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Ammo controversy in 3.3 already
Patch 3.3 is only barely out on the live realms, and already, there's a controversy with the new epic ammo recipes. Lassirra says that hunters are concerned that the requirements to make the ammo are just too high. Blizzard had promised to make getting epic ammo easier, and this still has the requirement of having a high level engineer, with the extra charge of requiring a Goblin engie for the bullets, and a Gnomish engie for the arrows. And even after you find a 450 Engineer in the right spec, you still have to get a couple of Crystallized Shadow or Earth together. That doesn't sound "easier" to me, either. Let's not forget, however, that this is cutting edge (no pun intended) ammo -- this isn't the kind of vendor junk you just fire while leveling. It's a 30 point DPS gain from the previous high level ammo, and that kind of increase probably does justify a little tougher requirement to make. Of course, it'll probably work out so that other classes get that increase normally through their itemization, but that's just the way it works for hunters. If you want the new ammo, you'll have to find an friendly engie of the right spec with the right skill Honored with the new Ashen Verdict faction, and then keep them supplied with as much Crystallized Earth and Shadow as you can find.
E3 2009: Global Agenda impressions, continued
My "Engineer" equipped, we ran over to the PvE mission master, grabbed a mission, and then got a cinematic of a dropship taking off and landing in the zone. After a little experimentation with the force fields and turrets (Robotics characters put down a marker which then needs to be repaired up to full strength with a special weapon), we dropped into the building, and were instantly confronted with some Star Wars-style droid robots. With the character at mid-level already, they were a little tougher than beginners will find, so at first, when we tried just a straightforward assault with the "flubber" gun, they got the better of us. But after a short delay (death brings just a few seconds' respawn time, and then you can respawn and warp back into the battle through a respawn beacon), we went back into the fray, and when we used our special skills (put up a one-way forcefield and created a turret and a robotic pet to help us fight), we finished off the robots (including a "worker," who served to bring in reinforcements and had to be taken down first, and a bigger ED209-esque boss robot). Next up, we tried jumping in to some PvP. Players in Global Agenda will be able to level up via either PvE or PvP -- PvE missions will accept 1-4 players, and while the enemies may be the same (though Harris said they were experimenting with putting players in at different spawn points or switching up enemy spawns a little bit to give the levels some more variety), they'll scale in difficulty depending how many friends you bring along. PvP missions are more common shooter settings (Attack and Defend, Capture the Flag, Escort), though sometimes with a special twist: The CTF maps are actually "capture the robot," where the flag is actually a giant mech that players need to jump in and return to their side to score. This time, we specced a medic together, and saw a few of the different ways you can play that class: you can make it very much like a TF2 medic with just a single target healing gun, or go with a chain-healing gun (that can hit multiple targets with the tradeoff of being weaker), or you can choose a "nanite" weapon, which hits with single shots rather than a channeling stream, and provides a heal over time when they hit. All weapons and abilities are governed by an energy stat, which works like mana in other MMOs -- there's no ammo, so if you have energy, you can fire, otherwise you'll have to seek cover and rest. Lower level guns can be fired indefinitely, but more powerful guns have a rate of fire just limited by how much energy you use with each shot. Turns out our medic did pretty well -- not only did we keep up some friendly players in the Attack and Defend map, but with the medic's boost ability (all classes also build up "boost" as they play, and when you fill that meter, you can use a special move that usually affects the whole team, very much like Call of Duty 4's perks), we laid down some great AoE healing that turned us into a pretty powerful force on our own, too. PvP was actually lots of fun -- given that the game is still in alpha, it wasn't completely balanced yet, but the feeling of a good shooter is there: we took attack points, Robotics turrets defended until they were overpowered, medics held up tanks through enemy assaults, and Recon characters snuck around with stealth and tried backstabbing with melee. But while the action is in a good place, the rest of the world still needs work. Harris says that outside of battle, there will be similarly instanced social areas to go through, but the places we saw were still pretty generic: you can visit mission givers, buy armor in an auction house, and buy dye to customize that armor, but otherwise the social areas were pretty lifeless. There were still people running around -- the game is currently in an alpha, and is starting up a closed beta this summer -- but there's no open world, no place to watch matches in action, and no real social mechanics to tie people together. At the highest levels of the game, the world depends on huge guilds working as a team: players will be competing for hundreds of different maps to try and advance their Global Agenda (see what we did there?). But while there will be a pickup matchmaking system in place, with no open world, it'll be interesting to see how players find each other. A little social boost might go a long way. But other than that, Global Agenda is shaping up well -- Hi Rez is doing a great job of mixing in some uncommon influences and combining them with the persistent MMO genre. We'll definitely be on the lookout for the beta later this year.
