FFXI: “Treasures of Aht Urhgan” patched in

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The version update arrived along with the patch notes but the stuff specific to the expansion pack won’t be enabled for another couple of days (when the exp will hit the shops).

I’ve already loosely commented what is coming to the game and for the occasion I’ve reactivated my subscription (and my character was still there after these six months). As already noted not all the features are enabled right away (like the chocobo breeding and circuit) but will be added with the next updates as Enix always did with every expansion (the storyline progresses along the months with new missions, till the cycle is complete and the new exp pack arrives).

The patch notes have some interesting tidbits like NPCs taken as prisoners during the mobs raids and that you have to rescue if you want to have their services back (“Besieged” is the new gameplay mode that creates a conquest system between the characters and beastmen. If the beasmen become too strong they leave their zone and go to charge directly the city, and the players have the duty, all together, to defend it):

(from “Besieged” detailed description)
After Besieged is over, some NPCs in Al Zahbi are taken to the enemy base as prisoners. These NPCs are chosen randomly, and will disappear from town when they are captured. Depending on the NPCs captured, you may lose the ability to purchase goods at certain shops or use the auction house. You can free a captive by acquiring and using the key to their prison.

Plus some sort of communal “party room” that you can rent for obscure purposes:

A new feature called the “Kokba Hostel” has been added. You can reserve the facility for a certain amount of time to use for private functions. Players are provided with a variety of temporary party items and food upon entering the hostel. Attendants and a special hostel chat channel also come with the reservation.

Beside these there are also three fancy diagrams explaning changes to some sort of aggro code. Since I’ve digged the details I think I can somewhat explain what the fuss is about:

FFXI seems to have issues with claiming mobs. If you are fighting a mob noone around you can attack it if he is not in your party or if you don’t break the encounter and call for help. At the same time FFXI is fond of EverQuest and I think you can train the mobs and drag them around to grief noobs. If I remember correctly there was a patch around december to address this problem and this last change was made to address an exploit.

Before this change you could aggro a mob without claiming it (so without locking the encounter), for example with AOE spells. Another party could then claim that mob, locking it, but without aggroing it directly. This would lead to a situation where the guy who initially aggroed the mob couldn’t attack it anymore because the other party claimed/locked it but still without getting the aggro. So this guy would finish in a situation where he has a mob pounding on him without any possibility to defend himself since the encounter is locked to the other group.

With the new change this situation cannot happen anymore and the other party can lock/claim the encounter only if it does enough damage to also get aggroed. Basically: before you could lock an encounter without aggroing, now you the “aggro” and “claim/lock” happen together and cannot be separated.

Note for ALL game companies: you should always *explain* the design thoughts and reasons behind the changes, not just objectively *describe* the change.

By looking at the auto-translate new places names and the new region map already in the game for the expansion (which is separated from the standard one) I’m guessing the number of new zones added between 20 and 30 (and not “forty” as some previews claim), which is still rather good if you consider all the efforts in the storylines, cutscenes, (fantastic) soundtracks and brand new gameplay modes. When it comes to “content” and artistic dedication noone is on par with Squaresoft.

To reach the new region you have to take a boat. But to take this boat you need to finish some sort of quest:

A new ship route has been added from Mhaura to Al Zahbi. You must fulfill certain requirements before you can board the ship to Al Zahbi.

Along the same line the three new classes aren’t available right away, but they need to be unblocked through quests. Still no clue at which level they are doable and whether they are complicated or not:

The advanced jobs “blue mage,” “corsair,” and “puppetmaster” are now available. You must clear certain quests in order to acquire the new jobs.

As I can find more details about it, I’ll make a post. The total number of classes in the game is now 18.

On the footsteps of “we are all noobs” declarations I have to confess that I’ve been subscribed for a long time to FFXI. Now try to guess at which level is my character… Well… Level 10. I’m so utterly, hopelessly pathetic.

Now let me say this. I have a new goal in life. Before I’ll unsubscribe again my character must reach at least level 15. UBER I SAY! I have to try hard!

And I want one these sooooo much! I really want to see how they are animated in the game:


P.S.
The windower is still broken.

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LFG systems

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In the past I wrote that you can guess the quality of the design in a mmorpg from its LFG system and I still believe there is some truth in that claim. I always considered these tools as the real core of these games and I think they should be the starting point from where you design a new game. Not a feature that you consider later on, but the very first one around which the rest of the game is built.

One of the worst examples I remember is SWG and maybe it’s not a case. SWG had a very powerful searching tool so it wasn’t a feature missing, but it was absolutely useless. There was a complicated “match making” service with different parameters that you could set, you could even search for a specific blood type. But nothing that was functional to the game. Nothing that had a concrete use beside being a bloated feature designed out of context that became completely irrelevant and superfluous, leaving the game with a vacancy in the design. That system did everything *but* what was needed.

