Yearly Archives: 2012

Flyff Gold Set to Revolutionize Flyff this July

Flyff Gold Set to Revolutionize Flyff this July

 

 

Everything about Flyff is going to change. The launch of Flyff Gold on all English servers this July will mark a major evolution for the beloved MMO, introducing a fresh look, sleek interface, and brand new systems. The official Flyff Gold teaser page launched today with a look at the cool new clockwork style and a feature video showcasing the biggest changes.

 

 

Longtime fans and new players alike will immediately discover a brighter, cleaner Flaris home zone with sharper graphics and a broad new layout. That smooth style meets dynamic function thanks to a brand new black-and-gold interface which lets players customize their screen with sliding inputs and queue up to six actions in a rotating “revolver” slot for faster, more strategic combat.

 

 

Flyff Gold turns many popular player requests into a reality, from achievements that can be redeemed for item shop goodies to a set-and-forget consignment marketplace for easy trading. That’s just the start of an extensive change list that will also introduce in-game social networking, weapon transformations, greater PvP rewards, and much more!

 

 

Preparations for Flyff Gold’s official launch have already begun with game-wide Log-In and Level-Up events. Starting this week, players will receive an item the moment they log in and can get one item every day until June 20. Each character will also receive prizes as they level from now until the launch of Flyff Gold in July, so new adventurers can start their journey with great rewards right away.

 

 

20,000 lucky anime fans will get an additional chance to celebrate the announcement of Flyff Gold at FanimeCon, the largest anime convention in Northern California, between May 25 and May 28. Temporary tattoos with beloved Flyff characters have been added to every goodie bag, and each tattoo comes with a free code for a three-day tiny Tanuki pet. Plus, anyone who shares a picture of themselves wearing the tattoo will receive a prize for participating, and three random winners will get a full Rudolph Jewelry Set.

 

 

With a packed schedule of events for its thriving community and a full set of feature upgrades on the way, the future looks very bright for Flyff Gold.

Atlantica Online Diabolica Update Improves Training Center and More

Atlantica Online Diabolica Update Improves Training Center and More

 

 

Nexon’s Elements of War Diabolica Update for their tactical MMO, Atlantica Online, has brought many positive changes to the title including a redesigned Training Center, Level 120 upgrade quest improvements, and PvP changes.

 

 

With the redesigned Training Center, players have been able to train and brush up on combat skills. The Training Center consists of 10 stages, in which monsters will spawn automatically for players to defeat. As each stage is cleared of all the monsters, players will be rewarded with Training Supply Boxes that give players a chance at obtaining rare, high-level necklaces. Main character necklaces may either have a Lv. 115 or Lv. 135 requirement.   In order to access the Training Center, Guild Masters or Chief Officers must use 5,000 Guild Points. Once inside, guild members will have access to the Training Center and its new features for an hour, being accessible again after a 20 hour cool down period.

 

 

In addition, the level 120 upgrade quest has been modified to be easier to complete. Those who found it impossible to battle through will now find that fewer items are needed to complete the quest and time limits have been increased.

 

 

Fans of PvP in Atlantica Online can also jump into battle against each other and see what changes have been made. Nike’s Spellbook has been modified so that an effect such as Awakening, Purifying, Mana Piercing and others will be randomly activated.  Other class specific magic effects have also been modified. Magic effects such as Lady Knight’s Light Slash, Minstrel’s Salvation and Instrument Main’s Requiem effects have all been modified as well.

Funcom Announces Changes in The Secret World Launch Schedule

Funcom Announces Change in The Secret World Launch Schedule

 

 

 

Funcom today announced that the company has made a small adjustment to the release date for The Secret World. Due to market reasons, the ship date has been moved by two weeks to July 3rd, with Early Access starting June 29th. The new launch date places The Secret World in a more positive launch window which will benefit the launch of the game.

 

OnRPG Secret World Enthusiast Jonathan “Ardua” Doyle Didn’t Take the News so Well

 

We are also excited to share with you the dates and content of the remaining Beta Weekends!

 

The third Beta Weekend, titled ‘Hell Raised’, will begin on June 15th and run until June 17th. In this Beta Weekend players will be able to experience the Illuminati and Dragon starter experiences as well as the Templar experience. Players will also get to leave Kingsmouth and  venture into the massive region known as Savage Coast, where they will soon find that the very gates of hell itself have opened up! This will allow players to experience the epic ‘Hell Raised’ dungeon where you will have to battle the demons of hell itself!

 

 

The fourth and final Beta Weekend will begin on June 22nd and run until June 24th. This event will focus on the player vs. player experience in The Secret World, and players will get to sample both the Eldorado battlefield experience as well as the massive warzone gameplay where over a hundred players clash together in persistent battle. Here the Illuminati, the Templars and the Dragon will get to duke it out and hone their battle skills on each other before the real conflict begins when Early Access opens on June 29th.

PWI Imperial Fury Interview

PWI Imperial Fury Interview

Questions by Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

Answers by Hao Lu, Product Manager

 

 

February 2012 saw the launch of PWI’s Descent update. As a former cleric from Lost City server, the Descent patch seemed to answer the requests of many players complaining about the monopolistic nature of the old territory war system by turning it into more of a seasonal objective rather than ongoing (and snowballing) conquest. Now that the territory war system is on the up and up, PWI seems to be focusing on improving end-game options yet again with the launch of Imperial Fury. I had a chance to discuss this upcoming expansion with Perfect World International Product Manager, Hao Lu.

