Thoughts on the Guild Wars 2 Press Beta

No, I was not invited and for that I am sad.  But I have watched a few hours of footage, read a novels worth of impressions and kept up with nearly all the various forum arguments.  Through it all, I have continuously impressed by both Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet.  There has been some tremendous information that has come out in the last week and it almost has me frothing at the mouth.  Below, in no particular order, are random impressions from the Press Beta.

The Guild System

One would expect that a game called Guild Wars 2 might have a pretty robust guild system but this one takes the cake.  All the normal options are there; roster, ranks, guild messages etc. but they have also added a bit to the standard MMO guild interface.  Influence can be gained by every member by doing almost anything in the game.  PvE events, crafting, PvP and WvW all add influence to the guild the character is representing.  And that is where it gets interesting….

Influence can be used to buy everything from PvE political influence, to Keep upgrades in WvW, to Guild banks and Guild armor.  Each upgrade, once purchased, has a ‘build time’ of anywhere from a few days to a week or longer.  This can be reduced further by another influence purchase.

All in all the guild system looks pretty involved and gives a Guild leader plenty of ways to administer and grow his or her guild.  Check out this video for an in-depth look at the Guild system, courtesy of Guild Wars 2 Guru!

The Classes

The best thing I can say about the classes after watching video from the press event is that I am at an even further loss as to what class I want to play.  They all look very fun.  Heck, I hate mage style classes and the elementalist even looks fun to me.

I think the clear winner coming out of the event was the Mesmer.  It looks so fun and fresh.  The abilities all have great animations and the stuff with the great sword is especially impressive.  It looks like a very unique class.  I think my favorite video I have seen with the mesmer is from mmogamer.es, which is a spanish language website.  The video is supposed to showcase some instanced PvP but there are a couple of one on ones with a thief that are just awesome.  Check it out and make sure to watch until the one vs. one starts!

There were a ton of other nice class videos out there and, after watching them all, I think I am still leaning toward the Ranger.  Unfortunately, there were few really good ranger vids out there.  I think the best was this one by Curse Network.

World vs. World

This is what I was most excited about by a long shot.  Thankfully I was not let down.  There was tons of video footage out there detailing WvW and most of it was fantastic.  On paper GW2 is closer to Dark Age of Camelot than anything we have seen, including Warhammer Online.  The maps are huge, the objectives are diverse and there is a lot of strategical depth to WvW.  I love that the walls of Keeps can be knocked down and not just the gate.  I love that the supply system adds some depth to sieges.  I love that there are objectives all over the map and not just Keeps.  I love that siege engines can be placed anywhere and not just on specified spots. I love the Relics masquerading as ‘Orbs of Power’.   I love the look of the map.  I love the trebuchets.  I love the supply caravans.  And I really, really love the siege Golems.

Of course, this is all on paper and reality will eventually rear its ugly head.  Will lag be too bad?  Will players ignore the intricacies of the supply system and just zerg?  Will the instanced PvP content take precedence and make WvW an afterthought for players?  Will players treat WvW like WAR players treated Keep sieges and only attack undefended Keeps?

All of the above are unfortunate possibilities but most of them are community problems and not real problems with the game.  Hopefully the systems in WvW will allow us to skip most of the above unpleasantries.

The biggest worry I have is lag.  There were a number of videos where lag was a major factor in WvW and nothing kills large-scale PvP like lag and performance issues.  Luckily ArenaNet has said that they are still heavily optimizing the engine and we should see major improvements by the next beta event.  Even with that fact, I did see some videos with a noticeable absence of lag.  The best probably being the one below from Yogscast.

I am going to wrap this post up for the night.  However, expect more from me tomorrow about Guild Wars 2 and focusing on PvE, Dynamic Events and the Tombs of Ascalon instance!

Rift and SWTOR

If you read my last post, you may have come away with the thought that I ended up disappointed in Rift.  To the contrary, I think Rift is the apex of post-2004 ‘WoW-Style’ MMOs.  I think Trion did a fantastic job with almost all aspects of Rift, while staying pretty much within the standard quest-hub leveling, raid endgame style of MMOs that we have all seen since the launch of WoW in 2004.

Indeed, Rift has everything one could want in a themepark MMO of this style.  The questing is standard MMO fare, the raids are at least as good as WoW, the instances are fun and plentiful, the graphics are solid.  To top it off, Trion is, without a doubt, able to get new content into the game faster than any other developers around right now.  The amount of content they have gotten into the game since release is astounding.  Simply astounding.

Trion was able to create a MMO that check marked all the proper boxes (questing, raids, instances, battlegrounds, crafting, dailies etc.) while adding some unique twists of their own (Rifts, Raid Rifts, PvP Rifts, Instant Action etc.).    I don’t think there is another themepark MMO out there that has as much pure value as Rift does.  If I was recommending a MMO to someone who had never played a themepark MMO before, I would recommend Rift.  Its quite simple the best themepark style MMO out right now.

I will continue to play Rift for quite a while, even after GW2 releases.  I still find the game fun and Trion is one of the few MMO devs that actually deserves to be supported.  They are a fantastic, hard-working company that seems to care about the product they are releasing and the fans who are buying it.

Trion certainly did not turn the themepark MMO world on its head when they released Rift.  It is too similar to other MMOs to be truly unique but they did create a very feature rich, quality MMO in its own right.  Which brings me to the polar opposite new release MMO: SW:ToR.

A few days ago I mentioned that I was going to enjoy the inevitable fail of Star Wars: The Old Republic and, of course, I had a few people on Facebook and such asking me exactly how I could think that a game that sold as many copies as SWToR could fail.  Quite simply, I believe it failed before it was even released.

