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Thursday, February 25, 2016

Onerous AEGIS

Ah, life. I meant to mine my screencaps for pictures for this post last night, but between running errands and spending time with my daughters, I never even turned on my laptop.
Sypster, yet again, has posted a post I wish I had written. In it, he calls out Funcom on the dreadful secondary combat systems they've tried to implement since the launch of The Secret World. As you may well know, Dear Reader, AEGIS basically broke the game for me. I was a huge cheerleader because I loved TSW. I still do. The Ability Wheel, with its multiple synergies, provided a classless system that left the Unholy Trinity intact. I truly felt the idea of "bring the player, not the class" was well served in TSW.

Auxiliaries were cool, though I agree with Syp that they would have been more interesting as full weapons instead of a single active/passive. Augments were always obviously optional and never seemed worth the grind, at the very least they were lower priority AP expense. But AEGIS, both being mandatory, and yet adding nothing to the game, was the ten-ton dumbbell that broke this camel’s enthusiasm.

At best, AEGIS increases the length of an already long combat cycle. At worst, it makes the game impossible to play, as the player may not be able to do any damage to a random encountered mob without the proper equipment.

I dipped a toe in again a couple weeks ago but never got around to writing about it. I re-did the Tower Defense and obtained the AEGIS controllers I was missing. Though my friends from Beyond the Veil were trying to do me a favor those many months ago, it might have been better if I had done the mission solo. I learned much more about what was going on with the individual towers and their proper distribution the other night. As is often the case when one is carried through group content, getting "help" from the BtV crew didn't really help me in the long run. In point of fact, that night was the last time I logged in for over a year, because I wandered down the wrong alley and encountered a mob I didn't have the controllers to combat.

Which leads back to the added unnecessary complexity and length of fight. Commenting on Syp's post, Sylow maintains that AEGIS isn't that big a deal once you get used to it—and use the AegisHud addon (which I do), and have some capacitors in your full set of controllers—a point echoed on Twitter by my old mate, Galactrix. Sylow goes further to lay the blame for both Augments and AEGIS at the feet of the playerbase, hundreds—or thousands—of whom insisted on power increases or they threatened to not spend any money on additional Issues or updates to the game. Funcom was over a barrel. I wonder, though, how many players Funcom lost because the system was both unnecessary and poorly implemented at first. I myself had just begun subscribing again a month prior to entering Tokyo. They got maybe 30 bucks out of me before I quit cold turkey, not even playing or being tempted to play for well over a year.

Syp is not the only one who dislikes AEGIS despite having powered through the Tokyo Issues. Tententacles, for example, despises the system despite having taken three alts through to the end. Apparently, Lead Designer Romain Amiel has said AEGIS will be relegated to end-game content (dungeons/raids?) after Tokyo.

I noticed (and Sylow pointed out) that the Tower Defense mission now gives a full set of controllers. I want to dip in again now that I have a full set and maybe see how things go because the stories are still fascinating. I feel a bit removed from what is going on though. It may be better to return to my lower level Dragon to get back into the swing of things, or even create a character to start anew. We’ll see.
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Friday, February 19, 2016

Rambling

Something about February makes it a blogging slow-mover for me. Most Februaries have been below average for posting for the year in which they fell, as well as below the overall monthly average (about 11 posts per month). I didn't even post once during February of 2015. On the other hand, February tends to be slightly busier job-wise, and this month in particular, I've been sick enough to require medical attention for the first time in over a decade.

And it's not that I don't have ideas. A recent debate on MMoGames about the "Unholy Trinity" roles made me want to write something up (again). I've downloaded Jeff Kurtenacker's SoundCloud repertoire and made a WildStar OST out of it (completely for my personal use, don't ask, get your own). For all that I have a hard time really getting into the game, the soundtrack is phenomenal. I've been kicking around the idea of starting a tabletop game that Scooter and I can play as a duo (because I honestly don't see us forming or joining a local group). We saw Deadpool on Monday; and even though I loved the movie, I'm not sure how much I have to say about it.

