How not to make a game.
In this game you play the titular overweight and very dancy reaper Felix who has to go to places where time is frozen and then carefully stepping only on shadows, move things around to either make more shadow bridges (you can also alter where the sun is to help a little with that) and complete objectives: like killing people.
Or at least, you'd think killing people. This is clearly the Final Destination movie style of killing where you have strings of missions just doing stupid stuff (move ale from point A to point B, move decoration from point A to point B etc) before killing which is super annoying.
Also super annoying is Felix dancing. Its absolutely shit. Whoever decided that should literally go to hell. Yeah, its cute the first few times you see it, but when he wastes time DANCE/WALKING which is like 99% of the game? That's just not fun at all. Absolute failure of design there. Along with: if you can freeze time just make the whole area night? Idiotic and not recommended.
Showing posts with label Grim Reaper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grim Reaper. Show all posts
Sunday, 15 March 2026
Felix the Reaper
Saturday, 18 April 2020
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
It obviously isn't, and it's quite funny!
This skirmish based game pits two opposing colored rag dolls (red and blue) in a battle to the death with unit variety ranging from prehistoric to pirates and even the supernatural! Remember that time you sent Zeus to destroy a pair of vampires but some dynasty archers hit him with fireworks arrows that sent him flying off the map? It's that sort of game.
There's a fair number of skirmishes to enjoy and a few tough ones to solve as much like table top Warhammer, you only have a set amount of points to purchase units with. Sometimes you want a gazillion archers, other times a pair of ridiculously tough pirate queens will do. Outside initial placement, the only thing you can do is control some of your dudes in battle - which is rare. Often you will be a rifleman to force snipe units at the back as the AI is generally stupid. Move to closest, attack closest. Falling off ledges is common.
Not a very deep game, but a pretty fun one - and one I recommend. I give it out 3 Da Vinci tanks out of 5.
Insight: You can position units on trees and stuff, and on a few maps can exploit the silly AI into killing themselves off a cliff by controlling an oddly placed unit to prevent them from moving.
This skirmish based game pits two opposing colored rag dolls (red and blue) in a battle to the death with unit variety ranging from prehistoric to pirates and even the supernatural! Remember that time you sent Zeus to destroy a pair of vampires but some dynasty archers hit him with fireworks arrows that sent him flying off the map? It's that sort of game.
There's a fair number of skirmishes to enjoy and a few tough ones to solve as much like table top Warhammer, you only have a set amount of points to purchase units with. Sometimes you want a gazillion archers, other times a pair of ridiculously tough pirate queens will do. Outside initial placement, the only thing you can do is control some of your dudes in battle - which is rare. Often you will be a rifleman to force snipe units at the back as the AI is generally stupid. Move to closest, attack closest. Falling off ledges is common.
The reaper showcasing some lesser units.
Insight: You can position units on trees and stuff, and on a few maps can exploit the silly AI into killing themselves off a cliff by controlling an oddly placed unit to prevent them from moving.
Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Dragon's Dogma: Stage One - DEATH!
Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!
Having earned some fame I am allowed (to create) my own bodyguard - who I design as Rose the sorceress (because, wifey!). I also recruit a warrior type lady named Anise and after some quick training exercises with Ser Berne, the sergeant at the encampment, we head back to Cassardis to hand in and complete a handful of other newbie quests (like flower picking). Since it is night time when we arrive, we find a spirit lady named Olra at the docks who asks for our help. I say yes, and we are warped to Bitterblack Isle.
This turns out to be an "end game" area but I don't care. We push through the insanely strong greater goblins and run into Death himself, who we have no option but to run from. Rook is too slow and gets beheaded by the reaper's scythe before it vanishes into the shadows. Undaunted, we push on - often having to run past things like giant skeletons, skeleton warlocks, a cockatrice, and gargoyles, until we reach a deep chamber which is the home to a giant floating eye.
This beholder is far too tough so we backtrack out of there for the time being. Fortunately we now have some pretty cool gear, enough XP to reach level 17 and a rather large sum of gold in the bank. :)
Having earned some fame I am allowed (to create) my own bodyguard - who I design as Rose the sorceress (because, wifey!). I also recruit a warrior type lady named Anise and after some quick training exercises with Ser Berne, the sergeant at the encampment, we head back to Cassardis to hand in and complete a handful of other newbie quests (like flower picking). Since it is night time when we arrive, we find a spirit lady named Olra at the docks who asks for our help. I say yes, and we are warped to Bitterblack Isle.
