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Valiance Online is coming soon to Steam early access
Great news for Valiance Online, as the fledgling superhero title announced recently that it has been voted onto the Steam Greenlight program by the community. This means that Valiance Online will "soon" be available to play through the digital platform via early access. The team said that it still discussing its release and pricing plan, although fans can currently access it in the open pre-alpha test going on right now. Valiance Online is making good progress as a City of Heroes spiritual successor and even picked up a former artist from the sunsetted superhero game in December.
City of Titans explains its prototyping process
The developers behind City of Titans haven't been shy about praising the Unreal Engine 4 at the heart of development. A new design article gives some insight into one of the major elements of design that makes it so useful to the team, a feature that offers rapid progress between brainstorming, prototyping, and testing: blueprints. While the article doesn't contain the nuts-and-bolts of the programming elements, it demonstrates how the team was able to build and test a tile-based map system (akin to Skyrim) as an independent element to be tested. The result is that instead of spending a great deal of time brainstorming the idea, the team can drop the prototype in for testing and it can be evaluated as an actual option instead of simply a theory. Take a look at the full article for more details on the map system and the test process. [Thanks to Byron for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: What's an underrated MMO feature that needs love?
Lost now to the ages (at least until player teams finish rebuilding the game) is the crafting system of Glitch, a wee and sunsetted indie MMORPG dismissed out of hand by those who cluelessly believe browser-MMOs without ultrarealistic gore are for grandmas. But Glitch's crafting system was way ahead of its time, with hyperlinking inside every crafting panel so that you never, ever needed to fumble and backtrack or switch tools or count mats to make anything. Hardcore crafters might not have been entirely impressed with the economy, but the crafting process itself was damn smooth. I can think of lots of underrated features in some other MMOs. City of Heroes' sidekicking has trickled into a handful of games, for example, but its group-and-instance difficulty scaling feature has seldom been seen since. Yet it ensured that groups of all sizes and class-makeups and skill-levels could always tackle content. It was a brilliant way to capture a varied playerbase ranging from casuals to powergamers, and yet no one else is even bothering to try it. What other underrated MMO features really deserve some love and copypastaing in the genre? 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!
City of Titans shows off socketed model
There's a long way to go before City of Titans reaches the superheroic heights of its spiritual forebears, but the team is eager nonetheless to show that progress is being made. That's why it's putting on a 12 Days of Devmas series, kicking off with the revelation of the fully socketed body model that the team is using for testing purposes. "Odo's an artist's model we're using while we continue to develop the base body mesh," the team posted. "He lets us continue work on the rest of the game while we develop the sliders and other parts that make the characters super. Of course, you'll notice he still has every joint that the final character will have. Fingers and all. He's the digital version of a wooden artist's mannequin, with all the flexibility of our real model." In successive posts of the series, Odo is shown with various weapons including a slide rule and keytar. [Thanks to Bryan for the tip!]
One Shots: The last superhero
I've been holding onto this screenshot for the better part of the year for a time when the world entire would need a jolt of City of Heroes to get it through the next day. I think that today is that day. Behold! A superhero! Reader Michelle said that she was still traumatized by the game shutting down: "This particular screenie was of my last 50. He was a Fire Armor/Electric Melee tank named Demolition Companion. He was a clockwork that the Resistance attempted to reprogram but didn't complete, so he was broken (hence why he was on fire all the time) and very, very dangerous. In this shot he's standing in the sewers ready to wipe out some Resistance scum. (He was one of my only Loyalists.) I wish I'd gotten to RP him more." Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
Valiance Online moves to Greenlight and picks up a City of Heroes artist
So you want to back Valiance Online as a longtime fan of City of Heroes, but your Kickstarter budget right now is at a solid $0. Good news, then; you can support the game just by voting for it on Steam Greenlight. It's still early in the testing cycling, but the game has added a rather significant feather to its cap with the addition of its newest staff member, former City of Heroes animator Ron Friedman. Friedman's stated duties will be training the team on animation methods for the superheroic game, reviewing and modifying existing animations, and creating new animations as necessary. It's a good sign that the game will inherit a fair chunk of City of Heroes visually, so if you've been on the fence, now might be the time to consider voting for the game after all.
The Daily Grind: Are superhero MMOs doomed to be niche?
When Valiance Online launched its Kickstarter a few weeks ago, Massively's commenters posed an interesting debate over the viability of the superhero MMO market in general, not just the workability of a genre with three competing City of Heroes spin-offs. Some readers are convinced that the superhero genre is too risky and niche for MMORPGs, noting that the existing superhero MMOs have been more or less solid but small, nowhere near World of Warcraft huge. Fantasy, and to a lesser extent sci-fi, just dominates this scene. (Although we had a moment of hope when Blizzard first revealed Overwatch, it turned out to not really be much of an MMO.) And yet superheroes are killing it in movie theaters; the comic genre has transcended geek culture to become thoroughly mainstream. There should be a huge audience for such games, and superhero MMOs just plain make sense: They're an ideal setting for fun skills and powers, beating up bad guys, and dressing up in costumes. So what's the deal? Why haven't we seen a staggeringly huge superhero MMO? Are they in fact too niche after all? 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!
