Deeply Delving Dungeons

Fallen Earth is a very interesting MMO. It is one of the few experiences that has opted out of following World of Warcraft’s “casual” example. In many ways the mechanics of the game itself are just as brutal and unforgiving as the post-apocalyptic wasteland that it is set in. With a limited allocation of AP (Advancement Points, used to increase your abilities) at your disposal and an inability to master more than a few skills and attributes it is quite possible to create a character that is unable to take full advantage of its potential. Because you are denied access to many skills early on in the game (the advanced mutation skills which essentially act like magic) it is almost impossible to plan ahead if you don’t take advantage of character planners created by enthusiastic players.

This whole state of affairs is only made more complicated due to a large assortment of quests which provide Bonus AP, some of which are gated behind Faction Reputation. Each Faction has enemy factions associated with it making it almost impossible to play all sides and get all the Bonus AP quests (unless you undertake the supposedly grueling grind involved in “spinning the wheel” in an attempt to build up faction across the board). These faction gates combined with a lack of a respec means that creating the perfect character in Fallen Earth is far more difficult than most players are accustomed to.

As I learned about these details in my early stages I came to grips with the fact that my current character would be tossed to the wayside sometime in the future when I’d be prepared to create one that would be pre-planned, taking into account the many limitations I have noted above. However, I was not really prepared for just how soon that time would come. What follows is a short summation of the journey of Elandarex Mihst before he was sent to that great LifeNet station in the sky.

Continue reading ‘Sacrifices Must Be Made’

With the latest major content patch for LotRO comes a feature for which many have been clamouring for a long time now, that being the ability to solo the epic quests. The epic quest chains in LotRO contain some of the most interesting quests in the game, out of any MMO even. Obviously Turbine had to come up with something for your character to do while the Fellowship does its thing and the ensuing tale is full of interesting characters, twists, and (appropriately enough) epic engagements. Now, while getting a group together to tackle the quests in the epic books (epic quests are separated into chapters which are contained within books which often double as content updates and the books are then contained within volumes representing the overarching stories, just so we’re clear) is great fun and taking on your fearsome adversaries in the company of your fellow adventurers lends a suitably grand feel to the whole experience but most players simply aren’t interested in getting together to do the older books anymore.

Part of the problem is that with the increases in level cap the rewards simply aren’t worth it and with the accelerated level advancement the rewards are often outstripped even at lower levels. A bigger problem than that however, especially with Volume 1: the Shadow of Angmar, is that most of these quests have to be done in order and when you factor in the sheer quantity of quests that need doing, with sometimes more than 10 chapters in a single book, it can be difficult to get everyone onto the same page. This problem is only compounded by the amount of travel time that is required by many of these books (especially Vol. 1 Book 15. Dear god, my main is a class that can “teleport” and has run speed boosts and on top of that I actually enjoy travel, yet that book almost drove me ’round the bend) with the group quests strewn amongst a bevy of solo quests.

Basically, you would run into the following problem a lot: you wanted to do chapter 6 of book 10 (note, I’m not actually referencing the proper quests here) but it’s a fellowship quest so you need 5 other people. You manage to find a couple in the same boat as you but it’s still not enough so you stumble across some other people only one of them is on chapter 3 of book 10 so you need to help them do chapters 3, 4, and 5 before moving on. Another guy has already done the quest but thanks to the Reflecting Pool feature he can still help out and even get some special tokens for running the quest again. Unfortunately, he’s playing with a friend who is on the last chapter of book 9 and won’t help out until his friend is all caught up. You agree to help, somehow managing to convince the other players not to ditch you in the process and you all do the fellowship quest in book 9 that you’ve already done. Now, of course, you have to help the friend out with chapters 1-5 of the book you’re on and because you don’t have a Hunter with you the parts that require traveling halfway across Eriador can’t be completed in mere seconds because you can’t port. On top of that this player hasn’t worked on grinding up their reputation with certain factions so they don’t have the right swift travel options available, causing even more delay. Halfway through chapter 2 the guy who already did the quest says he has to go and his friend goes with him and the group subsequently disbands!

Continue reading ‘Divine Inspiration’

I’m afraid I have a confession I must make. This isn’t easy for me, admitting the depths to which my addiction has sunk, but it needs to said, regardless. I… I am currently playing 4 MMOs at the same time. Surely you think to yourself, “Well, that’s not so bad. Truly avid MMO-goers often have several free to play MMOs going alongside their primary ‘premium’ MMO.” In my case, however, I currently have active subscriptions to 4 so-called “premium” MMORPGs. I know, I know… I need help. What can I say? I love the genre, or rather I love the potential the genre holds because oftentimes I find myself growing weary of an MMO in short order due to (in my mind) lackluster implementation of system, setting, and/or story.

