Caltrops - MMORPG Level Treadmill

Forum Overview :: MMORPG Level Treadmill

by Entropy Stew 12/03/2004, 7:47pm PST

Debaser wrote:

Entropy Stew wrote:

Debaser wrote:

Drooling, useless, unprovoked, and unoriginal. But concise!!!

Maybe if I'd stuck with the post long enough to write more than two words, things would have at least been longer.

If I'm going to buy a game, ideally it should be fun immediately. If I'm not only buying a game, but also paying for the privilege of playing it for any length of time on top of that, then I damn well better not be dedicating my first month of subscription fees to getting my character up to the point where the game is fun. If I'm going to get auto-billed for a game I'm not even playing because I thought I might come back to it but never did and didn't mark my calendar with the exact day the subscription renews, then it needs to fucking impress me immediately. I cancelled my CoH subscription when my "free trial" (i.e., the subscription I payed for by buying the software) expired. Maybe I had more than two powers by then, I didn't keep careful notes of my gameplay experience. I know I played three or four different characters trying to find the "fun" class, and never did.

For future reference, how much time and money should I invest in these things before it's okay for me to call them crap?

More than two powers' worth, considering you start with that many, but then you did, didn't you? NOT THAT I KNEW. Here's the root of your problem: you're a deeply fucked up individual. You have some sort of mothlike attraction to MMORPGS, and nobody can say exactly why. As Rightbug said, it's blindingly obvious you don't like the genre. Look at this shit:

So were any of you the same people hard-selling City of Heroes? Because I heard a lot of the same things about CoH being just intangibly better than its peers, and I turned out being wholly uninterested in that after about a week. Is this somehow magically better than that even (i.e., any good at all)? Or do you really have to be the type of person who kind of actually likes this MM bullshit to appreciate it?

and

Is the combat itself fun? Does it rely a lot on cooldown periods, even for basic abilities, or is it more fast and clicky/twitchy? Are there tactics to consider beyond the obvious, even for a solo player? Does it take several levels before it comes into its own?

The quests: Aside from being numerous, is there anything really to them in terms of depth or variety? Is it just "go here, fight five of the same guys you fought on the way here, click on hotspot"?

Is there a lot of impetus to explore, or do you need to hang out in "rat hunting grounds" for several levels before you can reasonably see the world and travel from place to place without getting your ass handed to you?

That second one is so fucked up I'll actually answer it for you.

Q: Is it fun?
A: YOU SPENT LIKE 2 POSTS BITCHING ABOUT "FUN" AND THE DEFINITION OF "FUN" AND "THIS STUFF ISN'T FUN YOU HAVE SHITTY TASTE I DON'T TRUST YOU" THEN PROCEED TO ASK IF THE GAME IS FUN AS YOUR FIRST GODDAMN QUESTION. YOU FUCKING HAIRPILE. SLORCH BACK TO WHATEVER WARM, DAMP ENVIRONMENT YOU WERE HATCHED IN AND SPARE US THIS PUTT PUTT GOES TO SCOTLAND YARD LINE OF QUESTIONING.

Q: Does it rely a lot on cooldown periods, even for basic abilities, or is it more fast and clicky/twitchy?
A: IT'S A BLOODY MMORPG. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK? CHRIST, YOU DIDN'T EVEN THINK COH WAS ARCADEY ENOUGH, AND THAT WAS THE ACTION-MAN'S MMORPG. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING MASSIVE, CLICKY, AND TWICHY, I CAN WOODPECKER MY DICK INTO YOUR T7 VERTEBRA AT THE DROP OF A HAT AND SPIN YOU LIKE A DUTCH WINDMILL WIFE ONCE THE SPASMS SUBSIDE. IS THAT OBJECTIVLY FUN ENOUGH FOR YOU? ARE WE HAVING AN OBJECTIVLY GOOD TIME YET? FUCK YOU, OBJECTIVLY.

Q: Are there tactics to consider beyond the obvious, even for a solo player?
A: BASED ON WHAT YOU WOULD CONSIDER OBVIOUS, DEFINITELY!

