Many fans and players of various console and PC titles like Fortnite watch their favorite streamers play. Some of them are in eSports and play with such poor graphics that some ask the question: why even?
What is meant by “poor graphics”? In eSports, video settings hold great importance. Without proper adjustments, it could determine your victory or defeat. Therefore, many pro players game with lower graphic settings.
As illogical as it may sound, having lower visual settings can greatly increase your chances of winning in a firefight. That’s why many pro players tend to care less about aesthetic appeal and polished graphics.
Since eSports sometimes involves very high stakes, speed matters more than visual appeal.
Beautiful graphics don’t matter in eSports
What are the reasons for such graphic settings? What seems like pure torture to many viewers is normal daily life for eSports.
The visuals must be reduced to the bare minimum. This primarily concerns PC players. These changes are hardly possible on consoles. If you decide to game with low settings, you will benefit from the following advantages:
Higher and consistent FPS – This refers to the frames your brain processes when looking at a display. High and, most importantly, consistent FPS provide a smoother gaming experience. In shooters, a smooth image is one of the keys to victory, as you can perfectly track every input from your opponent.
Lower input lag – Input lag refers to the delay in how long it takes for your entered signal to be transmitted and visible in the game. So when you move your mouse, and your screen shows the change with a delay, that’s input lag.
If you reduce the details in your game, your hardware can fully concentrate on performance and is not busy generating detailed bushes or trees.
What differences are there in Fortnite? To illustrate this, we have provided you with two comparison images.
Fortnite with maximum graphic settings
Fortnite with minimal graphic settings
Images with different settings for comparison
Comparing both images side by side, one realizes that at the lowest settings, many elements are lost. Shadows, colorful textures, and details disappear. What remains is a simple environment focusing on the essentials – constant FPS.
How noticeable are high FPS? With high FPS, you not only achieve a smoother image in gameplay, but you can also react better to movements. The higher the FPS, the deadlier you become.
The following video shows you the differences in Fortnite during the editing of buildings:
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Additionally, you won’t be at risk of getting lost in the breathtaking UE5 and its innovations. If you want to prove yourself in Fortnite’s competitive mode, you should try low graphic settings.
What do you think about the graphic settings? Do you play on high or low settings when playing PvP games? Let us know in the comments!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The cooperative shooter “The Anacrusis” is now available to play on Steam. Those interested can even apply as a modder. The first reviews on Steam are 74% positive. We show you what players like about the new shooter and what they don’t.
What kind of game is this? Since January 13, 2022, “The Anacrusis” has been in Early Access on Steam. It is a cooperative shooter from Stray Bombay. Players engage in first-person perspective gameplay, and your coop group can accommodate four players.
The setting is quite unusual, evoking some “Among Us” vibes. You play aboard a spaceship that is traveling in space sometime in the 60s or 70s. The gameplay is reminiscent of Left 4 Dead.
Gameplay and Objective in The Anacrusis
How to play: The cooperative shooter is easy to understand: Grab some friends, choose your loadout from a selection of crazy sci-fi weapons, and blast your way through hordes of aliens. A lot, a lot of aliens. During the game, you’ll unlock bonuses, weapons, and new ways to play.
What makes The Anacrusis special?
AAI-driven design ensures that each battle feels different. Depending on your skill, the spawns of bosses and enemies, as well as weapon, gadget, and healing drops, are adjusted
By defeating enemies, you unlock special bonuses that affect your gameplay. You can upgrade your pistol or strengthen your defense
You fight with sci-fi weapons like stasis grenades, shield grenades for personal cover, respawners for reviving friends, or the laser rifle
Mod support – The team supports modders and their work and offers a large selection from the start
Gameplay trailer: The launch trailer of The Anacrusis shows you gameplay featuring various weapons, alien hordes, and cooperative action:
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Where can you play? You can play The Anacrusis on Steam. It currently costs €20 on sale. The regular price is €25 (as of January 15, 2022 via store.steampowered.com).
We looked at player reviews on Steam and summarized the main pros and cons. As of now (January 15 at 10:20 AM), there are 138 reviews on Steam, of which 73% are positive. This corresponds to a rating on the platform of “Mostly Positive”.
What is rated well: The graphics and soundtrack are well received by players. Together, they create a good feeling during the action. The visuals are described as bright, fun, and colorful.
The gunplay and movements are pleasantly fast, which is very helpful in combating the zombie hordes.
Most reviewers are satisfied with the core of the game. Even some who gave a negative review explain that the foundation of the game is good.
What is rated poorly? In negative reviews, players mention that the game lacks meaning. A deeper story that immerses you in the levels and a reason for why you are there, killing all these aliens, is missing. One player writes: “I love sci-fi and space and aliens, the good scopes on the futuristic weapons and the environment, but the game feels really simple and bland. The game needs more depth and work on the AI.”
Is The Anacrusis worth a look, and will you play it with your friends, or does the gameplay and game presentation not appeal to you?
RPG demon Cortyn has fallen for a rogue-like. Why Rogue Lords is a must-buy will be revealed in this article.
Since there is currently a bit of a content drought in World of Warcraft, I finally had enough time to dive deeper into some other games. Last weekend it was “Rogue Lords”.
As the name suggests, this is a game from the “rogue-like” category, but it has some pretty ingenious tricks and twists. To win in Rogue Lords, you have to cheat – that is a core part of the gameplay mechanics.
What is Rogue Lords?
Rogue Lords throws you into a medieval fantasy setting. You are the devil, and you were defeated years ago by humans and their demon hunters. After years in hell, you are now ready to once again overshadow the world of mortals with terror. To prepare for your arrival, you send out servants, the so-called Eleven, who must push your agenda and acquire powerful artifacts.
The Eleven are well-known figures from legends and horror stories. They include:
Dracula
The Bloody Mary
The Headless Horseman
The White Lady
Lilith
Baron Samedi
Hecate
Dr. Frankenstein and his monster
Each character plays completely differently and even has distinct play styles. After all, each Eleven possesses 18 different abilities and spells, but a maximum of 8 can be used at the same time.
Additionally, each character has its own stats similar to a traditional tabletop RPG: seduction, terror, occult, cunning, and stealth.
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You group three of these characters together and send them out to master a “story” of Rogue Lords. A story is a cohesive map and narrates the quest for one of the artifacts.
On the map, you progress from station to station, making decisions along the way and experiencing different adventures. Often, there are forks in the road, and you must choose one of the paths. Do you prefer to take the left path that leads to a quest, a merchant, but also an elite fight? Or do you take the right path, which has only 3 simple but rather safe battles?
Fights are just one of the events you can encounter.
There are also “story events” where you send one of your Eleven as an actor into a short side mission. There, a social task must be completed, and the chance of success depends on the character’s stats, like “occultism”, “seduction”, or “stealth”:
Should Lilith try to seduce the merchant to make a pact with the devil (seduction)?
Or should I send Hecate, who tries to curse the merchant’s goods to harm the demon hunters in the long run (occultism)?
Depending on which character I send and what abilities they possess, the events can turn out differently.
If Lilith seduces the merchant, he gives me a powerful artifact that increases Lilith’s damage the more souls I possess – a bonus that counts immediately.
If Hecate curses the goods, it results in special “terror” effects, as the fear of the devil and his Eleven grows in the world. These are bonuses like additional souls, more diabolical essence, or easier social tests, but only active at a certain distance away.
Depending on how you proceed, your group members also react to the situation. The White Lady, for example, is pleased that Lilith succeeded in seduction and praises her – this grants both a small bonus to health points.
Hecate, on the other hand, believes that anyone could have done it – she comes off as vain and receives a penalty on seduction.
On the map, we choose our path.
Other fields include:
“The Grim Reaper”, who sells you abilities and relics for souls.
Altar of Sacrifice, where you permanently sacrifice one of your abilities to discover a new one and have more abilities available at the same time.
Styx springs that grant diabolical essence or purify negative traits.
Fights where you earn souls, abilities, or a terror effect.
Elite fights where you can obtain powerful relics.
Book chapters that drive the story forward.
Often there is also a second, optional activity at each station. This could be a saving Styx spring, a small side quest, or a challenging elite fight.
Diabolical power – the license to cheat
But now let’s move on to the special mechanic of Rogue Lords. Since we play as the devil himself, we have some tricks up our sleeve.
Our Eleven do the dirty work, but we wouldn’t be the devil if we couldn’t occasionally intervene in the affairs of the world to change reality and remove seemingly insurmountable problems for our protégés.
The power of the devil is represented in Rogue Lords by “diabolical essence”. This is a resource that we can use in almost all gameplay aspects, whether it’s combat, passing social tests, or simply jumping on the map.
Diabolical essence allows us to cheat.
Depending on how significant the change is, it costs different amounts of diabolical essence. For example, opening a portal to another location costs 6 essence, while moving a buff or debuff costs 5 essence. Increasing the success chance of a social test by 30% also costs 5 essence.
The Headless Horseman should frighten someone – as the devil, we increase the chance from 80% to 100% to guarantee victory.
The essence can be partially replenished at certain stations – the Styx springs.
The catch with this cheating is, however: diabolical essence is simultaneously the life force of the devil. If it ever reaches 0, then the journey ends in defeat – and immediately. After that, you have to start the entire current story over from the beginning.
The trick is to use and manage the diabolical essence so carefully that you can get the best possible outcome from the situation with some “cheats” without entering the danger zone of defeat.
This also allows for a lot of tactical depth and planning, which makes it exciting.
You see a difficult social test right in front of a Styx spring? No problem, increase Lilith’s stealth in the social test using diabolical essence to the maximum, ensuring she succeeds and then heals you at the spring.
There is a lucrative merchant on the right path, but immediately after that, a too tough elite fight? Nothing easier than that for the devil. Go to the merchant on the right and then open a portal to the left path to bypass the elite fight.
This cheating becomes even more important in battles. Because there, the devil can not only move buffs and debuffs around, but also simply refill or deplete health points or soul points at will.
