bounty-hunter
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Atmospheric bounty hunter White Space explained in dev diary
Curve Studios Design Director Jonathan Biddle discussed the alpha version of his latest game White Space in a new developer diary video. In it, bounty-hunting players fly from one pretty, polygonal, procedurally-generated planet to the next to take down their targets.
The Art of Wushu: Doing the time for doing crime
Bounties are the primary way that PK victims in Age of Wushu get to fight back against their assailants. If you murder someone, your victim can force you to spend time in jail and pay a constable for the service of putting you behind bars. Much as in EVE Online's original bounty system, there are a few kinks. Overall, it works reasonably well, but there is a disconnect between the intent of the system and how it actually works. As a career criminal, I feel that having a bounty and dealing with it is what separates professional killers from mass murderers.
Star Wars: The Old Republic outlines the Bounty Contract Week
Bounty hunting is a thing in Star Wars: The Old Republic, to the point that there's an entire class focused around bounties and the hunting thereof. But even if you're usually a meditative Jedi, you can still pick up a few extra credits in the upcoming Bounty Contract Week coming to the game in August. A new development blog details what players can expect from this event, offering players of nearly all levels a chance to earn reputation for taking down violent criminals. Each day, players can select a single contract to hunt, with the Bounty Brokers Association providing a selection of different planets with available contracts. Veteran hunters can also hunt for a single Kingpin target, a high-threat individual who requires more accomplished hunters. Success means credits and reputation with the BBA. Players from level 15 and up can take part in these missions, which scale to the level of the participant, ensuring that anyone who wants to get in on the hunt can start taking down criminals for credits.
EVE Evolved: Five years of EVE Evolved
About five years ago, on April 27th, 2008, I joined the Massively team and wrote the very first issue of the EVE Evolved column. Five years later, the column is still going strong and delivering its weekly dose of EVE Online to thousands of readers. I used to worry about running out of ideas to write about, but regular game updates and hilarious player shenanigans mean there's always something interesting going on in New Eden. When EVE hits its 10th anniversary in May, this column will have been running for just over half of the game's lifetime. In that time, I've written over 250 in-depth articles, guides, in-game stories and opinion pieces on EVE Online and a few on DUST 514. As usual, I'll be celebrating this anniversary by rounding up this year's column highlights and giving away two 30-day Pilot's License Extensions to two lucky readers. To enter the competition, write a comment explaining which EVE Evolved articles from this year you liked best and what topics you'd like to see covered in the coming year. You will need an active EVE account to claim the prize, so be sure to include your character name in your comment if you want to be in with a chance. If you'd rather not give out your character name or don't have an EVE account but would like to give the game a go, you can sign up a new trial account and use the name of your new character. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at the highlights from the column's fifth year!
SWTOR reloads Bounty Hunters and Troopers
The dev diary march to cover all of the changes to Star Wars: The Old Republic's classes continues, with today's twin postings focusing on the Bounty Hunter and Trooper. Bounty Hunters should have an easier go at it now, as BioWare's handing out Hydraulic Overrides and Chaff Flares to everyone. The team also redesigned the Kolto Overload skill to give the class a huge bump to survivability when it activates. Over on the Trooper side of things, the team's brought the class' resource mechanic in line with the Trooper's Bounty Hunter counterpart. All Troopers now get Hold the Line and Diversion skills, as well as a more survival-happy Adrenaline Rush. The smaller but still significant tweaks to the advanced classes are worth reading carefully if you play one of these classes, as there are plenty to note.
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR spoiler alert!
Originally, I had my heart set on playing a Smuggler when Star Wars: The Old Republic went live, so I had intended on not playing one in beta. But the temptation was far too strong. I played a couple of Smugglers to try out the different specs and see the storyline from a couple of different points of view. Unfortunately, that burned me out on the class, and I could never finish the story on the live servers. Another of my intentions when the servers went live was to max out a character as fast as I could so that I could get to endgame in a decent amount of time. Therefore, I picked a class that I didn't think would hold my interest: the Sith Warrior. Unfortunately -- or fortunately depending on your perspective -- I fell in love with the Sith Warrior storyline. I was impressed that an "evil" character could have such an interesting story arc, so much so that by the end I was really rooting for her to win. What I didn't know was that there was a connection between the Sith Warrior story and the Smuggler story. I was right there listening to the characters speak, yet I didn't understand at first why I felt that nagging feeling as if I'd heard certain things before. Once I did discover the connection between those two storylines, I sought out other story connections. I found out that SWTOR is full of these tiny links. Since it's been a year since release, I figured that it's safe to share some of my favorites. Yes, major spoilers follow the break.
