All Posts by Stradden

The folks over at SOE have sent us a video and some screenshots featuring Gathering Tempest (Game Update #46, a continuing part of their recently announced Living Legacy program.

In “Gathering Tempest”, EverQuest®II’s game update #46, players will experience an exciting live event, introduction of a new zone and a plethora of new content for both current and returning players of all levels.

Check it all out here.

MMORPG.com's Adele Caelia recently submitted some questions from EverQuest II players to the game's developers. Today, we present the final three answers provided by SOE.

Hello devs and thanks for taking the time to answer some of the millions of letters I'm sure you're getting. My questions is a simple one:

Is there a way to make it so that the Necromancer class can choose between the male and female versions of the sorcerer pet spider? I'd really like to have that option and not be stuck with the gender based one. Thank you very much for your time.

Read the questions and answers here.

Originally posted by sadeyx

I would agree..

I looks utterly Shyte! - Are the people at MMORPG so bored or desperate for news that the have to drag up this kind of foul smelling dribble?

I can just about bare the "hello kitty online" and "myth war" kinda of crap games they write articles about.. but this really puts me off using mmorpg.com

I come here to read quality reviews and news not this rubbish..

Carry on like this mmorpg.com and I certainly wont be visiting or reccomending your site to anyone.  Just grow up please and realise that your audience deserves a bit more respect.

I don't see how you feel "disrespected" by this article. It was labelled as a "beyond the MMORPG" article, and is presented for those who wish to read it. If you don't want to read about non-MMO games, don't read Beyond the MMORPG articles.

In this week`s Beyond the MMORPG feature, we take a look at a game called "The Continuum". The Continuum is a flash-based game currently in beta that comes down somewhere between a miniatures game and a trading card game.

Every now and then here at MMORPG.com, we like to venture outside of our genre to talk about a game that, while it doesn’t exactly meet our game list criteria, still might prove to provide a little bit of fun for our readers.

Today in “Beyond the MMORPG”, I want to introduce you all to a little competitive game called The Continuum. Being developed by a company called Seven Lights, The Continuum is currently in the beta phase of production.

One of Seven Lights’ developers, a man named Tim Harris, was kind enough to take some time out of his production schedule to show me around the game a little bit, so that I could share what I learned with players like you who might be interested.

Read the whole thing here.

The folks behind Dreamlords: The Reawakening have sent over these new screenshots for our viewing pleasure.

Check out all five images here.

Dana Baldwin, the Producer of Battleground Europe, brings our anniversary celebrations to a close with this internal Q&A.

Battleground Europe first launched in 2001 to great anticipation and excitement. Seven years later, you can still find that excitement on the virtual battlefields of Western Europe. The creators of the game, Cornered Rat Software, have planned a week long celebration to mark the 7th anniversary of one of the first MMOs to hit the gaming scene. Senior Producer Dana “Gophur” Baldwin was happy to field some questions about first impressions, longevity, and the community.

Read the whole thing here.

The folks over at Webzen have provided us with these two new, exclusive screenshots from their upcoming MMORPG / FPS hybrid, Huxley.

Check out both images here.

Funcom has distributed this press release outlining future plans for their MMORPG Age of Conan. MMORPG.com will follow this story and provide more details as available.

Durham, USA – June 13, 2008 – After the incredible initial success for Age of Conan, a whole world of MMO players are eagerly anticipating the future plans for one of the most popular online games ever released. While Age of Conan has already evolved massively since launch, numerous expansive additions are yet to come. Funcom and Eidos are therefore proud to lift the veil on Age of Conan’s promising future, and today the two companies reveal selected features which are now in production.

“While we have enjoyed the initial success for Age of Conan, we know that a solid launch is but the start when it comes to the MMO genre,” said Gaute Godager, Game Director on Age of Conan. ”As we look ahead we are preparing a huge amount of new content, and what we are presenting today will evolve Age of Conan even further. It’s naturally an incredibly ambitious update plan for a live MMO game, but we are certain our players would want nothing less.”

