levels
Latest
The Tattered Notebook: Merge this!
Server mergers are coming this week to EverQuest II, and with it come some serious questions about what stays, what goes, and who gets stuck with a name with a lousy X at the end. But sometimes mergers are a good thing, and I think since we're on the subject, it's worth looking at what else could be merged in the world of Norrath. In this week's Tattered Notebook, I'll consider how merging tokens, towns, classes, gods, guild halls and more could benefit EQII. Join me past the cut!
Lemmings-like Spirits for iPad out now
Spirits for iPad, which I saw and played back at Indiecade this year, is out now on the App Store. The game is US$4.99, but as a premium iPad experience, it's worth it. The whole thing is extremely relaxing, and the art style is quite well done. If you enjoy Lemmings-style puzzle gameplay where your goal is to get a set of autonomous creatures to a level exit using their various abilities, you'll really enjoy finding your way through the 40 handmade levels in Spirits. I was told a while back that an iPhone version is coming, but the iPad version was ready to go first, so here it is. Unfortunately, there's still no Game Center achievements or any other extra modes or gameplay, but that's ok. The point of the game is just to sit back and explore the world with these weird spirit creatures, so if you're looking to spend some quality gaming time with the iPad this weekend, Spirits won't let you down.
TUAW's Daily App: iSlash
iSlash is a nice puzzle-type title that reminds me of Fruit Ninja, but is probably the old arcade game Qix. You're presented with a shape on screen with a few samurai stars bouncing around inside it, and your task is to slash, with your finger, parts of the shape off, while keeping all of the stars inside a certain area. You've got to slash off up to a certain percentage of the shape to move through the levels, and while the first few are easy, the shapes get tougher later on. It's good fun. You don't have to trust us -- since the app was released, it's seen over 500,000 downloads from all over the world. Additionally, the developers are already updating it. They've added Game Center support for leaderboards and achievements already, and while there are over 70 levels now, they promise even more to come. The game's available for US$0.99, or there's a lite version to try out if you're not willing to shell out the buck.
Maps and quest levels explained for Final Fantasy XIV
Since the earliest days of MMOs, players have asked a very simple question: "Where the heck am I?" And thankfully, the ubiquitous in-game map is there to provide an answer to the question. Of course, it's all too easy to feel a bit lost anyway with Final Fantasy XIV's maps, which are long on flavor and in-game writing and a bit short on what the various symbols actually mean. So the most recent developer dispatch on the official player site has clarified the symbols on the map and helped explain where to find crucial information. In addition, the dispatch covers the game's strength-indicating icons for monsters, as well as the intervals for new quests. There are also unlocking intervals for new class-specific guildleves, both regional and local. It's a good incentive to continue leveling a few classes instead of dabbling too broadly, something that's a definite possibility with Final Fantasy XIV's permissive cross-class system. Take a look at the full dispatch for more details on the most recent round of developer-answered questions.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Because of reasons!
It's weird to say it, but City of Heroes feels like it's still on the cusp of a storm. Going Rogue was a fine expansion, but it doesn't have the sense of breaking that built-up tension, that feeling of something major just over the horizon. Or perhaps it's just me, perched out on my metaphorical porch and loudly proclaiming that this next one is going to be the big one, as I puff on my metaphorical corn-cob pipe and look across the metaphorical skyline of rural Metaphorbraska. OK, that one kind of got away from me there, but what I was trying to get at was that it's time for another question-and-answer session for City of Heroes and that I don't think I'm the only person feeling like Issue 19 might hold some great secret. We'll know soon enough, although right now it's time for Issue 20's super-secret beta, which even I don't know about just yet. I'm very curious. On to the questions!
September version update live for Final Fantasy XI
It's a good day to be in Vana'diel, as Final Fantasy XI's much-awaited September version update is now up and running on the live servers. That means another increase in the level cap, new missions for Wings of the Goddess, and many other improvements to the game. The full list of changes may be found in the official patch notes, which also include a few pieces of information not previously disclosed. As expected, the majority of the changes center around the increase of the level cap to 85, complete with levels for the previewed new abilities and traits. There are also several smaller quality of life improvements, and the usual array of bug fixes across the board. Players waiting for the update to download (which can take quite some time, as any Final Fantasy XI veteran can attest) can peruse the full list of changes and get ready for some interesting new experiences.
