After hearing MMO Reporter's PAX Interview with Scott Hartsman, I'm struck by how his description of the leveling experience in the Rift expansion sounds like what I'm hearing others say about the leveling experience in Guild Wars 2. Hartsman's declaration that MMO's should be about being able to play with all of your friends all of the time sounds like precisely what we've been hearing from ArenaNet.
The Rift expansion will raise the level cap and add two new continents with solo quest content and a story quest arc. However, Hartsman suggested that it would be more fun to do the other activities that focus more on exploration. One example he gave was a quest alternative called "carnage" that does not require the intervention of a questgiver to get credit for killing mobs - a feature of Guild Wars 2 (and, as Tobold points out, something that Warhammer Online notoriously promised but largely failed to deliver). Hartsman states that players will likely get the exp they need from completing one of the two continents, plus all of the side exploration and carnage bonuses and other activities.
It's possible that Trion agrees with my speculation that GW2 may be a threat to their game due to some similar mechanics, and began planning a response well in advance of the competitor's launch. If so, one potential downfall might be all of the currently existing content in the game. Based on the interview it sounded like both continents were for the level 50+ crowd (though I'm not sure if this has been explicitly confirmed). Trion's answer to GW2 cannot be gated behind 50 levels of old content if they want it to be effective.
Re-Tiering DCUO
DCUO rolled out a major revamp of content tiers in this week's patch. Four tiers' worth of currency tokens were condensed into one. Strict "combat rating" (think gearscore) requirements remain on all endgame content, but there has been some redistribution of the content amongst several tiers - in some cases adding additional content to ensure that each tier is not too sparse.
For example, the game previously featured six "challenge" modes that upgrade leveling instances to level 30, along with two bonus challenges that were new content added in patches and offer increased difficulty. This content could help you get your introductory item level 46 tier set, but you'd be looking at a long grind to get gear that still won't get you into most endgame content - including the solo content from the game's second DLC pack. Meanwhile, once you'd upgraded your gear beyond this level, there was no reason to ever return.
With the revamp, all content awards the one type of currency, with increased awards as you hit the higher tiers. The existing challenges were mostly placed on the first difficulty tier, while two additional tiers are filled out using the hardest of the old challenges and a handful of new challenges (based on leveling content that wasn't previously available as level 30 challenges). There is also a once weekly award for clearing a tier one challenge.
There are some problems with the progression - for instance, the zergable outdoor quests in South Gotham (all outdoor quests in DCUO are public quests) award five marks each (20 per day - enough for a T1 piece every other day), which is far faster than what you can get doing challenges. These dailies were always a bit out of progression order, but it's more noticeable now that the currencies are fully interchangeable. Also, unless I misunderstand, the higher tier gear requires more currency than the cap allows non-subscribers to carry unless you pay real money to make a one-time withdrawal from escrow.
That aside, the new system definitely flattens and accelerates the progress curve somewhat. I picked up three pieces of T1 gear (and one random ilvl 53 drop) in one evening by cashing in all my old marks and doing one round of daily quests. Perhaps I will finally get enough gear to actually see most of the content I paid for?
For example, the game previously featured six "challenge" modes that upgrade leveling instances to level 30, along with two bonus challenges that were new content added in patches and offer increased difficulty. This content could help you get your introductory item level 46 tier set, but you'd be looking at a long grind to get gear that still won't get you into most endgame content - including the solo content from the game's second DLC pack. Meanwhile, once you'd upgraded your gear beyond this level, there was no reason to ever return.
With the revamp, all content awards the one type of currency, with increased awards as you hit the higher tiers. The existing challenges were mostly placed on the first difficulty tier, while two additional tiers are filled out using the hardest of the old challenges and a handful of new challenges (based on leveling content that wasn't previously available as level 30 challenges). There is also a once weekly award for clearing a tier one challenge.
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| Five of the classic challenges sit in tier 1, while tier 2 is populated with the sixth classic challenge, the two patch challenges, and one new upgrade. Four more new challenges occupy the third tier. I elected to run the Meta wing for the weekly bonus, because you can beat Dr. Psycho to death relatively easily with a giant dumpster thing. |
That aside, the new system definitely flattens and accelerates the progress curve somewhat. I picked up three pieces of T1 gear (and one random ilvl 53 drop) in one evening by cashing in all my old marks and doing one round of daily quests. Perhaps I will finally get enough gear to actually see most of the content I paid for?
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| Aside: players display the last item appearance you collected unless you specify otherwise. My character logged on wearing this atrocity of an outfit - you may or may not be able to see the Batman logo boxer shorts. |
What I'm Currently Working On: EQ2
Seven posts and eight days later, the finale of my annual labor day wrap-up with my latest progress in EQ2. Maybe next year I will need to do this under twitter rules or something. :)
SOE also continued their longtime tradition of double exp for the weekend, and I picked up 3 AA (currently 310/320) and about half of level 91->92. A few weeks ago, I had mostly written off the possibility of getting to level capped characters in seven different MMO's simultaneously - with the delay of LOTRO's expansion from this week and WoW's expansion not slated to arrive until the end of the month, I now have a legitimate shot of making the seventh ding happen.