It was worst than WoW’s meeting stones, that at least had a nice implementation.

LFG systems have always been extremely important because they aren’t just UI features, but they are strictly connected with the fabric of the game, how you encourage grouping and community-building, how you plan the zones and the meeting places, how you segment the playerbase while not fragmenting it too much, how you draw in the new players and so on. Basically the LFG is a small, apparently secondary system that consequently leads everywhere and reaches the whole game. It’s like the tail of a ball of yarn. Pulling it you can easily undo the whole game. And, as it usually happens, the most important element is also systematically underestimated.

I mentioned the meeting stones in WoW, but it is wrong to consider the game as a bad example of a LFG system. The truth is that WoW has already a rather good implementation and overall design. The zones are planned to segment the playerbase into smaller “cozy worlds” (see my cue) and each of these zones has a public chat channel where all the players can easily socialize and organize something. The quest givers are always gathered in a friendly outpost that works as a mini-hub in the zone and from there you move out to different camp spots and POIs distributed around the zone. You can meet other players in the town/village, along the road or in one of those “camps” where other players and groups are already progressing in their quests. WoW, to this day, is the most social mmorpg out there.

Back when WoW was in beta I started to claim how WoW was the game where I grouped the most, with no effort and as the most natural thing. Other supposed “social-oriented” mmorpgs like UO or SWG were instead strongly problematic for me and I always had a very hard time to get involved. In SWG i NEVER grouped with anyone who wasn’t my friend out of the game, same in UO. And not because of a personal choice. To me this means just one thing, and it’s something I’ve repeated endlessly on this website: accessibility barriers.

WoW is considered as a game where you can easily solo. It is the most solo-friendly mmorpg I know. Before its release it was widely common to consider a solo-friendly mmorpg as one that wouldn’t last long. A proof of bad design. “Solo-friendly” meant that it would lack the community-building and without downtimes and mandatory grouping a game would have an awful subscription retention, so it was doomed to fail miserably. Today the “solo-friendly” is becoming one of the most important feature in a game. As you can see, things change. Paradigms shift.

Today we don’t say anymore that “socialization requires downtime”. Today we believe that the socialization is natural and you just need to design the game so that it can happen naturally. So that the game doesn’t get in the way, putting impassable barriers between the players. We learnt that the socialization isn’t something you enforce. The socialization is something you support.

Beside the zone-wide channels, WoW has also the capital cities and the linked LFG chat channels. In this case the functional role of these channels isn’t anymore about the “casual questing”, but it is more connected to the end-game, where you begin building a good group and, in a second moment, move out to a specific zone to enter a dungeon.

Generally speaking an LFG system and its efficiency depend on two qualities: reach and detail (personalization).

Taking again the case of WoW the linked LFG channels offer both. The “reach” is rather good since the capital cities are popular hubs where you can go when you want to join a group or when you are looking for people to get something done. Who isn’t in the capital cities is probably already busy with something. Sooner or later everyone passes there, if two players share the same objective, the capital city is the place where they can easily meet. The “detail/personalization” is also good. You aren’t limited to a codified UI (but the players have built their own code through keywords such as LFG or LF2M) and you can personalize your message as you like. You can add more detail as needed and manipulate the system the way you like.

This just to explain that the common claim “WoW doesn’t even have a real lfg system” holds no value: it doesn’t need one because the feature is satisfied through other, better means. The design has gone past the superficial level.

Where WoW lack is in a more active system. The LFG channels allow you to communicate only with who is already searching and reading on the fly, but you cannot hunt directly the players and ask them in an “active” way. The search system could be improved, it is already powerful enough, but it could use a better UI that could allow you to interact without going through a command line. The players have also complained about the lack of a searchable “LFG” flag (that was removed in beta for no apparent reason).

One of the most important features of a LFG system that is frequently overlooked is the possibility to search for groups already existing that still aren’t full and could use more players. This is what made DAoC one of the games with the best (and most used, till they broke the game with the instances) LFG system. In fact the very first game where I started to play with english players instead of other italian friends. It’s not rare that the players don’t really want to start new groups from scratch, but would still gladly join a group already working. It is essential for a LFG system to let the players not only flag themselves for a group, but also search for groups already active that still have spots available. This is the best way to encourage grouping. In other games when someone leaves the party usually crumbles to pieces, in DAoC, instead, it was common for a group to survive a constant churn and even build its own “queue” with other players waiting for a spot to open up in a successful group.

In this case EQ2 shares the same stupidity of SWG in the LFG system. It lets you flag yourself and search for other LFG players, but it doesn’t give you the possibility to search for other groups in the zone and let you ask if they have a spot for you. This is a *crucial* feature missing. Again back in beta WoW not only let you flag LFG, but the search system also included a flag, letting you know if the player was currently grouped or not.

