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Learn about rewards in DUST 514
Pretty much everybody likes being rewarded, and it's safe to say that gamers are more or less at the heart of the group of people who like rewards. So let's talk about rewards in DUST 514. Players can earn three things from battle: money, skill points, and salvage. You'll earn ISK, the storied EVE currency, in every battle you fight. Every mercenary will receive basic compensation for fighting; the more you fight, the more of this basic reward money you'll get. Teams will earn rewards based on the value of items destroyed, and that money pool will be divided among team members based on time spent in the battle. Everyone will also receive a monetary reward based on war points earned in a battle. War points will be converted to skill points, which are used to improve your your abilities. Finally, players have the chance to receive salvage items off a loot table. In time, players will be able to equip modules to influence their chances of higher-quality loot.
DUST 514 video diary explores the nuances of vehicles
When you're shooting your way across the planets in DUST 514, you don't want to be walking everywhere like an animal. You want to be riding in style, especially if you can be riding in something that also has armor plating and variable thrusters. That's where vehicles come into the game. A new video narrated by Ryan Thornton (also known as CCP Blam!) explains how vehicles will work in the shooter and what players can expect from their earliest rides and more advanced offerings. The game's vehicle system starts everyone with very basic items, but as time goes by you can upgrade your rides with the use of skill points and different configurations. You can make your dropship logistical support for other vehicles, or you can turn it into a heavily armed and armored transport that clears a landing zone and puts down troops. Or you can turn it into a lightning-fast transport that brings players across the map faster than enemy players can react. Take a look at the full video just past the break to see more of the vehicle system in all its glory.
CCP considering mech vehicles for DUST 514
CCP has released a new dev diary video for its DUST 514 sci-fi shooter. The PlayStation 3 exclusive, which shares chat channels and an economy with MMO EVE Online, will initially feature three main vehicle classes. The game's current beta build boasts light attack vehicles (think jeeps and small transports), heavy attack craft (i.e., tanks), and drop ships (the DUST version of a helicopter). CCP is also considering additional vehicle classes. Yes, including mechs. Lead vehicle designer Ryan Thornton gives us a preview of the current classes in the video after the cut.
CCP talks about connecting DUST 514 with EVE Online
CCP is going into uncharted territory in its attempt to fuse its new console shooter, DUST 514, to its long-running MMO, EVE Online. When breaking new ground like that, it's sensible to take it slow, make sure you're not going to fall into an endless pit, trip over a sleeping cobra, or suddenly throw an incredibly advanced economy into total disarray. CCP's Chief Marketing Officer, David Reid, talked with Joystiq about the challenges the company faces in this endeavor. "If there's anything about EVE that's particularly notorious, it's the fidelity of its virtual economy. You can equate the loss of a giant ship in EVE to some real world amount of money, just based on the time and effort it takes to build. It's really important that, when we do join the games, and we do allow ISK [an in-game currency that can be purchased with meatspace money] to flow between EVE and DUST that we don't accidentally institute some hyper-inflation in one game or the other." Of course, interaction between the games won't be limited to trading. Reid says the grand vision includes space elevators and the ability for EVE characters to go planetside and DUST marines can visit a space station. Check out all the details over at Joystiq.
EVE Evolved: Merging EVE with DUST 514
When console MMOFPS DUST 514 was first announced, players were cautious of the game's ambitious goals. Developers promised that DUST battles would decide the ownership of planets inside PC MMO EVE Online, and that this would tie into system sovereignty and ultimately ownership of entire regions of space. We expected the two games to have separate communities and economies that would interact only when EVE players hired DUST mercenaries to take over sectors of particular planets, but we couldn't have been more wrong. Two years later, CCP blew our expectations out of the water with details of how DUST and EVE will be practically joined at the hip. We learned that the two games would share the exact same corporations and that ISK would be transferable between games. We also got a glimpse of the incredible plans for realtime integration, with EVE ships able to deliver air strikes to planets and DUST players able to shoot down ships in orbit with ground cannon. But have those ambitious goals stayed in focus during development, and what can we expect from DUST when it launches early next year? In this week's EVE Evolved opinion piece, I look through the public information on DUST 514's launch integration with EVE Online and speculate on how the link may evolve after release.
CCP's DUST 514 will stay in closed beta into 2013
CCP's DUST 514, the console shooter that connects to and extends the scope of EVE Online, is staying in closed beta at least through the end of the year. During a recent media and developer play session, Chief Marketing Officer David Reid mentioned that while the team doesn't yet have a start date for open beta, he's "confident that it won't be much longer after year end." Reid stated that the team wants to take its time with the beta. Nobody has ever really attempted this sort of connection between a console game and long-standing PC MMO before, and Reid says that the testing process will take time to ensure the kind of quality that CCP and fans expect of the game. This is, of course, terrible news for anyone who isn't a PlayStation Plus member (and is therefore unable to access the closed beta), since we all know that the world is going to end in late December. CCP's belief that the world will persist long enough for DUST 514 to go into open beta is noble, if ultimately foolish.
