This Week in MMOs

[Hermit]

21 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

 

 

They confirmed they're going to add 6 character slots per server to accommodate allied race alts.

 

Thank goodness!

[mrinku]

On ‎4‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 8:08 AM, DasBroot said:

I liked the missions in hisec for EVE as well... but the sheer amount of physical playtime I spent on them did me in.  It wasn't uncommon for my ship - tough enough to take the level... 3 and 4? - missions to take a half hour or so to clear one.  After that going back dropping a warp marker for myself and going to get my destroyer kitted out for salvage (salvagers and tractor beams galore) and cleaning every single wreck could take another 20 minutes or more.  

 

Add that each and every mission played the same and... yeah, it was a chatroom while things exploded sometimes.

 

Beautiful ships, though. I loved, loved, loved my Minmater ships.

 

Bah, the only good looking ships are Amarr!

 

I was salvaging as I went in a Paladin, or doing combat exploration sites in my Legion. No need to waste time swapping ships

[DasBroot]

I don't really like the Amarr ships overall.  They're smooth but maybe... too smooth? The other factions ships just seem more unique.

 

For a while I was salvaging as I went in a Dominix to try and speed things up for a bit, back years and years ago when drone just didn't really pull aggro so I'd 'pull' and range-tank for them, sacrificing two weapon hardpoints for salvage beams.  I'd still need to go back for my salvage setup, though, if I wanted to clear the entire mission in any semblance of reasonable time (destroyer. 4 salvage, 4 tractor,  All internal space to extra cargo capacity.)

 

After a patch, though, drones started pulling fair aggro and it got expensive to try and do that - losing a single drone of the quality I used could cost half (or more)  of what I'd make salvaging the mission.

 

 

[mrinku]

Nothing does the job like the Marauders. The full direct fire armament of a Battleship *plus* slots for tractors (and a bonus for them).

 

When they added the MJD (which they also get a bonus for) it became even better.

 

And ooohhh, that Bastion Module. If I'm able to fly my old bird again with the December updates to F2P I shall be a very happy old space pilot.

[DasBroot]

SWTOR's latest server merges are under way.  After it's done it will be down to five - two North America, 3 europe (French, German, English localizations).

 

It's been a few years since the last great merging but I'm a little sad that the two most populated launch servers (Harbinger and Ebon Hawk) are now folding into the two new servers instead of being the destination for many of the merges like last time: they probably account for 60% (or more) of the population of the 17 servers in play until today (which is why the merges are happening).

 

Looking forward to logging in and seeing what kind of damage was done to my account wide storage, character names, strongholds, and legacy names...

[Christopher R Taylor]

It is sad to see what is happening to Star Wars, its a really neat idea with a super popular franchise and they can't seem to make it work.

 

The game is super fun... for a while.  But once you run the story there's just nothing there.  SWTOR has some of the best ideas and mechanics for role playing I've ever seen in any game and the stories with your companions are great.  It really felt deep and interesting.  But because of the voice acting and animation, its also super expensive.  And it being so tightly connected to the storylines means its extremely narrow and difficult to expand on, or have variety in.

[mrinku]

I've thought for years that we're largely spinning wheels until AI, voice synthesis and procedural generation catches up to what can be done by script and real actors.

[DasBroot]

13 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

It is sad to see what is happening to Star Wars, its a really neat idea with a super popular franchise and they can't seem to make it work.

 

The game is super fun... for a while.  But once you run the story there's just nothing there.  SWTOR has some of the best ideas and mechanics for role playing I've ever seen in any game and the stories with your companions are great.  It really felt deep and interesting.  But because of the voice acting and animation, its also super expensive.  And it being so tightly connected to the storylines means its extremely narrow and difficult to expand on, or have variety in.

 

I've never been able to put my finger on what the problem is.  It's technically run 10 stories - each class plus two plays through as dark and light in the Zakuulan expansions: the story in Eternal Throne and Fallen Empire plays out very differently if you're pure dark, pure light, or even some mix of the two.)

 

After that it's ... well, do dailies (like WoW), raid (like WoW - though I'm not a raider so maybe the ones in SWTOR aren't very good?), and/or pvp (like WoW).  So what makes it work for WoW but not SWTOR?

 

Other than the community being so toxic that most players prefer to solo and just run their dailies in peace while waiting for new story content.  It's very much a game you can sub for a month a year and enjoy - I know a lot of people who do just that (I was one for the first four years - this is the longest I've stayed subbed and it's honestly to support the game more than anything else at this point). 

