So I'm apparently waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind the curve on playing this game/setting, but holy shit I'm having fun playing L5R.
Let me begin by giving a bit of info here. Legend of the Five Rings is a feudal Japan setting tabletop RPG. Your characters live in a land called Rokugon, and there are several main clans that comprise the Empire: Crab, Crane, Lion, Dragon, Mantis, Scorpion, Unicorn, Phoenix, and the Imperial Clan. Each clan has a different specialty for its warriors, magic users, and monks. One of the most delightful (IMO) aspects of the game is in character creation. Your Advantages and Disadvantages seem to be the most important part of creating your character. You only have 40 xp to use to buy/upgrade skills, katas, spells, advantages/disadvantages, and attributes. So the points refunded to you from taking disadvantages are very important. Not only that but the types of dis/advantages allow for some very interesting characters. My initial character was designed to be nothing more than a brawler. He is rude, contrary, obtuse. He has no social graces to balance that out and his Willpower is not great enough to stop his tongue from getting him in to trouble most times. Needless to say, what was initially a "cookie cutter" throw away character has turned instead in to a roleplaying savant. His outlook and attitude are so very different from my own (most of the time) that playing him is ridiculously fun.
It took me a little while to mentally adjust to playing L5R. For one, characters die with apparent ease (despite the fact that my Crab Clan Bushi has yet to die, and he's had several opportunities). Our first session, one of our party was playing a Phoenix Clan Shugenja who got killed by a water spirit. Additionally, I am not that well versed with Japanese culture; so that occasionally creates problems. However, I can't seem to stop thinking about where our adventure will take us as we explore Rokugon.
As an aside, there are several character generators out there for L5R. I know I've posted previously about character generators for other systems, but since L5R is currently in the process of updating to a new edition I don't think we'll encounter the problem we had with the 4e character generator I mentioned several posts/years ago. This is the website that links to the character generator I use. It's very easy to use, and fairly user friendly. And because I am "that guy" I have created perhaps 10 characters with it, for when my dude finally dies gloriously.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
Yet More on: Path of Exile
OK, so I'm planning on pretty much ctrl-c/ctrl-v parts of this post onto the forums for Grinding Gear Games for my likes/dislikes/suggestions for Path of Exile.
Things I Like:
Things I Like:
- Skill Gems: they enable your character to use spells/abilities. There is no class restriction (that I have yest seen) on Skill Gems, so your Marauder can use spells like Frost Nova, or Fireball as long as he meets the usage requirements. These are normally an attribute, or an item requirement. It would be very difficult to cast Hail of Arrows without a bow equipped. Also, the Skills/Spells in the Skill Gems will level with you as you run around killing things and gaining XP. The skills/spells themselves may have leveling restrictions though, so be mindful of how you use the Skill Tree when you level up.
- Support Gems: can be linked to Skill Gems on items that have linked sockets. You can tell because said sockets are tethered when you open your inventory and look at the sockets on the items. Also, Support Gems do not have to match the color of the Skill Gem they are enhancing, you only have to match socket colors.
- Socket Slots: All items in Path of Exile are socketed. Some may only have one socket, but it's there to be used by damn.
- Classes are balanced. Every class has its pros and cons, but they are all fairly equal in the damage dealt/damage taken category. That being said, the Skill Gems you elect to use can make a huge difference on your mob fighting survivability, let alone rare/elite/boss mobs.
- The Skill Tree: Holy crap! The skill tree very much reminds me of the skill tree from Final Fantasy X, if you are at all familiar with that game. Your main stat (or two main stats depending on what class you play) branch off into this amazingly detailed map of passive/active stat/skill buffs, special skills you get to unlock, and some fairly amazing "ultimate powers" (as I call them). Do not make the mistake of looking at the skill tree out in the wilderness...your character can get swarmed and die while you're busy plotting out what skills you want to increase.
- No Gold. None. Your basic currency in the game is "Scrolls of Wisdom". These are used to buy other things like Town Portal scrolls, or health/mana flasks, or basic weapons and armor. Other collectibles that you come across like Blacksmith's Whetstone, or Orb of Chaos can be used to purchase higher level items as your character increases in level.
- All the items used for currency can be collected whole, or as shards that will automatically combine into the full item when the collection threshold is reached. Super nice.
- The music/ambiance: they are phenomenal! Running around as my Witch over the weekend with my summoned zombies (that would occasionally rubber band from around a corner and then proceed to scare the hell out of me) in the various dungeons was fantastic!
Things I Am OK With:
- There are only five classes. I have no idea if this will change in the future, but for now I'm fine with it. Your current class selections are: Marauder - an Uruk Hai stand in from his body type; Shadow - a spy/saboteur/assassin; Templar - a militant priest; Duelist - does this really need and explanation?; and Witch.
- Pretty much anything else that doesn't get mentioned in the following section.
