Call to Arms 'Land of the Dead' Preview

[mooSe_]

I do mostly single target heals on my zealot (I believe the DoK/Shaman group heals are better than zealot's?), and I admit LoS is a problem, but it hasn't really been so bad that I would say it needs changing much.

 

[Loneliness]

I do mostly single target heals on my zealot (I believe the DoK/Shaman group heals are better than zealot's?), and I admit LoS is a problem, but it hasn't really been so bad that I would say it needs changing much.

Yea LOS is common knowledge now so people taking damage are more aware of it.

mooSe where in Hampshire are you from, im from Gosport

 

[mooSe_]

Yea LOS is common knowledge now so people taking damage are more aware of it.

mooSe where in Hampshire are you from, im from Gosport

I'm from Alton

 

[Loneliness]

Far from me then, just curious. Could of been that Moose that lives next door

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Some of our alliance live in Gosport.

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

they all expect it to be DAoC2 or else they don't give it a fair chance because of previous mistakes that Mythic/GOA have made which aren't necessarily relevant to WAR.

Actually, speaking as an ex-DAoC'er i don't want DAoC2, i wanted Mythic to use the best parts of DAoC (the ones that made it such a long-running success) in WAR, so they could focus on "new ideas".

It was quite clear that once the DAoC population had atrophied to only the very hardcore fans, they began to sneak-in lots of test-concepts for WAR into DAoC - many of which were excellent and would have been a good addition to WAR.

What they actually did was bin all the good ideas, and make up a bunch of completely new ones that were total shite and took 8 months of post-release to refine into something that is still only halfway workable.

In short: They had a product with well-known, groundbreaking and popular key features that had contributed significantly to the success of DAoC, and instead of integrating the most successful of those features into WAR they wiped the board clean and started over.

It was a bold move admittedly, but the last 6 months have proven it to ultimately be a foolish one. It's left them with not only the standard mechanic, balance and implementation issues, but having to reinvent the wheel on key features (which if you look at city seige, ended up being a square wheel).

Here's a lesson for you Mythic: Just because it is new and fancy, it is not necessarily good. Innovation for innovation's sake is a recipe for disaster...

Edit: Which i think the fact that WAR was scraping 300k subscribers worldwide 3 months ago out of 1.2m boxes sold is testimony to.

That said, i enjoy the game but feel that some parts of it are a total waste of time.

 

[civy]

I'v had another quick look for a couple of hours. I think standard premades will have to go from 2 to 3 healers. 50% of the group healing cant be right but thats the way it looks like its going.

On the plus side my dislike for the changes have helped push me into looking for the next game and AION doesnt look half bad. I only did a few lvls but didnt see any anytime spamming. Most skills seemed to have a CD and then there are chains. FPS was 120 to 200 fps. I didnt feel any net lag in the starter zones even though I was on a chinese server in a reasonably populated. If you dont mind cartoony gfx then its worth a look when the EU version is out. plus it will have had 6-9 months of testing with 3 million players

 

[`mongoose]

I'v had another quick look for a couple of hours. I think standard premades will have to go from 2 to 3 healers. 50% of the group healing cant be right but thats the way it looks like its going.

On the plus side my dislike for the changes have helped push me into looking for the next game and AION doesnt look half bad. I only did a few lvls but didnt see any anytime spamming. Most skills seemed to have a CD and then there are chains. FPS was 120 to 200 fps. I didnt feel any net lag in the starter zones even though I was on a chinese server in a reasonably populated. If you dont mind cartoony gfx then its worth a look when the EU version is out. plus it will have had 6-9 months of testing with 3 million players

At this point It's only scenarios and the odd lost vale run that bring me enjoyment in War. The zerging in the various zones coupled with the incredible lag has just about ruined orvr for me.

I have to say I can't see me renewing my sub in july unless land of the dead is jaw droppingly good. The only thing that's keeping me in game is that the competition at present is so poor. AOC & WoW aren't exactly top pvp games and I have no faith in NC Soft.

where did all the good games developers go?

