Saturday, May 31, 2014

Emergency, Everyone To Get Off Of Street

Hello to the spambots that quasi-read this.

Been tearing about in World of Tanks for the Xbox.  Things are actually going well.  Wargaming is going to finally release the Soviet tech tree, so soon All Patriots will be able to bury the Imperialists in an avalanche of steel, lead, and Heavy quotes.

No, I'm reading up on my Marx and shit, just getting excited about having EVEN MOAR TANX to tear about and wreck things with.  Very excited.

In other news, a Wreckonomics post should be forthcoming within the week.  This time will be a very tough nut to crack, SaGa Frontier 2 for the PS1.  It's one of the hidden gems of the era, when Square wasn't covering everybody with belts.

I may as well talk some about that before the rant the post will require comes up.  It's actually a very good game with a challenging combat system with lots of surprises.  The graphics combine watercolor--but not cutesy--backgrounds with very distinct character sprites.  There are some pitfalls in the artwork, including the classic invisible walls, but overall its very well done.  The sprites are nice too, but the close-up version of one main character looks less like a badass and more like Ronald McDonald had one of Indiana Jones' many, many lovechildren.

The music is also very stunning; stunning enough that I hunted down the soundtrack years ago, and when a disc cracked (sob!) I hunted down a second copy.  If you're actually reading this, go on youtube and search for Freiluftmuzik and Zauberkraft for a good taste of it.  Oh yeah, the composer spent a good deal of time on Germany, so all the song titles are in German.  That gives us a soundtrack done by a Japanese dude (Masashi Hamauzu) with German names gushed over by a redneck-ish American guy.  Being provincial is for the weak!

The story is...well it's a SaGa game.  It's linear and convoluted at the same time, with many, many viewpoint characters.  You need to experience for yourself.  Suffice to say somebody managed to take late medieval history and politics, Lord of the Rings, the Darksword Trilogy, and more and managed to make this bizarre, but tasty, plot smoothie; and it works!

I'll get into the combat mechanics later for the Wreckonomics post, since they are intimately related to the ecomonic challenges of the itinerant dungeon looter.

Just remember, Coward Killing Time on set for June 3rd.  Come and let us give tanks!

Monday, May 26, 2014

Wreckonomics -- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Finally, another Wreckonomics post!  It has been quite a while since I've babbled on about how to destroy a game's in-universe economy, and soon I'll have more to show as well (hopefully).

This one deals with Dragon's Dogma.

Dragon's Dogma and Dragon's Dogma:  Dark Arisen is copyright Capcom.  All content discussed in this article are strictly for review purposes and related discussion.

Holy crap, did Capcom actually deliver for once!  This is one of those RPGs that really need to be played once.  While the plot is somewhere between bland and cliché, the combat is truly a wonder.  It's face-paced and brutal, and very much real-time.  You fight all sorts of wonderful nasties, from goblins and angry lizard-people to bigass cyclopes and dragons.  The big boss fights are a joy, actually expecting you to climb on a huge monster and whack the hell out of it, clinging to dear life.

Another nifty idea is the Pawn system.  Not only do you get to create a badass main character for yourself, but you get to make a second character to be your personal kickass henchman.  Both of these characters take advantage a very deep customization system, with basic physical stats derived from your body type, musculature, height, and so on.  And once you're done, you can get your hands on all sorts of armor and clothes and play Badass Dress-Up.  Once that's over, you can hire two more pawns created by other players to make a party of sweet monster destruction goodness.

The customization system and equipment combinations are extremely deep, but there are...well not so much flaws as there are possibilities for all sorts of weirdness.  Rainbow Pimp Gear syndrome is very extant in this game, compounded by crazy skin/hair tones and body types.  For example, I frequently encounter a pawn that looks like a fat giant Smurf and dresses like a bad Mortal Kombat OC sketch.  Oh, and this abomination talks like a reasonably normal 20s-30s-ish woman!

Everything got cranked up to 11 when Capcom decided to make an expanded re-release of the game, Dragon's Dogma:  Dark Arisen.  They added some needed features, including an improved fast-travel system, plus a whole new dungeon set and a new layer of monsters, suitable for high-level characters and/or total battle addicts.  Protip:  Go ahead and get your hands on the vanilla game, then get Dark Arisen.  The fast-travel improvements are even better if you start with a vanilla savefile and then update.

I could really keep going, but you need to play this game to really get the taste.  Fortunately, there are versions for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and are reasonably prices all around.  Then come back for the nitty-gritty for destroying the monetary system.

Crafting System:  Both Direct and Indirect.  You can combine all sorts of items and ingredients to make stuff from curatives to charms to offensive items and bombs.  The recipes are the classic Item A plus Item B equal Item C.  Most of them are intuitive, and the game will let you do this sort of crafting at any time, provided you have the ingredients; you don't have to unlock recipes.  Equipment is found and/or purchased, with an indirect enhancement system.  There are only a few places that offer enhancement, and these consume gold and items according to a static table, dependent on the gear involved.  One thing to note is that there a second layer of enhancement, which starts after fighting and defeating dragonkin.  This "dragonforged" equipment are the highest versions available for that particular piece in the vanilla game, but the Dark Arisen version includes "rarification" services, which provides two more enhancement levels, consuming rift crystals (the second, more rare in-game currency) and harder-to-get items.

