As expected the RuneScape Christmas event is here. Like for other holiday events in RS, you get a Christmas-themed quest called A Christmas Warble.
You'll return to the Land of Snow to see that Ebenezer Scourge has ruined the feast for everyone by stealing the presents and food, and by kidnapping Santa. Of course you can't let him get away with that, and with the help of the snow imps (from last year's event) you manage to save Christmas.
The reward for all this is pretty cool this year: the Christmas ghost robes, a candy cane and the new 'dramatic point' emote. Especially the robes look quite nice, but see so for yourself on the screenshots.
With this Wintersday, Anet has introduced a new feature to Guild Wars, namely costumes of Grenth and Dwayne. These costumes are just like fashion in Perfect World and are worn over your normal armor. They have no armor value or anything, just to look a bit different. These costumes can be worn at all times and you won't have to put them away in your bags when you don't want to show it anymore thanks to 2 new slots in your equipment window. One for hats, and one for the rest of the body. The one for your head also serves for your season, festival hats which no longer have to be worn as an armor. Like armor these costumes can be dyed in any color you like. Grenth and Dwayna costumes are available for purchase from the In-Game Store and the NCsoft Store.
There's a new quest-release on RuneScape: Blood Runs Deep. This quest continues the Fremennik storyline and will take you around most areas of the Fremennik Province. It starts out with a stranger washed up on the shore of Lunar Isle; and it's up to you to figure out who this person is. Eventually the storyline gets more complex and leads you to battle a new type of dagannoths.
The quest is rated 'master' so the requirements are kind of high for most players: 75 attack and strength, 65 slayer and full completion of the Fremennik achievement diary. Of course you get something in return for helping out; 3 times 150k xp in a combat skill of choice (unfortunately, excluding summoning) and a new axe called 'Balmung'.
Blood Runs Deep seems to be a fun quest to do. The reward is nice as well; the Balmung is quite strong and grants a damage bonus against dagannoths, the new dagannoths might be useful for slayer tasks and the free xp is always nice. So I'd say it's definately worth doing if you meet the requirements. Happy questing!
"A time will come when men will stretch out their eyes. They should see planets like our Earth." -Sir Christopher Wren on EVE Online: Dominion's gorgeous and reimagined heavenly bodies.
After launching the Dominion trailer, their video team took a bit of time to put together this beautiful, Sagan-esque tour of the new planets. Enjoy!
It looks like the guys at APB are now releasing a new podcast every 2 weeks. So, in this week’s podcast we hear from Lead Designer EJ Moreland and Lead Gameplay Designer Jesse Knapp who answer some of your questions in a Q&A session.
If you have any other questions, send them in to podcast@apb.com. You can also still subscribe to the newsletter and to the Beta-test of APB.
Due to EVE Online being one big sandbox, you can really accomplish whatever you set your mind to. Want to become a rich trader? That’s cool. A miner looking for that precious ore? Alright. A pirate armed to the teeth? Kickass! Whatever you want, you can be. But you’ll have to put some time and research into your first character when you’re going to create it. Of course trial and error works fine as well. But if you really want some help with it, you can best just make a character, find an outpost where you can apply to join EVE University. They help and educate new players in the world of EVE, and you will need it!
Every game has a learning curve. No matter how long you’ve been playing MMORPG’s, the first time login in a new world, you’re starting from square one, you’re a total noob. Some games, like World of Warcraft, have a much gentler learning curve, which allows players to learn in small steps. Also if you’ve played a particular style of game in the past, and the new game you’ve decided to play begins the same way, you’re already several steps ahead of the learning curve. But if you’re totally new to the whole experience, even the simplest game’s learning curve may be a struggle to understand. Now, EVE Online has a very distinct learning curve (see picture). And sadly enough that’s a reason why so many people don’t stick to it.
For exemple, PVP in EVE is not just strapping on some random guns to your ship and shoot at some other people’s ships. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the style of combat in EVE: you’re playing a game of strategic resource management. Your ship has a set CPU output and power grid that it can generate which allows for a variety of weapons, warp disruptors and more to be outfitted onto your ship. However, each of these weapons and other upgrades use a part of that CPU and power grid, which forces you to really think about what kind of equipment you’ll outfit your ship with.
Once the weapons and upgrades are fitted, you then need to fly out into the vast universe to find your next target. If you wish to be a pirate you just go into low security sectors. Though if you don’t want your security status to drop, you’re better of joining faction warfare, or go into 0.0. When I started I was in 0.0 in only a month time, I joined YouWhat. Sadly enough they lost all their space 1-2 months later to Triumvirate when they lost the war. Later on I joined IRON (Imperial Republic Of the North), and even had to pleasure of fighting in the MAX campaign-War against BoB (Band Of Brothers).
Anyway, so once you fly out the station, you find a system with potential targets. As you intercept your target, you need to first lock on to the target. Since EVE plays out in space with distances reaching kilometers apart, you don’t simply click on a target to lock on. You have to get close within range first before you can actually start to lock your target; the range will depend of the ship you’re flying. The weapons in EVE also have a range limit, and so a player’s best bet is to orbit a ship at range then unload on them with your guns. Though again you have to watch out, some weapons do better when you’re orbiting your target at their optimal range, while others are better used on their falloff range.
While that sounds simple, it is anything but. If you have more than one ship that you’re attacking, you may end up in a boat load of trouble in a hurry. Most ships only have a limited number of targets they can lock on to at the same time. Also, as your ship continue to get bigger, more badass and nastier, you’ll have a whole mess of weapons and boosters that you’ll need to keep track of. But I suggest you do that in advance as you will need to know pretty much what everything works, from how certain ship types are generally fitted to how you have to deal with them with the ship you got. Well, you don’t need to, but it’s pretty useful to know what you’re fighting, or what you can or can’t.
After 2 weeks of hiding in high sec and running normal missions, I thought I had everything well in hand to venture for the first time into low security; my rifter was loaded to the teeth, ready to fight. Damn was I in for a surprise. So, I sat there waiting for a target in a belt. Then all of a sudden an Omen (Amarr Cruiser) dropped out of hyperspace and boosted into my direction. So my first attempt of being a pirate out in the wild harsh space, turned out really bad… I was dropped to half armor, barely warped out of the area with my ship intact. I still wonder how I got out there alive because later on I flew quite often with the pilot of that Omen (Kane Rizzel was his name and one hell of a pilot).
