What I’m up to in Online Gaming
I’m currently playing Fallen Earth, plus I’m poking in and out of Champions Online and Left 4 Dead.
Champions Online
For Champions, I’m basically waiting for Cryptic to settle down with their balancing. The initial release balancing is still going on and now that they’ve thrown the Celestial powerset into the mix, they’re bound to be fiddling with all the powers for awhile. I don’t want to relearn my character every week, so I’ll wait and then return. Having the lifetime subscription makes that an easy and casual thing to do.
My biggest concerns are related to that. I hope Mr. Roper is not into perpetual balancing, that would keep me away a lot. I also hope that Cryptic adds more content for initial subscribers. I totally accept and would even appreciate a paid expansion down the road, but there needs to be more base content first and foremost, especially considering us lifetime subbers.
Fallen Earth
Fallen Earth really surprised me with how compelling it is. I’ll probably be playing it for awhile, even though I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be a permanent home. Nelg is loving it too, although I don’t think it has grabbed onto Sakkara as strongly.
I’m a little torn on Fallen Earth’s combat, it’s good to have an FPS-lite MMO that actually lets you aim (auto-aim IMHO in any shooter = huge fail), but there’s a fun-to-tedious ratio that gets upset whenever I have to click on additional abilities on my bar.
Ultimately it’s the crafting and the related scavenging (for crafting supplies of course) that I enjoy in Fallen Earth. I’m still relatively low level (18 currently) and I’ve done most of that leveling via crafting (barely any questing). It’s a big “we’ll see” if the crafting scales all the way up throughout the game and that’s going to be what makes me stay or leave in the long run.
Coop Games
I got into MMOs in the first place to explore and even find a home online within huge virtual worlds, but as it’s been lately the worlds are shrinking smaller and smaller. Even Fallen Earth, which has huge open spaces, does so by reducing the variety in those space (it’s more / less one big desert).
I often wonder what I’m paying subscription fees for. It’s all just coop now, isn’t it? I’m definitely feeling the coop urge. I miss the great pulls and related team efforts required for WoW’s original release (before every encounter became scripted) but more and more I doubt I’ll find that level of coop PvE fun within another MMORPG.
Left 4 Dead and Borderlands both deliver a much better team combat experience for me, I just wish they had more content too. I’ll definitely be picking up Left 4 Dead 2 soonish. I still boggled that coop is so often ignored in games when it’s clearly so freaking popular.
Don’t even get me started on PvP. It’s mind-boggling to me how much better Team Fortress 2 and UT3 are compared to the zerg bullshit that passes for PvP in MMOs.
On the horizon?
I am so Diku burned out, I’m completely meh towards TOR and other upcoming games that appear to be putting zero effort or imagination into their base combat.
That said I’m leaning toward a pre-order for Guild Wars 2, if anything just to support the “you bought it, you own it, just play it” model. Their presentation is really compelling too, visually it looks great.
Secret World looks interesting. I get the feeling it will outdo TOR when it comes to story-driven experience. I suspect tho that it’ll have a limited amount of content, but that may be okay because it doesn’t seem like a game to make a home in, just one to play through the story.
(note: F2P and DLC section removed, I’ll make a separate post).
. . .
Overall, I’m usually an optimistic guy when it comes to the games industry, but lately I cannot help but feel there’s this dark corporate storm that’s been taking over development. I wonder how many game designs are being made based on charts of shareholder interest, or via reiterative design in attempts to capture Blizzard’s success.
I’d much prefer games developed by passionate designers with singular visions.
And that’s pretty much the sum-up point. I’ve been posting less, because the nature of my enthusiasm in games is shifting. I find myself less interested in the latest big AAA titles with nifty new explosions and I’m more intrigued by the independent developers producing games that look “good enough” but don’t have that extra layer of the latest tech. I’ve always been a bit empathic toward the developers, games as art is compelling to me.
I’m going to end this post before I ramble on. There are enough ponderings here to cover a month’s worth of blogging.
Two MMORPGs, Two Paradigms
I poked around Fallen Earth for about 45 mins this morning. Sort of hemmed and hawed over taking a couple of quests, explored a bit and then saw a notice on the chat window about the server coming down. A few hours maintenance in the middle of the day for a new patch: It’s not surprising, the game is very raw right now. Seriously raw. I hesitate to be critical, because it’s from a small developer and it just oozes charm.
While I waited for that server to come back up, I jumped into Champions for a bit. This is like apples and oranges, but it screams out for comparison when I play two games back to back like this:
Champions Online: I ran around on my Champions character like a kid in a candy shop, or maybe a bull in a china shop. The combat feels so expressive to me and I fully expressed myself for an hour or so, tossing mobs to and fro with my Force character. I threw myself into fights (literally via travel powers) and I just enjoyed myself vs the Mob AI. It feels explosive. Building myself up via the Powersets has been satisfying, although I may be a bit overpowered now. I’m very comfortable with my character at this point and for me the game now revolves around that.
