Yearly Archives: 2012

Face of Mankind Dev Diary: World Takeover

Face of Mankind Dev Diary: World Takeover

By Dev Oblivious, Nexeon Representative

 

 

 

This week we would like to talk to all of you about the final battle system that will be released in the next patch. This is a revision that we think all of you will enjoy and are definitely looking forward to showing it to you. The new system is one that will favor activity over inactivity, and create an obvious risk for owning several colonies.

 

 

— Takeover Process —

– Military Activity –

Military Activity or MA, will now be gained in a much more controlled and predictable way. Instead of creating a campaign and building the MA until the final battle starts, factions will begin with a 25% MA value. From the moment the goal is created, MA will drop at a static pace until it hits 0%. Once it hits 0%, the goal will automatically be deleted. To negate this, the attacking faction will have to perform activities on the colony to gain MA.

 

– Hacking: As with the previous system, military activity will be able to be gained through the hacking of objects. Each object will carry a static increase value, requiring the ownership of a certain number of objects to negate the static decrease, and create a static increase.

 

– Population: The second factor is a static gain based on the number of members on the colony. This factor will be relative, meaning the goal is to maintain a higher population on the colony than your opposition. A higher relative population for the attackers, will increase the static increase, where a higher relative population for the defenders will increase the static decrease.

 

– Battle Intervals –

Instead of a single, hour long battle, at the very end of a campaign, there will be three battles at set MA intervals. These will be instantly triggered once the MA has reached the required threshold. The actual mechanic of winning the battle will be almost the same, involving holding an objective for a certain amount of time. Losing one of these battles will cause an instant loss of 50% MA, while winning will allow the campaign to continue.

 


– Battle One (50% Military Activity):
The first battle will take place over most of the colony. It is meant as a large scale war that will encompass the entire colony and be an initial test of tactics and strength for the attackers. The objective of this will be the Energy Nodes of the colony. Players will have to hold the Energy Nodes for the duration of the battle to win. If this campaign is lost by the attackers and 50% MA is drained, the goal will instantly be deleted.

 


– Battle Two (75% Military Activity):
The second battle is a more precise battle, with its objective being the Power Plants of the colony. This battle is meant to centralize combat more, moving closer towards absolute colony takeover. Losing 50% of your military activity in this battle will force you to start the campaign over, while not making you pay the goal creation fee again.

 


– Battle Three (100% Military Activity):
The third battle marks the last stand of the owning faction. The objective of this battle is the Colony Control, and most of the fighting will be centered around it. Losing 50% Military Activity from this battle will place the attacking faction at 50%, immediately starting Battle One.

 

— Contract Military Activity —

Currently, the role of the Mercenaries of The Blood in warfare just amounts to mindlessly killing enemies of the contracting faction. Their actual ability to assist is heavily limited, as they are not actually a member of the contracting faction. With this patch, a new “World Takeover” contract type will be created. Only allowed by the Rank 7 of a faction, this contract will cause the cell to act as members of their contractors faction. This means that all actions related to takeover goals will become theirs, and they will gain penalty points according to the faction stances of the contracting faction. This contract will pay directly from the faction funds and will be time based, rather than objective based.

 

 

— World Royalty Distribution —

Right now the owning faction will receive 50% of the world royalties by default. With these revisions to the Final Battle system, we believe that it will also be necessary to change this slightly to create a small penalty to endless warfare. With each successful battle, more of the 50% ownership royalties will be taken from the owning faction and given to the victor. In the case of multiple factions having completed tiers of battle, the percentage lost will be split among them. Each consecutive battle will allocate 1/6 of the world income to the winning faction, giving them the total 50% after completing the campaign.

 

 

— Associated Cost —

There is a very heavy financial risk involved with creating a takeover goal. On top of the deduction for having a faction set to enemies, each goal deducts 10% of the previous days income from today’s income. With this, war becomes something to be avoided. From most wars, a faction will lose roughly 36% of their income. 16% to the Law Enforcement Department and Freedom Defense Corps, then 20% for the enemies and takeover goal. To negate this, and add a second penalty to constantly dropping campaigns, the 10% cost per goal will be removed and replaced with a one-time fee deducted when the goal is created.

