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EVE Online reveals Amarr tier 3 battlecruiser, the Oracle
Last year graphic designers and EVE Online fans from across the world competed in CCP Games' huge Design-a-Starship contest. The ultimate contest winner was the incredibly impressive Minmatar Tornado, which was meant to be implemented in the game shortly after winning. The ship's implementation was delayed until earlier this month, when CCP announced that the Tornado would be one of four new battlecruisers hitting EVE with the winter expansion. The new tier three battlecruisers are designed to use battleship-sized weapons and are specialised for mid range to long range combat. In a new devblog today, CCP Guard revealed the Amarr tier three battlecruiser: the Oracle. Originally named the Mentor by its creator Alexey M, the Oracle appears to quite literally be a stripped down forward section of the popular Armageddon. The ship joins the Minmatar Tornado and Gallente Talos as yet another entry from last year's design competition to be implemented in the game. The Caldari battlecruiser is still to be revealed, but we got a first glimpse of the ship from yesterday's In Development video devblog and can confirm that it is also a player-submitted design.
Star Trek Online's free-to-play starships prepare to leave spacedock
As Star Trek Online's free-to-play final frontier approaches, the Cryptic team is fast at work trying to strike the right balance between the standard-issue starships that come with the game and the C-Store options available for purchase. In a new dev blog, Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo says that each rank of gameplay is being shuffled around to offer a regular and premium starship for each class. Because not every tier had enough for six starships, Cryptic is adding a number of spiffy C-Store versions for Federation players, including the new Exeter cruiser, the Sao Paulo escort, and the Bellerophon science vessel. The Klingon Defense Force is receiving a similar restructuring, with new ships like the Norgh Refit and Orion Dacoit Flight Deck Cruiser making their way into the store. D'Angelo admits that C-Store starships are slightly stronger and carry a special piece of gear that can be transferred from ship to ship as the player levels up. D'Angelo also stresses that any C-Store starships are purchased for an entire account, not a single character. Cryptic is also planning to re-instate the free starship token at Lt. Commander and Commander ranks for everyone.
Ten things to do in Star Wars Galaxies before it's gone
When SOE announced that Star Wars Galaxies would be sunsetted by the end of the year, many players despaired. They gave up. They saw their long years (eight years!) of play turn to dust. But others looked on the impending closure as incentive to do all those things they'd been putting off, all the activities they just hadn't gotten around to. There hadn't been time. The game is too big for anyone to do it all. And that's precisely why Star Wars Galaxies is a legend among sandbox fans despite the NGE disaster. It's a living museum of great MMO ideas from the past, of player-driven economies, of open-world housing, of high-end, game-supported roleplay, of roaming in a game that lets you dictate the terms of your play. It's a rare relic you should see in the flesh, today, right now, before it's gone. You can pick up a weapon and fight in any MMO (excepting A Tale in the Desert, that is), but there are so many things you can do in Star Wars Galaxies that you can't do anywhere else with the same level of immersion. And I'm going to tell you which 10 you should do first... before it's too late.
Off the rails: Star Wars Galaxies introduces atmospheric flight
If you're still on the fence about reactivating Star Wars Galaxies in order to participate in the sunset events from now until December 15th, today's news just might push you over to the dark side... er light side. One of those! This morning, Sony Online Entertainment published Game Update 21, the highlight of which is atmospheric flight. For real. With atmospheric flight, you will be able to travel the skies above and see the worlds of Star Wars Galaxies in a new way. To launch into atmospheric flight, or to return to the ground, you can use your ship's icon in your datapad. Whether you are looking to host a peaceful event in your yacht with the Theed Waterfall as a backdrop or prove your piloting skills against another player over the desert of Tatooine, atmospheric flight will offer a unique way to experience Star Wars Galaxies. The patch notes indicate that players can launch directly into space while piloting through planetary atmosphere, and you'll need some skill to navigate as ships will take damage if crashed into the ground. GU21 also heralds the "Final Battle," which presumably is another stage in the ongoing Galactic Civil War sunset events. Remember, today is literally your last chance to reactivate and give the game a proper send-off.
