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Landmark Live showcases tool and template upgrades, offers sneak peek of water
As announced in the latest livestream, Landmark's weekly beta update was pushed out until Thursday in order to get new systems ready to deploy into the game. (Sadly, none of them includes water, although players did get a sneak peak of it!) Today, players will be able to utilize the new tool upgrading system, the new detailed template interface, and the claim gallery. The tool upgrade system adds a level of depth to crafting, allowing players to increase the stats of all tools made after the update launches. Unlike the initial craft that has elements of RNG dictating the final product, the upgrade system shows players exactly how the tool will be altered. The template interface provides many more details, including which and how many materials are needed for each build and which props are involved, and even it provides a screenshot for ease of reference. Also utilizing the screenshot feature is the new gallery section of the showcase; in or out of game, players will be able to search and view claims by tag or owner name, see where they are located, and upvote them. If you missed the special sneak peek of the first phase of water (oceans) or you want to hear even more details about the impending update or other tidbits (like upcoming changes to the EQ Worlds app, including Landmark-themed games and exclusive Jeremy Soule music), you can watch the entire livestream below.
Landmark's devs on crafting and item upgrading
SOE Senior Brand Manager Omeed Dariani and Lead Systems Designer Michael Mann present this week's Landmark roundtable video, this time focusing on one of the more detailed components of the sandbox's crafting system: item upgrading, which beat out reinforcing, imbuing, and refining among roundtable voters as the system most worthy of prioritization. Mann explains that item upgrading is intended to reduce the demoralizing effects of RNG; eventually, all crafted items will be created as green-quality items that are upgrade-able depending on player skill and statted according to player direction via relics. Dariani and Mann also hint that Landmark and EverQuest Next will share the same crafting-related back-end systems and that Landmark's crafting will ultimately "flavor" the crafting system in EQN. The full roundtable video is below.
Norrathian Notebook: Landmark update highlights the power of players
As a long-time gamer, I have to admit: I never expected I'd really see the day. What day is that? The one where a studio says one thing... and does it! True to SOE's word, the development process for Landmark has been quite open. Between social media, livestreams, and posts, the devs have been very forthcoming about where they are and where they are going, giving players a pretty clear picture of what's going on. But that's only the half of it. What impresses me most about this whole situation is that player input is actually recognized as a valuable commodity, not a nuisance to be brushed aside and ignored. I'm not just referring to the opinions offered during the various Round Table polls either, even though those are a welcome component to the the mix. I'm talking about the fact that players are a driving force behind the direction of Landmark's development. And yesterday's update really brought that fact home.
Today's Landmark update introduces glass, removes air
Life just got easier for Landmark developers: Today's update introduces new crafted glass props to enhance building as well as makes construction itself more precise by eliminating air when copy and pasting. Although not a building material (yet), the glass props will enable players to put windows into their homes or construct any number of transparent creations. A more widely applicable change, however, is the ability to remove the air when putting down templates or pasting something. Previously, empty space in a template counted as a voxel itself, meaning that the space would be placed or pasted along with the filled voxels. While helpful in some cases, this same principle caused undesirable effects when trying to combine templates. As promised previously, the light orbs that were made available for purchase in the Showcase last week can now be crafted in game. Additional tweaks and fixes, including a UI compass, are detailed in the update notes.
