SWTOR: Patch 1.3 and the Week After

There are days when I am glad I don't play games at any relatively hardcore level anymore, and the release of patch 1.3 for Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of them.

Why do I say that? Well, there is no new content in this patch, so if I'm already tired with the current operations, that feeling would not be alleviated. Even if I were just farming the same hardmode flashpoints over and over again, I would have gotten quite disgruntled a long time ago, and stay that way even with this patch release.

No, this patch is not about making the game fresh again with new content, its about making it fresh again by enhancing current content. A week after the patch, I am actually having a lot of fun again.

I can't go too far without mentioning the recent server mer...I mean....transfers and how the effect of a larger population in-game just makes the game world/galaxy feel alive again. With over 300 people in the respective fleets at peak hours, and many more on other planets or flashpoints/operations, there is just a sense that the game has gotten it's second wind, even if it was at the expense other servers. Even trolls in general chat was a welcome relief to almost nothing happening just a month ago. The server transfers were, in a way, an early extention of Patch 1.3 itself, especially when you consider the Looking For Group tool.

Bioware did get some flak by not making the LFG cross-server, but really, it doesn't really need to be. At least, not yet. It's current incarnation does what it needs to do, and that is all that matters in the end. I get into flashpoints when I normally would not be able to, such as when on other planets. That, in itself, is already a huge benefit for someone like me who doesn't like staying on the fleet and it gets better when I level an alt. Queue times as DPS becomes tolerable when you decide to do other things while waiting.

Rewards for random hardmode flashpoints and normal operations are quite interesting. Daily commendations can drop in the instance and completing it yields 5 black hole commendations. And it appears to be repeatable. It is clear that Bioware wants people to gear up faster, so it is possible that new content is just around the corner. Or maybe they just want more people to get into Denova. Whatever the case, it is a welcome change for those unable to commit to a regular operations group.

Rated warzones have also been implemented with patch 1.3. Unfortunately, having just moved to the server and having a weird schedule for my day job, I was unable to participate in this yet. Hopefully I would be able to get a group for this pretty soon.

Character legacy perks were also opened up with the patch and there are finally things I would be willing to spend credits on. I immediately bought the respec perk and so far, it has served me well. As good as it is, I really wish they would just go full out and give dual specs. Some of the perks are relatively trivial, but thankfully are not costly. Although, since the perks are character-specific, the costs will add up if you want them on all characters.

Patch 1.3 does not have anything completely groundbreaking, but at least it had fewer disappointments than patch 1.2 and that in itself is a huge plus. Still, Bioware has quite a ways to recover from half a year of .... unflattering press, but their latest update is a good start to a positive trend.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Selling junk items in only 5s. Really, really worth the credits if you got them.
• Leveling has always been amazing in SWTOR and that hasn't changed. Having a LOT of fun with my Jedi Shadow right now.
• Adaptive gear is only good if end game set bonuses can be transferred with armouring. Until that happens, adaptive gear is not appealing unless you don't care about the bonuses.
• Augment kits. Totally love them. Saves me the frustration of getting 40 non-crit crafted items in a row.
• Remembering how much fun this game is. Even with relatively archaic mechanics, it is a good game.

SWTOR: Farewell Keller's Void

Today Star Wars: The Old Republic starts handing out free server transfers to and from selected servers. It is not an unexpected move and, frankly, it's taken far too long in coming. 

Can't say 'It's been nice knowing you' KV. Didn't really know you

Keller's Void has sadly slowly been going downhill when it comes to population. Most nights, it's hard enough to find same faction PvP. There are some guilds that strive to keep going, but things get harder when newer games start releasing *cough*DIABLO*cough*. 


While transfers aren't necessarily a bad thing, the service coming at the heels of complaints about low population, or "dead" servers just helps underscore the fact that the game isn't retaining as many players as they thought they would. Is SWTOR still doing well? I personally think they are, but they have made way too many rookie mistakes that gave totally bad impressions of the game and the company. And then there's EA being EA, they figured no one would unsubscribe to their Star Wars game. 


Targetted servers were also a good idea. Given a choice, everyone would just flock to whatever server appears to be the most populated i.e. The Fatman. And then there will be complaints about queues. There are more people than one server can hold, and really, only Bioware has any idea about the number of active players so they can strategically funnel people into selected servers in order to help even out the population. 


I have to say, I look forward to the prospect of playing on a server that has a healthy population again. If nothing else, the resulting infusion of trolls in general chat will be amusing. 


Ready or not, here we come Jedi Covenant!

SWTOR: Patch 1.2 Test Impressions

TLDR: Patch 1.2 felt like the second release date of Star Wars The Old Republic. While the core mechanics of the game haven't changed, it's the many small things that did makes the game feel new again. 


While 1.7 million subscribers would indicate the game is far from a failure, Star Wars The Old Republic has not been without it's major problems. A good chunk of these problems were in the end game and Bioware seemed surprised that so many people would hit 50 in such a short time, much less be finished with end game content. While the debate can go on that it's the player's fault for rushing through the game, it doesn't excuse released content that really isn't all there. 


