exploration
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Entropy discounts Founder's Packs for Steam Sale
The Steam Summer Sale is that glorious time of year when we drop money on games that we subsequently won't remember purchasing until months later, leaving us collectively scratching our heads and asking when we bought these titles. So how'd you like to add an early access MMO to that pile of games you won't remember you have? All three of the Entropy Founder's Packs are now available at a 33% discount until the end of the Summer Sale on June 30th. The sale coincides with a recent update to the game introducing the gladiatorial combat sport known as NOVA, a free-for-all brawl where five people enter and only one leaves. The smallest package available gives players access to two character slots as well as full game access, with higher tiers including a variety of extra ships, more character slots, and bonus character creator options. If it sounds like it's right at your speed, jump in on the deal before the end of the month. We've included the latest video interview with the devs after the break.
NASA wants to launch its asteroid capture mission in 2019
NASA's plans to snag an asteroid just got a little more concrete. The space agency has narrowed down the launch of its Asteroid Redirect Mission to 2019, with the choice of rock coming a year before that. At the moment, the administration is torn between two potential destinations. One proposed mission plan has the vehicle bringing back a tiny asteroid less than 32 feet across; another would scoop out a "boulder-sized" chunk from a larger target. Officials expect to make a decision late this year, though, and five years is trivial in light of NASA's more ambitious projects. And don't worry if that's still too long to wait -- the folks behind Kerbal Space Program are more than happy to sate your appetite for asteroid retrieval.
EVE Evolved: Eleven years of EVE Online
It seems that every year another few MMOs have closed their doors or convert to free-to-play business models to stay afloat. EVE Online has always enjoyed a level of insulation from these market trends elsewhere in the genre, and just last week on May 6th it celebrated its 11th year of year-on-year subscription growth. Following on from my previous column celebrating the EVE Evolved column's sixth year of operation, this week I'll be summarising all the major EVE news stories throughout the year. It's been a big year for EVE fans, one that many of us can be proud to have been a part of. The EVE community turned its financial wizardry toward the real world and raised over $190,000 US in relief aid following a typhoon hitting the Philippines, and CCP even built a monument dedicated to the community. Several massive player battles once again put EVE on the global media's radars, and the Odyssey and Rubicon expansions revitalised the game for explorers and PvPers alike. But not everyone can hold his heads up high this year, with details of more cyberbullying within EVE coming to light and several players being banned for defacing the EVE monument in Reykjavik. In this anniversary retrospective, I summarise all the major EVE news from the year in one place and take a look at what the future may hold for the EVE universe.
Here's another awesome Black Desert video
Ready for your daily helping of Black Desert awesome sauce? Good, because this particular video is one of my favorites. YouTuber InporlemQQ has captured 22 minutes of city and country life from the Korean fantasy sandbox. There's little in the way of combat here, but it's an explorer's paradise featuring some of the prettiest MMORPG visuals to date as well as a fun in-game soundtrack. Enjoy after the cut!
Tamriel Infinium: A hitchhiker's guide to The Elder Scrolls Online
I believe we can all agree that The Elder Scrolls Online is not a sandbox in the MMORPG sense. However, the game starts to branch out as your level increases. Although it will never be an MMO sandbox, it does start to resemble the single-player sandbox, except there are tons of other people playing at the same time. Just like those single-player sandboxes, ESO allows us to do pretty much whatever we want when we want to. It's an explorer's dream, if you ask me. Of course, we might be able to find some of those explorable items on the in-game map, but many of them remain hidden until we just land on them. Today, I'd like to talk about a few of the items that I think every ESO explorer should be aware of.
Random for iOS lets you explore the web in a unique way
Random - The App (free) is a new app that lets you discover interesting web content from several sources. The app has been in development for a few years, and it was backed by by Skype co-founder, Janus Friis. When you first start the app, you will see some subject headings. Click on one, and you'll be taken to a story that fits the subject. When you'e finished, the app will have more subjects to explore that are related to what you just clicked on. Note that you cannot go back to that previous page, however. So choose the one topic you want to browse carefully, as there's no back button. "Discovering content online has become a stale experience that's primarily driven by typing and clicking and trying to keep up with our social feeds. We're being led down the same path to similar content repeatedly," said Marko Anderson, co-founder of Random. "We created Random to inspire people to be curious and to embrace serendipity." The app certainly works. You wind up looking at things you might not see otherwise, and it is far less limiting than a news app or an online magazines. The presentation is nice on the eyes. Screens fade from one to another, and there seems to be an almost endless array of colors for backgrounds. The app learns from your selections, and over time it 'self-tunes' to meet your interests, yet it still offers surprising content you would probably not find surfing in more traditional ways. You can use Random without signing up for anything. Just tap and go. You can also open any Random-generated page in Safari. Random will show you eessays, web pages, videos or photographs. In short, almost anything that is on the web. In the early days of the Internet, we were awash in information. As things got more organized, it was possible to live in a walled garden getting only the type of news or information we wanted. That's positive, but it also has negative aspects, because we can surround ourselves with information we already agree with, never having our ideas challenged. Of course, that's an extreme example, but apps like Random redress the balance and drop ideas into our lives that we may want to explore but would not otherwise see. If I could change anything about the app, it would be that once I get to a subject, I like to explore that particular subject more deeply. I clicked on films, and got taken to a review of "Noah." I wanted to read more, but next click I was presented with lots of other cinema stories, but nothing about "Noah." Maybe that's by design, but I felt my exploration was thwarted by the rules. Give Random a try and see if it satisfies some of your intellectual curiosities. It's a very interesting idea, and nicely executed. Random is a universal app and requires iOS 6 or later.
