option for skill points). I’m not sure that it’s the best set of self-only perks, but it’s not a bad haul either.
Discovery in action!
Glyphs and You (Inscriber or otherwise)
All characters now get to equip three minor glyphs and three major glyphs. Minor glyphs tend to be either cosmetic upgrades (e.g. polymorph sheep turning into polymorph penguin), or cost reducers (either less mana or removing a reagent, typically for buffs or other less combat-oriented spells). Major glyphs also fall into two categories. Abilities that you are not going to be spamming as your main raid DPS/heal get flat out upgrades; for instance, the Death Knight ability Plague Strike gets some extra bonus damage against diseased targets, while a shaman's Frost Shock glyph offers a longer snare duration. By contrast, major glyphs that buff bread and butter raid abilities tend to offer a tradeoff; a glyph of Frostbolt offers slightly increased damage at the cost of removing the snare effect (!) while the glyph for Mortal Strike offers 10% more damage in exchange for halving the famous healing reduction.
A fully glyphed spellbook (well, minus the middle slot, which Cheery should be entitled to eventually).
One thing that’s kind of odd about the glyph system is the level requirements. Glyphs tend to be usable at whatever level you actually learn the spell they modify. However, those levels don’t correspond to the level of Inscription needed to actually learn to write the glyph in question. This means that glyphs usable at low levels might be expensive due to requiring reagents from Northrend, and that a low level player actually leveling up with Inscription may not be able to make glyphs that they can (or at least would want to) use. The system seems to have been better designed for retrofitting onto an existing level 70 character than for learning it as you level a new alt, and that's kind of unfortunate and awkward on a profession you can take at level 5.
The Good....
Obviously, the new system adds options, both in terms of professions and in terms of the actual customization of spells offered by glyphs. The costs aren’t that bad (again, with the caveat that sometimes the glyph you want at your level requires substantially higher level herbs); glyphs are more expensive than potions, but cheaper than equipment, and, in principle, they can stay with you longer. If you have lots of alts, this is a great profession. You can, for the first time, enchant your other alts soulbound gear, and you won’t have to worry about finding the obscure glyph that your level 30 alt really wants on the AH. If you have fewer alts and expect to use a mostly stable set of glyphs, on the other hand, it might make more sense to try and buy the 3-6 of them that you need.
The Bad and Ugly: Saving the Hardcore from Themselves
Unfortunately, when I said that the costs weren’t bad, I meant for people who pick a glyph, equip it, and rarely change it. Players who raid are going to feel a fair chunk of pressure to have optimal glyphs. Blizzard recently changed glyphs so that they can only be altered when you’re in a physical inscription trainers’ shop, in order to prevent raiders from feeling obligated to swap out glyphs every fight. Even so, I question whether another form of specialization that costs money to change is really a good thing for the game. We’re STILL waiting to hear when and how healers and tanks will be allowed some form of relief from respec costs so that they can solo farm more efficiently (Blizzard confirms that they're working on it, but not for the expansion's launch). Also note that some glyphs enhance talent spells, and thus become at least temporarily useless if you respec.
The Lexicon needed to swap your glyphs. Whether this actually stops people from swapping is a separate question; with a mage to portal the swap-ee to a city and a Warlock to summon them back, it's still possible to swap if it makes a huge impact on a fight.
Also, the scroll system is going to draw some serious complaints. Scrolls no longer stack with each other; i.e. you can use a scroll of strength or a scroll of agility or whatever, but you don't get the benefit of one of each. However, they do still stack with other buffs. The good news is that the inscriber doesn’t need a specific herb to make scrolls. Any herbs of a given level range will produce the same inks, and five of any Northrend herb will cough up 2-3 of the top-ranked scrolls (though these materials may go up, as they're currently identical to the second-highest rank). Still, we’re looking at another stacking buff that high end raiders will be expected to buy themselves. One might argue that these scrolls are optional, but, in practice, serious raiding guilds will expect their players to show up with all the buffs money can buy, and less serious guilds won’t make progress. It seems odd that they are adding another consumable raid buff after going to so much effort to limit consumable costs for raiding in the previous expansion, especially since a second profession that uses herbs will almost certainly raise the price of alchemy potions/elixirs/etc.
Bottom Line: Is Inscription good for the game?
I didn’t really see a role that absolutely had to be filled for another primary profession when Wrath was announced, and I don’t see one now that the system is live. This type of customization could have been done within the existing talent point system, or perhaps as a fourth, parallel tab. It also might have worked as a secondary profession, such that every character gets the ability to glyph their own personal spellbook.
