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Darkfall blog talks crafting update, forthcoming relaunch timeline
There may be a little light at the end of the Darkfall 2.0 tunnel if the latest Aventurine blog update is any indication. The entry bills itself as a crafting system update, but it spends the first paragraph or so giving fans an update on the revamped siege system (which is now scheduled to be done in about a week). After that, producer Tasos Flambouras says, "We'll go into more detail about more relaunch features and the production schedule." So anyway, crafting. In a nutshell, the new Darkfall tradeskilling system places greater importance on rare ore, unique item appearance, more customization options, and "more opportunities to excel as a crafter." The new system will offer mastery skills as well as a choice between six distinctive base designs for each weapon type. You can read all about it at the game's official website, linked below.
Guild Wars 2's crafting system detailed and demonstrated
Guild Wars 2 fans, it's time to get out your smithing hammers and fire up your forges. Freshly imported from Gamescom 2011 is a new video outlining Guild Wars 2's crafting system. The game offers eight different professions, and -- like many other MMOs -- you are granted your choice of two of those professions at any given time. However, unlike many MMOs that give you a set list of recipes based on your crafting level and then limit you to crafting only those recipes, Guild Wars 2's system allows players to experiment with different combinations of materials to see if they form a new recipe. Only guy on the server who's figured out how to make that badass warhammer? Don't tell anyone and monopolize the market! Also gone are the days of skill points. Rather than giving crafting recipes a somewhat random chance to give you a skill-up, Guild Wars 2's crafting system provides you with an experience bar for your tradeskill, with each completed recipe providing a set amount of experience toward the next level. But what if you're not happy with your profession choices? While the game only allows you to have two active professions at any given time, you're able to freely swap one profession for another while retaining progress made in your former profession. So if you want to drop your level 50 profession to mess around with another, you can pick back up where you left off at a later time. For the developer commentary and a whopping 20 minutes of hands-on time with two different professions, hop on past the cut for the full video. [Thanks to Paul for the tip!]
Prime: Battle for Dominus shows off crafting and professions
Pitchblack Games has been steadiy releasing new tidbits of information on its upcoming PvP-focused MMO Prime: Battle for Dominus, and today we've got some spanking new information on the game's crafting and professions systems. In addition to their main classes, players will be able to choose one of seven crafting professions. These professions are Harvester, Armortech, Weapontech, Chemist, Inventory, Biotech, and Soldier for Hire. Most of these professions are fairly straightforward; Harvesters harvest crafting materials, Armortechs and Weapontechs craft armor and weaponry, Biotechs craft biological augmentations to enhance players' abilities, Chemists create "powerful enhancements that can turn the tide of any battle," and Inventors appear to invent new schematics that other crafters on their faction can use to create new and more powerful items. But what about the black sheep of the bunch, the Soldier for Hire? That's where things get interesting. Perhaps you're the sort of player that would rather make a living destroying things than creating them. If so, the Soldier for Hire is right up your alley. You work as a mercenary, protecting other players, with your payment worked right into the game mechanics. The full details on the rather in-depth crafting system can be found on the game's official site.
Double XP coming to EverQuest II this weekend
Citizens of Norrath, mark your calendars! Bonus experience is coming to EverQuest II this weekend and you'll want to be sure to avail yourself of what the EQII website calls a "true double XP promotion (+100% XP)." The bonus applies to adventure, tradeskill, and alternate advancement experience, so don't leave your crafter alts or level-locked and AA-starved characters out in the cold. Double XP starts at 12:01 a.m. PDT on Friday, July 29th and runs through 11:59 p.m. PDT on Sunday, July 31st. It's also good across all the game servers including the free-to-play EQII Extended shard and French, German, and Japanese realms.
Fan Faire videos show off new EverQuest II tradeskill goodies
Sony Online Entertainment's Fan Faire came and went a couple of weeks ago, but EverQuest II news coming out of the annual convention was so dense that various fan sites are still collating and publishing it. EQ2Wire released its latest dev panel videos over the weekend, with a focus on tradeskills and housing as well as a lengthy question-and-answer session. The tradeskill and housing panel introduced a couple of upcoming prestige homes, the house rating system scheduled to go live with GU61, tradeskill apprentices, and a new Frostfell group crafting instance. The Q&A panel covered a huge range of topics, and rather than try and summarize them all here, we'll direct you to the transcript at EQ2Wire as well as the videos embedded after the cut.