Ragnarok Online Celebrates Spring Break in Style

Celebrate Spring Break and a new Milestone with Ragnarok Online

 

Ragnarok Online

 

Since 2009, RO’s Facebook page has been a place for people to discuss the game, get the latest news and to share cosplay and fanart. Just a short time after getting the page up to 50,000 likes, on March 21st, fans of international Ragnarok Online achieved the milestone of boost the game’s Facebook page over 75,000 likes.

 

 

To say ‘thank you’ to the community for reaching this milestone, the game is running a double experience and double drops event through March 27th. The events make it a great time to start a new character or to get some extra levels on the ones you already have!

 

 

Also running through the 27th is the March Murder Mystery quest. This quest was designed by a member of the iRO community and takes place in the Brazilian-themed town of Brasilis. The player is charged with helping a meddling group of teens chase down a terrible crime in a tropic paradise. This quest contains many twists and turns, so it is recommended for medium to high level players.

 

 

Earlier in the month, the game also added new clothing options for all the classes. The Omni Clothing Dye Ticket will allow you to choose between the old looks and the new!

 

 

Unveiled in late January is the Homunculus S, a powerful new monster pet class expansion available to the Biochemist class of players.

 

 

With these updates and upcoming content being developed by Gravity Interactive, and an active community on Facebook and on Gravity’s official forums, it’s a great time to get started in the world of Rune Midgard!

League of Legends: Pix or it Didn’t Happen

League of Legends: Pix Or It Didn’t Happen

By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG League Reporter

 

 

 

Welcome summoners, to the patch v1.0.0.136 article for League of Legends, the game that has but slumbered here. This patch includes nerfs to some vampiric health regeneration, a flashy new sword and Lulu, the Fae Sorceress.

 

 

Lulu is an aggressive support champion, with numerous crowd control abilities in addition to her wide array of buffs. Her key drawback though is that, much like Janna, she has no sustain in the lane. She’s a good deal more complex than most supports, but gets a massive amount of versatility in return. As a result, she has a slightly weaker laning phase than most supports, but has a very strong late game due to her extraordinary team fight capabilities.

 

 

Her passive, Pix, is a faerie that follows Lulu about, and fires three projectiles at anything Lulu targets with her autoattacks. These projectiles can be stopped by other enemies getting in the way of the intended target, so unfortunately you’ll need to line up your auto attacks in the same manner as a skill shot if you want to maximise its damage. Pix is similar to Orianna’s ball in that it is a spell effect that moves about like a physical object, though Pix’s movement is tied to targets, rather than being able to move freely in the manner of Orianna’s ball.

 

 

Help, Pix! [E] enables this movement, sending the faerie onto a target of your choosing. When placed on an ally, it will shield them and attack when they do, also giving them the gold if one of the shots causes a last hit or champion kill. On enemies, this is a damaging, single target nuke that grants you sight on the target, reveals stealth and will attack anything you do. While shielding your allies all the time seems tempting (you are a support, after all), this is really only worth doing in the late game when keeping key targets can be very important. During laning, and a fair way into the mid game, this is best used as a nuke. The threat of a Help, Pix!, followed by a Glitterlance can hit hard enough for most AD carries to think twice before getting in range of Lulu.

 

 

Glitterlance is a dual-skillshot that will pass through targets, damaging and slowing anything it hits. While Lulu fires one shot, Pix will fire another to wherever you clicked as well, allowing for a wide range of tricks. At level 2, for example, she has an overwhelming burst when simply hitting an enemy with Help, Pix! and then having the fae shoot them in the face with Glitterlance. Later in the game, she can tag someone in front of her with Pix and fire her shots far into the distance, shooting fleeing enemies or slowing ranged carries so her melee teammates can dive in and beat them to a pulp. While she can use this trick on a minion to extend her reach in the laning phase, this shouldn’t be a common trick, as the cost of blowing both her damaging abilities for one poke is rarely worth the damage it causes.

