Developer Appreciation: To the Moon / Fear not this Night

This elegant RPG Maker game is fantastically crafted and is my answer to last weeks prompts from Belghast of "a game that made you cry" and End Game Viables "favourite or most engrossing story delivered through a game". It helps that the music for it is also amazing, and I've actually semi-learned "Everything's Alright" by Laura Shigihara on piano with voice. Can't replicate her talent or tone though.

On the topic of pieces from games, "Fear not this Night" from Guildwars 2 is also amazing, especially since you get to listen to the whole thing in game after beating Zhaitan. It's another one I've semi-learned though there's no way I can reach the key change near the end (after already octaving it down), so I just skip it. As a friend once said, you know I really like something when I start learning the music for it!

It plays soon after this part. :P

Gallery: How to beat Zhaitan

[Part of the Gallery.]

It's been a while since I did this in game so it might have changed by now, but my general recollection of it went as follows...

The lesser dragons are more of a challenge.

Dragon's Dogma: Aught to Kill You

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

Deciding that it is time to confront the dragon, I return to the Dragonforged who is nice enough to tell me where to find him. He also mentions that when he tried, he lost and is now just a ghost. That does explain why only I can see him! The beasts lair is beyond the Great Wall, guarded by hell hounds, succubi harpies, and gorechimera. It is also strangely familiar in that it is the same place I dreamt of at the start of all this... only Savan and his team were the ones hunting the wyrm.

More awesome than Zhaitan.

We eventually reach it and I am surprised that the tavern keeper Inez is a prisoner here, and the dragon offers me a choice: fight him and potentially end the world, or kill Inez (who represents my love interest I guess?) and live forever... which is what the mad Duke did. Obviously I fight the dragon - and what a glorious fight it is, covering a huge distance as we run through and a top of ruins, shoot at it with ballista, ride on it's back, and ultimately face it in a big arena!

Heat seeking magic arrows are very handy in this fight, but in the end the dragon goes down due to my learning how to double jump and grab onto its chest - followed by daggering its heart ad nauseum. After a long battle, the dragon falls and I eat its soul (Dovahkiin)! Well, not really - but he is nice enough to magically return my missing heart before disintegrating. Afterwards we take Inez back to Cassardis afterwards where she shows her appreciation, by giving free drinks and snacks all around! :P

Bad Support Attitude

Have you ever stopped playing a game because of bad support? I have!

I used to play Guildwars 2, even beat Zhaitan and Liadri. That is until the verification email no longer was being sent through to Yahoo. Their forum response was something like: "It's a Yahoo problem. You really shouldn't use Yahoo." Uh huh. Three guesses how I'm supposed to change that password too, since it also has to be verified through Yahoo.

I tried to see what Wildstar was all about, winning a key ages back. Apparently though this key wasn't for my region and the email they sent back was along the lines of "there is no way we can change the region of the key, or even replace it." Riiiiiight. Because you know, it would take a whole ten minutes to kill one key and generate another for the correct region. Just saying, since I used to generate keys for my previous company.

I'm sorry, the minute I hear a "not our problem" or a "passing the buck" method I get slightly pissed.

You said it Starlord.

Even Mabinogi, which is supposed to have the -worst- support ever actually gives you updates on whatever issue you logged. Yes, most of the time it was a "We're getting to it and apologize for the delay" automated response which only gets sorted out two months later but you know what? They f*ing sorted it out, and they were apologetic and polite about it. Much more polite than I'm being now.

What happens next? I look at who makes these games where I've had bad support experience then I make a neat little list of other multiplayer titles they have... and avoid them.

Have there been any games that you have dropped because of bad support?

NBI - Poetry Slam

[You can blame the Newbie Blogger Initiative for this post. :P]

What should I write about?
Lady Syl asked for a poem;
Maybe about my new pet's snout?
Or reaching the lab of Goemm?

 

The dragon in that murky swamp
he hasn't appeared for me,
but many others I did stomp
for the sake of gold and glory.

 

Across distant stars and lands,
no journey is too great.
My killing spree, it just expands
even to those fiendish krait.

 

Most people would think me mad,
a criminal and a serial killer
but in MMORPG's it's not too bad
to be a pixel-blood spiller!

 

And so it goes through time and space
slain foes laying all over the place
but weep not, they are not truly gone
in a few minutes they'll just respawn

 

then I'll slay them all once more
and take their stuff as my own.
Most games do have a violent core
and it's more fun if you aren't alone.

Now that's what I call loot!