TUAW's Daily App: No, Human
No, Human is an intriguing little morsel of gameplay for both the iPhone and the iPad. The clever premise is that humans are planning to go out and explore the Universe, and the Universe, in turn, has decided that's not a good idea. So, you're actually playing against humans, lobbing fiery meteors out into space to destroy human-created objects like space stations and rockets. The gameplay is simple but fun, and the graphics are minimalistic but quite stylish. There are 50 levels to go through, and while they're pretty quick plays, there is a high score board element. The developer also promises that there are more levels on the way. (Knowing humans as I do, I'm guessing that they won't get the lesson.) All in all, No, Human is an inventive title that's worth the US$1.99 on the App Store. It's not really innovative in any specific way, but as a whole package, it's a pleasure to play through and figure out.
More details on the new abilities coming to Final Fantasy XI
September is going to be a big month for Final Fantasy XI, and not just because of its big brother launching toward the end of the month. The September version update will steamroll on to the servers early in the month, and it will bring along with it an increase in the level cap once again. With another large jump in levels, new abilities are coming, and Square-Enix has put together a small preview of what's coming with the next increase. While the details on recast timers and such are still to come, there should be many happy dances from certain jobs. Dragoons are getting a new jump ability, thieves are joining the same team as dancers insofar as they grab dual wield as an innate trait, and dancers themselves grab a new step. Take a look at the full rundown of previewed additions on the official site, and keep your eyes peeled for more news as the September version update draws closer for Final Fantasy XI.
The Mog Log: The collective jealous community glance
It's a hard time to be playing Final Fantasy XI. On the one hand, it ought to be a great time -- a lot of neat features were included with the June version update (several of which I waxed poetic about in the recent developer tour), and there's quite a roadmap for the months ahead. But that roadmap also has an enormous bump that's shaped like a 14... specifically, Final Fantasy XIV. Or maybe it's just me. All I know is that the next thousand-plus hours can't pass quickly enough. (Although Going Rogue should really take the edge off.) But this column isn't just about me and my hangups -- it's about the community. It's especially about community this week, as we're taking a look at all of the insanity running through various discussions far and wide. Square certainly has given us plenty to talk about over the past month, whether you're avidly playing Final Fantasy XI or just looking forward to Final Fantasy XIV. So let's look at some noteworthy threads while I stare longingly at the promised game.
Star Trek Online bringing in old favorites and old unknowns
The Star Trek Online team has gone through some shakeups recently, not to mention a touch of controversy regarding the most recent addition to the game's microtransaction store. But the newest Ask Cryptic should buy them a little bit of good will, considering that they've announced the upgraded ships for Vice Admirals -- specifically, a Galaxy-class that can separate, an Intrepid-class with ablative armor, and a Defiant-class with a cloaking device. It's the sort of stuff that any fan of the series would be hard-pressed not to grin about. Most of the other questions are equally concerned with the upcoming Season 2, which promises to bring in the Federation Diplomatic Corps as well as the ancient enemies of the klingons, the fek'ihri. The latter hasn't been seen or mentioned prior, which suggests that there might be some very interesting story explanation for why the race has been absent if they share an old rivalry. Take a look at the full list of questions for more bits and pieces on Star Trek Online's future, up to and including Facebook integration. (Optional integration, that is. No one's about to start up the mess of the week again.)
TUAW's Daily App: Landformer
Owen Goss is the mind behind Streaming Colour Studios, makers of Dapple and Monkeys in Space. I first met Goss earlier this year at at the 360iDev conference, and during his panel there (in which he created a game about bacon farming in just 90 minutes), he showed off a few early shots of a puzzle game called LandFormer. LandFormer is now out in the App Store, and it's a puzzle game with a pretty steep slope in difficulty and a really excellent look and feel. The goal of the game is to level out all of the lands in a little playing field, which you do by raising and lowering them in a few different patterns. You're given a target number of moves, and the challenge comes in leveling the land before the move timer runs out. The app is free, but it only comes with 10 beginner levels to start. 50 more levels can be bought within the app for US$1.99 (and a premium theme can be picked up for 99 cents), with presumably more levels to come. Fortunately, Goss has created a fully featured level editor with the free version -- you can make and share levels with anyone, and even "download" new levels through an ingenious URL system. If you're up for a few mindbending puzzles (and maybe have a few friends to create and share levels with), definitely give LandFormer a look.
