Zero Online January Events

 

How time flies! 2011 is drawing near, and TQ have prepared a string of fun events to celebrate the coming of the new year in Zero Online! Let’s see what’s coming up for them in the next month!

 

Double EXP for Orion Server (Jan. 1st – 7th)
With the closing of the BT edition of Zero Online happening soon, TQ saw it necessary to make sure the BT Zero Online players can continue having fun with Zero Online. With this in mind, TQ will provide a way for you to transfer your account to the Orion Server. (You should pay attention to the official BT website for the detailed transfer steps.) TQ will hold a 1 week Double Exp event, in order to help you get better acclimated to your new post!

 

Shopping Mall New Year Sales Event (Jan. 8th – 9th)
Many items in the ZP Mall will be sold at a 20% discount, and there will be new ZP(Bound) packs sold, available in packs of 100/500/1000. You can even buy them with the ZPs you bought at the 20% discounted price! This event will only be around for 2 days, so take this great chance to pick up those items you really need! It’s now or never!

 

R Energon (Jan. 14th – 21st)
You will have the chance to collect the R Energons from any Othello above Level 60.You can claim the reward when you hand in the 5th, 25th, 50th, 100th and 200th R Energon. After you have submitted 200, you will receive a gift for each 10 R Energons handed in. This event will be held for a week, so don’t hesitate to join in and win yourself some EXP, Gold, EXP Modules, Double EXP Potions, Meteors, Red Stars, +4 Chomsky Atoms, Roses, and much more! Good luck!

 

Double Crystal and Cores Weekend! (Jan. 22nd – 23rd)
There is a Double Crystal/Cores Event going on this weekend! Don’t forget to login the game, where you will get +150% Crystal drops and +20% Core drops from hunting the enemies of the Alliance! Don’t miss out on your chance to grab the cores and crystals you’ll need to upgrade your power!

 

Weekend Event – Snowmen Meltdown (Jan. 29th – 30th)
Do you want to have a snowball fight just like when you were a kid? Then sign up with Major Gen. Dan and join in the fight against the Yetis! Also, you can go directly to the Titan Icefield and search for the Yetis to have your own snowball fight! Don’t forget to take part in this campaign to win some free ZPs (Bound).

 

Have fun ZO players and Happy Newyear!

 

Paul Barnett Humbled By Cataclysm

 

After having been the “The Voice” of Warhammer Online leading upto its release you wouldn’t expect Paul Barnett to praise its biggest competitor: World of Warcraft.

 

Imagine our surprise when we heard a humble Paul Barnett speak on a Special Giantbomb “Top 10 Games of 2010” Podcast.

 

Paul lists Cataclysm as number two in his top ten games of 2010. The first thing he mentions about it is that he is impressed that Blizzard effectively finished Cataclysm earlier in the year and then was powerful enough to just “sit on it” so they could release it closer to Christmas. After this he goes on to compare World of Warcraft to the iPod.

 

“It was a hard lesson, and very ego bruising to learn, but WoW is the MMO equivalent of the iPod or iPhone. It doesn’t matter that there were MP3 players before the iPod. Once the iPod came out it dominated and it doesn’t matter what you made after the iPod.”

 

 

 

And if that wasn’t honest enough for you yet Paul went on to say:

 

“That is actually what WoW is, it’s this magnificent uber-creation and as I learned, chasing after it was painful and humbling.”

As a Warhammer Online fanboi that felt utterly disappointed and abandoned when I realised that Paul’s big promises would not be realised it is refreshing to hear mr. Barnett admit Blizzard’s dominance in such a mature and realistic fashion.

 

You can listen to the entire podcast over here at our friends at Giantbomb. The part about Cataclysm starts at 15:55.

Eastern Fantasy MMORPG Core Blaze Gameplay Video Revealed
First look at customized settings and the four major weapon classes

 

Today Gamania  revealed gameplay video of Core Blaze, an epic 3D Eastern Fantasy Action MMORPG utilizing the next generation Unreal Engine 3. Developed by Gamania’s R&D team, Core Blaze was first announced at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show (TGS). The unprecedented world view and innovative free customization feature was received well by both the international media and players highly anticipating its release. This gameplay trailer showcases Core Blaze’s freely customized game settings, highly realistic weapon combat, and provides a first look at the four major weapons.

 

Inspired by Eastern mythology, Core Blaze offers a structured fantasy world unique in its main and branch leveling design. Its free customization alters the core gameplay experience dynamically depending on various factors, such as the player’s current level, choice of combat style and weapons, geography and map environment, monsters’ element, and even the weather and time of day. Changing any factor produces a new quest line and outcome, which will change the player’s strategy, even when entering the same map at a different time of the day. Players will also find that Core Blaze relies heavily on teamwork. Each instance is designed for teams of up to four players, who will need to instantly react to each other’s combat style in order to achieve the most effective results. However, party modes will allow more than four people to a team.

