Dwarf Fortress. If you don't know what it is, you should, so I'll start out with a few links.
Dwarf Fortress Homepage
Dwarf Fortress Wiki
Dwarf Fortress Graphical Pack
Interview with Tarn Adams (Dwarf Fotress developer)
It had been a while since a played Dwarf Fortress. You can see my previous blog entries on the subject here.
But recently there have been a number of changes, the most notable of which is the addition of a z-axis! That's right! Now your Dwarves can merrily burrow their way through three dimensions rather than just two! It adds a whole new dimension to the game (both figuratively and literally)! You can do all sorts of interesting things such as building channels with water and then adding grates on top so the Dwarves wont fall in, multi-level rooms with balconies, pits to trap enemies in and even free-standing three dimensional structures!
The z-axis has also led to a lot more variety in starting areas. For my first game, I just went with whatever region popped up first and found myself on top of a low plateau next to a secluded valley. I immediately dug downwards and began construction of my fortress.
This change, along with a host of others has made the game much more interesting. But one of the biggest hurdles has been the horrifically cluttered ASCII graphics and the obtuse, inconsistent and confusing interface. Well the interface is pretty much the same, though some additional management options give the player more control over how the Dwarves interact with the environment and items. However, the ASCII graphics can be replaced by using the graphics pack linked above (the pack also includes the latest Dwarf Fortress release so you only have to do one download). The screen still looks very cluttered, and there aren't cute little pixel drawings for every item type due to certain limitations, but having that readily identifiable visual reference makes a huge difference!
Since it's an alpha version and still under development (at one point in the interview, Tarn mentions that he considers the game ~27% done), new features are constantly being added. He's currently working on having historical armies and figures interact during world creation, which will then extend to allowing players to build their own armies during Fortress mode which they can then use to have an effect on the world outside the immediate fortress area.
If you have a chance, I recommend listening to the interview linked above. It's pretty long and very interesting. One part in particular stood out for me. Tarn didn't seem to really understand the concept of sharing a game world online and dismissed any discussion about an MMO Dwarf Fortress. He seemed to assume that it would be about fighting directly with other players. But I think just the ability to find other peoples fortresses in adventure mode, or to try and reclaim one that was abandoned by someone else would be an incredible experience. It was also a bit strange to hear him say that he had no interest in selling t-shirts or other such memorabilia because he didn't want to commercialize the game. I'm not really sure how slapping an ASCII dwarf onto a shirt with a pithy saying and allowing those hardcore fans (such as myself) to purchase it would be a bad thing (websites like Cafe Press will even deal with all of the hassle of printing, mailing and taking payments). But this just seems to be another area where the developer is a bit out of touch with the modern Internet.
But on to the good stuff! Here are some other changes that I noticed with the recent versions.
Stockpile configuration: You can micromanage this to a very detailed level now. For example, you can make a 'refuse' pile that only accepts shells.
Mayors are now elected: Not exactly sure how this works, but the Dwarves seem to have an election once a year deciding who will be mayor. Kind of interesting as different mayors will have different personalities. But annoying in that I have to reassign the mayor's rooms everytime a new one is elected. It would be nice if I could assign a room to a Noble position rather than to a specific dwarf.
The addition of outdoor farming and the ability farm underground with soil layers: Farming is much, much easier now. Unless you start in an area that doesn't have soil, you don't even need to worry about using floodgates to create mud.
Ore is harder to find: And the various ore types are not guaranteed. And since you have ~16 levels of ground to search through, exploratory mining shafts are even more important than it was before the introduction of the z-axis
Ability to melt down items: Great for getting rid of all that junk the Kobold thieves leave lying around.
Rivers, chasms and magma are no longer givens: In fact, I had none of the above on my first fortress.
Ponds and water flow: Your ability to interact with water is much more interesting. And water tiles have depth. A depth of 1 is basically just a few muddy puddles while a depth of 7 is deep enough to drown a dwarf. Water flows and responds to terrain changes as you might expect. You can completely drain ponds as well as creating moats or other such creative ventures.
Overabundance of rocks: WAY too many rocks are created during mining. Sure they're useful to your Dwarves, but they are in serious overabundance.
Job types have gotten more granular: Now including such fun tasks as cheese-making, milking and bone-crafting!
Ability to forbid items: This can be useful in a variety of ways. For example, you can forbid Dwarves from trying to interact with a dead dwarf and their equipment because its near a bunch of angry elephants.
The game still has its issues. In addition to the painful interface and massive volumes of rocks cluttering every hallway, CPU lag has begun to rear its ugly head. Its definitely noticeable once your fortress reaches a certain size. I guess trying to path 80 Dwarves through a three-dimensional space takes a lot of calculations. Supposedly you can alleviate it somewhat by turning off various options in the config file such as weather and temperature calculations, but I haven't tried any of that yet.
Overall, Dwarf Fortress is still an amazing adventure with an astounding amount of variety and depth. I can't recommend it enough if you have interest in this sort of game and also have the time and patience to learn how to play it (referencing the wiki is pretty much required). And its also important to remember the unofficial motto of Dwarf Fortress; Losing can be fun!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Friday, February 08, 2008
MMO Core Concept #4: Favor
At its most basic form, favor is simply a more detailed reputation system. Actions committed by players can have a positive and/or negative effect on their standing with individual NPCs, villages, towns, nations, or even whole races of beings.
Some single-player games such as Morrowind have put forth effort into making their NPCs react to what the player does in a meaningful way, but this really hasn't carried over into MMOs. For the most part, reputation is simply a counter that allows you to buy new items from certain vendors and/or have certain NPCs greet you by name. But there is such much more that could be done on this front.
Keep reading for some of my ideas on the subject.
Another example of how this interaction might work:
Perhaps you as a player spend some time in a small village performing heroic deeds, rescuing maidens, defeating monsters, etc, until you're known as the Hero of Whosville! Well that would bring about some nice perks in Whosville, such as discounted wares or extra quest availability. But, it just so happens that the nearby village of Grinchton really hates the inhabitants of Whosville and has had a rivalry with them for several generations. Your hero status has not gone unnoticed there, but the reaction you get in Grinchton will be quite a bit different from the one you get tin Whosville. Merchants might charge you more, the inn will only offer you their crappiest rooms to stay in, the mayor isn't interested in asking for your help with the local bandit problem and other such sundry minor effects. Since they're just a simple farming village, they're not going to do to such extremes as banning you from town or attacking you on sight (after all, you're much more powerful than the local constables), but they will do what they can to make it known that you're unwelcome.
Once you have a base Favor system in place, you can expand it to include such interesting things as each player's standing with gods, elemental forces, guilds, etc.
Favor would decay over time, in both directions, tending towards 0 over an infinite timelines. Rate of decay would be dependent on the actions that resulted in the favor change (saving the farmers daughter might result in long-term favor with the farmer, but only short-term favor with the butcher) as well as the lifespan of the individual. Immortal gods and elemental powers would likely have much longer memories than those of the shorter-lived folks. And perhaps even something your ancestors did might come back to bless or haunt you! This could open up the possibility of such things as making bargains with higher powers to give you long-term favor with them (and thus the ability to call on their aid in times of need). But of course, they would want something in return.
In short, favor is just a fancy name for reputation, but since reputation has become rather static and mostly uninteresting in current games, I wanted to give it a new name to represent the potential for extrapolation and development of this underused game concept.
Some single-player games such as Morrowind have put forth effort into making their NPCs react to what the player does in a meaningful way, but this really hasn't carried over into MMOs. For the most part, reputation is simply a counter that allows you to buy new items from certain vendors and/or have certain NPCs greet you by name. But there is such much more that could be done on this front.
Keep reading for some of my ideas on the subject.
- Favor can be gained and lost via player actions. This would include questing, fighting (both players and NPCs), economic transactions (merchants always like repeat customers). Many actions would include a positive favor boost from one person or faction as well as a negative favor hit from others.
- Favor can go below 0, representing that that faction or person has a particular dislike for you.
- Favor can be temporarily influenced, via spells, magic items or even just the clothes you're wearing.
- Favor also includes relations between NPC factions. This is dynamic and can also be influenced by player actions. If a player hero from one town went and slaughtered a neighboring town, the victims might not be so happy with the town the player is from. But, unless the first town had a major quarrel with the second town, they might in turn be unhappy with the player for ruining their trade relations
- Favor with individual NPCs can be passed down to their descendants
Another example of how this interaction might work:
Perhaps you as a player spend some time in a small village performing heroic deeds, rescuing maidens, defeating monsters, etc, until you're known as the Hero of Whosville! Well that would bring about some nice perks in Whosville, such as discounted wares or extra quest availability. But, it just so happens that the nearby village of Grinchton really hates the inhabitants of Whosville and has had a rivalry with them for several generations. Your hero status has not gone unnoticed there, but the reaction you get in Grinchton will be quite a bit different from the one you get tin Whosville. Merchants might charge you more, the inn will only offer you their crappiest rooms to stay in, the mayor isn't interested in asking for your help with the local bandit problem and other such sundry minor effects. Since they're just a simple farming village, they're not going to do to such extremes as banning you from town or attacking you on sight (after all, you're much more powerful than the local constables), but they will do what they can to make it known that you're unwelcome.
Once you have a base Favor system in place, you can expand it to include such interesting things as each player's standing with gods, elemental forces, guilds, etc.
Favor would decay over time, in both directions, tending towards 0 over an infinite timelines. Rate of decay would be dependent on the actions that resulted in the favor change (saving the farmers daughter might result in long-term favor with the farmer, but only short-term favor with the butcher) as well as the lifespan of the individual. Immortal gods and elemental powers would likely have much longer memories than those of the shorter-lived folks. And perhaps even something your ancestors did might come back to bless or haunt you! This could open up the possibility of such things as making bargains with higher powers to give you long-term favor with them (and thus the ability to call on their aid in times of need). But of course, they would want something in return.
In short, favor is just a fancy name for reputation, but since reputation has become rather static and mostly uninteresting in current games, I wanted to give it a new name to represent the potential for extrapolation and development of this underused game concept.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Azh's Quick Tips: Heroic Mechanar: Part II
Made a guild run through Heroic Mechanar last night and defeated all the bosses, including Sepethrea, which is a first for me. And we did it with one healer (restoration shaman) and four melee (protection warrior, arms warrior (me) and two rogues), which is really surprising given how much AoE is in that instance. So I thought I would follow up my initial Quick Tips for Heroic Mechanar with some further thoughts about the three most annoying mobs in the instance; Mechanar Tinkerer, Nethermancer Sepethrea and Pathaleon the Calculator.
