Monthly Archives: July 2010

Big Announcements! Exclusive Talk With Guild Wars 2 Designers

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Big Announcements! Exclusive Talk With Guild Wars 2 Designers

 

Interview by Jonathan “Ardua” Doyle, OnRPG Journalist.
Questions answered by Lead Game Designer Eric Flannun and Game Designer Jon Peters
NCSoft released some snacky information about the Ranger Profession. OnRPG journalist Jonathan Doyle had a chance to talk to Lead Game Designer Eric Flannun who previously worked on titles such as Warcraft 2, Diablo, Starcraft and Bard’s Tale, and Game Designer Jon Peters about this and other Guild Wars 2 topics!

The 19 minute long conversation revealed a couple of very interesting tidbits! You can see and hear the full interview in the video section on OnRPG!

Waypoint System
The interview starts by discussing the waypoint system. Which Eric explains is a teleport system comparable to the system in Guild Wars 1. You unlock teleport locations when you reach them the first time and after that you can freely teleport to them.

Ranger Downed Skill: Lick Wounds
Very quickly after the first real scoop of the interview surfaces! One of the as of yet unannounced Ranger abilities will be called “Lick Wounds”. Jon Peters describes it like this:

“One of the Ranger’s Downed Skills that we haven’t talked about yet is a skill where you can tell your pet to come to come up to you and revive you, it’s currently called “Lick Wounds”. He goes on to emphasize that “One of the most effective ways of reviving when you are downed is having your ranger pet alive.”

One of the most effective ways of reviving when you are downed is having your ranger pet alive

Professions
Eric explains that Guild Wars 2 professions will be a nice mix between what Guild Wars 1 fans already know and some new professions. All the professions will seem and feel very powerful and the two are glad to hear that the Ranger does sound like a strong class in Jonathan’s ears.

Byebye Grinding!
The second big announcement from the interview is that the design team is trying to keep Guild Wars 2 away from a grindfest.

When Jonathan asks how easy GW2 will be to get into Eric answers:
“We don’t want people to feel like they are grinding. We want you to always feel like you are making some sort of progress.” Eric seems to throw a little punch at World of Warcraft when he goes on to say there will be no: “Raiding, and going through 20 dungeons looking for that one rare drop that you have to fight with other players over. You know, spending hours and hours and hours grinding to get gear to make you competitive with people your level. We want a reasonable amount of playtime to make you competitive.” oh snap!

Pet Shark!
When talking about pets it becomes clear that you can have pet Sharks in Guild Wars! How cool is that! The aquatic areas  seems to be quite important in the game and as such there will be several aquatic pets next to terrestrial and Amphibian creatures divided in 12 families of tamable pets.

The days of launching a half finishes MMO are over? Haleluja!
The next big announcement that Eric and Peter make is that they believe the days of launching an MMO with lots of bugs and lack of polish and then patching it up afterwards are over:

“The days of, you know, releasing an MMO sort of broken and then patching it up are sort of gone.” They go on to say “We don’t think that’s an option for us. We think we’ve got to get this game right at launch.”

The days of launching a half finished MMO are over? Haleluja!
Great to see that they are so confident!

Hear the rest of this exclusive and revealing interview in the video section right here on OnRPG!

10 BG Stories used in MMOs – The Gods are to Blame for Our Anguish

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10 BG Stories used in MMOs – The Gods are to Blame for Our Anguish
By Kei Beneza (dividelife), OnRPG Journalist

 

Have you ever been curious and asked where we all came from? I bet kids in the MMO world have the same questions. Aside from generic gameplay, renamed classes and recycled features, I managed to find out that some MMOs also share the same origins (in terms of story). You’d think some had already lost their originality in terms of game play, but storylines as well? Geez, it’s like they’re all connected somehow really.

