Hate Meter

From redname: Illucide

We do have one [a hate meter] in development, and have for the last couple of months. Rather than a meter with a bar graph indicating the top hated players that would steal a large amount of screen real estate, it’s a smaller window (and may eventually be tied to the target or implied target’s window) that simply shows you what percentage of hate you have when compared to the creature’s current main target.

So it’s not ‘ezmode’ – you have to know how much hate your spells generate, but you can also see yourself climbing, and if you’re drawing too much aggro, you’ll be able to see numbers backing up that fact. You won’t see everyone else’s hate, but I’d guess people will try and ride the line as much as possible, which will probably result in more than a few ‘oops’ moments. Whereas now, there’s just no way to tell. The difference between a ‘good’ dps or tank player and a ‘bad’ one can only be given a feeling (well, he seems to hold aggro just fine?), the new meter will give players a solid understanding of how they’re playing. Or, at least, that’s the intent. =)

What do you all think?

Yay, nor nay?

I don’t know of any other MMO that incorporates a hate meter that is visible for players to see, although I am sure there are player-made mods to that end.  I know my WoW Warlock, LOTRO Champion, and WAR Marauder certainly don’t know at any point what their hate position is.

This leads me to an old topic: the debate of ’should tanks do it or should DPS do it?’  I’m talking about hate management of course.

Four years ago I would have been placed firmly into the camp that believes that the player should be in full control of their hate and take full responsibility for their actions.  In other words, if a wizard were continually pulling aggro, he would adjust his play to accomodate the tank.

Now?  I’m not so sure.

But there is something that needs to be clarified, first.  What is the context?

Heroic content is much less challenging today than it was 4 years ago.  Gear is 1000 times more powerful (literally) than it was 4 years ago.  The entire class dynamic has changed — most classes, if they are going all-out — can pull aggro rather easily.  There are many more classes now capable of doing that kind of damage than there were 4 years ago.  Whereas Assassins, Rangers, Wizards, and Warlocks have always been at or somewhere very close to the top by a large margin, over the course of time that list has grown to include, sometimes by very narrow margin, Brigands, Swashbucklers, Conjurors, Necromancers, Bruisers, Illusionists, Coercers, Shadowknights, Berserkers, and even Monks, Dirges and Troubadors from time to time.  Ummm … that’s just about every non-healing class in the game.  Kind of absurd when you look at the big picture, isn’t it?  (In a topic for another time, it does show just how much SOE listens to its players — although I don’t always think that is a good or wise thing to do to such a degree.)

In a heroic 6-man instance, I find that, in present day, no one much cares about aggro.  Sure, the tank will try to keep it as much as possible, but if my warlock pulls it, or my troubador pulls it, or my conjuror pet pulls it ‘well – it’s almost dead anyway, if it gets in a few hits, I won’t get past the yellow.’  I myself am very guilty of falling into this logic, many times.  What does it matter if I rip aggro 9 battles out of 10 when I am also pumping out 12k DPS and killing everything in under 10 seconds?

Well, it doesn’t — much — except it shows that the hate mechanic as it exists in EQ2 is out of date, and somewhat pointless in its current incarnation.  I am not saying I want to go back to one-hit-wonders that kill the tank in 3 hits and require 2 healers at all times (hello January 2005!) but it would be nice if hate played some larger role than just an obscure mechanic that players used as some vague scapegoat for all of their problems in a bad group.  (We’ve all heard it — hell, some of us have SAID it: ‘This tank sucks, can’t hold aggro’ or ‘My god, this warlock can’t stop ripping, what a noob.’)

So the other context is raiding.  This currently is the only time when hate, as it is now, really matters, because pulling a raid mob can lead to chaos very quickly — and unlike heroic mobs, the raid mob isn’t just going to be burned down in a matter of 2 seconds.

So is  a “hate meter” a good thing, or a bad thing?  Will it be helpful?  Or is it just useless fluff to make the game even easier for the so-called ‘EZmode’ players?  IN the long run, will it lead to more efficient gameplay — or will it just be used as an excuse for more sloppy gameplay and more name-calling? (‘Well I was only at 95% hate where the hell were you, tank?’)

Only time will tell!

Shirley Manson Has Aged Well

LU52(ish): Lavastorm revamp, new epic instances, and 12! armor sets!

