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Legal questions linger as governments and companies keep pushing into space
The Perseverance rover’s landing on Mars is still fresh in people’s memories, privately-owned companies are ferrying people and supplies into orbit, and NASA continues to work on “the most powerful rocket” it has ever built. But as world governments and private enterprises continue to eye the skies for opportunities, a SXSW panel called “Who on Earth should govern Space” makes clear that the world’s laws dealing with space aren’t evolving as fast as the technology that gets us there.
Chrome will start blocking resource-demanding ads in August
Beginning this summer, Google will cap the resources a display ad can use in Chrome in order to protect users’ batteries and data plans.
China wants to ban Bitcoin mining because it 'seriously wasted resources'
As China tries to cut back on air pollution that has choked cities like Baoding and Shanghai, it's taking aim at cryptocurrency mining. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's chief planning regulator, has unveiled a paper with a proposal to ban Bitcoin mining, saying it has "seriously wasted resources."
Chrome's next update makes it less resource hungry
A big part of what's won Chrome a lot of converts is how much faster it is over the competition. That speed comes at a price, though: The web browser is notoriously a resource hog (especially if you have a dozen or so tabs open at once) and it dramatically cuts into battery life. As Google tells it, the latest version of the browser will help absolve those sins a bit. New tweaks include restoring only the most frequently used tabs should it detect that your machine is precariously low on resources, and a way of detecting when a page isn't busy with something else and using the free processor cycles to clean up idle memory.
Camelot Unchained discusses resource systems, BOP gear, and housing
The Camelot Unchained devs have just released issue seven of their Piercing the Veil series, blog posts dedicated to answering player questions about the upcoming PvP sandbox. The highlights? Not every tree in the game will be harvestable, but the devs are considering (not promising!) a dynamic resource ecosystem. There will be expandable storage, but inventory management annoyances will be downplayed. The team isn't planning NPC cities beyond the starter cities. The players will be creating that part of the world. Bind-on-pickup gear "does not make good sense for [the] game given that all but the starter gear will be crafted, rather than dropped." Housing will differ in format based on whether it's in the open world or safe zones, and you won't need to be a crafter to set up a basic home yourself. Non-stat player clothing will be in the game. The devs will most likely put limits on guild sizes. Solo play will probably be a viable option. You can read the complete Q&A on the official site.
World of Warcraft garrisons won't cost you gold
You know that World of Warcraft's next expansion is going to feature housing. Not just housing, in fact, since Garrisons are sprawling complexes under your direct control. So you know you need to figure out how you can afford it. You've been farming diligently, even resorting to shaking down repair vendors for gold, although that one hasn't worked out so well. But as it turns out, you don't need to worry. According to a tweet by Senior Game Designer Jeremy Feasel, Garrisons won't cost you gold. Feasel specifies in the tweet that Garrisons will use their own resource, stating that more information about what that resource is and how it can be gathered will be available soon. So you can rest easy knowing that your hard-won gold won't be needed to build your fortress. Or you can rest despondent that all of your gold won't buy you a nicer place. Either one, really.
Today's EQN Landmark patch expands horizons with new biomes, attached claims
When the EverQuest Next Landmark servers come back up from today's update, alpha players will have more places to build on, more things to build with, and more room to build in! Twelve new islands are opening on each world, each one featuring one or both of the brand-new biomes: Tundra and Old Growth Forest. And with new biomes come new building materials; players will be able to test out the new smoothing tool on the likes of snow and ice sculptures. Plant, rock, and tree prop recipes have also been temporarily added so players can craft the items needed to complete (and finally use) templates including them. Although there are plenty of bug fixes also included in this update, perhaps the most significant news for space-starved architects is the fact that attached claims are finally being added with this update. Players will be able to craft additional claim flags and place up to two alongside their current claim to expand their property.
Stats 101: Your character's resources and attributes
If you've been around the game for a while, you know World of Warcraft's system of resources and attributes so well that it seems like it needs no explanation. However, for players diving into their first MMO or even just switching classes, the basics of WoW's resources and stats -- otherwise known as the jumble of numbers listed on your character sheet (just hit "c" to see what we're talking about) -- may as well be a foreign language. So if you're trying to get started and you're a little lost as to what all of these numbers mean, how they affect your game, and the kind of gear you should equip to play your best, this guide is for you. Read on and we'll walk you through the numbers in plain English.
Norrathian Notebook: EQN Landmark alpha 101
You know you've got it bad when you don't want to leave a game long enough to write about it! But that's exactly how this last week has been for me and EverQuest Next Landmark. Don't get me wrong; it's an awesome change to be so eager to play that you willingly stare at a login queue (getting to listen to Jeremy Soule's music while you do is definitely a bonus!) and even spend hours gathering materials, knowing that it will all be wiped. It's just been a long while since that has happened to me. Luckily, the alpha has had downtimes, allowing me some sleep and a chance to whip this first impressions piece and quick-start guide up for you. Even with many of the core features from the game still missing, this alpha shows you straight off that EQN Landmark truly is a whole different game. The term innovative is not just a catchphrase here; it's a summary. As such, jumping in can leave eager players a bit overwhelmed or frustrated. So this here's a quick introduction course with hints and tips to get you started.
EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 1
When I'm not playing or writing about EVE Online, I can usually be found huddled over my computer typing lines of code into a compiler and chipping away at bugs that make varying degrees of sense. Designing my own hardcore space game is a really fun challenge and very fulfilling work, but I have a dirty little game dev secret: I've actually always wanted to make a fantasy game. While the budget and personnel required to take on a project the scale of an MMO remain quite far outside my grasp for the moment, it's still fun to think about how I might design such a game if the opportunity arose. The MMO genre seems to be heading for a sandbox revolution this year, and there's no bigger sandbox than EVE Online, but could all of EVE's gameplay translate to a fantasy game? EVE is probably the most atypical MMO out there, maintaining a subscription-based single-shard PvP sandbox in a genre that's typically headed in the exact opposite direction. There are several new sci-fi sandboxes on the way that may or may not qualify as massively multiplayer titles, but the vast majority of MMO gamers still prefer to keep their feet on the ground in fantasy lands. I often find myself wondering how much of EVE Online's core gameplay is possible only because of its setting -- and how much could actually be applied to a fantasy MMO. Not only should it be possible to adapt most of what makes EVE great to a modern land-based game, but many of the mechanics sandbox gamers now attribute almost solely to EVE actually started life in classic fantasy MMOs like Ultima Online. In this week's unusual EVE Evolved, I'd like to start a game design thought experiment as I delve into the hypothetical world of EVE Onland.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: eco-friendly Christmas trees, Kingdom of Erebor Lego replica and a ring that translates sign language
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. At this time of year, you tend to see lots of cars with Christmas trees strapped to their roofs. But that could become a less common sight due to climate change -- extreme weather events are making life harder for tree farmers, causing tree shortages in the northeastern US. As an alternative, Inhabitat rounded up a list of this year's top eco-friendly faux Christmas trees. In New York, this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is lit up with 45,000 solar-powered LED lights. In the spirit of the season, Russian photographer Alexey Kljatov took some stunning macro photos of snowflakes by hacking a cheap Canon PowerShot. Inhabitat also unveiled its annual green gadget gift guide, and we shared the real story behind the "design" of Christmas (hint: It involves Santa and 'shrooms).
EVE Evolved: What DUST 514 should have been
It's now been almost six months since DUST 514's official release, and I think it's safe to say it hasn't quite lived up to expectations. The game was lauded for its revolutionary realtime link with the EVE Online universe, but so far there's very little back-and-forth between the two titles. Originally intended as an MMO in its own right but also as an integral part of EVE's territorial endgame, DUST now exists largely as a lobby-based first-person shooter with the twist that equipment is lost on death. Even the planetary conquest portion of DUST that could be considered its most MMO-esque element has been abstracted into a series of instanced and scheduled 24v24 battles. DUST's main rival during development was the PC-based PlanetSide 2, and had the two games released on the same platform, I'm sure that rivalry would still be in the media spotlight. I've been playing PlanetSide 2 for just a few days, and I can already see elements that would make it a far better fit for the EVE universe than the current version of DUST. So what could DUST learn from its non-console-only counterpart? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how PlanetSide 2 handles issues of persistence, planetary conquest, and vehicle spawning, and why I think DUST 514 should be borrowing a few tricks from its game design.
The Mog Log: Understanding Final Fantasy XIV's markets
There are lots of ways to make money in Final Fantasy XIV, but the fastest way to increase your riches comes from smart use of the market boards. (Yes, you're not creating new money to enter the system; there are a lot of ways to do that, too. Go do some leves.) This is why I'm baffled at how many people understand the principle but don't understand how to sell things on the markets. Some of this probably comes from the fact that the system is never explained in great depth, but it doesn't help that the system isn't set up to work like many auction systems in other MMOs. So while some of you already grasp this and are enjoying the singular fun of being locked into a pricing war with three other people, others aren't sure how to get their Fleece to sell. Let's talk about some market truths you might not have realized.
New Pathfinder dev blog details salvaging, harvesting, and more
So what about Pathfinder's non-combat gameplay? I'm thinking specifically here about salvaging, harvesting, and gathering. What's that, you say? GoblinWorks has just posted a dev blog on these very topics? Well, I'll be! It seems as if salvaging has been simplified a bit since the last the time the devs talked it up. Oh, and harvesting spots are generated procedurally, so you won't necessarily be able to map out iron and tree nodes like you can in more typical MMOs. Gathering nodes have also been tweaked. More specifically they're now tied to the supply of harvestable resources in a particular hex, and GoblinWorks is currently going with a system of exclusive discovery rights to prevent claim-jumping. Finally, today's dev blog touches on the game's outposts, which are semi-permanent structures in wilderness areas that produce a steady supply of bulk goods by the hour. Hit the links below to learn more.
