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Chaos Theory: The dark side of The Secret World's Issue 8
Last week MJ espoused her belief that The Secret World Issue 8's scenarios are a terrific addition to the game and worthy of your consideration. As much fun as she's been having, my own experiences have been middling-to-poor with Issue 8. In my opinion, this is the first Issue that's really stumbled in terms of accessibility and quality. Part of that was to be expected. Issue 8 is, let's face it, a stalling tactic so Funcom can finish up the first half of Tokyo. It's busy work for the community in the guise of a "certification" as well as an AP/SP sink for those of us who have filled out most (or all) of our skill wheel and need some other form of character growth. Mind you, while Issue 8 has stumbled, it's not a travesty. I actually appreciate the idea of a new form of group content that's repeatable, and it's exciting to get a glimpse into the mysterious Council of Venice. But I do want to look at a few failings of this update and how Funcom could improve matters.
Hands-on with The Secret World's Issue #8: Scoping out scenarios
"I know your people are eager to go to Tokyo, but now is not that moment." - Arturo Castiglione, Council of Venice representative. Truer words have never been spoken. As much as players are looking forward to exploring Tokyo in The Secret World, that time is not yet at hand. (If you doubt, just look at how much Filth is still left to clear out in Agartha!) However, now is the moment for something else: the Venetian Agenda. And despite its unfortunate luck to be the DLC right before the most anticipated Secret World update ever, Issue #8 is more than just a stepping stone on the way to bigger and better things. This issue has merit in its own right; it introduces another layer of endgame as well as an entirely new mode of (replayable) gameplay. Although the update isn't live on servers until next week, I had the opportunity yesterday to travel to a sunken slice of Venice and dive into the new scenario and augment systems of Issue #8 in a special tour with Funcom Creative Director Joel Bylos and Communications Manager Tor Egil Andersen. After that hands-on experience, I've got to say that I think this DLC will keep folks sufficiently occupied, if not totally distracted from thoughts of Tokyo. And believe me -- you don't want to be distracted during these scenarios!
The Secret World looks forward to scenarios and augmentation
One of the downsides of The Secret World's advancement system is that if your build works early on you can wind up with loads of AP and nothing to spend it on. That's part of what Augments are designed to fix. The latest game director's letter discusses the Augment system, explaining that Augments are collected via Scenarios and can be used at significant AP cost to learn new skills. Players attach those skills to active abilities, some of which enhance a specific ability and some of which enhance your character overall. That's hardly the only thing in development at the moment, however. Issue #8's exploration of Venice and Issue #9's Tokyo adventure are both well on the way to completion, both replete with new challenges for players to explore. There are also plans for a new event starting tomorrow that pits players against one of Gaia's natural defense mechanisms rampaging across the globe. Whether you prefer the high-end challenges of The Secret World or prefer more casual play, there's plenty on the table for anyone.
A tour of DDO Update 17: Return to Gianthold
Just because Dungeons and Dragons Online has spent the better part of a year fawning all over the Forgotten Realms doesn't mean that Turbine is finished with Eberron. As a matter of fact, the team called us in to check out next month's Update 17, which is all about Eberron and some classic content made fresh and new once more. Update 17: Return to Gianthold revisits the popular Gianthold content that came out with DDO's second level-cap increase. The devs said that players love to run it for its variety of quests, loot, and experience, which is why they wanted to tweak up the existing content as well as add a brand-new raid for epic-level characters. Read on as we take a look at Gianthold 2.0 and other exciting additions coming to DDO in February!
Star Wars: The Old Republic talks adaptive gear, augment tables
Star Wars: The Old Republic's upcoming patch 1.3 looks like it's going to be bringing a bunch of fun goodies for the crafters in its playerbase. BioWare has posted a new update on the SWTOR official site to give players a look at some of the changes coming in the patch. For starters, we have the new adaptive gear weight system. When a character or companion is equipped with a piece of social armor with the adaptive armor weight, that character will automatically "use it to maximum effect, gaining the benefits of the highest armor weight [the character] can equip." The big crafting-related feature hitting in 1.3, however, is the addition of augment tables. BioWare has noticed that crafted items with augment slots (which are created only through a critical crafting success) are almost disproportionately powerful due to their "exceptional stat potential", which the devs say is "indicative of a systemic inequity between different types of items." Augment tables, which will be accessible through the current item modification stations, aim to fix this by allowing players to add augment slots to existing items without having to rely on a critical crafting success. Players can acquire additional slots by paying a flat cost of credits at an item modification station or by using an augment kit crafted by Armormechs, Synthweavers, and Armstechs. The full system is a little too complex to delve into in this post, however, so if the idea of augment tables piqued your interest, head on over to the full post to read more.
SWTOR patch 1.3 bringing group finder, legacy perks
A long time ago on a server far, far away, the Imperial forces BioWare prepared a Star Wars: The Old Republic update to rule the online world: patch 1.3. Called Allies, patch 1.3 will usher in a group finder, character transfers, and legacy perks. The group finder will aid in banding together interested adventurers to tackle operations and flashpoints. Lead Designer Daniel Erickson said that the time is ripe for the feature, as players are spread out in levels and are rolling plenty of alts. Saying that BioWare wants to "respect the communities" that have formed, Erickson reports that the group finder will not be cross-server. He also revealed some of the other key features for patch 1.3. Additional perks to the Legacy system will allow players to customize their experience; we'll see new ports, earlier access to mounts, and bonus XP modifiers for PvP. The patch will also change social gear to fit the armor type of the class using it, server transfers, and the ability to add augments to any crafting items. Looking past 1.3, Erickson promises a "return to big content" with patch 1.4. If you're a fan of the SWTOR novels, you'll also be delighted to hear that Drew Karpyshyn announced that his next novel, Annihilation, is scheduled for November 13th. You can watch the patch 1.3 preview video after the jump!
A new fleet of augmented items and quests packaged in with Final Fantasy's July update
What would the Final Fantasy XI version update be if Fields of Valor wasn't expounded upon? It wouldn't be an update at all, we say here at Massively.True to form, the July version update, which is only six measly days away, will be adding Fields of Valor elite training regimes to a swath of new areas. These regimes, much like their lower level counterparts, will let players purchase a special training chapter with their hard earned Fields of Valor "tabs" currency, and then trade the chapters to glowing spots on the ground in the new areas to spawn a powerful notorious monster. As before, to trigger the spawn an item, currency, or set of beastman seals must be gambled on the fight.Gambling an item in these new battles is what most are looking forward to, as items will be returned with new level 50+ augments that were unavailable until now. But what if you're level 75? What do you have to look forward to, then?
