Paragus Rants

Rants, reviews, and interviews from an MMO veteran and guild leader. Join me in an objective discussion about what went right, what went wrong, and simply how it is.

Author: Paragus1

Review: Bad Company 2

As a follow-up to my previous rant regarding Modern Warfare 2, I wanted to take some time to give my review of Bad Company 2 for the PC.  Now I know I normally don't talk about non-MMO related games here, especially given the name and nature of this site, but this is a game that seems to be getting a lot of play with my guys and around the gaming community.
 

One of the main differences right out of the gate between BC2 and MW2 is that the folks behind BC2 had enough common sense not to roll the genre back decades and opted to use dedicated servers.  This means that maximum players allowed into a game is 32, and that server admins can police their own servers and tweak the game settings to their liking.  While 32 is not as high as some other games out there, the size seems to be a decent fit for the maps given their size.

In addition to the standard server structure, Bad Company also features a friends list capability that adds a variety of functionality to the game.  For starters, the standard friends list shows you when your friends are online and what server they are in.  The online leaderboard also has an option that lets you see just your friends so you can see how you stack up against your buddies, as well as where your crew ranks in the overall scheme of things.

Of course we have to remember that this game has EA stamped on the box, which means you should expect the usual variety of bugs and malfunctions with a lot of these features.  We had the joy of logging in one day to have all of our friends lists completely erased for no reason at all.  The friends list itself often times chokes when you try to join a game your friend is in.  Browsing for servers can often times be annoying as servers often times don't display the proper ping, and there is no search filter checkbox for hardcore mode.

The good news is that along with the hair pulling bugs with the interface around the game, someone had the good sense to add an MMO-style patcher to this game.  One of my main beefs with some of the previous Call of Duty games was scouring random websites trying to find the right patch, and not having download and install properly (I don't use steam).  At the time of writing this, the game has already been patched twice, which is shocking from previous experiences with EA game.  At the same time though, the game still suffers from a slew of random bugs that find me and my friends being random dropped to the desktop or disconnected with no real explanation.

The controls in the game are overall good, a little bit more sluggish to me than what I was used to from CoD.   The knife for example does not seems as fast and fluid as it was in Call of Duty, but the rest of it seems decent for the most part.  Bad Company 2 lacks the ability to lay down into a prone position, which put me off a great deal in the decision process buying the game.  Once I played it though, I got used to it and certainly don't miss the "dolphin diving" that plagued many of the old Battlefield games.  I also don't like the fact that there is no toggle for crouching, and non-toggle for aiming.   I would prefer to be able to press crouch once and stay crouched, and the opposite with scoping as I prefer to hold the mouse button to zoom aim.  Hopefully a future patch will add these to the game.

Gameplay

Bad Company 2 features 3 main game modes for online multiplayer: Conquest, Rush, and Squad Death Match.

Conquest is the standard battlefield type game you'd expect from previous installments from other games in the series.  It features an open-style map with 3 or 4 control points to be fought over much like the Call of Duty mode Domination.  The 2 teams fight over the various points trying to flip control while depleting the enemy's respawn ticket count until the game is over.  The maps overall are larger than the standard CoD maps, but they aren't quite on the massive scale of what you would expect from Battlefield 2.

Rush mode features a more linear style map where one team attacks and the other defends 2 control points.  The defenders must try to defend the 2 points from being destroyed until the attacking team depletes its supply of respawn tickets. If the points are destroyed, the attackers get a refill on tickets and the map unlocks the next stage with 2 more points.  This process repeats until the attacks take all the points or run out of tickets.

Squad Death Match are smaller scale games in which 4 squads consisting of up to 4 players each (16 players max), fight in a smaller area for the purpose of seeing which squad can get X amount of kills first.  The maps are taken from map pieces used in the other 2 modes.

One of the main features of Bad Company 2 is the use of destructable terrain.  This basically mans that any wall or obstacle can be complete destroyed if it sustains enough damage from a rocket launcher or tank shell.  I have to say that this feature really redefines the way FPS are played and will hopefully be played from here on.  Playing the same map over and over again in other games can be tiresome because certain spots are always used, and the strategy becomes stagnant around those spots.
 

This feature changes the dynamic and adds replayability to the maps.  If someone hides behind a wall, instead of waiting for them to reveal themselves, you can just destroy it!  Trying to get inside of a house but don't want to use the door?  Blow a hole in the wall and make your own door!  See a house full of scumbags you want to kill?  Level the entire house!  That's right, in Bad Company 2 you can completely turn a building into a pile of smoldering rubble if it sustains enough damage.  Even trees can be toppled over from explosives or plowed into with a tank.

Bad Company 2 also features a leveling system for progression and the use of kits as found in previous Battlefield games . The 4 kits are Assault, Medic, Engineer, and Recon.  Each seems to have their own role in the battle and different tools in terms of weapons and gadgets to help make them good in certain situations.  The more you play with a particular kit, the more of that kits weapons unlock and become available to you.

The game also has a reward system of achievements built into it that reward your character for completing certain milestone tasks.  These range from getting X number of kills with certain guns, collecting certain pins, and performing other various tricks.  These rewards are neatly displayed on a page in the interface so you can track your progress and take a look at what you want to shoot for.  A lot of these awards will reward you with a substantial amount of points as well which makes them even more attractive than just the usual e-peen stroking.

One thing that really annoys the hell out of me is the fact that the game does not save your kits when you join a new server.  I don't know if this is intended or a bug, but this combined with some connection issues can make this a major annoyance.  Bad Company 2 lets you switch your kit everytime you die, so I like to set up all my kits before I start playing since I tend to switch between them a fair amount depending on the map or battle situation.

Final Thoughts

Overall Bad Company 2 is a solid FPS that offers a nice diversion from whatever MMO you are playing or in between.  The game has stunning visuals and sounds, and the destroyable terrain adds a new element to the genre that I hope will become standard.  I'd definitely recommend the game, but be prepared to deal with the slew of bugs and screw-ups that come standard to a box with EA stamped on it.  Hopefully they will continue to take an aggressive approach to patching, because the game is a blast to play when it actually works properly.

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition
http://www.inqguild.com

Darkfall's Trial and Interview with NEW

It was a little over a year ago today that I opened my review of the Darkfall beta with "Darkfall Online is a game that is not for everyone."  A lot of you have followed my blog closely (thanks for your support) despite the fact you may not play the game and didn't want to risk trying it without some form of a trial.  Well apparently now you can find out if Darkfall is in fact for you for only 1$ for a one week trial.

Yes it is not free, but given the nature of the game and the fact that the trial does not seem to place any restrictions on you, it seems like a fair offer.  If there is one thing you might have learned about this game from reading here and certain reviews out there, it's that one week is not enough time to even come close to seeing all that this game has to offer.  Despite that, I think it should give curiosity seekers a good chance to get a handle on the games unorthodox controls, feel for the gameplay, and a chance to wander around Agon's zoneless and open world.

I've always believed that your first day in Agon is usually the hardest. To take the edge off getting murdered while you grapple with the controls, Aventurine has finally patched in their new player protection system that should give you some breathing room is those rough first few hours.  You can identify these fresh players by the halo-like symbol over their head, of which I have seen quite a bit of lately.

Despite having the trial and the initial safeguard, learning the ins and outs of Darkfall can be overwhelming, especially for players accustomed to theme-park MMOs which have saturated the genre the last few years.  Lucky for you, there is "NEW".  NEW is clan of players who are dedicated to showing you the ropes and exposing you to aspects of the game (on both servers) that you might otherwise not see initially.  They offer up to 30 days of membership to help teach you the ropes, after which it is up to you to find your own path into the world.

Instead of me trying to tell you what NEW is all about, I figured it would be best if I tracked down their leadership and let them explain some of the specifics for themselves.  I traveled over to Hammerdale to visit their city and got to spend some time checking our their facilities and activities.

1) Tell us a bit about the purpose of NEW. Why was it started and are there any restrictions to joining up?

Fury Mortis – Newborn on Agon [NEW] is a clan on the North American server that was formed to aid the new player experience. With its harsh environment, quirky UI and steep learning curve, Darkfall can be a real challenge for beginners. Every time we lose a new player it puts more pressure on Aventurine to "Trammel the game up" to increase its appeal to the masses.

NEW was started as a joint effort, and officially kicked off when Elder Saurcon (Lords of the Dead) purchased an account and created the “New SupremeGeneral” character. With the support of Black Shields, Grief, Apollo, Imperil, Dominion, and too many other clans to list, NEW acquired Hammerdale at a very low cost. When the sticky post went up on the NA-1 forums and people could see that this was an honest effort, donations quickly poured in from across the community.

The only restrictions to joining up are that you are a relatively new player and that you agree to the rules on the website.

2) Tell us a bit about the services NEW offers and how owning a city has contributed to your mission.

Spewart thePunisher – New offers its members a place they can come to ask questions and get advice, either via clan chat or voice chat using the Mumble program (also hosted by lotd.org). Hammerdale provides new players (and visitors) a player city with a workbench, enchanting station, laboratory, anvil, oven, fighter trainer, master mage, and a farm. Our city is open to everyone, whether they are in NEW or not. In addition to its amenities, the city serves as a gathering place where people can trade, group up to fight tougher mobs, and help defend each other from the occasional PK raid.

