Hello dear readers, I appologise deeply for the seven month gap between updates and all but life in general and what not.
Recently, I resubbed to WW2OL which is the daddy of the rare genre known as the massively multiplater first person shooter. For those who don't know what it is about, it is a Iron Man Realistic FPS based on the early war European Front with the BEF and a non certain heavily fortified wall obsessed French Army against the German Wehrmacht. Said MMO is made by a small Independent Studio called Cornered Rat Software (An apt name considering the juggernaughts of the MMO Industry like Blizzard, Cryptic and SOE to compete against) a small ground of Programmers in good old Texas.
Now, I love WW2OL. It is incredibly unique, a combination of pure PVP, FPS and Realism with a huge dash of Flight, Tank and Navy Sim combined. Alas, it has problems. Monitor punching, desk breaking instant unsubscription causing problems that has kept this gem limping in second lane when, egad things like PlanetSide and SWG get more attention. This little list is my own way of coping with such problems, I am sure CRS and Battleground Europe will eventually get there day if the MMO Industry keeps bombarding us with low shoddy fantasy MMO's.
Scale Down The European Front Slighty:
Now, looking at the in game map I noticed that a huge chunk of lower France, east Germany and the Netherlands don't have ANY roads, towns, cities, villages or factories due to the fact by now it is established where most of the action in Western Europe takes place (the game is currently fighting the War for the forty fifth time now) so I propose a little shaving and shelving off of those abandoned areas of Europe until the Western Front is re-populated to the point where it is needed. This will relieve the server and everyones load times a little bit. Other ways of transport that won't encourage camping or cheap gameplay like having trains and cars with limited amounts of fuel that won't spawn would be also be a good idea on cutting back the tiring trecks around this moon-esqe landscape to find action.
Upgrade The Graphics:
The Graphics are the game, whilst not being as bad as when the game first started out in 1999, are to the casual gamer about as appealing as a plate of Mash Potato. They aren't terrible, you can put up with them and focus on the gameplay but lets face it even todays low end PC and Server systems can handle nicely detailed and smooth polygons and Bitmaps, heck EVEN Physics. I suggest working on the terrain first followed by Infantry models and finally things like buildings, weather and the huge amount of vehicles at last. It would be nice not to lag slightly when zooming in on my Rifles iron sights to make my kill with these graphics I would admit, thus costing me precious seconds of reaction time.
Installing VOIP:
Lets face it. TeamSpeak is a hassle to set up and after finally passing numerious anti-opposing front spy checks and registering one won't use the damn thing when he finds out only fifty people are using it when he plays. Get a seperate company to code in the software at the same time. Once this is fixed the game will see a lot more people working together instead of lone wolfing, getting fed up and unsubscribing. Bonus points if a SFX of old fashioned radio cracking signify people activating it in game. People will actually crew Tanks, Planes and Boats because they can communicate and react much quicker.
Improving the UI and Web Site:
The WW2OL Website is another brilliant bonus for the game, who doesn't love checking out detailed combat statisitics, getting medals and reading about your kick ass killing spree in the nicely done Newspaper which reports the progress of the campaign, what is being researched and produced and how bad the Kill/Death ratio for your Army is. However, this could be improved greatly with more detail and letting the Generals of each army proof read and submit player stories and reports .
The game UI is also slightly clunky. It takes forever to figuire out where to find action for a new player and pretty much kicks the whole crewing system up the ass by being an obscure out of the way panel at the spawn screen. The loading screens are cute with all this random WW2 Trivia combined with screenshots of the game and War era images but there are too few of them. And the music, god! Have some different tracks of the old war era music.
Encouraging Team Work:
Team Work in this game is budding but strugging, the temptation to go lone wolf is incredibly great. Of course, it ends up with you getting killed seconds later. Encourage soldiers to group up or at least pair with a soldier with a Rifle or SMG if you have a AT Rifle for back up. Have Soldiers of a certain rank auto-mark their killers when they die, let Officers give certain buffs that give soldiers a tiny bit more stamina when it comes to damage and speed. Give points to players working together on the field or crewing planes and tanks. The gesture system is cute, but map them to keys instead of .annoyingcommand because typing things out in FPS games gets the unwary killed very easily. Add some voice commands too, like a certain less realistic WW2 Online FPS and give CO's a Battlefield 2 esqe ability to draw on the map.
Drop the Credit Card Required Option for the Free Trial:
People like an easy to download and play game CRS, so drop the annoying issue for people to put credit card details to play. To some more paranoid people, this seems suspicious whilst other lazy people will just shrug and close the browser. If you wish to stop people abusing free trials just keep track of IP addresses or E-Mail addresses instead. More people will play the trial and consider getting account if they can just download, register and boot up.
As I type this, CSR works hard in making this game better than before and they are doing very well considering the fact this game is now 7 years old. With Unity II on the way and a Chinese Release hopefully they will scrape enough cash together to make a few more epic changes and pull in a few thousand more players. When that happens, maybe they will eventually release the infamous North African, Pacific or Soviet Fronts onto our desktops.
Showing posts with label MMO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MMO. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
City of Heroes/Villans: Best MMO ever?
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Memories of Star Wars Galaxies Episode II
Tonight, I'm going to post some more memories I gleaned from my past in classic SWG and entertain you all. This time I will be gleaning a few from my Bria toon. First a little background about how I started out on Bria. Like I mentioned in the previous SWG memory post the CU had hit and driven most of my friends to quitting or migrating to busier servers. Eventually, I decided I was bored hanging around the quiet Cantina in FarStar with nothing but the occasional AFK Entertainer bot for company so I created my toon on the busiest and more notorius server SWG had.That server was Bria. Bria was infamous for several things, it was the first and laggiest server SWG has ever had and it was big on PVP. It was also an AmericanWest Coast server which operated on a different time zone to my previous European server.
I cared not and created my human male (I regret not making any interesting alien toonswhen SWG finally bit the big one) named Akrady Renko. I heard that for once, The GalacticEmpire on Bria was the top dog in the GCW and from the very start when I got SWG I decidedto become an Imperial. I was finally determined to grind up and get a full suit of Stormtrooperarmour. I also decided to grind up a Ranged toon, Pistoleer, Carbineer with a mixture of Scout.
I made the toon my main after the effects of the CU became fully apparent and began playing Ak more than Rom.
