Yearly Archives: 2011

ArcheAge: What We Know So Far Pt. 1

ArcheAge: What We Know So Far Pt. 1

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

ArcheAge, for those unfamiliar to the name, is among a special club that veteran MMO gamers either love or loath.  That club is the ‘Next Gen MMO’ club and its membership seems to be growing larger each month. ArcheAge in particular seems to be taking a rather gigantic leap over its predecessors and, if successful, may provide one of the most fulfilling experiences on the MMO market today. Of course with ridiculous titles comes epic fail potential and the pessimists of the Internet are watching with great anticipation to see this one flop like all the others. Let’s talk about some of the features that make this game worth all this pre-launch hype.

 

 

 

8 Races: Out of the eight races in Archeage, six have been confirmed with actual screenshots. They are the Dwarves, Elves, Ferres, Hariharan, Nuians, and Warborn. Although unconfirmed, the other two races seem to be visible on the game back story page as a type of undead mystic and a human sized fairy. Luckily the English page and interviews has given us the important hint that each race carries specific traits so let’s explore the Ferres, Elves, and Nuians in greater detail.

 

 

Ferres: This race is quite beast-like and looks like a mix between humans and jungle cats. As a nomadic race they have perfected their skill at hunting and specialize in defeating their prey with swords and bows. They are best known for the grand snow lions they ride into combat.

 


 

Elves: Don’t expect anything out of the ordinary with this race. They are the stereotypical elves perfected from generations of lore. Isolated? Check. Forest dwellers? Check. Oh they primarily use bows and magic? Go figure. Their appearance is generally fairer skinned than the human-like Nuians and their bodies appear much slimmer as well.

 

 

Nuians: The Nuians seem well rounded but most trailers and screenshots I have seen portray them as a race valuing tradition and strength (and swords, big ass swords). They hold their religious faith in Goddess Nui in the highest regard and are known to only break from their harmonious nature when their beliefs are threatened by outsiders.

 

Class System

 

Beyond the racial inherent bonuses, your character can learn up to three of ten ability sets to determine your overall character build. Think of this as a more concise version of RIFT’s skill system in that it gives you freedom to design your own class but not so much freedom that the prospect of balancing the game for PvP becomes a development nightmare.

 

The ten power sets are combat, fortification, death, magic, artistry, conjury, will, wild, calling, and devotion.

 

Standard Warrior Build

 

Combat: This archetype is the core on which the warrior builds his entire strategy. Combat symbolizes Kyrios, god of destruction. Kyrios ensures victory to those who have faith in him, but is cruel and destructive to enemies. You can use destructive attack skills in a rage to various surrounding enemies at the same time and your attack speed can be temporarily increased to a great extent through haste.


Fortification: Much like combat, fortification is vital to any true warrior. You can’t dish out tons of damage if you die from focus fire by the time you reach your enemy. Fortification symbolizes Shatigon, god of wealth. Shatigon has the power to bring wealth and creates impregnable fortresses. You can use skills to increase your health and defense or to temporarily become invincible, and sometimes protect your allies by switching the surrounding enemy’s aggro to yourself.

 

Will: This archetype grants incredible support power and mobility. You will likely see it commonly on both warriors and priests. Will symbolizes Sal, god of portal and sealing. Using the power of Sal, players can heal allies, protect allies from damage, seal enemy skills, and even teleport around the battlefield.

 

Standard Priest Build

 

Artistry: This archetype is needed for full support priests. Artistry symbolizes Lucius, the wanderer who has greatest wisdom, but always hides it in his jokes. Using the power of music, you can increase the recovery rates of your allies and bolster movement speed on the battlefield.

 

Devotion: Represented by Kyprosa, the gatekeeper of dreamworld, Devotion is an archetype trained completely in the arts of defensive magic. Not only will you unlock the strongest healing skills in the game, you will also be able to control the veil between life and death.

 

Death: The death archetype is an incredibly dangerous art to master that only the most wise (or foolhardy) mage should attempt. By utilizing the Goddess Nui, overlord of the underworld, you can deal immense damage to your foes and break their will with raw fear of your might. The ability to detach your soul from your body also comes in handy for playing a trick or two.

