Topics

91

... and all the other things floating around out there / VKMR: Blade & Soul (release 19. Jan)

« on: July 04, 2012, 09:17:27 am »

Vibe ere to bring you another azn mmorpg!

Blade & Soul is a fantasy martial-arts massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in development by Korean game developer NCsoft and its Team Bloodlust division.
I'm a big fan of MMORPGs that don't have the usual WoW-like combat system - I usually tried to avoid azn mmos for many reasons, but this one really caught my attention. One could say it's like an improved version of TERA (another azn action MMORPG already released in EU/NA).

The game is not yet released in Korea (Open Beta currently). No NA/EU date yet.

Blade & Soul will contain eight playable classes, but only six of those eight have been revealed. Team Bloodlust has revealed the Assassin, Blade Master, Destroyer, Force Master, Summoner, and the Kung-Fu Master to us already. The remaining two have not been announced yet.

It also has different races but they are all human-like.

Some videos of it (all gameplay):
Gliding, flying
Class and combat details (cool video, showcase of each class and it's skills)
PvP system (explains how PvP works in this game)
Some mass faction PvP
More PvP (kung fu master vs force master)
Short PvP vid from Drakedog (old skool WoW players will know him)
Training system & stats
Faction & race background


Anyway I tested the game a bit (magic). It feels amazing. It plays, looks and feels much better than TERA for me. Graphics are impressive, the landscape looks good, the character attack animations are downright awesome.

The sprint/gliding system is fun to travel/mess around with.

Combat is like TERA - actiony, no target but feels faster overall. The stuff that's better than TERAs combat system is more direct interaction with players/mobs (you can grab  them and shit), you can move/run/jump while you attack, even with channeled skills (TERA locks you in place when you're doing combos), attacks have range so if you step out of range your and enemies attacks will miss so you can use this like a dodge/evade. Left click is for primary combo attack then special keys for special attacks. I tried the Blademaster class and it also had a block skill, which lasts for 2 sec but locks you in place - I think every other class has some similar skill too.

I didn't progress much but it didn't feel very grindy to me (mind you this is the Korean version still!).
I'll post more about it when I go further and test more classes.

Anyway, was really fun playing it and everyone who isn't too bothered by the AZN look should keep an eye out on this one.

Screen of my char in starter area (the pic is lower quality than how it looks in game):

(click to show/hide)

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We are playing on server HAO DISTRICT

92

General Discussion / Forum Titles

« on: June 19, 2012, 08:20:11 am »

<-

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93

Suggestions Corner / New game modes

« on: June 13, 2012, 04:02:05 pm »

Basic idea comes from other games, but tailored to cRPG.

Domination

A domination type gamemode on a large map. The idea is to have 5 control points that both teams fight over to control them. If there's no enemy around the control point, then you start taking it over, same as dropping the flag in siege gamemode.

Every control point gives you a x1 multiplier every minute, which means if you control all 5 points, you basically get x5 multi. The x1 multi timer would be control point based, meaning that once the point is taken, it takes 1 minute for that specific point to give you 1000xp/50gold (gen 1). (or could also be a global minute timer, at which point all the flags you control at that time give you xp/gold)
The first point controlled does not give xp and gold, because you start with x1 already. When you take control of the second point, the multi goes to x2 and so on.
Each team starts the round with 0 points controlled. The game would then accumulate points to each team for point controled per minute. Once a team reaches a certain point limit, they win. This should also prevent one team being on x1 for too long.

When you die, you would be given an option to respawn at one of the points you control or at your team's initial spawn point.

Why a large map? I imagine a domination map to have one control point in the middle of a small village, one in a flat open field, one inside a small keep (narrow corridors and such), one in ruins, one on a hill... - this should be enjoyable for all the "classes" of cRPG, ranged, cav, melee, archers, whatever.
Domination would be most fun ofcourse on a high player limit and a single round could last from 10-30 minutes (depending on how good one team is).


Weapon Master

This idea is from Battlefield3's "Gun Master". This mode is only possible if you guys can make the system change gear/stats on the fly, while the player is in-game. Your build/gear setup in this mode does not matter. The idea is that you start with a good weapon and good armor and every two kills you get, your armor/weapon changes to something worse - the character build would also change appropriately to fit the weapon you spawn with. Winner is the one who reaches the last stage/level and gets two kills with it.

For example:
Everyone would start in tincan armor and flamberge (and a 2h balanced build). When you get 2 kills with this setup, it immediately changes to let's say Rus Scale Armor and Great Long Axe (and a pole build). After 2 kills, it changes to something like shield+mid tier 1h and mid tier armor then after 2 kills to an archer setup/build. This is all subject to change ofcourse. The last stages would be something like low armor + weak 1h (with 1h no shield build), low armor + throwing (with throwing only build) and the last one could be 1h + no armor + stones in melee. The one who gets two kills with the last setup first wins the game.

This game mode does not have teams, it's FFA. Point is that it gets harder and harder to get kills.

94

Guild Wars / Profession feedback

« on: June 11, 2012, 12:38:19 pm »

A thread to share your opinions about different professions, to give a general overview on the classes, their gameplay, their pros and cons.

