Wait, was it pirates or warriors?
1. Ninjas. They are good at two things. Killing and stealth. Well, killing generally implies fighting, so it will have to be stealth that we focus on.
Use your incredible shadow arts to go from place to place stealing whatever pleases you and causing mayhem. You can accept missions to steal certain things for someone or try your hand at freelance, selling things on the blackmarket.
2. You're a scout in the King's Army. Forces are invading from the South, or any direction... It has been raining heavily for the last week, so your pyre is soaked. There is no lighting the beacons tonight. But they must be warned! Get moving. -In this action/adventure game, you have no weapons (got drunk and lost a bet) so you are forced to retreat back into your territory unarmed, avoiding the enemy and getting to the King's Palace safely and hastily. Try to mount an attack or defensive by yourself and you will surely be slaughtered.
3. You are the captain of The Arr. You and your bang of scally-wags are some of the last remaining pirates. True pirates - not those modern day wankers. However, seeing as how military powers and overall authority has grown greatly, assaulting other vessels and making off with their loot isn't the greatest idea. (They will send jets to bomb you.) Instead, you and the crew have contented yourselves with merely looking for treasure. So now you sail the seas, searching for tiny deserted islands and shoveling it over a few feet. You'd be amazed at just how much treasure is hidden on these deserted islands. It's probably all from other pirates who buried it there, forgot about it and then died. If you score enough swag, you can retire from your life of piracy and move to a tropical island with a tiny hut. ..hmm.. maybe you'll move to a congested city with too much to do.
4. Napstar. Combining the qualities of Napster and Rock Band, players will make and share music illegally. -The newer version of modern day pirates. P2P piracy.. Get caught by the feds and pay a fine. Fighting them may result in getting shot.
5. A young man has spent years searching for the fabled temple. He wants to crush his enemies with the way of the assassin - leet ninja skills. He has found the ancient temple! Oh, but it took too long. The ninjas have gotten old. Fighting is no longer their hobby. At least, not what the young man was looking for. Board games. They spend their days playing board games. And they have offered you a spot in their monthly tournament! Will you accept? -See if you can defeat the old, wise ninjas in a variety of board games. Watch them closely though... you never know when one will make a chess piece shadow step across the board. If you manage to defeat them, they will reward you with an outfit and a katana. You may not have the incredibly uber skills, but you have their items. And isn't that really what you wanted anyways?
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Guild Wars turns Three!
This week / weekend marks the 3rd anniversary of the release of Guild Wars: Prophecies; the 2nd of Factions, and 1.5th of Nightfall.
To celebrate, ANet did one of their typical event weekends, with extras and what not.
For awhile now, there have been "mini-pets" in the game. They helped ruin the economy. Oh but also, they make a small version of some type of creature to follow your character around. (It is completely useless; but some are very very rare --people like to show off their "l33tn3ss" in online games, so they pay ungodly amounts of money for the rarest ones - see: ruined the economy.
There are a few ways to obtain a mini pet. On a character's birthday (works just like human ones) a little blue box will appear in its inventory. Double-clicking this box will open it up and a small icon of one of the game's creatures will appear in its place. Double-clicking on this icon will summon that thing at your feet, at a scale of oh 1/4 to 1/20 the size of the actual thing it is a mini of. (think Minime or is it Mini-me?)
There are other ways to get one.. such as buying a certain issue of a magazine, or defeating many many others in a GvG or what have you. (Guild vs. Guild)
Each year has its own set, (that might not make sense, or maybe what I next say won't) A green, 2 golds, 3 purples, and then 8 whites. The color determines the rarity and how much you can sell one for if you opt to do that.
Some mini pets cost about 500g to buy. That is .5 k. Then there are a few that go around oh, 8 mil. which is 8,000 k. Thanks for destroying the economy ANet. They also want ectos.
After seeing this year's list of mini-pets, I can't say I am all that pleased. Some are just basic re-skins of already existent ones. Others are just lame things to begin with, but ANet seems to find it so incredibly hilarious.
Seriously, get the damn Ooze out of LA, Kamadan, and KC. That thing is bloody annoying.
-They decided to make a mini Ooze. And its not even one of the whites- its a fricken purple! Omg, why!?
The Black Beast of Arrgh, is basically the rollerbeetle mini, with just the slightest change to the skin. Eh, c'mon guys. really? And its gold.
Now the nornbear, that one is pretty cool, its a purple and I'm bound to buy one if one of my characters doesn't get lucky enough for that.
-More to come. I think.
To celebrate, ANet did one of their typical event weekends, with extras and what not.
For awhile now, there have been "mini-pets" in the game. They helped ruin the economy. Oh but also, they make a small version of some type of creature to follow your character around. (It is completely useless; but some are very very rare --people like to show off their "l33tn3ss" in online games, so they pay ungodly amounts of money for the rarest ones - see: ruined the economy.
There are a few ways to obtain a mini pet. On a character's birthday (works just like human ones) a little blue box will appear in its inventory. Double-clicking this box will open it up and a small icon of one of the game's creatures will appear in its place. Double-clicking on this icon will summon that thing at your feet, at a scale of oh 1/4 to 1/20 the size of the actual thing it is a mini of. (think Minime or is it Mini-me?)
