Carbine Studios' "Wildstar"

[Nebu]

Bought this and will probably play it for a month with a friend.  I'm guessing that he will want to play exiles.  If anyone wants to get together on a server and run a few dungeons, shoot me a PM.  Not sure how much or for how long I'll play.  I just need something new to mess with.

[Sjofn]

Settler was the only one I could really stand. I hate exploring, so that was out from the word go. Scientist was second place, but the robot buddy was annoying to control (it's probably better now) and frankly the lore was not interesting enough for me to get past the horrible fonts (and I tend to tune out the jibberjabber if I'm fighting). Warrior was just more fighting, obviously.

Yeah, settler is basically just picking up things you find lying around, but I liked the stuff I could build with it, and I REALLY liked that other people could use it. My favorite thing to do was build a bunch of buff stations and watch people sprint over to get them.

[Rokal]

Settler also gets a lot of really nice abilities from the profession. The ability to summon vendors, crafting stations, or a mailbox for your group, etc.

Scientist was the worst of the bunch for me. Boring lore and scanning lots of dead enemies/objects.

[Signe]

Settler was the only one I could really stand. I hate exploring, so that was out from the word go. Scientist was second place, but the robot buddy was annoying to control (it's probably better now) and frankly the lore was not interesting enough for me to get past the horrible fonts (and I tend to tune out the jibberjabber if I'm fighting). Warrior was just more fighting, obviously.

Yeah, settler is basically just picking up things you find lying around, but I liked the stuff I could build with it, and I REALLY liked that other people could use it. My favorite thing to do was build a bunch of buff stations and watch people sprint over to get them.

   You are such a mom!   

[Sjofn]

Lies! 


ok maybe a little bit of a mom

[Venkman]

I haven't explored all four paths to know which I like. But I am annoyed that there are contrived differences you need to choose on the front end. I would have preferred a model where everyone sees everything and you can go up each of the scales based on your choices. For example, I liked the Soldier defense points thing (my favorite part of Firefall) and the Explorers thing (I'm a turn-over-all-the-rocks kinda guy). But it seems pedantic to require two different characters to do both.

[Rokal]

If you play with someone else you can participate in their Path tasks stuff and get Path exp out of it, which is as close as you'll get to what you're requesting at launch.

[Lantyssa]

I haven't explored all four paths to know which I like. But I am annoyed that there are contrived differences you need to choose on the front end. I would have preferred a model where everyone sees everything and you can go up each of the scales based on your choices. For example, I liked the Soldier defense points thing (my favorite part of Firefall) and the Explorers thing (I'm a turn-over-all-the-rocks kinda guy). But it seems pedantic to require two different characters to do both.

It really should just let you play the way you want.  There's no reason to restrict the paths.  If someone finds one of them fun they'll do them.

[Venkman]

If you play with someone else you can participate in their Path tasks stuff and get Path exp out of it, which is as close as you'll get to what you're requesting at launch.

Oh cool.

But wait, that means I'd need to play with another person?

WTF happened to being able to solo all these multiplayer games! Forced interaction??


 

[Simond]

Remind me to quote you in a few months.

[Venkman]

About which part? In a few months I won't even remember my login info to this one. 

[sam, an eggplant]

It really should just let you play the way you want.  There's no reason to restrict the paths.  If someone finds one of them fun they'll do them.

Yeah, I agree. If all players had access to all the paths, the game would actually have a great deal more content. You want to make a game attractive to explorers? No need to make your players tick the "explorer" box at character creation-- just design a world with tons of cool nooks and crannies to explore, reward the action of exploring. Same applies to killers, socializers, and achievers.

The point of the old bartle test is that it's not exclusive for any of the 4 archetypical players. You might score 100% explorer and 100% achiever. Or 100% explorer and 40% socializer, 69% achiever, 44% killer. By restricting players to only one of these "paths", they're constraining the attraction of their game. I plan to play as an explorer personally, but I'll miss the lore tidbits from science. And no, alts are not the answer, keep quiet in the back there Kevin!

A much better approach would be to ask players to choose one path, and provide triple path experience for activities related to that path, but allow players to do anything they want.

[Rokal]

One of the primary benefits they've been touting for the path system is that it will make leveling alts more interesting since you will have the option of doing different path content on that character even if you are repeating quest content. After 22 both factions follow the exact same path for leveling zones, so you're going to want to switch it up somehow if you plan on leveling alts. Evidently some of the later zones are supposed to be a bit less linear & more quest bloated though, so you would theoretically pick different quest hubs to visit on different characters.