If you enjoy role-playing and don’t think it’s possible in EVE Online, then think again by the way. I suggest you check his blog out! http://novakaneinc.blogspot.com/
Of course PVP is just one aspect of the game, but I didn’t find it interesting to talk about mining. And if I were to talk about manufacturing and stuff, it would take me too long. Anyway, for those of you who want to see some PVP or other things, you can just search a bit on YouTube, enough video’s and 101’s to find there.
Oh yes, this I forgot to say. EVE has this great Alliance Tournament on EVE TV. Even though I am not playing EVE anymore, I still watch the AT. So, big shout out to all there! :D And then I give you a video of last AT7: Semi Final - Pandemic Legion Vs. Manifest Destiny, to show you how fast things can go, and how tactics play a big role in PVP in EVE Online. If you don't want to watch it all, you can just go to minute 6:00 to 6:10 where you’ll get a nice quick reply of the match (rofl). Have fun watching!
That all said, good luck if you decide to try this game out. It’s really worth it!
Another update for RuneScape today; this time it's the slayer skill's turn. The update introduced Kuradal, the daughter of Duradel - the slayer master that lives in Shilo Village. Kuradal decided to follow in her father's footsteps and became a slayer master herself, you can find her in the Ancient Cavern.
To get a slayer assignment from her, you'll need to be at least level 110 combat and 75 slayer. This makes Kuradal the highest-leveled slayer master in the game. Obviously, you'll be asked to kill fairly strong monsters. Some examples are: abyssal demons, dark beasts, the more recent living rock creatures or even the level 702 TzTok-Jad (he falls under the TzHaar task and gives bonus xp).
There's also a new dungeon in the Ancient Cavern (Kuradal stands at the entrance). You'll only be granted access if you were given a slayer task by Kuradal, and you'll only be able to attack the monsters of your current task. Overall this dungeon seems awesome, because a lot of the most popular (and for that, crowded) slayer monsters are there in quite large amounts.
Experience the Races of Tyria, an incredible new video that looks at the five playable races of Guild Wars 2—asura, norn, humans, charr, and sylvari. Learn more about each compelling race or watch the video!
As promised, here's part 2 of our Renaissance Kingdoms article, I'll take over from my co-blogger Bart to tell you about the daily routine and new player experience. The reason for this is that Bart has been playing RK for years already, while I started about a month ago so that puts me in a better position to handle these subjects.
For those of you that know the game I'll quickly position my character in the game. I'm currently level 1, you could say I have about 1/3 of the requirements needed to level up. I have the clothing needed, now I just have to get all the money to train stats and to pay the fee for the Count's First Secretary.
Daily routine
As said in the introduction last week, you'll be mostly surviving at first and this is where the daily routine comes in. Survival is divided into 2 things: eating and working. In-game this translates to buying either bread or corn to eat, and checking the town hall's job offers or the mines for work.
Obviously you should try to stay alive; so eating and working has to be done every day. You can skip a few meals every week though, as long as you eat when your status is 'dying'. The only penalty for not eating is stat reduction, but when you start out your stats will be 0 anyway so it doesn't matter.
It's advisable to work every day though, as you'll need money to level up and buy new food (including the types of food that are used to train your stats). In the case that you won't be able to get online for some time, it would be cruel to let your character starve to death (resulting in severe stat loss) so the game provides the option to retreat in the Church ("Vacation Mode"). You'll get food during your retreat, but obviously won't earn any money.
New player experience
Shortly after you've created your account you'll get a message from your town's Mentor; the person that guides new inhabitants. But first, you may be shocked to find out that your look is decided at random, character customization would have been nice (I guess Celcius Online will implement this in the game some day though). Basically the message you get, gives you some info about surviving (pretty much what I've said above about the daily routine) to get you started.
Getting jobs in the town hall and buying/eating food is pretty straightforward, but (for me at least) it got more confusing when you want to work in the mines outside of town. Of course I had Bart to explain stuff like this to me, but I can imagine that there are quite some new players that may have troubles finding certain features in the game.
Something that bothers me more, is that all you need is just 2 minutes a day and you're done in the game. Sure, I know most of the game takes place on the forums but I'm not really into Roleplaying. I'm aware that I throw away more than half of the game by not going on the forums, but Roleplaying just isn't my cup of tea.
So the bottom line is, like Bart said last week, that the game by itself can't keep you occupied enough to stick around. Personally I couldn't imagine playing RK for years like Bart does, but again this game is all about the Roleplaying so if you're into that you'll definately like RK. The way I see it, the game mostly offers somewhat of a background for your roleplaying.
Well that's pretty much everything I can think of, please do share your opinion with us. In case you haven't already, you can read 'Renaissance Kingdoms (Part 1)' here.
RuneScape saw the release of a new quest today: The Temple at Senntisten. Noteworthy is that the quest rewards you with the ancient curses, a new set of prayers. Following Jagex plans of introducing more high-level content in the game, these prayers range from level 50 to 95. Unlike the different spell books, you can switch prayers easily at any altar in the game (spell books can only be switched at one specific place).
Most of the curses can be divided into 3 groups: sap curses (drain your opponent's stats), deflect curses (protect you from damage, like the standard protection prayers - but with a chance of deflecting some damage back to your attacker) and leech prayers (boost your stats, while training your opponent's stats at the same time).
Then there are 3 high level curses: wrath (lvl 89), soul split (lvl 92) and turmoil (lvl 95). Basically these are enhanced versions of the retribution, smite and piety prayers. In fact, all of the curses are similar to the old prayers, but they seem slightly stronger (and have higher level requirements). I'm not sure how fast these cursus will drain your prayer stat, but I hope the draining rate is about the same as the old prayers, otherwise you would need tons of prayer potions to use them.
With some delay a new podcast has finally been made by the guys at APB (All Points Bulletin)!