Instead, the glyph system feels like Blizzard made the decision that they wanted another profession for time and cash sink purposes. They went from there to figure out how to force players to buy the new profession’s products, much as they did with Jewelcrafting two years ago. The price tag should not be as steep as cut gems (the materials are easier to obtain, though there are many more products and it may be hard to find any but the most popular for convenient sale in the AH), but, either way, it feels like we’re being asked to pay even more to get our gear, and now skills, up to par.
Overall, I can’t give this profession a positive review as something that I’m glad they’re adding to the game. I will probably take the profession anyway on one of my alts simply because I have so many of them. Even so, the profession never really shakes the perception of being yet another cash sink in my book.
Experience: I leveled Inscription from 1-400 on a Death Knight prior to writing this review. I got enough herbs for that entire process from stuff I picked naturally while leveling Herbalism to 300 and herbs I came across while leveling in Outland and Northrend. I currently have almost all trainable abilities (there is one more set of scroll upgrades at 425 skill) and a few discoveries.
Is the profession good for anything besides glyphs?
I’ve already discussed some of the various non-glyphs the profession makes. Inscribers can make papers which enchanters can enchant and then sell, an ability that Enchanters have been crying for since WoW launched (and doubly so since TBC allowed Tailors and Leatherworkers to sell enchant-like items on the AH). Blizzard has also scaled up the tarot card system; in each tier of Inscription, there is a recipe for turning unused inks into random tarot cards. Complete a set and you win some exp (probably not enough to convince people to buy the things for cash, but I guess you never know) and a random green item. Inscribers also get to make stat buff scrolls (previously found as world drops and occasionally from vendors) and a Hunter pet rename certificate.
Shoulder enchants in action, the materials are dirt cheap. Also note the large number of inscription-related icons in the spellbook.
In terms of self-only perks, Inscribers are allowed to use the Scroll of Recall, which sends you to your hearthstone point or, if you are too high of a level for that particular scroll, to an arbitrary location which may or may not be useful (if you have some way to get home, should it not be somewhere you want to end up). Inscribers have been granted a set of self-only shoulder enchants that significantly outstrip at least the level 70 Aldor/Scryer ones, though it’s a bit early to tell how these stack up to other alternatives. (Most professions seem to have some similar self-only enchant these days.) Having the profession will supposedly unlock a fourth major glyph slot, though this ability is not yet in the beta. There are off-hand items that are BOP and require Inscription to equip; most are aimed at spellcasters, though there are a few that might, in principle, get used by a Hunter or feral druid (pre-Outland). Finally, there is a new pair of abilities in the game that use up a fair chunk of herbs in exchange for some random inscription products and a high chance of discovering new recipes (usable once per day, and a great option for skill points). I’m not sure that it’s the best set of self-only perks, but it’s not a bad haul either.
Discovery in action!
Glyphs and You (Inscriber or otherwise)
All characters now get to equip three minor glyphs and three major glyphs. Minor glyphs tend to be either cosmetic upgrades (e.g. polymorph sheep turning into polymorph penguin), or cost reducers (either less mana or removing a reagent, typically for buffs or other less combat-oriented spells). Major glyphs also fall into two categories. Abilities that you are not going to be spamming as your main raid DPS/heal get flat out upgrades; for instance, the Death Knight ability Plague Strike gets some extra bonus damage against diseased targets, while a shaman's Frost Shock glyph offers a longer snare duration. By contrast, major glyphs that buff bread and butter raid abilities tend to offer a tradeoff; a glyph of Frostbolt offers slightly increased damage at the cost of removing the snare effect (!) while the glyph for Mortal Strike offers 10% more damage in exchange for halving the famous healing reduction.
A fully glyphed spellbook (well, minus the middle slot, which Cheery should be entitled to eventually).
One thing that’s kind of odd about the glyph system is the level requirements. Glyphs tend to be usable at whatever level you actually learn the spell they modify. However, those levels don’t correspond to the level of Inscription needed to actually learn to write the glyph in question. This means that glyphs usable at low levels might be expensive due to requiring reagents from Northrend, and that a low level player actually leveling up with Inscription may not be able to make glyphs that they can (or at least would want to) use. The system seems to have been better designed for retrofitting onto an existing level 70 character than for learning it as you level a new alt, and that's kind of unfortunate and awkward on a profession you can take at level 5.
The Good....
Obviously, the new system adds options, both in terms of professions and in terms of the actual customization of spells offered by glyphs. The costs aren’t that bad (again, with the caveat that sometimes the glyph you want at your level requires substantially higher level herbs); glyphs are more expensive than potions, but cheaper than equipment, and, in principle, they can stay with you longer. If you have lots of alts, this is a great profession. You can, for the first time, enchant your other alts soulbound gear, and you won’t have to worry about finding the obscure glyph that your level 30 alt really wants on the AH. If you have fewer alts and expect to use a mostly stable set of glyphs, on the other hand, it might make more sense to try and buy the 3-6 of them that you need.
