Werit

PTS Event Tonight

2009-11-11T12:39:00.000-05:00

First, I want to wish everyone that lost their job recently, good luck and thanks for the effort. As it often does, WAR marches on. Tonight, at 8pm EST, they are holding a PTS event in order test some of the new City Siege changes. They include the shorter duration and changes to how victory points are calculated.

These events are usually pretty fun. You can use a template and try out classes on either side. Some of those fancy mounts will also be given out to a lucky few. I plan on stopping by, as Werit of course. If you can, stop in and say hi.

Q&A with Torchlight's Matt Tanwanteng

2009-11-11T07:24:00.002-05:00

Torchlight week continues with the second of three developer interviews. This time we have Matt Tanwanteng, one of the MMO and Toolset developers. Can you spot the Simpson's reference? Thanks Matt!

Werit: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi! My name is Matt Tanwanteng, and I graduated with a Master's in Computer Science from MIT before coming to Runic and inheriting the Newbie Brick. Here, I'm officially helping Peter lay out the codebase for the upcoming MMO version of Torchlight. Most recently, I've been working on testing out and documenting the modding process and have been having fun throwing together little unofficial Torchlight mods.

Werit: What sets Torchlight apart from other Action RPG's, like Diablo II?

Torchlight is a refinement of the formula that made Diablo II a success, ported to the present with all the amenities that players have been introduced to since Diablo II's release. Auto-gold pickup, pets that sell your goods, and the ability to run at respectable resolutions immediately come to mind when directly comparing against D2. What sets it apart from other Action RPG's as a whole is the attention to the core mechanics of the game. Running around, getting cool loot, and hacking and slashing and blowing stuff up in a satisfying, visceral manner has never felt so good!

Werit: The infinite dungeon sounds interesting, how does it work?

Even after you clear out the main storyline quests, there's still levels to be gained, enemies to kill, and loot to acquire! The infinite dungeon lets you fulfill any extra urges you still have to loot and loot and loot until your grubby little mitts can't handle it anymore. At some point you'll cap out on levels, and then you're on to an endurance test to see just how far you can get before it becomes impossible to progress any deeper. Personally, I'm more of a "create-20-characters-and-try-each-possible-build" kind of guy, but once
those are done...

Werit: Torchlight is mod-able by the players. How much can a player add to the game? Is it just text files or can they also add art?

Torchlight is heavily moddable. Basic modding is incredibly easy, and you can definitely add in your own art, sound, and skills without a problem. There are definitely a few things that you won't be able to change (with a caveat that motivated, savvy modders will find a way to do it), but by and large you can do an incredible amount with the tools we give you.

Werit: Which one of the classes is your favorite and why?

All of them are my favorite! Conceptually, the Alchemist appeals to me the most, but when I'm playing the game I have just as much fun with each of the characters.

Werit: There is a a lot to like about Torchlight, what is your favorite part of the game?

It's that attention to the basics. That one-more-level-and-then-I'll-stop-but-gotta-test-this-new-weapon-and-oh-it's-7-AM realization. It's the blend of animation, sound, and timing that makes just using your normal attack feel like you're down there laying into the enemy. Coming in at a close second (and other people have said it, but still) is the ability to have your pet summon zombies. My /pet/ is
/summoning zombies./

I'm not sure if it qualifies as part of the game, but I'll throw in here that the editor is awesome. I created a skill that shoots bees at enemies, so now... my dog is summoning zombies and barking a swarm of angry bees at my foes. How much more can you ask for from an ARPG? Whatever that answer is, you can probably put it in the game with the editor.

The Engineers new clothes

2009-11-10T12:05:00.001-05:00

Don't worry, no dwarfs in their birthday suits. I had to phrase that last sentence carefully as it could have brought the wrong kinda traffic to this site. I don't change my gear often in WAR, as it isn't that important. Eventually, I saved up enough medallions and was able to upgrade.

To be honest, I don't even remember the last time I changed my gear. It has been at least 3 months since I started wearing the Conqueror/Annihilator combo. I never had any luck in the fortress battles, so medallions were the only way for me to replace my Annihilator equipment.

