Heerobya's Random Thoughts
My random thoughts about MMORPGs. A bit of critique, suggestion, debate, and insanity. Enjoy.

From a preview of Wrath of the Lich King, the new WoW expansion, from the folks over at TenTonHammer... All credit for the following article is of course theirs.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/32708

"At this point, Kaplan stopped and really focused his attention on the press attendees. “We’re making a fairly major change to our raiding game that I’m really excited to talk about,” Kaplan began. “We’re going to have a lot of raid instances in Wrath of the Lich King, but rather than have some of them 10 person and some 25 person, all of the raid instances will use our heroic dungeon technology to be 10 AND 25 person instances.”

”In the Burning Crusade,” Kaplan continued, “Karazhan was our most popular instance. It was the one players run the most each week, but we also had all this great 25 person content. We found that players wanted a full progression through 10 person and a full progression through 25 person content. It wasn’t a matter of one being hardcore and one being casual; it was more a matter of what sort of social constructs are players comfortable playing with, who they played with, and what size their guild was.”

“So what we’d rather have is a scenario where the player decides how many people they’re comfortable with – 10 or 25,” he added. “We want to provide content for these groups on all tiers, both accessible tiers to the super-skilled, hardcore end-game. The 10 and 25 man raids progress completely independently of each other.”

Taking a breath, Kaplan continued his explanation of their system. “One complaint we did receive in the Burning Crusade was that our 25 person raid community didn’t want to go through the 10 person content to get attuned to the 25 person content,” he said. “They felt that they were a 25 person raiding guild, why should they have to go through Karazhan? They just wanted to move on to the next content. With them in mind, the 10 and 25 tracks will be completely independent. We won’t ever force the 25 person raiding guilds to do the 10 person content or vice versa.”

“That said, we do feel that getting the 25 person raid together takes a lot more coordination and effort, and we want to preserve the eliteness of the 25 person raiding,” Kaplan explained. “In terms of rewards, the 25 person versions of our raid dungeons will drop not only better loot by almost an entire tier, but also more of it. If you’re willing to take on the effort of coordinating the extra people, it’s much more rewarding.”"


I just want to say.... I called it!

http://mmorpg.com/blogs/heerobya/032008/1302_Difficulty-Settings-for-Raiding
http://mmorpg.com/blogs/heerobya/022008/1184_Casual-raiding-Typo-or-truth

I wrote a blog post (or two) here at MMORPG.com about how they should split up the raiding into Normal and Heroic... to make the group size adjustable....

And now Blizzard is doing it. Are they spying on me? Are they reading my blog here at MMORPG.com?

Maybe I'm just that amazingly awesome where I can predict the future...  Or maybe I'm so smart that I figure out what Blizzard should do before they do! 

But most likely I just had a lucky guess. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has talked about this or mentioned it as a great idea for them. 

What do ya'll think? Blizzard is adding tons of new 5-person dungeons and all of them have normal and heroic modes, and now all the new raids have 10-person normal modes and 25-person Heroic modes. Will you be more into raiding because of this? Less? 

Or do AoC and WAR have you so hyped that you don't really care what WoW does anymore?

I wrote this as a response to a thread over at Ten Ton Hammer:

http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?p=237761#post237761

From an article written by Ten Ton Hammer's Garrett Fuller, it's a great read, check it out! I thought I'd bring it over to MMORPG.com and try and stimulate a discussion.

Enoy!

The biggest change I have seen is the shift from single player to multi-player, and MMOs have been on the forefront of that change.

Games of all genres are now released with multiplayer, co-op modes, online content, etc. We now have the new Xbox live, the Playstation Online network, and so forth.

This trend has affected a lot more then gaming with social networks like Myspace, YouTube, Wikkis... the list goes on and on.

What does this have to do with MMORPGS? Well I think players are expecting a lot more interaction. WoW was designed to give you a lot of solo playability, and to slowly wean you towards group play and eventually massive group play. It was the perfect learning curve.

Now that multiplayer and cooperation/competition have become the norm across all gaming genres, MMO players expect a lot more group content, more interaction with others (be it in PvE cooperatively or competitively in PvP).

