New efforts!

[ivanhedgehog]

That is because half of the new comming MMOs with any sort of a budget ignore the good changes WoW has made in the past 10 years, and don't learn from the mistakes that WoW has made so most of them are "World of Warcraft : Vanilla" which any reasonable person looks back on with nostalgia but with knowledge that there were some objectively poor choices made in the games design.

swtor is a prime example of this..blatant wow copy without any of the improvements wow has made

[Felderburg]

I'm under the impression that there's also a problem with some companies actively trying to make a "WoW killer" - an MMO that can compete against WoW in terms of subscriber numbers. Which is realistically not going to happen, since WoW is such an outlier.

[MM3squints]

I'm under the impression that there's also a problem with some companies actively trying to make a "WoW killer" - an MMO that can compete against WoW in terms of subscriber numbers. Which is realistically not going to happen, since WoW is such an outlier.

I think a the phrase "WoW Killer" is overblown and just used as a marketing ploy. ESO was supposed to be a WoW Killer because of the superior graphics, lore, and PvP system. What made it not a WoW Killer is the shear amount of content WoW has. All in honestly to be a WoW Killer, a MMO must have just as much content if not more than WoW out the gate, new features, and a game with a lore that is as history as Warcraft. Going back to ESO, I believed it could have been a WoW Killer, but like I stated, ESO couldn't complete the sheer amount of content. Also there no Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood >:(

[Noyjitat]

The only way that's going to happen is if another company ditches a promised time line release and really keeps a game in beta long enough to have enough content that cannot be complete within weeks of the games launch. This means having many paths to take while leveling (instead of just enough to reach max level like so many mmos have now) and having several group dungeons and raids available early after launch or on launch.

Currently it seems that they only have 3 - 5 years before the publisher starts demanding a launch and because of the dreaded pre-order system if they don't get enough from pre-order they fire some of the development staff shortly after and things slowly begin to decline. So pre-orders are a double edged sword most of the time.

[Vee]

swtor is a prime example of this..blatant wow copy without any of the improvements wow has made

yeah it's really frustrating. how they could spend all that money on story and voice acting yet not put simple quality of life things like global chat and a decent market is mind-boggling. simple things coh had forever ago that should have been easy enough to build in in the first place just aren't there, and so many that it takes away from the game as a whole. i could almost believe they weren't aware of coh and its features were it not for the talaos island and fault line areas on makeb.

[Surelle]

yeah it's really frustrating. how they could spend all that money on story and voice acting yet not put simple quality of life things like global chat and a decent market is mind-boggling. simple things coh had forever ago that should have been easy enough to build in in the first place just aren't there, and so many that it takes away from the game as a whole. i could almost believe they weren't aware of coh and its features were it not for the talaos island and fault line areas on makeb.

Elder Scrolls Online wound up like that, too.  Zenimax had gobs of money and only one MMORPG to create, years on end to work on it, and no LFG, no auction house, not even a separate trade chat went in.  There is inter-guild item selling with a 500-person cap, but the search function and item organization are nonexistent.  Trying to find anything means scrolling through a bunch of pages of all different sorts of things.

Just trying to get a simple team together involves jumping through eight hoops, crossing mirrors, and praying you're on the same exact step of the same exact quest so you can actually "see" each other in the game world once you finally meet up.  So much of ESO is phased that about 40% of the time you're questing you are forced to do it all alone, including doing the entire main quest line from level 1 to 50.

The whole thing is mind-boggling, and I am hardly surprised that ESO is going Buy to Play (buy box, play online free forever) this month.  When March 17th comes I may stick my head in the door again because I bought the box at launch so it will henceforth be free for me, but from what I experienced back at launch I would never pay them a sub.  Just trying to sell one crafted chest piece takes four hours in the main chat, around all the LFG posts, Guild spam, gold farmer spam and questions.  It's godawful.

[MM3squints]

Elder Scrolls Online wound up like that, too.  Zenimax had gobs of money and only one MMORPG to create, years on end to work on it, and no LFG, no auction house, not even a separate trade chat went in.  There is inter-guild item selling with a 500-person cap, but the search function and item organization are nonexistent.  Trying to find anything means scrolling through a bunch of pages of all different sorts of things.

Just trying to get a simple team together involves jumping through eight hoops, crossing mirrors, and praying you're on the same exact step of the same exact quest so you can actually "see" each other in the game world once you finally meet up.  So much of ESO is phased that about 40% of the time you're questing you are forced to do it all alone, including doing the entire main quest line from level 1 to 50.

Oh man that was really infuriating. Those morality quest that did not really have any game changing effect besides immersion, but made it impossible to find teams. Even the morality quest that gave rewards were one sided like the Sheo last quest. On one hand you save a life of a NPC and get nothing. On the other hand you get points.

The whole thing is mind-boggling, and I am hardly surprised that ESO is going Buy to Play (buy box, play online free forever) this month.  When March 17th comes I may stick my head in the door again because I bought the box at launch so it will henceforth be free for me, but from what I experienced back at launch I would never pay them a sub.  Just trying to sell one crafted chest piece takes four hours in the main chat, around all the LFG posts, Guild spam, gold farmer spam and questions.  It's godawful.