I joined the Imperial Navy instead of the Army and worked hard in my training TIE Fighterand soon was wearing the full gear of an Imperial Navy TIE Fighter Pilot. Sadly, I didn't feel Imperial enough. Then I spotted groups of more than one player wearing Stormtrooper armour all around Tatooine, which was once again my playground planet. I asked earnestlyif I could join and it turned out to be an RP guild. I cared not, and begged. I was givenan interview with one of their Officers in the City Cantina where their PA Hall was.
I passed and became a fleging member of Stormtrooper Gamma Company in its glory days.With ST-G, I worked hard and RPed with them to my hearts content even getting the hang of the CUeventually and began hanging around exclusively with them in general. Several members workedhard and helped me slowly earn the FP for purchasing Stormtrooper armour (Before the CU you just neededFP to get the stuff from a recruiter) but eventully one of my friends gave me a lucky break and boughtme a full post CU crafted set of Stormie armour. I was most impressed, But I still needed an assload ofFP to equip and wear it.
One of the interesting things we did in ST-G when we got together and formed a nice littleImperial Platoon full of immaculately armoured Stormtroopers and Officers was either RP PatrolMos Eisley or help the Empire in general on the server by scouting out and removing PVEor rarely, PVP bases on the planet. The experince of storming the first base, getting into cover and shooting out the defensive turrets and then charging in ready to take on the Rebel Soldiers inside with aims to activate the self destruction sequince still is in my fond memories now.
I remember a Veteran, Clad in Clonetrooper Expansion Pack Fodder armour giving me an entireset of Scouttrooper armour for free, much to my friends envy. I loved that armour and I stillwish I wore it, even only just once before I left the game. Sadly, I needed 20k fp to wearand bind each individual piece to me. Towards the late CU, a friend in the Guild also gave me his TIE Interceptor which I never got a chance to equip up and fly.
Apparently, Our PA had to leave the city we were stationed in because the New Mayorwas Pro-Rebel and ST-G resettled on the green Gungan and Spider infested swampy plainsof Naboo in a player city known as Central Dogma. One of our PA Allies, COMPNOR had createdthe city and welcomed us with open arms. From now on, Naboo and Theed Cantina would be mynew home but the Patrols on Mos Eisley never stopped then. I got my favourite home for free for joiningCentral Dogma, before once more it was another small Tatooine Mudhut. The Medium sized Naboohome was huge and I decorated it finerly with furniture, memoirs of my travels and loot.I even kept a Pet Dewback which I couldn't ride because of the CU in the basement. I named him Billy. I used Imperial butter to get him through the doorway.
I remember as the Episode III Hype was getting big that SOE forced LA to unleash a prequal-tastic Expansion called Rage of The Wookiees. With that expansion, we got an entirelynew planet (Kashyssk) which was basically just a huge, laggy and slightly bug filled theme park.I remember reading in the Bria forums the Ryatt Trail Controversies between the ever growingnumber of J3di and Bounty Hunters. I remember myself how laggy it got on this planet for myPC and when the novelty of the new place wore off I rarely went.
The J3di Rift that swallowed the whole game even hit ST-G, A few Commanding Officers and 3rd generation ST-G members began grinding Jedi despite the fact the already anti-canonicalpresence they had on the game and the fundemental rule of nothing BUT Stormtroopers being in a PA based on Stormtroopers. A lot of bad words were said between the Jedi Guys and theFundies and rifts opened. Old school PA members leaving the game or losing interest becausethey were free trial players was also getting common.
The PA needed rebooting and became much more strict after the storm passed.
I rememberwhen players were finally allowed to be passengers in other players speeders, severalnew Landspeeders were introduced into the game including a people carrier that could holdeight people. Two of these were adopted into ST-G and painted Imperial Colours. Our bestcampaign on Corellia involved fourteen of us blasting three PVE Rebel bases and hittingthe Alliance hard on its traditional homeworld.
I had grown to love my Stormtrooper armour so much, I rarely took it off and was eithereither wearing that or the Grey Imperial Officer uniform. I occasionaly wore my casualclothes (Especially during the rift era of the PA where I was removed temporarly) butlike with my other toon I had solidified my 'style'. I also grown attached to theE-11 Mark II Combine, Which you needed to Master Carbineer to wield.
I remember taking part in Mr Bria 2005 at Club Shim on Lok (In SWG slang, A shim is usually a female toon played by a male toon) and wearing nothing but hawtpants, Stormtrooper booties,gloves and my helmet. I sadly did not win, but I got to the semi-finals much to peoples amusement.
Another memory is receiving the Interesting Person Badge from the guy in charge ofall the events, Pex, while touring a little spice party on Tatooine with a small crowdof semi-RPers. Don't ask why an Imperial Stormie was there, he just was. Perks you know?
I remember trying out different physical features with Ak too. At first, he was pale dueto the fact he was going to wear a Pilot suit/Stormtrooper armour all the time. Eventuallyan ID friend made him less pale, gave him a tan and a new haircut. For a while, this wasAk's lady killer look. Eventually, I bored of the tan and asked for a normal pink skin pigmentation. Towards the end of the CU era I experimented and gave Ak a moustache and goatee.
Another fond memory of mine with Ak is defending Bestine during one of the infamous Sand PeopleAttack. Pre-CU Sand People were HARDCORE. I mean it, You'd have trouble with them unless youhad a decently branched skilled Combat Toon or a decent group. The Imperial City of Bestine onTatooine would be flooded with every type of Tusken Raider NPC, from the basic grunts tothe deadly Warlord Chieften who could have pwned my n00b ass easily with one hit. However playersflooded Bestine and pushed the scum back. The fighting came to a climax in the Bestine TownHall building, as small army of every type of players took on the Warlord and his body guards, followedby attacking the mighty Dark Jedi behind the invasion. I remember kneeling on the top of the raised portionof the room firing down into this massive melee with a Tusken Rifle (Oh the irony).
On the night before the NGE was going out, Me and some reformed ST-G buddies armoured up and decided to join in several mass PVP raids while we still could. It was great fun, crushingthe Rebels in Bestine and seizing the Shuttle Port before they could rally enough men to defend it.I remember even getting my first and only PVP kill in my history of the game.
Sadly, My memories with Ak ended painfully once and for all with the sudden mound of poop thatwas the NGE. One of the first blows was having to choose one of the lame 8 classes after losingall my skills from the FOUR diverse classes I had grinded hard for. I choose Officer, whichwas a mistake because it was one of the most gimped classes. Much to my annoyance most ofmy guns which I carried in my pack as a Mini-armoury did not work with Officer and all I couldwield was this piddily generic looking slug pistol. This, along with other stupid changes of the NGEmore or less made my urge to play SWG die inside me.
