Digitally Staving Off Boredom

Virtual Fashion Slaves and Mercenaries Ahoy

2008-07-04T15:56:00.001-07:00

Well, "The World Ends With You" is indeed proving to be a pretty solid Square-Enix title. I'm not going to bother writing out a whole review about it, but I will mention a few features I found cool:

They more than doubled the challenge of typical JRPG action combat by requiring you control separate fights on two screens at once.
They separated individual stylus gestures into equipped "pins." It's like a mini game for every equipped weapon.
The artistic style, which exudes pure creative talent, exalts Japanese and youth culture to a fantastic (likely better than life) degree.
The JPop/Trance music is an unusual choice that lends a unique flavor to the game.
The plot somehow makes the main characters' forced slavery ("do this in x amount of time or be erased") downright hip.
There's a Tamagotchi-like system that allows your characters to digest only so much stat-enhancing food in a 24 (real life) hour period. (Your equipped "pins" also level up while not playing.)
There's nice additional features such as wireless-compatible mini games (perhaps as to be expected from the makers of Crystal Chronicles).

What we have here is a definite gem of a game. It's little wonder GameFly is having a hard time getting these back from their renters.

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While I generally enjoy the artistic talent that went into "The World Ends With You," there is one noteworthy flaw in the character design. I'm a little distracted when nearly every cutscene clubs me with Shiki's overexposed thighs. Youth culture fashion or not, that's a pretty provocative outfit, and this draws undue attention from the game. Is this attention I'm giving it merely culture difference or is it something only an adequately sick mind would worry about? I'm sure you're giving that due consideration. In any case, I honestly didn't buy the game with this in mind.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program of whining about unresolved alt-a-holicism.

It seems my interest in Neverwinter Nights 2 has been rekindled somewhat as well. I surprised myself by reloading my Sorcerer/Arcane Scholar and taking him all the way up to the end of chapter 2. He's just as powerful as I originally thought he would be. A massive arsenal of casts per day combines mercilessly with discounted spontaneous metamagic conversion, and the result is some kind of campaign-consuming god.

Yet, I still have the same reservations about this character I did before, and it's related to the way I've been playing. Instead of using all these casts per day, I merely throw a few buffs, throw a few debuffs, and then sit back as my party members carve up the largely helpless bad guys. For the most part, I hold my spells in reserve for emergencies, such as quickly taking down enemy spellcasters or throwing some blanket debuff or control power on a large group of enemies. The result is that I cast so few spells that I may not rest for several maps or if the hour/level buffs are expiring.

The plan works very, very well, but it leaves me wondering if my character is really contributing. He's built to be a dedicated caster, but spends the majority of the time not casting anything. This character's main role could be duplicated by a few wands, created by the provided companion Wizard, Druid, and Cleric. I might as well roll something that casts less but contributes by disarming traps or fighting.

A thought occurs: A Wizard/Sorcerer can fight if that's really all there is left for them to do. Right now, I've been using a heavy crossbow, and that works out to one pathetic attack per round. Why not use Polymorph Self or use Tenser's Transformation? I think I'll do that... however, I can't think of a reason why I could not also pull the Rogue's weight.

It's time to take a closer look at the Arcane Trickster in NWN 2. I lose three levels to Rogue, but in the long run that's not a problem. If I need more casts, hey, that's what Wands and Scrolls are for. If I can sneak attack while polymorphed, that's potentially brutal.

Digital Dawdling

2008-07-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

It seems I've totally lost my gaming groove as of late. All I've been doing lately is wasting a good deal of my free time rerolling Neverwinter Nights 2 characters. Come to think of it, that isn't all that different from months I spent rerolling in City of Heroes. I'm in a rut. So, on days like this, that's what I tend to talk about.

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My most recent NWN2 character is a kind of fantasy-themed detective, a fencing Sherlock Homes who occasionally pulls out a Wand of Lightning to even the odds. That's a cooler concept than most adventurers, and probably a step in the right direction: More "find a flavor of hero that resembles what I admire and enjoy it" and less "there is only one correct character choice out of thousands: find it." This is significantly better for my stress level.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Character Generation. Repeat 20 times for my average NWN2 gaming session.

However, that nagging itch in the back of my mind that leads me to reroll characters is once again attracting notice. The trouble is that my latest character is a "do everything" sort of character: he fights well, buffs up well, can deal with traps/locks, and even has magic in the form of magical devices. RPGs generally hate "do everything" characters, and a difficult end game is sure to result.

The trouble with me is that I neither want to feel inadequate (sacrificing power) nor feel that I'm passing up a part of the game I'll enjoy (sacrificing flexibility). Is wanting the best of both worlds so wrong? You tell me.

Regardless, the D20 system seems balanced under an obligation of preventing me from finding this powerful, flexible character in one package. I'm probably better off going with a straight caster of some sort, leaving melee to those less flexible/powerful fighter types.

De-idling GameFly: A study in agitating the inanimate

I have a healthy rule when it comes to my GameFly rented games: If I haven't played the game in a week or two, it's time to send it back. It's a pity, as both Assassin's Creed and Star Fox: Command are excellent games. However, there's hardly a point in renting a game if all it's going to do is sit around and collect dust.

What I'd really like to play is The World Ends With You. It's been getting great reviews and even Yahtzee Croshaw (who makes a point of saying his much he dislikes JRPGs) was just mildly put off from it. Unfortunately, at the rate GameFly seems to hold their copies, it's going to be 2010 until they're able to send me a copy. It would suck if the game went out of print before I could play it.

The World Ends With You trailer compilation (courtesy 20XX).

I'm actually considering buying a copy for myself. This decision comes with a major reservation in that I prefer not to rent, not buy, games simply because unplayed games tend to generate clutter. However, this game cuts through my normal reservations because a sufficiently good game is like a hunting trophy in that (for purely egotistical reasons) it looks great hanging over the mantle.

Actually, taking a sidelong glance, my mantle is not something I'm particularly proud of right now. While I've a number of gems, I've also a hefty amount of games I don't particularly care for and will never play again. I think I'll go trade them in at the local EBGameStop (for no doubt considerably less than they're worth) and see if it'll give me sufficient credit to swing a purchase of The World Ends With You. Viva La Capitalism!

With any luck, my gaming groove will be returning shortly with the acquisition of The World Ends With You. Who knows, a distraction from NWN2 may well get me interested in the game again.

Meh

2008-07-01T17:45:00.001-07:00

I had a long entry here that ultimately devolved into a lovely tirade about how stupidity is the ultimate sin in the face of creation itself. However, I later decided that intolerance for the wantonly ignorant is in itself a form of wanton ignorance.

So, while a haphazardly assembled logical train of thought on this topic might make for an interesting term paper, its pretense on my Blog is only good to get my car egged.

Instead, I'll just say I'm not in a very good mood for gaming lately on account on how gaming is all I've really done lately. There needs to be a certain reaffirmation of societal responsibility before I really feel comfortable in blowing so much time.

Belated Things

2008-06-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

I finished patching up EverQuest 2 and Vanguard and quickly discovered that the magic was gone. Both games are too big -- way too much world. You can't just throw a bunch of players in there and expect the problem to be solved. They'll just get bunched up at the best places, and unless you happen to be "in the know," you don't know where to go and how to get there.

I'm not "in the know," and I don't care enough to get there. I'm not going to pour over message boards and harass people or join a guild. I just don't care enough to jump through those hoops to find a way to enjoy myself. To get me to play these games, they really need to consider cutting out a lot of the unnecessary geography so players can congregate. Alternately, perhaps just route me directly to where the most fun is to be had - I'm not asking for them to kill the open-ended aspect, but is a signpost so much to ask?

Of course, I should shoulder some of that burden myself. I'd be more willing to tolerate these problems if I weren't such a repeat MMORPG burnout. Instead, I returned to Neverwinter Nights 2. Also, Assassin's Creed arrived via GameFly, and that's been fairly awesome.

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Belated Knowledge

They say that, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." Of course, like many popular sayings, that's open to woefully ignorant misinterpretation. Sure, people will do dumb things because they didn't have the complete picture. However, it wasn't the little knowledge that was dangerous, it's the missing knowledge that was the problem.

