Collisions Ahead?

A post over on the Elder Scrolls Online Reddit caught my attention today.  Mrbluebird claims that the latest closed beta build has collision detection turned on.  Obviously this is a single claim by someone on Reddit but, if true, it changes the game immensely.  Mrbluebird says that he has verified it in PvE only and is unsure if it extends to PvP.

What does this mean for ESO?  Well, it should help alleviate the disconnected feeling that exists in melee combat.  Players have complained that melee feels “floaty” and not quite right.  I would agree to a point.  Collision detection will certainly add weight to a melee swing.

It would mean even more to the PvP side of things.  Tanks would now be able to “physically” block opposing players from getting to the back lines and harassing healers and ranged DPS.  Choke points will be even more important as a couple of tanks standing in a tight choke point will be able to stop a large group of players from advancing.

There are a few downsides to collision detection.  If not done correctly it can allow players to grief other players.  This can be alleviated by only allowing collision detection between opposing players and allowing allied players to still walk through each other.

The biggest downside is the added burden the detection places on the game client.  This can negatively impact server lag and performance.  If the trade off to have collision detection is a client unable to handle the large battles in AvA, then I am not sure that its worth it.  If they can pull it off while making the performance hit negligible, then I am all for it.

This is something that Warhammer Online had and it added immensely to the game.  Entire strategies were built upon fact of collision detection.  I enjoyed the added strategies that collision detection brought to the table and I hope to enjoy them in ESO.

Elder Scrolls Online PvP

With my history with MMOs, it should come as no surprise that the PvP in ESO would get the most scrutiny from me. DAoC continues to be my favorite MMO of all time and even in my time in WoW I spent a lot of time PvP’ing.  PvP will make or break a MMO for me.  If your MMO doesn’t do PvP well or doesn’t do it at all, I am much less likely to spend a significant amount of time there.

It is strange that Elder Scrolls Online focuses so much on PvP.  They basically took a single-player, quest driven RPG and made it into a MMO that focuses strongly on PvP throughout.  This seems like a very strange decision and one that takes a certain amount of courage. I am not sure how many Elder Scroll fans would classify PvP as one of the things they were looking for if they designed an Elder Scrolls MMO.

That being said, if it is well done, it will succeed.  There is a large contingent of PvP players in MMOs and they will support a well made game.  Admittedly, there are few truly well made PvP MMOs out there.  Guild Wars 2 tried mightily with their WvW PvP but I believe they missed the mark with a few poor decisions and an engine that was simply incapable of keeping up with the large amounts of players displayed on the screen at any given time.

Ugh. This is it?!?!

This is Bioware/Mythic’s big announcement?

A new Skaven race (that you can’t even level from level one!) and an increase of the Renown cap to 100 from 80?

That’s it?!?!

Before you say it, yes I know we don’t have all the details yet but, come on, this is a big letdown.  No matter how you fancy it up, a single race and renown cap raise is not enough to keep people interested in WAR.  WAR needed some big news this week, something to keep people interested.  Something to give people hope that there was actually new content coming.

Instead we get this??

Oh, and I love this quote:

With the RvR pack Bioware Mythic wants to move away from the standard “Release a huge expansion every 2 years.” system and wants to adopt a system that allows players to“customize their game experience”.

Why don’t they just admit that they do not have the staff nor the players to justify a proper expansion?  It is pretty obvious that WAR is being run with a skeleton crew and that EA has pretty much abandoned it in favor of  “The Next Big Thing”  a.k.a. Star Wars: The Old Republic.  At this point, WAR is not even on the back-burner, it has been taken completely off the stove.

Carrie and all the WAR fanboys, I hate to break it to you but this is not content.  An added race and twenty new Renown levels to grind is not content.  This game needs new zones, new endgame experiences.  It needs a lot of things but this is not it.

Hate to be Chicken Little but this is it, the beginning of the end.  WAR is just about over.  RvR while you can, folks.

Warhammer Online and the recent billing issues.