 

I used to the same with WoW, though - I referred to it as Aughtoberfest because I'd sub every October for a month before remembering why I unsubbed in the first place. )

[Christopher R Taylor]

WoW works because it has a dozen other things to do besides level and story.  There's fishing and pet battles and exploration and getting gear and transmogs and mounts etc.  Star Wars is very limited in extra stuff because almost everything you want that is extra costs cartel coins to buy instead of find.  And the content is not very inventive or creative, its all pretty much the same thing: go kill many, many targets and collect a few things.  If you get the adaptable orange gear, you've got all the gear you'll ever need again.  There literally are no upgrades, just upgrade things you can put in the gear for money.

 

WoW has focused on trying to make content different and interesting in all sorts of ways as well: there are quests that involve getting into some vehicle and flying about, or sneaking into somewhere and setting off a device or unlocking a puzzle etc.  Star Wars also suffers from the maps being almost exclusively mission based and fairly small, where WoW is gigantically open. 

 

Its never ceased to annoy me that Star Wars has a series of entire PLANETS to go to for areas where its zones for other games.  So you go to an interesting planet and see... a few hundred square meters of it.  And if you do ever go back to a planet, its to the same areas.  

 

Star Wars' "raids and dungeons" aren't very good.  Their design is very simple, linear, and has almost no creativity.  Their PVP is actually more creative, but its still PVP which really only appeals to a fairly small segment of the population.  Its hard to feel any story to any part of the game except the character and follower stories.  So its very fun and incredibly engaging... until you're done with them, then its just quickly dull.

[DasBroot]

Fair points -  though SWTOR has added a fair number of 'alternate mode' missions... where you stomp around the map as a walker or try and avoid detection as a hacked mouse droid (both available as dailies or repeatable missions on Iokath - including walker on walker pvp combat) so maybe they're aware of it?  People whine every time they add something new like that instead of 'fix pvp', though.

 

As for other events not mentioned - there are the survey missions and probe missions in SWTOR as well, where you explore and lock on to targets with your binoculars or send a probe out to dig for treasure.   There's also the Starfox style space missions, which I enjoy as a break (though they haven't added any new ones since launch - still, hard to go wrong with strafing a Star Destroyer and shooting down a hundred fighters in my favorite - Makem Te assault.  I can play that one for an hour straight (and have)).  

 

Also Galactic Starfighter - which i really enjoy.  It's pure pvp, though, like World of Tanks, and unlike WoT (where it's the entire point of the game) only a very, very tiny percentage of players play it so it takes a LONG time for a match to pop.  Also while it has the friendliest community in SWTOR there are still more than enough jerks flaming new pilots  Combine that with the fact that the learning curve is very steep and the difference between a tricked out fighter and a starting fighter (even if they're the same ship class) is brutal (it's daunting when every shot you make seems to do nothing, even if by a miracle you hit something, while that guy over there has gone on a 20 fighter kill streak of one shotting everything that has the misfortune of being in his sights) and many people don't give it more than a match or two.

 

No fishing, though.

 

Of the above - the community hates survey, probe, starfighter, and galactic starfighter so they get very little development time (like I said... a toxic community which shoots down or ignores anything 'new' the developers try):  WoW gets enhancements to its side games because  its sheer population dictates that enough people enjoy it to be worth it.

 

As for the gear grind... oh, it's real.  The orange shells (adaptable gear) and vendor mods are a blessing for leveling but for the end game content you want the set bonus gear and levels of mods that are beyond what the vendors sell - you can't even *queue* for the more recent operations without a gear score you can only acquire through grinding for components through older raids or pvp (ground or space). 

 

(To the loud screams of raiders and pvpers they're changing it shortly so that you can slowly acquire components with the command crates you get for leveling while at cap - they're funny like that: quick to shout down and kick 'noobs' out of their matches or ops groups but then cry at the top of their lungs that nobody will queue anymore if they can get their end game gear without doing so).

 

 

[Vanguard]

So with PGs comments on WoW and running across the Battle for Azeroth cinematic on Youtube, I decide to download it again and give it a shot. It's been *years* since I've played and while poking around my account found out that they gave me Warlord of Draenor for free.  So I'm just behind by Legion.

 

Anyway, I decide to mess around with the "free to play" portion since I've got a few alts below level 20 and well, after finding out I couldn't do much I decide to spring for a 60 day game card. Figured it would give me time to mess around and see if I'm really interested in playing again or if it's just a random phase I'm going through.