 

Standard Wizard Build

 

Magic: The magic archetype is represented by Aranzeb, a mage who remains calm no matter what storm of war brews around him. This is the more stable tree of magic that contains a well balanced mix of fire magic and defensive shields.

 

Conjury: Conjury is an archetype with much utility that is useful for both wizards and chasers. Goddess Dahuta, master of the sea and change, grants her followers the ability to seep deep into the minds of your foes. This archetype focuses on disables and summoning evil spirits to haunt your crippled opponent.

 

Wild: This archetype is the calling card of chasers. Not only does it provide you with excellent ranged bow skills, it also gives you the ability to tame wild beasts to protect you at melee range.

 

Calling: This archetype is extremely important for chasers and essentially represents the rogue build from standard MMOs. It represents Melisara, who dared to try killing a god. Just like Melisara, you will train in stealth arts to overcome foes much stronger than yourself through sneak attacks, long range strikes, and some of the fastest dashing ability in the game.

 

Standard Chaser Build

 

As mentioned before, classes are not set in stone, and you are free to experiment with any combination of the above abilities to create a hybrid class that works for you. Personally I think an assassin that utilizes Calling and Will would make an incredible force on the battlefield. Teleportation, fast dashing abilities, and clutch heals to protect allies all in one class sounds pretty fun. Perhaps combine it with death to gain some insurance against fatal mistakes and you have a class that will drive your foes mad.

 

 

Unfortunately I’m running late for a meeting but I plan to continue this discussion of ArcheAge tomorrow with a look at the basic features that make up the game world such as castle construction, territory control, and the evolving debate on an open PK system.

S4 League Season 3 Designed by Players

S4 League 2012 Expansion Designed by Players

 

 

Alaplaya has announced that popular anime-inspired shooter S4 League will receive a major expansion in 2012… which rests entirely in the hands of the game’s community. S4 League: Season 3 will be dreamed up by players the world over, who are invited to submit their ideas in a new “Design the Season” contest. The winner will receive an incredible prize of 100,000 alaplaya points, as well as the pride of seeing their concept brought to life within the game and played by S4 competitors for years to come.

 

 

“We get great suggestions and ideas every single day from our players. They all love S4 League as much as we do, and they’re hungry for more,” said Achim Kaspers, Managing Director of ProSiebenSat.1 Games. “Right now, nobody knows what kind of new surprises Season 3 will bring, so we’re asking our fans to share their speculations and dreams with us and help us build the perfect S4 League update.”

 

 

Players are encouraged to submit any and all ideas for the Design the Season contest, including the advancement of the S4 League story and the driving force behind the league’s changes, as well as concepts for new levels, game modes, weapons, costumes, maps, and characters. The contest winner will receive 100,000 AP, and all entrants will be eligible to win one of ten raffle prizes worth €10 in any alaplaya game. Be warned though that this contest ends tomorrow, October 7th. So if you still want to be a part of it, you need to submit your ideas now!

Dark Age of Camelot: A Simpler Time of MMOs

Dark Age of Camelot: A Simpler Time of RvR MMOs

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Dark Age of Camelot is a Pay-to-Play 3D MMORPG that revolves around the war of the realms following King Arthur’s rule. This medieval fantasy MMORPG is developed and published by Mythic Entertainment on October 10, 2001. The world revolves around dragons, magic and massive battlegrounds.

 

 

This game has been out for a while but OnRPG never gave it a really close look. I volunteered to step into the realms and see why so many consider this one of the greatest MMORPGs of all time. Not only is this game focused on defeating monsters found in dungeons, but the open world and RvR zones challenge the player to participate in huge PvP battlegrounds to earn further loot.

 

 

Once the player starts up the game and selects a server, they are offered the choice between three realms. These realms are Albion, Hibernia and Midgard. A detailed history of the age of King Arthur I is available on Dark Age of Camelot’s official page. It’s definitely worth checking out if you love intricate storylines and intend to really get immersed in this game.

 

 

Realms

Albion is through and through the land of Arthur. Forged from his iron will, paid for by the blood of Knights and commoner alike, Albion encompasses the ideals, the laws, and the heritage of its most famous King. The people of Albion are mostly homogenous, sturdy Britons, hulking Highlanders, graceful swift Saracens, and the tall intelligent Avalonians. The small, mysterious Inconnu along with the bestial Half-Ogres add a dash of the exotic to the Realm.