It is fundamental for a LFG system to let you search specifically for groups already formed and active (both full or LFM).

That said, one of the games with the best search features that is never taken into consideration is FFXI. At the beginning its search system seems quite complicated, but after you understand how it works it becomes one of the most powerful and detailed I’ve seen. The western players don’t seem to use its functions, while the system appears much more popular among the japanese players.

This image shows the search menus and the window with the results. It needs some time to get used to since it follows the same mindset of the rest of the UI of the game and that many players tend to criticize. Instead of presenting an unified UI panel where you can specify the details and then launch your search, this is all nestled into multiple menus. Basically you launch the first general search and then can start to apply different “filters” one by one, narrowing down the results till you are satisfied. The customization available is what you can see from the menu. You can search for:
Area – Name – Job – Country (your character affiliated nation) – Race – Level – Rank (related to your nation and linked to a mission system) – Friend (players on your friend list) – Linkshell (players in your “guild chat”) – Ballista (players involved or waiting in FFXI PvP battleground) and Comment (more on this later)

The window with the results is extremely well designed and offers a lot of informations. From left to the right:
An icon indicating various “states”, in this image there’s just one that indicates that the players is “anon”. As you can see this flag doesn’t remove the players from the search functions but it just hides the relevant details, an implementation of the feature that other games should take as an example. This icon can also show if the players is flagged LFG and other things that I don’t know exactly. Then you have the class and subclass with the corresponding level, the race, another icon representing the affiliated nation with the number representing the rank the players has achieved in that nation, the name of the character with a colored dot on the left (I’ll explain the dot later, instead I don’t know what the color of the name stands for), “J” – “E” or “JE” (not shown in the image and indicating the language, english, japanese or both) and finally the zone where the character currently is.

The “Area” option in the search menu opens a submenu that I added in the image. You can search for the current zone, region or the whole server, then, at the bottom, you have the nearby regions listed (the number indicates the zones in that region) and by selecting them you can go to choose a specific zone within. The rest of the fields are rather self-explanatory, while the most interesting one is the “comment”. Even this one leads you to another sub-menu, which is the one I’ve added in the image. As you can see to each option corresponds a “colored dot” that is the same that you find next to the players names, if a name has a dot it means that the players has a custom comment associated with that “topic” and by selecting that name you’ll be able to read the full comment in your chat window.

These comments add the “customization” to the “reach” but also complete the feature by organizing the informations appropriately:

When you select/flag for a comment like “mission” or “quest” you don’t get just the standard list plus the comments, but this list also gets organized in different tabs (seek party/find members) so that you can see if the “LFG” player is alone or already grouped, fulfilling that important requirement that I pointed out above.

As you can see this is one of the most powerful and well designed search systems, unfortunately FFXI has other accessibility issues in other parts of the game that I’m not going to comment here.

My conclusion is that it is important to design carefully both parts. One is the overall structure of the game, where you try to segment the players and let them naturally come to play together, without imposing them the “socialization” as a requirement (and possibly loosening up the barriers like levels, classes, group composition, zone/server travel and so on). The other is offering powerful search functions with a wide reach and customization (and usability) that can help the players to search specifically for what they need and actively “disturbing” other players to propose them to do something together

Now I’ve already wrote a lot but there are other important topics I’ve still left out. One is the importance of “sharing objectives” so that the players can naturally help each other, socialize and feel part of something without suffering impositions that ultimately work as a “selection” of the players (those who have the support of their friends “can”, while the casual players are excluded with little hope of being helped. Aka: the barrier is impermeable or too hard to pass). The other is an idea that has been my pet peeve from a long time and that Loral somewhat evocated recently on Mobhunter (with which I sympathize, but that won’t possibly happen):

A cross-server grouping feature would help Everquest capitalize on the vast number of players across all servers. Players could go to a set location in Norrath, such as a new tavern in the rebuilt Plane of Knowledge, and find players seeking groups on other servers. Groups would be transported to a mission, monster mission, or even a small 18 to 24 person raid instance. By disabling player to player trading, economies would remain unaffected. Players would go from a few dozen LFG players to a few hundred.

Server travel so that the “pool” of players could be dynamically adapted between peak times and off peaks and the expansions and contractions of the overall playerbase. Without suffering a chain reaction (this is more significant than how it appears).

We are getting there. Albeit slowly.

Brian Koontz

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From a discussion on Q23 about the “rubberbanding AI” in Oblivion (aka levelled lists of mobs):

—

Gordon Cameroon:
How cool would it be if you stride into a dungeon and all the rats flee from your path like a sinking ship?

Here’s the thing though: the game is built around hack ‘n slash. Fleeing, while a realistic and impressive action for intelligent mobs to take in the presence of a hostile enemy, goes against the policy of making it easy for the player to kill shit. So now its “make it easy for the player to chase after shit?”

