Features Done Right - Part Five

You totally thought I'd forgotten about this bit, didn't you?  Don't be silly, I did no such thing.  Nope.  Didn't forget.

At all.

Anyway, this is my ongoing judgemental saga of which games got something right, and, tangentially, which games got it not-so-right.  This time I'm going to talk about PvE content, but not just any PvE content -- I'm going to talk about the great coercer of group formation, dungeons.

PvE Content - Dungeons

Dungeons have been a staple of RPG games more or less since their inception.  It wasn't called "Dungeons and Dragons" for nothing, and just about every RPG game I can think of since has had some version of a dungeon in it somewhere.  In short, a dungeon is an enclosed area with a very high density of enemies and is usually the best place to find fantastic treasure.  The enemies live in the dungeon and guard/collect/worship the treasure, while adventurers attempt to explore the area and take that treasure for themselves.  Almost all MMOs seem to have some version of dungeons, even sandbox games like EVE Online and Darkfall (in EVE they're called complexes, but they serve the same purpose).  Star Trek Online is one of the few I can think of to not have a feature like this, but it's entirely possible I simply never saw it.

Dungeons are typically group content, and usually quite challenging.  Sometimes the areas are part of the open world, as in Everquest, and sometimes they're instanced content particular to the group that enters them, as in World of Warcraft.  Many people have a preference for one way or the other, and I'm going to be up front and say I prefer instanced dungeons.  Open dungeons have their charm, and I certainly spent plenty of time at the bottom of dungeons in Dark Age of Camelot, but instanced dungeons allow for more scripting and storytelling so I tend to enjoy them more.

With that said, I really have to give World of Warcraft top honors here.  Blizzard's design focus may have stripped some of the fun from their dungeons in the current iteration of the game, but in the original and Burning Crusade versions of the game the dungeons were, in my opinion, the best dungeon gameplay you could find in any game.  The dungeons were instanced and accessible, with challenging boss fights and enough variety to make it feel like you were really doing something heroic.  My group of friends and I had an "instance group" and for months we would run a dungeon each night, or at least every couple of nights.  It was easily one of the best times I've had in an MMORPG.  I appreciated the clear progression in difficulty from the easiest low level instances to the hardest of the heroics.  I actually liked that certain dungeons couldn't be accessed until you'd done some quests to unlock them.  It made the dungeon part of the story instead of just a box to go get goodies from.  Getting the key to Scholomance was an accomplishment worth remembering, and challenges like 45 minute Stratholme runs were exciting and difficult (and frustrating, no doubt).  Overall, Blizzard did a fine job of tuning the difficulty and length of their dungeons and provided a variety of boss mechanics beyond "tank and spank" along with plenty of interesting scenery.  I can still vividly remember many of my dungeon runs from the first two versions of WoW, and that's saying something considering how long ago those experiences occurred.  WoW dungeons these days don't live up to their past versions, but that doesn't negate Blizzard's clear skill in designing this type of content.

When I think of bad dungeons, I immediately think of Warhammer Online.  For all that their PvP scenarios were carefully balanced and cleverly designed, the dungeons seemed like they were left for some interns to crank out in their spare time after doing the important work on PvP.  I can't even remember the name of the first WAR dungeon I tried, but it consisted of a straight corridor with enemies in it.  The corridor occasionally had a room to the side with a boss in it.  Then you'd go back out into the corridor until you came to another room off to the side.  You can make the argument that that's what all dungeons distill down to, and it's true, but actually creating the distilled down version and presenting it as content wasn't a good idea.  WAR dungeons were slow, trudging affairs that weren't terribly interesting, took forever, and often awarded little to no loot.  In the Risk to Reward ratio, WAR dungeons were big on risk and low on reward.  They were poorly tuned and just not much fun.  If WAR had come out before WoW, it might have been forgivable, but making a game in the post-WoW world with dungeon content that is not even remotely competitive just seems daft.  Better to not have it at all.

Next time I'm going to talk about general PvE content, and I think you'll be surprised by my choice.

WoW - Blizzard Wants Me Back?

In early March of this year I got an e-mail from Blizzard asking me to come back to WoW for 7 days free, to see how awesome the game had become since I quit late last year.  I didn't pay too much attention to it, firstly because MMO companies do this sort of thing all the time and secondly because I don't think WoW has actually changed much since late last year.  It was a "limited time only" offer, and expired (unused) recently.  I don't even have WoW installed on my computer right now, it would probably take 7 days just to download and patch it thanks to Blizzard's high-end super-speedy downloading system.

Just yesterday, I got another of these e-mails from Blizzard, asking me to come back and try the game for 7 days free.  Getting another one struck me as a little odd.  In the years since WoW has been released I've spent more time unsubscribed to the game than subscribed, yet the March e-mail was the first "please come back!" I've ever gotten from Blizzard.  Now I've gotten another one, the very next month?  I apparently have a different definition of "limited time only" than Blizzard.  Of course, I have a different definition than Blizzard for many things, which was part of the problem in the first place.

Now, this is going beyond coincedental to get two such e-mails in two months, shortly after the release of a solid competitor and with two heavy hitters coming (presumably) within the next 12 months.  Is Blizzard finally feeling the pinch?  While I don't doubt they're total user numbers are staying the same or even increasing due to Wrath just recently being released in China and Cataclysm still waiting in the wings for those players, but could their North American and European user numbers (their most profitable customers) actually be falling?  Is competition finally taking a bite out of the MMO behemoth that is WoW?

