strategy-mmo
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Eliotropes land in Dofus and Wakfu
The Eliotropes are coming! Wait, sorry, that's not quite right; the Eliotropes are here if you're playing Wakfu. They're also here if you're playing Dofus. Yes, both of the games based on the same lore are getting the same class on the same day. The class also promises to be a tricky one, as it's centered around making use of martial arts attacks projected over long distances through a series of portals. Eliotropes can serve as healers and positioners in the game's combat system, launching powerful assaults through portals and slipping through those same portals to evade damage. But enemies can also use these portals for transport, making the class a bit more tricky to play well. Check out the videos on the new class just past the break because this new option is already here. And there. Lots of places, really. [Source: Ankama press release]
Wakfu lands on Steam, nixes subs
The unique tactical MMO Wakfu is getting sort of a re-launch today with a debut on Steam. This "new and revamped" version of the game will feature a new beginner experience and completely eliminate subscriptions. The studio is selling booster packs as one of the ways to make ends meet. Ankama COO Olivier Comte celebrated the release: "We are proud to bring Wakfu on Steam and give the opportunity to more and more players to discover this universe. We are starting with English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Thai players, but more will follow soon." [Source: Ankama press release]
Wakfu heads to Steam on September 18th
If you've lamented the fact that Steam currently has a distinct lack of isometric tactical-ish MMORPGs available at the moment, you'll be happy to know that Wakfu is heading to the platform on September 18th. The game is currently in closed testing until September 16th, with no character wipes planned between now and the launch. Closed beta players will receive a special reward in the form of an item inspired by Valve's properties. A thread has been created for the developers to share places where keys are available, for those who want to get in on the Steam testing before it's too late. If you'd rather just wait a little bit until the launch on the 18th, that works too. [Source: Ankama press release]
Wakfu relaunch moves into open beta
Wakfu's continuing with its "relaunch" strategy by fine-tuning its free-to-play offerings and now announcing the start of its open beta program. As of today, anyone can jump into the game to see how the MMO's improved with its new format. Ankama Managing Director and COO Olivier Comte makes the pitch that Wakfu is definitely worth checking out: "As we open the updated world of Wakfu to an even broader set of fans, we will continue to focus on the core and essence of our gameplay –- the players. In addition to a broad range of classes to suit varying tastes, colorful environments and our well-known sense of humor, Wakfu gives players a chance to impact the entire game world through their strategic and even political decisions." [Source: Ankama press release]
Wakfu details boost benefits for free-to-play model [Updated]
Wakfu has always had a free option for players, but the game is saying goodbye to subscriptions altogether with its relaunch, giving all players access to every part of the game from start to finish. Of course, there has to be some way to balance that, since the company running the game will still need to make money. That incentive will take the form of boosts, allowing players to gain bonus experience on their first and subsequent characters. Boosts will be available in several different durations, with the longest duration corresponding to the greatest overall bonus. Players will have improved drop rates, health regeneration, and battle rewards as well. Prices have not yet been announced, but the goal is for the boost days to be affordable. Players with subscriptions will also see their remaining subscription days converted into boost days, allowing everyone currently playing to reap the benefits early. [Update: The team has just posted another chart with all of the veteran rewards that will be distributed to current subbers on July 9th.] [Thanks to Avaera for the tip!]
Wakfu getting crafting and class revamps, spy stuff
What's new for Wakfu in 2014? Quite a lot according to the game's latest website update. Ankama is prepping class revamps, a crafting revamp featuring the ability to "become a real entrepreneur," and some sort of shadowy spy mechanic that involves "having a secret life" and using it to "fight the nations from within." Finally, if you'll be anywhere near Lille, France, on May 2nd, you'll want to stop by the Ankama Convention since admission is free. [Thanks Avaera!]