Case in point: I didn't realize that prestige classes in Neverwinter Nights 2 didn't count towards the multiclass penalty. Having just learned this, suddenly my options are considerably more open than I thought they were.

The mind reels. With the multiclassing flexibility of a Human or Half-Elf, I can essentially take as few levels of Rogue as I want, then mix it with whatever base class I want, and then take as many prestige classes as I want. As long as I take Able Learner and send the skill points in the right direction, I can still handle traps while being whatever prestige class I want to be.

Which direction to go? Well, I haven't decided, but I'm sure I'll enjoy considering the possibilities. Starting with at least one level in Rogue, likely possibilities include a sneak attack specialist, but anything'll do.

Actually, at this point, I'm beginning to doubt I really have enough interest in Neverwinter Nights 2 to see any of these ideas through.

Belated Creeds

I haven't got too far into it yet, but I finally had a chance to see what got people so excited about Assassin's Creed.

Basically, it's taken the early crusades, rendered it in beautiful open-ended Grand Theft Auto-esque fashion, and put you in the role as a freely roaming assassin with more moves than the Prince of Persia.

That in itself is a winning recipe. The "future genetic memory" backdrop (and no, that isn't a spoiler seeing how they drop it right in your lap before the game even starts) was probably a little unnecessary, but the added layer doesn't really detract from it too badly. People with more closed minds than mine may disagree with that assessment.

July is on SOE

2008-06-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

Fussing around with that musical clip has sort of snapped me out of my Neverwinter Nights 2 related stupor. I realize I need a bit of a break from the game, but what? My Age of Conan account is expired and I don't plan on renewing it. My City of Heroes account will soon follow, my burnout having reached such depths that I suspect nothing less than the unofficial Champions Online sequel will suffice.

At first, I honestly considered giving Final Fantasy XI another spin, as you can now get all four expansions for $20. Just then, Sony Online Entertainment may have come to my rescue. In my email box is a dynamite offer: As a former subscriber in good standing, I'm able to try out both EverQuest 2 and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, for free, until July 31st.

I can afford free, but I still have a few reservations. I've painted myself in a corner in EverQuest 2, lodging myself neatly between classes I don't want to play, having bored of soloing yet not knowing enough people to get into an easy group. As for Vanguard, they've some nice features, but I wish they did more with dynamic content. This is just my history with the games, and I'll reserve true judgment until I've given them both a fair try in their current state.

More Original Hack Music

2008-06-27T16:46:00.001-07:00

Creative Content Fridays are something I have not observed as often as I'd have liked. The goal isn't neccessarily to create something create so much as to give myself practice in doing so.

This week, I've a musical clip I put together in Ableton Live. It seems if I ever got around to writing computer games, I've the musical scores covered.

I call it, "Razzorburn"

Like it or hate it, I still think buying a copy of Ableton LE 6.0.10 was the best $200 I ever spent. Maybe next semester I'll see about shelling out for a copy of Adobe Flash.

Pride and Prerequisites

2008-06-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

There comes a point where a person who engages in a negative activity long enough has to come out and confess that this is what they are, no amount of goading will change that, and they're proud of it. In this case, I'm going to say my non-committal alt-a-holic ways are such an activity: "I like to reroll my RPG characters, and I'm proud."

Lets hold a parade. Meanwhile, I'm noticing a certain tendency towards Neverwinter Nights 2 again.

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I've taken my current Sorcerer/Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep to the end of chapter 1. He's a pretty cool character in that he has a smaller selection of spells than a Wizard, but a lot more freedom in how he can use them. He gets more casts per day, freedom to cast whatever he wants so long as he has not used up the circle for that spell, and now new feats let him cast those circles again using the allocation for one to three circles higher.

To extent, I enjoy that, but I notice that my play style doesn't work this way. All I'm really doing is casting the most important buffs, throwing a few dehabilitating spells, than laying into the enemy with my crossbow. The only time I ever bother with my offensive spells is either to facilitate quickly eliminating particularly nasty threats (such as enemy spellcasters) or to soften up a large amount of clumped together foes.

Furthermore, Neeska (the provided tiefling Rogue) is becoming problematic once again. The trouble I had with her before was her combat viability. Now, I find she's actually quite good in combat (at least in an environment of abundant protection spells and stunned/blinded enemies). The trouble now is having to always allocate a spot in the party for her or else the party is defenseless against the common trap or locked door.

My existing Neverwinter Nights 2 problem of choice has proved difficult to solve: I want to disarm traps/open locks. I want to keep the damage mitigation potential I mentioned in the previous entry (only a few select spells are needed). Finally, I'd probably like an effective ranged or melee option for eliminating particularly troublesome foes. I'm really enjoying pondering my options.

Right now, it's looking like I'll probably end up "1 Rogue/All Bard" or a Arcane Trickster (again). However, I think my playstyle would favor a good fighter (better than medium BAB) while still providing good mitigation and disarming traps. Maybe some kind of Eldritch Knight/Rogue twist?

It's all about the "M"

2008-06-25T03:55:00.000-07:00

If pride comes before a fall, it seems a bit of humility has the opposite affect. My humility in the last entry which lead me to roll a pure Sorceror has developed into the smoothest runthrough of the Neverwinter Night 2 I've ever had. It's practically easy mode, and I've the "M" to thank for it.

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The "M" in this case stands for "mitigation." I had learned through playing City of Heroes that the healing heroes are just burning a lot of endurance patching up wounds: the true path of victory is to prevent getting hit in the first place. In other words, damage mitigation, or an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Little did I know this lesson carried over very well into the D20 system.

By combining Barkskin (Natural AC, +5) with Improved Mage Armor (Armor AC, +6) the whole 4-member party is neigh unhittable by any foes I've encountered all the way to level 9. Magic Circle Against Alignment is a start on the deflection bonus aspect. Stoneskin provides a hefty buffer for the few blows that get through this. These are all long term "hour/level" buffs, and it has has not been neccessary to outfit the party with expensive magical armor.

The mitigation does not end there. My Sorceror has been throwing a combination of Cloud of Bewilderment and summoning spells. Against anything with a mind, the cloud has a very good chance of stunning and blinding them. Summons are probably the best attack spell in the game because they also distract enemy aggression - Summon Creature VI is savage, as the Wild Boar it summons has a +20 to hit due to obscene strength.

Neeshka, the character I'd been wrestling with figuring out how to get rid of for half a week, has proved remarkably adept in this new party. Her completely dexterity-based approach grants a nice dodge bonus to the armor class that stacks with the protective spells nicely. Her sneak attacks are made for Cloud of Bewilderment, as stunned and blinded foes are open to sneak attacks. Dual wielding is almost unfair in this circumstance. At least my scheme to use Greater Invisibility was thwarted when I discovered it reveals the character that attacks with it.

Most recently, I picked up Evard's Black Tentacles and that has been nasty, and not just for the obvious tentacle fetish reasons. Here is both a formidable damage spell and one that performs further mitigation by stunning those in the area of effect. (According to the wiki, this spell proves pointless against high armor class targets, but I'm enjoying it for now.)

I think so long as I continue my philosophy of prioritizing spells that mitigate rather than just damage or heal, these smooth goings will continue. Not only have I not had to reload much, I haven't had to rest my party nearly as often either.

If nothing else, I guess I could say that my Neverwinter Nights 2 alt-a-holicism over the past week has apparently made me very good at this game. Understanding the ludicrous power of power attack critical hits, conditions in which sneak attacks work, and how to maximize mitigation has made a big difference. Before I learned this, I think I wasted a great deal of energy on healing and damage spells: given the availability of healing potions and strong fighter arms, there's no worse use of spell slots.

Accepting D20-style Outsourcing

2008-06-24T13:55:00.001-07:00

After a day of experimenting with various "Rogue/Sorcerer/Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep" derivatives, I've decided (in so far as an indecisive person can decide things) to just accept Neeshka's place in the party and roll my own character as a straight "Sorcerer/Arcane Scholar." As I mentioned at the end of the last entry, this character should be more interesting when combining spontaneous metamagic conversion with the already higher casts per day.

