archetypes
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Storyboard: Archetype discussion -- the Defiant
If you were born around the same time that I was, then the odds are good you have the plucky princess seared into your brain by means both dark and Disneyean. You know the one I'm talking about: the girl possessed of a fair bit of good sense and independent thought who doesn't want to be a stay-in-court princess, despite her father's insistence that she'll get attacked by a bear within five seconds of leaving. So within 15 minutes she leaves anyway, and lo and behold, the next two hours of the film are devoted to the variety of bear-related mishaps that ensue. But there's more to this than a line of somewhat nauseating merchandise for young girls. There's an archetype here, one for people of both genders who kick convention to the curb and opt for something just a bit more stimulating and challenging -- even though they're not always well-suited to those challenges. So let's take a look at the Defiant archetype past the cut. (And you can go ahead and hum Part of your World while you do so, if necessary. It's OK.)
Fortune Online video dev diary details classes
Judging by a new (and slickly produced) dev diary video, Gazillion is spending a fair bit of money on its new Fortune Online MMORPG. The video features a mixture of in-game footage as well as commentary from producer Ricardo Mendoza, design director Adam Maxwell, and senior content designer Chris Holtorf. Most of the discussion is focused on two of the game's classes, the Master of Arms and the Disciple of the Dragon, which belong to the Warrior and Guardian archetypes respectively. What's an archetype? "Fortune Online has several classes that you can choose from but we've done something to sort of simplify it for more casual players. We've boiled them down into very basic archetypes," Maxwell explains. Check out the full video after the cut.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Archetype ethos
We're halfway through the rundowns of the archetypes in City of Heroes, one of those milestones that seems that it ought to be easy but always takes longer than you'd expect. And while I could just spin on to the next archetype straightaway, I decided instead to take the time to look at the method behind the writeups to date. You could argue that this is the sort of thing that really would have made more sense if it came before the evaluations, but this way I have actual examples to point to instead of just a lot of concepts. In many ways, writing about the archetypes is a minefield because you aren't writing about a simple class. You could argue that there are 14 classes in the game without too much trouble, but even the most limited of those classes has well over three dozen different combinations of powers available. And that's not even getting into the fact that each archetype has its own default identity and role within a group and the simple fact that City of Heroes encourages players to make whatever they want. It's not a skill-based game, but trying to shoehorn each archetype into an overall class mold isn't always conducive to making people happy.
Storyboard: Archetype discussion -- the Trapped
Up until now, all of the archetypes we've discussed have had one major element in common -- they've wanted to be out in the world. Maybe it's out of a sense of duty, maybe it's a desire for something, or maybe it's just a need to teach. Whatever the actual reasons, these archetypes are made up of people who aren't going to be totally happy just sitting at home right now. Many want to end up in a nice home, but that's further down the road. The Trapped just wants to get out. She doesn't care about larger goals, she doesn't care about adventure, she doesn't want to make money or learn new things. She wants to go home and stay there. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't get to make that decision, and for whatever reason, she's out in the midst of an adventure when she never really wanted to be a part of it in the first place. So queue up your listening material and let's talk about being trapped in the midst of awesome.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Defenders
So last week, my column went live on the same day that Paragon Studios assuaged pretty much every concern my article raised. I should be annoyed, I suppose -- these columns do not spring Athena-like from my forehead, after all -- but considering what the producer's letter means for City of Heroes, I can't be anything but happy. It shows that the problems that I can think of are getting brought up and addressed by the development team as well, and that means that there's a security buffer in place so that things never get bad. And that segue leads us naturally into the next archetype up for discussion: Defenders. Probably the hardest archetype to cleanly fit to any pre-existing heroes, Defenders are still a vital part of the game and a lot of fun to play besides. They're the logical counterpart to the Tanker side of the equation. Whether you're new to City of Heroes as a whole or just new to the very idea of playing a Defender, click on past the break to take a look inside the most party-oriented archetype in the game (barring Kheldians, I suppose).
