DPS Looking For Socks

Wishing for Excitement: The Old Republic

2011-08-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

I want to be enthused about The Old Republic. It's Star Wars and Bioware and pretty cinematic trailers. It's supposed to answer questions left hanging from Knights of the Old Republic and is set far enough distant in time to avoid the wearied distaste I felt after reading many many books about Han and Leia and Jacen and Jaina and Ben and haven't I seen too many stories about Jedi going to the darkside already?

But the lack of enthusiasm persists. And while it's tempting to base it on a diminished interest in Star Wars, or the simple fact that I tend to find listening to voice acting tedious when I can read the text three times before they're halfway through speaking it, neither seems to be the real cause of my response.

Quite simply, I don't want a game that appears as if it will tell stories in the same way as a single-player RPG. Being told I, in my uniqueness, arranged a treaty or defeated a horrific foe leads to a collapse of the suspension of disbelief the moment I acknowledge that everyone else is just as unique as I am. I want stories that acknowledge the multitudes of players, and can set them up as special without framing each of them as the one to accomplish some notable event.

In many ways, the divorcing of the story my character is following from one I can share from other players continuously frustrates me, and I wish for other approaches to storytelling.

The problem with challenge.

2011-08-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

"Challenge" is a word I see thrown about quite a bit in various gaming discussions, and is usually framed as something that is decreasing.

There are several issues with such discussions, primarily related to how broad of a concept challenge is in video games. E.g., my ability to beat Halo games on Legendary has only a limited relationship to how good I am in the game's slayer mode, let alone my skill at raiding in an MMO or my ability to solve puzzles in Myst.

This means that a challenge can involve such things as reflexes, puzzles, physics-based puzzles, resource management, the use of math to optimize characters, and the ability to memorize complex strategies for a certain encounter.

Some of the discussion on this topic also can degrade to an attitude of hostility towards newer players, or those playing games considered more casual. Such rarely seems to consider how time restrictions and lack of experience, along with some of the technical issues involved with many PC games, can push players towards less demanding content. Insufficient tutorials tends to exacerbate this issue as well.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be looking a bit more in-depth at these various issues, along with providing a few embarrassing anecdotes about my own encounters with challenges in gaming.

The piano puzzle is my nemesis.

I haven't been killed by an Arch Diggle.

2011-07-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

Yet. But I have been adventuring in the strange and perilous world of Dungeons of Dredmor.

Short analysis: fun, but potentially problematic to enter when easily frustrated. Also, five dollars.

Dungeons of Dredmor is a game of strange skills (Fleshsmithing!), stranger monsters (Man-eating carrots), humor and a lot of dying. The humor can range from the framing of your hero status as unfortunate, to the inscriptions scribbled on the dungeons walls or the strange location names such as "The Manse of Queens" and "The Disquieting Fjord". Also, there is lutefisk to be offered to a lutefisk god, which is equal parts horror and amusement to me and pure amusement to my friends who have never physically encountered lutefisk. I prefer lefse, but such would be too tasty to go about offering to strange gods.

But, back to death. I have died to traps, my own potions, numerous monsters, and the occasional angry horde produced by a monster zoo. Sidequest spawned bosses proved a particular cause until I resolved to stop accepting such. Given the inclusion of permadeath, and the enjoyment of testing various selections of skills, death is more a setback and a scoreboard than a great irritant.

There are other things that prove irritating. My leap ability rarely seems to function, especially not for crossing moats. And my mustache golem has received an unpleasant death at my hands several times simply to prevent my character from being trapped behind it. Then there's my avatar's habit of pacing back and forth in front of a door several times before opening it, and how inconsistent the Uberchest(TM) is in unlocking.

For whatever reason, the Steam overlay also refuses to work with the game. Which could save my friends from random strange internet poking, but requires me to constantly tab out to communicate with them.

These shoes smell like Subject 17

2011-07-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

There will be Assassin's Creed spoilers.

So, Desmond Miles. Our initially clueless protagonist with a fondness for hooded sweatshirts and a certain sense of blandness.

All of these things are important to the storytelling. His lack of knowledge provides a perfect opportunity to explain the function of the Animus, the nature of the game's main conflict, and various other tidbits that it's nice for the player to know. It also avoids the problem of having characters explain things they already know to each other.

The sweatshirts fall into the territory of the hooded assassin look, and require little explanation beyond that.

And then, the blandness. Some of this has abated as the series has continued and Desmond has gained both knowledge and ability. Other portions could be framed in terms of the video-game protagonist as player insert and avatar.