Co-star in Tales of Tales' first-person exploration, Sunset
The Path developer Tale of Tales' next adventure is called Sunset, and it's due to launch in 2015 on PC, Mac and Linux. Described as a first-person exploration game, Sunset is set in a "fictional tropical republic suffering under an oppressive regime" in the early 1970s. In it, players control the housekeeper of a secluded, former philanthropist, and awaken "a new love for his country and his people" in the troubled occupant. The housekeeper investigates the man's belongings and learns of his role in the civil war, strengthening or weakening their relationship along the way. Tale of Tales founders Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn liken Sunset to "a shooter game where you are not the hero but one of the people in the background." While deemed the second largest project by Tale of Tales, the game is being developed by Harvey and Samyn, sound designer Kris Force, is penned by an anonymous author and will receive music from Journey composer Austin Wintory. "The game contains both empathy and apathy. But also a feeling of being caught up in a struggle bigger than your day to day life," the founders added in the announcement. [Image: Tale of Tales]
Former Klei, Telltale devs reveal first-person mystery Firewatch
Indie developer Campo Santo announced its first game, a first-person mystery named Firewatch. The game is set in the Wyoming wilderness, "where your only human connection is communicating with your supervisor over a handheld radio," according to the game's announcement blog. The game's protagonist, whose job is to "look for smoke and keep the wilderness safe," winds up exploring a "wild and unknown environment" after something pulls them away from their watchtower. Firewatch's official site says the game will press players with "interpersonal choices" that will affect players' relationships with Delilah, the supervisor in question. Campo Santo was formed in September 2013 by former Telltale and Klei developers, including Mark of the Ninja lead designer Nels Anderson and artist Olly Moss. The Cave co-writer Chris Remo joined the team in February after departing from Double Fine. [Image: Campo Santo]
Embers of Caerus website is nuked by its host
Website woes have hit Caerus hard in the embers, if you get our drift. Embers of Caerus' site was nuked by its host, and it looks as though some data may have been lost for good. The problems began back in early February, when the sandbox MMO's website went down. Regular posts on Facebook indicated that the site would come back, but that changed when the game's creator realized that agreements between the company and the website host lapsed. Subsequent renegotiations did not go well, and the site has remained offline. "After lengthy discussions with the host, it seems they're absolutely unwilling to work with us," the team posted on Facebook today. "They're basically wanting a big chunk of change that Forsaken Studios can't afford. Unfortunately, because they shut everything down without us being aware that it was happening/impending, they also have a lot of data on their servers that we no longer have access to. Obviously, some of that which was hosted was the website and everything on it. I'm not certain where we're moving to from this point, but this monkey wrench definitely hurt."
Allods Online outlines changes to the Astral
The Astral is a big part of Allods Online, the big twisting magical space upon which the fragments of land float steadily. Adventuring in this space is a big part of high-level play, and with the game's next major update it's seeing a large-scale overhaul. A new official posting reveals how the environment will be changing and how players will navigate the new regions, hunting down valuable equipment in unexplored regions. With the new update, the map will be divided into four layers of seven sectors each, with better gear available as players unlock maps leading into deeper and more dangerous regions. Players piece together maps by retrieving fragments of said maps in the Wild Shore and will be exploring eight new Astral islands in total. For more information on these changes, including the sector breakdown and the improvements to ship equipment, take a look at the full development blog and get ready for exploration.
Meander through Wander's new GDC teaser trailer
Where most games only offer some percentage of activity options besides combat (from basically nonexistent on up), Wander eschews combat completely in favor of exploration and collaborative gameplay. Can't imagine how a game like that actually looks? Well you're in luck! The devs have released a teaser trailer that takes a short stroll through a lush part of the land. Of course, it's not quite the same experience as when players will be able to don Oculus Rift goggles, but it still offers a glimpse of the world that's built using CryEngine's FreeSDK. See the clip for yourself below, and be on the lookout for an extended version expected to release at GDC 2014 in a few weeks. [Thanks to Rachel for the tip!]
