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What do The Elder Scrolls Online's racial abilities mean for endgame?
The Elder Scrolls Online faced significant controversy when it announced that players will be able to roll a character of the Imperial race if and only if they upgrade to the Imperial Collector's Edition of the game. At the same time, ZeniMax revealed that players who preorder the game will be able to play any race in any faction, adding to player angst. In the following video, Massively's ESO columnist Larry Everett examines the skill trees and the racial abilities of two different races to see whether there is any substance to these concerns.
Hyperspace Beacon: How do I play my SWTOR class?
I understand what some Star Wars: The Old Republic players are seeking when they ask how I play my class. They want to play the game better! If they ask me, specifically, then they want to play a Marauder better. I like these guys, and I welcome any questions they have. The other kind of SWTOR player who asks how I play my class looks for the faults in my playstyle. Well, there are many of them, but that doesn't mean that some of my choices are completely bad. And like most players, I didn't learn how to play my class completely on my own. I am, like most of you, an amalgam of several different teachers. Today, I'd like to take a moment not to look at the specific ways I play a Marauder (although I might use the Marauder as an example) but to examine methods for learning and elicit tips from players who are damn good at playing MMOs.
Tamriel Infinium: The true meaning of The Elder Scrolls Online skill lines
I have always thought it presumptuous to declare that anyone can know the true meaning of anything. However, I believe that players might be led slightly astray by the latest Elder Scrolls Online video. I don't think that the ESO creators were lying because I do believe that it is distinctly possible to take on nearly any role no matter the class or race choice. However, as in every other MMO in existence, only certain combinations will reign supreme, and unfortunately, I also suspect that if you wish to fill a specific role, you will have to pick specific classes. Thanks to some of the data fan sites have gathered from convention playthroughs, we can guestimate which combinations will fill which roles the best. In order to understand where I'm coming from, let's explore how the progression system works. The minimalistic user interface for ESO displays four components related to your skills. Your health bar depletes every time an enemy lands a hit. The magicka bar indicates the amount of spell-slinging power you have. The stamina bar depletes when you perform a physical action like dodging or swinging your axe. Then you also have the toolbar, which gives you five active ability slots and an ultimate slot. When you reach a certain level, you will be able to actively switch between two toolbars based on your weapon. Your weapon, armor, and skills determine which role you play in a group.
Tamriel Infinium: Horizontal vs. vertical progression and the Elder Scrolls Online
The week before last, I talked about a hybrid penalty, and I've realized that I did so without actually talking about how progression is slated to work in Elder Scrolls Online. Because ESO wants to emulate the existing Elder Scrolls games in an MMO, we see many of the same ideas ported directly from the single-player game into the online game. This includes training up in a specific weapon and armor, weapon swapping, and skill-based progression. And if you have played other games' skill-based or non-linear progression systems, then you know about the difficulties of balance. ESO, like other games before it, tackles this imbalance by limiting the number of abilities available to a player at a given time. Skill progression also takes an interesting turn in ESO as well, and I'm not exactly sure how to define it. Most MMOs follow a vertical progression tree in which you place the game's version of skill points in an upward-growing tree or pyramid, with skills following a guided path to the best skill of a given tree at the top. Usually the limitations placed on these trees are based on level, which gives you a finite number of earnable skill points. I call this vertical progression. Although any good class skill system will have some branches to the side, usually the ultimate goal is to reach the top of the tree to gain the best abilities in that given class. Thankfully, Elder Scrolls Online takes a different approach.
The Daily Grind: How complex is too complex for MMOs?