Bioware took a mediocre single player game and tacked on a 2004-era MMO on to it and called it done.  The story told in SWToR is okay, I guess, though somewhat hokey and gets less compelling as the levels wear on.  The vaunted cut-scenes get old very fast and are skipped more often than not.  The story is certainly not enough to sustain long-term interest.  To hold a MMO player for any length of time you need a compelling end game and SWToR does not have that at all.

Matter of fact, if you take the cut scenes out of ToR, you would have a MMO that would be regarded as laughable at best.  Very few features, mediocre instances and raids, boring combat, laughably balanced PvP, snoozefest crafting.  Everything about ToR in regards to the actual MMO side is horribly done but because its tacked on to a Bioware single player story it was overlooked…..at least at first.

That is quickly changing.  The general dissatisfaction with ToR is starting to border on hate among most MMO sites and forums I frequent.  People are starting to see what it truly is and are leaving in droves.

I said in my last post that you could take away Rift’s most unique feature (the Rift and invasion system) and you would still have a solid, feature rich MMO.  The same can not be said about ToR.  Take away its most unique feature (the story and cut scenes) and you would have a very, very poor-man’s MMO.

The biggest problem faced by Bioware now is how to address future content.  If they concentrate on releasing standard MMO content then the one feature that they have touted the most gets left by the wayside but if they focus on story the content releases will come much to slowly.  Nothing takes as much time to produce as fully voiced and cutscened story.  Funcom and Sony Online Entertainment both realized this quickly.  It simply takes to long to produce so they abandoned it.  Bioware will come to the same realization.  Either take their time to release the story content and piss off a lot of players with lack of true content or abandon the story content and abandon the one thing they have that separates them from WoW.

I think ToR will end up being the biggest disappointment in MMO history.  Players are already abandoning ship and it will just get worse over the next few months.  When Guild Wars 2 releases it will have a heavy story emphasis as well but it also has a fully featured MMO to support it.  The next few months will not be kind to SW:ToR.

 

 

Global Agenda Review

Before I get into this review, let me say that I stumbled into Global Agenda.  I had heard of it in a vague sort of way but it was never on my radar in any shape or form.  Last week I was looking through You Tube for some WAR PvP videos and I noticed that one of guys who made some excellent Warrior Priest videos had moved over to Global Agenda.  The videos he was making for GA were equally impressive and I decided, on a whim, to give it a try.  The rest of this post details my thoughts on Global Agenda.  Enjoy.

Initial Thoughts

I have a confession to make.  It is something that I am somewhat ashamed of but something I am a bit proud of as well.

I liked Tabula Rasa.

Yeah, thats right, I liked Tabula Rasa.  Strange, I know, but it was a fun game with tons of potential.  Unfortunately, that potential was never even close to being realized.  It was shut down quickly but, despite that, there was the foundation of an excellent game there.  The combat was an intriguing combination of action shooter and MMO.  The graphics were good and the story was interesting.  I was sad to see it go.

Why am I bringing up Tabula Rasa in a Global Agenda review?  Because Global Agenda has a lot of Tabula Rasa in it.  The combat is similar, the weapons are similar and I can feel Tabula Rasa’s influence when I play Global Agenda.

Like Tabula Rasa, Global Agenda has a lot of potential.  A metric ton of potential, in fact.  Will it ever realize that potential?  I don’t know but it is on the right track.  Let’s take a look at the game and see if Hi-Rez studios has improved upon the ideas present in Tabula Rasa or if it is destined for the same failure that TR was.

Classes

Character creation starts with the class decision.  There are currently four classes to choose from; Assault, Medic, Recon and Robotics.  Each brings a different skill set into the game and will appeal to widely varying play-styles.  Here are some thoughts on each class.

Assault

The Assault class is meant to be the ‘tank’ class of the game.  They are equipped with bulky power armor and spend much of their time toting around a mini-gun like the one used in Predator to mow down trees.  Because of this firepower, they are a hugely popular class and they are very, very good at what they are designed for.  They can soak up the damage like no other and, if specced into defense, are nigh impossible to bring down.

Their offensive capabilities are nothing to sneeze at either.  The mini-gun puts out a high volume of fire and includes a slight knockback when hitting enemy characters.  Additionally, they can carry various types of rocket launchers and defensive shields.  They are a complete class.

Spec-wise, they have many options to go with, from defensive heavy, to offensive juggernauts.  All three spec trees are viable, from what I have gathered, and all three are fun.  One of my friends chose the Assault class and, despite hating to play tanks in other MMOs, has specced defensively and he loves it.

Medic

The Medic, as the name suggests, is the primary healer in Global Agenda and, as with most MMO healers, is probably the least played class in the game.  This can not be attributed to the Medic’s effectiveness, they are a very good class, but to the lack of people who like to play healers.

Unlike healing in most MMOs, the Medic must aim his heals at the intended target, which adds some difficulty to the process.  They are equipped with AoE healing “grenades” but their main healing is aimed.  In addition, they have decent DPS in the form of poison attacks.  These attacks consist of grenades, DoTs and melee ‘injections’.  All of this makes for a pretty potent class and I found them a fun and challenging class in my limited time playing one.

Recon

Aaaah, the class I love to hate.  I detest Recons, not because they are not a good class, to the contrary they are a very, very good class.  I hate them because they are the antithesis of my chosen class, the Robotic.  Recon can be very effective, depending on spec, in melee or extreme long range.

They have a myriad of tools to bring the pain; samurai-looking power swords for up close, sniper rifles from ranged and an assortment of bombs, mines and stealth orbs to get in close and do damage.  They excel at destroying Robotic’s turrets and medical stations and are deadly with a sniper rifle.

The class takes a lot of skill to play properly.  Good aiming skills are a must when using the sniper rifle and circle-strafing is a necessity when meleeing.  Don’t choose this class expecting to be pro at it immediately.  Really good Recon players really separate themselves from the pack.

