The Alexandria Initiative: The Will (Revised & Expanded)

By way of introduction, this is my entry into the first phase of the "Alexandria Initiative" writing contest, a fan-organized contest with venues on the The Secret Forums and councilofvenice.tumblr.com. It's an expansion of a story I previously posted here, but I hope you enjoy it.

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Most people go through life on a sort of autopilot. Not that they can't make decisions, they just don't—beyond the trivial. They have no problem deciding what shirt to wear in the morning, but then simply fall into love affairs, careers . . . parenthood; perhaps even believing they are happy. They lack the Will to do otherwise. They follow instructions, they do what they're told. These are the sort you find are easily turned. They succumb to the Will of other, more powerful, forces, like sheep for the shearing—or cattle to the slaughter—realizing too late that they've never had the option in the first place.

A rare few have the power to exert their Will—their "Anima"—to withstand the influences of forces beyond the capacity of the rest to comprehend, or even perceive. In a population of billions, they number perhaps in the thousands. These few "Animated" individuals are all that stand between the sheep and the long cold night of oblivion.

"It's like shooting fish in a barrel," Xander Hayes quipped. The blond, blue-eyed Canadian took aim at the barnacle-encrusted behemoth over the sea wall where he and Sam had taken cover. Whereas Sam's rifle was a up-converted M4 MWS, Hayes sported an Orochi Occultech rifle. ("I like to call it Hard Rain," he'd said.) On semi-auto, he made short work of the incubators that had begun to advance on their position. Sam focused on the big one. The red and gray creature screamed in pain and anger, recoiling briefly before renewing its advance.

Unlike the soggy former residents of Kingsmouth, the beast they fought now was clearly from the depths. It towered at least four meters, with giant lobster claws and a gaping, saw-toothed maw in its torso. And still it advanced, despite Sam emptying a full clip into it. Almost within striking distance, it reared up.

"Time to go," said Hayes, as he dodged to his right, out of the blast wave. Sam wasn't so quick, and the spray of water knocked her on her back. Chunks of seawall went flying. Sputtering, she looked up as the creature raised its claw to impale her. The small hairs on her arms stood on end as a tendril of brilliant white flashed into view, enveloping the creature and causing it to seize up for an instant. Momentarily forgetting Sam, it turned toward the source of its new pain, Xander. As it lumbered toward him, Sam dragged out her own claws and leapt onto the beast's back.

She failed to gain purchase and tumbled off. The Canadian was driving fireballs into the creature's maw. Sam jumped again—more determined this time—and drove her claws into the creature's back, using them to climb higher. The beast screamed in pain and anger, but Sam made it to the shoulders. With one set of claws embedded for leverage, she stabbed into the creature's head with the other. Over and over, she drove in her claws as the beast flailed its pincers, unable to reach her. Xander kept up his fiery assault as the creature stumbled and fell.

The impact threw Sam clear of the carcass. As she lay there trying to catch her breath, Xander came and stood over her.

"You all right?" he asked, lending a hand to help her up.

"Yeah, I think so." She looked down at her slacks and jacket, formerly so professorial, now drenched in seawater and gore.

"You ever read Harry Potter?"

She looked at the Canadian askance. "Yes, why?"

"Remember what it said about the Killing Curse, Avada Kedrava? You've got to mean it! I don't think you meant it until you got up on that beast's back."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Sam answered, bemused by his mispronunciation of the infamous spell.

Hayes peered at Sam intently. "I'm telling you, when you really mean it, you won't even need bullets in that gun." He then flashed her a grin. "Meanwhile, you'd better reload."

Samantha sat near the back of the local church. She wasn't religious, too much time spent studying the influence of dogmas on history. But now, she'd seen the realities behind a few of the myths, terrifying realities. She needed time to think, and the sanctuary seemed an appropriate place to mull things over. She stared at the business card Xander had given her, inviting her to a meeting in London. "Beyond the Veil," it read, promising further knowledge, perhaps? But the last time she accepted such an invitation, she'd fallen down a deeper rabbit hole than she could possibly have imagined.

The local pastor, the Reverend Henry Hawthorne, came and sat beside her in the pew.

"You seem a little more thoughtful than many of my current crop of visitors, my dear. What's on your mind?"

