The situation where it can become an issue (hardware failure + backup hardware failure) is itself rare, even when considering the large number of machines required to run one “server”.
Not as rare as that one time when a backhoe dug up the trunk cable to one of the servers for my game, though.
Teiman
5642
All of the battlegrounds are weak. Huttball more than the others. I don’t know what is exactly wrong. Perhaps is the gratitous use of platforms. This is not Super Mario.
Monday Night Combat has different z levels, but easy ways to move from one to the other. The “jumper” on huttball is unrealiable and sends you to what seems random directions.
Is hard to create a “frontline” with this game pvp. Most combats are 3vs1, where one player is ganked.
Most people don’t seems to understand the rules, and just walking around is painfull, because of the ugly design of the map.
Another thing that is a pain is the system to pass the ball, so nobody pass the ball.
Is the type of gameplay that it can easilly be “gamed” by joining as a pre-made group. So I suppose has ben designed to give people the ability to pubstomp others.
I normally like all battlegrounds systems, I hate huttball.
Dejin
5643
Some guys out at Penny Arcade tracked it over some 60 missions. Here’s their spreadsheet and you can see their discussion here. There conclusion is that at 400 skill it gives about a 30% return on investment if you only run bountiful and rich missions.
Dejin
5644
Okay I’m really not understanding this bit. SWTOR has some pretty extensive areas which are completely gated to either a single player or that player and their party only. I fail to see what was in KotOR that couldn’t be done technically with the SWTOR engine. I can imagine that there were areas that you would have wanted to explore further. But if Bioware didn’t extend those areas, that’s a designer choice not a limitation of the engine and has nothing to do with the fact that it’s an MMO. Is it really all that different from when a single player RPG doesn’t fully develop some area that you thought was potentially very interesting?
From my point of view as someone who has played Bioware games since BG1 and spends 95+% of their MMO time soloing this is exactly KotOR 3.
Teiman
5645
MMORPG games are very sterile and player hostile enviroments. As if the players did something very wrong in the past, and are banned from any meaningfull interaction with the enviroment, other players or the npcs. And maybe the players did or asked for it.
Theres no way for a thief in a mmo to steal from vendors. A thief in a mmo is not one that steal stuff, but one with a spell to become invisible temporally. Also theres no way for a level 1 player to find and use a level 50 blade. The level 1 user will not know how a high level weapon will work.
Thats not how skyrim works.
Theres only dead people on that taris vault.
hong
5646
MMORPG multimassively online role player games are very wealthy environments. Players something did anything they want, and not interesting is not available. Environment interaction cannot with, is boring. Open door, cloose door. Open window, close window. Done it once, done it times ten hundred. So interaction environment not allowed, or ppls complain will. Is feature, not bug.
Theres no way for a thief in a mmo to steal from vendors. A thief in a mmo is not one that steal stuff, but one with a spell to become invisible temporally. Also theres no way for a level 1 player to find and use a level 50 blade. The level 1 user will not know how a high level weapon will work.
Thats not how skyrim works.
Theres only dead people on that taris vault.
Remember you said what before: focus on what is important. Focus on everything, means focus on nothing. Dead people not is, wrong paradigm. Instead, Tarisvaultensie is with flowing cast of thousands of extras over. Not important to be peeping tom, opening windows all the time. Also not important to be kleptomaniac, stealing from vendors. Is hero being, become major subject object in faction. So to want to be kleptomaniac, not wise. Not fun. Do wise thing, kill monsters, take stuff. Have fun, boost kill count.
Wolff
5647
ie Huttball hate to be that guy but you are doing it wrong. The reason you cannot easily traverse between z levels is a design choice. The game is about territory control not just popping a run speed cooldown and avoiding the opposition.
If we ever want more interesting warzones there will be growing pains as players learn the new rules and playstyles. Otherwise we are gonna be stuck with the same 3 copy pasted BGs (CTF, Node Control, Assault).
Huttball turns alot of the CTF conventions on its head. For example, if your team is making an offensive push and you are behind them, you don’t actually want to kill anyone as they will spawn in opposition of your push. You want to tie them up and keep them busy.
Passing the ball is super easy, its a keybind don’t know how they could make it any simpler. If you are still clicking your action buttons you shouldn’t be playing pvp anywyas, well playing and expecting to contribute meaningfully.
The problem with Huttball is that it’s totally unsuited for randoms, and randoms constitute the vast majority of games. It’s fascinating to watch a genuinely organized premade in there, but it’s pretty much awful as random vs random.
After years of play, most random groups can’t execute even basic strategies in WoW’s battlegrounds, which are far more conventional than Huttball.
flem1
5650
You can’t do any of that in KOTOR either. Has nothing to do with the MMO bit.
Skorin
5651
I am loving my Operative. I’m a rogue that can heal, the storyline is miles above the others I’ve played, and I just stabbed a jedi in the face with a knife and killed him.
Huttball is just garbage. You always get matched with random scrubs. I’ve had one actual good game of it and the rest are just a frustrating mess of people fighting on the opposite side of the map from the ball because hey, that guy is red so I will now dedicate my life to killing him. Whatever, Huttball. In a world where I have a dedicated team of players and we all play in a league with other such teams I guess it’s great.
Wolff
5653
Queing for bgs solo has always been a recipe for frustration. 3 coordinated players, what I run with, makes for some great games. Our vent chat is what you would hear during a pickup game of basketball. Punctuated with Let’s Go Bezerk!!!
Well my friends aren’t always on at the same time I am. I’ve been queueing for BGs solo for years, I know what to expect. Huttball takes the frustration to a new level.
Anyway, please do not remind me about the announcer.
Huttball is definitely improved by good team communication. It would be cool if they added voice team chat.
Meanwhile, I’m flying around Alderaan on some kind of unshelled flying turtlefish. Great scenery, I hope it never gets blown up by a giant laser beam or something.
One thing I really wish they’d tweak a bit is the character size selection. Right now, the 4 body types you can choose from are: skinny teen, skinny adult, 8ft tall hulk and fat guy. It would probably be okay if they bulked up #2 just a little. The rest of the customization options aren’t bad, though nearly every beard looks like it’s glued on your character’s face.
Teiman
5657
I just abandoned a huttball game where one team steamrolled the other team soo bad, that everyone quitted, and there are a constant stream of new players that also quitted too. !Very fun
It’s stupid to quit a warzone even if you’re losing. You still get ridiculous rewards for playing. Quit, you get nothing.
Teiman
5659
Well, I suppose people don’t like to waste his time playing 5 min against a whole guild that is probably syncronizing actions trought ventrilo. Is like hiting a wall with the head repeatly. People don’t like these things. Maybe because is frustrating as hell.
rossm
5660
You’re making the assumption that people share your goal: earning rewards. Lots of people play for lots of different reasons.
