2010/12/07
So As It Turns Out...
...only the video card was dead. In retrospect, I should have tested that first, but I'm super surprised that nothing else was dead.
2010/12/04
This is Why I Hate Putting Gear on the Floor
The scene: my "living" room near the computer desk. The setup: half a bottle of warm diet coke sitting perilously on the computer desk and a very expensive very fast machine on the floor below. The action: bobble the half filled bottle of warm diet coke which, while capped, falls and spews all over the machine. The aftermath: one very dead machine.
So now four hours later I've got my data back off of it and the 500GB drive installed in the old machine and lots of stuff backed up. Nothin' like a tragedy to kick the backup reflex into high gear.
$%&*!%&*!!!
Could have been worse, I suppose. The most expensive part (the solid state drive) is still OK but at the very least, it looks like the motherboard and video card are toasted. The other bad thing is that the CPU and the power supply may also be toasted but it's harder for me to test those. Soooooo....it looks like I'm spending more money at newegg. My hope is that I can get bits and pieces fast enough to get the thing working by the holiday, but I suppose that hinges entirely on how many bits and pieces are broken.
Bleh.
2010/11/23
Friendly Note to New England Drivers...
...if you're following close enough that I could be mistaken for towing you, you may be too close.
That is all.
That is all.
2010/11/06
And Now, a Rant From Our Sponsors
I'd say that few things get me into a ranting mood but that'd be a bald-faced lie. Instead, I'll pick one thing that sent me into a frothy rage last week and go from there.
If you aren't familiar with The Escapist, it's generally a pretty good gaming-oriented site with a bunch of usually-reasonably-well-thought-out articles and home to the terribly amusing Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if half their traffic is directly attributable to ZP.) So last week while waiting for a (terribly long) compile I pop over there to see what's what, and I find this: Open Letter to People Who Make Games as penned by Russ Pitts. It's not a long read, but if you, like me, have ever spent time in the Biz, you'll get good and frothy too. Feel free to read it if you like (I'll wait), but I'll sum it up: the game industry is doomed because game people suck. One particular quote really sent me off the deep end:
Let's start here: No one in the Biz wants to ship a shitty game. I don't care about your hypotheticals about evil execs and pernicious designers, none of the untold hundreds of people I've worked with personally have ever set out to build a game that sucks all ass, ever. It's just not part of the culture which is why I have no issue making such a blanket statement. Most games are released before they're ready which is part of what Russ's rant is about but that's largely decided by execs and money guys; you know, the stuffed suits that make the real money.
Why is that? Well, because it's a business. That business would be making as much money for investors as possible and that means shipping the most things with the most appeal at the most opportune times. Hardcore gamers just looooove to whine about how everything is getting dumbed down. This isn't a coincidence. The economics of the thing is that if you need a budget of $30M (small to middling these days; giant when I started in the Biz) you have to sell about a bajillion copies to break even. Sorry. That's just the way it is if you want your spiffy art at a decent framerate. So the industry as a whole tries to open up any given game to the widest audience possible even if it means knocking off all the gnarly corners that us old-timers really loved. Usually this is stuff like "approachability" and "accessibility" and probably a bunch of other "ibilities" that escape me at the moment.
The "opportune times" bit also comes with baggage. Everyone who's ever worked on software knows that software projects pretty much always run long; sometimes way long if they even ship at all. This is super bad when you start talking about fixed schedules like we almost always have, i.e., we mostly ship around the holidays. How fixed these schedules may actually be tends to never be as fixed as management would make them seem to be which is part of why at most companies people crunch like fucking corn flakes most of the year. The best part? A lot of the time your reward for being a hero is getting laid off at the end of the project!
Software people outside the Biz understand a lot of this. No plan is ever as complete as the Suits would like and no plan ever survives first contact with theenemy schedule. In the greater software world this is generally understood which is why stuff like Agile is such a big deal. If you can't adjust the ship date, then you'd better be able to adjust one or both of { budget | feature set } otherwise, well, in the immortal words of one Adam Savage: "Failure is always an option".
In the Biz, teams which can actually affect quality directly almost never have control over any corner. Our ship date is fixed and most times pushed inward due to certification checks and manufacturing, our feature set is largely fixed because it's part of what the Suits want to market (not that they wouldn't change their minds midway through a project and mandate said changes without adjusting schedules or budgets or anything), and as a kicker, the same Suits who fix the ship date also fix the budget. Each of these things from a business point of view is sensical but it means that there's never enough of anything on a given project and you're usually short two if not all of the three.
Software is a pretty young art (almost certainly not a science despite what my two fancy, expensive pieces of paper say) and the greater industry is still wrestling with its care and nurture. The Games Biz is even younger and seems to be so heads-down that we can't even effectively learn from the larger body of experience that the software biz has. Why is this? Our management tends to be inexperienced. I've had maybe two or three managers that didn't outright suck over a couple dozen of them and I don't think I've ever met a reasonable exec. Real Managers (TM) don't often show up in game dev because pay is so comparatively low and hours are so comparatively crappy. Managers, unlike artists, designers, or programmers, don't grow up wanting to make games--at least, I haven't met any good ones that have at this point in time.
And wouldn't that be just like a disgruntled worker-cog to pin the blame solely on management? Probably, but our worker-cogs tend to be inexperienced too. We turn over something like 20% of our workforce every year. Other than college sports rosters, I don't know of any group that does that and remains competitive. (Maybe we're only competitive because most of our peers are doing it too.) Most people burn out after a few years. It turns out that crappy working environments + long hours + looming layoffs + lower than average pay is way greater than the idealism that drives most people to get into the Biz in the first place. But, as it turns out, this is kind of what drives a lot of studios because for every one of us that falls there are ten bright eyed kids that would do the job for free. Never mind the fact that only a few of these kids will statistically stick around for more than a few years or that exceptionally few of them are actually qualified to do what you need them to do. I've been on more than a few teams that bulked up during the painful phases of a project with a bunch of junior people who made the entire thing generally much harder. It's almost as if we should know better by now. This is part of why studios go through the hire/fire/re-hire cycles and part of why salaries are so comparatively low.
So, OK, Mr. Pitts:
If you aren't familiar with The Escapist, it's generally a pretty good gaming-oriented site with a bunch of usually-reasonably-well-thought-out articles and home to the terribly amusing Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if half their traffic is directly attributable to ZP.) So last week while waiting for a (terribly long) compile I pop over there to see what's what, and I find this: Open Letter to People Who Make Games as penned by Russ Pitts. It's not a long read, but if you, like me, have ever spent time in the Biz, you'll get good and frothy too. Feel free to read it if you like (I'll wait), but I'll sum it up: the game industry is doomed because game people suck. One particular quote really sent me off the deep end:
I know that some of you take this seriously enough to devote your working hours making these games right, making patches and fixes that will resolve your players' issues. I know that some of you work overtime on this. I know you lose money. I know it sucks for you. And yet, I don't care.This is indicative of the kind of entitlement that the general public has that is particularly maddening. If you've heard about the jackasses who did a DOS attack on Minecraft because they weren't happy with Notch's speed of updates then you know exactly what I'm talking about. I could probably link a bunch of other similar things but I won't bore you with that. Instead, I'll bore you with a bunch of my observations across five companies and more than a decade of professional game development.
Let's start here: No one in the Biz wants to ship a shitty game. I don't care about your hypotheticals about evil execs and pernicious designers, none of the untold hundreds of people I've worked with personally have ever set out to build a game that sucks all ass, ever. It's just not part of the culture which is why I have no issue making such a blanket statement. Most games are released before they're ready which is part of what Russ's rant is about but that's largely decided by execs and money guys; you know, the stuffed suits that make the real money.
Why is that? Well, because it's a business. That business would be making as much money for investors as possible and that means shipping the most things with the most appeal at the most opportune times. Hardcore gamers just looooove to whine about how everything is getting dumbed down. This isn't a coincidence. The economics of the thing is that if you need a budget of $30M (small to middling these days; giant when I started in the Biz) you have to sell about a bajillion copies to break even. Sorry. That's just the way it is if you want your spiffy art at a decent framerate. So the industry as a whole tries to open up any given game to the widest audience possible even if it means knocking off all the gnarly corners that us old-timers really loved. Usually this is stuff like "approachability" and "accessibility" and probably a bunch of other "ibilities" that escape me at the moment.
The "opportune times" bit also comes with baggage. Everyone who's ever worked on software knows that software projects pretty much always run long; sometimes way long if they even ship at all. This is super bad when you start talking about fixed schedules like we almost always have, i.e., we mostly ship around the holidays. How fixed these schedules may actually be tends to never be as fixed as management would make them seem to be which is part of why at most companies people crunch like fucking corn flakes most of the year. The best part? A lot of the time your reward for being a hero is getting laid off at the end of the project!
Software people outside the Biz understand a lot of this. No plan is ever as complete as the Suits would like and no plan ever survives first contact with the
In the Biz, teams which can actually affect quality directly almost never have control over any corner. Our ship date is fixed and most times pushed inward due to certification checks and manufacturing, our feature set is largely fixed because it's part of what the Suits want to market (not that they wouldn't change their minds midway through a project and mandate said changes without adjusting schedules or budgets or anything), and as a kicker, the same Suits who fix the ship date also fix the budget. Each of these things from a business point of view is sensical but it means that there's never enough of anything on a given project and you're usually short two if not all of the three.
Software is a pretty young art (almost certainly not a science despite what my two fancy, expensive pieces of paper say) and the greater industry is still wrestling with its care and nurture. The Games Biz is even younger and seems to be so heads-down that we can't even effectively learn from the larger body of experience that the software biz has. Why is this? Our management tends to be inexperienced. I've had maybe two or three managers that didn't outright suck over a couple dozen of them and I don't think I've ever met a reasonable exec. Real Managers (TM) don't often show up in game dev because pay is so comparatively low and hours are so comparatively crappy. Managers, unlike artists, designers, or programmers, don't grow up wanting to make games--at least, I haven't met any good ones that have at this point in time.
