resets
Latest
The Daily Grind: Do character wipes kill your enthusiasm for betas?
When I first got my hands on Neverwinter at PAX East 2012, I happily proclaimed it to be the game of the show. Unfortunately, even if I were eligible to test at the moment, I don't know if I would, simply because I know that anything I do now will be wiped before the game goes live. It's not a question of whether or not I want to play the game, it's a question of whether or not I want to play the game in perpetual preview mode. Obviously, testing is meant to be about finding bugs and balance issues rather than progressing. But there's also the question of whether or not you want to repeat content that you've worked through the first time around when the game actually goes live, burning out on a title before it even reaches launch. So do character wipes kill your enthusiasm for betas? Would you be happier to test and find bugs if you knew that your hard work would stick around? 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!
MechWarrior Online developer blog discusses beta stages and launching
The term "open beta" has kind of been kicked around in the world of free-to-play MMOs, with several games entering open beta and essentially remaining there for eternity. MechWarrior Online's latest developer blog leads off by describing this problem, pointing out that terms like "launch" and "beta" don't have the same meaning when applied to a free-to-play game. But the game is still progressing toward open testing and a launched state, and the timeline for both is outlined in the blog. Starting on August 7th, all Founders will have full access to the closed beta, complete with currency to purchase items. All funds spent on purchasing items during closed beta will be refunded with each major patch and refunded again when the game switches to open beta. If you still haven't quite grabbed the Founder's Package yet, you've still got some time, as the package is being extended past the initial cut-off date of August 7th. For more details on the testing schedule and what's next for the game, look through the full rundown of the testing phases and the road to launch.
Patch 1.19 bringing leve reset changes for Final Fantasy XIV
The reset timer for leves has long been a point of contention for Final Fantasy XIV players, with the 36-hour interval feeling rather stifling at the best of times. But that system is being changed, and while there will still be limitations on how many leves a player can have at one time, the restrictions will be greatly lessened. The new system has just been outlined on the official site, with a new 12-hour timer for resets being just the tip of the metaphorical iceberg. At each 12-hour reset, players will be given an opportunity to acquire four new leves, with up to 99 total allowances stacking. These resets are shared across all leve types, ensuring that players will always have full access to content of an appropriate level for whatever classes they care to level. There's also a new evaluation system in place that allows players to acquire new leves based on recent history, replacing the old evaluation system with the promise of further content enhancements. While 1.19 doesn't yet have a release date on the table, most players will likely be excited enough by the promise of an easier and more straightforward system for leveling any chosen discipline.
The pros and cons of raid IDs
Freya recently posted a plea on the forums: Please, Blizzard, get rid of raid IDs. Raid IDs were put in the game as a way to make sure the best loot in the game didn't flow freely: rather than just running endgame raids over and over (and over), Blizzard put a hold on just how much one player can run them. If you get saved to a raid ID, you're usually out of that raid until things reset on Tuesdays. But there are lots of issues -- at this point, agrees Zarhym, it's too easy to get saved to a raid. It's lame to jump in on a PuG where you do one boss and then the group breaks up for the rest of the week, and it's even lamer to have your raid ID ninja'ed by a few folks who decide they want to disband the group early. The mechanic is important to keep around, though -- if you think it's too easy to get endgame gear now, just think what things would be like if people could run Naxx or OS daily or even hourly.But the actual saving is an issue, and one that the developers are working on -- they're planning on making it so that you would only be saved to an instanced when it's partially or even completely cleared (though that too would likely spread a little more loot around than wanted -- people would run the instance until the last boss and reset it to do it all over again). We'll have to see how this pans out.
Does Karazhan need a shorter reset timer?
At present, Karazhan every 7 days, but some players are complaining that this is just too long. Says Whitesteel, who started a recent thread on the subject:A full clear of Kara now takes about 3-4 hours with a decent group and I have even been in pugs that clear the whole thing in under 5 hours yet we still have to wait an entire week to go in again... Wouldn't it make more sense to allow players to run this instance twice a week like ZG and AQ20 were done to keep them interested and get them geared more efficiently to progress onto newer content? And with the coming release of Zul'Aman (which you'll want to have Karazhan gear going in to), I can see his point. In a response from Drysc, we get nothing definitive, but do learn that Blizzard is considering it.
