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EverQuest patch improves the look of old NPCs
Happy EverQuest Patch Day, Norrathians! The team has put out the usual hodge-podge of fixes, tweaks, and updates to make your play experience all that much better. Go tell yourself back in 1999 how you will be living the high life now that this patch is out in 2015. Today's patch makes it easier to land hits with The Darkened Sea melee abilities, increases health of high-level mercs, improves older NPC character models, and improves water-related sound effects. You can read the full patch notes to see if any of these changes will impact your adventures.
Choose My Adventure: A bit of TERA sightseeing
There's no question that TERA is one of the most beautiful MMOs on the market. Its open world features gorgeous terrain, cool set pieces, and lots of variation for the screenshot-obsessed. So when Choose My Adventure's voters elected to send me exploring last week, I was more than happy to oblige. I wouldn't accomplish much Fate of Arun stuff, but at least I'd get to see some sights! I also, somehow, learned a bit more about the Warrior class and how to effectively deploy it in combat. It's been a long, hard crawl, but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of my combo abilities and my evasion techniques. I'm definitely dying less and even occasionally having moments when I feel totally in control of the actions my character is taking and the reasoning behind them. I almost feel... good. Until the next BAM smacks me down, of course.
Wings Over Atreia: Aion entices returning players, removes reviled manastone mechanic
If you haven't checked back into Aion in a while, now might be the time to start plotting your return. Next week on January 28th NCsoft is introducing a special new experience for those who have been away from the game for more than 30 days; it includes special zones called Abbeys that provide exclusive bonuses as well as quests and gear upgrades. Even better, if one of the reasons you left was the frustration involved in losing all your equipment's manastones when you failed to socket a final stone, you'll be even happier to learn that that particular mechanic is being removed from the game! That's right: Aion players will no longer risk losing already successfully socketed manastones when trying to put another one in (a much needed change that I championed years ago!). We've got the scoop on these new changes from Associate Product Manager Sean Orlikowski -- along with news of an upcoming Shugo event instance and the breakthrough system that raises enchantment levels -- in this special return of Wings Over Atreia.
World of Warships gets carriers, weekend beta event
Wargaming has officially introduced the aircraft carrier to World of Warships. The class launch brings the total number of playable warship types to four including the destroyer, the cruiser, and the battleship. "Aircraft carriers offer a unique angle to combat, delivering RTS-style gameplay and the ability to launch three types of warplane squadrons (fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers) against any opponent," the company says. In other WoWS news, Wargaming is planning a three-day testing event called Wings Over Water. It starts on January 23rd and runs through the 25th. Click here to sign up, and don't forget to watch the trailer after the cut!
Global Chat: Guild Wars 2's economy is broken
Guild Wars 2's economy remains a hot-button issue even two-and-a-half years after its release. In this week's exploration of the blogosphere, one writer pulls out all the stops to let you know what's broken about this MMO's economy -- and how it can be fixed. In addition to this thoughtful read, Global Chat will hear some snark on silly hotbar icons, pontificate about poor MMO names, deliver The Repopulation first impressions, and invite you to participate in a grand MUD experiment. Let's get going!
Trove unveils a trailer for the Ice Sage class
We understand what you're worried about, dear readers, so allow us to reassure you. In the trailer past the cut, there are no references to an animated film from the Disney corporation about cold. There are also only two ice puns, and they're "puns" only by the most generous definition of the term. More like ice-related references for Trove's Ice Sage. Of course, part of the reason for this is probably the fact that the trailer lasts a grand total of thirty seconds, so there wasn't all that much time for ice-based humor. But if you want to see the class in action, you can do so, and isn't that what you're really after? Glad to hear it. Jump on past the break and chill out.
Sky castles and a gun-using class coming to TERA in 2015
Peer into the ball, strange bear thing with a skull cowboy hat, and tell us what future TERA holds. Or better yet, we could just read the brand-new producer's letter with all sorts of spoilers about the coming year! But the ball, that's cool too. The team is gearing up for an ambitious 2015, if this letter is any indication. Plans for February include sky castles for guilds, the Sky Cruiser Endeavor dungeon, and a 5v5 version of Champions' Skyring. Past that, TERA will host more frequent small events, a community costume design contest, the opening of the Dreadspire, and a brand new "gun-toting" class. Finally, the team promises to be better about talking to its playerbase. "As for our communication of the process -- yes, it has to get better, and it'll start with me," Producer Treeshark said.
