The lack of depth in games

Over the past few years, there has been a trend away from 'deep' games.  Accessibility has been the rallying cry for a lot of new products.  This goes for MMO's and many other genre's.  It is not really a trend I am a fan of, but I can understand why some would be.

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I've got gas

This week I spent a good amount of time working on some basic movement mechanics.  Since exploration is one of the games core features, there needed to be a fuel system.  If you are going to set out into the unknown, you should have to do some pre-planning.  Continue on for a video, with commentary, about the new fuel system.

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Is something happening today?

Oh yea, some game called Rift launches.  I'm surprised that no one is really talking about it.  They really should do something about their marketing.  Launch day is an interesting time for a game.  It might be laggy, buggy and frustrating but that is all a part of the fun.

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Horde Mode for WAR?

Last week, James Casey (WAR Producer) started up a thread about an idea that has been tossed around the Mythic offices.  This is just an idea that they wanted to get players feedback on, and is not a solid plan.  It's nice to see these kind of threads since is shows that there still is the potential for new content.  Read on for the details.

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Tactical Overlay

During the long weekend, I managed to get a good amount of work in on the Untitled game.  One important change was the addition of targeted abilities (weapons) rather than just point and shoot.  These abilities will have varying firing arcs, so I wanted someway for the player to see them.  As a result we have the Tactical Overlay.

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New 1.4.1 Changes

Last week Mythic released the patch notes for the upcoming 1.4.1 patch.  They don't seem to be quite done with them yet and announced some more changes.  These are not just trivial additions either.  In this post, I will highlight two of the new changes.  Read on for the details. 

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Rift Plans

With Rift's head start happening in 3 days, I figure it is time to decide on what I am going to do.  I can't believe the launch is already here, where has the time gone?  I did pre-order, so I am all set to play on Thursday.  Read on for more information about my plans.

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Sensors

This week in the Untitled Game, I added the first real ship component: Sensors.  They will determine at what point you can see other objects.  Large objects, such as Asteroids, will always be visible.  Smaller objects, like ships, will require you to be in range of them.

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New Armor Sets

In the upcoming 1.4.1 patch, Mythic is adding new armor sets for each class.  Worn Sovereign ( a.k.a Diet Sov or Sov-lite) is very similar to regular Sovereign, but a little less powerful.  It is still a good improvement over Warlord.  Like the regular version, it has offensive and defensive versions.  Read on for the details and links to the stats.

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New Claim Window

As mentioned in the patch notes, there is a new claim window.  This replaces getting items (Store, codes etc) through the mail.  You can access it in-game, through the main menu (Esc).

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1.4.1 Patch Notes

Yesterday, Mythic posted the patch notes for the upcoming 1.4.1 release.  They have always said this one was going to be mostly about bug fixing and polish, and it pretty much is.  There are a few interesting changes though, which I'll talk about after the page break.

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Exploration

The Untitled game project marches on. I actually have a name in mind but am still thinking it over. I'm starting to get into the 'adding stuff to do' part of development.  One core feature of the game is going to be meaningful exploration.

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Why I love

This probably would have been a good post for yesterday, but I did not think of it until last night.  So we will pretend it is still Valentine's Day.  I love games, but I'd like to focus on three MMO's and why I care for them, in a totally platonic way of course.

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Q&A with WAR Developer Keaven Freeman

Recently, I did a Q&A with Warhammer Online Content Developer Keaven Freeman.  You may also know him from the Keaven and Steven in the Morning webcast.  We mainly talked about the 1.4 patch and some of the changes we may be seeing in the future.  Thanks for the time Keaven!  Read on for the Q&A.

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Big Picture

I worked on two projects involving the untitled game project this week.  The first was the Global Market screen.  The second was some type of map functionality.  Instead of going with a seperate map, I decided to take a page from GalCiv 2 (and other games) and go with a zoom based map.  Continue on for a video.

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The Vault

Saturday saw the release of Star Trek Online's latest Feature Episode series called The Vault.  It will consist of 5 episodes, the first being Cloaked Intentions.  I really love this feature in STO.  Unlike normal PvE, I'm not doing these missions just to progress some % on the XP bar.  I'm doing it for the story and the experience (not points).  No major spoilers in the rest of the post. 

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Hello from Gorfang

Free Transfers are now active.  I went in and transferred my Rank 17 Shaman from Iron Rock to Gorfang.  It took about 15 minutes to complete, but don't be surprised if it takes longer. I imagine there will be a high volume of requests.  I even managed to get my name :)

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3 pieces of WAR news

I've been busy in WAR making my way to RR77 on my Engineer.  It's going slowly since my Ironbreaker has demanded some attention too.  There is actually some stuff going on news wise for WAR too.  Read on for three WAR news items.  This was a terrible intro, I can't seem to think this morning.

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Global Market

Another Untitled Game project update.  I've been working on some of the GUI as it relates to the economy.  First step, a player needs someway to determine the price good remotely.  Thus the Global Market screen was born.  Maybe Global isn't the most accurate word as we are in space...

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Rift and Combo Points

With the launch of Rift right around the corner (Feb 24th head start), we are hearing and seeing more of the game.  For some, the facade is cracking a bit.  One of Rift's most touted feature is the soul system.  Overall it's a neat way to do character building but I do have some issues with it.

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Hull Three Zero

This post was supposed to go up last Friday, but it ended up getting bumped by the free transfer announcement for WAR.  The last book I read was Greg Bear's "Hull Zero Three", on my Kindle of course.  Read on for my spoiler-free thoughts about it.

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Free Transfers

As promised last week, Mythic has announced free character transfers off of some of the less populated servers.  It's a shame this has to happen, but WAR needs a healthy population to be enjoyable.  Badlands is a good example of how WAR should be, lets hope the new servers can match it.

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WP and DoK Changes

In the upcoming 1.4.1 patch, Warrior Priest's and Disciples of Khaine will see some pretty significant changes to a number of their abilities.  Steven, Combat and Careers designer, has taken the changes to the forums and is working with players to hammer out the details.

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Contradiction

Over the past month or so, my enthusiasm for Warhammer Online has taken a hit.  Not the normal ebb and flow which seems to be common among MMO's, but more at a fundamental level. I'm just not sure if the game is going anywhere, which is a big concern for a MMO.  Funny thing though, my actions do not reflect this.

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Andy

Yesterday, the WAR community received some bad news.  Andy, a longtime community manager, announced his departure from Mythic via twitter.  For a while now, he has been the main Mythic representative for WAR and DAoC. 

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Misleading Screenshot

At one point over the weekend I had 15 minutes of downtime, so I logged into WAR hoping to catch a scenario.  I tend to do that often actually, one of the reasons I like WAR.  Much to my surprise, I had a really good showing.  Of course, I had to screenshot it.

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Dropping VIP

My adventures in Middle Earth continue slowly but surely.  I did sign up for a month of VIP as I relearned the game.  Now that I am more comfortable, I think it is time to drop the subscription and go on as a free player.  Overall I think their payment model works quite well, but I do have an issue.

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