Mechanar Tinkerer - Not only is arcane resistance useful when fighting these guys, but it also helps if you can have them going after multiple targets. Having 3 or 4 of them focus fire someone generally just causes trouble, even with lots of resistance. However, we seemed to have more success when we broke them up. Each rogue would stunlock one while beating them down and I would take on the others with my Enchanted Admantine Plate set. They go down pretty quickly. But with all melee, we couldn't take the concentrated AoE damage from standing together.
Nethermancer Sepethrea - The bane of many an adventuring group, especially in heroic mode. The real trick to defeating her is to not panic. She doesn't have a lot of hit points and she also doesn't do a ton of heavy damage like most bosses do. The real thing to worry about are her elementals. Everyone needs to be aware when the elementals are coming for them and get moving. If you let them get too close, they'll daze you, you get caught in the fire and then things go south from there. Draw them away from the main tank as far as you can. Then, when they stop to do their AoE attack, run back and get in as much damage as you can. If you notice one or more coming at you, start moving again. If you cant tell whether they're coming after you or not, move anyway and see if they follow. It's very important to NOT lure the elementals back to where Sepethrea is fighting. Hide your damage meters because that is really unimportant in this fight and will just distract you. Keep yourself alive, don't draw the elementals near other party members and do damage when you can. Also, its a good idea to spread out in a semi-circle in front of her before engaging so you can tell immediately which players the elementals are focusing on.
Pathaleon the Calculator - Similar to Sepethrea in that he doesnt do a lot of damage himself and is relatively fragile. The problems stem from his arcane elementals he summons and from his mind control ability. If he mind-controls a DPS player, you will probably want to try and fear, blind or otherwise temporarily incapacitate them so that they don't kill your tank or healer. It actually seemed to work better for us when he controlled our healer, since the healer wasn't going to kill anyone, and, as long as noone was near death, we could all survive for the 5 or so seconds it takes before the mind control wears off, leaving us free to dish out the damage. By the time we finished tearing up his first wave of elementals he was already at ~30% health and fell not long after.
Mechanar Tinkerer - Not only is arcane resistance useful when fighting these guys, but it also helps if you can have them going after multiple targets. Having 3 or 4 of them focus fire someone generally just causes trouble, even with lots of resistance. However, we seemed to have more success when we broke them up. Each rogue would stunlock one while beating them down and I would take on the others with my Enchanted Admantine Plate set. They go down pretty quickly. But with all melee, we couldn't take the concentrated AoE damage from standing together.
Nethermancer Sepethrea - The bane of many an adventuring group, especially in heroic mode. The real trick to defeating her is to not panic. She doesn't have a lot of hit points and she also doesn't do a ton of heavy damage like most bosses do. The real thing to worry about are her elementals. Everyone needs to be aware when the elementals are coming for them and get moving. If you let them get too close, they'll daze you, you get caught in the fire and then things go south from there. Draw them away from the main tank as far as you can. Then, when they stop to do their AoE attack, run back and get in as much damage as you can. If you notice one or more coming at you, start moving again. If you cant tell whether they're coming after you or not, move anyway and see if they follow. It's very important to NOT lure the elementals back to where Sepethrea is fighting. Hide your damage meters because that is really unimportant in this fight and will just distract you. Keep yourself alive, don't draw the elementals near other party members and do damage when you can. Also, its a good idea to spread out in a semi-circle in front of her before engaging so you can tell immediately which players the elementals are focusing on.
Pathaleon the Calculator - Similar to Sepethrea in that he doesnt do a lot of damage himself and is relatively fragile. The problems stem from his arcane elementals he summons and from his mind control ability. If he mind-controls a DPS player, you will probably want to try and fear, blind or otherwise temporarily incapacitate them so that they don't kill your tank or healer. It actually seemed to work better for us when he controlled our healer, since the healer wasn't going to kill anyone, and, as long as noone was near death, we could all survive for the 5 or so seconds it takes before the mind control wears off, leaving us free to dish out the damage. By the time we finished tearing up his first wave of elementals he was already at ~30% health and fell not long after.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Pirates of the Burning Seas: Initial Beta Impressions
Pirates of the Burning Seas has just completed their open Beta and will open the live servers in mid-January.
POTBS is a game that I have been eying for quite a while now. From the various dev notes and sneak peeks over the past couple of years, it seemed like they were making a cross between Eve and DAoC, except that it was set upon the open seas of the 18th century Carribean.
I didn't play it as much as I wanted to, but in my limited introduction I did come up with a lot of commentary which I will begin now.
The game does a good job of getting you started with lots of simple quests and an introductory, tutorial mission. Ship combat is fun, though it takes some getting used to. Wind is a huge factor and unless you have some sailing knowledge, trying to move upwind (which is sometimes required to get where you need to go) could be a huge turn-off. They could use a more involved sailing tutorial to explain how to sail past your target and then make a sharp about-turn when trying to reach an upwind location and other such tricks.
They spent some extra time in development and added the much maligned avatar swordfighting combat. Since that seems to be the part of the game that has been getting the most negative attention, I'll start with my comments on that. Basically, they should have left it to boarding combat. Its a fun little mini-game, but having a large number of quests based on walking around on land and fighting with your sword really takes away from the rest of the game. The swordfighting is interesting in of itself, but its rather simplistic and PotBS is not a standard hack and slash game. If they wanted to add in more reasons to use it beyond ship boarding, they could have done something like have you wash up on shore whenever your ship sinks.
But I do really like that you can disembark in the towns. It gives the players a chance to interact face to face instead of just via chat channels, a feature not to be scoffed at. But is there really any reason that in town, every single building that you can enter (of which there are only a small handful) is instanced? And speaking of instancing, what is up with the ludicrous quests wherein you talk to someone, and they tell you to meet them inside to continue the quest!? Hello! I'm right here! You're right here! Why cant we talk now? One of the worst offenders I saw in my limited playtime involved the introduction to the production side of the economy. I had to go in and out of an instance to talk to the same person (who apparently exists in two dimensions at once) at least half a dozen times. EVERY quest step required me going back into the instance I just came from so that I was hopping back and forth between two instances just to see new quest dialogue! I shit you not! Non-immersive, and a pain in the butt as well! I spent more time looking at loading screens than I did actually talking to the person. And the entire time I was only moving about 10 feet, and was already inside an instance to begin with (yes, I had to go into an instance that was inside of another instance)!
The economic part of the game is what I find most interesting. And it has a lot of potential, but its also very confusing (much like Eve). You have very little clue as to what sort of potential products you could create and so the game just lets you stumble around in the dark, which gives a serious advantage to the experienced, fanatic players. Just some better info and explanation of what the buildings can do, what materials they need, what I can make, what it takes to build components and then ships, etc etc. Is a mast made at a carpenters shop or a shipyard? Or somewhere else entirely? I was unable to find this info in-game at all though I probably could have found it by going to all the auction houses and carefully examining the mouseover text for all the building deeds, but really, we cant do anything better than that?
Some sort of interface between the auction house and the production window would be nice as well. After all, this is supposed to be large-scale production, not an individual sitting in a corner crafting cloth bags.
And the whole concept of having to find 'rare' drops in order to make certain buildings or items... really just needs to be dumped for these types of games. It can be semi-accepted in fantasy games, but its completely out of place in PotBS and Eve (I found it especially annoying in Eve that I had to go physically purchase a book to learn a skill. In a universe with jumpgates, clones and brain enhancing implants, they cant email the book to me?!? Or download it directly into my synapses?!) Why do I have to find a special book in a shipwreck so that I can order my laborers to cut down oak trees? I'm not the one cutting the wood. And why can they cut down regular trees but not oaks?! Does cutting an oak tree require knowledge of a secret oak-fairy password?
The UI is klutzy, big and intrusive. I felt like I could only see a small part of the screen. To be fair, they aren't the only MMO with a crappy UI. But really, these companies need to get more on the ball in this department. The UI is the user's window into your game. If the window is obscured by lots of crap, then your game won't be looking so rosy. One prime example is during character creation where the tooltips for the various appearance tweaking UI elements can sometimes extend over your character while you're adjusting them, which is a bit counter-productive for such a visually oriented element of the game.
WoW on the water. Or maybe Eve on earth. Or maybe some sort of conglomeration of the two that just doesn't seem quite right. Level 50 raid content? What is all this level BS anyway? I'm an 18th century ship captain damnit! And why are you forced to take swordfighting skills? What if you don't ever want to swordfight and would rather build and pilot your ship so that you never engage in boarding actions? Well, then you're just screwed.
Never got a chance to try out the PvP. Supposedly they were giving every character a million doubloons and access to experience books to level up on over the holidays, but when I logged in before the New Year I didn't see any of that. And the only ships I could find to buy required that I be level 15+ while I was only level 7.
All in all, great concept, fun ship combat, but really, really unfortunate design decisions. PotBS could pull an Eve-type coup, where they manage to gather more followers as the game progresses and changes are made, but in order to do so, they need to focus more on the sandbox, territorial control aspects instead of worrying about creating high-level raid-type content with ghost pirates!
POTBS is a game that I have been eying for quite a while now. From the various dev notes and sneak peeks over the past couple of years, it seemed like they were making a cross between Eve and DAoC, except that it was set upon the open seas of the 18th century Carribean.
I didn't play it as much as I wanted to, but in my limited introduction I did come up with a lot of commentary which I will begin now.
The game does a good job of getting you started with lots of simple quests and an introductory, tutorial mission. Ship combat is fun, though it takes some getting used to. Wind is a huge factor and unless you have some sailing knowledge, trying to move upwind (which is sometimes required to get where you need to go) could be a huge turn-off. They could use a more involved sailing tutorial to explain how to sail past your target and then make a sharp about-turn when trying to reach an upwind location and other such tricks.
They spent some extra time in development and added the much maligned avatar swordfighting combat. Since that seems to be the part of the game that has been getting the most negative attention, I'll start with my comments on that. Basically, they should have left it to boarding combat. Its a fun little mini-game, but having a large number of quests based on walking around on land and fighting with your sword really takes away from the rest of the game. The swordfighting is interesting in of itself, but its rather simplistic and PotBS is not a standard hack and slash game. If they wanted to add in more reasons to use it beyond ship boarding, they could have done something like have you wash up on shore whenever your ship sinks.
