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Choose My Adventure: No soup for you!
Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of posts and galleries here on the site. Then, as our two months are up, we'll do it all over again in a new game! Welcome to yet another week in Star Wars Galaxies -- an MMO that is very rapidly teaching me that there's a lot more going on below the surface than I'd ever really considered. Sure, there's combat, and all the great creatures, locations, and stories one would expect from a game set in Star Wars' storyline. But as I'm learning the more I play, there are some interesting systems that offer more than one might expect at first glimpse. Curious as to what this week was like, and what new things I learned? Join me behind the break as I tell you all about my most recent adventures. Be ready vets for this week's request, wherein I solicit some unique homework from you! Also, as before, I've gathered up some screenshots from this week's adventure and tucked them into the gallery below for your enjoyment. %Gallery-97914%
Review: APB (Day 2: Enforcers, get enforcin')
Review Diary Day 1: Welcome to San Paro Day 2: Enforcers, get enforcin' Day 3: Choose your illusion Day 4: Cards on the table This is part two of a four-part review of Realtime Worlds' new MMO APB. Yesterday, I talked about installing the game and creating a character. Today: the grind. Life in San Paro is pretty simple. Rob as a Criminal, or stop Criminals as an Enforcer. I chose to be an Enforcer, and after a short tutorial level, fell into the standard MMO grind -- go here, pick this up, go there, rinse and repeat. Unlike most MMOs, APB plays like a shooter -- there's a reticule, and you've got to line it up on your target to get anything done. But its "missions" are definitely MMO fare -- they're standard, multi-step and pretty interchangeable: hold this point, deliver this item, steal this car. But here's how APB sets itself apart: while you play the game, you're constantly being offered missions and being grouped with people on the same job, but the other side is getting offers too. When they're paired up in the same mission you are, an APB goes out, sirens flash on the screen, and then it's on, one faction against another. %Gallery-65497%
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Does whatever a spider can (VEAT levels 20-50)
Welcome back to our conclusion of A Mild-Mannered Reporter's guide to spiders! After last week's long discussion of the various builds possible for the villainous epic archetypes, we're back to blast through to the end of the unique leveling missions. And it's a pretty interesting string, although like much content in City of Heroes it starts to slow down a bit as you get higher in levels. But it also has the nice story interplay of the best content available on the Rogue Isles, the constant back-and-forth as untrustworthy people stab each other in the back. For players or readers coming in late, we left off at the conclusion of the level 20 arc, where you delivered the Eye of Chronos to Fortunata Hamilton. She tells you that the process of seeing whether or not you truly are a Destined One will take time... which is true if you turn the mission in before level 20, but otherwise it apparently takes two seconds. Of course, there's a good reason for that.
Black Prophecy captures a battle royale in new E3 video
While Black Prophecy has been flying under the radar, so to speak, it continues to pique our interest with slow burn reveals such as custom ship building. The space shooter MMO has been in closed beta for a month and a half, and fortunately for all of us awaiting this action-packed title, Reakktor Media is dropping out of stealth during E3 to give the public a better look. They've released a new two-and-a-half-minute trailer for Black Prophecy that features PvP and clan combat, as well as a glimpse of the missions fighter jockeys can accept. We'll be sitting down with the Black Prophecy crew for a chat at E3 later this week, but in the meanwhile, feast your eyes... upon THIS!