The complete changes for patch 1.2 is just very massive. Without a level 50 on the test server, I could not reliably say anything about the end game changes and really, there is just too much content to cover. But with pretty much every change, you cannot shake the thinking that they should have been available at launch. 


Interface Editor

So many boxes.....

Probably one of the biggest criticisms about the game is the lack of movable user interface elements. Or even more interface options for that matter. At launch, the game only has 4 action bars, only 2 of which are on the center and easily seen. With all the abilities that I have keybindings for, I had to use the side bars and looking over at them is just not ideal in a PvP situation. 


Patch 1.2 makes up for it by not giving you more action bars, but by making almost every UI element modifiable. Each individual item can be re-sized, enabled, and have it's opacity changed. Settings are also saved into an XML file so they can be easily shared. A bit of a crafty method of not needing any third party mods. 


Bioware also moved the raid frame editor to the interface editor, which is a good move. This allows some better control for the window without cluttering the already cluttered preferences screen. 


I easily spent almost an hour just messing around with the UI and I am not even at the point of being really content with my choices. I found something usable for now and will see how it all works later on. 


Somewhat Improved Galactic Trade Network

No, it doesn't quite look like much has changed, but it does have one very important tweak. You can search by name without selecting a category. Yes, they finally made the trade network work as it should have, and it only took 4 months. No, I'm not bitter. Well, maybe a little. Modable gear now has its own category too so it will make it much easier to find them. Sadly, there was nothing for me to find at the time I was typing this up. 


New Gear...Which Still Looks Like Crap


Behold the new tier of Sith Assassin PvE gear!

Well, at least the skirt is gone...

Now I'm not the most artistic person in the world. Heck, I have trouble drawing a box, let alone designing my own clothes, but I've never been happy with how most gear looks in this game. I mean, yes, the skirt is gone, but what is the deal with those....hook....thingies? 


Luckily, all mods can be removed from the gear pieces and added on to other modable gear. This includes the armoring, which transfers the set bonus. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a level 50 transferred so I could not test it out and get more details. 


Still, the additional tier of gear will help out end game raiders by keeping progression in the game. Having all three end game tiers in 2 really easy operations allowed the upper echelon to get their gear too quickly. Its like having the carrot on so short a stick that the horse was able to reach it by sticking out it's tongue. 


These were just a couple of major changes to the game and this made me decide to play on the test server to find everything else.


Highlights and Small Changes

• Sprint at level 1! Some may wonder why bother having Sprint at all. There are some puzzles/datacrons that are not possible to reach when Sprint is on, so this makes sense as an ability for now. 
• When I started playing, there were 149 people on Korriban, and that number did not go down appreciably as I left for the fleet. At the time of typing this up, there are over a hundred people on Drommund Kaas. It's like beta all over again. 
• Winning PvP is more important now and the disparity of rewards between winning and losing is much larger. Winning a match gives additional medals so you can get 80-100 commendations winning a game vs just 20-40 by losing. 
• Pre-50 PvP weapons cost 900 warzone commendations. Ouch. 
• 40 Minute Hutbball match! No, that wasn't pleasant. It seemed that the game would not end until one side got 6 points. Was crazy though.
• The new Warzone was nice and intuitive. A more involving version of the Alderaan map. 

SWTOR: Patch 1.1.5 Now Ilum Free

So there are quite a few changes in the most recent patch and most of them relate to PvP. After a night of trying it out, it left an overall positive impression on my increasingly cynical mind.

Ilum Dailies/Weeklies can be completed in Warzones.

I don't think anyone can see this as more than a stop-gap solution to the atrocity that is Ilum. As much as I've raged about Ilum, I always thought it had potential. I'm pretty sure Bioware thought the same way but it appears that the actual fix to the zone will take a long time.

Until then, both sides can get their daily and weekly rewards with ease. Each warzone game played counts as 3 Ilum objectives obtained, no matter if you end up winning or losing the game. That means 10 games a night and that gives a good chance of getting the daily warzone daily done as well...or at least getting something toward the warzone daily. Yes, I am being optimistic that people would get at least 1 win out of 10 games.

Champion and Battlemaster Gear from Warzone Commendations

Its not really that simple, but rather you are allowed to trade up your warzone commendations for the Battlemaster and Champion versions. Conversion is

1 Champion Commendation = 120 Warzone Commendations

1 Battlemaster Commendation = 1000 Warzone and 1000 Mercenary Commendations

This may seem a like a lot and I certainly balked at the rates when I first saw it. But then, Warzone Commendations wouldn't be the main source of Champion and Battlemaster gear. You'd still be relying on the bags from the weekly and daily quests. Puchasing the bags will also be more cost effective (7 Champion commendations = 840 Warzone Commendations while the bags are at an effective 7:800 ratio and adds in Centurion Commendations as well).