And wouldn't that be just like a disgruntled worker-cog to pin the blame solely on management? Probably, but our worker-cogs tend to be inexperienced too. We turn over something like 20% of our workforce every year. Other than college sports rosters, I don't know of any group that does that and remains competitive. (Maybe we're only competitive because most of our peers are doing it too.) Most people burn out after a few years. It turns out that crappy working environments + long hours + looming layoffs + lower than average pay is way greater than the idealism that drives most people to get into the Biz in the first place. But, as it turns out, this is kind of what drives a lot of studios because for every one of us that falls there are ten bright eyed kids that would do the job for free. Never mind the fact that only a few of these kids will statistically stick around for more than a few years or that exceptionally few of them are actually qualified to do what you need them to do. I've been on more than a few teams that bulked up during the painful phases of a project with a bunch of junior people who made the entire thing generally much harder. It's almost as if we should know better by now. This is part of why studios go through the hire/fire/re-hire cycles and part of why salaries are so comparatively low.
So, OK, Mr. Pitts:
When I play a game that you have made, and which is broken, I ask myself the question: Which is it with you? Did you not know that your game had problems, or did you know and decide to ship it anyway? I hope you can understand that either way we have a problem. Actually, the problem is mostly yours.I'm really not sure who he thinks his audience is. I sure as hell don't decide when the thing goes out. I don't think I've shipped a title that I didn't wish I had more time to fix. Maybe Suits read this stuff. Either way, most games don't ship in as broken a state as he seems to imply. All software has bugs. I dislike buggy games as much as the next guy (actually, probably way more than the next guy) but to reiterate: no one wants to ship a shitty game. Want to send a real message, one that will be way more meaningful than a snarky plea? Stop buying games you think are broken. Bonus points if you don't give a broken game a buy recommendation. Tell the Suits that this just isn't good enough and maybe they'll start getting us worker-cogs enough resources to build better games. Seems pretty simple, right?
You will be the one who has made a game that is so bad I can't actually play it. You will have failed at your only job, tomake a game. Worse, you will have contributed to the depression of your industry. You may be putting yourself and people you know out of a job.News flash for you, buddy: I'm probably out of a job either way. Ship a million copies or miss a ship date, it doesn't really matter. The economics just plain don't scale and most companies just plain don't care about the people they employ either way. The typical work agreement is that they can fire me at any time without cause! That's right, kids, you're just a cog and they don't even need a reason to kick your ass out the door. That's just part of the cost of following The Dream. Apparently another part of it is suffering fools who really ought to know better.
2010/08/11
BrickFair 2010
As you might have surmised from my last post, I attended BrickFair 2010 in Chantilly, VA. I was originally just going to visit on one of the public days and hang with some old co-workers, but ended up staying for a number of days and showing some pieces instead. On the right is a very fuzzy picture of the five MOCs I brought. It amuses (and dismays) me that just about every third party picture of my stuff I've seen is far and away better than any picture I've ever taken of them. There may be a new camera in my future.
The Normandy was nominated for two categories and won "Best Sci-Fi" against some very good builds. A very fuzzy picture of the trophy is on the right (also in the center of the above). I certainly didn't expect to win anything but I'm super happy that I did. It sort of legitimizes the last five months of frantic buying/building--not that I need any legitimizing, mind you.It was good times. I met a lot of cool people who I only previously knew from their work and online names. I was very impressed by all the sweet builds many of which were way cooler in person than in photos. It's a good show and run by a bunch of awesome people. With any luck, I'll be back next year.
2010/08/07
A Funny Thing Happened At BrickFair Today...
So picture this. I'm showing off the Normandy in an almost incessant crush of people when I hear a familiar voice...
Flashback to 2003 and I'm leaving my first job. I'm interviewing with the man who would later hire me. It's the dead of winter in a freak Virginia snowstorm. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and is walking around in sandals. "Is it cold enough for you?", was his first question.
Sure enough, it's my old boss standing there with his family who I've never met. I worked for him for two years before parting ways and he had no idea who I was. I told him my name (twice) and it still didn't dawn on him. I told him I worked form him at XXXX company and the lightbulb finally went off.
Filed under "I'm glad I didn't need a reference".
Flashback to 2003 and I'm leaving my first job. I'm interviewing with the man who would later hire me. It's the dead of winter in a freak Virginia snowstorm. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and is walking around in sandals. "Is it cold enough for you?", was his first question.
Sure enough, it's my old boss standing there with his family who I've never met. I worked for him for two years before parting ways and he had no idea who I was. I told him my name (twice) and it still didn't dawn on him. I told him I worked form him at XXXX company and the lightbulb finally went off.
Filed under "I'm glad I didn't need a reference".
2010/05/23
2010/04/19
In Other News
I've finally gotten around to uploading my Champions Online vid. You can find it here. Enjoy the explodey goodness!
2010/04/17
Got Turian?
First year in Massachusetts: sick 4 times in 4 months. Year 2 started out better...until last week when I finally succumbed to the cold that went around the office. Seriously, everyone in my immediate area got sick about two weeks ago. I went all of PAX without getting sick but due to the insanity that is our HR policy of shared PTO and vacation, EVERYONE comes in sick. On the bright side, I took a day off and missed some office drama (yay) and did some building.
This is a Turian frigate from Mass Effect. I've been wanting to build one of these guys for a while but since you only ever see them a couple times in two games, I never had proper reference. A couple hours spelunking in the ME game folder and voila! Viewable models. Hacking does, in fact, sometimes pay.
One of the things that's been keeping me from building a hero-sized SR1 (other than lack of skill and bricks...and laziness) is a complete lack of experience building large models. It didn't seem like a complicated build on the whole when I started, but "50 inches long" didn't seem big either until I got the keel down.
I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out though it didn't seem like it ever would. There are a pile of hacks to make it work but it's fairly solid in spite of them. I wouldn't swoosh it around the room but I'm not dreading transporting it to the kitchen for final photographing either (I mean, come on, it's right in front of the TV).
All told, it's about 50 hours of work but that includes a lot of futzing around with stuff. Every piece that hangs off at an angle (as in: everything but the keel) was rebuilt multiple times to get a) the angles right, and b) the structure such that it wouldn't fall apart if my neighbors upstairs stomp around.
I've probably got two or three Mass Effect related builds left in me before it's run its course. I'll probably finish on the hero-sized SR1 which will hopefully be spectacular.
Edit: glam shots + final adjustments can be found here.
This is a Turian frigate from Mass Effect. I've been wanting to build one of these guys for a while but since you only ever see them a couple times in two games, I never had proper reference. A couple hours spelunking in the ME game folder and voila! Viewable models. Hacking does, in fact, sometimes pay.
One of the things that's been keeping me from building a hero-sized SR1 (other than lack of skill and bricks...and laziness) is a complete lack of experience building large models. It didn't seem like a complicated build on the whole when I started, but "50 inches long" didn't seem big either until I got the keel down.
I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out though it didn't seem like it ever would. There are a pile of hacks to make it work but it's fairly solid in spite of them. I wouldn't swoosh it around the room but I'm not dreading transporting it to the kitchen for final photographing either (I mean, come on, it's right in front of the TV).
All told, it's about 50 hours of work but that includes a lot of futzing around with stuff. Every piece that hangs off at an angle (as in: everything but the keel) was rebuilt multiple times to get a) the angles right, and b) the structure such that it wouldn't fall apart if my neighbors upstairs stomp around.
I've probably got two or three Mass Effect related builds left in me before it's run its course. I'll probably finish on the hero-sized SR1 which will hopefully be spectacular.
Edit: glam shots + final adjustments can be found here.
2010/03/15
2010/03/14
WIP
Been arting again. Hope to continue for a while. In a feeble attempt to post more, here's a WIP.
Alyssa is one of my (many) characters from Mass Effect as seen in ME1.
2010/02/27
Because You Can Never Have Too Much Lego
In preparation for doing bigger and more complicated builds, I've done a couple warmups with (probably) a couple more on the way. This way I can justify my many trips to the Lego store. For whatever reason, blogspot isn't letting me directly link my pictures (lame) so if you want the full effect, hit my Flickr account which is right here. The backgrounds notes for ship classes etc. are for an ongoing project.
When I build these, I generally have a rough idea of what I want but not a lot of details. Sometimes I doodle some rough ideas on notecards, almost always in pen (so I'm not tempted to erase & rework). I try to keep the general idea to a couple of phrases.
Andraghi Jackal class destroyer
An Andraghi destroyer built out of bits of a Terran battlecruiser. Originally I wanted to build the entire battlecruiser but dropped the idea pretty quickly for the Andraghi warship which I thought was way more interesting.
The general idea was a "golden age of space" kind of style with no obvious symmetry. I also wanted to mess more with with n-sided wall constructions (in this case, 5). The engines and con boom didn't really come through in the pictures and the build was a little fragile. I'll probably do another hermit-crab like Andraghi ship in the near future because it was hella fun.
Kestrel class light cruiser
When I think "battlecruiser" the image that my mind conjures up is almost invariably either the Space Battlecruiser Yamato or an Imperial Star Destroyer. The Terran Confederation is the benefactor of those associations for better or worse. For this model, I wanted to work at a smaller scale and since I've always envisioned the Terran Confederation to use tri-turrets, that meant I had to build some teeny-tiny gun batteries. I'd be happier with them if they elevated and were a little less fiddly, but they look OK.
The benefit of building at that scale is that I can take advantage of the nice angled pieces I've been picking up. The down side is that most of the nice angled pieces I've got are now white and maroon which aren't my first choices (grey with blue highlights would be much more appropriate). So, um, it must be ceremonial colors then, right? Riiight....
The conning tower and windowed areas are unconvincing but I didn't have blue or grey transparent slopes. The nose isn't secured properly either, but the overall feel of the ship is what I was after: a symmetric and clean hull with a stark and angular engine section.
When I build these, I generally have a rough idea of what I want but not a lot of details. Sometimes I doodle some rough ideas on notecards, almost always in pen (so I'm not tempted to erase & rework). I try to keep the general idea to a couple of phrases.
Andraghi Jackal class destroyer
An Andraghi destroyer built out of bits of a Terran battlecruiser. Originally I wanted to build the entire battlecruiser but dropped the idea pretty quickly for the Andraghi warship which I thought was way more interesting.
The general idea was a "golden age of space" kind of style with no obvious symmetry. I also wanted to mess more with with n-sided wall constructions (in this case, 5). The engines and con boom didn't really come through in the pictures and the build was a little fragile. I'll probably do another hermit-crab like Andraghi ship in the near future because it was hella fun.
Kestrel class light cruiser
When I think "battlecruiser" the image that my mind conjures up is almost invariably either the Space Battlecruiser Yamato or an Imperial Star Destroyer. The Terran Confederation is the benefactor of those associations for better or worse. For this model, I wanted to work at a smaller scale and since I've always envisioned the Terran Confederation to use tri-turrets, that meant I had to build some teeny-tiny gun batteries. I'd be happier with them if they elevated and were a little less fiddly, but they look OK.
