exploration
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EVE Evolved: Archaeology and Hacking in Odyssey
EVE Online's Odyssey expansion is set to land in just over a week's time, kicking off the game's second decade with a focus on exploration, immersion, and resource rebalancing. Developers plan to shake up nullsec by redistributing the value of various moon minerals and buffing player-owned outposts, and lowsec will become a more tempting place to visit with the addition of valuable new tags to asteroid belt NPCs. But what's in it for highsec players? In addition to new navy issue battlecruisers and immersive new jump and death sequences, players from all corners of EVE will find new exploration content in their back yards. A big part of the new exploration system is a complete redesign of the Hacking and Archaeology mini-professions, which have been in EVE for as long as I can remember and have remained relatively unchanged. Odyssey will add new sites for both professions and replace the boring old chance-based system with a new minigame that emphasises co-operation with other players. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the history of Hacking and Archaeology in EVE and what the new system brings to the table.
Elder Scrolls Online elaborates on crafting and exploration
ZeniMax scooped up all of the questions that fans had after seeing The Elder Scrolls Online's crafting and exploration video, and answered several of the most pressing of them in a new post. TESO will feature five crafting professions: weaponsmith, armorsmith, enchanter, alchemist, and provisioner. Of these, players are able to train in two fields so that a robust economy will develop between crafters. While there aren't any recipes in the game, players have multiple avenues to combine ingredients and make the same item. The studio indicated that those who have played previous Elder Scrolls games might have an advantage in knowing familiar plants and crafting ingredients and how they interact. Other topics in the AMA include fishing lures, how big your library can get (there's no limit, basically), the use of Mundus Stones, and the difficulty of lockpicking. "Your lockpicking will automatically improve as you level, gradually making chests that were once very difficult to open a much easier prospect. Though your lockpicking skill will increase as you level, the chests you encounter in higher level areas will also be more difficult," ZeniMax explained.
The Elder Scrolls Online wants you to explore everywhere
Any RPG player worth his or her salt knows that there are two primary maxims to making it big: explore everywhere and take everything not nailed down. Fortunately, ZeniMax subscribes to this philosophy as well, which is why the team has placed an emphasis on exploration and loot-gobbling in The Elder Scrolls Online. In a new video, Creative Director Paul Sage shows how players can loot all manner of goods in the world and then use those items for crafting. He also points out how the world will be populated with readable books, fishable areas, hidden chests, and ability-boosting stones. So if you were wondering if it's OK to rob a church in TESO, the following video should assure you that it's more than fine -- it's encouraged.
Choose My Adventure: Beyond the walls of safety in Darkfall
Man up MJ, you said. Forsake the fetters of safety and wander the wilds of the world. Yes, folks, for the next phase of our Choose My Adventure project, you directed me to leave the confines of the starting cities and surrounding lands to explore and harvest in the unprotected areas in Darkfall Unholy Wars. That, and get familiar with the workbench for crafting. So said you all, and so I did. I ran little Emey Brokenclaw beyond the bounds of the safe zones and introduced her to the vast lands stretching across Agon. I enjoyed some exciting experiences as well as learned quite a few things during that journey, though not necessarily what you'd expect.%Gallery-187735%
'The Forest' puts on Oculus Rift, goes exploring
The Forest is a first-person horror game currently in development for the PC and Oculus Rift. After surviving a plane crash at the outset of the game, players must build and thrive in a mysterious forest, scavenging materials throughout the day and defending against an indigenous enemy by night. Developer Ben Falcone promises changing weather and tides that shift with the day/night cycle. Players will have to chop down trees to build and make fires, scavenge food or plant seeds to grow, while traps will be necessary to maintain a safe perimeter and defend the home. On the game's about page, the nocturnal ne'er-do-wells are described as "a clan of genetic mutant enemies that have beliefs, families and morals." The Forest is tentatively scheduled to launch in late 2013, and is now vying for a spot on Steam Greenlight.
