Month: December 2008

City of Heroes welcomes back ex-residents

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To celebrate the release of City of Heroes Issue 13 , NCSoft has reactivated all old City of Heroes accounts for this weekend only. Of course my wandering eye couldn’t resist.

Let me start by saying that the NCSoft Launcher pretty much rocks. I fired it up, clicked a button and the entire City of Heroes client installed on my system. No hassles whatsoever. And why oh why don’t they come out with a Station Pass-style bundle subscription? They’ve got 7 games to offer now, with Aion and Champions Online in-coming, and Tabula Rasa sadly exiting. It just seems like a bundled sub might save TR, making it a “value add” title. They could just leave a small team to work on it slowly. I’m guessing obviously, but I figure that’s how Sony gets away with keeping Everquest Online Adventures and Planetside running.

Anyway, back to City of Heroes. My most recently played character hadn’t been played for 481 days, so I was rusty as hell. The last time I jumped in (also on a freebie weekend) a friend of mine had given me a lot of advice on my forum, and so I went and re-read all that. But having been away so long, I’m not sure how much of the cool stuff I found was part of Issue 13 and how much has been around for a while.

I had a new contact when I logged in, and so I went to speak to him. He started a long story-based series of quests surrounding a cure for The Lost (those warped people with the tv sets on their heads). Maybe I was lucky, or maybe the quest scales, but it was just the right level for me (my character was only level 10 when I started, 12 by the end of the day) and was really fun and interesting. Much more interesting than I remember quests being back in the day. I got some Merit Points for completing the chain, though I doubt I got enough to do much with.

I also went through the Invention tutorials, which I’d never done before, and made myself some nifty enhancements. I found some places where Heroes and Villains fight together against the Rikti, though you have to be level 35 to get involved with that.

It struck me how funny it was (in retrospect) for Funcom to talk about Age of Conan’s active combat as some revolutionary system, because my CoH character fights the same way my AoC character did, with ‘arc-based’ melee attacks that require positioning in order to hit the max number of baddies, and no auto-attack.

A couple systems that I do know are new are “Day Jobs” and a “Leveling Pact.” The former is a system whereby if you log out in certain places, your character will go to a day job and earn some kind of bonus when you play again. So log out in a Police Station and you get bonus experience when next you play. Log out in a hospital and you’ll get a health regeneration buff. That kind of thing.

“Leveling Pact” is something I’ve never seen before. You make a pact between your character and a friend’s character, and those two characters will always remain the same level. So if one of you plays every night and the other plays twice a week, you’ll still be the same level when the less frequent player does get a chance to log in. Kinda neat.

There’s lots more new things in Issue 13 and you can read all the details at the official site.

*sigh* Another fine game. It was great to get a chance to see how far City of Heroes has come, and I’ll add it to the “would like to play again some time” pile, but that pile is getting darned big at this point.

New member of the family

Posted on by Nimgimli

Cavia Porcellus. The common guinea pig. Lab animals, elementary school class pet. *yawn*

I remember smirking as Angela would tell me tales of her pig, Isis. I mean, they’re just large rodents, right? Then I met her and it took about 5 minutes before I was charmed forever. Once Angela and I were living together, I doted on that pig. Then came the day we were in the pet store and a little black and white lady came running to the glass of her cage and peered out at us. Our eyes met, my willpower crumbled, and that’s how Artemis (Mimi for short) came into our home. She got her name from the arrow-shaped markings on her head (Artemis was goddess of the hunt).

Friday, it happened again. I was at the shop at lunch, getting some supplies, and when I spied this darling little creature. I went back to work and couldn’t get her out of my mind. Angela and I chatted via IM, and we decided that taking care of three pigs isn’t much harder than two, and Isis is getting on in years. We didn’t want Mimi left all alone when Isis inevitable crosses the “Rainbow Bridge” (we hope that time is still years off; Isis is only middle-aged in pig terms, but her health isn’t as good as it should be). So after work, I went back to the store, frantic that she would’ve gone to some other home, but there she was, stretching and winking at me. Angela figures she was born not to long before Thanksgiving, so we named her Pomona (technically goddess of fruit trees, but we’re using the name in a more liberal, harvest goddess sense). Short name, Mona.

