SWTOR: Companions

As I mentioned previously, the companion system in Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is one of its best features.  Some of the functionality of companions should be familiar to people who have played a pet class in WoW or LotRO: the “pet” is a separate toon that follows the player around and attacks the target the player is attacking.  Pets add damage, healing or crowd-control / tanking to combat situations the player gets into and makes fights more survivable.

The primary role of a companion in SWTOR isn’t that much different.  They fight alongside your toon and act as tanking,healing or damage to help you take down baddies.  But they do a lot more than just fight beside you.

While I could wax poetic about the coolness of Bioware’s companions, they have already waxed poetically in pixel form for you.

I won’t go into too much detail about companions here then, I’ll just mention some of the highlights I like.

 

The House of Random Noise

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, obviously.  I’ve debated whether or not to just close up shop with an official blog fade and be done with it or try to muddle through somehow.  While my interests in life are many, my interest in MMO gaming has dwindled.  I’ve been playing LotRO off and on and actually returned to WoW for a bit too.  The thing is: I really don’t have much to say about either game.  Turbine continues its history of near-but-not-quite-excellence which keeps players believing that some great stuff is possible in the game but never managing to deliver; and WoW is, well, still WoW.  Blizzard has made some solid game changes, screwed up some minor stuff here and there and still presents itself as the 800 lb gorilla in the room.

While I could find some things to babble about to fill up page spaces, it’s really nothing that hasn’t been said before and nothing I feel like proof-reading (and publishing, and realizing all the stuff I still screwed up, and going back and fixing it, and getting comments on the stuff I fixed because I didn’t save it right the first time … and well, you get the idea) again.

So rather than close up shop, I’ll be mentioning more of my out-of-MMO-land interests and having fewer posts related to WoW or LotRO or whatever other MMOs I may bumble into from time to time.

 

End Game … again

My hobbit burglar has been 65 for a while now.  I took a shot at the end game activities and decided it wasn’t my thing.  Grinding Sword Halls repeatedly for the tokens to save for armor is dull, dull, dull.  Sadly Turbine falls into the same trap as many MMOs and assumes that grinding the same old stuff is somehow epic.   Even the hardest fights I’ve seen in an MMO (in WoW’s Blackwing Lair*) became trivial once learned and after a short time they become a choreographed dance.   Step and turn and twist and shoot and everybody out of the fire and one and two and whelps and … blah.

I’ve changed gears a bit lately.  I am playing my hobbit hunter (currently 49) and my human guardian (currently 45) a bit more.  Also, I’ve been spending less time online in general.  I’ve been reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – an interesting read thus far  – and watching way too many You Tube clips.

In other news, I’ve got some friends in some upcoming MMOs of interests.  More than a couple friends have been trying out Star Trek Online.  Reviews have been mixed, but as a new MMO and something set in science fiction and not my usual fantasy, I thought I might give it a go.

And that’s what’s going on.

* Not that there aren’t harder fights currently than BWL but that was the pinnacle when I was raiding and is as far as I’ve gotten.

 

Addiction

There’s an interesting article in RPG Vault recently about addictive gaming.

It’s a tricky thing to define, but I’ll take a crack at it. A design is addiction-based to the degree that it encourages players to experience the same content again and again (often referred to as grinding) in return to obtain a series of rewards. These can be simple labels with no tangible effect (like an in-game title or some achievements), or they can be character improvements that give the ability to move on to a new location with a slightly different sort of grinding. I call this the grind/reward cycle, and it can keep players coming back to one game for years.

One key aspect of this design is that it gives many small rewards instead of a few big ones, so that the player is receiving constant positive reinforcement. A classic example is the style of skill improvement in World of Warcraft and EverQuest. When you gain a level, your skills don’t go up five points. Instead, your maximum goes up that much, and then the skill itself increases with use, a point at a time. Splitting up the reward into many parts increased the number of reinforcements.

