Mad Skillz

It’s official, it’s been only a few days and I am missing EQ2 already. I have been able to use the time constructively though and I have got more jobs done round the house than the whole of last year I think. It’s amazing what MMO down time does for you. I’m up to date with my papers and correspondence, I’ve read two books, played a few offline games (Mass Effect, Neverwinter Nights, Left4Dead), written more of my novel and spent a huge amount of time with the kids. Well, the time with the kids hasn’t really changed as I don’t go online until they are both in bed. So far I’m coping OK though, even though I do miss seeing my mates and adventuring with my Bro. Now’s the time to catch up with all the solo stuff you have to do at level 70 level locking matey!

We may have some good news about internet though. Not with Telefonica, I’m kind of writing that off as a futile project at the moment. Not really, but we do have a friend who runs an I.T shop and he has just started providing wireless services up to 20meg. He is supposed to be coming round our house this weekend to see what the signal is like. Anyhow, depending on what Telefonica come back to us and say, then we may end up going with him for our connection. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

EQ2 news and it seems that Smokejumper has announced here that the devs at Sony are looking to re-itemise all items from level 20 to 80. I have no idea what this will bring aside from making old items fall in line with the ‘one stat per archetype’ thing. There are so so many items out there in the lower tiers that serve absolutely no purpose aside from an alternative ‘look’. I really don’t want to see the end of those items though. I hope they don’t just get rid of them. It’s worth noting here that following SoEs stat changes and combat changes that seem to occur pretty much every expansion, followed by the time it takes to put right all the mistakes they have made, it is usually time for the next expansion to come out by the time everything is fixed.

Seriously, can you recall a time when we had changes to stats or the combat system where after it was implemented everyone says, “Yeah, that worked well”? Of course you can’t. Every time they do it, they mess something up and remedial work to correct it seems to take forever. So, I ask the question of you, ‘Do you really think that SoE can change thousands of items over a MASSIVE level range, bigger than they have ever attempted before, and get it all right?’. I personally think the answer is no. The thing is, I know old content needs to be brought in line with new concerning stats changes etc, but it isn’t really as if they need to do that urgently. I have spent the last six months or so going through older content with Merecraft and it really isn’t that broke. It’s too easy if anything. The differences certainly did not affect or ruin the game play anyhow. So, why are they messing with it? I know it will need to be looked at eventually, but surely there are more things they could be getting on with. Like making it so my toon can sit down properly. After nearly seven years of either standing or lying down, his knees hurt and he wants to sit for goodness sake! Old poor Voltaan is not getting any younger and these things matter to him at his age. He also wants a fabled walking-frame (the fabled version does not have the speed reduction stat ;) ).

All joking aside, I’m a little concerned about them spending so much time on this when there are real issues with some of the other areas of the game. One of the main ones is that we have 24 classes that pretty much bleed in to one after all the stats and skill jiggery-pokery that the devs have done, with another class on the way, who may well either morph in to the rest of the grey mess of classes or may be outstanding and different, meaning that all will want to play. I just wish they would concentrate on something useful, like making sure all the classes are properly defined with skills that separate them and make them useful, at their trade. That was one of the drawing and influencing factors for me with EQ2, there were so many classes and they each had their own foibles and fun attached. Now there seems to be a real generic category that a class fits in with few defining parameters, Tank, DPS, Util, Heals. The original classes although some were a bit wishy washy with their skill sets originally, were well defined in the image of what that class was and had skills to back that up and stats that reflected their specialities. I just hope the new character class fits in with what we used to have and helps the devs with their defining of the existing classes. Whatever happens with this, at least new and old classes alike will have lovely new [but largely useless when compared to what else needs fixing] stats on their equipment to play with thanks to the level 20 – 80 revamp.

I have just realised that in the above I have just done a lot of moaning. More than usual. Must be my bad temper and withdrawal symptoms kicking in. On that note, I think it’s time to speak to a Telefonica representative again.

Be well.