This is why I think we see a lot of the new concepts that games like Warhammer are bringing to the table. Living guilds, public quests, a focus on teamwork and "belonging" to something that we see in the RvR campaign. Sure, they are making a lot of content solo-friendly for the late adapters, but more and more they are focusing on the multiplayer elements of the massively-Multiplayer-online name sake.

As we all become more social online across many different mediums, we expect our games to give us more options to be social, be it cooperatively or competitively. The renewed interest and focus on PvP in MMOs is due to this multiplayer movement that really started with online FPS games. We expect buddy lists and belonging in organizations and social groups in everything we do online now, so we see an increased focus on group content and teamwork in our MMOs.

I think this trend will continue until solo-play while online is really only a memory. Developers will continue to invent new ways of bringing us together, to either help each other or kill one another until it becomes so integrated in our minds that the very thought of single-player becomes boring and obsolete.

I'm jumping on the AoC beta thoughts bandwagon!

This is just my thoughts on my experiences in the Fileplanet open beta thus far. There is no NDA for it, so I am free to dicuss. 

Keep in mind that this is NOT a review, this is just an update to any who are interesting in reading it on my personal experience with the AoC open beta thus far.

This is only from a few hours last night playing (trying to play).

I have not yet decided my view on AoC.

So far the Open Beta has been not nearly as stable and performed as well as the PvP Weekend. This is a concern.

Lots of time loading. The loading screens aren't too bad once they become cached, but the fact that they are used so frequently is disapointing. If this was a single player console game I could forgive it, but after experiencing the free roaming fun and scale of Grand Theft Auto IV the loading screens in AoC really do bug me.

The combat is good, it was fun in the PvP weekend, but so far I have found no use for the active dodging or blocking. Spamming attacks and special moves seems to be more effective then trying to play with tactics, using the evasion buff from double tapping S or the knockdown bonus for double tapping W etc. So far, I have had no reason for those, and the active blocking is too slow to "catch" any incoming attacks. It's either attack mode or block mode, the few seconds it takes to switch between makes it unuable to me thus far.

The story is good though standard fantasy so far, the dialogue and voice acting is exceptional.

I'm just not sure there is enough "draw" to really keep me entertained yet. It's all pretty standard post-WoW era MMO stuff, the combat is a new twist but not implemented in a way that makes it truely "action packed" and dynamic to me. 

When I think action packed and dynamic combat I think of stuff like the Zelda games or Ninja Gaiden etc. Even Mass Effect was more engaging and "active" then I feel the AoC combat is. I think it's going to work great for a console game, but I'm not too sure about for PC.

The "end-game" stuff does look interesting, mounted combat and sieges and dungeons / raids etc. But I honestly think that other games are going to do all of the above better. RvR ala WAR is > PvP no matter who does the PvP. WoW does raids / dungeons better then anyone.

I dunno. We'll see.

I'm going to play the SHIZBAM out of AoC in the next few weeks and make my decision when the release comes.

Just some random thoughts I've had about grouping and class archetypes and the so-called "Holy Trinity" of DPS, Heal, Tank.

The tank is usually the one who ends up paying for it when DPS screws up.

So is my experience as a tank.

DPS is off target and pulls aggro so tank has to use their cooldowns and shift focus off their target to get the 2nd target back, but then this causes the first target to break and kill the healer whose been building steady aggro...

Then the group wipes without a healer, and everyone is pissed off. Everyone is blaming the tank "L2play hold aggro nub!" when the real fact is that the dps players were so concerned with having the highest DPS and largest damage scores that they caused the wipe.

As a tank, we understand that we are only as good as the DPS and Healers allow us to be. We can only do so much.

There is a holy trinity between tanks, healers, and dps. Tanks have to hold aggro so the healers and dps don't die. Healers have to heal the tanks and dps so everyone doesn't die. DPS has to kill fast enough so the healer doesn't run out of mana and then the tanks/everyone else dies. It's a circle, each part is dependant on each other. We are all responsible for each other in a group.