The battles – complex tactics for brain acrobats
Despite all the different fields and activities, the battles are the heart of Rogue Lords. Almost all actions aim to make your Eleven deadlier in combat – because at the end of a story, there is almost always a rather tough boss fight waiting.
The battles are turn-based, and during your turn, you can already see the enemies’ intentions. You see whom they want to attack or heal and how much damage that will cause.
Per round, you only have a certain amount of action points (AP) that you must distribute among all fighters. Once they are used up, it’s the enemy’s turn, and they take their actions.
Moreover, (almost) all abilities can only be used once before you need to recharge them through a special action – which typically also costs AP.
If you use the abilities haphazardly in battles, you’ll be overrun by the enemies quite quickly. Because Rogue Lords has not only a rather challenging difficulty level but also requires a lot of thought and tactical planning, at least in battles.
You can already see what the enemies are planning in advance and can intervene accordingly.
As a little example, a combat situation I experienced yesterday:
The health points (HP) of my team are all significantly damaged, each is below 10. However, my fighters have over 40 soul points (SP) each.
In planning, we can already see that the enemy boss is preparing a powerful attack that will inflict 2×20 HP on all my fighters and also has life steal – that would mean immediate defeat if the attack hits.
I could now use all my resources to heal my team to withstand the attack – but that would only delay my downfall. So I choose a different path.
First, I inflict the enemy with the effect “Shared Mind” – which ensures that the damage dealt and received by the boss affects the SP and not the HP.
Then I inflict the enemy with one of Hecate’s spells into the “Zombie” state. This will mean that healing on the boss is instead converted into damage.
Finally, I use my diabolical essence to take the boss’s buff spell “Aegis” away, which reduces damage taken – I simply move the effect onto one of the other, less significant enemies.
The end result is: The boss performs his attack and inflicts 120 SP damage to my team. That’s a lot, but not deadly. Due to life steal, the boss simultaneously heals about 120 SP, but “Zombie” reverses this healing into damage, causing the boss to take a solid 120 damage and thus kills itself.
Sometimes cheating helps – simply set the enemy’s SP to 0. Thanks to a special bonus, even once without essence costs.
Such methods of “thinking outside the box” are always needed in Rogue Lords. Every battle raises the question: How can I make the best use of my resources in the fight? How can I “cheat” with diabolical essence to turn the situation to my advantage? What abilities can I combine to stay a step ahead of my enemy?
The battles are for tacticians and resemble smaller and larger puzzles, whose mastery proves to be immensely satisfying.
The battles operate on an “all or nothing” principle. You can freely expend your resources (except for diabolical essence). If you survive the battle, HP and SP are then replenished, and you start with full energy into the next conflict.
However, if you fail, your journey ends, and the whole book counts as failed. Like in any rogue-like, you must then begin a new journey from the start.
More interesting game recommendations from Cortyn can be found here:
Genre weaknesses, but overall more than convincing
Of course, Rogue Lords also “suffers” a bit from the weaknesses that other rogue-like titles sometimes bring with them. Sometimes, the random factor simply isn’t on the side of the player devil and when only junk is offered as relics or simply that one specific skill you need for the combo doesn’t appear, it can be a bit frustrating.
However, Rogue Lords has consistently made me want to try again or push through and perhaps discover a new combo that I hadn’t thought of before.
Because even a defeat grants experience points and brings me closer to the next level-up, which unlocks new abilities or relics that can be earned throughout a chapter. This motivates me immensely and ensures that even after the 7th failed run of chapter 6, I start a new journey.
Rogue Lords is fun, mixing rogue-like with RPG elements, extremely tactical battles, and a cheat mechanic that I haven’t encountered before. If you have 25 euros lying around and are looking for a game that makes you think “Just one more run, then I’ll go to bed” and find yourself closing your PC at 7:00 AM – I can only recommend the game.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In FIFA 22, a new event has started: “Warmup Series” is intended to get players ready for the upcoming “Team of the Year” event. What could this bring?
When does the TOTY Warmup Series start? The TOTY Warmup Series event in FIFA 22 has been running since Friday evening, January 14, 2022, at 7:00 PM.
In the lead-up to the event, there were hardly any hints or information about what the “Warmup Series” might contain. Now it is already clear: there is no event team.
Instead, the event relies, as players have already suspected, on Squad Building Challenges and tasks. There are different goals and SBCs that players are to complete for pack rewards. These can be, for example, packs that can contain players with a certain rating from a position.
At the start of the event, for example, every player receives a gift of an 83+- striker pack, which contains 3 offensive players with more than 83 overall rating.
Such packs seem to be the focus of the promo
Above all, the event is likely to be understood as hype for the TOTY. Because: Currently, the voting phase for the best team of the year is still ongoing. You can find all about this here:
If you wish, you can also save the packs for the TOTY event to try to get a TOTY player from the rewards. This would probably correspond most closely to the “warming up” idea.
Additionally, there are other puzzle and upgrade SBCs that are scheduled to come during the event. Furthermore, an Ilkay Gündogan Moments SBC has been released,
As soon as there is further information about the event, we will keep you informed here.
Otherwise, a new update in FIFA 22 is currently a topic. While players on PC have already received the new patch, console players still have to wait. Here you can find everything about the FIFA 22 Title Update 4 that changes a lot about gameplay.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Xur pays you a new visit in Destiny 2 once again, bringing many items in terms of – weapons and armor. What items the tentacle-faced vendor has this time, you will find out as always on time at MeinMMO.
What happened this week in Destiny 2? The story in Season 15 is once again on hold, yet the Iron Banner provided a bit of variety. Because of this, there will be no Trials this weekend. So take the quest from Lord Saladin and collect your remaining armor pieces from the new set.
Additionally, a new trailer for Witch Queen has been released. Along with more insights from locations in the overgrown Throne World of the Witch Queen, a new ability has been announced. You will soon be able to see through deceptions.
Furthermore, we have compiled a guide to a build for you. If you are into shotguns and quick super recharge, this is definitely worth a look. The Comedian is required, which can currently be earned in the Nightfall.
Here we have embedded the new trailer for Witch Queen again:
Start video
New trailer of Destiny 2 shows how good the new Throne World of the Witch Queen looks
All information about Xur on January 14, 2022 – PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Google Stadia
When does Xur arrive? Xur will set up shop at a random location every Friday at the daily reset at 6 PM. He sells his goods that he picked up by the roadside and then takes off every Tuesday at the weekly reset at 6 PM.
So don’t miss him; sometimes a look at his shady offerings is definitely worth it.
Where is Xur? This is his shop for the weekend
Xur’s location: Our beloved vendor is located in the EDZ in the “Twisted Cove” area.
Xur’s inventory from January 14 to January 18 – All Exotics at a glance
What does Xur have on offer? As always, Xur will have an exotic weapon and armor for all characters, thus for Warlocks, Hunters, and Titans. Here is what he offers since today at 6 PM:
Weapon: Workhorse – Auto rifle for 29 Legendary Shards.
This is always what Xur has: You can always get an Exotic Engram for 97 Legendary Shards from Xur along with the weekly quest for an exotic code.
This is his inventory from January 14
No Trials but howling wolves in the Iron Banner
What’s going on with the Trials? Bungie changed the rotation of PvP modes so that when an Iron Banner is active, no Trials are held.
The new Iron Banner armor
With this, Bungie aims to ensure that the two activities do not scare away customers from each other. So if you still need the Iron Banner armor or some weapons from the good Saladin, this weekend is still the right time.
How was your week in Destiny 2? Do you prefer the Trials to the Iron Banner? Let us know!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The MMORPG Black Desert Online has been on the market for a long time and has been successful for quite some time. However, an update has ensured that more than twice as many new PC players are in the game. How did they manage that?
Where do all the players come from? Black Desert Online has long been one of the MMORPGs that are well visited. The buy-to-play game has been able to delight fans around the world for years with its beautiful graphics, action combat, and complete freedom. It even belongs to the currently best MMORPGs of 2022.
Now, however, the MMORPG has once again surged, as the developer Pearl Abyss announced in a press release. Accordingly, Black Desert has gained 230% more new daily users on PC in Europe and America since the last update.
Globally and on all consoles, the number of players is said to have increased by 165%. Both numbers indicate a very good status of the MMORPG. But what has changed with the update to achieve such successes?
What did the last updates bring? The big winter update in Black Desert Online brought more than just a few nice winter events. In fact, 17 of the 23 classes in Black Desert Online were fundamentally reworked.
Correspondingly, the MMORPG opened winter season servers where leveling could be done faster, allowing players to immediately try out the new-old classes. The new features of the 17 classes range from new hairstyles and outfits to new weapons and abilities.
You can watch a trailer for the class reboot here:
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At the same time, Pearl Abyss reset the skill points of all existing characters of these classes, so everyone has the chance to experience their old character completely anew.
In addition to the extensive changes to most classes, three new events were also introduced into the game with newer updates as well as numerous bug fixes.
The existing community has mixed feelings
How are the players reacting? The reboot of the classes has, of course, sparked discussions within the community. Many players are pleased with the reboot, but some fans are annoyed that their particular class was not touched.
Others see the changes to the classes themselves as mixed and perceive both good and bad effects on Black Desert Online and the balance in the game in general. Many classes are now much stronger than they were before, which some users find problematic.
What do the fans say? Under a reddit thread on the subject, a lively discussion is taking place about which changes to the classes were good and which perhaps were not so good (via reddit).
Player SmolikOFF feels the changes are not extensive enough: “Of course, every class is now stronger than it was before. The problem is that Pearl Abyss promised us comprehensive changes and postponed other content for it. It should have been more than just a balance patch. Unfortunately, most classes only received a balance patch. That’s disappointing.”
xaky05 is also undecided: “I like the mechanical changes and the new classes and damage changes. Only duels between some classes feel weird now. Whoever shoots first wins.”
User Kolz is also not thrilled: “There was a lot more damage, yes, but not the quality-of-life improvements I was hoping for. There are some changes that I like that make life easier for me in PvE and PvP. Still, I’m not necessarily thrilled.”
