And So It Begins: GW2

" In the next release we will adjust the way that world mega bosses award their loot. The current chests will stay lootable once per day per character, but each boss’s guaranteed rare item drop will be moved to a separate chest (visually similar to daily achievement reward chests) that can only be acquired once per day across an account.
Our intention with this change is to keep providing rewarding loot for world mega bosses while avoiding overwhelming participation in boss fights (and overwhelming the economy with rares) from players cycling through each character slot for each boss every day. "

Isaiah Cartwright - GW2 Lead Designer.

"Alright! Own up. WHO did Shadow Behemoth?

"Don't look at me. I was at Tequatl all day"

 

Going Up Country: The Endless Forest

MMO is a term stretched so loosely these days it barely has any shape left at all. EA are taking flak from all directions already so riling up MMO fans by claiming the tag for Sim City is probably the least of their worries right now.

This isn't going to be a post about Sim City, though. I have no dog in that fight. I tried the original game long, long ago and let's just say for entertainment value I'd rate it right up there with getting an insurance quote. And wasn't there going to be an actual MMO based around city-building anyway, now I come to think of it? Cities XL.That went well.

No, this post is about something else entirely. Something about as far away from building cities as you can imagine and further still from the traditional MMO.

The Endless Forest started as an art project commissioned and funded by the Musee d'Art Moderne in Luxembourg a decade ago. The complex history of its development from then on is covered in a comprehensive Wikipedia entry and on the Tale of Tales website, where you can also download and play it for yourself.

The last couple of times I looked at The Endless Forest I didn't find much to see. I seem to remember having trouble getting it to run at all. That was years ago. This weekend, for no reason other than that I happened to notice it in my Bookmarks, I fired it up again and found something quite different, quite...strange.

The game, for want of a better word, now runs smoothly and looks stunning. Here's some video I took with Fraps and cobbled together with Movie Maker, just to give an impression. Obviously the compressed YouTube version does it no favors but you can see how gorgeous it is from the screenshots.

Everyone's a deer in The Endless Forest. There are full-grown deer and fawns. If you register you start as a fawn and grow into a deer over time. Otherwise you emerge fully-formed, with antlers and a really quite disturbing, humanoid face.

I saw other deer wearing masks, with candles on their antlers, even with exposed bones as though their hides had been torn away. I saw large crows and rabbits which I thought might be players but I wasn't sure. I couldn't ask because you don't speak in The Endless Forest. Not in words. There's no chat function of any kind.

That doesn't mean you can't express yourself, far from it. At the bottom of the screen you have a range of icons representing actions. Emotes, if you like. You can use these to communicate with other deer and if you happen to be in  part of the forest where other possibilities exist, magical possibilities perhaps, you will find the necessary abilities selected for you. What will happen when you use them? That you won't know until you try.

A year ago The Endless Forest lost its arts grant funding but it continues under a system of voluntary subscription. Donation might be a better description. How long it will survive, who knows? There were plenty of deer running, sleeping, drinking, praying, playing and just generally being deer while I was there, so I take that as a good sign.

Is it an MMO? Well, in some ways it's more like what I imagined an MMORPG to be before I ever played one. A place where magic happens while you pretend to be something you could never be, living an illusion shared by all around you. Most MMOs I've played didn't turn out to be much like that.

On the other hand, most of them did turn out to have a lot of hooks to hold my attention for months at a time. Whether running through a forest gathering flowers on my antlers and passing them to strangers could do the same, well I doubt it.

So, no logging in for Dailies in The Eternal Forest. Just waking up there on a whim, once in a while, I hope. And if not for eternity then for many years to come.

Horsing Around: Vanguard

A couple of things of note happened in Vanguard this week: Brad McQuaid left and Lomshir got a revamp

I've not been playing Vanguard regularly (or at all) since Brad came back but if the forums are to be believed Everquest's gain is not Vanguard's loss. Apparently Brad was channeling Bart Simpson during his return. He didn't do anything, no-one saw him do anything and no-one can prove he did anything. I await his impact on Everquest with barely contained excitement.