Valiance Online cancels Kickstarter, seeks stress test applicants
Silverhelm Studios has announced that Valiance Online will be accepting sign-ups for its inbound stress test starting today. Valiance Online is one of at least three fan-led superhero MMORPGs attempting to fill the City of Heroes niche, though Valiance has no intention of licensing the CoH IP if fan efforts to purchase it from NCsoft are ultimately successful. It promises semi-freeform character builds, power customization, an open world environment, 25 zones, character alignment, and a player-run economy. The Kickstarter for the game, begun less than a month ago, was apparently canceled ahead of schedule last night with $34,680 raised of its $150,000 goal. A dev posts suggests the loss of the team's marketing manager during the campaign was a setback. Developers have assured backers that they will not be charged and that the game will continue development. "We're still running funding campaigns on our website for anyone interested and are discussing other options as well," says the studio in the Kickstarter comments. Stress test signups will open on the official site later today. [Source: Silverhelm press release]
The Daily Grind: What fallen MMO would you like to remember today?
Thanks for coming to the Daily Grind today. My name is Justin, and today I'd like to raise a glass in memory of City of Heroes. It wasn't a perfect MMO by a long stretch, although my therapist says that one day I'll be able to sleep an entire night without suffering night terrors of being lost in an endless warehouse. But it allowed us to create an infinite variety of superheroes both in look and in powers, and I genuinely miss that. Also, the punny names were awesome. Cheers. What fallen MMO would you like to remember today? 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!
One Shots: Jolly pumpkins
Halloween may be over, but its spirit remains alive in MMOs! Alive, that is, as long as there are spooky locales to explore and a population that's more than willing to dress up in costume and face down the terrors that slip between the shadows. Our friend David here may be taking Halloween at face value in World of Warcraft, but can you really blame him? He and his demonic minion look to be having a heck of a time. Plus, there's a whole-hearted embrace of a pumpkin motif that will be all but extict come December. Enjoy it while it lasts! The rest of this week's player-submitted screenshots may not be creepy in the least, but they do all share the same jolly attitude that exists in this moment. In a world that brought back One Shots, really anything is possible!
The Daily Grind: Should all MMOs have a sidekick system?
One of the best features of RIFT's recent Nightmare Tide expansion is, in my opinion, the sidekicking system. For a while now, the game's allowed you to artifically "mentor" down to a level, but with the expansion you can now artificially sidekick up to quest, run dungeons, or fight rifts with friends. After trying this out to my delight the other night and remembering how much I liked it in City of Heroes, I have to really wonder why more level-based MMOs don't include such a system. Do you think this should be a standard feature? To me, it seems to solve so many problems when it comes to level-heavy games that separate friends from each other. Instead, sidekicking allows for people to play together whenever they want while still preserving the progression that comes with leveling and XP. What do you think? 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!
Valiance Online launches its Kickstarter today [Updated: It's live now!]
A post on Valiance Online's Facebook has good news for fans of the upcoming game: SilverHelm Studios will be bringing the game to Kickstarter today. "It's packed with all manner of goodies for you to get your hands on," Design Director Nate "Paramount" Vogeding writes. "These things will be exclusive to our KS backers and backers alone. That's right; it won't be coming back around again." Vogeding also promises more pre-alpha invites and tells readers to "let everyone know that yes, there is a city coming back and very soon!" Valiance Online is one of several fan-backed superhero MMOs vying to become City of Heroes' spiritual successor. In September, SilverHelm told followers that it will not be licensing the CoH IP if it is eventually secured from NCsoft by City of Titans. [Update: The Kickstarter is now live, with pledges ranging from $1-$10,000 and a funding goal of $150,000. We've embedded the trailer below.]
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite piece of MMO swag?
A Reddit thread posted by curious swag-mongers working for indie MMO hopeful Das Tal inspired today's question: What's your favorite piece of MMO swag? Me, I have a few pieces that I've kept. Some cloth maps and cards from Ultima Online. All the paper maps from City of Heroes. A couple of World of Warcraft stuffies, though admittedly I've let the kids maul them. I'm not super sentimental with my stuff, but even I have a few trinkets I decided to hang onto over the years. What about you folks? What's your favorite piece of MMO swag? 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 Think Tank: Remembering our first MMOs
This week, my very first MMO, Ultima Online, turns 17 years old in what can only be an intentional effort to make classic MMO gamers feel very, very old indeed. I've been thinking a lot about the game and returned to it recently to scope it out, so for today's Think Tank, I polled the Massively writers about their own "first MMOs," their first memories of the genre, and whether their firsts have survived the test of time.
