What Does This Button Do? : EQ2

The other day Syp was pondering why he sometimes finds it hard to move fluidly from one MMO to another. He came up with several good reasons, such as the varying UIs and control systems, the psychological upheaval, the lack of muscle memory and even not being able to remember your log-in details. All of those have weight but I suspect it's mostly inertia that pulls the cursor to the familiar icon every time.

It isn't really very hard to accustom or re-accustom yourself to the mechanics, after all. That shouldn't really be a barrier. Other than the odd exception like FFXI, whose controls seem to have been designed for a different species, just about every MMORPG I have ever played uses a variant of one of two systems. They're all either roughly like WoW/EQ or roughly like DCUO/TESO.

Each game does have its idiosyncrasies, to be sure, but the similarities vastly outweigh the differences. Assuming you stick to the shallow end, of course. Naturally, if you plan on diving into cutting-edge group or raid content you'll need to be on your game, if only for the sake of your groupmates, let alone your own reputation and self-esteem.

The leveling game, though, and even most solo content at the cap, is usually remarkably forgiving these days. If that's what you're doing then there aren't too many MMORPGs left that would challenge even a somewhat rusty player overmuch.

This kind of content almost seems to have been tuned intentionally for partially-developed, badly-geared characters played by ill-prepared, poorly-skilled players. Perhaps that's why experienced gamers, raising their fifth or sixth alt, frequently complain that "their" game has been dumbed down beyond the point of imbecility, whilst all around them genuine newcomers or returnees still somehow manage to make heavy weather of it.

No, given that most game-hoppers are going to be experiencing gameplay that's very far from the current peak, when we demur from dipping back in to a game we haven't looked at in months, I can't really accept that it's inability to use the controls efficiently that's putting us off.

No, you open it!

In my case it's definitely more likely to be inertia or, if you want to be harsh, laziness. It's just a lot easier to do the same thing today that I did yesterday because if I enjoyed it then why wouldn't I enjoy it now? If staying there made you wish you'd gone somewhere else then it wouldn't be called a comfort zone, would it?

What that means in practice is that I have to make a specific effort not to log into my current favorite MMO. In a way I can almost understand those plaintive cries of boredom in general chat. It's all too easy to end up doing what's all too easy sometimes. You have to make an effort to avoid boredom and who wants to make an effort?

It helps that I have a strong sense of curiosity. It makes for a good motivator when I read about a new MMO or an update to an old one. Reading is just a taster. I like to go and see these things for myself. Being a blogger as well as a player helps. I can always use something fresh to write about. And then there's bribery. That works too.

Didn't you lot used to be...well...scarier?

This week was a holiday weekend albeit not where I live. Some MMO companies have long had a tradition of offering incentives to get players playing and customers spending when they find themselves with an extra day or two of leisure time. Daybreak popped double XP for EQ2 and that's all it took.

There was the small question of who to play. Any kind of xp is wasted on my Berserker sitting at the cap but there's a necromancer in the 90s who'd feel the benefit on the paid account. In the end, though, I plumped for the lowly Channeler, EQ2's newest class and my newest character.

He started the morning at level 16. With the help of full vitality (200% XP bonus) Veteran bonus (another 20% for having a capped character on the account) and one of the myriad of free xp potions sitting in /Claim (110% XP bonus for that one) he made six levels in just over an hour.

And believe it or not it felt quite slow. I don't know how that can be with an average of a full level almost every ten minutes. I suspect it's because I can't fathom the class yet so I never felt in control. Channeler, like Beastlord, is another of these "resource management" classes. I believe the Revenant in GW2 is going to be very similar.

Um, boss...I think your mist stuff is going through the floor.

I don't really like them much. They would seem to be designed for that vocal demographic that complains combat is too simple and they don't have enough to do. These classes always have extra bars or wheels or meters that need to be topped up by tapping or siphoning or channeling or some such malarkey. They also often have pets or spirits or souls or constructs that need to be acquired and trained and equipped and managed.