My thinking is that, rather than consider Neeshka's pure tiefling Rogue status to be a incurable burden on the party's combat abilities, I'll look into making good use of her. She already starts with Weapon Finesse, so I'll advance her as a melee fighter. Normally closed ranged combat is quickly fatal for Neeshka, but my Sorceror/Scholar character's spells should be able to (among other things) boost her armor class while keeping her invisible (even when attacking).

With any luck, this plan will transform Neeska into a hard-to-hit, 50% concealed, constantly sneak attacking juggernaut. I suppose I can spare a spot on the party for that. In a way, it's thinking on the scale of the bigger picture. An individual character that tries to do everything is inferior to two specialists that accentuate eachothers' strengths.

D20 Humility

2008-06-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, outspoken gits like myself have to eat a bit of humble pie when they realize they've stepped over the line in their assumptions. Okay, fine, Wizards of the Coast knew what they were doing with spell resistance in the D20 system, after all.

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I thought that the only modifier to a spell resistance overcoming roll was feats such as Greater Spell Penetration. Actually, you add your caster class level to the roll, which is a massive difference: +20 by level 20.

Those commonly available 12 spell resistance Sashes of Shimmering become completely ineffective against a level 12 caster. 31 spell resistance on a lvl 20 Dark Elf isn't such a bad thing: Without any Spell Penetration feat, you've a 50% chance of overcoming it at level 20. Casting Assay Resistance overcomes it entirely. Spell Resistance is really more of a level restriction mechanic than anything else.

On top of that, making saving throws versus spells isn't that easy to do. The base DC is 10 + spell level + attribute modifier + additional modifiers (e.g. Spell Focus or Spellcasting Prodigy). Without modifiers, casting against the strongest saving throw of a foe gives about a 50% chance of them making a saving throw. Many spells do not offer a saving throw, while others are still quite effective against foes that have made theirs.

The D20 system is pretty well balanced in that all classes at any level face about a 50% chance to hit, affect others with spells, or make skill throws before special modifiers such as attribute bonuses or enchantments come into play. It's a pretty brilliant system, really. Although critical hits on power attacks are still pretty damn overpowered, the humble caster isn't as gimped as I was thinking.

Faith in D20 magic renewed, next I'm thinking I'll roll up a 1 Rogue, even Sorceror/Arcane Scholar Of Candlekeep with Able Learning to keep that trap disarming skill up. Yes, I'm still trying to get rid of Neeshka's spot in the party, and the nice thing about a Sorceror is I don't need to juggle tedious spellbook maintenance.

The thing that really impresses me about this combination is the instant use of metamagic feats. This means I can technically cast Magic Missile (into the darkness) 24 times: 6 times normally as a level 1 spell, 6 times empowered as a level 2 spell, 6 times maximized as a level 3 spell, and 6 times quickened as a level 4 spell. That's awesome enough that I want to try it.

The Art Of Hitting Things Very, Very Hard

2008-06-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems I've finally figured things out in terms of finding the "replace the Rogue" solution in Neverwinter Nights 2. It comes with the understanding that you only need to dump 3 skill points per level to keep the neccessary skills up. That's trivial and, as long as you have that first level of Rogue, DC 20/35+ traps are doable (I think).

Taking Able Learner and having a decent intelligence score means you could technically have a level 1 Rogue, level 19 (+) anything. Many races can do this without penalty. Don't fret about your ability scores, Disable Device and Search are not even dexterity based, although Open Lock is.

Poor Neeshka (the provided pure Rogue tiefing of the main campaign) how little we need her... however, the Rogue's plight it's about to get worse.

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Sneak attacks: Picking your pockets of any real damage?

If there's any new discovery I've come across since yesterday, it's only that "sneak attack" isn't a big deal. It mostly has to do with the critical hit formula, which does not multiply the damage from sneak attacks or added weapon damage (e.g. an extra 1d4 fire damage). It does multiply strength bonuses, power attack damage, and basic weapon enhancement (e.g Longsword +4). This difference is what ultimately undermines the value of sneak attacks.

It's hard to get excited about 8d6 sneak attack damage (8-48 bonus damage, avg 28) when any +4 strength yahoo with a Keen Greatsword +3 is doing 1d12 + 15 (16-27 avg 21.5) damage on a basic (not improved or frenzied) two-handed power attack 80% of the time, and 2d12+30 (32-54 avg 43) damage 20% of the time (a critical - not taking into consideration it must be confirmed).

The yahoo has a BAB up to 5 points higher (by level 20) which adjusts to a +2 advantage to hit after the -3 from the power attack is factored in. However, this is not maximum level, or the sneak attack dice and strength/enhancement/power attack mods would be higher.

My new Rogue/Fighter/Weapon Master, already performs quite effectively at character level 5. By level 17, he'll have an expanded scythe critical (5x instead of the 2x above) capable of over 100 damage 20% of the time. If I wanted to play it safer, I could have specialized with the falchion and inflict about half that damage in criticals over 40% of the time. (Again, these percentages reflect unconfirmed criticals.)

What if I ditched the weapon master and went with the far-less-feat-intensive Frenzied Berserker? This class has an enhanced power attack that can transform the +6 improved power attack damage to +12, which doubles again with a two handed weapon. +24 power attack damage with a -6 BAB adjustment. Frenzied Berserkers also have Supreme Cleave (two free attacks per defeated foe), promoting ripe conditions for everything in melee range to die in one round. Why cast fireball when you do way more reliable damage than a fireball?

The numbers don't lie: Sneak attack is no match for power attack alone. The difference is a minor advantage towards power attack normally, but critical hit interaction totally overpowers the difference by multiplying it. I often wondered how, about midway through the official campaign, Khelgar (the provided fighter) was often able to inflict high double-digit damage. Now I know.

Not that sneak attack is completely useless

Despite having just proved it an underdog in melee damage, I can think of a few situations in which sneak attack can be handy. To an extent, I've worded this Blog entry poorly - it's not like Sneak Attack is directly competing with power attack.

First off, sneak attack requires no investments of attribute points. The strength point savings from not taking power attack can be used to improve combat viability in other ways, such as with dexterity (armor class and Weapon Finesse) wisdom (divine spells and Zen Archery) or intelligence (arcane spells, skill points, and Combat Insight).

Second, sneak attack does not require any investment of feats. It does require certain class levels are taken, but certain character concepts are going to have those classes anyway. In comparison, Improved Power Attack requires two feats (and the above mentioned attribute requirement).

Third, sneak attack is free extra damage. A 5d6 sneak attack translates to an average 21 points of damage. A power attack at that level might do more damage, but sneak attacks require no BAB reduction and will work in conjunction with a power attack. Even though sneak attack damage wont' be modified on a critical, the extra damage is welcome.

Finally, sneak attacks do have an advantage in that they aren't as that hard to do as critical hits. At first, it seems you need feats like Hide in Plain Sight or a reliable distraction, but it's actually even easier than that. The sneak attack requirements can be met by a foe who has "no sight of attacker." Thus, it's as simple as just blinding the enemy or having Greater Invisibility cast on you. I haven't tested this, but it should work.

The main point I'm making here is sneak attack is never as quick and reliable as just hacking things to bits with high strength, two-handed power attacks. It has a purpose (mostly in low strength builds) but it's not the awesome combat advantage I once thought it was. (I get a sense of de ja vu when I think about Fireballs -- spell resistance and realizing the average of 10d6 is 35 put an end to excitement over that.)

Perhaps next I should consider defensive viability of the classes. A high strength power attack specialist can certainly dish it out, but how well can he take it compared to a 25 dexterity character? A monk may have a medium BAB, but is the wisdom AC modifiers and perfect self damage mitigation worth it? A wizard's fireball may be unreliable in applying damage, but do spells like Premonition make up for it? It's interesting to consider that AD&D 3rd edition's rules may have gone topsy turvy, where the less warrior-like you are, the better you are at being the tank in the end.

Still Roguishly Pursuing The Neverwinter Nights

2008-06-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

You know, my overall desire to fixate on the pros and cons of various classes in an RPG is interesting. It indicates that, deep down, I must have a great interest in being a business manager or something. Always tweaking, always trying to find the better way to do something.

