Month: March 2023

Posted in Gaming Goals

Syp’s gaming goals for April 2023

Posted on by Syp

March 2023 in review

  • When my life’s biography is written, the entry for this month will be “Syp had no idea what he wanted to play.” A general malaise in life led to a lot of listlessness in gaming, so I ended up sampling a lot of things and hoping that something would not just stick but inspire. It wasn’t a completely wasted month, but it wasn’t that productive or exciting, either.
  • Some of the sampling included RIFT, Diablo IV, Pillars of Eternity II, Disco Elysium, ESO, and New World. I mean, I got a lot of one-off posts, so time in those wasn’t completely wasted, but it kind of felt like it.
  • LOTRO is where I saw most of my consistent time and interest, and even that was slightly north of medium. My Minstrel continued her Gondorian adventures and got all the way to the Battle of Pelennor Fields before taking a break to do some Spring Festival instances. I also rolled up a new Hunter and checked in with some of my other characters.
  • I also eased myself back into Star Trek Online with a new captain — and brought my daughter along for her first ride in this MMO as well.
  • I had two bright points of gaming: the surprisingly fun Classic Hardcore permadeath runs in WoW Classic that kept me entertained for a week or so, and checking out Rumble Heroes on mobile, which I quite liked.

April 2023’s gaming goals

  • It’s kind of hard to set goals when you’re not that enthusiastic about anything, really. I want to push my LOTRO Minstrel through the rest of Gondor and gear up for Mordor, which is the next big hurdle to overcome. I might also start taking my Lore-master through Gundabad and guiding my Hunter through an early game completionist run.
  • I decided to get back to one of the big projects that had me so excited last November — World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. I want to focus on getting through the questing content with my Death Knight while figuring out what the current progression systems and endgame activities look like.
  • I have been getting back to doing at least one or two Elder Scrolls Online quests or landscape challenges a day, so I want to keep that going.
Posted in Star Trek Online

Beam me back to Star Trek Online

Posted on by Syp

Considering that I’ve barely touched Star Trek Online since 2019 or so, it feels like a ripe time to return to an old favorite — and do what I always do, which is to start a new character from scratch. I rerolled Myfanwy as an original series Andorian and dipped myself back into Cryptic’s outer space gem.

I couldn’t resist going with original series, as it was *my* Star Trek for the longest time. Plus, I dig the retro style and kind of wish that Cryptic had created more than five missions for it. I would’ve loved to stay in this setting far longer. At least I get a really neato phaser rifle.

There are five missions set in the 23rd century, so I’m not going to begrudge that. It’s a really fun way to start a new character, and I’ve only ever gone through these once or twice before. I hopped into my not-quite-as-good-as-the-Enterprise ship and got to some Gorn-busting.

The cutscenes in STO are always a good time to take some screenshots, especially since you don’t have to worry about the UI or moving the camera.

My daughter’s been playing through the same content with me, and while she’s not that familiar with the original series design, she still finds it kind of retro-cool. I can’t help but think that Teenage Me would’ve been geeking out over this, big-time. They did such a great job replicating all the ’60s sound and visual effects.

This game is the best kind of fanservice, really.

d

d

Posted in Music, Podcast

Battle Bards Episode 223: Dragonica

Posted on by Syp

The steely gaze and pointy ears of the Battle Bards turns to 2009’s Dragonica — also known as Dragon Saga — to see what musical treasures might be stashed in this beast’s lair. Syl and Syp descend into this all-too-cute realm to find tracks of whimsy and madness awaiting. Listener beware!

Episode 223 show notes (show page, direct download)

  • Intro (feat. “Sky City,” “Ferell,” and “Haruka’s Sushi Restaurant”)

  • “Title Screen”

  • “Swamp Area”

  • “Traitor’s Ridge”

  • “Port of Winds”

  • “Odelia”

  • “Pinecone Hill”

  • Which one did we like best?

  • Thanks to MMO Bomb for featuring us on its Top 10 MMO podcasts you should be listening to!

