skills
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UK government unveils its post-Brexit Digital Strategy
After a year of delays, the UK government has finally shared its plans for a more prosperous digital Britain. Unveiled by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the Digital Strategy report outlines steps to plug skills gaps and deliver free training to people who need it, pushing forward important UK technology sectors like AI and allowing UK companies to remain competitive as they come to terms with life after Brexit.
Google Home's new actions include food, news and more
Amazon's Echo line already has a truckload of skills that tap into Alexa's ability to lend a hand with tasks, and the company adds new ones on a what seems like a weekly basis. This week, Google announced Netflix support for its connected Home speaker through Chromecast alongside the ability to display images from Google Photos. It turns out that was just the beginning as Google revealed over 30 more actions for Home from third-party developers.
Ask Alexa to add new features to your Amazon Echo
Amazon opened up Alexa to developers a year ago, and there are now over 1,400 apps or "skills," as the company calls them. To take the hassle out of installing those on your Echo product, it now lets you do it automatically just by asking Alexa. For instance, if you want to test your trivia skills, you say "Echo, enable Jeopardy" and it'll add that third-party app. Up until today, you had to go to the Alexa app, find the skill and then add it manually, so the new feature will save you some time.
Age of Wushu previews new school abilities after server merge
The fifth inner skills for each of the eight schools are arriving in the next Age of Wushu update, and if you're a player, you'd probably like to know what they do, wouldn't you? I mean, one of them might instantly kill everything in a seven-meter radius, and the other might summon a moderate quantity of breadsticks and marinara sauce. That seems unlikely, though, as the preview of these new abilities mentions neither sort of talent. They do include attack buffs, HP drains, and major defensive buffs, though, so that's good. You'll be able to show these skills off to a wider range of players after the game's server merges from yesterday. The Golden Kirin and White Tiger servers have been merged into the Blue Dragon server; players whose names will need to change should receive name changing scrolls within the next few days. If you weren't able to log in yesterday and aren't sure about how the merge went down, you can double-check the quick guide to the process.
Star Wars: The Old Republic axes skill training costs
SWTOR penny-pinchers rejoice, for the oppressive tyranny of skill costs are about to become history. In a post on the forums this afternoon, BioWare announced that it will be abandoning skill training costs as of next week. "One thing has become clear from the player feedback in not only this thread, but since launch: players do not like training costs. It is a situation where every level you will see your hard earned credits go to a holographic Hutt doctor in order to make yourself a bit stronger. We have been talking about this topic internally for quite some time and when you add player feedback to the mix one thing becomes clear... We should make training costs a thing of the past," the studio said. [Thanks to the five million people who sent this tip in!]
The Daily Grind: How many button presses should it take to kill a mob?
MJ and I were talking while playing The Secret World the other day about the game's legendary fight length. Well, at least I consider fights in this MMO as taking longer than normal. I told her that generally if a standard, level-even mob isn't dead by a rotation-and-a-half of my skills, or about eight button presses, then it begins to irk me. Now it definitely depends on the mob strength and situation, but I don't want to be pounding 30 keys and sitting there for two minutes before a critter drops. However, saying that got me wondering what you all consider as a normal, acceptable number of button presses (or skills used) per fight. What do you think? 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 Daily Grind: What's your favorite "Oh %$#@" button?
I'm not the best under pressure in video game sometimes. When something really bad starts happening that I'm not prepared for, what I need the most -- and am always denied -- is the time to think it through. Whoops, I accidentally aggroed 25 hellbugs in RIFT when I only meant to grab three, and there's no place to run. What do I do? Well, my friends, that's why devs give you the informally named "Oh %$#@" buttons. When the crap hits the fan and you need a little bit of breathing room to figure out how you're going to survive, these skills help by making you invulnerable, upping your dodge chance to 75%, completely refilling your health bar, or knocking all enemies away into the next time zone. So what's your favorite "Oh %$#@" button? And how often does it get used? 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!
Massively's ArcheAge launch diary: Day two - Classes, skills, combat
Welcome to day two of Massively's ArcheAge launch diary. Technically, by the time you read this, it'll be day three, but you know how these things work. And I know, I know, it's not really launch; it's head start. But Trion's not wiping this weekend's progression, so I'm going to keep referring to this as a launch diary! Thanks to a bunch of virginal script kiddies who thought it would be cool to DDoS the ArcheAge servers on Saturday, I didn't get to play all freakin' afternoon as planned. That's OK, though, because we've got a lot to talk about with regard to the game's basic mechanics.
