EQ2: GU36 preview

Some preview information was released today about the forthcoming Game Update 36. Below is the copy-pasta from eq2players.com:

Game Update 36 Preview
So you've adventured through Darklight Wood and Neriak and now are left wondering what's next in EverQuest II? Don't think for a moment that you get to catch your breath, the dev team has been hard at work on Game Update 36 and it's time to share a preview of all the new things headed your way soon!

The Final Chapters

The Swords of Destiny quest line will draw to a close with GU36, providing players a chance to complete their quest and discover the final details about the place of these infamous swords in history, and their role in Norrath's future.

New Raid Zone

The Throne of New Tunaria (aka Felwithe Castle) will be available as an instance for high level raid groups to explore and defeat. There will be ample opportunities not just for a very challenging instance, but also exploration of the lore surrounding the Thexian Throne.

Dressing Room

GU36 will also bring a new window in which players can preview how many items appear in EverQuest II. You'll be able to preview weapons, garments, armor, furniture, mounts, and more before buying them. This new window will allow you to preview these items from links, merchants, brokers, recipe books, during trades, while inspecting others, in the commission window, and more.

Tradeskill Profession Reset Option

If you are an Artisan of level 10 or greater, you'll be able to reset your tradeskill profession and choose another to start from level 9. To do so, visit a Tradeskill Career Counselor in any of the major cities and request the ability to start over.

PvP Gameplay

PvP Players will also note a number of changes designed to improve PvP combat by making it much more equitable in level ranges where victory or loss was determined solely either by a character's class or how many Achievements they had managed to store up. Come join the thread already in progress on our PvP forums!

Neriak and Kelethin Status Housing Options

For those who prefer to pay for their housing in more Status than coin, there are new housing options available in Neriak and Kelethin for many existing housing models.

Kingdom of Sky Achievement Tree Review

The Achievement Trees introduced with the Kingdom of Sky expansion have been revisited to increase the number of options available to each character, and to improve their desirability. Weapon specific requirements for the class trees have been dropped with the exception of trees that require shields and ranged weapons. Pet Achievements have been revisited to take advantage of new functionality introduced to the game with the Echoes of Faydwer expansion. Finally, branches that were less than desirable have been revisited to improve their viability and provide more options to everyone.

No More Destroying Copper

Coins now have no weight and automagically make correct change as you loot more. This means you are free to carry as many coins on your character as you wish, with no ramifications in terms of weight. Your inventories will now also auto-sort coins to make your bookkeeping a bit easier. If you acquire 100 copper, your inventory will show that you have gained a silver coin. 100 silver will result in a gain of a gold coin. 100 gold will carry over into a single platinum.

There you have it! Game Update 36 will be packed full of new content, and changes to Gameplay that will result in a better experience for all, and a chance to explore many new options. If you were looking for a new dungeon, weapon, or approach to your character, this update will have something for you.

Discuss the GU36 Preview in this thread

New, free content is always a good thing and here we have a new raid instance, and a followup to a quest line. It's not a whole lot, sure - but remember they just gave us Neriak and Darklight Wood (oh yeah, and the little emo fairies, the Arasai).

There are some pvp changes going in, but I don't think I have ever once pvp'd in this game. Not even a duel. Wow ok, I should give it a try some time. Some housing option changes - that should please those who are like me and have little coin, but a bankroll of status points.

The rest is really pure win. Now you little rats and fairies don't have to constantly run to the bank to change over your coin as coin is now weightless. I foresee some little whiners complaining about this, saying it ruins the immersion if coin is weightless. Shut up. Really, just shut up.


KoS Achievement revamp is going to be iffy. On one hand, I am really looking forward to it - especially the removal of the weapon restrictions. But I am worried they might nerf some stuff they really shouldn't. We shall have to wait and see here, but I am hoping it's really going to be killer.