SWTOR says BAM! is the word for today's update
Big news exploded from the Star Wars: The Old Republic camp today. We knew BioWare was going to be at PAX East this year, but we knew nothing of the team's specific plans. In today's updates, the SWTOR devs not only revealed more about the Bounty Hunter profession as we predicted from yesterday's IGN video reveal but also told us that visitors to their PAX booth would be the first of the general public to play the Taral V flashpoint. The Bounty Hunter page has been overhauled to reflect the advanced classes of Powertech and Mercenary. On the starships page, catch the detailed specs of the Kuat Drive Yards D5-Mantis Patrol Craft -- or the D5-Mantis, for those who think KDYD5MPC is a silly acronym. Mako, the Nar Shaddaa slicer, was officially revealed as a companion for the Bounty Hunter. Also, don't forget the Rattataki species on the inhabitants page. SWTOR fans who were waiting on endgame reveals will hopefully be going to PAX East this year. You will be able to play a Trooper, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, or Jedi Consular in the Republic Taral V flashpoint, with Lead Designer James Ohlen and Lead Writer Daniel Erickson in the booth to answer all your questions. While you're at booth 912, don't forget to ask for your invitation to the Community Meet and Greet, which starts directly after the booth closes Saturday night -- the event's at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel right next to the convention center. %Gallery-118438%
Star Wars: The Old Republic unveils art from its players and developers
In watching any of the documentaries or behind-the-scenes interviews, you will notice that art plays a huge role in any Star Wars-related project. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, the developers and community team like to showcase not only the artistic skills of the designers but the illustrations of the fans, too. This week, we are lucky enough to have both. The SWTOR Studio Insider is written today by two artists: Senior Concept Artist Ryan Dening and Senior Environment Artist Christopher Reeves. These two creators dive deep into the design process of creating the Agent starship. "For the first time, we were making these ships exist in real space and giving the players the experience of owning their own Starship," Dening said in regard to the difference in designing for SWTOR vs. Knights of the Old Republic. The community is not without its talent as well, and the community team is quick to acknowledge this. Greighson and Crypticgrrl of the official forums had their work displayed in this week's Fan Friday. Grieghson designed propaganda posters for the Empire, and Crypticgrrl displayed her fine art talent. We have placed their works in the gallery below. In another announcement, the development team confirmed that it will be at PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts, from March 11th to March 13th. Rest assured Massively will be there to catch the latest. %Gallery-114430%
Show your artistic talent to win prizes with EVE Online's design contests
Back in September, EVE Online developer CCP Games teamed up with the folks at deviantArt to bring us a fantastic starship design competition. Dozens of artists from around the world worked tirelessly to create the ultimate starship designs, producing some incredible entries that wouldn't look out of place in New Eden. When the winners were announced, CCP revealed that there would be a second starship design contest to give players another chance to win prizes. There's just under a week left to submit your entries for the final round of the starship design contest. With a grand prize of $900 cash, a year's subscription to EVE and a whole host of items from the EVE store, it's definitely a contest worth entering. Four additional runner-up prizes of $600 and some items from the EVE store will also be given out. Entries will be voted on by players, and the top 20 will be passed to the EVE art team to select the winners. The deadline for submission is December 21st, with voting beginning the following day. As if that weren't enough, t-shirt producer J!NX is also running its own EVE art contest with similarly huge prizes to be won. To enter, all you have to do is design a new EVE t-shirt, the best of which will eventually be sold on J!NX. Three prizes are available, each with $750 cash, a further $250 in J!NX vouchers, 12 months of EVE game time and several items from the EVE store. Public voting opens on December 27th, so get your entry in before Christmas to have a good chance of getting it in on time.