ST-G had to move again because the NGE sadly killed off the dwinding population of Central Dogma.Infact, ST-G formed a new city on Naboo and our HQ went to its third and final transformationinto the Mustofar bunker. I remember coming back from the little party we had opening the place, sitting downin my Naboo Medium houses bed and logging out. I never logged back in again. I sadly simply lostinterest and did something else. I really sometimes faintly miss Bria, Theed Cantina which instantly emptied after the NGE and my fellow ST-G members including the friends who stuck close to me all times. Thesame goes for my comrades on FarStar.
Maybe one day, we'll meet each other when SWG-Emu is finally completed next year. I would certainlyre-equip my Stormtrooper armour once more for the Galactic Empire.
I cared not and created my human male (I regret not making any interesting alien toonswhen SWG finally bit the big one) named Akrady Renko. I heard that for once, The GalacticEmpire on Bria was the top dog in the GCW and from the very start when I got SWG I decidedto become an Imperial. I was finally determined to grind up and get a full suit of Stormtrooperarmour. I also decided to grind up a Ranged toon, Pistoleer, Carbineer with a mixture of Scout.
I made the toon my main after the effects of the CU became fully apparent and began playing Ak more than Rom.
I joined the Imperial Navy instead of the Army and worked hard in my training TIE Fighterand soon was wearing the full gear of an Imperial Navy TIE Fighter Pilot. Sadly, I didn't feel Imperial enough. Then I spotted groups of more than one player wearing Stormtrooper armour all around Tatooine, which was once again my playground planet. I asked earnestlyif I could join and it turned out to be an RP guild. I cared not, and begged. I was givenan interview with one of their Officers in the City Cantina where their PA Hall was.
I passed and became a fleging member of Stormtrooper Gamma Company in its glory days.With ST-G, I worked hard and RPed with them to my hearts content even getting the hang of the CUeventually and began hanging around exclusively with them in general. Several members workedhard and helped me slowly earn the FP for purchasing Stormtrooper armour (Before the CU you just neededFP to get the stuff from a recruiter) but eventully one of my friends gave me a lucky break and boughtme a full post CU crafted set of Stormie armour. I was most impressed, But I still needed an assload ofFP to equip and wear it.
One of the interesting things we did in ST-G when we got together and formed a nice littleImperial Platoon full of immaculately armoured Stormtroopers and Officers was either RP PatrolMos Eisley or help the Empire in general on the server by scouting out and removing PVEor rarely, PVP bases on the planet. The experince of storming the first base, getting into cover and shooting out the defensive turrets and then charging in ready to take on the Rebel Soldiers inside with aims to activate the self destruction sequince still is in my fond memories now.
I remember a Veteran, Clad in Clonetrooper Expansion Pack Fodder armour giving me an entireset of Scouttrooper armour for free, much to my friends envy. I loved that armour and I stillwish I wore it, even only just once before I left the game. Sadly, I needed 20k fp to wearand bind each individual piece to me. Towards the late CU, a friend in the Guild also gave me his TIE Interceptor which I never got a chance to equip up and fly.
Apparently, Our PA had to leave the city we were stationed in because the New Mayorwas Pro-Rebel and ST-G resettled on the green Gungan and Spider infested swampy plainsof Naboo in a player city known as Central Dogma. One of our PA Allies, COMPNOR had createdthe city and welcomed us with open arms. From now on, Naboo and Theed Cantina would be mynew home but the Patrols on Mos Eisley never stopped then. I got my favourite home for free for joiningCentral Dogma, before once more it was another small Tatooine Mudhut. The Medium sized Naboohome was huge and I decorated it finerly with furniture, memoirs of my travels and loot.I even kept a Pet Dewback which I couldn't ride because of the CU in the basement. I named him Billy. I used Imperial butter to get him through the doorway.
I remember as the Episode III Hype was getting big that SOE forced LA to unleash a prequal-tastic Expansion called Rage of The Wookiees. With that expansion, we got an entirelynew planet (Kashyssk) which was basically just a huge, laggy and slightly bug filled theme park.I remember reading in the Bria forums the Ryatt Trail Controversies between the ever growingnumber of J3di and Bounty Hunters. I remember myself how laggy it got on this planet for myPC and when the novelty of the new place wore off I rarely went.
The J3di Rift that swallowed the whole game even hit ST-G, A few Commanding Officers and 3rd generation ST-G members began grinding Jedi despite the fact the already anti-canonicalpresence they had on the game and the fundemental rule of nothing BUT Stormtroopers being in a PA based on Stormtroopers. A lot of bad words were said between the Jedi Guys and theFundies and rifts opened. Old school PA members leaving the game or losing interest becausethey were free trial players was also getting common.
The PA needed rebooting and became much more strict after the storm passed.
I rememberwhen players were finally allowed to be passengers in other players speeders, severalnew Landspeeders were introduced into the game including a people carrier that could holdeight people. Two of these were adopted into ST-G and painted Imperial Colours. Our bestcampaign on Corellia involved fourteen of us blasting three PVE Rebel bases and hittingthe Alliance hard on its traditional homeworld.
I had grown to love my Stormtrooper armour so much, I rarely took it off and was eithereither wearing that or the Grey Imperial Officer uniform. I occasionaly wore my casualclothes (Especially during the rift era of the PA where I was removed temporarly) butlike with my other toon I had solidified my 'style'. I also grown attached to theE-11 Mark II Combine, Which you needed to Master Carbineer to wield.
I remember taking part in Mr Bria 2005 at Club Shim on Lok (In SWG slang, A shim is usually a female toon played by a male toon) and wearing nothing but hawtpants, Stormtrooper booties,gloves and my helmet. I sadly did not win, but I got to the semi-finals much to peoples amusement.
Another memory is receiving the Interesting Person Badge from the guy in charge ofall the events, Pex, while touring a little spice party on Tatooine with a small crowdof semi-RPers. Don't ask why an Imperial Stormie was there, he just was. Perks you know?
I remember trying out different physical features with Ak too. At first, he was pale dueto the fact he was going to wear a Pilot suit/Stormtrooper armour all the time. Eventuallyan ID friend made him less pale, gave him a tan and a new haircut. For a while, this wasAk's lady killer look. Eventually, I bored of the tan and asked for a normal pink skin pigmentation. Towards the end of the CU era I experimented and gave Ak a moustache and goatee.
