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LotRO F2P launch day roundup
Volume III, Book 2: The Ride of the Grey Company is upon us, a massive Lord of the Rings Online patch that is functioning as a virtual relaunch of the game. In addition to adding loads of new content, Turbine is transforming LotRO into a hybrid subscription/free-to-play model in the hopes that this choice will draw fresh crowds to the game. The company's even opened eight new servers for the launch -- four for US and four for EU. Unfortunately, we have received word that Codemasters is going to release the patch in Europe "later than expected." Hit the jump for a roundup of our LotRO F2P news and discussion!
LotRO UI implements Lua, preps for extreme makeover
The upcoming free-to-play conversion isn't the only big change coming to Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online over the next little while. In a new dev diary released yesterday on the European community website, Games System Engineer Narrel provided a glimpse into what began as the "pet project" of three developers and has now morphed into a full-fledged extreme makeover of the game's user interface capabilities. Using the venerable and lightweight Lua scripting language, Narrel, Agiclaw, and ForsakenArcher are closing in on their stated goal of bringing extensive customization possibilities to LotRO's UI. "The future of Lua in LOTRO is a bright one," Narrel writes. "While the current functionality is certainly limited, we fully intend to continue the development of this system so that both existing and new game systems will expose functionality to the user, allowing for a much more personalized user interface."
The further adventures of Captain Vault and the amazing LotRO!
As we barrel toward the September 10th release date of LotRO's Volume III Book 2 update and F2P craziness, Turbine's devs are rushing to cover as many of the changes as possible in their detailed dev diaries. The first diary covers the changes to the metal-clad captain class, which is receiving an overhaul thanks to player feedback and extensive fine-tuning. Ken Burd explained the rearrangement of two traits lines, Leader of Men and Lead the Charge, which have been reworked into tank and DPS specialties, respectively. Burd also discussed the changes to heralds, standards and armaments. For everyone else who isn't a captain (and, OK, captains too), games systems engineer Ransroth gushes over the improved vault system. In an attempt to make the vault easier to peruse, Turbine is changing the bank UI to resemble the shared storage UI, which results in an easier-to-read interface. When beta testers responded negatively to the new vault interface, the devs worked to find a solution to mimic the old structure of multiple chests. Vaults 2.0 also come with a number of spiffy tools, such as dynamic filtering, sorting, automatic stack merges, and searches. Both the captain revamp and the vault improvements are scheduled to hit the servers in a little over two weeks.
Brink's latest dev diary shatters genres
The first dev diaries for Brink explained game mechanics , but the latest one has Splash Damage engaging a more amorphous subject: the game's inability to be defined by genres. It may also be about the studio's choice to make XP persistent between single and multiplayer. Maybe.
The lion, the witch and the LotRO wardrobe
With all of the hubbub surrounding next month's implementation of a free-to-play model in Lord of the Rings Online, it would be easy to overlook all of the other additions coming in the patch, such as the instance scaling and revamped beginning areas. One of the most highly anticipated features -- and most-praised by beta testers -- is the new wardrobe system, which will allow players to organize and store cosmetic outfits for every occasion. However, LotRO's wardrobe has raised a bit of confusion over what it is and how it functions, which is why Turbine's Elliot Gilman penned a new developer diary to explain the wardrobe in detail. Gilman starts by pointing out that while the wardrobe may seem similar in appearance to your inventory or bank vault, it doesn't actually store the items, but instead makes a copy to use for cosmetic outfits in the future. This "doppelganger" item, as he puts it, carries over the look and color, but not the stats, associated with it. Another cool function of the wardrobe is that you can equip each cloned item with multiple dyes, allowing you the choice of color when you get dressed in the morning. Players start with a decent 20-slot wardrobe, but the fashion-conscious can pay with Turbine points to upgrade it all the way to a mammoth 50-slot walk-in closet. Like shared storage, the wardrobe is available to all your characters on a particular server, although if a character couldn't wear the original item due to restrictions, she won't be able to don the doppelganger either. You can read the full dev diary over at LotRO's site.
Red Faction: Armageddon's destruction with a purpose detailed in dev diaries
Red Faction: Guerrilla's nano forge gun could disintegrate objects large and small, but did you know it could also rebuild them? Apparently in Red Faction: Armageddon, the nano forge will gain the ability to recreate structures out of thin air, allowing for the construction (and, likely, subsequent destruction) of buildings, walkways, and other such objects in the underground world of Mars. Finally, destruction with meaning! THQ executive VP Danny Bilson and Volition creative director Jacques Hennequet spend the majority of two dev diaries explaining how this -- among many other new features -- will work in next March's release. Head past the break for both.
