What is The MMOrgue?

I am not an industry professional, but I play one on the internet.
– I have been playing and testing MMOs since 1997.
– Since that time, I have participated in over 30 closed and open betas, and subscribed to more than 20 different MMOs.
– Besides just playing the game, I also take an active role in the community whenever possible. Have also worked as a volunteer CSR on three different active MMOs.
– I have been every genre stereotype, from Trollish Griefer, to No-Nonsense Raid Leader, to Friendly Roleplayer, to Casual Part-timer. I have a good understanding of what motivates different portions of the MMO playerbase.
– As a co-host of a successful MMO-focused podcast (STOked), I have gained a significant amount of insight into the development process of MMOs, as well as numerous industry contacts.
Every story covered on this show will have an angle that addresses the industry in its entirity.
* How a certain feature/attitude (from players and/or developers) will impact the future evolution of the industry.
* What a game’s success or failure indicates about the current state of the industry.

* How lessons of the past are being learned from, or ignored.
WILLS and WILL NOTS:
* WILL:
– Focus on innovation and evolution within the MMO market
– Occasionally include developer interviews and commentary, whenever appropriate
– Maintain a focus on how certain game mechanics or developer attitudes impact their communities.
– Contain exclusively editorial content. Although news and announcements will be shared, they are only here to drive the opinions portrayed.
* WILL NOT:
– Cover every feature announcement and press release for every game in development
– Make a habit of dwelling on the minutiae of game mechnics, except where a thorough explanation becomes necessary in order to explain the larger impact of an innovation
– Play favoritism towards any particular developer or sub-genre.

That last point leads me to my next topic…
ArenaNet

I won’t mince words, I’m a HUGE fan. But, you should be, too. Let me tell you why…

Guild Wars 2: Why You Should Care

There is a video floating around the internet, made by ArenaNet. They call it their MMO manifesto, and within this short video they outline a number of reasons that their next product – Guild Wars 2 – is going to revolutionize the way that MMOs are perceived, and played.

RETHINK EVERYTHING: INNOVATION GALORE
“ArenaNet was founded to innovate.” – Mike O’Brien, President
– Awesome.
– But change for change’s sake is dangerous:
* Auto Assault, Fallen Earth, PlanetSide, even EVE to a certain extent.
* While many people want something new, MILLIONS still play only what is recognizable and easy to understand.
— (RIFT’s similarity to WoW has bred success, while still offering something new)
* ArenaNet is being changed in deliberate ways, to drive community interaction and gameplay immersion. Every innovation is being thoroughly examined for impact.

BE THE HERO: A PERSONAL STORYLINE
– From the moment of character creation, you have a personal story.
* WHO you are, not WHAT you are.
* Branching objectives, evolving story.
* Replayability for alts is incredibly high.
— Social aspects of shared knowledge may suffer.
— Lack of uniform player experiences may cause a rift among players that have grown accustomed to being able to share the same game experience with their friends/guildmates. (Look at sites like WoWHead as an example)

EXPERIENCE A LIVING WORLD: DYNAMIC EVENTS (NO QUESTS)
– Completely removed traditional questing, replaced with Dynamic Event Chains
* You will never be asked to kill 10 wolves, or collect 5 rare flowers.
* You will notice something in the distance, get closer and examine the situation, then choose whether or not to be involved.
— With this change, Exploration has become the POINT of the game, and not an extra pass-time or something that just happens along the way.
* Dynamic Events will have branching objectives – won’t always end the same.
* Scaling AI smart enough to adapt to all different types of involvement, not just population levels.

MAKE A FRIEND: SOCIAL INNOVATIONS
– Concept of the “golden triad” of classes has been eliminated.
* Every class can tank, heal, dps, control. Roles switch based on weaponsets and ability choices.- Automatic sidekicking, driven by environment instead of group mechanics
* No high-level griefers in low-level areas.
* No scaling issues with dynamic events.
* Allows high-level characters to seamlessly enjoy low level content if they choose to.
– Social mini-games in non-combat areas.
* Scorekeeping and leaderboards to encourage friendly competition.
– Mobile apps to keep you connected when not in-game.
* THIS IS HUGE, and an absolute NECESSITY for the next generation of MMOs.
WATCH THE ACTION: ACTIVE COMBAT SYSTEM
– Simplified hotbars, 10 buttons max.
– Cooldowns frequently controlled by fatigue system, which also ties to movement.
* Combat is balanced so that spamming a move is possible, but not recommended. If you use your Fatigue too quickly then you can’t move/dodge and will take more damage. Meaning that standing in place and swinging repeatedly is a recipe for failure.

