ESO Crafting

This seems promising to me. However, I'm disconcerted on the lack of comment about whether upper tier gear will be craftable and, if so, what components will be used. The strong trend towards upper tier craftable items requiring raid components to make (looking at you SWTOR) has really put a nail in the lid of the coffin of many MMO's for me. I've always loved crafting, but the crafter as a second class citizen within game has always been deeply disturbing to me.

I think perhaps it's a problem of perception. It's true, many players don't bother with crafting, or if they do it's such a limited facet of their gameplay as to be statistically insignificant. But I think tying it to raiding/hardmore instances is pretty much the opposite of what should be happening. My kinship in lotro was originally crafting oriented (at launch when crafted items were worthwhile), and while it has since gotten away from the crafting focus, many members still craft items for one another. It's an essential social interaction, one that is often very useful in game as the playerbase, and our kinship, is composed of adults, many of us with time consuming jobs and families, and we don't have a lot of time to run an instance thirty times to collect whatever hides to make a cloak that we'll use for few months at best.

Perception. Is crafting perceived as for casuals? Or is it perceived as a boring element of the game that many players don't want to mess with? Or as a time sink with little reward? Are some combination therein, depending on the game you're talking about?

Personally, I would strongly argue that it should be a parallel means of gear progression that should be comparable to other avenues. Who deserves a top tier piece of gear more? The player who put in one hundred hours raiding? What about the player that put in equitable time gathering resources and crafting? Both players sunk ink significant amounts of time and effort into a game they enjoyed, a game they're paying to play. So why should one inherently have a lesser experience, one which from the outset the player knows will have significantly less reward?

Crafting as Expression

One of the most intriguing aspects of the video is the level of customization going into each item, including type, material, style, and traits with which to imbue each item. This is the singular element which all MMO crafting has lacked as of late. Though I never played Star Wars Galaxies, it's crafting legacy has certainly lived on in terms of dashed expectations with each successive themepark release. Crafting in every MMO on the market today (that I've played) is shallow and pointless at best, a resource sink/raiding side game/indulgence at worst. 

Developers have a keen sense of trying to make certain elements in their games memorable. Boss mechanics, progression raids, storyline, pvp (be it arena or persistent), heck, even character [aesthetic] customization is broadly expanding in many games. (Though none can touch lotro's cosmetic system, in my humble opinion.) But crafting has consistently been the red headed step child that no single developer has known quite what to do with.

Well, frankly, I think I have the ignored answer. The answer devs probably don't want to hear because it's probably not cost effective nor the popular opinion put forth by the more vocal playerbase. Crafting should be an expressive avenue of game play completely equal to Raiding, pvp, etc as an endgame goal. It should be based upon resource gathering, exploration, and yes, time. Not time spent waiting in a queue, or time wiping on a boss, but rather time finding and gathering those resources, time crafting them into components, and then time making them into items, improving those items, adding effects/enchantments onto those items, etc. 

SWTOR, by making crafting something passive that happened in the background, may have enabled many to craft, but they completely alienated a segment of the population - actual crafters. The people who want to make gear, who want to explore, and want to sit down in a crafting center, socialize with other crafters, trade resources in person, take commissions, etc, were completely robbed of that experience. Crafting in that game is a) irrelevant if you don't run instances/raids, as most crafted items of worth require such resources and b) completely impersonal and detached. Which is great if you hate crafting I guess. But some of us would like a crafting system made for crafters, not a crafting system made for fourteen year olds. 

Summary (End Rambling)

I'd honestly hate to get my hopes up that this crafting system will have depth and character. I'd hate to think I might be able to go into end game content with crafted gear without being mocked as a newb. I'd hate to think that maybe, just maybe this is a crafting system for crafters, intent on creating a rich and diverse in game economy and sub play experience, a social hub, and an avenue of progression. Because when I think that, I know I might just be disappointed. I know that I probably won't receive any of those things. 

But boy do I want to believe.

Why yes...

...that is a decapitated orc head on a pike mounted to my saddle, thanks for asking! I hope you don't mind the flies buzzing around it as it decays...

The Argonath

Because if you don't know, you've lost all nerd cred.

Single Sector Map - The Territory Solution

A Fractured Galaxy

There's been talk for some time now of combining sector space into one large instance so that space feels more open and less restrictive, and that the game has fewer load screens. However, this hasn't happened yet for a few reasons, which are understandable.

1. Lack of Time/Low Development Priority - Given the recent transfer of ownership to Perfect World Entertainment, this one is simply an unavoidable business problem that can't be resolved.
2. Hardware Limitations - Each sector space instance requires a certain amount of server capacity/processing power, etc. The larger you make the instance, the more processing power is required. If you combine the entire sector space map, that's a much larger chunk of game space that has to be rendered all at once. Combine this with the increased number of players being rendered, and all of a sudden you have a nightmare. You would have fewer, larger maps, but more instances of said maps to accommodate all the players.
3. Gaps in Sector Space - In the map below, notice the gaps between existing sectors. The gaps are there because that portion of sector space/those systems haven't been added yet. Until those systems and sectors are added to the game, it's impossible to have a one instance sector space map.

I can't fix problem number one, but I do have a proposed solution that will solve some of the aforementioned problems.

The Territory Solution

I propose that Cryptic combine sectors that make up each faction's holdings. As shown below in the red outlined sections, this would reduce the overall number of loading screens, increase the distance you can travel in sector space without transwarping, but avoid some of the above problems. 