Neverwinter: Elemental Evil bringing the Paladin, higher level cap
Elements are the "in" thing for 2015, especially in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. First we found out that DDO will be implementing the Temple of Elemental Evil this year, and now we've gotten word that Neverwinter's newest module will be called Elemental Evil (it's no coincidence; both titles have a relationship with Wizards of the Coast, who likes to do these tie-ins). This module will be a significant one when it comes early this year. Elemental Evil will add a new class to the game, the Paladin, and increase the level cap from 60 to 70. The increased level cap means more skills and quests for all eight classes. Cryptic also announced that future updates in 2015 for Neverwinter will include the player guild housing Strongholds system, the Xbox One launch, and the arrival of popular D&D characters. [Source: Cryptic press release]
Path of Exile unholsters the banhammer for cheaters
The team behind Path of Exile has been pretty forgiving up to this point. Players have been a bit more commonly warned that there will be penalties if they're cheating. But that's over now. The latest race season has finished, and players who were found to have cheated have been given a grand total of no rewards even if they were technically eligible. Nearly 4,000 players will log in to find a warning to disable any cheats they have running before they get banned. From this point forward, any incidents with cheating software will result in a ban, end of discussion. This is true even if the player in question argues that the cheat was being used for quality-of-life purposes; those issues will be addressed in the future and don't justify cheating. Players are reminded that they are allowed to run tools that don't require the client to be running and single-action hotkeys without a problem, so don't worry about being punished just for having Fraps in the background. Just... don't cheat.
Trove vows to become 'the ultimate sandvox'
Trove Game Director Andrew Krausnick isn't above making grand statements, saying in his 2015 preview letter that he wants the title to become the ultimate sandvox. "Modest, right?" he begins. "Simply put, if there's something fun to do with voxels in an MMO adventure setting, we're going to be there and we're going to be the best." With that out of the way, Krausnick goes on to outline some of the big goals for the coming year. He said that the team is working to add gliding, sky islands, rune crafting, water islands, fishing, swimming, more block types, more mechanics, and definitely more classes. Another big focus Krausnick mentions is to expand the economy: "We also think it should be easy and rewarding for everyone to trade and participate in the economy, so we'll be creating a system this year to make the trade channel simply a small part of a larger economic system!" He finished his letter by saying that the open beta test will be ending "sooner rather than later," indicating an early 2015 launch.
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite EQII class?
Welcome to another installment of Massively's Daily Grind where I give SOE -- and more specifically EverQuest II -- some free air time. As I mentioned earlier this week, I recently returned to the game and am having a pretty good time of it. I'm not sure Coercer is the class for me, though, which is where today's question comes in. Help me out here: what's your favorite EQII class and why? 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!
Marvel Heroes gets Omega event, level 52 Hulk review
Another weekend, another event in Marvel Heroes! This time it's Operation Omega, back for its first appearance of 2015. You'll get a 24% boost to XP, SIF, and RIF, as well as login rewards, harder enemies, and a faster leveling experience. Gazillion has also published Hulk's level 52 review as well as a new ultimate costume for the green monster.
LotRO players host Winterstock II music festival
Lord of the Rings Online is well-known for its player bands that take advantage of the in-game instruments, and this weekend you can hear a lot of musical acts with the return of the Winterstock player festival. Hosted by the Lonely Mountain Band kinship, Winterstock II will feature 31 bands playing over the course of four days from January 16th through the 19th. All shows will be set near Thorin's Gate on the Landroval server. There's a schedule posted on the forums, and if you really want to get into the swing of things, you can listen to the official Winterstock II theme song.
Path of Exile holding PvP invitational this weekend
To conclude Path of Exile's first PvP season, Grinding Gear is holding the game's first invitational tournament this weekend. The PvP invitational will take place over two days, with the European tournament on Saturday, January 17th, and the North American tournament on Sunday, January 18th. Sixteen players will compete in each invitational to win various prizes from Razer and Karma Koin. Following the invitational, Path of Exile will begin (pardon the pun) gearing up for PvP season two, which is slated to begin in "early February." The studio said that the second season will contain improvements as suggested by the community. [Source: Grinding Gear Games press release]
Al Rivera discusses his role in Star Trek Online on Reddit
Who is Captain Geko? It was a fairly innocent question posed on Reddit earlier in the week by a user who happened to group with someone using that name in Star Trek Online. The answer is that it's the usual screen name of lead designer Al Rivera, who took the opportunity to respond to the question with a larger discussion of what makes the game what it is and how the game's microtransaction model is set up. Rivera discusses his experience with the franchise and being a longtime fan from the age of 10, as well as the fact that the game's microtransactions are decided upon chiefly based on what will keep the lights on and keep the game fundamentally free-to-play. While he states clearly that not every decision comes down to him, at the end of the day he's proud of what the team has accomplished and the state of the game. If you want a look behind the curtain at one of the people in charge of Star Trek Online, take the time to read Rivera's full answer. [Thanks to Lootcritter for the tip!]
