Monthly Archives: March 2009

Age of Conan trailer

Age Of Conan is a P2P MMORPG based on the dark Hyboria universe created by the great fantasy writer Robert E. Howard. Are you ready for some PvP action? Then watch the video and enter this fantasy world!

DDO: celebrating the third anniversary

Dungeons & Dragons Online is three years old! And is preparing to celebrate the event properly! Read this update from Codemasters:

Since yesterday we are celebrating the third anniversary of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE®: Stormreach!

Actually DDO has three anniversaries in Europe, as the German and French version were launched at the 23rd and 24th of March respectively. This is reason enough for us to have a big celebration! Starting from yesterday we have planned lots of little surprises, competitions and events, which will reach their peak towards the end of March when we invite all former players to return to Stormreach for a welcome back week and join our celebrations!

Dragonica: introducing the Warrior and the Magician

Dragonica is the brand new free arcade-style 3D side-scrolling MMORPG. It will be available to download across Europe this Spring from the www.gpotato.eu gaming portal. As the gPotato team prepares for the game’s launch in Europe, we are proud to release information on the dynamic combo-based combat system and take a look at the Warrior and Magician special moves.

The warrior is agile and fearless, and can quickly slash in a variety of directions as he circles around his opponents. Warriors can knock over multiple opponents, slash upwards sending them skyward, jump up and combo them in the air before smashing them into the ground. When a warrior needs a bit of space, they can throw their sword to stop an enemy advance, or catch multiple enemies in a whirlwind of sword hits. Is your enemy down but not out? Pull out one of three giant hammers to finish them off. As Warriors progress, they can develop into a Gladiator or a Knight.

Gladiators throw away their shield and focus on large, two-handed swords. Smash your sword against the ground and enemies tumble as the ground is shaken underneath, put on a bears head to boost your strength or focus on improving your sword mastery. A yellow kung fu fighter can help deal with pesky enemies in a variety of ways. Knights use a one handed sword but have the benefit of a shield. They can unleash a brand new range of attacks including aerial smackdowns, hammer hits in the air and dropping 1000 ton weights to squash their enemies. Pulling out a broomstick, they can quickly take out the toughest of enemies. Both can also use a variety of skills to temporary boost their damage and defensive skills.

The Magician is a ranged fighter who can handle themselves in a close combat fight. A Magician can summon a meteor to deal massive damage to multiple enemies, or launch a devastating ground explosion throwing opponents into the air. They can flip fallen foes into the air before frying them in a bolt of lightning. For larger enemies, they can pull out a cannon and fire a huge projectile into a group of opponents. Magicians are also healers, able to heal their party and their own health while in combat, making them an essential part of any team. As Magicians progress, they can choose to be a Monk or a Battlemage.

Monks have continued developing their skills as healers. They can summon a nurse to heal your party or themselves and resurrect fallen comrades. They have a host of new tricks up their sleeves with flaming orbs protecting them, a spell to turn multiple opponents into frogs, and a defensive shield that party members can recover in. Battlemages really like dealing damage, so they are a welcome addition to any party in Dragonica. They can summon a fireball to slowly move through a crowd of enemies unleashing damage, call a tornado to suck them off their feet, and unleash a blizzard on them. They can also release a poisonous cloud or rain destruction on their foes with ten missiles.

Angels Online: New Instance Guide

The Gulp Room is different from other instances in Angels Online. It really challenges players’ cooperation and concentration. Even if they defeat all the small monsters and the powerful BOSSes, they can’t move on to the next step unless they can find the switch. Today, the official team of Angels Online is giving a brief introduction to the Gulp Room for all players so that they can get through this instance smoothly.

Players will be teleported to a square after they enter the instance. They will find an NPC called Scientist Boni on the right side of the square, who will give each player a “Devil Feast” quest.


Step One

In the dim lighting, the Gulp Room is a mysterious and horrible instance full of rotten mummies. Players have to defeat all the mummies before they can turn on the “torch” switch that opens the sanctum. After they’ve entered the sanctum, the 6 stone statues inside will become monsters at random. Players have to defeat them in order to move on to the next step.

The correct order is Barft on the right, the Headless Knight on the left, the Wolf King on the left, the Gebuer Leader on the right, the Headless Knight on the right, the Gebuer Leader on the left, Barft on the left and the Wolf King on the right. Got it? Good.


