Monthly Archives: October 2012

MU Online Reveals MU:eX700 Plus Update

MU Online Reveals MU:eX700 Plus Update

 

MU Online

 

On October 10th (GST), MU Online, the pioneer of 3D MMORPG, will be continuing its legacy with wide range of exciting new contents update of level cap increase, User Interface redesign, powerful unique items, and much more.

 

 

In the MU:eX700 Plus update, the max level cap will be increased from level 700 to 702, along with the addition of new socketed weapons and item sets for each race. The items can be acquired by defeating monsters at certain level zones across the continent of MU. Also, there will be a new type of ‘Wing’ in the update, which is one of the symbols of the game. Four new types of the ‘Evil’s Cursed Wing’ will enable players to empower their characters with enhanced defense, aerial capabilities, and aesthetic visuals.

 

 

Additionally, User Interface will be redesigned based on players’ feedback for the convenience of players. Players will be able to easily check the Health Point of Monsters and party members with the new status bars, and there will be several other improvements such as more visible speech bubbles.  Meanwhile, together with the update there will be events such as experience boost and item giveaway promotion worth $200 through its partners.

 

 

Jihun Lee, Head of Global Publishing, said “We are anticipating MU:ex700 Plus update to provide improved gameplay experience with exciting and fun contents.” He also said, “Various events such as item giveaway promotion will ease the adaptation of newcomers to fully enjoy the game.”

SOE Partners with Wikia for Planetside 2 Community

SOE Partners with Wikia for Planetside 2 Community

 

 

Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE has joined forces with Wikia, the collaborative media company, home to some of the largest fan communities on the Web, to launch the first-ever ‘Wikia Official Community’ for the highly-anticipated MMO first-person-shooter (FPS) PlanetSide2. Under the new partnership, SOE and Wikia will collaborate with the player base through official Wikia communities to empower players to help each other succeed in games, and offer them another direct line of communication and support to SOE’s Community and Development teams. PlanetSide 2 players and Wikia users will also be offered a wide range of exclusive and unique official content, such as videos, interviews, chats, game guides, and more.

 

 

“Teaming up with Wikia was the natural next step for us in providing the necessary tools to further embrace and empower our players,” said John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment. “This new partnership is truly about community collaboration, and Wikia’s reputation and respect for its dedicated global network of players offered the ideal platform for SOE to further support its players and the community. We are excited and looking forward to the creative and compelling ways fans will utilize this custom channel to expand community engagement outside of the game.”

 

 

By publishing official and community driven content alongside actual game development, SOE is forging new territory by endorsing fan communities to create, engage and collaborate around their favorite game with the developers throughout production. SOE and Wikia are working together to develop and design the official PlanetSide 2 wiki that will allow fans and gaming enthusiasts to contribute unique and valuable content on a regular basis to be seen by the community at large. The partnership and official fan wiki will allow both companies to embrace and further empower their communities by creating a meaningful two-way flow of valuable information.

 

 

“We are thrilled that SOE, which understands the power of the community, is launching their first of many official communities amidst our very enthusiastic and knowledgeable network of fans,” said Craig Palmer, CEO for Wikia. “As our lifestyle, gaming and entertainment communities continue to grow and populate, we look forward to an active PlanetSide 2 community as a model for the best user generated collaborative content on the web.”

 

 

As part of its dedication to supporting existing community efforts, SOE has also designated EQ2i, one of the longest-running and well-populated Wikia sites, as its official Wiki for the popular MMO EverQuest® II.

 

 

“We want to work with vibrant, existing Wikia communities at the grass-roots level,” said Linda Carlson, Director of Global Community Relations, Sony Online Entertainment. “Partnering with sites such as EQ2i serves to recognize and support the efforts of thousands of dedicated fans on Wikia, be they individuals, guilds or fan-sites. It’s about time, and we can hardly wait to get started!”

 

 

The Official Communities will complement Wikia’s already recognized 250,000+ wikis on the site, ranging in subjects from pop culture, fashion, TV to sports. Wikia Video Games is the leading source of global video game content on the Web today and is home to some of the largest video game communities, accounting for over 50,000 gaming wikis and 2.48 million pages of gaming content, averaging over 25,000 user edits each day. The Wikia Official Community will utilize new curation features, while continuing to engage players in traditional wiki formats around large-scale and social video gaming.

OnRPG Shotgun News 10/10: TSW, LOTRO, PSO2, and Much More!

OnRPG Shotgun News 10/10: TSW, LOTRO, PSO2, and Much More!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

The Secret World Director Reveals Chainsaws and More

Joel Bylos may have only recently taken over as Game Director but he’s always been a part of the team behind The Secret World and today he’s outlined some future plans for the game which include the much theorized about second auxiliary weapon which is a chainsaw. For roleplayers they’ll be opening up the Albion Theatre in London complete with a stage players can use to act on. All of this will come in Issue 4, titled Big Trouble in the Big Apple. In addition there will be the highly requested reticule combat. A live stream on Friday will show off some of the shiny new toys to come.

 

 

Phantasy Star Online 2 Reaches A Million Users

Sega has proudly announced that Phantasy Star Online 2 has reached 1 million registered users in Japan. To celebrate the occasion a month of events has been planned which includes screenshot competitions, in game giveaways and more.

 

 

LOTRO Riders of Rohan Soundtrack Launches on iTunes

 

 

The soundtrack to Lord of the Rings Online’s fourth expansion Riders of Rohan has been released on iTunes. The soundtrack is said to reflect Tolkien’s Middle-earth. You can purchase the soundtrack in the iTunes store for $9.99.