The last 2 items I needed cost me 60+ Conqueror Crests (converted) and 300+ Officer Medallions. This was almost everything I had earned since they put the tokens in the game.

My Renown Rank is 55, so I could also wear Invader equipment, of which I have the boots and gloves. Rather then jumping to Invader, I wanted to check out the full Conqueror set. I really like WAR's art style (as opposed to Aion). I think Tirew here looks awesome.

And from the back...

The backpack has gotten me a few whispers. I got it from the Auction House guy in the Inevitable City. It felt a bit bulky at first, but how can I not wear it?

I would also like to thank Syp for posting the in-game item code for WAR that he received with Dragon Age. Thanks to twitter, I was able to snag it and get myself the Skaven Cloak.

Q&A with Torchlight's Wonder Russell

2009-11-10T07:07:00.001-05:00

Recently, I had an opportunity to ask Wonder Russell, the Minister of Culture at Runic Games, about Torchlight. This is actually the first of 3 interviews with folks at Runic, thanks Wonder! If you are not familiar with Torchlight, be sure to check out this video review of the game. Check back tomorrow for the next interview.

Werit: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Wonder, I’m a chick in the gaming industry which reminds me of a quote from my Alaska days: “the odds are good, but the goods are odd.” Except for Runic Games, that is! ;)

Werit: What sets Torchlight apart from other Action RPG's, like Diablo II?

Torchlight has a very different look and feel, the art style is entirely different and very much our own thing. We also have an Enchanter, pets, fishing, save anywhere, an item inventory that does NOT use the Tetris style, and lots of little details like those that to us, make gameplaying more fun!

Werit: The infinite dungeon sounds interesting, how does it work?

It goes on and on, unending! Well it’s infinite in the sense that it will never stop randomly generating tilesets – muahahahaha. We included it for more playability once you finish the storyline quest but still want to gain fame and essentially finish the game at its level cap, which is 100.

Werit: Torchlight is mod-able by the players. How much can a player add to the game? Is it just text files or can they also add art?

They can add literally anything they can think of. Ogre is a graphics engine, and supports 3DMax so they can add their own artwork, and we are providing an incredible amount of raw files. The tools for the mods are literally the tools we wrote to make the game. Nothing is dumbed down, you get it all. Check out these forum posts to stay tuned:

http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5688

Werit: Are there any DLC/Expansion plans for Torchlight before the MMO?

It’s possible we’ll release some content that is also going into the MMO, but nothing is planned so far. There will be gobs of new content from modders, though.

Werit: Will players be able to use anything from the single player game in the MMO?

Nope, it will be an entirely different game, using an entirely different model.

Werit: Which one of the classes is your favorite and why?

My favorite is the Alchemist for his steampunk aesthetic. Seattle seems to have a real sweet spot for steampunk and I’m a big fan, personally.

Werit: Fishing is a surprising feature. What kind of stuff can you catch?

All kinds of fish that have transformational properties or buffs for you and/or your pet!

Werit: What kind of benefits and perks can your retired character give? Can they ever come out of retirement?

Your character cannot come out of retirement, but at retirement they place special enchantments on a weapon which can be bestowed onto a new character, your “descendant.” It also decreases the requirements for wielding that weapon, so you’ll be able to use it sooner in your gameplay!

Combat in Dragon Age

2009-11-09T06:56:00.003-05:00

In my previous video, I only showed off the very basics of how fighting works in Dragon Age. Looking back at it, I don't think it really showed how fun the combat system can be. So today we have a video of the first boss fight. This may be considered a minor spoiler.

The video above shows one way to handle fighting. I like issuing orders directly to my party, however it can be a bit cumbersome. Dragon Age includes a tactics system to help alleviate this. You can assign conditions and action to each npc and let them fight on their own.

It actually took me 4 tries to win the above battle on normal difficulty. Each time I failed the Ogre only had a sliver of health left. My problem was that I relied on brute force which is not recommended against an Ogre.

