Warhammer Online: After almost a year, does Mythic finally get it?

Posted on August 18, 2009 by SynCaine

I’ll fully admit I might be too close to this to see it clearly, but with that said, I’ve noticed a pattern in Mythic’s approach to patching Warhammer Online, one that might be applicable to other MMOs as well.

The basic of this observation is this: At release, dev work was focused on expanding what WAR already did, seeking to attract more players overall. After 3-6 months, the dev focus changed from getting more players overall to bringing players back, especially those possibly interested in what WAR is offering rather than the general 1 month tourists. After 6+ months, dev focus again shifts from trying to get those not playing to keeping those currently subscribed.

Again, maybe it’s just me reading too much into patch notes or dev updates, and perhaps it’s just coincidence based on what has been patched so far and what is coming in the near future, but hear me out.

Consider the history of development with WAR. Shortly after release, Mythic adds in two previously cut classes, which while nice did little to address the issue at the time (chain queuing scenarios). Only after being burned for this from numerous negative reports (and no doubt exit polls by those who cancelled), Mythic slowly addresses the issue piece by piece, too slow to really change opinions (how many people still TODAY say WAR is nothing but a scenario grind?). Two more cut classes added and some live events later, subscription numbers are dropping while Mythic is still 50/50 focused on improving PvE and RvR. The major issue with RvR now, keep swapping, is again slowly addressed, and again only after numerous sources raise the issue. The PvE updates are made with little fanfare, as at no point was the PvE in WAR important to those who actually came for the games focus, RvR.

Mythic’s big gun, LotD, is now in full hype mode, with promises to bring back what Darkness Falls offered in DAoC. Of course the lack of a third side is nicely ignored, but the hype is thick enough to make many overlook this and still hope. LotD goes live, most players quickly figure out it failed in a number of ways (not the least of which is to fix ANYTHING wrong with the game before it), and we continue to march towards 200k or so subs. Players are left wondering how a game with such a solid core of mechanics could be so futile in it’s end game, especially coming from a company with years of experience working on DAoC.

Which brings us to the present, where the focus has (IMO) shifted from ‘add more stuff’ to ‘fix the crap’, with the crap being Tier 4 and the end game. If WAR had 750k subs right now, the hype train would no doubt be full steam ahead on adding the other two capital cities (remember those?), expanding the PvE dungeons available, and a bigger focus on ToK fluff and live events that give players stuff to do, rather than focus them on RvR. (So maybe for fans of RvR, WAR hitting 200k subs or whatever is a good thing…? Ok maybe not)

Assuming all of the above is correct, and not just coincidence, the real question then becomes: Is this a good thing? Obviously WAR being at 200-300k subs rather than 750k+ is not a good thing if you work at Mythic or own EA stock, but for those still playing WAR today, and for those who might return looking for good RvR, is this shift in dev attention a good move or just another attempt to put sprinkles on crap?

For me, it’s a great shift. I never cared too much for WAR’s PvE. I mean the PQs are fun and a good addition to the MMO formula, the dungeons are good enough, and honestly the questing is exactly what WoW-clone questing is, which is to say meh kill X, collect Y stuff we have been doing since before WoW became a pop icon. It’s not horrible, but not the reason I spend $15 a month or however many hours a week with a game. The reason I keep my WAR sub active is for the RvR, and for the last few months it’s not been because of Tier 4 RvR. WAR for me right now is a blast in tier 1 and 2 (my highest alt is about to hit T3, and it seems to follow T2 rather than T4 in terms of interest), and it’s the first game where I’ve actually ENJOYED playing multiple alts. But playing alts and the lower tiers will only last for so long, and eventually I would either move more of my focus back to T4, or quit if T4 was still broken. Now that Mythic seems to be 100% focused on T4 and the end game, rather than trying to create content for the sake of a Massively preview article (love you Massively), they might not draw as much attention for outsiders scanning patch notes, but you can bet all 200-300k players still playing are DYING to get a working end game.

