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EVE Evolved: PvP masterclass - Fleet warfare
Fleet warfare in EVE Online is a big step up from the small, casual PvP gangs discussed in last week's PvP Masterclass article. In this guide, I explore the day to day activities of EVE's largest combat machinations, from 30-man faction warfare gangs to 300-man territorial fleets. In stark contrast to a small and highly mobile gang, a large fleet is a lumbering hulk that favours combined firepower and good co-ordination over all else. Massive fleets of hundreds of pilots routinely clash in the outskirts of EVE's lawless 0.0 space. But when they move at the speed of their slowest member and are really only as good as their fleet commander, what can you do to make sure your fleet is a success?Fight-by-numbers:The essence of fleet warfare is that using more ships is usually better. By focusing all attacks on one enemy at a time, a larger fleet has a very high damage potential. It also allows a more diverse range of ship types to take part in the fight such as an electronic warfare wing or sniper squadron. Forming a large fleet usually requires some planning and co-ordination, making them less suited to casual PvP and more suited to organised assaults on specific targets like POS.Read on as I tackle the question of how to make a fleet effective from the perspective of both the fleet's individual members and the fleet commander.
EVE Evolved: PvP masterclass - Gang warfare
PvP Masterclass is a series of articles explaining PvP from the bottom up and showing you how to get involved even if you're a new player. In part 1 of this series, I examined the main types of PvP a player can choose in EVE Online and showed the directions players can take their PvP careers. In this second part, I explore how small gang warfare fits into the PvP landscape of EVE and help you decide what avenues you should pursue if small gang warfare is your cup of tea.Numbers game:A complaint I hear all too often today is that small gang warfare in EVE is dead, that PvP is a numbers game and competing on the battlefield means having the biggest blob. It almost always transpires that these people are trying to shoehorn small gang warfare into places it's not suited for like major 0.0 territorial conflicts or that they're neglecting the importance of intel-gathering scouts. Small gang warfare isn't about your gang of five ships trying to take on a blob of two hundred. It's about putting together a small, tight unit of pilots and picking your fights carefully.Whether you're planning to pirate, fight for the Gallente Federation or declare war on your neighbours, small gang warfare is for you. Read on as I examine the small roaming gang, one of EVE's oldest and most fun avenues of PvP.
EVE Evolved: PvP masterclass - Introduction
One of the most perplexing things about EVE Online has to be the fact that although the game is essentially designed around PvP, a lot of players avoid it entirely. In this new series of articles, I will explain PvP from the bottom up, with a particular focus on helping anyone that has always wanted to give EVE's high quality PvP a try but wasn't sure what to do. In this first article, I examine the different types of PvP available in EVE Online and suggest ways to get involved in them even if you're just finishing the 14-day trial.Types of PvP:In most MMOs, PvP means organised battleground matches or one versus one player duels. For those games lucky enough to have open world PvP, the options are a lot more varied. In EVE Online, the exact right combination of factors come together to create what on a good day I can only describe as the best PvP experience I have ever had in a computer game. Rather than just being something fun to do, PvP in EVE arises as a natural consequence of normal play, used by players to push forward their own agenda in a harsh, dismal space-borne society.Continue reading as I help you choose which type of PvP suits you the best and suggest ways to get involved in it.
Ask Massively: How to avoid being 'that guy'
This week's Ask Massively is a radical departure from recent weeks' columns. I'm not going to criticize anybody, nor will I blame you, the player, for the ills of the MMO industry. It will be a difficult job, but that's why they pay me the big bucks. (I almost kept a straight face... honest!)Dear Massively,I'm considering giving a new game like Warhammer Online a try, but I have a guild of good people in World of Warcraft, and I'm a bit reluctant to start over in a new game to try and make friends that I can play with. Most of us know what not to do in an MMO, but is there a relatively easy way to 'Win Friends and Influence People'?-Friendly Noob Gamer
An MMO showdown: City of Heroes vs. WoW vs. EVE
For some gamers born and bred with traditional first person shooters and console games, MMOs are a daunting prospect, with an appeal that's not fully understood. The stereotypes (which are sometimes true) that persist are that "MMOs are boring, MMOs are too slow, all it is is kill quests, item gathering, stat-gazing and crafting -- and all those things are boring, boring, boring." Ludo and Dante from gaming-centric site Man vs. Horse refused to 'be slaves to those opinions' and put together a cleverly written MMO Showdown. They played the trials of City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and EVE Online respectively and wrote about their experiences with these titles, having devoted roughly 7 hours of solid play to each game. Which MMO came out on top from the perspective of two experienced gamers, but MMO noobs? You might be surprised by the answer.
