Monthly Archives: October 2008

New Fiesta Patch – It’s All About Guilds!

The latest patch for the free-to-play MMORPG Fiesta is now live! It introduces a multitude of exciting new guild features, including guild storage, a guild ranking system, and the much-anticipated guild academy.

Players can now share their in-game currency and valuable items with other guildmates using a new guild storage feature, making transferring items between characters and friends even easier.

The guild academy has also opened its doors, giving new players an easy and exciting way to get involved in the Fiesta community. Every guild now has its very own guild academy, and players below level 40 can join up and start earning points for their guildmates simply by leveling up. Every Thursday each guild’s point total will be tallied, and the top seven guilds will receive a powerful buff for the entirety of the next week.

All the guild academy members’ hard work won’t go unrewarded – academy members earn items and in-game currency from guild storage every time they level up, and after graduating from the guild academy at level 40, their names will be forever recorded in the guild’s hall of fame.

The guild academy master at the head of each academy also receives cool new abilities, including the option to warp to any other academy member’s location and a distinctive visual aura.

Whether you’re a brand new Fiesta player looking to join a guild and get more involved in the Fiesta community or a seasoned veteran ready to boost your guild to the next level, the latest Fiesta patch offers something for you.

Beyond Protocol: Back Story

So, you’re the one I hear is fool enough to take the seat? Well, as long as you don’t get us all killed, I guess we’ll be better off than we are today. Look, I’m not saying you can’t do it, but I am saying this isn’t gonna be an easy role to fill. There’ll be so many choices and tough decisions, but remember, if you give up, we’re all doomed. We’re all countin on you now. But there’s one more thing before the ceremony… The elders have requested that you read a collection of journals from our clan’s archives. I know, I know, you learned all about things like Earth, the Galactic Wars, and the founding of the Galactic Senate in, what they pass off as an academy these days, but the elders believe these specific journals give the story a “human touch” and they think a leader needs a personal “connection” with the past. I think they’re all old whack jobs, but they might just have a point. Anyways, here’s the first one, I’ll go dig out the next one while you read that.

The last pages from the journal of Douglas Schaeffer:

April 22nd, 2147
Well it was a pretty dull day. Most of what I did today was to fix some bugs in the decryption algorithm we’re using to communicate with Solaris base. Even though it’s been 4 years in planning, I still can’t believe we managed to put a manned observation satellite in orbit around the sun!

April 23rd, 2147
Yesterday was dull but today was amazing! The Solaris crew was able to pull an enormous amount of data from a series of flares. If the world only knew how close we are to controlled fusion, maybe they’d stop all this infighting. Humanity could be so much more, united and exploring space… There was one odd moment today. When the flare activity died down and Solaris sent us the telemetry, we played it back from the beginning just to sit and watch, and I swear, just moments before the flares start, there’s something tiny impacting the site of the flares. The guys all told me I was crazy and that it’s just interference but I know what I saw. Matt, the guy from spectroscopy, told me they’d run a more detailed analysis once they got done with the “important stuff”. Matt’s a good guy, but when it comes to his job, he’s a pretty stuck up…

April 27th, 2147
I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had time for this, but I decided I had to make time to record it. The sun has begun a chain reaction which will cause it to go supernova. We lost Solaris station yesterday, but it’s hard to morn the loss of 20 scientists when 23 billion are probably going to die on Earth, and another billion on Mars base. We’re evacuating as fast as we can, like it’s going to help…

They estimate we only have about a year before the planet becomes unlivable and maybe 5 before the supernova occurs. Even with our fastest shuttles at max capacity we might only be able to get 5% of the population to Pluto base. I talked briefly with one of the scientists doing these calculations, a German who’s been here maybe 4 years, first name Henrich. He’s a short, funny guy who still manages to keep a sense of humor. He says they think anything on the dark side of Pluto will survive, but that what’s left of the already tiny planet will loose its orbit. So those who can get there have a chance, but anything caught in space will almost certainly be obliterated. The other option is Neptune, but there’s no developed base there, and the winds have proved to make colonization troublesome. It would most likely be a haven at best, but some of the bigger, slower shuttles can make it there inside the given envelope.