There are other ways to get one.. such as buying a certain issue of a magazine, or defeating many many others in a GvG or what have you. (Guild vs. Guild)
Each year has its own set, (that might not make sense, or maybe what I next say won't) A green, 2 golds, 3 purples, and then 8 whites. The color determines the rarity and how much you can sell one for if you opt to do that.
Some mini pets cost about 500g to buy. That is .5 k. Then there are a few that go around oh, 8 mil. which is 8,000 k. Thanks for destroying the economy ANet. They also want ectos.
After seeing this year's list of mini-pets, I can't say I am all that pleased. Some are just basic re-skins of already existent ones. Others are just lame things to begin with, but ANet seems to find it so incredibly hilarious.
Seriously, get the damn Ooze out of LA, Kamadan, and KC. That thing is bloody annoying.
-They decided to make a mini Ooze. And its not even one of the whites- its a fricken purple! Omg, why!?
The Black Beast of Arrgh, is basically the rollerbeetle mini, with just the slightest change to the skin. Eh, c'mon guys. really? And its gold.
Now the nornbear, that one is pretty cool, its a purple and I'm bound to buy one if one of my characters doesn't get lucky enough for that.
-More to come. I think.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Hedge playing
They will be posted in the next few hours as they are finalized and the last ones materialize in my mind.
The problem is that, materializing things in one's mind as I do, tends to fill it up pretty fast. My head is only 18 inches around, so all these ideas are just kind of trying to blow my head up. Mischievous little things.
----
1. Hedge-sim. Using your Wii controllers, players will act out the motions of laying hedges. It would be as realistic as possible, with the game being very critical. The game is meant as an exercise for people who want to get into the business of laying hedges. They've done the same for flying-planes. When you perform well enough, the game's on-line store will open up, where you can then purchase the items to really lay hedges in the dreaded outside.
2. You are a renowned hedge-layer. The annual Hedgefest is approaching. Lay your hedges in a most beautiful and practical way. And watch out for those neighbors... They leave miles away and you have no idea what they're scheming. All you know is that for the last 10 years, you have bested them in the hedge competition and their furor continues to grow. You have heard someone plans to ruin your hedges sometime in the week before the festival. Now you must defend your hedges from those pesky, un-skilled scamps. By any means necessary. If someone manages to destroy your hedges, you will have to quickly get a new hedge up and growing. Only once it is done and you have won Hedgefest can you exact revenge on the fools who messed with your hedge.
3. The government-council of New Orleans has hired you to protect their city from future floods due to hurricanes and the like. You don't think its the best idea in the world, but you're going to do your best anyways!
4. A simple game meant for young children whose parents want them to grow up to be hedgelayers. The game will display an image on the screen, and the player will have a certain amount of time to select which style it is. The game will get harder by taking the images off the screen sooner and reducing the time you have to make your choice.
The game will feature an encyclopedia-type area with information on all the various styles and general information on the topic of hedge-laying. (It worked in Dynasty Warriors).
5. You are a sheep. And you really really like your white locks of hair or whatever it is sheep have. Your cruel masters are barricading the entire area with hedges. You know that they're planning on shearing you soon... and also, you're a bit of a curious sheep who wants to see more than just this endless green field. Find a way out, or create one, and make it to the ocean before the masters realize 1/1000 of their herd is missing. Or, you could try to lead a massive revolt and convince the other sheep to do what you are going to do. They are sheep, after all.
Players will have to navigate their way through the field and then the treacherous hedges. You will have to be quick about it or someone will spot you.
The problem is that, materializing things in one's mind as I do, tends to fill it up pretty fast. My head is only 18 inches around, so all these ideas are just kind of trying to blow my head up. Mischievous little things.
----
1. Hedge-sim. Using your Wii controllers, players will act out the motions of laying hedges. It would be as realistic as possible, with the game being very critical. The game is meant as an exercise for people who want to get into the business of laying hedges. They've done the same for flying-planes. When you perform well enough, the game's on-line store will open up, where you can then purchase the items to really lay hedges in the dreaded outside.
2. You are a renowned hedge-layer. The annual Hedgefest is approaching. Lay your hedges in a most beautiful and practical way. And watch out for those neighbors... They leave miles away and you have no idea what they're scheming. All you know is that for the last 10 years, you have bested them in the hedge competition and their furor continues to grow. You have heard someone plans to ruin your hedges sometime in the week before the festival. Now you must defend your hedges from those pesky, un-skilled scamps. By any means necessary. If someone manages to destroy your hedges, you will have to quickly get a new hedge up and growing. Only once it is done and you have won Hedgefest can you exact revenge on the fools who messed with your hedge.
3. The government-council of New Orleans has hired you to protect their city from future floods due to hurricanes and the like. You don't think its the best idea in the world, but you're going to do your best anyways!
4. A simple game meant for young children whose parents want them to grow up to be hedgelayers. The game will display an image on the screen, and the player will have a certain amount of time to select which style it is. The game will get harder by taking the images off the screen sooner and reducing the time you have to make your choice.
The game will feature an encyclopedia-type area with information on all the various styles and general information on the topic of hedge-laying. (It worked in Dynasty Warriors).