Theoretically Unlimited Wealth:  Oh yes.  While there is an encumbrance system in place to keep you from carrying around too much junk, the game has an easily accessed storage system, with no upkeep costs and no unlocking required.  You can literally hold enough ores, foodstuffs, herbs, and arms, and other sundries to supply the entire realm indefinitely, plus a very generous wallet size.

Limitations:  First, the aforementioned encumbrance system, which is really in place to keep your party lean and mean at any given time.  The more problematic limitation is classic Breath of Fire Economy Syndrome.  While getting curatives and basic supplies is easy, prices for equipment are pretty damned steep; enough so that keeping your main character and pawn up with the game's unlocks requires a great deal of farming and selling.  This is aggravated by fairly low cash drops.   The good news is that the enhancement system is a viable way to upgrade without burning the proceeds of multiple dungeon crawls, and that there are equipment drops in chests all over the place.  The bad news is that enhancement services are more expensive monetarily and materially for higher level equipment.

Gas Pedals:  There are multiple, which is a godsend. 

First, and the one most often mentioned, is the souring/molding system.  There are a several curatives that are time-sensitive and decay.  The interesting part is that the first stage of the decay for most of these (where the item becomes sour, rank, or moldy) is much more valuable than the preserved state.  It was so crazy that a player could buy an large number of these (carrots were the most popular) let them decay to the moldy state, reap a huge profit on resale, and repeat the process indefinitely.  This was patched to an extent (shops have hard--but restockable--limits on these items now) in the Dark Arisen version.

Second is basic farming.  This game's version is actually made easier by a quirk:  chests actually refill after a certain number of in-game days (usually five), along with mining spots, harvesting spots, and fixed item locations.

Third is my personal favorite:  The Arisen Mining Company.  One of the earliest dungeons unlocked is an area known as the Quarry.  This dungeon has many advantages going for it.  After you clear it out for the first time (make sure you pick up the quest, and finish it), the monsters never return, and a shop opens up inside.  Hand out pickaxes to everybody and go to work!  While you do not see anything particularly spectacular, there are a lot of things to be picked up, mined, and harvested, plus a few chests with usually good loot inside.  You can load up on goodies and sell them at the shop (extra funny note, there's a pouch of gold coins right on the counter to nab, no repercussions at all).  What this place offers is there is a rest camp just south of the western entrance, so you can leave (smack critters and harvest stuff on the way) then rest for five days and return to do it all again!

Finally, a variant of the above, the Bitterblack Mining Company.  I only recommend this for experienced players, and it is best done before beating the final boss of Bitterblack Island for the irst time (or do this on a second playthrough).  That said, you can do this after beating the boss, but make sure you have a well-prepared party.  Because this is a dungeon meant for high-level parties, the drops, mining.harvesting points, and chest contains very valuable loot (chests tend to yield vanilla end-game loot, for example), and breakables tend to hold more things more often to pick up.  The hub zone itself contains several mining points, chests, and breakables, all risk-free!  You can go in, clear a couple of floors, leave and return in five in-game days, and clear the floors again!  The reason I recommend doing this before beating the final boss is that the second (technically third) area remains a safe zone, and has a ton of harvesting points, mining deposits, curative herbs to gather, and wildlife to hunt.  Beating this boss activates high-level encounters for the zone, which typically aren't all that terrible, and tend to be profitable, I just prefer the safe version so I can snag a bunch of herbs and ores and chest drops in peace.

So there you have it, several fairly simple ways to get the cash you need to tear around Gransys in style!

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Rumbling Death

Hail to the spambots that quasi-read this:

Been quietly busy laying armored death upon the unfortunate in World of Tanks.  While I've yet to achieve any real mastery of the finer points of the game, I have found a few things I'm good at.

One of the most fun is the tanker equivalent of skirmisher tactics.  If the stars align, you can actually do insane things like have friggin' car chases in tanks!  This game has lots of speedy li'l scout tanks that are capable of being all GTA in the enemy's face, and when two or more light tanks square off in an urban map, it turns into a lulzy doom-fest that combines high-speed maneuvers, explosive death, and crazy stunts.  It's like Pac-Man with guns!  WakkawakkawakkawakkaBLAM!

Oh, bumped into a guy going by Geshtahl of all things.  Soon an insane clown is going to rule the ExBawx from atop a mountain of recycled assets and various grimdark memes.  Will the Returners bring hope?

Saturday, April 19, 2014

HMS Tank

Hail the Spambots!

Been a crazy month.  Now I'm busy with all sorts of fun explodey goodness, plus it looks as if my hardware job is now permanent.