RIFT spurns hoverboards and brings out hoverbikes for 2015
Do you all like your current MMOs? More than you like RIFT? That's fair. But do you like your current MMO more than you like... hover bikes? Faced with the choice, the team behind RIFT is hoping that when it comes down to the wire, your answer of what game you love the most will be answered with a resounding chorus of "hover bikes!" Hey, it's close enough. Yes, bikes that do not roll but instead hover slightly above the ground are being floated out to RIFT for a limited time. If you want to not-actually-roll through Telara with these stylish mounts, you'd best log on and grab them promptly; they're available for only a limited time. And who doesn't love hover bikes, after all? Especially when they have a video showing off just past the break.
World of Warcraft dispels free-to-play 'Veteran Edition' rumors
Pretty much anything in the world will start the World of Warcraft free-to-play rumors these days, but this set of rumors had a bit of basis in reality, at least. Datamining uncovered references to a "Veteran Edition" for players, which prompted speculation that it would be a preferred account status for players who were on the free side but still had played in the past. It turns out that's not quite accurate, but it's also not entirely wrong: Veteran Edition will allow players to play for free, essentially, with Starter Edition restrictions. Community Manager Bashiok addressed the rumors, explaining that while someone who never had played the game before could jump in with Starter Edition restrictions, veteran players could not. Veteran Edition, then, places almost all of the same restrictions on players, but it will allow you to roll up a new character and play through level 20 or at least log in to chat with friends. No word on exactly when this will be rolled out, but it should put the free-to-play rumors to bed until they start again in a month.
Star Wars: The Old Republic will address balance and ranked PvP for update 3.1
Star Wars: The Old Republic is launching update 3.1 in about a month, and the developers are using this patch to address some standing issues. The patch also kicks off the game's fourth ranked play season, which is scheduled to last about three months. This season will be used as the basis for some new ranked play adjustments, such as implementing a "floor" rating for picking up the lowest-tier season rewards in Season 5. The season's titles will also be class-specific based on forum feedback. Designers are also looking into balancing classes, starting with the Darkness Assassin and the Kinetic Combat Shadow, addressing issues with survivability and damage in the class. If you've been feeling squishier or less resilient or noticed oddities with abilities, you can take part in the thread yourself. Early versions of these changes have already been rolled out to the test servers for the coming update. [Thanks to Mikey Moo for the tip!]
Cross-server dungeons, more level-agnostic dungeons coming to EQII
EverQuest II producer Holly Longdale says that the dev team is in the process of updating current level-agnostic dungeons to level 94. She says to expect the patch "in the next few weeks" and that more dungeons will be added to the system later in 2015. Cross-server dungeons are still in the pipeline, too. "Since December, we have been rewriting a lot of the back-end systems (i.e., databases and stuff) which is all part of our foundation for the long and healthy future of EQ2," she writes. "The changes and updates we're making are going to give us a lot of benefits on the dev/server side as well as giving us the ability to do things like cross-server dungeons.
Will a Veteran's Edition join WoW's free to play ranks? UPDATED
Update: We've gotten an official announcement from Blizzard saying that Veteran Edition is coming with patch 6.1 as a way for players who have ever had a subscription to log on, chat (with restrictions) and play (also with restrictions) even after their subscription has lapsed. This version of the game will have all of the restrictions the Starter Edition has, but let you check in with the game (and your friends) without paying for subscription time. Original post: Since the patch 6.1 files well and thoroughly datamined, another rumor about free to play WoW has started making the rounds. Hidden in the patch data is a new account type called Veteran Edition which is set up to have similar restrictions to the Starter Edition, in which you can play for free up to level 20. However, just what those restrictions are aren't yet defined: all we know now is that there are new strings in the patch file that refer to a Veteran Edition. Though there are plenty of military personal who play and love World of Warcraft, we really can't say what this Veteran Edition is -- but if it gave military or veterans a chance to revisit WoW that only seems like a good thing. However, it might yet turn out to be nothing at all... or just an idea that wound up in the patch files that may vanish by the next PTR release. Though Blizzard has expanded the game's microtransactions, sparking rumors that WoW itself would be going free to play, Blizzard has said before that there are no plans to make the game free to play. So even if we do get a Veteran Edition, it's probably not a segue towards a free to play game -- but we're definitely curious as to where this is headed. [Via Cnet]
