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Wings Over Atreia: A quick guide to Aion 4.0 dungeons, part 2
Do you want to know why you are wading into a particular instance and decimating all you see? Or are you more of a just-get-in-and-get-it-done kind of Daeva? Either way, you've come to the right place! Welcome to the second half of the handy dandy Aion 4.0 dungeon guide. From lore to location, this guide will aid you in your journey to lay the smackdown on the latest Atreian troublemakers that are so rudely keeping your new loot from you. In the first half of the guide we could cover only six of the new instances: Steel Rose, Kamar Battlefield, Danuar Mysticarium, Danuar Reliquary, Danuar Sanctuary, and Idgel Research Center. Today's part two introduces and offers a bit of insight into the five remaining Dark Betrayal dungeons spread throughout Aion's newest zones of Katalam, Danaria, and Idian Depths. Each of these instances is for Daevas level 65+ and for groups of six (unless otherwise noted).
Choose My Adventure: The last mile
You haven't steered me wrong. At least, not yet. I am pretty sure there is that nagging worry at the back of the Massively writers' minds when they give themselves over to the masses for Choose My Adventure. Sure, there is an element of mystery and excitement, but what if... just what if the majority manifests an evil streak and sends you careening over an embankment to your virtual doom? Or banishes you to tasks that would make you want to lobotomize yourself with your mouse -- things like run Death From Below repeatedly? Thankfully, you all spared me from such torture. And with this week's tour of the Mission Architect system in City of Heroes, you definitely steered me right -- this is my favorite aspect of the game yet! I am glad to say that my trust in you all has not been unfounded, and I will speak on your behalf to the others. The fact is, I have enjoyed our little road trip immensely and am sad it must come to an end. So let's take one last cruise through City of Heroes together before you drive off into the sunset with Eliot.%Gallery-155409%
The Firing Line: The pleasures and pitfalls of PlanetSide 2
My time in PlanetSide was a blur. It's also a ways back in the rear view mirror, and I've played so many MMOs in the interim that I can't even remember exactly when it was. The game originally shipped in May of 2003, and I was entrenched in Star Wars Galaxies from its June 2003 launch going forward. That would put my six week (de)tour with the Terran Republic somewhere circa 2004, maybe? I forget. The point I'm getting around to, though, is that regardless of hazy dates, PlanetSide stands out as one of those seminal MMO experiences that showcased the possibility inherent in this particular genre. The upcoming reboot, then, should be pretty spectacular and deserving of some fanboi adulation, right? Well, yes and no.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: My plans lie in shambles!
Welcome to another installment of A Mild-Mannered Reporter, where you've all stumbled into my trap. Yes, you thought that I was going to have a column discussing another villain group due to the end of the last column, but no. Today might not quite be the anniversary of City of Villains, but it's close enough for our purposes to look back at the impact that the first expansion had on... Wait, what? You mean I already did that? Foiled again! Of course, it's not really a surprise. It's hard to picture a world without the villains running around, even if the world conspires to give them a bad name -- not to mention the bad name they give themselves. But in honor of this anniversary, I want to look back and reminisce about a couple of nefarious features that the expansion brought with it that haven't held up quite as well, for better or worse.
DC Universe Online devotes a new trailer to villainous safehouses
It's a hard life, being a villain. Everyone always expects you to be up to no good, fencing stolen goods and generally behaving on the wrong side of the law. It's true, sure, but the assumptions hurt. DC Universe Online feels your pain, hence the establishment of special places just for you to mingle with other villainous backstabbers in safety. (Well, as much safety as you can get in a room full of people who'd steal all of your valuables in a second if they thought they could get away with it.) If you're already intimately familiar with the game, of course, the newest trailer for the game isn't going to convey much in the way of new information. But it shows some of the attention paid to the setting and the little details -- and besides, who doesn't like a chance to watch a man with a mohawk and a cape jump up and down on a mailbox? Click on past the break for the newest DC Universe Online trailer covering these hives of... no, never mind that part. Too obvious.
Earthrise developers explain siege territory gameplay
Earthrise is a sci-fi MMO currently in development at Masthead Studios in Bulgaria, one which aims to merge sandbox gameplay with a post-apocalyptic setting. By all indications, Earthrise will be a game where players can band together to work towards world control, while of course struggling against opposing forces with similar goals.This territorial control between guilds will be a key aspect of Earthrise and the latest 'Question of the Week' on the game's official forums addresses the game mechanics connected with such pursuits. Earthrise community manager Moll has posted "Siege Territory gameplay + defensive structures" which explains how guild bases will be integral in capturing and holding territory, as well as some of the ways these structures will allow guilds to tap the resources of a given territory. In addition, specific structures will allow for mass production, serve as power plants, and provide teleporters for moving troops between territories. There's plenty more info on the advantages of territorial control to be found in the latest round of Q&A's with the developers at Masthead Studios.
CoX Issue 13: All your base are belong to us?
Bizarre as it may sound, that's the title by which the NCSoft developers have taken to calling City of Heroes Issue 13. Or so players learned while listening in to the Dyyno test over on mmorpg.com, in which lead developer Matt 'Positron' Miller took viewers on a tour of Cimerora and talked them through the highlights of Issue 12: Midnight Hour. Players are always eager for snippets of information on new issues, however trivial, and when Matt let slip the in-house joke title for Issue 13 along with the reason for it, it was quickly noted.Matt's comment allegedly reflected the huge number of base changes and fixes that will be coming in the next Issue. Well, it's not as if there isn't plenty to fix. The base raid system has never worked properly, the Cathedral of Pain trial proved broken and had to be put on indefinite hold, and despite all the excitement building up to their initial release, bases themselves have not seen much use beyond acting as a teleport hub, crafting spot and resource storage area for supergroups, with temporary buffs available from Empowerment Stations if you own any; convenient, but falling short of their potential. Jack 'Statesman' Emmert, former lead developer for CoX, even said of the base design system that '... players hated it. It's the most underused facet of the game.'
Champions Online developer post roundup
Having an insatiable appetite for all things Champions Online, we've gone and searched their official forums like rabid info-hounds and complied a nice list of developer quotes. Of course there's no official dev tracker in the forums and for a while we were sort of wandering around manually searching for Cryptic employee posts until we found this very helpful thread. Big thanks goes to poster Foo for coming up with the idea -- it certainly makes our monstrous thirst for information easier to quench.This time around we've got tons of topics ranging from XP dept to underwater missions -- trust us when we say you'll be happily surprised by many of the dev posts.
