player-housing
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Newest producer's letter released for Star Wars Galaxies
Despite the layoffs and restructuring that has recently hit Sony Online Entertainment, Star Wars Galaxies is still going strong and improving. Producer Teesquared has chimed in for this month's producer's letter, outlining some of the planned additions to the game over the course of the next year. And what will that entail? Outlined in the letter are updates to the ongoing Galactic Civil War. Players can look forward to Galactic Civil War 2 being split into three updates to allow for faster release, with part one adding more objectives in space and three new fighter ships to help achieve those objectives. Part two will bring the war more directly to player-run cities and guilds, while part three will be a general balancing pass aimed at improving the game all around. While Teesquared spends a great deal of time looking back at the past year and outlining the changes that have been made to the game, it looks like Star Wars Galaxies players can look forward to a mix of system tweaks, PvP improvements, and content additions. Fans should take a look at the full letter for more details.
GDC 2011: Gods & Heroes hopes to give its audience something unexpected
The in-game story for Gods and Heroes begins with a Roman general returning home after his time in war only to be thrust into battle again. The history of the game itself mirrors this journey: In October 2006, the original creators of the game, Perpetual Entertainment, shut down. However, in August 2010, independent developer Heatwave Interactive picked up the rights to develop and distribute the game. Our hero's journey started once more. Just as your character in G&H returns home to an estate in ruins and a craving for revenge, Heatwave developers are fighting back the old gods and attacking the game with renewed vigor. At GDC 2011, our editor-in-chief Shawn Schuster discussed the rise, fall, and rebirth of the game with CEO Anthony Castoro, Lead Designer Tim Schubert, and Community Manager Donna Prior. "I think a lot of people expected us to go free-to-play and microtransact the minions then put it out there. But in early alpha tests and beta tests, people really wanted a full game out of this and expect us to treat it a certain way. We are working really hard to do that," said Castoro, who went on to assure us that he is not just out to make money -- he hopes to deliver a great game too. Follow after the break to find out what is going to make this game victorious in the gladiatorial arena. %Gallery-118322%
Stinkweed and stars: Wizard101's latest update improves the quality of life
Budding magicians will find Wizard101 a friendlier and more colorful place following the recent February update to the game. Topping the list of additions are two new castles: a cash shop-only tropical island and a craftable Celestial Observatory. The Observatory represents a truly monumental undertaking for the crafting set, although some would argue that the result is well worth the time spent on it. The update's other major focus is on smoothing out some of the lumpy bits of in-game gardening, which now should be much more user-friendly for those with green thumbs. We can safely speak for everyone when we say, "Thank goodness that Stinkweed now grows faster!" Wizard101's also started a membership program for anyone who uses a credit card for their subscription during the previous 30 days. As a reward to players who use this form of payment, KingsIsle will refill their energy faster, increase the size of their backpacks, expand their friends list, and quicken their hatching and crafting timers. You can read the full update notes over at Wizard101.
Wings Over Atreia: Shakespeare in Aion
OK, OK, maybe Shakespeare is a bit melodramatic, but the idea of taking on a role and playing it out on a stage is not a foreign idea -- even in Aion. It just so happens that this stage is not under your feet but in virtual space instead. Besides, I happen to love Shakespeare, so props to me for mentioning him in a gaming column! Now, I am the first to admit that NCsoft doesn't make it easy for a gamer to roleplay in Aion; there are scant few tools to support this style of play. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Despite this dearth, there is in fact a whole community comprised of legions both large and small as well as individuals. These players use personal connections and a player-created chat channel in-game as well as external tools such as the Aion Roleplayers website to bind themselves together and support the community as a whole. So what exactly is roleplay, and how viable is it in the world of Atreia? Exit stage left (past the cut) to define RP, debunk some RP myths, and explore RP in general Aion.