I'm a huge fan of isometric clickers like Diablo, Torchlight, and Titan Quest, so I admit to being secretly pleased when pseudo-MMOs like Path of Exile were approved for coverage on Massively. In fact, I jumped into Path of Exile this past weekend to give it another spin. And as soon as my new character got her first skill point, I gleefully clicked over to the skill panel, only to be confronted with the game's notorious and glorious SKILL TREE TO END ALL SKILL TREES. It's not even a skill tree. It's a skill maze. A skill constellation. A skill galaxy. The screenshot above isn't even half of what's available. It's overwhelming at level 2 to say the least. I like complexity in character development, but I had forgotten how over-the-top Path of Exile really was, and I had to wonder whether this sort of complexity-dump scares off newcomers to the genre, or indeed, whether it's intended to scare them off, convince them the game is harder-core than they are, or possibly just entrap them with poor early game decisions. Doesn't the skill avalanche just drive gamers to tab out and look up guides, and is that really the best idea for retaining brand-new players? How complex is too complex for MMOs and pseudo-MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Path of Exile hands-on: The sequel Diablo II deserved
Like many gamers in their mid-20s, I spent countless hours in my teenage years smashing through dungeons and hunting for loot in Diablo II. The deep itemisation system made building effective characters a real challenge, and periodic ladder resets kept the loot-hunting economy fresh. Fast-forward 10 years and the highly anticipated sequel Diablo III was released to some serious complaints. The servers were unstable for weeks at launch, the always-online DRM caused a stir, and the endgame item grind was severely underwhelming. Indie developer Grinding Gear Games aims to beat Blizzard at its own game with its new free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile. The game boasts a dark art style and an unprecedented level of character customisation that lets players build truly unique characters. Each skill is itemised as a gem that can be slotted into your gear and augmented with dozens of different support gems. The sprawling passive skill system is better described as a "skill octopus," with millions of different ways to build a character. I've spent the past few weeks smashing up monsters in the Path of Exile open beta and absolutely loving it. Read on to find out why I can honestly say that Path of Exile is the sequel Diablo II deserved.
Firefall extrapolates on its new progression system
Hot on the heals of its blog post about dynamic events, Red 5 Studios now hopes to change up the whole progression system in its third-person shooter Firefall. The development team revamped the existing mostly linear advancement system to a more dynamic (there's that word again) skill-tree system. And now, Lead Class Designer Dave Williams has posted that the team that the team wanted to "increase the number of choices that were available to players within their progression." Williams explains that players generally pick a battleframe based on their individual playstyles. With the skill trees, a player can break that playstyle down even further. He gives the example of a Mammoth Dreadnaught vs. a Rhino Dreadnaught. The Mammoth builds heavier defenses, whereas the Rhino packs a heavier punch. MMOs and other online games are trending away from the linear progression style to a more horizontal progression style. Firefall is heading in that direction, too. Will this be enough push Firefall toward being the next great online shooter? Red 5 hopes so.
Borderlands 2 skill tree calculator now online
Posting about skill tree/talent calculators is really more of a Massively jam, what with such things typically being the fare of massively multiplayer online orc/spaceship simulators and everything, but in Borderlands 2's case, we'll have to make an exception.Calculators like the one seen above are now available on the game's official site via each character's individual page, which can be accessed by surmounting the age gate and clicking on "Characters." We went ahead and spec'd out our siren, and we don't mean to brag or anything but that build up there is 100 percent guaranteed to be the most efficient, powerful build for the class.Either that, or we randomly slapped it together in about 12 seconds.
Your new BFF, the first skill tree for Borderlands 2's Mechromancer
The Mechromancer's first fully formed skill tree is called Best Friends Forever, and while it won't hand out charm bracelets or stay up all night gossiping, it will hold your hand. Best Friends Forever offers a series of handicaps for the friends of players who might say, "I love Borderlands and I want to share it with someone, but they suck at first-person shooters," lead designer John Hemingway tells Eurogamer.One skill in the Best Friends Forever tree is "Close Enough;" it makes bullets that miss their targets ricochet off surrounding objects toward the intended enemy. "Can't aim? That's not a problem," Hemingway says.Another skill tree may end up as the counterpoint to Best Friends Forever, offering a hardcore mode, and the third might be a "shock gameplay tree." Gearbox is still playing with the Mechromancer's tree, but "you'll definitely see a few things with the robot hand in her skill trees," Hemingway says.The Mechromancer's main skill is to summon Deathtrap, a giant robot, and her tree will include skills that teach him new abilities. One new ability is called Explosive Clap, which has Deathtrap rush enemies and clap his hands together to knock them down.Hemingway wouldn't give away the Mechromancer's name, and Gearbox is still working on her final build. The Mechromancer is planned to launch 60 days following Borderlands 2's launch on September 18, as paid DLC or free for those who pre-order the game.