What do you think of the changes to the classes and the enormous influx of new players in Black Desert? Have you played the MMORPG yourself before and now want to check out your old classes to see what has changed? Or are you still actively playing BDO and have your own opinion on the changes? Let us know here on MeinMMO.
Disney, in collaboration with the Chinese software giant Tencent, has announced a new Avatar game. The MMORPG is set to feature single-player, multi-player, and co-op content and will be playable on iOS and Android. We at MeinMMO summarize.
What is known so far? Very little. We know that the new MMORPG is to be called Avatar: Reckoning and is supposed to offer both single-player and multi-player content.
The game is being developed by Archosaur Games, a company also based in China, known primarily for the titles World of Kings and Dragon Raja. There is not much to see yet of the new Avatar game, except for a single piece of artwork that does not yet show any game graphics.
Furthermore, Reckoning is not only supposed to be an MMORPG but will also include shooter content. The game is intended to be an MMO RPG Shooter Game, as the developers title it on the website.
Where can you play? Avatar: Reckoning is initially set to be released only for iOS and Android devices, as indicated on the game’s website. Whether there will be crossplay between the two mobile devices is currently unknown.
Also, whether the title can be played on PC in its original version or through other means is currently unknown. It is conceivable that the title could also be playable on PC through a technology like Google Play Games.
When can you play? This is also currently unknown. What is clear is that the MMORPG with the blue warriors is supposed to be released sometime in 2022. Currently, you can sign up for a newsletter on the official website.
Whether there will be a beta beforehand is unfortunately also still unknown. However, that would be a good opportunity to try out the game before release.
Also still unknown is the business model of the title and whether it will even be released in Europe.
The first artwork for the new Avatar game
The community reacts rather mixed
What problems do people see? In a reddit thread on the topic, the mood is currently quite mixed. Some people are looking forward to more than just a new Avatar game being released.
Other users see a problem in playing a shooter MMORPG on a smartphone. Many fans are also bothered by the partnership with the controversial company Tencent.
What do the fans say? To give you an idea of the mood in the thread, we would like to share some comments from the community (via reddit).
British_Commie writes: ‘This looks a bit like Disney wants to promote their new Avatar movie on all possible levels. I think over the year we can’t ignore Avatar as a franchise anymore, and I can’t wait!’
Bloodblade is skeptical and says: ‘MMO..mobile..Shooter..? Somehow like Destiny 2 but for mobile, I think? I’ll at least give it a try.’
Sea_Blacksmith writes: ‘As hyped as I am to finally shoot RDA soldiers, I really don’t want to play a shooter on a mobile phone.’
What do you think of the announcement? Will you try the game when it comes out, or do you see it similarly to some comments on reddit and have no desire for a mobile shooter? Or are you really excited because it could be a really good mobile MMO? Feel free to let us know in the comments here at MeinMMO.
The upcoming co-op shooter Rainbow Six: Extraction has introduced the toughest mode planned so far. The Maelstrom Protocol is the game’s “endgame” and offers challenges that will test even the best players.
What kind of mode is this? The Maelstrom Protocol is a kind of extended standard mode. It still follows the principles of Extraction: You start a mission with a team, need to complete tasks, and extract safely.
Extraction relies on team play. In a group of three specialists with unique abilities, you infiltrate a zone and encounter aliens that want to take you down. The use of weapons and special gadgets, as well as communication with the team, are vital for survival.
By default, a mission consists of 3 stages with tasks that you need to complete. However, the endgame mode Maelstrom Protocol takes it further.
This is how the Maelstrom Protocol works: Instead of just providing 3 consecutive stages, a mission in Maelstrom has 9 of them. So you play basically 3 rounds in a row without a break. There are also additional difficulties:
Different “mutations” in each stage make the game harder. For example, fog can obscure your vision, or toxic slime inflicts damage on you.
Stations for replenishing ammunition and health points become fewer after every 3 completed stages. Additionally, the strength of the enemies increases.
Instead of being able to choose from all operators, you only have 6 available.
The last point also disrupts your playstyle due to the limitation. Normally, you can select any operator for any mission in Extraction. If an operator goes down, you must “free” the character in a regular mode mission first.
In Maelstrom, you can only select from 6 right from the start, and if none of your favorite operators are included, you have to adapt to the playstyle of the character. Additionally, you must retrieve/free the operators after 6 failed attempts. The allowed operators in the Maelstrom mode rotate weekly.
The developers themselves say that you should only enter with fully leveled operators. Or if you are “very, very good”.
You can see the mode here in the embedded video:
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Why should you do this? Completing Maelstrom rewards you with a ton of experience points and even premium credits. Additionally, you can unlock unique cosmetics that can only be obtained there.
Furthermore, Maelstrom is a kind of prestige mode. With the cosmetic rewards, you can show how good you really are. A golden helmet, for example, signifies that you belong to the best of the best.
Unlike the standard mode, Maelstrom missions always run the same way. This allows you to analyze mistakes and get better, as long as you are patient enough. However, mutations, enemies, and mission setups change weekly.
When is Rainbow Six: Extraction coming out? On January 20, Rainbow Six: Extraction is set to release for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. The shooter will also be included in the Xbox Game Pass from day one.
So far, the hype around the game is still moderate. There are neither overly high hopes nor criticism. Fans mainly hope that Extraction will simply be a good offshoot of the Outbreak event from Rainbow Six: Siege. The game at least has potential:
What do you think about Extraction and the endgame mode Maelstrom? Will you check out the game or will you stick with Siege? Let us know in the comments!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Actually, Ultimate Team Cosmetics have a tough time with players in the shop of FIFA 22. However, a current set seems to be the golden exception to the rule.
The problem with FUT Cosmetics: For some time now, cosmetics like stadium adjustments, flashy club crests, or crazy kits have been part of Ultimate Team. In the past, players received them mainly by completing objectives or from corresponding packs. They didn’t bother players much, and many items can still be obtained “on the side” today.
In FIFA 22, cosmetics have somewhat established themselves in the shop, but players still struggle with them. When a bundle went live for a whopping 135,000 coins in October 2021, there was a lot of outrage – not only about the price but also about the seemingly arbitrary and inappropriate theme of the bundle which was harshly criticized.
In general, the mood around shop cosmetics in FUT is rarely positive. However, one cosmetic set is currently bringing unusual good cheer to the community. And it’s this one:
Fans celebrate “Emperor Puff” in FIFA 22 – But why?
What kind of set is this? Anyone currently browsing the FUT shop will find the “Emperor Puff” items there. A set of four items, each featuring a giant white cat in Roman ruler style:
There is a giant cat palace that fans can raise in the stadium.
The ruler cat can be chosen as a club crest.
The customizable stadium can be themed with the Emperor Puff theme.
And the giant cat itself is also available as a choreo. You can hang it in front of the cat palace.
In short: One can stuff their own stadium so full of cat images that it leaves the opponent deaf and blind.
The total price for the set with four items is 45,000 coins, or you can pay 15,000 for each individual item if you don’t want them all. While still a lot of coins – it’s definitely less than the 135,000 coins of the previously criticized Mirai bundle.
And even if the Emperor cat probably has little to do with football, the bundle is doing exceptionally well in the FIFA subreddit. That was almost to be expected – as this item has some history with FIFA fans.
What’s up with the cat? This bundle was obviously not chosen randomly – because the white kitten has been a thing among FIFA players for a long time.
Back in FIFA 20, there were the “Creampuff” cosmetics that could be earned through seasonal progression – a kind of FIFA battle pass.
In FIFA 21, there was a Halloween variant which was available from an SBC.
Previously, the kitten also stirred chaos in FUT
Back then, the cat didn’t really make sense in the context of FIFA. But somehow it won the hearts of the community. Perhaps precisely because it was so bizarre. And a cat.
How the community reacts: Now the Creampuff cat returns as “Emperor Puff” – but just in the shop. However, instead of showering the new cosmetic in the shop with hate, player reactions in the FIFA subreddit are virtually completely the opposite.
Many still think the item is nonsense – but in this case, it’s good nonsense:
“It hurts to say this, but I absolutely need this,” writes a user (via reddit).
“This is too perfect, I have a Roman-themed team and Creampuff is the best. I hardly play FUT anymore, but this is a must-buy,” says user badcollin (via reddit).
“I hate this kind of stuff, but this is actually cool,” finds user “Ces_noix” (via reddit).
“I’ll buy this because of the advantage you get when opponents see “the Puff” and they faint,” says user “doublewordscore” (via reddit).
“I’ll give every free wins to those who do this,” announces user “swavenation” (via reddit).
Overall, it seems many players are excited about the return of the Creampuff – and are even willing to invest in the cosmetics. However, one should still think twice – for 45,000 coins, you can get some really good players on the low-end transfer market in FIFA 22.
For the Valentine’s Day event in February 2022 at Pokémon GO, nothing official is known yet. However, players now want to report a data mining find which potentially reveals the Pokémon that may be released for the event.
What’s new? The data miners from PokeMiners have noticed a few changes in the code of Pokémon GO (via PokeMiners.com). This includes tasks for the Lunar New Year, content for the Community Day featuring Bulbasaur, and forms for a Pokémon.
Trainers suspect that the forms for the Pokémon likely refer to the candidate that will be released for Valentine’s Day. We will show you here the finds and who it might be.
Data miners find Pokusan – For Valentine’s Day 2022?
This is the find: On January 14, 2022, the PokeMiners released their analysis of the latest data mining. The following was discovered:
A catching challenge and a friendship challenge for the Lunar New Year event
New forms: Ruby Cream, Swirl Ruby, and Deoxys Normal
Which new Pokémon might come? The cream forms are clearly attributed to the Pokémon Pokusan. Pokusan is the evolution of Hokumil. Both are of the Fairy type and belong to the eighth generation of games.
The special thing about this Pokémon is that Pokusan can appear in nine different flavors and seven different decorations. This results in 63 possible form combinations (without shinies).
