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EVE Online nukes named modules
One thing that we're becoming increasingly convinced about the purpose of EVE Online's dev diaries is that they are secret recruiting and training grounds for future CCP employees a la The Last Starfighter. If you're willing to chew through thousands of words and a dozen or so charts on something called "Module Tiericide," then you should be awarded with a salary plus benefits. That theory aside, today's new Oceanus dev diary explains (at great length) how the team is retuning its approach to module balance in order to give all ships significant strengths and weaknesses and purposes. One such change is that named modules are on their way out: "Our solution to this problem is to replace the meta-based named module system with a new role-based system." CCP promises that this is but part of the overall and continuing effort to balance ships and prepare for new additions to the game.
World of Warcraft gives you a way to undelete characters
Those World of Warcraft GMs are probably beyond sick and tired of player petitions to undo a character deletion if a recent dev post by Blizzard is any indication. Coming with Warlords of Draenor is a new feature that will allow players to resurrect a deleted character with its gear and enchantments intact. The studio even said that it will even hold onto deleted character names "for a limited time." There are a few exceptions to the undelete feature. Toons under level 10 won't be recoverable at all, and those between levels 10 and 49 will be lost forever after a set amount of time. Also, players can use this function only once every month, so undelete wisely!
WildStar adopts quarterly update cadence: 'No more drops before their time'
WildStar Product Director Mike Donatelli has penned a new state of the game post to address concerns about the themepark in the wake of Jeremy Gaffney's resignation as Carbine President and the announcement of server merges in the form of megaservers. Donatelli says that WildStar will now function under a quarterly cadence for major updates. In August, he told players that the team was adopting a "when it's done" approach to drops instead of its originally planned monthly cadence. "If it's not ready, we'll hold it until it is," he reiterates today, citing quality as his motivator. "This doesn't mean we won't have other activities available to experience on a more regular basis; we're just taking the necessary time to get the major drops right." The next drop, scheduled for November, will include both solo and world story content. He also promises improved elder game itemization, disincentives for toxic PvP behavior, attunement adjustments, and a new training dungeon to prepare players for WildStar's controversial raid content. "I want to stress that we're not nerfing raids," he writes. "We're just giving you the tools to succeed when tackling them."
EVE shows off Oceanus' features
Oceanus is coming next Tuesday to EVE Online, and if you haven't been reading the novelization of the patch notes in the form of dev diaries as of late, CCP has a more succinct video overview of the changes coming with the update. In fact, there's a new dev post that's a gripping tale of how CCP saves spaceship data. It's a wild ride through numbers, software modules, and save files. Of course, such technical rejiggering must mean a vast improvement for you, the gamer, right? "What does this new system change for players?" CCP asks. "Visually? Nothing right now actually." OK, maybe it's a dull dev diary, but there's a much more fascinating video after the break. Promise!
EVE Online improves cloaking graphics
Portraying stealth in games can be tricky, especially if the player is piloting a cloaked ship in the midst of outer space. EVE Online's team has acknowledged that the game's current cloaking effects sometimes makes it hard to see how these ships are positioned and has announced that the next content update will vastly improve this feature. The new stealth graphics will not only look spiffier but be easier to see, according to the devs: "Fully transparent is not what we want! Pilots need to see their ships, remember, so we have a static effect that pulses along the surface of the ship from the spot where the cloaking started." There are more details about what gets cloaked and how other characters see you (hint: They usually don't) in the rest of the dev diary. This change will come with EVE's Oceanus release on September 30th.
New burner missions scrap nearly 20,000 EVE Online ships, CCP happy with results
CCP is "extremely happy" with the positive player reception of EVE Online's new burner missions that came in Hyperion. The studio said that the high level of difficulty in these missions was intentional in order to challenge the playerbase, and cited a bloodbath of 19,962 destroyed player ships as of September 14th as proof. The cost of the lost ships has topped 870 billion ISK so far. Due to the embrace of these missions, CCP is prepping a new batch of burner missions for September 30th. These new burners, believe it or not, will be even tougher than the current ones, working in teams of three against players. CCP will be putting these missions on the test servers later this week.
Final Fantasy XIV Q&A teases future content and pacing
Final Fantasy XIV has been a little pokey in rolling out major new systems. Will this be the case going forward? Not so much, according to a new producer's letter Q&A, in which the team says that future updates should be coming more frequently. "Due to scheduling issues and circumstances surrounding implementation, we've been prioritizing the implementation of party-based challenges utilizing the duty finder whenever possible," the letter states. "As a result, we were a step behind in implementing systems that make use of the open world, or those that require time but can be completed at one's own pace. With the introduction of zodiac weapons followed shortly after by the Hunt, it may seem as though we're shifting focus toward time-consuming systems, but rest assured this is not the case, and we plan to strike a balance with party-based activities as we move forward." Other topics of discussion include the upcoming Rogue class and Ninja job, the approximate release window for Patch 2.38 (about a month), word of a new expansion release, and hints about the expansion and new race.