Yesterday, I thought I found the solution to my latest Neverwinter Nights 2 fixation. In order to make a Rogue a valuable member of a party (instead of the medium BAB trap and door handyman they usually are) I thought I'd go for Arcane Trickster. It seemed like a pretty good deal because you essentially get 5 free Rogue and Wizard levels. However, problems arose on multiple levels.

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The Arcane Trick Was On Me

Without getting into too long of a story, the main two problems were these:

Neverwinter Nights 2's implementation of the Arcane Trickster make the high sneak attack bonus a complete tease.

So what if I'd have 8d6 sneak attack at level 20? I'd also have a +10 (lvl 5 Rogue/5 Wizard/10 Trickster) BAB in a campaign balanced for +20 (lvl 20 Fighter) BAB. I'll not be hitting much of anything unless I'm rolling near 20. There's really no magical way around this - casting True Strike every round would both be tedious and costly (in terms of casting time).

This is partly a Neverwinter Nights 2 implementation problem. Arcane Tricksters are supposed to be able to do sneak attacks with ranged touch spells, and don't.

As before, I was prioritizing the functionality over the fun.

I'm sort of sick of playing a Wizard these days. All that tedious spell book management, never knowing how many spells you need to get the job done because of spell resistance or saving throws. I think I'd prefer a Sorceror or a Bard for my arcane level requirements because spell management is much easier. However, that would require more levels prior to taking Arcane Trickster than I find acceptable.

As much as I might have liked an Arcane Trickster, there was just too much busywork involved. This is not even getting into aspects such as whether or not to wear armor due to arcane spell failure.

The Roguish New Deal

My overall goal remains to keep the Rogue's capability to disarm and open locks while boosting overall combat effectiveness. The Arcane Trickster was a bust, but I have identified at least two pretty solid directions to go.

Take 1 level of Rogue per 2 or 3 levels of some kind of low/medium BAB casting character. (With many races, it's possible to do this without even taking an experience penalty hit.)

This is mainly possible because of the way skill points are handled. At the Rogue's eight base skill points, it just takes a +1 intelligence bonus to keep the important three skills (search, disarm trap, open locks) capped every three levels. A +4 intelligence bonus can extend this to every four levels. Classes with more skill points can make this even easier, especially with the Able Learner feat: A 1 Rogue/19 Bard is possible under the way NWN2 handles skill caps.

The result is a reasonably capable caster that handles those pesky traps and locks while providing a nice batch of backup spells. It's tempting, because spells can be awesomely powerful, the Practiced Spellcaster feat can make potency inconsequential, and in epic levels you'll eventually reach level 20 in your casting class. However, it's a trickier path because you've inherited the caster's vulnerability, your low BAB prevents effective Sneak Attack use, and may have to deal with things like Arcane Spell Failure.

Take roughly even levels of Rogue and some kind of high BAB fighting character.

spell progression

Reviewing this now, it seems I've made up my mind. I don't want to deal with the hassles of spellcasting, and I'm interested in exploiting the melee aspects of Sneak Attack. A straight-up fighter is probably the best option, but more creative choices include the Ranger, Paladin, Invisible Blade, or Duelist. (Then again, maybe I'll try that 1 Rogue/19 Bard option.)

Hacking AD&D

2008-06-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

After playing a bit more Neverwinter Nights 2, I've decided that perhaps spellcasters in AD&D 3rd edition are not such invalids, after all. True, spell resistance, combined with needing to pass saving throws and damage rolls, make most offensive spells very unreliable. However, what I've learned is that melee characters have their own problems. For example, damage reduction works not unlike spell resistance in that it requires a lucky roll (such as a confirmed critical hit) to inflict meaningful damage at all.

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My original impression that the D20 system is one of great randomness was even more all-inclusive than I earlier realized. Regardless of if you're throwing spells with epic spell penetration or attacking with the highest base attack bonus, you can't count on getting anything done in AD&D unless the dice are on your side.

I think what I've been looking for all this time is just something along the lines of reliability in the D20 system. I'm a gamer, in a very deep and self-identifying way. When one takes games as seriously as I do, I prefer to play them, not have them play me. Neverwinter Nights 2's great randomness makes it feel like I'm the one being played, and that frustrates me.

My latest foray as a scythe-using Fighter felt pretty good because, in the Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign, I was given very little in the way of reliable high-armor class meat shields. (Khelgar, despite his dwarven armor class bonus, has a strangely hard time getting very high armor class.) However (minor spoiler) as the campaign progresses, more meat shields become available so bringing my own seems unnecessary. Further, the foes' base to hit values increase with level even faster than equipment becomes available. Suddenly, my Fighter just wasn't providing the smooth experience I was hoping for anymore.

Despite my frustration with the D20 system, I think I want to beat this campaign. The story is relatively good, and the gameplay is satisfyingly deep. The new solution becomes two fold: First, skew the odds in my favor as much as possible. Second, maximize the power of the four-character party.

To skew the odds, I'm going to see about making my character some kind of super buffing/debuffing character. One that doles out increased armor class, saving throws, spell resistance, and damage reduction to allies while robbing the enemy of their protection. Most likely Bards, other arcane casters, or divine casters.

The maximize the power of the party, I turn my attention on eliminating the tiefling rogue, Neeshka. She might be an endearing character in terms of story and voice work, but poor Neeshka is generally ineffectual. I've tried her at close range, and she dies quickly due to poor Rogue armor class. She lasts longer at long range, but does not contribute much due to sneak attack conflicts. It does not help that Neeshka's a level lower than the rest of the party due to the tiefling level adjustment.

A combination of a trap disarmer and a powerful buffer-debuffer is a relatively tall order, since Rogue levels directly take from whatever class will be providing the buffs/debuffs. However, I'll see what I can do. I'll probably end up with a character that takes just enough Rogue levels to periodically maximize search, open lock, and disable devices.

So, long story short, rather than cut and run from my obvious dislike of the randomness of the D20 system, I've decided to power game Neverwinter Nights 2 like it's going out of style.

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is Drizzt

2008-06-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

Subjects on the menu: The nature of intelligence versus insanity, and why the shortest distance between two points in Neverwinter Nights 2 is Drizzt.

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Today, I've decided all my entires on "alt-a-holicism" are largely evidence of insanity... but I'm no mental invalid. The trouble is that, when you get right down to it, excessively overthinking things always leads to insanity. Ideas are just that, ideas - they exist only in the mind - and the more complicated they get the more insane (distanced from reality) the idea is.

This "insanity" is occasionally useful, it's what gives Humankind its incredible edge. For example: "People can fly. No, listen, I've been thinking it over and perhaps air will actually resist an oddly shaped plane moving through it, causing an upward suction that we can use to fashion a vehicle that allows people to fly." Thanks, Wright Brothers, that one turned out handy.

Though it's sort of a sign of ongoing insanity that we don't particularly mind how this places us in mortal peril during the occasional plane crash (the higher odds of car crashes just being another kind of insanity) I think we can nevertheless be thankful that our minds are capable of creating such powerful working insanity as antibiotics.

The most worthwhile insanity saves lives more than it imperils, and we should label things "good" and "bad" appropriately. Much like the dead end mutants in evolution, unproductive insanity is just a waste of time best abandoned. I, for one, love to over-think things and this causes me no end of delightful misery.

For example, I start with a perfectly sane first impression: "There's different ways to play this game and everybody's going to play it differently depending on the kind of person they are." Yes, I've actually been there before. Then, I started questioning what that meant. "Okay, but what kind of person am I and how does this influence what I should play to get the most out of the game?"

This proved to be wasteful overthinking. I should have stuck with my first impression: Play whatever you want to play, there's no difference to it, it's just a flavor.

However, if you're playing to win, overzealous intelligence has a way of finding the path of least resistance...

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is Drizzt

Today, I looked down upon the mighty D20 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition rules laid out in Neverwinter Nights 2 and realized the fundamental point in the above title. Drizzt Do'Urden, that idol of much nerd worship or scorn, is the path of least resistance - the "easy mode" to win the game quickly.

