Banstick Podcast Episode 7

Banstick Podcast Episode 7

This week we welcome back Azzokk as our co-host as Darryl takes some time off. This episode is chock full of yummy stuff so get ready to give us some feedback! Covered topics are:

• What we did last week
• Hudson (Jason) bitches about Global Agenda and PUGS
• STO ground combat and bugs bugs bugs galore in the game
• Mass Effect 2
• Random Question and Topic of the week: Do you trust pre release MMO hype anymore?

Show links:

Banstick Community Boards: http://thebanstick.com/forum

Banstick YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/pvthudson01

REMINDER: NO SHOW NEXT WEEK we will be back the 19th-20th of Feb.

BLOG has MOVED > Update RSS feed

This blog has finally it’s own domain and we are moving back to our podcast site at

http://www.thebanstick.com

Episode 5 is now LIVE and up

I won’t be updating this site anymore but you can redirect the GOOGLE MACHINE to pick up my feed at

http://thebanstick.com/?feed=rss2

Blog has moved, and the Banstick Podcast is BACK: Update RSS FEEDS!

This blog has finally it’s own domain and we are moving back to our podcast site at

http://www.thebanstick.com

Episode 5 is now LIVE and up

I won’t be updating this site anymore but you can redirect the GOOGLE MACHINE to pick up my feed at

http://thebanstick.com/?feed=rss2

Well speak of the devil: STO patched today

Ok well here go. A major patch to the Star Trek Online beta today (my comments in red). This is a huge patch so if you are playing the game you may want to just see the link below:

http://www.startrekonline.com/node/910

Level Cap Removed! (Hey lets see how fast people cap out and complain about end game. This is a GOOD thing)

Leonard Nimoy has provided an audio journal overview as you enter each new Sector Block (Ok well whatever. Throw money at it thats all good and stuff but lets make sure we use that money to fix the game also)

Improved loading screens (meh, kinda cool the loading screen had this weird issue with the background image not fitting the whole screen which was odd)

Updated Klingon starting equipment. Ground and Space. (whole slew of Klingon fixes also)

Bug Fixes for nearly every mission in the game.

Added 2 NPCs talking about sulu being admiral quinn’s office (wha??)

Improved ground combat balance. Easier at earlier levels, and more balanced at higher levels. (now you are doing this?)

Players can now Save/Load costumes.

Dragging and dropping items has improved (sigh..this should be one of the first items ANY MMO gets right)

Update message for when the shard is full.

Ground Combat Holds – Increased player innate resistance to holds, which effectively reduces the durations of holds against players. Once holds expire, they apply additional hold resistance buffs. When players have this buff stacked on them, the resistance will become complete immunity. This does not affect NPCs.

Buffs now display how long they last, and how many times they have been stacked.

The list goes on and on but the point is….THANK YOU. This patch was needed.

Star Trek fanboys assault true beta testers

I love how Sypster (or Darren or I for example) point out blatant errors about a game and blind pre order fanatics berate you at every turn.

This is a syndrome of players that play MMO’s for 7-11 levels and think they are all awesome. Then move on to the next game. This is why I actually made this blog is to go after things like this that happen to people that actually approach new MMO’s subjectively. I would do the same thing for Star Wars also. Sure I love Star Wars but I am not going to sit there on a podcast (like the blind fans over on STOked) and say “I would pay 100 dollars a month to play this game its AWESOME!) if it wasn’t technically sound or ready for prime time.

And STO is NOT ready for prime time. Yet. I want it to succeed trust me and it does have its moments of coolness. Right now though I see Cryptic written all over this title and some things just need to be worked on. I am not going to list every issue just go to the forums. I have talked too much about this game and frankly I’m tired of it lets just get on to the next patch and see if things are worked on.

To see the flaws in an MMO you have to look at every angle: economy, PVP, PVE, character progression, gear, and lore. People that bandwagon into these games don’t take the time to see what is wrong with them and help point out things to be fixed. Instead what they do is fork money over play for a month then move onto the next message board for some new messiah game. There they can continue to chastise people that actually bug report and find errors with their “beloved” game.

And Star Trek Online has a boat load of them.

