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Latest Lord of the Rings Online dev diary is rather audacious
Lord of the Rings Online's PvMP changes just keep rolling in, it seems. Last week, the Turbine team announced that a new currency known as commendations will be replacing the role of destiny in matters of PvMP transactions. Today, we've got a new dev diary that announces the upcoming addition of a new PvMP-only stat called Audacity. What is Audacity, exactly? Well, put simply, it's a PvMP stat that will provide players with benefits such as reducing incoming damage and lowering the duration of crowd control abilities. Higher audacity, obviously, equates to lower incoming damage and shorter crowd control effects. But why introduce this feature in the first place? According to the post, the team believes that having PvMP and PvE gear on the same progression path resulted in underwhelming or overly difficult-to-obtain PvMP gear since the team had to ensure that "the PvMP items did not devalue the PvE offerings." In addition, Turbine feels that, thanks to the damage changes made in Rise of Isengard, PvMP combat was too fast-paced. The addition of audacity is intended to nix both of these problems. Freeps will acquire their first rank of Audacity automatically at level 40, and further ranks will be boosted by PvMP gear that can only be purchased with commendations. Creeps, meanwhile, will gain their first rank of Audacity upon creation, and they'll gain further ranks by purchasing them directly from class trainers (seeing as how Creeps don't wear equipment). For the full details on this new system, just click on through the link below to the official dev diary.
Ultima producer's letter teases 2012 content
Did you know that Ultima Online turns 15 this year? It surely does, and if you're not having a geriatric fit over that fact and wondering where the time has gone, well, get off our lawns. In all seriousness, UO grand poobah Jeff Skalski has favored the masses with a producer's letter, and he drops several hints about what's to come for the 2012 version of Sosaria. Publish 74 is officially live, and the dev team is already hard at work on its followup, which Skalski says will address "a handful of long overdue bugs" as well as further the game's dynamic story arcs. Skalski also tells us that the artwork for the enhanced client is still in the oven, and in fact the makeover has turned out to be "more challenging than planned." As a result, it's not quite ready for primetime, but rest assured that it is still a priority. As always, more info is available at the official UO website.
Star Trek Online looks to anniversary updates, free-to-play updates, and beyond
Star Trek Online's second anniversary is just a month away, but the game's transition to a free-to-play model is even closer than that. In the game's latest developer diary, executive producer Stephen D'Angelo talks about updates leading into the business model shift, the anniversary, and the eventual rollout of the game's next season. A couple of new bug fixes and feature improvements will be rolled out to the live game before January 17th, at which point the game will shift over to the free-to-play mode. In February, the game will be celebrating its anniversary with a new KDF flagship, the debut of the Odyssey-class Federation ship, and soon thereafter a series of Dominion featured episodes. Players can look forward to season 6 sometime in June, with the development team aiming at something new in the game roughly every other week once the game is free-to-play. It's a tall order, but Star Trek Online fans at least have those frequent updates to hope for if not necessarily expect.
Guild Wars 2 devblog highlights cinematic conversations
"One of the things we game developers always have to struggle with is reconciling our ambition with the reality of a production environment," begins today's Guild Wars 2 dev blog. That principle of balance comes into play in the case of the game's cinematic conversations, as the blog notes. James Boer goes on to detail many of the unique strategies used in Guild Wars 2's dialogue scenes in order to ensure that precious balance between ambition and pragmatism. For instance, characters are designed in such a way that they don't look terribly good during close-ups, and there is no easy way to integrate facial animation. As a result, the team settled on a compromise, pushing the characters farther into the background. This, combined with the painted backgrounds utilized during conversations, lends a unique style to GW2's cinematic dialogues. For the full details, just head on over to the ArenaNet dev blog.
Rusty Hearts introduces the gunslinging Natasha
Perfect World Entertainment has announced the newest addition to the Rusty Hearts cast, and her name is Natasha. This scantily clad, gun-toting heroine joins the Rusty Hearts roster in hopes of avenging the death of her brother. She's capable of dual-wielding pistols or blowing her enemies away with muskets, making her the perfect character for the player who just wants to make things go boom. For more information on the game's newest playable character, jump past the cut for a dev diary video or head on over to the Rusty Hearts official site.