The Queue: Druidic Druids
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Today we'll look at the pressing questions of Arthas' relationship with you, Blizzard's love affair with the Druidic traditions, and Quartermaster dis/sim-ilarities.Jumper asked..."Where do players fit into the story of the WoW? For example: Eventually players will be able to kill Arthas. How will that be written in the stories?"
Further weapon balance blogging for Fallen Earth
Realtime guns, knives, grenades, pipes and all sorts of other weapons tend to make for an interesting challenge when it comes to balancing them, which is exactly what the most recent Fallen Earth developer diary discusses. It appears to have been a long road for the developers, but after much play testing and some clever re-categorizing they seem to have come upon a good method.Smart choices like allowing everyone to use grenades (thus giving melee-focused characters a little range) mark a very well thought-out system. Insuring that an sandbox style MMO still have a good sense of structure and meaning is imporatant, because without it everyone simply opts for the winning weapon. It's developer diaries like this that make us excited for upcoming games, which wasn't really necessary for Fallen Earth but helps nonetheless.
Scattered Shots: Ranged weapons from Ulduar
Scattered Shots is your weekly guide to improving your Hunter skills, brought to you by Jessica "Lassirra" Klein of The Hunter's Mark, covering a variety of Huntery topics. Today, we'll be taking a look at the new ranged weapons available from Ulduar. With new raid instances comes new gear to covet, and Ulduar is no different. Normal and Heroic modes both have new guns and bows available to help give your shots that much more oomph, and today I'd like to take a closer look at these weapons to help you compare potential upgrades. Before we dive right into the new stuff, let's do a quick recap of the older ranged weapons so we'll have a point of reference to start from.
IBM patents bullet dodging bionic armor
Your science fiction fantasy may be coming a reality, if IBM has anything to say about it. The company was recently granted a patent for bionic body armor, originally filed last March, that's intended to bestow the wearer the power to dodge bullets. The device works by constantly emitting electromagnetic waves that bounce off any fast-moving projectiles, and it uses the data to calculate risky trajectories. If the object in question is determined to be a threat, muscle stimulators activate and cause the wearer's body to contort in such way to avoid being hit. It works under the idea that a sniper typically fires from a distance, given the armor time to detect the oncoming bullet and react accordingly. Check out an image of from IBM's filing after the break. Here's hoping it can detect lasers, too.[Via The Firearm Blog; thanks, Chris!]
