Verdant Mastery

by on April 4, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Smudge and I finished Act 1 of HoT last Tuesday.

The story is continuing to be good, though it’s switched tracks again, and is only giving tiny snippets of had been the primary focus through the end of Season 2.

At some point, it’s going to be interesting to go through all of this as a non-Sylvari, as both this and Season 2 have been good at acknowledging the fact that there’s an extra personal impact here. And at other times, they ignore it, and I’m the only Sylvari that everyone’s still willing to trust.

How they present the story has evolved a bit, and it’s obvious that they’ve enhanced the engine some. It used to be that any time your character had dialog, GW2 would go into a type of cutscene for it. Those are largely gone now. Also, dialog are often triggered by proximity, which would happen inside of story instances, but these are happening out in the main world now.

So, the presentation is a lot smoother, though you don’t get to see the models up close and pretty as much.

Pretty much the first thing they do is introduce the new Mastery system, which stands in for levels in HoT. It looks like there’s an interesting mix of things in the masteries, part content-gating, and part new mechanics like the gliders. A very interesting wrinkle is that there’s ‘red’ mastery points for the original game’s areas, and ‘green’ mastery points in the HoT areas (these line up with the color of the logos for both), which means they can keep expanding the system with new expansions without going down the path of ever-escalating levels that all the other MMOs have used. You still gain experience, and when you gain a ‘level’ you get the new mastery. …If you have the Mastery Points to pay for it, which get awarded for story completion, and achievements, and so on. Smudge and I have a bunch of red points stored up already, but the higher ranks of any one mastery category get expensive, so they’ll probably give out on us mid-way through.

All of Act 1 happens in the first new HoT zone, Verdant Brink, which we’re still exploring. It kind of sprawls and goes all over the place, roughly in three levels, so it’s bit hard to navigate, even with the new gliders to help out.

And it’s dangerous. There’s a day/night cycle that works a little bit like the sandstorms in Dry Top, but instead of just cutting down visibility and making certain boss encounters available, the entire zone gets a lot tougher at night, and there’s events to try and secure base camps and get supplies to them to make them safer. I’d kind of like to get a chance to really go through that on a map determined to hold things, but so far we just see people blow through, and abandon a lot of secured camps.

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The Four Vassal War Alliance Turn 4

by on March 31, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Four Vassal War

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Despite the Hydran pull-out last turn, and my attempts to pick off the garrisons, they still held a bit of Lyran territory to generate another 0.3 VP.

Construction was fairly normal, though even with the reduced economies of this era, the budgets are far exceeding his spending. However, the Hydrans did a lot of conversions (6 in all, plus using a couple FTS to form the basis of a SAF), mostly turning Rangers into tougher Lord Marshals. I generally avoid that conversion as it reduces the number of fighters, but Belirahc pointed out that the LM is a Hellbore-armed ship, which can do extra damage to Klingons…. So here, it’s certainly a good deal.

Builds:
Kzinti: DNE, CD, 2xCL, DD, 3xFF, FF->SDF, CS->CC
Hydrans: TEM, RN, 2xLN, SA, 2xHN, 2xLC->LM, 3xRN->LM, HN->SC, 2xFTS->SAF

Both raids picked on the Lyrans again, off in areas where the only choice was calling up POLs. Both POLs were lost against the CL and LN with Prime Teams sent raiding, but the CL was forced to retreat, so only one province was disrupted.

Movement started with a sweep of province raiders in Kzinti territory, but then moved to assaults on the Lyran border stations. I had set things up so that I could shift forces from one threatened base to another, but I ended up not suitably concentrated at any one base. I was expecting a push at the captured planets in 1105 and 1504, but instead everything went into Lyran space.

The Hydrans similarly started by sweeping Coalition pickets in their space, and then moved a couple of moderate-sized forces against a pair of Klingon bases before moving a very large force against the Lyran SB in 0409.


The Kzinti front.


The Hydran front.

Combat:
1217: SSC: Klingon retreat
0815: SSC: Klingon: dest E3
0915: SSC: Klingon: retreat; Hydran: dest HN, crip SA, HN, retreat
0714: SSC: Lyran: dest FF
0615: SSC: Lyran: dest FF; Hydran: retreat
1214: Klingon: crip D6, 2xF5; Hydran: dest KN
1415: Klingon: crip D6; Hydran: crip LN, PGZ
0312: Lyran: CL
0411: Lyran: 6xSIDS, dest BCE, CA, 2xCL, 4xDD, 2xFF, POL, crip CC, 2xCA, TCB, 3xCL, 4xDD, SC; Hydran: dest TEM, 4xLN, 4xKN, 3xCR, 2xSA, 4xCU, 2xHN, crip RN, LN, KN
0705: Lyran: dest BATS, crip 2xCL; Klingon: crip D6; Kzinti: dest 3xFF, FFG
0504: Lyran: dest BS, FTS, crip DD; Kzinti: crip 2xCS
0502: Lyran: dest BATS, crip CA, 2xDD; Kzinti: dest CL, BC, crip FFG
1204: Kzinti: dest FF
0703: SSC: Kzinti retreat
0904: SSC: Coalition retreat
1103: SSC: Lyran: dest DD, FF; Kzinti retreat
1004: Klingon: crip D6, E3; Kzinti: dest FF; crip 2xFF

Three ships to two, and Bel couldn’t roll high enough to generate casualties in 1217 (neither of us rolled over 5), and I retreated out before the odds caught up to me.