Like said earlier, this week we sit down again with Kitkat and take a look at the Enforcer organisations. Introduced in this podcast are 2 factions on their side: the Preatorians and the P Tigers. Also some more info is given about 2 key characters on the Enforcers side.
The Organizations of San Paro Part 2:
The next podcast will be another Q&A special so if you want your questions answered, send them in to PODCAST@APB.COM.
DOMINION represents the type of conquest never realized by pretty words and poetry. It is true power born from the broken hulls of a thousand starships, the genes of the ambitious and the hubris of the greedy. EVE's 12th free expansion offers the power of control to anyone bold enough to seize it, bringing you the tools for you to rally legions together and carve out your own space.
Will your ambitious new Alliance rise up to the challenge and stake their claim, evolving territory to suit it's needs? Will your established empire hold fast against the fleets that press at your borders, hungry for the wealth you protect? Will you call old friends to your side and convince them to join you once more in battle? Or are you the clever entrepreneur who sits clear of the danger and fuels the war from the periphery?
DOMINION enhances the tools of communication and evolves the dynamics of war, altering the very way in which pilots interact with each other through warfare or cooperation. The vast riches of sovereign authority await for those bold enough to seize them amidst a beautiful, deadly universe of possibility.
You begin in a small village with a few hundred other inhabitants. It will take you some time to fully get to know the game and to explore all the different things in Renaissance Kingdoms. But at the beginning, your first mission is to survive and to integrate yourself into your village. With the intention to let you learn/understand the basic mechanisms of the game, and to get to know some of the people that live in your town (make contacts).
Personal opinion and experience
When I started playing (in 2 weeks that will be 5 years ago), the game wasn’t as advanced as it is now. Though you still hear people complain so much about this is bugged and that needs changing… but I guess that says more about those people then the game. Anyway, we always used to say that the game was based on the forums because really everything used to happen there. You couldn’t fight wars with armies or anything yet, so people used to either just revolt in towns, or role-play (RP) it on the forums. Many other things also happen on the forum which can’t yet in the game, of which some things that I don’t like so much; for example wedding RP’s or baby showers.
These days you can do a lot more ingame, but you seriously can’t do without the forums. People who try the game and never go onto the forums will abandon the game in no time. Basically all you will be doing then with your character is feed it and work each day, and after a while you’ll level up. That sort of playing would only take 5 minutes a day from your time, can’t really call that enjoyable in my opinion. So, what I wanted to say is that if you’re not a role-playing fanatic you shouldn’t play the game. The quality of the RP’s goes down as people who aren’t playing the game for that reason jump in one of the open (or sometimes even closed) RP’s and go ruin it.
But I have to confess I don’t visit the forums anymore as much as I used to, mainly because I’m not RP’ing much since my character lives miles away from his wife at the moment. Hope that will change soon with the sea lanes they finally implemented a few weeks back. But I seriously don’t think so, I would rather RP on a private forum then. There are all sorts of reasons, but one of the main is that some people… well, to simply put it they can’t RP in the right time spirit. Maybe to come back on the wedding RP’s: you got people posting all kinds of pictures there in an RP. Ok, no problem you would think… yeah maybe not if electricity would have been invented in the Renaissance. Also fashion, god, I hate people posting these modern wedding dresses… even avatars or signatures on the forums sometimes annoys me. You go play a game that’s situated in the Renaissance, then play like you should and have your character live in the Renaissance.
Mayors and Councils
And that brings me to how the towns and counties are run. This is also done by players. You put up an election list for the county with some people, or you run solo for mayor as member of a party or an independent candidate. Now again, a large part happens on the forum and if you’re familiar with irl American elections you’ll have no problems getting elected. That said, mayor elections are held every 30 days, and council elections every 60 days. How you get elected? Well, the one with the most votes wins; so the more people vote for you, the better.
The county council is made up of 12 people who get to fill in different positions, all with their own specific task. In short: someone sits at the head of the table, someone take cares of the treasury and trade, someone is responsible for the mines, another for upholding the law, etc. And of course like in irl, you got elected people who are corrupt… like all of them if you ask me. Just joking, you got good people too. Either way, it pretty much works like it does in real life.
Laws and criminals
And like in real life, you have laws you have to obey. Of course some people choose not to and live the life of a criminal. Laws are written by the people in power, so like them, these laws can be really unjust. Until recently if you did something wrong and it was reported to the public prosecutor, you would be prosecuted and have had to defend yourself in Court by the push of a magical button.
There was little you could do to prevent it, of course fleeing from the county works to prevent this as they cannot file lawsuits if you’re not on their ground anymore. But the ‘police’ or someone else didn’t have to find and arrest you first, which isn’t really fair, so there was really little attraction to playing the bad guy.
With my character I used to be a big criminal too and luckily I’ve not often been victim of the magical button. And when I was, I used to go to the Court of Appeal and until now I’ve won each case there; mainly because I could always prove the judge was biased. But it sometimes is a drag, and I can understand why most people don’t take the effort of going there.
And again free only goes this far ...
Anyway, I said ‘until recently’ a bit earlier because they have added a new option you can unlock for a short period of time (20 days) with real life money. This option would make you invisible on the town’s list (when you’re in a town you’re name normally is on the list of inhabitants), and you won’t be able to be prosecuted.
Also there is a new option there that will allow you to change your name. Where as in the past you would have had to let your character die and start over (multi-accounting is not allowed). This option can only be used once a month though. And about changing your character’s look hasn’t been said anything yet, so if you’re not happy with how Jah made you, you’ll still have to let your character die to start over. But maybe that’s something for the future.
And next to that there were some other new good and useful additions to the shop. I think that’s great news… if you got a lot of money, or if you want to spend it on this game.
Part 2
I could say so much alot more about Renaissance Kingdoms because it’s pretty big, but I am going to end it here for now and I would like to thank you for still being here. :) Next week, we'll move to Part 2 then in which we'll say a bit more about the daily routine and the new player experience.
'The Guild' Season 3 Episode 12: “Codex flourishes as the hero” is now up!
Hoozah!
Online computer games are always so good to vent frustration and anger to some other poor person, work it out on them. :) Nice to see Codex do it too finally, instead of being her uncertain self. But go watch!