 

1. The Old Gods

Most MMOs branch out from this main idea regarding Old Gods being at war with each other. It would seem that MMO Gods are quite hostile can’t grasp the true meaning of peace. There will always be a party pooper though as these warring gods will always be forced to separate the land and its inhabitants to create an army of their own. After being Gods for centuries, you’d think they would’ve had a less childish sense of reason, but nope, these deities really love to fight and argue over the smallest things. Sub-categories such as “The Great War” and “Holy Wars” often branch out from the Old Gods, which is why I have concluded that MMO Gods are no better than humans. In some cases, there are Alpha Gods who stop the war by imprisoning the hostile Gods, creating a new utopia for our characters to live in. Quite the party pooper, but at least someone is being reasonable. <_<.

 

Backgrounds Old Gods
The Old Gods

 

2. Great Annihilation/Wipeout

Another abused storyline is the “Great Annihilation” where some great God (Yes, Gods again) or Dragon ends up destroying the world by mistake. Since new life can always grow from the foulest of lands, the world ends up being reborn and repopulated, creating another war story no different from their ancestors. In this scenario, the object of the story is to rebuild the once beautiful paradise that the Dragon (or God) hath destroyed; despite their noble efforts however, the new inhabitants always seem to disagree and end up firing off  a war instead.

 

MMO backgrounds wipeout
It was all over before it began.

 

3. Pre-wipeout

While some concentrate on the results of death and decay, other MMOs simply try to prevent it. Some MMOs take place right before the end of the world (or rather, before the Gods lose their cool). Since it’s a given fact that these gods are going to start zapping people fairly soon, characters are forced to counter their godly ways, thus the start of the Great War (see above).

 

4. Good and Evil

Though the whole idea of Good vs Evil has been spammed all throughout the gaming world, some MMOs can twist this idea into something new like “Light vs Dark”. Once again, this bloodshed is the work of (you guessed it!) two Gods (Light and Dark) who happen to hate each other enough to actually get their followers to kill one another.

 

MMO Backgrounds Good Evil
One is good, one is bad. Can YOU guess?

 

5. The Power Source

In some cases, MMOs branch out from the Indiana Jones aspect, which focuses on a powerful artifact capable of destroying the entire World (they all seem to be hell bent on destruction if you ask me). Here, our heroes try their best to gain an artifact that does not even exist in the actual game. This idea can be the product of all the stories mentioned above, but can still work as a standalone storyline due to its diverse origins.

 

6. Racial Supremacy

While some concentrate on Gods and destruction, other games simply focus on the hatred projected by certain races towards other races. Aside from their beliefs, this storyline revolves on nothing more than their quest for world domination and racial supremacy. In most cases, this war is the work of Human and Orcs, who have battled many times in many different series (from books to games). It’s really hard to comprehend why these races can’t just get along, continuously gathering allies (other races) to overthrow the enemy. In some cases, racism can also spread out all over the galaxy, resulting in galactic racial warfare. It’s amazing how Orcs and Humans can branch out to so much isn’t it?

 

Racial Supremacy
Racial Supremacy: Oldest Tale in the Book

 

7. Minerals

For some reason, the world has become quite illiterate, with only mining as the last existing profession. Classes know how to fight, wield magic, and put up schools, but everything always goes down to minerals. I mean what exactly do their NPC children study? Mining school? If you’ve played these games, there seems to be enough minerals for everyone, as you can normally mine 24/7 without running out of ores to collect. I suppose it’s just galactic GREED talking.

 

MMO backgrounds Mining
Mine? Mine! Mine! Mine!

 

8. The Greater Evil

Races don’t really need to fight. At least some games don’t promote this bloodshed; instead, they divert it towards a single EVIL creature with horrendous abilities. Yep, we’re talking about the oh so common Dark Lord. The one who’s hell bent on destroying or enslaving the entire population (or turning them undead). All MMOs have Dark Lords, but not all games prioritize their role to such an extent. In some games, these evil bad guys are featured to prevent players from fighting each other, instead forcing them to unite for the greater good of mankind (or orc-kind).