Champions Online's Chris Matz talks on F2P changes, PvP, and the future of CO
Every MMO design team has a wizard turning balance knobs and experimenting with the magical formulas to make gameplay both fun and challenging. On the Champions Online team, that wizard is Chris Matz, better known as Ame on the CO forums. He's one of the more active developers on the boards, keeping a strong hand on the pulse of the player community to get a feel for what the players think about new gameplay changes. Recently we got to sit down and have a chat with Chris, and he leveled with us on everything from the new heavy weapons powerset to the uses of Teleportation in PvP to the upcoming Void Archetype, which will be hitting the live CO servers next week. Hit the jump to read the full scoop!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Tankers
If there's one thing that's always bothered me about the archetypes in City of Heroes -- the vanilla game, that is -- it's that none of them has a name that's particularly evocative, even though there are tons of examples that each archetype can draw upon. Today's archetype is a perfect example, one that covers Superman, Colossus, Giant-Man, Captain Marvel, even certain incarnations of more variable characters like Iron Man. But the name "Tanker" fails to conjure up images of anything beyond a dry recitation of party roles. Yes, this week we're discussing the third of four melee-heavy archetypes with the Tanker, as was hinted at the end of the last column. It's also the archetype closest to its two predecessors, coming with almost identical power selections in a slightly different order. But the Tanker's powers get prioritized in a very different way, so whether you're new to the game or just the class, let's take a look at how to make your Tanker as tanky as possible.
Hyperspace Beacon: Archetype
How many hours do you spend in the character creator? Even in a limited character creator like Guild Wars', I will spend a lot of time getting my character to look just right. In games like Champions Online, City of Heroes, or -- dare I even think about -- All Points Bulletin, some players play just for the character creator, spending hours on hours creating character after character. DC Universe Online's character creation eats up large amount of my game time even though the character creator is a bit limited when compared to those others. What have we seen of Star Wars: The Old Republic's character creator? I don't mean what has leaked; I mean, what has been shown to us by the developers, because that is what is finished. Then there is another huge part of creating a character that stretches beyond the physical appearance: personality. Yeah, I know, that's roleplay, right? Whether we just play ourselves in an extraordinary situation or we completely separate ourselves from our in-game avatars, we're roleplaying. And whether you consider yourself a roleplayer or not, you will roleplay -- even if only a little -- in SWTOR. Follow me after the break as I touch on the things we know about the character creator in SWTOR and throw in some tidbits about possible archetypes you can follow when developing your character's personality.
Storyboard: Archetype discussion - the Errant
If you've seen The Princess Bride but haven't ever read the book, you have excellent taste in movies but you're missing out. There's a lot that by necessity had to be cut from the film, but the lost detail that stands out is just how much time Inigo Montoya spent training and preparing to hunt down the six-fingered man. It's one thing to be told that he strove to kill this man for years; it's another to be told in detail how hard he fought, how long he quested, and how much effort he poured into his goal until there was almost nothing left. Today's archetype is Inigo Montoya. He is Roland Deschain, he is Alessan di Tigana, he is Captain Nero and James Ford and Depth Charge. He is the Errant, and he is anyone devoted to a singular purpose that drives every second of his actions. And he's probably the most problematic of the archetypes out there, because sooner or later he's going to have to deal with what it means to complete that purpose. So take a seat, and let's go on a single-minded journey.
Behind the Mask: What Archetypes really need
One of the main draws of Champions Online is character customization. Costume creation is one part of that, while open power selection is another. The two elements allow players to make heroes that truly feel unique. No two Champions look the same, and while it's very possible for two different heroes to play similarly, there are enough ways to express yourself in the system that creating a truly unique hero is a simple matter. As we near the big launch of F2P, I can't help but be stuck on the idea of Archetypes. Having a hero fixed into a particular power build seems contrary to the nature of CO, and when those builds are inferior to Custom characters built for the exact same things, well... let's just say a lot of people, including many of you readers here at Massively, don't see eye-to-eye with the Archetype design decision. Naturally, I have my own ideas. Restricting F2P players in some way to encourage premium subscriptions is definitely something Cryptic should do, but there are quite a number of reasons why the existing path is... just a bad idea.
