Gigantic Guide: How to Win Matches / The Power Struggle

Why write this post? Gigantic is an amazing complex and fun game, but the complexity takes a while to understand. I'm attempting to speed up the learning curve with information that took me about a solid month of daily play to grasp. Without understanding the underlining game it's a charming, but run-of-the-mill PvP control point type game. Once you grasp the power mechanics however, it becomes truly enjoyable and competitive at a level that makes you consider what you should be doing at every moment. A large part of Gigantic's charm is it's an intelligent strategy game at heart, wrapped in a 3rd person action arena. Read, share, and hopefully enjoy the game more as your knowledge grows! See you on the airship!

What isn't as Important as it Appears:

Forget about everything on the Tab/Y screen: kills, deaths, assists, summons, and efficiency. Those stats will net you Fortune Cards, but won't win you matches.

This is mostly true with end game screens except for two stats: Guardian Damage and Orbs. These are the only two stats that will give you an idea about how you or your teammates helped out:

- Guardian Damage: During the Vulnerable Phase how much damage did you do to the enemy guardian.
- Orbs: If there is no creature on a point (or an Obelisk) the power can be manually collected and shows in this stat. (So it is situational, see Building Power Phase below)

Why don't kills and deaths matter? Because the timing of kills and deaths is more important by far than the numbers.

What is Important: The Power Struggle:

Now that we've talked about what isn't important, what is? The match happens in phases much like Magic the Gathering or many other turn based card games. Understanding these phases helps you make smart plays and win. The good news is everything you need to understand these phases is right at the top of your screen at all times.

Building Power Phase:

This is the phase you will spend the majority of the match in. Both teams start at 0 power at the beginning of the game and after every Vulnerable Phase. Your goal during this phase is to fill your bar to 100 before the enemy team does. Here is what gives you power:

- Player Kills: Killing an enemy player earns 10 power for your team.
- Creature Kills: Killing an enemy creature earns 20 power for your team.
- Collecting Power Orbs: Collecting the power orbs that spawn earns 20 power for your team.

Power Orbs: Each of the lettered points on the map spawn a Power Orb. Normally a friendly and enemy point spawn at the same time, but if there is an odd number of points the middle point will spawn alone and controlling it can be all you need to win the Building Power Phase. If you have a non-Obelisk creature on the point it will collect the orb for you (if it's not being attacked). If there is no creature or an Obelisk is on the point you must manually collect the orb (D-Pad Down or 4). Creatures also collect orbs faster than manually collecting, so if one team has a creature and one team does not the team with a creature has an advantage.

Disrupting the Enemy Team's Power: Both creatures and players can be interrupted while collecting power orbs, so if you see someone else collecting engage them, and if a teammate is collecting support them by keep enemies away from them or body blocking shots for them. If there will be a tie to 100 you can also disrupt an enemy creature so your creature captures the orb first. If you see an enemy point without a creature on it, but with an orb you can run behind enemy lines and manually capture the power orb.

Trading Power: This is where it can get interesting. Know how much power actions will earn your team and if you can make a good trade at the right time it can tip the balance of power. Being behind enemy lines you can capture an enemy orb or kill a creature and if you die alone you will earn 20 power for your team and will give the enemy team 10 power for your death netting a +10 for the trade. Taking at least one enemy player down with you makes this a better trade. If your team needs 20 points to reach 100 and the enemy needs more than 10 this may be an acceptable risk. (Read Building Shield Phase below as it may not be.)

At completion of the Building Power Phase there is a branch, if your team was the first to 100 you will enter the Attacking Phase if your team was not first you will enter the Building Shield Phase.

Building Shield Phase:

The more complex of the two phases after the Building Power Phase ends. If your team was not the first to 100 power the other team will be attacking and your team will be building shield. Your teams goal here is to fill the shield bar to 100 so when the enemy guardian does their initial attack it does no damage and any enemy player's attacks have the most possible damage absorbed by the shield. Shield numbers are the same as power numbers from the Building Power Phase, except no orbs spawn in this phase. Do anything you can to get that last kill or two to fill your shield, if it's at 100 the enemy guardian's initial attack is completely absorbed by the shield.

Also worth noting here is there is no power penalty for dying in this phase, so while you want to be up to defend the Vulnerable Phase this is an acceptable place to die if it can't be avoided without costing anything in the power struggle for your team.

Attacking Phase:

The team that gets to 100 power first enters the Attacking Phase. In the Attacking Phase your goal is to stay alive and not feed any power into the Building Shield Phase of the enemy team. Orbs do not spawn so the best strategy is usually to group up at a forward point, heal up and time your arrival to the enemy guardian at the same time your attack timer reaches 0 so you are present for the full duration of the Vulnerable Phase.