I am sure most of you have heard about the recent billing issues that Mythic has had with its Warhammer Online game.  Last week multiple accounts (even a few canceled accounts) were charged multiple monthly fees at one time.  In some cases, up to 53 times.  Mythic immediately issued an apology and gave instructions on how to begin processing a refund for these charges and for the overdraft fees that may have occurred because of them.  In many cases, the charges have already been rectified and were within 24 hours of notification.  Others, however, are still waiting.

Look, I am not going to sugar-coat this, it is bad.  It was a bad mistake and caused enormous stress to all involved.  It caused missed payments, lack of funds and untold headaches to everyone affected.   There is no doubt, this was bad.

But, some people are just taking it too far.  I really enjoy Syp’s Bio-Break blog, he is one of my favorite bloggers, but this post is BS.  Mythic did not steal from these people.   It was a mistake and one that Mythic is attempting to rectify.

Stealing requires intent or it would require Mythic to attempt to keep the money after they realized their mistake.  Mythic did neither of those things.  Take a look at this explanation from Wikipedia:

The actus reus of theft is usually defined as an unauthorised taking, keeping or using of another’s property which must be accompanied by a mens rea of dishonesty and/or the intent to permanently deprive the owner or the person with rightful possession of that property or its use.

For example, if X goes to a restaurant and, by mistake, takes Y’s scarf instead of her own, she has physically deprived Y of the use of the property (which is the actus reus) but the mistake prevents X from forming the mens rea (i.e. because she believes that she is the owner, she is not dishonest and does not intend to deprive the “owner” of it) so no crime has been committed at this point. But if she realises the mistake when she gets home and could return the scarf to Y, she will steal the scarf if she dishonestly keeps it. Note that there may be civil liability for the torts of trespass to chattels or conversion in either eventuality.

Mythic had no intent here.  It was a very unfortunate mistake and, to top it off, was probably done by a third party billing company and not by Mythic themselves.  I have no doubt that this will hurt Mythic badly and at a time when Mythic can not afford much in the way of mistakes.  It is sad that this occurred just when they were getting a bit of momentum behind them and Warhammer Online.  This stops all momentum dead in its tracks.

The post by Syp is not the only thing that is fogging up the waters in this situation either, the official forums are going nuts.  I understand the frustration and the anger but do you really have to start another new thread on this every two seconds?  Mythic has asked that everyone affected post in a single post but, no, everyone feels they have to start their own because, you know, their situation is special. Ridiculous.

Along with the legitimate anger, comes the ludicrous claims such as this one.  Really?!?  You lost your house?  Oh, come ON!!! Are you one of the ones bitching because it takes Mythic and your bank so long to refund a charge that happened instantaneously?  Want to know why?  That post is why.  That right there.

I can guarantee that for every legitimate claim about this, there is at least one that is total BS.  People see an opening and they attempt to take advantage of it, they bog down the system and they make the legitimate claims take that much longer to process.  It happens every time.  Sucks for the honest folk but that is exactly what happens.

My advice to those affected?  Call Mythic, be angry at them, ask demand everything that is rightfully yours and any fees accrued because of this situation.  Be persistent but do so in the right way.  Post in the thread that is provided, don’t start a new one just because.  Keep your demands and statements in context. This is not theft, Mythic did not steal from you.  They made a mistake and one that needs to be paid for and rectified but don’t make this into something that it’s not.  This is not liquor store theft, this is a mistake.  Period.

WoW and the rose-colored glasses…

Well, I was still away from home most of today, even though I was off from work.  Sitting around with my laptop, AoC was still out of the question.  So, I fired up WAR.  I had been struggling with a decision over what server and faction I wanted to go with but I finally decided on the Badlands server.  I further decided upon rolling a Knight of the Blazing Sun.  Feel free to look me up if you play on Badlands, my character is, amusingly enough, named Brannagar.

I hooked up with a healer in the very first PQ on Empire side and we leveled and did scenarios together for much of the evening.

Time to shatter those glasses!

He was a new player, who had never played WAR at all.  Apparently, he had played WoW for about a year on an account that was borrowed from his cousin.  His cousin had decided to sell both of his accounts, so the poor guy was stuck with nothing.  Originally he was going to buy WoW and get his own account but after seeing the cost of the original, TBC and WotLK, he decided to give WAR a shot.

