tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post3771318910281303709..comments2024-03-29T14:47:49.328+00:00Comments on Inventory Full: Month One: WoW ClassicBhagpusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-3443605890550070292019-09-27T14:32:11.675+01:002019-09-27T14:32:11.675+01:00Indeed it is (a re-learning curve). I actually did...Indeed it is (a re-learning curve). I actually didn't mess around with the awakening skills at all for a couple of weeks after I'd hit 56 because I really couldn't be bothered to relearn my rotations and stuff. Once I did I turned into a walking killing machine though, so I'm glad that I did.<br /><br />I wouldn't exactly say that it's a huge directional change at endgame though. After all you totally 'can' use a lot of skills well before that if you're so inclined. It's the game's low to very low difficulty below 50 that lets you get away with not doing that, which, in my opinion, could well use a balance pass. It's fine until level 20 or so, from that point on the game could really ramp up the difficulty somewhat.Mailvaltarhttp://mailvaltar.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-42301142319436035112019-09-25T15:37:31.244+01:002019-09-25T15:37:31.244+01:00I think I only played into the 30s - maybe 40s? Ca...I think I only played into the 30s - maybe 40s? Can't remember now. I really liked the "run into the middle of a mass of mobs and hammer LMB until they're all dead" combat. I started off playing far more circumspectly but it became obvious after a while that the game, at least at the levels I played, expected and rewarded berserker frenzy.<br /><br />Most MMOs change direction at cap or endgame, though. I'm not surprised to hear that's the case with BDO. Must be a bit of a re-learning curve if you;re not expecting it.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-60456131893347116302019-09-25T13:59:03.540+01:002019-09-25T13:59:03.540+01:00Just a quick note on BDO'S combat. What you...Just a quick note on BDO'S combat. What you're saying is only true for low levels (which, in this case, means below 50 or so).<br />Once you start fighting scroll bosses and mobs above 50 you don't get away with just mashing left click anymore.<br /><br />At 56, once your character has awakened, you have even more skills at your disposal, and you really need most of them to fight at high levels.<br />It's pretty complex too. Not only do you have to memorize how to execute each skill, you even need to know how to switch from awakened to non-awakened stance and back at the right moment. It's really fun, at least to me. I can only evaluate the Striker though, so other classes may feel different.Mailvaltarhttp://mailvaltar.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-48265485191896286052019-09-24T19:03:01.446+01:002019-09-24T19:03:01.446+01:00You can find a bunch of theories about aggro radiu...You can find a bunch of theories about aggro radius. I think somebody proved that there are mobs with a modified default aggro radius, and I seem to recall some speculation that mobs with certain name modifiers (e.g. starving) came with a larger default radius. There is also a maximum radius, so if you wander into a zone as a level 1, some level 60 world boss at the other end of the zone won't immediately come at you.<br /><br />I remember vividly discovering variable aggro radius back in vanilla when I wandered out of the Wetlands and into Arathi only to find even if I stuck to the road that mobs quite far off would make a bee line right to me well before I thought they would.Wilhelm Arcturushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07033496821708933394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-53519450130415678922019-09-24T17:08:25.701+01:002019-09-24T17:08:25.701+01:00Oh, I didn't know that! That's very illumi...Oh, I didn't know that! That's very illuminating. I was going to include aggro range in the post I just did on pathing and spawning but I realised I didn't really understand it well enough yet and this comment proves it.<br /><br />The original Guild Wars actually displays the aggro range as a circle around the mobs on the mini-map, something I always found very irritating. I wouldn't ever want to replicate that but I would like some kind of indicator - I get the feelign some mobs have bigger ranges than others, regardless of level difference, for example, but I can't be sure without some measurement device or indicator to test it.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-17624201244334359122019-09-24T15:57:12.040+01:002019-09-24T15:57:12.040+01:00Aggro radius is an interesting one, and something ...Aggro radius is an interesting one, and something I recall appreciating even back in the day. There is a default range for aggro between you and a mob the same level as you. It grows bigger the higher the level of the mob and smaller the lower the level of the mob, relative to your own level. <br /><br />But once you're engaged in a fight with a mob, that mob's location extends your aggro radius, making it an oval. And if there are like mobs around, it extends even further, so if you're fighting a spider and another wanders by out of normal aggro range, you may still get it as an add.Wilhelm Arcturushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07033496821708933394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-25740880377571014232019-09-24T08:42:49.874+01:002019-09-24T08:42:49.874+01:00Pretty much how I feel. Even though I played WoW i...Pretty much how I feel. Even though I played WoW in mid-WotLK era, when it still felt very coherent and disciplined and I thought it was a very good game, it had already started to drift. I didn't appreciate the degree to which it was precision-engineered until I played Classic.