 

 

OnRPG: Hello! Please introduce yourself and tell us about your position on the PWE team!

 

Hey there! Thanks for having me. I know a lot of our players visit OnRPG, so it’s a great opportunity to be able to speak with you. I’m Hao Lu, Product Manager for Perfect World International. Basically, I’m tasked with overseeing everything PWI related in order to ensure that players get the best gaming experience possible. This includes tasks like day-to-day game operation as well as coming up with new initiatives that we hope players will enjoy. 

 

 

OnRPG: One of my gripes with Perfect World back in the day was that there were so many options for PvE but the rewards for doing some instances weren’t up to par with the rewards of doing others. Lunar Glade and Warsong City are two prime examples of this. How will this update get players back into these awesome instances?

 

Lunar Glade and Warsong City have long been considered two of the most enjoyable dungeons in PWI, but as you said, some players didn’t feel that the rewards were worth the effort necessary to run them. So our developers did something pretty clever; they took these two high-potential, low-use dungeons and gave players a new reason to revisit them. By ramping up the difficulty of the bosses and making them drop materials to upgrade the best gear in the game, they’ve transformed these two dungeons into true end-game content. While fewer players will be able to clear these exceptionally challenging instances, we think that’s far better than having two highly-accessible dungeons that players have little incentive to complete.

 

 

OnRPG: So the changes to these dungeons are exclusive to PWI? What led up to this decision?

 

That’s correct, and there were two major reasons for it. First of all, our player-base is extremely passionate and vocal, and their desire for more end-game content is something that we’ve always been diligent about relaying to our developers. The second reason is of a more practical nature. Our players are simply further along than other regions’ players in terms of the power of their gear. Many of our players have reached the end of their tier-set, whether it’s Rank 9 or Nirvana gear – and players needed a new goal to strive towards.

 

 

OnRPG: Another instance being looked at is Phoenix Valley. This was initially released around a year ago and is now being retrofitted to give level 100+ players a challenge. What are your plans for it?

 

Phoenix Valley is a unique instance in that it really only serves a single purpose: gaining EXP. Therefore, it seemed only natural to extend this opportunity to level 100+ players, as this level range was known to lack time-effective ways to gain experience.

 

 

OnRPG: For us old-timers not in the loop, can you go over the Prestige System and the new ways you are allowing players to accumulate Prestige with this update?

 

The Prestige System was introduced with this year’s PWI: Descent expansion. As players explore the new high-level zone of Morai, they’ll come across three ideologically distinct “Orders”. As players complete tasks for each respective Order, they’ll gain prestige, which grants access to a variety of gear, skills, and mounts unique to that Order.

 

This latest update adds Prestige Badges to the mix. These badges can be equipped to accelerate the rate of Prestige growth as players perform the Orders’ tasks, so much of the Morai content should be more accessible now.

 

 

OnRPG: Last time I checked the Bounty Hunter quest system had become a staple activity for players seeking to quickly level up. What new bosses and instances do you intend to add to the system?

 

It’s true.  In terms of the popularity of Bounty Hunter quest system, PWI has changed little – most players take it as their mandatory daily objective. However, with the PWI: Imperial Fury update, we’ve added the Seat of Torment and Abbadon areas to the mix. In addition, the developers went ahead and changed some boss mechanics to make them a little more… interesting. We would advise players to approach these challenging encounters cautiously.

 

 

OnRPG: The Advanced Endless Universe dungeon offers some pretty hefty rewards for completion. What kind of challenges can players expect to face in order to overcome this trial?

 

The name of the game is teamwork. With The Trials update at the end of last year, players found themselves facing incredible challenges, the likes of which had never been seen before in PWI. Instance mechanics strayed far beyond the standard tank ‘n spank they’d grown accustomed to. So expect a ton of new instance mechanics, like battling alongside powerful NPCs, timed events, and interacting with the environment to name a few. Advanced Endless Universe seeks to take that feeling from The Trials and scale it down from a 100-player to intense 8-player content.

 

 

OnRPG: PWI is known for having some of the most brutal end-game dungeons in a F2P MMO. Knowing what you are jumping into is often half the battle in defeating these challenges. How should players prepare for Advanced Endless Universe when each time they may be faced with 1 of 3 challenges?

 

A trustworthy squad and a determined spirit are paramount to finding success in Advanced Endless Universe. While the NPCs within the instance do give guidance, it’s going to take nearly everyone multiple tries before they get it down to the point where it becomes a daily run. That being said, running a few of The Trials (added last year) should help prepare players for what’s in store in PWI: Imperial Fury.

 

 

 

OnRPG: Although this is mostly a PvE focused update, you are bringing in some upgrades to PvP protection and the targeting system. What kind of changes can we expect to see?

 

The upgrades should definitely be appreciated by the PvPers out there. Players have often pointed to the capability of neutral players (i.e. neither squad-mates nor flagged for PVP) to cast “positive” spells on them when they don’t necessarily want to be buffed.

 

You might think, “Well, what’s wrong with getting a free buff?” But the truth is that not all buffs are desired at every moment. One example was a spell that made the targeted player invulnerable for a few seconds, but also forced them to be paralyzed for the duration. We’ve been paying attention to reports of players using that spell to grief, so the fact that they’ll be able to keep neutral players from buffing them should be a welcome change. As for the targeting, we’ve tweaked the system so that tab-targeting prioritizes enemy players over random roaming monsters, so getting ambushed while questing should be less painful from now on.

 

 

OnRPG: PWI really seems to be coming together as a complete package with these last two updates. Are there any areas you feel the game could use further improvement on? Perhaps that might be touched in future updates?

