Aion: Fighting in the Abyss

As a fan of PvP and RvR, I can't help but keep an eye on Aion. Today I did some reading and watching about life in the Abyss. It has similarities with other games like WAR, but is also different.

Keep Sieges. The keep siege system looks very similar to WAR. The door is the main line of the defense. Attackers must break down the door using their abilities or siege weapons. The door is healed through a device inside the keep. Flying into the keep is generally a bad idea as there is a damaging field. This field can be turned off once you break through the doors. Once in you kill a boss and the castle is yours. To watch the tutorial video's, check out this thread.

I've also read that there are no incentives for holding a keep, so keep trading is rampant on existing servers. If it is true, that would be a real shame.

Artifacts. There are a number of area effecting artifacts in the game. They are captured from special npc-guarded locations throughout the abyss. It almost sounds like some of them are 1-time use, tough to tell right now. They don't seemed to be tied to keeps/forts at all.

Mobile Rez. You can carry a kisk (mobile obelisk) around with you that will act as a respawn point. Only a limited amount of players can bind to it and it can be destroyed. No more long walks back to the fight, but it could also mean perpetual life in a way. I'd have to see it in practice, but it is interesting.

Hero System. A select amount of players on each side will be able to become Guardians/Heroes. This turns them into a raid boss with special skills (and some restrictions). Only the top tier of players will be able to turn into these of course. These players will be worth more Abyss Points, but will be able to take on many players by themselves as well. I don't know how well this will work out but it's something different. See this thread for more info.

For a video of a Cleric as a Hero/Guardian, check this out. They get a powerful heal... so you can imagine what happens.

Zerg On. One of the biggest complains about WAR is that it is all about the Zerg. Nevermind the fact that all PvP, except those who activly choose not to, degenerates into a zerg. Aion's engine seems to allow Zerg on a scale yet unseen. See this video. Names are still on, but characters are not visible. We'll have to wait and see what it will be like in game.

Collision. Aion doesn't appear to have any player collision detection. It probably helps their engine, but I liked it in WAR. It gives tanks a good purpose in keep defense.

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What about the Twinkie?

A couple weeks ago I got my hands on Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the XBox 360. I've been a Ghostbusters fan for a long time and was looking forward to the game. The previous efforts were not bad at all, but it has been a while since a new Ghostbusters game came out. I figured I should post some kind of review for it.

Here is what you need to know about the game:

Story. Written by Aykroyd and Ramis. Takes you to a lot of places in the original Ghostbusters films but adds a lot more detail.

Graphics. I was very surprised with how good the graphics are. They are top notch in many places.

Gameplay. Using your proton pack is tough at first, but once you buy some upgrades it becomes much more fun.

Voice Acting. All the original Ghostbusters are back and so are a lot of the supporting cast (no Moranis). It does add a lot to the game for me, as the actors are a big part of why the movie was good.

Multiplayer. There is a Multiplayer element and it is pretty neat. I would buy the game for it, but it is there.

Replay. There are hidden items to find, but the replay value isn't very high.

Ghostbusters. The developers spent a lot of time making this feel like the Ghostbusters world. There are so many small details from the movie in the game. They didn't stop there as they expanded the lore. From sliding down the pole, to the ball room at the hotel, it's all there.

I think it is a great game. The bottom line is, if you are a fan of Ghostbusters then get this game. At least rent it, it is certainly worth the money.

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Return of the Producers Letter: Part 1

Mythic posted Part 3 of their Producer Letter series. Trilogies seem to be still in vogue. It contains the normal prerequisites that an official letter must have. Commitment, support, recap yada, yada, yada.

Combat and Careers. Many of the changes we saw in the short lived jumbo 1.3 patch will be making a comeback. Tears will be raining down like a Monsoon. Listen to the bass go.... sorry, got sidetracked. This time they will implement them piecemeal though. Excellent idea as you may see not all the changes are necessary.

One thing I don't understand is Mythic's seemingly love affair with the KNOCKDOWN, not back. They want to put the Knockback and root on the same immunity timer. A while back they increased the knockback immunity timer, but did not touch (or say they touched) the knockdown timer.

Knockdown's are the worst type of crowd control, as you cannot do anything. Knockback's save as many people as they get killed. Yet it never seems to bear the brunt of Mythics balancing. By all means keep taking away the non-lethal ways my Engineer can defend himself, but leave all those AoE knockdowns in play.

AM/Shaman/Zealot/RP will all be getting some attention, in a good way. Marauders and White Lions were not so lucky.

End Game. It seems the next major effort for the dev team will be to improve the city siege. This has been a long time coming. As it stands now, the contested phase (the first one) is the only time when PvP is involved with the end game. That wouldn't be so bad if it was actually fun, but it is not.

