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Camelot Unchained's producer's letter offers concept art, new storefront
Camelot Unchained's April producer's letter begins with an apology; the planned testing scheduled for the end of March was delayed because of goal pushbacks, writes producer Tyler Rockwell. But we're pretty sure you'll forgive the team as Rockwell has uploaded some new bits of concept art of the Giants of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The team is also teasing new and more functional forums as well as a new storefront, which will have "much-requested capabilities such as combining and upgrading pledges." "We know we need to pick up the pace over the next 5 months in order to hit Alpha on time, and that is our intent," Rockwell vowed. We've included the concept art after the break; just click the images to enlarge them.
Landmark roundtable video on giving the toolset love
In this week's Landmark roundtable video, SOE Senior Brand Manager Omeed Dariani is joined by Lead Building and UI Designer Jake Sones to discuss the results of a player poll about which Landmark tool needs the most work and love. Sones tells viewers that the results of the poll were even; apparently there's no one tool that needs serious work, just plenty of player sentiment that many of them need something. He specifically addresses changes being made to how tweak mode handles pasting large objects; ideally, the game will detach the preview from the mouse cursor and provide menus similar to those used by the prop tool. The pair also explain the studio's hesitation in implementing specialized and redundant tools like the cylinder tool, citing microvoxels -- a feature the developers didn't even know the game could do -- as something players came up with that might never have been discovered had every imaginable tool already existed to stifle their creativity. Enjoy the full video!
How Guild Wars 2 megaservers affect guilds, WvW, events, and world bosses
Yesterday, ArenaNet announced that it will soon begin to roll out megaserver technology for Guild Wars 2 in order to eliminate overflow and underpopulated servers. Today, it has delivered a pair of blog posts intended to clarify those plans. The first post tackles guilds and WvW. ArenaNet aims to unify guild chapters split across home-worlds so that all members contribute to and benefit from the same version of the guild. But the studio does note that WvW won't be negatively affected by megaservers and will continue to be based on competition between worlds. The second and more meaty entry focuses on world bosses and events. The API governing boss timers on individual worlds will be replaced by a more consistent schedule such that world boss events will start at the same time across the entire game. There's even a 24-hour proposed schedule ready to go.
Pathfinder Online's devs on dynamic escalations and new races
In the latest installment of the Pathfinder Online video blog, Goblinworks PvE designer Bob Settles joins lead designer Lee Hammock to discuss escalations and alternate races. Races are the simpler topic; Hammock explains that the team does plan to expand the available races significantly, noting that races that are flavors of other races are much easier to implement because of shared models. And what about escalations? "Escalation" is the team's fancy term for one of the game's many dynamic, hex-shaped zones that are reserved for monster spawns and can over time, well, escalate and expand to neighboring hexes, ramping up in scale and difficulty with elite bosses. Multiple escalation themes are discussed in the video, including escalations that allow participants to do something other than beat mobs into submission. Enjoy the video below.
World of Tanks unveils new 7v7 combat mode
Wargaming.net has just announced a brand-new combat mode for its tank-flavored MMO World of Tanks. The mode is a 7v7 random battles mode called Labyrinth. David Bowie is not included, but a new vehicle is: The only vehicle available in the upcoming mode will be the German self-propelled gun Karl-Gerät that will be added with Update 1.04 as well. Tankers will also get an original battle arena, developed specially for Labyrinth, as well as a new medal, awarded for exceptional performance in the new mode. The translated version of the latest WoT developer diary discusses the new combat mode in depth; we've got it embedded below. [Source: Wargaming press release]
Boatloads of classes are coming to Pathfinder Online
The latest Pathfinder Online video dev blog has arrived, and it features Goblinworks' Lee Hammock and Stephen Cheney answering questions about which classes will enter the game in which phase. The Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric will be first during early enrollment, followed by the more crafting-based roles like the Aristocrat, Commoner, and Expert, and then the core classes of the Barbarian, Paladin, Sorcerer, and Bard. The Ranger, Druid, and Monk are likely to emerge during open enrollment. The accompanying blog post also explains how experience and skills will map from the tabletop game to the MMORPG. We've included the complete video diary below.
Massively Exclusive: RIFT reveals the Oracle soul
Tomorrow, Trion Worlds is set to reveal another of RIFT's planned new souls, the Oracle, but Massively has an exclusive preview and lore piece for you today. Arriving in RIFT's 2.7 upcoming patch, the Oracle is a Cleric soul that allows the equipper to buff and debuff large groups using water and death magic. Oracles arrive from a dark future where their mastery-level support skills have forestalled the annihilation of Telara. Gifted with powers of Water and Death, these versatile casters can lift entire raids to triumph with a repertoire of powerful boons, shields, heals, buffs, and curses. As a group member, they're indispensable. As an enemy, they're impossible to ignore. We've got another screenie and the official background story for the Oracle tucked after the cut. Read on!
