I’m decidedly not a fan of the sort of PvP that is typically offered in MMOs. While I was a huge fan of Street Fighter 2 once upon a time, and thoroughly enjoy a bit of Puzzle Fighter-esque Swordfighting in Puzzle Pirates (though Rumble is definitely superior in my book), those are very different animals. They are delightfully balanced, tuned like a loved machine. The imbalances that come with a leveling system and gear variance make MMO PvP far less appealing to me.
Still, on my last day of the ten day retrial of WoW (for The Burning Crusade… though I spent the bulk of my time pushing through the high 40s and low 50s with my old character, Padgi) I figured I’d at least see what the Alterac Valley had to offer a scrub like me. Open world PvP is just a cycle of bullying fueled by ganking, so it’s an aggravating waste of time for me, but the battleground was a bit more interesting.
It almost felt like taking part in a bit of good old WarCraft, just as a foot soldier rather than a disembodied commander. Of course, the only direction and strategy was “rush em!”, and try to stay in the knottiest of Zerg knots so as to stay in the action and hide behind juicier targets. I’m sure some focused battleground groups would wipe the arena with such an unfocused blob, but it was fun enough to run about willy nilly and take out targets of opportunity. I probably killed this one Human dude a half dozen times… a rather surreal way to wage war, but fun enough for what it was. (I still think a Valhalla MMO would be a good idea. We’re not living alternate lives, we’re piloting weirdly immortal bloodlusty berzerkers.)
As it happens, though, it seems my computer is allergic to PvP. Just as our blob was about to overwhelm the northernmost Alliance graveyard and push on to the NPC boss, I was cut down by an errant Shadowbolt… and my computer crashed. Hard.
I got a Blue Screen of Death, and my computer spent the next fifteen minutes in a death spiral of rebooting and recrashing. I finally powered it down and let it rest for a while, after which it seems to be running well enough… but for a while there, it was a most unhappy machine. It has happened several times in the last week or two… and I’m still not sure why. I blame it on Steam, since the first time it crashed, I was playing the recently installed Mirror’s Edge… and I’ve had crashes during other Steam games… though that was the first WoW crash.
It seems my computer has some problems with PvP as well. Maybe the Cataclysm will make it happier. In the meantime, it’s Rumble for me.
Hit so hard your computer fell off the network
It sounds like you have some slowly degrading parts. Most likely RAM, but possibly motherboard or PSU problems. It COULD be software, but I highly doubt it. I personally think you are seeing slow RAM degradation. (Do you have just a dinky power strip that is a wannabe surge protector? or the real deal?)
BSOD’s happen most often when Windows looks in RAM for a piece of important Windows code it has loaded there, and finds something else instead, and shits itself. It’d be like trying to use your hand, and finding it replaced with something random.
RAM makes the most sense, especially because you are seeing more problems when you run Steam. Steam running takes up more room in memory, in addition to games that are probably a bit heavier on RAM than WoW is. So you are having an easier time finding that bad bit of RAM with chunks of Windows.
How new is your computer? How are your technological chops?
Tech, I do have a “real” surge protector, but it’s not a high end one. I doubt it’s software, too, since I haven’t been able to trace anything specific to any one program. I do see it happen most often with games; Torchlight crashes pretty consistently about a half hour in, Mirror’s Edge has problems… but Photoshop doesn’t seem to trip it up. I thought that might mean it’s a sound card issue, but I got the most recent drivers, and it seems happy enough.
The computer is about three years old now. I’ve installed things like sound cards and power supplies before, but never RAM. I wouldn’t know enough to diagnose problems (other than melted components, of course, but that’s kinda one of those “duh” things), but I can certainly tinker and install new stuff.
Do you have any recommendations for RAM diagnostics tools?
/delurk
The best memory diagnostic tool is Memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/#downiso) – just download the ISO and burn to a CD. Put the CD in your tray, reboot your computer (make sure your BIOS is set to boot from CD’s before your hard drives, the option is usually called “boot setup” or “boot order” and it’ll run automatically. Stick with the default settings as they’re fine for most users.
/relurk
GeekCred points ++ and Tesh respect for TechDeft and Alex on this one. Thanks a bunch, guys! It does indeed look like my RAM is at least partially fried. Bleh.
It was so much easier (and cheaper) to blame Steam.
Now, to go research prices and product quality for replacement sticks. I guess I *have* been wanting to upgrade for a while…
While BSODs can be caused by degrading hardware, they also tend to be driver issues. Pretty much every BSOD that I’ve had on machines that weren’t experiencing catastrophic hardware failure, were fixed with an update of graphics or other related drivers.
It’s possible that the patch installed just prior to the issues occuring used an updated graphics API. And a new game like Mirror’s Edge would also likely require the latest drivers.
I’m also going to suggest that you forget the standalone surge protector as they only do half the job. My house has a surge protector built into the power box and over the last few years I’ve experienced a fairly hefty hardware failure rate.
It looks like that was caused by undervolt conditions, or by surges the protectors werent catching. Needless to say, there have been several hundred dollars of repairs or replacements done since 2005.
I finally (seem) to have fixed the problem by purchasing a UPS. Since everything goes through the battery, both under and over volt conditions are smoothed out. It’s more expensive than a simple surge protector but definitely worth it. Recommended if you choose to buy a new system.
Yeah, I started with drivers. I made the mistake of trying the Windows Driver update thing, which effectively neutered my sound card… but I eventually got everything updated properly. On further reading, it might be the motherboard that’s bad… so I need to test a bit more to see exactly where the glitch is.
I *have* worked with a UPS at my last job, and it was nice to have when the power went out as it did occasionally. They are expensive little beasties, but good at what they do, that’s certain.