I certainly hope so, and not because I want WoW to die a burning, horrible, death (I don't).  I hope Blizzard is losing customers because it will force them to actually be competitive instead of just wallowing in their massive profits.  The update pace for WoW is abysmal.  As Tobold mentioned on his blog, they also can't seem to make up their minds on who their target audience is and what kind of game they want to be.  Blizzard hasn't had to, because nobody could compete with WoW.  Why re-invest in the game when it's making so much money with them doing virtually nothing?  If WoW is finally bleeding true subscribers (NA and Euro players) maybe they'll finally stop resting on their laurels and once again fight to make WoW the best game it can possibly be.

Rift - Climbing the Ladder Slowly

I'm still spending most of my gaming time in Rift, and slowly climbing up through the levels.  My rogue is now level 40, and furiously saving money for the 90% speed mount.  I'll be glad to get my nimble rogue onto a sleeker, faster mount, as the lumbering behemoth he rides now seems kind of silly.

I'm enjoying my time in Rift, it's just a well crafted, highly polished, player friendly, fun themepark MMORPG.  I'd recommend it to anyone who likes WoW-style fantasy gaming, so long as they're not completely burned out on it.  I quit WoW because it became boring and I didn't care for the development decisions Blizzard was making, not because I didn't like the fundamental gameplay behind it.  Rift has suited me just fine, allowing me to play an accessible MMO that's full of character options and things to do.

Patch 1.2 is only going to make it better.  One of my biggest complaints about the art in the game has been the armor.  Rift has very nice graphics, and it certain areas can be spectacular.  But a great many of the armor models and textures leave a lot to be desired.  Thankfully they're adding a wardrobe/appearance function such as Lord of the Rings Online has, and we'll be able to equip one piece of armor while using the look of another.  Goodbye hideous armor.

One of my favorite parts of the game so far (aside from the character development and the rifts themselves) have been the dungeons.  They're generally fun and challenging without being wipe fests, and pugs typically do just fine.  Finding groups for them has been a chore, especially since my guild has largely outleveled the content I'm working on.  Again, Patch 1.2 is coming to the rescue with a Looking For Group tool (finally).  I don't know much about it, but I don't believe it is going to be a cross-server insta-dungeon group tool like WoW's Looking for Dungeon tool.  I believe it will be server only, and possibly resemble the tool WoW had before LFD was invented.  That would suit me just fine.  I don't mind putting groups together, I'd just like better tools to do it with then spamming the level channels.

World of Tanks - Top Gun and Stealth Tanks

World of Tanks really is a strange beast.  It's both exciting and infuriating in equal measure, sometimes at the same time.  I've been playing in short bursts and alternating between a Tier 3 light tank (the M3 Stuart) and a Tier 3 medium tank (the M2 Medium Tank).  I've escaped my run of bad luck getting nothing but high tier opponents, and have gotten more matches with mixed groups.  I've even gotten a few where my tank was one of the biggest things on the maps.

It was on one of those rare battles that I got the Top Gun acheivement last night.  This requires getting 6 kills in a single battle.  Keep in mind that there are a maximum of 15 enemies in a battle, everyone only gets one life, and you have 14 allies also trying to take out the enemy.  Getting the Top Gun award means taking out nearly half the opposing team by yourself.  I'd like to say it was superior skill that got me there, but really it was luck and the fact that I had the toughest vehicle on the map with the biggest gun.

Which, sadly, demonstrates one of the things that is both frustrating and exciting in World of Tanks -- the luck of the draw.  If you're in a tier 3 and get put in a battle with mostly tier 2s and just a few opposing tier 3s (like I did last night) you know you're probably in for a fun match.  You're far from invulnerable, but you're dangerous.  The very next match though, might pit you mostly against tier 5s, and suddenly you're almost useless.  If you're in a fast light tank you can still play a role as a spotter (which I did in one fun battle last night) but the M2 Medium tank isn't a very good scout, it's too slow and too easy to see.

Speaking of spotting, World of Tanks has a pretty complex sight/sensor/stealth mechanic.  Every tank has a nominal range at which they can spot the enemy (sight range).  They also have a radio range with which they can report the position of spotted enemies to allies (who can then also see them).   Many tanks also have a modifier to how easily spotted they are (stealth), with Tank Destroyers being the stealthiest and Heavy Tanks being the easiest to spot.  Moving makes you easier to spot, as does opening fire, whereas sitting still and not shooting while hiding behind some bushes can make you hard to spot.  A Tank Destroyer with a camo net, skilled crew, and good cover can be nearly undetectable until they move or open fire.  This results in the rather jarring situation of tanks suddenly popping into view a short distance away when the game determines you can see them after all.  It also means it's not unusual be taking fire without being able to see the enemy at all.  All in all it's realistic enough, and adds some tension to navigating the map.  Unlike a typical MMO PvP match you can't see the enemy from the other side of the map unless someone has spotted them for you.  It also resulted in two tier 4 tanks rolling up behind me while I was in a sniping position and blowing me to bits before I'd even realized they were there.  Good for them though, they ran a gauntlet of allied spotters without ever being detected.

I like this game, though I really wish there was more to it.  The wikipedia entry talks about clan battles and a campaign map, but I don't see any of that when I start up the client.  Not sure if the wiki is wrong, or the U.S. has gotten a different version than Europe.

Guest Post - Level Density

A long-time gaming buddy of mine recently sent me an e-mail about one of the issues with MMOs - fully enjoying the game is highly dependent on there being enough people of a given level in a given area to explore both the solo and the group content.  I'll let Rob explain:

One of the big problems of MMOs that people like you and I suffer, is that we have alt-itis.  After the initial fervor of an MMO the population becomes weighted heavily to the level-cap end.  The lower-level end of the game being much lower in population and spread across a larger number of areas in the game, diluting the player density.