After all this, there’s no way I can say “I told you so”, but when they reviewed the tape again, and took the new readings, Matt said there was definitely something that hit the site of the flares just prior. It was only there for a single frame before impact, and there was nothing on radar, so either it was traveling almost at the speed of light, or it was cloaked somehow. The only thing that could have caused this type of a reaction is an extremely heavy element. Who would do this, more importantly, who could do this? The nations of Earth may still be at each other’s throats, but no one seems prepared for this, at all, and I doubt they would sacrifice the earth to end this war… Mars is pretty peaceful and populated mostly with pacifists, so I couldn’t believe they would have anything to do with this, they might be closer to Pluto base, but they’re loosing just as much as we are. I’ve also been told that it would take several times our total stockpile of the heaviest man-made element. At the risk of sounding crazy, the thought has crossed my mind… We’ve always thought we were alone in the galaxy, maybe we were wrong…

December 26th, 2153
I haven’t had the heart to touch this book for nearly six years. Every time I look at it, all I feel is sadness for what’s been lost… I’ve decided to make one last entry for posterity. We didn’t make it to Pluto. One of our main thrusters overloaded and had to be jettisoned, so we took refuge on Neptune. It’s cold, windy, and barren, but for a while, it’ll have to be our home. Most of the 700 million survivors that made it here are mostly still getting over the loss of Earth, but those who have moved on are already talking about exploration of other systems. One thing’s for sure, we don’t have the resources we need yet, hopefully our new home can provide us with what we need.

Today we watched in horror as our scopes recorded the Earth burning away, I thought this as good a time as any to finish this journal. The shock wave will hit Neptune and then Pluto soon but what’s left of the old research crew, Matt, Ben, Henrich and myself, have concluded that the intensity will be diminished enough so that both planets will at least survive.

They tell me that yesterday would have been Christmas on Earth, but living through this tragedy for the past few years in space and now on this enormous planet, I just don’t know any more. For that reason, there’s talk of doing away with the old calendar, it’s nostalgic for those of us who survived, but the new generation isn’t going to understand it.

If we live through this, I’m going to need to put the past behind me and be strong for those now in my care. So, this is the final entry of Douglas Schaeffer. If you are reading this, then at least someone survived, good luck to you.

WAR: 2 new classes and other updates

Mark Jacobs, GM of Mythic Entertainment, today posted the following update regarding Warhammer Online and his future development:

Folks,

After over three years of work and one of the smoothest launches in MMORPG history, WAR is moving quickly towards the end of its first month. This is a perfect time to take a look at where we were, where we are and where we are going. First, on behalf of everyone at Mythic, I would like to thank you for your interest in our game. While it is impossible for me to personally thank all 750K+ worldwide account holders, please know that we are grateful for your support to date and the support we hope you will show us in the future. It’s been a long road to get where we are today but it has been a worthwhile journey. While I might be tempted to say that the future’s so bright we have to wear shades, as you’ve seen from our podcasts, we’ll even wear those indoors.

So, as to where we are today, WAR is doing fabulously. We are one of, if not the, fastest selling MMORPG out of the blocks and we are also one of the most highly rated MMORPGs of all time. While the game is off to a great start, we still have a long way to go before we can declare WAR a major long-term success. That success will only come by being focused on making a great game even better. How we are going to accomplish this begins with our first major patch (1.1), the subject of this State of the Game message. While WAR is truly a glorious MMORPG, it is not perfect and over the last month our primary focus has been to correct bugs and tweak a few things here and there. We’ve stayed away from major feature or career changes until we’ve had plenty of time to gather and analyze the data from our players. Having done that, we can now move on to what we are going to do over the next couple of months, culminating with the release of patch 1.1 later this Fall.

Let’s start with what we know is some truly exciting news. I’m happy to announce that in December, the Black Guard and the Knight of the Blazing Sun will officially be part of WAR. We have very special plans around their appearance and in our next newsletter we will provide full details about that exciting and rather novel event. When they were cut from the game launch plans earlier this year, I said that the Black Guard and the Knight would be part of WAR only when they were great and deserved their place alongside all of WAR’s other compelling classes. I also said that we would not charge any additional fees for this new content or put it in a separate expansion pack; that’s not how we operate. We’ve kept to that plan and with the introduction of these two classes, Mythic shows that once again we are happy to keep giving players more value for their subscription dollars than any other MMORPG developer.