Brink's second dev diary explains the S.M.A.R.T. system
The latest Brink dev diary shows us the game's "Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain" system -- or "S.M.A.R.T." for short -- and how it allows players to deftly traverse environments while firing bullets at enemies. This is the system that allows players to practice their totally sweet parkour moves while murdering fools. Perhaps those smooth moves will inspire you to get some freestyle walking in as well -- in real life? Good thing, then, that Brink is sponsoring "champion freerunner" Daniel Ilabaca on a European parkour tour. The tour kicked off today in London and will hit a handful of major EU cities before ending in Paris on September 2. We might also suggest you buy lots of padding and, depending on your level of fitness, a membership to the local gym before trying that "freerunning" yourself.
Exclusive Rift dev diary unveils the lives and times of Dwarves
They may be short and extraordinarily hairy, but across all fantasy realms, Dwarves have built a reputation as a hardworking race, masters of both ale and craftsmanship. In Rift: Planes of Telara, the Dwarves are a fallen race, even though it was by their hands that the great cities were built. In this exclusive dev diary, Trion Worlds lays out the foundation for the stocky, proud race from the beginning of time up to the start of the game's events. Hit the jump to discover how Rift's dwarves aren't just a stereotype, but a rich and complex people to whom the world owes a great debt.
Brink's first dev diary delves into the plot
You may have gotten the impression that Spash Damage's agile FPS, Brink, is all about lanky mercenaries shooting each other in the face. But did you know that the plot actually explores concepts of diminishing resources and environmentalism? You will after you've taken a look at the first developer diary, embedded after the break.
Guild Wars 2 level cap confirmed at 80
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Guild_Wars_2_confirms_their_level_cap_Level_80'; It's been a huge question for months: What will be the level cap for Guild Wars 2? Eager fans have grabbed onto every piece of information looking for clues over time, and tonight Isaiah "Izzy" Cartwright, Guild Wars 2 game designer, confirmed it: the level cap will be 80. No, hold on, there's still no grind. Grind in most games with a high level cap comes in because it takes longer to level the higher you go. In Guild Wars 2, this is not an issue, says Izzy: "Instead of taking longer and longer to reach each level, it takes about the same time to go through each level." In short, it's still all about the content and the journey, and you won't find yourself stuck at level 60, endlessly grinding the same mob to advance. Check out the newest ArenaNet blog post for all the information.
LotRO dev diary dishes on scaled instance rewards
Do you have a lot of questions about the upcoming scaled instances in Lord of the Rings Online? Good, because Turbine has a whole truckload of answers for you! In the second of a hefty five developer diaries devoted to the subject, LotRO's Joe "jwbarry" Barry tempts players with sweet, sweet candy. Metaphorical candy, that is, taking the form of instance rewards. The greatest problem that they had with rewards, Barry shares, is that itemizing a dungeon across a huge level range became a massive headache, requiring them to make "a prohibitive" amount of items. Instead, the LotRO dev team is taking a cue from its successful skirmish system, and reprogramming the scaled-instance mobs to drop tokens instead of loot. Players can then use these tokens to purchase armor sets, cosmetic items and even legendaries. Barry spends the rest of the article discussing the stat-tracking feature (again, similar to stat-tracking functions with skirmishes) and how the team went back through the dungeons to raise the quality of the entire experience where needed. You can read the full dev diary over at Lord of the Rings Online's site.
Hothead Games dev diary is good for a laugh
Who says developer diaries have to give behind-the-scenes looks at specific games? Hothead's latest dev diary simply focuses on the rarely achieved art of making games funny. Apparently, it's a tricky blend of timing, creativity and John Ritter-fronted late '70s sitcoms.
The Force Unleashed 2 dev diary certainly does unleash the force
We knew the Sithdi (Jedith?) known as Starkiller had some serious Force-wielding prowess in the series' first installment, but if the dev diary for The Force Unleashed 2 posted below is any indication, we haven't really seen anything yet. Force Push is great -- but Force Disintegrate is better.
inFamous 2 video goes behind the scenes at Comic-Con
Remember those excellent mini-docs on the original inFamous from 2 Player Productions? The team recently produced a behind-the-scenes video on inFamous 2, focusing on the game's comic book influences -- just in time for Sucker Punch's panel at this year's Comic-Con.
LotRO's devs have some real estate in Enedwaith to sell you
All eyes in Lord of the Rings Online are set on the expanding frontier of the game, as both the Fellowship and players alike begin to head south this fall. This means a brand-new zone, Enedwaith, and all of the secrets and discoveries that it holds. We previously got a glimpse of this new area through a sneak-peek tour, but it's still great to read a nine-page dev tour of Enedwaith by Turbine's Jonathan Rudder. It's interesting to note that Enedwaith is comprised of several "biomes" or self-contained ecosystems that range from rolling prairie to winter tundra to jagged bluffs. Each area has its own theme and unique critters, including the terrifying shadow wolves. And before you ask, yes, Turbine threw in a few demonic goats free of charge. As players progress through Enedwaith, they'll encounter the united Grey Company of Rangers and assist in their quest to help Aragorn. Turbine's proud of the amount of content in this region, claiming that it has more quests and deeds than North Downs (which was the previous non-Moria record-holder for a zone), and it has more new and unique art per square meter than Moria. Read through this hefty dev diary for the complete skinny on Enedwaith!