New WildStar video is all about smooth moves
Movement is always important in MMOs; you can't get into arguments about who's standing in the fire if everyone is rooted in place, after all. Since WildStar is promising active combat, it needs to have even more movement than normal so that you can find new and exciting ways not to stand in new and exciting sorts of fire. And the newest DevSpeak video is all about that. "That" being movement. Not new and exciting sorts of fire. It's still pretty much normal fire. Some elements will be immediately familiar to anyone who has played a video game on a computer within the past decade. Some elements are a bit more uncommon, like double-jumping or giving every class access to a quick dashing roll. And some elements, like switching positions with a target by tearing a hole in space itself, are pretty well unique. Take a look at all of them just past the break. [Source: NCsoft press release]
Star Citizen funding eclipses $9 million
Star Citizen has reached over $9 million in funding, thanks to its almost 170,000 contributors. The space exploration MMO, spearheaded by Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, began with a successful $2 million run on Kickstarter, and has since raised almost $7 million on its own website. The original goal was "just" $500,000, but Star Citizen has topped every stretch goal it set and then some. As part of its stretch goals, Star Citizen's launch plans include a tablet companion app, celebrity voice acting, a free mission pack for every player, and over 100 star systems to explore while playing. Developer Cloud Imperium Games has just opened offices in Santa Monica, and the game's website is proclaiming a victory for post-publisher game development. Players will get a chance to explore the world of Star Citizen in an alpha release, scheduled for sometime this winter.
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!
UnderCurrent aims to bring deep sea exploration to Oculus Rift
UnderCurrent is an Unreal-powered deep sea exploration game designed for Oculus Rift from a group of university students over in the UK. The group became fascinated with VR technology and has already put together three different levels, though the collective notes that some of the core mechanics of UnderCurrent are still undetermined.These students are also maintaining a work blog chronicling each step of the design process, covering everything from music to artwork and team bios. The developers promise more videos and updates as work continues over the coming summer.[Thanks, Rasmus]
EVE Evolved: Temporarily fixing starbases
With its exploration-focused Odyssey expansion on the way, EVE Online is about to be hit with a deluge of players (new and old) venturing into the unknown. The expansion will introduce the yet-to-be-revealed Discovery Scanner and will add a ton of new exploration content all across New Eden. Odyssey aims to follow the lead of 2009's Apocrypha expansion, which saw hundreds of corporations lead lucrative expeditions into uncharted wormhole systems. We don't yet know whether the expansion will open new systems for exploration, but when Odyssey goes live, the race will be on to find and lay claim to all the goodies hidden in deep space. With no stations to dock at in wormhole space, corps currently have to store everything in destructible starbases that aren't really up to the task. Player-owned starbases were released in 2004 as sandbox-style tools for tech 2 industry and alliance territorial warfare. They were never intended to be the sole base of operations for an entire corporation, so they suffer from some pretty severe security and usability flaws as a result. Theft from ship and item hangars in wormhole space is commonplace, setting up corp roles for them is a nightmare, and living exclusively in a starbase provides a daily dose of frustration players could seriously do without. CCP has been planning to completely overhaul player-owned starbases for years, but some of today's issues can't afford to wait any longer. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the chronic problems faced by starbase-dwelling explorers and how CCP plans to temporarily fix some of them for Odyssey.
Free for All: My five favorite MMOs for exploration
There's nothing more important to me than the ability to freely explore MMOs. Heck, exploration is the reason I got into MMOs. I remember grabbing that box of Ultima Online (man, I wish I still had that box!) from a shelf at the local game store and looking in wonder at just how vast this virtual world seemed to be. I'm still the same way, although after years of doing this, I am a bit more cynical about games. I've heard so many promises that never came true, but I know that even the worst of titles offers the chance to explore a brand-new world. There are a lot of exploration mechanics out there. Free Realms has an adventurer "job," The Secret World needs players to explore to solve mysteries, Guild Wars 2 offers experience based on discovering new areas, EverQuest II entices people to explore by offering collectible items embedded in the ground, and there are so many MMOs that allow players to gain experience just by approaching areas they haven't before. But I have my favorites. These are games that just make me feel like an explorer.