 

One area I’d like to focus on is in small-scale team PvP. Territory Wars, our system of massive weekly 80v80 battles remains extremely popular, but what about those players who desire a smaller, squad-based, sanctioned fight?

 

Player feedback is very important to us, so we’re currently in talks with some of our community’s most passionate PvPers to help us come up with ideas for new community events to help tackle this issue. We also hope to continue innovating within the game as we have with The Trials and Advanced Endless Universe to continue bringing our players fun, fresh new content.

 

 

OnRPG: Thanks for your time!

 

Thank you Darren! I’d like to invite both new and veteran players to find out more about PWI and the latest Imperial Fury update at the official game site.

New Content Bonanza Ignites APB Reloaded

New Content Bonanza Ignites APB Reloaded

 

APB Reloaded

 

Reloaded Productions, the wholly-owned creative development studio for GamersFirst, today announced the live release of version 1.8.0 for the Free2Play® online action game, APB Reloaded. Following the successful 1.7.0 update last month, update 1.8.0 introduces new Weapon Skins that give the citizens of San Paro the power to customize the look of their weapons, a new Joker Mystery Box, an exclusive reward for completing the 1.8.0 Challenge, and a hefty 40% marketplace discount.

 

 

Key Features of the Update Include:

 

1.      Weapon Skins – The Armas Marketplace is stocked with 14 new Weapon Skins and even more are available through in-game progression!

2.      Joker Mystery Box 3 – Gives players a chance at the new OCA Nano ‘Connoisseur,’ and other cool prizes. The Nano is a never-before released unique, silenced automatic secondary weapon and is the most wanted prize for this box. In the spirit of San Paro, every box contains a prize!

3.      Memorial Day Double Discount Weekend– From May 26th to May 28th, Premium members can add an additional 20% to their existing 20% Armas Marketplace discount and get their favorite weapons and items, including the new Weapon Skins for 40% off!

4.      The 1.8.0 Challenge – Citizens that complete 10 Action District Missions, each day, for 3 days in a row (Friday – Sunday, 5/25/2012 – 5/27/2012 PDT) will be rewarded with five Joker Mystery 3 Boxes! Completion of this challenge also grants players an entry into a drawing to win the never before released 4-slot Vegas G24 and Hot Rod kit! 10 Lucky winners per server will be the first to cruise the streets of San Paro in this brand new ride.

 

 

“We are proud to fulfill our community’s desire for wanting the option to customize the look of their weapons,” said Myra Widodo, producer for APB Reloaded. “As always, we continue incorporating feedback from the APB community and our development team is burning the midnight oil to bring new content to the game”

E-Sports @ OnRPG: Red Bull Battlegrounds – Power Rank

 E-Sports @ OnRPG: Red Bull Battlegrounds – Power Rank

By Umar Farooq (Kluey), OnRPG E-Sports Reporter

 


Editor’s Note: The Redbull Battlegrounds can be viewed at the following link on Saturday, or livestreamed right here at OnRPG!

 


Watch live video from Redbull Battlegrounds in Austin!

 

Red Bull’s tournament organizers are brilliant. The major flaw with most tournaments is the lack of diversity in the players. Many tournaments will get the absolute top notch players, throw them into a bracket with a massive prize pool and hope to impress fans. Sure, you’ll get attention post-event but during the event, there’s nothing to look out for. It’s like having two soccer teams play a possession game. There will be one shot every 10 minutes and fans will be bored to hell. What Red Bull has done is put some of those possessive players but has also added the fan favourites, the micro showboats and the dark horses. What you should expect on Memorial Day weekend is nothing less than excellence. We’ve seen Red Bull’s production be world class and the only thing they missed was content. Red Bull Battlegrounds is the full package. You’ve got top players, foreigners fan favourites, and the dark horses that everyone loves.

 

 

I’ve done tournament previews or hypes before but they’ve always been bland. This week, I’m going to change things up a bit. Instead of going through the groups and then predicting the brackets, we’re going to use a Power Ranking system. Power Rankings is a system used by professional sports organizers. The teams or players are listed in order of predicted performance or overall skill. Although the order is nothing more than a prediction, there is statistical and subjective influence on them making them a reliable resource in spectating or predicting a tournaments result.

 

 

Rank

Player

Description

 16.

 

 

 

Ostojiy


 

I’m trying not to be too harsh here but, there is nothing better I can do. Ostojiy is on a pretty amateur team, he lives and trains in North America, he’s a foreigner and very inexperienced in a tournament environment. Maybe he has a few builds but there is nothing big to expect from Ostojiy.

15.

LastShadow


 

The final addition from Red Bull into their player pool was LastShadow. I’m not sure if it a ‘best for last’ situation or if it was the best they could do as everyone else was already taken. Whatever the case, LastShadow practices in Korea so he’s got an edge over Ostojiy. Once again though, LastShadow has no stage experience and is expected to do pretty poorly.

 

 14.

Illusion

 

 

Illusion in my eyes is the future of North America. He’s still in high school and has beaten GSL players at IPL. If there is anything he lacks, it’s free time. Being in school, he cannot attend every tournament and certainly cannot practice a lot. He’s never been to Korea to practice either. This makes him a talented player amongst talented and hardworking players. Although Illusion might cause some upsets, he shouldn’t make it far in this tournament.

 

13.