Everything there is to know about EVE Online's Retribution expansion
EVE Online's PvP-focused Retribution expansion went live today, adding new features and balance changes players have been anticipating for years. Retribution is EVE's 18th free expansion, and introduces some very interesting new bounty hunting and criminal justice systems. Players can now place bounties on any pilot or organisation, which are paid out in chunks to anyone who deals significant financial damage to them. If that isn't enough revenge for you, players will even be able to hunt down criminals with open kill rights on them and exact mob justice. The expansion also brings overhauls to countless EVE ships as part of an ongoing effort to remove ship tiers and give every ship its own role in fleet combat. A new destroyer-class ship for each races gives new players more combat options, and the ORE mining frigate lowers the barrier to entry for miners. PvE-focused players have a new salvage drone toy to play with and advanced NPC AI to counter, while PvP is set to be shaken up with ship rebalances and a new micro-jumpdrive module. Read on for a full roundup of everything there is to know about EVE Online's Retribution expansion.
EVE Evolved: Retribution expansion highlights
EVE Online's PvP-focused Retribution expansion goes live in just a few days on December 4th, bringing with it a whole series of balance changes, UI updates, and new features. In addition to a whole new bounty hunting mechanic, we can look forward to a new combat UI, some serious ship rebalancing, and a new crimewatch system that puts players in the driving seat of antipiracy. Faction warfare is also due for a bit of a revamp, and a new safety system will help newer players stay within the bounds of the law. CCP has been releasing torrents of information on the expansion this month in the run-up to release, covering everything from the new UI updates and ship balancing to kill rights and corp hangars. There are some interesting changes on the way that might affect your everyday life in EVE. If you haul ships and items around EVE inside an Orca's ship and corp hangars, be aware that the hangars will no longer be immune to cargo scans and their contents will now drop as loot when you're destroyed. Expect suicide attacks on Orcas to spike immediately following the expansion's release, and keep your expensive toy out of harm's way. In this week's EVE Evolved, we'll dig into this week's Retribution expansion and look at a few of the highlights in depth.
EVE Evolved: Bounty hunting and revenge
Last week I looked into the major PvP changes coming in EVE Online's upcoming Retribution expansion, from the piracy revamp to a new global flagging system that puts players in the driving seat of justice. This week CCP Games revealed full details of the upcoming bounty hunting system revamp, and I have to say I'm really excited. The new bounty system not only makes bounty hunting a viable profession again but also gives players a way to deal significant financial damage to their enemies without getting their hands dirty. As if that weren't enough, players will even be able to enforce the law on their own terms, trawling high-security space for criminals and lighting them up for everyone to kill. Corporate- and alliance-level bounties will push grudges to new levels, enabling a new type of passive financial warfare. The new bounty system can also be used as a tool to motivate troops into battle, a way to incentivise boring but necessary starbase warfare, and even a method for running tournaments. In this week's EVE Evolved, I get ridiculously excited about EVE's upcoming bounty hunting revamp and explain why it makes the Retribution expansion a complete game-changer.
EVE Evolved: Player justice in Retribution
This week CCP released a new devblog on upcoming piracy and PvP changes heading to EVE Online with this winter's Retribution expansion. In addition to new ships and an as-yet unrevealed bounty hunter revamp, Retribution completely redesigns the Crimewatch system that decides whom you can legally shoot and stops players from docking or jumping out of the system in the middle of combat. EVE's aggression mechanics are notoriously complicated and buggy, but Retribution aims to simplify the system and put players in the driving seat of criminal justice. The new Crimewatch system not only gets rid of old, undocumented code that was written when dinosaurs roamed the earth but also has far-reaching consequences for pirates, people engaging in PvE and the upcoming bounty hunting revamp. Pirates will now be able to escape into high-security space without police intervention, loot thieves will be subjected to mob justice, nullsec ratters won't be as safe as they think, and neutral remote repairing will be a thing of the past. In this week's EVE Evolved, I delve into Crimewatch 2.0 and how the Retribution expansion will change the game for pirates, ratters, and people engaging in PvP across New Eden.
