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Fallen Earth devs answer radioactive questions in Stratics chat
It's always nice when developers let their hair down, shaking out their majestic manes in slow-motion glory while their eyes sparkle with a thousand points of... I'm sorry, where was I? Anyway, part of the powerhouse Fallen Earth team recently sat down with Stratics' House of Commons to answer community questions about the game in a free-form chat, which was recorded and posted on Globaltech ATLAS. Icarus devs present were Tiggs (Community Director), Chris Deavellar (Art Director), Cory Farris (Senior Environment Artist) and Wes Platt (Director of Content Development). Topics included new Blood Sports maps, the day/night cycle, supercross, pop culture references and questions about the art and graphics of the game. One of the questions wondered why they couldn't add more body types into the game, which earned a revealing answer: "If we do implement new chracter [sic] types, it will require new rigging, new animation (about 1000 of them), and new boltons just for one new toon. You'll notice that games like Gears of War and Halo only have men? That's because they couldn't even afford to spend time doing a female toon. It's a LOT, LOT, LOT of work." Globaltech ATLAS has the full transcript, so feel free to pour over the entire conversation, including a few "after hours" questions!
Fallen Earth dev chat answers barrage of player questions
We don't know about you, but we can feel the era of post-apocalyptic and sci-fi MMOs fast approaching. Definitely on our 'ones to watch' list is Fallen Earth, currently in development at Fallen Earth LLC (formerly known as Icarus Studios). We mentioned the other day that the Fallen Earth devs would participate in a live Stratics 'House of Commons' dev chat, and among the five Fallen Earth team members on-hand was lead game designer Lee Hammock. The Fallen Earth devs responded to a blitz of questions from the game's future players in the Stratics dev chat, ranging from the benefits of capturing 'conflict towns' in PvP to mounted combat on horses and vehicles. In addition, Lee Hammock stated that game play videos should be released at some point in the next few weeks, and more info about the game will be coming out in tandem with this month's Game Developers Conference.Be sure to check out the Stratics House of Commons chat transcript for more on the kind of game Fallen Earth is shaping up to be.
Stratics and Fallen Earth team up for beta giveaway
We know some of you out there are dying to get into the Fallen Earth beta, but it might not be as hard to get in as you think, provided you act before March 15th. Stratics is running a contest to win Fallen Earth beta keys. All you need to do to be in the running is email them at contest@irc.stratics.com and tell them what you think about Fallen Earth, and why you deserve a beta key (or at the very least, a Fallen Earth T-shirt.)Stratics will select winners randomly, and the contest runs through March 15, 2009. You can check out the details on the Fallen Earth forums and of course over at the Stratics Chat site.
Upcoming chat with the Fallen Earth devs
There's one thing you really can't deny - the MMO genre has sorely needed some shiny new post-apocalyptic titles for some time now. Thankfully it looks like Fallen Earth's development is proceeding at a solid pace. With any luck we'll be able to jump in and get our post-apocalyptic warfare on before too long. As a way of working with the community to ensure that Fallen Earth is as solid they can possibly make it, the developers from Icarus Studios have been scheduling play-dates with the beta testers, followed by an open chat on Stratics for everyone who is curious - tester and non-tester alike. This month's chat, going on tomorrow at 9:00 PM EDT, should prove to be highly interesting, as not only will there be several developers on hand, but there's been talk of some swag (and beta keys) to be handed out as well! You can get all the details over on the Fallen Earth forums if you're interested in checking out more on this upcoming MMO. [via WarCry]
Join the Jumpgate Evolution developer chat this Tuesday, February 24th
If you happen to have some Jumpgate Evolution questions burning in your brain, then next Tuesday on February 24th we recommend that you join in a developer chat over on Stratics. The actual chat will be held via IRC, which you can find a handy-dandy guide to right here in case you're not overly familiar with the application. For everyone else, here's a list of equally handy, as well as dandy, servers to join: irc.glowfish.de EU - Germany 6667 6668 stratics.frws.com USA - Colorado 6667 6668 7000 stratics.afraidyet.net USA - Texas 6667 6668 irc.gamers-irc.org USA - Colorado 6667 6668 7000 We'll be following up on any transcipts that hit the net afterwords, so if for some reason you're unable to make it (or IRC boggles your mind) you can still partake in new Jumpgate Evolution information as you see fit.