People who level up after the main surge have a different experience than people who participated in the initial rush. 

The problem gets even worse later in the game when the majority of people are raiding and not leveling.  When a guild is raiding, there are often needs for specific specs/classes for certain content.  Guilds can either recruit that class/spec or they can have someone level an alt.  Levelling that alt, on a server that has a low player-density is mostly a soloing affair.  Few new people are met, few groups form, much content is simply not able to be seen. 

It's even worse for people joining a game late.  At least people leveling up new characters for their guild have the provenance of their own level-capped character and guild to rely on for support. 

If you join the game late everything looks like a wasteland.  Good luck leveling up a character that can't solo.  It paints a far different picture of an MMO for the people that start late.  I am arguing that this keeps people from joining new games where the leveling isn't trivial (maybe this is why most modern MMOs have trivial levelling).  There is a critical-mass of players that makes things like group quests, PvP battlegrounds, and dungeons possible.  In the middle-age of most games, there simply isn't the density. 

I'd like to define a term: level density.  Level density is the number of players in a certain level range compared to total players of all levels.  For a mature game like WoW, the level density in the level that represents the level cap is a significant proportion of the number of players of all levels.  That's a feature of mature games with level caps.  All the players eventually move to the level cap and only new players joining or old players rolling alts contribute to the level density in the level 1 - (level cap -1) range.

Finally getting to the point.  My idea is two-fold.  First, you can only earn X% of a level per day.  Secondly, all experience over this X% experience max per day goes into a pool.  Those points are divided up at the end of each day such that lower-level characters get a larger proportion of the experience than higher levels do.  This might have to be done in level brackets to make leveling in the highest levels below the cap more fair. 

My hope would be that the net effect would be clumping up players in levels, making the level density graph clumpy.  This would mean a group of players that started together would be less likely to drift apart in levels as they level up.  I'm sure it would be unsatisfying for the higher levels in a given group.

The way the idea came to me was imagining a raft-race.  The people on each team can move around on the raft all they want.  At any given time some will be closer to the finish line than others but the group moves with roughly the same speed. 

I think it would help people level up with a group of other people, slowing down the power levellers and boosting the ultra-casual.

I'm not sure the idea would go over very well with highly dedicated players, the type who normally rush a character to the level cap as fast as possible, and frequently do it multiple times.  Maybe that doesn't matter, I suppose it depends on how much screaming on forums a developer can tolerate.  Certainly it would effect a minority of the player base.

I'm also not sure it's terribly fair to give slower leveling players a free ride on the backs of the faster leveling players.  I'd likely be a beneficiary, but I don't think I'd want to be.  Essentially my accomplishment of leveling (small enough accomplishment as it is) would cease to be mine, and become the result of someone else's extended gaming.  I do agree that it's an issue though, playing alts in Rift right now makes that very clear, as Silverwood, which was a bustling hub of massive events at the start of the game, is now a sleepy woodland zone that rarely spawns major events.  I have a level 17 and a level 12 that have (between them) never earned a blue shard and never even seen a zone invasion.  Compare that to my first two characters, who had multiple blue and purple shards, bought all the planar gear they wanted, and then moved on to the next zones dripping in superior and epic gear.  My alts are getting an entirely different gameplay experience, and it's a distinctly inferior one to my original characters.  If I were to start playing Rift now, with rifts and invasions having such a minor impact I would probably write Rift off as a yet another WoW clone and move on.

I'm not sure what the solution is though.  Sooner or later everyone will level out of any given range except the newbies and alts.  The only real way around it that I can see is to make content independent of level density, but doing so results in a solo quest grind like modern day WoW.  I don't think that's a real solution either.  If I did, I'd still be playing WoW.

Good Science Fiction MMORPGS - The Lack Thereof

Why are there no science fiction MMORPGs that play like a science fiction novel in the way that there are so many fantasy MMORPGs that play like fantasy novels?  From EQ to Rift you create a character (the hero of your story), explore the world, go on adventures, interact with numerous characters, fight "big bads", and eventually reach a pinnacle of character development that eventually ends the game for you.  The most obvious example of course is if you just finished reading Lord of the Rings and you hop into Lord of the Rings Online you're going to feel a strong connection to the game, and enjoy a setting that feels like a fantasy novel.  Though less blatant, most fantasy novels have elements that you can see translated into most fantasy online games.

I've yet to experience this with science fiction games, few that they are.  EVE Online is one of the best science fiction MMOs I've encountered, but it certainly doesn't feel like any science fiction novel I've ever read.  Where is something that feels like The Culture setting?  Or Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth?  Or hell, any sprawling space opera type story of exploration and adventure, mixing starships and hand-to-hand combat, aliens, monsters, and robots?  Star Wars Galaxies and Star Trek Online both have the right trappings, but the wrong execution.  I play STO now and then, but the gameplay just doesn't feel right, plus the Trek universe is fairly limiting.  Star Wars: The Old Republic looks promising, but Star Wars has always felt more like fantasy in space than real science fiction.

I would love an operatic style science fiction MMO that made me feel like I was living out one of my favorite science fiction novels (see examples above) but I don't think there's anything like that even on the horizon.  Mythic's long-ago cancelled Imperator (they gave that up to make WAR?!) might have done it, but alas that ship has sailed.  If someone wants to front me $40 million or so I'll make my own :)

Handle Consolidation

Generally speaking I've created a new handle each time I've signed up for a forum/game/website/whatever, only on occasion re-using an old one.  As a result, I've accumulated a mess of handles in a confusing array of online "identities".  I've had Knightside, PeterD, PDM, Templar9, Warsyde, GateGuardian, and countless others.  I've decided it's probably time to just pick one and run with it, and try and use the same one for everything.