Robotics

Robotics is the hybrid class of Global Agenda.  Able to DPS, off-heal and even do limited tanking, they are very versatile and allow players a wide range of playstyles.  The class bears a superficial resemblance to the Engineer in Warhammer Online but is a lot more effective than the Engineer.

Robotics are masters at digging in on the defensive.  With the ability to drop turrets that do massive damage, they can really make it difficult to take an objective in PvP.  In addition, they can use drones when going on the offensive that do very good damage and can be used to take out opposing Robotic’s turrets.  Finally, they have medical stations they can drop for off-healing and force fields that can be used to block incoming damage.

Robotics are Engineers done correctly.  Mythic/Bioware would do good to give Global Agenda a spin and see how to bring some of the Robotic’s effectiveness over to the Engineer.

Character Creation

Character creation is pretty standard.  Pick a class and then customize their facial features.  Global Agenda has a pretty robust facial editor but it really does not matter.  You will quickly obtain power armor that will cover up that pretty mug of yours and no one will ever see the beautiful face you have created.

One interesting thing about character creation is the naming system.  You only have on name for all of your characters, so choose wisely.  If you name your first character foolishly every other character will have that same exact name.

Tutorial

After creation you are loaded into a cutscene that tells a little of the back story of the world and introduces your character.  The cutscene is well done and is as exciting as initial cutscenes can be.  Fortunately, you have the ability to skip the entire tutorial after the first go-around.

The tutorial itself is fairly standard.  It introduces you to your first weapons, your jetpack and the interface.  It is a quick and dirty introduction and soon dumps you into the game world proper with the begininning of a quest chain and some starter weapons.

The Dome and The Desert

From the tutorial you are placed in a hub of sorts called The Dome.  This is the main (and only) city in the game.  From here you can queue for PvE or PvP missions, visit the Auction House, test equipment in a virtual reality arena, working on crafting and get your hair cut.  For the most part, this is a large virtual lobby from which you queue for missions.  I believe that the original idea for Global Agenda was for everything to be spawned from here and not have any ‘persistent/open’ world at all.  From player feedback, Hi-Rez has decided to move away from that idea and start including more open world features.  From that, Sonoran Desert is spawned.

The Sonoran Desert is a large open-world PvE zone, not unlike a typical WoW PvE zone.  Clusters of quests and adventure areas are dispersed across the zone and slowly ramp up in difficulty.  The Desert is fairly large and looks nice.  The layout is typical of standard PvE questing zones and most will feel right at home out here.  The quests range from typical kill quests to more involved quests and also range from extremely easy to nigh on impossible without a group.

For a first foray into an open zone, Hi-Rez has done pretty good here.  I enjoyed the quests and the zone, while large, was not too large to traverse with my jetpack.  The graphics are nice and you often see sandstorms kicking up around you and the wind howling through.  From what I have seen with Sonoran Desert I am very interested to see where Hi-Rez can take us in the future.

Graphics

Before I go any further with review, I want to talk graphics.  In many ways, Global Agenda reminds me of Aion with what they have been able to accomplish with the Global Agenda engine.  The art style of the two could not be further apart but both accomplish a lot with very little.  Aion has always looked beautiful, despite not having the most advanced graphic engine from a technology stand point.  Global Agenda is the same way.  It looks great and runs flawlessly.

The armor is detailed and imposing when it wants to be.  The laser effects are awesome and the rocket launcher just exudes cool with its effects.  A heavy fire fight is just a joy to behold and looks right out of a movie at times.  All of this comes at a very low price, the engine runs flawlessly for me, even under a heavy load.  I have been in the middle of large fire fights, with turrets blasting away, force fields sprouting up and the Assault class mowing things down with their mini0gun and kept a constant 60+ FPS.  That is pretty impressive in my mind.

PvE Missions

PvE missions can be queued up from level five and are broken up into brackets depending on your level.  The first missions are quite simple and involve only one boss.  As you get higher you will see increasingly more complex missions and they get quite hard.  They do remind me of standard MMO instances in many ways but the addition of FPS-style combat and ranged tanking make the familiarity passing at most.

The combat certainly changes everything in PvE.  It is very reminiscent of Tabula Rasa and enemies can and will use supressing fire, flank you and retreat if needed.  I think the A.I. is a small cut above the standard A.I. found in MMOs.  The boss fights can be as complex as many WoW PvE boss fights, as each boss has its own special abilities.  Charges, knockbacks, AoE fire attacks, adds and the like all make their appearance.

I want to stress, however, that even though the bosses have similar abilities to your typical WoW boss, the mob A.I. and the 3rd person shooter style combat brings the encounters to an entirely different realm.  I have really enjoyed all the missions have partaken in thus far.

PvP

There are a few different types of PvP in Global Agenda but, thus far, I have only partaken in Mercenary PvP.  Mercenary PvP is a lot like WoW battlegrounds or a typical Counter-Strike map.  Two teams, different objectives depending on map and away we go.

That said, the PvP is fast, frantic and, most importantly, fun. Even better, I have rarely been in fights that did not go the distance.  Almost every fight I have been in has been a fight to the finish, no team has run away with it.  These are very competitive PvP matches.  I think that is helped by the fact that, at least in Mercenary mode, you can only queue yourself and one other up.  No premades running rampant and destroying everything.

The PvP also seems very, very well balanced.  Every class has their place and every class is needed.  Assault to capture objectives, medics to heal, robotics to defend and recons to supply high DPS and destroy turrets and implacements.  Every class is capable of winning the match and being the hero, if played properly.

Closing Thoughts

I stumbled onto Global Agenda and I am very glad I did.  It is tremendously fun and there is a whole lot of potential here.  I do hope to see more persistent zones (both PvE and PvP), endgame raids and a DAoC-style PvP endgame at some point but even without those it is tremendously fun.  The combat is a refreshing change of pace as is the sci-fi setting.  Even better, the game has no monthly sub and can be picked up for only 29 bucks on Steam.  That is a great deal.