 

 

The following is a quick trick I picked up for when Pix isn’t attached to another character. Pix moves around by being leashed to a target, so will always trail behind Lulu at a set distance, unless she moves towards Pix, which will cause it to stand still until she reaches the limits of its leash range again. With this knowledge in hand, you can position Pix in order to perform a X shaped Glitterlance, creating a wide hitting conical effect using no-one but Lulu alone. This is done by performing a broadside-like maneuver where you run sideways just before firing your shot, placing Lulu and Pix side by side rather than in front of one another. This is not only a great farming tool, but also allows you to slow entire enemy teams during a team fight and harass multiple targets in the lane. Getting used to this odd quirk is essential to maximising both her damage, and her ability to control the flow any engagement.

 

 

Whimsy [W] is a very straightforward piece of kit by comparison. When used on an enemy target, it functions like a super powered exhaust, shutting down an enemy’s offense completely. When combined with the heavy slow on Glitterlance, it essentially becomes a short duration stun. Note though that this makes a very poor harassment tool in the lane, as while its crowd control is very potent, it deals no damage at all.

 

 

On an ally, it’s a speed steroid and AP boost, which can assist in initiation or escape, or add to the magical damage of your team. Ideally, this ability is best used on a tank that uses AP as some part of their initiation, like Cho’Gath, Galio, Malphite and so on. Most of the time though, use Whimsy for its crowd control effects unless you feel the buff is absolutely necessary to help start/end a fight.

 

 

Her ultimate, Wild Growth [R], has two main uses as well. The ability will knock all enemies up and away from a friendly champion before giving them a slowing aura and a temporary health boost. This makes an excellent follow-up to a tank’s initiation, and can even make a fairly sub-par initiation, like a Rammus powerballing into the enemy team, into something truly terrifying. The secondary use is to wait a second or so into the fight and watch for who the enemy team jumps on. Ult that person to either buy time for their escape (if they’re squishy) or to begin locking down the whole enemy team with glee (if they’re tanky). This is always best used as early as possible in a fight to get the most out of the slowing aura, so make your decisions quickly.

 

 

It is important to note that Lulu is very dependent on her team composition. As a support she can only enhance the abilities that her team already possesses, so she can range wildly in power depending on what she’s trying to help. Her ultimate, for example, is useless without a tank on her team, and I’ve been finding it ideal that she have two highly burly characters to choose between in team fights. Her ultimate, shield, speed buff, and ability power enhancements make for some fearsome initiations, but it all goes to waste if she doesn’t have a good target to put them on.

 

 

She’s best suited to laning with carries that have some form of attack speed steroid, or are likely to build attack speed early like Vayne, Kog’Maw or Tristana. This will get the most out of her Help, Pix! when it’s being used on an ally, as Pix’s damage only scales based on the number of shots fired, not off the target’s attack damage or any other factor other than Lulu’s level. Even better if the character has some form of AP scaling, for synergy with Whimsy’s buff. I don’t think her lane partner is as important as having a tank around for her end game, but it still is an important factor to consider.

 

 

Take a level in Glitterlance to begin with. Max it last. Help, Pix! should be her second leveled ability, and maxed first. While you can take either Glitterlance or Help, Pix! at level 1, I prefer the former due to its AoE being far more useful in any early team fights. Take Whimsy at level 3 or 4, depending on how close the enemy in your lane are to death – If they’re nearly dead, then you’ll need the crowd control from Whimsy to help finish the job. If they still have plenty of health, get another level in Help, Pix! to nuke those uppity sods down, or shield an ailing carry. Max out Whimsy second, and turn everything into squirrels in the mid game.