Pathfinder Online opens new storefront, posts first video dev blog
The Goblinworks team has this evening posted several bits of news about its forthcoming sandbox, Pathfinder Online. The studio has revamped its website and opened a new store it's calling the Goblin Squad Store, a "portal for merchandise that is currently only available to Goblin Squad members." The store appears to be a way for would-be backers to toss some (or more) cash at the developers even though the Kickstarter has ended. In return, gamers can select from a lengthy list of add-ons both physical and digital, including tabletop miniatures, forum titles, gametime, and even a swanky messenger bag. If you're keen more on learning about the game than on funding it, the team's new video blog might be of more interest. The first of planned biweekly episodes went live tonight and features Goblinworks' Lee Hammock and Stephen Cheney explaining how slots and divine powers work in the game. We've embedded the vid behind the cut.
Landmark video diary hints at the Pulverizer, new harvesting tools
It's time for another EverQuest Next Landmark video dev diary. Your host is EQNL lead systems designer Michael Mann, and he's a got a lot to say about harvesting tools. He enlists a bit of help from lead character artist Kacey Helms, who takes viewers on a journey from in-game axe concept to finished in-game axe model. Next up is lead animator Aaron Carlson, who shows off mining animations, followed by VFX artist Lisa Charriere, who explains what SOE's thinking in terms of particle effects. Finally, we're treated to a sneak peak of the Pulverizer, which is a new tunneling tool currently in the works. Click past the cut for the full video!
Pathfinder Online's Ryan Dancey on crowdforging a 'minimum viable product'
In response to our recent editorial questioning whether we are in fact in the middle of a sandbox renaissance, Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey has penned a Massively-exclusive dev blog to explain why his game, Pathfinder Online, is indeed at the center of such a renaissance. Pathfinder was specifically mentioned in our article as a possible example of those pseudo-sandboxes that rely too heavily on creating a space for players to butcher each other without bothering to create the mechanics for anything else. Dancey hopes to clarify his game's outlook today. Read on for his dev blog, in which he discusses what he means by "minimum viable product," distances Pathfinder from the cripplingly expensive graphical arms race plaguing the industry, and elaborates on just how Goblinworks plans to roll out this "crowdforged" MMO.
Wakfu announces plans for crafting revamp
Ankama Games' quirky, cel-shaded, turn-based title Wakfu is tearing down its old crafting system and rebuilding it into something totally new. While the dev blog on the topic makes it clear that the final version of the crafting revamp is still subject to many changes, the basic idea behind it is to recreate crafting as a time-based system in which players assign crafting tasks to their (NPC) workers, with each task taking a variable amount of time to complete. Players can continue their adventures as usual while their workers complete a task, so there's no need to park your character and go make a sandwich while he crafts. Each crafting task occupies a craft slot, with each character beginning their crafting career with a single slot. Players can unlock additional task slots (allowing more crafting tasks to be completed simultaneously) by completing crafting achievements, up to a maximum of nine slots. In addition to this new crafting system, the revamp will also introduce a contract system that will allow buyers to place orders with their crafters of choice, complete with the tools for price negotiation and the ability for buyers to supply the required materials to the crafters. When a contract is completed, the item is delivered directly to the buyer's inventory upon its completion, making for a hassle-free shopping experience. All the finer details on Wakfu's proposed crafting revamp can be found in the full dev blog on the game's official site. [Thanks to Avaera for the tip!]
SOE teases Landmark development plan, polls build contests
Sony Online Entertainment director of development Dave Georgeson has posted a new update over on the official EverQuest Next Landmark forum outlining the team's plans for moving forward and asking players for opinions on possible upcoming build contests. In the post, Georgeson notes that SOE's first order of business with Landmark is focusing on communications, rating systems, and ways for players to better cooperate with one another. Teams will also be working on systems like combat, AI, and water. Additionally, Georgeson revealed that SOE is going to start running Landmark building contests. The first contest revolves around designing a landmark for island hubs, but future contests are left up to a poll in the post. Choices include homages to buildings in previous EverQuest games, new architecture for Norrath, and genre-specific contests that center on modern, sci-fi, or fantasy designs. You can vote for your preference on Georgeson's forum post.
Age of Conan director's letter talks achievements and PvP
Age of Conan senior designer Matthew Bennett stepped in to author the game's most recent director's letter, and in doing so offered updates on AoC's long awaited achievement system as well as some valuable intel on the state of PvP items. According to Bennett, the Age of Conan team has a rough design in place for achievements that centers on broad categories like PvE, exploration, and dungeons, with sub-categories being designed for each. Bennett also explained that the dev team is taking a hard look at Tier 3 PvP gear by working to re-balance stats on key items to make them more useful and up their damage output to an appropriate level. The PvP team is also working on Tier 4 PvP items. Finally, Bennett reminded players that starting in February, Portents will return to their normal cycle of starting on the first Wednesday of the month and lasting until the following Tuesday. As for the big things like The Palace of Cetriss raid and Age of Conan's new tradeskill system? While not the focus of this particular letter, those key game elements are still in development.