The majority of games classified as MMOs these days adhere to a greater or lesser extent to addition-based game play.  Do x until you get y, then move on to z.  Repeat.  Sadly, games don’t seem to deviate much from that pattern.  Star Wars: The Old Republic seems to be attempting to move to a more story-based model.  Whether or not it’s successful, only time will tell (the game isn’t even in alpha yet).

Like the author, I’d love to see more options in games.  One gripe I’ve had with LotRO is their new-found gear-centeredness.  Like WoW, LotRO seems to be heading towards making players loot-crazy to keep them playing.  LotRO’s problem is they can’t make the instances interesting.  Rather than becoming loot-crazy, players are taking extended breaks until the next content expansion or leaving for other games once they hit the cap (that seems to be the general pattern I’ve noticed, anyway).  Personally, I’d like to see more community-based activities in MMOs … I mean, we play MMOs to play with other players so encouraging players to work with each other doesn’t seem like a bad way to go.  I don’t mean that forced grouping should become the norm, but it would be neat to encourage players in other ways (clever game design pushing them into proximity, better and varied PvP activities, trading-card type games where players can interact, etc.).

New models of “addictive game play” may help the industry out of its current rut.

 

Lore

I was having a discussion on Ventrilo the other day with some folks in my LotRO kinship.  We were lamenting the roughness of the LotRO end-game and were talking about some of the hurdles different IP-based games are having.  (That is to say, games based on a third-party IP – technically, all games are based on someone’s IP.

Blizzard owns the IP related to WoW.  So if they want to add space-ships or player-controlled flying mounts, the lore folks just say it’s possible and then it’s up to the software folks to make it happen.  There’s almost nothing standing in the way of a gaming possibility, the lore creators just have to figure out the story behind it and then it’s ready to be built into the game.

Turbine does not own the IP behind its LotRO game, Tolkien Estates does.  Everything in the game Turbine build has to conform to the lore as Tolkien imagined it.  There are exceptions (like the number of adventuring hobbits running around) but the places, the overall feel of the game and many of the character names and abilities are limited by the IP.  As such, players cannot be wizards (there are only a handful in Tolkien’s world), players cannot ride eagles (riding eagles is a rare privilege); the lore curtails many of the possibilities in an online world in favor of sticking with a set, third-party IP.

 

Still alive

I’m still alive over here.  I haven’t posted in a bit as real life has reared its non-pixilated head and I’ve been working quite a bit.

On the game front, I’m still playing LotRO but have reduced the amount of time I’ve been playing.  Part of my play time reduction has been work-related but part has been due to game play.  The current crop of hard mode “end game” instances doesn’t appeal to me at all.  I also don’t care for the gated content of the Watcher raid.  In Shadows of Angmar, players could play with their friends.  Gear seemed less important than trait selections and a little skill so a raid that was short a minstrel could just grab another one without too much concern.  Nowadays, I see things like “LF minstrel, must have 50 radiance or better.”  50 radiance can only be gotten by equipping 5 items (+10 radiance each), which in turn means 5 hard mode runs at a minimum.  Turbine often flits with a fine line between “epic” and “tedious” and for the MoM end game instances, I’ve found very little epic about them.  Some of them I like (Fil Gashan or the Grand Stairs) but most I could do without.

The sad thing is that I can see the strains forming in my kinship.  Those who went all-out to get through the six-man instances are chomping at the bit to down the Watcher.  Those of us that are taking our time or don’t particularly care about the six-mans are getting left further and further behind.  Friends can’t group up with friends anymore without also asking how much radiance gear they have.  I’ve seen this before in WoW’s Burning Crusade and have no desire to repeat that kind of loot-centric game play in LotRO.  There’s a lot of chatter on the blog-u-sphere lately about community building.  While there are a lot of things games can do to foster community, I’m pretty sure one of them isn’t wedging gear requirements in-between friends.

My burglar is level 60, has well-enough armor and weapons and has his talents maxed out.  So, other than the occasional rep grind, there’s little else for me to do in LotRO until book 8.  I have some alts which I play occasionally but without other people my level to play with, alts don’t interest me that much.

