player-housing
Latest
Trove shows off its wonders for January
Do you like seeing all of the creative projects that people can put together in Trove? The team behind the game certainly does, since one of the cornerstones of design is to get creative. Which is why there's a new post detailing some of the wonders to be found in the game from the month of January, Club Worlds that offer visual flair and a unique perspective. Some of the worlds are mostly just visual treats, others are functional spots that allow you to ride along special tracks to hear music or take part in a high-speed pinata-cracking festival. If you want an idea about what new worlds to visit during your next play session, you could do worse than hopping into the game and taking a gander at what's on display.
RIFT plans improvements to dimensions and minions
Two of RIFT's more popular systems, dimensions and minions, will be getting some major dev love when Patch 3.1 arrives. In a new dev diary that went out yesterday, the team lays out a list of improvements for these systems. Dimensions will be getting a free-fly camera to allow for even more building precision, permissions options for visitors, ban lists, and -- prepare for this to blow your mind -- a bigger +1 button. As for minions, players will have even more options in how they deploy these hard-working followers. The team is adding minion stamina potions, the ability to shuffle adventures, and the option to link to minions in the chat window.
MapleStory 2 features expensive housing, limited land
MMO Culture reports that player housing is "one of the main features in MapleStory 2." Curiously, though, publisher Nexon is limiting available land and making ownership an expensive proposition. If you can't afford to own, you'll still be able to rent high-rise flats and decorate them as you would a regular house. The website also says that apartments will have public social areas, which are viewable via a trio of beta screenshots.
The Queue: Abrogator Stones, garrisons, and player housing
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. It took until January, but it's finally cold and snowy in Wisconsin. Now, I'm not a big fan of the freezing cold or anything, but it's Wisconsin. It's about time. Chadalac2 asked: Anyone else not getting that many stones for the legendary quest? I have like 39 and a fellow guild mate has 120. What the heck.
Revival talks about death, decoration, and defenses
You remember Revival, right? You know, the game funding its development by selling in-game houses? That one. The developers haven't been quiet over the holiday season, with several recent blog posts detailing the high-end concepts behind several of the game's key mechanics -- for example, dying, which doesn't simply leave you to run back to your corpse but forces you to traverse the spirit realm, fighting off malicious spirits and seeking the Mortality Gate to drag yourself back from the dead. Of course, you can stay alive longer by making use of combat mechanics like the shield wall to defend yourself from dying. You can also use your continued "being alive" status to take advantage of the decoration kits available for housing, which allow you to convert existing rooms with certain fixtures to more functional equivalents. It's all interesting stuff and worth considering if you're sorely tempted to drop a bunch of money on the promise of virtual real estate.
The Daily Grind: Does your WoW garrison feel like home?
I've been a fascinated outside observer in regard to World of Warcraft's recent expansion and its much-touted garrison feature. I have no doubt that garrisons have filled a lot of purposes and gone all-out on functionality. It's certainly been a powerful carrot for Blizzard to wave in front of players. But what I've been wondering is whether garrisons are so functional that they forgot to be personal. In other words, do garrisons feel like "home" in-game even if you can't decorate and customize them the way that you can in other MMO housing systems? Has your character finally set down roots or does this feel like just another mission hub? 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!
Global Chat: Die, DPS meters, die!
Hey you! Yes, you! Are you sick of damage meters ruining your life? Do you rebel against the virtual man by questioning such long-established gaming tropes as levels? Then have we got the column for you! In our last community blog round-up of the year, we've collected some fine pieces of discussion, debate, and introspection -- not to mention a first impression or two to tide you over until 2015. We've also got an essay about the joy of healing, what it's like to play an MMO as a bear, going back to the Isle of Refuge, and more!
Pick up a SWTOR stronghold for practically nothing
If you haven't planted roots in Star Wars: The Old Republic's strongholds or are on a quest to collect them all, then BioWare has a nice surprise for you. Buried in the patch notes for this week's Shadows of Revan expansion is an announcement that the studio is selling two of its strongholds for a pittance. "To celebrate our impending 3rd anniversary, the Dromund Kaas and Coruscant Strongholds are now available for three credits!" BioWare posted. Typically, these strongholds go for 5,000 credits or 50 cartel coins.
