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Destiny balances weapons, shuts down another loot cave
Bungie updated Destiny to balance some of its weapons and fix a few bugs today. For starters, the developer swatted a bug where the Valkyrie-O5X ship appeared to be the same as the Aurora Lance and fixed issues related to quick weapon swapping. The base damage of scout rifles were increased six percent, whereas the damage of all auto rifles as well as the Vex Mythoclast was decreased two percent and 34 percent, respectively. The developer also shut down another loot cave, one located in the rocket yard area of the game. The hot new treasure farming spot, a room where Fallen enemies consistently spawned, surfaced after Bungie closed the first loot cave. "The Fallen have also retreated from their hold over the Rocket Yard to discuss a new takeover plan," Bungie wrote in its update notes. For now, Destiny looters will have to take the stairs, if you catch our drift. [Image: Activision]
EVE Evolved: Features coming in Oceanus and beyond
It's been almost four months since EVE Online switched from publishing two major expansions per year to releasing ten smaller updates, and so far it looks like the new schedule has been a huge success. Rather than forcing the industry overhaul out the door in Kronos before it was ready, CCP was able to push it forward to the Crius release window seven weeks later and the extra development time meant the feature launched in a very polished state. It may be too early to tell if the new schedule's success can be seen in the concurrent player graph for Tranquility, but the numbers have remained steady for the past few months in what is typically the annual low-point for player activity. The Oceanus update is scheduled to go live in just two day's time, adding several graphical upgrades, more difficult burner missions, an experimental new notification feature, and other small improvements. The scale of the update seems to be on par with the recent Hyperion release, consisting of mostly small features and minor iterations on gameplay. While we're told that CCP is still working on large projects behind the scenes, the new release schedule means they won't be rushed out the door and so we may not see them for some time. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I summarise everything we know about Tuesday's Oceanus update, and take a look at what's to come in further releases.
EVE Online nukes named modules
One thing that we're becoming increasingly convinced about the purpose of EVE Online's dev diaries is that they are secret recruiting and training grounds for future CCP employees a la The Last Starfighter. If you're willing to chew through thousands of words and a dozen or so charts on something called "Module Tiericide," then you should be awarded with a salary plus benefits. That theory aside, today's new Oceanus dev diary explains (at great length) how the team is retuning its approach to module balance in order to give all ships significant strengths and weaknesses and purposes. One such change is that named modules are on their way out: "Our solution to this problem is to replace the meta-based named module system with a new role-based system." CCP promises that this is but part of the overall and continuing effort to balance ships and prepare for new additions to the game.
Diablo III patch improves pets, Greater Rifts, and Witch Doctors
The latest patch for Diablo III is out now for players in North America, and it's a big one for pets. Area damage now hits pets for less damage than before, some pets have had their health increased, and in general there's a play philosophy focus that pets should be roughly as durable as the class that summoned them in the first place. It's good news if you tend to take part in the game with a companion creature or two. The update also makes a variety of adjustments to Greater Rifts, altering the behavior of enemies found within the rifts and removing certain maps form the rotation. Witch Doctors have also received a variety of buffs, with several fetishes getting substantially more life and improved functionality. Take a gander at the full patch notes to see how much has changed.
How your Guild Wars 2 class will change in September
When Guild Wars 2's second feature pack crashes down on our heads next month, there will be none of us unscathed from its impact. A new dev diary posted today reveals that the feature pack will contain balance changes for all of the game's classes. Among the changes are a rework of Elementalist and Thief grandmaster traits, love for Engineer kits and elixirs, an improved Spirit Bow ability for the Guardian, a revamp of the mimic skill for the Mesmer, improved survivability for the Necromancer, more flexible pet choices for the Ranger, and tweaks to the Warrior's adrenaline resource. Overall, it all sounds pretty positive, although there could be a nerf or two lurking in the mix.