Fallen Earth Friday

2009-11-06T07:37:00.002-05:00

It has been a crazy week for gaming. I've played Torchlight, WAR, Dragon Age, GSB and a little Fallen Earth. The Halloween Event ended but I did manage to get my shotgun. Sadly, I am not skilled enough to use it yet. I do have some pictures of some other stuff though.

All players were given a gas mask, you know, the traditional Halloween gift. It came with a nice warning label from the manufacturer.

I did manage to try it on. It looks, um, interesting.

The final gift from Icarus was a gigantic set of patch notes. They are much too big to post in their entirety, so I will pick some of the neat changes.

Changed the PvP anti-griefing debuff. Players will no longer receive the debuff when they kill a player under the minimum level for a PvP zone.

This should prevent groups from using a low level character to weaken their opponents.

Updated the tree textures to unload when not in use.

Less textures means less memory use, yay!

Increased the drop rate of scrap fasteners from low level scavenging nodes.

More stuff? yes please.

Added Sector Vaults outside the Embry bank and made the interior so vehicles and horses cannot go inside.

This will be nice, since mounts do not just disappear.

Enlarged Nature nodes to improve their visibility.

Very nice, sometimes the plants were tough to find amongst all of the ground foliage.

Added a Feather Hat promotional item. Added Faction Shirt promo items.

Hmm, what could these be for?

And of course there were a ton of bug fixes to go along with these changes. Most of my time in Fallen Earth lately has been crafting. I am going the completion-ist route, so I want to get all of my tradeskills maxed before moving on.

Dragon Age Video Review

2009-11-05T11:26:00.000-05:00

This really isn't a review, as I don't judge the game. The video will show, without spoilers, what Dragon Age has to offer. So if you still have not had enough Dragon Age, you can check it out after the break.

Direct Link.

Changes coming to the City Siege

2009-11-05T07:24:00.001-05:00

When the fortresses were removed in WAR's 1.3.2 patch, the intention was to get campaigns moving again. It was successful but perhaps too successful. On some servers, city sieges are occurring too frequently, resulting in some players being locked out of their city. Mythic is aware of the problem and has outlined some of the planned fixes.

If a city siege advances to the second stage, it will lose ranking. A loss of rank means things like the Guild Hall and palace are no longer accessible. So the losing side is put at a further disadvantage. Another problem is that when the city is under siege, the rest of the game is pretty much put on hold.

Andy, from Mythic, posted some fixes for these issues:

Guild Hall access and functionality will no longer be tied to City rank. All privileges granted by the Guild Halls will be available in a 1-Star City.
Cities will now start to recover rank more quickly. We have drastically sped up the effort required to rank your City back up.
Access to the Citadel and the Imperial Palace will no longer be tied to City Rank. You will now have permanent access to the quests and vendors that lie within.
We are retiring the two Scenarios formerly available when a City is under siege: The Undercroft and the Altdorf War Quarters. Ok, this is nothing new since 1.3.2, but this paves the way for...
During Stage 2 of the City siege there will now be two scenarios permanently available for those of you who do not wish to participate in the City siege experience, depending on which City is being seiged: If Altdorf is under attack, then Reikland Factory is enabled. If The Inevitable City has fallen to the armies of Order, The Twisting Tower will be active.
- These two scenarios will not contribute to the Victory Points of the City siege in any way however they will offer a 10% bonus to Renown and Experience gained.
- Anyone from Tier 2, 3 or 4 may queue for these scenarios. For this Scenario only, everyone is Bolstered to 40 for some face smashing good times.
- You may only queue for these Scenarios from outside of the City instance.

This should solve the problem of being locked out of necessary city services if you are the losing realm. I am most excited by the return of Reikland Factory and the Twisting Tower scenarios. Almost everyone can participate as they will bolster all players to rank 40. In addition, you get more renown and experience while fighting in the scenarios.

Another issue with the city siege is the length. It is clear players do not like spending hours fighting in the city. As a result, the duration will be shorter.

