If I was to do an MMO...

A modern day, alternate timeline based MMO where electric coils attached to hands and wired to a generator on the back is the main focus of the game, allowing the generator to power cars, trains, add and electric charge to shovels or spin an electric screwdriver.

Races would be human (which are you basis and average at controlling all the various steam and generator based tech), homunculus (which can't use any of the era's tech but capable of shifting their bodies into non-electric based tools and weapons), and mechanized golems capable of thought (which can't use human tech, nor can they transform, but they have hard-points that can have equipment attached and removed as needed, far more durable than the other races and pack more of a punch, but less adaptable in the field).

Should be a skill based game rather than level based game, as just because you picked up an axe from a lumbermill doesn't mean you are going to be Paul Bunyan. Vehicles and low tech modern day equipment should be common place, so a human could power a car, than jump out and grab a jackhammer. Maybe not well, but they should be capable of doing so.

The overall enemy the three races would face would be martians who have come to enslave the Earth. The Martians are better geared, and far more lethal, but the Earthlings are more numerous and fighting for their home. Combat should be brutal, with characters having to actively avoid being hit, otherwise 3-4 hits could kill any player at the best of times (1-shot at the worse). Focus should be on using terrain and tactics to outwit the invaders and reach objectives.

if EA was at all interested in saving WAR, they would have done so long ago and not focused on WoH instead. At this point the only thing that can save the game is a complete overhaul of the game, engine, AI, ect and rerelease as a F2P title. Even in that market though, if WAR doesn't release as polished and relatively bugfree as Aion, then the effort was still for naught.

In the end it comes down to Mythic couldn't keep hardly any of their prerelease promises, changed the focus of the game after release, couldn't fix the bugs that were being reported, and most important caught red handed lieing to their customers about how many active players were only. Mark Jacobs might have come across as aloof, but at least he cared about his games, after he left Mythic went to hell in a handbasket.

EA won't be selling off the Warhammer franchise, as they just created WoH. As horrible as they have treated the IP, it does suck that they have it locked down in the way they do. As for GW, it is my understanding that at a Gamesday shortly after WAR's release, they more or less made a public apology for WAR's failures and at this point they seem more content with ignoring it. It isn't the first time that a GW based game came out horrible, so GW appears to be used to it by now.

At this point, you can get a pretty good idea of how well the game is doing by visiting the official forums and how fast/slow they are, as well as the various complaints. If you are feeling really froggy, you could do the unlimited trial and ask in game how people think. The fact the game went from 55+ NA servers down to 3 world wide should be telling in and of itself.

It wasn't *horrible*, but I had a feeling someone was trying to channel Samurai Jack and missed the mark in terms of animation. Just throws you into the middle of everything without very good explanation of it all. Action is great, but there tends to need some foundation.

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

The childishness of this version of "Gundams" is rediculous. It has nothing to do with Gundam, and is nothing but a farce upon the face of the series :|. Then again the series went down hill HARD after Gundam:Wing.

 

Actually various SD Gundams have existed many times over, including a TV series on Cartoon Network called SD Gundam a few years back. You can find many Gundam models that are also of the SD form, as SD in general is highly popular in Japanese culture as seen from the short SD clips at the end of the Record of the Lotoss War and other animes.

One possible option is a decent FTP game called Spiral Knights. It's a pretty entertaining game. The graphics might be a bit child like, but don't let that fool you. I played with the Steam client, but you can just go to the Sprial Knights website and get the client from there if you really wanted.

It certainly looks interesting enough to draw my attention. I am curious just how well they well use the interaction seen in the video, and if they use it to the fullest. There is a ton of potential of various zone escapes and whatnot that can be done with the player actively having to jump through, from, and on to various pieces of terrain. Certainly one of the biggest potential selling points if done right.

The combat itself looks rather normal, however this is an early build and more then one game has changed combat mechanics in alpha/beta before. Will wait till I actually see more of a later build before final judgements are made.

Graphically, it looks to fit together well enough, but it does show a heavy Warcraft flavor of graphical design. It is very fitting though, and looks consistant through out the video. Once again, being such an early build, it is pretty impressive for what they have pulled off.

Overall, I am interested to see this game unfold. The MMO genre needs more Sci-fi games to be mainstream successful, so will see how this goes. I am curious however if the game feels like just a big mini-game like a lot of MMOs released the last few years, or if it will be a complete world, so things like crafting, travel, communication, ect will all be things I plan on watching closely. We can't have many more MMOs where crafting is added in, at what often feels like, the last minute.

