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Flameseeker Chronicles: WvW primer
Welcome to the PvP primer, the post with everything you didn't think you wanted to know about PvP content in Guild Wars 2. If you're one of the people saying that Guild Wars 2 is a PvP-centric game and you might do personal story for a break every now and again, this probably isn't going to be new information to you. Think of it as something of crib notes for the uninitiated. Tempted to get into PvP but not sure where to start? Unsure if WvW is your speed? Let's start at the very beginning: There are two main types of PvP in Guild Wars 2. There's world vs. world (WvW), which pits three servers against each other in grand-scale, pitched battles. The other type is structured PvP (sPvP is becoming popular as an abbreviation for that), which takes two different forms but involves smaller, quicker battles on special maps. This week, we'll be looking at WvW.
Spirit Tales bringing 1v5 monster boss PvP on June 6th
When you look at KoramGame's über-cute free-to-play title Spirit Tales, revolutionary PvP probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. According to a new press release, however, that's exactly what the studio is aiming for in an upcoming update which will add 1v5 monster boss PvP to the game. The feature is pretty much what it sounds like: One player takes on the role of a giant dungeon boss mob, and it's his job to stomp the everloving daylights out of the other five players who will be teaming up to bring him down. The victor of these 1v5 battles will be rewarded with "stronger, more powerful PvP equipment" with which to further dominate the battlefield. The update will be going live on June 6th, and players who take part in the new gametype between its launch and July 1st will have the opportunity to win fancy Tt gaming peripherals, so head on over to the game's official site and get ready to rumble. [Source: KoramGame press release]
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR's James Ohlen shares the formula behind PvP nerfs
When Update 1.2 launched for Star Wars: The Old Republic, most players witnessed some major changes to their classes. In my opinion, these changes weren't game-breaking, but they did require that some players re-evaluate how they played. Some classes were changed so drastically in this patch players claimed they felt as if they were truly playing a completely different class. Major changes like this do not happen without reason, and from my time spent with SWTOR developers, I know that they are passionately interested in making their game the best it can be. So I asked Game Director James Ohlen some questions about these mechanical changes. In true James Ohlen fashion, he was more than happy to answer in intricate detail, and I'm excited to bring you those answers here in the Hyperspace Beacon.
RIFT introduces three-faction PvP with Conquest
RIFT players have been speculating about what the much-hyped but little-revealed PvP announcement for the title would be, but now it's official: RIFT is bringing out three-faction warfare. In a post on the RIFT official site, Trion Worlds has introduced the Conquest PvP mode, which is a "no-holds-barred, interdimensional battle" in which players can choose from one of three factions (the power-hungry Dominion, the noble Oathsworn, and the knowledge-seeking Nightfall) and take part in a three-way battle to answer one poignant question: "What is the role of the Ascended in the cosmos? To rule, to protect, or to ascend?" Players eager to become a part of the Conquest won't have to wait long. This Thursday, May 17th, at 7:00 EDT, Trion will be bringing Conquest to the public test server. All you have to do to get on the action yourself is head on over to the game's PTS "getting started" page and follow the instructions, and voila. So get out there and prepare for war, Ascended; it's time to conquer! [Thanks to Valorith for the tip!]
Fallen Earth's May State of the Game letter showcases new Foothills PvP zone
Roamers of Fallen Earth's post-apocalyptic Grand Canyon province have long been awaiting the final release of the game's Global Territory Control update. Thankfully, the wait is almost over. But meanwhile, today's GamersFirst dev blog post aims to shed some light on some of the latest additions to the system. The spotlight of the post is set on the new PvP conflict area known as The Foothills. The zone is an abandoned settlement situated between Los Alamos and Citadel that "never quite made it." As a result, the various factions of Fallen Earth have taken to fighting for control of the area in order to further solidify their foothold in the region. The Global Territory Control patch is set to go live next Wednesday, so keep an eye on the official dev blog for more details as the update gets closer to launch.
