Monthly Archives: June 2013

Star Trek Online Reveals Upcoming Dilithium Mine Starbase

STO Dilitihium Mine

Cryptic Studios has revealed the first details on the next expansion to their recent Star Trek Online Starbase update, allowing various players to work together to build the equivalent of scifi guild halls. The newest addition is based within Vlugta asteroid field and offers you and your associates access to bonus dilithium mining missions, expanded refining caps, and plenty of related discounts.

STO Vlugta Asteroid Interior

Players will be able to access the physical location near the Beta Ursae Block though a transworp option will be unlockable as well. Full details are available now on their official site.

League of Legends: Aatrox Upon Thee!

By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG MOBA Reporter

 League of Legends Aatrox Review @OnRPG

 Aatrox is an aggressive bruiser that uses his own health to fuel his abilities. His jungling capabilities aren’t terrible, but he’s better suited to top lane. Given he relies on a similar three hit system, players accustomed to Jax or Xin Zhao will likely adapt to him the easiest.

 

Pros:

High damage (Both sustained and burst)
Good sustain
Reliable escape
Increased range on his ult mitigates his kiting problem
Snowballs hard from an early lead, becoming a strong split pusher

 

Cons:

Unreliable crowd control
Must commit wholly to a fight, as his CC and escape are the same ability
Easily kited, even after using his CC (mitigated by his ult)
Is hurt badly by a poor start

 

Ability Summary

League of Legends Aatrox Blood Well

Blood Well [Passive]: When Aatrox uses an ability that costs health, he places a portion of the health lost into his blood well. If he dies, his health bar will refill equal to the amount that was previously in his well. This has an equivalent cooldown to Zac and Anivia’s passives. He also gains attack speed based on the amount of health in the well.

 League of LegendsAatrox Dark Flight

Dark Flight [Q]: Jumps Aatrox to the target area, damaging any enemies hit. Enemies in the centre of the blast will be knocked airborne. The way he moves during this ability is unusual, as he moves just off the ground, waits for a moment, then surges forwards. Getting the timing down so you actually hit people can take some getting used to. The delay will still hinder you even once you’ve got it down, as it lets your enemies know what direction you’re jumping, giving them a split second to dash out of the way.

 League of Legends Aatrox Blood Thirst

Blood Thirst/ Blood Price [W]: Enhances every third auto attack made by Aatrox. Blood Thirst will return health, with a massive bonus to his health gain if his health is low. Blood Price will dramatically increase his damage, but will cost him health every time it’s triggered. Use the first to farm, and the second to kill people, blow up towers and get fast jungle clear times.

 League of Legends Aatrox Blades Of Torment

Blades of Torment [E]: Slow moving skillshot that fires two converging projectiles. Damages and slows all enemies hit. Not likely to hit unless you’re firing it from point blank due to its slow animation and lethargic projectile speed.

League of Legends Aatrox Massacre

Massacre [R]: Deals damage in an AoE around Aatrox. He gains an attack speed steroid and greatly increased melee range for the duration of the spell. He can hit at far as Quinn or Teemo while he’s in this form, while still being treated as melee.

 

Aatrox Combos Shenanigans

Combos & Shenanigans

Switching between Blood Thirst and Blood Price can allow you to get the drop on your enemies in the lane. Hit a minion twice in Blood Thirst before quickly switching to Blood Price as you leap at the enemy with Dark Flight and hit them with the third strike, doing a great deal of burst damage. Slow enemy for good measure, hit them until they’re dead. Maybe switch back to Blood Thirst if you think you need to stay alive. Use your ultimate for additional damage, or if you’re being kited.

 Aatrox Top Lane Showdown

It’s very important to establish lane dominance as Aatrox as quickly as possible. Having your jungler gank for you early is a must in order to succeed, since Aatrox needs to snowball in order to be relevant in a match. Once he gains the slightest advantage he will stomp down on his lane opponent hard, but if he loses momentum early on he’ll drop into a cascading failure state that’ll last throughout the game. While warding up the entrances to your lane is pretty common advice, Aatrox cannot even afford to let his lane entrances go dark during the early game, as a single enemy gank will turn the match into a 5v4.