  • Listener notes: Bill Champagne, Katriana

  • Jukebox Picks: “The House Cup” from Hogwarts Legacy and “Content” from Age of Mythology

  • Outro (feat. “My Home”)
Posted in Diablo IV

Diablo IV is probably not the ARPG for me

Posted on by Syp

I guess I can scratch off Diablo IV from my must-play list for this coming June. I have had a low-key hankering for some ARPG fun this year, but I know from my history that I bounce off of these games incredibly quickly. It probably wouldn’t be wise to throw down $60 for a Diablo IV copy unless this grabbed me by my shirt and firmly convinced me that my life would be less if I didn’t experience it.

This is partially why I was glad to dive into the open beta so that I could satisfy this personal curiosity. Diablo IV didn’t just have to be really good to convince me to get it — it has to be irresistibly good. And it didn’t quite clear that threshold.

Oh, it’s fine. Really solid, kind of silly how brooding and grimdark it is, and quite polished. I had a pretty okay time going around hacking up wolves and spiders and skeletons while sucking up all of the loot left in their wake. But I wasn’t seeing anything close to a “just one more hour, please mom!” hook here. If you pushed it in front of me for free, I’d probably play it while making sure that my kids could never see its gory contents, but I’m probably going to be just fine without it in my life, too.

Plus, that’s 60 bucks that I can save or spend elsewhere. If the ARPG call gets too strong, I have Torchlight II and Grim Dawn around here somewhere — and Path of Exile exists, too. I really don’t know why I can’t get more into these games, since I do like the gameplay loop and the RPG elements. It could be the camera perspective, as I’m not a fan of single-character isometric, but that’s not always a dealbreaker in CRPGs, either.

It will be interesting from an observational standpoint to see how Diablo IV shakes out, whether it’ll be the hit of the year, a flashpoint that quickly fades, or a launch mess like Diablo III was. The one advantage from not having a dog in that fight is the lack of anxiety over the outcome.

Posted in World of Warcraft

Taking a run at World of Warcraft’s Classic Hardcore

Posted on by Syp

I have been watching with fascination the rise of a homebrew community in WoW Classic that’s started to eclipse the standard format — the Classic Hardcore subset. This is a community that’s been thriving on a self-made permadeath ruleset that uses an addon to keep everyone honest as they try to make a 1 to 60 run without a single death. Apparently, it’s been going so gangbusters that the rumor is Blizzard is going to implement an official version in the near future.

But for now (and while I still have time on my account), I thought I’d give it a try myself by going back to the Classic Era servers, installing the mod, and seeing how far I’d get before I faceplanted. Probably before level 10, is my guess.

And not to drag out the suspense, but yes, I died at level 8 — to a Defiant Mage and a couple of previously unseen friends in Elwynn Forest. But those eight levels were an absolute blast. Playing this way changes your whole perspective, as it’s no longer about investing huge amounts of time into a character that you feel you’ll have for a long time. It’s going back to the Atari 2600 age of “Let’s see how far I can get before I kick the bucket… and then start all over again and see if I can do it better the next time.”

Suddenly the world was a whole lot more dangerous, especially with Classic’s antique design and mob foibles. Every scrap of gear is needed for survival. A two-mob pull could spell death. Caves are basically suicide. Trying to hit level 10 just to get a talent point and some help with a class quest or two is a vital threshold. A single six-slot bag is a lifeline. Professions, even first aid and cooking, are immeasurably helpful.

If the 1-60 run without a single death isn’t daunting enough, there are several optional achievements that you can select from the get-go to make things even tougher. You have to pick them right at the start so that the addon can track them. For example, I picked a “scavenger” achievement that said I couldn’t get any gear from quest rewards — only from making them or getting some from loot drops. Considering the very low drop rate percentage of Classic, this ended up being really brutal.

I thought I was doing well, for the most part. I had a couple of close scrapes but did what I could to safeguard my healthpool. But it was all naught in the end, for I died and the notice went out to my entire guild that I bought the dust. I said farewell, logged out, deleted the character… and rolled up a new Rogue for a new run.