And since the mobs respawn (or get replaced by better monsters through no action of their own), should it even matter to the mob if he’s killed? Regardless of what happens to Mud Crab #324, Mud Crab #325 will be there again soon enough. They must be ecstatic you came along to allow them the one pleasure in their life: attempted killing. I mean, a 30 foot perpetual walking patrol only brings so much delight. For most mobs, you’re the only thing they’ll ever fight, and besides walking, standing, and making a simple sound, trying to kill you is the only thing they’ll ever DO in the game. I guess fleeing from you with the possibility of trying to kill you later is a step up, though. But attacking you *nearly guarantees* either the glory of causing you to reload or the unique event (relatively speaking) of their own death… fleeing is not as impressive and if they flee from you they may never see you again.

Mud Crab #646 at Location #49043: “Wow, of all places in the world he could be the hero is here, right HERE! My one shot at glory! Haha… maybe he’ll be AFK!… SKEEEET! (Mud Crab battle cry)

*Plunk* (ok, maybe not AFK).

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Eve-Online – New graphic engine rewritten from scratch

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There’s an interesting new dev blog (that you can read here) with the details about the new graphic features that CCP is planning to implement in Eve later this year. We had already various rumors about a graphic upgrade that was in the work, now we know that there are two distinct, parallel projects: one is to implement new features such as HDR, self-shadowing and normal maps in the current engine while also making some optimizations, the other is to rewrite a new graphic engine from scratch to take advantage of the unique features of the DirectX 10 and Windows Vista.

Some quotes:

If you’re not an EON subscriber, or you haven’t received your copy yet, you may not be aware we’ve announced that we’re working on a number of graphics upgrades to Eve, including a client with a completely new graphics engine designed for DX10 and Windows Vista. The real announcement of all of this is going to happen at E3 but we released a preview, and some pictures of the related remodelling of ships, in EON #3.

Development of the DX10 / Vista graphics engine, is development for the future and it will not stop us from continuing to make improvements on, fixes to and support of the current graphics engine.

I’ve recently been working on reducing the amount of lag caused by warp-in (on all clients). We determined that a significant factor in the lag created when warping into something like a fleet battle was the disk access for loading the ships. The solution I’ve been working on is to finally add preloading in warp and threaded disk IO to Eve. The changes required to do this mean many server and client modules have been altered or extended slightly, which makes it a higher risk change, and means that it’s likely to be slated for the Kali release to ensure it gets adequate testing.

Indeed, most of the work currently is going into making the DX9 Trinity engine support new graphics features that will also be part of the DX10 engine. These features will be optional where they place requirements on hardware above our current requirements. The key distinction being that the current engine is being extended with optional features, while the DX10 version will be a ‘new’ engine designed to take full advantage of the DX10 spec.

The rewrite that we’re doing for DX10 is a huge shift in the basic architecture of the engine, and we need a solid platform to do it on. The current Trinity can and will be optimized and extended, but as a 5 year old engine it’s reaching the end of its lifespan. After all, there is a limit to what you can do with an engine fundamentally plugged into DX8 level functionality. Looking forward, we need an engine that we can push the envelope with for the next 6 or so years, and it needs to be built around the key features of where the technology is going. As far as the features that we’ll be putting in exclusively for Eve Vista, it’s far too early to tell.

For sure they are planning in advance for the longer term and they are completely dedicated to Eve instead of splitting on multiple projects as the majority of the mmorpg companies are doing. My belief is that this attitude will pay back. Eve-Online has a huge potential and I already commented some outstanding features that are planned for Kali and that could bring the game to a new level.

On the new features of the graphic engine I’m still quite skeptical, though. The game looks already amazing and the new textures and HDR could make it even better, but I also hope that they focus on the real problems, like the flickering textures on most of the space stations due to the limits of the z-buffer. It kind of ruins completely the prettiness. Beside this, more than fanciful new graphic features the graphic engine would need a redesign of the *concepts*. See my critiques to the combat system, so that what you see on the screen would resemble more closely to what actually happens in the game.

The graphic isn’t just a dress, it should be more directly tied with the mechanics. Making something pretty is good but the priority should go to make it usable, so that what you see isn’t just a pretty screenshot but a more complete interface with the game world. A vehicle for the interaction. Material that you use instead than just observe passively. In Eve-Online there is already a gap between the 3d world and the interface you use to play and, as I wrote, the two need to be brought together.

Anyway, for now this is the only image released:

To compare with the version currently in the game.

I also noticed that Cosmik mentions at the end of a long post that there is a new company (Vivox) that is planning to offer voice chat support to the current mmorpgs, through some kind of middleware, I guess. Well, Eve-Online could be one of the first games trying this. I remember to have read some rumors about this (but it’s really just about speculations).