– Heavy emphasis on movement and positioning.
– Power interactions and environmental effects (fire + arrows)
– Line of sight and collision mechanics

POSTSCRIPT: MMORTICIAN’s THOUGHTS
– If they deliver HALF of this HALF as well as they intend to, it will send ripples through the industry as player expectations will shift dramatically.
– The class system is likely going to undergo many, many tweaks during Beta. I find it unlikely that every class can truly tank, heal and DPS as well as every other, and some may shine in certain areas.
* It is the wont of MMO gamers to min/max in every scenario. If one class excels at a certain thing, then that IS THEIR ROLE, regardless of their ability to perform in other areas.
—————–

https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=188836

The concept of evolving storylines is not unique to Guild Wars 2. In fact, it is a cornerstone of one of the most highly-anticipated MMORPGs of the current world: SW:TOR

IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING: The “Fourth Pillar”
Progression, Exploration, Combat, and STORY
– Every class (16 total, so far) will have their own storyline, complete with branching objectives allowing for your individual choices to drive the content that you will experience.
* Each of these stories is said to be as large and fully-featured as a single game.
* Unlike a singleplayer game, there’s no Save/Reload to allow you to explore alternative choices. Experiencing something other than what you choose will require an alt character, or hearing about it second-hand from another player.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE: Companion Characters
– Companions have factored into every BioWare game. And are also a part of Star Wars (Chewbacca, R2D2, etc).
– Each companion will have their own stories and interests. Players can choose to help, or corrupt them. Companions may even turn on you in some outcomes.
– Companions also act as the crew of your ship, and assist you in crafting items and obtaining resources.

HEAR AND SPEAK: Voice acting
– More lines of voice-acted dialogue than every other BioWare game PUT TOGETHER
– Including YOUR character! Hooray for no more mute leaders.
– This level of voice acting simply cannot happen in any genre other than an MMO. Even in PC Gaming, developers are urged to keep resource usage low, and if they intend to sell a console port then it becomes an absolute NECESSITY to keep resources to a single disc.
* Look at Dragon Age II and the re-use of the same 20 maps over and over. This was done because of voice acting, and limited console resources.

* Since this type of feature can only effectively happen in an MMO, it is my opinion that ALL “Triple-A” class MMOs must strive to include it in the future. It can become a defining characteristic of a genre that frequently lacks a unified identity.
Bioware’s efforts on SWTOR are already catching the eye of prominent players in the MMO industry, including Mike Morhaime – CEO of Blizzard Entertainment. His published point of view is that a successful high budget title under the Star Wars IP can only mean good things for the population level of the MMO industry across-the-board.
While I agree, I doubt he’d be saying the same thing if Bioware was publishing a fantasy RPG that was in direct competition with World of Warcraft.

NEWS

DSthal comments on Guramba

• Happened while he was out sick

Commentary from DStahl on Mission Remastering
https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3269588#post3269588

• KDF missions will get remastered, too.
• Only 12% of players have active KDF toons.

“Decommissioned” Accolades // Mission Remastering
https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3262925#post3262925

• As a result of the upcoming remastering of missions (headed up by Gozer) some old accolades will no longer be accessible.
• One that has so far been confirmed, is the “SS Azura” (being replaced)

January’s Ask Cryptic
https://www.startrekonline.com/node/2237

• Craftable Refit Ship Costumes
• Season 4 will include the Fleet Action Queue system, allowing fleets to team up easier.
• Confirmed that the Foundry is being used by the Neverwinter team – likely a big reason the tech is getting so much attention.
• First Officer system may include an extra Universal Boff slot on your ship!
• Both the Captain’s Yacht (400-day reward) and Delta Flyer (omgomg) are coming soon.
• DSEs getting “replaced with something new” in Season 4.

MATH

Engines!

Standard engine variants come in three flavors:
Impulse — A standard engine, baseline
Hyper Impulse — Efficient at high energy (meaning when you are above about 60 engine power, you start gaining extra engine energy)
Combat Impulse — Efficient at low energy (meaning when you are below about 40 engine power, you start gaining extra engine energy)

Impulse engines — the baseline variety — should not be used.  They seem to have the exact same stat scaling as the other two types, but never grant additional energy.

So your choice should be based on what you typically fly with your Engine energy set at.  If it’s low, go Combat, and if it’s high go Hyper.