Sheth


 

Sheth is an online player in my opinion. He’s always been doing well in clan wars and online events. He’s never had his offline breakthrough event. He’s placed 25th – 15th at MLG’s. Although Sheth is a solid player, he’s far and away outclassed by most of the players at this event. Sheth will show some close games but this was the highest rank I could give to him.

 

12.

HuK


 

HuK recently hasn’t been as successful and his play style is the reason. HuK relies on his control and aggressiveness but regularly falls short on his macro and decision making. This makes him a good ladder player or open bracket player but against players who understand the game so extremely well, I can’t see him doing too well. HuK doesn’t have nerve issues and has been training in Korea and so cannot do too poorly in this event.

 

 11.

Puzzle

 

 

I had trouble putting Puzzle on the list. Puzzle is a solid player who recently got Top 8 in Code S. The reason I had trouble putting him is because he’s inexperienced in front of a big audience. This event will have 1,500 live spectators. In comparison, GSL bracket matches have 100 at most. If Puzzle does well, it shows that he’s capable of overcoming his nerves. He’s definitely more skilled than many of the players here but that isn’t that story that tournament performances are based upon.

 

10.

Ret


 

Ret is just a good player. He has this on/off switch that is completely random. Sometimes he will absolutely destroy people at a tournament and sometimes he will just be an average Ret (take that for what it’s worth). Ret is an extremely experienced player and that plus his talent should get him pretty decent results at this tournament.

 

9.

ThorZaIN


 

Thorzain has had a great few months. He’s won Dreamhack, been granted the title of the king in the north and recently been picked up by the biggest North American team. I’ve said it before and will say it again; competitive Starcraft 2 isn’t just about skill. If you’re confident, have the right mindset and are not nervous at all, you can be less skilled and still win. Thorzain has all this plus extremely high amounts of skill. His approach to the game is very rational. He uses timing and numbers to figure out builds rather than just basing it off of feel. This makes Thorzain an extremely deadly player and inevitably, successful.

 

 8.

SaSe


 

SaSe has been rumored to be extremely hard working. Naniwa has said that part of his motivation is SaSe’s ability to just sit down and play for hours on end.  After watching his stream and watching him in real life, he is such a fast player. If you want to explain to your grandmother how Starcraft is a sport, show SaSe’s mouse and keyboard POV. SaSe is just the entire package. He’s a solid Protoss that works hard in Korea. He’s also part of the StarTale team which has the best Protoss players. SaSe should be able to show some nice games and place well at this tournament.

 

7.

GanZi


 

GanZi is one of those guys who get way less attention than they should. He’s one of the best Terran players in the world. The one thing that makes him really easy to beat is his decision making. GanZi is a mechanical Terran and reacts to what he sees. If someone is serious about winning this tournament, you will prepare builds that don’t have standard responses. Because of this, GanZi can sure as hell make a sick run but winning it seems farfetched.

 

6.

TaeJa


 

Liquid’s newest recruit and strongest Terran. He’s also 17 years old; he’s a former SlayerS Terran and made the Ro.8 in GSL Code S after people expected him to lose the groups twice. Goes to show how skilled this guy is. There’s no doubt in my mind that TaeJa is one of the most talented individuals here. The only thing that worries me is that he’s new to foreign tournaments and tournaments in general. Still, TaeJa should place extremely high in this tournament. And most importantly, he’s got the special Korean glasses. If you glance down at all the players after TaeJa, all Koreans have these glasses. I’m telling you, there is something going on here…

 

 5.

MC


 

Obama Toss, President Toss or Kratos Protoss. All those are common nick names for MC within in the community. I, however, have a special name for him. The foreign money stealer Korean master mind Protoss. MC has won the most money in all of Starcraft(with MVP just recently passing him last weekend) and he’s only won two GSL’s. So where’s all that other money coming from? Foreign tournaments. MC just understands how to play these 3-day marathon tournaments. His style fits it well and he’s got no nerve issues. In fact, I think he’s got a ‘too much confidence’ issue. All in all, MC is a favourite to win this tournament. He hasn’t been looking too sharp in the GSL lately so I haven’t ranked him higher.

 

4.

vioLet


 

In the beginning, I really didn’t like vioLet. He moved away from the best training place, Korea, and came to the worst training place, the USA. I expected him to fall off the scene really quickly as he wouldn’t be improving. Lo and behold, vioLet is the best player in North America and recently won an MLG. I really hope vioLet goes back to Korea and trains there a bit more because the skill he’s got at the moment isn’t going to last with practice on NA servers.

 

 3.

Stephano


 

Stephano deserves a lot more than he gets in my opinion. He get’s called the best foreigner but really, who wants to be the best of the worst players? Stephano should be recognized as the best strategic player in Starcraft. If there was a World War III, Stephano would lead the USA French army. Stephano can read his opponent like a book and in Starcraft II, that’s the best skill to have. But, he’s not Artosis, who’s just brilliant but has sub-par mechanics. Stephano has the entire package. If someone had come to me and said that Stephano wasn’t a big contender for the first place prize, I’d call them crazy. Stephano is far and away the best Zerg in this tournament.

 

 2.

Bomber


 

Recently, Bomber hasn’t been doing too well. Many people had dismissed him and thought that he had fallen off. Recently losing to Sniper in Code A and doing poorly (for his standards) in the team league has put doubt in peoples mind. But, they’re wrong. As with all sports, people like the really flashy, highlight reel players. Bomber isn’t one of them. He’s just a solid, Korean Terran with immense amounts of talent. In the GSL finals, Squirtle didn’t have the coach come in and help him, they had Bomber. This goes to show that Bomber is still a sick good player and has to be a favourite to win.

