archetype
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Ten levels of RIFT: A guide to your first day in Telara
With two RIFT beta events under my belt, I was given the supreme honor of creating a guide to the first 10 levels of the game. Naturally, I fell apart under the stress, assumed the fetal position for a couple days while whimpering about "frame rates," and then was prodded into action by our editors. That's quite literally "prodded," mind you -- Massively purchased a pair of cattle prods last year at a police auction. It's going to be years until the scorch marks fade from my spine. The purpose of this guide is two-fold. First, we want to give anyone who's interested in RIFT but couldn't get into the beta a chance to vicariously experience RIFT's newbie path. Second, while RIFT is careful to hold your hand during your first steps into Telara, there are always a lot of things that can be easily missed while one is partaking in the wonders of a new virtual world. So this guide is here to share a few tips and pointers that beta testers may have missed. What are you waiting for? Roll up a new character by hitting the jump!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Scrappers
We're in a small lull for City of Heroes at the moment, and truth be told it's well-deserved. After several months of invasions, updates, previews of the upcoming issues and so forth... it's nice to finally have a chance to just lean back and breathe a little bit. Of course, said breathing will involve a fair bit of superpowered antics, but as involved as that might be for the characters, the players don't have to be constantly looking to the future. So while we technically should be working through the Incarnate System, the odds are better than even that we'll all be rolling alts over the holiday season. We play City of Heroes; alts are in our blood. So in a move that can only have been brought on by an almost criminal overdose of liquor, I've decided to start taking a look at the powersets of the archetypes, starting with the alt-friendly Scrapper. This should be of benefit to those who have never played a Scrapper, including players who are starting the game for the first time and who by definition haven't tried one before.
Champions Online designer clarifies power changes
It's easy for Champions Online players to feel like the game is in a constant state of change as the developers work on the free-to-play transition. Late last week our Champions Online columnist took a look at the first eight archetypes, and there was quite a bit of feedback from the CO community. We spent some time chatting with Champions Online developer Chris Matz, who had plenty to say about the current and upcoming changes to the archetypes. Chris gave a great look at where things stand now and what the team has planned for the future, so follow along after the jump to see what he had to say!
Behind the Mask: The first order of business
Sometimes we make mistakes. Last week, I talked about Champions Online's new archetypes, and while most of the criticisms are valid, I made several statements about incorrect stat selections that were untrue due to passives now scaling to superstats. This is actually a pretty big change to the way the game works, enough that I could almost write a whole article on that subject alone. It makes a whole mess of builds viable in vastly different ways, which is exciting. Although it does raise some concerns (polarization of builds towards CON, INT, and END), those issues really outweigh the dramatic increase in viability for some passives, particularly PFF and Seraphim. This week though, I'm going to talk about the first tier of powers. T1 is the first layer of powers that players come across after their energy builders and weak T0 attacks. There's a huge disparity in balance between various T1 powers; some are basically worthless once T2 has unlocked, while others compete with the best T3 has to offer. I'm here to mostly talk about the latter, and about how you can squeeze every bit of potential by making those required picks in T1 count.
Champions Online previews the new Archetype system
When Champions Online first announced that it was joining the ranks of other games offering a no-subscription option, it included a mention that free members would be locked into archetypes. Archetypes were described in broad strokes as a chance for players to develop along the lines of famous heroes from comics, with a locked progression path but the same basic power level. While the development team hasn't yet expounded on what the precise archetypes will be, it has put together a short description about the differences players can expect between the normal free-form heroes and the coming archetype heroes. As it turns out, archetypes will end up with slightly fewer overall powers than freeform heroes but with the same general power level. The preview explains the split as being one of versatility -- freeform heroes will be able to take many roles, but archetype heroes will perform one role well and that's it. If you're one of the players looking forward to trying Champions Online as free-to-play, or if you're just interested in the new build system, take a look at the full rundown and keep your eyes peeled for the coming details on the archetypes themselves.
Wings Over Atreia: Making the cut
"What position are you applying for?" The interviewer listens and nods. "Mmhmm. Thank you. Now, what special skills can you bring to the team?" "Please list all previous experience and describe your major accomplishments." A pause. "Have you the required equipment to adequately perform your duties?" The interviewer is quiet while sizing up the applicant. "I'm sorry, but you just don't quite have what we are looking for. Next!" Sound familiar? No, this isn't a job interview -- this is the rigmarole many players experience simply to get into a group in NCsoft's Aion. You might think that time of day or availability of people in the right level range would have the most affect on forming up a group, whether in a legion or a PUG. Instead, players often must contend with an entirely different beast before even stepping foot into an instance: group elitism. Unless you have a regular group of friends with identical play times or a very supportive legion, you are apt to occasionally find yourself in the situation of seeking a group while traipsing about Atreia. Even with a regular group, there are going to be times you are left more-or-less on your own and just want to get something done. Thus begins the (oft times unpleasant) task of creating or finding a group. Like a microcosm of drama played out in short spurts, group formation showcases a variety of less-than-desirable attributes: greed; envy; lust; selfishness; and inflated egos. Just how exclusive can this process become? Your inclusion could ride solely on your class, equipment, or skill set, and have nothing to do with your ability and skill as a player. Heck, even your name may keep you out of groups. Join me past the cut to explore elitism in group dynamics in Aion.