Who would win in a fight between a lion and a horse?

The Lomshir revamp did happen. It must have. It's in the patch notes. Lomshir is one of my favorite areas of Vanguard, although "Bhagpuss's favorite areas of Vanguard" would be a very long list. Apparently the area (I keep calling it an "area" because one of the things Brad did back in the days when he was doing stuff you noticed was to tell everyone  Vanguard was a seamless, zoneless world. Just ignore the freezing of your screen as you cross that invisible border. That's a chunk, not a zone. It's entirely different. Look, no loading screen!). 

I won that bet...

Ahem. As I was saying, apparently the area has been adjusted to suit levels 10-20. It also got its own dedicated station on the Riftway, which takes you to what used to be the Varanthari starter area. I never played a Varanthari, what with them being one of Telon's many human variants and there being so many more interesting options. About all I knew about them was that they were the horse people. 

They still are, but now the entry-level quests at the place you used to wake up as a freshly-created Varanthari (an option that no longer exists) start at level 10. My level 18 raki sorceror one-shotted his way through most of them. It was heaven! 

He shook some trees for shiny red apples to feed to the horses and the trees disappeared. Then grew back! Realism? Don't talk to me about realism!  He killed and skinned some lions (There are a lot of lions. Something in the ecology of Telon is deeply warped. I blame the Kurashasa). The local horse-lords seemed pleased so they sent him to the capital.

City? Are you absolutely sure about that?

Lomshir (City) is a place I did recognize. I couldn't see anything new about the quests there. They did seem a lot easier than last time I did them, but then last time I did them was five years ago and I was level 12. Even in the stasis that is, or rather was, Vanguard five years and six levels makes a difference. 

By this time I'd been there a couple of hours and I'd had a wonderful time. Honestly, if all the other MMOs I play closed down tomorrow I could go back to Vanguard and be happy. It's entirely clear to me why it's survived so long with so little attention. It's a true work of art. The only downside was I hadn't found any of the new quest chains nor any of the new overland bosses. 

I'll take the brown one

It's fantastic to see SOE giving this amount of attention to Vanguard after all these troubled years. Revamping secondary starter areas, no less. As I was scanning the forums (which look so much better - they've also been revamped) looking for clues on exactly where to find the new content, I ran across this poignant comment from one of the devs who'd done the work to make it happen:

"Any feedback on the content itself so far? A lot of work was put into modifying those chunks"

He got one reply.  I sometimes wonder how Vanguard devs get out of bed in the morning.

If I can find the new content I'll be happy to report what I think of it. In the meantime, please take it as read that it's appreciated. In principle if not in practice. 
 

The Potterer's Guide To The Shadow Behemoth : GW2

Where is it?

Godslost Swamp in Queensdale

Nearest Waypoint?

If you ask in map chat everyone will say Godslost but I prefer Swamplost Haven. It's almost as close, it's drier and you can shop there.

   
Will we be here long? I think I'm getting trenchfoot.

You might. Shadow Behemoth only shows himself every couple of hours or so. Also, he has a tendency to bug out. If you've been waiting a long time he might not be coming.

Anything to do while I wait?

Not really. There's a vista. That'll kill ten seconds. Also a skill point, there's another ten. You could help Historian Garrod investigate the swamp, but there you have the nub of it: you're in a swamp and swamps are not known for their wide range of leisure activities. Unfortunately you have to stay here because the text message vanishes if you wander much farther and you risk missing the whole thing. Oh, if the Ambient Killer daily is up, you're in luck, One thing swamps do have in abundance is frogs. And flies.

Making a virtue out of necessity, because there's so little to do in the swamp but no-one dares leave, there's often plenty of player-made entertainment like costume brawls, feasts, flamethrower tag and suchlike high-jinks to pass the time. It's only matter of time before there are buskers and a pie stall.

How do I make sure I don't miss out?

About the only clue is the text. When it says "Underworld forces have been spotted outside the swamp" that's your cue.