UO was, and in many aspects still is, the best MMO on the market for me. No other MMO has had a working skill system, community, and true feeling of a world as UO does. The AoS expansion really is what started the downward sprial for me, making the game more and more 'WoW-friendly' with items becoming more important then you skill build. The balance of the Paladin and Necromancer spells were also completely borked, and almost everyone had one of those two (at the time) skills in their builds.

It is a pity that EA has killed both UO2 and UX:O when both were reportedly very close to reaching the beta phase. Ulima needs a true successor, and Lord of Ultima simply does not count.

With the latest billing screw up of th Mythic accounting center being merged with the new EA account, a lot of people's accounts are/were cancelled in the move and a decent chunk of people have yet to figure out how to get access to their account and subscription info now. There will no doubt be a number of people who just give up trying to re-subscribe to the game, hampering the population even further.

Right now I use Raptr as my main source of chatting. The video and screenshot taking is something I never really got much use out of even with Xfire and Steam, so those aren't near the top of my list.

I will continue to watch this program develop, but am looking more for a good streamedline IM service, like Raptr currently offers, without having to jump through 'apps' like Meebo. I want to have my friends list available to me from the onset, which you can do with the officially sanctioned MSN, but no other IM programs without Meebo. MSN for me is a waste of space, since I don't know a single person who uses that program.

I used Xfire for a fairly long time until they were bought out and the updates stopped coming, at that point I went to Raptr since it allowed for me to not need to log into YIM, Xifre, and whatever other chat program I needed because there was no standard. 

It doesn't have the screenshot/video functionality of Xfire, but I don't mind to much, and if it's a Steam based game, then I can just take screenshots and videos with Steam anyhow.

I'm no huge fan of Rift. it does some thing okay, other things not so well, just like most MMOs released.

However I find it interesting playerbase cries out for advertising should a games population begin falling in any way (which almost every MMO does after the 30 day honeymoon period after release), and yet Trion has been actively advertising since more or less day one, and the players instead say it comes off as desperation.

Like most other circumstances, Trion is stuck in a losing battle where the players themselves don't seem to know what they want. 

Even the attack on server transfer being free. FFXI has server transfers, WoW has server transfers, WAR has server transfers, Rift has server transfers. The only difference between all those games is the fact Trion has stated Rift's transfers will remain free for the foreseeable future. A game succeeding or failing doesn't affect the fact that some servers have a healthier population, for one reason or another, then others as proven by WoW still trying to get people to play healers and tanks even with cross realm LFD tools 

I am firmly of the belief that the current situation with the world seeming dead to the players is more a problem of the entire genre becoming far more anti-social then anything else. When you allow players to solo 1-X then suddenly tell them no more effective soloing after X, of course they will be hesitant. Top it off with more and more instancing, and of course you will find it hard to find other players in the field wanting to group.

Rift is an OK game for what it is, but it does lack in a lot of very important ways.

• 
  Changes come in that are, in general, lesser options of other games versions (ie: the new 'wardrobe' compared to LotROs, WARs, or even Aion's versions)


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  The game 'events' are not exciting and does not make you want to log in. 2nd event thus far, and my reaction the first time logging in was 'meh'. No where new the Night of Murder WAR event, Feast of Swords FFXI events, or even WoW's Brewfest. Nothing really engaging, and lacking soul.


• 
  The lack of any type of alternative advancement for leveling and characters at endgame. I hate leveling through Skarwood Reach on my alts, and yet there isn't really a good alternative for a decent number of levels.


• 
  Trion wildly swinging the the nerf hammer around, hitting both PvE and PvP. Almost the entire challenge of the endgame dungeons are gone now with the latest patch. Let alone the massive CC nerf that affected both PvP and PvE.


• 
  The rifts/invasion mechanic is far to commonly used. Each rift should be a challenge from the get go, with very few being soloable at all. Rifts/invasions shouldn't be a 'every 30 minutes' thing, but more like every couple days. Make them actually mean something, make the community care when a Rift spawns in Shimmersand.

I wrote a much more involved post on my blog http://gamers-phalanx.blogspot.com/ so won't go and rehash everything. I will say that you can tell that Rift and WAR are built around the same engine, but Rift puts WAR to shame in it's current form. The engine can handle heavier loads respectably well, scales well as FPS drops, and generally feels more like how WAR should have been.