Gmail is starting to warn us about account scams

Noticed this today on my gmail spam messages:

Warning: This message may not be from whom it claims to be. Beware of following any links in it or of providing the sender with any personal information.  Learn more

Looks like Gmail is starting to warn people, in BIG RED LETTERS, that something may be a scam. So if you still click on it well…that’s your tough luck. Of course that and I guess it helps to have a Gmail account.

Aion and WoW accounts are getting the usual scam emails such as:

We have evidence to prove your account has been in different countries and regions, several attempts to login.
So we have to remind you to enter our web site as soon as possible http://www.worldofwarcraft.com to account verification, otherwise, we will be lock your account.
In order to protect your interests.

and for Aion, which I only beta tested and then cancelled my pre order on:

When you receive this message at the same time means that you have a routine account of our recent examination, was checking your account we have the evidence to prove that involved in the controversial game currency transaction so we had to take the necessary measures.
Please visit our web site https://secure.ncsoft.com as soon as possible to activate your account or we will suspend your account.

The NCsoft Team

So same company doing it, almost the same message. I find that pretty bold.

OMG! Dont do Avatar 3D it will kill you!

This just in from Taiwan.

* Man starts to feel unwell during movie
* Dies 11 days later
* “First death linked to Avatar”

This is why I saw Avatar in 2D folks. 3D KILLS U!

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/man-died-after-watching-avatar/story-e6frfmvr-1225821333043

“A 42-year-old Taiwanese man with a history of high blood pressure has died of a stroke likely triggered by over-excitement from watching the blockbuster Avatar in 3D, a doctor says.

The man, identified only by his surname Kuo, started to feel unwell during the screening earlier this month in the northern city of Hsinchu and was taken to hospital.”

This movie, mostly due to the popularity of the film, has spawned some interesting news articles and a hilarious exposé on CNN. For example people that are so into the world they want to kill themselves after seeing the film and returning to the real world. Maybe I won’t go back and see this again in 3D. I don’t know what it may do to me. After all I get into my movies pretty hard core.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html

“That’s all I have been doing as of late, searching the Internet for more info about ‘Avatar.’ I guess that helps. It’s so hard I can’t force myself to think that it’s just a movie, and to get over it, that living like the Na’vi will never happen. I think I need a rebound movie,” Elequin posted.

Ugh

Star Trek Online: currency confusion

Energy Credits
Merit Points
Exploration Points (badges of orders 2nd, 3rd and who knows what)
Space anomalies and junk you loot
Food buffs
Personal shield buff things that can be turned in to upgrade gear (WHA?)

Some say this is to prevent credit farmers on day one and to make the currency have more meaning but the game is all over the place with skill points and currency if you ask me.

I do not know for a fact what badges of exploration are for because they are not active in game right now. I would assume, true to their name, that they are for exploring. There are badges of the 2nd order, 3rd order, 4th order and maybe some more but how they are gained? No idea. Add to that the fact that the Klingon side is woefully incomplete and these badges seem to create more headaches than solve them. I quote:

I finally found a dev to tell me the way to get “Badges of Exploration” is to do Star clusters (Genesis/Exploration system). The problem is that Klingons don’t have access to Star clusters so we have no way at getting the badges. Please replace all Exploration Badge items with PvP Medals until you give Klingons Star Clusters

Then we have Starfleet Merits. We have energy credits. We have pieces of junk that we pick up and can use to upgrade gear if we turn in a certain collection of them.

The currency in this game is all over the place. To top it all off the PC skill points and bridge officer skill points are not given out at the same rate. When you complete a mission in this game the list of stuff you get scrolls like credits at the end of Avatar:

You have gotten bridge officer skill points!

You recieve Starfleet Merit points!

You get XXX credits

You get some random gear thing that may or may not go on your ship or crewmembers

You have looted a space anomaly or some debris thing

You have gained a level in our obscure bloated leveling system (level 3 first commander of a 2nd platoon!)

Too much. Add to this that each currency type has a vendor and you are running all over trying to figure out what to spend where PLUS you can buy ship modifications and change the way things look. So that is another vendor for cosmetic purposes only.

If anyone in beta at this moment can clear this up for me feel free to post here. Until then I am going to scour the STO boards for a definitive post on this and then cut and paste that sucker for long term reference. I could RTFM too but I doubt it is in there. Good luck asking in game. Zone chat is full of arguments about WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, people asking where to get a light saber and others proclaiming that EvE Online “sucks compared to this game”.