5. You are a sheep. And you really really like your white locks of hair or whatever it is sheep have. Your cruel masters are barricading the entire area with hedges. You know that they're planning on shearing you soon... and also, you're a bit of a curious sheep who wants to see more than just this endless green field. Find a way out, or create one, and make it to the ocean before the masters realize 1/1000 of their herd is missing. Or, you could try to lead a massive revolt and convince the other sheep to do what you are going to do. They are sheep, after all.
Players will have to navigate their way through the field and then the treacherous hedges. You will have to be quick about it or someone will spot you.
Guild Wars. Running: A lost art
Back in the day, the only campaign of Guild Wars was Prophecies. It was the first and only component of the GW universe and both developers and players had not completely found what GW was destined to be nor realized what exactly they would do with it. Pardon me if that makes no sense, I often tend not to make sense to people who are not me. Please bear with me for a moment. This whole thing has been a build up to, well, just take a look at the title of this post if you have not already. Chances are you have, did you take a second look? I probably would have, so as to make sure I didn't miss something. No, the title really is that short. And by short I mean it is longer than most of the other ones (titles) but still not as long as your typical sentence. Certainly not as long as this, but Grenth knows this should have ended a bit ago. Anyways, without further ado..,
Running: A Lost Art.
The land of Tyria is a vast open one. There are many regions, such as Ascalon, Kryta, The Magumma Jungle, The Crystal Desert, The Fire Islands, and The Shiverpeak Mountains.
Traveling from place to place is rather easy.. whether it be outpost to outpost or region to region. Now, travel is made beyond easy by the use of map-travel. By clicking on your map, you can automatically teleport to any city or outpost in the world!! However, there is one catch... You must have visited that outpost before you are able to insta-travel to it. And well, that makes slightly more sense. Wouldn't you agree? You can't go right off to Colorado if you've never traveled there before; you must look at the maps and chart your route. In many areas, a player can simply walk out the gateway of an outpost and head towards their destination. But, it GW is a MMORPG and this game type is designed to handle all sorts of skill level and well, levels. The high-end areas can not be reached by low-level nubs. The high-end areas are where you can craft the best weapons and earn the most experience, as well as get the best loot. Well, the low level characters of people who have already played the game a bit will have non of that. And neither will the incredibly lazy people, or the people who don't feel like playing the game they bought. The solution - runners!
A runner is a character, typically at level 20, and one of the more durable classes who takes people in his or her group, goes out into the wilderness and runs runs runs to the desired outpost. (If one character in the group zones, the entire party zones - this is what really makes this possible) The reward-- plat's. Or so we hope... Scammers have been known to be ******* jerks who deserve death. They go with a runner who takes them where they want and then they don't pay. We don't need these types..
Standard running classes:
Originally it was Warriors and Rangers. Then monks gave it a shot (with their protective and healing prayers, and using ranger stances for the speed boost)
With Guild Wars Factions, some Assassins did a bit of running using their own skills and often a few of a different class (monk or ranger)
Nightfall got Dervishes into the running game and they are very good at it, as the class allows for some unusual / non-standard builds. (A build being the 8 skills on the skill bar and the distribution of attribute points)
Perhaps the most popular run of all Guild Wars time was the Droks run. This run went from either Ascalon City, or more often, Beacons Perch. The destination: Droknar's Forge. The main city in the Southern Shiverpeaks, one of the hardest areas in Guild Wars Prophecies, and the first place you can craft MAX ARMOR. The path to Droknar's Forge is a perilous one, claiming many noobs and idiots unprepared or less-than-skilled for the adventure.
Prices for a Droks run have varied, ranging from 2 to 6 platinum normally. One of the main causes of this fluctuation... the nerfbat. ArenaNet smacked runners in the face constantly with the changes to Lornar's Pass and AI scripts. There was a time that it seemed every month they made it harder and harder to successfully complete a Droks run. Sometimes it was hard even getting 1/10 of the way into the run. Some even say that it is near impossible for a warrior to do this run (when originally they were the only ones that could) However, the Dervish rose as the new Droks runner. They could do the run with near-ease. Unfortunately for them, they came with Nightfall. And by then Factions was out so there was already more locations to get max level armor. And getting to KC from Tyria is simply too easy. As an added blow to this run, Consulate Docks is the first place to get max armor in Nightfall. It is literally connected to Kamadan, the starting city of Nightfall, and a person can get a ferry from Kamadan to docks for 500 gold in anywheres between 5 minutes and an hour depending on what time it is and what district they are in.
In Factions, ArenaNet made running all but impossible. Gates cover the entrances to almost every single outpost in the campaign, and they will only open if everyone in the part has completed the storyline up to that point. I hate it. Both as a runner and a person with 8 PvE characters.
In Nightfall, some outposts are blocked off until the character reaches a certain point, but most are not. However, they found another way to stop people from moving too far along in that game. Mission requirements. They are ftl - the reverse of ftw, which in case you don't know is "for the win."
The glory days of running are long gone. However some runs do still exist. They are either hard to find a runner for or hard to find someone who wants the run, and they don't usually cost over 2k, if that... 500g to 1k is now the standard rate on most of the runs still done.
I'm glad I ran when I did. I made a lot of money, got to see interesting places, and the routes of many those runs still lie within my deteriorating brain. I may not be able to remember where I put my socks 10 minutes ago, but the path from LA to Sanctum Cay couldn't be clearer, and I haven't done that run in over a year and it is 3:30 in the morning.