Things I Would Like To Change:
- When switching between purchasing and selling items at a vendor, you currently need to exit out of whichever market you are in with that vendor, and then enter the other. Granted this means you are only having to close the "Sell Items" window, and open the "Purchase Items" window without having to stop speaking with that NPC, but I would like it if there was a tab in whichever market you're in that would immediately flip you to the other without having to take those few extra steps. I know, I'm just being lazy.
- I would like it if each class had a male/female version. That is one of the few things that I feel Blizzard did right in Diablo 3.
- There are times (and I'm not sure if this is a sever lag issue) when I am attempting to kill an enemy, and either my dude won't hit him no matter where I am in relation to the target; or I will kill the target and loot drops half a screen away from where the corpse is.
- There is an issue I'm experiencing with barrels and chests, where the "interface zone" where my mouse highlights and enables me to open said barrel/chest is super small...especially in relation to the size of my cursor on the screen. Again, I'm not sure if this is due to server lag.
So there are a few things. Have you gotten around to downloading and playing yet? Get on it! If you're ever looking for a partner to run around with in game, please feel free to post a character name here in the comments section, and I'll find you in game.
-Bonzo out.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
...Heartbeat?
So, I'm still here.
It was a very, very rough 2012 for me and I hope that 2013 will have a much better outlook as we move forward.
Some quick things of note from this past year. We tried out a few different table-top systems, and we've enjoyed most of them. I've found some old online MMOs that are perhaps better now than they were previously. I just today discovered a Diablo 2 clone that is being produced by some fine folks down in New Zealand - and that is what I want to spend a little bit of time on right now.
Path of Exile is the Diablo 2 clone in question. It's currently in open beta testing, so if you enjoyed D2 and you want to have that same kind of fun without all of the Blizzard BS, go download the client and get going. I think the total amount of time it took to download, install, and update was about 20 minutes. It's not like you'd be downloading/installing/updating World of Tanks for Pete's sake. I've only been playing Path of Exile for a few hours and just completed Act 1, so I felt I could actually take a break and log out. I'm very impressed with this game. The UI is designed very well, with optimal user friendliness for the gamer in mind. Hotkey bindings are sensible, and easy to find/understand. The in game currency system COMPLETELY eliminates the problems that came about from Blizzard's complete lack of anything resembling intelligence concerning currency/auctioning items. This game does feel more like D2.5 or 2.8 rather than Diablo 2 or Diablo 3, however I really like the subtle changes the lads at Grinding Gear Games made to the Diablo style format. The classes are balanced, the game play is fun and intuitive, the music and ambiance are incredible. The skill tree is very much like what I've seen from Square Enix with Final Fantasy X, allowing you to customize your particular character build to your preferred play style. Again very, very impressive.
If you haven't yet gone to their website to look at the game, please do so. And watch the introductory video!
-Bonzo out.
It was a very, very rough 2012 for me and I hope that 2013 will have a much better outlook as we move forward.
Some quick things of note from this past year. We tried out a few different table-top systems, and we've enjoyed most of them. I've found some old online MMOs that are perhaps better now than they were previously. I just today discovered a Diablo 2 clone that is being produced by some fine folks down in New Zealand - and that is what I want to spend a little bit of time on right now.
Path of Exile is the Diablo 2 clone in question. It's currently in open beta testing, so if you enjoyed D2 and you want to have that same kind of fun without all of the Blizzard BS, go download the client and get going. I think the total amount of time it took to download, install, and update was about 20 minutes. It's not like you'd be downloading/installing/updating World of Tanks for Pete's sake.
If you haven't yet gone to their website to look at the game, please do so. And watch the introductory video!
-Bonzo out.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Star Trek Online: Supplemental
It's been about two weeks since I've returned to STO, and I wanted to go ahead and provide new links to some old information that is now very, very outdated for any new and/or returning players. I'll also make some recommendations for new and old players in order to make playing the game a tad easier.
First, there is the shiny and new STO ship chart in all it's high res, rendered glory. This chart is a huge step forward from the old wire-frame profile chart from about 2 years ago. By the by, happy 2nd Anniversary Star Trek Online! Also, for KDF players, here is the KDF version of the shiny and new ship chart. Something you might notice on the Federation chart is a rather large ship for Vice Admiral/Lieutenant General (level 50) called the Odyssey Star Cruiser. Everyone gets one as part of the 2nd Anniversary celebration. (Hell yeah!) You also might have noticed that a similar ship is conspicuously absent from the KDF chart. Don't worry, they guys at Cryptic don't hate the Klingon faction; they just didn't have the designs for the Bortas (Vengeance) Class Star Ship ready for the latest graphical chart. However I happen to have some images of the beast. Many Bothans died to bring us...wait, wrong universe. Here's the picture:
The picture isn't that great, however I can tell you from personal experience that while it turns like a wounded beached whale (just like the Odyssey) it's an amazing ship. Like I stated earlier both the Bortas and the Odyssey are level 50 ships, so by the time you can use it you'll have the devices and console items necessary to make those boats real fighting machines. And lets be honest; a free level 50 ship is hard to beat. Especially when you look at the cost of the other level 50 ships.