Plus assuming Mythic DOES fix WAR’s end game (I have enough faith in them that they will), they will retain a higher percentage of their current players, and eventually positive word-of-mouth will grow their player base naturally. We are seeing it happen slowly with AoC (something I will give Funcom a world of credit for btw, especially considering how hard I panned that game at release), and of course we have seen it for the last five years with EVE’s unrivaled growth. And honestly, it’s not exactly a bad way to do things. Sure it would be nice to get 5m+ subs and keep them, but as only one pop icon has managed to accomplish this so far, and multiple titles have turned profits by keeping a loyal 200k-ish base (UO, EQ, AC, DAoC, LotRO) for multiple years, it’s not nearly as doom-and-gloom for WAR as some make it out to be. (Not to mention things would be a lot easier if a certain ex-employee had not run is mouth about opening more servers and other barometers for success in a market that had exactly ONE title match his parameters. Hard to imagine why that guy is gone…)

Posted in Age of Conan, Dark Age of Camelot, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Patch Notes, RvR, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 16 Comments

Champions Online: My review (EG-style)

Posted on August 17, 2009 by SynCaine

If Champions Online survives longer than HellGate: London, it will be a miracle. I think the idea behind CO is to take CoH, make it suck, and try to get people to pay $200 up front for it before they know what they are buying.

For those who already got duped, do you have the option for a refund? I would look into that…

Posted in beta, Random, Rant | 36 Comments

WoW: The cows not coming in from pasture, sorry

Posted on August 17, 2009 by SynCaine

Ah WoW expansion rumors, is there anything more fun than to watch people nerdrage over clearly faked leaks, both from those praying it happens and those in the “slap in the face” community? The idiot pool gets quite large when you have 5 million players though, statistically speaking.

The basics of the leak are well grounded in Blizzard history. I mean if true, this expansion would be a copy/paste job of 2004 WoW, and coming from the copy/paste masters, it seems reasonable. The idea breaks down a little when you think about just how much work this would take, and since WoW has been out to pasture for a while now, it’s rather unlikely the cash cow is going to get brought back inside for a total makeover. Plus why take the risk of the C-team devs screwing up what currently works and shorten the lifespan of WoW, especially when the Next MMO is already under development? This is not a game that needs to reinvent itself, but one that just needs to add a daily or two every 6 months (plus 100 new mounts, apparently…), and reset the grinds every two years.

Not as much fun to fake those notes thought, just far more likely (unless some new MMO has a must-have feature, at which point WoW fans can look forward to that being ‘borrowed’. Mythic should be really pissed PQs are not in WoW yet, unless it’s due to technical reasons. Nothing say “MMO design slap in the face” like Blizzard not stealing your best ideas.)

Posted in Patch Notes, World of Warcraft | 31 Comments

The story of going red in DarkFall

Posted on August 14, 2009 by SynCaine

Last night, after a little bit of crafting, I grabbed by PvE bag from the bank and headed towards my favorite dungeon in DarkFall. Not only are the mobs inside soloable and drop decent loot, but I’ve never seen anyone else inside. That is, until last night.

The first clue that someone was around was the fact that the mobs just outside the dungeon had already spawned. They only spawn when someone enters the area, and in all previous trips that was me. Usually by the time I was off my mount and despawning it, the mobs would spawn and run at me, and I would enter the dungeon before they even got close. As they are tough mobs (much tougher than the ones inside, oddly enough), that was always a plus. This time they were already up, and ran at me as I dismounted. After taking a few hard hits, I was able to get the mount in my bag and enter the dungeon portal, but this already set me on high alert (not to mention I was entering the dungeon at below 100% HP).

Once inside, I heard the familiar sounds of combat, and proceeded to slowly creep towards them. Peaking around a corner, I saw two unguilded human players fighting it out in the first room with the local inhabitants. I noticed one was not wearing much armor and using a staff, while the other was in a mix of chain and banded and swinging a one-handed sword. I figured they must be grouped, and this being DarkFall, you can’t trust anyone. I had a few choices: leave and risk nothing, ask to join them and share the dungeon, or wait for a good chance and jump them.

A little more background is needed here. For one, I was wearing basically my best stuff, save for a top set of PvP gear, and so just assuming these guys would not kill me when I got low on HP was risky. Second, both of the humans where ‘blue’, meaning they had positive alignment, which while this does not guarantee they don’t kill other racially-aligned players, they at least don’t do it often. Finally, the mobs in this dungeon have a chance to drop a veilron key, which is worth 2000 gold and three magic items. To put this into perspective, on a normal trip into this dungeon I earn about 300-500 gold plus a few bits of armor and casting reagents in an hour or so, so one key is HUGE if it drops.