Wait! Now I do have to go outside the swamp?

You could but I don't advise it. The forces in question are at The Heartwoods, Elvin Monastery and Taminn Foothills. They look close enough but by the time you run there and back the big event will be over. Stay in the swamp and let someone else do it. They will.

Then what happens, exactly?

If you want "exactly", ask The Egg Baron. If you just want the high concept version... Some portals open; you blow them up; a ginormous creature appears and waves his very long arms about a lot a few times, then he dies and you get the Chest. Oh, and lots of red rings appear all over the place but they don't seem to do anything so you can safely ignore them. If there's a way to get downed in this event I've yet to find it.

Sounds peasy.

It is. Probably the easiest of them all. Certainly the one with the least running around, providing you don't attempt to engage the "forces".

Sum it up for me. Is it worth doing?

Very much so. It's by far the most visually spectacular of all the low-level metas. The Shadow Behemoth is huge and really quite scary. Worth doing just to see him. And once the novelty wears off it has "quick" and "easy" to recommend repeat visits. Provided he shows up, that is.

The Potterer's Guide To The Great Jungle Wurm : GW2

Where is it?

Wychmire Swamp in Caledon Forest

Nearest Waypoint?

Falias Thorp, but it's very frequently contested. If it's not available next-best is probably Caledon Haven.

Is this going to take long? These mosquitoes are as big as basketballs!

Could be a while. You have to wait for a cabbage called Gamarien to decide he feels like wandering around the swamp and he only gets the itch once every couple of hours.

So what is there to do while I wait?

Fight the Nightmare Court. Over and over. They want Falias Thorp so badly they send eight waves of grunts to take it every ten minutes or so. Sometimes they even win, which can lead to a nasty surprise if you logged out there thinking it was safe.

Other than that, the area's a bit short on entertainment. It's a swamp.

How will I know when it starts?

A big orange blob appears over Gamarien's head. That's a bit of a giveaway. Also the meta-event text changes to some variant of "Shadows grow long in the heart of the swamp". Spooky! Gamarien does speak but only to ponder to himself not broadcast to the whole map so you'll only hear him if you're quite close. 

And my role in all this?

Guess. Your job is to follow Gamarien and make sure he doesn't get eaten while he strolls about orating portentously. There are a number of stages, all of which end in mass slaughter as you prevent a range of wildlife, locals and mindless undead from doing what you'd so dearly like to be able to do yourself, namely shut Gamarien up for good.


That sounds like a lot of walking.

Gamarien walks. You'd better run. There are several discrete events, each of which gives karma and xp but they pop very quickly, as do the things you have to kill, which all seem to have very few hit-points. Unlike The Maw, the terrain mitigates against your getting to all of them in time. Pick a target and stick to it; if you tear around trying to get all of them you'll most likely get none. And when the Wurm appears, don't stand there gawping. He dies as fast as everything else.

Or you could avoid all the running bout and go wait at the corpse of the dead worm from last time. You can see it from where Gamarien starts. He just walks in a big circle.

Sum it up for me. Is it worth doing?

Definitely and not just for the rewards. The Wurm when it appears is spectacular but if there's anything like a crowd waiting he'll be dead before you can really appreciate him. He stands repeated viewings. Apart from the frankly ludicrous early stage when Gamarien and the Nightmare Court determinedly run through their lines in direct contradiction of the reality around them, the whole thing is fast, furious, frenetic and fun.

The Potterer's Guide To The Fire Elemental : GW2

Where is it?

Thaumonova Reactor in Metrica Province

Nearest Waypoint?

Muridian.

Will this take long? I think I'm starting to glow.

Not too long. The event chain leading up to the Fire Elemental runs just a tad slower than The Maw, about once every thirty minutes.

What is there to do in the meantime?

Explore the Thaumanova Reactor. It's a fascinating, if radioactive place. Frequent events run inside and it's a great spot for several Dailies. Comatose Asura researchers sprawl in every corridor for Healer,  the wide range of creatures roaming the halls are perfect for both general Kill and Kill Variety and there are several Veterans scattered around. There's also a rather challenging skill point round the back of the reactor.