Still on the slate for the next couple of months are plans to switch factions - possibly twice - to check out some of the changes to the game's evil side (and the other bard subclass). Sometime in November, I run out of game time that was purchased through the strangely short-sighted sale promotion stacking, so the next expansion will almost certainly have a far greater price tag (for both the expansion and the game time that seems required to take advantage of it). Time will tell where this game sits on my list when the dust settles.
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| A big Troll Merc, a small level 91.5 Fae Dirge |
Still on the slate for the next couple of months are plans to switch factions - possibly twice - to check out some of the changes to the game's evil side (and the other bard subclass). Sometime in November, I run out of game time that was purchased through the strangely short-sighted sale promotion stacking, so the next expansion will almost certainly have a far greater price tag (for both the expansion and the game time that seems required to take advantage of it). Time will tell where this game sits on my list when the dust settles.
What I'm Not Currently Working On: Rift and Others
More stuff from my labor day roundup, this time featuring Rift and other stuff that I'm not playing now. EQ2 should have happened before this, but I was working on the bonus exp weekend over there and I finished writing the below material first.
Rift
Much as I like my level 50 Cleric on paper, I'm thinking I may have chosen horribly in terms of class. Cleric melee is slow and plodding. Cleric casting is powerful, but includes so much passive healing that the content feels trivial. I actually enjoyed Purifier healing, but it seems you don't actually need that level of healing power, and could have gone for something paired with Justicar that does more damage instead. Ironically, the game's relatively open soul system just leaves me wishing I could pick from ALL the souls, instead of merely a quarter of them.
If there is indeed a new parallel leveling path in the expansion, the best bet to hold my interest would be to re-roll with a different calling. The downside would be fifty levels just to get back into the the new expansion endgame content, and there's limited evidence that I actually enjoy soloing in Rift that much.
Others
Ironically, my next major new release may be Borderlands 2. I don't ordinarily play first person shooters, but I got a free copy for purchasing a new nVidia 660 Ti graphics card. I may or may not like the game, but at no cost to me I think I'd at least give it a try to see how it looks with the new hardware.
Guild Wars 2 is a question mark - I like some of the things I've been hearing, but I wouldn't mind seeing how the game holds up as people get out of the newbie areas. Access to the game's beta was unusually structured in terms of how much of the content players could see and how often they'd be allowed online, so I don't think we have any information to judge the game's longevity yet. If I had time, this would be a tougher call, but I don't have time. Ironically, being an MMO tourist makes it EASIER to sit out a major launch, because it isn't GW2 versus "same old" in one game, it's GW2 versus "same old" in eight different games, at least one of which I'm not going to be done with at any given time.
Amongst other MMO's, in principle I can sign back onto Vanguard, but I don't know that the monthly fee was what was keeping me away from that game after trying it out last year anyway. Allods remains vaguely on the list of major non-subscription MMO's I have yet to try.
Finally, the console roundup - I'm currently working on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Other games on my radar if/when I replace the console due to broken disc drive include Infamous 2, Uncharted 3, FF XIII-2, and possibly the two remaining Assassin's Creed games that will be out by then.
Rift
Much as I like my level 50 Cleric on paper, I'm thinking I may have chosen horribly in terms of class. Cleric melee is slow and plodding. Cleric casting is powerful, but includes so much passive healing that the content feels trivial. I actually enjoyed Purifier healing, but it seems you don't actually need that level of healing power, and could have gone for something paired with Justicar that does more damage instead. Ironically, the game's relatively open soul system just leaves me wishing I could pick from ALL the souls, instead of merely a quarter of them.
If there is indeed a new parallel leveling path in the expansion, the best bet to hold my interest would be to re-roll with a different calling. The downside would be fifty levels just to get back into the the new expansion endgame content, and there's limited evidence that I actually enjoy soloing in Rift that much.
Others
Ironically, my next major new release may be Borderlands 2. I don't ordinarily play first person shooters, but I got a free copy for purchasing a new nVidia 660 Ti graphics card. I may or may not like the game, but at no cost to me I think I'd at least give it a try to see how it looks with the new hardware.
Guild Wars 2 is a question mark - I like some of the things I've been hearing, but I wouldn't mind seeing how the game holds up as people get out of the newbie areas. Access to the game's beta was unusually structured in terms of how much of the content players could see and how often they'd be allowed online, so I don't think we have any information to judge the game's longevity yet. If I had time, this would be a tougher call, but I don't have time. Ironically, being an MMO tourist makes it EASIER to sit out a major launch, because it isn't GW2 versus "same old" in one game, it's GW2 versus "same old" in eight different games, at least one of which I'm not going to be done with at any given time.
Amongst other MMO's, in principle I can sign back onto Vanguard, but I don't know that the monthly fee was what was keeping me away from that game after trying it out last year anyway. Allods remains vaguely on the list of major non-subscription MMO's I have yet to try.
Finally, the console roundup - I'm currently working on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Other games on my radar if/when I replace the console due to broken disc drive include Infamous 2, Uncharted 3, FF XIII-2, and possibly the two remaining Assassin's Creed games that will be out by then.
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