 

If he does get the edge though, Aatrox will not be stopped. He can split push incredibly hard, smashing structures down with Blood Price in seconds, then quickly healing off the next minion wave. Any attempt to stop him will result in him either slowing this would be ganker before flying off, or just straight up murdering anyone who gets too close. While he’s not bad to have around in a team fight, his ultimate certainly gets better the more people he has around, he’s best suited as a duelist and split pusher, so he can take full advantage of his combination of high auto attack damage and sustain.

 Aatrox Dragon Fight

His itemisation also should factor in if he’s ahead or behind. When behind, he just needs to stay alive and not feed, so he just needs to tank up and be as little a burden to his team as possible. When doing well though, he can go full bore damage, act nuts and rely on his passive to keep him alive whenever he goes balls deep. His recommended items list is a good starting point, but he needs to prioritize his purchases depending on how well the lane goes.

 

League of Legends Aatrox Dark Flight Issues

Conclusions

His looks don’t go beyond ‘Super Sentai Demon Guy’ and his personality isn’t anything beyond what you’d expect. Aatrox is the poor man’s Khorne, with nothing to set him apart, either visually or thematically.

 

Mechanically he’s bland too. The only thing that makes him mildly interesting is his ability to turn into a ranged character when he uses his ultimate, but even that’s covered by Kayle, who can pull the same stunt at level 1. If you’re someone who’s absolutely dedicated to playing as three-hit proc melee auto attackers, but don’t like how awful they’ve been in season three, perhaps, maybe, you’ll give a damn about Aatrox. The silly thing is though that the way Riot decided to fix the problem with melee auto attackers is to simply go “Ehhhh sod it. Let’s just make him ranged sometimes”. Ah yes, the best way to avoid a problem is to avoid it completely. Genius.

 

His general power is also too erratic to become a staple in anyone’s collection. Having a character that either steam rolls the enemy based on an early lead or becomes completely useless from a single misstep can’t be most people’s idea of a great time. He’s a blast to play in the former scenario, but you’re going to loathe him in the latter.

 

Aatrox Final Verdict

Final Verdict

Boring dull dull boring zzzzzzzzzzz. Bed time.
To discuss Aatrox yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section, or post in the comments section below. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, you’re missing out.

Shaiya Under Siege in the Iron Invasion

Shaiya

 

Rally to defend the Goddesses and the land from mysterious metal invaders! Aeria Games, a leading global publisher of free-to-play online games, has announced the Iron Invasion, the latest content update for the fan-favorite massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Shaiya.

Dangerous mechanical monsters have appeared in the battlegrounds and begun to ravage the land. Their motives are unclear and their origins are a mystery, but they present a deadly threat to all the native inhabitants of Shaiya. Caring little for the conflict between the Alliance of Light and the Union of Fury, the iron invaders must be stopped by members of both factions.

 

Shaiya

 

Aside from their newfound enemies, players will find plenty of features to keep them busy. New quest scrolls that can be purchased from vendors provide instant rewards upon completion without the need to return to an NPC. In addition, a bingo event now provides special stamps for the completion of quests, providing the chance at even more lucky rewards if players complete their cards.

Player vs. player (PvP) fanatics will also find a new world of convenience with the addition of an instant PvP button that allows characters to instantly travel to an active PvP zone within their level range. Intense battles with the opposing faction are now only a click away!

 

Shaiya

OnRPG Shotgun News 6/18: Neverwinter, Seal Online, City of Steam, and ArcheAge

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Mistress of News

 

Alchemy Coming to Neverwinter

Unstable Potion

Neverwinter is just a couple of days away from the introduction of Gauntlgrym, the new end game pvp and pve content. But that isn’t all that will be coming, a new profession will be added as well. Alchemy will allow you to make a variety of potions ranging from Potion of Stamina to experimental potions which could do horrible things or grant fantastic boosts. Alchemy and Gauntlgrym will be available on June 20th.

 

Seal Online Re-launching

Playwith Interactive has announced they are re-launching Seal Online as Seal Online: Blades of Destiny. The grand opening is set to take place today. There will be grand opening festivities so be sure to download the new client before launch.

