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TUAW's Daily App: Undercroft
Undercroft is an iPhone RPG that's reminiscent of the old Elder Scrolls games; it's turn based, and seen from a first-person perspective (even though you actually play a party of adventurers). This is strictly fantasy fare, and it doesn't do a lot that's new. For the first few quests, you're fighting rats and spiders, and you'll need to level up, deal with loot, and do lots and lots of exploring and quest completing before getting anywhere. But as traditional as it is, it's actually a lot of fun, and the retro format translates well to the iPhone's touchscreen. We've seen elsewhere that the iPhone can do next-gen games, but it's nice to see older forms like this finding a tidy home on the App Store. And what the heck, ... it won't cost you anything. The game is sponsored by developer Jagex's Runescape at the moment, so you can download and play the whole thing for free. With that news in the equation, there's really no reason not to try this one out. Make a party, go kill some monsters, and see if it doesn't take you right back to a much simpler fantasy RPG time.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Community timing
Welcome to this week's installment of A Mild-Mannered Reporter, where we will not be talking about Going Rogue. Well, OK, that's a lie -- but we're not going to be doing our big analysis and in-depth look at the entire expansion. As of the time I'm writing these words, I've not actually even played the game. (This will have changed by the time you are reading the article, but that's the wonderful part about writing ahead. I'm sending messages to the future from the past!) So while there are going to be several community threads for City of Heroes in this column, there will not be any of the biting commentary you might have hoped to see. You can at least check out my first impressions of the expansion, if you'd like -- which also isn't written as of the time that I'm writing this, but will be by the time you read it. (Editor's note: Eliot's first impressions of Going Rogue launched Tuesday.) You know what, just jump past the break already -- I'm giving myself a Lost headache thinking about all the time travel.
Guild Wars 2 level cap confirmed at 80
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Guild_Wars_2_confirms_their_level_cap_Level_80'; It's been a huge question for months: What will be the level cap for Guild Wars 2? Eager fans have grabbed onto every piece of information looking for clues over time, and tonight Isaiah "Izzy" Cartwright, Guild Wars 2 game designer, confirmed it: the level cap will be 80. No, hold on, there's still no grind. Grind in most games with a high level cap comes in because it takes longer to level the higher you go. In Guild Wars 2, this is not an issue, says Izzy: "Instead of taking longer and longer to reach each level, it takes about the same time to go through each level." In short, it's still all about the content and the journey, and you won't find yourself stuck at level 60, endlessly grinding the same mob to advance. Check out the newest ArenaNet blog post for all the information.
Cataclysm Beta: New level up UI video
One of my favorite user interface changes in Cataclysm are the new level up features. A huge complaint over WoW's lifetime has been that players must go back to a trainer to see if they had learned any new skills or ranks of skills, or check a website such as WoWhead to find out their skills. Not anymore! We previously gave you a peek at the new changes to the level up notifications. The new level up interface announces bold and clear your level, and then gives a list above your character of the new skills, talent points and other relevant information. Since skill ranks are gone, you won't have to worry about training those over your leveling experience, and new abilities will come more spaced out. Take a look at the video we have captured for you guys, and marvel at how a nice, neat, new UI change can make all the difference in the leveling game. Notice how the game now alerts you to your new level, abilities gained at that level, features unlocked like battlegrounds and your new talent points. Cataclysm is really shaping up to be an awesome expansion, and adding even more polish to an already smooth experience. If you're looking for more content like the video above, WoW.com has an ever-growing YouTube channel with lots of great content from Cataclysm and more! Subscribe for all of the latest videos. It's getting exciting around here with tons of information about the new expansion all over the place, and we don't want you to miss a minute of it!
Final Fantasy XI frees up Chains of Promathia
Final Fantasy XI's Chains of Promathia was a bit polarizing for the players -- you either love it or hate it. No one can argue that it raised the bar considerably on the game's cutscenes and storytelling, but it was also restrictive in many ways and limited player access to new zones (which were the only non-storyline elements added). It's a sign of its nature that there are still many players who want to finish the storyline, even though the option has been there for several years. Lucky for players, the June version update is addressing that. Although the removal of level caps was mentioned in passing at VanaFest 2010, the most recent news gives a specific list of what areas will be affected -- all four Promyvion areas, Pso'Xja, Riverne Site #A01 and #B01, the Phomiuna Aqueducts, and the Sacrarium. The announcement goes on to confirm that mission battlefields will also be uncapped, and the monster layout and strength will be adjusted in some of the areas to facilitate characters at 75 and above. It promises to spark new interest in Final Fantasy XI's most unique expansion and the corresponding zones, which is good news for anyone in the game.