 

 

For items, start with a faerie charm, three sight wards and three health potions. If you’re going in a solo lane use boots and health potions. Her priority should always be wards, and ward control. Early GP/10 items like Philosopher’s Stone and Heart Of Gold are a must on all supports to deal with their lack of income. Shurelya’s Reverie is a core item on her, but anything else on her later is up to you entirely. Tanky items and auras are usually your best bet as a support, if you ever have money left over from all your wards and oracle purchases.

 

 

I’ve been using a 0/8/22 mastery page on her, though I think with further experimentation I’d be tempted to sink more into the utility tree, or maybe have a spin with some points in offense for better lane pressure. Armour marks, mana regeneration seals, magic resist glyphs and gold/10 quintessences have been my stock support page for some time, and Lulu hasn’t given me much reason to change.

 

 

So, is she worth picking up? Well, if you’re a support player she’s a no brainer. We’ve been stuck with the same limited pool of support characters for a year and a half now, so anything to add a bit more variety to how you play the game is a welcome change. For someone wanting to break into the support role, I’d go for one of the cheaper options, especially given that Lulu is quite a complex character for someone still trying to get the basics of supporting their team. If you’re not fond of supports, then she’s not for you.

 

 

She’s a strong pick when she has the right team, though her lack of sustain combined with the nerf to heal can make it hard for her AD carry to stay in the lane. She’s great for forcing the enemy AD to prematurely go back to base, but this plan can fall apart when dealing with sustain heavy supports like Soraka who can simply ignore her damage. Her team fight capabilities are excellent, with a massive suite of buffs and disables to swing a fight in her team’s favour. Her reliance on her team composition makes her a less than ideal solo queue choice, which is likely going to be the biggest hindrance to her popularity in the long term.

 

 

The long term effects of the blue buff nerf may be the most significant part of this patch. With blue’s mana regeneration being decreased, it will hurt the sustainability of a good number of mages in the mid lane, possibly opening up other options for that spot. The best case scenario is we might get some other roles being worthwhile to be put in mid. The worst case scenario is we start seeing Vlad in every game again.

 

 

The new item, Maw of Malmortius looks like a fairly good situational item for bruisers getting into the thick of team fights. It’ll most likely become a fairly common choice on Tryndamere, though likely as a third or so item. Gold wise, its cost efficient, but isn’t really good enough to warrant changing up your core builds just yet.

 

 

While the vampiric changes might look significant at first glance, they really aren’t. While all of this seems like it might hurt the sustain of AD carries in the lane, it doesn’t hit them at all, since Doran’s Blade wasn’t affected. Vampiric sceptre is usually only used by junglers as a stand alone item, but its only typically used by more exotic junglers like master yi. The bloodthirster changes are actually a net buff to the item, making it give less sustain at low stacks seems bad until you realise that with these changes you’re likely going to be at higher stacks all the time anyway. The Wriggle’s Lantern nerf won’t hurt junglers all that much, and is mostly a hit to the wriggle’s/phantom build used by some EU teams.

 

 

To discuss some of the changes yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, you’re missing out.

The End: ME3 and MMOs

The End: ME3 and MMOs

By Jonathan Doyle (Ardua), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Do you know what I enjoy?

 

 

Anyone who said “MMOs” or “games” gets zero points because we are on OnRPG. That’d be like me asking you if water is wet.

 

 

The answer I’m fishing for, for the sake of narrative, is stories. Information if I am completely honest. I like knowing. I like knowing how it all turns out, how people get on, how in the end the good guys won and the bad guys didn’t. Or not as the case may be.

 

 

So long as I get to know.

 

 

Naturally stories have structure. A beginning, middle and end. Endings are always tough. Heck, if you could see my GoodReads, you’d see that I have watched worlds end a lot in the last year. Series come to a close, stories end. That is the way of things.

 

 

Recently Mass Effect 3 ended. There will be no deeply explicit spoilers because if I may make a private admission? I haven’t played it. I don’t own any of the Mass Effect games. Oh sure, I’ve read some of the books and I watched enthralled as my brother played through the first oh so long ago.

