Changes at Gazillion, Makers of Marvel Heroes

Tags

EQ2, Marvel Heroes, potbs, Star Trek Online

CEO David Brevik of Gazillion is leaving the company, prompting much angst and worry among forum posters.    Brevik is represented somewhere in the game, apparently by a cow on the cow level, was very involved in many aspects of the game among its small team, and was previously the head of Blizzard North.    Seems this guy is the real deal.   Good luck to him and hopefully greener pastures in the future (see what I did there?  I amuse myself).

I am also amused at the posters angst, worrying about games being shut down.   Some of these guys must be 20 years old and playing their first games.   But….. That did start me thinking.   What MMO’s have I played that are still around, and which ones are gone ?

Vanguard – Closed during Summer 2014, I remember promising myself I would resubscribe just to be around when the servers went dark.   I’ve never had that experience.   Of course, I forgot all about it after returning from summer vacation, and the game is now closed.

A quick Google search reveals……. something I don’t understand, a Steam community page for the game.   A search of the Steam Store does not reveal this title, so maybe it was up for a short time and then closed.   I was years out of playing the game, though, once it had closed.

Pirates of the Burning Sea – Closed down at the end of 2012 apparently.   I attempted to get it running again via the SOE launcher at some point and was unsuccessful, nor did I find it in existence via Google Search.    Seems I was misled – the game is in fact still running.    It would be fun to reinstall this one, the visuals always were awesome and the ship combat fun and balanced.   The economic portions of the game were awful.

I wasn’t the only one saying the economy sucked.   They apparently revamped it during 2014.    But my original characters seem to be GONE !

Everquest – My first MMO is still going strong, with no end in sight, despite the many changes over the years.    But I have no desire to go back, it was always too hard core and too social for a hermit like myself.

Everquest 2 – Still going, the MMO I’ve probably invested the most in and which you can read far too much about (it’s past) on this blog.    I’ve tried to jump back in, but when I did, most of my gear was not able to transition with me in free-to-play, and I had to go through a huge song-and-dance to get my account re-enabled after billing issues.

Not playing, because no more monthly subscriptions for me.   And Free-to-play doesn’t really work if I can’t continue with my main character.

Champions Online, and Star Trek Online, are available via Arc Games.    I really thought Champions was gone for good, but it seems to have gotten a new lease on life.   The more recent Mechwarrior Online is still running, although I didn’t enjoy the game very much.    I’m sure I needn’t mention the various Armored games I’ve played in the last couple of years.

The Secret World is an interesting parallel – it’s still available.    Shortly after its release the CEO left the company, but the game has lived on.   Perhaps that’s all that needs to be said about losing All-Father Brevik.

Old MMO’s rarely die, as evidenced by both this list and any reading of TAGN‘s blog, but people hyperventilate that such things will happen.

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Incorrect user ID or Password

Tags

Star Trek Online, war-worlds

Every time I sat down last week to post……. I had forgotten my password.    Argh.     I have them all recorded, because I never remember any of them anymore, but they weren’t available when I was trying to post.    The perils of modern computing.   Maybe I should just change them all to “password” and stop worrying about it.

Today War Worlds is down with the server reporting a “500” error, which is remarkably nonspecific.     Nevertheless, I have continued to progress in the game with a population now of 7.5 million.     My total ship count is over 60 million, further solidifying my defensive status.

No change in positions, just numbers. Gargron is closing in on passing Spinward.

The “Boxing in” project continues and is absolutely a massive undertaking.     After all this time, I still haven’t drawn out the outline of the box corner in the south-west.     It’s progressing, at least, and I’m also moving forward with filling it in on the north side.     I also started expanding to the east, and should hit the AFK power Mighty Vodkarians in a week or so.

Howdy Vodkarians!

I also discovered power McDon as I expanded.     He did not return a private message, as usual, so I assume he is AFK.    McDon is probably safe from getting conquered, since the last thing I want to do at the moment is mess up my box corner.

A 23 star empire apparently AFK.

Star Trek Online is a very different experience than back in the day.     I have reached level 40 and could easily hit 50 in a week or so.     The Story missions are fun, up until I got to Minefield.    I can’t complete this stupid mission no matter how hard I try, and it’s because the Romulans don’t fight fair.   They’re using a weapon that allows them to damage my hull, despite my having full shields up.     Maybe with my new ship, it will work.     I am close to having 100 duty officers, and the next question is how many I want to keep, or if it’s time to actually spend money and increase the limit to 200.     I keep  trying and trying, but I never seem to get the duty officer mission for the Caitans.    And I have many of the duty officer mission chains started, but only the gamer one is close to being completed – I just need #4.

The Best Card Game set in Space

Tags

Star Trek Online

Continuing my exploration of duty officers in Star Trek Online.