What this does is allow you to get that last commendation or two for that piece of gear if the weekly/daily bags fall short and you really want to get it now. It also softens the blow on bad losing streaks. While the numbers seem very unfavourable in such a case, it helps when the patch also has ....

Increased Commendation/Valor Rewards

Patch 1.1.5 introduced added rewards by earning medals, as well as new medals. Each medal (up to 4) gives 500 valor and 10 warzone commendations in addition to regular valor/commendation rewards for game due to overall medal count and if the game is a win or loss.

To put that into perspective, before the patch, a loss with 6 or so medals would net me just 700 or so valor and 30-40 commendations. Last night, I had a lot of losses, but never got less than 1800 valor and 60 commendations per match. Winning a game typically nets me 2500 valor and between 90-100 commendations. In just 10 games, I went from middle of rank 51 to hitting rank 53.

Another thing I noticed in my games is that, win or lose, more people seem to be trying harder. Now, I can't say for certain if it is just that small subset of people are actually trying or if the rewards are causing this, but it definitely made the games more fun. I didn't mind the losses as there were not that many certain loss situations. Even losing 4-0 in Huttball, our team tried to make a comeback, and that is where the fun is in a game.

Purchasable High End Crystals

I consider this a minor thing because it was stated that this will not last. The crystals are indeed powerful, with the highest level, beyond what artificers can currently make, going for 250k credits. not cheap, but certainly accessible for those who really want the stats. But the colour....oh the colour. The same hideous black/yellow from the first pre-order bonus gem. I'm glad I'm not at the point where I need to min/max anything so I plan to pass on this one.

Bioware has definitely been increasing confidence with the SWTOR gamers with their patches. While it can be argued that SWTOR should not have been in that rut so soon, the damage was done and its time to see what they do to get that excitement back into the game. News about patch 1.2 is indeed promising and potentially changes the game. If nothing else, it's something to keep us talking for a few more weeks.

Highlights

• Not related to changes, but an Alderaan win stolen right under the opponents. down over 100 points, with only a side turret, we managed to capture center and eak out a 5-0 win. The changes to the side speeders did make it more challenging to defend the side turret, but luckily, we were not easy to kill and kept them off the objective long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
• One of the more fun nights of PvP in a while. Sure, there were frustrating moments, but that's always been part of the fun.

SWTOR: What Would Make Ilum Better?

I'm pretty sure that everyone is so tired of talking about Ilum. But for all the complaints and problems encountered, the zone has a lot of potential. As the game gets more level 50s willing to slug it out, improvements to Ilum will be needed sooner than later.

Tangible Rewards

Better known as "Why are we fighting for this place again?".

No, not talking about pets or gear, but anything that will make a visible impact to the players or gameplay. It doesn't even have to be overpowered either. The valor buff from taking control points is actually a good start and can benefit even small groups against a larger, less organized, horde. Having it also give bonuses to warzones was also a good idea.

There had been talk before of being able to access the rarest of rare materials from the zone based on who controls Ilum and that will be a huge bonus as well. As it stands though, full control cannot be maintained long enough for such a reward to be even useful.

Fleet Announcements/Monitors

One of my biggest frustrations with Ilum is that, when I get there, either nothing is happening or something interesting happened and it is already over. Timing is everything and with good timing/luck, you can get into exciting battles. Conversely, going to Ilum when nothing is happening can be mind-snappingly dull as you play arament carousel with 30 other people.

Being able to see if any action is happening on Ilum will definitely help bring in people. A quick check of a map or pvp monitor can indicate how many of each faction are in Ilum and if there is a fight going on. A fleet-wide chat can also allow players to send out a "call to arms" and notify people that a major battle is happening. But of course, that leads to the next improvement suggestion....

Instant or Faster Travel to Ilum

As it stands, getting to Ilum from the fleet requires the following steps:

1. Enter elevator to hangar
2. Enter ship
3. Fly to Ilum
4. Enter orbital station
5. Enter elevator in orbital station
6. Take shuttle down to Ilum
7. Take speeder to PvP zone

I cannot count the number of times when I heard about a good fight going on Ilum and seeing it finish just I arrive in the PvP area. Depending on how fast things load for you, it can take a good 5-10 minutes to get there from the fleet, for some people, perhaps more. If the fights are just starting, then there's still some good PvP to be had. But if you find out about the action near the tail end of the battle, then it would be too late and you may end up just doing some armament carousel.

A direct shuttle to the Ilum PvP area would do wonders to open up the zone and make PvP there more accessible. Having a system like this will allow fights to escalate quickly and last longer as more people start pouring in.

Granted, there can't always be battles in the zone as there definitely are other things to do, but having these improvements can make those that do happen truly epic...or at least, something positive to talk about.

SWTOR: One Month of Learning

The one month mark has passed for Star Wars: The Old Republic and while there are a lot of reasons to praise the game, but there have also been a lot of problems and controversies. I'd like to start by saying that I think the game is great, but there are way too many annoyances that prevented it from being the best game out there. Yes, hindsight is always with perfect eyesight, but the mistakes of the past will prevent a lot of it happening again in the future.

