Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Rift, LVL 48
I’m level 48 in Rift. I’ve had some highs and lows. The game’s combat is fun. It does however lack any sense of world. I’m not entirely sure what’s with all these Rifts coming down and killing thing, I believe it has to do with some guy named Regulous. Under normal circumstances I would give myself another month until I was done with Rift… however at the end of this month I’m leaving for field exercises for the military. So I’m going to spend 30 days in the field, then I’m going to be living at my Mom’s house for 3 months while I attend a military school. (I live 1 ½ hours away she lives 10 minutes away) So I’ll need something to do there. This will probably allow me to continue to play Rift until September, or so I hope.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Rift and LFD tool
Rift’s loot was not designed with the implementation of a cross server Looking for Dungeon system in mind. Mages can only use cloth, Rogues can use cloth and leather, Clerics can use cloth, leather, and chain, and Warriors can use everything. However anyone can roll need or greed on any item regardless if they can use it or even need it.
Itemization needs to be reworked. Gear types need to be specific to each archetype. Each class should only be able to use one armor type or receive a significant bonus for using their “preferred” armor type. This would encourage and reward warriors for using plate rather than leather and clerics to use chain instead of cloth. Why is this relevant; because the need and greed options need to be changed that’s why.
In WAR and now in WoW you can only roll need on usable items. This prevents other random people in your group from rolling need on items they cannot use in order to sell. HOWEVER you can’t just put restrictions on who can roll on the items in the current state of the game. PvE warriors have found leather to be better itemized for DPS and many healing Clerics have found cloth to be better than some of their chain choices. You have to change how stats are allocated along with how we roll on items.
In a normal MMO… well not normal anymore, in the past the community would police its population it’s self. We would ostracize players who acted in ways the community deemed inappropriate. The LFD system permits players to act in any manner they desire with little to no social repercussions. Logging on the forums and blasting them or trolling them on an alt isn’t practical. Therefore we need the game to implement restrictions on what players can do in dungeons in order to maintain some sort of civility among players.
Not every player is bad, in fact most are good. However those bad experiences will always stand out in our mind more than the good ones, which will eventually turn us sour on the game and the community. To be honest I would like to see this style of loot system become standard regardless of how the LFD is implemented.
I honestly believe that cross server LFD and WFs are bad for a server’s sense of community. I do however recognize that with a limited amount of people willing to participate in those activities it makes it difficult for some people to find groups without increasing the size of the player pool. It’s a double edged sword, damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
One more thing. The “Anti-LFD” people… we should call ourselves Pro Group hehe, anyways they view a LFD system as a threat to their ability to form groups. We only have a finite amount of people willing to do dungeons on a shard as it is. If you remove any portion of those people, because they choose to use the LFD tool, it makes manually forming groups harder. No not impossible, but yes harder.
Itemization needs to be reworked. Gear types need to be specific to each archetype. Each class should only be able to use one armor type or receive a significant bonus for using their “preferred” armor type. This would encourage and reward warriors for using plate rather than leather and clerics to use chain instead of cloth. Why is this relevant; because the need and greed options need to be changed that’s why.
In WAR and now in WoW you can only roll need on usable items. This prevents other random people in your group from rolling need on items they cannot use in order to sell. HOWEVER you can’t just put restrictions on who can roll on the items in the current state of the game. PvE warriors have found leather to be better itemized for DPS and many healing Clerics have found cloth to be better than some of their chain choices. You have to change how stats are allocated along with how we roll on items.
In a normal MMO… well not normal anymore, in the past the community would police its population it’s self. We would ostracize players who acted in ways the community deemed inappropriate. The LFD system permits players to act in any manner they desire with little to no social repercussions. Logging on the forums and blasting them or trolling them on an alt isn’t practical. Therefore we need the game to implement restrictions on what players can do in dungeons in order to maintain some sort of civility among players.
Not every player is bad, in fact most are good. However those bad experiences will always stand out in our mind more than the good ones, which will eventually turn us sour on the game and the community. To be honest I would like to see this style of loot system become standard regardless of how the LFD is implemented.
I honestly believe that cross server LFD and WFs are bad for a server’s sense of community. I do however recognize that with a limited amount of people willing to participate in those activities it makes it difficult for some people to find groups without increasing the size of the player pool. It’s a double edged sword, damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
One more thing. The “Anti-LFD” people… we should call ourselves Pro Group hehe, anyways they view a LFD system as a threat to their ability to form groups. We only have a finite amount of people willing to do dungeons on a shard as it is. If you remove any portion of those people, because they choose to use the LFD tool, it makes manually forming groups harder. No not impossible, but yes harder.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Update
I do apologize for the lack of posts. I’ve been really busy lately and blogging is always the first thing I let slip. I found out last week I’m due to deploy again sometime in the next 12 months. Dates are not getting spoken here. In that time I have a few goals, one of those is to learn C+ basic programming. I love scripts and it seems only logical to start learning it.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Stuns are bad for PvP
I hate PvP. I remember why I never played anything other than a healer in PvP in WoW. Stun locks and CC in general is just stupid. Any ability which prevents you from controlling any part of your character in PvP is a bad ability. People want to have options. You can have abilities which limit our options, but to have NO options is just bad game design. I’m specifically talking about stun locks here, though some other forms of CC apply.
With a stun lock I can lose the ability to move or use any ability. My enemy can continue to do damage to me and the stun effect does not break. I have no way of controlling my character short of using the PvP trinket, assuming it isn’t on cool down. This was something WAR did right. They said you should never lose complete control of your character. The player needs to be able to do something, or it isn’t fun.
I believe the two best kinds of CC in WoW are Sheep/Hex and Root (assuming root breaks the first time you take damage). It removes a player from combat and yes in Sheep/Hex case prevents them from doing anything; however they are immune to damage. Any time they take damage they are now back in the fight. With root they can still cast spells or if someone gets close enough to them they can hit them from melee range.
All of this is magnified as a DPS class trying to get in range to kill someone. I always heal in PvP because I can hide behind the fight and be useful. I can find some bush and hide in it and most times my healing spells won’t give away my position. I was going to try and make Balance my off spec but if I want to do any sort of PvP it looks like I’m going back to healing…
With a stun lock I can lose the ability to move or use any ability. My enemy can continue to do damage to me and the stun effect does not break. I have no way of controlling my character short of using the PvP trinket, assuming it isn’t on cool down. This was something WAR did right. They said you should never lose complete control of your character. The player needs to be able to do something, or it isn’t fun.
I believe the two best kinds of CC in WoW are Sheep/Hex and Root (assuming root breaks the first time you take damage). It removes a player from combat and yes in Sheep/Hex case prevents them from doing anything; however they are immune to damage. Any time they take damage they are now back in the fight. With root they can still cast spells or if someone gets close enough to them they can hit them from melee range.
All of this is magnified as a DPS class trying to get in range to kill someone. I always heal in PvP because I can hide behind the fight and be useful. I can find some bush and hide in it and most times my healing spells won’t give away my position. I was going to try and make Balance my off spec but if I want to do any sort of PvP it looks like I’m going back to healing…
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Blizzcon 2011
I’m going to Blizzcon again this year. Last year my trip was cut short because my manager was on vacation and the other managers didn’t have confirmation that I had requested the time off. So instead of flying home on Monday with the people I came with I had to bum a ride off some other friends driving back on Sunday. This year I’m staying for 4 days. I’m requesting the time off right now.
If I have a good laptop by then I’ll update the blog from LA… unlikely though.
If I have a good laptop by then I’ll update the blog from LA… unlikely though.
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