Mycke Soulslayer – Without Hammerdale, NEW would be a little more than scattered new players getting war decked and ganked in NPC cities, pretty much more harm than good.

3) How many people roughly would you say have joined up with NEW and graduated since its inception?

Fury – Clymene Darkwind (our first Counselor) had the foresight to set up a google spreadsheet to track members’ join dates and progress. As of today we have 1,437 names on this list. All non-leadership members have a defined time limit in the clan; so far 1,043 members have graduated.

4) What are some of the most common questions and issues that you see get brought up by new arrivals?

White Knight – The most common question of new players is why they can’t fish, lol.

Spewart – "How do I get a mount?", "How do I make gold?", "Where is Hammerdale?" and tons of questions about the alignment system.

Fury – The biggest issue for new players right now is the difference between veteran players HP and beginning players HP. The formula should be changed to 250 + 1*vit + 0.5*str + HpSkills. It’s not the first thing they notice, but when they realize the tremendous gap between the total health of veteran players and new players, I believe it turns some casual players (the base of MMORPGs) away from the game.

5) Community support for NEW seems to be very strong on both servers. Do you find that many players or clans give NEW members a pass when it comes to attacking and ganking out in the world?

Buadthan Ludhurst - I think a lot of clans give NEW members a break; for example they will come up on there mounts chasing you and then stop, or start attacking you and then see the tag and stop. Some will send you a tell and say they are sorry and didn't see your tag, others will pk you but revive you because they really don't want to pk new players they are just looking for PvP. But on the other hand, we do have clans that specifically target us for pk'ing and raiding because we are a clan of new players.

6) Do you find that the majority of people who join up stay for the entire period, or do most end up leaving for other clans before their time is up?

Mycke - In my short time period many leave early. I believe this says we are doing our job well.

Skarth Manadragon - Most players seem to join another clan when their time is up or almost up.

7) There has been a recent movement by some of the veterans to donate gear and ready bags to help your cause. What is the best way a veteran player can donate and make sure their contribution finds its way to new arrivals to the game?

Spewart - I wouldn't say the movement to donate gear is recent. We've always enjoyed fantastic support from most of the other clans. If you want to donate gear to NEW, the best way is to come to Hammerdale and speak with a clan officer. If your clan lives far from Hammerdale, you can still help the cause of retaining new players by donating to random noobs (not necessarily NEW members) in the racial starter cities. One fun way is to find a group of newbies by a bank, load yourself up with gear, hit one of them and let the towers kill you. They will loot your tomb dry in seconds.

8) With the new trial program and new player protection for Darkfall, a lot of people are starting to give the game a closer look. Do you have any advice to the new players to the game or those sitting on the fence considering jumping in?

White Knight - The advice I give to new players is to just play the game and enjoy what Agon has to offer. It will take you some time to build a character but you can have an impact in the game right off.

Spewart - I recommend that people spend a day or two in their racial cities doing some of the simple goblin quests, etc. just to get familiar with the game. They should pick up the six "title quests" from their racial capital city during that time (just get them, no need to complete them). Then join up with NEW (ideally on Tuesday, since we graduate you on the 5th Monday) and come to Hammerdale. The main thing is to remember that this is a great game with a hard start. If you rage-quit early, you'll miss the good part.

Mycke - Darkfall isn't about always winning it’s about always having excitement. Sometime that excitement is “pwning” your enemy and others times its getting away from someone you know will kill you, or just dying to them giving it your best shot. No one always wins in DF.

Skarth - Get used to the idea of using voice chat programs like Ventrilo, teamspeak, or mumble. It's a requirement for anything group related.

Fury – Go to this website http://newbornonagon.guildplex.com/. Review the hosted training videos, links to guides, install Mumble and apply to NEW. A complete list with all responses to this interview from the NEW Counselors is on the forums.

Final Thoughts

If you have been sitting on the fence about trying Darkfall, there really is no excuse for not taking advantage of the trial and the services being offered by NEW.  I'd recommend looking for one of their community publishers be it from a blog you support (No, I am not a community publisher) or shop around for a player offering you extra goodies. If you are already an established player reading this, then I urge you to help donate gear to our new arrivals and help any questions they may have.
 

If your getting worn down by the so-called "AAA" MMOs from huge studios with massive budgets selling you the same linear and shallow gameplay over and over with a new name on the box, then I highly recommend dropping the 1$ to see what the fuss is about.  Darkfall is the only game my guild has played in the last few years that has held us for longer than 60 days, and it's a reminder to me of what this genre used to represent and could become again someday.  Even if you end up hating the game, you won't find a week's worth of entertainment this cheap anywhere else.  If you do decide to check out the trial, I'd love to read your comments here or answer any questions you might have.

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition
www.inqguild.com

Darkfall: Progression and Sieging

It's been a little over 2 months since I have rerolled fresh on Darkfall's NA server, and almost a year since the game's initial launch.  Today I want to just give my thoughts on character progression, take a more in-depth look at how the new siege mechanics are playing out from the last expansion.

Character Progression

At the time of my last write-up, I was about 2 weeks into playing my new character.  Now that I am past the 2 month mark, I want to talk about the progression my character has made to help give people a rough idea on rate of character development.  Let me preface this by saying that everyone develops at different speeds, and even in my own guild there are wild differences in some of these areas between my friends.  Since everything you do in Darkfall seems to raise something, results are bound to vary based how time was spent in game, as well as the amount of time played.  I've played pretty actively, logging in pretty much daily for several hours at a time.  Your results may vary depending on how much you play and how your time is spent in-game, this is just a snapshot of where I am personally at this stage to help give a general idea.

Let's start off by taking a look at where my stats are currently after about 10 weeks of playing, and compare it to where I was at my second week of playing.  The 10 week stats factor in me having a +4 Vitality quest title enabled.  I decided to focus on my archery skills and magic skills pretty heavily over my melee.  This path combined with the fact that I did not spend nearly as much time harvesting as my guildmates shows why my Strength and Wisdom are dragging behind.  Some of my friends who took a more melee oriented approach have much higher strength and vitality, and as a result more HP than me.

My heavy focus on Archery initially has made Dexterity one of my higher stats, and since shooting bows also seems to raise Vitality to a lesser degree, there is a substantial gap between my Vitality and Strength.  Archery has been an extremely useful tool for PvE, and seems to be the fastest path to doing damage in PvP for a newer player.  Compared to magic, archery is relatively cheap skill to work on with the cost of arrows being low, and many of the lower end monsters dropping arrows.  All of these factors made me want to get maxed out here early on, and it has been a boon for my ability to farm cash from some harder monsters as well as being more useful on the battlefield.

I decided early on that magic was going to be another priority for me because of the utility of tools it gives you in terms of buffs, damage, and healing.  The problem I had initially was trying to decide on which schools to focus on.  This indecision on my part led to me leveling up some of the elemental schools to mid range while I tried to decide what exactly I wanted to do, and as a result my Intelligence climbed to being my highest stat.  Ultimately I ended up focusing my efforts on Necromancy just because I wanted try a school of magic the rest of my friends hadn't really delved into.

The speed at which skills raise above 50 slows down a fair amount, and even more so at 75. This can make reaching some of your skills goals pretty grindy in some cases. The good news is that skills raise substantially faster when used on monsters, but for a magic school like spell chanting (focusing heavily buffs) you really aren't able to take advantage of this in a practical way since it makes little sense to buff a monster.  I wouldn't mind seeing some of the skills get a slight increase in leveling speed in the 50+ range.

Overall in terms of feedback in this area, I think I'd still like to see stats raise a bit faster up until around 40 to help newer player catch up a little bit, although I recognize there are many who would argue that it is fine the way it is.  One of the main concerns expressed from potential and newer players is the amount of time it takes to become "viable", and I think increasing the stat gain at the lower end will help curtail those concerns to a degree.  That being said, my guild of mostly rerolled characters has our fair share of wins when we travel together as a group.  I'd definitely recommend new players take the time to watch the "Accelerated Character Development"  videos that outline a path to getting key skills as efficiently as possible.

Siege Mechanic Feedback

I glossed over the new siege mechanics in my previous article because at the time I had not experienced it enough first-hand to feel confident enough to be able to talk about it.  During my time playing, I have had a front row seat in the Mercenary Wars that have been taking place on the NA server, which some would argue is the server's first world war.

In a lot of ways I think I like the overall direction of the new system compared to the old one.  Specifically the new system doesn't allow for a siege to hinge on a single person's connection, an issue which was responsible for a lot of sieges being completely wasted under the old system.  The new system also gives people enough time to make preparations inside and outside of the game to prevent a holding being ninja'ed in off-hours.  As someone who used to own a hamlet when the game first released, I was constantly nervous that I could wake up on any given morning to find us not owning it anymore.  These key changes are definitely a step in the right direction, but there is always room for improvement.