As I wrote for DAoC I’m never happy when a mmorpg announces official support for voice chat because it makes it become mandatory as a consequence. Voice chat encourages player’s segregation and is never good for a game, it becomes another accessibility barrier and Eve definitely doesn’t need another. It breaks up the community and discourages the casual play. That said, in Eve the voice chat could even fit prefectly with the setting. Think for example if you got a pop-up while flying in a system saying “incoming transmission”, then by accepting it you would have a dynamic voice channel opened with the guy who wanted to send the message. It could be cool and immersive. Well, at least till the pretty girl you see in the image doesn’t get the voice of a guy.

EQ2 evocates sense of wonder

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The consequence of creating a virtual world and have passionate, dedicated players along many years is that these games acquire a special value. It’s wrong to consider this just as a sense of nostalgia only valid for former players because the charm involves *especially* the new players who can sense a greater complexity and desire “to belong”. To be part of it.

This is similar to the way Tolkien wrote and the appeal of the world he created. The details were never fully declared and explained, instead they were only hinted in the background, leaving you with a desire for more. It gave you the impression that there was something past the book, a sense of continuity. It wasn’t anymore just a story strictly comprised between the first and the last page, but instead a whole world to slowly discover. Without confines.

Aggro Me writes that SOE is planning to remove the strict deadlines for the expansions (regularly every six months), slowing down the releases to give the devs more time to polish the new content and features. While on FoH’s forum there are hints about the possible content of the next expansion, with a return of the gods from the classic world. Planning something big to counter the release of WoW’s expansion.

I believe that these ties between the classic EQ and EQ2 have a great potential and shouldn’t be seen as interesting only for those former players. In the classic EQ I never went past level 20 so I’m a total noob to this world. But I’m interested to know more about the lore and I can definitely share the hype when things from past are evocated. It’s the charm of the discovery of a complex world with its own consistence and the desire to be part of it. This is a big resource for the game that can involve and appeal ALL players. The old players because the game recuperates and valorizes their knowledge and experience, making them feel to “belong” to this world, while for the new players it becomes a greater context, a complex world to slowly discover step by step.

What is fundamental is to offer the accessibility (as always). The developers shouldn’t fear to take advantage and inspiration from the classic EQ and bring back old storylines and zones. This is the very strength of this game and I agree with the players that they aren’t exploiting it as they should. The added value of a zone rebuilt and reinterpreted from the old world would be retained for all players. It is important that this content is designed so that the “narrative” is accessible for those who enter this world for the first time and still don’t know anything about it. This complexity of the lore and ties to the classic world shouldn’t be a special feature only for those players who can “get it”. It shouldn’t be a special “easter egg”, but the true focus of the game. Carefully designed so that it can involve deeply all players.

This potential for the “sense of wonder” is a precious resource that the game has and that should be used as a strength targeted to all kind of players. An unifying theme for the whole game.

I’m looking forward to play this but I hope it will be kept accessible. The developers should plan for different staring points and accessible quest lines that could work as introductions for those who don’t share the knowledge of the dedicated players. This doesn’t mean that everything should be revealed. The mystery is part of the fun of the discovery but it’s important that the game can introduce the new players to the lore and the important storylines and characters.

Summarizing: don’t understimate this feature and think it can only have a niche appeal for a small group of players. Plan its entrance in the game so that all players can have access to it and can benefit of this unique value. Don’t segment and select your playerbase, instead try to “bring people in”, opening different accessibility points to really involve everyone.

For now these are some guesses I collected from FoH:


Early guesses include: Symbol of Veeshan surrounded by that of the Gods symbols.

The text is Wood Elf it reads: The Future of Everquest 2

—
With the very obviously Neriakish symbol though, really tempted to think they might be rebuilding the old city finally – would fit with the plans you always hear NPC’s mumbling about.

—
That symbol wasn’t just limited to Neriak. It was a frequent symbol seen in a lot of the original content, mainly in evil parts of cities.

—
The helm symbol is Rallos Zek and the swirly one is Innoruuk, don’t remember what the other 3 are.

—
The one in the bottom right is Cazic Thule

—
Just for completeness, the 9 dots represent Tunare. 3 wavy lines represent Prexus I think. And the other one is the dwarf god, can’t remember his name though.

More guesses:

The symbol in the middle is the symbol for the Dark Elves!!

Anyone remember back a while ago, there was a section on the official EQ live site where you can learn about each race, and each race had a symbol. The symbol for the dark elves was that!

—
Vahlen: What you are gazing upon is more than a symbol. Where it was uncovered and who uncovered it could answer a lot, but not everything.

—
While most still argue at one point these symbols represented Gods, they are undeniably the symbols that represent the Cities/Races of Norrath. As illustrated from the Firepots in TD, among other places.

The symbol thought to be Veeshan, is clearly also the symbol of Neriak. Sounds like it’s time to reclaim the old cities of Norrath.

