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March 31, 2008

CoX: I12 Character Creator

Official news on the Issue 12 Character Creator and UI changes, mostly driven by the "Real Numbers" changes. So there will be a "See Detailed Info" in the character creator that will show all the underlying numbers, with a "show me at level X" slider (moderately interesting for me).

More spiffy than that will be "costume sets" -- a start for, say, "Biker" or "Jester" (!), etc. While in theory that might make slightly more homogeneous costumes, in practice it will make a much easier starting point to get a bunch of similar sets. Nice.

Closed Beta is promised in the "near future."


Posted by Dave at 6:20 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , Resources & Rules

CoX: "Hey, this is Doctor Vahz, isn't it!"

So we ran Kitsune-chan and Ex-Terra from 13 to 21 over the weekend, on Rugged, including a pushover (okay, we were a level high for him) Doctor Vahzilok.

Man, I remember how scary that mission was the first time ...


Posted by Dave at 6:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

LotR: Likes and Dislikes

Because of my recent playing of CoX, and chit-chat with Margie, I found this set of lists slowly growing, so I thought I'd toss them out there. Your mileate will almost cetainly vary.

Comparison caveats:

Things I like about LotRO (particularly in comparison to CoX).

  1. The scenery. The exteriors are just incredibly gorgeous, imaginatively but effectively evocative of Tolkien's books, but further fleshed out. The interiors aren't shabby, either. The world and environment have been lovingly crafted, and is the real star of the game.
  2. The epic, heroic story line. Part of that is the books, but the game has done a lot to incorporate that without getting players too on-stage for the books' tale. When LotRO is being heroic, it's great. 
  3. Mission variety. Margie disagrees (or, rather, seems to think it's a wash), but I feel like CoX has a much more limited number of sets (interior/exterior) and mission types than LotRO. Maybe it's the ability to take multiple missions at the same time, or the lush scenery that they take place in.
  4. More shops. You can sell stuff practically anywhere to anyone, rather than spending a lot of time jumping around town to get to the one Nat Store when you're in Indepndence Port.
  5. I love time-not-logged-in credit on experience for characters. 
  6. I think I prefer the "Defeated, a Bit Worse for the Wear" mechanic of LotRO to the "Back to the Hospital, gaining experience more slowly" mechanic of CoX. 
  7. The PUG/LFF/general chat environment seems a bit more positive than CoX.
  8. The crafting ingredients, so to speak -- the stuff you pick up to do things -- tend to be more controllable and makes more sense than the crafting system grafted onto CoX. Heck, the whole Inspiration bit always seemed a bit lame ("Wait, are these actually little pills, or concepts, or karma points, or what?"). And the who-remembers-their-names origin-specific DO/SO stuff is either underplayed (no actual game effect) or too complicated (trying to pick things out from the stores) for CoX's own good.
  9. The general mechanisms around buying/selling/crafting -- recipes and loot and auction houses and crafting halls and sellers -- and the interfaces to them are, by and large, quite a bit easier to use in LotRO than in CoX. While I feel like it's still a huge time sink in LotRO, it's a lot easier to figure out what something is worth, and a tad easier to figure out if you should sell it or auction it, in LotRO.   And while I've spent an inordinate amount of time running around in Bree between Craft and Auction Houses, it's trivial compared to even the most convenient of setups in CoX (i.e., Steel Canyon, where the University (crafting), Wentworths (auction), two stores and a variety of contacts, plus the Vault, are all within a relatively easy distance (except you need a travel power to make it such), and I still end up spending several orders of inordinate time making it work. 
  10. I like that you can take a large number of missions in LotRO, and that world tends to send you to clusters of missions -- rather than the Steel/Skyway or Talos/IP shuffle, for example.
  11. I like that you can see what level you are at all times.
  12. I like that there's no kill-stealing in LotRO.
  13. It may be because of the preponderance of outside zones, but the distribution of bad guys (plus their "wandering") feels more organic and natural than, say, CoX's standard spawn points within each interior map and standard spawn groups for each type of foe. Plus it's believable that there's hostile wildlife all over the place, except for pockets of habitation (towns, camps, lairs, etc.) -- while it's not believable that the whole of Paragon City is actually overrun by street thugs and crime gangs.
  14. I love that auction results are mailed to you, rather than having to revisit the auction house.
  15. I love that you can send stuff (money, items, raw materials) to your other alts.

Things I dislike about LotRO (particularly in comparison to CoX).