To help broaden my perspective on areas of the new system that could use improvement, I turned to players in the alliance leadership of the opposing sides in the recent world war.  Since the bulk of the sieges under the new system have been in some way related to their conflict, and considering they have been hired to get involved in sieges outside of their own war, they seemed like a good source for extra feedback in this area.

The mechanic for "bind kicking" players bound at a holding has been a heated topic of conversations lately.  The current mechanic for kicking a clan member off your holding bindstone can be used as a fast means of transportation.  A clan leader can kick a member off of one holding, and retroactively bind them at another holding owned by their clan across the world.  I believe this to go against one of the game's basic principals in regards to the difficulty of travel, and it also allows clans with multiple holdings to have a massive advantage that I am not sure was intended.  As a result of this, some of the more active clans are able to meddle in the affairs of others across the world with relative ease and without the risk and time of traveling. Instead of being able to be kicked from one holding to another, players who are kicked from a clan's bindstone should instead be retroactively bound to the closest chaos stone in order to prevent it being used as a means of super transportation.  This will also help conflicts stay more localized and regional in my opinion.

On the topic of localized conflict, one of the changes in the new siege system is that notifications regarding attack windows are broadcasted server-wide.  This tends to turn sieges into a magnet for third-party forces to come interfere knowing that they will likely find lots of geared people on the battlefield.  It could easily be argued that this may not necessarily be a bad thing, and it may be the intention of the broadcast, but combined with the bindkicking abuse, it can really empower certain clans to get involved in literally everything with minimal risk and time invested.  If the bind kick gets fixed this probably wouldn't be as much of an issue, but right now it makes the stronger clans with multiple holdings across the world able to cause gridlock in the conquest system by constantly being able to easily interfere in everything no matter how far from home it is.

One of the features of the new system is that one of the methods for declaring a siege involves dropping a stone on the ground within a certain radius of the holding being contested.  These stones replace the previous mechanic that had sieges hinging on a single person's connection, and in addition they can act as bindstones for the attackers to set up a forward base of operations.  The problem is that if an attacking player opts to bind at these stones and is killed in the field, they are pretty much screwed when they respawn at these stones because there is no bank for them to be able to regear.  Respawning near the battle naked doesn't really do a lot of good considering the odds are that your body is unrecoverable or looted.  I would suggest adding some sort of mobile siege bank that could be destroyed to make these more viable as binds (maybe can only be dropped within a few meters of a siege stone, but not right outside of the holding).  Since these are often time viewed useless as a bind, it can make it overly tough for an attacking force to overwhelm a massive defending force who has the luxury of a bank to regear.   Allowing allies of the attacking guild to bind at these stones would add some value as well, especially considering all of the defender's allies are able to bind in the city.

This leads me to the next issue.  One beef relayed to me by the alliance leaders was the fact that once a siege has been declared, the defender can ally up anyone they want to jam pack their holdings bindstone with upwards of 200 people.  Combined with the above current siegestone mechanic, this can put the attackers in an almost impossible position when trying to take a city.  If that holding all of a sudden has 200 active people bound there because the owners allied half the server, it can be near impossible to fight against such a large number of newly bound outsiders who can regear and respawn on site.  A suggestion to curtail this would be to not allow a clans to ally up while under a siege. This enables them to still use diplomacy to get assistance without giving an unfair advantage to a defender who already has innate benefits in a siege situation.

Another minor issued brought up to me was the in regards to the usefulness of cannons given the cost it takes to construct them.  Cannons only have a very limited number of shots before they become rendered useless, and once they are dropped they are effectively gone forever.  Given the cost of making cannons, the alliance leaders suggest that the amount of ammo in the cannons be considered for an increase (doubled or tripled) to make their value more in line with the cost to build them.

The final suggestion from the alliance leaders would be to implement some sort of mechanic for a clan to transfer ownership of a holding to another without having to go through a fake siege.  With all the wheeling and dealing in Darkfall, it has become a common for clans to want to pass ownership or sell one of their holdings.  It would be nice for everyone involved if there was some kind of mechanic in place for a clan leader to transfer ownership to another without going through the hassle of the current system.

Final Thoughts

The increased rate of character development make Darkfall much more appealing now than it was back when it launched almost a year ago. Aventurine seems to be making strides to improve the new player experience, and seems to have a lot planned for it's second year. The character advancement speed could be a bit better in some areas, but a unique and rewarding experience awaits the new players who have the courage to take the plunge.  The new siege system is a step in the right direction, and recent patches has squashed a lot of the virtual memory errors that plagued some users during the more epic battles. As long as Aventurine listens to feedback from its players, I see no reason why Darkfall won't continue to grow as it is continues to offer a unique gaming experience that has been lost in a sea of copycat theme park titles.

Paragus Rant
Co-Leader of Inquisition
www.inqguild.com

Darkfall: Community Q&A with Aventurine

A few weeks ago, the Darkfall community expressed an interest in getting a chance to fire off some questions to Aventurine about a variety of gameplay topics as well as some of their future plans.  I passed along the idea to the devs, and they agreed to field questions from the community of current players.

After the questions were posted, I compiled them all together and screened out the duplicate topics and overly vague questions and passed them along to Aventurine.  I also made each player sign their in-game Darkfall name to their submitted question for accountability reasons.

So let's turn things over to Aventurine!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We made an effort to answer every question sent to us as well as we could. If we seem vague or incomplete on a few things, it’s because they aren’t finalized. Tasos Flambouras, Claus Grovdal and Kjetil Helland participated in this Q&A.
 

What are your future plans to assist new, or returning, players with catching up to veterans in a realistic time-frame? - Wrafe Prevails

We’ve done several things already such as increasing skill gains, increasing skill gains on PvE, increasing monster drops, skill books, attribute consumables etc. and we’re constantly evaluating this making all necessary adjustments.

You can be viable in Darkfall and you can do things and access all areas from day one. You can PvP on day one and you can actually hit other players. You can man a cannon, you can ride a mount, sail a ship you can participate in a massive battle and contribute to it even beyond reviving friends and finishing off enemies. We’re mentioning these things because we’ve done a lot of work so that you don’t actually need to catch up to actually be a part of the game.

What is the main focus for expansion number 3? (Any hints would be great) - Cattboy SiN

An extremely ambitious Darkfall project we’ve dubbed Darkfall 2010 with serious improvements across the board, so much so that it’s impossible to choose one main focus. In Darkfall 2010 we focus on everything.

I would like to know if herbalism is going to get some love in the near future. - Ford Perfect

Herbalism is useful and balanced for what it does, but we’re always looking into improving trade skills. We have some major improvements for trade skills underway which target their depth and add a lot more items to the game.
 

Will the game continue to head towards fast transportation and globalization or can people expect a return to reduced transportation and a return to regional conflicts? - Comrade Zaffa

This is it for now. With the addition to the game of global PvP events such as Sea Fortresses, the Village Control Points, Trade Routes, as well as with the Dynamic Lore Events, we wanted players to be able to get into the action relatively quickly. Even so, “fast travel” in Darkfall isn’t that simple, it needs planning and can always be disrupted by other players.

Will the wonder cost every be reduced, if not, I would like some clarification on what the wonders actually do. Yea, they give a global bonus, but I am sure most would agree that one of the main reasons why no one has ever made one was beacuse we don't want to waste 15k mods, to find out its a +3 global bonus. - Keno Lair

We are considering reducing the costs of wonders. There are 9 Wonders, in 9 cities, for 9 attributes. Wonders do give global bonuses but it isn’t +3, more like +20 and they’re stackable.

Is there any intention on letting people put spell upgrades on ray spells/spells that you currently cannot upgrade/jump cast? - Nacitar Sevaht

Not for the time being

Are there any plans to further improve the economy/trading in DF? - Drasked Guillotine

Yes this is one of the things we’re focusing on actually. We’re improving monster drops and especially rare drops. We’re planning a huge itemization boost almost doubling the amount of items in the game. This will mean more ingredients, more recipes for crafting, and this should help diversify the economy significantly. We’re also planning on Clan Vendors. We’re planning on player/clan vendors in capitals and possibly in clan cities. You need to compete to secure a vendor spot in a capital, or you need to earn one.

These are just some of the direct measures we’re taking to improve the economy.

Can players expect to see an Armor dying system, or some guild identifying crest, or some kind of visual? - Line Six

Yes we are currently testing our system for armor and clothing dyes in conjunction with the sweeping changes in 2010. The colors are craftable and not all colors are created equal.

Are chat bubbles (togglable on/off) for immersion's sake (and roleplaying clans) being considered at all? - Noc Tyerlan

We’re considering them but for now there are no plans to add chat bubbles. It’s not a technical challenge; our issue with chat bubbles has to do with gameplay. If we did implement them, they would be opt-in both ways and they would be as Darkfall friendly as possible. We would rather improve communications without having to use them but we’re not ruling them out either.

Are there plans to changing the alignment system or making it be more attractive to be a non-ARAC clan or less attractive to be ARAC? - Kasmos Melanoma

This is something we’re looking at. If we did anything it would be introduced in a mild way. We’ll also offer an option to select a different race for a small charge. Compatible race clans may already have an advantage when it comes to Dynamic Lore events.