—
Those symbols look like Prexus, Brell and Tunare in the middle.

Waves, the underground and the candles and the symbol of the 9.

—
The meaning of the ancient Teir’Dal symbol of Caerthiel is as follows. The symbol directly in the center is Veeshan. The head of a serpent with the wings of a dragon. The symbol directly left is of Tunare, nine dots that emulate the standing stones seen throughout Norrath. The symbol in the center above that of Veeshan is the symbol of Brell, denoted by the candelabra which is often depicted worn by Brell. The symbol directly to the right of Veeshan is that of Prexus, three lines to denote the waves of the Oceanlord. Surrounding the four symbols is a great circle which depicts the veil erected by the three in their pact to keep the Wurmqueen in check.

The four on the outside from left to right are as follows: Lower left hand corner is Rallos Zek, upper left is Innoruuk, upper right is Cazic Thule, and the lower right is Bertoxxulous…the four horsemen to bring about the end.

The Four Horsemen
There will be four Horsemen to bring about the final days of armageddon, the second war of the gods. First shall ride hate to bring the night. Then shall fear ride to cast its cloak of horror upon the lands. Plague and decay will ride thrice to spread its seed across the lands. The three shall give way to the fourth, and War will embrace the world in an icy wave of doom. The four horsemen shall ride and take their place in what will bring about the final battle for Norrath.

Innoruuk who showed his hand at the Battle of Bloody Kithicor. Cazic Thule when he corrupted the Lesser Faydark and the last unicorn, Equestrielle at the attempted summoning of Tunare’s avatar. The three fold plague of Bertoxxulous upon the Karana Plains. Rallos Zek who sits locked within his Plane of Power, awaiting freedom that he might wreak vengeance for his imprisonment at the last war of the gods. It is said even now in the lower planes where dwells the four can be seen evidence of emissaries and fiends from the realms of all four dark gods gathering their minions for the final hour. Such is at least spoken of within the Plane of Hate where reportedly is now also found a statue of Lanys T’Vyl.

The rumored title for the exp is “Echoes of Faydwer”.

(on March 9, 2006 the trademark ‘EverQuest II Echoes of Faydwer’ was registered by SOE in the US Patent & Trademark office)

Time to auction the cash cow

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I had reported that there was attrition between Blizzard and The9, the chinese operator. Now it seems that the divorce can become more than a rumor:

Blizzard Re-Evaluating World Of WarCraft Chinese Partner

In an intriguingly cryptic press release, World Of Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it “is currently actively exploring and discussing cooperation opportunities and further expansion of its business with local potential partners for mainland China”, implying that it may be evaluating other partners than current Chinese distributor The9.

In fact, Blizzard’s statement also indicated that it has invited The9 to negotiate in a bid to distribute the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion set, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and to discuss its release in mainland China, which is currently planned for next year.

This article on Gamasutra also mentions the server problems that the chinese operator had. Bad service? Is maybe Blizzard complaining for bad service?

Not really. Those server problems were related to “a large-scale raid involving nearly 1,000 players”. Aka the opeining of the gates of Ahn’Qiraj. One fucking thousand players. Of course the server blew up. That event on Mannoroth crashed the server more than THIRTY TIMES in the span of a few hours, and we had much less that 1k of players in the zone. What is sure is that Blizzard cannot complain with The9 for poor service with a straight face.

In fact the chinese servers and general infrastructure seems much, much more solid that whatever Blizzard has done in the USA.

So it’s really all about the money greed, Blizzard saw the huge success the game had in China and decided that the price The9 paid for the original licence was too low. They upcoming release of the expansion was the perfect occasion and they decided to ask The9 to buy a new, special licence for it. Of course The9 refused, they distribute the game in a different way and the updates have always been offered for free for these kinds of game. Their licence is valid for four years and they were expecting it to include everything. So they opposed to this new request from Blizzard and Blizzard answered threatening them to split the expansion in a standalone product and offer it to someone else.

The result is that Blizzard now decided to put the expansion on auction, so that The9 is now forced to compete with other companies to have the rights to run it. It is very best way to get the most out of a cash cow. Instead of setting a price you can just watch the companies competing against each other. It’s a win-win for Blizzard. WoW has already benefited from a *huge* exposition thanks to The9. More than two millions of players of the total six that the game has worldwide are now in doubt. What will happen to the accounts and the servers if the whole game switches operators? And who “owns” those accounts, Blizzard or The9?

At the end the loss is always of the players. The other option is absurd: in China the standard WoW and “The Burning Crusade” could split in two games ran by two different operators.

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Omg, NOSTALGIA!

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Rise their hands those who remember this fantastic adventure game on the Amiga!