It began with noticing that my previous favorite, the Monk, actually has "Medium" base attack bonus table, the same as Clerics and Druids. Flurry of Blows makes up for it a little, but the bottom line is that this poor schmuck never gets the high base-to-hit that Fighters do, maxing out at +15 Base to Hit and 5 attacks.

Meanwhile, Fighters and other high BTH characters are getting +20 BTH and 4 attacks. You can match Flurry of Blows number of attacks with Two Weapon Fighting or exceed it with the Improved and Greater versions. Other feats such as Manyshot, and Cleave (which can also be taken by Monks) allow even more attacks.

Base to Hit is fairly major in that every point represents a 5% better chance to hit a target. In a tough fights, it's the difference between hitting your aggressor 30% of the time (6 in 20) instead of 5% of the time (1 in 20). There's a few other classes that get as high of BTH as Fighters, but I suspect that the Fighter's got the upper hand due to the awesome power of feats. Everybody gets 7 naturally, some classes have specific bonus feats, but fighters get an extra 11 (for a total of 18).

My second favorite classes are the arcane casters - Sorcerors, Warlocks, ect. Fighters seem less uber when you consider that one cast from a level 20 Wizard can kill them. However, while this has traditionally been the Dungeons and Dragons balance, I now realize that Third Edition rules are different. Now, a Wizard has as much a chance as one-shotting that Fighter as he does rolling a nasty critical hit that one-shot the Wizard.

A lot has to happen for a spell to be effective. If the caster is under attack, they need to make a concentration roll for each attack endured while casting. If a spell affects a target, they usually get a saving throw that halves or completely negates the spell's effect. Even if the cast is successful and the saving throw is failed, there's always a chance you could flub the damage roll, turning that 5d6 fireball to a mere 5 damage.

Now, this is where Drizzt comes in: the third Edition introduces yet another hurdle to successful spellcasting that he happens to be an expert in. He's a Dark Elf, and Dark Elves get massive Spell Resistance - a completely new check that spells must pass before all of what occurs in the previous paragraph even has a chance to apply. You don't have to be a Dark Elf to have spell resistance, however, as it can also be granted from spells and protective magical items.

The rules have changed. Wizards casting Fireball are at a severe disadvantage. Their spells are best saved for indirect applications (such as summoning spells) or healing and buffing the people doing the real work. The other "medium BTH" characters - Rogues and Bards - are generally providing a support role too.

In summary, high BTH characters equipped with some means of spell resistance and the right feats seem to have the upper hand over all the other classes in third edition AD&D. This seems to be fairly well verified in the Neverwinter Nights 2 application, where I discovered a party lead by my new Fighter blazed through content with nary a rest stop that would have my Monk or Sorcerer resting after reach battle.

RPG Balances and Aneurisms

2008-06-15T23:24:00.000-07:00

My boredom of City of Heroes is somewhat cyclical: I get bored of it, I wait for awhile, then I'm interested in playing it again. Usually, my hiatus lasts about a month. This time, surprisingly, it only took two days. Apparently, wrestling with Neverwinter Nights 2 for that long brought new appreciation towards my old flame.

What both games have in common is a tendency to want to roll alternate characters more than actually play. It occurs to me that I have the same problem in both games: I notice something I really enjoy which is lacking in the current character, and so set about trying to create a character that has this. In doing so, I leave behind a feature I really enjoy in the last character. Then, conditions are set for the process to continue, with the possible added complication of (largely unsatisfactory) middle characters.

I seem to want a character that does a lot more than either game's balance permits. I think my alt-a-holicism will be settled at last when I can accept the faithful truth that every decision has a consequence. Without being willing to bear those burdens, I'm doomed to continue searching for solutions which (as in the case of these games) may not exist. Asking Google just now, I see that there's at least one self-help expert who agrees with this assessment.

Perhaps it's time to generate some priorities: Which burdens weigh the least for me? If I can commit to that and put it in writing, perhaps I'll be ready to move on.

The Futile Beating Of Dead Things

2008-06-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

Well, today's gaming endeavors were a waste. I was bored of my Monk in Neverwinter Nights 2, and so decided to try the City of Heroes solution: roll an alt. One thing lead to another and before I knew it I had pretty much spent the whole day rolling alts. Wizards, Clerics, Bards, even a Rogue/Wizard I was grooming for being an Arcane Trickster.

I'm honestly not sure how those hours disappeared: was it from leafing through the Neverwinter Nights 2 manuals (both the original and Mask of the Betrayer) trying to figure out how to wrestle the missing fun from this D20-inspired monstrosity? If so, I'm sorry to say that my quest has failed. I think the only reason I tried so hard is because I might have liked to have finished the Neverwinter Nights 2 original campaign, if only just to say I did.

Too bad, it seems enjoying NWN2 just isn't possible for me anymore. Even minor inventory clutter pushes my nerves past the breaking point. My problems with NWN2 may have stemmed from protracted playing of the original Neverwinter Nights: bored of the original, then you're bored of the uninspired sequel. It's possible the sequel was a worse game: prettier and with more D20 mechanics coded, but slow and glitchy. Obsidian Entertainment's priorities were in the wrong place, as Neverwinter Nights was always about providing a good platform for a D20 experience, not flashy graphics.

Maybe tomorrow I'll fire up Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion... but I honestly expect that such a thing would lead to a repeat performance of my NWN2 experiences. Perhaps the ability to be able to dig up and enjoy a game again is unique to MMORPGs or other games that actually change over time? That would certainly make sense. Well, I've no real need to keep playing the same thing over and over again, as I've both a GameTap and GameFly account.

Back to Forgotten Realms butchery

2008-06-11T23:50:00.000-07:00

Well, now that I've said my tearful temporary goodbyes to City of Heroes (history has shown that I'll be back) I'm currently in the default position of "every MMORPG sucks." Yet, I need to play something, if only to stave off the gas price-related melancholy that is sweeping the nation.

Little did I know my whims were going to direct me to waste the day on one of the worst games I've already played before: Neverwinter Nights 2.

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At first, I thought perhaps I'd give Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion another run with intent of getting some heavy plugin work done on it. That's certainly easier than writing a game from scratch (learning Torque, Flash, or Java) and would create a working model of my game design genius - albeit carved from the screaming innards of a Bethesda design. (Lately, I've been considering the stark reality that, without some kind of produced end product, brains don't impress anyone.)

Maybe later. Instead, I decided to turn my attention to Neverwinter Nights 2, a game I got pretty far in the main campaign before (almost to the beginning of chapter 3 of 3) but never quite finished.

Neverwinter Nights 2

To an extent, my previous stint in it was sabotaged by the same fellow who sabotaged Age of Conan: He didn't want to play it alone, so I helped by playing it with him... and was rushed along through the campaign at multiplayer pace, totally ruining any attempt to savor it while exposing content I couldn't enjoy a second time. (I should cut him some slack - he didn't eat my face off when I bored of it that time.)

For whatever reason, Neverwinter Nights 2 was completely uninstalled, I didn't even have a save game to show for it. I reinstalled it, including the Mask of the Betrayer which I never played before, and rolled up a Monk. As I forged through the starting tutorial looking to earn my Harvest Cup and Cloak once again, one thought coursed through my mind:

"Wow, I had forgotten just how awkwardly realized this game is."

Part of my problems are technical in nature. Even fully patched up, the NWN2 engine doesn't like my quad core processor or possibly my dual monitor setup, because I warp when I rotate the camera, even after playing with the involved sliders. My ATI X1600XT is still a barely acceptable card by 2005 standards, and so NWN2 (a late 2006 game) can only really play in low quality... but at least it's smooth enough there and many of the old technical glitches have been patched over.

However, the majority of the problems are because the underlying game is poorly designed for what's expected of it.

The GUI, the heart of the game, still need work:

The inventory is a cluttered mess of potions, throwable items, crafting items, books, rods, medical kits, quest items, weapons, armor, other junk, and additional bags to lose it all in.
Hit the "sort" button and this is all piled from the first screen onwards, defeating the purpose of having four screens of inventory.
The quick casting interface is better than sticking the spells on hotkeys, but really, the hotkeys themselves are an awkward MMORPG invention at best.
The characters move around either by click or WASD movement that is so kludgy that you're pausing constantly to overcome an infallible tendency of the pathing to get you stuck on rocks and other terrain.

