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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The growing, creeping power

Eliot Lefebvre — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, A Mild-Mannered Reporter

City of Heroes is a rarity. It's a well-established game that hasn't yet raised the level cap even once. Oh, sure, the Incarnate system is cheating a couple of extra level-like improvements out, but you hit the cap at 50 now just like you did when the game first launched. Compared to World of Warcraft, which ups its top level biannually, the game provides a real sense of security that the cap hasn't changed. Level 50 content is still relevant because the top end of power has remained stable.

Of course, there's a downside to that as well. While having a forever-rising level cap has its own issues, a firm cap has left us with an endgame that's grown bloated as only games with entrenched caps can. We're not constantly having to relearn the entire endgame so much as we're getting new widgets added on, and we're finding ourselves stuck with a growing problem of old-fashioned power creep.

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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The growing, creeping power originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 May 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DUST 514 driver's ed includes stealthing, siege mode, and power draining

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Free-to-play, Consoles, DUST 514

While the idea of piloting your own tank or drop ship in a virtual world may seem like a carefree joyride of devastation and destruction, think again: Turning on the engine in a DUST 514 vehicle may be the last thing you ever do if you're ignorant of the basics.

In a new dev post, CCP opens up the manual of vehicle operation in its upcoming title and tells it like it is. For starters, players will need to train up specific skills in order to even be allowed behind the wheel of any of these beasts, and even then, a clueless operator could find him or herself a sitting duck if attention isn't paid to power consumption (in DUST 514's terminology, capacitors). Equipped modules all draw power from capacitors during combat, and while capacitors do regenerate over time, they can be drained, both from a player's actions or an enemy's attack. As such, it's important to keep power demands in mind when modding a vehicle.

Two DUST 514 war machines are used as examples in the article. There's the Marauder HAV, a tank-busting tank that comes with an alternate siege mode, and there's the Force Recon dropship, which can clock, jam enemy sensors, and drain enemy vehicles' power. The post ends with a hypothetical battle scenario involving both of these, showing how they could be used out in the field.

DUST 514 driver's ed includes stealthing, siege mode, and power draining originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Captain's Log: Every day I'm tribbleing

Brandon Felczer — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Captain's Log

Captain's Log, Stardate 65322.9...

Hello, computer (and players)! For the past several weeks, Star Trek Online players have been checking out the latest F2P beta builds on the Tribble test server. While there have been a few patches on other days, more for stability fixes and minor tweaking, Thursdays seem to be the designated day for us to receive the largest pushes of new content. The latest round of updates has brought further economy changes, new events and ships, and even more heated debates. Since we seem to be a ways out from the seeing the updates ported to the Holodeck live server, there is still plenty of time to check it all out and provide your feedback to the devs.

I would like to dedicate this entry to those who are helping test the changes. This week's Captain's Log serves as a checklist of sorts on what new content you can test and where you can provide feedback about it. As you read through, I suggest that you read a particular section, jump into game to check out the particular change, formulate an opinion, and head to the linked forum where you can leave your feedback. No matter what you think, it's important to let the devs know -- they will make changes based upon a collective opinion.

Ensign, warp 10! It's time to create our own party rock anthem...

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Captain's Log: Every day I'm tribbleing originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wasteland Diaries: It's fixed

Edward Marshall — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Patches, PvP, PvE, MMOFPS, Wasteland Diaries, Post-Apocalyptic

During the past couple of weeks, I haven't been playing Fallen Earth too much. I have been waiting for some changes to come along. I found the new combat system to be a bit too slow-paced and dull. It was very centered around healing. He who healed the best generally won the fights. I prefer a system in which he who deals the most damage is more likely to win. There are, of course, other tactical considerations involved in both types of combat, but the overall feel was just plain wrong in the healer-centric combat system.

I'm happy to report that some changes have been made to the system. There are still a few things I don't like about the 1.9 patch, but 1.9.2 fixed almost all of these issues. I won't say it was a perfect patch, but it was very close. There are still some minor issues I'd like to see addressed, but these are probably conscious design choices that are working as intended. In this post, I'd like to cover what has changed, why it's so great, and what we will see in the coming months. The urge to log into Fallen Earth is coming back to me, and it is all due to this new patch. After the cut, I'll explain why.

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Wasteland Diaries: It's fixed originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wasteland Diaries: Progress

Edward Marshall — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, MMOFPS, Wasteland Diaries, Post-Apocalyptic

I had some spare time this week, so I went on the Fallen Earth public test server to check out some of the new stuff. Progress towns have made their debut, and so has a slew of new skills and abilities. Actually, saying that there are new skills and abilities is kind of an understatement. There is an entirely new skills-and-abilities system in place on the PTS. It is barely recognizable compared to what we have now. Yes, it's that different. Is this a good thing, or is it bad?