Straight from the horse’s mouth: Redname timetraveling (sure the most original of the developer names), has this exciting bit of news to share:

As a New Year’s Resolution (a few days early, admittedly), we pledge to create within a few months (aka GU52):

• A brand new two-group instance with 9 bosses—over half of whom drop Void Shards—balanced for players in legendary gear
• A very challenging brand new four-group raid instance
• Brand new tradeskill instance in the Void
• A Lavastorm revamp
• Brand new areas added to Lavastorm with level 80 solo content
• A new faction with gear to gather from the new Lavastorm content
• 12 new armor sets
• All of them with brand new armor appearances
• Including a brand new robe model in which the Helm and Shoulders and Legs are all visible, separate pieces from the Chest
  
  • And it looks rad *cough* See also: Varsoon *cough*

We have SO MUCH cool stuff planned for y’all, and can’t wait to show it to you!

Enjoy the holidays!!

So, there you have it.  Lots of fun stuff on its way.

780i Front Panel Audio and Smilodon Case – Explained!

This had been driving me nuts since I built my new PC in September.

I finally figured it out and it was so simple I could have screamed in happiness.

You may be tempted (like I was) to think that you have connected the pins wrong.

Well, since the Smilodon case has a front panel audio dongle neatly gathering all pins in one,  that is clearly labeled AUDIO, and the 780i manual clearly defines where the front panel audio pins are, that would be pretty hard to do.

No, you’ve connected it properly.  9 pins and the ground.  You can’t mess that up.

The problem is actually in the Realtek software manager and the auto-detection settings.

See this link for a clear explanation:

http://www.evga.com/support/faq/?f=57993

(It lists as being only applicable to the 590 and 6 series boards, but it certainly applied to my 7 series!)

Basically, go to your Control Panel, open the Realtek Manager, and on the right-hand side (in Vista) you’ll see your jacks … the front panel jacks won’t be lit up.

Click on device settings and make it detect every jack as independent … and THEN …

ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS TO CLICK THE LITTLE TINY FOLDER ICON in the upper right of that and then un-check the box for auto detection when a jack is plugged in.

Magically, your front panel will now work properly and give you sound and mic capability, and the manager will reconfigure for headphones and mic from the front panel!

WHY this has to be so obscure is beyond me, Realtek really ought to rethink the logic there.

So rest easy.  It’s not your mobo.  It’s not a defective case.

It’s just some really stupid and obscure settings in the Realtek manager.

Line, what line?

I’m sure SOE is afraid to link to my blog as it is.

So I may as well post the following bit of nostalgic memorabilia.

Ah, days long past.

Smedley, Station Cash, Marketing Campaigns

I’ll start this post off with the following quote from John Smedley (SOE’s big cheese):

We’re working on a pretty significant marketing plan and I hope we’ll have something to announce early in the New Year. If you think it doesn’t make me want to pull what’s left of my hair out every time I see Ozzy on TV talking about WoW I assure you you’re wrong

… and before I dig into the meat of this, let me first say, I think that’s a very cool, and long overdue statement.  I have quipped for years that SOE should put more into marketing EQ2.  Now that we have finally breached the technology barrier where the technology needed to make EQ2 look and run well, if not great, is affordable and obtainable for a majority, this issue is, I think, more integral than ever to EQ2’s longevity – and dare I say it, it’s success and … growth?

It’s not very common for any MMO beyond 2 years to grow.  Subscriptions tend to level or decline.  While I am sure EQ2 has experienced this form of decay to some degree, I also think that this game is in a better position to compete now than at any point previously in its lifespan — and a lot of that has to do with what I said above: the proliferation of technology which can exploit EQ2’s beautiful visuals, at a pricepoint which is not exclusive to the mainstream.

The MMO market is both the most crowded that it has ever been, and also, in a strange paradox, the most NARROW in potential for a big hit.  As titles have been released, the bar has been raised.  Players have higher expectations now than ever before, after being exposed to excellent and long-running titles since the advent of the original EverQuest.  Titles such as Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, and Warhammer Online.  And yet, players also want something that is JUST DIFFERENT ENOUGH … but NOT TOO DIFFERENT! That leaves a VERY narrow margin for error, and hence, while many titles have been released, very few have been considered successful by the mainstream measuring stick.  People are clamoring for the next “big thing,” but every big thing that comes along leaves a large chunk even more anxious.