Most of my testing were done with low levels in sPvP (I did not dive into traits).


Guardian
Very good support and fantastic utility skills but that's about it. The damage is subpar compared to other classes, it's just really low even with 2 hander options. There is no viable ranged option, the scepter is pretty much the only ranged weapon and it is quite bad.
Survivability is quite low for a heavy armor profession. Elite skills are also nothing special.
I was pretty disappointed with the Guardian to be honest. I guess it's perfectly suited for those who like to play pure support (or even a healer), but that's about it. One thing I also noticed is that in sPvP I had about 15k HP on my Guardian which is incredibly low if you compare to Thief (17k), Hunter (22k) and Warrior (24k).

Ranger
Good ranged AND melee damage. Didn't feel like it had that much utility, but the damage was pretty fucking awesome. Mostly done Longbow/Greatsword - I can see how amazing Longbow can be for WvW sieges with its 1500 (!) range attacks (afaik the longest attack range of any profession). Greatsword is more than viable for melee, has a gap closer and a stun if you're behind the target. The pet is ok too, adds a nice dps to it and the bear can tank quite well.
Imo great for both PvP (specially WvW) and PvE. I can see this profession as the king of sieges (my old friendcher).
Not to mention that all the sPvP matches that I've done had atleast 5 rangers in the team.
As for personal opinion, it was less fun to play compared to Warrior or Thief.

Warrior
Great sustained melee damage, good survivability. 2h hammer has less damage but good utility and aoe, 2h sword is single damage with a nice aoe skill and a gap closer. The biggest 2h sword damage dealer locks you in place so it's not perfect for PvP. Mace + Shield have a butt of stuns and interrupts, I see this as the tanking weapon setup.
Still didn't feel like it had enough survivability as a heavy armor profession but atleast this class has some extra survivability skills (5 second immune skill, ..) and a nice health pool of 24,000.
For WvW it's not bad as well with the rifle option, which has most attacks at 1200 range and that is pretty sufficient for WvW sieges. The rifle isn't half bad damage too.

Thief
Good burst damage, medium survivability. It was fun to play. Thief damage is sufficient and you have a load of skills to save your ass and run away (stealth, teleporting bow shot, blind skills). Imo thief damage is more bursty than other classes since you don't have cooldown on abilities but instead you use a resource called Initiative. Once you waste all your initiative you're stuck with ability 1 auto attack until it recharges back up. I usually used this gap to run or kite.
Some melee skills felt clunky and didn't trigger right when pressed.
Cons are mostly bad AoE damage and not the best range. There's no good AoE skill that you can "spam" and it makes thieves more of a 1v1 class if you ask me. As for range you have a Shortbow that is mostly 900 range skills, so it's not the best for WvW but I guess good enough. The Shortbow teleport skill is fun tho

If I take all 4 in consideration, the most "effective" profession was the Warrior.

95

... and all the other things floating around out there / Machinarium

« on: May 31, 2012, 12:37:54 pm »

http://machinarium.net/demo/

It's a puzzle/adventure game with cool art. It's not free but you can play a demo. Not too long but was fun and challenging.

96

Suggestions Corner / Archer kiting

« on: May 22, 2012, 12:12:50 pm »

Now I don't mind being shot/killed by archers, what makes me rage however is the excessive kiting they do... From the last 20 archers I encountered about 15 of them ran and kited me/us for half of the map. I know it's stupid to chase them but hell.. i want to end the fuckers.

Not sure if it's possible to code this but here goes:

When an archer is holding a bow, his athletics are reduced to a third (kind of like in rageball with the ball carrier).
When an archer is holding his melee weapon or has his bow sheathed, his athletics are normal.
When an archer switches from bow to melee or sheaths his bow, his athletics are still reduced to a third for 3 seconds (could be lower or higher).
When he is switching back to his bow he already goes back to a third of his athletics.


This should prevent the run'n'gun, kiting type archers while still leaving them the option to tactically retreat with their team. Ofcourse now they would have to reposition themselves earlier and not wait for enemy melee to get in 2m range, shoot an arrow to their chest at point blank and then run away at lightning speed.

97

... and all the other things floating around out there / Towns

« on: May 18, 2012, 03:13:36 pm »

A game that draws from Dwarf Fortress and Majesty.

http://www.townsgame.com

Free demo, 10€ to prepurchase. In alpha. Looks fun.

98

Spam / Panjos has a gay son

« on: May 09, 2012, 02:38:42 pm »

George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in East Finchley, North London.[12][13] His father, Kyriacos Panayiotou, a Greek Cypriot restaurateur, moved to England in the 1950s and changed his name to Jack Panos...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Michael

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99

... and all the other things floating around out there / ArcheAge

« on: May 09, 2012, 10:45:32 am »

I'm getting more and more hyped about ArcheAge. It's currently running on CryEngine 3 so it's going to have great graphics and physics.
They call this game a sort of a new Ultima Online. It's a PvP/PvE MMORPG with what it seems a basic hotbar combat system, but with a few nice sandbox features (no definite classes, house/castle building, factions, zone control, farming, tree planting/chopping, ...).

