Ask Cryptic! (Excuse me while sit in the corner and laugh!)

Bad Games, Horrid Company

A post on Bio-Break turned my attention to the latest Ask Cryptic feature for Champions Online. I am glad I saw that, I needed a few good laughs today, it has been a tough day at work.

So, that you do not have to go to all the trouble to click on the link yourself, I just copy/pasted it here…with a little bit of my input mixed in. Bet you can’t tell which is which!!

Halorin: Where does Champions Online fit into Cryptic’s plans a year from now? Two years? Three? And what resources are Cryptic willing to invest in the game see those plans to fruition?

Jackalope: We’ve just started working on the next step of widening the Champions Universe and we’ve nailed down our ongoing content plans and how much we can get away with charging for it. In short, you can expect to see new adventures and additional charges every other month (roughly). The content will be far more story based and focused on the background of the game on charging you players more. Meanwhile, we’ve got some other things afoot (and some of you might be able to deduce what that is)[edit--ooh, ooh!!  Me!  I can guess!!] and we’ll talk about it more soon.

So, the first question was pretty good and the answer was what we have come to expect from Cryptic.  (Snicker…)  Next question is another tough one, let’s see what they have to say!

Darth-Log: How confident are you that Champions Online can succeed considering its current lackluster performance and in lieu of upcoming competition? What have you learned, what are your short term considerations and long term goals?

Chronomancer: We remain dedicated to the Champions Universe as long as we can sucker players into spending more money, and we have plans to continue to grow it. While our numbers of players is less than we would like (cause we realllly want more money!), it is also more than several other MMOs that continue to service their communities. The upcoming expansion is an excellent example of our plan  to make the game bigger and better while also addressing the desires of our players.   to milk the players of as much money as possible.

We learned a great many lessons from Champions on how to milk the players of their hard earned cash, and I think you can see some of that knowledge expressed in how we ran our beta testing and approached content creation in Star Trek Online. Game development is continued learning, iteration, and alteration to fit the needs of an ever-changing market. A game that was a huge hit five or ten years ago probably wouldn’t do anywhere near as well today. The interests and demands of gamers have changed. So we have to learn from our mistakes as well as our successes and move forward.

In that regard, we’re going to be focusing more on creating content  to provide multiple paths of advancement within ways to charge players for stuff in Champions Online. The plan is to create more of what you want in makes more money in smaller bites so we can do them on shorter timelines. We also want to provide more ways and reasons for players to group, which is what much of the Flashback and Difficulty Slider work has been focused on.

In the long term, we’re working on creating new stories, game play mechanics, and locales for the Champions universe and, of course, charging for them. We’re increasing our presence in the community and being more open and communicative with you so you know what we’re thinking and working on think we actually give a damn. And perhaps most importantly, we’re continuing to look for ways that we can make Champions a better game.   more money.

Aaah, more honest answers from Cryptic!  They are really taking on the tough questions!  Good for them!  Next question please!

FongSolo: What is Cryptic doing, or even planning behind the scenes to rebuild good faith in the company and this product that many of us paid the lifetime subs for?

Arkayne: Aside from a ton of things that we just can’t talk about right now (because we have not figured out how to charge for it yet), but will be very soon, we’re actively making a couple of changes around here: We’re stepping up the communication, again, to make you feel like we give a damn. We’re going to do more Ask Cryptics (I think we may charge for the next one), more Dev Chats (First one is free, .99 cents a pop after!), we’re going to be in-game, playing with you more (looking for a good time, honey? $2.00 for a real good time!), Our GMs are going to start letting you know the status on the current bugs, and the entire development team is going to start being more active on the forums. On top of that, we also moved Stormshade back to Champions. We know you don’t know him well yet, but believe us when we say, he gets really loud when you guys aren’t happy we start charging too little! Oh, and that “soon” we’re talking about up there, that’s not a “soon(tm)” that’s a soon, as in as soon as humanly possible soon.

I loved the part where he talks about Cryptic giving a damn….so insightful!

Derangement: Are there any plans to eventually include more non-seasonal content as part of a free update, or will you be focusing the revenues from monthly subscriptions on bug fixes and otherwise upgrading the game’s core, while relying on microtransactions for added content?