Running: A Lost Art.
The land of Tyria is a vast open one. There are many regions, such as Ascalon, Kryta, The Magumma Jungle, The Crystal Desert, The Fire Islands, and The Shiverpeak Mountains.
Traveling from place to place is rather easy.. whether it be outpost to outpost or region to region. Now, travel is made beyond easy by the use of map-travel. By clicking on your map, you can automatically teleport to any city or outpost in the world!! However, there is one catch... You must have visited that outpost before you are able to insta-travel to it. And well, that makes slightly more sense. Wouldn't you agree? You can't go right off to Colorado if you've never traveled there before; you must look at the maps and chart your route. In many areas, a player can simply walk out the gateway of an outpost and head towards their destination. But, it GW is a MMORPG and this game type is designed to handle all sorts of skill level and well, levels. The high-end areas can not be reached by low-level nubs. The high-end areas are where you can craft the best weapons and earn the most experience, as well as get the best loot. Well, the low level characters of people who have already played the game a bit will have non of that. And neither will the incredibly lazy people, or the people who don't feel like playing the game they bought. The solution - runners!
A runner is a character, typically at level 20, and one of the more durable classes who takes people in his or her group, goes out into the wilderness and runs runs runs to the desired outpost. (If one character in the group zones, the entire party zones - this is what really makes this possible) The reward-- plat's. Or so we hope... Scammers have been known to be ******* jerks who deserve death. They go with a runner who takes them where they want and then they don't pay. We don't need these types..
Standard running classes:
Originally it was Warriors and Rangers. Then monks gave it a shot (with their protective and healing prayers, and using ranger stances for the speed boost)
With Guild Wars Factions, some Assassins did a bit of running using their own skills and often a few of a different class (monk or ranger)
Nightfall got Dervishes into the running game and they are very good at it, as the class allows for some unusual / non-standard builds. (A build being the 8 skills on the skill bar and the distribution of attribute points)
Perhaps the most popular run of all Guild Wars time was the Droks run. This run went from either Ascalon City, or more often, Beacons Perch. The destination: Droknar's Forge. The main city in the Southern Shiverpeaks, one of the hardest areas in Guild Wars Prophecies, and the first place you can craft MAX ARMOR. The path to Droknar's Forge is a perilous one, claiming many noobs and idiots unprepared or less-than-skilled for the adventure.
Prices for a Droks run have varied, ranging from 2 to 6 platinum normally. One of the main causes of this fluctuation... the nerfbat. ArenaNet smacked runners in the face constantly with the changes to Lornar's Pass and AI scripts. There was a time that it seemed every month they made it harder and harder to successfully complete a Droks run. Sometimes it was hard even getting 1/10 of the way into the run. Some even say that it is near impossible for a warrior to do this run (when originally they were the only ones that could) However, the Dervish rose as the new Droks runner. They could do the run with near-ease. Unfortunately for them, they came with Nightfall. And by then Factions was out so there was already more locations to get max level armor. And getting to KC from Tyria is simply too easy. As an added blow to this run, Consulate Docks is the first place to get max armor in Nightfall. It is literally connected to Kamadan, the starting city of Nightfall, and a person can get a ferry from Kamadan to docks for 500 gold in anywheres between 5 minutes and an hour depending on what time it is and what district they are in.
In Factions, ArenaNet made running all but impossible. Gates cover the entrances to almost every single outpost in the campaign, and they will only open if everyone in the part has completed the storyline up to that point. I hate it. Both as a runner and a person with 8 PvE characters.
In Nightfall, some outposts are blocked off until the character reaches a certain point, but most are not. However, they found another way to stop people from moving too far along in that game. Mission requirements. They are ftl - the reverse of ftw, which in case you don't know is "for the win."
The glory days of running are long gone. However some runs do still exist. They are either hard to find a runner for or hard to find someone who wants the run, and they don't usually cost over 2k, if that... 500g to 1k is now the standard rate on most of the runs still done.
I'm glad I ran when I did. I made a lot of money, got to see interesting places, and the routes of many those runs still lie within my deteriorating brain. I may not be able to remember where I put my socks 10 minutes ago, but the path from LA to Sanctum Cay couldn't be clearer, and I haven't done that run in over a year and it is 3:30 in the morning.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Beat Games
1. The cop you were assigned to follow was slain by the Mafia. Now you must avenge his death. Take up his weapons and gear and prepare for a full assault on the Mafia. There will be blood this day. And you could consider providing live coverage of this fire-fight if you like multi-tasking.
2. Write the most interesting stories and get the greatest pictures. You work on commission for now, but hope to move up. The better your material, the faster you'll get moved up and the more money you'll make. ...You may want to consider creating some situations for stories...
3. Getting to know the routines of cops.. use this knowledge for your own benefit. When not working, use your knowledge of the police paths and response time to rob places blind when the cops are across town or otherwise preoccupied.
4. There is a dire situation.. Backup is 10 minutes away. The cop you've been following throws you a shotgun and a bullet proof vest. Now the fun begins. Help your new partner and stopping the largest drug cartel and gun running gang in Oklahoma. Or maybe a more interesting place.
Use your reporting abilities to help (mainly blinding foes with your giant camera's flash)
-First to third person shooter on the consoles and PC. Up to 2 players, with the second playing the cop.
