Down with O.P.P.?

Ah O.P.P., reminds me of grade school dances.  Wait, should they have been playing that at a kids school dance?  Anyway, this time that last P stands for profiles.  The latest Wrath of Heroes patch contains a feature called 'Other People's Profiles' which lets you look at, and compare, profiles.

It's very simple to use, just right-click on someones name and choose View Profile.  From there you can see theirs as you would yours.  If you look at Hero Stats, it will compare yours versus theirs.  Let's take a look at me versus WAR Stratics Editor Mykiel.

What's that?  I just chose a Hero I know I played a lot more than he did?  Purely a random occurrence I assure you :)  It's a neat little feature, but really seems like the beginnings of rankings which is something I very much want to see.

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I'm one of them

Recent bad news for SWTOR has spurred some discussion about the state of the MMO industry.  Specifically, whether or not the focus on the solo game has contributed to the apparent decline.  Keen's post was before the SWTOR news, but others who I cannot find at the moment did make a link between the two topics.  Or maybe that was just a dream, no matter, facts will not stop this blog post!

It turns out these I am one of these solo players.  It's not because I am anti-social (well, maybe a little), there are a lot of reasons why I like to go it alone.  Time constraints, immersion, less hassle and so on.  If you have a good solid group of friends that play, then sure the multiplaying aspect can be very attractive.  If you don't, not so much.  

Why do I play MMO's then?  It is simple.  I like playing in a living world which is constantly evolving.  You cannot get that from a single player game.  Just because I don't want to play with other people doesn't mean I don't want to be around them.  I think that is a perfectly legitimate style of gaming.

That doesn't mean I expect every game to try to cater to me.  There should be old fashioned group focused games, and games like SWTOR.  TESO is the latest game to hop on the latter style of gaming.  That means I'll probably give it a shot.  Hrm, I need to finish Skyrim.... but mounted combat is coming out soon so I may wait for that.  

Where was I?  Oh yeah, solo MMO's.  If anything, the solo-ification of these games is what grew the market (or maybe blew up the bubble?) so there is certainly money to be made.  Sadly, it seems to be at the expense of the more traditional MMO.  

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Invasion Recap

The Invasion of Mythic's HQ last week seems to have been a success.  The ones who traveled there successfully made it out again.  I'm not sure if they were tortured like we were the last time.  It is only fair that they were too.  I was dialed and videoed in, so lets talk a bit about it.

Wrath of Heroes was the primary topic of discussion.  First up, we were introduced to a new hero:  Amenadresh the Tomb King.  This guys is pretty awesome.  He had ranged AoE damage and heals and a very cool theme.   It will be very nice to have another healer other than Glowgob.

The 2nd big topic was the introduction of a new map, The Pyramid of Settra.  This is set in the land of the Dead and is very nice looking.  We were able to try it out (with the new hero) and I had a lot of fun.  It is basically a combination of Black Fire Pass and The Arena.  It's objective based, but small so there is a lot of fighting.





We talked about a bunch of other topics, which I'm not sure we can share quite yet.  Mythic has a lot of plans for WoH and there really is a lot of potential.  Tomorrow, the patch with Settra and Amenadresh launches!  I will probably spend some money to buy the new hero.  I have a thing for ranged support :)

WAR was also talked about, but due to some technical issues I was unable to really hear what went on.  Once some of the people who were physically there transcribe the conversation, I'll pass it along.

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Invasion and Conquest

Today, WAR Stratics and 6v6v6.com embark on their invasion of Mythic HQ.  They are not in this alone, as I will be throwing my support behind the operation.  Of course, I will be doing it from the safety of my own home.  Basically, it's a press type event where we will get a glimpse of what the Mythic folks are working on.

The trip is primarily about Wrath of Heroes, so I don't expect much about Age of Reckoning although we know what they are up to (1.4.6!).  There will be an embargo on what we see, so sadly I probably won't have anything good to immediately share.  It should be fun though!

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For your Friday reading, I suggest Massively's hands-on with Rift: Conquest.  I've written about Rift's new PvP system, Conquest, before but now have a better understanding about what it actually is.  Primarily, it is much bigger than a warfront, but is still an instance.

Conquest has certainly piqued my interest.  However, I don't think I have it in me to PvE to the cap just so I can check it out.  Trion made a short developers video about Conquest, watch it here.

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Tomb King Approaches

The latest Hero has been announced for Wrath of Heroes:  Amenadresh the Steward.  This handsome fellow is a Tomb King who specializes in Area damage and Area heal.  It looks like his flight should arrive early next week.  He probably had to check that sweet hat.

Amenadresh was in earlier versions of the beta and I do believe his abilities have changed since then.  I don't remember him having a heal before, but I could be wrong.  This guys ability affects were awesome, so I hope they remain.  He had this cool sandstorm, which could be a bit much sometimes but was nice.  Check out his abilities here.

Mythic also announced more hero price drops this week.

Bax is available for 23,000 Gold
Nethys is available for 23,000 Gold
Ikkrik is available for 16,000 Gold
Ilanya is available for 16,000 Gold
Aessa is available for 9,000 Gold

These changes have made heroes quite obtainable, especially if you have a Gold boost in effect.

They also put Mastery points up for sale.  I do have an opinion on this move, but I am going to save that for another post.

