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EVE Online video gives brief 'recon' of Proteus
Sometimes all it takes is a good preview video to ratchet up one's personal excitement and anticipation over an upcoming release. If you're an EVE Online fan, then you might get that rush from the following brief video in which the devs outline Proteus' main features. One of the biggest features of Proteus is a full rebalance for recon ships, including making them more sturdy and completely immune to directional scanners. The update will also contain the module tier side project, beta starmap tweaks, permanent places for newbies to mine, and visual improvements to one of the ships and asteroid belts. Check out the video after the break!
Elite: Dangerous rolls back decision on billionaire rollback
There was a bit of a to-do recently about money in Elite: Dangerous. A bug caused numerous players to receive a credit "refund" that wound up making them instant billionaires, which might have had some long-term ramifications for anyone who had hoped to actually play in the sandbox economy in the future. While the developers had initially opted against wide-scale rollbacks, asking instead for affected players to choose whether to be rolled back or not, that decision has been reversed. Unexpected billionaires will find all of their bug-gotten gains rolled back and removed, with the development team contacting those affected personally to make sure that nothing legitimate gets caught in the crossfire. Meanwhile, players who found a way to exploit the game explicitly will also see their gains removed. So those who were hoping for rollbacks in the wake of these issues will be happy; those happy with billions of credits for no real effort will be... less happy. [Thanks to Cotic for the tip!]
Gloria Victis adding a second server, weather, and more
Gloria Victis seems to be moving right along, if its latest pre-alpha changelog is any indication. The devs have added a new weather system, the initial stages of a crafting revamp, and various optimization tweaks. The dev team also plans to launch a US server "within a few days," and existing characters will in fact work on both of the title's shards. An NDA lift is coming, too, and with it an item wipe (but not a character or level wipe, so yay for that).
DayZ fan film lacks zombies, still feels like DayZ
DayZ creator Dean Hall tweeted his appreciation for a new fan film based on his popular zombie-flavored open world title earlier today. And why not? The flick is a believably bleak meditation on the game's dog-eat-dog post-apocalypse, even though it doesn't feature a single zombie. Click past the cut to give it a look!
See Black Desert's impish Tamer class in action
While we wait for word on Black Desert's arrival in the West, the game is ticking along in its Korean open beta and continuing to add more features. One of these is the addition of the Tamer class, which will be coming to the beta this month. Not much is known about the Tamer, other than what a short video reveals: that she is a little goofy and likes to hit things with sticks. Steparu reports that other classes are on the way, including the possible Blader and Ninja professions. You can watch the Tamer in action after the break!
Eleven alpha tester: Game is 'identical to Glitch'
"Incredible! I didn't expect it to be identical to Glitch, which it is." So sayeth one of Eleven's select few alpha testers, some of whom posted testimonials on the site about their experience. While a second tester cited "overwhelming" nostalgia, others were more critical of bugs, reloads, and generic visuals. The fan remake of Glitch has more than doubled its alpha test pool, from 13 to 31 players, and continues to advance the project as a whole. "This has been a great success, with many improvements being made to help improve the stability and experience while some other work is ongoing in order to bring over some more features," the devs said.
Norrathian Notebook: Frostfells of EverQuests past, present, and Next
It's the end of that magical time of year: When gigglegibber goblins wrap up their gift-giving and the tinsel, lights, and even the holiday quests get packed up for the year. It's the end of Frostfell 2014 for the EverQuest Franchise; EverQuest's celebration ended yesterday and EverQuest II's ends today. Players will have to wait another 12 months to dive back into the festivities. If we're really lucky, we'll also experience the holiday anew in EverQuest Next come December! As Frostfell comes to a close, I am left thinking about the holiday and all its trimmings. It's truly a great one. Perhaps one of the most wonderful. What makes it so special each year? And what might it be like in the coming years, especially in EQN? Let's take a look at the history of Frostfell, check out this year's additions, and speculate about the holiday's presence in Next.
Age of Wushu previews new school abilities after server merge
The fifth inner skills for each of the eight schools are arriving in the next Age of Wushu update, and if you're a player, you'd probably like to know what they do, wouldn't you? I mean, one of them might instantly kill everything in a seven-meter radius, and the other might summon a moderate quantity of breadsticks and marinara sauce. That seems unlikely, though, as the preview of these new abilities mentions neither sort of talent. They do include attack buffs, HP drains, and major defensive buffs, though, so that's good. You'll be able to show these skills off to a wider range of players after the game's server merges from yesterday. The Golden Kirin and White Tiger servers have been merged into the Blue Dragon server; players whose names will need to change should receive name changing scrolls within the next few days. If you weren't able to log in yesterday and aren't sure about how the merge went down, you can double-check the quick guide to the process.
