All Points Bulletin (APB), addresses some of the games issues.
by Steady on Jul.14, 2010, under All Points Bulletin
APB made a nice post in their forums yesterday, addressing some of the issues the game has. See the post here. Here are the highlights.
Cheaters, catching them and removing them, I always like this one.
Vehicle Handling – A major overhaul to make the vehicles less slippery. I am not too sure about this one. I found the learning curve for driving a bit steep, but after a bit of practice, I did not have any trouble. The other day I was doing some nice slides, and moving between cars in traffic rather well. My biggest problem is the other live players; they tend to run into me quite a bit. In fact some people are just grieving, by putting up burnt car barricades, and playing demolition derby. So I hope they do not change it too much.
Combat- they are looking at every aspect. I do have a problem killing people. That has more to do with me, then it does the game. I have trouble aiming, but with that being said, I think it does need a bit of work, so that is a good thing.
Camping- going to address this issue as well, another one of those human factors, that if peoples would just play fair, and play as the game right this would not be a problem, but hey always has to be that camper.
Missions- making them a bit more complex, and deeper, a bit more strategy. I am all for that, I am an old dude, no hand eye coordination, strategy is my friend.
They also mentioned matchmaking; I will address that in another post, as I have pretty long opinion on this subject.
Again, I like this game. It is very entertaining to play. For me it is not about kill to death ratio, more about fun, which I have. I have to give the devs of APB credit; they have not crawled under a rock, and hidden from their player base. They post in the forums, and on their webpage they have a twitter feed, which does not always shed a positive light on APB. So that is pretty good, they cannot please everyone, someone is always going to have a problem, so it is nice to see them moving in a positive direction.
All Points Bulletin video
by Steady on Jul.09, 2010, under General Gaming Discussion
Here is some video from APB. I am driving the Combat Engineer car. Ashton, my partner in law enforcement (or as I like to call him, Starsky) is hanging out the window. Notice it took about 30 seconds for the right color of the car to kick in. It turns pink and then looks right. We were on a mission where we had to pick up a stolen car. Also as you can tell, driving takes a bit of practice, but is very fun. Each car in the game has a different feel to it, very realistic.
Come on, $55.00 to change a guild name.
by Steady on Jul.09, 2010, under General Gaming Discussion
Ok, first they were going to use my real name in the World of Warcraft forums. Then Labron goes to Miami. However, this is not the injustice of the day. There is a new item on the market place on Everquest II. A Guild rename potion. Yes folks, for the low price of $55.00, a Jeanie with pop out of a bottle and rename your guild.
I am sorry this is just too much. I am not against real world money stores in any games. I understand that it is a fact of life for gamers anymore. Every game has them, but to charge $55.00 to change a guild name is just too much. Lord of the Rings only charges $12.95 to change a kinship name, and I thought that was too high. I have a few guilds that I would like to rename, but really not for $55.00, they will still just have to be named “Lords of the Underpants”. I have to make a stand, and draw a line in the sand somewhere.
I know what you are saying; you do not have to buy it if you do not want. You are right, I won’t.
My thoughts on the Real ID system
by Steady on Jul.09, 2010, under World of Warcraft
It looks like the Real ID system for World of Warcraft forums is not going to happen. I have to admit that I was not a fan of this system. I have some folks I have played games with for a few years, and I am not sure if they know my real name or not. I think it is important to have some degree of privacy on the internet these days. On the other hand, I also thing that game developers have a right to protect their product from the forum trolls, who usually do not have many valid points, but just rant about useless crap. It is a shame, because there are some good points made sometimes, they just get drowned out by the trolls. Personally I do not use the forums much, every once in awhile I might post a guild recruitment message, or a if I am looking for more for a dungeon run. What usually happens is some troll comes along and posts something stupid, and I will just delete the message and move on.
The truth be told, something has to be done to clean up the forums. I did not think that Real ID was the solution. Blizzard needs to find something a bit less extreme, a bit of middle ground. What that is anyone’s guess; I sure do not know what it is. With that being said, the forums do belong to Blizzard, not the players of the game like some think. If it was me, I might start tossing a few of them out of the forums.
