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The final battle for Lion's Arch begins in Guild Wars 2's next content release
After long months of planning, preparation and manipulation, Scarlet Briar finally made her move on what appears to be her ultimate target: Lion's Arch, the central hub city of Guild Wars 2. Zhaitan's rise flooded it, Risen attacked it, and everything from dead kings to Karka have destroyed its landmarks, but an overwhelming air raid finally reduced L.A. to rubble. In the upcoming GW2 content release, Battle for Lion's Arch, it'll be up to the good people of Tyria to rally, avenge the fallen, and try to reclaim their city. Massively got to chat with ArenaNet's Colin Johanson about the Lion's Arch rescue effort, rewards for good behavior, and what L.A.'s feathery neighbors think about all of the screaming, dying, and carrying on. Click past the break to check it out, along with a brand-new teaser trailer!
Tengu Black ready to rock your world
Did you know that some pseudo-scientists pinpointed January 18 as this year's most depressing day? As we gaze out from the Engadget mansions at the leafless trees and listless mood outside, we can't help but agree that January's a bit of a downer. So to pep yourself up geeky style, why not grab an all-new Tengu Black? It seems a faithful reproduction (i.e. identical but for the color) of the white Tengu, a USB plug-in device that listens to your music and tries to lip sync to it with its LED array contorting into "over 14 different facial expressions." Let's face it, with the Robot Apocalypse all but assured, we should be practicing our love of inanimate objects as much as possible. A video reminder of how the older Tengu does its thing awaits after the break.
EVE Evolved: Research: Reverse Engineering and Tech 3
In the first two parts of this guide to Research in EVE Online, I covered the basics of Tech 1 blueprint research and the "Invention" system that allows players to make their own Tech 2 blueprint copies. The reverse engineering process used to make Tech 3 blueprints is a lot like invention except with a new set of materials, equipment and skills. Though the process used to create it will be familiar to inventors, the end product is a strange beast. Unlike Tech 2, Tech 3 isn't just a straight improvement over lower tech levels and doesn't use Tech 1 or 2 as a base. Instead, it's an entirely new technology used to make custom, modular ships. At the moment, the only Tech 3 products we have are the modular "Strategic Cruiser" class but more is planned for future patches. Tech 3 frigates are rumoured to be next on the development table and it's entirely possible that we'll see strange new Tech 3 modules thrown into the mix too at some point. In today's part of this bumper guide to research, I look into EVE's newest addition to the researcher's repertoire as I examine Tech 3 and "Reverse Engineering". I'll look at how it all fits together to make a finished product, what's required to get involved and best practices for staying profitable in what has become a very competitive marketplace.
EVE Evolved: Research: Reverse Engineering and Tech 3, part 2
To install a reverse engineering job, you'll need more than just the relic. A hybrid tech decryptor for one of EVE's four races is required to specify which race of hull or subsystem your blueprint will be for. For example, using an Amarr hybrid tech decryptor will make the subsystem or hull blueprint it produces an Amarr Legion one.
EVE Evolved: Tech 3 Strategic Cruisers
With EVE Online's Apocrypha expansion came an entire new class of ship. Tech 3 Strategic Cruisers represent a new wave of technology in EVE. Rather than being simply improved versions of the existing Tech 2 ships, Strategic Cruisers are modular ships reverse engineered from ancient Sleeper and Talocan components. They allow players to design their own ship from a base hull and a set of five subsystems. Each subsystem has four options, with a fifth possibly in the works. Original designs called for the ship to improve as it was used, but this was replaced with a set of rank 1 skills and you lose a level of one of them if your ship is destroyed. A fully fit Tech 3 ship originally would have cost you upwards of two billion isk but prices have since dropped to around the 600 million mark and they're still falling. As these ships have become more affordable, I've had a chance to see some of them in action and see first hand what they can do.Join me in this visual gallery article where I dish out some information on Strategic Cruisers and then examine a few of the different ways these ships can be fit to fulfill different roles. If you have a particularly inventive setup, feel free to post it as a comment. %Gallery-71984%
Massively's Apocrypha expansion hands-on: Epic Mission Arcs and Tech III
Epic Mission Arcs and Lore EVE Online's setting of New Eden is one with a rich backstory, which is always being fleshed out further through regular Chronicles (short stories found on the game's official site), video footage tied into the game's lore and, as of last year, brought to life in the Empyrean Age novel. While not all players opt to delve into this aspect of the game, the content is there to immerse yourself in. The problem is that there's a disconnect between the story and gameplay because of how mission running (quests) work in EVE and the repetition that characterizes them.
EVE Evolved: Apocrypha expansion preview
As March 10th draws ever closer, EVE Online's Apocrypha expansion is coming more and more into focus. Information on the new game mechanics and content is being released in the form of developer blogs and the official expansion page complete with screenshots and artwork is already up. Most importantly, a test version of the expansion is live on Singularity, EVE's main test server. Like any good journalist, I took my camera crew onto the test server to get some pictures of Apocrypha in action. What I found blew me away, literally.In this gallery article, I take a visual sneak peak at parts of the impressive new Apocrypha expansion with a whopping 37 screenshots. In each screenshot, I talk about all of the new additions to the game. EVE Apocrypha preview gallery > > %Gallery-46236%
