I usually strongly recommend starting with Code Academy's Javascript course. It makes learning the basic universal concepts very, very easy and fast. That way, when you jump to something more powerful but also more complicated like C++, you don't feel like you're lost in the woods.
The Elder Scrolls Online
- Thread starter Anomander Rake
- Start date
See, I'd recommend going the youtube Python route on ones own Linux box. Six of one, half dozen of another but I greatly prefer Python over Javascript, as someone who has used both.
Being a purist and old coder, though, gotta still say K&R C is the way to really learn the fundamentals.
There's still plenty of fun in the AD&D style of online game. The problem is the 15/mo setup is not a good value anymore for EQ or WOW for me anymore. It was when I was a hardcore gamer, but now that I'm casual it really doesn't work for me. I like a variety of games and have no desire to feel obligated to play due to having a subscription. The rationale that 15 dollars a month is not a lot of money is a poor red herring. If a game gates me out to playing without paying a sub, then it really isn't something that interests me much anymore. It irks me in EQ. It irks me in WOW. It irks me in SWTOR.
I've long been a fan of paying for content. If I buy your game I should have access to that content. If you want me to spend more money, add more content.
Twenty years ago we had metered gaming, where we paid several dollars an hour. That changed and now it's time for the sub model to go away. I'll gladly buy expansion packs, but if I'm done paying a sub fee just to play. I think that design need to go the way of a dinosaur.
Bondurant
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Adding inventory space isn't really that big of a deal, you just have to change some values somewhere, there's no need for design. Regarding FoV it's probably something they started to develop and scrapped during development and they now put it back to please casual players since it's for first-person view only.
The quest mechanic of WoW is not something I would praise. I thought it was a step down. There is perhaps one quest sprinkled in with 100 tasks. It also made the game into a path based experience. Sure, EQ had that too (in maximizing your exp gains), but that was more of an alt thing (or later on in EQs lifecycle when things were mapped out). It was a large world, with lots of stuff to do, but you had to look for it. In EQ I remember people studying the lore of the items to get hints on possible quest lines. WoW removed all that with a !. I am strongly opposed to the sentiment that easier, faster or more accessible automatically means better.
I'd say that The Secret World is the benchmark MMOs should follow in terms of quests. It is head and shoulders above anything else on the market when it comes to that. Should note that my own definition of quests is lore driven content. Collecting items with no story, or a very poorly written reason to do something, is not a quest. It is a text based exp gain you get after killing X number of mobs. It is a task. WoW nailed that kind of progression. A zone layout with hubs that you naturally follow because you rarely kill much more than the quests tell you to, so you end up with close to exactly the amount of "quests" you need to go to the next zone +-1 or 2 levels. Last "quest" is usually to go to the next level appropriate zone to start a new hub. Sadly this seems to be the standard formula now.
Biggest difference between EQ and mmos following it though has been the community. EQ didn't try to do it, it was a fluke. It naturally formed due to the nature of the game. Inter connectivity between the classes was a must, and so you had to talk to people. You had to group. Death mechanic forced you to learn your class, or else you would have difficulty getting groups since mistakes you made could impact others as well. This is something every mmo since then has tried to go away from, making it into "your" experience, which is far from the point of a MMO in my opinion. Scripted experiences that make "you/everyone" the hero is best left for single player games.
Seems the focus on "innovation" I see in mmos are more and more ways to do just that, make the games into "your" experience. You are the hero, with a long initial questline identifying you as such (never mind that everyone else you see is one too). New features that make grouping easier (read: enable tools to let you join and leave groups without uttering a word to anyone). Everything to make it so that interaction with others are kept to a minimum. Instancing/phasing, etc, are all just tools to let you experience your content at your leisure. MMOs are hardly MMOs anymore and the worlds seem smaller because of it.
Or as I have said before, EQ was a MMOrpg, everything since then has been more on the mmoRPG side. Which is why so many fail I think. It is nearly impossible for single player games to compete with MMOs, but when MMOs turn into single player game experiences the competition is huge and rarely can a MMO deliver scripted content to match a single player game. The Secret World coming closest in terms of their quests as the detail and lore in them were genuinely interesting. In the end of EQ, it was the guild and the people I knew that kept me subbed, not the gameplay. There has been lots of good things happening to MMOs since EQ, making them better "games", but seems an equal amount has been lost, especially when it comes to forming an actual community in the game which is something MMOs should have.