The Bad and Ugly: Saving the Hardcore from Themselves
Unfortunately, when I said that the costs weren’t bad, I meant for people who pick a glyph, equip it, and rarely change it. Players who raid are going to feel a fair chunk of pressure to have optimal glyphs. Blizzard recently changed glyphs so that they can only be altered when you’re in a physical inscription trainers’ shop, in order to prevent raiders from feeling obligated to swap out glyphs every fight. Even so, I question whether another form of specialization that costs money to change is really a good thing for the game. We’re STILL waiting to hear when and how healers and tanks will be allowed some form of relief from respec costs so that they can solo farm more efficiently (Blizzard confirms that they're working on it, but not for the expansion's launch). Also note that some glyphs enhance talent spells, and thus become at least temporarily useless if you respec.
The Lexicon needed to swap your glyphs. Whether this actually stops people from swapping is a separate question; with a mage to portal the swap-ee to a city and a Warlock to summon them back, it's still possible to swap if it makes a huge impact on a fight.
Also, the scroll system is going to draw some serious complaints. Scrolls no longer stack with each other; i.e. you can use a scroll of strength or a scroll of agility or whatever, but you don't get the benefit of one of each. However, they do still stack with other buffs. The good news is that the inscriber doesn’t need a specific herb to make scrolls. Any herbs of a given level range will produce the same inks, and five of any Northrend herb will cough up 2-3 of the top-ranked scrolls (though these materials may go up, as they're currently identical to the second-highest rank). Still, we’re looking at another stacking buff that high end raiders will be expected to buy themselves. One might argue that these scrolls are optional, but, in practice, serious raiding guilds will expect their players to show up with all the buffs money can buy, and less serious guilds won’t make progress. It seems odd that they are adding another consumable raid buff after going to so much effort to limit consumable costs for raiding in the previous expansion, especially since a second profession that uses herbs will almost certainly raise the price of alchemy potions/elixirs/etc.
Bottom Line: Is Inscription good for the game?
I didn’t really see a role that absolutely had to be filled for another primary profession when Wrath was announced, and I don’t see one now that the system is live. This type of customization could have been done within the existing talent point system, or perhaps as a fourth, parallel tab. It also might have worked as a secondary profession, such that every character gets the ability to glyph their own personal spellbook.
Instead, the glyph system feels like Blizzard made the decision that they wanted another profession for time and cash sink purposes. They went from there to figure out how to force players to buy the new profession’s products, much as they did with Jewelcrafting two years ago. The price tag should not be as steep as cut gems (the materials are easier to obtain, though there are many more products and it may be hard to find any but the most popular for convenient sale in the AH), but, either way, it feels like we’re being asked to pay even more to get our gear, and now skills, up to par.
Overall, I can’t give this profession a positive review as something that I’m glad they’re adding to the game. I will probably take the profession anyway on one of my alts simply because I have so many of them. Even so, the profession never really shakes the perception of being yet another cash sink in my book.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
LOTRO Free Re-Re-Trial Weekend
Well, it's been over four months since the last free re-trial weekend for LOTRO, so clearly it's time for another "oh dear god, please come back, please please please" event. Not to look a free gift horse in the mouth, but, if Turbine really wanted me to take a serious look at what they've added to the game since the last time they invited me back to take a serious look at the game, they should really offer a re-trial that allows players to check it out at a time of THEIR choosing. I'm currently on a business trip a good 3000 miles away from my gaming machine, which means that I had to leave the hotel wireless downloading patch updates for a good 6 hours in order to take a peek at the game using my laptop, which has no graphics card. LOTRO looks terrible on a machine that doesn't have a graphics card, and, more importantly, barely runs.
See this post for screenshots that don't look terrible, low graphics settings apparently mean "make everything jagged and blurry".
Anyway, this is what I've learned so far....
- The fix to the horrible horse whistle actually is a massive improvement. Also, the dismount functionality has been proofread by an actual speaker of the English language. Previously, you had to click on the mount bar to get a confirmation window that asked if you wanted to abandon. The first time I clicked this, I was half terrified that I was going to lose my mount for good. Anyway, the confirmation now asks, more intelligently, whether you want to dismount. (On the downside, you still have to click through a window every single time you want to get off of your mount.)
- Perhaps there's a reason Turbine doesn't want me rooting around for too long to determine what they've added to the game recently. The LOTRO Wiki says they've added a single major content update to the game since the last free re-trial, a rate of content addition that would do Blizzard proud.
