Sunday, 25 December 2016
Christmas cookie
Tavelor is giving some people a Christmas cookie, but unlike the rumours say, Wodon won't trade it for a mirror. I don't know if anyone has tried eating it yet
Friday, 29 January 2016
Wizard the...
Game developer
I wish I could build games, but I have never learned to code. I used to say that it didn't matter, since I eventually found an MMO which was built with the perfect design.
Though, now I want to see a game based off pre-hardware-accelerated graphcs, where 90% of your attacks hit empty air, because the animations are so long and strange. 1992 MS-DOS is not getting the appreciation it deserves.
The first player
I remember the ancient times when trees sparkled like emeralds and the sun blazed unendingly. But I joined after the orc cave was added. There was an era before that when it was just the rogue's den, and before that, bees and rabbits.
The oldest player which can be still be seen, to my knowledge, is "Plng". We worked out once that he must have joined a couple of days before me.
Grandfather
I've had people tell me they have read far backwards through the game history because of this blog. It's great that I've built some content useful to them.
Generous
I wouldn't lend a horn to anyone, let alone mysterious level ones in the Tavern. Typically these guys will call me "friend", and have me follow them to a shady place away from everyone else before asking for a really expensive item. It's ridiculous.
Lord
I wish I could build games, but I have never learned to code. I used to say that it didn't matter, since I eventually found an MMO which was built with the perfect design.
Though, now I want to see a game based off pre-hardware-accelerated graphcs, where 90% of your attacks hit empty air, because the animations are so long and strange. 1992 MS-DOS is not getting the appreciation it deserves.
The first player
I remember the ancient times when trees sparkled like emeralds and the sun blazed unendingly. But I joined after the orc cave was added. There was an era before that when it was just the rogue's den, and before that, bees and rabbits.
The oldest player which can be still be seen, to my knowledge, is "Plng". We worked out once that he must have joined a couple of days before me.
Grandfather
I've had people tell me they have read far backwards through the game history because of this blog. It's great that I've built some content useful to them.
Generous
I wouldn't lend a horn to anyone, let alone mysterious level ones in the Tavern. Typically these guys will call me "friend", and have me follow them to a shady place away from everyone else before asking for a really expensive item. It's ridiculous.
Lord
Skaldor pro tips
The pro players have developed decent team tactics for Skaldor. The idea is that everyone who is not being hit always stands completely still. When the person tanking gets too low, he moves behind another player and waits about 10 seconds (so that the boss switches targets) before moving back into the fray. Of course, this requires a team that will not panic or run away during the tank switch.
They have also found that the mysterious empty room in the tomb is the skeleton spawn point. Apparently if you kill all the skeletons, one spawns here every two minutes. So arguable the best training method for pro players is a team of two in the triangle room. It certainly seems better than combing the desert.
Finally, they have started waiting 45 seconds after drinking an invisibility potion, before pulling. This ensures it wears off early in the fight, preventing accidental friendly fire, and allowing healing winds to work. However, healing wind does work if both caster and target is invisible, so conceal scrolls are also fine.
They have also found that the mysterious empty room in the tomb is the skeleton spawn point. Apparently if you kill all the skeletons, one spawns here every two minutes. So arguable the best training method for pro players is a team of two in the triangle room. It certainly seems better than combing the desert.
Finally, they have started waiting 45 seconds after drinking an invisibility potion, before pulling. This ensures it wears off early in the fight, preventing accidental friendly fire, and allowing healing winds to work. However, healing wind does work if both caster and target is invisible, so conceal scrolls are also fine.
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
Spooky mysteries of Aberoth
Elcochador is constructing undead golems, which might already be walking among us.
Also, the bottom of the world, also known as the "void", apparently now contains a giant endless lake of a darkness.
Was Gomald sent there by a bug, or an unknown force?...
Also, the bottom of the world, also known as the "void", apparently now contains a giant endless lake of a darkness.
Was Gomald sent there by a bug, or an unknown force?...
Christmas day
It's that magic day of the year where we forsake our families to spend entertaining hours trying to block a virtual door with virtual snow. Now with santa hats.
Quakestar
Quakestar is running the most powerful active guild in the game. People accuse him of all sorts of things, from murder to theif, along with being a "steam nub". There are rumors that he meddles in an evil and ancient magic.
