Tuesday 23 October 2012

Guild Wars 2: Never say never

So not long after posting here that I would not be playing GW2 until they added a dungeon finder I find myself playing it. I bought it simply because a friend bought it and I wanted to join him. In this case friendship is more important to me than principle.

So what do I think?

It's a great game to start off with. All the recent games of this style have had fantastic initial experiences - Rift, SWTOR and so on plus GW2 are miles more interesting and engaging than games we played 10 or 20 years ago.

Whether it will have tenacity is open to question. I do really feel that a lack of a LFD tool hurts it. Having played I can see that moving to the dungeon is a non-issue, they have teleporters at them. We'll see.

The WvWvW currently seems broken but I'm sure that will improve when they stop allowing migration to the winning servers.

PvP I haven't tried yet but I'm sure it will be really well done. It was superb in GW1.

The game is very alt friendly with interesting and complex build trees. For players like me who enjoy searching for powerful combinations there's a lot to wrap our heads around and theorycraft with. Plus the exploration driven maps are possibly more fun to alt on than quest driven maps are.

I suspect that the game will need to develop a stronger end game pve experience to really keep a good population though. I don't think farming noobs in battlegrounds is a sustainable end game and it also doesn't seem like there's enough PvE content to accommodate a genuine pve end game.

For all that there's certainly enough to occupy me for months and I'll have this game on my desktop for years. I've been having a blast so far with my Warrior and am looking forward to leveling all of the character classes eventually.

Friday 19 October 2012

Eve: Gallente Ice Interdiction redux

http://poeticstanziel.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/as-usual-goonswarm-proves-us-wrong.html

Speculators: consider buying Oxygen Isotopes fast. Failing that the other isotopes rose dramatically last time too.

Moros/Thanny pilots: grab 6 month's supply fast.

High sec afk miners: leave Gallente space.

Yup, folks it's that time again. You can't keep a Goon down.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Eve: The Retribution Moa

One of the most fun ships to fly in Eve is a tackle frigate. This is a small fast ship whose job is to rush to an opposing ship and hold them for a while, then usually die in a blaze of fire but hopefully having held the big expensive ship still for long enough that your back-up has got him nailed to the wall.

Let's review that design:
small - ho hum
fast - Like +1
rush and hold - Like +2
die in a blaze of fire - Unlike -1
your mates kill him - ho hum +0.5 I guess.

Now let's improve that design:

One of the most fun ships to fly in Eve will be a tackle Moa. This is a medium size fast ship whose job is to rush to an opposing ship and hold them for a while, making them think you're about to die in a blaze of fire but holding the big expensive ship still for long enough that your back-up arrives to help you finish him off.

That's better!



Here's the fit:

[Moa, Mother of All Merlins]
Reactor Control Unit II
Reactor Control Unit II
Co-Processor II
Damage Control II

Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400*

Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Medium Diminishing Power System Drain I
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I

3 Warrior SW-300 webbing drones


And here's the gameplan:

Chase them, tackle them, scram them, web them, nos them, neut them and shoot them full of holes. Allow them to shoot out your shields then pop the blue pills one at a time for "miracle" healing when they're sure they've got you losing. Of course if you take more damage you may wish to start shield boosting sooner or even overheat it but the default option is faking that you're losing the fight.

This baby will move 1513 m/s before overheat, has 3 drones which slow them by 5% each even before you catch up, additionally slows them 60%, turns their MWD off, stops them warping off, neuts them, transfers their cap to you if they have more cap than you, and does 227 damage per second with its guns. It tanks 528 damage per second while the cap charges in the ASB last. Should work well in solo, small gang or big fleet pvp. Can function very well in gate camps, point blank brawls and chasing down snipers or protecting sniper gangs of your own.


It's just a bigger badder Merlin!


* Note: the ASB is expected to be nerfed in Retribution. It's likely it will be changed so that only one can be used on a ship (just like Damage Control Units). If that is what happens this fit will be viable after that nerf.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Eve: The Retribution Heron

The Heron is an odd looking Caldari frigate whose main purpose is not as a ship of war, but as a ship of exploration and discovery.






Its getting a fairly major buff in the Winter patch and I'm very much looking forward to using the new versions.