More information on the stats of Final Fantasy XIV
With the changes coming to Final Fantasy XIV after the first round of public testing, there are many older concepts going away, newer concepts coming in, and more than a few ideas that the community railed against which have been gutted long before release. The most recent issue of Dengeki has taken a look at some of the hard mechanics and numbers in the current test version, and that results in some interesting pieces of new information compared to what we already knew. HP, MP, and TP, previously stats that could be raised as a character's physical level improved, now increase automatically with physical level. Three stats -- Agility, Charisma, and Luck -- have been yanked, with the six remaining stats (Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, Piety, Mind, and Intelligence) still raised via points. It also appears that damage will be applied to various parts of a monster's body, allowing for tricks such as disabling a monster's special attacks via careful targeting. While we don't know quite enough to start down the road toward min-maxing characters in Final Fantasy XIV, we're getting a clearer picture of the game's operation every day.
Topping the App Store charts with Angry Birds
Angry Birds is one of the growing number of phenomenal success stories coming out of the App Store. It's a simple game; you drag birds in a slingshot in order to try and get them to knock down structures and hit green pigs. It's really resonated with audiences, though, and just like we heard with Doodle Jump, a string of constant free updates has propelled it to the top of the charts. I got to talk to Mikael and Niklas Hed, cousins and chief officers at Rovio Mobile (the company behind Angry Birds), last week at E3 about their game and its success so far. They told me that the game has had four million downloads to date across, both, its paid and lite versions, and they said that they'll keep updating it "as long as the underlying market keeps growing." I asked them why they have chosen this model of just supporting the game with free updates, and they pointed to Valve's Team Fortress 2 as an example; they're updating the game just because they're "focused on bringing great value" to their customers. Future updates to the game will include new birds to play around with and a little bit of multiplayer functionality, which is coming in a "huge update" very soon. I also asked about the iPad version (which has gotten some bad reviews, since it's basically the same as the iPhone version), and they said that it was just a matter of resources, but they did want to update that version of the app in the future.
Final Fantasy XI rolls out the information on the level cap increase
While we knew that the level cap was going to be raised soon in Final Fantasy XI, we hadn't heard much in terms of official details from Square-Enix. The silence has been broken, and while the official announcement neither confirms nor denies that the world's most insanely fit old man will be coming around for more limit breaking, it does offer a few interesting data points regarding the increase. This first round of increases will expand characters to level 80, complete with new equipment and newly relevant areas to suit those at the maximum level. On the negative side, certain main job abilities are confirmed to be unavailable with the concurrent jump in subjob level. The White Mage "Afflatus" skills and a Ninja's Yonin and Innin abilities will be locked away from use by main jobs. A Ranger's Shadowbind and a Scholar's Accession and Manifestation skills will also be usable, but in a weakened state. Other than these limitations, however, it's full speed ahead for the expanded caps in Final Fantasy XI -- and we can only hope that the silence on a new limit break might mean there isn't one.