This sort of thing is addicting, let me tell you. And if Blizzard makes it an official mode, I can see a true revival coming to Classic Era realms.

As for me, I’m kind of reluctantly putting this to the side. My subscription is about to run out (I bought four months’ worth last year) and I’m trying not to spend money on games right now. But I will walk away really pleasantly surprised how engaging hardcore ended up being.

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO’s now-bloated early game was a misstep of studio resources

Posted on by Syp

I’ve been splitting my LOTRO time this past week between my lowbie Dwarf Captain and my Minstrel, getting a different flavor and approach with each. Right now — subject to change — I’m doing full zone and deed completions on my Cappy. It’s certainly not hard at this level, as mobs melt away after a sword hit or two.

While I view the two new beginner zones somewhat favorably for their streamlined questing, storytelling, and generally pleasing aesthetic, the veteran part of me is starting to get a bit irked at how stuffed SSG made Eriador over the past couple of years. I don’t think any of these additional zones or zone additions were needed at all — there was more than enough landscape content (not to mention missions and skirmishes) to get to Moria. But now there’s SO MUCH that either you ignore a bunch of it or end up spending nearly twice as long as before completing all the zones.

And it took a LONG time before all Yondershire, the Angle, Swanfleet, and the rest came to play.

I get wanting to make a favorable first impression and encourage alts, but in retrospect, this was a waste of time and resources that would’ve been much better spent adding on to the end of the game that’s been stagnating for a year and a half now. SSG seems to have realized that, too, but it’s not going to get that time back — and we’ve ended up with a bloated beginning region.

And now I’ll say something nice: These new tent designs are pretty neat and swooshy.

Over on my main Minstrel, she’s slogging through Taur Drúadan. Despite having many characters and a couple of high-level ones, I’m reaching content I’ve only done maybe two times before. So I don’t really have this memorized, which is nice from a discovery standpoint but frustrating from a “how do I get around in this annoying-to-navigate zone” perspective. And Taur Drúadan’s rocky landscape and thick forests don’t lend themselves to quick travel and questing. But plug away, I shall!

At least I got to take a break to help marry two of the local wild people. This involved tickling a goat, probably for no other reason than it amused the developers to make us do it. Tickle tickle!

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO: Speak into my magic ball

Posted on by Syp

Taking a break from hauling my Minstrel through Minas Tirith, I gave myself as much of a “fresh start” as one can with an already existing account in LOTRO. I wanted that feeling of newness, of building up something from scratch (or near enough to it), and of personal challenge and discovery.

So I rolled up a Hobbit Lore-master on Gladden, a server which I have no footprint. By doing this, I was stripping away a lot of my usual safety net — no pool of wealth to draw from, no house, no mithril coins, no friends, no wardrobe. Additionally, I will be challenging myself to earn any LP that I’m going to spend (on milestones/travel skills, most like), and I outright deleted most of the freebie items that came with any new characters, with the exception of mounts and pets.

My first evening came with a lot of initial goals: Find a kin, level up to 6, head to the Shire to get my VIP services, start building a wardrobe, get set up with the new free riding skill, import my UI settings, and start questing. All of this was accomplished, and then some. I asked for recommendations for a kin and was pointed to a long-lasting one on the server that was stocked with friendly folks who made me feel at home at once.

And since the spring festival’s going on, I ran through the sunflower quest series to earn 18 spring leaves so that I could buy a nice lore-mastery robe outfit to wear in my early adventures.

In a valiant attempt to be social — and benefit myself — I joined a kin outing that was focused on blitzing through deeds in order to farm LOTRO Points. I figured I might as well make friends and get an assist on some of these lowbie deeds that I have to do anyway. It was a good time, as we got through a bunch of the more boring Ered Luin slayers in record time.

One nice benefit of this excursion is that it finally put me over the threshold of 3000 LP — enough to finally buy the account-wide 78% mount speed increase that I’ve been eyeing for some time. I definitely feel like I’m zipping around a LOT faster now!