Ruby Cream and Ruby Mix are forms of Pokusan. Here’s what they look like:
Pokusan Ruby-Creme
Pokusan Ruby-Mix
Thanks to Elite Trainer Zapfelsaft for the screenshots
Trainers suspect: By adding the forms for Pokusan, trainers believe that Niantic is currently actively developing this Pokémon. Due to its charming appearance, it could thematically fit into the Valentine’s Day event that will be held in February.
As Noobkiller69 writes (via reddit.com): “Pokusan for Valentine’s Day?”, to which user dabomerest replies: “I don’t think so, but it would be great if they did!”
Generally, Valentine’s Day in Pokémon GO is usually pink/rose, and accordingly, new Pokémon appear.
Thus, a release of Pokusan seems quite plausible. However, you should keep in mind that these forms and finds come from data miners, and Niantic has not yet officially confirmed that Pokusan will be activated in the game.
Other trainers write in the community that they would prefer to have missing Pokémon from earlier game generations in the game rather than new ones from the eighth generation.
How would you feel if Niantic released Pokusan for Valentine’s Day 2022? Is this a Pokémon that you would be excited about, or would you prefer other content? Let us know your opinion here on MeinMMO in the comments.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Imane “Pokimane” Anys is one of the biggest streamers on Twitch. She has now ended a stream in Valorant prematurely because she was hit by a “hate raid” that a YouTuber sent her. Her colleagues on Twitch are shocked and show solidarity. Twitch imposes a 14-day ban on the perpetrator of the raid.
This was the hate raid: The streamer Pokimane played some games of Valorant with fellow streamers like Valkyrae. However, after about 70 minutes, strange things happened in her chat.
Suddenly, some people appeared in the Twitch chat writing “L + Ratio”:
“L” stands for “Loss” – someone has lost.
“Ratio” is supposed to express a counter-action.
The “L + Ratio” meant something like a loud booing. People also said “JiDion” sent them or sent greetings to him.
This was her reaction: While in the background her friends were still loudly discussing the situation in Valorant, Pokimane appeared visibly affected by the events in her chat.
After a brief reflection, she ended her stream clearly upset and told her fans: She had to deal with this “bullshit”, but her fans should not.
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YouTuber apparently has a big problem with Pokimane
Who is this JDion? “JDion” is a YouTuber with nearly 3.5 million subscribers, known among other things for his fondness for basketball star “DeMarcus Cousins”. He created a Twitch account in February 2021, which now has 300,000 followers.
Apparently, JiDion urged his own followers on Twitch to switch to Pokimane’s channel and show this “L + Ratio” there.
JiDion apparently has a big problem with Pokimane. On his Twitter account, he says he can’t stand her. He has repeatedly shared old clips in which Pokimane uses a racist slur that starts with “N” (via twitter), or shared a screenshot where she allegedly shows gang signs.
On Twitter, he says: He respects women in general, but regardless of whether someone treats “a penis or a vagina disrespectfully”, one has the right to stand up for oneself. Because ultimately, everyone is equal.
What is a hate raid? Sending viewers to other channels is known as a “raid” and is actually something positive, as it aims to support someone else. However, sending viewers there to cause trouble is considered a “hate raid”.
Against such hate raids, which target members of marginalized groups, streamers have protested in the past and demanded that Twitch must better protect the victims of such raids.
This is how Twitch reacts: They have imposed a 14-day ban on JiDion.
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Twitch streamers show solidarity: “Clearly misogynistic”
This is how other streamers react: Many big Twitch streamers are shocked by the action.
Disguised Toast says: If he messes up, people say “he is an idiot”, when Pokimane makes the same mistake, she is insulted in the worst way, called “fat, ugly, and lazy”. This is clearly sexist and filled with hate.
Mizkif was particularly upset that people were afraid to stand up for Pokimane because it would immediately be called that they are simps. It’s sad that Pokimane still has to deal with misogyny and harassment in 2022.
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This is what it’s about: Pokimane has been the only woman at the top of Twitch among a multitude of men for years. In this prominent position, she has been repeatedly attacked publicly and reduced to her appearance. She is constantly accused of having a secret relationship with any other top streamer on Twitch (preferably Myth).
Pokimane wants to keep her private life separate from streaming – this apparently drives people crazy.
A permanent topic on Twitch is who might be Pokimane’s “secret boyfriend”. Some seem to be downright obsessed with Pokimane’s relationship status. A drama involving content creator “Fedmyster” also played into the narrative: He left the content creator group “Offline TV” after a controversy. He allegedly sexually harassed women in the organization.
The people who publicly attack Pokimane, however, say that it is not about her being a woman, but about her character. They allegedly say she is “exploiting naïve men” and similar things. Those who support Pokimane do so only in the hope of somehow attracting her attention.
Many of her colleagues believe, however, that her gender alone is enough to incite some content creators against her.
In May 2020, a conflict involving Pokimane escalated:
A supposed leak about the next addon of World of Warcraft promises many things that sound good. But what exactly does the leak say? And could there be any truth to it?
The final patch of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is already visible on the horizon. But with the upcoming release of Patch 9.2 Eternity’s End, the popular “leak season” begins around World of Warcraft. Supposed leaks about the next expansion are appearing everywhere. While many of them often only originate from the mind of a troll, sometimes there is more than just a grain of truth in the leaks.
Therefore, this time we will also present some of these “leaks” and explain the most interesting points to you.
However, keep in mind that most leaks concerning WoW expansions often turn out to be forgeries in retrospect, which only makes it more difficult to uncover the actual leaks. So take these leaks with a grain of salt.
The new expansion is said to be called “The Dragon Isles”
According to the leak, the next expansion of World of Warcraft will simply be called “The Dragon Isles”. These have been mentioned several times in the game, and the current story indicates that Wrathion is likely roaming there.
The entire promotional material for Patch 10.0 is said to carry the phrase “Azeroth has awoken!”
How does Shadowlands end? The leak also explains how Shadowlands will end. Accordingly, the Jailer will be defeated in Patch 9.2 and the planet Azeroth will be saved, but there will be “consequences”. Some dialogues that occur after the battle are said to explain the new state of Azeroth, while Magni Bronzebeard loses his diamond form and returns to being a normal dwarf.
The pre-event, which will take place in Patch 9.2.5, is supposed to be huge. It will feature an updated version of many old events, such as the earthquakes in Ahn’Qiraj and the invasions, but simultaneously a massive time-travel event that runs as a kind of “Mini-Season of Mastery” focusing on important dungeons and raids around Azeroth. The goal behind it is said to make players familiar with the story of Azeroth before moving into the new story in 10.0.
The enemies in these events would include crazy troggs, spiked livers, Mantid, and the elemental invasions that would primarily take place in Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms, Northrend, and Pandaria. A new temporary boss would be “Garaddon, Son of Galakrond” – or son of the most powerful dragon that existed in the primordial age of Azeroth.
Wrathion is said to play an important role in the “The Dragon Isles” expansion.
What’s in the new expansion? According to the leak, quite a lot. The whole thing is supposed to be initiated by the “largest cinematic that Blizzard has ever produced.” The planned cinematics for Shadowlands were allegedly discarded to work fully on this video. There are many parallels to the original launch trailer of WoW, but the cinematic ends with Azeroth being “born”. Furthermore, it is stated in key points:
“Azeroth the Eternal” is born and is “a kind of dragon”.
All world souls are unique, and Azeroth’s essence has shaped the planet for eons.
Dragons are directly connected to Azeroth, which makes her somewhat the primordial mother of dragons.
Once players reach the Dragon Isles, they must collaborate with Azeroth to “reshape” the world. The story is that the planet has endured a lot over the last decades and that this has serious consequences for its inhabitants.
Azeroth’s character is described as “Leeloo from The Fifth Element”. An overwhelmingly powerful being with the mind of a child. Players must help her unlock the powers to save the planet. She is located in a temple on the Dragon Isles, along with Thrall and Wrathion. There is much story about the “Earth Warder”, as the three try to accomplish what Deathwing failed to do (before he went mad).
Azeroth has her own talent tree that looks similar to the classic talent trees. Players help her by “teaching” her things through this talent tree. Each of these talents can also be used by the player via the “world connection” ability.
There are new abilities that function similarly to covenant abilities, but you never have to commit to anything permanently. Everyone receives the same abilities. Some have secondary effects depending on the zone in which you find yourself.
One of the most important features of the expansion is supposed to be the so-called “World Shaping,” where the zones will massively change over time. For instance, you could turn a desert into a forest. The area will have a strong focus on the story of the Night Elves, who are searching for a way to recreate Teldrassil with the help of Azeroth.
Magni is supposed to become a normal dwarf again. Is that true?
At the same time, “World Shaping” is also supposed to unlock new abilities in individual areas, such as water walking, flying, teleportation, or easier treasure finding – bonuses like those already known from older, similar game systems.
Throughout the course of the expansion, this world shaping will also affect older zones across Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, which will play an important role over the patches and will be drastically revised.
By the way, there will not be a major villain in Patch 10.0, but rather a series of smaller threats, including the timeless dragonflight, the Netherwing, and some special proto-species on the Dragon Islands – such as an ancient species of troggs that is highly intelligent and advanced.
New Race: Black Dragons
A little highlight and also something rather surprising seems to be the new playable race – black dragons.
They function in their basics like Worgen, having two forms. One is a combative dragon form and the other is a humanoid form. The humanoid form can choose the appearance of any other race – as known from dragons in WoW already. They also have some cosmetic adjustments, such as horns, scales, or tails.
The dragon form is primarily used for traveling (as a flying mount) and for two racial abilities, so it is not a permanent form for fighting.
Historically, these are rather young, new dragons who are growing up on the Dragon Isles – after the dragons lost their magic at the end of Cataclysm. Wrathion wants to teach these dragons (i.e., the players) to fight alongside mortals to help Azeroth and ultimately restore the magic of dragons.
Where does the leak come from? From the MMO-Champion forum. Here, the user “ItsYourself” has released a lot of information about the next addon on a “throwaway account”. According to his own statements, he obtained the information from a “private Discord server of the developers”.
However, this cannot be proven.