The benefit of building at that scale is that I can take advantage of the nice angled pieces I've been picking up. The down side is that most of the nice angled pieces I've got are now white and maroon which aren't my first choices (grey with blue highlights would be much more appropriate). So, um, it must be ceremonial colors then, right? Riiight....
The conning tower and windowed areas are unconvincing but I didn't have blue or grey transparent slopes. The nose isn't secured properly either, but the overall feel of the ship is what I was after: a symmetric and clean hull with a stark and angular engine section.
2010/02/15
SR1
In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm a big fan of Mass Effect. The jury still seems to be out on whether ME2 is a "real RPG" or not (whatever that means) but I don't think it actually matters despite what the pundits might think. It's a great game with some great storytelling in a universe that's well realized and brought to life in one of the best presentations that this generation of hardware can deliver. Mass Effect isn't just a great not-quite-complete trilogy of games, it's great science fiction and Bioware doesn't shy away from tackling some of the big-ticket themes.
In case you hadn't figured it out, I also love Legos. In fact, I've dropped more than I'd like to consider on them this extended weekend. Massachusetts is, in fact, blessed with not one, but THREE Lego stores, two of which I visited. If you like Legos and don't want to mine them yourself in the hallowed plastic mines of Denmark, I can think of no better pilgrimage than visiting one of their centers of rampant consumerism.
You can probably already see where this is going. If not, turn on your images.
This is a fairly rookie attempt at modelling the SR1 in all of its pre-disintegrated glory. I do like the SR2 (leather seats!) but it lacks the spartan charm of the SR1. I was sad to see it go.
Sadly, I'm not super pleased with this rendition mostly because of the shape of the fuselage but I'm fairly limited in the scope that I can build by the available parts in my collection. My repeated trips to Lego stores this weekend (three trips to two different stores, in case you're wondering) might have something to do with said collection.
Lame excuses aside, it's by far the most technical of the (admittedly small number of) builds I've done. The wings are set at a very un-lego like angle both from front to back, and from top to bottom. The bottom thruster sub-assemblies are pretty sturdily attached to the wings with technic pegs. The (poorly executed) fuselage is a five walled construction. During its construction over the last six days (~40 hours) I've tried tons of different builds for just about every piece before settling on the build that you see pictured here.
Since I started, I've learned that there's an entire set of builders out there that are nothing less than phenomenal. They've gathered a palette of skills that are astounding. I've also learned that there are uses for pieces that I didn't even know existed (both the pieces, and the uses). So now, armed with a Lego VIP card and the ability to hit two separate stores in the same hour, I'm embarking on a quest to hone my Lego building skills to the point that I can build the Normandy in a more proper scale in a way that I'm pleased with.
In case you hadn't figured it out, I also love Legos. In fact, I've dropped more than I'd like to consider on them this extended weekend. Massachusetts is, in fact, blessed with not one, but THREE Lego stores, two of which I visited. If you like Legos and don't want to mine them yourself in the hallowed plastic mines of Denmark, I can think of no better pilgrimage than visiting one of their centers of rampant consumerism.
You can probably already see where this is going. If not, turn on your images.
This is a fairly rookie attempt at modelling the SR1 in all of its pre-disintegrated glory. I do like the SR2 (leather seats!) but it lacks the spartan charm of the SR1. I was sad to see it go.
Sadly, I'm not super pleased with this rendition mostly because of the shape of the fuselage but I'm fairly limited in the scope that I can build by the available parts in my collection. My repeated trips to Lego stores this weekend (three trips to two different stores, in case you're wondering) might have something to do with said collection.
Lame excuses aside, it's by far the most technical of the (admittedly small number of) builds I've done. The wings are set at a very un-lego like angle both from front to back, and from top to bottom. The bottom thruster sub-assemblies are pretty sturdily attached to the wings with technic pegs. The (poorly executed) fuselage is a five walled construction. During its construction over the last six days (~40 hours) I've tried tons of different builds for just about every piece before settling on the build that you see pictured here.
Since I started, I've learned that there's an entire set of builders out there that are nothing less than phenomenal. They've gathered a palette of skills that are astounding. I've also learned that there are uses for pieces that I didn't even know existed (both the pieces, and the uses). So now, armed with a Lego VIP card and the ability to hit two separate stores in the same hour, I'm embarking on a quest to hone my Lego building skills to the point that I can build the Normandy in a more proper scale in a way that I'm pleased with.
2010/01/24
It's a Crazy World We Live In
So I'm watching the New Orleans vs. Minnesota game; one that I'm kind of torn on. On the one hand, I'm a Brett fan, but on the other hand, I wouldn't mind seeing Brees and the Saints in the Big Game (TM). (And yes, I can call him by his first name since I lived in Madison for two years.) Anyway, football isn't what I'm here to talk about, not directly anyway, so feel free to breathe a sigh of relief.
Mass Effect 2 is one of the few games that I've ever really looked forward to (the other one: Supreme Commander). How much? Well, I just got through the game for a fourth time this weekend in preparation to transfer a high level character over. I started on Thursday. I'll probably play through again delaying my ME2 extravaganza in order to hit 60 because apparently you get more awesomeness if you transfer a 60. Since then, I've been watching football and Mass Effect trailers/videos most of the day.
ANYWAY
In the middle of the game there was a Mass Effect 2 commercial. "Wow", I'm thinking. "Is gaming finally mainstream enough that we can advertise during football?" Heavy. I mean, football is usually dominated by unmemorable beer and truck commercials. Imagine my surprise then to hear "the Mass Effect 2 first half stats" as announced by Troy Aikman (maybe Joe Buck?) indicating that EA's marketing campaign is spending big $$$s. That's cool, and not just because I'm excited about the game.
Ya know what? I hate EA. I hate them a LOT, and not just for what they did/are doing to one of my former employers. Even given that, I don't think I can deny that what they're doing helps bring legitimacy to the industry. That, in many ways, is cool.
Mass Effect 2 is one of the few games that I've ever really looked forward to (the other one: Supreme Commander). How much? Well, I just got through the game for a fourth time this weekend in preparation to transfer a high level character over. I started on Thursday. I'll probably play through again delaying my ME2 extravaganza in order to hit 60 because apparently you get more awesomeness if you transfer a 60. Since then, I've been watching football and Mass Effect trailers/videos most of the day.
ANYWAY
In the middle of the game there was a Mass Effect 2 commercial. "Wow", I'm thinking. "Is gaming finally mainstream enough that we can advertise during football?" Heavy. I mean, football is usually dominated by unmemorable beer and truck commercials. Imagine my surprise then to hear "the Mass Effect 2 first half stats" as announced by Troy Aikman (maybe Joe Buck?) indicating that EA's marketing campaign is spending big $$$s. That's cool, and not just because I'm excited about the game.
Ya know what? I hate EA. I hate them a LOT, and not just for what they did/are doing to one of my former employers. Even given that, I don't think I can deny that what they're doing helps bring legitimacy to the industry. That, in many ways, is cool.
2010/01/04
2009 in Review
I'm not really one for "end of the year" type stuffs despite what the record on this blog might attest to, but I figured I'd do a year in review nonetheless. This may or may not have to do with a new machine on the way and my Champions sub ending yesterday. So without further ado, this is my 2009 in review.
New Digs
Probably the biggest change was a change of venue at the very beginning of the year. In fact, exactly one year and two days ago. This came with a 400 mile displacement to the northeast, fewer responsibilities (read: hours), and a hefty increase in pay. These are good things. What's not so good is that MA is terribly expensive and while I like the city of Boston, I'm pretty sure there's a special place in Hell being reserved for the area's drivers. If history is any indication, I'm good here for another year.
Modding
To set the scene: I'm in a new and unfamiliar town poor and tired for the moving experience. Is there a more perfect time to catch up on gaming? I think not! Dungeon Siege 2 + expansion were OK--I was happy enough to finish them anyway. Then a new co-worker recommended a tiny indie game involving swinging swords from horsebacks onto unsuspecting peasants. Well, sign me up! Mount & Blade is an excellent game which can usually be had for a steal. It's got some interesting mechanics, but...well parts of it just don't seem right. The good news is that it can be modded!
Taleworlds built the game with a fairly powerful scripting language and have in fact built most of the game logic in it. To anyone with some time, an interest in fixing/extending the game's features, and a bent to programming, just about anything is possible. I sunk a good three months into it and was fairly pleased with the results. Now retired, I'm hoping that their upcoming multiplayer expansion is cool enough to catch my interest again.
Diet
This is a controversial one, mostly because the conventional "wisdom" has been drummed into us for so long. I've been doing the paleo diet which is mostly the same as Atkins but also shuns the hyper-processed badness which pervades our ubiquitous mega-marts. If you want to know more about it, I'm sure you can find it if your google-fu is righteous.
Atkins worked for me; it worked really well but ultimately I'd get stuck in a crunch or get stressed out about something and that'd be the end of it. There was also the horrible crashes I'd get during the first couple weeks which I couldn't stand. With this diet, whether it be placebo effect or not, I have had none of these issues and the results have been dramatic.
All told, minus (plus?) the holiday inspired overeating that transpired the last couple weeks, I'm still about 45 pounds lighter than I was in April when I started. That's about 215 right now which is lighter than I've been since undergrad. To make it all the more astounding, most of the weight was lost within the first month and I did it specifically without exercising. The lack of exercise had nothing to do with being lazy (nothing at all).
I could go on about how much better I feel or how my health markers have improved across the board, but I'll leave you with the following thoughts:
- I eat 1.2 steaks per week (on average)
- I can eat bacon any time I want
Cruisin'
I was not a fan of Maryland. In fact, I'm on record proclaiming such things as "I couldn't get out of that goddamn state fast enough." While I'm not a huge fan of Massachusetts either, I will say that the area I live in (right around Gilette Stadium) has some great driving roads. Now that I can drive it without the threat of stalling at every light, it's a heck of a lot more fun.
Gaming
I mentioned the gaming briefly but I'll rate some of the highlights. Some of these are a couple years old but I hadn't gotten around to them yet. These are listed more or less in the order I played them.
Dungeon Siege 2: ***
The Good: the same basic gameplay as Dungeon Siege 1. Simple levels, well-written stories, and linear dungeons.
The Bad: kind of repetitive, just like Dungeon Siege 1. For those wondering, I did like DS1, but apparently I've become less patient in my older age.