Treasures of the Crown Pavillion

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

Been playing lots of GW2 lately due to this update mainly because of the amount of gold I'm getting zerging around the Crown Pavillion, and when there is no zerg - upstairs in the arena. I'm not the most efficient farmer but in comparison to my normal income in the game this its like I won the lottery. During my "balloon hunt" I secured Noxious Castrum in Fireheart Rise solo and decided to buy 500 units of deployable mortars as my reward and  have used up half so far in the Pavillion. Their mileage varies, some being destroyed quick or shooting (automatic) in useless directions but when placed properly they sure net me a lot of extra loot!

Other people have been bringing in ember pets or ogre whistles which also help them out (more so in the solo arenas) but the best I've seen is people intentionally TWO manning "solo" arenas. I think they queue up to fight the same guy then one of them runs faaaaar away which then teleports them in together to face one opponent. These two guys fought the Norn and the Dog as a pair and then went in together to face subject 7.

Wonder if they both get rewarded?

Of course it is very bad when two people unintentionally drop into the same arena with different matchups because it seems that both bosses spawn! I'm not talking about the crowd favourite gambit either. I'm talking about Liadri + Dead Eye Dunwell combo. So... just dodge the shadow falls, shades, sniper shot and avoid the mines all at the same time. Goes without saying the two fellas that went in didn't last that long. :P

I also was fortunate enough to get a Royal Pass during a zerg run. This little scroll (which expires over time unfortunately) acts as an instant teleport to the Royal Terrace that really does hold all the handy vendors (except black lion traders) in a tiny area. Crafting stations, bank, guild utilities, a mystic forge and most importantly an asura gate that lets you decide where to go via dialogue prompt. Basically it removes the need for Lion's Arch entirely, and I am still hoping they nuke that city and all its residents into the dirt - sooner rather than later. If you have no royal pass, then just hop to the borderlands -> shop -> drop to character select -> pick same guy to reappear where you last were (prior to borderlands) for a similar experience.

Next update is the Queen's Speech where the "villain" who many assume is Scarlet and whom I believe to be Trahearne's evil gender swapped twin from the steam dimension will no doubt cause a minor disturbance. I'll probably take a look but in the end the path of least resistance to lots of gold will always win out. I also suspect another armor tier will be coming in again due to the current abundance of mithril ore (literally cheaper than carrots at the moment). Lastly I'm still wondering why Liadri didn't just slay Zhaitan on her own and save us all the trouble? They sort of break their own lore by adding ridiculously powerful NPCs in the world like that. Or... she couldn't be bothered doing that but is ok fighting as a spectacle in the arena? Guess she's just an attention whore.

Path of Pirates? I don't think so.

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

I have a little issue with this next living story arc in GW2. The main plot involves chasing a pirate (who killed a pirate during a pirate festival in a pirate city) to their pirate base (dungeon party required) filled with pirates and if you are fast enough can shoot down a pirate airship. Outside that I can go grind pirates in the open world, pirate the pirates hiding in jumping puzzles (all of which I've done before) for their pirate caches or retrace the steps of a sailor (cough pirate cough) who lived in the pirate city which is a hook for the a book ANet are trying to push forward. Most likely about or containing pirates. Oh and the overall reward this time? A mini pirate.

Previously I could see the merit in helping the pirates against the risen threat from Orr, aiding them in rescuing refugees (aka cowards) from the Molten Alliance (and then bashing both them and the refu-cowards at Southsun) and even saving them from an insane supernatural entity that enjoys wearing a flaming pumpkin on his head for some reason. This time it looks like it's just in-fighting amongst a faction I would personally prefer to nuke into non-existence.

Really wondering why ANet decided to make these people "good guys" in the first place, AND give them the main capital (hub) of the world. They don't even pay well for the trouble I go through for them (seriously, 1 gold coin max is insulting) and there's literally no in-game or out of game lore posted by ANet as to how the all got mass redeemed or something other than "band together to face Zhaitan!". Yah well Zhaitan is dead. Officially. That's why the Orr zones were toned down and risen made weaker.

Truce is over criminal scum.

So help the pirates? Not this time. Someone else can go sort it out. It's not like Logan Thackeray (or anyone else) paid ME specifically to identify and catch a murderer. I've got better things to do elsewhere... in other games.

The Fall of Zhaitan

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

After my prolonged absence from Tyria due to other games and my old PC not letting it run anymore, I finally returned there to finish off the elder dragon Zhaitan. DL, Thaldir and I warped out to the Anchorage Waypoint and we got lucky in that the pact forces had secured (sort of) the entrance to Arah. After sprinting past some angry undead we were joined by two random warriors to accomplish this mission. At first Zhaitan's powers were really holding us back in the form of people having to go afk and difficulty all being put in the same dungeon instance.