I've settled on Warsyde, which I originally created for the Casualties of War guild forums when I joined that guild for Warhammer Online.  What does it mean?  Well, nothing really.  However, it has the singular advantage of being relatively unique as I've never had any trouble claiming it any time I've tried to use it.  So that's what it's going to be.

World of Tanks - The Inequity of the Tiers

World of Tanks is a strange beast when it comes to balance -- essentially there isn't any.  There's no attempt to make things fair for individual players, instead "balance" is acheived by having the teams randomized and roughly balanced against each other by the tier ranking of the vehicles within each team.  One Tier 2 medium tank might be signficantly more powerful than another Tier 2 medium tank, but unless one team gets all of one type and the other team gets all of the other, it doesn't really matter.  Also, generally speaking, there's always someone on the map in a weaker vehicle than you, so if you can't beat anyone else, go find them.

Which leads to some rather unfortunate . . . quirks.  Progression in World of Tank consists of driving a low tier crappy tank until you earn enough xp to research the next level of tank, then switch into one of those and drive it around until you earn enough xp to research the next level, and so on.  There are ten tiers in the game, with a tier 10 heavy tank roughly twenty times as powerful as a tier 1 light tank.  You start out in a tier 1, battling against tier 1 and the occasional tier 2 tank.  Once you get into your own tier 2 tank, you battle mostly tier 2 tanks with the occasional tier 1 tank.  It's a pretty fun time -- most enemies are either roughly equal to your or weaker, giving you good odds of performing well and having a fun time.  So far, so good, right?  Then you upgrade to tier 3 . . . and suddenly most of your battles consist of tier 3-5 vehicles.  Despite spending all this time and money to get into a tier 3 tank you're suddenly cannon fodder, and every enemy tier 4 and 5 tank is going to be gunning for Mr. Easykill.

I think this is World of Tanks' hazing ritual.  You're getting into the real game, the training wheels are off, now prepare to be spanked.  Repeatedly.  It's a bit of a shock.  Sort of like showing up to a frat party blindfolded expecting to party with a bunch of sorority girls, only to have the blindfold whipped off and find a bunch of football players standing around you with paddles and wicked grins on their faces.  (Note: I was never in a frat and never went to frat parties :p)

My experience so far is that most matches have been about 30% tier 5 tanks, 50-60% tier 4 tanks, and the remainder are tier 3 tanks.  To put it in perspective, a tier 5 tank has roughly double the hit points of a tier 3, between half again and twice as much armor, and a gun that's roughly twice as powerful.  They are also  faster and more maneuverable.  A tier 5 medium tank can one-shot my tier 3 medium tank with just a little luck.  The tier 4 tanks aren't so bad, but fighting tier 5s as a tier 3 is insane.  It would be roughly equivalent to battling a level 40 in World of Warcraft as a level 20.  It's not very pleasant, and I haven't really played the game in a few days as a result.

However, logically I know that this can be worked through.  It really is like a hazing ritual, since all those big boys in the tier 5 tanks gleefully one-shotting me were once in a tier 3 getting their metal avatars blown to bits too.  Even if you get destroyed, your team could win and you'll get solid xp and credit rewards.  Even if you lose, you get something.  Clearly I can get through tier 3 eventually and join the more balanced ranks of the tier 4 tanks, but it's going to be something of a chore.  Also, being in a tier 3 doesn't mean never getting kills in these matches.  Taking out a tier 4 is possible, and of course other tier 3s are fair game.  Plus, self-propelled guns don't have much armor even at tier 5, so they can be taken out too (as long as they don't notice you, of course).  Once you're spotted by a tier 5 though, it's all over unless someone on your team takes them out while the enemy has tunnel vision gunning for the easy tier 3 kill.

Rift - The Curse of Altitis

Hi, I'm an altoholic.  In every MMO I've ever played seriously I've had many alts, frequently one per class available in the game, sometimes more.  I had alts in Everquest, alts in Dark Age of Camelot, alts in Guild Wars, World of Warcarft, Warhammer Online, and so on.  City of Heroes probably exemplified my worst case, with two servers full of characters and a third halfway there, and those are just the ones I kept, in CoH I deleted dozens of alts over the years.  I have a tendency to get bored with characters and try something new, only to eventually get bored with the new character, and either go back to my old one, or start yet another one.  The result is that I tend to fall behind the leveling curve and reach the level cap with whatever character I finally settle on pretty late in the game.  Often I'll just pick my highest level character and push them to the level cap just so I can have at least one character at max.  I think it took me four years or so of on-again off-again playing to hit level 50 in City of Heroes.

Enter Rift, a game with four "callings" (archetypes), each of which can equip a variety of souls (classes), and swap them around as much as they like.  I thought this would surely limit my altitis, as I could switch classes within a calling to shake things up as needed.  It turns out . . . not so much.  My main is a Rogue, currently sitting at level 39.  I've tried every soul except Saboteur with him, and the main thing that's accomplished has been to leave him poverty stricken.  Maintaining the skill training of three different builds is expensive.  It doesn't help that I keep respeccing my 3rd build, switching between ranged dps and tanking.  Even with that variety, I've still got a level 21 cleric (my original main), a level 17 warrior (my up-and-coming tank) and a level 10 mage (necro for the win!).

I don't have time for altitis, my gameplay time falls thoroughly in the "casual" range.  Anyone know a good cure for altitis?