 

 

Riot Games Wins LeagueofLegendsporn.com suit

Only a few months after having won a similar case Riot Games, the makers of League of Legends has won the lawsuit it had against porn website leagueoflegendsporn.com. The studio is now the owner of domain.

 

 

Champions Online Gets Vehicles

Champions Online has announced several new vehicles for players to use. These vehicles will have attack capabilities with the primary example of vehicles the Hover Tank. There will be two varieties of the tank as well as a Grav Bike which will also come in two varieties.

 

 

Artix Entertainment Celebrate 10 Year Anniversary

The makers of HeroSmash, DragonFable, and AdventureQuest have announced 10 year anniversary celebrations which spans across all six of  their major titles. Details are being kept secret right now but players are encouraged to log in to each game.

 

 

Star Trek Online Announces 1,000 Day Vet Reward

Starting today long time fans will have access to the new 1,000 day veteran rewards. This includes a new Chimera Heavy Destroyer class ship for Federation, the Peghqu’ Heavy Destroyer class ship for Klingons, as well as a new title and a free Starship slot.

 

 

WarTune Reaches the 1 Million Mark

Reality Squared Games has announced that their browser fantasy game WarTune has hit the 1 million registered users mark since it’s launch last month. Since then it has had to open 16 to accommodate the huge growth in active users.

 

 

Arcane Legends Trailer Debuts

The latest game in the famous Legends series has released a trailer which shows off the mobile MMO.

 

 

 

Ragnarok Online Releases War of Emperium

A new update has come to Ragnarok Online titled War of Emperium. With it comes guild vs guild competion, Transcendent classes, upgrades and more. Special events will be announced on Ragnarok’s Facebook page.

 

 

MU Online Unveils Major Update

Webzen, the makers of MU Online has revealed the next major update to come to the came which is titled MU: eX700 Plus. Highlights of the update include a raise in the level cap, a UI redesign, as well as new powerful items and more. While the level cap has been increased from 700 to 702 Webzen is working on developing MU2.

 

 

PlaySpan Hacked, Millions of Accounts Leaked

PlaySpan, which is the marketplace for thousand of games, many of them MMOs has been hacked. Millions of IDs and passwords have been leaked. There has been no evidence that credit card, debit card or pre paid data has been accessed. The firm has locked all marketplace accounts and is asking all users to reset their passwords. This includes World of Tanks, Eve, Aion, Guild Wars and many others.

 

 

DCUO Launches Update 19

The DCUO servers will be down for 5 hours today while Update 19 is applied. The update brings new alerts, an updated tutorial and lays the groundwork for the Halloween event which starts next week.

WoW Wednesday – Level 90! Now what?

WoW Wednesday – Level 90! Now what?

By Meredith Watson (MerryQuiteContrary), OnRPG Warcraft Reporter

 

 

It has been less than a month since Mists of Pandaria has been released and yet almost everyone has at least one level 90. So now that you’ve been hurled towards the end game and find yourself level 90, what do you do?  The best place to start is with a combination of dailies, scenarios and heroics with the final goal of raiding.  Or not.  There is always PvP.

 

 

Dailies

When you reach level 90 you will undoubtedly notice that several quest hubs light up like Christmas trees with yellow exclamation marks indicating that you are destined to do dailies a) until the next expansion, b) you rage quit or c) find that you just can’t be bothered anymore and go find something else to play.

 

 

As the name suggests The Tillers are all about farming and can be found at Halfhill in the Valley of Four winds. You will have encountered them at around level 86 while doing cooking and farming quests.  Supposedly this is one of the hardest factions to gain reputation with. Not only will you get rep with The Tillers but also with individual members of this faction leading to more rewards.

 

 

The Anglers are a group of fisherman hanging out on a wharf in Krasarang Wilds. The Anglers’ quartermaster is none other than Nat Pagle himself and also has a personal reputation bar. Once you are his best friend additional rewards become available.  Rewards for reputation with The Anglers include a water strider mount (exalted), fishing raft and a selection of fishing poles.

 

 

The Klaxxi are a faction of bugs (Mantid- large praying mantis) in the Dread Wastes.  Klaxxi offer a selection of level 450 rare gear that is purchased with justice points. Once revered and with valour points level 489 epic legs and waists can be obtained. At exalted the Reigns of the Amber Scorpion became available. The Klaxxi have blacksmith plans for sell once honoured.

 

 

You can find the Golden Lotus in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. The Golden Lotus offers some valour point gear (rings, chests, and shoulders) with an ilevel of 489 as well as tailoring and leatherworking patterns.  At exalted the Riding Crane can be purchased and comes in a variety of colours.

 

 

The ninja like Shado-Pan can be found in western Townlong Steppes. The Shado-Pan sell epic ilevel 489 trinkets, backs and head slot pieces as well as some transmog and justice point items. The Shado-Pan Riding Tiger and a few enchanting recipes are also on offer.

 

 

Completing dailies with the August Celestials can get you epic (valour point) bracers, gloves and boots. Once honoured, rare gear can be purchased with justice points. The daily quests will take place in one of the four temples. In addition to gear the August Celestials also have some enchanting recipes for sell.  The exalted mount is the Thundering Cloud Serpent. More of the serpent mounts can be had by doing dailies with the Order of the Cloud Serpent. You can find the Order of the Cloud Serpent in the Jade Forest at the Arboretum. The Cloud Serpents are the same model as the Thundering Cloud Serpent but come in different colours.