Wasteland Diaries: Apocalypse DIY
A few weeks back I did a piece on crafting, covering the basics of Fallen Earth's crafting system. In this article I want to focus on the early part of a crafter's career. If you only play one clone, I strongly suggest you make that clone a crafter. If you are an altaholic like I am, you should have a dedicated crafter, and that dedicated crafter should have his Social skill maxed out (eventually). If you don't have a crafter and you have an empty character slot, you need to create one post-haste. It's a little extra work that will pay off a lot later. In Fallen Earth, if you put in the time, you can make everything. If your crafter and your main happen to be the same, be sure to grab every resource within reach while you run missions. If you find a good spot, mark it with a waypoint (ALT+P) for future reference. Scavenging profusely will help keep you from being perpetually broke. If you have a dedicated crafter, don't bother running missions with him; just harvest and craft. He should level slowly but surely by simply harvesting and crafting. Send all of the materials that your other clone(s) harvest if you have the vault space. That covers the basics. The road to self-sufficiency continues after the cut.
Wasteland Diaries: So you want to be a crafter?
Fallen Earth has a complex, robust crafting system. The vast majority of the items in the game can be crafted from things you find lying on the ground. I am not exaggerating when I say "vast majority" because it's well over 90%. You can literally level your way to the cap simply by scavenging and crafting. It used to be much easier, but it is still possible. Tradeskills are different from other skills in Fallen Earth in that you raise them through use rather than spending AP on them. The system itself can be quite daunting when you are first starting out, but once you have a basic grasp of how it works, the rest is pretty intuitive. In this post, I'll touch on the basics of crafting. I'm no expert, but I do have a completely maxed-out social/crafter that has most of the game's recipes in his repertoire. You may know what you are doing, but I think even the most learned of crafters might learn something from this piece. The novice crafter will learn a few simple tricks (tricks that I wished I had known when I was just starting out) that will make his life a little easier out there. It's tough when you just want to make something with your hands and there are legions of bloodthirsty miscreants trying to kill you. So grab your toolkits and click past the cut for more.
Dungeons and Dragons Update 9 is live
It's update time in the world of Eberron, and Turbine has issued a press release that hits the highlights of Dungeons and Dragons Online's latest patch. Update 9 (subtitled Harbinger of Madness) brings a bevy of changes to the free-to-play fantasy title, including an extensive crafting overhaul, a new adventure pack, and new animations, spells, and prestige enhancement lines. The Harbinger of Madness adventure pack is designed for levels 15 and above and brings a bit of detective work to the fantasy genre as players are tasked with tracking down the those responsible for a series of abductions and gruesome fleshcrafting experiments. In addition, Update 9 should make casters happy since they're now more powerful at lower levels thanks to a spell point re-balance, and epic difficulty dungeons have been "updated for more efficient game play." Head to the official website for more details.
Addon Spotlight: Work harder with GnomeWorks
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, GnomeWorks is to trade skills what fire was to cavemen. These past few weeks have been very good in the old email box for suggestions for addons to be featured on Addon Spotlight, so keep those recommendations coming. In the next few weeks, I've got a recommendation spotlight planned as well as a grab bag. Also, there is an idea kicking around in my head about a "my first addon" spotlight, where new addon developers pitch their addon and we talk about it constructively. What do you guys think? Today's Addon Spotlight is one of those "long time coming" pieces; people were utterly shocked over the fact that I had not talked about GnomeWorks before. Well, there is a good reason for that -- GnomeWorks is still in its alpha development stage. As far as profession windows go, prior to Cataclysm, an addon of this type was almost required. The sorting features and customization options on the default profession window was lackluster at best.