Q: Does it take several levels before it comes into its own?
A: NOT ONLY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW IF IT'S FUN BY YOUR SPECIFIC STANDARDS, YOU WAN'T TO KNOW EXACTLY WHEN IT'S FUN. AND JUST HOW FUN DOES IT HAVE TO BE BEFORE IT "COMES INTO ITS OWN"? AND WHAT SCALE ARE WE USING FOR THIS FUN MEASURING EXCERCISE? GREATER THAN 60% OF THE MAXIMUM FUN POSSIBLY ACHIEVED PLAYING THIS GAME FOR A DURATION OF LONGER THAN 10 MINUTES? OR PERHAPS A 5 MINUTE MOVING AVERAGE OF GREATER THAN 38 ON THE OBJECTIVE FUNOMETER? SHOULD I FACTOR IN BLIZZARD'S P/E RATIO AND CARRY THE TWO? TELL ME!

Q: The quests: Aside from being numerous, is there anything really to them in terms of depth or variety? Is it just "go here, fight five of the same guys you fought on the way here, click on hotspot"?
A: I GUESS NOT. MOST QUESTS INVOLVE GOING SOMEWHERE AND INTERACTING WITH THINGS

Q: Is there a lot of impetus to explore, or do you need to hang out in "rat hunting grounds" for several levels before you can reasonably see the world and travel from place to place without getting your ass handed to you?
A: I CAN DO EVERYTHING THE GAME HAS TO OFFER, GO EVERYWHERE, USE ALL SKILLS, RUN ALL QUESTS, AND KILL EVERYONE AT LEVEL 1 BECAUSE I'M SO FUCKING GOOD. I ALSO WON THE FIRST MISSION IN C&C: GENERALS BY BUILDING NUCLEAR SILOS AND WEATHER CONTROLLERS AND SCUD STORMS IN ANTARCTICA (BECAUSE I'M SO FUCKING GOOD)

And because I'm SO FUCKING GOOD, I'll let the sarcasm drop for a moment and give you an example combat situation:

Find a rabid bear for my "kill 20 rabid bears" quest

Make sure I have some room to fight so I don't aggro other shit onto me

Use Hunter's Mark ability on bear, which increases my ranged weapon attack power against it. A big red arrow appears over the target to anyone looking at it, which helps to prevent people from accidentally stealing my mob or serves as a mark to indicate which enemy I'm going to pull while I'm grouping, allowing others to target it ahead of time

Switch my Aspect of Hawk self-buff on. This also increases my attack power with ranged weapons. Only one Aspect may be active at a time

Get to the edge of bow range

Send my bear pet to attack it

Wait for bear to get in several hits so the mob doesn't immediately aggro on me when I start attacking

Let loose with my 40 damage-over-time instant-cast bow ability. This also conveniently sets me into attack mode so I'll autoshoot my bow at the target. My first arrow flies in concert with the DoT shot

Wait for next bow shot (~1.5 seconds). This gives time for my bow instant-cast abilities to reactivate after the DoT shot cooldown. Send off my instant-cast magical bow shot in concert with the second normal bow attack

Wait for a few seconds while my bear keeps the attack up and I continue to pelt the mob with arrows

I've done more damage than the bear, so the mob shifts aggro onto me and runs in my direction to attack. I hit him with a 50% movement speed reduction for a few seconds instant bow ability in order to get in more shots before he closes the distance

I activate Aspect of Monkey to give me an extra 8% to dodge, which cancels Aspect of Hawk

The mob is now at melee distance, so I use my Wing Clip melee attack to inflict a 50% movement speed reduction for 10 seconds while I run my ass away back to bow distance. My bear pet has been attacking this entire time, and so regains aggro.

I ran into aggro range of a big panther thingy, so it starts attacking me. I send the bear pet at it and finish off the rabid bear mob with my dagger since it was at like 10% health.

Bear gets the cat's aggro. It's at around 50% health due to fighting the rabid bear

I run away a bit, realize my pets health is low, run back into healing range of the bear, and get it up to maybe 75%

The cat sees me healing its opponent, gets pissed, and aggros on me

Wing Clip, run to bow distance, use the bow run speed debuff just as Wing Clip wears off, and stop the bow from attacking so that the bear regains aggro

The bear regains aggro. I let it pummel the cat a little, then join in with the bow

The bear's health is low, so I use my Distracting Shot bow ability to get the cat's aggro back on me. My bow run speed debuff has not recharged, so it gets to me pretty quick

It only has 25% health, so I finish it off via dagger with the bear's help

Loot the corpses. Get a cat's tooth I need for another quest

Skin the corpses for leather. I'll craft some armor and send it off to a couple lower level friends

Heal the bear, and sit down for 20 seconds to regain life, mana

Look for more rabid bears

-/ES/-