Excel, You Complete Me

Work

Yesterday, after lamenting the "sunsetting" of Warhammer Online, I worked on getting the costs for one of the systems in the game balanced properly. Sometimes a system does not get implemented exactly how you'd envisioned it and it requires a little bit of hustle to get it working once it is fixed.

The task involved loading up a bunch of data into Excel, figuring out how much these entries should cost over time, plugging those numbers into the spreadsheet, and then entering those values into the game. Would you be surprised to learn that this process is much of system design in general?

Today has been spending even more time trying to help people find answers to question, reviewing code, and killing every creature in the game over and over and over and... well, I'm doing it in code. You didn't think I'd sit there and do it by hand when I can get the computer to do my bidding, did you?

Home

So, yeah. I went home and slept. Then I woke up and came back to work. So there is that. Same thing tonight. :)

Goodbye Warhammer Online

A little bit more than six years ago, I left my apartment in Virginia Beach and drove up to Fairfax to hang out with one of my best friends and go to a job interview. The interview was with Destin Bales, Mark Davis, Bruce Maclean, and many other people at Mythic Entertainment. The game was Warhammer Online. At the time, I had just split up with my first wife and had little direction. Most of my goals were intertwined with my ex-wife's goals. I knew I liked games and had been involved with gaming in some form for most of my life. I had little game design experience and had only volunteered as a game operator for Mythic on a game called Spellbinder. I was in school, working on a Computer Science degree in order to get the know-how I needed to make games. It was the perfect time for a life change.

Needless to say, Mythic took a chance on me, and I moved across the state to find my way again. I jumped in feet first. Jess Daniels taught me how to script using Talk Index, and then they shuffled me off to Matthias Dohmen's team, (with Thomas Lipschultz and Andrew Hoffman) informally dubbed "Team Throbsac" (it's a spider name). I began to build friendships that have lasted. We built up much of the content in Warhammer Online, my hands have touched more parts of that game than I can remember.

As the game approached launch, I ended up doing content systems support with my friend Anas Alkhatib. Basically, this is systems design and a little bit of technical design for systems associated with progression and to assist the more "creatively focused" content developers with technical challenges. In other words, it was a problem-solving shop. I took over some of the progression systems (like handing out experience points and figuring out how much contribution should be given out by public quests). I continued to do this and other systems design work after the game launched and onward.

So much had changed in my life since moving out to Fairfax and it seemed to me that I had, with Mythic's help, put myself on a course that was my own. The game industry is always unstable, like a sea in a storm. After launch, EA merged Mythic into BioWare. Soon after that, I was asked if I would like to interview with some other good friends for some job openings in Austin working on Star Wars: The Old Republic. It seemed like a good opportunity and needless to say - like any good geek - I freaking love Star Wars. BWA made an offer and my new fiancee and I left for Austin.

Working at Mythic on Warhammer Online changed me. I learned so much about game development - both the right and wrong ways to accomplish something. I met so many new friends who have now scattered to the four winds so thoroughly that I feel as though I know someone no matter where I go. I was a broken, emotional wreck when I went to interview at Mythic. I left there sublimely confident, moving to Austin - where I knew practically no one - filled with excitement, and with a new fiancee! Everything changed for me.

And today they are shutting down Warhammer Online. I had long since stopped playing it, as I am sure many of you have too. It makes me sad to see it go, but so many of the people that have worked on it have gone on to bigger and better things. Many of my friends from Mythic are right here at Carbine working with me on WildStar. Many of them are in Austin working on SWTOR. They are everywhere, and they are all family to me. We might mourn the loss of the thing that brought us together, but that project will definitely be a part of me forever.

Goodbye Warhammer! I love you!

Making Time

The older I get and the more responsibilities I take on, the less time I have for my own pursuits. I imagine everyone goes through this in one form or another. Maybe that's why so many of my peers opt out of having children. I love my kids and wouldn't trade them for more time to dig into Unity3D or spend time travelling, but it doesn't make me want more programming time or cultural experiences less. The constant stress of trying to balance my work, home, and personal pursuits is difficult to handle sometimes.

