Eador: Warriors are Terrible

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

Since the current masters aren't openly evil, Nesturs decides to attack a small unclaimed land next for the pure purpose of testing the warrior hero Irthorn, who is so slow to achieve pretty much anything. Fortunately the only competition here is Oinor's own warrior Farien who is also very hesitant to go into direct combat, and instead focuses on killing quest givers (meaning Irthorn's quests autofail).

Top left: Irthorn attacking Farien's citadel.

Bottom Right: Farien afraid to move.

Despite the snail's pace, Irthorn does find a lead about one of the 7 keys "being on a land of the dead"  and saves a woman from being trapped in the body of a phoenix. He eventually reches Oinor's citadel and manages to trap Farien in a corner territory while he lays siege to the castle. It is a difficult fight against middling opponents, but Irthorn eventually claims victory.

Nesturs makes a note not to use any more warrior heroes in the future.

TESO: Forlorn Crags

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Having defeated Molag Bal, I venture next to the vast expanse known as Craglorn where a lot of my crafted goods have been being sent. A new threat has arrived in this zone: Aliens Celestials. Namely the Celestial Serpent, who managed to corrupt the Celestial Mage and Celestial Warrior. A band known as the Star Gazers, asks that I help them put these things back in the sky where they belong.

Easier said than done though as this zone is intended for group content, excluding me from at least 70% of the area. Still, I do manage to cleanse the Warrior's Apex stone, and assist a time traveling soldier to destroy an ancient emperor who uses terracotta warriors.

I also slam the local Iron Orcs, who have a penchant for feeding victims to their troll pets. After slaying their entire leadership structure I mess with the Scaled Court's research in making new beasties (Mantikora) and atronarchs (six armed air elemental)! Ultimately I also save the Celestial Thief from the Serpent's grasp, forcing the Serpent celestial to withdraw.

Ugly beasties.

Alas the actual final fight against it is blocked behind a "Trial" gate (requires team) so I doubt I'll ever get to see that. Worth noting the ATITD Pilgrimage idea is alive here - in the form of visiting six delves within two hours. Pretty cool, and still easier than the ATITD version! 

Having done most of the available content (I don't have the DLCs) I think it's time I take a well earned break, and thanks to one merc band in this region being called the Greycloaks, I have a good idea of where I'm headed back to.

Vindictus: Sewer Sniping

[This is part of my Vindictus tutorials.]

More tips today but these are more for a Kai/ranged type.

The sewers are both an excellent and a horrible place for a Kai. Apart from being tight quarters and home to some agile lizardmen assassins (who are perhaps the only trash melee mob that manage to get up and damage me in a combo), it features very few types of boss chambers. The first is little more than a slightly larger than average square room. This type sucks, and you will have to fight fairly against the usually spry (ratman kung fu dude) or cheating boss within (I'm looking at you Shadow Shaman Ingkara - who summons shadows of other bosses to help him)!

Fortunately the other type of boss room is much more favourable, and is connected by a few passages to a portion that looks like this:

The bosses in those chambers can be lured back here, and then by simply standing on a different level you can snipe them at your leisure. Only the lizard assassin boss I think has means to chase you up and down, but even then it isn't consistent, giving you ample time to displace and snipe him from
elsewhere.

There's also one boss, Warrior Chuilin, who has a cliff. You have to be a bit speedy to make sure he is downstairs while you are up, but if you stand at this spot his AI breaks and again you can snipe the otherwise dangerous boss to death.

Owned.

Lastly, the raid boss Thor - a giant electric frog, is pretty easy for a Kai player in a group. Stay away from the frog. Stay out of the water. Fire at will. Easy peasy.

MMOs: Winning Conditions

[Part of my MMO Design Folder]

You are the chosen one. The hero who saved the day. Just like everyone else.

That's the feeling I and many others get when MMO's offer a main storyline quest. In Guildwars 2 I'm the commander of the Pact, second only to a lettuce man (the true hero of the story), and I've helped slay an elder dragon. Any character that completes that main quest can say the previous line and it would be true, but by having so many of them existing in the same world at the same time really kills any importance or bearing it may have had. Indeed, there are as many winning conditions as there are people playing so why force everyone into one mold?

