Mentoring
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Wings Over Atreia: First impressions of Empyrean Calling
IT'S HERE!!11! OMZG *cue altered cheer emote* The wait is over. Yes folks, Aion 2.5 Empyrean Calling has finally arrived on the North American servers. And just as they did when 2.0 (Assault on Balaurea) launched, Daevas have been flocking back to check out a shiny new Atreia. My friends list is lighting up with names I haven't seen in... well, longer than I can actually recall! Only the second Aion update to warrant an actual name, this patch certainly brings some new goodies to the table. While not as extensive as its predecessor, it still offers substance enough for Daevas to really sink their teeth into. But after so much anticipation, did it live up to expectations? Does the fact that I have lost track of my week since last Wednesday say anything? From the new instances to the mentoring system, there is certainly more to do in-game, especially for those who have made it to level cap and endgame. But don't just take my word for it! In honor of the release, NCsoft is offering another reactivation celebration: For 10 days (beginning at 11:00 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 3rd and running until the same time on Monday, June 13th) any player with an Aion account can log in and experience the changes for herself. Can't wait until the 3rd for a taste? Barrel roll past the cut to check out my first impressions of Empyrean Calling.%Gallery-123657%
NCsoft releases Aion pet and conditioning guides
The folks at NCsoft are going gaga over guides this week, and Aion's 2.5 update looks to be the most well-documented patch in the history of the fantasy title. We've already shown off a mentoring guide as well as a walkthrough of the new Esoterrace instance, and today NCsoft has updated its Aion website with a guide to 2.5's pet changes, a guide to weapon and armor conditioning, and a forum thread that serves as a guide to all the guides. Empyrean Calling boasts 13 new pets as well as new pet moods and a pet management minigame that allows for pet-related emotes and social actions. The new weapon and armor conditioning system serves as a method for temporarily boosting the attributes of your gear. Of course, both of the new systems are much more complicated than the couple of paragraphs we've allotted to them here, so head to the official Aion website for all the details.
Aion 2.5 on PTS today, new class skills video released
Aion's 2.5 patch is right around the corner, and today marks the update's official debut on NCsoft's North American player test server (PTS). The patch, otherwise known as Empyrean Calling, brings several new game features to the denizens of Atreia including a mentor system, expanded character customization options, a graphics engine update, new legion features, pet interaction, and new PvE instances. To celebrate the milestone, NCsoft has released a new trailer that shows off some new class skills that are also coming with 2.5. Sixteen different skills, two for each of Aion's classes, are shown in action as well as via textual descriptions. Have a look at the trailer after the cut, and don't forget to head to the PTS to get an early glimpse of all the updates.
The Daily Grind: Do you have an MMO mentor?
Many of us come to MMORPGs alone, seeking a temporary reprieve from the hustle and bustle of our offline lives via bits of escapist fantasy. Others come in groups or join groups upon arrival, the better to learn the various sub-systems of particular titles as well as engage in endgame pastimes like raiding, PvP, and economic domination. Despite the increase in solo-friendly MMO fare in recent years, it is a rare gamer who rises to the top all by her lonesome, especially when it comes to competitive activities that demand a certain amount of knowledge, skill, or both. Today's Daily Grind is all about your MMO mentors. Specifically, do you (or did you) have one? Are you one yourself? What, if anything, did your mentor teach you about MMOs that you might not have discovered on your own? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Tattered Notebook: Free level 90? Heck yeah!
I'm a bit late to the party, but I want to throw my two coppers into the discussion on the level 90 winback suggestion that Senior Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson made recently. In a recent forum thread, he tossed out the idea of EverQuest II's offering level-capped characters to new players who purchased Destiny of Velious. After a fairly robust discussion, he pulled it off the table, but I actually think it should still be an option. Before you make fists of fury at the screen, hear me out! In this week's Tattered Notebook, I'm going to look at why this promotion is needed and suggest a way that it actually could work for everyone's benefit.