A preview of the new weaponskills in Final Fantasy XI's June version update
We're in June now, and as the name would suggest, Final Fantasy XI's June version update is on its way to bring food and water and smite our enemies. It also will bring the first increase to the level cap in a long time, which means new subjobs, new areas for leveling, and new weaponskills. The last item on the list is something so obvious that it's almost fallen by the wayside, but Square-Enix made sure to return our attention to the upgrades via a new video on the official site. In the event that you don't feel like waiting on the download, we've taken the liberty of putting the video available for your viewing after the break. Some of the actual weapon animations look a bit standard, but others use the more dramatic animations reserved for high-end attacks (such as Bora Axe). While we don't yet know important tidbits such as which elements the skills will be for skillchain purposes, take a look past the cut to get some impression of what your job of choice in Final Fantasy XI will gain with its new levels. [ Thanks to FusionX for the tip! ]
Aika previews Ashes of Betrayal and announces launch date
The turnaround on Aika's upcoming expansion has been more than acceptable. The announcement of Ashes of Betrayal came very recently, and already we have a target date of June 17th for release. But if that weren't enough, the development team has been hard at work with the new region of Darkrane Forest, creating both new lore and new art for the region. Home to the half-bird, half-human Kynari, the forest was peaceful until the recent coup performed by the Kynari Darkrane, killing High Castor Isaiah and throwing the region into turmoil. Players will take on the sizable task of restoring order with the help of Isaiah's son Hakks, as well as uncovering the dark forces behind Darkrane's rise to power, including a new instanced dungeon. There will also be new equipment and skill improvements, starting at level 51. We have screenshots of the new armor available to the Conqueror and Templar, the highest tier of growth for the Warrior and Paladin classes, as well as some of the enemies you'll face in the forest and a map of the region. Take a look at our gallery, and get ready for Aika's expansion due in less than a month. %Gallery-93694%
The Mog Log: Community (roundup)
The state of higher education in Vana'diel is, quite frankly, appalling. It's easy enough to see why -- all of the Scholars are out doing field work instead of staffing any sort of university. Oh, sure, Windurst has its facilities, but most of the professors are too busy chasing skirts or trying to take over the world to bother enlightening any of the students. Let's face it, the only real chance that anyone has of learning anything when it comes to Final Fantasy XI is the community. It's been a fairly quiet month in terms of big news bursts, but Final Fantasy XIV is still a hot subject of conversation for reasons we can't even begin to fathom. And we've been getting more information on the lore of the game, certainly. Meanwhile, we've got a new version update en route for Final Fantasy XI, so while there hasn't been a great deal new to chat over, there's certainly plenty of things to speculate on. Take a look at some of the community threads we've been pointed to or found after the break.
The Daily Grind: Are you a collector?
In most MMOs on the market today, there are several different classes and races. Even if you're in the rare game that arguably has neither, there are still skills to be leveled, achievements to be earned, missions to be played. For some people, all of these things are mostly means to an end. But others look at a list of ten classes, or nine races, or even eleven summon spells as a to-do list. If it can be leveled, they will level it; if it can be acquired, it will be theirs. The joy of MMOs is in part the fact that many goals are set by players, and the collectors do a marvelous job of setting one for themselves. Some goals, like collecting every little vanity pet in a game that offers them, can be accomplished as a side-goal to the core leveling process. Others, like leveling every class, can even require more character spaces than the game normally gives you. Do you have overarcing collection goals when you play games? What are they? Do they interfere with your normal play, or are they the whole reason you keep playing?
GDC 2010: Hands-on with Superbrothers' Sword and Sorcery
"Superbrothers" is the alias of Craig Adams, a Toronto-based artist who specializes in pixel-based artwork and cinema. He's a big fan of musician Jim Guthrie, and after the two met a while ago (and discovered they were actually fans of each other), he was inspired to create a few music videos of the songs that he heard. Then, a little while back, Adams ran into a few guys from Capy, a game developer (they've made some great puzzle titles like Clash of Heroes for the DS and Critter Crunch for PSN) also from Toronto, and he decided to team up with them to make his first game, and release it on the iPhone. I got to play the game for the first time at GDC, and what I found was an interesting mix of art, music, and gameplay that shows just how amazing a platform like the iPhone can be, both for independent developers and for artists who just want to express themselves (or music they like) in an interactive format. Read on to find out what the game is like, and how it uses the iPhone's assets and Superbrothers' creativity to create a singular experience.
The Daily Grind: Leveling, the playing field
They might be called security levels, they might be split between ranks and levels, they might disguise themslves as skill grinds. But in pretty much any MMO you care to name, there will be levels of some kind. (The only exception that springs to mind is Second Life, and even that can be argued.) Generally, it's accepted that the most meat to the game will come after you've made it to the apex of the leveling curve, whether it's a low cap or a high one. But that's not when you started liking the game -- no, even though most players see it as an impediment to getting to the good part, the leveling game is what first hooks you on the game as a whole. So today, we ask a simple question -- what game have you played where you most enjoyed the leveling process? Forget all of the endgame nonsense, whether you had a broad endgame or a fairly narrow one. When did you just enjoy the path toward the endgame, perhaps even enough to be a bit saddened when it was over? Or have you always wanted to just get to the end without bothering with the whole "journey" element?