Stormshade: We have plans to add more free content to the game very soon, not seasonal stuff, and we’ll be talking about that shortly. Are you f@$king kidding me? (Sorry gang, you’re not getting a Valentine’s Day Event, that sh@t costs too much but we do still love you.)

Hrm, well that was straight to the point.  Gotta love Cryptic, such a straight forward company!  Next Question please!

Heathenish: I’d like to know what the relationship between STO code and CO code is. Because this past patch seems like you guys just dropped the “improved” STO engine right back into CO. Seems like a crazy thing to do, but for instance the direction-reversing and crazy camera bugs seem to have come straight from STO beta. Also, are both games sharing the same server? It doesn’t seem fair to have login problems because some other game is flooded.

Poz: Champs and STO share Cryptic’s global services: the chat and mail server, the account server, and proxy servers. The games themselves do not share any servers. As you noted, the account server is what we’ve had some problems with due to Star Trek. Unfortunately, we couldn’t safely change how our system works and split the two games apart there. Many of the load issues are fixed already, and we have programmers whose highest priority is keeping the account server working smoothly.  Meh, both games use the identical engines.  We did it that way so we could be cheap and get around to the important part…your wallet!

Another great answer!  Fabulous job, Cryptic!  Well, the rest of the AskCryptic segment is some mumbo-jumbo about balance and lack thereof and was, frankly, pretty boring.  So, I won’t post the rest here.

I have to say though, it was refreshing to see a company lay it all on the line like Cryptic did in this segment.  Such a great company, that Cryptic!!!

(Disclaimer:  This was a parody.  Cryptic did not really say these things (though I am willing to bet they thought ‘em!), so don’t get your feelings hurt!)

I should have known…..

Wouldn’t ya know it?  As soon as I post my final beta thoughts for Allods Online, they extend the beta for a week.  Not really upset, as it gives me more time to play on my Psion and cement my main character choice.

In addition to extending the beta, they have opened it up for everyone with no key.  So, if you have been on the fence about Allods and never got a key, now is your chance to try it out!

I was browsing over on Keen’s blog today and saw an amazing Astral Ship video.  It was the first Astral video that really made me realize how massive and impressive the Astral ships were.  It also makes me realize how unique this experience is going to be.  It gave me chills as I watched the video and saw how expansive the Astral is and how team work and communication will be needed.  It looks to be a very, very unique experience.

I disagree with Tesh about the teamwork requirement for Astral Ships.  He wants Allods Online to drop the group requirement from Astral ships and, while I can understand the wish for solo content, I think doing that will take away a lot of the “epicness” of Astral Ships in battle and exploration.

I think the main ships should keep the group requirement but a second, smaller, ship should be available for personal Astral exploration.  Perhaps make some Allods solo instances?  That would allow you to own your very own ship and not take away from the grandness of the existing ships.

By the way, I am glad to see my assumption was correct!  Allods Online’s “space” battles are a lot better than ST:O’s.  Like, a metric ton better.  The epic feeling you get from AO’s Astral ships can not be matched in any game, including ST:O.

I find it ironic that, of the MMOs featuring “space” exploration/combat, that ST:O is a distant third.  Behind Eve and AO.  But, then again, it serves Cryptic right!

So, this is the company you ST:O players want to support?

Bad Games, Horrid Company

I had a good laugh after reading this article over at Massively talking about Champions Online’s latest patch and upcoming expansion.  Let’s recap that article a bit:

• Cryptic releases a massive patch, according to them over two months worth of fixes.
• Patch was supposed to fix the massive lag, especially in Lemuria.
• Instead patches causes even more lag.
• Not only did it not fix the lag in Lemuria, many players who were in Lemuria can not even log into the game.
• Crafting is now useless, as crafting something takes the materials but doesn’t give you the crafted item in return.
• Now the pièce de résistance: Cryptic announces a new mini-expansion that adds a single new zone to the game and then announces that it is a PAID mini-expansion.

Yeah, this is a great company.  This is one I know that I want to support. You know, I can handle the patch bugs, though I would think a patch two-months in the making would actually work a bit better, but expecting your subscribers to pay for a mini-expansion?!?!

