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Archive for the ‘Online Gaming’ Category

WAR solves gear issues for healing Zealots/Rune Priests

26 Aug

For a long time (since day 1) I have hounded Mythic make it so that Zealots, Rune Priests (and other healers) could itemize inteligently and functionally for healing without having to do a ton of PvE instances. Up until now, annihilator served as a decent set, but once you hit 40, your first RvR set healing update comes partially in the form of Warlord, and then Sovereign. For almost every healer, PvE instance gear is the standard and the most functional healing gear you can find.

An update announced today will solve this long time problem. Stats will be moving to 1:1 ratio with the heal mode/dps mode mechanic for zealots and rune priests.
I immediately and excitedly hit up WarDB to check out how the RvR sets in the huge gap from annihilator and Warlord would fair as healing upgrades and I was very pleasantly surprised.

I have not included all stats/bonuses, just some key stats for quick reference. Obviously mixing and matching these sets may yield even better results and results more tailored to your favorite bonuses.

Heal Zealot: Sentinel Set
318 wp + 21 heal power
51 tough
100 wnds
5% heal crit

Heal Zealot: Conqueror Set (wow!)
378 willpower +20 heal power
37 tough
112 wnds
8% heal crit

Darkpromise: Heal Mode
352 wp
129 tough
35wnds
8% heal crit

Invader: Heal Mode
341 wp +24 heal power
55 tough
120 wnds
5% heal crit

In summary, it looks amazing, the rvr sets look at least equal to PvE equivalent and depending on your perspective, they may be better. Zealots, like all classes still have a few remaining issues, but I am amazed at the progress they have made recently.

Imo, this should be a pretty huge boost for people looking to roll a healer. I have written in previous articles about how a healer is often a hard sell because of the amount of PvE that is required to gear it properly. Now that you can play the game mainly just doing RvR and stay in top gear for your level, it can’t do anything but make zealot/rp a pretty attractive option.

Set Reference:

Conqueror
1100 armour
144 wp
37 tough
46wnds
12 init
102 int
4 disrupt, 3 ap, 3 magic crit, 2 reduced armour pen, 20 heal pow

66 int
66wp
66wnds
5% magic crit
10% chance to gain 50 morale

Sentinel
1100 armour
144wp
51 tough
34 wnds
8 init
6 wep skill
108 int
11 hate reduction, 14hp, 3 crit reduce, 21 heal power

344 elemental
66 wp
66 wnds
5% heal crit
10% chance on hit to form a 126hp barrier on hit

DP
1209 armour
163 wp
57 tough
35 wnds
11 init
7 wep skill
117 int
3 ap, 3 morale, 2 reduced armour pen, 2 reduced chance to be disrupted, 3 heal crit

72 willpower
5% heal crit
72 toughness
5ap sec

invader
1209 armour
162 wp
55 tough
48 wnds
7 init
8 wep skill
107 int
2 morale, 15 hp, 24 magic pow
3 reduce crit

72 int
72 wnds
5% magic crit
10% on hit to recover 41 hp
+120 increased range

 
1 Comment

Posted in Bioware, Mythic, Online Gaming, Warhammer

 

Character customization great, but needs to be seen by all – warhammer online

13 Aug

I would also like to begin by saying that I really like the way they have implemented appearance altering. I suggested a long while back that they go off the armoury and allow you to set appearances of any item you have unlocked in your tome, but this expands and improves on that in several ways.

However, my focus today is on a pretty big drawback to this addition and that is that it can only be seen by your realm, not your enemies. More directly, this post is aimed at the reason posted today on the items and appearances article. I love all the guys over there at Bioware Mythic, so in a way it pains me to call them out like this, but unfortunately this is part of the reason I created BSD.

A couple years ago, my cell phone company sent me a letter in the mail, saying they were modifying my plan to include some extra charges that were not optional, for my convenience. I got a good laugh out of that because the most convenient thing for me would be to not pay the extra money for the same service.

This snippet from the post today explaining why the enemy realm can not see armour customizations reminded me of that, in part because I feel there is probably a good and valid reason kicking around somewhere why they do not want to implement it as showing to both sides, perhaps a performance issue, but instead we get a reason which seems to imply that players would prefer it this way.