Is there any plan at all for more types of craftable armor or weapons anytime in the future? - Soulless Avenger

Yes, tons

Can we expect to see further player impact upon the world? Eg. Extinction of mob spawns, capture of NPC cities by other races, clan control over regions etc. - Ymgarl Thakgrush

Yes. Starting with the dynamic lore system where players can seriously impact the game’s lore and events happening in the game, it’s in our future plans to allow our players to increasingly affect the world.

Will people that own houses ever be able to use houses from their friends (without transferring their houses to a 3rd player)? - Wyverex Erisian

No, you’re supposed to make a choice. Transportation should not become that easy especially with village control points at stake.

Will the sliding corpse bug ever be fixed? - Fain Arthadar

Yes and it won’t just be fixed but it’ll be replaced with something very cool.

Are there any plans to add a more customizable rank system for clan? For example player made ranks to open the gate. - Torinar Blackhammer

Not in the immediate future but there are huge improvements under way for clans

Will anything be done about clans being able to wardec another clan and immediately start attacking them in NPC towns with no worry of the tower attacking? - Neza Lycore

Yes this is something we’re working on and will be addressing in the near future

With the onset of the new patch, villages and trade routes have not turned into the PvP hotspots that some hoped for. Is there anything in the works to promote PvP hotspots or anything of similar nature? - Syloc deKGB of the Knights of Glory and Beer

The villages and the trade routes, and the Sea Fortresses are only part of the process. Each one adds its contribution to increasing PvP and PvE opportunities in the world. We’ll keep working on improving and adding more. We’re currently working on introducing dynamic PvP opportunities to the game.

Any plans on adding functionality to show when clan members logged in last time? - White Box

We’re looking into it.

Demigods; I know this was originally a planned feature for Darkfall, is this something you are still planning to implement or has the feature been totally scrapped? - Igh Agag

We are totally planning to implement it as planned. Demigods are a part of a bigger design a part of which is the Dynamic Lore System. The Demigods will be introduced when it’s time for them to be introduced.

When will you actually implement the Anti-Aliasing? - Ninogan Swiftstep

Darkfall 2010, along with Directx 11 support and many other goodies.

AV, are there any plans to get rid of "random rare drops" and make items like gathering/crafting tools, house stations, accessories, and possibly houses themselves craftable ? - Ray Pew

We’re not going to get rid of random drops but we’re planning on substantially increasing the craftability of items.

Are there plans to rebalance Alfar racials like how the lore states (global magic ability that increases and decreases based on tribute to the Gods, etc.)? -Amrah Punjabi

No but we’ll add more racial abilities in upcoming expansions.

Could you describe your plans for further marketing of Darkfall and give any timeline for a US box release? - Garful Greatforge, Heroes Fate

We’ve been steadily increasing our marketing spend across traditional channels as our subscribers are steadily increasing. We’re also working on alternative marketing schemes like the Community Publishing program which is going extremely well. We’re speaking with several partners concerning a N. America box release but we can’t give an ETA on that yet.

Is Aventurine considering introducing some type of skill point cap for players? - Agricola Augusta, MAG

We’ve addressed this issue many times, and what we prefer to do instead of imposing limitations on player freedom is add features like specializations for example. We have several further initiatives planned for the near future.

Is 10k players online simultaneously on 1 server still something you consider may happen in Darkfall? - Neptun y3

This is something that has already happened. The question is how much higher we can go.

Do you have any plans to make Rare Ores a little bit more available to the world at large? - Rivers Keylak, SG of Nemesis

Yes we do, we’re considering adding a chance for rare ore drops in regular nodes.
 

Any plans on making ships more accessible by removing or easing the astrolabe requirements on more than just the raft? - Meaty Maggnus

Yes we have slowly been increasing the drop rates of astrolabes.

What are your plans if any to ensure that new players will be able to have fun in the beginning of their Darkfall experience? - Lady DDT, Blackshields

We believe that this is one of the very few MMORGs where players can have fun and be viable and useful from day one. The game is designed for it. You can jump right into the action and make an impact unlike most MMOs that force you to reach this or the other milestone before you can even think of participating.

Now if you are referring to making the game more newbie friendly, then we’re planning several improvements in 2010

After soaking in the new patch for a few weeks now it has become apparent that even with specializations the dominate style of play is hybrid. Does AV feel that this is the play style that should dominate or do they plan to continue to balance the specs. and game so that we see more defined roles? - Chief Thunder, VAMP

We’re continuing to balance the specializations and we’re introducing new ones. This is a gradual step process. We’re moving towards more defined roles and introducing longer term choices players will be asked to make.

Wandering mobs were mentioned before the release of CtS. Is this system 'done' with wildlife, or are there plans to bring actual wandering mobs to the game? (something as simple as goblins traveling between spawns to more complex examples like orcs rallying into a horde to attack a city/hamlet). - SynCaine GodHand

As with most things we do this is the beginning of a process.

Mage Killer's 40% damage increase at the cost of mana and the elemental magic schools requires users to wear heavier armor (plate/full plate). The 40% damage increase is negated however by Full Plate armor due to encumbrance. Is there any testing and rebalancing in the works for Archery Specialties such as opening up elemental school buffs or allowing more than 1 specialty to be chosen at a time? - Fibin Stonesmasher

We’re currently testing adding one extra archery specialization in addition we’re also introducing new specializations including new archery specializations.

Will the community see scavenging (breaking down of completed items into their raw mats) in the near future? - Alaron NeX

Yes this is a feature we’re currently working on

Will we be able to bind multiple actions on one key (change weapon and skillset at the same time for example)? - Elessar Lorwyn

Yes you will.

Any plans to implement a tiered clan bank access system? - Mobed Starr

Yes

What other "advanced" mounts (besides Battlehorns) are waiting in the wings, and when may we expect to see them in game? - Ktorr Shadowfell

We do have new mounts on the way but we don’t want to reveal anything right now

Has there been any thought into combining the destroyer/indestructible skills and/or allowing them to be permanent bonuses against all players(even those without staffs out (for destroyer)?. - Strife Aldaelon, Sinister

Perhaps, or perhaps we’ll do something with a similar effect. We’re currently investigating all specializations introduced while keeping the upcoming specs in mind. We’re balancing it up against the new things that are going to come.

 
Are there any plans to make the game more friendly towards non-hardcore players? (i.e. more customizable options for housing, things to do besides pvp.) - Conn Bloodbane

Yes we’re always adding more things and we’ll keep adding elements to make the game friendlier to new players, solo players, and more casual players.

Any plan to make it so that your enemies cannot use your clan bank? - Big Badaboom, Section 8

Yes but you’ll have to upgrade your bank.

Is 4-legged run still being considered as a racial trait for the mahirim? - 50 Cent

This is a very difficult feature to balance. We are still considering it and it’s actually developed and ready to go. We’ve already started with the racial differentiations, we’ll keep adding new ones, and if we can ever balance this properly, then we’ll add it.

Will there ever be any continuation between the east/west or north/south edges of the world (allowing travel around Agon in circles from one edge continuing and appearing on the other edge)? - Vucar Dumat

No there won’t be.

Since we've seen the game become more about alliances than individual clans, will we see any features aimed more towards alliances? More political tools, in game political map, shared city buffs, that sorta thing. - Rahkim Whitehawk

Alliances are informal so far, we may take some steps to formalize them a bit. We are considering offering an Alliance Map for starters.

Are there plans of making/adding more complex dungeons to the world of agon, maybe with some levers , triggers, traps etc. - BLOB Lukic

Yes, we have big plans for dungeons in 2010

Is a new chat window being worked on? The current one makes it almost impossible to see incoming tells or local chat because it defaults to a new tab. - Signus Melkorr

There are sweeping changes for Darkfall 2010 and these include everything associated with the user interface

Are you planning on diversifying the different melee skills by adding unique attacks/moves or specializations for each weapon type? - Erwin Carius

Yes we’re planning on both

Do you feel that polearms are underpowered and intend on tweaking them some more? - TNoD X, VAMP

Polearms were considered grossly overpowered. All we did was slow them down by 11% and everyone now thinks they’ve been seriously nerfed. We’re always working on balance; we’re always investigating discrepancies and making changes wherever we feel they are necessary.

I seem to remember new spell school(s) being hinted at. Are there currently plans to put in new "schools" of magic? If so can we get an example of one or two spells from these new school(s)? - Kelsen Ravenheart

Part of a larger plan for the future that we cannot discuss yet, but it’s definitely on our list.

Thanks for your time!

Paragus Rant
Co-Leader of Inquisition
http://www.inqguild.com

Review: Darkfall Revisited

It's been a few months since I last played or wrote about the status of Darkfall and recently a bunch of my guild decided to scout out how the game has progressed in the last few months. With news of the second expansion, we decided to jump back in about a week before Conquer the Seas went live to get an idea of how the game has matured since the NA launch.