So, back to my little dilemma. As I’m watching, I notice the guy in chain/banded is getting hit hard by the mobs, and not expertly fighting back. He is a noob, or just someone with fairly low player skill, so I know I can at least take him. The other guy is using a rank 0 staff and little armor, so unless he is hiding better stuff in his bags, I’ll most likely be able to take him as well. Just one problem, if I attack and kill both of them, I’ll lose more than 10 alignment and go red, meaning I won’t be able to return to the NPC city I’m bound at, not to mention be cut off from NPC merchants and the bank. As I’m currently unguilded, that’s not an ideal situation to be in, especially over a single dungeon trip.

But this is DarkFall, and for whatever reason, when I see a player with gear at low HP, especially one who is farming a dungeon and must have SOMETHNG on him, I just can’t resist. Out I charge, rank 40 greatsword out, and start cutting the guy up. As expected, I get the carebear stare reaction, and he turns to run (in a tunnel that is a dead-end no less), falling to the ground shortly. I’m now gray, meaning the other guy is free to attack me without alignment risk, but instead he turns to run in a different direction. Guess they are not buddies after all. I loot the first player, picking up a nice collection of banded, scale, reagents, weapons, as well as a good amount of gold.

After clearing the rest of the room, I see that the second player is still around, and is back to shooting mana missiles at the mobs in the next room. At this point it’s rather obvious he either does not have much on him, or he is just stupid and not afraid to die. As I don’t feel like sharing the dungeon, I attack him and hope to chase him off, but I know I can’t actually kill him without going red. Drop him to 20% HP, yet he still sticks around and is now weakly hitting me with mana missiles. Ugh. I parry and dodge for the two minutes it takes me to get back to blue status, and once this happens he stops attacking and goes back to shooting mana missiles at the mobs. Fine, guess we will share. I invite him to a group, just to prevent going gray accidentally, and we spend a bit of time killing mobs together. We don’t really talk, and our looting rules seem somewhat random. Sometimes he dives for a tombstone and grabs the gold and anything of value, other times he seems perfectly content to let me loot everything.

Now this entire time, the thought of a veilron key dropping is on my mind, and the last thing I want is for one to drop and this random guy to grab one off a mob I kill. This feeling is borderline paranoia, and grows with each tombstone he gets to before me. Mind you it was late at this point, and perhaps I was not thinking too clearly…. After one mob, we both open the tombstone at about the same time, and I ‘think’ I see a key right before it disappears. Bastard. He moves toward the veilron chest in the dungeon, stops, and then goes back to the normal routine of mana missiles and randomness. Is he trying to pass off opening the chest, only to duck out during the next spawn? Now being grouped, I was under the impression I could kill him without an alignment hit, and since in my mind he was now sitting on 2000+ gold, it was time for him to die. As he was not wearing much armor, he dies rather quickly, and since we are grouped, I gank him. I open the tombstone, and of course, no 2000 gold or veilron key, just some random items and a bit of gold. Fail. I look up at my HP/Stam/Mana/Alignment box, and sure enough, I’m at -10 alignment now. Double fail.

Now I’m in another situation, as I’m wearing my top stuff, I’m holding two other players loot plus a bunch of mob stuff, close to 700 gold, and I can’t recall back to town to bank it. This… might be an issue, and all because in my mind I saw a little gray/black key icon. I have a possible solution to my problem, but I’ll have to see if it pans out. Either way, a somewhat interesting and ultimately not all that positive night in DarkFall. And I’m just trying to carebear!

Posted in Darkfall Online, PvP | 16 Comments

DarkFall? More like GRINDfall!1!!one

Posted on August 13, 2009 by SynCaine

No, this post is not about the skill grind in DarkFall (that was yesterday), but rather the final step in the Wisdom title quest chain. I had previously mentioned how I screwed up step two, thinking I just had to turn in 100 ingots, 200 wood, 200 cooked food. What I really had to do was have the quest in my log, and then CRAFT the 100 ingots, 200 wood, 200 cooked food. The final surprise came last night, when I went to turn the quest in and was informed my bags were empty. It turns out that not only do you have to craft those items; you also have to turn them in.

Now as bad as turning in all those mats was, step three requires you to craft a whole bunch of stuff (50 chain armor pieces, 50 rapiers, 2000 arrows), which of course would have been a lot easier had I not just lost 100 ingots and 200 wood. Back to mining/chopping, and it’s going to take more than 100 ingots to craft up all that stuff.