  1. The teeny-tiny freaking radar/map. It's smaller than it should be by an order of magnitude. The amount of time one has to spend popping back and forth to the "big map" is proof of that. I don't expect an entire CoX zone map, but something bigger would be very nice.
  2. Too many missions that, well, aren't heroic. "Can you go run back and tell Fred that I have the money I owe him?" Dammit, Jim, I'm an immortal elf huntress from Lothlorien, not an errand boy!
  3. Too many suicidal NPCs, esp. of the type where you go and rescue them and they wander around, blundering into every bad guy in the immediate area. Granted, CoX had a few of these with the more recent issues (waves at Fusionette), but not to this frustrating extent. Too many cases where I just throw up my hands and say, "Screw it -- let the orcs have him." On the other hand, CoX has a lot more static NPCs (never-ending purse tug-o-war, police perma-cringing from gang members), and more mute NPCs (the perma-cringing cops are more vocally thankful for help than the AI cops you help against the AI villains in the newer zones).
  4. Running around. Yes, the game compensates for it some (clustered missions, compressed distances, horses/stables), but CoX travel powers just simply rock. (I'm not sure how LotRO could get around this given the setting, though.)
  5. Limited character options. I've only gotten into the mid-twenties with one set, and into the teens with another couple of toons, but I feel I've now "done" half the archetypes and most of the races. One elf hunter is a lot like another, it seems (heck, two hunters are pretty close, once you're in the same territory). Yes, there can be subtle differences depending on traits, professions. etc., but those differences are trivial compared to what you can do in CoX with its plethora (and growing) of primary and secondary powers, a larger set of archetypes (if you consider CoV), and much more interesting cosmetic effects (character design). 
  6. Limited storyline options. Within the caveats of the limited experience above, it feels in LotRO that "journey" for any given character is going to have much less variation than CoX, limiting replayability.
  7. More logistical busy-work. I loathe encumbrance rules in any game. And between profession "hunting" and looting and selling and auctioning and crafting, it seems fairly easy to spend at least a third of your time or more doing stuff other than thwomping orcs. And, as far as I can tell, it's really pretty much necessary to do so in LotRO (vs. CoX, where the crafting stuff was grafted on relatively recently, and theoritically is still fully optional).
  8. Squishy characters. LotRO characters may be heroic, but they are easily overcome by numbers (or, rather, more easily than CoX characters).
  9. What level am I? I know what level it says -- but did I level since I last visited a trainer?  I know there must be an easy way to determine whether you've gone and leveled, but I haven't found it.
  10. I think I prefer the instanced mission arrangement of CoX to the common zones of LotRO, where other heroes might be running past picking up your treasure, making you wait for re-spawns (or letting you slip past without opposition), etc. It's a bit of a toss-up, though.
  11. Tell me again why I'm collecting Neeker-Breeker Wing Slime? And why someone will pay for it? And why I care
  12. I miss @names. I like being able to globally hook up with a friend (esp. when it's my wife).
  13. I don't like looting bodies. It's realistic (using the term lightly), but it's an annoyance. Even with auto-loot turned on. (This was one of the greatest reliefs when I played CoX this past weekend.). 
  14. I dislike that if I want to give something to someone, I have to open up (and wait for) a trading window. I really like the CoX drag-and-drop (optional) interface.
  15. Facing is a wash. It's, um, realistic. It can also be a pain in the neck.
  16. Having to trudge back to the mission contact is a pain. I don't know how to mitigate that, given the setting -- though a number of missions could be handled, for example, by just mailing a postcard back to the mission sender. And, yes, some missions don't require returning.
  17. I dislike that there's no incentive (aside from being a nice guy) to help someone who's in over their heads. That's the flip side to the no-kill-stealing mechanism. (Perhaps a "the encounter owner / first damager gets full credit, while other damagers get a lesser credit" rule might be the best.)

None of this means I plan to not play LotRO, or that one game is the clear winner over the other. And, as I noted above, a lot of the above is my own play style and preferences. But, then, it's my blog, and I'll whine if I want to.


Posted by Dave at 3:05 PM | Comments (17) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay , LotRO

March 30, 2008

CoX: Gameplay for a whole day!

Basically spent the day playing CoX, which is something that hasn't happened in ... well ... months. And it felt good. Not something I want to devote every Saturday to, but a lot of fun. Especially given the company (bats eyelashes at Margie).

More Kitsune/Ex-Terra fun, getting them from 14 to 19.  We're also actively pondering what we're going to do when I12 hits. I'm seriously thinking the Psionic Blaster (at least until it gets nerfed), but a Fire/Fire scrapper sounds like it could be fun. Margie has a yen for a Plant Controller, too. Whatever we do, I look forward to seeing how the Hollows operates.