- Speaking of the Wiki, they inform me that LOTRO has a harvest festival in which you can race for a unique festival mount. Their archived info says that this thing made its debut after Brewfest 2007, though I have no idea whose was in development first. Then again, Turbine managed not to move the mount to a rare drop from group-only content, so I suppose I can't complain too badly on that front.
- The splash screen says the Moria expansion is coming out Fall 2008.
- The launcher, updater, and Turbine logo video all have new and upgraded graphics. The character select screen, however, does not, and..... wait wait wait, WHAT?!
The expansion is coming out Fall 2008?!
What in the name of cheese is Turbine thinking?! They don't have a release date, I guess they may be running an NDA'ed closed beta (which apparently isn't prominent enough to be worth breaking the NDA on, cause I haven't heard a peep), and I've seen maybe a handful of posts on the topic on Massively. If they're actually launching their expansion in the next three months, it's a big problem that I had no idea they were aiming for this year, cause I pay attention to these things. Also, there's no point left in the year 2008 that's substantially more than a month away from the 800-lb gorilla-din that is the launch of Wrath in mid November. The only possible way for them to possibly bury this launch any more thoroughly would be if they released it tomorrow.
I just don't understand what Turbine could be thinking here. They have a decent game (even if it did take them a year after their launch to get it to that state), and it doesn't make sense to do such an underwhelming job promoting it. I was planning on giving the thing a few months after its launch for Turbine to actually finish it anyway, but now I'm worried that they're going to pull another Asheron's Call 2. Overall, very concerning.
Anyway, I'll try to take another look around on my real computer on Monday to see if there's anything else worth seeing in the latest of free re-trials.
See this post for screenshots that don't look terrible, low graphics settings apparently mean "make everything jagged and blurry".
Anyway, this is what I've learned so far....
- The fix to the horrible horse whistle actually is a massive improvement. Also, the dismount functionality has been proofread by an actual speaker of the English language. Previously, you had to click on the mount bar to get a confirmation window that asked if you wanted to abandon. The first time I clicked this, I was half terrified that I was going to lose my mount for good. Anyway, the confirmation now asks, more intelligently, whether you want to dismount. (On the downside, you still have to click through a window every single time you want to get off of your mount.)
- Perhaps there's a reason Turbine doesn't want me rooting around for too long to determine what they've added to the game recently. The LOTRO Wiki says they've added a single major content update to the game since the last free re-trial, a rate of content addition that would do Blizzard proud.
- Speaking of the Wiki, they inform me that LOTRO has a harvest festival in which you can race for a unique festival mount. Their archived info says that this thing made its debut after Brewfest 2007, though I have no idea whose was in development first. Then again, Turbine managed not to move the mount to a rare drop from group-only content, so I suppose I can't complain too badly on that front.
- The splash screen says the Moria expansion is coming out Fall 2008.
- The launcher, updater, and Turbine logo video all have new and upgraded graphics. The character select screen, however, does not, and..... wait wait wait, WHAT?!
The expansion is coming out Fall 2008?!
What in the name of cheese is Turbine thinking?! They don't have a release date, I guess they may be running an NDA'ed closed beta (which apparently isn't prominent enough to be worth breaking the NDA on, cause I haven't heard a peep), and I've seen maybe a handful of posts on the topic on Massively. If they're actually launching their expansion in the next three months, it's a big problem that I had no idea they were aiming for this year, cause I pay attention to these things. Also, there's no point left in the year 2008 that's substantially more than a month away from the 800-lb gorilla-din that is the launch of Wrath in mid November. The only possible way for them to possibly bury this launch any more thoroughly would be if they released it tomorrow.
I just don't understand what Turbine could be thinking here. They have a decent game (even if it did take them a year after their launch to get it to that state), and it doesn't make sense to do such an underwhelming job promoting it. I was planning on giving the thing a few months after its launch for Turbine to actually finish it anyway, but now I'm worried that they're going to pull another Asheron's Call 2. Overall, very concerning.
Anyway, I'll try to take another look around on my real computer on Monday to see if there's anything else worth seeing in the latest of free re-trials.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Finding the perfect class/spec
MMORPG blogger with a focus on incentive structures in games and a preference for solo play seeks class with which to explore the latest new release. Cool looks not essential, but must not have an overly annoying voice/sound effects.
We don't post personal ads while looking for the class that suits us best in an MMORPG, but perhaps we should. It's a decision that has a big impact on basically everything we experience in the game from then forward. Choosing correctly (or incorrectly) can have a huge impact on whether or not we enjoy the game. And, perhaps most alarmingly to someone like myself who spends a lot of time out-of-game analyzing things, sometimes our best guesses on what we want in a class are wrong.