____________________________________________________________________
Second, I want to talk about a tool that I loved back in the day that some wonderful lads over at Star Trek Online Academy have revamped to keep it updated to make it useful for players. I am talking about the Skill Planner. I cannot stress enough that if you're planning on creating a new character, or you need to respec an old one you need to visit the Skill Planner to make leveling your character up as easy as possible. Now in the last two years, the folks at Cryptic have made changes to the skill tree; making it more streamlined and more user friendly...but the problem remains that if you aren't familiar with what abilities you're going to have access to at maximum level, you're apt to make mistakes on assigning points to the various skills you have to choose from. This is where the Skill Planner comes in..or at least where it should come in. You should spend some time familiarizing yourself with the three classes available to play and the basic roles they each perform. Tactical officers will focus primarily on dealing out massive quantities of damage, however Tactical officers cannot take massive amounts of damage. I often refer to them as "glass cannons". I don't play as a Tactical officer with either faction. I find that the inability to take hits from large groups of enemies is a huge drawback...because I like to solo! It's a personal choice. My brother, Fred, started playing when the game went f2p, and he runs a Tac officer. He enjoys it, but he likes it better when we're teamed up because I can take attention away from him. Engineering officers fill the "tanking" role that is familiar with most MMO players. This class is what I would recommend to all new players because when you solo, you have the highest chance of survivability. Finally there is the Science officer which focuses on buffs and debuffs (or you could call them expose attacks/abilities and exploit attacks/abilities). Sci officers are not nearly as robust as Engineers, but with their enhanced shield abilities and enhanced shield recharge rates they can take slightly more damage than Tac officers, but they still don't do as much damage as Tac officers.
To summarize, each class is superior in one of three areas: Damage, Defense, Expose/Exploit. Tactical officers are superior damage, moderate defense, weak expose/exploit. Engineers are superior defense, moderate expose/exploit, weak damage. Science officers are superior expose/exploit, moderate damage, weak defense. Yes, I said weak defense. And I'll tell you why. With the way shields behave vs hitpoints for your ship, shields don't really fall in to a defense category. Science officers get more access to abilities to buff/enhance their shields than any other officer, but other than those abilities shields are the same for all classes. Defense comes from the ships you pilot. And Science officer ships have the least crew and hitpoints. As soon as a Science officer's shields are down, the ships they are in tend to explode quickly, and beautifully.
Now that I've said all that, let me continue on with my point. My point is that after you decide what class you want to play, you ought to spend the time looking at all the abilities your class is granted, and what abilities your class will allow you to train your Bridge Officers with, and plug all that information in to the STO Academy Skill Planner. The important skills for your planned build will be marked with star in the upper right-hand corner of each skill, and those you'll most likely want to have at least 6 ranks in each skill in order to unlock trainable abilities. Each skill will also tell you what player/bridge officer abilities it affects (if any), and what power/damage/defense/shield bonuses it provides.
Unfortunately I don't feel that this is a game you can just jump in to blind. Star Trek has always been the "thinking-man's sci-fi" and as such, I feel it needs a more logical and objective approach than other MMOs where you just roll up a character that sounds neat and hit the ground running. Think of it like this: you're playing a character than is a graduate of the Starfleet Academy (or Klingon equivalent). In that time, your character would have taken coursework leading him/her down whichever career path was best suited for the character. The character would have the grounding in all those abilities that the player knows nothing about. Everyone knows what a "fireball spell" is and how it works; regardless of what MMO you're playing, if you can cast a fireball they're pretty much all the same. But who knows exactly what a Photonic Shockwave is and how it affects objects in space? I didn't before I started playing, and really I should have taken the time to figure all that our before I fudged up my characters back with the original release 2 years ago. There is nothing quite like the feeling of "d'oh!" when you realize you effed up your character 20 levels ago, and you haven't earned a respec for your character yet. So your either scrap the character and start over, or you resign yourself to buying a respec...because playing a flawed character just hurts.
Live long, and prosper.
-Bonzo out
First, there is the shiny and new STO ship chart in all it's high res, rendered glory. This chart is a huge step forward from the old wire-frame profile chart from about 2 years ago. By the by, happy 2nd Anniversary Star Trek Online! Also, for KDF players, here is the KDF version of the shiny and new ship chart. Something you might notice on the Federation chart is a rather large ship for Vice Admiral/Lieutenant General (level 50) called the Odyssey Star Cruiser. Everyone gets one as part of the 2nd Anniversary celebration. (Hell yeah!) You also might have noticed that a similar ship is conspicuously absent from the KDF chart. Don't worry, they guys at Cryptic don't hate the Klingon faction; they just didn't have the designs for the Bortas (Vengeance) Class Star Ship ready for the latest graphical chart. However I happen to have some images of the beast. Many Bothans died to bring us...wait, wrong universe. Here's the picture:
The picture isn't that great, however I can tell you from personal experience that while it turns like a wounded beached whale (just like the Odyssey) it's an amazing ship. Like I stated earlier both the Bortas and the Odyssey are level 50 ships, so by the time you can use it you'll have the devices and console items necessary to make those boats real fighting machines. And lets be honest; a free level 50 ship is hard to beat. Especially when you look at the cost of the other level 50 ships.