Star Wars: The Old Republic Q&A talks story, balance, and species experimentation
Another installment of BioWare's weekly ritual of enlightening the masses is up! The first question of this week's community Q&A touched on the selection of races available in Star Wars: The Old Republic. If the future introduction of the Cathar is successful, the team would like to introduce a broader spectrum of species for player characters, balancing things out by adding "clear positives and negatives" for playable species. On the story side of things, lead writer Alex Freed addressed a question about the timing of storylines. Class stories have roughly the same timing across the board, but aren't completely in-step, while world stories are split up by faction and can have much more significant time differences. For the most part, it's best not to worry too much about ordering individual world events unless they actively reference one another--and if they contradict one another, you can assume that we won't be writing future stories that depend on one faction's participation at the exclusion of the other. Senior designer Austin Peckenpaugh tackled some class and skill questions. Recent patches have made some fairly substantial changes to the Marksmanship and Sharpshooter trees; Peckenpaugh says these tweaks are intended to bring the specs closer to the team's original vision and encourage playstyles better fit to the peculiarities of those trees. He also talked about the delicate balance of player control and kiting and anti-kiting in the game. He says that "given the amount of skills and abilities that break and cleanse roots and snares at the moment," the team is not "very concerned" about the possibility of chainable roots.
City of Steam fashions a pressurized skill tree
Many MMOs have skill or talent trees, but when you're doing a steampunk game, why not take a bland staple of the genre and turn it into something awesome? That's what City of Steam's Lead Designer Dave Winking is promoting when he shows off the team's ideas for turning the mundane into the fantastical. After taking feedback from previous generic builds, City of Steam's dev team revamped the skill tree's visuals and mechanics to entice a "whoa!" out of its players. The concept is that the tree is now a maze of pipes, boilers, and valves. Players will build up "pressure" over time, pressure that can be vented into different pipes. The more pressure in a pipe, the higher a skill goes, and once a skill hits 100% pressure, it's usable by the player. Winking says that players have more options than just filling up a pipe; they can also over-pressurize pipes to achieve higher skill ranks and take multiple paths to achieve better skills. There's even a mystery skill that Winking says will "make your character explode into pieces of bread with cat's heads stuck through them." Of course, he then says he's probably teasing about the last thing.
Captain's Log: Class spotlight - Tactical
Captain's Log, Stardate 65168.1... Hello, computer (and players)! Welcome to Captain's Log and the second installment in a three-part series focusing on the classes within Star Trek Online. After exploring some of the amazing powers available to those who roll a Science captain, we shift our focus away from support and healing this week to dive into the realm of DPS. While this realm can be filled with members of all three classes, Tactical captains, if specced correctly, take the trophy each and every time. Ever since the game launched early last year, my main toon has always been a Tactical captain. During the time I leveled up, I tested out different types of ships at each rank. While flying a science ship as a Tactical captain was fun during the early stages of leveling, I would definitely suggest flying an escort, or if you must, a cruiser, when you first make it to Rear Admiral. I am sure there are some Tacticals out there flying Science classes, but I feel that the Bridge Officer stations equipped on escorts allow the best Tactical abilities to come into play. But enough about telling you what to do -- let's move onto talking about some of the best attack powers in the game. Ensign, warp 10! It's time to help our reads unload some DPS on their next enemy...