Heron:
Frigate skill bonuses:
7.5% increase to scan strength of probes
5% bonus to Codebreaker, Analyzer and Salvager cycle time

Slot layout: 3 H (+1), 5 M (+2), 2 L (+1), 2 turrets (+1), 2 launchers
Fittings: 24 PWG (+4), 260 CPU (+10)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 400(+126) / 200(-58) / 200(-26)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 245 (+88.75)/ 135s (+17.8s)/ 1.814 (+0.48)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 340 (+20) / 3.57 (+0.04) / 1150000 / 3.84s (+0.04s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 15(+10) / 35(+25)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 37.5km / 430 / 4
Sensor strength: 12 Gravimetric
Signature radius: 40 (-8)
Cargo capacity: 400 (+243.75)

Its old bonuses were a useless kinetic missile damage bonus, 5% probe scan strength per skill level and a reduction in survey probe flight time.

CCP Fozzie states:

We hope to see them being used for solo highsec exploration for newer players, or to support the combat ships in an exploration group in wormholes or lawless space. They're getting bonuses to hacking, archeology and salvaging so you can use them to both probe and run mini-profession sites.
Their combat ability has also been directed at drones instead of weak weapon bonuses. We've designed them to be able to kill the rats in highsec mini-profession sites, although a combat frig will clear them faster. The ship isn't directly intended for a pvp role, so the ehp remains quite low and we skewed the fittings towards CPU and away from PG. Best way to kill the rats with this ship is fit a light active tank, drop drones and kite.

We wanted these ships to feel like an expedition vessel for newer players, something that can run sites independently and with enough cargo, no ammo use and extra dronespace to take long journeys away from their home base (even if they stay in highsec)


For me, I don't need a highsec explorer but I'm very interested in using this ship in mini-profession sites.  For that role, it's been double buffed - not only does it now have a relevant ship bonus but it also has gained an extra mid slot for another Codebreaker or Analyzer module.

So for sites I'm planning on two Herons, one for Mag sites (archaeology sites requiring Analyzer modules) and one for Radar sites (hacking sites requiring Codebreaker modules)

Heron, Archaeologist

Salvager II
Salvager II
Salvager II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Analyzer II
Analyzer II
Analyzer II
Analyzer II

Damage Control II
50mm Reinforced Steel Plates II

Small Salvage Tackle I
Small Salvage Tackle I
Small Salvage Tackle I

CPU 234 Power grid 24

Tech 1 modules are perfectably acceptable substitutes for Tech 2 modules. I'd have liked to have used an Archaeology rig but they don't seem to exist. The low slot modules are for the rare occasions when a can will pop frigates which instantly aggro and scram. Warp Core Stabs are an alternative for the low slots. However the job of this frigate is to get in quick and grab the loot so slower locking and lower targeting range (the penalties from using Warp Core Stabs) would impede this. Just goes to show "Stabs" isn't the right solution for every problem!

Here's the radar site version of this ship:


Heron, Hacker

Salvager II
Salvager II
Salvager II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Codebreaker II
Codebreaker II
Codebreaker II
Codebreaker II

Damage Control II
50mm Reinforced Steel Plates II

Small Memetic Algorithm Bank I
Small Salvage Tackle I
Small Salvage Tackle I

CPU 234 Power grid 24


The ship is also useful in other roles. It's clearly meant as an exploration ship for scanning sites down so let's look at how well it does that:

Scan strength bonuses from ship and fit =
Ship bonus 37.5%
2 Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade Is (note that despite having 3 rig slots we can only fit two of these rigs because they use 200 calibration each) 20%

Compared to a cov ops with a ship bonus of 50% it's worse, however it's just about as good if your cov ops skill is only 4 and better if your cov ops skill is lower. The Tech 2 ship also lacks the mini-site bonuses. The cov ops can warp cloaked which makes it much safer when used outside high sec.

Heron, Explorer

Expanded Probe Launcher II, Sisters Core Scanner Probe (8)
Improved Cloaking Device II

Survey Scanner II

'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I

Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

7 Hornet EC-300 drones


Cargo: Sisters Deep Space Scanner Probe I (1), Sisters Combat Scanner Probe I (8), optionally moon survey probes.