Home

I tried to give Alison a "night off" last night, but it did not go very well for her. Alison made bread and I cooked dinner (just fish and veggies, nothing amazing), got Fletcher in bed, and cuddled with Maris. She started to prototype a craft project, but then fell asleep with Maris. I took pictures.

I tried to do a little bit more work on Project S. However, by the time that everything settled down, it was too late and I was too sleepy to concentrate on what I was doing. I went to bed pretty much as soon as she did.

Work

Today I am working on adding some more log events in C++ for WildStar. It isn't easy because in order to add the events, you have to figure out how the system you are observing works. Some systems are very simple, others are very complex. For example, systems that deal with inventory or other things where some unscrupulous players will attempt to cheat us are going to be very complex, with checking and cross checking. Systems that only deal with a server side event or where we are just trying to detect, say, when someone joins a world are very simple. Anyway, I'm working with the mail system today, so you can probably imagine the crash course I am going through right now (no pun intended).

Also, I need to update some pricing in the game and also do some balancing of the loot that creatures drop in the game.

Project S

I started this project last week. Project S is a game that is more or less already designed, and something I've wanted to do for a very long time. It is moving right along with the game model. The interface side of the game is non-existent, though it is an excellent candidate for me to bring into Unity3D in order to learn the basics of that engine.

Project G

Project G is still in the initial design stages. I need to do a lot more research in the coming months before the design can be roughed in, since this project is focusing on accuracy and detail. I'm working on it when I can, but focusing on Project S because I'm much more likely to finish it in a reasonable time frame.

WildStar's Economic Game

I've written an article for Carbine concerning WildStar's economy. Check it out!

http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/wildstars_economic_game.php

Journey of T'Bao, Part 2 - Star Trek Online

Observations

I'm pleased that Cryptic didn't give Star Trek Online two different systems for dealing with character injury and ship injury. It keeps it nice and simple, and the injury levels are a welcome abstraction. I ran through my first set of random quests, and they are quick and easy (not necessarily a bad thing). As they come in there seems to be enough initial variety in these random missions to keep me entertained for a while.

Speaking of entertainment, I am going to try to make up stories to go along with the typical MMO grind. I find it makes both playing and writing about it more enjoyable. Hopefully, it translates into a more fun reading experience as well. Also, I am going to put the observations up here so that if you hate reading about my adventures, you don't have to slog through it. Although, I assure you, today's post is better than yesterday's. It even has pictures!

T'Bao's Progress

We pick up Lt. T'Bao's story at Earth Spacedock, on her way to see the Chief Medical Officer. He gives T'Bao some regenerators and explains how to treat injuries. As he finishes his talk, he advises her to seek out the Chief Engineering Officer to discuss ship injuries as well. T'Bao discovers that ships can sustain "injuries" which are repaired in almost identical fashion to personal injuries. The Chief Engineering Officer then asks T'Bao to go speak with the Assignment Officer to learn about different mission difficulties and a vague detailing of the risks involved. With her business completed on Earth, T'Bao contacts Ensign Threya and returns to the Thermopylae. She then makes for the Delta Volanis Cluster to see if she can deliver aid in the form of shield generators to a needy planet.

Lt. T'Bao waits to report to the CMO.

Upon arrival in the sector, the Thermopylae is contacted by a Tellarite named Lieutenant Grall. He asks Lt. T'Bao to explore three systems in exchange for 1,440 units of dilithium ore, a pat on the back, a wink, and a nod. T'Bao logically accepts. After all, that was what she came here to do anyway. Many anomalies are present within the star cluster, so T'Bao picks the second star on the right and punches it.

Unknown System

T'Bao spends some time cataloging anomalies in the sector and happens upon a planet where Starfleet lost a deep space probe. Starfleet requests that the Thermopylae investigate the crash site and return any recoverable data.

(L to R) Ens. Threya, Ens. Stewart, Lt. T'Bao, Ens. Voss, and Ens. Ricky

Beaming down to the surface, the away team quickly finds and eliminates any threat posed by the radioactive pieces of the destroyed probe. They manage to avoid the locals, take some selfies, and look at the pretty blue flora before returning to the ship. Ens. Stewart discovers five mineral samples as well. He is very pleased. Ens. Threya nearly punches Ens. Ricky however, when she catches him staring at her rather than being on the lookout for trouble. This might be the last away team assignment for Ens. Ricky.