Dungeon Siege 2 Broken World: **
The Good: some interesting new gear, some interesting new stories
The Bad: kinda threw out the old stories from DS2 which I thought were pretty good. Seems like it was done by a completely different set of people who didn't honor the original material. This was made all the more striking for me by playing one right after the other.
Mount & Blade: ***, **** with modding
The Good: awesome sandbox gameplay and unmatched mounted combat simulation. The melee simulation is OK, but not substantial. Huge array of mods.
The Bad: no real "win" condition; shallow roleplaying depth.
Notes: because the game is so flexible, most of the shortcomings can be modded away.
Mass Effect: ****
The Good: well-realized universe with believable characters. Even the ones you're not supposed to like are awesome (Wrex4tw!)
The Bad: maddening difficulty curve
Notes: ME2 is probably the game I'm most looking forward to this year and it's out in a couple weeks (woot!)
Champions Online: ****
The Good: some of the best combat mechanics in any MMO I've played. Extremely customizable costumes--look awesome from level 1!
The Bad: questionable design direction, facepalm level bugs, extremely hostile community
Notes: If there weren't a great game poking out of the badness, I'd probably be less bitter about Champions. The fact remains that they had a great product and almost completely botched it. It's like a Hail Mary that hits the receiver in the hands but lands on the turf. Maybe in a year it'll be better, but I have very little faith left for Cryptic.
Dragon Age Origins: *****
The Good: probably the most polished game I've ever played. It's exactly what I expected out of the leading RPG house with the hype machine of EA behind it.
The Bad: maddening difficulty curve. No good endings. Gratuitous DLC pandering.
Notes: if you like RPGs and haven't played this one, it's well worth it. I'm not kidding about the "no good endings" bit, either. It's super easy to get attached to the characters in the game and even easier to feel bad when bad things (invariably) happen to them.
New Digs
Probably the biggest change was a change of venue at the very beginning of the year. In fact, exactly one year and two days ago. This came with a 400 mile displacement to the northeast, fewer responsibilities (read: hours), and a hefty increase in pay. These are good things. What's not so good is that MA is terribly expensive and while I like the city of Boston, I'm pretty sure there's a special place in Hell being reserved for the area's drivers. If history is any indication, I'm good here for another year.
Modding
To set the scene: I'm in a new and unfamiliar town poor and tired for the moving experience. Is there a more perfect time to catch up on gaming? I think not! Dungeon Siege 2 + expansion were OK--I was happy enough to finish them anyway. Then a new co-worker recommended a tiny indie game involving swinging swords from horsebacks onto unsuspecting peasants. Well, sign me up! Mount & Blade is an excellent game which can usually be had for a steal. It's got some interesting mechanics, but...well parts of it just don't seem right. The good news is that it can be modded!
Taleworlds built the game with a fairly powerful scripting language and have in fact built most of the game logic in it. To anyone with some time, an interest in fixing/extending the game's features, and a bent to programming, just about anything is possible. I sunk a good three months into it and was fairly pleased with the results. Now retired, I'm hoping that their upcoming multiplayer expansion is cool enough to catch my interest again.
Diet
This is a controversial one, mostly because the conventional "wisdom" has been drummed into us for so long. I've been doing the paleo diet which is mostly the same as Atkins but also shuns the hyper-processed badness which pervades our ubiquitous mega-marts. If you want to know more about it, I'm sure you can find it if your google-fu is righteous.
Atkins worked for me; it worked really well but ultimately I'd get stuck in a crunch or get stressed out about something and that'd be the end of it. There was also the horrible crashes I'd get during the first couple weeks which I couldn't stand. With this diet, whether it be placebo effect or not, I have had none of these issues and the results have been dramatic.
All told, minus (plus?) the holiday inspired overeating that transpired the last couple weeks, I'm still about 45 pounds lighter than I was in April when I started. That's about 215 right now which is lighter than I've been since undergrad. To make it all the more astounding, most of the weight was lost within the first month and I did it specifically without exercising. The lack of exercise had nothing to do with being lazy (nothing at all).
I could go on about how much better I feel or how my health markers have improved across the board, but I'll leave you with the following thoughts:
- I eat 1.2 steaks per week (on average)
- I can eat bacon any time I want
Cruisin'
I was not a fan of Maryland. In fact, I'm on record proclaiming such things as "I couldn't get out of that goddamn state fast enough." While I'm not a huge fan of Massachusetts either, I will say that the area I live in (right around Gilette Stadium) has some great driving roads. Now that I can drive it without the threat of stalling at every light, it's a heck of a lot more fun.
Gaming
I mentioned the gaming briefly but I'll rate some of the highlights. Some of these are a couple years old but I hadn't gotten around to them yet. These are listed more or less in the order I played them.
Dungeon Siege 2: ***
The Good: the same basic gameplay as Dungeon Siege 1. Simple levels, well-written stories, and linear dungeons.
The Bad: kind of repetitive, just like Dungeon Siege 1. For those wondering, I did like DS1, but apparently I've become less patient in my older age.
Dungeon Siege 2 Broken World: **
The Good: some interesting new gear, some interesting new stories
The Bad: kinda threw out the old stories from DS2 which I thought were pretty good. Seems like it was done by a completely different set of people who didn't honor the original material. This was made all the more striking for me by playing one right after the other.
Mount & Blade: ***, **** with modding
The Good: awesome sandbox gameplay and unmatched mounted combat simulation. The melee simulation is OK, but not substantial. Huge array of mods.
The Bad: no real "win" condition; shallow roleplaying depth.
Notes: because the game is so flexible, most of the shortcomings can be modded away.
Mass Effect: ****
The Good: well-realized universe with believable characters. Even the ones you're not supposed to like are awesome (Wrex4tw!)
The Bad: maddening difficulty curve
Notes: ME2 is probably the game I'm most looking forward to this year and it's out in a couple weeks (woot!)
Champions Online: ****
The Good: some of the best combat mechanics in any MMO I've played. Extremely customizable costumes--look awesome from level 1!
The Bad: questionable design direction, facepalm level bugs, extremely hostile community
Notes: If there weren't a great game poking out of the badness, I'd probably be less bitter about Champions. The fact remains that they had a great product and almost completely botched it. It's like a Hail Mary that hits the receiver in the hands but lands on the turf. Maybe in a year it'll be better, but I have very little faith left for Cryptic.
Dragon Age Origins: *****
The Good: probably the most polished game I've ever played. It's exactly what I expected out of the leading RPG house with the hype machine of EA behind it.
The Bad: maddening difficulty curve. No good endings. Gratuitous DLC pandering.
Notes: if you like RPGs and haven't played this one, it's well worth it. I'm not kidding about the "no good endings" bit, either. It's super easy to get attached to the characters in the game and even easier to feel bad when bad things (invariably) happen to them.
2009/10/22
Champions: Possible Fixes
As I'm in a particularly giving mood, I thought I'd give some parting thoughts on Champions and what they can do to improve it. For all I know, they're already doing some of this in which case I will claim sole credit for those ideas. You can thank me later.
Fix PvP
IMO, it wouldn't take much to fix, really. I'll outline it in four easy steps:
1) Reduce holds/roots/misc effects (like crippling challenge) on players so you can't get completely locked down by one guy. Add immunity timers if you like.
2) Base credit on a threat-like calculation rather than damage so support actually gets something for their efforts.
3) Fix some of the more obviously broken powers like Teleport (still) and Mindful Reinforcement and, I dunno, take your pick of other crap.
4) Refactor the rewards so that PvPers aren't totally down shit creek for playing and enjoying that aspect of your game exclusively.
Beating this into shape really shouldn't take that long if their system isn't stupidly complex or fragile. Cause not like game systems ever are like that or anything.
Add More Missions
More Nemesis stuff, more UNITY missions (preferrably more than the same dozen or so that keep getting repeated now), and more story arcs would all be well received. If I don't have to do every single quest, it opens up a lot more options for people re-rolling because they can't afford retcons. "I did 1-30 in Canada on this guy, so let me do 1-30 in the Desert on the next guy."
I suspect this will get fixed with time. Bloodmoon is right around the corner which is a step in the right direction, but I suspect it arrives too late for a majority of the folks who have already jumped ship.
Fix Teaming
One of the fallouts at the confluence of badness in CO, is that people aren't sticky. In a game where every character can be a tank-mage-cleric, people almost never group up. Despite the fact that people will bemoan miserably (myself included) "required grouping", it is good for your game in the long run. If people don't build lasting associations between each other, the game easily becomes a single player game with annoying NPCs that can just as easily be put back down. You don't want to let your buddies down. Many people will stick out a bad situation longer if they're in it with their chums.
Fixes:
- Increase exp while teaming (currently it splits which makes it stupidly low)
- Fix threat (already in the works--see, I can take credit for that already!)
- Add More 5-Person Content
Add More 5-Person Content
I maintain that Cryptic knows how to make compelling encounters. They need more of this--a LOT more. And now that they have a pile of data on how people actually play the game, they can do a lot more with increasing difficulties. If it requires a reasonable 5-person team to complete more than a handful of compelling stuff, then there's reason for people to form longer-lasting relationships which, as asserted above, is a win for the game long-term.
I would think that a set of five really challenging new L42 missions (like Mandragalore and Andrith) would be enough. Make them sequentially harder. Make them keyed off one another for all I care, just put them in there so PvE minded folks have something to look forward to until you raise your level cap/add your next big free expansion/whatever. Challenge the people with uber solo builds to change them to be more group friendly. Give people a reason to explore the interaction between different powers amongst your group (auras anyone?) and you will give folks a reason to stick around.
This does require a pretty substantial change, however:
Make End-Game Rewards Worthwhile
No one but the most completionist minded people are going to grind UNITY gear the way it is now. It's 250 points for each of 6 secondary slots and 1000 points for each of 3 primary slots. You can get *maybe* ten UNITY merits a day. That isn't going to cut it. Furthermore, people aren't going to grind the UNITY missions just to get to Mandragalore and Andrith when both are bugged if they also don't have drops/quests/whatevers worth grinding for. There is zero reason to have the three crystal requirement for a one time use key to get into one of these. None. I'll negotiate this point when the stupid bugs get fixed and the loot becomes worthwhile--but not a moment sooner!