Breaking all the walls down
Blizzard really shocked us all yesterday with the PvE to PvP transfers -- we'd been told multiple times before that it just wasn't a possibility (and Blizzard even got in trouble for doing it for some of their friends). So a lot of players are wondering: just what other current taboos will Blizzard give up in the future, for either gameplay or marketing reasons? Cross region transfers is one idea that's come up on the forums, and Blizzard has (not surprisingly) turned it down, claiming that with the current architecture, it's not possible. Bringing one forum poster to respond that "we can expect to see it in about a year."Switching genders and factions of characters is another feature that Blizzard said will never be implemented, but of course after yesterday's news, who knows -- the last big feature that Blizzard has yet to add to the game is a brand new faction (the two expansions so far have given us new races and a new class), so if they do introduce a new faction, maybe they will allow us to fundamentally change our characters somehow. And the last bastion of change, the thing that Blizzard has implied that they'd never ever do, is allowing cross-faction communication or even grouping.Which brings us back to some concerns from players yesterday -- the PvE-PvP gap was one of the things that made World of Warcraft stand out as a game, and by removing it, Blizzard has made their game less individual, and more homogeneous with everything else on the market. It seems unthinkable now that they'd ever allow Horde and Alliance to chat with each other or group together -- that war is what makes this Warcraft. But after yesterday, who knows what other walls Blizzard will be willing to remove to "provide players with more mobility and freedom to play with their friends"?
Basic team dynamics in City of Heroes
City of Heroes is still taking on players at a healthy rate, and remains one of the most well-loved games on the market. It doesn't work quite like some other games, though, and new players will find it useful to be aware of the differences. If you're used to games where the tank-healer-DPS trinity is dominant, then you'll have to unlearn, as the little green guy put it.We've put together a crash course in the basics of CoH teaming. Inside, you'll find a breakdown of who tends to do what on a team, how the different Archetypes interrelate, and what to avoid if you want the team to gel together well. There's a lot of flexibility, and CoH is so forgiving that just about any character can solo, but when on a team there tend to be specific roles to fill. New players who are unsure of what sort of hero they'd like to play can check inside to find out what team position would suit them best. Go Check Out the CoH Team Roles >> %Gallery-30306%
The Daily Grind: Do you get raid performance anxiety?
In yesterday's meaty comment discussion that followed the news about Blizzard president Mike Morhaime's admission that Age of Conan stole away some World of Warcraft users, one Massively reader (Heraclea) brought up a very valid reason for leaving WoW -- "performance anxiety" in the endgame.WoW is obviously not the only game with this problem; pretty much any MMO with a big raid focus (and maybe some others too) can be a bit too intimidating and demanding for folks who just want to play games to relax. This might be one essence of the hardcore/casual divide. Maybe hardcore types play to excel in competition, while casual players play just to unwind. Or maybe the problem is more complicated than that.Let's get to the bottom of this! Are you turned off by raids because you get performance anxiety? If so, why do you think it happens to you? And for extra points (cause we totally keep track; okay, not really!): is there a way games can be designed differently so the endgame isn't so draining?
Encrypted Text: A Rogue's guide to battleground PvP
Every Wednesday, Encrypted Text explores issues affecting Rogues and those who group with them. This week Jason Harper, the new Rogue feature blogger, discusses battleground PvP, useful macros and techniques that strive to keep you alive longer.My last Encrypted Text post generated a lot of terrific feedback, and when you smoosh it all up and blend it I think you'll find that saying Rogues are a controversial class is a bit of an understatement. No more especially so than on the PvP side of things. In a future column I'll dig deeper into specific PvE instances, both raid and heroic, as well as give you some commentary on the new skills that come with the Wrath expansion. In the column this week we're talking about PvP and how to get the most out of it with your Rogue. I hope to make this a semi-regular topic, updating as we go, focusing on one or two PvP related items each time.If you could distill the feelings of the majority of non-Rogues out there, at least the most vocal ones, you'd come up with a collective "over-powered" when it comes to PvP. Designed to counter most (but not all) casting classes, especially those *not* geared or spec'd to prevent spell push-back, our goal is to get our target into melee range and keep them there. Keeping this in mind, my first bit of PvP advice for you is avoid fair fights at all costs.