Creating an MMORPG, especially an RvR-focused MMORPG, which runs perfectly on all types of PCs, is one of the most challenging technical aspects of game development. While the performance of WAR is great on most higher spec machines, we know that we can improve its performance on lower spec machines. We’ve been working non-stop to improve that performance and we’ve got a number of things going into the game between now and 1.1 that we expect will help to address everything from crashes to desktops (CTDs) to stuttering. We have a number of other client changes that will improve things such as propagation and ghosting.

Thanks in part to WAR’s success; our mail system that worked well in Beta has been straining to keep up with the heavy demand placed on it. It’s functional and it works, but it can also be slow and cumbersome to use. In all fairness to the team, the system’s problems have been magnified by the demand of having so many servers and players using it at the same time. That’s not an excuse though and we are working hard on deploying a substantially improved mail system for this patch. We will continue to enhance WAR’s mail system until it is one of the best mail systems found in any MMORPG.

Moving on to some more good news for our RvR players; we have brought additional resources to bear on, and augment, our RvR gear and overall itemization. In 1.1 (and beyond) we will be doing a myriad of things for our RvR players, including improving gear drops, increasing drop rates, and implementing an RvR-influence system to compliment the current PvE-influence system. We will also be giving players more incentive to engage in open RvR by improving the rewards for both assaulting and defending in RvR. WAR is an RvR-centric game and we will continue to do whatever is necessary to encourage people to join in RvR and reward them when they do so.

Other changes for 1.1 include major additions to the chat system (item linking and more) as well as continued work on our targeting system, including adding Main Assist and Target of Target. In addition to the server balancing methods that have worked so well over the last week, we will also be offering the first server transfers to our players to continue to help even out the server populations. These transfers will be free of charge but they will be limited to moves off high-population servers to select mid-population servers or off of low-population servers to a selection of mid-population servers. Much like we are doing now, we will select certain mid-population servers and let people transfer there. Once they reach a certain population level, we’ll remove them from the list and give their spot to another server. We will publish the list ahead of time so players can plan their moves accordingly.

While that might seem like a lot for a month, we’re not done yet! We’ll also be adding more exciting content to the game, including fourteen entirely new quest chains, two new Lairs, and many more Tome of Knowledge unlocks! This is only the first of what will be our ongoing content updates to WAR and it is a great start.
So, that about wraps it up for this first annual State of the Game, so without further ado…

Okay, so I was joking, we’re still not done. Over the last month the team has been looking at all the careers and building up a list of issues/concerns to address. Almost every career is going to see some changes and love coming their way and there are very, very few changes that will be seen as reductions to a career’s abilities. The Combat and Careers team has spent the last month looking at the changes that they want to make with an eye towards making improvements and buffs, not removing or weakening abilities. I won’t go into details here but the vast majority of careers all have nothing but love coming their way. Of course, we will continue to monitor and track all the class data so expect, like every other MMORPG, changes to the careers to be an ongoing process.

Well, that just about wraps my first WAR State of the Game and I hope that it has given you some insight into what we are going to be doing over the next month or so. This is by no means a comprehensive list of everything we are working on and I won’t go anywhere near talking about general bug fixes. The items mentioned above are just some of the highlights of our first major patch and I hope you agree that there is a ton of good stuff coming down the pipeline.

As required by lawyers everywhere, here’s the usual disclaimer that this letter is a guide to what we hope to include in this upcoming patch and not a guarantee of any kind. We are working on many things right now and my letters, as always, are just the tip of the iceberg. Fellow WARriors, we have a lot more big surprises coming your way that I will address in my next State of the Game message and it’s going to be a doozie.
Once again, I thank you for your support, patronage and interest in WAR.

Mark Jacobs
VP, GM Mythic Entertainment

Everquest II: Shadow Odyssey Pre-Order Start Tuesday, October 14

EverQuest II’s fifth expansion, The Shadow Odyssey, will be available for pre-order starting Tuesday, October 14th, 2008! EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey is an all-in-one compilation pack featuring five expansion packs and three adventure packs. New players and veterans alike can journey through a massive amount of exquisite content unlike anything ever before seen in EverQuest II. The Shadow Odyssey stretches well beyond the fantasy realm and propels the EverQuest II world into a new era of excitement and adventure. The latest expansion provides content for players level 50-80, including more than 20 new zones and an achievement point increase to 200.

