All Posts by Szark

City of Heroes/Villains Game Designer Phil Zeleski gives us the details behind the Day Jobs system that is on it's way in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility, the games next content update.

In the newest Dev Diary, Game Designer Phil Zeleski explains the new Day Jobs system that will be introduced in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility.

Day Jobs takes the concept of offline character progression to a new level, incorporating a variety of potential rewards and allowing players to add further depth to their character's identity and back-story. Is your Hero a Banker when not out stopping crime, or maybe a simple Shop Keeper? Is your Villain an avid Clubber, or perhaps a Smuggler? Whatever you choose, Badges and Accolades await in addition to other bonuses!

Read more here.

NetDevil is looking for input from the Jumpgate Evolution community, to get a better idea of what players a looking for in the game.

Community plays a big role in any game's development cycle. We make friends, explore new worlds together and interact in ways we would do in any life-like environment.

Jumpgate Evolution will include community features such as chat, Squads and Wings – all which help to enhance the experience of playing a Massively Multiplayer Online Game.

The intention of this thread/feature is to see what it is you expect from Jumpgate Evolution in regards to development, game experience and community, as well as some additional questions on the side

Read more here.

Turbine has produced a Hero's Guide to the Flaming Deeps, where the Dwarves worked in the Mines of Moria of old, and woke the Balrog.

Beyond the Great Delving and the halls of Nud-melek, deeper still than the priceless mithril veins of the Redhorn Lodes—tower the fiery forges of the Flaming Deeps. When Durin ruled, these lower depths were home to the Dwarves of Moria who ceaselessly manned the smithies and mammoth forges stoked by constant streams of ore from the Redhorn Lodes. The Dwarves toiled endlessly to mine the caches of gold, iron, and mithril—the noise of their efforts eventually waking the monstrous Balrog from its ancient sleep deep in the Shadowy Abyss and forcing their own exodus.

Now new heroes of Middle-earth must brave the dangers of Moria in the fervent hope of conquering the world beneath and returning this once-great realm to the control of its rightful owners, the Dwarves.

Though the Dwarves that once roamed these magnificent passages are gone, the forges are not cold and the halls do not lie empty. Today the Flaming Deeps have become home to savage Orc tribes. They are ruled by the ferocious Fire Orcs of the Ghâsh-hai and their allies—forces of the powerful Mazog, leader of an Orc army risen from the bowels of the Shadowy Abyss. The Ghâsh-hai and Mazog's Orcs are quartered in these old Dwarf-dwellings, slaving at the forges until they drop from exhaustion, giving their last measure to supply Mazog's army with armour and weapons. He intends to rally under one banner the tribes of Orc and goblin-kind that roam the sprawling halls of Moria. Furthermore, the Ghâsh-hai work to expand the ancient tunnels on the outskirts of the Flaming Deeps to commune with the Balrog. These efforts are all in the name of the Dark Lord Sauron.

Read more here.

The folks at Funcom have published a new dev journal which gives players a look at some of the new culturally themed armor in Age of Conan.

Developer Dave Williams provides us with a couple of nice screenshots as well as background information about some of the new Culture Armors which will be introduced to Age of Conan very soon.

From A Treatise on Niello

Long before the rise of countries which today are scattered across the continent, there was commerce between the ancient nations of Stygia and Acheron. Trade brought discovery, as goods traveled the span of the known world – and elements native to the far-flung reaches of the civilized kingdoms were first mingled in forges and workshops to form hybrid metals that exhibited the best properties of each ingredient.

Many such alloys were forged by the master sages of that era, who deduced the specific proportions necessary, and likewise the methods of construction. Niello, that black metal described centuries later as the Scales of Set, was purportedly used in the secret rites and rituals of the Dark Lord's many adherents in this age and the last. I cannot attest to the veracity of this notion, but I will remind the reader that in every legend lies some thread that can be traced back to its birth, and ultimately to some hidden truth.

Read more here.

Blizzard has announced that they are holding a Question Contest where fans can send in questions to be answered at BlizzCon on the DIRECTV pay-per-view broadcast.