Arriving to early is the most common mistake I see here as the other team should all be there defending and deaths will add to their shield and make it harder to complete the wound and/or avoid a full team wipe while attacking during the Vulnerable Phase. Consider hanging back if it looks like you are the last one to the enemy guardian and your team won't complete the wound to avoid a full team wipe.

Vulnerable Phase:

After the Building Shield/Attacking Phases have ended the Vulnerable Phase starts. This is the only time the Guardians takes damage and you make progress towards winning the game. The first team to complete three wounds (deplete all three guardian health bar) wins the game. At the start of the Vulnerable Phase the attacking guardian does damage to the defending guardian to start off the phase. This damage is reduced by the shield the defending team has built up in the Building Shield Phase directly before. While every bit of shield helps at 90 shield the guardian still takes a substantial amount of damage, but at 100 shield the initial attack damage is mitigated completely so pushing to 100 percent will give your team a huge advantage in defending the wound. The shield also mitigates a percentage of player damage until it is fully used up, so the higher the shield the better.

Auto Wounds: If a guardian's health bar is already partially depleted the initial damage from the attacking guardian may fully complete the wound on it's own and the attacking team may not need to do any damage at all. The first two wounds work this why while the final hit of the final wound (to win the game) can only be made by player damage. If you know this will be an auto wound avoid rushing to the back lines where you are vulnerable to unnecessary deaths and instead plan another strategic attack on a creature if the defending team all goes back to protect a wound.

This is generally an okay time to die. Death adds to shield and power by way of increasing vulnerable time, but both are fairly low amounts. This also seems to be the highest chance of a team wipe, mostly on the attacking team and you really want to avoid this at all cost! I'll briefly talk about team wipes below.

I'll break up the Vulnerable Phase into attacking and defending wounds:

Attacking During the Vulnerable Phase: The enemy guardian is being pinned down by your guardian and is vulnerable to attack after the Attacking Phase has completed. During this time you want to primarily be attacking the enemy guardian at the expense of almost everything else. If you are playing a hero with strong crowd control (Xenobia and Uncle Sven's Focus Skills come to mind) you may consider using them so your team has uninterrupted damage on the wound for their duration, or you may save them for escapes after this phase.
Keep an eye on your teammate panel and run if possible to avoid a full team wipe!!!

Defending the Vulnerable Phase: Your guardian is being pinned down by the enemy guardian and is vulnerable to player attacks after the Building Shield Phase has completed. Your number one priority is to keep attackers from damaging your guardian. Only the front glowing part around the head is vulnerable, so watch for enemy players to group up on it. This is one of the most effective times to use your area of effect (AoE) damage or crowd control skills. Also if your guardian is being attacked by ranged consider using skills like Margrave's Hellburst, Mozu's Arcane Vortex, or if you've upgraded your skills defensively even something like HK-206's Fortify directly in front of your guardian to body block for them. There are other skills that can also be used well here, like knock backs against melee heroes to keep them out of range to damage the wounds. Experiment with your chosen hero's skills to wee what is effective here.

It is acceptable to die at this point as it gives a fairly small enemy shield and no power if doing so can reduce the damage your guardian takes, and doesn't contribute to a full team wipe!

Right After Vulnerable Phase Ends:

After the Vulnerable Phase, both teams return to the Building Power Phase. The first 60 seconds after Vulnerable Phase ends is arguably the most strategic. Here are a few strategic options:

- If you were defending a wound get player kills on any low health enemies trying to get out.
- If you didn't need to or weren't in position for a wound, take a creature's health down low in the Vulnerable Phase and kill it as soon as it ends to get a quick 20 power lead.
- Make a strong coordinated attack on a creature point if the other team is out of position etc.

These are the phases of the game that loop throughout your match. If you understand them and where you are in the loop it will help you to make smart choices and win the power struggle. The team with the most Vulnerable Phases usually wins, and that is achieved by winning the Building Power Phases.

Lastly I'll cover three more things that significantly effect power.

Clash:

Clash is designed to push the two teams closer together and help bring the match to conclusion faster. The top middle of the UI shows the number of points to get to Clash. Being the first team to 100 power (Rampage) is one point and when all the points are used up you enter Clash. These points really only matter for a few badges, but this will help you know how close to Clash you are. The map changes (many times dramatically) and the fight continues in closer quarters.