John Smedley praises free-to-play on consoles [Updated]
Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley knows a thing or two about running free-to-play MMOs on consoles. The studio already has DC Universe Online as a free-to-play title on PlayStation 4, it's bringing PlanetSide 2 to the console soon, and both titles are already free on the PlayStation 3. And there's good reason for it: Smedley said recently to Gamasutra that players on the PS4 have been monetizing on DCUO at nearly three times the rate of PC players. This isn't unique to the newest console, as DCUO players on the PS3 shell out cash twice as often as PC users. He also notes that it's a challenge to port to the console, as the lack of a mouse has to heavily influence design, plus it requires a method of dropping simultaneous updates across multiple platforms, which in and of itself can be a tricky venture. Read the full article for more insights from Smedley regarding the console market's free-to-play sustainability. [Update: Smed further clarified his statements over Twitter earlier today. "People think we're becoming a console first shop. NO! consoles are a great place for F2P, but we have always been a PC first company because that's our heritage. We aren't dumbing down PC ever."]
Xsyon enters early access on Steam
Want to play Xsyon but hate the mere concept of not being able to play it natively through Steam? Then we have good news! The game is now available on Steam as an early access title, so if you don't already own the game, you can start playing there. If you're wondering how the game could be considered early access when it's been launched and playable for some time, well... that's a good question. Sharp thinking! If you're already an Xsyon player and want to have the game on your Steam account, you can shoot off an email to a special account requesting a Steam key for no extra cost. Everyone else who's already playing will just want to look forward to the hopeful influx of new players enjoying the game for the first time. [Source: Notorious Games press release]
CCP shows historical player age distribution in EVE
"Every EVE player likes math, or at least the potential destruction it unlocks," CCP says in the comments of its latest YouTube vid. The reel is basically one minute and 38 seconds worth of graph porn showing how EVE's players have "matured" over the past 11 years. Or, as another commenter puts it, CCP has basically "stolen our young adult lives." Click past the cut to see the clip.
Pathfinder Online's Ryan Dancey on early adopter experience bonuses
On yesterday's Massively Speaking podcast, Justin and I discussed Pathfinder Online's plans for granting its earliest and most loyal players what seems to be the ultimate character bonus: an experience edge over everyone else, forever. I'll let the Pathfinder Online dev post Hard is Fun! explain verbatim: Our game uses a unique real-time based XP system. Characters gain XP through the passage of time, not through being logged in. So the characters that are created in the first month will be the characters with the most XP for all time. A special perk will be in effect that backdates XP to the start of Early Enrollment for the first month so no matter when you purchase an account, if you create a character in Month 1, you'll have that maximum XP. Usually games with offline experience systems also have either a hard cap or a diminishing returns mechanic to avoid the core "sandbox problem" -- that those who get to the sandbox first perpetually have the most power because they claim all the best toys (and so on). But as written, the Pathfinder Online system seems to exacerbate rather than fix that problem by promising "pioneers" more power in the form of permanently more experience. Suspecting there was more to the plan, we asked Goblinworks' Ryan Scott Dancey to explain just how it plans to balance its concessions to early backers with its presumed desire to attract newbie players in the more distant future. He's done so, in detail, for us today.
PlanetSide 2's PS4 beta arrives on January 20th
A post on the official PlayStation blog today confirms that PlanetSide 2's PlayStation 4 beta will begin on January 20th. "We'll be using this beta period to test our servers, performance, and various other aspects of the game, and we also want you to share constructive feedback on PlanetSide 2," says SOE Executive Producer Clint Worley. "How does the game look and feel? Is navigating through the menus intuitive and utilizing DualShock 4 in the best way? All players in the Closed Beta will have access to our special Beta forums, which will be the primary location for development interaction and feedback. We want the massive battles to make your heart pound and adrenaline pump, so share your thoughts with us." Beta signups for the PS4 edition of the game have been live since early December. PlanetSide 2 has lately made news for its frank discussions about monetization; SOE president John Smedley admitted that "PlanetSide 2 only recently has turned profitable on an operating basis."