Another fond memory of mine with Ak is defending Bestine during one of the infamous Sand PeopleAttack. Pre-CU Sand People were HARDCORE. I mean it, You'd have trouble with them unless youhad a decently branched skilled Combat Toon or a decent group. The Imperial City of Bestine onTatooine would be flooded with every type of Tusken Raider NPC, from the basic grunts tothe deadly Warlord Chieften who could have pwned my n00b ass easily with one hit. However playersflooded Bestine and pushed the scum back. The fighting came to a climax in the Bestine TownHall building, as small army of every type of players took on the Warlord and his body guards, followedby attacking the mighty Dark Jedi behind the invasion. I remember kneeling on the top of the raised portionof the room firing down into this massive melee with a Tusken Rifle (Oh the irony).
On the night before the NGE was going out, Me and some reformed ST-G buddies armoured up and decided to join in several mass PVP raids while we still could. It was great fun, crushingthe Rebels in Bestine and seizing the Shuttle Port before they could rally enough men to defend it.I remember even getting my first and only PVP kill in my history of the game.
Sadly, My memories with Ak ended painfully once and for all with the sudden mound of poop thatwas the NGE. One of the first blows was having to choose one of the lame 8 classes after losingall my skills from the FOUR diverse classes I had grinded hard for. I choose Officer, whichwas a mistake because it was one of the most gimped classes. Much to my annoyance most ofmy guns which I carried in my pack as a Mini-armoury did not work with Officer and all I couldwield was this piddily generic looking slug pistol. This, along with other stupid changes of the NGEmore or less made my urge to play SWG die inside me.
ST-G had to move again because the NGE sadly killed off the dwinding population of Central Dogma.Infact, ST-G formed a new city on Naboo and our HQ went to its third and final transformationinto the Mustofar bunker. I remember coming back from the little party we had opening the place, sitting downin my Naboo Medium houses bed and logging out. I never logged back in again. I sadly simply lostinterest and did something else. I really sometimes faintly miss Bria, Theed Cantina which instantly emptied after the NGE and my fellow ST-G members including the friends who stuck close to me all times. Thesame goes for my comrades on FarStar.
Maybe one day, we'll meet each other when SWG-Emu is finally completed next year. I would certainlyre-equip my Stormtrooper armour once more for the Galactic Empire.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Remembering Star Wars Galaxies: Episode I
A long time ago, in a MMO far far away something called fun was happening. That fun was maintained by a rather large amount of players any decent MMO could have wished for playing all sorts of reasons and paying what they owed to the Overlords of that MMO in return for more better quality fun.
Then the Dark Lord, John Smedley stuck with the Combat Upgrade and stunned the community. Of course, being happy resourceful gamers a majority went with it and recovered. Sadly, Dark Lord Smed was jealous at World of Warcrafts Popularity and wanted to pay off the new Boat he bought so he struck again with what is known as the hated NGE, ripping a huge amount of fun from the game and replacing it with cheap copied gimmicks from WoW thus killing at least 95% of its player base overnight.
This, the insanely stupid lag and the fact that 99% of the free land was covered in abandoned houses, towns and harvestors of long quit players was part of the death knell of SWG. Despite all this, the game still is incredibly just surviving today.
The tale of Star Wars Galaxies is indeed a tragic one, one of Alpha Classes Professions going over the top, a tale of overpriced and buggy Expansions and tale of loyal suffering for many players. I was one of them.
But what out weighs the memories of the bad side of the modern Star Wars Galaxies is the good memories. The fun I had, shooting Gungans with my Novice Commandos Flamethrower on Naboo as well as the hours of chat madness in the Mos Eisley and Theed Cantinas come to mind along with many other examples we'll talk about.
In the year 2004 Star Wars Galaxies was doing fine, what with no other alternitive of Star Wars MMO goodness on the market and the up coming Jump To Lightspeed Expansion pack where everyone could finally go into space. There was plenty of things to do including Mastering the 32 diverse Professions and exploring the massive Galaxy with your friends as I discovered when I began my two week free trial in August which I got with my copy of PC Gamer. I choose the European Server FarStar (Well, It was reccomended after all) and breezed through the surprisingly detailed character creator and tutorial. Back then, the SWG Tutorial was pretty neat.
My toons name? Romuski Til. His Profession? Marksman of course. Why wouldn't he use a Blaster Pistol like Han Solo? the starter Planet? Tatooine duh! I AM a big Star Wars nerd after all. Despite the restrictions of the two weeks trial (Not allowed more than 20k credits in your pocket or allowed to own property) I had oodles of fun. After wandering around Eisley, gawking at players and NPC alike I accidently picked up mission where I had to deliver a package to some guy in Mos Espa. Off I went, utterly confused about waypoints and walked a massive circle around the area outside Mos Eisley avoiding death by running like a coward at the slightest hint of a red named NPC. I almost blundered inside the infamous Tusken Bunker, and had a chat with an armoured TKA Twi'lek and his Speederbike outside. I eventually returned to Eisley and ignored the mission. Later, I found out I had a hired Landspeeder (Luke Skywalkers cruddy one from ANH) which I was overjoyed at owning. I remember flying around later in the hunts in first person view.
I remember trying out the turn based combat, and enjoying it. The HAM system, the epic music that played as my character ran about like Benny Hill trying to shoot something that looked like the lovechild between a Toad and Louie Anderson was hilarious yet epic at the same time. Everyone who has played SWG or any pre-WoW MMO has experinced this.
The first thing I did was try and ditch the rather cruddy looking n00b clothes and get myself a sexier blaster. Sort of went well. I traded my Jumpsuit top for a n00b Brawler jacket on the bazaar and bought myself a cruddy CDEF Carbine and spent half an hour playing city outskirts pest Control. Bored of that, I stumbled into the Eisley Cantina to watch an Entertainer to rid the battle fatigue making my n00b skills suck and chatted with a friendly Axe Wielding Brawler. We teamed up and took a mission together. We had to destroy a Kreetle nest. I remember us slowly ploughing through the defending Kreetles, me quite the way away from the next kneeling on my belly sniping with the n00b laser Rifle while Brawler boy chopped away at the Kreetles and nest. Mission done, credits in the back and team disbanded.