Something stirs in the Underworld. Something ancient, powerful, and utterly evil: Dhuum. Banished eons ago by Grenth, this dark avatar of death has bided his time and grown in power. Now, Dhuum is free!
Yesterday Anet has added this new end boss to the Underworld, only a couple of weeks after the nerf. New drops from the Underworld end chest are Dhuum's Soul Reaper (which is a gold inscribable scythe), and 2 new miniature pets: the mini Dhuum and mini Smite Crawler.
I haven't personally done any UW lately, but it takes about an hour or two to finish it. Not something I'll be doing any time soon with all the work I got. I can hardly be online for like one hour some days. So Anet really made it so that only people who have lots of time (or no life) will really do it more than once a day, which you will have to if you wish to become rich of it.
A couple of weeks ago I downloaded Runes of Magic (RoM) to try it out. I hadn’t really heard much about this game before, but seeing it’s free I thought I’d give it a shot. Before going any further I have to admit that I’m still a rather low level, as I didn’t had that much time to play due to schoolwork (and also because I restarted on a different server a week ago, after I discovered a friend of mine plays RoM as well). Nevertheless I have a pretty good idea of what the game has to offer.
Stats & gear
As you level up you will notice something: you don’t get any stat points to customize your character, meaning everyone of the same class and level as yourself will have the same stats. Stat customization in this game comes from stat-boosting runes that are placed on your armor and weaponry. Equipment is often given as a quest reward, so you’ll usually have decent gear just from doing quests. Of course there’s some high-end gear to be found (or bought) as well, but you’ll only be able to wear this at about level 50 (the current max. level is 55).
Armor and weapons can be upgraded by using the Arcane Transmutor, you unlock this feature as early as level 10 but it is advised to stay away from it until you have end-game gear. In case you were thinking upgrading gear is always better: you’re right. So why did I just advise you the opposite? The answer to this brings us to my next subject: RMT (Real Money Transactions).
Free only goes so far…
As said above, RoM is free but some things have to be bought from the item store, with diamonds or rubies, that are bought with real-life money. Examples of the things you can buy here are: Arcane Transmutator charges (hence why you shouldn’t upgrade lower level gear), the upgrade items you put on your equipment and permanent mounts (you can hire mounts for in-game money; these last for 15 minutes or 2 hours).
Luckily for those who don’t want to spend real money on the game, you can buy diamonds in the Auction House (they’re about 19k each on the server I’m on, making a permanent mount, other than the standard horse, cost over 5 million gold). But there’s also the possibility to buy some (e.g. no perm. mounts) item store-items with special tokens, which are acquired from doing daily quests (max 100 tokens a day). By the time you'll need end-game gear, you'll probably have a lot of gold (or at least will be able to earn it by doing instances), so getting diamonds won't really be a problem I think.
Now that we’re talking economics I have to say that this game has a lot of Real World Traders, who sell in-game money for real-life money. Don’t look surprised when you’re playing the game and suddenly see a whisper of someone offering to sell gold. Personally I get far too many of these whispers and got rather annoyed by them, but there’s not really anything you can do to stop it.
Combat
Of course combat is the most important of the game, and you pretty much get everything you’d expect. There are 8 classes, you choose one as your primary and at level 10 another one as your secondary. Based on that choice you get unique elite skills when both your classes are level 15, and a new one every 5 levels.
Leveling your secondary class doesn’t happen simultaneously with your primary. You’ll have to set your second class as your primary in order to level it. Gameplay-wise this means you’ll be level 1 again the first time you switch (something I didn’t expect to be honest). Results of this are that you won’t be able to use higher-level gear and that your health and damage will be considerably lower again. So basically you’ll need at least 2 sets of equipment. Besides the normal creatures, there are also bosses and instances. Of course there’s PvP as well (PvP servers).
Crafting
There’s also the ability to craft items and gather resources. Though less important than combat, this does add an extra thing to do in the game whenever you don’t want to do combat. Seems to me gathering resources is a fairly decent way of earning money, but the big gold is to be gained in instances.
Conclusion
Runes of Magic pretty much offers everything you’d expect to find in a MMORPG. Though you’ll eventually have to get diamonds somehow to get the most out of your equipment and possibly to get a permanent mount, you’ll be able to play for quite some time without ever spending real-life money on the game. Overall I like the game and I’ll definitely continue playing it.
Yesterday patch 2.1.3 was announced, along with 2 new mounts. I've waited with posting this news because the patch went live today, so now I can have a look at the patch notes to give you some more info.
New mounts
On the Runes of Magic (RoM) website there's currently a contest to win one of the new mounts: the Bladed Snake-Necked Dragon and the Furious Mammoth. The contest will run untill 20 November and the mounts are supposed to be released in the item shop 'soon'. Personally I think the new mounts look awesome (especially the Dragon) but see for yourself on these pics I found on the RoM-Wiki. I sure hope these mounts will permanently stay in the item shop after they're released, as I don't have nearly enough money to buy the required diamonds at the moment.
Patch 2.1.3
First of all, the new instance I talked about a while ago ( the Lair of the Demon Dragon ) is now completed and implemented in the game. Speaking of instances, some of the ones that existed already before the update now gained new weapon drops (Forsaken Abbey, Necropolis of Mirror, Mystic Altar and Ice Dwarf Kingdom). So all of you raiders out there will be busy for some time.
Next is the addition of new elven elite skills for the levels 25 and 30 (since the elven expansion is still fairly new, elf players only had 2 elites so far - and they receive new ones occasionally along with content updates). I don't know the effects of the new skills yet, so be sure to keep an eye on either the RoM Forums or the RoM Wiki to find out what they do.
Last, there's an update on crafting. The userface has been made more user-friendly, with options to sort recipes (simular to the options you get in the Auction House). More important, you can now craft recipes without level restriction, having a higher crafting level now gives you more chance of making items with a higher rarity. Oh, and did I mention that you now need 30% less experience to gain crafting levels?
If you have any info about the new rewards for the instances or the new elites, please share it with us. Be sure to check in tomorrow when I post our 'review' of Runes of Magic.
'The Guild' Season 3 Episode 11: “LAN OFF” is now up! The Axis of Anarchy and The Knights of Good face off!