That's not a big black curtain behind us...
This turns out to be an "end game" area but I don't care. We push through the insanely strong greater goblins and run into Death himself, who we have no option but to run from. Rook is too slow and gets beheaded by the reaper's scythe before it vanishes into the shadows. Undaunted, we push on - often having to run past things like giant skeletons, skeleton warlocks, a cockatrice, and gargoyles, until we reach a deep chamber which is the home to a giant floating eye.
This beholder is far too tough so we backtrack out of there for the time being. Fortunately we now have some pretty cool gear, enough XP to reach level 17 and a rather large sum of gold in the bank. :)
Friday, 2 January 2015
Vindictus: Reapers of the Twilight Desert
[This is part of my Vindictus tutorials.]
More tips today but these are more for a Kai/ranged type.
If you haven't felt the grind in this game so far, you are certainly going to feel it now with the amount of times you are going to be sent into this otherwise pretty place. If only it wasn't full of undead! For a solo Kai, all the reaper bosses (anything wearing a hood) are easy prey. They move slow, use attacks you've seen many times before, and shooting them in the face does a lot of damage.
I do have to give special mention to the ones that summon other spirits or hell gates which spawn more spirits. Kill the adds (or hell gates themselves) to make it easier. Also the one that summons hell gates has an over hand scythe chop followed by a 360 degree "magic laser". Evade the scythe then evade left as the laser nears you. You can dodge right too, but you'll need to dodge the laser twice that way.
The crab at the oasis is exactly the same one at the Ship Graveyard. This time you have a huge oasis to run around too, and since the crab gets confused if lured to the South end of it you can dance with it (walk forward, shoot, back off, repeat) or simply magnum it when it gets stuck until it dies.
The other guardian guys (apart from the rather stout and easy Judge Vakram) pose a harder challenge though, as they can all sprint into melee range quickly and have a range of combos to hack you up with. Fortunately they are all mostly skipable.
Unfortunately the worst of them, Commander Ikrium, is the subject of many quests including the main story. This guy can be annoying with his seemingly undodgable giant seeking ball and equally bad sword combos. Strafe backwards and around to avoid his trinity slash (it's like the pirate captain's one but bigger, faster and more painful), and dodge FORWARD to avoid his magic missile orb. He also puts sand mines that detonate after awhile - just get distance from them and dodge the blast as it comes. You'll have to use best judgement when it comes to the rest of his melee sword skills.
More tips today but these are more for a Kai/ranged type.
If you haven't felt the grind in this game so far, you are certainly going to feel it now with the amount of times you are going to be sent into this otherwise pretty place. If only it wasn't full of undead! For a solo Kai, all the reaper bosses (anything wearing a hood) are easy prey. They move slow, use attacks you've seen many times before, and shooting them in the face does a lot of damage.
I do have to give special mention to the ones that summon other spirits or hell gates which spawn more spirits. Kill the adds (or hell gates themselves) to make it easier. Also the one that summons hell gates has an over hand scythe chop followed by a 360 degree "magic laser". Evade the scythe then evade left as the laser nears you. You can dodge right too, but you'll need to dodge the laser twice that way.
I keep losing my shoes. :/
The crab at the oasis is exactly the same one at the Ship Graveyard. This time you have a huge oasis to run around too, and since the crab gets confused if lured to the South end of it you can dance with it (walk forward, shoot, back off, repeat) or simply magnum it when it gets stuck until it dies.
The circle marks the spot.
The other guardian guys (apart from the rather stout and easy Judge Vakram) pose a harder challenge though, as they can all sprint into melee range quickly and have a range of combos to hack you up with. Fortunately they are all mostly skipable.
Unfortunately the worst of them, Commander Ikrium, is the subject of many quests including the main story. This guy can be annoying with his seemingly undodgable giant seeking ball and equally bad sword combos. Strafe backwards and around to avoid his trinity slash (it's like the pirate captain's one but bigger, faster and more painful), and dodge FORWARD to avoid his magic missile orb. He also puts sand mines that detonate after awhile - just get distance from them and dodge the blast as it comes. You'll have to use best judgement when it comes to the rest of his melee sword skills.
Wednesday, 27 August 2014
Attack Force
[Post #28 of the Blaugust Challenge!]