Rift isn't a terrible game in any way. It's nothing really new however, but they have never said they were going to break any real ground. All the systems in Rift has been seen in other areas, but Rift has done, just like WoW before and taken those systems and enhanced them with Trion's personal twist. PQs in Rift are a fun thing, and I soloed a good number on both my Warrior and Cleric. Of course I never expected the rifts to be the only source of entertainment so I mixed the rifts and invasions in with my natural questing, only really focusing on the rifts to get the tokens required to get some of the Planar Goods you can purchase.

If someone is wanting a casual game where you have options then Rift will no doubt be for you as an alternative to WoW/EQ2/WAR style of casual games, but if you are expecting anywhere near hardcore then Rift will let you down. It is meant to be a game and not a lifestyle. Will it be successful in the long term? That will eventually fall onto Trion's shoulders of delivering patches and content in a timely enough manor to keep people interested, but for release the game is solid enough it should be just fine come opening day.

There is no more Oceanic servers (haven't been for a long while), all those from that region now play on the NA or EU servers since they are all on the same server listing.

It is a pity that HoMM isn't being released as a fully supported and fully developed MMO. The IP is a strong one after all these years, with each racial faction growing greatly in depth. Classes are already clean cut for each faction, the reason for the strife is well laid out for generations, and the MMO world needs a good MMO with 5+ factions (I don't really think the Dungeon faction needs to be playable, but that's just me).

Unfortunately, I doubt we'll ever see a good HoMM MMO, at least nothing even close to the depth the current series of true HoMM games give. 

Sounds more and more like WAR is more in terms of what you are looking for. Twinking is far less powerful due to XP/renown gain in PvP and the Bolster effect, can't be ganked by people outside your tier due to chicken debuff so always fighting someone within 10 levels of you, there is a fairly fleshed out PvE world with even solo PQs, the PvP is heavily based around grouping and rewarding, and the rate you level is fairly quickly, with most of your time being spent on increasing your renown rank through PvP and city sieges/defenses, as well as active open world and instanced PvP.

Aion, WoW, WAR, and most MMOs more or less share the same style of questing, even the PvP quests are 'Kill X of Y class or rank'. The biggest problem with Aion's PvP is that you can not tell the level of your opponent and you could just as easily attack or be attacked by someone 20 levels higher or lower then you. The Aion grind can be at best tedious, but it does hit you like a brick wall, not as bad as old school FFXI, but not nearly as easy as AoC/WAR.

Aion does have some good things going for it, namely graphically and it may well end up being your thing, but if twinks are indeed something you worry about, I would say WAR is generally something you are looking towards more. Not saying WAR doesn't have it's own issues, but it is another option to keep in mind.

Curious as to how they will balance normal Imperial Guard versus any breed of Space Marine and whatnot. Possibly IG gets  some form of squads, while marines run it solo.... who knows. THQ is a good group of folks, I'm sure they've got some plans. Looking forward to this one indeed.

Good to see they stayed fairly close to the Dawn of War graphic style. THQ always seems to know how to do 40K right.

The WAR beta testers were treated like dirt. Many times a post from Jacobs would be plastered on the forums saying 'We'll ban you for X'. 

Half the time there were threads where testers brought up issues and the devs blatantly said 'we like it like this so we're going to ignore you. Not sure how many people remember the original version of he White Lion Pounce, but it could be exploited in tons of locations, but testers brought that up and the dev response was 'We want it to be a fun ability. Players should be able to pounce, pounce, pounce. The AP cost will balance it.'... Suddenly they had to change it when ever player in the world saw the same things testers saw.

As to the topic at hand...

WAR would be better served by going offline and revamping it to be a DDO model. Revamp LotD, Lost Vale, Gunbad, Sigmar Cyrpt, and all the other dungeons/optional areas into purchasable items (free if you have a P2P account) with smart loot/non-BoP gear drops. Multiple other things can be done to make the F2P model work. The 'New User Experience' is a step already in that direction.

Even then the game would have to be better balanced, which means Mythic would have to stay on top of keeping patches rolling out regularly and not once every 6 months+.

Stop counting pure PvE and Scenarios towards zone flips, add more PvE in the forms of quests and PQs to the RvR lakes instead of making them devoid of life, mirror the classes better instead of trying to be original, more graphical options for equipment, and so much more.