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Earthrise developers explain how teleportation will affect gameplay
Last week we wrote about the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO Earthrise and how players will be able to use mechas to establish trade and supply routes or, conversely, to hijack them. This brings up another transportation-related question, or several really. How will teleportation work in Earthrise? What limitations will be put on it? Is teleportation accessible to individuals or is it a guild-level ability? The latest Question of the Week entry from the Earthrise devs at Masthead Studios answers these questions and more. The game's sandbox setting of Enterra is a massive island with many zones. Conventional modes of transportation may not always be the best option for players who need to get from one place to another, hence the developers have included teleportation (travel, not combat) game mechanics, but characters seeking instantaneous travel will need to pay fees for the privilege. There will be two simple types of teleportation -- short range for within zones, and long range, which can be a jump from one end of Enterra to another. The further you travel, the more you pay. Teleporters will be run by NPC factions, available to players aligned with that faction or neutrals, but Earthrise's guilds will also be able to establish their own teleporters.
E3 2009: Bill Roper on character themes and customization in Champions Online
The superhero MMO genre has been ruled by one game and one game alone for the past five years: City of Heroes. NCsoft's title being quite literally the only game in town for superhero fans is about to change, with competitors like DC Universe Online and Champions Online on the way. We have a good idea of what to expect with DCUO given the recognizable characters the game incorporates, but what of Champions Online which is based upon the Champions pen and paper RPG?We've wondered what Cryptic Studios will do to differentiate Champions Online from the competition; Massively had a chance to sit down with Bill Roper, the game's executive producer, to discuss that question at E3 2009.%Gallery-17946%
Massively Hands-on: The first five levels of Champions Online Part 2
Yep, that's right, you get your travel power at the end of Champions Online's tutorial. Jet Boots is very cool, and will please many an Iron Man fan -- myself included -- right down to the hands and feet pointing forward to stop animation. For Jet Boots, you'll hold 'T' to charge up your bar.
Addon Spotlight: DagAssist
Addon Spotlight takes a look at the little bits of Lua and XML that make our interfaces special. From bar mods to unit frames and beyond, if it goes in your Addons folder, we'll cover it here. I love it when people send in tips for cool addons. There was a time when I could subscribe to the RSS feed for an addon site and check out each new mod as it came out, but the scene is too big now; I'd be at it all day. Today we'll look at DagAssist, which was submitted by Rodney earlier this afternoon. DagAssist puts a single, quite attractive button on your minimap that, when clicked, opens a pop-up menu containing things like: Teleports and portals, for mages Summons for warlocks Profession skills Hearthstone You can see what it looks like for my warlock at right.
Traveling in patch 3.1
Patch 3.1 will be changing how we all get around. Travel is usually a bit of a touchy subject, but there are some huge improvements on the way. If you love Kirin'Tor bling, you'll be happy to note that their transportation rings are getting an upgrade. Should you purchase one, you get a free teleport to Dalaran once every hour. The Hearthstone that you've carried with you since you day one, unless you deleted it and had to bribe an Innkeeper for a new one, is changing radically. The cooldown is being reduced from one hour to half an hour. This was done partially to appease the whining over nerf to ghetto hearthing. Ghetto Hearthing is/was the process of dropping your group while in a dungeon and waiting one minute for a free hearth, provided your hearthstone was on a cooldown. In 3.1, you will no longer be able to do this. Fortunately, you can still use the method to get yourself out of a dungeon. Ghetto hearthing will be less of a hearth and more of a shifting of your virtual person to the nearest graveyard, alive and well. This will stop people from doing things like entering Ragefire Chasm while grouped, dropping, and getting a free hearth.
The Dos and Don'ts of getting a port
I'm a dork. I admit it. I love my mage and I love making portals for people, even non-tippers. In fact, you have to work pretty hard not to get a port from me. Which is why, even after decades of dealing with anonymous jerks in BBS chat rooms and on the internet, I was a little shocked at how rude a level 62 Tauren Shaman who shall remain nameless was when demanding a port from me. Maybe he just didn't know any better. So here is a little guide as to how to increase your chances of getting a port from a mage you don't know.