Rift - Cry Me a River (for real this time)

So Phase 2 and 3 of the big Rift River of Souls event occured on Saturday.  What?  You missed it?  Welcome to the club.  A very big club.  Phase 2 and 3 were finished on most servers in about 30 minutes.  Since most servers also had huge queues, chances are good it was over before you could even log in.  I don't know if I missed the event because of the queue, or if I wasn't even queuing until it was already over, but either way I missed it.

I have to say I'm extremely disappointed in Trion on this.  I already had concerns about the whole Phase 1 event, but Phase 2 and 3 were complete travesties of game design.  I don't know who thought two weeks of lead up to a 30 minute "one-time-only" finale was a good idea, but they need to be smacked upside the head.  How could anyone think this design would make the playerbase happy?  Even the players who actually got to participate are (generally) not very happy, as it was laggy, buggy, and often virtually unplayable.  Then there's the rest of us who wanted to participate but were denied the opportunity due to timing and/or queues.  Really?  This is what you're going to use to hype the game?  "We have live events!  Come subscribe so you can blink and miss them like everyone else!"

I'm willing to cut Trion some slack on the technical server-side implementation, as this is their first event of this magnitude.  They've also stated they're going to compesate people who were stuck in the queues (somehow).  They are even extending Phase 1 for another week and will re-run Phase 2 and 3 next weekend.  I'll give them a little credit for trying to make amends.  However, the complete and utter design failure behind this event is not really forgivable.  Any random player could have told them their design for Phase 2 and 3 was insanity, so it boggles the mind how this could get the ok at a developer that has otherwise demonstrated a high level of finesse and craftiness in their designs.

I'm going to offer Trion a suggestion on how to improve this that might make most players happier.  I'll even do it for free.  Instead of making Phase 2 and 3 a one time event, make it repeat every 3 hours all day long.  Yes, some people will see it twice, or three times, and it will break the immersion of the story for them.  Oh well.  Most players will only see it once, and to them it will be as if it only happened once.  Repeating the event throughout the day will break up the population in each zone, reduce queues, and dramatically increase the number of players who actually get to participate in the event.  Is that so hard?

I know my "solution" will reduce the coolness of the event for some players, and does reduce the immersion by having the finale play multiple times.  But you don't get happy customers by excluding them from content that will NEVER BE ON THE SERVERS AGAIN by only making it available for 30 minutes.  In the post-WoW world, everyone expects accessibility to content.  You can't blatantly deny that accessibility and expect to be competitive.  I'm still enjoying the game otherwise, and am not going anywhere anytime soon, but I'm sure lots of players have rage-quit over this whole debacle.  And it is a debacle.  Instead of creating a crowning moment of awesome, Trion has given players a reason to doubt their capability and foresight.

Second Impressions - World of Tanks

I've given World of Tanks a few more hours now, and it's definitely growing on me.  I'm happy to say that some of my issues from my previous post have turned out to unfounded.  There are more maps, you just don't see them until you start driving higher tier tanks.  I got into a Tier 2 light tank and suddenly had access to several more maps.  Through a combination of improving skills and a more advanced vehicle I'm now averaging 1 kill per battle.  Sometimes I get 2, but those are balanced out by the 0s.

My concern about higher level vehicles getting to farm the heck out of the newbies also seems relatively unfounded.  Multiple times I had seen comments from my team about how we lost because we had no heavies, and assumed from that the enemy had heavies.  Except, they didn't either.  Heavies don't show up on the starter maps, they're almost all light tanks with the occasional medium.  When you move into the higher tiers you start seeing the heavier tanks, but if you're in an advanced light tank yourself you could have one battle on a higher tier map with heavies, and the next battle on a starter map.  So I'm assuming (woohoo, assumptions!) that the players complaining we lost because we had no heavies were used to the higher tier maps and didn't realize the starter maps don't have them for either side.

I think the strangest thing about the game is that "World of Tanks" is all about sniping.  Gun accuracy while moving is terrible, but sitting still in the open gets you blown up, so the game mostly consists of mad dashes between cover followed by hunkering down and sniping until you can't find any more enemies.  I suspect that's actually fairly realistic for tank battles though.  If there were infantry in the game the tanks could presumably run rampant, but there are only other tanks, tank destroyers, and self-propelled guns.  It's a dangerous world, but gratifying when you're successful.

I just wish there were more to the game than endless skirmishes.  How about a campaign mode where players are divided up by sides (Russian, German, US) instead of the current mish-mash, and have extended objectives that can move back and forth across multiple maps.  Heck, I'd even take a single-player campaign mode against AI enemies.  I might even pay for it.

First Impressions - World of Tanks

World of Tanks was released recently, and since it's free to play I of course had to check it out.  For those that don't know, World of Tanks is an online squad-based world war II tank battle game.  It's being billed as an MMORPG, but I'm not really sure why -- you spend your time alternating between a static lobby and mission maps, the game is PvP only, and there aren't more than a dozen or so people per side.  It's much more like Counterstrike with tanks than an MMORPG.  Which is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just not very MMORPG-like.  I'm going to describe the things I liked and didn't like, and just because I'm feeling kind of cranky I think I'll start with the negatives.

First off, I have to say it's a darn good thing the game is free to play.  If I'd paid $50 for this I'd be pretty annoyed about now.  The game, as I mentioned earlier, is not an MMORPG, it's just an online action game with a lobby and match making.  I played for a couple of hours last night, and in that time I only saw 3, maybe 4 different maps.  I'm hoping (assuming?) that more maps must become available as you unlock more powerful tanks, but I don't know for sure.  Running the same couple of maps over and over is going to get old fast.  It doesn't help that the objectives on each map are exactly the same - eliminate all enemies or capture the base.  Speaking of the maps, at least one of them seems terribly unbalanced.  The northern base has a ridge that defenders can park on and snipe oncoming attackers with little risk of counterfire.  The southern base has nothing like that.  So the northern team almost always wins.  Yay?