The PQ that spawns will now be optional. Instead, each side will be required to hold 3/4 objectives in order to win the stage. But, if they kill the PQ boss, they win too. While that is nice, will players just try to find an undefended instance so that they can farm the PQ? Sounds like something players would do. Also, while one side is defending the 3 objectives, the enemy can just go beat the PQ boss for a win. I'm not 100% sure this hybrid system will have the desired effect.

The 2nd phase of the city siege is having RvR added to it as well. I have never actually seen this phase, but I do believe it was just 2 PvE encounters. It sounds like the contested phase will continue on, but the winners can choose to go do the PvE instances. Will that leave enough population for the attackers to fight on the streets?

The third and final phase, the King, is mostly remaining the same. Except that the previous phases will remain active with RvR. If the defenders win the first-phase, they will shorten the time that the attacker has to take down the King. This is an interesting idea.

Population is my big concern. Lets say it is 100 vs 100 and the attackers win. 30 of them go off to do the higher level content (Stage 2 and 3), now it is 70 - 100. That doesn't sound very fun for those 70 who remain. The defenders will enjoy it as the 70 vacate the zone and they can farm the PQ. The folks who may have gotten to the king will be disappointed that they have no time with him as the PQ is being farmed. These are just arbitrary numbers, but you get the idea.

This has run on long enough for one post, more to come later.

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Fight Finder v1.1

WAR is everywhere, when you have Fight Finder!

Fight Finder is an add-on which keeps you informed about the all of the RvR going on in the game. If you are hanging out and Tier 4 and a Tier 1 fight breaks out, Fight Finder will tell you so you can hop on that alt and join the fun.

At present, you are notified via a chat message using the RvR filter. It would like like this:

[!] Heavy Fighting reported in Praag!

Version 1.1 is now available on curse. In addition to command line access (use /ff help in game), Fight Finder will now give you Keep reports throughout the game. This will let you know if your allies or enemies are up to something so you can join/spoil their fun.

Requirements: LibSlash

Upcoming Changes: Different types of notifications, Filter by Tier

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It's not the end of the world

As you have no doubt heard, EA is restructuring Bioware and Mythic under a new MMO group. This group will be lead by Ray Muzyka at Bioware. Mark Jacobs will be leaving and co-founder Rob Denton will report to Ray. In essence, Mythic will now report to Bioware.

It is no secret that WAR did not meet expectations. That isn't to say it's a failure as it is still a popular game. As Mark lead the studio, it is his responsibility. EA was likely not pleased and here we are. When corporations merge divisions, there are usually too many executives and not enough positions. Someone has to go.

What does this mean for Mythic and WAR? It is hard to tell as we are not privy to the details. It could be that Mythic is still largely independent or it could be Bioware will be very involved. I think it will be the former, as right now Mythic is still intact. New leadership, in the form of Bioware, could end up being beneficial to WAR in the long run.

In the coming months, we will see how this plays out. There is a chance this could be the smoke before the fire of WAR coming to an end. I don't think so, but the possibility is there. Better yet, maybe this is the start of the TOR/WAR MMO empire.

I have noticed quite a few posts/comments out there with an undercurrent of glee to outright joy at the possibility of WAR failing. This isn't a big surprise and I suspect most of them are failures and just unhappy people. When the prospect of other people joining in their misery comes about, they finally have a chance to be happy. If MMO's failing brings you happiness, it's time to log off and go make something of yourself.

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Opening Day Impressions

Yesterday the Land of the Dead opened in WAR. On Badlands, Order won the race and was granted access for a day. I won't be saying that the LotD is good or bad for the game, as it is way too early to tell. I know some people on my server proclaimed it to be awful for the game a few minutes after logging in. Others enjoyed it quite a bit.

When Order is away, Destro will play. Destruction took advantage of Orders armies being away and launched an invasion of Altdorf. A few of us decided to defend rather than stay in the LotD. We put up a valiant fortress defense, but only bought us a little time.

The city defense went pretty well. In our instance there was a lot of fighting until Destruction left with about 20 minutes left. This allowed us access to the PQ. In the end I walked away with a good amount of renown and 4 Invader Crests.

I was also able to get my Ironbreaker to 25 yesterday. He immediately hopped on the first airship to Zandri. Being bolstered to 36 is really nice as I could hold my own. I participated in a few PQ's and got two purple bags. Sadly, the items can't be used until I hit level 31. It was fun and I made some decent experience.

I almost feel bad for the denizens of Zandri. Order was down there in force. PQ bosses were dropping like flies to the massive zergs. This is only temporary of course. Once the newness wears off you will see less people there at a time.