 

But lemme tell ya, things have REALLY changed . . . .

 

Anywho ..  it's going to be interesting.  Oh and I forgot I upgraded my video card in the interim so was pleasantly surprised at the graphic performance. 

[DasBroot]

UNless my account was stolen by hackers (I always assume so in any long hiatus) my Forsaken Warlock (favorite character in any MMO, ever  is still standing in what was a 'new' underwater zone. Whatever expansion that was. I played up to it while waiting for it to drop and just... didn't finish the expansion. 

 

I still miss that guy.  Other DoT (or Blaster)-Pet master classes since just haven't measured up.

[Pattern Ghost]

13th Anniversary Event started today. Dailies to kill old world bosses, who have old loot with old looks on them, and a 13% bonus rep and XP buff. I'm taking advantage of the XP buff to level more alts. I've kind of been binging on alts lately.

[Hermit]

Guild Wars 2 has been drawing my attention again, and I don't even have the new expac. It really is a gorgeous world

 

Alas, in any MMORPG I am a scrub

[Pattern Ghost]

Battle for Azeroth went on pre-order today. WoW asploded. Saw the Horde pre-order mount in game before things went south. It's a raptor with Zandalari armor. ME WANT.

 

Unfortunately, I've been remiss at gold making lately, having kind of burnt out on it getting the gold up for the Blizzcon virtual ticket. So I'm sitting on 4 tokens with 12 days left on my game time. I'm going to have to make enough gold for two more tokens at inflated rates if I want to pre-order this month. I may just wait out the token prices and see if they drop after the hype dies down. I don't really need any of the pre-order stuff (mounts, character boost, early access to first 4 allied races) anyway.

 

There was a blue statement that they're working on making the extra six character slots available for everyone regardless of if they've pre-ordered, so that'll be nice.

[Hermit]

" A night elf laughed at me for living inside a volcano. Well at least I don't have to worry about my mountain burning now do I! What... too soon? " Iron Dwarf Joke

 

Okay, that one got me to burst out laughing.

[Pattern Ghost]

Dark Irons also have some cool -- no, hot -- hair.

[Pattern Ghost]

Possibly bad news for EQ? Might be the first MMORPG taken down because of Russian election tampering. (Albeit indirectly. The owner of the company that owns the company that owns the company that owns EQ is a Russian oligarch that's in trouble for the tampering.)

 

http://massivelyop.com/2018/04/24/daybreaks-russian-parent-companys-assets-are-frozen-by-the-u-s-government/

[Pattern Ghost]

There was a developer Q&A with Ion Hazanattitude today, some notes on it on MMO Champion:

 

https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/7554-Developer-Q-A-with-Ion-Hazzikostas-Battle-for-Azeroth

 

Video on Demand of it here (doesn't seem to be working yet for me):

 

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/21719348/join-us-for-a-live-developer-q-a-thursday-4-26?blzcmp=app

[Pattern Ghost]

I just logged in to Champions Online to fiddle with the character creator and found out they added a free Martial Arts Archetype, the Dragon Spirit. It looks like they did a Martial Arts power set review in February, and put this in the game at the same time. I've always been bummed that they didn't make one of the last two MA ATs they put in free, so this is cool. OTOH, it's in Hybrid role, so that's a bit of a bummer. It has a choice between tanking (LR) and DPS (WotW) passives.

[Pattern Ghost]

Also, it's bonus XP week in Champions Online, started on the 26th.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I have for a very long time wanted to buy the EverQuest franchise and rebuild it with a proper  new game engine and interface, graphics, but keep the world, setting, character classes, races etc.  It needs a ton of work to make the game more about quests and interaction than killing billions of creatures but still.  Its the biggest most complete and in my opinion best made game world out there online.

[Pattern Ghost]

It's a shame that EQ Next turned into vaporware. I thought they had some potential with the new tech.

[Pattern Ghost]

Champions Online is ditching its subscription option. Not sure what to think. I'm a bit concerned that this is a "make more money off this game or kill it" situation, as such changes tend to be with MMORPGS. Details (but not all of them, even though it rolls out on the 7th):

 

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/champions-online/news/detail/10916073

 

I think they're doing the same with STO.

[Pattern Ghost]

Almost forgot: The Nightmare Invasion event started. 750 event tokens gets you the Void archetype, which is supposed to be a pretty decent one.