Even though supposed leaks sprout like mushrooms before each expansion, they are often interesting and invite reflection on what one really wants in the next WoW expansion.
And who knows – maybe in the end there was indeed a little truth in the leak…
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Fortnite: Battle Royale is considered a children’s game, but a grandfather proves that even older generations can have fun and joy from this colorful shooting experience. After over 600 wins, his grandson wants to show his appreciation to his grandpa. Read the whole story here on MeinMMO.
Who is it about? The reddit user and Fortnite fan “StellarLime911” claims to have an amazing duo partner: his grandfather! Together with the old man, he has played many rounds of Fortnite.
While we don’t know how long StellarLime911 has been gaming, his grandpa has been around since Season 3 and has achieved over 600 final victories in that time.
A remarkable achievement that his grandson is very proud of:
It’s so nice to see how his face lights up when he gets a win. He’s just as excited now as he was the first time.
Grandson gifts grandpa skin concept
This is how the grandson wants to say thank you: In order to truly make his grandfather happy, StellarLime911 got creative and designed a concept for a skin in Fortnite. The skin is supposed to be called Grim Raptor and look as follows:
The first one, “Grim Raptor”, is an outfit based on him. Keeping in mind his love for military clothing, I wanted to create a character that reflects him. He wears a bulletproof vest in a Vietnam style and has various tattoos featuring themes that my grandfather likes (cars, airplanes, etc.).
Additionally, there’s a back piece that hints at the gaming style of the sprightly senior:
Drawing inspiration from his real-life appearance in the game, the back piece is a bush (an important strategy of his) with Bunker Jonesy in it. When an elimination occurs, he jumps out of the bush with a sniper rifle in hand.
That fans have such creative ideas for skins and accessories in the game is nothing new. For example, a father once developed a chicken skin for his son, which then actually became a real skin in the game. Perhaps the Fortnite grandpa will also be honored in a similar way.
What does the community say? Users on reddit are touched by the story of the Fortnite grandpa and his grandson. Among other things, the community says:
„What a heartwarming family”
„Dude, I give up, even the grandpa of that dude is better than me!”
„I turn 60 next week. I’ve been playing for a year now and getting pretty good. I started playing with my grandson because he needed a partner. Maybe your grandpa should add me, because I’d like a partner over 12.”
„Damn, he’s pretty good. I would never expect a grandfather to play Fortnite, let alone have 600+ wins. Quite impressive.”
A user also asked if StellarLime911 noticed any positive effect on his grandpa. And indeed, the grandson responded that his grandpa is actually staying mentally fit and claims that it improves his memory when he regularly plays.
In Destiny 2, you will soon be able to forge weapons yourself with the launch of Witch Queen. However, the new system is supposed to stand out completely from other crafting systems. We at MeinMMO will show you what you should know about it.
What is weapon crafting in Destiny 2? Bungie has already announced details about a new system in Destiny. With this, you will be able to forge your own weapons using resources and customize them to your needs.
You can create your own God Rolls and do not have to repeatedly play an activity until you finally get your desired roll.
However, crafting is supposed to differ from other MMOs. You will not be able to max out your weapon immediately, but you will first need to gain experience with it.
Weapons tailored to your playstyle
How are the weapons currently made? In Destiny 1 and 2, weapons have always been pre-made. You received them as rewards from activities and could only upgrade them. This is supposed to change with Witch Queen. You will have the opportunity to be the master of your own God Roll.
This is what the altar for your God Rolls will look like, where you will forge
Many Guardian toys could be collected and did not have their own character. However, this should change for a forged weapon.
This is how the forge will work: How the forge will function is still unclear, but some information regarding the crafted weapons and materials is known.
When you put a weapon together, it also needs to be fed with necessary experience points. These will be credited in the form of frequent use of your weapon. This will show that you are an expert with your chosen piece.
You cannot just start with a weapon in the God Roll; you have to work your way up to become an expert. However, once you have achieved that, you can exchange any available perk and shape your weapon as you like.
It is also emphasized that new players should have the same chances to build such weapons as hardcore players. Existing resource collections from Guardians will not be taken into account and cannot be used in the forge.
What do you think about the upcoming weapon crafting? Do you also think it will be the highlight of Witch Queen? Or is this not for you, and do you prefer to stick to the random rolls from activities? Let us know!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Call of Duty has addressed the current problems in its shooters CoD: Vanguard and the Battle Royale Warzone. MeinMMO shows you the statements and reactions from the community.
This is the situation:
Call of Duty has never been known for its outstanding communication. However, over the course of 2021, this improved.
With the emergence of the Activision/Blizzard scandal in the second half of the year, the trend gradually reversed. There was again less official information.
Around the holidays and the turn of the year, there were many issues in Warzone and Vanguard. Even now, the shooters are not in a good state.
Now there has been a statement regarding the current situation.
Call of Duty addresses the community
After about a month of silence, those responsible at Call of Duty have issued a statement to the community.
On Twitter, the official “Call of Duty” channel posted the following message:
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In the English version, the developers write “We hear you.” They inform that they are aware of the current issues in the CoD shooters Warzone, Vanguard, and also CoD MW (2019) and that the development teams are working on solutions as quickly as possible.
They write that they can feel the frustration and are working hard to bring fixes and updates. They appreciate feedback and see players’ opinions as a critical part of the development process.
Additionally, there was a handout for Warzone and Vanguard, which addresses specific problems:
Players react divided to the announcements
What do players say about it? The reactions are mixed. However, what many player comments have in common is emotion. Unlike many comments from the past weeks, which tended toward indifference, one can almost feel how important this statement was at this current time.
Many well-known content creators have commented on the tweet and welcome the communication. However, they also make it clear that actions must follow:
PrestigeIsKey (YouTube) on Twitter: “The constant problems of the game need to be fixed, but transparency would make it better.”
HunterTV (YouTube) on Twitter: “Thank you for confirming that Call of Duty is broken. But actions speak louder than words.”
Jack “CouRage” Dunlop even spontaneously posted a video with his thoughts. He briefly explained what his problem with Warzone is and what he thinks of the current zombie mode. But he also says: “It’s important to show people that they are heard and loved” (via Twitter).
The average players are sometimes less diplomatic. While there are also positive reactions to the statement here, many point out problems that have not been addressed by the developers.
@laasvegaz on Twitter: “SBMM has been complained about for years, and now you come with: Your feedback is a critical part of our development process …”
kgp0711 on reddit: “I’m glad they are addressing communication. […] Nice to see that they acknowledge the problems and let us know they are working on them. Hopefully, they stick to it. In the end, the developers are only human too.”
Overall, a positive impression comes across. However, a lot of frustration and skepticism are also palpable.
Call of Duty continues to work on the poor states in its shooters. It remains to be seen whether the mood of the community can be saved. However, many see a glimmer of hope in the latest statements.
Now it’s up to Warzone and Vanguard, and they must show in the coming weeks that the statements are not empty promises. We will keep you updated on MeinMMO.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In New World the major update 1.3 is coming in January. This will once again adjust the endgame and bring a new maximum gear score. Here we show you the preliminary patch notes that have already been played on the PTR.
What are the highlights of the update?The January patch brings the so-called dungeon mutators. These resemble Mythic+ from WoW and are designed to introduce new difficulty levels into the expeditions in the game. You can expect a total of 10 new levels for the three endgame dungeons, Dynasty Shipyard, Lazarus Instrumentality, and Garden of Genesis.
Through these mutators, and also through crafting and the Gypsum system, you can earn shadow shards. With these, you can upgrade your gear score from 600 to 625.
Other highlights include:
Reduction of Azoth costs when traveling
New perks for your equipment that should specifically help with the mutators
In the Outpost Rush, there is a balance change. The cost of the Desertling Summoning Stone has been increased from 500 to 750 Azoth Essence
There are a few balance changes for weapons and the AI in the game.
When will the update be released? Since January 6th at 11:00 PM, you can already try out the patch on the New World test server.
The exact release date of the update is still unknown. However, a release is planned for January.
More about the new patch and generally about New World:
Below we have translated the complete patch notes for the PTR into English for you. You can find the complete patch notes in the forum.
[toc]
World
Mutators for Expeditions
We are introducing a new endgame feature: Expedition Mutators. Mutators change the familiar by enhancing the “Elites” and “Named Enemies” found in expeditions, changing the way encounters play out and the strategies players should consider before fighting. And just as the battles change, so do the rewards! New tailored items and resources can be found that offer additional ways to increase your power level.
This system is designed to run a unique combination of expeditions and mutators every week, with 10 difficulty levels per expedition mutation. Players will be challenged to climb the ranks, aiming to ultimately reach the maximum difficulty.
Please note that the “Recommended Gear Score” for a mutated expedition is important as it directly affects the scaling of enemies – and thus your chances of success.
Entering an Expedition with Mutators
When the player opens and interacts with the expedition menu, they will see the type of available mutator, the mutation level, the recommended gear for ascent, and finally whether they meet the requirements to participate.
Mutator orbs are universally applicable. Players can craft 1 per week and purchase additional orbs at the Faction Shop.
Scoring and Progression
The score is performance-based and is derived from a combination of categories. The score is also a shared value for group members.
The following categories count towards the group’s total score:
Time: The better the time, the better the score. Calculated at the end of a run.
AI Kills: A target value for defeating a pre-determined number of enemies during the expedition.
Takedowns: A target value for killing “Named Enemies” within the expedition.
Team Wipes: Every team wipe during a boss fight significantly reduces the score.
Respawns: Every respawn moderately reduces the score.
Additionally, there are bonus multipliers for run efficiency, minimal respawning/wiping, speed, and eliminating all targets. These are calculated at the end of the expedition run. There are score ranks of Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
To progress through the individual mutator difficulty levels, one must achieve a certain performance level within the highest previously reached level. The higher the score, the higher the difficulty and the greater the rewards.
Effects of Mutation
Elemental
Elemental mutations grant enemies in the expedition a specific type of elemental damage, increase their resistance to that type of damage, convert a large portion of their damage into that type, and grant them powerful, elemental-based abilities.