 

 

Scenarios

Scenarios are instanced, story driven, three person PvE events.  Like the dreaded PuG it is a crap shoot as to who you will end up running with if you don’t have a premade.  The other day a friend and I were in a scenario with a balance druid who wasn’t in moonkin form and whacking things with his/her staff.  Now, I realize things have changed but I don’t think they’ve changed that much. Scenarios have phases which are essentially a series of tasks to be completed culminating in the final phase which is seemingly the most difficult.  Scenarios do not need a healer or tank but do require some teamwork. Rewards for scenarios consist of some valour points and a small chest which normally has around 30 gold in it. There isn’t a lot of incentive to run scenarios other than a handful of valour tokens as the gold is usually less than one repair bill.

 

 

In among all these dailies and scenarios you will run heroics, which aren’t as punishing as they have been in previous expansions, over and over until you hit the magic ilevel score you need to raid. While all this seems rather daunting there is some good news. That good news is that there are some planned changes coming in how reputation is gained. Reputation gain will become easier for alts and mains alike. Once a character becomes revered with any given faction, other characters on that same battle.net account will gain double reputation for that faction.  For example, my priest is revered with the Klaxxi (she isn’t) and my rogue is honoured (she might be). My rogue will gain double reputation when she works on Klaxxi rep because my priest has already gained revered with them.  Not only will my rogue get double reputation but the priest will also get double reputation with Klaxxi as she heads towards exalted. This should help ease the pain of the reputation grind to a degree. It is still a grind any way you look at it though.

 

 

Congratulations on getting to 90 by the way.

World of Warplanes CB Preview

World of Warplanes CB Preview

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Airplanes have always been fascinating machines in my eyes; since I was a little boy I liked to play around with my airplane toys and pretended it was me flying high in the skies. When I got into the closed beta for World of Warplanes I was full of joy, reliving my younger days in a much more high tech and interactive way! What can be better than that? Of course these planes pack heavy lead to shoot down the rival fighters in the sky. It’s no longer kiddie games and imagination, WoWP has brought the experience to life!

 

 

From the makers of World of Tanks, World of Warplanes throws you your pilot goggles and thrusts you straight into your first plane. After a quick but challenging tutorial that is. In the first tutorial you will learn the basic controls of the game and your skills are tested to see if you are capable of flying a plane on your own. Your plane will be completely controlled with the use of your mouse, an odd feel for those used to more average FPS titles. I recommend people with a lower sensitivity setting on their mouse to crank it up because flying a plane is no joke. In the tutorial I had a tough time adjusting, often letting the test pilots escape in embarrassing fashion. Luckily slowing down or speeding up the plane is done with the W and S buttons, two vital operations that you’ll be glad aren’t related to the mouse considering how much control is already given to it. Mastering this unique control system is vital to overcome other players in this PvP focused title where every second can mean the difference in victory or defeat.

 

 

When I finished up my third run with the tutorial I was happy to test my skills against real people and see if it was as hard as I thought. At first you start off with a simple plane; you are given three types of airplanes that belong to three nations. You are given a plane from the USSR, the Germans and the USA. All these three types of planes branch off into three type of planes that all have a different use in the game: there are fighters which are mainly used to shoot at the other enemy airplanes, and then there are heavy fighters which do have more firepower but usually have to compensate in speed, and last there are the ground-attack planes focused on taking out heavily fortified ground objectives that can win the game for your team under certain conditions. All these airplanes start out as rank 1. The ranks are really important when you are going to search a battle. Since everyone starts out in the first rank you will have no trouble finding any match whatsoever, but if you have played for a while and have a plane in the higher ranks you might want to reconsider sometimes and take a lesser plane to the battlefield to find a match faster.

 

 

After I was done admiring the smooth details of the three planes it was time to see which one suites me best so I could plan out my future upgrades. I’m a big fan of the fast-paced action the fighters bring to the table so I researched their tech trees first. In the techtree you can find the airplanes of the same nation that you can unlock if you play with one of the planes. If you have gotten yourself enough points with one of these nations you are able to unlock higher ranked planes (usually representing the evolution of each nation’s planes through the 20th century. There is however one important choice you have to make because each one of the nation planes branches off into two different playstyles: the first one is usually focused on the Fighter airplanes and the other branch usually is focused on one of the other two. I decided to go with the USSR because of their small frames and sleek design.

 

 

In my first game I played I was shown that this game is not to taken lightly and that it is absolutely no joke to fly your own plane. World of Tanks was always known for its hardcore competitive audience and many of them seem to have transitioned well into this second rendition as even the level 1 opponents were going full force against me. Stick with your team at all times or you’ll find yourself isolated and barraged with led as soon as you find yourself flying in the wrong direction. In the start of a game each team is set to a flying start on one side of the map until everyone is loaded into the game.

 

 

The second the timer reaches zero your adrenaline will rise up and you see your fellow comrades flying with you in a V-line. Unfortunately this is also the moment you need to be on your game the most because some people just want to see the world burn and will veer off in random directions, resulting in immediate crashes that take you and them out of the battle. So if you want to have a good time and enjoy a good fight, please watch out for each other as it’s hard to overcome a brutal start with 2 to 3 of your teammates going down in flames before a single bullet fires. When you are in range of the enemy, hell breaks loose, formations falter, and most planes break off into 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 firefights with plenty of tail chasing. I quickly learned why they circled around because flying in a straight line will get you killed, and unlike the tutorial, your enemy knows how to shoot back this time.

 

 

Bullets are flying left and right of my plane as I try to bring someone in front of me down while some German plane is on my tail. It’s difficult to describe in words the challenge of shooting down a plane while dodging bullets yourself as your guns and evasion maneuvers are both functions of your mouse. It can be done properly, but believe me when I say this game has a steep learning curve and high skill ceiling. After a couple of minutes I managed to get the hang of it and I got to land a few money shots.

