Yearly Archives: 2012

MMMMEEEEAAAADDD!!!: World Records and Free Play

MMMMEEEEAAAADDD!!!: World Records and Free Play

 By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG RIFT Reporter

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to the revival of OnRPG’s weekly coverage of the brilliant MMO, Rift. It has been some time since the Paths In Telara articles were written and now I’m taking over, and changing the name! Don’t worry though, I know the previous author won’t mind. He’s my husband. A lot has happened since the last time Jonathan touched base. Six content releases worth of stuff in fact. He left off talking a bit about 1.1 and the River of Souls event. Since then we have seen six huge releases from Trion Worlds. Which is the most aggressive update schedule of any MMO in my experience. In the 10 months that Rift was live in 2011 it made 100 million dollars. And they’ve announced an infinite, level capped trial up to level 20 known as RIFT Lite. This is something very similar to what World of Warcraft has. But please, Rift players hate being told Rift is just another WoW clone; leave that at the door. In the coming few weeks I will cover topics from previous content releases to catch everyone up to the current changes that have just recently gone live with 1.7. But before all of that there are some important topics to discuss.

 

 

 

Marriage and Divorce: The Telaran Way Making a Record

After listening to many, many requests from roleplayers (and maybe some nonrpers) Trion has opened the floodgates by introducing marriage. Marry your travelling companion! There is only one restriction on marriages. They cannot be cross faction. Cross species? That’s cool. Same sex? Yeah, that’s ok too. But a Guardian wouldn’t marry a Defiant, that’s just silly talk. The weddings themselves can be as big or as small as you like with instanced weddings that are able to hold up to 200 people! All of this is fantastic, very on par with what we have come to expect from Trion. But they’ve taken it a step further.

 

 

On February 14th (that’s Valentine’s Day) Trion is hoping to break a world record for the most virtual marriages in a 24 hour period. And what better day to do it? Now I’ve donsomeone my research, went to the Guinness World Record site to see if the record already exists and it doesn’t. But that’s not going to stop anyone from having a fantastic time setting this record! So if you play Rift and you want to take part in this record just have your character get married on Valentine’s Day after 9AM PST. Everyone who takes part in creating and breaking this world record will receive the in game title ‘Tier of Knots’. Which for someone like me who must collect every achievement, title, artifact, etc in every game, this is a complete must! Oh, and should you decide that things just aren’t working out with your spouse there is the option to get a divorce.

 

 

Rift Lite

No, this isn’t some sort of all new Rift diet plan. Its Rift’s extended, (unlimited even) trial. Play as long as you want, for free. Sounds awesome, right!? There are downsides. You can only play to level 20. Which most likely means you’ll be able to play in the tutorial zones and the lowbie zones for each faction. There seem to be some mixed feelings about this. I know one person who cancelled their subscription the moment they heard about it. And I know yet another person, a couple actually who have been juggling the idea of leaving another MMO, one they dearly love, to give Rift a free try. This option has opened up the possibility of seeing which of the two games they prefer without any monetary commitment! Yay!

 

 

At the moment personally I don’t see what the big deal is. Free means more people will try which means more people will buy, which in turn means more money and a long, prosperous future for Rift. There have been several free weekends and in them I have never once experienced a problem with the people who were there trying things out. It really isn’t that big of a change. The only thing that is different is that they won’t go away in a few days. Is this a sign of things falling apart for Trion? Pfft, no. They just made in less than a year what the original budget for the game was. Rift is always growing, always evolving. That is part of what makes it so great.

 

 

1.7 is still so new I haven’t given it a try yet. The one year birthday is coming up sooner than it really feels like it should be. And all in all things are looking great for Trion Worlds and Rift. I know there will be a lot of great things to come and I can’t wait to be the first to experience each new trial Trion throws our way.

E-Sports @ OnRPG: February 6th Report

E-Sports @ OnRPG: Febuary 6th Report

By Umar Farooq (Kluey), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

February is a new month in E-Sports and will most likely be the busiest month this year. All the tournaments are starting up and the first showing and impression are the most important. In addition, teams will have new contracts with both players and sponsors.

 

 

MLG 2012

I have waited a long time to write about this and here it is. MLG in 2012 will be very different from MLG 2011. Last year we had MLG events that would be 3-4 days long and crown a champion every month. This year, MLG will have seasonal championships now spanning multiple months and use online qualifiers instead of a point system. This allows for more of a character build-up, which will make it much more enjoyable for fans. The storylines in 2011 were pathetic and that should change. The best we had was maybe NaNiwa saying he wanted to win the final MLG at Providence or BoxeR training harder than anyone at the event. With Online Qualifiers, we can see players create rivalries that build up to intense live confrontations, as well as new players establish themselves over the long season by overcoming fierce seasoned competitors.