    “In light of the fact that we do not want players to use this system solely to confuse the opposing realm in RvR, the appearance you apply to your equipment can only be seen by players of your own realm. Players of the opposing realm will see the equipment as if no alternate appearance has been applied to it.”

Lets take a look at this from two different perspectives, both the Warhammer tabletop side of it, and the Warhammer Online practicality side of it.

Warhammer Tabletop: While I never played the tabletop version, one of the biggest selling points of the game seemed to be the ability to customize your figurines and paint them as you like. If you were a good artist, you could make them look pretty amazing, if you were not, your army would look pretty rag-tag. Either way, when you played against other people everyone had their customized armies on the board. Would anyone complain that it was unfair that they lost to a poorly painted army because they didn’t expect them to be able to fight as well as an army painted by a professional?

Warhammer Online: Imo, any person that is running into a battle, evaluating the equipment level of the people they are fighting, then adjusting the effort and concentration they put into winning the battle based on that equipment evaluation, deserves whatever outcome they get. Fight the player, not his gear.

Adding the customization should be a patch that adds the tabletop feature of making yourself look how you envision with the different pieces in the game and dye jobs available, but I feel it is important to reflect that appearance to your enemies as well for the full effect of taking pride in doing that to come through.

I really enjoyed the old way of doing things. In DAOC you knew very little about your opponent beyond his race. You had to fight your hardest no matter what and you had to expect the unexpected. With the gear sets and weapon restrictions/itemization in this game and the looks of the characters, most classes are easily distinguished. A bright wizard can not really be mistaken for a warrior priest etc, no matter how you customize it.

In conclusion, I would just say that if the reason posted is the actual real reason and it is being restricted to help the players out, toss up a poll for players and see how it turns out. I know how I would vote and I -think- I know how it would turn out, but I can’t say for sure. What do you guys think out there?

Read all about the appearance changes here: http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=1218

 
6 Comments

Posted in Bioware, EA, Gaming, Online Gaming, Warhammer

 

Want to transfer? Stop paying for 3 months? -Warhammer Online

11 Aug

It seems like many people I know are unhappy with their current server and attempts to move to a different server are all receiving the same response from customer server, “unsubscribe for 3 months and you will be granted a free transfer to any server”. They then incorrectly lash out at the service/support people who are just enforcing the policy. Everyone has a reason why they should be the exception to the rule, but it even one person gets around the policies in place, you can easily imagine the chaos that would come of that.

Obviously a company having a policy where people need to stop paying them for a period of time in order to solve their problem is mind boggling, but there is a reason for it and it does solve potential problems that can arise, I just think it solves it in a crude way that could have improvements or additional options.

If character transfers were allowed for everyone that wanted them, Bioware-Mythic would have no control over server populations and would not even be able to “attempt” to monitor and regulate the gaming experience they want to provide on their servers. Even if it was time restricted, you would still immediately have a lot of high end guilds decide to pile on one server, which snowballs to include alliance/following guilds as well. Even if they detect at some point that people are piling onto a particular server, how can they stop it or cut it off? They would ophan people from their friends/guilds and that would be even worse of a situation.

Any solution to transfers that could be considered by Bioware-Mythic would have to include something that shows a serious comittment by the player that they are not just server bouncing. The demand for a solution to this is definately out there so I hope that ideas and options are being explored.

A few ideas I would kick around:

Allow players to purchase ($$) an unlock for their account for 24hrs, allowing them to move characters between servers in that timeframe.

Pros: -You do not lose a sub for 3 months, and with people dead set on transfering you would end up making what amounts to more then a full boxed product in revenue.
-Most people would happily pay a fee to transfer to get back with friends etc..

Cons:-You lose some control, because assuming you have a lot of players with a bunch of extra money, they could immediately start moving around. The fee amount would need to be carefully chosen.
-You also have an issue with how some players would perceive this. In times like now, where many players feel their servers are unplayable, announcing a transfering fee just seems like the server issues were not solved so that they could grab at money for transfers. I honestly feel for them for this situation, as it would be an amazing solution, but only once servers do another round of population balancing.