Breaking: Consumable ammunition will not be removed in patch 3.1
Ancilorn, a new blue community team member over on the EU forums, just posted that despite the recent announcement, patch 3.1 will not remove consumable ammunition.According to Ancilorn, they "still fully intend to move forward with this change when the additional functionality becomes available." To me that means Blizzard needs to do some serious recoding to make the change work, and it's cool that they're letting us know they're still going to do it.Ancilorn also lets us know the following points: Patch 3.1 will remove the need for pouches/quivers Arrows and Bullets will have their stack size greatly increased. Haste bonuses from pouches/quivers will be preserved in another fashion. We have no additional information other than what's been said above, but we're anxiously on the lookout now for the patch 3.1 PTR.Angry baby called. He wants his change back! Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
WeeP5 makes other Wiimote gun mods cry home to their mamas
If your Wiimote-gun hybrid lacks a little bit of that "I would shut down an airport having this in my carry-on luggage" panache, we suggest you check out WeeP5, a toy MP5 chock-full of motion control. To be honest, we're most enamored by the setup of the above picture, as the modded armament rests lovingly over the heads of a young couple, against a picture of men in togas, and just under a VHS copy of The Lost World in German -- it's just so beautiful. In case you're wondering: B button is the trigger, A button is under the foregrip, 1 and 2 are on opposite sides near the front, the D-pad and Wii remote are jutting out of the left side, and the +, -, and home buttons are on the top just above the ammo clip. Hit up the read link for full DIY instructions.[Via Hack a Day]
Let me get a 12" Ornate Triple Pepperoni Blunderbuss
Reader Jacckk sent along this funny bit of WoW, hidden in a strange place. On the menu of one Eden's Pizza in St. Paul, Minnesota, there is an item for an "Ornate Triple Pepperoni Blunderbuss," right in between the "Mean Supreme" and "Sicilian" styles (actually, the "Rastafarian" sounds really good, too). And yes, for those of you who've done some gun shopping in Azeroth, the artery-clogging pepperoni with mozza and feta monstrosity is apparently a reference to the old Ornate Blunderbuss, a vendor weapon available pretty commonly throughout the game.Why they'd name their pizza after a vendor weapon in WoW, we have no idea, but there you go. If you do call them up to order the pizza though (think they'd deliver me one to Chicago?), make sure to get a side of Sulfuras Buffalo Wings, too -- they'll make you "taste the fire of Sulfuron!"** I also would have accepted "Sulfuras Buffalo Wings: By fire be purged!"
[UPDATED!] A look at Wrath of the Lich King's Green quest rewards
When Blizzard half-seriously apologized for the brutally ugly Season 4 Brutal Gladiator gear by saying that their artists were hard at work on the expansion, they weren't kidding. If any of us were afraid that there'd be massive clown action, we can rest easy because from the look of things, even green items have an epic feel to them. The designers over at Blizzard have done a fantastic job making the green quest rewards in Northrend look impressive and even menacing that players won't feel embarrassed to equip them. I haven't checked out all of the armor pieces, but a quick perusal of the weapons shows that Northrend won't be a total circus when we finally get there. I mean, just look at the gun above. That looks really badass, specially with the skull and weathered metal. Check out pics of uncommon, or 'green', weapons found all over Northrend in the gallery below. [UPDATE!] By popular demand, I included a couple of green staves and as a bonus, took a sneak peek at the two blue quest reward items for Death Knights. I know they're not green, but they're pretty cool, nonetheless. %Gallery-28586%
Fallen Earth video showcases lots of gameplay
We've been following Fallen Earth for a while now, so it's very nice to finally see a new official video after waiting patiently for several months since the last. Everything looks like it's running incredibly smoothly too, which is a relief given the nature of the combat system in the game. Speaking of that, the combat looks pretty solid to us, but don't be fooled by the run-and-gun gameplay. Fallen Earth's MMO qualities are littered about in-between all the blazing guns you see in the footage. We do love those details. For instance, if you listen closely to the scene with the sniper scope you'll hear a nice clicking sound as the sharpshooter zooms in slightly.Beyond the guns, girls and giant mutants in the video, you'll also be seeing some footage of players riding their very own mounts. It's some sort of buggy from what we can gather, some might even consider it to be puma-like. Here's hoping for some mounted gun upgrades so our friends can have something to do while we drive them around the wastelands!