Frankly, it's a lot of busywork. For it to be fun you have to be fully committed to the character. The payback for the extra time and effort is power. It's notable that there have been loud demands for both Beastlords and Channelers to be excluded from EQ2's upcoming progression server, not because they are inauthentic for the period it seeks to recreate but because their power is seen as overbalancing for it.

Well, maybe, if you know what you're doing. I didn't even remember the Channeler is a healer until halfway through the session. If I'd remembered that I probably wouldn't have gone and hired a bard for a Mercenary. I knew I should have taken the Paladin. Although then I suppose it would have seemed slower still.

Don't ask me what it is. Just kill it!

To go back to what I was saying earlier though, and to re-iterate why I really don't think not being able to remember which button does what is a good reason to avoid picking up a new MMO or revisiting an old one, not knowing what I was doing made no difference whatsoever. Random button-mashing got me through the first half-hour just fine even though I was under the misapprehension that I was supposed to be dealing out the damage rather than keeping everyone alive.

"Everyone" is an odd term when you consider I was soloing but no-one really solos any more, do they? Syp (him again) describes the entourage that accompanies him on his solo jaunts and it's much the same for me. I didn't have my vanity pet out today but there were still three of us in my solo party - a walking pile of rocks, a stereotypical hobbit-analog and my own character.

Of the three, who was the least essential? Don't ask. When I come to think about it, button-mashing was a relatively sophisticated tactic and at least it kept me occupied. If I'd stuck to solo content I wouldn't have need to press any buttons at all. It would be entirely feasible to level up just by running through camps of solo mobs and letting the merc and the construct finish them off. I could play that useful little pet you get in ARPG's, the one that doesn't fight, just hoovers up all the loot and sells it.

Anyone got a lightstone?

That's why I went dungeoneering, first to Blackburrow and then to Stormhold (the dungeon, not the soon-to-be server), where we could fight encounters intended for full parties and I'd have something to do. It's also where I learned that a Channeler gets several AEs that both work in a sphere and penetrate solid surfaces. It's been while since I pulled the second floor of a dungeon from the first. That brought back some memories. We still have XP debt in Norrath in case you were wondering.

Norrath hasn't changed as much as you might imagine. It hardly seems worth having a progression server sometimes. Remember the camps that acted as hidden ring events and spawned names and great clunking chests that doled out buffs if you completed them? Still works. The highwaymen that appeared out of thin air to block the roads and slaughter the unwary? Still doing it. Heroic opportunities? Still firing although I don't suppose for a moment anyone cares.

If you go to Antonica or Commonlands the quests are the largely same as they were in 2005. The NPCs spout the same badly-written, badly-acted voiceovers. Nothing much has changed except I don't ever remember it getting quite this dark at night.

Hang on, just let me get an arrow and I'll have you all healed up good as new.

Oh, all the triple-up-arrow group mobs have gone. There is that. It means the quests that used to take five people a day now take one person and her minions five minutes. I guess that might be one thing that the prog server does differently. Can't say it sounds like much of a draw but maybe it'll be more fun than I remember. It would need to be because I remember it being no fun at all.

When the xp potion ran out I called it a session for the Channeler. I like him as a character - he's a ratonga so that was pretty much a given - but the class is hard work. On top of the resource management thing for some inexplicable reason he has to use a bow and arrow for many of his spells, which means spells effectively need ammunition. That's a new one. Also they seem incredibly slow to cast. Really, really slow. Probably can fix that with gear and AAs and so on but at low levels it's quite tedious.

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

So I swapped to my Berserker, knocked out one of the weekly quests and went to try the new Fabled Achadechism, a level 100 version of the dungeon that sits on top of Crushbone. There I found unwanted proof of my theory that it's only at the point when you run up against content that's tuned for current capped players that things like knowing what the icons on your four combat hotbars mean and what your spells and skills actually do begin to matter.

Even then, facing level 105 orange-con mobs in the "Advanced Solo" version of the instance, it was only the bosses that gave me any trouble. Well, boss. Only saw the first one and didn't manage to kill him. It took three attempts before I got close, by which time I was beginning to think seriously about what I was doing and to realize I needed to. That's when muscle-memory, timing and having at least half an idea how to play your character start to look important after all.