Reus dev's Renowned Explorers is tactical 1800s exploration
Abbey Games, the studio behind colossus god game Reus, is working on its next project, a turn-based, ever-changing exploration game called Renowned Explorers – International Society. It follows a team of explorers in the 19th century as they attempt to find legendary treasures before the World Expo begins. As the captain, players gather a team of explorers and follow a series of leads to find specific treasures. Once a treasure is found, the game becomes turn-based as the team explores the location, encounters enemies and allies, and digs up resources. Abbey cites Jules Verne, Indiana Jones, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Fire Emblem as inspirations. "To grant you a new unexplored world every game, Renowned Explorers will generate and pose new mysteries, challenges, characters and combinations every time you start," Abbey says. "Our new game is built to train you in the art of exploration, and it will reward you with deeper mysteries and rare treasure."
The Trove Diaries: Exploring the wild, wild... peaceful forest?
In a recent Trove patch, the team added in a new chest at the central world hub for players to toss in gear to share with others. A community chest. Other than making me think about Monopoly for a minute, it gave me one of those brief, warm feelings that this game tends to do on a regular basis. It's a small thing but a good thing. Trove has a lot of that. So welcome to the Trove Diaries, a chronicle of my sporadic adventures through this developing quirky title from Trion Worlds! Let me bring you up to speed: Trove was a side project at Trion that got the internal greenlight to be developed into a full-fledged MMO. However, the team's taken a cue from recent crowdfunding projects by offering fans the opportunity to buy into the game and see first-hand how it's being developed on a daily basis. Trove is a strange combination of building and destroying that bucks the typical MMO trend while creating something that it light, breezy, and quite frankly fun.
FlapMMO brings non-combat gameplay to new heights
For years, players have sought MMOs that truly offered a combat-free experience. FlapMMO, a massively multiplayer version of the sadly defunct Flappy Bird (not officially sanctioned), is that rare gem that delivers precisely that. In fact, it delivers everything you could ask for in the genre -- no combat, no levels, and a wide-open world to simply explore. It even offers exclusively horizontal progression (since that's the way the screen scrolls, you can't go backward). If all this sounds too good to be true, you should consider also the fact that the game is entirely free-to-play without so much as a cash shop. Chat functions are currently limited, as is character customization, but there's no word from the developer on whether or not this is part of the design or something that will be addressed in the first expansion. You might want to consider giving this wide-open combat-free exploration simulator a try if you've got some free time on your hands.
EVE Evolved: EVE needs real colonisation now
MMOs have absolutely exploded in popularity over the past decade, with online gaming growing from a niche hobby to a global market worth billions of dollars each year. Once dominated by subscription games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft, recent years have seen free-to-play games take centre stage. Global MMO subscriptions have been reportedly shrinking since 2010, and EVE doesn't appear to be immune to this industry-wide trend. Though February 2013's figures showed EVE subscriptions have technically grown year-on-year, those numbers were published just after the Chinese server relaunch, and CCP hasn't released any new figures since. Developers have done a good job of catering to current subscribers and polishing existing gameplay with the past few expansions, but the average daily login numbers are still the same as they were over four years ago. EVE will undoubtedly hook in plenty of new and returning subscribers when its deep space colonisation gameplay with player-built stargates and new hidden solar systems is implemented, but time could be running out on these features. Hefty competition is due in the next few years from upcoming sandbox games such as Star Citizen, EverQuest Next, Camelot Unchained, and Elite: Dangerous, and CCP will have to release something big soon to bring in some fresh blood. In this week's EVE Evolved, I ask whether CCP should focus on new players and suggest plans for two relatively simple colonisation-based expansions that could get EVE a significant part of the way toward its five-year goal in just one year.
EVE Evolved: Has colonisation been forgotten?
At last year's EVE Online Fanfest, CCP revealed its ambitious plan to take the game where no sandbox MMO has ever gone before: full deep space colonisation. The plan will be delivered over the next five years and will end with the incredibly exciting vision of players building their own stargates and colonising brand-new solar systems that lie off the grid. Rubicon was intended as the first step toward this glorious plan, and its new focus on deployable sandbox structures certainly seemed to be introducing a more player-directed form of colonisation. I've been cautiously optimistic about the whole endeavour so far, but five years is hell of a long time to wait for that vision to come to fruition. Rubicon's Mobile Depot structure was a great first step toward player-run empires on all scales, but none of the recently announced Rubicon 1.1 deployables has continued along the same theme of colonisation and exploration. The Mobile Micro Jump Drive and Mobile Scan Inhibitor structures I looked at last week provide extra tactical options in PvP, and the three new structures revealed this week are all designed to steal money and resources from nullsec corporations. In this week's EVE Evolved, I ask whether the newly revealed Encounter Surveillance System and alternate Siphon Units are a step in the wrong direction. With games like Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous on the way, CCP may not have five years to deliver the promise of colonisation.
