Biggs' Zone

A Gamer Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Tag: player housing

Let My Home Be My Garrison

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On November 5, 2015

In Gaming, World of Warcraft

pax_east_garrison_580Will there be no love lost between players and their garrisons when Legion comes out, or will folks, like me, lament leaving their garrison back on Draenor? Actually, I take that back, I will not be leaving my garrison in the dust, to be forgotten like Sunsong Ranch. The garrison is a gold farm. If all you do is send your out followers just to sell whatever they bring back, and harvest your ore and herbs, only to vendor it, those small amounts will add up quickly.

I kind of wonder if Blizzard expects people to do this since they gave us a separate hearthstone specifically for our garrison. I really don’t think the garrison was a bad idea, I rather enjoyed my private little area carved out of the world. It was the closest thing we had to player housing. Unless BlizzCon proves to me that Class Halls will be a much more interesting experience than my garrison, I can’t see myself spending a lot of time there.

murlocI don’t play on an RPG server nor do I really RPG anymore but I can see how the garrison would even appeal to someone that does take the extra initiative to RPG with their characters. Why go back to a main city or a “class hall” at the end of an adventure when you can return to a garrison with your trophies and monuments on display and an army of followers awaiting their next mission from their General?

I’m curious what the rest of you think. Will you keep returning to your garrison in Legion or do you think Class Halls will give you a new home to hearth to?

WoW: Garrisons [Revisited]

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On January 12, 2015

In Gaming, World of Warcraft

pax_east_garrison_580I am way behind the curve as I haven’t been able to start playing the expansion upon its release. In fact I’ve probably only been at it for a few weeks with only brief moments to play in the evenings. I have finally hit 100 (on my main toon) just prior to Christmas and so far, I have to say, I’m Addicted to My Garrison! I have already brought two other alts up just far enough to unlock their garrison just so I can check out the different profession buildings. I have been researching guides on how to acquire additional followers or unlock other special easter eggs to make my garrison more unique.

I can’t help but think that Blizzard took a few notes from the companion system in SWTOR, which doesn’t really irritate me as the companions in SWTOR is one of my favorite mechanics of SWTOR. I’m still discovering new hidden treasures of garrisons but here are a few of my favorites:

Follower Missions

Sometimes I log in just to complete missions and send my followers back out on new missions. I have followers on one alt who are almost level 100 but my toon is only a level 93. I’m excited to be able to send my followers on Highmaul missions which has the chance to reward Highmaul gear. It is a little disconcerting that my followers are starting to have a higher iLevel then my main toon but the trade off will be that I can acquire gear without the repair bill. I really don’t like the fact that you can only have 20-25 active followers because I like all my followers. How can I be expected to play favorites and “deactivate” someone??!

Another item on my “follower wish list” is to see visible changes in my follower as I upgrade their gear. A follower with a gear score of 600 should not look exactly the same when their gear score has been boosted up to 645.

The Mine and Herb Garden

This particular mechanic is kind of a double edged sword for me. Every garrison will get a Mine and an Herb Garden, regardless of whether your toon has mining and herbalism. So that means all your toons will have access to their own person stash of herbs and ore; no need to worry about those annoying ninja’s that pilfer your node or herb while you are fighting the nearby mob. You do not need the mining or herbalism skill to harvest herbs from the herb garden and ore from the mine, however you will still need those skills to harvest them outside your garrison. Obviously this marginalizes the mining and herbalism skills; especially if you have sufficient cash to be able to purchase the needed materials to level a crafting skill that would require mining or herbalism.

Stables

This building allows you to “tame mounts” and as an avid mount collector you can imagine my excitement. Granted I have not yet constructed this building as my need for raid gear supersedes my desire for more mounts, however I am currently leveling an alt that will have this building (since mounts are account bound). Based on some of my research it looks like you are limited to specific species and a specific number of mounts but I think it might be a good start to getting some cool mounts.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while because I keep thinking there is more I want to say about garrisons. I really do enjoy this feature of the game. I almost wish they had more to customize, like the homesteads in SWTOR. I also wonder if this swell of excitement will ebb as the expansion moves on and I level more and more alts to unlock their level 3 garrisons. In the meantime I will continue to bask in the glory of my garrison.

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

SWTOR: Stronghold Impressions

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On September 16, 2014

In Gaming, SWTOR

my-strongholdSo I have been playing SWTOR with a sub for the past two months to experience the new Strongholds feature added to the game. There seems to be mixed opinions, some say its completely lackluster and a waste of credits (the currency used in SWTOR) others have become completely addicted to customizing their apartment/palace/homestead. As for me … I’m probably pretty close to the latter. I get it why some people dislike it but I wouldn’t say its completely lackluster. Also, its not like you receive any kind of bonus to your character’s stats if you buy a stronghold, its purely cosmetic (and for the minutia addicts … like me). If its not your bag, then don’t spend the money (but I understand that some people just like to be trolls).