During the course of the evening he said something that really amused me and really got me to thinking.  What he said was:

“I think I am going to buy WoW anyway.  It is way better than this.”

Okay.  Full stop.

No.  No it is not.  If you think that WoW is way better than WAR after only 10 or so levels, then you are doing one of two things.  You are either comparing WAR’s first few levels to WoW’s endgame or you are looking at WoW’s starting levels with rose-colored glasses.  One or the other, or maybe both.  Because there is absolutely no way that WoW’s early game is anywhere as engaging as WAR’s.  None.  Period.

You can make a very convincing argument that WoW has a better end-game.  There is no doubt about that.  But there is no way, even the most fervent WoW fanboy, can make a convincing argument that WoW’s first 10-20 levels are better than WAR’s.  No way.  If you are sitting there reading this and saying to yourself that WoW does, in fact, have a better early game, then you are also wrong.  This is not a question of taste or preference.  This is a simple statement of fact.

Let’s look at both games and their early levels, shall we?

In both games you are deposited at your races starting area, though this has changed in WAR and all races start in the Empire/Chaos pairing.  Regardless, both games start you off similarly.  But the journey in each game through the first levels is totally different.  First of all, you can PvP in WAR from level one and level from it.  Both open world PvP and Scenarios (battlegrounds) can be partaken of from level one.  It is not only fun but it is a viable way to level and you don’t gimp your character from it.  While in WoW I have to grind quest after quest to level, in WAR I can hop in a scenario and massacre the other side.  All the while my character levels and gets better equipment.  Hell, you even make money PvP’ing!

But throw out PvP for the moment.  Even if you do not enjoy PvP, WAR has a much better early level quest game.  In WoW you are tasked with beating back an excursion of boars.  Boars. Or you are tasked with hitting Orcs over the head to wake them up, or killing a kobold camp that has, for no apparent reason, placed itself right outside the castle walls. Again, I want to impress upon you…boars.

In WAR it could not be more different.  In WAR you are tasked with beating back an excursion of Chaos warriors that is intent on raping, pillaging and burning your homeland.  Chaos warriors. Or if you prefer, you are tasked with being a part of that exact same excursion and pillaging to your hearts content.  You are placed in a war-zone in either case.  You feel like a part of something.

While you are slaughtering boars in WoW, I am fighting huge chaos warriors.  While you are rapping Orcs on the head, I am splitting them with my sword.  Hell, you fight a Chaos Giant. in the first five levels of WAR.  A Giant that knocks down four trees before you face him.  In WoW your most impressive feat in the first fifteen or so levels is Hogger. Hogger.

Yeah, I know you can make the argument that Chaos Warriors are, for all intents and purposes, just boars reskinned.  I totally get that but the perception is what matters here.  WAR feels so much more epic in the first levels than WoW and than most any other MMO I can think of.  You feel like you are a part of something and it is fun.  A whole hell of a lot of fun.

Hopefully, one day, Mythic can make the rest of the game as fun as the first twenty levels.  I don’t know, they may have already reached that point.  I haven’t gotten that far since I picked it back up.  If they ever do, they will have one of the best MMOs ever.  They already have the best MMO starting experience out there.

And, if you don’t think so, if you think WoW had a better starting experience, then you are looking through those rose-colored glasses.

The best laid plans, a wrench and all that….

So, yeah.

I had originally meant to come back and talk about my final class decision in AoC the very next day after the post.  However, due to a family thing, I have not been home for the last few days.  Indeed, I have either been at work or the taking care of some stuff since then.  Luckily, it looks like everything is going to be back to normal at least semi-soon.

When I left I knew I would not be back for a bit so I grabbed my laptop.  I figured I could get some AoC time in while sitting around at the hospital.  Yeah, that doesn’t work so well.  AoC and my laptop do not mix.  It can run it, albeit with most of the setting turned down, but the keyboard and AoC’s combo system do not play nicely together.  I played for about an hour total and got nothing out of it but frustration.

So, in desperation, I started looking for a game to play temporarily.  After perusing my single-player games, I found nothing I wanted to play. I finished Dragon’s Age.  I finished Oblivion and Fallout 3.  I didn’t especially like Neverwinter Nights 2.  Meh.  Nothing to play on the single player front.