Posted by Dave at 12:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

March 29, 2008

CoX: Gameplay!

I actually played CoH last night! 

Yeah, it's pretty pathetic that that's news.

Actually had a very fun time. Kitsune-chan (my Illusion/Rad Controller Fox Onii) and X-Terra (Margie's Spine Scrapper), both around 14 (Travel! Yay!), and we just kicked butts and chewed gum -- save that there is no emote for chewing gum.

Just plain fun.

Yay!


Posted by Dave at 9:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

March 28, 2008

CoX: Hollows Redesign

By and large sounds pretty good. A bit more variety, a bit less lethality (esp. at lower levels), and a lot less running around.

I pulled every single mission door from the zone and reassigned it to a specific contact AND that contact's neighborhood. What this means is; no longer will players have to fly across the deadly Grendel's Gulch at Level 5 for their Frostfire mission at the other end of the zone, dodging spawns that can make mincemeat of them in a few short hits.

 

While, as Margie points out, the Temp Travel Powers have reduced the burden on this by quite a bit, the fact is a lot of players still don't do that (either not taking or not having the opportunity to take Bank missions), so it's still not unusual to end up waiting at a door way in the SE corner while watching half the team struggling to get across the zone.

It sounds like the changes were well done within the resource limitations available. Might make the Hollows a bit more enjoyable to run some of those new characters through ...


Posted by Dave at 4:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

CoX: The Powers are Yours(yours)((yours))!

Dr. Brainstorm unveils new addition powersets for City of Heroes, City of Villains - PC News 

Lots of fine introductory text ... but here's the list.

Blaster 

  • New Primary - Psychic Blast 

  • New Secondary - Mental Manipulation 

Corruptor 

  • New Primary - Electrical Blast 

  • New Secondary - Storm Summoning 

Controller 

  • New Primary - Plant Control 

  • New Secondary - Thermal Radiation 

Dominator 

  • New Primary - Earth Control 

  • New Secondary - Electricity Manipulation 

Defender: 

  • New Primary - Cold Domination 

  • New Secondary - Ice Blast 

Mastermind: 

  • New Secondary - Storm Summoning 

Brute: 

  • New Primary - Battle Axe 

  • New Primary - War Mace 

  • New Secondary - Super Reflexes 

Stalker: 

  • New Primary - Electric Melee 

  • New Secondary - Electric Armor 

Tank: 

  • New Primary - Dark Armor 

  • New Secondary - Dark Melee 

Scrapper: 

  • New Primary - Fiery Melee 

  • New Secondary - Fiery Aura 

Spiffy!

(via Margie)

 

Posted by Dave at 1:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design , Resources & Rules

Yeah, it's been a couple of weeks

I haven't actually been doing any online gaming in the interval -- travel, illness, more travel, holidays, just not been in a gaming sort of mood.

Margie has been plugging away solo in both systems in the interval, though. Her Hobbit thief is up to 26.

My play drought might be shifting, though. Margie and I did some LotRO last night (let me say, I think Weathertop is faboo, visually), and I'm feeling a yen for some CoX building up in me (esp. to do some of the new I12 power combos and see what they've done in the Hollows -- except that I12 isn't in beta yet).

Chatting with Margie yesterday, she opined that one of the frustrations she finds is that you really need to stop active adventuring about an hour before you need to get away from the keyboard -- since it take that long to (a) get someplace safe, (b) check mail, (c) hit up contacts you need to hit up, (d) sell stuff that you want to sell (to get things out of your pack, and to earn enough to spend on needful activities), (e) craft stuff you need to craft (to get things out of your pack), (f) put things up for auction that you've acquired or crafted (again, to get things out of your pack and to earn vital money).

While the same is true to a lesser degree in CoX (Wentworths can easily be a half hour visit every session), it's less so because (a) you don't really have to craft in CoX if you don't want to, and (b) encumbrance / pack overflow is far less of an issue in CoX than in LotRO.

And, yeah, that is a bit annoying.

More as I ponder it.

 


Posted by Dave at 8:21 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay , LotRO

March 14, 2008

LotRO - In Dwimmerdelf ...

Volume II of LotRO is coming this Fall -- Mines of Moria.

