Millennium City Summer

As Anjin noted recently, Cryptic has been very quiet about Champions Online since the Serpent Lantern update last month. I don’t mean that I was expecting another update, but just that it would’ve been nice to have an idea of where the dev’s were focusing for the next major patch to the game.

Thankfully Poz has released a State of the Game that outlines the planned Summer Update for August 17th and a sneak peak at the next adventure pack, The Demonflame.

Summer Update

  • Super Groups are getting a revamp of their UI that looks very similar to the Fleet screens in Star Trek Online.
  • The Renaissance Center is being remodeled to provide better feng shui for social activities.
  • New emotes (20+) and a better UI screen.
  • C-Store UI update, there were no screenshots included but I’m betting it’ll match the recent update in STO.
  • Costume creator will have more tights options in the costume creator (something I’m looking forward to) and more high heeled shoes and boots for females.
  • A new difficulty setting above Very Hard, I vote for Are You Happy Yet?

Like the recent melee powers update that took place, Cryptic is also working on a revamp of the pet systems. This includes a more explicit way of controlling pets, an increase in the damage they do, and a new mechanic for keeping them powered.

I’ve not played with the pet powers at all, but I’ve heard that there are also problems with the pathing and having to resummon all pets when one dies. Hopefully these changes will help with those problems as well.

The Demonflame

Scheduled for the end of September, The Demonflame focuses on DEMON similarly to how The Serpent Lantern focused on Viper. We’ll be going to the Qliphotic realm and battling a new monster group. Check out the screenshots on the site.

Bullet points provided courtesy of Anjin, Inc.

Zinc’s Leaving

I got a little shock today from Twitter. Craig Zinkievich, the Executive Producer and a seven year veteran of Cryptic Studio, is leaving. In the full announcement, Craig basically says he’s taking the summer off to spend time with his family; although, he is planning to continue playing the game (I look forward to him posting gripes at the devs).

I was completely caught off-guard by Zinc leaving, and initially very concerned at what his departure might hint about the game’s future. Unlike with Roper’s management of Champions, overall I’ve been very happy with Zinc’s tenure as EP. Still, that initial fear reaction was just  my normal reaction to change. After reading the announcement twice and heading over to the forum thread, I was much less concerned.

Daniel Stahl, formerly a Producer on the game, is taking over for Craig and has brand new Twitter account, Cryptic_dStahl, if you’re interested in following him. Daniel is very active on the forums and well respected by the community, at least for now. MMO forum communities being what they are, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

If you want an idea of what kind of person is taking over management of the game, just read Stahl’s awesome response in the forum thread about Zinc leaving. There’s also a good follow up by Zinc to some of the comments in the thread, and an additional post by Daniel to address some of the conspiracy theorists. My cynical side suggests that all of this is exactly what Cryptic would post, but given the number of dev posts I’ve seen by Cryptic staff I don’t think that’s true.

Of course how this will actually affect the game is any one’s guess, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Decisions, Decisions

I may be switching to console mode again for a few days. Why?

  • Transformers: War for Cybertron is on it’s way from Amazon and should be here by Thursday.
  • There’s the freshly downloaded Crackdown 2 demo on my Eilte’s hard-drive begging to be played.
  • Mass Effect 2 has three DLC’s piled up that I’ve barely touched.
  • Red Dead Redemption has some new and free CO-OP maps.

There’s lots to do on the Xbox 360.

Then again, poor Cimmerian Brynulf has been trapped in Tortage for weeks longer than he should have been, and he’s only one quest away from escaping.

Bullet points provided courtesy of Anjin, Inc.

Silver Hunter and the Serpent Lantern

Serpent Lantern, the first Adventure Pack from Cryptic Studios for Champions Online, came out last week. I’d been looking forward to trying out the new content, even though my level-capped Silver Hunter still has quite a bit to do in Vibora Bay. I’ve been spending more time in the Alpha Quadrant and Middle-earth than Millennium City, recent and I was looking to SL to reawaken my interest.
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LotRO, Cosmetic Gear, and the Wardrobe

One of the coming features that was included in last week’s free-to-play announcement by Turbine was the wardrobe. A twenty slot container for cosmetic items. I’m really looking forward to this, but for it to be really useful I’d like one additional feature: a way to convert quest rewards into cosmetic items.

I have quite a few bank slots dedicated to old quest rewards that I keep because I use them for cosmetic outfits. I would much rather keep these items in the storage chest in my home or in the upcoming wardrobe, but I can’t because they are bound items. These items are also impossible to share between characters, even though I just want to use them in cosmetic slots.

So to get the most use out of the wardrobe, I would love to see Turbine add a way to convert an old quest item into a cosmetic item. The type of the time would change to cosmetic and all of the stats and bonuses would be removed, it would also no longer be bound.

While I’m asking for stuff, I would love to see additional cosmetic slots made available, either as paid unlocks like vault slots or as level/quest/deed rewards.

LotRO F2P?!?

Turbine and Codemasters dropped a huge news bomb on the MMO community today by announcing that LotRO is going free to play on both the US and EU servers.

First reaction? I have to say I was disappointed. Going F2P makes it seem like the game was in trouble, which was a reaction I saw from several people on Twitter. Also, with the recent acquisition by Warner Brothers, was this really Turbine’s idea? Not that it makes any difference, I’m just curious.