Phat Loot Phriday: Rifle of the Stoic Guardian
A gun... for tanks. But that speed makes things a little weird. Maybe some of the theorycrafters in the crowd can come up with some good reasons for that one (or just debate my own) in the comments.Name: Rifle of the Stoic Guardian (Wowhead, Thottbot, Goblin's Workshop)Type: Epic GunDamage/Speed: 120-224 / 1.90 (90.5 DPS, which is the highest on a gun, save for the Arena PvP guns in S3 and S4 -- except most of it comes from that low speed, see below)Abilities: +31 Stamina, which might make you think this is a PvP weapon, except for: Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 20. Which is a weird little stat -- with the stamina added on to it, that means that this gun (named after a "Stoic Guardian") is basically meant as a Tank pulling gun -- it'll let you shoot bullets and give you about the bonus of a minor trinket to dodge and Stam. But if that's true, what's up with that speed? You might think that a high DPS would mean this gun is good for a Hunter, but that's not quite true across the board -- especially for BM Hunters (a.k.a. Hunters that rely on their talents and abilities to do damage), a bullet pouch will often make this gun too fast to sneak special shots in, which will actually lower the DPS you can do. But on the other hand, from what I understand, weapon speed doesn't actually affect what happens when you first fire the gun. So the idea here may be that a Warrior, pulling, should have a fast enough gun to get a few shots off during the pull, in order to build up more threat. Why else would Blizzard give tanks such a fast gun? How to Get It: Drops from our old friend Teron Gorefiend, who we last killed for the Soul Cleaver. He's in the Black Temple, there's a Know Your Lore about him, yadda yadda yadda, you know the drill by now. Drop rate on this is about 15%, but the good news is that if you need this (as in, you're a tank who often pulls at the late endgame), you'll probably be able to get it.You might have to fend a few confused Hunters off for it, though. But the dodge rating and the Stamina (not to mention, as we said, the title), should make it pretty clear that this weapon is for a "Stoic Guardian," not a "Pet-loving Peashooter."Getting Rid of It: Sells for 10g 79s 6c. Will disenchant into a Void Crystal.
Scattered Shots: Weapon choices
(Apologies for the late posting of Scattered Shots. Next week we'll be back on our Thursday schedule.)Last week I covered crowd control using traps. This week, filling in for David, I'll discuss the options available to hunters for weapon choice: ranged and melee alike. Hunters have a wide variety of weapons we can train, but our main concern is usually going to be ranged weapons: the bow, crossbow, and gun. Secondary to the ranged weapon of course is what we carry at our sides. Hunters can train in every weapon style except for maces (one and two hand) and wands. It's not technically a weapon, but for the sake of this discussion it's important to note that hunters cannot train in the use of shields. What this means is that there's a lot of weapons we can use, while not all of them are weapons that we should. Adding to the decision is the fact that we hunters can learn to dual wield one handed weapons at level twenty. With one weapon, you tend to get more punch close up, but with two weapons you might lose some damage in melee, but gain an extra weapon's worth of stat bonuses, enchantments, and other augmentations. Each weapon you have equipped contributes its individual bonuses, if any, so it's a good idea to weigh the options, even for melee weapons which you might hardly ever use.Earlier in the column, I recommended a low level hunter train in a two handed weapon early, since the first ten levels involve a greater percentage of melee combat, prior to getting a pet to handle your aggro. I'll talk about where to train what weapons, what augmentations you can add to weapons, and which ranged weapons are the best, after the jump!
Automated paintball gun keeps the residence secure
Nah, it's not like tagging an intruder with shades of neon green, yellow and orange will do much to disable him / her, but it would probably make 'em think twice before going any further. 'Course, we're sure one could think of other uses for an automated paintball gun, and for those creative enough to agree, Team Cynergy has put together a videotaped how-to guide for building a laser-based motion detector and connecting it to your gun. We'll save the technicalities for those who dare to check out the near-10 minute clip posted after the break, but the long and short of it involves a Parralax BASIC Stamp 2 microcontroller, a red laser pointer, a servo and a good bit of tinkering (among other things). Besides, this is a lot less dangerous than that motion-activated BB rifle and laser-guided turret you built earlier this year, so why not flex some DIY muscle and give this endeavor a go?[Via HackedGadgets]
Vending machine disguise may or may not fool criminals
How anyone could think that a cloth vending machine would fool even the stupidest of criminals is beyond us, but we guess if the convertible skirt / vending machine is going to be made somewhere, it might as well be in Japan. The New York Times has the write-up of Aya Tsukioka clothing designs, intended to provide the vulnerable with ways of avoiding thieves and other evil folk: beyond the Coke machine, there's a purse shaped like a manhole, and a child's backpack that looks like a fire hydrant. Here, we just carry guns.[Thanks, Ross M.]