WAKFU's Haven Worlds update postponed
WAKFU is pushing back its Haven Worlds update a week to June 25th as the team cites testing concerns. "Our forums and internal discussions, as well as the internal playtest, raised concerns on some of the main aspects of the Haven Worlds," Ankama posted. "Since our intention is to offer quality content that matches your expectations, we decided to take one more week to improve a few gameplay details." The team decided not to implement tollbooths in the patch but created a more "malleable" system to fill the role. Several other small changes, including those to taxes and GvG features, are detailed in the delay post. To fill the void between now and the 25th, Ankama has put up a new dev diary to show off Haven Worlds and all the goodness that is to come. Check it out after the break!
Galaxy on Fire Alliances takes Fishlabs' setting in a new direction
A little while back, Fishlabs announced that they were working on a new title in the Galaxy on Fire space exploration series of games, and that it would take a bit of a new direction, as a strategy MMO rather than as an action title. Last week at GDC, I got to sit down with the company and see the new game, and I can say it was very impressive indeed. Fans who just wanted to play another version of the same game may be a bit disappointed, but Alliances represents a great new direction for the series, and has provided a good chance for Fishlabs to use this great engine they've built to show off their talent in another genre. I'm not sure quite what this genre is called: I guess "strategy MMO" is closest, but Alliances falls in line with quite a few other games, where players build up buildings (in this case on a rotatable planet) to gather resources like metal, gas and crystals, and then use those resources to build units that can go out and conquer more planets. Evony is probably the biggest of these kinds of games, but I've played quite a bit of Lord of Ultima and TribalWars as well. The one big advantage Fishlabs has here, of course, is their engine, which runs beautiful graphics on the iPad or the iPhone. As you might imagine, this means the planets that you'll be building on are gorgeous, and spin around in full motion, even with various animations and touches for each type of building and resource. Zooming out from your own planet, the galaxy map is also very impressive. You can see other players around you, and once you've assembled some units, you can send them out to spy on other settlements, or send them out into battle. Galaxy on Fire has a big, rich setting already, and while Fishlabs says the two games won't tie together directly (so you won't see Galaxy on Fire's hero as a unit), all of the ships from the action title can be seen in the strategy title, in full graphical closeup fidelity. In addition to browsing through and building your ships, when you send them out into battle, Fishlabs has created a "battle report" that lets you see the action. You can simply see the results of a battle, or you can load up a replay that shows you, from a ship bridge styled after whatever faction you're aligned to, the full battle with all of the ships involved flying back and forth through space. It's very impressive -- you're not directly controlling any of it, but it is cool to watch the battle play out to see what happened. Fishlabs says the Galaxy on Fire series has done very well for them, but at this point the budget for a main series game is "easily in the seven-digit" range, and so putting a new one of those together is a task that can take up to three to five years. Alliances should be done much quicker for them -- they're expecting to see a release sometime later on this year, around September or October. They're hoping it will monetize a little better for them as well: The game will be free to play, with some in-app purchases offering extra resources or units. Alliances will be an iOS exclusive to start, though Fishlabs says it is talking to partners about a PC version eventually. The company has released Galaxy on Fire on the Mac App Store, and says "that was a good deal" for them. But for now, the emphasis with Alliance will be on iOS. Fishlabs is hoping to give Galaxy on Fire fans a new taste of the setting, and hopefully pull in some new players to the series as well.
Free for All: Wakfu's bizarre first year
Wakfu is not what many would consider a standard MMORPG. Its developer, Ankama, has never pushed out normal products. After all, this is a French company we're talking about. That's right, as in France, the same place that brought us amazing (but unusual) creations like Ryzom's plant-planet and the incredible art of Moebius. There's something going on over there, something that is refreshingly different from the typical game or art design. When I attended GDC Online 2011, I was floored by a session featuring Ankama's David Calvo called Chaos in Motion: Transmedia as a Living Community Experience. The panel implored developers to take a chance on development, to give players something unique to experience and world to have an impact on. That was a while ago, however. The game launched a year ago, but the studio had an imperfect year. Let's follow the timeline from then to now.