Hellfire: Hellfire engulfs enemies with fire, allowing them to burn players who resist them.
Ever: Ever permeates enemies with Void, granting them abilities that weaken players or enhance their Void-imbued allies.
Promotions
Promotion mutations grant creatures in the expedition powerful new abilities.
Wild: Wild AI apply healing reduction and emit harmful rays around them.
Unyielding: Unyielding creatures endure damage with life-draining abilities and can summon a phalanx that blocks all incoming player projectiles.
Curses
Cursed mutations exert dangerous effects on players, forcing them to work together to overcome the curse’s power. At the highest difficulty levels, curses become powerful, adding additional tactical challenges.
Withered: Withered players are occasionally burned with elemental energy. When the curse is activated, players must cleanse themselves by approaching the burning player.
Censored: Censored players will find their abilities turned against them. After the players in the group have used a certain number of activated abilities, explosive silence zones appear for all players. When the curse is activated, players lose their natural mana regeneration and must enter the silence zones to regenerate their mana.
Changes to Expeditions
With the release of expedition mutators, we have made some balance changes and updates to existing content.
We have made expeditions more interesting by updating the rewards and drop rates to align them with other endgame activities:
The drop rates for “Named Enemies” in expeditions have been significantly increased.
T5 gear has been added to the loot tables of the Dynasty Shipyard when playing in the mutated expedition.
We have adjusted the number of certain enemies:
Lazarus Instrumentality: The number of enemies when sealing the old Azoth portals in the Ostium has been reduced.
Fast Travel Costs
We have heard your frustration regarding the costs of fast travel, and this version includes an update that drastically reduces the distance factor for the amount of Azoth needed for each journey. Accordingly, the faction control point bonus associated with fast travel now reduces the distance factor to zero.
Important Bug Fixes
The inconsistent spelling of Eridanus has been fixed.
A problem has been fixed where faction missions in Windcircle displayed inconsistent or incorrect values.
New code has been added to prevent duplicated items from being rewarded to players.
Yetis were converted from elite boss to elite after the “Winter Convergence” event.
Additional enemies have been added to an abandoned campsite in Unstable Coast.
Longer spawn times have been added for POIs level 35+, extending the time to kill enemies.
A problem has been fixed where a tree could fly into the sky after being cut down.
A problem has been fixed where the Harbinger of Chaos only spawned once in Myrkgard.
Corrections have been made to data that caused longer loading times than expected.
A problem has been fixed where a fence in Weavermoor was not rendered for all players.
A problem has been fixed regarding a small patch of invisible water in Everfall, north of Orion, which could slow player movement or cause them to drown.
A problem has been fixed where an elite chest was cutting through an Orichalcum vein, making looting difficult in Myrkgard.
Various bug fixes for peaks and vegetation below or within the world collision.
Various corrections for holes in the world collision.
A bug has been fixed that prevented the Ancient Bear Paw from being used in crafting.
AI
Bears
The hit amount for bipedal bears has been increased, allowing players to deal more damage to them.
Skeletons
The amount of health at which skeletons are resurrected has been reduced from 70% to 40%.
Villagers
The amount of healing granted by potions for villagers has been reduced from 35% to 20%.
The cooldown of potions has been increased.
Varangian Knights
The Varangian Knights celebrated the Winter Convergence by laying down their weapons and painting them to match the color of their armor.
Vines (Corrupted and Wrathful Earth)
The damage of the cleave attack has been reduced by 40%, the frequency of this attack has been reduced, but the reaction to a knockdown has been increased.
The damage of the thrust attack has been reduced by 50% and the stagger reaction removed.
The damage of the “Hit” attack has been reduced by 40%.
The damage from projectile attacks has been reduced by 50% and the stagger reaction removed.
Combat
Mutator Perks Added
Weapon Perks
Flame Affinity – Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as fire (Cooldown 2s)
Frost Affinity – Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as ice (Cooldown 2s)
Arboreal Affinity – Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as nature (Cooldown 2s)
Abyssal Affinity – Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as void (Cooldown 2s)
Armor Enhancements
Flame Conditioning – After taking a hit from fire DMG, you gain 4% fire absorption for 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this perk increases the strength of the effect.
Frost Conditioning – After taking a hit from ice DMG, you gain 4% ice absorption for 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this ability increases the potency of the effect.
Arboreal Conditioning – After taking a hit from nature DMG, you gain 4% nature absorption for 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this ability increases the potency of the effect.
Abyss Conditioning – After taking a hit from void DMG, you gain 4% void absorption for 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this ability increases the potency of the effect.
Update to PvP Damage Formula
We have adjusted the way armor mitigation is calculated to use the value of the opponent’s gear instead of the average gear score.
To compensate for the difference in armor mitigation, we have increased the damage that low-level players deal to high-level players and decreased the damage that high-level players deal to low-level players.
Important Bug Fixes
A problem has been fixed where light attacks from musket and bow could be activated underwater.
A problem has been fixed that prevented the bow from being aimed when switching to the musket sniper zoom.
The tooltips for the rapier ability “Round Image ” and the bow “Arrow Rain” have been updated to now indicate damage per second instead of total damage during the entire effect for damage-over-time effects.
A problem has been fixed where the player’s movement speed was sometimes increased while a camp was being erected.
A problem has been fixed where the tooltip for the seal of fine corruption incorrectly indicated lightning damage instead of blunt damage.
The text that flies out upon triggering “Rapid Rain” has been removed.
A problem has been fixed where animations stuttered when holding the shift key while aiming down with a bow or musket, or when a player performed a navigation action.
A problem has been fixed where the player was stuck after interacting with NPCs.
A problem has been fixed that caused Venom Shot or Piercing Shot to cancel when holding down the right mouse button while activating the ability.
Endgame Update Part 2 and Shadow Shard Upgrade System
Shadow Upgrade System
Players can upgrade individual pieces of gear from gear score 600 to gear score 625 by spending shadow shards.
The ability to upgrade items of any type is unlocked when the player reaches 600 proficiency for that item type.
Players can acquire shadow shards in 3 ways:
Expedition mutators are the most efficient way to earn shards. The higher the difficulty and the higher the score achieved, the more shards the player receives
Opening gypsum casts once the proficiency for that type reaches at least 600
Crafting items with gear score 600 once the proficiency for that type reaches at least 600
Upgrading an item with shadow shards binds the item to the player
Proficiency System now goes up to 625
Players increase their proficiency from 590 to 600 through the current means – gypsum casts and random upgrades in the open world
Proficiency is increased from 600 to 625 through shadow shards.
Scaling Proficiency Gear
For all items purchased from the trading post or acquired through player trading after the January patch, the effective gear score will be reduced to the average between the player’s proficiency and the item’s gear score when the player’s proficiency is lower than the item’s gear score.
General Improvements & QoL Improvements
Whenever you craft a GS 600 item and your proficiency for that item type is below 600, a proficiency bump is triggered. This is another great way for crafters to raise their proficiency to 600 (in addition to the already released emerald gypsum from the containers for the crafting skill reward)
When you receive experience gain through random loot in the open world, the loot ticker now indicates which item provided you with the experience gain
When you receive experience gain by opening a chest, the opening sequence displays which item provided you with the gain
You can now craft the Topaz gypsum attunement potion at any Arcana station and any T5 campsite.
The chance of receiving Topaz gypsum when killing enemies and attuning has been increased.
UX, UI, & Social
Navigation assistance for starting the game has been added
This system helps visually impaired players enter the world of Aeternum by verbally commenting on some important steps necessary for character creation and the starting beach
The ability to give gold to people outside the P2P trading system has been removed.
Important Bug Fixes
A bug has been fixed where only one reward was displayed in the outpost rush reward screen, even if multiple were granted
A bug has been fixed that caused the UI for area upgrades to remain on the screen when the player began a trade while it was visible
Many icons of the impending doom gauntlets have been adjusted to match the color of the glove model
Changes to the Outpost Rush
The Azoth costs for the summoning stone have been increased from 500 Azoth to 750 Azoth.
Summoning stones now drop on death.
Summoning stones now have a rarity associated with them. Epic for bear and wraith tokens and legendary for brute tokens. This should clarify to players when they drop from other players.
The Outpost Rush Alpha Wolf no longer summons minions.
The collectibles of the Outpost Rush no longer have weight.
Baroness Hain’s ice mines now slow the player for 3 seconds by 30%, instead of staggering them.
Water can no longer be collected in Outpost Rush.
Patch Notes Part 2
On January 14, new supplementary patch notes for 1.3 were released. You can find the originals in the forum of New World.
World
New fast travel shrines have been established
At the Amrhein excavation
At the Shattered Obelisk
At the entrance to the Depths
At the entrance to the Garden of Healing
Under the amphitheater at the Sirens
At the Lazarus Instrumentality
Expedition AI
The VFX for the Withered Guardian has been adjusted to be more visible for players
World Adjustments on the PTR
A problem has been fixed where Fester II still allowed the player to heal at 20 stacks.
A problem has been fixed where some enemies in mutated expeditions were not counted for the scoring.
A problem has been fixed where a negative mutator score seemed to grant a positive mutator ranking.
A problem has been fixed where the AI in mutated expeditions did not receive the benefits of enhancement spells.
A problem has been fixed that allowed players to bypass the starting line of the Dynasty Shipyard.
A problem has been fixed where damage-over-time effects activated paranoia.
A crash has been fixed that occurred during the final boss fight of the Dynasty Shipyard.
A problem has been fixed that allowed players to go AFK in the Outpost Rush without being kicked.
A problem has been fixed that prevented players from completing the “Great Corrupted Portal” event in the Cliffs of the Monarch.
A problem has been fixed where Overseer Ducquet did not give localized voice lines while the player approached to interact with him.
A problem has been fixed where camps were not upgraded when level and/or quest requirements were met.
A problem has been fixed where players were unable to submit faction missions.
Quest and Mission Bug Fixes
Problems with Carrionstar Ancients not being present in faction missions in Izar or Crux have been fixed.