App of the Day: Subatomic for iPhone and iPad
App of the Day is TUAW's new App Store spotlight. One great app, every single day. Subatomic is a game that's available for the iPhone and the iPad. The premise is that you push molecules of different colors around a field with gravity. Portals sit on the gamefield full of molecules, and as they slowly fade away, it's your job to pull more in and match them up. By touching near a molecule, you can push it in a certain direction with a gravity vortex (the game has a cool blurred graphical feature whenever you touch the screen). The game ramps up pretty quickly; eventually you're trying to push molecules toward multiple portals while trying to keep different-colored molecules from reaching the wrong portals. Unfortunately, the difficulty curve can be a little high. It's sometimes hard to control the incoming molecules, and when you accidentally touch a little too close, you'll find yourself flinging molecules off into the distance instead of getting them where they want to go. At a basic level, though, it's an interesting control scheme that I haven't seen before. The game contains a full tutorial as part of its 31 levels, and the music and backgrounds (some of which contain actual electron microscope imagery from real-life scientists) add to the experience. The social features of the game are managed by OpenFeint. Subatomic is US$1.99 on the App Store, and a free version (with seven levels to try) is available as well.
Patch 3.3 PTR: Slight leveling Priest buffs
So we got some patch 3.3 PTR notes and information on our hands. Let's talk about these buffs. Do they help us do our job in some way? Well, no not really. We're not getting any spell power buffs or mana buffs or anything remotely useful. Instead, we get this: Glancing Blows: The mage, warlock, and priest classes no longer have an increased chance for their melee attacks to be glancing blows; and the damage penalty due to their glancing blows is the same as for other classes. How's that, eh? This was a much needed buff for the Priest class. Now I can finally become a battle priest and not be completely handicapped if I have to resort to hand to hand combat!
Scattered Shots: So you want to be a Hunter - Part 2 Levels 1-9
Welcome back to the Scattered Shots, So you want to be a Hunter series. This guide is intended to help new Hunters better understand how to play the best class in the game. So join me, Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington from the Hunting Lodge as we explore the ins and out of how to be a Hunter. Hail fellow Hunters! Welcome to Part 2 of So you want to be a Hunter. We started off in Part 1 by reviewing racials and their impact on the Hunter class. It was interesting to hear everyone's thoughts and preferences on the best race to play. Although many seemed to prefer Orcs and Trolls for the Horde and Dwarves and Night Elves for Alliance, there were a few that spoke up for the Draenei and Tauren as well. This week we'll be reviewing what to expect as you level your Hunter from 1-9. Yes, we'll eventually get all the way to Level 80, just not today. No, this isn't a speed leveling guide. However, I will provide some tips on how to make leveling less of a grind. Just to make sure we're all on the same page here's some guidelines for using this guide. So you want to be a Hunter is for the new player and/or a new Hunter. This guide is not a "How-to get to 80 in less than 3 days" leveling guide. It's more of a "What to expect as you level" guide. Except where highlighted, this guide does not take into account Recruit a Friend or heirloom bonuses. Since most players tend to level by themselves, all talent build suggestions will focus on a solo leveling/grinding build. This guide focuses on the leveling the PvE Hunter. We will discuss PvP and raiding in other guides. Before we discuss how to level our Hunter, it might be a good idea to review the role a Hunter plays and the talent trees that help us accomplish it.
The Queue: There is a Cow Level
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.There is no cow level.Repeat that three times.But if I was designing WoW I'd make sure there'd be some kind of cow level. After all who doesn't want to slaughter some bovines from hell?Osul asked..."What's a good reputation to grind for a newly 80 Ret Paladin?"
Potion tips for the uninitiated
Tanking Tips has a good (you guessed it) tip for potting up before a raid. They say that you can't use two potions in combat -- or can you? Any potion that relies on a proc to get used up (like an Indestructible Potion) can be downed early, then let the two minute cooldown on potions pass, and then you can drink another potion during the fight. Good deal.You could say that only the highest level raiders are going to be that worried about making sure that they have every single buff they can have, but even as a casual raider, I've found a lot of use in buffing as many ways as possible. Unlike the really epic guys (who use food, potions, and elixirs to beef up their already awesome gear), I tend to use potions and food to cover my weaknesses. For instance, I don't have as much +hit on my gear as I should have, so I specifically carry around hit food at all times, and I can see the results in my DPS. Even if you don't have the best gear, using the right potions and food buffs at the right times can help you drop bosses and win fights you normally wouldn't.Of course, that seems obvious to min-maxers, but many raiders with less experience don't realize how much of a difference the right pots and food can make on the raiding game. Lots of these buffs are cheap to buy (and even cheaper to farm if you've got the professions), so if you're raiding with regularity, definitely take a look at your stats and see if you can't throw a few temp buffs in the mix.