For example, my frost mage. The other specs do more damage, but nothing quite compares to having mobs freeze left and right and dying before they even reach me. The same is true of the Prot Pally; it's fun to pull a crowd of mobs and watch them disappear in a flurry of yellow numbers, to the point where I'm okay with the fact that I would have leveled faster as a Ret spec. Likewise, the Fury spec was what really got me interested in my Warrior, and the Champion was the class that really held my attention in LOTRO.
Trying out the classes of Warhammer
The reason why this topic is on my mind at the moment is because I'm trying to pick a class in Warhammer. I tried the White Lion, but I found the cat annoying. I tried the engineer and enjoyed it a bit more, but didn't like the limited survivability. Tried the Rune Priest, figuring that, if I was going to heal, I might as well try the pure healer, and I liked it somewhat, but I was constantly dying under focus fire. Went to the opposite extreme and tried the Iron Breaker and that didn't work out either; I lived longer but didn't really feel like I was accomplishing much, since no one would voluntarily attack me, but I wasn't really doing much damage to them either. Tried the Shadow Warrior, but I got tired of the sit and snipe aspect of the class.
Then I tried the Witch Hunter. I liked the Rune Priest, but I'm really liking the Witch Hunter. It's not that I'm necessarily more durable if I come under fire, but I guess I'm somehow more okay with being mobbed down because I'm harassing an enemy healer (or, if I'm lucky and the other side is foolish, actually taking out the enemy healer) than I am with being slaughtered as soon as anyone notices me. It feels more like a choice to me; I'm choosing to risk my character's neck to disrupt the enemy support, rather than being involuntarily singled out as a priority target.
Maybe I will try to give the Rune Priest a bit more patience, since I realize that they're much more in demand than yet another melee DPS, but I was really beginning to worry that there wasn't a single class in Warhammer that I really loved. It's interesting how a class that was so far down my list of things I thought I would like may turn out to be my favorite of the bunch. Guess that shows what I know. :)
We don't post personal ads while looking for the class that suits us best in an MMORPG, but perhaps we should. It's a decision that has a big impact on basically everything we experience in the game from then forward. Choosing correctly (or incorrectly) can have a huge impact on whether or not we enjoy the game. And, perhaps most alarmingly to someone like myself who spends a lot of time out-of-game analyzing things, sometimes our best guesses on what we want in a class are wrong.
For example, my frost mage. The other specs do more damage, but nothing quite compares to having mobs freeze left and right and dying before they even reach me. The same is true of the Prot Pally; it's fun to pull a crowd of mobs and watch them disappear in a flurry of yellow numbers, to the point where I'm okay with the fact that I would have leveled faster as a Ret spec. Likewise, the Fury spec was what really got me interested in my Warrior, and the Champion was the class that really held my attention in LOTRO.
Trying out the classes of Warhammer
The reason why this topic is on my mind at the moment is because I'm trying to pick a class in Warhammer. I tried the White Lion, but I found the cat annoying. I tried the engineer and enjoyed it a bit more, but didn't like the limited survivability. Tried the Rune Priest, figuring that, if I was going to heal, I might as well try the pure healer, and I liked it somewhat, but I was constantly dying under focus fire. Went to the opposite extreme and tried the Iron Breaker and that didn't work out either; I lived longer but didn't really feel like I was accomplishing much, since no one would voluntarily attack me, but I wasn't really doing much damage to them either. Tried the Shadow Warrior, but I got tired of the sit and snipe aspect of the class.
Then I tried the Witch Hunter. I liked the Rune Priest, but I'm really liking the Witch Hunter. It's not that I'm necessarily more durable if I come under fire, but I guess I'm somehow more okay with being mobbed down because I'm harassing an enemy healer (or, if I'm lucky and the other side is foolish, actually taking out the enemy healer) than I am with being slaughtered as soon as anyone notices me. It feels more like a choice to me; I'm choosing to risk my character's neck to disrupt the enemy support, rather than being involuntarily singled out as a priority target.
Maybe I will try to give the Rune Priest a bit more patience, since I realize that they're much more in demand than yet another melee DPS, but I was really beginning to worry that there wasn't a single class in Warhammer that I really loved. It's interesting how a class that was so far down my list of things I thought I would like may turn out to be my favorite of the bunch. Guess that shows what I know. :)
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Warhammer population balance is beginning to look ugly
Yet another followup post; I actually have several posts worth of NEW information I'd like to write about, but news keeps breaking, and Jon Stewart isn't around to fix it. On the plus side, this followup comes from WAAAAAY back in the PVD archives.