A problem has been fixed where Mourning Bridge RAID faction missions could not be completed.
A problem has been fixed where Cornil Reynolds, Edengrove Guardian, had no voice and no lip-sync during the quest “Down the Brackwater”.
Duplicate quest entries in the data have been removed.
Combat Bug Fixes
A problem has been fixed where various status effect removals caused a buff to be applied indefinitely.
A problem has been fixed where the bow ultimate “Concussion” was applied to all attacks and not just headshots.
A problem has been fixed where the Healing Protection did not function properly. To fix the problem, the following changes were made:
The healing protection has been updated to allow it to be reapplied by any healing from “Orb of Protection”, even from “Blessing of the Protector” restoration.
To compensate for this, the duration has been shortened and the effect reduced.
Previously it was 5%-40% for 5s, which only worked on the first application of the ability; now it is 5%-25% for 3s, but this duration can be refreshed with each tick of healing and additional applications of ‘Orb of Protection’.
A problem has been fixed where the “Great Axe Harvest” ability dealt no damage when both the “Collector” modifier and the “Gravity” passive were unlocked.
A problem has been fixed that occurred on the PTR where the cooldown reduction of the Void Gauntlet was triggered by DoT ticks.
A problem has been fixed where players could interrupt the release of an arrow shot with a jump. There is now a delay of 10 frames from the moment an arrow is released before a jump can be triggered.
Fix for permanent debuff and slow in PvP.
A bug has been fixed that prevented Ancient Bear Paw from being used in crafting.
Endgame Update Part 2
General Improvement:
We adjusted a bug that caused gypsum updates to only grant +1 bonus when an item with gear score 585 or higher was obtained. Upgrades via gypsum from 585 to 600 should now grant at least +2, unless the proficiency is exactly 599.
Economy/Progression/Rewards
Taxes on Housing
Once this patch goes live, the following conditions will apply: As compensation for players affected by the server clock issues in November 2021, we have reduced the housing tax for all players by 90% based on the tax rate of the companies that own the areas. With this change, we communicated that we would reverse this tax relief in a future update (which is now the case). During the time the tax relief was active, however, it revealed an imbalance in wealth distribution that was detrimental to homeowners, and therefore we have decided to tighten the tax range for houses. We will continue to monitor player reception and data on this issue. We will adjust it in the future to be fairer for homeowners and companies. We are focused on evaluating the overall wealth distribution and the impacts of the area tax system to continuously optimize.
In this patch we have:
Reversal of the 90% reduction in housing tax (only affects live servers)
The minimum limit for housing tax has been reduced from 5% to 2.5%.
The maximum limit for housing tax has been reduced from 20% to 10%.
Updating the standard housing tax from 10% to 5%.
Aptitude Rewards
With the introduction of the trade skill [Note: Rewards beyond level 200], we have rebalanced the acquisition of Azoth flasks, causing them to be abundant. Since these items can be traded, we want to ensure that they remain rare and special. We will continue to monitor player sentiment and data to see if further adjustments are necessary.
Azoth flasks have been removed from T1 skill collection chests.
The number of Azoth flasks in T2 Aptitude collection chests has been reduced from 2-3 to 1-2.
Azoth flasks from T3 skill collection chests have been reduced from 3-5 to 1-3
Reduced Azoth flasks from T1 crafting and refining chests from 2-3 to 0-1
Reduced Azoth flasks from T2 crafting and refining chests to 1-2 instead of 2-3
Reduced Azoth flasks from T3 crafting and refining chests from 3-5 to 2-3
Rewards
A bug has been fixed where players below level 60 were receiving Gypsum from portal events. Players must now be level 60 to receive Gypsum from the events
The Surgeon, Pit Lord Daehi, Baines, and Mordici The Mortician previously did not drop battle trophy materials. This has been fixed so they now drop battle trophy mats.
Crafting
A problem has been fixed where Timeless Shards were not consumed when crafting.
A problem has been fixed that caused the Creator’s Axe to incorrectly show as legendary with an additional perk in the crafting menu.
The graphics for “Energy Giving Lichration” and “Energy Giving Reisration” have been updated to better represent the ingredients used to craft them.
The recipe “Charred Mandje Mandje with Corn Succotash”, for which a Lava Barb is actually needed, has been corrected. The recipe title now refers to the correct fish.
A problem has been fixed that prevented players from crafting GS 600 Arcana items with Winter patterns.
Equipment and Loot
A problem has been fixed where certain items with 600 gear score were increasing proficiency.
A problem has been fixed where the Lazarus Bow had less dexterity than other bows of its tier and gear rating. It now has equivalent dexterity.
A problem has been fixed where the “Pedal” earring could not be repaired.
A problem with the “Wheel of Time” skin has been fixed where it stretched during certain animations.
Progress
Acceleration of level-ups for mid-game levels 23-45 by 20%. We found that leveling in the mid-game took too long and did not match the pace of the content we had, so we have accelerated progression in the mid-game by 20%.
Orbs for Expeditions
Materials used to craft expedition orbs: Chisels, Corrupted Fragments, Shards, Crystals, and Lodestones are now tradable.
Expedition mutator orbs can be crafted once per week and have also been added to Faction Shops, where they can be purchased once per week.
[Currently Not in PTR] To maintain equality with the expedition mutator orbs, normal expedition orbs for the Dynasty Shipyard, Garden of Creation, and Lazarus Instrumentality have been added to the faction shops and can be purchased once per week.
To reduce the durability damage of all items in inventory that suffer durability damage upon death, we have made a change so that only bound items suffer durability damage upon death.
A cooldown was mistakenly applied to the “Piece of Blessed Iron” from the Covenant Faction Shop instead of the “Mutated Expedition Mood Orb”, which has now been corrected.
UX, UI, & Social
A new tooltip has been added to the loading screen to explain how the “Strong Against / Weak Against” mechanic works.
In-Game Shop
Decoration packs now show the number of furniture pieces included.
Shop items can now simultaneously display that they are on sale and that they are only available for a limited time
Currency symbols are now correctly displayed for all regions
Trading Post
A problem has been fixed where the “Sort by Time” function of the trading post was not functioning correctly. Sorting is now correctly done by the time since the item was sold, rather than alphanumerically.
The inventory should no longer scroll up in the trading post after closing the sales window (whether selling or canceling the sale).
Important Bug Fixes
A problem has been fixed where companies that own more than one territory did not receive a refund for mergers. Companies are now compensated based on the number of territories they own (instead of a flat amount).
A problem has been fixed that sometimes caused the icons for Corrupted Portals not to appear on the map.
A problem has been fixed that sometimes caused items not to appear as repaired after a player had repaired all of them
A bug has been fixed that sometimes caused the wrong items to be traded when trading from a shared stack
A number of text overlaps in the user interface have been fixed (weighting in inventory categories, gem descriptions, item icons in storage when viewed from the map)
Some icons for timeless shards were showing the symbol for the wrong weight. This has now been fixed.
A bug has been fixed that caused the music from the boss of the Eternal Pool Arena to also be heard outside the Eternal Pool Arena.
A bug has been fixed where sounds in Navarro’s kitchen were not always played.
The way quest tooltips dock has been adjusted (they now dock to the side of the tiles) to facilitate reading detailed information about quests.
A sound has been added that plays when players capture points during an Outpost Rush
A bug has been fixed that prevented players from always hearing “Snaps the Wolf” when they accepted the quest “Snaps Blessing”
A server crash has been fixed that likely stemmed from areas left by their governors
Discrepancy between server, client, and system clock on the war declaration screen has been fixed
A problem has been fixed where the map indicated an upcoming invasion when a war was actually pending.
What do you think of the new changes from the update? And what adjustments would you like to see in the patch notes? Feel free to write it in the comments.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
All in all, the situation for BackyardBreak seems to be getting worse with every attempt at justification. It remains to be seen whether the guys will actually give away the $25,000 card or if they will come up with further excuses not to do so.
A group of streamers called BackyardBreaks recently opened trading cards of football players live and gave them to viewers. But when they pulled a super-rare and accordingly valuable card, they suddenly wanted nothing to do with it. This did not end well for them.
How was this supposed to go? On the streaming channel BackyardBreaks, boxes full of football trading cards are opened live and raffled off to viewers. The cards go to viewers who can then keep them.
What exactly is pulled remains unknown until it is unpacked. Such “breaks” are very popular among trading card fans.
What was the problem? But then the streamers suddenly pulled an extremely rare card. According to a reddit user, there are only 10 copies of this card in total. Everyone immediately went wild and jumped around the room. They quickly realized, “this card is worth at least $10,000!”
It would only be fair to give it to the lucky winner. But then one of the streamers said, “Actually, that’s not fair at all; we should keep it!”
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Streamers refuse to give up $25,000 card and cause a lot of trouble
How did the situation unfold? Shortly thereafter, it became clear that the card was worth around $25,000 (approximately €21,810). At that moment, it was suddenly clear that the streamers preferred to keep the card.
“Sorry, we can’t give away a $25,000 card!” one of the streamers revealed. He immediately took responsibility for it: “People will surely hate me for this!”
Here are the reactions: The streamers’ actions were not well received, of course. On reddit, YouTube, and Twitter, there are numerous shaking head reactions from viewers, who consider the streamers’ actions quite shady:
“I love how they immediately went from ‘This is all free’ to ‘This belongs to us.'”
“How can you watch this stream and think these guys would ever give anyone anything worth more than $5?”
“Stay tuned for the BackyardBreakers crypto coin in a few weeks.”
Moreover, according to various users on reddit, the raffle was not free at all. Instead, the streamers are said to charge people to participate in the draw:
“Yes, these guys are in trouble. It’s not even a giveaway; they are charging people to get a ‘slot’ for the chance to win a box or a pack of cards.”
User Crunchsmash on reddit.
How did the streamers react? After the pressure from the community increased, the streamers suddenly were willing to donate $20,000 for a good cause. However, this was also not well received. Rather, they were accused of wanting to save on taxes this way (donations can be deducted from taxes). Even the accompanying Twitter video was not taken seriously. In it, the streamers want to assure that it is much fairer to donate the money from card sales to a good cause than to give it to one person.
