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WildStar Paths: Diversity in a Themepark

May 22, 2013 by 21 Comments

WildStar’s path system fascinates me.  Paths are almost class-like identities, but they’re not a class.  They represent a playstyle, or how you like to play MMOs. In the lore, your path represents your responsibilities once you reach Nexus.  This is ‘extra’ content for the players to involve themselves in beside the normal ‘leveling content’.  That’s what fascinates me; someone is trying to create

Explorer is for people who want to go out and see the world, Soldier for those who like killin’, Scientists for the nerds who like puzzles and knowledge, and the Settler for people who enjoy socializing and building stuff.  You better believe I am ALL about the Settler.  I can totally identify with JPHiggenbottom from the latest WildStar DevSpeak video.

Types of missions someone of the settler path can enjoy:

EXPANSION: That town ain’t going to improve itself. So step up, strap on a toolbelt, and get to work building things that make everyone’s life a little easier. CIVIL DEFENSE: Town guards can handle the small stuff. But when the biggest, meanest monsters on Nexus come a-knockin’, you’ll step up and save the day!
SUPPLY CACHE: Who has time to sit around and wait for vital supplies to show up on a platter? Put on those boots and bring home the bacon! INFASTRUCTURE:Are you ready for some serious real estate development? Then do your civic duty and build hospitals, taverns, and spaceports for your friends and allies.
PUBLIC SERVICE: Some people just don’t have the grit and backbone to get the job done. Good thing you do. Achieve tasks for the greater good, and get rewarded for it.

Constructing beneficial structures for friends and allies sounds awesome.  I’m imagining being able to build quasi-permanent structures that stay for at least as long as I am online.  Ideally they’d be permanent, but I have realistic expectations.  If I can make a structure in a quest hub that will buff other players who come in, and I get rewarded for that… how freaking cool is that?!  Making turrets to defend towns, building taverns for people to stop by and visit, or simply being able to think about the actual act of making things is just really, really appealing to me.

To me, this kind of thing is innovative. I was losing hope, but Carbine Studios is showing that even in a themepark there are ways to tip your hat to different playstyles beyond just killing mobs and running dungeons. Two people may both be Gunslingers, but one might be a Gunslinger Scientists and the other a Gunslinger Explorer. Both players get what they want in a way that appeals to the individual most.  I love the idea, and I am now even more eager to play WildStar.  Now who wants to give me a beta invite?  Please?

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Why I’m excited for WildStar

May 13, 2013 by 9 Comments

WildStar MMO

Over the past few days I’ve had this horrible pit in my stomach caused by an acute lack of MMOs to play.  Looking around to remedy my situation, realizing nothing will currently cure me, and hoping there was something in the future, I turned to a game that I’ve only had slightly visible on my radar: WildStar.

wildstar epic content

WildStar will have episodic, phased, open-world, and undoubtedly instanced PvE.

WildStar isn’t trying to be the next best thing. I don’t get this feeling that the developers are trying to overly-innovate or convince people that WildStar is creating some new reason to enjoy MMOs.  I see a zany unique IP with which the developers are having fun.  All of the videos are just cool — that’s deep, I know.  But seriously, there’s a significant amount of ‘different’ stuff in a ‘cool’ way without really being technically ‘new’.

WildStar will have episodic story content, typical questing, battlegrounds, raids (I read there will be 40-man raids), and supposedly open-world leveling on top of customized content that I think is being handled with phasing. All of these can be fun if done right, but what I’m truly excited for are the Warplots and housing.  Build up a base then taking it into a battle against another guild that has built up a base sounds really fun.  Customizing a house to the level of what’s been shown in WildStar is something I have always loved.

wildstar housing

Amazing housing and base building are the driving force behind my excitement.

I don’t need every MMO to reinvent the wheel, but I demand that every MMO at least try to do something better and different than their competition/predecessors.  With a zany new IP being really driven home by over-the-top stylized gameplay, and what appears to be a team embracing the themepark mechanics in their own way, I think WildStar shows great promise.

To sum it all up, we can analyze what WildStar does right, and what it gets wrong, later.  For now, it just looks fun.

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Soul Sacrifice Demo – How Demos Should be

April 23, 2013 by 4 Comments

Soul Sacrifice DemoRecently the last bit of my willpower eroded away and I found myself with a brand new PS Vita. There were several different factors that drew me to the system but chief among them was Soul Sacrifice. The game doesn’t actually release until the 30th but there is already a fantastic demo available that shows off several of the game’s key features.

Soul Sacrifice is Action RPG where you take up the role of a Sorcerer and run through various missions killing monsters. That kind of makes it sound like Monster Hunter, but it really isn’t. There are several different kinds of spells that you can utilize and they can do anything from shooting projectiles, shielding you, healing you (and others), and onto more basic combat stuff like combo attacks, dodging, etc. Say you pick the Giant’s Arm spell… After you active it your right arm turns into a huge fist and you get to pummel guys. There is lots of cool stuff like this.