I'm pretty sure I've spoken about this before but as I've not yet done a proper review of it, I didn't want any of you to miss my thoughts on this outstanding film. Outstandingly bad that is. The story is that a drug dealer who has their hands on addictive yet DNA altering drugs is creating murderous and crazy people for ... SCIENCE!? One test subject kills a bunch of soldiers and thus Steven Seagal gets involved to hunt them down. Just as well too because said drug dealer is about to release the DNA altering drug into the water supply! Oh noes!
I made it sound pretty decent huh? Unfortunately the extent of "DNA alteration" just relates to giving people funky eyes, and for an action film the main hero remains in a sitting position for around half the movie. Also, some of his usually soft southern drawl lines were dubbed over by someone with a grindy and angry voice who sounds nothing like Steven Seagal. This is because the original plot involved aliens but they got changed post production into druggies. Yeah, they're pretty similar... cough.
To top it off it felt like the director used ALL the footage he had for some shots. There are just so many that would have worked better if he cut some parts out. For example, there's a section where the military guys have a convoy on the move. We see car A enter the gate from a forward shot, then we see car A going through from a rear shot. Then forward shot of car B. Rear shot of car B. Again with car C. Then a long shot of the entire convoy slowly going down a road. There's literally five minutes of watching cars move at this point, with no voice overs.
I also suspect that towards the end there, even the director lost the plot as at least one pretty major plot point was forgotten and unresolved. It also makes it funnier. :P You will enjoy this more if you treat it as a comedy, but I should warn you properly by giving this film only half a bullet out of five.
Blaugust Bonus: Going straight for another of Belghast's writing prompts today - "Has there ever been a game encounter you were afraid of? For example I am spooked of tanking Garuda hard… has there ever been a fight or encounter you dreaded?". The grim reapers (aka walkers) of Wizardry Online quickly come to mind.
You can only encounter them when you are in the spirit world and thus cannot fight them so your only hope is to either sneak past behind their backs or sprint and zig zag like mad to a priest or revival fountain, often an interesting task since they enjoy patrolling narrow corridors. While they are quite slow when unalerted, they can easily boost faster than you and each time they catch you not only do they put you back at your corpse, meaning you have to try get past them again, but they also reduce your revival rate by 10%. Ten captures in a row and your character is instantly lost to permadeath. In the later dungeons there would be groups of these wandering together. Easiest solution to avoid them? Don't die. :P
I'm pretty sure I've spoken about this before but as I've not yet done a proper review of it, I didn't want any of you to miss my thoughts on this outstanding film. Outstandingly bad that is. The story is that a drug dealer who has their hands on addictive yet DNA altering drugs is creating murderous and crazy people for ... SCIENCE!? One test subject kills a bunch of soldiers and thus Steven Seagal gets involved to hunt them down. Just as well too because said drug dealer is about to release the DNA altering drug into the water supply! Oh noes!
I made it sound pretty decent huh? Unfortunately the extent of "DNA alteration" just relates to giving people funky eyes, and for an action film the main hero remains in a sitting position for around half the movie. Also, some of his usually soft southern drawl lines were dubbed over by someone with a grindy and angry voice who sounds nothing like Steven Seagal. This is because the original plot involved aliens but they got changed post production into druggies. Yeah, they're pretty similar... cough.
Standard procedure for all druggies I suppose.
To top it off it felt like the director used ALL the footage he had for some shots. There are just so many that would have worked better if he cut some parts out. For example, there's a section where the military guys have a convoy on the move. We see car A enter the gate from a forward shot, then we see car A going through from a rear shot. Then forward shot of car B. Rear shot of car B. Again with car C. Then a long shot of the entire convoy slowly going down a road. There's literally five minutes of watching cars move at this point, with no voice overs.
I also suspect that towards the end there, even the director lost the plot as at least one pretty major plot point was forgotten and unresolved. It also makes it funnier. :P You will enjoy this more if you treat it as a comedy, but I should warn you properly by giving this film only half a bullet out of five.
Blaugust Bonus: Going straight for another of Belghast's writing prompts today - "Has there ever been a game encounter you were afraid of? For example I am spooked of tanking Garuda hard… has there ever been a fight or encounter you dreaded?". The grim reapers (aka walkers) of Wizardry Online quickly come to mind.