Full Team Wipes:

If your entire team dies there is an extra spawn time penalty added to your team (about 15-20 seconds). If your entire team is dead often the other team will push and kill one of your creatures before your team can respawn and defend it. So in addition to the power the other team got from killing yours teammates you can almost always count on losing an extra 20 power from a creature kill. This is why someone should often hang back during Attacking Phases or at least be aware if everyone is in a bad location and run early. Team wipes want to be avoided at all costs. And it's actually a good thing to watch that last person run for cover if everyone else is dead.

Summoning Creatures Your Team Can't Defend:

Those center points on a map feel nice to control, but if you can't defend the creature summoned on them it's a constant 20 power drip to the enemy team. Don't summon these creatures unless you can defend them. Many games I've been in have been lost by overzealous summoning on center points. With the addition of the Obelisk, you do now have an option as they give no power when killed. So if you summon on a heavily contested point use an Obelisk, just remember you'll have to manually collect the power orbs.

The Basics of Importing Games

I have recently enjoyed importing games and am going to write a post about the basic considerations when importing hoping to help others interested in importing. There are a lot of details you'll need to look into, but this is a quick overview to get you started.

Does Your System Support Importing (Region Locking)?

The first thing you need to know is if you will be able to boot the game on your system. Some systems are region locked and will only read disks with a matching region encoded to them.  3DS is region locked while the DS was not. Playstation 3 and 4 are not locked, but I haven't looked into others so I won't list them. A Google search will answer this question quickly. If your system is region locked you'll need to buy a system for the region the game is made in. This may or may not be easy for example the 3DS is self contained, anything that is not you will need to know if it supports NTSC/PAL and if your TV also does. Also some kind of power/pug adapter may be required, plugs are easy but 110/220 voltage is not always.

PCs are technically always open, but I've read up on a few rare cases that require you to change the language and/or location in the operating system.Other issues may still apply though, keep reading.

Is the Online Play Restricted in your Area (IP Blocking by Region)?
IP addresses are the internet's way of telling who's who where the data needs to go. IP addresses are grouped by country like mailing address and some game servers restrict access to IP addresses for anything not in their intended area. I'll give two quick examples of this.

- Monster Hunter Portable 3rd: The middleware software that allows multiplayer on the Playstation 3 HD version does not connect in the US. So I can play all the single player content fine, but won't be able to use the multiplayer.

- Monster Hunter Frontier: This game is an always online game so basically you can't play any of it without connecting to a server as far as I can understand.

So how do you get around IP blocking? The only way I am aware of is using a VPN connection to an IP address inside the restricted access area. I've setup a free VPN and had a lot of latancy just web browsing, so haven't tried to play games over it at all. There are also paid VPNs that will probably perform better. Lastly I've also read about Frontier players being found out and the VPN being blacklisted so one one else could use it to play. I've avoided trying to get past this kind of restriction so far.

Is the Game Localized in Your Language?
This can be a bit one... Here are some considerations.

- If you are importing the game anyway, check all regions to see if any are better. Gundam Breaker 3 for example was never released in North America, but the Asia release had English subtitles and menu translations, so importing this version was far superior to the Japanese version.

- Look for versions that have language more similar to yours. I don't have a ton of experience with Spanish or German, but both are easier to try to decipher for me than something without the Latin alphabet.

- If other games in the series are in your language play a lot of them first. In my case most of the titles I've imported are Monster Hunter titles and I started by playing their English versions and mostly imported to play on the big screen instead of handheld. The game is still very recognizable to the original so most of the mechanics and iconography are similar enough to understand knowing them in English first.

- This one will require some gray areas, but a lot of games have fan-translated version. If you are playing on PC you might be able to patch it in, or if it's not a current generation console you might be able to find an emulated version of the game that has been patched you can use as reference to learn some of the mechanics. As long as you actually own a copy of the game and the system it seems gray, but I'm not a lawyer, so don't take my word for it.

- Look for community sites, YouTube videos, etc that other people have posted to help out.

- Google Translate

In my opinion this is the big one and what really makes importing a language you don't understand doable. Sorry for the boor quality shot, but Google Translate allows you to use your camera's phone and will in real time translate the text in the camera to your language. You can also take a picture and highlight just the text you want translated. The translations aren't perfect by any means, but normally will give you a good enough translation to figure it out.

- If you find yourself wanting to import from the same country consider learning the language.

Research the Specific Game and Region Requirements

In conclusion the internet is a big, wonderful, scary, disgusting, amazing place. Someone else has probably already imported the game you are looking out to your region if it hasn't just released. Do your research. Internet searches on every game I've imported and numerous ones that I didn't have told me exactly what to expect. They'll tell you what features will or will not work, the back of boxes will tell you what languages will have auto and subtitles and multiplayer options. Also any third party online middleware should be listed there and you can search for other games using it.