 

 

One thing that is absolutely amazing in this game is the realism. If you hit someone you will actually see the bullets go right through the carcass of the plane, and if you hit them right in the engine, smoke will come out and give you a sign that your enemy might be in big trouble. When smoke turns to fire you can safely assume your kill is secured, however this sense of victory is often short lived. People that are behind you and on your tail are extremely hard to get rid of without help from teammates. If you find yourself in a 1 on 1 situation, my best advice is to just fly like a maniac, looping loops and dusting close to the ground in the hopes that your opponent makes a fatal error before you do.

 

 

Graphics

World of Warplanes is an absolutely amazing and worthy to share the same grounds with World of Tanks. The detail in this game is something I haven’t personally seen before in this genre, and every bullet that deals damage is shown in realistically as your opponent’s plane struggles to stay in flight. With my killer computer I still had trouble running this game on the highest graphics, even though it is still in closed beta, you will require a proper computer to run this game. I am sure they are tweaking with graphics settings and code to improve the experience for lower end PCs prior to launch. To run World of Warplanes you will need the following system requirements:

 

Operating system: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor (CPU): 2.2 GHz
Memory(RAM): 2 GB
Videocard: GeForce 8600GT or ATI HD 2600 with 256 MB
Internet connection speed: 128 Kbps

 

As you can see, anyone that has bought a computer in the last couple of years will not have a problem running this game; it does still ask something out of your system so try to avoid too much multitasking on your processor while playing.

 

 

Conclusion

Even though World of Warplanes is still in closed beta, it looks like a finished game. I personally had a blast flying around in my plane shooting led at the enemy while dodging all sorts of incoming attacks. As an airplane freak I really liked all the types of airplanes Wargaming has painstakingly recreated based on the real things. As a graphics fan I was greeted with a beautiful looking game that properly renders any damage dealt to make your planes feel like real vehicles and not just metallic placeholders with an HP bar. If you consider yourself an FPS master and want a new challenge, or have just been waiting for a higher quality F2P fighter plane title to emerge, the wait is over. Wargaming is set to score another strategic victory when World of Warplanes emerges commercially later this year!

District 187: Sin Streets Arms Players With New Weapons And Maps

District 187: Sin Streets Arms Players With New Weapons And Maps

 

District187

 

CJ Games Global, today announced the open beta servers for its FPS, District 187: Sin Streets are now live. Open beta introduces three new maps and four new weapons and the introduction of the District 187 development blog.

 

 

“With our community’s continuous input and the tireless efforts of our developer CJ GameLab, we are able to move into our final testing phase before the launch of the game,” said Jon-Enée Merriex, Producer, CJ Games Global. “We aim to make District 187 a compelling, competitive shooter for casual players looking for a few quick matches or hardcore gamers looking to rack up kills.”

 

 

Three new maps in District 187 unfold for open beta, offering carefully crafted landscapes to optimize attack strategy and execute opponents. The new maps include:

–       The Factory
A new Bomb mission map; players can detonate or defend within the confines of a once thriving factory, destroyed after the Worker’s Revolution. Eyes in the back of your head recommended.

–       The Sewers
Hunt. Kill. Repeat. Once a playground for the criminal underworld, the sewers of District 187 is now a battleground to chase and evade through maze like tunnels and water wells. Get sprayed by water or by bullets.

–       SS Steuben
In the air, land and sea, corruption reigns. The SS Steuben, perceivably, a harmless, old cargo ship, is actually a vessel for drug and human trafficking. Rally allies, check every corner and pile up the kills before time runs out. Tip: Don’t fall overboard.

 

District187

 

The open beta build bolsters the weapon load out options with a new set of guns. Pick up the semi-automatic Desert Eagle and offer the opposition 50 calibers of an explosive good time. Or, serve justice in the form of a body shredding, double-barreled Winchester shotgun to the face and go on about your day.  Along with two more weapons, the level of explosive gameplay will be raised from intense to cutthroat.

 

 

The CJ Games Global team will begin regular broadcasts on its official Twitch channel. In addition to gameplay footage and offering tips and tricks for the game, the stream will be an open forum for Q&A’s with the team. Players can tune in to the first broadcast on October 19, 2012 at 3pm PST by visiting  http://www.Twitch.tv/CJGamesGlobal.

 

 

“We’re going to be very interactive with our fans as District 187 is essentially their game,” said Merriex. “In addition to the regular streams on Twitch, we’re going to keep our players up-to-date with our new developer blog with regular updates by members of the community, production and development team.”

OnRPG Shotgun News 10/9: RIFT, EVE, Arctic Combat, and Much More!

OnRPG Shotgun News 10/9: RIFT, EVE, Arctic Combat, and Much More!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Rift Announces 1.11: Tempest Rising

Trion has announced that update 1.11, Tempest Rising is coming to RIFT in early November. With it will come the huge worldwide soul reset as every soul sees huge changes in preparation of the level cap change and addition of new souls. A four phase event leads up to Crucia, the dragon of air being unleashed. Anyone who has preordered Storm Legion will get early access to the first dungeon in the expansion, Exodus of the Storm Queen. As is Rift tradition there will also be a free weekend from November 7-11.

 

 

EVE Store Closing Until 2013

CCP has announced that the EVE store would be closed on the last day of October and stay closed until 2013. They’ll be spending the time upgrading and revamping the store. A massive sale is going on now until they close the store or as long as supplies last.

 

 

Arctic Combat Announces Second Closed Beta

 

Starting tomorrow players will once again have access to Webzen’s Arctic Combat in another closed beta event. The regional qualification tournaments for North America and Europe will also be held. In addition two new maps will be revealed and the newly added customization system will be in place to give players even more variety than before. A new clan system is also being added which is hoped to enhance team based gameplay.