I hope that Hi-Rez can make Global Agenda a success.  I really do not want to see it go the way of Tabula Rasa, there is simply too much potential here and a lot of fun to be had.

By the way, I am finishing up my first poor attempt at a PvP video tonight and should have it posted tomorrow, along with a more detailed description of PvP in general and Robotics PvP in particular!

A Most Productive Day

I had the day off from work today and it turned into one of the most fun and productive days I have had in AoC.  I started off around level 22 on my conqueror and was finishing up some quests in Old Tarantia before heading off to the next zone.  I ended up at level 30, having completed scores of quests in the Gateway to Khitai zone.  Not only did I gain eight levels but I had tremendous fun doing it.

Getting from Old Tarantia to the Gateway of Khitai requires a bit of travel and sight-seeing.  From the docks of Old Tarantia, one mus take a ship to Khemi, the capital city of Stygia and from there a ship to Khitai.  The ship to Khitai requires either expenditure of coin or a promise to help protect the ship and caravan on the journey.  Being short on coin, I signed up to protect the caravan.  Hey, free passage is free passage, right?

My Conqueror at the start of his Khitain adventures

Of course, along the way we find ourselves in a canyon area, which is the perfect place for an ambush.  I was enlisted by the Caravan leader to earn my keep and scout the canyon before the caravan proceeded.  Inevitably, I found myself pinned down by archers in the canyon and had to scale the canyon walls to kill each one in turn.  After succeeding in defeating the would-be brigands, I returned to the caravan and we completed the journey.

The first steps in Khitai are the perfect example of just how brutal the Conan world can be.  The first quest area is an ambushed trading caravan pinned down by enemy forces.  Your initial quests are from this caravan, as you fight off waves of attackers, find supplies for the sieged caravan or trek to the Great Wall to ask for assistance.  The quests are nothing extraordinary and are along the same lines of any other quest-based MMO but the story, the atmosphere and, of course, the graphics set AoC apart from other MMOs.  This is a barbaric world, filled with dead bodies, half-eaten corpses and vile death all around.  It is 100% Conan.

The adult-rating holds true in Godslayer

After helping out the caravan, I made my way to a small village surrounded by enemies.  This is the next quest hub and sends you on various quests to help the village residents.  It was here that I was treated to my first gank in Khitai.  Matter of fact, the entire evening was a solid mix of PvE and PvP.  I intend to post more in-depth about my PvP adventures later this evening or tomorrow, so let me get back to the remainder of the evening.

I quested for a couple of hours solo which got me to level 24 or so.  About this time I was invited to a group by a Priest of Mitra.  Figuring a Conqueror and PoM (healing class) was a good combination, I took him up on his offer.  I am glad I did.  For the next six hours we made our way across the zone, finishing quest after quest.  From killing undead Samurai to killing Yak and feeding their meat to a dog, we did everything.  And we had tons of fun doing it.

At the end of the night I joined his guild.  The guild is very small and brand new, they do not even have a city yet, but I figure it will be fun to help grow a small guild and see one built up from scratch.  I look forward to seeing a guild city built and the guild grow into a raiding guild.  It has been awhile since I have been a part of that growth process and I miss it.

We picked up another healer along the way, a Tempest of Set, that I uncouthly killed after mistaking him for a player who had attacked us earlier.  I rezzed him (yes, a tank class with a rez AND a battle rez!) and he joined us for the rest of the evening.

By the time I logged off I had reached level 30 and completed the first set of Khitain gear.  This gear has a totally different look than the other gear in the game and keeps with the Asian feel of the expansion.  I look positively samurai-like at the moment, which is a nice change of pace from other MMOs.

We also set up a time tomorrow night to venture into the first six-man instance in AoC, the Black Castle.  With two healers and a tank, we should not have a problem finding three more folks to head into the castle with us.  I am extremely excited to experience my first “dungeon” in AoC and I will be writing about it more tomorrow night.

I am going to leave you with a few more pictures from my initial taste of Khitai.  I hope you enjoy them!

Khitain vista

The zone is huge and, yes, you can get to the towers back there!

First glimpse of the Great Wall

The Samurai look I ended the night with.

A merry band of travelers: Tempest of Set, Conqueror and Priest of Mitra

AoC and Rise of the Godslayer.

As I said in my previous posting, I have been playing a lot of Age of Conan.  I put it down for awhile right before Godslayer came out and then picked it up again last week.  Before Godslayer came out, I had made the decision to roll on a PvE server in order to learn the melee system.  So, I jumped on Wiccana and rolled up a Conqueror.  This lasted all of a couple of weeks.

I just can not play on a PvE server.  It is too boring.  I like the feel of insecurity too much, I guess.  I missed ganking and being ganked.  PvE servers offer a great community, safety and a faster leveling experience.  But they do not offer danger and that is something I missed very quickly.

After a couple of weeks, I re-rolled (again!) on Cimmeria.  This time I am playing a Conqueror.  I really, really like this class.  He has good survivability, good DPS and is needed in groups.  He is also one of the few melee classes with a 360 degree arc AoE melee ability.  This is making it easier to PvP with him, as I can slowly learn movement and range, while still being able to hit my target.

In addition to the melee AoE, I also have a fire damage banner that functions like a Shaman Totem in WoW.  Drop it and it pulses AoE fire damage.  For a noob learning the movement and combo intricacies of AoC, this helps a lot.

Right now, I am only level 22 as I started completely over.  The game runs smoother than ever and I get great frame rates, even in DX10 with everything up.  The game is just amazing looking.

I have only once ventured into the Gateway to Khitai but the one time I did I was simply blown away.  The area is huge and they captured the brutal feel of the world of Conan perfectly.  The size of the area is the first thing that got me excited and really disperses the claustrophobic feel you can get in the early areas.  It is still instanced based but the size of the zone makes it feel much more wide open than anything before it.