But I do really like that you can disembark in the towns. It gives the players a chance to interact face to face instead of just via chat channels, a feature not to be scoffed at. But is there really any reason that in town, every single building that you can enter (of which there are only a small handful) is instanced? And speaking of instancing, what is up with the ludicrous quests wherein you talk to someone, and they tell you to meet them inside to continue the quest!? Hello! I'm right here! You're right here! Why cant we talk now? One of the worst offenders I saw in my limited playtime involved the introduction to the production side of the economy. I had to go in and out of an instance to talk to the same person (who apparently exists in two dimensions at once) at least half a dozen times. EVERY quest step required me going back into the instance I just came from so that I was hopping back and forth between two instances just to see new quest dialogue! I shit you not! Non-immersive, and a pain in the butt as well! I spent more time looking at loading screens than I did actually talking to the person. And the entire time I was only moving about 10 feet, and was already inside an instance to begin with (yes, I had to go into an instance that was inside of another instance)!
The economic part of the game is what I find most interesting. And it has a lot of potential, but its also very confusing (much like Eve). You have very little clue as to what sort of potential products you could create and so the game just lets you stumble around in the dark, which gives a serious advantage to the experienced, fanatic players. Just some better info and explanation of what the buildings can do, what materials they need, what I can make, what it takes to build components and then ships, etc etc. Is a mast made at a carpenters shop or a shipyard? Or somewhere else entirely? I was unable to find this info in-game at all though I probably could have found it by going to all the auction houses and carefully examining the mouseover text for all the building deeds, but really, we cant do anything better than that?
Some sort of interface between the auction house and the production window would be nice as well. After all, this is supposed to be large-scale production, not an individual sitting in a corner crafting cloth bags.
And the whole concept of having to find 'rare' drops in order to make certain buildings or items... really just needs to be dumped for these types of games. It can be semi-accepted in fantasy games, but its completely out of place in PotBS and Eve (I found it especially annoying in Eve that I had to go physically purchase a book to learn a skill. In a universe with jumpgates, clones and brain enhancing implants, they cant email the book to me?!? Or download it directly into my synapses?!) Why do I have to find a special book in a shipwreck so that I can order my laborers to cut down oak trees? I'm not the one cutting the wood. And why can they cut down regular trees but not oaks?! Does cutting an oak tree require knowledge of a secret oak-fairy password?
The UI is klutzy, big and intrusive. I felt like I could only see a small part of the screen. To be fair, they aren't the only MMO with a crappy UI. But really, these companies need to get more on the ball in this department. The UI is the user's window into your game. If the window is obscured by lots of crap, then your game won't be looking so rosy. One prime example is during character creation where the tooltips for the various appearance tweaking UI elements can sometimes extend over your character while you're adjusting them, which is a bit counter-productive for such a visually oriented element of the game.
WoW on the water. Or maybe Eve on earth. Or maybe some sort of conglomeration of the two that just doesn't seem quite right. Level 50 raid content? What is all this level BS anyway? I'm an 18th century ship captain damnit! And why are you forced to take swordfighting skills? What if you don't ever want to swordfight and would rather build and pilot your ship so that you never engage in boarding actions? Well, then you're just screwed.
Never got a chance to try out the PvP. Supposedly they were giving every character a million doubloons and access to experience books to level up on over the holidays, but when I logged in before the New Year I didn't see any of that. And the only ships I could find to buy required that I be level 15+ while I was only level 7.
All in all, great concept, fun ship combat, but really, really unfortunate design decisions. PotBS could pull an Eve-type coup, where they manage to gather more followers as the game progresses and changes are made, but in order to do so, they need to focus more on the sandbox, territorial control aspects instead of worrying about creating high-level raid-type content with ghost pirates!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Monster AI and Points of Interest
One thing that was always a standard in fantasy settings has been the fact that abandoned points of interest such as the old wizard's tower or the ancient dwarven city is that they always attract new inhabitants, usually the unsavory kind. Given that my concept of mob placement and spawning involves dynamic, mobile spawn points as well as mobs that can be permanently defeated, this feature ties in well.
So with that we have the concept of Points of Interest. Rather than just being static places with some flavor, Points of Interest are their own living entities. They desire to be occupied by powerful forces, and in order to make that happen, they exert a magnetic Attraction that draws mobs to them. The Master Spawn Objects that control the mobs actions would be the ones checking for Points of Interest that fit their needs, are nearby and are exerting enough Attraction to draw the attention of the Mater Spawn Objects.
The Points of Interest would be flagged as to how strong their Attraction is and what types of creatures would be most attracted to that spot. So an abandoned wizard tower might exert attraction on all mob types, but it would have a especially strong Attraction for magic-using creatures.
Some Points of Interest might always exert Attraction and some might only attract when empty. So maybe a band of orcs has taken over an ancient city, but the city still exerts Attraction, resulting in a large dragon coming along and displacing the orcs who then look for a new home or maybe just rampage through the countryside in anger!
It would probably also be a good idea to have the Attraction factor of a PoI be malleable based upon strength and personality of any inhabitants as well as resources and treasure nearby. So, using our above example, the presence of the dragon might end up causing a negative attraction to its occupied PoI, keeping other mob groups away.
So with that we have the concept of Points of Interest. Rather than just being static places with some flavor, Points of Interest are their own living entities. They desire to be occupied by powerful forces, and in order to make that happen, they exert a magnetic Attraction that draws mobs to them. The Master Spawn Objects that control the mobs actions would be the ones checking for Points of Interest that fit their needs, are nearby and are exerting enough Attraction to draw the attention of the Mater Spawn Objects.
The Points of Interest would be flagged as to how strong their Attraction is and what types of creatures would be most attracted to that spot. So an abandoned wizard tower might exert attraction on all mob types, but it would have a especially strong Attraction for magic-using creatures.
Some Points of Interest might always exert Attraction and some might only attract when empty. So maybe a band of orcs has taken over an ancient city, but the city still exerts Attraction, resulting in a large dragon coming along and displacing the orcs who then look for a new home or maybe just rampage through the countryside in anger!
It would probably also be a good idea to have the Attraction factor of a PoI be malleable based upon strength and personality of any inhabitants as well as resources and treasure nearby. So, using our above example, the presence of the dragon might end up causing a negative attraction to its occupied PoI, keeping other mob groups away.
More Dwarf Fortress Graphic Goodness
More people are jumping into the fray of trying to make Dwarf Fortress look pretty. The latest is a Map Visualizer created by Sinoth. You can find the beta download as well as some screenshots in this thread.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Alterac Valley: The More It Changes, the More It Stays the Same
So it's been several weeks since the much lauded patch to fix Alterac Valley, and once again, we're back to the same old, zerg-the-enemy-base-ignore-opposing-players strategy. I blame both the developers for creating a crappy setup that promotes that sort of strategy, and the players who are too scared to actually engage the enemy in what is supposed to be a PvP instance!
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Simulating AI in Online Virtual Worlds: Preliminary Notes - Master Objects
Dynamic AI and spawn systems are something that has always intrigued me. UO tried it back when they were in beta testing, but the calculations required brought the servers to their knees and the concept was abandoned.
And no, increasing the spawn rate based on number of players in the vicinity does not count as dynamic in my book.
I've tried on numerous occasions to collate my notes into some sort of actual design-type document, but organization of it has always eluded me. So I decided to instead break things down into smaller components and try and put together some rough outlines.
For this first attempt we have Master Spawn Objects.
Master Spawn Objects are invisible objects that control a group of mobs. These not only tell the server when and where to spawn mobs, but they also help define a sort of group consciousness for the mobs in their group, giving the mobs reason and purpose beyond the basic concept of providing punching bags and loot pinatas for the players. This object is not designed to dictate every movement of the mobs within its area of control, but rather to provide a guiding force and also to maintain historical data that will be used to create a dynamic and flexible spawning system.
Master Objects
There's a starting point off the top of my head. I hope in the future to clean it up and provide further details on what each part means. And, of course, this is only one part in a multi-faceted Dynamic Spawning AI system!
I would love to hear any comments or suggestions!
And no, increasing the spawn rate based on number of players in the vicinity does not count as dynamic in my book.
I've tried on numerous occasions to collate my notes into some sort of actual design-type document, but organization of it has always eluded me. So I decided to instead break things down into smaller components and try and put together some rough outlines.
For this first attempt we have Master Spawn Objects.
Master Spawn Objects are invisible objects that control a group of mobs. These not only tell the server when and where to spawn mobs, but they also help define a sort of group consciousness for the mobs in their group, giving the mobs reason and purpose beyond the basic concept of providing punching bags and loot pinatas for the players. This object is not designed to dictate every movement of the mobs within its area of control, but rather to provide a guiding force and also to maintain historical data that will be used to create a dynamic and flexible spawning system.
Master Objects
- Provide an over-arching framework with which to control a group of mobs.
- Serve as a way for mobs within this group to 'talk' to each other
- Can spawn new mobs
- Can add additional AI routines to individual mobs within its group
- Can move the entire group (either as an attack on another settlement or as a means of self-preservation by moving away from areas where they're being 'farmed')
- Keeps historical data on events that have happened with its group
- Can alter its behavior based on the historical data
- Can create and destroy temporary structures that are associated with its group
- Can keep track of group-owned objects and storage, using that information to alter group actions and desires as well as providing appropriate spawns
There's a starting point off the top of my head. I hope in the future to clean it up and provide further details on what each part means. And, of course, this is only one part in a multi-faceted Dynamic Spawning AI system!
I would love to hear any comments or suggestions!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Azh's WoW Adventures: Karazhan
My guild is pretty casual overall. And relatively small. So while we do a lot of 5-mans and PvP and other various events, we haven't experienced any of the Outlands raid content until we hit Zul'aman a week ago. We went to Zul'aman mainly because it didn't have any prerequisites for entry. We knew that Karazhan was officially the entry-level raid instance, but making sure that everyone did the 12-step quest that involves no less than three 5-man instances to get their key (which for some unknown reason, everyone needs), had been problematic.
However, we were emboldened by the turnout and tenacity displayed in our Zul'aman trip, so we got things together, ran those without keys through the required instances and made plans for a journey into Karazhan.