World of Warcraft cleans up UI for Warlords of Draenor
In a new dev diary, Blizzard vows to clean up the user interface in World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. "We're making a number of changes to the WoW user interface -- changes that are designed to eliminate clutter, free up more of your inventory space, help you find your stuff more easily, and improve your quality of life in-game," say the devs. The changes begin with a new UI that combines the map and quest log and promises to be more responsive to mouse control. The expansion will also feature a "toy box" that will collect all of a player's fun items in one place and make them available across the entire account. Players will also be able to use the improved UI to summon a random mount, designate loot to certain bags, enjoy reagent storage space in the bank, and more.
Exclusive: The weapons of Firefall's Elemental Destruction
In the wake of Firefall's announcement of its September 16th Elemental Destruction launch date, Red 5's RudiKazootie returns with another dev diary about the update, this one focusing on the new elemental weapons, new weapon modifiers, and new primary archetype weapons arriving next week. Enjoy!
World of Warcraft outlines anniversary plans, delays Draenor raid
Blizzard has released a new World of Warcraft dev blog clarifying its 10th anniversary plans in light of Warlords of Draenor's impending launch on November 13th. In short, the festivities will begin on November 21st and run until well after the holidays on January 6th. Those who pony up for a sub in that time period will be awarded the Molten Corgi minipet. If you rush to the new level cap in time, you'll also be able to play through the new level-capped Molten Core raid; if not, then you can still play the new Southshore vs. Tarren Mill battleground, which comes in both level 90-99 and level 100 brackets. Blizzard further notes that the new PvP season and the normal and heroic versions of Draenor's first raid dungeon, Highmaul, will not open until December 2nd to "make sure that everyone [has] had time to level up." Highmaul's LFR and mythic modes will open another week after that. Massively's sister site WoW Insider also has some good news for Draenor devotees this morning: It appears that facial recustomization is now part of the regular barber shop in beta, possibly alleviating the fears of those worried about being saddled with an ugly pixel face once the new race models are live.
Exclusive: Firefall's Elemental Destruction update launches September 16th
It's official: The newly revitalized Firefall is due to release its first major update, Elemental Destruction, next week -- on Tuesday, in fact. The patch is bringing new dynamic encounters in addition to abilities and weapons. And if you're a Firefall nut, then today is your day because Red 5 Design Director RudiKazootie has penned an exclusive dev blog discussing in detail the five new dynamic encounters being introduced with the update. Enjoy the full read and new screens below, and keep an eye out for Friday's edition too.
H1Z1 takes out starting axe based on player feedback
This past month's conventions and player hands-on have been influential to the development of H1Z1, according to a new post today by Senior Game Designer Jimmy Whisenhunt. "After much discussion and some debate, we decided to make several targeted and deliberate changes to how the player will be dropped into our world," Whisenhunt wrote. "One of the biggest changes we've made is to the starting equipment your character spawns into our apocalypse ridden world with. Being a massive sandbox MMO without XP patting you on the back, progression mechanics have to feel solid and early game combat needed to be more challenging." The biggest change revolves around the removal of the starting axe in order to get players more involved in crafting, exploration, and combat paths. Instead, players will fight with their fists, which can actually trigger combos if done right. Another significant change is the decision to spawn weapons on top of counters and crafting items inside of objects so that finding weapons on the fly is easier to do.
The Secret World announces Sidestories: The Last Pagan mission pack
The summer content drought for The Secret World is almost at an end, as Game Director Joel Bylos announced today that the game will be releasing a new mission pack "in the next couple of weeks." Sidestories: The Last Pagan will contain six additional missions to the game, including two investigation quests. These missions will all be located in or around Tokyo, and when all six are completed, they will reward the players with a teleport to Tokyo from anywhere else in the game. Bylos said that the team is also making improvements to the AEGIS system with two new skills and installing an on-screen notifications system to facilitate communication between the game and the player. It also looks as though TSW will be selling emotes, hairstyles, and makeup unlocks in the store as well as adding them as mission rewards. Past the sidestories pack will be Issues #10 and #11, the latter of which will contain a unification of the raiding experience.
