prestige-classes
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Aventurine discussing major prestige class revisions for Darkfall
Aventurine is looking for your feedback on Darkfall, and while there's no official survey, there is a lengthy list of bullet points that the developers are debating internally -- as well as an ongoing discussion in the comments section of the Darkfall Epic Blog. Topics include the possible implementation of lawless/lawful areas, clan vendors, capital city tower buffs (which would essentially turn Darkfall's starting areas into safe zones), and a recycling component for the game's crafting system. Producer Tasos Flambouras also addresses some huge theoretical changes to the game in the form of the prestige class system. "We're working on an improved concept to prestige classes where players get to make 'class'-based selections which can lead to the ultimate specialization, especially combined with the right equipment. The philosophy behind this is that while the armor system limits, the new 'class' system extends a player's specialized powers to new levels. [These] are major changes to the game to say the least," Flambouras writes. Head to the Darkfall Epic Blog to make your voice heard.
Darkfall community Q&A follow-up offers more details
Aventurine's Tasos Flamboras has donned his flame-retardant gear and ventured into the eternally blazing forest that is the Darkfall forums in an attempt to douse the fires raging after the publication of a lengthy Q&A session earlier this week. Put together by noted Darkfall blogger Paragus, the community-generated question list was initially answered by a three-man team that included Flambouras as well as developers Claus Grovdal and Kjetil Helland. Controversy erupted when community members balked at the perceived evasiveness of the answers. "When we say that we're looking into something, or considering, or have plans for, it doesn't mean that we're being evasive or diplomatic in our answers. If that was our intention, we simply wouldn't answer. It means that we're trying to give you actual insight or confirmation on what we can't go into detail about," Flambouras says. He goes on to briefly outline Aventurine's information-revealing methodology before expounding on a few of the answers from the Q&A as well as new tidbits like armor dyes, significant improvements to crafting, a completely redesigned UI, and of course the prestige class system. "Prestige classes are the largest feature ever added to Darkfall and will definitely change the face of the game," Flambouras states.
Ghostcrawler on the Path of the Titans
Our good friend Ghostcrawler (I can say that now, because we all got to meet him at BlizzCon the other week) has done his best to explain the new Path of the Titans feature coming in the Cataclysm expansion over in this forum thread. We had this same question come up on last week's podcast as well, and we said pretty much the same thing GC does: Path of the Titans is a brand new way for max-level characters to keep improving themselves. Of course, the feature is still being developed, but the goal is a "gated, not grindy" way (as in, you'll earn rewards by doing things, not by doing them over and over again) to experience character progression outside of just reputation grinding, PvP, or raiding.He clarifies the idea more later in the thread as well. The different paths of the Titans are meant to be class-independent, but GC says that they do want players to debate which path is best for which class, even if they do end up with a "best" solution in the end. Archaeology is meant to be a part of it, so GC agrees that it could be more of a mandatory secondary profession than Cooking or Fishing has been in the past, but they're aware of that danger. And just because the paths may be tied to dailies or instances doesn't mean they'll work the same: the time in which you can progress might be longer than the daily quest limit or shorter than the weekly raid limit. The idea, as above, is to give players who don't necessarily raid or PvP something else to do with character progression at endgame.Should be interesting to see what they come up with. Personally, this sounds a little bit to me like D&D's prestige classes -- not nearly as powerful or varied, but a way of separating your character out from the rest of those that chose the same class you did. That's just me being hopeful, though -- Blizzard seems to have a lot of development before we see this as a finished product. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
E3 2009: New classes, prestige classes and more coming to Free Realms
Are you one of the folks who has leveled your classes all the way to max in Free Realms and are kind of wondering what now? Well, if you're the type who loves progression and really building your character up to be better, you're in luck. The folks at SOE are planning to introduce Prestige classes (much like the aforementioned racing ones) that will allow players to level their jobs to 20, and improve them through further play.Along with this interesting development, they are adding in some new jobs to the game, like the Pro Racing class - and perhaps a new class to go with the Soccer game (Soccer player? Footballer?) since SOE has let us know that they are finally bringing those fenced-off soccer fields into play. Added to these new tidbits will be further expansion on the backstory of Free Realms, which will explain a bit more about the lands and inhabitants of this crazy fun casual MMO, as well as opening up more story-driven quests for players. Sounds like a bunch of exciting news coming in the next few months! We can't wait. Massively was on the ground in Los Angeles last week and covering all the latest E3 MMO news coming from the convention. Check out our breaking coverage (or all the Joystiq network E3 reporting) and keep your eye on Massively's front page for the latest developments.
Age of Conan officially rated M; Prestige class changes possible
More news has come out from the recent Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures press event held by Funcom. Ten Ton Hammer is reporting that the ESRB rating for AoC has been confirmed to be an M. What this means is that the game will be able to be distributed state-side in pretty well all mass-market retailers. For many of us who have been following the game for some time, we weren't quite sure how the rating wound wind up landing due to some of the fairly graphic gameplay and the adult sexual themes contained in the game. The question now is just how much of that will make it into the M-rated release versus some of the demos we've seen. Will we, in fact, "see titties" as Jorgen claimed -- or will we simply be taken to a screen blackout/time passes while our barbarians get their freak on? (For that matter, will the game wind up freak-on-free?) Another thing noted at the press event was the potential exclusion of the Prestige classes in AoC. However, as TTH notes, we shouldn't panic about that just yet. The thought is that if Funcom do decide to remove Prestige classes, they will instead make the talents and abilities widespread so that you can more fully customize your character. While the potential loss of a class is always kind of a bummer once you've gotten your sights set on it, the flip side is that more personal customization of a character is generally a lot of fun. That lets the theorycrafters get down and dirty with the numbers and figure out just what builds with which gear make for some truly creative mechanics. When you combine it with different combo attacks like AoC has, this could be just the ticket to becoming a truly epic hero of Hyborea.