In other news, some friends of mine who left LotRO resurfaced in WoW on a new server so I re-upped my WoW account to play with them there.  Together, we rolled a small group (warrior, priest, and hunter) and are having a blast with the small-group stuff WoW has to offer.  For giggles, we also all rolled gnome Death Knights.  Hilarity ensued.

Now is the time in the Ebon Hold when we dance.

In addition to my warrior and new death knight, I’ve also created a dwarf paladin.  My how things have changed!  I recall when seals only lasted seconds.  Now they’ll last thirty minutes unless you do a judgment on them.  They seem to have lengthened the amount of time the blessings last as well.

While I haven’t given up on LotRO and plan on heading back, my game vacation in Azeroth has been a lot of fun.

 

On the Road Again: Travel in MMOs

Ysharros at Stylish Corpse has an interesting discussion going about travel in MMOs.  She differentiates between meaningful travel (as in “I am exploring the area so travel is part of the fun”) and meaningless travel (as in “I just need to get to the next bloody town, already”).

Travel options are important in any MMO.  Run speed, fast travel, mapping / hearthstones, etc., all effect how big the world feels and can contribute to either the fun or the tedium players experience in games.  If travel is a pain, players may be less likely to want to go out of their way to explore.  If travel is too easy or too immersion-breaking, the world feels tiny or trivial.

Of any MMO I’ve played, I like LotRO’s travel options the best, that is: I like the range of possibilities the best.  I still have issues with some of the offerings.  Player mounts are too weak and take too little damage before players get knocked off of them.  In some places, stealthed mobs on the roads make mounting up a waste of time.  Durable reputation mounts are an improvement, but not by much.  I like the swift travel and regular travel horses.  They function like eagles and wyvrns in WoW but you can hop off them whenever you choose.  There are also hunter ports and various types of summons available.  Overall, the list is impressive.  The one thing I’d really like is a player sprint ability available at level one so we could get our lowbies around faster.

 

Long Weekend Gaming Extravaganza

My company has mandated that employees take up some more of their Paid Time Off this year, so the past couple of weekends have been three day weekends for me. As it’s winter here in the Northeast US, I’ve stayed inside and mostly watched TV, read or played video games.

I am now addicted to House MD. I recently caught the House marathon over New Year’s and started watching the show. It’s funny: I had no interest in the show for the past four years but all of a sudden I started watching it. *shrug*

I’ve been re-reading The Hobbit  as well as The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit has to be one of my all-time favorite books. Bilbo is a wonderful hero because, in his world, he’s not really supposed to be one. I like tales of knights or warriors as much as anyone, but unlikely heroes appeal to me.

LotRO continues to give me my MMO fix. My hobbit burglar is now closing in on 59. A little over a level and he’ll be 60. My kinship has begun creating regular instance runs to get the armor required for the final Watcher battle. While I’ve enjoyed much of Moria, this weekend, I spent a lot of time either crafting or in Lothlorien questing or fishing. It’s good to see the stars and sky again after the long dark of Moria. I’m looking forward to the Lothlorien expansion (I believe it will be in the first free expansion for MoM).

Like MBP, I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers returning to LotRO or picking it up for the first time. It’s a game I’ve enjoyed quite a bit during my time there and I’ve hopeful that at least a couple more LotRO regulars will develop. On the other hand, I’m a realist and I’m sure many will head off for newer games once they pop up. LotRO is an acquired taste, I think. As I’ve stated before, there are certain types of players I’ve noticed in LotRO (lots of Lore fans, casual socializers, etc). People who value other attributes in their gaming (hardcore PvP, rapid advancement, etc) or who don’t place a lot of value in just being in Middle-earth may not enjoy LotRO.

I’ve been playing LotRO a lot but also wanted to mess around with some other games as well. I did some more time in WoW including re-re-rerolling a Death Knight. LOL! What can I say, their starting area rocks. After that though, I cancelled my account. WoW remains one of the best MMOs for new MMO players, but no amount of nostalgia will bring the game experience back to what it was for me back in the day. I just can’t seem to make it past the Burning Crusade stuff and the questing Horde-side in the new continent just didn’t do it for me.