The Nexus Telegraph: The basics of crafting a WildStar build
There are few things I love so much as writing a column for June 30th only to find out on the 30th that the patch I'm discussing is going live on July 1st. You know, when it's too late to change anything. I really would have been happy to have found that out before the day. But, hey, WildStar's first patch came out, and now I've had a couple of weeks to explore it a bit. Am I happy with it? Sufficiently, yes, although I haven't yet digested it in full. For one month out from launch, I can't complain much. Of course, that's not the first thing that I want to talk about today. I want to talk about builds. Rather than giving you the absolute best-of-the-best builds for tanking and DPS and so forth, which I can't quite do, I want to help you figure out how to make a build that works. It's a satisfyingly interactive, and there are lots of very functional options however you choose to build your character.
Darkfall Unholy Wars answers questions on custom roles
In the original version of Darkfall, skill selection was a wide-open field. When the game relaunched as Darkfall Unholy Wars, the role system was introduced, narrowing the field of options significantly. Now custom roles are incoming, and that means that players have questions about how the new mechanics will work. Those questions are being answered in a three-part series of community Q&A sessions, with the first two parts available now. Some mechanics are being removed -- Wobble, for instance, was introduced solely to balance roles, but with the new system the developers no longer need balancing specifically between roles. There have been significant adjustments made to some skills, in part to avoid the situation wherein everyone has a ranged kill skill and super-powerful healing. Despite this, the answers also point out that most characters will actually see a net increase in power overall. If you want to know more, feel free to glance at the full rundown of answers for more details.
Shroud of the Avatar opens up access to Release 5
It's time to get skilled in Shroud of the Avatar's combat system. That is, it's time to actually have access to the skills that will eventually be in the game. Release 5 is now open to the game's backers, and it brings with it 35 of the 171 skills that will eventually be in the full game. Some skill lines are more fleshed out than others; while the Death line has access to death in both touch and ray form, Water is currently limited to Ice Fist and nothing else. But that will change. Aside from this major addition, the new release will also see the first wave of potential backers admitted into testing with keys that have been given out via an Alienware Arena promotion. There's also a new lighting model in place and a variety of functionality updates. Whether you're in the early access period or just want to keep an eye on the development, check out the full list of Release 5 notes for more details.
Massively's Elder Scrolls launch diary: Day two - Skills and progression
Never in 15-plus years of MMO gaming have I been so bewildered when it comes to picking a main class and character. Part of this is because I ignored The Elder Scrolls Online prior to March 30th. So I'm drinking from the information firehose in terms of game mechanics while simultaneously trying to keep up with friends. The other part of it stems from the fact that ESO has an absurd amount of build customizability. I'm glad it has only four classes instead of six or eight because six or eight would probably send me over the decisional paralysis edge and into some sort of fugue state. I think for the purposes of this launch week diary -- and my own sanity -- I'm just going to stick with my Redguard Nightblade and forge ahead. There. Done. Maybe.
Here are five videos for Diablo III's new level 61 skills
Blizzard has released a quintet of post-60 skill videos for its forthcoming Diablo III expansion. Reaper of Souls, which launches on March 25th, grants each class a new skill at level 61. These skills are Avalanche (for Barbarians), Vengeance (for Demon Hunters), Epiphany (for Monks), Piranhas (for Witch Doctors), and Black Hole (for Wizards). Click past the cut to see all five vids.
The Summoner's Guidebook: My goals in League of Legends
Whenever I enter a League of Legends match, I have a few goals set in mind. Of course, winning is a goal, but that's not the only goal. My agenda tends to be a lot more long-term, relative to other LoL players. We've talked a lot about meta lately, and it tends to be a hot topic with Season 4's preseason patches shaking up the meta quite a bit. There are a lot of reasons to justify not playing meta. There are also a lot of reasons to take risky decisions that might not pan out.
MMO Mechanics: Comparing vertical and horizontal progression
MMO players strive to obtain some kind of tangible progression each play session, but the method by which that progression is delivered varies greatly across the genre. Archetypal themepark titles frequently rely on level-based progression that culminates in climbing through gear tiers at endgame, but the freeform nature of sandbox MMOs lends itself to a more open progression system that focuses on the holistic development of characters. These two progression systems are described as vertical and horizontal progression: Traditional gearing or leveling is commonly described as a vertical climb, while wider choice-based progression is more often expressed as a non-linear journey. The relative merits of these two diverging approaches to progression are commonly debated by modern MMO players. Many players wish to see a blended hybrid approach to progression that emphasises the horizontal, multi-faceted growth of their characters over rattling through yet another gear tier. Despite this, players still favour a goal-oriented attainment system and perhaps progressive gear that doesn't require a long run on the grinding treadmill. This balance can be very hard to achieve, so titles such as Guild Wars 2 have taken some knocks on the path towards perfect horizontal and vertical progression balance. In this week's MMO Mechanics, I will look at what is meant by both vertical and horizontal progression, how they are mechanically implemented in MMOs, and what each type of progression means for the playerbase.