Here is his vault, with the trophy room at the back,
And when I invited him, he killed the other guest!
Watch out for Quakestar!
Here is his vault, with the trophy room at the back,
And when I invited him, he killed the other guest!
Watch out for Quakestar!
Blue hat added
The blue hat gives 10% casting chance.
Combined with obsidian the game is starting to allow a "squishy wizard" playstyle, which could be fun, as the new group tactics at Skaldor allow for a good degree of control over who is getting attacked (post about that coming up).
Some people appreciate secret updates, whiles other are afraid of missing something.
Sunday, 27 December 2015
Snowman competiton
Poche:
Nilloc ("Snowzilla"):
Style: +1
Creativity: +10
Size: +15
Bonus 10 for good use of 3d depth
Imserious:
Style: +10
Creativity: +5
Size: +10
Bonuses: On roof (+5), Year old photo (-5)
Abbas:
Style: +20
Creativity: +20
Size: +10
Bonuses: Merry tune (+10), Flat (-50)
Style:+5
Creativity: -5
Size: -10
Style: -5
Creativity:+ 5
Size: +5
Total scores:
First place Nilloc with 36 (Wins minotaur axe)
Second place Imserious with 25 (Wins thin spellbook)
Third place Abbas with 10
Forth tied Poche with 5 and Obesepig 5 and -10
Thanks all for entering. And thank you for Zeman who donated the spellbook.
Style: +10
Creativity: +5
Size: -10
Nilloc ("Snowzilla"):
Creativity: +10
Size: +15
Bonus 10 for good use of 3d depth
Imserious:
Style: +10
Creativity: +5
Size: +10
Bonuses: On roof (+5), Year old photo (-5)
Abbas:
Creativity: +20
Size: +10
Bonuses: Merry tune (+10), Flat (-50)
Obesepig:
Creativity: -5
Size: -10
Style: -5
Creativity:+ 5
Size: +5
Total scores:
First place Nilloc with 36 (Wins minotaur axe)
Second place Imserious with 25 (Wins thin spellbook)
Third place Abbas with 10
Forth tied Poche with 5 and Obesepig 5 and -10
Thanks all for entering. And thank you for Zeman who donated the spellbook.
Legendary snowman
While I am not going to enter my own competition, the greatest snowman has been built by me and Nilloc.
My design was inspired by Freezy peaks in Banjo Kazooie. So let us take a few seconds this year to remember the great game devs of our past. Rest in piece Rareware Westwood Lucasarts, and all the others!
My design was inspired by Freezy peaks in Banjo Kazooie. So let us take a few seconds this year to remember the great game devs of our past. Rest in piece Rareware Westwood Lucasarts, and all the others!
Wednesday, 23 September 2015
What makes an MMO "social"?
I know everyone is talking about the "Realm of Protection" at the moment, but I think that deserves observation for a bit before giving feedback. It is very difficult to work out, in abstract, how different rules will effect the incentives and the subsequent behavior of players. I fail at the task regularly despite having time to daydream on it during lectures. Better to experiment.
Instead I want to consider the question of what makes social interaction more fun in some games rather than others. My hypothesis is that it comes down to two simple rules:
1. Arrange things so that players are likely to interact with the same players repeatedly
2. Have them encounter novel situations
Rule (1) is common sense, backed by psychology, and backed by history. Humans historically lived in tribes and small villages. We're good at keeping track of small groups of about 100 people, who we like, who we dislike, who is a fool, who is treacherous, and so on. And we can't do this very well for larger numbers of people. So for a fantasy community to feel "real" above a certain size, it has to start segregating someway. This could be through different towns, guilds, etc; but the main method at the moment is realms. When the orb room came out, it struck me as inconvenient to make it difficult to cross realms, but it now occurs to me that this is a good idea, a great idea, because having some sort of barrier between realms encourages people to stick in a home realm, which increases the chance of meeting the same players. This simultaneously helps the pvp and scamming aspect (since reputation serves to discourage griefing) and the social aspect of the game. Meanwhile, the fact that realms can be crossed helps make the world feel connected, lets friends play together, and gives an escape route if someone is hunted too much on one realm.