You can only encounter them when you are in the spirit world and thus cannot fight them so your only hope is to either sneak past behind their backs or sprint and zig zag like mad to a priest or revival fountain, often an interesting task since they enjoy patrolling narrow corridors. While they are quite slow when unalerted, they can easily boost faster than you and each time they catch you not only do they put you back at your corpse, meaning you have to try get past them again, but they also reduce your revival rate by 10%. Ten captures in a row and your character is instantly lost to permadeath. In the later dungeons there would be groups of these wandering together. Easiest solution to avoid them? Don't die. :P
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Masquerade of Liars
You know what's better than grind? DOUBLE GRIND!
That seems to be the thinking at NWO for their Halloween Event that runs this week. Basically it's a variation of "collect stuff that has a chance of dropping on monsters" event. Previously you collected whatever and then could trade a number of the whatevers for rewards. This time the item you get from killing monsters must first be traded in to illusionists scattered around the main city hub. The kicker is that they trade at a 1 for 1 ratio and you cannot trade with the same NPC again until you've traded with four others. This means you will be doing laps in meaningless busy work to convert your loot into useful currency. Coupled with mediocre rewards (in comparison to previous events) your best targets are cosmetic masks (cost 200) or a low level skeleton companion (cost 600).
Ironically it is more painful to do the conversion than it is to simply get the required amount, and with so many other good events on in other MMO's I don't think this one competes at all. That is quite the problem these days, MMO's forget they are not the only game in town. Add stupid time wasting crap like the above and you can expect people to abandon you for greener pastures where their time spent is better rewarded.
Speaking of grind, Wizardry Online also has a Halloween thing going on hosted by the aptly named Mr. Pumpkin (a porkul in a pumpkin hat, I guess the Mad King's influence is far reaching?). My favourite part of it, other than the npcs dressed as reapers (you can see one in the background), is this lady, Madam Candy who gives free candy to anyone wearing a pumpkin hat. Best part? Eat the candy and you die (possibly permanently in that game).
That seems to be the thinking at NWO for their Halloween Event that runs this week. Basically it's a variation of "collect stuff that has a chance of dropping on monsters" event. Previously you collected whatever and then could trade a number of the whatevers for rewards. This time the item you get from killing monsters must first be traded in to illusionists scattered around the main city hub. The kicker is that they trade at a 1 for 1 ratio and you cannot trade with the same NPC again until you've traded with four others. This means you will be doing laps in meaningless busy work to convert your loot into useful currency. Coupled with mediocre rewards (in comparison to previous events) your best targets are cosmetic masks (cost 200) or a low level skeleton companion (cost 600).
Ironically it is more painful to do the conversion than it is to simply get the required amount, and with so many other good events on in other MMO's I don't think this one competes at all. That is quite the problem these days, MMO's forget they are not the only game in town. Add stupid time wasting crap like the above and you can expect people to abandon you for greener pastures where their time spent is better rewarded.
Speaking of grind, Wizardry Online also has a Halloween thing going on hosted by the aptly named Mr. Pumpkin (a porkul in a pumpkin hat, I guess the Mad King's influence is far reaching?). My favourite part of it, other than the npcs dressed as reapers (you can see one in the background), is this lady, Madam Candy who gives free candy to anyone wearing a pumpkin hat. Best part? Eat the candy and you die (possibly permanently in that game).
Guess that's the "trick" part of Trick or Treat!
Monday, 14 October 2013
NBI - Armchair Game Designer
[Part of the Newbie Blogger Initiative: Talk Back Challenge]
[Part of my MMO Design Folder]
Armchair Game Designer: Take the parts of current games you like, listing the specific features. Make a game out of those features, any type of game, any genre. You could also mention features that you would never use under the same criteria.
Lyledark has a neat little list that he'd like to see where as Liore specifically targetted designing an MMO player economy. Some good ideas on both, and for kicks I decided to make a list of my own... which turned out to be quite long... :P
I might be doing this wrong because of the "current games" section of the brief given most of these come from either Ultima Online, Mabinogi, Knight Online, Wizardry Online, Neverwinter Online and Guildwars2 with some original ones thrown in the mix. Anyway this would be my (undoubtedly incomplete) list of things I'd want to have, starting with the ones that need little to no explanation (or I've talked about them previously):
- No Pre-determined Classes, no over-all levels. Each skill gains through individual study and use.
- School to learn combat and life skills.
- Exams to attain higher levels of skills.