M

 

[mooSe_]

For pvp there is always DarkFall (if you are lucky enough to actually be allowed to buy it) or wait until Mortal Online (which looks interesting). They are pvp games, just closer to UO than DAoC I believe?

 

[Loneliness]

The only thing that's keeping me in game is that the competition at present is so poor. AOC & WoW aren't exactly top pvp games and I have no faith in NC Soft.

where did all the good games developers go?

M

Yep same for me

 

[Ctuchik]

where did all the good games developers go?

Blizzard bought them. they dont want any competition so they hire anyone that show promise.

 

[Faya]

I will crash in here and recomend Fallen Earth. Closed Beta atm...NDA..stuff. But have a look at teh useal leaks i guess.

Faya

 

[civy]

First time ever Mythic changed it's mind. The C&C changes are out till they can have the proper attention they need and not some global change with crossed fingers.

 

[Gahn]

First time ever Mythic changed it's mind. The C&C changes are out till they can have the proper attention they need and not some global change with crossed fingers.

There's still hope, altho all this putting togheter mega changes, throw em at people to "focus" test 1,5 days and pretending to gather good feedback seems quite "wannabe" to me -.-

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

where did all the good games developers go?
M

The consolidation in the games market in the last 5-6 years has been nothing short of incredible. Did a fair bit of headhunting work in it about 3 years back, and the rate companies dissapeared at was just frightening.

A small developer only needs one faliure to end up in administration and get gobbled by a larger studio (or directly bought by a publisher which is never good for the creative process!), and the larger ones have often generated their cash by selling out to a large publisher (mythic-ea is a classic example of this).

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

The consolidation in the games market in the last 5-6 years has been nothing short of incredible. Did a fair bit of headhunting work in it about 3 years back, and the rate companies dissapeared at was just frightening.

A small developer only needs one faliure to end up in administration and get gobbled by a larger studio (or directly bought by a publisher which is never good for the creative process!), and the larger ones have often generated their cash by selling out to a large publisher (mythic-ea is a classic example of this).

where did all the good games developers go?
M

The consolidation in the games market in the last 5-6 years has been nothing short of incredible. Did a fair bit of headhunting work in it about 3 years back, and the rate companies dissapeared at was just frightening.

A small developer only needs one faliure to end up in administration and get gobbled by a larger studio (or directly bought by a publisher which is never good for the creative process!), and the larger ones have often generated their cash by offering a chunk to a large publisher (mythic-ea is a classic example of this).

Basically to survive you need cash (a lot of it), and your two ways of generating this is to create a success (fast - which is never easy) or approach an investor or a large publisher to see if they want to "buy in". Of course the price of this buy-in is concessions as to products and timescales and financial performance, plus a chunk of the company's shares/equity.

A classic example is if EA buys Mythic, and Mythic garuntees to generate (arbitary number here) $1000 a quarter or to reach $1m turnover (again arbitary number). These numbers will have been set to garuntee the investor making a profit and not a loss on their money.

This is all well and good, but say Mythic but only generates $100 or only reaches $500k turnover there will be a penalty clause in their funding contract stating that they sacrifice X extra shares or equity (depending on the company type) to the funder (which allows the funder to garuntee their internal rate of return on their invested cash & resources).

If Mythic missed enough financial targets Mark Jacobs would have to continue sacrificing shares or equity (to keep the company's potential profit realised) until he would eventually lose control over the company. (I would imagine this a real worry for Mythic at the moment, depending on the details of the contract with EA of course).

Now, the investor might not do anything to the company they now control, but in this day of cost-savings and profit generation they will often look to streamline and make cost savings by merging the dev with another business they own.

Hope that helps and makes sense, typed this on the fly while on a boring client Telecon!

(sorry forgot about the 10 min limit - excuse the partial double-post)