RIFT previews Nightmare Tide's Goboro Reef
Trion Worlds has begun showcasing the new zones and content coming in RIFT's Nightmare Tide expansion in this week's dev post on Goboro Reef, which will soon become your new favorite spot to drown to death. Expect mesmerizing mermaids, an endangered reef, a threatened well, a critter hatchery, untrustworthy guards, a quest to save the Plane of Water, and the Grotto of Horror. So basically, California. Trion promises that a peek at the Pelagic Order and more bits about the zone are en route. Catch the whole post on the official site.
Guild Wars 2's trading post is reworked from the ground up
It seems as though you are not really a Guild Wars 2 player until you have had a good rant about the trading post at some point. Those rants might become scarce with this month's patch, as ArenaNet has reworked the game's auction house to be more user friendly. "The first iteration of the trading post didn't do a great job of exposing its offerings to users, and that's something we've worked hard to improve," the team posted in a new features pack dev diary. To facilitate this desire, the team rebuilt the trading post using a new browser engine. The improvments to the trading post include a revamped user interface, faster loading, better browsing and search functions, clearer categories, and a cleaner buy/sell screen. The end result is "an objectively better product" for all users, according to the studio.
Allods Online redesigns its June Catacombs trials
After identifying "a few flaws" in its June Catacombs trials, the Allods Online team is preparing to overhaul the experience with the upcoming 5.0.02 patch to make it more fun and less predictable. In the first round of the revised trials, players will be chasing after golems in order to destroy them for their Amalgam packages. During the second round, players will each have a fair shot at winning a race -- but this time as a golem with four abilities. And the third round will forbid mounts from being used and decrease the effectiveness for invisibility spells.
Guild Wars 2's minipets move into the wardrobe
The ever-so-popular wardrobe in Guild Wars 2 is getting several upgrades with this month's features pack. A new dev diary posted today lists the benefits coming to the fashion conscious among us, including a search feature, a separate section for outfits, and a new finishers panel that delivers previews. Probably one of the biggest changes coming to this screen is that all minipets will be moved out of the bank and into this UI. Once players select a mini from the bank or inventory, the game will destroy the item and unlock the mini for use account-wide. Players won't just select and preview minipets from the wardrobe, but they will be able to equip it in a new slot. Equipped minipets will show up automatically even after waypointing into a new map.
Latest Pathfinder Online devblog emphasizes player-driven economy
Although players in Pathfinder Online's Alpha 7 run will earn 5,000 XP per hour (in order to help them test more things), the latest devblog warns that things will get decidedly harder once gameplay starts after Early Enrollment. At that point players will face a "cold start," beginning the game with only simple peasant clothes, a club, and 1,000 XP to spend on initial feats. Everything else, from feats to gear to cash, will grow from that. The devblog also details the player-driven economy; by design, nearly everything characters use will be player-crafted. Mobs will drop only starter equipment, coin, salvage, or -- the rarest and most valuable -- recipes. Players can only upgrade gear past the starter level through crafting, and gear can be crafted with certain key words that add bonuses when combined with specific slotted feats. For full details, and a look at what Pathfinder devs are doing at PAX Prime, check out the official site.
The scoop on Elder Scrolls Online's Dragonstar arena
When The Elder Scrolls Online's fourth update arrives next month, a new type of content will open to players: themed PvE arenas. The first of 10 such arenas, Dragonstar, is the subject of a new developer essay on the official site today. The Dragonstar Arena is located in Craglorn and will pit a group of four players against five waves of monsters with "escalating intensity," though not necessarily escalating numbers; ZeniMax promises there will be no "cannon fodder" to waste your time. Hazards inside the arena -- like poisonous clouds, lava flows, and immobilizing blizzards -- will further impede groups' progress through the challenges. ZeniMax says that arenas are intended to provide difficult combat encounters and elite rewards to small, highly skilled groups, but more casual players can skip Veteran mode for normal mode if they choose. We've included the brief Dragonstar arena trailer below.
Quests, Elves, and Dwarves coming soon to Pathfinder Online
Pathfinder Online's alpha is growing by leaps and bounds as evidenced by two upcoming builds that will take shape over the next few weeks. In them, the devs are adding in essential systems like questing along with new races. With next week's alpha 7 build, questing and companies will be introduced into the game as will possible new terrain types. Then when alpha 8 comes along, the sandbox MMO will make the jump to its early enrollment servers. This update will also include Elves, Dwarves, a graphical upgrade, expendables, storage, auction houses, banks, and more terrain options. Part of the purpose of these new builds is to conduct what the devs are calling a "cold start" to see how players advance when they begin with nothing but a club and the clothes on their back. "Everything your character possesses and every ability your character learns after that point will be totally dependent on how you choose to play the game," the devs posted. [Thanks to Chrysillis for the tip!]