I've noticed that the AI of your companion NPCs are still in constant need of babysitting as well.

They lag behind so far that two or three rounds of fighting may occur before they catch up... sometimes, they get stuck in a loop where they stop following entirely.
They run needlessly between live enemy targets, triggering unnecessary attacks of opportunity.
If there's a trap between you and the enemy, they run straight through the trap as though triggering it is some kind of macho battle cry.
About the only thing they do well is consume any potions or other usable items you gave them like some kind of mana-dependent junkie.

These idiosyncrasies can be worked around in time, mostly by turning on "puppet mode" and denying them the ability to act on their own at all, but I wonder why (one and a half years after release) the developers never got around to fixing these problems.

Not that I'm much of a D20 fan...

That this game is based on the D20 system is really enough for it to have problems. I've said it before: the trouble with the D20 RPG system is that it's too random. No matter how good of a player you are or how pimped out your character and his/her equipment/spells are, if the enemy rolls much better than you, then you lose.

For example, a 10d6 fireball could do the full 60 points of damage, annihilating you as you sit there fully healed with 55 hitpoints. As a Wizard, it's a continual vexation when your spells are resisted or you roll for 10 damage on said 10d6 fireball. In melee, a one hitdie kobold who rolls a string of crits could annihilate the toughest armored warrior who continues to roll 1s. Not to mention the critical fumble table, thankfully omitted from NWN2. As unlikely as these events are, they happen: Murphy's Law doesn't just undermine this system; It knocks this system down and kicks it until it stops moving.

In practice, you play around the D20 system if you want to enjoy it. In the pencil and paper version, a conscientious DM compensates by fudging rolls behind their screen (so long as the players did nothing deserving of instant death from a poor roll). In computer form, you save and reload... constantly. The NWN2 campaign itself is designed to mitigate reloading, providing your player with magical shards of uberness that grant you an edge which would make a tabletop GM break down and cry. Further, you can rest every 5 feet to regain memorized spells and hitpoints, suggesting that the D20 system is only good for one encounter at a time.

Suddenly, I realize why The Witcher got such good reviews. Neverwinter Nights 2 lowered the PC RPG gamer's expectations.

Still alive

Yet, despite these problems, I forge ahead. The class choice of a Monk helps. Like the Buddhist Shaolin Monks of the ages, my Monk regards the sea of jagged bad design with such serenity that it may as well be a bed of cherry blossoms. His incredible monk bonuses allow him to plow through bad guys while ignoring the pointless blunderings of his companions. He uses or sells items quickly, preventing them from cluttering his inventory long, as he's certainly not that reliant them. Traps don't bother him, his incredible trap evasion mitigates the majority of their damage potential. I've even taken to bashing chests, piously ignoring the broken riches I leave in the splintered pile.

[Edit:] By the end of the day, I did discover a nice AI HakPack that took pretty good care of much of the AI's initial incompetence as well as making the foes behave more interestingly. I was also able to bring the camera panning rate to an acceptable speed by scrolling the appropriate bars entirely to the left. A little experimentation revealed that my video card can handle better than the lowest detail (though some effects (such as bloom) still floor it).

That's probably all the respite I'm going to get, as no amount of GUI mods can change that there's simply too many items glutting the inventory pages. Neither will any mod change that NWN 2 was, after all, based on a randomness-crippled D20 game.

Maybe I'll stick with NWN2 long enough to complete the campaign this time. I doubt it - I probably won't even make it as far as I was before since the story (the main draw) is mostly known to me - but maybe.

End Of The Line: Alt-A-Holicism Exposed, MMORPG Assessments Finalized

2008-06-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

In a fit of rampant alt-a-holicism, it seems my City of Heroes flow is thoroughly disrupted. In this state of mind, it's really hard to give any character a fair shake, such is my natural inclination to abandon them and move on to the next. However, I've run out of power combinations awhile back, and so it begins to look like I've resubscribed in vain.

Yes, I've canceled again, the day after I resubscribed. However, not without taking things into perspective.

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Hard Learned Lessons Remembered

I took a little hiatus from the game, and when I came back it become clear what my good and functional solution was: The Dark Miasma/Sonic Defender, one that does decent damage while having a variety of powerful choices. That's what I seemed to be talking myself into for days. What could possibly by missing from that?

Well, it turns out something was missing. As I poured over the character in Mid's Hero Designer I realized I had no desire to play this character because of what was missing. It was a slippery slope I discovered back in February: "I had prioritized the functionality over the fun."

I had learned the hard way that characters need to be fun first and functional second. I don't need to assure I have a high damage-per-second ratio or the ability to lock down a spawn with holds. What I need is to have fun!

I had created a Kinetics/Energy Defender with this philosophy in mind and, before I knew it, he was level 34 - about twice the level most of my characters survive to reach. If that isn't credible evidence, I don't know what is.

Alt-A-Holicism Exposed

However, he got boring, so I stopped playing him.

When a game gets boring there's no point in playing it: That's the real, totally human and forgivable trigger to alt-a-holicism. A person rolls an alt because they feel the game is flexible enough to provide entertainment in some other way. The tendency to roll alts gets chronic when creating new characters is more entertaining than the game itself, and City of Heroes has been that way for me for awhile.

MMORPG Assessments Finalized

I should probably put the game down entirely and wait for Champions Online, but I can't think of a MMORPG I enjoy more than City of Heroes right now.

Age of Conan currently leaves a bad taste of my mouth. It's partly due to its terribly unrefined balance and technical problems. However, I've also the outright sabotage of an ex-friend to blame for disrupting my flow of this game.

Everquest 2 is too heavily expanded to know where to play. Even if I was able to figure that out, the balance is unsatisfying for me as it's much too easy in a group.

Vanguard really does have some very good systems: Diplomacy? Brilliant. Excellent combat balance, too. However, it has a similar problem to EQ2 in that the world is too big to accommodate the players. Rather than expansions, the cause in this case was as buggy, lukewarm release.

Tabula Rasa went in the direction of delivering a deluge of WoW-esque quests when they should have went in the direction of a dynamically changing landscape (everything an Outpost).

Final Fantasy XI is a masterpiece of an EverQuest clone, once you get over the blocky interface, but it's been running too long. The graphics have become dated, they've expanded it too far, and nearly everybody who's anybody has already maximized the level of their characters.

World of Warcraft is the McDonald's of MMORPGs: Worldwide name-brand appeal, several billion served, but it leaves the true connoisseurs unimpressed. It's basically just a streamlined reinterpretation of EverQuest with a bit of Blizzard magic in the GUI. But hey, at least they're raking in so much money that everybody wants to imitate them now.

Lord of the Ring Online's mistake is partly that the game mechanic wasn't deep enough, partly that it tried to be World of Warcraft. (Expect Warhammer Online to follow.)

That's enough. The point is that City of Heroes is the only MMORPG that's worth playing for me right now. It's a pity that all I can think to do in it is roll characters until I bore of them. Without any kind of continuity, a MMORPG loses a lot of its appeal.

*sigh* Maybe I've taken long enough of a break from Age of Conan to be interested in leveling a Herald of Xolti up from level 1 again. Funcom is bound to fix it eventually, right?

My Super Power Is Being Non-Committal

2008-06-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

For four terrifying hours, I went without my City of Heroes subscription today. I nearly tried to learn the Torque Game Builder! But, confronted with there being no real game I wanted to play at the moment, I caved and subscribed to City of Heroes for another month.

My ultimate fantasy character remains that: a fantasy. It was time to compromise. I decided what I really wanted was just a character that does a decent amount of damage while having a decent amount of interesting choices. It differs from before in that I was no longer looking for a character that greatly excelled in both aspects.

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After hours of deliberation, I came across some simple criteria. If I wanted a hero (and I did) that eliminates half the possible choices. If I wanted to do a decent amount of damage (and I did) I would need a dedicated damage dealer archetype, that brought me to two out of the five archetypes. From there, it was just a matter of determining which power sets available to those archetypes offered a decent amount of choices.

