Monday, September 23, 2013

Update: MechWarrior Online, Fallout Online: Reloaded, and more

So, I've been playing MechWarrior Online for a few weeks now. I started it about the same time I started playing Fallout Online: Reloaded. A couple of days ago I started writing a review for the game, so that should be done tonight. It's been a lot of fun playing MWO, so reviewing it is proving to be fun as well. I'm not sure which game I will do next, but it'll probably be a few days before I get anything assigned to me as this months deadline is day after tomorrow.

One thing I can't help but think about while playing MWO is MechWarrior: Living Legends. Honestly, I feel that MW:LL had more going for it than MWO currently does, and it's a shame that development had to be shut down. However, it's understandable because the guys who were working on the project were using CryENGINE (which is also the engine MWO uses), and they got employed by the folks behind the engine. It wouldn't have worked out, having employees using the same platform and idea that a customer was using, even if the employees had the idea first.




Other than MWO, I have been playing Fallout Online: Reloaded. I'm slowly getting bored with it, unfortunately. The reason behind this is that I'm just not having a fun time grinding up my characters. I've got one character up to level 17 now and will hopefully have him up to 24 in a few days so I can do some PVP. Hopefully getting into PVP will help me enjoy the game more. It's almost the same scenario that I ran into with EVE, I've been stuck doing the crafting side of things which I honestly like a lot, but I just can't seem to break into PVP which is something I really want to do. In the end, if I can't get into PVP soon, FO:R will have the same fate as EVE has at the moment - stuck on the backburner and ignored until I get that Fallout/sci-fi itch again.




Speaking of EVE, my characters are coming along quite nicely. Another 12 days before my industry character can use Exhumer's, and just 5 days until my combat character reaches level V Upgraded Weapons. I really need to take the time and get them both an updated clone, though. I guess I'll continue to skill up for 2-3 more months before I try and get back into the game. And even if I don't get back into the game anytime soon, I'll have a couple of slightly developed characters to jump back in with.

Another game I've been eying is the Artemis Starship simulator. Previously it was a rather clunky piece of software that allowed you to 'simulate' being on the command crew of a star ship with some friends. Recently, they've upgraded it a bit and put it up on Steam for $7 and I have been thinking about getting it along with some friends. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that I could essentially get the same experience with Shores of Hazeron, and SoH has a ton more features compared to Artemis anyways. So I'm still on the fence, but I really do want an experience similar to what Artemis has to offer so I've been on the lookout for those types of games lately.

I've noticed that a lot of the people I know from the Duchy of Wessex have gotten back into Mortal Online. To be honest, that's made Mortal seem a lot more appealing. Almost like getting the "dream team" back together or something. I'll probably sit on the sidelines and lurk in the forums for a week or two and see if things hold steady.  If they do, I'll go ahead and jump back into the game. The fact that I have a bunch of fully developed characters and a guild that I know participates in PVP waiting makes it very appealing.


I'll go ahead an close up the update here. I'm going to try and take the blog into another direction. I'll continue to post these crappy updates that no one reads (well, it tells me that people read it but no one seems to comment except for spammers), however I'm also going to start posting neat games I find, impressive sales for good games I come across, and other stuff. Maybe include some mods I find for games I like. Anyways, thanks for reading.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Update (Fallout Online, EVE, and more!)

So I finished my TERA review a few days ago, and I also completed a review on a neat browser-based title called VEGA Conflict. I was quite surprised at how much I liked both games. VEGA specifically was a rather pleasant MMORTS experience and I'm still playing. So, if you play and would like to join together for some stuff, let me know. Next up my list of games to review is the new America's Army game which I've been playing a bit already, but I plan to start playing hardcore tonight so I can get the review out in a few days.

I'm still playing both EVE and Fallout Online: Reloaded. I dropped Fallen Earth because FO:R provides everything it does and more. And while I do like shooter combat, it's not enough to make up for all the features it doesn't provide and the typical MMO progression when compared to Fallout. EVE... I've kind of stepped back from EVE For a bit, just log in to set up my skill queue. I had hoped to get into PVP, but I'm just not in a position to be able to commit to any corporation that could provide fun PVP, and I don't have the time to run the Amitabha Industries corporation as I would like to.