ILUM: Too Much, and yet, Too Little

Ilum is probably the worst disaster that SWTOR has encountered to date. It's initial incarnation saw little to no PvP for a PvP zone and it's current state is too bland for most time of the day. The promise of world PvP falls flat when there simply is no one there to fight. Picking off stragglers isn't really fun.

Ilum is also way too large to host the current level 50 populace. When we did get organized for some PvP, we ended up chasing the enemy group through half the map before they realized there might be a fight to be had and ran up to meet us.

In my opinion, the zone was a missed opportunity for Bioware. If they had held out and not released Ilum with the game, they would have been able to build anticipation and momentum for the zone. Releasing it when there are a lot of level 50s would have opened the floodgates to some really fun PvP moments. They also would not have released it in it's original incarnation because it would have been tested on the test server. Speaking of which.....

Test Servers Need High Level Testers

The spectre of Ilum raises it's head once again and the post patch version had some glaring problems. Testers were able to find one that resulted in a 1-day delay of the patch, but a few others made it through that simply caused havoc in the zone. The fact that this problem appeared not even an hour into the patch going live means that it would have been easily caught on the test server if there were just more people on it.

At this time, there are no ways to get a level 50 character on the test server other than leveling all over again. Unfortunately, this limits what your average player can really test. Sure, they don't plan to delete characters with every patch, but to level once again? On a server that may or may not delete the character? For the power levelers, this won't be too much of a problem, but for your average player who wants to test the higher end changes, this is just not possible.

This also means high end changes will go live with glaring bugs/problems like Ilum. The more people there are to test the changes being made, the easier it will be to find the problems in the patch. Until character transfers are enabled, future patches will not be as polished as they want it to be before it hits the live servers.

Design Decisions: Who? What?

After a month of playing the game, some design elements of the game still boggles my mind. The auction house is atrocious, as are the lack of real use of most crew skills at 50 (both problems go hand-in-hand though). A dual-spec system, while coming soon, is something that new MMORPGs already have on launch and the current system can be prohibitive for some due to cost.

Granted, SWTOR is a huge game, larger than any MMORPG ever lauched as far as I can remember. Even World of Warcraft did not launch with as many features as SWTOR did. But does that really excuse having the command to split stacked items be the same that links it in chat?

Still, many of the problems encountered in the first month are those that a good number of people would not have even seen yet. If general chat on the fleet is any indication, the average player-base is still at the level 35-40 range so a lot of the end-game issues are a non-factor. Bioware has been very quick so far with bug fixes and patches so it gives me confidence that they will have ironed things out by the time more people get to max level.

Return of the Blogger

So the holiday season was terrible for blogging although the biggest culprit was Bioware's evil, EVIL, game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Although there is something to say about how good and engaging the game is when I finally got up to get a snack and realized 3 hours have passed.

I won't be doing a full on review though I will be putting down a lot of thoughts about the game. I have also collected a few videos although I am running into the same problem with disk space. Streaming is also back to being in the works.

Still, it is hard to resist making a few comments about the game here.

• PvP - damn I love pvp in SWTOR. I normally play a tank with tank spec and gear, so I don't top the damage charts or anything. But I have been hard to kill so objective games are just great.
• Level 50 - Still much to do. I have yet to run higher level flashpoints and more hard mode ones. Hard Mode Black Talon was fun and has some challange...and bugs.
• Ilum - I heard some things about the place and it is more or less correct. It was actually fun getting jumped on by 3-4 others. At least something happens more than the quests there.
• Story - I LOVE the story. Just finished the Sith Inquisitor story and I am amazed by it. Certainly suprising to some degree.

SWTOR: Space Combat Preview

Space Combat is probably one of the more underrated features of Star Wars The Old Republic. Yes, it certainly is not innovative gameplay by any stretch of the imagination, but it really is quite fun. 

Of course, fun is relative and many will probably not look past the fact that it is a rail shooter. Admittedly, i did have trouble when I first tried to play, not really knowing what to expect. Controls were simple, but tend to be sluggish so that took a while to get used to. 


Gearing the ship is very expensive so you should not expect to buy all the upgrades at the same time. Since missions can be repeated even if you fail, you can decide which upgrade will be the most beneficial if you cannot afford them all. Mission ends with you alive but targets not getting destroyed in time? Just get the cannon upgrades and perhaps one for the missiles too. 


It certainly is a very pleasant diversion from the normal MMO game. You can certainly play the game without ever doing a space combat mission, but i think this gives players a better feel of being part of a larger game world...or galaxy. 