I've read a little about Karazhan, and I had stepped inside previously just to take a look, but we were basically walking into this adventure blind, which is really a lot more fun. I knew that Attumen was in the stables and that he appeared with his horse, and I also knew that a less-powerful boss-type creature lay in the cellars, but beyond that, it was new for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, there were only eight of us. We had a couple of friends of the guild who expressed interest in joining us, but I really wanted to do an all-guild run for the first time through. So we stuck with what we had. Our group consisted of two arms warriors, one restoration shaman, one holy/discipline priest, one beastmaster hunter, one rogue and two warlocks.
Both of the warriors were functioning as tanks (without a respec). Since pretty much everything we encountered was a ghost or a creature, our crowd control was limited to the priest's Shackle spell and the hunter's Ice Trap.
We decided to head into the stables first. The horses and the stablehands proved to be pretty easy to tackle. Shackle, trap and tank the others. We even had a point where we pulled the patrol along with the static mobs and still emerged victorious. The only tricky part was having the Chargers charge and fear the healers. But that didn't seem to really cause too much trouble.
When we got to Midnight, the plan was for the other warrior to take her and I would grab Attumen when he appeared. We would try and damage them both equally so that when Attumen hopped on Midnight, he would hopefully be almost dead. This didn't work out so well. We just weren't able to damage them quickly enough. Also, I hadn't realized that Attumen had an aura that decreases hit chance, so we were keeping them grouped near each other, which likely decreased our damage output quite a bit.
Lesson One: Keep Attumen away from the rest of the raid.
Wipe, soulstone, ressurect and we're ready to try again. A couple of party members had already run back in the front door and discovered that the spectral horses were respawning. No problem, we simply summoned them over and prepared to engage again. As soon as Midnight entered combat, ALL of the other horses ran over to help. Needless to say, it was a quick death for us all.
Lesson Two: The stables need to be clear before engaging Midnight.
Humbled and more experienced, we ran back and decided to check out the cellars. The creatures here consisted of spiders who would spawn spiderlings and large numbers of bats. These were all defeated easily and we came to what was looking like a dead-end in the back of the cellars. I was wondering where the boss was as I pulled the final group, and almost immediately found myself near death! Luckily, the other warrior was on the ball and grabbed the attention of Rokad the Ravager, who was with this final pull. He looked just like his demon-dog companions so I hadn't even noticed he was there! After recovering from that near fiasco, we easily defeated him and found some bracers for our enchanter to melt.
Having passed a narrow staircase on the way to the back of the cellars, we returned to it and made our way upstairs to the marbles halls filled with ghostly citizens. Took out a couple of the groups in the hallway then turned right into a large open space. The large groups of ghostly citizens weren't too tough, there were just lots of them to control. One of our warlocks seemed to draw a lot of aggro and went down a couple of times.
Then we hit the Skeletal Ushers who wiped us a couple of times. Their immunity to taunt was an unexpected discovery that led to one wipe, and then another as we accidentally pulled a patrol and had three of the Ushers on us at once! But once we figured that out, defeating them was easy enough and we cleared the entire room in front of the opera stage. We then talked to the organ player but nothing seemed to happen. Someone in our group pointed out that there was a passage behind the stage, so in we went right into a large number of ghostly actors. We were approaching the two hour mark at this point and one of our warlocks had to leave. But luckily we had another shaman login so we decided to make another attempt at Attumen.
Since we now knew about that Midnight would call for help if there were any other horses around, we really only had one shot before the respawns would start. We cleared the stables easily and quickly enough and then faced our nemesis. The plan this time was for me to keep Attumen occupied while the other warrior would keep Midnight focused on him and everyone would work on bringing the horse down. This has to be done carefully as both Midnight and Attumen are immune to Taunt. Things went pretty well, though slowly, since we were still short two players. Attumen mounted his horse and the second phase began. The other warrior ended up being the one grabbing aggro and seemed to be doing an excellent job of keeping his attention so I pulled out my two-hander and switched to fury stance. I was still wearing my tanking gear, so my damage was greatly reduced, but it was still a significant improvement. This phase also went slowly, and I was starting to get worried near the end that we would have respawns before we were done. But luckily, that didn't happen, Attumen fell and we searched his corpse to find a piece of paladin plate armor (no paladins with us) and leather gloves that our rogue didn't want! Alas, our enchanter had been the one who had to leave earlier so were left with taking the items to sell for a small pittance of gold. But we did all get two Badges of Justice (one from Attumen and one from Rokad, though somehow our rogue manged to get three total!) and enough Violet Eye reputation to get the first version of the Violet Eye rings.
All in all it was a fun and educational trip. I had no idea how big the place was. For some reason I thought it was a lot smaller but we have obviously only seen the very beginning of this instance. But our success with a short-handed raid was inspiring and gives us hope for further progression.
However, we were emboldened by the turnout and tenacity displayed in our Zul'aman trip, so we got things together, ran those without keys through the required instances and made plans for a journey into Karazhan.
I've read a little about Karazhan, and I had stepped inside previously just to take a look, but we were basically walking into this adventure blind, which is really a lot more fun. I knew that Attumen was in the stables and that he appeared with his horse, and I also knew that a less-powerful boss-type creature lay in the cellars, but beyond that, it was new for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, there were only eight of us. We had a couple of friends of the guild who expressed interest in joining us, but I really wanted to do an all-guild run for the first time through. So we stuck with what we had. Our group consisted of two arms warriors, one restoration shaman, one holy/discipline priest, one beastmaster hunter, one rogue and two warlocks.
Both of the warriors were functioning as tanks (without a respec). Since pretty much everything we encountered was a ghost or a creature, our crowd control was limited to the priest's Shackle spell and the hunter's Ice Trap.
We decided to head into the stables first. The horses and the stablehands proved to be pretty easy to tackle. Shackle, trap and tank the others. We even had a point where we pulled the patrol along with the static mobs and still emerged victorious. The only tricky part was having the Chargers charge and fear the healers. But that didn't seem to really cause too much trouble.
When we got to Midnight, the plan was for the other warrior to take her and I would grab Attumen when he appeared. We would try and damage them both equally so that when Attumen hopped on Midnight, he would hopefully be almost dead. This didn't work out so well. We just weren't able to damage them quickly enough. Also, I hadn't realized that Attumen had an aura that decreases hit chance, so we were keeping them grouped near each other, which likely decreased our damage output quite a bit.
Lesson One: Keep Attumen away from the rest of the raid.
Wipe, soulstone, ressurect and we're ready to try again. A couple of party members had already run back in the front door and discovered that the spectral horses were respawning. No problem, we simply summoned them over and prepared to engage again. As soon as Midnight entered combat, ALL of the other horses ran over to help. Needless to say, it was a quick death for us all.
Lesson Two: The stables need to be clear before engaging Midnight.
Humbled and more experienced, we ran back and decided to check out the cellars. The creatures here consisted of spiders who would spawn spiderlings and large numbers of bats. These were all defeated easily and we came to what was looking like a dead-end in the back of the cellars. I was wondering where the boss was as I pulled the final group, and almost immediately found myself near death! Luckily, the other warrior was on the ball and grabbed the attention of Rokad the Ravager, who was with this final pull. He looked just like his demon-dog companions so I hadn't even noticed he was there! After recovering from that near fiasco, we easily defeated him and found some bracers for our enchanter to melt.
Having passed a narrow staircase on the way to the back of the cellars, we returned to it and made our way upstairs to the marbles halls filled with ghostly citizens. Took out a couple of the groups in the hallway then turned right into a large open space. The large groups of ghostly citizens weren't too tough, there were just lots of them to control. One of our warlocks seemed to draw a lot of aggro and went down a couple of times.
Then we hit the Skeletal Ushers who wiped us a couple of times. Their immunity to taunt was an unexpected discovery that led to one wipe, and then another as we accidentally pulled a patrol and had three of the Ushers on us at once! But once we figured that out, defeating them was easy enough and we cleared the entire room in front of the opera stage. We then talked to the organ player but nothing seemed to happen. Someone in our group pointed out that there was a passage behind the stage, so in we went right into a large number of ghostly actors. We were approaching the two hour mark at this point and one of our warlocks had to leave. But luckily we had another shaman login so we decided to make another attempt at Attumen.
Since we now knew about that Midnight would call for help if there were any other horses around, we really only had one shot before the respawns would start. We cleared the stables easily and quickly enough and then faced our nemesis. The plan this time was for me to keep Attumen occupied while the other warrior would keep Midnight focused on him and everyone would work on bringing the horse down. This has to be done carefully as both Midnight and Attumen are immune to Taunt. Things went pretty well, though slowly, since we were still short two players. Attumen mounted his horse and the second phase began. The other warrior ended up being the one grabbing aggro and seemed to be doing an excellent job of keeping his attention so I pulled out my two-hander and switched to fury stance. I was still wearing my tanking gear, so my damage was greatly reduced, but it was still a significant improvement. This phase also went slowly, and I was starting to get worried near the end that we would have respawns before we were done. But luckily, that didn't happen, Attumen fell and we searched his corpse to find a piece of paladin plate armor (no paladins with us) and leather gloves that our rogue didn't want! Alas, our enchanter had been the one who had to leave earlier so were left with taking the items to sell for a small pittance of gold. But we did all get two Badges of Justice (one from Attumen and one from Rokad, though somehow our rogue manged to get three total!) and enough Violet Eye reputation to get the first version of the Violet Eye rings.
All in all it was a fun and educational trip. I had no idea how big the place was. For some reason I thought it was a lot smaller but we have obviously only seen the very beginning of this instance. But our success with a short-handed raid was inspiring and gives us hope for further progression.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The Orange Box: Initial Impressions
So I picked up the Orange Box before the turkey-based holiday. It was getting nothing but rave reviews and since I hadn't played anything new since the last Civ IV expansion, I needed something different.
Installed on Wednesday night and have played for about 15 hours total.
Portal is neat game. It's definitely nice to see an innovative game that is willing to take a chance on new ideas. And it's basically a very simple concept at heart. You are given the ability to make an entrance portal and an exit portal, and you have to somehow use these portals to solve various puzzles. Portal does an excellent job of easing you into the gameplay by introducing the game concepts as well as suggesting solutions and different ways to use the portals before ramping up into the more difficult situations. Even my girlfriend wants to play it almost every night!
I'm also really enjoying Team Fortress 2! I'm not much of a standard FPS player. Of course I played Quake and such games back in the day, but now I tend to lean towards the slower-paced Day of Defeat instead of the over-the-top, explosion-filled frag fests that most FPS games cater to. But I think they've hooked me this time around.