Back in May, I described faction population balance as an issue that was going to make or break Warhammer. Well, here we are two weeks into the game's launch and we have Destruction owning the Order capitol city, albeit by some borderline exploits (good thing Mythic had an NDA'ed test server thoroughly testing the endgame content they wouldn't show or let anyone talk about). I haven't gotten to see my capitol city yet, and I suppose I should make a point of going before it's reduced to rubble.
In other news, one of the more prominent Destruction guilds on my server is leaving to re-roll Order elsewhere because they've gotten bored with the lack of world RVR and lengthy scenario queues that come with dominating the population numbers. Battlefield objectives almost always seem to belong to Destruction on my server, the scenarios pop quickly for me on the Order side (generally a bad sign for the other side), and zone control rests firmly in the hands of the Destruction side. I'd considered making some Destruction alts, but there isn't a single server in the US with markedly more Order than Destruction; I'm having more fun in scenarios than in the PVE game, so it doesn't make sense to move somewhere with terrible scenario queues.
What can be done?
The first thing Mythic can do in the short term is hire Syp and implement his four point bailout/rescue plan. Punishing Destruction players for choosing the side they wanted to play by hitting them with longer queues is clearly not doing enough to balance populations. Even if people do move, the communities that are left behind will be diminished or gutted by the sudden absence of prominent guilds (the thread I linked is over 5-pages long so far, on a server-specific forum). Moreover, some of the folks who give up on their Destruction characters are simply going to give up on the game. Blizzard is holding Blizzcon and possibly releasing patch 3.0 in the next two weeks, ensuring that Wrath will be fresh in players' minds before Warhammer's first monthly fee comes due.
In the longer term, I think Mythic may need to look at more drastic measures. Here are some of my suggestions:
Cross-Server Scenario Queues
I'm well aware of the negative effect these can have on a server community; WoW's AFK problem is definitely exacerbated by the relative anonymity of a cross-server battleground that has maybe a handful of players from your own server, and it's unfortunate not to know that you're fighting the same guys you see on the rest of your server. Unfortunately, telling players that they don't get to play the game because too many of them showed up isn't an option. Besides, server communities are in danger of devastation anyway if major guilds continue to up and leave their Destruction characters to move to a server where they can actually play RVR.
Buff T4 keeps to insane levels ASAP, and re-evaluate city sieges
In the short term, Mythic should strongly consider making the T4 keeps, which Destruction must capture in order to invade the Order capitol, impossibly difficult. All the interviews about how carefully they've tested this stuff aside, it's clear that it isn't ready for prime time, and the game can't take Altdorf being permanently in the hands of Destruction while Mythic tries to finish the content.
In the longer term, Mythic may need to seriously rethink the city siege. Population imbalance is not going to go away, and telling the unlucky Order side (or the Destruction side, if we ever get a majority-Order server) that they don't get to have their city and amenities anymore is not a good way to convince more people to join up.
Accelerate or entirely bypass leveling for re-rolls
This is a dangerous, dangerous suggestion. Mythic has put a lot of work into the low-end content of the game, and they're clearly hoping to get players to try out multiple characters to see more of the content. Letting players bypass that content is, in some ways, money out of Mythic's pocket. There are also serious issues associated with letting players have high level characters of classes they haven't played previously. And, finally, there is great potential for over-reaction; if Mythic takes the ten least-populated Order servers and offers free level 20 Order characters to anyone with an existing level 40, we will likely have an overpopulated Order side shortly.
Problem is, Mythic NEEDS players to voluntarily re-roll to address the population issue, and all the time-investment that gets sunk into character-specific accomplishments is a serious disincentive to re-locating. This is doubly true if you're also switching factions/servers, as your new alts don't get any benefit from your existing cash/guild/etc. I don't believe that any less-valuable freebie will suffice.
Implement account-wide tome unlocks
This is in some ways counter to the current spirit of the Tome of Knowledge as a story of your particular character's life. However, time spent on tome unlocks that don't carry over is just as significant a disincentive as a high level to re-rolling.
What Mythic should NOT do
Wait for the "WoW casuals" to show up and roll Order. Even the underage Night Elf Hunter crowd has a sufficient level of reading comprehension to know that everyone looks down on the "Huntard". They're all rolling Destruction now, because that's what the cool kids are doing, or beacause they're logging in and noticing that all their base are belong to Destruction. Worse, crowded MMORPG servers tend to get MORE crowded over time, not less crowded, because new players will want to play with their friends (who are, it appears, overwhelmingly playing Destruction).
In conclusion....