I always thought the no global auction house thing was weird so was no having a official mini map. The case was it was to enhance immersion, but in order to enhance immersion, it seems like they did away with all the tools we were accustomed to having. I think ESO would have done better by giving the players all the tools, and have the option to disable them if they wanted more immersion.

[Harpospoke]

I don't feel the need to prove your posted theories wrong.  I feel the need to point out they aren't scientific theories, nor even scientific debate.  If you aren't sufficiently knowledgeable about the subject matter, you might have no way to know that the articles you are linking to are lunatic summaries of relatively fringe ideas. 

I don't agree.   I think you are dismissing any theory you don't agree with.   Of course you consider it "relatively fringe" since you think it's wrong.    There is always debate between scientists.   It's what they do.  Get two of them together and they will debate ideas.

http://jeffpicard.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/rim-shot-johnny-utah.thumbnail.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=potLQR7-_Tg

If you think science is "settled" or something I think you are way off.

[duane]

Elder Scrolls Online wound up like that, too.  Zenimax had gobs of money and only one MMORPG to create, years on end to work on it, and no LFG, no auction house, not even a separate trade chat went in.  There is inter-guild item selling with a 500-person cap, but the search function and item organization are nonexistent.  Trying to find anything means scrolling through a bunch of pages of all different sorts of things.

Just trying to get a simple team together involves jumping through eight hoops, crossing mirrors, and praying you're on the same exact step of the same exact quest so you can actually "see" each other in the game world once you finally meet up.  So much of ESO is phased that about 40% of the time you're questing you are forced to do it all alone, including doing the entire main quest line from level 1 to 50.

The whole thing is mind-boggling, and I am hardly surprised that ESO is going Buy to Play (buy box, play online free forever) this month.  When March 17th comes I may stick my head in the door again because I bought the box at launch so it will henceforth be free for me, but from what I experienced back at launch I would never pay them a sub.  Just trying to sell one crafted chest piece takes four hours in the main chat, around all the LFG posts, Guild spam, gold farmer spam and questions.  It's godawful.

Thank you for summarizing my Eso experience.  I thought maybe getting in on the ground floor of something new would endear me.  I remember waiting a year for the coh beta and launch and thought that was a factor for me adopting a new mmo home.


My theory was wrong.  The mmo simply must be user friendly, team friendly and not involve 8 steps to do simple things. I hate wading thru screens of junk or guessing. Teaming in coh was so simple.  Not just state of story arc but connecting people together and that's before discussing compatible types of characters or God forbid level 7 wants to team with three level 40s. Teaming in Eso requires too many variables to magically line up and initially they were poorly, poorly poorly communicated.  Even as a duo team with the other person sitting in the room I experienced nerd rage and was done with Eso for the afternoon.

I can do without voice acting and bad accents for what I consider basic functionality any day.

[CrimsonCapacitor]

I can do without voice acting and bad accents for what I consider basic functionality any day.

*cough* Champions Online *cough*

[chuckv3]

So it's been a year since this effort started?!? That's really disappointing, because I couldn't keep my mouth shut after about May 2014. So now I look like a loon for jumping around while telling my kids "CoH is coming back! CoH is coming back!" So what? I look like a loon. I'll get over that.

May all the efforts continue to move and always toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

[Surelle]

So it's been a year since this effort started?!? That's really disappointing, because I couldn't keep my mouth shut after about May 2014. So now I look like a loon for jumping around while telling my kids "CoH is coming back! CoH is coming back!" So what? I look like a loon. I'll get over that.

May all the efforts continue to move and always toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

Well...it may indeed come back, so ultimately, you won't look like a loon.  You just need an interim look until then.   :P

I'm just glad NCSoft seems to be fending off Nexon's hostile takeover for now, although we won't know for sure until their next big meeting where they want to replace board members.  Isn't that this month though?  Shouldn't be long now then, and then we'll know better where we stand concerning Nexon's involvement in any deals going forward.

[Noyjitat]

swtor is a prime example of this..blatant wow copy without any of the improvements wow has made

Not all additions to wow have been improvements. Such as the butchered "simplified" new talent system... Which has resulted in even less unique builds.

[Sinistar]

For STO players,  here is a link for the details on the Nimoy memorials

http://io9.com/star-trek-onlines-memorial-for-leonard-nimoy-is-here-an-1689675963

A statue of Spock is on Vulcan and New Romulus

Plus for the next week, black flags will be in each of the main hub zones, Earth Space Dock, Qo'noS and New Romulus,

There will also be permanent plaques installed in each marking the passing of Nimoy and his fellow original series co-workers Majel Barrett, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, and Gene Roddenberry.

[Aggelakis]

So it's been a year since this effort started?!?

They didn't start actually talking to NCsoft until, I think, August. So, no, it hasn't been a year.

[Sinistar]

They didn't start actually talking to NCsoft until, I think, August. So, no, it hasn't been a year.