After importing a few games I was surprised how easy and enjoyable it is. And currently I'm spending a large percentage of my gaming time playing Monster Hunter Online a Chinese MMO version only in Mandarin. If there is a game you really want to try go for it and enjoy!

What do you do with game mechanics you don't like? (Hollowing in Dark Souls III)

First a quick disclaimer: There are spoilers for a very early NPC you come across at the beginning of Undead Settlement, and the game mechanic surrounding it. If you've already read the various posts around the internet about unlocking the secret endings to Dark Souls III, this purposefully gives less spoilers.

Hollowing has been a part of all of the Dark Souls games in one way or another, and though the mechanics have changed I've never really liked it. In Dark Souls III it is optional. I read up on hollowing and it appears you really SHOULD follow this quest line... you are given free level-ups, and the "best" ending of the game requires you to see the quest chain through to completion.

So the real reason I find this fascinating is that the only real draw back (that I can confirm) is it rots your character cosmetically. You go from looking like this:

To looking like this:

To make this less rational... I normally wear the highest defense armor I can find that isn't super over-weight. So normally that involves a helm that completely hides my face. (In my current game I'm not there yet, but it's coming, and the camera is behind you in game anyway.) It's completely irrational that I would miss out on a large quest chain, the "best" ending for the game and free level ups to not look like a zombie right?

But still I rolled back my save losing a weekend's worth of play to avoid going hollow in the first place.

So now Yoel of Londor is sitting at Fireling Shrine offering to "Draw Out True Strength" while I still look like this:

I read up and know I have a limited time to make my choice, but I just can't bring myself to go hollow now that the game doesn't require it. The first words out of Yoel's mouth(y thing) is "kill me" so I even did that before reverting that save as I didn't know if "sin" was tracked in this game. Maybe in New Game + I'll try out going hollow, and maybe I'm more opposed to it because of some of the horrific drawbacks in the previous games. I do really like being embered, I'll just stick with that! :)

A couple more spoilers, but if you've read this far I don't want to lead you astray: What makes it worse is I know I can even cure hollowing if it does indeed get bad (I read some of the mechanics may actually degrade if your hollow level gets to high), so it's not even an unrecoverable choice... Part of me is made for not making it, another part mad for reading up on it and spoiling it, but I was already at the point I was going to revert my save to get rid of it, I just wasn't sure what I was giving up, the answer is a lot... but somehow for some reason it doesn't matter.

Life Before the Quest Journal or A Day in Zelda: Twilight Princess

First thing: There are spoilers from about 30 minutes into the game until about the hour, 1:15 mark. If you haven't played the game yet and don't want spoilers complete day 2 in the story and then read this.

This is mostly an observation post... Going back and playing games from years ago before we had what are now common game mechanics can be interesting! In this particular post it will be the Quest Journal. Modern games keep track for you: bullet point quest objectives, map way-points, etc, you don't have to even read the story text.

This was not always the case! As you can see in this example, to have any hope of progressing in a timely manner you have to read all the dialog and be a little bit lucky. It requires figuring out the order, how everything works together, and not forgetting about any of the parts while trying to solve the whole.

This is also an interesting consideration because a lot of times I ponder leaving popular mechanics out of some of my game ideas for a variety of reasons... but what impact would that really have?

So with no further adieu here is day 2 in the newly re-released The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD.

The only expectation I was given from the day before was one of the kids in the village was finishing a fishing pole and it would be ready for me today.

I climb down out of my house and find the kid that was suppose to give me the fishing pole, instead there are three kids and they are talking about a sling shot at one of their family's shops.

On the way into town I see a lady complaining she lost her baby cradle and expects it to be floating down the river? I get side tracked investigating this, but nothing really pops up... I do note a cat in the game because it looks a lot like my cat in real life. After a bit of searching I follow the river up stream and find a monkey and some land (visible on the map) I can't seem to get to. I try using adjacent zones, etc, nothing, so back looking for the sling shot.

I am able to find a shop, but the lady running it is so distraught about her cat she won't sell me anything... I wonder if it is the same cat I saw earlier. I go back and try to herd it back towards the shop. (The game has taught me this is a mechanic, but the cat doesn't cross the water well, it won't use the bridge, it will swim or get stuck under it, but that seems to be it.) After trying for a while I give up on the cat too and start looking around.

This guy sitting on top of whatever this is who wasn't saying anything before starts talking to me...

About the cat...

And then about grass I can use to call my eagle... funny thing is the eagle can't do anything from here... however if I jump a couple more platforms there is more grass and I can call my eagle from there, and I have a better view of the monkey that was upstream but blocked off. And it looks like he was holding a basket.