Next time I'll have a bit of a warm-up first, get the old skills loose and juiced and then we'll see who's lying on the ground at the end. Or I might just do something easier instead.

Chanelling and Chronomancy : GW2, EQ2

Jeromai has an excellent post up on the forthcoming addition of The Chronomancer to GW2. It covers most of what we know and can extrapolate thus far about just what it is that a Chronomancer does. There's a LiveStream that probably does much the same only at inordinate length and with video and commentary by the developers. I found I had better things to do than watch that but then I didn't need to because I have Dulfy to do it for me. She provides a thorough precis , which I did manage to find time to read.

It's fairly clear what the Chronomancer's abilities will be but I'm still a little unclear on just what, exactly, a "chronomancer" is, in terms of the structure of the game. ANet describe it as an "Elite Specialization" but it's also variously referred to as a class or a sub-class.

It appears to require both the equipping of a shield, the new weapon-type available to Mesmers in the Heart of Thorns expansion, and the slotting of an Elite Specialization . Indeed, on a closer reading, it would seem that Mesmers will only be able to wield shields if they slot that Elite. There will be no shield-wielding, non-chronomancing Mesmers. Probably. I think...

Presumably the same restriction applies to all the other classes. If you want to use the new weapon you have to take on the mantle of the new class. Sub-class. Whatever.

Not giving up my domes and lasers. Nossir. No way.

For certain, every class in GW2 will be given an Elite Specialization by the expansion and each will gain access to a weapon whose subtleties it was hitherto unable to understand. You wouldn't think that grabbing something flat and holding it up between yourself and whatever happens to be attacking you would be that hard to figure out but I guess, given what the Mesmer proposes to do with the shield now she's finally picked one up, maybe something as mundane as blocking always seemed a little beneath her dignity.

Depending on how you look at it, Heart of Thorns will either double the number of classes in the game or merely remove some of the existing class restrictions on weapon-use. I'm struggling to think of another MMORPG I've played that's taken this approach. The only ones that come to mind are the Final Fantasy games with their "jobs". New examples of those are added periodically both within and outside of expansions but although the "one character can be everything" model there means that the new job adds on to the existing character, the player still has to level it up in the same way he did all the earlier jobs.

As with, oh, pretty much everything ANet does with GW2, I'm also really not sure whether I like the approach or not. In a game that's arguably one of the most "alt-friendly" of all MMOs I'd far rather have had just one or two full, new classes than eight "Elite Specializations" bolted onto the existing list. On the other hand it's certainly going to give us all something to play around with for quite a while.

Did someone mention lasers?

Playing around with builds is, for better or for worse, one of the staples of MMO gameplay. Waiting For Rez, one of the new crop of NBI bloggers, has an interesting piece up about the developing mechanics of Talent Trees and Skill Point Systems. Reading both that and Jeromai's thoughts led me to consider how unclear and malleable my own feelings are when it comes to adjusting to this kind of systemic change.

A very large part of the attraction of playing MMORPGs, for me, comes in learning and understanding the systems. It's a prime reason why I try out so many different ones. I have always enjoyed entertainment that doesn't explain itself too readily; I like stories that begin in media res, I like concepts and terminology whose meaning has to be deduced from context. In short, I like starting out completely at sea and having to find my own way to solid ground.

It's why I strongly dislike tutorials and it has a lot to do with why I much prefer the early and mid levels of most MMOs to the end game. Once I've worked out which lever pulls what string I quickly become disillusioned with having to keep pulling it over and over again until I can pull it perfectly. As if I ever could.

For that reason I tend to enjoy very much the first run through a talent or trait tree. Working out how to use the user interface, how to slot the skills, where to go to acquire them, that part I like. Subsequent trips through the same detail tend to lose their appeal. I do seem to end up doing it a lot. Too much.

This looks strangely familiar.

 
Some of that isn't the fault of game design, of course. It's the over-exposure to such systems that comes with playing so many characters. Perhaps if I was the kind of player who sticks to a Main and an Alt I'd not be here having this conversation with myself right now.

