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Camelot Unchained prepares to cross $3M in fundraising
As of the writing of this post, Camelot Unchained is on the verge of hitting $3M in fundraising donations at $2,952,875. City State Entertainment said that when that already-impressive sum climbs to $3,025,000, the team will sign on a sound engineer to kick the game's audio up a notch. "Part of this goal will cover licensing the Audiokinetic Wwise engine and technical support for it, as well as some great plug-ins, while the rest will go toward the salary and expenses of the sound engineer," CSE posted. To help prompt more of those donation dollars, Camelot Unchained began selling unveiled lifetime subscriptions today at the builder's level.
RIFT beefs up the minion system
RIFT's new minion system is arguably one of the more popular additions to the game in some time, with players sending out their loyal subjects to bring them back treasures and fame. However, Trion Worlds says it still has work to do, and in a new "State of the Minunion" post, the studio lists a few areas that it's improving with the game's next hotfix. The new Fae Yule minion mission pack, with a series of quests that tell a story, will have some of its minion rewards buffed up with better stats. The hotfix will also tackle a few bugs and add minion-releated achievements. Finally, adventure rewards are being fine-tuned and improved, although it has been difficult for the team to handle this as it has been "an extremely extensive change touching dozens upon dozens of loot tables."
Camelot Unchained's Mark Jacobs on the warrior class and development transparency
City State Entertainment -- an indie studio that's becoming better known to our readers, I imagine, after it ran away with our poll for best studio last week -- has today posted its first class concept reveal. The tentatively named Drengr is the Viking warrior class, and in its long design document, the studio has outlined just how the archetype fits into the proposed Path system that will govern character development in the crowdfunded RvR MMORPG. We spoke to CSE's Mark Jacobs about the Path system, warrior reveal, and the impact of transparency on the game development process. Enjoy the interview below!
RIFT brings Fae Yule back with new mounts and sweaters
What could be better than riding around on a festive squirrel while wearing awful holiday sweaters? Why, doing so on your way to fight a boss, of course. You'll get your chance to do just that in the latest incarnation of RIFT's Fae Yule event, running until January 7th. Players can send their minions out to find the missing Grandfather Frost, take on the new Golden Devourer boss, and take part in several new quests and special events during the event period. And what do you get out of it? Aside from a new mount to carry you into battle, you can earn new pets, minions, holiday-themed weapons, cloaks, decorations for your home Dimension... lots of stuff, in other words. So get in-game and get moving because if you have an urgent need to deck yourself in all the holiday gear available, you've got only a little time to pick it all up. And who wants to miss out on horrible sweaters? No one, that's who.
The Elder Scrolls Online's Undaunted Pledge system promotes daily dungeons
Are you wandering around The Elder Scrolls Online in a post-Update 5 haze, lost on what to do? Wander no more: ZeniMax has released a dev blog today to give you some guidance. The guide details the pledge system of the Undaunted, whose tasks are reminiscent of daily dungeon quests in other themeparks. Starting at level 45, players can swear themselves to the Undaunted faction, which offers two daily quests to complete dungeons, one veteran and one not. Depending on how well they complete the dungeon and the difficulty of the encounter, players will be awarded reputation with the faction as well as a key to unlock a sweet chest of loot. "The Undaunted chests can contain a variety of helpful loot, from valuable Ornate items and soul gems to unique items sets and attention-grabbing shoulder pieces fashioned from the very brutes you've slain," writes ZOS. The full guide is on the official site.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Five advantages RIFT has over WoW
From its inception, RIFT has taken the position of being both a World of Warcraft clone and a direct competitor for its playerbase. It's not as if Trion Worlds has been subtle about it: The early campaign slogan of "You're not in Azeroth anymore" all but reached over and tweaked Blizzard's nose. While some didn't like the direct comparison, I thought it was a wise move for RIFT to acknowledge its obvious ancestry and its position as a cocky upstart. While I've never been of the opinion that only one MMO can "win" or that we should always disparage games other than the ones we play, I won't deny that comparisons get made. Listen, World of Warcraft is a fun, slick game, one I spent many years playing. But just because it's one of the most popular MMOs in the world and stuffed full of 10 years of content doesn't mean it holds all of the cards (nor is it the MMO that currently grabs most of my gaming time). In fact, RIFT has several distinct advantages that it's used and continues to use against Big Blizz, and it's those advantages that I want to praise today.
Camelot Unchained tackles building systems, ability crafting
City State Entertainment has continued its daily Camelot Unchained updates with another batch of notes on the ongoing state of the build as the team gears up for alpha testing in 2015. Studio boss Mark Jacobs says that his crew has done a first pass on the building system as well as the ability crafting system UI, mage VFX and casting, and the grass system. The team is also working on improvements to client performance. "Last month we rocked the network and PhysX side," Jacobs wrote. "Now we begin to do the same on the client side." Critical improvements to duck pedestal collision are also included in the notes. Check the whole list out on the official site to understand that joke.