WoW player makes her way to 85 without quest or kill experience
Tired of the same old same old in your favorite MMO? Looking for something else to do? Well, if you're one of a particular breed of players, you might try out setting some self-imposed limitations on your leveling. In World of Warcraft, several players have tried their hands at different methods. Gutrot from the EU leveled to 70 wearing only a loincloth. Gweryc decided to run his hunter as a melee-only character. Noor the Pacifist then decided to level his character to 70 by not killing any mobs at all, and he only did quests that involved non-violent criteria (like FedEx quests). Now we hear that another player has upped the alternative-leveling ante by not questing at all. Everbloom, level 85 Night Elf Restoration Druid from the Feathermoon server, leveled all the way to 85 by grinding exploration and gathering experience! While Everbloom's armory profile shows that the character entered one five-man dungeon at some point, there is only one completed quest -- and Everbloom explained that one was a fluke. Apparently Blizzard blindsided her by granting a quest completion for simply reading an Argent Tournament invitation letter -- even without having a quest for it. Everbloom additionally managed to level to 85 while only dying 25 times in total (once to falling), making this crazy stunt an even more impressive feat. If you'd like to read more about it directly from the source, head over to the World of Warcraft forums and check out Feathermoon's leveling thread. It's certainly worth a look if you've ever thought about trying some form of self-imposed limitation leveling in your MMO of choice.
Lichborne: Professions for level 85 death knights
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. Join World of Warcraft's first hero class as we head into a new expansion and shed the new kid on the block label. With your death knight at level 85 and all kitted out for raids, there's one more step you can take to make your death knight the best he can be: Learn some professions. A profession can provide self-buffs that nudge your DPS or suvivability up to the next level. It can grab you a lot of extra gold on the auction house (or drain all your gold, depending on which profession you take and how you choose to level it). Finally, it can provide you with some cool toys. This week, we'll take a look at WoW's professions to see which ones are tops for a death knight.
Wasteland Diaries: Free ride
The Grand Canyon Province is where Fallen Earth is set. It is a vast place, and the public transit system is completely obliterated. Most of the towns are separated by kilometers, so walking (or running) from place to place would be sheer folly. Luckily there are alternatives to walking. If you've played Fallen Earth for any length of time, you probably know what I'm getting at. Transportation in the Grand Canyon can cost next to nothing once you get it figured out. The goal of this post will be to get a new player up and running in the wasteland. Actually, up and driving and/or riding, rather. Once you know what to do, getting around is practically free. There are a number of ways to get yourself a better ride. Some of them involve a bit of work in-game and a good deal of time (mostly while you are offline). But there are shortcuts if your goal is to be tearing up the highways of Fallen Earth on a motorcycle as soon as possible. After the cut, I'll give you a step-by-step method of providing yourself with better transportation right up until you have a bike.
TERA auction house video shows off UI, functionality
While En Masse Entertainment and Bluehole Studio are marketing TERA as a combat-heavy action MMORPG, the new fantasy title isn't quite a one-trick pony. We recently got a look at some crafting and gathering videos and just yesterday stumbled across this new auction house video on YouTube. How exciting is an auction house video? Granted it doesn't get the heart racing like some of the game's combat footage, nor does it boast the visual pizazz of the thousands of screenshots released thus far. That said, the interface and the functionality look quite clean and streamlined (do keep in mind that this is Korean beta footage, however). Turn the page to see the auction house in action as well as some helpful translation text from the video's author.
TERA crafting and gathering videos sighted
En Masse Entertainment and Bluehole Studio have made action combat the focus of TERA's marketing campaign, and for the most part, that's all we've heard about over the past several months (well, that and how much some people are turned off by bikini armor). At long last, a bit of information about TERA's crafting and gathering mechanics (yes it has them!) has surfaced. The news takes the form of a player-written guide over at TERAfans, and it features a run-down on resources, professions, and raw materials. As it turns out, players can opt to pursue alchemy, armor and weaponsmithing, carpentry, or tailoring and leatherworking professions. The article also features two in-game videos showing the mechanics in action. Jump the cut for some footage of a player gathering ore and crystal as well as the crafting of a low-level staff. Keep in mind that this info hails from the Korean beta client and so is subject to change.