The Game Archaeologist and the NeverEnding Quest: A cozy chit-chat with Thom Terrazas
Welcome back to the Game Archaeologist's third week of our EverQuest expedition! So, OK, we lost a few valued members of our team crossing the wilds of Norrath, but who would ever think that 10 rats could be so vicious when out for vengeance? It comes with the territory, and really, it's well worth the loss of human life if we can educate just one soul on one of the most influential MMOs of all time. Their mothers will understand their sacrifice. We've already taken a look at the highlights of EverQuest and the perspectives of several veterans of the game, which means this week we must be gearing up for an inside look into the machinations of grinding, hell levels, alternative advancement and DKP. For this, we struggled through the Swamp of Sony to find the ramshackle hut of Thom Terrazas -- and he was expecting us. A fight ensued, with many a chicken flung in anger, not to mention a few pokes in the eye, Three Stooges-style. But in the end, Terrazas capitulated and told us everything we wanted to know. Thom Terrazas almost has all his SOE merit badges, having worked on Planetside, Vanguard and now EverQuest in various roles. I was curious -- what was it like to be handed the keys to not just a game, but a veritable institution? Hit the jump to see what Terrazas has to say about his favorite memories, the future of the game, and why EQ hit it out of the park in 1999.
The Road to Mordor: My wish list for 2011
January is always a month of denial for me because it usually takes a full 30 days for the reality of a new year to settle into my skull. It can't be a new year! I just, just got used to the old one! I'm going to forget the real year when I sign my checks and then I'll be denounced as a fraud! What horrible teenage fad will be inflicted on us this year? Seriously, Ke$ha was the final straw for me. She's like all four horsemen of the apocalypse melted down and recast as a talentless banshee with an ironic dollar sign smack in the middle of her name. But that's my problem. A new year also means a virgin slate for all of our MMOs. What happened last year was so last year -- now we turn our eyes to the future. We know a little of what's upcoming for Lord of the Rings Online, but that doesn't mean we can't have wishes. You know what they say: If wishes were horses, I'd have the Steed of Night. So in honor of '11, I've come up with an 11-point wish list of what I'd love to see in LotRO this year. I fully expect Turbine to drop everything -- everything -- to get on it!
Star Wars Galaxies looks to the latest update and beyond
The most recent update to Star Wars Galaxies was a big one all around, adding in the Wookiee Life Day event for the holiday and new content for the Witches of Dathomir. So it's no surprise that the newest producer's letter from Teesquared focuses on several sides of the multifaceted update -- but it doesn't stop there. The letter also addresses some of what players can expect to kick off the next year, as well as notes that the Rebels have regained control of the ongoing Galactic Civil War. For starters, players can expect the long-awaited update to Officers and the Galactic Civil War 2 update, with the latter bringing space and player cities into the ongoing struggle for the galaxy. Players can also look forward to some new old structures becoming available -- according to the letter, the models have existed in the game files but haven't ever been quite finished and implemented before now. And the update promises to give characters more ways to access Rare Loot System chests that don't rely upon the more frequent method of combat. Star Wars Galaxies players should take a look at the full letter and start getting excited about the new year -- it's not so far away.
EverQuest II's first Velious rewards brighten home and hearth
Purchasing an expansion for a long-running game is something of a necessary evil. Getting special rewards for having purchased it, however, certainly does help take the edge off. That's the philosophy behind the Velious rewards for EverQuest II, and it's certainly the case for the first two rewards. Revealed today, the rewards make a fine addition to the home of any resident of Norrath, allowing you to spruce up your living quarter with a new butler and painting. The painting is a reproduction of the cover art for the original EverQuest's second expansion, taking place in the same region (Velious, naturally). The new Coldain butler, on the other hand, will serve as a retainer within your house, possibly following you on errands for an hour or so at a time. ("Errands" may well include "killing things and looting corpses," for the record.) EverQuest II players have plenty more rewards to look forward to, but the first pair should be a welcome addition for everyone in the game.
The Anvil of Crom: All I want for Christmas
Buuurrrp. Ah. Begging your pardon, but you know how it goes this time of year, leftovers and all that. Seeing as how this is a Thanksgiving holiday weekend here in the States -- and the annual Christmas shopping orgy has begun -- it seems an appropriate time to indulge in a bit of list-making with regard to Age of Conan. I don't normally do lists here at The Anvil of Crom, as many seem to be the game journalist's equivalent of the oh-crap-I've-got-a-deadline-but-no-topic safety net. Occasionally, though, they serve a real purpose. In my case that purpose is bitching politely talking about what I'd like to see Funcom add to its AoC recipe. So, in honor of the pilgrims and their pilfering of North America (or the cold turkey sandwich you're no doubt stealing from your fridge at this very moment), I present to you three things Age of Conan should pillage from other MMORPGs. Join me after the cut for the rundown.