Player Studio goes international in Landmark and more this spring
You've already seen a number of the amazing player-designed creations in Landmark; come Spring, you will be able to own some as well! SOE has announced that Player Studio will be live in the sandbox game on or before May 1st, 2014. But the even bigger news is that Player Studio will expand internationally for all the studio's games that support it! Designers in select regions outside the United States will be able to submit items for consideration to be sold to their peers in EverQuest, EverQuest II, and PlanetSide 2 as well as Landmark. Approved items will then be added to the marketplace and the creators will make a real-life profit from each sale. In Landmark, Player Studio is a vehicle by which players will submit templates for various building contests, and winners could see their creations end up in EverQuest Next. [Source: SOE press release]
Ambitious sandbox MyDream launches Kickstarter today
Sandbox fans, meet your next obsession. It's called MyDream, and it's marketing itself as a massive 3-D multiplayer open-world sandbox focusing on "creativity and collaboration." The game will include player-designed content it's calling "adventures," rewards for cooperation and teamwork, and player-constructed environments and structures. MyDream is currently in invitation-only private beta testing, but with the launch of the Kickstarter campaign today, all pledges over $5 will secure tester access. According to MyDream CEO Allison Huynh, the Kickstarter is intended to "help bring [MyDream's] vision of the final game to market" and offers backers rewards like flying and x-ray vision. [Source: MyDream press release]
War Thunder Golden Battles event starts March 9
If you haven't played Gaijin's War Thunder World War II combat simulator in a while, it's a good time to return and check out some of the changes implemented over the last couple of months. Beginning Sunday, March 9th, players may receive up to 600 pieces of premium in-game currency per day as part of the Golden Battles promotion. Your second, fifth, and seventh victory over opposing players will each count for 100 golden eagles, and the event takes place twice per day. Gaijin has also released its plans for the next update, including a huge upgrade to the game's player generated content capabilities. If you're new to War Thunder, click past the cut to view a video detailing the game's 1.37 update.
Some Assembly Required: An anniversary look at Darkfall's fifth year
Gimme five! Five years that is, in honor of Darkfall's anniversary. This week the PvP-centric sandbox celebrated its fifth year of bringing murder, mayhem, and fun to friends and foes alike in the brutal world of Agon. And while it may seem as though you could pretty much sum up the entirety of Darkfall's last 12 months in two words (Unholy Wars) and call it a day, there's actually been much more to the game than just the reboot's long-awaited release. In fact, that was only the beginning. The game has continued to expand and develop even after the initial launch of Unholy Wars, shaping it into the experience that it is today. That's precisely what we're here to toast together -- the ups and down of 52 weeks in Aventurine's hardcore sandbox. Be sure to leave your favorite memories from the past year in Agon before you go!
Final wave of War Thunder Ground Forces beta begins, massive content update announced
The third and final wave of War Thunder's closed beta for its Ground Forces expansion has begun. Eager tank drivers who have completed the November challenges or have purchased the game's starter packs can now join the battle. Open beta will then commence right after this closed beta concludes, with starter pack owners getting a head start as well as rare tanks. But that's not all the War Thunder news today. Gaijin Entertainment announced that the biggest game update to date will go live this spring with a plethora of goodies planned for players to enjoy. Update 1.39 will introduce user-generated content tools that will enable players to not only create their own planes and unique camouflage patterns but locations and missions as well. On top of that, there will be 18 new planes to choose from, new squadron features (like Squadron vs. Squadron battles), the ability for planes to overheat, and an improved UI. Check out images of the new planes and more in the gallery below. [Source: Gaijin Entertainment press release]
Norrathian Notebook: EQN Landmark sets new standard for player creativity
Yes, it's alpha. And yes, there are bugs. Heck, there are still many systems that aren't even in-game yet. But despite all that, EverQuest Next Landmark has already raised the bar when it comes to player creativity. In fact, the creativity is flowing freely during this alpha even before water does! You may recall that I mused last December how EQNL might just redefine player-generated content, comments based my own short personal experience and perusing developer concoctions. However, now that alpha is going strong, I can say with surety what I only postulated before: Landmark has set a new standard for supporting and showcasing creativity. And players have really stepped up to the challenge. Just exactly how much creativity are we talking about? Have you seen some of the stuff folks are coming up with? It's not just about houses (though I've certainly seen some amazing abodes); players are taking the tools and raw materials and sculpting impressive statues, designing mazes, and more. During my own wanderings and my two Massively TV tours, I've come across creations that leave me wavering between speechless and gush-central. And that's barely scratching the surface of what's out there! Add in the posted pics on Twitter and the official forums and that still doesn't cover it all. My mind boggles to think what will happen when everyone can lay hands on these tools at launch.