WAKFU welcomes the Masqueraider
First of all, the Masqueraider may be either the absolute best or worst class name ever devised depending on your tolerance for puns. Second of all, it's WAKFU's 15th class. Third of all, it's here, so go check it out. The Masqueraider switches between roles using a clever mask system. While the first couple of skills in any line are available no matter what mask is worn, all of the other skills are mask-dependent. The masks range from coward (which relies on heals, escapes, and ranged DPS) to classic (which allows for excellent melee combat and helpful auras). There's even a Psychopath mask, which gives you a shortcut to the game's forums so that you can quickly write rants. Just kidding -- it's all about fire DPS. The Masqueraider was part of WAKFU's February 26th update, which also included AP set rebalancing and profession bags.
One Shots: To those left behind
Good games may get cancelled, but as long as we have screenshots, they're never truly forgotten! Reader John sent us in this blast from the not-too-distant past that some of you may recognize. "While going through some old screenshots, I came across a few from Tabula Rasa," John shared. "It was taken in November of 2007 as Veracious Pearl was ready to do some fighting." Sadly, that soldier never made it out of the war. That doesn't mean we've given up fighting, however! Knock down a few mobs in the name of Veracious Pearl today, and when you're done, you should check out the rest of today's One Shots troops.
Square Enix confirms layoff rumors, denies any impact on MMO operation
It's an unfortunate reality that layoffs are somewhat common in the gaming industry, and more often than not that means that games get cancelled or shut down. This weekend, Massively has been inundated with rumors that Square Enix has become the latest studio to suffer that reality. Tipsters suggested the company had laid off several people from its office in LA, people whose termination might impact the game's online offerings such as Wakfu and the upcoming relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV. Only part of these rumors appears to be true. Senior Director of Public Relations Riley Brennan has told Massively that the layoffs did occur for restructuring purposes but that the workforce reduction will have no impact on the company's online titles, though we don't still don't know which titles or departments were affected. In order to ensure it is operating effectively, the Square Enix Los Angeles office has reduced its workforce. This was a difficult decision and we wish the best for those affected by these changes. The decision will not have any impact on the operations of MMO titles. Customers can expect those services to continue, including the upcoming launch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. While we're certainly happy to hear that our games will continue to operate without incident, our best wishes go out to those affected by this round of layoffs. [Thanks as always to our anonymous tipsters!]
Wakfu rolls out the Foggernaut
We can always count on Wakfu to come up with classes that are far beyond the tired norm of Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Priest. Case in point, Square-Enix has just revealed the game's 14th playable class, the Foggernaut. The Foggernaut is a mechanical man who can unleash a number of gadgets and gizmos to save the day. It specializes in fire, earth, and statsis attacks, and can fight from both short- and long-range. This new class is now available for play, and all interested parties can check out the Foggernaut video reveal after the jump.
Wakfu releases Monk Island, new teaser
Ankama is updating Wakfu today with a content drop called Monk Island. There's a dev diary on the game's official website that provides a bit of detail, including information about religious fanatics, a new dungeon, and all of the mystery you would expect from a secluded island. Here's the scoop for those not familiar with Wakfu: It's a fantasy sandbox title that makes up the MMORPG portion of a global cross-media IP. It's based in the same universe as Ankama's Dofus MMO, and it features many of the same classes and professions. Ankama has released a brief Monk Island teaser trailer that shows the Messaround Monastery as well as a bit of combat action. You'll find it after the cut.