Here's your chance to participate in BlizzCon even if you aren't able to be there in person. We're now asking folks to submit their burning questions related to the Warcraft, StarCraft, or Diablo game universes. We'll sort through them all and pick the best questions to be answered live during DIRECTV's pay-per-view broadcast of BlizzCon 2008. If your question is selected, you'll also receive an ATI graphics card and some exclusive BlizzCon merchandise. For submission information, contest rules, and a list of prizes, visit our contest page.

Read more here.

Turbine has announced launch details and a North American and European launch date of November 18th for The Mines of Moria, the first expansion for Lord of the Rings Online.

WESTWOOD, MA – October 9, 2008-- Turbine, Inc. announced today the details of the launch of The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™. On November 18, 2008 The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria will be available in stores across North America and Europe allowing players to begin their journey to the vast, terrifying and unparalleled world beneath Middle-earth.

 

Turbine also announced the launch of the Mines of Moria Pre-Order and Early Upgrade Programs. Players in North America can pre-order Mines of Moria at participating retailers nationwide beginning today or can purchase an early upgrade of Mines of Moria by visiting www.lotro.com/moria and get special benefits -- including a special $9.99 per month subscription when purchasing a multi-month plan and special in-game items.

“On November 18th players across North America and Europe will journey with the dwarves deep into Middle-earth to reclaim the ancient kingdom of Khazad-dûm from the minions of Saruman,” said Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “Response from the Beta Program has been phenomenal and starting today, players in North America can secure their spot to adventure in one of the most epic underground spaces ever created!”

Read more here.

The folks at Turbine have prepared a series of Dev Journals which take a class by class look at level advancement past level 50 in the Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria expansion. Today we take a look at the Hunter.

Whether you play as a Hunter or alongside one, if you’ve made it to Moria, chances are you know what to expect from The Lord of the Rings Online’s #1 ranged damage dealing class: Big, single-target damage at range. Sought after utility skills for group travel and tracking. A splash of crowd control through skills and traps. Respectable damage in melee for soloing and finishing the fight.

Along comes Moria, with 10 more levels and the exciting possibilities offered with the advent of Trait Sets. Across the team we decided that each class would have three different sets, representing different aspects of the class that players could choose to specialize in or mix-and-match as they saw fit. Let me say that if playing with the possibilities here is even half as much fun as I had designing it, I think you’ll have a blast.

Read more here.

The latest dev journal from CCP reviews their recent slew of performance upgrades for EVE Online.

Over the course of the past month, when it comes to performance upgrades, we've really pushed hard against several walls, smashed through them and began our invasion of the other side. The team has been blogging as they go in order to record what truly is a set of monumental achievements for EVE Online.

On September 16th, we deployed StacklessIO, a technology two years in the making, that raised the ceiling on the amount of players that could be in a system to almost double what it was before. What we experienced was "an astounding, yet expected, measurable difference" in performance that only created a more stable experience for the hundreds that regularly visit the high traffic areas of New Eden, but it showed us a new hurdle - at 1,400 players in a system, w actually began to run out of resources to handle it. To combat that we would have to upgrade from the current 32-bit software the servers were running.

Read more here.

With the introduction of new guild halls in EverQuest II, SOE is holding a guild hall design contest which runs until October 31st.

What kind of theme will your new waterfront property take on? Are you going for comfort or utility? Well, it’s time to decide, and you better do it quickly! In “Raising the Banner,” EverQuest® II celebrates the introduction of Guild Halls, and to add to this historic event, Sony Online Entertainment would like to extend players the opportunity to compete in a guild hall design contest for a chance to earn an in-game item, the Matrox® Triplehad2GoTM monitor module, and collectible pewter guild hall key. Don’t fear; if you need help sparking those creative ideas, we have a “Guide to Guild Hall Design” video for you.

Read more here.

Mythic Entertainment has published the coming changes with Game Update 1.0.2, which brings a wide variety of tweaks and fixes to all areas of Warhammer Online.