Even the lifetime subscribers are going to be expected to pay for this.  What the f#&k?!?!

Despite all the mistakes Mythic made, Land of the Dead was free.

Despite all the mistakes Aventurine made, Conquer the Seas was free.

Yet Cryptic, a company that has made as many or more major mistakes, expects everyone to pay for a mini-expansion?  This is totally ridiculous.  The game is losing subs at a rapid pace and this is what Cryptic thinks will keep them coming back for more?

Yeah, great customer relations Cryptic.  Good for you.

You folks planning on buying Star Trek: Online should be ashamed of yourselves.

For once I can sit back and watch…..and laugh.

I went through it with so many MMOs.  I went through it with Anarchy Online.  I went through it with Age of Conan and Star Wars Galaxies and Warhammer and many more besides.  Now, for once, I can sit back and watch other poor saps go through it.  Go through what, you ask?

MMO dreams being crushed.

In this case, I am talking about Star Trek: Online and all the incoming fail we are sure to see when it releases next month.  All the fans are about to be knocked senseless with the massive failure that will be Star Trek: Online at its release.  It will approach epic proportions and I get to sit back and watch.  For once, I have nothing invested in an incoming MMO failure.  This time, it is all fun and games for me.

All the warning signs of total failure are there.  Every last one.  Yet, few will admit it, just like they didn’t admit it before Warhammer released, or Age of Conan or every other MMO that released and failed.  Let’s examine some of these warning signs, shall we?

• Unstable servers in beta, with the standard excuse of “Well, we did not expect the turnout we ended up getting.”.
• Laggy performance and low FPS.
• Massive patch shortly before release, with little to no testing.
• An announcement that content was going to be pared down or cut entirely a few months before release.  With WAR it was the capital cities, with ST:O it was the Klingon faction and its PvP limitations.
• Many of the players who profess to actually like the game always seem to throw in the caveat “There is a lot I don’t like about the game.  But, hey, it’s STAR TREK!!! Exact same thing happened in WAR.

All the warning signs are there, but most just choose to ignore them and plunk down their $50, just like a good MMO player.  I mean, isn’t that what we have done for years?  With every MMO that has released since WoW?  Nearly every MMO that has released has been buggy at release and an unfinished game.  Every time it happens you find yourself wondering why they continue to release half-finished and a quarter tested.  Why do the MMO devs keep doing this?

Then you see the thousands of players who buy the game on release day, only to find another buggy mess and you realize that the real question is:  Why do WE keep allowing it to happen?

But, for once, I can sit back and watch and I will laugh.  Oh, how I will laugh.

Why adding a third factions to WAR won’t work and why “fleshing” out Klingons is doomed to fail as well.

DAoC was a better game because of the three factions.  Each helped to balance the others.  If one faction got too powerful, the other two would work together to bring them down a notch.  The cycle repeated itself time and again.  It was a powerful inherent equalizer, that worked wonderfully.

In two faction combat, the only way to balance is with artificial and, ultimately, superficial balancers.  Increased XP, better loot and other “perks” to the unbalanced side.  This does not work for a myriad of reasons, chiefly because no one wants to re-roll just because the other faction is now getting advantages.

Now everyone that plays WAR wants a third faction.  I agree that a third faction would help game balance tremendously and get rid of the artificial measures, such as the Underdog system, that they are using.

Unfortunately, at this stage, it will not work.  Adding a third faction, at first glance, sounds fantastic, but let’s think about it for a bit.  If you add a new faction, the guilds and community will be torn apart.  Imagine that half of your guild wants to join the new faction and half does not, what do you do?  Alliances will take a huge hit and break apart.  The entire community will go through upheaval.  In addition, at least initially, a huge chunk of the server will choose to go to the new faction.  The “newness” of the faction will cause it to be “flavor-of-the-month” thus inhibiting balance even more.

Consider that WAR has already had tremendous community upheaval already, having to merge servers at a rapid pace tends to do that.  I know when I re-upped my WAR account a couple of months ago, I had again been assigned a new server.  I have had friends who have had to move servers upwards of seven times and each time killed their guild and friend list a little bit more.