The Daily Grind: What's the best loot system in an MMO?
Massively commenters recently reminded me that one of the things that bug me about retro themeparks is the loot that drops in dungeons and raids -- or to be more specific, the lack thereof. You want me to pile how many people into a multi-hour raid and reward only one or two of them with a boss drop? Why we're so happy to bash lockboxes that abuse our money but not RNG lotteries that abuse our time stymies me. I'd love to see more games like City of Heroes that reward everyone with his or her own drops for making it through to the end of a mission -- no roll window required, no DKP necessary, no ninja-looters possible. You do a thing and you get a thing, not just a dim chance at a thing. What do you guys think is the best loot-drop system in an MMO, past or present? 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!
NCsoft might allow players to resurrect the City of Heroes IP
There's good news for City of Heroes fans to celebrate now, even if it's not a finished thing yet. Nate Downes, President of Missing Worlds Media, has posted about a project wholly unrelated to City of Titans and yet entirely tied to it: the quest to resurrect the City of Heroes IP. He explains a story that began in September of last year, starting with a few contacts within NCsoft who led to the ultimate goal of resurrecting the last version of the game as well as licensing out the IP to its spiritual successors. The proposal currently on the table before NCsoft would allow the game's spiritual successors to drop the "spiritual" portion of their title, enable a restoration of the game's servers for the last update (albeit with no saved character data), and create the potential for a "transition" server between the original game and its successors. While it's far from a done deal, it's the best news that the former residents of Paragon City have heard since the lights went dark -- there may be brightness on the horizon.
Players allegedly negotiating with NCsoft to buy City of Heroes
Instead of spending gobs of volunteer development time and money on City of Heroes knock-offs, wouldn't it be better to simply acquire the real deal? That's the thought behind a fan effort to purchase the rights to the superhero MMO from NCsoft, while proving to the publisher that the team has the talent and capability to handle the property. According to a poster named Ironwolf on the Titan Network message boards, progress is being made on this front. Ironwolf wrote the following on August 13th: "I did contact the team yesterday and got this reply back: Things are moving along. We should have things worth showing fairly soon, made a great leap forward yesterday." The efforts to purchase City of Heroes started in early March, according to a timeline on the same thread. On March 12th, Ironwolf noted, "Got letter back from [former NCsoft executive] Chris Chung -- it showed that is WAS possible to buy the game." On April 5th, he wrote that the general range of the price is "very doable." [Thanks to Duane for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: What's the ideal death penalty for an MMO?
If your first MMO was a modern themepark MMO, you might not realize that a corpse run and a small repair bill are fairly light penalties for death. In Ultima Online, if you couldn't make it back to your body in time, a devious player (or mob) might come along and relieve your corpse of its loot. If you were a murderer, you'd even lose stats! Your gear was safer in EverQuest, but you'd lose experience, and you'd still have to run from your bind spot back to your body, assuming it wasn't in such a dangerous place that you needed a Necromancer to summon it. And games like Asheron's Call and City of Heroes once had experience penalties so harsh that it was possible to cripple a character so much that you might as well just reroll. MMOs are torn between wanting to make death feel meaningful enough that people are careful but not so punitive that players would rather log out than recover. What do you think is the ideal death penalty for an MMO? 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!
City of Titans shows off engine progress for July 4th
Everyone celebrates the 4th of July in different ways. City of Titans celebrated with fireworks. That might not seem like much until you watch the video and understand that it's the first video wherein every single shot is focused on things that the design team made. The fireworks, the physics effects governing them, most of the buildings -- all designed by the team at Missing Worlds Media. Previous videos of the game have relied heavily upon off-the-shelf assets and resources that other people had made, but this video is a look at a landscape moving from "designed by others" to "designed just for this game." Obviously there's a long way to go, but if you're looking forward to seeing what the team at Missing Worlds Media can do in the future, this is a good place to start. [Thanks to Byron for the tip!]
Perfect Ten: The MMOs that influenced me greatly
Every one of us has an "MMO resume": a list of titles that we've played, whether briefly or extensively. Some of those are just games, casual flings that meant nothing. But others can take a more meaningful role in our lives, influencing how we experience and view MMOs. I would scarcely say that my resume is one of the most robust you'll ever see; I'm sure plenty of you have played more than I. However, I like to think that I've had a journey over the course of a decade or so that's shaped who I am as a gamer. Since it's my birthday today, I'm going to share 10 of those influential MMOs with you and what they've done for me. You're going to get me cake.
