All Posts by TeflonEddie

TR's combat is about half-way between a FPS and an MMO, in that you have to manually target a mob (with the crosshairs) in order to shoot at it, but once you've targetted it, you can press Tab to "lock on", and as such you can move the crosshairs off the target, fire, and the shots will hit the "locked on" target.

Reminds me a bit of a scene from the 5th element.

The game is very fun, but there are some weaknesses to it:

No housing in TR at all. No resources to gather or shops to run/decorate.

Very shallow crafting in TR, though they have said they're working on beefing it up. Right now, all that's craftable is grenades, medkits, armour dyes, ammo and weapon enhancements.

No resetting skill/attrbute points without using the cloning system, which is somewhat poor from a design perspective.

Poor character development after level 30 due to the way the class trees open up.

No end-game at level 50 aside from one or two soloable/groupable instances.

Forean = Level 15 = Divide, Thoria Das (Just south of the waypoint)

Brann = Level 30 = Mires, Brann LZ (can't miss him)

Thrax = Level 40 = Crucible, Wormhole (can't miss him either)

Thrax is level 40, yes.

Regarding making hybrids "special", I read an interview with the TR devs where they mentioned hybrid specific weaponry/storylines that are in development.

Should add an interesting twist to the hybrid system.

Brann Hybrids are cool, but the lower base Body is definately a considerable drawback.

I was originally intending on making my engineer a full spirit brann hybrid, but experience of the new armour values/regen rates and the effect of the body stat would make that suicidal.

In my opinion, Hybrids are primarily only useful for the following reasons:

1. They look cool/different.

2. If you intend on making a build that maxes a single stat.

An example would be a full body specced thrax guardian.

That said, Brann and Thrax have -50 base Mind, so if you're playing a class that doesn't NEED high amounts of Power, then you can spend all your points in body/spirit and probably end up with a considerably higher survivability rate than a human.

At the moment, I consider Mind to be the weakest stat, and Body to be the strongest; so my recommendations would be:

Full body Thrax hybrid.
Split body/spirit Thrax hybrid.
Full body Brann hybrid.
Split body/spirit Brann hybrid.

I wouldn't go full Spirit as a Brann, as you'll lack the HP/Armour (and bonus Power) from the lack of Body.

Right now, I can't imagine myself using a Forean for anything meaningful.

Quite a lot of people have been complaining about the Graviton "nerf" and completely failing to read patch notes. One guardian in particular was whining at length 'til we finally managed to get it through to him, "Put some points in BODY ffs!".

The next comment he posted was "100k armour lawl, sweet!"

As for the regen, Graviton has the best regen in-game now; especially at pump 5.

As a game, I really like TR, but I would agree that it still needs a lot of work.

Then again, it's only been out for a couple of months (including over the holiday period where the developers didn't seem to do much) and what MMO didn't have huge problems/limitations when it launched?

You have a thoughtful post witha  question thats really self answering.  DOes your mom still need to wipe your butt?  Do you still have to have someone hold your hand in order to walk across the street?  Do you get to tell yourself when you get another piece of candy or does your mom always smack your hand when your reaching fora  cookie?

To all these questions im assuming your an individual that is living on your own since you seem to have pretty nice grammer and spelling.  So im assuming your going to be able to do those things on your own.  One thing im tired about here in teh states is so much regulation that the gov't is passing telling us we cant do things cause they believe we're too stupid (which for some its true) to know that on our own.

My point is their a company that is trying to make money, you pay for their product and play it for hours on end, it is entirely your choice to do so and can walk away whenever you feel bored of it (which for most is pretty quick).  This crap about some people having an addiction for gaming is BS, its called FUN.  Normaly when you find something fun you dont want to stop doing it, but of course people like the ones you hear about "I lost my wife, kids, and job to this game I NEED HELP!"  No you need some damn willpower, those people are just idiots that cant help but be so bored and miserable in their lives that htey need something to havea n alter ego in.

Addiction is not the issue. Willpower is not the issue. MMO Content Design is the issue.

An example someone made above regarding killing 600 bunnies; this type of content allows both hardcore and casual players to complete it, though of course casual players get there later than the hardcores. Players have the CHOICE to control the pace at which they play the game.

In the example given, (end-game raiding in WoW), the game REQUIRES you to be at the computer for 3-4 hours straight in order to experience the content, and the developers are increasing the amount of content based on this model. WoW does have options for casual PvE gamers, but it's real PvE focus is clearly skewed towards those who are willing to spend those 3-4 hours on a regular basis.

Setting aside the issues of willpower/addiction and considering the question from a game design point of view; would you consider that encounters geared to last a consecutive 4 hours any different than encounters geared to last a consectuve 2 hours?

Players would still have the option to do two of the 2 hour encounters and hence still play the 4 hours they used to, however the MMO developer would be giving the player the CHOICE of cutting their playtime into healthier "blocks".

Thanks for the responses all.

However, I do kind of feel that many people in responding to my OP missed the point a little.

I should clarify my position; I'm a casual gamer. I play several different MMO's and in total clock up around 10-15 hours a week of MMO gaming. I don't consider myself addicted to gaming, and I'm not looking to deflect blame for the time that I do spend in-game as I don't feel I play for an unhealthy amount of time.

My question wasn't whether MMO companies should be held accountable for the behaviour of those who choose to play for an excessive amount of time, as I recognise that personal choice and self-control are the defining factor there.

My point is that some MMO's have end-game content that can only be accessed by playing for what I would consider unhealthy units of time (3 to 4 hours straight) for protacted periods (several times a week for a number of months). One such example of end-game content would be Black Temple in WoW.

