Battlefield Heroes: Be A Better Hero: Gunner Equipment Tip

First, congrats to EA/Dice: 1 million Hero's have stepped onto the Battlefield.

EA is quickly discovering the joys of free-to-play games as web-based Battlefield Heroes surpasses the one million player mark right out of the gate.

Now, as a long time beta player, I would like to take a few minutes to share some tips I've learned.

For today, a tip about equipping the Gunner.

A lot of players are unaware that a class can carry two of their primary weapon types. For example, a Gunner can carry both a default machine gun and a specialized machine gun purchased with Victory Points (such as Wolfgang's Wonderful).

The benefit to this practice is two-fold. First, it saves from having to reload, as a quick weapon swap to the second primary weapon means another full clip of ammo. Second, it allows for a player to use the benefits of the various ranges and firing rates of the specialized weapons. Having a weapon for both short and long range situations can prove very fruitful.

This is particularly useful for Gunners, who are most effective when they are firing. Gunner's machine guns have large amounts of ammo available, so once the first one is empty, switching to the other one (instead of reloading) with another 100 or so rounds available ensures a Gunner can keep the pressure up.

I currently run my Gunner, Column, with the following setup:

Weapon 1: Default MG
Weapon 2: Wolfgang's Wonderful (Long/Slow)
*long/slow refers to the range (long) and rate of fire (slow)

I close on targets from a distance with Wolfgang's Wonderful. Then I hit Leg It (a sprint ability) and as I close in, I swap to the Default MG to finish the deal.

I hope this helps! Any questions, let me know in the comments.

World of Warcraft's Next Expansion

Wrath of the Lich King has been out long enough for the next round of "guess the next expansion" to kick off. For starters, we have some evidence for Cataclysm. And no, it has nothing to do with the fate of WoW in China.

Speculation started to run rampant when Blizzard trademarked the name “Cataclysm” and then again when a WoW test server popped up recently and was named “Maelstrom” (or had that name in it’s title).

This would make sense to World of Warcraft players as Cataclysm is another name for the Great Sundering, an event that created a swirling vortex of water and mystical energies (the ‘Maelstrom’) that has appeared on the world map in-game since release.

Early design work also indicates that Catacylsm would fit in well with previous WoW expansions and would involve the former Night Elf noble Azshara, queen of the Naga and the Goblins whose main city lies in the south seas.

I think that lore is important and its great to speculate on lore-based avenues for an expansion, but I've never bothered to learn anything about Warcraft's lore. I was usually too busy clicking through quest text while following Jame's Leveling Guide. So, for me to speculate wildly would not only be out of character, it would waste all of the work thats already been done!

I like the idea of a Cataclysm expansion that lets players explore the big swirl in the middle of the map. Seriously, I've always wondered what may be out there! Now, I want to take this off the deep end and throw out a bullet list of things I think would take this over the edge:

• Boats. The damn swirl is in the middle of the ocean, so players will need to be able to get there at their own leisure. Players already have flying mounts and car-like ground mounts. Its about time Blizzard added player-owned boats.
  
• A potentially world-resetting Live event. Blizzard needs to shake things up and should the players fail at the Live event for this expansion, their server should literally end and reset to default settings. Cataclysm or Apocalypse? Let players make the choice!
• Cataclysmic war! Blizzard needs to take the lessons learned from Lake Wintergrasp and apply them to every single new zone they create. That way, one zone isn't heavily burdened and bum rushed once every few hours. Make the entire WORLD a living battlefield.
• Cataclysmic phasing! Blizzard needs to kick up the phasing a notch and have drastically differing phases of areas within the Maelstrom. It only makes sense for something that is as awe inspiring as a giant swirl the size of half a continent!
• Celeb cameos for Billy Mayes and David Carradine. Maybe something about Michael Jackson, but that silly story has already been worn out IMHO.
  

Most likely, none of the above will make it into the game. To that, I say: crazy, absolutely crazy.

Much Cooler Soda

Mountain Dew Game Fuel is cool and all, but it has nothing on Magic The Gathering soda.

Breaking Tobold

Tobold has decided to take a summer break from blogging.

Right now I don't feel I'm succeeding all that well. I might simply have a too thin skin for the rough place that is the internet, and can't simply grow a thicker one. But I have the impression that even at the moderate success level of this blog, the audience is becoming too wide to communicate with effectively. Some people misunderstand my motivations, others feel entitled to something I never promised and couldn't possibly deliver, and some simply can't or won't stick to discussing opinions in polite terms.

I don't blame Tobold for his thoughts on this and I think I know the simple answer to what has hit Tobold. From my "Why be nice post?":

The real effect of the Internet: amplification. I am inherently more whiny and combative on the Internet. I wish I could fully-explain why it occurs, but I can't. I observe it in almost every blogger I know personally, whether it is politics, gaming, or knitting (yes, with needles and yarn).

Tobold is simply too nice, on an Internet full of jerks that like to talk about MMOGs. That niceness gets amplified 100x and is therefore attacked harder.

Take a break Tobold, but come back soon. As much as I've disagreed with you in the past, the MMOG blogosphere needs your mainstream, positive outlook.

Helping Hands

News from Eurogamer: Mythic will help Bioware with Star Wars The Old Republic.

BioWare has told Eurogamer that Mythic Entertainment will "without a doubt" help out on Star Wars: The Old Republic, as there are "absolutely opportunities to share and learn" within the newly formed RPG/MMO group.

Immediately, I don't see any issues with this. There is no doubt that SW:ToR has a lot of grunt work to be done and a lot of unrelated processes that can be delegated to teams at Mythic. And vice versa for Mythic's next project.

I still hold optimism that this merger was done by EA to create better games and get them to market. EA has changed over the past year, consolidating and refocusing, so maybe this new MMO group has a chance in this new refreshed EA.

However, if EA's history with recently acquired studios is to be a lesson, Bioware is only a year or so away from its own "turbulence". Let's all hope Bioware has found a magical anti-venom to the poison that appears to be EA.