I did see one thing out of this whole episode that really pissed me off. These parasites that were posting information about employees of Blizzard to make a point. The only point you were making were that you were idiots. I don’t care what your point was you, were WRONG. Posting Google maps, and phone numbers and personal information WAS WRONG. I hope that Blizzard finds every one of you, bans you from the game, and pursues every legal avenue they can to prevent you from doing this type of crap again.
This is so distasteful, I hope nothing happens to anyone’s home, or spouse, or god forbid, a child, because one of you idiots were hoping to make a point. I mean really this is a silly game, and a forum. Not real life and you idiots are going to cause some real life pain for some of these folks. They justified this with the statement, “I am just using the information that they are going to use on me.” What a load of crap, if idiots would not abuse this information, and you trolls joined the civilized world, the use of someone’s real name, would not be problem. The problem was not Blizzards; it was the idiots that abused the policy. I noticed not one of you cowards posted you real name with this distasteful information.
Ok, that is enough, that really went on longer then it should have. I hope that Blizzard does find a way to return the forums, and global chat channels back to the civilized players
City of Heroes, Issue 18 Shades of Grey
by Steady on Jul.08, 2010, under City of Heroes
I just got a nice tweet about Issue 18: Shades of Grey Overview for City of Heroes. I have to admit it had three words in it, I thought I would never see again, Cathedral of Pain. This is a sore spot for many players in City of Heroes, Especially the PVP crowd.. It use to be a trail were up to 24 level 50’s had an hour to complete missions in order to obtain an Item of Power. This was put in your base, and guarded by any means necessary during base raids. It was a buggy little piece of work that was only live for about 30 days.
It looks like it is back; it also looks like it might have some changes. Makes no mention of base raids, the rewards not look like merits and badges. Come on, how about a few purples. I have a feeling base raids are a thing of the past. This has raid written all over it, I also like the fact that it has to be done in an hour. I always enjoyed the sewer trial, mainly because it has a time limit, and you have to use teamwork to get it done. This looks like more of the same.
Finally, the merging of the Auction house markets on the red and blue side. All I can say is that it is about time. Also you can trade inspirations’ on co-op zones, with the other side. Good deal that was always a pain, not being able to give some one an inspiration so they could rez.
Finally a new tips system; foes will drop clues that can start missions. That is a great way to add content, and not have to make new zones. Looks like another good free expansion is no the way, I cannot wait.
All Points Bulletin, how does rank, rating, threat level and prestige work????
by Steady on Jul.08, 2010, under General Gaming Discussion
I really am enjoying All Points Bulletin. Don’t believe all the bad reviews. The game is fun. One of the problems I do have however, is the lack of documentation. So I thought I would try to figure out how some of it works. These are just my personal findings on this subject, if you have more information, please share it. Because I am not sure if I have it right.
Threat level has 15 levels. I think it measures how good a player you are. If you die a lot, and fail missions it goes down. If you are the next Godfather or Magnum P. I., it goes up. I also think the only bearing it has on the game is matchmaking, but I am not sure. It also is not an actual number, but a symbol.
The blue vertical bar next to your name with the five stars next to it measures prestige; I am not sure what the criminals call it. This can change during each gaming session. I am not sure exactly what makes prestige go up. I can tell you on the enforcer side, running over a pedestrian makes it go down. I think stealing a car, or kicking someone out of their car, also makes it go down. I am guessing killing bad guys makes it go up. I also think making an arrest instead of killing a criminal will get you more prestige.
The next two are rank, and rating, they work together a bit. Your rating is the number next to the letter “r” in your character info. This number is the closest thing you are going to what actual level you are in the game. I do not believe it goes down, and I have no clue how high it goes. The highest I have seen is in the two hundreds.
Rank is the most confusing of all. Let’s say you are an enforcer and your rank with the Praetorians is 13. You have run missions for this organization, like returning stolen cars, money, that type of thing. Each successful mission gets you a point total, which adds to your rank. I know that rank and rating work together to get you better weapons and gear.
