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 World War 2 Online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World War 2 Online. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
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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