Fallen Earth: In Fallen Earth, I’m just a newb. I’m still wearing the same jumpsuit as every other newb. I’ve got a couple of hidden tattoos, but (regardless of level) the primary distinction between other players appears to be hairstyle and the choice of weapons strapped to your back. My character is new and there’s a great big world to explore. It’s humbling. I killed a rabbit today and skinned it. I feel a bit like a small spec of sand.
There’s something to be said about being one peon in a universe of other peons. It’s an RPG thing for me: I can get deeply into my character’s own responsibility to separate himself from the crowd. Sooner or later I’ll have covered some ground and it will be to my own satisfaction when I’ve made my way in that world.
These are two completely different experiences, the strengths of both (for me at least) firmly planted in RPG. I enjoy my character so much in Champions, probably moreso than any other MMORPG. I also haven’t felt like I was in an actual virtual world in a long time and that’s what Fallen Earth is giving me.
I’m loving both of these games so far.
Installing Fallen Earth
I don’t usually play more than one MMORPG at a time.
I’ve been playing Champions Online a lot more than I thought I would, but my early assumption looks like it’s bearing out to be true: Champions is becoming the easy jump-in, jump-out game for me. As long as Cryptic keeps adding to it, I’ll probably keep playing.
Fallen Earth appears to be a much different beast, so it’s been tempting to play as well.
From Syp’s, Werit’s, Pete’s, etc. observations: Fallen Earth appears to be a sandboxy, FPS-ish, large world of exploration. Character progression is also intertwined with crafting and there are a whopping 6 factions. In other words, it sounds almost like the complete opposite of Champions as far as RPG goes.
Maybe it’s because it’s an independent game, or maybe because they’re chasing a more RPG-ish experience, Fallen Earth has been getting a lot of positive attention via the MMO blogosphere. It’s the opposite of the usual hype, building upwards after release rather than pumping up before. I’d barely so much as glanced at this game before it launched.
I’m going to try it, at least for the free month that comes with the game purchase. If it’s as deep as it looks, it could really work for me. I hope I’m not expecting too much.
Update: Looks like Nelg may be trying it out with me as well.
Hard? Easy? A quick perspective
I remember discussing with Nelg, back when we were playing Age of Conan: We came to the conclusion that we would prefer an RPG where players feel like underpowered weenies at first, then hit a threshold where they transform from pathetic to uber.
Occasionally characters need to dip into that process again on a smaller scale, but while leveling it’s almost paramount to progression. Sometimes it should be a difficult climb, because otherwise there’s no weight to your character’s progression.
I’m not sure if our culture still has the same patience for the sort of gameplay I’d prefer.
/sad panda.
Nelg’s new tanking spec
Nelg, Sakkara and I had some fun last night pooling our collective thought processes for Nelg’s full retcon.
I’ve never done any serious tanking and I think aside from the occasional Paly-tank situation in WoW, neither has Nelg. Sakkara is the experienced tank among us, but I couldn’t help chiming in my own unexperienced opinions.
Nelg’s character is robotic in a Terminator-esque sort of way, so he wanted to stay mostly in Power Armor to feel appropriate. Here’s what the three of us came up with for a Power Armor Tank:
- Superstats: CON & INT – Constitution / Health is a necessity for tanking. Intellect will reduce his energy consumption, which probably works better for using multiple Power Armor toggles than just pushing a higher energy cap with Endurance or higher equilibrium with Recovery.
- Invulnerability – This is the core (passive) mitigation defense that shines best at higher levels and gear. From what I’ve heard Invuln scales not only on its noted stats of CON and STR, but also via Superstats. The Superstat selection above rides some hope on that being true.
- Unbreakable – Temporary immunity-ish for those uh-oh moments.
- Resurgence – Instant self-heal for 2k or more, scales conveniently on CON.
- Defensive Combo – A threat-building melee attack, which also adds the Defiant (damage resistance) buff if you hammer it as a three-hit combo.
- Force Shield – The Force Shield is the highest return of energy while blocking and Power Armor overall will need a lot of energy. The Force Sheath advantage gives the shield a lingering effect that’s very flexible for fights. I know this one well, it’s one of my primary powers on my Force character.
- Laser Sword – With the Crippling Challenge advantage added, this becomes a single-target taunt-like melee attack with high damage. A little risky putting the taunt on a high energy cost attack, but there aren’t a lot of choices for where Crippling Challenge can be applied and this one looks pretty satisfying to use.
- Shockwave – With the Challenging Strikes advantage added, this is the group-target taunt-like ranged attack. There are other choices Challenging Strikes could go on, but this one seemed intuitive (aim in the general direction and pound the ground) and fun.
- Tractor Beam – From gadgeteering. This pull suits his Power Armor character more than the chain-animation pulls from Lariat and Shuriken.