EQ2 is in a competitive position due to some other factors, also.  The launch and failure (or moderate success) of high-profile MMO’s like Age of Conan and Tabula Rasa have left a certain demogrpahic of players wondering: “Is this as good as it gets? I can play WoW, or I can play Warhammer, I can play LOTRO, or I can play Guild Wars, I can play City of Heroes — but what else is there?”  EQ2 can match the depth, quality, history, scope — not to mention a dedicated and experienced development team, and excellent Customer Service squad supported by a large company.

But in order to be there, to compete, it does need marketing.  So I think this is a great statement.

Okay, next topic, and on a somewhat related note …

Station Cash.

Oy.

I’ve said it before — I like having my own blog to touch on these issues becuase posting in a 75 page thread is like tossing a penny into a well.

So, here goes …

I really have no problem with Station Cash, at all.  In fact?  I know I will be using it very soon.

I have no issue paying what amounts to a trip to McDonald’s, or a movie ticket, to get a set of cosmetic armor or a neat pet.  And some of that armor is something I’ve wanted for a long time — the chance to expose my arms.  After all, Frogloks, Barbarians, Dwarves, Erudites, Wood Elves, Sarnak … heck, almost EVERY race has some really neat skin/scale/ink patterns … but until recently, and even now, there has been and is a very VERY limited set of items that allow you to show off these neat patterns.  Why hide!?  So, yeah — I’m totally willing to pay 10 bucks for a set of armor for my Froglok ranger. That being said, might I have preferred upgraded armor sets for each class to quest at level 20?  Yes, I would have.  But resources are limited, and if they are going tod evote a second team to items related to Station Cash … well, better to have SOME option than NO option, yes?  That’s how I see it, anyhow.  And who’s to say that in the future, since the dev team IS freed up from not developing SC items, this won’t amount to MORE in-game content, anyway?  In fact, I bet it will.

Will I be using Station Cash frequently?  No.  But will I use it now and then when I see something cool that I think is reasonable and will give me “bang for the buck” – like armor sets?  Heck yes.

Now, let me qualify this: in no way would I ever want to see Station Cash replace legitimate in-game content.  And I think this is what most players are really afraid will happen — their hard work will be cheapened by a level 1 “noob” running around in parade armor that looks better than their fabled level 80 tank.  And honestly?  It IS a very genuine concern, and a reasonable one at that.  But here’s where I feel confident: in the nearly 5 years I’ve been playing, I’ve seen SOE do things like this several times before, and almost always, what it has ultimately resulted in is that these additions RAISE THE BAR FOR THE IN-GAME CONTENT — NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. The best and most recent example is LoN — a lot of people were very upset when LoN was released becasue some items either LOOKED better, or actually offered some kind of exclusive bonus, that was beyond what was in-game.  Fast-forward 1.5 years to now, and we see that jsut about anything that looks cool in LoN is available in a BETTER form, with more practical stats, in the game.  Armored wargs and mounts, ghostly illusions, capes with size increases … and so on.  Rather than relegate those things to LoN only, the dev team said: “You know, we are going to do this better.”  And that’s what happened.

I don’t see that this is the goal of SOE at all.  But clearly they are offering a service that has demand, or else, it wouldn’t exist.  Another example: Station Exchange.  When it was implemented, players swore up and down that it would be the end of EQ2 as we knew it, that the world would be overrun by plat farmers and heartless business scam artists who had no genuine passion for Norrath or for gaming in general.  Well, guess what?  None of that occurred.  In fact, Station Exchange decayed into a rather subtle and interesting half-failed (or half successful, depending on how you look at it) experiment — and now?  No one much gives it any thought.

So the sky is not falling.  It won’t be falling any time soon.

Smart

I’m not now and would not have ever in the past considered myself to be someone who would listen to Lily Allen.  Truthfully I never heard a single song of hers before.

But this one’s pretty cool.  Good song, interesting video.

Aeralik Speaks

Keep in mind we are looking into changing all hate transfer and siphon skills.  So this isnt just paladin amends, its assassin and swashbuckler hate transfers as well.  The amends line will remain powerful but our goal here is to put more emphasis on the tank gaining aggro themselves and less on other people supplying them the hate for free as things have been done in the past.  Some special cases transfer and siphon skills will remain but for the most part things will change to emphasize the player controlling their own hate.

Just keep in mind the changes in part 2 are fairly broad and hate transfers are just one small aspect of the overall changes.

- from Dev Aeralik on the SOE boards

And let me comment: I think this is fucking AWESOME.

Over 120 Screenies and 3 Years of Time