Features
    Huge world map
    Dynamic environment
    Mass PvP (100+ people)
    Player housing
    Crafting & production
    Adjustable interface
    Mounts (e.g. horses)
    Naval warfare
    Persistent World

Thread with basic info about the game: http://archeagesource.com/topic/26-all-that-we-know-about-archeage/
Info on factions, castle building and naval warfare: http://archeage-online.com/post/1718109253

Footage from closed beta tests:

sanbox, world development, general ingame footage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=210MpzwbhGw&fmt=18 *very cool
massive siege - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahz76RM_V9g&fmt=18
ships, gliders, harpoons, physics, creativity - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVWaEDqY4uQ&feature=related
building a house - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEZPMb2bgH4&feature=related
random footage, apparently mobile fertilizers? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jSKn5LOFA1E


A set of videos of YOGScast testing out Archeage in Korean beta (english commentary), first part:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo05ANVoGvg&feature=relmfu (check the links in the right menu for next parts)

They do some house/boat building too, so it's quite interesting.

They also mention in one of the vids that if you murder/pk someone on zones where pk-ing is generally not allowed you can be taken to court (you get a cutscene) and get sentenced to jail and put into prison for half an hour. You can ofcourse escape from the prison by digging your way out with a spoon or bribing the guards, lol

Sailing through the sea sounds interesting too, you build your own boats, you can be a pirate, you encounter dangerous whirlpools, sharks or even a kraken.

Last one of the YOGScast shows footage of building a big ship and then some naval warfare : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HekMwOwPzfQ&list=PLF193916B5B916DBE&index=7&feature=plpp_video


It's interesting that Koreans actually developed the kind of an Ultima Online successor in 3D, I expected a western company to do this first since Koreans seem to be pleased with their boring grindy MMOs.

ARCHEAGE HAS LAUNCHED IN EU/NA. Link to guides:
http://forum.melee.org/and-all-the-other-things-floating-around-out-there/archeage/msg1062213/#msg1062213

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DayZ / Day Z mod for ARMA II

« on: May 08, 2012, 12:51:13 pm »

So, while browsing the internets I stumbled upon this interesting mod. It's getting a lot of heat these days, lots of new forum posts about it so I reckon it's quite new.

Here's some info:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=107825.0
Basically it's a multiplayer zombie survival mod with persistent chars/world.


Now I haven't tried this mod yet, neither do I own ARMA II. However I've seen a few people mention it on cRPG forums and I'm asking if it is any good or even worth buying Arma 2 for it.

101

Sell/Trade / T > Lordly Vaegir War Mask

« on: April 26, 2012, 07:31:24 am »

NEW TRADE THREAD HERE

102

General Off Topic / Top 10 Hack&Slash games

« on: April 24, 2012, 01:52:22 pm »

This is a good video if you're looking for games with similar combat to Mount&Blade

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n1Ma9LjaFU

Those ratings are a bit BS though, if you ask me.

103

General Off Topic / If PHP were British

« on: April 05, 2012, 03:38:03 pm »

http://www.addedbytes.com/blog/if-php-were-british/

104

General Off Topic / A logic puzzle

« on: March 28, 2012, 12:46:26 pm »

A group of people with assorted eye colors live on an island. They are all perfect logicians -- if a conclusion can be logically deduced, they will do it instantly. No one knows the color of their eyes. Every night at midnight, a ferry stops at the island. Any islanders who have figured out the color of their own eyes then leave the island, and the rest stay. Everyone can see everyone else at all times and keeps a count of the number of people they see with each eye color (excluding themselves), but they cannot otherwise communicate. Everyone on the island knows all the rules in this paragraph.

On this island there are 100 blue-eyed people, 100 brown-eyed people, and the Guru (she happens to have green eyes). So any given blue-eyed person can see 100 people with brown eyes and 99 people with blue eyes (and one with green), but that does not tell him his own eye color; as far as he knows the totals could be 101 brown and 99 blue. Or 100 brown, 99 blue, and he could have red eyes.

The Guru is allowed to speak once (let's say at noon), on one day in all their endless years on the island. Standing before the islanders, she says the following:

"I can see someone who has blue eyes."

Who leaves the island, and on what night?


There are no mirrors or reflecting surfaces, nothing dumb. It is not a trick question, and the answer is logical. It doesn't depend on tricky wording or anyone lying or guessing, and it doesn't involve people doing something silly like creating a sign language or doing genetics. The Guru is not making eye contact with anyone in particular; she's simply saying "I count at least one blue-eyed person on this island who isn't me."

And lastly, the answer is not "no one leaves."


(Those who know the answer shut yo trap)

105

Sell/Trade / Trading Masterwork Italian Sword

« on: March 28, 2012, 08:07:46 am »

Trading my Masterwork Italian Sword for:
- Masterwork War Spear
- Masterpiece Elite Cavalry Shield

I'm open to other trades as well, but they need to be good. Post or PM.