iPhone MMO, Field Runners, and a slow Friday.

Posted on November 14, 2008 by SynCaine

Slow Friday for anyone? It’s rainy here in MA, and its 3 hours before the work week is done and the weekend begins. The lethargy is so bad I can’t even come up with a blog post today… I mean clearly I’m posting this, so I just lied, but I can’t really come up with anything Warhammer or MMO related.

I actually have been addicted to a new game, and one from an unlikely source. Field Runners for the iPhone. Field Runners is a tower defense game, and one that seems rather simple at first when compared to what battle.net offers for Warcraft 3 maps. Four different towers with three upgrades each, one map, enemies have 5-6 different varieties, they run left to right. Nothing fancy like combo towers, random events, picking tower flavors, heroes, nadda. Just simple left to right enemy blasting. And I can’t beat it on hard.

As anyone who has ever played a tower defense game knows, they are addicting up until the point you beat them, and then almost instantly you move on unless they have a great deal of randomness or competition, like GEM TD on WC3. But until you do beat them, they taunt you and taunt you, basically forcing you to try different strategies until you finally have a winner. Evil bastards…

The iPhone itself has really become an amazing gaming platform in a very short amount of time. Thousands of games (most are trash), tons of free stuff (mostly trash), easy download and install process, usually stable, good graphics and sound. The one thing the iPhone is missing, and this might be a blessing for the economy and any hope of recovery, is an MMO. It has the connectivity, it has the graphics power, and it has shown that it can support games even with just the touch screen (shockingly well actually). So why have we not seen on? I’m not talking about a WoW-like complex MMO, but more along the lines of the grindfest Nexon games, or something like Diablo. Mythos would actually be PERFECT on the iPhone. I’m sure one will come along eventually, but it’s surprising that we don’t have one yet.

Posted in MMO design, Mythos, Random | 8 Comments

Breaking down the renown gain issue a bit more.

Posted on November 13, 2008 by SynCaine

Sid67 has a good post breaking down my previous issue with renown ranks, and how my DoK will need to focus more on scenarios in order to catch his renown ranks up with his actual rank. When I wrote my post I considered the difference between the two ranks a minor issue, but as Sid67 points out, the disparity brings to light a possible design issue in Warhammer Online.

I remember when WAR was still in beta, I leveled one of my characters through scenarios, but stopped once I reached the renown rank cap. At that point I felt that I was ‘wasting’ my time since I was only receiving xp from scenarios, and missing out on renown due to the cap. Instead of queuing up, I went out and did some open RvR, some PQs, PvE, for a few ranks, and then back to scenarios to gain both xp and renown. It was not an outright conscious choice as much as a response to what the game was offering. In my mind scenarios are for renown gain, and if I’m capped on renown, I stay out of scenarios.

It seems somewhat silly then to make renown ranks so difficult to gain in the early parts of the game. A characters power is not greatly enhanced with a higher renown rank, as at best you will have a few more stat points and access to gear that is comparable to PQ drops. Like Sid67, I think Warhammer would actually be a better game 1-39 if renown ranks were easier to attain, and only at rank 40 would renown ranks really slow down and become something to work on. Instead of adjusting renown gain for oRvR and Objectives/Keeps, lowering the amount of renown needed to rank up would mean you could keep up with your renown ranks without having to grind scenarios or really go out of your way in-game. Currently I’m going to have to alter my play style for a few days just to use an item I gained doing what I like, oRvR and sieging a keep. Seems a bit off…

Posted in MMO design, RvR, Warhammer Online | 3 Comments

Wheel of Time MMO, WHOOO!!!

Posted on November 12, 2008 by SynCaine

While I would love for this to be the next baby jesus of MMO gaming, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this might not deliver exactly what I want in an MMO…

Super optimism aside, the Wheel of Time books are an amazing (if just slightly too long) fantasy series, with some very well developed characters and ideas that would fit perfectly into videogames and an MMO in particular. Hopefully the games associated with the name are more than just a quick cash-in on a popular brand. Something to keep an eye on at least…

Posted in Console Gaming, Random | 20 Comments

Keep capture, gold bag, and a new goal.