Shame you couldn’t play AV in its original form. Longer games, more NPCs and generally harder. Zerging still happened but usually broke apart pretty fast into more of what I’d call warfare: small squads moving around trying to complete objectives or kill enemy squads.
It was more fun, if not took more time,.
I thought you were going to talk about gear and an even playing field, but then you veered off!
Anyway, thought about this a little while ago, and had the idea of having half combats be even equip and the other half whatever you’ve collected: http://philosophergamer.blogspot.com/2010/04/having-both-collected-gear-and-even.html
I think I had a post about characters being ‘killed’ as well and how it seems pretty nutty to do that since they obviously aren’t, so where’s the satisfaction or point or sense in saying they’ve been killed?
*chuckle*
Aye, I have an article or two in me on making gear and PvP work, but I got distracted by the pretty blue screen. Part of why I even bothered with the battleground was to see what “war” is like in WoW. I really do think there’s a place for regulated/normalized PvP, even of the “Quake” sort you describe there… and I was hoping to get a taste of it in AV, rather than open world ganking.
Oh, and Dresdor, I think I’d get a lot more out of AV if I were tackling it with a regular group. Ditto for dungeoneering, actually. Alas, such simply isn’t in the cards at this point… but yes, I can imagine the fun that might be had with a bit more organization and squad-level combat.
Doesn’t puzzle pirate provide PVP of the ‘quake’ sort? Atleast in terms of having an equal playing field between players, if not in the combat involved?
I’m not sure why ganking is coded in – would the designers enjoy it if they were ganked? They probably don’t even play – the great irony of huge time soak games is that the designers don’t play them because it’d waste their valuable time.
Sorry to hear about the blue screen – always disturbing, or atleast it is to me. Had a graphics card conk out on me awhile ago – if your graphics card has a fan of it’s own, might want to check it’s not clogged with dust. The high poly count of alterac would heat it up and keep it hot until you turned it off for awhile. Good luck!
Yes, Puzzle Pirates is far better for “even” PvP. It’s true that the weapons in Swordfighting and Rumble give players an edge, but it’s a fraction of the difference that gear and levels give in WoW. Ship to ship combat is also restricted to a fairly narrow band, denoted by the “might rating” of ships. Attacking a ship that is too far beneath your might rating will earn you a visit from the Black Ship; a near-invincible NPC ship that beats the stuffing out of you for your ganking intentions.
I love PP’s PvP.
I’m not really sure about having a black ship – it’s about as likely to put people off ganking as taking hitpoint damage puts people off fighting monsters in wow. And it still leaves the option mechanically open – which means the designers are giving the low level gank the thumbs up to happen (that or they have screwed up in their coding, or they are too philosophically weak to understand the ramifications of their own actions in choosing disinsentive over denial)
That said, it’d be funny if that was applied in wow, and some big bad ass came and splatted the ganker, via system (I don’t mean people jump on their high level alts).
Actually, it’s an intercept mechanic. Since ships “engage” on the high seas but then transition to an instanced board for the “battle navigation” phase, there’s a space between “initiate fight” and “start fighting”. In that space, if the might ring disparity is too large, and the attacker was the stronger ship, they never see the weaker ship, and the weaker ship never gets pulled into combat. The stronger attacker gets hit by the Black Ship in the battle navigation phase, and subsequently gets reamed.
It’s a huge disincentive, as the low strength potential victim sails merrily on their way, and the potential ganker gets spanked. Hard. Especially since battle damage to the ship is persistent, and the Black Ship NPCs steal goods from the ship they beat (as all victors in sea battle do). A ship blasted by the Black Ship stays damaged after the fight. The players can repair it, but that takes time, and they may well get hit by other players or NPCs in the meantime, and start at a disadvantage.
Of course, there’s nothing stopping a weaker ship from attacking a stronger ship.. except, perhaps, caution. It’s a nice balance that puts a ceiling on abuse, but lets players choose high risk if they want it. It’s all about who picks the fight.
I think I read lazily and when I read might rating I missread it that you [i]might[/i] get a visit from the black ship, rather than you [i]will[/i] get a visit.
But here’s a question – why do that? Why not just a ‘cannot engage, too low a level’ sign? And can people calculate the might difference they are safe to engage in, easily? Or are the numbers kept semi secret?
If the designers are making some sort of statement about ganking attempts, fair enough, I can see someone wanting to make a statement there (more of an artistic statment, as I’d put it), but other than that can’t see a reason not to simply have a ‘engagement not possible’ sign? Or is it a slight nod to simulating a world – instead of a very meta game sign saying you can’t, something in the game world just jumps on you (a bit like some games, instead of having an invisible barrier to stop you from walking off the map, have jets and gun turrets blow you to kingdom come)?
Because you could still have the ‘no engage’ sign for the high power ship, but not put it in if the low power ship initiates things.
Yes, the numbers are fuzzy, and your might rating is represented by a colored ring around your ship. Attacking a ship that’s deeply blue-shifted means you’re attacking a significantly weaker foe, and the Black Ship is likely to attack. Gauging that “blueness” is somewhat fuzzy, so it’s best not to tempt fate.
As for why a Black Ship rather than a “you can’t attack”, it may well be stylistic for one, but I’d like to think it’s also a deep seated distaste for ganking, manifested by a punitive measure. Players are warned about it if they attack blueish ships, and when the Black Ship does strike, they are told off by the NPCs.
In other words, it goes beyond a mere “thou shalt not” and lets players make the dumb choice, fully warned it’s dumb… then slaps them upside the head for it. I appreciate that, given how much I find ganking detestable.