Second Look on Uncharted Waters Online

I woke up one night feeling the jitters… it was… addiction.  I had this immediately need to play a game that I had felt was awful.  It was as if I was drawn to play the old Uncharted Waters for the SNES.  It was a weird sensation I had not felt in a while.  When I went off to work I came home and the first thing I wanted to do was play this game.  It was such an odd feeling, why was such a terrible game… so addicting.

On a second look on this game I’m finding that it is a very great game for a very small niche of players… myself included.  It also has, I feel, drawing power if it can ‘do it right.’  I think the biggest setback on this game is that I know this game won’t be getting too much attention and will be very slow to develop.  On the other side the interactive world will keep me entertained for quite some time.  The draws for this game are it’s a 16th century European trader game.  This draws in the Pirates of the Carribean child crowd, business simulation people (like myself), and your Elizabethan era people.  As I said, not a big crowd… but a niche crowd.

This game also has at least some limited ability to spread.  After about a week of playing this game I immediately got one of my closest friends to start playing it and my girlfriend.  The fact that it’s free means that you can continuously refer this game to everyone and anyone.

In some ways I always hope that gaming companies use Google and search out criticism of their game.  In this way I always make sure to include criticisms even in the most favorable reviews.  This one is no exception.

If this game is going to reach a wider audience the first thing it needs is… a shorter school.  The tutorial for this game takes about 20+ hours to do.  This is because the tutorial is very thorough and covers all tasks.  Each task gives you a quest you have to carry out related to that lesson.  Unfortunately this thoroughness takes away from the gaming experience and you end up feeling like you should skip out on the school for some time.

Instead what needs to happen is just leave it at the basic school and then indicate levels of fame required to unlock new sections of the map.  The remaining school quests should be converted simply into quests that will grant fame and money over time.  This time can also be used to create some international characters that can be used in future quest updates.

There is also a lot of things in the game that people will not need to know.  I, for example, had to learn about hand to hand combat in a ground invasion as a trader.  I mean I’m sure that’s great for your maritime pirates but my calling will direct me away from combat wherever it is possible.  I would not have been so bothered by it if I could choose between three quests and choose to skip out on the ones not related to my calling.

On top of that the rewards for school never seemed like they were anything over the top.  You spend all this time doing it and you get less than what you could have gotten if you had just traded your way around.  If you finish this whole series there should be some pretty massive reward at the end.  What I ended up getting was a chest piece that had roughly the same stats as my school uniform.

Another thing missing from this game is an achievement system.  No matter what people say, achievements are fun.  Achievements give you a sense of success in your task and encourage you to do other things you may normally not do.  Especially in games that have grinding having an achievement system in place can give you a goal to head to…. even if the goals seem farfetched and extreme.

Achievements also give the game some structure.  Korean games are notorious for lacking structure and emphasizing too much on game play.  It is no surprise that Korean games have been hesitant to adopt any system that gives structure, not to mention an achievement one.  Achievements let you know that what you are doing is in the intended purpose of the game.  It’s designed thinking about people who sit around all day running in circles wasting their time.

One thing this game does insanely well is professions.  This of course is because the game is all about professions.  In your typical game you will adopt a profession and level it up slowly over time.  The benefits of the profession will be seen eventually… but slowly.  In Uncharted Waters Online the effects of your profession are seen immediately.  Your trade skills are those that level based on your activity.  I for example have the trade skill Livestock Trading.  This means every time I go to trade livestock I will be able to purchase more at a time.

Once you level up your trade skills so far it will give you access to a profession.  A profession will offer you a title and after leveling them so far you will gain access to more trade skills.  You can find a copy of the table for trade skills progression here.

After a while you will gain access to a crafting profession.  The crafting profession will allow you to produce products you can sell to market or sell amongst players.  My big money maker is to buy Pigs or Pork, transform Pigs into Pork, and then make the Pork into Ham or Pork Sausage depending on the market rates for both.  The trade box gives you the ability to chain make these and after every single you have the chance to make an extra 1-2 more of the good.  As you can see, this multiplies your product increasing your needed carrying capacity but also giving you insane profits.