 

9. Nerdzorz Story

While the whole idea of Galactic Federations doesn’t appeal to me that much, Sci-Fi storylines have made their way into the MMO world. A bit boring since the whole thing revolves around politics, alien senators and galactic pew pew wars, but these type of stories often have a greater depth. The Nerdzors storyline can also act as the origin of those mentioned above (of course taking place in the Galactic spectrum).  Gee thanks, but I’ve had enough politics and alien senators to deal with in real life, thank you.

 

MMO Backgrounds Nerdzors
Hail to the rebel within!

 

10. Peace

Finally, a non-violent storyline! This is another rendition of the aftermath brought about by the war of the Gods. Instead of fighting each other, players are forced to live their happy life in a monster-infested world (which somehow works to their advantage as these monsters tend to drop currency). There are no Dark lords here; however, the world is filled with bosses who disturb the peace. Since the entire world is bound to start a war again, YOU (the one reading this), as the Legendary Hero (my god, there are a lot of you) must do your best to bring peace all over the world. How? By simply killing monsters :D.

Battle of the Immortals review: The Rise of the Dragon Emperor

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Battle of the Immortals review: The Rise of the Dragon Emperor
Written by Mohammed Afzal (MageMoa), OnRPG journalist

 

Love at first sight is definitely not the way I felt when I tried Battle of the Immortals on the Chinese servers. The website was pretty basic and the game seemed so effortless; the classes were common and there was hardly any customization when creating a character. It was definitely not something I would have expected from Perfect World Entertainment, the creators of Perfect World and the upcoming game Forsaken World.

 

Even when I created a character and entered the game I did not feel very enthusiastic. However, after finishing a few quests and leveling a few times, I noticed that I was actually enjoying the game. I looked forward to an English release, which arrived in the second quarter of 2010. Giving me pre-access to the game was a very generous gift of Perfect World Entertainment, which made it even easier for me to test the English version of the game for you!

 

Don’t let it scare you…

As I said before, the game seems very plain and shallow when you start. The game offers you only a few hairstyles, faces and player icons, which means that there isn’t much you can alter.  Furthermore, the game only offers five ‘generic’ classes: Berserker (the offensive warrior), Champion (the tank), Heretic (the cleric), Magus (the offensive mage) and Slayer (the rogue). Keep in mind that the classes are not gender-locked, which is a relief. These generic features scare off many new players. However, the game is much more diverse than many people think. The immense amount of features is amazing and there is hardly any grind for the first sixty levels. Additionally, there are many pets and mounts that you can upgrade and enhance. Being bored is practically impossible.

 

Battle of the Immortals Pet

 

Battles and monsters

The combat might be the biggest flaw of the game. The amount of skills is disappointing and upgrading your skills is very expensive. Skills can be learned at the following levels: 10, 25, 40, 55, 70, and 85. A Magus only has 15 skills at level 70, including some passives, buffs and a XP skill. This ‘XP skill’ is a special and powerful skill that can be used after filling your ‘XP bar’ by killing monsters and using skills. The XP bar automatically maxes when you level and it is able to deal massive damage to the mobs around your character. This is the perfect skill to use in order to quickly finish quests. The only downside is that it takes a while before you can actually use it, especially at higher levels. The combat is basically clicking on a monster and spamming skills, which might get on your nerves. The monsters do not deal a huge amount of damage either, which makes fighting them anything but challenging. However, the creatures you will find in game are all very diverse and unique and you will have a hard time finding the same monster graphic with just a different color and name (a common MMO technique).

 

Looking good, mister!

As a fan of games with amazing armor and weapons, such as the Monster Hunter series, I was slightly disappointed when I first entered Battle of the Immortals, but when my character progressed and became stronger and stronger I noticed a wide selection of clothing and weapons: Amazing costumes, detailed fashion and powerful weapons are examples of what I encountered in game. The equipment is all very appealing, even at lower levels, but that’s not everything! There are gorgeous wings, trendy capes and lovely dresses. Moreover, there are so many unique weapons including a pair of crab claws for the wacky Slayers!