So I send the hawk out from this 2nd spot at the monkey and the hawk brings the basket back to me!

I take the cradle to the mom of the kid who was suppose to have the fishing pole for me and after walking her back to her house she gives me a fishing pole. At this point I do put together that the missing cat had to do with a fish and so I go out and catch a fish and then look for it in my inventory and try to lure the cat back to the shop again with no lock. After trying a couple times I give up.

I had talked to a guy earlier that wanted a bee hive knocked down, so I found a spot I could send my owl out and knock it down... this seems to be purely optional, but hey, I was able to progress something.

Since the fish wasn't usable after catching it, I had a thought... maybe if I catch a fish by the cat?!?

So I caught a fish!

The cat stole the fish... and ran home!

So I follow the cat inside and good news! She is now ready to sell things!

So I head outside and collect 30 Rupees to pay for the sling shot that are scattered around the village.

I purchase the sling shot!

And try to take it back to the children, but I'm stopped just before them and told by on of their fathers that he dropped off a package for me... Now how old am I suppose to be? I play with the children, but have a job, but everyone mostly treats me like a child, but the children all act like I'm older, but all the adults act like I'm younger? idk...

Anyway, I finally get to the children with the sling shot.

They make me show off my skills with a sling shot...

before flat out demanding I bring back whatever the delivery was.

So I go back into my house, find a big shiny blue box and find a wooden sword in it... wooden...

Of course the children want to see me skills with the wooden sword... as soon as I'm finished showing off a monkey comes out of the woods and all three children chase after it... because...

I mount my trusty steed who drives more like a garbage truck than a horse and head off into the woods... with only that wooden sword.

I come across two of the children along the side of the road abandoning the third and leave them out in the cold to thing about what they have done...

I run across a merchant who gives me a lantern so he can over-charge me every time I want to re-fill it. And he sends me on my way into a dark cave where my horse won't follow with only a wooden stick and a lantern that doesn't hold enough oil.

After a fair amount of time in the caves I finally find the 3rd child and the monkey that started this trip caged up between two bad guys... I bust them out and bring the girl home.

I run into the father on the way back home and he tells me I'm going to take a present from the village to the castle the next day... after a short dialog and thanks for saving his son I apparently head to bed... that was Link's day off of work!

It will be interesting to play through a game from a time with less hand-holding and more puzzles even in ways we now take for-granted! I'm looking forward to what I can re-learn!

Game Art: The Ideal Art Style vs. Reality of Hardware Limitations

Fire Emblem Fates 2d and in-game models

There is something interesting that has been going on in video game art for a while now. In-game models haven't been able to be displayed at the fidelity of the target or ideal art style.

Fire Emblem Fates 2d and in-game models

JRPG's like Fire Emblem Fates pictured on the right have been dealing with this for a while now due to limitations on their former and current systems. The genre has always been big on hand-held systems and has been popular since at least the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), if not earlier.

As a result of these limitations you see beautifully hand drawn portraits shown over the top of in-game models that fit inside of the system's limitations.

Recently, fighting games were still using this technique. It appears Street Fighter V is using in-game models (possibly with higher texture quality), but Street Fighter IV still looked like this:

Street Fighter IV 2d and in game

Technology is getting better and the newest of titles on the current generation of hardware are using in game models. As an example Killer Instinct:

Killer Instinct vs screen in-game models

Even Gigantic is replacing some really nice 2d artwork with in game models:

Gigantic 2d art and in game model

This is done for various reasons both officially and unofficially. It's easier to maintain one asset as opposed to all of them. Some studios like ArenaNet have said they want customers to know what to expect in their game so they've gone as far as to make all promotional tailors using in-game assets. I just kinda miss the 2d assets. They are softer, more real, and more artistic in my opinion. They allow for something that either can't be done, or is too time consuming to make in the actual game.

I've been searching for a firm grasp on an art style for some Unreal Engine 4 work I've been doing when I have spare time so I've been watching this a bit more closely than in the past. Right now, I think cinematic mixed with a few post effects that are actually in game are getting close to what I'd like to get to.

Fire Emblem Fates cinematic

Other than finding out what all the fuss was about, I picked up Fire Emblem Fates because their cinematic are so good! I think with the limited shadow calculations I believe a better system could render these on the fly with only a few miner tricks.

Blizzard cinematics

Of course the day we are all waiting for is when the Blizzard cinematic quality can be rendered real time in a game... I feel we are probably many years from this, but honestly I don't care about pure realize if this can be pulled off.