"What isn't on my mind? My world has been turned upside down. Just days ago I was a simple college professor. Now I am expected to take up arms in some conflict I knew nothing of before. Not just some cold war between ancient conspiracies that pull the strings on world politics, but a fight for existence against even more ancient things that care nothing for the petty power plays of the human race. We may as well be warring ant colonies. I don't know what to make of the creatures we face out there. The dead rising, but not alive. Lovecraftian sea monsters. What's next, giant insects and walking scarecrows?"

"Actually I have heard rumors," he answered, scratching his chin absently. "But never mind that. The surviving townsfolk are grateful for your help. With enough—special—reinforcements, perhaps we can stem the tide and bury our dead."

"How can we fight this?" she asked. She shook her head. "How can we possibly hope to win against a relentless bombardment that drives us mad and can't be killed?"

The pastor stared up at the altar, pondering. She followed his gaze to the candles burning there.

"You know the funny thing about Darkness?" Hawthorne asked, then answered his own question. "It can be driven away by the light of a single flame. You know, at its heart, that is the creed of the Illuminati, the Enlightened Ones."

He held up his Bible. "The Good Book is full of such imagery. 'Ye are the light of the world… Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.'

"The World is a dark place, my dear. Shadowy forces seek to destroy it, to devour it whole. But Gaia is strong, she calls forth bright warriors to fight the Darkness. Of course, we may disagree on how that battle should be fought, and who should lead it. But the Three will prevail, complementing each other's strengths while compensating for each other's weaknesses. Rest assured of that."

~~~

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Temptations

My computer has been unusable for gaming for almost two weeks now. I can still surf and type, etc., but playing Landmark is difficult and TSW and even Dragon Age are out of the question. And it's my own fault, really.

 

Meanwhile, people are loving TESO, which I did not like even when my computer was in fine working order (based on a few hours on beta weekends (BTW the UI supplanted my dislike of the subscription as the main reason I decided not to buy the game)). But not having other games to play makes TESO all the more tempting, against my better judgment.

Honestly I feel left out, because it seems all my friends are playing something that I can't. Even though I chose not to play when I did have the option.

~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Claim Dilemma

Syl, the MMO Gypsy, has a post up today about losing her claim in Landmark, along with advice for both SOE and players on how that might be avoided in the future. Unfortunately, the same thing happened to Scooter last week due to an odd schedule and just general busy-ness. In the meantime, while I have diligently logged on to maintain my claim, my gimped computer makes it a chore to do anything more than mine and pay the piper. My actual claim sits unimproved.

With thanks to Quinterra for the beautiful screenshot.

Syl describes the stickiness of "owning" property in a game that keeps people coming back regularly. While I cannot disagree with her observation, my very fun forays into Dimensions in Rift and Housing in EQ2 did not ultimately keep me in those games. I also found the concept of upkeep a little manipulative. Keeping up my property in the real world is enough of a chore. I would prefer not to transfer that sense of obligation to my virtual one. I realize that seems in conflict with the concept of Landmark in the first place.

Perhaps I am in a rare position. With no developed property, I am only attached to my claim due to the pleasant view on a sentimentally named island. And while I am eager to develop my character through his tools, I worry that changes to the game as they introduce new systems will render much of my current efforts moot anyway.

So my dilemma is:

• Do I continue to pay upkeep on an empty lot, that my lovely bride may or may not be able to stake another claim next to?
• Or do I let it lapse and wait until we both have more time and good equipment, or SOE revises the upkeep to be more forgiving, or both?

~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Walkabout

Interesting things happen when you go on a walk just before dawn. There is a certain magick at that hour. The world starts out dark, but there's a glow in the east. Today, there was almost complete overcast, though. The only sounds are maybe a few crickets, the occasional car, and some dogs barking as I pass. But I walk on. I live in a well-established neighborhood, where the trees are mature and the houses are not built with a cookie cutter. I can imagine fae folk playing amongst the foliage of the darkened yards, like one of those fantasy worlds I spent much of my leisure time in. But they vanish if I try to spy them directly, so I walk on.

