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SWTOR Escape Pod Cast 5 – DPS Basics

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This week @AIESema, @MaxTheGrey and Astromech EPC-05 talk about the recent news headlines on a mini-patch, the closing of the PTS and AIE wrapping their Amazing Race. We also crack open a holocron of dark secrets about an introduction to DPS.

Side note… my companion was stopping by to talk about dangerous technology but didn’t make it to the podcast as she was killed riding the elevator to join us.

SWTOR Escape Pod Cast 4 – Cartel QA

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This week @AIESema, @MaxTheGrey and Astromech EPC-04 talk about the news on bounty contract week, a couple patch notes for the week, and leg three of the AIE Amazing Race. We also answer a guild member’s question about our thoughts on the Cartel Market and things like the Black/Black dye.

Oh, and it’s only the main bar at the Nexus room that only has Spiced Blue Milk. Those private back rooms are where they hide what they are really serving… Chilled Corellian Cocktails.

The Weeping Angel Boss Fight Concept

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This is a design concept being floated to the Bioware development team for SWTOR (though would work in pretty much any MMO, I think.) We have clear and obvious reason to believe that it may be the most awesome boss fight idea ever conceived.

One of our guild members, Sferics, came up with the core of this idea earlier this evening and we decided this needed to be written up and submitted to the highest of development authorities for immediate implementation in future content!

I give you the “Weeping Angel” boss fight mechanic!

Backdrop/setup

The scenario can vary but in a SWTOR context, Flash Point or Operation, something like the force ghost of an ancient Sith Lord trapped in a vault lined with statues would set the stage well. The boss can be at the head of the room represented by a large statue. The key to the mechanic would be the series of human sized status around the perimeter of the room initially positioned with their hands covering their eyes!

Key Elements

Darkness – The entire fight would need to take place in near dark for the mechanic to make sense with what you’d expect from “Weeping Angel” behavior. We’ve already seen this in other flash points in SWTOR and works well.
Flashlights – At the entrance, each ops team member would be able to pick up a light of some kind. These would light only for a short period on activation, say 10 seconds, with something like a 30 second cool down. This would force the need for coordination between team members for the lighting mechanic to have full coverage. Again, these already exist in some form in SWTOR content.
Weeping Angels – The key mechanic and I imagine you can already guess how these work. The statues surrounding the room are fixed and immune to damage while “observed.” The light from the flashlights when swept over them would serve to quantum-lock the angels for a period of a few seconds. Once this timer is up, if they have not been re-locked with a flashlight they move toward the nearest player.
Feeding – If a player is reached by an angel that player is removed from the fight and “lost in time.” At this point, the angel is no longer immune to damage and must be DPSed down to return the missing player to the fight.
Quantum-Lock – With only 10 seconds of light and a 30 second cooldown it would take at least 4 players rotating turns running a circuit of the room to keep light on the statues. This would be the key coordination mechanic and would need to be tightly timed enough to make angel movement likely.
Boss Mechanics – To increase pressure on the group and the likelihood that angels will be moving, various boss mechanics can be introduced as well. As only one possible example, high damage energy beams that divide the room for a few seconds might prevent the current flashlight runner from reaching some angels. This would either need to be compensated for by players spread on the opposite side or cause the need for the team to be in motion, kiting the moving angels.

As mentioned, this is obviously one of the most awesome fight concepts ever proposed and as such should be implemented immediately. I also think naming the boss after Sferics would be nice, and maybe throw in a little lore object that credits the Lords of Light (LOL) operations team of Alea Iacta Est as well.

Thanks for your time! (Which I will, of course, consume.)

* Thanks to machernucha via Flickr for the creative commons photo.

The Curse of Chalion – Wrap-Up

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In the “Wrap-Up” I’ll post my notes on the entire book as a sequel to the introduction post which you can find here.

Here be spoilers!!

