I've survived my trip to and from PAX East. I'll write more about all the cool people I met and stuff I got to do when I've had a chance to sleep the trip off. In the mean time, just the facts on the limited news I was able to gather from the show.
SWTOR Legacy
I asked Bioware's Damion Schubert (lead system designer for SWTOR) about what happens to players who have invested a lot of work in a Legacy on one server and then want to play with friends on another. He responded that implementing server transfers is a top priority for the team, and that these transfers will be "legacy friendly" when they arrive.
Not an entirely satisfying answer - nor especially complete without knowledge of whether they intend to charge for this service. At best, you will have to manually copy your characters from server to server to update your legacies. At worst, you will have to pay for this privilege. That said, I suppose some way to rescue your legacy from a bad server choice is better than none.
Turbine News
Most of my structured activities over the weekend were Turbine-affiliated, and they did indeed treat their fans very well. On the downside, there was relatively little news, but some of it was at least news to me.
On the DDO side of the house, a dev confirmed for my sadly level 7-self that the forthcoming expansion (and its future quest packs) will primarily support level 20+ characters. It's not as if the current distribution of content between high and low level content is especially unfavorable, but it is a bit disappointing to hear that what I see is what I get for the near-term future. Interestingly, I mentioned the topic of true resurrection, and the dev (didn't catch his name) claimed that there may be additional benefits (grandfathered in for existing completionists) to carrying characters' TR lives into the epic levels.
I didn't hear any new in-game news about LOTRO, but they did show an exclusive teaser at their party of what appears to be some sort of live-action film intended to set the scene for Riders of Rohan. At first I thought we were just looking at a motion capture session of some sort, but the room got pretty excited as we realized that this was looking more like a film.
Finally, I was talking with DDO's Executive Producer Fernando Paiz about some of the economies of scale Turbine has because they built their own engine, that they use on both DDO and LOTRO. Paiz said that indeed the live games currently use something like version 3.6 of the Turbine engine, while version 4 was in development for an unannounced future MMO. While I suppose this is no real secret, it's good to hear that they're still working on whatever it is they're working on.
The Rest of the MMO's.
I intentionally did very little standing in lines. As a result, I think the only game I actually played at the show was the Secret World, because they had a fair number of machines in their booth and a relative lack of structure in how to get time on one of them. Unfortunately, this demo may have been easier to access in part because it did not do much to showcase what makes this much hyped but little described title different from the rest of the genre.
The demo had players in what is otherwise indistinguishable from your standard modern zombie-infested town. I did occasionally see players with story cutscenes on their screens, and perhaps these sequences explained who the characters/factions are, why they're all fighting zombies, etc. Picking up wherever the last player left the keyboard, all I got was a very standard MMO combat sequence - my character had a hammer, which built "hammer points" that were then used to unleash flashier attacks on the hapless zombies. Whatever depth or character flexibility this game has for more involved players simply wasn't apparent in the show floor demo. (Massively's reviewer had some similar comments, as did people I talked to.)
In fact, speaking more generally, I have to say that I was underwhelmed by the forthcoming MMO's on the floor. I watched some people play the TERA demo, which takes the standard MMO and adds combos and collision detection. I watched people play the two Perfect World MMO's on display - this was a small booth with prizes, so the lines were long - and both seemed like action-y MMO's. None of the above really jumped out at me.
Ironically, the biggest lines of the MMO-like games on the floor were at League of Legends. I'm not sure if the game was that much popular, its prizes were that much better, or if it just took longer to get to the front of the line, but they definitely gave the impression of being the in-demand MMO of the show.
Ending Enedwaith
My LOTRO champion hit level 70 this week while clearing out Enedwaith - a zone that now sits as an alternate leveling track through the early-mid 60's that was added in between the Mirkwood and Isengard expansions.
The level number makes it obvious that, as a premium player who pays by the zone, this was a very skippable chunk of content. I was over-level when I started it since I used the last of the Mirkwood content to advance beyond 65 before moving on, and now I'm going to be even more over-level for the Isengard content I have yet to reach. That said, if I erred it was in opting not to purchase and complete this content when it was in the correct level range, as it was high quality material and it would have been a shame to miss it.
For better or worse, I'd imagine that most LOTRO players already know how many of the storylines are going to play out. That said, Turbine continues to do a good job working around this challenge by weaving stories that are interesting in the spaces between the lore we know, while adding some original characters to give them some more flexibility.
Bonus rewards
One final tidbit concerns Turbine Points and deeds. In the course of completing the content, I completed many of the zone's deeds, awarding a grand total of 75 TP and 4 virtue upgrades along with some titles and exp runes. Many deeds remain, and, judging from the past kill deeds in my tracker, I will never complete most of them. (Two that I might snag are the reputation deed for kindred with the Grey Company and the Algraig. Each grants 20 TP, and the latter also grants access to a teleport back to the zone. I'm around 10-15 or so daily quests away from each.)