Posted on November 12, 2008 by SynCaine

My renown rank (rr) is horribly behind my character rank (r) in Warhammer Online, sitting currently at 17rr, 26r. This is mostly due to how I’ve been playing so far, staying out of the scenario grind and completing tons of PQs and quests. Odd that in a game with such great RvR, I’ve had trouble pulling myself away from PvE…

Up until last night, my RR trailing my rank has largely been a non-issue. Sure I’m missing out on some renown-point fueled stat increases, and I can’t purchase renown gear as quickly, but neither of those has been a huge motivator to go out and really work on my renown. Again, that was until last night. Logging in, I noticed four keeps in Tier 3 were Order controlled, including two in the Dark Elf area I was currently in. Noticing 5-6 players in the warcamp, I figured why not try and take the closest Keep back, at worst we will get a good fight from Order and earn some xp/renown.

Forming the warband with Forsaken and CoW, it took perhaps 10-15 minutes for the warband to completely fill up and everyone to arrive. Siege weapons ready, we stormed out of the warcamp and began working on the outer gate of the keep. With little resistance, the door soon fell and on to the next we went. Again Order only had a few defenders, and again the door fell. Storming up the stairs, we were able to control the lord and his guards, bringing them all down eventually. Thanks to the recent boost to keep chests, three gold bags and a bunch of greens were available, and I was lucky enough to score a top 3 roll. My options from the gold bag were an epic helm (rank 29), some blue gloves, and a blue Devastator set chest piece. While the stats on the chest piece are only slightly above average, the set bonus is amazing, and I could not pass it up.

Which brings me back to the original dilemma. In order to wear the Devastator set, I not only need a higher rank, but a much higher renown rank. (25rr to use the item) Looks like it’s time to shift my focus a bit, and go renown hunting. A nice mix of scenarios and capturing Objectives should do it, and it never hurts to be around for a zone control flip, since that gives a nice 1000+ renown point bonus. Hopefully I hit renown rank 25 before I hit rank 30, that’s my short term goal.

Posted in RvR, Warhammer Online | 5 Comments

Old game review; Warcraft 3 and Defense of the Ancients.

Posted on November 11, 2008 by SynCaine

Zubon from Kill Ten Rats asks bloggers to review older games, in part for nostalgia, and also to see if we can learn any design lessons from them. I’m going to cheat and review Defense of the Ancients, which is a map mod for Warcraft 3 played over battle.net.

Similar to Counter Strike and Half Life, DoTA has eclipsed Warcraft 3 in popularity online, and has grown to be an amazingly complex game. The pure basics of DoTA are as follow: It’s a 5 on 5 map, with each player controlling a single hero from a choice of 80+. Each hero has 3 base skills with 4 levels, and an ultimate with 3 levels. You gain experience and gold as you kill enemy heroes and NPC monsters, which can be used to purchase items to boost stats or give special abilities (stun, teleport, sheep, lifesteal, ect). The ultimate goal is to destroy the other team’s base, specifically either the Tree of Life or the Lich Kings throne.

DoTA has a brutal, brutal learning curve. Since it’s a pure PvP game, you are directly competing against other players, and if even one player out of the 10 is noticeably weaker, it more or less spells certain doom for that player’s team and turns the game into a beating. This also means that should one player drop, either intentionally or from a bad internet connection, it usually means the game is over, as going 4v5 is very tough at best. As the average game of DoTA takes from 40-60 minutes, someone dropping 30 minutes in can be extremely frustrating. Leagues have sprung up to help reduce players dropping out, the main league being TDA. However, being an extremely weak player can get you banned from TDA, so putting in your time to learn the game in public games is a must. Public games can be decent, but far too often are plagued by players dropping out or otherwise ruining a match.