Neverwinter state of the game talks player feedback and future expansions
Neverwinter fans may want to pop over to the game's official site and read lead producer Andy Velasquez's state of the game post, which outlines challenges faced by the dev team, successes it has seen this year, and hopes it has for the future of the game. Velasquez noted the Shadowmantle expansion as a high point for the game, praising his team for being able to "get it done so quickly while maintaining a high-quality product." Velasquez also explained that it is Cryptic's goal to get future expansions live on the test server earlier in the development process, thus allowing for deeper testing and the collection of more player feedback. According to Velasquez, player feedback is invaluable in helping the Neverwinter team understand which changes to implement. Other small successes were celebrated; Neverwinter has launched a Russian shard and the team is hard at work on the next content update.
Guild Wars 2 dev blog explains WvW matchup system changes
There's been a small (but not insignificant) change to the way Guild Wars 2 determines world-vs.-world matchups. The official dev blog on the matter explains that, in the beginning, WvW matchups were chosen "by sorting all worlds in order of their Glicko rating, then counting off sets of three." As a result, matchups were often between the same three worlds, so ArenaNet introduced matchup variance to counter that problem. However, it appears that the devs have made an adjustment to the matchup variance formula that causes the range of worlds with which a given server can be matched to be "greatly reduced." The idea behind the new formula is that "There will be fewer matches where one or two worlds are potentially steamrolled, though it comes at the cost of seeing more of the same worlds." That's all that the average GW2 player needs to know, but if you're interested in the math and statistics behind the change, check out the full post at the game's official site.
Elder Scrolls Online Ask Us Anything details character progression
The latest installment of ZeniMax's "Ask Us Anything" question-and-answer feature is all about progression in The Elder Scrolls Online. Players from ESO's French and German fansites, Game-guide.fr and TESOnline.de, have submitted a great deal of questions which are added to the usual variety of inquiries culled from the many corners of the internet, so this entry is particularly lengthy and packed full of information. Throughout the slew of questions and answers, the ESO devs reveal that players will be able to re-spec their characters' attribute and skill points for an unspecified sum of gold and that in addition to the standard skill lines, there will also be two skill lines "designed to be particularly useful" in PvP. On top of that, the devs delve into detail on ability morphing, the potential addition of future skill lines, the role of attributes in character progression, racial traits and skills, and much more. If you're looking to find out more, just head over to the Elder Scrolls Online official site.
EVE dev blog explores balancing player load
CCP has posted yet another incredibly detailed and highly technical dev blog over on the official EVE Online community site, this one relating to how the studio balances the player load across the node-based single shard on which New Eden exists. The post begins by explaining that an increase in players with this year's Odyssey expansion led to extreme CPU load in empire space, which in turn created scenarios where EVE's time dilation technology had to kick in even for systems that weren't experiencing some sort of mass fleet battle. The blog walks through how CCP identified the problem and also explains the solution, which basically comes down to rebalancing which systems share nodes by performing multiple splits of the existing universe. If you're an EVE player or love exceptionally granular, detailed breakdowns of the though process behind server-side changes, the full post is worth a read.
Trion Worlds overhauls RIFT's Iron Pine Peak
Mid-level RIFT players have a new place to adventure after the game's 2.5 update; Iron Pine Peak has been completely redesigned. According to Trion Worlds, the zone has been rebuilt from the ground up with the challenges inside being tweaked to accommodate players from levels 27-35 instead of 40-48. The questing content has been reworked, with main story arcs being marked more clearly and providing greater rewards. Additionally, kill quests have been converted to Carnage quests and paths through each set of quests have been streamlined to reduce repetition. Trion explained that the zone's level requirements were reduced so that RIFT players would encounter the Storm Legion storyline earlier in their RIFT careers, and so that give mid-level players more freedom in how and where they level. Trion originally planned to rework Iron Pine Peak before RIFT's initial launch but put the plan on the backburner due to the risk of changing so many things so close to release.
Neverwinter dev blog dives deep into building the Hunter Ranger
Neverwinter's next expansion, Shadowmantle, will bring an all-new class to to game in the form of the Hunter Ranger. The Hunter Ranger will enable players to switch between melee and ranged combat on the fly, and possesses skills designed for mobility and destruction. Cryptic has posted a detailed dev blog about the development of the Hunter Ranger, authored by one of the folks who helped to piece the new class together. The post explains how the team went about building the Hunter Ranger's playstyle by quickly prototyping new abilities and testing them in-game, and walks through the decision-making process that led to the Hunter Ranger being given two full combat styles. Hunter Ranger abilities include Hawkeye, which buffs the Ranger's next attack, Marauder's Rush, which quickly charges and strikes a distant target, Hindering Shot, which roots the target, and Hawk Shot, which deals damage based on the distance from the target. The Hunter Ranger class goes live with Shadowmantle December 5th.
DUST 514 dev blog showcases new assault weapons
Two new weapons are headed to the DUST 514 battlefield in the form of the Caldari rail rifle and the Minmitar combat rifle. These items join the Gallente assault rifle and Amarr scrambler rifle as the latest in DUST 514's race-specific weaponry; each gun possesses unique traits based on the preferences of the race that designed it. The Minmitar combat rifle comes in three-shot burst and fully automatic variants. The Caldari rail rifle also comes in two variants; the assault version uses no sight and loses range for increased rate of fire, while the normal version fires slowly but with higher accuracy. You can check out full crunchy breakdowns on both in the typical CCP style over on the official update post.