As I wend my way through the wooded streets, the sun makes itself known. A school bus passes, then I see a mom and her kids running toward the corner where the bus turned. I hope they didn't miss it. But I walk on. Suddenly, within the last ten minutes of my short journey, birds burst out in song. The rising, repeating cacophony of a hundred calls, cheering on the day, looking for a mate.

Their melodies and counterpoints carry me home where I must get ready to go spend the day in a box that looks much like the boxes of my cohorts—staring at a glowing screen instead of soaring with my winged friends. Waiting again to walk in the dawn.

~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

BtV Tier 84: April Fools!!!

I missed the fun last week, but here are links to the latest Remastered Tier of Beyond the Veil. Tier 84 is full of early April hijinks, as the rest of the BtV crew discusses the latest equal opportunity fashions, as well as the latest Game Director's Letter from Joel Bylos, mysteriously still dated from March. Listen in on the fun, and don't forget we webcast again tonight, when I'm sure the latest Investigation Missions pack will the toast of the show.

You can wait for me to post about our latest remastered episodes. . .

Or you can subscribe to the show through Holosuite Media's RSS feed, through iTunes (with older episodes here), and through Stitcher. You can catch the live show tonight and every Thursday at about 7p.m. EDT (11p.m. UTC) on Holosuite Excess. Beyond the Veil is produced by "Xander Hayes" and Holosuite Media.

~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Is Anything Wrong With TSW’s Combat?

Syp has a post out today discussing the problems with combat in The Secret World. There were plenty of counterpoints in the commentary, and I plan to include my own below. But first I want to point out two things. (1) At last someone has finally attempted to articulate their issues with TSW combat beyond "It's clunky," and included examples of other games where he thinks the combat is better. (2) I play TSW regularly with Syp, and while we all recognize that the game is not perfect, no game is, and The Secret World has much to recommend it.

"A lack of auto-attack (and resulting finger fatigue of always having to mash buttons"
After thinking about it, I could go either way with this. I guess WoW has auto-attacks, but if I recall correctly, they are all related to melee (except hunters' ranged). The two characters I managed to get to the level cap in WotLK (the last time I played seriously) were casters. Melee damage was insignificant, and the wand auto-cast didn't count since casting another spell discontinued the wand. If I wasn't actively mashing a button for a spell to go off, I wasn't doing any damage, and I certainly wasn't doing any healing.

GW2 includes an auto-attack, but in many ways GW2 combat is even more frenetic than in TSW, due to the weak trinity-mechanics. SWTOR combines the relatively static combat of WoW and EQ2 with no auto-attack at all. And that was some boring combat, if you ask me.

"The pattern of combat, which involves spamming a builder and then eventually firing off your two closers without much variation"
As was addressed by other commenters on Syp's post, this is somewhat situational. Yes, I agree that TSW made us all (WoW) rogues with combo points and finishing moves. But that facilitates the mix-n-match of the various weapons, which all have the build/consume mechanic. And most of my current decks (as they are called) contain far more abilities on some sort of longer cooldown than they do the basic builders and consumers.

I find this lack of variability present in many other games, including the aforementioned WoW and GW2. WoW players may end up with several action bars full of abilities, but the basic ones that are used most frequently do not number higher than about five—ten at most for hybrids. Perhaps the combat style is endemic to the genre. On the other hand, FPS games tend to have only one or two abilities based on the player's chosen weapon, amirite?

"The length of combat, as even a standard mob takes longer to kill in TSW than a contemporary MMO would"
As I pointed out in my own comment on Syp's post, I found combat in TESO disconcertingly brief; though admittedly, I have been playing TSW almost exclusively for quite some now. And I often don't need more than a single rotation of Syp's dreaded build/finish cycle to finish off a typical mob. Some are more durable than others; and much of the time I am running solo, I have stats devoted as much to survivability as to damage. I will admit that some fights seem to drag on, like the Anniversary Golems and the current Flappy raid. In any event, too long or too short is basically in the eye of the beholder. I am generally happy with the length of combat in TSW, versus other games I have played recently.

"You just don’t feel like you’re really hurting the enemy, even with reaction animations — maybe this goes back to the time-to-kill length"