Require a player to level a character up to level 25? 40? on their intended destination server and side, which would unlock 1 – single use transfer to that server. Possibly even overwrite/replace the character they leveled up?

Pros:
-You dont lose a sub for 3 months.
-You have the player show a commitment to their intended server.
-Population stats for servers -may- remain more reliable/predictable due to having to roll and level up a character on that server.

Cons:
-None really at this point. It would seem a bit meaningless to some players, but I think most players set on transfering would choose this before unsubbing for 3 months.

 
2 Comments

Posted in Bioware, Gaming, Mythic, Online Gaming, Warhammer

 

High level dropped and repairable items – Warhammer Online

09 Aug

My Warrior Priest on Badlands hit 40 this weekend and I started looking at gear options to try to get him in something somewhat good before working up my RR.

I did a bit of research and searching on the AH to try to find the different search keywords for decent gear and repairable items, for those interested, here are some good keywords to search to try to find some good bridging gear to the dungeon/rvr sets.

Green Quality: Antiquated, Staunch, fallen explorer
Blue Quality: Favorable, Relic, Remnant, Desert Storm, warden
Epic Quality: Priceless, Sandstorm, watcher, primeval, overlord, ancient

Hope this helps out!

 
3 Comments

Posted in Bioware, Gaming, Mythic, Online Gaming, Warhammer

 

BSD Predicts merger will combine US and EU servers – Warhammer Online

02 Aug

I am going out on a limb, but I am going to predict the next round of server merges will mix EU and US players.

If you follow developers and Bioware/Mythic staff comments, you know several statements have been made about how the playstyles of US and EU contrast, and even how they would love to see them collide. Foreshadowing? Who knows, but it makes for a neat prediction.

Combined with Carrie’s comment from the Dev Q/A that seems to imply that Iron Rock (and probably others) are looking at mergers at some point (soon I hope), I think this would make for an interesting way of doing it. It also seems like it would be a great way for the Bioware/Mythic staff to experiment with players like rats on a battlefield.

This is just a unsubstantiated prediction on my part. It may not even be possible to combine a US and EU server due to latency etc.. I am no network engineer.

 
9 Comments

Posted in Bioware, Mythic, Online Gaming, Warhammer

 

1.3.6 Patch Notes – warhammer online

22 Jul

Some definite hits and misses in my first impressions of the latest patch to hit the test servers.

Lets start with the great stuff:
-Item appearances can now be set seperately from the item. Not really sure if this will be tomb unlock driven as I posted, but either way, thumbs up!

-Zealot changes: An ancestors echo added, a way to flip to some damage occasionally and temporarily + more. Excellent stuff and both of those are items I have pushed hard for.

-Stuff to farm for exp in the lakes, bringing more people there. Excellent idea!

Now on to some negatives
-Quitter debuff just stops you from requeueing to scenerios, it is losing its overall effect of reducing renown/exp. This could mean more people bailing from scens, leaving people in horrible scenerio instances.

-No more tovl leveling before level 32. Not sure how I feel on this one. Hopefully the stuff in the lakes makes this irrelevant, but then if all your friends are higher level, they cant really help you catch up in a lake. Could bring back a disconnect between people trying to jump in with some friends.

-Now for the biggest negative. Plans are to nerf the 5pc tyrant buff that gives 50% faster cast speed. For me, this is kind of a deal breaker. I have a long history (check ideas forum) of posting that pvp gear needs to be better or at least on track with PvE obtained gear. This is especially true from a healer perspective where you simply cant outfit to your full potential without doing a crap ton of PvE. I played their game. I didn’t ask for a 5 pc bonus that changes the zealot class to something a lot more fun to be put in a frustrating as hell and INCREDIBLY time consuming dungeon like TOVL, but I went with what Mythic designed and put in to be a good bonus for those that put in the effort and time. To nerf it now just shows that they do not know how to make pvp gear attractive, so instead they make the Tyrant set less attractive and in essence piss on people that sacrificed a lot of time and effort to get it. Anyone that thinks I enjoyed 1 minute in TOVL and wouldn’t have rather been doing pvp for my gear is sorely mistaken. This is going to be a bitter change for me if it doesn’t get handled properly and overturned, at least for healers. I realize Mythic’s -choice- to change close quarters now puts this buff in conflict with it for RDPS classes. Honestly, that is something they should figure out seperate from healers.