____________________________________________________________________
Second, I want to talk about a tool that I loved back in the day that some wonderful lads over at Star Trek Online Academy have revamped to keep it updated to make it useful for players. I am talking about the Skill Planner. I cannot stress enough that if you're planning on creating a new character, or you need to respec an old one you need to visit the Skill Planner to make leveling your character up as easy as possible. Now in the last two years, the folks at Cryptic have made changes to the skill tree; making it more streamlined and more user friendly...but the problem remains that if you aren't familiar with what abilities you're going to have access to at maximum level, you're apt to make mistakes on assigning points to the various skills you have to choose from. This is where the Skill Planner comes in..or at least where it should come in. You should spend some time familiarizing yourself with the three classes available to play and the basic roles they each perform. Tactical officers will focus primarily on dealing out massive quantities of damage, however Tactical officers cannot take massive amounts of damage. I often refer to them as "glass cannons". I don't play as a Tactical officer with either faction. I find that the inability to take hits from large groups of enemies is a huge drawback...because I like to solo! It's a personal choice. My brother, Fred, started playing when the game went f2p, and he runs a Tac officer. He enjoys it, but he likes it better when we're teamed up because I can take attention away from him. Engineering officers fill the "tanking" role that is familiar with most MMO players. This class is what I would recommend to all new players because when you solo, you have the highest chance of survivability. Finally there is the Science officer which focuses on buffs and debuffs (or you could call them expose attacks/abilities and exploit attacks/abilities). Sci officers are not nearly as robust as Engineers, but with their enhanced shield abilities and enhanced shield recharge rates they can take slightly more damage than Tac officers, but they still don't do as much damage as Tac officers.
To summarize, each class is superior in one of three areas: Damage, Defense, Expose/Exploit. Tactical officers are superior damage, moderate defense, weak expose/exploit. Engineers are superior defense, moderate expose/exploit, weak damage. Science officers are superior expose/exploit, moderate damage, weak defense. Yes, I said weak defense. And I'll tell you why. With the way shields behave vs hitpoints for your ship, shields don't really fall in to a defense category. Science officers get more access to abilities to buff/enhance their shields than any other officer, but other than those abilities shields are the same for all classes. Defense comes from the ships you pilot. And Science officer ships have the least crew and hitpoints. As soon as a Science officer's shields are down, the ships they are in tend to explode quickly, and beautifully.
Now that I've said all that, let me continue on with my point. My point is that after you decide what class you want to play, you ought to spend the time looking at all the abilities your class is granted, and what abilities your class will allow you to train your Bridge Officers with, and plug all that information in to the STO Academy Skill Planner. The important skills for your planned build will be marked with star in the upper right-hand corner of each skill, and those you'll most likely want to have at least 6 ranks in each skill in order to unlock trainable abilities. Each skill will also tell you what player/bridge officer abilities it affects (if any), and what power/damage/defense/shield bonuses it provides.
Unfortunately I don't feel that this is a game you can just jump in to blind. Star Trek has always been the "thinking-man's sci-fi" and as such, I feel it needs a more logical and objective approach than other MMOs where you just roll up a character that sounds neat and hit the ground running. Think of it like this: you're playing a character than is a graduate of the Starfleet Academy (or Klingon equivalent). In that time, your character would have taken coursework leading him/her down whichever career path was best suited for the character. The character would have the grounding in all those abilities that the player knows nothing about. Everyone knows what a "fireball spell" is and how it works; regardless of what MMO you're playing, if you can cast a fireball they're pretty much all the same. But who knows exactly what a Photonic Shockwave is and how it affects objects in space? I didn't before I started playing, and really I should have taken the time to figure all that our before I fudged up my characters back with the original release 2 years ago. There is nothing quite like the feeling of "d'oh!" when you realize you effed up your character 20 levels ago, and you haven't earned a respec for your character yet. So your either scrap the character and start over, or you resign yourself to buying a respec...because playing a flawed character just hurts.
Live long, and prosper.
-Bonzo out
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Hello 2012
I believe this is my official first post for 2012; so happy new year and all that jazz!
Kicking off the new year I want to address a trend in the MMO world that I'm becoming more a fan of every passing day. This trend is the "free-to-play MMO". Developers are aware that we're still in a down economy with little to no end in sight, and as such more and more f2p games are coming out all the time. I'm going to take some time to talk about a few that I keep coming back to, and one MMO that I used to play quite heavily that has just recently gone f2p.
As players have known for quite some time, Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) has been f2p. Turbine has a fantastic model for game developers to follow on how to make a free MMO work with balanced play and for-sale content. I've stated in previous posts that Turbine allows all players (free and subscribers) to earn the currency that you can spend in the DDO store so there end up being few differences between free and subscribing players. Which is nice.
