Stress Test

Like I said earlier, I video’d some of the test server from a week ago. Here’s a quick glimpse into performance.

The truth about competency

Over the weekend, a guildmate of mine sent me a link to this video. Besides the hosts obvious talent at engaging the viewer, and his head start at making himself sound more knowledgeable by virtue of his British accent, it is a really well put together piece. The crux of the seven-minute piece is the result of a study on individual ability, and the same individuals perception of said ability. I don’t know if the study is real, fake, made up for this, or what, but the concept is sound. I can say this with assurance based on my vast array of anecdotal evidence. Do I need to put an emoticon here to show the sarcasm, or have you all started to be able to discern that by this point in my writership?

This concept of perceived ability being vastly different from real ability in those who are in actuality incompetent, can be extended to almost any activity you partake in. Whether it’s on a forum, where having a discussion with someone, and you just dissect each point with carefully worded and researched counter arguments. Or perhaps discussions of someone’s in-game skill. Of course, this is a particularly appropriate topic given the nature of this blog, and the concept that I am going to focus on.

How to tell

When a blog is going to be awesome?

Images of Superman giving Wonder Woman five across the eyes, that’s how!

The author of I Heart Gorfang is a much loved player by both sides of the eternal battle on Gorfang. Her blog looks to be a lighthearted collection of images as she apparently blew up her storage capacity on the Alliance forums. Welcome Chicken!

Don’t stress me man!

I’ve had the lovely experience of being up since 4:30 AM with a 6 week old that refuses to stop crying, so if this is less than coherent, I beg your understanding and perseverance.

As you should be aware, last night was a stress test of the server infrastructure held on Warpstone hosted by Andy from Mythic. As typical procedure goes, everyone gathered up in Praag at the warcamps, hoped onto the official vent channel, and went to our corners. One faction was sent to a keep and then the other was sent to attack. The turnout was impressive, with 250 or so people on simultaneously.

Of course, that wouldn’t satisfy Mythic now would it? No, they have some spiffy new tech that lets them spawn virtual players, and the classes today were Bright Wizards and Sorceresses. These bots ran around spamming Rain of Fire and Pit of Shades, trying to gobble up all the tasty performance they could. Between players and bots, there were 420 players, all at one place. Being the brave, adventurous chap that I am, I got it into my thick head to Fraps this beast and see how it went. Surprisingly, it went pretty well.

Just a quick note

Just got done with the Q&A session after the PTS event. I asked about their feelings on the stance mechanic’s benefits for the Shadow Warrior when considering it’s limiting nature and the comparison to what a squig provides. Nate Levy’s response was that the stance mechanic in general is something they are looking into and would like to work with, but can’t give any details beyond that.

Maybe it’s just me, but I got a sense of a nudge and a wink in his reply. Wanting us to know that changes are coming.

Take it for what you will. I’ll be sticking with my Knight until I get more definitive response, but some info is better than none.

Patch 1.3.4

The notes are up for the latest of patches coming our way in Warhammer. I missed out on the exclusive hotness of it all yesterday while I spent time with family that came in from out of town (my niece is 4 days older than my daughter, and they look eerily similar). All the buzz right now is over new RvR weapons that can be gained primarily in scenarios. Other bloggers have covered the news of this subject pretty extensively, and even given some great examples of the artwork we can find of the new RvR weapons. As great as the RvR weapons are, there is a lot more to the notes than just that particular system, as well as some corollary changes brought in with the system that have a far-reaching effect.

One of the biggest changes to the game with this patch is the removal of the vast bulk of the scenarios across all tiers, and the decoupling of racial pairings with victory points. To more fully explain, all scenarios that are played will count towards victory points in all campaign pairings. So, if you are playing in Battle for Praag and win, it will affect the victory point contribution to flipping Dragonwake, Kadrin Valley, or any other zone for your tier. In addition and concurrently with this, they have removed all but six scenarios that will be played at tier 4, with a reduction of available choices at the lower end. I take issue with this for a couple of reasons.

The Hotness

I just actually read through the newsletter that WAR sent out for this coming month. The letter covers a variety of subjects from the patch, to the live event, and the oh-so-surprising Scurvy Dogs scenario (Werit Holmes, can I get a “Boo-ya-ka-sha!”?). And while these things are neat, nifty, and spiffy. I want to talk about one particular aspect of the newsletter that really stokes my fire. It was a particular mention in regards to Scurvy Dogs, the details, if you will.

“Be blasted into the air by sea mines in 6 vs. 6 close-quarters combat. Gyrocopters and Zeppelins fight to dominate the skies as you work with your team to control key areas on the Ironclad.

Become a dread pirate as you unlock the achievements within the Tome of Knowledge and see if you can earn the title “Dread Pirate”.  And if that doesn’t sate your appetite for booty, then 25% more medallions might put some wind in your sails!”

Notice the hot, hot bolded and underlined portions.

Thank goodness

I think the Christina Hendricks frenzy has finally died down, I only had a couple hundred hits the other day as opposed to the 8,000 I had at the peak. As cool as it was to see those high numbers for a bit, it actually led me to more dismay than elation. I knew they weren’t “real”, as in, they weren’t people interested in the content of my posts, or the greater community of gamers. It was some mere happenstance of preferential iconography that enticed the hordes to make my corner of networked computers a pit stop on their feverish hunt for the latest popular gossip.

With the settling of visitors to the status quo, I’m happy to return to the topic du jour: MMOs.

I got to play WAR for maybe an hour last night, and I surprisingly spent my entire time out in ORvR. It was a group plus spare of guildies, filled in with friends and alliance members. We quickly found us facing an interesting situation that happens far too rarely: only one pairing was open for contention. Order had locked the Empire/Chaos pairing and Destruction had done the same to the Elven one, warfare descended upon the oft-overlooked Dwarven/Greenskin lands, and Kadrin Valley in specific.

Video: How to Play with a Zerg

Just a quickie for you boys and girls.

No, we’re not going to help you

How do I know that the Shadow Warrior is not getting any attention in the balance department anytime soon? This is how.

I’m not angry at Andy, or any of the other fine deliverers of information that we find on the forums. They’re all just doing their job. I am frustrated that they won’t even deliver news on their intent and direction. The Shadow Warrior community needs something more than the canned response, “We continually look at all classes and are constantly performing balance adjustments.”. They need something a little more concrete and definite. “Yes, we recognize the limitations and concerns of the community. We have criteria for determining adjustments and balance changes. The reason we have not addressed the issues presented so far are as follows:”. I think Mythic could earn some serious SW fanboi love if they did that.

This is a more general gaming blog with a heavy focus on WAR for now. My days of constantly pioneering the Shadow Warrior class are long gone. It’s too much work, and took far too much energy. Plus, I’m happily playing my Knight now, and am not as up to date on the issues the community faces in a practical sense. I try to keep abreast of it all, for situations like this, but nothing beats first-hand play time. Anyway, I hope for SW changes, but do not forsee them at all, in any reasonable amount of time (fourth quarter at the earliest if I were a betting man).

Good luck Shadow Warriors, you are more stalwart and persistent than I.