What I am going to go here today is gloss over just some of my personal observations on some of the changes that have been added since my last time I played, which was before the first expansion and NA server.  I've noticed a lot of people on various forums and communities asking about what may be different now, so hopefully this will shed some light. I also have to mention that in my return to the game, I have opted to reroll and start a new character from scratch as a different race (Alfar).  This should help add some extra perspective since this will be from the vantage point of what many new players may experience.

Skill Gains

Quite possibly the biggest change I noticed in revisiting the game is the ease and speed at which players are able to advance their skills.  During my last tour of duty in Darkfall, the game was plagued with people who would use "blood walls" to gain skills while AFK. One of the most welcome changes is the fact that blood walls are pretty much a thing of the past or drastically diminished.  Aventurine not only changed the speed at which skills are gained, but made it so that many skills will increase up to six times faster in PvE.

As a freshly rolled new character, I was shocked to see how fast my melee, archery, and magic skills were advancing compared to what life was like months ago.  I had never macroed last time I played and I remain determined to never go down that road.  These new changes seemed to have reduced a lot of macro activity drastically because the game now has major incentive for players to go out and PvE instead of macroing inside their cities.
 

To help put this into perspective, I will give some examples of where some of my critical skills were at the end of the first week.  I spent most of my PvE time in the first week fighting goblins and skeletons, both who seem to drop arrows and go down pretty easily.  At the end of the first week, I was able to raise my primary melee skill to a 40, and my archery skill to a 50 just living off of the bows and arrows dropped by these mobs. My lesser magic shot to over 80, and my greater magic to around 50 with a bit of effort. Previously reaching these skill levels without macroing would have taken me upwards of a month or more depending how much time I spent focusing on them.

The only real hurdle I think for new players in terms of character advancement is raising their base stats.  Players who have been around the block a lot longer have a significant advantage here because higher base stats leads to having a higher max HP.  I think I'd like to see them make the stats increase at different speeds depending on how high they are.  As an example, maybe have stats raise much faster between 15-30, then maybe only slightly faster from 30-40, and keep it as is now beyond that.  This could help newer players catch up a bit, but this is just my personal suggestion.

Quests

Who would have thought anyone would have cared about doing quests in Darkfall?  Since the last time I played I have noticed a lot of new quests, especially in the early part of the game experience.  These quests seem to do a nice job at teaching new players some of the basics of the game's fighting, harvesting, and crafting.  They also help give the players some basic tools and cash to help get them going.  Each starter town has the same quests, but new players can travel to each of the towns and do them over again for an added gain.

The most substantial quest addition comes in the form of title quests that are available in every race's capital city.  These quests will have you out fighting literally hundreds of PvE mobs, and reward you with thousands of gold and titles that boost your base stats.  While there is a title for every one of the base stats, you may only have one equipped at a single time.  Upon completion of the basic title quests, players receive followup quests that chain together to get better titles that add even more stats with more cash rewards.

The icing on the cake in this area is that the Conquer the Seas expansion seems to have revamped the in-game quest journal.  The old slow journal was often clunky and awkward to navigate, while the new ones seems to load faster and has a much cleaner look to it.  While Darkfall still remains to be a game that is not heavily quest oriented, it's good to see the journal more user friendly because it a part of the game that new players will probably be interacting a fair amount.

Character Specialization

One of the new aspects of Darkfall that has popped up over the last few months involved new forms of character customization that allows you to tweak various aspects of your character.  While Darkfall has no skill cap, the new system in place still add an element of choice to what type of character you want to play without having to worry about hitting a skill cap.  The character specializations introduced seem to offer way for players to fine tune their magic, melee, and archery in ways that help set them apart from others and fight against certain play styles.

In terms of customizing magic, there is a system in place that lets you tweak the properties of many of the games spells.  Many spells have several different variations that can be purchased for 1000 gold per spell, but you will have to pick a choose because the game only will allow one modification per spell.  Spells can be modified to have their range increased, travel speed increased, or the ability to cast it while jumping.

Archery specializations allow players to pick one special ability from a list that have a variety of effects.  Players can now decide if they want to be able to jump shoot, shoot in water, have increased magic resistance, or do extra damage against casters.  All of these abilities have trade-offs as well such as mana penalties and limited spell access, but the option remains to switch should you want to change your mind.

Finally melee specializations offer players a variety of options to make melee viable as combat method. Players can chose from some mobility related options that allow them to double jump or double tap dodge FPS style, as well as a second group of choices that increase effectiveness against mages or defensive boosts. Melee offers 2 different groups and players are allowed to chose only one from each forcing them to decide which route they want to take.

PvE

PvE seems to has had some changes made to it as well. The recent patch has introduced a system where monsters have varying strengths and weaknesses with different types of damage. The new system reminds me of old Asheron's Call where lugians would take extra damage from lightning and so on. This adds another layer to the PvE side of the game that should hopefully make certain mobs easier to kill once their weaknesses are discovered.

The other interesting and I think needed PvE change is an overall boost to the rewards.  There were many mobs last time I played that simply were not worth killing due to the rewards they dropped.  Monsters overall seem to be dropping more cash and items making it worth the time and trouble to tackle some of the harder monsters in the game.  It's not perfect yet, but adjustments continue to be made in this area so I remain optimistic.  I think my only beef with the PvE at this point is I would like to see more camps of some of the easier monsters in places outside of the starter areas.

Conquer the Seas

One aspect of Darkfall's world that sets it apart from most of the other MMOs is the fact that the water areas of the map are viable playfields.  The new expansion seems to have introduced a variety of new elements to these watery areas by adding the Sea Towers, villages, and even a kraken.  I thought of doing write-ups and taking pictures of these to try to describe them, but instead I will direct you to watch some of player made videos floating around showing some of these features off, as well as some of the game's first real naval battles.

Kraken Video

Sea Tower Video

Naval Combat Video

The patch seems to really opened up a new aspect to the game as you can see in some of the videos here, and I would argue makes the game offer something that you really won't find in any other game.  I think I speak for most players when I say that I hope this aspect of the game really takes off.  They seems to have reduced the cost to make the ships which helps foster this sort of activity.  I think I would like to see the astrolabes become easier to obtain as they are required to build most of the game's ships, but I think most players find this aspect of the game very exciting.

Minor Changes

Given it has been 2 expansions since I last played, there tons of little things that have been changed for the better.  I couldn't possibly list them all here as this is getting a little long as it is, so again I'm going to gloss over some of the minor things that I have noticed at this early stage.

In the recent expansion, one feature added that made everyone in my guild sigh collectively was the ability to name and label your bags.  It may sound trivial, especially if you have never played Darkfall, but this is one of my favorite new features.  No more trying to fumble through my bags trying to remember where my tools or armor is located, a task which can be even harder when you have bags within bags.  It makes sorting your bank much easier and it also makes it easy to tell what belongs to who in the guild bank.

The map was also updated to show where the capturable villages are, but more importantly when each of them is vulnerable for capture.  This is critical because now the players can keep track of when they should make their move to try and grab one.  With the information right there for all to see, it also helps to spur more PvP.

Mounts have also changed in a few ways. For starters, mounts now have a weight of 100 kg. Under the old system it was not uncommon for players to travel with upwards of 3 or more mounts on them at a time. Consider that a new player can only carry 300 kg, when you factor in armor and other gear, the days of people riding around with an entire stable in their pack are over. One change I am not too fond of however is the fact that mounts no longer seem to regenerate their life. Players are forced to use the heal mount spell, which can be an annoyance especially if your near a place where someone can steal it. If I can regen my life, I see no reason why my animal can't even if it is very slow. A new mount was also added that costs more to make but also has improved stats.

Crafting also seems to have received one improvement I suggested in an older article.  Crafting a lot of items, such as arrows, was annoying because you had to sit there and click the craft button every time you wanted to make 20 arrows.  Upon my return I was very happy to see a new functionality added that allows you to set the quantity to craft and make it happen with only a single click.

Summary

From all accounts, Darkfall has improved drastically since my last time playing.  There are a ton of features I didn't touch on for the sake of time, such as the new siege system (I haven't experienced it first-hand yet), and auto-stacking of items in your backpack, but needless to say this game has come a long way in just the few months I've been gone, let alone launch.

If you are a former player, you may want to consider taking advantage of the free transfers and checking the game out again for only subscription cost.  If you are considering the game, I would say that now would probably be a good time to jump in as I have seen a lot of new players in the starter towns after the expansion went live.  New players may want to think about joining a clan called NEW that is dedicated for teaching new people the ropes for up to 30 days.  If your like me and getting sick of watching the same MMO being released over and over with a different name on the box, taking the leap into Darkfall may be worth serious consideration.

Paragus Rant (Alfar)
Co-Leader of Inquisition
http://www.inqguild.com

Interview: Darkfall's Tasos Flambouras

With the upcoming Darkfall expansion "Conquer the Seas" coming, I decided to touch base with Darkfall's Tasos Flambouras to see if he would be willing to field some questions regarding the expansion and other recent events with the game.  Let me preface this by saying that at the time I sent the questions, I was unaware of the fact that the staff of MMORPG.com had submitted their own Q&A.  Despite all of this, Tasos was willing to take time out of his busy schedule (and being up for 48 hours straight) do another round of questions here with me on the eve of the expansion's launch.