It's a subtle distinction, but an important one; so I'll rephrase the question in my OP:

Should MMO's accept a social responsibility and stop creating content that REQUIRES an unhealthy level of time investment?

It's a recognised truth that to get the most out of an MMO you have to invest a lot of time in the game.

As an example, say World of Warcraft, where you have to spend 3-4 hours a day, 4-5 days per week (for several months) in order to get the opportunity to "complete" the content by killing Illidan Stormrage.

This is a time investment that many would consider "unhealthy".

The question is; do MMO's have a social responsibility to discourage us from playing to such an unhealthy degree by aiming and pacing content towards the casual gamer, and if not.. should they?

Casual/Hardcore mean different things to different people; I judge them on the basis of how much time investment they require.

As an example, I'd say WoW is geared for casual PVPers (Battlegrounds, Arena) but for hardcore PVEers (4 hour long 25 man raids) and as a comparison EvE is for hardcore PVPers (harsh death penalties, open PVP) and casual PVEers (no instances, easily accessible content)

It's been a year or two since I played EvE, so my rememberances may be out of date.

Something I've always found interesting:

European English WoW servers:

PVP Servers: 63 (+5 RP-PVP)
PVE Servers: 34 (+6 RP-PVE)

This would seem to suggest that PVPers considerably outnumber PVEers; which is a surprise considering how much WoW PVP sucks. I can't help but wonder how many of those PVPers will jump at the chance of a next-generation game designed and oriented around PVP and RVR.

It's impossible to even estimate at the moment, but if the likes of WAR/AoC deliver on their promises, we might well see a LOT of people jumping ship in favour of it.

Originally posted by namelessbob

Casuals do tend to enjoy the game more than those who burnt out on the terrible end game content. Ignorance is bliss, and it must be true.

Wish to hell I'd kept hold of my ignorance, maybe I'd still be able to play WoW if I had.

I'm level 50 (engineer, which might be significant as we're widely recognised as one of the best solo classes) and I've solo'd everything currently in-game (including instances).

TR is (currently!) extremely solo/duo friendly.

Originally posted by orlac

"they always said TR will be a nichy game."

 

Lol! So they spent millions developing this game with no intention of success? Just wanted to mollify those who think they are too "smart" for WoW?

Remind me not to buy any stock.....

Consider the scale involved; if they sell 100,000 copies, at ~ £20/box with a subscription fee of ~£8.99/month, that's an immediate revenue of ~£2,000,000 ($4,000,000) and a further ~£899,000 (or $1,800,000) per month.

I dunno how much an MMO takes to develop (or how many copies TR has sold for that matter) but I very much doubt it'll take them long to recouperate their development costs.

Originally posted by pussaykat

I was taking a break from this game while they finish 1.4 because i had a hard time leveling past mires without doing it. But now the month i took in wow ends soon and the patch still isnt ready. I was pondering weather i should just renew right away or go for another game. I dunno what to do anymore. I don't want to play wow, guild wars and CoX wont hold my attention for long enough and now this game doesnt seem like something i want to play anymore.

1.4 looks like it'll be ready soon; which will be good for you as it'll address a lot of problems with the 30+ levelling grind, but it'll change very little for me (my character is 50 already). I'd advise you to stick with TR 'til you try 1.4.

Originally posted by pussaykat

Torqueshell already had a rediculous shoot time but if now i can't drop em in 1 hit after that... I mean what am i supposed to do with a 3 mob group? shoot one of em once or twice before they get in melee range and kick me all over tha place?

In my opinion, they released at a terrible time. The game was thrown out just before christmas so when the whole dev team was AWOL for a few weeks over the holidays, the playerbase started to feel ignored and frustrated at the lack of content/support.

Another problem was the very paltry amount of effort that had gone into the high level areas and missions; a lot of us hit level 35+ over the holiday period and were faced with such a lack of missions that it became normal practice to have to spend hour after hour grinding mobs for XP in order to hit the next level and get the new missions.

Add to this the non-existant crafting and the utter lack of level 50 content (there is literally nothing to do AT ALL right now) and a lot of people (myself included) are having the perfectly understandable reaction of "maybe I should come back in a few months when they finish the beta".

Basically, great game but needs a few months (and some heavy content/crafting revisions) before it'll be really up to scratch and worthy of playing.

Originally posted by pussaykat

Is combat still fast paced or do you need to spend 5 min on each mobs?

On Live at the moment, mobs die ridiculously fast. Spies can 1-shot most footsooldiers with a backstab and you can drop them with couple of rifle shots easily. In the new patch, mobs get increased health and faster regeneration so it does have a slowing effect on the combat.

Especially in instances.

Right now the game is very easy at the early levels, though that changes somewhat if/when the new patch goes live as it contains considerable buffage for the mobs.

Right now, you can (for example at level 5) stand in a group of 10 level 6-7 thrax and take them down without a problem, though the game toughens up at higher levels when you meet the likes of Striders, (huge mechanical war machines that shoot beams of fire that can 1-hit kill players) and mobs also come in larger, more powerful groups.

Next patch, you'll be a greasy red stain on the ground if you don't fight with a bit more strategy.

As a casual gamer, this is my take on character development:

Level-based system: Grind XP/repetitive quests to get "better". (i.e. WoW)
Skill-based system: Repeat specific actions in order to get "better". (i.e. UO)
Offline training system: Get "better" passively. Everyone levels at the same speed.

Choosing a preference is an easy matter for me. As I tend to only play 10-15 hours a week, I'd like my time in-game to be spent doing something fun rather than grinding so I would of course vote for Offline training.

Another big bonus to an Offline training system is that the developers have direct control over exactly how long it takes players to reach "max" level, and as such removes the possibility of powerlevelling.