Another Mog Bonanza coming to Final Fantasy XI
The Mog Bonanza is coming back for another celebration of a new year in Final Fantasy XI, giving players the chance to earn insane prizes without doing anything more arduous than guessing a number correctly. Of course, it's a five-digit number that you only get one real shot at guessing right, so there's a good cause behind the quality of prizes -- mountains of gil, Empyrean weapons, and unique furnishings for your in-game home. As with prior events, you get prizes as long as you guess the last number correctly, with better prizes awarded the more digits you get correct. Marbles go on sale for the price of 2000 gil starting on December 22nd, and with a grand total of 10 marbles per character, you can at least ensure that you wind up winning a statue -- or try to go for broke with maximum possible earnings. Take a look at the full list of prizes on the official site, and start guessing your numbers now, as it's a chance to earn fantastic Final Fantasy XI prizes for just a little bit of work.
The Tattered Notebook: Six years of EverQuest II
I looked down at the dog-eared journal and shivered. As excited as I was to finally be in possession of The Tattered Notebook, I recalled the fates of its previous owners. First, seemingly out of madness, Seccia made a sudden and unexpected career change to blog about kittens. Now, Scarve, a Ratonga, has disappeared in the night, leaving behind only a wedge of cheese, this tattered notebook, and a tiny stuffed Kerran doll. Rumors spread of his appearance among a shadowy cult of Gnomish tinkerers, but it's unclear whether he's with them by choice or by force. Regardless, I took a deep breath and opened the cover. What a perfect time to begin adding my entries to the journal, right at the celebration of EverQuest II's six-year anniversary! To celebrate, the game is holding its second annual Festival of Heroes, from November 19-30. In honor of this milestone, my first entry into The Tattered Notebook is a retrospective of those past six years, with an eye towards the future.
New Ryzom patch enhancing PvP and other social functions
PvP is a tricky matter to balance in a game with players in all sorts of different gear levels, not to mention accounting for different player skills. Ryzom has tackled the age-old bugbear with its latest patch, attempting to extend and expand the PvP system in the game to everyone. The system has modified the rules for attacking, flagging, and supporting other players, with a small chart in the patch notes explaining who is allowed to do what to whom and when. In case skewering other players isn't your thing, however, you can invite them into your personal apartment now as well as take advantage of the newly added variable tags for the chat system. There are also enhancements to the apartment customization focusing on getting involved with the community team and as usual a smattering of bugfixes and general performance improvements. If you're part of Ryzom's dedicated audience, take a look at the patch notes to see what 1.10 brings to the game.
Massively tours EverQuest's House of Thule expansion
The House of Thule. Not to be confused with the Summer Cottage of Thule, or the Awkwardly-Small-Yet-Expensive Inner City Apartment of Thule. Thule's house is a scary place, and it's a place that all denizens of Norrath shall soon be intimately familiar with. Sony Online Entertainment recently gave us a deep tour of its 17th EverQuest expansion, and it's the first time I've set foot in pre-EQII Norrath in years. Luckily I can report that Sony isn't letting EverQuest lie on its laurels. While this next expansion may not sound like much (it's just a house... or is it?), it's packed with enough content to send me through a two-and-a-half hour long developer tour. Plus, I should mention that I only got to see about half of the new zones, and none of the new raids. But why should we stand outside of this lovely home when there's so much madness hidden within? Come, journey with me, and lose all sense of what is reality.
EverQuest II moves treasured veterans into a luxurious estate
With the housing market in Norrath the way that it is these days, elves getting tossed out on their ears and all, it's a welcome sign when contractors are called in for big budget projects. For its latest anniversary present to loyal subscribers, SOE is giving EverQuest II seven-year vets an expansive mansion as a present: the Mistmoore Crag Estate. Perched above the Timorous Moors -- and boasting a great view! -- the Mistmoore Crag Estate was the former home of the mayor of these here parts. Happily, he's long since moved out, and those swooping in to occupy the mansion should be pleased with their findings. This luxurious five-room player house will hold up to 600 objects, and is available to any account that rolls past the seven-year mark. It will become available starting October 12th, and you can read more about this potential dwelling over at EverQuest II's veteran reward page.