 

Hibernia is the closest to nature and magic of all the Realms. Their heritage has long honed its citizens to channel the forces of magic and unleash its destructive force on their enemies. Human Celts and the almost-giant Firbolg live in close harmony with forest, glen, and all nature’s creations. The Otherworldly beautiful Elves, small mischievous Lurikeen, and sleek magical Sylvan harness the power of primal magic. The malevolent Shar have an uneasy alliance with the other races of Hibernia, and bring an undercurrent of evil to the emerald hills.

 

Midgard is home to the snowy lands of glacier and fjord where the mighty Norse legions call home. These legions are hell bent to once and for all establish the rule of Midgard upon all the Realms. Midgard, land of lakes and wide slow rivers,  is home to six of the most diverse races found in the three Realms. These races are the Norsemen (the humans who make themselves at home in these snowy wastes), short yet resilient and tenacious Dwarves, huge lumbering trolls, lithe dexterous Kobolds, shadowy, mysterious Frostalfs, and the primitive and proud Valkyn.

 

 

After you have chosen a Realm it is time to pick a race. There are currently 7 races per Realm available. The following races are currently in the Dark Age of Camelot:

 

Albion: Avalonian, Briton, Half-Ogre, Highlander, Inconnu, Saracen, and the Korazh(Minotaur).

 

Hibernia: Celt, Elf, Firbolg, Lurikeen, Shar, Sylvan, and the Graoch(Minotaur).

 

Midgard: Dwarf, Frostalf, Kobold, Norseman, Troll, Valkyn, and the Deifrang(Minotaur).

 

 

After you have chosen the race you can pick a class among the various available and designated to said race. Currently there are 47 classes to choose from which is quite a lot. All these classes are broken down into four common RPG archetypes: Warriors, spell casters, rogues and healing classes. There are also Hybrid classes which combine skills from any two of the archetypes. The current classes that are available in Dark Age of Camelot are the following:

 

Albion: Armsman, Cabalist, Cleric, Friar, Heretic, Infiltrator, Mauler, Mercenary, Minstrel, Necromancer, Paladin, Reaver, Scout, Sorcerer, Theurgist, and Wizard.

 

Hibernia: Animist, Bainshee, Bard, Blademaster, Champion, Druid, Eldritch, Enchanter, Hero, Mauler, Mentalist, Nightshade, Ranger, Warden, Valewalker, and Vampiir.

 

Midgard: Berserker, Bonedancer, Healer, Hunter, Mauler, Runemaster, Savage, Shadowblade, Shaman, Skald, Spiritmaster, Thane, Valkyrie, Warlock, and Warrior.

 

 

Gameplay

Dark Age of Camelot is not the usual MMORPG where you level up, achieve new skills and upgrade your armor. In Dark Age of Camelot you actually have to spend time to think through your build. After some experimentation its best to pick your favorite weapon and beeline down talent trees that fully unlock that weapon’s potential. I chose to play as a Blademaster and I got multiple choices for my skills, such as skills for blunt weapons or sharp weapons. Since dual wielded blades I decided to go for the sharp weapon tree to get the optimized use for them.

 

 

The interactivity of the environment in this game seems almost unheard of considering how old it is. You can actually converse with NPCs using the chat box and open doors to enter village houses! The graphics are dated but not nearly as badly as its competitors from the same era. Even the water has a mirroring effect and actually does look like water unlike many other MMORPGs.

 

 

I must give readers a warning before jumping into this game. If you are not a fan of player on player combat and prefer to spend your time grinding mobs or taking on challenging dungeons, I do not recommend this game. It is absolutely vital that you join your fellow realm members to do battle for the glory (and special buffs) of your nation.

 

 

To play this game and ignore this side of it would be as silly as to play League of Legends for only the computer AI battles. Thankfully the realm versus realm battles in this game are still remembered fondly to this day as one of the most polished and successfully implemented open world pvp systems ever implemented into an MMORPG. After experiencing it for myself, I can confirm the praise is well deserved.