Funcom has seemed to hit a home run with this expansion pack.  There are gripes on the forums about grinding and such but the feel from the community in-game is positive.  The expansion brought back a lot of people and the early levels are brimming with new players, returning subs and trial players.

The future of AoC is looking pretty bright.  If they can keep this momentum up over the long haul AoC will be one of the best MMOs on the market.

Gonna have some screen shots later.  I am trying to wait until I get back into Khitai, as everyone has seen Tortage before!

A short, unfortunate return to WoW.

I mentioned that I tried WoW again at the insistence of some friends on mine from work.  I leveled a druid up (very quickly thanks to the recruit a friend system) and found myself completely disgusted with the game in its current form.  Short list of things that I hated:

• Server community is dead.  No one knows anyone, everyone queues in Dalaran for instances, BGs and arenas.
• Gear score has made the community even worse than before.  Elitism abounds, much of it unfounded.
• Everything is easy mode and homogenized.  Crowd control is a dirty word that no one ever uses anymore in PvE.  AoE pulls are the norm.  Strategy is gone.
• World PvP is non-existant for the most part.

WoW is in a horrible state right now, in my opinion, and I don’t think Cataclysm can fix it.  I found a picture on Keen’s forums that summed up how lacking in atmosphere, community and exploration WoW is right now:

I miss the big, sprawling dungeons that had atmosphere and encouraged exploration.  You could get lost in BRD or UBRS and it was awesome.  The dungeons are now a joke and designed for quick, easy runs instead of immersion.  Fine for some people but not for me.  Having explored the alpha leak of Cataclysm, I can say it gets worse.  Single hallways are the norm there.  Sadly old WoW is dead.

Weapons of WAR (and AoC and WoW and any other MMO I can think of to play!!)

So, I thought I would throw up a post about the gear I use while playing my MMO of choice.  Specifically, my keyboard and mouse.  Most of the time that a blogger does something like this it is to brag about their PC, that’s not what I am going to do.  Suffice it to say, I have a great machine.  I can run AoC with everything up and get great frame rates.  I think most bloggers who play MMOs have decent machines, they almost have to in this day and age. But, just as important is the mouse and keyboard you use to control your character.  So, here is my current items of choice.

Let’s start with the keyboard.  My current keyboard was purchased going on four years ago.  When I decided it was time for a new keyboard I read a lot of reviews.  The Logitech G15 was, and still is, the key of the gaming keyboards for most people.  I really thought about picking one up but decided against it.  Why?  Because at its core, its just a normal keyboard.  Yeah, it has a fancy little LCD but, truthfully, how many people actually want to look down at their keyboard to read information that is normally displayed on the screen anyway?  Just seems like a wasted feature to me.  The macro software is nice but any gaming keyboard worth its salt is gonna have that anyway.

In the end, I decided upon the Merc Keyboard.  Four years later and I am really glad I did.  The Merc has been an excellent keyboard for me.  It is comfortable, with tons of keys in easy to reach places, had great software and, despite the added gaming keys, is only an inch or so bigger than a standard keyboard.  Take a look at it:

The keys to the right are angled just a bit and make the keyboard extremely comfortable.  Every key you could need is in close proximity of the all-important WASD and it is really a joy to use.  No more fumbling around for a key because it is too small or at an odd angle from WASD.  All the keys are large and easy to get to, even the three on the upper far right.

It took a bit of getting used to but after I did it controlled amazingly well.  I really can not imagine going to any other keyboard after using the Merc.  I had a Belkin N52 gaming device for a long time and it worked fairly well but I hated having another peripheral on my desk and having to move my hand completely away from it to type a message.  The Merc has all the features of the N52, while staying a single device.  It is truly a glorious keyboard.

I have used the Logitech G5 mouse for nearly as long as my Merc.  It is an excellent mouse but it recently started giving me trouble and was not as responsive as it used to be.  Thus I started looking for a replacement.  My original intent was to pick up another G5, I mean it had served me well, why change?  However, while I was looking around the Razer Naga caught my eye and, on a whim, I picked it up.  I am very, very glad I did.  Take a look at this beauty:

Yes, there are really twelve buttons on the side of the mouse!  Pretty crazy, huh?  At first glance, you would think that this would be a really awkward mouse to use but its not.  Not after getting used to it at least.   Really, my biggest problem while getting used to it was the shape.  The G5 was a “high-profile” mouse and your hand set up pretty high when using it.  The Naga is fairly low-profile by comparison and I had to get used to a whole new feel.  It took a few days and in those few days my hand cramped something fierce.  But now I find it to be an extremely comfortable mouse.

The keys on the side I found to be fairly easy to use.  The 1-6 buttons are the easiest to get to, so I use those for all my most used abilities.  I use 7-12 for less used abilities.  I can even hold down control on my Merc and use one of these buttons and double the number of possible buttons I have on the mouse.  In conjunction with control or shift the 12 buttons become 24 or 36.  All of these, and my Merc, mean I do not ever have to click anything on my screen.  Ever.

I found this combination extremely handy in button intensive games like AoC.  Even in WAR or WoW, they come in extremely handy.  I click nothing, I hot key everything and I never have to look at my setup.  I know it by feel.  It makes things much easier for me.

So, what’s your setup?  You use a standard keyboard and mouse or something fancier?

A Journey to a Decision

As detailed a bit in my last post, I have abandoned my Bear Shaman at level thirty.  Not because he was not fun nor because he was not powerful, to the contrary he was a very fun class and quite powerful, but simply because I have not mastered the Age of Conan mêlée system enough to handle a class as complex as the Bear Shaman.  I felt lost at times, especially during PvP.