I made some interesting decisions here so let's talk about them. Expanded Probe Launchers allow you to fire combat scanner probes, deep space scanner probes and moon scanning probes. For a real explorer ship you need those options especially the DSPs because you can gain a lot of information very fast from a DSP scan as detailed here. Combat scanners are great if you're even remotely interested in pvp because sometimes you'll just happen across targets of opportunity. I didn't take the Sisters launcher because the ship is too cheap to justify it. Save those for cov ops.

I picked the tech 2 cloak over the basic one even though it hoses the rest of the fit for cpu. This is because the main danger to this ship is accidentally stumbling into a well-organised gate camp. In that situation your cloak is your main defence. Angle the camera either down or up, double click space activate the cloak. You'll drift out of their camp unless you get unlucky and get bumped. Make sure you have an overview that shows everything when you're doing this so you don't pilot your ship into a can and decloak yourself.

Warp stabs give a second defensive option and the drawbacks are inconsequential as this ship almost never target locks anything. I really had nothing I could fit in the mids now, having used up all the CPU so I stuck an asteroid scanner on which might occasionally be useful in grav sites.

The ECM drones are intended to be throw-away. If tackled put some on whoever's got you scrammed and continue to try to warp off. It's another chance to survive.

As before, Tech 1 versions of the modules are fine and this is a ship that is very friendly to beginner explorers or to pilots with priorities other than skilling up for cov ops ships.

The final fit I'll present here is intended for an unusual but very lucrative role: battlefield scavenger. The idea here is that you go to where there's recently been a big fight and salvage the wrecks. It's extremely dangerous doing this as where there are pvp fights there are pvp ships and most would love to blow you up. However salvaging a field of T2 wrecks could earn you hundreds of millions of isk.


Heron, Thief

Salvager II
Salvager II
Improved Cloaking Device II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Small Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 25s
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Cap Recharger II

'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I

Small Salvage Tackle I
Small Salvage Tackle I
Small Salvage Tackle I

7 Hornet EC-300 drones (Alternatively leave the drone bay empty and just steal some when you get to a battlefield, there's always abandoned drones about).


CPU 240 Grid 23

Designed to sneak around battles and then when the coast seems clear scoop the loot. In case you get caught it has warp stabs, sacrificing a lot of targeting capability for safety and enough shield tank to survive an interceptor long enough to get into warp. To use this you need offgrid perches at the likely fighting sites - stargates, stations, possibly POSes (although salvaging outside a hostile POS is only viable if the attackers have incapped the defences). Sit just offgrid cloaked checking the progress of the battle on D scan with your D scan range very close. When there are no ships on D scan, just wrecks, it's time to steal. Keep your D scan open as you salvage for advance warning that someone's coming back. You can make perches during fights, even off-grid perches as the ship does over 100 m/s even cloaked.Uncloaked you make perches very fast as you're a microwarp drive frigate.

Monday 15 October 2012

Guild Wars 2: why I won't be buying it for now

I've had a recurrent experience in several of my last dungeon-based MMOs. I join, start playing, enjoy the starting area then find that the combination of solo questing and organising dungeon groups manually isn't fun.

With Guild Wars 2 I decided to reverse my usual order of : 1) buy it, 2) complain there's no dungeon finder. This time I'm herein 1) complaining there's no dungeon finder. 2) buy it may occur if 1) is resolved.

Having experienced the same arguments back and forth in Rift, SWTOR, and The Secret World I won't go out of my way to make my case - I don't like to commute. I don't like it much in real life and certainly don't want to do it in a game. I also accept that some players feel passionately opposed to them and that currently those people's influence is in the ascendant. All I can do is vote with my wallet.

Forum poster FredtheBeard (magnificent name, sir) started a discussion on the GW2 boards and the ANet staff (who seem keen as mustard) were quick to respond.

Robert Houda in several replies stated:

there are currently no plans to implement a dungeon finder.
If you are having trouble finding groups for dungeons, you can use our LFG system. Open up your contacts menu in-game, and there should be an option in there for grouping. That way it’s not just people standing out in front of dungeons shouting LFG until someone invites them. This system does not stretch across servers, or to other maps.

The main problem I see with our LFG system is that it is tucked away inside your contact menu (which to me is incredibly weird, but I’m a content designer, not a UI designer.. so I’m sure there is some reason for it being hidden in there), which means not everyone is using it, since not everyone knows about it.