It’s “Another World”, it was released around 1991 when games were still made by a couple of guys closed in a garage (I think it was the very first game to use motion capture and the lone author used his brother for it). This game was (and still is) a masterpiece, at that time the graphic and the animations were unbelievable. It’s an odd mix of a platformer and adventure with a great gameplay that remembers Dragon’s Lair or Space Ace, like a scripted, interactive animated movie. Each “screen” has one “solution” that you have to figure out so that you can continue with the story so it’s all about discovering the tricks and perform them in order and without errors. The reward is a wonderful, cinematic story and mood that grabs you from the very first second.

They don’t make anymore awesome games like this one.

I’m writing this because there’s now a “remastered version” with high-res graphic and ported on Windows.

There is shareware version that you can upgrade to full for just 7 euros (8 dollars or so). The file is just 23Mb and the game plays so absolutely smoothly. The demo is quite short since you have the introduction and the initial screens only, but it DESERVES to be seen. Believe me. No matter if you have played this game or not, you HAVE TO give it a look. It’s pure, blissful nostalgia.

Get the file here!

Btw, I could remember what to do within seconds. It’s a refresh for the memory. Now it’s almost trivial to play but I remember this to be one of the most difficult games EVER. And frightening. I guess we are all getting better at playing games. A constant growth of gaming competence :)

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Patching GALORE!

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I’m a patch whore. So today I’m happy:

– EverQuest 2 patches!
– Civilization 4 patches! + SDK + Pitboss + low-res movies (notes)
– Mount & Blade patches!

EQ2 introduces a new raid zone (“The Lyceum”, but remember that “raid” in EQ2 is equal to 24 people), an overhaul to Permafrost (loot revisions and named mobs) and a new guild recruitment system. By reading the boards it seems that the raid zone is still inaccessible due to a bug, but the devs say it should be solved by tomorrow. The guild recruit system interests me since I’m still without a guild and looking for one but I wish the guild listing was permanent instead of requiring a recruiter to be logged in for the guild to appear on the list. The other changes I cannot comment since I’m still a noob to the game. The only relevant change seem to be about the durability hit on equipment as you die. The new system makes sense but I think it could have been designed better (maybe I’ll comment this in detail later on).

Civ4 finally releases a patch that was expected for the end of January. It’s a little late. The SDK seems extremely powerful and opens up completely the whole game logic and AI routines in the dlls, I think it’s the first time that a game completely opens itself. The patch itself seems good and should address some problems with the memory usage and improve the overall performance in the game. The rest is about fixes to the multiplayer and balance changes. I was waiting for the patch to start playing.

M&B deserves just praises. This is the game that yesterday hooked me for five hours straight. It rarely happens (I have ADD with games) and as I’m done writing this I’m going back to it because it’s excessively fun and addicting now that I figured out how to progress in the game (before I used to level up in the arena and by when I was out I was always outnumbered). The patch adds many minor changes if considered one by one, but they become significant when bundled up. There are new sounds, new graphic here and there with a complete overhaul to the heads, new voice emotes in the battle with the NPCs yelling and taunting and screaming “VICTORY” at the end of an intense fight. I think there were also many balance changes because the game feels much better. The mouse movement was smoothed and I think the collision system was also improved. The hugest changes are about the horses, it’s hard to nail down exactly what is different in the animations, sounds and controls, but for sure now the horses don’t sit in the place when you kill the rider and continue to roam around the map, even ocasionally running over those who get in the way, making the behaviour much more believable.

This game is a masterpiece and the more you play it the more it gets addicting.

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Three steps to make EQ2 crafting more accessible and usable

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I spent some time messing with the crafting lately and it wasn’t too bad. It follows a similar scheme of the rest of the game, with the different crafting professions branching up and specializing (as the former class system) and the souce nodes stratified by level. The first impact is quite chaotic and you get swamped by an high number of recipes and odd things to figure out. As I already commented for other parts of the game, this is both a good and a bad thing. It is bad because the overall design is quite messed up and hard to understand and use, it is good because it hands you many “hooks” and things to discover, making the game involving and addicting. You always have a lot of stuff to look forward to and figure out, so you start to play and continue for many hours without even noticing the time is passing. This is always one of the best qualities for a game.

I don’t know exactly the current state of the crafting. I know that to craft something you have to go through multiple sub-combines, but I heard that the designers want to change this and are moving steps to get rid of this mechanic. I cannot comment these changes because I only know what I’m playing right now and I have to say that I don’t see these sub-combines negatively. I don’t think they are the real problem and I think they also mirror a specific quality of the crafting that should be retained. The idea of crafting something is about the possibility to build smaller pieces and then combine them. I think this is something that makes the crafting feel “right” and I had fun browsing and researching the sub-combines before going to build what I needed. It’s gameplay that “I see fit”, that is appropriate and that I would encourage instead of minimize. A different play-style in a game that recycles many ideas. It needs work to be polished, but it shouldn’t be obliterated. It’s probably the most faithful part of the crafting because the rest is all about gathering resources and then abstracted to an absurd mini-game that still makes little sense to me.