 

Core Blaze has also released the four major in-game weapon classes: Sword and Shield, Great Sword, Dual Blade, and Long Bow. Highly distinctive in appearance and function, each of these weapons has its own characteristics and use.

 

Sword and Shield

The Sword is characterized by short range melee attacks, including some defensive moves using the Shield. With this combination, the player will be able to both fend off and heal from enemy attacks.

 

Great Sword

The huge and heavy Great Sword requires the player to utilize both hands in order to deliver the critical blow. With a wide attack area and maximum damage, the player will need to anticipate the possibility of an attack during the weapon’s cool down period. When in a party, this weapon is incredibly destructive.

 

Dual Blade

The dual blade can deliver fast and continuous melee blows to the enemy. But due to the restrictive characteristic of this weapon, the area of attack is small, and merely a single hit isn’t enough to defeat an enemy. A series of successful strikes must be unleashed to bring down foes. When in a party, the Dual Blade is most suitable as the first line of attack.

 

Long Bow

The archer is always an indispensible supporting attack character. Not only can the Long Bow be used in large scale battle, it can be placed on high levels as the secondary line of attack, and cover for teammates in the first line of attack.

 

The free customization in Core Blaze also applies to weapon choice. Players can freely interchange between different weapons right before combat – Sword and Shield today, Great Sword tomorrow, and then Long Bow strategy in party combat – making it extremely easy to find compatible players to team up with. As each player develops independently throughout the game, their element and characteristics will enhance and influence the performance of each weapon.

 

Once the player advances to the high level instances, the commonly seen combination of Sword and Shield matched with the Great Sword, or Dual Blade matched with the Long Bow, will no longer become the most viable. Instead, any four random combinations can be created, depending on the instance content, to most efficiently execute the quest and achieve surprising results. Players need to focus on individual advancement and character development to be able to reach the maximum combination potential – yet another of Core Blaze’s unique features.

 

Core Blaze has more than the typical grind and level system found in most MMORPGs. Players are able to develop their own skills when battling monsters. The combination of the player’s own element, weapons used, geography and weather of the instance, all contribute to the effectiveness of each attack. Instantaneous strikes, attack tempo, angle of attack, and even the compatibility with team members, are critical in achieving success in the game.

 

Gamania also announces the official Core Blaze Facebook fan page, where players can keep up to date on the game’s development status and latest news. Core Blaze is still in development, and is scheduled to be completed by the second half of 2011.

WoW Playable With Kinect!

The Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California has been working on a way to use Kinect to play World of Warcraft and other games!

 

This is what they had to say about it:

 

“We are developing the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST), which is middleware to facilitate integration of full-body control with games and VR applications. FAAST currently supports the PrimeSensor and the Microsoft Kinect using the OpenNI framework.

 

In this video, we show how FAAST can be used to control off-the-shelf video games such as World of Warcraft. Since these games would not normally support motion sensing devices, FAAST emulates keyboard input triggered by body posture and specific gestures. These controls can be dynamically configured for different applications and games.”

 

The OnRPG team can’t wait to see if this technology will actually become popular. It’s certainly a very healthy way to play our MMOs!

Lucent Heart’s Advanced Classes Revealed

Gamania has revealed the entire entourage of classes for their upcoming F2P MMORPG Lucent Heart. Read on to find the Advanced Classes fact sheet, information on each class and images galore!

 

Lucent Heart is certainly on our game radar and we’re very much looking forward to getting our hands on it next year.

 

 

Solar Guardian

Solar Guardians possess the most powerful versions of single and multi-target taunts and the highest constitution among the classes.   With a powerful array of offensive abilities that attack multiple targets, slow the movement speed of enemies and increases critical hit chance upon targets, Solar Guardians make great tanks as well as melee damage dealers.

 

Solar Guardian – Class Abilities

Blade Dance: Inflicts Damage on up to 4 targets surrounding the Solar Guardian, ignoring their armor. Additional damage is dealt with targets are below 30% health.
Onslaught: Charge a target, dealing damage and stunning it. While your target is stunned your chance to land a critical hit will be greatly increased.

Solar Guardians enjoy charging into the thick of a fight and wearing resilient heavy armor. They can choose to wield either the traditional sword and shield or large two-handed swords.

 

Celestial Templar

Celestial Templars wear heavy armor along with the unique defensive “Gun-Shield” specific to the class.  The Gun-Shield not only provides the protection gained from equipping traditional shields, it also serves as a built-in cannon, firing various types of artillery in battle.  Although their constitution is not as high as their counterpart, Templars have the ability to reduce their opponents’ attack power and provide protection bonuses for themselves and their teammates to make up the difference. Celestial Templars can promote one spellcaster, melee, and ranged teammate to the Specialist rank, further improving their abilities.