But soon enough, it was back onto my Minstrel to see if she can escape the gravity well of Minas Tirith. Perhaps looking into this Palantir will help? Can’t hurt, right?

Posted in CRPG, CRPGs

Pillars of Eternity II: No one knew where the druids came from…

Posted on by Syp

After playing through and beating Pillars of Eternity a couple of times, I’ve been meaning to give Obsidian’s follow-up the same attention. I’ve started Deadfire a couple of times but haven’t dedicated myself to playing much more than the intro, so it’s been on my 2023 gaming list to see more (or perhaps all) of this seafaring RPG sequel.

I really like this opening part, where you’re a disembodied spirit called back from the afterlife to be pressed into service again. It’s entirely possible during this character creation process to argue strenuously enough against going back that the game just gives up and ends.

My character is Syperia, an Ancient Druid who’s a bit cocky and likes to use a pistol for some reason. I always liked Druid classes in the Baldur’s Gate series, so it feels right to continue on with that here. She wakes up on board a ship that’s being boarded by pirates, so it’s time to put that pistol to good use!

It feels like the game bug bit pretty hard right away, as I almost immediately got a lot further than I have in the past doing the opening island quests. It’s a lot of getting used to the lay of the land, making sure to scope out every location for named NPCs and free loot, building up a bank account, and getting (re)used to the combat system. Before long, I have a fighter (whom I’m training to be an unarmed MMA-style grappler) and a priest joining the cause of… vague wandering?

Hey, you know what you really shouldn’t do? Crowd all your party around a barrel full of gunpowder and then shoot it for fun. The above is what happens about two milliseconds after stupidity has free reign.

Posted in RIFT

Is there a scenario in which RIFT has a future?

Posted on by Syp

Continuing with a recent spat of MMO tourism, I popped back into RIFT for a while to see if I could clear out Scarwood Reach — the zone that I bogged down in last year. And as the rule goes, whenever you come back to an MMO, the very first thing you do is whip up a new outfit. I have no idea what I’m going for with this one, other than a sort of breezy winter athletic tone.

RIFT’s continued existence defies the predictions of so many people who thought that Gamigo was going to shutter this years ago. Yet it’s still been trucking along, albeit with the bare, bare minimum of any development, PR, or events. CMs keep getting hired and then let go, and the company doesn’t talk about RIFT at all in any reports. It’s most likely that the best we can hope for — as things stand now — is for RIFT to continue on in maintenance mode for several years yet before the company does pull the plug. If that’s the case, then my time in the game now is a big final tour of an MMO that I’ve loved since its launch.

Yet some movement on the part of Gamigo last month — the anniversary celebration, a free Patron promotion, linking Steam and Glyph profiles together — raises a very outside possibility that the company may be trying to position RIFT to sell. This is really the only hope RIFT fans have of any other future than a prolonged death spiral. The scenario goes like this: Gamigo puts RIFT up for sale, an eager studio snaps it up, RIFT gets relaunched (with additional PR and fanfare and hopefully a better business model), and a small but dedicated team is tasked with developing and promoting it.

It’s a long shot, yes, but not unheard of in this industry. Broadsword took over development and publishing rights for UO and DAOC, even if that was just a small studio spinning off of EA. Gamigo sold ArcheAge over to Kakao, so there’s some precedent there. Fallen Earth and APB came under Little Orbit’s management. It’s not the most common, but for IP-independent MMOs, it’s far more common to see ones sold and shipped around the industry.

So why not RIFT? It’s never going to be the WoW challenger it wanted to be or even the hot game it was in the first few years, but there’s some genuine life in this MMO that could be coaxed to bloom once more. What’s keeping a lot of people away from it isn’t the nature of the game but its perceived lack of a future coupled with a disliked monetization scheme. People are attracted to titles that exude health and future potential, and they flee titles that look like they’re circling the drain.

I’d absolutely hate to see RIFT die completely. Like WildStar, this is a title that deserved a lot more love and care than it ended up getting, and with the right handling, it could have a much longer, healthier life than it’s getting.