Wildstar: Catch All

http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/ne...

changes taking place through beta

So, what is this change? Well, it comprises two major shifts in design:

We are going to remove numerical quest objectives from the game (i.e. "Kill X Vinds" and "Collect X Sentient Veggies") and instead introduce a "quest completion bar." For kill quests, this bar will increment the player’s quest progress in relation to the amount of XP earned. For other quests, this bar will simply increment in set amounts for each completed interaction. This helps improve the system in the following ways:
By basing quest completion off XP gains, players can now choose to go after larger targets or smaller targets and earn quest progress appropriate for those choices. While killing harder things is slower, you will earn more quest progress for it. Those who prefer to fight easy things will kill faster, but progress more slowly for it.
This approach also helps groups stay on target for leveling progression. Even though groups will destroy creatures much faster, they will need to kill more in order for each player to earn the credit needed to complete the quest objective.
By making this change, we have the opportunity to remove mob tagging, with regards to XP, from the game. XP gained per mob death will generally be based on the amount of damage a player contributes to that kill. This will still encourage players to group (where they would get full XP credit for the kill rather than a percentage), but also encourages players to help out a passerby in the open world in order to receive a comparable XP reward.

very weird sub model and definitely getting pushed to 2014.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/08...

Well the sub model sounds similar to what TERA did when it was still sub. You could buy a scroll that gave a month of subscription, and then sell it in game for gold. I bought a couple months of subscription for gold that way.

As far as the push back, I kinda expected this, considering the changes they were making. Sounds like they still aren't happy with the traits system, and the crafting system sounds like it will be getting dumbed down. Guess too many people couldn't figure out what stats they needed for their character.

Recently I've been wanting to get into MMOs so this was the one I was most looking forward to from the games that come out relatively soon but they lost me completely with this one. The other one being EQN but I doubt we'll see that one before the end of 2014.

I'm not into MMOs because so much of the early-mid game is tedious and boring with not very fun combat, lack of feedback, etc. This still has that but I was more looking forward to exploration and healing with skill shots and more dynamic team fights. Still, I was willing to give it a proper chance. But by putting a 60E paywall in front of me + regular payments makes me think twice about this. Not only the game is unproven as a whole, but twice that for me who isn't that big of an MMO fan in the first place and only looking to get into them again. I can't afford to play every day so by the time I reach the so-called endgame (which we don't know if it will be good) I'll have to suffer through a month or two of what would most likely be some form of generic fetch-quests. And I'm certain I won't be able to reach the point where I could just pay the monthly fee with in-game currency.
I was expecting a f2p model with a wide variety of in-game cosmetic items for your character (and character is a big focus in this game as a whole) and your house (another huge topic/sell) and thought this would be the best way to go about the business model. Maybe add a one-time payment, like GW2 to it.

All my gaming in the last few months has been done in Path of Exile and a little DOTA 2, so why would I take such a huge risk with my money and time for something completely new? I am stuck with at least 60E in, and that's the best case scenario. Sure, I can get a guest pass but ignoring all that - it doesn't make sense for me personally to get aboard with this game.

I know a lot of people actually want subscriptions but from the posts I've read, the majority seems like a loud elitist group of people. That said, I do see the pros and cons of both F2P and Sub-based, but I firmly believe that you can make an MMO that is f2p and sustain yourself on purely cosmetic in-game shops. Just my opinion.

liquid wrote:

Recently I've been wanting to get into MMOs so this was the one I was most looking forward to from the games that come out relatively soon but they lost me completely with this one. The other one being EQN but I doubt we'll see that one before the end of 2014.

I'm not into MMOs because so much of the early-mid game is tedious and boring with not very fun combat, lack of feedback, etc. This still has that but I was more looking forward to exploration and healing with skill shots and more dynamic team fights. Still, I was willing to give it a proper chance. But by putting a 60E paywall in front of me + regular payments makes me think twice about this. Not only the game is unproven as a whole, but twice that for me who isn't that big of an MMO fan in the first place and only looking to get into them again. I can't afford to play every day so by the time I reach the so-called endgame (which we don't know if it will be good) I'll have to suffer through a month or two of what would most likely be some form of generic fetch-quests. And I'm certain I won't be able to reach the point where I could just pay the monthly fee with in-game currency.
I was expecting a f2p model with a wide variety of in-game cosmetic items for your character (and character is a big focus in this game as a whole) and your house (another huge topic/sell) and thought this would be the best way to go about the business model. Maybe add a one-time payment, like GW2 to it.

All my gaming in the last few months has been done in Path of Exile and a little DOTA 2, so why would I take such a huge risk with my money and time for something completely new? I am stuck with at least 60E in, and that's the best case scenario. Sure, I can get a guest pass but ignoring all that - it doesn't make sense for me personally to get aboard with this game.

I know a lot of people actually want subscriptions but from the posts I've read, the majority seems like a loud elitist group of people. That said, I do see the pros and cons of both F2P and Sub-based, but I firmly believe that you can make an MMO that is f2p and sustain yourself
on purely cosmetic in-game shops. Just my opinion.

Well EQ Next will be F2P.

Still not sure why folks expect every game these days to be F2P. From a business stand point most development shops arent structured that way. I'm not a fan of F2P systems because most of them just dont seem to work. My original complaint was that none that were orginally being developed as F2P were done so with any sense of 'good' and just being cash grabs, but thats no longer the case these days. Still in case of EQN they've have had proven, working F2P models. It's easy for them do all their games that way. These smaller shops dont have that luxury.