- Gear will break, ammo runs out, hunger must be catered for
- Text bubble above the head of who is talking, not disembodied chat window
- Emote window for ease of access to all character animations and dancing
- Typing a smiley face would actually put that expressions on your character's face
- Crafting and skill mini games
- In-game supported voice chat in a party or squad channels
- Musical instruments, freedom to compose your own music and jam with other players (possibly using MML)
- Open world Ship travel, people can join for the ride and you manually steer where to go
- Non-territorial Enemies have no leash, they'll chase you to forever.
- Mounts! - Shared mounts (two people on a horse)! Flying mounts! Mounts (and pets) that can fight!
- Customizable and useful housing/homestead items.
- Interactable furniture. I like chairs I can sit on.
- Dangerous Traps can be avoided by just knowing what to look for, or disabled temporarily via minigame
- Open world quests / Dynamic quests - anyone in the vicinity can join
- Open world dungeons with "boss" chambers instanced (long cool-down per player to prevent spamming).
- Foundry, player made content!
- Guild Management Tools that let you see the last time someone was on, and lets everyone leave short messages
- In-game Calendar so people can see when the next releases are due, what events are on and for how long they go.
- Magical gate travel to cities only. All gates travel to one target city which changes based on moon cycle.
- "Summoning" Spell/Scroll to summon one party member to caster's location (lengthy cool-down).
- No return to town spell, or return to wherever unless a mage is summoning you.
- Blacklist feature. Always handy.
- No auto maps/radar. Cartography as a skill can make map items for the local region you are in.
- Story Instances. Can be added by patch yet are "permanent" in that all characters can then run them once.
- Content geared primarily for solo play. Scales up (instead of gearing for group and scales down).
- Each character can only join one guild at a time.
- No auction House. No gold. Barter system all the way. Even with NPCs!
And now for the ones that need more text...
- Not so Diverse races.
This is more of a money constraint (I'm designing on a budget :P). I like Neverwinter's races where a dwarf is a short but stout human, an elf is a slender human, a tiefling is a human with red skin and a tail etc. Apart from minor facial differences (horns/pointy ears and what have you) the bulk of each character is basically the same, just scaled differently. Why? It's easier to release new armor and clothing items for just one model. Compare it to Guildwars 2, where the races -are- quite different. Ever wonder why most of the living story rewards are either weapon skins or back items?
- No voice actors.
Again more of a money constraint. While I can put near limitless text on the screen, if I then need someone to read out the lines that's going to be painful on the budget. More so if it's multiple VAs doing the same lines (numerous protagonists). If there are no VA's the development staff will get more money to produce more content, and it will be slightly faster to roll out (and be a bit smaller file size too). To compensate, must have a fantastic music score (that can be reused more easily). Age of Conan level or better. :D
- Dangerous combat relying on Player skill over Character skill.
Isn't all combat dangerous? Well, Mabinogi takes the cake for me here and I'd love a version of their rock-paper-scissors-shotgun combat system in my MMO. Most battles are very short but not in the fast paced way. Either you use the right skills and curb stomp your enemy or you screw up and get curb stomped in return. My character is over level 2000 yet a regular skeleton can still kill me in 4 hits (or less) if I mistime my moves or use the wrong counters. In comparison a skilled player can beat the same skeleton with a week old character, if the player behind the screen fights well. It just may take them longer to win.
- Death is to be Feared
Upon dying you become a ghost who can no longer see the living (or undead) nor interactable objects like levers, doors and buttons. You can only see other spirits (dead players), NPC healers and statues that will ressurect you if you manage to run back to them. If you make it you have a 100% chance to be revived. Wait, -if- you make it? What's stopping you?
Yep, the reapers from Wizardry Online. They chase you and will try to permanently end your existence - the only thing you can do is run. Each time you are "caught" you are returned to your body and the chance of your revival drops by 10%. If you fail your revive roll then your character is gone (seriously, they become a tombstone).
That's in Wizardry Online, but I know most people don't like permadeath so in my version - the % is how much of your skills are retained on revival, so if you got caught 3 times then all skills drop by 30%. You'll have to go retrain them. Oh, there's also still a "roll" on the % too. A fail means all your equipment is obliterated, but don't worry - there's no character elimination whatsoever (though losing 100% of all their skill puts them back as a newbie anyway). See, I can be a nice guy. ;p
[Part of my MMO Design Folder]
Armchair Game Designer: Take the parts of current games you like, listing the specific features. Make a game out of those features, any type of game, any genre. You could also mention features that you would never use under the same criteria.