Steam realms were merged with the old realm today, and from tavern gossip, it sounds like the theory is working.
I said I would travel to black. And they told me that black contains a group of pkers led by Pyro, but who is not that tough, because she was successfully repelled from Cyan.
Meanwhile, Arcand wanted to hunt some playerkillers, and they suggested he go to red, which has reputation for playerkilling.
And people on the Steam forum have spoke of "realm invasions", where people go to the orb room together and attack a different realm.
This is cool stuff. With realms, it feels like the world is 5 times bigger. And that is even with realms being identical. So we get to have a big a world while still maintaining communities.
As for rule (2), that is inspired by army doctrine. Closely-bonded soldiers tend to be much better at war, so the army has done a lot of research into how to bond its troops together quickly and effectively. In the past decade, it has moved from drilling (though that is still important), towards adventure training - which is when a platoon or section travel somewhere in civilian clothing and do kayaking, mountain climbing, bicycle riding, all sorts of things. According to the manual, this is because people in every-day life put on metaphorical masks in social situations, but in novel situations the mask comes off, revealing their true characters, which leads to connecting with people much quicker.
Aberoth has monsters which, according to various random factors, can act strangely and dangerously, creating novel situations which we have to think about and react to. Likewise for players. I think this is the important feature which builds friendships. If a game feels like it is on a conveyor belt, it doesn't matter how elaborate the features are - people won't really communicate. I can think of a few elaborate chatroom-style virtual worlds in the late 1990s which, despite containing real people, felt pretty dead, and now I understand why.
Instead I want to consider the question of what makes social interaction more fun in some games rather than others. My hypothesis is that it comes down to two simple rules:
1. Arrange things so that players are likely to interact with the same players repeatedly
2. Have them encounter novel situations
Rule (1) is common sense, backed by psychology, and backed by history. Humans historically lived in tribes and small villages. We're good at keeping track of small groups of about 100 people, who we like, who we dislike, who is a fool, who is treacherous, and so on. And we can't do this very well for larger numbers of people. So for a fantasy community to feel "real" above a certain size, it has to start segregating someway. This could be through different towns, guilds, etc; but the main method at the moment is realms. When the orb room came out, it struck me as inconvenient to make it difficult to cross realms, but it now occurs to me that this is a good idea, a great idea, because having some sort of barrier between realms encourages people to stick in a home realm, which increases the chance of meeting the same players. This simultaneously helps the pvp and scamming aspect (since reputation serves to discourage griefing) and the social aspect of the game. Meanwhile, the fact that realms can be crossed helps make the world feel connected, lets friends play together, and gives an escape route if someone is hunted too much on one realm.
Steam realms were merged with the old realm today, and from tavern gossip, it sounds like the theory is working.
I said I would travel to black. And they told me that black contains a group of pkers led by Pyro, but who is not that tough, because she was successfully repelled from Cyan.
Meanwhile, Arcand wanted to hunt some playerkillers, and they suggested he go to red, which has reputation for playerkilling.
And people on the Steam forum have spoke of "realm invasions", where people go to the orb room together and attack a different realm.
This is cool stuff. With realms, it feels like the world is 5 times bigger. And that is even with realms being identical. So we get to have a big a world while still maintaining communities.
As for rule (2), that is inspired by army doctrine. Closely-bonded soldiers tend to be much better at war, so the army has done a lot of research into how to bond its troops together quickly and effectively. In the past decade, it has moved from drilling (though that is still important), towards adventure training - which is when a platoon or section travel somewhere in civilian clothing and do kayaking, mountain climbing, bicycle riding, all sorts of things. According to the manual, this is because people in every-day life put on metaphorical masks in social situations, but in novel situations the mask comes off, revealing their true characters, which leads to connecting with people much quicker.
Aberoth has monsters which, according to various random factors, can act strangely and dangerously, creating novel situations which we have to think about and react to. Likewise for players. I think this is the important feature which builds friendships. If a game feels like it is on a conveyor belt, it doesn't matter how elaborate the features are - people won't really communicate. I can think of a few elaborate chatroom-style virtual worlds in the late 1990s which, despite containing real people, felt pretty dead, and now I understand why.
Monday, 21 September 2015
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