Unfortunately with all of these nice things I have to say about this game I always have to give it a thumbs down to the general public.

The game unfortunately is a gem that will ever only appeal to a smaller crowd.  If you love sailing games or business simulators than you’ll love this game.  If you love playing a fluffy man rodent against some massive dragon than… probably not the game for you.

There is currently only a single North American server so if you do end up trying this game out add me, Troublmaker.  Don’t be confused with Troublemaker the leader of a very small uninfluential trading company.

The Death of the Grind RPG

When I was 8 years old I played this game called Dragon Warrior IV.  It was a lot like Dragon Warrior 1-3 in a lot of ways (most ways) but this game was far grindier.  Basically like most NES RPGs you move along a map with a single avatar (which represents a group of 4-5 champions).  One of the big differences in this game was that you wouldn’t run into enough enemies while moving to the next area to get enough levels to actually deal with the next level.  You essentially would just end up being 5-6 levels behind the enemy.  So what you’d do instead is tap left and right relentlessly until you engaged an enemy, and then you killed them.  You’d do this for hours on end.  After you get so high a level you could advance to the next zone, get some story line and do the exact same thing.  You’d get gear by grinding money and buying gear from a vendor in the town of each zone.

The whole game from start to finish was one giant grind.  It’s no wonder that my thumbs used to blister.

This sort of game design was very symptomatic of games from the 90s.  At some point in all of these games you would just have to do some single task over and over until you gained enough of something to continue on.

But that’s gone now.

People have a new standard in gaming, a fluidic transition from beginning to end with nonstop action.  In fact a common criticism of under developed MMOs is simply that someone gets to a point and that they have nothing to do.  Older MMOs had only expectations that you would grind your way up.  In the old MMO model quests were designed to give a little bit of story to each area and introduce you to the various mobs you can grind.

MMOs have always been leaps and bounds behind the remainder of the gaming industry.  When World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 released in 2003 so came with it Enter the Matrix, Devil May Cry 2, and Battlefield 1942.  These three games were phenomenal graphically while World of Warcraft… was not.  One other thing that these games had that WoW and EQ2 did not was a full experience.  For whatever reason gamers became willing to trade in a 400 hour grind a thon type fame like Dragon Warrior in exchange for a 30-hour full experience that Devil May Cry 2 was.

Of course a couple of years later people complained about lacking game content which inevitably brought on the Achievement System, a way for any game developer to add more things to do in the game without having to add more content.

MMOs did this same inevitable path.  At first our friends at Blizzard gave us a full leveling experience from start to finish.  Then they gave us a non-grind method of obtaining gold and gear.  And then they gave us a full raid dungeons in half the time that it might have taken them before.  And after all that… people were consuming game content faster and faster.  So just like other games Blizzard implemented an achievement system with over 1000 achievements…. that is… over 1000 things to do.

People loathe the grind and unfortunately without being able to put grind elements into games this has made the start up costs for a video game far higher and smaller game designers less room to move up.  The Old Republic for example has a $200M budget.  This makes it the single most expensive game ever created.  It’s budget is twice the size of movie The Titanic.  I will guarantee you that this 4 year project will have no elements of grind in it at all.

Compare this to a lot of the newer games that come out that release somewhat early.  The reason they release early is because their studios… ran out of money.  Basically if the game didn’t launch when it did they would be broke.  These games build up their franchise over time.  However it is something that people simply will not tolerate.    Unfortunately people want something to do now and will not wait a few months to get it.  This is largely in part to there being so many games out there that are offering updates.