Correct. You would have to leave the dungeon to LFG back in the open-world map. The instance remains open for (I believe) 15 minutes with nobody inside of it. So just make sure you pop back in once in a while to refresh the counter while you’re looking to fill your group.

/facepalm. Not only no dungeon finder but the vestigial social system is practically invisible and requires you to exploit to get it to work if someone leaves your group halfway through. And "should be"! Really? You designed this game and you never used this feature? Come on, dude!

You know, there was a MMO once which didn't have in-game chat. Asheron's Call 2. It died a horrible death.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Eve: the Retribution Scythe

Looking ahead to the new expansion I've been thinking about what to fly. And the ship I'm most keen to try is the revamped Scythe.

The Scythe is one of the forgotten ships of Eve. With bonuses to mining and tracking links it has been badly synergised, useful only really for alts newbies or bait.

In winter it becomes a cheap version of the Scimitar, currently one of the most popular ships in Eve.

Here's my Scythe fit:

[Scythe, Healer]
Damage Control II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II

Medium Shield Extender II
Medium Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
10MN Afterburner II

Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Salvager II

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

4 Medium Armour Maintenance Bot IIs 
Light Armour Maintenance Bot II

CPU 380/415
Grid 185.6/330

That's a comfortable fit. It's possible that with very good skills you could use a Large Shield Extender II or Large F-S9 Regolith instead of a Medium for even more effective hit points. You might need to change one of the rigs or low slots to fit that.

So what does this fit do:

1) Tank. It's an axiom that "healers" are the tanks in pvp. People who want to kill the other team always go for the healers first. In fact it would be better to take the Shield Transporters off and leave the tank than take the tank off and leave the Shield Transporters. Your role in a fight might often be to buy your side 30 seconds at the start of a fight then blow up.

2) Heal. 2 Medium S95as with the new ship bonuses will put out:
672 repaired shield hit points every 5 seconds out to 66 km for 111 cap per activation. With energy management V the new cruisers will have 1562.5 cap, enough to run both transporters for 14 cycles (70 seconds) before considering cap recharge. It recharges cap superfast.

4 Medium Armour Drone IIs and a small heal 315 armour per 5 second cycle with Repair Drone Operation V and the new ship bonus. You could swap these for shield drones if everyone you fly with shield tanks.

3) Loot. A roomy 475 m3 cargo bay and a Salvager II let you get rich while pvping. Once your shield transporters and drones are on the right ships you can probably get away with scooping loot while everyone else is shooting each other!

Friday 5 October 2012

Evemeet, Veto corp, London 29th September

I went to the second Eve meeting I've been too and I enjoyed myself. It's rather nice to be in a pub full of Eve players, you can just start chatting to anyone.

I also met someone from my new corp and it was very nice chatting to him and plotting dark schemes in murky corners. Props to Marcko.

The Eve announcements were a little underwhelming. The problem with both London pubmeets I've gone to is that people start drinking early (they started at 11am on Saturday) so that by the time the people from CCP are trying to give what is effectively a short lecture, they need to project over loud drunk people. I really hope the penny drops that they need to do the announcements at the start then kick back and have a few beers rather than letting people get drunk first.

As for the meat of the announcements it was somewhat underwhelming to a null sec player. The ship rebalancing has already been explained on the Features & Ideas forum where the players are interacting with the devs to iron out the ship balance. Nothing was said that was news to anyone reading the forums.

What was news was the Crimewatch changes but a pub is a bad format to explain things about timers and flagging because it's so abstract. It wasn't clear for example that the Winter will see the end of can flipping (in its present form), of neutral remote repping and of ejecting from Tengus when you lose a fight. All sound fixes to borderline exploits.

Also good to hear of a much clearer flagging mechanic: yellow flag = you can shoot it, red flag = you can shoot it, Concord will shoot it. I've always vaguely wondered about the occasional red pod that goes past me in High Sec but I've never really wanted to risk losing a ship checking if they're shootable. Now it's a lot clearer.

I also met Seismic Stan of the Freebooted blog and had a good long chat with him. Hopefully he'll stop by and stay with us for a while in nullsec in his quest to try everything in Eve.