Simply, players can put themselves into the role of Desmond, thus allowing for more opportunities for Altaïr and Ezio to be established as characters of their own, with distinct personalities and actions that can occur outside of what players may actually want.

Altaïr's altercation with Robert de Sable of the first game set him up as an arrogant failure, a state that could make him a bit harder to identify with without the intervention of Desmond. And Ezio's sparing of Rodrigo Borgia at the end of AC2 would have proved most irritating to me if I viewed him as my puppet rather than someone whose actions Desmond was exploring.

I do wish Desmond had better hair, though. Comparing him to Ezio shows just how much of a difference that can make.

Can-flipping < Scrolls of Icarian Flight

2011-06-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

After recently introducing a friend to EVE online, he received advice from both myself and a mutual friend about cargo containers. Namely, that before he would encounter any information within the game tutorials about loot rights on such, players would be trying to tempt him into taking items from the containers.

Unsurprisingly, a container bearing a comment about "free items for new players" tends to prove rather appealing to anyone who doesn't realize that the color-coding means that their taking of such items counts as a theft that can be retaliated against within game mechanics.

On my recent excursion through the new player experience of EVE, I saw many such containers, along with advertisements for corporations and services, scattered through the systems that the starting agents and Sisters of EVE epic chain will bring new players through. New players seem to make solid targets for padding killboards, at least, though most of them have little of value to loot from their wrecks.

The main issue, of course, isn't that players in a game with numerous opportunities for PvP are being destroyed, but that some of them are experiencing such in a fashion induced by mechanics the game hasn't introduced. Being blown up is much more tolerable when you possess some understanding of what mechanics allowed such to happen.

And I've seen some painful nerd-rage from new players who have been can-flipped.

Fallen Earth

2010-07-21T13:22:00.001-07:00

Free time game time...hmmm...sure. Hopefully the game won't run into the updater issues that I encountered previously.

On some level, the game strikes me as, to parody the common analysis of Fallout 3, as "Morrowind with guns". Given that the only friend I have who has tried the game considered the combat somewhat clunky, I may be more accurate than I thought.

Or not. Have to play around a bit first. Faction system has always looked appealing, though.

CCP's Dev Blog

2010-07-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

* Vacation + catching up + injuring my wrist = failure at blogging.

First, World of Darkness is not Twilight. This is not difficult to understand. Reducing everything involving vampires, werewolves, or some sort of urban fantasy to an attempt to cash in on Twilight is approximate to considering all science fiction something to try to profit off Star Wars. I am admittedly excited about the idea of a World of Darkness MMORPG, though I much prefer the oWoD background stuff for Mage: The Ascension (rules confuse me, though).

In any case, the Developer blog here is quite interesting. I find the variety of information that CCP provides about the game process appealing, though not all of it is particularly comprehensible.

This information about development teams would be much more useful if there was some sort of baseline to which it could be compared. Overall, I can't see much devoted to fixing bugs, outside of the teams dedicated to exploits and debugging fleet battles.

I haven't run into any major bugs within the game yet, but the Catalyst model issue becomes irritating at times.

That which needs a list

2010-06-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

DDO:

~Find a guild
~Find a good block of time to play, since trying to play with anything under 45 minutes seems to end poorly.
~Actually level the cleric, since lower-level stuff can be done in smaller time blocks.
~Do more raids. See first item.

EVE:

~Get my Ishkur. And Helios.
~Be able to do level 4 missions.
~Determine a better way to categorize systems for scanning.
~Check notes on overview settings

WoW:

~Level farming alt on Bronzebeard.
~Take at least some advantage of the Midsummer Fire Festival
~Play my shaman occasionally.
~Work on old-world raids and dungeons before Cataclysm.

Other:

~Steam sale!

Divided Objective

2010-06-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

I want an assault ship. Admittedly, larger ships with massive amounts of firepower and tanking capabilities are somewhat appealing, but they're also slow. So, assault ships. The basic skills for these will take about a month, and the supplementary ones will take much longer.

And of course, I need a solid financial base to pay for and outfit the ship. Given the recent wardec, I've had a bit more of an interest in scanning as a way to make ISK. The difficulty with this comes in both with finding ideal scanning areas, and with training up the skills, which cuts into my assault ship training time. And given that the more powerful assault ship would lead to running higher level missions and making more ISK, it's a bit of a trade-off.

But first, learning skills need to be trained.