I never saw the guy again on FarStar. Maybe he was another free trial guy? A day later, I had saved up enough credits and got my first skills I joined my first Hunt on Tatooine. Now, SWG hunts were EPIC. In the old days, you could have up to twenty players on a single team. Seriously. I am not kidding. These weren't hunts, these were freaking Safari Expeditions into the deserts. Seeing a Column of Speederbikes and Landspeeder (Back then, there was only one. And it only had one seat sonny!) whizz through the desert like some Futuristic Hells Angels was breath taking. The amount of experince and credits on these hunts was well damn worth it, as well as the sights you saw because of the ramdomly placed mission beacons. It was always a delight in seeing all these uniquely dressed and armoured people, including the aliens of SWG (Rodians, Mon Calamari and Wookiees were the favourites) punching, blasting, stabbing or trapping the crap out of the poor creatures of Tatooine.
In between killing colonies of these creatures, we'd stop and make camp thanks to one of the guys who was a Scout or had Novice Scout and a few amateur Entertainers would step up and flaunt or play our battle fatgiue away. There would be jokes to share, trade deals struck and the odd amateur duel (I always remember getting my arse handed to me with these). We even lived off the land, Scouts could always use the bones and hide of the creatures they just killed for the camp tents for example.
The greatest places to go to Tatooine for Experince if you were a Noob in those days was either Fort Tusken or the Squill Cave. Both were popular with n00b, medium and heavy Profession toons as well as both crammed with loot, POI and badges. You HAD to go and explore the entire Squill cave if you dwelled on Luke Skywalkers homeworld. Squill are not nice, they are one of the most agressive damn creatures on the planet too. The mansized Green types were nothing compared to the massive Red ones at the bottom of the cave though. Teams in the Squill Cave that broke up casually risked a lot of damage to their equipment if they died because there is no chance of escaping the place alive without being knocked out more than three times by the huge gank fest crowds inside. I remember seeing my first actual Jedi in action in the Squill Cave, this was before the wave of Jedi that simply became Jedi by visiting POI I may add. I and many players were not yet embittered and Bounty Hunter Jedi conflict was still quite tiny.
Speaking of conflict, I was eventually pulled into the Galactic Civil War. I wasn't much of a PVPer, but I did like the hang with the Rebels in Anchorhead. This was before JTL mind you, and Anchorhead was a pretty hot spot. The Cantina especially. Sometimes, Imperial Players that were overt loved lurking beside that Cantina waiting to gank the foolish n00b that went overt for fun. I certainly didn't go Rebel for the ugly ugly faction armour that is for certain. When JTL rolled around (By now, I was paying subscriber) it was worth it because I joined the Rebel Navy, learned the basics in my Z-95 Headhunter and Y-Wing to finally learn to pilot an X-Wing. A close friend of mine gave an X-Wing chassis away for virtually nothing, I had to fit the parts myself which were cheap to buy or loot from space. I still sort of miss Hurricane, My X-Wing named after the fighter Hawker Hurricane.
I also remember starting my own PA (The games name for Guilds) The Neutral and Pro-Rebel Outlaws and Spaces or as we called ourselves OaS. We eventually became a Rebel PA and has Rebel Officer uniforms tailored for all active members which we wore ocassionaly. By now, I had chosen a proper set of clothes for my toon. Camoflaged Duster Overcoats, Matched with a dark long sleeved shirt, Camo trousers and leather boots. Sometimes I also wore Bone armour gloves to complete the Desert Gunfigher look.
I remember dabbling with my skills when I finally discovered I could have as many as I wanted as long as I had the skill points to pay for them (Those were the days, 160 skills points the sky was the limit...) and I picked up Medic to help me and my party on those long hot action packed hunts through the planet of Tatooine. I also recall having Scout for a brief peroid, but dropping it. I Mastered Marksman Eventually and took up the basic Hand To Hand combat of Brawler which was needed for Commando. I also, for fun, became an entertainer. I would bemuse many players in my cantina clad in Blue Winged Hawpants, boots and gloves and play with my Snizzlehorn which was the name of the musical instrument, you rude rude people. Me and a few of my friends busked outside Mos Eisley Cantina in hawtpants and our underwear, using the /sing speak command and singing made up music. Won't see that even in the Special Edition cuts of the Star Wars movies eh?
I remember during the last week of my two week free trial deciding to at least see as much as the Galaxy as possible. I bought some Greener Camo stuff from the Eisley Bazaar and boarded the shuttle for Naboo first, then Corellia and finally Dantooine. It stunned me how each planet was incredibly different. Corellia was full of wild yellow plains and brown earthy beaches as well as the most laggy and densely populated city in the game (Coronet in its Corolag days) and Naboo, green hills and swampy forrests with Spiders (Ugh) and Gungans (KILLKILLKILL).
I also remember, with great pride owning a home in the game. In the free trial, I wasn't allowed to actually own property but a nice lady Twi-lek put a house down for me and let be the co-owner. I tried to decorate the thing at first but I was so busy exploring the game I just logged out there and dumped neat stuff I wanted to keep I looted or bought off the bazaar. I named it Romuskis Dacha. When I finally got the game, I was given the actual house and the contents to me and I searched for a place to plant it myself. I found a rather empty area at the foot of the series of hills surrounding Mos Eisley and dumped it there. A player town was nearby too, with a shuttle port so it was indeed a great place. I started decorating the house too a lot better, even through the thing only had two rooms I managed to fill it up with some spartan furniture and mount my most prized loot and weapons on the wall like a proud space Redneck. As times changed, I too changed my home and its location as well as the property inside the house that grew with my toons experince and wealth. My most prized items in that house were two rugs I had gathered pieces of glue and thread throughout the Galaxy to complete. I remember being offered hundreds of credits for them which I always turned down.
Sadly, When the CU hit sadly FarStar became much more quiet due to the exodus and some of my friends were among them. I closed the PA down because most members were quit, sold the furniture inside and kept the deed for one of the players who bought the Hall from an Architect and started investing more time on my Imperial Bria toon, Akrady Renko.
That toon, dear readers we shall hear from another time in another entry.
Then the Dark Lord, John Smedley stuck with the Combat Upgrade and stunned the community. Of course, being happy resourceful gamers a majority went with it and recovered. Sadly, Dark Lord Smed was jealous at World of Warcrafts Popularity and wanted to pay off the new Boat he bought so he struck again with what is known as the hated NGE, ripping a huge amount of fun from the game and replacing it with cheap copied gimmicks from WoW thus killing at least 95% of its player base overnight.
This, the insanely stupid lag and the fact that 99% of the free land was covered in abandoned houses, towns and harvestors of long quit players was part of the death knell of SWG. Despite all this, the game still is incredibly just surviving today.