I do have a couple of funny stories to tell about Fallout Online: Reloaded. I've started up a small trading/crafting faction called Free Miners Federation. Thanks to donations from some very helpful members of the FO:R community, I was able to build an outpost fairly easy. Since then, I've gotten a few members and we're slowly growing. Unfortunately, one of our first members turned on us. Which is the first funny story.

So this guy, known as DemonHunter, joined our faction and was initially very friendly and helpful. For a couple of days he was a good faction member. Then, the other day, he donated 20,000 caps to go towards our faction getting our own private mine. I think that's very cool of him, so does the other guy in our faction, and I log out for a few hours. I log back in and all the stuff in the base is gone (most of which he helped gather) and there's his initials out in front of the base in Brahmin shit. This is hilarious because he essentially got the short end of the deal - we got 20,000 caps, he got roughly 4,000 caps worth of very easy to get items and resources. So while I do kind of want to be mad at him for trying to screw us over, I just can't.

This next story is even more hilarious. So, we have one member (Hippie), who primarily uses radios for communication. Hippie happens to go AFK and then a few minutes later some guy jumps into our public channel and says he's Hippie's alt, and would like me to lead him to our base so he can be put in the faction. I'm busy with other stuff so I tell him I will in a bit. All the while, he's still acting like Hippie and the real Hippie hasn't spoken up or anything yet.

So I eventually lead the guy to the base and put him in the faction as a recruit. He initially doesn't do anything. Just runs around and explores. He even continues to play along as if he was Hippie. Needless to say, I'm extremely skeptical and I stay at the base and follow him around the whole time. Then, out of no where, the real Hippie shows up and immediately I start typing, "/r KILL HIM!" a few times Hippie uses his minigun to saw the guy down. He had 700+ caps on him plus a few other neat items. We all had a good laugh and I set the guy to hostile/enemy of the faction. We decide on a new general chatter channel to use, set up a couple of backups that we only use when we think we've been compromised and move on.

Now that's not even the funniest bit. A few hours later I get a PM on IRC by some guy telling us we need to be more careful because his faction (with PickMyCock's help) had just looted our Outpost and taken our vehicle. I found that a bit weird because I had been in our base crafting the whole time, and we didn't have a vehicle. I tell the guy and he's a bit confused (so are we). I end up logging off for the night.

Next day, I log into IRC and get a message from the same. Here it is:
<******> Funny story. That guy you killed accidentally took us to his own base, but was to embarassed he didn't say anything. He let us take his stuff, and didn't say anything. Dug around, found out the truth and gave the stuff back because holy crap that is pathetic.
<Apoca> Wow, that's pretty incredible
<******> It's really, really sad the lengths that some people will go to impress others. Too bad for him, that we don't value people who lie and throw themself under the bus in an attempt to gain favor.

 Man, I love this game! So many epic things happen in it. (failed) Espionage, base raiding, stealing, and more. It's what I originally envisioned Mortal Online would be like. Mortal has a decent number of the same features (MO is a bit softcore compared to FO:R tho), but it just doesn't work as well as FO:R does. Oh well. Anyways, that's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Monday, September 2, 2013

EVE Online, Fallout Online: Reloaded, Tera Online, and Fallen Earth

I'm still playing EVE Online, but it's sort of taken a backseat for now. I knew this would end up happening. I like the game, but I just can't seem to find a group I fit with, which is the same issue I had in my previous attempts to play. Unfortunately, the only person I know that plays is busy with other games and doesn't have much of a will to play. I've tried to make Amitabha in the game, but I honestly do not know enough about the game to feel comfortable leading a corporation, so I'll probably end up putting that on the backburner once my combat character is to a decent position in its development.