Just for giggles, I loaded up Oblivion again. What an awesome game that is. It’s a sandbox game where players can either do all the quests, none of the quests or anything in between. My first character there was a noble knight and I’d take pains to do all the quests and work through the content. My second character is a lot more fun to me. As soon as I was out of the starting area, I stole a horse. From that moment on, I’ve been flitting between questing and fleeing the authorities. If it’s not nailed down, I’ll steal it. I have a personal house in the main city which I use to house stolen goods until I can safely transport them to my fence. One thing I’d love to see is an Oblivion-style MMO. The ability to level via using skills (just sneaking and walking around grants skill points to level up) is excellent alternative to quest-based or grind-based leveling seen in many MMOs.

And that’s what’s going on.

 

Mines of Moria Instances 2

15.12
This past weekend I got to run a couple more of the instances in the new content.  The first instance I ran on Friday night was the one for book 15.12.  This instance is a huge pain.  One thing I’d like to see is the Epic Book quests available to all players.  I know when I enter a raid instance (Helegrod, The Rift, etc.) that it’s going to be tough going.  I expect the possibility of dying a lot especially if we’re learning an encounter.  The Book quests, imho, shouldn’t be as difficult or as dependent on classes or builds; they are a chance for all players to participate in the storyline and to help out the Fellowship in some way.  So I get irritated when I see Epic Book instances like the one in 15.12.  It’s hard.  Really hard.  The first group I was in wiped four times on the first boss and we had to reset several times along the way as key players died.  For all the good stuff I saw in other instances with regard to class freedom, it all went to hell in 15.12.  You must have a guardian and a minstrel – no other combination for healing or tanking seems to work.  For the remaining classes, players need to balance things out between crowd control and DPS.  Champion tanks in 15.12 are too squishy and are a waste of DPS.  Loremasters should be conserving their power to drain power from mobs or crowd control, not healing or DPSing.  Anything besides an “all-x” conjunction is unreliable due to targeting and the spread of the group.  Groups in my kinship have passed through this awful instance but class balance seems to be the key.

Why do I get so peeved about class balance?  Because players should be able to play the classes they like.  Someone shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to play something besides a minstrel (healer) or guardian (tank).  (And the reverse is true as well: players shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to play a minstrel or guardian.)  I’m tired of games where people take those roles out of a “sense of duty.”  It’s a game.  Play the class you want to play not one you feel you have to play.  I accept the fact that raids require certain classes and certain builds.  Most raiders accept that as well.  I’d prefer that the Book instances were more along the lines of the other instances in game and less like mini-raid instances.  As I saw in WoW, a raid-worthy instance with fewer players puts a greater emphasis on the performance of each player.  A disconnect of a single player in the Rift sucks but chances are the group can still win.  One dead player in 15.12 means a reset or a delay issue as they try to get caught back up to the group and the NPC escort who won’t stop except to fight.

 

LotRO: Moria Live! Or, What happened to my pants?

Last night, I finally got around to getting my Moria updates done.  Even with the pre-paid expansion stuff and the pre-download, it took about an hour to get all patched and reloaded.

Unfortunately, I also wasn’t feeling that well last night and called things early.  I did, however, manage to get my hobbit set up with the next tier of cooking and farming skills so he’ll be all set.  Today I’m feeling better so I hope to get to all the shiny new goodness.

With both LotRO and WoW in expansion mode at the moment it should make for some intersting comparisons between the two.  One gripe I have already in LotRO: they changed my hobbit’s cosmetically-equipped pants.  For the most part, Blizzard has had enough sense to leave the armor graphics alone.  They have made changes in the past here and there, but why mess with something if it’s not broken?  Turbine tends to do odd things here and there.  Like change the graphics on things or the unannounced changes to the jump animations in a previous update.  Was anyone actually complaining about the jumping before?  I like to think that perhaps it means the game is doing so well that they can obsess about irrelevant things … but I know that’s probably not true.  The game is stable and the player base is fairly secure but I doubt they’re having money-fights in the halls.

Ideally, I should have more time to see Moria tonight.