 

 1.

PartinG


 

ST_PartinG… Honestly, I could stop right here and it wouldn’t be a problem. This guy doesn’t need an introduction. Code S, Season 1: PartinG loses to the eventual champion DongRaeGu in Ro. 8. Code S, Season 2: PartinG loses to the eventual champion MVP in Ro. 4. Furthermore, PartinG finished 5th/6th place at MLG twice. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what can be. PartinG is far and away the best player at this tournament.

 

 

 

So, we’ve got the players out of the way. But, that isn’t what Red Bull is about in my opinion. If I want to see the best players play, I’ll watch GSL Code S or MLG. Red Bull is all about the production and the extra content. To get more information on this, I had the chance to do an interview with casters Day9 and djWHEAT.

 

OnRPG: Could you tell us a little bit about yourselves for the people who aren’t so familiar with the Starcraft II scene? Also, could you tell us about your role at Red Bull Battlegrounds this weekend?


djWHEAT: My name is Marcus ‘djWHEAT’ Graham and I’ve been involved with eSports and video game commentary since 1999.  I’ve broadcasted over 20 games in 15 different countries, but currently spend most of my focus on StarCraft II.  When not commentating I work for TwitchTV and I run OneMoreGameTV, an online TV Network which focuses on content geared towards fans of eSports and competitive gaming.  This is my second Red Bull event and I’ll be serving as a commentator, host, and interviewer.

 

DAy9: Heyo!  I’m Sean Plott, better known in the gaming world as “Day[9].”  I grew up gaming with my brother Nick Plott, better known as “Tasteless” who now works in Korea.  We both played competitively throughout high school, college and post-college. Our game was StarCraft, an incredibly challenging real-time strategy game often compared to chess on steroids.

 

We weren’t the only ones obsessed with our game–StarCraft has since exploded in popularity as a spectator sport. Post-college, Nick and I became professional eSports casters and have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel around the world hosting game tournaments. We are hired for our ability to explain the game and convey the excitement of the play-by-play action to our listeners—just like real sportscasters!  My brother is an anchor for the GOM StarLeague and I am probably best known for hosting the Day[9] Daily, a live show about StarCraft strategy. Nobody can believe we make a living doing this—but we do!

 

 

Gaming is huge now and the number of eSports fans is growing exponentially!  We are seeing major players like Red Bull come on the scene and help organize events for the fans like the Red Bull Battlegrounds.  This is going to be an amazing event—Red Bull is bringing in superstar players from all over the world to compete live at Austin City Limits at The Moody Theater.

 

My role is to help Red Bull dream up and put on kick ass eSports events like this all over the country.  I will also be acting as one of four host/sportscasters this weekend for the Red Bull Battlegrounds tournament.  I can hardly wait—the level of competitive play is going to be amazing.  In addition to a live audience at the ACL theater, we expect hundreds of thousands of viewers to tune in live over the internet to watch.

 

 

OnRPG: So, this is Red Bull’s first tournament. We’ve had the Red Bull LAN but that was more of a training event for the players. What’s the major difference between the two? Is there anything special we can expect at Red Bull Battlegrounds that we haven’t seen before?

 

DAy9: The major difference is Red Bull Battlegrounds is a tournament, and the LAN event was more player focused (on 4 players) which lead to a smaller tournament.  I think Red Bull Battlegrounds will bring a new level of excitement to the event as it will focus around the journey of every player who is involved in the tournament.

 

djWHEAT: Red Bull has always been committed to exploring the art and science of superior human performance.  With gaming, they have been taking an exciting, unconventional approach—they treat pro gamers with the same respect they show pro athletes by helping them optimize their skills.  The LAN was a sports clinic for pro gamers, bringing them together to practice and improve their gameplay.  The Red Bull Battlegrounds kicks up that competitive interaction a notch while at the same time helping eSports fans celebrate the start of summer in a huge, fun way.  This is going to be an exceptional tournament with amazing players—including a few surprise invites.

 

Keep in mind that there will be even more Red Bull events coming this year and even more surprises for eSports fans.  Red Bull never does the same thing twice and it is never conventional in its approach!

 

 

OnRPG: One of the things that Day9 has been very vocal about is the lack of story lines in Starcraft II. This is largely due to the invite-only, three day marathon events that we have. Does Red Bull have any plans to change this?

 

djWHEAT: Being able to focus on a more concentrated set of players will definitely open up the right avenues to allow us to build the story lines which are typically absent.  When you are trying to focus on a field of over 256 players, you can imagine just how difficult it is to follow even 4 players.  But when you have the opportunity to showcase every player and every match, the primary focus is the story and how the tournament unfolds.


Day9: I think we were able to successfully develop a story arc over the Red Bull Orlando LAN weekend:  we did extensive interviews with the focus players and helped Ret troubleshoot strategic game play, which he then implemented to beat out his competitors and win the LAN.  We deliberately invited several of the focus players from the LAN back to the Red Bull Battlegrounds so we could continue to track their story arcs into a major competition.

 

In addition, I have been examining the back stories of all the players in detail in my Dailies leading up to the event, so if you want a history of these players, you can tune in there for background.

 

 

OnRPG: Thanks for answering our questions! Be sure to check out OnRPG over the weekend as our own JamesBl0nde and new staff writer Brad Baker will be in attendance covering the event personally!

