Another MMO
posted 5/6/2012 4:52:48 AM

Well as many will have seen that TESO (The Elder Scrolls Online) Will be coming out next year. I feel so annoyed and angry that companies seem to want to ditch the die hard single player people and push them away for the MMO nutters.

I was actually glad the Fallout online was cancelled Why? Cause I would be right the off cause of that. Some games that have always been single player should just stay as single player for those die hard fans which they companies make tones off.

MMO's is not the big thing. Its generic now. TOR Was a failure. I lost the love I had for TKOTOR after seeing and hearing the comments from people who have played it and those that have completed it.

It is just hurtful. To see games I love cause of the single player experience. Move to MMO. There are games I just want to play on my own and many others are like that to. Cause of that experience they have enjoyed and continue to enjoy.

Its just those other millions of people out of billions of people around the world just want MMO's Companies go that way cause they can milk money out of the players. They seem to forget us people that made the game that great!

Remember it is the people that make the game great. A game could have been made to be like real life look it feel it etc etc, It wont be great if no one buys it and plays it and buys the continuation. So companies go thanks sp people if you do not like MMO well stuff you we are going that way.

Its time companies actually see they can afford to make MMO's and still keep the SP games of the series going! WHY? CAUSE we SP people will continue to buy the game sp player games we love.

Its not just down to we can not please everyone! BULL They can do it!

MMORPG Combat Systems
posted 5/5/2012 9:18:14 AM

Click target, mash skill hotkeys, dance on corpse of said target, and repeat. This is generally the accepted way MMOs have setup their combat. Sure there are some games here and there that have incorporated some sort of combo systems, like say, Cabal online, but at the end of the day, you’re still doing the same things. Why have games been sticking with the same function for so long? Why no change? When will something new come along? What can we expect? Fear not loyal readers, for I shall answer these questions and more…well…perhaps just the questions, then it’s lunch time.

In my opinion, the reason why this system has been used for so long is because…here it comes…..It isn’t broken. There, I said it. People are used to it. They download or buy a new MMO expecting new things along the lines of raids, PvP, items, graphics, characters, skills and all sorts of other content. Having to re-learn a UI is fairly common when someone goes to a new game, but to be put in a position of complete noobdom is pretty off putting for some people. I have a friend that cringes at the mere thought of hotkeys for movement not being WASD, or auto attacking being right click instead of left. It’s a comfort zone for some people, and it is something many, if not all of us are used to. You log into a game, see a little spoofy skill in a little box with a little 1 on it. What do you do? Press 1! Fwoosh, noobie skill activated. What about movement? Clicking, sure, WASD, that helps too. Combat? Tab, auto attack, skill, dead. Woo! Or is it woo? I am on the fence here. Part of me agrees that yes, combat is what people have been used to since the days of semi-turn based combat Everquest to the combo driven combat of Cabal Online. At the end of the day, you’re still choosing a target by either cycling or clicking, and the rest of the work is done for you, save for pressing a button or two. It’s a comfort thing.

Now comes the fun part, new combat systems! Some games have come along and said, “Hang on, if we’re bring all this new stuff to our audience, why don’t we make combat different?” Note our lovely developer here didn’t say ‘better’. The current system is fine, if it wasn’t, and this was all we had, there would be a lot more video game related suicides in the last 10 years. Anyway, a game that tried with this new idea…and sadly fell on its face, leaving a nice red streak on the pavement is Fantasy Earth Zero. It has manual targeting. What is that? Think of a first person shooter. You move the cross-hair at the center of your screen with your mouse, and activate skills using the number keys above your movement, which is WASD. Sounds pretty simple. At first I thought it was pretty fun. Sort of reminded me of old school Morrowind, with a drool cup and protective helmet. Why do I say that? The games clunky hit boxes were a pain in the butt, aiming at something didn’t necessarily mean you were ‘actually’ aiming at it. The graphics were poor and lighting was unfortunate enough to make some things difficult to see or make out in the massive amounts of grass and trees…oh wait…wrong game…this game had little to no wildlife what so ever. Overall, it was a good idea, but because of its dated feel and clunky interface, it fell short of being innovative. To be fair though, Fantasy Earth Zero isn’t really a “new game”. It originally released in Japan in early 2006 and only came to North America through GamePot USA (publisher) in 2010.

One thing I would like to say here, to all developers and future developers. Please, PLEASE don’t get fancy with stats. For the love of…whoever…let’s make a simple list of stats people are used to seeing and working with. Generally when I punch things, or hit them with pointy sticks, I do more damage than my mother because I have more strength. I can run faster and move quicker because I have agility, and dexterity. Maybe I can get poked back a few times more because I have a higher constitution. See where I am going with this? It makes sense. Sure, fine, you can change the names of them. Strength, Melee Attack, Power, Brutality, whatever, it’s a system that works, don’t change it. I’m going to point a big stink finger at Allods Online.

Allods Online Has 14 Stats. WTF?

I am not saying that having lots of stats is bad, but Allods Online pulled it off in a manner so poorly, it took me more time than it should have to figure out to what these stats do. Picture this, I am grouped with a friend and we are about to try and two man this little boss. “Oh sweet”, I think, “I just got my first heal, this should be easy.” How wrong I was. A quarter of the way into the fight, my buddy starts getting hurt and I toss out my first heal. The heal says, Heals target for 83 something hitpoints. How much did I see pop up above his head? 18. Of course my face contorts into a jolly good ‘WTF’, while my friend pines for health over skype. So I try again, maybe he has a debuff or something. Woosh, 21. Checking my combat log I notice that my buddy is actually resisting my heals. What…? Does he not ‘want’ to be healed? Am I that much of a loser that my own friend doesn’t want to accept the heavenly goodness of my heal? No, it was because my faith wasn’t high enough to counter his wound complexity, therefore it was resisted. A strain of mean, nasty and honest things are making my typing fingers want say some bad things, but I won’t because I am starting to rant and that’s not what this is about.

So I’ll wrap this up with some words about what’s to come. Games have tried new things and are getting closer and closer to being awesome and enjoyable with each attempt. Coming out in 2011 is Tera online, and another MMO I’ll mention in my next article, that have completely new combat systems involving manual aiming, complete hit collision and more. Why am I excited? Picture the good days of Warhammer Online collision (Players can’t walk through each other).