Add Decent Crafting
We already get (randomly) a tiny number of super uber awesome things to craft with from our daily UNITY missions but can't do anything with those. We stockpile these in the hopes that they actually do something with them which I have no doubt they will. These have to be worthwhile no matter what happens. If the crafting rewards are worthwhile, people have another reason to grind UNITY missions so long as the mountain isn't too high. That puts it past the tipping point: "oh, I can run and get a handful of UNITY badges which is kind of lame but I really want the Q. Essences so I can craft my Boots of Uber Sexy by the end of the week!" Yes, I think that would be enough.
As the inimitable Kruunch points out, if they don't have a fire lit under them right now, they need one and in a hurry. The longer it goes without being fixed, the more subs they're going to hemorrhage. Even though I'm probably throwing in the towel soon, I hope they get it straightened out.
Fix PvP
IMO, it wouldn't take much to fix, really. I'll outline it in four easy steps:
1) Reduce holds/roots/misc effects (like crippling challenge) on players so you can't get completely locked down by one guy. Add immunity timers if you like.
2) Base credit on a threat-like calculation rather than damage so support actually gets something for their efforts.
3) Fix some of the more obviously broken powers like Teleport (still) and Mindful Reinforcement and, I dunno, take your pick of other crap.
4) Refactor the rewards so that PvPers aren't totally down shit creek for playing and enjoying that aspect of your game exclusively.
Beating this into shape really shouldn't take that long if their system isn't stupidly complex or fragile. Cause not like game systems ever are like that or anything.
Add More Missions
More Nemesis stuff, more UNITY missions (preferrably more than the same dozen or so that keep getting repeated now), and more story arcs would all be well received. If I don't have to do every single quest, it opens up a lot more options for people re-rolling because they can't afford retcons. "I did 1-30 in Canada on this guy, so let me do 1-30 in the Desert on the next guy."
I suspect this will get fixed with time. Bloodmoon is right around the corner which is a step in the right direction, but I suspect it arrives too late for a majority of the folks who have already jumped ship.
Fix Teaming
One of the fallouts at the confluence of badness in CO, is that people aren't sticky. In a game where every character can be a tank-mage-cleric, people almost never group up. Despite the fact that people will bemoan miserably (myself included) "required grouping", it is good for your game in the long run. If people don't build lasting associations between each other, the game easily becomes a single player game with annoying NPCs that can just as easily be put back down. You don't want to let your buddies down. Many people will stick out a bad situation longer if they're in it with their chums.
Fixes:
- Increase exp while teaming (currently it splits which makes it stupidly low)
- Fix threat (already in the works--see, I can take credit for that already!)
- Add More 5-Person Content
Add More 5-Person Content
I maintain that Cryptic knows how to make compelling encounters. They need more of this--a LOT more. And now that they have a pile of data on how people actually play the game, they can do a lot more with increasing difficulties. If it requires a reasonable 5-person team to complete more than a handful of compelling stuff, then there's reason for people to form longer-lasting relationships which, as asserted above, is a win for the game long-term.
I would think that a set of five really challenging new L42 missions (like Mandragalore and Andrith) would be enough. Make them sequentially harder. Make them keyed off one another for all I care, just put them in there so PvE minded folks have something to look forward to until you raise your level cap/add your next big free expansion/whatever. Challenge the people with uber solo builds to change them to be more group friendly. Give people a reason to explore the interaction between different powers amongst your group (auras anyone?) and you will give folks a reason to stick around.
This does require a pretty substantial change, however:
Make End-Game Rewards Worthwhile
No one but the most completionist minded people are going to grind UNITY gear the way it is now. It's 250 points for each of 6 secondary slots and 1000 points for each of 3 primary slots. You can get *maybe* ten UNITY merits a day. That isn't going to cut it. Furthermore, people aren't going to grind the UNITY missions just to get to Mandragalore and Andrith when both are bugged if they also don't have drops/quests/whatevers worth grinding for. There is zero reason to have the three crystal requirement for a one time use key to get into one of these. None. I'll negotiate this point when the stupid bugs get fixed and the loot becomes worthwhile--but not a moment sooner!
Add Decent Crafting
We already get (randomly) a tiny number of super uber awesome things to craft with from our daily UNITY missions but can't do anything with those. We stockpile these in the hopes that they actually do something with them which I have no doubt they will. These have to be worthwhile no matter what happens. If the crafting rewards are worthwhile, people have another reason to grind UNITY missions so long as the mountain isn't too high. That puts it past the tipping point: "oh, I can run and get a handful of UNITY badges which is kind of lame but I really want the Q. Essences so I can craft my Boots of Uber Sexy by the end of the week!" Yes, I think that would be enough.
As the inimitable Kruunch points out, if they don't have a fire lit under them right now, they need one and in a hurry. The longer it goes without being fixed, the more subs they're going to hemorrhage. Even though I'm probably throwing in the towel soon, I hope they get it straightened out.
2009/10/18
Champions: The Ugly
That's right, kids, I can't do one of these without an "Ugly" post. So here it is, and it's not pretty. Look away if you must.
The Cryptic Live Team
I'm at a loss to recall a company that has fielded a live team as poor as Cryptic. I say this remembering the foibles of DAoC (some of them my own), the disaster that was Vanguard, or the tremendously disappointing Age of Conan. City of Heroes was a live team disaster and Champions follows eagerly in its footsteps.
And what precisely do I mean by "live team". Typically when an MMO ships, sometimes a number of months after, there's some shifting around. At some point you need to be thinking about the next Big Thing (TM) and that means rolling off some of your key personnel from the last Big Thing (TM). This leaves a number of designers, QA, GMs, whatevers. This is also when you get the best and most useful data about how the unwashed masses actually play your game. Typically this goes with "adjustments" which the same unwashed masses refer to as "nerfs".
Cryptic has done the worst job I have ever seen of rebalancing their games. The Cryptic I remember from CoH had Invuln tanks hiding in dumpsters because they couldn't take the alpha strikes from minions and lieutenants. Think about that. Invuln tank...hiding in trash cans...because they can't take the alpha strikes. Sure, they may have gotten it right later, but how did they miss that?
Following in their own footsteps, at one point a few weeks ago, they "accidentally" doubled the damage for all mobs in the live game. Wait! Was this an ops bug? Did someone bobble a merge? No! It was broken on their public test server for an entire week. Did no one report it there? No! It was reported pretty much as soon as people logged in there! How did that go live? Who dropped that ball?
How about some of their big nerfs?
Teleporters can get out of any jam through status effects and at a sliver of health in a way that you can't shoot at them. This made them unkillable in PvP. Do you think that breaks the competitiveness? Do you think that makes TP a must have for PvP? The fix? Make them not able to teleport out of status effects. Now they're only nigh unto unkillable.
How about mini-mines which was doing 4x too much damage. Four times too much damage? Really? How did this not get caught in beta?
How bout Mindful Reinforcement that is a shield that heals the target for an amount proportional to the shield remaining after some short period of time. Sounds great, right? How bout when it's broken to the point that it drops a 2500 point heal on the target even if the shield is broken? Sound good? Maybe too good to be true? It's still that way on live but will almost certainly be nerfed and nerfed hard in future patches.
Their missteps are bad enough but would be mitigated greatly by players having the ability to easily rebuild characters broken by wide swings in rebalancing which brings us to retcons.
Prohibitively Expensive Respecs
Most games call the "respecs". Champions paying homage to its comic roots calls them "retcons". In Champions you pick a lot of really important things way before you really know what you're doing. It's true for me now running the tables on my third character although less so, and it's true for people starting the game for the first time. Remember that this game is a skills based system with open power selection. Remember that it is a tried and true trapping of MMOs and RPGs historically to underspecify game information. Remember that this is Cryptic that doesn't like showing numbers to players.
The problem? You have to retcon your choices in order. This includes stat picks, advantages to powers, powers themselves, travel powers, and characteristic foci (otherwise known as super stats). The cost scales with level so the higher you are, the more expensive it is and the further back you go the more expensive it is. So when you have the least amount of information you're making the most important decisions and if you make a mistake, you probably can't afford to fix it. For me, this is less of a problem because I have the backup of (now) a pair of 40s and all the cash and experience that brings. For new players? They're probably screwed.
So you step out of the powerhouse with your brand new powers that you've chosen with as much care as you can and you go out to fight. Maybe it works out well for a while; maybe it doesn't. Maybe it takes you a couple levels to realize that you really wanted X instead of Y. Well now you're screwed unless you have a sizable cash reserve. To paraphrase one of the guys I played with, it's like someone at the top had a thing for prohibitively expensive respecs.
Why Hate Healers?
I mentioned it in my last post: the game penalizes healers. Like it or not, the holy trinity (tank, healer, dps) is popular because it works. Please indulge me in a brief football analogy. You get big beefy blockers up front, you get your guys who can throw and you get your good hands guys and everything works because each player is specialized for what they do. A few special ones can do two or three things (blocking tight ends and scrambling quarterbacks for instance). MMO roles work the same way. You want your beefiest characters with their oceans of hitpoints keeping the attention of the biggest and baddest uglies and you want your guys doing damage doing as much damage as they possibly can without turning that ugly's sights on them.
In Champions, healing aggro is broken. If you drop a big heal on a tank, you will get aggro. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. You can be in the right stance, you can stack your presence so that you generate way less threat, and your tank can stack presence so they generate way more threat and it just doesn't matter. You will get aggro and unless you're also a tank, you will die.
The devs have said that it's "working as designed" but have already adjusted it down on the public test server. This is a design decision that really shouldn't have ever seen the light of day. We do betas for a reason--it's to sort stuff like this out. You couple that with the day 1 nerf ("rebalancing") of defensive passives and exp and you get a game that's really in disarray on day 1. Bad Cryptic, no Twinkie.
Healing is already a much maligned role. You need them, they need you, and you only really notice them when they fail--whether its your fault or not. The game already penalizes them by not giving PvP or PvE credit, why make it harder on those who choose that role to take one for the team?
Content Holes
I've mentioned the day 1 "rebalancing" a bunch of times already, but in an attempt to call out one of the worst live decisions I've ever witnessed, I'm going to call it out again. On that fateful day they nerfed experience as well. On paper you can get from 1 to 40 doing quests and just quests but like I mentioned before, unless you go out of your way to do every single quest or spend a lot of time in broken PvP, you end up having to grind.