Currently, I have four ships: A Catalyst fitted out for PvE damage, even toying with Tech II railguns on it. Another Catalyst fitted for salvaging, an Imicus for scanning, and a Tristan for PvP tackling that I still need to fit.

I could fly a battlecruiser, though I lack some support skills. Still don't wish to do so.

The Old Republic

2010-06-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

So, I greatly enjoyed the Hope trailer, even if it does not show much or all of what gameplay will be like.

However, it does showcase some ideas related to balancing the different classes so that Force users are not overly powerful, while still seeming skilled and capable, which I'd consider a major concern for making the game enjoyable. In the Deceived trailer we saw both a bounty hunter and a Twi'lek wreaking havoc along with the Sith Lord, and in Hope we see the different ways a Republic Soldier can face down a force user as well.

Flamethrower. Mmmm. Maybe we'll run into a few Ysalamiri as well.

Having Nothing to Lose

2010-06-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

My corporation's most willing PvPer right now has been playing for only a couple weeks, and attributes her willingness to engage in such to that she has no important and expensive implants or ships to lose.

However, even if a new player doesn't have much to lose, they still may lack financial resources and standings. And I've certainly encountered enough resources directing newer EVE players away from over-extending themselves with nicer implants and bigger, costlier ships until they have the skills and experience to use them effectively, and the funds to fit and replace them.

And of course, it's easier to risk and thus learn with a 500 thousand ISK destroyer or a 200 thousand frigate, even if the fitting is worth several times the cost of the ship, than with the 20 or thirty million a battlecruiser could cost.

Though more comprehensive insurance would still be nice. For now, I'll stick with my smaller ships and cheap implants and the relative lack of death penalties. Though, an assault ship really does look nice. Or a stealth bomber.

Cataclysm Rogue Talents

2010-06-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

No more hunger for blood. Yay! Admittedly, the talent wasn't nearly as annoying once it no longer had to be spammed every 15 seconds, but it still was a relatively inelegant. There were also some occasional complications once ruptureless cycles became more popular, and thus rogues wouldn't be putting their own bleeds up.

Curious what the cooldown on Vendetta will be, and I'm rather tentative about having another "you have x percentage more damage" talent, though it is a cooldown rather than just a self-buff.

There are a few more talents for leveling rogues such as deadly momentum, though I'm guessing the recuperate reset will be much more valuable for such rogues then the slice and dice aspect. Never did use S&D much while questing.

For combat, restless blades is quite interesting. Killing spree isn't on a particularly long cooldown currently, though, especially with the glyph.

In subtlety, the energy regeneration of energetic recovery is interesting. I haven't played any form of subtlety since the Burning Crusade, and have some hopes about being able to use it in Cataclysm.

Also, there's this:

Nom Nom Nom [NNF] (2 points) - When you Ferocious Bite a target at or below 25% health, you have a 50/100% chance to instantly refresh the duration of your Rip on the target.

I sincerely hope they don't change the name.

Druid Talents
Rogue Talents

Please send time machine and waffles

2010-06-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

I was sick, I didn't update.

Especially intrigued by the new rogue trap mechanics for DDO. Partly because I'm playing a mechanic rogue, and partly because most of the rogues I see have taken the assassin path. Hoping this will bring a bit more diversity, and am also interested in how important the health pool of a DPS character seems to be.

In EVE, don't expect planetary colonization from me anytime soon. My focus is on Tech 2 weapons and Frigates for now. Also got the boyfriend into the game as well, he seems much more interested in mining and research than I am, and a couple of his friends seem interested in returning to EVE since we're playing. I'm curious if part of this is related to setting up objectives and goals in the massive sandbox. So far, I'm much more drawn to newer, slightly more powerful small ships than to larger ones. Own a half-fitted cruiser and not much desire to use it over my destroyer.

Started a game of Fallout 3, though there hasn't been much time to play. I'll admit that to not being terribly fond of the color scheme, but have enjoyed it so far. If I had more time, I would be trying to get some time in with Fallen Earth, but I'm already playing three MMOs.

Have a Blizzcon ticket, though WoW hasn't been particularly exciting for me lately. Partly pre-expansion boredom, along with new shiny games to play with. Still unsure about Cataclysm, much of which can be attributed to my apathy towards much of the Wrath raiding.

Outside of video games, I've been invited to play Mage: The Ascension, and am working on an entropy mage character for that. There may also be LARP associate with the campaign at some point, and I'll need to find appropriate outfits for that.