So, I have decided to slow it down a bit and pick an easier class.  I will come back to my Bear Shaman soon enough and hopefully be well-versed enough in the game that I can play a bit more effectively.  To that end, I needed to pick a class to play and concentrate on.  I needed to find one that was fun and easier to pick up.  One that would take me to eighty and beyond.  I spent the last week trying various classes and leveling each of them.  I have finally come to a decision but first I want to detail each class I played and my experiences with each.

Tempest of Set

Leveled to eighteen

Strengths:

• Class is a healer so is always in need.
• Despite being a healer, the class can put out a lot of DPS.
• Easy to pick up and play.

Weaknesses:

• Incredibly boring to play at first.
• A bit squishy at low levels.
• No combo system.

Conclusion:

The ToS would be a fantastic class in WoW.  Or LotRO.  Or Aion.  Or any other MMO.  But in AoC it lacks the combo system, which is the single biggest differentiator between AoC and any other MMO.  Other than the healing, which is AoE like the Bear Shaman, the class would feel right at home in WoW.  Now this is not necessarily a bad thing and the class does get better as you level, but at low levels it is very boring.  You have basically two attacks; a lightning strike and a charged blast.  Both have the same animations and do single target damage with “splash” damage.  This makes the class very dull at low levels.

I know this changes at around thirty when you get “Stormfield”, which is an AoE centered around your character but at low levels it is very underwhelming.  The melee system in AoC seems so alive and this, by contrast, just seems “same-old-same-old”.

Assassin

Leveled to 20

Strengths:

• A lot of damage.  Very quickly.
• High aptitude for stealth.
• Did I mention a lot of damage?

Weaknesses:

• Freud would have a field day with this but daggers are very underwhelming.  Just not big and mean enough!
• Daggers also have the smallest reach of any weapon in the game.
• Not a heck of a lot of survivability.  Hit and run.

Conclusions:

The Assassin was a very fun class to play.  He pulls off the “stealth” thing better than the WoW Rogue and without feeling like a “cheap” class as the Rogue does with his stun-locks.  They put out a lot of damage, very quickly but are also very squishy.  Hit and run is the name of the game with the Assassin.  However, despite the potential of high damage, I had problems with control.  Daggers have no reach at all, meaning that you have to be right on top of your target to damage them.  No problem in PvE but in PvP I would finish a combo only to find I had wasted it on thin air.  While not as complex as the Bear Shaman, that alone made the Assassin a very challenging class to play.

Herald of Xotli

Leveled to 20

Strengths:

• Melee combat with stellar AoE damage.
• You get to turn into a demon.
• Best of both worlds; magic and mêlée.
• You have a huge two-hander (Freud again?) to deal out damage.
• You are a raving lunatic running around with a burning sword!

Weaknesses:

• Light armor, so very squishy.
• Only one truly viable feat tree.
• Demon form bugs a bit and you change back only to find your character is now bald!

Conclusions:

I had a blast on the HoX.  Charging into battle with a flaming monster of a sword, breathing fire and turning into a demon.  You can’t beat that!  The two-hander provided reach so the mêlée system was easier to pick up and the fire breath AoE was devastating.  I really, really liked this class.  The AoE made the class easier to play even though it used the combo system.  All in all, I really enjoyed the HoX.

There were a few downsides however.  First, there is only one viable Feat tree.  The viable one centers on the magic side of HoX and the demon-form mêlée tree is, by comparison, very underpowered.  All of the must have feats are on one side, making the other side anathema to HoX players.  This is very unfortunate and will hopefully be rectified soon.  Secondly, the demon form will bug occasionally causing graphic glitches and disappearing hair.  Not a big deal but irksome at times.

Ranger

Leveled to 19

Strengths:

• Lots of DPS.
• A very good stealth class.
• Tracking.
• Familiar feel.
• Powerful in the beginning.

Weaknesses:

• OP in the beginning but levels off by endcap.
• Lots of them around.
• Not neccessarily needed for groups.  Do good DPS but other classes can fill that niche.

Conclusion:

I felt right at home with the Ranger.  The class uses the combo system that mêlée does but still feels like a hunter/ranger type class.  Having played a hunter in DAoC and a hunter in WoW, I felt completely within my element.  Rangers are the king of low level PvP.  Their stealth combined with their ability to track make them excellent in PvP and ganking.  Their ability to use crossbows and bows also give them a number of playstyles and feat specs to choose from.

They start out like gangbusters in the early game and are certainly on top of the heap for low level PvP, however I have read that they come back to earth by level 70 or so and end up as a middle of the pack class.  Nothing wrong with that really and I have heard that talented Rangers can still defeat any class out there.

I also like that you get to use the combo system while still being ranged.  It certainly gives the Ranger an edge for me when compared to the ToS or the other ranged classes in the game.  He is different enough to stand out for this reason alone.

Conqueror

Level to 20

Strengths:

• This class and the barbarian are the classes the mêlée system was designed for, total annihilation with multiple weapon types.
• Lots of Armor and defense with good damage.
• Lots of group and personal buffs.
• Complex without being overwhelming.

Weaknesses:

• Not DPS but not a full tank either.  Can not use a shield.
• Totem-like flag system needs fights to stay in one area for full impact.

Conclusion:

As you can see, not a lot of weaknesses here.  The conqueror is an extremely fun class that feels at home in just about any situation. I could jump right into the mêlée in PvP and feel like I was actually doing something.  The buffs the Conqueror gives are phenomenal and they can really add to the team.  Although not the best tank from what I have read and heard, they can tank and especially off-tank, both in 6-man instances and raids.

So, those are the classes I played over the past week.  After sizing them all up, I had narrowed it down to three: Ranger, HoX or Conqueror.  I finally threw out HoX because of its survivability and the one broken feat tree.  This left me with Conqueror or Ranger.  Both very good classes and both classes I had fun with throughout the leveling process.

So, which one did I pick?

Well, I will be telling you that tomorrow, as well as giving a full report on the classes and my adventures with it thus far.  Please check back then and be sure to leave your guesses or suggestions in the comments!!