 

City of Steam Introduces MOBA Style Gameplay

CoSMoba

Everybody loves MOBA, the latest evening comedy on OnRPG. Okay, I kid, but you may have noticed MOBAs spilling into your MMOs recently. WellCity of Steam has joined the pile. Patch 1.3 will introduce The Siege of the Spire, a MOBA inspired PvP arena. This was revealed today in an all new dev journal where they also talk about bare-chestedness, if that isn’t enough to make you curious I don’t know what is.

 

Onrpg E3 Update

Today we have for you a 12 minute long video from E3 which features ArcheAge. In this one we get to see character customization, farming, and learn a bit about being a pirate. Want to hear more? Check out the video.

E3 2013 Black Desert – Closer Look

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG/MMOHuts General Manager

 Black Desert E3 2013 Early Access

Last week I wrote up a brief overview of our E3 2013 interview with Brian Oh, Pearl Abyss’ CFO, on Black Desert. Well now that the rush of E3 is over I had a chance to upload a massive series of new screenshots (sorry Firefox viewable gallery only. We’re working on it!) along with a more in-depth look at the features that combine to make Black Desert one of the most unique looking worlds ever brought to the MMO sphere. By the time you’re done reading, you will understand just why Pearl Abyss is the developer with the vision to change everything!

 Black Desert World Vision

Introduction to Pearl Abyss’ World Vision

For starters do you know anything about Black Desert? If not it’s key to know this game is aiming to be the definition of the often used yet almost always improperly labeled “Next-Gen” MMORPG. Console level graphics, smooth action gameplay, and huge castle raid PvP battles set the stage for a game that introduces elements such as real estate management, item manufacturing, dangerous transportation of goods, and plenty of other elements to make the world feel vibrant and realistic. However don’t confuse realism with tedious gameplay elements as many sandbox titles before it have failed to understand. Players will be able to hire NPCs to take care of some of the less enjoyable elements of crafting while they focus on the action and fun!

 

In terms of combat itself, it’s important to understand that quite a few members of the Pearl Abyss team were involved with developing C9. As such you can impact real impact to follow attacks with a physics engine capable of rendering these animations in real time in an open world setting, rather than C9’s instanced system. This action physics combat system is obviously very cutting edge and wasn’t even a possibility during C9’s development era.

 Black Desert Impact Combat Physics

Now if you’re worried that by the time Black Desert reaches the west (an understable concern since sometimes it takes up to four years after Korean launch for some MMOs to hit stateside and even longer in Europe), there’s a key element that will leave you waiting for Black Desert. This isn’t another Unreal 3 or CryEngine MMORPG pushing FPS engines into the MMO realm. Pearl Abyss built a custom engine from the ground up to allow for their large scale castle siege system to take place smoothly in a persistent world. Their current challenge now is scaling the engine to run smoothly on lower-end PCs without ruining the beautiful experience that high-end PCs can currently experience in the game.

 

One of the primary limitations so far seems to be limited to land-based combat only. Though Pearl Abyss won’t count out future water or air combat systems, they currently are focused on trial and error tests to get the core combat system up to the “Next-Gen” level before even considering it.

 Black Desert Roleplaying

Roleplayers and those that prefer to know what kind of story exists for the setting can expect some rather typical elements such as ‘two nations’ and ‘endless war.’ This exists between the spiritually focused citizens of the Kingdom of Valencia against the materialistic Republic of Calpheon. These two nations have recently begun battling for control of the world’s most powerful resource, Black Stone, found within the expansive desert that separates the two nations. However where you would expect players of these two nations to be locked in endless faction war, Pearl Abyss seems to hint at plans that taking sides between the two nations might not be as black and white as one would expect. Yes Pkers that means open PvP is included with assuredly some limitations involved. Overall the focus on warfare between guilds will be the primary storyline of the game, created by the players – for the players.