So with all that going for it, why should you bother with DoTA? For one it’s about as good a PvP game as you can get outside of a FPS. Its fast, requires teamwork, strategy, and a bit of luck. It’s amazingly balanced for a game with so much variety (80+ heroes, countless items that further combine into other items, terrain strategy, etc), and that variety ensures two games are never alike, leading to almost countless replayability. It has great depth, meaning it takes time to master even one hero, and with different game modes (random draft, select draft, captain mode, etc), you will be playing with a large variety of different heroes. Add in that your team will also pick different heroes, as will your enemy, and the complexity quickly skyrockets.

Once you get into TDA games, the level of competition is rather high, which leads to some very competitive and close matches. Often you will see a hero being used in a unique way, or a particularly skilled player dominating with a perceived ‘weaker’ hero. Clan matches, where all 10 players are on vent and have a game plan, are often the most entertaining and exciting matches to play in or even watch. A large community supports DoTA, both with new patches and with very active forums debating strategy, item builds, balance, etc. Once you overcome the initial learning curve, DoTA is a fantastic game to play as a ‘side’ game to an MMO or whatever else you might be playing, as its very easy to hop on and play a game or two whenever the motivation strikes.

For me DoTA remains one of the better examples of PvP done right, without the need to oversimplify everything and make both sides identical. It shows you can have a huge variety of heroes, items, and abilities and still pull off great balance and an entertaining game. Far too many games, and especially MMOs, try to balance by giving both sides identical options, instead of coming up with creative ways to enhance that balance, and this in turn leads to copycat strategy and ultimately a dull experience. If you’re someone who enjoys a fast paced, competitive PvP game, I highly recommend DoTA, even with its brutal learning curve.

Posted in DoTA, PvP | 3 Comments

Hola Amigos!

Posted on November 10, 2008 by SynCaine

For the last few days, I’ve been the source of a few spanish forum links. I guess MMO ranting is a universal language! Good thing bable fish is doing a decent job at translating what you guys are saying (or it filters out the negative…), so thanks for the nice words!

Posted in Random, Site update | Comments Off on Hola Amigos!

Mount Gunbad, watch out for the zerg!

Posted on November 10, 2008 by SynCaine

Ah, another weekend of Warhammer goodness. My DoK is now well into Rank 25, with his renown rank lagging behind at 16 mostly due to being too busy with everything else to queue up for scenarios. I consider this a VERY good thing. On the PQ front, all PQs in Dark Elf chap 10, 11, and 12 have been completed, with an exception for one buggy chap 11 PQ which currently appears impossible due to a bug. Annoying, but easily forgotten.

Things are actually so busy on the Monolith server that gaining influence per chapter has become difficult. What I mean is that as soon as we form a group to do some PQs, it quickly turns into a warband, which generally attracts 10-15 people, and the influence gain ends up being overly spread out. Sure we could limit things to just our group, but why be an anti-social dick just to speed up influence gain, right? I have no issues repeating a PQ, especially the more interesting ones, and with 15+ they all go quickly enough. You also never know when you are going to run into a PQ with a Lord boss rather than a Hero, and actually need those 15+ people to claim the generally better chest loot. Over the weekend I saw a good bit of gold and purple bags drop, with some very nice gear coming out of them, so it’s definitely worthwhile to gather a warband and attempt the tougher PQs.

Speaking of tougher PQs, my guild Forsaken took a trip into Mount Gunbad for the first time, and had a really amazing time. For those who have yet to see it, Mount Gunbad is an open instanced dungeon in the very north-west corner of the Badlands. You zone in through a blue swirl, but once inside you still see anyone else who happens to be inside. Gunbad itself has three ‘wings’, the easiest being the right wing which features rank 23-24 mobs, the left features 25-26 mobs, and I believe the center wing has 27+ mobs, but I never saw more than the first few. It’s a giant cave populated by Night Goblins and their ‘friends’, such as squigs, trolls, undead, giants, etc. Each wing is a series of three PQs, with a final, 6 man only instanced encounter at the end. It sounds rather simple, but works great in practice, as you complete each PQ naturally as you work your way down to the instance 6 man end-boss, gaining some nice loot and influence along the way. Gunbad has its own influence bar, with blue-level rewards at each level, scaling up from 23 to 25 to 27 in level at each reward pip.