[sam, an eggplant]

Thanks Kevin, but I mentioned alts. That's not a strong justification for fencing off content. A much better approach is to give players an abundance of content so they can pick and choose what to consume according to their personal preferences. Then, if they choose to level through the same areas on alts, they can either do the same stuff over again (it is what they prefer and enjoy, right?) or choose to do the other stuff. Even though they may not enjoy it to the same degree, it's fresh.

[Venkman]

My guess is that eventually they'll let you go on all paths. They don't need to right now because they're just launching. But very quickly they'll hear enough feedback from paying players about lack of content and unwillingness to re-roll. The whole idea of choice = alts is so old school I'm kinda surprised it's being touted again.

But then like I said elsewhere: just because there's a lot of history in this space doesn't mean everyone working in it knows it :)

[Signe]

Who's Kevin?

[Lantyssa]

Random peanut gallery name.  Rokal just happened to step up into the role right away.

[Signe]

Why don't I know these things?  What's wrong with me that I don't know/remember/suss this sort of internetery slango?  I give up.  I'm probably Kevin, too.

[Abelian75]

Classic Kevin.

[Signe]

As opposed to diet, ten or cherry?

[Venkman]

Why don't I know these things?  What's wrong with me that I don't know/remember/suss this sort of internetery slango?  I give up.  I'm probably Kevin, too.

LOL. Shit I have no idea who Kevin is either, and I'm a guy. Therefore, *I* must be spartacus kevin.

[Ghambit]

It's safe to assume they'll let you 'respec' paths at some point, somehow.  Probably for a price.  But it would only work if they scaled the soldier missions to level; therein lies the difficulty of giving Kevin what he wants.
As for making it non-gated?  That would neglect the effect of being the special snowflake, which also plays into some of the higher level strat I'm sure (overwatch, particular buffs, gear creep, etc.)

I'd rather have settlers who were good at only a few pods so each could concentrate on those mats.  Same with Scientists.  High-lvl soldiers would be your frontline troops of course; depending on gear choice.  Explorers eventually will be able to go where no one else can; so they have overwatch advantages to go along with whatever gear they find.

The moral is, there's already too much there to make it wide open at launch.  Let the endgame flesh out a bit, then maybe un-gate some content.  If the game goes /crickets, you can pretty much guarantee they'll un-gate it.

[Evildrider]

Wildstar launch trailer.

[Signe]

Since I bought this, I'm leaning towards an RP server (one they just made, I guess) for PvE.  Dunno about PvP.

-Kevin

[sam, an eggplant]

I understand they're adding a /present emote for the little rabbit girls. Should help with that rp.

[Rasix]

Wildstar launch trailer.

Their marketing department is quite fantastic.  Almost want to buy it.  If certain people were, I probably even would. 

[Venkman]

Wildstar launch trailer.

Cute, but the script was better than the VO

I'll be in on Sat. Enjoyed the beta enough to stop playing so I could have a fresh experience at head start. I get so little time to game these days this could last me awhile. If nothing else I like the new fresh kinda-like-GW2 smell of it (though GW2 hit you with a lot more "what's around this corner"/"under this rock") stuff right away whereas Wildstar doles it out a little slower).

[Cadaverine]

Since I am a glutton for punishment, I too will  be playing on Saturday. CamilleNoire if anyone needs a Forsaken Space Zombie healer.

[Nebu]

Their marketing department is quite fantastic.  Almost want to buy it.  If certain people were, I probably even would. 

Playing with 3 other friends if you're interested in joining us for PvP and some 5-man dungeons.  It's a solid game with plenty to do. 

[Bhazrak]

Were my friends not all going Dominion, I'd probably pick it up. Mostly though, I think I want an MMO break after ESO.

[Venkman]

Can't remember: is this one where we need to pick a server? Or is it all one world where we can bounce between named instances ala GW2 or Landmark?

[Evildrider]

You have to pick a server if you want to raid with people.  Otherwise I think you can do dungeons cross server.  Not sure on all the details.

[Miasma]

Pick a server, there are PvE, PvP and RP.  Pretty sure the name lists are already known.

[Goldenmean]

FWIW, I'm rolling Avatus Dominion side with some old WoW friends if anyone wants to join.

I'd love to raid, but doubt I'll find enough people on my schedule, so I'm resigned to just hitting level cap and doing the veteran single group content.

[Riggswolfe]

I may give this a try and am debating how much of a glutton for punishment to be RE: Class/path combination.