My Dungeons and Dragons Eberron campaign will be in its eleventh week this Friday, and we just had a new player join. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, though the new Scout rolled critical failures on most of his attack rolls and the Druid is beginning to regret taking a vow of silence.

I have some people who are interested in a D&D one-shot, though not all of them have been responsive about dates and times. I'm hoping to run this at some point in July, depending on what is viable for the players.

There will be a more in-depth article on Friday, given that the one today is more of an overview.

Updates

2010-05-31T16:45:00.000-07:00

Back. Somewhat. I've been busy with other writing. I'll be making some changes to the layout over the next few days, and I'm planning on starting with a Mon/Weds/Fri schedule for writing.

I'm hoping to get a blogroll on here as well, though that may be a bit longer.

Planning on some EVE and Dungeons and Dragons Online posts for this week, and perhaps some Eberron 3.5 commentary, as I'm running a campaign in that setting.

~LFS

Paying Homage-Character Naming Ideas

2009-06-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

One of the questions I get asked the most in WoW is "Where do you come up with your character names?".

The most accurate answer would be: I don't.

I'm just more subtle than most people about it.

Running around on an RP server, I've seen plenty of different names. Some good, some weird, some bad. We really don't need more characters named some variation of Aragorn or Legolas. Not much creativity associated with those, and it's pretty obvious what the source is. A quick search of, say, Earendil, also pulls up a ton of names. So, Lord of the Rings names appear to be pretty common.

Of course, some of these names might be brought up by the Random generator as well. There is someone on my server whose character is named "Gehn", who had no awareness that Gehn was the main villain of the game Riven.

However, I usually don't use something that's actually a name. I tend to go dig up the roots, throw them together in a way I like, or just use one word.

For example, I recently got my baby hunter Curu (whose name means "skill" in Quenya) a new pet. A wind serpent. After digging around for a while, I decided on "Abiik", which in Mando'a means "air". Rather appropriate for that pet.

Overall, for names, a more popular source makes it more likely that you'll have to dig to find a unique name. A quick search of the Daedric Lord Malacath in the Armory brings up over a hundred hits, as there is a quest involving him in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Trinimac, the character who became Malacath, brings up eight.

But, I've always found a certain fun in finding a fitting and unusual name for my characters.

Some sites to look at for ideas:

Wookipedia's Mando'a Page
Karen Traviss on Mando'a
D'ni Linguistic Fellowship
UESP Wiki: Ayleid
UESP Wiki: Ehlnofex
Quenya Wordlists

Dear Sentinels

2009-06-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

Sentinels,

The problem with our roleplay is the roleplayers. I have never seen a raider going around causing trouble and randomly insulting people, but I have seen it from several people wearing the tags of major RP guilds over their heads.

I've also noticed that the major RP guilds seem to have no interest in the quality of their members. Completely anonymous alts of all things? And if you take people who run around saying they're the brother/secretary/lover/right hand of Kael'thas/Illidan/Sylvanas and then throw a little godmod fit of "I'm so important, so you're arrested now" fit when they're contradicted, why do you think you're such an authority on how to RP better?

Also, why is it so offensive for me to show up at an event in my raiding gear? It matches.

~The rogue/tired old soldier who is too busy fighting the Scourge to care much about your emo/new partner every week belf soap opera.

Observations on moving a text character to in-game

2009-05-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

As an experiment, since I now have a functional and not too frustrating PC version of Oblivion, I decided to roll Ashana in that environment. Previously, she was just a character I'd created for a forum roleplay, that I enjoyed and hung onto.

So far as transferring her into the actual game, I had three specific details that needed to match. That she was a Dunmer or Dark Elf, that her class was "Agent", and that she was a Vampire.

The first aspect, I had a reasonable knowledge of; it's one thing I learned from being called scum repeatedly in Morrowind. For the third, I'd played a Vampire character on the Xbox 360 version of Oblivion, and thus also understood.

But the Agent class...well, that's what helped me the most with the character. My usual approach is to roll a custom stealth character with the skills of Security, Light Armor, Blade, and Sneak. This provides a decent level of combat prowess along with the stealth skills.

Agents lack both Light Armor and Blade as major skills. I realized just how fragile Ashana was right about when foes started killing her in two or three hits. Also, she can't carry very much weight, making a small dagger much more practical for a close range weapon.

Another major thing I observed from placing her in game is how the NPCs respond to her. With a solid Speechcraft skill, it's relatively easy for her to charm someone into giving her what information might be desired. Mercantile also keeps her in a decent supply of gold, though never quite enough for all the possible splurges.