Way of the Mercenary video explains all you need to know about DUST 514
CCP has released a new DUST 514 video called The Way of the Mercenary. The three-minute clip acts as a pretty good primer for New Eden newbs, as it covers everything from DUST's roles, skill loadouts, and equipment loss to the game's tie-in with EVE Online. The vid also highlights the many uses of the Neocom, DUST's chat setup, and plenty of gameplay footage (including orbital strikes and vehicular action). See for yourself after the cut.
The Firing Line: On Star Citizen, DUST 514, and DayZ
Welcome back to The Firing Line, folks. While I don't have any nifty sequel announcements or contentious community issues for you this week, I do have some interesting tidbits on three upcoming shooters that you might have missed. Join me after the cut for a chat about Star Citizen's hardcore aspirations, DUST 514's PC potential, and DayZ's upcoming standalone client.
EVE Evolved: The $10,000 New Eden Open
Competitive tournaments are nothing new to gaming, but the past few years have seen an an absolute e-sports explosion. The rise of the MOBA genre is partly responsible, with new games taking DotA's tradition of industry-sponsored tournaments to new heights. Both Dota 2 and League of Legends have world championship top prizes of over a million dollars, and smaller MOBAs regularly hand out tens of thousands to winners. The recent surge in livestreaming has had an equally big part to play, with some games netting more home viewers than real televised sports. There's no doubt about it: This is the year that e-sports takes over. EVE Online has always had a tradition of in-game tournaments, with thousands of people tuning in every year to watch its annual Alliance Tournament. The tournament turns EVE's normally asymmetric PvP on its head by putting everyone on a roughly level playing field to compete for huge in-game prizes. Players were excited this week to learn that CCP Games is launching its very first competitive tournament with a real cash prize. The $10,000 New Eden Open could be the start of something really big, but will EVE's famous political and spying metagame get in the way? In this week's EVE Evolved, I investigate the details of EVE's $10,000 tournament, the source of the money pouring into e-sports, the potential of a big EVE e-sports scene, and how EVE's metagame could interfere with the New Eden Open.
Rumor: DUST 514 launching in October
Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Jack Tretton may have given away DUST 514's launch window. The EVE Online shooter sidequel has been slated for a 2012 release for some time now, but developer CCP has remained coy regarding the details. During a recent FOX Business interview, Tretton said the sci-fi title is "coming out next month." DUST 514 is a free-to-play PlayStation 3 exclusive that allows its users to interact directly with pilots in EVE. Check out our first impressions of the DUST beta, and stay tuned for more info as launch day draws near.
EVE Evolved: Four great new EVE videos
If there's one thing the EVE Online community is well known for (apart from the occasional colossal scam or game-breaking exploit), it's producing great videos. In its nine-year history, EVE has birthed some very talented video editors who have produced everything from political propaganda and instructional videos to amazing cinematic stories and machinima. The official game trailers have always turned heads, but I'd bet a significant number of current players were first introduced to EVE through player-made works of art like Kyoko Sakoda's War Has Come or Mercenary Coalition's Lacrimosa Tortuga. It's easy to fixate on only the best EVE videos ever made, but in reality, dozens of new videos are released every month. Some are cinematic story pieces or alliance propaganda videos designed to motivate the troops, but most are just compilations of good PvP fights. While PvP videos are unlikely to grab the universal acclaim of incredible films like Clear Skies or Future Proof, they arguably show the very core of EVE at its best: good fights, solid strategy, and pretty explosions. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at four great new EVE Online videos produced just in the past few months.
New PS3 bundle includes DUST 514 bonus content
Depending on your interest in consoles, you may have heard of the new streamlined PlayStation 3 that was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show. What you may not have heard is that it will come out in a limited edition bundle that includes $30 of bonus digital content for DUST 514. DUST 514 is receiving some publicity because of this bundle, which certainly can't hurt the upcoming release of CCP's MMOFPS. Players who purchase the $270 console bundle will receive a copy of Uncharted 3 and a voucher to use in DUST 514. The voucher will give players content worth "more than $30" of bonus content, although what said content is has not been specified.
Players in DUST 514 and EVE Online can join the same corporations
Integrating EVE Online with CCP Games' upcoming DUST 514 must present many challenges, one of which is how to handle the issue of corporations (guilds). In a new blog post, CCP confirms that players of either game can join the same corporations, whether they are newly established or deep-rooted EVE entities. DUST 514 corps will therefore be structured and function much the same as the corps in EVE Online, with the founding member becoming CEO. DUST 514 players will not be able to access all levels of management for multi-game corps, however. CCP is providing similar corporation creation tools for DUST 514, including logo design, structured roles, and corporation battles. Players of both games will then be easily able to communicate to each other through corp chat.
The Daily Grind: Which two MMOs would you like to see crossover?