The Mog Log: Expectations for Final Fantasy XIV 2.35
I realize it's kind of silly, but I'm still annoyed at Final Fantasy XIV's methods for numbering interquel patches. I get the schema, I really do, but "2.35" to me says a patch that's preceded by 34 others. "2.3.5." would indicate a patch partway through the 2.3 patch cycle. Could we get another dot in there? Please? No, evidently not. And yes, I know we'll probably have an expansion long before we'd be that far through 2.x, it's the principle of the thing. As I write this, we still don't have a preliminary set of patch notes or anything on 2.35, but while it's a "minor" patch it's still adding a fair amount of stuff into the game. This is one of the great parts about playing the game, that however bad some parts of it might be when it comes to balance, it pumps out content as minor patches that makes other studios look painfully lazy. Specifics are left to the audience for speculation. So what am I expecting from this week's little patch, the known and the unknown?
RIFT addresses player auction house concerns
RIFT brought some major changes to its live servers yesterday, but one change wasn't mentioned in the patch notes and produced more than a little player irritation. Along with all of the other auction house changes, helpfully compiled by RIFTJunkies, the transaction cost was changed from a flat fee to a 5% scaling tax. That's kind of a big change if you're used to only having a minor hit whether the auction sells or not. According to the development team, this change will not be reversed, but modifications will be made to help make the shift feel less punishing to players. The goal is to both recover some money from the economy and cut down on unnecessary auctions for trivial sums. Players can expect to see a hotfix next week to make the taxes both lower and dependent upon the length of the auction; read the full auction house breakdown for more details as well as an in-depth look at the other changes.
Darkfall rolls back Stamina changes after player protests
The development team behind Darkfall had a couple of issues. The first issue was that no one was using Primalist armor. The second was that stamina regeneration was disabled during sprinting. So it seemed like an obvious combination. Give Primalist robes the ability to boost stamina regeneration, let other armor types see stamina drop a bit faster, and everyone would have a bit more motivation to use robes. Elegant, no? As it turned out, the resultant regeneration and overall issues led to an immediate rollback and a 40% decrease in stamina consumption across the board, meaning that these issues are all back to the drawing board. An apology was issued for the unintended consequences of the patch, with the team promising to examine the issue in more depth whilst looking for a solution that doesn't lead to this level of fan outcry. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Darkfall Unholy Wars custom roles raise balance concerns
After relaunching with set roles, Darkfall Unholy Wars recently introduced custom roles to the game, allowing players to take on any combination of abilities to build a truly unique character. If you guessed from that sentence that there are probably certain balance issues to be worked out, you'd be correct. The community team recently posted on Facebook to address concerns from players regarding balance, noting that it was inevitable that such a major patch would have some issues to be worked out. Rather than patching immediately, the team intends to wait for a few more days to see how matters develop before addressing balance issues. The posting also states that the game is based around large-scale combat, so duel performance is not necessarily indicative of the game's overall state of balance. A full update regarding balance adjustments and bug fixes should be available next week. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Darkfall Unholy Wars answers questions on custom roles
In the original version of Darkfall, skill selection was a wide-open field. When the game relaunched as Darkfall Unholy Wars, the role system was introduced, narrowing the field of options significantly. Now custom roles are incoming, and that means that players have questions about how the new mechanics will work. Those questions are being answered in a three-part series of community Q&A sessions, with the first two parts available now. Some mechanics are being removed -- Wobble, for instance, was introduced solely to balance roles, but with the new system the developers no longer need balancing specifically between roles. There have been significant adjustments made to some skills, in part to avoid the situation wherein everyone has a ranged kill skill and super-powerful healing. Despite this, the answers also point out that most characters will actually see a net increase in power overall. If you want to know more, feel free to glance at the full rundown of answers for more details.
EVE Online: Kronos brings the fight to uppity pirates
EVE Online: Kronos is on deck for next Tuesday's release, which means that CCP Games is going into overdrive to inform the community as to what to expect with the newest expansion. As such, today we have a pair of lengthy posts talking about new exploration sites and ship/module balancing. In the expansion, players will be tasked with hunting down a particular sect of pirates, the Guristas, by hunting through a null-sec system for the prized data. CCP will be dangling eight new ship skins as potential rewards for a successful search. Kronos will also include a rebalance of 38 ships, a "heap" of modules, and a total overhaul of the drone weapon system. CCP stated that the two themes of the expansion's balancing are the ascendancy of pirates and mercenaries and advancements in industrial technology. CCP also just posted the patch notes from Kronos, so give them a look!