EVE Evolved: EVE's Odyssey expansion could be incredible
When EVE Online's upcoming Odyssey expansion was officially announced last week at PAX East, the anticipation from players was almost palpable. Odyssey aims to follow in the footsteps of 2009's blockbuster Apocrypha expansion by revamping the exploration system and filling the void of space with thousands of new hidden treasures. We've been promised new ships, a new scanner mechanic with sleek new UI and additional functionality, and a rebalancing of industrial resources across the game. Though CCP is saving most of the expansion reveals for next month's EVE Fanfest and beyond, we can make some fairly educated guesses on what the expansion will contain from the press release and teaser site. It's pretty much a given that we'll get some kind of new exploration ship, and there's pretty strong evidence that moon minerals will be changing somehow. We're also almost guaranteed to get new faction battlecruisers, and the evidence is mounting that Jove space may finally be about to open for exploration. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the evidence for Jove space finally opening, explain why we desperately need a new scanning system, and make some educated guesses on what else the Odyssey expansion might contain.
Drifter, buoyed by a Kickstarter, heads toward release later this year
I first saw Drifter, developer Colin Walsh's great space trading simulation, at last year's GDC. Back then, the game was a great idea, though Walsh's Celsius Game Studios had plenty of work to do. In the year in between, however, Walsh carried out a successful Kickstarter, picking up over $80,000 in support for the title. As a result, the game is not only coming out on iOS but also being released on PC and Mac, and Walsh has picked up composer Danny Baranowsky to do the music, as well as an artist to help him with the game's assets and UI. I got to see the game again this week at GDC 2013, and Drifter looks terrific these days -- it's very clearly a love letter to the space trading genre (which includes games like Elite, Privateer, Freelancer, and EVE Online), an open world sandbox game on an epic scale. The universe the game creates (which is generated randomly every time you start a character) spans 10,000 light years, according to Walsh, and contains 20,000 star systems to travel through. You pilot your ship manually, and while the game as I saw it last year had a top-down view on a 2D field, the latest version has moved the camera to a behind the back view, which Walsh says really makes everything look that much bigger. Some of the larger systems might take a full hour to fly all the way across, if you were to just hit the accelerator and go. But instead of merely flying across the universe, of course, you can jump from system to system, with a short cooldown period in between each jump. During this cooldown period, you might be attacked by pirates, so every system has its own safety rating. Alternately, you could do the pirating, attacking any ships you find at will and trying to steal their cargo. Whether you come across goods by stealing them, by buying them, or even by mining them yourself (by blowing up various astroid fields you come across), the game also supports a complicated economy, where every system has its own price structure and goods for sale. And Walsh says that though it's not done yet, there will eventually be a crafting/synthesis system as well, where you can make more complicated tech out of other materials you find. Finally, says Walsh, once the sandbox elements of the game are completed (and players can fly around the universe on their own, collecting goods and money as they'd like), he wants to try and put some story into the game, building up missions and quests to send people around the world. That's a large feature that may not make it into the game's first release, but Walsh isn't worried. Currently, the game is in beta for early Kickstarter backers, and then he's going to release it to other Kickstarter backers, before eventually showing it off to the public. And then Walsh says there's lots of room to grow -- he expects to support the game with new features and content after release, listening in close to what the community wants as the game is put together. I asked Walsh if he'd always planned to run a Kickstarter, and he confirmed that yes, even though he'd done quite a bit of work on the game before the campaign, "I've been thinking about Kickstarter since I started." The Kickstarter money has definitely pushed the process along, however -- in addition to gaining an artist and the budget to support one, it's given Walsh a strong community of space trading fans very interested in the game's development. The other Kickstarter backers should get their beta starting in April, and then Walsh is hoping for a May beta for the Mac and PC version. Soon after, sometime this summer, the iOS version should appear on the App Store, and after that, Walsh hopes to spread it to even more platforms, including possibly a Steam Greenlight release. There should be no substantial difference between the versions, though the PC version's graphics may be a little more high fidelity. But Walsh says he's working on a cloud save option, where players would be able to play on one platform, and then load that exact game somewhere else. Drifter looks like a great game -- Walsh definitely knows his space trading genre, and this is an excellent example of why these games are so popular with the genre's fans. Walsh has plenty of work to do, and it'll be very exciting to see where the game goes as he moves further and further into development. But this is definitely an example of a Kickstarter campaign really paying off, and providing a game's creator not only with a larger budget to put into action, but a dedicated community to support his work.