And *finally* they are adding a dressing room. No more running around in mixmatch armor! Some of us do actually like to look badass while we mow down mobs - a percentage won't care either way I am sure though.

All in all, I am really excited with the coming changes, and very happy to see that SoE is *listening* to it's player base - unlike a certain other vastly popular game. Good job guys, please keep it up :)

Bad design in MMOs - Part One - BoE

Introduction
BoE, or Bind on Equip, is terminology used to describe a game mechanic where an item, once equipped by a player character, can no longer be traded or sold to another player in the game. There is another similar term BoP, or Bind on Pickup also known as Bind on Acquire, which provides the same mechanic, but it is applied when the player acquires the item instead of when they equip it. The umbrella term typically applied to the mechanic of tying a specific item to a player is "soulbinding". The argument for these mechanics is that they provide a way to restrict the flow of items in the game world and to help keep the value of desirable items high. The argument against, is usually that it restricts players' freedom and that it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense from a in-game (or possibly RP - Role Play) perspective.

Most players can accept a Bind on Pickup system for items that require a raid to obtain or a long quest chain to be completed, though there are some who believe that no items, under any circumstance, should ever be soulbound to a player. In Everquest, for example, most items were freely trade-able except for the high end raid-obtainable armor and weapons and epic weapons. Popular items, such as SSoY (Short Sword of the Ykesha) or Fungi Tunic were often seen for sale in the trade areas of the game. I even obtained a Fungi on my low/mid level warrior, as I spent a lot of time soloing. Items like these were also very popular on the external item selling websites, such as Player Auctions.

The Pros
Inflation is one thing in most MMOs that is very hard to avoid. As players become richer, they are more willing to pay more and more to twink out their alts. Eventually, that item that sold for 5 gold the first two months the game was available, is now selling for 75 gold a year and a half later. There is also reverse inflation, which typically happens when BoE is not implemented, wherein items that were once the elite must-haves, are now a dime a dozen. Many times, players spend days trying to sell these - when there was a time they sold almost as soon as they were put up for sale.

Twinking is a term that is used to describe the act of a player with a high level character, using money from that character to buy high-end items for one of their lower level charcters, commonly know as "alts" - short for "Alternatives" or "Alternative Characters". A BoE system helps curb this act in some regards, as there is not a high availability of high end items, as most of them are being or have been used already. However, Twinking is more effectively curbed using a level-restriction system - which requires a character to be a certain level before an item may be equipped.

The Cons
With a BoE system, players are no longer able to sell their old gear. Nor can they pass it along to a friend. In Everquest, it was quite common for a high level player to "donate" gear they had outgrown to a lower level friend or guildmate. It was also possible for higher level players to "farm" gear for lower level players. I know I was the recipient of a few high level items on my level 14 mage, thanks to a high level druid friend of mine. Many developers and some players think that this act will make the low level player overpowered; a "god among mortals". I would like to suggest that this is not the case. Sure, it makes them somewhat stronger - but I can guarantee you that my mage, and my warrior (who had a fungi tunic) was far from overpowered. When soloing, my mage still died. My warrior still had to sit forever after killing something to "heal up" - even with the regen bonus from the fungi tunic. However, I was not decked out with high level items. If my warrior, at level 30, had a full set of level 50 armor - then yes most likely he wouldn't be taking a lot of damage at all.

The freedom of helping out a lower level character, of twinking out your alts is something some of us cry foul over. Combine that with a RP (role play) aspect, and it really doesn't make much sense. How come, after I equip uber_sword_01, I can't give it to the guy standing next to me, but I can run across town and sell it to a NPC vendor?