I was a little dubious at first, and my initial evening of playing didn't completely bowl me over. But I went back to it again the next night and put at least one effort into each of the different classes, testing out their various abilities. And somewhere in there it all clicked! Once I had a basic understanding of each class and what it was capable of, my enjoyment of the game skyrocketed!
Every class has its use. And a team that doesn't have a good selection of all the classes will find itself at a disadvantage.
The cartoon graphics are great, and perfect for this sort of Acme Inc. inspired mayhem. And as I've talked about before, I think these sorts of graphics give the developers more freedom. When you're going for the realistic look, you're very constrained in what you can do.
I haven't played the new Half-life 2 episode at all, but I already feel like I got my money's worth from the two games that I have played!
Installed on Wednesday night and have played for about 15 hours total.
Portal is neat game. It's definitely nice to see an innovative game that is willing to take a chance on new ideas. And it's basically a very simple concept at heart. You are given the ability to make an entrance portal and an exit portal, and you have to somehow use these portals to solve various puzzles. Portal does an excellent job of easing you into the gameplay by introducing the game concepts as well as suggesting solutions and different ways to use the portals before ramping up into the more difficult situations. Even my girlfriend wants to play it almost every night!
I'm also really enjoying Team Fortress 2! I'm not much of a standard FPS player. Of course I played Quake and such games back in the day, but now I tend to lean towards the slower-paced Day of Defeat instead of the over-the-top, explosion-filled frag fests that most FPS games cater to. But I think they've hooked me this time around.
I was a little dubious at first, and my initial evening of playing didn't completely bowl me over. But I went back to it again the next night and put at least one effort into each of the different classes, testing out their various abilities. And somewhere in there it all clicked! Once I had a basic understanding of each class and what it was capable of, my enjoyment of the game skyrocketed!
Every class has its use. And a team that doesn't have a good selection of all the classes will find itself at a disadvantage.
The cartoon graphics are great, and perfect for this sort of Acme Inc. inspired mayhem. And as I've talked about before, I think these sorts of graphics give the developers more freedom. When you're going for the realistic look, you're very constrained in what you can do.
I haven't played the new Half-life 2 episode at all, but I already feel like I got my money's worth from the two games that I have played!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Azh's WoW Adventures: Zul'aman
With the recent release of patch 2.3 comes the first raid content since Upper Blackrock Spire that doesn't require crazy attunement/key quests.
Since out guild is very casual, we've never been to Karazhan and have only done a handful of heroics. So this was our first chance to try out a raiding instance in the Outlands. I'm speaking of the troll-infested Zul'man of course.
We knew going into it that Zul'aman was supposed to be the next progression after Karazhan, but I wanted to try it anyway, both as a guild bonding experience and simply to see some new content that none of us had seen before. It was an exploratory expedition of sorts.
So we gathered up: eight level 70s and one level 69. Two warriors, one priest, two shamans, one hunter, one rogue and two warlocks. We have a decent amount of epic PvP and arena gear, but given our lack of high-end PvE experience, no tanking epics. Both of our warriors were not protection specced and we both were wearing various blue items as defensive gear.
The first thing that happens inside is that you talk to an NPC who tells you to bang on a gong to open the gate. You need several people to bang on it at the same time and it takes a good 30 seconds or more of doing so before the gate will open. The NPC immediately runs through the gate, gets killed and aggros the first guards onto your party! This first group seemed to consist of two elite trolls and a number of non-elites. Nothing too troublesome, though we weren't expecting it.
And in fact, that is a big theme in this instance... triggered events. It seemed that around almost every turn we were hitting some invisible marker that called down the troll forces on us. Which is probably a lot of fun once you know what you're doing, but for first-timers it was hectic and crazy.
After that initial battle, you come out onto the grand staircase and get a nice panoramic view of the instance as well as plenty of space for resting. A patrol of two trolls is at the bottom of the stairs, one of them a 'Medicine Man' who drops totems. Kill the totems first! Especially the Protective Wards! They make the trolls invulnerable, which makes it a little tougher to kill them.
Turning right at the bottom of the stairs we see the bear boss, Nalorakk, up on a nearby ledge. At this point you have to start being careful about moving up before your party is ready. If you approach he calls out and sends his three guards after you as he moves farther back into the instance. This is a bit tricky as its hard to mark these trolls before they reach your party. And, as an undergeared tank with almost no protection talents, I couldn't take the hits from more than one of them at a time. Both times we fought this encounter I died before I could even get off an Intimidating Shout! Luckily, the second time around, the warlocks and priest managed to keep two of them feared while the second warrior occupied the third and the rest of our party took care of business.
Next up were the Amani Bears. These beasts came in pairs and hit like a two-ton bear (which they were!) After the first encounter with them we worked out a method of keeping one feared constantly while everyone chopped up the second for dinner and easily defeated the second group of bears without any losses.
Up some more stairs to confront Nalorakk again. And again, you have to watch where you step. As you approach the steps he sends more guards after you, this time it's four trolls of various kinds. We managed to defeat them by mind-controlling the Medicine Man, fearing one and tanking the other two. Then things got tough...
Up some more stairs and you have to face two Amani Warbringers. These are the Amani bears with trolls mounted on them. They hit extremely hard and have a roar that both increases their damage dealt and increases the damage taken by those affected. And, to top it off, they can both stack this debuff on you! Needless to say, they need to be tanked away from each other, but that's easier said than done. They both will aggro on the first person they see.
So after several unsuccessful tries we decided to see what lay in the other direction. We took a left at the bottom of the main stairs and saw a 'lookout' waiting up the slope. We figured he would call for some kind of help, so the plan was to charge in, hamstring him and try to take him out quickly. Unfortunately, we discovered that he is invulnerable and away he ran up the ramp. Two guards stood ahead of us. But as we prepared for the encounter, a wave of eagles flew down and assaulted our position. They were all non-elite, but their numbers made them hard to control. And, to top it off, two elite warrior trolls came up from behind us. We got things under control and took all of our foes out, but before we could rest another wave was arriving, and another and another... We must have defeated four or five waves before we were finally exhausted and overwhelmed. Apparently we needed to push forward through the attacks.
Back again we went, though this time we tried sapping the lookout, which actually worked! Sort of. He still ran up the ramp to summon the eagles and warriors, but it did buy us a few seconds with which to engage the first pair of guards. Unfortunately, we just didn't seem to have the firepower to defeat them fast enough and were again overwhelmed by the unrelenting assault from the trolls and their animal companions.
At this point we had been at it a little under 2 hours and decided to call it a night.
All in all, a very interesting instance. It's almost all scripted encounters, so if you're visiting for the first time, be prepared for lots of confusion and a steep learning curve. Though we ultimately met with defeat without even getting a shot at any of the bosses, it was great to have some 10-person content that was immediately accessible without having to jump through a lot of hoops.
I suspect that we will try to get some gear improvements before heading back, but I also think that simply having the experience and knowing what to expect next time would make a big difference as well.
Since out guild is very casual, we've never been to Karazhan and have only done a handful of heroics. So this was our first chance to try out a raiding instance in the Outlands. I'm speaking of the troll-infested Zul'man of course.
We knew going into it that Zul'aman was supposed to be the next progression after Karazhan, but I wanted to try it anyway, both as a guild bonding experience and simply to see some new content that none of us had seen before. It was an exploratory expedition of sorts.
So we gathered up: eight level 70s and one level 69. Two warriors, one priest, two shamans, one hunter, one rogue and two warlocks. We have a decent amount of epic PvP and arena gear, but given our lack of high-end PvE experience, no tanking epics. Both of our warriors were not protection specced and we both were wearing various blue items as defensive gear.
The first thing that happens inside is that you talk to an NPC who tells you to bang on a gong to open the gate. You need several people to bang on it at the same time and it takes a good 30 seconds or more of doing so before the gate will open. The NPC immediately runs through the gate, gets killed and aggros the first guards onto your party! This first group seemed to consist of two elite trolls and a number of non-elites. Nothing too troublesome, though we weren't expecting it.
And in fact, that is a big theme in this instance... triggered events. It seemed that around almost every turn we were hitting some invisible marker that called down the troll forces on us. Which is probably a lot of fun once you know what you're doing, but for first-timers it was hectic and crazy.
After that initial battle, you come out onto the grand staircase and get a nice panoramic view of the instance as well as plenty of space for resting. A patrol of two trolls is at the bottom of the stairs, one of them a 'Medicine Man' who drops totems. Kill the totems first! Especially the Protective Wards! They make the trolls invulnerable, which makes it a little tougher to kill them.
Turning right at the bottom of the stairs we see the bear boss, Nalorakk, up on a nearby ledge. At this point you have to start being careful about moving up before your party is ready. If you approach he calls out and sends his three guards after you as he moves farther back into the instance. This is a bit tricky as its hard to mark these trolls before they reach your party. And, as an undergeared tank with almost no protection talents, I couldn't take the hits from more than one of them at a time. Both times we fought this encounter I died before I could even get off an Intimidating Shout! Luckily, the second time around, the warlocks and priest managed to keep two of them feared while the second warrior occupied the third and the rest of our party took care of business.
Next up were the Amani Bears. These beasts came in pairs and hit like a two-ton bear (which they were!) After the first encounter with them we worked out a method of keeping one feared constantly while everyone chopped up the second for dinner and easily defeated the second group of bears without any losses.
Up some more stairs to confront Nalorakk again. And again, you have to watch where you step. As you approach the steps he sends more guards after you, this time it's four trolls of various kinds. We managed to defeat them by mind-controlling the Medicine Man, fearing one and tanking the other two. Then things got tough...
Up some more stairs and you have to face two Amani Warbringers. These are the Amani bears with trolls mounted on them. They hit extremely hard and have a roar that both increases their damage dealt and increases the damage taken by those affected. And, to top it off, they can both stack this debuff on you! Needless to say, they need to be tanked away from each other, but that's easier said than done. They both will aggro on the first person they see.
So after several unsuccessful tries we decided to see what lay in the other direction. We took a left at the bottom of the main stairs and saw a 'lookout' waiting up the slope. We figured he would call for some kind of help, so the plan was to charge in, hamstring him and try to take him out quickly. Unfortunately, we discovered that he is invulnerable and away he ran up the ramp. Two guards stood ahead of us. But as we prepared for the encounter, a wave of eagles flew down and assaulted our position. They were all non-elite, but their numbers made them hard to control. And, to top it off, two elite warrior trolls came up from behind us. We got things under control and took all of our foes out, but before we could rest another wave was arriving, and another and another... We must have defeated four or five waves before we were finally exhausted and overwhelmed. Apparently we needed to push forward through the attacks.