 Black Desert World Setting

Pearl Abyss is aiming to set their title in a world not unlike the period of transition from the middle-ages to renaissance in Europe and western Eurasia. This is well represented in the cultural differences driving the two nations apart as well as the technology, fashion, and siege weaponry you’re going to come across in your travels. The choice of placing the majority of the world within a vast desert was done for the purpose of capturing an atmosphere of harsh mystery and ancient ruins waiting to be discovered. Combined with the addition of magic and war over resources should strike the playerbase and send chills down your spine as great treasure or murderous foes might wait behind each sand dune.

Black Desert Character Creation

Customization and Character Creation

While Brian Oh revealed to me during our E3 interview that various classes would be locked to set races, it’s good to know that this likely won’t be the case for gender. Beyond just aesthetics, they intend to have subtle differences between how male vs female versions of the same class play out, though it’s so early in testing that nothing definitive can be offered.

Black Desert Female Archer

Black Desert Male Archer

As for actual facial and body customization to differentiate your appearance, Pearl Abyss is willing to give players as much freedom as possible without distorting their vision of Black Desert. That means you can count oblong heads, distended arms, and other unnatural oddities out. It’s worth noting that until they lock in regional publishers in the west, they won’t know for certain if the character creation will remain the same as its intended version in Korea.

Black Desert PvE Combat

PvE, Progression, and Mounted Combat

In terms of party balance, you can expect a similar philosophy to C9 in that the dedicated Trinity is off the table. They believe all players should be focused on dealing some sort of damage while using skill and smart placement to survive long enough to overcome their foes. They’re also not fans of stealth mechanics in a siege focused PvP title like this but are listening to player feedback and might consider testing it if demand is high enough. Though its hinted that some classes will be superior at blocking or have more skills related to dodging, so that may play some part in considering who is on the frontline vs hiding in the shadows when it comes to fighting major monsters in the game.

Black Desert RPG Progression

Surprisingly for a title pushing the envelope in so many areas, Pearl Abyss seems to be taking a more modest approach in actual character building options. Players will progress and learn more about the endless war through a series of questlines that will level them up while opening up various class-based skill trees to learn new abilities from.

Black Desert Field Dungeon

Beyond standard quests, you will be able to stumble across plenty of challenging instanced dungeons as well as open ‘field dungeons’ more commonly referred to in the west as public quests since they’re essentially dungeons with no loading time or player number limitations when gaining access. It should be noted that a variety of dungeon styles will exist from the simplistic kill and conquer dungeons to escort missions and even some totally off the wall concepts like saving cats stuck in trees or catching fleeing bandits. Through these means and other undisclosed options, players will eventually hit the soft level cap of 50 (ETA 1-2 months). Dedicated players can continue to obtain new skills beyond this but at a more exponential experience curve.

Black Desert Action Combat

When transitioning these skills into actual gameplay, they believe in avoiding an overly tiresome Action system akin to fighting games since an MMORPG will likely require longer hours of gameplay compared to a title like C9 where you just need to jump in for a quick scenario. As such dodge/defensive skills are mapped to Q, E, and R by default and have a much more forgiving window of dodge/invulnerability compared to C9. Stamina limiters will be rare on these defensive skills (I’m assuming this means you’ll be more concerned about cool-downs than needing to choose between offensive vs defensive skill use), in an attempt to keep the action combat system less complex for users. Fighting game style combo systems will be toned down versus C9 as well to prevent ridiculous 50+ juggling systems in exchange for more blunt and powerful hit vs miss skill shots.

Black Desert Mounted Combat

In our recap article I mentioned that mounted combat would be a huge part of the game that could be individually leveled up and mastered given enough practice. Now it seems that bonuses to your standard abilities can even be attained from higher levels of mastery such as knock-downs/stuns. Given castle siege will involve breaking through enemy barricades and defensive fortifications, it will be vital for members of your guild to master high speed mounted combat to utilize hit and run tactics to break these barricades down with minimal casualties. Though due to the high mobility these mounts offer, the hit box measured on ranged attacks will be more forgiving than some other titles in the action MMO genre. Granted with enough numbers you can just pull ladders up to your enemy’s walls and scale right into the archers’ sniping spots.

Black Desert Player Housing

Housing and Guild Systems

Being a sandbox title, it makes sense community will play a huge part of your experience in Black Desert. This comes primarily from the housing and guild system.