Still as nice and funny as always to watch! Go Knights of Good! xD Can't wait to see what happens in the next episode... kinda hope Tink will turn around... guess we'll see. :D
Potions and spells in RuneScape were updated today. First of all the update made the ‘extreme potions’ (high-level potions that offer a strong boost to your combat skills) available again in the safe PvP mini-games (Castle Wars, Soul Wars, Clan Wars Arena, Fight Pits and the Duel Arena). The RuneScapers among our readers will know that these potions were disabled for these mini-games shortly after being released a few weeks ago, due to the fact that they gave people with a high herblore level a considerable advantage over those who didn’t have access to the ‘extreme potions’.
Now you may wonder why Jagex would undo their update to keep the PvP mini-games fair, which brings us to the second part of the update; the way the extreme potions work. Strange enough only the extreme magic potion is mentioned in the update; so the problem of high-level herbalists killing people (even those with max hitpoints) with a single attack is back now. That said, let’s check out the updated extreme magic potion. Before the update it would temporarily give you a +40% magic attack. Now it will boost your magic by 7 levels (decreasing over time like normal potions), giving you a +3% magic attack bonus for every level. So basically the potion was weakened quite a bit.
It’s not all bad news for mages though, as the reason for the potion update was the introduction of new high-level spells (in the standard spellbook): Wind Surge (level 81), Water Surge (level 85), Earth Surge (level 90) and Fire Surge (level 95). All you need is 1 death rune, 1 blood rune (so yes; these spells are member-only if you were wondering) and some elemental runes.
The strongest new spell, Fire Surge, has a max hit of 28 without any boosts and goes up to 37 if you use an extreme magic potion and a magic-boosting staff. Overall an interesting update; I think this will give standard mages some more punch in P2P PvP-ing, with damage that can compete with the ancient spellbook. As some of the standard spells (teleblock and binds to a lesser extent) are a must for playerkilling in members, I think some ancient mages may switch their spellbook and use the new spells instead.
Please tell us your opinion about this update and in case you've missed our RuneScape article, be sure to read it here.
Capsuleers based in Belgium and the Netherlands looking to win some really cool EVE Online loot will want to check out MMOZone's EVE Online Dominion Contest. Simply answer a rather easy question successfully for your shot at one of three prize packages.
A new class has been made public again. This time it's a class on the Sith side: the Imperial Agent. The short description given on the website describes them as follows:
"Outfitted in the smartest, sleekest, high-tech gear, the Imperial Agent always has the right tools at the right time. Using their abilities of subversion and subterfuge, these covert operatives infiltrate and assassinate enemies of the Empire with deadly efficiency."
Now I checked the video's of their skills out, and I can't say I like the class. Ok, the stun and then one-shot is a nice one, but the other skills don't look that great. Putting a shield in front of you may seem useful, but it looked small and faced only one way. So, in a fast battle with flanking and all, you are going to be nothing with it... The Imperial Agent also can call in for air support; it's the usual bomb that area sort of thing. Can't say I like the animation on it, seems like the enemy will see they're going to be bombed and the area of effect seems small too, so I fear they'll just run out. Of course it might be a totally different thing when playing, just how it looks to me for now.
Yesterday 2 new classes were announced for Final Fantasy XIV (FF XIV): the Gladiator and the Pugilist. Both classes are based on melee combat and fall under the 'Diciplines of War' in the game.
Gladiator These are the expert swordsmen of FF XIV; they wear heavy armor and can cause serious damage with any kind of blade they can get (throwing knives included). Some Gladiators will use a shield in their off-hand for extra defense, others won't and will focus entirely on their offensive power. So basically you can become a tank, melee damage-dealer or something in between when you're a Gladiator.
Pugilist This class focuses on hand-to-hand weapons and speed. As a result the Pugilist has lighter armor than the Gladiator and will play more like a rogue/assassin kind of character in other games. Obviously Pugilists mainly go for high melee damage, but they have another weapon as well: the chakram. This is a thrown weapon that Pugilists use when they're not yet in melee-range of their target.
FF XIV is an upcoming MMORPG by Square Enix (possible release in 2010). It will be cross-platform (PC and PS3, maybe Xbox 360 as well - this is still unconfirmed) with monthly fees. Noteworthy is that you won't be stuck with a single class, but you can switch to whatever class you want to play at any given time if you have the right equipment for that class. This system means that there won't be any experience or levels; so obtaining strong gear will be very important for your character's development.
While Perfect World is free to play, the game relies on items sold into an IG cash shop (the Boutique) to make profits. Use of the cash shop is completely optional, but some items found there can improve your game play or make it easier, while other items have only cosmetic functions.
Watch the official trailer:
I played PW (Perfect World) for a few months in the beginning of this year as a Blademaster. I got to level 63 and then I quit, not so much because I didn’t like the game, just that I didn’t have the time anymore (exams at the horizon etc). Anyway, I restarted last week and I was pretty shocked when I logged in. The game has changed drastically. It has turned into more of a P2P (Pay-to-Play) than a F2P (free-to-play). The economy is ridiculous! The in-game coin per gold ratio (1 gold = 1 dollar) is nuts! Seriously, when I left a gold coin was like 95-110k IG coins, now it is 475-550k… But of course the game is still free, you just need gold coins to buy stuff from the Boutique. You can survive without, but other players with money will have an edge over you. That said, let’s take a look at the game.
Races & Classes
When starting the game you’ll start in any of 3 different beginning areas depending on which race you choose to be. Humans and Elves are a fairly standard fantasy race, but the Untamed are more an unusual race of half-animal humanoids (something like Taurens in WoW). Male Untamed are half animal and can hardly be customized; they're either tigers, wolves, pandas or lions walking like humans. The female Untamed look human, but have animal tails, ears or even antlers.
Next, PW has six classes. Class selection is linked to the race you pick: Humans can only be Blademasters (Support/Dmg Melee Class) or Wizards (Dmg Caster), Winged Elves can only be Clerics (Healers+buffs, but can also do a nice amount of dmg) or Archers (Ranged dmg), and Male Untamed can only be Barbarians (Tanks) and Female Untamed only Venomancers (pet user). For people who have played WoW: Venomancers use of poisons, tame pets and have the the ability to take on animal forms. So, they are like a mixture of a Warlock, a Hunter and Druids.