We will be halving the duration of the City siege experience.
- Stage 1 will now last only 1 hour.
- Stage 2 will now last only 3 hours.

This is pretty much cutting the duration in half. I like the city siege, but not for 2 straight hours. One hour in the contested phase should be good amount.

These changes do not address the core problem which is that population imbalances lead to too many sieges by one side. In a way, the shorter duration does help. By spending less time under siege they will have to spend more time fighting out in the lakes.

Andy did respond to my above point:

As you've alluded too, Cities were not meant to be sieged as frequently as they are right now. We know this, and it's apparent that many players know this. Internally, we're making the needed steps to address this and will keep the community informed every step of the way, as we have been doing.

And now the big question, when will we see these changes? Andy mentioned that there will be another PTS Event next week. That makes me think, if all goes well, these changes will be in late next week or the week after.

Gratuitous Space Battles + Star Wars

2009-11-04T11:46:00.001-05:00

When I think of space battles, Star Wars immediately comes to mind. In fact, I have always liked the space fight angle much more than the Jedi. X-Wings, Star Destroyers, Tie Fighters, it was all great. When I first played around with Gratuitous Space Battles it was clear that someone would make a mod to use Star Wars ships.

And of course, someone did. I took a video of it which I think is pretty awesome. Who doesn't love a Star Destroyer?

Direct Link.

Check out the game, here.

Dragon Age: Impressions

2009-11-04T07:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the long wait for Bioware's latest venture, Dragon Age: Origins, came to and end. I went with the Digital Deluxe version from Steam. I played for 3 hours or so yesterday. Read on for my no spoiler impressions.

The process of getting everything setup was not easy. In order to link the game to Bioware's Social Network it had to be registered. I had no luck in getting the site to recognize my key. The site is also supposed to display your screen shots but I haven't been able to get that to work either.

As for the game, it is good but I'm not ready to call it Game of the Year yet. The graphics are a bit sloppy in my opinion. There is a lot of clipping and the fact my weapons float a few inches off my body bothers me.

The story is good so far but I would expect nothing less from Bioware. They added a lot of GUI elements from Mass Effect for managing all of the information the game throws at you. Even though I have spent over 3 hours in the game, I have not done much. Most of my time was spent reading or talking to npc's.

I went with a Dwarf Commoner as my first character. I was impressed with how my story fit into the game. I was worried, since there are multiple starting stories, that it would feel disjointed. It flowed perfectly into the main story. The characters around you talk/treat you differently based on your start. It isn't just 'substitute your name here.'

I plan to have a spoiler-free video out tomorrow so you can see for yourself what the gameplay is like.

Streaming WAR

2009-11-03T11:43:00.002-05:00

Recently, I did some intensive investigating (twitter) and found an interesting tidbit about WAR. You may recall that WAR is revamping their free trial. That is not the only change coming to it though.

In addition to the unlimited time free trial, they are also making a streaming version of the client. Instead of having to download 8gb for the trial, you will download a much smaller package and the rest will happen in the background as you play.

WAR is not the first to take this approach. EverQuest 2 recently launched a similar client. For me, free trials are often an impulse decision. One day the mood may strike me to try out a new game. Nothing kills that mood like a 8gb download.

With a streaming client, players will be able to get into the game much quicker. This is something every MMO should be trying to adopt. Just imagine if you could try a game by clicking a link and a couple minutes later you are in and playing. If other games embraced this, I'd certainly do more free trials.

NOTE: Guild Wars also uses a streaming client.

Farewell Aion

2009-11-03T07:21:00.001-05:00

If you have been reading my recent articles about Aion, it should be no surprise that I have canceled my subscription. Since well before launch I have been cynical towards Aion, but the game at least deserved a try. Much to my surprise it was not as bad as I thought. In the end though, it just wasn't the game for me.

Here now are my thoughts about Aion, in bullet form.