Without further ado, here are some of the cool things to expect in the months to come:

PvP evolved – To the Death
The great combat system in Age of Conan has taken MMO fighting to a new level of fun, and Player versus Player combat plays a major part in this. As a result, a massive new PvP update is planned for late June. Aptly called To the death, this update brings more consequence and rewards to PvP, and an important part of it is the Fugitive system. The more lower level players you kill, the easier it is for others to hunt you down. In addition, ten PvP levels with additional ranks will be introduced, as well as specific gear and weapons for PvP.

Guild Alliance Warfare
Preproduction has started on a MASSIVE free update which will come later this year. Currently titled “Kingship!”, large clusters of guilds will be able to form alliances, and rule and conquer on a massive scale. Everyone in a guild alliance will play a part in this system, and together they can even erect unique looking alliance Battlekeeps. The alliances can also fight over, and build, culture-specific “wonders of the world”, with a direct link to higher powers! As part of the system Funcom will also facilitate larger amounts of players in massive battles.

Powerpoints
This fall, a unique reward and character evolution system called Powerpoints will be introduced. This rewards active in-game behavior, and allows for gathering points through numerous methods, including owning a Battlekeep, playing the end-game at level 80, winning PvP matches, or simply being an active guild member or subscribing to the game. There will be many ways to obtain Powerpoints, and numerous rewards, ranging from exclusive Powerfeats to weapons, armor and potions. Powerpoints may even allow you to level faster!

New areas and dungeons
You won’t need to wait for an expansion pack to explore exciting new areas. In the next period, Funcom will include several new areas, as well as evolving already existing areas. This includes a brand new dungeon in Aquilonia, reshaping three dungeons in Stygia, and an entire mountain range in Cimmeria!

Improved player-made villages and Battlekeep systems
While the guild alliance system brings a whole new level to the game, Funcom will continue to expand the existing player-made areas and the systems running them. A focus on evolving the massive elements of the game even further continues, ranging from placing NPC’s in the cities to more choices and benefits.

Social updates
An MMO is nothing without a good social scene. While Conan is all about crushing your enemies, social enhancements are also getting some love. A fun example is the combo-based dancing system which is now coming to the game, and it’s entirely motion captured by professional dance artists.

More adventures
Age of Conan has received tremendous praise for immersion and the great voice-over quests. This is but the start of the adventure, and numerous new quests are coming into the game, spread across the entire world and across the level ranges. Soon 60 additional quests will also get full voice acting, further improving immersion.

Embracing community feedback
Since launch several enhancements and fixes have been implemented to Age of Conan, and Funcom has continuously staffed up the service departments to improve customer satisfaction. This has already resulted in a better game experience, but the work will continue. At the heart of all of this stands the Age of Conan community. A lot of the upcoming improvements to the game will be based directly on community feedback, and the wishes and concerns players have when it comes to the future of the game will always be taken into account.

By reading the community websites, official forums and the monthly Clan of Conan newsletter you can expect additional information about upcoming features and released updates, as well as an arena to give your feedback. A new Clan of Conan newsletter is also going live today, with more detail on the upcoming features. http://funcom.cachefly.net/WebFiles/Newsletter/Issue17/

More on Conan here.

Each month, MMORPG.com brings you a profile of one of the developers working on Funcom's Age of Conan. This month, it's the head honcho himself, Game Director Gaute Godager.

MMORPG.com:

Tell us a little about your childhood. How did school and where you live influence your choice to join the video game community?

Gaute Godager:

I believe it was my brother who was my greatest inspiration to “fall in love” with computers. I guess that sounds a bit silly, but his boundless enthusiasm for the Commodore VIC 20 owned by some neighbors (the “Førde Brothers” (Fred and John) across the road) and his consequently purchase of a spanking new Commodore 64 (omg that was one powerful and wonderful piece of machinery for its days) that really brought me into gaming, demo making and dreaming about even better computers. (He is 1,5 years my elder and has another weird Norwegian name – Tjalve).

My brother and I are still at the same love for hardware, gadgets and tech as back then, now 25 years later. (Im 37). I’m the only one into gaming…

Read the whole thing here.

Originally posted by ishiaki

It would be great if this were true.  However, I notice that this countdown is featured prominently on the Champions Online Official Site.  Anyone think that it might just relate to that MMO and not a speculative Star Trek venture?

I thought about that, but it wouldn't be unusual for a company to do a small amount of hype on their current site for something in production.