It’s not even that there isn’t a market for people who enjoy these sort of grind games.  Koreans are notorious for their love of games where you just do a single activity over and over and over, as long as the one activity requires some sort of skill or thought.  Aion for example featured mobs that just never seemed to die and would relentless kiting in order to kill.  Not like those of nearly every other MMO that seem to just die in one or two shots.  To the Korean MMO developers this was not seen as a gap in content, this was the content.

This of course is kind of a little irony because people thought when an existing Korean title was translating to English with improved graphics that this simply meant they would get a ‘finished product.’  After launch people realized this was not the case.  The game despite having great mechanics and graphics had many leveling gaps that could only be filled through  profession grind, PvP grind, or mob grind.

The rejection of the grind MMO is just a simple sign that a grind RPG has no place in North America anymore.  As a people we have become too used to close-ended RPGs that tell us what to do and where to go instead of inventing our own stories and inventing our own adventures.  No game could ever facilitate the World PvP seen as Tarren Mill in World of Warcraft not because the circumstances do not exist but simply because those sorts of people do not exist.

A player who can grind an RPG out is someone who will do something redundantly without really asking why they’re doing it.  We’re in a sort of world that demands people ask why and cannot facilitate the person who will sit idley buy and continue that daily grind.

Rift Patch 1.2, a Flop

As per some last minute changes to the patch it feels as if this 1.2 patch is a flop.  Amongst many of the problems in this patch the biggest one is that the LFD tool… doesn’t work.  I was made aware of this while I was in the 10-19 channel.  A person indicated that he is in the tank, healing, and dps queue and has not had a pop yet.   He asked if there were four other players on the server in queue for normal IT.  Of course an abundance of people told him that they were in queue.  So said individual just put together a group and ran an Iron Tombs without needing to use the LFD tool.

On top of that another major overstep made by the developers shows their hatred of melee…. snare DR.  Snare, root and knockback all now share a mutual DR.  So I’ll just run you through my opening.  I bullrush my target (Snare #1).  Then I apply my snare (diminishes to 6 second duration).  After that the target is now full on immune to snare, root, or knockback.  That is… I have no way of catching up with this target.

This change effectively kills off the Warrior class in PvP and makes the class unplayable for anything other than tanking damage.

The diminishing return lock out lasts 24 seconds.  That means that there will be a full 18 seconds where you will not be able to attack people who are running from you… especially if they have a 10% speed talent.

Considering that I spent most of my time PvPing and that it was a fight to kill people before, I suspect it will be impossible now.  The easiest example of how this fails is the Tier-3 talents for Vindicator warrior.  This talent applies a 3-second snare on a target every time you attack someone from behind.  Once you get to your third attack you have already DRed the snare.

I’m actually considering cancelling my subscription on this game.  I’m that infuriated about this change.

But while I’m here I might as well explain what I’ve been trying.  It’s a specific build designed around Warrior Mana Draining.  Basically with my old build (Champion/Riftblade/Vindicator) I was unable to kill healers.  It seemed that even with the mortal strike debuff they could just heal through it…. so incoming warrior mana draining.  The playstyle is roughly the same except you no longer have ranged attacks outside of a ranged mana burn and purge.

So for this build you will be going Champion/Void Knight/Vindicator

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0ckgt.EhcdqRM0zkz.xf0qc.VVd

I’ve been using this one a lot more because with such a long DR on snares it’s not even worth trying to snare someone.

So macros:

Spam Macro

#show Reckless Strike
Cast Bloodthirst
Cast Inescapable Fury
Cast Bash
Cast Frenzied strike
cast Furious Rage
cast Airburst
cast Ragestorm
Cast Debilitating Strike
Cast Reckless Strike

Finishers Macro

#show titan's strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast Proper Timing
cast Deathblow
cast Titan's Strike
cast Bladefury
cast Devouring Blow
cast Punishing Blow

Outside of this you need to keybind Bullrush, Spell Sunder, Soul Pillage, Mark of Extermination, Disrupt, Thunderous Leap, Battlefield Intimidation, Guard, Break Free, and Unrestrained.  That’s a total of 12 keybinds for this build.