Exclusive: The moral genesis of City of Heroes: Going Rogue
While the Praetorian areas designed for Going Rogue are new, the actual concept of Praetoria has been in City of Heroes for quite some time. Of course, as it existed in the game prior to the upcoming expansion, it was simply the Mirror Universe ported over to the game world: all the good guys were now bad guys. (Presumably the inverse was also true, but we never found out one way or the other.) Yet Praetoria, as it's being billed now, is a region of contrasts, where good and evil aren't so easily conveyed. So how did we get from one to the other? How did the simple moral inversion become a question of totalitarian safety versus dangerous anarchy? The best answers come straight from the source, and they're right here. In an exclusive developer diary by John "Protean" Hegner, designer and mission lead for Going Rogue, we get a peek at the process that went into fleshing out the limited view we had of the alternate Earth. Entitled "Shaving the goatee off the Praetorians," it's excellent reading for any City of Heroes fan, so take a look on past the break.
City of Heroes: Going Rogue dev diary has a change of heart
Do you have any idea how tiring it is to be this evil all the time? It's like, we can only keep up this vault-plundering, mustache-twirling, damselnapping, puppy-kicking veneer before it gets a little long in the tooth, you know? We've long been thinking about seeing how the other half lives -- an opportunity that will soon be afforded to us by City of Heroes upcoming, massive content expansion, Going Rogue. Check out the developer's diary posted above to see the implications of the game's new alignment-switching feature, and to catch a glimpse at the new environments of Praetoria. We think it looks like a fairly renovated version of Paragon City, only with much more moral ambiguity.
The Road to Mordor: Rune-keepers under siege
Let's start today's column with a couple presuppositions, shall we? Number one: There is no set standard for being a "true" Tolkien fan. There's always someone out there who knows more than you, thinks that he is more faithful to the source material, and considers himself better than you in this regard. Like any fans, Tolkien-ites (Tolkkies?) are diverse. They may share the same passion, but they come to it from different backgrounds and with different standards. Number two: Turbine is not out to molest the corpse of good ol' J.R.R. by turning Lord of the Rings into a farce. Yes, it's all well and good to say as such when you want to be melodramatic on the forums, but the truth of the matter is that Turbine's done an excellent job sticking to both the lore and the spirit of Middle-earth as much as possible while still fashioning a game within those boundaries. It's not in their best interests to make a mockery of this franchise. These presuppositions converge on one of the most fiercely debated additions to LotRO, the Rune-keeper. Following the launch of the Mines of Moria expansion, fans responded with everything ranging from "Hey, it's a pretty cool class to play" to "IT'S THE END OF THE MIDDLE-EARTH!" hysteria. Seeing how passionate people are on this subject, I thought it would be worth looking into today, to answer the following questions: does the Rune-keeper have a place in LotRO, and does it break the lore and rules that Tolkien established?
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games dev diary is photogenic
Can't wait for next Saturday to finally bring you the first installment in the Doctor Who: The Adventure Games series? Your two options boil down to either hopping into your discreet, time-traveling police box and moving two weeks into the future, or ... you know, waiting. Fortunately, the latter should be made more bearable by watching the developer diary posted after the jump. Watch as the ever-charming Matt Smith (the titular Doctor) and Karen Gillan (companion Amy Pond) do some rotoscoping photo shoots, and lend their voices to the game. Then watch as the developer works on facial animations, which results in the horrifying texture seen above. Not so pretty now, is he, ladies? [Via Big Download]
Split/Second dev diary explains the science of 'splosions
We'll be straight with you guys -- though we thoroughly enjoyed Black Rock and Disney's frantic racer Split/Second, we weren't expecting the developer diary posted above, which focuses on what went into designing the title, to be quite so scientific. We thought most exchanges during the game's creation would break down like so: Developer: "Should I put an explosion here?" Lead Developer: "You absolutely should put an explosion there." Developer: "And one around the corner?" Lead Developer: "It would be irresponsible to not put one around the corner." Developer: "What about this fuel truck? Should this explode?" Lead Developer: "Stop what you're doing right now, so that I can high-five you." While we're certain this conversation occurred at least once at the Black Rock offices, the actual design of the game required a bit more sophistication that that. Check out the video above to find out what considerations really went into Split/Second's creation.