My first prototype was a Dual Blades/Regeneration Scrapper. He was an upgrade from my previous Dual Blades/Super Reflexes Scrapper because the secondary power set actually required timely use. Regeneration also seemed to have some pretty good "choices" available when things were turning sour.

However, the leap from theory to practice panned out quickly: he didn't make it past level 2. I came to realize that, although I do enjoy a "visceral" experience, I also enjoy the thinking man's approach. What I really needed wasn't necessarily visceral, just a character who did enough damage to not bore me when I soloed.

I realized then that what I needed was a "Blastroller," the Blaster whose powers allow them to fill a minor "Controllery" role. Fortunately, the last issue introduced some Psionic Blast primary and Mental Manipulation secondary sets that were both fairly Controllery. After even more hours of deliberation, I came to settle upon an Electric/Mental Blaster.

Why Mental Manipulation? It has a good battery of psychic attacks, but I mostly chose it for "World of Confusion." This toggle power perpetually sets all minions within 8 feet upon their former allies, and I suspect it can stack and influence Lieutenants and Bosses too. It's the ultimate AOE attack, and "Controllery" too. As a very nice fringe benefit, it looks like Drain Psyche can be enhanced to provide incredible hitpoint and endurance regeneration, circumventing the need for Stamina.

Why Electrical Blast? My previous experience has shown it to be pretty dependable, if a little slow on the recharge. However, it's mostly due to the lack of cone attacks. Short Circuit (PBAOE) and Ball Lightning (AOE) will go well with where I expect my Blaster to be: in the midst of enemies where I can comfortably use World of Confusion and Drain Psyche.

In practice, the first 10 levels have gone relatively well. A Blaster's firepower certainly doesn't keep one waiting, and Subduel and Telekinetic Thrust are more interesting than most control methods a Scrapper get. An unexpected benefit is that Subduel operates as a third ranged attack that space out the Electronic blast effects nicely. However, given that I'm only at level 10, the majority of the powers have yet to be used.

Taking a closer look at World of Confusion, it's not great enough for me to base an entire character concept on because there's only a 25% chance it'll affect a given foe. However, if I'm allowed to Confuse Set enhance it, there's a nice level 50 purple enhancement I might be able to get my hands on that causes an AOE confusion proc. For a toggle confusion effect, that's about as good as a permanent PBAOE confuse.

Honestly, my day would have been better spent if I used it wrapping my brain around Torque. It's not that I'd learn it in one day - it'd probably take months to get good enough at it to put together a respectable single-developer-quality game, and that's because I've some previous C++/Java programming experience - but it would have been more productive than wrestling with squeezing the last ounce of pleasure out of City of Heroes.

Cape Theory

2008-06-08T18:28:00.000-07:00

One thing that's proved difficult to surmount for me is that there's a gap between theory and practice. What looks excellent on the drawing board does not always perform well when the final implementation is assembled and given a test run. It baffles the finest of engineers in the field, and baffles this gamer in City of Heroes.

Full Entry: You certainly found the right blog if you're looking for protracted alt-a-holicism.

In theory, for reasons I've documented extensively in the last entry, my Gravity/Kinetic/Psionic Controller is a lovely choice for the ultimate character. Heroic (not a villain archetype) with the wide variety of options and defensive strength only found in Controllers, yet compensating for the Controller's traditionally weak offense with Kinetics power siphoning, finally completing the missing AOE damage component and status resistance with Psionic. The theory seems sound!

In practice, this character crashes and burns like a pre-Wright Brothers airplane design. The trouble is that the application of his powers is very awkward, moreso than a skilled player can effectively compensate for. The actual game plan to wipe out the average spawn looks like this:

Wormhole foes into close proximity location.
Restrain foes with Crushing Field and/or Gravity Distortion Field.
Siphon Speed to boost movement speed.
Rush into melee range and Fulcrum Shift, boosting damage to (or near) the 400% cap.
Start nuking with Area of Effect attacks. (Psionic Tornado and Crushing Field.)
Pick off survivors. (Lift and Propel.)

Each power activation takes time - this sequence of powers would take about half a minute to cast back to back, and some (mostly the attack powers) will need to be cast multiple times before the spawn is finished off. Before you know it, you're up to two or three minutes to defeat a full spawn. Comparatively, Blaster or Scrapper can get the same accomplished in about a minute with a game plan that looks like:

Build up for temporary double damage (replaces steps 1-4 above).
Start nuking with Area of Effect attacks.
Pick off the survivors.

Having high base damage, and not having to compensate for it with awkward methods such as Fulcrum Shift, saves a lot of time. Given they've about 3-5 times as much base damage per attack, the actual number of power activations are considerably less. The catch: it's riskier for a Scrapper or Blaster, because the Controller possesses incredible defensive capacity.

For the Controller, one's safety is of little consolation when you're slowly slogging your way through a mission having to hit foes with five times as many power activations. The critical problem isn't directly the damage output so much as the result: Controllers feel ponderous and boring to play. It's the same in every MMORPG where everybody wants to be the DPS-machine.

I miss the exciting, visceral-feeling characters. They move quickly, spend less time animating their attacks, and look a lot cooler in action. Playing such a character in City of Heroes is playing it at its best. The only problem is that these "visceral" characters tend to be one-dimensional. I get tired of having so little options... and then I'm back to Controllers again.

I can't settle for either, I want both. For months - no, years - I've been trying to find this elusive character. Unfortunately, for all the flexibility that City of Heroes seems to offer, it seems that there simply isn't a character that does this well enough. There's been some near misses: A Dark Miasma Scrapper would seem to have options and damage... but unfortunately devolves into a toggle-heavy and uninvolved-feeling character.

It seems that in City of Heroes, you've either many options or you've better damage potential. It's probably a deliberate balance decision, so my long quest to find a character that possesses both was doomed to fail from the start.

My City of Heroes subscription expires tomorrow, and I think I'll just let it lapse. Maybe they'll drag me back in Issue 13, especially if they introduce a more meaningful level 50 experience or a heroic character with both options and firepower. However, chances are I'll just be holding out for Champions Online, whose core features include total power customization and a dynamically changing world.

My Age of Conan subscription has 20 days left on it. I've contacted Funcom to see if they're at all interested in performing a server transfer for me. Given that a Herald of Xolti is the only class I seem to enjoy, and that I'm not leveling another one up from scratch for 50 levels, that'll make or break it for me.

Quality Found Outside Hyboria

2008-06-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I put Age of Conan "on probation." Today, it seems I've no motivation to play it at all. There's something missing in the replay value - it just doesn't feel worth the climb the second time. Perhaps a little time away from it will change my mind.

Instead, today I played the latest Pixeljam web game: Dinorun, the new Penny Arcade Adventures, and (my longtime old flame) City of Heroes. I'll probably play a bit of the venerable Elite Beat Agents and/or Drill Dozer before bedtime.

No wonder time's been flying lately: my cup runneth over with awesome.

Full Entry: Details on these games

Dinorun: Interactive Pixel Art

Pixeljam's thing appears to be making quality flash games that feature pixel-like graphics and electronic music. Dinorun in particular has an interesting premise: you're a dinosaur attempting to escape the aftermath of the meteor that wiped out life on the planet. The artistic result is excellent - it's best experienced firsthand.

Penny Arcade Adventures: Better Than Parody

Penny Arcade Adventures is going for the episodic model that worked so well for Telltale Games. The first installment weighs in at about 6-8 hours and $20, for the XBox360 and PC.

The multimedia aspects of the game are quite well done. I played the XBox360 version on a widescreen television and was treated to some sharply detailed portrayals of contemporary Victorian times gone mad. There's quite a bit of original music that runs the gamut from weird comedic experiments to the catchy end sequence.

The actual gameplay is a cross between a point and click adventure and a standard console RPG, but with a finer balance than most. When you're not in combat, you're walking about the world, examining a plethora of hotspots. Interacting with the animate initiates simple menu-driven conversation or combat, while the inanimate often has humorous descriptions. Rather than buy utility items in the stores, you recover them by destroying various boxes and trashcans wit your trusty rake - the boxes respawn, so you're able to use items with unusual freedom.

