State-of-the-game
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Star Trek Online updates players on the next two seasons in State of the Game letter
When a game goes free-to-play, the development team has to change up its priorities. Star Trek Online changed up the leveling path when the business model was changed, giving players new and old an easier path to higher levels. But now that players are at the endgame, what comes next? The newest State of the Game letter addresses that, looking to the next two updates as major improvements for players looking to take on new projects. Season 6 is almost ready for live, and it's bringing along fleet starbases and group projects to help keep players involved. Season 7 is aimed at introducing the Tholians to the game and a new sector, giving players a new form of story-based content without specifically using the Featured Episode system that's previously been employed. This is just scratching the surface of what's available, of course, so players should take a look at the full letter to get a better idea of where the game is heading over the next several months.
Fallen Earth receives a State of the Game update
For Fallen Earth players, May was all about the Global Territory Control update. But now it's June, and the game's developers have been rather quiet since then. The team is rectifying that in the newest State of the Game letter, letting fans know that it's just been a quiet month of balancing and addressing bugs from the patch. Now that those issues are addressed, the team can look toward the future again. Among the promised future additions are farms, meant to be the PvE equivalent of harvesters. The team wants to ensure that harvesters are providing enough of a reward for player effort to be worthwhile, so some more balancing is necessary, but the core idea is that the higher-risk actions of harvesters yield greater rewards than farms. There's also a promise of the development team trying to be more active with responses to players, something that should be a welcome start after a fairly quiet month.
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.
'Just getting started': Scott Hartsman rallies the RIFT faithful for 2012
"What an amazing year it has been," begins Scott Hartsman in his one-year state of the game report for RIFT. Citing Trion Worlds' ability to "think about MMOs a little bit differently than everyone else," Hartsman recalls the mountain of accomplishments of the previous year, including the seven major content updates leading up to the recent Update 1.7 and the RIFT Lite service. The best part? "We're just getting started," he exults. Hartsman identifies the "key themes" of the team's 2012 focus, including playing with other people, improving the soul system, leaping forward in PvP, coming up with new ways to interact with the game world, and expanding RIFT's endgame. The interactions theme is intriguing, especially considering his phrasing: "When we say interact, we mean both interacting with the game in non-combat ways, and interacting from out of game entirely." The letter dives into more specifics with each of these themes before culminating in a promise of even more surprises to come later this year.
Behind the Mask: The real state of the game
Although Champions Online's most recent State of the Game has been out for a while, I sort of avoided talking about it in previous editions of Behind the Mask. The main reason was because I really wanted to cover the new powersets. However, that doesn't mean I don't have any comments on it. If you look at the history of the State of the Game and Ask Cryptic entries, they fluctuate quite a bit between good information and annoying PR. The January SOTG was full of annoying PR, and it bothered me greatly. It felt dishonest. I saw a lot of hype on little things that no one wanted and very little on what people really wanted. This week, I'm going to talk about the real state of the game: where CO is and where it needs to go. I'll also talk about some of the future stuff that Robobo mentioned in the SOTG. Is it good or bad? We'll see!
Champions Online looks back to look forward in January State of the Game
It's a new year, and many game studios are stating their revolutions for the coming months. Cryptic Studios is joining that club with Champions Online's first State of the Game post for 2012. Rob Overmeyer, the game's Executive Producer, takes some time to reminisce on CO's progress throughout 2011, which included the title's jump to a F2P business model as well as a number of content updates. After that little stroll down memory lane, Overmeyer gives players a glimpse of the future as he addresses the features of the game's next major update. These include an entirely overhauled itemization system, a new enhancement system, alerts, and more. For the complete details, click through the link below to Champions Online's January 2012 State of the Game.
