Oct
9
Random news thoughts
Before I get into some thoughts today, my machine came in yesterday and it was a bit of a mixed experience. It was LOTRO night, and me…being the hopeful gamer…thought it would be a bright idea to play LOTRO on the new rig. I had four…count em…four BSODs while playing LOTRO. It was frustrating to say the very least. I blame DX10 and Vista because, well…because I can. I ran Batman for a bit this morning and it runs just perfectly and I plan to play lots of Fallen Earth tonight, so cross your fingers. I’ll probably try LOTRO again tonight with DX10 turned off, so if that doesn’t work I’ll need to find the LOTRO gremlin and kick its ass.
In news that caught my attention, Vanguard has apparently introduced a mentoring system:
Invite your friends to join Vanguard and Relive the Excitement with Them!
- Group with anyone 5 or more levels below you to become a Mentor
- Help lower level players level up while you gain XP while doing it!
- A great way to introduce new people to Vanguard and revisit your favorite quests and areas!
- Send your friends to the Isle of Dawn 14-Day Free Trial download page to join the epic adventure that is Vanguard: Saga of Heroes today!
Good for them. The only odd thing about this is the level restriction on the mentoring, i.e. you cannot mentor someone within 5 levels. I didn’t think that was the case in the EQ2 system, but I’m probably mistaken on that detail.
STO also has begun to ramp up its releasing of information with a really interesting article on Ships and Crew:
Once players reach the rank of Lieutenant Commander, they’re able to begin choosing from three separate types of ship: Science vessels, Escorts and Cruisers. These ships differ from each other in a number of ways:
- Bridge Officer station arrangement. Science vessels favor Science Officer stations, Escorts favor Tactical Officer stations and Cruisers favor Engineering Officer stations.
- Utility. Science vessels are innately able to detect cloaked ships and are specialized in subsystem targeting. Cruisers have lots of crew, repair very quickly and lots of power to distribute across their subsystems. Escorts are the gunboats of the Federation fleet; they maneuver quickly and can equip cannons.
- Size. Cruisers tend to be larger and less maneuverable than other ships. Escorts are smaller but nimble and feature a lot of firepower for their size. Science vessels typically fall in the middle.
- Weapons capabilities. Cruisers, since they’re larger ships, have more gun bays. Escort ships can outfit high-damage cannon weapons, which other ships cannot. Science vessels are less weapon-focused but offer other capabilities and bonuses such as more powerful deflector beams, tractor beams and sensors.
- Crew complement. Larger ships have larger crews, which affects hull and subsystem repair rate, as well as the effectiveness of boarding parties, the engineering team and crew-based skills your captain may have.
- Modification slots. Similar to Bridge Officer stations, the different ships have varying room for special modifications that can be added to the ship to increase its effectiveness. Similar to slotted gems in other games, mods provide small passive bonuses that affect gameplay and can be interchanged at will.
There is a lot of information there for those keeping an eye on this title. Hmmmm…I think I’m going to have to read more on this one myself as I’m starting to get curious about character progression in that game. There is a dev chat here about that (apparently)…so I shall be reading up on that very soon. I’ll admit that I’ve been ignoring STO in terms of keeping up with the news on it. Not exactly sure why that is 
Annnnywho. I need more coffee…so you all have a great day.
D out.