 

 

The Colonial Age Comes to Forge of Empires

 

InnoGames has added a new age to it’s new browser game Forge of Empires. In the international version of the game players will now be able to travel beyond the late middle ages giving them access to new technology, weapons and units. The update will be following soon for German and French audiences.

Citadel of Sorcery Interview – The Revolution Begins

Citadel of Sorcery Interview – The Revolution Begins

Questions by Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

Answers by Philip Blood, CEO and Director of Game Design at MMO Magic, Inc

 

 

Hey this is DizzyPW bringing you an early discussion with the developers at MMO Magic on a title long overdue in the stagnant MMO industry. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of false promises in the past of ‘real game changers’ that are ‘set to alter the ways MMOs are played.’ Sad fact is this usually translates into ‘hey we have one really cool new feature’ along with a safe build that has shown to be moderately successful by the dev’s competitors.

 

 

As such when I started reading last week about an indie title named Citadel of Sorcery, I went in skeptical and left their site intrigued. Here we have a team of industry professionals that know what it’s like to live under the thumb of The Man when trying to bring their own vision of a game to life and finally set out to design their own independent project to free themselves of these shackles. Let’s get into it and learn a bit more from the devs themselves on what sets Citadel of Sorcery so far apart.

 

 

DizzyPW: Hello thanks for contacting us about your title, Citadel of Sorcery. Can you introduce yourself and your role at MMOMagic?

 

Sure, my name is Philip Blood, and I’m the CEO and Director of Game Design at MMO Magic, Inc.  I’ve been making computer games since the early 80s when I programmed my first game.  I’ve since worked my way up through the industry doing almost every job, until I became a Producer and Lead Designer at two game companies.  About eight years ago I formed MMO Magic, Inc. with some other long term game industry veterans.

 

DizzyPW: You have quite the back story on how this project came to be. Can you give us a short summary of MMOMagic’s history?

 

Well, at the roots it started when John Savage and I started talking about how the MMO games were not living up to their potential.  We felt that MMO games were stuck on giving you the latest graphics and a lot of players together.  The makers of these games felt that this was enough, but we were unsatisfied by the game play.  At the time I was the Lead Designer at Prolific Publishing, and John was the Art Director.  We started talking to other game industry people and they felt the same way.

 

The problem wasn’t in designing a better game, any long term player of MMOs can tell you that they want more game play and less grinds and repetitive tasks.  They can describe how they want a unique experience in a living world.  The real issue was simply that the risk in developing the technology and new kinds of tools that can create this kind of persistent living world was, in a word, risky.  We even approached our boss, the CEO of Prolific Publishing, Inc. Reichart Von Wolfsheild, with an idea for an MMO.   He looked it over, agreed that it was fantastic, and basically told us that it would take ten years to make and millions of dollars.  He couldn’t put his entire company’s financial future on hold that long, footing all those costs, to see if it could be done.  You know what?  He was absolutely right.

 

So I went back to doing smaller and more typical games for publishers and dreamed of making the game I always wanted to play.  The opportunity came along later.   I gathered a bunch of like minded industry veterans, designed a new MMO (even more innovative) and showed that initial concept to them.   They loved it.  But then I explained a sad fact, that no publisher would risk financing this game, they would have to see it working first.  We would have to self finance the millions of dollars it would take to at least reach Alpha.   This included writing a new kind of game engine and tools from scratch, before we could even start on the game.   They believed in the design so much that they agreed to spend the next few years of their lives making the impossible… possible.   Not one of those original core team members has left, and we have added a lot more people to the team.   And after eight years of self financed work, the MMO Magic team can see the end of the road to Alpha.

 

 

DizzyPW: Something I really love about your site CitadelOfSorcery.com is how important storyline and lore is to your team. Are there any particular sources you like to site that inspired it?

 

In this case I’m going to sound self serving, sorry!   I’ve always loved the fantasy genre, and besides Producing and Designing video games, I’ve found the time to write some fantasy novels.  My Cathexis and Nexlord series were the inspiration for the story behind the game, though this is a new story (not one of those from the books).  However, I would say that other authors influenced my ideas, authors like Steven Brust and Glen Cook, among others.

 

When it comes to stories, the Lore of the game is only the beginning.  Our world history will continue to evolve, and the Lore of the world will progress.  Player’s choices and actions will even have a hand in where that story goes.  To write our epic story and all of the amazing quests, we brought in other novel quality authors.

 

 

DizzyPW: You have some pretty unique races going on. It’s clear you went for the obscure just to further differentiate your title from the norm. What kinds of features do you have in place that may factor into a player’s decision of which race to choose (different stats, starting locations, looks, etc)?

 

Yes, we decided not to go with the Tolkien standard races (elves, dwarves).  This is NOT because we don’t like Tolkien; in fact, I would say that the Lord of the Rings books were the biggest influence on my choice of work in life.   We just felt that those races had been done so many times that it was time to add something new.  So we designed races from scratch.  Even the Gargoyles, though the name is known, are very different from anything previously done.  And Humans are quite a bit different.  In our world Humans are superstitious, but here is the twist, those superstitions are true!  You can learn to use them to your advantage.  We wanted Humans to be just as interesting to play as any other race, rather than the ‘vanilla’ type that other games generally paint them.

 

Each race has a useful feature as well as some role playing elements.  Gargoyles can jump from high places and also take some serious impacts.  They are very serious and militaristic, but if they ever eat cheese… well, it’s like a drug to them.  Verdurens have the ability to camouflage themselves any time they are near plants; they take the long view and are devious plotters.  Tyvens can see in the dark better than the other races due to their fox heritage, but tend to like things that are egg shaped.  Waerians have gills as well as lungs and can therefore stay underwater or on land for as long as they want.  They also think they are a bit better than the rest of the races.   And finally the Jenemos, they are nomadic, and tend to stay away from their own kind simply because they ALL have bad luck.  Fortunately, this bad luck tends to hit their opponents more than their friends or themselves.  But when it does come back to get them, they think that is hilarious.  These are just a couple traits for each of the races, there is so much more.

