kitchen-sink-patch
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Behind the Mask: You're fired
At the time this episode of Behind the Mask was written, neither Hideouts nor Aftershock had been released. I could run a hype post about hideouts, but they are not on PTS (or at least, we can't access them), which is worrying. In fact, the recent patches have been extremely frustrating for a lot of Champions Online's veteran players. Last week, the huge patch that integrated Vivox voice chat also broke the snot out of the game; it ruined everything from team chat to mission doors to certain parts of the in-game C-Store. It even broke the difficulty slider! I haven't even played CO in the last week due to the bugs. It's pretty frustrating. Combined, these things make me really mad. Hideouts haven't been tested by players at all, and they were intended to roll out on Wednesday. The Vivox patch was pushed full of game-breaking bugs that players knew about in advance. Remember the kitchen sink patch? I thought the sloppy, impulsive, not-listening-to-players mentality that Cryptic had back then was dead. It needs to stay dead. I will not, however, be roped into writing a gigantic, mega-DOOM column this week. We can save those types of columns for EVE Online. Instead, I'm going to rant about something familiar and relevant to everyone: archetypes, and specifically, how the current archetypes are bad. I've already covered this ground, but I'm rearmed with research and rage. This week, we're throwing the Inferno archetype under the bus. He's not terrible by any means, but... to be honest, we can do better. A lot better.
Champions Online gives a mini-state of the game
It's been a bit of a rough ride lately for Champions Online. Their initial plan for a paid mini-expansion met with a reception that could best be described as "frothing rage," and even their later reversal didn't exactly calm the waters. To make matters worse, their large "Kitchen Sink" patch met with equally mixed reviews at the same time. In hopes of stepping up their community relations, Cryptic has been pushing out a great deal more news to the players, including both their new GM Blog feature and a recent pint-sized State of the Game letter. A re-examination of the "Kitchen Sink" patch, affectionately dubbed the "Kitchen Sink Scrub," is being pushed out in the near future, with a week or so to go before it hits the live servers. The mini-expansion, dubbed Champions Online -- Revelation, should also be going live sometime in the middle of March. Players hoping to get a bit of an early start on it will be happy to note it's also going to be hitting the test servers some time within the next week, letting the new zone get a thorough examination. With the promise of an upcoming site devoted specifically to the expansion, it seems like Champions Online is really trying to wash out the bad taste of their missteps.
Anti-Aliased: A Cryptic opinion
So, wow, what a set the last week and a half has been. There seems to be a very strong theme going on in my inbox recently, and that's, without a doubt, Cryptic Studios. I've read unflattering comments about my integrity as a journalist, the usual statements of how this site is Cryptic's lapdog due to all of the Star Trek Online and Champions Online coverage, and, even more oddly, people want to know my opinion of Cryptic's recent actions -- specifically Star Trek Online and Vibora Bay. Well, I was never one to shirk from the truth. I've been wanting to give my personal opinion on these events since Vibora Bay hit, so I might as well dedicate this column to my evaluation of Cryptic Studios. But, before we get to Cryptic, I have a few ground rules that I want to go over with you guys. Some facts that I'd like to set straight for, oh, I dunno, the fifth time.
Players miffed over Champions Online's "kitchen sink patch" and Vibora Bay
It's an awkward time for Champions Online. After the last State of the Game post by Chronomancer, things were looking up. The latest patch was slated to fix Lemuria (colloquially known as Lagmuria, due to the extreme system hiccups), add more power to various power frameworks, nemesis changes, the addition of team looting, and changes to the crafting system. Furthermore, the same State of the Game post announced that Champions would be getting its first expansion -- Vibora Bay. However, with the deployment of the "kitchen sink" patch, most gamers have experienced more lag in all zones, some characters are locked in Lemuria, unable to log in, and there are issues with the crafting systems. If all of that wasn't bad enough, Cryptic Daeke has confirmed that Vibora Bay will be a "paid expansion" which will add more content for levels 37 to 40 -- a move which has sent many members of the community into what can only be described as "a frothing rage."