Zhaitan uses Meta-gaming to slow us down! :P

Once we got through there it became a case of repairing an airship with the reunited Destiny's Edge, because that's obviously the best use of a pact commander and his resources. Surprisingly the guardians of the airship bits were actually the most dangerous in the entire mission, the champion lich who acts as the first boss being the worst of the lot. Fortunately DL managed to pick us up during that encounter because the new dungeon mechanic (no more res-rushing) really would have been a pain against him.

Seemed to just get easier after that though, fighting monkeys, slimes, giants, and various other undead until finally we went up into the clouds to join other airships to battle a whole flight of dragons. Well, we assume they were fighting anyway as we blasted three of the winged beasts to hell. Some very beautiful scenic stuff up there too. When Zhaitan finally decided to show up he was very awesome but not very dangerous at all, meeting his defeat through cannon fire. I wanted to pursue him down into Orr and hack him up but everyone else just decided to celebrate. *shrug*

The victory party back at Fort Trinity was very nice with some familiar faces in the crowd, and I got a Pact Spear to commemorate the triumph - that being the only functional weapon that had better stats than what I already had. For me the final song, a lyrical version of the Grove theme, was the best reward though, and I stayed at the celebration to listen to its entirety. I usually complain about GW2 music with themes from Mabi, UO, Uncharted Waters and hell, even Wizardry Online being more memorable but for this piece - they got it just right. ^_^

Edit: The Skalds of the Internet also have their version of the song - Fear not this Night. (Laraplays, Taylor, Malukah/Malufenix)

Week #13 - Out of Content

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

Less GW2 this week as I finished off Dawn of War II: Retribution and the Walking Dead. Both of them were very cool but it is unlikely I'll play through them again as I feel it will be unrewarding to just be covering  the same content as before which is exactly the problem I'm having with GW2 - there's no real drive for me to do anything since I've already played through most of the story with one character, fully explored the map, and am not really interested in pvp, crafting or grinding dungeons. Also I'm in a timezone that doesn't suit their "one time events" which just further turns me off so we'll see if ArenaNet manages to hold my attention.

Did manage to finish off the last of the jumping puzzles in the game with Scavenger's Chasm being the damn long finale for them. Not real good rewards for going back to any of them but there are 8 chests all up that are pretty easy for a thief (6 if non rogue) to get to daily, not counting the ones in WvW. 3 at Lion's Arch, 1 at Straits of Dev (just swim around that forcefield), and 4 at Southsun Cove (2 per jump puzzle - the second in each is guarded).

Guildwise I went with DL, Yue and Thaldir on separate occasions to run Ascalon Catacoms story mode (again), and 2 exploration paths to fight the Howling King and Ghost Eater. It was pretty fun, but what would be MORE fun was if the entire dungeon was another "world" map that everyone could enter. Mandatory instanced stuff works ok for scripted story but there was nothing in the explorable paths they couldn't do with their already set Dynamic Event system. Anywho we also made a play for Zhaitan on the weekend, miraculously getting a full party only to find the dragon had wised up to our plans and bugged/froze the quest chain leading up to opening the gates to Arah which meant no finale for us.

Frustrated, I took it out on his minions instead who were also frozen in the quest chain, sending endless waves of their number at a particular Pact position only to be met by a small army of players (and one robot I think) farming them for high level supplies. Apparently it had been this way for a number of days now said one of the farmers, and not just on my server if the forums are to be believed. Beginning to doubt Arenanet's capabilites in general if they can't sort out something so trivial.

Week #11 - Setting the Board

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

My ranger finished her story segments this week, ultimately joining the Vigil on level 25. Gotta love all the little side stories that each race gets to do and I'm glad I did them. If you ever wonder where all the steam creatures are coming from, ask an asura who has an "infinity ball" background. I got her to run more jumping puzzles and grab more dive goggles afterwards, and positioned my other mules to do the same - my thinking being that since gravity doesn't really discriminate, it's better for my lower lev chars to do the lower lev jumps leaving the 75% in the harder zones for my main.

Speaking of jump puzzles, I'll briefly mention Pig Iron Quarry which my thief and DL ran this week. Very fun, just wait for the screen to stop shaking before you jump! :P However there is something I love more than jump puzzles and those are mini dungeons! We raided a large shiney treasure guarded by lotsa golems, as well as a hylek temple with Yue. These really encouraged coop play rather than the individual skill that is also fun, but in a different way, for jumping segments. Looking forward to finding more!