Storyboard: Finding what I'm looking for
Two weeks ago, I made something of an impassioned plea because, while I like to roleplay quite a bit and have had wonderful experiences doing so (even in World of Warcraft, which kind of got turned into the villain of the piece), roleplaying is essentially seen as a non-entity. It's unsupported and generally ignored by development teams, and part of that is our fault for not demanding that it be made more important. So this week I'm going to talk about some minimum and fairly reasonable baselines of roleplaying features, things that already exist in many games but aren't even close to being universal. In response to one of the frequent comments from both sides, it's worth noting that yes, roleplayers are a minority. But then, so are extremely hardcore PvP players, and the people who will rush through all available endgame content in less than a week, and players who can multi-box with five different characters, and so on. The difference is that those minorities stay and grow, because they're given the tools they need. Roleplayers aren't. Sometimes by not creating the market, you're denying an audience you don't know is there, an argument so simple that articles could be (and have been) written just on that principle.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Fun with housing
I've briefly mentioned housing in previous articles, but I haven't done any in-depth looks into it. Plus, with the addition of new house contracts, the housekeeper system, and some creative ideas I've discovered, I thought it was about time to give housing some exposure. For the uninitiated, Runes of Magic's housing is a feature that lets you have an instanced area for yourself to store items, earn bonuses, and decorate to your heart's content. I've seen some players refer to RoM's housing as Everquest II lite. Apart from a handful of boss furniture-recipes, you don't craft the majority of furniture. You can buy furniture from NPCs or select from a wide range of choices in the cash shop. Once inside your house, you'll have access to the housing interface. Your items of choice can be moved into the furniture slots and then placed anywhere you want. You can get a more detailed how-to guide on housing from the Runes of Magic Wiki. In this article, I want to take a look at some creative things you can do with furniture and housing.
The Daily Grind: Best player housing?
Maybe it's because I've been playing too long, or I'm getting too old, or I'm just too cynical. Whatever the reason, I'm rarely taken aback by MMORPGs nowadays. Many of them are quite enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but it has been quite some time since I've had a "holy insert-expletive-of-your-choice-here" moment. Last night, however, brought just such a moment (actually an hour's worth of moments) courtesy of the guild housing in EverQuest II. I've played nearly every game in the genre that features housing, and while Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies remain favorites for sentimental reasons, I have to say that EQII's guild halls make them look rather silly and ineffectual by way of comparison. It's not just the sheer scale (immense), but also the myriad ways that players are allowed to place items and build virtual spaces. The screenshot above, an interior of the publicly-viewable Destiny guild hall on the Lucan D'Lere server, captures a small slice of the creativity on display in homes throughout Norrath. What about you Massively readers? Which game do you feel has the most impressive implementation of player or guild housing?
Fan Faire 2010: EQII flying mounts, EQNext art revealed [updated]
The EverQuest franchise looks to be the big winner at this year's Fan Faire event, as several large announcements regarding the games in the long-running series were featured in SOE president John Smedley's community address. EQ2Wire's Feldon has the details on the short presentation. In addition to restating the features coming your way when EQII Extended hits in mid-August, Smedley discussed the next EverQuest expansion, House of Thule, which adds several new dungeons as well as player housing and launches on October 14th. EverQuest II players will have a to wait a bit longer for their expansion, Destiny of Velious, which debuts on February 8th. The wait will likely be well worth it, however, as flying mounts will be introduced in many of the game's zones. Finally, Smedley revealed a presentation slide labeled "The Future of EverQuest" and preceded to show off the first concept art in-game art from the cryptically titled EverQuest Next, which you can view in our gallery below. He also hinted that more information would be forthcoming as Fan Faire wraps up this weekend. [Update: We received a note from SOE clarifying that the screenshot here is not mere concept art -- it's actual in-game art. Only makes you more curious, doesn't it!] %Gallery-98975%
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%
Wasteland Diaries: The end
When I first heard about Fallen Earth, the first thing that piqued my interest was the post-apocalyptic setting. The second thing was the FPS-style gameplay and the third thing was the factional PvP. I was delivered the setting in spades; I got a good, healthy dose of FPS action. I will admit, I got a good deal of PvP as well, but not much of it was factionally driven. The understanding I had of what to expect when I hit max level was enforcers and CHOTA squaring off for control of a town, slugging it out for hours on end. But in reality I got sporadic random battles or clan warfare. PvP was supposed to be the endgame material. At least that was the impression that I got. In this post I will look at the current state of Fallen Earth's endgame, and what we might expect to change from the information garnered from the recent State of the Game. Many people aren't sure what to do in the game once they hit the level cap. After the cut I will take a look at the state of Fallen Earth's endgame and where I expect it to go given the recent announcements.
