Carbine Studios' "Wildstar"

[Malakili]

Ok, we can stop confusing people with a common term used for 10 years, lets call it "what I AM doing is not what I WANT to be doing"

AoC for another example, Its combat was praised on every gaming site known to man. Finally every sword and board kiddy can finally aim there sword, hit someone, and even hit the person next to him. It was the jebus of game design, you had combos which had starters and finishers and you could actively block and evade attacks. The days of stand and trade blows combat is over funcom declared, and they were right, and people loved them and pve'ers sang there praise for 20 levels and the magic ride ended there. The fourms ran red with the blood of subscriptions being canceled as the fanboys hugged themselves jeering and weeping as they told there fellow gamers to go back to WoW, that the grind wasn't that bad, that there need not be an endgame! They wondered why one of the first action oriented mmo's, the first brake from staple diku combat, could fail so miserably.  

What I'm saying is that a game that is fun is fun regardless of how often the game sucks your dick with a new level.   If you stop getting shiny from the game and you feel like quitting, thats probably a good sign you should've quit a while ago.

[Mrbloodworth]

First Action MMO? No.

AOC has the typical MMO issues for many, combat wasn't really one.

[Amaron]

I disagree, I think it is absolutely because the gameplay isn't fun.  Make a Borderlands MMO and I bet a lot of us sick of the current crop of MMORPGs would play the hell out of it.   Grinding is a meaningless term - it vaguely describes "The game is convincing me to keep playing to attain an in game goal even though its not fun for me to play"  People never trot out the word "grind" when they are having fun actually playing.

Wait are you arguing that diku combat shouldn't exist or that you're just tired of it?   I want to play some action MMO's as well of but not all the time.   I'd rather not pit my reflexes against 16 year olds in an MMO I'm actually serious about.

[PalmTrees]

Gameplay in the video looked ok. Small addition to the target and hotkey combat (which is just fine with me) with the moving out of the circle. I liked the quest updates by video phone in the corner. Environmental hazards look a bit tedious and static. Had to dodge the same ones going down the mountain as he did coming up.

Do not like the design of the bunny girl. The purple furry ears and tail look like costume bits added on. More like a cosplayer than a different species. Also the tail is just too big for her body. Are there bunny boys and rock girls or are the races gender locked?

Got a chuckle about the theme of the zone being saving everyone from freezing to death while the character was running around in a short sleeved shirt/hot pants outfit.

[DLRiley]

Ok, we can stop confusing people with a common term used for 10 years, lets call it "what I AM doing is not what I WANT to be doing"

AoC for another example, Its combat was praised on every gaming site known to man. Finally every sword and board kiddy can finally aim there sword, hit someone, and even hit the person next to him. It was the jebus of game design, you had combos which had starters and finishers and you could actively block and evade attacks. The days of stand and trade blows combat is over funcom declared, and they were right, and people loved them and pve'ers sang there praise for 20 levels and the magic ride ended there. The fourms ran red with the blood of subscriptions being canceled as the fanboys hugged themselves jeering and weeping as they told there fellow gamers to go back to WoW, that the grind wasn't that bad, that there need not be an endgame! They wondered why one of the first action oriented mmo's, the first brake from staple diku combat, could fail so miserably.  

What I'm saying is that a game that is fun is fun regardless of how often the game sucks your dick with a new level.   If you stop getting shiny from the game and you feel like quitting, thats probably a good sign you should've quit a while ago.

I find TF2 Fun. I played it for hours, like 5-7 hour sessions straight till the computer over heats, never got bored.
I find Chronicles of Spellborn fun. I played it for hours, 2-4 hour sessions, got bored.

All I'm saying is that there is a big divide between finding what you CAN do fun and finding what your DOING fun, a divide most mmo's don't acknowledge exist so they bull ahead with game design decisions that make the game uninteresting and wonder why no ones interested.

And no AoC was probably not the first action mmo, but it was hyped as such. My post never stated anything wrong with AoC combat.

[Lucas]

Interview with Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney (some new info here and there):

http://www.tentonhammer.com/wildstar/interviews/cons-2011

- Two Factions: Dominion and Exiles; humans in both factions, the other races are unique to each faction (regarding the Exiles, apparently there are more besides Granoks and Aurins) ;
- Fully "mod-able" UI;

- Possibility of playing in space? (no free-flight space travel, though):


About the "Settler" path (still nebulous...it shows that they're still heavily tackling it):


- Regarding the starting areas:


Some more stuff at the above mentioned link.