I actually like Warhammer. In fact, I like Warhammer RVR over Warhammer PVE, which I never thought I'd be saying. Moreover, the MMORPG genre could really use more competition from another successful game right about now. And so, Mythic, I ask you, please pass the bi-partisan Syp bailout plan or something like it now, before it's too late.
I'd love to sign off on this post with Order's battlecry, but, frankly, I don't know what it is. I'm guessing it's not nearly as good as "Waaagh" or we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Back in May, I described faction population balance as an issue that was going to make or break Warhammer. Well, here we are two weeks into the game's launch and we have Destruction owning the Order capitol city, albeit by some borderline exploits (good thing Mythic had an NDA'ed test server thoroughly testing the endgame content they wouldn't show or let anyone talk about). I haven't gotten to see my capitol city yet, and I suppose I should make a point of going before it's reduced to rubble.
In other news, one of the more prominent Destruction guilds on my server is leaving to re-roll Order elsewhere because they've gotten bored with the lack of world RVR and lengthy scenario queues that come with dominating the population numbers. Battlefield objectives almost always seem to belong to Destruction on my server, the scenarios pop quickly for me on the Order side (generally a bad sign for the other side), and zone control rests firmly in the hands of the Destruction side. I'd considered making some Destruction alts, but there isn't a single server in the US with markedly more Order than Destruction; I'm having more fun in scenarios than in the PVE game, so it doesn't make sense to move somewhere with terrible scenario queues.
What can be done?
The first thing Mythic can do in the short term is hire Syp and implement his four point bailout/rescue plan. Punishing Destruction players for choosing the side they wanted to play by hitting them with longer queues is clearly not doing enough to balance populations. Even if people do move, the communities that are left behind will be diminished or gutted by the sudden absence of prominent guilds (the thread I linked is over 5-pages long so far, on a server-specific forum). Moreover, some of the folks who give up on their Destruction characters are simply going to give up on the game. Blizzard is holding Blizzcon and possibly releasing patch 3.0 in the next two weeks, ensuring that Wrath will be fresh in players' minds before Warhammer's first monthly fee comes due.
In the longer term, I think Mythic may need to look at more drastic measures. Here are some of my suggestions:
Cross-Server Scenario Queues
I'm well aware of the negative effect these can have on a server community; WoW's AFK problem is definitely exacerbated by the relative anonymity of a cross-server battleground that has maybe a handful of players from your own server, and it's unfortunate not to know that you're fighting the same guys you see on the rest of your server. Unfortunately, telling players that they don't get to play the game because too many of them showed up isn't an option. Besides, server communities are in danger of devastation anyway if major guilds continue to up and leave their Destruction characters to move to a server where they can actually play RVR.
Buff T4 keeps to insane levels ASAP, and re-evaluate city sieges
In the short term, Mythic should strongly consider making the T4 keeps, which Destruction must capture in order to invade the Order capitol, impossibly difficult. All the interviews about how carefully they've tested this stuff aside, it's clear that it isn't ready for prime time, and the game can't take Altdorf being permanently in the hands of Destruction while Mythic tries to finish the content.
In the longer term, Mythic may need to seriously rethink the city siege. Population imbalance is not going to go away, and telling the unlucky Order side (or the Destruction side, if we ever get a majority-Order server) that they don't get to have their city and amenities anymore is not a good way to convince more people to join up.
Accelerate or entirely bypass leveling for re-rolls
This is a dangerous, dangerous suggestion. Mythic has put a lot of work into the low-end content of the game, and they're clearly hoping to get players to try out multiple characters to see more of the content. Letting players bypass that content is, in some ways, money out of Mythic's pocket. There are also serious issues associated with letting players have high level characters of classes they haven't played previously. And, finally, there is great potential for over-reaction; if Mythic takes the ten least-populated Order servers and offers free level 20 Order characters to anyone with an existing level 40, we will likely have an overpopulated Order side shortly.
Problem is, Mythic NEEDS players to voluntarily re-roll to address the population issue, and all the time-investment that gets sunk into character-specific accomplishments is a serious disincentive to re-locating. This is doubly true if you're also switching factions/servers, as your new alts don't get any benefit from your existing cash/guild/etc. I don't believe that any less-valuable freebie will suffice.
Implement account-wide tome unlocks
This is in some ways counter to the current spirit of the Tome of Knowledge as a story of your particular character's life. However, time spent on tome unlocks that don't carry over is just as significant a disincentive as a high level to re-rolling.
What Mythic should NOT do
Wait for the "WoW casuals" to show up and roll Order. Even the underage Night Elf Hunter crowd has a sufficient level of reading comprehension to know that everyone looks down on the "Huntard". They're all rolling Destruction now, because that's what the cool kids are doing, or beacause they're logging in and noticing that all their base are belong to Destruction. Worse, crowded MMORPG servers tend to get MORE crowded over time, not less crowded, because new players will want to play with their friends (who are, it appears, overwhelmingly playing Destruction).