Back again we went, though this time we tried sapping the lookout, which actually worked! Sort of. He still ran up the ramp to summon the eagles and warriors, but it did buy us a few seconds with which to engage the first pair of guards. Unfortunately, we just didn't seem to have the firepower to defeat them fast enough and were again overwhelmed by the unrelenting assault from the trolls and their animal companions.
At this point we had been at it a little under 2 hours and decided to call it a night.
All in all, a very interesting instance. It's almost all scripted encounters, so if you're visiting for the first time, be prepared for lots of confusion and a steep learning curve. Though we ultimately met with defeat without even getting a shot at any of the bosses, it was great to have some 10-person content that was immediately accessible without having to jump through a lot of hoops.
I suspect that we will try to get some gear improvements before heading back, but I also think that simply having the experience and knowing what to expect next time would make a big difference as well.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
WoW Patch 2.3: First Impressions
So the new patch has now been out for two days and I wanted to give my initial impressions.
A lot of the class changes I wont have any comments on since 90% of my WoW play time is spent on my level 70 orc warrior. But I have had a chance to investigate the new Daily Quests, the Guild Bank, the changes to Alterac Valley and more! Keep reading for details.
The Daily Battleground quests are great! A couple of guildmates and I picked up the Arathi Basin quest on Tuesday, fought and won, and I had over 1200 honor from that victory alone plus the bonus honor from the quest. And getting paid for it was just icing on the cake! This also helps to promote the various battlegrounds on days other than the bonus weekends, which is nice for those of us who like to PvP.
I also discovered that you can hold on to your daily quest and complete it at a later time. I did this last night with the Shattered Halls daily quest that I picked up on Tuesday. However, once completed, you can't get another until the next day. But it's still something useful to know.
I noticed that the Heroic versions of the daily quests give 2 Badges of Justice on completion, which is a nice bonus, especially for those of us who don't do a lot of dungeon runs. Getting three badges a week makes for a really long trek to acquire the Badges of Justice items! And the reduction of reputation requirements for entering heroic dungeons has dramatically increased the number of groups looking for heroic adventures!
The warrior changes are just all around good for me. I was already a nearly pure Arms warrior (46 points in that tree). Death Wish is pretty sweet, I just need to remember to use it more often. But then change that I really, really like is having access to improved intercept! With the additional cooldown bonus from my gladiator gear, I find that I almost always have intercept available when I need it. I'm eager to try it out in the Arena!
Alterac Valley is pretty sweet at the moment. It's almost all PvP now and Horde has won 3 out of 4 matches that I've played. Bonus honor total at the end can be as much as 500-600 if you keep your opponents from razing any towers. Unfortunately, losing an AV match that way can result in very little honor gain, which would be pretty frustrating. But the changes seem good at the moment. We'll have to see how things play out as different strategies develop. In the meantime it's nice to see towers and graveyards actually being defended!
The experience gains for under-60 quests have increased significantly. I've only played a little of that part, but easily gained most of a level by completing a handful of quests. I was also able to go back to Silithus and solo the Emissary quest that I had been carrying around in my quest log for eons since his difficulty had been significantly reduced (it was now listed as a two-player group quest rather than a raid quest).
The Guild Bank is awesome. This is a great guild tool and a useful community feature that should have been available two years ago!
There are quite a few UI changes. For example, when you mouseover an NPC, the icon will change to reflect what they can do for you. It changes to a question mark for quest givers, an anvil icon for those who can repair, etc. Also, questgivers are now marked on the minimap for you. Another change is that interactive quest objects have little sparkly glows around them. While not very immersive, it does make it a lot easier to find that elusive lost backpack or chest without having to run the mouse over everything. Since so much of the WoW world is non-interactive and simply just there for show, I have to give this change a thumbs-up.
Overall, I have no complaints at all, though several of my addons have been throwing errors due to changes with the User Interface API. Hopefully the mod authors will fix those soon.
A lot of the class changes I wont have any comments on since 90% of my WoW play time is spent on my level 70 orc warrior. But I have had a chance to investigate the new Daily Quests, the Guild Bank, the changes to Alterac Valley and more! Keep reading for details.
The Daily Battleground quests are great! A couple of guildmates and I picked up the Arathi Basin quest on Tuesday, fought and won, and I had over 1200 honor from that victory alone plus the bonus honor from the quest. And getting paid for it was just icing on the cake! This also helps to promote the various battlegrounds on days other than the bonus weekends, which is nice for those of us who like to PvP.
I also discovered that you can hold on to your daily quest and complete it at a later time. I did this last night with the Shattered Halls daily quest that I picked up on Tuesday. However, once completed, you can't get another until the next day. But it's still something useful to know.
I noticed that the Heroic versions of the daily quests give 2 Badges of Justice on completion, which is a nice bonus, especially for those of us who don't do a lot of dungeon runs. Getting three badges a week makes for a really long trek to acquire the Badges of Justice items! And the reduction of reputation requirements for entering heroic dungeons has dramatically increased the number of groups looking for heroic adventures!
The warrior changes are just all around good for me. I was already a nearly pure Arms warrior (46 points in that tree). Death Wish is pretty sweet, I just need to remember to use it more often. But then change that I really, really like is having access to improved intercept! With the additional cooldown bonus from my gladiator gear, I find that I almost always have intercept available when I need it. I'm eager to try it out in the Arena!
Alterac Valley is pretty sweet at the moment. It's almost all PvP now and Horde has won 3 out of 4 matches that I've played. Bonus honor total at the end can be as much as 500-600 if you keep your opponents from razing any towers. Unfortunately, losing an AV match that way can result in very little honor gain, which would be pretty frustrating. But the changes seem good at the moment. We'll have to see how things play out as different strategies develop. In the meantime it's nice to see towers and graveyards actually being defended!
The experience gains for under-60 quests have increased significantly. I've only played a little of that part, but easily gained most of a level by completing a handful of quests. I was also able to go back to Silithus and solo the Emissary quest that I had been carrying around in my quest log for eons since his difficulty had been significantly reduced (it was now listed as a two-player group quest rather than a raid quest).
The Guild Bank is awesome. This is a great guild tool and a useful community feature that should have been available two years ago!
There are quite a few UI changes. For example, when you mouseover an NPC, the icon will change to reflect what they can do for you. It changes to a question mark for quest givers, an anvil icon for those who can repair, etc. Also, questgivers are now marked on the minimap for you. Another change is that interactive quest objects have little sparkly glows around them. While not very immersive, it does make it a lot easier to find that elusive lost backpack or chest without having to run the mouse over everything. Since so much of the WoW world is non-interactive and simply just there for show, I have to give this change a thumbs-up.
Overall, I have no complaints at all, though several of my addons have been throwing errors due to changes with the User Interface API. Hopefully the mod authors will fix those soon.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Elder Scrolls Online: Harshing the Buzz
So the latest buzz on the MMO scene is about the possible development of Elder Scrolls Online.
While a lot of fans are overly excited about this announcement, Bethseda is either going to have to seriously water down their worldy gameplay or accept the fact that they'll be a relatively niche game. There is no way that they'll 'challenge WoW' as some pundits are proclaiming.
Why? Well lets look at what makes the Elder Scrolls games so interesting and engaging and see how that translates to the MMO world.
1. Open character development based on skills: Very few MMOs have tried this tactic since UO. Eve is the notable exception, but their model is time-based rather than use-based. Not only does a use-based skill system lend itself to macroing or other such similar behavior (such as jumping constantly to increase your jumping skill), but then you also have to worry about keeping players from making the 'wrong' choices when it comes to skill selection and the potential for abusive skill combinations (for example, the tank-mage of old UO days). The latter is a development migraine, and the former a fear for many players.
2. Choices affect your character: One of the defining points of the Elder Scrolls was the ability to choose which factions to join/help. And those choices would have permanent effects on your character's development and future access to quests and other factions! I can just envision the number of GM calls now...
3. NPCs have lives too: MMO players aren't going to be happy that they can't sell and repair just because they happen to online while the shopkeeper NPC is asleep.
4. Open-ended world: The wide open variety of paths a player could take was another defining part of the Elder Scrolls games. But, one of the many complaints that newer MMO players have about UO is the lack of direction. There were no quests or introductions when UO was released. You just chose your starting skills and town and were plopped down in the world and expected to fend for yourself. While this is great for stimulating exploration, creativity and imagination, MMO players expect to be led by the hand these days.
Now I do want to state for the record that I personally would love all of the above features in an MMO. I can handle the fact that choosing to slay someone rather than talk to them permanently affects my faction standings. I can also handle that NPCs are completely unavailable at certain times. But for the millions that flock to WoW, RF and other such games, these features would be unacceptable. WoW didn't become the MMO giant by making things difficult for their players, in fact, its gone in the exact opposite direction!
But that's not to say that a really awesome Elder Scrolls MMO that was true to the source couldn't be made. But it would take a lot of work. More on that in a future post!
While a lot of fans are overly excited about this announcement, Bethseda is either going to have to seriously water down their worldy gameplay or accept the fact that they'll be a relatively niche game. There is no way that they'll 'challenge WoW' as some pundits are proclaiming.
Why? Well lets look at what makes the Elder Scrolls games so interesting and engaging and see how that translates to the MMO world.
1. Open character development based on skills: Very few MMOs have tried this tactic since UO. Eve is the notable exception, but their model is time-based rather than use-based. Not only does a use-based skill system lend itself to macroing or other such similar behavior (such as jumping constantly to increase your jumping skill), but then you also have to worry about keeping players from making the 'wrong' choices when it comes to skill selection and the potential for abusive skill combinations (for example, the tank-mage of old UO days). The latter is a development migraine, and the former a fear for many players.
2. Choices affect your character: One of the defining points of the Elder Scrolls was the ability to choose which factions to join/help. And those choices would have permanent effects on your character's development and future access to quests and other factions! I can just envision the number of GM calls now...
3. NPCs have lives too: MMO players aren't going to be happy that they can't sell and repair just because they happen to online while the shopkeeper NPC is asleep.
4. Open-ended world: The wide open variety of paths a player could take was another defining part of the Elder Scrolls games. But, one of the many complaints that newer MMO players have about UO is the lack of direction. There were no quests or introductions when UO was released. You just chose your starting skills and town and were plopped down in the world and expected to fend for yourself. While this is great for stimulating exploration, creativity and imagination, MMO players expect to be led by the hand these days.