The tale of Star Wars Galaxies is indeed a tragic one, one of Alpha Classes Professions going over the top, a tale of overpriced and buggy Expansions and tale of loyal suffering for many players. I was one of them.
But what out weighs the memories of the bad side of the modern Star Wars Galaxies is the good memories. The fun I had, shooting Gungans with my Novice Commandos Flamethrower on Naboo as well as the hours of chat madness in the Mos Eisley and Theed Cantinas come to mind along with many other examples we'll talk about.
In the year 2004 Star Wars Galaxies was doing fine, what with no other alternitive of Star Wars MMO goodness on the market and the up coming Jump To Lightspeed Expansion pack where everyone could finally go into space. There was plenty of things to do including Mastering the 32 diverse Professions and exploring the massive Galaxy with your friends as I discovered when I began my two week free trial in August which I got with my copy of PC Gamer. I choose the European Server FarStar (Well, It was reccomended after all) and breezed through the surprisingly detailed character creator and tutorial. Back then, the SWG Tutorial was pretty neat.
My toons name? Romuski Til. His Profession? Marksman of course. Why wouldn't he use a Blaster Pistol like Han Solo? the starter Planet? Tatooine duh! I AM a big Star Wars nerd after all. Despite the restrictions of the two weeks trial (Not allowed more than 20k credits in your pocket or allowed to own property) I had oodles of fun. After wandering around Eisley, gawking at players and NPC alike I accidently picked up mission where I had to deliver a package to some guy in Mos Espa. Off I went, utterly confused about waypoints and walked a massive circle around the area outside Mos Eisley avoiding death by running like a coward at the slightest hint of a red named NPC. I almost blundered inside the infamous Tusken Bunker, and had a chat with an armoured TKA Twi'lek and his Speederbike outside. I eventually returned to Eisley and ignored the mission. Later, I found out I had a hired Landspeeder (Luke Skywalkers cruddy one from ANH) which I was overjoyed at owning. I remember flying around later in the hunts in first person view.
I remember trying out the turn based combat, and enjoying it. The HAM system, the epic music that played as my character ran about like Benny Hill trying to shoot something that looked like the lovechild between a Toad and Louie Anderson was hilarious yet epic at the same time. Everyone who has played SWG or any pre-WoW MMO has experinced this.
The first thing I did was try and ditch the rather cruddy looking n00b clothes and get myself a sexier blaster. Sort of went well. I traded my Jumpsuit top for a n00b Brawler jacket on the bazaar and bought myself a cruddy CDEF Carbine and spent half an hour playing city outskirts pest Control. Bored of that, I stumbled into the Eisley Cantina to watch an Entertainer to rid the battle fatigue making my n00b skills suck and chatted with a friendly Axe Wielding Brawler. We teamed up and took a mission together. We had to destroy a Kreetle nest. I remember us slowly ploughing through the defending Kreetles, me quite the way away from the next kneeling on my belly sniping with the n00b laser Rifle while Brawler boy chopped away at the Kreetles and nest. Mission done, credits in the back and team disbanded.
I never saw the guy again on FarStar. Maybe he was another free trial guy? A day later, I had saved up enough credits and got my first skills I joined my first Hunt on Tatooine. Now, SWG hunts were EPIC. In the old days, you could have up to twenty players on a single team. Seriously. I am not kidding. These weren't hunts, these were freaking Safari Expeditions into the deserts. Seeing a Column of Speederbikes and Landspeeder (Back then, there was only one. And it only had one seat sonny!) whizz through the desert like some Futuristic Hells Angels was breath taking. The amount of experince and credits on these hunts was well damn worth it, as well as the sights you saw because of the ramdomly placed mission beacons. It was always a delight in seeing all these uniquely dressed and armoured people, including the aliens of SWG (Rodians, Mon Calamari and Wookiees were the favourites) punching, blasting, stabbing or trapping the crap out of the poor creatures of Tatooine.
In between killing colonies of these creatures, we'd stop and make camp thanks to one of the guys who was a Scout or had Novice Scout and a few amateur Entertainers would step up and flaunt or play our battle fatgiue away. There would be jokes to share, trade deals struck and the odd amateur duel (I always remember getting my arse handed to me with these). We even lived off the land, Scouts could always use the bones and hide of the creatures they just killed for the camp tents for example.
The greatest places to go to Tatooine for Experince if you were a Noob in those days was either Fort Tusken or the Squill Cave. Both were popular with n00b, medium and heavy Profession toons as well as both crammed with loot, POI and badges. You HAD to go and explore the entire Squill cave if you dwelled on Luke Skywalkers homeworld. Squill are not nice, they are one of the most agressive damn creatures on the planet too. The mansized Green types were nothing compared to the massive Red ones at the bottom of the cave though. Teams in the Squill Cave that broke up casually risked a lot of damage to their equipment if they died because there is no chance of escaping the place alive without being knocked out more than three times by the huge gank fest crowds inside. I remember seeing my first actual Jedi in action in the Squill Cave, this was before the wave of Jedi that simply became Jedi by visiting POI I may add. I and many players were not yet embittered and Bounty Hunter Jedi conflict was still quite tiny.
Speaking of conflict, I was eventually pulled into the Galactic Civil War. I wasn't much of a PVPer, but I did like the hang with the Rebels in Anchorhead. This was before JTL mind you, and Anchorhead was a pretty hot spot. The Cantina especially. Sometimes, Imperial Players that were overt loved lurking beside that Cantina waiting to gank the foolish n00b that went overt for fun. I certainly didn't go Rebel for the ugly ugly faction armour that is for certain. When JTL rolled around (By now, I was paying subscriber) it was worth it because I joined the Rebel Navy, learned the basics in my Z-95 Headhunter and Y-Wing to finally learn to pilot an X-Wing. A close friend of mine gave an X-Wing chassis away for virtually nothing, I had to fit the parts myself which were cheap to buy or loot from space. I still sort of miss Hurricane, My X-Wing named after the fighter Hawker Hurricane.
I also remember starting my own PA (The games name for Guilds) The Neutral and Pro-Rebel Outlaws and Spaces or as we called ourselves OaS. We eventually became a Rebel PA and has Rebel Officer uniforms tailored for all active members which we wore ocassionaly. By now, I had chosen a proper set of clothes for my toon. Camoflaged Duster Overcoats, Matched with a dark long sleeved shirt, Camo trousers and leather boots. Sometimes I also wore Bone armour gloves to complete the Desert Gunfigher look.
