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Mortal Online is expanding into the deserts of Sarducaa
Is it too early to declare the MMO expansion of 2015 yet? If not, then Mortal Online might have it in the bag as it prepares to open the doors of a new continent. Coming soon(tm) to the game will be the continent of Sarducaa, a land dominated by deserts as well as a smidge of "inpenetrable jungle." Sarducaa will be broken up into six zones and is larger than the existing Myrland. It will also boast enemy creatures with "expanded AI" and better loot. The team has posted a preview of Sarducaa, including concept art and a few tracks of the new soundtrack. [Thanks to Sandboxer III: Return of Sandboxing for the tip!]
Mortal Online sets out territory control in a new patch
Ready to make your mark on the world of Mortal Online? Your time is now. The game's latest patch implements the territory control system, allowing guilds to war over choice bits of land, build keeps and cities, and generally shape the landscape into what they want to see. There's even a trailer for it past the cut, showing off what players can expect to get when breaking ground on a new city and building its defenses. Cities alone would be a welcome addition, but the patch also brings with it a variety of improvements to quality of life. The game's mail system has been rebuilt, several UI elements and chat commands have been implemented, and the world map has seen some trimming and adjustments. The patch is live now, so you can check out the notes for all the details or just log in and start staking your guild's claim. [Thanks to Zakiyya for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: Which MMO has best realized its concept art?
I was looking at some Mortal Online concept art the other day and marveling at how beautiful it is. Then I looked at Mortal Online itself and was sorely disappointed. This is not to pick on Star Vault's game exclusively, though, because plenty of other MMOs have also failed to translate conceptual awesome into actual awesome. Let's talk about the success stories, though. Which MMO do you think has done the best job of realizing the vision put forth by its concept art? 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!
Mortal Online details its territory control mechanics
Do you want some land in Mortal Online? Then why beat around the bush? Why not just reach out and take it? The game's territory control system is arriving soon, and the developers have offered an introductory guide at the system to give players a better look at how everything will fit together. Players will be able to place and upgrade a variety of structures in controlled territory, with most structures requiring skills to be placed but not improved. NPC contracts can also be used for shopkeepers, guards, and the like. What can and cannot be placed is determined by guild stones, which are gated by the number of members in your guild. Players can also choose the behavior of guards in the town, ranging from law-abiding to attacking any players not in the guild on sight. The update is also bringing in a minor change for free-to-play players, limiting free accounts to logging in from one computer per day, which is intended to prevent players from creating free accounts and logging into all of them in short order to boost guild sizes. You can take a look at the full territory control guide on the official site. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Mortal Online claims 'breakthrough' with improved client performance
If you've been frustrated by bad client performance with Mortal Online, then you'll be glad to hear that developer Star Vault has isolated the problem: It's Gordo the Carniverous Sea Slug (as seen above) who is eating your packets and pings with wild abandon. In all seriousness, the team has pinpointed the issue as related to the new armor models and is beginning to work on a solution. "We have made a very exciting breakthrough in how to handle player performance cost," a team update reads. "We have identified one big thing that does indeed add quite a bit of drop on client performance when the client sees many players." In addition to fixing the performance drop, Star Vault announced that the territory control system is "progressing very smoothly" and that the team has added a new concept artist to flesh out the world and lore. [Thanks to James for the tip!]
Mortal Online upgrades its graphics engine
If you log into Mortal Online today, you'll be treated to a vastly upgraded game. The team switched the game's visuals to an updated Unreal graphics engine, including new lighting, better grass, Oculus Rift support, and "countless gameplay improvements." "Myrland has been remade, from the ground up, in a new modern terrain system," Star Vault wrote in a newsletter. "This means not only does the terrain look much better and less jagged, but also performs loads better." Today's changes mean that players should start seeing faster updates in the future. The patch notes for V1.80.00.03 are up for your perusal. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Mortal Online patch will add more blood and Oculus Rift support
Mortal Online is about to both look better and play better with the coming of Patch 1.80.00.00. Wait, is that a patch version or an IP address? Never you mind. The new patch contains a boat-load of tweaks and upgrades, including the switch to an updated Unreal Engine. The dev team has improved the UI, rebuilt the gathering system, added more custom helmet overlays, created a unified options system, and even added support for Oculus Rift rendering and control. And if you worried that Mortal Online might be losing its savage edge, then you'll be glad to read the following patch note: "Tweaked decapitation blood for more... blood." [Thanks to Graham for the tip!]