The Daily Grind: Do you resent PvP balance tweaks for impacting PvE?
For a good long while I was downright antagonistic to all things PvP, whereas today I do my best to peacefully ignore the fact that PvP happens in MMOs. A big reason for my former hostility wasn't because PvP is a different style of gameplay that I didn't enjoy, but because I'd often see my PvE skills nerfed or negatively tweaked because they were considered overpowered and unfair in PvP. My teeth grated at the injustice of my PvE experience being dinged because of what happened over there in PvP-land. Not all MMOs handle balance issues between the two worlds this way, as some create different skill sets for each, but that's unfortunately not always the case. It's also possible that devs have gotten a lot better at melding the two worlds when it comes to skills and talents that are carried between them. I'm still wary, however. So do you see this happening, and if or when it does, do you resent PvP balance tweaks for impacting PvE? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The tension between balance and player interest
I'm looking forward to Ashram, the new PvP island zone in Warlords that seems to combine elements from zones such as the Timeless Isle, Wintergrasp, and the old days of world PvP. So I tend to go looking for information on it, which is where I found the following. @GeodewMW @Drsoviet It does. We have to weigh the edge case of large groups against the more common "I want to play with my friend" case - Holinka (@holinka) May 12, 2014 With cross-realm groups being possible on Ashram, this is a perfect example of the ways the game has to balance what most players will do vs. what some players will do - balance the min-maxing attitude vs. the more common, and more often executed, use of a feature or game element. Ashram as it stands will allow players to group cross realm - this is intended so that players who have characters on separate realms (my wife and I, for instance, often would run the Timeless Isle on characters that were on separate realms) can still go to Ashram. This is a good and fun use of cross-realm grouping. But there's a potential down side to this. Since cross-realm grouping is possible, we know the next step - something like oQueue that allows you to put together a group of 40 players and go destroy Ashram on an already imbalanced server. If a certain server is already heavily skewed towards the Alliance, putting together a 40 player group (since Ashram exists in the world and not in a raid instance) and just destroying any hapless Horde you come across, or vice versa. Even if you don't pick a server with a faction imbalance, it's still feasible that a big raid group could end up owning Ashram for an extended period of time, and using players that aren't even on the server. Decisions in the game's design are always made between these two poles - between the ease of abuse, and the benefit it brings to individual players. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, things don't work out like we'd hope. Reforging, as an example, falls into the 'possible player imbalanced use trumps player convenience' category.
Hearthstone promises fewer card changes in open beta
All CCG and TCG players fear "the big nerf" that will change a beloved card, and in turn, an entire deck. However, such changes and tweaks are part of any card game, and in a blog post today, Lead Designer Eric Dodds explained the team's philosophy behind keeping Hearthstone balanced. Dodds said that such changes need to be made when cards cause non-interactive games, are frustrating to play against, are causing confusion, aren't intuitive enough, are too strong compared to other cards with a similar cost, or are too weak. "Hearthstone is at its most fun when you're solving an interesting puzzle each turn," he wrote. "Your opponent's minions, your minions, and the cards in your hand are all pieces to this puzzle, and when your opponent removes parts of the puzzle, it can be less fun to play." Even with these reasons, Dodds promised that the team plans to make "very few card changes" when Hearthstone goes into open beta. "Giving you confidence in your cards and the play environment is very important to us, and each card change we make potentially undermines that confidence," he said.
Battlefield 4 PC update tweaks stealth jets, addresses stability
An update for the PC version of Battlefield 4 was issued this morning, bringing with it some stability, balancing and player spawning fixes. Among the more tangible differences players will notice are tweaks to the stealth jets in the game, which see a 25 percent damage increase to their cannons and some changes in their handling attributes. DICE also fixed an issue where the friendly marker didn't always show when it was supposed to, which resulted in players shooting their teammates. Looks like you're all out of excuses for shooting at your team, Doug. Head past the break for the full update notes.