Coren Direbrew now drops cross-faction Brewfest mounts, teleportation device
Brewfest is underway today, and with it comes more news of the new boss, Coren Direbrew. You may remember the hubbub surrounding the decision on Brewfest mounts: A Brewfest Kodo would be implemented, but rather than allowing Alliance a chance at it, it would be Horde only, with the Rams becoming Alliance only. Now that Brewfest is live, that decision has been reversed, at least partially. Now, neither mount can be purchased with Brewfest tickets. However, instead, both drop from Coren Direbrew down in the Grim Guzzler. That means that the Alliance and the Horde can both go after the Ram and the Kodo, but only as a rare drop.
Wormholes coming to an Engineer near you
Just the other day, a fun little potential toy for Engineers cropped up. Wormholes! Wormholes? Yes, wormholes. What do they do? Think about Mages for a moment. They have both Teleport and Portal spells. Teleport spells take only them to a capital city of their choosing. Portals create a way for your entire party or raid to go to that capital city.Engineers have Transporters, which work similar to a Mage's Teleport. They take you specifically to whichever Goblin or Gnome town your Engineering specialization likes best. Wormholes will be the answer to the Mage's Portal. You will be able to take your entire party to that town, not just you. The only one we've seen so far is a Wormhole to Gadgetzan, which may actually prove to be quite useful. While Shattrath has an NPC that will teleport you straight to the Caverns of Time, I haven't seen one of those in Dalaran so far in the Wrath Beta.Currently it seems the intent is to have Engineers quest for these Wormhole generators, but they aren't available on either the live or beta realms quite yet. That could easily change before we see them ourselves. We may also see these in Patch 3.02 rather than Wrath of the Lich King as well, seeing as Northrend has Goblin towns of its own.[ via MMO-Champion ]
Final Fantasy XI collectible confers unique in-game ability
Final Fantasy XI players who are into collectibles have a new item to lust over. There's a new addition to the Final Fantasy XI Player's Collection, which is available for a limited time only: The Tidal Talisman. It's a $43 silver-plated pendant with a side-benefit that's the real selling point. It comes with a virtual counterpart, which could prove very useful. The in-game version of the Tidal Talisman allows a player to teleport to locations previously visited in Vana'diel. Or, as it's described over at FFXI's site, it confers "the ability to project phantasmal robes over the wearer's body and enabling the wearer to teleport to distant lands in the blink of an eye." For those who are on the fence about shelling out $43 for a FFXI pendant, Square-Enix appeals to a gamer's sense of urgency regarding scarcity of virtual goods: "We have no plans to bring this item back in the future, so all players are encouraged to take advantage of this unique one-time opportunity!"
The strange task of entering Dalaran
Here's a somewhat annoying little problem with the Beta. As of the latest build, you can't just walk into Dalaran, or rather, you can't just use the teleportation crystal go up. Instead, you have to complete a quest to align yourself to Dalaran. But this quest is only available at level 74. In the Outlands, it's not uncommon for a fresh 58 to head through the Dark Portal and right to Shattrath City. Binding in one of the Inns there essentially puts all of the Outlands before you, with flights connecting you easily to where you wish to go. It seems strange that Blizzard has put up this strange quest attunement roadblock to those who wish to alight from the boat to Northrend and head straight to the capital. Perhaps it's a similar decision that caused them to restrict flying mounts to level 77 and above -- they don't want people skimping on exploration and seeing content, so they make you hang around the newbie zones for a while before you can just stick with Dalaran. Luckily, not all is completely lost. Much like with Shattrath before level 58, You can still get teleported or summoned up by a Mage or Warlock before level 74. Still, it's a strange little extra hoop Blizzard's having us leap through to get the to top.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Babies babies babies
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, the column that answers your questions about the story and lore of the Warcraft universe. Click the Comments link below (or e-mail us!), ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!Let's jump right in with Tom's trio of questions... We know what happens when a human and orc cross-breed, but what about elf/human intermingling? Is it possible for the other races on Azeroth to breed and are there any such results of that union? Elf/Human crossbreeds are definitely supported by lore, as well as a whole mess of other combinations. Arator the Redeemer in Hellfire Peninsula is a Human/Elf Hybrid, for example, and there are plenty more around. Other combinations are valid as well. Rexxar is an Orc/Ogre Hybrid. Gross, I know, but oh well. There are a lot more examples you can add to those that are scattered around the world(s). There are no hard rules in place dictating who can and cannot interbreed, but it's pretty safe to assume the races similar to one another are compatible. I would bet Dwarves and Gnomes can shack up and spawn, for example, but probably not a Gnome and a Tauren. That's just me talking, though. I could be wrong. Let's pray very, very hard that I'm not wrong.