But, the biggest thing from this experiment was being able to have a good visual of Ashana. While I'm still not sure about the hair color, I've managed to put the character together in a way I find pleasing. Though I will admit that Oblivion's fugly face generator can be troublesome.

Mods currently used:

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul
Ren's Beauty Pack (hair only)
New Face Textures
Improved Facial Textures
Kalikut's Better Glass Armor and Weapons
Fine Weapons 1.0
Unofficial Oblivion Patch/Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch

Oaths Unchosen (Part 1)

2009-05-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

As I haven't been doing much WoW related writings lately, I thought I'd post this little piece on a character from some Elder Scrolls RP. I'll finish it one of these days. I think.

Oh, it doesn't like openoffice. Joy.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"The worthy must seek the Grandmaster, who by tradition lives in the unseen and unlooked-for corners of Vivec City between the blood of battle and the waters of life."

~The Black Glove

Vivec, Arena

The glass of her breastplate clinked together as Ashana lowered the Khajit to the floor, her soft leather boot pushing his tail out of the path.

"The Webspinner sees you, scum."

"S'wit!" Her hand crept towards a concealed dart, then stopped.

Hooded, the figured stood at the end of the hall, the edge of his longsword glinting green in torchlight.

He will go left. A knife flew from his hand, and Ashana stumbled, coughed up blood, as her own dart slipped towards him.

And he went left.

Carefully, she pulled the knife out, then set it next to the slumped figure of her foe. The paralysis will not last long. “You forget Mephala owns me.”

Padded boots made the faintest noise against the floor as she saw the altar. Holding a hand to her side, Ashana knelt, then set three bittergreen petals, and a ruby on the altar. Then, she drew a glass dagger with its black hilt carved into the head of a wolf and slashed it across her palm. Clenched, unclenched. Again, until dark blood stained the blue flesh.

Slowly, slowly, she opened her hand, then pressed it against the front of the altar. Then she placed the bloodied dagger next to the other offerings. A glance over the hand print, and she smiled, then pulled an amulet from one pocket and vanished.

RP-Rules and World Building

2009-05-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

One common problem I've observed among the Roleplayers on my server is simple. They don't like rules. It's as if this idea is set in their head that rules or limits would make their character lesser, make them uninteresting.

As someone with an interest in writing Fantasy, this has always struck me as odd. World creation, and the rules of that world always appeared essential to developing such a story. If there are not some rules and limits, there is no real conflict because the protagonist can always come up with some new power to wave their hands and make all enemies turn into cuddly bunnies or some such nonsense. And it is this point that many people I've seen fail on.

They want their characters to be interesting, special, unique. In practice, this tends to end up as them playing invincible characters who aren't much fun to roleplay with. Such aren't exciting to read about either, in my opinion.

This applies to a existing setting such as World of Warcraft of course, we're just not the ones making up the rules

But, some rules to look at.

How does magic function? Does it require speech, some sort of sacrifice, specific rituals?

What interactions are common with the gods? Are there visible blessings from speaking to them, or are they more of a nebulous power?

What are the legal and political systems like? Are things corrupt or mostly honest? Is free speech a right, or is the monarch a (benevolent?) tyrant?

How is the current world faring? Is warfare common, or does peace tend to hold sway? People struggling for their lives will tend to focus on that.

What races exist, and how do they interact?

Now, on to a couple more specific ones that I tend to use in WoW, which aren't as universal and thus don't seem to work for everyone.

I will not claim anything exclusive, especially not some sort of prominent event. This means no claiming that my group killed Kel'Thuzad, or Varimtharas, etc. With such things, I tend to keep them more ambiguous, perhaps stating that the character has been helping drive back the Scourge at Naxxramas or was stationed with the Scryers troops at Black Temple at one point.

Second, I try to avoid saying my character has done anything that is available in game and which she hasn't done.

This has led to me needing some capacity for quick thinking at times. When my rogue was being set aside for a bit in favor of levelling another character, I explained some of her slowness in engaging in the battles of Northrend as her being reassigned to handling some intelligence work as well.

Personally, I find a character's limits very helpful for any stories involving them, along with the limits of their world. My rogue wouldn't be near the fun if she didn't wind up tired and cranky from overwork, if she didn't have to struggle for her personal victories.

And now, I shall go practice my skills at dodging rocks and misshaped paperclips.