There is a downside, however. Many good-looking sets will only be available in the Cash Shop. This is very disappointing for the players who would rather not spend money on the game. On the other hand, Battle of the Immortals offers its players the possibility to buy ZEN, the currency of the Cash Shop, with in-game money. In addition, players can trade Cash Shop items. This means that you do not have to worry about having to pay to play properly.

The graphics of the game made me have mixed feelings. When you zoom in the graphics are stunning and your character is very detailed, but when you zoom out it will look much more ‘pixelated’, which is a setback.

 

Battle of the Immortals

 

Catch, craft and enhance

It is time to tell you a bit about the most fascinating part of the game: Its features.

Let’s start off with the most impressive one. The pets and mounts that the game offers are as beautiful as the armor designs. You can catch all in game monsters, excluding the ones you find in dungeons, the bosses and the special quest monsters. Catching a creature does not require anything special either; you will only have to kill mobs in order to make a catchable one appear. Regular members will only be able to have three pets at once, which isn’t much, but you will only need one at a time anyway. Your pets improve by simply killing monsters and you will be able to strengthen them by melding them with another pet or by using certain items, such as a Pet Gem.

You will get your own free mount, which is class-based. You can upgrade yours by fortifying them with special crystals. When you successfully fortify your mount it will change its appearance and make it look badass. More mounts are available in the Cash Shop.

At level 35 you will be able to gather herbs, crystals, ores and materials. With these items you can craft various accessories and other useful items. The crafting feature is so simple, yet effective. I have never seen one similar to Battle of the Immortals’ Tech System. 

 

Caring, kind and helpful

Perfect World Entertainment managed to surprise me again after the Closed Beta of Battle of the Immortals. The game used to be a point and click game, there was no WASD and there were many bugs. PWE listened to their players and completely changed the original game. They implemented a WASD system, they fixed all known bugs and they improved their help system. It does not happen very often that a gaming company actually bothers to listen to its customers, so I was stunned when I heard about these amazing changes. Perfect World Entertainment has shown its players a lot of respect and they are going to do the same in the future. The company is currently working on new skills for all classes, new pets, new dungeons, new monsters and a lot of new features. Keep up the great work, PWE!

 

Simple, yet effective

That would be the best way to describe Battle of the Immortals. The mediocre battle system and the poor character customization in the beginning of the game are nothing compared to the caring company, the amazing features and the constant updates and events. This game has always had potential and it seems as if Perfect World Entertainment wants to keep it this way. Battle of the Immortals is a simple MMORPG with amazing features and a brilliant staff. That is all that can be said.

 

Pros:
– Amazing features
– Detailed equipment
– Simple game with barely any grind
– A caring developer and publisher
– WASD
– Updated frequently

 

Cons:
– Lack of skills
– Generic combat

Project Torque Closing Down

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Project Torque Closing Down

With sadness in their tone Aeria Games has announced that Project Torque will shut down its servers on the 2nd of August.

“We (Invictus & Aeria Games) had ultimately put a lot of faith in the Julia build to help us grow the community back to what it used to be. Although we had seen some improvements (some older and newer players returning to the game!), it is simply not happening as fast as we had hoped.

Sadly to say, despite our best of efforts we are no longer able to support the game. We have put together a schedule for the remainder of the month that will lead into the server final shut down.”

Rest In Pieces, Project Torque
The shutdown schedule, ironically named “The final burnout schedule” is as such:
 
July 15th 2010: Shut down of both the in game and web item malls from making purchases of AP Items. RP currency will still be usable during this time. During this time Aeria will be unlocking just about all unreleased items and running nonstop events in the game for prizes. This includes the unreleased cars that have yet to make it into the game.
July 17th through August 2nd: Daily events will be run that give out numerous prizes and locked items that have not yet been released in PT.

August 2nd 2010: Complete shutdown of the game servers.

August 3rd 2010: Closing down of PT Forums.