Our first experience with Gunbad was to join a warband already in progress on the easiest wing. The zerg of 20+ made its way down murdering everything in its path with little regard for agro or strategy. Due to the overwhelming numbers and high levels of certain members, everything was a breeze until they hit the third PQ boss. This boss has a rather nasty ability to summon ‘circles of pain’ on the ground, which quickly kill anyone who stands inside them. As you can guess, the mindless zerg soon wiped. The frustrating part came next, as a small part of the overall warband was making its way down with our group of 5 Forsaken members, taking our time but still having success. Two of the members wanted to join the zerg, and also wanted everyone to start from the top (my guess is just to farm influence as easily as possible).  So what did they do? Run into as many mobs as possible to wipe us, forcing the restart. Thanks asshats. I’ll admit this is one of the perils of a public dungeon, in that random tools can ruin it for everyone. It also allows zergs to form and mindlessly farm, although in reality a zerg member gains influence slower than a 6 man, and also has a smaller shot at loot. But hey, it’s mindless!

Leaving the warband, and thankfully having it move on to another wing, we started from the top again, determined to finish the entire right wing. We had little difficulty with the first two PQs, and soon found ourselves in the final area of the public section, looking over the third PQ and also seeing the entrance to the final boss. Knowing a wipe on the tough third PQ boss would mean a trip back to the top, we instead opted to clear a path and enter the instanced part and fight the final boss, a Night Goblin shaman. The encounter itself is interesting, as you first defeat a giant, who then gets turned into a chicken by said shaman before he engages to fight you. The shaman himself was rather easy. He traps one member periodically throughout the fight, basically rendering them useless, and also summons green fists that pound anyone caught beneath them for decent damage. The fists are easily avoided, and his damage on our tank was minor for a major boss. Once defeated, he dropped four blue items, including one set piece. (we got some Chosen gloves) A fun fight, and good rewards for the effort. We returned to the public section, summoned the third PQ boss, and got our butts handed to us, ending our Gunbad trip for the day. When we make our return trip, we might have to pay that final PQ boss a visit…

Our plan is to gain 1-2 ranks before we return to tackle the left wing of Gunbad. We got a small taste when we completed the first PQ with another group, but it was clear we needed to be higher in rank to really give the place a good shot. That said, we are really looking forward to our return later in the week, assuming we can break away from the near-constant RvR. On Sunday we helped defend a Keep against a sizable Order force, and again it was a great time, but this post is long enough already, so more on that later.

Posted in Rant, Warhammer Online | 3 Comments

Epic siege battle, PQ madness, and all the goodness that is WAR.

Posted on November 7, 2008 by SynCaine

Logged in last night at around 6pm with Aria, hoping to get some Dark Elf chapter 11 quests done, and perhaps have some better luck with PQs. The night before we had two full groups, but ran into a bugged chapter 10 PQ that required us to tag 12 flags, yet only 10 flags were clickable. Slight problem, and our dummy group (lead by me) tried the PQ twice. Tonight we were able to quickly gather a full group (god I love our full server, but more on that in a bit), and after only a few quests, we found the first PQ and got after it. In short order, we completed all three PQs in chapter 11, including a very entertaining one that required us to protect a necromancer as he summoned his army of skeletons. Wave after wave of champions attacked us, only to be repelled by our group and the necromancers minions. Rather epic stuff, especially at the end when the necromancer transformed into a demon and escaped. I wonder if there is more to that storyline…

I believe all of that took as about an hour, perhaps 90 minutes. We took a break for dinner, and later at around 9pm I logged back in to play with my old guild Forsaken (hopefully allied with CoW soon, Genda…), hoping to do some PQs in the Greenskin T3 area. I encountered a login queue of 178 people, and while the estimate wait was 18 minutes, I believe it took no longer than 5 or so to get in. Again, yay full population server, I’ll gladly take a 5 minute wait over empty PQs. Flying over to the Badlands, we noticed that the Order controlled Keep was under attack, and that the warcamp had a large number of players gathering.