In conclusion....
I actually like Warhammer. In fact, I like Warhammer RVR over Warhammer PVE, which I never thought I'd be saying. Moreover, the MMORPG genre could really use more competition from another successful game right about now. And so, Mythic, I ask you, please pass the bi-partisan Syp bailout plan or something like it now, before it's too late.
I'd love to sign off on this post with Order's battlecry, but, frankly, I don't know what it is. I'm guessing it's not nearly as good as "Waaagh" or we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Warhammer Contribution Revisited
It seems like everything I write these days is a followup to something else. I guess this is the downside to talking so much, after a certain point you begin to repeat yourself. ;)
Anyway, a while back now, I wrote about whether Warhammer's Public Quest contribution system would reward bad behavior. (A certain someone helpfully quipped that "Only if you have proper table manners will you be able to beat all 300 PQs.") At the time, I wrote:
"WoW places the incentives for its PVP system in the wrong place. The goal of any given battleground is for the team to win, which generally requires capturing and defending strategic destinations. The problem is that the very same honor points that you get for winning the battleground are ALSO available for being alive and present for honorable kills (HK's) of enemy players. Now sure, it's nice to get the honor bonus for winning, but it's even better to be where the action is during a battle your side eventually wins so that you get BOTH the bonus honor points AND the HK honor points."
Well, Tobold has a lengthy analysis of the topic up, especially RE: tanks and contribution points, but it also mentions how Warhammer has disappointingly adopted the flaw of the "honorable kill"; the best place to be is alive, in the middle of a battle, where you can collect the most reknown for kills of enemy players. The worst is A) running back from the respawn point because all the Witch Elves killed your quishy healer self or B) standing at a flag that isn't under attack to make sure it isn't taken by a lone level 2 character from the other side (this actually happened to my side in a scenario last night). Ironically, this makes tanks better off in RVR, as the opposing team would rather NOT have to take the time to kill them, making it more likely that the tank will live to collect reknown.
Note that I don't dislike Warhammer scenarios; indeed, I'm having a decent time in them. Unfortunately, I will also concede that they do devolve into a large melee in the middle more often than not, precisely because that's where the rewards are. Guess there's nothing to be done for it now, but this is one area in which I wish Mythic had taken Warhammer further away from WoW. Perhaps they could have pooled everyone's reknown awards and doled them out according to contribution at the end, though, again, that fails to reward dead healers and lonely flag guards. It's not an easy question, which is probably why it hasn't been solved, but it does appear that the game rewards players for being in the "wrong" place, and so that is where they will go.
Anyway, a while back now, I wrote about whether Warhammer's Public Quest contribution system would reward bad behavior. (A certain someone helpfully quipped that "Only if you have proper table manners will you be able to beat all 300 PQs.") At the time, I wrote:
"WoW places the incentives for its PVP system in the wrong place. The goal of any given battleground is for the team to win, which generally requires capturing and defending strategic destinations. The problem is that the very same honor points that you get for winning the battleground are ALSO available for being alive and present for honorable kills (HK's) of enemy players. Now sure, it's nice to get the honor bonus for winning, but it's even better to be where the action is during a battle your side eventually wins so that you get BOTH the bonus honor points AND the HK honor points."
Well, Tobold has a lengthy analysis of the topic up, especially RE: tanks and contribution points, but it also mentions how Warhammer has disappointingly adopted the flaw of the "honorable kill"; the best place to be is alive, in the middle of a battle, where you can collect the most reknown for kills of enemy players. The worst is A) running back from the respawn point because all the Witch Elves killed your quishy healer self or B) standing at a flag that isn't under attack to make sure it isn't taken by a lone level 2 character from the other side (this actually happened to my side in a scenario last night). Ironically, this makes tanks better off in RVR, as the opposing team would rather NOT have to take the time to kill them, making it more likely that the tank will live to collect reknown.
Note that I don't dislike Warhammer scenarios; indeed, I'm having a decent time in them. Unfortunately, I will also concede that they do devolve into a large melee in the middle more often than not, precisely because that's where the rewards are. Guess there's nothing to be done for it now, but this is one area in which I wish Mythic had taken Warhammer further away from WoW. Perhaps they could have pooled everyone's reknown awards and doled them out according to contribution at the end, though, again, that fails to reward dead healers and lonely flag guards. It's not an easy question, which is probably why it hasn't been solved, but it does appear that the game rewards players for being in the "wrong" place, and so that is where they will go.
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