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Swamp of Sadness

Most of you have probably heard that SWTOR was hit with some layoffs yesterday.  No real insight on how severe they were, but one casualty looks to be Stephen Ried (community manager).  He seemed to be the primary communication outlet, so I am sad to see him go.  Why they chose him, considering it makes the situation look even worse, I don't know.

The Swamp of Sadness scene from The Neverending Story is one that has stuck with me ever since I was a kid.  Poor Artax just couldn't pull himself out of the mud.  The Internet, and bad MMO news especially, often reminds me of this scene.





Layoffs are pretty negative, and that is something maladjusted people on the Internet love.  Lets face it, we're surrounded by them so it is very easy to start feeling like Artax and just keep sinking.  Is this good news for SWTOR?  Of course not.  It's also not the end of the game either.  The future just isn't as bright as a lot of people hoped.

We've been through this with WAR and a number of other games.  I handle the mud by just focusing on the here and now.  I like playing SWTOR, and I will continue to do so until I don't.  The future of the game does not really matter, so long as I am having fun right now.

In the end it's a video game, not a life commitment.  I play games for entertainment and getting drowned in negativity is not my idea of fun.

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Bolster Change

One of the important changes in Warhammer Online's 1.4.6 patch involves the bolster mechanic.  On the live servers, when players enter a RvR lake in Tier 4, their stats are increased to a level 40 equivalent.  That used to be the cap, in 1.4 it was actually raised to 45 but hidden from the player.  Once you surpass RR 80, you start getting those levels.

In 1.4.6, the bolster will raise players to 45, if they are not already.  Your character sheet will still say you are level 40, but your stats will get buffed.  How much?  That depends.  Lets take a look at an example.  My RP below is geared poorly at the moment, so keep that in mind.

Hurrik, Rune Priest (RR 49)

Before

After

As you can see from the screenshots, my RP ends up with some buffs after the bolster.  They are not very large, but a buff is a buff.  On a tank character, for example, you'll see a greater armor improvement compared to mine.

Currently, there is a bug on PTS which grants RR80+ players an extra bolster, but that should be taken care of soon.  What I don't show here is the effect level 45 has on the combat formulas, which will also make life better for low players.

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StarDrive Check-in

StarDrive is an in-development 4x game by Zer0sum Games.  It's actually a project I Kickstarted, because there can never be enough 4x games!  The game is currently still in development, but a number of improvements have been made.

First, they signed a deal with Iceburg Interactive for publishing.  Congrats to them!

Now on to a quick look at the beta.

The Race selection screen is coming together nicely.  This screenshot does not really do it justice because the portraits on the left are actually animated and look great.  The art has been coming along very nicely!

This screenshot shows Subspace Projectors.  These installations are automatically built (by your planets) to connection two colonized systems.  They are new to 4x games, so I asked the developer about them.

Subspace projectors are used to extend the area of influence for your empire.  This is important because you can warp for free while inside your borders.  Outside of your borders, you pay a massive power penalty for warping.  As you tech up, you can even gain bonus movement speed while inside the influence of your projectors.  The concept is that you will build 'roads' with these to speed movement within your empire.  Furthermore, as you tech up, you can add warp inhibiting effects to your projectors, which slow enemy movement speed within your borders, or even prevent enemy FTL altogether.

You can check it out at http://stardrivegame.com/

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SWTOR and Planetside 2

Another Friday, another slacking day for me on this blog.  Today I have a good SWTOR site for you and a freaking amazing video.  My week has been spent mostly playing League of Legends and SWTOR.  I really want to get to 30 in LoL, just because.

TOR Fashion.  Custom armor is one of the things I really like about SWTOR.  It lets you look how you want, but is also a part of the game system (unlike appearance tabs).  The problem is, how do you find that look you want?  That's where TOR Fashion comes in, it is a site dedicated to showing off those armor sets.

Check them out at:  http://tor-fashion.com/

Planetside 2.  If your not sure what PS2 is.... it's an open world MMOFPS.  I'll just let the video speak for itself.





How awesome was that?  Seriously, this is easily my most anticipated game now even though I suck at shooters.  Now I just need some dirt on a SOE employee for blackmail so I can get into beta.  I was contemplating trying out Planetside 1 just because of this video.

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1.4.6 Patch Notes

The patch notes for Warhammer Online's 1.4.6 update are up! They are pretty hefty and should provide a good way to spend some time today if you are so inclines.  This is primarily a bug fixing patch, but there are also some very important changes.  Below are some that stand out to me.

City Siege.  This one was unexpected.  There will only be a single city instance allowed at a time now.  The population cap has also been increased to 60 ( 60 vs 60!). When the city instance is over, another will open up.  That means no more instance hopping to find an empty instance!

Tier 4 Bolster.  In Tier 4 RvR lakes, all eligible  players will be bolstered to rank 45 (up from 40).  This will effectively eliminate the advantage of hidden levels.  It will also do some interesting things to your stats, so be warned.  It will hopefully bring better balance to Open RvR.

Scenario Brackets.  Currently, scenarios are bracketed by levels only.  In 1.4.6 there will be only 3 brackets:  Level 1-15, Renown ranks 0-69 and Renown ranks 70-100.  This is a tricky change since you want to provide a fair fight, but also make sure they pop frequently.  We'll see how it goes.

1.4.6 should also be on the PTS later today!

Patch Notes:  http://ageofreckoning.warhammeronline.com/article/Version-146-Comes-PTS-0517

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