The 'Nature' of WAR

Yesterday it seemed Mythic was on a bit of a nature kick.

How do you like them Apples? WAR has come to the Macintosh platform. This is pretty neat news. I'm not a mac user, but I know their MMO pickings are slim. Everyone deserves to play :) Next up, Amiga!

Where the wild things are. On the Wild Hunt of course. We got our first look at next months Live Event, The Wild Hunt. They also did a video, so check it out. Looks like an interesting event, I like the fact they are always pushing the envelope.

Won't somebody think of the trees? Here we have a preliminary look at the next patch notes for WAR. Here is a crazy thought, how about we save a small forest and fix some of those bugs before release :)

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War with France

Last time, Portugal had allied with Castille in order to slow down the French expansion into the Iberian Peninsula. With the alliance in place, it was now a waiting game. I moved 6,000 men from Africa back to Portugal proper in anticipation. We also promoted a fine officer to General to lead the new army.

Sad reports came in from the other side of Europe. The Byzantine Empire has finally succumb to the armies of the Ottoman Empire.


Later on we received word that Castille has declared war on France. As required by our alliance, we too declared war. France and her allies did the same. Here is a look at the war:


As you can see, the land forces are pretty close in number. France has a large amount of cavalry and excellent leadership. This will be a tough war for us to win. Our Naval superiority doesn't mean much in this war.

Our first actions in this war were met with defeat. The French leadership really makes a big difference. Since we can't go head-to-head with them, we will go around them. The French armies worked their way into Castille and we occupied the former Castille province of Galicia. At this point we sent a diplomat to talk to France.

France had several large armies operating that we could not hope to defeat. Perhaps since we captured this province, they would be willing to call a truce. On a lark our diplomat demanded Galicia in return for peace. They accepted the offer, probably to get out 12,000 man army off the field.


During this time, the colony of Rio De Oro became a full fledged province. That only leaves the Azores as a colony. They are a drain until they become full provinces, so the sooner the better. We also gained a Land technology level, which gives us Men at Arms troops. They should help us in future wars.

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How to make a PvP MMO

Time to get in my recliner and become an armchair game designer. Making a PvP focused MMO is tough. You have to make an engaging game that keeps players coming back but it also has to be balanced. There are two critical design aspects that a would-be PvP MMO must take into consideration: Scale and Ownership.

Scale

Scale means the amount of players it takes to accomplish a goal. Let's look at WoW's PvE Scale: 1+ (solo), 5 (dungeon), 10 (raid), 25 (raid) and 40 (old raids). Nice distribution from solo to a large group and provides stuff to do for everyone.

Now look at WAR's for the RvR lakes: 6++ (Battlefield Objective), 12+++ (Keeps), 100+ (Fortress) and 48 (city instance). It clearly skews toward a much larger scale. Defenders just increase the numbers further for B.O.'s and Keeps.

This has the effect of making players feel like grunts rather than heroes. The lack of small scale goals also leaves players feeling bored and teaches them to wait for the zerg. Even PvP games such as Eve and Darkfall provide content (in the form of players or NPC's) for small groups. To keep players engaged, you must provide a wide variety of scale.

Ownership

This would be the goal or objective piece of the PvP MMO. Why are the players fighting each other? In games like Eve, Darkfall and even DAoC guilds fight over ownership of objectives. By owning them, their guild gains benefits. They lose ownership when someone takes it from them.

In WAR you don't own a keep, you just lease it for a short time. It is hard for a player to get motivated when the scale of the objective is too big. They really don't have a stake in their city or taking the enemy city. It is all transient anyway, once someone gets to the city it will all be reset.

It is important to have that feeling of ownership in a PvP game. It is what drives many wars in real life and it carries over into MMO's too. Give players stuff to own, small and large scale, and players will create their own incentive to fight.

By combining a wide variety of scale and objectives that players can own, a PvP MMO will have a solid foundation.

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Farewell Eve

Yesterday, I canceled my Eve subscription. The last month or so I have only been skill training, so this was a long time coming. I've had an on again off again relationship with Eve for at least 3 years now. It is a game I want to like, but can't.