 

 

The Online Qualifiers will be from the regions: Europe, North America and Korea. Players can choose which qualifier they would like to participate in and that worries me. If IM_MVP decides to participate in the North American qualifier, he will more or less be getting a free spot in the tournament. This also will add the ‘metagame’ of how all Koreans will come to North  America so us North Americans will try to be smart and go to the Korean server and so on. I would much rather prefer a system where you play in the region that you are currently living in. All in all, MLG will be amazing this year as they have experience, a large fan base and a well thought out tournament format.

 

 

Stephano Forfeits the ONOG finals

Stephano had this ingenious idea in mind. He would participate in two tournaments with $1000+ first place prize and win them both. Only downside is that he would have to stay awake for around 18 hours and play over 50 games in that one day but Stephano did not think this was a problem. He decided to put his ingenious plan to practice and it was all going well until his second finals, which under normal conditions he easily could have won. He had been awake for more than 14 hours and could not play. He told the tournament organizers he could not play and went to bed while Kas and Illusion battled it out for $1500 dollars.

 

 

Everyone agreed that Stephano should not have done this and was a bad decision to play two tournaments on the same day but I think that another issue should be addressed. This very much does not affect Stephano. He might get a chat with the team manager or a sponsor but he will continue to play. What E-Sports needs in my opinion is some sort of governing body. Stephano should be penalized for this so he or any gamer for that matter cannot do this and essentially ruin a tournament.

 

 

Fnatic finally acquires EX-TSL player aLive

Fnatic had many troubles acquiring aLive as TSL Coach Lee wouldn’t let him go. This stirred up a lot of drama and in the end; Coach Lee came out as the villain. I will not go in detail of how this was proven but long story short; Coach Lee ripped off Team oGs after they housed him out of kindness by stealing star players from them, and then continued by abusing player contracts to essentially lock them in TSL. When a situation like EG taking PuMa from TSL happened, Coach Lee victimized himself and hid all evidence against him.

 

 

Anyways, aLive is a great pick up for Fnatic. Fnatic now has Moon, ToD, Rain, aLive and NightEnD. While they might not be the best team yet, they’re certainly a powerhouse. ToD has been training hard in Korea and is rumoured to have improved greatly. Moon is an RTS prodigy as proven in Warcraft 3 and aLive is one of the best Terran players in the world without a doubt.

WYD Global Offers Players a Lovely February

It’s a Lovely February in WYD Global

 

 

With Your Destiny

 

T3Fun today announced WYD Global’s lineup of events for the month of February. Players, both old and new, can enjoy a fun-filled February with lots of mini-events, free items, and free costumes.

 

 

Love Me or Hate Me

WYD Global spices up February with seven mystery mini-events that will only be announced during Thursdays. Players can either register for free or buy for a reservation for the events. The event is open to any character regardless of level or class.

 

 

Exclusive Costumes for Operators and Chiefs

WYD Global wants to send its love to its hardworking operators and chiefs by giving them free Black Uniform and White Uniform. These costumes can be requested by the operators and chiefs as part of their Monthly Salary. These can be equipped regardless of character gender or class.

 

 

With Your Destiny

 

Get More Out Of Your Tcoins

Love is a two-way process. What will February for WYD Global be if a two-way process called love does not exist? WYD Global is giving back the love it has received from its players. As it has promised, WYD Global will hold an event for players participating in the Premium Upgrade event to be able to use their respective Premium Points.

 

 

On the first part of the event, players will be able to exchange their Premium Points with an option that they can insert to their weapon of choice. On the second part of the event, players will be able to earn two points of Premium Points for every 1,000 Tcoins purchased. On the third part of the event, players will get free items through purchasing limited pack items.

 

 

WYD Global happily celebrates the month of love with its players this February. As a form of loving back, WYD Global launched these events in order to thank its players for the continuous support and appreciation it has received throughout its years of service as an MMO—and in no way Is WYD Global stopping its continuous effort to give a bigger and better service to its players. The year 2012 continues to get better and better for players of WYD Global!

League of Legends: Someone Set Up Us The Bomb!

League of Legends: Someone Set Up Us The Bomb!

By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG MOBA Reporter

 

 

Welcome summoners, to the patch v1.0.0.133 article for League of Legends, the game that asks “What makes a good Demoman?”. This patch includes upgraded robot foes, some very well thought out champion changes, shiny new items and Ziggs, The Hexplosives Expert.

