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EVE Evolved: Could permadeath work in EVE?
Permadeath has been one of the most contentuous features in online gaming since as far back as I can remember. The feeling of permanently losing a character you've spent months training up and playing with because of a single mistake or lag spike would be horrifying to most people, yet the idea continues to intrigue both players and developers. Diablo II's Hardcore mode is probably the most successful permadeath mechanic in an online game to date, separating the hardcore players onto a different server so that they develop their own game economy and leaderboard. Several MMOs have experimented with permadeath servers or mechanics over the years, but they're almost always reverted as failures. In a recent presentation at EVE Vegas 2014, EVE Online developer CCP Rise discussed the idea of permadeath characters as something he's wanted to add to the game for the past few years. This is particularly problematic for EVE as the game uses passive time-based skill training and the whole game takes place on one massive shard. The hardcore players would need to have enough incentive to risk their characters' lives on a daily basis, their abilities would have to be balanced with non-hardcore players, and abuse of the system to suicide gank players would need to be handled. But if those problems are tackled, is it possible that there's a place for permadeath in EVE? In this edition of EVE Evolved, I look at how permadeath could be added to EVE Online without disrupting the rest of the game.
Mortal Online hacked, Star Vault encourages users to verify accounts
If you've got an active Mortal Onlne account, you may want to think seriously about changing your password. A new post on the sandbox title's forum describes a security breach that led to the destruction of in-game assets and account status changes. The intrusion has since been contained, according to a Star Vault GM, and "additional security is in place." The company says that customer payment information was not affected, but users are encouraged to verify their account status and passwords anyway. As to the breach itself, details are understandably scarce, but Star Vault does say that a member of the GM staff had his account compromised and his details used to carry out the aforementioned mischief. [Thanks to slapshot1188 for the tip!]
Some Assembly Required: A Mortal Online interview
I recently had the opportunity to fire off a few questions to Henrik Nystrom, and the Star Vault CEO was kind enough to provide some interesting insights into the firm's Mortal Online fantasy sandbox. Though Mortal is thus far renowned for its full-loot PvP ruleset, it's also got a number of nifty features that you may be unaware of, with more on the way. Join me after the cut for a lengthy discussion of the new Awakening expansion as well as a glimpse into Nave's future.
Mortal Online introduces political map, Chronicles of Nave
Mortal Online players are going to have to wait a little bit longer for the game's The Dawn expansion, but in the meantime, Star Vault is busily working on the game's newly added territory control system. The newest addition to the system is a political map and a feature the team calls Chronicles of Nave. The political map allows players to track which territories are under whose control in real time, so they always know where the fights are raging. The Chronicles of Nave, on the other hand, is a ladder ranking system, which ranks players and guilds according to a variety of statistics. The current system displays players' stats and builds, though there is an option to turn this feature off in case a player would rather keep his build a secret. Both of these features are still in beta, so players can expect them to be updated with expanded functionality. For the full details, check out the forum post over at the Mortal Online official forums.
Mortal Online plagiarizes EVE Online's terms of service
There's always that temptation in high school and college to simply copy someone else's work to get out of writing really boring papers. Still, no matter how great the temptation, it's good to abstain from such activities. While it's not only wrong, it can be extremely embarrassing if you're found out by the teacher and penalized for plagiarism. We guess that someone over at Mortal Online really didn't want to work up an original terms of service (TOS) for the game, as a few sharp-eyed players noticed that the document not only was extremely similar to one in another MMO but failed to replace mentions of its source game. It appears as though Mortal Online took EVE Online's TOS and reworked it slightly -- and imperfectly -- for its own nefarious purposes, as you can see in the graphic above. The TOS has since been changed to eliminate the mention of EVE. This recalls a similar misstep from last year, when Alganon was caught with its pants down after "borrowing" a press release from BioWare. [Thanks to Jokkl for the tip!]
Star Vault reveals more Mortal Online territorial control details
A couple weeks back we heard tell of Mortal Online's territorial control update. Today, Star Vault has elaborated on the new sandbox system via a news bulletin on the game's official website. It seems that the feature is still fairly early in the development process, as the site says that internal testing is still in full swing. External testing, by way of a specially selected focus group, is planned for next week. What's that, you want to hear more about mechanics? Very well. Keeps act as a "starting point" for guilds in the territorial control system. Each keep awards control points (CP) that can be spent on towers and "various things." Keeps also feature an overseer NPC who provides extra protection, sells goods and features, and more. Finally there's the prominence system, which involves earning prominence points (PP) through various methods including PvP and PvE. There's more, of course, but we don't want to deprive you of a chance to visit the Mortal Online website, so off you go.