+ Performance. Aion ran very smooth in normal gameplay.
- Art Style. I'm not a fan of the anime influenced style.
+ Combat. The actual combat was very smooth and felt great. The animations were top notch.
- Crafting. Way too much of a grind. Work orders were very boring. Many of the decent items required a crit of a previous item. This made materials very expensive.
- PvE. The cut scenes were nice, but this is the same PvE we've been playing for years.
+ Rifts. I think rifts were a nice idea. They spiced up the PvE a bit and invading the other side was fun. However, it was an infrequent source of PvP.
- Abyss. The Abyss sounded interesting on paper, but in reality it was one big gank fest. Allowing ranks 25 through 50 to fight in the same space, without a bolster, just was not fun.
- Leveling. It's a long way to the top if you want to PvP. I am a big fan of PvP leveling and Aion just does support that style of gameplay.
- Bots. Aion is crawling with bots. I shouldn't have to fight bots over spawns to get a quest done. It even had me thinking that maybe I was the one in the wrong by not botting.
- Gold Spam. While they have fixed the issue somewhat, it still left me with a bad impression. In all my years I had never seen so much of it. The channels were scrolling with ads.
+ Guild. There are quite a few CoW's who play Aion and I will miss grouping with them.
- Leveling Part 2. I am a casual player, and I am just not able to keep with with the folks I group with. Playing the game mostly solo is not very fun.

I think Aion is a good game, but just not for me. I don't regret buying it and I feel as if I got my monies worth. It certainly has it's good points, but not enough to justify it keeping a place in my MMO rotation. That rotation now consists of WAR and Fallen Earth.

Death Troopers

2009-11-02T12:07:00.003-05:00

Death Troopers is both a new book in the Star Wars universe and also an event in Star Wars Galaxies. As you may expect from the title, it involves zombies. While you may think they are hopping on the zombie bandwagon, it appears that they have been a part of the Star Wars lore for a while. For a video and more info, continue on.

First, let's take a look at a trailer made for the book. These guys won a contest for making it and it is very well done.

Now that was pretty cool right? It isn't often a trailer gets me fired up to read a book. Now if Amazon would just get this out on the Kindle I'd be all set.

Not only is the book out, but Star Wars Galaxies added some tie-in content in the form of a full fledged update. More quests, collections, Chronicle relics and items were included with the update. From the looks of it, it was well received by the players. While the troopers may be dead, SWG appears to be living.

I am a big fan of these kinds of multimedia events (game + book). Bioware has been good about that, except their books are based on the game and not the other way around. When you have a good IP, you should exploit it in as many ways as possible.

What Aion can learn from WAR

2009-11-02T06:48:00.000-05:00

Last week, I made a post discussing what WAR can learn from Aion. Performance, Crafting, PvP and the economy were all included. That doesn't mean Aion is perfect in those areas. There is always room for improvement and WAR does have some good ideas.

WAR is currently my most played game. While it has its faults there is a lot that it does right.

Leveling. Aion, when compared to WAR (and WoW), has a very long leveling process. This is also a mostly PvE experience (due to reasons we'll see below). In addition to a shorter road to max level, WAR gives players the ability to level via PvE and PvP, which really helps break up the grind.
Crafting. Aion's crafting is a long grind. They don't try to hide it, as the work order encourages afk/bot play. In WAR, maxing out your trade-skills is easy. Once you reach the top the stuff (potions ,talismans) you make is useful rather than doing it all for a single item.
PvP. The rifts are a neat idea, but they are not frequent or a reliable source of PvP. The Abyss, which is the primary pvp area, is really only for high level characters. The bolster system in WAR would be a very nice addition as it helps make the playing field more level. In the Abyss, high level players would still have an advantage (gear and levels) but a bolster system would make it more competitive.
Customer Service. Now that gold SPAM is under control (mostly), Aion needs to do something about bots. I am still surprised by their numbers. With a long grind to 50, seeing bots make me wonder why am I bothering? If you enjoy the PvE experience that last bit probably doesn't apply.

Those are four points which I think Aion can take away from WAR. The most important to me is the PvP. I don't mind losing but at least give me a chance. Being able to actually level in the Abyss would be a lot of fun. Of course, I'd try and level mostly via PvP from the beginning if I could.