I think the main gripe is though, that once you are done with an item, you are not able to sell it to another player for a decent amount of coin. In WoW for example, there are several BoE epic-quality items that are found and sold to players for hundreds, if not thousands, of gold. This is a prime market for so called "Gold Farmers". They spend hours and hours and hours doing nothing but killing mobs over and over again. They don't quest, they don't contribute the game world, except to steal spawns from legit players - and then sell the gold they acquire for real life money. They also acquire several items that can be sold to other players. With the BoE system in place, the gold farmers, at least in WoW, are the primary source for BoE epic-quality items. If BoE was not implemented, you could buy that new shiny hammer for 800 gold, then use it for a while, and then turn around and re-sell it. This alone would help curb gold farming. Since they would not be the near-sole supplier of these items, they would have a harder time selling them and hence, have a harder time meeting their quotas, possibly eventually forcing them out of their "job".

In Closing
BoE is a lazy system, by lazy developers. Most developers claim twinking is one of the big motivational factors along with preventing gold farming. Their reasoning that this prevents gold farming is that, gold farmers can run a dungeon/instance over and over again and then flood the market with obtained items. As stated, a level-restriction system helps stop massive twinking. To stop the farming of instances, there are other methods that can be implemented - instance lockout timers, modifications to the loot dropping system, etc. BoE has no place in today's MMOs and should never have been implemented in the first place. Come on guys - you are the ones getting paid to develop these games - give us back our freedom and curb the unwanted elements of the game with less restrictive mechanics.

Bad design in MMOs - Introduction

Curt Schilling posed a question to the posters of the FoH forums the other day, asking what was the one thing each poster hated about MMOs. The answers varied from quick replies, to long drawn out responses (mine was one of the later) which were accused of not even answering his question! For me, I picked two topics that really held weight with me, even though there are several I could have listed and expanded upon. Instead of polluting up Curt's thread, I am going to make a series of articles here which delves into some of the topics that are hot-button items with many MMO gamers, including myself. I will rehash the two topics I commented on in Curt's thread, but will attempt to touch on each topic in a structured way which presents the good and bad of each, instead of just off-the-cuff ramblings. Some of the topics will be borrowed from postings on Curt's thread, but I will comment on them in my own words and using my own viewpoint on them. The first article in the series should be hitting this blog later today.

MMO Development!

As a lurker and sometimes-poster over on the FoH boards I happened upon a MMO development project they have going on. I am a bit excited, even though I am not really an official contributer right now. Why am I excited? Well because even if I don't end up contributing (I would like to), it kind of pointed me in the right direction to start working towards developing an MMO.

I hadn't done a whole lot of browsing on MMO development lately, unfortunately - so I wasn't aware there is basically a ready-to-go kit out there. You just add content (worlds/terrain/cities/etc, spells and skills, models and textures and so forth) and off you go. I need to do some more research, but picking up a paid license for the kit. It's apparently the Torque game engine, combined with some extra stuff and tools. I dabbled around in the default game world for a little bit - following the first in a series of tutorials. I got stuck a few times, as the tools seem to be a bit buggy - but I am looking forward to playing around more with the development kit.

Hopefully I can start contributing something to the FoH project soon - but I think it might have to wait until they finish this first test game. We shall see :)

EQ2 AA Calculators?

OK, I'm frustrated. Or maybe I am spoiled. Not sure which it is at this point. I have been playing a few alts recently (Necromancer and Brigand - oh and a Wizard and a Berserker) and I have been interested in investigating their AA abilities while I sit here at work twiddling my thumbs.

I stopped by the EQ2 Wiki, but the information there is laughable, at best. Many abilities have no pages or descriptions; some class/subclass AA pages have a screenshot with clickable image-maps while others have just table data.

Some of the class forums on the official boards have some links to information - but some are broken, some are not very informative, etc.

Are their any standardized websites that have AA abilties listed? Maybe a "calculator", ala Wowhead's talent calculator for WoW?

Like I said, maybe I am just spoiled - WoW has a ton of fan support in the form of utilities and fan sites - and their Wiki kicks the shit out of eq2i.com, sadly.

So can someone help me out? What's a good reference site for this information? I suppose I might have to undertake the task of making a AA calculator for EQ2 :-/

The return of Neriak!