Further AoC Impressions: The UI, Quests and PvP!

Following up my earlier post on AoC, here are my further impressions on other aspects of the game.  I am going to talk a bit about the UI, Quests and PvP.

The UI in AoC is….adequate.  At best.  For a game with such a complex combat system, the UI is certainly lacking.  I believe this might be a sacrifice to the possible X-Box AoC port and they developed it with the port in mind.  There is a serious lack of customization options available.  You can not resize any of the UI and you are unable to move the targeting windows around.  In addition, the UI takes up a large chunk of screen real-estate.  I enjoy a minimalist UI design in my MMOs.  Keep the size and function of the UI as invisible as possible.

In WoW most of my bars were completely invisible and my screen only displayed the mini-map, the targeting windows and the group windows.  This is not possible in AoC.  Luckily, there are a number of UI mods out there and I am experimenting with them at the moment.  I hope to find one I like soon but I really hope Funcom improves the UI in the upcoming expansion.

Questing in AoC is just like every other MMO out there, though the stories might be a bit more interesting.  Much of that is because of the world.  Hyboria has always been an interesting intellectual property and it certainly strengthens the quest lines in AoC.  The cut scenes are fairly cool but, again, they are something I do not need. There is a bit of traveling involved which, coupled with the amount of instancing, can get a bit annoying.  Still, I am having a lot of fun overall and I enjoy the quests.

Now for the all-important PvP.  I rolled on the Cimmerian server, which is a PvP server.  In AoC that means that, other than the cities, you can be attacked almost anywhere, by anyone. There are no factions, so you really have to be on your toes.  You can consider no one friendly and you have to watch your back constantly.

My first experience in PvP was not out in the world but in the mini-games, AoC’s version of Battlegrounds.  They are very enjoyable and not unlike WoW at all.  The only problem I had with them is how infrequently they popped at my level.  I think a lot of this, at low level at least, is because the queuing interface is so difficult to find.  It is tucked away in a screen that you would never know was there, unless you went looking for it.  I would imagine a few new players miss it entirely, which really could cut down on the number of pops at low level.

The first mini-game I entered was a standard “capture-the-flag” affair.  I, of course, entered the game and found myself in a PuG against a pre-made.  Aaaah, memories of WoW!  We were summarily annihilated and I had very little chance to do anything at all.

The other three games I played were in a mini-game called Totem Torrent.  This is a bit different than any BG in WoW.  Basically, the two teams have to just kill each other.  At each end of the playfield there are totems, which can be destroyed.  If your teams Totem is destroyed, your team can no longer respawn after death.  Which means it is only a matter of time before you lose.  Alternately, you can simply concentrate on killing the other team until the timer runs out and the team with the most kills wins.

Again, upon entering, I found myself in a PuG against a pre-made.  This time was different, however.  We beat them.  Three straight times in fact!  We decided to simply defend our totem and not attack theirs at all.  They tried multiple times to attack the totem and we pushed them back every time.  They changed tactics and tried to lure us away from the totem but we stayed disciplined and did not allow it.  In the end, every game was a massacre.

We were also lucky in that we had three healers.  Myself, another Bear Shaman and a Priest of Mitra were able to keep our team healed pretty well.  It took some getting used to as far as healing is concerned.  I am so used to targeted healing but all the Bear Shaman’s heals are AoE or cone effect.  Indeed, I believe all heals in the game are like that, so you never have to target the player you want to heal.  Because of this, positioning is very important and took some getting used to.

So far my strategy with the Bear Shaman is to stay at the periphery of the fight and rush in after battle is engaged.  Keep my HoTs up and help finish people off.  What I heard about the Bear Shaman is true; they are slow builders.  You really feel inadequate at low levels, before your heals get stronger but, at level 20, he is starting to come into his own.

Of course my first PvP experience was marred by what I call “new-player” lock up.  You know, when something new happens and you suddenly forget what every key does and what order to push them in?  Yeah, that was me.  It happens most often in PvP, until you finally figure it out.  I stood there and watched myself die, all the while muttering:

Oh shit, what do I do?  What do I press first?  Damn….I’m dead.

After that first experience, I slowly started to figure it out.  And I had fun.  A lot of fun.  The games went quickly and my machine handled them like a champ, with nary a hiccup.  I am so proud of my little PC!

Other than the mini-games, my only other PvP experience was a coupla higher level ganking me, though there was one really interesting and fun encounter.

I was about to zone into the sewers for a quest and I saw a Bear Shaman that was two levels higher than me standing at the door.  I parked myself at the door (outside the instance is non-PvP) and went to get a drink.  When I came back he was gone.  I figured he had went inside so I zoned in and prepared myself to get jumped.

Upon zoning in, I heard the sounds of battle and found myself watching the level 21 BS laying the smack down on a couple of level 12 players.  Being the awesome person that I am, I could not allow that!  So, with a mighty battle roar, I launched myself into the fray.

With only a few hits, and the help of the two level twelves, I had the Bear Shaman down to a sliver of life.  Of course, he decided at that moment that discretion is the better part of valor and made for the zone exit.  Ah-ha! I was ready for this and this time did not lock up.  I used my Ferocious Smack.  This ability does a bit of damage but, more importantly, knocks the target down.  The Bear Shaman promptly landed on his ass and I finished him with my Shrewd Blow.  Even better, it ended up a fatality and I knocked his head off his shoulders!

Triumph!!

The two level twelves thanked me and I zoned out to the save zone to take a quick break.  When I returned I saw that the level twelves had just zoned out and were both at less than half health.  Of course, the Bear Shaman had jumped them again after I left.  They invited me to group and we went Bear Shaman hunting.