The same can be said for the Klingons in ST:O.  Originally, the Klingons were supposed to be a complete second faction, with PvE and PvP available to them.  Just like the Federation.  As release drew near, Cryptic realized that they could not do this on time and, instead, made Klingons a PvP only faction, similar  to Monster Play in LotRO.  Promises were made that they would flesh out Klingons and make them a true Faction in the future.

So, now they expect everyone to play Federation mostly and jump unto Klingon every so often for PvP.  As the Klingons get “fleshed” out, they then expect Guilds to make the decision of whether to stay Federation or make the move to Klingons.

What?

You want us to decide whether to abandon our hard work on Federation and go Klingon?  Thus uprooting the guild and causing

And so will ST:O with its release state.

havoc in the community?  Now to be fair, ST:O is a one server game, so you may indeed be able to play both on the same account and server, but still.  That is just ridiculous.

Cryptic should have bit the bullet, pushed the release date and finished the Klingons.  While they were at it, they should have fixed the horrible lag, endless bugs and terrible gameplay.  But, no, it is just the latest example of a horribly rushed MMO from Cryptic.

I guess I should not be surprised.

By the way, there is a great post from Angry Gamer about the latest “State of the Game” address from Cryptic, located right here. He sums up my feelings about Cryptic and the messes they continually create pretty well.  Take a look and enjoy!

Star Trek:Instanced….I mean Online….no I mean instanced.

With the Allods Online beta down, I was a pretty sad MMO’er.  I have kept a fairly constant diet of Darkfall the last few days but I also like having a “themepark” MMO to play occasionally and Allods has filled those shoes admirably.  So, after it went down I started searching for something to tide me over.

1. WAR.  Meh.  I gave it a real shot but I just don’t think I can ever return for the 10th or so time.

2. WoW.  Dead to me.  DEAD.

3. AoC.  I almost reupped this, until I realized that I had uninstalled it and I really did not want to have to download and install it again.  It would take too long.  In retrospect, I should have just redownloaded it but I had no idea what I was about to get in to, with ST:O.

So after scanning my options for a bit, I remembered that the ST:O beta was now open.  Actually I did not remember it, a little birdy reminded me.  As I have said in a previous post, I am not a huge Star Trek fan but I do like sci/fi and a good sci/fi MMO would be great.  So, I grabbed a key, created an account and started the download.

At 125-250 kbps.  Seriously, this was the slowest download ever.  I jumped on to File Planet but the speeds there were no better and I refuse to pay a subscription to File Planet so that I can download a “free” Open beta at faster speeds.  So, I went to bed and let it finish.

After I got home from work yesterday, it had finished, so I got ready for some sci/fi action and logged in.  Here are my first (and most likely last) impressions from Star Trek: Instanced.

Character creation is what you would expect from a Cryptic made game and this is to say pretty impressive.  Tons of options.  You can create a known species, like Vulcan, Human or Trill or you can make your own.  Thousands of different looks are available.  Different skin tones, facial ridges, strange horns and other crazy features are all available for your character’s face.  If you want a hideous female monstrosity

Aforementioned ugly monstrosity with gigantic boobs.

with gigantic boobs then ST:I will be right up your alley.

After you pick the looks for your character you can then start setting up traits, such as “accurate”, “techie” or “elusive.  Each trait gives a bonus in-game.

Picking a uniform is next and is almost as extensive as designing your face and body type.  After finishing that up you name your character (First, middle and last) and name your ship.

And you are off.

You are immediately put into a standard tutorial instance.  The first covers ground combat and is very underwhelming.  The ground combat is slow, even for low level combat and has no “pizazz” to it.  It probably gets better at later levels but its pretty underwhelming as a first impression.

After finishing the ground combat tutorial you head to space.  Space seems to be a bit better and the graphics are good.  Combat is more involved with shield management and the like being featured.

One thing noticed immediately, is how poorly the game runs.  It is bad.  Bad framerate.  Bad lag.  Crashes constantly.  The whole nine yards.  I have a fast connection and a monster machine and it still chugs constantly.  It never feels fluid.  I know the normal caveat; “its a beta!”, but even for beta (open beta for that matter!) it runs poorly.  Expect the game to be a nightmare for the first few weeks after release.  This game needs optimization badly, it is way worse than Champions Online which also ran poorly.