After getting home last night, I fired up EQ2 and waited for the patcher to download the new patch/content. I had previously not bothered to download the extra free content (voices and such) so I checked those off and let the patcher do its thing. I was surprised that the new update plus all extra content was downloaded in about 20 minutes or so.

I logged in and created me a new Arasai - a necro - and started playing around in Darklight Woods. After having played a Fae the other day up to level 9 in Faydwer, I had already experienced creating a new character and not having to go to the newbie isle. However, I was still a little surprised after creating Asooz (my Arasai) that I got to start in the actual real game world, and not some silly newbie instance. I saw a few level 70s running around checking stuff out - and lots of fellow Arasai brothers and sisters.

My first impressions are very good. This is free content ya'll - and it's better than some of the original content that shipped with the game. Even with three instances of Darklight Woods spawned, I didn't have to wait very long for my quest mobs as they respawned quite frequently. There were plenty of quests to do, with most of the objectives easily accessible and close to the quest givers. There are several gathering-type quests mixed in with the usual kill and delivery quests.

There are also a few quests that ask you to kill a mob that is a couple levels higher than you - at least - the mob was 2-3 levels higher than me when I was able to get the quest. I still haven't killed them yet - but I should have them dead tonight before I have to switch over to WoW for one of my final raids.

Speaking of - I cancelled both my WoW accounts two nights ago. I like WoW - don't get me wrong. However, I have some "real life" things I need to do - and I am not happy with how they are treating the Shaman community (the numerous Shaman asshats aside). So I cancelled both accounts, but I still have a Karazhan raid to go to tonight, that I had previously signed up for. I am going to miss playing - but I need to get away from it. Plus, I am having a lot of fun in EQ2 right now, so it makes it a bit easier. Even so, I really don't think I need to be paying four subscription fees every month for MMOs (2x WoW, EQ2 and LOTRO).

Anyhow, back on topic! After reaching level 10 I travelled - encumbered - to Neriak to see what the city was like. It's very well done, actually. It's got the same blue and purple tones as the old neriak had - my only complaint was finding the tradeskill trainer. I asked a guard and he marked my map and such, but I ran through the little tradeskill area five times before I accidently wandered into the side cave where she resides. After coming back out, it was real obvious where the cave was, but on intial runnings-through, the "cave" looked like a little alcove with one workbench in it - not an alcove that had a passage on the other side. That aside, the tradeskill area is actually very nice. It's not instanced and it has a banker and broker right there for all your needs. I look forward to spending some more time here in the future.

Unfortunately, at this point I really needed to get some sleep - so I went and picked up my first apartment, placed my three free items and crashed. I shall be spending more time in this area this weekend for sure.

Some thoughts on Everquest 2

So I have a little time, sitting here at work - where all my work is done and I have nothing more to do for the day, where I can put some thoughts down about my re-experiencing of Everquest 2. Maybe first I should give a brief background of my experiences with EQ2.

Having played Everquest (live) for a little while, and that being my first graphical MMO, I got rather drawn into it. I absorbed the lore, the items, the classes the entire gameplay experience. I lived on sites like Allakhazam and Caster's Realm each day, passing time at work during the slow periods while waiting for compiles and such. So it was only natural that I picked up EQ2 the day it hit the store shelves. I had seen my roomate beta test it some, while I was beta testing WoW and it looked neat. So, after I loaded up the game, I eagerly created my Dwarf fighter. I had played a Dwarf Warrior in EQ, albeit not to high levels, and really enjoyed him. I enjoyed tanking and pulling and such in a group environment.

Anyhow, he and I grouped every day - my fighter which became a Crusader and finally a Paladin along with his Priest->Druid->Warden. It was a fun experience, despite some of the shortcomings of the game. So I played through the constantly linked and always locked encounters. I crafted through the times when sub-combines were in, and you couldn't make them yourself. I played when the game ran like crap on Nvidia chipsets.