A City of Heroes-style mentoring system "in the long-term plan" for Cataclysm
UPDATE: The Escapist has posted the full text of their interview with Ghostcrawler, so I've replaced the "abridged" version with the actual exchange instead. Those of you who've played other MMOs (yes, they exist) might recall a feature from City of Heroes (yes, CoH did it before EQ2) that let you temporarily level down your character to a friend's level, allowing you to do any kind of level-relevant content together. Well, guess what? Blizzard is planning to let you do the same thing in a Cataclysm content patch, avoiding the type of situation you see above. The Escapist recently interviewed Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street about Cataclysm, and this exchange took place: Ghostcrawler: A very simple thing we've done is just put on your character panel what phase you're in. So that you can look and be like "Oh, so the reason I can't see you is because we're in different phases." Long-term, we're trying to work on a system where you can actually go back and forward a little bit. You might be able to scale your character down levels in order to go play with a friend, and even redo quests that you've done before. Part of the reason we're able to do that is because of the technology we originally developed for heirloom items, which are items that scale. And then for the Cataclysm expansion, we've changed spells, so they also scale with level. So instead of having ranks now, your fireball will just get more powerful as you gain levels. So since you can scale both class spells and items really easily, now we think we can actually let you lower your level down if you want to play with somebody else. I kinda wanted to have that for Cataclysm launch, but it's a feature we're working on. John Funk: So do you think that's saying that, like cross-server dungeons, it might be patched in before the next expansion? Ghostcrawler: Yeah. I mean, we gotta get this one out the door first to know how much we need to do for the patches that come afterwards, but it's definitely in the long-term plan. We hadn't heard anything about this feature before, but it sounds great -- this way, you can play with a lowbie friend without drastically reducing his experience gain, and you'll always have something to do together. Heck, it could even pave the way for making old raids relevant again. I'm excited to see how this plays out! World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
Help a troubled lowbie in Vanguard by becoming a mentor
Just like the tile says, there's a way you can help low-level players in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes -- become a mentor. With the most recent patch, Vanguard has added a mentoring system to help players of differing levels adventure and interact in a meaningful fashion.Similar to most mentoring systems, the high-level player's abilities and stats are capped at an appropriate level for the mentored player, restricting them to abilities they would have been able to use at the lower level. In all other ways, however, they'll function as a perfectly normal player, including gaining experience at the rate of a lower-level character. As a result, the tool is both an excellent way for dedicated players to introduce their friend to the game and a method for them to earn a little extra experience in the process. The mentoring system is fully usable if your friends are in the free trial area as well, which is one of the best ways to encourage a player to stick with the game over a longer period.The patch also included the usual plethora of bugfixes and minor balance tweaks that have come to be standard fare for the MMO industry. Take a look at the full patch notes for the details.[ via WarCry ]
EverQuest 2 leveling from 20 - 70 to become significantly faster
The designers of EverQuest II are planning to make radical alterations in Game Update 49 to the leveling curve for characters between levels 20 and 70. A post by Design Supervisor Noel Walling on the official forums details the changes. Whereas it currently takes on average around 164 hours for a player to advance from 20 to 70, it will soon only take around 100. To compensate for this change, Adept I spell drops will increase.Walling says these changes are intended to "get new players into the game faster." They're also a response to a low number of people in those level ranges. 1 - 20 and 70 - 80 are unchanged, but experience gains in the mentoring system are getting a boost to encourage higher level players to help new folks and alts level up. The benefits scale based on level, but players who are mentoring will gain between 50% and 300% extra XP from combat.This is an answer to a big problem in these types of games; they become top-heavy, and an insurmountable barrier to entry goes up. At this point, though, does it even make sense for it to take 100 hours to reach 70? Why not just 50? If it's not fun for 164 hours, it's probably not for 100 either, right?
Final Fantasy XI to receive mentoring-esque Level Sync system
Square-Enix is taking another step towards making Final Fantasy XI a little bit more playable for the masses by implementing what it calls the "Level Sync" system. The feature resembles the mentoring systems found in EverQuest II or Age of Conan in that it allows higher level players to drop down to friends' levels and adventure with them while gaining experience.In its announcement of this feature, Square-Enix went out of its way to emphasize that it has built in the system safeguards against abuse by powerlevelers and gold farmers. There are also some reasonable limitations intended to keep the game streamlined, fun, and balanced. For example, equipment-based stat bonuses will scale down with each level a player drops.There are explicit details at the official Final Fantasy XI website about how experience gains and equipment scale. We approve of this addition (as if you needed us to); in fact, we wonder why certain other games still don't have it. Being able to play with friends regardless of their time commitment and experience is a big positive, and we can't even think of a substantial drawback.[Via Allakhazam]