New LotRO dev diary addresses upcoming Warden changes
Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard is only five days away now, but Turbine still isn't quite done with its pre-Isengard dev diary series. Today's entry focuses on the Warden class, which -- as Allan Maki puts it -- "is in a good spot, not a great one, but not really needing a complete revision or reimagining." Instead, the team is taking a look at some of the class' shortcomings to see where improvements can be made. For instance, Wardens are quite underpowered when it comes to filling a DPS role in a group, and their rotation for doing so isn't exactly exciting. As a result, the spear skills Mighty Blow and Unerring Strike have been modified to provide the Warden with more DPS utility while also giving the class a more exciting rotation. Next up is a matter of building, dumping, and maintaining threat. Three new skills have been added to the Warden's gambit system, and each of them fixes one of these problems. Deflection will rapidly drop threat on the Warden, Aggression allows Wardens to quickly absorb threat from nearby Fellowship members, and Never Surrender allows Wardens a five-minute window wherein they cannot be defeated, and if their morale drops below 5%, they will be healed to 75% health and 50% power. The Warden's lack of any sort of stun immunity is the third issue to be looked at. To remedy this situation, at level 74, Turbine is granting Wardens the ability Shield Tactics, which is a new gambit that provides the Warden with stun immunity for 10 seconds. The team is also introducing a new feature called Potency to the class. Potency is a combat state that has a chance to be activated whenever a simple gambit (Goad, Deft Strike, and Defensive Strike) is used. Once a Warden has entered the Potency state, he can then commit one of his gambits to Battle Memory, which will allow him to use that gambit on command throughout the battle, though at the cost of Morale rather than Power. For the full, intricate details on the changes coming to the Warden class, head on over to the dev diary and give it a read-through.
LotRO dev diaries take a look at upcoming Rune-keeper and Hunter changes
With the launch of Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard just a short week away, Turbine is beginning to round out its pre-Isengard dev diaries. Today, we've got a double-whammy for you in the form of some new information on what will become of Rune-keepers and Hunters when the new expansion hits. On the Rune-keeper side of things, the devs have a variety of goals for the class, such as refining the class' trait trees, allowing the class to perform as a "hybrid AoE damage dealer," and buffing the class' AoE healing slightly. Chisels and rifflers will be seeing big changes in order to allow all of them to be used by Rune-keepers of the DPS and healing variety rather than gearing them toward one or the other. As with all other classes, the team is focusing on improving existing skills rather than introducing new ones, and as such the greatest changes are coming to the Rune-keeper's trait lines. Each trait line's four-set bonus is seeing changes to some degree. Meanwhile, in Hunter land, the goals for the class are much more concise. The devs want to give players further incentive to use all three of the available combat stances while performing "general cleanup" on the class. All stance-specific bonuses have been removed from all trait lines and redistributed elsewhere, thereby keeping Hunters from being locked into a specific stance based on their choice of trait line. Hunters will also be granted the ability to dual-wield and to wear medium armor from the get-go, which should help new players immensely. Of course, a variety of Hunter abilities have been improved, and the class is also gaining two new skills to round out its repertoire. For the entire set of changes to both classes, head on over to the dev diaries and soak up all the juicy details. And remember, Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard launches in just a week, so prepare yourselves accordingly.
Massively Exclusive: Elsword community Q&A, part the third
Part three of Elsword's Massively-exclusive dev diary is now available for your perusal. This time around, the devs talk about their long-term goals for the game, character favoritism, and the relation between Elsword and fellow side-scroller Grand Chase. Dash on past the cut for their answers.
Carbine Studios dev blog details usability testing
Though we still have absolutely no idea what exactly Carbine Studios' next project is, that's not going to stop the studio from talking to us about it. Carbine's Senior Producer, Eric DeMilt, has released a dev diary regarding the ongoing development of the studio's super-secret project. In particular, the diary details usability testing. Players are able to test the game in a testing lab on-site, where the devs are able to watch players as they play in order to gauge their reactions to certain content. Players also are asked to complete a short survey afterward, which provides Carbine with a wealth of valuable information regarding difficulty, user-friendliness, and the overall quality of the game. Mr. DeMilt's full blog post can be read over at Carbine Studios' official site.