Having fun just isn't rewarding enough on its own
Regis over at the Wizards and Wenches blog brings up a good point when it comes to both having fun and getting your levels in -- sometimes you just can't have it both ways. Regis wants to spend more time in Warhammer Online's open Realm vs. Realm combat, enjoying the live PvP and the crazy times it produces, but feels that it just doesn't provide enough incentive past the fun aspect.One could easily level faster via questing and PvE opporunities, or scenarios and questing simultaneously, but both can get extremely tedious after a while, especially when you're getting close to the maximum rank. On the other side of the fence you have RvR, which is a more varied activity when compared to questing and scenarios, but just doesn't pay out the experience points and feels more like a guilty pleasure that wastes time.Check out the full story over at Wizards and Wenches to get the full gist of what's going on in Regis's mind when it comes to this sticky situation.
Poll: Are you level 80 yet?
With the news last week that the majority of players are not level 80, and that Ghostcrawler considers you to be "hard core" (more or less) if you're at 80 already, the question that's come to my mind is: exactly how many people reading WoW Insider have hit the level cap already?I've only got one of my toons at 80. I suspect it's going to take over a year to get them all up to max level again. Not complaining, I just don't have the stomach to power level all my alts up like that so quickly. After playing the game since release I managed to get nearly every class to 70 before the release of Wrath, but that took...well...years.Gotta space it out and everything.But in our completely non-scientific and totally truthiness-ey poll, let us know. Are you level 80 yet?%Poll-23452%
EVE Evolved: Where's the grind?
Everyone who plays MMOs will be familiar with the concept of "grind", possibly one of the most debated topics in the MMO industry. Grind is essentially where users are forced to repeat something over and over again to get what they want. An example would be killing a certain type of monster repeatedly to get a certain piece of rare loot they can drop. Some people, such as World of Warcraft's Jeff Kaplan, suggest that grind and progression are essentially the same thing. Jeff asserts that we call progression a "grind" when it's not a fun experience and that grinding can be properly tuned. Whether you love it or hate it, repetitive elements exist in all MMOs and are necessary to maintaining long-term playability.No grind in EVE Online?:EVE Online is a game that's often lauded by players as having eliminated the grind present in other MMOs. However, it's clear that EVE still has a large amount of repetitive gameplay that can be considered grind. While nothing is forcing you to run missions over and over again or mine for hours on end, those areas of gameplay where heavy grind exists are very heavily used. When given a universe in which they don't have to grind, why then do so many players actively seek out something repetitive to grind on?Join me as I take a look at the industry obsession with grind and identify where the grind is (and isn't) in EVE Online.
Spiritual Guidance: Level 5 to 20
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. For the next few weeks (unless it's something game breaking), Matt will do his best to guide you through the Priest leveling process! Wrath is almost upon us. As a result, you may have decided that you have nothing better to do then to roll a Priest! A quick glance at the WI leveling guides shows completed class guides for every almost every other class but Priests! This must be changed. The countdown has begun.
The Daily Grind: How long should it take to reach the level cap?
Yesterday Blizzard revealed that World of Warcraft's recruit-a-friend program will undergo some big changes. One of those changes: if you group with a friend whose account was signed up because you invited him or her to play, you'll both receive experience at 300% the normal rate.Blizzard has already decreased the amount of XP needed to reach level 60. When Wrath of the Lich King launches, word has it that an even bigger slash will occur in the 60 - 70 range. How long will it take to 60, 70, or 80 now, we wonder? That probably depends on your personal playstyle. But the question of how long it ought to take to reach the endgame in an EverQuest/World of Warcraft-style MMO has been on our minds ever since Funcom made a statement about how many hours it wants people to invest to reach level 80 in Age of Conan.What's the sweet spot for you? Do you want to get there as fast as possible, or is the journey to the top the real attraction?
Bubble Level: surprisingly useful
With my girlfriend in the process of refurbishing her kitchen, I found myself in need of (and without) a carpenter's level yesterday afternoon. But then I remembered Bubble Level, an application for the iPhone and iPod touch. A penny short of a dollar later, I had myself a working, surprisingly accurate level right in my iPod touch. Bubble Level allows you to calibrate it (for example, with an actual bubble level) so its measurements are accurate enough to use for household chores and hobbies. (Professionals may still need the precision that a traditional liquid bubble level provides.) Bonus: it tracks how level the device is in two dimensions: laying your iPod or iPhone on a table allows the bubble to travel toward the center circle on the interface. Bubble Level is 99 cents, and available in the App Store now. You can also check out A Level, a similar app that's expected to support calibration in the next release (it's from Posimotion, winners of TUAW's Most Risque iPhone App Name award).