The higher both of them are the better gear you get.
So that is as much as I know. Again a lot of this is theory, so if you know more, please post.
Combat Engineers Gaming Community are looking for more.
by Steady on Jul.05, 2010, under General Gaming Discussion
My Gaming Community the Combat Engineers is looking for more active gamers. So here is what what we are all about, and what we are looking for.
1. Mature, must be over the age of 18..
2. Respect. We do not do DRAMA, (let me repeat, we do not do DRAMA), fight over gear, taunt or harass. Profanity is not allowed. Any type of racial, religious, gender, sexual orientation, or political slurs are not allowed. Stealing from us will get you booted out of the group for sure.
3. Helpful. If you cannot be kind, and helpful to other players, this is not the place for you.
4. We are not in a hurry, if you are looking for farming or power leveling; you are most likely in the wrong place. I am not saying it does not take place in this group, I am just saying it is not the norm.
5. Have fun. We like to have fun. If we fail an instance, or a task force, it is not the end of the world. We will make every effort to complete a task, mission, instance or raid, but we are not going to do it at the expense of not having fun.
6. Able to function on a team. Each event or team will have a clear leader. All we ask is that you follow the direction of the team leader. If you have a suggestion, speaks up, just do it in the right way. The leader may or may not use you suggestion. If you have a better way to do something, sign up to be the leader for the next run.
7. Register for the forums. If you are a leader, list events and other thing there.
Where will you find us.
www.combatengineers.net is our main webpage
http://www.xfire.com/communities/moonb on xfire.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Combat-Engineers-Gaming-Community/248825615272 on Facebook
http://twitter.com/Steadycombateng to follow us on Twitter.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/combatengineers on Steam
Feel free to join any and all of these groups. I encourage all of our current active members to join these groups if they can.
What are we playing; more like what are we not playing.
City of Heroes- We have established SGs on the Freedom, Liberty, Justice, and Virtue Server. Freedom is the most popular. Liberty is dead, Justice and Virtue are very small.
City of Villains- Established VG on Freedom. It is dead, needs active members, willing to run teams and recruit.
Aion- Have a legion on the Kaisinel Server, Elyos. Have a some Asmodians on the Meslamtada Server. Needs leadership and active members.
World of Warcraft, we have a pretty active group, Alliance, Elune server. Running instances and leveling right now. Some day we would like to start running some 10 mans. Gear hounds, thief’s, immature people, need not apply.
Champions Online – semi established SG. Lacks leadership, nice for active players that would like to run an established SG.
Dungeons and Dragons Online – Old dead Guild on the Sarlona server. Needs active members, leadership.
Everquest II, on the Bazaar server, have a few active players. Do not have a guild yet, like to find more to start a guild.
Global Agenda- One man agency. Looking for leadership, and active members.
Star Trek Online- Yet another dead, one man fleet. Needs active members, and leadership.
Lord of the Rings- Two man kinship, is at the maxed out level. Needs active members and leadership.
Warhammer Online- No guilds, but we play Destruction on Badlands, and Order on Iron Rock. Looking for more to start a guild
All Points Bulletin – Have a group, just started playing, get in on the ground floor.
Games that we sometimes play and have teamed in are Team Fortress 2, Planetside, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and Battlefield Heroes.
So if you are interested in joining the Combat Engineers, contact me at steady@combatengineers.net.
All Points Bulletin
by Steady on Jul.04, 2010, under General Gaming Discussion
The first thing I liked was that I could make a character just like me. A very old, slow, slightly overweight (ok fat) guy. I roll up an Enforcer, one of the good guys. So I run the tutorial, pretty easy. I zone into the social district. I make sure all my weapons are ready to go, and then I zone into an action zone.