Funcom Partners with NVIDIA for The Secret World

Funcom Partners with NVIDIA to bring The Secret World Graphics to the Next Level

 

 

Funcom, a world-leading independent developer of online games, is thrilled to announce that it is working closely with NVIDIA for Funcom’s upcoming modern-day massively multiplayer online game ‘The Secret World’.

 

 

Funcom’s and NVIDIA’s engineering teams have been working together to make ‘The Secret World’ the most graphically advanced massively multiplayer online game ever to launch on the PC platform. ‘The Secret World’ will feature several cutting-edge DirectX 11 features, such as ground and object tessellation, which makes flat textures appear three-dimensional, thus bringing ordinary objects and surfaces to extraordinarily detailed life. ‘The Secret World’ will also feature full support for NVIDIA 3D Vision® technology for further gaming immersion and increased performance for gamers running dual-GPU configurations utilizing NVIDIA SLI® technology.

 

 

NVIDIA will also be launching its online “GPU Analyzer” tool specifically for ‘The Secret World’, which will allow gamers to quickly test their gaming rigs and confirm they have the right hardware for the best possible gaming experience. Funcom and NVIDIA are collaborating on additional virtual events, such as an upcoming Beta Weekend that will potentially allow every registered NVIDIA customer to try out ‘The Secret World’ before launch. With promotion across the NVIDIA.com website, social media channels, newsletters, YouTube and more, Funcom is expecting coverage of the game to exceed more than 100 million impressions.

 

 

“We are truly excited to again be working with NVIDIA like we did with our previous title, ‘Age of Conan,’” says Funcom CTO Rui Casais. “By collaborating with NVIDIA engineers, we are making sure we get the absolute most out of our game engine in terms of performance and visual splendor, both of which are tremendously beneficial to anyone playing ‘The Secret World’ with NVIDIA GeForce® GPUs.”

 

 

‘The Secret World’ is developed by Funcom and co-published by EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., and is consistently mentioned as one of the most anticipated MMOs in development. Funcom has previously reported that over 1,000,000 gamers are registered for the ongoing beta test for ‘The Secret World’.

Guns of Icarus Online Interview

Guns of Icarus Online Interview

Questions by Bryan King (Bryan), OnRPG Journalist

Answers by Jess Haskins, Game Designer at Muse Games

 

 

 

Grab your friends and take to the skies! Guns of Icarus, a popular indie 3D shooter, was released in May of 2010 as a single player game. In June 2011, a new webpage went live for the Muse Games team, detailing their efforts to release a multiplayer version of Guns of Icarus. I got the chance to sit down with Jess of Muse Games, to discuss the current state of Guns of Icarus Online, and what players can expect to see once they get their hands on it.

 

 

OnRPG: Hello, please introduce yourself to our readers.

 

Hi there! My name is Jess Haskins, and I’m a game designer here at Muse. We’re a small team and we all tend to wear a lot of hats (both figurative and literal, actually…you should see our funny hat collection), so my job ranges from gameplay and systems design, to level building, to narrative design, to various non-design things, like community management and copywriting. I’m the primary writer in residence, so I also handle most of the story and world-building for our games. Guns of Icarus has a really huge world with a complex history, so that keeps me pretty busy!

 

OnRPG: Can you give us details about the game’s storyline? What are players fighting over?

 

The game takes place some three hundred years after the start of the Great War, essentially what World War I might have been if it never ended. War devastated the planet and all but wiped out the population. Humanity is basically just getting back on its feet, salvaging old technology and scavenging for resources to support the scattered pockets of civilization that remain.

 

This game takes place about 80 years after the first game, Guns of Icarus, which was about a pioneering hero named Gabriel who built one of the first steam-powered airships to cross the desert and proved that it was possible to journey from town to town. In Guns of Icarus Online, Gabriel is a legend, some of those towns have become cities, and airship travel is becoming commonplace. The game is all about what happens when these isolated settlements come into contact with each other: trade, piracy, alliances, exploitation, opportunity, conflict. You’re fighting for what everyone is fighting for—peace, ultimately, but there are many different definitions of the word. For some it means conquest, for some it’s security, or wealth, or progress. The world is organized into six factions, each with its own unique culture, history, and goals, and faction politics inform every battle the players fight in.

 

 

OnRPG:  For players who have already played your single player title, what can they expect to change in the multiplayer game?

 

The first game had a really tight scope, and did a lot with a very limited set of interactions. Alone, or with a few friends, you had to run around the deck of an airship, shooting incoming planes and fixing parts of the ship so you didn’t blow up or lose all your cargo. It was essentially a combination shooting gallery/time management game with zeppelins. We wanted to do so much more, so in Guns of Icarus Online we blew that concept out into a fully-fledged online team-based PvP combat game. We’ve added team PvP match types like deathmatch and king of the hill, piloting, terrain, realistic physics and flight models, weather and visibility systems, skill equipment, tons of new ships and weapons, customisable player avatars, and three different roles with all-new mechanics for captaining, gunning, and engineering. You’re still running around the deck of an airship shooting and fixing things, but there’s a ton of added depth that the first game simply didn’t have.

 

For players of the original game, aesthetically, standing on the deck of an airship or jumping onto a Gatling gun and letting loose into an enemy’s balloon should feel pretty familiar, and you’ll recognize this world. But just the fact that you’re facing other players in airships and have to coordinate with your crewmates and teammates changes things considerably. Suddenly, aerial naval tactics are a thing!

 

 

OnRPG: Can you tell our readers more about the game’s class system? Which class appeals to you the most?

