organizations
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Stick and Rudder: It's the Massively Star Citizen guild
I love me some guild management tools, which is strange since I don't manage guilds all that often. It's a bit of work, see, as one look through the titles and topics in our Guild Counsel category will make clear. At any rate, I can't stop playing around with Star Citizen's recently launched Organization stuff.
Star Citizen's Organizations get their engines humming
Cloud Imperium Games have run a thorough pre-flight check and flipped the switch on Star Citizen's clan system, referred to as Organizations. Eager citizens can now register or join an Organization, but you only get to align yourself with one for now, so choose wisely. Organizations will get their own URL and customizable websites (think of it like Facebook for space flight aficionados) where users can interact with one another and ... well ... organize themselves. The launch of Organizations also brings with it a new Live Chat system, which allows users to separate themselves into their own rooms, so that the rest of the universe doesn't have to know what you and your crew are up to. Organizations are pretty basic right now, but Cloud Imperium Games notes on the announcement page that they have "extensive long-range plans" to improve the experience over time. "Our goal with the Organization system, like the Hangar and Dogfighting modules, is to allow the Star Citizen community to get a foot in the door and start experiencing (and expanding) the Star Citizen 'verse as soon as possible," the post states. "Remember: organizations isn't just about letting you group together with friends and gamers, it's about backers beginning to shape Star Citizen's lore!"
Storyboard: How to say goodbye and mean it
So you know it's time to say goodbye. Your previous group of roleplaying companions just isn't filling that need you have for roleplaying, and that means it's time for you to pick up shop and move on. Great. Your metaphorical bags are packed, you're ready to pick up shop, and all that remains it to figure out where you're going to go. Right. That part. Where are you going to go? When you've been with one group of players for a while, it's tempting to see the game in pretty narrow terms because the focus narrows. The game is less about the whole server and more about the people whom you spend your time with in the game, naturally. But when you take away the group that you've been immersed in for so long, you're back to looking at an overall environment you hadn't considered. So here are some tips to make leaving as painless as possible.
The Daily Grind: How much thought do you put into guild creation?
Star Citizen's Organizations rollout caught me a bit unprepared this week. I knew it was coming, but I hadn't set aside any time to come up with a guild concept, a set of goals, or even a name. Heck, I don't even know if I want to lead a guild when Cloud Imperium's sci-fi spacesim sandbox launches, but it's nonetheless neat to get in on the ground floor and play around with some of the Organization admin tools. What about you, Massively readers? Assuming you lead MMO guilds, how much thought goes into your guild creation process? Do you make the same guild in every MMO? Do you come up with different concepts for different games, or are you just looking for people to help you clear content? 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!
Star Citizen passes $37 million, Org system tops 4,900 in 12 hours
Cloud Imperium has now collected over $37 million in crowdfunding for its Star Citizen space sim sandbox. CIG chairman Chris Roberts penned a thank-you letter for the latest milestone, during which he also calls attention to the game's new Organization system that launched earlier this week. Over 4,900 orgs were created in the first 12 hours of the system being online, and Roberts says it's another example of how "the Star Citizen community continues to astonish." The $37 million stretch goal unlocked the Tanga System, and there's a new poll on the SC website that will allow backers to choose the $39 million goal.
Discussing guild functionality with Star Citizen's Benoit Beausejour
Today Cloud Imperium publicly unveiled Star Citizen's organization functionality, and Massively managed to snag a quick interview with developer Benoit Beausejour from Turbulent, a Montreal-based studio that is developing SC's web tech. Head past the break for the full organization press release as well as Beausejour's answers to our questions.
Star Citizen's first round of guild functionality scheduled for January
Are you itching to form a private military company in the world of Star Citizen? Maybe you're more partial to some sort of syndicate, squadron, or even a for-profit corporation. Whatever your particular guild slant may be, Cloud Imperium wants to tell you about its plans for Star Citizen's Organizations as well as introduce all the related web-based functionality that will go live well before the game launches. Each SC player Organization will get a customizable public page on the Roberts Space Industries web site. CIG is including a ranking system with user-definable names and roles (i.e., if Spaceman is more to your liking than the default Lieutenant, knock yourself out). Organization names will not be unique, so don't worry about taking a day off work to reserve Browncoats. CIG says that "an unlimited number of players can form groups named Red Squadron," for example, but each of those groups will have a unique ten-character alphanumeric SID designation to facilitate gameplay. Public testing of Star Citizen's Organization system begins later this month, with a planned rollout scheduled for early January. Future functionality additions will include private forums for every Organization, an Org Blog with a shoutbox and news update capabilities, and interactive visual charts showing divisions, jobs, and members. Cloud Imperium is also upgrading its current web chat capabilities, so say goodbye to the 500-user chat roll limit. Finally, the firm wants you to know that you can now apply upgrades to your existing ships and packages. "Upgrading a package will change the overall value and will allow you to see the enhanced ship in your hangar," CIG says.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's Grand Companies
Wednesday's maintenance came and went, a handful of minor issues surfaced and were quickly squashed, and Final Fantasy XIV moved on. Since the maintenance, I hit a queue once or twice and that was it. This has not stopped several people from crowing that the game has already failed, but most of us have accepted that server issues happen on launch. And you're getting some extra free time out of it in a game whose chief issue is that everyone actually wants to play it. So let's move on and talk about Grand Companies. It's easy to miss the enlistment point in the Companies if you're a Legacy player focusing on other activities, and it's just as easy to enlist and then completely forget about the company since it's a different sort of progress track. So let's talk about what the companies contain, what you can get out of them, and why you should bother caring.