Some Assembly Required: Virtual world roundup for 2014 and beyond
Just over two years ago there was a great disturbance, as if millions (or so) of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Yes, something terrible had happened: a beloved virtual world was destroyed. And that left a number of sandbox refugees looking for a new place to call home. At that time, Some Assembly Required offered a roundup of the then available virtual worlds that could possibly offer accommodation, depending on what qualities players most desired in their games. But as things are wont to, they changed; a lot can happen in the MMOverse in 24 months, from additional features in existing games to new games to the loss of more worlds. So it's time to update this list of virtual worlds to reflect 2014 and beyond. Take a look and see what titles or titles-to-be have the sandbox features that best make a game a home for you.
Mortal Online overhauls characters and armor visuals
Mortal Online has been hard at work performing comprehensive overhauls to character and armor, making them look better than ever. The character improvements for the game include visual passes, more natural animations, a new character creation system, and high-definition upgrades to armor. The visual improvements to crafted armor make up 90% of the game's wearable gear. The recent update also added in three new craftable armor sets and improved large-group performance for mass battles. Due to the character overhaul, Star Vault is giving a free recustomization option to all players. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
One Shots: Home sweet home
It's easy to forget that in all of these game worlds that we're adventuring through, some people allegedly live and work in these lands! Even in the very, very scary places! Reader Xexanos found this run-down house in a dark corner of The Secret World and found himself entranced by the mystery of it. "I stumbled upon this place during my exploration of the Shadowy Forest (the name really tells you everything)," he said. "I wonder what the history behind this is." I had just found that last week myself and was wondering that too. If any lore experts want to fill us in, please do so, otherwise head past the jump and check out all of the other great reader screenshots we have in store for you this week!
Mortal Online CEO interviewed by top contributing player
Each month, Mortal Online developer Star Vault rewards its top donation contributor with certain rewards for aiding development. In January, the top contributor was a player by the name of Aralis who was granted a custom "Champion of Nave" title showing that he donated $1,000 and was also given the opportunity to interview the development studio's CEO, Henrik Nystrom, in a one-on-one interview. Some interesting points from the interview focus on future development, and Aralis pulls no punches when asking about a development timeline and the absence of promised content. Check out the entire interview over at the Mortal Online forums, and let us know what you think about the Q&A.
Mortal Online is now free-to-play with a video to prove it
The epic sandbox MMO Mortal Online has gone free-to-play today, allowing any interested player to have access to the entire game for the low, low price of zero! The new business model allows for a free account as well as a Premier account status with a regular subscription rate as low as nine Euro a month (with discounts given to bulk time purchases and Facebook users). Premium status opens the skill levels to 100, while F2P players are restricted to 60. Premium accounts also allow thievery skills and expensive object looting and trading. Both free and Premium players have the option to expand the characters slots from one to four, but customers who bought the game before will be grandfathered in with three slots. Be sure to check out all the details on the switchover over at the official forums, and enjoy the F2P trailer embedded after the cut. [Thanks to all who sent this one in!]
Mortal Online welcomes back all former players for a free week
MMOs change at a breakneck pace, but you don't always have time to check back in and see what changes have taken place. Mortal Online has just recently released its second major expansion, and the community staffers want everyone to check in and see how the game has grown, so they're giving you the chance to do just that. Starting today you can hop into the game and experience all of the improvements in Awakening for free if you previously subscribed to Mortal Online. If you've played in the past but haven't been following the game recently, you might have missed all of the features added by Awakening, including new AI mechanics and a variety of new combat abilities. The free play period will last for the next week, more than enough time to patch the client and take a look at the latest update to the game. [Thanks to Chris for the tip!]
Mortal Online is due for an Awakening
Awakening is the latest free expansion for Mortal Online, and it's available on the live servers today. What does that mean? It means that the game will benefit from a new GUI, a new AI system for NPCs, a new region, and a whole lot of new options for players to enjoy the game. Some of the UI changes include an easier system for making use of workbenches, the addition of slash commands and macro functionality for abilities, and a new method for determining the direction of strikes in combat. Players will also have access to new combat skills, new out-of-combat skills, and a rebuilt taxation system. The update also contains several bugfixes, but the patch notes warn players that the large update will be a bumpy ride at first. Players are asked to petition the customer support team only when absolutely necessary. But even with the likelihood of bugs, there's a lot for Mortal Online players to appreciate in this expansion. [Thanks to Chris for the tip!]