Curiosity rover to stay in 'safe mode' for days while NASA tackles glitches
NASA's Curiosity rover has mostly had smooth sailing since it touched down on Mars last year. Unfortunately, it's in a more precarious position as of this past Thursday. After noticing corrupted memory files on the robot's primary computer, overseers have kicked Curiosity into a "safe mode" with a backup computer while they determine what's wrong and deliver any viable fixes. Don't think of this like you would the Safe Mode on a Windows PC, though. While the backup can serve as a replacement for the main computer, project manager Richard Cook warns Space.com that it will likely take "several days" to supply enough information that the failsafe can take over. NASA will switch back to the main computer if and when it's ready; if it is, the agency hopes to harden the code against future flaws. Curiosity will effectively stay on ice in the meantime... and not the variety it might want to find.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter will be combat-free, focus on exploration
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is the recently announced (and kind of creepy) new game from creative lead Adrian Chmielarz, formerly of People Can Fly, where he worked on violence-ridden games like Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgement. But while those games celebrated a proliferation of firearms, Chmielarz says his new title will be quite the opposite: There won't be any shooting at all.There will be some death, however. "Take Dear Esther, add gameplay, murder and corpses," Chmielarz said to Eurogamer this week. "That's the closest to what The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is." Dear Esther was a first person exploration game more than anything, but Chmielarz added to expect slightly more interactivity in the new title. Players will play as a detective (presumably researching the titular mystery), and will find clues as the game goes on. Chmielarz said that "the focus is not on mind bending puzzles, but on unsettling discoveries."He also said he was considering supporting the Oculus Rift, and other 3D displays and devices. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is set to launch on the PC later this year.
EVE Evolved: Expanding on wormholes
It's no secret that I'm nuts about wormholes! Last week I looked at the reasons why EVE Online's Apocrypha expansion was such a big success and rejoiced at the recent announcement that CCP will be developing similar laterally designed expansions from now on. In the announcement, developers wrote that they would ideally have liked to iterate on Apocrypha's wormhole gameplay for several releases, which got me thinking about how that gameplay could be expanded on now. Wormholes were a massive catalyst for exploration, small-scale colonisation, industry and PvP, but would it be possible to recapture that magic in an expansion? The Sleeper storyline certainly evolved with the Incursion expansion as it became known that Sansha forces were able to control wormholes and had invaded Jovian space, but that story sadly didn't translate into gameplay for people living inside wormholes. There's no risk of running into the Sansha home system on your travels, and Sansha forces will never lock down a wormhole system and attack your starbase. That feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity to me, and I worry that a new wormhole expansion could similarly pass up the opportunity to add interesting new gameplay. Adding more hidden wormhole systems and combat sites would be fun for a while, but the underlying wormhole mechanics and NPC capabilities are already common knowledge. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at various ways that a future wormhole expansion for EVE could recapture the magic of Sleeper space.