That all being the case, I still enjoyed the game. It was new, which contributed to part of the enjoyment, but it was also at its core, a fun game.

Anyhow, there were indeed nuances about the game I did not care for but were not major critically flawed components of the game; at least not in my opinion.

Now I am back in the game and have been for all of about four or five days now. I have managed to gain two levels with my Paladin and level a Fae alt up to level 9. So what do I like in the game, whether it is new or old?

- The quests. While they may not all be unique, or ground breaking, there is a ton of them in the game. They always keep me busy, and while some are a bit redundant and monotonous, I still enjoy doing them. Currently, it seems you are limited to 75 active (uncompleted) quests in your journal at one time, and I am always borderline full.

- The alternate advancement/achievement point system. Having never played a max level character in EQ, I never got to tinker with the AA system there - but I did become familiar with the talent system in WoW. While I liked some of the things the WoW talent system does, I didn't like how it basically forced you to play a certain way in most cases. with the AA system in EQ2, it appears that while building up AP points and speccing certain ways would give you advantages over a like-leveled and like-geared class, it doesn't put you so far above them that the one who doesn't have the AP points you have is irrelevant. They still allow you to *boost* certain aspects of your character or play style, but they don't force you to abandon everything else about your character. I am planning to spec my Paladin more for tanking, as it is something I enjoy to do - but opposite from WoW - speccing for tanking will not gimp my ability to solo or farm, or to play a non-tank role in a group or raid. I am extremely happy, so far, in what I am seeing with this system. I admit, at first glance of the AP "trees" and abilities listed there, I was underwhelmed. "Wow, I can boost my abilities a little? Maybe get a new ability if I go deep into the tree? This system seems irrelevant and is for nothing more than a grind and time sink." I thought to myself. Then, I read some of the forums and studied the trees a little closer and the more I thought about it, the more I really started to like this system - for the reasons mentioned above.

-The tradeskills. Ok, like I said I had played and tradeskilled back when the original system was in place. My Paladin is a level 24 Armorcrafter. All gained in 2004/2005. I spent countless hours creating my subcombines. Mindlessly pressing the hotbuttons on something like 5 different hotbars I had setup for crafting. Yeah, five. I had the tradeskill abilities for everything up, because I had to so many different stations. I had to make temper, I had to make padding and stitching. I had to make paper for patterns. It really was overkill and I got really burned out on it. Now, I also have a low level alt crafter who I just dinged to a 10 Scholar two nights ago. I was almost orgasmic seeing that I did not have to make a ridiculous number of sub-combines to make something. I only had to have some raw materials, then go craft what I wanted to make. However, I still enjoyed the fact that you had to actually do more than press a "combine" button and wait for the casting bar to finish counting down. I still had to counter the reactions or problems and I still could use the abilities to boost my progress. Right now, with the limited exposure I have had to the tradeskill facet of the game in its current state - I flippin' love it.

-The group dynamics. Again, I compare to WoW here because its what I almost exclusively played for the last year or so. In WoW, for many instances, you really needed a certain group setup. You needed a tank - usually specced for tanking. You needed a healer - usually specced for healing. You needed some for of crowd control, then the usual DPS. From what I can tell so far, and from what I remember in the past, EQ2 doesn't really require that sort of makeup. Sure, things are easier if you have a tank and a healer and some crowd control and whatnot - but you can get through many of the instances with some really crazy group makeups. Oh you are a healing specced Paladin? Why don't you tank and let the Templar heal? Or maybe let the Bruiser tank and the Paladin heal or dps. I am sure the higher level instances might be a bit different, but I really do love the absence of the "shut up and heal" comments and ideology I would get in WoW with my Shaman. It's nice to be able to fill multiple roles easily. It seems almost every class can DPS in some form - some better than others obviously - but you can be successful with a secondary healer DPSing if his or her heals are not needed.