 

Celestial Templar – Class Abilities

Heavy Handed: Reduce enemies attack power, increase hostility and deal damage over time.

Templars Arsenal:
Allows the Celestial Templar to equip gun shields with unique damage types.
Standard Gun Shields deal physical damage against your enemies.
Flamethrower Shields deal fire damage against your enemies which ignores armor.

 

Celestial Templars are ideal for players who enjoy the responsibility that comes with being a leader.  Their unique Gun Shield provides defense as well as offensive capability unique to the class.

Comet Marksman

The Comet Marksman is the pinnacle of sniper training when taking the Gunner path. As Comet Marksmen train in more deadly versions of gunner skills they gain access to a variety of new shot types.  By studying opponents from afar, Comet Marksmen have unique insight into vulnerable points in enemy armor.  They have also perfected the ability to fire off quick and accurate shots that synergize with stun skills.

 

Comet Marksman – Class Abilities

Suppressive Shot: A shot designed to silence a caster from completing his or her spell. Prevents casting for a short duration.
Sonic Boom: At the cost of additional ammo, fires a loud disorienting shot at multiple targets.

 

Comet Marksmen are ideal for players who prefer to be quick with light armor and possess high single target ranged damage.

 

Nova Sentinel

Veteran Gunners who sacrifice high amounts of damage for group utility choose the path of Nova Sentinels.  Nova Sentinels can mark and designate targets for group members to focus their effort upon by increasing critical strike chance against the enemy.  They are also able to select ranged teammates and increase their accuracy and critical strike chance against the targets they attack.

 

Nova Sentinel – Class Abilities

Flash Bang Grenade: Throw a grenade that explodes causing up to 3 enemies to be disoriented.
Deadly Aim: Increase weapon range and inflict damage that ignores enemy armor.

 

Nova sentinels are ideal for players who favor light armor and ranged combat while providing leadership to their groups in battle.

 

Sun Commissioner

The Sun Commissioner is one of two class choices available for the Priest path.  In addition to learning the highest ranked healing spells, Sun Commissioners have access to the complete heal spell.  Sun Commissioners can also increase group constitution as well as deal serious damage with Divine spells.

 

Sun Commissioner – Class Abilities

Psyche’s Healing Embrace: Fully restore a teammates HP or your own health.
Divine Judgment: Marks a target. After 21 seconds, judgment is rendered upon your enemy inflicting massive Water damage.

 

The Sun Commissioner is ideal for taking on the role of main team healer and supporting their allies in combat.

 

Dawn Prophet

The Dawn Prophet is an option for players following the Priest path which focuses on a combination of healing support and offensive debuffs.  The Dawn Prophet gains access to new healing over time spells in addition to higher ranks of their heal spells.  They also possess offensive Omen spells designed to cripple their enemy’s skills and the ability to mitigate damage.  Other abilities include increasing health regeneration and resurrecting fallen teammates while in the midst of combat.

 

Dawn Prophet – Class Abilities

Omen of Destruction: A destructive attack that deals Fire damage to an enemy and reduces Water defense.
Shock of Vitality: Electrify a teammate. If their health is greater than 40% the player will take Wind Damage. If their health is lower than 40%, the shock will cause damage and restore a large portion of that player’s health.

 

Dawn Prophets are ideal for players who enjoy supporting their allies in battle while crippling the effectiveness of their enemies.

 

Moon Flame Envoy

Wizards who focus their training on the destructive powers of Fire and Water take the path of Moon Flame Envoys.  The Moon Flame Envoy has access to the most powerful area of effect magic spells that the elements of Fire and Water have to offer. With the ability to teleport into the middle of a battle, they will often surround themselves with enemies in order to stun them into place and unleash their Elemental powers.  They also have the ability to put targets to sleep and disable mechanical monsters.

 

Moon Flame Envoy – Class Abilities

Moonflame: A powerful streak of fire that deals damage against single targets and reduces their Water Defense.
Arctic Blast: Summons a massive Ice Storm at a targeted location dealing damage to up to 6 targets in the area.

 

The Moon Flame Envoy is an ideal magical class with a variety of single target spells and flashy area of effect spells.

 

Galaxy Sage

The Galaxy Sage is one of two path choices when selecting the Wizard path.  Galaxy Sages focus their training on Wind and Earth, using abilities in unison as a deadly force against single and multiple targets.
Galaxy Sages provide unique stat bonuses to surrounding teammates and have the ability to restore an ally’s MP at the cost of their own.

 

Galaxy Sage – Class Abilities

Nebula Explosion: Grants infinite mana to the caster and increased casting speed for a limited time.
Athena’s Spear: A destructive wind spell that deals heavy damage against a single opponent.

 

The Galaxy Sage is the ideal class for players who enjoy supporting their team and casting destructive single target spells upon their enemies