First Look: Teleport, new VNC client for the iPhone
Jugaari's iPhone debut, Teleport (iTunes link), is a new VNC client for mobile remote control of a Mac or PC (not the super-awesome pseudo-KVM app). It's a $24.99 investment, and I don't know many people who are going to dish out twenty five clams for an iPhone utility, but I know plenty who are curious about it and frustrated about the App Store's lack of any "try before you buy" mechanism. Here's a "look before you buy," either to help you make a decision or just to satisfy a curiosity. Teleport is naturally subject to all the things that are intrinsically annoying about any VNC connection, which are then compounded by a (relatively) small screen and less-than-ideal network speeds; it's not the ideal way to access a remote machine. The options allow you to set the speed of the refresh rate, but "fast" is slow, even on a local wireless network. Those annoyances are obstacles to be overcome, though, and I think that Teleport makes a valiant effort to provide a usable interface in light of these hurdles. Check out the gallery for a mini-tour, and see the rest of this post for more impressions of Teleport. %Gallery-28814%
Wrath Money Sink Found: Dalaran teleport rings for 8000 gold
Here's a brand new find fresh from the Kirin Tor capital of Dalaran on the Wrath Beta servers. We've been wondering for a while what type of money sinks Blizzard might implement in wrath, and we've found one, to the tune of 8000 gold coins: A set of melee and caster rings that not only deliver some pretty sweet stats, but also have a free teleport to Dalaran on use to the tune of an hour cooldown. The rings are sold by Tiffany Cartier, the Jewelcrafting supply vendor in Dalaran, who hangs out next to the jewelcrafting trainer. They come in both melee and caster versions, and seem to have pretty solid stats. Still, the main draw is the teleport, and it seems very likely that it will be on a separate cooldown from the Hearthstone. That means that for a paltry sum, you too can feel somewhat like a Mage once an hour. It's also worth noting that Tiffany herself is on the Kirin Tor faction. That means that if you care to do a bit of grinding before you spend your dough, you'll be able to haggle the price down to 6400 gold -- still far above the price of Burning Crusade's major money sink. This is certainly a useful and clever way for Blizzard to siphon money out of the economy once we all hit 80 and start doing all our Argent Crusade dailies, and it makes me sort of glad I didn't blow all my money on the Gigantique bag craze. Of course, now I need to figure out where I'm going to find the gold to buy one for all my alts. Thanks to Kurai for the tip, and Alex for heading to Dalaran for screenshots.
PC Gamer offers exclusive Age of Conan item
Readers of PC Gamer get a special gift in the July issue (currently on the stands): an exclusive Age of Conan item called the Totem of Origins, which lets the player teleport back to their home city once every 24 hours. This will probably make the July 2008 issue the best-selling issue of the year.How do you feel about in-game items being distributed this way? Isn't it just a form of microtransactions? Would you like to see Age of Conan adopt an item mall scheme?[Thanks, Yaisha!]
One Shots: Traveling in style
How we long for the days of the future when we'll be teleported where we want to go. Sure, ours will likely involve far less magic and be much more in keeping with Star Trek, but it's still a nice dream. (And just think of all the awesome news coverage we could give if we could just teleport around!) Today's One Shots brings us a screen of one of the places we can at least enjoy fast transportation today! This comes to us from Firelore, Level 50 Warden in EverQuest II, who appears to be hanging out on a flying carpet inside of a spire. (Did we mention that we want flying carpets too?)Do you have a cool screenshot of how you get around in your world? Or maybe something interesting you've seen while flying or riding around? Whatever it may be, grab those screenshots and send us a bunch at oneshots@massively.com! Let us know your character name, server, level, or whatever you'd like to tell us about you and tell us a bit about what's in the picture/what game it came from. It takes only a few minutes, and it's a lot of fun to see your adventures shared with everyone.%Gallery-9798%
The Daily Grind: Forms of transportation
No matter what game you play or virtual world you inhabit, one of the major points is how to get around. In Second Life, you can hit a SLurl and teleport, or if you're just exploring, you can fly around the landscape and check out what people have designed and built. In World of Warcraft, you can run around on different land-based mounts in "old" Azeroth, and enjoy lots of different forms of flying mounts in Outland. In EverQuest, you could take boats, books, portals, be transformed into a wolf, or just get a speed-buff in the form of a SoW. Perfect World allows you to pile a land mount on top of a flying mount, even! It seems like with as varied as each game is, there are always preferences for one mode or another. I will admit that one of my favorite ways to get around is SuperJump in City of Heroes just because it's just so much fun to bounce into a group of bad guys, then bounce away. Today we thought we'd ask you what your favorite methods of getting around are? Do you have a Peep (the phoenix mount from WoW) or are you all about catching portals to save time? Do you like the city-to-city teleports offered in Guild Wars, or prefer to adventure with your noble steed in Lord of the Rings Online?