If you look to my “What I’m Playing” sidebar it should be easy enough to see which MMOs I am currently subscribed to. Obviously Lord of the Rings Online is at the top of the list and it will continue to hold that position as I am a Lifetime subscriber. Fair enough, that makes it easy to explain away playing 2 MMOs at once, but it doesn’t explain 4.

Star Trek Online is also on that list and while I may still have an active subscription it will be dropping off my list very soon as I have already cancelled it. If you’ve been reading my posts for this month of February the reason should be clear: I hate this fucking game! I thought that giving myself a break from it for a couple weeks would give me a fresh perspective on the whole affair but I couldn’t even play for an hour before quitting out of boredom/disgust. STO has put such a bad taste in my mouth that I will never, ever, purchase anything developed by Cryptic Studios again, if only because the chances of their adopting an intelligent design philosophy are minimal at best (who knows, maybe they will shape up in the future… I seriously doubt it, though).

Which brings me to EVE Online, the panacea to my STO rage. I haven’t spent much time in-game yet, being distracted by other games and life in general (fortunately that doesn’t stop my skill training which means that the time isn’t exactly wasted, per sé), yet what little time I have enjoyed in that far-flung galaxy has served to mollify my frustrations considerably. Yet even EVE may find itself on the cancellation block soon thanks to the fourth listing on my sidebar. I haven’t cancelled my subscription as of this time but if matters continue to move forward with my latest acquisition as swimmingly as they have thus far I’m afraid I simply won’t be able justify a subscription to EVE Online.

So, Fallen Earth. “Why Fallen Earth,” you may ask yourself. Well, most of the credit for my decision is owed to Syp of BioBreak (currently my favourite blog) who spent a great deal of time and energy late last year shouting the praises of this unexpected gem. What really caught my attention were his many tales of the phenomenal crafting system as I am a big fan of any diversion from the typical humdrum of combat in MMOs. In many ways what he was describing sounded like a blending of pre-NGE Star Wars Galaxies  and Ultima Online, especially with regard to the skill system. So, it being my birthday on Monday, I decided to treat myself with an impulse purchase over Steam, confident that my investment in this title wouldn’t be squandered like it was with Star Trek Online.

So far, it seems that I was right on the money.

Continue reading ‘My First Foray Into Fallen Earth’

Well, it took a little longer than I had intended but I must say it does feel good to be running a freshly formatted computer. The primary reason for it taking long was my thorough use of Windows Update which was possessed of a seemingly limitless supply of updates, with even more appearing as other applications came into being on my fresh install. Normally I ignore Windows updates outside of service packs so I’m hoping that perhaps my patience this time around is rewarded in some way. In any case, I am now back up and running again with only a few more installs of importance that need dealing with before I can just sit back, relax, and bask in my computer’s new-found glory.

There is no unifying theme to this post outside of “stuff that’s happened since my last post,” in case you were curious. Still, I suppose that is still a perfectly valid theme so let’s get on with it.

First thing’s first: Star Trek Online.

When I started the whole process of backing up my old files before beginning the wipe of my hard drive I began to question whether or not I would bother reinstalling STO considering how little I have cared for it thus far. In the end I decided to reinstall it, though it wasn’t so much to get my money’s worth (I don’t consider wasting my time not having fun to be a great cash-in on my investment) as it was because I was infected by a short-term version of that typical MMO nostalgia we are all afflicted with at one point or another. Mostly however, it was because during the process of cleaning up my computer I had started to go through all the old Original Series episodes in air date order on youtube. The enjoyment I got from following the escapades of Kirk and friends was what ultimately convinced me to give Star Trek Online another shot.

Continue reading ‘And I’m Back’

… or Lieutenant Commander as the case would be with me.

Okay, so I finally hit the Lt. Cmd. rank in Star Trek Online today after struggling through the tedium that is the STO mission structure and I was all set to have my mind absolutely blown! So what does it feel like having received a promotion within the Star Fleet command structure?

Meh...