Exception = Efficient Impulse Engine
Can obtain from episodic content in the Lt Commander range (Past Imperfect), and it adds 5 energy to weapons, shields and aux.  So awesome!  And totally viable all the way to VA.  Even if you’re ship’s a little slower, the extra energy is tasty.  And speed rarely impacts PvE tactics.

As you go up in Marks of engines, the only thing that changes is the speed and sometimes turning rates. So if you have a lower Mk engine with a fatty bonus that you adore (like the aforementioned Efficient engine), and don’t mind the reduced maneuverability, don’t feel like you have to give it up.  The choice is yours.

Engine modifiers come in 3 standard variants as well:
[full] — increases your Full Impulse speed
[spd] — increases your standard flight speed
[turn] — slightly buffs your turn rate

Speed VERY rarely matters in PvE combat.  I know there are times in PvP where running away is a good tactic, and if that’s one of yours then by all means go for [spd] — especially since this modifier can be further multiplied by buffs such as Evasive Maneuvers.  For most folks however, I think I’d be safe to recommend an engine with Turn Rate bonuses.  Even if you’re in a highly maneuverable ship, like an Escort or something, a higher turn rate is always good.  Also, if the numbers are right on the tooltips, engines with turn rate improvements have a more profound impact on your turning, than an RCS engineering console would.

Now, let’s talk about an Engine-based tactic that is primarily used in PvP.

It’s a common buff-stacking approach that is sometimes called “Ludicrous Speed” … because it is crazy-fast.

To execute this maneuver fire off RAW SPEED BOOSTS first, then follow that up with PERCENTAGE-BASED BOOSTS.

Raw speed/energy boosts:
Aux to *** (use EngTeam + Aux to Engines)
Engine Battery
Energy Siphon

Percentage boosts:
Attack Pattern Omega
Evasive Maneuvers

As an added bonus to this tactic, there’s a new consumable item known as a “Deuterium Surplus” that can be obtained by completing a daily mission in the Alhena system in Eta Eridani. These are pretty much Evasive Maneuvers batteries.

COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

“What features would be necessary in a STO Community Portal site?”

We’ve mentioned before having RSS feeds to popular STO sites like STO-Wiki, StarbaseUGC or even Memory-Alpha.
Also mentioned having a browsable Foundry database.

What’s YOUR feature request?

Season One: “Common Ground” has landed! 

Patch Notes:  https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=142766

Launch Day FAQ:  https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=143065

– A billion changes!

    * Respecs! WOO!

    * Additional starship skills, and a 25% carry-over rate for T3 and T4 ship skills.

– New Content!

    * Fed vs Fed pvp maps

    * Off-duty space pajamas

    * Klingon T2 Cruiser + additional KDF ship customization

    * “Big Dig” and DS9 Fleet Actions

    * THE CURE (STF)

– C-Store items

    * Bridge Variants

    * Fed ship variants (+more coming soon)

– More Lifetime Sub perks

    * Captain’s Table private social zone

    * Special Title (“Career Officer”)

    * Blue Name on forums with special rank

 

March 22nd Engineering Report:  https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=2417369#post2417369

Monthly targets added to items “in development” including the following listed for April:

– Difficulty Sliders

– Death Penalty

– Memory Alpha / Crafting revamp

– Joined Trill for KDF

 

BIG BAD PVP BUG:  Several maps deleveling people to level one (Captain -29, RA -39)

“Post-Mortem Report” from Coderanger:  https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=2464377#post2464377

Also an audio interview:  https://thebigfreaks.com/?p=263

    * “Well over 100,000 subscribers”

    * He comments a lot on how WoW has shifted the MMO audience into an “immediate satisfaction” state of mind, rather than the pre-WoW environment where people judged them on their potential / scope.

 

 

Postures:  Attack, Defend, Speed, Balanced

Type I:  Current Energy / Energy Setting

Type II:  Visual representation, updated live

Type III:  Same as II, but with customization and Save/Reset buttons for presets

 

WEAPON ENERGY:  Energy Weapon damage output (Torpedoes and Mines are unaffected by current level, but unable to fire when at 0 power)

SHIELD ENERGY:  Shield regen rate (note:  Does NOT affect total shield strength)

ENGINE ENERGY:  Movement speed

AUXILIARY ENERGY:  Hull Repair, Turn Rate, Stealth Detection, and many “Sciencey” abilities’ amplititude (e.g. Tachyon Beam, Tyken’s Rift, etc.)