 

 

Graphics

To play this old yet good looking MMORPG the recommended system requirements are really low. As long as you have a Pentium 4 processor with 2.4GHz along with a 64MB video card that supports DirectX 9.0 or later you´re good to go. If you have no idea what kind of computer you have or you´re simply not really into system specs, any computer made after the year 2001 is most likely able to run the game just fine.

 

Conclusion

Even though this game is almost 10 years old I still had a lot of fun trying this game out. The lore behind the Dark Age of Camelot is quite known to everyone that has heard the bedtime stories about King Arthur and really makes this game unique. Despite its age, Mythic and EA still provide regular content updates to a player base that remains populated and active. There are special made servers for everyone to have as much fun as possible whether you like PvP or PvE. If you like old fashioned MMORPGs with more complexity than simple hack and slash games, I would recommend you to try out Dark Age of Camelot because this game has a lot to offer!

League of Legends Releases Champion Xerath

League of Legends Releases Xerath, The LoL Siege Tank

 

 

After a long three week dry spell without new champions (due to the chaos involved with releasing their new Dominion Map), Riot Games is proud to announce that Xerath, the Magus Ascendant will be joining League of Legends‘ ever growing champion pool.

 

 

Xerath plays out like a heroic Starcraft Siege Tank, with the ability to root himself in place to drastically increase the range of his magical bombardments. He is naturally tanky with the ability to convert his AP in armor, and features plenty of combos and stuns to keep his enemies at bay. When combining his ultimate with his range increasing stance, he can truly be considered one of the most dangerous sniping champions in the game. Your turrets will no longer keep you safe against Xerath.

 

 

Let’s take a closer look at his skills:

Ascended Form (Passive): Xerath feeds on arcane power, making him increasingly resilient to physical harm. He converts a percentage of his Ability Power into Armor.

 

Arcanopulse: Fires a long-range beam of energy, dealing magic damage to all targets hit.

 

Locus of Power: Xerath anchors himself to a source of magical power, increasing the range of all spells and granting him bonus % Magic Penetration. Although he is immobilized while Locus of Power is active, his movement speed increases upon disabling the ability.

 

Mage Chains: Deals magic damage to an enemy and marks them with Unstable Magic. The next spell Xerath strikes this enemy with stuns them.

 

Arcane Barrage: Calls down a blast of arcane energy, dealing magic damage to all enemies in an area. May be cast up to three times before going on cooldown.

 

 

As you can see from this tool kit, Xerath excels in a long battle of attrition versus a foe. Those unable to spike him down quickly will inevitably be destroyed one poke after another until forced to either B or feed him a kill.

 

 

In other news, this patch was less than stellar in balancing as Riot doesn’t want to rock the boat too hard before a few of their upcoming tournaments. However notable nerfs were sent to Lee Sin, Morgana, and Singed, taking away a little bit of their bite from their most overpowered skills.

 

 

For a full review of this patch, keep an eye on OnRPG for Jason Harper’s upcoming Xerath review!

Blacklight Retribution Announces CB Date

Blacklight Retribution Closed Beta Announced

 

 

Perfect World Entertainment unveiled today that its upcoming, next-generation first-person shooter, Blacklight Retribution, will be going into closed beta on November 10, 2011. Select players will be invited into the closed beta on day one, followed by additional waves of players in the following weeks.

 

 

“The development of Blacklight Retribution has been a hard earned labor of love and after receiving praise from both fans and media, we’re confident that our work will pay off,” said Jared Gerritzen, Creative Director at Zombie Studios. “Closed beta is another step towards a game that we know people will have a great time playing.”

 

 

“We’ve been looking forward to getting Blacklight Retribution into the hands of gamers, so we’re excited to open the game up to thousands of players,” stated Andrew Brown, Executive Producer for Perfect World Entertainment. “We are confident that many gamers out there will be pleased and will finally have a real first person shooter experience in a F2P environment.”

 

 

Blacklight Retribution has already been the recipient of several awards, including “Best Multiplayer” from Machinima during the game’s showing at PAX Prime, and Most Valuable Game from PC Gamer while at E3. OnRPG covered this game in great detail at PAX as well so be sure to read up on our coverage.