The combat itself is refreshingly challenging. Many enemies are capable of defeating individual party members who have flubbed their active blocking in two or three rounds, but party members can be propped up by using a cheap healing item. It can be a bit hectic wrestling with the interface to overcome a particularly tough fight, but rather than frustrate me, I enjoyed the challenge. If I were to give it a negative mark, it would be in the annoying persistence of some foes to throw weakening status effects with rapid succession, temporarily reducing my ability to damage them to next to nothing.

Last but foremost, the writing was the entertaining brains behind the beauty. It went for a somewhat dry tone with profane overtones, as is oft personified in the comic. It's definitely not a kid's game, way too much swearing for that. How many games do you know where you can eviscerate drunken hobos into bloody gibs? The choice of the setting - placing you in the midst of an independent team of Victorian evil hunters - was unusually inspired.

I finished it in about 6-8 hours, and I eagerly look forward to the next installment.

City of Heroes

I enjoyed playing City of Heroes today. Wait - seriously?! That game I put maybe 2000 hours into?! Well, the main problem (as I detailed extensively in the last few entires) was that there was no reason to play at level 50 without some ultimate character I'd be willing to invest the neccessary effort into. Today, I think I've found that character.

I'm building on experience. I wanted to play a hero, as villainy goes against my grain, and defection is yet to be an option. I wanted to play a Controller because they have the most diverse set of unique effects of any heroic archetype: any other heroic archetype dedicates either their Primary or Secondary tree to a battery of powers which are essentially there to do damage, which is boring to me. At this point, there was just the matter of deciding on the Primary and Secondary power sets.

My previous Controller, Illusion/Storm, was excellent in terms of variety but there were three things I disliked about him. First, it's somewhat unacceptably boring when I have to take a over a minute and a half to kill a single +2 level boss monster (even moreso when said boss monster has been rendered helpless with my Controllers' holds). Second, he had no means to heal himself, which was problematic if I was out of green inspirations and the unexpected had occurred. Third, his control was pretty chaotic, and would often scatter foes.

The Kinetics secondary power set solved the first two problems. Power Siphon, Speed Siphon, and Fulcrum Shift take damage potential away from enemies and transfers it to the Controller (and often his teammates). At higher levels against a large batch of foes, it can boost the Controller up to their 400% damage cap and (with recharge hastening) even further. Transfusion, the very first power in the set, is a very powerful PBAOE heal that centers on a foe, and is very easy to use as a Controller.

For the primary set, Plant Control was a tempting choice. In terms of power, it simultaneously takes some of the best parts out of Fire Control (high DoT-related damage) Mind Control (mass confuse) and the rest (AOE lockdown). However, I chose Gravity Control instead because experience tells me that a pet is not an important of a part of a Controller's damage infliction. Mass Confuse is useful enough, but what could be even more useful is the combination of using Wormhole to redirect an entire enemy group into a corner and then cycling Crushing Field to keep them there.

This Gravity Control/Kinetics character is specifically designed with the end game in mind. The Gravity Manipulation pool moves foes with Wormhole, keeps them safely locked down with the variety of control effects, and provides high base-damage against single targets with containment-enhanced Lift and Propel attacks. The Kinetics secondary pool siphons a great deal of extra firepower, keeps the endurance bar full, speeds up the team, and proves cheap travel powers (the savings in slots should make it easy enough to pick up Hasten, Recall Friend, or maybe even Stamina). The Psionic Mastery epic power pool crowns the perfection: Indomitable Will provides the otherwise missing protection from status effects, while Psionic Tornado (to which containment does not apply but it should be fully under the influence of Fulcrum Shift) rapidly dispatches the trapped minions and lieutenants.

It's an all around powerful character, sure, but I also like the concept behind him: A technological genius hero whose powers extend into inter-dimensional manipulation and (eventually) psychic powers. Not somebody your average super-powered purse snatcher would want to meet in a dark alley!

Meh - all this talk of City of Heroes makes me weary of it again. I'll probably take things slow and maybe play a bit of GameTap when I'm feeling bored of it again.

Elite Beat Agents: A Dual Screen Instant Classic

My brother came home with the game the other day, and I have to say that I regret never playing it before. The actual gameplay is simple timed stylus manipulation: tap and drag, tap and drag. However, the presentation is excellent: a zany plot about being dancing super agents who motivate needy people to overcome their problems leads to incredible, tear-jerkingly good exposition throughout the proceedings of the game.

A simultaneously hilarious and brilliant game. It's also quite challenging, as rhythm games often are, requiring many playthroughs to earn the coveted "S-Rank" in any given scenario. The only solid poor mark I can give this game is that it's not easy to share between two people, I have to overwrite my brother's progress to play the game and it's not very clear the order the stages are intended to be played.

Drill Dozer

I was surprised to discover that Drill Dozer was made by the same company that also made the famous Pokemon series games. Many of the sound effects I noticed in Pokemon Sapphire were also in Drill Dozer. The music was undeniably made by the same composer as well.

Nonetheless, Drill Dozer stands on its own as a remarkable 2d platformer for the Gameboy Advance (which, thankfully, the Nintendo DS is reverse compatible with). The story involves an unusual team of thieves whose central piece of equipment is the Drill Dozer itself, a little mecha with drill arms, piloted by a plucky young girl, acting leader of the group.

The unique aspect of the gameplay involve the use of the drill. Using the right and left triggers activates the drill in forward or reverse, allowing shifting of up to three gears. A built-in rumble pack allows you to feel the drill in action - a nice touch, if perhaps a tad unnecessary.

It's perhaps the artistic direction that makes the game as good as it is, as is demonstrated in the included YouTube video.

Well, that's it. Damn, that went on longer than I planned. I guess I won't be playing anything before hitting the sack tonight, after all.

Cracking Down and Putting Hyboria On Probation

2008-06-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning and afternoon was graced with a welcome break as I finally got around to playing a bit of the year-old XBox 360 game, Crackdown. Compared to Grant Theft Auto 4, Crackdown's rooftop-to-rooftop leaping gun play against deserving targets is a lot more fun. However, GTA4 has a lot more soul to it, the Shenmue-like realism that made the characters and goings-on within the game something one can relate to, and significant.

In what time I had left after Crackdown, I returned to the very well-received Age of Conan.

Full Entry: Age of Conan: Necromancy, Melee Thoughts, And Why I'm Putting It On Probation

The first thing I did after Crackdown yesterday was get my Necromancer in Age of Conan up to level 16. I'm getting the hang of him, he's not too shabby once you get a knack for firing off damage quickly and recognizing when it's time to throw the AOE fear spell. While the Necromancer may be vulnerable, he has the tools to deal with it. I like it when a MMORPG gives me genuinely useful tools.

However, one thing a Necromancer can't do is play Age of Conan's unique melee minigame. The shifting and exploitation of enemy directional shielding is more fun than just nuking away. So I gave a Dark Templar a spin. Things on the "much harder to kill but not quite as damaging side" aren't bad, I enjoy the shifting shield minigame in Age of Conan.

I can't help but think that the Herald of Xolti is the only character I can really enjoy about Age of Conan, and so having to abandon one at level 50 may have killed the game for me. Then again, the game sabotaged itself pretty effectively well outside of domineering friend shenanigans.

By Crom, Enough is Enough

At the top of each class on the official forum there's a consolidated issues list. If the problems outlined with the classes were a few minor bug fixes, I wouldn't be so bothered. However, these lists point out major problems, such as stat points currently do nothing and higher leveled combo/spells often cost more for the same result. I don't know who Funcom has working on their game balance, but haven't they ever heard of a spreadsheet?

These issues were the last straw. It was damning enough of the game to have a "low detail" mode that made the game perform worse. I've now grokked the nuts and bolts of the RPG mechanic behind Age of Conan and found it fundamentally lacking in forethought. All my inner armchair game developer sentiment went into outright rejection mode.

This morning, I decided to put my foot down and put Age of Conan "on probation," so to speak. It's now canceled, but I'll continue to play it. If the situation improves enough by the 26th of June (when it expires) then I'll renew it. While the continuity of my Herald of Xolti being broken contributed to this decision, there clearly were deeper problems afoot.