As for this game it's essentially like any other sub model with the added bonus (or detriment... will be interested to see how that plays out) of also buying in game currency.

I don't mind the sub. $15 dollars a month is much less than most entertainment nowadays. Plus many people end up spending more on FTP games than they would on a sub game. Though in the end, all I really care about is how much fun the game is.

I signed up for Beta to take a peek.

Look at abilities:

Man, I love the humor in those videos hehe

ya the disclaimer bits make me giggle every time...

A bit catoonish for me, but I have a beta application in. I love comedy and am hoping some of these videos imply how the mood is set in-game.

GoldenDog wrote:

A bit catoonish for me, but I have a beta application in. I love comedy and am hoping some of these videos imply how the mood is set in-game.

I've not posted about it yet, but they're streaming their new build this Saturday in preparation of the Dec beta run.

Any game where you can play a psychotic squirl is worth trying for at least a month.

Garrcia wrote:

Any game where you can play a psychotic squirl is worth trying for at least a month.

And also... hoverboards!

Twitch has live streams of about an hour in length of both the esper and warrior. The esper looks really cool.

I can't believe this game isn't out already. It seems like they are screwing themselves by over iterating (a la Diablo 3)

Is the esper going to give nightmares to robotic enemies too?

I'll probably try this for a while, at least until I get bored of the character animations.
Cartoonish? Hmm, when I was a kid, when I wanted to be a smartass I'd do it in the voice and using the lines of Looney Tunes characters. The more inside a cartoon I get to be, the more money I will give. Also, Daffy Duck > Bugs Bunny.

fangblackbone wrote:

Twitch has live streams of about an hour in length of both the esper and warrior. The esper looks really cool.

I can't believe this game isn't out already. It seems like they are screwing themselves by over iterating (a la Diablo 3)

Not the same. Blizzard did D3 pretty much in a vacuum the changes made here are in response to alpha/beta testing. Which is the whole point of testing.

Looks like the last 2 classes are the Medic and the Engineer. From the Wildstar flik it looks like the engineer will be pet class.

The Medic page:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/the-game/classes/medic.php

The medic looks fantastic. I can't wait for the live stream. (or recording of it)

Though the live streams are a week behind due to Thanksgiving. Well, unless they do both stalker and medic this weekend.

Just watched the Medic live stream. Looks like the Medic will be running all over the place as a healer. Cant imagine trying to heal in a pug, where people are normally trying to do their own thing.

Love the feel of the medic class. It definitely should not be called the medic. And it looks like the designer will have to spend more time on the healing aspects of the class. The healing looks like it will be difficult in this game. (and not just in the fact that its not a healbot game) But the spellslinger and esper look more manageable than the medic when it comes to healing.

Even if they make the heals more effective, the short range is going to kill the enthusiasm to heal in such a movement based game. Yes I get the fact that you can lay down fields ahead of your ally. (I did it very effectively with the engineer in Global Agenda) But if the target can only stay for a tick or two before having to avoid a boss telegraph, you are asking for frustration.

Maybe if they had an ability that used a tethering mechanic...

The medic will prolly be much easier to heal with, if you have a warrior tank instead of the engineer they were using. A warrior is more likely to be able to stay in the healing fields for longer. Will be interesting to see how the engineer works. In the video it didn't look like the tank engineer was using any bots, hope that doesn't mean that your pets die too fast in dungeons.

In the video it didn't look like the tank engineer was using any bots, hope that doesn't mean that your pets die too fast in dungeons.

I totally agree. I will add that the bot was an effective pest in pvp.

The new dev speak for the engineer is up. Looks pretty cool. They are doing a good job with the classes. I believe at first that I really wanted to play an esper. Then I saw some footage and the dev speak detailing the differences between the esper and the spellslinger and I really wanted to play that class first. Many months later they reveal the medic and there are some thing about that class that look so awesome that I was migrating towards that class. And now, the engineer is finally out and I am totally impressed. I don;t know how you cannot want to play that class as it has everything: heals, heavy armor with a power armor buff, versatile pets and ranged attacks. (i.e. not only is it a tank/mage but it is a tank/mage with pets and heals!)

I will have you note that I finally bit the bullet and signed up for beta a few days ago. I will be getting this at launch as it looks like they've really refined the GW2 style combat and added interesting twists.

Their problem is that with such similarity in combat to GW2, I won't be paying a sub for Wildstar. Sorry but there is just to much good stuff out there competing with it that is free. GW2, Tera, TSW... It is like that quote from Moneyball where they say they can't replace Giambi with another Giambi but they can replace a Giambi through 3 other players. None of those three games is completely similar or will fill the niche Wildstar provides completely. But you will find a healthy portion of the same fun in each of those three games.

Looks somewhat interesting, but not monthly sub interesting. The art style is very WOW-like, which is a turn off to me. It's not bad, but I have seen enough of that style to last a life time. But they have an Engineer class, which I am instinctively drawn to in any game. Will likely give it a go when it changes to F2P.

I got a Beta invite last night and along with it are 2 friend codes. If anybody wants one just let me know!

Senkrad wrote:

I got a Beta invite last night and along with it are 2 friend codes. If anybody wants one just let me know!

I would love a code!