Simplest fixes I can think of for that is to bring back the risk in risk vs reward and let the community form around it and bring back the interconnection between classes in terms of resurrections, summons, corpse finds, travel, buffs, etc. At this point, I'd say innovation would be to require interaction with someone else within the first 10 levels. That seems unheard of in the MMOs of late, including ESO.
Boloboy
Bronze Knight of the Realm
- 315
- 7
lol I have been watching people play this weekend on the pts. As of the new changes it takes 6-7 days to get vr10. Not played, but playing each night. Sounds like a lot of whiny heresay. As the people I have been watching were answering questions and have been playing for almost a year and being lvl 50 vr10. The internet is just that believe what you will.
Is that in response to this?
If so, that's a pretty shining example of why developers usually never communicate with their playerbase under any circumstance lol
Cinge
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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What dumb fucks. Then add the basic shit to the default UI and put everyone on the same page. This is why listening to player-base is so retarded. From what I heard the original UI in game had all the basic information, but players whined it wasnt ES enough so they removed it and addons had to take their place. So why the fuck would they make changes to appease a audience that doesn't want that information at all, even when its given to them in the default UI. How the hell does making it a addon, suddenly compel them to want it again. Just another case of certain players not happy enough to play their way, they want everyone else to play their way also.
Really? Then someone should tell the EQL team that they aren't supposed to be talking to it's players.
I've never seen a team so eager to not shut up about what they want to do and what you think about it. But you did say 'usually' so I guess that covers it.
WHy not make that fundamental target data a HUD element you can turn on and off? Not sure what other info people want in their PvP HUD that would be fair to have. How much damage you did to the enemy in floaties would be good. I like getting that in GW2.
You mean like this:
That doesn't really look "TES"-y. Maybe they don't think it would fit their theme very well and turn off the faithful.
Cinge
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I agree, but the thing is, if they give the ability to turn it off or on, the whiners will still complain that people have it on and because they refuse to turn it on for themselves, as they don't like it, they are somehow at a disadvantage.
Why he said with the ability to turn it off, but it won't stop the "purist".
Yeah this kind of goes with what I mean.
If it's toggled, then the person who is a TES purist turns this off since they don't have that kind of 'ugly number display' in the series (from what I remember). So he's playing 'immersed' in first person.
But by doing that, he now can't see what the other person can (disadvantaged) so he's upset and demands that the other person turn his off too or make ZoS remove it altogether.
Cinge
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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If the player makes a conscious choice to turn it off or not use it, you are reaching to then claim being disadvantaged. Especially when its basic information.
And it doesn't need to be big numbers on their screen like a scrolling combat display, let them choose to have a combat chat window(since they seem to be okay with that) and the only difference being cosmetic.
And it doesn't need to be big numbers on their screen like a scrolling combat display, let them choose to have a combat chat window(since they seem to be okay with that) and the only difference being cosmetic.
Agreed but as you said, it won't stop them from complaining.
I remember in TOR people would get killed by someone in Tatooine and then complain that Bioware sucked because they didn't want to get ganked. People would reply "Just toggle the PvP off and they can't kill you". Then a half-hour flamewar on General would take place when the person said they didn't feel like toggling it off; it should be off in the first place.
rhinohelix
Dental Dammer
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Was it here I read that thing about someone writing an auto-cast interrupt macro based on the API basically giving too much information? That kind of stuff I would indeed like to see squashed. As long as it doesn't allow for that big of an impact and just provides player/team information, I am all for that.
I will say, though, that on at least a couple of occasions I would re-download WoW on a whim, get it installed, and then start to set up all of the add-ons and just have my interest plummet. I would be much happier to have all of that, or at least the best parts of the community-built add-ons incorporated into the UI as options.
I will say, though, that on at least a couple of occasions I would re-download WoW on a whim, get it installed, and then start to set up all of the add-ons and just have my interest plummet. I would be much happier to have all of that, or at least the best parts of the community-built add-ons incorporated into the UI as options.