With Sector 4 looming on Fallen Earth's horizon, we are looking down the barrel of the gun of change. There are a lot of new things coming our way soon, most of which are closely guarded secrets. I did have an opportunity to see some of the new stuff we'll be seeing in the next patch, but I didn't get to peer behind the giant wall that keeps our prying clone eyes out of the next sector. If any of this stuff interests you, click past the cut and I'll go into a little more detail about it.

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Wasteland Diaries: Progress originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 May 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: We are gathered here today

Eliot Lefebvre — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Game mechanics, Opinion, Humor, A Mild-Mannered Reporter

As suggested in the title, we are gathered here today for a purpose: To celebrate the community of City of Heroes and all of the discussions that they've been taking part in over the past several weeks. (What, you thought it was for Terry? You clearly haven't been following along.) After several weeks with almost non-stop activity, the past couple have been fairly silent, with only a few tidbits off of the official Facebook page to discuss in any depth.

But that hasn't stopped anyone before, and it's not likely to stop anyone now. After all, we've got chatter about when you've played far too much City of Heroes, the day that Mystic Fortune killed someone, and Santa as a crossdresser. No, really. So as long as you don't mind a somewhat more irreverent week of community discussions, click on past the break. (If you do mind it, well, we had a very serious illustration back around here. That's almost as good.)

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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: We are gathered here today originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Digital Continuum: Champions Online needs...

Kyle Horner — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Opinion, The Digital Continuum, Champions Online

Champions Online is a fun game, but it still needs work like any recently released MMO. Some of these needs are purely subjective on my part, but others are definitely a necessity. The way I see it, if Cryptic can work these changes in before the end of the year they're well on their way to keeping my subscription into the far, far future.

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The Digital Continuum: Champions Online needs... originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are MMOs Captain Planet approved?

Chris Chester — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Culture, MMO industry

Saving the world is something that most have us as gamers have grown rather accustomed to over the years. Almost since the beginning, game designers have used the risk of global destruction as a tool to more completely involve players in the seriousness of a given game narrative. Whether we're preventing our world from being sucked into a demonic alternate dimension, devoured by a horde of merciless alien predators, or being blown up by a clown-faced madman, the stakes are nearly always high. MMOs certainly never bow from using world destruction as a plot-device; it's usually at the center of the end-game.

So what then do we make of a post by Tony Walsh on his Clickable Culture blog earlier this month that questions the extent to which MMOs are contributing to the destruction of the very planet most of us inhabit every day? He cites some statistics that estimate the carbon footprint of your typical computer server, such as the ones that power most MMOs, is as big as a gas-guzzling SUV. When you consider the sheer amount of power it must take to keep the servers for World of Warcraft alone running, you start to get an idea of the magnitude of the discussion. Walsh suggests that the best compromise for those who are green at heart is to simply not play MMOs at all.

While I have to grant that I had never considered the environmental impact of MMOs before, I disagree with his point that the best option is to cut ourselves off. If we took that approach to power use, we'd scarcely have justification to turn on the heat, let alone power on our computer. I don't doubt that we'll see a "green" MMO that uses carbon-neutral power in the future, I don't think it's something we should worry too much about in the meantime.

Are MMOs Captain Planet approved? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CoX: New web-based display options

Jonathan Northwood — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: City of Heroes, City of Villains

Supporting the theory that the world should know more about the CoX universe, you'll soon be able to configure the game client to display or hide certain information on the web. It is a bit convoluted, however, so please be sure to note the information contained in the official forums.

In the Miscellaneous section under the General tab (Menu > General), you will have the option of hiding your Statistics, Powers, Badges, and Friends list from inclusion on the public web page. If you choose to show them, leave each option disabled; however, if you wish to hide them, enable the option. If you're a private person, simply enable the Statistics option, and all other options will automatically be hidden. One other thing: unlike graphic settings, these options are configured on a per-character basis, so if you want everything hidden, you'll need to properly configure each character you have on each server. The only caveat to this is if your character has not been logged in for at least 90 days: at that cut-off point, all options are hidden.

Although a final go-live date for this feature has not been announced, it's planned for a relatively short lead time. There will be more information available in the official forum as the release date approaches; and, as always, if you have any issues, concerns, or comments, NCsoft wants to hear from you in the discussion thread.

CoX: New web-based display options originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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