Tanks understand this, many healers do too... DPS are the ones that tend to have trouble with the concept

The tanks are responsible for keeping the hate on them, and for using their resources to increase their survivability, thus giving the healers an easier time. The DPS has to be as free as possible to unload without fear of pulling aggro.

The healers are responsible for keeping the tanks and everyone else alive, and for not being wasteful or inefficient. They rely on the tank's survivability and the DPS' damage to kill the target before the mana pool runs dry.

The DPS needs the tank to keep the damage off of them, they need the healers to keep the tank alive to keep the damage off of them, and they need the tank to hold aggro. But they also need to unleash as much as they can without tipping the scales to keep the healer's mana from running out and the tanks survivability from failing. 

It's a circle.

The question is, do we like it?

I've often heard talk of the holy trinity being a bad thing, how people don't like being defined to roles and that they'd rather have more freedom. 

But do you really? 

I personally enjoy the Holy Trinity. As long as it is balanced, as long as there is equal need for people to fill the roles, I believe it adds a lot of commradery and dependancy between players. 

What do you think?

Yep, it's true. I'm going to do a review of the Beta PvP Weekend.

Let me make this VERY clear:

This is NOT an Age of Conan review.

It's an Age of Conan Beta PvP Test Weekend review.

NDA was lifted for the weekend event yesterday. Since this is the only experience I have playing Age of Conan, remember that this is a very limited section of the game.

The Beta PvP weekend gives you character creation, about 5 levels (20-30 mins) of PvE content, and level 20 PvP matchmaking "battleground" type games.

Let's start first with graphics and performance.

My computer can't handle this game all turned up. I've got a 2.2ghz Dual AMD Athlon with 2 gig RAM and a 8600 GT. In order to have perfectly smooth framerate for PvP, I have to run on low settings. I'm sure since this is beta and not the full build it will perform differently then release.

It still looks great, and it runs very, very smooth. I'm able to bump up to Medium settings for the brief PvE tutorial. Beyond that, the character models and animations are excellent. The art style and "immersion" factor is way up. The jungles feel like jungles and the crypts feel like crypts. I'm really impressed by the animations. They are smooth and realistic. The fatalities are a nice treat every once in a while. When someone kills you with a fatality move it goes into kind of a cinematic mode where you watch the brutal death from the killers perspective. It's a nice touch.

Even on low settings this game looks top notch. I could barely move on High settings but it looked stunning. This game has some of the best character models I have seen in a MMORPG.

Server performance isn't bad, only 1 major outage Saturday night. Random disconnects now and again, but that is to be expected.

Graphics - 10/10
Performance - 8/10

Sound I'll only mention briefly. Lots of grunting and yelling which suits the IP and the setting well. The music is good, though very sparse. Voice acting in PvE tutorial section is top notch.

Sound - 9/10

Let's move to character creation.

There are three "races" though they are all humans. Your choice of race defines your look and customization options, but also available class selections. There are the standard body type and face and hair style etc. etc. that we are all used to, but you have an "advanced" mode where there are sliders for everything. I haven't played around too much, but it's an enjoyable and interesting system. As I said before, this game features some of the best looking character models I have ever seen in a MMORPG. 

This is only limited by the fact there are only about a dozen hairstyles to choose from, and many are shared between races.

Character Creation - 9/10

The interface is pretty standard fair MMORPG. Nothing new or exciting or interesting to report here. Seems very dull and drab though. Like looking at a slab of granite.

Interface - 7/10

PvE Experience:

The PvE experience in the Beta PvP Test Weekend is painfully short. 20-30 minutes total play time, roughly 4-5 levels. My only complaint about the PvE is the length.

The quests / story are pretty standard fair, but the use of cutscenes and dialogue options add greatly to the experience. At this stage, I'm not sure any of the dialogue choices really matter, but I imagine they have more influence later on.

The game play is smooth and well paced. This opening tutorial island area is very linear and very easy, you can take on 3-4 baddies at a time no problem. I know this is "as designed" to ease players into the game. One thing I do enjoy is that even at these low levels, I've had many different armor/clothing options drop off of mobs. They have the same stats but totally different looks. I think this is a major plus.