Lyledark has a neat little list that he'd like to see where as Liore specifically targetted designing an MMO player economy. Some good ideas on both, and for kicks I decided to make a list of my own... which turned out to be quite long... :P
I might be doing this wrong because of the "current games" section of the brief given most of these come from either Ultima Online, Mabinogi, Knight Online, Wizardry Online, Neverwinter Online and Guildwars2 with some original ones thrown in the mix. Anyway this would be my (undoubtedly incomplete) list of things I'd want to have, starting with the ones that need little to no explanation (or I've talked about them previously):
- No Pre-determined Classes, no over-all levels. Each skill gains through individual study and use.
- School to learn combat and life skills.
- Exams to attain higher levels of skills.
- Gear will break, ammo runs out, hunger must be catered for
- Text bubble above the head of who is talking, not disembodied chat window
- Emote window for ease of access to all character animations and dancing
- Typing a smiley face would actually put that expressions on your character's face
- Crafting and skill mini games
- In-game supported voice chat in a party or squad channels
- Musical instruments, freedom to compose your own music and jam with other players (possibly using MML)
- Open world Ship travel, people can join for the ride and you manually steer where to go
- Non-territorial Enemies have no leash, they'll chase you to forever.
- Mounts! - Shared mounts (two people on a horse)! Flying mounts! Mounts (and pets) that can fight!
- Customizable and useful housing/homestead items.
- Interactable furniture. I like chairs I can sit on.
- Dangerous Traps can be avoided by just knowing what to look for, or disabled temporarily via minigame
- Open world quests / Dynamic quests - anyone in the vicinity can join
- Open world dungeons with "boss" chambers instanced (long cool-down per player to prevent spamming).
- Foundry, player made content!
- Guild Management Tools that let you see the last time someone was on, and lets everyone leave short messages
- In-game Calendar so people can see when the next releases are due, what events are on and for how long they go.
- Magical gate travel to cities only. All gates travel to one target city which changes based on moon cycle.
- "Summoning" Spell/Scroll to summon one party member to caster's location (lengthy cool-down).
- No return to town spell, or return to wherever unless a mage is summoning you.
- Blacklist feature. Always handy.
- No auto maps/radar. Cartography as a skill can make map items for the local region you are in.
- Story Instances. Can be added by patch yet are "permanent" in that all characters can then run them once.
- Content geared primarily for solo play. Scales up (instead of gearing for group and scales down).
- Each character can only join one guild at a time.
- No auction House. No gold. Barter system all the way. Even with NPCs!
And now for the ones that need more text...
- Not so Diverse races.
This is more of a money constraint (I'm designing on a budget :P). I like Neverwinter's races where a dwarf is a short but stout human, an elf is a slender human, a tiefling is a human with red skin and a tail etc. Apart from minor facial differences (horns/pointy ears and what have you) the bulk of each character is basically the same, just scaled differently. Why? It's easier to release new armor and clothing items for just one model. Compare it to Guildwars 2, where the races -are- quite different. Ever wonder why most of the living story rewards are either weapon skins or back items?
- No voice actors.
Again more of a money constraint. While I can put near limitless text on the screen, if I then need someone to read out the lines that's going to be painful on the budget. More so if it's multiple VAs doing the same lines (numerous protagonists). If there are no VA's the development staff will get more money to produce more content, and it will be slightly faster to roll out (and be a bit smaller file size too). To compensate, must have a fantastic music score (that can be reused more easily). Age of Conan level or better. :D
- Dangerous combat relying on Player skill over Character skill.
Isn't all combat dangerous? Well, Mabinogi takes the cake for me here and I'd love a version of their rock-paper-scissors-shotgun combat system in my MMO. Most battles are very short but not in the fast paced way. Either you use the right skills and curb stomp your enemy or you screw up and get curb stomped in return. My character is over level 2000 yet a regular skeleton can still kill me in 4 hits (or less) if I mistime my moves or use the wrong counters. In comparison a skilled player can beat the same skeleton with a week old character, if the player behind the screen fights well. It just may take them longer to win.
- Death is to be Feared
Upon dying you become a ghost who can no longer see the living (or undead) nor interactable objects like levers, doors and buttons. You can only see other spirits (dead players), NPC healers and statues that will ressurect you if you manage to run back to them. If you make it you have a 100% chance to be revived. Wait, -if- you make it? What's stopping you?