Mortal Online looking for a few good testers
File this one under better late than never. Mortal Online is looking for a few good testers, and even though the game officially released more than a year ago, Star Vault is opening its doors to 20 individuals willing to roll up their sleeves and get down and dirty with the fantasy sandbox MMO's collection of bugs. "Because Star Vault is a small, independent developer, we do not have a very large QA department which often means that bugs will slip through the net resulting in many issues on the live server," writes GM Discord on the official forums. Qualified testers will be 18 years old, be well-versed in Mortal Online, and have a game account that is in good standing. There will also be an NDA involved, and breaching it will not only result in the removal of your testing privileges but also a ban on your in-game characters. Full details are available on the official boards.
Mortal Online update expanding territory control features
Mortal Online's sandbox is about to get a bit sandier if a new territory control update video is any indication. The fantasy title from Star Vault has had a rough time in the court of public opinion since its June 2010 launch, but development continues apace. The latest patch brings control structures to the table, and according to the video intertitles, said structures can be placed anywhere near territory that you already control. Occupied land then earns taxes and control points for its owners, and control points may be spent "to further increase the area of any of your control structures, increase their abilities, or build more of them." City control is possible with the new update, as is the collection of guild points after completing "various deeds." Star Vault says that the guild points can be used for a number of actions including outlawing players in your territory or declaring martial law. Check out the video after the break and head to the official Mortal Online website for more details.
Star Vault partners with OnLegends for Mortal Online distribution
OnLegends, a Berlin-based "licensing and internationalization specialist" firm, has entered into a partnership with Star Vault, developers of Mortal Online. A new press release states that OnLegends beat out "many major publishers [...] to secure the global exclusive licensing rights" to the indie sandbox MMORPG, and is now in the process of preparing the title for worldwide distribution. The release also states that Mortal has attracted over 170,000 players thus far despite the lack of any marketing presence, and OnLegends seems enthusiastic about Mortal's place in the expanding MMORPG pantheon. "We strongly believe that Mortal Online can play an important future role on both PC and console MMO markets and we expect Mortal to be one of the trendsetting next-gen titles," said OnLegends vice president Julian Migura.
Star Vault releases Mortal Online Dawn features list, new videos
Mortal Online's first expansion was announced a while ago now, and players are still waiting on the mammoth patch to make it to the game's live server. Star Vault is no doubt anxious to placate its ravenous PvP-centric customer base, and the company has released a lengthy changelog on the game's official forums. The listing outlines many of the features forthcoming in the Dawn expansion, but as post author (and Star Vault CEO) Henrik Nystrom writes: "This note may not be final." It's probably a good representation though. As such, let's take a quick look at what Dawn brings to the table. We've got new mechanics including the gene system, task/transport system, and housing friend system. We've also got new mail functionality, dynamic mounts, alchemy and cooking, and a load of bug fixes that we haven't the space to list. You can check out the full changelog on the Mortal forums, and be sure to watch the one-year anniversary and Dawn preview videos after the cut.
Star Vault kicks off Mortal Online free trial
FFA PvP sandboxes are increasing in number, and with Darkfall hogging the spotlight, Earthrise recently releasing, and Xsyon gearing up for launch, it's easy to forget about Mortal Online. The indie title from Star Vault has recently announced a free trial designed to draw more players to the world of Nave, and you can try out the game for 14 days sans payment (or even credit card information). Signing up is as easy as visiting the official website, and you'll want to note that trial players are limited to 600 skill points and a skill cap of 60. You can also get a leg up on creating your avatar by taking a look at the community-produced character creation tutorial after the cut.
The Daily Grind: Darkfall or Mortal Online?
Massively's been taking a long, hard look at Aventurine's Darkfall lately, but it's not the only free-for-all-full-loot-PvP-semi-sandbox game vying for the title of heir to Ultima Online's throne. StarVault's Mortal Online is in the running too, and despite a horrific launch and less than stellar reviews over its first few months, Mortal is still around and has nowhere to go but up. While it's debatable as to whether either of these games will ever achieve the gameplay variety that Ultima boasted in its heyday, the similarities are there, and there aren't a whole lot of additional choices for folks in search of a traditional 3-D fantasy sandbox MMORPG. So what'll it be this morning, sandbox fans: Darkfall, Mortal, or something else? Fight! 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!