[Lucas]

Sooo, what's been happening in the last 10 months

Err, not much really, at least public-wise: lots of blogging and some hints here and there about their take on some gameplay features (and design in general), but that's it. Looks like they'll save most of the new stuff (especially a more detailed look at the "settler" path) for this year's Gamescom.

Some highlights:

- Just posted: a quick look to the ongoing "Friends and Family" testing (I really dig the art style; looks like they're also going for a "tera-like" targeting system?)
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_an_inside_look_at_wildstars_friends_family.php

- the job of the "narrative designer":
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_the_story_of_an_epic_world.php

- "Quest text in 140 characters" part 1:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_quest_text_in_140_characters_more_or_less.php

- "Quest text in 140 characters" part 2:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_quest_text_in_140_characters_more_or_less_part2.php

- Northern Wilds (first zone of the game, I think, at least for one of the factions) bestiary:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_northern_wilds_bestiary.php

- Northern Wilds minibosses:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_northern_wilds_minibosses.php

- Musical score:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_wildstar_music.php

- "Algoroc" zone (immediately after Northern Wilds, I think):
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_introduction_to_algoroc.php

- Algoroc rogues:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_algoroc_rogues_gallery.php

- Wildstar will feature UI add-ons !
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_yes_well_have_ui_addons.php

- "Quality of life" features:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_jeremy_gaffney_on_quality_of_life_features.php

- Insights into Eldan technologies:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_insights_into_eldan_technology.php

- A scientific analysis of "Loftite":
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_-_a_scientific_analysis_of_loftite.php

- "Gallow" a settlement located inside the Algoroc zone:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_welcome_to_gallow.php

[ashrik]

I was watching a video of this over at RPS (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/14/the-paths-to-glory-wildstar/) and I do like how it looks. The gameplay, not the neon fox-tails, that is. Very action game vibe to the combat, which I'm really digging as a new trend for MMOs.  After clicking on one of Lucas's videos, that is not the face/neckbeard I expected to see with that voice.

[Amaron]

They put up another short video showing some group combat:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/28/wildstars-group-combat-looks-sort-of-familiar/

I have to say despite not liking the holy trinity the whole free form targeting in combat looks really fun.  It reminds me a lot of LoL combat almost.

[Lucas]

"PROTOSTAR CORPORATION ANNOUNCES NEXUS HOUSING INITIATIVE" :
http://www.wildstar-online.com/uk/blog/protostar_corporation_announces_nexus_housing_initiative.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bNjhJxdb0E

(housing and player-owned lands with possibility to enhance it).

As a standalone feature, it looks simply fabulous: we'll see how it integrates with the rest of the gameplay.

P.S. YOU CAN PLACE YOUR LAND/HOUSE IN THE SKY!!!  

[Malakili]

Housing makes this at least worth keeping an eye on!

[Amaron]

That's fairly interesting.  If they aren't going to instance the housing then they must have a fairly big area to put it all in.   Even with that housing in the sky thing they'd run out of room.

[Modern Angel]

I'd put dollars to donuts that they crib from Anarchy Online

[Amaron]

I'd put dollars to donuts that they crib from Anarchy Online

Do you mean the instancing?  I thought AO was 100% instanced on the apartments.

[Kitsune]

I think he was referencing the guild cities in AO out in the wilderness.

My only question here is what good comes from building turrets around one's flying house.  Is there any actual possibility of invasion?  House vs House combat?

[Amaron]

House vs House combat?

I desperately hope to one day see a game with airship housing specifically for that.

[Modern Angel]

I think he was referencing the guild cities in AO out in the wilderness.

Yeah that's what I meant.

[Nonentity]

There's a four-part developer walkthrough up on Gametrailers.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

[Malakili]

That actually looks pretty decent.

[Phred]

Ya with this and gw2 it doesn't look like their stock price will stay down for long.
Though it will take some flak for the questing which looks pretty vanilla, if the npc he ran by with a ! over it's head is any indicator.

[Ghambit]

House vs House combat?

I desperately hope to one day see a game with airship housing specifically for that.

Go play Allods.

[Amaron]

Good find on those walkthroughs.  Seems like they are further along than I thought now.

Go play Allods.

I would if it wasn't horrendous P2W. 

[Nonentity]

Game is coming out this year.

http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_february_state_of_the_game.php

Here's a video introducing one of the player factions, the Exiles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn8648VGMKM

[Zetor]

This game looks pretty quirky and fun to me (though I have NO idea why they think their system of moving "get out of fire" circles on the ground is revolutionary combat), and I'll take cartoony scifi over boring fantasy mmo #639085 any day!