I listed this issue under "The Bad" but it really goes further than that because it's at the confluence of a number of poor decisions. You get your day 1 patch which rocks people on their heels. You get your really awful cost of retcons. Now you get people having to grind in a game that's otherwise very casual friendly. The solution? Now, more than a month and a half after release, we get a set of daily repeatable grind quests some of which are terribly broken. Some of these have stupid requirements "kill 150 X" or "gather 20 X" where the drop rate means you kill the same 150 X and takes up bag space. The kicker? Some of them are broken and don't give any XP! So you're really grinding anyway and people can see right through that. [keyshawn]C'mon, man![/keyshawn]
Broken Content
The table is already set for some very frustrating gameplay and a growing ennui from at least some appreciable portion of the vocal playerbase but let's kick it up that one more notch that makes it look ever so clownshoes. I will point out but two things.
First, most of the last three 5-person instances are broken in some way. I can probably say "all" of the last three 5-person instances are broken but there's one that I've never been to that no one ever goes to. The other two, one at 38, and one at 40, are broken in pretty bad ways. The level 38 one (Viper's Lair) has bugged both times I've been there to the point that the two ending bosses did not attack me at all. That's pretty bad. The broken 40 has a broken boss that pretty much instagibs your entire team within seconds of the pull. Despite the fact that the encounter is soloable if you use some broken powers, this seems bad.
Second, in a single shard game with multiple instances, what stops a raid group from going through and killing all the big world bosses in every instance? In other games we have raid timers which keep people from farming the same bosses multiple times a day. In Champions we have a reverse raid timer. Each big world boss will put an invisible debuff on you which cannot be seen in your interface which turns at least one of each boss's AoE attacks into an unmitigated instagib. The kicker? They stick this on a number of quest mobs. So if you're helping out to kill a big bad for a buddy, you're kind of screwed when you get the quest yourself. Brilliant! Functioning as intended or not, this qualifies from a player's point of view as "broken".
The Cryptic Live Team
I'm at a loss to recall a company that has fielded a live team as poor as Cryptic. I say this remembering the foibles of DAoC (some of them my own), the disaster that was Vanguard, or the tremendously disappointing Age of Conan. City of Heroes was a live team disaster and Champions follows eagerly in its footsteps.
And what precisely do I mean by "live team". Typically when an MMO ships, sometimes a number of months after, there's some shifting around. At some point you need to be thinking about the next Big Thing (TM) and that means rolling off some of your key personnel from the last Big Thing (TM). This leaves a number of designers, QA, GMs, whatevers. This is also when you get the best and most useful data about how the unwashed masses actually play your game. Typically this goes with "adjustments" which the same unwashed masses refer to as "nerfs".
Cryptic has done the worst job I have ever seen of rebalancing their games. The Cryptic I remember from CoH had Invuln tanks hiding in dumpsters because they couldn't take the alpha strikes from minions and lieutenants. Think about that. Invuln tank...hiding in trash cans...because they can't take the alpha strikes. Sure, they may have gotten it right later, but how did they miss that?
Following in their own footsteps, at one point a few weeks ago, they "accidentally" doubled the damage for all mobs in the live game. Wait! Was this an ops bug? Did someone bobble a merge? No! It was broken on their public test server for an entire week. Did no one report it there? No! It was reported pretty much as soon as people logged in there! How did that go live? Who dropped that ball?
How about some of their big nerfs?
Their missteps are bad enough but would be mitigated greatly by players having the ability to easily rebuild characters broken by wide swings in rebalancing which brings us to retcons.
Prohibitively Expensive Respecs
Most games call the "respecs". Champions paying homage to its comic roots calls them "retcons". In Champions you pick a lot of really important things way before you really know what you're doing. It's true for me now running the tables on my third character although less so, and it's true for people starting the game for the first time. Remember that this game is a skills based system with open power selection. Remember that it is a tried and true trapping of MMOs and RPGs historically to underspecify game information. Remember that this is Cryptic that doesn't like showing numbers to players.
The problem? You have to retcon your choices in order. This includes stat picks, advantages to powers, powers themselves, travel powers, and characteristic foci (otherwise known as super stats). The cost scales with level so the higher you are, the more expensive it is and the further back you go the more expensive it is. So when you have the least amount of information you're making the most important decisions and if you make a mistake, you probably can't afford to fix it. For me, this is less of a problem because I have the backup of (now) a pair of 40s and all the cash and experience that brings. For new players? They're probably screwed.
So you step out of the powerhouse with your brand new powers that you've chosen with as much care as you can and you go out to fight. Maybe it works out well for a while; maybe it doesn't. Maybe it takes you a couple levels to realize that you really wanted X instead of Y. Well now you're screwed unless you have a sizable cash reserve. To paraphrase one of the guys I played with, it's like someone at the top had a thing for prohibitively expensive respecs.
Why Hate Healers?
I mentioned it in my last post: the game penalizes healers. Like it or not, the holy trinity (tank, healer, dps) is popular because it works. Please indulge me in a brief football analogy. You get big beefy blockers up front, you get your guys who can throw and you get your good hands guys and everything works because each player is specialized for what they do. A few special ones can do two or three things (blocking tight ends and scrambling quarterbacks for instance). MMO roles work the same way. You want your beefiest characters with their oceans of hitpoints keeping the attention of the biggest and baddest uglies and you want your guys doing damage doing as much damage as they possibly can without turning that ugly's sights on them.
In Champions, healing aggro is broken. If you drop a big heal on a tank, you will get aggro. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. You can be in the right stance, you can stack your presence so that you generate way less threat, and your tank can stack presence so they generate way more threat and it just doesn't matter. You will get aggro and unless you're also a tank, you will die.
The devs have said that it's "working as designed" but have already adjusted it down on the public test server. This is a design decision that really shouldn't have ever seen the light of day. We do betas for a reason--it's to sort stuff like this out. You couple that with the day 1 nerf ("rebalancing") of defensive passives and exp and you get a game that's really in disarray on day 1. Bad Cryptic, no Twinkie.
Healing is already a much maligned role. You need them, they need you, and you only really notice them when they fail--whether its your fault or not. The game already penalizes them by not giving PvP or PvE credit, why make it harder on those who choose that role to take one for the team?
Content Holes
I've mentioned the day 1 "rebalancing" a bunch of times already, but in an attempt to call out one of the worst live decisions I've ever witnessed, I'm going to call it out again. On that fateful day they nerfed experience as well. On paper you can get from 1 to 40 doing quests and just quests but like I mentioned before, unless you go out of your way to do every single quest or spend a lot of time in broken PvP, you end up having to grind.
I listed this issue under "The Bad" but it really goes further than that because it's at the confluence of a number of poor decisions. You get your day 1 patch which rocks people on their heels. You get your really awful cost of retcons. Now you get people having to grind in a game that's otherwise very casual friendly. The solution? Now, more than a month and a half after release, we get a set of daily repeatable grind quests some of which are terribly broken. Some of these have stupid requirements "kill 150 X" or "gather 20 X" where the drop rate means you kill the same 150 X and takes up bag space. The kicker? Some of them are broken and don't give any XP! So you're really grinding anyway and people can see right through that. [keyshawn]C'mon, man![/keyshawn]
Broken Content
The table is already set for some very frustrating gameplay and a growing ennui from at least some appreciable portion of the vocal playerbase but let's kick it up that one more notch that makes it look ever so clownshoes. I will point out but two things.
First, most of the last three 5-person instances are broken in some way. I can probably say "all" of the last three 5-person instances are broken but there's one that I've never been to that no one ever goes to. The other two, one at 38, and one at 40, are broken in pretty bad ways. The level 38 one (Viper's Lair) has bugged both times I've been there to the point that the two ending bosses did not attack me at all. That's pretty bad. The broken 40 has a broken boss that pretty much instagibs your entire team within seconds of the pull. Despite the fact that the encounter is soloable if you use some broken powers, this seems bad.
Second, in a single shard game with multiple instances, what stops a raid group from going through and killing all the big world bosses in every instance? In other games we have raid timers which keep people from farming the same bosses multiple times a day. In Champions we have a reverse raid timer. Each big world boss will put an invisible debuff on you which cannot be seen in your interface which turns at least one of each boss's AoE attacks into an unmitigated instagib. The kicker? They stick this on a number of quest mobs. So if you're helping out to kill a big bad for a buddy, you're kind of screwed when you get the quest yourself. Brilliant! Functioning as intended or not, this qualifies from a player's point of view as "broken".
2009/10/15
Champions: The Bad
Sadly, all is not well in Millenium City...
The Game Is Really Short
Between the initial draft of the intro article and now, I've not only dinged my main up to 40, but I'm within mere hours of dinging a second alt to 40. How can this be? Didn't they nerf the exp on launch day? Yes, they did and no, it doesn't really seem to slow people down that much. On my schedule, it's looking like about 120 hours from level 1 to level 40 if you don't futz around and know what you're doing. I'm sure I could do it faster if I really wanted to, but half the fun for me is trying the same encounters I already know with different builds which leads us to...
The Game Is Really Easy
Very few times have I felt that the game was legitimately challenging once I had the correct build and the correct strategy. This probably isn't a shocker unless you consider that I solo the 5-person instances and most of the world bosses. In fact, this isn't even because I have some esoteric build or some innate penchant for gaming. It's in fact pretty common for people to do this. But wait! Didn't they nerf the defensive passives at launch? But didn't they nerf half of the overpowered powers? Yes, they did, and it's still doable.
On a purely personal note, I think they should nerf a bunch of stuff, but if they do and I can no longer solo 5-person instances, it's a deal breaker for me. The jump in difficulty from 5-person instances to, I don't know, a hopped up +6 level nemesis mission is too great. I liken it to WoW in the Bad Old Days (TM) when the jump from non-raiding to raiding was UBRS to Molten Core in a day when you couldn't easily get blues in every slot. It's that pronounced. So if I can't reasonably solo a 5-person instance, the amount of content I can experience (repeatedly) that's even remotely challenging without outside intervention dwindles to nil. I.e.: deal breaker.
I can get a challenge in Champions in exactly four ways:
- solo a 5-person instance
- pull a pile of mobs which no one has a hope of dealing with because AoEs are limited to 5 targets or less
- pick a build that's hobbled in some way (yeah, right, that sounds fun)
- PvP
PvP Is Hella Broken
I love PvP (I really do). It was one of my favorite things in WoW and as far as I can tell, the only reason to play DAoC. It was OK in Conan. In Champions, it's hella broken. Let me briefly list the ways...
Status effects have no real immunity timers. Holds, stuns, snares, knockback, knockup, it all can be chained with nary a pause. This means that if you're fighting someone with a spammable status effect (and many of them are) you die. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, die right now or in the next 10 minutes if you happen to have Regeneration at a high level. Don't worry, they can keep it up indefinitely.
