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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Upcoming Blaster changes
Not every game faces the mage problem, but a lot of them do, and it starts back in classic Dungeons & Dragons. The core of the issue is pretty simple to understand: Because mages have so much phenomenal offensive power, they need some staggering weakness to balance that out. As a result, the class is very physically weak and lacks any real defenses. But the counter to that is that this creates many situations in which the mage is just plain useless because he or she has no effective defenses to weather an initial assault. Blasters aren't mages. Unless they are, anyhow -- City of Heroes is kind of resistant to pigeonholing. Whether your Blaster is an arcane caster or just a guy with radioactive hands isn't important because the class still suffers from the mage problem. Blasters are one of the most powerful classes in the game when it comes to raw damage, but they're also one of the hardest classes to solo, and they're one that goes from hero to zero the fastest.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Freedom
I know, I promised you all Stalkers today. But in case you haven't noticed, something sort of trumped the last archetype under discussion. Something like City of Heroes making one of the biggest announcements in the history of the game. And the weirdest part is, I'm writing this before most of the world knows about it, after being on the phone with Paragon Studios and talking about all of the cool stuff that's coming along with City of Heroes Freedom. Working in game journalism means knowing about what's coming up before other people much of the time. I knew that there was something big en route when I sat down on the call, but honestly I had expected another expansion pack. And that's really what we're getting here, albeit not quite in the format that most players would expect. This is another major expansion to the game, one that will open up the playerbase as well as offering new content to existing players. So this is one of those times when it's almost difficult to sit down and focus clearly enough to write about what's coming, just because the net effects are so far-reaching.
LotRO PvMP changes proposed
As we reported a couple of weeks back, the fine folks over at Turbine have been working on some tweaks to Lord of the Rings Online's PvMP system. Not content, of course, to let those goody-goody Free Peoples grab all of the attention, Kelsen popped in on the forums today to post the proposed changes to the various Creep classes available to players. DocHoliday's MMO Saloon has an excellent summary of the changes, which include everything from cooldown reductions, damage tweaks, survivability adjustments, and more, all in order to bring the Creeps better into balance with their Freep counterparts. If you're looking for more specific information rather than a brief summary, the original posts are all available on LotRO's Creep forums.
Fishing changes on the way to Final Fantasy XI
There are certain constants in Final Fantasy XI that every veteran of the game knows, whether or not they were intended by the development team. It's a known fact, for instance, that you need an extra character to serve as a storage mule. You need to farm if you want money. And fishing is well-known for both being all but required for making money and being frequently boring and frustrating. But that last constant looks to be poised for changing, with the newest fishing changes promising a cleaner and easier experience while trawling Vana'diel's waters. The first welcome change will give players a more detailed set of information when fishing rather than a simple generic message that you've snagged something. The second, however, will be even more helpful for fishers -- a message informing you of exactly what you've hooked if your skill level surpasses the level required for the fish. Both changes go hand-in-hand with a general revamp and improvement of the fishing code to make fishing easier for Final Fantasy XI's anglers to enjoy, while at the same time cutting down on the often unwanted botting that plagues fishing holes.
New developer making plans for Lord of the Rings Online's PvMP
PvP in Lord of the Rings Online has always been a sticky issue, with players taking the roles of monsters that always felt a bit underrepresented. But if you've always been a fan of smashing player-controlled spiders or playing one yourself, you'll be happy to see that there's a new developer in town taking aim at the PvMP portion of the game. Kelsan's inaugural post included a call for feedback and a broad PvMP manifesto outlining the overall design goals for the play mode. One of the major areas being examined is the matter of rewards -- both factions are fighting for different rewards and different levels of commitment, which creates a disconnect in play. Kelsan and Orion both want to re-evaluate what players receive from zone control and taking part in PvMP, hopefully creating an environment where more players can get into the conflict. As one would expect, revisions are also being focused on a balancing of skills and abilities to help level the playing field. Lord of the Rings Online players should take a look at the full manifesto and offer any and all constructive feedback possible.
City of Heroes posts updates to the global server change
While nothing quite compares to a new expansion pack, Paragon Studios still surprised City of Heroes fans when it announced at PAX East that both the American and European servers were going to be merged into a single list. The team is looking to head off most further questions with a recently released FAQ regarding the changeover, which will also see European account holders rolled into the existing database. It also enumerates the benefits to the community as a whole, allowing both regions equal access to testing and special events while expanding the total number of servers available for each player. In the case of name conflicts for the global chat channel, a player originally from the European servers will be given a temporary handle based on his character's name and a free change to said handle. According to the official statement, the number of affected players is expected to be fairly small, and actual character names will not be affected as the servers aren't merging in any way. Expected to be fully rolled out by the end of the summer, this latest change to City of Heroes won't help any content slumps but will help foster more international community efforts for the game.
Final Fantasy XI's development team answers player questions
While players might not know what's coming around the bend for Final Fantasy XI in terms of future expansions or add-ons, the development team has been stepping up with a big departure from its usually laconic manner. The team answered a batch of players questions back in December, and now another big round of answers has been posted, with a great deal of information about what to expect from upcoming changes. If anything, the answers offered seem to imply that the game is moving slowly to a more open structure. Fields of Valor, a major experience booster since its inception, is apparently on deck to have its time restrictions removed, allowing you to do as many pages from the book per Vana'dielan day as you want. Level caps are being removed on certain nation quests, with more possible in the future, and the auction houses of the nations are going to be merged to make searching for items easier. Final Fantasy XI clearly has some big accessibility improvements planned, so it's going to be very interesting to see what's next to be revealed for the game's near future.