There are also other “issues”, some of which I already commented. I can confirm again that the skill up rate of the gathering skills is completely fucked up. If you outlevel the gathering skills, it will become increasingly harder to catch up and rise them to match your level, while if your gathering skills are close to your current level they grow at nearly every attempt. This makes no sense to me since it would make sense exactly the opposite: the skills slowing down the higher they are, so that in the case you leave something behind you can also quickly catch up instead of harvesting for HOURS in the noob zones in the hope of getting a couple of points. If this is the intended design I really wish someone could explain it to me.

I won’t comment the crafting mini-game because I really don’t know how it works. I’m “using” it, but with very little understanding. The overall “flaw” of the whole system is that more than once I had to look up guides to figure out something. The game does an awful work at explaining things. So without clues you are left with google, out of the game.

These comments just to introduce an idea divided into three steps that I think could improve significantly the crafting system. The goal is to streamline the system. Mostly UI changes so that things work more smoothly, so without gameplay changes. This is another case where is the presentation to be the problem, and not what is presented. These ideas also hook back to what I said about the sub-combines. I still believe they are are an integral part of a crafting system and shouldn’t be removed. The reason is that it’s not the need for the subcombines to be unfun, but the clunky interface that makes these sub-combines counterintuitive and quite annoying. The point is to remove those flaws and retain the value of the crafting system.

Three steps to make EQ2 crafting more accessible and usable

– Step 1
For the basic mats the description of the item should tell clearly the source node from where the material comes and all the zones currently in the games where the material can spawn. For example for “electrum cluster” the description should say that it can be harvested from a “wind swept rock” and a list of the zones where the player can find that source node. Right now if you examine a piece of electrum cluster you just see “NO-VALUE” and nothing else.

– Step 2
When you look in the “recipe book” for a particular item and then “examine” it, the “components” section in the delve window shouldn’t just list the mats names as it does now, but also hotlinks icons next to each component to further delve that particular mat. By left clicking on the hotlink a new window will pop-up with the details about that item. This way if the crafting recipe needs multiple combines you can easily explore back to the original sources you need without being forced to search through the recipe book every single item.

– Step 3
Along with the hotlinks there should be also a checkbox near each component. This checkbox works along a new “components” UI window. Every time you toggle a checkbox next to a component, all the components needed (factoring *all* the previous combines and mats up to that point) will be added to the new crafting window that will then dynamically check what you currently have in the inventory. For each component you’ll see how many you currently have and how many you still need. The component will be colored yellow if it is present but not in a sufficient number to fill the requirements, green if you have enough components for the recipe and red if you have zero units of that particular component.

For example, a “Primitive Elm Chair” requires:
1 Planed Elm
1 Threadbare Padding
1 Elm Dowel
1 sandpaper (vendor)

(items that can be bought from vendors should be tagged *explicitly* so)

Next to each of these mats you’ll see an hotlink and a checkbox. The hotlink can be pressed to open a new window with the detailed informations for that mat, for example if you click on the “Planed Elm” hotlink a new window will pop-up with the description for the “Planed Elm Lumber” which then requires 1 refined elm, 1 chloro resin and 1 sandpaper. Instead if you toggle the checkbox next to the “Planed Elm” you’ll have a new craftring window (also toggable) that will list all the mats (minimum, not counting failures) you need to create the planed elm, including all the sub-recipes. In this case:
0/3 raw elm or 0/2 roots
0/2 liquid (vendor)
0/2 candle (vendor)
0/2 sandpaper (vendor)

Let’s say the player has already in the inventory 1 chloro resin (which comes from: 1 raw elm, 1 candle, 1 liquid), 1 candle and 1 sandpaper. This is how the window will look:
0/2 raw elm or 0/1 roots
0/1 liquid (vendor)
1/1 candle (vendor)
1/2 sandpaper (vendor)

Note that this window doesn’t show the crafted subcomponents, but exclusively the source mats you need up to the item you checked and that you cannot craft. The subcomponents that you can craft and you already have in the inventory are dynamically deducted from the window. The purpose of this window is to tell you exactly all the source mats you need to collect in the various zones before going back to the crafting station and start the crafting chain.

To conclude:
Saying “I hate the ‘reverse engineering’ aspect of crafting” is superficial and of no use. What is relevant is *why* this reverse engineering is felt as annoying. My belief is because it has a bad presentation through the UI. If the crafting is just about “harvesting, final combines and playing the market” it means that the crafting just doesn’t exist on its own. It’s not a case that no game managed to design a good crafting system on its own and all the recent ones are opt-outs. Withdrawals. Imho the crafting can have its own value that isn’t borrowed from sister-systems and this value can be represented in two ways (and not fancy mini-games): research and personalization.