Quests
Through all the levels an annoyingly high percentage of quests are of the "kill sixty of this, collect seventy of that by killing this" sort. What's worse is that the quests are often not grouped to get a higher efficiency. When I was about level 20 and got to Archosaur (the biggest town), I was pretty annoyed by the quests there. You had to run for at least five minutes, then spend thirty minutes killing twenty-thirty of something then running back for five minutes to the NPC that gave you the quest only to be told that you have to run back to the same area again and kill thirty of something else…
At higher levels you will have mounts at your disposal, I bought my onyx jaguar (ground mount; you also got fly mounts) pretty soon because I hated the running all the time. But, back to the quests. As you progress in level you will have to kill more of something each time and to be honest it’s not the most fun way to spent your free time. Having a friend with you like I did helps a lot! Get on Xfire, TS or something else and chat, joke, laugh… really anything fun to kill time while you do the quests. Also having a look at the awesome environment helps… unless you’re in the swamp. :P
Of course there is always some easy xp to get, and this in the form of daily quests. You got your “crazy stone” quest each day which requires you to buy some gems from a merchant (at higher levels you’ll have to combine them to make better gems) and then you drop the gems off at the requested NPC. And then… you go take a break, yes, you do! Go to the toilet, get a drink, it don’t matter! Just do something because you will not get your reward right away, you will have to wait 10 minutes (!) and then you can go to the NPC that gave the quest to get your reward.
There is also another daily quest named “Bounty Hunter”, which is fairly new. For this quest you will have to go to the “HB” (Dungeon) 10 levels below yours and kill the requested boss there. You’ll have to find a party for this quest, but in general 5 to 10 minutes of yelling ‘LFS for …’ in the centre of Archosaur does the trick. Then when you got a party you get on your way. Depending on the dungeon and whether or not you use wines (you’ll learn about it when playing), this can take 10 minutes to a lot more… but the reward is very good. Absolutely a good addition to the game and a nice way to level quickly.
Chat & Emotes
Of course you can’t find a squad without the usual grouping mechanics, friend lists and a chat system with World, Trade, Whisper, Squad and Common chat as well as the option to create or join private chat rooms. World chat will require you to buy something from the Boutique before you can actually say something there. It should prevent it from getting spammed, well, it should… you’ll see rich players talk and waste money on the most stupid messages there.
The emote system is also extensive and includes some hilarious animations like “embrace”. This specific emote lets you pick up and cuddle/kiss the selected person near you. But I suggest you just watch the short video. You will also see in the video that players have the ability to wear fashion over their armor (it looks better often + armor cannot be dyed, fashion can). These clothes can be bought from the Boutique or from other players.
PW also has a complete marriage system. Both players will have a wife/husband title above their heads so everyone knows they’re married, and they’ll also get some other stuff. Marriage requires two items for the bride and groom from the Boutique for 30 gold in game. So, you got to be rich IG or willing to spend irl money for it.
Trading
You can buy/sell stuff by your usual means in PW. You got an auction house like in any other game: you place your offers and continue doing whatever you were doing or log off. And then of course you got the yelling in your trade channel or local.
Though in PW there is also another way to sell stuff. Players can set up their own shops, named cat shops. You put in your sell offers, and you can also buy as long as you got the money for it. Though as a cat shop your character won’t be able to move anymore, so this is either done with alts (alternate accounts) or just when you go afk for a long time. Most shops are localized in the West District of Archosaur. If you go there I suggest you lower some setting etc for lag reasons. If you look at the screenshot you can see an example of some cat shops, I also suggest you look at the mini map: all green dots are players and most of them are shops (just to give you an idea of how many there are).
So, I think that was more than enough to give you an idea of PW. Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them in the reactions. And if you have played PW as well or have any comments, don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us!
Today Cryptic Studios announced the system requirements for their upcoming game: Star Trek Online. In the game you will be in command of a starship, which can be fully customized to your liking. A large part of the game will be exploring both existing Star Trek locations and undiscovered parts of space. Seeing you can side with either the Star Fleet or the Klingon Federation, space battles will be inevitable.
You won't be on board of your ship 24/7, because you can also go along with your away team and explore the planetary surface (and leading them through ground battles while you're at it). Star Trek online is expected to be released on February the 2nd of 2010 in North America and 3 days later in Europe.
Finally after almost a month a new podcast has been made by the guys at APB (All Points Bulletin)!
The first of two episodes, lead creative designer ‘KitKat’ will be taking a look at the lore and story that they created that surrounds San Paro. This week’s episode takes a look at the 2 major criminal factions (G-Kings and BloodRoses) and their leaders that players will meet in San Paro. Next week the enforcers' side will be shown.
'The Guild' Season 3 Episode 10: “The Return!” is now up! Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, Vork returns to rebuild the Guild. Not really that dramatic, but you get the idea.
Funny and amusing episode, I liked it. Nice to see them like this again, and I'm anxious to see what happens next... what are you still doing here? Go watch!
Blizzard has just finished the updates of the Tier 10 Sneak Preview page with the latest armor set fresh from the PTRs: the shaman! The armor sets preview page is now complete for all classes.
Today the above link was found by a player of Renaissance Kingdoms and he shared it with other people on the forum of Renaissance Kingdoms. Hundreds of people (me included) registered to the game in the first hours after the link was posted.
It was no real surprise that another game would be made by Celsius Online after the recent addition of sea travel. As it would become possible to sail around the world and with only America and Europe available for now, a game had to be made for Asia.
Though it was obvious that the game wasn't finished: several IG functions were not actived yet, the places didn't have names and the skin was the one used for Native Kingdoms. So, after 3 hours the game admin Jdw made the following announcement on the forums of Renaissance Kingdoms:
"You were not supposed to be able to register SK. We never gave the link, a player discovered it. It's totaly not ready, we are still working on design, and then we'll need some codes to add specials actions related to this universe. Sorry for having raised your hopes in vain, but SK will not open in the following weeks."
And then the game was taken offline. When you now click the link you'll get to see "ok" or an error....