My industrial character is about 20 days away from being able to use Exhumers, give or take a few days. At 1.8M SP, too. I'm not sure if I'll resub it once the time rolls around. I may just put EVE into the position of "back-up" in my current line-up of games. I'm still making a decent amount of money with him (well it's mostly thanks to the use of my friends 30m SP industrial character), just broke 200m in profits, and that's with extremely sparse playing - maybe a one-hour mining session every couple of days. I'll probably end up continuing my main character subscription to at least get its production and refining skills to a decent level so I can maybe one day be independent and not need to use my friends alt, as I'm sure he'll want it back to himself sometime.



My combat alt is coming along nicely, almost at 600k SP, and I just got my Small Hybrid Turret to V which is going to open up a lot of doors for me in terms of weapons. I still have yet to do one instance of combat, though. I'm thinking of trying to get into Faction Warfare to see how that is. My goal is to get into one of the SOV/0.0 alliances and trying out large fleet combat. But no telling when I'll be able to get into that, or when I'll feel that I'm ready to commit to that. I got this account pre-paid for three months, though. And it's not even two weeks old yet. I'll be skilling it up a lot during that time.




In other news, I've been playing a lot of Fallout Online: Reloaded these past three days. I've never played Fallout 1 & 2, and now I'm regretting it. I did buy them on GOG sometime ago, so I'll probably download them and give them a play sometime in the near future. But for now, I'm having a blast in FO:R. It's basically Fallout meets UO. It has pick-pocketing, lock-picking, housing, player factions, player faction bases, territory control that allows factions to take controls of towns and dictate the laws in those towns and collect taxes, vehicles, a companion/slave system... so many features that it's hard to believe that this was made my volunteers. It has just about everything that makes an MMO fun for me, an awesome setting, an active community that has between 150-350 players online usually, and more.



I've liked the game so much that I've even started to write a guide for OnRPG users, trying to help them get started in the game. I plan to set up a public OnRPG shelter for members to use as well. So far it seems like Powster is the only other user that is actively playing though. One of us can usually be found in the OnRPG IRC channel that we've set up for FO:R and you can go there for help (if you decide to play). Anyways, I'll go ahead and quote a post I made on OnRPG earlier.

"Slowly progressing. I keep getting killed - I have a lot to learn about the game. Probably would have been good if I had actually played Fallout 1 or 2 at some point. Kind of regret I hadn't, now.

So far I've got a regular tent and now I have a shelter. I set my shelter up right next to the NCR Protected Mine (basically as close to it as you can get). I've built up my stock of minerals and iron ore. Basically that means I can produce money with extreme ease. At least to a certain extent. For example, it takes me all of two minutes to make 1,000 10mm ammo and take it to NCR and trade it for 2,100 caps.

I'm glad I went and got the Ranger support perk. That means all my tents will be shelters instead of regular tents. Shelters are nice due to increased storage, the ability to lock your door (just in case, I guess), and they come with a work bench. On top of filling my storage with minerals and ore, I've also filled it with wood. Basically everything you could want for most basic craftings. I went and got the Small Guns gunsmithing profession (level 1, required 50% repair skill. I plan to go for level 2 which required 100%), and I also grabbed Armor smith level 1. I plan to go for most of the professions so I can be able to craft a wide variety of stuff. I've been keeping my eye out for good blueprints in the towns, but none have jumped out at me and made me think I should buy them.

I've been toying with the idea of buying a private mine, which cost 70,000 caps. This would give me access to a private mine that has high quality resources available. Downside is that it takes longer to respawn ore compared to a regular unprotected mine (or so the wiki says). However, it is private and therefore not as dangerous as a regular unprotected mine which is usually the only place to get the high-end ores.

I'm also on the lookout for a Brahmin. I plan to get one as soon as I can, and also get one of those carts you can attach to them. I may eventually try to buy a vehicle, but I'm not sure where to get one yet or if I would be able to keep it (I still have an issue with staying alive... need to learn a lot about this combat system).


