Wednesday, December 28, 2011

On still not playing SW:TOR

I left a long enough reply here on Raging Monkey's that i'll just link to it rather than regurgitate it here.

Monday, December 19, 2011

On not playing SW:TOR

Well, zero motivation to log in and play SW:TOR today. I actually missed Rift to be honest.

Maybe its exacerbated by playing it virtually solo which is making it feel very much as Gordon from We flySpitfires puts it: "Mass Effect combined with a MMO from 2007."

I started to lose a little interest in the Sith Inquisitor's storyline around Dromund Kaas too. Perhaps it doesn't help that the conversation option of 'And i should give a crap, why?' is so freely available with quest givers. I'm roleplaying that i don't care! Go me! how awesome... oh wait...I actually don't care?

Its like some kind of meta level of 'kill ten rats' quest irony...we know you don't care why, now you get to say you don't care, but then do it anyway! This, in MMOs, is taken as progress. (Okay you can choose to refuse the quest and do something else for the xp, like say, killing ten rats....)

Even a game that impressed me so much as Skyrim i can go a few days in between plays. Some times I'll go long enough between plays that the thread eventually snaps like it did in ME2 and i'll forget the story and any enjoyment i was having with it. It will end up on my list of games that I keep meaning to finish but know I will never actually get around to. Certainly wondering if the same will happen here.

So feeling a little like i may have wasted my money to be honest.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

On SW:TOR - PVP, Crafting and a smidge of Bounty Hunting

My Sith Inquisitor reached level 10 and off i hopped to the new zone eager to try out the crafting systems and PVP in this game.

Before that though, I answered the question of whether the two group quests were infact soloable, the answer being yes, just. It is also possible to skip these entirely, continue with solo quests and still reach level 10 and be on your way to the next destination if you prefer to. It definitely would have been more fun to group of course but with a companion in tow it definitely isn't 'forced' group content.

I initially picked Treasure Hunting for my first 'Crew Skill' which saw my companion bring back a companion benefit (bit suspicious that). I started to skill up Synthweaving with Archeology and realised that i also needed Shadowsilk to progress to the next recipes so I dropped Treasure Hunting for Underworld Trading which will supply it.

Reverse Engineering works similarly to disenchanting or salvaging in other MMOs, returning materials but also giving the chance for blue recipes from REing greens, and Purples from REing blues. I have only created blues so far, with each piece containing an additional stat to the green version. I don't have an excess of blues to RE yet but it seems to be well worth doing so far.

Its an interesting dynamic to have your companion(s) do your crafting for you. The early recipes take about a minute to craft and can be queued up to fuve times. The mission style material retrieving Crew Skills are taking 3 minutes which is time enough to make a cup of tea but not really much of a strategic decision as yet. Remembering to queue something before a Warzone pops being about as strat happy as I've managed so far on that. Once recipes start taking a number of hours then there will be decisions to make if you're also intending to do leveling content at the same time.

Having watched TotalBiscuit's videos of pvp in SW:TOR I have to agree that it really is a lot of fun. It did help that in my first Warzone I topped the damage and kill totals as the lowest level player on my team (smug grin), but even in the second which was more balanced and the third where i was mostly getting owned it was all great fun.

Players do seem to have more health in SW than Rift which at least at this level means no one was getting 1 or 2 shot. I was feeling rather ineffective at times. One of my key skills 'Force Lightning' barely scratching some players but i definitely prefer this to the inevitable whining about OP abilities which would be much more apparent in Rift.

There's plenty of tactics to play with. The key confrontation for me being in trying to maintain distance on a Jedi Warrior by using knockbacks, stuns and slows and yes ,the old MMO PVP run around your opponent in circles is very much alive here.

So a big thumbs up to PVP so far.

I also managed to solo the first Flashpoint all the way to the last 'boss' (yes, if i can solo anything, then i will...) My meatshield companion couldn't take the damage from one of his attacks very well and combined with adds that took a bit of killing on their own I couldn't whittle his health below about 10%. I might have to admit defeat and drag my absent friend into this, or perhaps level past it a little and come back.