This morning around 11am EDT is when the early access wears off so we will see how the purge mechanics work. Overall, I had a fun day yesterday between the city defense and the LotD. That is what this new zone is about for me, options.

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The Land of the Dead Opens

Today Warhammer Online's new zone, The Land of the Dead, opens. The winner of the Rise of the Tomb Kings will get a full days access before being able to be purged by their enemy. I'm not really sure what time the new zone opens, but the Herald message makes it seem like this morning.

Sadly, I did not make my goal of having my Ironbreaker ready before its launch. He is rank 24 with 75% more to go. I will of course be hitting up the new zone with Tirew, so Hoplon will have to wait. On Badlands, Order has the lead as of this morning. It isn't a large lead, so who knows if we will still be ahead when the zone opens.

Be ready for the complaints about no one being in the old world once the zone launches. Its something new, so everyone will be all over it. I am going to wait a few weeks to judge how the expansion was for the game. I won't spend all of my time in the new zone, as PvE isn't my thing. Once the newness wears off, I'll need some real competition and head back to the Old World.

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New WAR Add-on: Fight Finder

I was feeling especially productive this morning, so I made a small WAR add-on called Fight Finder. This add-on will notify you of any fights happening in every zone. For example, if I am questing in High Pass and a fight breaks out in Avelorn, I will get a message.

It is based on Hotspots, so small skirmishes may not register. You are notified via a chat message through the RvR filter. It will only notify you once per zone for each battle size. For example, if a small battle goes on in Praag, you will get a message. If it escalates to a large battle, you will get a message. Otherwise, the next message you get for Praag will be a new battle.

This was a quick and simple project, so please let me know if you want any improvements. I don't feel like registering for Curse yet... maybe if people actually find this useful.

You can download it here. Just unzip it to your WAR\Interface\AddOns directory.

UPDATE: Changed link to Curse.

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Tank On

In my post, Things to do before the Land of the Dead, I wanted to get my Ironbreaker to Level 25 so he could journey to the new zone. In the first few weeks, it should be quite a popular place so leveling should be good. This weekend was spent mostly leveling him.

I must say playing the IB, Hoplon, has bee a lot of fun. Like any good Dwarf, I took up my shield and a hammer. Currently he is rank 23, but almost to 24. Those 63k Exp quests were a great help. I am currently working my way up the Brotherhood mastery path toward Earthshatter.

When using a shield, I have found my damage pretty abysmal, but that is perfectly fine with me. I am playing the IB as a defensive tank class, so offensive power is not really required. It seems that they are damage mitigation machines and a lot of fun to play.

My current goal is to reduce damage to my group as much as possible. If the enemy attacks me, great. If not I can still do a good job of reducing their damage. I will often lead with Challenge, which reduces all enemies damage in front of me by 30%. To help protect myself and my Oath Friend I use Runic Shield often which absorbs some damage.

When the opportunity is there I will use Away with Ye (knockback) and Taunt/attack. The rest of the time you'll find me Holding the Line. There is something satisfying about seeing all of the blocks, absorbs and Disrupts go flying by. If they decide to focus fire on me, I pop Shield Wall and hope my team can take advantage.

Once I get Earthshatter, I should be even more dangerous. Until then I am having fun in my current role. There are some frustrations though. Choppa's still wreck me and Squig Herders can kite me forever.

It has been a nice change from my Engineer as they play totally different. On Badlands, we always seem to have a lack of tanks, so I hope I can contribute soon. A healer is next on my list, as we are in desperate need of them.

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WoW adds PvP Exp

With the 3.2 patch, Blizzard plans to give experience points in Battlegrounds. You can read the full Q&A here. At first I was very excited, as I love PvP leveling. Then I read this:

"Experience will be granted based on honor gain from actions, not kills. For example, if you capture a flag in Warsong Hold, you would gain experience, but killing a player would not grant experience."

That seems to kill the notion of leveling via PvP. The following section they even say that they want it to be slower than leveling via PvE. Why can't it be equal?

WoW also does not have any kind of Bolster (increase stats to an arbitrary level for that level tier) mechanic, so it will still be quite painful versus all of those higher level players when you are at the bottom of the tier. Luckily Twinks will be in their own bracket, so you won't have to deal with them. There is also no loot drops on players, so gearing up only by BG's might be difficult.

Blizzard seems so close to giving people a good PvE alternative, but they are reluctant to take the steps that are needed. Add in a basic Bolster mechanic to even the playing field some and grant experience from kills. It would be nice for PvP not to just be a waste until you are level capped.

If Blizzard did make PvP leveling viable, would I play? Maybe. There is still no end game I am interested in. Also PvP in WoW just feels strange after playing WAR for so long. It's hard to put my finger on it, but it really does feel like it was tacked on rather than being planned from the start.

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