For good or ill, though, I am not much of a "Main and Alt" person. And then some! That's why last week, when Daybreak Games celebrated the arrival of their new and not entirely original logo, instead of buckling down and banging some levels on any of my many existing characters I found myself rolling a Channeler instead.

It's taken me a very long time to get around to doing it. The Channeler was the most recent new class added to EQ2's already impressive (or overblown if you prefer - the game currently has 26 classes) roster but that was with the Tears of Veeshan expansion back in late 2013.

Don't just stand there! Grab his tail!

I made a Beastlord at the first possible opportunity but it's taken this long to come to the Channeler because the concept of the class never really grabbed me. A leather-wearing priest class that heals by firing arrows and has a pet that can't be controlled? Say what?

It was a post by Kaozz in which she mentioned, just in passing, that her Channeler had dinged 100 that reminded me the class even existed. I'd forgotten all about it. Without fully considering what I was doing, next thing I knew I'd rolled the inevitable ratonga, set his starting city to New Halas and stepped out yet again into Norrath.

Channeler is a very odd class. I played to around level 10 without looking anything up and really had no clue what I was doing. There's a pet that looks like some kind of rock elemental. It's called a "Construct". It can't be killed or commanded (although maybe that will come later). For now it hangs around like a giant vanity pet doing... something... while my character draws a bow, excruciatingly slowly, and fires one arrow every ten or fifteen seconds like a ranger on heavy medication.

Oh! That's where they went...

The amount of information granted inside the game is minimal. I gathered as much as that it was a resource-management class similar to a Beastlord but by the low teens no access to the UI controls for those resources has arrived. I seem to remember, vaguely, that the Beastlord was much the same. A few levels in some familiar-looking skills popped onto my hotbars suggesting that, again like a Beastlord, the Channeler needs to hunt down creatures, beat them to within an inch of their life and then best them in a staring match.

But to what end? I had no idea so I tried to find out the best way - by doing it. Things didn't go well. Sometimes I killed the animal before the channeled skill completed. Sometimes the animal killed me. Sometimes the Construct killed the animal. I hadn't even realized the Construct was attacking until I read my combat log. I thought it was a defensive ward. Mostly, though, we all stood there locked in stalemate as the bear or wolf continually interrupted my channeling until I lost patience, dealt it a death blow and went off in a huff to look for another victim.
Finally I succeeded in getting the skill to complete. I successfully sucked the Essence from a rat. Best not think about that too closely. And then... I was completely stumped. I'd seen some messages pop up about new "abilities" and "customizations" for my Construct but I had no idea how to access them. I couldn't find any "essence" in my bags, there were no new skills on my hotbar. My Construct looked exactly the same as it spun there radiating smugness.

It was around that point that I cracked and went to the ever-reliable Zam, where I found the following:

"To access the Construct Window, first open the character window (C). After you've summoned your construct there will be a Construct tab, which is where you customize your construct's appearance."

Well, duh!

It's a learning curve and that's why it's fun. Even when you have to look things up. I'm not opposed to doing a bit of research, after all. That's all part of the process.

I am less convinced the class will be fun in and of itself and I feel much the same about GW2's upcoming "Elite Specializations". There's precious little chance I'll be abandoning my Berserker, or even my new Warlock, for the channeling life and I very much doubt I'll be giving up the simple life of the Longbow Ranger or Staff Elementalist for whatever over-complicated fussbudget frippery their new weapon types offer.

I will, however, be happy to enjoy the process of opening all the skills and traits and getting the hang of the systems involved in doing so -  before consigning them all to the "new-fangled nonsense" bin and going back to the tried and tested Old Ways. Because, much though I enjoy unraveling the mysteries and complexities of underlying systems and processes, when it comes to everyday combat I'd just as soon hit things with a stick.

Pretty Green : City of Steam

The City of Steam Sneak Peak has been extended to Thursday, which gives me a chance to  try out the remaining two classes. There are four altogether: Warden, Gunner, Arcanist and Channeler. I'm a little hazy on how the roles fall out between them. The Warden is a tank, for sure. The Gunner is ranged DPS, I think, but so is the Arcanist. The Channeler is Healer/Support and also the one I've not tried yet.