One of the most terrifying NPCs in all my MMO adventures.
Yep, the reapers from Wizardry Online. They chase you and will try to permanently end your existence - the only thing you can do is run. Each time you are "caught" you are returned to your body and the chance of your revival drops by 10%. If you fail your revive roll then your character is gone (seriously, they become a tombstone).
That's in Wizardry Online, but I know most people don't like permadeath so in my version - the % is how much of your skills are retained on revival, so if you got caught 3 times then all skills drop by 30%. You'll have to go retrain them. Oh, there's also still a "roll" on the % too. A fail means all your equipment is obliterated, but don't worry - there's no character elimination whatsoever (though losing 100% of all their skill puts them back as a newbie anyway). See, I can be a nice guy. ;p
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Generation 13 Tips - The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune
The epic storyline in Mabinogi goes in a totally WTF direction at this point as it begins to introduce Shakespeare; Literally. It is also nothing like the previous story-arcs and is quite easy despite being a pure solo event, more so if you've just come from whooping a deity in G12. Some really nice cutscenes here though but be prepared to read NPC conversations really quick if you want to follow what's going on (and for some reason haven't read "Hamlet" before).
Act I - Welcome to Avon
I am assuming you can handle Alby, Ciar, overly cute furry rats, and wolves by now. There's a named wolf you have to fight in one part but if you did the final battle class board mission you would have already defeated him. The only new things for you here you get to fight with some help:
Snow Trolls (with Laertes)
They only know smash, counter and defense and unless they are the giant version have no passive defenses simply making them big multi-aggroing goblins. Laertes is an ass-kicker so if you aren't quick he'll take all your XP. The giant snow troll may cause him troubles though (depending on your total level).
Elsinore Ghosts
Horatio will help you out here but he's useless so you're going to have to put these things back in the grave yourself. They also multi-aggro and have instinctive reaction (dont smash to open) as well as poisonous hands but no stander of any kind so just fight normally to eliminate them.
Acts II & III - Have an Antagonist
After bashing some goblins and being introduced to the Grim Reaper (don't fight him yet, just stay away from his attacks - if he jumps into the floor, MOVE) you need to stalk Claudius on the stage. Getting too close, being detected or being too far at any point fails the mission. Failing loses nothing so feel free to keep retrying - he always follows the same path too.
You will also face a Castle Wall Golem later on who has instinctive reaction and passive defenses against range and magic but is weak to melee so just like the ghosts, normal combo/windmill it to death. If you feel threatened you can always pet revolver, or trans or demi for overkill. After him you'll be sent into Rundal to fight a Siren. Nothing new here other than her unless you are doing this on hard so I'll run through them quick:
Siren
She's like a succubus that can summon Sahagins, use advanced magic, teleport and has high passive defenses in everything. Sounds pretty scary, but if you want you can lure her with a long bow away from her summons. Alternatively, just trans/demi and tear her to pieces. I seriously just pallied up and killed her in one smash. :/
Gnolls
You'll encounter these doggies if you are at "hard" level and they behave just like ratmen. A single windmill should be able to swat a whole bunch of them to death or deadly right away.
Sahagin Ranger/Fighter
Again only found it you are at "hard" level, you can treat these multi-aggroing fish idiots as goblins with windmill. Being over level 1000 though, they shouldn't be any cause for concern. Send them back to Dagon however you see fit.
Act IV - The Curse of the Black Pearl
So Hamlet and his two buddies are on a boat to England and are are attacked by a bunch of rats followed by a number of Barbosa's (skeleton) pirates. You will be playing the part of Hamlet it this strange mission and if your skeleton slaying technique is rusty, will probably be running it a few times. You lose nothing by failing though, and failing is easy when you have to protect your two idiot friends (both of whom Hamlet tricks into getting executed in the original story).
Afterwards you will be defending civilians against sentries for around 5 minutes which is pretty easy, just look out for their smash and counters. Windmill/assault slash like mad if you want to clear them quick and then you get a nice trip to the graveyard where you have to re-murder a number of weak Ghost Cloakers. If you beat Oroborous already, your smash should be able to 1 hit KO them.