• The war against the gold spammers continues. We’ve added new code that will hinder the spammers as they seek to carry out their nefarious deeds! This is only the next step, not the final one, in our continued battle against them.
• We have added a 'Join All' button to the scenario window which now allows players to join all scenario queues in their current tier at once.
• In order to promote realm and population balance, some realms on some servers will now award their players with a +20% bonus to renown and experience. This is not a permanent bonus, but rather a temporary incentive to promote balance. Realms currently offering this bonus are marked on the server list with a colored icon; blue for Order and Red for Destruction - Check the Herald for the latest list!
• In response to player feedback, we have made several improvements to the behavior and responsiveness of the siege weapon interface. In addition we have fixed some issues with the control and release processes of siege weapons.

Read more here.

Tired of get-rich-quick schemes? The latest advice from the folks at Wonderland shows players plans to earn wealth more quickly in the game.

How to earn enough money is a problem that has foxed many players in Wonderland Online (http://wl.igg.com/main.php). So by following the sage advice given by WLO team,you too may one day be richer than your wildest dreams!

Be a Peddler

As a newbie, you should save up your money before doing any business. The best way to do this is to collect the various free materials from resource spots or by attacking monsters. You can sell these materials directly or compound them before selling. Although collecting may take up much time and reap meager profits, it is really a useful way to get started in the beginning period. So you must persevere!

Be well-to-do

After selling your materials for a while, your life will become far more comfortable. But don’t let yourself become too comfortable! Your goal is to become one of the rich people. In Wonderland we have the exclusive Tent system, you can also make furniture to decorate your house. There are so many kinds of furniture, which should you make? As each different type requires different materials and different methods to make it, you can make what you want in accordance to your needs. An exclusive shop is more effective at drawing in the customers!

Be rich

High technology products always guide the fashion trend and bring with them rich profits. If you want to progress to the next level, you should try to produce some technology products; like computers, LCD TVs and/or robots, just to name a few.

Read more here.

Blizzard has posted a notice for players using the streaming trial client for World of Warcraft, which will be taken down temporarily for the games next major content update, Echoes of Doom.

The streaming trial client, which allows trial users fast access to the trial version of World of Warcraft, will be temporarily unavailable while we prepare for our next major content update, "Echoes of Doom." Trial users can continue playing World of Warcraft by downloading the full trial client here: [PC] [MAC]. Streaming trials will be brought back online within a few days of Echoes of Doom’s release, and we will provide further updates as they become available. Please visit our Technical Support forum for additional information. You can upgrade your account to a full version at any time. Just purchase and install the retail version of the game (available at most software and video game retailers), then enter the provided Authentication Key at our online Account Management service to upgrade your account. After you upgrade you will still be able to play the character you create during this trial. For details about the trial version client, refer to our Trial Account FAQ.

Read more here.

The folks at IGG have revealed some of the lore behind Myth War II with the tale of the Soul Stones.

All stories in Myth War (http://mw2.igg.com/main.php) revolve around the soul stones and have become the stuff of legends. In these tales, numerous people have fought and died to be the sole owners of the soul stones. Today Myth War team will reveal the story in its entirety.

Story
As the tale goes, souls of all mortal beings need a place to be born again. This place is known as the Somberness World ruled by the Dark Queen. In fact, the Somberness World is the location of the five hells and is guarded by Element Beasts into which ribs were transfigured by Titans.

In early days when the whole universe was just created, in order to win the definite control of Somberness World, the five Element Beasts talked the Dark Queen into rising against Gaia. In a bloody battle, a destructive explosion caused the Life Tree at the world’s center to die. The Titans sealed these five Element Beasts into the five stones. As punishment, they tied the Dark Queen to the Icy Stone beside the dead Life Tree to cause her great suffering for 50000 years.

Read more here.

The folks at RealU Studios have released eight screenshots depicting scenes from Mars, one of the many worlds within Otherland.

Read more here.

The folks at Turbine have prepared a series of Dev Journals which take a class by class look at level advancement past level 50 in the Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria expansion. This time we take a look at the Lore-master.