World of Tanks started out, and remains f2p for the player base. And as previously stated, while I have enjoyed playing WoT quite a bit, Wargaming.net restrict some of the in-game currency to RMT (real money transfer) thereby limiting their player base on what the players have access to. As I've pointed out before this is essentially selling power. Despite that, I still play the game because it is fun. Well Wargaming.net have recently announced that World of Warplanes will soon be available for closed beta testing. Should their model for WoWP follow the model of WoT, WoWP will be in open beta not too long after the closed beta beings. Needless to say I am waiting for the beta signups to start. Wargaming.net have announced both the American and German Flight Trees, and have shown a few glimpses of the aircraft available; they have yet to announce what the third (or fourth) flight trees will be yet: Russian, Japanese, British, etc, and I am very excited to find out. There have been rumors that since both WoT and WoWP will share account information and the "world" that when clan wars begin any clan with a success in WoWP will have an airstrike available to them in WoT. I have no idea how feasible this is, but it is interesting. I also have no idea if Wargaming.net will continue to feature the three "classes" of craft. In WoT you have tanks, tank destroyers, and Self-Propelled Guns aka artillery. I can see having fighters and bombers filling the tank and SPG roles, but I really can't think of any aircraft that would fill the tank destroyer role. Additionally, if the Brits don't have a substantial amount of warbirds in WoWP I may have to go with the American tree for two reasons: the F-4U Corsair and the P-51 Mustang. Yummy. As a final notation about the games Wargaming.net have, they already have a website set up for World of Battleships. I could easily see how the three "classes" of craft would fit in here. Battleships would be tanks, aircraft carriers would be SPGs, and submarines would be the tank destroyers. There is almost no information available on WoB yet, but I'm sure you can tell I'll be on the lookout.
A new (to me) MMO that I've encountered is this fantastically amazing game called Vindictus. Nexon have done a fantastic job with the graphics and the physics in this game. The game currently features four playable "classes" that are gender locked (currently 2 male, 2 female) but despite that they are all pretty fun to play. The storyline in the game is very well done, and the NPC interaction has been done in my opinion, brilliantly. Only the players, and monsters in dungeons are fully rendered. NPCs are simply 2D pictures that display different facial expression depending on the tone of the dialog. Picking up new quests and turning in quests to/from NPCs is incredibly simple compared to other MMOs in a similar genre. Take the time to play this, it is fantastic. I'm on the West Server.
Finally this morning, I want to mention that Star Trek Online (STO) has finally gone f2p, with the official announcement this week. Perfect World have a series of f2p games that I have tried out about a year ago and never bothered to post about because while they were graphically very pretty, after leaving the starter area and getting out into the rest of the game worlds, it felt like I was being forced into purchasing content in order to complete quests. However very little has changed in STO since I last played. Cryptic had made several updates to the game to make it more enjoyable and they increased the level cap (which is nice). A note for anyone interested in playing STO now: after downloading the game and installing the game, it will auto prompt you for a CD key. Do not fear! Close down the installer at that point since it's complete and go create a log in through Perfect World. You can get the link from the website for Star Trek Online. If you happen to already have a Cryptic sign in, you can use your old username/password and log in to your old characters. With a new account...well you know what to do. Since so many changes have taken place during the time that I was away, I have elected to restart with some new characters, and I have to say that the game is just as, if not more, fun than when I played the first time.
I'll leave it at this point for now, but I want to encourage you to look at f2p MMOs, and to not just discount them because they are free to play. Game developers are people too, they live in the same economy as the rest of us, and for the most part understand that gaming can be expensive - they're looking out for us too.
-Bonzo out
Kicking off the new year I want to address a trend in the MMO world that I'm becoming more a fan of every passing day. This trend is the "free-to-play MMO". Developers are aware that we're still in a down economy with little to no end in sight, and as such more and more f2p games are coming out all the time. I'm going to take some time to talk about a few that I keep coming back to, and one MMO that I used to play quite heavily that has just recently gone f2p.
As players have known for quite some time, Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) has been f2p. Turbine has a fantastic model for game developers to follow on how to make a free MMO work with balanced play and for-sale content. I've stated in previous posts that Turbine allows all players (free and subscribers) to earn the currency that you can spend in the DDO store so there end up being few differences between free and subscribing players. Which is nice.