Free for All: Blasting through Clone Wars Adventures' new Carlac content
I love the Clone Wars animated telvesion series on Cartoon Network. So when I heard that Sony Online Entertainment was making the Clone Wars Adventures MMO using the Free Realms engine, I was more excited than a tween with an unscratched Station Cash card on Christmas. Finally I would be able to play in the world of the Clone Wars without having to venture into the lower digit channels! Recently SOE released (somewhat quietly) a new area to explore and conquer. In the Carlac zone, players are tasked with defeating piles of Death Watch baddies and Pre Vizsla. Tune in past the break, where I'll defeat Pre myself!
Hyperspace Beacon: All SWTOR classes are useful in Huttball, part two
A few weeks ago, after many weeks of seeing new players in Star Wars: The Old Republic warzones, I thought it would be a good idea to post a little guide on the basics of winning Huttball. Interestingly, that article birthed a conversation about how some classes were better suited for the game, but more importantly, some players had given up on the warzone because they felt that their particular class didn't work in Huttball at all. Admittedly, certain classes do have more utilities that make them a better fit for the game, but I believe every class has its role in this particular arena. And more importantly, I believe that every class can have fun and feel useful. However, some players need a bit of training. Two weeks ago, I covered the Sith Warrior, Jedi Knight, Imperial Agent, and Smuggler classes. In this week's coverage, I'm going to take a look at two SWTOR classes that seems to be built for this game and two others that have more surprises than you might think: the Sith Inquisitor, Jedi Consular, Republic Trooper, and Bounty Hunter.
Star Wars 1313 officially announced, about Level 1313 on Coruscant
After being leaked earlier this evening, Star Wars 1313 has been officially revealed by Lucasarts. A teaser image for the game reveals what looks like an original trilogy-era shuttle, which may mean the game could take place – at least in part – during the era of everyone's favorite series characters. A press release for Star Wars 1313 says the game is a third-person cinematic action game, set in "Level 1313, a ruthless criminal underground deep below the surface of the planet of Coruscant," and the player will control "a deadly bounty hunter as he uses an arsenal of exotic weaponry to hunt down his marks and uncover the truth surrounding a criminal conspiracy." LucasArts says the game will emphasize Star Wars' "dark and mature" elements, and show off "a part of the Star Wars mythos that we've always known existed, but never had a chance to visit." In other words, it sounds a lot like the Force Unleashed games, but from the perspective of a bounty hunter instead of a Jedi. We'll hear more at E3 next week, no doubt.
EVE Evolved: Setting the universe on fire
This week CCP Games announced the name and focus of EVE Online's upcoming summer expansion. The Inferno expansion aims to re-invigorate PvP with some long overdue gameplay changes. CONCORD-sanctioned wars will be iterated on for the first time in half a decade, and faction warfare will hopefully be getting the updates it should have received in 2008. Following on from the success of the Crucible expansion with its hundreds of small features and gameplay changes, Inferno will also contain dozens of small gameplay changes, usability fixes, and minor improvements. We'll hear more about DUST 514 in the coming months as CCP reveals more concrete details of the game's link to EVE Online and the motivations behind planet-bound wars. Incarna fans will apparently also see some movement, with Team Avatar focusing on avatar-based updates for this release. While Inferno is a rather uninspired name and coincidentally would make three of the last four expansions start with the word "in," the expansion's content is genuinely exciting. Fundamental changes are coming to EVE's PvP mechanics for the first time in several years. CCP hasn't revealed the exact changes, but that hasn't stopped players from speculating on what might be heading their way. In this week's EVE Evolved, I speculate on the changes coming in the upcoming Inferno expansion and what changes I think might be coming to EVE's PvP.
Dominus reveals its bounty hunting mechanics
We're not sure what it is about bounty hunters that makes them cooler than cool, but there's no denying the appeal of a profession that characters like Boba Fett, John Marston, and Rick Deckard call their own. Dominus is hoping to capture some of that badassery in a bottle via its bounty hunting system, and a new update on the game's official website has all the details. In a nutshell, players are able to place bounties on four of their enemies at a time, and the only other consideration is the amount of money you're willing to put toward your revenge. Hunting a bounty involves accepting a contract via an NPC, and you'll be alerted as to your target's zone location if he's online. After you make the kill, you'll be paid on the spot, and any other players who accepted the same bounty contract will find it removed from their mission log. There's more, but you'll need to head to the Dominus website to read it.