E308: 'Open Party' system to encourage grouping in Warhammer Online
Our epic-level talk with Josh Drescher and Adam Gershowitz delved into a number of interesting topics. Warhammer Online is essentially feature complete, they said, and will offer players a level of UI customization we haven't seen in most previous MMOs. They also, interestingly, are working to take care of the looking for group problem with a new tactic: the Open Party. We've already learned how they plan to encourage players to collaborate through Public Quests, but this sounds like it's taking the boundary of solo and group play and stretching it to the breaking point ...Adam: Another major feature we wanted to make sure to mention was the Open Party system. It just went into the Beta in the last couple of weeks. The Open Party system is an extension of the Looking For Group system. We have a fully fleshed out LFG system, but the Open Party system is really kind of an easier, casual way to put a group together. What the Open Party does is, say I come into the game and I'm interesting in forming a group. I go ahead and start the system, and it puts me into a party of one. It immediately updates me on the UI to be available for other players. As players are running around the world, they're going to get notification that there are Open Parties with slots in the area. On our Beta server right now, in most areas, there's anywhere from four to something like eighteen Open Parties for any given area. When you look on the UI you'll see it shows how many people are in a group, as well as the exact distance you are from the party.
Two new offline LFG channels
The first social step anyone has in WoW is your Guild. We've talked about how it can form the core of your player experience, for good and bad. But, not everyone's lucky enough to have a Guild ready-to-go at everything you might want to do, and what's more, ready at a moment's notice. Many Guilds (rightly so) will expect each members to show some individual initiative, and maybe brave at least a few PUGs. Well, a pair of tools have popped up recently to help you get set up with people outside the limited scope of your Guild.As a caveat: Both sites I'm presenting here are relatively new and untried. You're getting in on a ground floor, but we can't promise fame and fortune from them (yet).
Officers' Quarters: Cracking the whip
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.Remember when The Burning Crusade launched and everyone was in a big hurry to ding 70? Apparently some guilds are still leveling up. This week's e-mail doesn't mention whether these are new players or rerolls, but the problem is the same: What should you do when the people you're counting on just aren't leveling up fast enough? I am a member of a small guild on Gul'dan server. I sympathize with and thank K for sharing his guild problems. Our guild is a lot younger and most likely smaller than his is or was at one point, but as we progress to get our members leveled up and geared up for raiding I can already notice a slight discontent, similar to what K described. We are very casual right now and our leader is letting the guild "breathe its own air", by not imposing any strict rule. This is done to allow the players to feel comfortable as they level up. The only real rule, more of a suggestion I would say, that we ask our members to follow, is to disregard any dungeon quest and just concentrate on leveling up as fast as possible, without having higher levels running you through areas.
Earthrise game mechanics confirmed in Masthead Studios dev chat
The creators of the sci-fi MMO Earthrise have been very active in recent months -- granting a number of interviews, releasing monthly newsletters, and participating in dev chats. Stratics recently hosted the third Earthrise 'House of Commons' dev chat, with three members of the Masthead Studios team.The Masthead Studios devs that took part were Atanas Atanasov (CEO of Masthead Studios), Apostol Apostolov (Lead Game Designer), and Moll (Community Manager). Their discussion ranged from the professions available to players to the extensive crafting system in the game. Read on after the jump for details straight from the devs about what we can expect from Earthrise.
Age of Conan on single player mode
Age of Conan has gotten an intense amount of exposure lately on virtually every site that covers games. You might have noticed. The influence of AoC is ever-present, burned into the retinas of most of the Massively team as they slash their way through Hyboria. The title seems to have breathed new life into massively multiplayer spheres, with people everywhere either talking about it, reading about it, or playing it. While the AoC launch went smoothly, this is not to say that the game itself is perfect. Psychochild takes Age of Conan to task in his latest Weekend Design Challenge, for what he perceives to be a potential flaw in the game's design: much of the low-level experience, despite being a massively multiplayer title, is essentially a single-player game. He contends that the point of online games is to interact with people in one way or another, but the difference between instances in AoC is literally night and day. Night quests give personal instances that are wholly isolated from other players. This creates a split where daytime quests are multiplayer; night quests are single player. While a benefit is that players can opt for the night quests to take on their own spawns unchallenged by competitors, doesn't this defeat the purpose of AoC even being an MMO title?
The Gaming Iconoclast: Discomfort Zone
A mind, once opened, can never be shut again. -- Alfred EinsteinHave you ever wondered how the other half lives? Maybe you're a tank, and know the intricacies of threat and mitigation inside and out, but can't figure out what those finger-wigglers at the back are going on about. Or perhaps you're a sniper, and don't care about what goes on in the melee fracas.When the game itself runs out of challenges for you, and you're not ready to move on, it becomes time to challenge ourselves. We may not be ready or willing to move to another virtual world altogether -- we've got friends in a guild that we want to keep playing with, for example, not to mention all the sparkly toys we've accrued. If you've gotten too good at your primary role, and keep frequent company with a group who is likewise adept at what they do, it can be easy to grow complacent. There are ways to spice things up once in a while, by doing themed events, or partaking in certain vices. But these are temporary measures, more the exception than the rule.To truly push ourselves, we need to step fully clear from what we've mastered. For some folks, it may be sidling around from the bad guy's face to their back, or trading in some brass knuckles for a crossbow. For me, it meant wading into the thick of the fray, rather than lobbing damage or healing from a more-or-less safe distance. In this spirit, I wanted to learn what those sneaky guys at the top of the damage charts were up to.How hard could it be, right?