After I read through what the free-to-play switch means for me as a founder and lifetime subscriber, my initial disappointment subsided partially. For me the game will not change much. I will still have access to all of the same features and content as before, and I still won’t be paying any money except for expansions. There will be a new button somewhere to launch the store, and I’m betting it will be up on the minimap near where the lorebook button is now. There will also be a new UI interface to show me how many Turbine Points I have somewhere assuming they’re handled like they are in DDO. Thank Eru that TP’s probably won’t take up bag space like Skirmish Marks. As far as getting Turbine Points in game? I’m ambivalent about having a message congratulating me on getting a TP reward, this seems like it is going just a hair’s breadth over the immersion line for me.

Beyond all of the game and financial mechanics, my major concern regarding the free-to-play switch is what impact this will have on the community. LotRO is well known for having some of the most mature and friendly player communities. I can personally vouch for Landroval. Even in the hub areas (like Bree and 21st Hall) the chat is wonderfully free of complaints, Chuck Norris jokes, and WoW comparisons. The user channel GLFF does get a bit woolly, but it’s not one tenth as bad as the infamous Barrens chat. So will we see an influx of bad apples in the fall? How much of a barrier was that $15 a month to keep all the bored level capped players in other games from rolling on a LotRO server just to try and stir things up?

There’s a discussion about this very topic on the forums today. Clover posted that it’s up to the existing players to keep the community feel by welcoming newcomers. That is partly true where a new player is actually interested in the game, but it ignores the type of player who is just there to grief people. With monsterplay restricted to subscribers only and fully-consensual, there’s no concern about spawn camps or ganking, but someone can still come over and grief in chat.

The community impacts are my biggest concern. Turbine has to be banking on a big influx of players, their current F2P policies aren’t going to yield any additional revenue from lifetime subscribers (soon to be lifetime VIPs). Actually they may lose some revenue there, since further expansions will be purchasable through the store with TPs. So if there’s nothing I’m interested in purchasing, I’ll be collecting 500 points a month waiting on an expansion to spend them on.

So, after having a few hours to educate myself and emotionally adjust to the announcements, the only thing that I’m upset about was this:

When does LOTRO F2P go live?

Free-to-Play will go live when Volume 3, Book 2 releases this fall.

No new content until this fall? When Book 1 came out I enjoyed the content but at the time I was expecting to see Book 2 within a few months, right around now actually. Now that I know there’s likely a six month gap? Book 1 feels pretty pitiful.

Why is this horse so slow?

I’ve been on an MMO vacation since I picked up Red Dead Redemption. Now that RDR’s single player story is finished, my interest has returned to PC games and MMOs (I’m still planning to play RDR some more just not as exclusively).

On Monday night I returned to Middle-earth and it felt good to be back. First things I did were the normal house keeping activities needed after any long absence: I made sure my housing fees were up to date and checked my in-game mail. Chores taken care of, I still had some alcohol in my bags from working on Inn League reputation so I headed to the Bree festival grounds to see if the anniversary festival was still happening.

As I started out on the ride north, I thought, “Why an I going so slow?” I checked to make sure I was in run mode and not walk, check. Then I realized, I was also feeling an urge to tap a button to go faster. I’ve gotten so used used to the riding in Red Dead Redemption and being able to move through the world at a full-on gallop that riding a horse in LotRO felt like walking.

Oddly enough, I ended up switching to an alt and running around and the speed felt fine to me, so my expectations got shifted just for horse travel.

Whoops! It’s Friday?

So, um yeah, I guess it’s Friday already. I had big plans for an AoC post and a few other things this week. Apparently this week had other plans for me. So instead, I present you with the following summary, excuses, and cuteness.

My Age of Conan retry was going very well up until Wednesday, that’s when UPS delivered my copy of Red Dead Redemption. I’d been waiting to post my thoughts until I’d escaped from Tortage, but, as a summary, my ranger Brynulf has reached level 19 and is near the end of his destiny quest.

My Xbox hasn’t gotten much use since I finished Mass Effect 2, but Red Dead Redemption has had me hooked the last few nights. This game was completely not on my radar. Scott from Pumping Irony asked my via Raptr a few days ago if I was getting it, so I took a look. Hmmm, a Rock Star open world shooter like GTA 4? Probably not something I’ll enjoy, I played the last GTA game for less than a day. I decided to check out a couple of game play videos anyway, and based on what I saw, I ordered it. So far, no regrets. Well except for a lack of sleep.

Besides RDR, I’ve had some real life stuff distracting me from writing. On Wednesday, my dad had his 62 birthday, and my sister also had her second child, both on the same day. Getting your third grandson, that’s a nice birthday present. Yesterday was my fourth wedding anniversary, and tonight we have a babysitter and dinner plans.

So, that’s that. I do have several drafts waiting for attention, so week should be a busy one.

Radiance Poll

There’s a poll up on the LotRO forums regarding radiance gear be sure to register your opinion or you don’t get to complain later. Thanks to Casual Stroll to Mordor for the heads-up.

I voted to remove radiance completely. Of course, I don’t think it’s likely that Turbine will really do that, but hope springs eternal. The second most popular choice (and there’s a large gap between second and third place) was to make radiance deed based. If radiance has to stay in the game, I would prefer deeds over gear. Partly, I think it is more in keeping with the spirit of the lore, after all the books were about the triumph of spirit than who had the coolest sword. Still, deeds will have their own issues, especially if are tied to some stupidly high kill count, but that’s an article for another day.