So Mona joins Isis and Mimi in our happy household of people and pigs. She’s settling in nicely…last night she gorged herself on alfalfa and timothy hay. Today she’s had a few treats and some cuddles. She’s still freaked about being held, but not *too* freaked. She’s in quarantine for a few weeks so hasn’t yet met her goddess sisters, but I’m sure she hears them. Particularly Mimi, who always answers my query of “Want some peppers, Mimi?” with loud shrieks of delight.

I remember having guinea pigs as a kid, but looking back, they weren’t very well cared for (though I had no idea at the time). As an adult, taking proper care of them, these little critters flourish and really get a chance to show off their very distinct personalities. They bring us great joy and are a constant source of amusement, and really they’re a snap to take care of. There’s no greater source of stress relief than having a guinea pig in your lap, purring contently as you pet her.

The Story behind IGE (MMO gold sellers)

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Did you know that much-reviled IGE was formed by former child-actor Brock Pierce? I sure didn’t.

Wired has a lengthy article on how the company came to be. Get comfortable; this is clearly an article from the print mag moved to the web and it goes on for a while. But I found it darned interesting.

The Decline and Fall of an Ultra Rich Online Gaming Empire

Gotrek & Felix: The Second Omnibus

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I stayed up much too late last night finishing Gotrek & Felix: The Second Omnibus by William King.

Honestly, I don’t have a real lot to say about it. If you haven’t read any of the Gotrek & Felix books, then you should start with Omnibus 1 (or one of the stand alone volumes, but these Omnibus re-issues are a great value). If you have read that and enjoyed it, stop reading and go order Omnibus 2. King just gets better and better the further along he goes.

All three books in the collection (Beastslayer, Dragonslayer and Vampireslayer) are full novels (the early books were collections of short stories and novellas) each of which stands alone nicely but strung together they form a continuous narrative of the adventures of our two heroes, one-time poet and scholar Felix, and gruff, death-wish driven Slayer Gotrek. The cast of characters broadens quite a bit in these books though, making them feel like a richer experience. King even finds room for some romance-driven subplots, and even Gotrek starts to show some signs of humanity by the end (and is self-aware of this fact, grumbling about spending too much time around humans).

A broader cast of characters lets King dispose of a few here and there as well, which alleviates the one weakness of a series with character names in the titles. We pretty much know that neither Gotrek nor Felix is going to fall in battle, given that there are more books to read!

I have to admit I came in to these books with pretty low-expectations given that they are based on a game. And at first my expectations were met: fun stuff, but with not a lot of meat to them. But that feeling faded away back in the midst of Omnibus 1, and the three books in this volume are great fantasy that could stand up against any non-licensed sword & sorcery fantasy novels. It doesn’t matter if you know what Warhammer is; if you love a good fantasy adventure yarn, the Gotrek & Felix books are for you.

Friday is for crafting

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There’s something about Friday nights that make them perfect EQ2 Crafting. I get home, tired and cranky from a long week, but feeling the relief that is a few days away from the salt mines. Crafting in EQ2 is … soothing. But it takes a good amount of time. I don’t do a lot of it on most weeknights because I always have that vague time pressure of “a few free hours, then bed and back to work”. And by Saturday I’m ready for a bit more action than crafting provides.

So yeah, Friday is for crafting.

The new Shadow Odyssey expansion adds Crafter Quests starting at level 50, so I’ve been pushing my Alchemist lately. Tonight I took him from level 43 to level 46 before his Vitality gave out (and I’m too stubborn to use a character that is out of vitality when I have so many other options). About haflway through the night I idly mentioned that he had 4 Achievement points not spent (he is also a level 28 Swashbuckler, but hasn’t unsheathed a weapon in years). Angela pointed out that there are new Shadow Achievements that relate to tradeskilling. I looked and sure enough, there’s one for harvesting and another for crafting. I put all 4 points into the latter and now my Alchemist is making an extra 8% Crafting Experience. Sweet!

So many good games to play. Really it is an embarrassment of riches.