SWTOR: Tanking Alderaan PvP

I have to say I am definitely having more fun doing PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic than any other game I've played. Heck, even League of Legends did not keep me for very long, as great a game as it is. I suppose a huge part in SWTOR's favour is the fact that PvP is very accessible. The bolstering mechanic allows even a level 10 to go toe to toe with a level 50 and potentially win. However, it does not give any talents or skills so that is already a huge disadvantage. Bolster also does not scale down, so those with top pvp gear will still overpower those just jumping in as soon as they can queue for warzones.

Mind you, I've never been one-shot. Or 2-shot for that matter. I went up against a level 40 Jedi Guardian a few times and it was apparent we were both in tank spec. However, the gearing and ability differences were very obvious and I was clearly outmatched. But even then, the fight did take a while before I ran away like the coward I am.

Alderaan is not exactly perfect for a tanking class. With the lower damage, you can't expect to go solo and kill someone. However, because of high survivability, you are suited to being able to protect the objectives for a long time. Sure, it can be boring, but SWTOR actually makes it clear that it rewards people more for objective play than how many people you killed. In this Alderaan vid, I cut out several minutes because nothing happened while defending the center node but I ended up 3rd on the leaderboard, particularly with the medal count and objective points.

The match shown was really really close - pretty much down the wire, but we were able to pull it off in the end. Pretty good for a PUG group actually.

Highlights of the match:

• Some really terrible goofs from yours truly. Learn from my mistake and NEVER leave the objective for a long time.
• The nodes interfere with line of sight and smaller characters can effectively hide themselves. You may never know that they are there until it is too late.
• Line of sight also makes stopping a node capper from range a bit harder. If you are range, make sure to move around the node to take shots at them.
• Keeping a friendly shielded and his opponent taunted ensures his victory. After the taunt, I go back to guard my node.
• 11k Objective points! I honestly have no idea how and which points factor in to your rewards. Unfortunately, the leaderboard does not show the rewards given to even your teammates.

SWTOR: More Tank Hutball

Over the weekend I focused on getting my Sith Juggernaut to a level where I get more tools to play with. I stopped at level 26 and this gave me access to Force Choke and Force Push. The former is a nice crowd control ability limited only to the fact that it is channeled. It lasts for 3s but that is usually enough to keep someone away from an objective.

Force Push is just a fantastic ability. All day I have denied goals and killed opponents with this ability and made PvP even more fun. The knockback distance is actually quite long, perhaps 15 meters and it can stun opponents unlike other class' knockbacks. The one minute cooldown is very limiting however and knowing when to use or save it for later can make a difference.

Some highlights of the video:

• Good use of ball passing for both sides.
• Using Force Push to knock people off ledges and into hazards. In one case, I pushed the enemy ball carrier into the poison hazard and rooted him with a charge to make sure he dies. I died too, but that was fun.
• Using Taunt when I can to make sure the ball carrier takes less damage. A Powertech was also doing very well shielding the ball carriers.
• A lot of good group play in protecting the ball carrier. The opposing group were a little disorganized, but they didn't lack in effort and had been trying to score.
• A teammate going the wrong way! It was a little confusing at first before we realized what was happening. We were ahead 3-0 though so everyone had a laugh. That same ball carrier also seemed inexperienced with ball passing.

Sadly beta is over, but I'll have more vids coming out during the week, as well as commentary. With early access coming in just over a week, I am very eager to play and get more SWTOR PvP action.

DING! Leveling Up and Pacing

With Star Wars: The Old Republic releasing very soon (hopefully I get in on Dec. 15, but I don't mind waiting for release), I have thought quite a bit about how this game, or future games, can keep me playing past that first month. So many aspects of SWTOR is still unknown thanks to the Non-Disclosure Agreement for most people and one of them is the leveling curve. After quite a bit of thought, it is that leveling curve that played a major part of why I still play World of Warcraft.

Now why would the leveling curve be important? Surely one would like to get to max level as soon as possible to be able to "fully enjoy the game". It was certainly a train of thought I had years ago. I remember when The Burning Crusade expansion went live, I hadn't slept much over the course of 4 days to be one of the first to 70. After which I promised myself never to do that ever again and, so far, I've kept to that promise.

World of Warcraft's current pace of leveling is certainly not a good point of reference. With so many expansions since it's release, the game pretty much just wants you to blow through the low levels to get the the relevant content. Even without heirloom gear (+xp) or guild leveling perks (more +xp), you can easily skip several zones you've never seen because you can outlevel them by just completing the current zone you are in.

No, if WoW is going to be a point of reference, we will have to go back to the 1-60 game almost 7 years ago. I had started playing March of 2005 and it took me around 5 months to get my first 60. Granted, I've spent time to try a few classes and server types (the RP servers back then were waaaay out of my league and they still are), but during all that time, I have always enjoyed the game and the pace allowed me to get immersed with the world and my chosen character at the time. It felt that my character was growing and learning and that the world (of warcraft) was alive even without dynamic content.

Azeroth just feels to me now like it is a virtual home.