Step Two

Players will meet the Lion Dragon at this stage. It should not be difficult for them to defeat this BOSS if they can cooperate well with teammates. It is recommended that players carry enough HP and SP potions to last the long battle. During the battle, all DPS players’ damage is useless on the Lion Dragon.

The main tank should attract the BOSS to the upper right corner of the map so that a large group of Powder Pails will be born by the system at random. All DPS players should attack those Powder Pails together. After the Powder Pail blasts, the BOSS will lose a certain amount of HP as well. Pay attention! The Lion Dragon has a lot of HP and it is destined to be a long battle.


Step Three

Players can obtain a Devil Key to enter the next step after they’ve defeated the Lion Dragon.
The Hell Evil Eyes here have the highest rate of drops in the Gulp Room. Players will have the chance to obtain top weapons by defeating the Hell Evil Eyes. Meanwhile, by defeating the elves here, players can obtain a kind of Elf Bottle which will be helpful in defeating the BOSS in the next step.

After players have collected enough Elf Bottles, the main tank can click the pool to summon a BOSS called Glutton. The same strategy as in Step 2 will work here as well. The main tank should throw the Elf Bottles as quickly as possible. Each Elf Bottle will summon 3-4 Red Demons at random. After players kill all the Red Demons, the BOSS will lose HP as well.

It is more difficult for players to rush into the Gulp Room because it requires good cooperation among teammates. We recommend coming up with a good strategy and putting together a veteran team so that players can challenge the instance smoothly.

Ether Saga Online: Open beta and new event

Ether Saga will soon enter the Open Beta! And in the meantime a new event will be held during the Closed Beta. Here’s the official announcement:

Open Beta Announcement

We are pleased to announce the release date for Open Beta – 12:00 am (midnight) Pacific Time on March 17th. Players can expect the following to occur:

1. Closed beta servers will shut down at 10 am Pacific Time on March 16th.
2. All characters created in Closed Beta will be wiped. Clean slate for everyone. This will be our last character wipe.
3. The cash shop will be open for purchases with Zen when Open Beta launches.

I will discuss development plans for the next couple of weeks below, but first I wanted to announce something exciting: the closed beta contest!

Closed Beta contest

Our closed beta contest has two tiers, with prize criteria that can cater to everyone’s playstyle. Everyone has a chance to win!


First Tier

Everyone who has achieved level 40 or above will get 5 hours early access to the Open Beta. Eligible players will be able to start playing at 6:00 pm Pacific Time on March 16th. The early access will allow players to reserve their usernames, setup clans with their friends, and get a head start in the game. The early access will end at 11 pm on March 16th. All character information will be saved and be available when the servers relaunch.


Second Tier

The contest’s second tier prize is an exclusive pet: the Katsune Kid*. The Katsune Kid is a humanoid pet that resembles a white fox with a large tail. It cannot be tamable, and it currently even cannot be found in the wild. There are two ways you can win this one-of-a-kind pet:

-The first 25 people to achieve level 65
-An additional 75 players will be chosen at random. Players must have spent at least 10 hours in the game are eligible.
Winners will be contacted via emails on instructions how to receive their pet.

Zero Online: Extreme Simulation

Date:
March 7-8, 2009

Rewards
You can swap scored points for these prizes:
Hi-tech Repair, Dynamic Restore, Extreme OD Battery, EXP Hive, Extreme EXP Hive, Alliance Material, Winner’s Honor, Traveler Pack
Requires
Level 130 + Transformation skills
Location
Steel Warship and TK Hi-tech Base


NPCs

Lunare (Steel Warship 509,819)
Introduces the event, sends you to the TK Hi-tech Base, sells Joy Points, and offers the reward.
Paso ( TK Hi-tech Base 230,333)
Explains the objectives and sends you back to the Steel Warship.



Rules

1. Find Lunare to enter the TK Hi-tech Base.
2. Protect the Energy Tower. If it is not destroyed after 30 minutes, you win the battle and earn some score points.
3. Swap your scored points for your desired prizes with Lunare.


Storyline

Energy is the most important resource in the universe. That’s why the Othellonians make every effort to occupy every planet in the galaxy that they can get their hands on. Since training against these threats is so important, he Alliance requires all pilots with transformable units to take part in this Extreme Simulation. Your mission is to protect the Energy Tower from being destroyed by the enemy tanks.