• There would be less concern over instancing. Each Territory would require less processing power to maintain, and allow for a larger number of players on the map at once, preventing 'empty galaxy syndrome' that you might have with one large map.
• Missing sectors? No problem. You just attach them to the appropriate faction territory when added. You'll still be loading between different factions territories anyway, so the gap between Sirius sector block and Bet Ursae isn't an issue. 
• If you add in the sectors between Sirius and Cardassian space (which will happen eventually, since Betazed falls into that area of the galaxy), they become seamless with Federation Territories. NOTE: You'll still have a loading screen between Federation Territory and Cardassian Territory. This won't change, ever. This will go a long way towards improving performance server side. 
• With respect to sectors that don't belong to a major faction, they would be their own instance. For example, Orellius isn't part of the Federation, so they would be their own instance with a loading screen, etc. The same would apply for Gamma Orionis as long as the borg control it, any future Ferengi holdings, Tholian holdings, etc. If it doesn't fall into one of the major factions, it would be a separate instance entirely. I simply haven't marked it on the map to make my point regarding major political boundaries.

Below I have a few pictures with my dumpy outlining job showing what I have in mind, with captions providing short descriptions.

The easiest solution in the short time, maintaining the very square sector blocks and not stepping on any sectors toes It would be a quick and clean solution in the short term.

The more logical solution, which respects major factions boundaries, including the Klingon and Romulan Neutral Zones. Of course, they would have to give up square sectors for this, but it would please the playerbase to a much greater extent.

And lastly, the logical conclusion of explored space with respect to major faction territories.

I do think its worth pointing out that this could allow for the introduction of true Neutral Zones, as hastily sketched in the above photo. Within these Neutral Zones you could have persistent PvP. Deep Space Contacts? None. Instead, you could hunt down enemy ships as they pass through the zone. Any battles would then show as a Deep Space Encounter style conflict that would then be joinable by passing ships. Rules for these types of encounters would be a subject unto themselves. There could be disputed planets/starbases/dilithium mines within these zones wherein each faction can flip control of said points under the right conditions. Just throwing out how obvious this solution is, if technically daunting.

Lotro's New and Improved Full Score

Just as music makes or breaks the movie, so it makes or breaks the game. For the most recent Lord of the Rings Online expansion Riders of Rohan Turbine has brought back Chance Thomas, the composer of the original music for Shadows of Angmar and the Mines of Moria expansion. That his music has been absent from the last two major updates has been disappointing. But, here he is again, and we have a preview of his work for the expansion below.






It should be noted that each track has a description by Chance on YouTube. I don't want to copy paste all three here, but I do want to take a selection of his description of the last song, and encourage all to read the descriptions he posted of the pieces above, particularly "Shadow of the Argonath." Knowing how he constructed the themes, and what each theme represents, add immensely to the experience.


From Chance Thomas,

"This track was composed to underscore the Boromir game instance, with players taking on the role of Boromir as he battles hordes of Uruk Hai in a desperate attempt to save Merry and Pippin.

Boromir has his fatal flaw, as we all know. But this piece is not about that. This music is about Boromir at his most noble, determined and powerful. Big drums, epic choir, robust cadences and powerful statements in the brass all contribute to the feeling of strength and unwavering.

After the choir sings, the Gondor theme makes its final appearance in this expansion. It is a resigned and somewhat naked version (meaning the arrangement thins out considerably) to underscore the utter aloneness of this great warrior-steward in his final mêlée. It repeats with a bit of forlorn (trumpets and high strings) before giving out to the brutal force of ragged low brass as the battle rages to its infamous conclusion.

You may be interested to know what the choir is singing. The lyrics are in Old English, translated for me by Turbine's lore master Chris Pierson and his muse for all things Anglo-Saxon, professor Michael Drout of Wheaton College. The choir sings: Arë! Thrymnes! Fréot! Maegen! The translation is: Glory! Honor! Freedom! Power! These are virtues upon which Gondor was built and to which Boromir clings until his last breath."

I think the knowledge of the lore, and the depth of thought that went into the thematic development and musical imagery is pretty brilliant. Definitely looking forward to his music setting the mood going forward.

But Where Have All My Fighters Gone!?

I know. You're impressed by my image editing skills. 

My mad skillz aside, I've recently taken to playing the new Federation Heavy Escort Carrier the Armitage Class in Star Trek Online. It's tankier than most escorts, has a hanger bay, yet still packs a good deal of fire power. All-in-all a pretty tough ship, and one of my favorite ships thus far in the game. It's just fun to fly.

All that said, there is one UI element that I feel carriers are missing - a fighter status display. Once you launch six cute little Peregrine Fighters, there's no way to track whether they're still zipping around the battlefrield adding to your DPS or exploding in a fiery ball of death into the vacuum of space. Well, no way other than to constantly survey the battlefield and see if you count six Peregrines nearby. Which is nigh impossible in any battle situation, and made even worse when you have two or even three carriers in the thick of it. 

I would love to see a little UI element added to carriers when you launch fighters that displays a symbol of some sort for each fighter launched, preferably indicating their shield and health status. Something simple would be sufficient. A rectangle with the wire frame of six Peregrines, for instance. The wire frames start out darkened, similar to skills on my skill bar that can't currently be used. When you launch fighters, the images light up, and have a small green bar beneath it indicating health of the fighters' hull. When the fighter gets popped, its wire frame goes dark. A shield indicator of some sort might be nice as well, but I realize at this point I might be asking for the moon.

I know that given the nature of UI, programming, etc, none of this may be feasible. But it's one small quality of life change that would make a big difference for me and, I'm sure, many other carrier pilots.