<br /><br />There's some interesting analysis to be done on how developers can maintain the integrity of the games they design behind closed doors as a fixed entity after those games turn into ongoing development projects subject to changing personnel and customer feedback. I think most MMORPGs have veered too far towards listening to customer complaints and strayed from their initial "vision". A post in there somewhere but I have too many idas for posts right now and not enough time to write them because I want to play Classic!Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-3130157932444548502019-09-24T07:27:53.819+01:002019-09-24T07:27:53.819+01:00Playing Classic has greatly increased my admiratio...Playing Classic has greatly increased my admiration for the original WoW devs. I always knew that I was going to have fun with it, but an extra decade of MMO experience has really made me appreciate just how well it is put together. <br /><br />I used to attribute WoW's breakout success to luck / being in the right place at the right time - and while I'm still sure those played a big role in the sheer scale of its success, Blizzard clearly also just made a damn good game.Shintarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-46767601714911463962019-09-23T22:01:52.174+01:002019-09-23T22:01:52.174+01:00I agree. It takes the key factors that made the MM...I agree. It takes the key factors that made the MMORPGs that came before it so addictive and adapts them for a mass audience. If you compare DAOC with EQ, for example, there's a visible attempt by Mythic to be more "user friendly" but the changes they made are very minor and cautious compared to the wholesale rewriting of the genre Blizzard went for.<br /><br />It's very plain, though, that the developers of Vanilla WoW fully understood *why* EQ and other, older MMORPGs were addictive. In later iterations on the theme by other developers (and indeed by waht SynCaine calls Blizzard's B-Team thatt came later) that's very much not the case.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-53625450176989163512019-09-23T21:56:33.597+01:002019-09-23T21:56:33.597+01:00I hadn't noticed that pets stay on the left bu...I hadn't noticed that pets stay on the left but I've been watching them for the last half hour since I read your comment and I haven't seen any that don't. Also they do move quite fast if the player veers towards them so they can get back on the left as quickly as possible.<br /><br />Pathing in Classic is very interesting. I have a post in mind about it but really I would need to take some video or draw some diagrams and I'm not sure I want to go to all that effort. I have watched a lot of mobs quite closely now, though, and the degree of unpredictability and apparent randomness (which is neither if you can be bothered to watch them long enough) is surprising. <br /><br />Respawning is also a lot less predictable than in most games and aggro ranges seem to differ markedly according to several factors, not al of which are clear. I think all of this has a lot to do with the perceived "difficulty". Certainly, compared to EQ, it's far harder to settle in one spot and have everything recur reliably around you. It happens in some places, like the Defias camp I wrote about a while back, but that's the exception rather than the rule.<br /><br />Another example of just how highly orchestrated this game is.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-54651821926378600292019-09-23T20:41:15.332+01:002019-09-23T20:41:15.332+01:00I jumped on the Classic bandwagon a bit over a wee...I jumped on the Classic bandwagon a bit over a week ago. <br /><br />My sense is that the game perfectly balances two sets of sensibilities, one exemplified by retail WoW and the other by P1999. I don't think the game could have been made by any other studio or at any other time. Someone else certainly would have tried to make "something like EQ, but fun." It was a pretty obvious idea. However, no-one else would have been able to pull it off with such panache. <br /><br />Yeebohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08028940396189544294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-7227666368729051872019-09-23T20:00:25.540+01:002019-09-23T20:00:25.540+01:00To your voidwalker picture, I was wondering the ot...To your voidwalker picture, I was wondering the other day if pets always walked on the left. My bear will occasionally sit in front or a bit to the right, but he always seems to reorient to the left side with enough movement.<br /><br />Certainly with this second coming of old WoW and having since played through later expansions and other MMORPGs I am noting some of the less obvious design thoughts that I probably didn't note back in the day. You can see some point to some of the running back and forth quests in a way that you might not in, for example, some of the early LOTRO quests than had you running between Bree and Buckland multiple times in a transparent effort just to slow down your progress. Running that road once would have been discovery. After the third time you're just yanking my chain, and especially back at LOTRO launch when the stable system was hilariously over priced so you had to keep running as a new player.<br /><br />As my post today noted, the game kept inviting us to move on to new vistas.Wilhelm Arcturushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07033496821708933394noreply@blogger.com