Hundred Year Starship Initiative plans to put people on Mars by 2030, bring them back by... well, never (video)
For a while now, there has been a conversation going on in certain circles (you know, space circles): namely, if the most prohibitive part of a manned flight to Mars would be the return trip, why bother returning at all? And besides the whole "dying alone on a hostile planet 55-million-plus kilometers from your family, friends, and loved ones" thing, we think it's a pretty solid consideration. This is just one of the topics of discussion at a recent Long Now Foundation event in San Francisco, where NASA Ames Research Center Director Pete Worden discussed the Hundred Year Starship Initiative, a project NASA Ames and DARPA are undertaking to fund a mission to the red planet by 2030. Indeed if the space program "is now really aimed at settling other worlds," as Worden said, what better way to encourage a permanent settlement than the promise that there will be no coming back -- unless, of course, they figure out how to return on their own. Of course, it's not like they're being left to die: the astronauts can expect supplies from home while they figure out how to get things up and running. As Arizona State University's Dr. Paul Davies, author of a recent paper in Journal of Cosmology, writes, "It would really be little different from the first white settlers of the North American continent, who left Europe with little expectation of return." Except with much less gravity. See Worden spout off in the video after the break.
Newly "smuggled" information from Star Wars: The Old Republic
Just when we think there isn't anything more that can be revealed about the smuggler class, BioWare proves us wrong. The Old Republic website just launched a slew of screenshots, advanced class data, and videos about Han Solo's favorite Republic class. Let's see if we can break this down into bite-sized pieces. First, we know the smuggler's duck-and-cover combat techniques are not new, but we now have an official breakdown of the advanced classes. The scoundrel advanced class is all about sneaking in, hitting hard, then getting out before anyone notices. The stealth belt, med pack, and single blaster are his equipment of choice. The gunslinger advanced class controls the enemies' movement as well as packing a nice DPS punch. All the gunslinger needs is two blasters and perfect aim -- if you bust an enemy's knees or blindshot him, he ain't gonna move. Secondly, we have one of the smuggler's companions: Bowdaar. This Wookiee is most likely picked up on the Smuggler's Moon, Nar Shaddaa, since he is a gladiator in the arenas there. Although he uses few -- if any -- weapons, this strong-armed companion has never been defeated in battle. This sets him up well to be the tank to the smuggler's healer or crowd control role. Plus, what's a smuggler without a Wookiee partner, right? Lastly, what would a smuggler be without a starship? The Corellian XS Stock Light Freighter serves at the smuggler's transportation of choice. As with most Corellian-designed vessels, the XS Stock Light is perfect for cargo transportation, crew accommodation, and pirate defense. Everything your smuggler will need to find consistent work throughout the galaxy, plus a few added features to hide not-so-legal items. Check out more information about this sneaky class on the official site, and don't forget to visit our gallery for some awesome screenshots. %Gallery-103218%
Massively's exclusive SWTOR interview: Starships, PvP, and crafting!
E3 has been abuzz with the latest news about LucasArts' and Bioware's new MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Yesterday, they teased us with an exciting fully rendered trailer called "Hope." The trailer showed a battle which is a precursor to one the players will be able to experience in game. Unfortunately, this trailer didn't have many answers. In fact, it seemed to present us with even more questions. So we at Massively sent our own Sera Brennan to talk to the designers of SWTOR to see about getting some answers. var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Massively_interviews_SWTOR_s_Rich_Vogel_at_E3'; Rich Vogel, the executive producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, was kind enough to sit down with Sera for a few minutes in EA's gameplay booth in the LA convention center on Tuesday. Perhaps we could get some of our burning questions answered about PvP, groups, space, ships, housing, and crafting. Follow after the jump to see what they had to say!
Ships! Star Trek Online community Q&A answers, part 2
Ryan: Why are there ancient starship classes like Constitution, but not older classes that were still around during the Next Gen and DS9, like Excelsior? There have been notable exceptions to this rule, and the same holds true for the current state of the Federation.
Ships! Star Trek Online community Q&A answers
It's a bit late due to some scheduling issues, but your first batch of Star Trek Online community questions are here and they're all about ships as promised! Of course, we noticed many of you had space combat questions. While those unfortunately weren't answered this week, our new topic (up later today, so be on the look out for it!) will in fact, be, space combat. Still, many of your questions are answered below. As the weeks continue to go by, we endeavor to fulfill your quest for as much information on Star Trek Online as possible. Enjoy!