Eventually I want to set up a sort of base of operations that OnRPG can share. I'll probably set up a shelter near NCR's mine (perhaps between NCR and the mine) and I'll bring anyone from OnRPG who wants to have a place to craft in safety go there. I'll also fill it with some resources for anyone to use, too. If you want to get the location of the OnRPG shelter (maybe we can make a faction and get an actual base someday), contact me on IRC (link in my guide). We'll meet up and I can show you. Of course, got to wait for me to actually put it up first :P


Edit: I can also provide some basic weapons and ammo to those who want to help spread the opression of hte OnRPG Militia across the wasteland. Once I get the Shelter up and running, I'll try to keep it stocked with weapons and ammo as well. And maybe eventually some armors once I figure that out... "


 Another game I've been playing is Tera Online, for the purpose of reviewing it. It's a pretty nice game, and damn is it beautiful. The only thing I'm not liking is how repetitive it feels. It seems like they put all this work into making a fun combat system, and then didn't have the time to develop any interesting gameplay features past that. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of neat stuff there. It's just almost drown out by the repetitive gameplay. I should finish it early next week, and then it'll be on to the next game to review.


The last game I want to talk about is Fallen Earth. There was a thread on the OnRPG forums about playing, so I went ahead and downloaded the game. I've got to say, I'm surprised at how fun it feels. Of course, I'm only level 4 and playing extremely casual. I'm a bit disappointed that PVP doesn't seem to play such a major role in the game. Honestly, all it needs to be on par with the above mentioned Fallout Online: Reloaded is more emphasis on PVP (even if it's Faction Vs Faction), and some form of playing housing or at least base-making for clans. Then it would probably be the ultimate in Post-Apocalyptic wasteland online experience. I'd miss the stealing/lockpicking/backstabbing factor of FO:R, though. But it may be worth it for the first/third-person experience that FAllen Earth provides.

The thing I like the most about the game is the atmosphere. It's got that post-apocalyptic feeling to it, even if it's a bit weak. Sure it's got hostility, but it feels like you're entering the game during the last few years of "lawless, dangerous wasteland" as a majority of the people seem to be living fairly comfortably. Plus there's the endless hordes of enemies that is typical to a quest-grinding MMO (which Fallen Earth is). However, the atmosphere, combined with the fun combat, vehicles (most of which you can shoot from, including horses and vehicles with weapons mounted on them). I'll just ago ahead and quote a post I made on OnRPG that sumps up how I feel about the game pretty well.

"It's a pretty decent game, at least so far. I mean, the gameplay itself seems fairly generic (Go out and do quest to level up). However, it doesn't feel like a boring generic grinder. I mean usually I get extremely pissed when the questing is just generic "Go out and collect X for me because you've never met me and have no reason to. Oh sure you'll get a subpar reward for risking your life, but that's it." But the setting of this game makes it feel like you're in a similar world as that in Fallout. And honestly, the level system is almost an exact copy of the original two Fallout games, which is extremely nice as it's not a generic cookie-cutter system.

The world has a lot of atmosphere to it. The only thing that could improve the game, at least for me, is if they released a completely open-PVP server where you could attack anyone at any time, where you dropped all your stuff when you die, and they added in stealing. Then if they took it a step further and added in pre-determined locations that clans could build bases to get access to expanded content (such as being able to craft the higher end gear or something), that could be attacked/sieged by others so a sort of player politics became part of the game, it would probably instantly become my go-to game. Until then (and I highly doubt it will ever happen, unfortunately :/) I'm just going to play it casually when I need my post-apocalyptic fix.

But really, this has the potential and the framework in place to become what Fallout Online Reloaded is, but in 3D, action-based combat and without infringing on any copyrights."

That's about it for now. I'll make a new post here in a few days, probably after I get my next review assignment. Oh! I might as well mention that I've been playing Hawken, MechWarrior Online, and Natural Selection 2 quite a bit the past week or so. I've been having a craving for mechs (as evident in my recent mecha anime binge...), and Natural Selection 2 was on sale for just $6 and came highly recommended by a few friends. All are great game and offer some fairly unique gameplay, which is something that I sorely need nowadays. Anyways, see ya and thanks for reading.