Speak Friend, and Enter – Moria, called Khazad-dûm by the dwarves, was their capital and the grandest of cities. This enormous underground cavern in north-western Middle-earth, comprises an immense network of tunnels, chambers, mines and huge halls that run beneath and ultimately through the Misty Mountains. For the first time, players of The Lord of the Rings Online will enter this ancient city which has served as the foundation for the modern-day dungeon-crawling adventures to battle the hordes of goblins and the Nameless of the Deep and journey through hundreds of new quests within six new kinds of stunning environments.

 

Cooooool ... new quests, new environments, new niftiness.

The Epic Continues! — The Mines of Moria represents the beginning of Volume II of The Lord of the Rings Online. Players can experience six new books as part of this update and participate in the release of Durin’s Bane, battle the Watcher, aid Galadriel and more!

 

Sounds keen!

Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 60, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests. The crafting system will also expand, giving players the ability to craft even more powerful items.

 

 

Increased level cap good!

Discover Two New Classes — The Rune-keeper and the Warden, the first new classes to be introduced since the launch of the game, allow players to build exciting and powerful new characters in The Lord of the Rings Online in diverse new ways.

 

Interesting. Not clear (by name) what they new classes do, actually. But new classes are a good way to enable replayability, even of the older content.

Forge Legendary Items – The Mines of Moria will introduce Turbine’s new item advancement system to The Lord of the Rings Online. Players will be able to forge weapons and class-related equipment and evolve them to build a legacy the likes of Bilbo’s Sting and Gandalf’s Glamdring. These legendary weapons will level-up along with the player, allowing customization by advancing the item’s virtues, adding runic legacies, modifying its titles and forming fables.

 

Oh, spiffy. I love the idea of items that level up with you.

I'm new enough to the game to not quite understand why this is a new "volume" / "expansion" vs. being another "Book."

There's also some contest site to learn more and unlock this and that.   I will have to look at it.


Posted by Dave at 9:12 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: LotRO , Resources & Rules

CoX - More Issue 12 stuff

After the previous post ... looking at the Official I12 Post:

JOIN THE MIDNIGHT SQUAD (LEVELS 10 - 20)
The clandestine organization of mystics, scholars and mages, known only as the Midnight Squad, seeks to rebuild its numbers since the devastating assault of the Rikti Invasion. The Midnighters hold a secret that could bring the alien assault to an end, but without the help of the Heroes of Paragon City™ it will remain Lost forever.

 

Sounds like some origin-based lovey-love, as well as new content. Cool. I wonder if similar origin-based bits will creep into future issues.

NEW ROMAN-STYLE ZONE MAPS (LEVELS 35 - 50)
The Midnighters hold many secrets within their walls, including a highly coveted Ouroboros crystal, enabling them to travel to the far reaches of time. There is a familiar threat in an ancient land and the Midnighters need the help of both Heroes and Villains to stop it. Players step foot upon the ancient land of the Roman Cimeroran Peninsula, where they battle deadly creatures, defend an ancient city and ultimately come face to face with the enemy of time itself. Throughout this journey players uncover the mysteries of power and the origins that guide them today.

 

Hmmm. Would have rather had something that was contemporaneous (where's my moonbase?!), but new content is basically cool.

UNLOCK ROMAN-STYLE ARMOR COSTUMES
Through their accomplishments, players unlock the new Roman themed armor costume set.

 

Honestly, I've never been fond of "exclusive" costume bits. I simply cannot justify it, story-wise (the cape bits, at least, they made an effort at, but why can't any Level 1 schmuck have a Roman helmet?). There may be a story element here, and it's better than some other ways they've played with the mechanic, but I'm still no approving.

Villain Epic Archetypes

Infiltrate the Arachnos organization from within! Upon reaching level 50, Villains unlock two new Epic Archetypes; Wolf Spiders and Blood Widows. They have their own unique storyline and missions, power combinations and costume sets. Branching powersets allow the Wolf Spider to specialize as either a Bane Spider or Crab Spider and the Blood Widow chooses from the Fortunata and Night Widow branches. Each brings with it unique costumes for your Arachnos duties, as well as your newfound role as a Destined One.

 

Coolness. Not that I've ever brought a villain to 50 (or ever am likely to), but a nice way to handle it.

Powerset Proliferation

Using his newly built Resonance Manipulator, the Villain scientist known as Dr. Brainstorm™ has discovered a way to alter the energy strands which connect every Hero and Villain to their powers. This discovery has not only opened the door to new powers for his fellow Villains in the Rogue Isles™, but has also done the same for the Heroes of Paragon City ™! Specifically, new characters of almost every Hero and Villain archetype gain access to an additional primary and secondary powerset that they didn’t have access to previously. Details to come!