I also started on a Bounty Hunter up to about level 5. Initial impressions are that the blaster combat is also good fun and the storyline took a nice early twist. There's also plenty of opportunity for 'saying you did when you didn't' until my nose got extra long and pointy.

I still logged Rift today to knock out the two Kelari Expedition dailies which took all of 10 minutes. I may perhaps be turning into a 'Raidlogger'.

Friday, December 16, 2011

On umm.. yeah SW:TOR

So.. yeah, that bit about not playing SW:TOR....

After 'pre'-ordering it last night i received an email at 8pm tonight granting my pre-release access. Not bad really as I wasn't expecting to be in all that long before the 20th given the belatedness of my pre-ordering.

The download itself was fairly painless. The download speed from the servers was faster than it was actually stating and I have it installed on PC and laptop after a day of afking/Skyriming.

Perhaps rather portentously the email arrived while I was logged into Rift completing the PVP quests for the nth time, laughing that i was receiving credit for closing PVP Rifts by being somewhere in their proximity while not PVP flagged and in general going through the motions, mowing down Stilmoor mobs without too much thought.

Friday nights can be a little quiet, for various reasons, but Rift did feel a little too eerily quiet. And so with the choice of same old, same old in Rift or the new Shiny thing. I chose the Shiny.

Now I have no real expectations for this game. A big reason that I am playing it at all is not to lose contact with a good friend and I promised to level up with him. I otherwise would have happily let it pass me by and waited for Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3. But i have to admit that the opening cinematic was very impressive, getting me in a Star Warsy mood which to be honest, I had totally forgotten, it being several years since i watched any of the films.

So yes, not a Star Wars fangirl. Not a Bioware freak (Mass Effect 2 was fun, but i haven't finished it) Not particularly itching for another Wowalike hotkeyed mmo....

But i gotta say. Its pretty good.

The Good.

The cutscenes had me laughing, cringing, pondering... just basically giving a crap... Very refreshing. I played my Sith Inquisitor as a Captain Sarcasmo type and there was plenty of oportunity for that. Having watched Husky Starcraft play through the same zone, i chose a few different dialogue choices and was pleased with the results. I think ultimately if this game gives me the chance to level one of each class and provides interesting and varied enough story lines for each, then I'd be happy enough with that. I don't have any expectations for endgame or for much longevity beyond that.

The Combat.

Most mobs are connected to several others, so pulling one will usually pull two or three more, resulting in a rather more interesting combat than i was expecting. This is a great idea from Bioware, making the player feel epic and powerful from the start in a very Star warsy (i'm making this a word) kind of way.
My Inquisitor received three initial abilities and a buff and had reached seven when i logged off at level 6. Initially it did seem a little confusing which was which, but things started to come together quite quickly with a hugely enjoyable stun that sends all mobs flying allowing you to get some quick hits in before they recover.

Instanced content.

This works quite well with seamless transition into solo areas containing certain scenes of dialogue or combat. This does solve some of the issues of overcrowding in the starting area and competition for mobs.

Its intuitive and slick.

If you've played other MMOs then you'll pick this up in no time. The map icons are a little different, but the UI isn't as horrible to use as i first imagined. With the general chat in the top left hand corner, its actually easier to ignore which is both a good and a bad thing...

The Bad.

Some of these are very minor like the initial mouse sensitively which is rather high and i haven't found a slider to turn it down (Its not where it most likely should be at least).

It could be the most solo friendly MMO yet. And yes i put this under a bad thing because for those 6 levels other players were nothing but a possible inconvenience to me. In swapping between instanced areas and open world content my reactions were one of relaxing and basically preferring the instanced area, in the same way i enjoy the Chronicles in Rift or soloing old dungeons in Wow.

The was no incentive to interact with anyone else other than seeing a few pleas in General chat of LFG for xxx quest which seemed quite common for two quests in particular. I'll be interested to see if they are in fact soloable when i get to them.

But coming to this game like so many conditioned by Wow and Rift and the normal single player leveling experience i wonder if I will make any kind of connection with anyone whilst leveling or whether the only possibility will be to jump into a random guild and hope for the best.