Developers drop prices on super popular App Store apps
If you thought yesterday's App Store sales were nice, you haven't seen anything yet. For some reason, a whole bunch of terrific apps are dropping their prices this weekend, and Touch Arcade has put together a nice roundup. TUAW Daily App choices Osmos, Archetype, Civilization Revolution, Secret of Monkey Island (and its sequel) and Hybrid 2 are all on sale for as cheap as 99 cents, as is Telltale's Puzzle Agent, Popcap's Bookworm and Peggle, and a host of other high-profile titles. Pretty crazy -- some of the App Store's most popular titles, including EA's Need for Speed series and Activision's Call of Duty Zombies games, are seeing the biggest drops in their lifetimes. My best guess for the big drops is that the financial year 2010 ends today, and these companies are trying to pad out their mobile app sale numbers before (or while) the quarter turns over. But whatever the reason, we consumers benefit -- if you've been waiting to pick some of these games up, now's your chance. And I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this. Companies, especially companies that have been premiering their apps as high as $9.99, are learning that dropping the price like this moves copies quickly, so as we move into the frenzied holiday season for gaming, we'll probably see more than a few big sales come down the pike. Stay tuned.
Archetype, Hero of Sparta 2 on iPad, PES 2010 coming
A few high profile apps have made their way over to the iPad recently. First up, Archetype is that first-person shooter that ran surprisingly well on the iPhone. It's now available on the bigger device with updated HD graphics and a redesigned HUD to take advantage of the bigger screen space. Additionally, the game has been updated since launch with a new level and a Rocket Arena gametype. The app is US$4.99 on the iPad, compared to the iPhone's $2.99 version. Gameloft has released their Hero of Sparta 2 app in an HD iPad version as well, bringing God of War-style action to Apple's tablet. HoS2 features new weapons and enemies across 12 different levels, and unlike the first Hero of Sparta for the iPad, word is that this one runs and looks great. If you were a fan of the first game and need something new to play on the iPad, you can buy Hero of Sparta 2 now for $9.99. And finally, at GDC Europe last week, Konami announced that it would be bringing Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 to the iPad. This series is also known as Winning Eleven, and it's supposed to be head and shoulders above most other soccer franchises out there, so seeing the brand new version out on the iPad is a nice coup for soccer fans. The app is due out in October of this year, just about a month after the new version of the game arrives on consoles. Unfortunately, there's no word on price yet, but given the premium nature of the title and Konami's pedigree, we're probably talking about a $9.99 game here as well.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The replacements
Hey, guys, did you know that Going Rogue is launching in less than a week? That's crazy. It feels especially strange to me, since this was an expansion that had barely been announced when I started here, and has since become pretty personally important. But we're not here to talk about my vague feelings about the impending launch, we're here to talk about its larger implications for City of Heroes -- namely, the obvious systemic changes that might well be coming when the expansion goes live. Now, some of you are doubtlessly going to point out that we're not even getting our first Incarnate slot, the expansion isn't changing any part of the system, and so forth and so on. But you forget that there is an interesting change to the system coming that we all know about: the fact that archetypes will no longer be allegiance-locked. That's right -- whether you're in City of Heroes or City of Villains, you'll no longer be limited to five different archetypes. And considering the fact that the archetypes are roughly analogous on both sides now, this might have just a bit of an impact.