Eve is not hard. That is a common way people refer to it to make it sound better than WoW. It is a deep game which requires time and patience, but not any harder than WoW. My main issue is that it is not an accessible game.

Before I had a full time job and family, Eve would have probably been a perfect fit for me. Now though, I just don't have the blocks of time needed to get the most out of the game. Being able to have fun in 30 minutes - 1hour of game time is critical to me. In Eve, I could maybe do a mission or mine.... which were not fun activities for me.

In my ideal Eve world I would be involved with 0.0 sovereignty. That seems to be where Eve really shines, but it is not for the feint of heart. While I may never participate in that area, it sure if fun to read the stories.

Usually I keep 2 MMO subscriptions active, so losing Eve leaves me with a free spot. I have chosen a replacement... those of you who follow me on Twitter know which one. A post about it will be up soon :)

So when my subscription runs out, my 140 million isk ship will be deep in w-space with no way out. My character in stasis, waiting for the next time the Eve bug bites.

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Dragon Age: PC or 360?

The eternal question, which platform to buy a game for. Dragon Age, coming in October, will be released on the major platforms. I have narrowed down my choices to the PC or 360. I have a PS3, but don't want to get the game on it.

The 360 is hooked up to my home theater (big screen, 7.1 sound etc). It is very nice for playing games. I played Mass Effect on it, but that was more action oriented. Dragon Age seems to have more RPG like combat. However, I don't think I will be getting it for the 360.

User created content is the reason. Dragon Age is set to be a monster when it comes to what players can create. Continuing what they introduced with NWN, Dragon Age will have all the tools for players to make their own campaigns. They even held a Toolset class for their more prolific modders. That should tell you how serious they are.

If this player created content piece was not there I would likely get it on the 360. I could hook my PC up to the TV, but that would be a pain and won't happen. It'd be nice to be able to get the player created content on the 360, but they have no plans at this time to support it on the console.

If you are interested in Dragon Age world building, check out the forums.

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Cold War, 1400's Style

When we last left Portugal, they had won the Second Moroccan war. Back in the Iberian Peninsula, Castille was fighting against France. The battle never did turn around and France managed to occupy much of their northern territory. When peace was finally declared, Castille had to cede several provinces.


Now I have to share a border with France. My relations are actually good with them, but they are still a major threat. The more they grow, the harder they will be to deal with. Eventually they will come after Portugal too.

Castille sent a diplomat with an Alliance offer. usually I tend to avoid diplomatic obligations as they work against my colonization goals. This time I accepted. My reasoning is that France and Castille will go to war again. If Castille looses more territory it will make my life more difficult. Also, now that they have territory on my borders, it will give me a chance to seize it in the coming conflict.

In the African territories I have been dealing with several rebel uprisings. The ferocity of the rebels has been surprising. It turns out my neighbors to the East, Algiers, has been funding Nationalist groups in several provinces. Their goal is to rebel and join Algiers. I also suspect France has been involved as well.

Dealing with Algiers is tricky. They are allied with Tripoli and Tunisia and more importantly, their independence is guaranteed by the Ottoman Empire. That is quite a bees nest and I'm not sure I want to poke it with a stick. I could likely win the war, France could cause some serious issues. Funding rebels may be an option, but it isn't cheap.

On the colonization front, I have settled in Rio De Oro and the Azores. Supporting these colonies has put a drain on my economy, but soon they will be self-sustaining. I also found a new African province called Taodeni.

Here is what the world looks like in 1428.

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Premades, as it should be?

A premade is a term most often attributed to an organized PvP group. Friday night I had an opportunity to participate in one with my guild. We are a casual sort, so this is not a very common occurrence. As someone who is in pug groups most of the time, I know how frustrating it can be to get stomped on by a premade.

I had a great time with the group. There were 6 of us: Engineer (me!), Bright Wizard, Warrior Priest, Archmage , Ironbreaker and a Knight of the Burning Sun. This is just what we had on, so we were not running any sort of cookie cutter group.

For coordination we used vent and targeting assist (all in game stuff). We fared pretty well considering how little premade experience we had. All it takes is a little coordination to reap large benefits. We played mostly against pug groups, but there were several other premades going against us.