Black Desert Military Camp

Guilds come in three formats, namely Militaristic, Religious, and Trading. While details on the religious faction are still pretty scarce, the militaristic factions will focus their resources on improved castle siege mechanics while trading factions will be involved in delivering goods for the auction system and producing more efficient crafting stations.

Black Desert Crafting Stations

And yes you read that right. Large material purchases must actually be delivered by caravans that can be intercepted by less scrupulous players looking to make a quick buck. This is likely where having a few good mounted combat specialists is going to make the difference between a happy customer and a negative complaint on your trading company!

Black Desert Guild Housing

In terms of guild housing, this ties directly into the housing auction system. Every 3 months players can bid to own property in one of the many cities of the world. With this housing site you can choose to establish a guild hall, or outfit the building into one of various merchanting shops with specialized equipment to produce finer crafts. This will combine with a player’s personal crafting mastery to decide success and processing speed of building various items. Players can also choose to circumvent caravan transports by hiring NPCs to sell goods within their shop directly to visitors. And when you log-off just lock up your shop’s doors to keep your wares safe till you return.

Black Desert Housing Status

Though be warned housing is not for everyone. They’re looking to provide between 1k and 2k total houses per server which they estimate will only be 25% to 30% of a server’s population. Those looking for extra storage will need to set up mobile campsites. Again, details limited and still being tested on said mobile campsites.

Black Desert Tent Community

Needless to say, Pearl Abyss is pushing the boundaries of what most MMO gamers considered possible. Can they pull it off? What would you like to see included? Feel free to visit our community forums and ring up a conversation with others on this fascinating upcoming MMO.

Black Desert You Shall Not Pass

OnRPG Shotgun News 6/17: Salem, E3, and The Division

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG News Watcher

 

Paradox Handing Over Ownership of Salem

The permadeath, crafting MMO is exchanging hands as Paradox wipes its hand clean of the game and suggests that it needs a bit of time to mature. It will enter the hands of the two man development team that is the developers Seatribe. Paradox is offering free silver and a discount on the Paradox web shop to existing users. Seatribe will take over on July 8th.

 

E3 Updates

Be on the lookout every day this week as we get video from E3 prettied up just for you. And if you’re a bit behind in our coverage of E3 be sure to check out the E3 Coverage post on the forums with a complete list of all OnRPG’s E3 work so far.

The first comes from the FFXIV: ARR booth where DizzyPW gets in over his head against an Ifrit elemental.

Petition to Bring The Division to PC

Impressed by Ubisoft’s announcement of The Division at E3? Depressed because it is set to be console only? Well you aren’t alone. As of now nearly 60,000 people have signed a rather simple petition to Ubisoft to get The Division ported over PC. And rumors are floating around the internet that Ubisoft themselves are encouraging people to sign it. So what’s the harm? You might even get to see an awesome new MMO on PC in the future if it goes well. https://www.change.org/petitions/ubisoft-release-tom-clancy-s-the-division-for-pc

Age of Wushu Expansion Trailer Revealed: Become Legends

Age of Wushu

Information from E3 is coming in at full force for the new Age of Wushu expansion, Legends of Mount Hua, including a brand new trailer. Check out the video and more expansion details below:

Mount Hua Competition

The top players on each server fight amongst each other for special titles, costumes, and the famed Heavenly Sword. Let the world of Jianghu know of your name and have them tremble at your might.

Yanmen Pass

A new instance takes players all over China through 5 different story lines, each with significantly different gameplay. Includes the Wulin Line, Village Line, Defender Line, and 2 other unannounced.

 

 

Sixteen Prefectures Battle Arena

Experience huge 80+ player battles in this new Battle Arena. With multiple ways to gain victory, different tasks to accomplish for each player, and various difficulties, use your own power to make a difference.

Ultimate Scroll Skills

Add new and deadly skills to your arsenal. Available only from each school’s instance, these skills are guarded by powerful bosses, but defeat them and your domination of Jianghu will be that much closer.

Marriage

Marriage in Age of Wushu is a grand occasion that is celebrated by lavish parties, parades, and fanfare. It’s more than just a simple bonding between characters though, as players can receive new skills, titles, mounts, and more.