Archetype nets 160,000 players in first week, promises updates and features soon
We posted about Archetype the other day -- it's an impressively solid multiplayer first-person shooter for the iPhone that brings some hardcore gameplay to Apple's touchscreen platform. And apparently there are a lot of hardcore players out there -- in just one week of release, Archetype has picked up 160,000 players. There have been over 320,000 matches played so far, with over 2 million player kills between them -- that's over 20,000 an hour. Publisher Villian says that it's obviously thrilled with the response, and that "future updates, offerings and new game features" are being worked on. This is interesting for a few reasons: first, most iPhone offerings tend towards the casual. Little pick-up-and-play games often seem to be the norm on the iPhone, as the vast majority of developers seem to be searching for one little interesting gameplay idea and running with it. But Archetype seems to hint that if the experience is done well enough, there's definitely a large audience of "hardcore" gamers on the iPhone. And it's worth mentioning that Archetype doesn't have a lite version and sells for $2.99. Before this game, the most high profile FPS on the store was probably Ngmoco's Eliminate, which went with a free-to-play model in the hopes of garnering a larger audience. But Archetype's success seems to show that (again, if the experience is good enough), there's room at higher price points for a solid player base. We'll have to see where Villian goes with this in the future -- we've heard from other developers that quick and free updates can really make an app grow even bigger, so if they can pull that off with Archetype, they'll really have an iOS juggernaut.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: A chicken in every pot, an answer for every question
It's the first Wednesday of the month, and like always that means we're going into the questions-and-answers for City of Heroes players. Before we delve into this week's column, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for the amount of discussion that took place about our last article extolling the virtues of the Loyalists. It brought a smile to my face to see all of the back and forth about the topic, something I haven't written the last word about. But that's next week's column, and right now it's time to see what other questions the community desperately needs answered. Superfan asked: "Why is the game so repetitive and lacking imagination?" On one level, I can't answer this question because I don't agree with the basic premise. I don't find the game terribly repetitive, and it's lacking in imagination in the same manner that Transformers: War for Cybertron is lacking in robots. But I've acknowledged before that there is a certain rinse-and-repeat feel to City of Heroes, even beyond the equally repetitive feeling in any given MMO. There's something about the game's layout that just gives players that feeling, and I'm not immune to it.
TUAW's Daily App: Archetype
Well now, this one's interesting. Archetype is a brand new title on the App Store that's aiming to put what seems like a big budget experience on Apple's small screen. The game is made by MunkyFun (a company led by ex-LucasArts developer Nick Pavis) and published by Villian, "an independent producer and publisher of portable game titles" that seems to have a history in mobile gaming, but not much of a website. Basically, Archetype is purporting to be Eliminate without Ngmoco -- a full-featured multiplayer FPS without any of the microtransactions or other nonsense. And it lives up to the hype. The controls will take some getting used to, even if you're a WASD veteran. In just 30 seconds on Wi-Fi, I was loaded up and playing a 5v5 deathmatch FPS game. Even on an Edge connection, I was able to play smoothly, and even pull off a kill -- I don't know what kind of code witchery makes that possible, but it works. The graphics don't really compare to modern console shooters, but I think the multiplayer gameplay easily beats Metroid: Prime Hunters and the current crop of iPhone shooters. Of course, the game still has to deal with the issues of the genre -- if you're not a twitch gamer, you'll likely get murdered very quickly, and while there are plenty of high-ping people to play with now, it's not clear what will happen if the servers get overloaded or, conversely, if the crowd thins out. You're still playing a FPS on an iPhone, and I'd much rather play a shooter on my PC or a console than this. But given the limitations of the genre and the device, Archetype is certainly an impressive title. You're still kind of going in blind at US$2.99 -- Archetype doesn't have a free version to try yet. But if you can expect to put three bucks of your time into playing this surprisingly solid multiplayer FPS, by all means, jump on in.
Pirates of the Burning Sea's new NPC archetypes revealed
The latest Pirates of the Burning Sea developer blog focuses on the title's avatar combat revamp, which we've discussed a bit at Massively in the past. "AvCom Revamp: NPC Archetypes" is written by PotBS Content Designer Bryan Yarrow, aka 'HighLevelMob?'. In it, he introduces the NPC archetypes and the moves and abilities they can employ. "Now, NPCs will debuff you, combo you, set up big finishers, support their allies, and do a lot of other cool stuff as well," Yarrow writes. While the developers didn't want to mire the game in too much complexity, they settled on placing all but two kinds of NPCs into one of six archetypes, with several sub-archetypes within. The differing sub-archetypes represent the specific abilities each NPC uses to fulfill his or her role in that archetype. Yarrow broke the NPC archetype list down as: Defenders: largely focused on the parry stat, but with less ability to dodge. Damagers: high offensive stats allow them to deal out damage, at the cost of less defense. Duelists: high parry and increased offense, but they lack the specialization of either a Defender or a Damager. Duelists possess special abilities, such as a riposte attack combined with a parry. Supporters: alternately strengthen allies or weaken enemies. Brutes: soak up damage, but are easier targets coupled with a reduced parry. Gunners: ranged attackers, with low defense against melee attacks. See Yarrow's "AvCom Revamp: NPC Archetypes" for the full details on how they're changing NPCs in Pirates of the Burning Sea, and more info on roles the various sub-archetypes of NPCs can fulfill.
Forum post of the day: Idiots, children, and oldschoolers. Oh my!