5. You've gotten to know Steve pretty well (that's the cop you've been following). Well, he hates to do this, but something has come up. He must leave town for a month. He has asked that you take his place.. He doesn't want anyone to know he's gone and you two kind of look alike. Whatdaya say? Will you help ol' Steve out? (If you said no, don't buy the game..) He has left you several of his uniforms and the keys to his apartment and car. You had to get to know him, now do something useful. You will have to fool all the other cops into thinking you're actually him and carry on with his duties as well as your own
2. Write the most interesting stories and get the greatest pictures. You work on commission for now, but hope to move up. The better your material, the faster you'll get moved up and the more money you'll make. ...You may want to consider creating some situations for stories...
3. Getting to know the routines of cops.. use this knowledge for your own benefit. When not working, use your knowledge of the police paths and response time to rob places blind when the cops are across town or otherwise preoccupied.
4. There is a dire situation.. Backup is 10 minutes away. The cop you've been following throws you a shotgun and a bullet proof vest. Now the fun begins. Help your new partner and stopping the largest drug cartel and gun running gang in Oklahoma. Or maybe a more interesting place.
Use your reporting abilities to help (mainly blinding foes with your giant camera's flash)
-First to third person shooter on the consoles and PC. Up to 2 players, with the second playing the cop.
5. You've gotten to know Steve pretty well (that's the cop you've been following). Well, he hates to do this, but something has come up. He must leave town for a month. He has asked that you take his place.. He doesn't want anyone to know he's gone and you two kind of look alike. Whatdaya say? Will you help ol' Steve out? (If you said no, don't buy the game..) He has left you several of his uniforms and the keys to his apartment and car. You had to get to know him, now do something useful. You will have to fool all the other cops into thinking you're actually him and carry on with his duties as well as your own
Guild Wars Pv_
In MMORPGs, there are a few types of gameplay. PvE, PvP, and PvX.
PvE is Player versus Environment.
PvP is Player versus Player.
PvX is both.
Technically, there is no PvX playing... actually, nevermind there is. It's just not as much as the others. However, the majority of players in Guild Wars and nearly any other MMO are PvX players. They enjoy both the PvP and PvE aspects of the game and have players capable of doing both.
There are still hundreds to thousands of players who will only play PvE. And that is fine. They do not have to PvE- it effects no one but themselves. At the character creation screen, they will always select a PvP character.
Now this leads me to what I've been going to.
PvP - it is a very intense game (normally). Because I've sort of lost my mind, I'll just list some factoids about whats going on, and then describe some of them shortly after.
A PvE character can do PvP (and PvE obviously).
A PvP character can not do PvE.
ANet was insanely kind to the PvP'ers of their game (and still are.. they tend just to get kinder, but for now I think that's reached its limit.)
Why make a PvP char when a PvE one can do both? (PvX)
PvP characters automatically start at level 20. No spending a few hours getting up those levels.
A PvP can use ANY skill that is unlocked on your entire account!! (that is the biggy).
PvP characters can create armor/weapons at no cost, with whatever mods the player has unlocked on their account. This is also very important. A PvE character often is lacking (compared to what they could be) because they don't have unlimited armor.
The armor and weapons a PvP char can make are very general / (that word that means the opposite of unique.. damn it brain, you suck.)
For accounts, there are hundreds of skills to unlock, about 20 heros, and many many runes / insignias/ inscriptions.
Now it used to be that, in order to unlock these various things, a player would either have to identify the rune or spend Balthazaar faction to unlock it. To unlock skills, the player would have to have a PvE character learn the skill, or they could also be unlocked with balth faction - 1k for a standard skill, 3k for an elite.
When I first got the game, I made a PvP warrior. I had a PvE necro, mesmer and ranger at the time. This made that PvP char worthless. (It had no skills to use other than like 10 basic ones..)
I later remade this war as a PvE char.. much better.
Well, ANet, being the kind, greedy company they are, decided to make things very, very easy for the PvP community. At the online store, you can buy... whatever the hell you want for PvP. For 5 to 10 dollars, a person can unlock every skill in a particular campaign. There is a special thing, to unlock everything you need to get into PvP, while leaving the entire PvE experience alone. -This allows you to buy several skills, several mods, and some other things. From then on it should be easy enough to earn the rest of the faction you need/want to buy various skills.
If you ask me, they have made things way too easy. Paying 20 dollars so you don't have to play the game you bought seems kind of.. ridiculous and/or stupid. Perhaps I see it this way because I went and unlocked essentially everything I need through learning skills and earning balth faction. (which can take quite awhile depending on what you're doing.)
Now, a PvE char can make it by just fine in some PvP. (there are a few different levels.) In Alliance Battles, Random Arenas, and even Team Arenas, a PvE char should have no problem getting by. However, those are rather simple / easy. They are not the places you tend to find the most skilled/ practiced PvP'ers. In Hero's Ascent / HoH and Guild Battles... you will usually need a PvP char. Reason being that the people there are very demanding /coordinating / jerk-ish. In order to do well, you will have to do what the group needs you to do. There are certain builds that you're PvE chars wont be able to run (as they wouldn't make much sense in PvE) but are "great" in high-end PvP.