I love crossovers. They're quite common in comics and in television while a little less so with movies (although crossovers happen even there). But what about MMOs? EVE Online and DUST 514 are going to share the same universe, while Pirate101 and Wizard101 take place in the Spiral with plenty of crossover possibility. That said, what if there were a true crossover between MMOs? What if characters, mobs, or events could spill over from one into another? Maybe the rifts from RIFT would suddenly start threatening Middle-earth or the gangstas from APB would decide to hijack a few starships in Star Trek Online? What if Marvel and DC would allow a limited-time interaction between their two MMOs in the future for some epic superhero throwdowns? Today, only your imagination is the limit. Which two MMOs would you like to see crossover? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Evolved: Has EVE Online boxed itself in?
When I was first introduced to EVE Online in 2004, it was an empty shell of a game. There were only three classes of ship, no alliances or starbases, and neither exploration complexes nor level 4 missions existed yet. EVE consisted of 5,000 systems of almost completely empty space populated by less than 50,000 players. The user interface was an order of magnitude worse than it is today (if you can imagine that), and the tutorial just dropped you in the middle of space with the ship equivalent of a pea shooter and a less-than-enthusiastic "good luck!" Though much of the game was empty, it sat before players like a blank galactic canvas. Not only could players paint their own stories into the game world, but EVE's highly active development team was updating the game at lightning speed. Players instinctively filled the voids in the game with their hopes and dreams, projecting all the things that EVE could be into the gaps. People shared ideas on the forum directly with the developers, and practically anything was possible. Things aren't quite the same today, as new ideas have to be compatible with over nine years' worth of updates, and developer CCP Games really can't afford to rock the boat and potentially lose subscriptions. In this week's EVE Evolved, I consider whether the past nine years of development has boxed EVE in, forcing the gameplay down an ever-narrowing branch of choices.
The Firing Line: DUST 514 beta impressions
I haven't played DUST 514's beta in a while, so I figured that this week's installment of The Firing Line was a good excuse to give it another go. As for first impressions, my initial session some months back wasn't worth writing about (plus there was that pesky NDA thing). It was also quite a short session that I've basically forgotten, so my intent today is to jot down some proper thoughts about CCP's new EVE-inspired shooter based on a solid evening of uninterrupted playtime.
CCP talks DUST's matchmaking system
The PlayStation blog has a new post up concerning DUST 514. More specifically, CCP is getting ready to unveil its matchmaking system for the sci-fi shooter MMO. The company says that DUST will use "an algorithm that takes into account certain criteria when considering whom to populate into a quick match. Some criteria are hardware-based, such as internet speed/latency, while others are based on player statistics, measuring players' overall strengths and then pulling them into balanced teams using that information." The new system will debut in the game's next beta patch. The update will also introduce the ability for player mercenaries to form four-man squads and join a quick match together. DUST's instant battle matchmaking system is also part of a new feature that sees players fighting for planetary district ownership on behalf of various NPC corporations from sister MMO EVE Online. Head over to the PlayStation blog for the full article.
DUST 514 and EVE Online 'initial integration' now playing on Singularity test server
CCP has announced that EVE Online and DUST 514 players can now officially communicate with one another in-game on the firm's Singularity test server. DUST mercenaries and EVE capsuleers can chat each other up in the local channels of several empire systems, according to a new CCP forum post. EVE-mail messages can also be exchanged between the two playerbases, and DUST items are now visible on EVE's in-game market (though it's currently impossible to buy them through the EVE client). CCP says initial EVE/DUST interaction is necessarily limited due to several known issues and the age of Singularity's current code base, but today's announcement marks an exciting first step in the firm's long-range plan to merge its long-running sci-fi MMORPG with its new PlayStation 3 shooter.
CCP releases new DUST 514 screens, 'precursor' beta client
CCP has released some new DUST 514 beta screens today, and the firm has also flung open the gates via the start of its PlayStation Plus subscriber beta exclusive. The promotion runs through September 4th, so log into your Plus account and download the client if you're itching to unleash your inner space marine. Today's beta update also ushers in the "Precursor" client, which includes the first real-time DUST/EVE Online integration, new environments, and keyboard/mouse support. More info is available at the official DUST 514 website. [Source: CCP press release] %Gallery-163012%
DUST 514 Neocom makes game functions portable via PS Vita app
Although unable to participate in actual gameplay unless they are sitting at their consoles, DUST 514 players will be able to access a variety of features from anywhere on their mobile devices using a companion app to the PS3. Dubbed DUST 514 Neocom, this PS Vita app grants full access to the fittings system, allowing players to adjust armor, weaponry, and vehicle configurations. The app also lets players peruse and purchase from the game's store; it even offers daily deals and special offers. CCP Creative Director Atli Mar Sveinsson stated, "There are so many parts of DUST 514 that you can take with you and don't need a PS3 to enjoy, and this was the perfect way to exploit those features. The whole PlayStation ecosystem works really well, allowing these systems to connect and be a nice cohesive experience. It's MMO on the go."