Poster Child Post Removed

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I posted a, er, post this morning, and might have got a lot of it wrong…

I’m at work and can’t really take the time to straighten the mess out, so for now I’m just unpublishing the post. If I’m mis-representing someone, I don’t want to leave the post up there until tonight.

UPDATE: Lunch hour FTW. After discussing some things with some people, I’ve reworked the post to more accurately reflect what was actually said (vs what I thought was being said) and my reaction to one minor point in someone else’s blog.

My apologies for all the drama-queenerie.

Poster Child

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[EDIT: Reworked version of the post with -25% whinging on my part.]

In a recent post at /random, Rick used myself and Heartless as examples of people who don’t like Warhammer. (In the original version of this post, I accused him of using me as a Poster Child for the Don’t Like Warhammer campagin, which was a bit over the top on my part, but I just mention it since that’s where the title of this post comes from.)

I found that surprising and kind of upsetting, to be honest. I mean, its true that Warhammer wasn’t grabbing me as much as it was others. But my experience with Heartless is that he has fairly passionate objections to some of the things Mythic has done/is doing. Nothing personal against Heartless (in fact I admire that passion), but I don’t feel I’m in the same category.

I was so surprised that I went back and re-read a bunch of my Warhammer posts. The specific post that Rick linked to had me wondering why I love Fable 2 so much while others hated it, and talked a lot about the immersion I felt in LOTRO. The harshest thing I said about Warhammer in that post was that “I’ve gotten somewhat less enthusiastic about Warhammer.” That’s hardly ranting against the game.

I have posted some introspective rambling trying to understand why I wasn’t finding as much joy in Warhammer as others do, but this post wasn’t complaining about what’s bad in Warhammer. Here’s a quote from that post: “Warhammer is very focused on the gameplay experience, which makes it unique and (in my opinion) very valuable.” Haven’t you ever observed a bunch of people really loving something that you’re not seeing the appeal of, and wondered why you aren’t “getting it?”

To rewind the clock a bit, I let my Warhammer account lapse because I’d promised Angela that I’d play EQ2 with her when the TSO expansion came out. That really had nothing to do with Warhammer and everything to do with domestic bliss in the house. 🙂 And then CoW started playing WoW so I re-upped there to play with them since I missed the herd – this was an unexpected decision but time was of the essence if I wanted to keep any kind of parity with the rest of the guild. (Of course, the bear factored in, too.) Had I planned on having 2 paying subscriptions at once, I probably would’ve kept Warhammer and EQ2, but sometimes we wind up in places we never set out to be in.

There are certainly games I enjoy more than Warhammer Online, and I’m strapped enough right now that I can’t justify paying for a game I’m not playing (though that didn’t stop me from snapping up a Black Friday deal on a 60-day timecard for War). That just seems sensible to me; it isn’t my job to invest in the continued development of any game unless I’m either a) playing it or b) going to reap fiscal rewards from it.

I’ve been continually impressed with how quickly Mythic reacts to player feedback. Of course in order to do that, they need to HAVE player feedback to react to. So I’m not going to feel bad about my sharing things that bother me about the game, but if I’m giving the impression that I have a strong dislike for it, well, that isn’t so. I’m not playing Warhammer now because I have other things to play. If Warhammer were the only MMO on the market, I’d be all over it.

And I’m actually rather excited about the 1.1 patch. When that drops, I’m going to use that 60 day time card and rejoin the War.

More Megaten Beta

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With all the MMO subs I have running, tonight I dove back into the Megaten beta. I guess I’ll call it that, rather than Shin Megami Tensei or Persona Online, since that’s what it’ll be called in NA. I snagged a few screenshots but the screenie function is kind of not-great. The game looks much sharper than these screens would indicate.

Tonight I finished my training, which took a while as I got the hang of chaining attacks and allowing for charging time for defenses and what not. Then I headed out on my first quest, to bring back a Pixie Leader. We needed scales from her wing to cure a wounded comrade.

It took me a while to figure out how to “tame” the pixie; hopefully in release players will get a bit of extra handholding. And once I did, she floated along beside me with the title “Treated like a slave by Gillain”!! Hmph. I need to do something about that!