SWTOR: So you want to play a Bounty Hunter
So you're thinking of being a Star Wars: The Old Republic Bounty Hunter, are you? It's a fine choice of profession. Challenging work, definitely. Requires a lot of travel, a quick draw, and a willingness to take on impossible odds. Some Hunters might see themselves as the avenging hand of the law, some just want to get paid, and some of them genuinely care about the Sith cause. But at the end of the day, every Bounty Hunter lives according to the same code: Find the mark and get paid for the job. Of course, the in-game Bounty Hunter has all the tools needed to make that happen. With a plethora of tricks in his suit of armor, Hunters can do everything -- provide field medical support, keep targets occupied long enough for others to take them down, or even just waste everything with a plethora of missiles. There are a lot of options available to players who go down the route of the Bounty Hunter, and it doesn't hurt that the entire class oozes with style and intrigue from the start.
SWTOR asks who's better: Jedi Knight or Bounty Hunter
In the latest Friday update, the developers at BioWare ask one of the ultimate questions: Which class is better? In this three-and-half-minute video, the Jedi Knight and the Bounty Hunter of Star Wars: The Old Republic are pitted against each other. The criteria for winning ranges between the best story to the most powerful weapons, but ultimately, it's up to you. According to the video, it's time to choose your side. Senior Writer Hall Hood expresses that although the Jedi are typically good guys, "you get to be whatever kind of Jedi Knight you think is best. You don't necessarily have to follow the Jedi Code. In fact, you can violate it pretty regularly." On the other side, Writer Randy Begel explains that the Bounty Hunter does not have to be the most evil all the time. "The Bounty Hunter can live by a code as much as the Jedi does. It's just that they don't always see eye to eye on how that plays out," Begel explains. Decide for yourself after the break; we have the complete video for your enjoyment.
The MMO Report: Oh come on can we please just drop it already edition
Welcome to this week's edition of The MMO Report. The first order of business on The MMO Report this week is Age of Conan: Unchained. Funcom's bloody MMO went free-to-play last week, and also released their new Blood and Glory PvP servers yesterday. Next up we have BioWare's latest class video for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It focuses on the Bounty Hunter class and details the progression options available to Boba Fett wannabes. And then it's... Oh, not again. Monocle-gate, okay? Do we really need to say anything else? Lastly, we come to the announcement that Blizzard's project Titan is going to be a casual MMO. Considering the fact that, as Casey puts it, many players consider World of Warcraft to be casual as it is, what this means for Titan is ambiguous at best. For the full MMO Report, including (for the first time in a while) Uncle Casey's Mailbag, jump on past the cut.
Hyperspace Beacon: Man in the mirror
On Friday, our friends on the BioWare community team gave us a second progression video for the Bounty Hunter in Star Wars: The Old Republic. As with anything on the internet, the video wasn't above scrutiny and complaint by followers. The complaints ranged from "we already have a Bounty Hunter progression video" to "why don't we have a Jedi Consular video yet?" But that doesn't hit on the real issue: There were no fiery explosions for the Bounty Hunter to walk away from in slow motion! He just can't be cool unless he turns his back on the destruction like he just doesn't frelling care. Despite the lack of carnage in the class progression video, we did glean insight into many of the class powers, some of which mirror its Republic counterpart: the Trooper. I know for marketing reasons and to keep from confusing the potential player, it's not a good idea to use the word "mirror" when describing The Old Republic classes. But it's hard to deny that the Imperial Bounty Hunter and the Republic Trooper are very much mirrored insofar as combat roles and abilities. After the break, I will explain to you what I see that is the same and what is different between the two classes. Then, in the end, I will let you decide whether the classes are truly mirrored or not.
Star Wars: The Old Republic reintroduces the Bounty Hunter progression
Those wondering whether Mandalorians would be involved the in the Bounty Hunter storyline need look no further than the latest progression video released for Star Wars: The Old Republic. In it, the BioWare community team displays the class armor progression but also shows us parts of the Bounty Hunter story. Based on the image above with the Mythosaur-like skull, it could easily be said that Mandalorians throw some sort of tournament for your character to participate in. You can decide whether this is a class story you are interested in by watching the character progression video after the break. Also, as with all the progression videos TOR as released thus far, we see five possible looks for the character beyond the initial set of armor. Most importantly, we bear witness to many of the powerful gadgets in the Bounty Hunter arsenal. Powertechs appear to specialize in short-ranged AoEs like the carbonite blast and flamethrower, whereas the Mercenary is clearly about ranged power with his dual pistols and wrist-rockets. The full progression video follows after the break, and to read more about the Bounty Hunter, be sure to visit the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website.