 

Having the three specialized roles of Captain, Gunner, and Engineer actually serves a lot of different purposes. One, it helps crews work as a more cohesive unit. Since everyone has a clearly defined job to do, it lets the crew go about things fairly efficiently without a lot of discussion or stepping on each others’ toes. If it was just three or four people dropped on an airship without any sense of direction, it’d get chaotic pretty quickly.

 

Two, different roles are suited to different types of gamers. The Gunner is very simple, direct and immediate, the Engineer is more accessible for players who like time-management gameplay and can stay cool under pressure and keep lots of plates spinning, and the Captain is a great big-picture leadership role for a more deeply involved or experienced player. It can be tough to find a game that a reactive twitch gamer, an obsessive min/maxer, and a strategic leader can all play together on equal footing, but Guns of Icarus Online is very accommodating of divergent play styles.

 

 

Three, and perhaps most important, specialization helps support the team play model and ensures that multiplayer gameplay is cooperative in a significant way. The crew structure encourages solidarity, and having specialized jobs means that no one player can dominate or do everything in the way that a very strong player can sometimes carry the team in a melee combat game. This can be a danger as well as an opportunity, because it means that every player is vital and it’s difficult for others to pick up any slack, but as long as players are matched up with crew members of comparable experience and skill, we think it does a lot to enable each player to make a meaningful contribution to a true team effort.

 

As for myself, I think I prefer captaining. I think it’d be tougher if I were less familiar with the details of running an airship, and you definitely have to get comfortable with the other roles before taking on a command. There’s just something about taking the wheel and scanning the sky, spotting ships in the distance, revving up the engines and bringing the ship around for an engagement while calling out orders to the crew…it’s an interesting blend of freedom and responsibility.

 

 

OnRPG: Were there any snags you guys hit while in early development?

 

It has been a long road getting to this point. I’d love to say it’s all been smooth sailing, but I’d be lying if I said it was easy! Probably the roughest patch happened before I was even on the project, when I was working on our previous major title, CreaVures. I wasn’t personally involved at this stage, but I can tell you the story.

 

Early in the game’s development, we had the opportunity to work with an Asian publisher to take the game to markets beyond the US and Europe. We jumped at the chance to work with a large publisher, but after a brief honeymoon, things unraveled pretty quickly.

 

Part of the problem was that the publisher was big, with layers of bureaucracy, and the different departments didn’t communicate much. Their producers were aligned with our creative direction, but when other departments got involved, they started dictating a style that was completely inconsistent with what we wanted to do.  We wanted to hold on to our creative vision while they wanted to make cutesy, big-eyed, anime-style characters with peppy children’s songs playing in the background.

 

During a breakneck prototype cycle, we crunched for almost five months straight. The publisher was slow with approvals, and asking us to do alpha work within our prototype budget on top of everything else. We weren’t getting nearly the funding we expected, and we couldn’t stand surrendering creative control. So we broke it off. As a parting shot, the publisher threatened to take our IP, but were fortunate enough to be able to retain our rights and keep making the game, this time on our own terms.

 

The whole experience left a sour taste in our mouths, and we learned some hard lessons. It won’t stop us from partnering with others in the future and forming great relationships, but it taught us to be wary of putting ourselves in any situation that could compromise our creative freedom.

 

 

OnRPG: How did your development team go about emphasizing the Steampunk elements in the game?

 

Once you get started, it’s hard to stop! Steampunk is a genre with a very strong, almost overpowering aesthetic, and a lot of us are big fans of that style. Once we started adding gears and and steaming pipes and fancy scrollwork to everything, it just kind of proliferated. We actually had to pull back in a few places and make sure that we were still representing a scrappy, rough world where resources were hard to come by and everything was kind of improvised, instead of this shiny, over-elaborate vision of top hats and gleaming brass.

 

Really, steampunk is only one of our keywords. We consider our look to be as much dieselpunk as steampunk—that’s like steampunk in the era of internal combustion—and we also draw on a post-apocalyptic, scrapyard aesthetic, not to mention a whole host of global cultural influences in our costumes, art, and architecture. We try to use rust and grit and grime to show that the world is tough and times are hard, but airships and guns are vital to survival, and their look reflects that. They’ve been handcrafted with a lot of love and care and attention to detail, which is really what the steampunk aesthetic is all about.

 

 

OnRPG: Did your team have any sort of inspiration when creating the game? Whether it was books, movies, or other games, did you guys utilize some source of media to better shape GOIO into a better title?

 

Oh, tons. For the visual look, the art team was inspired by steampunk references like Anthony Lucas’s Adventures of Jasper Morello and Katsuhiro Otomo’s short Cannon Fodder, and movies like Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind, Steamboy, Mad Max, and The Road. Just about every game we’ve ever played sticks with us somehow and can have an influence on our work, especially since Guns of Icarus Online touches on so many different genres. Some of the examples we keep coming back to: team play in Team Fortress 2, aerial combat in Crimson Skies, tank/healer/DPS roles in World of Warcraft, AI direction in Left 4 Dead, resources and crafting in Ultima Online, and community management, politics, and player-driven everything in EVE Online, just to name a few. You can also see where we got our snappy naming scheme from!

 

As far as narrative and world-building, I personally draw on a wide variety of sources for inspiration, from games and television to mythology and literature. I found Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s book Wind, Sand and Stars, a memoir of the pioneering aviator’s death-defying days as an airmail pilot in the 1920s, very inspiring for setting tone and mood: his lyrical descriptions of flying lonely cargo missions over vast deserts and visiting far-flung, exotic locales seemed to capture a lot of the tension and danger and beauty of piloting an airship in the world of Guns of Icarus. Changing gears a bit, a lot of us are reading and/or watching Game of Thrones, which has become a popular topic for water-cooler conversation. I think being immersed in that world has colored some of the things we’re building into our own world, from the contorted histories and political machinations of the factions to the heraldic designs of the faction colors and emblems.