Ziggs is a highly versatile nuker, with a good set of utility and crowd control in addition to his absolutely sickening damage output. He’s quite a technical champion, with multiple ways to use every single one of his abilities, and absolutely no auto targeted spells. That said, the core of his gameplay is very simple, allowing for a steady, highly satisfying, skill progression as you get to grips with him. Anyone who enjoys mages of any sort should give him a look, and while the mentality required to play him is not dissimilar to many mages, he doesn’t really have any direct overlap with anyone else that I can think of.

 

 

Most of the time with Ziggs you’re simply going to be poking or farming with his Bouncing Bomb [Q], which is a moderate damage, low cooldown spell that uses a brand new bouncing mechanic. It functions much like a standard AoE, but if the bomb makes contact with the ground without hitting anything, it bounces in a straight line in the same way as a skill shot, allowing him to extend the range of the ability. How much this range get extended by depends on how far you threw the bomb initially, so getting used to the distances of the bounces can require a bit of getting used to. These secondary bounces allow him some incredible poking distances, though at the cost of reliability.

 

Backing up his bread and butter Bouncing Bombs, Ziggs can make frequent use of the most versatile piece of his kit, the Hexplosive Minefield [E]. Ziggs throws out a cluster bomb that fires out a small circle of smaller bombs that damage and slow any enemies that hit any one of these bombs, though the damage goes down with each successive hit. This thing hits like a truck if you can force enemies to go through it, the slow can be absolutely brutal and to top it off the mines stay around for a very long time – A staggering ten seconds of area denial. This thing can act as a very effective deterrent, using it to block off passageways to cut teams in half during team fights, stop escaping enemies or even to secure your own escape as you run through them. Not only that, it’s a great farming tool, and using the mines as a simple nuke works great when the slow also lets you land his other abilities far more easily. One of the funniest gimmicks to pull on people is dropping a minefield just after a bit of brush, so they can’t see the deathtrap lying in wait for them.

 

 

What’s even more ridiculous is Hexplosive Minefield isn’t even his dedicated utility spell. That honour would be taken by Satchel Charge [W], a tricky little AoE spell that gives Ziggz even more tools at his disposal. When Ziggs throws out the charge, it grants vision until its detonated, allowing it to be used as a scouting tool. When he does detonate the ability, which will occur either with a second button press or after a set period of time, the charge will damage anyone in the blast, and knock them into the air for a short distance. This can be used for any number of tricks, like positioning the charge at the end of a minefield to blow enemies back into it, interrupting charged abilities or simply buying time for an escape.

 

On the topic of escapes, the charge can also be detonated on Ziggs himself, propelling him far into the air and moving him a longer distance without taking any damage himself. This is a rather unreliable means of escaping though, as getting off the explosion at the correct time, in the correct place so you can get to safety can be very tricky to pull off in the heat of the moment. When you absolutely need it though, it’s always worth the risk of trying to blow yourself over a wall to safety. A word of warning about using the blast trick with enemies very close though – You can run the risk of blowing your enemies in the exact same direction as Ziggs, which can often hurt you more than help.

 

There isn’t much to say about his ultimate beyond the fact that it is amazing. Mega Inferno Bomb [R] is a literal nuke, able to be hurled at the same distances as other semi-global ultimates like Twisted Fate’s Destiny or Nocturne’s Paranoia. This thing will scythe off the health of anyone caught in its massive blast radius, but it has a very slow projectile speed and a long cooldown, so it has got a very high risk versus reward. This risk diminishes more as the game progresses though, and the enemy starts clumping up more and more. Simply wait for the enemy to get committed to fighting in a single spot, or are under the effects of crowd control, and dump this bad boy on them to instantly win any team fight.

 

 

When playing against Ziggs, bear in mind that his movement speed is a little below average, and he is very squishy, even for a mage. Make sure he dies first in any team fight you get into, as a single well placed Mega Inferno Bomb could spell the end for your team. Also in team fights, avoid narrow passageways when engaging on the enemy, as these areas make his Hexplosive Minefield much harder to avoid, and allow him to potentially cut your team in half. In the lane, watch out for when his bombs are glowing red, since that means his passive is up. Taking a hit from his first auto attack will usually mean a trade in his favour, so wait for him to burn the passive on a last hit before trying to harass him. If he looks to be throwing a lot of long range bouncing bombs at you, move diagonally backwards away from the throw, as the bomb’s increased distance will slow it enough for you to easily move out of the way. In the late game, also ensure that you have an Aegis of the Legion on your team, to give a widespread damage reduction against his heavy AoE damage, especially the looming threat of the Mega Inferno Bomb.

 

Take a level in Bouncing Bomb to begin with. Max it first. Hexplosive Minefield is a good level 2 choice, due to its many uses. Max it second. Satchel Charge should be gained at level 4 and maxed out last, as it’s largely a utility spell.