I don't know what to say to this. I have felt like Neo—watching the the numbers fly by—ever since my WoW days. It's one reason I find discussions of caster- or ranged- vs melee-DPS somewhat amusing. It's all a bunch of dice rolls behind a (hopefully) pretty animation. If limbs were flying off, or the opponent (and your player character) were becoming less combat effective throughout the fight, in other games, then I would say TSW combat is inferior in this regard. But I do see much of the same lack of apparent damage in other MMOs.

Dragon Age, on the other hand, is steeped in blood and gore. Before I turned the persistent gore off in the options (thanks for the tip, lothirieth), my character spent virtually the entire time covered in blood spatter. Dexter would have a field day. And the flying blood is plenty of evidence that I damaging my enemies—as are the occasional beheadings.

"Overused and sometimes awkward animations"
This is another function of the MMO genre, from what I can tell. I'm not sure about the awkwardness of the combat animations, but I have some funny pics from cutscenes. The folks from BioWare made a big deal about the responsive animations of the lightsaber users (thrusts, parries, etc.), and other classes. But I never really noticed said animations during gameplay. I may have been too busy watching my action bars and my party health, though. And as was pointed out by Sylow on Syp's post, there are only so many ways you can properly fire an assault rifle, and none of them are flashy moves.

Like GW2 and several other games I've played recently, the limited palette of abilities available during a specific encounter affects this, as well. I have noticed that my characters don't always throw fireballs from the same hand. But when the animation of a spell is throwing a fireball, there are only so many different ways to do so.

"Range combat seems to have an inherent advantage"
This is highly situational. I tend to have one short (shotgun) or melee range weapon and one long range one (AR, Elemental, etc.). In fact, the weapons and abilities have varying ranges across the board. The ranged stuff tends to be highly directional, making situations where you get swarmed almost impossible to survive. Melee weapons, with their PBAoE, are perfect for multiple mobs that are chasing you.  Ranged DPS has some advantages over Melee in focused fire settings like dungeon boss fights. But most people run regular missions with various hybrids of ranged and melee, DPS and survivability.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I personally find the combat of TSW more enjoyable than WoW and EQ2, and on a par with GW2. On top of which, I have found the avatars to be pretty decent for the most part, considering this is meant to be "the real world" and not some fantasy land (I do like cartoonish art styles, too). The storytelling and mystery tops everything else out there, the vaunted SWTOR, in particular. The group dungeons are top notch, with epic fights and intriguing locales. I find the Ability Wheel a fascinating approach to character progression and versatility. There is plenty to like about The Secret World.

As was pointed out by Tyler F.M. Edwards, perhaps some of the "clunkiness" of combat in TSW is really a function of the deck the player is using. I've long held that the game mechanics of TSW revolve around the quiet time spent examining the Ability Wheel for synergies and situational advantages. No one deck will carry a player through the entire game. What works for this fight will get you killed in that one. The Secret World forces you to adapt as you go, and that is uncomfortable. I've raged against having to change favored decks myself. Sometimes that discomfort is too much for people, and they stop playing before they let TSW get under their skin. And that's OK. I didn't stick around for TESO, primarily due to the UI.

But let's call a spade a spade. You don't like the "combat" of TSW because you don't like the preparation it requires.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

It's Us . . . or Them

Eh, lots of stuff going on around here, hardly any gaming. Therefore not much material to discuss. But here's a follow-up to something I've written recently.

The faction thing was something that disappointed me in ESO as well. It just puts restrictions on the social aspect, on who to play with. Tehre will always be some friends who prefer another faction and spend most of their time there. It already annoys me a bit in SWTOR, and there's only two factions there (which you can't really get around, lore-wise).
~~Ravanel Griffon, commenting on one of my previous posts.

That's the thing, though. It's an arbitrary decision that the lore is bent around. In Guild Wars 2, ANet could easily have had factions with the natural opposition of the Charr and Humans. But they didn't want factions in their game, so . . . bygones, I guess. They made the lore fit the game.

I see the opposite case with WoW, where they have insisted on keeping the factions separate even with existential threats to the entire world of Azeroth that should have brought the two sides together. As far back as the re-opening of the Dark Portal, but certainly the threats of the Lich King and Deathwing would have created at least temporary truces in a semi-realistic setting. You can argue about how "realistic" WoW needs to be, I suppose. But the incessant internecine war narrative broke my suspension of disbelief, and I eventually stopped playing.