Test your might online this November
We haven't been this excited about Mortal Kombat since the first time Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 came out, and we've never had any reason to be excited about a portable Kombat. But this is just too cool. Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon told IGN that a version of the classic fighting game will be coming to the DS-- with online play. Attention, developers: this is how you do a port on the DS.It'll also include Puzzle Kombat, the Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo clone found in Mortal Kombat Deception, which will also be playable online. The game will be out in November, and we look forward to eviscerating all of you at Game Night.In the game, we mean. We aren't planning to come to your houses and eviscerate any of you. We wouldn't even know how.
Totally visceral presentation of Mortal Kombat fatalities
What's more brutal than seeing gruesome fatalities performed before your eyes, while blood and bone spill all around and the hopeless fake cries of voice actors echo in your head? A list of moves in the PDF format. Those with weak stomachs should look away from the rawness. While this isn't as MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAT as, say, screenshots or video would be, we admit that we were pretty curious about how the moves in Mortal Kombat Armageddon were going to be pulled off (not curious enough to buy it, but certainly curious enough to read a thing on the Internet.) We knew waggling would be involved, but it's cool to learn what the specific waggles will be.This totally reminds us of downloading Mortal Kombat FAQs from Compuserve and leaving them to print from our dot-matrix printer overnight. Sometimes we'd wake up in the morning only to find that our pet dinosaur had shredded all the pages, forcing us to start over.[Via Joystiq]
New Mortal Kombat Armageddon screens
It's a little weird to release new screens of a port that looks pretty much identical to the versions that have been out since October, but that's okay! We're following Mortal Kombat Armageddon with interest, just because of the waggle. We are very curious about trying a waggle-fortified fighting game.One thing is certain from these screens: Nintendo is definitely not insisting on replacing the blood in this game with viscous grey sweat. Unless they're saying that in the Outworld, people sweat red-- by the gallon, out of gaping neck wounds. We've posted a gallery containing new screens-- FINISH THEM! Uh, by which we mean LOOK AT THEM!%Gallery-3141%
PREPARE YOURSELF for new Mortal Kombat Armageddon screens
Is it okay to get nostalgic about Mortal Kombat? We know the series isn't that old, and, in fact, still exists. But, for example, we can't help but reference the old "PREPARE YOURSELF" slogan from the 1993 print ads when we're talking about any MK game. We miss the old games, and it took the new one to put us in that state.Looking at the big, empty environments of the new Wii version of Mortal Kombat Armageddon makes us long for the detail-filled stages of the old games, and the sort-of-plain character models remind us of how amusingly hokey the digitized sprites used to be. Those were the days, when we didn't need fancy polygons to enjoy virtually ripping some dude's spine out. We had Claymation bosses and we liked it. It was a simpler time-- a TOASTY!! time.Screens, with obligatory Wii-gesture diagrams, after the break.
Mortal Kombat coming to the DS
We would call this the series that just won't die ... but, as Nintendo fanboys, we're actually surrounded by those far older. Yes, yet another installment of MK is coming to the DS, courtesy of Midway; rather predictably, we know almost nothing about it. The only comment given: "it [won't be] a direct port of a previous title, it [won't] be a brand-new game either."This leaves the only remaining option: indirect port. It involves a wormhole and superstring theory. Our best guess? A port of an SNES or Playstation version of Mortal Kombat, complete with OMGawesome stylus control and a couple new characters thrown in for good measure. Meh.
Ed Boon talks about MK on the Wii
So, now US Senators aren't the only people known for flip-flopping?Ed Boon, the man behind the kombat of mortals, spoke with gaming site 1up about the recent announcement of Mortal Kombat Armageddon coming to the Wii. First, he was quick to dash away all his earlier comments, stating he thought that Mortal Kombat could not work with the Wii's controller, as opposed to just plain negativity about the console in general."Actually, my comments in the past were not "less than enthusiastic" -- rather they were responses to questions that I was asked about how Mortal Kombat could be done (with the traditional play mechanic) on a new controller. Since the Wii controller has fewer buttons than a traditional PlayStation or Xbox controller I was wondering at the time what we would be able to substitute for the missing buttons. Remember, at the time of the original interview, I hadn't even touched a Wii controller."Well then, good thing you're bringing your game to a console that has a controller lacking enough buttons to successfully play said game, eh? The rest of the interview has Ed defending past comments some more, along with his take on the announcement of Super Smash Bros. Brawl leaving out some of the console's features, as well as discussing the possibility for shells to be used with Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.