Mortal Online's CEO has high hopes for the game's subscriptions
A game company's CEO should always promote the company's games and be enthusiastic. There is such a thing as too much enthusiasm, however. Case in point: StarVault CEO Henrik Nystrom's comments during an IRC chat with fans. The chat was meant to cover the game's next major update, Awakening, but it included fan questions for future updates as well. It also included Nystrom telling a fan that he sees Mortal Online having roughly as many players as EVE Online in five years. By way of elaboration, EVE Online currently has roughly 450,000 players. Mortal Online's subscription numbers have never been revealed, but estimates place it under 10,000 players. An impossible goal? Definitely not, but certainly one that might be a bit overly ambitious. Fans of the game can still take a look at the chat for other interesting tidbits, however, including plans to add drugs and improve the new player experience in the future. [Thanks to Sandboxer for the tip!]
Mortal Online hacked, Star Vault encourages users to verify accounts
If you've got an active Mortal Onlne account, you may want to think seriously about changing your password. A new post on the sandbox title's forum describes a security breach that led to the destruction of in-game assets and account status changes. The intrusion has since been contained, according to a Star Vault GM, and "additional security is in place." The company says that customer payment information was not affected, but users are encouraged to verify their account status and passwords anyway. As to the breach itself, details are understandably scarce, but Star Vault does say that a member of the GM staff had his account compromised and his details used to carry out the aforementioned mischief. [Thanks to slapshot1188 for the tip!]
Mortal Online introduces political map, Chronicles of Nave
Mortal Online players are going to have to wait a little bit longer for the game's The Dawn expansion, but in the meantime, Star Vault is busily working on the game's newly added territory control system. The newest addition to the system is a political map and a feature the team calls Chronicles of Nave. The political map allows players to track which territories are under whose control in real time, so they always know where the fights are raging. The Chronicles of Nave, on the other hand, is a ladder ranking system, which ranks players and guilds according to a variety of statistics. The current system displays players' stats and builds, though there is an option to turn this feature off in case a player would rather keep his build a secret. Both of these features are still in beta, so players can expect them to be updated with expanded functionality. For the full details, check out the forum post over at the Mortal Online official forums.
Star Vault reveals more Mortal Online territorial control details
A couple weeks back we heard tell of Mortal Online's territorial control update. Today, Star Vault has elaborated on the new sandbox system via a news bulletin on the game's official website. It seems that the feature is still fairly early in the development process, as the site says that internal testing is still in full swing. External testing, by way of a specially selected focus group, is planned for next week. What's that, you want to hear more about mechanics? Very well. Keeps act as a "starting point" for guilds in the territorial control system. Each keep awards control points (CP) that can be spent on towers and "various things." Keeps also feature an overseer NPC who provides extra protection, sells goods and features, and more. Finally there's the prominence system, which involves earning prominence points (PP) through various methods including PvP and PvE. There's more, of course, but we don't want to deprive you of a chance to visit the Mortal Online website, so off you go.
Mortal Online looking for a few good testers
File this one under better late than never. Mortal Online is looking for a few good testers, and even though the game officially released more than a year ago, Star Vault is opening its doors to 20 individuals willing to roll up their sleeves and get down and dirty with the fantasy sandbox MMO's collection of bugs. "Because Star Vault is a small, independent developer, we do not have a very large QA department which often means that bugs will slip through the net resulting in many issues on the live server," writes GM Discord on the official forums. Qualified testers will be 18 years old, be well-versed in Mortal Online, and have a game account that is in good standing. There will also be an NDA involved, and breaching it will not only result in the removal of your testing privileges but also a ban on your in-game characters. Full details are available on the official boards.
Mortal Online update expanding territory control features
Mortal Online's sandbox is about to get a bit sandier if a new territory control update video is any indication. The fantasy title from Star Vault has had a rough time in the court of public opinion since its June 2010 launch, but development continues apace. The latest patch brings control structures to the table, and according to the video intertitles, said structures can be placed anywhere near territory that you already control. Occupied land then earns taxes and control points for its owners, and control points may be spent "to further increase the area of any of your control structures, increase their abilities, or build more of them." City control is possible with the new update, as is the collection of guild points after completing "various deeds." Star Vault says that the guild points can be used for a number of actions including outlawing players in your territory or declaring martial law. Check out the video after the break and head to the official Mortal Online website for more details.