Drink, dice, and debauch with new Wakfu gameplay videos
Drinking and gambling go together like peanut butter and jelly, so it's only appropriate that today's new Wakfu gameplay videos set the focus on the Pandawa's Pint and Ecaflip's Coin classes. The Pandawa class, as its name would imply, is a class consisting entirely of anthropomorphic pandas with an affinity for bamboo milk and bar-room brawls. The Pandawa's Pint class "will lift both allies and enemies off their feet," but the distinction lies in how they go about putting them down. Meanwhile, members of the Ecaflip's Coin class take a page out of Harvey Dent's book and live life by the flip of a coin. Luck is the name of the game for these devoted gamblers, and they're more than willing to let their lives ride on the roll of the dice as long as a chance at victory is still in the cards, and when you make your own luck, it always is. To see these two classes in the heat of action, just grab a drink, take a seat at the table, and let the dice roll. Or, you know, just click past the cut. [Source: Ankama Games press release]
Massively Exclusive: Make your nation proud with Wakfu's newest dev diary
Now that Ankama Games' tactical MMORPG Wakfu is live and operational, it's probably about time for players to start getting familiar with the World of Twelve. Thankfully, the fine folks over at Ankama have provided us with a brand-new dev diary to help players to wrap their heads around the nations and territories of Wakfu. For the uninitiated, the World of Twelve is the shared universe of Wakfu and its predecessor, Dofus. Lots has happened in the World of Twelve since the time of Dofus, however. Most importantly, a daft ogre by the name of Ogrest (presumably the older brother of Ogre and Ogrer) gathered the six primordial Dofus and used their overwhelming power to devastate the world, drowning all but seven major island nations beneath the sea. It's up to players to run these remaining nations and restore the World of Twelve to its former power. Of course, it can't all be sunshine and butterflies between the seven nations; we need a reason to kill each other! Aside from the seven main islands, there are also a number of smaller islands that contain valuable -- and sometimes exclusive -- resources. The seven nations, of course, all want to claim these precious goods for their own. Players will have to represent their nations in the battle for these minor, resource-rich islands in order to bring prosperity and bragging rights to their respective homelands. So there you have it, Wakfuians (that's totally a word, we promise). Now click past the cut for the full dev diary video, then get out there and make your countries proud!
Have a bloody good time with Wakfu's Sacrier and Xelor classes
Ankama Games' quirky tactical MMORPG Wakfu went live about a week ago, but the studio is continuing its steady drip of promotional material. Today Ankama is giving players not one but two new videos highlighting a couple of the game's classes. In the red corner, we have the Sacrier class. These bloodthirsty berserkers channel pain into power and will stop at nothing to ensure that their enemy doesn't make it out alive. Meanwhile, in the blue corner, we have the Xelor class, which brings the power of chronomancy to the table. Thanks to their ability to expertly manipulate the flow of time, the disciples of Xelor are a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. To see the Sacrier and Xelor classes in action, check out both new videos after the cut.
Rise and Shiny: A bit of Wakfu, a smidge of Spiral Knights, and some Lime Odyssey
This week in Rise and Shiny, things did not go as planned. This sort of thing actually happens often enough to almost be a problem: I pick out a title or am tasked with taking a look at a certain game, but communication lines are crossed and the game I was supposed to give a first impressions-style look at closes down its beta in the middle of the week. Like I said, it does happen, enough to force me to plan out my articles on a month-long calendar. Even then, things can change. So instead of talking about the game I said I was going to be this week, Seven Souls Online, I decided to go over the three games that I gleefully jumped into over the last few days. This will not be a typical first impression-style piece but instead will hint at the specific adventures I had while playing these games. These wonderful, wonderful games.
XLGames making Civilization MMO
Get ready, Civilization fans, as your favorite franchise is heading to MMO-land (and no, we're not talking about the Civ World Facebook game). A couple of months ago we told you about XLGames' partnership with Take-Two Interactive, as well as the fact that XL would be making an existing Take-Two property into an MMORPG. This morning, various Asian gaming websites confirmed that said property is the venerable Civilization series that began way back in 1991. Details on the new game are sparse, but Google Translate versions of the news articles indicate that XL has begun "large-scale recruitment of MMORPG developers [...] including server [programmers], client programmers, artists, planners, project managers, story designers, [and] mission designers." Prior to its involvement with the Civilization franchise, XLGames was known exclusively for ArcheAge, a fantasy sandbox MMO that is currently undergoing closed beta testing in Korea. [Thanks to Mark for the tip!]