System Xi 082

Starfleet asks Lieutenant T'Bao to contact a research station in the area to see if they require supplies. As they approach, they catalog more anomalies. Ensign Stewart botches a waveform match because he was fumbling with a string cheese at the console. Orion pirates show up to pick a fight, but are quickly destroyed.

System Psi Mu Z

Upon arrival in the system, the U.S.S. Thermopylae discovers and is challenged by an Orion pirate. While fighting, Lt. T'Bao invents the T'Bao Maneuver. This simple maneuver involves taking a mine armed ship and moving in reverse. One ends up in a cloud of mines and, given an obtuse enemy captain, a quick victory as the cloud of mines swarms the closing enemy. Lt. T'Bao uses this maneuver to dispatch six more pirate vessels in short order. She is unsure if "throwing it in reverse and letting the enemy be stupid" really qualifies for maneuverhood, but that is what the crew started calling it. She is also unsure why the Orions would arrive in the system one after the other, rather than forming a fleet and crushing the small Thermopylae. T'Bao concludes that Orion pirates are definitely very stupid, and very bad at piracy.

After completion of the mission, Lt. Grall (representing Starfleet) awards Lt. T'Bao with a crate full of dilithium ore. Score!

The U.S.S. Thermopylae searches for a system that isn't filled with Orion pirates.

Sigma Berenices P122-Mu

Starfleet reports that a medical transport had been attacked and crashed on the surface of a planet in this system. The U.S.S. Thermopylae is dispatched to look for survivors. Crates of valuable medical supplies are neatly grouped in piles on the surface but there is too much interference to beam them up. For some strange reason, it seems perfectly okay to beam down an entire team of living beings through this interference so they can wave a tricorder at the boxes and make them okay to beam up. The crew is suspicious. This also creates a great opportunity for another ambush by I'll let you guess who. Here's a hint: they're green. After three or four skirmishes with the worst pirates in the history of the universe, all of the crates are blessed by tricorder energy. No survivors are found and none of the you-know-whos survived either.

Journey of T'Bao, Part 1 - Star Trek Online

About T'Bao

There isn't much to say about T'Bao right now. She is a Vulcan, and part of the Sciences division of Starfleet. Before T'Bao I did some experimenting with a Klingon and a Romulan character, and had an Andorian captain for a couple of days before I got sick of being called my full name by NPCs and re-rolled.

T'Bao's Progress

T'Bao was given command of the U.S.S. Thermopylae (Miranda Class) after the higher ranking officers were killed in action by the Borg. Her first action after being officially given command of the Thermopylae was the attempted rescue of the S.S. Azura, who was being attacked by Orion pirates. Though the Azura was lost, the crew was spared.

Admiral Quinn of Starfleet then ordered Lieutenant T'Bao to Vulcan in order to escort a diplomat to P'Jem. After meeting with the diplomat and escorting him aboard, T'Bao beamed down in order to conduct some personal business. While there, she encountered a plot to deceive the Romulan ambassador. She discovered who was behind the treachery and proved it to the ambassador, and then returned to the ship.

After warping to P'Jem, the Thermopylae was ambushed by Klingons, claiming that an Undine shapeshifter was there. After freeing the Vulcan temple on P'Jem from the Klingons, the diplomat was discovered to be the Undine infiltrator. The infiltrator escaped P'Jem but was ultimately defeated in space over the planet by the Thermopylae and a support fleet.

From there, Lt. T'Bao took the Thermopylae to Memory Alpha. There, she solved a few problems for Ferengi merchants and in the process learned about how to make items. T'Bao then left Memory Alpha in order to follow up on coded messages sent from the Undine infiltrator.

This led Lt. T'Bao to the Lackey system. There she discovered and ended an illegal Gorn mining operation. Proceeding into the Paulson Nebula, she discovered a Klingon listening post. She then forcefully evicted the Klingons from the post, with the assistance of her bridge crew: Ensign Threya (Andorian Tactical Officer), Ensign Stewart (Human Engineering Officer), and Ensign Voss (Trill Science Officer). There was also a guy in a red shirt there, and we will just call him "Guy."

