Monthly Archives: May 2013

Age of Wushu – Has Snail Messed Up?

By Jordan Hall(ApocaRUFF), OnRPG Journalist

 

So it has been a little over twenty days since the official launch of Age of Wushu. So far, I am loving the game. I have almost no qualms suggesting it to anyone that loves PVP-centric gameplay, and I would be willing to debate with anyone that says the game isn’t great. Unfortunately, there is one thing that I just cannot defend, and in fact I even agree with a lot of people on. Snail has been messing up big time so far, and now that they no longer have the title of “beta” protecting their mishaps, people are beginning to get very angry.

 

I’ll begin with the recent big issue that everyone is still raging about. Snail made the mistake of implementing an automated system that would ban those that did the worst possible crime (in their eyes) and buy Taels, the in-game currency used to trade with other players, from third-party sites. Unfortunately, this backfired massively and hundreds of players were wrongfully banned for doing something as simple as selling a rare item for a large sum of money. To make this even worse, they were slow to respond when players began to cry out at being banned for no reason. They were even slower in helping those that were wrongfully banned, so slow that they are still investigating accounts that were banned today, well over a week after the incident.

 

Age of Wushu Angry Customers

 

I personally know several people who were banned just for selling rare scripts for a lot of money, and they are just now getting their accounts back. This has caused many, many players questions whether or not they can trust Snail. Some have left for games like Neverwinter, or even Darkfall: Unholy Wars. Some users have taken up arms and begun working on spreading awareness about the things that Snail has done or failed to do. As much as I love the game, I’ve got to say that these people were completely right in their decisions.

 

Age of Wushu OnRPG Forums

 

It’s not just this monstrous debacle with the mass-banning. There are other issues that are testing the patience of the players as well. One of the biggest strains is the fact that a majority of people, who live in North America, are getting pings that range from 400-800 on a regular basis. As I sit in the game, writing this article at 6:30AM, I am sitting at a near constant 403 Ping. This has me questioning whether or not the game server is even hosted on the North American continent. It’s very hard for most North American players in combat, and near impossible for non-North American based players to stand a chance.

 

Age of Wushu Bad Ping

 

A lot of people feel that it is quite obvious that Snail is more interested in punishing people for buying gold rather than stopping the botters or gold spammers themselves. Although, quite recently they did implement a feature to report spammers. And it actually works, at least during regular hours when support staff is available. And botters are still a major issue. For example, my guild mates have trouble finding open spawns of plants for poison making or herbalism because they are constantly being camped by bots. And you can’t kill the bots, because you gain way too much infamy and end up going to jail, or even being whipped and receiving a 24-hour -30% damage debuff if you’re part of a good-aligned school such as Shaolin.

 

Age of Wushu Reporting Spammers

 

On top of the possibility of being banned for simply trading with other players, on top of the laggy servers, on top of the near constant issue with botters and spammers. On top of all that, we still have issues with lack of information on the game and horrible translations. Every bit of knowledge I have gained about the game has been explained to me by other players – I have had no luck finding any official source of meaningful information. The translations, despite the game being in beta for months and having been officially released, are still bad, or even completely wrong in some cases. The most notable example of this, in my opinion, is the lowest tier divinator cultivation buff, which will tell you that it is for 450% when you receive it but is really only 10% when you actually look at the buff.

 

Age of Wushu Confusing Translations

 

There is one other issue that may or may not affect Snail and Age of Wushu in a bad way. Xsolla, the company that does Snail’s billing, has recently lost its ability to use PayPal as a payment method. When I spoke to a customer service representative at Xsolla, I was told that they are working to get it back, but could not tell me why it was gone or when it would be available again. For players like me, who prefer to use PayPal for online purchases, we will have to make a decision on whether or not to use some alternative means or just let it go and move on to a new game. I am still trying to decide on if I will trust my Credit Card to this company when my VIP runs out on the 17th and I need to renew.

 

All of this is adding up to giving players a bad experience and marking Snail Games with a bad reputation. I fear that if Snail does not get its act together and make some drastic changes – either on the Chinese side, the USA Side, or both – things will begin to fall apart and an otherwise great game will go to waste. And with it the time, effort, and dedication of thousands of players. Things are probably much better for players of the original version of the game, but for North American players it is quickly becoming a headache just to log on. It is for this reason that I am begging Snail to please, please make some changes and save this game from becoming another forgotten failed foreign project.

Anno Online Review – Finally Real Strategy in an Empire Builder

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

ANNO Online Review

It is no real secret that I have a soft spot for strategy and simulation games, and being a fan of the Anno series, I was actually really happy when I heard about the upcoming Anno Online. The past years have been a kind of renaissance age of strategy titles going massively online and after one clone too many it’s good to see high quality names like Ubisoft throwing their name into the ring. I was among the first to test out Anno Online in this early state. I jumped into the game eager to see if innovation had finally arrived in this typically cut and paste empire building genre.