Bel sent a lackluster squadron to fight a fairly good one of mine in 0915 (SA, 2xHN vs F5L, F5, E4; I suppose he just wanted to pin them), and we both rolled high, which nearly wiped his force out, while the mods kept me down to needing to retreat out of the hex.

The SB battle in 0411 wrecked both fleets in seven rounds as Bel tried to force a kill of the base. I had a good reserve of smaller ships, and started using them from the start to take damage. It wasn’t enough I also had an EW advantage, though it took me a few rounds to realize that I’d gain ComPot by putting a second SC on the line so I could dial down the SB’s EW. And it was a very good thing I had the EW, as Bel generally outrolled me and the -2 shift dragged him back down to my rolls, leaving me to do more damage by virtue of the SB’s extra ComPot.

A problem that came up in playtesting the scenario is that the Alliance is supposed to be unaware of the utility of heavy scouts at the start of the General War, but the Kzintis can build a number of them now. The eventual solution was to limit scout production in this scenario, but it’s not helping a lot. Bel was able to put up 9 EW in 0705. It was otherwise a fairly even fight, but with that disadvantage, and not wanting to wreck the Lyran fleet on both borders, I was ready to pull out. However, I crippled the BATS, and a successful troop assault finished it off, and Bel pulled out after that.

The SSC in 0904 went two rounds with no damage when I retreated out before my -4 vs his -3 mod finally caught up to me.

1004 was a pinning battle from my planet 1105 garrison moving to block his fleet going the Lyran border. I had a tougher line, but only had five uncrippled ships after the first round and failed pursuit on a ‘5’.

Three destroyed bases gives Bel 8 VP (plus another 4 for bases I need to replace), and the destroyed ships and repairs (I note with annoyance that my overall repairs are exactly where they were a turn ago) drive his total up to 100.7 VP. On the other hand, the fantastic number of Alliance ships lost has driven my VPs up to 93.7. This is a Marginal Victory for him, but I think he’s going to regret losing those ships….

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Maguuma Wastes

by on March 28, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Smudge and I recently finished off the Season 2 storyline in Guild Wars 2. Overall, I think they did a better job than with the original story, though it’s still by no means perfect.

Also, there was a final bit of living world events that came after the story, that we saw parts of back when we got involved right after the original game became free. The living world idea is really nice, but it does cause all sorts of entanglements, and it kind of locks out newer players, who don’t know what’s going on. The repayable storyline used here is a big step forward, but they still manage to drop important events.

The story is divided up into 8 parts, and 4 deal with one new map (Dry Top) and 4 with a second (Silverwastes). These are naturally the toughest-high level maps available without buying the game. An interesting idea is that after completing each story bit, you can go back in and try for extra achievements. Doing all the achievements in any one part gets you extra gear and an extra mastery point (doing it the first time also gives you one).

The story starts fairly abruptly, partially because the Zephyrites are a group important to the plot, but were introduced in one of the Living World parts not included. Season 2 begins with word that something happened to them out in the wastelands west of the previously developed world, and the players go in to find out what.

(And note, I’m going to have minor spoilerage from now on, if you’re concerned about that.)

Mostly, the story continues to feature the new set of characters developed in Season 1, with Destiny’s Edge being at most peripherally involved until later, and the immediate story line follows fairly closely on from Season 1, filling in the background of Scarlet Briar, the main villain from there. As the story progresses, it quite naturally flows into the threat of the newly-awakened Elder Dragon Mordremoth.

Dry Top is heavily featured in the first two parts of the story, and is an interesting idea in zone design. Largely a badlands-type area, there’s lots of sheer cliffs and the like. ArenaNet put in an entirely new mechanic of crystals that you can touch for movement bonuses. Either a fast dash, a high jump, or a long jump. However, these have several annoyances, such as the fact that they replace your normal toolbar temporarily, meaning that you can land in combat, and not be able to fight at first. The high jump is just a boosted version of the normal jump, but doesn’t use the same control, etc.

However, its certainly an interesting experiment with zone design, and mostly you don’t need the crystals to get around, unless you’re exploring the nooks and crannies (and going after the achievements related to doing so…), where it becomes one giant jump puzzle.

Another interesting part of Dry Top is the sandstorm. On a fixed schedule, a sandstorm blows in, reducing vision, and spawning extra monsters. Between storms, every event completed in the zone increases the outsider’s (player’s) favor with the stranded Zepherites and they provide more goods (including unique items and the like), and the awards of special in-zone currency goes up with the current level of favor. Also, some extra events during the sandstorm are tied to the current favor level. So, event-wise, it’s organized around a regular cycle of events where anything anyone does helps everyone.