The funny thing is, I don’t mind, at all. I’m playing the role of server carebear anyway, PvE’ing and crafting more than PvP’ing, and when I do finally complete step three of the Wisdom chain, my mining and lumbering skills will both be above 75, meaning I can pick up their related mastery skills. Not only that, but crafting all those items will raise my weaponsmith, armorsmith, and bowyer skills a good bit, not to mention my smelting and woodcutting skill for turning ore to ingots and wood to timber. On top of all that, all those skills increase your strength, vitality, and wisdom. At 40 wisdom you can buy the Trueforge skills, which increase the durability of the items you craft (very helpful), and I’m guessing I’ll be very close to that 40 wisdom mark at the end of all this as well.

Each step of the quest chain also gives you some rewards, the two main ones being a large sum of gold (2000, 2500, 3000), and of course the title that boosts wisdom (+2, +4, +6). In addition, each step gives you some items, the first giving 5 of each crafting tool, the second some rank 40 weapons and plate greaves, and the 3rd more weapons and a plate helm. Not “zomg amazing” items, but certainly better than nothing.

Between my usually PvE trips, the occasional PvP encounters, and slowly working my way towards the completion of this title quest (there is a title chain for each stat), I’ve got plenty to keep my busy in DarkFall.

Posted in crafting, Darkfall Online | 16 Comments

Repeating the same mistake: Why EVE’s skill system is the way to go

Posted on August 12, 2009 by SynCaine

If you have a skill based (as opposed to XP/level based) character development system, is there any reason NOT to use EVE’s real-time progression? How many of DarkFall’s “it’s a huge grind” problems would be resolved if you gained skills in real-time like in EVE, rather than through playing/macroing them up? Aventurine made some good changes by not allowing players to gain skill by firing magic or arrows into thin air, and by not allowing players to skill up using the unbreakable starter weapons, but if DF had launched with EVE’s skill system, those issues would not have been present to begin with.

One of the more common misconceptions about EVE is that new players will always be weaker than veterans, since they have no way to accelerate skill point gain and ‘catch up’. The other misconception is that you need to train 6-8 weeks before you can actually play, as people believe you need that amount of skill points to be effective. As players who stick around longer than the 14 day trial know, both of these assumptions are incorrect. Combat efficiency can only be improved so much before you cap out, and the final and longest to train skills don’t give you much gain (training a gunnery skill to level 5 could take you a month, but only give you the same 2% damage increase the previous four levels gave you). The 6-8 weeks myth is even further off, as even in PvP the roles that most consider the most fun are frigate tacklers and EWar ships, something a new player could train for in as little as a few days. As veterans will point out, true power in EVE comes from the knowledge the pilot has, not how many skill points he has accumulated. A new player could be given a 100m skill point pilot, while a vet takes a 14 day trial character, and the vet would beat the rookie both in combat and in the market.

Going back to DarkFall, how much better would the game be if instead of worrying which skills to macro overnight, or how far ahead your enemies are because they macro harder, you had to consider WHICH skills to train to fit your build, and what skills would be the most helpful for you and your guild. If you could only train one skill at a time, in real time, a player would have to make the decision on whether they want to focus first on melee, archery, magic, or crafting. If you go straight for high-level elemental magic, you don’t have the option to pull out a polearm and be as effective if someone gets within melee range, and you certainly can’t craft your own armor high-level armor. And for that player focused on magic, PvE becomes far harder to turn a profit (since you will likely spend more money on reagents then you get from monster loot), and they would rely heavily on their guild to fund them. In exchange, that guild knows they have a powerful weapon to bring with them into large-scale PvP. Risk vs reward, rather than the current “everyone make a tank/mage” system. Guild crafters would also be held in higher regard, since you could no longer funnel all your resources and just brute-strength skill someone up to 100 in a given craft. It would take time, and cost the crafter gains in combat skills, but in exchange highly skilled crafters would be more uncommon and could charge higher rates for their goods.

Just like in EVE’s system, becoming proficient at something would be a fairly quick investment. So getting a basic skill to 50 would only take a few days, but getting your melee mastery to 100 would require months of training. Add in a hardcap for total skill points, one that would be fairly high but not unlimited, and you would truly have a system of character development rather than just a race to see who can max everything out first by grinding/macroing. A master crafter, someone who has most/all of the crafting skills at a high level, would still have some points left in the cap to be decent in combat, while a character with maxed magic or melee would still have some points for basic crafting or gathering. Now previously ‘pointless’ skills like Sprint, Swimming, or Riding would be skills to consider within your training plan. Currently all those skills are easy to max out, and little thought is given to them. Within 1-2 months, everyone has 100 Sprint. Under a real-time system, you would have to consider WHEN to train Sprint up, as if you leave it too low for too long, your stamina hit would be a factor in combat, while getting the skill up above the average would mean a hit in other areas. The point is, the skill would become a decision the play makes, rather than just something that hits 100 eventually, and with little impact.