MMO Mechanics: MOBAs vs. MMO battlegrounds
It may feel as if MMOs have always existed as a core part of our gaming repertoire, but the genre made its indelible mark on the industry just over a decade ago. MMO titans like World of Warcraft, EVE Online, and City of Heroes shaped the mechanics we now use as markers and basic standards for the quickly growing genre, and those mechanics have been reiterated and reforged by the countless additions to the MMO clan that we know and love today. This new MMO Mechanics column aims to navigate the mechanical minefield that is the modern MMO through in-depth opinion pieces, comparative analysis, and a little bit of Irish wit, starting with a peek at what distinguishes MMO PvP battlegrounds from Massively Online Battle Arenas. If women are from Venus and men are from Mars, MMOs and MOBAs must be from different galaxies altogether. Despite the similarities between MMO PvP arenas and MOBA matches, the two take very different approaches to progression, persistence, and matchmaking. This leads to two very separate yet equally engaging ways to test the mettle of your character against the might of a human opponent.
The Daily Grind: What game content do you wish were easier?
This past Monday, I aired out my grievance that The Secret World's Issue 8 is far too tough for solo characters. Some of that game's playerbase seems to relish the title's tougher-than-standard challenge, while others do wish that the devs would lighten up a bit from time to time. For the most part, I think developers do a terrific job maintaining the Goldilocks balance between "too easy" and "too hard" for the wide spectrum of players that come through MMOs. But sometimes content is tuned such that it just punches you in the face and doesn't relent. Sometimes the challenge becomes a frustrating wall that you can't overcome. Sometimes... you just wish it were a little easier. So at the risk of putting yourself out there for the hardcore elite to mock, tell us -- what game content do you wish were easier? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The super news of October
October was a pretty big month. I don't mean that just because it was a month filled with all of the classic horror you could ever hope for, although that was certainly welcome. But October also saw two big superhero games ramping up and doing things in a big way, one for a console launch and one for a big fan-pleasing rally... which was pretty cool to see, all around. That's not to say that the other superhero games available sat around and did nothing during October, but you couldn't match the energy surrounding City of Titans and DC Universe Online. Let's look back at the past month of capes and cowls.
Path of Exile patches in guilds, classes, and balance changes for launch
It's not fair to call Path of Exile's pre-launch patch a kitchen sink patch; this is big enough to include the sink, dishwasher, fridge, and probably a good chunk of the dining room besides. It's a big patch, and when it goes fully live tomorrow, you'll have a chance to play around with the enormous list of features, starting with the addition of an entire system for guilds that didn't exist before. Yes, the patch includes a guild system. And that's not even the biggest part of the patch. It includes a new character class for players who have cleared the game on Normal difficulty, six new world areas, achievements, new skills, new items, and an assortment of balance tweaks and improvements. That's not even touching upon new challenge leagues and the like. The point is that even if you know the game inside and out, you might want to hop in tomorrow and try out the huge array of new options available to you because... really. There's lots of stuff here.
PvP developer round-tables taking place at Blizzard
PvP has been a hotbed of discussion and change since Blizzard hired new PvP design guru, Brian Holinka, to their development team. And this week that discussion is going to ramp up even more, as a group of the world's best PvPers descend upon Blizzard HQ in Irvine, California, for a day of discussion, debate and design. Of course, PvP is the focus, and these players will be joined by several of Blizzard's most senior developers to talk about where we stand, the plethora of changes that Mists has brought in, and the future of WoW PvP. The player attendee list, reading like a Who's Who of top PvP streamers, is Hoodrych, Rzn, Venruki, Tosan, Talbadar, Sodah, Reckful, Nadagast, Kollektiv, Athlete, and Vanguards, who's also joining me on the Press side. If you wished you were a fly on the wall in this discussion, let me be your eyes and ears! I'll be reporting back with as much information as possible, but first, a question. It doesn't matter if you're a multiglad, or just someone who wants to get into PvP but feels there's an issue standing in your way -- pick an answer below and let me know why in the comments! Yes, I know, I missed your specific issue. Pick one from the list and tell me why I'm awful. %Poll-85127%