As we prepare to enter the Mines of Moria™, the Lore-masters of Middle-earth continue to reveal new secrets about their abilities while recovering lost knowledge.

The Lore-master is already an extremely flexible class and has a wide breadth of abilities which can quickly swing conflicts to their favor. In Mines of Moria, the Lore-master gains more abilities that continue to widen their flexibility.

Examining the current use of the traits, coupled with the roles that the Lore-master fills in groups, we’ve designed three Trait Sets that offer up new abilities that can be used on a wider array of creatures and allow him to put his knowledge to a more… aggressive use.

Read more here.

The folks at Turbine have prepared a series of Dev Journals which take a class by class look at level advancement past level 50 in the Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria expansion. Today we take a look at the Burglar.

Who are you, dear reader, picking up these words and examining them after I’ve written them? Are you a First-class Burglar, eager to learn of the next stage of your chosen class’s advancement? Are you new to the Burglar, or maybe even new to The Lord of the Rings Online? Maybe you’re some internet archaeologist looking through an ancient archive of internet data?

If it’s the latter, then I hope your ancestors bought the Lifetime Subscription because that’s probably turned out to be a really good investment. In any case, you might want to switch your archival browsing to our forums where you can probably find out what everyone thought of the Burglar’s 50-60 advancement options.

Read more here.

SOE is offering EverQuest players a preview of the new zones that are coming with the games next expansion, Seeds of Destruction.

All active EverQuest subscribers with accounts in good standing will be able to experience all new EverQuest Seeds of Destruction zones two week before commercial release!

During this special event players can participate in quest lines and group encounters as they assist Antonius Bayle and preserve the future of Qeynos!

Zones include the eerie devastation of the Void, the lush wilderness of Oceangreen and the perilous Temple of Bertoxxulous.

Read more here.

VestGame Entertainment has announced that they will be opening a new east coast US server for World of Kung Fu.

The Free-to-Play Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) from VestGame Entertainment will open a new server on the East Coast of the United States. World of Kung Fu players on the East Coast and in Europe will benefit from enhanced performance and increased access speed. The new server will begin operation on October 14th.

[Shanghai, October 9, 2008] Due to the growing popularity of World of Kung Fu, Vestgame Entertainment has decided to open a new server to keep pace with the large number of new accounts. The new server will increase speed and access times for our East Coast and European players.

Code named “IronMonkey”, the new server will complement the “JadeDragon” and “GoldenSerpent” servers already in operation. The two existing servers are located in the American Midwest.

To celebrate the opening of the new server, World of Kung Fu will soon announce details of a special event featuring a very special prize. This event will be unlike anything done previously, and will include a major surprise to delight participating players.

In November, after the “IronMonkey” server is up and running smoothly, World of Kung Fu will release a new upgrade to the game. The new version will feature an invasion system which will involve several different event based scenarios such as country-to-country invasions, and invasions of the Middle Kingdom by hostile outside forces. The new version will also incorporate many other features, additions, and enhancements to gameplay.

Read more here.

The folks at IGG have guide for production players in Angels Online.

Production players are very important in PVP in Angels Online (http://ao.igg.com) The Angels Online team has already introduced the production professions for all players. Today, the AO team is very glad to introduce the guide to obtaining production equipment for all players.

For production players, the way of obtaining equipment is very different from that of fighting system players. Fighting system players can obtain equipment by killing monsters or defeating a BOSS with the help of a team. However, production players are not good at fighting and they are not necessary in a team.

More than that, enhancing their skill levels by collecting and manufacturing is not enough if players would like to be an eligible production player. The weight they can carry and their collection speed are very important in PVP. Only by enhancing the level of their equipment can players enhance those attributes. How can production players obtain superior equipment and what kinds of equipment are suitable for them?

Read more here.

SOE has published the patch notes for EverQuest II's Game Update 49: Raising the Banner, which introduces Guild Halls, multicore support, experience point changes, and more.

GUILD HALLS