Google dives deep to bring underwater photos of the Great Barrier Reef this September
Your next trip to the Great Barrier Reef could be from the comfort of your home now that Google's partnered with Catlin SeaView Survey, the University of Queensland's Global Change Institute and the Underwater Earth organization to document this amazing ecosystem. Equipped with a special underwater camera capable of withstanding depths of 328 feet, the survey aims to photograph 50,000 shots in 360-degree panoramic view and incorporate them into Google Earth and Google Maps. Dubbed "Google SeaView," it seeks to open opportunities for increased conservation as well as a free look for wanna-be world travelers who can't afford a plane ticket down under. As an added perk, the collected data may also be used to help future ship captains navigate through the treachery of the intricate coral highways. Check past the break for more info on the survey and plenty of footage teeming with aquatic wildlife.
The Daily Grind: There's a line, and you crossed it
The relationships we form in games are by their very nature kind of mercenary. You make friends in EVE Online not because you know your bosom buddy is waiting for you, but because flying in 0.0 is pretty dangerous on your own. So most of your friends in a game start off based on you deriving some benefit, and with a few exceptions that's where they remain. The problem comes when that benefit is outweighed by something else. That's when guilds of friends have nasty splits over what seem like minor matters, because someone crossed a line and no amount of in-game support is worth the drama. Sometimes it's all game-related, and other times outside drama shoves its way into the game. Either way, it's something bad enough that you're often cutting off a significant advantage -- sometimes even a whole guild and the concurrent access to the endgame -- for purely personal reasons. Those of us who have done so, though, rarely look back with regret. What about you? When has a relationship in a game passed the point where the benefits are outweighed by the drawbacks? Or have you only ever been on the flipside of the equation?
The rewards of faction loyalty in Earthrise
The latest Earthrise Question of the Week is all about quests in the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO. "Central to the PvE experience, quests in Earthrise are designed to help introduce the players to the tense cultural and political scene that shapes the two conflicting factions fighting for control over the island of Enterra," explains Moll, the game's Community Manager. There are faction-specific quests unique to either Continoma or Noir, but Earthrise's game mechanics will let players defect to a rival faction to experience another walk of life on Enterra island. Switching allegiances will not be a trivial matter, however, and the consequences a player assumes for doing so will limit how often most characters defect.
Neutrality and criminality in the dystopian setting of Earthrise
The developers at Masthead Studios dropped some info about their post-apocalyptic MMO Earthrise today, explaining how they've designed the game to allow freedom of choice. In true sandbox style, players will not be forced to choose between the main factions of Continoma or Noir and can, in fact, remain neutral. Earthrise Community Manager Moll writes in the latest Question of the Week, "Aside from Continoma and Noir as major Factions, there are 10 smaller political groups (called Organizations), and 4 of them will be Neutral and will provide neutral players with quests that allow them to build their Reputation and unlock rewards that cater to their political standings." Cloning, which may prove to be one of the most vital services players will require, will be independent of faction standings, Moll explains. On that topic of cloning, Earthrise fans have also wondered how criminals can gain access to the same advanced infrastructure used by the more legitimate factions. Or, for that matter, how do criminals gain access to the various resources and markets used by non-criminal players?
Earthrise PvE gameplay to give competitive edge in PvP
For a game that's still in closed beta, the team at Masthead Studios has been communicating with Earthrise fans quite regularly about the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO. Their "Question of the Week" forum always dishes out new info about Earthrise. This week is no different and the devs explain how PvE gameplay can give Earthrise players a competitive edge in PvP. Players will be able to progress through storyline quest chains, alternately focusing on combat, crafting, and exploration. Although Earthrise will have a player-driven economy, Masthead Studios writes, "At its foundation, however, it is dependent on the constant supply of resources that are directly connected to PvE gameplay. Many of the missions will be built around the constant competition around resources."
An early look at the lore of Earthrise
More information about the lore of Earthrise has surfaced, giving readers a preview of the post-apocalyptic MMO's setting of Enterra. Although still in a pre-beta stage of development at Masthead Studios, some details were already known about the organizations in Earthrise. The newest information comes from IGN's RPG Vault, which has released their first of three installments on the lore of Earthrise.The IGN pieces will focus on Continoma, the corporate entity that governs the lives of Enterra's citizens. "Continoma: The Beginning" looks at how the Continoma Project developed into humanity's only viable chance for survival, via genetic rebirth which followed the cataclysmic Third World War. If you're a fan of the lore in your MMOs and sci-fi is your thing, check out the full story over at RPG Vault.