So yeah this’ll work out for you if you are at least Rank 3 and camp on people who use mana.  If you’re not on people using mana you’ll still do alright just less DPS and you won’t be burning mana (obviously).

This build also has a very high ramp up time on max DPS.  You need to gain 10 pacts  to max out DPS.  You’ll basically not be releasing these pacts as they’ll just act as a buff to your DPS.

I’ve done pretty well with this spec against healers.  I should note that you should ONLY use this build if you can clearly identify a healer on the other team.  This spec is also strong against all specs of Mages.  Just make sure you know who you are targetting with this thing.

The DC Universe Super Server

A lot of anger, confusion, and terror has struck the DCUO Community as SOE has announced the creation of the “super server.”  An attempt to sell this idea to the general public has sent people screaming about what it implies.

The announcement was made of the creation of a super server.  It was done in such a way to make it sound like the servers were merging.  Later they clarified that servers were not going to be merging and would maintain their separate identities.  Of course when they continue to explain what they’re trying to do it makes it sound more and more like a merger.

DC Universe has been in some problems with low server populations.  An obvious reason for low populated servers might be blamed on a full lost week of game time and the inevitable fall out from the PSN hacking that cost people thousands of dollars.  But even before this people on PvE servers were reporting that their servers were ‘dead.’  So this attempt at a super server is really to try and keep the people they have from running away from weak willed servers.

What the developers are talking about is what possible options are on the table, including:

(1) Cross-server World
(2) Cross-server quests
(3) Cross-server event quests
(4) Cross-server PvP
(5) Cross-server dungeons

At the moment they’re not saying they’ll be doing all of these simply that they’re all on the table being worked out.  They want to make it in such a way that PvE players will not be forced to do any world PvP in the world environment.  This means that this “super server” could be anything from simply cross-server PvP/dungeon queuing to a full on single server like Star Trek Online.

What this signals to us is that more of the game is instanced than we could have ever imagined.  Moving from one street to another felt seamless but in truth these were two different instances.

Another possibility up in the air is the possibility of Blizzard-style phasing technology separating PvE and PvP players.

Whatever it is we’ll have to see.  DCUO may be in it’s dying days right now, or might be preparing for an upsurge…. only time will tell.

Rift Patch Notes 1.2

Well Patch 1.2 is coming soon so I thought I’d review patch changes:

UI Adjustments (Source)

• Facebook Integration – Post updates, screenshots, or Achievements from Telara directly to your Facebook profile
• Looking for Group – Automatically form groups for dungeons, rifts, and group quests. Complete random expert dungeons for additional bonuses
• Wardrobe – Players can configure up to five outfit slots to choose between
• New Ascended Powers – Omen Sight (Guardian) and Quantum Sight (Defiant) reveal openings to Slivers and even more in the future
• Additional Role – Purchase a 5th role for more class flexibility
• Many UI Improvements – Auction House, Crafting, and Artifacts all receive refinements
• Gilded Prophecy Sliver – A new type of 10-player instance. Fight against Golden Maw cultists from another reality to prevent them from gaining relics of vast power
• New Dynamic Content – Two new raid rifts, one new expert group rift, rifts specifically designed around rewarding crafters, and easier access to expert group rifts
• Planar Chill – Control strategic locations in Iron Pine Peak against planar onslaught
• Scourge of the Sands – Defend precious resources as they are moved to critical locations in Shimmersand Desert, then launch a counter attack
• An Eye for an Eye- Guardians and Defiants summon their respective champions in order to defeat the Colossi

Cleric (Source)

Inquisitor

• Life and Death Concord is just too random. When it procs a lot, you’re having a blast! When it hardly procs at all, you want to strangle me. We really want to make this more reliable so their DPS isn’t so variable.
• The Armor spells don’t offer much of a choice. You’ve got “the damage and defense one”, “the different damage and defense one”, and “the mostly useless one”. We’re going to change that into “the defensive one”, “the offensive one”, and “the big stick”.