 

 

DizzyPW: On that note, what is the deal with the “Fallen Heroes” and what is the player’s overarching goal in the game? Also how does a character progress considering it’s a classless system?

 

Fallen Heroes are ‘Of the Blood’, which means they were descendants of the first sorcerer, and they have the power of Grim and Radiant energy.  Because of this, when they die their spirits go to the First Veil, the place where ghosts and spirits reside.  Other souls eventually move on to the second veil, but not those Of the Blood.  This is why they can be resurrected into a new body.  As a player you are one of the Fallen Heroes; fallen because you died in an evil place long ago called the Dark Halls.  But, your spirit is finally rescued and you are given a new body.  However, in exchange you are tasked with defeating an evil being called Morphael, who is capturing the free folk of the Reflected Worlds, altering and converting them into his slave creatures.  If that isn’t enough, the onetime center of ‘good’ in the world, the Citadel of Sorcery, put there to keep the demons from invading yet again, has fallen into darkness. It is the evil sorcerers who rule there now led by the Eyes of Darkness. They are the ones fighting Morphael.  You are asked to join the Citadel where you were once a Hero back when it was run by the Enchantress, but you must secretly work to bring down the evil sorcerers that now rule while also fighting Morphael’s forces.  Finally, there are the demons, they come from another universe and have broken into this one in several Ages, to feed on the life force of the people here.  You must keep them from gaining a new foothold.

 

Now, as to your character’s progression; in CoS we wanted to get you into the game as swiftly as possible.  So all you have to do to start is pick a name, and make a human body.  You don’t even have to remain human forever.  You don’t have to pick a race until you can learn more about each one, and you don’t have to pick a class, because we don’t have any.  Instead, there are five Leagues of Knowledge in the world: Spirit, Magic, Marksman, Hero and Shadow.  At any time you may belong to any one or more, of these Leagues.  Anytime you do belong to one, you may learn things from that League, what we call Abilities.  There are 1890 of these, and an additional 120 Uber Abilities, for over 2,000.  Though it is technically possible for a player to get them all, it would take so long that it is really unlikely.  Most players will get 50 to 100 over the lifetime of their character.   Each Ability is different; they are not power-ups of the same Ability.  For that, you can improve any Ability by study and practice.    You make your character into what you want it to be, by what things you learn, just like real life.   There are systems in place to create some specialties, but these are still by player choice.  However, if you just don’t want to work that hard to figure out what kind of Character you want to make, you can visit the University, where councilors will help create a curriculum of Abilities that will assist you in becoming one of their Cadres.

 

 

DizzyPW: How does this detailed story translate into game elements and features?

 

Every Quest is a full story, worthy of a novel or series of movies.  They are also customized to each character’s story.  When your character arrives in the world, their personal story will begin.   They will not be looking for NPCs that give out quests; our game doesn’t work like that.  Your story will just unfold, and it will be different from every other player.  When you finish a Quest, the next one will naturally flow into your story.  If you group with other players, your stories will meld for as long as you remain together, again, just like real life.

 

In a Quest (or any of the other multiple story types, some longer, some shorter) both you and the game will be making choices that change the path for the story.  There will be no useful walk throughs of a quest you can read, because they change too much.  These stories allow you to make important decisions and are non-linear.  They have a balance of combat and story, and they are a fully interactive plot.   You won’t be reading large chunks of text though; we want you to experience the story, not read it.  Every quest ends with an epic climax, just like every good story should, but it won’t come out the same for every player, and there are no redos. Your story is your story and no matter what, it continues on.   We don’t tell you that you failed or were successful; the outcome is just what happened in your personal story.

 

 

DizzyPW: I was sold on this game’s claim to an Earth sized world that changes dynamically on a day to day basis. How much can you tell us about this system and, for that matter, how is this even possible for a small studio like yourselves?

 

Automation.   That’s what makes it possible.  To build a world the size of earth using old methods would take 10,000 artists their entire life (likely more).   And before I get into the how we made this planet, it is important to understand that though neat, this really isn’t that important to the game.  The fact was, it was just as easy to make an entire planet as a smaller world, once we decided to make the technology needed to automate terrain construction.  The reason we went with a full planet was to have room to grow.  We hope to make several sequel games to Citadel of Sorcery right on these same Reflected Worlds, allowing players to take their character and move them onto these new games.  This is one reason we designed them to have no level restrictions and to keep learning, almost endlessly.

 

Now, back to the planet making.   We wrote a tool to create continents, and it naturally forms various biomes based on many factors.   Each biome is then detailed down to every known soil type for that kind of biome.  At that point we generate the actual planet, but it is like Mars.   We then have many systems that use a horde of algorithms to calculate Glacier, Wind, Water and Gravity erosion.  We accelerate millions of years of this and carve our world, as well as fill the oceans, lakes and rivers.  Next, we use a system we wrote to grow trees and other plants, right down to every blade of grass.  These are seeded in the world by the soil types and start to grow.  Because of how they were created, they will continue to grow as time in the game passes.  In the end, we have a full planet, unseen by human eyes.  We have to go explore it to even see what is there, and due to the size even years after it has released, there will still be places no human has explored.