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Rather, there was harsh criticism of the honesty behind the initiative. Another viewer even took the trouble to post a video of his own. In it, he dresses up like one of the BackyardBreakers and loudly announces that he will keep his valuable card and instead donate fast food worth $12 to several people. That would be much fairer!
Streamers continue to backtrack and make themselves even less popular: After it became clear that the donation action didn’t achieve the desired effect, the streamers published another tweet with another announcement. They will now give away the card. But not to the original winner, but to a randomly selected follower on Twitch.
This was evidently not well received either, and people are wondering why they didn’t simply give it to the person who originally won it. However, according to the streamers, that was never the case; they claim they never intended to raffle off this specific pack of cards.
All in all, the situation for BackyardBreak seems to be getting worse with every attempt at justification. It remains to be seen whether the guys will actually give away the $25,000 card or if they will come up with further excuses not to do so.
In Destiny 2, Bungie released the first TWaB for 2022 with a brief overview of upcoming changes. However, one change is not received positively, as it alters the mechanism by which you will now generate Light Spheres.
What was released? In the first TWaB of 2022, some upcoming innovations regarding the “Witch Queen” expansion were released.
There will be changes regarding the armor to effectively save vault space. This allows you to modify your items with minimal resources and does not require a second copy of your armor.
Additionally, the new DLC will offer you the possibility to unlock all artifact mods. The first 12 mods will be quickly unlockable as they were in Season 15. However, the remaining modifications will require more XP.
However, a new change is already causing frustration among Guardians, as it will introduce restrictions on Light Spheres. Since Bungie wanted to find a way for exotic weapons without catalysts to generate Orbs, Masterwork weapons will no longer drop Spheres.
Masterwork weapons will become useless
What will the change look like? As Bungie has now revealed, weapons designated as Masterwork and with a catalyst will no longer generate Light Spheres. Instead, new mods for the helmet of each class will ensure that your weapons create Light Spheres based on the element of your mod, creating Spheres of Light.
It no longer matters if your weapon is a Masterwork or if you have the catalyst. Weapons that you have only used for generating Orbs will become useless. Additionally, you will need to consume a mod slot to activate the said effect.
A weapon with a golden outline is a Masterwork.
Why is such a change coming? Destiny 2 has some exotics that do not have a catalyst. Because of this criterion, some Guardians refuse to equip certain exotics.
To counteract this, Bungie wanted to create a way for you to select a weapon based on its stats and not based on a super regeneration effect.
Here, possessing improvement materials also plays an important role. In Witch Queen, you will be able to forge weapons yourself. To use your resources wisely, Bungie is removing the reason to improve legendary weapons.
Thus, you save materials and do not invest them in weapons that you will not use again after five minutes.
What do players say? Players see the change as unnecessary, as all Masterwork weapons will become useless. Moreover, paying attention to the mods makes creating builds more complicated. Some users on reddit express their discontent:
Exactly that is the point. Triple nerf to charging with light, super regeneration, and ammo finders at once. A convoluted system with restrictions upon restrictions that in turn relate to matching elemental affinities. It gives headaches just to think about it. Now imagine actually interacting with the system. […] “I will quickly switch to hunger… Damn, I need to change my helmet.” This is objectively the worst solution for a nonexistent problem.
Instead, a system that has worked since Destiny 1 is being altered and complicated. It is unclear how this will actually affect gameplay.
What do you think of the change? Do you find it useful and will you use it, or are you skeptical and also feel that your legendary weapons will become useless? Let us know in the comments what you think!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Final Fantasy XIV is struggling against overcrowded servers and long login queues. As a result, the sale of the MMORPG had to be halted. Now, director Yoshida has presented a roadmap for expanding the servers.
The situation in brief:
Since summer 2021, FFXIV has seen a high influx of new players, resulting in full servers and login queues. The MMORPG broke several of its player records on Steam and was briefly in the top 10 most played games.
The situation drastically worsened with the release of the new expansion Endwalker on December 3, 2021. The servers were overwhelmed by players, and hour-long queues formed. For fans who could only log in during the evening due to work, it was nearly impossible to get into the game.
In response, the FFXIV team gifted players 3 weeks of free playtime as compensation and halted all sales of the MMORPG. The free trial version could no longer be played either.
Director of FFXIV, Naoki Yoshida, explained that due to the global semiconductor shortage, it is difficult for the team to acquire new servers, and travel restrictions between countries complicate the installation. He promised an update on the status in January.
Now there is new information on the roadmap for server upgrades of FFXIV and the sale of the MMORPG in a director’s blog post.
New servers starting January 25, but…
What’s coming on January 25: In a typically detailed update, the head of the MMORPG outlines the developers’ plans for the expansion of the data centers. According to this, the new data center for the oceanic region will go live on January 25.
It was originally planned to start with 3 new servers, but this number has increased to 5 due to the high number of players. Players residing in the region can switch servers and thereby reduce their server latency. The switch will be available again from January 26 and is free for all at the Oceanian data center. It is also associated with certain rewards.
Alongside the Oceanian data center, sales of the digital version of FFXIV will also be resumed. Reasons for this are the new servers and the login frequency of existing players, which, according to Yoshida, has normalized again.
However, if there are further overloads, sales will be halted again. The free trial version will also remain disabled.
Current status of EU servers: Compared to Oceania, players in the remaining regions still have quite a wait ahead until their servers are expanded, including Europe. The first step in expanding the European servers will not occur until July 2022.
In the first stage of expansion around July 2022, we will add two new worlds to each of the two logical data centers [in Europe], for a total of four new worlds. In the second stage, we plan to establish a new third logical data center and open eight new worlds there. This will lead to a configuration of three logical data centers with 8:8:8 worlds. The expansion in two stages is unfortunately necessary due to the current semiconductor shortages.
The establishment of the third center will not happen until summer 2023. Additionally, a fourth data center for Europe is already in planning. Similar measures are also being taken for the USA and Japan.
The team is planning the server expansion far in advance and already considering the next expansion 7.0, which does not yet have an official name but is already in development. This is to prevent a situation similar to the launch of Endwalker.
Will this help? Although the expansion on January 25 does not involve servers for all regions that many players hoped and waited for, the Oceanian data center should still provide some relief.
Players from Australia, New Zealand, and other countries in the region, who were previously scattered across JP, EU, and US data centers, will now switch servers and settle in their new home.
However, the new servers are not exclusively interesting for players from the Oceanic region. It is quite possible that the transfer could also be attractive for players from other regions. On one hand, it is free and associated with bonuses.
On the other hand, new servers offer a fresh economy, which one can directly enter as a crafter or gatherer. And most importantly, there are many available plots in the housing areas on new servers.
Housing in FFXIV is an extremely rare and valuable asset. On gold seller sites, they are sometimes sold for more money than PS5 consoles. Many players can only dream of having their own house, so the prospect of being able to buy a plot without major issues on a new data center is enticing for many.
What do you think about the FFXIV roadmap? Do you think the Oceanian data center will make a noticeable difference, or is it just a drop in the ocean? Will you switch servers when the new data center in Europe goes live in summer? Let us know in the comments.
In GTA Online, you can now buy the new motorcycle Shinobi. However, the high purchase price puts players off. It is the most expensive motorcycle without a boost. And it’s quite slow, as tests show.
What kind of motorcycle is this? On Thursday, January 13, Rockstar Games released the Nagasaki Shinobi. This is a sports motorcycle that can be found at the dealer for a proud price of 2,480,500 GTA dollars. With this price, it is now the most expensive motorcycle in GTA Online that does not have a boost.
The price alone has already led to critical voices in the community. Tests now show that the Shinobi is hardly faster than the Bati 801, which you can get for only 15,000 GTA dollars.
How good is the Nagasaki Shinobi?
The release went like this: The shop announcement of the new motorcycle created quite a stir in the community. Players wondered why a motorcycle has to be so expensive.
At the dealer “Legendary Motorsport”, you will find the Shinobi
User Unde4dmau5 wrote a comparison and shows (via reddit):
Motorcycle: Nagasaki Shinobi (2,480,500 $)
No weapons
Only one person fits on it
Cannot hover
Has no way to store vehicles in it
Does not generate money
Has no “Captain”
Submarine: RUNE Kosatka (2,200,000 $)
Torpedoes and homing missiles
A whole lobby fits inside
It is literally a submarine
You can park vehicles like the Sparrow, Kraken Avisa, and a submarine car in it
Has the planning board for the Cayo Perico Heist
“Captain!”
Players write about this:
The Kosatka is a basic purchase if you want to make money
The Shinobi is something you buy when you’ve made it in Los Santos and want to burn money
“And it’s not even better than the Bati,” writes SleepyAnanas (via reddit)
Tests show: The YouTuber Broughy1322 is well-known in the GTA Online community. He tests all new vehicles on his own test tracks for their top speed and lap times. The new Shinobi was also tested by him in two videos.
In terms of lap times, the Shinobi barely makes it into the top 3:
Nagasaki Shotaro: 0:57.5 minutes
Shitzu Hakuchou Drag: 0:57.6 minutes
Nagasaki Shinobi: 0:58.59 minutes
Pegassi Bati 801: 0:58.65 minutes
We embed Broughy1322’s video on lap times here:
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With a top speed of about 201 km/h, the Shinobi only ranks seventh. Far behind the Manchez Scout, which reaches a proud 225 km/h. The test also comes from Broughy1322 and can be found on his YouTube channel. In this comparison, one must consider that the Bati 801 costs only 15,000 GTA dollars and the Manchez Scout 225,000 GTA dollars. Both are significantly cheaper than the Shinobi.
For racing, the Shinobi is not a must-buy that will help you significantly. The Shinobi is more of a bike for players who have enough money and prioritize looks over performance.
What do you think of the new bike in GTA Online? Do you think the price is okay since you earn enough money through the Cayo Perico Heist anyway, or is it still too expensive? Let us know your opinion here on MeinMMO in the comments.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