I spent the day doing some intense research of HA (Hero's Ascent) and even got to the Hall of Hero's. First time I have ever been there... I went with a randomway PuG... which.. well, it was a PuG, and randomway no less. How did we manage to get to Halls? And we damn near won too! Lost by 1 point, and tied the other group.
I had to buy a char slot and make a PvP char to do this... my PvE necro, as great as it is, is not entirely designed for HA.. and I don't want to spend the virtual money to make it so.
PvE is Player versus Environment.
PvP is Player versus Player.
PvX is both.
Technically, there is no PvX playing... actually, nevermind there is. It's just not as much as the others. However, the majority of players in Guild Wars and nearly any other MMO are PvX players. They enjoy both the PvP and PvE aspects of the game and have players capable of doing both.
There are still hundreds to thousands of players who will only play PvE. And that is fine. They do not have to PvE- it effects no one but themselves. At the character creation screen, they will always select a PvP character.
Now this leads me to what I've been going to.
PvP - it is a very intense game (normally). Because I've sort of lost my mind, I'll just list some factoids about whats going on, and then describe some of them shortly after.
A PvE character can do PvP (and PvE obviously).
A PvP character can not do PvE.
ANet was insanely kind to the PvP'ers of their game (and still are.. they tend just to get kinder, but for now I think that's reached its limit.)
Why make a PvP char when a PvE one can do both? (PvX)
PvP characters automatically start at level 20. No spending a few hours getting up those levels.
A PvP can use ANY skill that is unlocked on your entire account!! (that is the biggy).
PvP characters can create armor/weapons at no cost, with whatever mods the player has unlocked on their account. This is also very important. A PvE character often is lacking (compared to what they could be) because they don't have unlimited armor.
The armor and weapons a PvP char can make are very general / (that word that means the opposite of unique.. damn it brain, you suck.)
For accounts, there are hundreds of skills to unlock, about 20 heros, and many many runes / insignias/ inscriptions.
Now it used to be that, in order to unlock these various things, a player would either have to identify the rune or spend Balthazaar faction to unlock it. To unlock skills, the player would have to have a PvE character learn the skill, or they could also be unlocked with balth faction - 1k for a standard skill, 3k for an elite.
When I first got the game, I made a PvP warrior. I had a PvE necro, mesmer and ranger at the time. This made that PvP char worthless. (It had no skills to use other than like 10 basic ones..)
I later remade this war as a PvE char.. much better.
Well, ANet, being the kind, greedy company they are, decided to make things very, very easy for the PvP community. At the online store, you can buy... whatever the hell you want for PvP. For 5 to 10 dollars, a person can unlock every skill in a particular campaign. There is a special thing, to unlock everything you need to get into PvP, while leaving the entire PvE experience alone. -This allows you to buy several skills, several mods, and some other things. From then on it should be easy enough to earn the rest of the faction you need/want to buy various skills.
If you ask me, they have made things way too easy. Paying 20 dollars so you don't have to play the game you bought seems kind of.. ridiculous and/or stupid. Perhaps I see it this way because I went and unlocked essentially everything I need through learning skills and earning balth faction. (which can take quite awhile depending on what you're doing.)
Now, a PvE char can make it by just fine in some PvP. (there are a few different levels.) In Alliance Battles, Random Arenas, and even Team Arenas, a PvE char should have no problem getting by. However, those are rather simple / easy. They are not the places you tend to find the most skilled/ practiced PvP'ers. In Hero's Ascent / HoH and Guild Battles... you will usually need a PvP char. Reason being that the people there are very demanding /coordinating / jerk-ish. In order to do well, you will have to do what the group needs you to do. There are certain builds that you're PvE chars wont be able to run (as they wouldn't make much sense in PvE) but are "great" in high-end PvP.
I spent the day doing some intense research of HA (Hero's Ascent) and even got to the Hall of Hero's. First time I have ever been there... I went with a randomway PuG... which.. well, it was a PuG, and randomway no less. How did we manage to get to Halls? And we damn near won too! Lost by 1 point, and tied the other group.
I had to buy a char slot and make a PvP char to do this... my PvE necro, as great as it is, is not entirely designed for HA.. and I don't want to spend the virtual money to make it so.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Weekend Camping Games
1. Knowing you're not too thrilled by spending a weekend in the woods, your parents have decided to make it at least a little interesting. They have spread gold doubloons in a 3 square-miles area around the campsite. (They are exceedingly wealthy and only come on these outdoorsy trips as a way to get away from the city life and see how the homeless live?) Scour the area with your shovel searching high and low for the gold coins (you'll also have a rope and grappling hook -to get up into trees). If you're going to be stuck in the woods for 2 days, you might as well get rich. The game would have single-player modes, as well as cooperative and competitive multi-player (work with a friend/sibling to find the gold faster; work "against" them to collect more gold than them.)