New Rusty Hearts dev diary delves into delicious design decisions
It's time for another dev diary from the fine folks at Perfect World Entertainment, this time detailing the art of Rusty Hearts. We're sure that by now most of you have seen Rusty Hearts and its crisp cel-shaded anime style, but the dev diary goes into detail on what the team is aiming for with the art, and outlines the inspiration behind it. The team is careful to note that while the overall vibe of the game is decidedly dark and gothic, that by no means insinuates that the world will be dull or muddled. Taking inspiration from popular anime such as Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist, Rusty Hearts aims to carve a niche for itself as a "living comic." For the full dev diary, hop on past the cut!
Rusty Hearts dev diary unveils new PvP details
The latest Rusty Hearts dev diary from Perfect World Entertainment is a short one, but it's still packed to the brim with new details on the game's PvP system. So if you're the type of player who would rather smash your comrades' faces into the dirt than -- gag -- cooperate, listen up. Players will be able to create private rooms for their friends to join and take part in PvP combat, which comes in a variety of delicious flavors. Of course, you've got your vanilla team deathmatch for those of you who like to keep it traditional, or the elimination deathmatch in which two teams battle until only one is left standing. There's also the VIP gametype, which designates one player of each team the VIP, while the other players are tasked with protecting their own VIP and assassinating the enemy's. All of these games' statistics will be logged for bragging rights, and players will also be rewarded with PvP points that can be spent on fancy new items. Players will also be ranked in a ladder system that will allow them to see where they stand compared to the rest of the world. With all this and certainly more to come, it looks like Rusty Hearts is shaping up to be a competitive player's dream. Jump on past the cut for the full dev diary.
Lord of the Rings Online dev diaries discuss new skirmishes
Turbine has given us a two-for-one deal today with the addition of two new dev diaries. The diaries -- from Turbine's Bob "Maurath" Hess and Joe "jwbarry" Barry -- detail two of the new skirmishes being introduced in Lord of the Rings Online's Update 3. The first skirmish, Attack at Dawn, takes place in the North Downs and sees players dealing with multiple different mechanics simultaneously. The second, The Icy Crevasse, is the first skirmish to take place in Forochel and is described by Barry as "a quick bite-sized romp," with the skirmish taking about 10 minutes to complete. It's truly an interesting look into not only what the skirmishes themselves entail but the design process that goes into bringing them to players on the live servers. Whether you play LotRO or you're just curious about the work and thought process that goes into these skirmishes, the diaries are certainly a must-read. If you're interested in gaining a new degree of respect for the effort that goes into the game, both dev diaries can be found on LotRO's official site.
Exclusive Dev Diary: Designing the task forces for City of Heroes Issue 20
City of Heroes traditionally packs quite a lot into its large content patches, and Issue 20 looks to be no exception. Aside from the two new Incarnate Trials meant for endgame players, the update is going to see two new mid-level task forces added for players between levels 20-40. With one force for heroes and another for villains, everyone will have a chance to enjoy some new storytelling about the war against Praetoria outside of the earliest invasions. But of course, new task forces don't just materialize out of thin air. It takes some hard work and a solid set of design principles to make them rewarding, something that Paragon Studios has been steadily improving since launch. John Hegner, Lead Mission Designer for City of Heroes, took the time to share with us what went into the construction of these new task forces and what they should mean for the player, so click on past the break for our exclusive developer diary on the design of the new content.
New dev video diaries at official LotRO site
The Lord of the Rings Online team at Turbine are committed to keeping the playerbase in the loop on behind-the-scenes happenings with their developer diaries. Sometimes these are lengthy written diaries (as with the recent Book 12 Guardian changes entry) but there are also a lot of video diaries available to view. These tend to contain more introductory information, but are always well presented and worth a watch.Turbine has just announced that they have added a whole bunch of new developer video diaries to their video section, and are giving you the gentlest of nudges to go and check them out. Some of these videos existed before around the site, but they are now all located in one area for easy browsing, so there's no reason not to take a peek at what's on offer.