Aside from a more balanced and decision-based character development system, real-time training would have a huge impact on what players do in-game. The now-famous ‘blood wall’ in every city would be gone. Not only would it be pointless to leave your character logging in 24/7 on the wall, no one would need to swing away at it to skill up. Also gone would be all those characters running into walls, swimming into a rock, or shooting mana missiles at a friend in a hidden location. Now when you log in, it’s because you are going to PLAY, rather than skill up. Going out to PvP won’t cost you time away from the blood wall or macroing magic. Players will go out to harvest because they need/want the materials, and not because mining is a great way to raise strength. If you are facing a guild that is heavy on high-level magic, you can safely assume they are weak in melee, or don’t have their archery skills high. While currently the method of fighting back is to grind magic up yourself, under a real-time system players would instead adjust their tactics. You know they can’t spam AoE spells in tight areas, while your melee skills are prime in such locations.

It’s unlikely Aventurine would make such a radical shift to DarkFall now, but seeing how EVE’s system works, and how players have behaved as far back as Ultima Online, it’s hard to understand why they went with a ‘gain by doing’ system. It seems both Mortal Online and the next Final Fantasy MMO are also set to repeat this mistake, which is rather puzzling.

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, Ultima Online | 61 Comments

iPhone gaming: Paper Toss, Field Runners, and Defender Chronicles

Posted on August 10, 2009 by SynCaine

For a while now I’ve been meaning to talk about some of the iPhone games I’ve been playing, as it’s somewhat amazing how much gaming you can get for such a low cost (at least for the games themselves, the iPhone and it’s service plan is certainly not that cheap). The big ‘problem’ with the app store and the iPhone is that for every game worth downloading, there are 10 or 100 that are just downright awful. Along with that, there are plenty of games which work for some people, but might not work for you, so finding a good title can be tough even on a platform as easy as the app store.

Paper Toss is a fun little diversion of a game, and fits that ‘pick up and play’ space the iPhone does so well. The object is simple; flick a piece of paper into a basket, taking into consideration the direction the fan-generated wind is blowing. With three difficulties (basket is further away, so the ‘target’ is smaller), an online scoreboard, and solid simple controls, Paper Toss is a great way to kill 5-20 minutes. Best of all, it’s free!

Field Runners is still on my iPhone, and with all its updates it’s still a very entertaining Tower Defense game with nice graphics. It’s also one of the only Tower Defense games on the iPhone that allows you to build your maze rather than having the monsters run along an on-rails course, which adds a lot of reply value. Endless Hard mode will keep you challenged for a long time. At $2.99, I highly recommend it to anyone who has yet to play it.

Finally, Defender Chronicles has been keeping my busy lately (iPhone + DarkFall harvesting FTW) with its mix of Tower Defense and RPG-lite gameplay. Unlike Field Runners, Defender Chronicles is an on-rails TD game, but in a nice twist you place different buildings that spawn defenders. So when you build a barracks, one or two (depending on upgrades) soldiers come up, and those soldiers will stop and fight one monster each as they run along the path. The unit types include soldiers (hard hitting melee), hobbits (quick hitting melee), archers (long range), mages (short range, slow big damage), etc. Each map (a total of 8 I believe?) is a different path with different locations for buildings, along with a variety of monsters that try to reach your gate. At that gate stands your hero unit, who can level up and who you can buy gear for. The game is also very challenging with great replay value, and at the current sale price of $0.99, it’s a great buy.

That’s it for now, but I’m sure as time goes on I’ll post again on titles keeping me entertained. Feel free to post your recommendations as well.

Posted in iPhone, Random | 5 Comments

Warhammer Online 1.3.1 patch: Will it fix Tier 4?

Posted on August 10, 2009 by SynCaine

As frequent readers here know, I’ve been playing Warhammer Online casually for the last few months now, alongside DarkFall and Blood Bowl. While I originally pegged WAR as my ‘full time’ MMO at release, the games issues with population and tier 4 (and the launch of DarkFall) cut that time down considerable. With the recent server mergers Mythic has address the population issue, and with the next patch Mythic is aiming to address T4 and the city siege.