I remember dabbling with my skills when I finally discovered I could have as many as I wanted as long as I had the skill points to pay for them (Those were the days, 160 skills points the sky was the limit...) and I picked up Medic to help me and my party on those long hot action packed hunts through the planet of Tatooine. I also recall having Scout for a brief peroid, but dropping it. I Mastered Marksman Eventually and took up the basic Hand To Hand combat of Brawler which was needed for Commando. I also, for fun, became an entertainer. I would bemuse many players in my cantina clad in Blue Winged Hawpants, boots and gloves and play with my Snizzlehorn which was the name of the musical instrument, you rude rude people. Me and a few of my friends busked outside Mos Eisley Cantina in hawtpants and our underwear, using the /sing speak command and singing made up music. Won't see that even in the Special Edition cuts of the Star Wars movies eh?
I remember during the last week of my two week free trial deciding to at least see as much as the Galaxy as possible. I bought some Greener Camo stuff from the Eisley Bazaar and boarded the shuttle for Naboo first, then Corellia and finally Dantooine. It stunned me how each planet was incredibly different. Corellia was full of wild yellow plains and brown earthy beaches as well as the most laggy and densely populated city in the game (Coronet in its Corolag days) and Naboo, green hills and swampy forrests with Spiders (Ugh) and Gungans (KILLKILLKILL).
I also remember, with great pride owning a home in the game. In the free trial, I wasn't allowed to actually own property but a nice lady Twi-lek put a house down for me and let be the co-owner. I tried to decorate the thing at first but I was so busy exploring the game I just logged out there and dumped neat stuff I wanted to keep I looted or bought off the bazaar. I named it Romuskis Dacha. When I finally got the game, I was given the actual house and the contents to me and I searched for a place to plant it myself. I found a rather empty area at the foot of the series of hills surrounding Mos Eisley and dumped it there. A player town was nearby too, with a shuttle port so it was indeed a great place. I started decorating the house too a lot better, even through the thing only had two rooms I managed to fill it up with some spartan furniture and mount my most prized loot and weapons on the wall like a proud space Redneck. As times changed, I too changed my home and its location as well as the property inside the house that grew with my toons experince and wealth. My most prized items in that house were two rugs I had gathered pieces of glue and thread throughout the Galaxy to complete. I remember being offered hundreds of credits for them which I always turned down.
Sadly, When the CU hit sadly FarStar became much more quiet due to the exodus and some of my friends were among them. I closed the PA down because most members were quit, sold the furniture inside and kept the deed for one of the players who bought the Hall from an Architect and started investing more time on my Imperial Bria toon, Akrady Renko.
That toon, dear readers we shall hear from another time in another entry.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Original MMO Game Suggestions!
Okay, people of the Massive Multiplayer Online Game industry, listen up. It is time to get serious. It is time, as they say to Express Yourself. Like the NWA song, but without the Hip Hop and Drug uses references. Oh wait, you guys at SOE can forget about that bit. Keep snorting that crack and hoping your latest re-attept at making SWG 'Hip' succeeds because it won't.
Lets get to the point. Enough with the Fantasy shite. No more swords, magic and Elves for christ sake. You have defiled Tolkien enough already. No more World of Evercraft VIII clones. Please. I'm begging you guys from the bottom of my heart. That goes for you too, South Korea. We'll take about your MMO games another day.
At the moment, the only original interesting MMO games going are City of Heroes, Second Life, PlanetSide, EVE Online, and Tabula Rasa. The rest are Fantasy Clones, Failed Attempts at cashing in on Franchises of Matrix Online (Cough SOE Cough). Other worthy mentions are A Tale In The Desert 2 and Battleground Europe.
But there is hope for the Industry, as we can see with Pirates of The Burning Sea, Huxley and several other interesting projects being formed. At last it is leaving the Dark Ages of Swords and Magic. If people are going to waste time in front of their PC, they might as well be having fun right? So below, I've composed some crude but slightly detailed descriptions of MMO games I'd like to subscribe too, and waste a few months of my life on in the cold Winter and Spring nights.
Napoleonica Era!
Title a work in progress, Napoleonica Era is set in the late 18th century and early 19th century of Europe during the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars. This is a mix of MMO RPG and MMO FPS, so turn based combat, with a little clicky shooty action with lots of PVP. You can choose to fight in the British, Prussian, Russian, Spanish, Austrian Armies or take up the Golden Eagle with the French, Italian and Polish Armies led by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The players will all start out as Junior NCO Officers and fight for experience, which will eventually promote them up the ranks. The real appeal is creating the Cannon, Cavalry and Musket Heavy action on the battlefield with hundreds or even thousands of men in combat. A majority of the petty grunts will bots, all commanded either by the Players themselves (Who are Officers) or the Big AI Generals. The Battlefields will some of the coasts and Inland Areas of Portugal, Spain, France and Northern Germany. Weather and Supply Wagons as well as day and night will play key features in combat. Player avatars can choose and customise their uniform (Want fresh off the sewing machine laced up Cavalry jackets or a faded bloody Redcoat?) and looting the corpses of the dead will be encouraged. The French or Coalition will win the game if all the Forts and Cities of the Battlefield Areas have fallen!
Democracy: One Player, One Vote!:
A game based on the sleaze, corruption and general chaos of the British Government (US and Asian version of the game will bet set in the Senate or Diet) the player can create a Politician using the heavily detailed character creator (40 different kinds of tweed) and lie, cheat or embezzle their way to the top and become Prime Minister for a Month! The player can either join established Political Parties or form their own, with their own crazy batpoop insane policies and irrelevant Party Symbol (Over 400 to choose from!). PVP and Competition is obviously the main priorities of this game and you will have many ways to annoy your opponents with blackmail, Propaganda, In chat Mud Slinging during Parliamentary Sessions (Sir John L33t is a fag!) and Umbrella on Briefcase on combat. You must all gain influence in the district of London, now renamed Bestminster by also harassing the public NPC. The fun never ends, until the Public finally riot and force you out of your seat. Blackmail, Influencing the Tabloids, Sucking up to the Royal Family and running Irritating Press Conferences non stop on the news, you can do it all with D1P1V. Sort of Republic The Revolution meeting Spitting Image of crack in other words.