When I first tried to figure out how to get my stronghold, I was a little lost but they provide a tutorial for you to follow and all stronghold directories have icons on the fleet maps. They added a strongholds section to both fleets and if you go to one of the planets that has a stronghold, there is a stronghold directory located in the main hanger. You can have up to four strongholds:

  • A Nar Shadaa Palace (which is free – if you signed up during the special back in June/July you got 3 rooms unlocked for free)
  • A Capital City (Coruscant/Dromund Kaas) apartment (which costs 5,000 credits)
  • A Tatooine homestead (which costs 2.5 million credits)

My understanding is that if you are on a Free-2-Play account you can still use strongholds, but you will not be able to buy a Tatooine homestead (as F2P accounts have a credit cap at 350k). You can decorate your stronghold with all your companions, mounts, pets, awards received for completing story lines, etc. I also discovered (while leveling my imperial agent) that decoration items can be rare drops from mobs. You can buy basic decoration items (like couches, beds, lights, rugs, etc) with credits, and the prices aren’t too bad. The more you decorate your stronghold the more you unlock. I haven’t figured out where the first unlock happens (I have reached about 12% on my palace).

Your stronghold is available to all the characters in your legacy. If you have a faction specific apartment, you have to buy a “smuggler’s pass” for your character on the opposing faction. You can invite your friends to your stronghold who can visit any time if you give them a key. I don’t know what giving your friends a key grants you (as I don’t have any friends to give a key to). I think this is pretty cool if it works the way I imagine it so I guess I will have to try to find someone to be friends with me so I can give them a key and try this feature out.

You can instant travel to your stronghold from anywhere in the game and it does not trigger a cooldown, however if you are leveling out in the middle of Hoth and you travel to your stronghold, traveling back will not put you back in the same place. When you return to the planet that you left you will find yourself back in that planets hanger, so keep that in mind when you leave a planet for your stronghold. You can also directly travel to your ship or to the fleet from the stronghold. You cannot use your stronghold as a quick travel between a planet and the fleet. Any time you travel to your stronghold, you may only return to your source (i.e. You cannot go from Hoth-to-Stronghold-to-Fleet then back to Hoth via Fleet-to-Stronghold-to-Hoth) it doesn’t work like that and it makes sense. Your stronghold is a structure in the context of the game, not a mage portal.

If you have SWTOR and haven’t checked it out yet, I would recommend trying it out, even if you find out that you don’t really like it. I, however, really enjoy it and I’m glad that I made the effort to renew my sub in time to receive the Nar Shadaa bonus rooms.

Have you tried out strongholds? What are your thoughts?

/MTFBWY

The MMO Times: Huolon Is Mine!

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On August 26, 2014

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

huolon_mountIssue 106: Sorry for the boastful title, as I was finishing up this post, I happened to kill Huolon and the mount dropped. I was quite excited.

Player housing seems to be the theme in this issue. I’m curious if any of you have checked out the strongholds in SWTOR. This issue does seem to contain more headlines about WoW again, I guess because there isn’t much else going on right now. After a summer of silence coming from Blizzard, since the announcement of the expansion release date, there seems to be more to talk about.

As summer wanes and the kiddies return to school (which means trade chat will be mildly more intelligent during the day), we get ready for the fall content releases, expansions and new titles. As I said, lots of WoW stuff, but there is also a couple of interesting articles too (including Blizzard’s response to the Robin Williams NPC). Actually you might be surprised that there are just as many interesting things to read as there are game announcements so I hope you enjoy the slight change in content. Enjoy!!

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WoW: Thoughts On Garrisons

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On August 7, 2014

In Gaming, World of Warcraft

pax_east_garrison_580In my last MMO Times post I provided a link to an article that described the Garrisons feature of Warlords of Draenor to be “disappointing” (thus far). Assuming that Blizzard isn’t hindering folks from sharing their thoughts of the beta testing, and I’m currently in the beta, then I think its warranted for me to share my thoughts on Garrisons (as I have unlocked my garrison in the beta).

Blizzard did promise us the proverbial, yet elusive pony again with Garrisons. Originally they told players that your garrison can be placed in any zone of your choosing, however, thus far in the beta, that is not the case. Instead the garrison has been integrated into the main story line; granted I haven’t quested much beyond the first zone so I don’t know if your garrison can move or if, in the end, you can choose any place you want. You never know, that could be the case and Blizzard is using the main story line to familiarize the player with their garrison.

I have to admit, I am starting to like the garrisons more and more. The fact that you can recruit NPCs (some of which are familiar names) to be a follower and then send them on missions is very similar to the way you can utilize your companions in SWTOR. The biggest difference being that you cannot ask them to accompany you and fight at your side. You get a “garrison hearthstone” which is different then the normal hearthstone and does not have a cooldown (nor does it trigger the cooldown of the normal one). Granted this might be just a beta-only mechanic, I have no idea if that will change when the game goes live. This is especially handy when you need to return to your garrison immediately either to turn in a quest for more resources or to complete the quest your follower just returned from.

Also, during the time in which I was writing this post, a WoW Insider post had shown up with some additional details about garrisons. You may get the option to choose the style of your buildings as well as your guards depending on which of the vanilla reputations with whom you are exalted. I think this is really cool, though I don’t know if I trust my garrison to be properly protected by a bunch of gnomes in mechanical ostriches – my assailants may have too much fun punting my guards (j/k gnomes!!). Be that as it may, this is a great idea to finally utilize those vanilla reputations other than acquiring their mounts.

I think there is still a lot of potential for garrisons and I’m a little excited to see where they take them. I’m sure there will be many out there who will whine that garrisons are not more then they are but you can’t expect Blizzard to get it exactly the way you want it if you don’t lend them your mad programming skills!

/cheers

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