Act V - Well that was Easy
Hamlet is going to challenge you to a duel (LOL) and if you lose you have it coming. Then you get to fight the main boss, the scary looking Grim Reaper who is perhaps the easiest end-boss in all the story arcs so far. He has three attacks - if he spins in a sommersault he is firing in a straight line where he is facing. If he is spinning like a top he is attacking a small arc in front of him (where he originally was facing), and if he jumps into the floor he is gonna pop out beside you and slice your face so keep moving until he reappears. If he manages to land a hit, all your stats will start to drain which is kind of a non-issue. To beat him just stand behind the idiot and use fast normal attacks (ie. not smash) and when he turns around to look at you just run through him to his back again. Alternatively you can just wipe the floor with him if you trans and demi. Your choice. ^_^
Act I - Welcome to Avon
I am assuming you can handle Alby, Ciar, overly cute furry rats, and wolves by now. There's a named wolf you have to fight in one part but if you did the final battle class board mission you would have already defeated him. The only new things for you here you get to fight with some help:
Snow Trolls (with Laertes)
They only know smash, counter and defense and unless they are the giant version have no passive defenses simply making them big multi-aggroing goblins. Laertes is an ass-kicker so if you aren't quick he'll take all your XP. The giant snow troll may cause him troubles though (depending on your total level).
Elsinore Ghosts
Horatio will help you out here but he's useless so you're going to have to put these things back in the grave yourself. They also multi-aggro and have instinctive reaction (dont smash to open) as well as poisonous hands but no stander of any kind so just fight normally to eliminate them.
Acts II & III - Have an Antagonist
After bashing some goblins and being introduced to the Grim Reaper (don't fight him yet, just stay away from his attacks - if he jumps into the floor, MOVE) you need to stalk Claudius on the stage. Getting too close, being detected or being too far at any point fails the mission. Failing loses nothing so feel free to keep retrying - he always follows the same path too.
You will also face a Castle Wall Golem later on who has instinctive reaction and passive defenses against range and magic but is weak to melee so just like the ghosts, normal combo/windmill it to death. If you feel threatened you can always pet revolver, or trans or demi for overkill. After him you'll be sent into Rundal to fight a Siren. Nothing new here other than her unless you are doing this on hard so I'll run through them quick:
Siren
She's like a succubus that can summon Sahagins, use advanced magic, teleport and has high passive defenses in everything. Sounds pretty scary, but if you want you can lure her with a long bow away from her summons. Alternatively, just trans/demi and tear her to pieces. I seriously just pallied up and killed her in one smash. :/
Gnolls
You'll encounter these doggies if you are at "hard" level and they behave just like ratmen. A single windmill should be able to swat a whole bunch of them to death or deadly right away.
Sahagin Ranger/Fighter
Again only found it you are at "hard" level, you can treat these multi-aggroing fish idiots as goblins with windmill. Being over level 1000 though, they shouldn't be any cause for concern. Send them back to Dagon however you see fit.
Act IV - The Curse of the Black Pearl
Bet you didn't know he was in Hamlet.
So Hamlet and his two buddies are on a boat to England and are are attacked by a bunch of rats followed by a number of Barbosa's (skeleton) pirates. You will be playing the part of Hamlet it this strange mission and if your skeleton slaying technique is rusty, will probably be running it a few times. You lose nothing by failing though, and failing is easy when you have to protect your two idiot friends (both of whom Hamlet tricks into getting executed in the original story).
Afterwards you will be defending civilians against sentries for around 5 minutes which is pretty easy, just look out for their smash and counters. Windmill/assault slash like mad if you want to clear them quick and then you get a nice trip to the graveyard where you have to re-murder a number of weak Ghost Cloakers. If you beat Oroborous already, your smash should be able to 1 hit KO them.
Act V - Well that was Easy
Hamlet is going to challenge you to a duel (LOL) and if you lose you have it coming. Then you get to fight the main boss, the scary looking Grim Reaper who is perhaps the easiest end-boss in all the story arcs so far. He has three attacks - if he spins in a sommersault he is firing in a straight line where he is facing. If he is spinning like a top he is attacking a small arc in front of him (where he originally was facing), and if he jumps into the floor he is gonna pop out beside you and slice your face so keep moving until he reappears. If he manages to land a hit, all your stats will start to drain which is kind of a non-issue. To beat him just stand behind the idiot and use fast normal attacks (ie. not smash) and when he turns around to look at you just run through him to his back again. Alternatively you can just wipe the floor with him if you trans and demi. Your choice. ^_^
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