Storyboard: Archetype discussion - the Partisan
Clarity of purpose is a wonderful thing, made all the more likable by its usual absence. The fact is that most of us have only the vaguest idea of what to do, and we're all making things up as we go. It's the central ripoff discovered when you become an adult. Moral clarity is a joke, and whether you try to save everyone or just focus on saving yourself, it's a morass without any clear purpose for most of us. The partisan puts the lie to that. He might follow a religion, he might follow a nation, he might follow an individual -- but whatever his leader might be, the partisan follows it without fail. He has his moral clarity at all times, even if keeping it might mean sacrificing his own judgment. And it's his view -- his vision of what is right -- that tells him exactly what he wants. So let's look at the partisan, in all of his one-true-path glory.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Brutes
It's the start of a new year, and that means it's time to start getting fired up again. I have been taking a little break from being online for the new year weekend -- after all, when you're always online, it starts to wear on you just a little. But now it's time to get back in the saddle in City of Heroes and everywhere else, and I can't think of a better way to do that than to start in on the archetype overviews once again, especially since I had a friend tell me he was looking forward to his current favorite archetype. We're not on that archetype today, however. No, after having taken a look at the Scrapper to kick things off, we're going to be moving on to a character type that's just down the street. It's the second of three archetypes with an offensive melee/defensive secondary mix, it's one of the four heavily melee-oriented options available, and it's the sort of character type that just makes you start hitting until everything is broken in half. That's right, we're looking at the Brute today, for players who are new to the Brute or to the game in general.
Storyboard: Archetype discussion -- the Paladin
Archetypes, by their very definition, are idealizations. They aren't people; they're abstract concepts that people approach in varying degrees. Most of them aren't conscious aspirations, just a direction and a set of overall goals. Nobody really wants to be amoral in pursuit of a single goal, or an engine of war, or an endless question mark. You just kind of wind up in a place where you can be abstracted in that fashion. Paladins are not like that. Staggering numbers of different games have a class named "paladin," including nearly every class-based fantasy game in existence. But that's just a name, a collection of statistics and abilities and genre conventions. There's more to the archetype than that, something that taps into a very fundamental part of the human psyche. So as always, queue up some appropriate listening material, and let's take a look at an archetype that's almost always named as a class but has much more substance than a few holy-themed spells.
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.
Storyboard: Archetype discussion - the Scholar
It's time for our third archetype discussion, with the previous two being the Soldier and the Rogue. I've been pleased with the positive response I've seen so far, especially since the archetypes seem to help highlight the difference between a class and the character. There are classes that suggest a more roguelike approach (not a Roguelike approach; that's different), but people play them as soldiers, undertaking missions and killing based on exterior orders rather than any sort of malice or desire. And that's great -- the power of archetypes is that you can have almost any class or combination of abilities backing them up. Such is the case with today's archetype, one that is often seen as being limited to spellcasters but which can really cover almost any set of skills. James Joyce wrote that when you think about things, you can understand them, and that's the bread and butter of the scholar. Queue up some appropriate music, and let's take a look at someone who just wants to know more.
Storyboard: Archetype discussion - the Rogue
A disproportionate number of roleplaying characters are heroes. Well, "heroes" might be a bit too strong of a term -- said characters may or may not have actually done anything heroic -- but given the opportunity, they prefer to be on the noble and self-sacrificing side of a conflict. There's nothing wrong with that, to be sure, but there is something to be said for playing someone whose ethics are a bit less grounded in an abstract idea of right or wrong. Most fantasy games have a class either named as a rogue or some variant thereof, and even when the class doesn't exist, the hallmarks are there. Stealthy and sneaky, usually aimed at quick bursts of damage -- all of those elements speak to how rogues work. But they don't actually define a true rogue any more than a hammer defines a carpenter. So feel free to cue up some appropriate music (at your discretion) as we dive into the second archetype study, taking a good hard look at the most underhanded archetype around.
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.
Behind the Mask: Eight ways for free-to-play
A little while ago, a full list of Champions Online's first eight archetypes was given to the public. Originally I wasn't going to talk about them much, but a couple people came up and asked me, "Are you going to write about archetypes this week?" I told them I probably wasn't, but after reflecting on it, it seemed a hot topic that I should probably talk about. Cryptic has a habit of releasing ideas and content that are ridiculously bad in their first iterations. Over time, these ideas tend to get more and more polished, until we get something ranging from playable (melee) to almost exactly right (pets). The first pass at archetypes really isn't any different. The archetypes are bad. I am pretty sure the team will tweak the little problems, so talking about them seems sort of like jumping the gun. But hey, you guys asked for it.