 

This comes with some good and bad things, let’s start with the bad.  It’s TOO big.  Travel becomes a problem because of distance and time.  To combat this we divide the Reflected Worlds into Territories.  Players will adventure in Territories, and even help push their borders out with exploration.  This is that ‘good’ part of the full size world, exploration.  Players can explore… endlessly.  However, our stories will take place in settled territories where travel distances can be reasonable and encounters dense enough.  There will always be new Territories opening as the player progresses through the game.

 

We also had to make some new and interesting ways of traveling across this vast world, more on that another time though.

 

 

DizzyPW: Questing seems to be serious business for Citadel of Sorcery. What can players expect from quests that differentiates your title?

 

Well, everything?  Our Quest writers can write any kind of story for this game, so you will get to experience a wide range of different kinds of gameplay.   We created a tool set called, the Enact Tool Set, that allows a single Level Designer to take any story and put it into this world.  That tool is what makes the gameplay possible.   It controls how NPCs think, what their goals are in the world, their population densities, and what they choose to do each day (we can’t even tell you what they are up to!).  Enact lets us build a mystery, a war, a kidnapping, you name it, Enact can build it.

 

But at the heart of it all is choice.  Every time a player makes a choice the quest changes, but the game is also making choices, so you never know what is going to happen, and you will need to react to the situation.   You’ll need to make a decision, and then live with the consequences of that choice.

 

Here is a simple example:  You are sent to bring a small kingdom back under Citadel control.  Upon reaching that kingdom you are approached by revolutionaries that claim the king is working with Morphael.   They want you to help them kill the traitorous king and put their man on the throne, and he will agree to work with the Citadel.  Upon reaching the King, he informs you that the rebels are in league with an evil cult and are spreading lies about him.  He wants the Citadel to help him wipe them out.  At that moment the rebels attack and call for you aid in killing the king, and the king asks for your defense… what do you do?  If you choose a side, things will change; even if you choose not to take a side that is a choice, and things will change.   You will have to base your decision on things you learned along the way, but you will have to decide at that critical moment.  What you choose matters, to your story, to the future, and not just this one quest.

 

 

DizzyPW: It’s said that every NPC has a purpose and goal in mind. Considering the scale of this title that’s quite a claim. Can you explain this in a bit of detail?

 

We did away with the monster ‘grid’ system seen in most MMO games.  Grid systems place monsters in the world; you get close to them they attack, you kill them, and a few minutes later they pop back into existence, as if what you did doesn’t matter.  Instead, we wrote an automated system (part of the Enact Tool Set) that monitors populations in any territory.  It also creates objectives for monsters and other enemies and sends them off on their tasks.  As a player you will cross paths with these enemies at times.  This may mean you run into them, but even more often you will just cross their trail.  Tracking is a seriously important Ability in CoS, and we give it to every player as one of the ten starting Abilities.  You need it.  With Tracking you can see and learn things from those tracks, like who left them, where they are headed, etc.  From that you can guess at their destination and possible objective.  Example: You cross the tracks of 30 Recreated, and from the direction of their tracks you can look on your map and see they will reach a farm in a few kilometers.  Knowing that they are Recreated tells you they are hunting body parts to make more Recreated, and if they take that farm, they will likely take the bodies of the slain back to their hidden lair to build more of their kind.  You can then either ignore them, in which case if no one else stops them they will likely be successful, or you can track them down and do them in, or… even ride around in front of them and lay a trap or be waiting at the farm.   It’s up to you.

 

If you kill this group, Enact will know the population of enemies in that area has dropped and it will assign a new group to travel there, with a new objective.  These may be something completely different, and they will have a different objective.

 

 

DizzyPW: How about the MMO aspects of Citadel of Sorcery? What kinds of advantages do you have for player grouping? For that matter how is instancing used to maintain immersion?

 

Tactics.  Our monsters have varying intelligence levels.  This is extremely important to the gameplay and combat.  They will adapt and use different tactics based on this, and as players you will need to do the same.  Your opponents will use group tactics on you, and if you group up, you will be able to use them as well.  Combat with groups is far more interesting than a solo player, and with far more options.

 

But there is much more.  We have two types of Reflected Worlds, we call them Story RWs and Community RWs, both are full sized planets.  In SRWs, you and a group of up to eight can adventure in our deep story driven Quests, Missions, League Actions, Expeditions and Adventures.  These are so involved that we didn’t want other players in there with you to mess up the story.  However, sometimes players want to do things with more than eight people.  For that we have the CRWs, which are fully massive multiplayer.

 

In CRWs we offer different kinds of game play, each tailored to enhance group fun.  There are things such as Warfare, where a large objective of the war against Morphael is taking place.  Your group gets an assignment in the battle and you must try to succeed.  If enough groups work together they can win the overall objective.  In Incursions, multiple groups must work together to penetrate into enemy territory, like taking a string of forts deeper and deeper into enemy lands.  You must also hold the forts you have already taken.  The deeper you go the better the rewards, but the harder it gets.  Then there are things like Campaigns, where whole Guilds can take on an objective, or individuals or groups can join a Citadel run Campaign and work with a whole bunch of other players.

 

 

DizzyPW: With how important social aspects are in your title, do you have plans for player housing? Guild Housing?

 

MMOs are social, inherently with that many players in the same world, so we didn’t forget that.  We have made some really fun Guild and Player options for social aspects.   For example, Guilds can survey and then lease parts of the world.  There they may build and continue to expand and improve their Guild Hall over time.  They may also give or sublease land to their members, where they can build both housing and a business if they want.  This means that players will build their own villages and towns.  Other players (not in the Guild) may visit these towns to take advantage of the services offered by the players running businesses.

 

We also do not require players to choose a server, but allow them to switch to any server at any time, so they can play with whoever they want.  The only restriction to this is that Free to Play players can only switch between Free to Play servers, while Pass holders of the game may go to any server, including the Free To Play ones.   This way there is always a way for every player to get together with any other player.