Aside from mechanics issues, the major problem with city sieges in WAR was the amount of time you needed to commit to get anything done. In a game like DarkFall, asking the players to siege for 6 hours is somewhat understandable (and even in that game most would rather it not take so long), but in a game like WAR, a game that features jump-in jump-out gameplay like PQs and Scenarios, asking those same players to stick around for hours to accomplish a siege just does not make sense. Now add in the fact that the siege is an odd mix of RvR and PvE, plus the previous issues with getting warded for the PvE parts, and it all comes together as a less than fun event. That’s a big issue when the city siege is the ‘crown jewel’ of your endgame, and the content that is designed to keep people subscribed and paying once they finish the overall brief leveling game.

Hopefully the worst of all this is set to change when 1.3.1 goes live, and so far the reaction has been positive on the test server. Assuming the changes in the patch work on the live servers like they do on test, the next question will be: is it enough? Will a better city siege be enough to keep players going once they hit T4? WAR is a great game until you hit T4 right now, so one can only assume that if/when Mythic fixes T4, the game SHOULD retain far more of its player base, and eventually start to actually grow. As I’ve said all along, the core of Mythics game is solid and it’s an all-around fun game, but currently suffering because as an MMO, it needs an end-game that keeps people subscribed for 6+ months, not the 1-3 months it takes to go from rank 1 to 40.

Even in it’s current form, WAR is a great game for alts (hell even I have a few, and I generally hate alts in an MMO), so fixing T4 is not so much about giving people something to do on their main character day-in, day-out like WoW and it’s dailies/raiding, but rather giving them a reason to keep playing that main AND working on alts in the other three tiers. It should be a nightly option: Is T4 happening, go with that. If something fun is happening in T2, get on that alt. That’s more or less how CoW is currently playing on Iron Rock with our Order characters, and it really is fun.

Posted in MMO design, Patch Notes, RvR, The Casualties Guild, Warhammer Online | 5 Comments

Warhammer Online vs DarkFall: Combat

Posted on August 6, 2009 by SynCaine

Expanding a bit on yesterdays post about combat, I think it will be worthwhile to compare what I currently do in Warhammer Online versus what combat looks like when I play DarkFall. In a somewhat odd twist, most of my time in DF right now is spent doing PvE, while my time in WAR is 100% PvP.

Let’s start with WAR, and what combat plays like for my rank 20 Swordmaster in scenarios or open RvR. As he is specced into the dps tree, my top hotbar contains his specced opener skill bound to ‘1’, his 2nd step snare bound to ‘2’, and his 3rd step finished that puts a damage proc on the target is bound to ‘3’. Key ‘4’ is an alternate 2nd step skill that is an AoE resist debuff, and key ‘5’ is a 3rd step AoE knockback. The hotbar below this has a DoT opener, a parry buff 2nd step, and finally a damage debuff 3rd step. Those are the ‘core’ abilities that are used 90% of the time. Other skills also on my bars include taunt, juggernaut (CC breaker), throw, sprint, and the various blade buffs that a Swordmaster has access to.

For combat itself, regardless of the target, the process is as follows. Run within melee range, hit 1. Staying within melee range, hit 2 (to snare). Now snared, sticking to the target is easy. Hit 3 to place the damage proc on the target, and repeat back to the first skill. If I’m actively being targeted (somewhat rare since I play a tank), I’ll throw in the 2nd step parry move to raise my defense, and if I have a hard-hitting melee target on me (Witch Elf, Marauder, Choppa), I’ll use the 3rd step melee debuff on them as well. Once this is done, it’s just a matter of sticking on the target and repeating the 1-2-3 combat until the target is dead. If I have a swarm of enemies around me, I’ll use my two AoE abilities (though due to their low damage, it’s debatable if even in this situation they are justified). As long as I have a healer behind me, it takes 4-5 DPS classes focus-firing on me to bring me down, and with the use of Juggernaut, few abilities can keep me off a target.

In a word, it’s simple. Getting a high damage score in a scenario is more about bringing a good team and focus firing on the same target than it is about personal player skill. Given the pace of the global cooldown, hitting abilities when they are ready is trivial, and very little of the combat is reactionary (basically only when to use Juggernaut to break CC and the use of the knockback ability). If I’m next to a target, I’m hitting either 1, 2, or 3 whenever the global cooldown allows me.