While we get early glimpses into the potential hero lurking behind the broken façade that Cazaril shows, it isn’t for quite some time that we get any major unveiling of how he might develop. Lois McMaster Bujold spends significant time hammering into the reader the broken nature of Cazaril’s body if not his spirit as well. As I mentioned in the introduction, I appreciate a somewhat hamstrung protagonist when done well, and it is done pretty well here, but the author spares no opportunity to illustrate Cazaril’s weaknesses. I think I prefer the slightly less destroyed yet still interestingly constrained protagonists such as Mile Vorkosigan, Lois McMaster Bujold most well know creation, or The Gunslinger.

The Lois McMaster Bujold also keeps us waiting for development of the magic/religion for quite some time. It isn’t until Cazaril’s successful use of “death magic” that both Cazaril’s power and place as well as the very real power of the 5 gods comes together and makes it’s way into the novel.

From there the journey of “Saint” Cazaril (some aspire to sainthood, some have it thrust upon them) provides an excellent vehicle for the author to play around with the ideas of gods, religion, fate and free will. I found this quite interesting and as entertaining an aspect of the book as the base plot elements.

Umegat is a great character and becomes a very useful tool in exploring these themes as Cazaril uses him as a sounding board for his questions about the gods and sainthood. As Cazaril starts to learn just how far back it seems his path had been set the concept of fate and free will are tested. I liked the idea that fate and free will might be able to coexist by offering the fated path to many, many “Cazarils” but only coming to fruition when individuals exercise free will to choose each step on the path.

Overall, I enjoyed the second half of the book quite a bit more than the first, but I expect that is by design. I liked the small bits of theater like the choosing of the mules or the interaction with the crows just as much as the large plot elements. And while the “happily ever after” ending for Cazaril was a bit overdone I was fine with it.

Finally, the intertwined story of Lady Ista and Cazaril’s final prophetic “blessing” on her create the right amount of interest and setup to launch Paladin of Souls.

Let me know your thoughts!

SWTOR Escape Pod Cast 3 – Patch 2.4

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This week @AIESema, @MaxTheGrey and Astromech EPC-03 talk about the news on some cartel fixes, the return of bounty contract week and leg two of the AIE Amazing Race. We also spend some time in a segment call “Jumping to Conclusions” where we cover what we saw and did so far on the PTS in patch 2.4. Beware minor spoilers on public patch details!

Oh, and sulky hounds don’t like cybernetic implants in their meals, so leave out the conquered enemy cyborgs. The favorite treat would, of course, be the hearts of the vanquished.

(Update: Lies! This week is Amazing Race 3 of 5, not 4 of 5 as I claim in the podcast.)

SWTOR PTS – Screenshot challenge

Introducing the SWTOR Escape Pod Cast

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The SWTOR Escape Pod Cast is a Star Wars: The Old Republic and Alea Iacta Est Community Podcast

@MaxTheGrey and @AIESema send an astromech droid to bring you the latest SWTOR news as well as updates from the AIE Guild in SWTOR. Listen in for the Super Mega Important News (according to us) and rotating segments including, All The Things, Ask Us Anything, Altered Deal and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Subscribe on iTunes (available here soon), catch us on Twitter or track us down in SWTOR on Jedi Covenant. Talk to you soon!

SWTOR Escape Pod Cast 2 – Ops Night Fun

Final Fantasy XIV – Launch

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FFXIV has launched over the past week or so and while interest and popularity seems high the game infrastructure has been struggling mightily to hold up under the typical MMO launch onslaught. Square Enix has plans in the works to update the datacenter hardware and infrastructure over the next few days, so hopefully we’ll see a recovery on that front soon.

With the strong interest in FFXIV among the AIE community an “Expedition” has already been established. For those not familiar with AIEs entry into new games, a structured process (the G.E.R.P.) is used to first explore the game, determine interest and fitness to the community and take the necessary steps, if warranted, to establish a home.

So far, AIE has set up a Linkshell (a sort of general chat channel) and a Free Company (guild) on the Gilgamesh server. However, with the guild in expedition and the general lack of stability and availability of the servers in general, AIE members are currently spread across a few different servers. This exploration will help to find the final home for the guild as things settle in the next week or so.