I wonder what will happen to the accounts that were already registered. And I am also curious if Celsius Online will be making games for Africa and Australia.
"De Gloria Regni : la jonction entre RR/RK et NK. Et bien plus encore."
With the recent addition of travel by sea (something I myself have been waiting for for 4 years now), it didn't come as a real surprise that the two games where going to be linked. In the past this had been said, but it was never officially confirmed.
So, it will become possible soon to discover America in the game! I wonder who will be the first European to set foot on the New World and if the island will be named after him. xD Probably not, but he/she should give it a shot... really... Maybe Anto-rtica? No wait, that's somewhere else...(hehe)
I'll be discussing RK in a few weeks normally and I hope I got more to tell on the new stuff by then.
http://www.runescape.com One of the biggest strengths RuneScape (RS) has is that basically anyone can play it. You just need the latest version of Java and a decent internet connection and you’re good to go. On top of that a part of the game is free-to-play (F2P) so you can just try it out without having to pay money.
Of course Jagex has to get their money somewhere so there’s a pay-to-play (P2P) version of the game as well; this offers more items, more skills, more quests, more of everything actually. Another strong point is that there’s plenty to do. Doing quests, training skills, playing mini-games, killing monsters (or eachother), earning gold or just hanging out; you’ll always find something to do.
Skills
A large part of the game will be training the various skills (24 in total). These can roughly be divided in a few categories: gathering resources, processing them and combat (of course there are some exceptions). At first you’ll be gaining levels every few minutes but after a while this becomes hours or, at the higher levels, even days. This makes training rather repetitive, but while talking to other people it’s not too bad. Most skills don’t have any new things you can do past around level 80 (of 99), however, Jagex has been releasing more high-level content lately. There will probably be a new skill later this year (Jagex tries to release them on a yearly basis), but there hasn’t been an official announcement regarding to which skill this will become.
Combat
RuneScape doesn’t have any classes, meaning you can use a single character to use all combat styles (melee, ranged and magic) . All you need to do is get the right equipment for a style and train the skills you’ll need for it. You also have more supportive skills that can be used regardless of your combat style; these skills are prayer (to boost your damage and/or defense for a limited time) and summoning (to create a familiar who aids in combat or carries extra food for you).
You’ll most likely be training on fairly weak monsters or using the slayer skill, but there are bigger things out there as well in the form of bosses. There are some bosses that have been around for years, such as the Kalphite Queen, but the most popular (and profitable) farming area in the game as it is today, would be the God Wars Dungeon. In this dungeon there are 4 bosses that drop some of the strongest weapons (Godswords: the name says it all I guess) and armor (Bandos for melee, Armadyl for ranged) in the game. Obviously, I won’t have to tell you that these items are worth quite some gold. There is a new dungeon in development, but again there hasn’t been an official announcement or any hints about new high-level items.
PvP
Personally I’ve never went pking (playerkilling, mostly done in an area called “The Wilderness”) in P2P so I’ll just say that it’s unbalanced (due to overpowered weapons that can kill players in a few hits without them being able to do anything about it) and move on to the F2P aspect. In F2P you can’t use the higher-level gear P2P has, so you’ll never have to run away or maybe even die only because the other guy can afford better gear. Most of the RS pking is done in clans and over the years a solid clan community was created. As a result of having no classes, most clans will request that you bring more than one combat style (generally melee-ranged for damage or melee-magic to immobilize your target using the bind spell). Pking isn’t the only PvP in the game, there also are competitive mini-games. My all-time favourite here is Castle-Wars, which offers team-based capture the flag action.
Trading has gone a long way in RS; from flooding the chat (with all sorts of text colors and effects) on the nearly-always-full servers 1 and 2 to the smooth system there is today with the Grand Exchange (GE). The GE is located in the capital of the F2P-area, so everyone can use it. It pretty much works like an auction house in any other game; you place your offers and continue doing whatever you were doing or log off. The GE also introduced an item database which gives you all the prices of any item you search on it, and in addition you also get a graph showing the price evolution of the last 6 months. This became a valuable tool for merchants, who buy and sell items at the right time to make profit.
Watch the official RuneScape trailer here:
Have you played RS as well or have any comments? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us!
Yesterday Runes of Magic (RoM) saw the announcement of a new 12-player instance: the Lair of the Demon Dragon. This instance will require you to venture deep into the Aotulia Volcano area to stop the Naga from using a captured, demon-possessed Flame Dragon called Gestero to suppress the free people.
To even reach Gestero seems to be quite the challenge on itself, let alone defeat him. On your way to the Demon Dragon you’ll be facing waves of heavily armed elite Naga soldiers who guard the magic seal that has to be broken in order to fight Gestero. As if elite Naga soldiers aren’t enough to handle, the Naga also sent in one of their generals to stop you from reaching the Demon Dragon.
As with most announcements the details aren’t known yet, but I think it’s safe to say that the Lair of the Demon Dragon will require you to have a rather high level in the game. The Dragon will probably drop loads of nice items and I’m guessing the Naga general will do so as well.
To all you Runes of Magic players out there: happy raiding!
Yesterday Blizzard introduced the Pet Store for World of Warcraft, a new way for players to obtain in-game pets to join them on their adventures in Azeroth. Two brand-new companions are now available for purchase exclusively at the Pet Store in the online Blizzard Store: Lil' K.T. and the Pandaren Monk. The store is accesible through Battle.net and pets can only be bought with real money. But Blizzard will be donating 50 percent of the $10 purchasing price of the Pandarian Monk to the Make-a-Wish Foundation in an effort to brew up a little hope, strength, and joy in a child's life.
Pandaren Monk
Enter the Pandaren Monk, a martial-arts expert who's here to help celebrate the upcoming fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft. He may be cute, but he's proof that even the softest of critters can overcome the hardest of circumstances.
Lil' K.T., the Littlest Lich
Lil' K.T. is a miniature lich who bears a striking resemblance to the legendary lord of Naxxramas, Kel'Thuzad. But don't let his diminutive stature fool you: Lil' K.T. has a diabolical laugh and wields true power at his bony fingertips, randomly wreaking icy havoc on critters who dare to cross his path.