New details on Star Wars: The Old Republic companion characters
BioWare's lead designer James Ohlen has done a quick interview with IGN about Star Wars: The Old Republic's concept of "companion characters." Not only do you get to tool around the universe as a Sith or a Jedi, but as we first heard back at the game's announcement, you get to bring some other poor suckers with you. The idea sounds a lot like your party members from Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2 -- your companions will follow an "Affection" system, and you can end up making them "twisted to the dark side of the Force" or "stronger and more independent," depending on how you treat -- even gift -- them. (Those being just a couple of examples.) Companion characters will also have a lot of combat utility, and you may want to bring some of them based strictly on how they complement you in combat. The gear you equip for them will also make a difference, so you may have to tailor your party and their gear for the specific goals of any given mission. The system doesn't sound too different from past BioWare games, with the caveat that, since it's an MMO, you'll have to direct AI players in real-time rather than pausing the game to give out orders. Ohlen also says his favorite recent character is Alistair, which worries us a little bit -- he always struck us as whiny. [Via Massively]
APB's Chris Collins details zoning, missions
Many of us here at Massively are anxiously awaiting the release of Realtime Worlds' urban crime MMORPG All Points Bulletin. Though the title is currently deep into beta, there hasn't been a huge helping of news regarding the city of San Paro as of late. Now, German fan site OnlineWelten has come to the rescue courtesy of an interview with Community Manager Chris 'Deum' Collins. Collins highlights the game's talking points including creativity, conflict, and celebrity, in a wide-ranging piece that discusses everything from PvP, to mission systems, to server structure and player population. "Servers (or worlds as we refer to them as) consist of 100,000 players. These servers then break down into a number of districts. These districts hold between 100 and 250 players at any one time, so if one version of a district is 'full', another will be available for them to join. If you have friends or clan-mates that are in another district, then you can simply pull up the social panel and join them. The game will then spawn you in their district," Collins says. Check out the full interview at OnlineWelten. [Thanks Trikki!]
Massively's tour of Final Fantasy XI's March update
Eight years doesn't sound like a very long time unless you're talking about MMOs. Then it's the equivalent of dog years, only larger. But Final Fantasy XI has been running for all that time, and the game is still running strong -- and more to the point, bringing out a number of updates, improvements, and other positives for the game. Even as a veteran player, I haven't seen all of the content that's out there -- really, I'd be surprised if I've done much more than scratch the surface. I was given the lucky opportunity to get a guided tour of all the improvements and new content that the game had added with the most recent update, and it's certainly one of the more impressive drops the game has seen. Two entirely new summons, a new quest type, the penultimate missions in Wings of the Goddess, new Notorious Monsters, new areas... it's dwarfing to even consider it. I only had a chance to hit the highlights, and even then it was a lot to cover. So jump on past the cut, and see what's there to be seen.
EVE Evolved: Playing casually or just killing time
MMOs are a popular hobby for hardcore and casual players alike. While some people love getting firmly embedded in their favourite MMO every night, a growing number of players prefer to log in occasionally and just kill a few hours at a time. EVE Online is no exception, with a mix of both casual and hardcore players. Taking part in things like alliance warfare, starbase industry or corporate management may require that a player log in every night but most other avenues of gameplay don't. A lot of EVE's gameplay can be picked up for a few hours and set back down with no added responsibility. In fact, player demographic data shows that most players prefer to live in the more casual environment of high security space. So what kind of things can you do if you just fancy playing internet spaceships for a few hours? In this opinion piece, I look at five of my favourite ways to kill a few hours in the name of EVE. What's your favourite way to spend a few hours?
The Daily Grind: What struck you as unnecessarily annoying?
If you took part in the recent City of Heroes double XP weekend, as a long-standing customer or a returning visitor, you most likely had a chance to take part in one of the game's Safeguard/Mayhem missions. Heroes are tasked with preventing a bank robbery, while villains are instead given the job of robbing said bank. Unfortunately for villains, their robbery is faced with several enemy groups that spawn without warning and will follow you all over if you happen to miss them. Worse yet, death puts you in prison, forcing you to fight your way out and possibly condemning you to another swift death. There are a lot of little things that can add up in a game, little choices in design that wind up making the whole play experience more tedious and unpleasant than seems reasonable. As a result, the whole experience can wind up going straight down the tubes. What part of a game proved to be annoying when it really didn't need to be? Was it a quest with more travel or fighting than seemed necessary, an area with some particularly obnoxious geographical feature, or just something that was a whole lot of effort for very little reward?
The breakdown of Final Fantasy XI's VanaFest 2010 announcements
After a month of heavy anticipation from the fans, VanaFest 2010 finally has come and given us all the information that we could want about where the game is heading from here. And the show did stay focused upon Final Fantasy XI -- the only mention of Final Fantasy XIV was the announcement that its first wave of beta testing will start on March 11th with a limited number of participants. That left quite a bit of show left to detail all of the changes coming to the game. And there was certainly a lot of news to be shared. An increase in level cap, new add-on zones, job reviews, conclusions to existing content, server merges, new seasonal gear -- there was no shortage of surprising announcements. Continue on past the cut for the short version of what came out during the show and what players can expect.