EVE Evolved: Consequences and conflict
I've always considered EVE Online to be the model sandbox MMO and a template that could theoretically be applied to other titles. Whether you believe it's by careful design or a happy accident, EVE has stumbled on a formula that clearly works and has helped the game stay popular for over a decade. I've written before about the many interconnected parts that make EVE's sandbox model work and how pulling out essential features such as item loss on death or adding foreign mechanics like global banking could cause the whole game to fall apart. But there's one aspect I didn't really cover in depth: consequences for negative behaviour. In his latest Some Assembly Required column, Massively's Jef Reahard argued that EVE can't be considered the quintessential sandbox MMO because it lacks consequences for bad behaviour. While I would argue that EVE is as close to the ideal model of the genre as exists at the moment, I'm forced to agree with Jef's assessment. Almost all of the major events in EVE's recent history that have hit the gaming media have been about theft or war, with tales of massive scams and alliance warfare painting New Eden in a dark and violent light. The ultimate sandbox would be equally capable of birthing incredible stories of exploration and players working together to build magnificent things, not just chaos and death in the gloomy depths of interstellar space. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the lack of consequence for negative actions in EVE Online, whether it causes negative behaviour, and why sandboxes need to be about more than just destruction.
Some Assembly Required: Is this really the sandbox renaissance?
It's funny, but this whole sandbox renaissance feeling has got me a little worried. I'm of course ecstatic at the number of sandbox MMOs currently in development, and I'm even happier that one triple-A outfit has finally acknowledged that MMOs are supposed to be sandboxes. EverQuest Next and Landmark aren't the only reasons to be amped, either, as games like Star Citizen, Elite: Dangerous, and The Repopulation are all putting their own spin on emergent virtual worlds and standing on the shoulders of genre giants. It's not all roses, though, and amidst the cautious optimism on display from starving sandbox fans, I feel the need to remind myself of the various personal pitfalls that still need to be addressed.
EQN Landmark livestream highlights new building mats, hints at co-op harvesting
In a fortuitous bit of timing, last night's EverQuest Next Landmark livestream highlighted some of the very changes that players saw right after the latest alpha patch went live. Besides a notable list of bug fixes, the patch introduced a separate loot chat tab, eight new prop recipes, and 12 new building materials, including various sandstones, stucco, plaster, and even sand. On top of that, players who have fallen victim to the clever traps of others will be glad to know that the evac to safety feature is now fully operational. During the stream, Senior Producer Terry Michaels also mentioned upcoming features currently in development, such as cooperative harvesting, attached claims, caves, permissions, and groups. The show then wrapped up with the announcement that these official streams, newly christened Landmark Live, will be a weekly occurrence from here on out. Watch the full livestream below, and read up on the latest alpha additions in the patch notes.
Some Assembly Required: Your home is your castle on Vanguard's Thestra
In a painful twist of fate, this week's scheduled Some Assembly Required wraps up the trilogy on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes housing that began with my first piece for this column highlighting Kojani homes way back in 2011. I say painful because we now know that Vanguard will be closing its doors forever come July 31st. But that leaves us six more months to enjoy what's there, and since we've already seen the oriental homes of Kojan and the desert dwellings of Qalia, it's time to take a tour of Thestra. The European-flavored continent was the final of the three to visit not because it is somehow less than the other two but because it is more -- as in more land to cover! The main reason I left Thestra for last is because of the sheer size of the continent. The amount of time required to visit just a fraction of the housing settlements scattered throughout this land is daunting. The other reason is that I wanted to end on a bang with my favorite style of guild housing: the castles!
Some Assembly Required: Pre-NGE SWG's proper sandbox PvP
A few weeks ago I ranted at indie sandbox devs who continue pumping out poorly conceived FFA PvP games. I didn't have any wordcount left at the end of that novella to propose any solutions, so I'm going to do that today. And hey, it's pretty simple, at least conceptually. All a dev team needs to do is iterate on Star Wars: Galaxies' pre-NGE PvP system.