1) Your upcoming expansion update is titled "Conquer the Seas" seems to have a lot of focus on adding to content to the naval aspect of the game including sea towers and villages, new boats, a kraken, and making boats more accessible. Tell us a little bit about each of these and the effect they should have on gameplay.

It’s not so much about the individual additions to the naval aspect of the game; it’s actually the bigger picture we’re looking at here.  A so far untapped resource of the game is now being activated in a variety of ways.  Ships add a completely new layer of gameplay. It’s a lot of fun for a group playing on a ship and it’s also very challenging. Naval strategy and tactics need to be considered, created, drilled and executed.  Teamwork within a ship and running a fleet of ships suddenly become very important given the worthwhile objective. A whole other element of the economy will unfold with ship related trading and building going on.

We’ll keep working on the sea element we’re introducing in this upcoming expansion.  There’s so much untapped potential there and it’s very exciting contemplating and exploring the possibilities.

2) One of the major balance issue players have is the dominant role magic plays currently in combat. You have stated that players can expect to see some balancing done in the upcoming expansion to help bring melee and archery up to par with skill specializations and extensions. Could you elaborate on some of these changes players can expect to see coming up to help bring more balance to combat?

We started off by correcting some things that were causing imbalances, most of which were never meant to be this way.  The global cooldowns we’re introducing stop the cycling of area of effect spell casting.  After the new expansion you’ll get a cooldown across magic schools so you won’t be able to blast away like before.  AOE spells were not meant for small scale situations, they were meant to be used to soften up large numbers during massive battles.  AOE spells will still be very useful in large battles but they won’t be the main attraction anymore.  Another fix is that the AOE spells will no longer go through objects.

The skill extensions and specializations are meant to help players with little interest in magic become viable using melee and archery.  Some of the balancing aspects vs. magic allow these players to get bonus resistances against magic, do extra damage against spell casters, while suffering some penalties to their max mana and some of the more powerful extensions can completely block elemental schools, arcane magic, or necromancy.

Melee fighters and archers will also receive special attacks that can stop people from blocking, others where some of the damage they take is taken away from mana rather than their hitpoints, and there will be several other enhancements which are designed to help players fight against magic without having to use magic.

These changes came about from our own observation of what works and what doesn’t and from listening to a lot of good player feedback.  There’s extensive testing being done and we’ll keep evaluating and making all necessary changes to keep the game balanced.

3) A recent update on from your twitter page talks about the addition of 2 new trade skills to the game to enhance items, Bloodcraft and Shadecraft. Could you talk about each of these tradeskills and give us some examples of what sort of enhancements players will be able to craft.

Shadecraft adds a permanent mana bonus at the expense of hitpoints.  Bloodcraft adds hitpoints at the expense of mana.  They’re new crafting skills which provide another way for players to specialize even further by making choices and compromises in the general spirit of specialization.  There’s much more to come on that front, we’ll keep at it and there are some pretty exciting changes ahead to look forward to.

4) One of the longest requested features has been the inclusion of racial traits, which looks to finally becoming a reality in the near future. Will all races be getting their skills in this update, and could you elaborate some what the various races will be getting?

All races are getting traits which are small enhancements connected to the background story of each race.  Alfar for example lean towards magic, orks towards melee, etc. we’ll keep working on differentiating the races even further.  These are not huge differences at this stage but they will help give the races more individuality and these differences will be felt in the game.  We’re taking small steps to keep everything well balanced and we’ll not stop at this.  We’ll evaluate every change and build on it.

5) Your recently announced "Community Publishing Program" has sparked a lot of talk in various communities by rewarding players for helping to advertise. Tell us a bit about this program and if there are any other forms of advertising in the works?

The community publishing is our way of thanking our players for spreading the word but it’s also a marketing initiative. It gives a substantial payout for every Darkfall sale and several players are already doing quite well with it. We’ll be contacting the best community publishers about a more formal cooperation and this could give some people a real opportunity in the gaming industry. We’ve limited this program to our active players because they’re the ones who are most knowledgeable and most interested in Darkfall and we wanted to give them a piece of Darkfall’s success. We’re going to expand on the Community Publishing Program and we’re of course also engaging in more traditional forms of advertising in print and online media.

6) A lot of potential players have long asked about a free trial offering found in many other MMOs. Any plans on putting something together to give potential customers a chance to try before they buy?

We’ve been distributing some sponsored trial cards in local markets and it’s something we’re looking at but there’s no immediate plan to offer an open free trial yet.

Thanks!

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition
www.inqguild.com

Rant: Modern Warfare 2

Sorry for deviating from the normal MMO stuff for an entry, but there is something bothering me that I can't help myself from touching on.  During our time in between MMOs, Inquisition likes to dabble in a variety of other games to help pass the time.  One of the most popular games in my vent has consistently been the various incarnations of Call of Duty, be it Modern Warfare or World At War.  First person shooters are a genre near and dear to our hearts coming in a close second under MMOs, so naturally when we heard Modern Warfare 2 was coming, there was a lot of excitement.

Then it happened.  The most blatant display of a developer literally taking a hot steaming deuce on its playerbase.  Infinity Ward breaks the news to the gaming community that the PC version of the game will not have dedicated servers, but instead will feature a peer-to-peer match making system akin to what is commonly found on console systems.  The heads of Infinity Ward tried to justify this decision...

"We're just prioritizing the player experience above the modders and the tuners," says West. He points toward the mounting feedback IW has received from PC fans of Modern Warfare who couldn't find a decent server to play on between all of the cheaters, the insular communities, and huge skill level disparities that the original game's community fractured into. "We thought maybe it would be cool if the fans could play the game," he laughs.

Does he really think PC gamers are too stupid to figure out how to find a good server to play on?  I've been playing Call of Duty 4 and 5 for the last year and it has never been a real issue for us.  Chances are if you are smart enough to know how to operate a computer, you are smart enough to look at a server list and pick a game that best suits your needs.

So what does a loss of dedicated servers really mean to PC players?  First of all, it means that a player with a residential internet connection will be hosting the game giving him a perfect ping advantage while the other players are at the mercy of his connection.  This also means the days of large epic battles on server with upwards of 64 people will be traded for servers with about 18 people max.  No more tweaking the servers to turn off cheap noob tubes, martyrdom, last stand, and other common unskilled cheeseball tactics that destroy the balance of the game.  Clans can also kiss their private servers goodbye used for competitive play.

Worst of all, no dedicated servers means there will be no mods and custom maps.  One of our favorite aspects of Call of Duty is the "Zombie X" mod which we still play regularly on CoD 5.  This game mode features one randomly selected zombie who has to infect all the hunters until the entire map gets turned into zombie or the hunters hold out for a set amount of time.  Often times this gets combined with some amazing custom maps for an extremely fun and heart pounding experience.  Nothing gets you going like having 40 people trying to break into a house your held up in with the last remaining players.  Alas, these days will be gone in MW2.

In response to all of this, a petition was put online demanding the addition of dedicated servers to the PC version of the game.  As of me writing this, the petition has been signed by over 190,000 people.  Yet they continue to stick their thumb in the eye of the PC community, who is greatly responsible for their company's success.

Did I mention they are charging $10 more for this game than previous installments on the PC, and every other PC game in general?  That's right, for $10 more you too can buy a sequel with half of the online multiplayer functionality.  In fact, when you compare it to MW1 in terms of features, it makes no sense.

The old cliche is true that people should speak with their wallet. Modern Warfare 2 is not an MMO, so you only vote once when you buy it instead of every month.  If you buy the game and get burned on it, it's a win on their bottom line since they already have your money.  If they decide to reconsider their stance and stop trying to roll back a decade of progress in the genre, then I would definitely reconsider.  I can only hope that in the meantime that the PC community holds them accountable for trying this sort of nonsense.

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition
www.inqguild.com

Aion's Issues

This will probably be my last write up regarding Aion.  If you have been following my previous articles, I have detailed my play experience with the game by focusing on the 1-10 experience, 10-25 early Abyss, and the 25 and beyond.  This will be my last word on Aion for the time being because some of the game's issues have forced most of my guild to step back from the game.

Now I am not one to make "I quit" posts typically, but all thing considered, I believe my assessment of the game in previous articles has be pretty fair and objective.  So what I would like to do here today is talk about some of the aspects of Aion that ultimately ended up turning us sour in a constructive and informative way.

The Grind

It seems you can't read anywhere about Aion without reading about the grind, and this blog has been no exception to that.  That being said, it has to be mentioned because this is probably the first of several pitfalls that is going to be cause people to throw in the towel.

This is a graph that fairly accurately plots the experience points curve in Aion at each level that was made by a member of the community here.  As you can see by the graph, right around level 35 the amount of exp needed literally makes the graph look literally like a wall.  Often times when you read on various forums about people saying the grind is fine, make sure you put it into the context of what level they have made it to. Now to be fair, the amount of exp needed by itself is not necessarily the problem as you start to enter your 40's, but the way in which questing starts to play far less of a role.