Sure enough, Destro was planning a Keep siege, and it seemed we arrived just in time. Quickly taking two objectives with little resistance, we arrived at the Keep to find some Order players waiting for us in front of the door. This was the start of a rather epic battle, as Destruction had over two full warbands of players, and Order seemed to have a good number of defenders as well. After a good fight in front of the Keep, we pushed the Order group back and set up siege machines to work on the first door. Spells and arrows flew, the area around the door itself was a meat grinder of AoE, but eventually we got the door down. So far so good, but what happened after was a bit shocking. I fully expected our large group to rush into the keep and start working on the NPC guards, making our way to the second door. Instead, we found the narrow entrance completely blocked by Order tanks, and a nasty array of Bright Wizard and healers behind them. We charged, they held, we wiped. It was a slow grind at first, but inch by inch Order pushed us back, until we were fully pushed out of the door. At that point, 30+ Order players streamed out, completely rolling what Destruction players were still standing near the door. Running back to the keep, it was clear Order had won the day, scattering the Destruction warbands and leaving us all in disarray. Further attempts were made, but none got very far. Congrats to the Order players of Monolith, a job well done.

While performance was not perfect, it was rather amazing that I experienced only very slight lag considering I was staring at 60+ players throwing spells and whatnot. This is with the game maxed out and at 1900×1200, so no shortcuts were taken to increase performance at the expense of graphics. This was also the first time I witnessed a siege go basically point-by-point in design. Battle in front of the keep, siege engine phase with both sides shooting and destroying machines, battle at the door with attempts to break the siege, and finally an epic battle within the tight confines of the keep doorway, where collision detection and line of sight were in full force.

Perhaps it was just a rare case of everything coming together, but the optimist in me (or perhaps fanboy, depending on how you look at it) would like to think it’s a sign of things to come. Players are still adjusting to what WAR offers, and it’s going to take some time for the majority to play WAR ‘like it’s meant to be player’, rather than forcing old MMO habits on it. I’m starting to see this in scenarios as well, with a greater variety popping, and more advanced tactics being used. Already great stuff, and its only improving daily.

Posted in Combat Systems, MMO design, RvR, Warhammer Online | 7 Comments

How important are levels in our MMOs?

Posted on November 5, 2008 by SynCaine

I want to talk today about the idea of levels in MMOs, and whether their time has come and gone. Many people argue Warhammer Online would be a far superior game without levels, and we have seen similar arguments made for other MMOs as well. (Why have levels in WoW when the ‘good stuff’ is at the cap, etc)

Whenever the topic comes up, my immediate reaction is that MMOs must have levels, that they are one of the core mechanics that make an MMO what it is. When you consider how many people enjoy the leveling process, and subsequently reroll an alt once they hit the cap, it would seem that an MMO without levels might not appeal to that large demographic. Levels also make it easy to identify progress in an MMO, they let us know what zone to be in, what instance to attempt, and what gear we can use. Removing levels, at first thought, would seem to play havoc on all of that.

My first MMO, Ultima Online, did not have levels. It had skill points, which were limited to a grand total of 700, with each skill limited to a cap of 100. Technically someone who was 7xGM (7 skills to 100) was at the ‘cap’, but even then it was debatable which 7 skills to pick, what style of combat or crafting you are aiming for, etc. But at no point was it clear that unless you have X number of skill points, you can’t enter a dungeon, or travel to some town/area. But UO, much like EVE, is a sandbox style MMO, and we all know sandbox MMOs don’t play by the same rules as more traditional theme park MMOs. (WoW and company) This still leaves us with the question; would removing levels work?