Which brings us to the matchmaking, which also seems to be fairly unbalanced.  Rather than pitting players in the same class against each other the teams consist of a mix of light, medium, and heavy tanks.  That might be ok, except that it's entirely possible (and not unusual) for one team to get a heavy tank or two while the other team gets none.  Heavy tanks are the kings of the battlefield, and with nothing to counter them on the opposing side they quickly win the match.  This isn't like a team missing a class in WAR or WoW or Rift, because the game attempts to simulate armor penetration light tanks can't really hurt heavy tanks at all, while medium tanks can take them down but it requires a lot of effort.  The worst part of my evening was coming up on an enemy tank, unloading shell after shell into it to no effect, only to have it turn it's turret around and 1-shot my little light tank.  Realistic?  Sure.  Fun?  Not especially.

That sort of ties into my issue with the game being extremely unfriendly to new players, especially new free players.  Since the matches consist of both veteran and brand new players, and a veteran in a heavy tank is virtually untouchable by a newbie in a light tank, new players seem to serve as little more than kill fodder for the veteran players.  Again, this wouldn't be such a big deal, except that you only get one life per match -- once your tank is destroyed you're done.  If don't get any kills you don't get much xp or cash, and if your side loses you also don't get much xp or cash.  A brand new player, then, is very likely to enter a match, get destroyed in moments, and get very little reward with which to improve their tank and increase their likelihood of performing well, let alone buy a higher tier tank so that they're not just cannon fodder.  Also, once you're destroyed you have to sit there until the match ends.  I'm assuming their must be some way to "ride" along with an ally in camera view but I never found it, so generally after being destroyed I'd alt-tab out and surf the net.

This brings me to the cash shop, which is my final gripe with the game.  This really seems to be a "pay to win" game based on the cash shop, and the design of the game seems to be intended to funnel you into purchases to be competitive.  Remember how I said newbies get crap tanks and are cannon fodder for everyone else?  Well, that's unless you drop some real money for a better one.  Real money can buy better tanks, upgraded ammunition, xp, be used to transfer xp from one tank to another, and more.  Someone who visited the cash shop on their first day and dropped a bunch of money on upgrades would have a phenomenal advantage over a free player.  Maybe that's ok for many people, after all even though a loss with no kills gets you minimal rewards, you still get SOMETHING.  Someday you'll be able to compete as long as you keep playing.  Still, I strongly dislike pay to win, and also dislike the thought that my opponent just smoked me because he bought a cash shop tank, not because he was more skilled.

So, a huge list of gripes.  I must hate the game right?  Already uninstalled it?  Well . . . no.  The game is still fun.  The tank battles are something new and different, and Wargaming.net has gotten the look and feel of the game down very well.  The graphics aren't very high tech, but they're solid.  The tanks feel slow and substantial, and the pace of combat isn't quite so frantic as a typical FPS.  The fact that my starter tank is so pitiful just makes any accomplishment feel that much greater.  The high point of my evening was barreling down a hill at 40kph with an enemy light tank lobbing shells at me (and missing due to my speed) and I turned my turret, fired back, and scored a kill shot all while moving.  That may have been my only kill for the whole evening, but it sure felt good.  The kill boards take some getting used to, by the way.  Since every player only gets one life per battle most players simply won't get any kills at all (especially on the losing side).  That doesn't necessarily mean you suck -- there are only a limited number of kills that can be scored per match, and if one guy gets 2, then no matter what someone has to get 0.  I kind of like that though, respawning tanks would just be stupid.

The game just has a very nice feel to it.  Rolling along with your squadmates up a road (movement is faster on roads but less safe), seeing an enemy tank in the distance and scattering behind trees, bushes, and rocks before trading shots back and forth just feels very visceral and realistic.  You can run over fences, knock down trees, and just generally feel like you really are driving a tank.  It's not a hard core tank sim by any means, and I have no doubt many liberties have been taken with physics in the name of gameplay, but despite my gripes with the mechanics of the game I found the gameplay itself quite enjoyable.  Now if I could just get a tank gun capable of actually penetrating enemy armor I might really start to enjoy myself . . .

Darkspore Beta Redux - A few wishes and comments

So the Darkspore beta popped back up on my Steam client yesterday and I decided to take another look.  The game is still interesting, but they did a character wipe and now I have to start all over, which isn't too enthralling when I know they'll just be wiped again at some point.  Still, it's a pretty simple, relaxing, mind-emptying game to play, so not bad when I want to play something but don't really have much energy.

Playing through the starting area again did drive home some of the flaws in the current system.  The first flaw is the complete and total dependence on item drops to improve your characters.  There's no xp in the game (for the characters anyway), just items.  Equipping items increases a character's "level", which in this case is just an approximation of their overall power, and used as a guide for picking appropriate challenges.  This means though, that the ability to improve your characters is tied entirely to the random drop system, and items are either character specific (these claws can only be used by Blitz) or element specific (these shoulderplates can only be used by Cyborg characters).  The result is that you can go through a mission without getting any drops that are useful for the characters you play, and so you don't improve their power and are stuck replaying the same content until you do.