 

 

OnRPG:  Will players be able to control the aesthetics and traits of their ships?

 

We have a few basic ship designs with vastly different hull configurations and capabilities. Each hull has a different array of slots for weapons and engines, and captains can pick a basic ship class and choose what components to install. Ship hull and component choice is a very important strategic decision—it’s really the first step of the captain’s game, before the battle even starts.

 

We’re always working on new ship designs, and more customization options are coming as well, so you can choose things like flags and decals to show your allegiance or just make your ship look cooler, and even some “ship furniture” to customize and decorate your deck.

 

OnRPG: How has the community’s response to the Closed Beta been so far?

 

Really positive! We’re grateful to have an enthusiastic and involved community of fans who are genuinely excited about the game and eager to play it, and they’ve been having a great time. They’re also not afraid to tell us when things aren’t working or how they could be better, which is really important! There are some things we know are broken and some features that we won’t be implementing for a while, if ever, but we’re really pleased with the quality of feedback we’ve gotten and the strength of the community. Our beta players have really stepped up and helped one another, teaching the game to new players, given us thoughtful, intelligent feedback, and been patient with the occasional show-stopping bug, all while having a lot of fun playing some really exciting matches!

 

It’s been interesting to watch strategies we never even imagined taking shape and seeing how players handle themselves on the battlefield. The first time a captain hid their ship inside the giant wreckage in the middle of the Battle on the Dunes map and started sniping other ships, we were floored. We never thought of doing that! It made for a really good fight, too.

 

 

OnRPG:  Your team utilized Kickstarter as a funding source, with a goal of $10,000. You guys made over 300% of that, making around $35,000. Did the success of this give your team a sense of motivation, and shape the development process in any way?

 

We already loved and were committed to the game, but I think the biggest boost to our motivation came from finally seeing how many other people were also excited about the game and wanted to play it. Until our Kickstarter project, we pretty much toiling in obscurity, and the campaign brought us a whole new audience and gave us a powerful way to connect with them. Our Kickstarter campaign brought far more awareness to our studio and the work we’re doing than anything else we’ve done.

 

Our backers not only supported us financially by pre-ordering the game, they were also willing to engage more deeply with us and become a part of our development and beta testing process. It’s always been our policy to maintain an open community and talk with anyone who has questions, concerns, or ideas, and people haven’t been shy about telling us what they’d like to see! Our dialogs with the fans on Kickstarter, Facebook, and our forums have definitely influenced the development of certain features and the direction of the game.

 

 

OnRPG: Can we expect to see any future content for the game past release?

 

Absolutely. We expect to be rolling out new features and content on a fairly constant basis once the game is released. The biggest addition we have planned is an “Adventure mode” that expands the game beyond its current Skirmish PvP mode to add features like a world map and a resource economy. That’s farther out on the horizon, but we are definitely taking an incremental approach to expanding the game and adding new features. Along the way, we plan to release smaller doses of new content periodically, like new ships and weapons.

 

 

OnRPG: Has your community pushed you guys to take that “extra step” to make Guns of Icarus Online a better game?

 

Extra step, sure…extra mile, even! Like I said, our fans are a creative bunch with a lot of ideas, and they’re eager to share them. In a few cases we’ve had to say no, that’s definitely not going to happen, sorry. (In case you were wondering, there will not be any boarding or hand-to-hand combat! This is by far the most requested feature, but we’ve had to put our foot down on this one. It might make for a cool game, but it’s not the one we’re making.) In most cases, though, we hear some really good suggestions, or just learn what players like or don’t like about our game and how they want to play.

 

Sometimes, the results surprise us. After our first beta weekend, for example, we were really concerned about how difficult it was to spot team colors on ships, so it was hard to tell friend from foe at a distance. It turned out that, while we were right about it being way too hard to tell what team YOU were on and we had to make that a lot clearer (we ended up adding little colored flags to your rigging), players actually liked the challenge of trying to figure out whether a little speck in the distance was friendly or not, and they felt it added depth and realism to the game. So instead of adding some UI or HUD overlay to enemy ships like we were considering, we just left it alone. In this case, listening to our players saved us some work!

 

 

OnRPG: When can users expect to see Guns of Icarus release?

 

Right now we’re aiming for a release in early Fall. In the meantime, we’re working hard to respond to beta feedback, while continuing to implement features and polish the game.

 

OnRPG: Any last words for our readers?

 

Our third closed beta weekend is starting on May 25th. We’ve got an all-new map for this one, King of the Flayed Hills, and we’re pretty excited to open the doors again and let players see what we’ve been working on since the last one.

 

In other news, even though our Kickstarter campaign has ended, players can still pre-order the game from our website at http://gunsoficarus.com and get some of the digital goodies like the soundtrack and costumes, as well as access to the open beta starting on July 18. We’ve also had a lot of requests for some of the physical goods like t-shirts and posters, which we hope to make available for sale on our site soon.

 

Closed beta has been an exciting time for us. While we’re frantically working to get everything in and working smoothly, it’s also just really gratifying to finally see other people actually playing the game! We’ve been at work on this for so long, it’s great to be able to show it to the world.

 

 

OnRPG: Thank you so much for your time!