When I hit level 42, I quickly completed all of the new quests and looked down at my 60 million exp bar to see only about 10-15% of it had been filled, leaving the remaining 50 million to be obtained by pure mob grind.  Now I am well aware of an upcoming patch slated to increase the quest exp and mob exp, but I think the problem goes a bit deeper than that.  There is a real lack of quest content that becomes painfully obvious at the higher levels.  Quest content is very good at masking grind in other games, so the lack of it in Aion at this level range really only adds to the pain and tedium.

The best comparison I can make is for those who played Age of Conan at release and hit the wall around level 50 where the quest content dried up almost instantly forcing people into grinding cannibal caves for levels to get through the gap.  This problem only gets compounded more however as the exp needed to level continues to grow exponentially, but the amount of content does not.  This only helps feed the bot epidemic and will undoubted crush the will of non-hardcore players as they reach the higher levels.

One final note on the grind that really bothers me is that Aion seems to punish grouping.  As a ranger, I found in most cases I was able to solo grind far more efficiently than in a group killing elites a few levels higher than me.  I would highly recommend adjusting the experience modifier for grouping to make it more appealing to group.  So with all the above factored in, players struggling with the progression in the game are going to start to ask if it's worth enduring for the sake of PvP.  Let's take a look...

PvP

I like to break the PvP elements in Aion into pretty much 3 different categories.  First you have your rift PvP into enemy territory, then the fortress fights, and finally your small scale encounters that occur in the Abyss.

1) Rift PvP

A week or so ago, my guild got a group together to through a rift into the Asmodian level 30+ area to go cause some trouble.  I think it was a real telling moment to me personally when it became glaringly clear that at least half of the people we were killing in this zone were bots.  When attacked, bots would simply stand there or continue to attack their mob, and when killed they would run the same exact route back to the same spot literally upwards of 10 times.  Each time they would take the same exact route, to the same exact spot, and not even stopping or deviating when getting attacked.  Granted killing the bots was a good source of Abyss points, but the fun of the PvP leaves something to be desired when a PvE mob offers more resistance.  Again in all fairness, there were probably 50% real people mixed in who had guilds, who would react to being attacked, and change tactics after being killed or spotting us.

In this regard, I really have to say that NCSoft's bot detection team or tools, or whatever they are spinning as is either completely worthless, or they think their customers are stupid.  Who the hell is in charge of the bot spotting team, Stevie Wonder?  Anyone with a working pair of eyes can see dozens of bots infesting the level 30+ area on both sides.  They are so blatantly operating out in the open that there is no way possible anyone could NOT see them.  Frankly when I read NCSoft press releases about how they have tools in place, it's insulting to my intelligence.

2) Fortress Battles

I think most people can agree that the fortress fights make up one of the key elements of the PvP aspect of Aion.  In my last article, I touched on the fact that crashing seemed to be somewhat of an issue during some of the sieges.  Since then, I have had the chance to participate in many more sieges to see how much of an issue the crashing really is.  I can say with all honesty in almost every siege I have been in since then, the game crashed at some point during the sieges, except for one where the Asmos never showed up to defend and I had all of the character models turned off (Shift + F12).

This is a major problem for me on so many levels.  First of all my PC is pretty serious, and judging by all the posts on forums and conversations with most of my guild, people having this issue are a pretty sizable portion of the playerbase.  This is pretty much game-breaking because the fortress battles are the only way to get medals, and medals are needed to get the top PvP reward gear, so crashing during sieges pretty much makes is close to impossible for you to get the medals needed to pursue the endgame gear.  With the game being out so long overseas, and 4-5 rounds of betas in NA, I am somewhat confused how the game went live without anyone knowing about this being picked up, let alone not being hotfixed.  It's even sillier when someone in the community posts a fix on the forums before your professional coders can do it.

Another issue is a flaw in the overall fortress system in general that also Warhammer Online suffered from, a lack of incentive to defend a fortress.  Medals are not given for a successful defense, and enemy fortress guards are actually a better source of Abyss points than most other mobs and players.  Killing a handful of guards seems to net more AP than running the instance you get access to for holding the fort.  So when you think about it, you are somewhat better off not defending because you will be granted a better source of AP, and a chance to earn medals when you go after it again later (assuming you don't crash).

3) Small Scale PvP

Small scale PvP overall remains one of the game stronger suits to me personally.  The only zerging that really goes from what I have seen so far is during the fortress fights, which is completely understandable.  The rest of the time people tend to roam around solo or in small groups making for some pretty fun encounters.  A smaller group of players who play smart is capable of beating a larger group if the right tactics are used along with the right crowd control.

I think if there is anything I would change, I would make other players worth more experience points.  Although it wasn't in the game originally, the amount of exp given for killing a player is so small that they pretty much may as well not give you any at all.  One other aspect is the fact that low level players give virtually no AP, but at the same time your enemy's level is hidden.  This can be annoying when you opt to chase someone for quite a long distance only to be rewarded with 1 AP.  Had you known the person's level you may have been inclined to not even bother chasing them extensively.  I also understand the benefit though of hiding levels, so it's a double-edged sword I suppose.

Summary

The way I see it is that players will need to start asking themselves this question: Is it worth enduring a steep and tedious grind that becomes exceedingly light in content for PvP that has 2 of out 3 aspects not meeting expectations?

The prospect of increasing exp sounds good in theory, but there is no mention of any much needed quest content.  NCsoft's word is losing a tremendous amount of value to players due to their inability to find the bots that every player with a pair of working eyes can see on a daily basis.  I can understand that many players may be willing to hang in there a bit longer given the game's polish and small scale PvP, but at this point I have to say the answer to that question is "no" from me personally, but to each their own.

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition
www.inqguild.com
 

Aion: Post Launch Impressions

It has been about a few weeks since the NA launch of Aion, so I wanted to take some time to update my impressions. In these first few weeks I have been exposed to a variety of gameplay experiences in the game, so I am going to talk about a few aspects of the game that have struck me as either being well done, or needing improvement.

Looking for Gold Channel

I used to to think LFG was about finding groups, but in Aion is seems to be more about finding gold.  There is a serious gold spammer epidemic that has rendered this channel pretty much unusable.  On any given day, this chat channel is literally flooded and spammed by gold sellers, that you can't even read anything.

I find it very hard to believe, despite the rhetoric from NCSoft, that there is a serious ongoing effort to target and ban the accounts of gold spammers.  In fact it's downright absurd.  You might think that given the number of servers they have running, that they could afford to have one GM on each one who can spot and ban these people.  The money generated from the banning of these accounts and spammers rebuying them should easily justify the price of paying someone to monitor it.

Aside from the rampant gold spamming, the LFG channel needs to be broken down into level ranges.  It makes no sense that people in their late 30s and 40s have to sift through level 25's trying to find a group.  This could also work to the advantage of forcing a gold spammer to level up as a deterrent if they want to spam mid and higher level players.

The Abyss

Now that the game has released in North America, I have had a chance to spend a lot of time in the Abyss experiencing PvP and some of the various mechanics surrounding it.  There has been a lot of discussion over whether or not the wings are just a gimmick or if they really add anything to the table.  I have to say that after spending quite a bit of time in the Abyss since release and doing some PvP, I am starting to lean more towards this feature adding an element to PvP combat that is not found in the competition.

There is the obvious element of flying and fighting in the air, but I think that doesn't fully explain it.  It's not so much the fact that you can fly to me, as much as it is the environment that is possible because of the flight element.  In games like WAR and even DAOC, the standard battlefield was typically a flat plain or maybe a mountainous area where battles would unfold.  In Aion with the element of flight, battles are able to take place is the very surreal looking environment of the Abyss with its floating islands, comets, upside-down ruins, and other interesting locales.

I have had some interesting fight situations that just would not be possible in some of the other traditional RvR MMOs out there.  Me and a friend had a chase underneath a floating continent weaving and bobbing through stalactites.  I have had fights where me and my opponent were hopping from island to island blasting each other, and recently a large fight with one side holding the ground against an aerial force.  Of course I have to mention one incident where a bunch of people, including some of my guildmates, were completely obliterated when a stray comet plowed through a crowd of people fighting near an artifact.

Speaking of artifacts, Inquisition decided to have a small guild event to go test the waters on taking an artifact on the bottom floor of the Abyss where thing were lower level.  Taking the artifact was a pretty simple task overall, and reminded us as being on par with some of the smaller battle objectives in WAR in terms of difficulty.  The artifact was protected by a group of NPC's of the opposing faction with an elite boss.  While we brought 2 groups being uncertain on how hard it would be, one solid group of players would have been an adequate force.  Once the boss goes down, a broadcast message told everyone we had taken it, and our guilds emblem was stamped on the site and displayed on the map.  There is however no message to let you know when your artifact is under attack by the enemy faction.

Finally, I had the chance to get involved in my first fortress siege in the lower Abyss.  The amount of people involved was pretty massive and I have to say it even made my high end PC start to lose some frames.  One issue I experienced along with many others was crashing during the attack.  This is one area where I think some improvement is needed, but to be fair I have to say the game handled itself better than WAR at this stage in terms of performance.