EVE Evolved: Rubicon 1.1's new deployables
Of all the major changes to EVE Online in the past few years, it's the introduction of personal deployable structures that has had me most excited. I've always been of the opinion that a true sandbox should let individual players and larger organisations build their own personal empires in empty wilderness. If it were up to me, everything from mining and manufacturing to research in EVE would take place in destructible structures and possibly even player-built deadspace dungeons. The Rubicon expansion took an important first step toward this brand of sandbox-style gameplay with the introduction of several new personal deployable structures, including an item hangar and refitting service that can be deployed anywhere in space. Four more structures were initially planned for the Rubicon 1.1 point release to expand the game's tactical possibilities, and this week two of those structures were confirmed. The Mobile micro Jump Unit is a game-changing strategic device that allows players any nearby players to jump their ships 100km forward, and the highly requested Mobile Scan Inhibitor physically hides nearby ships from probes and the directional scanner. Players on the test server have also discovered overview filter options for Mobile Jump Disruptor and Mobile Decoy Unit deployable structures, but developers were unable to confirm whether these would be part of Rubicon 1.1 or even if they'd definitely make it into the game. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look into the tactical possibilities of the Mobile Micro Jump Unit and Mobile Scan Inhibitor and why some players have reservations about these game-changing strategic structures.
EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 2
When it comes to living sandbox MMOs, there really isn't a bigger name than EVE Online. Throughout its decade-long history, EVE has produced some huge gaming headlines, delivered record-breaking in-game thefts and heists, and played host to the complex political machinations of dozens of warring alliances. EVE's sandbox design has even made it remarkably resistant to changes in the market, with subscription numbers remaining relatively stable in the face of new releases and the free to play phenomenon. It comes as no surprise then that the sandbox genre is seeing a triple-A revival, with games like Star Citizen, EverQuest Next Landmark, and Camelot Unchained on the way. With the sandbox genre due to explode back onto the fantasy scene, I've been left wondering how much of the core gameplay that makes EVE tick could be easily adapted for an avatar-based game on land. Even features such as EVE Online's trademark territorial warfare and player-run economy have roots in classic fantasy MMOs like Ultima Online, so they should be easy to convert to modern fantasy equivalents. Last week I started this game design thought experiment with a territorial warfare system and free-for-all PvP with harsh consequences for attackers, but there's a lot more to a good sandbox than smashing people's heads in. In this week's EVE Evolved, I delve into the hypothetical world of EVE Onland again and tackle issues of realistic world scale, exploration, economics, and the evils of global banking.
Embers of Caerus making 'drastic changes' to its development
Embers of Caerus has hit a crisis crossroads in its development, and as such the team is abandoning its current schedule as it seeks out a development studio to help the volunteer project succeed. Creative Director Rob Steele broke the news on the forums, where he admits that mistakes in developing a prototype for the game's systems cost the project financial and volunteer support. Without the funds, he admits that the team cannot make its previous goals of regular module updates and benchmarks. "Instead of continuing down this path, attempting to play catch up, and risking missing more benchmarks that we have no assurances we can hit, Forsaken Studios is making a drastic change in its plans for Embers of Caerus," he wrote. Steele went on to say that he has been in talks with other game studios to help with the future development of the game, all while upholding promises made to supporters and crowdfunding investors. He said that the project will be encountering "a great deal of changes" but should be more active if and when another studio signs on to help.
No Man's Sky might not be an MMO, but it's certainly a close cousin
Science fiction has always been about a sense of wonder, but a lot of the time that sense of wonder takes a back seat to enormous spaceships blowing one another to pieces. That's all well and good, but it's not what No Man's Sky is aiming for. The game is meant to be about exploring a strange and vast universe of procedurally generated planets. In a move that should excite MMO fans, the game will apparently include a shared playing space for everyone. The game at its heart features a shared space for all players, with the impact of one person's actions having a ripple effect. What form of interactions you'll be able to have remains to be seen, but the developers behind the game want to offer the idea that pure exploration is a dangerous and hostile affair in environments that may not welcome you. As the game progresses through development, we'll be keeping an eye on it, since the idea of a pseudo-MMO allowing you to trek across the endless darkness of space and interact with others is a heady once -- even if your interactions are only through the consequences of the other person's passing. [We've now added the trailer after the cut.]