However, my overall impression is of pleasant surprise. I'm looking forward to the PVP which does look to be good fun. I hope it doesn't have the same issues that fundamentally broke the PVP in Rift. What this means for my Rift time now, I'm not so sure. I'd still like to raid and down all the bosses in Hammerknell but as Star wars and Christmas take twin shots at our raiding numbers, whether it recovers and sees players returning after this inevitable dip only time will tell.

Addendum:

Doesn't work at all on the laptop (dual core 2gigish, no special graphics card) Can't rotate the mouse, zoom or move... I'll put this in the Bad. But also admit, it was a long shot..

Saturday, December 10, 2011

On Skyrim awesomeness #2

My continued adventures in Skyrim and yes, an excuse for more screenshot perving...

Just a mention that my game was patched with the latest update and although rumours abound of backwards dragons, I personally haven't witnessed any as yet. Getting stuck on scenery can happen but you can use the Godmode ` key and TCL to take away collision detection to extract yourself if you have to. None of this is game breaking or has really detracted from my enjoyment of this game though.

<<<<<< Spoilers incoming of course >>>>>>



Climbing the snowy hills to investigate the Blackreach cave.



I used to be a scary mob then i took an arrow to the arse...



Admittedly some of the textures break down on the jagged rocks and in close up, but the views are sumptuous.

'Trade Markarth for Falkreach...hmm what do you think Dragonborn?'

'Lolwut?'

'Should we give them Falkreach?'


'Umm yeah sure, why not..'

'Very well, I find myself persuaded by your arguments...'



Catching a Dragon flight to Sovngarde



The battle with Alduin



To be honest its not a harder fight than any of the other dragons, but it still felt pretty epic.



A satisfyingly spectacular death of course



And here's Tsun who initially needs to be defeated in battle to gain entry to the Hall of Valor, a fight that involved a lot of running away. Now he's friendly, can I take him home? oh Mother may I..?

On Instant Adventure, Hammerknell and finishing Skyrim

With patch 1.6.1 Instant Adventures went live in Rift this week. Currently these are only available in Stilmoor and Shimmersand, previously the highest level areas before Ember Isle launched making it for many older players feel rather odd to be drawn back to these areas after months of farming them having only recently been given a whole new much harder area to explore.

Instant Adventures allow you to queue solo or grouped where you will then be teleported to an area where you will be given a series of quests in to complete in the open world culminating in a final boss fight. Its easy to requeue the group and embark on another. The rewards are some easy xp, loot and up to 5 Inscribed Sourcestones which appears to be the main reason to do it.

Of the two IA's that i joined the final boss of one required a little more tactics with a tank and some healing required, which i think is necessary if they are to be anything more than a wordless zerg through meaningless content. The only challenge to killing level 45s as a level 50 is to make sure that you tag enough mobs to qualify for the reward for each stage. Being able to dip in and out doesn't encourage much communication and easy content will not do so either. I combined one IA with doing the event that was going on in Stilmoor at the same time and players joined and left as it progressed in the same way that happens in normal invasion events.

The general opinion on the forums is 'nice idea, but not quite there yet'. I can see it as a useful quick way to farm a few Sourcestones, and it works as some instant content for players short of time. It definitely needs to be extended to Ember Isle for a tougher challenge for level 50s and perhaps to lower level areas if it would not imbalance the XP gain. (Although having said that, its always been the case that staying to complete any zone very quickly leaves you with green or even grey quests to do and leveling in Rift is very much a rush to 50).

Guildwise we are now 1/11 in Hammerknell, having recently started HK now that we have ROS and GSB more or less on farm. I will post some more on each of the bosses after Sunday's raid where we'll be making a second attempt to down Soulrender Zilas.

I have also completed the main questline in Skyrim. It didn't disappoint. I think I'll do screenshots blog #2 so that i can talk about it there and keep all the spoilers in one place.

After completing this questline you can go back and complete other quests and continue to explore. I'm torn between doing this or rolling another character specializing in magicka and seeing how different an adventure is possible.