Fallen Earth lays the foundation for 2012 in its January state of the game address
Senior Game Designer Marie Croall sounded the klaxons and ran up the flag for the wastelanders of Fallen Earth in the latest state of the game address. For her and the team, it's time to shake off the ravages of holidays and get to work on laying the foundation for the game in 2012. Croall says that this month players should expect to get the ability to use bombs in Territory Control, which should change things up somewhat. The Territory Control PvP feature will be significantly expanded in the months afterward as well. Also on tap for the near future are additional mid-level quests, the augmentation system for customizing gear, improving the flow of starter areas, and better rare drops across the board. The art team is excited to move on to giving Haven a facelift much like the work the team did on the recent Embry Crossroads revamp. Perhaps the most intriguing is that Croall hints at a major top-secret project in the works: "This month we're also breaking ground on one of the biggest systems we've ever done. It's still too early to really get into details on but we'll make sure this one was worth waiting for."
Fallen Earth's December State of the Game talks F2P transition, new features
It's finally December, which means that I can go into a store and not fly into a rage when I discover that it's already playing Christmas music. It also means that it's time for Fallen Earth's December State of the Game letter. This is the first State of the Game since the title's change to F2P last month, so can you bet your hide there's a lot to cover. Marie Croall begins by talking about some of the "less sexy but ultimately critical things" that the team has been working on since the transition. Lots of bug-fixing has taken place as the Fallen Earth team works to iron out some of the kinks that arose during the F2P transition. Meanwhile, the town of Embry got a bit of a makeover. The art team went into the city and "replaced high-poly, high-batch buildings with newer ones that will improve performance and the overall aesthetic appeal of the town." The team is also working hard at developing new content and features, such as world events, farms, and the upcoming augmentation system. Croall closes out the post with some dates: Territory control, the revamped map, new world events, and New Embry will be added to the game in mid-December, while everything else will have to wait until next year. For the full details, head on to the game's official blog.
Cryptic posts Champions Online's November state of the game
Cryptic Studios has just uploaded its most recent state of the game letter for Champions Online, and the post begins by reinventing itself. Rather than focusing on "answering all the questions about future development plans and the status of top issues and player concerns," the Champs team aims to use the SOTG to reveal what the team is working on right now. Long-term plans and feedback will be addressed instead on the forums as part of the UNTIL Field Report. The SOTG covers the pair of new archetypes, the Halloween event, new costume sets, and the archetype roation promotion before briefing players on the upcoming comic series 2, called Whiteout, which will "take your Hero on an adventure that is unique and exciting." The (apparently still growing) team is also working on the Alert system, the Winter event, two new frameworks (Earth and Wind), and tweaks to the Infernal framework and the Nemesis. And as promised, this month's UNTIL Field Report fills in the details of these development nuggets and more.
Fallen Earth dev diary talks economic changes, world events, and more
Earlier today we told you about the Fallen Earth devs answering a few of your free-to-play questions. Now it's time to dive a bit further down the rabbit hole courtesy of this month's state of the game update. Producer Marie Croall checks in with us to talk about the game's two-year anniversary celebration, which includes "PvP, PvE, and RP components." She also says that the event will be run at EU- and US-friendly times (though said times aren't specified as of yet). In terms of game updates, the major portion of the September recap concerns the ongoing economic changes. Inconsistencies dealing with recipe and component rarity have been dealt with, and the dev team has "redone the placement of most of the nodes in the game" to make the rarer nodes more of an incentive to enter PvP-enabled areas. Finally, Croall says that the release of the new world event system has been bumped back to coincide with the free-to-play conversion on October 12th. Grab your favorite wasteland beverage and read all the details at the official Fallen Earth dev blog.
Champions Online releases September State of the Game letter
Champions Online is two years old this month (yep, really), and Cryptic executive producer Rob Overmeyer has taken to the intarwebs to pen a lengthy State of the Game manifesto. The first half of the piece is basically a recap of the game's last few months, and touches on everything from Aftershock to player hideouts. The second portion of the letter focuses on upcoming content patches and also mentions the anniversary event (which is basically a social gathering featuring dev appearances). Upcoming content includes Comic Series 2: Whiteout, a new mini arc, and team missions called alerts that will scale to your level. Overmeyer has more to say, of course, and you can read all about it at the official Champions website.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Happy half-birthday, RIFT!