The Joker returns to DC Universe Online in upcoming DLC, The Last Laugh
DC Universe Online players, prepare yourselves: The Joker's back, and he wants to put a smile on your face. The Clown Prince of Crime is making his grand return to DCUO in the game's upcoming DLC pack, The Last Laugh. Not to be confused with the renowned crossover comic story arc, DCUO's The Last Laugh "will pit players against each other in high-intensity multiplayer brawls, feature an all-new weapon, and introduce new Light-Powered Legends PvP characters." The new weapon in question isn't much of a weapon at all, but if Captain America has taught us anything, it's that even a shield can be lethal in the right hands. Now players will be able to slam, bash, and wank to their hearts' content with the new shield weapon type. And players will need every trick they can get to succeed in the new Safe House Battles, which are 4v4 PvP brawls that involve players invading one anothers' safe houses in order to complete a number of objectives. So much for safe houses being... well, safe. Players thirsting for larger-scale combat will be at home in the new Headquarter Battles, which see eight heroes squaring off against eight villains as they try to take control of the Hall of Doom and the Watchtower, respectively. And finally, the game's first light-powered Legend characters will be making an appearance in The Last Laugh, allowing players to take control of the Green Lanterns' Kilowog and Sinestro Corps' Amon Sur. The Last Laugh will be available in June for free to Legendary members and for purchase on the market for Free and Premium players. For the full details, check out the official announcement at the DCUO site.
DC Universe Online producer's letter explores the future of PvP
Another month is on its way out, and that means it's time for another DC Universe Online monthly producer's letter. This one is particularly special, though, because it's the first official producer's letter written by the game's new producer, Larry Liberty. Liberty takes a moment to introduce himself as a 16-year veteran of the industry who has worked on title such as Fallout: New Vegas, The Witcher, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Tony Hawk 4. The remainder of the letter pertains almost entirely to PvP and some of the recent changes made to it. One of the major changes is that the studio has "basically reduced the ceiling on how much damage output a crit can deliver," claiming that the team wants "to reduce the importance of luck and the importance of a good virtual dice roll in combat, and increase the importance of skill." Liberty then goes on to explain the team's philosophy behind the changes, stating that "the overarching goal for [the studio's] PvP system changes is to emphasize intelligent tactics and skillful play over lucky die rolls and raw stats." The post is rounded out by a list of some of the PvP features that are planned for game updates 13 and 14, showing players what they can expect for the future of DCUO's PvP. For the full, tasty details, go check out the full post at the game's official site.
TERA PvP battlegrounds won't be in at launch, delayed until 'late summer'
TERA fans who were looking forward to proving their mettle in PvP battlegrounds at launch are in for a bit of disappointment. En Masse community manager Minea stopped by the forums a few days ago to give fans an update on the game's development, and in doing so, revealed that battlegrounds will not be in the game when it launches in May. But before you take to the forums to kick up a frenzy (please don't), keep in mind that just because battlegrounds won't be available at launch doesn't mean that they're not in the works. Minea goes on to announce that battlegrounds are planned to be added to the game "late this summer." We hope that the extra development time will allow battlegrounds to be nice and polished when they finally hit the live servers. Until then, though, players will have to make do with open-world PvP and guild-vs-guild battles.
A look at Guild Wars 2's world vs. world PvP
The second Guild Wars 2 press beta weekend has come and gone, and Massively was there every step of the way. Stay tuned throughout the day today for even more guides, impressions, videos, and Q&As to get you ready for the highly anticipated sequel to Guild Wars. The most recent Guild Wars 2 beta weekend has wound to a close (much to my dismay), but thankfully my time in Tyria has not been wasted. Oh, heavens no. I spent the majority of the weekend running around the war-torn borderlands and getting the everloving daylights stomped out of me in the game's world vs. world combat. When I wasn't busy acquainting my face with the ground, however, I had plenty of time to meander about the battlefield of The Mists, storming keeps, cutting off supply caravans, and defending encampments, and now I finally get to share my impressions with all of you fine readers. So what did I think about GW2's WvW system (my total lack of PvP ability aside)? Rev up your siege engines and gird your proverbial loins, then follow past the cut to find out!
Fallen Earth's March state of the game gets territorial
Another month is upon us, and Fallen Earth is bringing some changes to its Global Territory Control system. While players wait with bated breath for the new features to hit the PTS at the end of the month, GamersFirst has put out a new blog post outlining what players can expect from the next round of updates. We've covered the basics of Global Territory Control previously, so if you want to get up to speed, go on and have a read. Don't worry; we'll wait. Caught up? Good. So what's new this month? The buffs granted by controlling territories have been changed. Now, each town and keep is worth a given number of points. The faction that has the most points will receive a buff that "improves crafting and harvesting speed as well as Random AP, Death Toll, Faction, and Experience gains." Meanwhile, the faction system is getting a revamp that "will see the elimination of shoulder factions." Completing tasks for your faction of choice "will only affect the specific faction you completed it for and its opposite on the faction wheel." This really only scratches the surface of the myriad changes coming to Fallen Earth, so to get the full details just head on over to the game's official site.