-Mentoring. Mentoring is a feature of the game where a higher level character can temporarily drop his or her level down to that of another member of the group. So as a level 42 Paladin, I could group with a level 14 Monk, and mentor him - which would lower my level to 14 while I am mentoring. While I liked the idea when they originally put this into the game, I loathed having to setup new hotbars because I couldn't use my higher level skills. Now, your skills scale down to the level you mentor to. I am not sure if skills that originally only became available to you at a higher level than what you are mentoring become disabled or not, as I have not mentored that low since I came back to the game. However, this system is a very awesome idea. You talked your friend into playing the game last week, but you don't want to roll a new character to group with him? No problem, just mentor down and you can continue playing your main character, but at your friend's level. I really do love this system.

-The guild tool. I forgot how awesome this thing is. I ran two different guilds in WoW in my year there, and I hated the in-game guild tool they have. Reorganizing ranks is a royal pain in the ass, and not being able to see when someone joined is a glaring oversight by the developers. With the EQ2 guild interface, you get a list of members and can see the date they joined. I don't know about the rank organization - but I would imagine it's more intuitive than WoW's. Also, you can select which events to save in the guild event log. You can record /ginvites and /gkicks or /gquits. You can record when someone in guild looted some "epic" loot, or when guild members killed epic mobs. It can log when people leveled (adventure or tradeskill) and many other things. I really think this is a guild tool done right. The only thing I don't like is how the mouse scroll wheel works in the guild member listing (it's scrolls a highlight bar, instead of just scrolling the window) and that the member list window jumps around when... I'm not sure what causes it. All I know is I am scrolling down to look for a name and it jumps back up a few pages. I imagine it's due to someone logging in, or a member joining the guild.

I have more things I like, but those are ones I really wanted to touch on with this post. All in all, right now, I am having a lot of fun with the game. And that's what games are for, right?

Back in EQ2

So it's obvious I suck at this blogging thing. I just always am doing something else - like gaming - which explains the pile of clothes on my bed. Nevermind that, I am back to playing EQ2!

I left the game in 2005, as I needed some time for myself - in fact I might have actually been dating at the time zomg! But yeah, after reading some positive commentary and discussion on the state of the game here and here, I decided I should give the game another try. Now, even in the state it was in back in 2005, I enjoyed the game. And now, with the changes I am seeing, I really like the game. I am enjoying it currently, and look forward to starting up a new alt in Neriak this week.

I am still on the Antonia Bayle server, but am now in Mistwalkers, a forum guild from the FoH forums. We did a few guild writs this week, which are basically epicx2 raids - which means you can bring up to two full groups along. I was chosen to main tank both days - and I had a blast. A tank is the type of character I like to play, despite my resto shaman in WoW. I made some mistakes, but then, I have only been back since this weekend - and this was my first ever raid in EQ2!

Anyhow, I think I am going to try and focus more on just commentary on here for now. I just don't have time to do any development, game or otherwise. I have a freelance project I need to get cracking on, plus my day job, plus splitting time between two games. More to come over the next week - hopefully ><

An idea takes shape

The last week and a half has seen me almost entirely stop playing Vanguard. Not because it's a bad game (some would argue that it is, though) - but because my friends aren't really playing much anymore.

Instead, I have started tinkering with WoW again - playing a Belfadin. Not too far along, but level 13 in 4.5 hours isn't too bad I suppose.

Anyhow, I have not had a lot of time to do much in the way of game development - but every night when I lay my head on my pillow I start playing with ideas for a game world. And now, I think I have one. It's not very novel or unique - but it's not something that has been overdone. I am still in the very early preliminary stages and need to get some basic lore drafted up.

With this new world in mind, I definitely think I will be working on some kind of a 3/4 (isometric) single player RPG. It's the type of setting that reveals itself as you progress through a story. I am getting a bit excited, as it's a concept that I have had in mind but not for a game. I can't give many details right now, but once I have a game done, I can relate how it's been a concept I (and some others) have had for a while :p

Time to tinker!