Healers get no credit. I'm not talking "healers get less credit" I'm talking "healers get NO credit." The entire game is like this, in fact. If you are a healer in PvP as I often try to be, you will get zero points for your contributions at all. If it was your efforts that turned the tide, tough. If it was you that kept the other team score-less, so what? You get nothing. If you don't do significant damage, you get squat and thats just the way it is. Sound broken? It is!
The dynamic range of build power is too high. In WoW, even when massively outgeared (as we usually were), I always felt that we had a chance even if it was small as long as we played better than the other team. In Champions, it seems to be mostly build. If you have a broken build and fight against other broken build teams, I imagine it's a lot more interesting but the game just plain isn't designed for it. If you bring a PvE build into PvP, even one on one you're going to get worked and there's nothing you can do about it. This compounds when you fight PvP groups who all have broken builds and pound even the most resilient of heroes into dust in seconds. No, I'm not exaggerating this.
Lack of gear/cash rewards from PvP. I probably wouldn't have noticed this except that someone else pointed it out to me. You can totally level in PvP as long as you'd like but you get almost no gear for it and you get no cash to buy new gear. You can buy a small amount of gear that might fit your needs if you PvP endlessly and don't mind the unaffordably high cost of these items but that's not really reliable now is it? This is a problem for people who couldn't care less about PvE and is yet another example of why the game isn't designed for PvP. Sorry PvPers, it just isn't.
There's Little Replay Value
Because of the XP nerf at launch, if you don't go out of your way to grind mobs or PvP, you pretty much have to do every single quest. There are indeed, on paper, enough quests to go from 1 to 40 without grinding but if you're not super uber careful about it, you can easily miss one or two levels of experience. In all of MMO-dom that I've seen, I'd have to say that the grindy bits in this game are really, really forgiving, but it stands in stark contrast to the rest of the game which is almost mind-numbingly casual.
This means that if you do bring multiple characters to 40, you will be doing a very large percentage of every quest on each and every playthrough. I expect this to change as they add more content, but at the moment, the point stands. I was going to say "no replay value" but I am playing through it with a different set of powers which is amusing to me from a wannabe designer point of view if nothing else.
No Endgame
So you've saved the world from VIPER and ARGENT and Teleios, and a spectacularly ugly menagerie of career evildoers. As you ding 40 and get your invite to the premier super heroing group cleverly named UNITY, what do you get? You get a bunch of once-per-day missions that can get you a small number of unity points like three or six. Whoa. Hold me back. If you have a small handful of these, you can buy attunement crystals to two (that's right, TWO!) level 40 5-person instances. If you have a thousand of these, you can buy some pretty nice gear. It isn't spectacularly nicer than the stuff I got to 40 in to be honest, and remember that you can only run your half dozen random missions once a day.
So...well...by next April I could buy something...
Riiiiight. Bad desginer, no twinkie. If the margins were thinner, I might be tempted to grind these damned things out, but they really are repetitive and the increase in ability just isn't that compelling.
If PvP weren't so horribly broken, or there were more interesting things to do, or the game was significantly more difficult, I probably wouldn't mind running the UNITY missions so much. But, jeez, that really seems poor. If I were in a more caring and less drunken rage, I might give them the benefit of the doubt "they're not quite finished yet" but it really seems like they didn't put any thought into this.
Here's a tip: add 5 or so 5-person instances that are really hard. I know your design team has the chops to build interesting encounters. Make the last 1% of your character count for something, and stuff these places full of interesting bosses. Put them in a chain with whatever your favorite raid instance locking mechanism is so long as I know I have some challenge to look forward to each and every time I log into the game. Give me a reason to keep sending you $15 a month because...
The Population Is Shrinking
Since there's only one server with each zone split into a handful of instances, it's relatively easy to tell roughly if the population is shifting. Because all the later levels are done primarily in two zones, it's super uber easy to compare populations just by looking at those zones. I can tell you that the top level zones are roughly half to two thirds of what they were a month ago. This corresponds frighteningly well with the end of the first month + one month trial period from launch.
I do know that both Conan and CoH had the same kind of issues. There just wasn't much to do when you hit your last level and both of these games survive today. I've got very little doubt that Champions will be around for a while, but that doesn't make me think for even a moment, that they couldn't have hit it out of the park if they'd paid a little more attention to how people actually play these kinds of games.
The Game Is Really Short
Between the initial draft of the intro article and now, I've not only dinged my main up to 40, but I'm within mere hours of dinging a second alt to 40. How can this be? Didn't they nerf the exp on launch day? Yes, they did and no, it doesn't really seem to slow people down that much. On my schedule, it's looking like about 120 hours from level 1 to level 40 if you don't futz around and know what you're doing. I'm sure I could do it faster if I really wanted to, but half the fun for me is trying the same encounters I already know with different builds which leads us to...
The Game Is Really Easy
Very few times have I felt that the game was legitimately challenging once I had the correct build and the correct strategy. This probably isn't a shocker unless you consider that I solo the 5-person instances and most of the world bosses. In fact, this isn't even because I have some esoteric build or some innate penchant for gaming. It's in fact pretty common for people to do this. But wait! Didn't they nerf the defensive passives at launch? But didn't they nerf half of the overpowered powers? Yes, they did, and it's still doable.
On a purely personal note, I think they should nerf a bunch of stuff, but if they do and I can no longer solo 5-person instances, it's a deal breaker for me. The jump in difficulty from 5-person instances to, I don't know, a hopped up +6 level nemesis mission is too great. I liken it to WoW in the Bad Old Days (TM) when the jump from non-raiding to raiding was UBRS to Molten Core in a day when you couldn't easily get blues in every slot. It's that pronounced. So if I can't reasonably solo a 5-person instance, the amount of content I can experience (repeatedly) that's even remotely challenging without outside intervention dwindles to nil. I.e.: deal breaker.
I can get a challenge in Champions in exactly four ways:
- solo a 5-person instance
- pull a pile of mobs which no one has a hope of dealing with because AoEs are limited to 5 targets or less
- pick a build that's hobbled in some way (yeah, right, that sounds fun)
- PvP
PvP Is Hella Broken
I love PvP (I really do). It was one of my favorite things in WoW and as far as I can tell, the only reason to play DAoC. It was OK in Conan. In Champions, it's hella broken. Let me briefly list the ways...
Status effects have no real immunity timers. Holds, stuns, snares, knockback, knockup, it all can be chained with nary a pause. This means that if you're fighting someone with a spammable status effect (and many of them are) you die. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, die right now or in the next 10 minutes if you happen to have Regeneration at a high level. Don't worry, they can keep it up indefinitely.
Healers get no credit. I'm not talking "healers get less credit" I'm talking "healers get NO credit." The entire game is like this, in fact. If you are a healer in PvP as I often try to be, you will get zero points for your contributions at all. If it was your efforts that turned the tide, tough. If it was you that kept the other team score-less, so what? You get nothing. If you don't do significant damage, you get squat and thats just the way it is. Sound broken? It is!
The dynamic range of build power is too high. In WoW, even when massively outgeared (as we usually were), I always felt that we had a chance even if it was small as long as we played better than the other team. In Champions, it seems to be mostly build. If you have a broken build and fight against other broken build teams, I imagine it's a lot more interesting but the game just plain isn't designed for it. If you bring a PvE build into PvP, even one on one you're going to get worked and there's nothing you can do about it. This compounds when you fight PvP groups who all have broken builds and pound even the most resilient of heroes into dust in seconds. No, I'm not exaggerating this.
Lack of gear/cash rewards from PvP. I probably wouldn't have noticed this except that someone else pointed it out to me. You can totally level in PvP as long as you'd like but you get almost no gear for it and you get no cash to buy new gear. You can buy a small amount of gear that might fit your needs if you PvP endlessly and don't mind the unaffordably high cost of these items but that's not really reliable now is it? This is a problem for people who couldn't care less about PvE and is yet another example of why the game isn't designed for PvP. Sorry PvPers, it just isn't.
There's Little Replay Value
Because of the XP nerf at launch, if you don't go out of your way to grind mobs or PvP, you pretty much have to do every single quest. There are indeed, on paper, enough quests to go from 1 to 40 without grinding but if you're not super uber careful about it, you can easily miss one or two levels of experience. In all of MMO-dom that I've seen, I'd have to say that the grindy bits in this game are really, really forgiving, but it stands in stark contrast to the rest of the game which is almost mind-numbingly casual.
This means that if you do bring multiple characters to 40, you will be doing a very large percentage of every quest on each and every playthrough. I expect this to change as they add more content, but at the moment, the point stands. I was going to say "no replay value" but I am playing through it with a different set of powers which is amusing to me from a wannabe designer point of view if nothing else.
No Endgame
So you've saved the world from VIPER and ARGENT and Teleios, and a spectacularly ugly menagerie of career evildoers. As you ding 40 and get your invite to the premier super heroing group cleverly named UNITY, what do you get? You get a bunch of once-per-day missions that can get you a small number of unity points like three or six. Whoa. Hold me back. If you have a small handful of these, you can buy attunement crystals to two (that's right, TWO!) level 40 5-person instances. If you have a thousand of these, you can buy some pretty nice gear. It isn't spectacularly nicer than the stuff I got to 40 in to be honest, and remember that you can only run your half dozen random missions once a day.
So...well...by next April I could buy something...
Riiiiight. Bad desginer, no twinkie. If the margins were thinner, I might be tempted to grind these damned things out, but they really are repetitive and the increase in ability just isn't that compelling.
If PvP weren't so horribly broken, or there were more interesting things to do, or the game was significantly more difficult, I probably wouldn't mind running the UNITY missions so much. But, jeez, that really seems poor. If I were in a more caring and less drunken rage, I might give them the benefit of the doubt "they're not quite finished yet" but it really seems like they didn't put any thought into this.
Here's a tip: add 5 or so 5-person instances that are really hard. I know your design team has the chops to build interesting encounters. Make the last 1% of your character count for something, and stuff these places full of interesting bosses. Put them in a chain with whatever your favorite raid instance locking mechanism is so long as I know I have some challenge to look forward to each and every time I log into the game. Give me a reason to keep sending you $15 a month because...
The Population Is Shrinking
Since there's only one server with each zone split into a handful of instances, it's relatively easy to tell roughly if the population is shifting. Because all the later levels are done primarily in two zones, it's super uber easy to compare populations just by looking at those zones. I can tell you that the top level zones are roughly half to two thirds of what they were a month ago. This corresponds frighteningly well with the end of the first month + one month trial period from launch.