2. You had a real bad feeling about going on the camping trip your parents insisted you all go on. Turns out, they should have listened to you. Your parents were eaten by bears during the first few hours in the woods. (Meat frisbee = not good idea). Now you and your sibling(s) must fend for yourselves. If you can manage to get by till winter, the leaves will fall down and a helicopter has a chance of finding you. Defend yourselves against bear attacks (this will continue throughout the game, as they will only hibernate when winter draws near, at which point the helicopter might find you. You do have flare gun... but only a limited number of flares, so while you could use it to shoot the bears, it'd be better not to. For whatever reason (your parents were insane) they did not bring fishing poles, or most any other normal camping items (but flares were needed. We must have flares.) Create some fishing poles, or possibly spears using your ingenuity and whatever materials you can scrounge up in the woods. If your tent gets destroyed (say, from bear attacks), you will have to create a new form of shelter (say, maybe from bear hides?) Why? - the car is locked, the keys? -digested in bear stomach acid. You're not even a teenager so the thought of using a rock to break the windows never crosses your puny mind. (If you try to break the windows, your "mind" will not let you.) Also, it will set the car alarm off, angering all the bears and sending them on a killing rampage your way before any people would be able to locate you. Sad thing is, you asked your parents for a cell phone last month, but alas, they said you weren't old enough for one. And now theirs' share the same fate as the car keys.
-Single player and multi player modes. Available on the consoles and PC.
(If you survive through to the end, you find out in a cut scene that you were Bear Grylls.)
3. Virtual boy scouts. Perform all the tasks asked of you by your cruel scout masters, only this time its in a virtual world. Just as easy to quit though, in fact, its easier to quit, but then why would you want to? This game would be for the Wii, making use of the controllers to act out such tasks as wood carving, setting up tents, and whatever else they did once I decided to stop going. See if you can get that shiny medal before the weekend is over. You will level up throughout the game, earning new abilities and objects (such as a Swii-ss Army knife and compass.)
4. Even at your young age, you have a great attunement with nature. The parents have deemed this the weekend to go outside and on a long trek into the woods. Well, thats great and all, but you aren't too fond of humans, especially those older ones who keep telling you what to do and what not to do. Once camp is set up, desert them. It is time to go on a courageous adventure! Explore the woods and befriend all matters of forest life.. (the bears who ate the other children's parents last week, wolves, whatever you find.) Do not leave a trace... or the humans will find you; also you want to preserve the natural settings.. if there are signs of human abuse towards nature, fix the problems. In return for your kindness and service to nature, the bears will not eat you.
5. You have no interest in going on a lousy camping trip. What a waste of a weekend! Since your parents decided to ruin your life, ruin theirs. In this game, primary mission = piss your parents off to no end. You can repeatedly ask them as to where your location is relative to their destination during the excruciatingly long 3-hour car ride. When you get to the camping grounds, eat all of the food you can, leaving none for no one else for the next 2 days. Sabotage their attempts at putting up a tent. Break the fishing poles so their is no early morning activity tomorrow. If you hear bears, try to lure them to the campsite, possibly by leaving any left over meat outside, in a trail. You can also climb a tree and jump off, hopefully breaking a limb, forcing your parents to take you to a hospital, leaving this awful, awful place behind.
2. You had a real bad feeling about going on the camping trip your parents insisted you all go on. Turns out, they should have listened to you. Your parents were eaten by bears during the first few hours in the woods. (Meat frisbee = not good idea). Now you and your sibling(s) must fend for yourselves. If you can manage to get by till winter, the leaves will fall down and a helicopter has a chance of finding you. Defend yourselves against bear attacks (this will continue throughout the game, as they will only hibernate when winter draws near, at which point the helicopter might find you. You do have flare gun... but only a limited number of flares, so while you could use it to shoot the bears, it'd be better not to. For whatever reason (your parents were insane) they did not bring fishing poles, or most any other normal camping items (but flares were needed. We must have flares.) Create some fishing poles, or possibly spears using your ingenuity and whatever materials you can scrounge up in the woods. If your tent gets destroyed (say, from bear attacks), you will have to create a new form of shelter (say, maybe from bear hides?) Why? - the car is locked, the keys? -digested in bear stomach acid. You're not even a teenager so the thought of using a rock to break the windows never crosses your puny mind. (If you try to break the windows, your "mind" will not let you.) Also, it will set the car alarm off, angering all the bears and sending them on a killing rampage your way before any people would be able to locate you. Sad thing is, you asked your parents for a cell phone last month, but alas, they said you weren't old enough for one. And now theirs' share the same fate as the car keys.
-Single player and multi player modes. Available on the consoles and PC.
(If you survive through to the end, you find out in a cut scene that you were Bear Grylls.)
3. Virtual boy scouts. Perform all the tasks asked of you by your cruel scout masters, only this time its in a virtual world. Just as easy to quit though, in fact, its easier to quit, but then why would you want to? This game would be for the Wii, making use of the controllers to act out such tasks as wood carving, setting up tents, and whatever else they did once I decided to stop going. See if you can get that shiny medal before the weekend is over. You will level up throughout the game, earning new abilities and objects (such as a Swii-ss Army knife and compass.)
4. Even at your young age, you have a great attunement with nature. The parents have deemed this the weekend to go outside and on a long trek into the woods. Well, thats great and all, but you aren't too fond of humans, especially those older ones who keep telling you what to do and what not to do. Once camp is set up, desert them. It is time to go on a courageous adventure! Explore the woods and befriend all matters of forest life.. (the bears who ate the other children's parents last week, wolves, whatever you find.) Do not leave a trace... or the humans will find you; also you want to preserve the natural settings.. if there are signs of human abuse towards nature, fix the problems. In return for your kindness and service to nature, the bears will not eat you.