We leave the good (if humorless) Lieutenant on Earth Spacedock, where she has been asked to talk with the Chief Medical Officer to learn about injuries.

Observations

I tend to try to only focus on the things I find to be positive about the game experience, If it seems like I am overlooking something terrible to you, it is entirely possible that I just didn't find anything nice to say about it!

So far, the game is doing a good job of making me feel like I am playing through my own Star Trek series. I've never been big on the Next Generation Star Trek, growing up with the movies and the original series in syndication. However, this is a pretty good time frame and I am glad that the Klingons are the bad guys again. I was hoping that the Romulans would also be the bad guys and we would get the three-way faction warfare that makes Dark Age of Camelot so magical. I don't know enough about the game yet, so we will see if it turns out that way. The content seems like typical Star Trek content, so it at least feels consistent with the television shows. The quest icons are confusing (no separate icon for quest available and quest in progress), but at least it makes me pay better attention to the dialogue.

I am in Free-To-Play mode, mainly because I am exploring how microtransactions feel as a gamer. So far, the only things I have felt drawn towards paying for are new uniform options and cool ships. However, I am not committed to the game enough to make me want to pay for those things yet. I have been too busy with the gameplay to think about the economy of the game much. That will come later.

Thanks for reading!

- Bull

I'm Not Just A Game Designer

I'm not generally one for blogging. I suppose I believe that I should not hold on to my opinions so tightly that they become dogmatic. Writing down my opinions for all to see means that they become difficult to edit later.

However, I suppose I should probably actually record my own opinions and discoveries about my chosen profession. I have a son now, and having children is making me think about my legacy. Parenthood has a way of bringing mortality home. Or perhaps I thought it would just be nice of me to leave something for you wonderful people to check out. Maybe you will be able to learn from my successes and failures and go on to far greater heights than I ever will!

I am not going to pass myself off as a game expert. I love gaming, and I love how gaming teaches us life skills. I like them so much, and I've spent so much of my life immersed in them, that it only makes sense that I would want to make them myself. I will never feel like a game expert, since there is always something to learn about the art and science of gaming.

I am also a busy person. I make games for a living, and for a studio. I'm a husband and a parent. I must schedule time for other pursuits as well, since exposure to other art and immersion in the beauty the world has to offer is very important for inspiration. This means I may not update this frequently, yet I do want to maintain it.

Lastly, I reserve the right to change my opinion at any time. If one is unwilling to change their opinion, then one risks being left behind.

If you happen to have just stumbled across this and are curious about who I am and why I have a game blog, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a husband and a father. I am a game designer and player. I know how to code in a few different languages. I can fix airplanes, cars, and cable.

To help you decide if you think my opinions on game design and the industry are worth anything, I earn money by designing systems for Carbine Studios, and I am currently working on WildStar. Before that, I spent a few years coding tools and designing content for Star Wars: the Old Republic at BioWare Austin. Prior to that, I spent a few years in Virginia designing content and systems for Mythic Entertainment while working on Warhammer Online. My point is, I've designed a bunch of stuff on some very large, high-profile games and I've written peer-reviewed code professionally.

On top of that, I've been participating in the PC Gaming "scene" since getting my first PC, discovering a BBS, and playing a game called Barren Realms Elite back in 1994. If that's still not enough cred, I've been playing role-playing games since I was 8 years old, getting a Dungeons & Dragons red box starter set in 1982 on the advice of my elementary school teacher. And my mom said my gaming hobby would never amount to anything!

Outside of gaming (which was really just a hobby for most of my life, albeit the major one), I also fixed kick-ass special ops airplanes in the U.S. Air Force for two enlistments (about 8 years). I've lived all over the United States and I have lived in England for four years. I've also spent way too much time doing difficult and under-appreciated work like refueling jets, being a cash register jockey, fixing people's cable, and installing adaptive driving equipment for folks with mobility impairments. OK, the last one there was appreciated.

Anyway, that is who I am and what this is about. I'll talk at you all again soon. Thanks for reading!