Right, it just feels that way.   Anyone else still tinkering with Mids and ICON? :)

[Kelltick]

Right, it just feels that way.   Anyone else still tinkering with Mids and ICON? :)

I've stopped doing even that.  My biggest flaw was always making a good costume for my characters, so any benefit Icon provides me is strictly related to revisiting the City/Isles.  Even given the luxury of unlimited time I still can't make a good costume.  Fortunate I wasn't a clothes designer deep down, else I'd be screwed!

As far as Mids goes, most of my CoX experience lies in the pre-IO timeframe, and admittedly my time playing post-IO wasn't all that encompassing.  I played, sure (and quite a bit) but never at the level(s) where having a full IO loadout was worth it.  Mids is a nice tool, but when one doesn't have a basis on how said char actually plays Mids isn't really all that useful.  Sure, numbers are nice and all, but real gameplay experience trumps raw non-gameplay-experience numbers any day of the week.  I've never played with a full, softcap 35% S/L/etc defense toon before.  I know what the numbers tell me, but never having played that I don't know just how important that is in terms of feel.  Is it worth it to go that full mile, or is 30% good enough for my intentions, and using that extra 5% I wasn't trying to shoe-horn in and can now spend in other areas more beneficial?  Mids is a great tool, but like all tools, it's at its most powerful in the hands of those who know how to wield it, which I'll readily admit am not - and without the game being active and thus I can gleam "real-world" experience, will never be.

[Burnt Toast]

Softcap=45%.

I love Mids... let's me feel good knowing the toons i create in there will one day actually walk the streets of Paragon

I've stopped doing even that.  My biggest flaw was always making a good costume for my characters, so any benefit Icon provides me is strictly related to revisiting the City/Isles.  Even given the luxury of unlimited time I still can't make a good costume.  Fortunate I wasn't a clothes designer deep down, else I'd be screwed!

As far as Mids goes, most of my CoX experience lies in the pre-IO timeframe, and admittedly my time playing post-IO wasn't all that encompassing.  I played, sure (and quite a bit) but never at the level(s) where having a full IO loadout was worth it.  Mids is a nice tool, but when one doesn't have a basis on how said char actually plays Mids isn't really all that useful.  Sure, numbers are nice and all, but real gameplay experience trumps raw non-gameplay-experience numbers any day of the week.  I've never played with a full, softcap 35% S/L/etc defense toon before.  I know what the numbers tell me, but never having played that I don't know just how important that is in terms of feel.  Is it worth it to go that full mile, or is 30% good enough for my intentions, and using that extra 5% I wasn't trying to shoe-horn in and can now spend in other areas more beneficial?  Mids is a great tool, but like all tools, it's at its most powerful in the hands of those who know how to wield it, which I'll readily admit am not - and without the game being active and thus I can gleam "real-world" experience, will never be.

[Sinistar]

I've stopped doing even that.  My biggest flaw was always making a good costume for my characters, so any benefit Icon provides me is strictly related to revisiting the City/Isles.  Even given the luxury of unlimited time I still can't make a good costume.  Fortunate I wasn't a clothes designer deep down, else I'd be screwed!

As far as Mids goes, most of my CoX experience lies in the pre-IO timeframe, and admittedly my time playing post-IO wasn't all that encompassing.  I played, sure (and quite a bit) but never at the level(s) where having a full IO loadout was worth it.  Mids is a nice tool, but when one doesn't have a basis on how said char actually plays Mids isn't really all that useful.  Sure, numbers are nice and all, but real gameplay experience trumps raw non-gameplay-experience numbers any day of the week.  I've never played with a full, softcap 35% S/L/etc defense toon before.  I know what the numbers tell me, but never having played that I don't know just how important that is in terms of feel.  Is it worth it to go that full mile, or is 30% good enough for my intentions, and using that extra 5% I wasn't trying to shoe-horn in and can now spend in other areas more beneficial?  Mids is a great tool, but like all tools, it's at its most powerful in the hands of those who know how to wield it, which I'll readily admit am not - and without the game being active and thus I can gleam "real-world" experience, will never be.

45% is the soft cap for defense.

As to costume making,  your best bet is to make one male and one female costume template, then save the files and use the template for all your characters.  Slightly adjust each character after you use the template to make them a bit different from each other, shades, visors, helmets, different chest symbols, auras....  I ahd so many characters that after awhile I used my civilian template for their first costume slot then another template for slot# 2 and would adjust the colors to make each character a bit different in appearance. 

Then came the Mecha armor and many toons of mine had a Gundam template.....

[MM3squints]

45% is the soft cap for defense.

As to costume making,  your best bet is to make one male and one female costume template, then save the files and use the template for all your characters.  Slightly adjust each character after you use the template to make them a bit different from each other, shades, visors, helmets, different chest symbols, auras....  I ahd so many characters that after awhile I used my civilian template for their first costume slot then another template for slot# 2 and would adjust the colors to make each character a bit different in appearance. 

Then came the Mecha armor and many toons of mine had a Gundam template.....

Making my costume was easy. I lack creativity so I just made all my toons look exactly the same with different colored over shirt. The name will always have some variation of Squints. Its good to be a minimalist sometimes :P