 

 

But no matter if you like it, loathe it or haven’t played it, the fact remains that Mass Effect 3 has drawn a story to a close. The world has ended.

 

 

Spoiler Here. Be thee warned.

 


Shepard dies. Or lives. You know. Depending.

The Reapers are defeated. Or not, again…. Depending.

The Mass Relays go boom, that one is set in stone.

 

 

And then. The story is done.

 

 

“The Shepard” won. However you finish the game or if you even accept it as an ending is at the moment immaterial. What is true is that your part is done, your thread of the narrative has come to an end and for you the world is finished.

 

 

Other material may flesh out the world. In books that’d be a short story penned by the author that can be slotted in any old place in the chronology. Nowadays in games, that means DLC.

 

 

Ultimately though the universe of the game lives on. It hasn’t gone to the great big idea heap in the sky. The world you created and played is no more, true, but the universe persists. Other stories may come and break your heart all over again when they end, but there will always be the possibility for more.

 

 

Which brings us to the reason for this little defense of Mass Effect 3.

 

 

I hope when it comes time to close down any of the online games that I play that I am given an ending. With Mass Effect 3, it isn’t necessarily the end you want or even an end some accept. Some people have even gone on to give money to charity to the tune of over $30,000 because they hated the ending that much.

 

 

But at least they have one and they have the universe there still. One day someone can go back, tell more stories, show more sides.

 

 

When our MMO game of choice ends, the universe ends with it. The persistent world we have played in ceases to be in its entirety. There is no potential universe sitting there with the promise of stories untold. You either got in the game and told your story on your way to pvp fame, max level or craftsman history. Or you didn’t.

 

 

One day when the money is no longer coming in like it used to, or it is too hard to compete against newer MMOs, or for any other common reason in the business world, our worlds will end.

 

 

That is why I want a Mass Effect 3 ending for one of them. Not because I necessarily agree with it or disagree with it. Not even because I personally like it or not. As I said, I haven’t played the games so I personally am not as invested in it as people who have played for years to get to this point are.

 

 

My ultimate desire is to avoid the worlds of T.S. Elliot. While we’re talking about single player games, I might as well jog your memory by saying you probably heard them out of Cortana in Halo 3.

 

 

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

 

 

No matter what, I want an ending. I want an ending even if I hate it so much I’m inspired to donate thousands of dollars towards a group that proves my dedication of utter hatred. Or love as the case may be.

 

 

If my universe has to end, I want it to go out with a bang.

 

 

Most importantly, as long as people are talking about it, or remember it, it never really has truly ended.

 

 

For that I’ll take an ending I might hate.

Mead: RIFT Celebrates Week 4 of the Carnival

Mead: Week 4 of the Carnival of the Ascended

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

The party is winding down. A shady vendor has set up shop selling everything from pitchforks to broken bottles. It’s pretty clear that despite several weeks of a world wide party that could have unified the two factions the wedge between them is growing once more. No one side can take the blame. Too many drinks were had, men from both sides thought it was a good idea to harass the other side. Now there are rumors of an all out war. Soldiers are training on both sides. Any with crafting skills are being asked to make armors, potions, weapons and other supplies for the front lines.

 

 

Quests

With the carnival coming to an end and war looking likely the daily quest to play games is gone. The games are still there though so don’t panic just yet! There are just more pressing things to do than to play games. Silverwood and Freemarch have saboteurs scatter throughout the zones on the parade routes. You’re asked to put a stop to them. It takes 10,000 of them for each faction to unlock the title for the phase. This also counts towards a daily quest and the doubloon quest for the week where you go up against master saboteurs. The PvP quest from last week to defeat 10 of the opposing faction remains available for people to take. As with the entire event so far there are quests for crafters as well. This time you’re gathering supplies, making armor, weapons, potions…you name it they need it. Why? They’re preparing for an all out war.