With SWTOR, BioWare is a bit more hidebound, due to the mechanics of the interactive story. But the decision was still made to separate the factions when they could have had at least a few crossovers—if they had gone to the trouble. The Bounty Hunter and Smuggler could have been neutral classes that could have gone either way, story-wise. There might be have been "gray" Jedi/Sith. But the mirrored-classes mechanic might have led to imbalances for PvP (not that I particularly care about PvP balance).

I'm not even against having factions in the lore. But there are ways around it in practical gameplay, like having most of the quest givers be faction-neutral; as seen in The Secret World and Rift's "Storm Legion" expansion, for example.

Maybe I'm just too much of a care-bear, thinking that we should just all be able to get along. The thing is, I like PvP when it's contained, like the "structured PvP" of GW2. I just don't see why I should be restricted from playing the character I want with my friends who want to be something else. The "us vs. them" mentality engendered by games like WoW is the worst example of insularity that has caused serious damage, oppression, and loss of life in the real world—in everything from sports-fan violence to global war. And that should have no place in a leisure activity.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

BtV Tier 83: Xander's Got Seoul

I am pleased share to the latest Remastered Tier of Beyond the Veil. Tier 83 takes us to back to the beginning, as we discuss helpful tips for new players, and Xander starts a new character on the Dragon side. The BtV crew gets into a cross-faction rivalry, concluding with my reading of the Templar Buzzing Lore.

You can wait for me to post about our latest remastered episodes. . .

Or you can subscribe to the show through Holosuite Media's RSS feed, through iTunes (with older episodes here), and through Stitcher. Be sure to catch the live show tomorrow and every Thursday at about 7p.m. EDT (11p.m. UTC) on Holosuite Excess. Beyond the Veil is produced by "Xander Hayes" and Holosuite Media.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Ready for Adventure!

Dexi (Scooter) and Rowanblaze

You know, I gotta say, if the beta characters of Landmark are any indication of how EQN characters will look (there is every indication that they are) I will be happy to play the game. Even at this rough stage, Landmark just has a look I like.

I haven't made much progress in Landmark due to various "meatspace" activities this weekend, but Scooter and I are rarin' to go. Our characters, Dexi and Rowanblaze, have claims just about as close to each other as we can get. I managed to do some gathering, even with the issues I am facing with my current hardware, so hopefully I can get some crafting done so as to upgrade my stuff and eventually get to building.

As mentioned by Belghast, even if you are caught up in some other game hotness right now, don't forget to pay the upkeep on your claim (assuming you want to keep it). You can pay ahead up to 5 days worth, which is only a few minutes of mining copper. I wish it were longer, but it is what it is.

~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Quotes of the Day: Bribing Rogue Coders

How much fun is this? What I originally thought was light banter in the TSW Twitterverse turned out to actually be a thing.

     To those considering bribing rogue coders to circumvent Council of Venice certification: please first consider your conscience as a Templar.

~Richard Sonnac, Twitter, April 1, 2014

Apparently, the Rogue Coder in the Sunken Library has a Forged Council's Seal amongst his wares for a measly million Pax, and there are some who are none too happy about it. The ability to actually purchase the Forged Seal will require purchasing the Mission Pack that is meant to tide players over for April, which is one source of the angst. People don't think they should have to pay actual money to bypass the scenarios.

     I guess the point from our end is that there is a "free" way to Tokyo so we didn't feel under any obligation to ensure fairness by not having the alternative behind the paywall.

     But yes, it always hard to please everybody. I still think calling the 80 tokens required to buy Tokyo certification a "grind" is a stretch.

~Game Director Joel Bylos, responding to the hubbub.

I really hope that the mission pack includes new scenarios because I personally am weary of the "Seek and Preserve" scenario, randomly the same thing over and over. And I'm saying I told you so on that front.

Now, granted that I fully intend purchase the DLC mission pack regardless, and I already have a "Real" Council Seal on two characters, I think those looking for both a lunch free of effort and cash are bellying up to the wrong counter. As Joel said, getting the Seal will not cost you anything but time, assuming you are at the end of the story missions through Transylvania. Avoiding the scenarios but still getting a "Seal" will and should cost you. After all, the Devs need to eat lunch, too.

~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.