If I had done the Epic book story and passed through the zone without paying for the quest pack, I would have completed some of these requirements and not received credit. Instead, I paid 528 TP for the quests (after some sale discounts) and got back a small but non-zero rebate. Those numbers would be even more appealing if I ever anticipated getting another character this high into LOTRO, but so far that has not fared so well. Still, it's a reasonably good value for the money, and a nice little bonus to save up for the next paid content update.
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| The LOTRO ding graphic is now a giant incarnation of the White Tree of Gondor. |
For better or worse, I'd imagine that most LOTRO players already know how many of the storylines are going to play out. That said, Turbine continues to do a good job working around this challenge by weaving stories that are interesting in the spaces between the lore we know, while adding some original characters to give them some more flexibility.
Bonus rewards
If I had done the Epic book story and passed through the zone without paying for the quest pack, I would have completed some of these requirements and not received credit. Instead, I paid 528 TP for the quests (after some sale discounts) and got back a small but non-zero rebate. Those numbers would be even more appealing if I ever anticipated getting another character this high into LOTRO, but so far that has not fared so well. Still, it's a reasonably good value for the money, and a nice little bonus to save up for the next paid content update.
Monetary Value of a Mistake
I've been wrapping up the old Enedwaith content in LOTRO - if nothing else, I'm embarrassed to show my face at the Turbine booth this weekend if I'm two years behind on content - and one of the epic quest chapters awarded a Second Age legendary item for my rune slot. This should have been a huge upgrade - it was a ten level jump in quality as I had been using a level 55 rune from the Moria era, and a jump in quality from purple to teal (LOTRO's equivalent of blue to purple, or legendary to fabled). Instead, it proved a bittersweet learning experience.
Cash Undo
LOTRO's legendary item system provides six slots for items, and it is generally advantageous to have items - even if they are low quality placeholders - in all six slots so that they can gain exp and transfer it to better items as you obtain them. The shuffle to break down some old items for legacy scrolls and exp runes to kit out my new rune led to the predictable result - I slotted two tier 6 relics in a throwaway placeholder item that I put in the slot to bank exp.
Many LOTRO players have probably screwed this up at some point, and for the first few years of the system it was a relatively easy fix - you could pop your relics back out of your item every ten levels as part of the re-forging process, and you could recover all the relics when destroying a max exp item. Turbine argued that this had to go due to relic inflation - everyone would eventually end up with maximum quality relics. They're not wrong on this point, but their motives were called into question by their decision to implement a cash store scroll to replace the previously free-in-game unslotting feature.
In many games, a bone-headed mistake like this one could be sent to customer support. Not so for the non-subscriber to LOTRO - customer service access is limited to 30 days after the paid purchase of Turbine Points.
Which brings us back to the cash shop. The relic removal scroll costs 195 Turbine Points. The value of Turbine Points varies widely depending on how you obtain them. Some VIP subscribers think of points as "free", even though they are part of the subscription package and are used to purchase things that would otherwise cost the player real money. The smallest quantity of points Turbine will sell you in a bundle is 500 TP for $8, which would value the TP at $3.12, while there are larger bundles (for those willing to pay their "micro"transactions in $60 increments) and sales that can drive the exchange rate. Then there is the ability to earn points in game, for those who value their time at pennies per hour. Suffice it to say, the undo button for my mistake costs less than three dollars.
I could write more on this topic, but it ultimately boils down to this. The relics that were in my inventory were gone. I can buy replacements from the store for 195 Turbine Points, or I can save those points for something I actually want, such as new content. The fact that the "replacements" are only available for sale at that price because I screwed up does not change the fact that I don't pay money for this sort of thing.
A not-so-legendary epilogue
Having written off a pair of high quality relics, I sighed and proceeded to apply some scrolls from my bank - it wouldn't ordinarily make a ton of sense to invest in a level 65 item when the cap is now 75, but all of these scrolls were obtained from previous expansion items and capped at the lower level.
The good news is that the new rune, once scrolled and reliced (with my second choice relics), had all the legacies that I had on my previous rune. The bad news is that swapping out legacies leaves the new legacy at tier 2 out of 6, which greatly increases the cost of purchasing higher ranks. The end result of this shuffle is that I ended up with a worse item than the massively out of date one I had, because I ran out of upgrade points much sooner.
I suppose the only silver lining is that it will be that much easier to write this level 65 item off for the inevitable level 75 version.