Fallen Earth dev chat transcript a glimpse into the game
As the post-apocalyptic massively multiplayer online game Fallen Earth has now entered closed beta and gets closer to its launch, Icarus Studios is sharing more info about the title. Tiggs, the Fallen Earth Community Director, has posted the latest Stratics HoC Chat Transcript. Quite a number of the Fallen Earth devs were on hand for the chat, not limited to the game's writer and content designer, lead scripter, lead game designer, and the art director. They fielded questions from the Fallen Earth community about the game, hitting upon everything from their choice to create an MMO without classes to the goal-oriented PvP style of the game, where territorial control is key. If you missed this as it was happening, have a look at what the devs and players are saying about Fallen Earth.
Earthrise lead designer on player-driven economy and crafting unique items
MMO fans of all things post-apocalyptic are probably eagerly awaiting more info on the in-development game Earthrise. Will it be a breath of fresh air into an industry overwhelmingly dominated by fantasy titles? It's still far too soon to say, but the Earthrise developers, Masthead Studios, have been doing a good job of communicating what their vision for the game is, both in terms of building up a community (pre-beta no less) and actively talking about the title with the gaming press. The latest bits of info about Earthrise come to us through a Stratics interview with Lead Game Designer Apostol Apostolov. He starts off by succinctly explaining the lore behind the game, but his talk with Stratics also touches upon what he sees as the advantages of using a skill-based advancement system, which tips its hat to Ultima Online. Apostolov also discusses Earthrise's economy, with hints about rewards tied to the offline profession(s) a player chooses. On the subject of the players, Earthrise will have a completely player-run market which could be a boon to crafters.
Chat with the Fallen Earth devs on February 12th
Next month's usual dev chat with the Fallen Earth devs will take place on Thursday, February 12th, 2009. This is an ongoing schedule of chats that have been going on for a few months now, where Alpha participants get to interact through in-game events, and other fans of the game get to chat live with the devs through Stratics.This time around, the in-game event will take place at 1pm EST and involve a team-based takeover of New Gallows, one of the conflict towns in Sector Two. Later that day, at 9pm EST, anyone can join in a live dev chat where the topic will be anything goes with Fallen Earth. The devs attending this one will be Alec Masters, RandomTask, Funslayer, Dst3d, Circatrix, Tiggs, Morgana and Quisno. If you've been following along on their "Meet the Team" features, you probably have a good sense of who these people are already. If not, this would be the perfect opportunity to get to know them (and the game) better.
Join Fallen Earth creators during their monthly "Day with the Devs"
Today marks yet another "Day with the Devs" for Fallen Earth, where players have an opportunity to interact with the upcoming post-apocalytic MMO's creators. The first one of these was last month during a Stractics House of Commons chat, but today's will double the effort. At 9pm EST tonight, you can head over to the Stratics HoC chat to talk with the devs about Crafting and PvP. All questions will need to be submitted on the Fallen Earth forums ahead of time.Plus, at 4pm EST this afternoon, all registered Alpha participants will have the chance to fight alongside the devs for control of New Gallows, one of the conflict towns in Sector Two. Not in the Alpha testing program? No problem! The team is currently accepting clans, while individuals will soon be able to sign up through forum membership. You can check out the main website for the individual Alpha sign-up info coming soon. If you're not in Alpha now, you certainly won't make it for this afternoon's event, but the Fallen Earth folks promise to have these "Day with the Devs" on the second Thursday of each month. Check out this post by Community Director Tiggs for more information on today's happenings.
Turbine dev chat transcript gives more info on Moria
It's been quite a long time since we've reported on a House of Commons dev chat with Lord of the Rings Online's Turbine and Codemasters devs, so this latest one should come as a special treat. In it, we get word of a few new features for the first expansion, Mines of Moria, which was just announced today to have a release date of November 18th! In order to paraphrase this long dev chat, we've bullet-pointed what we feel is the most interesting answers to player questions: No pre-Moria equipment will be part of the Legendary Items system. After Mines of Moria, they'll "most likely" be heading south with future expansions. Although there's word of fleshing out Eriador as well. Capstone skills are used in conjunction with Legendary Traits and Trait sets to make mega powerful skills. These capstones come in three different types: solo gameplay, small fellowship and 6-man instance gameplay. You will get access to another Legendary Trait slot at level 60 Renown and Infamy will be changed to increase the amount gained in a full group and reduce the amount gained in raids. The Elves of Lothlorien will not have accessible reputation until the first book update after launch Suggested improvements to the kinship system include kinbank, plus stablemasters and crafting areas in the kinship house. The entire Book 1 of Volume 2 will act as an introduction to Legendary Items, so you will get them early on. Following the helpful dev diaries on the Hunter, Burglar and Lore-master, Turbine plans to release guides for the remaining classes from 50-60 as well. Inventory problems will be alleviated with quest tokens and key rings. Quest items will be stored in a quest journal, instead of the player's inventory. Key rings will hold important keys for certain doors. You will not need to finish Volume 1 to access Volume 2. No new hobbies releasing with Moria, but there are others in the works for future book patches.