5. You have no interest in going on a lousy camping trip. What a waste of a weekend! Since your parents decided to ruin your life, ruin theirs. In this game, primary mission = piss your parents off to no end. You can repeatedly ask them as to where your location is relative to their destination during the excruciatingly long 3-hour car ride. When you get to the camping grounds, eat all of the food you can, leaving none for no one else for the next 2 days. Sabotage their attempts at putting up a tent. Break the fishing poles so their is no early morning activity tomorrow. If you hear bears, try to lure them to the campsite, possibly by leaving any left over meat outside, in a trail. You can also climb a tree and jump off, hopefully breaking a limb, forcing your parents to take you to a hospital, leaving this awful, awful place behind.
Stuck in the past.
...Is this about Guild Wars..? It sure is.
After clicking random page on Guild Wiki, I was taken to "The Hunter's Horn". This is a quest that I did over two years ago and it reminded me of the.. "niceness" of Pre-Searing Ascalon. Some people find Pre-Searing to be so nice, that rather than continue on with the game once the 2 handfuls of tasks to be done there are done, they stay.
These people are sometimes referred to as Perma-Pre's, and they have actually effected the game quite a bit. Now, most of these effects have no real significance outside of Pre-Searing, but it can make someone's extended stay there much more enjoyable.
It is common to leave Pre-Searing by level 8. Some people only stay till level 2 and some will stay there until level 12 even. (Now, remember, there are 20 levels to characters.) And then there are the insane people. They will stay in Pre-Searing until their character reaches level 20, and sometimes after! Now, months after people started getting to level 20 ( I have seen only one or two while there) ANet realized what kind of determination was required to do this. To honor people who met this "test," characters who make it to level 20 while in Pre will earn the title "Legendary Defender of Ascalon". It is a very rare title and usually found on people who have no problem leaving their computer on for hours while they are AFK.
In Pre, there is no Storage and no runes of holding available at the merchants. With bags topping out at holding 5 items before a rune is applied, people with extended stays in Pre often found themselves without room in their inventory. To alleviate this, ANet introduced Charr Bags. These are (green-item) bags capable of holding 10 items (what a bag will normally hold in Post.) Now people could stay there and continue getting their less-than-phat loot. (It's Pre, the items aren't exactly good.. except for the amazing amount of dye that can be farmed.. (on of the reasons people tend to stay there longer.. great dye drop rate.))
For a very long time, there was no way to salvage items in Pre. People who stay there till level 20 may manage to come across some decent "mod's" on items they loot, but would have no way of using them (if the weapon itself sucked). To be kind, ANet introduced a salvage kit in Pre. It has only 5 uses, compared to the 25 or even 100 uses you'd get from a Post-Searing salvage kit, but nonetheless, it let people take good mods out of bad weapons.
Although, some of this was done as a way to re-stabilize the economy in Pre, as after an update, characters in Pre could port to their Guild Halls, which have access to Storage. This allowed people to take high-end items and weapons back to Pre. ANet soon realized this, and promptly ran another update that disabled Pre char's from getting to the Guild Hall.
After clicking random page on Guild Wiki, I was taken to "The Hunter's Horn". This is a quest that I did over two years ago and it reminded me of the.. "niceness" of Pre-Searing Ascalon. Some people find Pre-Searing to be so nice, that rather than continue on with the game once the 2 handfuls of tasks to be done there are done, they stay.
These people are sometimes referred to as Perma-Pre's, and they have actually effected the game quite a bit. Now, most of these effects have no real significance outside of Pre-Searing, but it can make someone's extended stay there much more enjoyable.
It is common to leave Pre-Searing by level 8. Some people only stay till level 2 and some will stay there until level 12 even. (Now, remember, there are 20 levels to characters.) And then there are the insane people. They will stay in Pre-Searing until their character reaches level 20, and sometimes after! Now, months after people started getting to level 20 ( I have seen only one or two while there) ANet realized what kind of determination was required to do this. To honor people who met this "test," characters who make it to level 20 while in Pre will earn the title "Legendary Defender of Ascalon". It is a very rare title and usually found on people who have no problem leaving their computer on for hours while they are AFK.
In Pre, there is no Storage and no runes of holding available at the merchants. With bags topping out at holding 5 items before a rune is applied, people with extended stays in Pre often found themselves without room in their inventory. To alleviate this, ANet introduced Charr Bags. These are (green-item) bags capable of holding 10 items (what a bag will normally hold in Post.) Now people could stay there and continue getting their less-than-phat loot. (It's Pre, the items aren't exactly good.. except for the amazing amount of dye that can be farmed.. (on of the reasons people tend to stay there longer.. great dye drop rate.))
For a very long time, there was no way to salvage items in Pre. People who stay there till level 20 may manage to come across some decent "mod's" on items they loot, but would have no way of using them (if the weapon itself sucked). To be kind, ANet introduced a salvage kit in Pre. It has only 5 uses, compared to the 25 or even 100 uses you'd get from a Post-Searing salvage kit, but nonetheless, it let people take good mods out of bad weapons.
Although, some of this was done as a way to re-stabilize the economy in Pre, as after an update, characters in Pre could port to their Guild Halls, which have access to Storage. This allowed people to take high-end items and weapons back to Pre. ANet soon realized this, and promptly ran another update that disabled Pre char's from getting to the Guild Hall.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)