No, the real problem right now is finding the time and energy to really gather my thoughts and type this stuff out. By the time I get home and deal with the dogs and have dinner with Scooter—or maybe do something out of the house with one or more of our grown children—all I want to do settle in to a nice relaxing gaming session. Right now, that's SWTOR, of course. But I don't know how long that will last. Despite enjoying the character stories, and going all the way through KotFE Ch.9 with my Sith Warrior, Morrenia, I have little desire to build my alliance, and haven't even done Chapter X which came out last week. (A buncha whingers going on about how their headstart was foreshortened by server issues didn't help.)

KotFE is a single player game. Scooter and I have to go through each chapter twice. Once for her and once for me. On each character we want to take through. A monthly subscription seems like a lot for such a game, but playing for free is not an option given the punitive system EA/BioWare has in place. I wish there were a game like Dragon Age, but that could be played co-op with one other player. That's kind of what I want from that tabletop idea I'm kicking around.
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Saturday, February 13, 2016

PAX Pox

So about Wednesday following PAX South weekend, I became so congested overnight that an infection developed in my right ear. Various complications ensued over the following week (thankfully, none life-threatening, but I will spare you the photos), and I ended up going to the doctor this past Thursday afternoon. He prescribed antibiotics (which I promise to take faithfully until they are gone), and I hope to feel well enough by tomorrow that Scooter and I can celebrate Valentine's Day properly (by going to see Deadpool).
This all to say that neither gaming nor blogging have been priorities, even staying home both Monday and Friday (and suffering through twenty-one and a half hours at the office). Scooter and I did get a few hours of SWTOR in here and there, and I've even dipped a toe into Wildstar. But mostly it's been veggin' on the couch, watching Netflix or Hulu, or just plain sleeping to escape the pain on the right side of my face. From the looks of my Twitter stream, I am far from the only one with the February sniffles. Here's hoping we all get better soon.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog.

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.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

PAX Riparia

Scooter enjoying the view (of her phone)
Having gotten up very early to drive to San Antonio, then walked around PAX for something like seven hours, Scooter and I were ready to head to our hotel. Thanks to my job, I have accumulated a lot of points with the International Hotel Group (which includes Holiday Inn), enabling me to book free rooms every so often. For PAX weekend, I splurged and got us a reservation at the Hotel Indigo Riverwalk, an excellent "boutique" hotel north of the main downtown area. I did see a few other folks that had PAX badges, which was cool.
Dusk on the Riverfront
The hotel overlooks the San Antonio River from the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts (the building on the left in the pictures). After checking in, we relaxed on the balcony and enjoyed the early evening (relative) quiet. Having eaten a heavy lunch, we decided to keep dinner simple and went to a local market to get sandwich stuff and fruit for dinner.
Morning Coffee (bad compositing)
Had I realized Bel was leaving on Sunday morning instead of going back to the convention center, I would have made a bigger effort to hang out with him and the others on Saturday. But, finding out fairly early that he wouldn't be there, I was in no hurry to get back myself. Scooter and I enjoyed a leisurely morning and checked out of the hotel before walking along the river to find lunch and then check out the PAX tabletop games hall. Scooter introduced me to her favorite place on the Riverwalk, Casa Rio, located right under the Commerce Street bridge. It was delicious.
Lunch on the Riverwalk
After lunch, we made our way over to the convention center and headed into PAX. I convinced Scooter to see if we could get more time on the Intel PCs. We got in at just the right time, with only a 10 minute wait and almost the full 45 minutes of promised playtime. When we left, the wait was back up to about 40 minutes. We went through the DOTA2 tutorial. I decided that I don't like the isomorphic view and click-to-move mechanics of DOTA. If all MOBAs are like this, I'd avoid them even if they didn't have a reputation for toxic communities. I got in a little more time playing Rocket League as well, deciding that I would need to get a controller if I want to buy it and play regularly.

Leaving the PC Room, we wanted to explore the PAX tabletop gaming hall, which we had skipped the previous day. Much to our surprise, the hall was actually mostly tables with folks playing various games. The exhibit booths were only a couple rows deep, and we could have explored them the evening before. That's not to say they weren't interesting. There were quite a few developer reps explaining/demonstrating their games to convention guests, and others had tabletop accessories on display. Scooter has a history of playing tabletop RPGs that I missed out on as a teenager. But it's been decades since she played, and I have been interested in trying it out. At one booth, we were looking seriously at the Pathfinder Beginner Box because it supports 2-player games, but we couldn't make a decision right then.