DARPA funds laser-guided bullets
In case you didn't know, part of DARPA's job is just to think up some totally outrageous stuff and then begin to throw money at it. Well, its brain-trust must be working overtime this month, because as a follow up to the invisible, shoot-through shield, we're getting laser-guided bullets. On the very same "budget item justification sheet" in which the aforementioned sci-fi shield is proposed, DARPA honchos "justify" the laser guided bullet project, which will fund research into a low cost, high performance solution for designing "new guidance technologies" that will enable steering of bullets in flight. The hope with this technology is that compact targeting systems (to be embedded in said projectiles) will enable "overmatching fire power" and increased "first shot effectiveness", in addition to potentially cutting down on friendly fire and collateral damage -- and retroactively making JFK's "one-gunman" assassination plausible. [Via Wired]
Sony apologizes over Manchester Cathedral gunfight scene
Sony's PR department has got to be one of the oddest places in the world to work: what other job requires doing damage control over accusations of running a racist marketing campaign and apologizing to the Church of England about violent video games in the same breath? Well, the latter is the current situation report from the whole "Resistance: Fall of Man level being set in Manchester Cathedral" brouhaha. Apparently, the company and the Church are going to sit down and discuss the Church's demands -- how much the company will be donating, and whether there will be a recall of the game -- with the background of Sony sincerely apologizing to anyone that was offended by the depiction. In light of this controversy, the embarrassment from asking a Church "can we make a video game where we shoot aliens inside this Cathedral?" would have been far less damaging than all this negative publicity: next time Sony, just ask permission![Via Joystiq]
Guns may kill, but video games close second
If there's anything we've learned quite well in the United States over the last six years it's this simple concept: Who needs facts? Facts are messy and they just get in the way of truthiness. In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre it would be too easy to look at gun control. Republican Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt spoke about the VT shootings Friday at a news conference. Leavitt, who is part of President Bush's cabinet, stated, "Inevitably we'll have conversation about guns. We have video games and the media and its impact. Inevitably we'll hear conversations about mental health and available [sic] of mental health."Both Huntsman and Leavitt in the quotes pulled by GamePolitics put guns as the top issue and then media/video games in second. Mental health remained tertiary. Of course, the focus will probably be about anything but guns. Having a conservative discuss gun control in the US is like trying to get liberals to discuss welfare reform -- some golden cows you just don't touch. Looking at video games in the two recent US killing sprees, instead of focusing on guns and mental health, is certainly interesting considering neither killer had video games -- but we're pretty sure they were crazy and had guns. President Bush has requested a report on the VT issue in 30 days. We can't wait to see if the Pokémon episode "The Legend of Dratini" (pictured) is brought into this debate -- guns, media and video games in one neat, easy to digest, package.
Gangs get games for guns
Apparently figuring that drug runners would rather shoot a virtual gun than a real one, Mexico City authorities have started a program allowing gun owners in the crime-riddled Tepito area to trade in their firearms for game systems. Reuters reports that a high-powered machine gun will net a $756 computer, while turning in a smaller gun earns an Xbox (presumably a 360, though the article is unclear) or cash.Organizers reportedly took in 17 guns on the first day -- a relative blip in a region afflicted with 2,000 drug-related killing last year, but still a good start. Here's hoping these criminals find the idea of virtual violence much more engrossing than real world carnage.Previously: GRAW 2 to be seized by Mexican state gov't
Reader WoWspace of the Week: January 31 - February 6
Reader Scott chimes in with a very interesting WoWspace this week: He says: :-) this is a nice idea, anyhow this was my wow space from aroudn March of last year, so I reckon it still counts. I played many an hour of Wow from this desk.. I worked for a protection company in Baghdad in the red zone, as their head of IT, so this was my personal space where I spelt and where I played when I could. From Baghdad connecting to the EU servers wasn't really a problem, I often had better pings when there than when I accessed WoW in Germany.My station was a Ferrari 3200 which wasn't that bad, and of course the web cam for skyping the wife each night. against the desk were the rifles we had to lug around with us, and the pistol as a personal side arm. So keep sending in photos and words about your WoWspace. We'll post one a week in the order we get them, and remember to include plenty of description and let us know what you'd like to improve on. Send those in to "readerwowspace at gmail dot com" (replacing the at and dot, of course.)
