A further look into Salem

Despite my complaint in my last entry, I still, as stated continued to play Seatribe's upcoming MMO, Salem. It's really the only game I've been playing lately so I wanted to take the time to look at the things that I felt the developers did right.

The first thing was their business model. Salem is a free-to-play game with the option to purchase in-game currency with money. The first thought that probably comes to a person's mind is "pay-to-win", which is the idea that a player can just spend money to gain an edge over the other people playing. In the beginning, Salem seemed that it would be "pay to win" because of the difficulty new players will find to try and earn money.

Hmm...$5 for 150 silver? Very tempting for that first bit of land.

In Salem, there are only few things that you can sell to the in-game vendors to make silver such as furs or Indian charms. In order to be able to acquire these items you need to first train up your proficiencies and skills along with having a lot of patience. After you make your first few hundred silver though and have settled down, money-making starts becoming easier.

I've found that now that I own a considerable amount of land and am more capable with the game mechanics that money is actually easy to procure now. At least a lot easier than it was in the beginning anyway which leads me to believe that it is very possible to play this game without needing to spend a dime -- a real dime. Although, more importantly, it allows me to feel confident that another player who does use the cash store does not have that great of an advantage over me.

Being established leads me into the other reason to what Salem did really well. Advancement and the fruits of your labor are everything in this game. I've always been in love with that concept of working up from nothing to see all the accomplishments you made. This does exactly that.

My fiancé starting up her homestead.

Starting with just the clothes on your back you are led through a rudimentary tutorial. Upon its completion, you are granted your first little area to call a home. A lean-to. From this lean-to you build a variety of things to help expand your industry-base and homestead whether it's building several drying frames to create leather or tilling the ground for farming.

As stated earlier, you eventually start earning enough money to make a rightful claim to the land and will be able to expand it large enough to encompass a sizable area. Then the player can build their first real house and maybe even fence it off from wildlife and other less-than-honorable pilgrims. At the end of the day it feels like you've really achieved something and made a small dent in the world.

Finally have a real house to rest in!

Salem: The treasure hunting MMO

The other day I was blessed, or perhaps cursed, enough to receive a beta key for Seatribe's upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online title called Salem. The premise of the game is that the player is a pilgrim roughing it out in the wilderness of colonial New England and trying to build up a homestead for his or herself. The player is allowed to craft a variety of objects, tools, and buildings to help them achieve this.

However, in order to craft these items you need the the proper skill. The concept itself is understandable and this is a role-playing game so leveling up your skills is natural. Unfortunately, the method involved in which you increase your skills seems to be based on luck and being in the right place at the right time.

The system is broken down into skills and proficiencies. In order to raise a skill you need to have a certain number of points allotted into the proficiencies that it requires. For example, for Fishing it requires you to have a proficiency of 600 in both Frontier & Wilderness and Hunting & Gathering.

Looks like I'll be fighting with my fists for a while...

 In most role-playing games you are awarded experience points for when you do something related to the skill whether it's through combat, some form of crafting, etc. Salem has the player, instead, scour the wilds around Boston for curios and materials to create items called inspirationals. With these objects you can study them and after a certain amount of time gain proficiency points.

This wouldn't be so bad since it's an obvious attempt to emulate the pioneers living off the land and understanding it before they become self-sufficient and able to work the land to their own designs. Regrettably for the game, it turns it into a treasure hunt for certain items you might need for inspirationals or for the other specific items on the ground that you can analyze. The system seems to be very random when in one instance you can come across two or three of an item, such as a smooth stone or a rabbit, but then on the flip side you can be searching for hours just to find that very same item.

Well...found my rabbit only now it's going to kill me.

Despite all this, I have kept at it and continued playing Salem trying to disregard the frustration. As of writing this, my character finally earned enough money to purchase his first plot of land. This was a great sense of accomplishment but it took at least 10 hours of game time for me to get as far as I did. The game doesn't seem to get that much easier in this aspect because even though you start to rely less on some of the lower level items you eventually need to start hunting for other things to level your skills up. I think that I definitely need a map with a X on it.