That doesn’t leave a lot of time left for Project Torque but Aeria won’t leave Torque players hanging, they have prepared the following compensation package:

“We do plan on creating special promotional offers during this time frame as compensation to the few and proud users left in our great community. Some include a 100% AP refund for users who have spent in the last 90 days. A 200 AP gift for all current Active PT players (most likely a email with key redemption process) and possible setup of special packages from our current lineup of games that may include items from each title. We know a few play our other titles like Wolf Team and we will let you know as soon as information is available on these packages. We will be posting a separate thread up once we complete all the details of these offers. Rest assured we will take care of you all as best we can!”

At the end of the message GM_1Fastcrx has his personal note as well:

“As most of you know I have been a GM for this great game for over 2 years now and I loved every minute of it! Yes some of you were a pain! But it didn’t matter we all had a blast together and respected one another throughout the thick and thin, the ups and downs, and the flat out just terrible times.

We all had nothing but hope for Project Torque here at Aeria Games, and to this day still believe that Invictus has a great game and that it will get the recognition it deserves one day. Again you are all aware of the hardships that we have endured throughout the past 2 years. There are a strong few that are still here and have stuck to it since the beginning. I really must say that even in the darkness that has shadowed PT in the last two years there is still light in the end of it all. We have all gained new friendships, memories, and overall exciting experiences.

I could not have asked for a better community to be a part of and a better game to be a GM for. I thank each and every one of you for your continued support! You ultimately were the ones responsible for this games success and progress. The game will now be back in Invictus’s hands, in the hopes that they will excel Project Torque to new heights and continue to progress the game.”

There are some Project Torque players that are trying to convince Aeria to keep the game going via a petition, if you are one of them you can go sign it, although it is probably a good idea to not get your hopes up.

Level R Will Keep driving in Europe



So the silver lining of this story is that Invictus might bring back Project Torque. The original name of the game is Level R, which European and Asian players can still connect to!

COH: Paragon Releases Information on Nova Praetoria and the Underground

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COH: Paragon Releases Information on Nova Praetoria and the Underground

 

Today Paragon Studios reveals details of two of the new areas in City of Heroes Going Rogue. Nova Praetoria is the most exclusive district in all of Praetoria, housing the elite of Praetorian society who have been given the special privilege to live and work next to humankind’s savior, Emperor Marcus Cole. Beneath Nova Praetoria lies the Underground, a network of tunnels that were created to hide the ugly side of life from the world above.

 

Nova Praetoria 

This city ward, considered to be the most exclusive district in all of Praetoria, houses the elite of Praetorian society: Cole’s trusted Praetors and the myriad state employees and officials who have been given the special privilege to live and work next to humankind’s savior, Emperor Marcus Cole. From Cole Tower, the tallest building and most dominant landmark in all of Nova Praetoria, Emperor Cole can survey all that he has fought hard to protect. In the Magisterium below, his Praetors gather for the day-to-day business in Praetoria, capital of the Empire. Surrounding the Magisterium courtyard are the five most influential structures in Praetorian government: the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Technology, the Civic Center, the Praetoria Police Headquarters, and the Cole Transport Authority.

 

City of Heroes Going Rogue

 

Statues of the Praetors stand like sentinels over the Magisterium, reminding all who visit that Cole’s trusted advisors watch over the city with constant vigilance. But these statues pale in comparison to the glory of Emperor Cole’s likeness, which stands before his tower, hand outstretched in greeting to all who visit here. Before this colossus stands the statue of Praetor White, Praetoria’s enforcer and head of the Powers Division, Praetoria’s super-powered police force.

 

The Underground

The Underground is a network of tunnels that traverse the soft underbelly of Praetoria. It was created to keep the appearance of the aboveground portion of the city unspoiled and uncluttered while the day-to-day maintenance and transportation tasks were carried out away from public view. Using the Lethe as its main artery, the tunnels follow a winding path through Nova Praetoria to Neutropolis and beyond.

