Link: http://www.imaekgaemz.com

From Damien’s Blog the other day:

“All that being said, one meme that I wouldn’t mind seeing die is the boss creature with a room full of trash at his feet that he just passively watches you kill. Somehow, I’m not bothered at all by mindless grunts being unwilling to help their friends across the room, but its always seen wierd that Kael’thas, master of all he surveys, doesn’t feel inclined to get involved.”

This was in response to an article written by Cameron Sorden on aggro radius. Cameron mentions that it would be cool to have mobs ’spot’ Players and come after them, rather than have a non-directional aggro radius. To an extent, I agree… but Damien makes the very compelling argument that this system would either be highly lethal (and therefore frustrating) or incredibly huge (in which case it become tedious to travel.

I only want to mention this because it’s something we’ve thought about quite a bit in Secondhand Lands and I feel we’ve reached a nice middle-ground. Of course, I don’t think it’s anything new… I know for sure that we’re not the first to implement it… but it’s not present in any of the ‘big boy’ MMO’s that I’m aware of at the moment... and we go open beta on April 1st so I have to plug it =)

Our ‘Aggro Radius’ is an ‘Aggro Cone.’ The mob is obviously looking in a particular direction and this aggro range extends out from it. If it ’sees’ you, it can come for you.

So, if a group wants to kill BigBossMob, they will have to wait until he turns away to pull the trash… and they’d better pull the trash around the corner or he’ll come for them mid-fight. Of course, he’s still stupid enough to not realize that all his lackeys are slowly disappearing from the room… but hey, one step closer right? Maybe next we’ll actually offer something different and give our monsters “spawn” animations.

Link: http://imaekgaemz.com

Well, as happens sometimes, I’ve had some pretty big things taking place over the past few months. As such, I took a little break from the blog-rind to make sure I have things in order. The biggest news is that I’m going to be a dad!? (is that the sound of the apocalypse? — maybe)

On top of that rests things like new responsibilities at work–promotion couldn’t have come at a better time–and making sure I’m proficient enough on my new mode of transportation to be around long enough to actually become “Dad.”

As usual though, I have things to pull my mind away from the real world. The first of these things being a resurgence of my interest in running a traditional ‘pen and paper’ RPG. I haven’t been able to truly organize a group of players to “live in my world” in quite a while due to time restrictions… but our lovely interweb has once again provided a means of doing so.

After quite a while spent creating video games, it’s liberating to once again be able to place players in a world limited only by imagination. The play-by-email/forum system is a good way to re-activate players who’s gaming has long lay dormant.

Second, a friend and I have been come addicted to Go... Possibly to an unhealthy level, as I spend every night either reading strategy books or trying to follow move-by-move analyses of games played by more skillful players. I’m not good yet, but my fascination with the levels of depth involved in this ’simple’ game gives me the hope that I’ll someday become ‘mediocre.’

Anyway, enough for now. I’m going to watch the Superbowl and play some Go.

Link: http://imaekgaemz.com

As we continue to implement skills and balance combat in Secondhand lands, one question has come to mind more than any other… Why do some people think it’s ‘fun’ to keep a player from playing the game?

Of course that’s a baited, vague question. It’s my hook to get you to read this rant. Anyway, my clarification is after the jump…

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