CM Crithto sends players on an Easter egg hunt
Blizzard CM Crithto has temporarily abandoned his laps of Stormwind Keep to lay down a challenge in the forums. A few days ago, player Carianate posted a great thread discussing all the Easter eggs and little surprises they'd found while out exploring Pandaria as they waited for their queues to pop. CM Crithto then popped his head into the thread to lay down a challenge to its readers: Crithto Any of you explorers find the in-game reference to something that happened in the Mists of Pandaria trailer? source WoW Insider is way ahead of the game on this little challenge, which even has an achievement associated with it, Restore Balance. Our very own Anne Stickney wrote a guide to completing the achievement, so huge detail here isn't necessary, and I don't want to completely spoil Crithto's challenge for those who haven't found this yet! Suffice it to say that it's well worth doing, it's a wonderful view, and it's really fun to head up there and see Pandaria just as it was in the trailer. What cool little things have you found? What fun little easter eggs have surprised and delighted you? If you're looking for pop culture references, and aren't the sort to go exploring the world without a map, the lovely Panser put a video guide together for people just like you. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
NASA and IHMC building X1 exoskeleton to give us a lift, keep us fit in space and on Earth
It's hard to deny the appeal of a space-bound robot like NASA's Robonaut 2, fears of subversion notwithstanding. The space agency and Florida's Institute for Human and Machine Cognition know it, and they want to put that technology into an exoskeleton with a nobler purpose than performing chores on space stations. The in-development X1 (not yet pictured) adapts the Robonaut's skills to a body-hugging frame with 10 points of movement that might give humans an assist when they need it the most. In space, the X1 could automate and add challenge to exercise for astronauts in low gravity, or provide the extra muscle for that fabled day we return to manned surface exploration. NASA envisions its exoskeleton having more grounded uses as well, such as rehabilitation for leg injuries or walking for those who never had the chance. Although we're not expecting a rapid turnaround knowing NASA's lengthy schedules, we might see the X1 in use sooner than most such products in the wake of a purposefully quick development cycle -- and, no doubt, a few interested customers here on Earth.
Curiosity rover starts light robotic arm workout in preparation for scientific main event
As NASA promised, Curiosity has stopped at the quarter pole toward its first scientific destination to test its robotic arm and attached scientific instruments. After 100 yards of driving, the rover extended its 7-foot limb, and will now spend six to ten days checking its predetermined positions and range of motion. That will ensure the appendage is ready after surviving the chilly vaccuum of space and subsequent setdown, and will let its minders see how it functions in the unfamiliar Martian gravity and temperatures. The JPL scientists in charge of the six-wheeler will also peep the Mars Hand Lens Imager and made-in-Canada Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer to warrant that they're up for all the geology to come. If all goes well, the rover will start scooping, drilling and analyzing in earnest when it hits Glenelg, then Mount Sharp -- so, we'd limber up first before tackling all that, too.
NASA's Voyager 1 marks 35th anniversary of its launch, gets photo retrospective in tribute
It's hard to believe at times that the Voyager 1 probe is older than many of us reading this article, but it's true. The official first part of NASA's Voyager program launched just over 35 years ago on September 5th, 1977, carrying not just cameras and sensors to capture the trip but the famous Golden Record documenting humanity for any curious aliens. To mark the occasion, Wired has gathered together one heck of a photo album that covers both Voyager 1's trip as well as that of Voyager 2, which technically launched earlier (August 20th the same year) but took a more roundabout route through the solar system. The gallery reminds us of the amazing scenery beyond Mars and puts our tiny blue ball of a planet in perspective; Earth was just a speck at best when photographed late into Voyager 2's journey. Perhaps the best news surrounding the milestone is simply that both Voyager probes are still running. At 11 billion miles from the Sun, Voyager 1 may be on the cusp of interstellar space and easily represents the most distant human object ever made, not to mention a record-setter for signal transmissions. There's even a chance we'll still be hearing back from the probe for its 50th anniversary -- its power could keep it chatting up to roughly 2025.