New Issue 17 details for City of Heroes
If you play City of Heroes, you're looking forward to the upcoming Issue 17. We've heard some of what can be expected from the big pre-expansion drop, but much of it was cloaked in vague terms -- improvements that didn't have any hard data attached to them, like the promise of new missions and UI revisions. But the official site has put up a page on the coming features for the update, and it helps clarify some things we didn't know about, as well as offering some excellent news besides. And it promises the end of Positron's dreaded unending task force! (It'll still be there, but it will be split into two parts and improved all around.)
Planet Calypso debuts their new mission system with a bang
A literal bang, actually. Not only has Planet Calypso updated to version 2010|01 (their new system uses the year and update number, rather than version number) but they've also had a small volcanic eruption that's changed part of the map. Blizzard, eat your cataclysmic heart out. While the newly re-terraformed area of Cyclops has been visually improved by the team and patched in under the 'guise of a volcanic explosion, the version update also brings the anticipated mission system to Calypso. The mission system, which is in a public beta, more or less, is only currently offering 5 tutorial missions to newbies landing on Calypso for the first time. Once you complete those five missions, be sure to offer your feedback in the survey that pops up at the end. That information will be used to make more missions for higher level players, so don't be stingy! Also, there's fish. Remember those fish we showed last time? Yeah, those fish. If you value your ankles, you'll watch where you swim.
Planet Calypso welcomes their new community manager while looking to the future
The team over at First Planet Company, the minds behind the MMO/Second Life hybrid Planet Calypso, have recently welcomed a brand new community manager onto their staff -- Hanne Einan Gulbrandsen. Gulbrandsen is the game's first dedicated community manager, bringing the virtual world in line with the company practices of other MMO companies. But, while Gulbrandsen settles into his new office and title, First Planet Company has also detailed their development roadmap for this year -- going over future additions such as vehicles, a new questing/mission system, and the addition of fish to the world (as shown above.) The mission system will finally give Calypso MMO style storyline quests, offering players a new way to play the game and experience the planet's lore. How these new quests will impact the game's real money-based economy will be interesting, especially if doing them offers in-game rewards.
Massively's Black Prophecy Q&A: Mission Systems
Massively has been following the development of the sci-fi MMO Black Prophecy very closely, and was pleased that the title's developer Reakktor Media wanted to do a series of focused Q&As with us on several aspects of the game. Our last such Q&A started at the beginning with character creation, but in our second installment of the Black Prophecy interview series we discussed the game's mission design. To that end, we posed some questions to Lorenz Dames, the Lead Game Designer on Black Prophecy. Lorenz explained a great deal about how Reakktor is approaching solo content vs. group-oriented gameplay. He also told us how Reakktor Media is merging the completion of mission objectives with dogfighting your fellow players through PvP missions, where other players will try to counter your efforts to complete goals. Our interview should provide Black Prophecy fans with a solid overview of the game's mission design, which will be an essential aspect of the sci-fi MMO's gameplay.%Gallery-46991%
ZEN Pinball's Ninja Gaiden table trailer slices and dices
Wondering what the official Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 table for ZEN Pinball looks like in motion? Wonder no more -- the video above will show you all of the Hayabusa-style bumper action you'll be able to find, complete with ramps, flashing lights, ninja spirits and... burning pagodas? Boy, those ZEN folks aren't really pinball traditionalists, are they? But it does look fun. The table will bring new gameplay modes and missions along with it to the PlayStation Store on Thursday, January 14, for $2.49 (€1.99). Of course, it's DLC for the original ZEN Pinball game, so you've got to have that, too. Wait, we just rewatched it -- did Ryu just slice the ball in half? That's pretty awesome!