Yay! This is mine!

Finding nuances to achieve victory in Crusader Kings 2

I never quite understood the grand strategy genre of entertainment provided by Paradox Interactive. The games were vast in their scope spanning years of history and large amounts of land all broken down into countries, provinces, counties, cities, and towns. Then when the developers throw in a dynasty that you have to lead to glory through wars, rebellious vassals, scheming enemies, and siblings with ulterior motives for succession, you have yourself a very confusing yet appealing prospect.

Just wow...also, the main menu music is amazing.

The many levels of detail had always caught my eye, but I never was ready to take that first step into something new. After watching the trailer for "Crusader Kings II" and constantly seeing it pop-up on Steam, I finally decided to try my hand as some grand strategy.

Upon my first time playing, my mindset was that of any other strategy game which was to conquer and destroy my opponents. This led to a befuddling and frustrating experience as my vassals began to rebel due to poor leadership, lands passed over to rival leaders, and I inevitably lost because I did not have a dynastic heir. I really didn't have a clue as to what I was doing.

I'm looking at you Aife...you sly devil, you.

Although, I did have a taste of what Crusader Kings had to offer and I really wanted to enjoy this game. So begun my scouring of the internet to find any helpful starting tips, guides, and strategy --the most notable being "How the Hell Do We Play Crusader Kings 2?" by Kersch-- to help me.

What I found wasn't your typical strategy at all. The franchise's primary focus wasn't about having a lot of conquered lands or maintaining a large army. Those were certainly good to have, but the main idea I feel the developers wanted to convey was all the smaller gameplay elements that were incorporated.

With a new way of looking at the game, I started to pay more attention to the other details such as the proper attributes, like being honest or kind, a ruler should have so that I could breed my dynasty properly. Or that I stay in the good graces with the Pope so that I wasn't excommunicated and lower my vassals' opinion of me causing them to rebel. I constantly found myself being rewarded for paying attention to those little details such as holding more troop levies because my vassals liked me.

This Pope actually doesn't mind me too much...for now.

Even its combat had more subtle tricks that you had to pay attention to or your goals may be a lot harder to pull off. One good example of this is when I had my eyes set on England. Being the King of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, of course I needed another piece of the pie. Unfortunately, their armies were standing at 45,000 strong while I could only muster a measly 28,000.

I could have spent the funds into mercenary armies, but that would be a strenuous strain on my coffers. Instead, I noted that England's leader was old and decrepit. So I waited. In a few short years he was dead with his son taking the throne and English lords fighting for independence due to their lack of faith in the new crown. A perfect time to strike. In no time at all the battle lines were drawn and I'm walking away with two new English provinces under my belt.

This young English King is doing remarkably well holding England together.

While the learning curve is a bit steep, the overall experience is fun and rewarding. I'm still figuring out all the nuances to the title to fully take advantage of my realm and usurp my enemies. If you're willing to throw in some extra time outside Crusader Kings to figure out these other game options then I can assure it will be a much rewarded experience.

Post Numero Uno!

I'd like my very first post to serve as an introduction into what I want for this blog and I how I plan to use it. I am a gamer through and through and I felt that while games are fun, I wasn't doing much else with games other than playing them. I wanted to do something more productive and maybe even get a little of my say and thoughts out there to the world just to hold discussion with people like me. So, I started a blog.

The main focus of the blog I had foreseen was to use it for reviews of games I had been playing at the time. I play all sorts of games old and new so be prepared to see a bunch of different things. The other plan for the blog was to put up any ideas or thoughts I have on the gaming world whether it be critiques, reactions, or reflections on something.

Basically, I want to use this to empower my writing, but also use it as a creative outlet for my other passion of playing video games.

'Nuff said