On gear and talents Nelg will be collecting a variety of stats as a necessity to patch in holes with STR and END left by the choice of Superstats.
I’ve left out some of the Power Armor ranged goodies that Nelg is using, since they’re not essential to the tanking spec. He’s also just on the edge of completing this spec, being level 23, so he doesn’t have Shockwave or the Tractor Beam yet. A HoT as a second self-heal down the road would probably be wise as well.
Feel free to critique, we’re not Champions tanking experts. Yet. =)
Oh yeah, and happy birthday to both Nelg and Sakkara!
Champions Patch: More pet fixes, Group UI improvements
I’m feeling a little stir crazy with my busted foot, but Today’s Champions patch cheered me up. After the requisite few hours of patch day downtime of course.
The pet fixes, after several previous changes, finally make my Field Drones useful while soloing. The lag to dismiss them is gone, but I don’t even need to dismiss them as often since they can now navigate through doorways and other tight spaces. The secret sauce to this trick wasn’t better pathing, but simply linking their collision detection to my character’s. In theory now, anything I can go through, they should follow.
The UI has improved in some incremental but appreciated ways. They’ve added target-of-target for instance, which brings the UI more up to speed with other games. I don’t know why that particular feature is often missing from newly released MMORPGs. I suppose Grouping isn’t the priority that it used to be, even though developers seem to rediscover that it should be, after release.
More importantly:
Quests can now be made into group quests, via the “primary quest” setting. The objectives and waypoints properly show for all group members, plus there’s an indicator for which group member has the quest. Previously the setting didn’t do much, but now it’s similar to group questing in City of Heroes (which was always great for groups). This is a key feature for myself and my guildmates, it’ll make our groups feel a lot more productive. Now if they can add more group content and fix the threat-model, we’ll be golden.
The patch also includes a bunch of quest fixes and a few new quests have been added at the 30-31 range, where they were seriously needed. It hasn’t closed the gap for content, but another drop in the bucket helps.
The Alt Issues: Content and Progression
Many players identify themselves as altaholics, or alt-addicted in some way. I’m not one of those players. In most games, I choose my main character near the beginning and then stick with him. So I’m probably not the most authoritative word regarding alts. Disclaimer out the way:
Champions Online could be alt paradise, but right now it’s more of an alt trap. From what I’ve seen, a lot of players are creating and re-creating, rolling and re-rolling. Alt after alt they climb up close to level 20 and then restart the game.
So what’s the problem?
- There’s only one quest path. On each alt, you’re repeating the exact same quests. As you level, you encounter bugged quests and things get really sparse at times. Champions is in sore need of more quests and more content overall. Doing the same exact things on each alt must get tedious after the third or fourth alt, let alone the eighth.
- The better content is at higher levels. That’s been my experience so far, that Champions ramps upwards. The gameplay expands into better mob abilities and on Monster Island in particular (Lumeria not-so-much) the world feels more integrated, or at least it does when a flaming lava meteor hits me from the island’s resident volcano. Nemesis quests also get better as they go. 5man quests start out in the late 20’s. Quests get more varied and creative, unfortunately they bug out more often too. If you re-roll at 20, you’re missing the good stuff.
- Character progression comes together around level 30. It’s not until getting over the mid-range hump that the Powerset Frameworks really come into their own. A lot of powers overlap and compliment each other and it was around level 30 that I really got into the groove and rhythm with my character in combat. I watch other players around me and although some still seem to be having problems with their builds, a lot of others appear to move along gracefully: It’s noticeable when someone pulls the pieces of their powers together into a coherent and capable whole. It almost sounds like magic describing it, I know, but it is what it is.
- Crafting lacks. There aren’t a lot of side activities outside of combat and what’s there (crafting) isn’t spectacular. That’s fine, I don’t think Champions is a do-everything kind of MMORPG. The combat is the big attraction for sure, but more things to do would make alts more compelling.
Point #1 is the pivotal one, the rest would fall into place if it were solved. I think players would push themselves to higher levels, the rewards for doing so are good, but they need to have fun getting there.
The quests themselves have decent variety. The repetition is in redoing the same ones again and again. If you burn out on alts, it could burn you out overall.
Even alt-resistant as I am, I’ve become enamoured with Champions’ character creator and the Powersets are the clincher, I’d love to try more builds (outside of the Powerhouse). I’ll probably end up playing more alts in this game than any other. I just hope I don’t end up stabbing my eyes out with my mouse (it could be possible, but I’m trying not to think of the resulting image) while I go through the same questing I’ve already thoroughly immersed myself in with my main.
Cryptic is promising more content, across the board. I hope they keep up on that.
This game could become alt paradise. It’s not there yet.
Note: I’m thrilled with my main (currently level 36). Overall this game has surprised me, I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would and I’ve been playing it less casual than I’d planned. See disclaimer at the top.
