Other Games....

City of Heroes is an extraordinarily easy game to play casually and dip in and out of.

If you're into that sort of thing, they've added a ton of base deco items, and improved the controls quiet a bit, though it still takes some getting used to.

 

DDO is one of those games I return to periodically. Lot's of stuff I like about it that's both old school and different.

I actually really like the twitch combat. Character customization is awesome and love the old table top rule set. Also, I like how itemization matters with respect to mob types.etc. Love the puzzles.

Downsides, the crating game (if you can call it that) is stupid. Dunno if there is still no character housing. Tends to attract zerg-players, and last time I played, there still wasn't really a meaningful raiding system.

This new class looks cool though. Maybe I'll pop in and try it out sometime.

Dungeons and Dragons Online

Also, latest AoC Dev stream. Lot of art stuff - looks great. I believe Akil Hooper is the lead on classes/abilities, and I really, really want to see where things are on that (CLASS LIST)

Skip to 38:20 for a super cool iguana mount. The animators outdid themselves on this one - really good

Lastly, latest Pantheon news for you old school love slow crawls and corpse runs weirdos.

https://pantheonmmo.com/newsletter/2020_february_producers_letter/

 

Jack Emmert isn’t sure Daybreak will publish his next MMO, says DCUO is as big as it was four years ago

 

That guy can go stick his head in an anthill.

 

I like how he spun things: "We have the same number of accounts we had when I took over!"

I'm guessing DBG is not going to fund the development his other project, so he's fishing. /shrug

 

I thought this was an interesting article.

It's talking about Red Dead Redemption 2, a beautiful and technologically advanced world that cost $200MM+ to develop.

The only problem: it's a big, beautiful world filled with little more than chores and time sinks.

The article then compares that model to the games doing it right. Those who may not be pushing the curve technologically, but, who deliver on story, variety, and the right incentives. This is more or less how I think of ESO.

I Don’t Wanna Do My Video Game Chores - The Outline - Pocket

 

On a New World note:

Looks like Smed has decided EQ2 style instanced housing is the way to go:

https://massivelyop.com/2020/02/20/new-world-details-its-semi-instanced-player-housing-system/

 

For all the times to all of the people who told me or have said on the OF that GW2 is an easy-mode game.

Go get your Skyscale mount.

Just the content you have to go through to get to that point would break a lot of those suckers.

But the journey is a pretty one.

 

My wife and I play RDR2 (online, specifically) here and there, and while we don't even mind the lack of designated activities, what little that there is there to enjoy is ruined by horrible bugs and the developers' refusal to implement things that the community wants. It was actually months after the game's release before I even got into the online play, seeing as at first, it was little more than hordes of kids PVPing/killing everything in sight -- everywhere, in every room, all the time.

Too many games focus on looking pretty and making money, rather than being something that's actually enjoyable to play.

 

As much as I enjoyed open world housing in UO back in the day, it just isn't viable anymore. Every time an MMO developer tries it one of two things happen - it becomes extremely expensive to buy a house in real world cash (cash shop) because land is at such a premium, or "farmers" do a land grab with multiple accounts and then sell the places in an underhanded way.

I may be biased since I still play LOTRO but I think their method of housing instances is the best. There are neighborhoods with real standing houses with real yards anyone can walk through. But the neighborhoods are instances. So it's still instanced housing, but you get the feeling of it being in the game world, rather than a door you click on to enter an instanced house. You actually have neighbors and you can try buy a house near your kinship (guild) hall or your friends in the same neighborhood. They have a good mix of in game housing that is pretty cheap in game money to upkeep or you can pay real world money to buy a prestige house that has no "rent".

LOTRO's house decorating on the other hand has a lot to be desired with their limited hooks (you can move them around within a radius, but it's still pretty restrictive). But the instanced neighborhoods to me are the best of both worlds - not an instanced door, but also not open world with land grabs/cash grabs.

 

Latest AOC Dev stream:

Alpha one goes live this month:

• Most core systems tied together and on display (harvesting, combat, mobs, dungeons, nodes, quests, caravans, economics, etc - lots and lots of systems)
• 3 classes (tank, cleric...eh, one other one mage) - both action combat and button abilities in place and ready for player testing.
• Dev's skipping GDC, but will live stream what they had intended to show there.

 

Ashes of Creation alpha one player review:

 

It is nice to see the game making progress. So many of the games that have been in production in recent years are either deadish or disappointing.

 

I'm excited to see the node system up and running because it's the leveling/de-leveling of nodes that makes/re-makes the game and drives content.

I'm also really pleased that so many ex-soe devs involved with this project. Such a contrast to the garbage pile dbg has become.

 

Regarding AoC, public roll-out of alpha one will start in May, with access gradually opened according to backing level.

The link I posted above is a summary of a dev preview (although they did run across other players out in the world).

The link below has about an hour of game play. It looks pretty good. There appeared to be some hitching here and there, but it's early. The combat looked smooth, harvesting is up, questing, npc's, node leveling, inventory, caravans etc. Lots of the core systems.

(Maggie built an armory and decided jumping tumbles were all the time necessary).

 

Margaret Krohn....she used to be with SOE/DPG, didn't she? What was her handle - I can't remember now.

 

Luperza, and yep.

There's a ton of former SOE folks at Intrepid.

 

AoC livestream: April

This is a dungeon crawl, and probably the most complete discussion of how pve is going to work in this game.

Lots and lots of info, here are a few of the highlights:

• Hybrid combat is on display here.
• Spell and combat effects are still in rough draft form (they look pretty cool already imo).
• Assisting and implied targeting - yes.
• Leveling will be effortful, but not eq1 effortful.
• Max group size = 8 (allowing for the presence of each of the 8 arch-types).
• No old school style resource regen (sitting down is not fun - classes help each other).
• Two modes: MMO mode = No reticle, Action mode = reticle. Flip on the fly with a key stroke.
• Level cap at launch = 50.
• Multiple paths for leveling to suit preferred play styles.

Lots and lots of other pve nuggets from crafting to nodes, caravans, housing, deco, etc.

 

But PvP is still mandatory or unavoidable right?

 

They've been fine tuning this. Near is can tell, pvp can be avoided if that's how you choose to play. There are lots and lots of ways to play the game, level, progress, and contribute to the development of nodes.

Now, it is a pvp game, and while it doesn't have a flagging system that makes a person immune, it does allow players to flag, and if they're attacked and killed while flagged, the penalties on the offending player are super severe.

• Signjficant degradation of resources and abilities (can't remember what they call it).
• No time decay of the penalty. It can only be removed by grinding special repeatables, or if the if the offender is killed in pvp.
• No hiding either. Bounty hunters can see them on the player map.
• Offenders killed while the penalty is in place drop their gear - including what they're wearing and have in their bags (with non-penalized pvp, player drops are limited to a chance to drop resources).

It will be hard to know how effective this psuedo-flagging system will be, and there is always the chance some asshat will ambush a crafter who's out harvesting and is flagged, but really, the penalties are so harsh for doing it that I expect it to be quite rare.

Just have to see.

Edit:
I believe flagging mechanics apply to groups as well. For example, suppose your group is crawling a contested dungeon and you're all flagged. Any group that attacks and kills you and your group is in for a world of suck (note that degradation penalties aren't constrained to pvp - as I understand, they are global).

On the other hand, if someone from your group attacks another group, well you're all in the fight, whether you wanted to be or not.

Personally, I like this system as it's been explained, but the only way to know for sure is play it. Traditional flagging systems are easy to exploit. I feel this system will be better.