As you can tell by the headline on this post, the game is instanced.  Heavily.  So instanced that it feels claustrophobic.  It never felt like space, it is just too confined.  The need to change instances constantly, combined with the bad performance makes for a very poor experience.  Frustratingly so at times.

Not being a huge Star Trek fan, this game had to be pretty damn good to impress me into playing it.  This did not.  Not even close.  It feels tacked together and rushed.  Short of the character creator there is nothing that grabs you.  You can certainly see the fact that it had a short dev time.

Given a bit more time, it may become a decent game but it is entirely too instanced for me.  It never feels like a world, just a collection of scenarios.

I pass.

Astral Ship Battles and Wouldn’t it be Funny?

For most of the your time leveling in Allods, you will see very few new things.  Though I think the game, at this stage, is the most truly complete “theme-park” MMO I have played since early WoW, there is little that truly seperates it from WoW.  The art direction is top-notch, the classes are fun and interesting, the character stat/ability customization is great, the world is open and immersive, the quests are well written and the instances seem fun and challenging….but, then again, WoW has all of that.  WoW’s graphics are not as good, their stat/ability customization is not quite as deep but there is little that is truly innovative in Allods Online as compared to WoW.

So, why play Allods Online over WoW?  Why leave your level 80s and start over from the beginning in Allods Online?

Two words:  Astral Ships

Kanian Astral Ship

Astral ships, astral battles and astral exploration are the single biggest thing that differentiates WoW from Allods Online.  It will add a whole new dimension to Allods endgame.  What are astral ships, you ask?  Read on and find out!

Astral ships serve a multitude of purposes in Allods Online.  They serve as player housing of a sort, as they are owned by people or guilds and can have a unique design.  I believe, though I am not 100% sure, that “trophies” can be hung in the astral ship to decorate it, much like homes in LotRO and EQ2.  This allows the ability to personalize your astral ship and make it your own.

Astral Ship Interior

Secondly, they serve as transport and exploration vehicles.  The Astral is supposedly huge in Allods, as big as the normal world entire.  From what I have seen in Allods so far that will be huge.  Much bigger, for instance, than Aion’s Abyss.  In addition to being huge, it is random.  From a developer’s interview located here, even though you got to point B one way, does not necessarily mean you will get back to point A the same way.  Consider this quote:

The Astral is a dynamic, changing substance that appears to have a life of its own. This means that any travel away from the security of an allod is very random, with lots of exploration available. Players who find a way through to one place using a certain course should keep in mind that they may never get back to the same location by following the same course.

That really brings out the explorer in me, that is something I want to wander around in.  It adds an entire new dimension to gameplay.  If they can pull that off, it will be unlike any other MMO around.

But what good is exploration if there is nothing to do once you get there?  Luckily, Allods Online has tons for you to do in the Astral.  There are roaming (flying? floating?) monsters in the Astral, some taking a full raid or guild Astral Ship to defeat.  In addition, many of the endgame raids are located on small Allods (islands) that are floating around in the Astral. This means that your raid will have to travel to the island in an Astral ship, dock it and go in and complete the raid.

One of the UIs for Astral Ships

This opens up the next option for Astral content, PvP and pirates!  You see, once you complete that raid or kill that boss and loot it, all that loot is loaded into your Astral ship’s hull and can only be distributed to players after they dock the ship at a friendly port.  This opens up your ship for attack by player pirates.  Not only can you attack other ships, using magic and cannons, but you can disable and board the ship.  At that point, PvP battles open up on board the ship, as one side protects their hard-earned loot, while the other tries to take it.

When players unlock Astral battleships, they can travel in rather safe zones, fighting small demons and discovering small allods. As their fighting skills develop and their ships improve, players will soon realize that they are ready to embark on far more dangerous adventures and explore the far Astral. There they will encounter huge monsters that hold useful trophies, find unknown islands and have the opportunity to fight other ships. Once their ship is packed with treasure, they need to set back home. The return trip can be as eventful as the journey, as a booty-laden ship is an attractive target for pirates that are hidden among the conduits that connect the Astral.
Players have lots of choice to get back home. They can set off in a random and unknown direction, and risk getting lost and losing their ship with all the treasures in its hold. They can engage pirates and defeat them in battle, or try their luck and see if they can sneak past the pirates. Risk is an important part of the Sarnaut world.