Now I do want to state for the record that I personally would love all of the above features in an MMO. I can handle the fact that choosing to slay someone rather than talk to them permanently affects my faction standings. I can also handle that NPCs are completely unavailable at certain times. But for the millions that flock to WoW, RF and other such games, these features would be unacceptable. WoW didn't become the MMO giant by making things difficult for their players, in fact, its gone in the exact opposite direction!
But that's not to say that a really awesome Elder Scrolls MMO that was true to the source couldn't be made. But it would take a lot of work. More on that in a future post!
Monday, November 05, 2007
Minor MMO Idea #4: Meaningful Quest Text
One of the common occurrences in online, quest-based games, and WoW especially, is the fact that veteran players tend to skip reading the quest text, instead simply focusing on the pertinent parts, ie, who do I kill and what rewards do I get! I find myself even doing this with new quests that I haven't seen before. Just a quick skim to see who needs to be eviscerated and where they live and what my phat loot will be when I return with a bloody head as a trophy.
But why does this happen? Why is some quest designer's hard work ignored? Well, because its mostly just fluff! The details of the quest text have little to no impact on your character and oftentimes, don't even correspond to gameworld events!
A prime example is one of the early Blood Elf quests in WoW which is designed to teach you how to use the special racial abilities. It's called Thirst Unending.
Part of the quest text reads:
But is any of this true? Not at all! I can spend my entire WoW lifetime without ever using Mana Tap a single time. And if I do use it, I can release it whenever I want. There is no side-effect. I don't have to ever worry about becoming "one of the Wretched". All of the quest text above, while suitably ominous, is completely irrelevant to any actual in-game occurrence.
So why would should I want to read fluffy quest text that isn't even consistent with the virtual world. If it gave me some new insight into the land, that would be something. But, as it is, I, like most other players, simply scan for location, required objectives and the available rewards. Anything further is just a waste of time.
And this reminds me of Shadowbane. During development Shadowbane hired a writer to create incredibly engaging and detailed lore for the background of the game. But, when it came to actual gameplay, the lore was nowhere to be seen. This was a disappointment to a lot of players and left the game feeling extremely shallow (which it was).
It's kind of like the whole anti-drug propaganda that talks about the evils of marijuana. I bought into it when I was young. But then I met people who smoked casually, and I tried it myself, only to discover that all of those crazy tales my PE teachers related to me (why we were taught about drugs by the PE teachers I have no idea) were completely false! If you want to tell me about the dangers of inhaling super-heated smoke into your lungs, or the propensity for glassy-eyed TV viewing while under the influence, then I can accept that. But marijuana stories about friends trying to crack open car-sized rocks with their heads is just ludicrous. Are we still buying into Reefer Madness? But I digress.
My point is, if you're going to go to the trouble of creating interesting lore or NPC speech, tie it to your gameworld!
But why does this happen? Why is some quest designer's hard work ignored? Well, because its mostly just fluff! The details of the quest text have little to no impact on your character and oftentimes, don't even correspond to gameworld events!
A prime example is one of the early Blood Elf quests in WoW which is designed to teach you how to use the special racial abilities. It's called Thirst Unending.
Part of the quest text reads:
"If there is only one lesson you deign to remember from your time on Sunstrider Isle, let it be this - control your thirst for magic. It is a thirst unending, - you must absorb energy to survive via Mana Tap, and you must control how you release it via Arcane Torrent. Failure is to become one of the Wretched... hopelessly addicted and insane."
But is any of this true? Not at all! I can spend my entire WoW lifetime without ever using Mana Tap a single time. And if I do use it, I can release it whenever I want. There is no side-effect. I don't have to ever worry about becoming "one of the Wretched". All of the quest text above, while suitably ominous, is completely irrelevant to any actual in-game occurrence.
So why would should I want to read fluffy quest text that isn't even consistent with the virtual world. If it gave me some new insight into the land, that would be something. But, as it is, I, like most other players, simply scan for location, required objectives and the available rewards. Anything further is just a waste of time.
And this reminds me of Shadowbane. During development Shadowbane hired a writer to create incredibly engaging and detailed lore for the background of the game. But, when it came to actual gameplay, the lore was nowhere to be seen. This was a disappointment to a lot of players and left the game feeling extremely shallow (which it was).
It's kind of like the whole anti-drug propaganda that talks about the evils of marijuana. I bought into it when I was young. But then I met people who smoked casually, and I tried it myself, only to discover that all of those crazy tales my PE teachers related to me (why we were taught about drugs by the PE teachers I have no idea) were completely false! If you want to tell me about the dangers of inhaling super-heated smoke into your lungs, or the propensity for glassy-eyed TV viewing while under the influence, then I can accept that. But marijuana stories about friends trying to crack open car-sized rocks with their heads is just ludicrous. Are we still buying into Reefer Madness? But I digress.
My point is, if you're going to go to the trouble of creating interesting lore or NPC speech, tie it to your gameworld!
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Dwarf Fortress Update
So the latest version of Dwarf Fortress has finally been release. You can find it here. It has been in development for quite a while and includes a z-axis, alterations to temperature exchange and water flow and more!
Unfortunately, the game's interface is still pretty horrid. But for those who are put off by the ASCII graphics, there is hope! First of all, take a look at this mockup! Pretty sweet! Here's a link to a thread about the development of these isometric graphics. I recommend that any Dwarf Fortress fan lend their support to those efforts!
I haven't had a chance to delve into the new gameplay yet, but I expect to have some commentary on the subject soon!
Unfortunately, the game's interface is still pretty horrid. But for those who are put off by the ASCII graphics, there is hope! First of all, take a look at this mockup! Pretty sweet! Here's a link to a thread about the development of these isometric graphics. I recommend that any Dwarf Fortress fan lend their support to those efforts!
I haven't had a chance to delve into the new gameplay yet, but I expect to have some commentary on the subject soon!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Alterac Valley Redux: Can I get more 'v' in my PvP?
So my previous post about the Resurrection of Alterac Valley seems to have been a bit premature. Sure, there are more AV matches running now than there were before, but the PvP has quickly vanished in the wake of honor farming.
Alterac Valley has returned to how it was a year ago, both sides rushing the enemy base, with little to no contact between the 'warring' players. In fact, the players work so hard to avoid actual PvP, that finishing at the top of the scoreboard with a mere five killing blows is a common occurrence!
If I try to actually do something useful PvP-wise, such as defending Iceblood or slow down those who are riding past to Frostwolf graveyard, I invariably find myself alone and outnumbered.
Reports from the Test Server say that actual PvP has returned to the Valley with the upcoming 2.3 patch changes, but I'll reserve judgment for the moment. I've learned my lesson (at least until the next time) about making snap judgments on PvP features. Players tend to flow to the path of least resistance, so its probably best to let things settle out before claiming a 'resurrection' or some similarly profound statement!
Alterac Valley has returned to how it was a year ago, both sides rushing the enemy base, with little to no contact between the 'warring' players. In fact, the players work so hard to avoid actual PvP, that finishing at the top of the scoreboard with a mere five killing blows is a common occurrence!
If I try to actually do something useful PvP-wise, such as defending Iceblood or slow down those who are riding past to Frostwolf graveyard, I invariably find myself alone and outnumbered.
Reports from the Test Server say that actual PvP has returned to the Valley with the upcoming 2.3 patch changes, but I'll reserve judgment for the moment. I've learned my lesson (at least until the next time) about making snap judgments on PvP features. Players tend to flow to the path of least resistance, so its probably best to let things settle out before claiming a 'resurrection' or some similarly profound statement!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
WoW's 'Matchmaking' System is a Joke!
So a while back, Blizzard introduced a 'matchmaking' system for determining who you would fight against in the battlegrounds. This system was supposed to weigh your gear and whether or not you were joining in a group to determine the matchups.
I played some Arathi Basin today, joining by myself, and six out of six times, I was placed into a battleground with a bunch of random Horde from various servers against a full Alliance guild team!
More weight needs to be given to organized groups. That is much more valuable than gear! Blizzard really needs to pull their heads out of their asses in regards to understanding PvP.
I played some Arathi Basin today, joining by myself, and six out of six times, I was placed into a battleground with a bunch of random Horde from various servers against a full Alliance guild team!
More weight needs to be given to organized groups. That is much more valuable than gear! Blizzard really needs to pull their heads out of their asses in regards to understanding PvP.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Re-Visiting an Old Friend: Day of Defeat
Back in the days of Counterstrike, when a good friend and I used to cart our computers up to his office at the university so we could play together over their T3 lines, there came along a little mod that didn't receive as much attention as Counterstrike did, but still had a lot of charm, enough so that it was eventually released as its own box set. That mod was called Day of Defeat. I was hooked immediately and it wasn't long before many of my friends followed suit.
DoD took Counterstrike's realism, warped it to fit WWII weapons, created more open and varied maps and really solidified the teamwork aspect of the game. Unfortunately, it has a steep learning curve. It's easy to die. Very easy. And if you aren't familiar with the current map, you can expect to die at pretty much every turn until you learn it. But, the plus side of this barrier to entry is that the players tend to be a lot more mature and team oriented than you find in most FPS games.
But what shines about DoD is the reliance on teamwork. There will never be a single player that can single-handedly win a match for his team. Every map has specific goals, and players will keep respawning until one team or the other accomplishes those goals. The maps are generally complex and have lots of flavor such as mounds of rubble, broken walls and abandoned cars, that not only provide an engaging setting, but that also have an impact on gameplay as well! Bushes, while just simple 2d sprites, do provide a lot of visual cover. DoD is all infantry based, which may annoy those who like the Battlefield type games. But what they do have is done well!
I hadn't played DoD in several years, but my recent foray into Battleground Europe, an online game with a similar WWII theme, made me remember the good old days. So I reinstalled Steam, updated
the client and logged in. The years have not been kind to my twitch reflexes, but it's still as much fun as it used to be. The only real downside is a lack of players. Many of the servers that are around these days seem to like to fill empty player slots with bots. And while they do decrease the empty fort feeling, it's still a very hollow experience. Luckily, there are other servers that don't use bots at all and also have an active population.
DoD has what Battleground Europe lacks... and mainly, thats the fun factor. I think that BE goes a bit over the edge in realism which cuts into the fun of playing a game. If someone could come up with a decent mashup of the systems in DoD, Battlefield and Battleground Europe (and maybe some Planetside), we could have a really awesome WWII MMO! Take the fun and the infantry/town combat from DoD, add in vehicles from Battlefield and Battleground Europe, then layer it all with an interesting, intuitive, dynamic meta-game that is designed well enough to handle widely varying population numbers and maybe throw in a little bit of character development. Stir gently and enjoy!