Captain's Log: Class spotlight - Science
Captain's Log, Stardate 65150.3... Hello, computer (and players)! McCoy, Crusher, Bashir, the EMH and Phlox are all known for their amazing medical skills throughout the many series of Star Trek. While some of these Doctors were the most beloved characters in all of the franchise, Science officers seem to be a rare item in the Star Trek Online universe. Although Science is the least commonly played career, many who do venture into the field have rewarding gaming experiences due to the different sub-careers they can spec into. This week's Captain's Log introduces the first installment in a three-part series that will span the next few weeks -- each entry will focus on a different class and provide some great information that you will be able to reference the next time you roll a new character. Whether you prefer to provide support through healing, debuffs, or powerful expose attacks that leave your enemies vulnerable to vaporization, this spotlight on Science captains has something for everyone. Continue past the jump for information of some of my favorite skills for Science officers. Ensign, warp 10! Let's get those medical tricorders ready for use...
Rusty Hearts' closed beta swings into phase 2
It's an exciting time for the hyper-kinetic Rusty Hearts, as the title is not only moving into its second closed beta phase today but ramping up for a blockbuster appearance at this week's PAX. Perfect World is upping the ante for potential testers, offering a free costume item for those who log into the game in the first 12 hours. This costume piece will persist through open beta, so there's no worry it's going away anytime soon. Rusty Hearts' closed beta phase 2 is also increasing the amount of content available in the game, including a complete town restructure, a fine-tuning of the PvP system, the ability to compare yourself to other players, a side quest system, a revamp of the skill tree, advanced crafting, and unique cosmetic looks for crafted weapons. If you don't have the pleasure of attending PAX, the Rusty Hearts dev team has a present for you anyway: the full PAX walkthrough video that will be on display at the convention. You can check it out after the jump!
New Star Wars: The Old Republic dev blog dishes on advanced classes
Ready for another Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday feature? Whom are we kidding, of course you are! BioWare's Georg Zoeller is happy to oblige via his new dev blog that focuses on TOR's advanced classes. His previous entry laid the groundwork, whereas today's exercise is all about the details. Players will choose their advanced class at level 10, and each base class offers two advanced class choices (i.e., the Smuggler will need to select either the Gunslinger or Scoundrel as her advanced class). Each advanced class provides two exclusive skill trees and shares a third tree with the other (non-selected) advanced class. This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, since Zoeller goes into quite a bit of detail in terms of the various skills, skill trees, and even decision-making and testing metrics (and of course, it's all sprinkled with a liberal dose of pretty pictures). Devour all the details on the official TOR website.
Still clicking: Our exclusive interview with the Mythos dev team
Considering Mythos' stormy post-Flagship past and its relatively low profile over the past half year, we were pleased to see the team at Redbana unveil a website revamp last month, complete with a slew of vibrant new screenshots to tease the upcoming closed beta. The infrastructure revealed in the images suggests that the game has come a long way since we last checked in with the team; although many players might once have pigeon-holed Mythos as "just another Diablo clone," it's now maturing into a hybrid MMORPG that seems to have as much in common with Blizzard's other fantasy game as with the click-fests of yesteryear. Curious, we commandeered the team at Redbana in order to ask about the progress of the game. Meet up with us after the break as we discuss the transition to Redbana, overcoming the Diablo stigma, camera perspectives, map travel, character customization, and the likelihood that Mythos will be free-to-play. Oh, and did I mention you can play satyrs and cyclopes?!
The Daily Grind: Should leveling be removed?
We complain about how long it is, we complain about how short it is. We complain because it's in the game and we even complain when it's not in the game. Some believe it makes more problems, others believe it's the best solution we can insert into a game. What are we talking about? Leveling -- that's what we're talking about.In almost every shape and form, we find a reason to hate the leveling systems we have in place in so many games today. So, the question has to be raised: Should we just ditch levels and go find something else? Skills seem to work in games like EVE Online, and there exists a possibility of using items as a faux leveling system. But, Massively readers, what do you think about levels? Should they be kept or should they be thrown out on their behinds with all of their content-crushing luggage? And if we're throwing them out, what could we use to replace them, in your opinion?