The Rusty Wild West:
A game set in a Victorian Era Steampunk Wild West setting, where everyone outside the towns and cities has to fight nature or their fellow man to survive and everyone is out for themselves. This game will be unique, because your player will have the ability to help build your Posses (Guild) Tank Mech and fight for the Gold Mines and Town Supply nodes. Vehicle Combat requires moving fast and taking out key parts of your enemies Fuel Supply, Gear Box or go for the heavily armoured chassis containing the player themselves. The game will also be very player Oriented, Towns need to be actually occupied, lived and stocked by players. NPC presence determines how successful and rich the town is as well as hard it is to be attacked. The character creator will be of course, obviously detailed. This a modern MMO requirement.
Civilization V: Civ Online:
At last, Civ V online. Yes, I know you can play Civ IV online but compared to this, the scale is tiny. Civ V Online will be epic. Each Server will have a massive randomly generated map which changes at the end of each game, each game will go on until a series of players win either by conquering a huge portion of the world under their banner, uniting it or developing massive space colonies outside the world. Instead of the already developed Civilizations the player himself gets to choose his own Leaderhead (Sort of like Eve Online facial features, crossed with the clothes of COX costumes) and either choose a stock flag or upload one from his own PC. His nation will also be randomly assigned a unique unit for each Era with Random stats. Players must struggle with war, diplomacy and surviving the random events and tasks given by The Creator (Server admins). The Tech tree will be expanded and broken up a little to make it last longer, Religions, Corporations and Spying would be also be made more detailed and Relevant. This game would be epic.
Phew, those were only a few suggestions. But I would love to see any of these and play them even just a four day three trial. And just in case, HANDS OF SOE. You are NOT touching any of them.
Lets get to the point. Enough with the Fantasy shite. No more swords, magic and Elves for christ sake. You have defiled Tolkien enough already. No more World of Evercraft VIII clones. Please. I'm begging you guys from the bottom of my heart. That goes for you too, South Korea. We'll take about your MMO games another day.
At the moment, the only original interesting MMO games going are City of Heroes, Second Life, PlanetSide, EVE Online, and Tabula Rasa. The rest are Fantasy Clones, Failed Attempts at cashing in on Franchises of Matrix Online (Cough SOE Cough). Other worthy mentions are A Tale In The Desert 2 and Battleground Europe.
But there is hope for the Industry, as we can see with Pirates of The Burning Sea, Huxley and several other interesting projects being formed. At last it is leaving the Dark Ages of Swords and Magic. If people are going to waste time in front of their PC, they might as well be having fun right? So below, I've composed some crude but slightly detailed descriptions of MMO games I'd like to subscribe too, and waste a few months of my life on in the cold Winter and Spring nights.
Napoleonica Era!
Title a work in progress, Napoleonica Era is set in the late 18th century and early 19th century of Europe during the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars. This is a mix of MMO RPG and MMO FPS, so turn based combat, with a little clicky shooty action with lots of PVP. You can choose to fight in the British, Prussian, Russian, Spanish, Austrian Armies or take up the Golden Eagle with the French, Italian and Polish Armies led by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The players will all start out as Junior NCO Officers and fight for experience, which will eventually promote them up the ranks. The real appeal is creating the Cannon, Cavalry and Musket Heavy action on the battlefield with hundreds or even thousands of men in combat. A majority of the petty grunts will bots, all commanded either by the Players themselves (Who are Officers) or the Big AI Generals. The Battlefields will some of the coasts and Inland Areas of Portugal, Spain, France and Northern Germany. Weather and Supply Wagons as well as day and night will play key features in combat. Player avatars can choose and customise their uniform (Want fresh off the sewing machine laced up Cavalry jackets or a faded bloody Redcoat?) and looting the corpses of the dead will be encouraged. The French or Coalition will win the game if all the Forts and Cities of the Battlefield Areas have fallen!
Democracy: One Player, One Vote!:
A game based on the sleaze, corruption and general chaos of the British Government (US and Asian version of the game will bet set in the Senate or Diet) the player can create a Politician using the heavily detailed character creator (40 different kinds of tweed) and lie, cheat or embezzle their way to the top and become Prime Minister for a Month! The player can either join established Political Parties or form their own, with their own crazy batpoop insane policies and irrelevant Party Symbol (Over 400 to choose from!). PVP and Competition is obviously the main priorities of this game and you will have many ways to annoy your opponents with blackmail, Propaganda, In chat Mud Slinging during Parliamentary Sessions (Sir John L33t is a fag!) and Umbrella on Briefcase on combat. You must all gain influence in the district of London, now renamed Bestminster by also harassing the public NPC. The fun never ends, until the Public finally riot and force you out of your seat. Blackmail, Influencing the Tabloids, Sucking up to the Royal Family and running Irritating Press Conferences non stop on the news, you can do it all with D1P1V. Sort of Republic The Revolution meeting Spitting Image of crack in other words.
The Rusty Wild West:
A game set in a Victorian Era Steampunk Wild West setting, where everyone outside the towns and cities has to fight nature or their fellow man to survive and everyone is out for themselves. This game will be unique, because your player will have the ability to help build your Posses (Guild) Tank Mech and fight for the Gold Mines and Town Supply nodes. Vehicle Combat requires moving fast and taking out key parts of your enemies Fuel Supply, Gear Box or go for the heavily armoured chassis containing the player themselves. The game will also be very player Oriented, Towns need to be actually occupied, lived and stocked by players. NPC presence determines how successful and rich the town is as well as hard it is to be attacked. The character creator will be of course, obviously detailed. This a modern MMO requirement.
Civilization V: Civ Online:
At last, Civ V online. Yes, I know you can play Civ IV online but compared to this, the scale is tiny. Civ V Online will be epic. Each Server will have a massive randomly generated map which changes at the end of each game, each game will go on until a series of players win either by conquering a huge portion of the world under their banner, uniting it or developing massive space colonies outside the world. Instead of the already developed Civilizations the player himself gets to choose his own Leaderhead (Sort of like Eve Online facial features, crossed with the clothes of COX costumes) and either choose a stock flag or upload one from his own PC. His nation will also be randomly assigned a unique unit for each Era with Random stats. Players must struggle with war, diplomacy and surviving the random events and tasks given by The Creator (Server admins). The Tech tree will be expanded and broken up a little to make it last longer, Religions, Corporations and Spying would be also be made more detailed and Relevant. This game would be epic.
Phew, those were only a few suggestions. But I would love to see any of these and play them even just a four day three trial. And just in case, HANDS OF SOE. You are NOT touching any of them.
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