ANNO Online Port Management

Now don’t confuse my eagerness for being overly optimistic. I know better than most of the cash shop heavy drivel that clones Evony in this realm of gaming again and again. Of the near endless wait times waiting at end-game for those who think they will play free forever. Not to mention the sheer lack of strategy or depth that comes with the territory.  But when I caught the first glimpse of Anno Online most of these fears completely disappeared. Anno Online not only looked fantastic but would stay true to the one strength the genre has right, being a free-to-play MMORTS that can be played on almost any computer in the house. In Anno, your goal is to get a gigantic empire by satisfying your citizens and working the land for resources. In your medieval city, you are the one to do it all. In most MMORTS games the game itself is very limited, build this and that and you’re already done with your first city, castle or whatever your starting land is. In Anno Online however, you won’t be done so quickly. In fact the surrounding s of your island matter a great deal and there is a learning curve that players who don’t do their research or properly plan their city layout may lack the sophistication in their city that more prepared and experienced players have accomplished.

ANNO Online City Placement

From the moment you have been given your grant of land, you will have to start your town from absolutely nothing but a harbor. There’s no cut and dry tutorial telling you to build X on Y; the freedom is yours to do as you see fit. Your first goal is to hark in enough citizens to acquire the first few goals that can definitely help you out in enlarging your empire early on. In Anno Online, you will actually have to wait for people to move into your little village; this involves making your town attractive for would be settlers or else the trickle of new population will drive you mad. As I said before, you really have to work with what you’re given because every citizen asks for something. Let it either be security, food or an occupation, the demands are various and must be monitored and met when reasonable. Since I was close to water, and had a forest nearby my place, I decided to get myself rich with food and wood planks, ensuring I could feed a large population that then could effectively use up my lumber to continue building new houses and other construction projects.

ANNO Online Midgame

Luckily helpful notices make micromanagement not overbearing on the fun. You will be notified if you’re slacking on something such as your warehouse hitting max capacity or your town lacking a needed resource. The buildings will show this with an exclamation mark so you know what has to be changed in your little village. Unfortunately since I was enjoying building my resource acquirement facilities, my warehouses couldn’t keep up with storage needs. This is where I discovered a vital strategy decision lacking in this genre. You can your facilities the day off and let them sleep so you can stop the inflow of too many resources, lowering the running costs as a result. There is another thing to consider when placing your facilities on your land. When you place them too close to each other, they might interfere with the amount of resources they can bring in. You simply can’t just have two fishing huts side by side and expect them both to bring in the maximum haul of fish. Scattering each resource building is key. Knowing the space required for each building and preplanning your construction is vital to running a successful metropolis. Even though I have played many strategy games, I built without thinking and soon found vast levels of real estate inaccessible.

ANNO Online Island Expansion

On your island there’s a lot of different sectors, at first you start on a small piece of land that can keep you busy for a few days. But after a few days you will need to expand your empire and this can be done by exploring undiscovered sectors around you. These exploring missions take quite a while, so do not forget them because it can delay the process for becoming the almightiest of all empires.

When you have become a little more advanced and your city is running, you are ready to start upgrading everything to a high level. The leveling system in Anno Online is so well done graphically that it’s hard to believe it’s happening in the F2P empire building realm. For instance a simple residential house goes from a simple hut made of wood, to a building made from stone. And slowly you will see your empire grow from simple men into professional architects. And the money you were making a few days ago? It’s now flowing in tenfold from where you began.

 

ANNO Online Review Conclusion

Conclusion

Anno itself has always been a wonderful strategy series that always had a strong community behind itself. This new game hasn’t changed at all, from almost everything in the game to the community, everything remained the same and the game is definitely still as awesome as it used to be. With that said I also have to give credit to the men behind Anno Online that really made the first online strategy game that actually feels like a strategy game. I’ve seen hundreds of online strategy games but they all felt like they were missing the key elements to be even remotely close to what I am used to in B2P strategy games. Anno Online however offers the depth and consequences in every purchase and upgrade you choose. Oh you made this road here and you found out you don’t have enough space or you cannot upgrade the farm you have placed there? Well that is your own fault and you should’ve considered that before. That’s the thought process you need to have in a strategy game, and Anno Online really does this well.

Defiance Renewed For A Second Season

Defiance Renewed For A Second Season

Defiance

Less than a day after announcing the first DLC pack for Defiance, the MMO news has come out that Defiance the TV show has been renewed for a second season by SyFy. Like the first this one will be a short 13 episodes long. Production of the next series is due to begin in August with it airing sometime in 2014. The DVD for Season 1 has already been given a release date of July 15, 2013 for Region 2, Europe.

Total War: ARENA

Based on the popular Total War series, Total War: Arena provides a whole new experience for players. Combining elements of both the RTS and MOBA genres, players pit their forces against each other in massive battles. Choose your favorite commander, build your forces, and use wit and strategy to conquer your opponents.

Features
Always Online: Unparalleled multiplayer action! Find a game at all times, and compete in epic battles!