RIFT announces Christopher Junior as game director
The release of RIFT's latest expansion has led to a minor changing of the guard over at Trion Worlds. It's still the same guard, though, just in different positions. A shuffling of the guard, if you will. The game's new executive producer Bill Fisher announced in a letter to the community that Christopher "Archonix" Junior is getting brought up to the director position following the release of Nightmare Tide. Junior, by his own words, has been working with RIFT focusing chiefly on the systems end of design. The game's holiday event is scheduled to live next week, followed by the first major patch since the launch of the expansion. The patch, tentatively titled Storm at Sea, will include a new open-world area, extensions to the existing raiding area, and updates to the Minion systems that were introduced with the expansion. Check out the full letter to the community for another few details and a bit more introduction to the game's new director.
Camelot Unchained moves on to its third pre-alpha test
The bad news of the most recent Camelot Unchained update is placed front and center of the latest development update: Some of the features once slated for inclusion in the second pre-alpha test have been kicked back to the third pre-alpha test. This also counts as good news, though; because of the small number of features remaining on that particular checklist and the progress already made on the third checklist, the team decided to just go ahead and shift the items to the new checklist whilst moving on to the third test. Got all that? Good. Pre-alpha test #3 will contain the first pass of the game's building system, among other updates. While it has yet to be fully fleshed out, the core building blocks are working. So if you're a big enough backer to take part in these initial rounds of testing, you'll have the chance to start trying your hand at making new things when the test dates roll around.
Elder Scrolls Online says there's still 'work to do' on its console version, no launch date yet
The self-imposed six-month delay of Elder Scrolls Online's console release has come and gone, and it looks as though fans will be waiting a while yet to see the title come to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. In a new Road Ahead post, the team admits that the adaptation has been tricky but that progress is being made. "We have been (and will continue to be) steadily working on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of ESO. They are playable and fun right now, but there's still some work to do before we can set an official launch date," Game Director Matt Firor said. He mentioned that, among other tasks, the team is designing a new UI from the ground-up and adding voice chat for the consoles. Firor also discussed Update 6, which is scheduled for January. The update will contain the new champion and justice systems, the latter of which will allow players to pickpocket NPCs and steal from vendors. However, this will be but the first pass for the justice system, as PvP will be integrated at a later date.
Elder Scrolls Online walks you through crafting writs
Fun fact: Elder Scrolls Online's Update 5 is about a month old at this point and is now able to roll over and distinguish shapes. Among its treasure trove of new features was the introduction of crafting writs. However, in case you are a little confused or curious what these are and how to do them, ZeniMax has crafted (get it?) a new dev diary to walk you through the process. To be able to take on writs, players will first need to become certified in a desired crafting profession by undertaking a related quest. Once completed, players can accept a task from a writ board to craft specific goods and turn them in for rewards. Each category of writ can only be fulfilled once a day, and completing them can even net you survey reports to point you toward a cluster of harvest nodes.
Camelot Unchained's fourth newsletter covers the state of the game
The build for Camelot Unchained is constantly improving in functionality. Dual-targeting is now implemented, allowing players to have separate friendly and hostile targets for various effects. The hotbar UI is improving. Auto-run is in the game. How do we know all of this? It's all in the latest newsletter from the development team, which discusses every aspect of the title from the stability and performance of the current build to future plans and technology integration. Aside from the current state of the alpha testing build, the newsletter answers several community questions about possible new races and weaponry, shows off some of the armor designs that are being explored for mages, and talks about the game's reward structure. And even that isn't a full rundown of everything in the dispatch. If you're a fan of what's going on with Camelot Unchained, it might be best to just curl up with some holiday leftovers and read the full newsletter.
RIFT brings back Unicornalia
As the holiday season swiftly approaches, RIFT reminds us all of an important issue that doesn't get much discussion over the year: Unicorns. Oh, sure, the plight of these noble creatures can easily be dismissed with a waved hand and a claim that "these are fictional animals that do not actually exist," but RIFT's Unicornalia returning is a chance for everyone to adopt a unicorn in peril. During the event, which runs until November 26th, you can provide a home for an Onyx Unicorn or an Opal Unicorn. Both can potentially be received from the limited edition Sparkle Troves in the RIFT store. You can also obtain the Onyx Unicorn as a rare drop from an event in Moonshade Highlands or by completing the "A Rainbow in the Dark" achievement, while the Opal Unicorn can be received via Unicornalia dailies. Please, take time out of your day to consider the unicorns. They're not just for virgins any more.