Void Beast Pet*
Watch as a beast from the void rails against its plight trapped within a magical cage, and receive a rent reduction status of 500 points.

Legends of Norrath Loot Card*
Hang a wall painting of the Ethernauts Airship and receive a rent status reduction of 300.

Bonus Items: Limited Time Offer.

Available While Supplies last. Retail box pack includes exclusive retail in-game Dire Bear mount, Legends of Norrath Ethernauts loot card and collectible poster.

Collectible Pewter Figurine
An actual replica of the exclusive in-game mount. Available at select retailers. While supplies last.

Dire Bear Mount and Pet
A dire bear cub that grows up as you level, and becomes your fearsome mount!

Legends of Norrath Loot Card
Hang a wall painting of the Ethernauts Airship and receive a rent status reduction of 300.

Living Legacy Bonus Item:
Qualified Living Legacy players who earned the Cloak of the Void and the $5.00 discount coupon off The Shadow Odyssey are expected to receive the coupon code via email on or around Nov. 3, 2008.

*(In-game item: Limit one (1) per character. Non-transferrable. No cash value.)

Source: eq2players.station.sony.com.

Runes of Magic: Rise of the Demon Lord

Closed-Beta 3 starts after first two stress tests on November 2nd.

On November 2nd Frogster is going to expand the current closed beta for Runes of Magic to 30.000 test players. After two large scale stress tests of the game servers on October 30th and November 1st, the free-to-play fantasy online-roleplaying game hence starts into the closed beta phase 3. The publisher will determine the participants for this new beta phase by random within the round about 100.000 registrations for Runes of Magic to date. Lucky players can also win their invitation for the beta in give away contests that will go online on the big gaming portals soon.

The open beta version of Runes of Magic will be launched in December of 2008 after current planning with the subtitle „Rise of the Demon Lord” as a first chapter. To illustrate that, the Berlin based Frogster have published the final logo with two new wallpapers. The publisher intends to publish free add-ons of the game as new chapters within regular intervals of two to three months after the release. MMO fans can still register on the official website for the closed beta to get the chance having a look at the world of Runes of Magic far before its actual release.

Voyage Century: White Dragon Gear

If you were to ask what the most popular gear in Voyage Century is, newbie players will probably say the newbie set. Players dedicated to business will probably say Financier clothes. Veteran players will probably say Dragon Scale set. However, after you start your adventures, you will find many people wearing White Dragon Sets.

As the white dragon set refining quests have been released, many players start trying to upgrade their gear and making a number of changes in sea battles.

You may ask why the White Dragon Set is so popular – see the answers below to find out why.

Advantage 1——Good looking

The design of the set comes from ancient China’s battle clothes, which usually were worn by the bravest warriors. The elaborate design makes it unique and fabulous. In that set, you will definitely grab everybody’s attention as you pass them by.

Advantage 2——Good substitute for Top Gear

It’s always hard to obtain top gear in a game, so you can always find a close substitute for the top gear you are pursuing. So far, the White Dragon set is regarded as the best substitute for top gear. After your 4 basic skills reach level 99, you will be able to wear it. If the white dragon set has been refined, the 4 basic skills need to reach level 119 if you want to wear it. The refined White Dragon set is second only to the Dragon Scale set.

Advantage 3——Cheap

As many players know, the Dragon Scale set is very expensive, but the White dragon set is much cheaper. Players who don’t have cash to burn can always afford it.

Advantage 4——Sea Battle

There are 5 kinds of gear named after Dragons, but only the White Dragon set is available for sea battles. After you complete the White Dragon set refining quest, the gunfire dodge rate and the hit rate can be increased by 40%. If you also have Neptune jewelry, you will be unequalled at sea!

Myth War II: NPC Guide # 1

Every NPC in Myth War II Online assumes certain functions and will be around all the time when the second Gods War breaks out – they’re not just available to senior players or bosses. But their stories are mysterious and sometimes frightening – let the Myth War Online team reveal the deeper secrets of NPCs in the following introduction.

Map view
Sky Passage is the village where rookies can take their first steps in the game, and develop the basic combat skills you need to survive. It used to be a holy site, prosperous and densely inhabited. But as disagreements among gods escalated into evil and bitter battles, the gods were killed and Sky Passage was destroyed. Even today, you can still see the gleam in people’s eyes at the mere mention of this ancient village. Today, Sky Passage is where the armed forces will be trained for the war brewing on the Rarus Continent.