Changes and improvements to Epic Mission Arcs in EVE Online
When EVE Online players think of what's changed in the game with the recent Dominion expansion release, the game's PvE content may not be the first thing that comes to mind. (Although Dominion introduced Epic Mission Arcs -- branching storylines -- for both the Guristas and Angel Cartel pirate factions.) The Atlanta-based content team at CCP Games has put a lot of work into Epic Mission Arcs for this expansion, though, which is the subject of the latest EVE dev blog. Developer CCP Big Dumb Object walks readers through the changes in game mechanics with the Epic Arcs and gives a breakdown of their adjusted rewards (plus the introduction of faction standings rewards), while paying homage to Led Zeppelin throughout the blog. New mission content is also beginning to reflect how player actions in factional warfare affect the game's setting, specifically the Caldari militia's overwhelming victory over the Gallente. CCP Big Dumb Object mentions two new Gallente storyline missions, adding that "each mission stems from the past year's Faction Warfare results, Heth's resultant sale of key Gallente systems to the Caldari megacorps, and the Federation's reaction."
EVE Online Lead Content Creator explains epic mission arcs for pirate factions
One of the new content additions coming to EVE Online this December are Epic Mission Arcs for two of New Eden's pirate factions -- the Guristas and the Angel Cartel. Scott Holden (aka CCP Molock) is the Lead Content Creator at CCP Games who has overseen the inclusion of the new pirate missions into EVE. Holden recently discussed some of the specifics of pirate mission running with Mondes Persistants. The epic arcs for the Guristas and Angel Cartel will offer up roughly 10-12 branching missions, says Holden. The Guristas arc will largely be based in nullsec space in Venal, but players will be able to begin in Orvolle (high security) or low security starting points like Taisy. The Angel Cartel epic mission arcs will mostly be based in the Curse region, the stomping grounds of the Cartel. Would-be devotees to the Angel cause (of sabotage, extortion, and general mayhem) will be able to embark on the faction's mission arc from solar systems like Sendaya or Konora in low sec. Surprisingly, it seems that a player doesn't need high pirate faction standings to access either the Guristas or Angel Cartel epic mission arcs. Players with good standings with empire factions will be able to jump into the pirate mission arcs via mission agents found in low security space.
Champedia launches for Champions Online
As MMOs become more and more complex, there's an increasing need for information regarding the game at a player's fingertips. Especially since most of them are being played while on the computer, so a quick search of information is just an alt-tab away, no matter what the situation. Champions Online has stepped up to the plate with their own official offering: the Champedia, a database of every superpower, mission, super group, and character currently in the game. It's fully searchable at this point, although it's still in beta. There have been debates in the community about adding on currently-played characters into a publicly accessible database, but Champions Online also includes the feature for guild masters to manage their organization directly from the site. A quick log-in allows the group leader to do everything from changing the message of the day to handling promotions without ever having to enter the game. It's not perfect yet, of course -- the Mission section, for instance, includes nothing but the basic mission text -- but if properly managed it could be a great asset to the community looking for information straight from the official source. Now if only it included wiki functionality...
EVE Evolved: Running your own corporation, part 2
end-legacy-contents -->Corp operations - Mining Op: Corp mining ops are a great team-building exercise and
EVE Evolved: Running your own corporation
The term "corporation" in EVE Online is something of a misnomer. While a corp can be run as a full-on business entity, most are just like guilds or clans in other MMOs. It's a group of pilots that join together under one banner for mutual benefit, organised operations or even just to have some nice people to chat to while you mine. For those that can't find a good player-run corporation that's compatible with their aims and goals, there are a few options. One option is to stay in one of the many NPC-run corps but perhaps the most interesting choice is to start your own corp. With the upcoming 11% tax being applied to NPC corps, some of the people currently in those corps may even want to start their own one-man corps to evade the tax. Running your own corporation provides you with additional tools like corporate hangers and the ability to set up starbases or declare war on other corps. It also opens the opportunity to recruit like-minded individuals and friends into your group so you can work together on anything from mining and mission-running to full-on PvP and piracy. EVE is one of those games that really starts to take off once you start working together with people. Starting your own corp can, however, be a daunting task that carries with it responsibilities and risks.For all those that have ever wanted to run their own corporation, in this article I explain how to the process of starting a corp, recruiting and keeping the corp secure against threats. I also go into detail on some of the corp operations you can hope to enjoy with friends.