I briefly (very briefly!) flirted with downloading the WoW trial, just to have something, anything to do.  I squashed that pretty quick, I am proud to say!  Good thing I have grown a resistance to that disease over the past year!

Looking through my e-mail, I came across the latest Warhammer Online Newsletter.  I have not played WAR in almost a year and a half now.  Hadn’t even really kept up with the changes in the game.  WAR burnt me so bad that I didn’t even want to hear about it.  This was the MMO to end all MMOs for me.  And it crashed.  And burned.  And insulted me while it did so.

I was a closed beta tester for WAR.  I was in before the keep system was and I saw all the faults and potential problems with the game.  The lack of depth, the poor combat, the poor engine and all the other problems WAR has had since release.  But, it was Mythic, damn it, Mythic!! The company that had produced my favorite MMO of all time, DAoC, they could surely make this game something special.  They did not.  They failed and part of my MMO fandom died with it.

But now I found myself staring at the Newsletter, unable to play AoC, and looking at the free ten day “Welcome Back” promotion.  My laptop could probably handle this, I thought, and I have nothing better to do.  So, I loaded it up and back into WAR I went.

The game has certainly changed.  For one, the performance is eons above what it used to be.  Even on my laptop it runs better than it did in the olden days.  I have since fired it up on my desktop once and not only does it run better, but it looks better too.  Sharper, with more fancy lighting.  I am not sure what they did to it but it doesn’t even look like the same engine.  The graphics in the beta and release days were okay, maybe a tad bit better than WoW, but not much.  The game now looks phenomenal.  Not up to the AoC standards but sharp just the same.

The first thing I noticed was that there were only four servers left.  Four!?!?! There were over 60 at launch!  How could a game falter so much?  How could it falter so much and still be going?  Luckily, the servers that are left are still well-populated.  At least the one I rolled a new character on was popping.  There was no wait time for Scenarios and I was able to jump right in to one immediately.

I imagine I will have so more impressions over the next few days and, no, I have not quit AoC.  Indeed, I played it this morning a bit and am still enjoying it a lot.  I am strongly considering re-rolling on a PvE server in AoC.  There are just too many twinks at low level in AoC and cheaters who rely on that AoC cheat program.  I may look at making AoC my PvE game and WAR my PvP game.  I can still PvP in AoC at endgame and in mini-games.

Realistic or Stylized

One of the biggest differences between Age of Conan and other MMOs, such as WoW, is their dedication to a realistic look in armor and weaponry.  Funcom went for a purely realistic look in AoC and they achieved it.  Armor is rendered in muted browns, reds and blacks.  Weaponry is of a realistic size and actually looks like something a medieval warrior would wield.    This is in sharp contrast to the fantastical looking armor and weapons in WoW, Aion or even Warhammer.

Do you prefer this...

I liked most of the armor and weapons in WoW but there were some that just went over the top.  For instance, I liked the design of the old Dragonslayer Hunter armor from Vanilla WoW but, come on, gold and purple?  Really?!?!  Hunters are supposed to be nature like and blend in.  Not stand out with garish armor like a pimp on a street corner!  Some of the various doodads, skulls and such that stuck out of your armor were out of place too.  I really do not need a huge globe of light dangling over my shoulders…thank you very much.

or this??

Aion was even worse.  I don’t like Anime to begin with, so Aion really pushed my buttons.  Come now, a guy who probably doesn’t weigh 105lbs, yet he is carrying an axe that is three times his size and probably weighs 300lbs?  Not only is he carrying it but he is doing flips with it?  Nope.  Not for me.

Most MMOs fall squarely in one of those two camps.  Either realistic or fantastical.  WoW, Aion, Allods, FF11 and Tera Online all go the fantastical route.  DAoC, AoC, Darkfall and, from what I have seen, all go the realistic route.  There are some overlaps, however, with EQ2 and Warhammer having a mix of both.

So, the question is; which do you prefer?  Do you like the fantastical armor of WoW or do you prefer the gritty realism of AoC?  The pictures above are not a fair comparison.  The AoC engine is obviously better but, all things being equal, if they were both rendered in the same engine, with the same detail, which would you prefer?