PvE - 9/10

The PvP experience:

This Beta PvP Test Weekend offers a selection of 4 maps of 2 different game types. 1 map for a Deathmatch style game and 3 Capture the Flag maps. Each is fairly basic, symetrical, and on par with what you'd expect from a FPS type game or a similar MMO like the WoW battlegrounds. The areas all look interesting and function well, there are a few glitchy areas but that is to be expected. A few spots where you can get "stuck" and become invulnerable but unable to do anything. 

Not going to go into too much detail on gameplay specifics, but everything you'd expect from this type of instanced, team based PvP is there. Teamwork helps a whole lot, as does communication and coordination.

PvP - 8/10

So how about them classes? There are 12 class of 4 different archetypes. Pretty much, they are Warriors, Priests, Rogues, Magicians. As I said before your racial selection determines what classes are available.

I've had the chance to try out every single one, so I'm not going to be too specific, but all the classes seem interesting and unique. 

In terms of balance, after they fixed the Ranger class (was way too overpowered initially) it seems like the balance is actually pretty good at this stage. Any class that gets the jump on any other class has a fairly high chance of victory. Any 1vs1 fight is winnable (in my experience) and group engagements are just as chaotic and fun as you'd expect them to be. 

Each class has skill points for different stats like mana regen, health regen, your ability to hide (everyone can hide and move stealthy if they choose) your detection of hidden players, taunt rating for PvE tanks etc. 

You also have a very WoW like talent tree system. 3 trees, two specific to that class and the 3rd tree is generic across the archetype.

Nothing really new and different here.

Classes - 7/10

Combat, the big one.

There is no autoattack. You can attack in three direction, left right and middle (top). You have to manual click or hit the appropriate key (1,2,3 by default) in order to swing your weapon. Targeting is somewhat sticky, but range does count. You can swing at any time, but you have to be in range and facing your target to land the attack. You can also damage other players/mobs that you swing at even if they are not your selected target.

The abilities and spells come in two forms. The standard "click and activate" and the AoC combos. You hit your ability key then have to swing an either 1 or 2 step combo sequence. I'm posting a screen with the combo indicator at the end of this article. 

You also have "shields." 3 rings of protection that are by default evenly distributed on your left, right, and center arc. These of course correspond to the left, right, center swing directions of your attacks. You can manual reassign the shield rings to stack a certain direction. Like all 3 center or 2 center one left etc.

I have found no point to this yet. You can't see the enemies shield rings in PvP, and in PvE you can't tell what sector the mob/npc is swinging at. I'm sure this may have some use later, especially in PvE, but I don't see too much point to it now. If you look at the screenshot of combat, you'll see the crocodile has their shield rings distributed. All this means is that you then choose to swing at an "unprotected" area instead. It's simple, but does add an element to combat that makes you more involved.

You actually have to pay attention to your opponents defenses and react accordingly. Again, this is only in PvE.

Bunny hoppers in PvP are 10x time as annoying. Your toon tries to autotrack their movement, but you end up having to turn around and move a lot. This makes it hard to then select the 3 direction attack keys. Maybe I'm just not that good at it yet, but I screw up a lot of combos trying to keep myself in range and facing a bunny hopper in PvP.

Combat - 7/10

Finally the big question:

Is it fun?

The short answer is yes. The PvE experience was fun and interesting, not all too different then you'd expect from any other MMORPG but the combat system makes it a little more involved. The cutscenes and dialogue are a great addition.

The PvP is fast and furious, and suprisingly well balanced at the level 20 tier. (once they fixed Ranger that is) The capture the flag scenarios seem a lot more fun and interesting to me personally, and this is mostly because not too many people actually care about winning, just slaughtering each other and improving their own kill/death ratio.

It's a very satisfying PvP experience that has kept me glued all weekend. The short PvE experience makes me itch for more, so that is definetly a positive.

It's WAY too hard to comment on the longevity of the title because this is just a small taste of the game. It's like taking away everything in WoW except the battlegrounds. There is still so much to be seen. 