As for my time in game, I rolled an Archer on Gilgamesh during pre-release. I’ve not had all that much luck on a day to day basis in getting in and playing (the dreaded 1017, world is full notice being the main issue) I was able to play for a few sessions and am up around level 16. I got far enough to get a good sense of the solo/leveling experience and some grouping aspect. Here’s a few of my notes so far.

Upside

The art style and environments are nice looking in general. Clean graphics and smooth animation are nice to look at, fit together well, and support game play well.
The class system provides plenty of flexibility and will be a benefit to players that would like to stick to a main character and yet still be able to change classes and roles, even on the fly.
The lore and quests are what one would expect of a Final Fantasy environment and should feel comfortable to all FF fans. They are relatively easy to follow with map markers and mob indicators to show what you should be doing at any given moment.

Downside

The abilities and controls scheme are a bit more simplistic that some other MMOs. This is likely due to the design goal of a unified experience (and server environments) across Playstation as well as PC. This is instead an upside for players preferring a controller for gameplay. There are a few other simplistic elements and gaps in MMO feature sets that I miss, but again, those may be in an effort to streamline gameplay.
The initial server instability has had a big impact on the launch, to date. Inability to create characters on specific servers and at times any server, coupled with the inability to log on to various or all servers since launch has caused quite a bit of expected frustration. As mentioned, there are plans to fix this, but it will take some work for Square Enix to recover.

I’ll be interested to see where this goes over time and I’ll continue to post significant updates as they come up. Let me know your thoughts on the game so far. Enjoy!

The Curse of Chalion – The Score

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In The Score, I’ll preview the book after having read a few score pages. Spoilers will be limited to only that introduction. Update: spoiler filled wrap up review notes can be found here.

Author
I was an instant fan of Lois McMaster Bujold years back when first reading a handful of the Vorkosigan books. The Vorkosigan Saga makes up a bulk of her work and is more sci-fi than fantasy, being set around interstellar intrigue around 1000 years in the future. However, with The Curse of Chalion in 2001 she started a three book series of fantasy novels, a genre that she apparently had wanted to get into for some time. The second of the series, The Paladin of Souls won her the Hugo Award in 2004 and added to her collection of sci-fi and fantasy nominations and awards.

The Curse of Chalion
Not sure how I missed this book back in 2001 but it has shown up recently on some Goodreads list and probably on Sword & Laser. Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t backtrack and read it since I did read Paladin of Souls (book 2 in the series) probably around 2006.

The book is set in a land of kingdoms, royals and courts and high-fantasy elements like magic are not apparent as the book kicks off. We are introduced to the main character Lupe dy Cazaril or “Caz”, a minor noble as he is returning from a series of military campaigns which progressed somewhat tragically for him, ending with him apparently unjustly or mistakenly being sold into a cruel stint for over a year as a galley slave.

The author goes to great lengths to illustrate early that he is a broken man, both physically and mentally. I tend to appreciate protagonists who aren’t perfect and have flaws or shortcomings to deal with, but Caz is presented in what seems to be an extreme case. Even so, there are glimmers that his character, wisdom and will are at least somewhat intact and we are set to hoping to see how he develops.

While not much magic seem to be in evidence the author does introduce heavy elements of a multi-deity religion early in the book. It remains to be seen how strong a part these religious elements will play as the story progresses.

It takes some time for the book to progress and for Caz to end up in his former court. His former royal patroness ends up enlisting his aid as a tutor for her granddaughter, a young, energetic and intelligent princess, and it is at that point we see the first glimmerings of a plot set before Caz.

The Source
I’m consuming this book via Audible, mostly while out on summer marathon training runs. The narrator, Lloyd James does a great job and is easy to listen to. He creates a series of distinct voices for the characters that don’t seem to overly color the authors intent, which I appreciate.

So far, I’m moderately enjoying the book and am interested to see how Caz develops. Keep an eye out for the wrap-up and review. Enjoy!