Some of the fights we had were amazing. In Nordenwatch, we had one skirmish that lasted 10 minutes, all constant fighting. It really helps when you know you can count on healing and a rez. Having that kind of confidence in your team makes it a more enjoyable experience.

In an organized group, you also tend to use all your skills in a more useful manner. You know what your team is doing, where they are and where they are going. When things mesh it really unleashes what WAR has to offer.

There is often talk about how numbers are all that matters in WAR. There is some truth, an organized 6 man will have a tough time versus a full warband... as it should be. Taking out a larger unorganized force is certainly doable. It isn't guaranteed though. Just because you are running a premade doesn't mean the folks in the larger group are not good players too.

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Who watches the Watchmen?

Werit does!

I finally got to see the Watchmen today. As usual I am behind the times. I never read the comics or even heard of the series before the movie came out. So I may be ignorant, likely am. Overall I thought it was a decent movie. Good action and an interesting story. A couple of things did bother me though.

One, I don't like invincible characters. Superman, Dr. Manhattan, whoever. Superman did at least have a real weakness. But they tend to ruin the story for me. Just like in the Lord of the Rings movies with the undead army. They swept in and killed everything making everything else pointless, what the hell?

They also killed off the interesting characters and left us with the lame ones. That is totally subjective of course. I won't spoil who lived, but I'm sure you'll be able to guess at the lame characters that will live.

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Werit at WAR 7/24

It's been a quiet week as far as my WAR posts go. I've actually been playing nearly every day, but don't have too much to talk about. That isn't really true, as I have a sheet of paper with a number of topics sitting here. I've just been in the mood to write about things like EU3.

The big news in WAR this week is the 1.30b. I am going to refrain comment as it is still too new. They did bring back the Nordenwatch Live Event with slightly different tasks. This was a nice surprise and I have been having fun it it, especially with my alts.

My Characters:

Tirew (Engineer): 40 / 53 (so close to 54)
Hoplon (Ironbreaker): 30 /23 Sword and Board all the way.
Hurrik (Rune Priest): 13 / 13

I've actually been splitting time between them depending on where the action is. They offer very diverse play-styles so it keeps things fresh for me.

I plan on giving it another week before I weigh in on the new patch. It was funny, a couple hours into the servers going live folks were announcing on the channels that the patch was awful. A good rant would probably bring in the page views, but that isn't my style.

To help your Friday go faster, I recommend stopping by Gaarawarr Gabs to read about his recent visit to Mythic and his interview with Josh D.

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The Second Moroccan War

A few days ago I covered the First Moroccan War in an AAR for Europa Universalis III (EU3). Portugal managed to sieze a couple valuable territories. I had the option to try and convert the people but decided against it. Conversion results in better tax revenue and lower revolt risk. However, it can take years to do and during that time the revolt risk is increased greatly.

Several years passed and our truce expired. Declaring war while having a truce will lead to a lot of other people disliking you. Morocco became embroiled in a conflict with their neighbors to the East, Algiers. This war was disastrous for them as they lost most of their standing army.

As a good neighbor, I felt obligated to protect their now defenseless citizens. Most of my Army was still in Africa, so war was declared. Facing little opposition, my forces occupied what was left of Morocco. Having no choice, they accepted a peace treaty and ceded a number of their provinces to me. The game mechanics prevent full annexation until they are down to 1 province.

With Morocco reduced to two inland provinces, I set my eyes on colonization. Portuege sailors recently discovered the island of Maderia. In the game, you accrue Colonists over time based on several factors. They set off to settle the island. We later discovered that sugar is grown here, this should be valuable as the colony grows.

When we took over the Moroccan province of Atlas, we discovered Tuat. This land was occupied by hostile natives. The Portuguese army was sent in to secure the area and colonists soon followed.

South of the newly gained province of Ifini is the unclaimed area known as Rio De Oro. We plan on moving into this area soon, but our finances do not allow for it at this time. Building colonies takes some gold.

Here is what Portugal looks like in 1420:


In related news, France and my neighbors, Castille, are at war. This could have consequences for me as time goes on. France tends to be aggressive, so I would rather not share a border with them. So far, the war is not going well for Castille, as France has occupied several provinces.

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