There’s a lot to this game, though. I spend a lot of time running around gawking at the demons that other players have summoned. There are cards that you find that, presumably, can get you demons. I’ve got a piece of gear that needs fixing, so I’m guessing there’s some kind of crafting. And the combat is quite fun (and a bit challenging) so far. Skills are increased by using them, and there are no firm classes. As you gain levels (so yeah, you do get levels) you get points to spend on your attributes. If you’re going to be doing a lot of melee, you boost strength. Mages will boost magic and gunners will boost agility. Then you have a big bunch of skills and choose which of those you want to improve. Once “toggled on” every time you use those skills you gain expertise in them. Gain enough and that skill levels up.

I still don’t have a full grasp of all that’s going on, but I’m *really* liking what I’ve seen so far. But keep in mind that I really enjoyed the Playstation versions of Persona, too.

Learn how to train a pixie below this guy. Spoiler Alert!

You have to use the “Greeting” skill (it should be on your hotkey bar by default..in the Skills window its labeled as “Talk”) on the Pixie Leader 3 times. After that, she’ll either join you or get bored and leave. Just keep trying until she says something about wanting to come along. Once she says that she’ll morph into a green egg-shaped thing which you can click on and collect, and after that you can summon her.

Christmas List Help Needed

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Werit has his Christmas List all ready, so now, since I always do whatever he does, I need to work on mine.

But I need help!

I’ve been reading William King’s Gotrek & Felix Warhammer books, and loving them. However I have the last one sitting on the top of my “to read” pile. Where do I go next? I know there are more Gotrek & Felix books written by Nathan Long, but I’ve heard they aren’t as good. But I don’t know if that literally means “not as good” or if it means “Bad.” So should I ask for these? And if not, are there any other good Warhammer novels out there? Recommendations would be very much appreciated!

As far as games go, I have Fallout 3 (XBox360) and Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) on the list. I’ve gone back and forth and back and forth on whether to ask for Fallout 3 on the PC or the 360, and finally decided 360 just because when I sit down at the PC I always end up playing an MMO.

Might need to add the blu-ray versions of Firefly and Serenity to my list. And I could really used the DVD version of Blackadder: The Complete Collection. I have it on VHS but I don’t even have a VHS player hooked up any more.

But book ideas!! A Christmas without books isn’t even a Christmas! (I’m so material!) So please, help me out with some Warhammer novel ideas!

Beta report! Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine

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I was reading Tipa’s post about Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine (aka Megaten, aka Persona Online) this morning, and not an hour later Massively had a post announced beta client and keys were available from Filefront.

I was kind of in an “Off the grid” mood tonight so a beta mmo where I was completely anonymous sounded like just the thing (that, and Tipa hasn’t steered me wrong yet). I snagged the client, patched up and jumped in. I was warned going in that the servers were being a bit flaky tonight; they just rolled out some big patch I guess, and this *is* beta, and sure enough I didn’t get too far in before I got disconnected and as of right now even their web site is throwing an Error 500.

But from the half-hour or so I got to play, I was very pleasantly surprised. The game starts feeling very much like a JRPG, with you an untried hero ready to fight against the demons that have invaded our world from otherwhere. The perky older, more experienced warrior that guides you through your first steps is a comfortable cliche and does a good job of teaching basic controls (and I’m pretty sure this first bit was a solo instance). Oddly when you leave her side, you go to a ‘virtual battlefield’ where a crusty old cliche warrior walks you through the same steps. I imagine one or the other of these sequences will be cut from the release game.

Tipa’s post covers the early game well enough that there’s no need for me to rehash things, and she got more time in. Combat is active/actiony, and thankfully WASD movement is supported (not always a given in Eastern MMOs). The interface felt clean and crisp. The art-style is pure Persona and so is the music. It just had a real nostalgic feel to it. Unfortunately a lot of the storyline text is still in Japanese, and the fact that this bugged me in itself says something about the title: I want to know what happened!

Definitely another title to put on my “to play” list. These Free-To-Play MMOs are really growing in quality lately. Not very long ago they were all cookie-cutter grind-fests, but not any more.