Weekend Going-ons

I don't think i'll be getting Krieg from Gearbox until the last dlc content comes out for the Seasons Pass; still a bit sore about the cost of it due to sly marketing. The fanboys will obviously get it and the probably the only people that are really playing it these days. Altho there are a few sales this week 'coincidently' to probably revive interest in it.

What happened to that Mechwarrior game that was teased out to us about 8 months ago? Instead we get this:

MechWarrior Online

It doesn't look too bad, but it looks like its more arena-based rather than storybased. Augh. Makes me want to play Mechwarrior Mercenaries!

I've been playing Neverwinter Nights 2 these days with my sad sad Drow Warlock. Sad? Because I didn't think he would need the Concentration skill .. but obviously he does and the slightest whack means his spell fails. To top it off, he switched out an invocation (think: spell) which was a big mistake.. being able to summon an undead minion is great when the game surprises you on a quest where you're by yourself. I'm committed to finishing the game.. altho I can't tell how much farther I have and clearly want to make a new character.. altho unsure of what.. Druid? Cleric? Barbarian? Unsure..

Selesnya Sentry of Suck

Still here; I haven't been playing much of anything these days. Waiting for May 14th when the new Borderlands 2 character Kreig becomes available. I think i've played the beginning part of Neverwinter Nights 2 so many times that I can't wrap my head around it anymore... or it could be the style of gameplay is stale.

Anyways, I was adjusting some decks and came across this one:

Yuck. Who in their right mind would pay 6 mana to regenerate a 3/2?
I would pay 4 at the most.. even then, I wouldn't think it's worth it. Bad card.

I've always found it curious how we play our games, in particular mmos.
Customization has always been very important to us to cater to the way in which we play, to maximize our effectiveness.

In Warhammer Online I would end up with 5 rows of action bars to accomodate all the skills and abilities of my character. I would have the UI show all 5 bars one on top of each other in a vertical fashion so that i could have my mouse in the middle of what would look like a square/rectangle. This would allow me to access all the skills easily, going up, down, left or right.

Neverwinter Nights got it right in a way, by having hotkeys via CTRL, ALT or SHIFT buttons for numbers 1 to + (I believe) since there was 'less' visible UI customization.

I look at Thrangis' pictures of the new Guild Wars 2 of what looks to be hotbars. One hotbar and skills changing, depending on what main & offhand weapons one has. Being able to assign numbers 6+ for misc/other abilities.

I truly look forward to a game where I don't have a huge plethora of skills that I need to find a place for quick access to. Maybe something with more strategy, and body placement, rather than pressing a combination of the same keys for abilities. Where a battle will be different each time even if its against the same monster.

This kind of wish, reminds me of one of the best Wii games i've ever played: Monster Hunter Tri. (Granted the Wii didn't really have 'good' games that I liked). It was an single player game that you could play like a mmo, just think of it like Borderlands (drop in, and drop out ability). You battled big monsters all the time, and you had only a small amount of attack abilities (more like different kind of thrusts: high attack, low sweep attack, quick attack, strong attack). It didn't emphasize the many special skills you had or your level, but more of body placement, moving around, dodging and attacking weak points when presented with them. "Mini" boss battles could last an extremely long time (10+ minutes) and we're not even talking about the real bosses. Real bosses would require you to chase them across the map and sometimes require you to run away when you got overwhelmed.

From the videos that you watch in Guild Wars 2 that have released and posted recently on other sites, you see the warrior runs around alot in using his abilities, dodging, weaving, never just standing there and taking the hits except when he actively blocks. Same thing goes with pvp, it looks like there is alot more movement happening.

I'm getting more excited and looking forward to GW2 and even how SWTOR will play..

Beneath my Feet

After looking at Hunter's entry and looking at the first concept art,

the thought occured to me: mmo's map design is always horizontal and never truly vertical. Very infrequently are we spending time on different levels such as an underground, ground-level and above ground area. There will be small areas in which there is an underground area, but the whole of mmo design doesn't accomodate that.

Think of WoW, there is the Undercity which is underground and has different 'levels'. It still takes up a separate area than the rest of the map as in, nothing occupies the highest lvl of Undercity, just invisible walls.

When I think of Rift, there are castles in which corridors have multiple levels. The Defiant captial, Meridian, has a mage tower with multiple levels separated with teleporters and tries to give the sense that you're going higher up. There is Lantern Hook, a high lvl city which had levels hollowed into a huge rockface. Scarlet Gorge was a great example of giving a sense of depth; being at the top of the gorge or at the very bottom, or even areas underground.

Aion did a cool job with flight and having items of interest floating in the air.

But look back at that photo.