 

 

DizzyPW: With how random your interactions with NPCs are, I feel like this game is very akin to Skyrim adapted to work in an MMO setting. As such, is there a primary questline a player can work towards, or is the importance all up to the player?

 

There is no primary quest line, as each player has their own personal quest.   There are no Quest givers, so you can’t go get a quest that some other player got from some NPC.  The personal story just flows forward for each player naturally.  Certainly we have some similarity to story depth with Skyrim, but really our system is completely different, because no two players do the same exact thing.  You have your own story.

 

 

DizzyPW: Well I’ve drilled you hard enough for information for one day. Wouldn’t want to spoil all the surprises yet after all. Anything else you’d like to share with our player base? Hopefully a rough estimate of alpha or beta testing?

 

We have no hard date for either one.  We are running a Kickstarter starter between about October 9th and November 9th, and invite you to come see the video that will show some of the Pre-Alpha game for the first time.  Since Citadel of Sorcery has been self financed from the beginning, the Kickstarter funds will help us to significantly speed up the march to Alpha.   Because we don’t know how much will be donated, we can’t yet predict the Alpha date.  Once Kickstarter finishes, we will have a better idea and could then estimate the Alpha test date.  The more we get, the faster testing will start.

 

 

DizzyPW: Thank you for your time and, more importantly, for your efforts to shake up the industry standards.

 

OnRPG Shotgun News 10/8: Primal Carnage, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy XIV

OnRPG Shotgun News 10/8: Primal Carnage, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy XIV!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Primal Carnage Enters Open Beta

The dinosaur/human multiplayer shooter Primal Carnage has entered Open Beta. Invitations will go out to those who have pre ordered the game first. Sign ups are also being accepted though you may not get in right away.

 

 

WoW Exploit Leaves Whole Cities Dead

Over the weekend an exploit left several cities dead on shards across World of Warcraft. It began on European shards where level one characters were instantly killing players and NPCs alike leaving entire cities deadzones. Blizzard has since reportedly fixed the exploit that made this possible and is looking into actions against anyone who took part.

Final Fantasy XIV Realm Reborn Alpha Coming This Month

Final Fantasy XIV Realm Reborn Alpha Coming

During a letter from the producer of FF XIV Realm Reborn it was announced that the Alpha would be coming at the end of October. The Alpha event will be considered a stress test for hardware, new server coding and much more. The exact dates of the alpha event will be announced as we get closer to the date.

MEAD: Storm Legion is Coming

MEAD: Storm Legion is Coming

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG RIFT Reporter

 

 

 

We’re about a month away from Storm Legion. Closed beta has officially started for anyone who has preordered. Which still isn’t me. I’ve decided to hold out for Walmart to get the cape I really want. Plus I’m not one to really play betas much. It ruins the surprise. What doesn’t ruin the surprise though is announcements of things to come! Recently there have been so many announcements you might almost feel like they won’t have anything else left to reveal. But knowing Trion there is always more. So since I’ve been a bit behind recently with the reveals I thought I would go over a few of the things that have been announced the last few weeks.

 

Tempest: Warrior Soul

 

 

The Tempest keeps the theme of air and lightening that Storm Legion has alive with it’s powers. Tempest is a heavy damage soul that gives Warriors the chance to have ranged attacks they never had before. Their abilities include some area blasts and mastery of illusions. But without their other souls the Tempest would be in trouble as it provides little in the way of melee attacks.

 

 

Tactician: Rogue Soul

 

 

Tacticians are a versatile sort, control over the elements with tools to lay down and forget as they go to work firing away at enemies and the ability to heal groups of allies. Tacticians are easily going to become a favorite for Rogues as they have a little bit of everything. Though they aren’t the best at single target, instead preferring to focus on the whole battle instead of just a part. It has been said that Tacticians pair very well with Bards giving a synergy between them with their heals.

 

 

Hunt Rifts

 

 

 

A new type of Rift is being introduced in Storm Legion. A type that will be exclusive to Dusken and Brevane from the sounds of it. The Rifts are giving you a chance to strike at planar commanders before they can unleash their forces on Telara. There hasn’t been a whole lot revealed about these new Rifts yet but it seems like they will be hard, harder than even the hardest we have now. And that isn’t just because of level differences. As you do more Hunt Rifts the harder they become. The later tiered “Great Hunt” Rifts will require approval and help from Torvan Hunters as well as the help of a large group of allies.

 

 

 

Closed Beta

 

 

 

The first closed beta weekend is now at an end. Sadly because of NDAs there won’t be any news coming out of them. But there are a few things we know. The first Beta event was called Crucia Unleashed. Highlights included the new souls, adventures on the new continents and the Exodus of the Storm Queen dungeon. The second beta will be called From Seratos With Love, while the final one is called At The Gates of Infinity. There aren’t any dates announced for the next two beta events but you can be sure that as soon as I find out they will be announced on OnRPG.

 

 

 

Weekly Live Streams

 

 

 

Starting on Friday this week and running every Friday up until the release of Storm Legion there are going to be regular Live Streams from the Trion studio. This week they will be focusing on dynamic content. That’s zone events, colossi, instant adventure, onslaughts, Carnage quests and all that other fun stuff that offers an alternate way to level other than the usual quests. It will begin at 2:30PM Pacific on Trion Worlds’ Twitch channel.

 

 

 

This is going to be an exciting and busy time for Rift players. Extra Life is coming up which means Walsingham will be breaking out his mead again. Halloween is nearly upon us. And of course no on can forget that Storm Legion is coming. Which means beta events, live streams and we still have one soul left to find out about. And I’ll be here throughout getting the information out as best I can.