Klingons and starships in newest Star Trek Online screens
Five new screens from Star Trek Online have been loosed onto the dangerous space known as the internet, and we've got 'em right here for your enjoyment. Destroyed moons and sexy angles of sleek starships aside, we also get a look at some Klingons, new interiors and what we're guessing is a new Klingon Empire vessel.There's definitely a sense of progress happening as these new screens continue to come out of Cryptic, which only whets our appetite for a new gameplay trailer. Although something like that takes considerably more time to put together and authorize than a few screenshots here and there. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to show off some of these locations we keep seeing in still form.%Gallery-28615%
Star Trek Online gets frigid, in a good way
Four new Star Trek Online screens have warped their way out of Cryptic's California offices and into our galleries. If you're wondering why we were unable to resist that first sentence, it's because we're weak -- geeky weak.Anyhow, these are still looking better and better as time goes onward. We're particularly fond of the ice laden image above, however it's definitely a close call with this in-orbit Starship. Can you see the urban structures on the planet surface? We probably spent far too much time wondering what sort of people lived down there... Uh-oh, that might've been sharing a bit too much.%Gallery-28615%
Collision confirmed and starship customization detailed in Star Trek Online
The newest Ask Cryptic for Star Trek Online starts off with a big "Yes!" to the question of whether or not the game will feature collision detection. After that, it gets into the nitty-gritty of starship customization. The gist of it is that Cryptic wants players to have the ability to look at other ships and generally know what class they are -- so no adding four nacelles to a Miranda class vessel.However, you can pick the type of nacelles you want on your ship and for that matter you can mix and match every single piece (IE hull, saucer, pylons, etc) on any ship. Beyond those visual changes, players will also pick colors and decals for their interstellar space rides. Now as far as the rest is concerned...
New Star Trek Online screenshots reveal character customization depth
The newest trio of screens to come out for Star Trek Online give us a taste of what to expect from the character customization options touted in the MMO. But simply calling it character creation would be underselling it. Cryptic is promising fully-featured racial creation tools here, which explains why the lady in the upper right of the image above looks like a green Klingon. Don't get us wrong, we're totally cool with green ridge-head ladies -- they're just the bee's knees. Though in truth we've always had a soft spot for Betazoids, if we're going to be honest here.Aside from this visual tease, the other two images focus on the game environment like most of the previous screenshots we've seen. We're happy to be getting a little bit more information out of Cryptic, even if the offering has only made us lust for more customization details. Consider us on watch for visual starship customization examples.%Gallery-28615%
The Daily Grind: Do you want to be a ship or control a ship in STO?
Since we get the feeling that something may be announced for Star Trek fans somewhat soon, we thought it a good idea to be topical.The moment anyone begins talking about Star Trek Online we here at Massively begin to wonder whether we want to play a character on the bridge of the ship with a group of other players or whether we want to just be the ship ourselves. It's an important question because it affects how the entire game is perceived and played. So far we've had three space MMOs where the ship was the avatar. Those games are Jumpgate, Earth and Beyond Online and EVE Online. On top of that, Jumpgate Evolution will make for a fourth spaceship-centered MMO.With that in mind, we here at Massively are hoping for something different from Star Trek Online. It seems to us that part of the draw of both MMOs and Star Trek is working together with a group of people to explore space and sometimes do battle. Still, we're not sure if we're on the minority with that opinion and would love to know what you happen to think on the subject.
DirecTV Starship takes NFL Network to Bright House customers
You're already quite aware of how the NFL Network feels about cable companies (and vice-verse) who refuse to carry the channel or stash it on a special programming tier, but DirecTV is giving Bright House customers in Florida a way to tune in without switching content providers. In a move that's as propagandistic as it is bold, the satellite provider will be giving cable customers in the Tampa, St. Petersburg and Orlando, Florida areas a chance to catch NFL Network telecasts as well as a healthy serving of promotional material. Starting tonight with the Broncos - Texans matchup, citizens of Tampa will be able to peer up at the Starship and "enjoy the game," after which it will head to St. Petersburg for the Bengals - 49ers game on Saturday. Next week, those in Orlando can check out Steelers - Rams and Cowboys - Panthers, and hey, don't fret about missing out on this thing -- we're pretty sure you'll notice that 2,100-square foot screen hovering above your city.[Image courtesy of DTV101]