Player vs. Everything: The importance of morale
We've all been there. Any little thing can start it. Maybe the tank messes up and pulls two groups when he meant to pull one. Maybe the healer was distracted by his cat and some people die. Maybe the mage doesn't watch her aggro and the mobs take out the DPS. Something happens, and the group wipes. The seed of doubt is planted: Can this group really pull this dungeon off? Am I grouped with a bunch of idiots? How big is my repair bill going to be tonight? It's like watching a chain of dominoes. Sometimes, the group can laugh off a wipe or two. But if a simple mistake turns into a pattern of someone screwing up, or if luck goes against you and you have a few simple mistakes in a row, people start losing their morale. Suddenly, people aren't using their consumables (why bother when you're just going to die again?). The tanks and healers get frustrated and start getting sloppy. The DPS gets angry and starts getting cocky. Everyone thinks everyone else is a moron, and each pull is a little less likely to succeed than the last. Each wipe spirals you further down. Finally, people start having mysterious "emergencies" and have to leave the group (do a /who check to see them farming somewhere in 30 minutes). You might not realize it, but your group's morale is hugely important to your success.
WoW, Casually: Finding groups fast (Reader Mail)
Each week or so, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.This week, I finally get around to answering an email from Mattilda: Hey Robin, I really enjoyed your article on WoW Insider. I recently got married and that basically killed my play time in WoW which probably isn't that bad of a thing, but I still like to play and it is normally only for a couple of hours in the evening. One of the biggest problems I have is getting a group for an instance. I have a decent guild but they are all normally busy in Kara or ZA when I'm on, and since I only play one or 2 nights a week I'm not high on the importance list to help. I like to do dailies and busy my self with solo stuff, but in order to get neutral with the Ogrila, there are some group quests. Looking for group is not always reliable and it seems that it basically puts you with 5 year olds most of the time. So my question is you can either put in in an article or just answer via e-mail, do you have any good ideas on how to get a reliable group in a short amount of time. There may not be a way, but just wanted to get your thoughts. Thanks, Mattilda, lvl 70 Draenei Shaman My answer and more are after the jump.
The Daily Grind: Is endgame merely the beginning?
People who love MMOs tend to cite the fun of social, shared play as the reason. It's more fun to play together than alone. However, at the higher levels, when it becomes necessary to group just to stand a chance of completing a raid or instance, it becomes difficult to find a group of players of the same level as you -- unless you're already at the highest level you can attain. One thing to be said about reaching the ceiling is that you can stop worrying about leveling and concentrate on some good, solid 'endgame' content with a bunch of like-minded players.This begs the question: is all game content merely there to help you get to the endgame, at which time the fun truly begins? When you're bored with your top-level character, and you roll a new one, do you grit your teeth and sigh expressively through the lower-level content until you're back up on top? Once you've reached the heights, is the rest of the game still fun?
A look at LotRO's Book 13 LFF and group questing improvements
The latest developer diary at the Lord of the Rings Online site provides a detailed rundown of the fellowing and quest log improvements that will be included with Book 13. The quest log itself will be getting a face-lift, but the proposed changes aren't just skin-deep. One of the handy new features will let you see which step group-mates are up to in a particular quest chain, and also if they are ready to hand in a quest (as noted in the diary, the constant spamming of fellow chat with quest completion status will be a thing of the past).As well as these things, actually finding people to help with a quest should be a great deal easier, with a feature that will allow you to flag a quest with a new "Find a Fellowship" button. Other people that have the same quest flagged will be able to see that you're interested and easily get together. From what we can tell, it sounds like you will only be able to flag a single quest at a time, which is a little disappointing, but it's still an excellent feature.
The Gaming Iconoclast: We're All Mad Here
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here." - Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Incorporating an unusual player into a team, group, raid, guild, or alliance, whether it's the players themselves or their character's execution that are unusual, is a lot like cooking with a new ingredient. Sure, it'll change the flavor, and it may not be to everyone's liking, but a lot of times, it'll freshen up an established mix in new and exciting ways.