The door to the keep took quite some time to bring down, but I did not see anyone there really utilizing the siege weaponry which would have undoubted sped the process up.  The keep guardian in Aion makes the Warhammer and DAOC keep lords look like a wimp in terms of appearance and difficulty to kill.  In Warhammer the keep lords usually seem to buckle within a minute of the room being breached, in Aion it takes far longer and actually gives the other team a chance to turn the battle in the final room since the fight is so long.

That chance to turn the battle is exactly what the Asmos in this fight successfully did.  The layout of this particular keep had a large opening in the courtyard that dropped you literally on top of the boss inside.  While we were busy trying to bring the big guy to his knees, the enemy capitalized on us not defending the courtyard and turned the boss room into a bloodbath.  Death from above was an ocean of Asmos pouring into the room from above like a faucet of red names.  The fight was pretty impressive with people flying all over the place killing each other, while an angry Balaur boss went on a rampage.  All in all it was pretty fun with the exception of the crashing.  Hopefully they will improve that aspect for the large fights, but thankfully most of the abyss fighting outside the keeps has been small scale and very reminiscent of DAOC.

The Grind

This has been one of the hot topics regarding Aion, and I have read a ton of threads from people making various claims about grinding as it relates to Aion.  Before we go any further and people jump down my throat, apparently everyone interprets what grinding is differently.  Just so we are all on the same page, my definition of grinding is having to kill mobs repeatedly without any related quest in order to gain experience points.

Aion has a grind.  Yes, yes, I know the classic "All MMOs are and have grinds!" line, but it is my opinion that the grind in Aion can legitimately be perceived by some as steep once you start to level into your 30's.  Of course this statement is subjective, and depending on your prior MMO experiences your opinion may vary.  Someone from Lineage 2 might not find it bad, but someone who is used to WoW and some more modern traditional style MMOs might be in for a bit of discomfort in this area.  I survived old school EQ1 and FFXI in terms of grind just to give a little perspective on where I am coming from.  A lot of players are probably going to have to come to terms with the fact that most people won't be reaching max level in Aion as quickly as they did in some other MMOs.

Up until level 25, I think the grind was not particularly rough until maybe level 24.  After 25, the Abyss opens up as a new area for quests, campaigns, a dungeon instance, and exposure to increased mob exp. In the 30's, the amount of quests and the experience they yield starts to fall a bit short in terms of being able to quest your way through levels.  Combine this with the fact that the amount of exp needed to reach the next level starts to increase dramatically in the level 35+ range.  As an example, leveling from 36-37 required just under 20 Million EXP, the next level going from 37-38 jumps up to 26 Million EXP.  At 37, killing a 39 Abyss non-elite mob solo (which yields more exp than non-abyss mobs) nets in roughly 23,000-25,000 exp a kill.  As a ranger I can kill probably 2 per minute, equally around 500k exp in 10 mins, or roughly just under 3 Million per hour, or 8-9 hours to get 26 Million Exp to level via pure mob grinding.

All of this is based on the premise of course that not a single quest is completed, and you are soloing and not grouping for elites (which has the potential to be faster depending on the group and location).  Whether or not questing is faster than grinding all depends on what is available to you at a given level.  Some of the juicy campagin quests give upwards of 2+ Million Exp, while your average quest can net you anywhere between 400-800k.  Regardless of which is faster, you will not have enough quests to level purely from questing as other MMOs, and you will be forced to grind at some point to clear the remaining exp needed.  The fact is some of the quests just flat out don't give enough exp to satisfy a lot of players, but upcoming changes look to change that.  Depending on your prior MMO experiences this could be perceived as normal or a major turn-off, but there is definitely something to be said for grouping and doing elites in an instance or hard area.  Just to give an idea of how it ends up looking later, rumor has it that you will need 86 Million exp to go from level 49-50.

Instances

I have also had the chance to do a variety of PvE instances in the first few weeks.  All of them seem to have quests to kill the final boss for a blue item of some sort.  Some of them require you to get keys to enter them, some can be entered if you control castles in the Abyss.  Most of them provide a decent source of exp and come with some degree of lockout timer.  In terms of loot, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise when it comes to taking down some of the bosses.

This brings me to one pretty annoying point regarding boss mobs.  In all of the instances ran and bosses killed, probably more than half the time the bosses dropped nothing of any real value with a few blues being seen rarely.  This is something I think a lot of players might find somewhat annoying, myself included.  Killing the final boss of a dungeon and finding nothing but a small amount of gold is going to be received like a slap in the face for many players.  Hell at least give us a random green or something, but only finding 500 gold or a common crafting mat off of a level 37 boss is complete ass.

Final Thoughts

Aion remains to be a solid and polished product, but not without it issues.  Depending on your MMO tastes, some people may be turned off by the fact that max level is difficult to achieve, while others may enjoy that.  As players start hitting the mid 30's and hitting the leveling quicksand, I can see some people being turned off to the game.  The issue of bots and gold spammers is something NC Soft really needs to crack down on in a big way.  Despite all of the flowery language by the devs, I have yet to see any reduction at all in these activities.

On the other hand, if you can get past the brutal leveling curve, there is a very interesting RvR experience.  Aside from the occasional crash in the fortress fights, Abyss RvR so far seems to be small scale and reminiscent of DAOC in many ways with roaming groups outside of the big sieges.  The PvP I have seen at this stage does not seem to be ruined with excessive crowd control like the competition, and the rewards seem viable.  Whether the end game actually works is something we probably won't know until a large portion of the population reaches higher level, and that seems like it may take more time than some may have anticipated.

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition
www.inqguild.com
(Zikel Server - Elyos)

Rant: Guild Recruit Spam

It's been a while since I've done a rant entry in here, so today I figure I would touch on something that has been driving me up a wall in the last few MMOs I have played, Guild Recruit Spam.  Chances are if you have played any MMO, you have seen these guild recruit spam messages flooding one of your chat channels.  I saw them in AoC, WAR, Darkfall, and now in Aion.  While general chat is hardly the place to have scholarly discussions and intellectual persuits, spamming people with your guild advertisement pretty much makes you about as cool as a telemarketer.

A vent server and a website?!  Holy shit!  Where do I sign up?  Maybe back in 1999 when I was raiding in the original Everquest this would have been exciting, but I don't see how this is really even worth mentioning at this point.  I'm sorry guys, but this is 2009. It is pretty much expected that if you are a real MMO guild, you are going to have a ventrilo server and a website.  That's like me trying to get people to join my swimclub by telling them I have a pool. It's just a given, isn't it?
 

Well apparently it isn't.  During my time in Darkfall, I was in a position where I was able to talk to a lot of people in a lot of various guilds for interviews and political dealings.  I was absolutely shocked at how many people are still using Teamspeak.  Compared to Ventrilo, TS sounds like you are broadcasting on some sort of shortwave radio from World War 2.  If you are really serious about building a guild with lasting appeal and a strong community, splurge the couple bucks a month for the vent server.

I also love when I see a guild recruit spammer claiming their guild is elite or hardcore.  Elite and hardcore groups of people don't take any random jabroni off the street into their ranks.  That would be like having the special forces accepting applications in a kiosk in your local shopping mall.  Let's assume for a minute that you were an amazing player with PvP skills placing you in the top percentile, what guild would you join?  The guy standing on street corner wearing gear from a garbage dumpster looking for friends, or a group of like-minded players who are on the cutting edge?

Aside from recruitment spam being one the worst ways to attract quality members, it also ranks you right up there with gold spammer as one of the most annoying people in the game.  People will always remember the name of a guild who spams the chat box because you felt the need to remind them every 3 minutes.  As a result, don't be surprised if people's reaction towards you and your crew in less than favorable.  Just remember, a gold spammer doesn't have to live among the people they are annoying, your guild will.
 

Up and coming guilds need to ask themselves what is more important; having more members just for the sake of having members, or settling for less members who are solid and likely to share your vision.  I look at guilds as more than just a bunch of people playing a game together, it's a family-like community.  A good guild will not have its lifespan limited to its duration in any given game, instead it will become a community of like-minded people who travel with each other from game to game.  I've used this model in Inquisition, and it is no coincidence that many of the strongest guilds in any MMO are typically those with long histories that span across many games.

The best way to find quality members is obvious and at the same so often overlooked.  MMOs are games based heavily on community, and if your looking to find good players you should be socializing in the game with people you meet.  Spamming chat channels is a good way to make your guild appear as cheap and catering to the lowest denominator of player.  It is far better to have a smaller roster of loyal friends who will stick with you, then a large roster full of random selfish members.

One quick antecdote to wrap this up. Back when I played World of Warcraft shortly after release, my guild at one point had over 130 members at its peak population.  We recruited everyone and anyone we could get our hands on.  I soon found at that peak population did not equal peak performance.  One day me and my co-leader decided we were going to reroll the guild on a new server, and cut the guild roster in half down to our best 60 members literally overnight.  Once we reached max level again on the new server a month later, we were able to defeat content that we could never imagine winning with our old roster.  These were the members who were friends of friends who shared our vision of the guild, many of which still play with us years later.  Consider this a page from a guild leader's handbook.

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition
www.inqguild.com