We zoned back in, only to find the Bear Shaman gone.  Heading down a ramp and into a bigger room we ran into the Bear Shaman.  He initially only saw my group mates and he charged in, only to find himself on the receiving end of my massive Warhammer.  He tried to get up the ramp and escape but I blocked him off (collision detection ftw!) and we ended him again.

This time he griped in the general channel about how I was ruining his fun and that I should leave him to gank the level twelves in peace.  Oh, the irony….

That’s it for now.  I will probably post more later but now I am heading back to Hyboria!

Impressions of Age of Conan

Age of Conan has been out for quite awhile but I am just now giving it a shot.  Because it has been out for so long, I am not going to go in depth with a lot of the features of AoC but, instead, give my overall impressions of the game.  I downloaded the demo version just a few nights ago and I am currently level 17 on my first character, a Bear Shaman.  I am almost done with the Tortage area, I believe, and should be heading to Cimmeria soon.

I had done quite a bit of reading while I waited for the huge demo to download and had pretty much decided on a Bear Shaman.  A big brute that uses a huge two-handed hammer and calls on the spirit of bears to heal and strengthen him?  Come on, how can you go wrong with that?

After the download finished and I got into game, I found a decently deep character creation system.  You find yourself on board a slavers ship, where you pick gender and race first.  Bear Shaman can only be Cimmerians, so that was an easy decision and since I rarely play female characters, this decision was easy as well.

From there you pick a basic face type and body type, as well as body and face “markings” (think of the warpaint in Braveheart!), to go with it.  After that, you are able to choose eye color, hair style, facial hair and hair colors.  All very standard but it works well.  You also get to pick body  type, so you can be short and fat or tall and skinny or anywhere in-between.

Next comes even more individualization, as you can tweak every aspect of the body and face type you just decided on.  Sliders for making your arms more muscled, your cheeks more pronounced or your nose more crooked.  By the time you are done, you have a pretty unique looking character.  My end product looks like a metal guitarist on steroids, with long black hair and big, thick sideburns.

Done with that, I named my character and headed off into the world of Hyboria.  And what a world it is! You are initially treated to a cut-scene, which shows your character stranded on the isle of Tortage after your ship is caught in a massive storm.    Washed up on shore, you are greeted by some old dude who tells you the basics of the where/when/why of the story.  The story is actually decent and the voice-acting is superb, surprising for a MMO.

The first thing that will catch any new player of AoC a bit off-guard is how amazing the graphics are in the game.  I messed around with the settings quite a bit and played in both DX9 and 10, at various detail levels.  It doesn’t matter where you set it, it looks amazing. Interestingly, it also ran well at every setting, though on max in DX10, I was only getting around 40-60 FPS.  I finally settled on DX10, with a few of the options set down a bit.

The detail in the game is stupendous.  Textures are convincing and look better than any MMO I have ever played.  Rocks, trees and water all look breathtakingly real.  Diving below the waves is a real treat, with light rays fracturing as they hit the surface of the water and diffusing down below.  It is all almost overwhelming.

Just as important, if not more so, than the technical side of the graphics, is the art-direction.  Technically good graphics do no good in a game if the art-direction is not there.  For an example of good art-direction, one only has to look at WoW.  WoW certainly does not have the best graphics engine in the genre but their art-direction is phenomenal and makes up for it.  I still remember walking into Stranglethorn Vale and being amazed at this jungle environment.  It felt like a jungle, not because every tree and leave looked real but because the art-direction was so good it felt that way.

AoC has both.  An amazing graphics engine, coupled with great art-direction.  This is the most realistic jungle I have ever traversed in an MMO.  Bar none.  Everything about it screams quality and talent.  Funcom outdid themselves with this game graphically.  They really did.

But, who cares about graphics if the game is not good?  Not me, I will tell you.  Well, I am happy to say that, so far, AoC is not disappointing me in that area either.  The game plays much different than any MMO out there.  The combat system is truly unique and adds a “freshness” to the game that I have not experienced lately in MMOs.  At its core it is still a “button-smasher” but the idea is fresh enough to make you forget that.

Combat is combo based and every swing in combat is controlled.  No auto-attack here.  You decide when you attack and from which direction your attacks are going to be aimed at.  At the start, you have four swing attacks; a high-left, a high-right and a overhead swing.  Your enemy has “shield” icons around him, denoting which side he is concentrating his defense on.  Your opponent guarding his left side?  Then swing to the opposite side or overhead and do more damage.

As you level you will get additional abilities that add to your melee arsenal.  These abilities normally consist of combos that must be “chained” together to complete the combo.  For instance, one may require the starter and then a swing to the left and then it will go off.  At the beginning the chains are short, two keys at most but later turn longer and more complex.  This makes for a high learning curve but also an involved experience.

No more going through your “rotation” while watching your character auto-attack.  Yes, you are still hitting buttons, just like you would in WoW or Warhammer but there is a difference in feel that makes all the difference.  In WoW, if you miss a spell in your “rotation” its not too big a deal…you will just lose a bit of DPS.  If you do not get your combo off correctly in AoC, the entire ability does not fire and bad things can happen.

There are other intricacies in combat that I have not even begun to master.  In addition to your enemy having “shields” that he can move around to different sides, you do as well.  This means if you notice your opponent concentrating his attacks to one side, you can adjust your defense to that side to compensate.  Of course, this leaves you open on another side, so you have to really watch whats going on.  This makes for a very intense combat system and one that, I imagine, is very, very difficult to master.  I would assume that there is a huge discrepancy between the really good player and the mediocre ones in this game.

Adding to the combat is the visceral feel of it.  The animations are superb and blows land with satisfying smacks.  Wading through multiple enemies feels like something out of a movie.  Many fights involve you against multiple enemies and it is a lot of fun wading in and decimating three or four enemies at a time.  Finishing with a fatality is even more satisfying.

This post has went a lot longer than I intended for it to be.  I will post more tomorrow about my impressions of the UI, quests and the all important PvP.