Move Along, Citizen

Everyone but the Warder uses magic, even the Gunner. I thought they were just firing pistols and throwing bombs but it seems they're using their own blood to "transform their sidearms into occult implements". Is that legal? It makes more sense than the the Channeler job description, anyway, which claims they're bardic healers who use "battle-hardened musical instruments to turn the steel eye of the World Machine to the suffering of their companions". Run that by me again?

No-one is officially Melee DPS, although I think everyone can dual wield. Unless the Channeler can't. Hang on, let me make one... Yep. Dual-wields blunt weapons, starting out with Censers, incense optional. I was hoping he might clout ratlings upside the head with a brace of maracas. Maybe later. And yes, there are ratlings. They don't wear any clothes or talk, at least not the ones I've met (and by met I mean chopped up with a big sword). But, hey, they walk on two legs so they count.

The Warden and Gunner I covered last time. The Arcanist seems to be the classic glass cannon. She gets Fire, Ice and Electricity lines, heavy on the AE. The explosions are spectacular. Most solo fights end with her standing in the middle of a pile of dismantled clockworks, beating the flames out of her dress. I took mine down to level 14 of the Nexan Archives. and she didn't die once. She nearly died about twenty times. Not for the faint of heart.

And that's just the healer!

The Channeler gets Fire, Sound and Light lines with some very nice visual effects. All healing and damage derives from a multiple of weapon damage, which I think is true of all the classes. Everyone gets the same vast number of stats. Seven active, seven passive, ten resists making a grand total of twenty-four. That won't last. Items have negative as well as positive stats. Neither will that. Armor has three resistances, different to the ten general resistances. There are at least four grades of armor. Weapons and Armor have class restrictions. I said it was old school!

City of Steam is a real rpg statfest but the UI is so elegantly designed that I haven't found it in the least overwhelming or confusing. It's certainly counter-trend, though, which can't be said about the choice of races.

I don't want to breathe YOUR germs either

Steampunk does not say elves to me. Nor orcs. It might possibly say dwarves, at a push. CoS offers a choice of nine races and five of them are varieties of elf or greenskin. The three greenskins (they call themselves that and it's true) are Goblin, Orc and Hobbe. I'm guessing the Hobbe is a Hobgoblin although they're big enough to be ogres. I called mine Calvin. I assume everyone will.

Checks are in this century

The elves are the first elves I have seen in many years that I would willingly play. They look, sound and act more like pale, fin-de-siecle goths than elves. If they didn't occasionally mention their elvishness I'd have guessed they were vampires. They come in two flavors, Riven or Draug, the main difference between them being their lifespan, short for the Riven and long for the Draug. How that will impact gameplay I cannot say. Ask me in fifty years. Oh, and one kind is blue.

The rest of the races are humans of different regional background and attitude. I notice they are all White European in appearance. There's no option for skin color (so far) at character creation either.

I think the elves work. I remain to be convinced about the Greenskins. I'd have preferred Steam Dwarves as a playable race. Or ratlings, although that might just be me. Still, it's early days. Much could change and much remains to be revealed. The website suggests a considerable level of political intrigue to come, of which as yet there are barely hints in the game. 

There's no mention of crafting but I'm sure it's on the way. There are vendors for Oil and Coal. Also Pleap, Toap and Hawte which appear to be foods. Or diseases of the sheep. One or the other. On the subject of vendors, they all have a timer that tells you when the shop will restock, which suggests an interesting scarcity mechanic could be in the plan. A variety of "Repair Materials" drop in dungeons for which there is as yet no use. They look like crafting raws to me and I hope that's what they are but could they point to armor and weapon degradation. I hope they don't.

I could go on, and on. And on. But I won't. This is now my most-anticipated MMO save only for Guild Wars 2. I'm going to miss it when the server closes on Thursday. Here's hoping for an alpha invite in a month or so. More chance of that than a GW2 beta invite, that's for sure!