Race Instructor Lanbo & Skill Mentor Laney
Lanbo and Laney are brother and sister – Lanbo is a Race Instructor and Laney is a Skill Mentor. As early as the breakout of the first Gods War, they joined the war, risking their lives to fight without fear, contributing hugely for the benefit of their fellow man. After the war, they came to Sky Passage and became teachers to help beginners learn the best combat skills. The dragon Lanbo rides and Laney’s best friend, the eagle, are ancestors of the formidable twin beasts Arafa and Atina on Rarus Continent. The twin beasts are remembered by people for their daring deeds while defeating Arpadis, the netherworld Berserker.
Function: Pass on race and combat related knowledge to rookies.

Skill Guide Hiller
Hiller is a Skill Guide and used to be the smartest on Rarus Continent. Years ago, he worked on a very risky experiment, failed and lost his memory after an explosion in his laboratory. Fortunately, despite no knowledge of his past, he still possessed his incredible skills. The Gods transported him to Sky Passage and he now serves as a decision maker for all issues regarding teaching rookies.
Function: Teach rookies how to learn skills

Pet Manager Bobomi
Bobomi is a Pet Manager in Sky Passage. He comes from a long line of pet tamers. He remembers that in his childhood, every time he opened his eyes, different pet eggs presented themselves to him. In this way, he came to know everything about these arrogant and dangerous creatures. After the Gods appointed him to be the Pet Manager in Sky Passage, he has worked hard to keep everyone happy.
Function: Transfer the knowledge of taming pets to rookies

Battle Instructor Fran
Fran is a Battle Instructor in Sky Passage. As a deity beast, Fran has much more wisdom than most Humans and Centaurs, a miraculous ability. In the first Gods War, his startling and innovative combat tactics shocked his supervisor Paladin, the Strength of God. “Attack like a violent wind” is his motto. Now he is the Battle Instructor in Sky Passage and responsible for developing and honing rookies’ fighting spirits. But in his mind, a voice is always echoing his destiny to die with honor on the battlefield.
Function: Tell rookies how to fight.

Grimreaper Karad
Karad is the Grimreaper. The only thing he despises more than the condemned residents of his fiery hell are those still living on earth. For him, dying is an art, the ultimate fulfillment of a person’s life. As the bridge between the dead and the immortal, he performs his duties by sending dead fighters to hell for eternity.
Function: Help players delete characters.

Sword of the New World Content Update

New Characters, Events and more!

GamersFirst does it again with another new Update to Sword of the New World: Nocturnal Sonata bringing new events, items, characters and systems all for free. This fourth game update to the Nocturnal Sonata Expansion includes a brand new item advancement system: Jewel Socketing. Gamers’ weapons and armor can now contain sockets and throughout their travels they can find ores to convert into jewels for the sockets. These jewels can increase a number of stats including damage, health and skill points adding a whole new level of gameplay and character customization.
In addition to the Jewel Socketing system, gamers will now be able to raise a pet and take it out into the wilds with them. The first pet released (the Poppet) assists gamers by auto-collecting items that drop after monsters have been killed. As with all pets, they need to be fed and fortunately, the new Feso Exchange is always nearby for gamers to pick up Pet Food and many more items.
Gamers will also have the chance to help level-up their friends with the new Apprentice system by allowing high-level gamers to recruit low-level gamers to apprentice them. While together, the high-level gamer gains Family Reputation (instead of experience) and the low-level gamer gains DOUBLE the XP. The pair can safely battle around the New World together and as the low-level gamer levels-up quicker, the high-level gamer gains reputation which can be used to gain jewels for the Jewel Socketing system.
With this new content release there is a lot more in store for the gamers: from the New Unique Player Character Calypso to a new currency system – Feso.
Digest: GamersFirst does it again with another new Update to Sword of the New World: Nocturnal Sonata bringing new events, items, characters and systems all for free.

Upshift Strikeracer Trailer

Upshift StrikeRacer is high-octane car combat designed with quick short game sessions in mind. Live the fantasy of making your combat car, bolting heavy ordinance to it, then racing your friends while blowing each other up! It’s ballistic carnage in a free, easy to play format.