This ties into the second flaw, which is that you don't get to pick your starting characters.  You will always start with Blitz and the bio guy (who's name I have forgotten), so if your first mission gives you nothing but quantum drops (as mine did), too bad for you.  This could be rectified a little by letting players pick all of their starting characters, and giving a wider range of low level characters to choose from.  Still, that's only a short term issue.  After increasing your player level a few times you'll be able to pick more characters and can phase out the start characters entirely if you don't like them.

I would like to see more control over the development of the characters.  Using items controls their stats and their "level", but the abilities they have are very static.  Every version of Blitz you encounter the game will have different stats and look different (maybe), but will always have the same abilities.  I'd like to see a little more customization there -- maybe one ability slot can be loaded with a choice of different abilities at the start of each mission.

As I played through the game last night it occured to me that Darkspore has a very "Ben 10" feel to it.  If you don't know, Ben 10 is a Cartoon Network cartoon starring a boy with a special device that lets him transform into different aliens.  Each alien has it's own repertoire of special abilities.  There are aliens that can tank, aliens that do lots of damage, aliens that stealth, etc.  You only get 3 "forms" at a time in Darkspore (out of hundreds available), but in many ways the gameplay mimics the cartoon.  Each character you use has set abilities, and you can "transform" between the 3 at will.

I'm still undecided as to whether that similarity is a good thing or not though.

Theory of Design - Rift Classes

Over the next few weeks I'm going to toy around with various aspects of game design, essentially for fun but hopefully with some feedback too.

To start, I'm going to create four new souls for Rift - the Primal Mage, the Acrobat, the Theologist, and the Vanguard.  I'd like to say that each is the work of hours and hours of deep thought and careful consideration, but the truth of the matter is I just blurted each one out as fast as I could.  These are rough drafts, ripe for feedback and iteration.  Sadly we can only theorycraft, and not test them in game.  Note that numbers (especially damage numbers) are completely made up and based on nothing but rough guesses as to what might be appropriate.  A great deal of tuning is required.

Trion Worlds -- in the unlikely event you like any of these, call me!  I'm up for a career change and move :)

Anyhow, first up is the Primal Mage!

Primal Mage

The Primal Mage wields relatively primitive elemental magics to deal damage, buff themselves, and debuff their foes.  Unlike the other Mage souls, the Primal Mage needs to get up close and personal to inflict heavy damage on the enemy, but has a number of tools to make sure doing so isn't suicide.  In some ways the Primal Mage is a mage based version of the Riftstalker.

The Primal Mage deals melee fire and earth spell damage, has the ability to self heal, and at higher levels can create shields to deflect some incoming attacks.  They can take on a tank role using Earth's Blessing, but lose the ability to deal any significant damage with anything other than Primal mage powers.  There won't be any Pyromancers clearing the battlefield while sporting tank-like defenses.

The Primal Mage should pair well with the Archon and Chloromancer souls, mildly well with the Necromancer, Warlock, Dominator, and Elemetalist souls, and not well at all with the Pyromancer or Stormcaller.

Root Abilities:

Points	Ability	Description
0	Fire Talons	Encase the caster’s hands in flame and make a bare handed melee strike for 10-15 fire damage.  Applies Primal Vulnerability to the target, increasing all elemental damage taken by 3% for 15 seconds.  This effect can stack up to 5 times. Cast Time:  Instant Range:  Melee Cooldown: None Modified By:  Spell damage
0	Combust	Consume the Primal Vulnerability debuff on the target, causing them to burst into flames and suffer 5-8 fire damage per stack of Primal Vulnerability. Cast Time:  Instant Range: 20m Cooldown: 6 seconds Modified By:  Spell damage
2	Earth Strike	Bear down on the target with the speed an inevitability of an avalanche, closing to melee  range and dealing a crushing blow with a hammer of stone for 12-16 physical damage.  Inflicts Primal Vulnerability. Cast Time:  1 second Range: 20m Cooldown: 15 seconds Modified By: Spell damage
4	Slow Burn	Drive the power of elemental fire into the heart of your opponent and leave it there, slowly burning them from the inside out.  Deals 35 fire damage over 14 seconds. Cast Time:  1.5 seconds Range: 20m Cooldown: None Modified By: Spell damage
6	Fire’s Blessing	The power of fire infuses your limbs with vigor, granting the power to move faster than normally possible.  Fire’s Blessing grants +10% to run, attack, and cast speed for 30 minutes and is active both in and out of combat.  Only one Blessing can be active at a time. Cast Time:  Instant Range:  Self Cooldown:  None Modified By: Nothing
8	Primal Aid	Exploit a target’s vulnerability to draw upon the healing powers of earth.  Consume stacks of Primal Vulnerability to heal the caster.  Each stack consumed heals 5% max hit points (maximum 25%). Cast Time:  Instant Range:  20m Cooldown:  None Modified By:  Nothing
10	Tremor	The caster channels the power of stone through their fists and slams them into the ground, causing the earth to leap and fragment in the area immediately around the mage.  Up to 10 targets are knocked down and take 45-56 earth damage. Cast Time:  Instant Range:  5m PBAoE Cooldown:  10 seconds Modified By:  Spell damage
12	Liquid Stone	Use the power of stone to mold the ground around the target’s feet, rooting them in place for 15 seconds.  Damage may break this effect. Cast Time: 1.5 seconds Range: 20m Cooldown: None Modified By: Nothing
16	Flame Lash	Strike out with a whip of flame, hitting all targets in an arc in front of the caster for 55-67 fire damage.  Cast Time: Instant Range: Melee cone Cooldown:  5 seconds Modified by: Spell damage
20	Earth’s Blessing	Draws the strength of earth into the caster, making them tough as stone but dramatically reducing their ability to use anything other than Primal magic.  +200% armor, +60% endurance, improved health regeneration, and all attacks generate additional threat.  However, the effect of all non-Primal spells are reduced by 50%.  Only one Blessing can be active at a time. Cast Time:  Instant Range: Self Cooldown: None Modified By: Nothing
26	Flash Fire	Explode in a blast of fire for 120-134 fire damage, hitting up to 15 targets in a 10m radius.  Targets suffering from Primal Vulnerability will be stunned for 1 second per stack. Cast Time:  1.5 seconds Range: 10m  PBAoE Cooldown:  30 seconds Modified By: Spell damage
32	Primal Blessing	Draws on the power of the elements to increase all Primal spell damage by 15%.  Only one Blessing can be active at a time. Cast Time:  Instant Range:  Self Cooldown:  None Modified By:  Nothing
36	Splinter	Strike the target with a blast of stone that explodes in a spray of splinters that tear through nearby enemies.  The attack does 145-168 physical damage to the target and copies any stacks of Primal Vulnerability from the primary target to up to 10 enemies in a 10m radius.  These stacks of Primal Vulnerability will last for 10 seconds unless refreshed by Fire Talons. Cast Time:  Instant Range: Melee, 10m PBAoE Cooldown:  1 minute Modified By:  Spell damage
44	Lava Blast	Combine the powers of primal fire and earth into a huge ball of molten lava that can be hurled at a single unfortunate target.  Lava Blast deals 341-372 fire damage and knocks the target down. Cast Time:  4 seconds Range: 30m Cooldown: None Modified By:  Spell damage
51	Primal Fury	Transform into a creature of shifting elemental fury for 30 seconds.  The form is chaotic in nature, and will switch randomly between fire and earth forms, each with their own abilities.  The fire form has very powerful attacks and increased movement and attack speeds.  The earth form has strong attacks, increased defenses, and constantly regenerates health. Cast Time:  Instant Range:  Self Cooldown:  5 minutes Modified By: Spell damage