To me it’s fairly clear you can’t have the same MMO and just place everyone at the level cap. Logging in for the first time and have 30ish skills, gear in 15 spots, and an entire world to travel freely would be far too overwhelming to all but the most hardcore of MMO fans. And if we agree on that principal, clearly we need SOME kind of system to guide and limit a player, a job traditionally handled by levels. If we make the limiting factor gear, I fear gear would become the overriding factor for everything in the MMO, and we have seen how ugly things can get when items become the be-all/end-all. It we make the limit time, either in-game or real time, we run the risk of going too slow/fast based on each individual players comfort level. I would like to think I’ll grasp the basic concept of any new MMO a bit faster than someone playing one for the first time, and neither of us would want to progress a the others pace.

This post feels a bit rambly, and that’s because I really don’t have a good answer to an interesting question. Most of my ideas point the MMO towards a sandbox-style game, and while I know that would work, the question is more about whether an MMO can be a theme park AND not be level based. Can any re-imagining of EQ work without levels?

Posted in EQ2, EVE Online, MMO design, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 31 Comments

Server transfer, tons of RvR, and the eventual war.

Posted on November 3, 2008 by SynCaine

To anyone who is playing Warhammer Online on a low population server, Mythic owes you an apology. You are not playing the same game everyone else is, but rather an empty husk of something really great. Any server with below a medium population should be merged/closed, as WAR is far more population dependant than any other MMO out, simple as that.

With Friday’s server transfer complete (flawless btw? Did anyone have a single problem with the transfer?), CoW and many other guilds from Thorgrim moved over to Monolith, and got to experience WAR the way it was meant to be played. The combination of a high pop server and an RvR-focused event (The Witching Night) meant the RvR areas were packed, from log in to log out. I logged in at 10am EST on Saturday, fully expecting the world to be quiet, only to find a near-full warband in tier 2 already clashing with a sizable Order group, and this level of action continued throughout the entire day. Same deal in tier 3 from what I saw. During the VERY brief time I was not in RvR, I saw players running around in the questing areas (chap 9 DE specifically), and I can only assume this means finding a PQ group would be that much easier compared to Thorgrim. The Inevitable City always had a ton of players going about their business, really giving it that capital city feeling that was missing before.

This weekend also made me realize one other very important feeling I have towards WAR; I don’t care about xp gain or ranks. At almost no point in the weekend did I think about my rank or how much xp I had gained in the last hour. The one time I did was when I hit rank 22 and got chickened out of tier 2, but since I had already done some tier 3 RvR (and very successfully at that thanks to the bolstering mechanic), it was more a matter of changing battlefield rather than being excluded from content. Gaining rank is nice because you get more skills/abilities, and those in turn flesh out your character and give you more options. That said, I don’t feel like unless I hit rank x, I’m gimped, and so I have to grind out xp until I hit that magical ‘now you are awesome’ rank. Gaining a new rank also means finding new gear to acquire, and I would honestly rather just RvR or even quest to relax, rather than look at gear and notice it’s 3-4 ranks below me. (no matter how hard I try, the min/maxer in me always comes out eventually)

The server transfer has really ignited my want to play Warhammer even beyond what it was before, and not just because of the RvR. During the weekend I saw a message that Praag had been locked down by Destruction, and this reminded me that eventually, I will be an active participant in an over-arching war for the Capital cities. I view my time now as soldier training, learning Keep attack/defense tactics, RvR tactics, and the overall feel for the world (both in an RP sense and for game mechanics). Once I make it to the front lines, it’s going to be ‘serious business’. But again, I don’t feel that need to hit the cap just to start the fun stuff, I’m having a great time at each rank.

Posted in MMO design, RvR, Warhammer Online | 15 Comments