How to buy Dragon Age: Origins

2009-10-31T14:11:00.002-04:00

Maybe I'm alone but buying Dragon Age is pretty complicated. There are standard editions, collectors editions and digital deluxe version. You can buy it online or in stores and most of the time what you get is different. Hopefully this post can help you decide how best to buy DA:O.

The best choice, in my opinion is to buy the Digital Deluxe version. With this package you get:

Memory Band : Adds +1% to XP, Adds one skill point
Stone Prisoner DLC. All retail and download versions include this. Download versions will get the code emailed to them. LINK
Wardens Keep DLC: Only Digital Deluxe versions get this. Otherwise it will cost ~$7 to obtain. LINK
Blood Dragon Armor: Included for all versions.
Bergen's Honor (item): A helmet which adds +2 to armor, +25 physical resistance, +6 to attack
Grimoire of the Frozen Wastes (item): A special book that adds +3 to all attribute
Final Reason (item): A magical staff of immense power which adds to damage, spell power, and fire damage

Each site has slighty different unique items to offer.

Direct2Drive: Dalish Ring Stats: Increased effectiveness of healing effects, Subtract damage from darkspawn attacks, Increase combat health regeneration. LINK
Steam: The Wicked Oath (Ring): Adds +10% to critical strike damage , Improves armor penetration by 2 , Adds +1 to combat stamina regeneratio. LINK
EA Store: Band of Fire (Ring): Adds to Stamina, Adds to fire resist ,Adds to spirit resist. LINK
GameStop: No item listed. LINK
GamersGate: No item listed. LINK
Impulse: No item listed. LINK

The big question for digital downloads is whether or not you can pre-load them before the release date. If not you may not get to play on Tuesday.

Steam: Yes, starting November 1st sometime. LINK
Direct2Drive: Yes, Novemember 1st at 10am PST. LINK
EA Store: Yes, Unknown when. LINK
GameStop: Unknown. LINK
GamersGate: No pre-load. LINK
Impulse: Unknown. LINK

Friday Black-Hole

2009-10-30T11:29:00.000-04:00

Does it feel like a black-hole is stationed next to your cubical, slowing time down to a crawl? Each second seems to take longer than the next. Sure, you could buckle down and work, but who are we kidding? The answer is out there, somewhere (like after the break).

For your time wasting needs, I offer you these links.

Watch some WAR gameplay footage involving the Daemon Moon Rising event.
Read about my adventures at the GameX conference.
Video review for Torchlight.

Elsewhere...

Keen takes on Fallen Earth.
Syp has an inappropriate relationship with his ammo.
ITG looks at Killing Floor.
Ardua readies the nerd-rage torpedoes.
Facebook introduces 'welfare friends'

And I'm adding a new blog to my list this week...

WAR Bureau

So whatcha got planned for the weekend? My plans include WAR, Torchlight and Fallen Earth.

WAR unveils a new Free Trial

2009-10-30T06:47:00.004-04:00

In this months newsletter, Mythic announced that they have made some changes to their 10-Day Free trial. At first the news worried me a little, but the more I thought about it, the better the idea sounded. Once it goes live, it will be a great time to try out WAR. Read on for more details.

"We’ll soon be lifting the 10-day restriction on our Free Trial! You'll be able to enjoy the trial experience and New User Journey for as long as you like!"

There you have it, there will be no time limit on the free trial. Instead, you are limited to the first tier. I do have to admit, at first this made me think WAR might be in trouble. However, this really isn't all that different than the 10 day trial.

Getting to Rank 12 in 10 days is not very difficult, so I suspect many who play the trial and like it reach that limit. By taking the 10 day restriction off of the trial, it gives everyone the time to get hooked. Tier 1 is still a very fun experience. I was playing my Rank 7 Slayer yesterday and there was plenty of action. Multiple PQ's were being played and a lot of RvR was going on.