I do know that both Conan and CoH had the same kind of issues. There just wasn't much to do when you hit your last level and both of these games survive today. I've got very little doubt that Champions will be around for a while, but that doesn't make me think for even a moment, that they couldn't have hit it out of the park if they'd paid a little more attention to how people actually play these kinds of games.
2009/10/06
Champions: The Good
So we'll start out with the stuff in the game that I think is particularly good. The typical disclaimers apply.
Powers
Champions is a skills based game. You pick your powers with a handful of very small restrictions and off you go. You can choose to be a glass cannon, a full support character, or the tankiest of tanks since CoH pre-invuln nerf, or something in between. Want to multi-class? Sure! Want to follow one narrow path? Sure! Want to be good at a variety of stuff? It's all right there for ya, tiger, and for most roles you'll have more than enough power choices to fill whatever loadout you'd like.
Do some combinations suck? Yeah. Are some combinations super-overpowered? Sure! Are most sensical builds viable? You betcha. Champions cleverly gives you a small zone named the Powerhouse where you can somewhat test out your new powers before you commit to them. Furthermore, reverting uncommitted powers is free so other than time constraints, there's no real reason to not pick precisely which powers you think work well. With recent additions to the Powerhouse, there are very few skills which you can't actively try before you buy. Think of it as your one stop shop for superpower test drives.
I think this is a really cool feature. Being able to customize your build to your chosen style of play at a very basic level can be empowering. We'll revisit this point further in future posts since as with most things, it's a double edged sword.
Humor
Champions is bursting at its virtual seams with campy goodness. There are pirates, ninjas, and zombies. There are cowboy robots. There are giant dinosaurs. There are disembodied floating brains. There are sharks with frikkin' lasers on their heads for cryin' out loud. I'm pretty sure you can't go for more than five minutes without a pun or a joke or something in the game, most of which are 80s and 90s pop culture references that I actually get!
While some people don't appreciate this kind of thing, I find it tremendously amusing. It's sort of the return of the classic Sierra humor which I've so missed. It's sort of like being in a Tick comic which, as far as I can tell, is kind of the point. The fact that it isn't a dark, brooding, seething with generic rage kind of game really makes it stand out. It's the sort of thing that I liked out of the Buffy TV series--while it had its dark and serious moments, it never really took itself too seriously. I can appreciate that.
Mechanics
Champions has three mechanics which I hadn't encountered in other games: tap, tap+hold, and block. That doesn't mean that they're specific to Champions (obviously), only that this is my first encounter with them.
A tap power is a typical clicky a la your favorite MMO. Click on the button, hit 3, and fire off some power. Maybe it has a cooldown, maybe it doesn't. A tap+hold is typically a tap power which does something cool but gets progressively better the longer you hold it. Need a short heal to make sure the tank doesn't die? Tap your healing power and heal a small amount. Want to frontload your damage? Tap+hold your biggest DD and blast the goon into smithereens. Don't think of it as "overkill", think of it as "powering them into the afterlife"! There are also maintained powers which apply a per-tick effect, but these aren't especially new.
Block deserves its own discussion so here we go. One of the things that sucked in CoH was that if you fought a big boss and you weren't a tank (or were a tank without a resistance in that damage type) you pretty much got one shotted if you drew the boss's ire. That's just how it was and it was very lame. Cryptic seems to have learned ever so slightly from those days and have added a block power to all characters. If you block as a maintained power, you can reduce the incoming damage significantly as well as avoiding some but not all status effects (holds, knockbacks, whatever). This is a pretty cool thing because if you pay attention, you can usually avoid getting turned into chunky salsa when you get aggro. In fact, the game hits you over the head with it by sticking big colorful marquee over the tops of Big Bad's head when it's about to do something big and bad to you. In fact, most of the non-trivial bads have something like this and while the lesser of these won't kill you outright most of the time, the really big and ugly bads will almost certainly kill you outright if you don't block. So pay attention! Again, we'll revisit this (extensively) in a future installment.
Nemesis
When you get to level 25, you get to design a nemesis. You pick your nemesis's looks, their powers, their minions, and fight them on a semi-regular basis. The minions will jump you while you're out heroing and will occasionally drop a clue which leads to even more hijinks.
I think this feature is a riot. It's a chance to do some interesting storytelling and give the player a hand in writing that story beyond "I killed all the badguys," or "I clicked all the glowies." It takes the antagonist and makes it somewhat personal which I think is a nice touch. Furthermore, these missions seem to be better written and more difficult than your run-of-the-mill solo missions which is a welcome change of pace.
The next logical (and not unprecedented) evolution of this is allowing the player to design nemesis encounters and share them with other people. That, I think, would be spectacular.
Encounter Design
Some of the encounter design is exceptionally well done. The first 5 person instance you get to (Dr. Destroyer's Robot Factory) is full of interesting bits. You get consoles that you have to hit in sequence. You get infinitely spawning mooks. You get a set of super-campy super villain soliloquies and the final encounter is a giant robot. How can you go wrong with a giant robot?! Without going into finely grained details, I'll say that the parts that are good are really, really good.
Powers
Champions is a skills based game. You pick your powers with a handful of very small restrictions and off you go. You can choose to be a glass cannon, a full support character, or the tankiest of tanks since CoH pre-invuln nerf, or something in between. Want to multi-class? Sure! Want to follow one narrow path? Sure! Want to be good at a variety of stuff? It's all right there for ya, tiger, and for most roles you'll have more than enough power choices to fill whatever loadout you'd like.
Do some combinations suck? Yeah. Are some combinations super-overpowered? Sure! Are most sensical builds viable? You betcha. Champions cleverly gives you a small zone named the Powerhouse where you can somewhat test out your new powers before you commit to them. Furthermore, reverting uncommitted powers is free so other than time constraints, there's no real reason to not pick precisely which powers you think work well. With recent additions to the Powerhouse, there are very few skills which you can't actively try before you buy. Think of it as your one stop shop for superpower test drives.
I think this is a really cool feature. Being able to customize your build to your chosen style of play at a very basic level can be empowering. We'll revisit this point further in future posts since as with most things, it's a double edged sword.
Humor
Champions is bursting at its virtual seams with campy goodness. There are pirates, ninjas, and zombies. There are cowboy robots. There are giant dinosaurs. There are disembodied floating brains. There are sharks with frikkin' lasers on their heads for cryin' out loud. I'm pretty sure you can't go for more than five minutes without a pun or a joke or something in the game, most of which are 80s and 90s pop culture references that I actually get!
While some people don't appreciate this kind of thing, I find it tremendously amusing. It's sort of the return of the classic Sierra humor which I've so missed. It's sort of like being in a Tick comic which, as far as I can tell, is kind of the point. The fact that it isn't a dark, brooding, seething with generic rage kind of game really makes it stand out. It's the sort of thing that I liked out of the Buffy TV series--while it had its dark and serious moments, it never really took itself too seriously. I can appreciate that.
Mechanics
Champions has three mechanics which I hadn't encountered in other games: tap, tap+hold, and block. That doesn't mean that they're specific to Champions (obviously), only that this is my first encounter with them.
A tap power is a typical clicky a la your favorite MMO. Click on the button, hit 3, and fire off some power. Maybe it has a cooldown, maybe it doesn't. A tap+hold is typically a tap power which does something cool but gets progressively better the longer you hold it. Need a short heal to make sure the tank doesn't die? Tap your healing power and heal a small amount. Want to frontload your damage? Tap+hold your biggest DD and blast the goon into smithereens. Don't think of it as "overkill", think of it as "powering them into the afterlife"! There are also maintained powers which apply a per-tick effect, but these aren't especially new.
Block deserves its own discussion so here we go. One of the things that sucked in CoH was that if you fought a big boss and you weren't a tank (or were a tank without a resistance in that damage type) you pretty much got one shotted if you drew the boss's ire. That's just how it was and it was very lame. Cryptic seems to have learned ever so slightly from those days and have added a block power to all characters. If you block as a maintained power, you can reduce the incoming damage significantly as well as avoiding some but not all status effects (holds, knockbacks, whatever). This is a pretty cool thing because if you pay attention, you can usually avoid getting turned into chunky salsa when you get aggro. In fact, the game hits you over the head with it by sticking big colorful marquee over the tops of Big Bad's head when it's about to do something big and bad to you. In fact, most of the non-trivial bads have something like this and while the lesser of these won't kill you outright most of the time, the really big and ugly bads will almost certainly kill you outright if you don't block. So pay attention! Again, we'll revisit this (extensively) in a future installment.
Nemesis
When you get to level 25, you get to design a nemesis. You pick your nemesis's looks, their powers, their minions, and fight them on a semi-regular basis. The minions will jump you while you're out heroing and will occasionally drop a clue which leads to even more hijinks.
I think this feature is a riot. It's a chance to do some interesting storytelling and give the player a hand in writing that story beyond "I killed all the badguys," or "I clicked all the glowies." It takes the antagonist and makes it somewhat personal which I think is a nice touch. Furthermore, these missions seem to be better written and more difficult than your run-of-the-mill solo missions which is a welcome change of pace.
The next logical (and not unprecedented) evolution of this is allowing the player to design nemesis encounters and share them with other people. That, I think, would be spectacular.
Encounter Design
Some of the encounter design is exceptionally well done. The first 5 person instance you get to (Dr. Destroyer's Robot Factory) is full of interesting bits. You get consoles that you have to hit in sequence. You get infinitely spawning mooks. You get a set of super-campy super villain soliloquies and the final encounter is a giant robot. How can you go wrong with a giant robot?! Without going into finely grained details, I'll say that the parts that are good are really, really good.
2009/09/28
Champions Online
I let myself get talked into playing Champions Online, and like clockwork, the guilty parties left for Aion (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE). Bastards.
The game's been out for just short of a month and I'm a couple days from capping. In fact, if I hadn't been waiting for the afore mentioned bastards, I would have capped easily already. So just like I did with Age of Conan, I'm going to write up my impressions of the game.
Like most games, some good, some bad, and some ugly. Overall, I think it's a good game and worth a good month. More in a bit.
The game's been out for just short of a month and I'm a couple days from capping. In fact, if I hadn't been waiting for the afore mentioned bastards, I would have capped easily already. So just like I did with Age of Conan, I'm going to write up my impressions of the game.
Like most games, some good, some bad, and some ugly. Overall, I think it's a good game and worth a good month. More in a bit.
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