Enter at Your Own Rift: How to tell a great story in an MMO
My character still hasn't (ahem) ascended to Nightmare Tide levels yet, so today's RIFT story will instead be about Storm Legion. I had been working my way through the Eastern Holdings in Brevane when I encountered a quest chain that floored me with brilliant storytelling that showed exactly how MMOs can utilize this platform to tell tales in ways that other mediums cannot. It is audacious, bold, and incredibly dark, especially for RIFT. And I cannot praise it enough, especially in light of long-held claims that RIFT is often weak on story. I have two caveats before we go through what made this quest chain so great. First, I'm going to spoil it from start to finish, so if you haven't played it and want to remain innocent, just bookmark this column to read later on. Second, there are some truly edgy themes in this recap. Got it? Let's go!
The armor of Camelot Unchained's mages
Mages have a certain amount of freedom with armor. Where other sorts of classes have to wear something bulky and, well, armored, magic-using characters tend to be able to dress simply for impressive image. The downside is that they tend to be vulnerable to sharp objects directed at their internal organs, but the upside is that they get to swing around the world looking stylish as hell while getting sharp bits jabbed at them. Camelot Unchained promises to be no exception to the trope. The latest development blog for the game shows off a variety of concept art for mage outfits, ranging from dyeing styles to headwear to cloaks and capes. It's simultaneously a traditional look and a somewhat diverse one, offering the caster-on-the-go a variety of options that are both active and stylish. Check out the full post for a comprehensive look at the modern Camelot Unchained mage's activewear. [Thanks to Matthew for the tip!]
RIFT adds extra days to its Autumn Harvest
Grumpy that Christmas music is already blaring in the stores? Then take solace in the fact that at least one MMO isn't prepared to let go of Halloween just yet. RIFT announced yesterday that it will be adding a few extra days to the ongoing Autumn Harvest event. Previously, it was scheduled to end on November 13th, but after "listening to feedback from [its] players," Trion Worlds said that the event will now go on through the end of Wednesday, November 19th.
Elder Scrolls unveils its six-month loyalty reward
ZeniMax has revealed its six-month subscriber reward for players of The Elder Scrolls Online. The devs are continuing with the vanity pet theme introduced for the three-month reward, only instead of a High Hrothgar Wraith, this time we have the Dwemer Sphere. Keep in mind that the reward months accumulate whenever you have an active sub, so if you leave for a month or two and then resubscribe in the future, you'll retain your progress in terms of loyalty rewards.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Do my bidding, minions!
RIFT: Nightmare Tide is here at last, and the one overriding thought that permeates my every gaming minute is this: I am going to get totally addicted to minions. Heck, I already am. I'll be getting into other aspects of the expansion in coming weeks (spoiler: sidekicking is way tubular), but since this one feature is available to everyone right now and it's completely new to the game, I wanted to discuss minions today. There isn't a lot of information out there on the minion system thus far, which is surprising considering how much I've seen guildmates and general chat buzz on about it. Perhaps it's simple enough not to require detailed explanations, but there's still enough depth to elicit a few questions. So what's the minion system like? How does it benefit players? How much money does it require of free players? What are some good strategies for it? I'm all over this today, so let's get into it!
Elder Scrolls Online's Update 5 goes live, reduces VR grind
ZeniMax has published Elder Scrolls Online's Update 5. The patch features improved facial animations, chat bubbles, dungeon and solo-instance scaling, and the Veteran City of Ash. Speaking of veterans, they'll probably be happy to know that the devs are continuing to roll out the previously announced veteran rank revamp with Update 5. Veteran Ranks are now earned via experience points, and each rank will grant an attribute point and a skill point. It now takes 1,432,550 experience points to earn a VR, and ZeniMax says that it expects "this to reduce the amount of time it takes to gain a Veteran Rank." [Thanks Matthew!]
Camelot Unchained explores the designs of the Tuatha De Danann
Armor is not a fashion statement. Well, all right, it usually is, but it's not just a fashion statement. How a race looks in a given game often says a lot about what that race represents and what matters to the members as a whole. Camelot Unchained's latest update talks about the Tuatha De Danann, both a concept that the team may use for the realm's armor and the updated visual design of the Baen Sidhe. Unlike the design for the Baen Sidhe's previous more macabre appearance, the updated design is still ethereal whilst being less overtly malformed. The scars and wounds that led to the death of an individual Baen Sidhe's line still play into the designs via shadowed tattoos. Meanwhile, the Tuatha De Danann as a whole are so in tune with the seasons and the flow of the natural world that several concept designs for season-themed armors are shown. If you want to see how you can protect your character while still making a fashion statement, check out the full update.