DoD took Counterstrike's realism, warped it to fit WWII weapons, created more open and varied maps and really solidified the teamwork aspect of the game. Unfortunately, it has a steep learning curve. It's easy to die. Very easy. And if you aren't familiar with the current map, you can expect to die at pretty much every turn until you learn it. But, the plus side of this barrier to entry is that the players tend to be a lot more mature and team oriented than you find in most FPS games.
But what shines about DoD is the reliance on teamwork. There will never be a single player that can single-handedly win a match for his team. Every map has specific goals, and players will keep respawning until one team or the other accomplishes those goals. The maps are generally complex and have lots of flavor such as mounds of rubble, broken walls and abandoned cars, that not only provide an engaging setting, but that also have an impact on gameplay as well! Bushes, while just simple 2d sprites, do provide a lot of visual cover. DoD is all infantry based, which may annoy those who like the Battlefield type games. But what they do have is done well!
I hadn't played DoD in several years, but my recent foray into Battleground Europe, an online game with a similar WWII theme, made me remember the good old days. So I reinstalled Steam, updated
the client and logged in. The years have not been kind to my twitch reflexes, but it's still as much fun as it used to be. The only real downside is a lack of players. Many of the servers that are around these days seem to like to fill empty player slots with bots. And while they do decrease the empty fort feeling, it's still a very hollow experience. Luckily, there are other servers that don't use bots at all and also have an active population.
DoD has what Battleground Europe lacks... and mainly, thats the fun factor. I think that BE goes a bit over the edge in realism which cuts into the fun of playing a game. If someone could come up with a decent mashup of the systems in DoD, Battlefield and Battleground Europe (and maybe some Planetside), we could have a really awesome WWII MMO! Take the fun and the infantry/town combat from DoD, add in vehicles from Battlefield and Battleground Europe, then layer it all with an interesting, intuitive, dynamic meta-game that is designed well enough to handle widely varying population numbers and maybe throw in a little bit of character development. Stir gently and enjoy!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Rome Falling: Abortion of an MMO
The big news of the day is the 'indefinite hold' that Perpetual has put on Gods and Heroes.
I've been in the beta for 2 months and to be honest, it didn't really capture my attention. I played for at most 10 hours, and only got to level 7 with a Gladiator character, so any information I have to share will be limited.
I was actually very excited when I got a beta acceptance email for Gods and Heroes. It was the first beta I had been in since starting this blog, and though I couldn't make posts about the game due to the NDA, I had plans to keep detailed notes about my perceptions of the game as I played, so I could post a nice writeup once the NDA was lifted. But alas, the game couldn't hold my attention for long enough! I played maybe 10 hours total over the past two months, and never more than two hours at a stretch.
There just wasn't anything especially engaging or different. Class-based? Check! Talent-tree like system to semi-customize your character abilities? Check! Quest-oriented with floating symbols over quest NPCs? Check! Static combat that mainly involves pushing buttons as they light up? Check! Crafting? Er... no... Guild Support? Er... no idea... PvP? Again.. no idea...
What did G&H have to offer that was new or different? Well, I guess their defining characteristic was the minion system. But really, they were little more than some fancy pets. The minion system was an interesting idea that should definitely be explored in future games (anyone remember being able to hire fighter NPCs in Ultima Online?). The game does do a good job of introducing you to the minions early on. I had a front-line fighter and a healer available. I never tried using the healer. I just took along the fighter, spent points on talents that gave us attack boosts and waded into the melee! I never really did figure out how to more precisely control your minions. She just kind of tagged along, always staying in strict formation out of combat, even if it meant that she ran over the edge of a cliff. Luckily, it seemed that such an event had little effect on her health or personality, and she quickly returned to my side once I moved away. Perhaps there was more to it at later levels...
The UI was just kind of strange in many ways as well. For example, all of the icons to open your spellbook, character screen, etc etc, were hidden to start. You had to click on a tiny sliver of color over your character portrait to show them. Very non-intuitive and it took me a while to figure it out. The option to hide them is great... choosing to hide them from a new user is not.
It also had that sort of drab graphics theme that Vanguard had. Can't we get some color here?! Is this because some people thought WoW graphics were too cartoony? At least they were interesting to look at. In addition, I experienced graphics stutter every few steps while running through a town. And there were no more than a handful of players around.
Here are a couple of other short reviews. Interestingly enough, they don't really have any more info than I do. I have to wonder if any external beta testers got very far in this game.
Link #1
Link #2
I've been in the beta for 2 months and to be honest, it didn't really capture my attention. I played for at most 10 hours, and only got to level 7 with a Gladiator character, so any information I have to share will be limited.
I was actually very excited when I got a beta acceptance email for Gods and Heroes. It was the first beta I had been in since starting this blog, and though I couldn't make posts about the game due to the NDA, I had plans to keep detailed notes about my perceptions of the game as I played, so I could post a nice writeup once the NDA was lifted. But alas, the game couldn't hold my attention for long enough! I played maybe 10 hours total over the past two months, and never more than two hours at a stretch.
There just wasn't anything especially engaging or different. Class-based? Check! Talent-tree like system to semi-customize your character abilities? Check! Quest-oriented with floating symbols over quest NPCs? Check! Static combat that mainly involves pushing buttons as they light up? Check! Crafting? Er... no... Guild Support? Er... no idea... PvP? Again.. no idea...
What did G&H have to offer that was new or different? Well, I guess their defining characteristic was the minion system. But really, they were little more than some fancy pets. The minion system was an interesting idea that should definitely be explored in future games (anyone remember being able to hire fighter NPCs in Ultima Online?). The game does do a good job of introducing you to the minions early on. I had a front-line fighter and a healer available. I never tried using the healer. I just took along the fighter, spent points on talents that gave us attack boosts and waded into the melee! I never really did figure out how to more precisely control your minions. She just kind of tagged along, always staying in strict formation out of combat, even if it meant that she ran over the edge of a cliff. Luckily, it seemed that such an event had little effect on her health or personality, and she quickly returned to my side once I moved away. Perhaps there was more to it at later levels...
The UI was just kind of strange in many ways as well. For example, all of the icons to open your spellbook, character screen, etc etc, were hidden to start. You had to click on a tiny sliver of color over your character portrait to show them. Very non-intuitive and it took me a while to figure it out. The option to hide them is great... choosing to hide them from a new user is not.
It also had that sort of drab graphics theme that Vanguard had. Can't we get some color here?! Is this because some people thought WoW graphics were too cartoony? At least they were interesting to look at. In addition, I experienced graphics stutter every few steps while running through a town. And there were no more than a handful of players around.
Here are a couple of other short reviews. Interestingly enough, they don't really have any more info than I do. I have to wonder if any external beta testers got very far in this game.
Link #1
Link #2
Friday, October 05, 2007
Primary Layers of an Online Virtual World
Raph, as usual, has been talking a lot about virtual worlds and what defines a virtual world. So that got me to thinking. I decided to attempt to break down and define what I consider to be the Primary Layers of Online Virtual Worlds. Every Online Virtual World will have at least one foot in each of the Primary Layers listed below.
The Three Primary Layers of an Online Virtual World are: Social, Environment, and Economy.
It can be argued that the Social layer is the most important. After all, that's why its online. But in addition to player-player interactions, this layer also includes such functionality as the chat system, available emotes, guild/player organization management and NPC-NPC interactions! What sort of tools do players have for in-game interactions? How does the game facilitate or hinder this? How does this affect out-of-game interactions? Is your website a social gathering spot for participants?
Environment covers the basic things you would think of. What is the world made of? What does it look like? Does the environment have a direct impact on the player? Can the player impact the environment? What are the visual elements of the environment? Also fitting into this category is the interface. How does the interface affect the players interactions with the Virtual World? Without a defining environment, you don't have much of a world. Environment is not just graphics. It includes ambiance, sound, NPC personalities, text descriptions, interactivity and more!
The Economic layer includes both in-world economics and out-of-world economics. Everything from RMT, to subscription model to in-game loot and trading options. How and what can players exchange in-world? Do these exchanges extend to real world money transactions? How are objects with economic value generated? Are they permanent? Are there ways for the world to keep inflation in check? How are players paying for access to the world? How does this business model effect the types of users you get? How do the types of users affect any in-game economy?
All three of the layers cover both in-game and out-of-game areas, and overlap with each other as well. I'll expand more on this in a future post as well as try to better flesh out the concept.
Note: Looking back on this post, I notice that I use the term 'game' quite a bit. This layer division is meant to cover non-game Virtual Worlds as well, but since a majority of my experience has been with the gaming aspect, it just ends up being an unconscious extension of my though patterns.
The Three Primary Layers of an Online Virtual World are: Social, Environment, and Economy.
It can be argued that the Social layer is the most important. After all, that's why its online. But in addition to player-player interactions, this layer also includes such functionality as the chat system, available emotes, guild/player organization management and NPC-NPC interactions! What sort of tools do players have for in-game interactions? How does the game facilitate or hinder this? How does this affect out-of-game interactions? Is your website a social gathering spot for participants?
Environment covers the basic things you would think of. What is the world made of? What does it look like? Does the environment have a direct impact on the player? Can the player impact the environment? What are the visual elements of the environment? Also fitting into this category is the interface. How does the interface affect the players interactions with the Virtual World? Without a defining environment, you don't have much of a world. Environment is not just graphics. It includes ambiance, sound, NPC personalities, text descriptions, interactivity and more!
The Economic layer includes both in-world economics and out-of-world economics. Everything from RMT, to subscription model to in-game loot and trading options. How and what can players exchange in-world? Do these exchanges extend to real world money transactions? How are objects with economic value generated? Are they permanent? Are there ways for the world to keep inflation in check? How are players paying for access to the world? How does this business model effect the types of users you get? How do the types of users affect any in-game economy?
All three of the layers cover both in-game and out-of-game areas, and overlap with each other as well. I'll expand more on this in a future post as well as try to better flesh out the concept.
Note: Looking back on this post, I notice that I use the term 'game' quite a bit. This layer division is meant to cover non-game Virtual Worlds as well, but since a majority of my experience has been with the gaming aspect, it just ends up being an unconscious extension of my though patterns.
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