In contrast, leveling in RIFT was just way too fast. I hit level 50 in just 3 weeks and I wasn't even trying that hard. I had split my time between 2 games and still made it to max level in less time than it took for me to find a character I want to level in WoW. I loved the rich environments, but the pace just would not allow me to stay still long enough to be immersed in it. Heck, even now I don't know what the deal is between the rivalry between the Defiants and Guardians. Their emnity always seemed rather petty and arbitrary to me. The titular rifts did spice things up a bit, but a lot of them made them feel grindy, and the randomness of some events made me miss out on the more interesting invasions when they were relevant (eg: I never saw a werewolf invasion while I was questing in Gloamwood).

In the end, while RIFT may be the better game in many respects, I went back to World of Warcraft. It's not even about the time invested in the game, but RIFT simply did not give me the sense of really knowing my character. A lot of the questing is generic and there is nothing that helps define your niche in the world. It's just "get to 50 and grind for your gear". While that pretty much sums up ALL MMOs, having gone through 1-49 so quickly just made it the whole lot more obvious. Grinds just don't feel like grinds when there is an actual objective to reach that is more than an in-game item. 

Perhaps SWTOR's "story driven" gameplay can drive things up several notches when it comes to pace. Without really knowing how fast levelling is, I can only guess that focusing on the story would slow things down significantly. I can certainly tell from the released videos that a lot of time will be spent just watching what goes on during conversations. If the quality of story is similar to Bioware's single player games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age (or even older games like Baldur's Gate for that matter), and if the game paces itself where I get to care about my character and the game world around him, then WoW will have some serious competetion for my time. Perhaps my new home will be in a galaxy far, far away.

Or maybe I'll be running around as an Asura in Guild Wars 2. Or sharing the skies with panda people on dragons. Only time will tell.

WoW: Item Levels go Squish (maybe)

Ghostcrawler posted a very interesting article and really, it was a topic that was expected to come up eventually. A guildie of mine mentioned that it should have been brought up for Wrath of the Lich King, and I definitely agree. I actually remember commenting about this when fighting Prince Malchezaar back in the Burning Crusade. 


What's also interesting is that, this is not just a problem with WoW. RIFT has some really crazy numbers with bosses that would quickly reach WoW Cataclysm health levels in a very short amount of time. Star Wars: The Old Republic will see this as well unless they figure how to deal with it early. 


MMOs have always been a numbers game at it's core. In PvE, the boss' health determines the length of the fight relative to how much damage the players are expected to output. Average player health determines how much that boss can reasonably do to pose a challenge to healing without overwhelming the healers. The situation is the same in PvP where the health/damage numbers have to be managed properly so combat can be enjoyable without getting frustrating (remember back in classic? 2 Holy Paladins going at each other can take hours). 


The numbers cannot go away, but right now, it's just ridiculously large. Back in WoW Classic, Ragnaros' 1 million health was pretty insurmountable, and bosses required 40 people to even pose a threat to The Firelord. Now the stats have inflated so much, a solo player can take him down is less time than when he was relevant content. 1 million just doesn't go very far these days. Good thing he's no longer a threat ...... oh. 

HA! Try to push me around now you meanies!

Now it generally isn't a bad thing, there has to be some incentive on getting good gear. Like Ghostcrawler mentioned, a +1 stat point upgrade is still an upgrade, but it's not that big a deal in the long run. Many people would like to feel like their characters are getting stronger as time goes by and nothing says that than a tank with +20k more health ... or 180k. But when the numbers get larger exponentially, it becomes just really difficult to manage. 


He goes to present a sample of what could be an item from Mists of Pandaria. He stresses that item levels are not set yet, but if they inflate the way they have been, this will likely happen. 

Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment. I totally want this by the way

So what are the solutions? Ghostcrawler presented 2 ways of how it could go; compressing the numbers or "squishing" item levels. 


Compressing numbers, basically just shortening them so that 1.000 will be presented as 1K looks like a good solution, but it seems more of a band aid than a fix. Not going into the technical limitations of current computing hardware/software, while the numbers will become more managable, inflation is still actually happening at a silly rate and, when we come to it, 1B will still be 1,000,000,000. Also, DPS numbers don't really increment in large numbers. 50k dps can be anywhere between 50,000 and 50,999 and that is a huge difference. It provides a bit more challenge when it comes to theorycrafting.


"Squishing" item levels seems like a better solution. The idea is to go back to previous expansions and reduce the differences between max item levels of those expansions.  An example will be that an item level 70 piece of gear from Burning Crusade won't be as big an upgrade over a level 60 classic item. While current content inflation will happen as normal, the numbers won't be drastically high as the items they are compared to isn't very powerful. 


The effect will be that current gear will have their item levels lowered significantly and damage/health affected appropriately. Yes, it will make it feel like everyone was nerfed if this is implemented. And yes, going down to 20,000 health from almost 200,0000 would be a bit of a shock, but this solution gives a lot more room to grow, and when a new expansion arrives, the items from the previous can go "squish" to make room for it.  I would take the initial shock of a nerf over eventually fighting a boss and chipping away at 1,000,000,000 health. 