Well, I downloaded c#.net express along with XNA game studio express from Microsoft last night. I have not had a chance to really check it out yet, but looking over some of the code for their example spacewars game, I am liking what I see.

I think I am going to try my hand at a Isometric single player RPG. Something small, possibly just a prototype I can build upon as time passes. I need to work on some design as far as laying out objects and such - and also play the game designer role and work on a game environment and world, classes, skills, abilities and all the other yumyum stuff that will be in the game.

As stated previously, it is my aim to get into the game dev industry. I do have a friend locally with some connections - and he himself is a developer and has spoken to be about working on something together. So we shall see. If I wasn't making the salary I am making now (and barely scraping by) as a developer working on US Navy stuff, I would be applying for entry level game development stuff (like, testing). But I simply cannot survive in California making like 20k a year. Hell I can barely survive, thanks to my ex wife, at over 2x that now in Virginia :(

Anyhow, back on topic - I will be starting the initial design process here in the next couple weeks. I am pretty excited :D

Chunky monkey

So whilst sitting here at work, unable to really do anything productive due to waiting on other people - as usual - I have been perusing the various VG community forums and websites. One of the issues that I have seen brought up, and addressed today was that of "Chunking". This is similar to "zoning" in other games.

In Vanguard, the map is broken up into 2km x 2km segments. Each segment is dubbed a chunk, and I would imagine each chunk has its own server process (based on how Brad described this today on the FOH boards).

There are some downsides to this - in that you can only exist in one chunk at a time. Now this sounds like this is working as it should, as you should not be able to be in more than one place or chunk at a time. However, this creates invisible barriers in the world. This does not create a "seamless" world; at least not in the sense most gamers think when they hear the term. DAoC and WoW are both seamless worlds. You can run from one side of a continent to another without ever really noticing where one zone line ends and another begins.

Some will argue that WoW still has small entry ways to different zones - and they do. However, the movement between adjacent zones - and their connecting pathways - are truly fluid and seamless. You can easily kite mobs from zone to zone, engage in combat (both PvE and PvP) across these zone lines and not notice you are crossing them at all. So yes, while technically you are moving from one distinct zone to another - while in a given zone, you are not encased in some plot of land with obvious zone borders (mountains and such aside).

In Vanguard however, you can easily see most of these seams. Especially if you have a torch lit, as the light from the torch does not pass by the seam line. As well, if you happen to see someone "chunk", it's very easy to spot. They stop moving forward, but continue to run in place until they "pop" through to the other side. There are also problems chunking, where certain aspects of your current game state changes. For example:

• Torches that you had lit will become unlit
• Pets might disappear
• Auto-follow is disengaged
• Mobs that have aggro on you do not chunk with you
• Some people experience "falling through the world" immediately after chunking

So, obviously if each chunk is its own server process, either on the same machine - or different; the game has to hand you off to the next process when you chunk. The problem is, some of this data is not being handed over, as noted in the list above.

Obviously, I do not have access to the game code to see how this is implemented, but it's a nice experiment in guess-work. I would think this can be improved somewhat. One major thing I think could be done is to do pre-transfers. A few yards from the chunk line, you pass the user info off to the nearest chunk(s), and when they hit the line, you issue a single instruction that tells the new chunk you have passed the line, and to make you active in this new chunk. Depending on how user data is stored on a machine, it might be possible to simply pass a memory address over, then the instruction to "chunk". When the data is pre-transferred over, the user's client program (vgclient) would then start pre-loading any assets needed. It seems this step is already done - else you would not be able to see the critters and players in another chunk moving around.

It just seems that, while the current system is pretty interesting and I am sure required a lot of coding to make it work, it could be done much better. Something to keep in mind for games I might develop in the future :)

I think DAoC had the basic overland stuff down pat in this regard. I don't remember every noticing when I ran across "zone lines" in that game. Of course, I only played for a few months - maybe they did stuff differently in the newer content areas.