ArenaNet's Jon Peters talks Guild Wars 2 competitive PvP
Gaming can be a great way to wind down and relax, but as any real gamer knows, relaxation is for sissies. Competition is where the real action's at! Don't worry, Guild Wars 2 designer Jon Peters knows all about competition, and he even took some time out of his certainly busy day to sit down and talk a bit about Guild Wars 2's competitive PvP. Anyone who played the original Guild Wars knows the heavy focus the game put on balanced, competitive PvP. Well, ArenaNet is taking that to the next level in Guild Wars 2. Peters even goes on to state that the devs "consider it to be one of the primary goals of Guild Wars 2 competitive PvP to make it into an eSport." Peters goes on to discuss how the team is focusing on bringing players a balanced-but-exciting PvP experience. For the full details, just click on through the link below to the full interview at ZAM.
Latest Lord of the Rings Online dev diary is rather audacious
Lord of the Rings Online's PvMP changes just keep rolling in, it seems. Last week, the Turbine team announced that a new currency known as commendations will be replacing the role of destiny in matters of PvMP transactions. Today, we've got a new dev diary that announces the upcoming addition of a new PvMP-only stat called Audacity. What is Audacity, exactly? Well, put simply, it's a PvMP stat that will provide players with benefits such as reducing incoming damage and lowering the duration of crowd control abilities. Higher audacity, obviously, equates to lower incoming damage and shorter crowd control effects. But why introduce this feature in the first place? According to the post, the team believes that having PvMP and PvE gear on the same progression path resulted in underwhelming or overly difficult-to-obtain PvMP gear since the team had to ensure that "the PvMP items did not devalue the PvE offerings." In addition, Turbine feels that, thanks to the damage changes made in Rise of Isengard, PvMP combat was too fast-paced. The addition of audacity is intended to nix both of these problems. Freeps will acquire their first rank of Audacity automatically at level 40, and further ranks will be boosted by PvMP gear that can only be purchased with commendations. Creeps, meanwhile, will gain their first rank of Audacity upon creation, and they'll gain further ranks by purchasing them directly from class trainers (seeing as how Creeps don't wear equipment). For the full details on this new system, just click on through the link below to the official dev diary.
Next TERA CBT weekend brings level cap increase, new dungeon, and PvP
Here we are at the beginning of another week which TERA fans are certain to be anxiously waiting to end because this weekend marks the game's second North American closed beta weekend. During the last test, players got to experience the game's PvE content all the way up to level 22, including the Bastion of Lok instance. Well, this time around En Masse Entertainment is going to be opening up the gates to five additional levels of content, allowing players to progress to level 27. Testers will also gain access to a new dungeon known as Sinestral Manor, and each player will get two character slots per server rather than just one. Oh, and speaking of servers, we hear there's going to be a new one. Players will be able to test their skills against one another on Valley of Trials, the new PvP server. To top it off, En Masse has also revealed a bit of new information on how PvP combat will work. Open-world combat will be initiated when a player uses an ability known as Outlaw Declaration, which does what it says on the tin: It declares the caster an outlaw, allowing him to attack (and presumably, be attacked by) other players for 60 seconds or until combat is over. But single combat isn't the only way to get your PvP fix. Guilds can also declare war on other guilds by using the item Bahaar's Spark of War Declaration, which can be purchased in capital cities. After war has been declared, members of opposing guilds will be able to attack one another on sight. So there you have it, folks. That's what we've got to look forward to this next beta weekend. We hope to see you all on the battlefield.
A closer look at Guild Wars 2 world vs. world PvP
Guild Wars 2's competitive 5-player PvP has been getting a lot of love lately. To even the score, ArenaNet has put up a blog post dedicated to the second PvP type in Guild Wars 2: world vs. world, in which three servers compete in a two-week battle for glory. Each WvW arena is made up of four huge maps. Each map is capable of holding more than 100 players from each of three factions (servers), which means that upwards of 1,200 concurrent players will be able to get in on the large-scale action. The beauty of having three teams duking it out is that things tend to balance themselves out naturally. If one team goes beast-mode and starts making life miserable for everybody, the other two teams can naturally gang up to fight against the first. Although lore justification might be a little tricky, in a world with as much magitech the Guild Wars universe already plays host to, it's not too hard to imagine that people from alternate versions of the same world get spat into yet another mutually accessible copy of the world, where their first inclination is (naturally) to start beating the crud out of each other.