Full Notes: http://herald.warhammeronline.com/patchnotes/index.php?id=2010_1-3-6

 
6 Comments

Posted in Bioware, Gaming, Mythic, Online Gaming, Warhammer

 

Thumbs down for Real ID

07 Jul

Just to summarize, Blizzard forums starting in August are planning to have the posters name be their full real name (First + Last), with an optional display of their character name beside it.

I gave myself some time to process this instead of snap judging it. I am still of the same opinion though, this seems like more of a joke announcement then anything real or objectively thought out.

Here are several thoughts I have had on this changes they are hoping to put in:

1) It will reduce posts drastically, which may include a reduction in trolling type posts.

1.1) This will reduce forum bloat, possibly keep people more constructive and require less forum moderation.

2) Trolls/Forum bullys may not be reduced much at all. In my opinion, these types of people would be more protective of their character names in the game then their real names. Unless the point is they should fear reprecussions in real life. In that case, you have to almost say, wtf.

3) Harassment and very serious personal breaches will go up by many times. Just yesterday I was talking to a guild member who in past games had people track down his information and start calling his work, one time with bomb threats, another time accusing him of sending threatening emails with his work account. It is not that this stuff is impossible to find out without it being displayed, but handing them to the information ensures they dont even need to work at it to do it.

4) Privacy concerned people will simply no longer post. This means that in a base of millions of people, they will not be asking little questions and such on the forums, instead using CSR’s and other direct contact methods that won’t put their name out there.

4.1) Privacy concerned people may not understand that how exactly their name gets released, and avoid the games attached to real id altogether, just to be safe.

5) For many, games are a fantasy experience. They act and roleplay in ways that is outside of how they would act irl. Men play female characters, females play males, married people flirt with others and it is all hidden behind a seperate online persona from their personal life.

6) A lot of people do not want their gaming lives attached to their real lives. Professionals in many industries may not want to have a google of their name come up with gaming posts and opinions. Job searchers nowadays WILL google your name and look into your social networking. Looking just from a forum perspective, I assume a lot of these adult/professional people are providing the bulk of the -useful- information on forums.

6.1) Kids may not want other kids to know what games they play or how often. Their online hidden lives are now fodder for bullies.

7) While I think both males and females will have a pretty big dislike for this, I think women will tend to dislike this even more for obvious reasons.

It will be interesting to see if it ends up going through. There are already reports that there are ways to hack peoples full names from the Real ID system. With all the hate I have read so far, it must put some pressure on Blizzard to re-think this. However, if one company could just blatently ignore everyone and just stay their own course, it would probably be Blizzard.

What would be interesting is if Blizzard posted the real name of the champion of this idea. This should give them a pretty good idea of what it could be like for others that are no longer anonymous in an anonymous fantasy world.

 
2 Comments

Posted in Blizzard, Business, Gaming, Online Gaming

 

how much games can I get for this watch – Steam

29 Jun

Steam has recently launched a “stay inside for summer sale”. The timing could not be more perfect as hundreds of thousands of gamers are bouncing around games trying to find something that appeals to them..

Steam has deeply discounted over 200 games and most are 50-75% off with some as high as 90% off. They also have daily deals that change at 10am PST which typically includes some newer release type games.

If you have a lot of money, head to Steam today and load up. If you have no money, do not follow the link in this post. If you can find a dollar, go buy Puzzle Kingdoms which is 90% off and costs $1. It is the most entertaining game you will find for a dollar!

The only thing missing from Steam’s Summer Sale is financing options and a way to hock your belongings for games.

The sale ends July 4th.
Link: Steam Sale

So far this sale I have purchased: Puzzle Kingoms, Altitude, Age of Booty, Avencast, Introversion Pack. Looking to grab Killing Floors and Champions Online soon.