Fun factor - 8/10

Finally the little stuff.

It's the little stuff that really makes or breaks a game for me. This is a very limited test but from what I have seen this is the area that concerns me most. It's just stupid little simple things that I feel are done horribly wrong but have a lasting effect on my impression of the game.

The logout command (/camp) and the logout menu button in the option menu don't actually say "Logout." Instead they say "Exit Game." It's very stupid in my opinion and misleading. The global chat and help channels are filled with people asking how they log out. Such a small thing, but a big difference.

Also when you do log out you are taken back to the login screen, not the character selection. Maybe it's just a personal preference thing, but I don't like it.

It also seems to take FOREVER for your character to actually log out.  Trying to switch to a different toon is a hassle. You log out, are taken back to the login screen, authenticate, get to character select... But then if your character isn't fully logged out yet and you try and log in on a different toon, you get an error and it boots you back to the Login prompt. Annoying as hell. You have to relog in back to the character select and try again, hoping your previous toon finally frak'n logged out.

When you queue up for a PvP scenario you've got this huge window taking up half the screen with the search running. I guess I'm just totally used to the "queue and forget" system in WoW where all you have on screen is the mini-map icon.

When you die in PvP even it takes you to a loading screen. It's brief sure, but it's still a loading screen every time you die...

Little Things - 5/10

Overall.... Overall I'm excited to hopefully get into the Fileplanet beta starting May 1st. I really want to explore the PvE side more. This Beta PvP Weekend Test was such a small taste, but I like what I saw. I'm not going to rush out and pre-order a copy, but I am excited for another chance to play.

Overall rating (sum of total scores / maximum possible) --

87/110 = .7909 %

Overall Score - 7.9 / 10

The following is a copy/paste from a Thread I made here on MMORPG.com

Please click the link HERE to view the thread and vote in the poll.

Thanks.

I've had this idea for a while and thrown it around MMORPG.com from time to time, so please tell me what you think.

In World of Warcraft, for the 5-person dungeons (in Outland) you have Normal and Heroic difficulty versions.

The Heroic versions drop better gear, and are more challenging and less forgiving of mistakes.

They require increased coordination, communication, higher base-line gear, and better class balance. So I guess you can say that they require more "skill" to complete in comparison to their Normal difficulty counterparts.

Would you like to see the same Normal vs. Heroic difficulty setting be applied to Raiding?

The current raid structure in games like World of Warcraft is already pretty hardcore. You have to plan and schedule your raids, make sure you have proper class balance, assign roles and use stategies, and of course (at least in WoW) have the appropriate base-line gear level.

So I'd say, you'd turn the current crop of raids into the "Heroic" version, and then create an easier version of the encounter and dub it the "Normal" version.

The Normal version wouldn't be as rigid in terms of strategy and class balance, the base-line gear levels would be lower.. in essence, they'd be much easier then the current raiding scheme.

Of course, by doing so, you'd have to offer appropriate rewards, which means gear that is better then the 5-person dungeons but not as good as the "Heroic" or current-crop of raiding gear.

You could even lower the size requirements if you so choose. Instead of 10 or 25 people required it could be 5 or 10 respectively. Not too sure about that idea though, because the large team size is half the "problem" with current raiding.

I think this is a great idea because:

1. It's gets more people in the door. You get more people experiencing the end-game, downing bosses and completing raids, what better way to motivate end-game PvE players then victory?

2. Good way to "ease" players into the more "hardcore" and challenging world of Heroic Raiding.

3. Why create content that only a small % of your player base will ever experience? With scaling difficulty settings, more people can see the content and experience all the game has to offer.

4. The current crop of raiders still have the best gear and are still looked up to. With my idea, you don't take anything away from the current crowd who raids in MMOs, but you give so much more to the crowd who doesn't raid now but wants to.

What do you think?

*obviously this applies to more games then WoW, but I use it as an example given it's popularity and reach in the MMO market*

So I posted this on the forums and was so impressed by myself, I decided to right another blog lol.

Sorry, self-butt-kissing moment:

I'm not at all against FFA PvP.