Warhammer Online video interview with Mythic's Josh Drescher
WAR Stratics has posted a rather off-the-cuff video interview with Josh Drescher, Associate Producer with Mythic Entertainment, who has been working on Warhammer Online. The San Diego Comic Con interview is completely unscripted, indeed it may have been unplanned, as WAR Stratics prefaces the video with "this is what happens when you turn fans of the game, who just happen to be press, loose on the devs." But Drescher's humor really shines through, as does his enthusiasm about bringing RvR to a fanbase numbering in the millions. The highlight of the interview is Drescher's response when asked about what will suprise fans the most once they're able to play Warhammer Online. "That everything we've said is true... we like to bring the game to events like this where we can just give people unfettered access to the game exactly as it is right now. And basically prove to them, everything we've been telling them is true. You really can level up through the entire game, never going on a quest. You can play RvR from beginning to end." Drescher racks up a few extra points for the Mad Max reference in there, and closes with, "WAR is coming, baby. Very, very soon." We know a lot of you have been waiting to get your hands on this game, or at least the beta. So on a 1 to 10, how excited are you about playing Warhammer Online?
LotRO dev chat reveals a bit more on Book 14 and Mines of Moria
The latest House of Commons dev chat has finished for Lord of the Rings Online, and in this one we get a few more small glimpses into what we can expect with Book 14. The usual suspects -- Keth, Scenario, Patience and Avon -- were on-hand to answer player questions live at Stratics.Most of the questions delivered by players concerned seasonal events, as this seems to be extremely popular lately. The devs say there will be another event this summer, and a "scary" event in the fall, presumably for Halloween. They go on to explain some details of Book 14, citing the fact that it will mainly be compiled of small changes and bug fixes in anticipation of the first paid expansion for LotRO: Mines of Moria. This expansion's two new classes -- the Warden and the Runekeeper -- are also explained in relation to their class roles.
Be heard this week with EQII and PotBS IRC chats
Stratics is going to play host to some more "House of Commons" IRC chats later in the week, for both EverQuest II and Pirates of the Burning Sea, giving fans a chance to pose some questions to the teams behind these two games. On Wednesday the 18th at 5PM PDT/8PM EDT, the PotBS chat will take place, and will feature producer Joe Ludwig, lead game designer Kevin Maginn, lead world designer Cory Herndon, community relations director Troy Hewitt and community specialist Tom Atkinson-Edwards. Full details on how to join in on this chat can be found here.The EQII chat will take place a day later, on Thursday the 19th at the same time slot of 5PM PDT/8PM EDT. Representing the game in the chat will be Josh Kriegshauser and Greg Spence from EQII Engineering; Kyle Vallee, designer of "Runneye: The Gathering"; Nathan McCall, designer of the Void Storm quest series; and Tiffany Spence and Aaron Bisnett from the community relations team. You can find out how to join this chat at this page, and don't forget that we here at Massively will be speaking to the EQII team this week as well, so you can also drop any questions you might have in today's Daily Grind for us to bring to them.
Earthrise game mechanics confirmed in Masthead Studios dev chat
The creators of the sci-fi MMO Earthrise have been very active in recent months -- granting a number of interviews, releasing monthly newsletters, and participating in dev chats. Stratics recently hosted the third Earthrise 'House of Commons' dev chat, with three members of the Masthead Studios team.The Masthead Studios devs that took part were Atanas Atanasov (CEO of Masthead Studios), Apostol Apostolov (Lead Game Designer), and Moll (Community Manager). Their discussion ranged from the professions available to players to the extensive crafting system in the game. Read on after the jump for details straight from the devs about what we can expect from Earthrise.
Jumpgate Evolution dev chat to commence June 9th
At 5:00 PM EST on Monday, June 9th, Stratics will host a live chat with several members of the Jumpgate Evolution team -- including producer Hermann Peterscheck, concept artist Kirk Lunsford, community manager Nicole Hamlett, and UI programmer Josh Stefanski. Stratics will also be giving away a beta key and a limited edition print to two lucky participants.The chat will take place in the #straticshoc channel on Stratics IRC. You can use your own IRC client or the Java one provided by the site. A list of servers and ports is included along with further instructions in the announcement, in case you're not a regular.