ArcheAge besieges us with a new warfare trailer
We have no idea when the Korean-developed ArcheAge is going to see the light of day on North American soil, but that doesn't mean we can't stare at the pretty trailers and hope that it's soon. Today, the official ArcheAge YouTube page has uploaded a new video that gives fans a look at the title's siege warfare. Now, you might think that you have an idea of what a fortress siege is like. A bunch of players group up, zerg rush the fortress, and the last side standing takes the prize, right? Well, not so much in ArcheAge's case. The video shows plenty of infantry clashing blades, but that's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There are catapults and siege towers and aerial attacks and more, lending a suitable sense of chaos to the entire ordeal. The objective of the madness seems to be the destruction of a crystal nestled deep within the defending fortress, though we don't speak Korean, so don't quote us on that. At any rate, it's certainly an impressive display of the large-scale PvP offered by ArcheAge, so load your trebuchets and click on past the cut for the full video.
ArenaNet reveals new PvP map with four new screenshots
Now that it finally has a (rumored) tentative launch window, fans can officially get hyped for Guild Wars 2, only to have their hopes dashed when the release is pushed back. OK, not really (hopefully), but we do have some fancy new screenshots for you folks today courtesy of Guild Wars Insider. ArenaNet has released four new screenshots of a to-be-announced PvP map. Though we have all of no idea what kind of map it is, how it plays, or even what it's called... doesn't matter, new screenshots! To get a look at the new map in all of its splendor, just click on through the link below to Guild Wars Insider.
Warhammer Online releases patch 1.4.5 highlights
Despite Mythic Entertainment's recent winnowing of the Warhammer Online servers -- bringing them down from four servers to a measly pair -- the company is still hard at work developing patches for the RvR-based title. Patch 1.4.5 will be hitting the live servers tomorrow, January 31st, and it brings a number of interesting changes and also ushers in the return of fortresses, which should be good news for open RvR fans. With the recent Skaven invasion, a number of relics have been found in myriad underground tunnels dug below the game's fortresses. Players will be charged with guarding their faction's relics while attempting to purloin those of the enemy. The Grovod Cavern scenario is also making a return, allowing two teams of 12 players to duke it out in the crumbling cave. But this time, there's a twist: Players will be taking control of two teams of Skaven; hilarity will ensue. To top it all off, 1.4.5 is bringing fortresses back into play (after they were removed some time ago), which should hopefully encourage players to head back into the open RvR lakes for fun and profit. For the full details, just head on over to the Warhammer Online official site.
Conquer Online adding new 'hardcore' PvP features
At the beginning of the month, NetDragon's F2P fantasy title Conquer Online received a large new update in the form of the Invasion of Pirates expansion, but the team isn't done yet. The devs are now adding a number of new (surprisingly hardcore) features to the Gale Shallow PvP zone. While players will receive no PK points in this zone, the chance of plundering a fallen enemy's armor will be tripled, meaning that life and death are a matter of great consequence. And finally, to top it off, a number of powerful mobs in the zone will grant players high-level dragon souls should they prove themselves worthy in combat. For more information on the upcoming update and to get in the game yourself, just click on through the link to Conquer Online's official site. [Source: NetDragon press release]
WindSlayer 2 patch brings PvP, updated UI
Ignited Games' upcoming title WindSlayer 2 just entered open beta earlier this month, but the team is already rolling out updates. The latest patch to hit the game introduced players to Team Match PvP, which is the first PvP mode introduced to the game. In addition, the update brought changes to the game's UI and graphics settings as well as added 52 new item shop products. To get in on the side-scrolling PvP action, just head on to the WindSlayer 2 official site and sign up. [Source: Ignited Games press release]
Hyperspace Beacon: What is this RP-PvP anyway?
At E3, Principal Lead Writer Daniel Erickson expressed that he wanted a roleplay player-vs.-player server for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Granted, BioWare's live team originally intended to not launch with any type of open-world PvP roleplay server. Community Coordinator David Bass confirmed this when he explained that the Guild HQ program will not support RP-PvP servers and that those guilds wishing to roll on those types of servers will have to do it the old fashioned way: in game. According to the Daedalus Project, a study on the habits of MMO players, only 7% of all players actually roll a character on an RP-PvP server. However, when you keep in mind that SWTOR has the largest preorder sales of any PC game as of right now (about 802,000, not including digital and European sales), 7% ends up being a significant number. At least, there are enough people interested in RP-PvP to fill a server. I understand that many people are turned off by the idea of mixing roleplay with PvP. I completely understand that. When the term RP hits people, images of Goldshire and naked Night Elves come to mind immediately. In truth, however, roleplay is really just telling a story through an interactive medium, in this case an MMO. For instance, if in the course of playing SWTOR you find yourself asking, "What would my character do in this situation?", then you have just brushed up against roleplay. In RP-PvP, players enjoy a very similar experience. Today, let's talk about mixing story and PvP. Players have found diverse ways to integrate the two. Beyond the break, I have examples of how you may find ways to do it yourself, even if hardcore roleplay isn't your thing.