So I'm gonna get nerfed again? Screw that!

Are there other solutions? One thing that could allay issues with high numbers would be making encounters more complex. Heroic Shannox is actually a good example. He does not have a lot of health compared to other bosses in The Firelands. Were he a straight up tank/spank fight, he would be dead in 2 minutes. The fact that you don't need to kill his dogs means that his health is all you need to bring down but, in order to do that, the whole raid needs to execute the fight properly. Just standing there and focusing on killing him will lead to a wipe as Rageface takes out people one at a time. 


Of course, fight complexity can only go so far and gets limited as more and more people opt for 10man raiding. Not so much you can put into a fight if there aren't enough people to do it. 


 Perhaps another solution would be some combination of "Squish" and leveling out the stat curve to make it more linear than exponential. There may not be any need to lower the baseline significantly so there would be less of a shock. It would make it harder to solo older content if this happens, but it would make things more manageable in the long run. 


I have no doubt that Blizzard will be addressing this matter and hopefully in time for Mists of Pandaria. However they decide to do so is up in the air at the moment, but the sooner they do it, the better. Other games will also need to pay attention to this as they will encounter this very same problem down the road. Their respective solutions may be different, but at least it would be something they will address. 

SWTOR: Inquisitor/Consular Main Tanks

So the forums were abuzz with chatter from a Q&A session with community manager Stephen Reid where he indicated that the game would have 4 classes as a main tank (Sith Juggernaut, Jedi Guardian, Bounty Hunter Powertech, and Trooper Vanguard) and 2 as off-tanks (Sith Assassin and Jedi Shadow). This, of course made potential Inquisitors/Consulars quite irrate and people hoping that Mr. Reid misspoke or was simply mistaken.

As it turns out he was (see the related quotes below) mistaken and all 6 advanced classes are designed to main tank. This leads to an interesting situation where we have a total of 16 advanced classes (8 per faction) where 6 can tank, 4 can heal, and everyone can dps. Also interesting to note that none of the classes can do all three, so there are no jack-of-all-trades classes.

Now will this make me want to play an assassin rather than a juggernaut. At this time, not really. At least, not until I get get my hands on to test them out.

Quotes start here:

StephenReid General Discussion -> [VIDEO] Interview with Stephen Reid @ NY Comic Con 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calimwulf

Yep, this also contradicts what Zoeller was saying on class philosophy design. I wonder who was wrong, or if something has changed or was misinterpreted.

 I was wrong in this instance, sorry folks! I was

As I said in another thread on the topic, I got myself mixed up - a combination of my limited experience as a tank (generally) and my time spent playing a Sith Assassin specc'ed to be an off-tank.

Again, apologies for the confusion... don't blame Ed for the question, blame my lack of sleep. And lack of tanking.

I guess I should level a tank to 50 in live now to make up for it. 10.17.2011 05:29 PM


StephenReid Jedi Consular -> I *Really* Hope SR Misspoke Here :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by torsjn

In this interview, SR calls the Shadow/Assassin an "offtank".. wth??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6gtNCQPDmk tank part starts at 2:00.. he clearly says Shadow/Assassin are "offtanks".. Taugrim sums up and says something like "so there's 4 main tanks and 2 offtanks?".. and SR again says, "yes, that's right".. and then he also specifically calls the Shadow/Assassin "evasion tanks"

SERIOUSLY disappointing if this is not just SR misspeaking

As you'll see from Georg's latest posts, I did mis-speak. My tanking experience is limited (in MMOs generally; as I said in the interview, I'm a DPS lad) and I did point that out in the interview.

I think my confusion came from playing a Sith Assassin in our Eternity Vault demo many, many times, who was specced to be an off-tank, not main tank. However, as Georg has now corrected me on, that's not a limitation of the AC, it's a choice on the part of the player.

Sorry if I confused everyone for a minute. This is what happens when you ask questions of the Community Manager that are better suited to the development team. It's not their fault that they can't make it to every show, we want to keep them hard at work on the game. 10.17.2011 05:25 PM


GeorgZoeller Jedi Consular -> I *Really* Hope SR Misspoke Here :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by CriticalMass

Things change, apparently this has too. With MMO developers you can only go on the last thing that was said.

So apparently they've changed their thinking on the matter and now we are off-tanks. Which blows and goes against what they've been saying for a very long time, but whatever.

Nope.


By design, all tank capable ACs can spec to be fully capable main tanks.


There are no 'off tanks' unless you intentionally spend your skill points into different trees. 10.17.2011 04:19 PM

GeorgZoeller Jedi Consular -> I *Really* Hope SR Misspoke Here :(

All tank specs in the game are designed to function as a main tank. There are no 'off tanks' by design in the game, that would involve players intentionally choosing such a role by speccing hybrid.

SWTOR: A Never-End Game Story?

Ok, that was a terrible title, but I like it somehow so I'll stick with it.