One of the more fascinating aspects of the game comes from the title itself — Sacrifice. When you defeat a creature or boss you can choose to either save it or sacrifice it. Doing the former raises your Life level (defense) and while the latter raises your Magic level(attack). The max level in the game is 100  (I think. It’s 20 in the demo.) and you can get there with any combination of the two. People that want to play a support role might go more into Life while others may opt to be more of a glass cannon and pump Magic. In addition to sacrificing monsters you can active black rites which essentially sacrifice parts of your body to perform powerful magic attacks. In the demo you can perform Infernus and offer up your skin to blast the area with a huge fire attack. The downside to doing this is that now you’re body is scorched and your defense it halved. It’s a really neat system and I can’t wait to see how it gets further utilized in the full game.

In addition to single player offerings you can do various online missions. The demo contains four and pits you against some of the game’s fascinating monster bosses. The saving and sacrifice system also plays an important role in online games. When you or a teammate is on the ground dying you get the choice to either save the person by offering up some of your own life, thereby getting them back in the fight, or sacrificing them to perform a powerful attack. If you get sacrificed you stay as a spirit of sorts for the rest of the mission, but you can still be of help.  You can see the health of the boss and by utilizing the touch screen you can boost the attacks of your allies or lower the defense of the monsters. Sure some asshole might sacrifice you even if you don’t want him to, but what can you do? Actually, opting to be sacrificed makes sense in a lot of situations. Say the boss is on his last leg… Getting sacrificed can do a lot of damage and finish him off. Plus, getting sacrificed also nets you some bonus points and martyr rewards at the end of a mission so it isn’t as bad a thing as you’d think. I’ve actually asked to be sacrificed more than once.

It’s a fascinating game and I can’t wait to get my hands on the full version. The demo completely sold me on the game and I think that it has to be the best demo I’ve ever played. Not only does it contain the first chapter of the game but also 4 online missions. You can get up to a combined level of 20 and collect and upgrade the spells available and transfer all of your progress into the full version of the game. Regardless of how you feel about Soul Sacrifice, this is how all demos should be done.

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Camelot Unchained’s Building and Mining Systems

April 22, 2013 by 25 Comments

Camelot Unchained is getting closer to their goal, but even closer to their deadline.  I’ve pledged, and I think a lot of our readers have pledges as well.  CU’s building, and in a way part of its crafting, system was revealed recently.   Personally, I would have lead with this information.  This is huge.  In fact, this is indeed unique and revolutionary, and something that really needs a lot of attention.  I think Camelot Unchained’s building will be at the forefront, at the very core, of everything players are fighting for in RvR, and everything players are working towards.

Why fight to win in RvR? Simple: Finite Resources.  What do you do with those resources?  You build whatever you want in a system that resembles Minecract.  Watch the video below.

CU Mine OwnershipI have my concerns.  These past few days my thoughts have been centered right on the necessity of guilds, and one of my all-time biggest complaints about modern PvP games has been this elitist jackassery that we see in games like GW2. There are these big guilds who think they are God’s gift to the game and they the only ones allowed to own, do, or lead anything.  There becomes this stigma and unwritten rule about taking an area or even participating in PvP if you’re potentially taking the spot of someone else who for some reason ‘deserves’ to be there more than you or should own a keep because victory is more assured if that guild owns the area.

I’m worried that the mine locations in Camelot Unchained will be treated with this same inevitable elitism.  I’m calling it right now; if I roll up to a mine that Wart’s guild has built around and I start tapping away, I’m going to get grief for taking resources away from Wart’s guild who, for some reason, think they own the thing and have a claim to the resources inside.  Just because a mine doesn’t run out right away, that doesn’t change the nature of the typical entitled elitist.  I see on the list that mines can be claimed.  If individuals or guilds claim mines, this will be a disaster that will destroy realm pride and unity.  I still need to be convinced this isn’t destined for epic failure.

The building system sounds awesome, though.  Placing each cell individually the same way I would if I played Minecraft has me already thinking up ways I’d build a base.  Being able to roll up on an enemy’s base and break it down into raw materials introduces this entire new way of getting the crafting side involved.  If a player just wants to set up a house/shop and sell weapons, he or she can do so.  But if a crafter wants to be apart of the combat, they can roll up to a siege, or participate in the salvage operation.

My mind is racing with creative possibilities for this system, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself and start imagining things that CSE isn’t capable of doing.  So for now I’ll just take what they’ve said in the video and know that it sounds like a ton of fun.  I have my doubts about the mines and their faith in humanity, but maybe there will be a way to keep people in check.

If you haven’t already, consider pledging.  Camelot Unchained needs your help to get funded because without it we’ll just have a bunch of ideas and no game.

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