In nerdy news, I have been tearing about in World of Tanks for the 360!  I've already made some fellow tankers fear the guy that's rampaging about screaming random quotes and making the other team go squish.

World of Tanks is a fun game, with just the right combination of tanks, cash, tanks, grinding for guns, tanks, proving your dominance over noob bitches, and tanks.  And they have tanks too.  Protip:  The Alecto (light British Tank Destroyer) is meant to shoot tanks to death, no ram them.  Whoever that was, thanks for the entertainment for me and the free kill for my teammate.

I've been grinding my way through the American and British lines, and honestly, some of these things are beasts.  Whoever stuck a howitzer on a Stuart is friggin' crazy awesome.  Not to be outdone is the British TOG II*.  It's a tank-boat that drives like a whale, looks like a whale, and hits like a whale.  I wanna paint mine white.  Beware Moby Tank!

Now to find my plushie and tear about some more.  The Sharp demands tanks and cake!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Call to Agriculture

Hail to the spambots!

Been busy farming for goodies in Borderlands 2.  It's a cycle of firearm-based abuse;  I shoot various freaks, they drop goodies.  Then, I take the goodies and shoot bigger and angrier freaks so they drop better goodies.  Finally, I plan to use the goodies on gigantic and furious freaks so I can have the best goodies. 

How the hell Pandora isn't completely covered in spent brass is beyond me.  You'd have to mine a few solar systems to get the copper, iron, tin, etc. needed to keep the guns supplied, without accounting for propellant, oh and building the guns themselves!

In other news, I've stopped playing Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana again.  I've the worst reason ever:  I'm bored.  I can't say I hate the game.  The mechanics are somewhat flawed, but not terrible.  The story is a unique setting on a blender filled with anime and RPG tropes.  The economics are a bit unusual, but pleasantly so.  I'm probably going to do a rant, and almost certainly going to do a Wreckonomics entry about it.  The only thing holding me back is the I don't want to until I've beaten the game and ensured I've found the gas pedals.

I plan in trying another RPG soon, most likely something darker like Legend of Dragoon, or perhaps Divinity 2:  Ego Draconis.  I'm also planning on continuing to play B2 and some more of Diablo III.  Loot, loot, loot!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Back in Business With Big Guns

Hail the spambots that read this!

It's been a helluva month.  Short version, my leaders are craven.  Pfah!

Anyway, I've been happily tearing through Atelier Iris, enough that I'm likely to post a Wreckonomics entry about it.  It is very plain that this is item crafting fan's game, which is one of the reasons I have trouble putting it down.  Bombs, laser cannons, dead fish, booze, meteor strikes?  Final Fantasy wishes its consumables were this cool!

I've also been tearing with my mini-clan on Borderlands 2, and I'm happy to report we have started getting our hands on Pearlescent level guns.  We're in the middle of training up a couple dudes so they're ready for Ultimate VH raid bosses so we can start getting Seraph level gear too.  The Florintine shall be mine!

I admit that I find it very irritating that they locked the Seraph gear to Ultimate.  I see why they did it (to prevent farming in True to get Ultimate gear later), but to be honest, they should have kept the gun drops in True while leaving crystal farming to wait until Ultimate.  Even Seraph gear loses its power a few levels into Ultimate if you only bring level 50 versions.

But gripes aside, the guns you can get in Ultimate are the kickass!  I've wound up with the Butcher and a Tunguska thus far, and damn if they aren't nasty.  The Butcher is effectively an AA-12 with all but unlimited ammo and ridiculous fire rate.  The Tunguska is the Nukem's angry big brother; very dangerous, but oh so killy.  There are better launchers for straight damage (Norfleet, Badaboom, high end purples), but behold as whole rooms of mooks become smoking relics and shiny shiny loots!

Well, I need to go.  Must find food...

Monday, January 6, 2014

More Inane Babble

It's a new year spambots, deal with it!

I've been busy with work and destroying bandits in Borderlands 2.  Ultimate Vault Hunter mode is frickin' awesome, by the way.

More and more kickass guns are finally making it's way into my collection of death, thanks in no small part to my little band of buddies.  This game truly comes into its own with friends involved, and the drops increase in awesomeness accordingly.  I am also strongly considering doing some work on one of the wikis, adding in solutions for the more obtuse puzzles, plus EVEN MOAR references that are being missed in the wikis.  You know you're nerdy when you catch things that are way out of the genre's usual reference pool.

In work news, been lurking in hardware for a while now.  Some poor dumb bastard brought in a gun; turned out it was an airsoft rifle that some other idiot had shipped without some retaining screws.  What is with this time of year and people becoming total morons?  Are some brains cold-blooded and need sunlight to function properly?  Are holiday parties an experiment in shorting out synaptic pathways?  Are our lives really being controlled by a secret cabal of bronies, and soon marshmallow unicorns will inherit the earth?  Who the hell knows?