It's hard to believe -- but amazing nevertheless -- that RIFT is almost a half-year old. Six months ago, hundreds of thousands of gamers rushed through the gates to become the first to explore Telara, included me, and we were introduced to what's become one of the most dominating MMOs of the year. Following this smooth release (and it was smooth), Trion Worlds set a remarkable standard for itself by pumping out meaty content updates at a steady, rapid pace and marketing RIFT out the wazoo. We've already witnessed two live events, numerous subscription specials, the addition of a ginormous raid, and my not having hit 50 yet -- to my eternal embarrassment. Of course, there have been bumps in the road as well: a lackluster initial world event, a segment of disgruntled players and opponents, and the looming specter of several heavy-hitting MMOs waiting in the wings. But for right here and right now, this is Trion's time, and the company is taking advantage of this half-year milestone to light the fireworks and lay out the good china in celebration. We got on the phone with Scott Hartsman and his Justice League to talk about what the studio has up its sleeves for this event -- and what's next for this rapidly expanding title.
Enter at Your Own Rift: One-point-four
Last week, Karen provided an excellent analysis on Trion Worlds' broad, eight-page State of the Game address as the company outlined its plans for the game's long-term future. This week, we're still going to cast our eyes to the present. As we wrap up the final phase of RIFT's Waves of Madness (how much fun is water bladder throwing, huh?) and raid guilds bang their way through Hammerknell, it's the time to revel in a brand-new content update: patch 1.4. Yes, another patch. I think people are still in disbelief that Trion is able to pump out updates as rapidly as it has, and the current naysayer theory is that the company is merely polishing up content it wanted to get for launch but had to hold back for whatever reason. There's probably a kernel of truth to that, but it doesn't hold up from what we know. We know that Trion has parallel teams -- up to six of them -- working on live development, which includes world events and content updates. We know that some of the features we've seen in previous patches were a direct result of post-launch player feedback, so it can't all be capping off unfinished projects. Say what you will, but from where I'm standing, Trion's putting its actions where its mouth is by continuing a hot-and-heavy updating streak without showing any signs of slowing down. It's smart, too; by providing faster updates than most MMOs on the market and giving players incentive to stay, return, and try the game for the first time, Trion's firming up its position as an MMO that's here to stay -- not one that's going to fold up shop when future titles hit. So let's take a peek through the highlights of patch 1.4 as I offer my award-winning commentary on each of the points!
RIFT's first State of the Game address floods players with news of the future [Updated]
Trion Worlds has never been shy in talking about RIFT's upcoming content, especially considering how fast and furious said content's been flying down the pipe. However, the studio may have topped itself today as it gave its first State of the Game address, opening up about the title's history to date and both the near and far future of the team's plans. It's difficult to try to summarize all of this news in a brief paragraph -- so we're not even going to try! Instead, Massively joined a number of other news outlets for a conference call with the RIFT team and Scott Hartsman to clarify all of the exciting content, fixes and features mentioned in this address. So join us after the jump as we look at quality-of-life improvements, new types of rifts, vastly improved PvP experiences, solo dungeons, and something intriguing called "Instant Adventure."
Champions Online issues state of the game letter, launches Aftershock Issue 5
We've got double the Champions Online treats for you folks today, as Cryptic has released the June state of the game letter as well as the next issue in the ongoing Aftershock weekly comic series. We'll start with a quick run-down of the state of the game letter. Hideouts will soon be added to the game, giving heroes a place to call their own. The Telekinesis power set review is almost finished, and players should be on the lookout for a mid-July release. A good deal of new items have been added to the C-Store, and Cryptic has also announced that July's additions to the store will follow a fantasy theme, while August's will focus on sci-fi and technology. There's much more to the letter that we simply don't have room for, so head on over to the official site for the full state of the game announcement. Next we come to Aftershock's Issue 5, titled Dark Tower. In this issue, CO players must infiltrate a tower belonging to the nefarious Kings of Edom in order to save Luther Black and the last remaining UNTIL soldiers from a diabolical fate. It's a battle against time, as our heroes must succeed before the arrival of the Kings of Edom themselves, lest the very fabric of the Qliphothic Realm unravel with them trapped inside. Will our heroes survive? Find out in Aftershock, Issue 5.