Point the First : The in-game systems claims you will get additional duty officers at level 18.    That didn’t happen for me – the quest should pop up and be automatically accepted and it wasn’t.    Attempting to hail Lieutenant Ferra was not successful either.     This was disappointing, but so be it.

Point the Second : I reached the first commendation level for Development type duty officer missions.     One of the rewards is supposed to be a “Green-quality duty officer” you get to select.     If I have the ability to select it, I have no idea how.    Sounds like, again, another bug.    Am I not going to get ANY duty officers by progressing the commendation system ?

Remind me again, how that is supposed to convince me to pay money for this stuff ?

I feel the pull of buying duty officer packs, but not if the *only* method I have to acquire them is with real money.

Those were the bad news points.    The good news :

Point the Third : I found out I can get free duty officers.     The cooldown is something like 72 hours, but there are three officers standing around on Starfleet Academy who will give you duty officer missions to get more duty officers.     Tellarian and Andorians are off to the north-west side of Lieutenant Ferra’s building – the round dome on the north of the map.    The Vulcan officer is standing near the south near a bridge.  You can also get more officers from a non-named human lieutenant behind Ferra.

Maybe these ones will make up for the ones I am supposed to get from other means.    Then again, they’re lower quality guys.

Point the Fourth : Isn’t this a Star Trek game ?    I played a foundry mission last night, as part of the constant quest to acquire more dilithium, known in the real world as currency, which of course I want in order to buy more duty officers.    The mission was highly rated and yet I couldn’t make myself that interested in it.    I wanted to know how my duty officer timers were going.    This dynamic still exists, especially with me having to delay the next main storyline mission due to excess difficulty.    So instead, I’m playing the card game.

Point the Fifth : It’s fun to log in quickly and repeatedly, to check your duty officer timers.    I can’t do it everywhere I am given that this is not Farmville (Browser based and no install), but I can log in no matter what’s going on at home, and in 10 minutes or so update the various missions.    This works especially well around Earth, as I can jump quickly between Spacedock, Starfleet academy, Earth orbit, and Sector space – and get slightly different duty officer missions each time.

And I am very close to Level 20 and a free Heavy Cruiser.

Duty Officers – 2014 edition

Tags

Star Trek Online

There are a lot of the “Card Game” style games available for video game play, but hands down my favorite is the Duty Officer system within Star Trek Online.    Especially because it makes sense in the context of the Star Trek Universe – it’s not all happening to the Captain !     There are all kinds of officers and others with their own challenges to overcome, on starships with hundreds of people, why not bring them into the game a little bit ?

I reached level 11 and unlocked the officers.    The gameplay with them starts here.

First Duty Officer screen

Here I am informed that I can have up to 100 duty officers, but I only get 20 at first.   I’ve assigned two of them to my ship, to boost combat abilities, where they give marginal improvements to your shields and phasers.    They probably help in other spots as well, but those are what I got from my draw.    You can also assign them on Ground duty (I didn’t bother), and otherwise they are available to work missions.

There are a whole series of commendations you can earn by completing the missions, and your progress on these is shown here.

I am also helpfully informed (By the Revenue Officers of Perfect World) that I can buy additional duty officers for “Zen” which is the RMT for this world.    1 zen = 1 penny.

Assignments

You can get the missions – called assignments in the game – either from the sector you are in, or from the “Personal” tab which I assume are just various things that come up on the ship.    The game will show you the ones that are completing soon at the top.

Managing your assignment

The success chance includes a few components which make it more fun.    Of course, you can succeed, or fail.    You can also have a critical success, which will grant more rewards or buffs or things of that nature, or disasters, where it costs you extra along some angle because your people screwed it up that bad.     This is on top of anything which might be consumed when accepting the mission such as various supplies, energy credits, etc.

Your duty officers all have various traits, such as Honorable, Logical, and Stubborn.    These modify the success chance depending on their appropriateness.    Stubborn can often be a negative modifier, while Logical can be a positive one.    But every trait might be the right one to have for a particular mission.    Some of them simply have a +5% modifier which affects success directly, no matter what else.

Rewards include experience and dilithium ore, which if I have it right, is one of the many premium currencies in the game.    There are more types of premium currency in this game than I’ve seen in any other – Gold Pressed Latinum, Dilithium, and Zens.    I don’t understand all of it.   The key point with the Duty Officers is that you earn dilithium ore which can be exchanged for Zens, so cheapskates can rejoice.     Also, the aforementioned commendation points, and energy credits.

As I rediscover the game, I am looking forward to building up a good deck of Duty Officers.   I get more at various level points, with 18 and 23 next I believe.     They are also for sale in the game exchange, but at 20k energy credits each, I might not be buying too many.

Returning to Star Trek Online

Tags

Star Trek Online

I noticed that Star Trek Online is now intergrated with Steam, and I thought to myself, why not check this out one more time ?