Variety of Generals: Utilize your leaders well, and push your forces forward. Build an army capable of conquering all that stand in your way.

Unique Blend of Genre: Total War: ARENA blends both RTS and MOBA elements, making a fast-paced game, while still featuring the massive armies you’ve come to expect.

Kings and Legends Review – The Ascension of TCG RPGs

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

Kings and Legends Ascension

Playing with cards has always been something fascinating for me. From the outside it looks dull and just extremely boring but once you get to know the game better it is always a lot of fun. The introduction of Trading Card games to the PC however has really changed the limits of the genre by mixing elements of other games in with the standard card battles. Kings and Legends is a f2p example of just this where you can play your deck of cards across multiple lanes at the same time, keeping the action hectic and raising the level of skill required to be aware of the overall strategy being employed across the map. One wrong move can cost you the game, so let’s delve into how it plays.

Kings and Legends World Map

After you are done learning the game through the tutorial you will receive the tutorial deck to begin your journey. Unfortunately what I would like to see more in trading card games like Kings and Legends is the option to choose between multiple sets of cards or even different races. This would certainly spice up the play because when you are done with the tutorial you can basically already challenging people in the Arena to take them head on, and if they are new like you then it’s practically a mirror deck battle.

Kings and Legends Quest Results

In terms of more immediate customization you can choose a class to represent yourself. I chose for the mage to unlock a Fireball that I can shoot at people. This is obviously not the brightest idea to do because well, I can’t say I’ve won one battle with my starter deck. Since doing the quests and missions will give you more money and more available cards, it basically requires game time rather than tireless mastery of your starter deck to improve your fortunes in the arena. Now let’s discuss the mechanics of the game and how you can actually control the battlefield to your advantage.

Kings and Legends Starting Hand

The cards that you start with have a huge impact on the outcome of any match. It’s the most logical decision to place your meatiest card in front of all the rest of your army in an attempt to soak up the enemy’s initial assault while you prepare your real attack force. Ranged combat cards make a good addition to any formation but should be balanced carefully with melee cards as they can hardly stand up to any abuse once your frontline falls. While you might consider whoever goes first would have the advantage, a smart opponent will watch your movements and place their best offensive cards on your weakest lane to turn the tides. Besides the attack and life number stats, you also have to pay attention to the card rank; on the top of each card there is a number from 1 to 6 which at a glance gives you an idea of how powerful each card is. In addition to your class skill and the various cards fighting all over the lane, you will also have a Hero unit to manage.

King and Legends Battle 2

Kings and Legends offers typical MMORPG tropes such as looting items and collecting weapons and armor to boost the stats of your cards. Once I was satisfied with questing and had built a formidable deck it was time to try my  hand in the arena again. But if you’re still struggling be sure to make a daily visit to the City Hall where you will be given a daily income of Silver and Crystal. These useful resources can be used to buy better packs in the shop.

Kings and Legends City Hall

Now remember that hero unit I mentioned? Consider this the King piece on the playing field. The battle is won if you manage to defeat the opponent’s hero card first. This can either be done by destroying all the cards on the field or by utilizing cards with unique abilities such as my unicorn card’s ability to shoot past enemy cards to directly damage their hero. If you are not that big of a strategist or simply are too lazy like I sometimes, there is also a very useful tool for you while duking it out on the battlefield. You can let the computer automatically play the game for you. Yes that’s right, this useful feature decides every move for you. Though before you think this is an auto-win button, I have to warn that it doesn’t always pick the best moves, but can finish off a match against a lesser opponent once the battle is already heavily in your favor. Using it from the start of a battle usually resulted in failure in all but the easiest of PvE missions.

Kings and Legends Battle

If you are a card game fanatic but with there were more RPG elements involved, Kings and Legends will be the perfect combo for you. Unfortunately with every free-to-play there is always a catch when it comes to balancing the cash shop. In Kings and Legends you are able to purchase gold which can then be used to unlock packs in the shop. And if you want to unlock the better packs that have better cards and a bigger chance of rare cards, you will definitely have to throw your money over. The element of randomness involved at least doesn’t make buying power a 1:1 ratio so cash shoppers won’t always have a huge advantage. It’s not really any different than playing real life trading cards though so if you’re truly a TCG fan, you should check out Kings and Legends.

SMITE Tournament Series Begins With $2000 in Prize Money Every Week

SMITE

 

Hi-Rez Studios is expanding the SMITE eSports and competition scene with a new weekly tournament series.

Separate North American and European tournaments will be hosted every weekend, with $1,000 in weekly prizes for each region. Teams can register for their region and compete weekly against the best teams on their regional servers.

Games will be broadcast in English on the official SMITE Twitch.tv channel.

North American coverage begins at Noon EST every Saturday; EU coverage begins at 2pm GMT/3pm CET every Sunday. European tournaments will also be covered in German and Polish.

Hi-Rez has also launched a new eSports website to support sign up and tournament brackets at  esports.smitegame.com.