LotRO dev chat log gives more insight into Book 14 and Mines of Moria
The Stratics team is at it once again bringing us the most recent House of Commons dev chat log with the LotRO developers. In this one, we get some treats in regards to Book 14 information, and the highly-anticipated first true expansion to the game: Mines of Moria.So we're all busy people right? How about a quick summary of the topics in this log? An improved Monster Play login screen is in the works, with no definite timeframe yet. Since Book 13 focused so much on solo play, expect Book 14 to refocus on group play. Three new 6-man instances will be be introduced, as well as new deeds for the Urugarth, Carn Dum, Barad Gularan and Annuminas instances. Two new session instances will be introduced. These will not be at the level of the chicken play, but they do have plans for several more with MoM. One of the core focuses with MoM is character customization and improvements as far as traits and new features. The next Hobby is almost ready, with many more to come. Poison will not be introduced for the good guys, as it is restricted in Tolkien lore to evil use only. Check out the rest of this dev chat log for more information on each of these topics!
Design an EVE Online billboard, win big isk
EVE Stratics is running a contest where winners receive free game time in EVE Online. EVE Stratics asks, "If you could place an ad on an ingame billboard, what would you put?" At first glance, especially since this was announced on the official EVE Online website, you'd think that the contest would actually allow the winner(s) to put their own messages on in-game billboards. Sadly, this is not the case. Truth be told, that could be a total disaster anyway. The contest is strictly out-of-game, but it's an easy way to win a few months of free EVE Online Time Codes, and maybe an Art of EVE Book as well. There's just over a week before the contest ends, and Stratics only limits you with a few terms: Image size must be 1024x768 or smaller and can be in JPG or GIF (single frame, no animation) format. The billboard frame is optional and will not affect judging. No vulgarity, graphic nudity, copyrighted, or overly offensive material. Slightly offensive is usually pretty damn funny, so we'll let that slide. The contest ends on May 26th at 11:59pm, so fire up Photoshop and add your billboard to the EVE Stratics gallery. The billboard template and further details are found at the EVE Stratics 'Build-a-Billboard' contest site. Entries are judged on creativity and originality, and all submissions should be emailed to loktofeit@stratics.com.Via EVE Online
Interesting Book 13 features revealed in LotRO dev chat
During the most recent House of Commons chat over at Stratics, we got some interesting information from the LotRO devs regarding Book 13, slated to release later this month. Wait, thats like two weeks away!Matt Elliot, Paul Simon (no, not that one), Cardell Kerr, Meghan Rodberg and Aaron Campbell answer the most pressing player questions. We hear a bit about a new shaggy reputation horse created specifically for the frigid climate of Forochel. We also hear the glorious news that more drops will be consolidated to be stackable, creating much more room in our bags for bulbous boar intestines and neekerbreeker filth! Talk of fishing is also prominent on the minds of the developers, mostly in the context of their rods. Oh, you'll just have to read it to understand. So be sure to check out this recent dev chat log for more details on what they have in store for us with Book 13.
European LotRO dev chat moves to Wednesday, changes host
The Lord of the Rings Online Europe team have announced that they will be switching up the host of their regular developer chats, and moving the day to the last Wednesday of each month. The QuakeNET IRC servers that they have used until now have given them issues in the past, so the decision was made to move to the Stratics IRC channel, which already plays host to the US LotRO dev chats.The first chat on Stratics IRC will take place this Wednesday, 27th February, from 8PM until 9PM GMT. If you've never used IRC before, Stratics has an FAQ to help you get started, or for those who just need the new details: irc.glowfish.de EU - Germany 6667 6668 stratics.frws.com USA - Colorado 6667 6668 7000 stratics.afraidyet.net USA - Texas 6667 6668 irc.gamers-irc.org USA - Colorado 6667 6668 7000 The room the LOTRO chat will take place in is #straticshoc
LotRO developer chat talks Kinship additions
Last Monday there was a scheduled Lord of the Rings Online developer chat over at Stratics. Quite a lot was discussed, but there are some key things we took away from the Q&A session. The mention of a "Month of the Kinship" has us most excited, as that means that sometime in the (hopefully near) future LotRO will be receiving a book update to its guild features.Right now players and Kinships can purchase their own housing, but kinship housing doesn't serve any functional purpose beyond a gathering place that can be decorated. We would love to see these housings become a place where members could come to store items or keep up to date with a schedule board. Other subjects that were touched on during the dev chat were traits getting a review, including racial traits and a heavier focus on 12 man raids instead of the 24 man style. Unsurprisingly, the 12 man raids have been more popular with players. It's always easier to gather and maintain control over less people and 12 just seems to be the sweet spot for most LotRO players.