I spent some time futzing with the installation – it would have been nice to copy the old install to the Steam one and save downloading.     But I didn’t work very hard at it, and gave up quickly.    Got logged in after trying to figure out what my password was etc, and I got a strange message that I ignored.

The screen asked me if I wanted to link my Cryptic account.    Now, I don’t remember this game that well, and hadn’t realized that the new owners are not Cryptic.     So I clicked no, and then got a surprise when logging in.

So – where are they ?

As I try to decide what to do, I realize that I hardly remember the details of the game and I don’t have much of a connection to the old characters.   Screw it.    I’ll just start over again.    Reviewing my blog really reinforces that message – I apparently had two characters in their teens.   Nothing else stood out about them, but the game certainly is fun.

This is where MMO’s have gone, with the constant emphasis on new games and different worlds to play – the characters in this one just don’t matter at all to me.  It’s inevitable really – you can only remember so many things after all.   Perhaps it will be different a second time around.   So instead, I created a new character.

I have no idea what’s going on here, there’s so many options.

Playing the Tutorial with my new tactical officer Hammner, I had quite a blast.     They certainly have improved the missions – both that I did, feel like an episode of Star Trek.    The smart addition of a mission name in big bold letters certainly helps.    The voiceovers are nice but I kept wishing I could skip over them.    And it’s nice to not be fighting the Borg like they are just cardboard cutouts to bowl over – ship to ship makes it much more interesting.

Now to reach level 11 so I can take advantage of the fun with Duty Officers.

Financial Info 2012 – Jan, Feb, and March

Tags

EQ2, Secret World, Spending, Star Trek Online, World of Tanks

Because I think it will be interesting, I continue to track my personal gaming spending, or lack thereof.     I could have sworn I posted this once but I cannot find such a post.   You expect different from an accountant ?

In the old days, my unmarried irresponsible youth, I spent hundreds of dollars on computer games, as well as tons on hardware.    So far, 2012 has seen some remarkable austerity in game money spent.

1. Jan 2012 – $15 EQ2.
2. Feb 2012 – $15 EQ2.
3. Mar 2012 – Zero.

I’ve got plenty to spend, but not a lot of motivation.

I will probably be buying gold again in World of Tanks sometime in April.    Premium account is the only thing motivating me, but it’s a strange beast; a full month premium also induces the “Must extract maximum value” impulse which then turns me into a machine, and starts sucking the fun out of the game.    The one-day premium, when I know I’ll have a day to game, minimizes this impulse.   The trick is the full month of premium is a good value – 30 days for 2,500 versus one day for 250.

There is no reason to pay for Star Trek Online since I only log in occasionally and run my duty officers.    The Secret World is due out in June, and I’m simply not motivated to check out SWTOR.

Financially, a great time to game, soooooo many free options.

Month End Update

Tags

EQ2, Nightclub City, Star Trek Online, World of Tanks

End of month update.

Nightclub City : Continuing to expand the existing clubs, still playing, not a lot has changed since this post.   Never received a reply to my request for a refund on facebook credits.

Star Trek Online :   Still advancing a bit in this one.    Seems I log in long enough to work duty officers, then log off again.    And I’m missing some nights.     There’s no rush, the game is fantastic, and there’s no reason to pay money to them.

Support eventually got back to me and confirmed that Cryptics are not shared if they are rewards; cash-backed Cryptics are.    Thanks for giving me that at least.

Everquest 2 : After frantically reaching level 89, I began to work on clearing out the quests in Tez’s quest log.    After several nights of doing so, he’s at 49% towards 90 and holding.    The thing about doing pinked-out quests, is they award much more AA XP than regular.    Worked through a fun set of Barren Sky quests about missing fae and arasai brothers and sisters – ended up with a reward that lets me shape change into a Fae.    Keeping that one !

Currently working on a few things in Kylong Plains and logged out last night having started the “Fistful of Metal” quest.     Tlaloc is a level 85 provisioner and still moving up.

World of Tanks : Starting to rack up the games again, at over 6200 right now.    It’s a bit slower going without premium, but I have so many tanks all I need to really do is concentrate on getting daily doubles – and play extra matches when I’m doing well with any particular tank.    Have managed to bring a few elite tanks up over 100% of crew skills, and moved forward on eliting more tanks.

• My T29 is at 27k towards the big gun – the 105mm.    I need about 41k.
• A few more matches and I get the big derp gun for the KV.
• My Tiger now has the ugraded turret and guns, working towards upgraded engine.

Am looking forward to the 7.2 update which should come around the end of March.   Crew skill options sound like a lot of fun.    Should open up the play for my MS-1 once again !      There is currently a sale on heavy tanks, but I’m not going to buy anything this time due to both lack of credits and a surfeit of tanks in my garage.    And finally, the World of Tanks Assistant, aka Android app, is now available.     If you’ll excuse me, time to download it and get a good look at it.