This is where the fun really begins. There are two types of missions. The first is a “Call to Back-up” type mission. Another enforcer is running a mission, and needs help, so you help him out. The second type of mission was from a contact. In my case, it was pretty simple. I needed to pick up three cars that had been stolen, and drive them to the police holding lot. When I accepted the mission, a call goes out on the criminal side for someone to stop me from performing this task. In my case a mini skirt wearing criminal named Valentine Raine answered the call. So for the next five minutes or so, we played a nice game of cat and mouse. I managed to get one car back to the lot, but not before we killed each other a few times. She was waiting for me at the second car. She had picked out a nice spot on top of a building. I saw her, but she got me. So I snuck up behind her the next time, and got here. Jumped into the second car and drove off. I did not make it to the holding lot, my driving skills are bad, and I crashed the car. I failed the mission, but had fun.
I have read a lot of reviews about this game, and seen a lot of bad reviews. I don’t get it. I do not have a high end computer, and seems to run the game just fine. The load times are a bit long, but nothing that bad. Some people are complaining about the matchmaking system, I had no trouble with this. I managed to kill several players with my starter weapon. I would say my kill to death ratio was about even. I certainly did not feel like I was unable to complete my mission. Use some skill, people just want to run and gun. Stop and think, and you will have success. Also they are complaining about the payment plan being confusing. Can they read English, it is pretty simple. The social zone is free. When you purchase the game you get 50 hours of action zone play. After that you can buy unlimited play for $9.99 a month, or purchase 20 hours for $7.00. Personally, I think that is a pretty good payment model.
The only complaint I have is that the knowledge base is not working yet. Also I have no clue how I advance in the game. I found the driving a bit difficult, but that most likely has more to do with my old hand-eye coordination, then it does with the game.
Disclaimer, I have only played this game for about three hours. I had a blast; I really do not see any reason why I would not keep playing. It was very entertaining. I think a lot of the bad reviews are wrong. If an old, slow, slightly overweight (ok fat) guy like me enjoys the game, I am sure anyone can.
Finally I reached Level 40 in Champions Online
by Steady on Jul.01, 2010, under Champions Online
Last week I finally made it to level 40 on Steady Enforcer my melee tank in Champions Online. I know, it took me long enough. So I have few thoughts about leveling in Champions Online.
I do like some thinks about Champions. I enjoy the nemesis system. It is fun, and a nice addition to game play. Most of the nemesis door missions are very well done. I don’t care too much for the open world missions, but I understand that they do have to vary the missions. In general, most of the leveling door missions are well done. They usually have a pretty good story line, and are fun to play.
Costume design is another good feature. I am not someone who spends a lot of time on costumes, but this system did entertain me for longer then most.
My biggest complaint is lack of content. The game does not have enough content to level a character from 1 to 40. It is as simple as that. They have added a zone, and some repeatable content in the past few months, but it is still not enough.
Upon hitting 40, I ran the unity missions. They were not bad, pretty easy. I ran the mission at the end, again, a pretty fun mission. Here is my problem, the rewards. Most of the good unity rewards cost 1,000 unity merits. I picked up about unity 20 merits the other day on my first run. I don’t think I will do those everyday for 50 days. The missions are not that varied, and it is just too much of running the same think over and over to hold my attention.
The same holds true for the nemesis rewards. I ran every nemesis mission, and have 288 nemesis merits. Most of the good rewards cost 1,000, so that leaves running the nemesis end game mission several times in order to get a decent reward.
So I am on the fence with this game. It is OK, but not great. It certainly has not knocked City of Heroes off its perch as the top game in this genre. In fact the numbers at Xfire and Raptr show that more people are playing City, then Champions already. I am disappointed, and here is why. This is not the first superhero game that Cryptic has made. They should have learned from the mistakes they made in City of Heroes. Instead, they used none of the previous knowledge to make this game better. They just rolled out an incomplete game, and say here you go, play it. I will still play Champions; I am a junkie after all. It will just not get as much game time as other games. Hopefully they will continue to add content, and improve some of the endgame.
I am still here!!
by Steady on Jun.28, 2010, under General Gaming Discussion
I am still here, just a lot of real life stuff going on this month. Look for more regular updates during the month of July. Remember only 51 days until City of Heroes, Going Rogue goes live………
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