 

The utopian Praetoria is the mirror universe featured in City of Heroes Going Rogue, the first City of Heroes expansion since the launch of City of Villains. The bright utopian façade hides dark secrets. As players investigate this brave new world, searching for the truth behind Emperor Cole and his Praetorian Guard, brutal foes and fierce allies emerge, turning this illusory paradise into an urban battlefield.

 

Take a look at more screenshots of Going Rogue in the City of Heroes Screenshot Gallery.

League of Legends Season One Opens Today

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League of Legends Season One Opens Today

 

Riot Games, the developer and publisher of the acclaimed PC game League of Legends, is proud to announce the largest content update and the first major competitive season for the highly-acclaimed online game League of Legends: Season One, is now live. Players that log in today will find many new game features including Draft Mode, Ranked Games, Ladders, a new user interface and a brand new Champion, Xin Zhao, Seneschal of Demacia.

 

League of Legends Yi Fight 

 

But as if all the new content and a whole new level of competitive play wasn’t enough to get League of Legends fans excited about Season One, Riot Games has announced they will be putting up a $100,000 prize purse for the Season One finals tournament which will mark the end of the season. Timing of this tournament will be announced later this year.

 

League of Legends Trynd

 

“We are very excited to be offering up $100,000 in cash prizes for the Season One finals, not only because it’s one of the biggest cash purses for a PC video game tournament, but it reflects our growth over the last year thanks to the support we’ve received from sponsors, partners and our loyal Community,” said Marc Merrill, co-founder and president of Riot Games. “Season One is just one of many major content updates and competitive seasons that our fans can expect. As we maintain growth and the game continues to evolve, we will continue to support our fans by providing the best gaming experience possible.”

 

To celebrate the launch of League of Legends: Season One, Riot Games also released a brand new trailer for the award-winning game.

 

League of Legends Teemo

Cabal Europe Content Update: Secrets of Radiant Hall

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Cabal Europe Content Update: Secrets of Radiant Hall

 

Games-masters are pleased to announce the latest CABAL Online update: Secrets of Radiant Hall. Introducing a whole host of key changes and improvements, the update includes:

 

NEW Solo Quest Dungeon! Set in the icy region of Bloody Ice, this dungeon sets heroes the mission of saving a lost and helpless girl. As with the other quest dungeons there are three levels of difficulty to select from, affecting the strength of the monsters and the quality of the drops.

 

Cabal Online Radiant Hall 

 

NEW Raiding Dungeon. Continuing the storyline of the Illusion Castle dungeon (released with the previous update), Radiant Hall includes 9 new boss monsters to defeat, countless quests to overcome and new loot to earn!

 

NEW Daily Quest system – receive up to six quests daily from the newly designated Daily Quest NPCs. Rewards include experience point, AXP (a higher level form of exp used for certain items), Guild Points and Dungeon entries.

 

REVAMP of the user interface. Designed to optimise the user experience!

 

NEW Party Registration and search system – an easy to use matching tool, enabling parties to find group members and for players to find groups!

 

NEW Key Binding Options. Players will now be able to set their own short cut keys and create personalised chat macros.

 

NEW Faces & Hair Styles! Six new faces and hair styles, ranging from the festival goer to the more traditional, providing even more variety and customisation.

 

Cabal Online Europe Radiant Hall

Bloodline Champions

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Bloodline Champions is a PVP game with short, intense matches for up to ten players divided into two teams. Every player plays one of several different bloodlines with 7 unique abilities each.

Different bloodlines in a set up complement eachother, different maps and gamemodes need different tactics, so good teamwork is a must for success.

Chance is not a factor, spells and abilities do a set amount of damage. Random elements such as critical hits and passive abilities do not exist.

Spells travel to where the player aims and can be avoided by enemy players, making every ability dependant on individual player skill.

Without mana and creeps, the game has almost zero downtime and is instead based on short cooldowns, this coupled with no grind or farming ensures that every match is full of action.