Edit :

Forgot one extra metric I’ve decided to track – just how much (or how little) am I blowing on games each month ?     February is just the $15 fee for EQ2.    That fits with where I want to be – low cost entertainment !

Game Support – Good and Bad

Tags

EQ2, Star Trek Online

I’m following the controversy over the ProSiebeinSat.1 deal.    No, gentle reader, this is not the name of the latest virus, but the company which SOE is apparently selling all European operations to – and that means *you*, if you play on a European server.   Eq2wire has the best coverage.

All I can see is a community united in opposition to this deal.    When I say united, I mean 100%.    No players want to see this go through.   Clearly it’s a very bad idea then, even if I’m ambivalent as a lone-wolf style EQ2 player.

I mean – they banned Feldon.    He runs a massively important fansite for EQ2.    And they banned him for pretty mild language.   Somebody is screwing up big time.

But this did not keep me from logging in and moving forward.   Tez has gotten to 70% XP towards 89, and continues through the Stonebrunt mountains.    Trying to work the heritage quest “Digging in the Dirt” among others.    I am definitely not playing like I used to – I really did approach this game more like a job in past years.

What was I thinking ?    Now I can simply relax and enjoy myself.    Getting a bit tired or bored ?   Log off !   Don’t worry about falling behind, just have fun !    World of Tanks and STO continue to get some playtime even if there’s not much to write.     And that’s the way it should be – concentrate on enjoying yourself.

But if you think SOE support is bad – try Perfect World.   Sony is communicating about the ProSieben debacle at least; they hear the complaints and cancellations; the result isn’t necessarily good, but the communication is Excellent.   Then there’s Perfect World.    I submitted a ticket a full *TWO WEEKS AGO*.   My ticket is still open; no response, no information, nothing has been added to it.    Someone is looking at it however – they keep clicking some “updated” box.

What the hell is that supposed to mean ?   They’ve posted no response.    I probably got the solution from Bhagpuss posting on my blog; all I asked was for someone to confirm it.

When Oracle Application support starts looking more responsive then your game, you have epic-level-bad support.

Weekend Anticipation

Tags

EQ2, Star Trek Online, World of Tanks

Some interesting options for gaming this weekend.

World of Tanks is offering a free day of premium account access as a Valentine’s Week special.   Enter the code FREEHUGS to redeem – isn’t that cute ?        This will give a 24 hour period of 50% more XP and credits for each fight, so I am sure I will take advantage of it.     I am very close to unlocking the T-50-2, for instance.

And, available NOW until end-of-day Monday is an EQ2 Double XP weekend bonus, with a twist ; apparently you can get a rebate of at least half of your Station Cash back after purchasing an item.     This sounds like the typical “Let’s confuse the accountants” type thing where revenues are spiked up (Sales of items) but costs are suddenly increased (Rebates), but they only look at !! Revenue !   Up !.    Good for me at least, I cannot check right now, but I’m hopeful expansions are up for rebates.

Good timing as far as I am concerned; I would very much like to achieve a maximum level 90 character, but I’m not motivated at the moment.   Double XP, that’s a motivatation.

And Cryptic customer service is pretty non existant.   They still haven’t told me about Cryptic points and whether they work for both games, but I am thinking the answer is only for points purchased with dollars.   In which case my 800 cryptics earned for “loyalty” when playing Champions are not available in STO.    Good luck getting my money with this kind of service though.

Not much to report regarding my own (lack of) gaming during this week.

Newbie levels finished

Tags

Star Trek Online

Hammer the Tactician has dinged 20.   This makes him a commander, upgrades his ship, and allows me to get a better clue about the game once again.    Turns out, you get six slots for ships, which should be plenty to see me to level 50.    I think I also continue to get free ships – or I can buy others with dilithium, it’s up to me.

I’m doing some fun storyline missions.   I’ve even met McCoy of all people, after traveling back in time on the Drozana station, and the character did not disappoint.     Wish I’d taken a screenshot, but oh well.

This leads me to realize I’m spending significant time with this game, and I’d better make sure my account is in good status.   (Never mind that there appears to be nothing I have to buy)   But it seems like something is wrong – why does my account, show 800 cryptics when viewed through Champions Online, but zero cryptics with STO ?    So I submitted a ticket over the weekend.

Either the Cryptics are shared between games, or they are specific to one.    Specific currency would be extremely weird, but I suppose it’s their game and their rules.    My google-fu is not advanced enough to turn up an answer to this question so I’m waiting for them.   And waiting.   Two full days have passed with no response.    Certainly not the kind of thing that makes me feel good giving them my credit card number.