Walkthrough
1. After you learn the rules and purchase Joy Points from Lunare, you are ready to enter the TK Hi-tech Base to take part in the Extreme Simulation training exercise.

Crowns of Power

Game description: Crowns of Power is a completely unique, online 3-D Role-Playing Game of magical spells, magical gear, strategy, alliances, politics and more!

Crowns of Power is Rampid Interactive’s first 3D graphical online MMO for the PC. It features an extensive 3D world, filled with amazing landscapes and environments. The game world is being designed to support hundreds of players simultaneously, with the network capacity to support many game servers. Players will meet up with others from all over the world to fight side by side or opposite one another on the field of battle. Adapt and evolve in this ever changing world, where players self-govern and guide one another. Will you fight for what is just and true, or seek the ultimate desire of man in a quest for absolute power?

In Crowns of Power, players will have the power to govern themselves in a volatile world where PvP (Player vs Player) combat can be engaged in nearly everywhere you go. With smaller world populations, there will be a sense of community unlike any other game on the market. Players will earn their reputation and role on the server, and be held accountable for their actions. Death will come with a steeper price, and make people think twice before committing acts against the community. As guilds develop, they’ll be able to display their power by obtaining Guild Halls that they must maintain and protect, adding another social and contested element to the game.

Global Agenda: Interviewing the Executive Producer

Questions by Rick Charbs, Onrpg writer

Answered by: Todd Harris, Executive Producer of Global Agenda

I have had the pleasure to interview Todd Harris, the executive producer of Global Agenda, a highly anticipated MMORPG. Many unique features their interesting RPG and FPS fusion styled gameplay, a player-run environment, a campaign mode, and many others. The unique jetpacks, an item acquired in the game, are even an enjoyed aspect of the game by its developers: “The other day on our Alpha server I jetpacked up to a roof to surprise a sniping recon and then used a concussion grenade to push him over the ledge!” said Todd Harris. That being said, Global Agenda sure sounds like a breakthrough in the MMO department! For tons of awesome info on this MMO, be sure to take a peek at this interview.

Onrpg: Global Agenda is an upcoming MMORPG using the graphics engine “Unreal® Engine 3”. What brought you to making the decision of using this engine?

Well, we chose Unreal Engine 3 because it supports our fast-paced action combat, while also enabling our artists to deliver an immersive, graphically stunning world. It delivers great aesthetics and great runtime performance.

Beyond combat, our sophisticated database and networking back-end supports character advancement, gear acquisition, agency management, and other MMO aspects of Global Agenda.

Onrpg: It has been said that players will have great control on how the world of Global Agenda is played. How is this so?

Global Agenda is definitely a player-driven world. Traditionally MMOs offer a few, top-down developer created factions and players must choose from one of those preset factions. We do offer NPC factions but we also allow players to create and manage their own in-game agencies and form alliances with other agencies, yielding very dynamic group interaction and politics.

Players joining these player-run agencies compete with other agencies in a technology race for advanced gear and to capture key locations. In fact, the results of an agency versus agency battle in one location can actually influence another location in real-time.

So, we have created the world setting but the ongoing story develops based upon the in-game behaviour of actual players.

Onrpg: What is the main setting of the game?

Global Agenda is set on 22nd-century earth after a worldwide disaster has wiped the slate clean. Most of the familiar countries and cities of today are gone, replaced by new factions battling for control over the limited remaining resources. Wars are no longer fought with massive armies, however. Instead, elite teams of special agents are outfitted with the most advanced technology available and they travel around the world on sub-orbital dropships. You can expect to find yourself and other agents within a variety of exotic and futuristic locations including snow blown arctic bases, dusty desert outposts, mountainous ruins, and futuristic cities.

Onrpg: Global Agenda focuses on RPG and FPS elements. Could you please explain the system of the game?

Certainly. Our dev team really enjoys the action combat and cooperation found in many multiplayer online shooters, but also wanted deep character progression and an immersive, persistent world setting. We didn’t see any games out there with all of the above so we had to build one ourselves! So, Global Agenda is really a hybrid of multiple game types – all within a single MMO.