Fallen Earth state of the game talks combat tweaks, progress towns, and more
It's the beginning of another month in the wasteland, and that means that in addition to scavenging for scrap metal and dodging ginormous prairie chickens, denizens of Fallen Earth are heading to the game's official website to check out the latest state of the game address. Much of producer Marie "Aro Sei" Croall's letter concerns progress towns, Alpha County, and combat tweaks. While we've previewed progress towns before, there is an interesting nugget in this month's letter that details a new form of related currency. Croall calls it "a PvE form of death toll" and explains that it is intended to reward players for capturing and building one of the three progress towns. She also takes the time explain the changes to minimum skill levels, which is an important consideration when it comes to players spending their hard-earned stat points. Finally, there's a bit of discussion about post-Alpha County development plans including an objective system and potential world events. Check out all the details at the Fallen Earth website.
Dungeons and Dragons Online's state of the game letter talks crafting, Update 9
It's time for the April version of Dungeons and Dragons Online's State of the Game address, and striding toward the teleprompter is Turbine executive producer Fernando Paiz. First up is a shout out to the newly assimilated French and German DDO communities. Paiz also says that all DDO clients and servers will support multiple languages via a launcher toggle. There's also some discussion about Update 9, in particular the "major balance pass" that all the game's spells have undergone. Epic content is getting some attention, as are DDO's animations. The new crafting system gets some virtual ink as well, and Paiz says that Turbine will be "incrementally releasing more crafting levels and recipes through Update 9 and Update 10" as well as soliciting feedback over time. Finally, there's talk of challenge quests and how the new content will play out over the next few months. Overall, there's a lot going on, and you've got a fair bit of reading to do, so head to the official DDO website to get started.
Fallen Earth shows off Alpha County in the newest State of the Game
If you were hoping to find out that Alpha County in Fallen Earth was a last bastion of uncorrupted civilization... well, we have some bad news for you. But in all likelihood you expected nothing of the sort, and thus the previews of the new region included in April's State of the Game letter will come as no surprise. Since the release seems to be just around the corner, this month's update is all about the surreal landscape and wasted environment players will be exploring in this newest region. Accompanied by a surfeit of screenshots, the letter talks once more about the technical challenge involved with bringing this newest region into the game. A new style of terrain means checking extensively to make sure that critters are behaving correctly when engaged by players, and the variety of new weapons and items available means that there's a lot of testing to make sure that nothing breaks the game's structure. Fallen Earth players will want to take a look at the full preview for all the details and several pictures of the latest part of the wasteland.
Through the woods to Alpha County: Fallen Earth issues the March state of the game
February is a quick month for everyone, but it seems to have been even busier than normal for the Fallen Earth team. There are some major content updates in the wings for the game, several of which are being discussed in the most recent State of the Game address. Obviously, the biggest issue on the minds of players is the promised Sector Four and Alpha County, both of which are going to be rolled out in a staggered fashion starting with the Terminal Woods (which Edward Marshall toured just last week). That will include a surfeit of new missions, achievements, PvP objectives, and special new Scavenger bosses. Alpha County itself, meanwhile, will be getting rolled out sometime in the following months, an update that will see a level cap increase to 55 and new expansions to crafting among other improvements. The letter also states that the team is moving forward on player-crafted housing, as it's long been on the agenda for the team to handle with detail. Fallen Earth players are encouraged to read the full letter on the future of the game, sure to make any clone happy about the content just around the corner.
Champions Online discusses the future of the game, adding voice chat
The free-to-play conversion has certainly wrought some far-reaching changes for Champions Online, but as producer Rob Overmeyer puts forth in the latest State of the Game letter, there's still more to come. Aside from numerous C-Store additions for players, a new power framework and a new adventure pack are both in the works for the next couple of months. In addition, the development team is looking to add "Comic Series" missions on a regular basis, akin to the featured episodes implemented in Star Trek Online. This letter comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Cryptic Studios will be partnering with Vivox to bring built-in voice chat to both of its current games. That benefits both Champions Online and Star Trek Online, although no details are currently available for the precise implementation of the feature or the integration timetable. Still, fans of the game should be happy to see that the change in models hasn't hurt any of the game's long-term plans for content or functionality.