 

For items, start with boots and three potions, just like any other mage. On Dominion start with a Prospector’s Ring, boots and potions. Your priority stat above all others is pure AP. So once you’re done grabbing Doran’s Rings in the early game, jam a Rabadon’s Deathcap into your inventory and start blowing people up. After that? Cooldown is a nice secondary stat, as is spell vamp. Morello’s Evil Tome and Will of The Ancients are good picks later on for these. Lichbane goes very well with his passive, though I haven’t considered it a priority item myself. Void Staff is, of course, a great way of dealing with teams that start stacking magic resistance against you. While getting items like Rod of Ages and Rylai’s Sceptre add some durability to the character, I personally would avoid them. The slow on Rylai’s is especially unimpressive on Ziggs because the slow on his minefield is already brutal enough without really needing to invest the gold in making his slowing abilities that bit better.

 

One of the surprising things about Ziggs is he’s one of the stronger AP junglers in the game. While being a mage certainly means he’s very fragile in the jungle, he can clear camps easily, and can do some pretty devastating ganks when he needs to. This is especially funny when he can hurl his ultimate across the map while still clearing his own camps. While he’s far, far from the strongest of junglers out there, if you absolutely need a mage as your jungler for whatever reason, he’s a good choice. While I don’t want to go into particulars here in the article on how you can go about this, as its really a gimmick thing the character can pull off, if you ask me on the forums or post on my profile. I’ll take the time to explain how it can be done in detail.

 

21/0/9 masteries. Nothing new for a mage. For runes just roll out with whatever mage rune page you are using these days. I’ve been using my stock mage page of magic penetration marks, mana regeneration per level seals, ability power per level glyphs and flat ability power quintessences.

 

I’ve had an absolute blast with this guy. He’s strong, and fun as all hell. He feels deep without having a punishing learning curve. While 95% of the stuff you’ll be doing with him will be much the same, every so often inspiration will flash and a brand new trick can suddenly be pulled out just when you need it. Even his art design, from his hyperactive voice, maniacal grin and excited gait just screams “I am here to enjoy myself! Come and join in!”. Expect nerfs. Big nerfs. This guy is going to be with us for a while unless Riot absolutely kills him.

 

I’m going to stand up and say this guy the by far the best character that Riot have released since I started writing these articles. I simply cannot recommend him enough. If this is the start of a new design paradigm from Riot then I’m very eager to see what we’ve got coming in the future. More! I want more!

 

The new bots are kind of nice. The summoner’s rift bots are noticeably smarter, and seem to calculate when to be aggressive and conservative much better. Still not on par with a real human opponent, but I think Riot are slowly getting there. Unfortunately, the Dominion bots are complete dunces, and it’s very clear that this is simply the first try at their AI, as they not only don’t act like real players, but they also barely put up any sort of a fight.

 

I don’t usually make much mention of champion balance changes, but I think most of the changes made this patch were very spot on. I especially like the buffs to help Ashe get back on her feet, and the quality of life changes made to Jax.

 

The new Stark’s Fervour… I mean Zigg’s Herald is a pretty nice change, and should be a good pick on AD enhancement supports like Taric. I’m not so sold on the Iron Solari though. The idea of the item is very nice, supplying a shield to your team to protect them against, say, a Mega Inferno Bomb, but the shield is only about 50 points of damage, which is barely even an auto attack’s worth of damage. I can’t help but feel you’d be better off spending your gold elsewhere.

 

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.

Lime Odyssey Dev Blog 2: Muris Spotlight

Lime Odyssey Dev Blog 2: Muris Spotlight

 

Hey All!

 

This week we bring to you the opening video for the Muris!

 

SEE THE VIDEO HERE


As the cinematic demonstrates, the Muris in Lime Odyssey are fun-loving, mischievous, and spread trouble wherever they go. However, they are good-natured about their tricks and are so charismatic that they prove difficult to dislike. The Muris are centralized around the town of Pripet in the Shimmering Island of East Orta from which they begin their journey. From a Star Bridge and Thistlebury Tea Garden to windmills and forests, this floating world features many surprises.

 

These curious tricksters have all current Lime Odyssey battle classes available to them:

 

Warrior – Warriors are tanks, but also fairly balanced between defense and offense. Warriors are the masters of straightforward battle.

Thief – Masters of shadows, misdirection, and speed, Thieves are powerful characters when properly implemented.

Mage – Standing in both darkness and light, the great mages of the land wield the elements and the power of necrosis.

Cleric – Useful in battle in more ways than just support, Clerics provide powerful ranged support in addition to their strong healing abilities.

 

 

Don’t understimate their cuteness, these Muris aren’t afraid to pack a punch!

 

 

Regards,

Anex