All in all, I had a great time at PAX. If we get the chance to go again, I think we will try to head down Friday night, and attend just the one day on Saturday before spending Sunday relaxing in San Antonio. At least this time around, neither of us was really interested in any of the scheduled panels, leaving only the exhibits and chance to try out some games. Still, a ton of stuff to see and do. I'd like to meet and hang out with people more, as well, and not being exhausted by 5 p.m.—13 hours after waking up—would help.

Thanks again to the anonymous person who gave us tickets, and to Belghast for arranging such a wonderful gift. We need to find a way to get together again soon, without thousands of people milling about. LOL
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Thursday, February 4, 2016

PAX Populi

Continued . . .
Beware the ghostly gamers!

The Aggronaut navigated his way through a maze of electronics and humanity with Scooter and me in tow. The apparent star of the exhibition floor was literally a Dreadnought. Meatbags were willing to wait for hours for the chance to sit down and play the latest blockbuster before it is released. Our companion was more focused on the smaller independent developers and their wares. Meeting up with several others in Bel's orbit, I joined in a game of Ultimate Chicken Horse—a fun little game of cooperative competition played on the XBox. Unfortunately, that was the last time we would see and recognize any of the Candy Van Crüe except another quick visit with Bel.
PAX Pox Incubator
Scooter and I spent hours weaving through the milling sea of humanity in the PAX exhibition hall, checking out everything from fancy anti-glare glasses and fancy leather hats to luxury gaming tables. There was plenty of merchandise to drool over from folks like WeLoveFine (the booth under the floating unicorn, above), and also demos from big-name and indy game developers. There were even charities like a "Gamers for Jesus" group and a veteran's organization. Despite packing well for our excursion, I completely forgot I was toting victuals and found myself famished by about 1 o'clock. We were headed out to find some grub when Bel caught up with us again for just a minute before heading off in a different direction.
And then all the Formics were wiped out.
After a delicious lunch on the nearby Riverwalk, the highlight of our afternoon was an opportunity to play some games in the PC Room (brought to you by Intel!). After our fifteen minute wait stretched into thirty, we were ushered to the computers, told we had thirty-five minutes to play (instead of forty-five), and left to our own devices. After a warm-up on Peggle Nights, I played several rounds of Rocket League against bots with names like Iceman and Goose. The game is hella fun. In case you don't know, it's a soccer-like game played with cars and trucks. All too soon, our twenty-seven minutes was over, and we were unceremoniously frogmarched from the venue (not really).

After wandering about for a bit, I checked the Candy Van group texts and discovered that Belghast, who had worn himself out, had headed off to meet his wife and her friend for dinner. We decided we would check out the tabletop side of the exhibition hall the next morning and left the convention center for our hotel.

To be concluded . . .
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Tuesday, February 2, 2016

PAX Belana

(I have more to say about the show. But things are really busy right now, and I wanted to get this out, mostly to express my gratitude to Belghast and the person who gave his tickets to PAX South. So, THANK YOU!)

A couple weeks ago, as I came to the realization that Belghast was planning to go to San Antonio for PAX South 2016, I suggested that we could meet up, either for a meal on his way down (he and his wife and friend passed within about fifteen minutes of our house), or for a meal down in S.A. (well within driving distance for Scooter and me). Given the late date, we had no plans to actually attend the gaming conference. As it happened, Bel knew someone who had purchased two passes but would be unable to attend. Because I met certain specified criteria, he gave the badges to Bel to pass along to Scooter and me.

And so on Saturday morning, with many thanks to Belghast and and our Anonymous Benefactor, we found ourselves traveling to San Antonio not merely to meet with Bel and Co., but to actually attend the gaming convention. After navigating the parking headache (during which I managed to hurt Scooter's feelings when she was only trying to help) and trekking to the Convention Center, we met up with Bel and headed into the show.
We're going on an adventure!
To be continued . . .
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog.

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.