+500 days of Underworld Speed Clearing (UW Sc), the past months with cruel efficiency thanks to "Uway", by the Guild [Zraw]. 7 Minutes for a complete run, can't say I didn't enjoy it myself. The one-hour Ursan Rush from a year and a few months back was a joke compared to that. Now that they nerfed Uw Sc completely it makes me wonder if it hadn't been better if Anet (Arena Net) had never nerfed Ursan. Maybe then people hadn't gone searching for new ways, faster ways, to do UW. Probably they would have... xD
Anyway, with Halloween Anet introduced some skeletons in UW that made Sc runs impossible. Everyone was happy monday that they could continue again with their runs as Halloween had ended. BUT the terror of Halloween visited us again last night. A little bug fix ensured that the skeletons of Dhuum were to stay where they belong. With an Imbagon, a conset and much damage a UW trip will once again take about an hour to finish. There is no need to panic about ectos (globs of ectoplasm), the skeletons drop more or less quite a bit of ectos. Though the price of ectos has gone up with 1k already since yesterday, and I'm sure they will keep on rising...
If you are in panic now, take a deep breath! There are other things to do then just UW Sc to make money. Don't quit with GW and don't go outside in the swine flu epidemic zone; that would just be wrong. Ofcourse if you're a noob, I shouldn't be cheering you on to do other things, it means I'll be in more fail runs in SoO and FoW... xD Just joking! Keep on gaming!
Probably like many others I'm subscribed to some newsletters of online games to come. Today I recieved a new one of Star Wars and I'm happy to share with you all that a new class has been made public.
This class is nothing less than the Jedi Knight. Now, I didn't wait and went to check it out straight away. To be honest even though I'd like to play on the 'dark side' (if I am going to play it), I have to say that the Jedi Knight seems to have a better set of abilities and attacks. The knockdown forcewave from the Jedi and the ability to throw their light sabers like a boomerang are cool and it allows the Jedi Knight to do something from a bit of a distance. When you look at the Sith, well the charge skill is nice for closing distance, but that's only on a single target. And ok, strangling people is cool too and all, but the Sith only have close combat skills and attacks. Ofcourse making some combo's with those skills might work out great, like charging in a group and do the aoe (area of effect) stun. Anyway, that's how it looks now when you check the website, it might be a totally different story when you're actually playing.
Besides that they introduced a new planet named Balmorra. Reminded me of the town Balmora in Morrowind. But I'm going to end it here, maybe more on it later. But if you can't wait, just go check out their website!
Oh, and don't be afraid to react and tell your opinion! ;)
GW (Guild Wars) is accessible to new players. This not only because of the level cap of 20, but also the smoothness with which you can go through the story campaigns. The different stories are: Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall and Eye of the North.
By the time you are halfway though one of the campaigns you’ll be at the maximum level and you’ll gain access to better gear. These armors are made by NPCs (armorers) in towns and outposts in exchange for materials that are acquired from killing monsters (loot). A benefit from this system is that you don’t waste time and money on crafting items you don’t need, to get to the point where you can make what you need. You are going to have maximum armor (also named 1.5k armor) rather quickly, but this armor is cheap and in our opinion not the best looking. More experienced players will wear prestige armor which is a lot more expensive (from 15k to a lot more).
Skills and builds
Besides this you can survive and finish a campaign with a limited amount of skills. Yet to be a more than average gamer you need to have access to a wider range of skills. Though you will only be able to equip 8 skills on your skillbar. So you need to put some thought into which ones will fit best for the task ahead. Of course new players who are not familiar with the combinations of skills (builds) can get help from the community (e.g. PvX Wiki).
For more detailed info on skills you can visit the Guild Wars wiki:
Specific builds are generally created to be used for farming or title hunting, solo or in a group. Farming plays a large part in getting gold and crafting materials for armor, weapons and offhand items (focus items and shields). When farming players go to certain regions and attack creatures and/or bosses to attempt to obtain rare items, experience and gold. Different popular areas are Bogroots ("froggy farm"), Slaver’s Exile ("vsf"), Shards of Orr ("SoOSc"), Domain of Anguish (DoA), Fissure of Woe (FoW Sc) and the Underworld (UW Sc).
The latter was updated (nerfed) a few days ago. With the patch ArenaNet made numerous adjustments to NPC and monster locations. This was done to reduce the Speed Clearing* (Sc) of the dungeon with the popular farming "perma sin" build, or at least to make it a lot harder to finish it.
* Speed clearing means finishing a dungeon/area with specific farming builds within a very short period of time compared to regular groups who take much longer.
All that farming gives you lots of good loot which is worth a lot, but you won’t need everything you find. So obviously you want to sell these items to other players because just selling them to NPCs (merchants) won’t yield much gold at all. Due to the lack of an auction house, like in other online games, selling items can be a tedious job.
The only way to sell things is by typing a message in the chat. There is a chat channel specifically for trading, but these channels are not linked between towns/outposts so people come together in specific towns to sell their items. An example of such a town is Kamadan (Nightfall). With the result that these trade channels get flooded by people trying to sell their items by spamming their messages. And thus Kamadan became known as "Spamadan".
Also there is a limit in the amount of gold (100k) you can trade. Of course there are several rare weapons and other items that are worth far more than that. This resulted in the usage of highly-demanded items (e.g. Globs of ectoplasm a.k.a. ectos) as a currency. Like real-life gold these items fluctuate in prices, so prices of items are usually hard to keep track of. Some community websites offer auctions, but of course this doesn’t work as good as an in-game option.
Overall we like the game alot and we'll continue to play it.
Please don’t hesitate to tell us your opinion or if you got remarks on ours!
As expected the RuneScape Christmas event is here. Like for other holiday events in RS, you get a Christmas-themed quest called A Christmas Warble.
The reward for all this is pretty cool this year: the Christmas ghost robes, a candy cane and the new 'dramatic point' emote. Especially the robes look quite nice, but see so for yourself on the screenshots.
Fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic will be in for a treat this week! Several magazines in North America and Europe will have articles that not only talk about The Old Republic but also reveal our final two classes: the Jedi Consular and the Sith Inquisitor!