MMO Mechanics: Encouraging the daily grind
I've written before about how developers use clever mechanics to lower the barrier to entry in order to encourage more people to play MMOs, but how do they keep players interested after they have rolled a new character? More often than not, MMOs greatly benefit from hanging onto players for as long as possible, so encouraging regular play is a massive priority for development teams. As a genre that thrives on creating a connected and dynamic community, MMOs are strengthened by keeping up the number of players that log in daily. This also encourages longevity since players make meaningful connections with the people they are linked to through daily play. Utilising daily quests, creating an ongoing need for crafted equipment, and necessitating the farming of materials for the good of the collective are all very accessible ways to encourage players to log into their favourite MMO world on a regular basis. As useful as developers may find them, though, the appeal of repeatable daily content is hotly debated by MMO players. For some, low-octane daily content is a brilliant way to unwind that doesn't require a regimented schedule to complete, but many others find the repetition inherent in some daily content tiresome and uninspired. In this week's MMO Mechanics, I'm going to look at the various applications of daily content in today's MMOs while weighing up the pros and cons of several of these techniques.
Examine the vast skill system found in Blackguards
Blackguards is a recently released strategy roleplaying game from Daedalic Entertainment that features an obscene level of character detail, as evidenced by this look at the game's skill trees. Functionally, assigning skills in Blackguards is pretty simple. You earn experience which gives you points that can then be assigned to various categories including weapon talents, magical aptitudes or miscellaneous abilities. That's all typical of the genre, but where Blackguards differentiates itself is in its breadth of available skills. As you can see in the above footage, the skills menu found in Blackguards is simply massive. What's more, the game doesn't confine players to pre-determined upgrade paths. Each character is able to learn any skill, so if you'd prefer your burly warrior to toss fireballs instead of swinging an axe that's entirely up to you and your available pool of Adventure Points. For more information on Blackguards, pay a visit to either Steam or the game's official website. If you like what you see, know that both the standard and deluxe editions of Blackguards are currently available from Steam at a ten percent discount.
Age of Wushu teases the features of its next major update
The next big patch for Age of Wushu is due out next month, which should be reason enough for players to be excited about it. But it's hard to get excited about an update with no idea what's in it. So it's a good thing that the official site has posted a small preview detailing the coming update, a patch that will give players even more reason to engage in epic duels of martial arts. For example, there's the new Dragon and Tiger Tournament, a series of one-on-one duels in which both combatants must fight without use of tricks like Hidden Weapon Skills and Ancient Manuals, with winners receiving manuals, skills, and pills. Or there's the chance for assassins to engage practitioners of Peerless Skills; successful defense is required for the practitioner to keep studying, while assassins who slay the practitioner will be rewarded handsomely. Throw in a fourth Internal Skill and new School Lessons, and there's plenty for players to be excited about when the patch goes live in February.
Here's a list of The Repopulation's weapon abilities
Guess what, Repopulation fans? It's time for another update, that's what. Above & Beyond has posted a list of alpha weapon abilities on the game's website. The post notes that "some weapon lines are still under construction and missing abilities," but it's nonetheless an extensive info dump that gives those of us outside of alpha testing a quick look at the sci-fi sandbox's combat particulars. The Repopulation's dev team has also released the sixth chapter of its Evening Star short story. You'll find both updates behind the links listed below.
Elder Scrolls Online player emperors will gain a permanent skill set
Are you wondering what you'll get when you become emperor of Elder Scrolls Online -- other than a fancy suit of armor, that is? The Official Xbox Magazine discovered that player emperors will gain a skill line that they will retain for the rest of their time in the game. The skills will persist even if the position of emperor is lost, although the skills will be toned down somewhat in that case. Becoming emperor won't be easy, however (as if you thought otherwise). To do so, a player will need to do a heckuva lot of PvP to gain alliance points. If a player's alliance conquers all of the keeps around the Imperial City and that player has the most alliance points when it happens, he or she will be crowned emperor.