I just believe that FFA PvP doesn't have to be about ganking/griefing others.

Think about it this way...

Say you and your guild role play as a band of marauding Orcs. It's perfectly acceptable (and within the game rules) for you to go around slaughtering everyone that you come across.

But what's different in a MMO is that the helpless people you are slaughtering are other players.

It's like watching a movie, you don't care if the Orcs slaughter some nameless villagers, but you sure do care if they kill off one of the Heroes.

In a MMO, we all want to be Heroes, we want to be Heroes in all the games we play. 

It's not fun to be the nameless villager, but that is what we start out as in a MMO. It takes a while to become a Hero. That's really want the RPG part of MMORPG is about, becoming a Hero. 

And it's really hard to become a Hero if every time you go outside your village, some *sshole Orc kills you for no reason other then the fact that you were there. 

That, is why total unrestricted FFA PvP does not work in MMOs. 

FFA Guild vs. Guild and FFA Faction vs. Faction are and should be enough FFA for anyone.

That way your band of Orcs can slaughter all the people you want, as long as they are part of the faction/guild in opposition to you. They are just some random villager anymore, they are the enemy. The real enemy. There is HONOR in killing them.

Anyone who wants to go out and kill random noobs for fun is a pathetic coward, and nothing anyone will ever say will change my mind on that.

Take away the ability to randomly kill some lowbie, some poor shmuck crafting or killing monsters, and you can still very easily have your immersion, your epic, bloody, perpetual conflict, but you don't have to ruin the game for someone else at the same time. 

So this FFA PvP debating seems to be picking up... Hurray!

I've read many blogs and forum threads, thought I'd share some thoughts of mine with ya'll.

Enjoy.

Looting -

A lot of people talk about full and/or partial player looting when they talk about Free For All Player Versus Player combat. 

They feel that if you defeat someone, you should be able to take all/some of their equipment and what they were carrying. Classic Ultima Online and modern EVE Online allow players to loot each other.

In EVE, you have insurance and clones. In other games you have timers, protected items, blessings, etc. Pretty much, ways to keep some or all of your stuff.

The basic problem with player looting is that the vast majority of people are selfish. It's a game, people like to win at games. With player looting, people don't mind looting others, it's like Christmas morning opening that bag / cargo hold and finding goodies to plunder... I know, I've looted plenty of people back in the day....

But when someone kills you, especially when they are cowards and gank you, or especially when you are new to the game..... it proves without a doubt why so few games do player looting anymore. It sucks. Bad.

So somewhere along the way, people thought:

"Hey! People like stuff, people hate when their stuff is stolen, let's make all the cool stuff come from Monsters and let's make it so once you get it you can't lose it!"

And this was how modern PvE was born. Raiding, dungeons, quest loot, item drops... all of it.

And some say, this was also the death of PvP.

What's the "point" of PvP if not to take stuff from other people? Well, they thought:

"Hey, people love FPS games and in there, you don't get to steal other stuff, the sweet taste of victory is enough!"

And thus modern PvP was born. Hell, they even use CTF and King of the Hill in MMOs now.

For me, victory is enough reward. I've played a sh*t ton of FPS games, been a Halo freak for years, so I'm very used to the concept of "reward = victory" and that's it. I get enough of a rush from simply defeating my opponents, I don't NEED to spit on their corpse, drag it behind me chariot, strip it naked and hang it on my wall.

So I just totally do not understand the mentality of the player looter.

I know some people will say that player looting good for the economy, it's good for crafters.

Why? Because if people keep having their stuff stolen when they die, they'll have to keep buying more stuff. I mean look at the EVE Online economy. They had to hire their own economist for Christ's sake.

So I can definetly see that as a bonus to player looting, it creates a much more important sense of economy. But it works both ways.

You don't NEED as much of a robust player-driven economy if you don't NEED to replace your gear every day/hour etc.

Economy is one of those things that no one can get right. In real life, or in a virtual one. It's much easier in a virtual one because you can put certain restrictions and controls on the economy that you just can't do in real life (at least not in the United States.)