character-revamp
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Mortal Online overhauls characters and armor visuals
Mortal Online has been hard at work performing comprehensive overhauls to character and armor, making them look better than ever. The character improvements for the game include visual passes, more natural animations, a new character creation system, and high-definition upgrades to armor. The visual improvements to crafted armor make up 90% of the game's wearable gear. The recent update also added in three new craftable armor sets and improved large-group performance for mass battles. Due to the character overhaul, Star Vault is giving a free recustomization option to all players. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
LOTRO confirms player skill trees, expansion in the works
While it didn't take much reading between the lines to realize that Turbine has an expansion in the works for Lord of the Rings Online this year, the team confirmed the terminology in a dev chat. The devs hinted that the full announcement would come around the game's sixth anniversary next month. Players had many questions regarding the promised but vaguely detailed revamp coming to characters. Turbine revealed a few more details in the chat: "Three trees per class. Some degree of blending at a higher cost than sticking with a pure build. Bonuses granted based on an early-level specialization choice that grows as points are spent. You can have multiple specs. You can respec." Other interesting nuggets to chew on from the Q&A session include the news that player housing will include crafting facilities, virtue acquisition may see a significant change, and that applications for the player council will begin tomorrow.
New EVE avatars coming soon to Singularity
Those of you excited by the prospect of EVE Online's impending Incarna expansion might want to check out the latest dev blog from CCP senior producer Torfi Frans Olafsson. Heck, even if you hate the idea of Incarna, you'll probably want to check it out since it heralds the first of some rather significant changes in the offing for the sci-fi MMORPG. The change in question is the upcoming test-server release of the new character generator, and in addition to a couple of nifty screenshots, the blog features a hypothetical question-and-answer session that details several aspects of the new system. For starters, Olafsson reiterates the fact that Incarna is coming in 2011, and these character changes are merely the first step. He also notes that the changes are not optional and that the player portraits are some of the last remaining original art assets from the game's launch in 2003. "The assets we are replacing are some of the oldest in the game. Most of our avatars were built in 2001-2003. That's a very long time ago. Nokia banana phones were still considered cool and futuristic," he writes. Olafsson also notes that CCP is sympathetic to those veteran players who may balk at the changes to their traditional portaits. That said, progress waits for no avatar, and it's clear that this is merely the first salvo in an upcoming onslaught of improvements and additions to the universe of New Eden.