Lost Continent: Lucking into a breezy ArcheAge bungalow
My ArcheAge avatar is pretty fortunate. Last Friday night he became the proud owner of a breezy bungalow, which is that big bamboo marine house that you've probably seen in screenshots, videos, and the like. The bungalow's blueprint costs a whopping 300 gilda stars -- i.e., no small amount for a guildless guy like me who mostly duos his way through Haranya. I'd managed to save 250 of the character-bound gilda by doing various dailies over the past several weeks, but I had a few days to go before I'd finally be able to afford the plans. How did I come up with the balance ahead of schedule, not to mention the boat load of materials required to actually build the house? That's an interesting story, and it's another example of how ArcheAge's mechanics are a necessary breath of fresh air in a stale genre.
Revival launches its site, aims to sell houses for cash
Revival has just opened the doors to its official site, and it's a sandbox online game with skill-based progression. Or it will be, at least. Contrary to what you would expect from that description in the first sentence, though, there is not a Kickstarter to link to. Instead, the game is planning to help fund itself by selling houses. In-game houses. For real-world cash, right upfront, before the game is out and in the live world. According to the official site, the rationale is that real estate in the game world is limited, and rather than have generic housing templates, every house has pre-determined architecture and layout to properly fit with the world as a whole. You will also be able to buy ships and take part in sailing, again for real-world money. It's the designer's alternative to ever running any sort of Kickstarter or other crowdfunding campaign; whether or not it seems like a sound investment is up to the potential players. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Final Fantasy XIV's Yoshida on housing, test servers, and post-Fanfest
Final Fantasy XIV has had a busy year, and it looks to be having a busy next year to boot. The game's first expansion is in the works and planned for a release in spring of 2015, along with another major patch to cap off the game's current patch cycle. And director/producer Naoki Yoshida continues steering the ship, working what I can only assume is a 200-hour week. I had a chance to ask a few questions of Yoshida around the time of the first two fanfests of the year (the final one is scheduled for December in Tokyo), ranging from housing questions to the promise of public test servers to how hard it will be to establish an Eternal Bond. Jump on past the break to read the full interview!
ArcheAge's Auroria launches today
ArcheAge is scheduled to launch a big new update today on its North American servers. How big? Well, you can get a pretty solid idea just from the patch notes. The game is adding four new zones to be conquered and claimed by players, complete with space to build castles and houses once the claims have been made. There's also a new dungeon being added to the game, giving players uninterested in the land rush something to do with their time. New recipes have also been added for high-end weapons requiring Gilda Dust to craft. Vehicle stats have seen a rebalancing in an effort to make sure that no single vehicle is the unquestioned best in every field at all times; the vehicles retain unique abilities, but their performance is identical. Check out the full patch notes on the official site and start downloading as soon as you can since this patch is a big one. [Thanks to Robert for the tip!]
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV and the housing mess, part 2
Wait, part 2? When was part 1 a thing? January, my friends. And while I had prayed for sun, I planned for rain, and that turned out to be a wise move. What happened in the end was unpleasant but entirely unsurprising, as Final Fantasy XIV's second implementation of housing went little better than the first. In the interests of full disclosure, yes, I am one of the vanishingly small number of people with an in-game house at the moment. I work at home and happened to have both the money and the time to grab myself a place to live in-game. That doesn't mean the system is anything remotely approaching good or even acceptable, which is why I want to spend this week talking about the mess that has been made and what, if anything, can be done to correct this fact. Housing in Final Fantasy XIV is a sore spot right now, and that's a problem, especially when it doesn't have to be.
World of Warcraft offers up another Garrison preview
It's been quite some time since the first official preview of Garrisons for Warlords of Draenor, so you could be forgiven for thinking that a second part wasn't coming. But it has finally surfaced on the official site, talking about the various sized plots in your World of Warcraft Garrison and the buildings that you can construct. As you upgrade your Garrison, you get more and more spaces for buildings in three different sizes: small, medium, and large, each of which provide different benefits. Small buildings (and a few special buildings that are not upgraded and can be quested for) allow you to set up profession workspaces in your Garrison. Medium buildings offer a variety of resource additions, ranging from the ability to trap animals for leather to picking up special dungeon quests, and large buildings offer unique tricks like transporting between distant points or training special mounts or even riding your own siege engine. Take a look at the full preview for more details of how the buildings break down and where players can acquire the better blueprints.