Originally posted by darwa

Leaping the gun again, eh Jon?

Shame on you posting another 'news' feature on little more than a rumour thread. lol

As you may have noticed, it's very clear in the news post that it is fuel for SPECULATION. It's not reported as fact.

That being said, it does make things a bit more intriguing.

When Perpetual Entertainment (or P2 as they were apparently called at the time) went under, it was reported that their highly sought-afttr IP Star Trek Online had been picked up by another "bay area developer".

Speculation has been fueled by a new addition to the Cryptic Studios website, a timer, counting down from 45 days with a space backgroud that suggests that it may indeed be true.

you can check out the timer at the Cryptic site here.

Originally posted by Stikato

So basically the reviewer trashes the launch, and then at the end says this gem "I see no reason not to buy this game." Uhhh, how about all those negative things covered in your article? How about that Funcom is totally unresponsive to guild cities not being built correctly? Or any of the other reasons you listed.

Sorry, that was a good article that went bad. You see no reason to not buy this game.

Are you serious?

This wasn't a review. There was no reviewer. This article, as was clearly stated int he description, talks about one writer's experience with launch.

Originally posted by Asherett

Ok, just to make it clear: there is no problem with reading both US and EU forums!

Please stop repeating the nonsense that's floating around and actually check it for yourself:

 

http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/index.php

http://forums.ageofconan.com/index.php

 

There's a nice big "US FORUMS" button at the top of the EU forum page. The ONLY issue is that you can't read the "Voice of Crom" section on the US forum, as you can't login there.

I have used my mystical editor powers to delete the offending section.

With EVE Online's Empyrean Age summer expansion now doing its thing on the live servers, the folks at CCP have provided us with these new screenshots from the addition.

Check out all eight images here.

New MMORPG.com writer Mathew Reuther pens this look back at the Age of Conan launch from his own perspective.

Early Bird Gets the Shaft

With the logistical delays a new problem has arisen. There is a substantial group of pre-order customers who have been involved in the Early Access program yet did not receive a retail key in a timely manner. This has culminated in the freezing of an untold number of accounts on the 27th. Despite red flags going up two days prior to the end of the Early Access period (when people knew their copies would not arrive in time) it took until after access was actually denied before a single word was heard from Funcom. By the time European Early Access customers received word that they would be given until the end of May to enter retail keys many had already canceled their orders through their credit card companies (which can have an impact on future dealings with the pre-order retailers in question), some picking up retail games and others simply deciding not to play the game.

Read the second part here.

The team developing the upcoming MMORPG "All Points Bulletin" have provided us with these two new character screenshots.

Check out both new images here.

To accompany Mathew Reuther's first article on The Anatomy of a Launch, he also had the opportunity to ask a few questions of Funcom's Jorgen Tharaldsen. In this unconventions Q&A, Reuther comments on the questions asked and the answers given.

Mathew

As there are significant overcrowding (queue) issues being experienced on a number of the more popular Early Access PvP servers, have any plans been put into motion (i.e. character transfers) to alleviate the pressure by offloading volunteers to other less populous servers?

Jorgen

We do have server transfer technology in place, but we need to see how things pan out a bit before making hasty decisions. We have the most pre-ordered PC game in gaming history, we have one of the fastest selling PC games ever, and we have sold way more a week after launch than I would have even dreamt of. We have hit well, and "everyone" wants to play Conan, which is great, but prior to shifting people around we need to make informed decisions. I have seen many posts on 'you should have known, you should have prepared', and we have! However, with the popularity we have, we are now facing conditions we never thought would happen. People love Conan, and they tell friends, which is awesome. In the meantime we are doing our best to ensure that we inform on load prior to people entering.

Mathew's Thoughts

While becoming a victim of your own success is tragic in funny way, the fact remains that server load balancing I vital to those players affected by these overcrowding issues. While it is admirable that the company wishes to avoid making any knee-jerk reactions, it is also damaging to allow the status quo to continue on for too long. A number of servers remain queued during prime play hours, and this impacts normal play. It is not fun when every half an hour you lose a groupmate for five minutes due to a crash and queuing. It is also disappointing when you cannot create new characters to join your guildmates after buying the game.

Read the whole thing here.