World of Tanks started out, and remains f2p for the player base. And as previously stated, while I have enjoyed playing WoT quite a bit, Wargaming.net restrict some of the in-game currency to RMT (real money transfer) thereby limiting their player base on what the players have access to. As I've pointed out before this is essentially selling power. Despite that, I still play the game because it is fun. Well Wargaming.net have recently announced that World of Warplanes will soon be available for closed beta testing. Should their model for WoWP follow the model of WoT, WoWP will be in open beta not too long after the closed beta beings. Needless to say I am waiting for the beta signups to start. Wargaming.net have announced both the American and German Flight Trees, and have shown a few glimpses of the aircraft available; they have yet to announce what the third (or fourth) flight trees will be yet: Russian, Japanese, British, etc, and I am very excited to find out. There have been rumors that since both WoT and WoWP will share account information and the "world" that when clan wars begin any clan with a success in WoWP will have an airstrike available to them in WoT. I have no idea how feasible this is, but it is interesting. I also have no idea if Wargaming.net will continue to feature the three "classes" of craft. In WoT you have tanks, tank destroyers, and Self-Propelled Guns aka artillery. I can see having fighters and bombers filling the tank and SPG roles, but I really can't think of any aircraft that would fill the tank destroyer role. Additionally, if the Brits don't have a substantial amount of warbirds in WoWP I may have to go with the American tree for two reasons: the F-4U Corsair and the P-51 Mustang. Yummy. As a final notation about the games Wargaming.net have, they already have a website set up for World of Battleships. I could easily see how the three "classes" of craft would fit in here. Battleships would be tanks, aircraft carriers would be SPGs, and submarines would be the tank destroyers. There is almost no information available on WoB yet, but I'm sure you can tell I'll be on the lookout.
A new (to me) MMO that I've encountered is this fantastically amazing game called Vindictus. Nexon have done a fantastic job with the graphics and the physics in this game. The game currently features four playable "classes" that are gender locked (currently 2 male, 2 female) but despite that they are all pretty fun to play. The storyline in the game is very well done, and the NPC interaction has been done in my opinion, brilliantly. Only the players, and monsters in dungeons are fully rendered. NPCs are simply 2D pictures that display different facial expression depending on the tone of the dialog. Picking up new quests and turning in quests to/from NPCs is incredibly simple compared to other MMOs in a similar genre. Take the time to play this, it is fantastic. I'm on the West Server.
Finally this morning, I want to mention that Star Trek Online (STO) has finally gone f2p, with the official announcement this week. Perfect World have a series of f2p games that I have tried out about a year ago and never bothered to post about because while they were graphically very pretty, after leaving the starter area and getting out into the rest of the game worlds, it felt like I was being forced into purchasing content in order to complete quests. However very little has changed in STO since I last played. Cryptic had made several updates to the game to make it more enjoyable and they increased the level cap (which is nice). A note for anyone interested in playing STO now: after downloading the game and installing the game, it will auto prompt you for a CD key. Do not fear! Close down the installer at that point since it's complete and go create a log in through Perfect World. You can get the link from the website for Star Trek Online. If you happen to already have a Cryptic sign in, you can use your old username/password and log in to your old characters. With a new account...well you know what to do. Since so many changes have taken place during the time that I was away, I have elected to restart with some new characters, and I have to say that the game is just as, if not more, fun than when I played the first time.
I'll leave it at this point for now, but I want to encourage you to look at f2p MMOs, and to not just discount them because they are free to play. Game developers are people too, they live in the same economy as the rest of us, and for the most part understand that gaming can be expensive - they're looking out for us too.
-Bonzo out
Thursday, December 15, 2011
MechWarrior Online
Oh. My. Stars.
It was announced back in November that the MechWarrior reboot game would finally, finally, finally be coming out in the near future (summer '12 is the projection).
Back in 2009, videos were leaked and placed on YouTube faster than you can blink for a reboot MechWarrior game. And it looked amazing. Unfortunately one of the 'Mechs featured in the video became a point of contention for Harmony Gold the folks that brought Robotech to the USA back in the 80s. They filed a lawsuit against the developers of MechWarrior Online and the game went into limbo. However, at some point later the developers for MWO decided to circumvent the main argument that Harmony Gold brought about their 'proprietary 'Mech designs' and made the game free to play much the same way that World of Tanks is free to play. At this point, the MechWarrior Online website is live and registering future players' call signs/accounts. You're damn right I got mine set up.
On the blogs, the developers have made references alluding to a projected open beta for the game in the coming months as I mentioned above they appear to be looking for a summer '12 launch date. I cannot overstate my joy at these circumstances. I've been a long time BattleTech/MechWarrior fan. I cut my teeth on MechWarrior 2 and the old BattleTech table top game. When Microsoft bought the franchise and launched MW3, I was both pleased and excited with the graphical adjustments and the storyline/plot. MW4 was alright, but seemed to be less a step forward and more a step to the side for the franchise. I also used to go and play socially at Virtual World back in the day when they had several national locations; and later when various lan gaming locations purchased the piloting pods from Virtual World and ran the upgraded BattleTech:Firestorm. Not that I'm trying to say that my BattleTech/MechWarrior cred makes me a better person, but I am trying to lay the groundwork to help you understand why I'm so excited about the pending MMO. And it's free to play!