[Lucas]

This game looks pretty quirky and fun to me (though I have NO idea why they think their system of moving "get out of fire" circles on the ground is revolutionary combat), and I'll take cartoony scifi over boring fantasy mmo #639085 any day!

Yeah, same, I always liked their approach and enthusiasm for the project: something that aims to be, first of all, fun and with diversified activities (paths and other features like housing, which I love); not attempting to be the  "next greatest thing", a sandbox simulation or trying to promise lots of far-fetched stuff. Regarding combat, yeah, with the release of TERA and GW2, "actiony" combat is nothing new: we'll see if they can add another layer to it, or make it fun, anyway.

The central part of the "state of the game" is quite interesting:

The other critical (and frankly, often ignored) stage of MMO games is what happens once you hit the level cap – the Elder Game. Once you’re done leveling a character, there needs to be an interesting set of innovative content there for you to play, and some radical systems that incent long-term replayability. 

Honestly, it’s about the most important thing in the game, and it’s often neglected.  We can do better. You can’t rush these things in the month before launch, because when you do, it shows. Players play in different ways:

For players who like playing cooperatively:  We want epically hard raids, which reward you not only for managing to complete them – but that allow you to compete for truly epic rewards if you can prove that you are better than everyone else on the planet.

To this end, we’ve built some cool tech – it lets us change our world and modify the terrain very easily,  in some cases dynamically.  This lets us mix up our raids and dungeons on a weekly basis to provide new challenges, but it goes beyond this.

For instance, this tech lets you not just build a house, but modify the land around it in ways that truly matter.

But housing’s been done before – so what’s the next step? We’ve used this to hand you the power to band together and build a full-on battlefield (your Warplot, we call it) – so that the best in the world at PvP have a way to build, invest, and show their dominance not just through cool armor or glowy swords, but by creating truly epic persistent fortresses to take to war.

And solo players are tragically underserved in most MMOs – something like 65% of players tend to play largely solo (Massively Single-player, as it were).  So we can use that same tech to give them frequent updates of new solo story content for the cap frequently – advancing our world story and giving you more to do than daily quests or reputation grinds.

[Draegan]

This game looks pretty quirky and fun to me (though I have NO idea why they think their system of moving "get out of fire" circles on the ground is revolutionary combat), and I'll take cartoony scifi over boring fantasy mmo #639085 any day!

I played a bit of this game in 2011 at PAX Prime and the get out of fire stuff is on almost every skill.  Sleaves, swipes, attacks, whatever.  So it's not really just for special attacks.  At least it was so on the bigger mobs.

They weren' showing much and it looked like any other quest driven DIKU.  Their state of the game sounds interesting when they got to the end game stuff.  Building keeps and housing seems neet if they actually don't instance the shit out of it.

[Fordel]

I had forgotten this was even supposed to exist. Is there a TLDR for what this about anywhere?

[Draegan]

Read the state of the game article, then if you want to watch videos watch the different path videos.

[Fordel]

It's just all the usual MMO dev hurf blurf.

Looks pretty though.

[Zetor]

There's some more info in Massively's fairly detailed write-up (3 articles) linked from this post - http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/02/06/wildstar-reveals-2013-launch-window-ambitious-plans-to-make-mmo/

The tldr seems to be that it's sort of like GW2 combat, with TSW-esque aoe indicators that are Serious Business (and also used by players to signal what moves they'll be doing for combos?), player housing and COH-style 'housing pvp', and some quirky shit with the settler and explorer archetypes that goes beyond kill stuff - level up.

[Lucas]

Looks like next week we'll finally learn more about the Dominion faction: I think we can get a glimpse of one of the races during the presentation video linked above (the horned character). Also, there is still one, unrevealed Exile race. One of the articles on Massively does a good jub in summarizing some aspects of the game:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/02/06/the-biggest-game-on-the-planet-wildstars-boundless-ambition/

Here's a video on the dynamic combat from last september:

http://youtu.be/PgFo28scfYM

[Fordel]

The last Exile race is clearly space zombies.

[luckton]

The naive part of me is starting to get somewhat excited about this title.  The press blitz they did this week looks nice.

Hope someone told them that while they're trying to reinvent the wheel (again) that subscription-based games are old hat...

[luckton]

More stuff.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/02/13/everyones-a-potential-traitor-even-you-wildstars-dominion/

tl;dr
- Humans for both factions
- Two other races ("undead" Robots and lizard-like race)
- Stalker (read: Rogue) class is in

[Lantyssa]

Aaaaand, I just became a Dominion gal.  Dragons, Robots, and spiffy uniforms.