WildStar's housing gets huge with Drop 3
Housing fanatics (including those eternal level 14s) in WildStar have great reason to cheer for the upcoming Drop 3. Carbine Studios is giving a ton of love to the player housing system, including a huge expansion of how many items can be placed. In yesterday's Nexus Report, the team answered many housing questions and outlined some of the big changes coming with Drop 3. When it hits, players will be able to place up to 1,000 decor items both indoors and outdoors, which is an increase from the current 300 exterior and 800 interior limits. Other improvements include musical selection, more lights, separate sharing privileges for gardens, and a blank housing choice. The team has also been discussing new base terrains and the ability to move FABkits around. We've got the full video for you after the break, so chow down! [Thanks to Greg for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: How should studios handle server merges with open world housing?
We had an interesting question come up in the office the other day concerning all of the open world housing in ArcheAge. What if the game (perish the thought) shrunk in population and then faced server merges. How would the studio handle merging populations that had equal claims on housing plots? It seems to be a recipe for disaster any way that you look at it. One solution would be to force everyone out of the pool, er, server and then make a completely new server for those populations to fight over. Another solution would be to award a housing plot to the character with the most seniority. What do you think? How should studios handle server merges with open world housing? 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!
Final Fantasy XIV introduces personal housing (badly) with patch 2.38
After more than half a year of waiting, Final Fantasy XIV players can finally purchase houses of their own. Provided, of course, that they have an exceptional amount of disposable gil and were on the servers early. Patch 2.38 introduces the option of purchasing land in the housing wards as an individual, but with prices starting at 4 million on the most populated servers for the smallest plot and with only two new wards introduced, many players who had been hopeful for a new house will find their hopes quickly dashed. Producer Naoki Yoshida took to the forums to apologize for the land shortage, promising that more wards will be introduced with or following the launch of patch 2.4, which should double the amount of available land. While the prices are equal for both personal and free company houses (being built on the same plots), these prices are significantly lower than those when housing was first introduced, even after adjustments to Legacy worlds. The update also contains other features, including new emotes, new Relic Weapon quests, and update loot in Syrcus Tower and the Second Turn of the Binding Coil.
Massively's ArcheAge launch diary: Day three - PvE, quests, and story
Welcome back to Massively's ArcheAge launch diary. I can't believe we're already on the third installment because there's still so much to see, do, and learn. That's a good thing, though, isn't it? Yeah, it is, and while ArcheAge has its share of issues, its breadth and depth is incredibly welcome in a genre that's gotten far too comfortable repackaging the same tired experience.
Mortal Online sets out territory control in a new patch
Ready to make your mark on the world of Mortal Online? Your time is now. The game's latest patch implements the territory control system, allowing guilds to war over choice bits of land, build keeps and cities, and generally shape the landscape into what they want to see. There's even a trailer for it past the cut, showing off what players can expect to get when breaking ground on a new city and building its defenses. Cities alone would be a welcome addition, but the patch also brings with it a variety of improvements to quality of life. The game's mail system has been rebuilt, several UI elements and chat commands have been implemented, and the world map has seen some trimming and adjustments. The patch is live now, so you can check out the notes for all the details or just log in and start staking your guild's claim. [Thanks to Zakiyya for the tip!]
The Repopulation rolls out open-world housing and tournaments
The Repopulation is looking back over its updates through the month of August and letting fans and backers alike know how the game is developing. The biggest addition was the rollout of open world housing in PvE regions; the team has changed how plots are placed to allow players more freedom in choosing locations. City plots will see a similar restructuring for contested regions. More people than before will get to try these changes, as well; the price for early access to the game has been dropped to $100 and all of the Round 1 backers should be invited to the game's test by the coming weekend. Player-created tournaments were also rolled out for testing; while the final version will be available in player-run cities, the current implementation is in a testing instance. The minigame system got its basic implementation, and of course there was the usual array of tweaks, balance changes, and bugfixes. Check out the full update for all of the details if you're watching the game from afar with eager eyes.