My youngest brother and I share a lot in common regarding MMOs, and we've played almost all the same ones. We also share a lot of the same background and enjoyment in BattleTech/MW. And to be fair, he was the one who informed me about MWO. So we spent most of today discussing some of the possibilities of the game. For interested parties the game is set several months before the Clans invade the Inner Sphere and set off years of intense conflict. As such, all of the 'Mechs players will have access to will be Inner Sphere. I'm for this for several reasons that I'll list in later posts as I confirm more and better information concerning the game. It also appears that all 'Mechs will be accessible to all players; there will not be any 'exclusive' 'Mechs - and in my opinion this goes hand in hand with keeping any potential lawsuits off the developers' backs in keeping the game free to play. Unlike WoT however there will most likely be any tier system for ratings of 'Mechs; they'll most likely keep with the standard rating for 'Mechs: weight class. At this point, only four 'Mechs have been confirmed for the game: the Warhammer, the Jenner, the Atlas, and the Dragon. Personally I'm hoping that the Zeus will be included in the game, and I also hope for a pretty good amount of personalization as far as weapon mounting/configuration goes. That was one of the things that kept MW4 so fun; near endless customization. In fact, if MWO does allow for (near)complete weapon configuration then I'll be able to implement the same Zeus variant I made in MW4 that went undefeated. No I will not tell you what was on it. You want to know? I'll show you on the battlefield...hopefully...
In addition, it appears that you'll have a pretty good degree of paint/camouflage/skin customization for your 'Mech. This will be excellent if it makes it to full launch as it will make one of the aspects of gameplay fantastic. As far as it has been discussed players will have three options of play open to them - Lone Wolf, Mercenary, and House Guard. We still don't have a lot of information about these, but speculation and conjecture combined with logic would lead me to believe that if you aren't part of a 'guild'/Mercenary company your default mode of play will be Lone Wolf. I would assume that this will make it easier for Mercs to pick out the players that are without a Company. I would also make an assumption that any House Guard that a player could sign up with would essentially be an NPC operated guild. There has also been speculation/discussion that some worlds will only be accessible by certain groups - house guards fight on core worlds while mercs fight on outer rim/contested worlds.
As I said earlier, I'll keep updating with more and better information as I get it. Until then I'll leave you with this:
PS, if you like that Zeus image, you can find more MW goodies here: http://www.redbubble.com/shop/mechwarrior?page=1
It was announced back in November that the MechWarrior reboot game would finally, finally, finally be coming out in the near future (summer '12 is the projection).
Back in 2009, videos were leaked and placed on YouTube faster than you can blink for a reboot MechWarrior game. And it looked amazing. Unfortunately one of the 'Mechs featured in the video became a point of contention for Harmony Gold the folks that brought Robotech to the USA back in the 80s. They filed a lawsuit against the developers of MechWarrior Online and the game went into limbo. However, at some point later the developers for MWO decided to circumvent the main argument that Harmony Gold brought about their 'proprietary 'Mech designs' and made the game free to play much the same way that World of Tanks is free to play. At this point, the MechWarrior Online website is live and registering future players' call signs/accounts. You're damn right I got mine set up.
On the blogs, the developers have made references alluding to a projected open beta for the game in the coming months as I mentioned above they appear to be looking for a summer '12 launch date. I cannot overstate my joy at these circumstances. I've been a long time BattleTech/MechWarrior fan. I cut my teeth on MechWarrior 2 and the old BattleTech table top game. When Microsoft bought the franchise and launched MW3, I was both pleased and excited with the graphical adjustments and the storyline/plot. MW4 was alright, but seemed to be less a step forward and more a step to the side for the franchise. I also used to go and play socially at Virtual World back in the day when they had several national locations; and later when various lan gaming locations purchased the piloting pods from Virtual World and ran the upgraded BattleTech:Firestorm. Not that I'm trying to say that my BattleTech/MechWarrior cred makes me a better person, but I am trying to lay the groundwork to help you understand why I'm so excited about the pending MMO. And it's free to play!
My youngest brother and I share a lot in common regarding MMOs, and we've played almost all the same ones. We also share a lot of the same background and enjoyment in BattleTech/MW. And to be fair, he was the one who informed me about MWO. So we spent most of today discussing some of the possibilities of the game. For interested parties the game is set several months before the Clans invade the Inner Sphere and set off years of intense conflict. As such, all of the 'Mechs players will have access to will be Inner Sphere. I'm for this for several reasons that I'll list in later posts as I confirm more and better information concerning the game. It also appears that all 'Mechs will be accessible to all players; there will not be any 'exclusive' 'Mechs - and in my opinion this goes hand in hand with keeping any potential lawsuits off the developers' backs in keeping the game free to play. Unlike WoT however there will most likely be any tier system for ratings of 'Mechs; they'll most likely keep with the standard rating for 'Mechs: weight class. At this point, only four 'Mechs have been confirmed for the game: the Warhammer, the Jenner, the Atlas, and the Dragon. Personally I'm hoping that the Zeus will be included in the game, and I also hope for a pretty good amount of personalization as far as weapon mounting/configuration goes. That was one of the things that kept MW4 so fun; near endless customization. In fact, if MWO does allow for (near)complete weapon configuration then I'll be able to implement the same Zeus variant I made in MW4 that went undefeated. No I will not tell you what was on it. You want to know? I'll show you on the battlefield...hopefully...