Yeah, kinda meh, kinda how it felt when I first started out the game. Sure, I got a new ship (I decided to go with a cruiser which is what contains the famous Constitution class starship from TNG), I got a new tier of skills, access to new items, and the ability to promote my Bridge Officers (amusingly referred to as BO in STO parlance. Guess there are no showers on board), but none of that really cried out, “The game as you knew it has changed for the better!“. It could have though, if Cryptic didn’t seem to be so terrible at designing MMOs past the character creator (just my opinion, yeah, but there is something seriously wrong with this studio).

Continue reading ‘Fire At Will, Commander…’

Okay, I swear that I will post the final part of my Mass Effect 2 review later today. I actually had it mostly written out already but ended up scrapping it because my lack of sleep had spilled out onto the page. But that’s not the real reason for my lack of discipline.

It should come as no surprise that STO is distracting me from my bloggerly duties, though not in the way that it should. Truth is, I don’t quite know what to make of this game yet. As of this moment I am almost a grade 9 Lieutenant and so far this game is boring me to tears. So why am I playing then, you ask? Well, like many that must be suffering through the early levels I am hoping there is a light at the end of the Lieutenant tunnel in the form of upgrading my ship (which is why I’m playing so much to the detriment of other activities, I want to get these early levels over with!).

As it stands right now I find myself sailing through battle (which is pretty much the only thing to do in this game), employing the exact same tactics every single time, coming out on top without breaking a sweat. I’ve only died once so far and that was because I was dicking around in a Fleet action (sort of like a raid) when I got surrounded by ships that warped in and blew me back to the Stone Age. Other than that combat has been relatively tame and uninteresting, which is a shame because it seems to have a great deal of potential what with the whole juggling of power distribution and balancing of shields and managing fire arcs and what have you. Maybe if there was something else to do it wouldn’t seem so bad but so far every exchange has been pretty well the exact same encounter every time.

This is how STO is making me feel right now.

Continue reading ‘Boldly Going Forth and Procrastinating’

Ah, you just gotta love blogging promises and the painful inevitability of their lack of fulfillment. Join me won’t you as this blog becomes yet another cliche in the sea of cliches that is the inactive blogocube. Of course, this sequel just wouldn’t be complete without another rote promise to write more often, only I’m going to give it a bit of a twist by getting it out of the way right now; M. Knight Shamanamanalan would be proud.

I do hereby most solemny swear and such to not, you know, like, stop writing for a while and stuff so, yeah.

Okay then, now with that most dignified oath out of the way we can proceed into the real substance of the adventure. Guess I may as well start off by saying what I’ve been up to in the world of gaming and cinema of late. I still have yet to beat Dragon Age: Origins, in fact, I’m not much further now than I was when I talked about it in my last post. This is not because I don’t like the game or anything, far from it, as far as I’m concerned DA:O was the best game of 2009. No, the reason I haven’t given myself a chance to complete this epic adventure is manyfold but it all boils down to being terribly distracted.

Continue reading ‘Son of Lazy S.O.B.’

Presenting the first in what will hopefully be a long running series of me running my mouth off about “how I would do things better” in games. As an Armchair Designer I do not have access to any overall build data for the games I will be critiquing and as such anything I say should be taken with a grain of salt. Obviously there is a marked difference between musing about design in games and actually implementing those ideas and in no way do I consider myself better than the talented individuals who bring these worlds to life. Quite the opposite, in fact. Still, I do have some limited experience with game design and development and I know that it is important to be able to take a look at what others think about your work and (possibly) tweak the final design to incorporate these sometimes conflicting sentiments.

Ultimately I am doing this for my (and hopefully your) amusement and would love to hear your own ideas and critiques of my suggestions, whether you make them in the form of comments or your own blog posts. Let’s have some fun!

Now, Lord of the Rings Online holds a special place in my heart, even more so now than it had a mere month previous. A good part of that is due to my joining the Sons of Numenor, but even more integral to my renewed interest is the upcoming digital expansion, the Siege of Mirkwood. I’ve written before about the enticement of visiting Mordor and other revered locales in the long-established world that is Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, and a future Armchair Design session will involve some of these potential areas, so what better way to motivate me to continue playing than allowing me to visit Mirkwood and Dol Guldur?

Well, proposed changes to game systems that are currently somewhat maligned certainly helps as well. Turbine has had to bear the brunt of much dissatisfaction thanks to shoddy implementations of the Radiance and Legendary Item systems; systems that have had a negative impact on other established mechanics such as crafting. Turbine has heard the cries of anguish coming from their subscribers and they have some promising changes coming along with SoM, but is it enough? Obviously there’s always going to be room for improvement and so I will be taking a look at these systems and will attempt to connect them more intrinsically with the lore of the game so they no longer feel like arbitrary game mechanics. But that will be saved for a later Armchair Design session.