The Tattered Notebook: Never leave home without it
This week, I decided it's time to dump the bag. My characters often accumulate items at such a rapid rate that my bags quickly resemble those of a typical teenager at the mall. Any time I resign myself to plunking down at the bank to sort my inventory, I end up shocked at some of the stuff I bring home. However, there are some items in EverQuest II that are lifesavers, and others that can really be handy in a pinch. Let's take a look at a few items that you should never leave home without.
Massively interviews BioWare on SWTOR's crafting and PvP
This past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to head down to LucasArts in San Francisco to check out the current build of Star Wars: The Old Republic and chat with some of the BioWare developers. While my hands-on with the game won't be out until next month, we can deliver a couple of smaller interviews on two of the recently revealed systems in the game. And I think you'll want to hear what the interviewees have to say! Join me past the cut as I ask lead writer Daniel Erickson and lead PvP designer Gabe Amatangelo all about the Alderaan Warzone, the PvP reward system, avoiding battleground design pitfalls, companion tradeskilling, player-made gear, and hardcore crafting in SWTOR.
Gold Capped: Quick Auctions Poster does the undercutting for you
Every week, Gold Capped (from Basil "Euripides" Berntsen) aims to educate players about how to make money on the auction house. For the inside line on crafting for disenchanting, transmutation, cross-faction arbitrage and more, check in every Wednesday. Also, feel free to email Basil any comments, questions or hate mail! Quick Auctions Poster is here, and it's going to change your life. It was written by one of the auctioneers who inhabit the Just My Two Copper forums, and here's the description of what it does, straight from the download page: This addon is a plugin for Quick Auctions that adds a checkbox to the auction house posting frame with which you can toggle continuous scanning and posting of Quick Auctions. It saves you the effort of hitting the post button whenever a scan has finished. Sadly, because this Quick Auctions button doesn't have a name and its function is private, this action can't be macroed, but this addon manages to obtain the correct button and simulates a click on it. In essence, you can fill your bags up with stock, and instead of using QA3 to post a single batch, it will keep refreshing your scan for you while you wander off to do something else. It will keep automatically undercutting everyone until you run out of stock.
Addon Spotlight: Management addons
Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, holy crap! There's a bear. Have I got awesome news for you, dear Addon Spotlight readers. Today, I've enlisted the help of a good friend of mine to come and discuss some miscellaneous management addons that are designed to take all that information and parse it into something useful. I would like to introduce everyone to Mongor the bear accountant. Mongor is a bear that is also an accountant, and he's my good friend. It's time to get your life managed.
Wasteland Diaries: Sector 2
In Fallen Earth the Grand Canyon Province is divided into sectors. Sector 1 is where you will learn the basics of the game, but there are a few important and new concepts you will be introduced to in sector 2. Those two concepts are mutations and factions. NPCs will try to introduce you to these concepts through a series of quests in Sunshine Corners. The quests will give you a basic rundown of each of Fallen Earth's faction's ideology, but there are a few other things you should know. The purpose of the post will be to make sure that you know what to expect when you arrive in sector 2. You will be making one of the most important choices in your character's development when you choose a faction to align with. Each faction has different perks, mutations, and capstones. These all play a major part in what your character will become and must not be taken lightly, unless you like dumping chips into respec injectors. After the cut, I will arm you with the knowledge to make a better-informed decision.
Gold Capped: The Undermine Journal
So you want to make gold in WoW? Basil "Euripides" Berntsen is here to help! Auction house PvP is the only true PvP: There are no relevant racials, all classes are equally balanced, and the only differentiators are knowledge and guts. Gold Capped can help with the first one, and if you can make it through a whole article's worth of my typos, bad puns and feral druid jokes every Wednesday, you're guaranteed to have the second one. There's a new tool in my kit. The Undermine Journal, whose alpha was just recently launched, is a site that lets you see data from your auction house live from the internet. My realm was recently added, and when I searched for Eternal Belt Buckles, it showed me a convenient Google Finance-style graph of the price and availability, as well as the mats needed for it, and a list of my competition! Words fail me, so hop past the break for a screengrab.