Unique experiences are always the best ones which is why human controlled game masters add so much to virtual worlds for me. However since they seem to be being phased out of the online scene I think that instead (or aside) from the main "plot" each character should be given their own quest, their own reason for existing - and who better to decide what that is than the player playing it. Part of the character creation would be including a goal. A few examples might be:

-Finish the main story (if there is one)
-Find the secret doo hickey in the secret dungeon that constantly changes position and ONLY YOU can find
-Get all the (non cash shop, non tradeable) hats. Possibly one from that secret dungeon above
-Kill x number of specific targets (players) randomly chosen by the game (must be people who have been active lately)
-Slay the boss of whatever dungeon on a particular difficulty
-Forge the uber sword of uberness
-Assist x number of other players achieve their final personal goal

However, they also need to choose a fail condition. The two simplest that come to mind are finish within x number of months or die x number of times. Now the catch is if you fail OR succeed, that character is then retired (complete with cutscene). Maybe you can still log in as them, but you will be limited to being in the safe zones only for RP and show-off purposes or some other limitation. If you wish to keep playing, you will need to create a new character who will have their own overarching goal. Should their predecessor(s) have been successful maybe they start off with a cumulative bonus (like the uber sword) based on how difficult the previous goal was and how harsh the fail condition was. Indeed, not all stories will have happy endings.

Guess how Xena ends.

It's still a hamster wheel. All I've done is add some stops and removed some over population (of players) in the higher end zones. I'm guessing if any game attempts this they'd still need an option just to have a "standard" character though for those who want to opt out - of course those characters cannot gain benefits from any previous ones. What do you think? Would you play a game with this setup or does having a visible finish line break the whole concept of an MMO?

UO Class: Warrior

Tips for those who like going toe to toe with the foe - heavy metal boots are definitely a requirement!To find other classes available please visit the binding post!


Being a Tank:
Just like modern tanks you will need a LOT of armor to take the hits. A shield and parry skill also go a long way in increasing your survivability rate. Once you have it though make sure you keep it in good shape! Your AR rating decreases with each dent, slowly but surely letting in more and more damage. If your shard has it, also look into Mego Invuln potions as that can boost your AR for a number of minutes.

Ultra-Resistor:
Magic resist is important for everyone as it can lower the damage from hostile magics and (depending on shard) increase all of your base defences passively. For someone that needs to run up right beside spell casters this is even more so as you will take 1 or 2 extra spells on your assault, a few more in the melee, and another set if you have to withdraw. It still is usually safer to lure the casters to you, using hard cover. Alternatively wait till they snooker themselves by teleporting to you! Foolish mages. Ofcourse, dragons and greater demons seem to have a penchant for doing this too!

Just Jousting:
If you are using a fast weapon (like a katana, which I recommend) you can often swing, hit an enemy and move away before they have the chance to hit you back. This is the best method for taking down single slow hitting enemies, like a bardiche wielding brigand for example. You must actively have your enemy targetted for it to work though, which means it is harder (not impossible) to pull of against an enemy group. Being mounted helps with both attack speed (less swing frames) and mobility.

Divide and Conquer:
While you are tough you are not invincible, enough of anything will eventually kill you. Even if it is a million cats. Whatever it is, they are guaranteed to kill you faster if they can swarm you and unlike an archer, you have no tactical advantage in getting swarmed by anything. Fortunately it is quite easy to avoid this. First, just keep moving. If you run far enough, the bad guys will form a nice line for you to deal with. If they start piling up, just move again. Injured enemies tend to walk slower, and dying ones tend to crawl away. Once they are all moving at different speeds it is easy to pick them off as you see fit. Alternatively find a narrow alley or doorway and stand just on the otherside. 90% of the time a bad guy will stand in the door to duel you, blocking his other 50 buddies from helping. I seriously did this to an orc army attacking Minoc once. The idiots who stayed outside got swarmed and died. I was pinned down, but it wasn't too bad since I only had to fight them one / two at a time (sometimes one would step in) and killed the bulk of their army with patience.

Mines of Titan Medic:
A strategy my brother developed from playing that old game "Mines of Titan". If you get hit while applying bandages it causes your heal to be less effective. Well if you get hit while someone else is applying a bandage, it doesn't matter. This means, you can have your archer/mage buddy behind you bandaging you and shooting or your other warrior buddy standing beside you while you bandage each other and fight off the enemies. Yes I also do not know how that is physically possible but on most shards, it is. :P

Unless you are Shiva - in which case I think you'd have enough hands. :P