The quote in the newsletter is light on some details though. Can you make as many classes as you want? Can free trial players use the apprentice system? Do buddy passes qualify as well? I'm sure we'll get these answers soon.

While my first reaction was to worry, I think this is a very good idea for WAR. The New User Journey and the fun of Tier 1 RvR should get players hooked and hopefully for Mythic, subscribed. I don't think this new trial is active yet, but stay tuned.

Thanks to spinks for pointing this out to me.

Torchlight Video Review

2009-10-29T06:50:00.002-04:00

Usually, I don't like to do game reviews. One reason is I feel you cannot really sum up a game with a number. Another is that often times it is hard to get a feel for how a game plays. For the new Action RPG, Torchlight, I decided to do a video review. You can watch how the game plays while I talk about what it has to offer.

Direct Link.

To summarize the video, if you liked Diablo I/II then you should probably buy this game right now. Even if you only sorta liked them, at $20 you will easily get your monies worth. I was not a big Diablo guy, but I am enjoying Torchlight. It is very easy to get into and play, even if you only have 10 minutes.

WAR comes to the Mac

2009-10-28T14:44:00.000-04:00

That's right Mac users, Warhammer Online is now officially released for you. If you want to check it out, head over here and download the trial version. To remember the occasion, I threw together a quick commercial. I do mean quick, so I apologize in advance for the quality ;) Check it out after the jump.

Direct Link.

What WAR can learn from Aion

2009-10-28T06:44:00.001-04:00

Soon my time in Aion will come to an end. As I expected, the game is just not for me. It isn't a bad game and I did have some fun while playing. Even though I won't be playing it, there are some things that WAR can learn and hopefully be an even better game.

First lets start with why I will not continue with Aion. First and foremost is the nature of the leveling process. I made it to level 28 and just could not climb the hill to 50 via the PvE route. I really do prefer PvP leveling, but that isn't recommended in the Abyss. I also did not dig the art style. Both reasons are opinion based, so you may feel differently.

On to what WAR can learn from Aion.

Performance. In normal situations (not 100+ player combat), Aion's combat is very smooth with very nice animations. Even with WAR's 1.3.2 improvements, it still doesn't match Aion in the flow of combat.
Crafting. I do like WAR's crafting philosophy of making stuff you can use. Aion's crafting is the definition of grind, but it is much more broad than WAR. I would love to see WAR keep their philosophy but expand the system.
Economy. Aion has a thriving Auction House economy party due to their broad Crafting system. In WAR, it is pretty easy to become self-sufficient. That is a double edged sword as not counting on others is nice but it hurts the social nature of the game.
PvP. In Aion it is perfectly reasonable for you, or you and a friend, to go out into the PvP area and do quests, farm stuff or look for trouble. In WAR, that isn't really possible due to the nature of the RvR lakes. It is made for groups or larger. Sometimes players don't want to run in large groups.

Those are some of the things that WAR can learn from Aion. They are both good games, but there is always room for improvement.

The truth about zombies

2009-10-27T12:12:00.000-04:00

Fallen Earth tells it like it is.

Werit at WAR: Daemon Moon Rising

2009-10-27T07:01:00.000-04:00

Most of my WAR playtime this week has involved the current Live Event, Daemon Moon Rising. I think this has been one of the best Live Event's yet. It has sparked quite a bit of RvR with the PQ and bringing the back High Pass Cemetery scenario. See for yourself after the jump.

In this week's video we see the Event boss fight, fighting over the PQ and some action in High Pass Cemetery. All of this was run at High graphic settings and was a lot of fun.

This particular event was very kind to me reward wise. The Wild Hunt's elite reward eluded me due to vacation, this time I did manage to reach it. The Malleus Daemonarium is a temporary item for your characters event slot. It expires when the next Live Event starts in 60 days.

I managed to win a gold (Massive) bag off of Goreslake the Bloodthrister, the big boss in the video. Inside the bag was the Magnus Daemonarium. This is also an event slot item, but expires in 14 days. It is a bit better than the item from the Live Event.