EQ Next Landmark's first dev highlights harvesting, inventory
With EverQuest Next Landmark's focus on building, it's not surprising that the first dev diary would focus on gathering those materials needed for building up the world. In the video diary, Senior Producer Terry Michaels and Creative Director Jeff Butler reveal that over 50 different resources have already been defined in the game, such as gems, wood, and metals. Each resource type has five tiers; the higher the tier, the deeper in the world it will be found. Players will harvest these metals, gems, and wood to make better tools that will in turn harvest better resources. But resources are not the only thing players can find while exploring -- crafting recipes and objects that players can keep or break down into materials will also be discovered throughout Landmark. And of course, with players gathering so much, there needs to be a place to put it all. Butler and Michaels also talked about the three types of inventory space in game (personal, claim, and a vault) and noted that players can access anything put in a vault from any other vault, whereas items stored in chests at their claim are only accessible at the claim. All three inventories, however, can be expanded through play. You can check the full video clip after the cut.
The Daily Grind: What do you spend and what do you hoard?
On most MMOs, my inventory is a sea of consumables. Every little boost I get -- stat boosts, healing items, resource items -- gets squirreled away to be used only when the situation is dire enough to warrant that item going away forever. The net result, of course, is that I have a level 5 stim on my level 55 character in Star Wars: The Old Republic, an item that saw its time come and go long before now. By contrast, if I'm crafting, I go through crafting materials with abandon. There's no time to stop and think that I might use these Cotton Bolls in Final Fantasy XIV in a future recipe; I'm too busy turning all of them into thread. Which isn't exactly better, since I still wind up needing more of these things if they ever become relevant again. I think everyone tends to hoard and spend differently, so today I'm asking how so. What do you spend and what do you hoard? Do you acquire huge piles of money but spend your tokens as soon as you can? Carefully measure out your class resources but go nuts with cooldowns? What are your thrifty habits and what habits... aren't? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Evolved: Strategic resources for everyone!
The past four EVE Online expansions have mostly focused on adding small features and overhauling old game mechanics and content that were beginning to show their age. Crucible delivered dozens of small but highly-requested features and gameplay improvements, and Inferno and Retribution continued with overhauls of several aging PvP systems. Even Odyssey contained mostly small features and revamps, its biggest gameplay features being a new hacking minigame and a streamlined scanning interface. It's been several years since EVE has received a truly massive and game-changing feature like wormholes or a sovereignty revamp, but that may all be about to change! CCP recently announced its intention to start reaching for big ideas again, but this time set over a more realistic timeframe. If everything goes according to plan, the next five years could see the introduction of player-built stargates and true deep space colonisation. I wrote about the potential of this concept last week and looked at some of the big features we'd need to make it a reality, but I didn't really delve into my personal favourite idea for a potential future expansion: New strategic resources and player-created deadspace complexes. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how strategic resources could be used to get even individual players invested in something worth fighting for, and how player-created deadspace dungeons could be a great way to introduce them.
Cutting to the heart of extraction in The Repopulation
If you want to craft items in The Repopulation, you're not going to go down to the science fiction equivalent of Ikea and buy the Martin Plasma Rifle. You're going to get out into the wild and get the resources you need. There are two systems for gathering items in The Repopulation, and the newest development blog for the game discusses one of the ways to grab those resources: Extraction, also known as "digging useful components out of corpses." Since the game doesn't feature levels, there's a more organic system to gathering these resources. Players first decide how difficult the extraction should be, with higher difficulties resulting in higher-grade resources. More difficult extractions take longer, however, and as a result, players have a higher chance to fail unless they've practiced harvesting a particular species. For more details on the specifics, check out the full development blog on the official site.
Pathfinder dev blog rolls up its sleeves and digs into crafting
If you've been looking forward to an involved crafting system, Pathfinder Online is happy to oblige. In the most recent dev blog, the game's proposed system is laid out in great detail, from gathering the resources to the final product. In a nutshell, gear (the majority of which will be player-crafted) will be the final result of many steps involving different skill sets, with the creator's skill rating at each step contributing to the final quality rating. Each step -- harvesting or salvaging, refining, crafting, and enchanting -- can only achieve a quality rating equal to the level of either the starting materials or the creator's skill, whichever is lower. The blog also gives players an update on how Kickstarter rewards will be disseminated. For full details on both this and the entire crafting process, check out the the full blog.
Time names Guild Wars 2 the top video game of 2012
What's the best video game of 2012? If you're Time magazine or are looking at the headline of this article, chances are you probably know the answer. Time's website counted down the year's top 10 video games, putting Guild Wars 2 at the top of the list. The author seems taken with the game's dynamic event system: "All those events and hundreds more play out in real-time -- with, as Bono would say, or without you -- lending Guild Wars 2 the feel of a living world, and the sort of compulsive anywhere-you-go playability other MMOs only dream of." Torchlight II also made it into the list at the number 10 spot, with the author saying that it delivered the same action-RPG rush of Diablo III at a third of the price.