Some Assembly Required: Virtual world roundup for 2014 and beyond
Just over two years ago there was a great disturbance, as if millions (or so) of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Yes, something terrible had happened: a beloved virtual world was destroyed. And that left a number of sandbox refugees looking for a new place to call home. At that time, Some Assembly Required offered a roundup of the then available virtual worlds that could possibly offer accommodation, depending on what qualities players most desired in their games. But as things are wont to, they changed; a lot can happen in the MMOverse in 24 months, from additional features in existing games to new games to the loss of more worlds. So it's time to update this list of virtual worlds to reflect 2014 and beyond. Take a look and see what titles or titles-to-be have the sandbox features that best make a game a home for you.
Field Journal: Floundering in Neverwinter's Foundry
Given that I'm a roleplayer, you might think that I find Neverwinter's Foundry an amazing expressive tool that I relish wholeheartedly. To that I respond with a resounding sort of! I love that it exists and seeing all the neat, even mind-blowing creations of others. Actually using it to make something of my own, though? That's pretty daunting, and I'm not talking about the interface. I am a very creative person, but there are many kinds of creativity. I've long since given up trying to be the game master in tabletop games given how painful it is for me to prepare and how I bring so much more to the table as a player. I'm the expressive sort, coming up with great ideas on the fly that make things more fun for everyone, drawing everyone's characters, that sort of thing. I'm not the constructive sort, so I have a hard time building worlds compared to inhabiting them. That might be why I had to stick a cameo from my own Trickster Rogue in the quest I designed.
Some Assembly Required: Yet another FFA PvP sandbox
I dabbled in yet another alpha-state indie sandbox game this week. As you'd expect, the title is rough around the edges. Also as you'd expect, it boasts FFA PvP and the correspondingly godawful community for whom the game's "do whatever you want" mechanics immediately translate to "kill everything that moves first and ask questions later, if at all." Since it's still alpha, there's plenty of time for the devs to correct this unfortunate bit of business and separate this particular game from the legions of crappy FFA-PvP-with-zero-consequences titles clumping together in the vast litterbox of bad MMO ideas. Will they do that? Probably not, but at least I'll get a good rant out of it.
Massively's hands-on with WildStar's housing system and new classes
Call me a pacifist, but housing and healing are two of my favorite aspects to any MMO. Maybe it stems from a deep rooted desire for safety and comfort, or perhaps I'm just a real-life Hittori Hanzo: no longer interested in making instruments of death. Either way, WildStar's latest reveals have me excited. In the course of the most recent press beta, I scored some hands-on time with both new classes and glimpsed the newest changes to housing at a press event last week. The two new classes, Medic and Engineer, add variety to the healing and tanking game, while housing improvements turn homemaking into more than just a hobby. The upcoming MMO from Carbine Studios and NCsoft is turning out to be one rich frontier, ripe with potential for anyone looking for a new MMO home.
Some Assembly Required: How EverQuest Next Landmark could redefine PGC
PGC means Players Got Creativity! OK, no it doesn't really, but it could (and it's better than Pungent Goat Cheese!). As you know, in our MMOverse, the acronym stands for Player-Generated Content, which is not only the backbone of Some Assembly Required but easily my favorite part of gaming. And what is player-generated content if not a demonstration of player creativity? Unfortunately, for several years, my favorite part of games seemed to be the least important focus for MMO developers. PGC, if it is brought in at all, is relegated to the back seat (or locked away in the trunk). Luckily, times are a-changing. Just a glance over the past year shows that the aversion-to-PGC attitude is shifting; more sandboxes have gone into development with more and more features than in the last few years. But one game, above them all, is going beyond adding a few features. EverQuest Next Landmark is not just letting PGC into the car; it's plunking it in the driver's seat and handing over the keys, and in doing so could potentially redefine PGC as we know it. And that's a good thing! Instead of being treated as non-essential fluff, PGC could be seen as a vital ingredient to any MMO.