At one point in time or another, most guilds face at least a little bit of drama, from loot distribution, to relationships, to guild bank robbery. Zeida of Tichondrius has created an list of guild member archetypes for folks she does not want in her guild. The list of stereotypes covers the first four posts in the thread so there is a considerable amount of reading. The list includes newbs, n00bs, trolls, elitists, and many more. The original poster went into detail on each of these archetypes. Here's the short version:
Blood Sport: All aboard the drain train
PvP in its purest form is a beautiful thing. Amanda Dean, always obsessed with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat brings you news you can use in the Arena. When I first started the arena, I thought "Hey, me and my friends can just get together and play." And we can, but there are limits to success based on composition. Some of the most successful teams are based on archetypal compositions such as Rogue, Mage, and Priest (RMP). These typical compositions are based on synergy among classes. Focused mana draining is another fairly successful team structure. The key to successful arena play is usually to control the playing field. Drain teams deny their opponents the ability to attack or heal. Drain teams focus on characters that have mana depleting abilities, plus have a few other tricks up their sleeve to pull out when necessary. Your main contenders are Hunter, Priest, and Warlock.
MMO 2.0 and the next generation of online gaming
Geoff at MMOCrunch wrote an interesting piece on the 'next gen' in online gaming. Specifically, why there is no next gen. He comments on some of the recent successes in the MMO space, namely the subscription numbers of the Big Five MMO's and the smooth release of Age of Conan. He also hails EVE Online's break from typical MMO archetypes as a kind of successful deviance, but one that hasn't truly changed how we play. The forward momentum in the online gaming industry has brought a great deal of fanfare but little true innovation, Geoff asserts. Sure, some MMO's are successful, but it seems they're all a re-hash of what's been done before. A little more polish, a few more features... he laments the fact that "there seems to be very little that is truly pushing the genre towards the next step." He looks to how the web has changed, improved exponentially, while online gaming hasn't kept pace.
Massively video exclusive: Villain epic archetypes
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/City_of_Villains_Epic_Archetypes_Video'; Anyone playing the City of... franchise must know that the game's latest free content update, Issue 12 is on the horizon, including epic archetypes for villains. And though here at Massively we can't make issue 12 arrive any faster, we do have the scoop, straight from NCsoft, on the the new Blood Widow and Wolf Spider archetypes. For the level 50 villains in the audience who can't wait to get started playing the new archetypes (or the heroes wanting to know what they'll be up against), keep reading for a preview of the new archetype abilities. All we can say is it makes us want to start leveling a villain. In fact, while you watch this video, we'll be in-game grinding our way towards infamy.%Gallery-18214%
First Glimpse of the Villain Epics
Issue 12 Beta for CoX is currently in Friends and Family stage and closed to anyone else, but bugs do happen, and one forum poster has accidentally accessed the Villain Epic Archetypes. He's generously taken plenty of screenshots and thus given us the first real taste of how the VEATs will work. NCSoft haven't objected to his sharing the information with us, but have reminded us that VEATs are still being worked on. So, please remember that this isn't final.
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite archetype?
It seems like no matter what game you spend time in, the majority of classes fall into the "trinity" of archetypes. You have your damage-soaking tanks, standing on the front line, drawing aggro and taking a beating. Then you have the DPS classes, who can generally DoT, fear, kite, sneak, stab, shoot, and a myriad of other nasty things to bring the pain. And without the third part of the trinity, the healers, the other two would spend most of the time dead on the floor or fighting mobs while using lots of bandages, med-packs, potions or the like. Once in a while you'll find one class that are a "hybrid" these abilities, taking one or all of the three unto themselves, making for a more solo-friendly character.Personally, I've played all three primary archetypes as well as hybrids. While I've really enjoyed them all, my heart keeps coming back to pure DPS classes, with a close second in hybrids. Whether with stabby knives, flowing robes and fireballs, or carrying a gun, the straight damage classes are fun to me when I've got a good group to run with. When I need to get into a game and see how it works, I tend to go hybrids for their self-reliance. How about you? What's your favorite class archetype (or archetypes) and why?
Forum post of the day: These are the people in your raid
When you put five, ten, twenty-five, or forty people together you're bound to come across people who annoy, amaze, and amuse you. Peri on Terokkar posted a list of raid archetypes who may seem familiar to you. Some highlights of her post include: The GM's Significant Other- Okay, so he was going to have to quit but he tricked his SO into playing. She loves it. She's terrible. You'll effectively 24 man every boss. Count on 4 constructs in the raid, every attempt. She plays a Belf. The Backbone- Plays a tank. Doesn't have much to say. Made an error once in SSC, or so you heard. Will disconnect when Gorefiend is at 30% and keep aggro while offline for the rest of the fight. Has never said anything negative to the healers. Ever. GL with your progression without one of these. Hates the prima donnas. The Prima Donna- Requires special attention from management. Constantly whining. Plays some vital role. Might be a main tank, mage tank, or lock tank. The officers really hate this guy and as soon as they can find another tank with 24,000 buffed HP, he's out.