Imagine an mmo world where (say, for example) you started off in the underground area with plot talking about how one day instead of looking up into the sky, you'll find a way to the surface and be able to look down from where you came from. A truly two-plus level game world. Instead of looking at how big a mmo's land mass is, one will need to take into consideration of the underground AND above ground areas that occupy the same space. Sure, this concept (especially above ground areas: think floating islands) may not be applicable to some lore, but it can in many fantasy settings.

This reminds me of rpg Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. You started off in a tavern of sorts and you are forced to dig deeper and deeper in the dungeons/maze to find the villan. It felt like you were getting incredibly deeper instead of going farther in distance away from your origin. But as a D&D type of game, its levels are not truly connected as an mmo world normally is (no loading screens).

I understand the trepidation of designing such a world though; people have a hard enough time navigating the normal game world, hence the need to indicate waypoints or have a map that shows where to complete quests. And that is only on one plane of design; I myself get confused sometimes when a quest navigator shows me where to complete the quest and I don't realize the quest components are hidden underground. That, and for some people navigating different levels without a defined 'ground' and 'sky' may cause nausea.

Happy Friday

I never realized how popular the Little Big Planet was on the PS3, but 2 million levels? Thats pretty impressive. I probably shouldn't show this, b/c the gf is going to really want this game, when it's full priced at 69.99/79.99$ at EB :P Some really cool looking games in the number 2; especiall the top down racers! Loved those kinds!

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I want to see more games in the future which has more realistic elemental effects.
Fire should cause a chance to burn via a dot.
Ice should either cause a slow down of movement of limbs (decreasing speed or attack rate)
Acid should burn through armor or weapons (decreasing defence or attack).
Explosive should explode (knockback or extra damage?).
Lightning should cause a chance to disable a certain function (versus ice which just slows down)

In Neverwinter nights, these elemental effects were just an added type of damage which may be a good choice if they are resistant to other forms of damage. Mass Effect 2 had more elemental realism but was also more limited, as you could either light your enemies on fire, or turn them into ice. The buffs that did more damage or shot through shields weren't too graphically impressive.

Borderlands (yes, Borderlands) seemed to have this down pat, except for the lightning part (though the ability to reduce shields quickly is helpful). It is missing the ice elemental ability.. which i'm hoping for the future.. (come on, more DLC!)

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Does this screen look familiar?

Its Syndicate and looks like we're in for a remake!!!! Woot! I really wish the new XCOM game that is being developed stayed true to it's form and was a turn based strategy game (when was the last good one?)

Countdown: Three..

Official Mortal Online Vids

The mmo's i'm looking at these days Darkfall and Mortal Online seem to be going for a more realistic feel; a more in your shoes attempt a la first person view. I wonder from the screens I saw in the most recent Mortal Online video whether it is fully in first person view or not. I like FPS such as Borderlands (woo!) and they are great in rpgs such as old favorites like Elder Scrolls: Eye of the Beholder, and it even worked well in Elder Scrolls Oblivion.

But an mmo, fully in first person view? I'm not too sure on that.

Games such as Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights and even Mass Effect needs a different camera angle to fully view and experience the game (hence why I got DA:O for high overhead camera angle), and would be a travesty if they were only captured via first-person view.

I like to look at how my character looks by itself, or with the landscape, or in relation to everything else in the game. Though I played Oblivion mostly in first person view, when it came to melee fighting I thought it was best to play in third person view to see what was around me. Casting and archery was best in first person view as you were more accurate. Oblivion didn't seem to have as many traps as you'd think, but that and jumping puzzles make 3rd person view essential (for proper footing). Not as 'realistic' but it was more fun.

Don't Streamline Me!

I love to micromanage in my games. Hence maybe why I love games like D&D and Neverwinter nights, wasn't as happy with Dragon Age (slight stream-lining of abilities and spells), high disappointed with Mass Effect 2 (definite lack of weapons, which is made up via a plethora of [boring]upgrades) and bored with Final Fantasy XIII (1 weapon and 1 acccessory slot which are upgradeable). My friends and I have a game (usually boardgame) night usually every other weekend and I wish we played D&D. Unfortunately my group would never have the stamina to put so much effort into character creation and roleplaying and thus we're stuck to Settlers (of Catan), Agricola, Killer Bunnies and Munchkins. Though still complex games, they are more pick up and go games.

After playing FFXIII for a few days, i've had the urge to play FF Tactics 2 on the Nintendo DS again. I got it when it first came out and loved it. Oodles of ways to customize your party, indepth character customization, from the classes, skills, dual classes, number of party members, stats, everything. I stopped for one reason or another, but now that i'm back into it, I created this chart.

Basically showing the loadouts of the way I want to have my party and what the requirements would be (whether certain classes are required or quests needed to be eligible). 3 main teams, my balanced team, utility (see: rob you blind) team and dps team.

I respect companies that are trying to give console players the ability to play RPG's, games that traditionally have more micromanagement, but the games tend to be streamlined or more basic. For us used to making charts like this, games like FFXIII kinda loses that shine.