 

Power Level = % of affect

100 – 200

75 – 150

50 – 100

25 – 50

 

 

This only affects the power of the weapon when it leaves your ship, and not when it impacts the enemy.  All energy weapons are also affected by the distance between yourself and your target, to varying degrees and will deal more damage the closer you are to your target. (cannons seem to be more affected than beams)

 

Your current available Weapon Energy is drained each time you fire an energy weapon.  The amount of drain depends on the type of weapon you are firing, and the number of weapons firing simultaneously.  Watch your power level in combat, and make sure you’re not over-draining your weapon power, as you will end up doing LESS damage over time if your Weapon Energy dips too low on a regular basis.  If you regularly see your Weapon Power dipping well below the level it is set at, it may be a good idea to swap in a lower-power weapon type.

 

Beam Arrays and all cannon types = drain 10 power (beams drain more frequently than cannons, allowing less time to regen)

Turrets = drain 8 power 

 

You can offset the drain of Energy Weapons by investing in EPS Flow Regulator (Engineering Consoles).  You can also use batteries or Emergency Power abilities to quickly recharge.

 

Power Level = % of base regen

100 – 300

75 – 200

50 – 100

25 – 0 (!!)

 

 

Unlike weapons, shield tooltips do not update on the fly along with your Shield Power.

 

SUB-TOPIC: Rebalancing Shield Quadrants, to maximize Regen…

 

Shield regeneration is applied to all four quadrants of your shields, every 6 seconds (aka, per tick).  Let’s say you have a regen rate of 100.  If you have 3 maxed out quadrants, and one that is damaged, you are only regenerating 25 shield power / tick.  However, if you rebalance your shield power so that all 4 are slightly damaged, you will regenerate essentially 25*4 = 100 shield power / tick.  Obviously it’s not always a good idea to weaken ALL of your shields.  However, doing so when you are not under direct fire is ALWAYS recommended.  Especially before using an ability that increases your Shield Regen (e.g. Emergency Power to Shields, Science Team, etc).

 

The math to figure out your exact speed is complicated and involved, and I don’t have time to go into all of it right now.

 

Suffice it to say that your energy level directly impacts your speed, but the following are also factors that will always figure into it:

 

– 0 Engine Power (system offline) will cause you to stop, AND cut your turn rate to almost nothing.

– For Feds, each ship type has a different variable that causes them to go different speeds, with the same engines (Cruisers and Science are slower than Escorts)

– For KDF, check the “Impulse Modifier” listed in the ship stats at the Shipyard consoles.

– Engine types have different base modifiers.  Fastest to Slowest = Hyper Impulse, Combat Impulse, Impulse

– Your max bonus is controlled and normalized by the Tier of ship.

– Engine Power does not appear to have any affect on your Warp Speed (in Sector Space).

 

TURN RATE – Just like Engine speed, it’s very complicated.  But here’s a few quick tips:

 

– 0 Aux Power (system offline) will cause you to be almost completely unable to turn.

– Tier 1 and 2 ships are easier to get to turn faster.  Tier 3+ ships have a built-in modifier that is meant to normalize the “high-end” ship bonus skills.  (In essence, they force you to invest points in the ship type, to get them to move comparably to lower-tier ships).

– Turn Rate is calculated in “Degrees per Second” which is unaffected by your Engine SPEED.

– Turn Rate modifiers (such as those on consoles and engines) are % bonuses to your ship’s turn rate, and are not directly additive.

– The total possible bonus (or penalty) of a high (or low) Aux power level is never going to turn a Cruiser into an Escort (or vice versa).

– Escorts will benefit far more from Aux, due to a higher innate Turn Rate.

 

HULL REPAIR – Bryan’s Penis Calculations unknown.  Sorry! 

 

– Also affected by Crew Levels, and passive skills.

– The longer the battle, the more Hull Repair will matter.

– Hull Repair is always % based, so larger/beefier ships will repair more per tick than smaller ships, with the same Captain.

 

STEALTH DETECTION –

 

– Base is determined by ship type:  Escorts/Cruisers are 33% that of Science Ship detection rate.

– Also based on all of the following:  Starship Operations Training, Starship Sensors stat (from items + skills), Starship Sensor Array stat (from items + skills)

– After the “base” detection rate is found (using the above + innate based on ship type), MULTIPLIED BY AUXILIARY in same manner as Weapon Power.

 

ABILITY MODIFIER –

 

– Determined on a per-power basis.  Can affect Duration and/or Magnitude.

– Does NOT always affect abilities.  To check:  Tooltips will update on-the-fly if they are affected by Aux (but not always in Sector Space)

 

IN CLOSING:  https://theenginescannaetakeit.wordpress.com/