The joy of grinding
I couldn't agree more with Mystic Chicanery -- despite the fact that most players consider the "level grind" to be the most boring part of the game, a stodgy run towards the much more interesting endgame, I've found that I tend to invest myself more in my character while actually leveling up, strangely enough, and it seems to me that endgame is the much more boring part of the equation. While leveling, you get a constant meter (literally) of how much your character is progressing, but after 70, progression becomes much more nebulous, and you have to do a lot more poking around for things like enchants and gems.Of course, the main complaint with the level grind isn't doing it the first time, it's doing it again and again, and thankfully, as Mystic notes, will bring us ten brand new levels to roll through. But maybe I have a bad memory, because even when I do hit 70 with a character, going back to the beginning with a new class or a new faction is a new experience. And Wrathgoing through the same content a second time makes it faster and more interesting to me -- I already know where the hard quest targets are, and I can catch up on lore or secrets that I may have missed.Each to their own, of course -- maybe you've already leveled all nine classes to 70 and couldn't imagine going back and running through Stranglethorn Vale or Hellfire Peninsula one more time. But I've found that I almost prefer the leveling "grind" -- it seems more core to me, improving the character constantly with an XP meter, than the current method at endgame of raiding your way through the instances for gear upgrades.
Kaplan announces Outlands leveling to be shortened
Jeff Kaplan, the lead game designer, posted in the forums under his username Tigole that Blizzard will be speeding up leveling in the 60 to 70 bracket just as they sped up the 20 to 60 bracket. This has long been rumored and it's great to see this get implemented.Initial reports tell us the amount of experience points necessary to progress to each level has been decreased by 30% (for the 60 to 70 range only). Additional posters are reporting that mobs which give 500xp on the live server are now giving 600xp on the beta server. There doesn't seem to be any increase in the XP rewarded by quests yet, but this might be a future change.Kaplan asks everyone to provide feedback on the change (if you're in the beta), and it looks like they've got his ear for the time being. So if you're in the beta and want to weigh in on the subject, now's the time.Many thanks to the various users who submitted this news tip.
Midsummer Fire Festival level guide
You don't have to be level 70 to get in on most of the fun for this year's Midsummer Fire Festival. Here is a guide to the minimum levels required (as stated by Kisirani) and recommended for each of the quests: Torch Tossing and Torch Catching have no minimum level requirement. Because you complete these quests in the safety of a capital city, any level is appropriate. Honoring the flames has no minimum level requirement. Unless you are 50+, however, the recommended level is the same as the level of the area you can comfortably hunt in. Desecrating flames also has no minimum level requirement, but considering it flags you for PvP even on a PvE server, do so at your own risk if you are low level. Incense for the Festival Scorchlings also has no minimum level and any level is recommended. Unusual Activitiy requires level 16, but I wouldn't recommend lower than 20 given that you have to fight level 20 and 21 cultists and the area is rotten with level 20 Naga. A Thief's Reward or stealing the flames in the other faction's capital cities required a minimum level of 50, but if the flame is at all defended, it's best to be level 70. Lord Ahune requires a minimum level of 65. Slave Pens is where he resides, so any level above the minimum that you feel comfortable in that instance is recommended. Edited to add: Upon further review, the recommended level to complete this quest is 70 and it is easier if the 70s in your group are well-geared. These quests give a lot of experience if you are below 70 and a lot of money if you aren't. Regardless of the rewards, however, these quests are a fresh infusion of fun during this period of pre-expansion blahs. So if you haven't tried them yet, what are you waiting for? The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
Scattered Shots: Leveling 20-30
Scattered Shots = hunter stuff Two weeks ago we covered some of the new abilities you get from levels 10 to 20 while you progress as a hunter, as well as how to use them to keep your skills sharp. The journey from 20 to 30 is a bit less topsy-turvy. At level 20, of course, you get to start playing with Aspect of the Cheetah and Freezing Trap, which can be a lot of fun, but other than that the new skills you get don't totally change the way you play until you get to level 30 and learn Feign Death. Nonetheless, they deserve a mention.If you're following the Beast Mastery talent path I laid out last week, then reaching level 20 doesn't give you any super-exciting new abilities either. Your pet will be able to run a bit faster, and will start doing more damage. Once you get the hang of using your Freezing Trap for crowd control, it's pretty much just a straight shot till you reach 30. It may feel a little boring sometimes, but it's really better than a lot of classes have it -- often many classes feel that the 20s are the levels at which the going seems roughest and the class seems weakest because it still lacks a major portion of its abilities. For hunters, it's just more of the same stuff we've been doing up till now.