For DarkFall, I’ll use the current dungeon I solo for this example. Inside are basically three different mobs. One is a caster, one is a weak melee/archer, and the third is a tough melee-only mob. I go in with a full set of banded (decent but not amazing armor), a two handed sword, a bow, and a slow-cast staff for healing. The goal is to raise my sword and defense skills while also making some money and collecting casting reagents and any usable bits of armor. With my sword out, I left-click to swing, and I have one ability (power attack) that is on a 5 second cooldown that I try to use often (both because it’s a bit more damage and because I want to skill it up). Due to how the UI behaves around queuing power attack (if you are in mid-swing and hit the hotbar key to queue it, it won’t queue), I don’t use it whenever it’s up, and generally queue it while running after a mob, as back hits cause extra damage.

For combat, I’ll try to pick off the weak melee/archer mobs first, but any spawn of 4+ mobs (what actually spawns is somewhat random between the 3 types) means I will most likely only be able to kill a single mob before having to run back and heal. If I’m forced to run back too often, it’s possible for mobs to respawn and for gravestones to disappear before I clear the whole room, meaning lost loot (in DF looting takes time, and is not the insta-right click it is in WAR). As the spawns are always 3+, I’ll use the terrain to try and block off the mobs and only allow one to fight me at a time (DF has 100% collision detection at all times). This has the added bonus that when the mob turns to run (mobs in DF run around at random, and not always at 10% HP like in most MMOs), it might get trapped by its buddies, meaning lots of easy hits to the back. Against the tougher melee mob, this is crucial to finishing a spawn without having to stop and heal. If the mobs, especially the melee/archers, feel like running around often, this can make it difficult to pin them down and land hits, and it might also mean getting hit from behind by others mobs. When fighting the caster mobs in a spawn, I try to position another mob between myself and the caster, as sometimes they will launch a spell and hit a mob rather than me. As some of the spells deal quite a bit of damage, done well this really speeds things up. The casters also tend to throw out some nasty debuffs at times, and dodging these as they fly at me (spells and arrows can be dodged if you move out of the way) is again crucial to finishing a spawn quickly.

Assuming all mobs have been killed, I then need to quickly loot/skin the gravestones while casting heal to limit downtime. If I loot while my health is too low, and the mobs respawn, it’s very possible I’ll die before I’m able to flee to a safe spot. Luckily the dungeon is not a popular spot, but dying with all your gear/loot on a gravestone that you have to run back 10 minutes to is risky at best. Another risk is getting trapped by the mobs. As I have to use terrain to try and position them, this at times can put me at risk if a mob sneaks around behind me and decides to stand and fight rather than run around. As far as I can tell, the run/fight behavior is random, making it tough to fully predict what the mobs will actually do. Sometimes they will run around (with me hacking them in the back) from spawn to death, yet that same mob might also run only to turn and fire arrows whenever I stop chasing, with his buddies also drawing bows and firing at me as I run. Sound plays a huge part in all this (thank god for my X-Fi sound card and quality headset), as hearing a bow being drawn off screen lets me know to dodge, and hearing footsteps approach behind me alerts me to turn around and parry. Without sound, I would suffer a lot more hits to the back, and possibly get trapped more often by mobs.

Both examples are of course somewhat over-simplified, but I hope they get the general point across. When playing WAR, it’s a far more relaxed and ‘easy’ pace, as even the worst loss in a scenario or oRvR just means a trip back to a warcamp to try again. I’m not on edge about every little sound or sight, and I know that as long as I stick to the general gameplan (focus fire, protect the healer, stay together), we win more often than not. DarkFall on the other hand, even in PvE, is that constant ‘on-edge’ experience. If I’m at 25% health and a caster mob hits me with a nuke from behind, I’m going to die. If I run whenever I hit 25% health, I’ll never clear a room. Things might be going great, I’m close to full on loot, and if I don’t notice some PK enter the dungeon, I’m going down and getting looted. That mobs and players look somewhat similar at a distance (especially in the somewhat dark dungeon) makes for a ‘wtf is that’ experience even when identifying a respawn. It’s certainly not relaxing, and you can’t play it half-focused, but at the end of a good dungeon run I feel a far greater sense of accomplishment than I do when we win a scenario or take a keep. I also get a lot more pissed about that PK putting arrows in my back when I just cleared the room than I do over a high level pre-made rolling us in a scenario.