Branch Abilities:

Tier	Prereq	Ability	Description
1	-	Earth’s Fortitude	+4% endurance per point, 1-5 points possible
1	-	Fire’s Fury	+1% fire damage per point, 1-5 points possible
2	5 points	Flame Rush	Zip forward 10 meters in a blast of fire, damaging all foes in the path for 24-29 fire damage and stunning them for 1 second. Cast Time:  Instant Range: 10m Cooldown:  15 seconds Modified By: Spell damage
2	5 points	Disorient	Each stack of Primal Vulnerability gives the target a 1% hit penalty per point in Disorient.  1-5 points possible (so max of 25% penalty with 5 points in disorient and 5 stacks of Primal Vulnerability).
2	5 points	Enfeebling Burn	Slow Burn has a 5-15% (5% per point) chance per tick of damage to inflict a stack of Primal Vulnerability.  1-3 points possible.
3	10 points	Piercing Stone	Surrounds the caster’s hands with a sharp spear of stone capable of punching through metal like paper.  Piercing Stone deals 45-51 physical damage, ignores the target’s armor, and inflicts Punctured, decreasing the target’s armor by 25% for 8 seconds. Cast Time:  Instant Range:  Melee Cooldown:  8 seconds Modified By:  Spell damage
3	10 points, Flame Rush	Sear	Flame Rush burns with extra heat and causes all affected targets to suffer an additional 50% of the total damage over 8 seconds.
3	10 points	Vindictive Flames	Increase spell critical chance by 2% per point.  1-3 points possible.
3	10 points	Lashing Talons	Increase the range of Fire Talons by 2m per point.  1-3 points possible.
4	15 points	Entomb	Encase the target in solid stone, stunning them for 8 seconds and inflicting 10-12 damage per second. Cast Time:  2 seconds Range: 20m Cooldown:  30 seconds Modified By:  Spell damage
4	15 points	Blazing Talons	Fire Talons now deals 10-50% of its damage to an additional two targets adjacent to the primary target.  1-5 points possible.  This damage does not inflict Primal Vulnerability.
4	15 points	Invigoration	Primal Aid now restores 1-3% max mana per stack of Primal Vulnerability in addition to health.  1-3 points possible.
5	20 points	Ablative Shield	Creates a shield of fire and earth energy that lasts for 10 seconds and reduces the damage of the next two hits against the caster to 0.  Ablative shield can block both physical and magical attacks. Cast Time:  Instant Range:  Self Cooldown:  10 seconds Modified By: Nothing
5	20 points	Stone of Deflection	While Earth’s Blessing is active, gain 2% parry and dodge per point.  1-3 points possible.
5	20 points	One With the Elements	Increases the Primal Mage’s earth, fire, water, and air resistances by 40-80 points.  1-2 points possible.
6	25 points	Grasping Earth	Channel primal energy into the ground, causing the earth to rise up and attack in a large area while slowing down affected targets.  Channeled ground target effect that deals 80-90 damage per target per second and slows movement speed by 50%. Cast Time:  Channeled Range: 30m, 10m radius Cooldown: None Modified By:  Spell damage
6	25 points, Ablative Shield	Superior Shielding	Ablative Shield blocks 1 additional attack per point, 1-2 points possible.
6	25 points	Frenzied Lash	Reduces the cooldown of Flame Lash by 2 seconds per point.  1-2 points possible.
6	25 points	Searing Soul	Deal 2-6% of all damage taken back to attackers.  1-3 points possible.
7	30 points, Ablative Shield	Ablative Barrier	Ablative Shield now affects every member of the caster’s party.  Inflicts Primal Reverberation for 10 seconds, preventing any additional Ablative Shields or Barriers from forming on the character.

Next up will be the Acrobat.