The developers of Star Wars: The Old Republic have repeatedly touted that it's MMOs "story driven" gameplay will set it apart from all others. Story has indeed been a huge part in many games. World of Warcraft decided to focus on the story of the game with Wrath of the Lich King and had implemented technologies (e.g. phasing) to make the game more immersive. RIFT's dynamic environment does something similar and they have been releasing stories relating to the game's lore - something I wish they had done before the game was released. There is no doubt that the more attached the player is their character(s), the more they would want to spend time playing.

But then, in RIFT and WoW, the story is little more than a diversion from the daily routine. Once the story has 'ended', i.e. finished all the plot quests, it's back to the grind. I barely do any daily quests anymore and queue up for random dungeons only with great hesitation. Then again, it did take me a few years to get to this point in WoW so that's saying something about how the game keeps me engaged. Sadly, I got to this rut in RIFT after only 4 months.

SWTOR, on the other hand, supposedly brings the story at the forefront and is supposed to take a good chunk of time to do. Now this intrigues me in good and bad ways.

First off, I have played Bioware RPGs and the story elements are mostly top-notch. I have rarely played a Bioware RPG where I did not end up immersed as a result of the story. My favourite was Dragon Age: Origins. The story of the game did feel epic and it made up for a number of shortcomings. In the end, it gave my character great depth and I felt proud for his great achievements in the game world (also, he died). I played through a few more times, but none of the other characters felt as epic.  If SWTOR has a story element as good as this, I would be extremely happy.

But that brings me to the other side of the coin: stories have an ending. In my Dragon Age: Origins example, the game ended leaving me in awe and amazement at how good a game it was. Even all other playthroughs ended at some point. MMOs in general are not designed to end. When a player reaches max level, the game does make a change, and not always for the better. How will the character's story cope with the grindiness of the end game? If the story is about my Sith Warrior's rise in power and becomes a Darth at level 50, what now? Will the story be to go from system to system to kill x number of Jedi Knights on a daily basis? If there is more to it, how much more can there be until more can be added through patches or an expansion?

As excited as I am with getting my hands on SWTOR (subtle hint to get a beta invite), I have to wonder how the story element can hold up in the long run. MMOs are games to be played over a lengthly amount of time and there has to be something to do when logging on. Will the story provide sufficient longevity so players will keep playing this game over others?  Or will the story elements while leveling (which is said to be quite substantial) be enough for players to have such an attachment to their character(s) that they would invest more time in the game even if there is no longer a story to do?

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to answer that question. With the current NDA, there is no more info than what Bioware/EA has released or allowed to be seen. We need to have faith in the force (i.e. Bioware) that they can pull it all off.

SWTOR: How Long is too Long?

Star Wars: The Old Republic (or SWTOR) is arguably the most anticipted MMO right now, with Guild Wars 2 being the other game out there making the MMO fans wait excitedly. But news for SWTOR has been relatively light considering the potential release date window closing in. I say "potential" because EA/Bioware has so far refused to give out their target release date. The best they have offered is "holiday 2011".

Considering that, as of September 2011, the game is still in closed beta, that likely means a December release, but that is only speculation at best. Now there is news that the game might be pushed to 2012.  Naturally, online comments about this haven't been too kind.

But it hasn't really been so long since the game was announced, only a mere 3 years. World of Warcraft took that long from announcement to live and it grew to be the biggest game of it's time. Wouldn't it follow that SWTOR would go down this same path? Is it wrong to say that this waiting has gone for too long?

The biggest problem I have with SWTOR and the wait is that the hype machine is not exactly doing it for me. Somehow, I feel it is simply lacking. Anticipation for the game was high when it was announced but there has not been any increase in activity since then.  Videos and announcements seem to have been released in small doses. If one is not lucky enough to have attended PAX, E3, or similar expos, there is no chance to even get a feel for the game other than short glimpses.

Beta weekends were the biggest thing to happen to get anticipation high about the game and probably the biggest news since it's annoucement. Not only did it get the fans all excited about getting an invite, but it provided a sense that the game is just around the corner. Finally, we had thought, the waiting is coming to an end.  Then, after what EA/Bioware indicated was a successful beta weekend, they announced the next weekend would be cancelled. While I know they probably have a good reason for it, it certainly does not bode well for the fans and slows anticipation to a crawl, if not stop it in it's tracks altogether.

Coupled with the news article linked above, one has to wonder what is really going on. If release is slated in 3 months, getting more people into beta would make perfect sense. There should be an increase in anticipation for the game, not more of the same small stream of videos and art previews. Whatever happened to things like the timeline videos or webcomics? Anticipation built up just from the IP is strong, but it will not just be the IP that will keep it strong for the game.

Maybe I'm just impatient. Maybe I'm just reading too little in between the lines. But right now, Guild Wars 2 is becoming more and more interesting with all the info they are putting out and, if EA/Bioware don't do anything soon, may eclipse SWTOR even before either game is released.