Sentinel

• Healing Breath isn’t where we’d like it to be for those heavily specced into Sentinel.We’d like to fix this, but only for those with a heavy investment into Sentinel.

Purifier

• Cooldown on Ward of the Ancestors lowered, adding a blocker to prevent casting on the same person for the next 30 seconds.

Mage (Source)

Pyromancer

• Fix the Pyromancer’s Combust so the effects now stack correctly
• Fix  the Elementalist’s Charged which wasn’t affecting the top ranks of Lighting Strike
• Several issues with weaker buffs overwriting stronger ones have been resolved.
• Reductions made to Ground of Strength as it was making Pyromancer the PvP tree for mages.
• Follow up attacks after Controlled Opportunity no longer can critical strike

Rogue (Source)

Assasin

• Overall DPS be improved.
• Initial burst be increased.
• Stealth bugs fixed.

Bladedancer

• Core abilities increased in damage.

Marksman

• DPS will no longer rely on long cooldowns.

Warrior (Source)

Void Knight

• Giving them a new self buff that reduces the damage they take from non-physical melee attacks.
• A revision of the Pacts system in which we are ending the practice of using a full Pact dump for each ability. The goal is to make them easier to use, easier to understand, and more balanced.
• Fixing Fusion of Flesh to be more useful. This change will be independent to the bug currently affecting Rank 5.

Warlord

• Giving him a new high level ability that acts as Sergeant’s Order but as an AOE, allowing him to pull in multiple enemies.
• Taking a look at his tanking ability and seeing where we can make tweaks to help his mitigation out.

Warfronts (Source)

 

Vendors and Gear

• Retuning PvP items to have more offensive punch.
• Updated & added a number of items to Rank 1 & 2 that will be on par with T1 dungeons.
• Updated & added a number of items in Rank 3 & 4 so that this set is on par with T2 dungeons.
• Reduced the current Rank requirement for Rank 5 weapons to Rank 4, and introduced all new Rank 6 weapons that are on par with Epics from Raid dungeons.
• All Rank Set pieces can now be tinted.

Crowd Control

• Increasing the window of time that Diminishing returns is effective, which should reduce the chances of being chain CC’d through an extended encounter.
• Adding a small immunity buff to Break Free in the PvP souls that way players are not immediately CC’d after using their abilities.

Warfront Notoriety

• Increased the notoriety rewards from warfronts and warfront related daily quests
• Updated the Notoriety rewards for Port Scion, with the goal of moving some of the better rewards to an earlier notoriety level so they are more in line with the new rank set progression

Dungeon Changes

Difficulty Change (Source)

• Reduced Health on non-boss encounters
• Caelia the Stormtouched will be modified to be more understandable
• Gronik’s power gain will be nerfed
• Rictus ground target ability will be nerfed a bit
• Gatekeeper Kaleida will have the range of some of the crystal abilities reduced and will ignore line of sight
• Scarn’s smouldering bones will stay on fire longer
• Ice Talon and the Falconer will have their health pools slightly reduced
• King’s Breach Manticores will not instantly use their special abilities
• Shadehorror Phantasm will no longer spawn minions on pets
• Ragnoth’s whips have reduced range, duration, and effectiveness
• Fae Lord Twyl will no longer have any ‘safe’ locations
• Sparkwing’s PBAE will have a reduced range. His chained bolt will now work properly on ranged targets.
• Konstantin’s cleave will no longer be 360 degrees. Players that are in melee range will get a damage bonus.
• Glubmuk’s poison bolt will no longer hit melee.
• Chillblains’ elementals will no longer prefer to spawn on the closest targets
• Queen Valnara’s ground effect she drops on her location will hurt less.
• Ouldare’s special abilities will share a cooldown.
• Luggodhan’s goo will no longer target the tank

Dungeon Finder