 
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Posted in Gaming, Online Gaming, Software Deals, Steam

 

backseatdev’s warhammer online fantasy expansion

23 Jun

I have been asked several times in discussions about adding content to Warhammer about what I would like to see done. Obviously this is not based completely around realistic requests and I have not spent many hours of careful thought on it, but it is a more put together answer then I usually give when asked this question.

Base stuff for expansion:

  • 6v6 Scenerios: Just add a few of these in. You don’t need to make a ship to fight on, just have Caledor woods 6v6 and Caledor Woods regular scenerios as queueing options. You know what else this does? this funnels “some” premades into the 6v6 queues and away from the people queueing solo for the regular versions of the other scens. The community could also run event nights based on that 6v6.

  • Level Cap to 50: Resets everything in a way. All of a sudden people that were on top for the past 12-18 months now have a new game to play.

  • Add some level 50 gear in, but with limited resources, maybe just use the current gear, but add ways to upgrade the armour, stats and abilities on them as rewards for pvp and pve. (Armour increase shards, special talismans…slots only available for level 50 bound gear)

  • Add a base armour set with maybe only some wounds/toughness on it. Lots of slots for people to customize it as they wish. This fits in great with the change to appearance. Let any armour piece be set to look like any piece of that slot you have unlocked in your tome.

  • 5 more tactic points. 10 more renown points at 50.

  • Make the weekend battlefronts epic. Bring back thunder valley and throw 24 people in there. Make the rewards GOOD. etc..

  • Make high level versions of Gunbad (scale the mobs, rewards etc..)
    Make high level versions of the low level city instances..
    Add a cool arena type instance where your group has to fight off waves of mobs and boss rounds.

Complicated Stuff:

  • Create a new server if it was easier and create a third realm. Dont care how its done. A new server would be a huge reset of the game, and a perfect marketting opportunity to bring new people and old people in and start fresh with the polished game and additional content. Obviously this would be a lot of work, but I think it would have a great ROI.

  • PvP Quests: Add towers/objectives all over the lakes. Have people solo/group get these quests and be sent to take a tower for example. On the opposite end, another realm is dispatched to stop them. (From APB)

I am sure there is other things, but those would be the biggest for me.

 
6 Comments

Posted in Mythic, Online Gaming, Warhammer

 

timing for an expansion – Warhammer Online

22 Jun

People all around Warhammer are pushing for some sort of expansion, asap. New content, fresh things to do, something to bring people back. Start on it now, release it last week.

Is the timing right though? From a business perspective I started thinking about it and I am not so sure. This post will of course be filled with assumptions and theories.

Assuming an expansion is in the works, first off, there is information out there suggesting that no box expansion can be released before the middle of next year. That does not mean there is even one in the works, it is just a note. More likely is a free expansion similar to TOVL, which could come out at any time. If a free expansion was close to being released, I am sure Mythic and/or Bioware would already be hyping it for a fall release. This would put it just before the release of the new Star Wars MMO.

If I was Mythic Bioware, I would make the assumption that regardless of what you release before SWTOR, your going to have a large number of people at least try SWTOR. Meaning if you release an expansion this fall/winter, you will bring some people back, and then take a large dip in subscribers when SWTOR comes out.

If you plan for something ~3-6 months after SWTOR then you would, assumably, have a solid update on a very solid game to draw people to that are not enjoying SWTOR. GW is also scheduled for release early on as well, so if you come out just past both of those, you can possibly grab a lot of players and in a strong marketting campaign that almost acts as a re-release of WAR, it could do very well.

Obviously there is a pretty big risk waiting almost a year to release a large expansion. The biggest risk being keeping minimal subs and profits on a game that many would argue is dying fast due to the lack of growth in the content section. I can only imagine this must be somewhat difficult for Mythic, who are still pouring their heart and souls into this game, but in the broad company scheme, the rate in which it is shrinking and with Bioware releasing its MMO soon, Warhammer is quickly becoming unimportant.

 
8 Comments

Posted in Business, Gaming, Mythic, Online Gaming, Warhammer

 
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