I will instead begin by addressing some of the little things that bother me about LotRO. Turbine has exhibited a great deal of attention directed towards what they term Quality of Life Improvements. From their major overhaul to the mount system for SoM to the impressive early zone revamps headed up by Orion all the way down to the admission in their patch notes from Book 8 that it’s the little things that count, Turbine is very much aware of how great an impact these little touches have on the way people play their game. They’re not perfect however, and most of the offending details that detract from my play time are very obvious remnants of aged MMORPG design philosophy that serve little purpose other than frustrating players. I’ll cover those next time as they mainly pertain to questing and grouping but for now I present a series of minor quibbles and little things I think the game could use.

Continue reading ‘Armchair Designer: The Little Things’

It’s been a while hasn’t it? Yeah, sorry about that. I was having problems making updates and couldn’t even view the site for a little while. Those problems stopped some time ago but I just kind of lost some of the fire I suppose. I’ve had plenty that I wanted to write about but just couldn’t bring myself to type. I’m sure many will sympathize with me on this. The other big reason for my absence is a resurgence of my interest in LotRO, but that’s something I’ll get to in a bit.

Before my impromptu review of The Goods I promised more regular posting and while I now know better than to make such a promise it is still something I hope to follow through on. The other thing I promised was actually a series of things in the form of various reviews and articles. I will still be making the Armchair Designer posts as I still feel they’re relevant, especially considering the recent announcement of LotRO’s upcoming digital expansion, the Siege of Mirkwood. The reviews, on the other hand, will be condensed and included in the second half of this post as opposed to devoting full posts to them. This is for many reasons, chief among them being my desire to just get them over with. Also, the webcomic I hinted at is most definitely not happening as I need quite some time to work off my rustiness before I can draw with any quality or speed. I’m just not feeling the story I had planned either.

But enough about that, on to happier and more site appropriate news!

I had intended Deeply Delving Dungeons to be focused on MMO gaming and roleplaying from the onset and I have so far failed in that regard. No biggie, it was never my intent to focus solely on those aspects, but it was still a central element of the site’s theme. Even before I broke out of my writer’s laze (copyright: Kevin Smith) I knew this had to change but I also knew I didn’t really have the fortitude to run a kinship in LotRO like I had planned alongside doing this site and living my life in general. Fortunately, a good friend of mine in-game had recently joined an exceptional kinship that basically had everything I wanted, freeing myself up to just enjoy the game. And so I joined the Sons of Numenor on Landroval server! I have since occupied much of my time with my new friends and look forward to telling many stories about our exploits on here in the future.

Continue reading ‘A Much Belated (And Condensed) Post’

Suzina over at Kill Ten Rats recently made a post about one of the problems with the Radiance gating system in LotRO and how failing to overcome otherwise unrelated content from earlier updates can cause a player to miss out on some of the new content simply because they were unable to obtain the necessary Radiance gear. Now, what is Radiance exactly? Well, it is a mechanic that I both love and hate and something that helps to set LotRO apart from the rest of the MMOs out there and it is something I plan to touch on soon. But for the purposes of this post it can be described as a dynamic character metric that can provide benefits for positive values and steep penalties for negatives values up to and including the complete inability to perform any action for extended periods.

Apart from a few skills, environmental factors, and items, the big way to augment your Radiance value is to equip Radiance gear, which is special armour that provides a small bonus to a character’s Radiance statistic. How do you obtain this gear? Well, there are two ways and they are neither of them easy. The most common method is to run some of a select few instances while taking into account special obtuse requirements such as not killing any enemies other than the main target; this is known as Hard Mode. It is almost universally regarded as a major pain in the ass and requires players to be at the top of their game to accomplish their goal, and even then only one member of the group will gain the token required to barter for the gear in a single run. The other way is to enter into the first major raid in Moria, the Vile Maw, and hope for a lucky drop off of the boss.

So what is the problem with that? Well, this encounter requires that players be in full Radiance gear (of lesser quality than that dropped here however) in order to even attempt this in the first place. The boss here should be familiar with many who haven’t even played LotRO, it being the Watcher in the Water which attacks Frodo and the rest of the Fellowship at the Gates of Moria. Pretty big moment, being able to face down this ancient creature, yeah? Unfortunately, casual players will never be able to experience it, thanks to Radiance gating.

Looks like he needed more Radiance gear.

Continue reading ‘Left Behind’