The good thing is, $30 a month for both games is not a big deal for me, and I can easily afford both. I like having WAR for that relaxing, ‘hang out with your buddies (or mute on vent fiancé)’ time, as I’m not always up for hyper-focusing on my gaming. I also like having DF, knowing that when I do want to get stuff done, I can log in and get a good sense of accomplishment after a few hours. The threat of failure is there, but without it the accomplishment would mean far less.

(And just to complicate all of this further, WAR PvE is even easier than WAR PvP, and DF PvP is far more difficult than DF PvE, which again changes the whole risk/reward, effort/gain ratio)

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, MMO design, RvR, Warhammer Online | 10 Comments

When the combat system in 1997 was better than what we have today, you know we have a problem.

Posted on August 5, 2009 by SynCaine

Now that his resurrection is complete, Tobold has started a multi-part series of posts talking about why we play MMOs, with today’s topic being gameplay. In most MMOs today, gameplay generally means combat, and so the type of combat system you base your MMO around is a key decision. As Tobold mentions, if you clone WoW combat, you put yourself into direct competition/comparison to it, which likely will end up with your new game coming out looking unpolished (Blizzard has their issues, but it’s hard to argue that they did not nail the feel of the combat system in WoW).

This is not to say ALL new MMOs should avoid the hotbar mash style of combat, as not only do a large number of fans prefer it, it also ‘works’ when done well. For example, Warhammer Online having a similar combat system to WoW was not a bad choice, as WAR genuinely beats WoW in the areas it specializes in (RvR). WAR is a better game than WoW if you are primarily a battleground or casual PvP player, and that population is large enough to justify a business plan (WAR’s numbers would be far higher if only T4 was not the massive ‘meh’ that is currently is, but the T4 issues have little to do with the choice of combat system). Another example would be LotRO, which applies the same basic formula WoW uses, but is able to separate itself thanks to both its graphics engine and its use of the LotR IP, two very strong points that create enough separation when comparing the two games to make LotRO a success.

Yet while examples exist, far too many MMO games do fall into that ‘bad WoW clone’ category, and they do so primarily because at their basic gameplay level, their combat is just too similar to WoW, and their separation points are not strong enough to overcome this. It’s somewhat mindboggling why any company would invest serious money into an MMO today that plays similar to WoW at its core. Given that WoW does it so well, and that five years later, so many people are burned out on what WoW offers, it’s asking for an uphill battle if your MMO is set in a fantasy setting and has hotbar combat, let alone the fact that while hotbar combat does work, it’s certainly not the be-all end-all of fun ways to fight mobs in an MMO.

And when talking about combat systems, it’s very possible that less can be more. For example, DarkFall has a grand total of four melee combat abilities, (and shooting an arrow is your only ability for archery) of which two are useful (knockback and whirlwind), one is primarily a PvE skill (power attack), and one is useless (seize). Yet without question, the combat (be it PvP or PvE) in DF is far more complex and interesting that it is in most MMOs, WoW included (unless you just absolutely love Simon-says raiding). Its complexity does not come from knowing the best spell rotation or min/maxing your stats, but because it holds the player more accountable for all their actions, and nothing is assumed. You click to swing, but what you hit depends on what’s in front of you rather than what you have targeted. Giving up your back to get behind one opponent is a decision you make on the fly, as is considering your melee range based on the weapon you have equipped. Even the decision of WHEN to swing is not assumed; if your enemy is standing too close to an ally, you might hit both, possibly causing more harm than good, and a skilled opponent knows this. By keeping a combat system ‘simple’, the developer has more time to refine what they have, and it’s perfectly fine to leave it up to the players to add in the complexity (they will).

Looking over the MMO genre as a whole, it’s perhaps not all that surprising that the industry has only one game with a million+ customers, and it’s that very game that has the most solid implementation of its combat system. Ultima Online launched in 1997, and yet in 2009, it’s arguable we are seeing new MMOs released with a basic combat system that is LESS fun and interesting than what UO had. We can debate the merits of all the other factors that go into making an MMO what it is, but it’s not hard to see why average gaming fans won’t dig into that depth when the most basic aspect (combat) is either broken, not fun, or just a lower-class copy of something else. The novelty of just being online has long since worn off, and it’s time for MMO devs to rethink the basics of what makes this genre interesting enough to keep players around for months at a time.

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, PvP, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 19 Comments