We also ran Twilight Arbor Explorable this week with Austea Scarlet and a random fifth. Quite tough, especially the spider queen and whipping vines - too bad the main boss was a bit of a loser (easy), unlike the bosses I faced with a pick up group (PUG) at the new fractals dungeon. Very pretty place those fractals. Our first spot was the swamp, but after failing a few minutes we restarted and got the cliffside which was spectacular! Alas our fighter glitched out into space so being the nice people we were, we left to get him. Next one was funny, since we were all turned into dolphins, though i didn't particularly enjoy that - why the frig would I want to -sneak- past things I would otherwise easily kill? Whatever. Blizzard map was next and that was awesome, and we finished off with the dredge base which was challenging but very fun especially when we finally got that legendary drill-suit down.

Fractal Dungeon - more fun than these.

Ofcourse this also meant the new enemies, the Karka, were beginning to appear with the Lost Shores patch. Alas since one of the NPCs during the investigation phase was not spawning, I couldn't really do much here but DL and I did bump into a Karka "raid" at Morgan's Spiral which served as a good introduction to our new crustacean enemies. Lastly Juris is now also level 80, which hopefully means we'll have enough people to attack Arah, and Zhaitan, soon.

Week #8 - Miserable Mesmer

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

As the title suggests I was not having a lot of fun using my mesmer. I found him weak, his illusions kinda useless and in general a slog to level up. It's almost like you are required to weapon swap using him and long story short, you need a lot more key presses to kill an enemy. To be fair, they have some really nice long ranged attacks but the minute you gain a tactical advantage (like stand where an enemy cannot hit you) the game makes your target invulnerable (even in instanced missions). THIS IS STUPID. If it is a method of anti-botting then sorry, this just kills the entire game for ranged classes.

Found a good vantage point? Too bad. It's useless!

Stuck it out with him and pushed to level 28 still, hitting storyline missions way above until I finally needed help to retrieve a sword made from Jormag's blood. DL's assistance was required to finish that and upon completion the mesmer completed his job of gaining me the Priory banner, meaning he now goes into the barracks. It will be my warrior's turn next to get me that last banner but he's just level 6 and still working on an anti-ghost rifle.

Main story wise DL, Thaldir and I (main thief) killed a Mouth of Zhaitan in a very buggy mission. Open the doors from ON TOP of them if you get stuck here too. Since that took us long (due to the bugged doors) that's all we got done apart from smashing events at the Straits of Devastation. The first part of the Halloween event also started up but I found Lion's Arch way too laggy to participate. Nice to see the place all dressed up though.

Week #7 - The Furthest Lands

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

Welcome to Orr!

 

After collecting a magic orb I pushed on to Fort Trinity this week, at the front lines on the Straits of Devastation where I begun my infiltration into Orr by slaying one of Zhaitan's Eyes. I found Orr to be a very fun place - no heart quests to do and almost exclusively Risen bastards all over the place. Even the wildlife is hostile! That didn't stop me from finishing off that region, followed by Malchor's Leap and the Cursed Shore though - stupid zombies cannot stop a single well-prepared thief.

With all the PVE zones now completed my next task lay in the Mists which was a tough ask given that my home server of Gunnar's Hold is pretty weak in that department, especially against this week's rivals of Baruch Bay and Kodash. Scouted what I could and then made use of the free server transfer to hop onto Kodash for a day. The Germans really know their warfare, and in a span of a few hours they had conquered not only the Eternal Battlegrounds, but all of the Borderland regions as well making my exploration completion very easy. In contrast though, their PVE zones were almost devoid of players. :P

Now that I have my 100% World Completion Account medal you'd think I would attack the main story next but no - I want those other pretty banners too, so I created my appropriately named "Bannermen", an iron legion Charr Warrior and a Sylvari Mesmer to fetch me the flags of the Vigil and Priory respectively. Only did the introductory mission of the Charr, fighting Duke Barradin with Rytlock (only level 2) before switching over to work on the Sylvari who I think will be more troublesome to level. They do have a good story line though, and broadens the depth of info a bit on Trahearne, a particular magic mirror and Caladbolg (to the expense of Caithe I think). Also had a really fun mission helping the Priory defend a fort against the Risen via use of remote controlled golems. That's got to be one of the most fun missions I've played so far. :)

Guildwise our weekly hunt was a bit quieter this time with only my brothers DL and Jim showing up. I took them to the Blazeridge Steppes to help level Jim up and once there we faced the Shatterer but this time with very few people. All our nice turrets got destroyed over the course of the battle which meant I was up close and personal to the dragon this time but he still had no chance. :D The Kami Katze and Thaldir both reached level 80 as well, but no new members this week - and low login rates. Even our allied guild RoF is going through a lull as one of their members switched over to earn us points since none of his own guild were on.