Global Agenda has elements of an FPS because our in-mission combat plays like a multiplayer online shooter. Yet due to our distinct player classes and other game mechanics, our combat is not decided simply by who has the fastest reflexes. It is more about positioning, team cooperation, and using the appropriate device and counter at the appropriate time. Basically, tactics are more important than twitch.
Global Agenda has elements of an RPG because your character does progress thru a levelling process, advances new skills, acquires gear, and visits cities & vendors, We offer four distinct but broad player agent archetypes and a large set of usable devices including ranged weapons, close-combat weapons, stealth & deception devices, remote controlled robotic pets, turrets, force fields, and many, many more.
Finally, Global Agenda has elements of an RTS (real time strategy) game based upon our episodic Campaigns. The Campaigns give agencies an opportunity to actually gain territory, construct facilities, produce or steal resources, and compete in an approximately 45 day competition to construct a protected complex for your allies before your rivals do.

In this way, your character actions affect the outcome of a single mission (like an FPS), the career of your agent (like an RPG); AND the long-term Campaign goals of your agency (like a giant strategy game).

Onrpg: How deeply can a player customize their agent (character)?

We offer very deep customization. A player starts by selecting from one of our four broad agent archetypes – Assault, Medic, Recon, or Robotics, and customizes his skills and equipment over time. For example, a Medic within Global Agenda could spec to maximize healing of a single target or healing of multiple targets or distance healing by lobbing grenades or debuffing targets via poison or even doing significant direct damage or damage over time via ranged weapons or close combat. So, each archetype supports a variety of skills, gear and play styles.

Visually, players can really customize the look of their agent as well. We have a large library of suits and apparel, custom dies & patterns, and a very sophisticated face customization system.

Onrpg: Could you please briefly explain some of the unique features this game will offer?

Sure. One very unique feature for the MMO genre is true action-oriented combat. Players are actually aiming their gun via a free reticule and evading oncoming projectile fire rather than the traditional, tab-target, button-mashing. As mentioned previously, we have been inspired by combat systems found in modern multiplayer online shooters. But rather than try to describe the combat system I’d encourage your readers to visit our website and check out the gameplay trailer for themselves. To date we’ve received very enthusiastic feedback from MMO players looking for a combat system such as ours.

Secondly, we’ve chosen a “spy-fi” setting which we feel is a nice change of pace from fantasy. In general this setting allows us to incorporate standard MMO features such as player levelling, skills, achievements, social areas, vendors, PvE content, agencies (akin to guilds in other MMOs), but each implemented in a slightly unique manner given our futuristic setting.

Also, we’ve spent a lot of time on features that make it easy for you to group and play with your friends within Global Agenda. There are a hundred little design details that support this concept, but one basic example is that we do not have separate servers you have to join by name when you create your character. So there is no need to transfer servers in the future if you find a group of friends you want to play with, or against!

Finally, the most unique feature of Global Agenda would have to be the Campaign mode I mentioned before. Player agency leaders are engaged in a high level game of territory control and expansion, like a board game of global domination, but with the actual conflicts being resolved by other player agent combatants.

Onrpg: Do you consider Global Agenda to be a highly PVP focused game?

Yep – lots of PvP! But PvE and co-op PvE play a very significant role as well.

Onrpg: What is your favourite aspect of the game so far?

That’s a tough question because the game has so many different layers that it’s hard to pick a single favourite. I love that our game design allows agencies to leave a lasting impression on the world. It allows you to feel like you’re really working toward something meaningful.

My favourite aspect of the in-mission gameplay would have to be our jetpacks! I’ve always enjoyed flying within other MMOs, and we spent a lot of time making sure our jetpacks were well integrated into the overall control and combat system. They support very fluid player movement and enable rooftop battles which are an absolute blast! The other day on our Alpha server I jetpacked up to a roof to surprise a sniping recon and then used a concussion grenade to push him over the ledge!

Onrpg: Will users require very powerful systems to run this game? What do you expect the minimum requirements will seem like?

Users will be able to customize in-game video settings to accommodate a wide range of hardware configurations. In general, we expect the game to run very well on PCs that play other Unreal 3 engine based games.

Onrpg: When do you assume the game will be prepared for closed beta release?

We are currently in closed alpha with an active community of well over 1000 players. We will begin the closed beta in the second quarter of 2009 and are accepting applications for this beta now. So come apply to join the fun and play Global Agenda. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you there!