The next two parts leave Dry Top behind, and focus on getting getting the world leaders together to discuss the danger of Mordremoth, who seems to have a longer reach than the other active Elder Dragons. Most of the side questing here focuses on the Charr, which delayed Smudge and I as we had not been to any of the lower-level Charr areas. The summit itself forms the climax of the first half of Season 2, and features a fairly nasty fight (tougher than anything from the ending sequence of the original story).

The second half introduces the Silverwastes, which is another example of interesting zone design. Instead of a set schedule of events, the players help out with the Pact’s efforts to destroy a powerful lieutenant of Mordremoth. The assault cycles through a few distinct phases, but the timing is based on player actions. If there’s not many players available, the first phase will go slowly, and while the later parts will eventually be reached, it will go poorly. If there’s lots of players available, the events will cycle through fairly fast. It makes the Silverwastes a very intense go-go-go environment to adventure in, and the amount of loot rewarded is hard to believe (or sort through…).

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t do as good of a job introducing the outlines of the zone as a whole, possibly because there’s just less differentiation between areas other than the gigantic Skritt caverns.

Again, the later parts of the story start turning aside from the new zone. At the same time, it starts exploring a lot of lore, dealing with the dragon Glint who was introduced back in the final expansion of the original game, and was killed in the backstory for GW2. Caithe steals a (previously unknown) egg of Glint’s, which sends the player off on a long search for both. This takes up the last couple of parts of the story. Season 2 ends on a suitably climatic note, with the Pact pressing forward with a (too cliche) doomed attempt to kill Mordremoth… but the actual explanation of what Caithe’s doing, and where the egg is now that the player is chasing after for the last quarter of the Season is still unanswered. The entire last part of the story is full of really tough fights. I wish the end of the original story had been more like the end sequence here.

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Byzantine Infantryman

by on March 25, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Osprey’s book on Byzantine infantry covers from around the reign of Emperor Leo VI, which saw a revival of interest in military matters, to the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade, which interrupted tradition, and very effectively brought the era to a close.

As a Warrior series book, the emphasis is on the individual men, and how they were organized, equipped and trained. I found the text of the book to be excellent, and very informative on a number of subjects. I’m not fully sure of some of Dawson’s assertions, but don’t know enough to be able to argue the point, and the vast majority seem well founded.

On the other hand, the color art is lacking. Angus McBride was one of the most celebrated of military historical artists for good reason, but this book must have been one of the last he did (it came out the year he died), and I think that forced it to be rushed through. Osprey’s Warrior series tends to feature highly detailed illustrations of all the variations of equipment, showing what all the pieces are. Instead, while there’s some very nice illustrations of people here, the backgrounds that Angus popularized are barely there at all, and there’s only a few fairly plain bits of equipment illustration. There are a few black-and-white diagrams that are very helpful in the main text, but it is disappointing compared to the ‘can we fit one more piece of equipment into this’ studies that I’m used to in a Warrior book.

This does overall hold the book back a bit, but again the main text is very good, and I was overall impressed with it. It just isn’t everything you expect from a book in this series.

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Constantine Not-the-Emperor

by on March 21, 2016 at 12:46 pm
Posted In: Books

David Potter’s book on Constantine is at first a little hard to pin down. It’s not really a biography, and despite the title, only about half the book is about the reign of Emperor Constantine, with the first half being a grounding in the crisis of the third century, and Diocletian’s reign (and depicts the Tetrarchy as being far less far-sighted as I’ve seen elsewhere), and then shows what Constantine’s place in the Imperial court was before his self-appointment to the rank of Augustus.

Through it all, the book is a slightly dry recounting of Roman government from Diocletian through Constantine’s death. There is a lot of attention paid to, and things read into, surviving official correspondence. Knowing what the person Constantine was like is probably impossible with the surviving sources, and Potter doesn’t try. He sketches in the outlines, but doesn’t go for a lot of color. The thrust of the narrative presents the early fourth century Empire as the world in which Constantine existed, and what his conversion to Christianity really meant.

And the answer is ‘not a lot’. Potter’s interpretation of Constantine’s faith is (understandably) as something that evolved over time, and doesn’t necessarily bear a strong resemblance to faith as it is understood today. His reign was not the dramatic conversion of the purpose of the Empire that it is generally presented as (especially in Christan sources). Instead, Potter shows that Constantine’s legislation shows a very evenhanded approach, retaining traditional practice (as he saw it) where possible, while integrating Christian belief into it.

He also admits that Constantine leaned towards promoting Christian administrators, which one would figure would promote the process of the Roman Empire becoming a ‘Christian’ Empire, but such long-term results are not looked into. Given Potter’s emphasis on the somewhat heterogeneous composition of the the empire and its government, I’d like to see what he has to say about the reign of Julian, and if it comes off as controversial at the time as it gets presented in hindsight or from hostile Christian sources.

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