How will I know when the main event starts?

The text will change to "Rooba is outside the eastern entrance, preparing to enter the reactor's remains" . There's no audio clue and you can't see the text if you wander very far, so stay close to the building.

What do I have to do?

Follow a whirling dustbin around the reactor. Make sure it doesn't "die". Stand in a ring for ages while a dustbin whirls about. Make sure it doesn't "die". Listen to an Asura give a masterclass in overconfidence about why her whirling dustbin won't "die". Watch the dustbin die.

Finally, finally! fight a Fire Elemental while dodging pools of lava and reviving people who didn't.

Sounds like there's a lot of standing about.

There is. Also walking at the pace of an arthritic tortoise, which appears to be the benchmark speed for Golems in this part of the jungle. The Fire Elemental event, or Thaumanova Reactor Fallout to use its Sunday name, is the only one with a fixed duration, since the part where you stand in a ring lasts exactly five minutes. This is very handy if you want to go make a cup of tea or boil an egg.

Sum it up for me. Is it worth doing?

For the rewards, of course it is. As often as you can.

The story itself is amusing, at least the first time. If you do it right from the start (there are other pre-events as well) it takes ten minutes or so, which is a lot longer than any of the other low level chest-droppers, or maybe it just feels longer, what with all the standing in one place.

The Fire Elemental is moderately spectacular although its hard to appreciate the view when he's doing his best to incinerate you and the actual fight is great fun. After the first couple of runs you might want to cut to the chase and arrive just before the ring event ends, in time for the payoff.

As a bonus, someone will often offer to use "The Key" by which they mean the Matrix Cube Key. It opens that portal you ran past earlier and probably wondered about. Jump down the well and land on a floating platform outside. There's a Champion Steam Ogre. Beat him and get another chest, although just an ordinary one this time.

The Potterer's Guide To The Frozen Maw: GW2

Where is it? 

Frusenfell Creek in Wayfarer Foothills. 

Nearest Waypoint?

A toss-up between Krennak's Homestead and Vendrake's Homestead. The event starts at Krennak's but if you arrive late Vendrake is closer to the final battle.

I'm freezing! How long is this going to take?

Not long. The Maw has the fastest turnaround of all the Big Chest events. It pops roughly twice an hour. If you ported in and just missed it you might as well stay for the next one.

Is there anything to do while I wait?

Plenty!  You'll probably be asked to gather wurm eggs, build a snow army and fight the ice dragon's corruption. If you don't fancy good works or chores there are a couple of nearby skill points and a cave with a chest at the back to keep you amused.

If I'm off doing all that, how will I know when it starts?

You should be close enough to see the message change. If it says anything other than "The Maw is quiet", it's started. If you're right by Scholar Brogan you'll hear him complain that someone riled up the Grawl again, a useful audio reminder if you're tabbed out, so long as you remembered to leave the sound on.


Ok, so it's started. Now what do I do?

Kill some grawl, follow the pompous Norn "scholar" across an ice field, kill some more grawl, smash an ice sculpture, listen to another pompous Norn rant for a while, kill a few Norns (non-speaking extras but almost certainly pompous too) smash some portals and, finally, kill the Shaman. There's some other stuff but usually everything dies too fast to notice it.

That sounds like a lot of work.

It would be if you had to do it on your own but mostly you'll have your work cut out getting from one phase to the next fast enough to get credit. Don't try and do everything. Just follow the crowd and shoot what they're shooting and it will all come right in the end.

Sum it up for me. Is it worth doing?

For the rewards, of course it is. As often as you can.

Without those you probably wouldn't want to do it very often.The Maw is the least interesting of all the meta-events. All you get to fight are the same ordinary mobs you see all over Wayfarer's Foothills - grawl, ice elementals, Sons of Svanir and there's no huge reveal at the end. He's supposed to be summoning a giant ice elemental but he'll be dead long before you ever see it. It's a cheerful romp in the snow and that's about it.