Arcane Brilliance: Why we Mage
Hi there! Yes, after a long hiatus, Arcane Brilliance is back. Snack tables all around! Anybody ninjas the biscuits, they get a Fireball in the face. Nah, just kidding. Even ninjas are welcome here. As long as they're mage-ninjas. I've been a Mage since day one with WoW, and until a few weeks ago I had never really questioned my class choice. I liked the idea of being a caster, a back row fireballer with robes and a pointy hat. When I came over from FFXI I asked my WoW-playing buddy (the aforementioned shammie) which class I should be. He asked what I was into, and I said something like "I want to be a huge caster-tastic wizard in a dress who sets things on fire with his mind. Is there a mage-type class?" He said. "Yes. It's called...Mage." And that was it. I rolled my undead Mage and began conjuring flaming death and croissants. I happily leveled my Mage to 70. And then...the bubbling, Healthstone-critting warlock happened. After the jump: Shameful self doubt, soul searching, and finally...sweet redemption! And more Mage-talk.
WoW Moviewatch: How the spammers did it
We covered the story of the dead goldspam gnomes in Ironforge the other day, but now, direct from Alice (complete with Benny Hill accompaniment), here's video footage of exactly how it was done. How incredibly strange.As far as anyone can figure out, they created these gnomes using a bot, and then used a client-side teleport hack to put them in exactly the right place above the Ironforge floor. They also had to kill them somehow of course, but who knows how that was done. Did they send newly created gnomes out to the trolls in the lowbie area (because most starter mobs are actually neutral, so won't attack normally), and then wait until right as they died to teleport them away? If you went to the starting area while this was happening, would you see little gnomes disappearing? As I said: how extremely strange.Update: You commenters are so smart-- that's why we keep you around. Jesse and hookkick80 instantly recognized that they probably die from the fall damage after the teleport.
Australian physicists develop teleportation scheme for atoms
Although the idea of teleporting individuals from one place to another in order to sidestep the headache of rush hour traffic has been around for quite some time, a team of Australian physicists are busy making it work (on a smaller scale, of course). Granted, they don't fully expect their teleportation scheme to be used on humans in the near future, but there's always hope, right? Anyway, the team has developed a so-called "simple way to transport atoms," which involves bringing the atoms to almost absolute zero, beaming them with two lasers, and using fiber optics to transport them to any other place at the speed of light where they "enter a second condensate" and reconstruct. We'll keep you posted on when human trialing (hopefully) begins.
...and Mages and Warlocks too!
Recently, I wrote a post on Rogues having trade windows opened up on them without so much as a word. As I suspected, many other Rogues out there indeed have the same problem. Of course, many had their own ways of dealing with it like picking the box, but not hitting trade until there was a tip in the window. Another idea was just keeping all trades off in their options so that people couldn't open up trades with them in the first place. All of these are things that I've tried from time to time with varying levels of success. What I didn't expect, however, was the sheer amount of people who jumped in and brought up the similar plights that Mages and Warlocks face on a daily basis. As I've got a L59 Warlock and a L61 Mage, trust me when I say that I completetly understand and appreciate what you all go through with the requests you get. I'm not even able to portal others to Shattrath yet on my Mage, but anytime I'm playing her, I almost immediately get asked to open a portal there for someone anyway. Now, nobody has opened a trade window on me without asking and grunted out "food/water" as yet, but I've definitely gotten the tells demanding that I make food or water for them, as opposed to asking nicely.