Cash Undo
LOTRO's legendary item system provides six slots for items, and it is generally advantageous to have items - even if they are low quality placeholders - in all six slots so that they can gain exp and transfer it to better items as you obtain them. The shuffle to break down some old items for legacy scrolls and exp runes to kit out my new rune led to the predictable result - I slotted two tier 6 relics in a throwaway placeholder item that I put in the slot to bank exp.
 |
| Something about this pairing does not go together. |
In many games, a bone-headed mistake like this one could be sent to customer support. Not so for the non-subscriber to LOTRO - customer service access is limited to 30 days after the paid purchase of Turbine Points.
Which brings us back to the cash shop. The relic removal scroll costs 195 Turbine Points. The value of Turbine Points varies widely depending on how you obtain them. Some VIP subscribers think of points as "free", even though they are part of the subscription package and are used to purchase things that would otherwise cost the player real money. The smallest quantity of points Turbine will sell you in a bundle is 500 TP for $8, which would value the TP at $3.12, while there are larger bundles (for those willing to pay their "micro"transactions in $60 increments) and sales that can drive the exchange rate. Then there is the ability to earn points in game, for those who value their time at pennies per hour. Suffice it to say, the undo button for my mistake costs less than three dollars.
 |
| Want to sell compromise on our principle against relic inflation, PST Turbine with your credit card number. |
A not-so-legendary epilogue
Having written off a pair of high quality relics, I sighed and proceeded to apply some scrolls from my bank - it wouldn't ordinarily make a ton of sense to invest in a level 65 item when the cap is now 75, but all of these scrolls were obtained from previous expansion items and capped at the lower level.
The good news is that the new rune, once scrolled and reliced (with my second choice relics), had all the legacies that I had on my previous rune. The bad news is that swapping out legacies leaves the new legacy at tier 2 out of 6, which greatly increases the cost of purchasing higher ranks. The end result of this shuffle is that I ended up with a worse item than the massively out of date one I had, because I ran out of upgrade points much sooner.
I suppose the only silver lining is that it will be that much easier to write this level 65 item off for the inevitable level 75 version.
 |
| I had assumed the new rune would be an upgrade due to double the base incoming healing rating and a bonus legacy that reduces power cost of some skills. |
PVD @ PAX
I've been following news at the major gaming conventions since there has been enough of a world-wide web. I still remember the days when my issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly was worth the purchase even though I'd seen the info six weeks earlier online, because dial-up bandwidth meant that downloading high quality screenshots was a nigh-prohibitive activity. This weekend, I'm finally going to actually attend one in person, thanks to a confluence of events that made it vaguely sensible to travel to Boston at the same time as PAX East.
I'm primarily going to be at the show on Saturday, with some time on Sunday depending on how my schedule shakes out (and how much stuff I feel I missed out on during the more crowded middle day of the show). I may not go to a single panel or stick around for much of anything that has a long line. If anything, I'm more interested in community events, such as Turbine's annual shindig, the MMO tweet-up, and Ferrel's book signing for the The Raider's Companion. If, incidentally to these activities, I happen to pick up swag from some major titles or details of some minor ones I haven't heard of, that will be a bonus.
That said, if anyone reading this has an event they would like to promote/recommend - either your own product or something that you've heard of elsewhere - feel free to leave a comment. There's a lot of stuff on the map of the floor, and I can't promise I'll get to everything, but I won't complain about a suggestion or two.
P.S. My only regret concerning my travel schedule is not being present for any creative protests at the Mass Effect 3 panel. I have no desire to attend said panel for its own sake, but I can only imagine what creative mayhem players may inflict on the developers, who probably had no idea what they were in for when they booked the timeslot.
I'm primarily going to be at the show on Saturday, with some time on Sunday depending on how my schedule shakes out (and how much stuff I feel I missed out on during the more crowded middle day of the show). I may not go to a single panel or stick around for much of anything that has a long line. If anything, I'm more interested in community events, such as Turbine's annual shindig, the MMO tweet-up, and Ferrel's book signing for the The Raider's Companion. If, incidentally to these activities, I happen to pick up swag from some major titles or details of some minor ones I haven't heard of, that will be a bonus.
That said, if anyone reading this has an event they would like to promote/recommend - either your own product or something that you've heard of elsewhere - feel free to leave a comment. There's a lot of stuff on the map of the floor, and I can't promise I'll get to everything, but I won't complain about a suggestion or two.
P.S. My only regret concerning my travel schedule is not being present for any creative protests at the Mass Effect 3 panel. I have no desire to attend said panel for its own sake, but I can only imagine what creative mayhem players may inflict on the developers, who probably had no idea what they were in for when they booked the timeslot.
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