Last but not least, we were able to siege the Inevitable City. We didn't make it to stage 2, but we took out some of the Hero mobs who work there. One of them was kind enough to give me a new cloak.

Overall I've had a great time in the event. The High Pass Cemetery was a nice change of pace. Getting the Elite reward takes some time, but should be attainable by most players. I'm leaving the masks you can wear for another post, but they were a neat idea too.

Action Points get Fixed

2009-10-26T12:51:00.002-04:00

One of the long standing criticisms of WAR is that it require zero to little 'skill.' I won't debate what 'skill' really means, as that is a whole a post in itself. In this case, it comes down to just being able to SPAM abilities. In 1.3.2, WAR has taken steps to fix this problem.

In this Dev Diary, Nate discusses a couple of fixes to the Action Point system. Some bugs were introduced in earlier patches which gave players much more Action Point regeneration than they should have had. As you can expect, this resulted in being able to SPAM abilities.

From my experience, the fixes are very noticeable. Prior to 1.3.2 I really never gave Action Points a second thought. I could usually fire all of my abilities at will with only the cooldowns slowing me. Now I will run out of AP's if I don't pay attanetion.

This has also renewed my interest in Action Point saving skills, talismans and potions. So really, this change may bring new life into a large segment of the game. More elements to consider adds gameplay.

It is hard to tell how successful these fixes will be for other problems. Bomb (PBaE) groups are still running around and some attacks still get spammed. Now that regen is fixed, changes to AP cost should go a long way in making the game more balanced.

Werit goes to GameX

2009-10-26T06:36:00.000-04:00

Much to my surprise there was a video game conference close to where I live over the weekend. It was called GameX and it was a developer conference plus an expo. I've never been to a game conference before, so I drove over to check out the expo.

My first stop was at the EA Mythic Warhammer Online booth. I met some of the staff (Hi James and Ben) and played a bit on their demo systems. I was surprised they the characters were on live servers. We talked for a little bit about the awesomeness of 1.3.2. I did not leave the booth empty handed, they had a very cool Land of the Dead poster which I grabbed.

My next stop was at Hi-Rez Studio's Global Agenda area. This is a game I have not posted much about, but have been following. They had about a dozen systems setup, which were packed for the whole time I was there. There really isn't much to say about it though, as it looks like a High Quality FPS. The meta/alliance/rpg aspects are the interesting part but they really didn't get into it.

The Global Agenda folks did not have anything as cool as the WAR poster, but I did grab a button and enter for a chance to win a beta invite. Also, I got a 'preferred beta registration card' that will supposedly give me priority. We'll see about that.

Dante's Inferno was also present at GameX. This is an action game, sorta like Gods of WAR. The graphics on their test systems looked amazing. Great animation and environments. However the game is extremely graphic which was too over the top for me. I don't think I'll be getting that title.

It was an interesting event. It didn't have nearly as much going on game wise as the big cons, but I'll take what I can get. There was a lot of other activities like Jedi role players, a rock band stage, robots battling it out and a Steampunk booth. In the end though, the LoTD poster made it worthwhile.

Friday Time Accelerator

2009-10-23T06:47:00.002-04:00

The weekend is almost here, but a long Friday at work stands in between. You could pass the time by working... or you could do whatever you can to make it seem to fly by. I'm a big fan of the latter, so I offer you these links.

My personal submissions...

Werit goes to WAR in this gameplay video.
Explore the new sandbox MMO, Dawntide, in this homemade trailer.
A preview and an interview for the upcoming Action RPG, Din's Curse.
Is it time for you to re-enlist in WAR?

Elsewhere...

See a rundown of Holiday Events.
Peruse through a Daemon Moon Rising guide.
The history of a 3 year old instance group.
Learn a little bit about Werit.
I'm Talkin Games launched.

I'd also like to recommend two new blogs. These are both game blogs but are also pretty funny.

And if you are truly brave and want to play a game from wherever you are:

Dragon Age Journeys. A flash game which lets you unlock items for the soon be released title, Dragon Age: Origins.