half-elves
Latest
C is for Neutral-Aligned Cookie: DDO Update 8 preview patch notes posted
December is right around the corner, and with it, Dungeons and Dragons Online's Update 8. Advance release notes are up for the Lamannia test server, and so far it's safe to say that this patch is the tastiest one yet. Why tasty? Because Turbine is incorporating cookie jars into the game as a way for players to store edible goodies from Festivault without clogging up their inventory. Best of all? This is one treasure chest that nobody can stick his grubby fingers in but you! What else is the studio baking up for the crowd? First up is a new four-mission adventure pack, "Siege of Stormreach," which will give mid-level players an opportunity to defend and ultimately repulse an attack upon the city itself. For players envious of Lord of the Rings Online's cosmetic outfit system, the upcoming armor appearance kits in DDO are sure to earn a few smiles. Like cosmetic hats, cosmetic armor will visually replace your current outfit without stripping you of the outfit's stats. This special armor can be found in chests, traded, and purchased through the DDO store. The lengthy patch notes also include the addition of Rogue hirelings, class racial enhancements for Half-Elves and the usual collection of tweaks and fixes. Hire a Rogue at your own risk, however, as Rogues have a notorious sweet tooth. Silly Rogue hirelings, cookies are for players!
Exclusive screenshots of Vanguard's new racial mounts
From Sony Online Entertainment this morning, we have a pair of exclusive images for you. Above is pictured a Dark Elf, astride the brand new racial mount coming to Vanguard: Saga of Heroes in Game Update 5. The newest chunk of content for the game will be arriving on the test server very soon, and these racial mounts are one of the content drop's big selling points. Each race is going to have its own mount, which will be earned through faction questing for the race's capital city. This Dark Elf, for example, would have earned her spider by questing for Hathor Zhi. The best part is that this earned faction (another new system coming in Update 5) can be achieved by anyone! So even if you don't like your race's faction mount, you can go earn yourself another one. We're told to warn you in advance: earning faction with one city may earn you the ire of others. If you plan to travel extensively, you may want to be wary of becoming overly honored with any one racial city. These mounts are first earned at level 30, but we're assured there will be level 50 mounts available for questing adventurers as well. For a peek at another of these mighty beasts, click on through to our Update 5 gallery to get a good look at the Half-Elven mount: the Dragon Turtle, earnable from the city of Tanvu.Full details on the mounts, the new faction system, and much more will be appearing on the Vanguard Players site very soon. Stay tuned!%Gallery-20844%
Dragonlance: A property ripe for the pillaging
I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet. In the Dragonlance series of novels, published by Wizards of the Coast (having bought it from TSR), the world of Ansalon is full to bursting with the standard Fantasy tropes: wizards, warriors, monsters, etc. In fact, the first series of books, beginning with Dragons of Autumn Twilight, could easily make a fine quest storyline, if you make allowances for picking up new characters along the way.There's a decent selection of races to play (humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, kender) and classes (barbarian, cleric, thief, fighter, mage), but I imagine the draw of such an MMO would be in getting to meet and even play alongside famous characters from the novels themselves, like Raistlin Majere, Tanis Half-Elven, and Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Now, I'm not saying we here at Massively have any inside knowledge of a Dragonlance MMO coming out in the future, but the series is so popular, a developer could certainly do worse than to work on this ... I'm just sayin'.