 

 

News

There isn’t really a whole lot to talk about this week. I imagine a lot of people, like me, are starting to feel a bit worn out from all the partying. For some reason I was under the impression last week was the last chance to play games. So I played hours upon hours of games to make sure I got all the balloons. And I did! So now I can just relax this week. Well as much as one can relax when preparing to go to war. This is also the last week to take on the piñatas that have been scattered through the world. Previously some people were able to get two doubloons in one week. This has resulted in these people already being able to buy the mounts. I saw the horse in Meridian and I have to say Trion has really outdone themselves this time. It looks even better than the pictures. For the rest of us who have been keeping up with the weekly quests we will be able to buy them next week.

 

 

Bonuses

This weekend is the last bonus weekend and they saved the best for last. This weekend (March 23rd to March 25th) get a 50% bonus to all XP and Planarite. And when I say all XP I really mean all. Guild XP, Planar Attunement XP, and the good old fashioned XP are all included. The only catch is, as it has been all month, the XP is from kills only.

 

 

This has been a great celebratory month for RIFT and though the event isn’t quite over yet much of the focus is on looking ahead already. Update 1.8 is just around the corner and it looks to be the most exciting yet. Happy Birthday once again RIFT. I hope to have many more wonderful years with you.

Aika Online and Razer Start the Race for Tiamat

Aika Online and Razer Start the Race for Tiamat

 

 

Aika Online and Razer are teaming up to award fifteen lucky players the best in gaming peripherals!  The race begins today, March 23, for keyboards, mice, and the ultimate grand prize – the new Razer Tiamat 7.1 Headset, the world’s first true surround sound gaming headset.

 

 

Each player must charge into the lairs of vile monsters to loot the most Razer Tokens, found throughout the various lands of Aika. At the end of the contest period on April 20, the triumphant player holding the most Razer Tokens will be rewarded with the Razer Tiamat 7.1 Headset.  Four second place winners will receive a Razer Lycosa Keyboard and ten third place winners win a Razer Death Adder Mouse!

 

 

There’s no lack of monsters to plunder either, as Aika just released the conclusion to its biggest expansion to date on March 8.  Epic II saw the tension between each nation heighten as the Aitan warriors discovered brand new zones and increasingly vicious beasts.  The Tower Wars divided Aitan warriors seeking refuge in a foreign land into a nation vs nation war to secure the icy Traband plains.  The discovery of an ancient and powerful weapon on the floating isles of Karena, however, forced them to work together to protect it from the evil Zereca, their common enemy.  Now the Aitan face the biggest threats from the Zereca so far with two level 80 raids containing hordes of new minions, new bosses, and two formidable dragon overlords guarding previously unimaginable rewards.

 

 

Find out more on Aika Online’s event page.

Vindictus The Armies of Colhen Update

Vindictus The Armies of Colhen Update

 

 

Players looking for new challenges are in for a treat with The Armies of Colhen, the latest content update for “Vindictus.” In Nexon America’s award-winning physics-based action MMORPG, players can now band together in a 24 person raid for the largest raid encounters to date. Three terrifying new bosses await the bravest of Mercenaries: the Ravenous Queen and her brood of giant spiders, Stribog the vicious polar bear, and Elchulus, one pissed-off red dragon.

 

 

Each of the three new raid encounters require a minimum of 16 players, but wise leaders will form a full consort of 24 mercenaries in order to ensure the greatest chance for success. These new bosses are far from pushovers – players must demonstrate strength, skill, speed, coordination and ingenuity on the battlefield. In the Elchulus encounter for example, players must learn to harness the environment to their advantage. Building defensive structures, extinguishing the dragon’s lingering flames with enchanted water, and manning massive ballistae to strike the dragon down from the sky will all be necessary for victory. Check out this new trailer to see the raid in action!

 

 

Mercenaries who wish to reap the ultimate treasures from the new raid bosses can access the encounters via the Battle Quest board at the docks, which are available to players starting at level 20 and above.

 

 

Additionally, all characters can purchase Black Dragon face and body Tattoos from the Supply Depot, and striking new Inner Armor is available for Evie and Fiona.