Elite: Dangerous players aim to chart out the whole galaxy
Over a thousand players in Elite: Dangerous are already unified by a single mission. It's not warfare; it's not economic dominance; it's exploration. The Great Expedition has brought together a huge number of players to start plotting the whole of the game's 400 billion stars, or at least as much as possible. That means coordinating logistics, figuring out routes, sending out pathfinders, and heading off into the great unknown. While the eponymous expedition hasn't started quite yet, players are already dipping their toes into the process and figuring out how to handle the sort of extended effort required to chart the game's full galaxy. The group counts among its numbers an ex-NASA scientist and several astrophysicists. While it's taking a little time to get up to speed, there's reason to be excited about what the group might find in the future... and what waits out in the depths of virtual space.
Salem lead mulls solutions for sub-par combat
Are you a fan of indie fantasy sandbox Salem? Do you like walls of text that give your mousewheel a serious workout? You might enjoy today's Salem update, then, as Mortal Moments project lead John Carver has a lot to say. And why not? It's been nearly six months since the last such dev blast. Carver writes with affection of Salem's refusal to "cater to the masses" and its similar disdain for "polygon counts over content." Combat, though, isn't quite where the devs would like it. Carver says that combat is "by far the dumbest thing we do," and that despite the intentional learning curve, some sort of "upper level strategy is missing." While Carver doesn't outline specific remedies, he says that the first step is to expand Salem's available combat moves. [Thanks Chrysillis!]
Black Desert Korean OBT exploits lead to permabans
If you were hoping for an exploit-free experience when Korean sandbox import Black Desert heads west, you may still get it. But you may not, if Steparu's recent experience in the game's K-OBT is any indication. Problems include a buy-back dupe, mob kills that gave abnormal amounts of experience, and "something with the shop." Steparu also reports that developer Pearl Abyss and publisher Daum have permabanned serious offenders and deleted ill-gotten gains from "light abusers."
ArcheAge tosses its end-of-holiday update on the test server
Testing out an update that's mostly meant to just turn off the holiday event might seem to be overkill, but ArcheAge has seen such problems with bugs that the team behind the game is apparently taking no chances. A small patch is currently available on the test server and will go live later this week; it contains the shut-off for all of the holiday events (so players with gifts or stockings should use them before the deadline). This build also contains adjustments to the MTX Pet Healing Potion; the potion will now heal pets for 100% of their health, and a future build will add a resurrection effect. A Marketplace addition is also slated to go live on the test servers within the next few days. If you want to make sure that everything's working fine after the event gets turned off, you can hop on the test server today.
New Kickstarter sandbox Identity promises 'complete freedom and a focus on player interaction'
Who's ready for some new Kickstarter MMOs for 2015? How about an ambitious modern-day sandbox? That'd be Identity, an MMO by indie studio Asylum Entertainment, headed up by Mortal Online vet John "Paratus" VanderZwet. The game promises a dynamic, player-run open world, player-driven economy, player housing, minigames like karaoke and paintball, and what sounds like open PvP complete with "player police force, gangs, cartels, [and] businesses." The title's business model isn't discussed in detail, but it appears to be buy-to-play; VanderZwet says it won't have a sub and won't be pay-to-win: "We hate 'pay to win' games as much as anybody, and will always ensure that items and upgrades purchased with real money will not give a notable advantage in-game." A 10 CAD pledge is the cheapest with game access; pledges run all the way up to 5000 CAD. Asylum is seeking 150,000 CAD. Closed beta has not been announced, but pledge awards are scheduled for "delivery" by December 2016.
Smedley wants to talk more about monetization
John Smedley's not done talking about monetization. The SOE CEO posted on Reddit a bit ago and added to the recent discussion surrounding PlanetSide 2 drop rates, the cert economy, and F2P in general. "PlanetSide 2 only recently has turned profitable on an operating basis," Smedley wrote. He also says that the majority of players have a ton of certs because SOE didn't balance properly and "erred on the side of giving away too many or making things cost too little so we don't make you grind too hard." Smedley takes issue with the rhetoric painting SOE as "money grubbing a-holes," but he does own up to the company's lack of clear communication on this particular issue.
Frontier testing Elite server-side fix tonight
Last weekend's Elite: Dangerous server hiccup left some players unable to log in. If you're one of those players, you might be interested in Frontier's official response which was posted earlier today on the game's official forums. "We have a server side fix in-place to go live tomorrow, it's just undergoing some final testing tonight and tomorrow morning before making its way to the live servers," writes Frontier's Andrew Barlow. "This should fix it for everyone that's not already been fixed by customer services already. We just want to ensure that the fix is correct and safe so we don't cause more issues for players that are currently unaffected."