In addition, it appears that you'll have a pretty good degree of paint/camouflage/skin customization for your 'Mech. This will be excellent if it makes it to full launch as it will make one of the aspects of gameplay fantastic. As far as it has been discussed players will have three options of play open to them - Lone Wolf, Mercenary, and House Guard. We still don't have a lot of information about these, but speculation and conjecture combined with logic would lead me to believe that if you aren't part of a 'guild'/Mercenary company your default mode of play will be Lone Wolf. I would assume that this will make it easier for Mercs to pick out the players that are without a Company. I would also make an assumption that any House Guard that a player could sign up with would essentially be an NPC operated guild. There has also been speculation/discussion that some worlds will only be accessible by certain groups - house guards fight on core worlds while mercs fight on outer rim/contested worlds.
As I said earlier, I'll keep updating with more and better information as I get it. Until then I'll leave you with this:
PS, if you like that Zeus image, you can find more MW goodies here: http://www.redbubble.com/shop/mechwarrior?page=1
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Dungeons & Dragons Online
So I have taken a hiatus from World of Tanks due to the many issues I've brought up over my last few blog entries, and as one of my friends and a fellow GM has been taunting me with the possibility of playing a Pathfinder game at some point after the new year. And so I started pouring over the core rulebook and thinking about what kind of character I'd like to play. Suffice to say I've spent many hours using the demo version of the Hero Labs Character Creator. I love this tool. Great utilities for character creation, very straight forward with little in the way of issues that required me to look for a solution. Translation: it's pretty much idiot proof.
Well all this looking at 3.x edition DnD left me feeling...really jazzed to play. As it's the Holiday Season, it's going to be hard to get any game group together for a game. So I resorted to the old MMOs. No, I didn't look at World of Warcraft again. I did take a look at Dungeons & Dragons Online once again. A long time ago, I started playing this game back in the beta. It wasn't that great, however I stuck with it for about three years of subscription play. And then I grew kind of bored with it. Now it's several years later, and I made the decision to re-create an account. I no longer have the old one, I gave it to a friend so he could play along with his kid. If you haven't noticed, DDO is free to play just like Turbine's other title Lord of the Rings Online. And just like LotRO, you are able to earn Turbine points through questing. So, again you don't have to spend your hard earned cash on the TP; you'll just be gaming for a good long while to build up your TP reserves so you can create other race/class combos the free to play players don't normally have access to.
I like the new look and layout of the user interface, the character creation menus, and the introductory quests. I like how they have refined the lay out of Stormreach (the main city) and how they have restricted access to various locations based on your character level. Since I've only recently started playing again, I haven't yet encountered any quest/dungeon I can't access due to the face that I'm a free player, or because I haven't spent the TP to purchase access to the dungeon/quest in question. We'll see whenever that happens one way or another. Also, I mentioned earlier that it is Holiday time. I'll try to keep all you loyal fans updated as I'm able, but my girlfriend and I are moving at the end of the month, so I make no promises. If I don't get back to you in time: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Blessed Yule, E'Yaaah E'Yeeeeh, Vote for Zoidberg, and good night.
Bonzo out.
Well all this looking at 3.x edition DnD left me feeling...really jazzed to play. As it's the Holiday Season, it's going to be hard to get any game group together for a game. So I resorted to the old MMOs. No, I didn't look at World of Warcraft again. I did take a look at Dungeons & Dragons Online once again. A long time ago, I started playing this game back in the beta. It wasn't that great, however I stuck with it for about three years of subscription play. And then I grew kind of bored with it. Now it's several years later, and I made the decision to re-create an account. I no longer have the old one, I gave it to a friend so he could play along with his kid. If you haven't noticed, DDO is free to play just like Turbine's other title Lord of the Rings Online. And just like LotRO, you are able to earn Turbine points through questing. So, again you don't have to spend your hard earned cash on the TP; you'll just be gaming for a good long while to build up your TP reserves so you can create other race/class combos the free to play players don't normally have access to.
I like the new look and layout of the user interface, the character creation menus, and the introductory quests. I like how they have refined the lay out of Stormreach (the main city) and how they have restricted access to various locations based on your character level. Since I've only recently started playing again, I haven't yet encountered any quest/dungeon I can't access due to the face that I'm a free player, or because I haven't spent the TP to purchase access to the dungeon/quest in question. We'll see whenever that happens one way or another. Also, I mentioned earlier that it is Holiday time. I'll try to keep all you loyal fans updated as I'm able, but my girlfriend and I are moving at the end of the month, so I make no promises. If I don't get back to you in time: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Blessed Yule, E'Yaaah E'Yeeeeh, Vote for Zoidberg, and good night.
Bonzo out.
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