 

Huzzah! Mix-n-match powers! Or, at least, no arbitrary "we want villains to feel special" / "we haven't playtested it yet" excuses for not sharing the power love. 
Hollows Zone "Gameplay Makeover"

Significant changes have been made to the Hollows zone to make it more fun! NPC encounters have been rebalanced, including new spawns, new villain groups, mission door improvements, and a mobile hospital has been added to the entrance of the zone. Additionally, Meg Mason, a new contact, has been added to give out repeatable missions.

 

As the zone nearly everyone spends time in -- and everyone finds something to be annoyed with -- I applaud the improvements to the Hollows. Especially the "mobile hospital," thus saving wear and tear on the pavement (though dying was often a convenient way to get back to level).

Major Gameplay Improvements

   * Eight configurable new power trays let players customize their User Interface by placing them anywhere on the screen.
 

 

Cool. I've gotten crowded with only 3 visible -- and having even more means being able to put (for example) all your standard toggle powers in one spot, your travel powers elsewhere, your combat powers somewhere else. Goodness.

   * Contact display redesign: Contacts are now listed separately as Active and Inactive, and players can sort contacts by a range of criteria including Name, Zone, and Level Range.

 

Excellent. The contact list was always kind of a mish-mosh.

   * Inspiration Conversion: Right click an inspiration to convert three of that kind into any one inspiration of another kind.

 

Especially if it's available at any time, this could be a god-send sometimes.

   * Level Up Boost: Upon reaching enough XP to level up (at all levels), one of each type of large inspiration is immediately cast upon your character, and health and endurance bars are immediately filled.

 

Which makes leveling mid-combat all the more keen!

   * Chat improvements: Right click on character names in chat window to ignore, add to friends list, invite to team, etc. Drag any item (enhancement, inspiration, salvage, etc.) into the chat window so that you and others can click a hotlink to view the complete info box.

 

Not sure what the latter provides, but the former is a nice touch.

   * More Real Numbers: Players can now display stats on powers before they choose them enabling more informed power selection and new temporary powers allow players to display enemy stats.

 

For those who like them, More Numbers Are Good.

Overall -- thumbs up.


Posted by Dave at 7:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

CoX - Issue 12 random stuff

I have been away from this blog for a bit -- between business travel and illness and all that -- so I've missed out on all the CoX Issue 12 fun. I'll be looking at it in more detail, but Margie's been feeding me some fun tidbits:

And, the Best Bit of All Time: a hospital in the Hollows! Yay!

More (systematic) info as I actually catch up with some of my CoX reading.


Posted by Dave at 6:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

FreeRealms is on my radar

BD forwarded this article about the coming-soon "FreeRealms" game from Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). The idea seems to be creating an MMO that kids and adults can play (together) -- what's being called a "Casual MMORPG." More info here.

I'd love to have a game I could play with Katherine. I'll be keeping my eye open for more announcements.


Posted by Dave at 4:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Media

March 8, 2008

The game's afoot

The good news? Nobody's spending time clucking their tongues and worrying about how nerdy, obsessed, and emotionally immature Dungeons & Dragons players are. That's because tabletop D&D is passé.

Instead, it seems, now everyone's spending time clucking their tongues and worrying about how nerdy, obsessed, and emotionally immature MMO players are. As in the view of the newly released film, Second Skin.

But my take was that the film--which focuses mainly on three distinct stories, a gamer who is so deeply addicted to World of Warcraft that he loses almost everything in his life; a household of gamers who spend almost every waking, non-working hour playing; and a couple in the early stages of a relationship that bloomed in EverQuest II--depicts these people as largely dysfunctional, out of touch with the world around them and not very capable of dealing with that world.

Of course, that's an extreme view of the film, and I know for a fact that many in the audience saw it very differently. I overheard many saying afterwards that they thought the film was uplifting and a positive, realistic look at these games and the people who play them.

I just don't agree. For me, part of the problem may have something to do with the fact that I've been writing about virtual worlds and online games regularly for more than four years. As a result, much of the underlying context of the film was not even a little bit new to me. And so I think I may have been looking more at the way the film's subjects were portrayed than many of the audience members who, I surmised, were largely new to this topic.

I could have that totally backwards, of course. Perhaps they were mostly hard-core WoW players who saw themselves in the film's subjects. I'm not sure.

But I guess I was a little upset because I think many people are looking at this film as a definitive view on what online games and virtual worlds are, and I simply felt it was far too narrow a view.

 

At least nobody's ranting about how World of Warcraft is actually a Satanic plot. Well, not yet.

 


Posted by Dave at 5:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Media