Crafting prices

So I am focusing on crafting a bit more over the next few days, while my normal adventuring partner is out of town for his birthday (Happy Bday btw man). I am now a level 14 armorsmith, and while this is not very high - it's about time for to start making some items for sale, instead of just completing work order after work order.

I suppose I need to sit down with some form of pen and paper, or a spreadsheet, and figure out how much it costs to make my various craftable items.

Though, we have another double experience weekend this weekend, so I am sure I will be unable to fight the urge to go level some ><

First experiences post VG Update #1

Well today sure was a debacle for Sigil. They pushed content update #1 to the live servers today, along with a hefty patch - and managed to leave several things out. Apparently Temnwar's Shield, a dam and small quest area in central Thestra, was without textures so it appeared the dam disappeared. Many reports of weapons without models, so players were attacking with empty hands - the weapon was equipped, players just could not visually see the weapon. This required a patch for the patch - which brought the servers down another 3+ hours.

Along with that, they made a pretty significant change to ability-based DPS. It seems abilities now do less dps than before, due to a "bug" where auto-attack damage was added into the equation. So I am assuming for example, that if you normally auto attacked for 50, and Ability001 says it hits for 100-125, then you were actually hitting for something like 150-175. That's how the explanation Nino gave on the FoH boards sounds, anyhow.

Supposedly, in some cases, this was allowing players to do up to 2x the amount of damage they should be doing. Ok, I can see where that would be a problem. However, if this is indeed a problem, why did quest XP get a significant boost recently because players were not leveling at the pace Sigil thought they should? Quest XP affects solo or duo players much more than it affects a full group, as a full group is most likely dungeon crawling and getting a very nice chunk of experience. So they effectively severely hurt the solo players with this change. I happen to be a predominately solo/duo player at this time. That said, I didn't see a significant drop in my damage output. Though, I am also using a crazy hot weapon for my level, so I put out a buttload of damage as it is with auto attack.

Warrior Bugs
I only noticed one bug so far due to the patch changes:
-Infurating Shot now hits for a roflpwning 2-5 damage against mobs around my level (14-18). Apparently, according to Verge, this seems to be a known bug and a fix is already done or in the works. On the flip side, my normal "ranged attack" ability hits for ~180.

I did not get a chance to see how the changes to mitigation affect warriors at my level, as I soloed only today, and I only adventured for about 15 minutes - then went off to craft.

Speaking of, I found a really nice NPC to get work orders from Bordinar's Cleft, and it's not the normal refining or finishing taskmasters ;)

Welcome

Welcome to my new little space on the web. I will be focusing this blog primarily on gaming and development topics. A few side topics might sneak in from time to time, but my goal is to have a relatively narrow focus for this blog.

Currently, MMOs are taking up most of my gaming time with WoW taking a backseat to Vanguard. While I like the fluidity that WoW exhibits in its gameplay, Vanguard has been piquing my interest more and more due to the more complex mechanics and general content of the game.

My highest level character right now in Vanguard is a level 18 Dwarven Warrior. Over the next several weeks, I will be posting about my adventures in Telon - including some independent testing I will be doing. I have a few items in mind to write about, mainly to do with the mechanics of the game and the warrior class - and more will pile up as I continue to play.

I also tinker around in my free time with various development projects and items. In the past, I was tinkering more and more with game development - but that tailed off as my day job focused on database programming. As a result, most of my tinkerings were with database related projects - mostly web based systems - and eventually found me as one of the original four founders of the PostNuke project back in 2000 or 2001. It has been so long now since I have been involved with that project, that I don't even know where they are in terms of features and such. That said, I am looking to get my focus back on game development - as gaming is a passion for me, and creating games is something I have wanted to do for over ten years now.