Players get their Astral ship through quests, gold and patience.  They are a large endeavour and something that will have to be worked toward, they are not handed to players.  There are smaller ships that can be owned by one person and controlled by up to six and there are larger ships that are guild controlled and require up to 24 people to control.  Each person on board will have a role, be it as a pilot, gunner or navigator.  There will even be a engineer that will control a team of goblins who will run around the ship and repair various damage.

No other “theme-park” MMO has anything like this.  It truly adds something new and interesting to endgame and if it is as polished and fun as the rest of Allods Online, it will be a joy to experience.

So, in the title of this post I asked a question:  Wouldn’t it be funny?

Wouldn’t it be funny if Allods Online, a free to play, sword and magic, fantasy MMO, ended up having better “space” combat than Star Trek Online?  The more I read about each respective title, the more I believe that may end up being the case.

That, to me, is humorous.

Of Star Trek Online

The next big thing™ MMO is coming out soon and it looks to be a fairly popular one.  Star Trek Online has been in some sort of develop by a couple of different companies for quite a few years.  Finally, Cryptic Studios (developer of Champions Online) have a finished product to unleash on the masses and excitement is starting to build.

Syp (Bio-Break) has a nice write-up about the Collector’s Edition on his blog and it looks like they are putting out a pretty nice C.E. for the game.  Interestingly enough, they had no C.E. at all for Champions Online, which tells me they are probably counting on ST:O to be a much more popular title than Champions was.

I am really torn on ST:O for a variety of reasons.  On one hand, it would be nice to see a good sci-fi MMO for once.  Excepting Eve Online, no sci-fi MMO has ever caught on and garnered tremendous success.  I was really hoping Tabula Rasa could do it but, in the end, it failed miserably.  Maybe ST:O is the one to do it.  The feature list certainly seems impressive enough.  Heck, the ability to actually walk around on the bridge is almost worth the price of admission for quite a few folks.

But, I am really hesitant to get excited about the game.  For one, I am not the world’s biggest Star Trek fan.  I always found the show to be mediocre and the movies (with the exception of Wrath of Khan and the newest one) to be fairly bad.  I was a Star Wars fan growing up and Star Trek was the province of nerds talking Klingon and telling each other to “Live long and prosper”.  Yes, I know I am a nerd as well, but whatcha gonna do?

Secondly, Cryptic just released Champions Online earlier this year.  It is hard enough to support one newly released MMO, much less two newly-released MMOs at the same time.  Cryptic, as far as I know, is a pretty small studio and that is a lot to ask of them.  Newly released MMOs need a whole lot of attention for the first few months as they exhibit all the growing pains that the genre is noted for, Champions Online is still experiencing them.  Now they are going to release a brand new MMO?  Something has to give.

Finally, the biggest reason I am hesitant on ST:O.  I believe to do a Star Trek MMO properly there has to be a whole lot of innovation involved.  It has to be an innovative game and I just don’t think Cryptic has it in them.  I have not found their prior MMOs to be particularly innovative and I worry that Star Trek Online will follow the same path.  This quote (found in this video from IGN) sums up my innovation worry quite nicely:

“Resourceful Captains will also be able to recognize and utilize the different classes of starships. Cruisers as tanks, science vessels as support and escorts for lighting strikes.”

Now, forgive me if I am wrong, but that sure sounds like the standard “holy trinity” of tank/healer/dps that we have seen in every MMO for the past 10 years and, to me, that is horrible.  Absolutely horrible.  Space combat should be fast, exciting and different from slogging through an instance in WoW, yet they are sticking with the same tank/healer/dps based combat?  Ugh.

I hope I am wrong.  I hope Cryptic nails this one and makes a sci-fi MMO worth playing but I have lingering feelings that I am correct and we will see more of the same with Star Trek trappings.  Guess we will find out in a couple of months.